Lyr Req: Jessie, the Flower o' Dunblane (Tannahill

Subject: Jessie, the flower of Dumbaline
From: Richard
Date: 26 Nov 97 - 05:29 PM

Looking for a number of old songs that were sung during the goldrush in British Columbia of the 1860s. One is called Jessie, the Flower of Dumblaine.

Subject: RE: Jessie, the flower of Dumbaline
From: Bruce O.
Date: 26 Nov 97 - 06:42 PM

Subject: RE: Jessie, the flower of Dumbaline
From: Bruce. O.
Date: 26 Nov 97 - 06:55 PM

The earliest copy I've actually seen is in The Union Imperial Songbook, p. 134. Edinburgh, 1815, where it is "Jessie, the Flow'r of Dumblane".

Several of Tannahill's songs appeared in 1816 in The Pocket Encyclopedia of Scottish, English and Irish Songs, Glasow. Here the title is just "The Flow'r of Dumblane". [Both books in Lib. of Congress, neither with music]

Subject: RE: Jessie, the flower of Dumbaline
From: Richard
Date: 26 Nov 97 - 07:21 PM

Checked my source and yes it is Flow'r of Dumblane. I am looking for it because it was sung in Barkerville, B.C. at the Theatre Royal in July 1871. Thanks for your help.I'll keep looking for the music.

Subject: RE: Jessie, the flower of Dumbaline
From: Murray
Date: 27 Nov 97 - 04:09 AM

My trusty index of Scots songs gives us this:

JESSIE, THE FLOWER O’ DUNBLANE (The sun has gane down o’er the lofty Ben Lomond) Music by R. A. Smith. First published in the Scots Magazine, March 1808. With music in: G. F. Graham (ed.), Wood’s Songs of Scotland (1850), II.88: John Greig, Scots Minstrelsie III 306 (?1900 or so). More recently in "Lyric Gems of Scotland" (London: Bayley & Ferguson, no date), 144. Also in some undated books issued by Whaley, Royce, and Tomlyn. The tune is if I remember in O'Neill's "Waifs & Strays" book by reason of its typically Celtic melody.

Words only in many collections, including: Blackwell's "Book of Scottish Songs" (1875), 156 ["The Flower o’ Dunblane"]; Robert Ford, "Harp of Perthshire" (1893), 408 ["The Flower o’ Dunblane"], etc. etc.

Tomlyn; Whaley, Royce 134 (+ m.); etc.

Subject: RE: Jessie, the flower of Dumbaline
From: Bruce O.
Date: 27 Nov 97 - 02:39 PM

All these years I didn't know that Graham's 'Songs of Scotland' was the same as 'Wood's Songs of Scotland'. I have a reissue of 1853, but forgot that I had the song there. Bill D. also has an edition. I can't do the two staffs on accompaniment in ABC. If the melody part in ABC will satisfy you, let me know and I'll do it tomorrow, but I'm about to leave to gorge myself on turkey now.

Subject: RE: Jessie, the flower of Dumbaline
From: Richard
Date: 27 Nov 97 - 07:10 PM

Bruce O.

Thanks for the offer of the tune. Yes the melody part will be great.We're trying to collect all the songs and music we can of what we know was sung at this time and place. Thanks again for the help.

Subject: Tune Add: JESSIE, THE FLOWER O' DUNBLANE
From: Bruce O.
Date: 27 Nov 97 - 10:11 PM

X:1
T:Jessie, the flower o' Dunblane
N:From Graham's Songs of Scotland, II, 88 (1853)
N:Melody line only
M:6/8
K:G
(G/2A/2)|\
B3/2 c/2 B A3/2 d/2 B|G3/2 F/2 G A/2 F3/2 (G/2E/2)|\
D3/2 E/2 C B,3/2 D/2 G|G A B A2(G/2A/2)|\
B3/2 c/2 B d3/2 B/2|G F G A/2 F3/2 (G/2E/2)|\
D3/2 E/2 C B,/2 D3/2 G|A3/2 E/2 F G2 B|\
B3/2 G/2 A B e3/2 d/2|B G A B/2 G3/2 B|\
A3/2 F/2 G A3/2 d/2 B|A/2 F3/2 E D2 D|\
G3/2 B/2 A B G3/2 A/2|B d B c/2 A3/2 B|\
c3/2 d/2 e d/2 B3/2 G|A3/2 E/2 F G2 (G/2E/2)|\
D3/2 E/2 C B,/2 D3/2 (G/2A/2)|B d B c/2 A3/2 B|\
c3/2 d/2 e d/2 B3/2 G|A3/2 E/2 F G2z2|]

Subject: Lyr Add: JESSIE, THE FLOWER O' DUNBLANE (Tannahill
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 16 Nov 11 - 11:34 PM

From The Universal Songster; or, Museum of Mirth...Vol. 1 (London: John Fairburn et al., 1825), page 266:


JESSIE, THE FLOWER O' DUNBLANE.
(Robert Tannahill.)

The sun has gane down o'er the lofty Ben Lomond,
And left the red clouds to preside o'er the scene;
While lanely I stray in the calm simmer gloaming,
To muse on sweet Jessie, the flow'r o' Dunblane.
How sweet is the brier, wi' its saft faulding blossom,
And sweet is the birk, wi' its mantle o' green;
Yet sweeter and fairer, and dear to this bosom
Is lovely young Jessie, the flow'r o' Dunblane.

She's modest as ony, and blythe as she's bonny,
For guileless simplicity marks her its ain;
And far be the villain, divested o' feeling,
Wha'd blight in its bloom the sweet flow'r o' Dunblane.
Sing on, thou sweet mavis, thy hymn to the e'ening,
Thou'rt dear to the echoes o' Calderwood glen;
Sae dear to this bosom, sae artless and winning,
Is charming young Jessie, the flow'r o' Dunblane.

How lost were my days, till I met wi' my Jessie,
The sports o' the city seem'd foolish and vain;
I ne'er saw a nymph I would ca' my dear lassie,
Till charm'd wi' sweet Jessie, the flow'r o' Dunblane.
Though mine were the station o' loftiest grandeur,
Amidst its profusion I'd languish in pain;
And reckon as naething the height o' its splendour,
If wanting sweet Jessie, the flow'r o' Dunblane.