I'll Gang Nae Mair Tae Yon Town
I’ll gang nae mair tae yon town,
O, never a’ my life again;
I’ll ne’er gae back tae yon town
To seek anither wife again.
These are the old words to a tune which appeared in Robert Bremner’s
Scots Reels
(1757),
iin James Oswald’s
Caledonian Pocket Companion
(1759),
and in James Aird’s
First Book
(circa 1784).
Robert Burns used this widely-known song as the basis for two poems
and both were published in James Johnson’s
The Scots Musical Museum
, Volume 5.
The first, “I’ll Ay Ca’ in by Yon Town”, was written by Burns for his wife, Jean Armour (1767–1834),
whom he at long last married in 1788.
In regard to the second, “O Wat Ye Wha’s in Yon Town”, Stenhouse said:
“Both of the songs were composed in honour of ‘His Jean’, afterwards Mrs Burns.”
This is not entirely true for the second song was written for Jean Lorimer,
a friend of Burns for nearly all of his life and whom Burns called “Chloris”.
Described by the poet as “one of the finest women in Scotland”,
he wrote at least twenty-four songs in her honour.
Typical of Burns, he changed the name “Jean”, which occurs several times in the song, to “Lucy”
and sent a copy of “O Wat Ye Wha’s in Yon Town” to Lucy Johnstone Oswald,
a distinguished amateur composer, a celebrated beauty and Burns’ “imcomparable woman”
who was married to Richard Oswald of Auchincruive.
From “Scotland Dances”, by Eugenia (Jeannie) Callander Sharp
(Used by permission.)