{\b Lady Carolina Nairne (pseudonym 'Mrs Bogan of Bogan, BB') }.

{\b Date of Birth}.: 16 August 1766

{\b Date of Death}.: 27 October 1845

{\b Works}.

The Scottish Minstrel  (1821), Lays from Strathern  (published posthumously in 
1846).

{\b Featured Works}.

'The Land O' the Leal', 'Caller Herrin'', 'The Laird O' Cockpen', "Would You 
Be Young Again?", "Charlie is my Darling", "Bonnie Charlie's Now Awa'".

{\b General Comment}.

Lady Carolina Nairne (also wrote under 'Mrs Bogan of Bogan, BB') was a 
Scottish songwriter. She was born in Perth, the daughter of Laurence and 
Margaret Oliphant, and named after Prince Charles Stuart. Her parents were 
avid Jacobites and so Caroline spent much of her youth listening to stories of 
her Jacobite relations, and learning her national music. She and her two 
sisters were very musical. They played several instruments and frequently 
entertained guests. Carolina, her two sisters and two brothers were educated 
by a governess.  They received religious guidance from a clergyman.

She began writing songs before her marriage in 1804 to William Nairne, with 
whom she had one son. Having had his lands forfeited, William was restored to 
the peerage in 1824 and Carolina became Lady Nairne. After he died in 1830, 
she took her frail son to Ireland. He died in Brussels in 1837, leaving his 
mother distraught.

Carolina greatly admired the poetry of Robert Burns, being fascinated by his 
method of inventing new lyrics for old Scottish tunes. She advocated Burns' 
works as she disapproved of the vulgarity of many of the old lyrics, although 
she still disapproved of some of his songs. In 1792 her version of 'The 
Ploughman' or 'The Pleuchman' became very popular, although she did not sign 
her name to it. She went on to write several amusing but deeply patriotic 
songs, among them 'John Tod', 'Jamie the Laird', and 'The Laird o' Cockpen'. 
'The Land o' the Leal', a lament for a dead child, was thought to be Burns' 
because, once again, Carolina insisted on anonymity. However, she did go on to 
write lyrics as part of a committee of women who sought to cleanse Scottish 
music of its 'unrefined' content.  In 1821 it published The Scottish Minstrel 
, and Carolina contributed under 'Mrs Bogan of Bogan', signing all her songs 
'BB'. She requested that one of Burns' songs, 'Willie Brewed a Peck o' Maut', 
be removed from the collection on the grounds that it contained too much 
passion. 

Her best known songs are 'Wake, Irishmen, Wake', which urges Ireland to revolt 
against the repression of the Catholic Church; 'Will Ye No Come back Again?', 
a Jacobite lament; and 'The Hundred Pipers', an energetic depiction of the 
crossing of the River Esk by Scottish troops. Towards the end of her life she 
agreed to have her songs published anonymously. On her sister's approval the 
songs were published as Lays From Strathern (1846) by Carolina Nairne.