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Lord Lovat

Date
Track ID 25369
Part 1

Track Information

Original Track ID

SA1953.247.B1

Original Tape ID

SA1953.247

Summary

In this ballad, Lord Lovat departs on a long voyage, leaving behind his lover, Lady Nancybell. After years of journeying, he has a foreboding dream, causing him to return at once. When he arrives, he finds ladies weeping, and learns that his beloved has died out of love for him. Weeping, he holds her body one last time.

Jeannie Robertson learned this song around 35 years before from an old woman, possibly named Cameron, and originally from Perthshire.

Item Notes

Six verses; last line of each verse is repeated. In other versions of this ballad, Nancy pleads with her lover not to leave; he sometimes dies at the end of the song out of grief.

See:
Greig-Duncan vol. 6, no. 1232
'Jeannie Robertson: Emergent Singer, Transformative Voice' (J. Porter & H. Gower, 1995) pp. 255-257

Item Subject/Person

Lovat, Lord

Recording Location

County - Aberdeenshire

Parish - Aberdeen

Village/Place - Aberdeen

Language

Scots

Collection

SoSS

Classification

R48 GD1232 C75

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Fair