Annotation:Blink o'er the Burn Bessie

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BLINK O'ER THE BURN, BESSIE (AND I'LL FOLLOW THEE). AKA - "Blink o're the Burn Sweet Betty." Scottish, English; Air (3/4 time). England, Northumberland. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABBCCDD. The title appears in Henry Robson's list of popular Northumbrian song and dance tunes, compiled and printed c. 1800. Composer Franz Joseph Haydn (1750-1819) fashioned a setting of the air. Robert Burns adapted the song for Johnson's Scots Musical Museum, from an older song by Joseph Mitchell (d. 1738), who was a "literary adventurer" patronized by Sir Robert Walpole. Mitchell's original begins:

Leave kindred and friends sweet Betty,
Leave kindred and friends for me;
Assur'd thy servant is steady,
To love, to honour, to thee.


Source for notated version:

Printed sources: McGibbon (Scots Tunes, Book 1), c. 1762; p. 15. Oswald (Caledonian Pocket Companion, Book 1), 1760; p. 19.

Recorded sources:



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