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

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OLD KING COUL.
Old King Coul, &c.
And they brought him in harpers three
Twingle-twangle, twingle-twangle, went the harpers ;
Ha-didel, ho-didel, ha-didel, ho-didel, went the pipers ;
Fidel-didel, fidel-didel, went the fiddlers three :
And there's no a lass, &c.
Old King Coul, &c.
And they brought him trumpeters three
Twara-rang, twara-rang, went the trumpeters ;
Twingle-twangle, twingle-twangle, went the harpers ;
Ha-didel, ho-didel, ha-didel, ho-didel, went the pipers ;
Fidel-didel, fidel-didel, went the fiddlers three :
And there's no a lass, &c.
Old King Coul, &c.
And they brought him in drummers three :
Rub-a-dub, rub-a-dub, went the drummers ;
Twara-rang, twara-rang, went the trumpeters ;
Twingle-twangle, twingle-twangle, went the harpers ;
Ha-didel, ho-didel, ha-didel, ho-didel, went the pipers ;
Fidel-didel, fidel-didel, went the fiddlers three :
And there's no a lass, &c.
That this ditty is old can scarcely be doubted.
It appeared first in Herd's
Collection, published in 1776 ; but it has long been orally familiar over
the country.
From the lines
" And there's no a lass in braid Scotland
Compared to our sweet Marjory,"
we should suppose the composition as ancient as the days of Robert the
Bruce, whose only daughter, Marjory, married Walter the Steward of
Scotland. We have appropriated the verses in the belief that the " old
King Coul" whom they celebrate was no other than the Coul or Coil of
history, whose fate in battle has given the name of Coil or Kyle to one of
the three great divisions of Ayrshire. Historians differ as to the identity
of "King Coul"—whether he was Sovereign of the Strathclyde
Britons, or a Welch Invader. It is equally uncertain whether it was the
Wm