English & Other 187. Jock o the Side
CONTENTS:
[upcoming- for now see Child's texts]
Ten Songs from Scotland and the Scottish Border
by Anne G. Gilchrist
Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, Vol. 3, No. 1 (Dec., 1936), pp. 53-71
TEN SONGS FROM SCOTLAND AND THE
SCOTTISH BORDER
CONTRIBUTED BY ANNE G. GILCHRIST
The ten songs which follow are taken-all but " The Beggin'" and " I'm a' doun
for lack o' Johnnie "-from a sheet of manuscript airs which for want of a title I
have named the Edinburgh MS. It was found amongst the papers of the late Frank
Kidson of Leeds, in a bundle sent to me (as described under " Sir Lionel ") by his
niece. I have no clue whatever to the sender but the Edinburgh postmark and date
Dec. 23rd, I903, on the envelope in which they were enclosed, which bore the tradestamp
" J. and R. Glen, Highland Bagpipe Makers " on the back. Any accompanying
letter has been lost, and as all enquiries in Scotland have failed, and the
eight tunes cannot be traced in any printed collection, I have been led to the
conclusion that they were selected from some MS. (which from the numbers given
had comprised over seventy tunes) for Mr. Kidson's examination and opinion. They
are all good tunes, worth preserving-some of special interest as belonging to ballads
whose airs are scarce or lost. So they are here printed, with such notes and variants
as it seemed to me might be of interest, without prejudice to the original owner's
copyright, if he is still living.-A. G. G.
5. JOCK O' THE SIDE
(FIRST VERSION)
Pentatonic (No 3rd or 6th). From the Edinburgh MS. (No. 56).
[Now Lid - des - dale has ridden a raid, But I wat better had
stayed at hame, For Mich - ael o' Win - field he is dead, And Jock o' the Side is
(a) (a) As noted.
prison-er ta'en, And Jock o' the Side is prison-er ta'en.]
SECOND VERSION
Gapped Mode (No 6th). From BRUCE and STOKOE'S Northumbrian Minstrelsy, 1882.
And Jock o' the Side
pris-on - er ta'en, And Jock o' the Side is pris - on - er ta'eni.
(Thirty-seven verses)
This has been called one of the best ballads in the world! Jock o' the Side was
a notorious Border raider of the sixteenth century. Sir Richard Maitland says
of him-
He is weel kend, Johne of the Syde,
A greater thief did never ride.
The ballad, with two others, " Dick o' the Cow" and " Hobbie Noble," was first
printed in I784 in the Hazeick Museum, a provincial Miscellany, to which they were
communicated by John Elliot of Reidheugh, an antiquary of the western Border.
They are all connected, Hobbie Noble having been the man who " loosed " Jock
from prison, and seem to have been written by the same hand. The story of Jock's
escape rests upon tradition, but Henderson, in his edition of the Border Minstrelsy
(I932) identifies it with an incident reported to Wolsey by Magnus, July 6th, I527,
though Child was inclined to consider it as possibly a free version of " Kinmont
Willie "-another escape ballad.
The ballad is a very gallant and spirited one, telling how Jock, taking part in a
raid, was caught and imprisoned in Newcastle, and how three friends, the Laird's
Jock, the Laird's Wat, and Hobbie Noble of Bewcastle (but banished to Scotland)
disguised as corn-cadgers, and with thelr horses shod the wrong way to avoid
suspicion, set out to rescue him. They cut down a tree en route to serve as a ladder,
but finding it all too short on arriving at the town-wall, wrung the neck of the proud
porter, possessed themselves of his keys, and rescued the prisoner on the very eve
of his decreed execution. And the laird's Jock, hastily hoisting his master on his
back with " fifteen stane of Spanish iron " still attached to him, carried him down
the stair, counting him " lighter than a flee " (fly) ; and though pursued, the party
took to the swollen water of Tyne at Chollerford, leaving the land-sergeant and his
lads baffled on the bank, the sergeant calling out for the return of his irons, at least,
if not the prisoner !
THIRD VERSION
[DICK O' THE COW]
From LEYDEN'S Edition of Scott's Minstrelsy, 1833.
Fal de ral, lal de ial, Ilal de ral la
Fal Ilc de ral de rad - dy, Fal ial de ral la, Fal lal de , al la.
As the three ballads are said to have been sung to the same tune, the air for "Dick o' the Cow " is here printed from the only edition of Scott's Mlinstrelsy which I have found to contain any tunes. It is one of ten ballad-airs which Leyden, the editor,
states are for the first time appended to their texts, and which include those which Sir Walter himself liked the best, being transcribed without variation from the MSS. in his library. Stokoe professed himself unable to believe that this trio of ballads were ever sung to Scott's tune with the Fal de ral refrain; but the version in Caw's Poetical Museum has a burden of "With my fa ding diddle, la la dow diddle "-which is even less heroic.
For various versions see Child, whose " A" form " John a Side "-which seems to be the oldest-is derived from the Percy MS. (Hales and Furnivall, ii, 203).
-A. G. G.