Dance Dainty Davie 1496

The original Dainty Davie is said to have been the Reverend David Williamson
who, while being pursued by dragoons, entered the house of the Laird of Cherrytrees
and hid in the bed of the laird's daughter.
The words to the song best tell the tale.

It was in and through the window broads,  
And all the tirliewirlies o'd;  
The sweetest kiss that e'er I got  
Was from my Dainty Davie.  
**Chorus**  
O, leese me on your curly pow,  
Dainty Davie, dainty Davie,  
Leeze me on your curly pow,  
My ain dainty Davie.

It was down amang my daddy's pease,  
And underneath the cherry trees;  
O there he kist me as he pleased,  
For he was my ain dainty Davie.

When he was chased by a dragoon,  
Into my bed he was laid doon,  
I thought him worthy o' his room,  
And he's ay my dainty Davie.  
– Anonymous

The term “leeze-me-on” is very old and could be mystifying.
It is an expression of extreme pleasure in, or affection for, a person or thing.
In this instance, it is the minister's curly head of hair.

The characters of “Dainty Davie” really did exist.
The Reverend David Williamson (1630–1706) was a Covenanting minister
who spent a good deal of his time at odds with the authorities,
a situation which resulted in frequent arrests.
In between his arrests and preaching to his Lothian congregation,
the Reverend Mr Williamson managed to have nine or so children by seven wives.
In 1702 he was made Moderator of the Church of Scotland.
The daughter of the Laird of Cherrytrees was Jean Kerr,
who became his second wife, but not before, as Burns says,
the minister “begat the daughter of Lady Cherrytrees with child,
while a party of dragoons was searching her house to apprehend him
for being an adherent of the Solemn League and Covenant”.

William Stenhouse wrote:
“The tune of Dainty Davie is inserted in Playford's *Dancing Master*, first published in 1657.
It is clear therefore that there was a song under this title,
long before the well-known song about the Rev. David Williamson
and the daughter of the Laird of Cherrytrees”.

Thomas D'Urfey included “Dainty Davie” in his six volume work
*Wit and Music; or Pills to Purge Melancholy* (1698–1720).

There are two other songs written to the tune of “Dainty Davie”.
One is “Lucky Nancy” which was published in Allan Ramsay's *The Tea Table Miscellany*
and is found also in Volume 1 (1787) of James Johnson's *The Scots Musical Museum*.
In reference to the former insertion Stenhouse says:
“From the letter Q being affixed to this song in Ramsay's work,
(by which, he tells us, is meant *old songs with additions*)
Burns was induced to conjecture,
that nothing but the chorus was old, and that Ramsay himself was the author of the song.
In a communication, however, by Lord Woodhouselee to Mr. C. H. Cromek, his Lordship says,
‘I have good reason to believe, that no part of this song was written by Ramsay.
I have been informed, by good authority, that the words, as printed in Ramsay's Collection,
were written by the Hon. Duncan Forbes, Lord President of the Court of Session.’”

The song in Johnson's collection begins:

While fops in saft Italian verse,  
Ilk fair ane's een and breast rehearse,  
While sangs abound and sense is scarce,  
  These lines I have indited;  
But neither darts nor arrows here,  
Venus nor Cupid shall appear.  
And yet with these fine sounds, I swear,  
  The maidens are delighted.  
    I was ay telling you,  
    Lucky Nancy, Lucky Nancy,  
    Auld springs wad ding the new,  
    But ye wad never trow me.

Robert Burns himself used the tune of “Dainty Davie” for two songs.
The first was “Now Rosy May”, written in 1793, and the chorus is as follows:

Meet me on the Warlock Knowe,  
  Dainty Davie, Dainty Davie!  
There I'll spend the day wi' you,  
  My ain dear Dainty Davie.

There is a second version of “Dainty Davie” which Burns based upon the old original song
in *The Merry Muses of Caledonia*.
This song by or attributed to Burns can be found in any copy of *The Merry Muses*.