Henry's Songbook

Awa' wi' Canada's muddy creeks and Canada's fields o' pine
This land o' wheat is a goodly land, but ach, it isnae mine
The heathy hill, the grassy dale, the daisy-spangled lea
The purlin' burn and craggy linn, auld Scotia's glens gie me

Nae mair I'll win by Astil's banks o'er Pentland's craggy cone
The days can ne'er come back again o' thirty years that's gone
But fancy oft at midnicht hoor will steal across the sea
Yestre'en I made a pleasant dream, I saw the auld country

Each weel-kempt scene that met my view brocht childhood's days tae mind
A blackbird sang on Toshy Linn the sang he sang lang syne
But like a dream time flies away, again the morning came
And I awoke in Canada, three thousand miles frae hame

(as sung by Jean Redpath)

Tune: O' A' the Airts the Wind Can Blaw

[1977:] Also known as 'The Scarborough Settler's Lament' and 'The Irish Immigrant's Lament'. Written by a Scots exile in 1840 [Sandy Glendinning]. He had settled in Scarborough, Canada. The words are set to O a' the airts the winds can blaw used before him by Robert Burns. I learnt it from a young American singer Wendy Grossman. (Notes Alex Campbell, 'Traditional Ballads of Scotland')

[1987:] Scarborough, now absorbed into the Greater Toronto Metropolitan area, was settled heavily in the 1800s by Scottish immigrants. (Notes Danny Doyle, '20 Years A-Growing')

[1989:] Author given as William Marshall by Jean Redpath (acc to notes 'Leaving the Land')