An old saying, both in song and as a phrase. It occurs in two songs in D'Urfey's Pills to Purge Melancholy, 1709, one of which is,
Tom he was a piper's son,
He learned to play when he was young;
But all the tune that he could play
Was over the hills and far away.(Vol. iv.)
Doctor Marigold's version is probably original:
North and South and West and East,
Winds liked best and winds liked least,
Here and there and gone astray,
Over the hills and far away.
Over the Water to Charlie (O.C.S. 27)
Tune in Johnson's Musical Museum, Vol. II, 1788.
Come boat me o'er, come row me o'er,
Come boat me o'er to Charlie,
I'll gie John Brown another half-crown,
To boat me o'er to Charlie;
We'll o'er the water, we'll o'er the sea,
We'll o'er the water to Charlie,
Come weal, come woe, we'll gather and go,
And live or die wi' Charlie.
Another Jacobite song was the cause of an amusing incident at Edinburgh. On the occasion of one of his visits there Dickens went to the theatre, and he and his friends were much amazed and amused by the orchestra playing ‘Charlie is my darling’ amid tumultuous shouts of delight.
Paul and Virginia (S.B.T. 7, L.D. 13)
J. Mazzinghi.