Dance The Crooket-Horned Ewie 1437

Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe (1781–1851), in additional notes to William Stenhouse’s Illustrations of the Lyric Poetry and Music of Scotland, provides the following verses to “The Ewie wi’ the Crooked Horn”:

Ewie wi’ the crooked horn, may you never see the morn,
Ilka day ye steal my corn, ewie wi’ the crooked horn;
A’ the ewes come hame at even, a’ the ewes come hame at even,
A’ the ewes come hame at even, crooked hornie hydes awa’.
Ewie wi’ the crooked horn, &c.

Ilka ewie has a lambie, ilka ewie has a lambie,
Ilka ewie has a lambie, crooked hornie she has twa.
Ewie wi’ the crooked horn, may you neve rsee the morn,
Ilka day, &c.

A’ the ewes gies milk eneugh, a’ the ewes gies milk eneugh,
A’ the ewes gies milk eneugh, but crooked horn hies maist ava’,
Ewie wi’ the crooked horn, &c.

The Reverend John Skinner (1721–1807) wrote a most popular song, which Sharpe thinks he must have based upon the old “silly enough” verses. “The Ewie wi’ the Crookit Horn” by Skinner is not found often in modern collections of old Scots songs and one collection only reproduces nine verses, which is rather lengthy. However, the original Skinner song runs to seventeen! Thus, merely a sampling here will have to suffice.

O! had she deid o’ crook or cauld, As ewies do when they are auld,
It wadna been, by mony fauld,
  Sae sair a heart to nane ‘os a’.

O! a’ ye bards benorth Kinghorn,
Call your muses up and mourn,
Our ewie wi’ the crookit horn,
  Stown frae’s an’ fell’t an’ a’.

A native of Aberdeenshire, the Reverend John Skinner was educated at Marischal College and in 1742 took orders in the Episcopal Church of Scotland. After a brief sojourn in Shetland he became rector of the Episcopal church at Longside in Aberdeenshire. It was Robert Burns, with whom he corresponded, who was responsible for Skinner’s songs being published in The Scots Musical Museum. Skinner also wrote the popular “Tullochgorum”, set to another ancient Scottish tune. On the other side of the ledger he also wrote an Ecclesiastical History of Scotland. He died at the age of eighty-six at the home of his son, Bishop Skinner of Aberdeen, surrounded by three generations of his family.

William Stenhouse states: “The verses are adapted to a fine lively Highland rell of considerable antiquity, which received its name from a ‘Ewie’ of a very different breed; namely, the whisky-still, with its crooked, or rather special, apparatus.” However, a letter to Burns written on 14 November, 1787, by the Episcopal priest who composed the verses seems to point to a good deal more innocent meaning. “While I was young, I dabbled in these things;” (verses, not illicit whisky-stills) “but, on getting the black gown, I gave it pretty much over until my daughters grew up, who, being all tolerably good singers, plagued me for words to some of their favourite tunes, and so exhorted by these effusions, which have made a public appearance beyond my expectations, and contrary to my intentions. At the same time, I hope that there is nothing to be found in them uncharacteristic of unbecoming the cloth, which I would always wish to see respected.”

Skinner’s letter to Burns conjures up an intimate picture of family life in 18th century Scotland: the young ladies and their father gathered about the harpsichord in the parlour during the long, dark winter evenings singing the songs he wrote, one of them seventeen verses with a repetitive chorus.

“The Ewie wi’ the Crooked Horn” appears in James Johnson’s The Scots Musical Museum, Volume 3, 1790.