Annotation:Within a Mile of Edinburgh

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WITHIN A MILE OF EDINBURGH. AKA and see "Cumberland Long Eight (The)." Scottish, Air and Strathspey (whole time). B Flat Major (Howe, Johnson): D Major (Aird, Sutherland). Standard tuning (fiddle). One part (Aird): AB (Howe). "Within a Mile of Edinburgh [1]" is a song that was first printed in Edinburgh in 1787 in publisher James Johnson's Scots Musical Museum, vol. 1. The music for the courtship song, according to antiquarian John Glen (Early Scottish Melodies, 1900), was by London composer and organist James Hook (1746-1827), produced in the the Scottish style as were several of his successful imitations. Hook was well-known as a prolific composer of ballads and catches.

The words to the song in Johnson's volume are a sanitized version^[1] of the song of seduction originally written by poet Thomas D'Urfey in the early part of the 18th century and published in his Wit and Mirth: or, Pills to Purge Melancholy as "'Twas within a Furlong of Edinburgh Town" AKA "Two Furlongs from Edinburgh Town." The first stanza of the reworked song in the Museum

Robert Brown Johnston (1880-1903), "Within a Mile of Edinburgh Town."

goes:

'Twas within a mile of Edinburgh town,
In the rosy time of the year,
Sweet flowers bloom'd, and the grass was down,
And each shepherd woo'd his dear:
Bonny Jockey, blith and gay,
Kis'd sweet Jenny making hay,
The lassie blush'd, and frowning cry'd, no, no, it will not do.
I cannot, cannot, wonnot, wonnot, mannot buckle too.

D'Urfey set his song to a melody either composed or adapted by English either composer Henry Purcell or Jeremiah Clarke and published in the 9th edition of Playford's Dancing Master (1696), however, Hook's music is entirely different.

Additional notes

Printed sources : - Aird (Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 4), 1796; No. 77, p. 32. Howe (1000 Jigs and Reels), c. 1867; p. 136. O'Neill (Krassen), 1976; p. 206. O'Neill (Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies), 1903; No. 1742, p. 324. O'Neill (Dance Music of Ireland: 1001 Gems), 1907; No. 918, p. 157. Williamson (English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish Fiddle Tunes), 1976; p. 82 83. Sutherland (The Edinburgh Repository of Music, vol. 1), 1815; p. 10.

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↑ Stenhouse, in his Illustration opines that Johnson's lyric was a "modern, though improved, version of the old verses." D'Urfey had more explicit rhymes, but this one centers on a girl who knows full-well that to give into Jockey's persuasion and offer of trinkets in return for her maidenhead would undoubtedly lead to life of prostitution in the big city.

[1] Stenhouse, in his Illustration opines that Johnson's lyric was a "modern, though improved, version of the old verses." D'Urfey had more explicit rhymes, but this one centers on a girl who knows full-well that to give into Jockey's persuasion and offer of trinkets in return for her maidenhead would undoubtedly lead to life of prostitution in the big city.

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