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Description: | Verse 1: 'Come gie's a sang Montgomery cryd, and lay your disputes all aside, What nonsense ist for folks to chide For whats been done before them: Let Whig and Tory all agree, Whig and Tory, Whig and Tory, Whig and Tory all agree, To drop their whigmegmorum; Let Whig an' Tory all agree, To spend this night wi mirth and glee, And cheerfu' sing alang wi' me the Reel of Tullochgorum.'
The 'Scots Musical Museum' is the most important of the numerous eighteenth- and nineteenth-century collections of Scottish song. When the engraver James Johnson started work on the second volume of his collection in 1787, he enlisted Robert Burns as contributor and editor. Burns enthusiastically collected songs from various sources, often expanding or revising them, whilst including much of his own work. The resulting combination of innovation and antiquarianism gives the work a feel of living tradition.
Burns believed this song to be the 'best Scotch Song ever Scotland saw'. Written in 1776 by the Reverend John Skinner (1721-1807), it sets new words to a traditional tune, a Strathspey reel. The idea for the song came from a Mrs Montgomery, wife of the Inland Revenue officer in Ellon, Aberdeenshire, near Skinner's home in Longside. Interesting to note is the anti-French reference in the last verse, 'a' the ills that come frae France'. | License: | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0 | Publisher: | National Library of Scotland | Temporal: | 1787-01-01 - 1803-12-31 | Source: | Burns Scotland | Identifier: | Volume III, song 289, pages 298 and 299 | Go to resource |
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