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

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A' THE NIGHTS O' THE YEAR, THE CHAPMAN DRINKS NAE WATER.
Scottish. 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.


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