Lyr Add: Young Johnstone Child 88 Cathie MacQueen

Subject: Lyr Add: Young Johnstone Child 88 Cathie MacQueen
From: GUEST,Kevin W. aka Reynard the Fox on Youtube
Date: 06 Aug 25 - 01:15 PM

A very full version of "Young Johnston and the Young Colonel" aka "Young Johnstone" (Child 88) was sung by Cathie MacQueen, a Traveller at Pitlochry, Moulin, Perthshire, Scotland. Linda Williamson recorded it on November 22th, 1975.

The original tape recording can be heard here:
https://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/39283?l=en

I also mirrored (and cleaned it up slightly) on Youtube, here:
https://youtu.be/VvPKoWW5gEY

It's a beautiful song that deserves to be better known. The ballad was only sung by Travellers with connections to the Johnston family. Whether they held onto it because of the name or if there's a real, historic family connection with the song is impossible to say at this point. Betsy Whyte of Montrose, Angus and Jessie MacDonald of Braemar, Aberdeenshire were also recorded singing it.

The episode with Glengyle that happens in Cathie MacQueen's text I've never heard before. Betsy and Jessie didn't have that part of the story, neither did Prof. Child's texts.

I've transcribed the song from the tape recording to the best of my abilities. Two words I wasn't certain on I marked with (?) and a few words that were not sung but seem sensible to me I've also put in brackets. The tune is the same as sung by Betsy Whyte on "Scottish Tradition 5: The Muckle Sangs Classic Scots Ballads" (1992) Greentrax Recordings CDTRAX9005.

Song transcription:

Johnston and the Young Colonel
Was drinking high at wine.
"You will marry my sister
And I will marry thine."

"Oh no, oh no," says the Young Colonel
"Such a thing can never be.
I'll keep her as my housekeeper
When I come o'er the lea."

Now Johnston had a small penknife
He wore down by his side,
He thrust it in the Young Colonel
An ne'er a word (he spoke) more.

Then he looked all around with a tearful eye
To see if anyone eyed him
But who should he spy but the Young Glengyle
With the wind his clothing flying.

Oh draw your sword, Johnston, he says
Or (in) pieces I will break it
For you have killed the Young Colonel
And you have done it falsely.

Oh yield your sword, Glengyle, he says
Do not make me kill you
Though I have killed the Young Colonel
I have not done it falsely.

Oh draw your sword, Johnston, he says
Don't like a dog destice(?) me
For you have killed the Young Colonel
And I've come it to see.

Oh twice Johnston thrust and twice he missed
And twice he could have slain him
But he thrust it through the Young Glengyle
No longer he'd detain him.

Twas on the shore where waves did roar
Where man or bird shall hide him
Twas on the shore where waves did roar
It's there he left him dying.

He mounted up his milk white steed
Rode like lightning o'er the lea
Until he came to his sister Ann
And there alighted he.

"Oh Johnston, dear, I had a dream,
And I hope it's for your good.
They're after you with hounds and hawks
And the Young Colonel is dead."

Oh sister dear your dream is true
Can I come in and rest my head
They're after me with hounds and hawks
And the Young Colonel is dead.

Oh Johnston dear, oh dear Johnston,
Make haste and don't waste time
If you have killed that Young Colonel
You're no dear brother of mine.

He mounted up his milk white steed
And rode like lightning o'er the lea
Until he came to his true love's abode
And he tinkled at the pin.

"Oh Johnston, dear, I had a dream,
And I hope it's for your good.
They're after you with hounds and hawks
And the Young Colonel is dead."

Oh Margaret dear your dream is true
Can I come in and rest my head
They're after me with hounds and hawks
And your own dear brother is dead.

Oh Johnston dear, oh dear Johnston,
Come in and take a sleep
What care I for the Young Colonel
When your own dear body is mine.

They were nor through nor up the stairs,
No time to take a sleep
When four and twenty belted knights
Came charging at the gate.

"Oh did you see a bloody knight
For he was just taking this way
We're after him both day and night
For free he must not be.

Bloody was his hawk, he said
And bloody was his hound,
And bloody was his milk white steed
That carried him o'er the lea.

My parlor's full of gentlemen
My barn's full of hay
I have not seen no bloody knight
I've no room for him to stay.

"Alight, alight, dear gentlemen,
And have some bread and wine.
If you flew so swiftly o'er the lea
He's passed the bridge o Tyne."

"Oh thank you for your bread, my dear
And thank you for your wine,
But I would give all broad Scotland
That your own dear body was mine."

Arise, arise, oh dear Johnston
Arise and breast(?) no more
For there's four and twenty belted knights
A-seeking you at my door.

For Johnston drew his good broad sword,
That lay down by his side,
And he thrust it through his own true love
And she dropped down to the floor.

Oh Johnston, dear, what have you done
You'd no (need) to kill me
For I had given you all my father's land
And all my mother's fee.

"Oh live, oh live, oh dear true love,"
Oh live for one more hour.
And there's not a leech in all the land
That I'll have at your bower"

Oh Johnston dear, how can I live
Even for one hour
Can't you see that my true heart's blood
Goes trickling o'er the floor.

Oh Margaret dear, what have I done
For true this cannot be
I'd rather die along with you
As part once more from thee.

So it's in he pierced his own true heart
And fell down by her side
And clutching his true love in his arms
That's how they both have died.

Summary of the discussion between Cathy MacQueen and the folklorist Linda Williamson after the song:

Cathie MacQueen heard her grandparents and parents sing it. Her father was a Williamson, her grandfather too, and her mother was a Johnston. Linda Williamson says she never heard the song from anyone outside the Johnston family. She speculates if it has a connection to the Johnston family. Cathie doesn't think so, she says that happened centuries ago, in the time of the old knights fighting, like "Young Lochinvar".

Linda asks what Glengyle had to do with the story. Cathie says Glengyle saw what happened. He saw Johnston kill the Young Colonel, and he did it falsely, he didn't own up to it. And Johnston didn't want to fight Glengyle because he knew he had to kill him to be on his way, he didn't want Glengyle to detain him. Twice he thrust and twice he missed Glengyle but he had to kill him in the end.

They flew over the lea like lighting, it means they galloped over the lea fast. An old fashioned expression. Alighted means he came off his horse. Cathie says a lot of people wouldn't understand the old fashioned words in the song now.

Johnston stopped at his sisters house to sleep, to take a rest. But she wouldn't have it. She wanted nothing more to do with him because she loved the Young Colonel, she was going to marry him.

Linda asks why Johnston killed the Young Colonel. Johnston didn't want the Young Colonel to marry his sister, that's why he killed him. Because the Colonel was loving her just as a house keeper. But his sister really did want to marry the Young Colonel, she really loved him.

Then Johnston rode to his true love and she's the Young Colonel's sister. She says she will take him even though he did kill her brother. And then the 24 knights come in.

Cathie says she sang as a child but grew out of it and stopped singing, thinking it wasn't worthwhile. After Linda first visited her she sat down day after day and wrote down the song as she remembered it, piecing it all together.