WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINBURGH:
AND THOMAS CADELL, LONDON.
M.DCCC.XXXIX.
Written for Auke de Boer, the carillon player of Dokkum, Groningen and Assen in the Netherlands.
A song to the tune: Bhannerach dhonn na chri.
| How pleasant the
banks of the clear-winding Devon, With green-spreading bushes and flow'rs blooming fair! But the bonniest flow'r on the banks of the Devon Was once a sweet bud on the braes of the Ayr. Mild be the sun on this sweet-blushing Flower, In the gay, rosy morn as it bathes in the dew; And gentle the fall of the soft vernal shower, That steals on the evening each leaf to renew! |
O spare the dear
blossom, ye orient breezes, With chill hoary wing as ye usher the dawn; And far be thou distant, thou reptile that seizest The verdure and pride of the garden or lawn! Let Bourbon exult in his gay gilded Lillies, And England triumphant display her proud Rose: A fairer than either adorns the green valleys, Where Devon, sweet Devon, meandering flows. |
CLVII.
THE BANKS OF THE DEVON.
This song was written by Burns in August 1787, and adapted
to a Gaelic melody, entitled "Banarach Donnach Ruidh,"
or "The Brown Dairy-maid."
Burns himself gives us the following account of his song:
"These verses were composed on a charming girl, Miss Charlotte
Hamilton, who is now married to James M'Kitrick Adair, Esq. physician.
She is sister to my worthy friend , Gavin Hamilton of Mauchline,
and was born on the Banks of Ayr; but was, at the time I wrote
these lines, residing at Harveyston in Clackmannanshire, on the
romantic banks of the little river Devon. - I first heard the
air from a lady in Inverness, and got the notes taken down for
this work (the Museum)."
In a letter to dr Currie, printed in the life of Burns, Dr Adam,
now of Harrowgate, says, "Burns and I left Edinburgh together
in August 1787. We rode by Linlithgow and Falkirk to Stirling.
From Stirling we went next morning through the romantic and fertile
vale of Devon to Harvieston in Clackmannanshire, then inhabited
by Mrs Hamilton, with the younger part of whose family Burns
had been previously acquainted. He introduced me to the family,
and there was formed my first acquaintance with mrs Hamilton's
eldest daughter, to whom I have been married for nine years.
Thus was I indebted to Burns for a connexion, from which I have
derived, and expect to derive, much happiness."
The author of Albyn's Anthology, printed in 1816, and the editor
of the late Collection of Highland Airs, have each obliged us
with a set of this tune, as if it had never been before published.
These airs differ considerably from one another; but the set
in Johnson's Museum, which Burns obtained from the lady in Inverness,
is by far the best of the three.
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