Annotation:As I came o'er the Cairney Mount

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AS I CAME O'ER THE CAIRNEY MOUNT. AKA - "Hielan Laddie, The." Scottish, Air (cut time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The song appears in James Johnson's Scots Musical Museum (vol. 5, 1797, p. 480), a sanitized version of an older and more bawdy song (which appears in Burns' The Merry Muses of Caledonia (1799). The latter begins:

As I came o'er the Cairney mount,
And down amang the blooming heather,
The Highland laddie drew his dirk
And sheath'd it in my wanton leather.

O my bonnie, bonnie Highland lad,
My handsome, charming Highland laddie;
When I am sick and like to die,
He'll row me in his Highland plaidie.

The 'Museum' version goes:

As I came o'er the Cairney mount
And down amang the blooming heather,
Kindly stood the milkin-shiel
To shelter frae the stormy weather.

O my bonie Highland lad,
My winsome, weelfar'd Highland laddie;
Wha wad mind the wind and rain,
Sae weel row'd in his tartan plaidie.

Burns wrote to his friend and publisher Thomson in September, 1793, "There is a third tune, and what Oswald calls 'The Old Highland Laddie,' which pleases me more than either of them; it is sometimes called 'Jinglin' Johnie,' that being the air of an old humorous bawdy song of that name—you will find it in the Museum." In the Genriddel MS. he says: "The 'Highland Laddie' is an excellent but somewhat licentious song beginning, 'As I cam' o'er the Cairney Mount.'"

See also the related "Bessie's Haggis."

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Aird (Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 3), 1788; No. 425, p. 164.

Recorded sources:

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