Annotation:Where Gadie Rins

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WHERE GADIE RINS. AKA - " O Gin I were where Gadie Rins," "Whaur Gadie Rins." AKA and see “Hessians' March (The).” Scottish, Air and March (4/4 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABBCC. The tune was originally called "The Hession's March" to which various sets of words were written. As an instrumental, "Where Gadie Rins" was the “March Past of the Gordon’s,” as noted by J. Scott Skinner, referring to the Gordon Highlanders regiment of the British army. The words to the song "Where Gadie Rins" were written by Dr. John Park (1805-1865), a Presbyterian Minister at St. Andrews. He heard a "peasant girl" singing them in the highlands around Aberdeen. Another set of words to the air, entitled "Bennachie," beginning "O, Gin I Were Where Gadie Rins!," were written by John Imlah (1799–1846, and who died in Jamaica, West Indies). Imlah's song first appeared in print in William Christie's A Collection of Strathspeys, Reels, Hornpipes, Waltzes &c. (c. 1820), where it is entitled "O if I were where Gadie runs, or the The Hessian's March." It begins:

O! gin I were where Gadie rins,
Where Gadie rins, where Gadie rins,
O! gin I were where Gadie rins,
By the foot o' Bennachie.

I've roamed by Tweed, I've roamed by Tay,
By Border Nith and Highland Spey,
But dearer far to me than they
Are the braes o' bennachie.

The Gadie is a 13-mile stream in Aberdeenshire, and rises at the back of Bennachie hill, later to join the Urie, a tributary of the Don.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Skinner (Harp and Claymore Collection), 1904; p. 26.

Recorded sources:

See also listing at:
See the Ballad Index entry on the song [1]

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