Volume IV, song 363, page 374 - 'William's Ghost' - Scanned...
Volume IV, song 363, page 374 - 'William's Ghost' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)
Verse 1: 'There came a ghost to Marg'ret's door with many a grievous groan And ay he tirled at the pin, But answer made she none.' 'Tirled' means 'to make a scraping sound' and 'pin' is the latch on a door.
The 'Scots Musical Museum' is the most important of the numerous eighteenth- and nineteenth-century collections of Scottish song. When the engraver James Johnson started work on the second volume of his collection in 1787, he enlisted Robert Burns as contributor and editor. Burns enthusiastically collected songs from various sources, often expanding or revising them, whilst including much of his own work. The resulting combination of innovation and antiquarianism gives the work a feel of living tradition.
This song appears to originate from an old English folk song called 'Sweet William's Ghost'. John Glen (1900) points out that the song is included in Allan Ramsay's (1684-1758) collection of songs, 'The Tea Table Miscellany' (1724-37). Glen continues that there is not trace of the song prior to Ramsay's including it in the fourth volume of his collection in 1740. According to Glen, the first time when the lyrics appeared with the music, was in William Napier's 'Selection of the Most Favourite Scots Songs' (1790) - two years before the publication of The Scots Musical Museum.
Volume IV, song 363, page 374 - 'William's Ghost' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)