Will Ye No' Come Back Again? A Song History

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The words of this Jacobite lament come from Carolina Oliphant, Lady Nairne (1766–1845), and the Traditional Tune Archive also lists the song as "Bonnie Charlie's Gone Awa'."[1] She was born at Gask House in Perthshire into a fervently Jacobite household and was even named after Prince Charles Edward Stuart.[2] The song looks back on the prince's flight to France after the Rising of 1745, but the Scots Language Centre notes it was composed at least three decades after those events.[3] One scholar quoted by the Tune Archive ranks it "among the last of the earnest and spontaneous Jacobite songs."[1]

Salt-glazed teapot painted with roses and a portrait of Prince Charles Edward Stuart

Teapot with portrait of the Young Pretender, Prince Charles Edward Stuart (1720–1788), salt-glazed stoneware with enamel decoration, ca. 1765. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain (CC0). The prince is the figure the song looks back on.

Lady Nairne hid her songwriting, and her contributions to The Scottish Minstrel (1821–1824) were printed without her name.[2] National Records of Scotland says she took the pen name "Mrs Bogan of Bogan" because songwriting was thought unsuitable for someone of her social rank;[4] a University of St Andrews review of her biography connects that name to her Minstrel submissions.[5] The same review says her authorship became public in 1846, when Lays from Strathearn came out bearing her real name;[5] ScotlandsPeople, which gives the title as Lays of Strathearn, says her sister published the collection after her death.[2] The Tune Archive attributes the melody to Neil Gow junior (1795–1823), a grandson of the fiddler Niel Gow, and states that it is the same tune as that of the song "Mo Ghile Mear."[1] More broadly, the St Andrews review notes that she knew Neil Gow and his son Nathaniel socially and wrote lyrics for melodies they taught her.[5]

According to the Tune Archive, J. Scott Skinner played the tune as the last part of his "Laird o' Drumblair" medley on a 1905 Zonophone record.[1] The song has also served as a farewell: the commentary for a 1956 newsreel of the royal tour of the Western Isles records its strains being heard as the Queen's party left North Uist.[6]

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Sources

  1. The Traditional Tune Archive: "Will ye no' come back again?".
  2. ScotlandsPeople (National Records of Scotland): "Lady Nairne: Flower of Strathearn".
  3. Scots Language Centre: "Will Ye No Come Back Again?".
  4. National Records of Scotland, Hall of Fame: "Nairne, Caroline".
  5. University of St Andrews, Soundyngs: "Review: Freeland Barbour, The White Rose of Gask: The Life of Carolina Oliphant, Lady Nairne (2019)".
  6. Learning on Screen, News on Screen: "Royal Tour at Festival Time" (1956 newsreel commentary).