List of songs and the last verse of She says she lo'es me best of a'

This manuscript relates to Burns's love of traditional music and his gathering of material for both James Johnson's Scots Musical Museum and Thomson's A Select Collection of Original Scottish Airs for the Voice.

The first page contains a list of 'serious' and 'comic' songs, while the second page contains a fragment of the song She says she lo'es me best of a' --- ', sometimes known as Sae Flaxen Were Her Ringlets. The work, originally written in pencil but inked over at a later date, praises the beauty and charm of Chloris, or Jean Lorimer. It was sent to Thomson for his collection in 1794.

Jean was the daughter of William Lorimer, a good friend of the poet who lived a few miles from Ellisland farm. Jean's good looks attracted many employees of the Excise, with Robert writing several poems for his friends to use in their attempts to woo her. Unfortunately for them, she eloped to Gretna Green with an untrustworthy man who left her three weeks later to escape his creditors. She soon after moved back home with her father.

Robert found Jean to be a great source of inspiration for his work. In writing to George Thomson in 1794, he said '[Jean] is in a manner to me what Sterne's Eliza was to him; a Mistress or Friend, or what you will, in the guise of Platonic Love'.