The charming pastoral air, called “The Bonny Bush aboon
Traquair,” is of great antiquity—indeed, is considered one of
the very oldest which has come down to us; but the original
words have been long since lost. The verses to which the
melody was afterwards adapted, and to which it is now sung,
were the composition of Crauford, the author of “Tweedside,”
and other popular songs, and first appeared in the Orpheus
Caledonius, 1725. Along with “The Flowers of the Forest,”
“The Broom of the Cowden-knowes,” “Polwarth on the
Green,” “Fair Helen of Kirkconnel Lee,” and others indigenous
to the south of Scotland, it may be adduced as a
specimen of what Wordsworth so beautifully designates, the
—“Old songs,
The precious music of the heart.”
A few solitary scraggy trees, on a slope overlooking the lawn
of Traquair House, mark out the site of the ancient “Bush.”
Not far distant from these a clump has been planted, which is
called “The New Bush.” But the spell is untranslateable.