THE RASHIE MOOR

THE RASHIE MOOR
Traditional

As I cam' thro' yon rashie moor,

Fa spied I in my true love's door?

My hert grew sair an' my e'en grew blin'

Tae see my bonnie love leave me ahin'.

Oh, are ye gyaun, love, tae leave me noo,

Or will ye gyaun, love, tae leave me noo?

Wad ye forsake your former vow,

An' go wi' the one ye never knew.

As I gaed in by yon water wan,

The brig was broken at yon mill dam;

I bent my body an' took her through,

But alas, she's gone an' left me noo.

But as I gaed in by yon toon-en'

I saw anither did my love atten',

I took aff my hat an' said Ochone,

The best o' my well days is done.

But I will tell you the reason why -

She's got anither an' that's the wye,

An' I will tell the reason tee -

He has got more gold than me.

But if you love me, love, we'll never part

An' instead o' gold ye will get my heart;

Ye'll get my heart wi' richt guid-will,

Ye're a bonnie lass, an' I love ye still.

I bent my back unto an oak,

I thocht it was a trusty tree;

But first it bent and then it broke,

An' sae has my love done tae me.

Footnote : This version comes from Gavin Greig's Folk-Song of the North East'. One of the greatest collectors of Scottish traditional folk song, the dominee of Whitehill school in the Parish of New Deer, Gavin Greig (1856-1914) gathered some 3,500 songs in Aberdeenshire alone.His great-grandson the journalist and author, Jack Webster, wrote of his illustrious fore-bear in 'A Grain of Truth' (1981) :-

'Even at the end of the last century there was a great wealth of folk song being handed down by word of mouth but Gavin Greig realised that the habit was dying and that a whole field of Scottish tradition would be lost for ever. So he undertook what was to be the main work of his life, that of preserving in proper form the folk songs of North-East Scotland. Night after night he would mount his bicycle and scour the countryside, hunting out old men and women who recalled to him the versions which had been handed down to them. Sometimes there would be a variation, different words, a slightly different tune. All were catalogued.'

The outcome of his diligent research first saw the light of day in the Buchan Observer, published in Peterhead. Interestingly Gavin Greig was related to the noted Norwegian composer and Nationalist Edvard Grieg and although he travelled to Edinburgh to hear his Norwegian relation play a piano recital, the two great men never met. The retiring Aberdeenshire schoolmaster was unwilling to go backstage to introduce himself. A unique chance for a reunion between the two branches of the family which had become separated by the width of the North Sea was lost.