Braes of Balquhidder (I), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer asks a lass to "leave your father and your mither" and join him "on the braes o' Balquither" She refuses. He wins her over and she agrees to "leave acquaintance a' for thee"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 19c (Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia); 1906 (Greig/Duncan4 862A)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection elopement
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greig/Duncan4 862, "The Braes o' Balquhidder" (1 text, 3 tunes)
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, pp. 84-85, "The Braes of Balquhidder" (1 text)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 23, "The Braes of Belquether" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 97-101, "Hiawatha's Wooing"; "Paraphrase of Hiawatha's Wooing"; "Come Live With Me In My Little Canoe"; "The Little Canoe' or Burman Lover"; "The Braes o' Balquither" (1 text from tradition, 1 text said to be a retranslation of a translation into Ojibwe, 1 text of "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love", 1 none-traditional text of that poem, and 1 text of "The Braes o' Balquhither") (pp. 82, 87-89 in the 1919 edition)
DT, BALQUID
Roud #541
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(267), "The Braes O Balquither" ("Frae far beyond the Grampian hills"), unknown, n.d.; also Harding B 25(269), "The Braes o' Gleniffer"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Braes of Balquhidder (II)" (some lines)
cf. "Saint Helena (Boney on the Isle of St. Helena)" (tune, per broadside Bodleian Firth c.16(84))
cf. "The Fair o' Balnaminna" (tune, per Greig/Duncan4)
NOTES [179 words]: Greig/Duncan4 quoting Duncan: "Tannahill wrote a song ["The Braes of Balquhidder (II)"] called by the name beginning, 'Will ye go, lassie, go to the braes o' Balquhidder?' and mentioning 'the deer and the roe', but otherwise different -- except that the stanza (not very usual) is the same. Are Mrs Walker's verses [Greig/Duncan 862A] from the old song, and the basis of Tannahill's?"
This is not the poem/broadside of the same name by Robert Tannahill (1774-1810). That is a lyric: "Let us go, lassie, go To the braes o' Balquither." The singer will build her "a bower By the clear siller fountain" He describes their happy life in winter and summer among the moors "and the wild mountain thyme":
NLScotland, L.C.178.A.2(202), "Braes o' Balquhither," unknown, c.1880
Bodleian, Harding B 11(431), "Braes o' Balquhither" ("Let us go, lassie, go"), W. & T. Fordyce (Newcastle), 1832-1842; also 2806 c.14(84), 2806 c.14(36), Firth b.25(231), Harding B 11(429), Harding B 25(266), Harding B 11(3873), 2806 c.14(109)[partly illegible], Harding B 11(2422), "Braes o' Balquhither." - BS
Last updated in version 6.5
File: SmHa084

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