Annotation:Magie's Tocher (3)
X:1 T:Magys Tocher [3] M:9/8 L:1/8 B:Alexander Stuart – “Musick for Allan Ramsay’s Collection” (Edinburgh, c. 1724, pp. 48-49 ) F: https://digital.tcl.sc.edu/digital/collection/rbc/id/2988 Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:C V:1 F2f fge f2d|cAF F2g A_Bc|G2g ga^f g2e|dcG G2A Bcd| F2f fge f2d|cBF F2G A_Bc|dcB cBA BAG|dBG G2A Bcd| dcB cBA BAG|cAF FAF ABc|dcB cBA BAG|dBG G2A Bcd|| V:2 clef = bass F,3F,,3 F,2_B,|A,3F,3F,,3|G,3G,,3G,3|G,,3G,3G,,3| F,3F,,3 F,2_B,|A,3F,3F,,3|G,3D,3G,,3|G,3G,,3G,3| G,,3D,3G,3|F,3F,,3F,3|B,A,G, A,G,^F, G,2B,,|G,,3G,3G,,3||
MAGY'S TOCHTER [3]. AKA - "Maggie's Tocher," "Maggy's Tocher." AKA and see "Way to Warrington (The)." Scottish, Air (9/8 time). F Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. The melody was printed by Alexander Stuart/Stewart in his Musick for Allan Ramsay’s Collection of Scots Songs (c. 1724), to accompany poet Allan Ramsay's song "Maggie's Tocher"[1], in Tea Table Miscellany (1724, p. 326). Tocher is the old Scots word for a dowery, and the song relates the negotiations around Maggie's courtship. The first stanza goes:
The Meal was dear short syne,
We buckl’d us a’ the gather;
And Maggie was in her Prime,
When Willie made Courship till her.
Twa Pistals charged beguess,
To gi’e the courting Shot;
And syne came ben the Lass,
Wi’ Swats drawn frae the Butt.
He first speer’d at the Guidman,
And syne at Giles the Mither,
And ye was gi’s a bit Land,
We’d buckle us een the gather, Jo.
Fiddler and writing master David Young entered the tune in his MacFarlane Manuscript (1741) under the title "Way to Warrington (The)."
