The Lass O' Livingston
Scottish Country Dance Instruction
THE LASS O' LIVINGSTON (R8x32) 2C (4C set) John Lowe RSCDS Book 81- 8 1M+2L turn RH, 1L+2M turn RH
9-16 1s lead down the middle and back to top
17-24 1s+2s dance Poussette
25-32 2s+1s dance R&L
(MINICRIB. Dance crib compiled by Charles Upton, Deeside Caledonian Society, and his successors)
Keith Rose's Crib Diagram
Dance Instruction Videos
The Lass O' Livingston - Scottish Country Dancing Instruction VideoDance Information
"The Lass O' Livingston", also spelt "The Lass of Liviston" and "The Lass of Levingstone", is an old Scottish song and tune.The melody appears in Henry Playford's "A Collection of Original Scots Tunes", published in London in 1700, and in Mrs Crockat's manuscript music book of 1709. Allan Ramsay (1684–1758) described it as an ancient tune and wrote new verses, published in 1724 and subsequently included in William Thomson's "Orpheus Caledonius" in 1725 and James Johnson's "The Scots Musical Museum" in 1787.
An earlier version of the song, containing bawdy verses, was preserved by Robert Burns and later appeared in "The Merry Muses of Caledonia". Burns considered the original verses to have considerable poetic merit, although he acknowledged that their subject matter made them unsuitable for polite publication.
In his memoirs, the Reverend Alexander Carlyle recorded being stranded by bad weather at an inn in Whitburn, West Lothian, in November 1744. The landlady told him that she had been the subject of the song "The Bonnie Lass of Livingstone" in her youth. Carlyle described the walls and windows of the inn as covered with verses left by travellers. During his three-day stay, he added a satirical poem of his own, which the landlady continued to show to visitors for many years.
The Lass O' Livingston - Song contains the complete lyrics by Allan Ramsay.
Allan Ramsay's version begins:
Bell dropt a tear, Bell dropt a tear;
The gods descended from above,
Well pleased to hear, well pleased to hear;
They heard the praises of the youth,
From her own tongue, from her own tongue,
Who now converted was to truth,
And thus she sung, and thus she sung:
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Text from this original Wikisource article, "The Book of Scottish Song", a historical edition of Allan Ramsay's public-domain text.
Additional search terms: Lass Of Livingston.
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