The Book of Scottish Song/Dumbarton's Drums

Dumbarton's Drums.

[This appears in the first vol. of the Tea-Table Miscellany, (1724). Nothing is known of the author. The song does not relate to the drums of the garrison of Dumbarton on the Clyde, (as many suppose it does,) but to a British regiment, called, as was then the custom, after its first commander, the Earl of Dumbarton, Dumbarton's regiment. The Earl was attached to the Stuart family, and died an exile in France in 1692.]

Dumbarton's drums beat bonnie, O,
When they mind me of my dear Johnnie, O;
How happie am I
When my soldier is by,
While he kisses and blesses his Annie, O!
'Tis a soldier alone can delight me, O,
For his graceful looks do invite me, O;
While guarded in his arms,
I'll fear no war's alarms,
Neither danger nor death shall e'er fright me, O.

My love is a handsome laddie, O,
Genteel, but ne'er foppish nor gaudy, O.
Though commissions are dear,
Yet I'll buy him one this year,
For he'll serve no longer a cadie, O.
A soldier has honour and bravery, O;
Unacquainted with rogues and their knavery, O,
He minds no other thing
But the ladies or the king;
For every other care is but slavery, O.

Then I'll be the captain's lady, O,
Farewell all my friends and my daddy, O;
I'll wait no more at home,
But I'll follow with the drum,
And whene'er that beats I'll be ready, O.
Dumbarton's drums sound bonnie, O,
They are sprightly like my dear Johnnie, O.
How happy shall I be
When on my soldier's knee,
And he kisses and blesses his Annie, O!

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