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Birnie Bouzle

  • James Hogg

    Gin ye'll mairry me, lassie, at the kirk o' Birnie Bouzle
    Till the day ye dee, lassie, ye will ne'er repent it
    Ye will wear when ye are wed a kirtle and a Hieland plaid
    And sleep upon a heather bed sae couthy and sae canty

    Ye will gang sae braw, lassie, tae the kirk o' Birnie Bouzle
    Little brogues an' a', lassie, vow, but ye'll be canty
    Your wee bit tocher is but sma', but hodden grey will wear for a'
    And I'll save my siller tae mak ye braw an' ye will ne'er repent it

    Gin ye'll mairry me, lassie, at the kirk o' Birnie Bouzle
    Till the day ye dee, lassie, ye will ne'er repent it
    We'll hae bonnie bairns an' a', some lassies fair an' laddies braw
    Just like their mither ane an' a', an' yer faither he's consented

    Gin ye'll mairry me, lassie, at the kirk o' Birnie Bouzle
    Till the day ye dee, lassie, ye will ne'er repent it
    We'll hunt the otter an' the brock, the hart, the hare, the heather cock
    An' I'll pu' ye limpets frae the rock tae mak yer dishes dainty

    Gin ye'll mairry me, lassie, at the kirk o' Birnie Bouzle
    Till the day ye dee, lassie, ye will ne'er repent it

    As sung by Cilla Fisher & Artie Trezise

Susannes Folksong-Notizen

  • [?:] This is probably closely related to a song by James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd. In present day Aberdeen, there is a series of streets called Birnie Bouzle, which have presumably been built over the original house. The name shows up again in the bothy ballad McFarlane o' the Sprots o' Birnieboosie [cf. there] by George Bruce Thomson (1864-1914). (Songs of Scotland?)

  • [1959:] ['Burnie Bushel'] is nothing other than a „singer's digest" of the Ettrick Shepherd's „Birniebouzle," which appears in The Forest Minstrel (1810), and which was reprinted by J. W. Oliver in his Selected Poems of James Hogg (published for the Saltire Society by Oliver & Boyd, 1940). [...] The air for „Birniebouzle" is given in The Forest Minstrel as the Perthshire tune „The Braes o' Tullymet," and it is to variants of this strathspey that it is still usually sung. Th early vogue of „Birniebouzle" as a street song is attested by the fact that it is still widely popular among the travelling folk of Scotland - the same summer (1955) that Isobel Sutherland collected her version from Aggie Stewart in Banff, a closely related version („Barley Bushel") was recorded in Perth from Duncan Burke. (Hamish Henderson, letter to Weekly Scotsman, Oct 1)

  • [1970:] Born in Ettrick Forest, [James Hogg (1770-1835)] spent his early days as a shepherd, but he was discovered by Scott while collecting material for his 'Border Minstrelsy', and taken under that ample wing. He had almost no formal education, [...] but he soon became famous among the famous of his time - helped by his magnificent personality. He farmed most of his life and left a variety of notable works [...]. (Penguin Book of Scottish Verse 15f)

Quelle: Scotland

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