Origins: Strathairlie

Subject: Origins: Strathairlie
From: GUEST,justcurious
Date: 04 May 20 - 09:23 AM

Does anyone know the author of the lyrics to this song, "Strathairlie"? I found them in the novel PENNY PLAIN by O. Douglas, in which the song was referred to as "early Victorian." I'm using a couple of lines as a chapter epigraph in a book, and while I could simply credit the source as "Scots Song" as Douglas did at the heading of her chapter, it'd be nice to credit the author of the lyrics if their name is known. I Googled both title and lyrics and couldn't find any hits besides PENNY PLAIN.

O, the lift is high and blue,
And the new mune glints through,
On the bonnie corn-fields o' Strathairlie;
Ma ship's in Largo Bay,
And I ken weel the way
Up the steep, steep banks o' Strathairlie.

When I sailed ower the sea,
A laddie bold and free,
The corn sprang green on Strathairlie!
When I come back again,
It's an auld man walks his lane
Slow and sad ower the fields o' Strathairlie.

O' the shearers that I see
No' a body kens me,
Though I kent them a' in Strathairlie;
An' the fisher-wife I pass,
Can she be the braw lass
I kissed at the back o' Strathairlie?

O, the land is fine, fine,
I could buy it a' for mine,
For ma gowd's as the stooks in Strathairlie;
But I fain the lad would be
Wha sailed ower the saut sea
When the dawn rose grey on Strathairlie.

Subject: RE: Origins: Strathairlie
From: Reinhard
Date: 04 May 20 - 09:31 AM

The Roud Index has:

Strathairly

First Line
    The lift is high and blue, and the new moon glints through
Roud No
    25901
Other nums
Source
    School of Scottish Studies website 'Whalsay's Heritage of Song' (http://www.sssa.llc.ed.ac.uk/whalsay/)
Performer
    Williamson, Willie
Place
    Scotland : Shetland : Whalsay
Collector
    Cooke, Peter
Date collected
    1971
Format
    Sound recording
Src Contents
    Audio / Text

Subject: RE: Origins: Strathairlie
From: GUEST,justcurious
Date: 04 May 20 - 09:56 AM

Would that indicate it's an author-unknown folk song?

Subject: RE: Origins: Strathairlie
From: Reinhard
Date: 04 May 20 - 09:58 AM

Just follow the Whalsay link:

Strathairly

Willie Williamson                [Coming Home]          SA1971.213.11

The words for this sentimental and ultimately sad song were composed by Dinah Maria Mulock Craik (1826-1887), and can be found in Sea and Shore – A Collection of Poems edited by Charles Kingsley, (Boston 1874). Willie Williamson learned the song while in Singapore from a seaman working on a ship of the Blue Funnel Line. He learned it because he liked the tune so much and found the words ‘in some book’.

Strathairly House, a listed building, lies just south-east of the village of Upper Largo with a good view out over the Largo Bay referred to in the song. It’s possible that Dinah Mulock Craig visited Strathairly House for her husband was a Scot who became a became a partner in the MacMillan publishing firm.
Roud no. 25901.

Subject: RE: Origins: Strathairlie
From: leeneia
Date: 04 May 20 - 11:54 AM

Dinah Maria Mulock was a successful English author of the 19th C. I recognize her name from "The Little Lame Prince."