ALDIVALLOCH, THE CABRACH

Gordon Mcbain was aged 82 in 1931. Carpenter recorded two songs from him. 'Blowing The Candle Out' and Kale Pot And Ladle'.

My understanding is that Gordon Mcbain built his own thatched roof house at or near Aldivalloch. He worked at Reekimlane [at a farm?], then belonging to Gordons, but the Grants married in. Going home from work each day Gordon Mcbain would choose and carry a stone with him to make the walls of his new house, which is now a storage shed. It was I think called The Meadows, just outside Aldivalloch.
He is buried in Cabrach churchyard. He had eleven children. They lived at Kirston in Upper Cabrach, at a farm across from the church and post office, about two miles from Aldivalloch.

The above is the first of three handwritten cards for Kale Pot And Ladle, no typed lyric locatable in archive, so I add below my own transcription of his cards .

KAIL POT AND LADLE
It was into the month of May, one day as I was walkin
I heard a young man and a may, and so [lovely/lonely’s] they were talkin
The man unto the may did say, ‘If you will grant me my wishes
If you’ll be constant I’ll be true, and we’ll meet among the bushes’

He’s taen her by the milk white hand, and gently doon he laid her
What they did there I’ll no declare, but I’m sore afraid he left her
‘It’s we would need a hoose’ he says, ‘A kail pot pan and ladle ‘
[line missing about getting a bed and cradle?]
‘O never fear, young man’, she says, ‘For kail pot pan and ladle,
We'll’ get a bed to lie [into] and I’ll get my father’s cradle’

‘But we would need a maid’, he says, ‘For cairdin and for spinnin
And to wid need another maid to wash and dress wir linen’
‘O never fear, young man’ she says, ‘ For cairdin and for spinnin
I can dee that richt weel mysel, and will wash and dress yer linen'

' But we would need a maid’, he says, ‘For cookin oor diet
And to wid need another maid tae [had] wir bairnies quietl
‘O never fear, young man’ she says, ‘ For cookin o yer diet
For I can do that richt weel mysel, and [had] yer bairnies quiet’

‘But anither thocht’s come in my head, that marriage brieds much trouble
It’s this [fent?] a bit I’ll marry yet tae mak my sorrows double’
‘It’s get ye gone, young man, ‘she says, ‘Ye hae excuses mony
For I will get two far one will do, so begone, I can dee by you’


But he’s taen her by the milk white hand, and to the priest he led her
And he’s made her his wedded wife and now they dwell together
They’ve gotten a horse, they’ve gotten land, a kail pot pan and ladle
They’ve gotten a bed to lie into but they never [not] the cradle

Learned when a little loon.

Card Images are used courtesy of the James Madison Carpenter Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.