Katie Bairdie

DESCRIPTION: "Katie Bairdie had a coo, Black and white about the mou, Wasna that a dainty coo, Dance, Katie Bairdie." "Katie Bairdie had a hen, cackled but and cakled ben...." "Katie Bairdie had a cock...." "Katie Bairdie had a grice...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1824 (Mactaggart, under the title "Dolly Beardie," according to the Opies)
KEYWORDS: animal dancing nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1657, "Katie Bairdie" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #154, p. 2, ("Dolly Bairdie hid a coo") (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 98, "Charley Warlie had a cow" (3 texts)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 92, "(Katie Beardie had a cow)" (1 text)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #76, "Willy Foster" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, KITBEARD
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 35, "Katie Beardie"
Roud #8945
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Whistle Owre the Lave O't" (tune, per Greig/Duncan8)
cf. "Kitsy Katsy Had a Canoe" (1 text)
NOTES [115 words]: The Opies note various references in pre-nineteenth century sources to a rhyme about "Kette Bairdie" or "Katherine Bairdie," but none of these seem to have an associated text, so I have not cited them. It is possible that they refer to other songs than this.
A "grice" is a pig, usually a young pig, often a suckling pig. - RBW
Chambers: "There is tolerable proof that this song dates from at least the beginning of the seventeenth century. 'Katherine Beardie' is the name affixed to an air in a manuscript musical collection which belonged to the Scottish poet, Sir William Mure of Rowallan, and which, there is good reason to believe, was written by him between the years 1612 and 1628." - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: MSNR092

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