Pitcaithly's Wells

DESCRIPTION: "It fell aboot the Lammas time A fine time o' the year..." that the singer goes out and sees the girls "drink the waters clear." His eye lights on one in particular. He asks if she will marry; she refuses at first, but after a time of courting, consents
AUTHOR: Sixth Earl of Kinnoul (c.1660-1719) (source: Hecht-Herd)
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd, according to Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
KEYWORDS: love courting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #20, p. 1, "Pitcaithly's Well"; #21, p. 3, "Pitcaithly's Wells"; #22, p. 2, "Pitcaithly's Wells" (1 text plus 2 fragments)
Greig/Duncan4 925, "Pitcaithly's Wells" (8 texts plus 5 verses on pp. 578-579, 9 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 133-134, "Pitcaithly's Wells" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Hans Hecht, editor, Songs From David Herd's Manuscripts (Edinburgh, 1904), #110 pp. 255-257,329-330, "Pitcaithly Green" (1 text) [Not yet indexed as Hecht-Herd 110]
Roud #5549
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Clyde's Water" (tune, per Greig/Duncan4)
NOTES [130 words]: Ord-BothySongsAndBallads reports a legend that this was written, perhaps c. 1700, by the Earl of Kinnoul in honor of Jeannie Oliphant of Pitcaithly. This sounds like the usual sort of pretty legend. - RBW
Greig: "Pitcaithly, celebrated for its mineral wells, is situated near Bridge of Earn in Perthshire." - BS
Hecht: "In Herd's MS. there is the following remark under the title of the poem: 'This song was made by the auld Earl of Kinnoul (grandfather of the present Earl) upon Jean Oliphant, a daughter of the Laird of Pithcaithly and Kilcow, afterwards married to Mr. Bruce, a minister in Fife -- short time after the mineral of Pithcaithly was discovered.' We have thus to consider the sixth Earl of Kinnoul as the author of the poem (born about 1660, Earl 1706, died 1719)." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Ord134

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