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

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NAEBODY WILL LET THE AULD BACHELOR A-BE.
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several songs and odes of no ordinary merit. He was born in Dairy
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in 1781, of which place he was long postmaster. His father, the late
j
James Stirrat, merchant in Dairy, was a man of respectable charac-
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ter, and had considerable talent for business.
( The
subject of the present notice was educated at the parish
< school of Dairy, and early showed an inclination to cultivate the muse.
When he was about seventeen years of age, he composed several
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pieces on subjects of a local and personal character, which evinced no
} small degree of power, and were much admired among his friends.
He has written songs to several popular Scottish melodies, which only
require to be known to insure popularity ;
but, though often solicited,
he always declined coming before the public, in his own name, as an
author. As a proof of Mr Stirrat's admiration for Burns, we may
mention that he wrote songs for the Anniversary of the Poet, for the
years 1827, 1828, 1829, and 1830, all of which are conceived in excellent
taste, and have an originality which many of the productions on
similar occasions confessedly want.
:tsra£bot(B toill let ti)£ glulb IBacfjclot a=bL
Let me soop in my house, an riddle the aas,
Let me rub up the chairs, and dust doon the wa's ;
Altho' I should scrub till the day that I dee,
Naebody will let the auld bachelor a-be.
When I gang hame at nicht, 1 dinna sit doon,
An rake up the doin's o' a' folks in toon
But I kennel the fire, and mask my drap tea
Yet they winna let the auld bachelor a-be.
Is't because I ha'e na a drab o' a wife
To clash wi' her neebours, an raise meikle strife