Volume VI, song 520, page 536 - 'Have you any Pots or Pans' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)

Verse 1: 'Have you any pots or pans, Or any broken chandlers? I am a tinker to my trade And newly come frae Flanders. As scant of siller as of grace, Disbanded, we've a bad run; Gang tell the lady of the place, I'm come to clout her caldron.' 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. There is some confusion regarding the proper name of this song, with it also appearing under the titles 'Clout the Caldron' and 'The Turnimspike'. John Glen (1900) writes that it is not known who originally composed this song. However, those verses that are included in the 'Museum' version of the song have been attributed to Allan Ramsay, and appear in the third volume of the 'Tea-Table Miscellany'. Glen believes that the proper melody for this song is the strathspey tune, 'Cameron has got his wife again'.

Collection

Scots Musical Museum

Inventory Number

4503714

Title

Volume VI, song 520, page 536 - 'Have you any Pots or Pans' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)

Object Type

PhysicalObject

Measurements

- 129 x 211 mm