Annotation:Cromlet's Lilt
X:1 T:Cromlet’s Lilt M:3/4 L:1/8 R:Air Q:"Slow" B:William Thomson - Orpheus Caledonius (1733, p. 1) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:D d2 A2 B>d|B3 A (F>B)|(AB) (AF) (EF)|(D3E D2)|D2F2A2| (B2 c>)d e2|Ag Te3f|(d3e d2):||:d2 {de}f2 (ed)|(B2c) d e2| A2 {AB}=c2 BA|G3A B2|A2 (dcd) F|G3 A {Bc}d2|A>B AF E>F|(D3E D2):|
CROMLET'S LILT. Scottish, Air (3/4 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. Robin Williamson dates "Cromlet's Lilt" from the 1590's but notes that it was first found in print in the Reverend William Geddes' Saints' Recreation, 1683. As "Cromlicks Lilt" it can be found in the Balcarres Manuscript (p. 7), a lute ms. written c.1695-1701, probably in the family of Lindsay of Balcarres, Fife, perhaps by Lady Margaret Campbell, the 4th wife of Colin Lindsay, 3rd Earl of Balcarres. Edinburgh fiddler and writing master David Young included the tune (as "Cromlix Lilt") in his MacFarlane Manuscript (c. 1741, No. 95, p. 142). It was published in Edinburgh in cellist James Oswald's (1710–1769) Curious Collection of Scots Tunes (c. 1739) as the fourth figure of his "Sonata of Scots Tunes". D'Urfey printed the song in Tea Table Miscellany (1724) with the signature 'X', supposedly to denote all songs the editor thought were English in origin (Chambers). Robert Chambers (Scottish Songs, vol. 2, 1824) prints verses under the title "Cromlet's Lilt", directed to be sung to the tune of "Robin Adair". They begin:
Since all thy vows, false maid,
Are blown to air,
And my poor heart betray'd
To sad despair;
Into some wilderness
My grief I will express,
And thy hard-heartedness,
Oh, cruel fair!
