Doon the Moor

Subject: Doon the Moor
From: Abby Sale
Date: 10 Dec 03 - 12:14 PM

There are four or so versions in Digital Trad but none help my question:

I'm listening to Peter Bellemy's lovely version of "Doon the Moor."
I can't _quite_ tell just what she's doing there with the dew among the heather. It's kinda interesting that every of the many versions of the song have her doing something different - mostly all Mondegreens of each other.

1) Anyone know fer sure what Bellemy sings?

2) Can any refer me to a Scottish version other than "Skippin' Barfit?"

2 1/2) Has 'Comin thro' the craigs o' Kyle,' been collected by anyone besides Burns?

Bellamy sings:
One morn in May when fields were gay
Serene and pleasant was the weather,
I spied a lass and a very bonnie lass;
She was [....] from the dew from among the heather
        Down the moor.

Some others versions:
I trudged along with the lilt of a song
My heart as light as any feather
Until I met with a very bonnie lass
She was brushing the dew frae amang the heather,
Doon the moor,....

I rode along to the huntsman's song
My heart bein' light as any feather,
Until I met with tha wee lass
A-brushin' the dew from off the heather
Doon the moor etc.

As I was walkin' doon yon hill
It was in a summer evenin',
It was there I spied a bonny lass
Skippin' barfit through the heather.

As I roved along with my hunting song
My heart as light as any feather.
I met a pretty maid upon the way,
She was tripping the dew down from the heather

One morn in May the fields were gay
Serene and pleasant was the weather
I spied a lass and a very bonny lass
She was scoopin dew in among the heather
Down the moor

Notes from Sam Henry's Songs of the People:
Other titles: "Among....," "The Blooming....," "Bonnie Lassie amang...," "Doon (Down) the Moor," "Heather on the Moor," "Herding Lambs amangst...," "The lass amang...," O'er the Muir;" cf. "Far up Yon Wide and Lofty Glens," "Queen amang...," "Skippin Barfit thro the..."

Subject: RE: Doon the Moor
From: Jeri
Date: 10 Dec 03 - 01:10 PM

It sounds like he's singing 'She was swoopin' the dew from among the heather'.

Swoopin'? I dunno...it's an Irish version. Maybe it's a compination of 'scooping' and 'sweeping'.

Subject: RE: Doon the Moor
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 10 Dec 03 - 01:45 PM

Yeah. swooping. No idea what it means...but it's quite clear why, and what she did in the heather afterwards.

Subject: RE: Doon the Moor
From: Jeri
Date: 10 Dec 03 - 02:38 PM

Excuse my accidental 'p' up there please.
You know, I've had 'Wake the Vaulted Echoes' for a while and just now realised that disk #3 wasn't simply a music CD. I always wondered why track 1 seemed empty when I played it in my car.

Subject: RE: Doon the Moor
From: Abby Sale
Date: 10 Dec 03 - 03:34 PM

Jeri, you gotta take your p's where you can.
If your disk 3 doesn't work well on your brand of computer, the'll send you a replacement. Nice outfit, Free Reed.

Ah! More so on my copy of Mr Bellamy, _Mr Kipling & the Tradition_, it does sound like swoopin'. Swooping is sweeping in Scottish - but mostly as in what the broom-guys do in curling.

'Brushing the dew out of the way as she runs through the heather?' Does that make sense?

Subject: RE: Doon the Moor
From: GUEST,MCP
Date: 11 Dec 03 - 05:40 AM

Here's the version from Wake The Vaulted Echoes (originally released on Fair Annie. Original source is given as Eddie Butcher, but the notes say that on the version on Songs And Rummy Conjouring Tricks Bellamy credits Geordie Hanna. (I'll look up that and the Eddie Butcher version later).

Mick

---

DOWN THE MOOR

One morn in May when fields were gay,
Serene and pleasant was the weather,
I spied a lass and a very bonny lass,
She was swooping the dew from among the heather,
Down the moor.
  In among the heather, o'er the moor, through the heather.
  I spied a lass and a very bonny lass
  She was swooping the dew from among the heather
  Down the moor.

Barefoot was she but come-lie dressed,
And on her head neither hat nor feather,
With her skirts tucked neatly around her waist
As she tripped through the blooming heather
Down the moor.

So I stepped up to this fair young maid,
"Come tell me love why come you hither".
She answered me, "Down by the bonny burn side
I am herding all my ewes together,
Down the moor".

So I courted her that livelong day,
My heart as light as any feather,
Until the beams of the red setting sun
Come slanting down in among the heather,
Down the moor.

<Instrumental break>

She said "Young man I must away
For my ewes are straying from each other.
But I'm as loathe to part with you
As the bonny wee lambs are to part their mother.
Down the moor".

Then up she got and away she run,
Her name and place I did not gather.
But if I was the king I'd make her me queen,
That bonny little lass I met among the heather,
Down the moor.


Source: Peter Bellamy - CD "Wake The Vaulted Echoes" (originally on Fair Annie). Original source given as Eddie Butcher

Subject: RE: Doon the Moor
From: Abby Sale
Date: 11 Dec 03 - 10:35 AM

GUEST,MCP, thanks. Where do you get the text transcribed by yourself? I don't find any printed in the CDs. (In the penultimate verse, I think that would more likely be 'loath' than 'loathe.' FWIW. For the little it's worth.)

I hadn't caught the two different sources.

Subject: RE: Doon the Moor
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Dec 03 - 11:10 AM

Well, I've always heard "smoothing the dew", but I've never listened that closely. I'll do so shortly...

Subject: RE: Doon the Moor
From: Ringer
Date: 11 Dec 03 - 11:12 AM

Sorry, last was me.

Subject: RE: Doon the Moor
From: GUEST,MCP
Date: 11 Dec 03 - 01:00 PM

Abby

The transcription was mine (and thanks for the spelling correction - too hasty typing in from the CD this morning). Sadly, I can't lay my hands on either Rummy Conjouring Tricks or I Once Was A Daysman (although I'm sure I had both - I can find other tapes/records by both, just not those two); so if anyone else can supply those, please do.

With regard to your second question, Roud lists 49 entries for the song, including versions from Jeannie Robertson, Belle Stewart and Sheila Stewart. Printed Scottish versions are easily available in Ord BSaB (My Lovely Nancy), Kennedy FoBaI (version of Queen Among the Heather from Jeannie) and Greig-Duncan Vol 5.

Mick

Subject: RE: Doon the Moor
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 11 Dec 03 - 01:11 PM

Listening to Wake the Vaulted Echoes, I hear "scoopin' dew", for whatever that's worth.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Doon the Moor
From: GUEST,JohnB
Date: 11 Dec 03 - 03:21 PM

My ears hear, swoopin or scoopin, which is as close to what I sing as anything else. Depends on the day I guess, close enough for folk, ere ere.
JohnB

Subject: RE: Doon the Moor
From: GUEST,Murray on Saltspring
Date: 11 Dec 03 - 11:35 PM

As for Abby's question 21/2, here's the text of the "Craigs o Kyle" song which people may be curious about.





COMIN' THRO' THE CRAIGS O' KYLE


1.        I was comin' thro' the Craigs o' Kyle,

           Among the bonnie, blooming heather,

        'Twas there I met a bonnie lass

           Smuggling whisky in a blether.


       Chorus—O'er the muirs among the heather,

                   O'er the muirs among the heather,

                'Twas there I met a bonnie lass

                   Smugglin' whisky in a blether.


2.        Says I, my lass whaur is your Stell,

           O'er hill or dale? come, tell me whither.

        My Stell it is between my thighs,

           And it's covered ower wi' blooming heather.

                        Chorus.


3.        I laid her doon among the broom

           Upon a bunch o' blooming heather,

        I clapped my worm in her stell,

           And she drank the drink we brewed the gither.

                        Chorus.


4.        And as she lay she sung a sang

           Till the echoes rang a mile and farther,

        But aye the outcome o' her sang

           Was shove it in a wee bit further.

                        Chorus.


5.        She's grewn awfu' stoot since syne,

           Her apron strings scarce meet the gither,

        She's grewn thicker roon' the wame

           Since she cuddled me among the heather.

                        Chorus.


6.        Her mither says she's lain wrang

           Wi' some young man among the heather,

        But her faither says she's got a stang,

           And it's affected a' the lassie's blether.

                        Chorus.


7.        I've wandered far and near since syne,

           And met wi' lassies braw and clever,

        But a lass like her I never saw

           That cuddled me among the heather.

                        Chorus.


8.        Before I finish up my sang

           Let's drink a bumper a' the gither,

        For there's naething wrang wi' a guid Scotch dram

           Or a bonnie lass among the heather.

                        Chorus.


_____________________________________________________________________________

From Merry Muses c. 1900 (Murison Coll., Dunfermline), pp. 101-2; never since reprinted. Tune is of course "O'er the muir amang the heather", of which song this is an erotic parody (see note to "Act Sederunt o' the Session"). The parody is quite close, and hence more satiric. This item is the only new one in the c. 1900 volume, probably added (as Legman suggests, MMC 65 p. 287)   
by the printer. In 4.3, outcome should be owrecome, i.e. "burden" (as in the original). Chorus will repeat, as does the original, the last 2 lines of the preceding stanza. Stell = "still"; the metaphoric "worm" is a spiral or coiled tube connected with the head of the still, in which the vapour is condensed. There are echoes of other songs in this, e.g. cf. 6.1 with "Ye Hae Lien Wrang, Lassie"; 6.3, the same, last line.
As you may gather, Burns has nothing to do with this, as far as we can tell.

Subject: RE: Doon the Moor
From: nutty
Date: 12 Dec 03 - 04:21 AM

These two broadsides of "O'er the muir among the heather" from the Bodleian Museum show where both the above versions may have come from

Version 1

Printer: Walker (Durham)
Date: between 1797 and 1834
   
         Imprint: Walker, Printer, Durham. Printer's Series: (73).
         Illus. Ballads on sheet: 2

Version 2

Printer: Harkness, J. (Preston)
Date: between 1840 and 1866
   
         Imprint: John Harkness, Printer, Preston. Printer's Series: (381).   Illus. Ballads on sheet: 2

Subject: RE: Doon the Moor
From: Abby Sale
Date: 12 Dec 03 - 06:52 PM

Hi, Murray. No, actually. I hadn't looked in MM yet. I had the "parlor" Burns version (Dick #356, from Scots Mus. Museum) which he says he collected. I'm impressed you have two (or more) copies. I only have the Legman MM 65 with the obscure (ie, unindexed) note you cite but not the song text at all. He does gloss 'blether' as blader, however. It's a much better text than the parlor one (which is very close to the second Bodley one nutty cites), I think.   I also think I'll learn that MM one, too.

But yes, nutty, the first Bodley one, the Walker, does give me a lot of sense to the piece. There "I" 'brush the dew from the blooming heather.' That's just what I wanted to know.

MCP: Thanks for the Greig-Duncan ref. I never would have found it there otherwise. There must be something demonic about a song with 49 versions and 49 separate titles. :-) BTW, I didn't mean your spelling, both 'loath' & 'loathe' are correct. Two different words. I think this usage is loath.

Good. Thank you all.

Subject: RE: Doon the Moor
From: Compton
Date: 15 Dec 03 - 03:49 PM

List awhile to the fragrany June Tabo's version....and indeed Brass Monkey (M.Carthy) as well!