The Banks of Sweet Dundee

Original Track ID

SA1952.11.B12 (B21)

Original Tape ID

SA1952.011

Summary

A farmer's daughter is orphaned and goes to live with her uncle. She falls in love with his ploughboy but a wealthy squire is also courting her.

Willie Mathieson had this song from Willie Mutch at Drakemyre when he was about eight or nine years old. Willie suffered from ill health as a boy with rheumatic fever at age twelve, probably caused by his ditching job started at age eleven.

Item Notes

Text and music transcribed in School of Scottish Studies. 2 verses. Not in Willie Mathieson's MSS. In the full ballad, Mary fights for her right to her true love. Cf. 'English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians' (Cecil Sharp, vol. I, p. 399).

See also:
Greig-Duncan vol. 2, pp. 137-145; and cf. response song vol. 5, pp.
478-479

Recording Location

Language

Scots

Genre

Song Information

Collection

SoSS

Classification

R148 GD224 LM25

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Good