Traditional Scottish Songs
- Let's Drink to our Next Meeting
Hew Ainslie (1792- 1878), who wrote this song, was born in Bargeny Mains, Ayrshire, 5 April 1792. He left school at 14 because of ill-health. He later began studying law - but gave that up too. He then tried landscape gardening and then being a clerk in Register House in Edinburgh. He married in 1812 and emigrated to the United States ten years later.
Ainslie wrote a number of jaunty, humorous songs and poems with a drinking theme. One of his jobs in America was working in a brewery - and that may have been a factor in writing this song, which was written in 1830.
Let's Drink to our Next Meeting
Let's drink to our next meeting, lads,
Nor think on what's atwixt;
They're fools wha spoil the present hour
By thinking on the next.Chorus
Then here's to Meg o' Morningside,
An Kate o' Kittlemark;
The taen she drank her hose and shoon,
The tither pawned her sark.A load o' wealth, an' wardly pelf,
They say is sair to bear;
Sae he's a gowk would scrape an' howk
To make his burden mairChorus
Gif Care looks black the morn, lads,
As he's come doon the lum,
Let's ease our hearts by swearing, lads,
We never bade him come.Chorus
Then here's to our next meeting, lads,
Ne'er think on what's atwixt;
They're fools who spoil the present hour
By thinking on the next.Chorus
Meaning of unusual words:
atwixt = between
taen = taken
hose = a footless stocking
shoon = shoes
tither = the other
sark = shirt
wardly pelf = wordly money
gowk = idiot
howk =dig
Gif = whether
lum = chimney
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