Familiar Songs - Their Authors & Histories

300 traditional songs, inc sheet music with full piano accompaniment & lyrics.

Home Main Menu Singing & Playing Order & Order Info Support Search Voucher Codes



Share page  Visit Us On FB

Previous Contents Next
510
OUR FAMILIAR SONGS.
They owned the conquest of his arm, and then
his liege lord said; " The heart that has for honor beat by bliss must
be repaid, My daughter Isabel and thou shall be a wedded
pair, For thou art bravest of the brave, she fairest of
the fair.
And then they bound the holy knot before Saint
Mary's shrine, That makes a paradise on earth if hearts and
hands combine : And every lord and lady bright that were in
chapel there, Cried, " Honored be the bravest knight, beloved
the fairest fair."
THE MARCH OF THE CAMERON MEN.
The name of the authoress of "The March of the Cameron Men" was long unknown. The song was written in her youth by Miss Mary Maxwell Campbell, who shared the Scottish mania for concealment. Miss Campbell's home was at Pitfour, Fifeshire. Her father was Dugald Campbell, of Skerrington, Ayrshire. The song had been long assigned to others, when Miss Campbell confessed its source and said that she composed it " after travelling from morning to night through Highland scenery, with a member of the family of Lochiel." It alludes to the rising in 1745, and the chief who inspires it is Donald Cameron of Lochiel, made immortal by Campbell's lyric. He was the head of the powerful clan Cameron, and was devotedly loved for his social virtues as well as his prowess. The " gentle Lochiel," as he was named, did not, however, die at Culloden; he escaped to France with a wound, and afterward commanded a regiment in the French service. When Prince Charles landed for that fatal encounter, Lochiel tried to dissuade him from his purpose for the present, but, failing in that, he placed himself and his powerful following at the Prince's service. There is a ballad called " Tranent Muir," written by Mr. Skirving, which says:
The great Lochiel, as I heard tell, Led Camerons on In cluds, man:
The morning fair, and clear the air, They loos'd wi' devilish thuds, man.
Down guns they threw, and swords they drew, And soon did chase them aff, man :
On Seaton Crafts they bufFd their charts, Andgar'd them rin like daft, man.