Dance Fairly Shot o' her 2042

Till we were married I cou’d na see light till her,
For a month after a’ thing ay gaed right wi’ her,
But these ten years I hae prayed for a wright to her,
O gin I were fairly shot o’ her.
Chorus
O gin I were fairly shot o’ her,
Fairly, fairly shot o’ her,
O gin I were fairly shot o’ her.
If she were dead I wad dance on the tap o’ her.

Nane o’ her relations or frien’s cou’d stay wi’ her,
The neighbors and bairns are fain to fly frae her,
An’ I my ain sell is fore’t to gie way till her,
O gin I were fairly shot o’ her.

She gans aye sae braw, she’s sae mickle pride in her,
There’s no a goodwife in the haill country side like her,
Wi’ dress an’ wi’ drink the d-l wadna bide wi’ her.
O gin I were fairly shot o’ her.

If the time wou’d but come that to the kirk gate wi’ her,
An’ into the yerd I’d mak my sell quit o’ her,
I’d be as blythe as first when I met wi’ her.
O gin I were fairly shot o’ her.

William Stenhouse observes: “This old song received some additions and corrections from the pen of John Anderson, engraver of music in Edinburgh, who served his apprenticeship with Johnson, the publisher. The air, under the title of Fairlie Shot of Her, appears in Mrs Crockat’s Manuscript Music-Book, so that the tune is very old. It is also preserved in Oswald’s Caledonian Pocket Companion, and various other collections. This tune was selected by Mr O’Keefe for one of his songs for “Shelty” in the Highland Reel, beginning ‘Boys, when I play, cry O Crimini,’ acted at Covent Garden in 1788.”

In 1789 Anderson published A Selection of the Most Approved Highland Strathspeys, Country Dances, English and French Dances and, in 1790, A Collection of New Highland Strathspey Reels.