The Scottish songs - National Library of Scotland

636
THE BONNY SCOT,
RAMSAY.
Tune— The Boatman.
Ye gales, that gently wave the sea^
And please the canny boat-man^
Bear me frae hence, or bring to me
My brave, my bonny Scot-man.
In haly bands v»^e joined our hands,
Yet may not this discover,
While parents rate a large estate
Before a faithfu' lover.
But I loor chuse, in Highland glens
To herd the kid and goat, man,
Ere I could, for sic little ends,
Refuse my bonny Scot-man.
Wae worth the man, wha first began
The base ungenerous fashion,
Frae greedy views love's art to use,
While strangers to its passion !
Frae foreign fields, my lovely youth,
Haste to thy longing lassie,
V/ho pants to press thy balmy mouth,
And in her bosom hause thee.
Love gies the word ; then, haste on board
Fair winds and tenty boatman,
Waft o'er, waft o'er, frae yonder shore,
My blytbe, my bonny Scot-man.*
* There is a tradition, mentioned by the Rev. James Hall, in his Travels
through Scotland, [2 vols. 1807,] that the early song upon which Ramsayfounded
the above, was composed on the preference which Mary of Guise
gave to our James V., as a husband, over the English Henry VIH.