Annotation:A' The Nights o' The Year, The Chapman Drinks Nae Water

Composer John French (1753-1803) had a set of this tune that so impressed the Scots national poet Robert Burns that, in 1793, he tried (via the town provost) to get copies of it (Alburger, 1983). A chapman is a beggar; to 'chap' a door means to knock on it.