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STORIES OF
at least two centuries. It has been traced to the year 1715 as an Irish Jacobite ditty de-ploring the exile of James, the son of the de-posed monarch James IL, but it is much older than that A song thus named was written by John MacDonnell, who was born 1691, and died 1754. He wrote from his youth till his death, and was a profound scholar and antiquarian. He was known by the name of " Claragh" from the residence of his family, which wTas situated at the foot of the mountain of that name between Charleville and Mallow. He led a most romantic existence, and on account of his Jacobite ten-dencies had to fight for his life more than once.
A version of this song was sung in the " Beg-gar's Opera" in 1728 as a duet for Polly and Macheath, and created a great sensation.
There is an old nursery rhyme which runs:
" When I was young and had no sense, I bought a fiddle for eighteen pence, But all the tunes that I could play, Was < Over the hills and far away.' "
This was perhaps suggested by "Jockey's Lamentation" in " Wit and Mirth, or Pills to Purge Melancholy," 1709, where the words and tune of " Over the hills and far away" are to be found in the fourth volume.
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