Volume VI, song 524, page 541 - 'In Brechin did a wabster dwell' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)

Verse 1: 'In Brechin did a wabster dwell, Who was a man o fame o, He was the deacon o' his trade John Steinon was his name o. A mare he had a lusty jade, /Baith sturdy, stark and strang o, A Lusty trusty skiegh young yad, An' he had spar'd her lang o.' A 'wabster' is a weaver, a 'yad' is an old mare and 'skiegh' means skittish. 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. According to John Glen (1900), this rural comic song is a common example of the sort of silly verses that were popular around the end of the eighteenth and start of the nineteenth century. Glen writes that, as far as he is aware, the lively melody for this song does not appear in any printed work prior to the publication of the 'Museum'.

Collection

Scots Musical Museum

Inventory Number

4503718

Title

Volume VI, song 524, page 541 - 'In Brechin did a wabster dwell' - 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