Annotation:Mill Oh (The)
MILL OH, THE. AKA - "The Mill," "Mill Mill O (The)," "Mill Oh the Mill (The)." AKA and see "Blue Eyed Stranger (1) (The)," "Cuba March (The)," "Soldier's Return (1)," "Soldier's Return (3) (The)." Scottish, English. England, Northumberland. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB: AAB (O'Farrell). "The Mill Oh" or "The Mill Mill O" was a popular tune common to collections printed in the 18th and early 19th centuries, printed by poet Allan Ramsay, but likely predating him. The air to the song is that to which poet Robert Burns in 1793 set "The Sodger's (Soldier's) Return" ("The Poor and Honest Soldier"). See also the closely related "Deadly Wars (The)" and "Poor Soldier (2)." Burns' poem is a reworking of a folk theme, popular since Homer's Ulysses, of lovers parted by war -- when the man returns he is not recognized but finds his love has been true, reveals himself and is happily reunited. It begins:
When wild war's deadly blast was blawn,
And gentle peace returning,
Wi' mony a sweet babe fatherless,
And mony a widow mourning;
I left the lines and tented field,
Where lang I'd been a lodger,
My humble knapsack a' my wealth,
A poor but honest sodger.
Burns also reworked the original song, a mildly bawdy ode, as "Mill, Mill O" for Merry Muses of Caledonia:
As I came down yon water side
And by yon Shillin Hill, O,
There I spied a bonny lass,
A lass that I loed right weel, O.
The mill, mill-O, and the kill, kill-O
An' the coggin' o' Peggy's wheel, O.
The sack an' the sieve, a' she did leave,
An' danced the millers reel, O.
I spier'd at her, gin she cou'd play,
Birt the lassie had nae skill, O;
An' yet she was nae a' to blame,
She pat it in my will, O.
Then she fell o'er, an' sae did I,
An' danc'd the millars reel, O,
Whene'er that bonny lassie comes again,
She shall hae her ma't ground weel, O.
The mill, mill-O, and the kill, kill-O
An' the coggin' o' Peggy's wheel, O.
The sack an' the sieve, a' she did leave,
An' danced the millers reel, O.
Bayard (1981) believes that "Quaker's Wife (The)/Merrily Danced the Quaker" grew out of this tune, or else both tunes stem from an ancient original, primarily because of the "unmistakable" similarity of the 'B' parts, and the "noticeable" resemblance of the 'A' parts. The title appears in Henry Robson's list of popular Northumbrian song and dance tunes ("The Northern Minstrel's Budget"), which he published c. 1800. Glen reported an instrumental version was first printed by William Thompson in his 1725 Orpheus Caledonius (No. 20); it also appeared in Thompson's 1733 edition (vol. 1, p. 40). Edinburgh fiddler and writing master David Young included it (as "Millo") in his MacFarlane Manuscript (c. 1741, No. 76, p. 124) with several variation sets.
