-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.
JOHN TWEEDIE.
John Tweedie was born in the year 1800, in the vicinity of Peebles,
where his father was a shepherd. Obtaining a classical education, he
proceeded to the University of Edinburgh, to prosecute his studies for
the Established Church. By acting as a tutor during the summer months,
he was enabled to support himself at the university, and after the usual
curriculum, he was licensed as a probationer. Though possessed of
popular talents as a preacher, he was not successful in obtaining a
living in the Church. During his probationary career, he was employed as
a tutor in the family of the minister of Newbattle, assisted in the
parish of Eddleston, and ultimately became missionary at Stockbridge,
Edinburgh. He died at Linkfieldhall, Musselburgh, on the 29th February
1844. Tweedie was a person of amiable dispositions and unaffected piety;
he did not much cultivate his gifts as a poet, but the following song
from his pen, to the old air, "Saw ye my Maggie," has received a
considerable measure of popularity.[14]
FOOTNOTES:
[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.
SAW YE MY ANNIE?
Saw ye my Annie,
Saw ye my Annie,
Saw ye my Annie,
Wading 'mang the dew?
My Annie walks as light
As shadow in the night
Or
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