WILL ye gang tae Sherramuir,
Baul John o Innisture,
There tae see the noble Mar
An his Hielan laddies?
A the true men o the north,
Angus, Huntly, and Seaforth,
Scouring on tae cross the Forth
Wi their white cockadies !
There, you'll see the banners flare ;
There, you'll hear the bagpipes rair,
An the trumpet's deadly blare,
Wi the cannon's rattle!
There, you'll see the baul M'Craws,
Cameron's and Clanronald's raws ;
An a the clans, wi loud huzzas,
Rushing tae the battle.
James Hogg, the “Ettrick Shepherd,” printed the above two stanzas in his “Jacobite Relics” of 1819, along with the following two stanzas, apparently written by a different person:—
“There, you'll see the noble Whigs,
A the heroes o the brigs,
Raw hides and withered wigs,
Riding in array, man.
Riven hose and raggit heels,
Sour milk and girth gools,
Psalm-beaks and catty stools,
We'll see never main, man.
Will ye go tae Sheriffmuir,
Baul John o Innisture ?
Sic a day, and sic an hour,
Ne'er was in the north, man
Siccan sights will there be seen !
An gin some be nae mista’en,
Fragrant gales will come bedeen
Frae the water o Forth, man.”
To which, Hogg added the following Note:—“For this truly original song, I am indebted to my valuable correspondent, Mr. John Graham. It has never before been published; but the Air has long been popular, and I have often heard the first verse of the song sung, perhaps the first two,—I am not certain. Had I only rescued six such pieces as this from oblivion, 1 conceive posterity should be obliged to me; not on account of the intrinsic merit of the songs, but for the specimens left them of the music and poetry of the age so ingeniously adapted to one another. I have no conception who ‘baul John o Innisture’ was. The other four noblemen mentioned in the first verse were among the principal leaders of the Highland army. It is likely, from the second stanza (where only three of the clans are mentioned), that some verses have been lost. These registers of names in which the north country songs abound are apt to be left out by a Lowlander singer; and if the song be preserved only traditionally, as this appears to have been, they can scarcely be retained with any degree of precision.”
This Jacobite song of the Rebellion of 1715, and the following Jacobite song (No. 173) of the Rebellion of 1745, appeared in 1821 in R. A. Smith's Scotish Minstrel, Vol. I., pp. 18 and 108; and the previous song, “Amang the Lomond Braes” (No. 168), published in 1823 in Vol. II, p. 29, under the title of “The Lomond,” and without note or comment;—except the Author's name, “Tannahill,” in the index. In the preface, Smith has made the following general remarks:— “Many hitherto unpublished will be found in this collection;” and “some beautiful verses from Leyden, Fergusson, Tannahill, Gall, and the ‘Ettrick Shepherd,’ &c., will be found in these volumes, which were never before united to music.” Smith was nearly half-editor of the Harp of Renfrewshire, and contributed the whole eighteen fragments of Tannahill printed in the appendix to that book in 1819, or, at least, some of them, yet he never alluded to the above three songs. Ramsay,—the biographer of Smith, and editor of Tannahill's Works in 1838,—although he devoted a page to the Scotish Minstrel, and quoted from his preface, yet he did not print these three songs in his edition of the Poet's Works. The above song was next printed in the 1846 edition. The Air given by Smith was “Will you go to Sherramuir?” and the tune in the 1846 edition “We'll awa to Sherramuir, and haud the Whigs in order.” See last Note to No. 69.
These statements being so conflicting, we applied to David Laing, Esq., LL.D., Edinburgh,—the learned umpire in all questions of disputed Scottish poetry. He wrote in answer he could not give any information respecting the Jacobite songs of Tannahill ; but the one, “Will ye gang to Sherramuir?” was very like the style of James Hogg. He mentioned he had the greatest respect for poor Smith, and advised us to publish the song in this Appendix as doubtful. We have taken his advice, and ascribe the two stanzas in the text to Tannahill, and attribute the two stanzas in this Note to Hogg, who may have received the stanzas in the text either from Tannahill or Smith.—Ed.
[Semple 172]