Pride of Aberdeen or “Nellie of Aberdeen” or “Young Ellen of Aberdeen” is found in John Ords Bothy Songs and Ballads of Aberdeen, Banff and Moray, Angus and the Mearns. Various versions of the song is also found in Greig-Duncan Folk Song Collection Volume 6. Originally collected by James Duncan in January 1906 from performers such as John McAllan ( Sep 1907), William Ross (Sep 1909), John Garioch (Apr 1859), Charles Walker ( Apr 1906) Maggie Watt (Apr 25th 1905) and Isaac Troup (Sep 11^th 1907) The oldest known version of the song is from 21^st April 1859 from John Garioch however the song was commonly sung by males in the first decade of the 1900’s. Roud Index: 2179

Although the origins of the song is unknown, the song seems to be a lament about a girl who is orphaned at 11 and falls sick at 17 before she could marry the narrative singer/writer of the song. I chose to rewrite the melody of the song and have wrote an extra verse (V1 A and B) as I felt the song needed a little bit of introduction and that the first line “All earthly pleasures now are fled” needed some verse before it.