[A composite volume : containing The ballads and songs of Ayrshire ...

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APPENDIX.
APPENDIX.
JOHN PATERSON'S MARE.
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In the former Series of the Ballads and Songs, we gave, from oral recitation,
a few couplets of this curious ditty, with a tradition that they
were composed on an ancestor of the Patersons of Ballaird, in Colmonell
parish, when proceeding through Ayr, at the head of the Carrick
Covenanters, to the battle of Bothwell Brig. We had not access, at
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the time, to Hogg's " Jacobite Relics," published in 1821, where, in
the notes to the " Battle of Sheriffmuir," the Editor remarks, in reference
to a parody on My Wife's a Wanton Wee Thing, that " the tune
is very old." It was played at the taking away of every bride for centuries
before that period, and was called, ' She's yours, she's yours,
she's nae mair ours.'
Long after the existence of this name to it, but
still long previous to the battle of Sheriifmuir, it got the name of
John Paterson's Mare, from
a song that was made on a wedding
bruise, or horse race for the bride's napkin. Some of the old people,
in my parent's days, always called it by its primitive name ;
but, even
with the name oi John Paterson's Mare, it was always played at the
taking away of a bride even in my own time.
deal of merit for a composition of that day."
The ballad has a great
Some misunderstanding having occurred as to the proper set of the
tune, Hogg, in proof of the accuracy of his opinion on the subject,
subjoins a part of one of the old songs, though not the original one
:
Johu Paterson's mare
She canna be here,
We noutlier hae stable nor hay for her
Whij) her in, whip her out,
Sax shillings in a clout
Owre the kirk stile an' away wi' her,
Fy whip her in, &c.
The black an' the brown
Ran nearest the toun,
But Paterson's mare she came foremost
The dun an' the gi'ay
Kept ftirrest away,
But Paterson's mare she came foremost.
Fy whip her in, whip her out.
Sax shillings in a clout,
Owre the kirk stile an' away wi' her,
Fy whip her in, &c.
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