Willie Williamson SA1971.220.10
We are unsure of the origin of this sentimental music hall song. One source reports that it was composed by Maurice Scott and first recorded by Rab MacLean in 1912 on the Homophone label. A second claims that it was composed by the English songwriter Richard Patrick Weston in collaboration with F. Barnes and recorded on the ColRena record no. 2037, also in 1912. Either could explain how the song came to be known in Whalsay, though it was also in Harry Lauder’s repertoire and as well as being one of the Favourite Songs in Country Districts – penny songsheets which were sold by Sanderson of Edinburgh as late as the 1940s. (Roud index no. 25900).
Far from his highland home on the western prairie
Once stood a Scottish lad picturing again
Clad in her shawl of plaid, his own bonnie Mary
Bidding fareweel to him, ere he crossed the main.
“Donald”, he hears her say, “Though we be parted
Dearie I’ll wait for you come weel or woe:
Dearly my heart is yours, don’t be down-hearted”’
And in her reverie he whispered low,
Bonnie Mary of Glengarry, you’ll say you dinna forget
Your promise to me at Logan fair when I tied this tartan ribbon in you hair;
Bonnie Mary of Glengarry you were sad and your eyes were wet,
But like the colour of your plaid never will your true love fade.
Bonnie Mary dinna forget.
Do you remember lass when we roamed together
Over the highlands midst the heather and the broom?
I plucked and bade you wear a wee bit sprig of heather
And your cheeks weren’t redder than it’s bonnie scarlet bloom.
Soon I’ll return to you, no more to wander;
Shall I be welcomed at your cottage door?
Absence they surely lads makes hearts grow fonder [sincerely?]
So when your Donald comes wealthy or poor,
Bonnie Mary of Glengarry, you say you dinna forget
Your promise to me at Logan Fair when I tied this tartan ribbon in your hair;
Bonnie Mary of Glengarry you were sad and your eyes were wet,
But like the colour of your plaid never will your true love fade.
Bonnie Mary dinna forget.