CALEDONIAN MAID, THE. English, Air (2/4 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. "The Caledonian Maid" is a song (1738-1819) by Peter Pindar from the early 1790's. 'Peter Pindar' [1] was the pseudonym of John Wolcott, a physician by trade who had also taken holy orders; he had a reputation as a wit and satirist, and was well-known in London. The first stanza goes:
Peter Pindar, AKA John Wolcott.
Oh, say, have you my Mary seen, The Caledonian Maid; Or heard the shepherds on the green Say where my Mary's stray'd; The damsel is of angel mien, With sad and downcast eyes; The shepherds call her sorrow's queen, So pensively she sighs. So pensively--so pensively, So pensively she sighs.
A variant of the song begins:
Have you seen my Arabell, The Caledonian maid; Or heard the youths of Scotland tell Where Arabell had stray'd;
The song was much anthologized in the late 18th and 19th centuries, and appears in numerous songsters and collections.
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: Aird (Sixth and Last Volume of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs), 1803; No. 93, p. 36. Skillern (Twelve Country Dances & Cotillons for the Year 1795), p. 3.
