Thomas Billington (arr.)
(1754 - ?1832)

My sheep I've forsaken
(S.A.T.T.B. + reduction)
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Billington issued two sets of "glees selected from the Scotch songs" in the late 1780s, to satisfy two contemporary enthusiasms: that for mixed sex social music, and that for all things North-British. The current arrangement comes from the second set.

These glees were selected from a repertoire of well-known Scottish songs that had been anthologised in the previous seventy years. Verses that are not underlaid were not included by Billington, and have been imported from external sources.
Lyrics: Sir Gilbert Elliott

My sheep I've forsaken and left my sheephook,
And all the gay haunts of my youth I've forsook;
No more for Aminta fresh garlands I wove;
For ambition, I said, would soon cure one of love.
O what had my youth with ambition to do?
Why left I Aminta, why broke I my vow?
O give me my sheep and my sheephook restore,
And I'll wander from love and Aminta no more.

Through regions remote in vain I do rove,
And bid the wide ocean secure me of love;
O fool! to imagine that ought could subdue
A love so well founded, a passion so true.
O what had my youth etc.

Alas, 'tis too late at thy fate to repine!
Poor shepherd! Aminta no more can be thine:
Thy tears are all fruitless, thy wishes are vain;
The moments neglected return not again.
O what shall my youth etc.