The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #2785   Message #4161363
Posted By: GUEST,Rossey
05-Jan-23 - 06:23 AM
Thread Name: Origins: Loch Lomond
Subject: RE: Origins: Loch Lomond
This was published in the Newcastle Journal 4th Feb 1902.
                              
BONNIE BANKS O’ LOCH LOMOND.” A Lady very kindly sends me 2 version of the above song which I have not seen before; nor many of my readers, mayhap. It is copied from a book of manuscript music about 50 years old. There is no chorus as in the modern version, and the piece bears this record: —“Words by a Lady: arranged by F. Dun.” As my correspondent observes, this version indicates the character of the ‘trouble’” referred to in the second. The song is, in this case, entitled “Bonnie Loch Loman’ and runs as follows:—

By yon bonnie banks and yon bonnie braes,
Where the sun shines sweet on Loch Loman,
Where we hae past sae mony happy days
On the bonnle, -bonnie banks o’ Loch Loman,

0, ye'll tak’ the high road
and I'll tak’ the low road,
And I'll be in Scotland before ye;
But trouble is there, and mony hearts are sair
On the bonnie, bonnie banks o’ Loch Loman.

‘We'll meet where we parted in yon shady glen
On the steep side o’ Ben Loman,
A When'in purple hue
the Hieland hills we view,
And the moon Iooks out frae the gloamin’.

Still fair is the scene, but.ah! how changed are-the hopes we fondly cherished; Like a watery gleam - like a morning dream
On Culloden Field they hae perished.
Ah! many that met and freely did rove,
Now ’mang the brakin are hidin’

An’ men guid and true are hunted frae view,
An’ exile or death are abidin’,
Wi’ his fair youthfu’ face and his native grace,
His plaidie in the breeze wavin’ lightiy,
His buckies shinin’ clear, his very sight did cheer. Oh! handsome were the looks of Prince Charlie!

There is also a early broadside variant Flora's Lament For Her Charlie. reproduced on Mudcat, but not linked to this thread, though it should be.

FLORA'S LAMENT FOR HER CHARLIE

It's yon bonny banks and yon bonny braes
Where the sun shines bright and bonny
Where I and my true love went out for to gaze
On the bonny bonny banks of Benlomond

cho: It's you'll take the high road and I'll take the low road.
And I'll be in Scotland before you.
And I and my true love shall never meet again
On the bonny banks of Benlomond.

It's not for the hardships that I must endure
Nor the leaving of Benlomond
But it's for the leaving of my comrades all
And the bonny lad that I love so dearly

With his bonny lac'd shoes and his buckles so clear
And his plaid o'er his shoulder hung so rarely
One glance of his eye it would banish dull care
So handsome the looks of my Charlie

But as long as I live and as long as I do breathe
I will sing to his memory fairly
My true love was taken by the arrows of death
And now Flora does lament for her Charlie

Broadside version (which might be from Sanderson)
@Scottish

https://digital.nls.uk/broadsides/view/?id=16612 For an image. They date this to the 1840's.