Traditional Scottish Songs
- Our Own Land and Loved One
Henry Scott Riddell (1798 - 1870) was born at Sorbie, in the Vale of Ewes, in the south-east of Dumfriesshire. He was a contemporary - and admirer - of James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd and like him, helped his father tend the flocks in his local area. Despite a lack of early education, he eventualy went to St Andrews University and later became a preacher, back in the Scottish Borders.
A number of his poems are very patriotic and nationalistic - he wrote Scotland Yet while out for a walk in a lonely glen at Teviothead and Scotia's Thistle. This is another in a similar vein. It is sung to the tune "Buccleuch Gathering."
Our Own Land and Loved One
No sky shines so bright as the sky that is spread
O'er the land that gave birth to the first breath we drew —
Such radiance but lives in the eye of the maid
That is dear to our heart — to our heart ever true.With her - yes, with her that this spirit has bless'd,
'Neath my dear native sky let my home only be;
And the valley of flowers, and the heath-covered waste,
Shall alike have a spell of enchantment for me.Let her eye pour its light o'er the joy of my heart,
Or mingle its beam with the gloom of my woe,
And each shadow of care from the soul shall depart,
Save of care that on her it is bliss to bestow.My thought shall not travel to sun-lighted isles,
Nor my heart own a wish for the wealth they may claim,
But live and be bless'd in rewarding her smiles
With the song of the harp that shall hallow her name.The anthems of music delightful may roll,
Or eloquence flow as the waves of the sea,
But the sounds that enchantment can shed o'er the soul
Are — the lass that we love, and the land that is free!
Where else would you like to go in Scotland?
