As I Went in by Inverness-shire

Original Track ID

SA1971.191.7

Original Tape ID

SA1971.191

Summary

In this song, a sailor encounters "a fair young maiden" who "appeared...like the Queen herself". He asks her to marry him, but she declines, saying she prefers the single life. She says she had her chance to marry a boy from Caithness five years previously and regrets not having done so. He tries to appeal to her womanhood: "What makes you differ from the female kind? / And you sae bonny, sae young and handsome / It's to get married you should incline". He says that, had he the chance to be with her somewhere far away, he could convince her to be with him.

Item Notes

Performed live in concert at the 'Scott Conference Ceilidh', held as part of the bicentennial celebrations of Sir Walter Scott's birth, and compèred by Hamish Henderson.

5 verses of 4 lines; the melody is a variant on the Gaelic air 'Mo rùn geal dìleas' (cf. the songs 'The Bleacher Lassie o Kelvinhaugh' and 'When First I Went To Caledonia').

This version of the song was also collected by the singer Norman Stewart, of the group 'Iolair', from a traveller on the ferry 'Loch Seaforth' from Stornoway to Kyle of Lochalsh in March 1968. It appears in 'Folksongs from the Highlands / Orain Thormaid', (compiled by Norman Stewart, ed. Christine Martin, 1987) pp. 28 & 46.

The song appears to be a Scottish version of a longer Irish song, known variously as 'The Forsaken Maiden' (in W. Christie's 'Traditional Ballad Airs' vol. 2, from 1881), 'As I Roved out from the County Cavan', 'O'Reilly from the Co Cavan' [sometimes Leitrim or Kerry], or 'The Phoenix of Erin's Green Isle', usually about a man called James Reilly or O'Reilly. There are also textual similarities with broadside ballads such as 'Young Riley', from c. 1835, in the Bodleian Library Broadsides collection. Contains elements of both Roud 267 and 4720.

See:
'Tocher 18' (1975) p. 66
'Traditional Ballad Airs', vol. 2, (W. Christie, 1881) pp. 242-243
'Folksongs from the Highlands / Orain Thormaid', (compiled Norman Stewart, ed. Christine Martin, 1987) pp. 28 & 46.
'Irish Street Ballads', Colm O'Lochlainn, rep. 1978, pp. 186-187, 227.

Recording Location

Item Location

Language

English

Genre

Song

Collection

SoSS

Classification

R6856

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Good