[i] The general sense of appeal in this verse and the next may be a reference to the hope that, after the indecisive battle at Sheriffmuir, reinforcements from France would soon arrive by sea (a hope which the Chevalier himself continued to embrace, sending the ship upon which he had just arrived at Peterhead back to France immediately to demand their help [cf. Tayler 1936, p. 123], an appeal that was repeated in January 1716 even as the decision to retreat from Perth was being made [id., pp. 142‒3). The only ship to reach Scotland, other than James’s own, carried his nephew the Marquis of Tynemouth and a quantity of bars of gold provided by Philip of Anjou, King of Spain, but the secret of its cargo was kept so well that no attempt was made to recover it until after the Jacobites had lost control of the Fife coastline to the Dutch in mid-January; it was recovered eventually by the Government troops (id., pp. 144‒5).  

[ii] MS, GBa & JM, dìsnean; the precarious state of the country in the years with which the author is concerned could allow the MS reading to be maintained (perhaps ‘rolling the dice o’er the land’) but the syntax is somewhat strained.

[iii] GBa, 'Thoirt bho 'n fhirinn a bonn; JM, Sa thoirt o re fhirin a bounn. Possibly an allusion to the rejection of James Francis in favour of George I, i.e. to the Government’s perceived eschewal of the correct line of hereditary inheritance (but see below, the reluctant admission that George, whatever the circumstances of his accession, is still a king). 

[iv] A reference to James’s departure from Montrose on February 4, 1716 (as introduction, above). The author’s description of his apparent reluctance may be a reference to claims made by the Earl of Mar upon their arrival in France that it was only “the accident of a vessel offering [to transport him] that caused his Majesty to depart” – in fact, the ship had been waiting there for several days (Tayler 1936, pp. 117 & 148).

[v] GBa, Tha am post air a dhiobradh; JM, A fhaichd shibh m’ post air a dhiobar. The ‘ship’ in these lines appears to be a more general metaphor for the successful government of the realm, as well as the actual vessel upon which the Chevalier had embarked. The ‘union’ which has been laid bare by the events of recent years is likely to encompass both the Act of Union in 1707 and the less tangible association – with a long history of celebration in Gaelic tradition – of the well-being of the land when united with its rightful ruler (the term also occurs, possibly in the same two-handed sense, in James’s declaration of October 1714; see below). The Chevalier is addressed directly in the verse’s final lines.

[vi] Lit., ‘to the end of time, forever’. GBa, Dhuisg sibh corraich an Fhreasdail.

[vii] Anne Frater (F, p. 117) takes this reference as further indication that the song’s author was well-apprised of recent events, recalling the swiftness with which Queen Anne’s death on August 1, 1714, was followed by the accession of George, leaving the Chevalier little chance to petition formally for his throne.

[viii] JM, Sgeile chraich shinn ri uair. Possibly a reference to the declaration made by James Francis on October 15, 1714, announcing his intention to contest George I’s recent accession to the throne. In it, James stated that: -

“We are come to take our part in all Dangers and Difficulties to which every one of our subjects may be exposed on this important Occasion, to relieve our Subjects of Scotland, from the hardships they groan under on account the late unhappy Union, and to restore the Kingdom to its ancient free and independent state” (Tayler 1934, pp. 172‒7). Unlike Sìleas na Ceapaich, who appears to have greeted the declaration and the hopes for James’s subsequent arrival with delight, the author of this song gives voice to the feelings of trepidation which must also have existed, even amongst his supporters.

[ix] I.e. the Chevalier, James Francis; the usual sobriquet ‘Old Pretender’, distinguishing him from his son, Charles Edward, would have been unnecessary in 1716, when he was simply ‘the younger’ James, his father’s successor.

[x] GBa & JM, Nach dugadh Gordanaich cul ris. Probably a reference to the fact that troops under the command of Alexander Gordon, 5^th Marquis of Huntly (later 2^nd Duke of Gordon, d. 1728), were known to have fled the field during the battle of Sheriffmuir (November 13, 1715), an episode also reported with scorn by Sìleas na Ceapaich (Ó Baoill, pp. 26 & 140‒1). Huntly, connected by marriage to several prominent Whig families, had joined the Rising only reluctantly, and was also thought to have been lacklustre in his participation overall due to the fact that he had expected to have been asked to lead it instead of John Erskine, Earl of Mar (1675‒1732). Although his father, George Gordon the 1^st Duke, is the individual associated normally with the epithet ‘An Coileach’, i.e. ‘Cock of the North’ (cf. Ó Baoill p. 136), the fact that he was imprisoned from mid-1715 until his death in captivity on December 7, 1716 (cf. Tayler 1936, p. 200) makes it probable that the more active role assigned to ‘coileach na fhùidse’ here and in vv. 14 & 15, below, has been assigned by the author to his son instead. The following verse, apparently an indictment of Huntly’s behaviour in being refused command of the Chevalier’s army, is also addressed to him, rather than to James (cf. F, p. 117).

[xi] An adjective which seems to have particular relevance to the practice of cock-fighting, popular in Scotland after 1705; compare Sìleas na Ceapaich’s use of the term in her own description of the 1^st Duke’s captivity at the time of Sheriffmuir (Ó Baoill, pp. 22 & 136).

[xii] GBa, 'S ann tha Caisteal na Maighe; JM, A fhethabh Caisdeal na Moidheadh; i.e. the seat of Clan Macintosh, in the midst of Loch a’ Mhoighe (Loch Moy) nearby to Inverness. The reference to its ‘loneliness’ in v. 13, below, also recalls its isolation here.

[xiii] The chieftain’s wife Anne, daughter of Alexander Duff of Drummuir (cf. Macintosh 1903, p. 319).

[xiv] Lachlan MacIntosh, 20^th chieftain (d. 1731), the subject of this and the following verse, who fought alongside his cousin William at Preston and was also confined in London thereafter. A. M. Macintosh notes the existence of a letter dated September 24, 1714, sent to the Duke of Montrose, Secretary for Scotland, which states that following a visit to the Chevalier in Lorraine, “Mr William Macintosh younger of Borlum, who has come in March from Bar le Duc, is traversing the country from west to east, and has prevailed on the laird of Macintosh to join the Pretender’s cause”; the letter goes on to describe a meeting called by the latter at Strathnairn on April 11, during which the local tenantry agreed to supply arms for the coming endeavour (1918, p. 15). Lachlan, or possibly William himself, had declared for James in Inverness on September 13, in what has been described as “the first move of importance in the Rising” after the Earl of Mar raised the standard at Braemar a week before (id., p. 16 & Horsburgh 2004 – the men under their command are referred to by another anonymous balladeer in the song ‘The Chevalier’s Muster-Roll’, #90 in Hogg 1819, pp. 151‒2). Following his capture at Preston, Lachlan MacIntosh was transferred to London and held in the Fleet Prison, then Newgate, from where he was released in August 1716, news of which also appears to remain unknown to the song’s author at its time of composition.

[xv] A reference, as Macintosh notes (1903, p. 305), to the fact that some 60 men of Clan Chattan, both MacIntosh and Macgillivray, had been transported, executed or died in captivity as a result of their participation at Preston alongside their chief.

[xvi] GBa & JM, chruin. Lit., ‘in readiness, in waiting’, possibly a reference to James’s status in general as the preferred king, or more specifically to hopes that he would still be able to return to reclaim his kingdom (in reality, no further attempt would be made until 1719).

[xvii] In spite of the use of ‘coileach’ again here, these lines are probably addressed to Alexander, 5^th Marquis of Huntly, rather than his father George Gordon the 1^st Duke, who was imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle at the time of the events described (see note, above). On February 12, 1716, Huntly surrendered Gordon Castle to John Gordon, 16^th Earl of Sutherland, who had been a privy councillor under Queen Anne and was later awarded the Order of the Thistle by George I for the rigour with which he had helped to put down the Rising. Anne Frater comments (F, p. 120) that “this [criticism] in some ways echoes Sìleas na Ceapaich's feelings about the failure of the Rising: that it could have been a success had the leaders not been so eager to surrender in order to protect their own positions and property”.

[xviii] John Campbell, 2^nd Duke of Argyll (1680‒1743), the commander of the Hanoverian army at Sheriffmuir and one of the chief supporters of the Act of Union in 1707, as well as George I’s accession to the throne thereafter (cf. Tayler 1936, pp. 106‒17).