Lyr Req: Legend of Duncan Campbell (M MacArthur)

Subject: Lyr Req: Duncan Campbell, Marg MacArthur's song
From: Susan of DT
Date: 17 Jun 06 - 02:34 PM

There are at least two songs about the highlander Duncan Campbell who died at Fort Ticonderoga in the French and Indian War. The Piper's Refrain is in the Digital Tradition, but the one by Margaret MacArthur is not. She recorded it on a record I do not have (Vermont Ballads and Songs on Whetstone). While the Piper's Refrain tells the second half of the story. Margaret's tells the first half of the story. I would like the words to Margaret's song.

It is a wonderful story. Duncan Campbell hears a knock on his door and lets in a friend who says he killed a man in a brawl and is hiding. Swear on your dirk not to tell anyone I am here. He so swears. The next knock on his door is from a group of men who tell him his cousin is dead and they are searching for the murderer. Duncan cannot tell them he is there. The cousin's angry ghost comes to his dream and says they will meet at Ticonderoga. Years go by. Duncan's regiment is called up to fight. They approach a fort "the French call Carillon, but the Indians Ticonderoga". His comrads try to keep the Indian name from him, but he finds out and knows he will die in the battle. He does.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Duncan Campbell, Marg MacArthur's song
From: Peace
Date: 17 Jun 06 - 02:59 PM

The Legend of Duncan Campbell

A Scottish legend of the 1758 Battle of Ticonderoga. © 1989 Margaret MacArthur (Dulcimer)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Duncan Campbell, Marg MacArthur's son
From: Peace
Date: 17 Jun 06 - 03:02 PM

www.margaretmacarthur.com/disc_b&b.html

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Duncan Campbell, Marg MacArthur's son
From: Susan of DT
Date: 20 Jun 06 - 09:04 PM

Anybody have the words?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Duncan Campbell, Marg MacArthur's son
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 20 Jun 06 - 10:14 PM

Aargh! I just typed it all, checked it all, thought I was clicking submit, and it's gone!

I'll try again.

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: Lyr Add: THE LEGEND OF DUNCAN CAMPBELL (MacArthur)
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 20 Jun 06 - 10:31 PM

From the cd's accompanying booklet:

The Legend of Duncan Campbell
An ancient legend retold and set to music by Margaret MacArthur

He was a lord of high degree,
Was Duncan Campbell of Inverawe.
There came a knock one stormy night,
As he sat alone in his Great Hall.
There came a stranger to the door,
All covered with blood was he.
"I've killed a man all on this night,
Avengers now do follow me."

"Shield me, shield me from all harm,
Oh give me hospitality.
Swear, oh swear it on your dirk."
With him the laird did then agree.
He scarcely had him hid away,
Two men came ringing at the bell.
"We seek the murderer
Of your cousin Donald Campbell."

"He is not here," he lied to them,
Thinking upon his bitter oath.
That night to his bedside there came
His cousin Donald's bleeding ghost.
Cried, "Do not shield the murderer,"
Ere he vanished from sight.
Duncan bade the unwelcome guest
To be gone at the first light.

"Shield me, shield me from all harm,
Oh give me hospitality.
You swore, you swore all on your dirk,"
With him the laird did then agree.
His heart was sore, but an oath he'd sworn.
That night his cousin in all his gore,
Said, "Farewell, Inverawe, farewell,
Till we meet again at Ticonderoga."

He wrote it down, this Ticonderoga,
A strange name unknown to all.
The Black Watch regiment it called to him,
He left his home, he left Argyll.
The years did come, the years did go,
His son joined the company.
In seventeen hundred and fifty-eight,
Oh they sailed for Amerikee.

The Black Watch marched to fight the French,
From Lake George toward the border,
To the fort the French called Carillon,
But the Indian guide called Ticonderoga.
Though Duncan Campbell did not hear,
His friends kept the dread name from him
His bloody cousin did appear,
"We meet again at Ticonderoga."

They reached the fort, the lines were drawn,
French gained o'er British and American.
And then they charged, the Black Watch charged,
With all the wildness of the Highlands.
Retreat was sounded once, twice, thrice,
Ere they harkened to the call.
Duncan and his son lay dead,
"Farewell House of Inverawe."

"Farewell, Inverawe, farewell.
Farwell many a Highland soldier."
His friends remembered the oft told tale,
"Till we meet again at Ticonderoga."
"Farewell, Inverawe, farewell.
Farewell a thousand Highlanders slain."
In the clouds above far off Argyll,
They saw that battle on Lake Champlain.

    In Duncan Campbell, the first of three songs dealing with war [on this recording], we are told of a legend closely tied to the British general James Abercromby's defeat at Ticonderoga in 1758, during the French and Indian War. Duncan Campbell was one of the 1,100 soldiers in the Black Watch Regiment, part of an army of 15,000 commanded by the inept Abercromby. Following his orders, his troops again and again attacked the fort, which was held by 3,600 French under Montcalm. The British lost 1,600 men, including more than half the Black Watch Regiment. Among the dead was Campbell, to whom the strange name "Ticonderoga" had been spoken 18 years before by the ghost of his cousin.

    When my husband and I visited the House of Inverawe in Argyll, Scotland, in 1984, the present Mrs. Campbell showed us the room in which Duncan was sleeping when he saw the ghost. And in nearby Inverary, we walked in the castle grounds from which observers had seen the terrible battle reflected in the clouds.

    Katie Brown of Winooski sent me a Scottish version of this legend. It is also discussed in Ralph Nading Hill's book, Lake Champlain.

------

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Duncan Campbell, Marg MacArthur's son
From: Susan of DT
Date: 21 Jun 06 - 05:33 AM

Thank you, Becky. We had the Piper's Refrain, but not this one in the DT. What is the tune?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Duncan Campbell, Marg MacArthur's son
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 21 Jun 06 - 09:30 PM

She doesn't cite any trad. tune, and I don't recognize it from anything, so I assume it was her own. Transcribing it will take a bit more time.

~ Becky