variations in the several copies of any tune which passed through his
hands.... Many of the airs he studied and selected for his verses were
either pure instrumental tunes, never before set to words, or the airs
(from dance books) of lost songs, with the first lines as
titles."--(James C. Dick, _The Songs of Robert Burns_, 1903, Preface,
pp. viii, ix.)

Again, once when Thomson had sent him a tune to be fitted with words,
he replied:

"_Laddie lie near me_ must _lie by me_ for some time. I do not
know the air; and until I am complete master of a tune in my own
singing (such as it is), I never can compose for it. My way is: I
consider the poetic sentiment correspondent to my idea of the
musical expression; then choose my theme; begin one stanza; when
that is composed, which is generally the most difficult part of
the business, I walk out, sit down now and then, look out for
subjects in nature around me that are in unison and harmony with
the cogitations of my fancy and workings of my bosom, humming
every now and then the air with the verses I have framed. When I
feel my muse beginning to jade, I retire to the solitary fireside
of my study, and then commit my effusion to paper; swinging at
intervals on the hindlegs of my elbow chair, by way of calling
forth my own critical strictures as my pen goes on. Seriously,
this at home is almost invariably my way." [September, 1793.]

His wife, who had a good voice and a wide knowledge of folk-song,
seems often to have been of assistance, and a further interesting
detail is given by Sir James Stuart-Menteath from the evidence of a
Mrs. Christina Flint.