Blue Bonnets Over the Border


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Barry Taylor

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Lyrics
Jacobite Troops had no formal uniform. The white cockade on a blue bonnet became their emblem. The white cockade emblem is said to have originated when Bonnie Prince Charlie picked a wild rose and pinned it to his hat. There are other legends, one that traces its origin to Ireland.

These words are by Sir Walter Scott. They appear in The Monastery (1820). The words and music may not fit together perfectly because I got them from different sources. You may need to be creative.

For other Jacobite tunes go to the bottom of The Contemplator's Short History of the Jacobite Uprisings.

March! March! Ettrick and Tevot-dale,
Why my lads dinnaye march forward in order
March! March! Eskdale and Liddesdale!
All the blue bonnets are over the border

Many a banner spread,
Flutters above your head,
Many a crest that is famous in story,
Mount and make ready then,
Sons of the mountain glen,
Fight for your King and the old Scottish border.
March! March! Ettrick and Tevot-dale,
Why my lads dinnaye march forward in order
March! March! Eskdale and Liddesdale!
All the blue bonnets are over the border

Come from the hills where your hirsels are grazing,
Come from the glens of the buck and the roe;
Come to the grag where the beacon is blazing
Come with the buckler, the lance, and the bow

Trumpets are sounding,
War steeds are bounding.
Stand to your arms and march on good order
England shall many a day,
Tell of the bloody fray,
When the blue bonnets came over the border
March! March! Ettrick and Tevot-dale,
Why my lads dinnaye march forward in order
March! March! Eskdale and Liddesdale!
All the blue bonnets are over the border

Related Links
Lyrics From Collection of eighty street ballads on forty
sheets, mostly with a woodcut printed at London,
the majority by J. Catnach (who printed 1820–1830)
.
London: n.p., n.d.
University of Minnesota Libraries.
WILSON Rare Books Quarto 820.1 C683.