Hey Jenny, Come Down To Jock

This song appears to be very ancient. Robert Chambers says, "It dates not later than the regency of Moray, as it is inserted in the Bannatyne Manuscript, 1568."
Stenhouse gives a similar story, and tells us it was entitled "Rob's Jock," but he says nothing about the air, further than that it is the original melody. He gives no proof of his assertion, and so far as we have been able to discover, the first printed copy of the tune is contained in Wm. M'Gibbon's third collection, 1755. Eitson, in his "Scottish Songs," 1794, has given no air to the verses, but leaves the staves that precede the song blank.
There is another tune in the Blaikie Manu- script, 1692, named, "Jocky wood a wooing go," which suits the words of the old song, and is perhaps the original melody. The air in the Museum is not given in the "Orpheus, "the" Tea-Table Music," Craig's and Oswald's collections, or any other before 1755.

This song, to the old tune of "Hey, Jenny, com' down to Jock, was introduced with success on the Edinburgh stage. It is slightly altered and abridged from the copy which appears in Herd's collection of 1776.

Jockie he came here to woo,
Wi' tartan plaid, and bonnet blue,
And Jenny pat on her best array,
When she heard that Jocky had come that way.
Jenny she gaed up the stair;
For Jenny was blate afore unco folk;
And aye sae loud as her mither did rare,
"Hey, Jenny, come down to Jock."

Jenny she came down the stair,
And she cam' bobbin' and beckin' ben;
Her stays they were laced, and her wast it was jimp,
And a braw new-made manco gown.
Jockie took her by the hand
"O, Jenny! can ye fancy me?
My father's dead, and has left me some land,
And braw houses twa or three-

And I will gi'e them a' to thee."
"A haith!" quo' Jenny, "I fear you mock."
"Then, foul fa' me, gin I scorn thee;
If ye'll be my Jenny, I'll be your Jock."
Jenny she gaed up the gate,
Wi' a green gown as side as her smock;
And aye sae loud as her mither did rair
"Vow, sirs! hasna Jenny got Jock!"