Nairn River Banks

DESCRIPTION: The singer wanders by Nairn River banks, where he sees a pretty girl herding her flock and lamenting her soldier. A boy brings her a letter from him, saying he is fighting the French in Spain with Wellington, but hopes to come back to her soon
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: love separation soldier Spain
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1809 - Wellington takes command in the Peninsula (to 1814)
1815 - Battle of Waterloo
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #28, p. 1, "Nairn's River Banks" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 92, "Nairn's River Banks" (14 texts, 10 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 314-315, "Nairn River Banks" (1 text)
Roud #3780
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jock Scott" (tune, per Greig/Duncan6)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Nairn's Bonny Banks
The Banks o' Nairn
The Water o' Nairn
NOTES [75 words]: Ord-BothySongsAndBallads calls this a "real Bothy Song," though he admits that it is found in broadsides. But the texts generally seem to be in very exact, even flowery, English, with not a hint of dialect; I have to think it is in origin a broadside, and the traditional versions close to the original. - RBW
One of Greig's correspondents said the song was "written by a Mr Gordon, whose widow was living in Nairn some 30 or 40 years ago." (1908) - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Ord314

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