Robert Burns claimed that "[This] song [is] an old song, of the olden times, which has never been in print, nor even in manuscript until I took it down from an old man's singing".
Actually, a lot of poems with similar lyrics were written before Burns' adaptation, the oldest being probably "Auld Kyndnes foryett", found in the 1568 "Bannatyne Manuscript".
First published in the "Scots Musical Museum", the title means "Old Long Since".
