Straloch

DESCRIPTION: "All you that are at liberty, I pray you all draw near, And listen to my story, it's what you soon shall hear. It was at the last Martinmas, I went unto the fair, I did engage wi' Straloch, to work the second pair."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming work
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 382, "Straloch" (1 fragment)
Roud #5919
NOTES [140 words]: The first two lines of this four-line fragment are shared with one version of "Erin's Lovely Home"; see Bodleian, 2806 c.8(297), "Erin's Lovely Home," unknown, no date: "All you that are at liberty, I pray you all draw near, And listen to my story, it's what you soon shall hear." The next two lines are typical of the beginning of a song about being hired at a feeing fair to work a farm; for example, "I engaged wi Jamie Broon, In the year o' ninety-one Tae ging hame an ca' his second pair, And be his orra man." ["The Guise o' Tough"]
Candlemas [February 2], Whitsunday [May 15], Lammas [August 1] and Martinmas [November 11] were the four "Old Scottish term days" "on which servants were hired, and rents and rates were due." (Source: Wikipedia article Quarter days).
The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan3 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3382

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