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Three Healths

[ Roud - ; Mudcat 158017 ; trad.]

Archie Fisher, Barbara Dickson, and John MacKinnon sang The Three Healths in 1969 on their Trailer album of songs of the Jacobite Rebellions, The Fate o’ Charlie.

Dick Gaughan sang The Three Healths in 1972 on his Trailer album No More Forever. He noted on his now defunct website:

Another song from volume 1 of James Hogg’s Jacobite Relics of Scotland about the 1715 Jacobite Rising. The ‘landlord’ was the exiled James Stewart whom the Jacobites regarded as rightful monarch. It was a tough choice for Scottish Republicans of the day. The guitar tuning used on this track was DADEAE.

The Tannahill Weavers sang The Three Healths in 1996 on their Green Linnet album Leaving St. Kilda. They noted:

Of all the Jacobite songs on the album, this, being a drinking song, is by far the most fun. It is chock full of allusions to the state of political affairs at the end of the first rising, 1689-90.

Lori Watson sang The Three Healths in 2006 on her ISLE CD Three.

Lyrics

Dick Gaughan sings The Three Healths

Tae ane King an nae King, ane uncle an faither
Tae him that’s aa these yet allowed tae be neither
Come push it about while the bottle’s our standard
If ye know whit I mean, here’s a health tae our landlord

Tae ane Queen an nae Queen, ane aunt an nae mither
Come boys, let us cheerfully drink up anither
An’ nou tae be honest we’ll stick by our faith, sir
An staun by our landlord as lang as we’ve breath, sir

Tae ane Prince an nae Prince, ane son an nae bastard
Beshrew thaim that say it, ’tis a lie that is fostered
God bless thaim aa three, we’ll conclude wi this ane, sir
Here’s a health tae our landlord, his wife an his son, sir

Tae our Monarch’s return aince mair we’ll advance, boys
There’s ane that’s in Flanders, the ither’s in France, boys
Then about wi a health, lat him come, lat him come, then
Send the ane intae England an baith are at hame, then