NAPOMO Day 7: MacPherson's Rant

[tree_and_leaf]

Fareweel, ye dungeons dark and strang
A lang fareweel tae thee!
MacPherson's time will no' be lang
Alow the gallows tree

Twas the laird o' Grant, you highlan' Saint
That first laid hands on me,
He pleads the cause o' Peter Broon,
Ach, let Macpherson dee.

It was by a woman's treacherous hand
That I was condemned tae dee
She stood her on the window sill
And a blanket she threw o'er me

Sae rantingly, sae wantonly
Sae dauntingly gaed he
He played a tune and he danced it aroon'
Alow the gallows tree

Untie these bands frae aff o' my hands
And bring tae me my sword
There's no a man in a' Scotland
But I'll brave him at his word

There's some come here tae see me hang
And some tae buy my fiddle
But afore that I dae part wi' her
I'd brak' her through the middle

He took his fiddle into both of his hands
And he brak' it o'er a stane
Said, Nae ither man shall play on thee
When I am deid and gane

Sae rantingly, sae wantonly
Sae dauntingly gaed he
He played a tune and he danced it aroon'
Alow the gallows tree

Ach, little did my mither think
When first she cradled me
That I would turn tae the roving trade
And die on the gallows tree

The reprieve it was coming o'er the Brig o' Banff
For tae set MacPherson free
But they put the clock a quarter fore
And they hanged him frae the tree

James Macpherson (attrib)/ Trad.


Said to have been written by James MacPherson, fiddler and bandit in the North-East (a cottage industry of sorts) the night before he died, but the oral tradition being what it is, there are multiple versions in circulation (and some of the lines are common ballad stock and occur else where, e.g. in "The Four Maries". Given that MacPherson's father was also hanged for much the same offence, I venture to doubt whether MacPherson's mammie really was all that surprised....) This is more or less the version the Old Blind Dogs sing. The reference to the blanket is apparently historical - although it was indeed the Laird of Grant who organised a posse to track MacPherson down, he was captured by a woman dropping a blanket over him as he rode below her window). I find it hard to believe that anyone was planning to pardon MacPherson, but it's the way they always told it in the North-East.

Other versions exist: I rather like this variation on the first stanza.

Fare ye weel ye dark and lonely hills,
Far away beneath the sky.
Macpherson's time will no be long
on yonder gallows tree.


And here is a different version again, sung - rather politely - by the Corries

Comments

[lizw.livejournal.com]

Oh! We sang a version of that, with your first-stanza variation, at the end-of-school show for the OU residential school I went to seven years or so ago at Stirling University. Lots of fun!

[tree_and_leaf]

It sounds it! (I like the icon, by the way).