My Faither's Gied's a Horse

Original Track ID

SA1962.70.B2

Original Tape ID

SA1962.070

Summary

In this song a girl lists all the things comprising the tocher [dowry] her family has given her; she'll get work from the horse her father gave her, bacon from the boar her mother gave her, and so on. With this rich bounty, she sees no reason to marry: "It's aa yin tae me / Whether ah mairry noo or no / Mairry or tairry / Or bide as I be."

First heard twenty-eight years previously in Muirkirk, Ayrshire, sung by Jimmy Curr, who heard the song in the hills of Lanarkshire. Curr was a fine singer, organist and pianist who used to play and sing for both the BBC and the 'Boxing Marquess' of Dungavel.

Item Notes

6 couplets with a refrain of 2 lines; song performed twice with interlude for conversation.

Cf. 'My Faither's Gied's a Horse' by William Rae of Letham (SA1952.053), and also 'It's Aa Wan Tae Me' by Sandy Watt of Glenfarg (see 'Come Gie's a Sang' by Sheila Douglas); these three versions all have different tunes, though the lyrics are fairly consistent. In Rae's version, the chorus ends: "I'll bide a wiver [weaver], o".

This song is clearly related to 'Father Had a Knife'/'The Irish Family'/'The Happy Family', a song which has been found throughout Britain, and has appeared in Broadside ballad form since at least the 1830s (see notes to 'Father Had a Knife' on 'Voice of the People' vol. 11, by Reg Hall).

The 'Boxing Duke' referred to is Douglas Douglas-Hamilton (3 February 1903 – 30 March 1973), 14th Duke of Hamilton, who in his youth (under the courtesy title of 'Marquess of Douglas and Clydesdale') was Scotland's amateur middleweight boxing champion.

See:
'Tocher 9' (1973) p. 26
'Come Gie's a Sang' (S. Douglas, 1995) p. 104
'Folksongs of Britain & Ireland' (P. Kennedy, 1975) pp. 607-608

Recording Location

Language

Scots

Genre

Song Information

Collection

SoSS

Classification

R850

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Fair