Annotation:On Ettrick Banks
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ON ETTRICK BANKS. Scottish, Air (4/4 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The Ettrick is a river in Selkirkshire, and flows northeast for thirty miles (during which it receives the Yarrow) before it empties into the Tweed near Melrose. "On Ettrick Banks" is air by an unknown composer appears in Allan Ramsay's Tea Table Miscellany of 1724, and it was inserted into the Orpheus Caledonius (1725) with the same stanzas that later appeared in Johnson's Scots Musical Museum.
On Ettrick banks ae simmer nicht,
At glaomin' when the sheep gaed hame,
I met my lassie braw and ticht,
While wand'ring through the mist her lane.
My heart grew licht, I wanted lang
To tell my lassie a' my mind,
And never till this happy hour,
A cannie meeting could I find.
Robert Burns used it for his verses "On Ettrick Banks," which he sent to Mrs. Stewart of Stair.
On Ettrick banks on a summer's night,
At gloaming when the sheep drove hame,
I met my lassie bra' and tight
Cam' wading barefoot, a' her lane.
My heart grew light, I ran, I flang
My arms about her lily neck,
And kiss'd and clap'd her there fu' lang
My words there were na' mony feck.
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: Neil (The Scots Fiddle), 1991; No. 39, p. 50.
Recorded sources: