The Book of Scottish Song/Strephon and Lydia

Strephon and Lydia.

[Tune, "The Gordon's ha'e the guiding o't."—"The following account of this song," says Burns, "I had from Dr. Blacklock. The Strephon and Lydia mentioned in the song were perhaps the loveliest couple of their time. The gentleman was commonly known by the name of Beau Gibson. The lady was the 'Gentle Jean' celebrated somewhere in Mr. Hamilton of Bangour's poems. Having frequently met at public places, they had formed a reciprocal attachment, which their friends thought dangerous, as their resources were by no means adequate to their tastes and habits of life. To elude the bad consequences of such a connection, Strephon was sent abroad with; a commission, and perished in Admiral Vernon's expedition to Carthagena, (in 1740). The author of this song was William Wallace, Esq. of Cairnhill, in Ayrshire."—William "Wallace was admitted a member of the faculty of advocates in 1734, and was married to a daughter of Archibald Campbell of Succoth in 1750, and died at Glasgow in 1763. There was another advocate of the same name, who flourished somewhat later in the century, and who became professor of Universal History in the University of Edinburgh.]

All lovely, on the sultry beach,
Expiring Strephon lay;
No hand the cordial draught to reach,
Nor cheer the gloomy way.
Ill-fated youth! no parent nigh
To catch thy fleeting breath,
No bride to fix thy swimming eye,
Or smooth the face of death.

Far distant from the mournful scene,
Thy parents sit at ease;
Thy Lydia rifles all the plain,
And all the spring to please.
Ill-fated youth! by fault of friend,
Not force of foe depress'd,
Thou fall'st, alas! thyself, thy kind,
Thy country, unredress'd.

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