The notes to the revised edition of Book 12 say the RSCDS version is abbreviated to the first 32 bars of the original in the 1731 “Caledonian Country Dances Book the Third” by John Walsh.
Sodger Laddie
Of “The Sodger Laddie” Robert Burns commented:
“The first verse of this is old; the rest is by Ramsay. –
The tune seems to be the same with a slow air, called ‘Jacky Hume’s Lament’ –
or, ‘The Hollin Buss’ –
or, ‘Ken ye what Meg o’ the Mill has gotten?’”
My Soger Laddie
Is over the Sea,
And he will bring Gold
And Money to me;
And when he comes hame,
He’ll make me a Lady,
My Blessing gang with
My Soger Laddie.
My doughty Laddie
Is handsome and brave,
And can as a Soger
And Lover behave;
True to his Country,
To Love he is steady.
There’s few to compare
With my Soger Laddie.
Shield him, ye Angels,
Frae Death in Alarms,
Return him with Lawrels
To my langing Arms.
Syne frae all my Care
Ye’ll pleasantly free me,
When back to my Wishes
My Soger ye gie me.
O soon may his Honours
Bloom fair on his Brow,
As quickly they must,
If he get his due:
For in noble Actions,
His courage is ready,
Which makes me delight
In my Soger Laddie.
William Stenhouse notes:
“Both the words and music of this song appear in Thomson’s
Orpheus Caledonius
, 1725,
from whence they were copied into the
Museum
.
The tune must therefore have been known long before that period by the name of ‘My Soldier Laddie,’
which is the title prefixed to it in Thomson’s work.”
From “Scotland Dances”, by Eugenia (Jeannie) Callander Sharp
(Used by permission.)