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Updated 05/14/2013

 


The Bonnie Hoose O' Arlie

The Bonnie Hoose O' Airlie is traditional Scottish folk song of the seventeenth century, telling the tale of the raid by Archibald Campbell (shown above), Earl of Argyll, on Airlie Castle, the home of James Ogilvy, Earl of Airlie, in the summer of 1640.  Although there had been traditional enmity between the Campbells and Ogilvys since at least the sixteenth century, their private feud intensified in 1638, when the two clans joined opposite sides in the National Covenant rebellion: Ogilvy supported the king, Charles I, and Campbell the rebels. When James Ogilvy raised a regiment of several hundred men and marched south to the king’s aid, Archibald, claiming to act on behalf of the anti-royalist alliance, seized and destroyed the castle of Airlie and, according to some accounts, raped James Ogilvy’s wife, Margaret.

A broadsheet version first appeared in 1790 and it received formal publication as number 199 in Francis Child’s collection The English and Scottish Popular Ballads of 1882.  The "Charlie" mentioned is King Charles I, not Bonnie Prince Charlie.
 
 

Lyrics

It fell on a day, a bonny summer day,
When the corn was ripe and yellow,
That there fell oot a great dispute
Between Argyle aye and Airlie.

Lady Margaret looked o’er yon high castle wall,
And O but she sighed sairly.
She saw Argyle and a’ his men
Come to plunder the bonny hoose o’ Airlie.

“Come doun, come doun Lady Margaret,” he said.
“Come doun and kiss me fairly
Or gin the morning’s clear daylight
I willna leave a standing stane in Airlie.”

“I’ll no come doun, ye false Argyll,
Nor will I kiss thee fairly.
I wouldnae kiss the false Argyle
 Though you wouldna leave a standin’ stane in Airlie.”

It fell on a day, a bonny summer day,
When the corn was ripe and yellow,
That there fell oot a great dispute
Between Argyle aye and Airlie.

Lady Margaret looked o’er yon high castle wall,
And O but she sighed sairly.
She saw Argyle and a’ his men
Come to plunder the bonny hoose o’ Airlie.

“Come doun, come doun Lady Margaret,” he said.
“Come doun and kiss me fairly
Or gin the morning’s clear daylight
I willna leave a standing stane in Airlie.

“I’ll no come doun, ye false Argyll,
Nor will I kiss thee fairly.
I wouldnae kiss the false Argyle
 Though you wouldna leave a standin’ stane in Airlie