: JACOBITE MINSTRELSY, WITH NOTES ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE TEXT; AND CONTAIN IN G HISTORICAL DETAILS IN EEXATION TO €&e H?mt*e of §ttwvt, FfiOM 1640 to 1784. <£Ia$gofo RICHARD GRIFFIN & CO. MDCCCXXIX. (j^MAr'^r v II Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from National Library of Scotland http://www.archive.org/details/jacobiteminstrelOOjaco THE GLEN COLLECTION F SCOTTISH MUSIC Presented by Lady Dorothea Ruggles- Brise to the National Library of Scotland, in memory of her brother, Major Lord George Stewart Murray, Black Watch, killed in action in France in 1914. 28th January 1927. 'What Uwe. quo ' //i'- iiiiJr MHuUc rises m the sun sae 1 Jit, the Grd c mu lew; quo (he uru/i.i 'It's mu tun bonrw home o' Airh/.' Published, bv R. Griffin k C° Glasgow. 1828. ?* 3 f JXL J-> '" WAES OF SCO'Vl..^>" Glasgow, Published by R. Griffin fc C° L828 .'nalvu hv R KaiftVm*. X JACOBITE MINSTRELSY; WITH NOTES ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE TEXT, AND CONTAINING HISTORICAL DETAILS IN RELATION TO THE HOUSE OF STUART, FROM 1610 TO 1784. PRINTED FOR RICHARD GRIFFIN AND CO. MDCCCXXIX. OF SCOTLAND ^DiNBURQH. ROBERT MALCOLM, PRINTER. ; PREFACE. In Scotland, of late years, a very laudable anxiety has been shown to collect and preserve every relic of past times, connected in any shape with the literary or political history of the country. Much skill, industry, and per- severance have been displayed in pursuit of this object; and in several departments the efforts of individuals have been eminently useful. In no instance, however, do these appear to have been exerted to better purpose, or with greater success, than in collecting the ballads, songs, and legends of the Jacobites,—the productions of those nameless bards who so long sung the Stuarts and their cause, and who were wont, with irresistible effect, to rouse and inflame the partizans of that family. So keen, indeed, has been the zeal or the patriotism of those who undertook the task of gathering together the widely scattered remains of the Jacobite muse, that they may almost be said to have done her more than justice. All sorts of collections have been anxiously sought after and procured manuscripts innumerable have been examined and collated ; every stray verse or fragment ; iv PREFACE. has been treasured with enthusiasm ; and hardly any thing worth perpetuating appears to have escaped their indefatigable search. These, again, have been embodied in various laborious publications ; and, at length, we have only to turn to the volumes of the collectors, particu- larly those of Ritson, Cromek, Cunningham, and the Ettrick Shepherd, in order to find that the Minstrelsy of the Jacobite times forms one of the most valuable and interesting portions of our national song. Most of the productions which have been thus carefully collected, enjoyed at one time a very extensive popularity ; but it is a peculiar feature in their character, that the interest which they were originally written to inspire, is little diminished, either by change of circumstances or the lapse of time. They are still read with enthusiasm by all ranks in Scotland, and ad- mired as the very best compositions we possess of the lyrical kind. Several causes concur to produce this general partiality in their favour but none, perhaps, more strongly conduces to it than the decided excellence of the pieces them- selves. The efforts of the Jacobite muse seem, in almost every instance, to have been faithful transcripts of the feelings of their authors—the results of genuine passion working on heated imaginations, or the overflowing bitterness of exasperated, indignant, and disappointed minds. They were always the bursts, too, of temporary and spontaneous excitement. Hence, whether they pourtray the animated details of a battle, satirize the character of a state measure, ridicule the personal qualities of an enemy, or bewail the calamities of a friend, it is done with a PREFACE. v truth, energy, and feeling, that at once imparts kindred emotions to the breast of the reader, and leaves an impression on his mind that nothing can efface. Perhaps, therefore, it is not too much to assert of them, that as effusions of real passion, they are unrivalled by any similar compositions, either ancient or modern. Nothing can exceed the force and variety of their humour, the keenness of their wit, the vigour of their invective, the buoyancy of their hope, and not unfrequently the pathos of their despair. Though much of the pleasure which is felt in Jacobite song may thus be ascribed to the force of its own peculiar charms, it cannot be denied that a large share of the interest which belongs to it is owing to the cause which it sung, and the events and recollections with which it is associated. On this account the greater portion of the pieces hitherto publish- ed, possess a value in the eyes of most Scots- men, altogether independent of their poetical characteristics. Not that the principles of the Jacobites, or the objects for which they con- tended, are now held in particular veneration, for these, it is well known, warred alike against common sense and the natural liberty of man- kind ; * but that there is felt in almost every * The extravagant nature of Jacobite principles maybe best ascer- tained by contrasting them with those of the Whigs and Tories, as they have been defined by Mr Hume the historian. " A Tory," says he, in one of his essays, " may be defined in a few words:—to be a lover of monarchy, though without abandoning liberty, and a parti- xan of the family of Stuart ; as a Whig may be defined to be a lover of liberty, though without renouncing monarchy, and a friend to the settlement in the British line. A Jacobite seems to be a Tory who has no regard to the constitution, but is either a zealous partizan of ; . vi PREFACE. breast a warm and irresistible admiration of the devoted constancy and heroic valour dis- played by the partizans of the House of Stuart, and a melancholy sympathy for the misfortunes that pursued them. In spite of the equivocal motives which are known to have actuated many of those who took the lead in that luckless cause, we still admire the integrity of purpose as well as pathetic heroism displayed by the great body of its followers. We forget their mistaken views, their pernicious enthusiasm and only think of their romantic courage, their persevering fidelity, and their unshaken forti- tude, through all the vicissitudes that marked their attempts to recover what they, at least, thought their own and their monarch's right. But it is chiefly in contemplating the reverses of the Jacobites, and especially the grand catastro- phe that followed their short lived triumphs in 1745, that we find our sympathies most power- fully awakened in their behalf. However much they may have erred both in politics and religion, we cannot but remember with pity the dreadful penalty which was paid for their attachment to them ; their powerful and warlike bands broken up and dispersed, the frightful military execution by fire and sword inflicted on their country, their wives and children exposed to absolute moHarchy, or at least willing to sacrifice our liberties to the obtaining the succession in that family to which he is attached." During the whole of the period to which the Minstrelsy of this vo- lume refers, the people of England were divided into Whigs, Tories, and Jacobites ; though the two last were closely allied to each other But in Scotland, there were only two parties. All the Presbyterians, the great body of the people, were Whigs ; and as the Episcopalians had no worldly motive for dissembling their sentiments, having been dispossessed at the Revolution, they were all nonjurors, and open and avowed Jacobites. PREFACE. vii the horrors of famine, and they themselves, when they escaped the axe of the executioner, driven into hopeless exile. Remembering those accumulated ills, all their faults, and all the vices of their cause, are lost in commiser- ation of their fate; and to this feeling of compassion for the wretched, must we ascribe that general prepossession which still exists for every thing connected with the Jacobite cause and Jacobite times. Hence, also, the univer- sally popular character of Jacobite Song. Independent, however, of the hold which these relics of the past thus have on the sym- pathies and affections of Scotsmen ; and, be- sides the charm which they possess as spirit- ed, graphic, and touching specimens of the muse, their practical use in illustrating many events of the period to which they refer, stamps them with an additional value, and renders them of no little estimation in the eye of the histo- rical reader. In fact, when arranged consecu- tively, and with attention to chronological order, these songs and fragments form a delightful commentary on the memoirs of the time, and may almost be said to constitute an epitome of Jacobite history. Subservient in some degree to this end, and with a view to make them as useful as agreeable, have the pieces in the present collection been selected and ar- ranged, and, on reference to their titles, it will be found that, taken in connection with the notes, they present such a series of political and personal details as may well serve the purpose of more legitimate memoirs. In this point of view, the Jacobite Min- strelsy is chiefly of importance from the date viii PREFACE. of the abdication of James the Second; for although there were numerous party songs in relation to the Stuarts at a much earlier period, few or none can be considered ex- clusively Jacobite, till that family was shut out from the succession to the throne.