Broadside ballads entitled 'The Life and Tragical End of Alaster Mackalaster' and 'A New Song'

Commentary

Verse 1: 'INTO a place in Argileshire / called Campbeltoun by Name, / One Alaster Mackalaster / Who once lived in the same.' This should be sung 'To the tune of, Captain Johnston's Lament'. The full heading of the broadside reads: 'AN ACCOUNT of the Life and tragical End of Alaster Mackalaster, [w]ho was hanged at Aberdeen the 31st of May, 1723'.

Verse 1: 'FAREWEL to Lochaber, and farewel my Jean, / Where heartsom with thee I've mony a Day been; / For Lochaber no more, Lochaber no more, / We'll may be return to Lochaber no more.' This should be sung 'To the tune of Lochaber no more'.

Despite appearing on the same broadside, these two songs are very different in content. Alaster Mackalaster's life, crimes, capture and sentence are described in brisk, unsentimental tones by a narrator who feels that the manner of Mackalaster's death was 'too good' for him. By contrast, 'A New Song' is a lament by a Scottish sailor for his home region of Lochaber, and for Jean, the woman he left there.

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