with critical observations and biographical notices, by Robert Burns

6
to tvhom I am indebted for the anecdotey kept for
some years as an amanuensis. I do not knozo who
is the author of the second song to the tune, Tytler,
in his amusing history of Scots music, gives the air
to Oswald ; hut in Oswald's own collection of Scots
tunes, where he affixes an asterisk to those he him-
self composed, he does not make the least claim to
the tune.
'Twas ill that season of the year,
When all thmgs gay and sweet appear,
That Colin, with the morning ray,
Arose and sung his rural lay.
Of Nanny's charms the shepherd sung,
The hills and dales with Nanny rung
While Roslin Castle heard the swain.
And echoed back the cheerful strain.
Awake, sweet Muse ! the breathing spring.
With rapture warms ; awake and sing !
Awake and join the vocal throng,
Who hail the morning with a song
Alluding, as it is said in a note, to a sort of narrative songs,
which make no inconsiderable part of the innocent amusements
with which the country people (of Cumberland) pass the wijitry
nights, and of which the author of the present piece was a
faithful rehearser.
Blacklock's Poems, 1756, 8vo. p. 5.