During one of my Inverness visits, I was singing a song entitled “Weedow Magraw,” with the chorus:―
“A’ the heilan’ laudies want tae mairry Jean Magraw,
Jeanie wants tae mairry, but she canna wed them a’:
They say there’s no’ a weedow frae Inverness tae Skye
Like Jean Magraw, wha used tae be Mackie―Hooch Aye!”
The song became popular―and everybody was singing the chorus. The curious part of the business was that there happened to be a well-known widow of the same name in the district, and imagine my consternation when one morning I received a letter from the lady, informing that she was instituting proceedings against me for “inflamation” [sic] of character. […]
[…]
To soothe the lady’s feelings, and to make amends for the “inflamation” of character, I paid her a visit, and very soon persuaded her into good humour. She accepted an invitation to a front seat in the hall that night, where, I told her, I would make a public apology. The first woman there was the weedow. When I came on, I informed the audience that I wished to make an apology, and that I would do so by changing the chorus of my song “Weedow Magraw”; this is the revised chorus:―
“There’s no a man in a’ the toon wid mairry Jean Magraw,
An’ Jeanie disna want tae mairry ony man at a’;
But ye canna trust a weedow, for a weedow’s awfu’ fly
Especially if the weedow comes frae Skye―Hooch Aye!”
The widow resented the apology, and became so excited, and used such a flow of threatening language that she had to be ejected.
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