Henry's Songbook

For I'm the laird o' Windywa's
And I've come here withoot a cause
But I've got mair that thirty fa's
Comin' oot owre the plains
O let me in this ae nicht
This ae ae ae nicht
O let me in this ae nicht
And I'll never seek back again

O I'll oil the door or it be's weet
And it'll neither chirrup or cheep
For it'll neither chirrup or cheep
And I'll get slippin' in
O let me in this ae nicht,
This ae ae ae nicht
O let me in this ae nicht,
And I'll never seek back again

But when he got in he was sae gled
He drewhis bonnet from off of his head
He kissed her on the cheeks so red
And the auld wife heard the din
O but well she likit that ae nicht
That ae ae ae nicht
O weel she likit that ae nicht
She let her laddie in

But when he got in he was sae gled
He knockit the bottom-boards oot o' the bed
He stole the lassie's maidenhead
And the auld wife heard the din
O but well she likit that ae nicht
That ae ae ae nicht
O weel she likit that ae nicht
That she let her laddie in

(as sung by Jeannie Robertson)

[1976:] Just one of the many fine songs that gained currency among revival performers through the singing of the late Jeannie Robertson of Aberdeen. It is actually part of a longer song which is in David Herd's 'Ancient and Modern Scots Songs' (1769, 1776). (Arthur Argo, notes Archie Fisher, 'Will Ye Gang, Love')

[1984:] Throughout Northern Europe, and in many parts of the U.S.A., there are songs associated with the old courting custom known as "night visiting" (or "bundling"). The lover 'must away' through storms and snowdrifts to his beloved; he calls to her through her bedroom window, and is admitted to sleep with her till dawn. The Laird o' Windywa's which is an old song (a version is in Herd's collection of 1769), looks almost like a conscious parody or burlesque take-off of these plaintive songs. (Hamish Henderson, notes Jeannie Robertson, 'Up the De and Doon the Don')

[1984:] There is […] a close resemblance in the words, though less in the tune, to As I cam' ower the Muir o' Ord in the 'Bothy Ballads' disc (Scottish Tradition series). The Muir o' Ord version has one appearance of the "O she likit that ae nicht" theme, as in the second chorus, but the ending is changed to "For O she rued that ae nicht". In the bothy version the use of the first person singular continues to the end, and the final effect is one of male boastfulness at success achieved against a woman's will. A whiff of this remains in the otherwise more equalitarian version given above. In the 'Bothy Ballads' booklet Hamish Henderson suggests that the song belongs to a group which "tend towards broad comedy (or even, as in Jeannie's version, towards what looks like conscious burlesque)". If this is true then it appears to be an exclusively male comedy; certainly Cilla Fisher does not see her version as burlesque.

Morag MacLeod comments [...] "Most of the bawdy songs in Scots probably originated in the bothy, and in such an exclusively male environment it would be natural for men to compensate for the lack of female company by talking and joking about women, boasting about their own sexual prowess and composing songs which were not meant for female ears." (Munro, Revival 172f)

[1988:] This song is a straightforward tale of carnal lust. All sorts of side issues such as the class of the participants and the moral consequences of the deed are hinted at but subsidiary to the very graphic description - extremely uncommon in this type of song. Great! The song comes from Aberdeenshire in the north-east of Scotland where a wealth of good songs are to be found. (BBS125)