Dance The Thistle 6552

Songs and poems in praise of the thistle, Scotland’s national emblem, abound, especially plentiful being those that were written during the first half of the 19th century. The state visit of George IV in 1833, a tour ably staged by that antiquarian and dramatist of novelists, Sir Walter Scott, and the Highland holidays of Queen Victoria which began in 1842 gave Scotland an enormous and long-belated uplift in national pride. Scotland began to glory in her past history, her culture and her folkways. The lowly thistle and the nation’s motto nemo me impune lacessit – no one assails me with impunity – were made for each other.

Alexander MacLagan, the plumber poet, wrote:

Hurrah for the thistle! the brave Scottish thistle,
The evergreen thistle of Scotland for me!
A fig for the flowers, in your lady-built bowers –
The strong-bearded, weel-guarded thistle for me!

The thistle was inadvertent hero of the battle of Luncarty, an event that is supposed to have taken place in 990, in the time of Kenneth II. Tradition has it that Danish raiders were creeping up on the sleeping Scots when one of the Danes stepped with a bare foot upon a thistle. His anguished cries awoke the Scots who sprang into action and routed the Danes.

The Order of the Thistle, Scotland’s equivalent to the Order of the Garter, was actually founded by James VII (II) in 1687, although legend attaches it to the Scots king Achaius or Angus and the 10th century battle at Athelstanford. (See “Saint Andrew’s Day”) The ceremonial robes and regalia of the Knights of the Thistle feature prominently the national emblem. The knights’ mantles, collars, swords and medals positively bristle with thistles.

Allan Cunningham (1784–1842), who grew up in a house near that of Robert Burns in Ellisland and who spent his adult life in self-imposed exile in London as a journalist and editor, remembered the thistle.

Full white the Bourbon lily blows,
Still fairer haughty England’s rose;
Nor shall unsung the symbol smile,
Green Ireland, of they lovely isle.
In Scotland grows a warlike flower,
Too rough to bloom in lady’s bower;
But when his grest the warrior rears,
And spurs his courser on the spears,
O there it blossoms – there it blows –
The Thistle’s grown aboon the Rose.

Tibbie Fowler o’ the glen,
  There’s o’er mony wooin at her,
Tibbie Fowler o’ the glen,
  There’s o’er mony wooin at her.
Wooin at her, pu’in at her,
  Courtin at her, canna get her,
Filthy elf, it’s for her pelf,
  That a’ the lads are wooin at her.

Ten cam east, and ten cam west,
  Ten cam rowin o’er the water;
Twa cam down the lang dyke side,
  There’s twa and thirty wooin at her.
Wooin’ at her, &c.

There’s seven but, and seven ben,
  Seven in the pantry wi’ her;
Twenty head about the door,
  There’s ane and forty wooin at her.
Wooin’ at her, &c.

She’s got pendles in her lugs,
  Cockle-shells wad set her better;
High-heel’d shoon and siller tags,
  And a’ the lads are wooin at her. Wooin’ at her, &c.

Be a lassie e’er sae black,   And she hae the name o’ siller,
Set her upo’ Tintock-tap,
  The wind will blaw a man till her.
Wooin’ at her, &c.

Be a lassie e’er sae fair,
  An she want the pennie siller,
A flie may fell her in the air,
  Before a man be even till her.
Wooin’ at her, &c.

Two additional verses were written after the anonymous song had been included in James Johnson’s The Scots Musical Museum, Volume 5, 1796.

In came Frank wi’ his lang legs,
  Gard a’ the stair play clitter clatter;
Had awa, young men, he begs,
  For, by my sooth, I will be at her.

Fye upon the filthy snort,
  There’s o’er mony wooing at her;
Fifteen came frae Aberdeen;
  There’s seven and forty wooing at her.

William Stenhouse gave his opinion of these two verses by stating: “Fye upon the filthy snort of the man that could wirte such nonsense. It is really to bad to disfibure our best old songs with such unhallowed trash.”

By tradition there appears to have been a Tibbie Fowler who lived in the 17th century. She was reputed to have been Isobel, daughter of Ludovick Fowler who married George Logan, son of the Logan of Restalrig who was attainted for his part in the Gowrie Conspiracy of 1600 against James VI. (See “The Perth Medley”) The town-house which quite possibly belonged to Tibbie and her husband stood in the Sheriff Brae of Leith and bears the date 1636.

Robert Chambers, in Songs of Scotland Prior to Burns, said: “We know not, however, whether Isobel Fowler had previously been the subject of extensive competition among the other sex, or whether she sank into the arms of Logan without a sigh from herself or others. Neither have we any authentic account of teh date of the composition. The song does not appear to be in a style earlier than the reign of George I.” That reign lasted from 1714 to 1727.

A fragment of this song appeard in David Herd’s Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs published in 1776. Allan Ramsay wrote a song to the tune “Tibbie Fowler” called “Genty Tibbie and Sonsy Nancy” for his Tea-Table Miscellany of 1724. The tune was considered old even in Ramsay’s time.