"'When Ye Gang Awa,' Jamie"

Bruce Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 3098, 12 September 1899, Page 8

"'When Ye Gang Awa,' Jamie"

- ■■ v — <• : — — .■ Of the circumstances which gave rise to this well-known ballad there is little authentic information tobeobh tamed, not much more than the names of the two persons or actors in the drama being preserved. Different versions vary, but are substantially the same. All convey the impression that the hero, who afterwards discloses himself as the owner of broad lands in Perthshire, wooed and won a fair maiden who loved him, and dreamed not, in her innocence and ignorance, of the high raDk of her lover. The time draws near when he must return to his own country, so, to try her faith and love, he informs her of this intended journey, and then startles her by proclaiming that he has " a wife and bairnies three" waiting for him elsewhere. One version sings of Germany as the country to which he was bound, but an older one has it simply " ayont the seas," which could apply to Scotland quite well, the latter country being often approached by sea from London, the scene of the song. Like a thunderbolt the news of the lover's falseness falls upon her, and she lays her heart bare in a few despairing words which reveal the depth of her affection for him. He soon repents of his strafe agem, ancl, thoroughly convinced of her love, he hastens to cay : " I hae nae wife at a', Jennie," and proceeds to explain that he has great wealth and lands, all of which he is now ready to lay at her hands. '.' Blair-in-Afchol's mine, Jeannie, Bonnie Dsnkel' is mine, lassie ; St. Johnston's Bower and Huntingtower, And all that's mine is thine, lassie." The hero of this popular Perthshire ballad is James, the second Duke of Atholl, but in reality tbere is not tbe disparity in rank between him and the heroine that one naturally expects to hear from the stress which he lays upon his possessions, leaving the inference to be drawn that Jeannie is poor, and has nothing to give but herself. She was no penniless maiden, but was the youthful widow of a rich proprietor named Lannoy, near London, and the sister of a Surrey baronet, Sir James Fredericks. Thus it will be seen Bhe occupied no very inferior place in society, although not his equal in rank, yet perhaps 150 years ago there might appear a greater difference between them than is visible cow. The Duke probably met her while on a visit to London, where the Highlands? from which he came, would be considered as almost inaccessible, and Blair Atholl and Duakeld towns in a foreign country. However, he married her, and brought her to his domains in the far Nonh. Of the two daughter 8 of the marriage, one succeeded as Baroness Strange (Baron Strange being a title in the Atholl family, and the one under which Duke of Atholl sics as a British peer in the House of Lords), and married her cousin, the third duke. The authorship of this ballad ia unknown, being thereby unlike another one in which the same duke figureß, ha having the distinction of appearing as heio in two popular songs. The heroine is another Jeannie, and it is a curious fact that the tvo courtships of fche one man should both be celebrated in song. In the second ballad he doeß not occupy so romantic position as in the first, for it : .s there said that empty titles won the fair lady. " For lack of gold ehe has left me, 0, I And of all that's dear ahe'a bereft me, 0 j She rae forsook for Atholl'e Duke, And to endless woe ehe hae left me, 0." ' i Dr Austin, the author of the song, was the son of the laird of Kilspindie, in the carse of Gowrie, and held a flourishing practice in Edinburghwhere.he afterwards became a celebrated physican, notwithstanding his blighted hopes. His cousin, Jeannie Drummond, whose fickleness he bemoans, was tbe belle of the country side. Tne familiea of the youth and the maiden were near neighbors, and there were, in addition to the ties of blood, close friendship and close proximity. Under these circunr stances, he was conversant with her charms, and lived in the expectation that one day she might become his wife ; but his case only proved the truth of the adage : " There's many a slip 'twist cup and lip." Jeannie Drammond was present at an assembly held at Perth in 1748, at which all the beauty, nobility, and the elite of the country appeared. Amongst the more conspicuous was the Duke of Atholl. The noble duke had some years previous lost his wife, the Jeannie of "Huntingtower." Elderly though he was now, he ftt Q»ee succumbed to the charms

of Jeannie Drummond, of Meggirich. His wooing waafsbiort, bat successful, and in the following year she became 'his.' wife,.' preferring the " star and garter ' to ;•" youth, a true and faith - ful heart." ltis probable enough, though, in spite, of Dr Austin's lament, no promise of marriage existed between them, and therefore .the lady was quite at liberty to bestow her hand on the suitor who pleased her moat. The doctor, chagrined and disappointed, published the song " For lack of Gold " in the 'Charmer in 1751, but it is consoling to discover that, although he sings mournfully " No cruel fair shall ever move my injured heart again to love," and hints at emigration, he found a ; more excellent way. A fair comforter soon soothed hia woea, and hia " endless sorrows " were forgotten when Lord Sempell's daughter consented to become his bride. After the duke's death in 1764, the widow married Lord Adam Gordon, son of the Duke of Gordon, and Commander of the Forces in Scotland. She died in 1795 in Holyrood, and was buried in Southeak. — * Crlasgcnr Weekly Herald.'