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Yowe-Buchts

Date August 1954
Track ID 10442
Part 1

Track Information

Original Track ID

SA1954.95.A2

Original Tape ID

SA1954.095

Summary

In this song, a young shepherdess is milking her sheep at the yowe-bucht [milking fold], and is ravished by a passing nobleman who "speir'd at no man's leave" [asked no man's permission]. When she returns home to her father, she describes her ordeal: "For there was a tod [fox] among our yowes / An an awfa tod was he / I would rather he had left my pet lamb alone / And took that other three."

Some time after, the nobleman returns and carries her off saying, "I think I have got about the fairest young girl / 'at's in a' this north counterie."

Maggie Stewart learned the song from her father when she was a little girl.

Item Notes

10 stanzas of 5 lines, except verse 1 (4 lines), verse 2 (7 lines) and verse 4 (8 lines); sung to the tune of 'Johnnie o Braidesley' / 'Johnny the Brime' ('Johnie Cock', Child 114), and very similar to Jeannie Robertson's melody for that song (see Bronson).

Not explicit here is that the girl falls pregnant.

This version is almost identical to broadside ballads published in the last half of the nineteenth century (see NLS), except that the choice of melody has necessitated the repeat of the last line of each verse as a refrain (as in 'Johnnie o Braidesley').

See:
Greig-Duncan vol. 4, pp. 268-275
'Tocher' 5 (1972) pp. 164-165
'Scottish Ballads' (E. Lyle, 1994) pp. 151-155
'The Scottish Minstrel' vol. 2 (R. A. Smith, 1821) p. 45
'Book of Scottish Ballads' (A. Whitelaw, 1845) pp. 288-289
'Ancient Scottish Ballads' (G. R. Kinloch, 1827) pp. 160-169
'Ballads of Scotland' vol. 2 (W. E. Aytoun, 1858) pp. 364-365
'Ancient Ballads and Songs' vol. 1 (P. Buchan, 1828) pp. 167-175
'Minstrelsy Ancient & Modern' (W. Motherwell, 1827) Melody no. 10
'Traditional Ballad Airs' vol. 1 (W. Christie, 1876) pp. 126-127, 284
'Ancient & Modern Scottish Songs' vol. 1 (D. Herd, 1869, 1973) pp. 98-99
'Last Leaves of Traditional Ballads' (A. Keith & G. Greig, 1925) pp.
150-153
'Andrew Crawfurd's Collection of Ballads & Songs' vol. 2 (E. Lyle,
1996) pp. 135-137
'Andrew Crawfurd's Collection of Ballads & Songs' vol. 1 (E. Lyle,
1975) pp. 78-81, pp. 125-129
'Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads' vol. 3 (B. H. Bronson & F.J.
Child, 1959) pp. 9-10
National Library of Scotland, Broadside Ballad collection,
L.C.Fol.70(2b) (1860-1890) & L.C.1270(004) (1840-1850)

Recording Location

County - Aberdeenshire

Parish - Aberdeen

Village/Place - Aberdeen

Language

English, Scots

Collection

SoSS

Classification

R92 GD838 C217

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Fair