This Is No My Ain House (I)

DESCRIPTION: "O this is no my ain house." "A carle came ... claim'd my daddy's place." The "cringing foreign goose" seized it. "Was it foul, or was it fair, To come a hunder mile and mair, For to ding out [beat] my daddy's heir, And dash him with the whiggin o't?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (Scots Musical Museum, #216)
KEYWORDS: political Jacobites home royalty children
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol1 37, "This Is No My Ain House" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, pp. 413-414, "This Is No My Ain House" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 119, "This Is Nae My Ain Hoose" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume III, #216, p. 225, "This is no mine ain house" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST GrD1119 (Partial)
Roud #3790
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "This Is Nae My Plaid" (tune)
NOTES [217 words]: Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol1 refers to "the allegory here of Scotland losing its rightful owner." - BS
A pretty thin allegory. The interesting question is whether it refers to the Williamite succession of 1689 or the Hannoverian of 1714.
Ewan MacColl, in "Songs of Two Rebellions," argues for 1714. Certainly some of the allusions argue that way -- e.g. the "cringing foreign goose" certainly sounds like Madame Kielmansegge, one of George I's mistresses, widely known as "the Goose." Thackerey (quoted by Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson, Blood Royal, the Illustrious House of Hannover, Doubleday, 1980, p.26), described her as follows: "The Countess [Kielmansegge was George's Countess of Darlington] was a large-sized noblewoman, and this elevated personage was denominated the Elephant."
On the other hand, the reference to "com[ing] a hundred mile and mair" could refer either to William III's invasion of 1688 or George III's arrival in 1714. Both are hundreds of miles from London, but from the Netherlands to the Thames is only about half the distance from Hannover to England, and it's all sea distance. Most of the distance from Hannover is over land; the fastest route there (via the North Sea and the Weser) is probably three times the distance from the Texel to the English coast. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: GrD1119

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