The Canadian Boat Song

Flag of Canada

We have posted "The Canadian Boat Song" on this website, as it was published in "Blackwood's Magazine," September 1829, for the first time.

The following conversation was recorded, in the Hebrides:

By the bye, I have a letter this morning from a friend of mine now in Upper Canada. He was rowed down the St. Lawrence lately, for several days on end, by a set of strapping fellows, all born in that country, and yet hardly one of them could speak a word of any tongue but the Gaelic.

They sung heaps of our old Highland oar-songs, he says, and capitally well, in the true Hebridean fashion; and they had others of their own, Gaelic too, some of which my friend noted down, both words and music.

He has sent me a translation of one of their ditties.

This became known as "The Canadian Boat Song."

Back to:
[Scots in New Scotland (Nova Scotia)]
[Scottish Culture & Heritage: Scotland & New Scotland]
[New Scotland (Nova Scotia)] [Scottish Clan System]
[Scottish Clan Septs]

[Credits] Standard Disclaimer
Copyright (C) 1995 * All Rights Reserved

---

[CCN Culture & Heritage] [Find] [Comment] [CCN Home]