The Book of Scottish Song/The wee German Lairdie
The wee German Lairdie.
[This is one of the most spirited of all the Jacobite songs, and was one of the most popular. The presumption is, that it was written after the accession of George I. to the throne of Britain in 1714, but where or when it first appeared, we cannot say. The version which we here follow is that given in Hogg's "Jacobite Relics of Scotland," vol. I. Edinburgh, 1819. Hogg set the words to music, and boasts that his tune supplanted the old one.]
Wha the deil ha'e we gotten for a king,
But a wee, wee German lairdie?
And, when we gaed to bring him hame,
He was delving in his kail-yardie:
Sheughing kail, and laying leeks,
But the hose, and but the breeks;
And up his beggar duds he decks—
This wee, wee German lairdie.
And he's clapt down in our gudeman's chair,
The wee, wee German lairdie;
And he's brought fouth o' foreign leeks,
And dibbled them in his yardie.
He's pu'd the rose o' English loons,
And broken the harp o' Irish clowns;
But our thistle taps will jag his thumbs—
This wee, wee Ginnan lairdie.
Come up amang our Highland hills,
Thou wee, wee German lairdie,
And see the Stuart's lang-kail thrive
They dibbled in our yardie:
And if a stock ye dare to pu',
Or haud the yoking o' a plough,
We'll break your sceptre o'er your mou',
Thou wee bit German lairdie.
Our hills are steep, our glens are deep,
Nae fitting for a yardie;
And our Norland thistles winna pu',
Thou wee bit German lairdie:
And we've the trenching blades o' weir,
Wad prune ye o' your German gear—
We'll pass ye 'neath the claymore's shear,
Thou feckless German lairdie!
Auld Scotland, thou'rt ower caald a hole
For nursin' siecan vermin;
But the very dougs o' England's court
They bark and howl in German.
Then keep thy dibble in thy ain hand,
Thy spade but and thy yardie;
For wha the deil ha'e we gotten for a king,
But a wee, wee German lairdie?