The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #49232   Message #2202197
Posted By: Jim Dixon
26-Nov-07 - 12:20 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Alva woods are bonny...
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Alva woods are bonny...
Alas, Masato's link is dead, and I can't find the text he was referring to. I did, however, find this, in A Week at Bridge of Allan by Charles Rogers, 1853:

"The wife of a miller at Menstry being very handsome, engaged the affections of some of the 'good neighbours,' or fairies, and was, in consequence, stolen away by them. The unfortunate husband was much distressed, more particularly when he heard his lost spouse singing from the air the following verse:

Oh Alva woods are bonny,
Tillicoultry hills are fair;
But when I think o' the bonny braes o' Menstry,
It ranks my heart aye sair!

This ditty she chaunted every day within his hearing, in a tone of the greatest affection. At length, as he was one day riddling some stuff near the door of his mill, he chanced to use a magical posture; the spell that held his wife in captivity was instantly dissolved, and she dropped down from the air at his feet." (Popular Rhymes of Scotland, by Robert Chambers, p. 64. Edinburgh, 1847).