Recordings & Info 199. The Bonnie House o Airlie
CONTENTS:
1) Alternative Titles
2) Traditional Ballad Index
3) Child Collection Index
4) Excerpt from The British Traditional Ballad in North America by Tristram Coffin 1950, from the section A Critical Biographical Study of the Traditional Ballads of North America
5) Folk Index
6) Mainly Norfolk (lyrics and info)
ATTACHED PAGES: (see left hand column)
1) Roud No. 794: The Bonnie House o Airlie (112 Listings)
Alternative Titles
Young Airly
Prince Charlie
Traditional Ballad Index: Bonnie House o Airlie, The [Child 199]
NAME: Bonnie House o Airlie, The [Child 199]
DESCRIPTION: Argyle sets out to plunder the home of his enemy Airlie while the latter is away (with Bonnie Prince Charlie?). Argyle summons Lady Airlie, asking for a kiss and threatening ruin to the house if she will not. She refuses; they plunder the house
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: c. 1790 (broadside)
KEYWORDS: feud courting
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1640 - Argyle commissioned to clean up certain "unnatural" lords
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord)) Canada(Mar) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE)
REFERENCES: (19 citations)
Child 199, "The Bonnie House o Airlie" (4 texts)
Bronson 199, "The Bonnie House o Airlie" (15 versions)
Hogg2 76, "Young Airly" (1 text, 1 tune)
GlenbuchatBallad, pp. 217-218, "Airly" (1 short text)
Greig #58, p. 2, "The Bonnie House o' Airlie" (1 text)
GreigDuncan2 233, "The Bonnie Hoose o' Airlie" (9 texts, 5 tunes) {A and E=Bronson's #4 and #10, C=#9, D=#5}
Lyle-Crawfurd1 65, "Airlie House" (1 text)
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 266-269, "The Bonnie House of Airlie" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #11}
Flanders-Ancient3, pp. 191-192, "The Bonnie House of Airlie" (1 fragment, "The Sacking of Arlee")
Gardner/Chickering 80, "Prince Charlie" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #8}
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 296-299, "The Bonnie House o' Airlie" (1 text)
JHCox 20, "The Bonnie House o' Airlie" (1 text)
Ord, p. 470, "The Bonnie House o' Airlie" (1 text)
MacSeegTrav 15, "The Bonnie House o' Airlie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior, pp. 70-71, "The Bonny House o' Arlie" (1 text plus 1 fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #16}
Leach, pp. 537-538, "The Bonnie House of Airlie" (2 texts)
OBB 135, "The Bonnie House o Airlie" (1 text)
DT 199, BONAIRLI*
ADDITIONAL: R. H. Cromek, Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song, (London, 1810), pp. 226-228, "Young Airlie"
Roud #794
RECORDINGS:
John MacDonald, "The Bonnie Hoose O' Airlie" (on Voice17)
Belle Stewart, "The Bonny Hoose o' Airlie" (on FSBBAL2) (on SCStewartsBlair01)
Lucy Stewart, "The Bonnie Hoose o' Airlie" (on LStewart1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.15(264), "The Bonnie House o' Airly" ("It fell on a day, a bonny summer day"), R. McIntosh (Glasgow), 1849-1859; also Firth b.26(179), "The Bonnie House o' Airly"
Murray, Mu23-y1:027, "The Bonnie House o' Airly," James Lindsay Jr. (Glasgow), 19C
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Young Airly" (subject and tune)
SAME_TUNE:
Bonnie Den o' Airlie (broadside NLScotland L.C.Fol.70(130b), "Bonnie Den o' Airlie" ("It fell upon a day, on a bonnie simmer's day"), Poet's Box (Dundee), n.d, with no tune indicated but clearly this is meant)
NOTES: This song seems to have originated in the period when Scotland was in open rebellion against Charles I over the issue of religion -- Charles had tried to impose an Episcopal prayer book on Scotland; that Presbyterian nation reacted with the Covenant, a defiant rejection of Charles's religious schemes. (For this see, e.g. Mitchison, p. 206ffff.)
Although almost all of Scotland accepted the Covenant, a religious agreement was not a government. The various factions proposed various ways to govern their nation. The two key factions were those headed by Montrose (who still stood by the monarchy, and who would by his military genius later become its chief prop) and Argyle (who was anti-royalist and out for his own profit).
On June 12, 1640, as Charles I was trying to attack Scotland but being delayed by his finances and the increasing unrest of his English subjects, Argyle was empowered by the Scottish parliament (then meeting for the first time without a royal representative) to deal with certain lords as enemies of the Church. One of those under suspicion was the Earl of Airlie (then away in England, apparently to avoid signing the Covenant).
Montrose had taken the lands of Airlie from the Earl's son Lord Ogilvie, but Argyle felt the urge to deal with the house more strenuously.
The earliest copies of the ballad refer to Airlie being present with "King Charlie" (Charles I, reigned 1625-1649). In later versions, "King Charlie" became "(Bonnie) Prince Charlie," a confusion perhaps encouraged by the fact that the Earl of Airlie of 1745 was a follower of Charlie.
Another possibility, mentioned by Cowan on p. 45, is that although the ballad "is usually thought to refer to Argyll'e sacking of Airlie in 1640... it may have originated in an earlier Campbell invasion of the Braes of Angus in 1591." Other than citing an article of his own, however, he gives no evidence for this, and the description above is not enough to identify the incident in the standard histories. There is a logic to the claim, since this was a period of significant conflict between James VI (who had only recently taken power in his own hands) and the Kirk over the relative responsibilities of each (Magnusson, pp. 388-390), but conflicts of that sort were so common as to prove nothing.
Cowan, p. 46, notes that the Argyle of 1640 was a prim presbyterian who surely would not have asked for a kiss; he suggests that this insertion was symbolic: Just as Argyle had plundered and ravaged the lands of Airlie (supposedly causing seven thousand pounds of damage), he was metaphorically ravising his wife as well.
The "B" text in Barry et al is even more confused, it dates itself to the days of "the wars of Roses white and red And in the days of Prince Charlie" -- which is, of course, impossible, since the Wars of the Roses took place two and a half centuries before the Jacobite rebellions, and a century and a half before Airlie's first commission. Nor were any of the royal pretenders of the period named Charles. (Indeed, until the Stuart succession, there was never a member of the English royal family named Charles; it was, after all, a French name!) The context of the version suits the Forty-Five. - RBW
Among the parodies is NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(130b), "Bonnie Den o' Airlie," Poet's Box (Dundee), c.1890.
Hogg2 76 is one of two texts Hogg has entitled "Young Airly." The other is not the Child ballad, though it shares its subject and tune.
Hogg2: "... from the verses in Cromek [i.e. _Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song_], and a street ballad collated." Cromek's text is one of the ones cited by Child as a source for his version C.
"Cromek died [1812] shortly after the issue [1810] of _Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song_, which was mostly written by Cunningham, though palmed upon Cromek as recovered antiques." (source: J. Ross, _The Book of Scottish Poems: Ancient and Modern_, (Edinburgh, Edinburgh Publishing Co, 1878), "Allan Cunningham 1784-1842," p. 738; other sources agree) - BS
>>BIBLIOGRAPHY<<
Cowan: Edward J. Cowan, editor, _The People's Past: Scottish Folk, Scottish History_ 1980 (I use the 1993 Polygon paperback edition)
Magnusson: Magnus Magnusson, _Scotland: The Story of a Nation_, Atlantic Monthly Press, 2000
Mitchison: Rosalind Mitchison, _A History of Scotland_, second edition, Methuen, 1982
Child Collection- Child Ballad 199: Bonnie House o’ Airlie
Child --Artist --Title --Album --Year --Length --Have
199 Alex McEwen The Bonnie House of Airlie The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
199 Alec Stewart The Bonny Hoose O' Airlie The Bonny Hoose O' Blair 1979 No
199 Alexander Clark The Bonnie House of Airlie The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
199 Bell Duncan The Bonnie House of Airlie The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
199 Beeston Pipe Band Two Pints of Heavy + Bonnie House of Airlie + Last Fish Supper + Soldier's Reel The Best of Scottish Pipes & Drums 1997 3:56 Yes
199 Belle Stewart Bonnie Hoose O' Airlie Back O' Benachie - Songs and Ballads from the Lowland East of Scotland 1968 No
199 Belle Stewart The Bonny Hoose O' Airlie Classic Ballads of Britain & Ireland - Folk Songs of England, Ireland, Scotland & Wales, Vol 2 2000 4:20 Yes
199 Belle Stewart The Bonny Hoose O' Airlie The Bonny Hoose O' Blair 1979 No
199 Black Jimmie Mason The Bonnie House of Airlie (1) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
199 Black Jimmie Mason The Bonnie House of Airlie (2) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
199 Bobby Eaglesham The Bonny House of Airlie Ballads 1997 3:47 Yes
199 Brolum The Bonnie Hoose O' Airlie The Fair Face I Never Saw 2004 3:33 Yes
199 Carl Stewart The Bonnie House of Airlie The Edith Fowke Collection No
199 Enoch Kent The Bonnie House of Airlie One More Round 2008 No
199 Ewan MacColl The Bonnie Hoose O' Airlie The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (The Child Ballads) - Vol. 1 1956 No
199 Ewan MacColl The Bonnie Hoose O' Airlie The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (The Child Ballads) - Vol. 2 [Reissue] 196? No
199 Ewan MacColl The Bonnie House O' Airlie The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (Child Ballads) - Vol. 2 1964 3:31 Yes
199 Ewan MacColl The Bonnie Hoose O' Airlie Ballads - Murder Intrigue Love Discord 2009 5:38 Yes
199 Five Hand Reel The House of Airlie A Bunch of Fives 1979 4:33 Yes
199 Gerry Hallom Bonnie House of Airlie Travellin' Down the Castlereagh 1981 No
199 Harriet Gott Murphy Sacking of Arlee The Helen Hartness Flanders Collection No
199 Isla St. Clair Bonnie House of Airlie Highland Songs 2004 3:32 Yes
199 Isla St. Clair The Bonnie House of Airlie Royal Lovers & Scandals 2000 3:31 Yes
199 Isla St. Clair Bonnie House of Airlie Great Songs and Ballads of Scotland 2009 No
199 James Mason The Bonnie House O' Airlie The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
199 Jean Bechofer The Bonnie Hoose O Airlie Songs from the Folk Music Revival in Scotland - Ailie Munro 1984 4:06 Yes
199 Jessie Davidson The Bonnie House of Airlie (1) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
199 Jessie Davidson The Bonnie House of Airlie (2) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
199 John Cow The Bonnie House of Airlie The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
199 John MacDonald The Bonnie Hoose O' Airlie The Voice of the People, Vol. 17: It Fell on a Day, a Bonny Summer Day - Ballads 1998 2:32 Yes
199 John MacDonald The Bonnie Hoose O' Airlie The Singing Molecatcher of Moray 1975 No
199 Jon Boden Bonny House of Airlie A Folk Song a Day - August 2010 3:25 Yes
199 Joss Esplin & Sandra Wright Bonnie Hoose of Airlie Scotland Till I Return 1992 No
199 Kate Rusby Bonny House of Airlie The Girl Who Couldn't Fly 2005 5:40 Yes
199 Kempion Bonnie Hoose O' Airlie Kempion 1977 4:50 Yes
199 Laura Risk The Bonnie House of Airly 2000 Miles - Deux Mille Milles 2004 2:39 Yes
199 Louis Killen The Bonnie Hoose O' Airlie Old Songs, Old Friends 1977 3:20 Yes
199 Lucy Stewart The Bonnie Hoose O' Airlie (Bonnie House O' Airlie) Lucy Stewart: Traditional Singer from Aberdeenshire, Scotland, Vol. 1 - Child Ballads 1961 4:33 Yes
199 Lucy Stewart + Belle Stewart The Bonnie Hoose O' Airlie The Baffled Knight - The Classic Ballads 2 1976 No
199 Maureen Jelks The Bonnie Hoose O' Airlie Eence Upon a Time - Scots Songs & Ballads 2000 2:57 Yes
199 Max Dunbar The Bonnie House of Airlie Songs and Ballads of the Scottish Wars, 1290-1745 1956 2:25 Yes
199 Mrs Cameron The Bonnie House of Airlie The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
199 Mrs Duncan The Bonnie House of Airlie The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
199 Mrs. Edward Gallagher Bonnie House O' Airlie (1) The Helen Creighton Collection No
199 Mrs. Edward Gallagher Bonnie House O' Airlie (2) The Helen Creighton Collection No
199 Mrs. Edward Gallagher Bonnie House O' Airlie (3) The Helen Creighton Collection No
199 Mrs. Edward Gallagher Bonnie House O' Airlie (4) The Helen Creighton Collection No
199 Mrs Thompson The Bonnie House of Airlie The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
199 Nigel Denver The Bonnie Hoose O' Airlie Moving On 1965 No
199 Red Hot Chili Pipers In the Groove - Groovy 4/4's - The Bonnie Hoose O' Airlie + The Roses for Prince Charlie Bagrock to the Masses 2007 3:07 Yes
199 Singer from Port Gordon The Bonnie House of Airlie The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
199 Spay Side Singer Boonie Hoose O' Airlie The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
199 Stanley Robertson The Bonnie House O Airlie Sangs and Ferlies - Gaither in Tae Blaw - Traditional Songs and Stories 1992 5:28 Yes
199 Stanley Robertson The Bonnie Hoose O Airlie The Fife Traditional Singing Weekend - Here's a Health to the Company 2005 No
199 Two Female Singers The Bonnie House of Airlie The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
199 Unknown Male Singer The Bonnie House of Airlie The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
199 William Gilkie Bonnie House O' Airlie The Helen Creighton Collection No
199 Young Lord Ogilvie & Young Lady Ogilvie The Bonnie House of Airlie The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
Excerpt from The British Traditional Ballad in North America
by Tristram Coffin 1950, from the section A Critical Biographical Study of the Traditional Ballads of North America
199. THE BONNIE HOUSE O AIRLIE
Texts: Barry, Brit Bids Me, 266 / Cox, F-S Sottth, 128 / English Journal (April 1918), 270. Local Titles: Prince Charlie, The Bonnie Hoose o' Earlie, The Plundering of Arley.
Story Types: A: During the reign of Cromwell, the Duke of Argyle moves to plunder the house of the Earl of Airly. The latter is away. Lady" Margaret Airly sees Argyle approach with his men. When he reaches the gates, she refuses to come down and loss him. He seizes her, however, and eventually discovers her dowry among the planting. Then, he lays her down on the
streamside while he plunders the home. The wife swears if she had seven (eleven) sons, she would give them all to Charles.
Examples: Barry (A), Gardner and Chickering.
B : The story is essentially like that of Type A. However, the lady of the estate is just a girl and the absent protector just a knight. In addition, she requests to be taken to the valley where she cannot see the plundering, but is instead taken to a mountain top and made to watch the destruction. The real story is lost, and the War of the Roses is used as the background.
Examples: Barry (B).
C: The story of Type C is essentially a cross between Types A and B. The heroine is still Lady Margaret, whose husband, the Earl, is absent, but the mood, detail, and story are those of Type B.
Examples: Cox.
Discussion: The historical background of this ballad is summarized by Child, IV, 55 and centers about the 1640 commission issued to the Earl of Argyle by which he was permitted to subdue and bring to "their duty" certain political and religious undesirables. Argyle interpreted his commission rather savagely.
The Type A story follows Child A, while Type B is related to Child BB and Greig, Last Leaves of Trd Bids, B. The West Virginia (Type C) text, which appears to be a cross of Types A and B is closest to Child C.
A comparison should be made of the two unusual stanzas at the start of the Gardner and Chickering, Bids Sgs So Mich, fragment and Stanzas 10 and 12 of a Ford broadside (See Ford, Broadsides, Bids, etc. Mass (2nd series),. 167 9). These stanzas begin, in the Gardner and Chickering book, with the line: What loo' is that, 'quoth the brave Lor' Heel".
An Illinois version, that is said to be "the work of a high school student born in Scotland, but long a resident of this country" is printed in English Journal for April, 1918, p. 270. This text would be a Type D story, if one could be certain that it was not partly composed by the student in question. The story begins like Type A, but after the lady refuses to come down a change occurs in the narrative events. In the next stanza, Airly returns and, finding the carnage, swears revenge. He attacks Argyle's clan (the Campbells), but fails to slay the Lord. His drummer makes light of the fray; so- Airly in a rage throws him from a tower. The boy swears he will haunt his master on the latter's death-day. Later, on hearing drums playing mysteriously from the tower, Airly knows his time has come.
Folk Index: The Bonnie House of/o' Airlie [Ch 199]
Clayre, Alasdair (ed.) / 100 Folk Songs and New Songs, Wolfe, Sof (1968), p 80
Brander, Michael (ed.) / Scottish and Border Ballads and Battles, Barnes & Nobel, Bk (1993/1976), p129
Leach, MacEdward / The Ballad Book, Harper & Row, Bk (1955), p537
Leach, MacEdward / The Ballad Book, Harper & Row, Bk (1955), p538
Fannie, Eagan. Cox, John Harrington (ed.) / Folk-Songs of the South, Dover, Sof (1967/1925), p128/# 20 [1917/01/12]
Killen, Louis. Old Songs, Old Friends, Front Hall FRH 012, LP (1978), trk# B.04
MacColl, Ewan. MacColl, Ewan / Folk Songs and Ballads of Scotland, Oak, Sof (1965), p17
MacColl, Ewan. English & Scottish Popular Ballads, Vol. 2, Washington WLP 716, LP (1963/1956), trk# B.03
Rusby, Kate. Girl Who Couldn't Fly, Compass 7 4420-2, CD (2005), trk# 8
Stewart, Lucy. Traditional Singer from Aberdeen. Vol. 1 - Child Ballads, Greentrax CTrax 031, Cas (Gre5), trk# B.03
Strachan, Mary. Moore, Ethel & Chauncey (ed.) / Ballads and Folk Songs of the Southwest, Univ. of Okla, Bk (1964), p 96/# 37 [1940s] (Lady Ogalbie)
Mainly Norfolk: The Bonny House of Airlie
[Roud 794; Child 199; Ballad Index C199; trad.]
Ewan MacColl sang The Bonnie Hoose o' Airlie in 1956 on his and A.L. Lloyd's Riverside album of Child ballads, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads Volume I. This track was included in 2009 on the Ewan MacColl CD Ballads: Murder—Intrigue—Love—Discord. Editor Kenneth G. Goldstein wrote in the original album's booklet:
This ballad describes the burning and sacking in 1640 of the castle of the Earl of Airlie, a supporter of Charles Edward, by the Duke of Argyll. Airlie, aware that he would be forced to renounce the King, left Scotland, leaving his house in the keeping of his oldest son, Lord Ogilvie. Argyll, ordered to proceed against the castle, raised several thousand men for the purpose. When Ogilvie heard of his coming with such a huge force, the castle was abandoned. Lady Ogilvie's defiance is an invention of the ballad muse, for it has been fairly well established that none of the family was there at the time the castle was sacked.
The ballad is rare outside of Scotland, a few versions having been collected in North America. The version MacColl sings was collected from Boston Dunn, an iron moulder from Falkirk, Stirlingshire.
Bella Stewart sang Bonnie House o’ Airlie on the 1968 LP Back o' Benachie: Songs and Ballads from the Lowland East of Scotland, and John MacDonald sang it on the 1975 Topic LP The Singing Molecatcher of Morayshire: Scots Ballads, Bothy Songs and Melodeon Tunes, which recording was also included on It Fell on a Day, a Bonny Summer Day (The Voice of the People Series Vol. 17).
Louis Killen sang The Bonny Hoose o' Airlie in 1978 on his LP Old Songs, Old Friends. He commented on the album sleeve:
Another friend who traded me many songs was Laurie Charlton, borderer, gunsmith, art teacher, ballad singer, and fisherman, who ran Folksong and Ballad in Newcastle after I took off for London in 1961. But well before that he taught me Ca' the Yowes. […] I also got from Laurie The Bonny Hoose o' Aurlie, that ballad of the burning of the home of the Ogilvies by the covenanting Campbells, while the former were supporting King Charles I against Cromwell and Parliament.
Gerry Hallom sang this ballad in 1981 on his Fellside album Travellin' Down the Castlereagh.
Bobby Eaglesham sang The Bonny House of Airlie in 1997 on the Fellside anthology Ballads. Paul Adams commented in the album's liner notes:
Many attempts have been made to ascribe historical events and figures to ballads as has been mentioned elsewhere in this text. Normally the links are tenuous, but in this case the origins are based on fact. !n 1640 the Convention of Estates granted a “commission of fire and sword” to Archibald Campbell the 8th Earl of Argyll against the Earl of Airlie and other adherents of Charles I. They were harsh and brutal times and yet Argyll's actions seem to have offended to such an extend that he was obliged to obtain an “Act of Ratificatioune & Exoeneratioune” to absolve himself from blame. The ballad takes liberties with the historical fact (it is doubtful whether Argyll was there in person). Lady Ogilvie is the Earl of Airlie's daughter-in-law. Airlie had left Airlie Castle (part of the old castle stands within the grounds of the modern mansion which bears its name about 5 miles SW of Kirriemuir) in the hands of his son. Reputedly Argyll raised five thousand men and on hearing this Lord Ogilvie fled for safety. The numbers and names vary from version to version.
Kate Rusby sang a very much shorter version of The Bonny House of Airlie in 2005 on her CD The Girl Who Couldn't Fly.
Jon Boden sang The Bonny House of Airlie as the August 28, 2010 entry of his project A Folk Song a Day. He gave Louis Killen as his source.
Lyrics
Ewan MacColl sings The Bonnie Hoose o' Airlie
It fell on a day, on a bonnie summer's day
When the sun shone bright and clearly,
That there fell oot a great dispute
Atween Argylle and Airlie.
Argylle he has mustered a thousand o' his men,
He has marched them oot right early;
He has marched them in by the back o' Dunkeld,
To plunder the bonnie hoose o' Airlie.
Lady Ogilvie has looked frae her window so high,
And O, but she grat sairly,
To see Argylle and a' his men
Come plunder the bonnie hoose of Airlie.
“Come doon, come doon, Lady Ogilvie,” he cried:
“Come doon and kiss me fairly,
Or I swear by the hilt o' my gewwd braidsword
That I winna leave a stan'in' stane in Airlie.”
“I winna come doon, ye cruel Argylle,
I winna kiss ye fairly;
I wadna kiss ye, fause Argylle,
Though ye sudna leave a stan'in' stane in Airlie.”
“Come, tell me whaur your dowry is hid,
Come doon and tell me fairly.”
“l winna tell ye whaur my dowry is hid,
Though ye sudna leave a stan'in' stane in Airlie.”
They socht it up and they socht it down,
I wat, they socht it early;
And it was below yon bowling green
They found the dowry o' Airlie.
“Eleven bairns I ha'e born
And the twelfth ne'er saw his daddie,
But though I had gotten as mony again,
They suld a' gang to fecht for Charlie.
“Gin my gweed lord had been at hame,
As he's awa' for Charlie,
There dursna a Campbell o' a' Argylle
Set a fit on the bonnie hoose o' Airlie.”
He's ta'en her by the milk-white hand,
But he did not lead her fairly;
He led her up to the top o' the hill,
Where she saw the burnin' o' Airlie.
The smoke and flame they rose so high,
The walls were blackened fairly;
And the lady laid her doon on the green to dee,
When she saw the burnin' o' Airlie.
Bobby Eaglesham sings The Bonnie House of Airlie
It fell on a day, on a bonny summer's day
When the sun shone bright and clearly,
That there fell oot a great dispute
Between Argyll and Airlie.
Argyll he has mustered a thousand o' his men,
And he's marched them in right early;
He's marched them up by the back o' Dunkeld,
Tae plunder the bonnie hoose of Airlie.
Lady Ogilvie she looked frae her window sae high,
And oh but she grat sairly,
To see Argyll and a' his men
Come plunder the bonny hoose of Airlie.
“Come doon, come doon, Lady Ogilvie,” he cried:
“Come doon and kiss me fairly,
Or I swear by the hilt on my broadsword
I'll never leave a standin' stane in Airlie.”
“Oh I wadna come doon, ye cruel Argyll,
And I wadna kiss ye fairly;
Oh I wadna kiss, nay, false Argyll,
Though ye wadna leave a standin' stane in Airlie.”
“Come tell me whaur your dowry is hid,
Come doon and tell me fairly.”
“l winna tell ye whaur my dowry is hid,
Though ye wadna leave a standin' stane in Airlie.”
Oh they sought it up and they sought it doon,
And aye they sought it early;
And it was ablow yon bowling green
They found the dowry of Airlie.
“Eleven of my bairns oh I hae born
And a twelfth ne'er saw his daddie,
And though I hae gotten as many of them again,
I'd mak sure they gang and fecht for Charlie.
“Gin my guid lord had been at hame,
But he's awa' for Charlie,
There wadna be a Campbell in a' Argyll
Set foot on the bonny hoose of Airlie.”
He's ta'en her by the milk-white hand,
But he didna lead her fairly;
And he's led her up to the top o' the hill,
Where she saw the burnin' doon o' Airlie.
The smoke and the flames they rose so high
And the walls they blackened fairly;
And the lady's laid her doon on the green grass to die
When she saw the burnin' doon o' Airlie.
Kate Rusby sings The Bonnie House of Airlie
It fell on a day, a bonnie bonnie day,
When the corn grew green and yellow,
That there fell out a great dispute
Between Argyll and Airlie.
The lady was looking over the castle wall,
And oh but she looks weary,
And there she spies the great Argyll
Come to plunder the bonnie house of Airlie.
“Come down the stairs, lady,“ he said,
“Come down and kiss me fairly.”
“I'll not come down nor kiss you,” she said,
“Though you won't leave a standing stone at Airlie.”
He's taken her by her left shoulder
and oh but she looks weary.
He led her to the top of the town,
Made her watch the plundering of Airlie.
“Fire on, fire on, my many men all
And see that you fire clearly.
I vow and I swear by this broadsword I wear
I won't leave a standing stone at Airlie.”
“If the great Sir John had been but at home,
As he is this night wi' Prince Charlie,
Neither Argyll nor any Scottish Lord
Dare have plundered the bonnie house of Airlie.
“Seven, seven sons I've born unto him
And the eigth ne'er saw his daddy.
If I were to bear a hundred more
They'd all draw sword for Prince Charlie.
Oh, if I were to bear a hundred more
They'd all draw sword for Prince Charlie.”
Jon Boden sings The Bonnie House of Airlie
It fell on a day and a bright summer's day,
When the corn grew green and yellow,
There fell out a great dispute
Between Argyll and Airlie.
The Duke of Montrose he has written to Argyll
To come in the morning so early
And to lead his men by the back of Dunkeld
And to plunder the bonnie house of Airlie.
The lady looked out of the window so high
And oh and she looked weary,
For there she spied the great Argyll
Come to plunder the bonnie house of Airlie.
“Come down, come down, Lady Margaret,“ he said,
“Come down and kiss me fairly,
Or by the morning's clear daylight
I will not leave a standing stone in Airlie.”
“Oh I would not kiss thee, great Argyll,
And I would not kiss the fairly.
I would not kiss thee, great Argyll,
Though you didn't leave a standing stone in Airlie.”
He has taken her by her left shoulder,
He says, “Madam where is your dowry?”
“Well it's up and it's down the bonny burnside
All among the planting of Airlie.”
Oh they searched east and they searched west
And they searched late and early.
They found in in the bonny burnside
All among the planting of Airlie.”
He has taken her by the middle so small
And oh and she cried sorely.
And he has laid her down on the green, green grass
And he has plundered the bonny house of Airlie.
“Oh I have eleven broad sons,” she cried,
“And the youngest has never seen his daddy.
But if I had this many more
I would give them all to King Charlie.
“And if my good lord he had been at home
And not been with King Charlie,
Well there's never a Campbell from out of the west
Could plunder he bonny house of Airlie.”