Bonnie Dundee

Bonny Dundee is a very old Scottish folk-tune used for at least fifteen songs.[3] A simpler version of the tune appears in the Skene manuscript around 1630 under the title Adew, Dundee. The title Bonny Dundee for the tune appears in an appendix to John Playford's 1688 edition of The Dancing Master, an English publication. The tune has been used for the following popular song:[4]

O whaur gat ye that hauver-meal bannock?

Silly blind body, O dinna ye see?

I gat it frae a brisk sodger laddie,

Atween Saint Johnstone and Bonnie Dundee.

O, gin I saw the laddie that gae me't!

Aft has he doudl'd me on o' his knee.

But now he's awa', and I dinner ken whaur he's,

O gin he was back to his minnie and me!

"Saint Johnstone" refers to Perth, and "Bonny Dundee" is the town of Dundee.[5] This song was parodied in English publications of the early 18th century with coarser wording, under the title Jockey's Deliverance, or the Valiant Escape from Dundee, to be sung "to an Excellent Tune, called Bonny Dundee." A 1719 collection titled the parody Jockey's Escape from Dundee; and the Parsons Daughter whom he had Mowd, and its chorus featured variations on "Come open the Gates, and let me go free, And shew me the way to bonny Dundee". Robert Burns rewrote the second verse of the original, so that the latter lines were "May Heaven protect my Bonnie Scots laddie, and send him safe hame to his baby and me." He added a concluding verse with the promise to the baby to "bigg a bower on yon bonnie banks, where Tay rins dimpling by sae clear", alluding to the River Tay.[4][6] Another version of the original, titled Scots Callan O' Bonnie Dundee, refers to a callant (lad) rather than a soldier, and a "bonnie blue bonnet" instead of a bannock.[7]

The tune is used for unrelated words in a broadside ballad published in 1701 under the title Bonny Dundee, suggesting that it was to be sung to this melody,[8] and in John Gay's The Beggar's Opera published in 1765.[9]

From 1668 John Graham, the laird of Claverhouse was at the forefront of Royalist repression of the Covenanters, for which he was called "Bluidy Clavers" (Bloody Claverhouse) by his covenanting opponents. In 1688 he was made 1st Viscount of Dundee by James VII of Scotland (James II of England). When William of Orange overturned James in 1688 in what was called the Glorious Revolution, Claverhouse was one of the few Scottish nobles who remained loyal to James. After trying to influence the Convention of Estates of Scotland on James's behalf, at some danger to himself, he led his cavalry out of Edinburgh to carry on the struggle in the field and was killed at the moment of victory in the battle of Killiecrankie (1689). His forces were subsequently defeated at the Battle of Dunkeld. Over a century later he was immortalised in a poem by Walter Scott which was later adapted into a song.[10]

Walter Scott's novel Old Mortality, published in 1816, gives a sympathetic portrait of Claverhouse. The story mentions one of Claverhouse's troopers "humming the lively Scottish air, 'Between Saint Johnstone and Bonny Dundee, I'll gar ye be fain to follow me'." In this, "Saint Johnstone" refers to Perth, and "Bonny" was the common description of the town of Dundee before Scott transferred the description to Claverhouse.[5]

On 22 December 1825 Scott wrote in his journal:

The air of ‘Bonnie Dundee’ running in my head today I [wrote] a few verses to it before dinner, taking the key-note from the story of Claverse leaving the Scottish Convention of Estates in 1688-9.[11]

Scott sent a copy of the verses to his daughter-in-law Jane, mentioning that his great-grandfather had been among Claverhouse's followers and describing himself as "a most incorrigible Jacobite".[12] This is a comic exaggeration, but Scott's ballad is certainly written from the point of view of Claverhouse, whom he had already celebrated in his novel Old Mortality (1816). It consists of eleven stanzas, which Scott admitted was "greatly too long" (Letters, vol. 9, p. 350), with a refrain copied from the traditional song Jockey's Escape from Dundee.[13]

The poem was first published in a miscellany, The Christmas Box (1828-9), and then included as a song in Scott's unperformed play The Doom of Devorgoil (1830). Later adaptations for singing include only stanzas 1, 2, 8 and 10, with the refrain. After Scott's death, many changes were made in the text in different republications. Some add extra Scotticisms, e.g. "To the lords" becomes "Tae the lairds". The authentic long text below comes from The Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott, Bart. (12 vols., 1833-4), ed. J. G. Lockhart (vol. 12, pp. 903–4).

There are several versions of the song and a common one is given here.[16]

1. Tae the lairds o' convention 'twas Claverhouse spoke

Ere the King's crown go down, there are crowns tae be broke;

Now let each cavalier wha loves honour and me

Come follow the bonnets o' bonnie Dundee.

Chorus:

Come fill up my cup, come fill up my can,

Come saddle my horses and call out my men.

And it's ope' the west port and let us gae free,

And we'll follow the bonnets o' bonnie Dundee!

2. Dundee he is mounted, he rides doon the street,

The bells they ring backwards, the drums they are beat,

But the Provost, (douce man!), says; Just e'en let him be

For the toon is weel rid of that de'il Dundee.

Chorus:

3. There are hills beyond Pentland and lands beyond Forth,

Be there lairds i' the south, there are chiefs i' the north!

And brave duine-uasals*, three thousand times three *("noble men", pron. doony wassals - Gaelic with English s plural)

Will cry "Hai!" for the bonnets o' bonnie Dundee.

Chorus:

4. We'll awa' tae the hills, tae the lea, tae the rocks

E'er I own a usurper, I'll couch wi' the fox!

So tremble, false Whigs, in the midst o' your glee,

For ye've naw seen the last o' my bonnets and me!

Chorus:

To help Jane identify the tune, Scott gave a few lines from each of three songs for which it had been used. His first quotation is from Jockey's Escape from Dundee; the second is from Scots Callan o' Bonnie Dundee[17] (though a version of these lines also appears in Jockey's Escape); and the third is from John Gay, The Beggar's Opera (1728; Air LVII, The Charge is prepar'd).

The transcriptions of the tune for different sets of words vary both in notes and in rhythmic phrasing. The version in The Beggar's Opera differs most widely, with most of the dotted rhythms smoothed out into a regular succession of crotchets. We cannot say whether Scott had any particular variation in mind; he professed to have a good ear for time but little or none for tune.[18] All are in a minor key, and their melancholy and their subtle rhythms will surprise anyone familiar only with the setting now best known.

This later setting, with its cheerful major key and cantering rhythm, suits both the spirit of Scott's lines and their metre, and makes an excellent cavalry march. Scott might well have approved: he intended the verses "to be sung a la militaire" and not as the song is in The Beggars Opera.[16][19] In this tune, too, variations occur in different publications.

The origin of this immensely popular tune is uncertain. It makes use of the Lombard rhythm or "Scotch snap", and may owe something to Scottish folk-song. It seems first to have been used about 1850 and was associated with the contralto and composer Charlotte Dolby, later Sainton-Dolby (1821–85). The sheet music of Bonnie Dundee was published by Boosey & Sons as "sung by Miss Dolby" and (after 1860) "sung by Madame Sainton-Dolby", but Boosey credits her only with performing the song and arranging the accompaniment; no composer is named, and Boosey lists the piece as a Scotch Air. However, Bonnie Dundee has been included among Dolby's works.[20]

It has been suggested that the melody comes from a piano piece called The Band at a Distance, and that it was Dolby who first combined this tune with Scott's words.[21] A score for piano or harp called The Band at a Distance, by Nicolas-Charles Bochsa, was published by Walker & Son c. 1830, but has no resemblance to Bonnie Dundee.

In the Scottish Orpheus (1897), Adam Hamilton gives the song as "Composed by Dr E. F. Rimbault. Arranged by Edward Rimbault Dibdin" (p. 52). This attribution has not been confirmed. Edward Francis Rimbault (1816-1876) was a prolific writer of and about music, but his songs are not listed separately in any bibliography. His name sometimes appears as having "arranged" Bonnie Dundee.[22]

The song is the authorized regimental march for the following Canadian regiments:[23]

• The Royal Canadian Horse Artillery (gallop past)
• 1st Hussars
• The Brockville Rifles
• The Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders
• The Loyal Edmonton Regiment (4th Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry)
• The Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders of Canada (D Company)[24]

It is used by several British cavalry regiments and the Royal Horse Artillery, in addition to being the regimental march for Tayforth Universities Officers Training Corps which is based in Dundee

Scott's song was parodied by Lewis Carroll in Through the Looking-Glass and by Rudyard Kipling in The Jungle Book.

William McGonagall praised the town of Dundee in 1878.

A 1904 broadside ballad titled The Bailies of Bonnie Dundee parodied Scott's song to raise accusations of corruption by members of Dundee's burgh council.[25]

During the final phase of the Second Boer War, Afrikaner residents of Winburg taunted the local British garrison with a parody of Bonnie Dundee, which was typically sung in English. The parody celebrated the guerrilla warfare of Boer commando Christiaan De Wet.

De Wet he is mounted, he rides up the street

The English skedaddle an A1 retreat!

And the commander swore: They've got through the net

That's been spread with such care for Christiaan De Wet.

There are hills beyond Winburg and Boers on each hill

Sufficient to thwart ten generals' skill

There are stout-hearted burghers 10,000 men set

On following the Mausers of Christian De Wet.

Then away to the hills, to the veld, to the rocks

Ere we own a usurper we'll crouch with the fox

And tremble false Jingoes amidst all your glee

Ye have not seen the last of my Mausers and me![30]