ROSEBUD BY MY EARLY WALK, A [1]. Scottish, Slow Air (6/8 time). D Major. Standard. One part. The air is by David Sillar, a merchant and then a schoolmaster at Irvine, and is an altered version of an older tune entitled "The Shepherd's Wife". Lyrics were composed to it by Robert Burns in honor of Miss Janet (Jeannie) Cruickshank, the daughter of William Cruickshank, in whose Edinburgh home Burns resided for a time after his return from his Highland tour. Jeannie was a talented pianist and singer and helped the poet refine his lyrics by playing the Scottish melodies he chosen and singing the verses he had adapted to them for the "Scots Musical Museum". As a public token of thanks to Jeannie he sent copies of the song to his friends.
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A rosebud by my early walk
A down a corn in closed bawk
Sae gently bent its thorny stalk
All on a dewy morning.
Ere twice the shades o' dawn are fled
In a' its crimson glory spread
And drooping rich the dewy head,
It scents the early morning.
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Neil (The Scots Fiddle), 1991; No. 180, pg. 235.
ROSEBUD BY MY EARLY WALK, A [2]. Scottish, Slow Air (4/4 time). A Minor. Standard. AABB. Neil (The Scots Fiddle), 1991; No. 181, pg. 235.
SHEPHERD'S WIFE, THE [2]. Scottish. Bayard (1981) thinks the tune part of the parcel of tunes he groups under the standard of "Muirland Willie," variants of which include "The Northern Lass," "The Auld Maid of Fife," "My Boy Tammy," and "Forty Miles" (Pa.). This group is part of a much larger family--see notes for "Lannigan's Ball." A modernized and popular form of this old tune is called "A Rosebud By My Early Walk," composed by David Sillar, formerly a merchant and then a schoolmaster at Irvine (Neil, 1991). Smith (The Scottish Minstrel), Vol. 2, 1820-24, pg. 20.