Lyr Add: Peggy of Greenlaw / Peggy o' Greenlaw

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Peggy of Greenlaw / Peggy o' Greenlaw
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 23 Feb 04 - 08:44 PM

Ord names no tune: no other version, so far as I can tell, has ever been found in tradition. In the previous thread, Dita explained that he set the words to the Tramps and Hawkers tune 30-odd years ago, and that evidently it got taken up by others. Related to Mary Neill (and other spellings)? Beyond a similarity in the first line, no. Completely different story.

Subject: Lyr Add: Peggy of Greenlaw / Peggy o' Greenlaw
From: Joe Offer
Date: 23 Feb 04 - 08:29 PM

While I was looking for something else, I came across this thread on the tune for "Tramps and Hawkers," which is also the tune for "Paddy West," "Lakes of Ponchartrain," and "Peter Emberlay." The thread said that "Peggy of Greenlaw" can be sung to the tune of "Tramps and Hawkers" - but I don't know if it is the traditional tune for this song, or not.
-Joe Offer-

Peggy of Greenlaw / Peggy o' Greenlaw

I am a bold, undaunted youth, George Hewitt is my name,
And Threipland is my dwelling-place, On Deveron's banks my hame;
And there I had a sweetheart, Her like ye never saw,
She's the bonniest lass in a' the place, My Peggy o' Greenlaw.

But woe to yon worthless man! His name it was M'Call,
He took me to the town o' Banff, Unto a ploughman's ball.
'Twas there I met a fair maid, Before I never saw,
She made me to forget my love, My lassie o' Greenlaw.

In six weeks we were married, And that's but four and twa;
The seventh I was lamenting My lassie o' Greenlaw.
My married life soon wearied me, Frae her I've run awa',
And I'll evermore lament for My Peggy o' Greenlaw.

Come, all ye roving young men, A warning tak' by me,
And leave off your late walking, And shun bad company;
Bad company enticed me, And led me first awa',
And it's parted me for ever Frae my lassie o' Greenlaw.

Song with a moral. It was written by Alexander Shaw, for some time beadle at the Parish Church of Alyah, in Banffshire.
source: Ord's Bothy Songs and Ballads, 1930

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Any additional information? Any relation to Mary Nail??