English & Other 199. The Bonnie House of Airlie
[upcoming]
CONTENTS:
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Glasgow broadside 1830:
https://books.google.com/books?id=lIrYAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Keystone+Folklore+Quarterly++1964&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAGoVChMIvdWghuGdyQIVi7YeCh0DqAdV#v=onepage&q=bonnie%20house&f=false
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Scottish Ballad Poetry, Volume 3
By George Eyre-Todd
THE BONNIE HOUSE O' AIRLIE.
[This ballad, which is still a very popular song in Scotland, •does not, as is generally supposed, refer to an incident of the Jacobite rebellion of 1745. Lord Ogilvie and his wife, of that day, were, it is true, amongst the strongest supporters of Charles Edward; but the circumstances narrated in the ballad occurred more than a hundred years earlier, the Charlie of the verses was King Charles the First, and the "fause Argyle " referred to was Gillespie Grumach, or, as he is called in some versions of the ballad, the " gleyed Argyle," the great supporter of the Covenant, and subsequently the enemy of Montrose.
On June 12, 1640, the Earl of Argyle was commissioned by the Committee of Estates to proceed with fire and sword against certain "enemies to religion who had not signed the Covenant. This commission Argyle interpreted liberally for the destruction of many whom he considered unfriendly to himself, and among others who suffered was the Earl of Airlie. This nobleman had himself escaped to England, but his house was in the keeping of his eldest son, Lord Ogilvie, when it and Forthar, another seat of the family, were taken, pillaged, and burned by Argyle. Lady Ogilvie, it is said, was near her confinement at the time, and begged for delay upon that account. This, however, was not granted, and she was turned out remorselessly.
Versions of the ballad have been printed by Sharpe and Kinloch in their respective collections. That which here follows is from a modern broadside printed in Glasgow, and contains some dramatic additional stanzas.]
It fell upon a day, a bonnie summer day,
When the clans were a' wi' Charlie,
That there fell out a great dispute
Between Argyle and Airlie.
Argyle had raised a hundred o' his men,
To come in the morning early,
And he has gane down by the back o' Dunkeld
To plunder the bonnie house o' Airlie.
Lady Ogilvie looked frae her high castle wa',
And O but she sighed sairly,
To see Argyle and a' his men
Come to plunder the bonnie house o' Airlie.
"Come doon, come doon, Lady Ogilvie," he cried,
"Come doon and kiss me fairly.
Or, ere the morning clear daylight,
I'll no' leave a standing stane in Airlie."
"I wadna come doon, proud Argyle," she cried,
"I wadna kiss thee fairly;
I wadna come doon, thou fause lord," she cried,
"Though ye leave na a standing stane in Airlie
"But were my ain gude lord at hame,
As this night he's wi' Charlie,
The false Argyle and a' his men
Durstna enter the bonnie house o' Airlie.
"O I ha'e borne him seven bonnie sons,
The last ne'er saw his daddie,
And gin I had as mony o'er again,
They'd a' be men to Charlie."
Argyle in a rage attacked the bonnie ha',
And his men to the plundering fairly,
And tears though he saw like dewdraps fa',
In a lowe he set the bonnie house o' Airlie.
"What lowe is yon?" quo' the gude Lochiel,
"That rises this morning sae early."
"By the God o' my kin," cried the young Ogilvie,
"It's my ain bonnie hame o' Airlie.
"It's na my bonnie hame nor my lands a' reft
That grieves my heart sae sairly,
It's for my winsome dame, and the sweet bairnies I left,
They'll smoor[1] in the dark reek o' Airlie." 'smother.
"Draw your dirks, draw your dirks!" cried the brave Lochiel.
"Unsheath your swords," cried Charlie,
"And we'll kindle sic a lowe round the false Argyle,
And licht it wi' a spark out o' Airlie!"