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Description: | Verse 1 (to the tune of 'Cameronian Rant'): 'O cam ye here the fight to shun, Or herd the sheep wi' me, man, or were ye at the Sherra moor, Or did the battle see, man. 'I saw the battle fair and teugh, And reekinred ran mony a sheugh, My heart for fear gae sough for sough To hear the thuds, and see the cluds O' Clans frae woods, in tartan duds, Wha glaum'd at Kingdoms three, man.'
The 'Scots Musical Museum' is the most important of the numerous eighteenth- and nineteenth-century collections of Scottish song. When the engraver James Johnson started work on the second volume of his collection in 1787, he enlisted Robert Burns as contributor and editor. Burns enthusiastically collected songs from various sources, often expanding or revising them, whilst including much of his own work. The resulting combination of innovation and antiquarianism gives the work a feel of living tradition.
During the Battle of Sheriffmuir (1715), the Earl of Mar led a 10,000 strong Jacobite army against 4,000 loyalist Scots under the command of the Duke of Argyll. Although both sides claimed victory, it was generally considered to be a Jacobite defeat. Soon after the battle, the Earl of Mar abandoned the cause, fled to France, and betrayed many of his followers. Whilst Johnson acknowledges Burns as the author of this particular song, and in this instance appears to do so rightly, in many cases the information provided by Johnson was inaccurate. | License: | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0 | Publisher: | National Library of Scotland | Temporal: | 1787-01-01 - 1803-12-31 | Source: | Burns Scotland | Identifier: | Volume III, song 282, pages 290 and 291 | Go to resource |
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