[A composite volume : containing The ballads and songs of Ayrshire ...

owe the preservation of this fine ballad, and its beautiful air, to
Burns, who noted them down from a lady, in 1787, during his tour in
the North of Scotland, and sent them to Johnson's Musical Museum."
The song is evidently founded on an old ballad, entitled " Craigston's
growing," published by Mr Maidment in the " North Countrie Garland,"
Edinburgh, 1824. A traditional copy of this ballad will likewise
be found in Motherwell's edition of Bums, vol. iii. p. 42. After
all that has been said about this ballad, it is not improbable that Burns
may have licked it into its present shape.
Old King Cotd. Antiquaries are not at at all agreed as to the
identity of Old King Coul. Mr Stenhouse, in a note on this song,
(see Johnson's Musical Museum, v. p. 417,) says, " Auld King Coul
was the fabled-father of the giant Fyn M'Coule." The present Editor
fciils in tracing the ballad farther back than Herd's Collection,
published in 1776. We cannot look upon it as having any claim to \
antiquity. There is nothing old in the language, or structure of the
verse. In this respect, it might have made its first appearance at
Ranelaugh, or Vauxhall, a century ago. Mr Stenhouse observes that
" The well-known song of Four-and-twenty Fiddlers ' all in a Row,'
which first appeared in the Pills to purge Melancholy,' ' in 1712, is
evidently a parody of this ballad of Auld King Coul." The present
Editor is a believer in its antiquity : he says, " That this ditty is old
can scarcely be doubted. From the lines
" And there's no a lass in braid Scotland
Compared to our sweet Marjory,"
we should suppose the composition as ancient as the days of Robert
the Bruce, whose only daughter, Marjory, married Walter the Steward
of Scotland. We have appropriated the verses in the belief that
the Old King Coul ' ' whom they celebrate was no other than the
Coul or Coil of histoiy, whose fate in battle has given the name of
Coil or Kyle to one of the three great divisions of Ayrshire." Looking
upon these events as having any connexion with the ballad appeal's
to us to be extremely fanciful—^the morning dream of a stanch,
but credulous antiquary. The account, nevertheless, of the " Discovery
of Sepulchral Urns in the grave of King Coul," will be found
extremely interesting to all who take any interest in the antiquities
of their native land. The great merit of the Series before us consists
in these local antiquarian sketches.*
The Lass of Patie's Mill. It appears from the " Statistical Account
of Scotland," that the first " lass of Patie's Mill " was the only
i daughter of John Anderson, Esq., of Patie's Mill, in the parish of
\ Keith-hall, in Aberdeenshire. The music is old and beautiful, but
not a line of the original song has been preserved. Allan Ramsay
adapted his words to the old melody, and transferred the heroine of
his muse to the parish of Galston in the county of Ayr, where a mill
I
of a similar name was existing in his time. Undoubtedly, " the lass
* Since the above was in type, we find that both the words and music of
" Old King Cole " are included" in ChappeU's Collection of " Ancient English
Melodies." London, 1840.