Recordings & Info 239. Lord Saltoun and Auchanachie
CONTENTS:
1) Alternative Titles
2) Traditional Ballad Index
3) Child Collection Index
4) Rare Child Ballad Uncovered
5) Mainly Norfolk
ATTACHED PAGES: (see left hand column)
1) Roud No. 102: Lord Saltoun and Auchanachie ( Listings)
Alternative Titles
Annachie
Annachie Gordon
Traditional Ballad Index: Lord Saltoun and Auchanachie [Child 239]
DESCRIPTION: Jeanie Gordon loves (Auch)anachie, but her father would have her wed Lord Saltoun, who is old but wealthy. The wedding is carried out despite her wishes. She faints and dies. Auchanachie arrives the next day, learns of her death, and dies himself.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1824 (Maidment)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: Jeanie Gordon loves (Auch)anachie, but her father would have her wed Lord Saltoun, who is old but wealthy. The wedding is carried out despite her wishes. The servants cut her out of her gown so that Saltoun may bed her. She faints and dies. Auchanachie arrives the next day, learns of her death, and dies himself.
KEYWORDS: wedding separation age love death
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Child 239, "Lord Saltoun and Auchanachie" (2 texts)
Bronson 239, "Lord Saltoun and Auchanachie" (1 version)
GlenbuchatBallads, pp. 25-26, "Auchynachy Gordon" (1 text)
GreigDuncan5 1021, "Lord Salton and Auchanachie" (2 text plus 2 verses on p. 618, 1 tune)
Leach, pp. 239-597, "Lord Saltoun and Auchanachie" (1 text)
DT 239, ANGORDON*
Roud #102
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Johnny Doyle [Laws M2]" (plot)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Annachie
Annachie Gordon
NOTES: Possibly related to the Swedish ballad "Stolt Ingrid [Proud Ingrid]"? - PJS
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Rare Child Ballad Uncovered
Rare Child Ballad Uncovered: a broadside version of Lord Saltoun and Auchanachie (Roud 102, Child 239) [A version of this article was published in English Dance and Song Volume 65 part 2]
In previous articles I have concentrated on 17th century broadside ballads, but in searching through the Harding and Madden Collections of 19th century broadsides I have come across several scarce Child Ballads and here is the first.
It simply has the title A NEW SONG and is amongst a batch of single slips in the Harding Collection in the Bodleian Library, ref B25 (794). It has no imprint but is amongst a batch printed by the likes of Angus and Marshall of Newcastle, which gives us a likely date of between 1800 and 1828. It is of course a version of the scarce Child Ballad (239), Lord Saltoun and Auchanachie, better known on the folk scene as Annachie Gordon (Roud 102).
Comparing it with the two main versions given in Child and those collected in the early twentieth century it has obviously been taken from oral tradition by the printer's hack. It has become largely anglicised and there are obvious alterations due to oral transmission. It has also become garbled in places, e.g., stanza 6. It lacks a long section after verse 3, present in the Child versions, which contains a dialogue between Jeannie Gordon and her parents in which they are trying to persuade her to marry Lord Saltoun against her wishes. They marry but she refuses to come to his bed and when she is forced she swoons and dies.
The main differences in this Newcastle version are the personal names; Auchanachie has become Hannah Le Gordon * and Saltoun has become Salting. The 'room / loun' rhymes in stanza 2 are in the Scots versions 'Floor / whore'. In stanza 3 'guineas so red' is a corruption of 'wear gowd on my head', and 'houses are let' should be 'towns all lie waste'. In stanza 4 and in subsequent stanzas 'Miss Jeannie' has quite naturally become 'my Jenny'. The 'chambermaid' in stanzas 5, 6 and 7 has been modernised from 'maidens', 'her bower woman' and 'handmaid'. Stanza 6 appears in none of the Child versions and on first inspection appears to be gobbledygook, but line 2 occurs verbatim in a fragmentary version from the singing of Bell Robertson in The Greig Duncan Folk Song Collection Volume 5, no.1021. In stanza 7, line 3, he 'kissed her cold lips which were colder than stone / clay' is given in Child. It would appear that the 'cold chin' had been included to give it an English rhyme, but the same two final lines also occur in Bell Robertson's version.
* Regarding Auchanachie's being given a girl's name: I suppose the 'he' immediately after makes the gender clear enough and 'Hannah Le' must just have been the nearest sensible alternative for the transcriber, who wouldn't have ever heard the Gaelic name. Such a trivial thing as correct gender didn't matter much to broadside printers.
A New Song
Hannah Le Gordon he is bonny and braw,
He would tempt any woman that ever he saw,
He would tempt any woman as well as he is done me,
And tis all for my Hannah Le Gordon I'll die.
In came her father into the room;
O, Jenny you're playing the trick of a loun,
You're liking a man that cares naething for thee,
Yet it is all for my Hannah Le Gordon I'll die.
Before I take Salting with his guineas so red,
With Hannah Le Gordon I would beg my bread,
How his houses are let and his lands they are lea,
Yet all for my Hannah Le Gordon I'll die.
Home came her true love, home came he home,
Her true love came home from the sea,
Her parents kept him long at the gate,
What aileth my Jenny she comes na out yet.
Down came the chambermaid wringing her hands,
All for your staying so long on the sands,
Your Jenny is married and now she is dead,
And it's all for staying so long on the flood.
Chambermaid, chambermaid, who was so rude,
As marry my Jenny and me on the flood,
As marry my Jenny and me out at sea,
And it's all for the sake of my Jenny I'll die.
Chambermaid, chambermaid, you'll by and by,
Show me to the room where my Jenny does lye,
He has kiss'd her cold cheek and then her cold chin,
And he's died in the room where his Jenny lay in
Mainly Norfolk: Annachie Gordon
[Roud 102; Child 239; Ballad Index C239; trad.]
Nic Jones sang the ballad Annachie Gordon on his 1977 album The Noah's Ark Trap. This track was also included on the Trailer anthology Never the Same. He also recorded it twice for a BBC Radio 1 John Peel Session on July 8, 1976, broadcast July 23, 1976, and on April 19, 1977, broadcast April 26, 1977. Probably one of these versions is on his CD Unearthed but the liner notes didn't mention the actual source of the recording. Nic Jones commented though:
For Annachie Gordon I adapted the tune found in Christie's Traditional Ballad Airs and collated verses from Lord Saltoun & Auchanachie (Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland), Young Annochie (Murison MS), and Lord Saltoun & Annachie (Christie's Traditional Ballad Airs).
John Wesley Harding also sang Annachie Gordon on his Nic Jones tribute album, Trad Arr Jones.
June Tabor and the Oysterband also performed Anachie Gordon for a BBC Radio 1 John Peel Session recorded on November 27, 1990 and broadcast January 5, 1991. According to the Always sleeve notes, they weren't satisfied with this performance though and didn't use it again. June did perform it again in a duo with Mark Emerson playing drone and viola. A live recording from McCabe's Guitar Shop, Santa Monica on March 21, 1991 can be found on her 4CD anthology Always.
The Unthanks sang Annachie Gordon in 2009 on their CD Here's the Tender Coming. Becky Unthank sang lead and commented in the CD notes:
This is a song I've loved for years. The words are just heartbreaking and it's one of the stories that captured me growing up listening to Nic Jones. I got this version from him.
Jon Boden sang Anachie Gordon as the January 29, 2011 entry of his project A Folk Song a Day.
Lyrics
Nic Jones sings Annachie Gordon
Buchan, it's bonny, oh and there lives my love;
My heart it lies on him, it will not remove.
It will not remove for all that I have done,
Oh never will I forget my love Annachie.
For Annachie Gordon, oh he's bonny and he's braw,
He'd entice any woman that ever him saw.
He'd entice any woman and so he has done me,
Oh never will I forget my love Annachie
Down came her father, standing on the floor,
Saying, “Jeanie, you're trying the tricks of a whore.
You care nothing for a man who cares so very much for thee;
You must marry with Lord Saltoun and leave Young Annachie.
For Annachie Gordon he's only but a man
Although he may be pretty but where are all his lands?
Saltoun's lands are broad and his towers they stand high;
You must marry with Lord Saltoun and forget Young Annachie.”
“With Annachie Gordon oh I'd beg for my bread
Before that I'd marry Saltoun with gold to my head.
With gold to my head and with gowns fringed to the knee,
Oh I'll die if I don't get my love Annachie.
And you that are my parents, oh to church you may me bring,
Ah but unto Lord Saltoun, oh I'll never bear a son.
Oh, A son or a daughter, oh I'll never bow my knee,
Oh, I'll die if I don't get my love Annachie.”
When Jeanie was married and from church she was brought home,
And she and her maidens so merry should have been.
When she and her maidens so merry should have been
Oh, she's gone to a chamber and she's crying all alone.
“Come to bed now Jeanie, oh my honey and my sweet,
For to style you my mistress it would not be meet.”
“Oh it's mistress or Jeanie, it's all the same to me,
For it's in your bed, Lord Saltoun, I never shall be.”
And up and spoke her father and he's spoken with renown,
“All you who are her maidens won't you loosen off her gown.”
But she fell down in a swoon, so low down by their knees,
Saying, “Look on, for I'm dying for my love Annachie.”
The day that Jeanie married was the day that Jeanie died
That's the day that young Annachie come rolling from the tide
And down came her maidens and they're wringing of their hands,
Saying, “Woe to you, Annachie, for staying from the sands.
So long from the land and so long upon the flood,
Oh they've married your Jeanie and now she is dead.”
“All you that are her maidens, won't you take me by the hand?
Won't you lead me to the chamber that my love lies in?”
And he's kissed her cold lips until his heart turned to stone,
And he's died in the chamber where his true love lay in.