Annotation:Derwentwater

Back to 

 DERWENTWATER. English, Air (4/4 time). England, Northumberland. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. "There is not testimony, traditional or otherwise, to support the surmise that the wife of one of the Jacobite chiefs had a criminal regard for the unfortunate Earl of Derwentwater, whose well-known fate is recounted in the previous ballad of 'Derwentwater's Lament.' The earliest copy of this ballad will be found in Allan Cunningham's Songs of Scotland, vol. 3, 1825, and it is also given in Mr. William Sidney Gibson's 'Memories of James, third Earl of Derwentwater'" (Stokoe). Other printings are to be found in Robert Hartley Cromek's Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song (1810, p. 129), where it is remarked that it was "taken from the recitation of a young girl, in the parish of Kirkbean, in Galloway.") and James Hogg's Jacobite Relics (vol. 2, 1821). See note on "Derwentwater's Farewell" for more. Oh! Derwentwater's a bonny lord, And golden is his hair; And glintin' is his hawkin' e'e, Wi' kind love dwelling there..... (Bruce & Stokoe)  Source for notated version:   Printed sources: Bruce & Stokoe (Northumbrian Minstrelsy), 1882; pp. 74-75.  Recorded sources:

Back to