Bonnie Dundee

Bonnie Dundee is the title of a poem and a song written by Walter Scott in 1825 in honour of John Graham, 7th Laird of Claverhouse, who was created 1st Viscount Dundee in November 1688, then in 1689 led a Jacobite rising in which he died, becoming a Jacobite hero.

The older tune Bonny Dundee adapted by Scott had already been used for several songs appearing under variations of that title and referring to the bonnie town of Dundee rather than to Claverhouse. Scott's song has been used as a regimental march by several Scottish regiments in the British Army and was adapted by Confederate troops during the American Civil War.

Bonny Dundee is a very old Scottish folk-tune used for at least fifteen songs, A simpler version of the tune appears in the Skene manuscript around 1630 under the title Adew, Dundee. The title Bonny Dundee for the tune appears in an appendix to John Playford's 1688 edition of The Dancing Master, an English publication. The tune has been used for the following popular song:

"Saint Johnstone" refers to Perth, and "Bonny Dundee" is the town of Dundee. This song was parodied in English publications of the early 18th century with coarser wording, under the title Jockey's Deliverance, or the Valiant Escape from Dundee, to be sung "to an Excellent Tune, called Bonny Dundee." A 1719 collection titled the parody Jockey's Escape from Dundee; and the Parsons Daughter whom he had Mowd, and its chorus featured variations on "Come open the Gates, and let me go free, And shew me the way to bonny Dundee". Robert Burns rewrote the second verse of the original, so that the latter lines were "May Heaven protect my Bonnie Scots laddie, and send him safe hame to his baby and me." He added a concluding verse with the promise to the baby to "bigg a bower on yon bonnie banks, where Tay rins dimpling by sae clear", alluding to the River Tay. Another version of the original, titled Scots Callan O' Bonnie Dundee, refers to a callant (lad) rather than a soldier, and a "bonnie blue bonnet" instead of a bannock.

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