The Douglas Raid (Oliveria Prescott)

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• (Posted 2023-11-30)  CPDL #77723:     

Editor: David Anderson (submitted 2023-11-30).   Score information: Letter, 8 pages, 809 kB   Copyright: Personal

Edition notes:

General Information

Title: The Douglas Raid
Composer: Oliveria Prescott
Lyricist: Anonymous
Number of voices: 4vv   Voicing: SATB
Genre: Secular, Partsong

Language: English
Instruments: A cappella

First published: 1889 Novello, Ewer, and Co.
Description: 

Original text and translations

English text

The Border Raid

The red sun set o’er moss and fell
In a stream of burnished gold,
And the curfew rang its parting knell
From the belfry quaint and old;
Through the distant haze the Warden’s gaze
Swept up to the Border Pass,
In the twilight gray concealed there lay
A foe ’mid the tangled grass.
“’Tis a Border raid,” the Warden said,
“Of a hundred men and more;
By the Holy Mass, this night the Pass
Shall reek with the raiders’ gore.”

“To arms, to arms,” the Warden cried,
“To death alone we yield;
“For the bold Buccleuch rides not to sue,
When the Douglas takes the field.”

The moon rides up the azure steep,
And it gleams down Tinto’s side,
As the troopers sweep from the Border keep,
Like the Solway’s heaving tide;
’Mid the tangled grass that skirts the Pass,
Where the rebel tartans wave,
The challenge floats from a hundred throats,
Who’d die their chief to save.
By the pale moonlight they close in fight,
And fierce is that Border fray,
On the fatal field Baccleuch doth yield,
Ere dawn of morning gray.

“To horse, to horse,” the rebel cried,
“To might alone we bow,
For the Douglas bold his own can hold
Though branded traitor now.”

attr. J. Stewart or “Wetstar”