The Canny Shepherd Laddie


Now there's sangs about your sodgers and your sailors by the score,
And of tinkers and of tailors and of other men galore;
But I'll sing ye a wee bit ditty that ye've never heard before,
O' the canny shepherd laddies o' the hills.

They climb oot amang the heather ere it's turned the break o' day,
Through the bent amang the moss hags and the bogs they wend their way,
Whan they see a sheep that's markèd or a tup that's slipped away,
That's the canny shepherd laddies o' the hills.

[Sung by Jimmy White, Yetlington, Northumberland
Recorded by Peter Kennedy
Issued on Caedmon/Topic LP The Folk Songs of Britain Vol. 3 Jack of all Trades]

These two verses, without any chorus, seem to be all that Jimmy White sang for Peter Kennedy; it may be that there were other verses that had the words toots is looking for.