472 Rattling, Roaring Willie. By the late Sir W. Elliot. 



Allan Cunningham, in his own collection, has a more elaborate 

 version, which is as follows : — 



" Our Rattling, Roaring Willie, 



Went off to Selkirk Fair, 

 To sell his merry fiddle 



And buy more thrifty ware, 

 But parting wi' his fiddle, 



The saut tear dimmed his e'e; 

 I'll sell my sweet breadwinner, 



And there lie down and dee. 



" Now Willie man, sell your fiddle, 



Come sell your fiddle sae fine, 

 O Willie come sell your fiddle 



And buy a pint o' wine. 

 Were I to sell my fiddle 



The warld wad ca' me mad, 

 For mony a ranting day 



My fiddle and I hae had. 



" I made my gallant fiddle 

 Of our repentance stool, 

 The lasses went wild wi' laughing, 

 And danced frae Paste to Yule. 

 The doucest foot o" the parish 

 Has wagged to it wantonlie ; 

 Oh mony's the mirtlisome minute 

 My fiddle has made for me." 

 And ends with the stanza composed by Burns. 1 



[Thomson's "Select Melodies of Scotland" was a work of a 

 much more ambitious character than the " Musical Museum," 

 and he received the aid of several eminent composers, in 

 arranging symphonies and accompaniments — Pleyel, Beethoven, 

 Haydn, and Kotzeluch. The song of "Rattling, Roaring 

 Willie " does not appear in the first edition which was of 

 folio size, and began to be published in 1793 ; 2 but in another 

 folio edition, published between 1831-8 a version of it is 

 given, as well as a set of words written by W. Smyth for a 

 smaller edition published in 1822 ; the music being arranged by 

 Haydn. The first verse of the song is almost identical with Allan 

 Cunningham's, and the last the same as Burns'. — In a note 



1 Songs of Scotland — Ancient and Modern — 1825, vol. I., p. 346. 



2 Vol. v., p. 153. Verified by Mr W. Barclay Squire, M.A., British 

 Museum, and Mr J. Mqir Wood, Buchanan Street, Glasgow, 



