#A.# Herd’s MSS, I, 40, II, 184.
#B.# Finlay’s Scottish Ballads, 1808, I, xxxiii.
#C.# ‘Bonnie George Campbell,’ Smith’s Scotish Minstrel, V, 42.
#D.# Cunningham’s Songs of Scotland, III, 2.
#A# was copied by Sir Walter Scott (with slight variations) into a MS.
at Abbotsford, ‘Scottish Songs,’ fol. 68 (1795–1806). The first half is
printed from notes of Scott in Laing’s edition of Sharpe’s Ballad Book,
pp. 143, 156 f, and to these two stanzas, nearly as here printed, there
are added in the second case, p. 157, the following verses, which are
evidently modern, with the exception of the last:
His hawk and his hounds they are wandered and gane,
His lady sits dowie and weary her lane,
His bairns wi greetin hae blinded their een,
His croft is unshorn, and his meadow grows green.
Scott subjoins, “I never heard more of this.” He was familiar with
Herd’s MSS.
#C#, like many things in the Scotish Minstrel, has passed through
editorial hands, whence the ‘never return’ of st. 4, and ‘A plume in his
helmet, a sword at his knee,’ st. 5. This copy furnished the starting
point for Allan Cunningham, III, 1, who, however, substitutes Finlay’s
‘wife’ for the Minstrel’s ‘bryde,’ and presents her with three bairns.
Motherwell made up his ‘Bonnie George Campbell’ (Minstrelsy, p. 44) from
#B#, #C#, #D#. In a manuscript copied out by a granddaughter of Lord
Woodhouselee (1840–50), #D# is combined with Cunningham’s ballad.
Motherwell says that this ballad “is probably a lament for one of the
adherents of the house of Argyle who fell in the battle of Glenlivet,
stricken on Thursday, the third day of October, 1594.” Sir Robert Gordon
observes that Argyle lost in this battle his two cousins, Archibald and
James Campbell: Genealogical History of Sutherland, p. 229. Maidment,
Scotish Ballads, 1868, I, 240, chooses to think that “there can be
little doubt” that the ballad refers to the murder of Sir John Campbell
of Calder by one of his own surname, in 1591, and alters the title
accordingly to ‘Bonnie John Campbell.’ Motherwell has at least a name to
favor his supposition. But Campbells enow were killed, in battle or
feud, before and after 1590, to forbid a guess as to an individual James
or George grounded upon the slight data afforded by the ballad.
Motherwell’s ballad is translated by Wolff, Halle der Völker, I, 79,
Hausschatz, p. 225.
* * * * *
A
Herd’s MSS, I, 40, II, 184.
1
O it’s up in the Highlands,
and along the sweet Tay,
Did bonie James Campbell
ride monie a day.
2
Sadled and bridled,
and bonie rode he;
Hame came horse, hame came sadle,
but neer hame cam he.
3
And doun cam his sweet sisters,
greeting sae sair,
And down cam his bonie wife,
tearing her hair.
4
‘My house is unbigged,
my barn’s unbeen,
My corn’s unshorn,
my meadow grows green.’
* * * * * *
* * * * *
B
Finlay’s Scottish Ballads, 1808, I, xxxiii.
1
Saddled and briddled
and booted rade he;
Toom hame cam the saddle,
but never cam he.
2
Down cam his auld mither,
greetin fu sair,
And down cam his bonny wife,
wringin her hair.
3
Saddled and briddled
and booted rade he;
Toom hame cam the saddle,
but never cam he.
* * * * *
C
Smith’s Scotish Minstrel, V, 42.
1
Hie upon Hielands,
and laigh upon Tay,
Bonnie George Campbell
rode out on a day.
2
He saddled, he bridled,
and gallant rode he,
And hame cam his guid horse,
but never cam he.
3
Out cam his mother dear,
greeting fu sair,
And out cam his bonnie bryde,
riving her hair.
4
‘The meadow lies green,
the corn is unshorn,
But bonnie George Campbell
will never return.’
5
Saddled and bridled
and booted rode he,
A plume in his helmet,
a sword at his knee.
6
But toom cam his saddle,
all bloody to see,
Oh, hame cam his guid horse,
but never cam he!
* * * * *
D
Cunningham’s Songs of Scotland, III, 2, communicated by Mr
Yellowlees.
1
High upon Highlands,
and low upon Tay,
Bonnie George Campbell
rode out on a day.
2
‘My meadow lies green,
and my corn is unshorn,
My barn is to build,
and my babe is unborn.
* * * * *
_#A# is written, and #C# printed, in stanzas of four long lines._
#A.# 1^1. _Sharpe_, 143, O _wanting_.
1^2. _Scottish Songs and Sharpe_, and _wanting_.
2^2. _Scottish Songs_, and gallant, _as in_ #C#.
2^4. _Sharpe_, but hame cam na he.
4^4. _Scottish Songs_, meadows grow green.
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