Tobar an Dualchais - Kist O Riches

Title - Nairn's River Banks
Contributors - Lucy Stewart
Reporters - Prof. Kenneth Goldstein

Summary - A fragment of a song in which the singer overhears the lamentations of a young shepherdess by a river, as she weeps for her lover long since departed to fight in Spain. A messenger delivers a letter to her, in which her lover sends news of his wellbeing and his longing to return home to his sweetheart:

Dear Kitty, from the coast of Spain this letter I do send
To tell you I am still alive, and hopes that you are the same,
But when to see fair Scotland again I canna tell.


Track Duration (h:m:s) - 00:00:29
Date Recorded - 1960.01.16
Language - English
Genre - Song
Collection - School of Scottish Studies

Track ID - 56092
Original Tape ID - SA1960.147
Original Track ID - SA1960.147.A16
Audio Quality - Fair
Audio Format - R2R

Classification - GD92; R3780;


Recording Location:
  County - Aberdeenshire
  Parish - Old Deer
  Village - Fetterangus


Item Location:
  County - Nairnshire
  Village - River Nairn

Item Notes - Fragment, 1 verse of 4 lines. Sung to the tune of 'Bogie's Bonnie Belle' (Roud Folk Song Index no. 2155). In the complete song, the soldier goes on to describe how the army is fighting the French.
See:
Greig-Duncan, vol. 1, pp. 228-238, no. 92
'Bothy Songs & Ballads' (J. Ord, 1930) pp. 314-315
'Folk-Song of the North-East' (G. Greig, K. Goldstein & A. Argo, 1963 reprint) art. XXVIII


Permanent Link - http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/fullrecord/56092/1


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