Rhynie

DESCRIPTION: Singer recalls his first job, working at (or for) Rhynie. The work is ill, the wages small, the rules onerous. The place is miserable, but he dare not leave before the season ends for fear of losing his fee. When it does end, he hits the road cheerfully
AUTHOR: John Riddel ? (source: Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #9, p. 2)
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Ford 1899 series)
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes abuse farming worker
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 207-208, "Linten Lowrin" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 348, "Jock o' Rhynie" (7 texts, 3 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 268, "The Bogend Hairst" (1 text, a short version that might possibly be mixed with something else)
Roud #3090
RECORDINGS:
John Strachan, "Rhynie" (on FSB3)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Barnyards of Delgaty" (tune, chorus, theme)
cf. "Linton Lowrie" (tune)
cf. "The Cockies of Bungaree" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Rhynie's Jock
The Bonny Toon o' Huntly
NOTES [285 words]: I'm sorely tempted to lump this with, "Barnyards of Delgaty" -- they share the same theme, tune and chorus, and are clearly closely related. But there's no overlap in the actual words, and the man from whom, "Rhynie" was collected, John Strachan, also sang a separate version of "Barnyards," so I split them. - PJS
Greig #9 quoting a correspondent Mrs Corbet: "... I may mention that 'Jock o' Rhynie' and 'Bogieside' are both by the same author [John Riddel, again according to Mrs. Corbet, in Greig #28], but am of the opinion that he was not the author of the 'Barnyards o' Delgaty,' but rather that the author of that song has borrowed a good many of the verses belonging to 'Jock o' Rhynie,' with a few alterations." Greig/Duncan3 347 has more comments on the distinction between this song and "The Barnyards o' Delgaty" and, in Greig/Duncan3 348, quotes Duncan's note to Greig agreeing that the songs are not the same.
Greig/Duncan3: "Duncan wrote to Greig on 1 February 1908 saying: 'Your last correspondent's statements (and Mr Milne's [see note to [Greig/Duncan3] 347 'The Barnyards o' Delgaty']) about the song beginning, 'In New Deer pairis,' etc. ending in 'jock o Rhynie' and being different from 'The Barnyards' agree with my own information."
Greig/Duncan3: "Greig notes in Ob. 20 [I don't find it there] that the octogenerian William Forsyth told him 'that he remembers as a boy hearing his mother sing "Jock o' Rhynie." This would carry the song back say to 1830."
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; Mains of Rhynie (348,349) is at coordinate (h2-3,v5) on that map [roughly 31 miles WNW of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: RcRhynie

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