English & Other 210. Bonnie James Campbell
CONTENTS:
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Vagabond Songs and Ballads of Scotland edited by Robert Ford 1899 vol 1; 1901 vol. 2; 1904 edition
BONNIE GEORGE CAMPBELL.
High upon Hielands, and laich upon Tay,
Bonnie George Campbell rade out on a day;
Saddled and bridled, and gallant rade he;
Hame cam' his gude horse, but never cam' he.
Doun' cam his mither dear, greetin' fu' sair,
Out cam' his bonnie bride, riving her hair;
The meadow lies green, and the corn is unshorn,
But bonnie Geoige Campbell will never return.
Saddled and bridled, and booted rade he,
A plume in his helmet, a sword at his knee;
But toom cam' the saddle, all bloody to see;
Hame cam' his gude horse, but never cam' he.
Where is he lying, ye winds, will ye say?
Is he drowned in the Tummel, or lost in the Tay?
Oh, vain are our wailings, in vain our despair;
Bonnie George Campbell we'll never see mair.
Recovered in part from tradition by John Finlay, the author of Wallace, an abridgment of the above was printed by Motherwell in his Minstrelsy, Ancient and Modern, who suggests that it might be the lament for some adherent of the house of Argyll who fell at the battle of Glenlivet, in October, 1594. Maidment, on the other hand, believed it to allude to the murder of Campbell of Cawdor, by one of his adherents, in 1591. The first two stanzas are undoubtedly ancient, but the third and fourth are evidently of modern origin. The last, indeed, with neither rhyme nor reason in it, is generally printed to read—
"Where is he lying, tell me but where,
Is he drowned in the Yarrow, or lost in the Quair?
O vain are thy wailings. the echoes reply,
Bonnie George Campbell, ye'll see him nae mair."
The case being as stated, I have dared, by a slight alteration, to give it both rhyme and geographical consistency. I hope I may not be blamed. Brief almost to a fault is this, yet a beautiful and suggestive ballad.