Miller, Janet
Eldest daughter and 3rd child of Patrick Miller of Dalswinton. She became the wife of John Thomas Erskine, later 28th Earl of Mar, and 13th Lord Erskine, in 1795. Burns wrote to her from Dumfries on 9th September 1793: 'I have taken the liberty to make you the Heroine of the Song on the following page. Being little in the secret of young ladies' love and lovers — how should I, you know? I have formed in my fancy a little lovestory for you. The air, you know, is excellent, and the verses, I hope and think, are in my best manner.' The song — not, most readers would agree, at all in his 'best manner' — was 'Where are the joys I hae met in the Morning', and appeared in Thomson's Scottish Airs, 1801. The tune, 'Saw ye my father' goes, however, to the splendid song, 'O, saw ye my father, or saw ye my mother' printed in David Herd's first edition of 1769. Herd's folk-words are, for once, undoubtedly superior to Burns's words. The tune first appeared in Stewart's Scots Songs, 1772.
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