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The Canadian Boat Song

by
The Author Of
The Highland Clearances Page

QUESTION: Reading about the subject of the Highland Clearances I came across this fragment of what was called "The Canadian Boat Song" (1829, author unknown):

When the bold kindred, in the time long vanish'd,
Conquer'd the soil and fortified the keep, -
No seer foretold the children would be banish'd
That a degenerate Lord might boast his sheep.

Does anybody know more about this fragment and "The Canadian Boat Song"? Does anybody know about the author, and whether the date is correct?

ANSWER 1: I believe that the author was John Galt, the Upper Canada land developer after whom the Ontario town of Galt was named (now part of Cambridge, Ontario). The best known verse runs something like:

From the lone shieling, on the misty island
Mountains divide us, and the mist of seas,
But still the pull is strong, the heart is Highland,
As we in dreams behold the Hebrides

ANSWER 2: See the full text of The Canadian Boat Song

E-mail from a reader on May 11, 2001: "I was reading the questions on your web and you quoted a verse of the Canadian Boat Song. I have a book printed in the 20's with the song in it and the verse goes --"

From the lonely sheiling of the misty island,
mountains divide us and a waste of seas,
yet still the blood is strong
the heart is highland,
and in my dreams I behold the Hebrides

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