THE SETTLER'S LAMENT

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THE SETTLER'S LAMENT
NOTE: This hobby home recording is a tribute cover only, done under fair use and no monetary gain from the posting of it is involved. No copyright infringement is intended.

The Highland Clearances were every bit as much of a disaster for 19th century Scots as the defeat of Bonnie Prince Charlie at Culloden and Britain's subsequent repression of the clans had been for their gran'dads 100 years before. Forcibly evicted from their wee crofts as unwanted tenants by their Highland chiefs in favour of sheep, clansmen and their families immigrated during this diaspora to settle primarily in Canada, Australia, and the Carolinas. This is a song written by one such evacuee, Sandy Clandenning, circa 1840. The tune itself is an adaptation of William Marshall's Miss Admiral Gordon's Strathspey (1781), employed by Robert Burns in his immortal "I Love My Jean." Folksingers Stan Rogers and Alex Beaton made "Settler's Lament" their own back in the Eighties, under the different prefaces "Scarborough" and "Scottish" respectively.
Hmmm... it would appear that "borryin' sumpin' what fell aff a passin' lorry" isnae the sole province of the "Me, Myself & l" Pipes, Drums & Harmonikey Mairchin' & Staggerin' Corps. Och, weel... the plagiarism polis cannae fine ya fer royalties whan yir daein' these hobbyhorse kivvers that naebody listens tae onywee. We're ne'er pirates, as they're a' free an' compliment'ry.
LYRICS
Awa' wi' Canada's muddy creeks and Canada's fields of pine
Your land of wheat is a guidly land, but oh, it isnae mine
The heathy hill, the grassy dale, the daisy-spangled lea
The purling burn and craggy linn, Auld Scotia's glens gi'e me.

Oh, I would like tae hear again the lark on Tinny's hill
And see the wee bit gowany that blooms beside the rill.
Like the banished Swiss wha view afar their Alps wi' longing e'e.
I gaze upon the morning star that shines on my country.

No more I'll win by Eskdale glen or Pentland's craggy comb.
But the days can ne'er come back again of thirty years that's gone,
But fancy oft at midnight hour will steal across the sea.
And yestreen, in a pleasant dream, I saw the Auld Country.

Each well-known scene that met my view brought childhood's joys tae mind.
The blackbird sang on Tushey linn, the song he sang, 'lang syne.'
But in a dream, time flies away; again, the morning came
And I awoke in Canada, three thousand miles frae hame.