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Hatton Woods

[ Roud 5531 ; Ballad Index Ord185 ; trad.]

Sheila Stewart of Blairgowrie, Perthshire, sang Hatton Woods to Maurice Fleming in 1955. This recording was included in 2011 on the Greentrax anthology Songs and Ballads From Perthshire Field Recordings of the 1950s (Scottish Tradition 24). She also sang it to Doc Rowe in Blairgowrie on 15 October 1998; this recording was released in 2000 on her Topic album From the Heart of the Tradition.

Cathie Stewart sang Hatton Woods on her and Belle and Sheila Stewart’s 1975 Lismor album The Stewarts of Blair.

Kaela Rowan sang The Bonnie Woods o’ Hatton in 2016 on her CD The Fruited Thorn.

Jack Rutter sang Hatton Woods on his 2017 CD Hills. He noted:

This is a beautiful song I learnt from the singing of Jeff Wesley. I’ve changed a few lines and things for my own benefit, and consulted the original ballad sheet sold by the Poet’s Box of Dundee sometime between 1880 and 1900 for a further few lines.

Lyrics

Cathie Stewart sings Hatton Woods

O ye comrades and companions
And all ye females dear,
To my sad lamentation
I’ll pray ye lend an ear.
For once I loo’ed a bonnie lass
But to me she proved untrue,
And I left her doon by Hatton Woods
My folly for to rue.

Noo I courted wi’ yon bonnie lass
A twelve month and a day,
Sometimes amang the green grass,
Sometimes among the hay.
I courted her the lee long nicht
Tae the dark o’ the next day,
Till she says, “My ain dear Sandy lad,
It’s time you were away.”

Noo says I, “My dearest Molly lass.
When shall we set a time
When you and I’ll get married,
And hands together line?
We’ll sit in oor ain cottage then
and either spin or shew,
Whilst your ain guid heart,”
Said Sandy lad, “gangs whistlin’ at the ploo.”

Now there’s Caldhame and there’s Caldhame Mills
And Luther Mills likewise,
There are woods and waters many,
Unseen unto your eyes.
But the bonnie woods o’ Hatton,
They aye grow green and may,
And t was there a bonnie lassie lived
That stole my heart away.

Noo, my blessings on you bonnie lass,
Wherever you may be,
I wish no evil unto her
Although she slighted me.
I only hope that she might say.
Sometime before you’ll die,
“O I wish I’d wed yon plooman lad,
That sang sae sweet tae me.”