FLOWERS OF EDINBURGH

The tune is a Reel/Hornpipe/Scots Measure, to be found in Allan's Reels, 32; Kerr's Reels, 24; (C-time Scots Measure) Marr 56; Kerr's Mod Album 18; RSCDS 1, 6 (G); (C-time) Robertson Athole Coll. (1884), 146 (G); Köhler Violin Rep. 81 (G). Air is not in Orpheus Caledonius, Craig, or McGibbon; but at the same date as McG (1742) in Oswald's Coll. of Curious Scots Tunes II, 13, as My Loves bonny when she smiles on me; a slightly better set in CPC iii (1751), 19, as Flowers of Edinburgh. [Glen, Early Scot. Music, 63.]

There are several sets of words; it forms the basis of G. S. Morris' "As I gaed doon tae Clatt" (cf. version 2 below); also the earliest set, "My Love was once a Bonnie Lad" (see below); "The Lassie on the Banks of Cart" (Watt); and "Here is the glen" (Burns). Also used by Henneberry for his version of "The Fause Knight upon the Road." To this tune also a Jacobite ballad, "To your arms, to your arms, my bonny Highland lads!". The title from 1751 is Flowers of Edinburgh, probably from the verses.

FLOWERS OF EDINBURGH, The (1)
(My love was once a bonny lad) Herd (1776; 1869), I.216. 5x8 lines.

With music in The Muses' Delight (Liverpool, John Sadler, 1754) as "The Flower of Edinburgh, set by Signor D. Rizzio" [!]. Stenhouse (Illus., 9-11) says the tune "only became a fashionable Scottish measure (a sort of hornpipe so called) about the year 1740; and that it was subsequent to this period when the verses appeared by an anonymous hand." b Scots Musical Museum I (1787), 14 (#13) (+ m.).

SMM text:

My love was once a bonny lad. He was the flower of all his kin.
The absence of his bonny face has rent my tender heart in twain.
I day nor night find no delight. in silent tears I still complain,
And exclaim 'gainst those my rival foes that ha'e ta'en from me my darling swain.

Despair and anguish fill my breast since I have lost my blooming rose.
I sigh and moan while others rest. His absence yields me no repose.
To seek my love I'll range and rove thro' ev'ry grove and distant plain.
Thus I'll ne'er cease, but spend my days, t' hear tidings from my darling swain.

There's nothing strange in Nature's change, since parents shew such cruelty.
They caus'd my love from me to range, and knows not to what destiny.
The pretty kids and tender lambs may cease to sport upon the plain,
But I'll mourn and lament, in deep discontent, for the absence of my darling swain.

Kind Neptune, let me thee intreat to send a fair and pleasant gale.
Ye dolphins sweet, upon me wait, and convey me on your tail.
Heavens bless my voyage with success, while crossing of the raging main,
And send me safe o'er to that distant shore to meet my lovely darling swain.

All joy and mirth at our return shall then abound from Tweed to Tay.
The bells shall ring, and sweet birds sing, to grace and crown our nuptial day.
Thus bless'd with charms in my love's arms, my heart once more I will regain.
Then I'll range no more to a distant shore, but in love will enjoy my darling swain.

Second text, from Greig, Folk-Song of the North-East, article lxxiii, p. 1:

FLOWERS OF EDINBURGH, The (2)

Come all ye jovial swains, that adore the Garioch plains,
Where the crystal stream of Ury runs so pleasantly along,
And join your rural lays, to sing my true love's praise,
For I'm sure she's a beauty your maidens among.

As I went in by Clatt, there's a pretty girl I met,
Enjoying her evening walk her father's fields among.
Her mind it seemed content, as along the road she went,
And "The Flowers of Edinburgh" sweetly she sang.

Her pretty dusky hair, like refin'd silk so fair,
And her cheeks like the roses so variegated fine,
Her eyes like amber bright, and she stole my heart's delight—
All the world would I give if this pretty girl were mine.

Being filled with her charms, I enclosed her in my arms,
And said, "My dear, why walk you here so carelessly along?"
"Begone, young man," she said, "Why trouble ye a maid
Who is walking at her liberty depending on none?

"It's liberty I crave, and it's liberty I'll have,
Above all other pleasures that this world can contrive.
My freedom, I confess, I've a mind for to possess,
As long as kind Providence preserves me alive."

With that, the lovely may, she threw herself away,
And she left me in sorrow her absence to mourn.
As day drew on to night and she soon went out of sight,
Confounded I stood, and I knew not where to turn.

Oh, where shall I go? Where shall I bend my bow?
If gold could gain her favour, I would use my utmost might.
But if she still deny, unto whom shall I fly?
For nought but her favour can yield my heart delight.

But Felix standing by and she heard young Colin cry,
And upon her former cruelty she did then repine.
Unto him she did go, and she quickly eased his woe,
And like a bright angel before him she did shine.

"Since that I find you have not changed your mind,
'Twere a pity such a loyal lover ever to slight."
They both held up their hands, in holy wedlock bands,
And Colin now enjoys his own true heart's delight.

——
Variant of last 2 verses:

"Such favour," says she, "You shall never have of me,
For I tell you again as I have told you before,—
There is no man that moves that shall gain my heart of love,
So begone, you false stranger, and trouble me no more.

"For I once loved a boy, a very bonnie boy,
And he was the fairest flower o'er all his kin.
The absence of his very bonnie face,
It will surely rend my tender heart in twain."

Grieg places its composition fairly recently [mid-1800s, say 1840 maybe?], from Aberdeenshire [from the place-names]. It would seem that the 2nd ending above is the earlier, seeing that it echoes the older version in SMM.

Greig FSNE lxxiii, 1
9x6 lines. Variant of 8 & 9, ibid.