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LAST TIME I WENT O'ER THE MOOR. AKA – "The last time I came o'er the Moor." AKA and see "Hither Dear Husband Turn Your Eyes." Scottish, Air (4/4 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Kidson (1922) identifies the air as an early Scottish tune. The song to the air was written by poet Allan Ramsay (1686-1758), who, according to poet Robert Burns (), quoted in Burns' Reliques, found the first line of this song ("The last time I came o'er the muir") and then composed the rest of the verses to suit the first line. William Thompson, the editor of Orpheus Caledonius (1725–1726), credited himself with setting the melody to music, but in actuality, it was considerably older than he. An early version of the tune was entered into the Skene Manuscript (1630), a tablature manuscript for the mandora, with the first lines of the song to which Ramsay adapted both song and music:

Alace! that I came o'er the moor,
And left my love behind me.

There was speculation (by Robert Chambers, for one) that the original song may have had words "unpresentable to delicate ears", and that Ramsay changed the original idea of the title and wrote entirely different words; the pre-Ramsay song has not survived, however. Ramsay's song proved popular enough to be parodied in John Gay's Beggar's Opera of 1729 (Air LI, Act III, scene IV), and it continued to be printed in collections and songsters throughout the 18th and into the 19th centuries. It appears, for example, in Calliope: or, The Musical Miscellany (1788, Song XXIV, pp. 44-45), and in Thompson's Scots Musical Museum (words further adapted by Robert Burns). The melody was also entered into several amateur musicians' copybooks of the period. A song setting was composed by Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) [Hob XXXIa,199, JHW. XXXII/3, no. 228, voice and piano] at the behest of Scottish music publisher George Thomson.

The words have not fared as well as has the melody however. Ramsay's words have been criticized in literary circles as uninspired--certainly not his best work--while Robert Burns's adaptation is also considered to be but small improvement.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Davidson (Gems/Collection of Scottish Melody), c. 1860; p. 15. Graham (Songs of Scotland Adapted to their Appropriate Melodies), 1854; pp. 88-89. Howe (1000 Jigs and Reels), c. 1867; p. 149. Manson (Hamilton's Universal Tune-Book, vol. 1), 1844; p. 9. McGibbon (Collection of Scots Tunes, vol. 3), 1762; p. 80. Mulhollan (Selection of Irish and Scots Tunes), Edinburgh, 1804; p. 5. Oswald (Caledonian Pocket Companion, vol. 2), 1760; p. 24. Thumoth (12 Scotch and 12 Irish Airs), 1742; No. 8, pp. 36–37.

Recorded sources:

See also listing at:
Hear Haydn's setting sung on youtube.com [1]

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