Annotation:Two Furlongs from Edinburgh Town
X:1 T:Two Furlongs from Edinburgh Town M:C L:1/8 R:Air B:Wood – Songs of Scotland (1848-49, p. 163) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:Gmin GABc d2 (cB)|(cA) d2 G4|Bcde f2 (ed)|(cB)fd B3d| f=3fg f2 (_ed)|(ed)(cB) c2 (Bc)|(dB)cA (BG)A^F|GABc d4|| f3g f2 (ed)|(ed)(cB) c2 (BA)|GABc d2 cB|AG^FG A3c| BABG c2 (de)|fdga ^f3 (=e/f/)|(gd)(_ec) (dB)(cA)|(Dd)=E^F G4||
TWO FURLONGS FROM EDINBURGH TOWN. AKA and see "'Twas within a Furlong of Edinburgh Town," “Twas within a Mile of Edinburgh Town.” Scottish, Air (4/4 time). G Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. The melody appears in the Leyden Manuscript of c. 1690's in the original volume in ordinary notation, not in tablature. Wood opined that the air was evidently English. This air was also used in the first volume of Wit and Mirth; or, Pills to Purge Melancholy (1698), published by Henry Playford, set to a song supposed to have been penned by Thomas D’Urfey under the title “A Scotch Song.” The first stanza goes:
'Twas within a Mile o’ Edinburgh Town,
In the Rosie tie of the year when the Grass was down;
Bonnie Jockey Blith and Gay
Said to Jenny making Hay,
Let’s sit a little (Dear), and prattle,
'Tis a sultry Day.
The words were later “modernized” and adapted to a new air by the popular composer James Hook (for which see “Within a Mile of Edinburgh”).
