Volume II, song 157, page 165 - 'The Banks of the Devon' -...
Volume II, song 157, page 165 - 'The Banks of the Devon' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)
Verse 1 (to the tune of 'Bhannerach dhon na chri'): 'How pleasant the banks of the clear-winding Devon, With green-spreading bushes and flow'rs blooming fair! But the bonniest flow'r on the banks of the Devon Was once a sweet bud on the braes of the Ayr. Mild be the sun on this sweet-blushing Flower, In the gay, rosy morn as it bathes in the dew; And gentle the fall of the soft vernal shower, That steals on the evening each leaf to renew!'
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.
Burns, in his notes on the 'Museum', wrote that 'these verses were composed on a charming girl, a Miss Charlotte Hamilton, who is now married to Jas McKitrick Adair, Esquire, Physician. She is sister to my worthy friend Gavin Hamilton, of Mauchline; and was born on the banks of Ayr, but was, at the time I wrote these lines, residing at Herveyston, in Clackmannan Shire, on the romantic banks of the little river Devon. I first heard the air from a lady in Inverness, and got notes taken down for this work.' According to Glen (1900), the melody did not appear in any printed music collections prior to the 'Museum'. It did, however, appear in a number of later collections, including 'Albyn's Anthology' and Captain Fraser's 'Airs and Melodies peculiar to the Highlands of Scotland and the Isles', both of which were issued in 1816.
Volume II, song 157, page 165 - 'The Banks of the Devon' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)