Part 39

2 As I came down by yon river-side, And down by the banks of Eache bonnie, There I met my own true-love, Wi ribbons on her shoulders bonnie.

3 ‘Here is a letter for you, madam, Here is a letter for you, madam; The Earl of Aboyne has a noble design To be a suitor to you, madam.’

4 ‘I’ll hae nane of his letters, Richie, I’ll hae nane of his letters, Richie, For I’ve made a vow, and I’ll keep it true, That I’ll hae nane but you, Richie.’

5 ‘Take your word again, madam, Take your word again, madam, For I have neither land nor rents For to mentain you on, madam.’

6 ‘I’ll sit below the dyke, Richie, I’ll sit below the dyke, Richie, And I will be at your command At ony time you like, Richie.

7 ‘Ribbons you shall wear, Richie, Ribbons you shall wear, Richie, A cambric band about your neck, And vow but ye’ll be braw, Richie!’

8 As they came in by the West Port, The naps of gold were bobbing bonnie; Many a one bade this lady gude-day, But neer a one to Richie Storie.

9 As they came up the Parliament Close, Naps of gold were bobbing bonnie; Many a gentleman lifted his cap, But few kennd she was Richie’s lady.

10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . And ay methinks we’ll drink the night In Cambernauld sae bonnie.

11 ‘It’s are not you sick, sister, Are not you very sorrie, To leave the lands of bonnie Cambernauld, And run awae wi Richie Storie?’

12 ‘Why should I be sick, sister, O why should I be any sorrie, When I hae gotten my heart’s delight? I hae gotten the lot was laid afore me.’

* * * * *

F

#a.# Sharpe’s Ballad Book, p. 95, 1823. #b#. Nimmo, Songs and Ballads of Clydesdale, p. 211, 1882.

1 The Erle o Wigton had three daughters, O braw wallie, but they were bonnie! The youngest o them, and the bonniest too, Has fallen in love wi Richie Storie.

2 ‘Here’s a letter for ye, madame, Here’s a letter for ye, madame; The Erle o Home wad fain presume To be a suitor to ye, madame.’

3 ‘I’l hae nane o your letters, Richie; I’l hae nane o your letters, Richie; For I’ve made a vow, and I’ll keep it true, That I’l have none but you, Richie.’

4 ‘O do not say so, madame; O do not say so, madame; For I have neither land nor rent, For to maintain you o, madame.

5 ‘Ribands ye maun wear, madame, Ribands ye maun wear, madame; With the bands about your neck O the goud that shines sae clear, madame.’

6 ‘I’l lie ayont a dyke, Richie, I’l lie ayont a dyke, Richie; And I’l be aye at your command And bidding, whan ye like, Richie.’

7 O he’s gane on the braid, braid road, And she’s gane through the broom sae bonnie, Her silken robes down to her heels, And she’s awa wi Richie Storie.

8 This lady gade up the Parliament stair, Wi pendles in her lugs sae bonnie; Mony a lord lifted his hat, But little did they ken she was Richie’s lady.

9 Up then spak the Erle o Home’s lady; ‘Was na ye richt sorrie, Annie, To leave the lands o bonnie Cumbernauld And follow Richie Storie, Annie?’

10 ‘O what need I be sorrie, madame? O what need I be sorrie, madame? For I’ve got them that I like best, And war ordained for me, madame.’

11 ‘Cumbernauld is mine, Annie, Cumbernauld is mine, Annie; And a’ that’s mine, it shall be thine, As we sit at the wine, Annie.’

* * * * *

G

#a.# Kinloch MSS, I, 203, from Alexander Kinnear, of Stonehaven. #b.# Gibb MS., p. 77, from Mrs Gibb, senior. #c.# Murison MS., p. 82. #d#. Christie’s Traditional Ballad Airs, I, 72, from the recitation of a native of Buchan. #e.# Kinloch MSS, VII, 263 (a fragment). #f.# Buchan’s MSS, I, 87.

1 There were five ladies lived in a bouer, Lived in a bouer at Cumbernaldie; The fairest and youngest o them a’ Has fa’n in love wi her footman-laddie.

2 ‘Here is a letter to you, ladye, Here is a letter to you, ladye; The Earl o Hume has written doun That he will be your footman-laddie.’

3 ‘I want nane o his service, Ritchie, I want nane o his service, Ritchie; For I’ve made a vow, and I’ll keep it true, That I’ll wed nane but thee, Ritchie.’

4 ‘O that canna be, ladye, O that canna be, ladye; For I’ve neither house nor land, Nor ought suiting ye, ladye.’

5 ‘Livd ye on yonder hill, Ritchie, Livd ye on yonder hill, Ritchie, There’s my hand, I’m at your command, Marry me whan ye will, Ritchie!’

6 This boy he went to his bed, It was a’ to try this fair ladye; But she went up the stair to him: ‘Ye maun leave your comrades, Ritchie.

7 ‘To the Borders we maun gang, Ritchie, To the Borders we maun gang, Ritchie, For an my auld father he get word, It’s you he will cause hang, Ritchie.’

8 ‘To the Borders we’ll na gang, ladye, To the Borders we’ll na gang, ladye; For altho your auld father got word, It’s me he dare na hang, ladye.’

9 As they passed by her mither’s bouer, O but her sisters they were sorry! They bade her tak aff the robes o silk, And muck the byres wi Ritchie Storry.

10 Whan they cam to yon hie hill, Dear vow, but the lady she was sorry! She looked oure her left showther— ‘O an I war in bonny Cumbernaldie!’

11 ‘O are na ye sorry now, ladye, O are na ye sorry now, ladye, For to forsake the Earl o Hume, And follow me, your footman-laddie?’

12 ‘How could I be sorry, Ritchie, How could I be sorry, Ritchie? Such a gudely man as you, And the lot that lies afore me, Ritchie.’

13 As they rode up through Edinburgh toun, Her gowd watch hang doun sae gaudie; Monie a lord made her a bow, But nane o them thoucht she was Ritchie’s ladye.

14 Whan they cam to Ritchie’s yetts, Dear vow, but the music playd bonnie! There were four-and-twenty gay ladies To welcome hame Richard Storry’s ladye.

15 He called for a priest wi speed, A priest wi speed was soon ready, And she was na married to the Earl of Hume, But she blesses the day she got Richard Storry.

16 A coach and six they did prepare, A coach and six they did mak ready, A coach and six they did prepare, And she blesses the day made her Ritchie’s lady.

* * * * *

H

The Scots Magazine, LXV, 253, 1803, James Hogg.

Blair-in-Athol’s mine, Ritchie, Blair-in-Athol’s mine, Ritchie, And bonny Dunkeld, where I do dwell, And these shall a’ be thine, Ritchie.

* * * * *

#A.#

5^1. Oh.

7^4. Ritchie’s story.

#B.#

7^4. ye lake, _or_ take.

8^2. manna ye be sorry?

9^2. An who.

#C. a.#

_The air is said in the MS. to be beautiful and very plaintive._

5^{1,2}. madam _instead of_ Richie. _Richie in_ #b#.

6^3. Skimmerjim _is glossed in the margin_ Kimmerghame.

8^1. _Written twice._

8^2. hining. shining _in_ #b#.

#b.#

2^{1,2}, 3^{1,2}, 4^{1,2}, 5^{1,2}, 6^{1,2}, _are written in one line_.

10^2. _is indicated by_ &c.

1^{1,2}. There’s.

1^3. And Richies tory he’s come by.

2^{1,2}. O care ye not sad.

2^3. Skimmer knowes.

2^4. And go wi the lad they ca Richies tory.

3^{1,2}. not so again.

4^{1,2}. O _wanting_.

4^2. madam _wanting_.

4^3. For the: Skimmerham.

4^4. They will be: to you.

5^{1,2}. Richie, _for_ madam _of_ #a#.

5^4. none but thee, Richie.

6. _Wanting._

7^2. Richie _wanting_.

8^1. London city.

8^2. shining.

8^3. Many a.

8^4. But few thought her a.

9^2. mammy.

9^4. Richies Torry.

10^{1,2}. Now hold: mammy.

10^3. and cast (_wrongly_).

10^4. And I’ll muck the byre wi Richies Torry.

#D.#

1^4. At his? _The ribbons seem more likely to belong to the footman_: _see_ #A# 2, #G f# 1. _But compare_ #E 2#, #G d#, _after_ 1.

#E.#

1^4. _Var._: wi her brother’s foot-boy.

2^3. On his?

3^3. _Var._: Earl Wemyss.

11^3. _Marginal note_: Lady Hume, whose son was suitor to the runnaway lady.

#F. b.#

_Evidently furbished, and therefore not collated. After 6 is inserted this stanza, corresponding to 11_:

Fair Powmoodie is mine, dear Richie, And goud and pearlins too; Gin ye’ll consent to be mine, dear Richie, I will gie them a’ to you.

#G.#

_Trivial variations are not noticed._

#a#,

15^{3,4}. _It is certain from 16 and from other copies of G that she was married to the_ Earl of Hume, _but I have let the text stand as delivered._

#b.#

_Stanzas_ 1, 9^{3,4}, 2, 7, 8, 10–14, 15^{3,4} (?), 16: _four marked as wanting_.

1^{1,2}. Theres seven bonny ladies in yonder ha (_twice_).

1^3. The youngest an bonniest amon.

2^{3,4}. It’s from the Earl o Cumbernauld, An he is seekin you, lady.

7^1. we will go, Richie.

7^2. go, laddie.

9^3. Ye’ll cast aff your gowns o silk.

9^4. wi your Richie Tory.

10^{1,2}. As they gaed down by yon bonny waterside, O but the sma birds they sang bonnie!

11^2. sorry, lassie.

11^3. To leave the Earl o Cumbernauld.

12^2. sorry, laddie.

12^{3,4}. The thing that’s afore us we maun endure, So what need I be sorry, laddie?

13^{1,2}. As they gaed down by yon bonny waterside, O but her gold watch it hung bonny!

13^3. #a# ane gaed her a low bow.

13^4. But few kent she.

14^{1,2}. As she gaed doun by yon bonny ha-house, Oh but the pibrochs they sang bonny!

14^3. f. an t. belted knichts.

15^{3,4}. Says, I’m the Earl o Cumbernauld, That for your sake was a footman-laddie.

16^{3,4}. Now she rides in her coach-an-six, An blesses the day she saw Richie Tory.

#c.#

11 _stanzas_: 1, 6–9, 13, 10, 14, 16, _and_ 11, 12 _as a “chorus” to each of the others_.

1^{1,2}. Seven sisters in yonder ha, Seven sisters in Campernadie.

6^{1–3}. Ritchie he went up the stair, Thinking for to meet his lady; But sae quick as she turnëd round.

7^{1,2}. we will go.

8^{1,2}. I’ll nae go.

9^1. they rode up by her sisters’ bowers.

9^3. Says, Ye mann tak aff the goons.

9^4. byres, nor wi Ritchie tarry.

10^2. lady grew unco weary.

10^4. were back at Campernadie.

11^3. the yerl o Mohun.

11^4. And wed wi me but.

12^{3,4}. What is before me must nae I endure? An why should I be sorry, Ritchie?

13^2. O but her gowd it was shinin bonnie!

13^3. Monie ane gae her a low bow.

13^4. But few o.

14^1. As they rode doon by yonder glen.

14^2. the organs they.

14^{3,4}. Four-an-twenty gentlemen Cam a’.

16^3. An now she rides in her coach-an-six.

#d.#

16 _stanzas_: 1; _a stanza corresponding to_ #A# 2, #D# 1, 2–9, 13, 10–12, 14, 16.

1^{1,2}. There were ladies in yon ha, Seven ladies in Cumbernaudie. _After 1_: He gaed down the garden green, In amang the birks sae bonnie, And there he saw his lady gay, Wi ribbons on her shoulders mony.

2^{3,4}. With Earl Hume’s humble desire Your servant for to be.

3^1. I’ll hae nane o his letters.

3^2. Nane from Earl Hume.

3^{3,4}. But I’ll hae him that I like best, And I’ll hae nane but you, Richie.

4^{1,2}. Say na that to me.

4^3. lands nor rents.

4^4. For to maintain you wi.

5^{1,2}. Say na that again, Richie.

5^{3,4}. The House o Athole it is mine, Taranadie shall be thine, Richie.

6^{1,2}. He gaed from the garden green, Thinking he would shun his lady.

6^3. But quickly she followed after him.

7^2. I’ll gae to them wi thee, Richie.

8^{1,2}. To the Borders we will gae, We will to them gang, lady.

9^1. rode by her sister’s bowers.

9^4. And gang and beg wi her Richard Storie: _editorial nicety_.

10^2. she grew wondrous weary.

12^{3,4}. When I get him that I like best, And what is laid before me, Richie.

13^1. rode thro yon burrow-town.

14^1. As they rode by yon bonny House.

14^{3,4}. And four-and-twenty gallant knichts Came.

16^3. And now she rides in her coach-and-four. _Christie touched up his text here and there._

#e.#

11^{3,4}, 12, 14, 16^{3,4}. _Wanting._

12^4. What wad make me sorry?

14^1. yonder gates.

14^2. playd pretty.

14^3. four-and-twenty noble knichts.

14^4. welcome in Ritchie Torry’s lady.

16^{3,4}. Now she rides in her coach-and-six, She blesses the day she got Ritchie Torry.

#f.#

_18 stanzas. Much manipulated, and not entitled to confidence._

1. As I came in yon bonny burn-side, And down below the bloom sae bonny, There _I_ espied a handsome lad, Wi ribbons on his shoulders mony.

(_Cf._ A 2.)

2^{3,4}. Here’s a letter frae the Earl o Wemyss, That he’s in suit o thee, madam.

11. Out it speaks her mother then; O daughter, may not you be sorry To gang alang wi a servant-man, And lose the rights o Castle Norry?

12^{3,4}. I’m sure I’ve chosen a bonny lad, The lot has just been laid afore me.

14. When they gaed through the Parliament Closs, The silver loops hang down sae bonny; Then four-and-twenty noble lords Came hat in hand to Richard Storry.

APPENDIX

Aytoun, II, 239, says of ‘Richie Storie,’ The words, recast in a romantic form and applied to a more interesting subject, have been set to music by a noble lady, and are now very popular under the title of ‘Huntingtower.’ The history of ‘Huntingtower’ is not so well known as might be expected. I have not been able to ascertain the authorship or the date of its first appearance (which was very probably in society rather than in print). ‘Richie Storie’ is not carried by our texts further back than 1802–3 (#B#, #H#). Kinloch published in 1827 a ballad from recitation, ‘The Duke of Athol,’ which is ‘Huntingtower’ passed through the popular mouth; for ‘Huntingtower’ became, and has continued to be, a favorite with the people. Christie, Traditional Ballad Airs, I, 166, says that he had often heard ‘The Duke of Athol’ in his early years, and he gives eight stanzas which do not differ remarkably from Kinloch’s ballad.

The marks of the derivation of ‘Huntingtower’ are the terminations of lines 1, 2, 4 of each stanza, and substantial agreements in the last two stanzas with #A#, #B#, #E#, 5, #D#, #F#, #G#, 4, and with #B# 6, #C# 7, #H#, respectively. The name Huntingtower occurs only in #B# 6 of ‘Richie Storie.’ The author of ‘Huntingtower’ was no doubt possessed of a version of ‘Richie Storie’ which had its own peculiarities.

‘Huntingtower’ is too well known to require citing. It has been often printed; as, for example, in Mr G. F. Graham’s Popular Songs of Scotland, revised by J. Muir Wood, Balmoral Edition, Glasgow, 1887, p. 152; The Songs of Scotland, the words revised by Dr Charles Mackay, p. 5, London, Boosey & Co. (Altered by the Baroness Nairne, and very little left of it, Life and Songs of the Baroness Nairne, edited by the Rev. Charles Rogers, 1872, p. 177.) The pleasing air strongly resembles, says Mr Wood, one in D’Urfey’s Pills to Purge Melancholy, V, 42, ed. 1719.

‘The Duke of Athol’ may be given for the interest it has as a popular _rifacimento_.

THE DUKE OF ATHOL

“Taken down from the recitation of an idiot boy in Wishaw;” Kinloch’s Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 170.

1 ‘I am gaing awa, Jeanie, I am gaing awa; I am gaing ayont the saut seas, I’m gaing sae far awa.’

2 ‘What will ye buy to me, Jamie? What will ye buy to me?’ ‘I’ll buy to you a silken plaid, And send it wi vanitie.’

3 ‘That’s na love at a’, Jamie, That’s na love at a’; All I want is love for love, And that’s the best ava.

4 ‘Whan will ye marry me, Jamie? Whan will ye marry me? Will ye tak me to your countrie, Or will ye marry me?’

5 ‘How can I marry thee, Jeanie? How can I marry thee, Whan I’ve a wife and bairns three? Twa wad na weill agree.’

6 ‘Wae be to your fause tongue, Jamie, Wae be to your fause tongue; Ye promised for to marry me, And has a wife at hame!

7 ‘But if your wife wad dee, Jamie, And sae your bairns three, Wad ye tak me to your countrie, Or wad ye marry me?

8 ‘But sin they’re all alive, Jamie, But sin they’re all alive, We’ll tak a glass in ilka hand, And drink, Weill may they thrive!’

9 ‘If my wife wad dee, Jeanie, And sae my bairns three, I wad tak ye to my ain countrie, And married we wad be.’

10 ‘O an your head war sair, Jamie, O an your head war sair, I’d tak the napkin frae my neck And tie doun your yellow hair.’

11 ‘I hae na wife at a’, Jeanie, I hae na wife at a’; I hae neither wife nor bairns three; I said it to try thee.’

12 ‘Licht are ye to loup, Jamie, Licht are ye to loup; Licht are ye to loup the dyke, Whan I maun wale a slap.’

13 ‘Licht am I to loup, Jeanie, Licht am I to loup; But the hiest dyke that we come to I’ll turn and tak you up.

14 ‘Blair in Athol is mine, Jeanie, Blair in Athol is mine; Bonnie Dunkel is whare I dwell, And the boats o Garry’s mine.

15 ‘Huntingtower is mine, Jeanie, Huntingtower is mine, Huntingtower, and bonnie Belford, And a’ Balquhither’s mine.’

233

ANDREW LAMMIE

#A.# ‘The Trumpeter of Fyvie,’ Jamieson’s Popular Ballads, I, 126, 1806.

#B#. ‘Tifty’s Nanny,’ Jamieson’s Popular Ballads, II, 382, from a stall-copy.

#C. a.# ‘Andrew Lammie,’ Buchan’s Gleanings, p. 98, 1825 ; Laing’s Thistle of Scotland, p. 55, 1823. #b.# Motherwell’s Minstrelsy, p. 239.

Jamieson, in his preface, 1806, says that this ballad was current in the Border counties within a few years, and that #A# was taken down by Leyden from the recitation of a young lady who learned it in Teviotdale. Writing to Scott, in November, 1804, of such ballads as he had already prepared for the press, he says, “Trumpeter of Fyvie, from tradition, furnished by Mr Leyden, and collated with a stall-copy” (probably #B#): Letters addressed to Sir Walter Scott, Abbotsford, I, No. 117.

Buchan, in the notes to his Gleanings, 1825, p. 197, says of #C a#: “This is one of the greatest favorites of the people in Aberdeenshire that I know. I took it first down from the memory of a very old woman, and afterwards published thirty thousand copies of it. There are two versions, an old and a new; but, although I have both, I prefer this one, the younger of the two, having been composed and acted in the year 1674.” Laing, who reprints #A# in his Thistle of Scotland, p. 63, calls that the “old way of Andrew Lammie.” Motherwell, 1827, reprints “a stall-copy published at Glasgow several years ago, collated with a recited copy which has furnished one or two verbal improvements:” #C b#. There are a great many variations from #C a#, of which precisely one or two are verbal improvements. But Motherwell also gives six stanzas which are not in #a#. His copy is repeated in The Ballad Minstrelsy of Scotland, Glasgow, 1871, and there the editor says that in a chap-book printed by J. and M. Robertson, Saltmarket, Glasgow, 1808, “Andrew Lammie is given with only a few slight verbal differences between it and the copy here printed.” Such stall-copies as I have seen are late, and are reprints of #C a# or of #C b#. Motherwell assures us that the ballad as he has given it “agrees with any recited copy which the Editor has hitherto met with in the West Country.”

A professed edition, “most carefully collated with all previous editions,” was published at Peterhead, 1872: “Mill o Tifty’s Annie, A Buchan Ballad, with Introduction,” etc. This is attributed to the Rev. Dr John Muir of Aberdeen. ‘Mill o Tiftie’s Annie’ in Christie, I, 48 “is epitomized from traditional copies;” that is to say, it is taken from Motherwell, with a trifling change here and there. A copy given in Smith’s New History of Aberdeenshire is compounded of #A#, #B#, and a couple of lines from #C b#.

Annie, daughter to a well-to-do miller, loses her heart to a handsome trumpeter in the service of Lord Fyvie. Her father will not hear of such a match. (Annie has five thousand marks, and the man not a penny, #A# 11.) The trumpeter is obliged to go to Edinburgh for a time, and Annie appoints him a tryst at a bridge. He will buy her her wedding-gear while he is away, and marry her when he comes back. Annie knows that she shall be dead ere he returns, and bids him an everlasting adieu.[130] The trumpeter goes to the top of the castle and blows a blast which is heard at his love’s house. Her father beats her, her mother beats her; her brother beats her and breaks her back. Lord Fyvie is passing on one of these occasions, comes in, and urges Mill of Tiftie to yield to his daughter’s inclinations. The father is immovable; she must marry higher than with a trumpeter. Annie is put to bed, with her face towards Fyvie, and dies of a broken heart and of the cruel treatment which she has undergone.

This is a homely ditty,[131] but the gentleness and fidelity of Annie under the brutal behavior of her family are genuinely pathetic, and justify the remarkable popularity which the ballad has enjoyed in the north of Scotland. In those parts the story has been played as well as sung. “The ballad used in former times to be presented in a dramatic shape at rustic meetings in Aberdeenshire,” says Chambers (Scottish Ballads, p. 143); perhaps misinterpreting and expanding the enunciation made by Buchan and in the title of some stall-copies that “this tragedy was acted in the year 1674,” which may rather refer to the date of the story. But however it may have been in former times, two rival companies in Aberdeenshire were performing plays founded on the ballad in 1887–8.[132]

“Bonny Andrew Lammie” was a well-known personage at the beginning of the last century, for, as Jamieson has pointed out, he is mentioned in a way that implies this by Allan Ramsay, in the second of his two cantos in continuation of Christ’s Kirk on the Green, written, as Ramsay says, in 1718. (Poems, London, 1731, I, 76, v. 70.)

Mill of Tiftie is, or was, a farm-house on the side of a glen about half a mile northeast of the castle of Fyvie, and in view of its turrets (on one of which there now stands a figure of the Trumpeter sounding towards Tiftie). The mill proper, now a ruin, was in the bottom of the glen, and gave its name to the house. The bridge of Sleugh, otherwise Skeugh, etc., was in the hollow between Tiftie and the castle.[133]

Annie was Agnes Smith, Nannie being among her people an affectionate form for Agnes. There is reason to believe that she may have been daughter of a William Smith who is known to have been a brother or near kinsman of the laird of Inveramsay, a person of some local consequence.[134] An inscription on her gravestone makes Agnes Smith to have died January 19, 1673.[135]