To hear ance mair the blackbird's sang,
To wander birks and braes amang,
Wi' friens and fav'rites, left sae lang,
At the back o' Bennachie.
How mony a day, in blithe spring-time,
How mony a day, in summer's prime,
I wil'd awa' my careless time
On the heights o' Bennachie.
Ah! Fortune's flowers wi' thorns are rife,
And walth is won wi' grief and strife—
Ae day gie me o' youthfu' life
At the back o' Bennachie.
Oh, Mary! there, on ilka nicht,
When baith our hearts were young and licht,
We've wander'd whan the moon was bricht
Wi' speeches fond and free.
Oh! ance, ance mair where Gadie rins,
Where Gadie rins, where Gadie rins—
Oh! micht I dee where Gadie rins
At the back o' Bennachie.
"The air," communicates the reverend author of this song, "is undoubtedly old, from its resemblance to several Gaelic and Irish airs. 'Cuir's chiste moir me,' and several others, might be thought to have been originally the same in the first part. The second part of the air is, I think, modern." The Gadie is a rivulet, and Bennachie a mountain, in Aberdeenshire.
[14] In the "Cottagers of Glendale," Mr H. S. Riddell alludes to two of Tweedie's brothers, who perished among the snow in the manner described in that poem. The present memoir is prepared from materials chiefly supplied by Mr Riddell.
[15] At the request of one Roger, a music-master in Edinburgh, who had obtained a copy of the first two stanzas, a third was added by Mr Robert Chambers, and in this form the song appears in some of the collections. Mr Chambers's stanza proceeds thus:—
In southern climes the radiant sun
A brighter light displays;
But I love best his milder beams
That shine on Scotland's braes.
Then dear, romantic native land
If e'er I roam from thee,
I'll ne'er forget the cheering lay;
O Scotland's hills for me!
[16] See Lockhart's "Life of Sir Walter Scott."