Annotation:Rob Shear'd in Her'st
ROB SHEAR'D IN HER'ST. AKA - "Rob Shore in Harvest," "Robin Shore in Herst." AKA and see "Bob Shear Harvest," "Boban John." Scottish, Triple Hornpipe and Country Dance Tune (3/2 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABBCCDDEEFFGG (Oswald). The melody, written in the old hornpipe metre (3/2 time), appears earliest in the Drummond Castle Manuscript (in the possession of the Earl of Ancaster at Drummond Castle), inscribed "A Collection of Country Dances written for the use of his Grace the Duke of Perth by Dav. Young, 1734." The antiquarian William Stenhouse, writing in Illustrations, noted that the title and tune are ancient, but that the song by Robert Burns ("Robin Shure in Hair'st"), printed in Johnson's Scots Musical Museum, is the work of the poet, inspired by the surviving title alone. See also versions under the title "Bob Shear Harvest." Islay fiddler composer Alexander Mackay (b. 1775) gave "Brisk Robin Sure in Hairst" as an alternate title for his air "Gossip Joan (2)", but it is a different tune than Oswald's. Perhaps the melody was also used for the song is Islay.
John Glen explains in his Early Scottish Melodies that the melody is also called "Bobbin/Boban John" AKA "Bob and Joan", and chided Stenhouse on his confusion with the similarly titled "Bobbing Joe," a different and equally old tune printed in Playford's English Dancing Master of 1651. London publisher John Walsh printed it in his Caledonian Country Dances, Book 3 under the title "Key of the Cellar," notes Glen, but this seems to me a distanced version of Young's melody.
