My sheep I neglected.
[This song was very popular in Scotland among the upper classes about the middle of the last century, and there are still old people to be found who refer to it. It was written by Sir Gilbert Elliot, third baronet of Minto, who was born in 1722, educated for the Scottish bar, and during his life held several official appointments under government. He died at Marseilles in 1777. His son, for some time governor-general of India, was raised to the peerage by the title of Earl of Minto. Sir Gilbert was brother to Miss Jane Elliot, authoress of the old set of the "Flowers of the Forest." The words "My sheep I neglected" are printed in the first volume of Yair's "Charmer," Edinburgh, 1749, in Herd's Collection, and elsewhere. They are to the tune of an old air, called My Apron, dearie, which, with old words, may be found in the Orpheus Caledonius, 1725, and, with the present words, in Johnson's Museum, and Thomson's Select Melodies.]
My sheep I neglected—I lost my sheep-hook,
And all the gay haunts of my youth I forsook;
No more for Amynta fresh garlands I wove;
For ambition, I said, would soon cure me of love.
Oh, what had my youth with ambition to do?
Why left I Amynta? Why broke I my vow?
Oh, give me my sheep, and my sheep-hook restore,
And I'll wander from love and Amynta no more.
Through regions remote in vain do I rove,
And bid the wide ocean secure me from love!
Oh, fool! to imagine that aught could subdue
A love so well-founded, a passion so true!
Oh, what, &c.
Alas! tis too late at thy fate to repine;
Poor shepherd, Amynta can never be thine:
Thr tears are all fruitless, thy wishes are vain.
The moments neglected return not again.
Oh, what, &c.