PLAGIARISM OR COINCIDENCE ?
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
Sin,—In reply to Mr. De S. Fowke I beg to say that the whole of the beautiful ballad entitled, " It was a' for our rightfu'
King" [sent by Burns anonymously to Johnson's Museum„ and published in that work (Vol. V., 1796)], was till recently
ascribed to Burns, though Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe had pointed out that the stanza beginning " He turned him," &c.,
appeared in a stall ballad entitled "Melly Stewart," the date of which he did not—possibly could not—give. His statement, however, has proved to be correct. In a volume of New Songs in the Trowbesh Collection, dated circa 1746, the stanza appears in this form :- "The trooper turned himself about all on the Irish shore, He has given the bridle-reins a shake, saying, 'Adieu for
evermore, My dear, Adieu for evermore."'
Sir Walter, ignorant or forgetful of Burns's composition suggested by the stall ballad, took it direct from that source or an amended version of the same. Hogg and Buchan wrote in ignorance of the real facts.—I am, Sir, &c., President of the Burns Federation.
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