Fa Saw the Country Geordies?
Track Information
Original Track ID
SA1960.167.A10
Original Tape ID
Summary
A song set at the time of the Crimean War:
Fa saw the country Geordies?
Fa saw them gyaan awa?
Fa saw the country Geordies
Gaun tae the Russian Waar?
Some o them got beets [boots] an stockins,
Some o them got nane ava,
Some o them got beets an stockins,
Comin fae the Russian Waar.
Fa saw the country Geordies?
Fa saw them gyaan awa?
Fa saw the country Geordies
Comin fae the Russian Waar?
Item Notes
1 verse of 8 lines, followed by first half of verse again. This is one of many successive variants modelled on the Jacobite song 'Wha Wadna Fecht for Charlie?', which is sung to the old air 'Will you Go and Marry Katie'; the earliest known of these variants is 'Saw'd Ye the Cotton-Spinners', which Hamish Henderson dates to the time of the 1848 uprising in Scotland (as part of the Chartist movement seeking political and social reform), but which may refer to riots earlier that century. A later song called 'Wha Saw the Forty-Second' appears to refer to the Black Watch regiment of the Boer War era (1880–1881). Lucy Stewart's variant falls between these two, apparently describing country lads going off to fight in the Crimean War (1853-1856). Henderson also remarks on a ribald WWI successor to these 19th century songs. For a detailed discussion and performance of these songs by Hamish Henderson, see tape SA1951.24.
See also:
Greig-Duncan vol. 8, p. 180, no. 1628; pp. 250-251, no. 1718
'Children's Rhymes' (R. Ford, 1904) p. 32
'One Singer, One Song' (E. McVicar, 1994) pp. 164-165
'Jacobite Songs and Ballads' (G. S. MacQuoid, 1887) p. 170
'A Ballad History of England' (R. Palmer, 1979) pp. 115-116
'Scottish Nursery Rhymes' (N. & W. Montgomerie, 1946) pp. 92-93
'The Jacobite Relics of Scotland' 2nd series (J. Hogg, 1821) pp. 100-101
Recording Location
County - Aberdeenshire
Parish - Old Deer
Village/Place - Fetterangus
Language
Scots
Genre
Collection
Source Type
Reel to reel
Audio Quality
Good