Mill of Tifty's Annie

The Mill o Tifty's Annie

On Springthyme SPRCD 1038
Jane Turriff - Singin is Ma Life

Sung by Jane Turriff:

Mill O Tifty's Annie is one of Jane's favourite songs and one with strong local connections and claims of authenticity. Though she knows fifty-two verses, like many singers, she sings a shortened version, concentrating on the parts that to her carry the great¬est emotional impact. Sometimes in verse nine, she" sings a lovely variant, "I will bring to you o bridal shoon/ An oh bit dearie they will be bonnie ", that does not appear in any of the Greig-Duncan or Child texts but, apart from that, her text is quite stable from rendition to rendition.

In 1959, Kenneth Goldstein recorded a fifty verse version from the singing of Geordie Frazier of Strichen, a testament to the human memory and to the local appeal of the song. Memory, however, is not simply a single act, but a process, as James Duncan revealed in a comment he made about Margaret Gillespie, one of the singers from whom he collected this song: When Mrs Gillespie began to remember this ballad, she could not recall more than three verses!" (GD 1018n). She eventually sang him fifty verses. (GD 1018, Child 233.)

Jane has known and sung the song for nearly seventy years, and used to sing it to her husband Cameron's mother:

Mill o Tifty's Anne

1: At Mill o Tifty lived a man,
In the neighbourhood o Fyvie,
He had a lowly daughter fair,
O her name was bonnie Annie.

2 Lord Fyvie had a trumpeter,
An his name was Andra Lammie,
And he had the art to gain the heart
O bonnie Tifty's Annie.

3: Her mother called her to the door,
"Come here tae me my Annie.
Did e'er ye see a prettier man
Than the trumpeter o Fyvie?"

4: O nothing she said, but sighin so, [sighin sore
O alas for bonnie Annie,
But she durst nor own her heart wis won,
By the trumpeter o Fyvie.

5: O the first time me an my love did meet,
It wis in the woods o Fyvie,
And he called me 'mistress', I said no;
O I'm Tifty's bonnie Annie.

6: With apples sweet he did me treat
An kisses soft and many,
And he had the art to gain the heart
O bonnie Tifty's Annie.

7: O love comes in at my bedside
And love lies down beyont me;
And love so oppressed my tender breast,
O bit love will waste my body.

8: O love it dwines, an love it twines
And love decays the body
And love so oppressed my tender breast
O bit love will waste my body.

9: "O lovie I must go to Edinburgh toon
[So Andra he is gan tae Edinburgh toon]
An for a whilie I must leave thee."
"O bit I'll be dead or you come back,
O ma bonnie Andra Lammie."

10: "I will buy tae you a bridal goon
An dearie I will buy it bonnie."
"O but I'll be dead or you come back;
O ma bonnie Andra Lammie."

11: "I will bring to you o bridal shoon
And O bit they will be bonnie."
"O bit I'll be dead or you come back
O ma bonnie Andra Laramie."

12: "So it's lay me doon tae rest a while
And turn my face tae Fyvie,
That I may see before I dee,
O ma bonnie Andra Laramie."

13: O love it dwines and love it twines
And love decays the body;
And love so oppressed my tender breast,
O bit love will waste my body.

14: An it's up an doon in Tifty's glen,
Where the burn tins clear an bonnie,
Whaur oft-times I have gone tae meet,
O ma bonnie Andra Lammie.

15: O Andra home fae Edinburgh toon
Wi muckle grief an sorrow,
And he sounded his horn right loud and clear
In the lowland o Fyvie.

16: O Fyvie's lands are broad an wide
An Fyvte's lands are bonnie,
Whaur oft-times he has gone tae meet [I hae gone
His bonnie Tifty's Annie. [My bonnie

17: So it's up an doon in Tifty's glen
Whaur the bum nine clear an bonnie
Wham oft-times I have gone we meet
Ma bonnie. Andra Lammie.

Recorded by Hamish Henderson, Peter Cooke and Fred Kent at Mintlaw, 1974.