Queen Among the Heather

Original Track ID

SA1955.148.A7

Original Tape ID

SA1955.148

Summary

A rich young man is out hunting when he meets a beautiful barefoot maid tending sheep and is instantly smitten. She is not richly dressed but she has long golden ringlets. He asks her why she is out alone and she tells him her father is away and she is looking after the flock. He ask her to be his, to lie on a bed of feathers and wear silks and satin. She tells him his offer is good but she thinks he is joking because he is a rich squire's son and she is a poor shepherd's daughter, though if he had been a shepherd or a ploughman's son, she would have loved him. He has been to balls and halls in London and Balquhidder but she is the loveliest girl he has ever seen. They sit down together, leaving the cattle to stray while they court.

Belle Stewart heard the song from her brother, Donald MacGregor, and from a cousin.

Item Notes

7 verses.

This song is a broadside derivative of a piece by James Hogg (1770–1835) entitled 'Song I' and published by him in 1801. In discussing 'The Queen Among the Heather', Hamish Henderson remarked on Hogg's piece but assumed it was a transitional form modelled on an old ballad; it seems more likely that Hogg's song was loosely inspired thematically by other traditonal songs, but was essentially an original composition. The broadside press of the 19th century regularly lifted songs from poets' publications and amended the language for wider appeal, making them easier to sing and better in keeping with the popular folk idiom. This is evident when comparing Hogg's song to a broadside called 'The Shepherd's Daughter', published in Dundee in the late 19th century. Chris Wright presents a detailed discussion of this process of adapting songs from poets to sell as street literature, including several songs to be found on this website.

See:

James Hogg, 'Song I', 'Scottish Pastorals, Poems, Songs, etc., Mostly Written in the Dialect of the South (Edinburgh: John Taylor, 1801), pp. 56-58.

Hamish Henderson, notes to 'The Stewarts Of Blair' LP (Topic RecoSrds 12T138, 1966)

'The Shepherd's Daughter' (Dundee: Poet's Box, before 1885), Dundee City Library Local History Centre, Lamb Collection 421(60).

Chris Wright, 'Forgotten Broadsides and the Song Tradition of the Scots Travellers' in 'Street Ballads in Nineteenth Century Britain, Ireland, and North America', Steve Roud and David Atkinson (eds) (Farnham: Ashgate, 2014), pp. 77-104.

Recording Location

Language

Scots

Genre

Song Information

Collection

SoSS

Classification

R375 GD962

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Good