This material draws on Annie's contributions to GD Vol 6

GD Vol 6 Annie Shirer sangs

Sample lyric lines are shown in italics

1079 The Sailor Boy – ‘I heard a maid in Bedlam sae mournfully did sing, 10 verses {From my father. It was one of his favourite songs]

1084 In My Love’s company – Twas neither hills nor valleys I set my love upon – 2 x 8 line verses

1086 My love he stands in his stable door, combing down his yellow hair, one verse only

1088 Molly O – The primrose of Ireland – unhappy young MacDonald is dying for love

1093 Oh Wait, My Mother, Ere I Tell You This – 2 x 3 live verses, sole version

1108 Since My Dear Laddie’s Gane Fae Awa – Oh, it’s a weary world this – 5 verses, sole version

1109 Here’s Tae The Kaim And The Brush – 2 verses 5 lines each, sole version
Here’s tae the kaim and the brush, here’s to the crub and the saddle
And here’s tae yon bonny laddie that carries the keys o the stable
Here’s tae them that’s black and tarry, deep in love but daurna marry
If he was here that’s far awa, I wadna smile tae you ava

1110 Here’s A Health To Our Sailors – one verse, sole version

1127 Aff Wi The Auld Love – 7 verses
I gaed awa tae the market, and there I met in wi my Jean
And there I fell in wi my Betsy, jist think hoo I stood them between
For they laughed and they jeered at me too

1133 Rarey’s Hill (The Countin Mill) – 7 verses
O may he never prosper, o may he never thrive
Come all ye Cruden lassies a warning take frae me, be sure and choose good company or ye go to Dundee
Beware o yon butcher laddie doon by yon Baxter mills, for fear he lead you on your way to the back o the coortin mill

1136 Begone Bonnie Laddie – 8 verses [From Mr I Sangster, carpenter, Kininmonth. Picked up when a little girl more than 20 years ago. Not complete. Has fine rollicking tune.]
The trees they are high but the leaves are a rotten, though I be forsaken I’m nae heartbroken
As lang’s there’s anither bonnie laddy to be gotten, so begone bonnie laddie for I carena

1140 Sweethearts I’ve Got Plenty – 3 verses

1145 Go And Leave Me – 5 verses [From Mrs Oliphant Belfalton]
Once I loved you with fond affection, all your thoughts they were for me
Until a dark girlie did persuade you, and then you thought no more of me
Go and leave me if you wish to, never let me cross your mind
If you think you love another, go and leave me, never mind

1148 The Sinnerin O Me And My Love – 3 verses [A fragment I learned from father.]
The burnie that my lovie cross, in red blood may it run
May a funeral leave their hoose every year till they bury a the five

1149 The Flower Of Northumberland – 12 verses [standard text sung by Enoch Kent] [This is Annie’s octogenarian uncle’s version. Her father used to recite it, adding the moral ‘Aye tak care o theysel'.

1151 Caroline Of Edinburgh (Toon) – 8 verses [From my father’s servants 25 years ago]

1155 The Collier Lad – 8 verses
In Marno (Kilmarnock) town there lived a maid [Billy refuses to marry her, she drowns herself and he finds her body]

1158 The Gypsy’s Warning – 2 verses, sole version
Never lay your love on the top of a tree

1159 The Laird O Aboyne – 16 verses

1163 False Henry – 4 verse, sole version
They’ll leave you brokenhearted, a poor mother, but no wife

1169 The Ale House – one verse, 8 lines [From a fellow Thomson. He is now in Canada]
Tavern in this town /An inconstant young man will lay you in your grave

1181 Wounded In Love – 12 verses, sole version [I heard at a meal and ale, 16 years ago, and it caused some amusement as the singer (a young girl) had been ‘wounded in love’.]

1186 It Was Not For The Diamond Ring – 9 verses, sole version
They tell me that some smiling dame of lineage like thine
Will take thee by the fickle hand thy falsehood placed in mine

1188 Down By Yon Riverside – 1 verse

1201 She Put Her Hand Into Her Bosom – 1 verse, solo version
And pulled out the gay gold ring I gave her at the ball

1202 False Mallie - 11 verses [I learned from Mr William Dunbar, about 25 years ago. He is now farmer of Chapeltown, Fraserburgh, and would have a lot of tunes.]
And aye he cried unto the captain, oh will you no bring Mal to me
That I may grind her down to mortar, and blow her ashes over to Spain

1226 Annie Of O Loch Na Ram (Lochryan) – 13 verses [a rich version] [From a ballad book. Long ago]
Tak doon, tak doon the masts o gold, set up the mast of tree
Ill sets it a forsaken lady tae sail sae gallantly
Tak doon, tak doon the sails o silk, set up the sails of skin
Why should there be such joy without when there is such grief within

1245 The Sailing Trade – 11 verses
Father build me a boat / [Billy lost at sea]

1254 The Old Rustic Bridge – 3 x 8 line verses + 4 line chorus, sole version [From Mrs Lovie, New Leeds. Recently. (a ballad slip 1914)]

1259 A lone Widow (By The Sea) – 3 x 8 line verses [From my uncle]

1266 Charles Napier Gordon – 18 verses [I learned from my father and if my memory turns aright it was sold in the markets (the composer William Dalgarno being at one time a servant with my father.) Charlie Napier Gordon raised an action against William Dalgarno and he had to pay some few grounds of damages.]
She said she came from Rora, three miles below Longside
But a weaver frae Kinharrachie he happened to come by [and saves her from being ravished]