Jim – Thanks very much indeed for your valuable research. Can I just clear up a few points?

Firstly, when you mention the ‘usual tune’, or ‘normal tune’ or ‘The Island of St Helena’, do you have in mind the one referenced above by Lighter (29 May), which is the one recorded by Mary Black and Frank Harte?

Second, is this tune the same as (or pretty close to) ‘The three carles o’ Buchanan’, which you say is itself close to ‘Brochan Buirn’.

Third, can you clarify some comments in your posts of 3 June. You first say that ‘The three carles o’ Buchanan’ is different from the ‘normal’ tune (Smith’s of 1824). You then quote Anne Gilchrist as saying that “this (‘Brochan Buirn’) was the tune her mother sang to (? Tannahill’s) The Braes, and that it was different from the ‘normal’ melody.” By “normal melody”, do you mean this time ‘The three carles o’ Buchanan’.

Your last post was - “The 1817 printing of 'Bonapart's Departure for the Isle of St Helena' says the tune is The Braes o Balquidder and as the 'usual' tune wasn't written until 1821 by R A Smith then the 1817 tune must have been The three Carls o Buchannan.” Are you saying that in 1821 Smith wrote the tune for the poem ‘The Braes o Balquidder’ and that this tune became the one sung by Mary Black & Frank Harte, “which is normally sung today”(for ‘Boney on St Helena’) ? But I thought this tune *was* (more or less) The three Carls o Buchannan.

Fourth, you say that Jeannie Robertson conflated the lyrics of ‘The lass among the heather’ by Hugh McWilliams with ‘The braes o’ Balquidder’ by Robert Tannahill. McWilliams intended it to be sung to “Saint Helena”. Can you be a bit more specific as to what this Saint Helena tune was? Jeannie called it ‘The Braes’ and sang it to the tune of ‘The three carles o’ Buchanan’. Is there anything in her song which connects to James Watt’s composition?

I take it that the tune to ‘The braes o’ Balquidder’ must be the this one www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOK3cAZCSoM