Macphersons Rant
Fare ye weel ye dark and lonely hills,
Far away beneath the sky.
Macpherson's time will no be long
on yonder gallows tree.
Chorus
Sae rantinly, sae wantonly,
Sae dantinly gaed he.
He played a tune, an' he danced it roon
a blow the gallows tree
It was by a woman's treacherous hand,
That I was condemned tae dee.
Upon a ledge on a window she stood,
And a blanket she threw ower me.
Chorus
For there's some come here tae see me dee,
An' some tae buy my fiddle
But before that I do part wi' her,
I'll brak her through the middle
Chorus
He took his fiddle in tae baith o' his hands
An he brak' it ower a stane.
Says no anither shall play on thee,
When I am deid an' gane.
Chorus
The reprieve was comin' ower the Brig o' Banff,
Tae set Macpherson free.
Bit they pit the clock a quarter afore
An they hanged him tae the tree.
Chorus
Macphersons Lament
I spent my life in rioting,
Debauch'd my health and stength
I squander'd fast as pillage came,
And fell to shame at length.
My father was a gentleman
Of fame and honour high
Oh mother, would you ne'er had borne
The son so doom'd to die.
The Laird of Grand
The Royal Majesty,
Pass'd his great word for Peter Brown
And let Macpherson die.
But Braco Duff, with rage enough,
First laid a snare for me,
And if that death did not prevent,
Aveng'd I well could be.
But vengeance I did never wreak,
When power was in my hand,
And you, dear friends, no vengeance seek,
It is my last command.
Forgive the man whose rage betray'd
Macpherson's worthless life;
When I am gone, be it not said,
My legacy was strife.
Jamie Macpherson
The words are Macpherson's Lament, written by him while in jail awaiting his death. His career as a free-booter; the events around his capture, rescued by friends only to be recaptured again have only added to the myth and the legend.
He had been born the son of an Invershie Macpherson and a beautiful Gypsy and following the death of his father while pursuing a body of hostile clansmen cattle-lifting in Badenoch. The family took in the son and his mother. James when older became the captain of a band of Gipsies who traveled the northern counties of Scotland helping themselves to the property of the many well-to-do but never perpetrating acts of cruelty or willful murder and never condescending to harm the helpless and distressed.
The eventual trial at Banff, allegations of political bias, the severity of the sentence and the belief that by fraud or violence a messenger with a missive of pardon had been delayed between Turriff and Banff have been the source of inspiration for writers of history and myth. One story has it that the town clock was set ahead 15 minutes to insure the execution would take place before a pardon on the was would arrive. Robert Burns found his story the cause for writing his Macpherson's Farewell, now sung to the tune of Macphersons Rant.
The story is told that Jamie played the fiddle up to the moment of his execution, When he offered it to members of the crowd and found no one with the courage to take it from him, he therefore broke it over his knee and threw it amongst the crowd with the remark, "No one else shall play Jamie Macpherson's fiddle," It was picked up by Donald Macpherson and taken by him to Cluny. This was the last capital sentence executed in Scotland under Heritable Jurisdiction.