Volume IV, song 315, page 326 - 'There'll never be peace 'till Jamie comes hame' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)

Verse 1: 'By yon castle wa' at the close of the day, I heard a man sing tho' his head it was grey; And as he was singing the tears down came, There'll never be peace 'till Jamie comes hame. The Church is in ruins, the state is in jars, Delusions, oppressions, and murderous wars, We dare na weel say't, but we ken wha's to blame, There'll never be peace 'till Jamie comes hame.' 'Wa'' is the Scots dialect for wall and 'weel' is good or well. 'Ken wha's' translates as know whose whilst 'hame' is home. The 'Scots Musical Museum' is the most important of the numerous eighteenth- and nineteenth-century collections of Scottish song. When the engraver James Johnson started work on the second volume of his collection in 1787, he enlisted Robert Burns as contributor and editor. Burns enthusiastically collected songs from various sources, often expanding or revising them, whilst including much of his own work. The resulting combination of innovation and antiquarianism gives the work a feel of living tradition. Although not attributed to Burns in the 'Museum' it is now believed to have been rewritten by him from fragments of an older song. In his notes on the song Burns comments, 'This tune is sometimes called 'There's few gude fellows when Willie's awa''; but I never have been able to meet with anything else of the song than the title'. The tune is now thought to have been adapted from an earlier Jacobite song called 'My Bonnie Moorhen', Moorhen being a surreptitious reference to Bonnie Prince Charlie. Jacobite politics would still have been a current issue in Scotland at the time when Burns was growing up. The James referred to in the song is James VIII of Scotland, perhaps better known as the 'Old Pretender'.

Collection

Scots Musical Museum

Inventory Number

4503511

Title

Volume IV, song 315, page 326 - 'There'll never be peace 'till Jamie comes hame' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)

Object Type

PhysicalObject

Measurements

- 132 x 211 mm