The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #54108   Message #836061
Posted By: masato sakurai
27-Nov-02 - 07:08 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Drumdelgie
Subject: Lyr Add: DRUMDELGIE
From THIS PAGE:

DRUMDELGIE

There's a fairmer up in Cairnie,
Wha's kent baith far and wide
To be the great Drumdelgie,
Upon sweet Deveronside.
The fairmer o' yon muckle(1) toon
He is baith hard and sair,
And the cauldest day that ever blaws
His servants get their share.

At five o'clock we quickly rise
And hurry down the stair;
It's there to corn our horses,
Likewise to straik their hair.
Syne, after working half-an-hour
Each to the kitchen goes,
It's there to get our breakfast,
Which generally is brose. (2)

We've scarcely got our brose weel supt,
And gi'en our pints(3) a tie,
When the forman cries, 'Hallo, my lads!
The hour is drawing nigh'.
At sax o'clock the mull's put on,
To gie us a strait wark;
It tak's four o' us to mak' to her,
Till ye could wring our sark. (4)

And when the water is put aff;
We hurry doon the stair,
To get some quarters through the fan
Till daylicht does appear.
When daylicht does begin to peep,
And the sky begins to clear,
The forman he cries out, 'My lads,
Ye'll stay nae langer here!
There's sax o' you'll gae to the ploo,
And twa will drive the neeps(5),
And the owson(6) they'll be after you
Wi' strae raips(7) roun' their queets(8).'
   But when that we wer gyaun furth,
And turnin' out to yoke,
The snaw dank(9) on sae thick and fast
That we were like to choke.
The frost had been sae very hard,
The ploo she wadna go;
And sae our cairting days commenced
Amang the frost and snow.

Our horses being but young and sma'
The shafts they didna fill,
And they aft required the saiddler(10)
To pull them up the hill.
But we will sing our horses' praise,
Though they be young and sma',
They far outshine the Broadland's anes
That gang sae full and draw.

Sae fare ye weel, Drumdelgie,
Far I maun gang awa';
Sae fare ye weel, Drumdelgie,
Your weety weather and a'.
Sae fareweel, Drumdelgie,
I bid ye a' adieu;
I leave ye as I got ye --
A maist unceevil crew.

(1)big farm, (2)oatmeal and water, (3)laces, (4)shirt, (5)turnips, (6)oxen (7)straw ropes, (8)ankles, (9)came down, (10)whip.
Drumdelgie Farm is near Huntly, on the Banff-Aberdeenshire border.

John Strachan's "Harrowing Time" is on Portraits: John Strachan: Songs from Aberdeenshire [with sound clip]. "Drumdelgie" is a bothy ballad, and the tune is used for other songs as well. This is the info from folk trax:

DRUMDELGIE - "There's a farmer up in Cairnie" - Bothy Ballad - aka "The Hash o' Drumdelgie" - ROUD#2180 - RYMOUR Club 1906 1 pp24-25 Gavin Greig/ 2 pp191-192 - GREIG FSNE #4 - GREIG-DUNCAN 3 #384 (21var) - ORD BSB 1930 p209-211 15v/m - KERR's Cornkisters pp52-53 - MacCOLL SS 1953 from Ord - BUCHAN 101SS 1962 from Ord - WILLIAMSON BFT 1976 p48 m/o - DOUGLAS Come Gie's a Sang 1995 pp90-91 -- Davie STEWART (voc/ acc) rec by PK, Dundee, Angus 1954: FOLKTRAX 180/ CAEDMON TC 1144/ TOPIC 12-T-159 - Jimmy McBEATH rec by Alan Lomax 1951/ / ROUNDER 82161-1834-2 2002/ FOLKTRAX 059/ rec by Seamus Ennis, Banffsh 7/7/52: RPL 18126/ TOPIC 12-T-173 1967 "Wild Rover No More" - John MEARNS (unacc) rec 25/2/54: RPL 20083 - Dave CAMPBELL: TOPIC 12-TPS-166 1966 - Norman KENNEDY: TOPIC 12-T-178 1968

On the tune, see these threads:

Tune Add: & Lyr add: Gentleman Soldier

LYR ADD: The gentleman soldier

~Masato