Hi,

This is a nice version of Foolish Young Girl which is fairly old- dating back to the early 1900s. It was corrected by an MS sent by Cathlin Macaulay at School of Scottish Studies. I've changed only two words of the MS much of it was the same. [MS has Ugie's Bank (4th stanza, I had Logie's Bank- and at the end MS has o' and I have altho')

Willie Mathieson was born in 1879 in Ellon, Aberdeenshire, and worked as a farmservant on various farms in Banffshire. An amateur folksong collector in his own right, he amassed an enormous corpus of songs over his lifetime, which is now deposited in manuscript form in the School of Scottish Studies. He died in 1958.

Summary - In this song of lost love the young girl mourns for Jamie and bewails her foolishness in falling in love with an Irish boy, though he spoke broad Scots when he courted her. He promised love, fidelity and a home, but now he is in a tavern courting someone else who has more money, whom he will leave when money and beauty runs out. She says that she will die for love and asks for a turtle dove to be placed on her grave.

The Foolish Young Girl- sung by Willie Mathieson of Ellon, Aberdeenshire. Recorded by Hamish Henderson in 1952. This variant includes stanzas from three different songs. Text proofed with MS provided by Cathlin Macaulay and Caroline Milligan of the School of Scottish Studies.

1. I love you Jamie, I love you well,
I love you better than tongue can tell,
I love you better than you love me,
My darlin' Jamie, ye're dear to me.

2. What a foolish young girl was I, I, I,
To fall in love with an Irish boy
An Irish boy tho' gin he be
He spake braw[1] Scotch when he courted me.

3. How oft my Jamie when in your arms[2]
You said I filled your heart with charms,
And when you gained my youthful heart
You said death only would us part.

4. How oft on Logie's banks we've met
In Strichen Toon we've wandered late;
How oft my Jamie I've heard you tell
It's in this house that we will dwell.

5. There is a tavern in this toon[3],
My lover gangs there and sets him doon,
He take this strange girlie on his knee
Because she's got more gold than me.
[But] her gold will waste and her beauty fade,
And very soon she'll be left like me.

6. The meeting's a pleasure but parting's a grief[4],
An inconstant lover is worse than a thief.
A thief he will rob you take all that you have,
An inconstant young man can you lay you in your grave.

7. You'll dig my grave baith long and wide,
. . .
And in the middle a turtle dove,
That you may know I died for love[5].

8. What a foolish [young] girl am I, I, I,
To fall in love with an Irish boy
An Irish boy tho' gin he be,
He spake braw Scotch when he courted me.

1. braid
2. stanzas 3 and 4 transcribed from MS
3. town/down
4. from Inconstant Lover
5. this stanza is incomplete and singer's melody and text are confused-- the last line was given awkwardly.