JEAN STEWART RECORDINGS
IN TOBAR AN DUALCHAIS

A woman put a curse on a boy who laughed at her January 1960
A woman put a curse on a boy who laughed at her for being a cripple. A woman who could put prayers (curses) on people told a lad who laughed at her for being crippled that within the week he wo...

An example of Jean Stewart's second sight: she was forewarne..., c. January 1960
An example of Jean Stewart's second sight: she was forewarned of her brother's death.
One Sunday Jean Stewart smelled a coffin in her room. She asked her niece to come and smell it, but she

The Devil swept away the money when men were gambling at car..., c. January 1960
The Devil swept away the money when men were gambling at cards on a Sunday.
Jean Stewart heard a story from her father about men gambling at cards on a Sunday night. They were warned to stop .

Demonstration of a fortune-telling spiel., April 1960
Demonstration of a fortune-telling spiel
Jean Stewart offers to tell whether the subject will marry the dark lady or the fair lady, and which will be lucky for him. He will not need to take o...

Demonstration of reading cards., April 1960
Demonstration of reading cards.
Jean Stewart reads the cards for Kenneth Goldstein. She begins with money, and goes on to a marriage within his circle, and illness or trouble worrying his wife...

Children's rhymes., May 1960
Children's rhymes.
Chap at the doorie, peep in, lift the sneck [latch], walk in,
Take a chair, sit doon.
"Good mornin tae you, sir."
This is the man that broke the barn,
This ...

Sayings and rhymes about superstitions., May 1960
Sayings and rhymes about superstitions.
A Monday's child is fair in face,
A Tuesday's child is full of grace,
A Wednesday's child is full of woe,
A Thursday's child has far to go...

The Tattie Howkers, July 1955
A short rhyme about tattie howkers [potato lifters] coming down the Broomielaw in Glasgow.

Riddles., December 1959
I'm long and I'm small,
I've no guts at all,
I've neither a face nor eye,
A tail I have
As long as beyond,
And without any wings I can fly.
Answer: a kite...

Riddles., December 1959.
Fits in the hoose, an oot the hoose, an in the hoose fan a's deen [when all's done]? Answer: the windows.
Jean Stewart repeats the 'windows' riddle at Kenneth Goldstein's request.

Riddles and conundrums., December 1959
Riddles and conundrums.
I'm nakit an I'm nackit an I'm a' yallow backit. Answer: horn.
A rhyme in cant signifying "a beggar trying to get milk from a woman in a milk-house".
A deaf man ...

Riddles and conundrums., December 1959
Two O's, two N's, a L an a D, spell them together and they'll spell London for me.
Fit has two hands, an never washes its face? Answer: a clock.
How much feet ha...

Riddles and conundrums., December 1959
Elizabeth, Betty an Beth went tae the woods tae herry a bird's nest. There wis three in the nest an each took one, how many were left? Answer: Two. Elizabeth, Betty and Beth are the on...

Riddles and conundrums., December 1959
Riddles and conundrums.
It wis from a young man I got it, atween two legs I put it, first through hair, then through skin, then [?] the trick was done. Answer: a man skinning a rabbit with a po...

The House that Jack Built, December 1959
Cumulative rhyme about the house that Jack built.

Tongue twister., December 1959
Tongue twister.
The priest in the parish, the clerk and his man, ran round the churchyard wi a hot brick in his han. [Repeated faster and faster.]

The ghost of a raped and murdered schoolgirl was always seen..., December 1959
The ghost of a raped and murdered schoolgirl was always seen at the same time of night.
Jean Stewart's uncle, a bachelor who had fought in two wars and was frightened of nothing, had missed his...

A ghostly woman in black with bare feet was seen by woods ne..., December 1959
A ghostly woman in black with bare feet was seen by woods near New Deer.
Jean Stewart's brother used to cycle home at night to New Pitsligo when he had been playing in a band. One night as he w...

A carrier died after giving the Devil a lift on his lorry., December 1959
A carrier died after giving the Devil a lift on his lorry.
Jean Stewart heard the following story from her parents when she was young.
In the days before motor transport, a carrier from nea...

Mrs Brown Went to Town, 26 December 1959
A hand-clapping song:
Mrs Brown went to town
Riding on a pony.
When she came back she wore a brown hat,
You called her Miss Maloney.
Mistress Nore on the shore,
She's got da...

The Bells of Farewell, 26 December 1959
A skipping rhyme:
I'm away to the mountains,
The mountains, the mountains,
I'm away to the mountains,
Like the bells of farewell.
I had a wee baby ...

Poor Gracie is Dead, 26 December 1959
A ring game:
Poor Gracie she's dead and she lies in her grave,
Lies in her grave, lies in her grave,
Poor Gracie she's dead and she lies in her grave,
Lies in her grave.

A hand-clapping song:
There were a lad, a lad indeed,
Sowed his garden full of seed,
When this seed began to grow
Like a garden full of snow,
When the snow began to melt

Hap and Row, 26 December 1959
[chorus:]
Hap an row, hap an row,
Hap an row, the feeties o't,
I didna ken I had a geet [offspring]
Till I heard the greeties [cries] o't.

A Lady in her Garden Walking, 26 December 1959
Truncated version of a broken-token song, in which a young woman meets a man who offers her wealth and comfort if she will go with him. She refuses, saying she awaits the return of her lover from sea.

The Aul Pair o Taws, 26 December 1959
A short song in which the singer recalls punishment received as a child:
Oh weel do I mind the day when I was but a bairn,
The lickins that I used tae get when I did ony hairm.

A woman saw her lover digging her grave, and brought her fat..., c. January 1960
A woman saw her lover digging her grave, and brought her father and brother, who saved her.
An old woman, a friend of Jean Stewart's mother, told the story of how she had seen her own grave bei...

The Butcher Boy, c. January 1960
Opening of the murder ballad 'The Butcher Boy':
My parents they gave me good learning,
Good learning they gave to me,
O they sent me to a butcher's shop
A butcher boy to be.

A verse or quotation partly in Romany, with explanation., c. January 1960
A verse or quotation partly in Romany, with explanation.
Dell on, rye-gin, Dell him on the mye-gin,
Up, my devil, an [push at?] him
Wi the coshtie underneath the vardie.
A cara...

A beggar dreamed of a white lady leading him to treasure in..., 16 January 1960
A beggar dreamed of a white lady leading him to treasure in the dungeons of a castle. A beggar took shelter for the night in an old unoccupied castle. After he lay down for the night a white la...

A Traveller saw a real ghost after he had tried to frighten..., 16 January 1960
A Traveller saw a real ghost after he had tried to frighten a boy who prayed all the time.
One night a boy of fourteen or fifteen came to a place where two Traveller families were camped. He wa...

Chin Cherry, 16 January 1960
A children's rhyme used for naming parts of the face while touching each part:
Chin cherry, Mou merry, Nose nappy, Ee winky,Broo brinkie,
And owre the hill and intae stinky...

Jean Stewart and others experienced strange happenings in he..., 16 January 1960
Jean Stewart and others experienced strange happenings in her house: doors opening and the house shaking. Strange happenings had recently occurred in the house in Gaval Street [Fetterangus].

Jean Stewart smelled a coffin in the house the day before he..., 16 January 196
Jean Stewart smelled a coffin in the house the day before her brother died.

Jean Stewart had no warning of her mother's death, but her m..., 16 January 1960
Jean Stewart had no warning of her mother's death, but her mother's ghost appeared to her.
Jean Stewart had warning of the deaths of her brothers, sister and father, but not of the death of her...

A lad sold sheep's dirt wrapped in silver paper as a cure fo..., 16 January 1960
A lad sold sheep's dirt wrapped in silver paper as a cure for a short memory.
A lad who was down and out needed to do something to make some money. He gathered all the sheep's dirt from a field.

Beggars had a narrow escape from a red-headed family who wan..., 16 January 1960
Beggars had a narrow escape from a red-headed family who wanted to murder them and sell their bodies to medical students. Beggars would never stop at a house where a red-headed family lived.

The Bonny Lass of Bon Accord/The Laird of Drumblair/The High road to Linton, June 1960
'The Bonny Lass of Bon Accord' on the accordion, followed by the strathspey 'The Laird of Drumblair'. The final tune is the reel 'The High Road to Linton'.

Jean Stewart recites two rhymes in cant featuring Travellers..., September 1960
Jean Stewart recites two rhymes in cant featuring Travellers, followed by a translation and explanation of the language.

JEAN STEWART
Musician and dance band leader, Elizabeth's mother

All the below tracks were recorded by Goldstein and copied to the School of Scottish Studies Archive. Jean also plays accordion on several other tracks when others were singing and playing piano.

In her book Elizabeth tells us that her mother Jean 'wis a star in her ain right. In her lifetime she hid a great influence ower many many folk, hrough her broadcastin an dance band playin an through the teachin o piano, accordion an dancin. She won awards for eveythin she competed for, even clog dancin! She wis a highly skilled and qualified musician who could play any instrument she took a mind to. ' She also was employed by the Education Authority to play piano for the Scottish Country Dance Society
When young she and her brother Ned sang in harmony and won prizes. Later Ned played fiddle in her band, which she formed aged 16, sometimes with three musicians, sometimes six or eight. They played 'jazz, quick-steps, slow foxtrots, modern waltzes, aul fashioned waltzes, St Bernard's waltzes, Boston 2-stp, sambas, aa that sort o thing, and of course she played Scottish music too, Gay Gordons, Strip The Willow, a grand march or eightsome reel.
'Her nickname wis Big Jean, although really she wis quite tiny, slim an only 5'4", but I think the nickname is mair aboot the presence she hid, an the impression she made on the folk aroon her.'
'My mither hid a music room in Duke Street where she taught her individual pupils. She hid a genuine Stradivarius tae but this wis stolen. She kent aa the sangs an hid a fine voice, which wis husky an very expressive. She wid sing in the real aul Traveller style. She pit in a lot o emotion, an the result wis you could almost hear the bagpipes, like a pibroch, in the way she sang. She wis very different fae her sister Lucy, Lucy wis a straight singer an widna sing in the Cant, which Jean jist loved tae dae.'
Together Jean and Ned 'established one o Scotland's earliest
Strathspey & Reel Societies, in Fetterangus.
' When she played her bagpipe marches on the accordion, she wid often put a match-stick in the key the tune that the tune wis played on an that gave her the drone o the pipes.'
Before the Society, Jean went to BBC Aberdeen for an audition to play piano, accompaniments and incidental music for radio programmes. She was selected out of the 18 auditioned, and played for live broadcasts 'manys a year', including 'any new tune that cam up fae London, like The Lambeth Walk. She accompanied the singing of John Mearns, George Elrick and Willie Kemp, and was friends with Ludovic Kennedy, Jessie Kesson and Moultrie Kelsall.