Lyr Req: Alva woods are bonny...

Subject: Title Request for Lyrics
From:
Date: 05 Jul 02 - 01:01 AM

I have some lyrics, but would like to know if anyone out there happens to know the title to this possibly Scottish Tune!

Alva woods are bonny,
Tillicoultry hills are fair;
But when I think o' the bonny braes o'Menstrie,
It makes my heart aye sair.

Subject: RE: Title Request for Lyrics
From: masato sakurai
Date: 05 Jul 02 - 05:02 AM

It's a song in The Ochil Fairy Tales: The King of the Fairies by R. Menzies Fergusson.

~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Alva woods are bonny...
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 26 Nov 07 - 12:20 AM

Alas, Masato's link is dead, and I can't find the text he was referring to. I did, however, find this, in A Week at Bridge of Allan by Charles Rogers, 1853:

"The wife of a miller at Menstry being very handsome, engaged the affections of some of the 'good neighbours,' or fairies, and was, in consequence, stolen away by them. The unfortunate husband was much distressed, more particularly when he heard his lost spouse singing from the air the following verse:

Oh Alva woods are bonny,
Tillicoultry hills are fair;
But when I think o' the bonny braes o' Menstry,
It ranks my heart aye sair!

This ditty she chaunted every day within his hearing, in a tone of the greatest affection. At length, as he was one day riddling some stuff near the door of his mill, he chanced to use a magical posture; the spell that held his wife in captivity was instantly dissolved, and she dropped down from the air at his feet." (Popular Rhymes of Scotland, by Robert Chambers, p. 64. Edinburgh, 1847).

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Alva woods are bonny...
From: Peace
Date: 26 Nov 07 - 08:03 PM

See "The King of the Fairies."

The following is from that link:

Oh, Alva woods are bonny,
Tillicoultry hills are fair;
But when I think o' the bonny braes o' Menstrie,
It makes my heart aye sair.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Alva woods are bonny...
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 27 Nov 07 - 11:50 AM

Anybody got a link to a YouTube video that demonstrates the magical posture?










just kidding!