I’ll never leave you

This song of devotion appears in the 19th century collection Songs of Scotland edited by George Farquhar Graham. The lyrics were written for the tune by ‘a friend of the publishers’ but are clearly based largely on earlier versions of the song, such as the one published in the British Musical Miscellany (1736). The tune is also old. It appeared in several 18th century collections and almost certainly dates back at least a century before that, as it is mentioned as a ‘popular tune’ in a 1673 collection of pious verse.

Like number 3 in the set, this song makes an antidote to the tale of desertion in the first song.

The recording is by the Elliott Chorale of Mount Allison University, Canada, dir. Gayle Martin, and is used with permission.