SONGS

BAROCHAN JEAN.

Air— “Johnnie M'Gill.” 1809.

'TIS haena ye heard, man, o Barochan Jean ?
An haena ye heard, man, o Barochan Jean ?
How death an starvation cam o'er the haill nation,
She wrocht sic mischief wi her twa pawkie een.
The lads an the lasses were deein in dizzens,
The tane killed wi luve, an the ither wi spleen ;
The ploughin, the sawin, the shearin, the mawin—
A wark was forgotten for Barochan Jean.

Frae the south an the north, o'er the Tweed an the Forth,
Sic comin an gangin there never was seen;
The comers were cheerie, the gangers were blearie,
Despairin or hopin for Barochan Jean.
The carlins at hame were a girnin and granin,
The bairns were a greetin frae mornin till e'en ;
They gat naethin for crowdie but runts boiled tae sowdie,
For naethin gat growin for Barochan Jean.

The doctors declared it was past their descrivin,
The ministers said 'twas a judgment for sin ;
But they lookit sae blae, an their hearts were sae wae,
I was sure they were deein for Barochan Jean.
The burns on roadsides were a dry wi their drinkin,
Yet a wadna sloken the drouth in their skin ;
A roun the peatstacks, an alangst the dyke backs,
E'en the win's were a sighin, “Sweet Barochan Jean.”

The timmer ran dune wi the makin o coffins,
Kirkyairds o their swaird were a howkit fu clean ;
Deid lovers were packit like herrin in barrels,
Sic thousan's were deein for Barochan Jean.
But mony braw thanks tae the laird o Glenbrodie,
The grass owre their graffs is now bonnie an green :
He staw the proud heart o our wanton young leddie,
An spoilt a the charms o her twa pawkie een.


Note by Ramsay.—“The concluding stanza, which will not be found in former editions, is taken from a letter to King, 9th May, 1809. Of the origin of this amusing extravaganza, we find the following account in a letter to Barr, 24th December, 1809,—You will no doubt have frequently observed how much old people are given to magnify the occurrences of their young days. ‘Barochan Jean’ was written on hearing an old grannie in Lochwinnoch Parish relate a story something similar to the subject of the song ; perhaps I have heightened her colouring a little.’ ”

The “old grannie” referred to in the foregoing Note was said to he the wife of Andrew Brydie or Brodie, farmer, Langcraft, Lochwinnoch. These lands belonged equally to Andrew Brodie, Hugh Brodie, and Bailie Robert Fulton of Paisley. Hugh Brodie had married Elizabeth, daughter of Andrew Brodie, and, in 1762, he acquired the other two shares of Langcraft belonging to Andrew Brodie, his father-in-law, and Bailie Fulton; and the conveyances were taken to himself and his wife in liferent, and Andrew Brodie, their eldest son, in fee. In 1763, Janet Pollock, who was residing with her uncle Hugh Brodie, was married to James Tannahill, weaver in Paisley. James Tannahill and his wife named their son Hugh after Hugh Brodie, and their son Andrew after Mrs. Brodie's father, Andrew Brodie. Hugh Brodie was an enterprising agriculturist, and made a vast improvement on his small estate of thirty acres. He was also a poet, and wrote several pieces,—his chief production being a poetical address on “Husbandry,” delivered at a meeting of the Kilbarchan Farmers' Society, on Friday, 6th January, 1769, and of which society he had been chosen President for that year. That address, containing sixty stanzas, has been printed in William Semple's History of Renfrewshire, 1782, page 116, of which we give the 5th and 6th verses to show the abilities of Tannahill's granduncle as a poet :—

So, if to me you'll lend your lug,
I’ll tell you of a barren bug,
(Excepting short heath an fug)
It yielded nocht ;
Till ance you'll hear how I it dug
And how it wrocht.

First wi a cast I draint it dry,
Which made the nat'ral springs tae die,
Likewise the rain sent from on hie
It did receive :
Then I such manure
did apply
As it did crave.


Mrs. Tannahill and her children were in the habit of visiting their friends at Langcraft; and Robert Tannahill, the Poet, would thus become acquainted with the “old grannie” there. Alexander Wilson, Paisley, poet and American Ornithologist, during his residence in Lochwinnoch in 1786, wrote a descriptive poem of that parish, containing 320 lines, twenty-six being devoted to Hugh Brodie, six lines of which we will quote :—

“ ‘Midst clustering trees and sweet surrounding dells,
In rural cot, a rustic poet dwells."

“Cheerful he sits, and, gazing o'er the plain,
In native language pours his jocund strain.”

“How the deep bog or watery marsh to drain,
And bid bare hillocks groan with bending grain.”

[Semple 108]