Farewell to Tarwathie (Fareweel Tae Tarwathie) is a song written by George Scroggie (1826-1907). Scroggie was a Scottish poet-peasant who lived in Aberdeenshire in the north-east of Scotland, on the farm of Tarwathie, according to some around Crimond (Creemond), about 3 km from the coast[1] according to others a miller who lived near Aberdeen, in Fedderate, New Deer.[2]
The piece is part of the collection The Peasant's Lyre, preserved in the Library of Congress, published in 1857 in Aberdeen, in which we find the poem Farewell to Tarwathie of 16 stanza.[3][4] Some scholars have noted various degrees of kinship between the Scroggie family and the Cardno, the latter had more affinity with the sea and were Whale Fisherman. The poem is the protagonist's greeting to his beloved homeland, shortly before leaving for Greenland on a whaling ship. The protagonist is sad because he has to leave his home to undertake the long and dangerous journey, but he is hopeful of returning richer. In the period in which the poem was written, it corresponds to the new impetus given to whaling, with the introduction of steamboats. However, the Whaler Tay, which was the first in the world to mount a steam engine, had set sail from the port of Dundee in 1857: so it is assumed that the whaler, on which the protagonist will embark, was still a sailing ship.[3][4]
Bob Dylan, in retracing the sequences of the composition of Farewell, Angelina, had stated that George Scroggie's song was inspired by the old traditional ballad Wagoner's Lad, dating back to the 18th century.[5]