Scranky Black Farmer, The

DESCRIPTION: "At the top o' the Garioch, in the lands o' Leith-hall, A cranky black farmer in Earlsfield did dwall; Wi' him I engaged a servant to be...." The singer describes the weary work and the bad company; when his time is up, he intends to return to the seaside
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: work farming hardtimes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #89, pp. 1-2, "The Scranky Black Farmer"; "Folk-Song in Buchan," p. 21, ("Wi' him I engaged a servant to be") (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan3 357, "The Scranky Black Farmer" (7 texts, 5 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 213-214, "The Scranky Black Farmer" (1 text)
Roud #2872
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Gap o' the Garioch
At The Tap o' the Garioch
NOTES [69 words]: Greig/Duncan3: "The farmer is named as William Ironside at Gm 2.23dm and as Daniel Skinner at Gm 1.80c. William Ironside farmed at Earlsfield till 1863 and Daniel Skinner from then until 1882."
Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Earlsfield (357) is at coordinate (h3,v5-6) on that map [roughly 28 miles WNW of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Ord213

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