Annotation:Jockey Said to Jenny (1)

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JOCKEY SAID TO JENNY. AKA - "Wallackum Doodle Do." AKA and see "For the Love of Gean." Scottish, English; Air (3/2 time). England, Northumberland. A Borders song or tune in triple-time hornpipe meter, first printed in Alan Ramsay's Tea Table Miscellany, where it was, even then, an old song (marked by a 'Z' in the book, indicating author and origin unknown). The song, as printed in The Harp of Caledonia (1821), begins:

Jocky said to Jenny, Jenny wilt thou do it?
Ne'er a fit quo Jenny, for a my tocher good
For a my tocher good, I winna marry thee
E'ens ye like quo Jocky, ye may let it be

I hae gowd and gear, I hae land enough
I hae seven good owsen ganging in a pleugh
Ganging in a pleugh and linking ower the lee
And gin ye winna tak me I can let ye be.

Robert Chambers remarks that 'Jocky' and 'Jenny' were names that stood for every couple of 'humble' origin. The male name was used by English writers in the 18th century as a Scottish 'everyman', just as 'Sandy' was in the next century.

Another version of the song appears in the Universal Songster; or Museum of Mirth (London, 1834) under the title "Wallackum Doodle Do", "as altered from Burns and sung in London," to the air of "As Madam Flirt and I."

Jockey said to Jenny,
"Jenny wilt thou do it?"
"Ne'er a word," quoth Jenny,
"For my fortune's gude;
For my fortune's gude,
I will na marry thee,
Gin you will na ha' me,
You may let me be."
Wallackum doodle do & c.

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