Over The Water To Charlie

Scottish Song

Over The Water To Charlie (also known as O'er The Water To Charlie) is an old Scottish song written around the 18th century and sung to the tune by the same name.

This popular Jacobite song has been subjected to various alterations by different hands, so that few copies read alike. Inevitably Robert Burns got involved but he didn't write this song per se, as the song predated Burns.

We give here Hogg's version, in his "Relics." The tune, "O'er the water to Charlie", is older than 1745, and it is probable that there was some old song with that burthen before the Jacobitical effusion.

Related Scottish Country Dances

Over The Water To Charlie

Come, boat me ower, come, row me ower,
Come, boat me ower to Charlie;
I'll gi'e John Ross another bawbee,
To ferry me ower to Charlie.

Chorus
We'll over the water, and over the sea,
We'll over the water to Charlie;
Come weel, come woe, we'll gather and go,
And live and die wi' Charlie.

It's weel I lo'e my Charlie's name,
Though some there be that abhor him;
But O, to see Auld Nick gaun hame,
And Charlie's faes before him!

Chorus

I swear by moon and stars sae bricht,
And the sun that glances early,
If I had twenty thousand lives,
I'd gi'e them a' for Charlie.

Chorus

I ance had sons, I now ha'e nane;
I bred them, toiling sairly;
And I wad bear them a' again,
And lose them a' for Charlie!

Over The Water To Charlie Song Video

Over The Water To Charlie Song - Information Video

Over The Water To Charlie, From Glen Collection Of Printed Music, Davidson's Musical Miracles, Printed Music, c. 1860

The Online Scots Dictionary Translate Scots To English.
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