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HISTORICAL NOTES |
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satirized are indicated by initials. Burns ascribed it to the Rev. Murdoch McLennan, minister of Crathie. The ballad is in Hogg's Jacobite Relics, 1821, ii. 1, with three additional stanzas by himself.
A later version beginning Pray came you here the fight to shun, was written by another minister, the Rev. John Barclay, of Muthill in Perthshire. Barclay's ballad is entitled in the stall copies A dialogue between WillLickladle and Tom Cleancogue, to the tnne of the ' Cameron's March.' This was the ballad which Burns imitated and amended. He told the publisher of the Museum that the old words did not quite please him. A third ballad is entitled From Bogie Side, or The Marquis s Raide.
The London fugitive press was quite as active on Sheriffmuir, but it is dull compared with the specimens quoted. A dialogue between his Grace the Duke of Argyle and the Earl of Mar begins ' Argyle and Mar are gone to war.' One of the two woodcuts on the sheet represents a kilted Scot riding woman-fashion, and playing the Scotch fiddle, i.e. scratching himself. A second is an excellent new ballad entitled Mar's lament for his rebellion; and a third The Clan's lamentation for their own folly. All three are dated 1715.
Cavieronian Rant is a strathspey tune of considerable merit, and admirably adapted for expressing the humorous verses. It is in Bremner's Reels, 1761, 82; in Stewart's Reels, 1761, 6; it is entitled The Cameronian's Reel in McGlashan's Strathspey Reels, 1780, 16; in Campbell's Reels, 1778, 16; and Aird's Airs, 1782, i. No. 107. In BremnerV Reels, 1759, 41), is another spirited reel tune entitled Will ye go to Sheriffmuir, A third, different from either, is in Hogg's Jacobite Relics, 1821, ii. 2jo, but Cameronian Rant is the best of the three.
Ho. 281. Ye Jacobites by name. Scots Musical Museum, 17<)2, No. jji. The MS. is in the British Museum. A pithy ironical satire couched in equivocal terms which may be read by either Whig or Tory.
The tune is a good English specimen inserted in Durfey's Pills, 1719, vi. 2/7, with a song beginning A young man and a maid. Stenhouse quotes the title of a song, ' You've all heard of Paul Jones have you not, have you not,' sung to the melody in the eighteenth century in Edinburgh. The fame of Paul Jones was extended by means of songs and broadsides from Seven Dials and elsewhere, after the buccaneer's visit to the East coast of Scotland in 1779. In one of his manuscripts Burns quotes an alternative title of the tune Up black-nebs a', evidently as belonging to a song now unknown.
No. 282. O, Kenmnre's on and awa', "Willie. Scots Musical Mtiseum, 1792, No. _?/<?. This song is in the Edinburgh Edition, 1877 and Centenary Edition, 1897, and although there is no reasonable doubt that Burns contributed these verses to the Museum, the authority for that rests solely on Stenhouse, who, in his Illustrations, says: ' Burns transmitted the ballad to Johnson in his own handwriting, with, the melody to which it is adapted.' There is no mark in any edition of the Museum connecting Burns with the song, nor do I know where the manuscript is. Cromek was not aware that Burns wrote the verses, and inserted them in Nithsdale and Galloway Song, 1810, with three stanzas which he pretended were old. With these additions it is reprinted in modern collections of Jacobite song as belonging to the Rebellion of 1715. The confirmation of Stenhouse's assertion is desirable. Neither the words nor the melody can be traced before publication in the Museum. The verses and music in the Appendix of Ritson's Scotish Songs, 1794, are an exact copy from the Museum. Sir Walter Scott, in a letter April 3,1820, represented Lady Huntley playing Kenmure 's on and awa.', Willie, in a way enough to raise the whole country side.
Viscount Kenmure, the hero of the song, led the chevalier's army of the South-west of Scotland. He surrendered at Preston, and was marched through the streets of London to the Tower, accompanied by a howling mob with tin |
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