Robert Tannahill 1812
Mainly Norfolk: "The lyrics and melody are a variant of the song The Braes of Balquhither by Scottish poet Robert Tannahill (1774-1810) and Scottish composer Robert Archibald Smith (1780-1829), but were adapted by Belfast musician Francis McPeake (1885-1971) into Wild Mountain Thyme and first recorded by his family in the 1950s." "Like Burns, Tannahill collected and adapted traditional songs, and this one may have been based on the traditional song "The Braes O' Bowhether" though there is much more similarity between McPeake's words and Tannahill's words than between Tannahill's and the trad song. According to Wikisource, the first known publication of Tannahill's poem was in 1812, but it was better known from Smith's publication in 1821-4. Below is a mashup of McPeake's more familiar words and Tannahill's words. Jim Malcolm in band Keltik Elektrik: Wild Mountain Thyme
The summer time is coming
And the trees are sweetly blooming,
And the wild mountain thyme
A’ the moorlands perfuming.
Chorus:
Will you go, lassie, go?
And we’ll all go together
To pull wild mountain thyme
All around the blooming heather,
Will you go, lassie, go?
I will build my love a bower
By yon clear crystal fountain.
And on it I will build
All the flowers of the mountain.
To our dear native scenes
Let us journey together,
Where glad Innocence reigns
‘Mang the braes o’ Balquhither.
So merrily we’ll sing,
As the storm rattles o’er us,
Till the dear sheiling ring
Wi’ the light lilting chorus.