Blue Bells of Scotland, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh where, please tell me where is your highland laddie gone? (x2) He's gone with the streaming banners where noble deeds are done...." He dwells in Scotland at the sign of the blue bell; he wears a plumed bonnet; if he dies, the pipes shall mourn him
AUTHOR: Annie McVicar (Grant) and Dorothy/Dorothea Bland Jordan (?)
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1915 (recording, Inez Barbour), but known to have been in existence by the nineteenth century
KEYWORDS: soldier clothes separation home
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland) US(MA)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 196, "Blue Bells of Scotland" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, p. 387, "The Blue Bells of Scotland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #24, "The Blue Bells of Scotland" (1 text)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 60, "The Blue Bells of Scotland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 280, "The Blue Bells Of Scotland" (1 text)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 739-740, "The Blue Bells of Scotland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 189, "The Blue Bells of Scotland" (notes only)
DT, BLUEBELL*
Roud #13849
RECORDINGS:
Inez Barbour, "Blue Bells of Scotland" (Phono-Cut 5198, c. 1915)
Ebor Morris, "Highland Laddie" (Piotr-Archive #70, recorded 08/15/2021, probably this although the text is truncated)
Ella Logan, "The Blue Bells of Scotland" (Brunswick 8196, 1938)
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y4:010, "The Blue Bells of Scotland," Sharp (London?), 19C; also Mu23-y4:029, "Blue Bells of Scotland," John Ross (Newcastle), 19C
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(083), "The Blue Bells of Scotland," unknown, n.d.
SAME TUNE:
The Pennsylvania Volunteers ("Oh! where, tell us where, are our gallant soldiers gone") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 126)
NOTES [93 words]: The notes at the National Library of Scotland site attribute this to the Napoleonic Wars. There is no evidence for this in the versions I've seen (it mentions "King George," but there was a King George continually from 1714 to 1837). There is a song in the Scots Musical Museum which may be related, but that *predates* the Napoleonic Wars.
According to Jon W. Finson, The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song, Oxford University Press, 1994, Dorothea Bland Jordan, often listed as the author, was an English actress. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: FSWB280A

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