Bonnie George Campbell

On Springthyme SPRCD 1043
Shepheard, Spiers & Watson: Over the High Hills

Pete Shepheard: This old song was considered by Francis James Child to be a fragment of a longer ballad - the story line is bare and leaves much unstated. I have always liked the song and it has a fine tune and after I heard a slightly longer version sung by the traveller singer Duncan Williamson I took to the song again. (Child 210, Roud 338)

Pete (vocal and melodeon) with Arthur (whistle) and Tom (fiddle)

1: High upon heilands and low upon Tay,
Bonnie George Campbell rade oot on a day;
Saddled and bridled and mounted gaed he,
Hame cam his good horse but never cam he.

2: Saddled and bridled and mounted gaed he,
A feather to his hat and a sword at his knee.
Hame cam his saddle, aa bloody to see,
Hame cam his good horse but never cam he.

3: Oot cam his auld mother, she wis greetin fu sair,
Oot cam his bonnie wife rivin her hair;
The meadow lies green and the corn is unshorn,
Ma barn’s yet tae big and my babe yet unborn.

4: Bonnie George Campbell rade oot on a day,
A band o MacDonalds he met by the way;
They took him, they killed him, they hung him sae high,
Hame cam his good horse but never cam he.

5: High upon heilands and low upon Tay,
Bonnie George Campbell rade oot on a day;
Saddled and bridled and mounted gaed he,
Hame cam his good horse but never cam he.