MEMOIR OF SIR J. G. DALYELL. xxi 



they wholly Scottish. None of them are to be found in The Houlate, an 

 allegorical work of the fifteenth century ; nor in a manuscript collection 

 of the latter end of the same century, preserved in the Advocates' Library ; 

 while there are only a few in the Baunatyne collection. From all which 

 it would appear that they cannot be older than the close of the sixteenth 

 century. Amongst the profane tunes spiritualised is one which, from the 

 chorus, " La, lay, la," and the construction of the verse, may have been 

 similar to "Hey, tuttie taiter It is called "The Conception of Christ"— 



" Lat vs reioyce and sing, 

 AnJ praise that mighty King, 

 * Whilli sent his son of a virgin bright. 



La. Lay. La. 

 And on him tuke our vyle nature, 

 Our deidlie wounds to cure, 

 Mankind to hald in right. 



La. Lay. La." &c. 



As to " Quho is at my windo ? who ? who ?" there can be no mistake. It 

 is still popular. " My lufe murnis for me" seems to have been another 

 familiar aii\ " Johne, cum kis me now," is well known ; and " The wind 

 blawis cauld, furious and bald" is apparently the first line of an old ditty. 

 " Hay now the day dallis" is known to be another name for Hay, tuttie 

 taitc.'" " Till our gudeman, till our gudeman," is another well remembered 

 air. So is " Hay trix, trim goe trix, under the greene wood tree." This 

 is an English one, however. " Say weill, and do weill" seems to be part 

 of an old rhyming axiom — 



" Say weill is throughly a worthy gude thing ; 

 Of say Weill great vertew forth does spring ; 

 Say Weill from do weill differs in letter ; 

 Say weill is gude, hot do weill is better." 



" Ah, my Love, leife me not" is apparently another English air. To us, 

 in modem times, such a collection may excite risibility — though the same 

 principle is followed out in the composition of those songs for schools pre- 

 sently in use ; and there can be little doubt that such ditties were of con- 



