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Ten Songs from Scotland and the Scottish BorderAuthor(s): Anne G. GilchristSource: Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, Vol. 3, No. 1 (Dec., 1936), pp. 53-71Published by: English Folk Dance + Song SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4521094 .

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TEN SONGS FROM SCOTLAND AND THE SCOTTISH BORDER

CONTRIBUTED BY ANNE G. GILCHRIST

The ten songs which follow are taken-all but " The Beggin'" and " I'm a' doun for lack o' Johnnie "-from a sheet of manuscript airs which for want of a title I have named the Edinburgh MS. It was found amongst the papers of the late Frank Kidson of Leeds, in a bundle sent to me (as described under " Sir Lionel ") by his niece. I have no clue whatever to the sender but the Edinburgh postmark and date Dec. 23rd, I903, on the envelope in which they were enclosed, which bore the trade- stamp " J. and R. Glen, Highland Bagpipe Makers " on the back. Any accom- panying letter has been lost, and as all enquiries in Scotland have failed, and the eight tunes cannot be traced in any printed collection, I have been led to the conclusion that they were selected from some MS. (which from the numbers given had comprised over seventy tunes) for Mr. Kidson's examination and opinion. They are all good tunes, worth preserving-some of special interest as belonging to ballads whose airs are scarce or lost. So they are here printed, with such notes and variants as it seemed to me might be of interest, without prejudice to the original owner's copyright, if he is still living.-A. G. G.

5. JOCK O' THE SIDE (FIRST VERSION)

Pentatonic (No 3rd or 6th). From the Edinburgh MS. (No. 56).

AXI_J ; ;-_I_'___X___1 jztj

[Now Lid - des - dale has ridden a raid, But I wat better had

stayed at hame, For Mich - ael o' Win - field he is dead, And Jock o' the Side is

(a) (a) As noted.

prison-er ta'en, And Jock o' the Side is prison-er ta'en.]

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SECOND VERSION

Gapped Mode (No 6th). From BRUCE and STOKOE'S Northumbrian Minstrelsy, i882.

And Jock o' the Side

pris-on - er ta'en, And Jock o' the Side is pris - on - er ta'eni. (Thirty-seven verses)

This has been called one of the best ballads in the world! Jock o' the Side was a notorious Border raider of the sixteenth century. Sir Richard Maitland says of him-

He is weel kend, Johne of the Svde, A greater thief did never ride.

The ballad, with two others, " Dick o' the Cow" and " Hobbie Noble," was first printed in I784 in the Hazeick Museum, a provincial Miscellany, to which they were communicated by John Elliot of Reidheugh, an antiquary of the western Border. They are all connected, Hobbie Noble having been the man who " loosed " Jock from prison, and seem to have been written by the same hand. The story of Jock's escape rests upon tradition, but Henderson, in his edition of the Border Minstrelsy (I932) identifies it with an incident reported to Wolsey by Magnus, July 6th, I527, though Child was inclined to consider it as possibly a free version of " Kinmont Willie "-another escape ballad.

The ballad is a very gallant and spirited one, telling how Jock, taking part in a raid, was caught and imprisoned in Newcastle, and how three friends, the Laird's Jock, the Laird's Wat, and Hobbie Noble of Bewcastle (but banished to Scotland) disguised as corn-cadgers, and with thelr horses shod the wrong way to avoid suspicion, set out to rescue him. They cut down a tree en route to serve as a ladder, but finding it all too short on arriving at the town-wall, wrung the neck of the proud porter, possessed themselves of his keys, and rescued the prisoner on the very eve of his decreed execution. And the laird's Jock, hastily hoisting his master on his back with " fifteen stane of Spanish iron " still attached to him, carried him down the stair, counting him " lighter than a flee " (fly) ; and though pursued, the party

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took to the swollen water of Tyne at Chollerford, leaving the land-sergeant and his lads baffled on the bank, the sergeant calling out for the return of his irons, at least, if not the prisoner !

THIRD VERSION

[DICK O' THE COW]

From LEYDEN'S Edition of Scott's Minstrelsy, 1833.

-4-~~~~~~~T di-

Fal de ral, lal de ial, Ilal de ral la

Fal

Ilc de ral de rad - dy, Fal ial de ral la, Fal lal de , al la.

As the three ballads are said to have been sung to the same tune, the air for" Dick o' the Cow " is here printed from the only edition of Scott's Mlinstrelsy which I have found to contain any tunes. It is one of ten ballad-airs which Leyden, the editor, states are for the first time appended to their texts, and which include those which Sir Walter himself liked the best, being transcribed without variation from the MSS. in his library. Stokoe professed himself unable to believe that this trio of ballads were ever sung to Scott's tune with the Fal de ral refrain; but the version in Caw's Poetical Museum has a burden of "With my fa ding diddle, la la dow diddle "-which is even less heroic.

For various versions see Child, whose " A" form " John a Side "-which seems to be the oldest-is derived from the Percy MS. (Hales and Furnivall, ii, 203).

-A. G. G.

6. SIR JAMES THE ROSE (FIRST VERSION)

Gapped Mode (No 3rd). From the Edinburgh MS. (No. 45).

_ _ _ - d 4

55



SECOND VERSION

Pentatonic (No 2nd or 6th). CHRIST1E's Traditional Ballad Airs, i. i6.

@g0L~~_ -__-E_______-3

Of all the Scot - tislh inorth - ern chiefs Of high and war - like

name, The brav - est was Sir James the Rose, A knight of mei kle fame.

2. His growth was as the tufted fir That crowns the mountain's brow And waving o'er his shoulders broad His locks of yellow flew.

* * * * * *

Sir James loves Matilda, whose father bids her wed Sir John the Graham. The lovers meet at their trysting-place, and Sir John's brother, Donald, craftily hides himself in the underwood " to overhear what they would say." Donald attacks Sir James with insulting words and stabs at him with his sword, crying-

"This for my brother's slighted love- His wrongs sit on my arm! "

(A curious phrase.) Evading him, Sir James cleaves Donald's head with his sword, and as he tumbles down, " a lump of breathless clay,"

"So fall my foes," quoth valiant Ross, And stately strode away.

Then the Graham clan is roused and the ballad ends in a double tragedy. For the whole ballad (twenty-seven double verses) see " Sir James the Rose," Last Leaves of Aberdeen Ballads, lxiv, p. I37.

There are two distinct forms of this ballad. The one selected by Child begins- O heard ye of Sir James the Rose The young heir of Buleighan ? For he has killed a gallant squire An's friends are out to tak' him.

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But Child rejected as too " literary " the one which became most popular in Scotland and most widely sung, which is here represented. It is rather curious that in the forty years since he died so many traditional copies of this rejected version, sung to their traditional tunes, have been noted. It has been attributed to the Scottish poet, Michael Bruce, amongst whose papers it was found, but it now seems possible that it was merely revised, after the fashion of the time, by him.

The earliest printed text known of this supposed " Bruce " copy appeared in One Hundred and Fifty Scots Songs, London, I768, the year after Bruce's death at the age of twenty-one. This collection contained several ballad texts, and Dr. Keith, who transcribes this copy in his Last Leaves of A berdeenshire Ballads, concludes that both the version preferred by Child and the " Bruce " form have been derived from stall copies, broadsides, and other prints of the second half of the eighteenth century. The copy found amongst Bruce's papers was further revised by John Logan, Bruce's untrustworthy friend, who unblushingly claimed the authorship of several poems now almost certainly known to be Bruce's.

The basis of each form of the ballad (of which Child's version is the most savage) is the slaying of Sir Donald Graeme by Sir James the Rose, the betrayal of the fugitive, and the revenge of the Graemes by killing the slayer of their clansman. In Child's text, taken from a stall copy of I780 in the Abbotsford library, Sir James' sweetheart, to whom he has fled for hiding, betrays him to his enemies who are hunting for him, and afterwards, stricken with remorse, disappears for ever from human ken. In the ballad which has ousted this version in Aberdeen and elsewhere, the treachery is transferred from Matilda to her faithless little page, who discloses Sir James's hiding place. After defending himself bravely he is slain, and Matilda draws out the sword still sticking in his side, falls on the point, and dies on his body. This second version is a long ballad of about fifty verses, found almost complete, and not much corrupted, even after its emigration with Scots folk to Nova Scotia and Maine. See W. Roy Mackenzie's Ballads and Sea-Songs of Nova Scotia, (where a modal tune is also given for the ballad), and British Ballads from Maine (edited by Barry, Eckstorm, and Smyth).

In Child's text the scene is located in Perthshire, at Bulechan; in Aberdeen copies, on the banks of the Ugie above the Abbey of Deer, where the saugh-tree (willow) where the lovers met used still to be pointed out by the singers of the lovers' fate. The hero is called both James the Rose and James the Ross, and as there were distinct clans of both Rose and Ross in Scotland, the confusion increases, and it seems doubtful whether there is any historical foundation for the story, though it was printed as an " Ancient Historical Ballad "-the " Bruce" version-in the Weekly Magazine and Edinburgh Amusement, I770.

It is certain that this version was widely known and sung in Aberdeenshire, and also in New Brunswick. Dr. Keith prints in Last Leaves six tunes and variants, and had obtained seven others-variants of his Tune I. In Johnson's Museum,.

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vol. iii, p. 280, is a variant, set to " Hardycanute," and another tune is in R. A. Smith's Scotish Minstrel, ii, 30. And none of all these tunes fits Child's version, which, as will be seen, is in a different metre, though Christie has a tune for it in his Traditional Ballad Airs. As for Christie's double tune, printed above, the proba- bility is that it is a combination of two different airs, the first strain being one tune to the ballad and the second, another, according to his habit of " arranging " tunes in eight-line stanza form.-A. G. G.

The following versions of Sir James the Rose (or Ross) were noted in Newfound- land. The text is very similar to the I768 version printed in Last Leaves and the versions noted in Nova Scotia and Maine.-M.K.

THIRD VERSION

Sung by Mr. PAT. KILEY at Gaskiers, Noted by MAUD KARPELES. St. Mary's, Newfoundland, July 29, ig3o.

S-h==fi=a=t__ - r -. _

F-- _ _

1- -- _

I

I. It's all those Scot - tish lords and chiefs Of high war - like name, The

brav- est is Sir James the Ross, That knight of ma - ny fame.

FOURTH VERSION

Sung by Mr. JAS. WALSH at Ferryland, Noted by MAUD KARPELES. Newfoundland, August I, 1930.

Of all the Scot - tish north - ern chiefs of hiigh and war - like

(a)

fame, The brav - est was Sir James the Ross, A

(a)

knight o might ->l y fame. gb . r

knight of might -y fame.



FIFTH VERSION

Sung by Mr. BILL KENNEDY at Trepassly, Noted by MAUD KARPELES. Newfoundland, August 2, 1930.

@$w ~~~~~~I ,- M - = -

0 yes, Sir, he's at Lon - don cross. If man and horse prove good. 'Tis

false, said he, your page told me, He sleeps here in this wood.

7. MARY HAMILTON (FIRST VERSION)

From the Edinburgh MS. (No. 75).

[Yes - treen the Queen had four Mar - ies, To - night she'll hae but three. There was

Ma - ry Bea - ton and Ma - ry Sea - ton And Ma - ry Car-mi-chael and me. .

The real origin of this ballad, which first appeared in print in i802, as " The Queen's Marie," in Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, is difficult to trace with certainty. Child prints no less than twenty-eight versions (Scott had collected eight), but it is now almost extinct in Britain, though traditional versions have been in recent years found in Aberdeenshire, in the State of Maine where a strong Scottish element remains and in Virginia. Historically, the surnames of the four Maries, companions from her childhood, who accompanied Mary to France in I548, returning to Scotland -with her in I56I, were Beaton, Seton, Fleming, and Livingston. Mary Beaton married Alexander Ogilvie, Mary Livingston (who was the first to leave the Queen) married John Sempill, Mary Fleming married Lord Lethington, and Mary Seton- the last to leave the Queen-died in a French convent, unmarried. It is obvious that as the fourth Mary's name of the ballad is hardly ever given in the texts the singer was free to name her according to his belief or fancy.

The ballad seems most likely to have been based upon a court scandal denounced as a " haynous murther " in his History of the Reformation by John Knox, connecting the crime of infanticide with a French waiting-woman-whose name is not given- and the Queen's own apothecary, the story being corroborated by Randolph, who

59



states in a letter that both were hanged in December I563. A version obtained in I804 from the Rev. George Paxton runs-

My love he was a pottinger [potingarie Old Scots=apothecary] Mony drink he gae me, And a' to put back the bonnie babe But alas! it wadna dae.

But this verse might have been introduced in later days to locate the story more definitely.

At some later (?) period the French waiting-woman appears as Mary Hamilton and the apothecary as Darnley-a not incredible substitute.

The ballad has also been believed to show confusion with a similar episode at a much later date concerned with a Miss Hambleton, maid of honour to the Empress Catherine at the Court of Peter the Great in I7i8-i9, who was executed for a similar crime. The question was examined exhaustively by Andrew Lang, in Blackwood's Magazine, September I895, and Child, at first inclined to accept the Russian story as the foundation of the ballad, subsequently admitted the presumed Scottish basis as the less improbable of the two. Henderson in his edition (1932) of Scott's Minstrelsy suggests that supposing Mary Fleming left the Court some time before her marriage it was possible for Livingston and herself to have been succeeded by Mary Carmichael (supposed to be the daughter of John Carmichael of that ilk) and the unknown Mary Hamilton-the " me" of the ballad. But evidence is wholly lacking and this Mary remains a mere ghost of tradition.

The version found in Maine is a secondary form from which the amour and infanticide details have disappeared. See British Ballads from Maine, edited by Barry, Eckstorm and Smyth. See also Davis's Traditional Ballads of Virginia, I929, No. 36.

SECOND VERSION

From The Thistle, I884.

The best known and earliest printed tune since the ballad appeared in 1802 is that given in The Thistle, I884, followed by other similar versions in Last Leaves of Aberdeenshire Ballads, I925, and the Maine collection. The Thistle tune, sung in the Perthshire Highlands, saysthe editor, Colin Brown, and comparatively little known though always associated with the ballad, had (in I884) been only recently

6o



noted. The tune here given from the Edinburgh MS. is different and sounds like a Highland air, and the tune of the Aberdeenshire " A" version is of another character altogether, suggesting a traditional carol. There is indeed a faint suggestion that the " Mary Mild " form of the " Three Maries " sung to this tune might be an echo of some carol-legend of the Virgin Mary, such as " The Seven Virgins "-

And one of them was Mary mild, Our Lord's mother of heaven-

or of some version of the " Cherry Tree" legend. Cf. the following two verses, which may have been partly borrowed from such a source, attached to the tune, as the second does not seem to belong to the ballad and rather suggests the Riposo, and the gentler Joseph of the Flight into Egypt episode.

THIRD VERSION

Noted by GAVIN GREIG. Sung by W. WALLACE, Leochel Cushnie.

2 _ I Z4Li i'

Sit low doon by me, Ma - ry mild, Sit low doon by me, And there's

nae a fa - vour that ye will ask But I will grant it thee.

Word went up and word went down And word went thro' the ha'

That Mary mild was great wi' child To the highest Steward o' a'.

* * * * * *

Ye'll sit low down by me, Mary mild, Ye'll sit lows down by me, And there's nae a favour that ye will ask But I will grant it thee.

The Steward is usually supposed to indicate Darnley, but I have seen no satisfactory explanation of this other stanza, which I believe is peculiar to this variant.

The best known verse of Mary Hamilton is the one quoted by Burns in a letter to Mrs. Dunlop, January 25th, I790, from " an old ballad" which he does not name-

0, little did my mother think, That day she cradled me, What land I was to travel in Or what death I should dee.

6i



In the Maine version " A " there follows the verse

Last night I washed Queen Mary's feet And carried her to her bed, To-day she'll give me my reward-

The gallows hard to tread.

-or as the Aberdeenshire " A " has it-

It's seyven lang years I ha'e made the Queen's bed, And as lang dressed her hair, But this is the reward that I'm to get- The gallows tow to wear. [rope]

This certainly suggests the waiting-woman rather than the maid of honour. It seems incredible that the execution of a lady of gentle birth and high and prominent position should have left no record in Scottish history.

The Thistle tune, in its simplest form, belongs to the same Scottish group of airs as the " Little wee croodin' doo " (the nursery version of " Lord Ronald "). See Journal, Vol. v, p. II7 (my version). This " Mary Hamilton " tune is also known in Aberdeen and in Maine. The beautiful air attached to Susan Blamire's song, " The Siller Croon" (And ye sall walk in silk attire), said to have been first published in sheet form c. I780, seems to be an elaborated form, with a second strain.

FOURTH VERSION

From the HARRIS MS. [X830], fol. xob. [Gapped Mode, No 6th]. Mrs. HARRIS and others.

X- K , - s= -~~~~~~~~~-

-0-_

The interesting fourth tune here quoted from the Musical Appendix to Child's Ballads, there taken from the Harris MS. now in the Harvard Library, came from eighteenth-century Perthshire. It is interesting to note that all the "CMary Hamilton" tunes whose source is known (that is, all but the Edinburgh MS. copy) come from the counties of Aberdeen or Perth.-A. G. G.

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8. THE KING AND THE TINKER [KING JAMES I AND THE TINKER]

Gapped Scale (No 6th). From the Edinburgh MS. (No. 65).

[As he was a - hunt - ing the swift fal - low deer, He dropped all his no - bles, and

when he got clear In hope of some pas - time a - way he did ride, Till he

came to an ale - house hard by a wood - side.]

i. And now to be brief, lets pass over the rest Who seldom or never were given to jest And come to King Jamie, the first of our throne, A pleasanter monarch sure never was known.

2. As he was a-hunting the swift fallow deer He dropped all his nobles, and when he got clear In hope of some pastime away he did ride Till he came to an alehouse, hard by a wood-side.

3. And there with a tinkler he happened to meet, And him in kind sort he so freely did greet: " Pray thee, good fellow, what hast in thy jug, Which under thy arm thou dost lovingly hug ?"

4. " By the mass ! " quoth the tinkler, " it's nappy brown ale, And for to drink to thee, friend, I will not fail; For although thy jacket looks gallant and fine, I think that my twopence as good is as thine."

5. " By my soul! honest fellow, the truth thou hast spoke!" And straight he sat down with the tinkler to joke; They drank to the King and they pledged to each other, Who'd seen 'em had thought they were brother and brother.

6. As they were a-drinking the King pleased to say, " What news, honest fellow ? come tell me, I pray." " There's nothing of news, beyond that I hear The King's on the border, a-chasing the deer.

And truly I wish I so happy may be Whilst he is a-hunting the King I might see, For although I have travelled the land many ways, I never have yet seen a King in my days."

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8. The King with a hearty brisk laughter replied " I tell thee, good fellow, if thou canst but ride Thou shall get up behind me, and I will thee bring To the presence of Jamie, thy sovereign King."

9. " But he'll be surrounded with nobles so gay, And how shall we tell him from them, sir, I pray ? " Thou'lt easily ken him when once thou art there; The King will be covered, his nobles all bare."

io. He got up behind him and likewise his sack, His budget of leather and tools at his back; They rode till they came to the merry greenwood, His nobles came round him, bareheaded they stood.

i I. The tinkler then seeing so many appear He slily did whisper the King in his ear: Saying " They're all clothed so gloriously gay, But which amongst them is the King, sir, I pray ?

I2. The King did with hearty good laughter reply " By my soul, my good fellow, it's thou or it's I! The rest are bareheaded, uncovered all round " With his bag and his budget he fell to the ground.

13. Like one that was frightened quite out of his wits, Then on his knees he instantly gets, Beseeching for mercy; the King to him said, " Thou art a good fellow, so be not afraid.

I4. Come, tell me thy name!" " I am John of the Dale, A mender of kettles, a lover of ale." " Rise up, Sir John, I will honour thee here,- I make thee a knight of three thousand a year!"

15. This was a good thing for the tinkler indeed; Then unto the Court he was sent for with speed, Where great store of pleasure and pastime was seen In the royal presence of King and a Queen.

i6. Sir John of the Dale he has land, he has fee, At the court of the King who so happy as he ? Yet still in his hall hangs the tinkler's old sack And the budget of tools which he bore at his back.

I have transcribed the whole ballad from Dixon's Ballads and Songs of the Peasantry of England, first published in I846, as it is the only copy known to me. " The incident recorded is said to be a fact, though the locality is doubtful. By some the scene is laid at Norwood; by others in some part of the English border." (The familiar " Jamie" suggests a north-country ballad). Percy mentions the ballad, but it is not in the Reliques or any other popular collection, says Dixon, and is to be found (he was writing ninety years ago) only in a few broadsheets and chap-books of modern date. The above is a traditional version taken down from the recital of Francis King, known as the " Skipton [in Craven] Minstrel "-a musician and a

64



singer of heroic ballads, who was accidentally drowned in December I844, and is buried in Gargrave churchyard. See Dixon for further notes. The thirteenth and fifteenth verses, he says, were taken from a broadside, to which this version is " much superior." The ballad in his time was popular on the Border and in the dales of 4Cumberland, Westmorland, and Craven. The tune is of a familiar ballad type.

-A. G. G. 9. THE BEGGIN'

(FIRST VERSION) Noted by the Rev. J. K. 'MACONOCHIE. Heard as a child in Aberdeenshire (c. iS6o ?).

If the be, - gin' be as good a trade as I do hear them say, It 's

*J _ __ __ e - -__ - time that I . . . was on my road And jog-gingdown the brae. To the

beg - gin' I wiil go, go, To the beg - gin' I xill go. * * * * * *

It's I'll go to a greasy cook He'll grease to me my hat, Until an inch a' round about Is glitterin' o'er wi' fat.

To the beggin' I will go, go, etr. * * * * * *

SECOND VERSION

Frozm ROBERT FORD'S Vagabond Songs of Scotland. New Edition, 1904.

M 1

O' a' the trades that I do ken The beg - ging is the best, For

when the beg - gar's wvea - ry He can sit downi and rest. To the

rN La I I-r J - s = 1 r 1 beg - ging we will go, will go, To the beg - ging we will go.

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A few verses may be added from Ford's copy:

When I come to a farm-toun I'll say, wi' hat in hand: Will the beggar-man get quarters here ? Alas! I canna stand! "

It's may be the gudeman will say, Puir man, we ha'e nae room; Gin a' oor folks were in aboot WVe couldna lodge yer thoom ! " [thumb",

It's may be the gudewife will say, 0 puir man, come in-bye ! We'll budge a bit and mak 'a seat, It's been a cauldrife day."

And when they a' come in aboot Then will I start and sing, And do my best to gar them lauch A' round about the ring.

*: E: * * * :

So it is time he was "trudgin' ower the brae," but this version ends:

And if I chance to prosper I may come back and tell, But if the trade gaes backlins [backwards] I'll keep it to mvsel'.

A characteristic bit of " Scotch pride."

This humorous old song has long been traditional in Scotland. Robert Ford says in his Vagabond Ballads of Scotland that he received no fewer than four MS. copies of this " really worthy and curious song," all differing materially, from correspondents in widely separated parts of Scotland, as well as one from a Scotsman long resident in America. The Rev. J. K. Maconochie, who sent me the first version many years ago-a few songs of his collection being printed in the journal about the same time-said that as a child in Aberdeenshire [in the 'fifties ?] he used to hear it at the door of the village smithy from the old smith's housekeeper, over her knitting. Of the verse about the " greasy cook " he confessed that he could never find any explanation, but the meaning seems clear in Ford's version:

And I will to the greasy cook, Frae him will buy a hat, Weel pressed and weather-beaten And glittering ower wi' fat-

the hat evidently being greased to make it waterproof.

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Ford's version consists of twenty-three verses, and details all the beggar's preparations for his travels, including a ' strang ' beard and ' lang ' nails. According to Ford, the song was written by Alex. Ross of Lochlee, but Ross's version would seem only to have been based upon traditional verses. There is an English version which Frank Kidson dates from Rd. Brome's Jovial Crew* (I64I) and also states that in the Bagford Ballads there is a version headed " The Beggar's Chorus from the Jovial Crew." In Playford's Choice Ayres 5th Book, I684, there are ten verses without a title and all different from the Scottish versions:

THIRD VERSION

From PLAYFORD'S Choice Ayres, 5th Book, I684.

There was a jov - ial beg -gar, he had a wood-en leg. Lame from his era - dle and

forc - ed for to beg, And a beg - ging we will go, &c.

A bag for his oatmeal, another for his salt, And a pair of crutches to show that he can halt.

And a begging, etc. * * * * * *:

In a hollow tree I live and pay no rent, Providence provides for me and I am well content.

And a begging, etc.

In WVhite Spirituals in the Southern Uplands, I933, an American collection edited by George Pullen Jackson, the song, with its tune, is parodied thus:

I'd rather live a beggar while here on earth I stay Than to possess the riches of all America [Amerikay ?] And to begging I will go.

The rest of this "Spiritual " song shows it (says Mr. Jackson) to be the good-bye song of a China-bound missionary!

Begging really was a "trade" in Scotland in the old days, and Scott in his Introduction to the Antiquary states that the bedesmen or " blue gowns "-of which Eddie Ochiltree was an example-were an order of paupers to whom the Scottish kings distributed alms, the bedesmen in return being expected to pray for

* Chappell says the song is not in the printed copy of the play, and must have been introduced.

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the King and State. There were as many of them as the years the King had lived (compare our Maundy recipients), a new one being added on every royal birthday. They wore light-blue gowns and a pewter badge as license. In later times some of the ancient privileges and general respect seem to have hung about beggars, in Scotland at any rate, and the Scottish beggar would find warmer lodging on his wanderings than a hollow tree, to judge by the various beggar ballads which have survived, such as " The Jolly Beggar "-which is traditionally believed to relate an adventure in disguise of James V " The Gaberlunzie Man," " The Humble Beggar, etc. The " Jolly Beggar " has the " Go no more a-roving " chorus attached to it. But all these unlike the present example relate the adventures of some particular beggar, who always comes well out of his audacious exploits. The "a-begging we will go " refrain has suggested many later ones in imitation.-A. G. G.

Io. HECH HEY, THE WEAVER LAD From the Ediiiburgh MS. 'No. 54).

*TA

I have not succeeded in tracing the words of this song, but the tune seems to be a variant of the " Beggin' " traditional tune, and one may guess that it extolled the trade of the weaver in much the same manner as that of the beggar.-A. G. G.

I I. MY BONNIE LASS SHEARING THE BARLEY Aeolian. Froin the Euimmburghi MS. (No, 28).

< HiI_M _- i-.IIIp

[?My bon - nie lass shear - ing the bar - ley.]

68



I have been unable to trace the words of this song. The tune is Highland in character, and it is possible that the words may be a translation or adaptation from the Gaelic.-A. G. G.

There is a strong family likeness between this tune and several of the Pertlhshire airs in Patrick McDonald's Highland Vocal Airs (Edinburgh, n.d. about M71O?), for instance Nos. 96, 98, I02, I04. The first of these, one of the shortest, may be quoted:

From Highland Vocal Airs, p. 14.

A.M.F.

I2. COME, ALL YOU PRETTY FAIR MAIDS Dorian (transposed). From the Edinburgh MS. (No. 72).

__ L ___ -_ N

I have been unable to trace the words of this with certainty, but it is probably a tune for " The Wealthy Farmer's Son," which has this opening gambit, and appears in many collections.-A. G. G.

I3. IT WAS ON A NIGHT WHEN THE MOON SHONE BRIGHT Aeolian. From the Edinburgh MS. (No. 5o).

-i~~~~~~~~~~~~d J v~

n~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ F



This tune almost certainly belongs to the ballad most easily recognised as " As I went out one May Morning" or " Her answer was I am too young." The title here given is almost the same as the first line of a verse which is the fourth of an Appalachian version noted by Cecil Sharp, English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, No. I07 (B), " Good morning, good morning, my pretty little Miss." The tune above is not the familiar one in Scottish printed collections, but it fits the Scottish text of the song in Johnson's Museum (No. 397), allowing for its being apparently an instrumental copy.

As I went out one May morning, A May morning it happened to be, Then I was aware of a weel far'd maid Came linkin' over the lea to me. 0 but she was a weel far'd maid, The bonniest lass that's under the sun; I spiered gin she could fancy me, But her answer was " I am too young."

See journal, Vol. iii, p. II3, for a variant of the usual tune noted by H. E. D. Hammond, " One May morning as it happened to be." As the song is- a rather disreputable one, it is not often printed in its entirety.-A. G. G.

I4. I'M A' DOON FOR LACK 0' JOHNNIE

Sung by Mrs. GEORGE GILCHRIST Noted by A. G. GILCHRIST. Kb. I838) before I90O.

- ~ _ -__

_ __ _ _r-'

I'm a' doon, . . . doon, doon, I'm doon . . for lack o'

v_ _ __ _ -. .

M _ _-__ . -__t

m _ #- - #_= y -I-___ f_____=

John - nie (repeat). I sit up - on . . . an auld feal sunk. I

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~M

sit and greet . . . for John-nie, And gin he's gi'en me the be gunk, Och -

ti. c. jilted mej

4- 3

- one, . . what will come o' me?

[Feal sunk=turf seat.]

70



Rest of the song forgotten by the singer. This quaint and simple little Scottish song, though not found in print till about the

middle of last century, is traceable in one of its north of Scotland versions to the end of the eighteenth. Christie prints two tunes-one with title " You're sair dung, Annie, or Bervie's Braes" in his Traditional Ballad Airs, ii, i86-the other set to another song " The Craw's ta'en the Poussie, 0 " in the same volume. The" Bervie's Braes" version begins:

Whare wvill ye get a bonnie boy To rin your erran' cannie, And gae awa' to Bervie's braes Wi' a letter to your Johnnie ? For ye're sair dung, Annie lass, Fdisconsolate] Ye're sair dung, Annie. Ye're sair dung, Annie lass, Ye're dung for likin' Johnnie.

Ye sit there on a creepy steel [low stool] And sigh and sab for Johnnie, etc.

Christie, who was apt to consider that stranger-versions were spurious, declared that " doun " instead of " dung " was " ugly and wrong "-which is rather amusing. But the curious interest of the version " I'm a' doun " (a very similar form is printed, with additional verses, in Wood's Songs of Scotland) is that it seems to have suggested (note the names Anne and John) to Miss Anne Home (I742-I82I) who married Dr. John Hunter, the celebrated Edinburgh surgeon, her song " My mother bids me bind my hair," set to music by " Dr. Haydn." This originally began:

'Tis sad to think the days are gone When those we love were near; I sit upon this mossy stone And sigh when none can hear. And while I spin my flaxen thread And sing my simple lay, The village seems asleep or dead Now Lubin is away.

But the first and second verses were afterwards transposed, probably for the sake of more catching title. Substitute Lubin for Johnnie and a mossy stone for the " auld feal sunk" or " creepie stools" on which Annie sits to spin and greet for Johnnie, and her simple lay-as Miss Anne Home rightly calls it-becomes trans- formed to the elegant lyric and canzonet more worthy of the select musical circles of Edinburgh and the genius of Dr. Haydn, who similarly honoured other songs written by the same lady by musical settings. And it is satisfactory to know that this Annie, like the one in Christie's version, got " her ain love Johnnie" soon or late.-A. G. G.

7I

