Here is the set as printed by Edith Fowke:


THE SCARBOROUGH SETTLER'S LAMENT

(Words: Sandy Glendenning, c.1870. Tune: William Marshall, c.1781)

Away wi' Canada's muddy creeks and Canada's fields of pine!
Your land of wheat is a goodly land, but ah! it isna mine!
The heathy hill, the grassy dale, the daisy-spangled lea,
The purling burn and craggy linn, auld Scotia's glens, gie me.

Oh, I wad like to hear again the lark on Tinny's hill,
And see the wee bit gowany that blooms beside the rill.
Like banished Swiss who views afar his Alps with longing e'e,
I gaze upon the morning star that shines on my countie.

Nae mair I'll win by Eskdale Pen, or Pentland's craggy cone;
The days can ne'er come back again of thirty years that's gone,
But fancy oft at midnight hour will steal across the sea:
Yestreen amid a pleasant dream I saw the auld countrie.

Each well-known scene that met my view brought childhood's joys to mind,
The blackbird sang on Tushy linn the song he sang lang syne,
But like a dream time flies away, again the morning came,
And I awoke in Canada, three thousand miles 'frae hame'.

The Penguin Book of Canadian Folk Songs. London: Penguin Books, 1973. No. 29. pp.76-77. Reprinted from Edith Fowke & Alan Mills, Canada's Story in Song, Toronto, 1960. pp.94-95.

Edith Fowke commented: "...Sandy Glendenning, who settled in Scarborough (now part of Metropolitan Toronto) in 1840, described his feelings in these verses, setting them to the first part of the old Scots air, Of A' the Airts the Wind Can Blaw. The song had some currency throughout Ontario, elsewhere being called simply A Scottish Settler's Lament. Sheila Bucher, longtime editor of the 'Old Favourites' page in the Family Herald, says her grandmother sang it to the tune of The Irish Emigrant's Lament."

The example printed was not noted from tradition; the text was taken from the 'Old Favourites' page in the Family Herald, and the tune is a simplified form of Of A' the Airts, changed from 4/4 to 6/8 time; in fact this title derives from the first line of the lyric Robert Burns set to it, which he called I love my Jean (Scots Musical Museum, III, 1790, no. 235, pp.244-5); its original title was Miss Admiral Gordon's Strathspey, and it was written by William Marshall, appearing in his Collection of Strathspey Reels, 1781. The tune given in the DT is exactly as in the Penguin collection.

Number 4521 in the Roud Folk Song Index, where only this example is listed at present.

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Added by Joe Offer from The Penguin Book of Canadian Folk Songs:

29. The Scarborough Settler's Lament Fowke and Mills 94 Although most Canadian songs are Irish-oriented, Scotland also provided many of our early settlers. Some left the Highlands after the Jacobite Rebellions, and more followed when sheep enclosures drove small farmers from their land. They settled in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, and in Glengarry, Perth, Dundas and Scarborough townships in Ontario. Many of them were homesick for their native land, and Sandy Glendenning, who settled in Scarborough (now part of Metropolitan Toronto) in 1840, described his feelings in these verses, setting them to the first part of the old Scots air, Of A' the Airts the Wind Can Blow. The song had some currency throughout Ontario, elsewhere being called simply A Scottish Settler's Lament. Sheila Bucher, longtime editor of the ‘Old Favourites’ page in the Family Herald, says her grandmother sang it to the tune of The Irish Emigrant's Lament.