[105] See _Scottish Monthly Magazine_, August 1836.
Adown the burnie's flowery bank, Or through the shady grove, Or 'mang the bonnie scroggie braes, Come, Peggy, let us rove. See where the stream out ower the linn Deep headlong foamin' pours, There let us gang and stray amang The bloomin' hawthorn bowers.
We 'll pu' the rose frae aff the brier, The lily frae the brae; We 'll hear the birdies blithely sing, As up the glen we gae. His yellow haughs o' wavin' grain The farmer likes to see, But my ain Peggy's artless smile Is far mair dear to me.
[106] Written when the author was quite a youth.
Amang the birks sae blithe an' gay, I met my Julia hameward gaun; The linties chantit on the spray, The lammies loupit on the lawn; On ilka swaird the hay was mawn, The braes wi' gowans buskit bra', An' ev'ning's plaid o' gray was thrawn Out ower the hills o' Gallowa'.
Wi' music wild the woodlands rang, An' fragrance wing'd alang the lea, As down we sat the flowers amang, Upon the banks o' stately Dee. My Julia's arms encircled me, An' saftly slade the hours awa', Till dawning coost a glimm'rin' e'e Upon the hills o' Gallowa'.
It isna owsen, sheep, an' kye, It isna gowd, it isna gear, This lifted e'e wad hae, quo' I, The warld's drumlie gloom to cheer; But gie to me my Julia dear, Ye powers wha rowe this yirthen ba', An' oh, sae blithe through life I 'll steer, Amang the hills o' Gallowa'.
When gloamin' daunders up the hill, An' our gudeman ca's hame the yowes, Wi' her I 'll trace the mossy rill That through the muir meand'ring rowes; Or tint amang the scroggie knowes, My birken pipe I 'll sweetly blaw, An' sing the streams, the straths, and howes, The hills an' dales o' Gallowa'.
An' when auld Scotland's heathy hills, Her rural nymphs an' jovial swains, Her flowery wilds an' wimpling rills, Awake nae mair my canty strains; Where friendship dwells an' freedom reigns, Where heather blooms an' muircocks craw, Oh, dig my grave, and lay my banes Amang the hills o' Gallowa'.
[107] Like many other Scottish songs composed early in the century, and which at the time of publication were unacknowledged by their authors, the "Hills o' Gallowa'" came to be attributed to Burns. It is included among his songs in Orphoot's edition of his poetical works, which was published at Edinburgh in 1820. In the "Harp of Caledonia," the editor, Mr Struthers, assigns it to the Ettrick Shepherd. Along with those which follow, the song appeared in the "Forest Minstrel." The heroine was Julia Curtis, a maiden in Galloway, to whom Cunningham was early attached. She is also celebrated by the poet in the "Braes of Ballahun," and her early demise is lamented in the tender stanzas of "Julia's Grave." The latter composition first appeared in the _Scots Magazine_ for 1807, p. 448.