There'll Never Be Peace Till Jamie Comes Hame Robert Burns Song Scotland

Tour Scotland travel video of the There'll Never Be Peace Till Jamie Comes Hame song by Robert Burns set to a slide show of some old photographs of the Scottish Highlands. Jamie refers to Bonnie Prince Charlie, Prince James Edward Stuart, born 1688, died 1766, son of the deposed King James VII of Scotland and II of England, and the leader of the unsuccessful Jacobite uprising of 1715. The Jacobites sought to restore the deposed Stuart dynasty to the Scottish and English throne. Despite initial success, the Jacobites were defeated at the battle of Culloden in 1746, forcing Bonnie Prince Charlie to flee to the highlands. Both father and son died in exile in Europe. And so, in this song a Jacobite laments the absence of who he perceives to be the rightful monarchs of Scotland.

By yon Castle wa', at the close of the day,
I heard a man sing tho' his head it was grey;
And as he was singing, the tears doon came,
There'll never be peace till Jamie comes hame.

The Church is in ruins, the State is in jars,
Delusions, oppressions, and murderous wars:
We dare na weel say't, but we ken wha's to blame,
There'll never be peace till Jamie comes hame.

My seven braw sons for Jamie drew sword,
But now I greet round their green beds in the yerd;
It brak the sweet heart o' my faithful auld Dame,
There'll never be peace till Jamie comes hame.

Now life is a burden that bows me down,
Sin I tint my bairns, and he tint his crown;
But till my last moments my words are the same,
There'll never be peace till Jamie comes hame.

Robert Burns was born, on the 25 January 1759, two miles south of Ayr, Ayrshire, in Alloway, the eldest of the seven children of William Burnes, a self educated tenant farmer from Dunnottar in the Mearns, and Agnes Broun, the daughter of a Kirkoswald tenant farmer. The only occasion that Robert Burns visited Perth, Perthshire, was towards the end of his 22 day tour of the Highlands during August and September, 1787.

All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

View the most recent Tour Scotland photographs.