Allan Ramsay. [A biography.] - National Library of Scotland

I30 FAMOUS SCOTS
and might have given a hint to Burns for his song,
' Duncan Gray '
—
* Dear Roger, when your jo puts on her gloom,
Do ye sac too, and never fash your thumb
Seem to forsake her, soon she'll change her mood ;
Gae woo anither, and she'll gang clean wood.*
Roger agrees to take the advice, and the scene concludes
with a deUghtful picture of a shepherd's meal
' But first we'll tak a turn up to the height.
And see gif all our flocks be feeding right
By that time, bannocks and a shave of cheese
Will make a breakfast that a laird might please,
Might please the daintiest gabs, were they sae wise
To season meat with health instead of spice.
When we have ta'en the grace-drink at this well,
I'll whistle syne'
—
The second scene opens with an exquisite description of
—
*A flowrie howm between twa verdant braes,
Where lasses use to wash and spread their claes ;
A trottin' burnie wimpling through the ground,
Its channel, pebbles, shining, smooth and round.
Here view twa barefoot beauties, clean and clear.'
These are Peggy and Jenny. The latter proposes to
begin their work on the ' howm ' or green in question,
but Peggy entreats her to
' Gae farer up the burn to Habbie's How,
; ;
Where a' that's sweet in spring and simmer grow ;
Between twa birks out o'er a little linn
The water fa's, and makes a singin' din
A pool breast-deep, beneath as clear as glass,
Kisses M'i' easy whirles the bordering grass.
We'll end our washing while the morning's cool,
And when the day grows het we'll to the pool,
There wash oursels ; 'tis healthfu' now in May,
And sweetly cauler on sae warm a day.'
—