Those among us who are not overly fond of hearing about orgies may not be pleased with further information about the notorious sexualised ballad 'The Ball o' Kirriemuir'. Earlier posts (see links below) suggested the song was based on an account of an actual erotic event in the village in the 1880s. But the origins seem to go back even further.
The ballad below found its way into print in 1817, contained in The Flower of Caledonia, issued by Sanderson & Co in Edinburgh:
THE KIRRIEMUIR WEDDING
At Kirriemuir a wedding stood,
Upon a simmer's day;
And there was plenty mirth and fun,
And plenty sport and play.
CHORUS
Singing, go, girls, go,
And we'll hae anither tune,
And we'll ne'er dance sae young again,
Gin aince this night were done.
There were three score o' maidens gaed,
('Twas braw being there)
But only ain came hame again;
Judge ye an' that was fair.
There was twa into the barn,
an' twa into the byre,
An' twa amang the pease strate,
I think they'll never tire.
There was twa ahint the pease stack,
An' twa amang the pease;
But ye could na see the barn-floor
For naked hips and thighs.
In came John Anderson,
Says he to his brother James,
'Will ye gang to the barn-floor
an' kiss the wanton queans?'
In came John Tait, the factor's man,
Says he, 'Well may ye thrive!'
But before he kissed his own true love,
He played we' ither five.
In came the minister's maid,
And she was warst o' a''
For she tint her muslin apron
Among the pease straw.
The lads they lost their knee-buckles,
The lasses their bucklin-kames;
But three score o' maidenheads
Played a crack at aince.
Now ilka lad has ta'en his lass,
An' he's convey'd her hame;
An' ilka lass says to her lad,
'Whan will ye do't again?'
Derick Thomson considers songs such as these which celebrate events at 'penny weddings' date back to the 18th century, which is likely. There were other popular ballads in the same era which 'celebrated' the goings-on at such local community events, though it can be debated whether the innuendo was heightened for the sake of the readers or whether these weddings did often end up in riotous and promiscuous behaviour. (Other similar bawdy songs include 'Muirland Willie.') Margaret Dean-Smith notes similar printed examples in the late 17th century, which proves that such activities flourished even in the dour age of the Covenanters.
Sources
Thomas Crawford, ' "The Ball of Kirriemuir;" a nineteenth-century precursor,' Notes and Queries, vol. 11, issue 1, 1964, 28-29.
Thomas Crawford, Society and the Lyric: A Study of the Song Culture of Eighteenth-Century Scotland, Scottish Academic Press, 1979.
Margaret Dean-Smith, ' "The Ball of Kirriemuir", an earlier precursor,' Notes and Queries, vol. 11, issue 5, 1964, 190.
Derick S. Thomson, 'Scottish Gaelic traditional songs from the 16th to the 18th century,' Sir John Rhys Memorial Lecture.
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