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FAMOUS SONGS
was responsible for " Roy's Wife of Aldivai-loch"), but the version that he prints in these works is entirely different from the one given by Chappell, who describes it as an " old Eng-lish Border song," the tune being composed by Mrs. Jordan about 1780. This was Mrs. Dora Jordan, the celebrated actress. She was a fairly accomplished vocalist and musician, and sprang from Dublin, where her parents resided. She was at the height of her fame in 1785, when she made her first London appearance in the " Country Girl." She sang the " Blue Bells" first in London in 1786. In May, 1800, she again sang the song on her benefit night at Drury Lane Theatre, and made theair popular through-out the kingdom. ChappeU's version of the lyric is the one most familiar I fancy to the majority of people, and is the one generally to be met with in the best collections of words. The first verse runs:
" Oh, where and where is your Highland Laddie gone? Oh, where and where is your Highland Laddie gone ? He's gone to fight the French for King George upon the throne, And it's oh ! in my heart how I wish him safe at home."
A new version of the words in the Scottish dialect, by Miss Stirling Graham of Duntrune, is given in " Popular Songs and Melodies of
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