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diff --git a/old/63116-0.txt b/old/63116-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 6118681..0000000 --- a/old/63116-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,61243 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, -Volume 4 (of 5), by Various - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, Volume 4 (of 5) - -Author: Various - -Editor: Francis James Child - -Release Date: September 4, 2020 [EBook #63116] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENGLISH, SCOTTISH POPULAR BALLADS, VOL 4 *** - - - - -Produced by Richard Tonsing, Katherine Ward, Alicia -Williams, David T. Jones, and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - - THE - ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH - POPULAR BALLADS - - - EDITED BY - FRANCIS JAMES CHILD - - - IN FIVE VOLUMES - VOLUME IV - - - NEW YORK - DOVER PUBLICATIONS, INC. - - - - -This Dover edition, first published in 1965, is an unabridged and -unaltered republication of the work originally published by Houghton, -Mifflin and Company, as follows: - - Vol. I—Part I, 1882; Part II, 1884 - Vol. II—Part III, 1885; Part IV, 1886 - Vol. III—Part V, 1888; Part VI, 1889 - Vol. IV—Part VII, 1890; Part VIII, 1892 - Vol. V—Part IX, 1894; Part X, 1898. - -This edition also contains as an appendix to Part X an essay by Walter -Morris Hart entitled “Professor Child and the Ballad,” reprinted _in -toto_ from Vol. XXI, No. 4, 1906 [New Series Vol. XIV, No. 4] of the -_Publications of the Modern Language Association of America_. - - - _Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 65–24347_ - - Manufactured in the United States of America - - Dover Publications, Inc. - 180 Varick Street - New York, N.Y. 10014 - - - - - ADVERTISEMENT TO PART VII - - NUMBERS 189–225 - - -I would acknowledge with particular gratitude the liberality of the HON. -MRS MAXWELL-SCOTT in allowing the examination and use of the rich store -of ballads accumulated at Abbotsford by her immortal ancestor; and also -that of LORD ROSEBERY in sending to Edinburgh for inspection the -collection of rare Scottish broadsides formed by the late David Laing, -and permitting me to print several articles. - -The REV. S. BARING-GOULD has done me the great favor of furnishing me -with copies of traditional ballads and songs taken down by him in the -West of England. - -I am much indebted to the REV. W. FORBES-LEITH for his good offices, and -to MR MACMATH, as I have been all along, for help of every description. - - F. J. C. - - OCTOBER, 1890. - - - - - ADVERTISEMENT TO PART VIII - - NUMBERS 226–265 - - -A considerable portion of this eighth number is devoted to texts from -Abbotsford. Many of these were used by Sir WALTER SCOTT in the -compilation of the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border; many, again, not -less important than the others, did not find a place in that collection. -They are now printed either absolutely for the first time, or for the -first time without variation from the form in which they were written. -All of them, and others which were obtained in season for the Seventh -Part, were transcribed with the most conscientious and vigilant care by -Mr MACMATH, who has also identified the handwriting, has searched the -numerous volumes of letters addressed to Sir WALTER SCOTT for -information relating to the contributors and for dates, and has examined -the humbler editions of printed ballads in the Abbotsford library; this -without remitting other help. - -Very cordial thanks are offered, for texts or information, or for both, -to the Rev. S. BARING-GOULD, the Rev. W. FORBES-LEITH, Mr ANDREW LANG, -Dr GEORGE BIRKBECK HILL, Mr P. Z. ROUND, Dr F. J. FURNIVALL, Mr JAMES -BARCLAY MURDOCH, Dr GIUSEPPE PITRÈ, of Palermo, Mr WILLIAM WALKER, of -Aberdeen, Mr DAVID MACRITCHIE, of Edinburgh, Mr JAMES GIBB, of Joppa, Mr -JAMES RAINE, of York, Rev. WILLIAM LESLIE CHRISTIE, of London, Mrs MARY -THOMSON, of Fochabers, and Mr GEORGE M. RICHARDSON, late of Harvard -College; for notes on Slavic popular literature, to Mr JOHN KARŁOWICZ, -of Warsaw, and Professor WILHELM WOLLNER; and for miscellaneous notes, -to my colleague, Professor G. L. KITTREDGE. - -So far as can be foreseen, one part more will bring this book to a -close; it is therefore timely to say again that I shall be glad of any -kind of assistance that will make it less imperfect, whether in the way -of supplying omissions or of correcting errors, great or small. - - F. J. C. - - FEBRUARY, 1892. - - - - - CONTENTS OF VOLUME IV - - - BALLAD PAGE - 189. HOBIE NOBLE 1 - - 190. JAMIE TELFER OF THE FAIR DODHEAD 4 - (Additions and Corrections: IV, 518; V, 249, 300.) - - 191. HUGHIE GRAME 8 - (Additions and Corrections: IV, 518; V, 300.) - - 192. THE LOCHMABEN HARPER 16 - (Additions and Corrections: V, 300.) - - 193. THE DEATH OF PARCY REED 24 - (Additions and Corrections: IV, 520.) - - 194. THE LAIRD OF WARISTON 28 - - 195. LORD MAXWELL’S LAST GOODNIGHT 34 - (Additions and Corrections: V, 251.) - - 196. THE FIRE OF FRENDRAUGHT 39 - (Additions and Corrections: IV, 521; V, 251, 301.) - - 197. JAMES GRANT 49 - (Additions and Corrections: V, 251.) - - 198. BONNY JOHN SETON 51 - (Additions and Corrections: V, 251.) - - 199. THE BONNIE HOUSE O AIRLIE 54 - (Additions and Corrections: V, 252.) - - 200. THE GYPSY LADDIE 61 - (Additions and Corrections: IV, 522; V, 252, 301.) - - 201. BESSY BELL AND MARY GRAY 75 - (Additions and Corrections: IV, 522; V, 253.) - - 202. THE BATTLE OF PHILIPHAUGH 77 - - 203. THE BARON OF BRACKLEY 79 - (Additions and Corrections: IV, 522; V, 253.) - - 204. JAMIE DOUGLAS 90 - - 205. LOUDON HILL, OR, DRUMCLOG 105 - - 206. BOTHWELL BRIDGE 108 - - 207. LORD DELAMERE 110 - - 208. LORD DERWENTWATER 115 - (Additions and Corrections: IV, 522; V, 254.) - - 209. GEORDIE 123 - - 210. BONNIE JAMES CAMPBELL 142 - - 211. BEWICK AND GRAHAM 144 - (Additions and Corrections: IV, 522.) - - 212. THE DUKE OF ATHOLE’S NURSE 150 - - 213. SIR JAMES THE ROSE 155 - - 214. THE BRAES O YARROW 160 - (Additions and Corrections: IV, 522; V, 255.) - - 215. RARE WILLIE DROWNED IN YARROW, OR, THE WATER O GAMRIE 178 - (Additions and Corrections: V, 256.) - - 216. THE MOTHER’S MALISON, OR, CLYDE’S WATER 185 - (Additions and Corrections: V, 256, 301.) - - 217. THE BROOM OF COWDENKNOWS 191 - (Additions and Corrections: IV, 523; V, 257.) - - 218. THE FALSE LOVER WON BACK 209 - - 219. THE GARDENER 212 - (Additions and Corrections: V, 258.) - - 220. THE BONNY LASS OF ANGLESEY 214 - - 221. KATHARINE JAFFRAY 216 - (Additions and Corrections: IV, 523; V, 260.) - - 222. BONNY BABY LIVINGSTON 231 - (Additions and Corrections: IV, 523; V, 261.) - - 223. EPPIE MORRIE 239 - (Additions and Corrections: V, 262.) - - 224. THE LADY OF ARNGOSK 241 - - 225. ROB ROY 243 - (Additions and Corrections: IV, 523; V, 262.) - - 226. LIZIE LINDSAY 255 - (Additions and Corrections: IV, 524; V, 264.) - - 227. BONNY LIZIE BAILLIE 266 - (Additions and Corrections: V, 265.) - - 228. GLASGOW PEGGIE 270 - (Additions and Corrections: V, 266.) - - 229. EARL CRAWFORD 276 - (Additions and Corrections: V, 301.) - - 230. THE SLAUGHTER OF THE LAIRD OF MELLERSTAIN 281 - - 231. THE EARL OF ERROL 282 - (Additions and Corrections: V, 267.) - - 232. RICHIE STORY 291 - (Additions and Corrections: V, 270.) - - 233. ANDREW LAMMIE 300 - - 234. CHARLIE MACPHERSON 308 - (Additions and Corrections: V, 301.) - - 235. THE EARL OF ABOYNE 311 - (Additions and Corrections: V, 270, 301.) - - 236. THE LAIRD O DRUM 322 - (Additions and Corrections: V, 272.) - - 237. THE DUKE OF GORDON’S DAUGHTER 332 - (Additions and Corrections: V, 273.) - - 238. GLENLOGIE, OR, JEAN O BETHELNIE 338 - (Additions and Corrections: V, 273, 302.) - - 239. LORD SALTOUN AND AUCHANACHIE 347 - (Additions and Corrections: V, 273.) - - 240. THE RANTIN LADDIE 351 - (Additions and Corrections: V, 274.) - - 241. THE BARON O LEYS 355 - (Additions and Corrections: V, 275.) - - 242. THE COBLE O CARGILL 358 - - 243. JAMES HARRIS (THE DÆMON LOVER) 360 - (Additions and Corrections: IV, 524.) - - 244. JAMES HATLEY 370 - - 245. YOUNG ALLAN 375 - (Additions and Corrections: V, 275.) - - 246. REDESDALE AND WISE WILLIAM 383 - (Additions and Corrections: V, 276.) - - 247. LADY ELSPAT 387 - - 248. THE GREY COCK, OR, SAW YOU MY FATHER? 389 - (Additions and Corrections: V, 302.) - - 249. AULD MATRONS 391 - - 250. HENRY MARTYN 393 - (Additions and Corrections: V, 302.) - - 251. LANG JOHNNY MORE 396 - (Additions and Corrections: IV, 524.) - - 252. THE KITCHIE-BOY 400 - (Additions and Corrections: V, 277.) - - 253. THOMAS O YONDERDALE 409 - - 254. LORD WILLIAM, OR, LORD LUNDY 411 - - 255. WILLIE’S FATAL VISIT 415 - - 256. ALISON AND WILLIE 416 - - 257. BURD ISABEL AND EARL PATRICK 417 - (Additions and Corrections: V, 278.) - - 258. BROUGHTY WA’S 423 - - 259. LORD THOMAS STUART 425 - (Additions and Corrections: V, 279.) - - 260. LORD THOMAS AND LADY MARGARET 426 - - 261. LADY ISABEL 429 - - 262. LORD LIVINGSTON 431 - - 263. THE NEW-SLAIN KNIGHT 434 - (Additions and Corrections: V, 279.) - - 264. THE WHITE FISHER 435 - - 265. THE KNIGHT’S GHOST 437 - - ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS 439 - - - - - 189 - - HOBIE NOBLE - - #a.# Caw’s Poetical Museum, p. 193. - - #b.# ‘Hobie Noble,’ Percy Papers. - - -Scott’s Minstrelsy, I, 164, 1802, II, 90, 1833. The source is not -mentioned, but was undoubtedly Caw’s Museum, though there are variations -of text, attributable to the editor. A copy in the Campbell MSS, I, 230, -is again from the Museum, with several corrections, two of which are -also found in Scott. Caw received the ballad, says Sir Walter, from John -Elliot of Reidheugh. #b# seems to have been sent Percy (with ‘Dick o the -Cow’) by Roger Halt, in 1775. - -Hobie Noble, though banished from Bewcastle for his irregularities, will -always command the hearty liking of those who live too late to suffer -from them, on account of his gallant bearing in the rescue of Jock o the -Side. See especially No 187, #A#, of which Hobie is the hero. All that -we know of him is so much as we are told in that ballad and in this. He -attached himself, after his expulsion from England, to the laird of -Mangerton, who gives him the praise ‘Thy coat is blue, thou has been -true.’ - -Sim o the Mains, an Armstrong of the Whithaugh branch (the most -important after that of Mangerton), undertakes to betray Hobie to the -English land-sergeant. A tryst is set at Kershope-foot, the junction of -that stream with the Liddel; and Hobie, who lives a little way up the -Liddel, rides eagerly down the water to keep it. He meets five men, who -ask him to join them in a raid into England. Hobie dares not go by day; -the land-sergeant is at feud with him on account of a brother’s death, -in which Hobie must have had a hand, and ‘the great earl of Whitfield’ -has suffered from his depredations;[1] but he will be their guide if -they will wait till night. He takes them to the Foulbogshiel, where they -alight, and word is sent by Sim to the land-sergeant at Askerton, his -adversary’s residence; the land-sergeant orders the men of the -neighborhood to meet him at daybreak. Hobie has a bad dream, wakes his -comrades in alarm, and sets out to guide them across the Waste; but the -sergeant’s force come before him, and Sim behind; his sword breaks; he -is bound with his own bow-string and taken to Carlisle. As he goes up -the quarter called the Rickergate, the wives say one to the other, -That’s the man that loosed Jock o the Side! They offer him bread and -beer, and urge him to confess stealing “my lord’s” horses; he swears a -great oath that he never had beast of my lord’s. He is to die the next -day, and says his farewell to Mangerton; he would rather be called -‘Hobie Noble’ and be hanged in Carlisle, than be called ‘Traitor Mains’ -and eat and drink. - -Mr R. B. Armstrong informs me that he has found no notice of Hobie Noble -except that Hobbe Noble, with eight others, “lived within the Nyxons, -near to Bewcastle.” - -1569. “Lancy Armistrang of Quhithauch obliged him ... for Sym Armistrang -of the Mains and the rest of the Armistrangis of his gang. Syme of the -Mains was lodged in Wester Wemys.” (Register of the Privy Council of -Scotland.) - -4. The Mains was a place a very little to the east of Castleton, on the -opposite, or north, side of the Liddel. 13–17. Askerton is in the Waste -of Bewcastle, “about seventeen miles” northeast of Carlisle. “Willeva -and Spear-Edom [otherwise Spade-Adam] are small districts in Bewcastle -dale, through which also the Hartlie-burn takes its course. -Conscowthart-Green and Rodric-haugh and the Foulbogshiel are the names -of places in the same wilds, through which the Scottish plunderers -generally made their raids upon England.” (Scott.) - -Sim o the Mains fled into England from the resentment of his chief, but -was himself executed at Carlisle about two months after Hobie’s death. -“Such is at least the tradition of Liddesdale,” says Scott. This is of -course, notwithstanding the precision of the interval of two months, -what Lord Bacon calls “an imagination as one would”; an appendage of a -later generation, in the interest of poetical justice. - - * * * * * - - 1 - Foul fa the breast first treason bred in! - That Liddisdale may safely say, - For in it there was baith meat and drink, - And corn unto our geldings gay. - Fala la diddle, etc. - - 2 - We were stout-hearted men and true, - As England it did often say; - But now we may turn our backs and fly, - Since brave Noble is seld away. - - 3 - Now Hobie he was an English man, - And born into Bewcastle dale, - But his misdeeds they were sae great, - They banishd him to Liddisdale. - - 4 - At Kershope-foot the tryst was set, - Kershope of the lily lee; - And there was traitour Sim o the Mains, - With him a private companie. - - 5 - Then Hobie has graithd his body weel, - I wat it was wi baith good iron and steel; - And he has pulld out his fringed grey, - And there, brave Noble, he rade him weel. - - 6 - Then Hobie is down the water gane, - Een as fast as he may drie; - Tho they shoud a’ brusten and broken their hearts, - Frae that tryst Noble he would not be. - - 7 - ‘Weel may ye be, my feiries five! - And aye, what is your wills wi me?’ - Then they cryd a’ wi ae consent, - Thou’rt welcome here, brave Noble, to me. - - 8 - Wilt thou with us in England ride? - And thy safe-warrand we will be, - If we get a horse worth a hundred punds, - Upon his back that thou shalt be. - - 9 - ‘I dare not with you into England ride, - The land-sergeant has me at feid; - I know not what evil may betide - For Peter of Whitfield his brother’s dead. - - 10 - ‘And Anton Shiel, he loves not me, - For I gat twa drifts of his sheep; - The great Earl of Whitfield loves me not, - For nae gear frae me he eer coud keep. - - 11 - ‘But will ye stay till the day gae down, - Until the night come oer the grund, - And I’ll be a guide worth ony twa - That may in Liddisdale be fund. - - 12 - ‘Tho dark the night as pick and tar, - I’ll guide ye oer yon hills fu hie, - And bring ye a’ in safety back, - If you’ll be true and follow me.’ - - 13 - He’s guided them oer moss and muir, - Oer hill and houp, and mony ae down, - Til they came to the Foulbogshiel, - And there brave Noble he lighted down. - - 14 - Then word is gane to the land-sergeant, - In Askirton where that he lay: - ‘The deer that ye hae hunted lang - Is seen into the Waste this day.’ - - 15 - ‘Then Hobie Noble is that deer; - I wat he carries the style fu hie! - Aft has he beat your slough-hounds back, - And set yourselves at little ee. - - 16 - ‘Gar warn the bows of Hartlie-burn, - See they shaft their arrows on the wa! - Warn Willeva and Spear Edom, - And see the morn they meet me a’. - - 17 - ‘Gar meet me on the Rodrie-haugh, - And see it be by break o day; - And we will on to Conscowthart Green, - For there, I think, w’ll get our prey.’ - - 18 - Then Hobie Noble has dreamd a dream, - In the Foulbogshiel where that he lay; - He thought his horse was neath him shot, - And he himself got hard away. - - 19 - The cocks could crow, and the day could dawn, - And I wat so even down fell the rain; - If Hobie had no wakend at that time, - In the Foulbogshiel he had been tane or slain. - - 20 - ‘Get up, get up, my feiries five— - For I wat here makes a fu ill day— - And the warst clock of this companie - I hope shall cross the Waste this day.’ - - 21 - Now Hobie thought the gates were clear, - But, ever alas! it was not sae; - They were beset wi cruel men and keen, - That away brave Noble could not gae. - - 22 - ‘Yet follow me, my feiries five, - And see of me ye keep good ray, - And the worst clock of this companie - I hope shall cross the Waste this day.’ - - 23 - There was heaps of men now Hobie before, - And other heaps was him behind, - That had he been as wight as Wallace was - Away brave Noble he could not win. - - 24 - Then Hobie he had but a laddies sword, - But he did more than a laddies deed; - In the midst of Conscouthart Green, - He brake it oer Jers a Wigham’s head. - - 25 - Now they have tane brave Hobie Noble, - Wi his ain bowstring they band him sae; - And I wat his heart was neer sae sair - As when his ain five band him on the brae. - - 26 - They have tane him [on] for West Carlisle; - They askd him if he knew the way; - Whateer he thought, yet little he said; - He knew the way as well as they. - - 27 - They hae tane him up the Ricker-gate; - The wives they cast their windows wide, - And ilka wife to anither can say, - That’s the man loosd Jock o the Side! - - 28 - ‘Fy on ye, women! why ca ye me man? - For it’s nae man that I’m usd like; - I’m but like a forfoughen hound, - Has been fighting in a dirty syke.’ - - 29 - Then they hae tane him up thro Carlisle town, - And set him by the chimney-fire; - They gave brave Noble a wheat loaf to eat, - And that was little his desire. - - 30 - Then they gave him a wheat loaf to eat - And after that a can o beer; - Then they cried a’, wi ae consent, - Eat, brave Noble, and make good cheer! - - 31 - Confess my lord’s horse, Hobie, they say, - And the morn in Carlisle thou’s no die; - ‘How shall I confess them?’ Hobie says, - ‘For I never saw them with mine eye.’ - - 32 - Then Hobie has sworn a fu great aith, - By the day that he was gotten or born, - He never had onything o my lord’s - That either eat him grass or corn. - - 33 - ‘Now fare thee weel, sweet Mangerton! - For I think again I’ll neer thee see; - I wad betray nae lad alive, - For a’ the goud in Christentie. - - 34 - ‘And fare thee well now, Liddisdale, - Baith the hie land and the law! - Keep ye weel frae traitor Mains! - For goud and gear he’ll sell ye a’. - - 35 - ‘I’d rather be ca’d Hobie Noble, - In Carlisle, where he suffers for his faut, - Before I were ca’d traitor Mains, - That eats and drinks of meal and maut.’ - - * * * * * - -#a.# - - 9^4. brother is dead: _cf._ #b.# (Dead _is_ death.) - - 10^2. For twa drifts of his sheep I gat: _corrected in Scott and - in the Campbell MS._ - - 15^4. lee, #b# lye: _corrected to_ fee _in Campbell MS._ - (ee==awe.) - - 16^2. shaft _is corrected to_ sharp _in Scott and the Campbell - MS._ - - 24^4. Jersawigham’s: _cf._ #b#. - - #b.# _There is a burden after the first, second, and fourth line, - variously given; as,_ Fa (La, Ta) la didle, Ta la la didle, - _etc., after the first and second;_ Fala didle, lal didle, Tal - didle, tal diddle, _after the fourth_. - - 2^{1,2} _wanting._ - - 2^{3,4}. _1^{5,6} in the MS._ - - 2^3. flee. - - 2^4. he is. - - 3^1. Then _for_ Now. - - 5^2. both with. - - 5^3. out a. - - 6^3. If they should all have bursen. - - 6^4. From. - - 7^4. here _wanting_. - - 8^1. Will. - - 8^2. we shall. - - 8^3. pound. - - 8^4. shall. - - 9^1. in. - - 9^4. brother’s dead (_death_). - - 10^2. For twa drifts of his sheep I gott. - - 10^3. not me. - - 10^4. me that he can keep. - - 11^3. worth other three. - - 11^4 _wanting._ - - 12^{1,2} _written as 11^4_: The pick and tar was never so dark but - I’le guide you over yon hillies high. - - 12^{3,4} _wanting._ - - 15^1. he was that. - - 15^3. slooth. - - 15^4. little lye. - - 16^2. shaft. - - 16^3. Gar warn. - - 17^1. me the morn. - - 17^2. see that it be by the. - - 17^3. Corscowthart. - - 17^4. ow? - - 18^3. beneath. - - 19^1. cra: da. - - 19^3. not. - - 19^4. either tane. - - 21^1. But H.: gates they had been. - - 21^3. set. - - 21^4. Noble he. - - 23^1. lumps _for_ heaps (heaps _in 23^2_). - - 24^3. Corscothart. - - 24^4. Jers a wighams. - - 25^1. They have tane now H. N. - - 25^2. bow-strings. - - 25^3. his heart was never so wae. - - 26^1. on for. - - 27^2. cuist. - - 27^3. Then every. - - 27^4. John of. - - 28^3. for fouchald. - - 29^3. brave _wanting_: for to. - - 30^1. _wanting._ - - 32^3. had nothing. - - 33^1. now _for_ sweet. - - 33^4. Crisenty. - - 34^3. And keep. - - 35^1. cald now. - - 35^4. That eat and drank him a of. - - - - - 190 - - JAMIE TELFER OF THE FAIR DODHEAD - - Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, I, 80, 1802; II, 3, 1833. - - -Scott, by whom this ballad was first published, and to whom alone it -seems to be known, gives us no information how he came by it. He says, -“There is another ballad, under the same title as the following, in -which nearly the same incidents are narrated, with little difference -except that the honor of rescuing the cattle is attributed to the -Liddesdale Elliots, headed by a chief, there called Martin Elliot of the -Preakin Tower, whose son, Simon, is said to have fallen in the action. -It is very possible that both the Teviotdale Scotts and the Elliots were -engaged in the affair, and that each claimed the honor of the victory.” -Ed. 1833, II. 3. - -Scott has suggested that an article in the list of attempts upon -England, fouled by the commissioners at Berwick in the year 1587, may -relate to the subject of the ballad. - - October, 1582.[2] - - Thomas Musgrave, de- { Walter Scott, Laird } 200 kine and - puty of Bewcastle, { of Buckluth, and his } oxen, 300 gait - and the tenants, against { complices; for } and sheep. - -Bewcastle, of which Thomas Musgrave at the above date was deputy and -captain, was, says Percy, a great rendezvous of thieves and -moss-troopers down to the last century. “It is handed down by report,” -he remarks, “that@ there was formerly an Order of Council that no -inhabitant of Bewcastle should be returned on a jury.” That the deputy -of the warden, an officer of the peace, should be exhibited as making a -raid, not in the way of retaliation, but simply for plunder, is too much -out of rule even for Bewcastle, and does not speak favorably for the -antiquity of the ballad. - -Taking the story as it stands, the Captain of Bewcastle, who is looking -for a prey, is taken by a guide to the Fair Dodhead, which he pillages -of kye and everything valuable. Jamie Telfer, whose threat of revenge -the Captain treats with derision, runs ten miles afoot to the Elliots of -Stobs Hall, to whom he says he has paid mail, st. 11, and asks help. Gib -Elliot denies the mail, and tells him to go to the Scotts at Branksome -where he has paid it. Telfer keeps on to Coultart Cleugh, and there -makes his case known to a brother-in-law, who gives him a mount “to take -the fray” to Catslockhill. There William’s Wat, who had often eaten of -the Dodhead basket, gives him his company and that of two sons, and they -take the fray to Branksome. Buccleuch collects a body of men of his -name, and sends them out under the command of Willie Scott, who -overtakes the marauders, and asks the Captain if he will let Telfer’s -kye go back. This he will not do for love or for fear. The Scotts set on -them; Willie is killed, but two and thirty of the raiders’ saddles are -emptied, and the Captain is badly wounded and made prisoner. Nor is that -all, for the Scotts ride to the Captain’s house and loose his cattle, -and when they come to the Fair Dodhead, for ten milk kye Jamie Telfer -has three and thirty. - -Walter Scott of Harden and Walter Scott of Goldielands, and, according -to Scott of Satchells, Scott of Commonside, st. 26, were engaged with -Buccleuch in the rescue of Kinmont Willie. So was Will Elliot of -Gorrombye, st. 27^4. - -The ballad was retouched for the Border Minstrelsy, nobody can say how -much. The 36th stanza is in Hardyknute style. St. 12 is not only found -elsewhere (cf. ‘Young Beichan,’ #E# 6), but could not be more -inappropriately brought in than here; Scott, however, is not responsible -for that. - - -Scott makes the following notes on the localities: - -2. Hardhaughswire is the pass from Liddesdale to the head of Teviotdale. -Borthwick water is a stream which falls into the Teviot three miles -above Hawick. 3. The Dodhead was in Selkirkshire, near Singlee, where -there are still the vestiges of an old tower. 7. Stobs Hall: upon -Slitterick. 10. Branksome Ha, the ancient family-seat of the lairds of -Buccleuch, near Hawick. 13. The Coultart Cleugh is nearly opposite to -Carlinrig, on the road between Hawick and Mosspaul. 26. The estates -mentioned in this verse belonged to families of the name of Scott -residing upon the waters of Borthwick and Teviot, near the castle of -their chief. 27. The pursuers seem to have taken the road through the -hills of Liddesdale in order to collect forces and intercept the -forayers at the passage of the Liddel on their return to Bewcastle. 29. -The Frostylee is a brook which joins the Teviot near Mosspaul. 33, 38. -The Ritterford and Kershopeford are noted fords on the river Liddel. 36. -The Dinlay is a mountain in Liddesdale. 44. Stanegirthside: a house -belonging to the Foresters, situated on the English side of the Liddel. - - * * * * * - - 1 - It fell about the Martinmas tyde, - Whan our Border steeds get corn and hay, - The Captain of Bewcastle hath bound him to ryde, - And he’s ower to Tividale to drive a prey. - - 2 - The first ae guide that they met wi, - It was high up in Hardhaughswire; - The second guide that they met wi, - It was laigh down in Borthwick water. - - 3 - ‘What tidings, what tidings, my trusty guide?’ - ‘Nae tidings, nae tidings, I hae to thee; - But gin ye’ll gae to the Fair Dodhead, - Mony a cow’s cauf I’ll let thee see.’ - - 4 - And when they cam to the Fair Dodhead, - Right hastily they clam the peel; - They loosed the kye out, ane and a’, - And ranshakled the house right weel. - - 5 - Now Jamie Telfer’s heart was sair, - The tear aye rowing in his ee; - He pled wi the Captain to hae his gear, - Or else revenged he wad be. - - 6 - The Captain turned him round and leugh; - Said, Man, there’s naething in thy house - But ae auld sword without a sheath, - That hardly now wad fell a mouse. - - 7 - The sun was na up, but the moon was down, - It was the gryming of a new-fa’n snaw; - Jamie Telfer has run ten myles a-foot, - Between the Dodhead and the Stobs’s Ha. - - 8 - And when he cam to the fair tower-yate, - He shouted loud, and cried weel hie, - Till out bespak auld Gibby Elliot, - ‘Whae’s this that brings the fray to me?’ - - 9 - ‘It’s I, Jamie Telfer o the Fair Dodhead, - And a harried man I think I be; - There’s naething left at the Fair Dodhead - But a waefu wife and bairnies three.’ - - 10 - ‘Gae seek your succour at Branksome Ha, - For succour ye’se get nane frae me; - Gae seek your succour where ye paid blackmail, - For, man, ye neer paid money to me.’ - - 11 - Jamie has turned him round about, - I wat the tear blinded his ee: - ‘I’ll neer pay mail to Elliot again, - And the Fair Dodhead I’ll never see. - - 12 - ‘My hounds may a’ rin masterless, - My hawks may fly frae tree to tree, - My lord may grip my vassal-lands, - For there again maun I never be!’ - - 13 - He has turned him to the Tiviot-side, - Een as fast as he could drie, - Till he cam to the Coultart Cleugh, - And there he shouted baith loud and hie. - - 14 - Then up bespak him auld Jock Grieve: - ‘Whae’s this that brings the fray to me?’ - ‘It’s I, Jamie Telfer o the Fair Dodhead, - A harried man I trew I be. - - 15 - ‘There’s naething left in the Fair Dodhead - But a greeting wife and bairnies three, - And sax poor ca’s stand in the sta, - A’ routing loud for their minnie.’ - - 16 - ‘Alack a wae!’ quo auld Jock Grieve, - ‘Alack, my heart is sair for thee! - For I was married on the elder sister, - And you on the youngest of a’ the three.’ - - 17 - Then he has taen out a bonny black, - Was right weel fed wi corn and hay, - And he’s set Jamie Telfer on his back, - To the Catslockhill to tak the fray. - - 18 - And whan he cam to the Catslockhill, - He shouted loud and cried weel hie, - Till out and spak him William’s Wat, - ‘O whae’s this brings the fray to me?’ - - 19 - ‘It’s I, Jamie Telfer o the Fair Dodhead, - A harried man I think I be; - The Captain o Bewcastle has driven my gear; - For God’s sake, rise and succour me!’ - - 20 - ‘Alas for wae!’ quo William’s Wat, - ‘Alack, for thee my heart is sair! - I never cam bye the Fair Dodhead - That ever I fand thy basket bare.’ - - 21 - He’s set his twa sons on coal-black steeds, - Himsel upon a freckled gray, - And they are on wi Jamie Telfer, - To Branksome Ha to tak the fray. - - 22 - And when they cam to Branksome Ha, - They shouted a’ baith loud and hie, - Till up and spak him auld Buccleuch, - Said, Whae’s this brings the fray to me? - - 23 - ‘It’s I, Jamie Telfer o the Fair Dodhead, - And a harried man I think I be; - There’s nought left in the Fair Dodhead - But a greeting wife and bairnies three.’ - - 24 - ‘Alack for wae!’ quo the gude auld lord, - ‘And ever my heart is wae for thee! - But fye, gar cry on Willie, my son, - And see that he cum to me speedilie. - - 25 - ‘Gar warn the water, braid and wide! - Gar warn it sune and hastilie! - They that winna ride for Telfer’s kye, - Let them never look in the face o me! - - 26 - ‘Warn Wat o Harden and his sons, - Wi them will Borthwick water ride; - Warn Gaudilands, and Allanhaugh, - And Gilmanscleugh, and Commonside. - - 27 - ‘Ride by the gate at Priesthaughswire, - And warn the Currors o the Lee; - As ye cum down the Hermitage Slack, - Warn doughty Willie o Gorrinberry.’ - - 28 - The Scotts they rade, the Scotts they ran, - Sae starkly and sae steadilie, - And aye the ower-word o the thrang - Was, Rise for Branksome readilie! - - 29 - The gear was driven the Frostylee up, - Frae the Frostylee unto the plain, - Whan Willie has lookd his men before, - And saw the kye right fast driving. - - 30 - ‘Whae drives thir kye,’ can Willie say, - ‘To make an outspeckle o me?’ - ‘It’s I, the Captain o Bewcastle, Willie; - I winna layne my name for thee.’ - - 31 - ‘O will ye let Telfer’s kye gae back? - Or will ye do aught for regard o me? - Or, by the faith of my body,’ quo Willie Scott, - ‘I’se ware my dame’s cauf’s skin on thee.’ - - 32 - ‘I winna let the kye gae back, - Neither for thy love nor yet thy fear; - But I will drive Jamie Telfer’s kye - In spite of every Scott that’s here.’ - - 33 - ‘Set on them, lads!’ quo Willie than; - ‘Fye, lads, set on them cruellie! - For ere they win to the Ritterford, - Mony a toom saddle there sall be!’ - - 34 - Then till ‘t they gaed, wi heart and hand; - The blows fell thick as bickering hail; - And mony a horse ran masterless, - And mony a comely cheek was pale. - - 35 - But Willie was stricken ower the head, - And through the knapscap the sword has gane; - And Harden grat for very rage, - Whan Willie on the grund lay slane. - - 36 - But he’s taen aff his gude steel cap, - And thrice he’s waved it in the air; - The Dinlay snaw was neer mair white - Nor the lyart locks of Harden’s hair. - - 37 - ‘Revenge! revenge!’ auld Wat can cry; - ‘Fye, lads, lay on them cruellie! - We’ll neer see Tiviot side again, - Or Willie’s death revenged sall be.’ - - 38 - O mony a horse ran masterless, - The splintered lances flew on hie; - But or they wan to the Kershope ford, - The Scotts had gotten the victory. - - 39 - John o Brigham there was slane, - And John o Barlow, as I hear say, - And thirty mae o the Captain’s men - Lay bleeding on the grund that day. - - 40 - The Captain was run through the thick of the thigh, - And broken was his right leg-bane; - If he had lived this hundred years, - He had never been loved by woman again. - - 41 - ‘Hae back the kye!’ the Captain said; - ‘Dear kye, I trow, to some they be; - For gin I suld live a hundred years - There will neer fair lady smile on me.’ - - 42 - Then word is gane to the Captain’s bride, - Even in the bower where that she lay, - That her lord was prisoner in enemy’s land, - Since into Tividale he had led the way. - - 43 - ‘I wad lourd have had a winding-sheet, - And helped to put it ower his head, - Ere he had been disgraced by the border Scot, - Whan he ower Liddel his men did lead!’ - - 44 - There was a wild gallant amang us a’, - His name was Watty wi the Wudspurs, - Cried, On for his house in Stanegirthside, - If ony man will ride with us! - - 45 - When they cam to the Stanegirthside, - They dang wi trees and burst the door; - They loosed out a’ the Captain’s kye, - And set them forth our lads before. - - 46 - There was an auld wyfe ayont the fire, - A wee bit o the Captain’s kin: - ‘Whae dar loose out the Captain’s kye, - Or answer to him and his men?’ - - 47 - ‘It’s I, Watty Wudspurs, loose the kye, - I winna layne my name frae thee; - And I will loose out the Captain’s kye - In scorn of a’ his men and he.’ - - 48 - Whan they cam to the Fair Dodhead, - They were a wellcum sight to see, - For instead of his ain ten milk-kye, - Jamie Telfer has gotten thirty and three. - - 49 - And he has paid the rescue-shot, - Baith wi gowd and white monie, - And at the burial o Willie Scott - I wat was mony a weeping ee. - - * * * * * - - 28^1, 32^4, 38^4. Scots, Scot. _In the last edition_, Scotts, - Scott. - - 29^4. drivand _in the later edition_. - - 31^4. cauf in _the later edition_. - - 37^1. gan _in the later edition_. - - 40. “The Editor has used some freedom with the original. The - account of the Captain’s disaster (teste læva vulnerata) is - rather too naive for literal publication.” - - - - - 191 - - HUGHIE GRAME - - #A.# ‘The Life and Death of Sir Hugh of the Grime.’ #a.# Roxburghe - Ballads, II, 294. #b.# Douce Ballads, II, 204 b. #c.# Rawlinson - Ballads, 566, fol. 9. #d.# Pills to purge Melancholy, VI, 289, 17. - #e.# Roxburghe Ballads, III, 344. - - #B.# ‘Hughie Graham,’ Johnson’s Museum, No 303, p. 312; Cromek, - Reliques of Robert Burns, 4th ed., 1817, p. 287; Cromek, Select - Scottish Songs, 1810, II, 151. - - #C.# ‘Hughie the Græme,’ Scott’s Minstrelsy, 1803, III, 85; 1833, III, - 107. - - #D.# ‘Sir Hugh in the Grime’s Downfall,’ Roxburghe Ballads, III, 456, - edited by J. F. Ebsworth for The Ballad Society, VI, 598. - - #E.# ‘Sir Hugh the Græme,’ Buchan’s MSS, I, 53; Dixon, Scottish - Traditional Versions of Ancient Ballads, p. 73, Percy Society, vol. - xvii. - - #F.# Macmath MS., p. 79, two stanzas. - - #G.# ‘Hughie Grame,’ Harris MS., fol. 27 b, one stanza. - - -There is a copy of the broadside among the Pepys ballads, II, 148, No -130, printed, like #a#, #b#, #c#, for P. Brooksby, with the variation, -“at the Golden Ball, near the Bear Tavern, in Pye Corner.” The ballad -was given in Ritson’s Ancient Songs, 1790, p. 192, from #A a#, collated -with another copy “in the hands of John Baynes, Esq.” In a note, p. 332, -Ritson says: “In the editor’s collection is a somewhat different ballad -upon the same subject, intitled ‘Sir Hugh in the Grimes downfall, or a -new song made on Sir Hugh in the Grime, who was hangd for stealing the -Bishop’s mare.’ It begins, ‘Good Lord John is a hunting gone.’” This -last was evidently the late and corrupt copy #D#. Of #C# Scott says: -“The present edition was procured for me by my friend Mr W. Laidlaw, in -Blackhouse, and has been long current in Selkirkshire. Mr Ritson’s copy -has occasionally been resorted to for better readings.” #B# is partially -rewritten by Cunningham, Songs of Scotland, I, 327. The copy in R. H. -Evans’s Old Ballads, 1810, I, 367, is #A#; that in The Ballads and Songs -of Ayrshire, First Series, p. 47, is of course #B#; Aytoun, ed. of 1859, -II, 128, reprints #C#; Maidment, 1868, II, 140, #A#, II, 145, #C#.[3] - -“According to tradition,” says Stenhouse, “Robert Aldridge, Bishop of -Carlisle, about the year 1560, seduced the wife of Hugh Graham, one of -those bold and predatory chiefs who so long inhabited what was called -the debateable land on the English and Scottish border. Graham, being -unable to bring so powerful a prelate to justice, in revenge made an -excursion into Cumberland, and carried off, _inter alia_, a fine mare -belonging to the bishop; but being closely pursued by Sir John Scroope, -warden of Carlisle, with a party on horseback, was apprehended near -Solway Moss, and carried to Carlisle, where he was tried and convicted -of felony. Great intercessions were made to save his life, but the -bishop, it is said, being determined to remove the chief obstacle to his -guilty passions, remained inexorable, and poor Graham fell a victim to -his own indiscretion and his wife’s infidelity. Anthony Wood observes -that there were many changes in this prelate’s time, both in church and -state, but that he retained his office and preferments during them all.” -Musical Museum, 1853, IV, 297. - -The pretended tradition is plainly extracted from the ballad, the -bishop’s name and the date being supplied from without. The _inter alia_ -is introduced, and the mare qualified as a fine one, to mitigate the -ridiculousness of making Hugh Graham steal a mare to retaliate the wrong -done him by the bishop. As Allan Cunningham remarks, “tradition, in all -the varieties of her legends, never invented such an unnecessary and -superfluous reason as this. By habit and by nature thieves, the Græmes -never waited for anything like a pretence to steal.” In passing, it may -be observed that Hugh is quite arbitrarily elevated to the rank of a -predatory chief. - -Scott suggested in 1803, Minstrelsy, I, 86 f., that Hugh Graham may have -been one of more than four hundred borderers against whom complaints -were exhibited to the lord bishop of Carlisle for incursions, murders, -burnings, mutilations, and spoils committed by the English of Cumberland -and Westmoreland upon Scots “presently after the queen’s departure;” -that is, after Mary Stuart’s going to France, which was in 1548. Nearly -a third of the names given in a partial list are Grames, but there is no -Hugh among them.[4] The bishop of Carlisle at the time was Robert -Aldridge, who held the see from 1537 till his death in 1555.[5] Lord -Scroope (Screw) is the English warden of the West Marches in #A#, #C#, -#D#. A Lord Scroope had that office in 1542, but Lord Wharton, Lord -Dacre, and others during the last years of Bishop Aldridge’s life, say -from 1548 to 1555. Henry Lord Scroope of Bolton was appointed to the -place in 1563, retained it thirty years, and was succeeded by his son, -Thomas.[6] Considering how long the Scroopes held the warden-ship, and -that the ballad is not so old as the middle of the sixteenth century, -the fact that a Lord Scroope was not warden in the precise year when the -complaints were addressed to the bishop of Carlisle would be of no -consequence if Scott’s conjecture were well supported. - -The story is the same in #A-D#, and in #E# also till we near the end, -though there are variations in the names. The scene is at Carlisle in -#A#, #C#, #D#; at Stirling in #B#, #E#. Lord Home, who appears as -intercessor for Hugh Graham in #C#, exercises the authority of the -Scottish warden and arrests Hugh in #E#. Lord Home was warden of the -_east_ marches of Scotland from 1550, and I know not how much earlier, -to 1564. The Lord Boles of #A# may possibly represent Sir Robert Bowes, -who was warden of the _east_ marches of England in 1550 and earlier. The -Whitefoords of #B# are adopted into the ballad from the region in which -that version circulated, they being “an ancient family in Renfrewshire -and Lanarkshire, and latterly in Ayrshire.”[7] - -The high jump which Hugh makes in #A# 18, #C# 12, #D# 4 (fourteen, or -even eighteen, feet, with his hands tied on his back), is presumably an -effort at escape, though, for all that is said, it might be a leap in -the air. In #E# 16–19, the prisoner jumps an eighteen-foot wall (tied as -before), is defended by four brothers against ten pursuers, and sent -over sea: which is certainly a modern perversion. - -#A# is strangely corrupted in several places, 2^2, 11^4, 13^2. Screw is -plainly for Scroope. Garlard, sometimes printed Garland, is an -obscuration of Cárlisle. The extravagance in 16^3, it is to be hoped, is -a corruption also. Stanzas 3, 8 of #B# are obviously, as Cromek says, -the work of Burns, and the same is true of 10^{3–4}. But Burns has left -some nonsense in 11, 12: ‘my sword that’s bent in the middle clear,’ ‘my -sword that’s bent in the middle brown.’ We have more of this meaningless -phraseology in #E# 10, 11, 12, where swords are pointed ‘wi the metal -clear,’ ‘brown,’ ‘fine.’ Stanza 15 of #E# is borrowed from ‘Johnie -Armstrong.’ - - * * * * * - - - A - - #a.# Roxburghe Ballads, II, 294. #b.# Douce Ballads, II, 204 b. #c.# - Rawlinson Ballads, 566, fol. 9. All printed for P. Brooksby: - 1672–95(?). #d.# Pills to purge Melancholy, VI, 289, 17. #e.# - Roxburghe Ballads, III, 344. - - 1 - As it befell upon one time, - About mid-summer of the year, - Every man was taxt of his crime, - For stealing the good Lord Bishop’s mare. - - 2 - The good Lord Screw he sadled a horse, - And rid after this same scrime; - Before he did get over the moss, - There was he aware of Sir Hugh of the Grime. - - 3 - ‘Turn, O turn, thou false traytor, - Turn, and yield thyself unto me; - Thou hast stolen the Lord Bishops mare, - And now thou thinkest away to flee.’ - - 4 - ‘No, soft, Lord Screw, that may not be! - Here is a broad sword by my side, - And if that thou canst conquer me, - The victory will soon be try’d.’ - - 5 - ‘I ner was afraid of a traytor bold, - Although thy name be Hugh in the Grime; - I’le make thee repent thy speeches foul, - If day and life but give me time.’ - - 6 - ‘Then do thy worst, good Lord Screw, - And deal your blows as fast as you can; - It will be try’d between me and you - Which of us two shall be the best man.’ - - 7 - Thus as they dealt their blows so free, - And both so bloody at that time, - Over the moss ten yeomen they see, - Come for to take Sir Hugh in the Grime. - - 8 - Sir Hugh set his back against a tree, - And then the men encompast him round; - His mickle sword from his hand did flee, - And then they brought Sir Hugh to the ground. - - 9 - Sir Hugh of the Grime now taken is - And brought back to Garlard town; - [Then cry’d] the good wives all in Garlard town, - ‘Sir Hugh in the Grime, thou’st ner gang down.’ - - 10 - The good Lord Bishop is come to the town, - And on the bench is set so high; - And every man was taxt to his crime, - At length he called Sir Hugh in the Grime. - - 11 - ‘Here am I, thou false bishop, - Thy humours all to fulfill; - I do not think my fact so great - But thou mayst put it into thy own will.’ - - 12 - The quest of jury-men was calld, - The best that was in Garlard town; - Eleven of them spoke all in a breast, - ‘Sir Hugh in the Grime, thou’st ner gang down.’ - - 13 - Then another questry-men was calld, - The best that was in Rumary; - Twelve of them spoke all in a breast, - ‘Sir Hugh in the Grime, thou’st now guilty.’ - - 14 - Then came down my good Lord Boles, - Falling down upon his knee: - ‘Five hundred pieces of gold would I give, - To grant Sir Hugh in the Grime to me.’ - - 15 - ‘Peace, peace, my good Lord Boles, - And of your speeches set them by! - If there be eleven Grimes all of a name, - Then by my own honour they all should dye.’ - - 16 - Then came down my good Lady Ward, - Falling low upon her knee: - ‘Five hundred measures of gold I’le give, - To grant Sir Hugh of the Grime to me.’ - - 17 - ‘Peace, peace, my good Lady Ward, - None of your proffers shall him buy! - For if there be twelve Grimes all of a name, - By my own honour they all should dye.’ - - 18 - Sir Hugh, of the Grime’s condemnd to dye, - And of his friends he had no lack; - Fourteen foot he leapt in his ward, - His hands bound fast upon his back. - - 19 - Then he lookt over his left shoulder, - To see whom he could see or spy; - Then was he aware of his father dear, - Came tearing his hair most pittifully. - - 20 - ‘Peace, peace, my father dear, - And of your speeches set them by! - Though they have bereavd me of my life, - They cannot bereave me of heaven so high.’ - - 21 - He lookt over his right shoulder, - To see whom he could see or spye; - There was he aware of his mother dear, - Came tearing her hair most pittifully. - - 22 - ‘Pray have me remembred to Peggy, my wife; - As she and I walkt over the moor, - She was the cause of [the loss of] my life, - And with the old bishop she plaid the whore. - - 23 - ‘Here, Johnny Armstrong, take thou my sword, - That is made of the mettle so fine, - And when thou comst to the border-side, - Remember the death of Sir Hugh of the Grime.’ - - * * * * * - - - B - - Johnson’s Museum, No 303, p. 312, contributed by Burns; Cromek, - Reliques of Robert Burns, 4th ed., 1817, p. 287; Cromek, Select - Scottish Songs, etc., 1810, II, 151. From oral tradition in - Ayrshire. - - 1 - Our lords are to the mountains gane, - A hunting o the fallow deer, - And they hae gripet Hughie Graham, - For stealing o the bishop’s mare. - - 2 - And they hae tied him hand and foot, - And led him up thro Stirling town; - The lads and lasses met him there, - Cried, Hughie Graham, thou art a loun! - - 3 - ‘O lowse my right hand free,’ he says, - ‘And put my braid sword in the same, - He’s no in Stirling town this day - Daur tell the tale to Hughie Graham.’ - - 4 - Up then bespake the brave Whitefoord, - As he sat by the bishop’s knee: - ‘Five hundred white stots I’ll gie yon, - If ye’ll let Hughie Graham gae free.’ - - 5 - ‘O haud your tongue,’ the bishop says, - ‘And wi your pleading let me be! - For tho ten Grahams were in his coat, - Hughie Graham this day shall die.’ - - 6 - Up then bespake the fair Whitefoord, - As she sat by the bishop’s knee: - ‘Five hundred white pence I’ll gee you, - If ye’ll gie Hughie Graham to me.’ - - 7 - ‘O haud your tongue now, lady fair, - And wi your pleading let it be! - Altho ten Grahams were in his coat, - It’s for my honour he maun die.’ - - 8 - They’ve taen him to the gallows-knowe, - He looked to the gallows-tree, - Yet never colour left his cheek, - Nor ever did he blink his ee. - - 9 - At length he looked round about, - To see whatever he could spy, - And there he saw his auld father, - And he was weeping bitterly. - - 10 - ‘O haud your tongue, my father dear, - And wi your weeping let it be! - Thy weeping’s sairer on my heart - Than a’ that they can do to me. - - 11 - ‘And ye may gie my brother John - My sword that’s bent in the middle clear, - And let him come at twelve o’clock, - And see me pay the bishop’s mare. - - 12 - ‘And ye may gie my brother James - My sword that’s bent in the middle brown, - And bid him come at four o’clock, - And see his brother Hugh cut down. - - 13 - ‘Remember me to Maggy my wife, - The niest time ye gang oer the moor; - Tell her, she staw the bishop’s mare, - Tell her, she was the bishop’s whore. - - 14 - ‘And ye may tell my kith and kin - I never did disgrace their blood, - And when they meet the bishop’s cloak, - To mak it shorter by the hood.’ - - * * * * * - - - C - - Scott’s Minstrelsy, 1803, III, 85, 1833, III, 107, procured by W. - Laidlaw in Blackhouse, and long current in Selkirkshire; with - readings from Ritson’s copy. - - 1 - Gude Lord Scroope’s to the hunting gane, - He has ridden oer moss and muir, - And he has grippet Hughie the Græme, - For stealing o the bishop’s mare. - - 2 - ‘Now, good Lord Scroope, this may not be! - Here hangs a broad sword by my side, - And if that thou canst conquer me, - The matter it may soon be tryed.’ - - 3 - ‘I neer was afraid of a traitor thief; - Although thy name be Hughie the Græme, - I’ll make thee repent thee of thy deeds, - If God but grant me life and time.’ - - 4 - ‘Then do your worst now, good Lord Scroope, - And deal your blows as hard as you can; - It shall be tried, within an hour, - Which of us two is the better man.’ - - 5 - But as they were dealing their blows so free, - And both so bloody at the time, - Over the moss came ten yeomen so tall, - All for to take brave Hughie the Græme. - - 6 - Then they hae grippit Hughie the Græme, - And brought him up through Carlisle town; - The lasses and lads stood on the walls, - Crying, Hughie the Græme, thou’se neer gae down! - - 7 - Then they hae chosen a jury of men, - The best that were in Carlisle town, - And twelve of them cried out at once, - Hughie the Græme, thou must gae down! - - 8 - Then up bespak him gude Lord Hume, - As he sat by the judge’s knee: - ‘Twenty white owsen, my gude lord, - If you’ll grant Hughie the Græme to me.’ - - 9 - ‘O no, O no, my gude Lord Hume, - Forsooth and sae it mauna be; - For were there but three Græmes of the name, - They suld be hanged a’ for me.’ - - 10 - ’Twas up and spake the gude Lady Hume, - As she sat by the judge’s knee: - ‘A peck of white pennies, my good lord judge, - If you’ll grant Hughie the Græme to me.’ - - 11 - ‘O no, O no, my gude Lady Hume, - Forsooth and so it mustna be; - Were he but the one Græme of the name, - He suld be hanged high for me.’ - - 12 - ‘If I be guilty,’ said Hughie the Græme, - ‘Of me my friends shall hae small talk;’ - And he has loupd fifteen feet and three, - Though his hands they were tied behind his back. - - 13 - He looked over his left shoulder, - And for to see what he might see; - There was he aware of his auld father, - Came tearing his hair most piteouslie. - - 14 - ‘O hald your tongue, my father,’ he says, - ‘And see that ye dinna weep for me! - For they may ravish me o my life, - But they canna banish me fro heaven hie. - - 15 - ‘Fare ye weel, fair Maggie, my wife! - The last time we came ower the muir - ’Twas thou bereft me of my life, - And wi the bishop thou playd the whore. - - 16 - ‘Here, Johnnie Armstrang, take thou my sword, - That is made o the metal sae fine, - And when thou comest to the English side - Remember the death of Hughie the Græme.’ - - * * * * * - - - D - - Roxburghe Ballads, III, 456; edited for the Ballad Society by J. W. - Ebsworth, VI, 598. - - 1 - Good Lord John is a hunting gone, - Over the hills and dales so far, - For to take Sir Hugh in the Grime, - For stealing of the bishop’s mare. - He derry derry down - - 2 - Hugh in the Grime was taken then - And carried to Carlisle town; - The merry women came out amain, - Saying, The name of Grime shall never go down! - - 3 - O then a jury of women was brought, - Of the best that could be found; - Eleven of them spoke all at once, - Saying, The name of Grime shall never go down! - - 4 - And then a jury of men was brought, - More the pity for to be! - Eleven of them spoke all at once, - Saying, Hugh in the Grime, you are guilty. - - 5 - Hugh in the Grime was cast to be hangd, - Many of his friends did for him lack; - For fifteen foot in the prisin he did jump, - With his hands tyed fast behind his back. - - 6 - Then bespoke our good Lady Ward, - As she set on the bench so high: - ‘A peck of white pennys I’ll give to my lord, - If he’ll grant Hugh Grime to me. - - 7 - ‘And if it be not full enough, - I’ll stroke it up with my silver fan; - And if it be not full enough, - I’ll heap it up with my own hand.’ - - 8 - ‘Hold your tongue now, Lady Ward, - And of your talkitive let it be! - There is never a Grime came in this court - That at thy bidding shall saved be.’ - - 9 - Then bespoke our good Lady Moor, - As she sat on the bench so high: - ‘A yoke of fat oxen I’ll give to my lord, - If he’ll grant Hugh Grime to me.’ - - 10 - ‘Hold your tongue now, good Lady Moor, - And of your talkitive let it be! - There is never a Grime came to this court - That at thy bidding shall saved be.’ - - 11 - Sir Hugh in the Grime lookd out of the door, - With his hand out of the bar; - There he spy’d his father dear, - Tearing of his golden hair. - - 12 - ‘Hold your tongue, good father dear, - And of your weeping let it be! - For if they bereave me of my life, - They cannot bereave me of the heavens so high.’ - - 13 - Sir Hugh in the Grime lookd out at the door, - Oh, what a sorry heart had he! - There [he] spy’d his mother dear, - Weeping and wailing ‘Oh, woe is me!’ - - 14 - ‘Hold your tongue now, mother dear, - And of your weeping let it be! - For if they bereave me of my life, - They cannot bereave me of heaven’s fee. - - 15 - ‘I’ll leave my sword to Johnny Armstrong - That is made of mettal so fine, - That when he comes to the border-side - He may think of Hugh in the Grime.’ - - * * * * * - - - E - - Buchan’s MSS, I, 53. - - 1 - Lord Home he is a hunting gane, - Through the woods and valleys clear, - And he has taen Sir Hugh the Græme, - For stealing o the bishop’s mare. - - 2 - They hae taen Sir Hugh the Græme, - Led him down thro Strieveling town; - Fifeteen o them cried a’ at ance, - ‘Sir Hugh the Græme he must go down!’ - - 3 - They hae causd a court to sit, - Mang a’ their best nobilitie; - Fifeteen o them cried a’ at ance, - ‘Sir Hugh the Græme he now must die!’ - - 4 - Out it speaks the lady Black, - And o her will she was right free: - ‘A thousand pounds, my lord, I’ll gie, - If Hugh the Græme set free to me.’ - - 5 - ‘Hold your tongue, ye Lady Black, - And ye’ll let a’ your pleadings be! - Though ye woud gie me thousands ten, - It’s for my honour he must die.’ - - 6 - Then out it speaks her Lady Bruce, - And o her will she was right free: - ‘A hundred steeds, my lord, I’ll gie, - If ye’ll gie Hugh the Græme to me.’ - - 7 - ‘O hold your tongue, ye Lady Bruce, - And ye’ll let a’ your pleadings be! - Though a’ the Græmes were in this court, - It’s for my honour he must die.’ - - 8 - He looked over his shoulder, - It was to see what he coud see, - And there he saw his auld father, - Weeping and wailing bitterlie. - - 9 - ‘O hold your tongue, my old father, - And ye’ll let a’ your mourning be! - Though they bereave me o my life, - They canno had the heavens frae me. - - 10 - ‘Ye’ll gie my brother John the sword - That’s pointed wi the metal clear, - And bid him come at eight o’clock, - And see me pay the bishop’s mare. - - 11 - ‘And, brother James, take here the sword - That’s pointed wi the metal brown; - Come up the morn at eight o’clock, - And see your brother putten down. - - 12 - ‘And, brother Allan, take this sword - That’s pointed wi the metal fine; - Come up the morn at eight o’clock, - And see the death o Hugh the Græme. - - 13 - ‘Ye’ll tell this news to Maggy my wife, - Niest time ye gang to Strievling town, - She is the cause I lose my life, - She wi the bishop playd the loon.’ - - 14 - Again he ower his shoulder lookd, - It was to see what he could see, - And there he saw his little son, - Was screaming by his nourice knee. - - 15 - Then out it spake the little son, - ‘Since ’tis the morn that he must die, - If that I live to be a man, - My father’s death revengd shall be.’ - - 16 - ‘If I must die,’ Sir Hugh replied, - ‘My friends o me they will think lack;’ - He leapd a wa eighteen feet high, - Wi his hands bound behind his back. - - 17 - Lord Home then raised ten armed men, - And after him they did pursue; - But he has trudged ower the plain - As fast as ony bird that flew. - - 18 - He looked ower his left shoulder, - It was to see what he coud see; - His brother John was at his back, - And a’ the rest o his brothers three. - - 19 - Some they wound, and some they slew, - They fought sae fierce and valiantly; - They made his enemies for to yield, - And sent Sir Hugh out ower the sea. - - * * * * * - - - F - - Macmath MS., p. 79. “Received by me 20th August and 7th September, - 1887, from my aunt, Miss Jane Webster, who derived it from her - mother, Janet Spark, Kirkcudbrightshire.” - - 1 - ‘Ye may tell to my wife Maggie, - When that she comes to the fair, - She was the cause of all my ruin, - It was her that stole the bishop’s mare. - - 2 - ‘Ye may tell to my wife Maggie, - When that she comes to the town, - She was the cause of all my ruin, - It was her that stole the bishop’s gown.’ - - * * * * * - - - G - - Harris MS., fol. 27 b. - - Dukes an lords a huntin gane, - Over hills an vallies clear; - There the’ve bound him Hughie Grame, - For stealin o the bishop’s mare. - - * * * * * - -#A. a.# - - Printed for P. Brooksby, at the Golden-Ball, in West-smith-field, - neer the Hospital-gate. - - 12^2. Garland. - - 13^1. another. - - 22^3. the causer of my life. - -#b.# - - To a pleasant new northern tune. - - Printed for P. Brooksby at the Golden-Ball, in Westsmithfield. - - 3^3. Lords. - - 9^3. Then cry’d _wanting_. - - 9^4. never. - - 10^4. of the. - - 12^2. Garlard. - - 13^1. other. - - 21^3. ware. - - 22^3. the causer of my life. - - 22^4. plays. - - 23^3. borders. - -#c.# - - Printed for P. Brooksby [_torn off_] West-smith-field. - - 2^4. he _wanting_. - - 5^3. of thy. - - 9^3. Then cry’d _wanting_. - - 10^4. of the. - - 11^3. thy fact. - - 12^2. Garlard. - - 13^1. other. - - 21^3. ware. - - 22^3. the causer of my life. - - 22^4. plays. - - 23^3. borders. - -#d.# - - 2^2. the same serime. - - 8^1. again. - - 8^2. compast. - - 9^{2,3}, 12^2. Garland. - - 9^3. Then cry’d. - - 10^1. the _wanting_. - - 11^4. it _wanting_. - - 13^1. other. - - 14^3. will I. - - 17^4. they _wanting_. - - 22^3. cause of the loss. - -#e.# - - _No imprint._ - - 2^2. rid _wanting_: the same. - - 2^3. he could. - - 5^2. my _for_ thy. - - 7^1. as _wanting_. - - 8^2. compast. - - 9^{2,3}. Garland. - - 9^3. Then cry’d. - - 10^1. to town. - - 10^4. calld to. - - 11^2. for to. - - 13^1. other. - - 14^3. will I. - - 18^4. With his. - - 19^4. come. - - 22^3. of the loss of. - -#B.# - - 8^4. blin’ _in Johnson’s Museum_: blink _in Cromek_. - -#D.# - - Sir Hugh in the Grime’s Downfall, or, A New Song made on Sir Hugh - in the Grime, who was hangd for stealing the Bishop’s Mare. - London: Printed and sold by L. How. (About 1770?) - - 5^2. did leet: _cf._ #A# 18^2. - - 10^4. biding. - - 14^1. tonge. - - - - - 192 - - THE LOCHMABEN HARPER - - #A. a.# ‘The Blind Harper of Lochmaben,’ Glenriddell MSS, XI, 42, - 1791. #b.# ‘The Blind Harper,’ Johnson’s Museum, No 579, 1803. #c.# - ‘The Lochmaben Harper,’ Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, 1802, I, - 65; 1833, I, 422. - - #B.# ‘Lochmaben Harper,’ Glenriddell MSS, XI, 39. - - #C.# ‘The Auld Harper,’ The Edinburgh Topographical, Traditional, and - Antiquarian Magazine, 1849, p. 58. - - #D.# Macmath MS, p. 35. - - #E.# ‘The Jolly Harper,’ Buchan’s MSS, I, 35; Dixon, Scottish - Traditional Versions of Ancient Ballads, Percy Society, vol. xvii, - p. 37. - - -The Stationers’ Registers, 22 July, 1564–22 July, 1565, Arber, I, 260, -have an entry of a fee from Owyn Rogers for license to print “a ballett -intituled The Blende Harper, etc.”; and again, the following year, -Arber, I, 294, of a fee from Lucas Haryson for license to print “a -ballet intituled The Blynde Harpers, with the Answere.” Nothing further -is known of this ballet. - -Boyd, the translator of Dante, had a recollection of a ballad of a -Scotch minstrel who stole a horse from one of the Henries of England: -Ritson, Scotish Song, I, xxxvi, note 25, 1794. - -Printed in Scott’s Minstrelsy, 1802 (#A c#), and the next year in the -Musical Museum (#A b#), as communicated by Burns. Burns’s copy differs -very slightly from #A a#, however he came by it. Scott had access to the -Glenriddell collection, and his ballad (of which he gives no account) -was made by changing #A a# to his taste, substituting one stanza of his -own in place of 18, and the last two of #B#, with alterations, for the -last of #A a#. To reduce improbabilities, Scott put the Lord Warden for -King Henry. - -#C# was pointed out to me, and transcribed from the short-lived -periodical in which it was printed, by Mr James Barclay Murdoch, to whom -I have been from the beginning indebted for the most essential help. - -Of #D# Mr Macmath writes: This version was copied by me in fac-simile -from the original manuscript in the handwriting of the late Rev. George -Murray, of Troquhain, minister of Balmaclellan, in the Stewartry of -Kirkcudbright, and was in possession of his son, the Rev. George Murray, -to whose kindness I was indebted for the loan of it. The late Mr Murray -took down the ballad from the singing of Sarah Rae, a poor weak-minded -woman of his parish. Sarah Rae was the last person known to Mr -Murray—and he was a keen observer of such matters—to use the distaff. -The present Mr George Murray wrote to me on 12th January, 1883: “I may -add that I have heard her sing the ballad myself, to a very simple but -particularly plaintive lilt—more like a rapid chant than an ordinary -song—which rings in my ear yet, although I only heard it once, when a -lad.”[8] - -#A-C.# A harper of Lochmaben (blind, #A#, #B#) who means to steal the -Wanton Brown, a horse of King Henry’s, consults with his wife before -setting about the business, and gets a few valuable hints; among them, -to leave his mare’s foal at home. He goes up to England, and has the -good luck, so common in ballads, of finding King Henry at his gate. The -king wants to hear some of his harping, and, as the harper makes a -difficulty about the stabling of his mare, orders the beast to be put -into his own stable. The harper harps all his hearers asleep; then makes -his way softly to the stable, slips a halter over the Wanton’s nose and -ties him to the mare’s tail, and turns the mare out. She goes straight -to Lochmaben, to her foal, neighs at the harper’s house, and is let in -by the servant-lass, who exclaims at the braw foal that the mare has -got. In the morning they find in England that both the Wanton Brown and -the mare have been stolen. The harper breaks out into ‘allaces:’ he has -lost a foal in Scotland and had his mare stolen in England! The king -quiets him with a promise of a better mare and pay for his foal to boot. - -In #D#, #E#, the harper steals the horse on a wager, which, however, is -passed over lightly in #D#. The wager in #E# is with two knights of -Stirling, five ploughs of land with one and five thousand pounds with -the other, and “John” has to go all the way to London to win it. The -knights pay their loss and then restore the Wanton Brown to Henry!—so -great an improvement upon the dealings of the Scots with English -horseflesh as to compel one to assign this particular version of the -story to the nineteenth, if not the twentieth, century.[9] - -The twelve armed men in armor bright that guard the stable night and day -in #E# 23 remind us of popular tales; as of the Grimms’ ‘Master Thief.’ - -#A b# is loosely translated by Knortz, Schottische Balladen, No 16, p. -58. - - * * * * * - - - A - - #a.# Glenriddell MS. XI, 42, 1791; “from a MS. collection of Mr - Henderson.” #b.# Johnson’s Museum, No 579, VI, 598, 1803, - communicated by Burns, #c.# Scott’s Minstrelsy, 1802, I, 65. - - 1 - Heard ye eer of the silly blind harper, - That long livd in Lochmaben town, - How he wad gang to fair England, - To steal King Henry’s Wanton Brown? - Sing, Faden dilly and faden dilly - Sing, Faden dilly and deedle dan - - 2 - But first he gaed to his gude wife, - Wi a’ the speed that he coud thole; - ‘This wark,’ quo he, ‘will never work - Without a mare that has a foal.’ - - 3 - Quo she, Thou has a gude gray mare, - That’al rin oer hills baith law and hie; - Gae tak the gray mare in thy hand, - And leave the foal at hame wi me. - - 4 - ‘And tak a halter in thy hose, - And o thy purpose dinna fail; - But wap it oer the Wanton’s nose, - And tie her to the gray mare’s tail. - - 5 - ‘Syne ca her out at yon back geate, - Oer moss and muir and ilka dale; - For she’ll neer let the Wanton bite - Till she come hame to her ain foal.’ - - 6 - So he is up to England gane, - Even as fast as he can hie, - Till he came to King Henry’s geate; - And wha was there but King Henry? - - 7 - ‘Come in,’ quo he, ‘thou silly blind harper, - And of thy harping let me hear;’ - ‘O, by my sooth,’ quo the silly blind harper, - ‘I’d rather hae stabling for my mare.’ - - 8 - The king he looks oer his left shoulder, - And says unto his stable-groom, - Gae tak the silly poor harper’s mare, - And tie her side my Wanton Brown. - - 9 - And ay he harpit, and ay he carpit, - Till a’ the lords had fitted the floor; - They thought the music was sae sweet, - And they forgot the stable-door. - - 10 - And ay he harpit, and ay he carpit, - Till a’ the nobles were sound asleep; - Than quietly he took aff his shoon, - And safly down the stair did creep. - - 11 - Syne to the stable-door he hies, - Wi tread as light as light coud be, - And when he opned and gaed in, - There he fand thirty gude steads and three. - - 12 - He took the halter frae his hose, - And of his purpose did na fail; - He slipt it oer the Wanton’s nose, - And tied it to his gray mare’s tail. - - 13 - He ca’d her out at yon back geate, - Oer moss and muir and ilka dale, - And she loot neer the Wanton bite, - But held her still gaun at her tail. - - 14 - The gray mare was right swift o fit, - And did na fail to find the way, - For she was at Lochmaben geate - Fu lang three hours ere ’twas day. - - 15 - When she came to the harper’s door, - There she gave mony a nicher and sneer; - ‘Rise,’ quo the wife, ‘thou lazey lass, - Let in thy master and his mare.’ - - 16 - Then up she rose, pat on her claes, - And lookit out through the lock-hole; - ‘O, by my sooth,’ then quoth the lass, - ‘Our mare has gotten a braw big foal!’ - - 17 - ‘Come had thy peace, thou foolish lass, - The moon’s but glancing in thy eye; - I’ll wad my hail fee against a groat, - It’s bigger than eer our foal will be.’ - - 18 - The neighbours too that heard the noise - Cried to the wife to put hir in; - ‘By my sooth,’ then quo the wife, - ‘She’s better than ever he rade on.’ - - 19 - But on the morn, at fair day light, - When they had ended a’ thier chear, - King Henry’s Wanton Brown was stawn, - And eke the poor old harper’s mare. - - 20 - ‘Allace! allace!’ says the silly blind harper, - ‘Allace, allace, that I came here! - In Scotland I’ve tint a braw cowte-foal, - In England they’ve stawn my gude gray mare.’ - - 21 - ‘Come had thy tongue, thou silly blind harper, - And of thy allacing let me be; - For thou shalt get a better mare, - And weel paid shall thy cowte-foal be.’ - - * * * * * - - - B - - Glenriddell MSS, XI, 39, 1791; “from Dr Clapperton, of Lochmaben.” - - 1 - Hard ye tell of the silly blind harper? - Long he lived in Lochmaben town; - He’s away to fair Carlisle, - To steal King Henry’s Wanton Brown. - Sing, Fadle didle dodle didle - Sing, Fadle didle fadle doo - - 2 - He has mounted his auld gray mare, - And ridden oer both hills and mire, - Till he came to fair Carlisle town, - And askd for stabling to his mare. - - 3 - ‘Harp on, harp on, thou silly blind harper, - ‘Some of thy harping let us hear;’ - ‘By my sooth,’ says the silly blind harper, - ‘I would rather hae stabling to my mare.’ - - 4 - The king looked oer his left shoulder - And called to his stable-groom: - ‘Gae stable up the harper’s mare, - And just beyond the Wanton Brown.’ - - 5 - Ay he carped, and ay he harped, - Till a’ the lords gaed thro the floor; - But and the musick was sae sweet - The groom forgot the key o the stable-door. - - 6 - Ay he harped, and ay he carped, - Till a’ the lords fell fast asleep, - And, like a fause deceiver as he was, - He quickly down the stair did creep. - - 7 - He pulld a colt-halter out o his hoe, - On purpose as I shall to you tell; - He sliped it oer the Wanton’s nose, - And tyed it to his gray mare’s tail. - - 8 - ‘My blessing light upon my wife! - I think she be a daily flower; - She told me to ken my ain gray mare - When eer I felt her by the ewer.’ - - 9 - ‘Harp on, harp on, thou silly blind harper, - Some of thy harping let us hear:’ - ‘Oh and alas!’ says the silly blind harper, - ‘Oh and alas that eer I came here! - - 10 - ‘For in Scotland I lost a good brown foal, - And in England a good gray mare, - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - - 11 - ‘Harp on, harp on, thou silly blind harper, - Some of thy harping let us hear, - And thy brown foal shall be well payed, - And thou’s hae a far better gray mare.’ - - 12 - Ay he harped, and ay he carped, - And some of his harping he let them hear, - And his brown foal it was well payed, - And he got a better gray mare. - - 13 - His mare’s away to Lochmaben, - Wi mony a nicker and mony a sneer; - His wife cry’d, Rise up, you lazy lass, - Let in your master and his mare. - - 14 - The lazy lass was loth to rise; - She looked through a little hole; - ‘By my troth,’ crys the lazy lass, - ‘Our mare has brought a bonie foal.’ - - 15 - ‘Rise up, rise up, thou lazy lass, - And, een as the sun it shines sae clear, - I’ll wager my life against a groat - The foal was better than ever the mare.’ - - * * * * * - - - C - - The Edinburgh Topographical, Traditional, and Antiquarian Magazine, - 1849, p. 58; communicated by W. G. “from the recitation of a friend, - who learned it many years ago from her grandfather,” a farmer in - Wigtonshire, who died in 1813, at the age of ninety-four. - - 1 - It’s hae ye heard tell o the auld harper - That lang lived in Lochmaben town, - How he maun awa to England fair, - To steal King Henry’s Wanton Brown? - Faw aiden diden an diden an diden - Faw aiden diden faw aiden dee - - 2 - Out then bespak his gude auld wife, - I wat she spak out very wiselie; - ‘Ye’ll ride the mear to England fair, - But the foal ye’ll leave at hame wi me. - - 3 - ‘Ye’ll hide your halter in o your hose, - And o your purpose ye’ll no fail; - Ye’ll cast a hook on the Wanton’s nose, - And tie him to the gray mear’s tail. - - 4 - ‘Ye’ll lead them awa by a back yett, - And hound them out at a wee hole; - The mear she’ll neer [let] the Wanton bait - Till hame at Lochmaben town wi her foal.’ - - 5 - Awa then rade the auld harper, - I wat he rade right merrilie, - Until he cam to England fair, - Where wonned the gude King Henerie. - - 6 - ‘Light down, light down, ye auld harper, - And some o your harping let me hear; - ‘O williwa!’ quo the auld harper, - Will I get stabling for my mear?’ - - * * * * * * - - 7 - And aye he harped and he carped, - Till a’ the lordlings fell asleep; - Syne bundled his fiddles upon his back, - And down the stairs fu fast did creep. - - 8 - He’s taen the halter out o his hose, - And o his purpose he didna fail; - He’s cast a hook on the Wanton’s nose, - And tied him to the gray mear’s tale. - - 9 - He’s led them awa by the back yett, - And hounded them out at a wee hole; - The mear she neer let the Wanton bait - Till hame at Lochmaben town wi her foal. - - 10 - And when they cam to the house-end, - Wi mony a nicker but an a neigh, - They waukend the auld wife out o her sleep; - She was a-dreaming she was fouie. - - 11 - ‘Rise up, rise up, my servant-lass, - Let in your master and his mear;’ - ‘It’s by my sooth,’ the wee lassie goud say, - ‘I’m in a sleeping drowsy air.’ - - 12 - Wi mony a gaunt she turned her round, - And keekit through at a wee hole; - ‘It’s by my sooth!’ the wee lassie goud say, - ‘Our mear has gotten a braw brown foal!’ - - 13 - ‘Lie still, lie still, ye lazy lass, - It’s but the moon shines in your ee;’ - ‘Na, by my sooth,’ the lassie goud say, - ‘And he’s bigger than ony o his degree.’ - - 14 - Then lightly rose the gude auld wife, - I wat the first up in a’ the town; - She took the grit oats intil her lap - And fodderd King Henry’s Wanton Brown. - - 15 - King Henry’s groom rase in the morn, - And he was of a sorry cheer: - ‘King Henry’s Wanton Brown’s awa, - And sae is the silly auld harper’s mear!’ - - 16 - Up then rase the auld harper, - And loudly he did curse and swear: - ‘In Scotland they but steald my foal, - In England ye hae steald my mear!’ - - 17 - ‘It’s haud your tongue,’ King Henry did say, - ‘Ye’ll hae nae cause to curse or swear; - Here’s thirty guineas for your foal, - And three times thirty for your mear.’ - - * * * * * - - - D - - Taken down by the Rev George Murray from the singing of Sarah Rae, a - weak-minded woman of Balmaclellan, Kirkcudbright, 1866. Communicated - by Mr Macmath. - - 1 - There was a poor silly harper-man, - And he lived in Lochmaben toon, - And he has wagered wi lairds and lords, - And mony a guinea ag_ains_t a croon. - Tum tid iddly - Dodaly diddely - Tidaly diddaly - Dodaly dan - - 2 - And he has wagered wi lairds and lords, - And mony a guinea ag_ains_t a croon, - That into England he w_oul_d go, - And steal King Henerie’s Wanton Broun. - - 3 - Out spak the silly poor harper’s wife, - And O but she spak wililie: - ‘If into England you do go, - Leave the wee-wee foal wi me.’ - - 4 - The harper he got on to ride, - And O but he rode richt highlie! - The very first man that he did meet, - They said it was King Henerie. - - 5 - ‘Licht doon, licht doon, ye silly poor harper, - And o _you_r harping let me hear;’ - ‘And by my sooth,’ quoth the silly poor harper, - ‘I’d rather hae stabling for my mear.’ - - 6 - O he lookit ower his left shoulder, - And saw ane of the stable-grooms: - ‘Go take the sillie poor harper’s mear, - And stable her by my Wanton Brown.’ - - 7 - And aye he harpit, and aye he carpit, - Till a’ the nobles fell on the floor, - And aye he harpit, and aye he carpit, - Till they forgot the key of the stable-door. - - 8 - And aye he harpit, and aye he carpit, - Till a’ the nobles fell fast asleep; - He has taen his harp upon his back, - And doon the stair did softly creep. - - 9 - He has taen a halter frae his hose, - And o his purpose did not fail; - He coost a wap on Wanton’s nose, - And tyed her to his ain mear’s tail. - - 10 - He ca’d her through at the bye-yett, - Through mony a syre and mony a hole; - She never loot Wanton licht till she - Was at Lochmaben, at her foal. - - 11 - And she came oer Lochmaben heights, - Wi mony a nicker and mony a sneeze, - And waukend the silly poor harper’s wife, - As she was a sleeping at her ease. - - 12 - ‘Rise up, rise up, ye servant-lass, - Let in the maister and the mear;’ - ‘By my sooth,’ quoth the servant-lass, - ‘I think my maister be na here.’ - - 13 - Up then rose the servant-lass, - And lookit through a wee, wee hole; - ‘By my sooth,’ quoth the servant-lass, - ‘Our mear has gotten a waly foal.’ - - 14 - ‘Ye clatter, ye clatter, ye servant-lass, - It is the moon shines in your ee;’ - ‘By my sooth,’ quoth the servant-lass, - ‘It’s mair than ever her ain will be.’ - - 16 - It’s whan the stable-groom awoke, - Put a’ the nobles in a fear; - King Henerie’s Wanton Brown was stown, - And Oh! the silly poor harper’s mear. - - 16 - Out then spak the silly poor harper, - Says, Oh, this loss I douna thole! - In England fair a guid grey mear, - In fair Scotland a guid cout-foal. - - 17 - ‘Haud your tongue, ye sillie poor harper, - And wi your carping let me be; - Here’s ten pounds for your auld gray mear, - And a weel paid foal it’s be to thee!’ - - 18 - And O the silly poor harper’s wife, - She’s aye first up in Lochmaben toun; - She’s stealing the corn and stealing the hay, - And wappin it oer to Wanton Broun. - - * * * * * - - - E - - Buchan’s MSS, I, 35; Dixon, Scottish Traditional Versions of Ancient - Ballads, p. 37, Percy Society, vol. xvii. - - 1 - There was a jolly harper-man, - That harped aye frae toun to toun; - A wager he made, with two knights he laid - To steal King Henry’s Wanton Brown. - - 2 - Sir Roger he wagered five ploughs o land, - Sir Charles wagered five thousand pound, - And John he’s taen the deed in hand, - To steal King Henry’s Wanton Brown. - - 3 - He’s taen his harp into his hand, - And he gaed harping thro the toun, - And as the king in his palace sat, - His ear was touched wi the soun. - - 4 - ‘Come in, come in, ye harper-man, - Some o your harping let me hear;’ - ‘Indeed, my liege, and by your grace, - I’d rather hae stabling to my mare.’ - - 5 - ‘Ye’ll gang to yon outer court, - That stands a little below the toun; - Ye’ll find a stable snug and neat, - Where stands my stately Wanton Brown. - - 6 - He’s down him to the outer court, - That stood a little below the toun; - There found a stable snug and neat, - For stately stood the Wanton Brown. - - 7 - Then he has fixd a good strong cord - Unto his grey mare’s bridle-rein, - And tied it unto that steed’s tail, - Syne shut the stable-door behin. - - 8 - Then he harped on, an he carped on, - Till all were fast asleep; - Then down thro bower and ha he’s gone, - Even on his hands and feet. - - 9 - He’s to yon stable snug and neat, - That lay a little below the toun; - For there he placed his ain grey mare, - Alang wi Henry’s Wanton Brown. - - 10 - ‘Ye’ll do you down thro mire an moss, - Thro mony bog an lairy hole; - But never miss your Wanton slack; - Ye’ll gang to Mayblane, to your foal.’ - - 11 - As soon’s the door he had unshut, - The mare gaed prancing frae the town, - An at her bridle-rein was tied - Henry’s stately Wanton Brown. - - 12 - Then she did rin thro mire an moss, - Thro mony bog an miery hole; - But never missed her Wanton slack - Till she reachd Mayblane, to her foal. - - 13 - When the king awaked from sleep - He to the harper-man did say, - O waken ye, waken ye, jolly John, - We’ve fairly slept till it is day. - - 14 - ‘Win up, win up, ye harper-man, - Some mair o harping ye’ll gie me:’ - He said, My liege, wi a’ my heart, - But first my gude grey mare maun see. - - 15 - Then forth he ran, and in he came, - Dropping mony a feigned tear: - ‘Some rogue[s] hae broke the outer court, - An stown awa my gude grey mare.’ - - 16 - ‘Then by my sooth,’ the king replied, - ‘If there’s been rogues into the toun, - I fear, as well as your grey mare, - Awa is my stately Wanton Brown.’ - - 17 - ‘My loss is great,’ the harper said, - ‘My loss is twice as great, I fear; - In Scotland I lost a gude grey steed, - An here I’ve lost a gude grey mare.’ - - 18 - ‘Come on, come on, ye harper-man, - Some o your music lat me hear; - Well paid ye’se be, John, for the same, - An likewise for your gude grey mare.’ - - 19 - When that John his money received, - Then he went harping frae the toun, - But little did King Henry ken - He’d stown awa his Wanton Brown. - - 20 - The knights then lay ower castle-wa, - An they beheld baith dale an down, - An saw the jolly harper-man - Come harping on to Striveling toun. - - 21 - Then, ‘By my sooth,’ Sir Roger said, - ‘Are ye returned back to toun? - I doubt my lad ye hae ill sped - Of stealing o the Wanton Brown.’ - - 22 - ‘I hae been into fair England, - An even into Lunan toun, - An in King Henry’s outer court, - An stown awa the Wanton Brown.’ - - 23 - ‘Ye lie, ye lie,’ Sir Charles he said, - ‘An aye sae loud’s I hear ye lie; - Twall armed men, in armour bright, - They guard the stable night and day.’ - - 24 - ‘But I did harp them all asleep, - An managed my business cunninglie; - If ye make light o what I say, - Come to my stable an ye’ll see. - - 25 - ‘My music pleasd the king sae well - Mair o my harping he wishd to hear; - An for the same he paid me well, - And also for my gude grey mare.’ - - 26 - Then he drew out a gude lang purse, - Well stored wi gowd an white monie, - An in a short time after this - The Wanton Brown he lat them see. - - 27 - Sir Roger produced his ploughs o land, - Sir Charles produced his thousand pounds, - Then back to Henry, the English king, - Restored the stately Wanton Brown. - - * * * * * - -#A. a.# - - “I have here given another copy of this Border Ballad, which I - took from a MS. collection of Mr Henderson. It varies a little - from the former [#A#], which I had from Dr Clapperton of - Lochmaben.” - - 4^4, 13^4, 18^4. _The Wanton Brown is a mare: so #b#, and #D#, - 9^4. But the Brown is a stallion in #C#, 3^4, 8^4, 13^4, and is - so made to be in #A c#, 13^4, 17^3: rightly, I should suppose._ - - 8^2. say. - - 12^4. _to wanting_. - -#b.# - - _The third and fourth lines are repeated as burden._ - - 1^1. O heard ye of a silly harper. - - 1^2. Livd long. - - 1^3. he did. - - 8^1. he _wanting_. - - 9^2. lords gaed through. - - 9^4. That they forgat. - - 14^4. ere it. - - 15^2. gae. - - 16^1. raise. - - 17^1. then (_misprint_) _for_ those. - - 17^3. gainst. - - 21^3. shall. - -#c.# - - _No burden._ - - 1^1. O heard ye na o. - - 1^2. How lang he lived. - - 1^3. And how. - - 1^4. steal the Lord Warden’s. - - 2^2. the haste. - - 2^3. will neer gae weel. - - 3^1. hast. - - 3^2. That can baith lance oer laigh. - - 3^3. Sae set thee on the gray mare’s back. - - 4, 5, _wanting._ - - 6^2. And even: he may drie. - - 6^3. And when he cam to Carlisle gate. - - 6^4. O whae: but the Warden, he. - - 7^1. into my hall, thou. - - 7^4. I wad. - - 8^1. The Warden lookd ower. - - 8^2. said. - - 8^3. silly blind. 8^4. beside. - - 9^1. Then aye. - - 9^2. the lordlings footed. - - 9^3. But an the. - - 9^4. The groom had nae mind o. - - 10^2. were fast. - - 11^1 hied. - - 11^4. gude _wanting_. - - 12^1. took a cowt halter. - - 12^2. he did. - - 13^1. He turned them loose at the castle gate. - - 13^2. muir and moss. - - 13^3. neer let: bait. - - 13^4. But kept him a-galloping hame to her foal. - - 14^1. The mare she was: foot. - - 14^2. She didna. - - 14^4. A lang: before the day. - - 15^3. Rise up. - - 16^1. cloathes. - - 16^2. keekit through at the. - - 16^3. then cried. - - 16^4. braw brown. - - 17^1. haud thy tongue, thou silly wench. - - 17^2. morn’s: in your ee. - - 17^3. He’s. - - 18. - Now all this while, in merry Carlisle, - The harper harped to hie and law, - And the fiend thing dought they do but listen him to, - Untill that the day began to daw. - - 19^3. Behold the Wanton Brown was gane. - - 19^4. poor blind. - - 20^1. quo the cunning auld. - - 20^2. And ever allace. - - 20^3. I lost a. - - 21, 22, _alteration of_ #B# 11, 12: - - Come cease thy allacing, thou silly blind harper, - And again of thy harping let us hear; - And weel payd sall thy cowt-foal be, - And thou sall have a far better mare. - - Then aye he harped, and aye he carped, - Sae sweet were the harpings he let them hear! - He was paid for the foal he had never lost, - And three times ower for the gude gray mare. - -#B.# - - 1^2. in a Bell town: _see_ 13^1. - - 5. _The burden is here_: Sing, Fadle fidle, etc. - -#C.# - - “The following is an oral version of a ballad which appears in the - first volume of the ‘Minstrelsy.’ I have written it down from - the recitation of a friend who learned it many years ago from - her grandfather, a Mr John Macreddie, farmer, Little Laight - parish of Inch, Wigtonshire. He died in 1813, at the age of - ninety-four, and is supposed to have acquired the song from - tradition in his youth. On comparison, it will be found to - differ in several respects from Sir Walter’s version. 11 Hill - Street, Anderston, Glasgow. W. G.” - -#D.# - - 3^2, 4^2, 6^1, 18^1, oh. 10^1, at, 16^1, then, _added by Mr Murray - in pencil above the line, as if on reading over what he had - written down_. - - 18^4. _Dr Mitchell gives_: An waps. “ The ower-word,” _he adds_, - “was something like the following:” - - Hey tum tidly - Doodlem didly - Hey tum tidly - Doodley dan. - -#E.# - - 2^2. _The reading is perhaps_ pounds. - - 7^{2,3}. _Absurdity could be avoided by exchanging_ grey mare - _and_ steed. - - 24^2. by _for_ my. - - - - - 193 - - THE DEATH OF PARCY REED - - #A.# ‘A song of Parcy Reed and the Three False Halls,’ the late Robert - White’s papers. - - #B.# ‘The Death of Parcy Reed,’ Richardson’s Borderer’s Table Book, - 1846, VII, 361; J. H. Dixon, Ancient Poems, Ballads and Songs of the - Peasantry of England, p. 99, Percy Society, vol. xvii, 1846. - - -Of #B#, which purports to have been taken down from an old woman’s -singing by James Telfer, Mr Robert White, from whom I received #A#, said -in a letter to Mr J. H. Dixon: “Parcy Reed, as you suspect, is not -genuine, for it bears marks of our friend’s improvements. I have a copy -of the original somewhere, but may not be able to find it.” And again, -Telfer himself, “in a letter to the late Robert Storey, the Northumbrian -poet,” wrote, “I will send Mr Dixon the real verses, but it is but a -droll of a ballad.” (J. H. Dixon, in Notes and Queries, Fourth Series, -I, 108, V, 520.) - -Comparison will show that almost the whole of #A# is preserved in #B#, -and in fairly good form. #B# has also some stanzas not found in #A# -which may be accepted as traditional. Telfer may have added a dozen of -his own, and has retouched others. - -Mr White, after remarking that there is no historical evidence to show -when the event on which the ballad was founded occurred, informs us that -almost every circumstance in the narrative has been transmitted to the -present century by local tradition. - -“Percival, or Parcy, Reed,” in the words of Mr White, “was proprietor of -Troughend, an elevated tract of land lying on the west side and nearly -in the centre of Redesdale, Northumberland. The remains of the old tower -may still be seen, a little to the west of the present mansion, -commanding a beautiful and most extensive view of nearly the whole -valley. Here he resided, and being a keen hunter and brave soldier, he -possessed much influence, and was appointed warden or keeper of the -district. His office was to suppress and order the apprehension of -thieves and other breakers of the law; in the execution of which he -incurred the displeasure of a family of brothers of the name of Hall, -who were owners of Girsonsfield, a farm about two miles east from -Troughend. He also drew upon himself the hostility of a band of -moss-troopers, Crosier by name, some of whom he had been successful in -bringing to justice. The former were, however, artful enough to conceal -their resentment, and under the appearance of friendship calmly awaited -an opportunity to be avenged. Some time afterwards, they solicited his -attendance on a hunting expedition to the head of Redesdale, and -unfortunately he agreed to accompany them. His wife had some strange -dreams anent his safety on the night before his departure, and at -breakfast, on the following morning, the loaf of bread from which he was -supplied chanced to be turned with the bottom upwards, an omen which is -still accounted most unfavorable all over the north of England. -Considering these presages undeserving of notice, Reed set out in -company with the Halls, and, after enjoying a good day’s sport, the -party withdrew to a solitary hut in Batinghope, a lonely glen stretching -westward from the Whitelee, whose little stream forms one of the chief -sources of Reedwater. The whole of this arrangement had been previously -planned by the Halls and Crosiers, and when the latter came down, late -in the evening, to execute their purpose of vengeance, they found Parcy -Reed altogether a defenceless man. His companions not only deserted him, -but had previously driven his sword so firmly in its scabbard that it -could not be drawn, and had also moistened the powder with which the -very long gun he carried with him was charged, so as to render both -useless when he came to rely upon them for protection. Accordingly the -Crosiers instantly put him to death; and so far did they carry out their -sanguinary measures, even against his lifeless body, that tradition says -the fragments thereof had to be collected together and conveyed in -pillow-slips home to Troughend. Public indignation was speedily aroused -against the murderers; the very name of Crosier was abhorred throughout -Redesdale, and the abettors were both driven from their residence and -designated as the fause-hearted Ha’s, an appellation which yet remains -in force against them.” (Richardson’s Borderer’s Table Book, VII, 361.) - -The farm of Girsonsfield, according to the ballad, #A# 3, 18, belonged -to the Halls. But that place has been the property of others, says Mr -White, “ever since the reign of Elizabeth;” whence he concludes that the -story is not to be dated later than the sixteenth century. - -Parcy Reed is famed to have had a favorite dog named Keeldar, and, -though a “peerless archer,” to have killed him by an unlucky shot while -hunting. Sir Walter Scott has celebrated this mishap and its consequence -in ‘The Death of Keeldar’ (Table Book, as above, p. 240); and he alludes -to the treacherous murder of Reed (with which he became acquainted -through Robert Roxby’s ‘Lay of the Reedwater Minstrel,’ 1809) in Rokeby, -written in 1812, Canto I, xx. - - * * * * * - - - A - - The late Robert White’s papers; “Woodburn, December 1, 1829, Thomas - Hedley, Bridge End, Corsonside Parish.” - - 1 - The Liddesdale Crosiers hae ridden a race, - And they had far better staid at hame, - For they have lost a gallant gay, - Young Whinton Crosier it was his name. - - 2 - For Parcy Reed he has him taen, - And he’s delivered him to law, - But auld Crosier has made answer - That he’ll gar the house of the Troughend fa. - - 3 - So as it happened on a day - That Parcy Reed is a hunting gane, - And the three false Halls of Girsonsfield - They all along with him are gane. - - 4 - They hunted up and they hunted down, - They hunted all Reedwater round, - Till weariness has on him seized; - At the Batinghope he’s fallen asleep. - - 5 - O some they stole his powder-horn, - And some put water in his lang gun: - ‘O waken, waken, Parcy Reed! - For we do doubt thou sleeps too sound. - - 6 - ‘O waken, O waken, Parcy Reed! - For we do doubt thou sleeps too long; - For yonder’s the five Crosiers coming, - They’re coming by the Hingin Stane. - - 7 - ‘If they be five men, we are four, - If ye will all stand true to me; - Now every one of you may take one, - And two of them ye may leave to me.’ - - 8 - ‘We will not stay, nor we dare not stay, - O Parcy Reed, for to fight with thee; - For thou wilt find, O Parcy Reed, - That they will slay both us and thee.’ - - 9 - ‘O stay, O stay, O Tommy Hall, - O stay, O man, and fight with me! - If we see the Troughend again, - My good black mare I will give thee.’ - - 10 - ‘I will not stay, nor I dare not stay, - O Parcy Reed, to fight for thee; - For thou wilt find, O Parcy Reed, - That they will slay both me and thee.’ - - 11 - ‘O stay, O stay, O Johnnie Hall, - O stay, O man, and fight for me! - If I see the Troughend again, - Five yoke of oxen I will give thee.’ - - 12 - ‘I will not stay, nor I dare not stay, - O Parcy Reed, for to fight with thee; - For thou wilt find, O Parcy Reed, - That they will slay both me and thee.’ - - 13 - ‘O stay, O stay, O Willie Hall, - O stay, O man, and fight for me! - If we see the Troughend again, - The half of my land I will give thee.’ - - 14 - ‘I will not stay, nor I dare not stay, - O Parcy Reed, for to fight with thee; - For thou wilt find, O Parcy Reed, - That they will slay both me and thee.’ - - 15 - ‘Now foul fa ye, ye traitors all, - That ever ye should in England won! - You have left me in a fair field standin, - And in my hand an uncharged gun. - - 16 - ‘O fare thee well, my wedded wife! - O fare you well, my children five! - And fare thee well, my daughter Jane, - That I love best that’s born alive! - - 17 - ‘O fare thee well, my brother Tom! - And fare you well his children five! - If you had been with me this day, - I surely had been man alive. - - 18 - ‘Farewell all friends! as for my foes, - To distant lands may they be tane, - And the three false Halls of Girsonsfield, - They’ll never be trusted nor trowed again.’ - - * * * * * - - - B - - Richardsons’ Borderers’ Table Book, VII, 361, 1846; “taken down by - James Telfer, of Saughtree, Liddesdale, from the chanting of an old - woman named Kitty Hall, a native of Northumberland.” - - 1 - God send the land deliverance - Frae every reaving, riding Scot; - We’ll sune hae neither cow nor ewe, - We’ll sune hae neither staig nor stot. - - 2 - The outlaws come frae Liddesdale, - They herry Redesdale far and near; - The rich man’s gelding it maun gang, - They canna pass the puir man’s mear. - - 3 - Sure it were weel, had ilka thief - Around his neck a halter strang; - And curses heavy may they light - On traitors vile oursels amang. - - 4 - Now Parcy Reed has Crosier taen, - He has delivered him to the law; - But Crosier says he’ll do waur than that, - He’ll make the tower o Troughend fa. - - 5 - And Crosier says he will do waur, - He will do waur if waur can be; - He’ll make the bairns a’ fatherless, - And then, the land it may lie lee. - - 6 - ‘To the hunting, ho!’ cried Parcy Reed, - ‘The morning sun is on the dew; - The cauler breeze frae off the fells - Will lead the dogs to the quarry true. - - 7 - ‘To the hunting, ho!’ cried Parcy Reed, - And to the hunting he has gane; - And the three fause Ha’s o Girsonsfield - Alang wi him he has them taen. - - 8 - They hunted high, they hunted low, - By heathery hill and birken shaw; - They raised a buck on Rooken Edge, - And blew the mort at fair Ealylawe. - - 9 - They hunted high, they hunted low, - They made the echoes ring amain; - With music sweet o horn and hound, - They merry made fair Redesdale glen. - - 10 - They hunted high, they hunted low, - They hunted up, they hunted down, - Until the day was past the prime, - And it grew late in the afternoon. - - 11 - They hunted high in Batinghope, - When as the sun was sinking low; - Says Parcy then, Ca off the dogs, - We’ll bait our steeds and homeward go. - - 12 - They lighted high in Batinghope, - Atween the brown and benty ground; - They had but rested a little while - Till Parcy Reed was sleeping sound. - - 13 - There’s nane may lean on a rotten staff, - But him that risks to get a fa; - There’s nane may in a traitor trust, - And traitors black were every Ha. - - 14 - They’ve stown the bridle off his steed, - And they’ve put water in his lang gun; - They’ve fixed his sword within the sheath - That out again it winna come. - - 15 - ‘Awaken ye, waken ye, Parcy Reed, - Or by your enemies be taen; - For yonder are the five Crosiers - A-coming owre the Hingin-stane.’ - - 16 - ‘If they be five, and we be four, - Sae that ye stand alang wi me, - Then every man ye will take one, - And only leave but two to me: - We will them meet as brave men ought, - And make them either fight or flee.’ - - 17 - ‘We mayna stand, we canna stand, - We daurna stand alang wi thee; - The Crosiers haud thee at a feud, - And they wad kill baith thee and we.’ - - 18 - ‘O turn thee, turn thee, Johnie Ha, - O turn thee, man, and fight wi me; - When ye come to Troughend again, - My gude black naig I will gie thee; - He cost full twenty pound o gowd, - Atween my brother John and me.’ - - 19 - ‘I mayna turn, I canna turn, - I daurna turn and fight wi thee; - The Crosiers haud thee at a feud, - And they wad kill baith thee and me’ - - 20 - ‘O turn thee, turn thee, Willie Ha, - O turn thee, man, and fight wi me; - When ye come to Troughend again, - A yoke o owsen I’ll gie thee.’ - - 21 - ‘I mayna turn, I canna turn, - I daurna turn and fight wi thee; - The Crosiers haud thee at a feud, - And they wad kill baith thee and me.’ - - 22 - ‘O turn thee, turn thee, Tommy Ha, - O turn now, man, and fight wi me; - If ever we come to Troughend again, - My daughter Jean I’ll gie to thee.’ - - 23 - ‘I mayna turn, I canna turn, - I daurna turn and fight wi thee; - The Crosiers haud thee at a feud, - And they wad kill baith thee and me.’ - - 24 - ‘O shame upon ye, traitors a’! - I wish your hames ye may never see; - Ye’ve stown the bridle off my naig, - And I can neither fight nor flee. - - 25 - ‘Ye’ve stown the bridle off my naig, - And ye’ve put water i my lang gun; - Ye’ve fixed my sword within the sheath - That out again it winna come.’ - - 26 - He had but time to cross himsel, - A prayer he hadna time to say, - Till round him came the Crosiers keen, - All riding graithed and in array. - - 27 - ‘Weel met, weel met, now, Parcy Reed, - Thou art the very man we sought; - Owre lang hae we been in your debt, - Now will we pay you as we ought. - - 28 - ‘We’ll pay thee at the nearest tree, - Where we shall hang thee like a hound;’ - Brave Parcy raisd his fankit sword, - And felld the foremost to the ground. - - 29 - Alake, and wae for Parcy Reed, - Alake, he was an unarmed man; - Four weapons pierced him all at once, - As they assailed him there and than. - - 30 - They fell upon him all at once, - They mangled him most cruellie; - The slightest wound might caused his deid, - And they hae gien him thirty-three; - They hacket off his hands and feet, - And left him lying on the lee. - - 31 - ‘Now, Parcy Reed, we’ve paid our debt, - Ye canna weel dispute the tale,’ - The Crosiers said, and off they rade; - They rade the airt o Liddesdale. - - 32 - It was the hour o gloaming gray, - When herds come in frae fauld and pen; - A herd he saw a huntsman lie, - Says he, Can this be Laird Troughen? - - 33 - ‘There’s some will ca me Parcy Reed, - And some will ca me Laird Troughen; - It’s little matter what they ca me, - My faes hae made me ill to ken. - - 34 - ‘There’s some will ca me Parcy Reed, - And speak my praise in tower and town; - It’s little matter what they do now, - My life-blood rudds the heather brown. - - 35 - ‘There’s some will ca me Parcy Reed, - And a’ my virtues say and sing; - I would much rather have just now - A draught o water frae the spring.’ - - 36 - The herd flung aff his clouted shoon - And to the nearest fountain ran; - He made his bonnet serve a cup, - And wan the blessing o the dying man. - - 37 - ‘Now, honest herd, ye maun do mair, - Ye maun do mair, as I you tell; - Ye maun bear tidings to Troughend, - And bear likewise my last farewell. - - 38 - ‘A farewell to my wedded wife, - A farewell to my brother John, - Wha sits into the Troughend tower - Wi heart as black as any stone. - - 39 - ‘A farewell to my daughter Jean, - A farewell to my young sons five; - Had they been at their father’s hand, - I had this night been man alive. - - 40 - ‘A farewell to my followers a’, - And a’ my neighbours gude at need; - Bid them think how the treacherous Ha’s - Betrayed the life o Parcy Reed. - - 41 - ‘The laird o Clennel bears my bow, - The laird o Brandon bears my brand; - Wheneer they ride i the Border-side, - They’ll mind the fate o the laird Troughend.’ - - * * * * * - -#A.# - - 10^1, 12^1, 14^1, or _for_ nor; _cf._ 8^1. - - 12^2. “O Parcy Reed, etc. (same as stanza 8, save at end, thee and - me).” _The same abridgment and remark at 10^2, 14^2, but the - last words are there given as_ me and thee. _Uniformity is to be - expected._ - - 16^1. fare thou: _cf._ 16^3, 17^1. - - - - - 194 - - THE LAIRD OF WARISTON - - #A.# ‘The Laird of Waristoun,’ Jamieson’s Popular Ballads, I, 109. - - #B.# ‘Laird of Wariestoun,’ Kinloch MSS, VII, 217; Kinloch’s Ancient - Scottish Ballads, p. 49. - - #C.# ‘Death of Lord Warriston,’ Buchan’s Ballads of the North of - Scotland, I, 56. - - -Birrell’s Diary, under the date of July 2, 1600, has the following -entry: “John Kinland [Kincaid] of Waristone murderit be hes awin wyff -and servant-man, and the nurische being also upone the conspiracy. The -said gentilwoman being apprehendit, scho was tane to the Girth Crosse -upon the 5 day of Julii, and her heid struck fra her bodie at the -Can-nagait fit; quha diet verie patiently. Her nurische was brunt at the -same tyme, at 4 houres in the morneing, the 5 of Julii.” P. 49. - -Both husband and wife belonged to houses of some note. The wife, Jean -Livingston, was a daughter of John Livingston of Dunipace, “and related -to many of the first families in Scotland.” - -Nothing seems to have been done to keep the murder from divulging. -Warriston being only about a mile from Edinburgh, information very soon -reached the authorities of justice, and those who were found in the -house, the mistress, the nurse, and two female servants, were arrested. -The crime was committed on Tuesday morning, not long after midnight. On -Thursday such trial as there was took place, and it may have occupied -three hours, probably less. At three o’clock on Saturday morning -sentence was executed. This had been burning (_i. e._ after strangling), -both for the principal and her accomplice, the nurse; but for the -well-born woman, no doubt through the influence of her kindred, it was -commuted to beheading. The servant-man who did the handiwork fled, but -the penalty for undue devotion to his former master’s daughter overtook -him within four years. He was broken on a cart-wheel with a -plough-coulter. - -The judicial records in the case of Jean Livingston are lost, but the -process of the murder and the provocation are known from a register of -the trial of Robert Weir, the actual perpetrator, and partly also from -Jean Livingston’s own relation. Jean Livingston, having conceived a -deadly hatred and malice against her husband, John Kincaid, “for the -alleged biting of her in the arm and striking her divers times,” sent -word by her nurse, Janet Murdo, to Robert Weir, formerly servant to her -father, to come to Wariston to speak with her concerning the murdering -of him. The nurse, who, we may safely suppose, had been the witness of -Kincaid’s brutal behavior, was no unwilling agent. “She helped me too -well in mine evil purpose,” says her mistress; “for when I told her what -I was minded to do, she consented to the doing of it, and ... when I -sent her to seek the man who would do it, she said, I shall go and seek -him, and if I get him not, I shall seek another; and if I get none, I -shall do it myself.” This the nurse confessed. The other two women knew -nothing of the deed before it was done; “and that which they knew,” says -the mistress again, “they durst not tell for fear, for I had compelled -them to dissemble.” Robert Weir, having given consent, was put in a -cellar, where he stayed till midnight, about which time he came up and -went to Kincaid’s chamber. Kincaid, who had waked with the “din,” and -was leaning over the side of his bed, was knocked to the floor by a blow -in the neck, kicked in the belly, and then throttled. “As soon as that -man gripped him and began his evil turn,” says the wife, “so soon as my -husband cried so fearfully, I leapt outover my bed and went to the hall, -where I sat all the time till that unhappy man came to me and reported -that mine husband was dead.” She desired Weir, she says, to take her -away with him, for she feared trial, albeit flesh and blood made her -think that her father’s interest at court would have saved her (this may -have been an after-thought). But Weir refused, saying, You shall tarry -still, and if this matter come not to light, you shall say he died in -the gallery, and I shall return to my master’s service. But if it be -known, I shall fly and take the crime on me, and none dare pursue you. - -A benevolent minister, who visited Jean Livingston in prison about ten -o’clock on Thursday, the third day after the murder, found her “raging -in a senseless fury, disdainfully taunting every word of grace that was -spoken to her, impatiently tearing her hair, sometimes running up and -down the house like one possessed, sometimes throwing herself on the bed -and sprawling, refusing all comfort by word, and, when the book of God -was brought to her, flinging it upon the walls, twice or thrice, most -unreverently.” His warnings of wrath to come and his exhortations to -seek mercy through repentance were treated as “trittle, trattle,” and -she stubbornly refused to pray for herself, or to take part in his -prayer, or to say so much as God help me. He told her that she was -promising herself impunity, but within a few hours, when she should have -the sentence of death pronounced against her, the pride of her heart -would be broken. The trial and sentence followed hard upon this, and -when the minister returned, some time in the afternoon, he found a -visible and apparent grace beginning in her. He remained with her till -after midnight, and when he left her, Jean Livingston could say that she -felt in her heart a free remission of all her sins. This worthy man came -to the prison again early the next morning, and found God’s grace -wonderfully augmented in her. She was full of joy and courage. Those -that stood about her said they never saw her so amiable or well-favored. -The glory of God was shining both without and within her. - -To follow no further this astounding chapter in psychology, this bairn -of twenty-one years,[10] with whom the Lord began to work in mercy upon -Thursday at two hours in the afternoon, gave up her soul to him in peace -upon the Saturday following at three hours in the morning. “When she -came to the scaffold and was carried up upon it, she looked up to the -Maiden with two longsome looks,” but her serenity was not disturbed. She -made a confession at each of the four corners of the scaffold, took -“good night” cheerfully of all her friends, kissing them, and then, “as -a constant saint of God, humbled herself on her knees and offered her -neck to the axe.”[11] - -It may be gathered from Weir’s indictment that it was the ill treatment -which she had received from her husband that incited the wife to the -murder. Two of the ballads, #A# 4, #B# 2, make the same representation. -An epitaph on Jean Livingston gives us to understand that both parties -were very young, and were married aganst their will (invita invito -subjuncta puella puello): whence perpetual disagreements (nihil in -thalamo nisi rixæ, jurgia, lites). - -In #A#, #B#, the strangling is done by the nurse and her lady, Man’s -Enemy personally knotting the tether in #A#; in #C# it is done by the -nurse alone. In #B# 8 the great Dunipace, in his anger at hearing what -his daughter has done, cries out for her to be put in a barrel of -pikes[12] and rolled down some lea. In #C# the father, mother, and -brother come to see Jean, and would fain give everything to borrow her. -This is a by much too flattering account of the behavior of her -relatives, who were principally anxious to have her got out of the world -with as little éclat as might be. None of them came near her in prison, -though Wariston’s brother did. #C# makes Wariston’s mortal offence not -the throwing a plate at her face (#A#) or striking her on the mouth -(#B#), but the taxing her with a bairn by another man.[13] The -unfriendly relations of the pair must have been notorious. In the prison -the wife “purged herself very sincerely from many scandalous things she -had been bruited with. Not that she would excuse herself that she was a -sinner in the highest rank, but that she might clear herself from these -false reports that her house was charged with:” Memorial, p. XXVII. - - * * * * * - - - A - - Jamieson’s Popular Ballads, I, 109, as taken down by Sir Walter - Scott from the recitation of his mother. - - 1 - Down by yon garden green - Sae merrily as she gaes; - She has twa weel-made feet, - And she trips upon her taes. - - 2 - She has twa weel-made feet, - Far better is her hand; - She’s as jimp in the middle - As ony willow-wand. - - 3 - ‘Gif ye will do my bidding, - At my bidding for to be, - It’s I will make you lady - Of a’ the lands you see.’ - - * * * * * * - - 4 - He spak a word in jest; - Her answer wasna good; - He threw a plate at her face, - Made it a’ gush out o blood. - - 5 - She wasna frae her chamber - A step but barely three, - When up and at her richt hand - There stood Man’s Enemy. - - 6 - ‘Gif ye will do my bidding, - At my bidding for to be, - I’ll learn you a wile - Avenged for to be.’ - - 7 - The Foul Thief knotted the tether, - She lifted his head on hie, - The nourice drew the knot - That gard lord Waristoun die. - - 8 - Then word is gane to Leith, - Also to Edinburgh town, - That the lady had killd the laird, - The laird o Waristoun. - - * * * * * * - - 9 - ‘Tak aff, tak aff my hood, - But lat my petticoat be; - Put my mantle oer my head, - For the fire I downa see. - - 10 - ‘Now, a’ ye gentle maids, - Tak warning now by me, - And never marry ane - But wha pleases your ee. - - 11 - ‘For he married me for love, - But I married him for fee; - And sae brak out the feud - That gard my dearie die.’ - - * * * * * - - - B - - Kinloch MSS, VII, 217; from the recitation of Jenny Watson. - - 1 - It was at dinner as they sat, - And whan they drank the wine, - How happy war the laird and lady - Of bonnie Wariston! - - 2 - The lady spak but ae word, - The matter to conclude; - The laird strak her on the mouth, - Till she spat out o blude. - - 3 - She did not know the way - Her mind to satisfy, - Till evil cam into [her] head - All by the Enemy. - - * * * * * * - - 4 - ‘At evening when ye sit, - And whan ye drink the wine, - See that ye fill the glass weill up - To the laird o Wariston.’ - - 5 - So at table whan they sat, - And whan they drank the wine, - She made the glass aft gae round - To the laird o Wariston. - - 6 - The nurice she knet the knot, - And O she knet it sicker! - The lady did gie it a twig, - Till it began to wicker. - - 7 - But word’s gane doun to Leith, - And up to Embro toun, - That the lady she has slain the laird, - The laird o Waristoun. - - 8 - Word has gane to her father, the grit Dunipace, - And an angry man was he; - Cries, Gar mak a barrel o pikes, - And row her down some lea! - - 9 - She said, Wae be to ye, Wariston, - I wish ye may sink for sin! - For I have been your wife - These nine years, running ten; - And I never loved ye sae well - As now whan ye’re lying slain. - - 10 - ‘But tak aff this gowd brocade, - And let my petticoat stay, - And tie a handkerchief round my face, - That the people may not see.’ - - * * * * * - - - C - - Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, I, 56. - - 1 - ‘My mother was an ill woman, - In fifteen years she married me; - I hadna wit to guide a man, - Alas! ill counsel guided me. - - 2 - ‘O Warriston, O Warriston, - I wish that ye may sink for sin! - I was but bare fifteen years auld, - Whan first I enterd your yates within. - - 3 - ‘I hadna been a month married, - Till my gude lord went to the sea; - I bare a bairn ere he came hame, - And set it on the nourice knee. - - 4 - ‘But it fell ance upon a day, - That my gude lord returnd from sea; - Then I did dress in the best array, - As blythe as ony bird on tree. - - 5 - ‘I took my young son in my arms, - Likewise my nourice me forebye, - And I went down to yon shore-side, - My gude lord’s vessel I might spy. - - 6 - ‘My lord he stood upon the deck, - I wyte he haild me courteouslie: - Ye are thrice welcome, my lady gay, - Whae’s aught that bairn on your knee?’ - - 7 - She turnd her right and round about, - Says, ‘Why take ye sic dreads o me? - Alas! I was too young married, - To love another man but thee.’ - - 8 - ‘Now hold your tongue, my lady gay, - Nae mair falsehoods ye’ll tell to me; - This bonny bairn is not mine, - You’ve loved another while I was on sea.’ - - 9 - In discontent then hame she went, - And aye the tear did blin her ee; - Says, Of this wretch I’ll be revenged - For these harsh words he’s said to me. - - 10 - She’s counselld wi her father’s steward - What way she coud revenged be; - Bad was the counsel then he gave, - It was to gar her gude lord dee. - - 11 - The nourice took the deed in hand, - I wat she was well paid her fee; - She kiest the knot, and the loop she ran, - Which soon did gar this young lord dee. - - 12 - His brother lay in a room hard by, - Alas! that night he slept too soun; - But then he wakend wi a cry, - ‘I fear my brother’s putten down. - - 13 - ‘O get me coal and candle light, - And get me some gude companie;’ - But before the light was brought, - Warriston he was gart dee. - - 14 - They’ve taen the lady and fause nourice, - In prison strong they hae them boun; - The nourice she was hard o heart, - But the bonny lady fell in swoon. - - 15 - In it came her brother dear, - And aye a sorry man was he: - ‘I woud gie a’ the lands I heir, - O bonny Jean, to borrow thee.’ - - 16 - ‘O borrow me, brother, borrow me? - O borrowd shall I never be; - For I gart kill my ain gude lord, - And life is nae pleasure to me.’ - - 17 - In it came her mother dear, - I wyte a sorry woman was she: - ‘I woud gie my white monie and gowd, - O bonny Jean, to borrow thee.’ - - 18 - ‘Borrow me, mother, borrow me? - O borrowd shall I never be; - For I gart kill my ain gude lord, - And life’s now nae pleasure to me,’ - - 19 - Then in it came her father dear, - I wyte a sorry man was he; - Says, ‘Ohon, alas! my bonny Jean, - If I had you at hame wi me! - - 20 - ‘Seven daughters I hae left at hame, - As fair women as fair can be; - But I would gie them ane by ane, - O bonny Jean, to borrow thee.’ - - 21 - ‘O borrow me, father, borrow me? - O borrowd shall I never be; - I that is worthy o the death, - It is but right that I shoud dee.’ - - 22 - Then out it speaks the king himsell, - And aye as he steps in the fleer; - Says, ‘I grant you your life, lady, - Because you are of tender year.’ - - 23 - ‘A boon, a boon, my liege the king, - The boon I ask, ye’ll grant to me;’ - ‘Ask on, ask on, my bonny Jean, - Whateer ye ask it’s granted be.’ - - 24 - ‘Cause take me out at night, at night, - Lat not the sun upon me shine, - And take me to yon heading-hill, - Strike aff this dowie head o mine. - - 25 - ‘Ye’ll take me out at night, at night, - When there are nane to gaze and see, - And hae me to yon heading-hill, - And ye’ll gar head me speedilie.’ - - 26 - They’ve taen her out at nine at night, - Loot not the sun upon her shine, - And had her to yon heading-hill, - And headed her baith neat and fine. - - 27 - Then out it speaks the king himsell, - I wyte a sorry man was he: - ‘I’ve travelld east, I’ve travelld west, - And sailed far beyond the sea, - But I never saw a woman’s face - I was sae sorry to see dee. - - 28 - ‘But Warriston was sair to blame, - For slighting o his lady so; - He had the wyte o his ain death, - And bonny lady’s overthrow.’ - - * * * * * - -#B.# - - 4. _The MS indicates that this is the nurse’s speech._ - - 5^1. whan _struck out_, as _written over_. - - 8. has _struck out_, ‘s _substituted_. - - 10^2. stay _struck out_, be _substituted_. - - 10^3. _Originally_ handkerchief; hand _struck out_. - - _Kinloch has made several changes in printing_: - - 7^1. has gane. - - 8^3. Fy! gar. - - 8^4. some brae. - - 9^3. gud wife. _He gives_ as _in 5^1;_ be _in 10^2;_ handkerchief - _in 10^3._ - -#C.# - - 6^4. Whase. _Perhaps_, Wha’s _rather than_ Whae’s. - - - - - 195 - - LORD MAXWELL’S LAST GOODNIGHT - - #A.# ‘Lord Maxwell’s Last Goodnight,’ communicated to Percy by G. - Paton, 1778. - - #B.# ‘Lord Maxwell’s Goodnight,’ Glenriddell MSS, XI, 18, 1791, - Scott’s Minstrelsy, I, 194, 1802; II, 133, 1833. - - -First published in the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, “from a copy -in Glenriddell’s MS., with some slight variations from tradition.” I -understand this to mean, not that the variations were derived from -tradition, but that the text of the Minstrelsy departs somewhat from -that of the manuscript. - -#A# and #B# agree entirely as to matter. The order of the stanzas, not -being governed by an explicit story, might be expected to vary with -every reciter. - -In the year 1585, John, Lord Maxwell, having incurred the enmity of the -king’s favorite, the Earl of Arran, was denounced rebel, on such charges -as were always at hand, and a commission was given to the Laird of -Johnstone to pursue and take him. A hired force, by the aid of which -this was expected to be done, was badly routed by the Maxwells in a -sharp fight. Johnstone made a raid on Maxwell’s lands; Maxwell burnt -Johnstone’s house. Finally, in one of their skirmishes, Johnstone was -captured: “the grief of this overthrow gave Johnstone, shortly after he -was liberated, his death.” - -After some years of feud, the two chiefs, “by the industry of certain -wise gentlemen of the Johnstones,” surprised all Scotland by making a -treaty of peace. On April 1, 1592, they entered into a bond to forget -and forgive all rancor and malice of the past, and to live in amity, -themselves and their friends, in all time coming. A little more than a -year after, a party of Johnstones, relying, no doubt, on the forbearance -of their new ally, then warden of the West Marches, “rode a stealing” in -the lands of Lord Sanquhar and of the knights of Drumlanrig, Lag, and -Closeburn, carried off a large booty, and killed eighteen men who -endeavored to retrieve their property. (See No 184, ‘The Lads of -Wamphray.’) The injured gentlemen made complaint to Maxwell as warden, -and also procured a commission directing him to proceed against the -Johnstones. Maxwell was in an awkward plight. To induce him to take -action, several of the sufferers engaged to enter into a bond of -manrent, or homage, to Maxwell, by which they should be obliged to -service and he to protection. “Maxwell, thinking this to be a good -occasion for bringing all Nithsdale to depend upon him, embraced the -offer.” But this bond, through negligence, came to the hands of -Johnstone, who, seeing what turn matters would take, made a league with -Scotts, Eliots, and others, and in a battle at Dryfe Sands, by superior -strategy, defeated Maxwell, though the warden had much larger numbers. -This was in December, 1593. “The Lord Maxwell, a tall man and heavy in -armor, was in the chase overtaken and stricken from his horse. The -report went that he called to Johnstone and desired to be taken as he -had sometime taken his father, but was unmercifully used, and the hand -that he reached forth cut off. But of this,” says Spotiswood, “I can -affirm nothing. There always the Lord Maxwell fell, having received many -wounds.” Drumlanrig, Closeburn, and other of the Nithsdale lairds of -Maxwell’s faction, barely escaped with their lives. - -Sir James Johnstone soon made his peace with the king, whose warden had -been slain while acting under royal authority. The heir of the slain -warden, John, the ninth Lord Maxwell, is said to have been only eight -years old at the time of his father’s death.[14] If this was so, he -became very early of age for all purposes of offence. The two clans kept -up a bloody and destructive private war. Both chiefs were imprisoned and -proclaimed rebel or traitor; Maxwell twice, first in 1601, as favoring -popery, and again in 1607, for his extravagant turbulence; and in each -case he made his own escape, the second time by the use of violence. At -length, influenced perhaps by a conviction that his defiance of the law -had gone too far for his safety, Maxwell seemed to be seriously disposed -to reconcile himself with his inveterate enemy.[15] Sir James Johnstone, -as it happened, had already asked Sir Robert Maxwell, who was his -brother-in-law and cousin to Lord Maxwell, to speak to his kinsman with -that view. Sir Robert had no wish to meddle, for his cousin, he said, -was a dangerous man to have to do with. Lord John, however, -spontaneously sent for Sir Robert, and said to him, You see my estate -and the danger I stand in. I would crave your counsel as a man that -tenders my weal. The result of much conference and writing (in which Sir -Robert Maxwell, evidently feeling imperfect confidence in his cousin, -acted with great caution) was that Lord Maxwell proposed a tryst with -Sir James Johnstone, each of them to be accompanied by one person only, -and no others to be present except Sir Robert, and faithfully promised, -with his hands between Sir Robert’s hands, that neither he nor the man -he should bring with him should do any wrong, “whether they agreed or -not.” Johnstone accepted the terms and made corresponding promises. The -meeting came off the 6th of April, 1608. Johnstone brought Willie -Johnstone with him, and Maxwell Charlie Maxwell, a man that Sir Robert -strongly disapproved, but his chief undertook to be answerable for him. -Sir Robert required the same guaranty on the part of Johnstone for his -follower, and these men were ordered to keep away from one another. The -two principals and their mediator between them rode off, with their -backs to their men, and began their parley. Looking round, Sir Robert -saw that Charlie Maxwell had left his appointed place and gone to Willie -Johnstone, at whom, after some words between them, he fired a pistol. -Sir Robert cried to Lord Maxwell, Fie, make not yourself a traitor and -me both! Lord Maxwell replied, I am blameless. Sir James Johnstone -slipped away to see to his follower’s safety. Lord Maxwell followed Sir -James, shot him in the back, and rode off.[16] - -Lord Maxwell fled the country, but was tried in his absence and -sentenced to death, with forfeiture of his estates. He came back to -Scotland after four years, was basely betrayed into the power of the -government by a kinsman, and was beheaded at Edinburgh May 21, 1613.[17] - -“Thus was finally ended,” remarks Sir Walter Scott, “by a salutary -example of severity, the ‘foul debate’ betwixt the Maxwells and -Johnstones, in the course of which each family lost two chieftains: one -dying of a broken heart, one in the field of battle, one by -assassination, and one by the sword of the executioner.” - -#A# 1, 2, and _passim_. The very affectionate relations of Lord Maxwell -and his ‘lady and only joy,’ are a fiction of the ballad-maker. His wife -was daughter of the first Marquis of Hamilton. Maxwell instituted a -process of divorce against her, and she died while this was pending, -before he fled the country in 1608. By his treatment of his wife he made -her brother, the second marquis, and the Hamiltons generally, his -enemies.[18] - -5, 6. Carlaverock castle had from far back belonged to the Maxwells, and -is theirs still. They had a house, or castle, at Dumfries, and the -custody of the “houses” of Lochmaben, Langholm, and Thrieve. - -9, 10. Douglas of Drumlanrig, Kirkpatrick of Closeburn, and Grierson of -Lag fled in the _sauve qui peut_ of Dryfe Sands, and the partisans of -Lord Maxwell, who there lost his life, would naturally describe them as -deserting their chief. They (or two of them) had entered into a “band” -with Maxwell, as aforesaid. The ballad-maker seems to intimate that they -were in a band with each other, or with somebody, to betray Maxwell. - -11, and #B# 1. ‘Robin in the Orchet,’ ‘Robert of Oarchyardtoan,’ is -properly Sir Robert Maxwell of Orchardton, Lord John’s cousin, but it is -evident, from the conjunction of mother and sisters, that the person -here intended is his brother Robert, to whom, some years after the -execution and forfeiture of Lord John, the estates were restored. - -14. Maxwell’s wife, as said above, was no longer living. The “offers” -which he made, to save his life, contain a proposal that he should marry -the slain Sir James Johnstone’s daughter, without any dowry. - -“Goodnight” is to be taken loosely as a farewell. Other cases are ‘John -Armstrong’s last Goodnight,’ and the well-known beautiful fragment (?) -of two stanzas called ‘Armstrong’s Goodnight;’ again, Essex’s last -Goodnight, to the tune of The King’s last Goodnight, Chappell, Roxburghe -Ballads, I, 570, and Popular Music, p. 174. The Earl of Derby sings a -Goodnight (though the name is not used) in ‘Flodden Field,’ No 168, III, -356, stanzas 36–58. Justice Shallow sang those tunes that he heard the -carmen whistle, and sware they were his Fancies, or his Good-nights: -Second Part of Henry IV, III, 2. Lord Byron, in the preface to Childe -Harold’s Pilgrimage, says “the good-night in the beginning of the first -canto was suggested by Lord Maxwell’s Goodnight in the Border -Minstrelsy.” - - * * * * * - - - A - - Communicated to Percy by G. Paton, Edinburgh, December 4, 1778. - - 1 - ‘Good lord of the land, will you stay thane - About my faither’s house, - And walk into these gardines green, - In my arms I’ll the embraice. - - 2 - ‘Ten thousand times I’ll kiss thy face; - Make sport, and let’s be mery:’ - ‘I thank you, lady, fore your kindness; - Trust me, I may not stay with the. - - 3 ‘For I have kil’d the laird Johnston; - I vallow not the feed; - My wiked heart did still incline; - He was my faither’s dead. - - 4 - ‘Both night and day I did proced, - And a’ on him revainged to be; - But now have I gotten what I long sowght, - Trust me, I may not stay with the. - - 5 - ‘Adue, Dumfriese, that proper place! - Fair well, Carlaurike faire! - Adue the castle of the Trive, - And all my biddings there! - - 6 - ‘Adue, Lochmaben gaits so faire, - And the Langhm shank, where birks bobs bony! - Adue, my leady and only joy! - Trust me, I may not stay with the. - - 7 - ‘Adue, fair Eskdale, up and doun, - Wher my poor frends do duell! - The bangisters will beat them doun, - And will them sore compell. - - 8 - ‘I’ll reveinge the cause mysell, - Again when I come over the sea; - Adue, my leady and only joy! - Fore, trust me, I may not stay with the. - - 9 - ‘Adue, Dumlanark! fals was ay, - And Closburn! in a band; - The laird of the Lag from my faither fled - When the Jhohnstones struek of his hand. - - 10 - ‘They wer three brethren in a band; - I pray they may never be merry; - Adue, my leady and only joy! - Trust me, I may not stay with the. - - 11 - ‘Adue, madam my mother dear, - But and my sister[s] two! - Fair well, Robin in the Orchet! - Fore the my heart is wo. - - 12 - ‘Adue, the lillie, and fair well, rose, - And the primros, spreads fair and bony! - Adue, my leady and only joy! - Fore, trust me, I may not stay with the.’ - - 13 - He took out a good gold ring, - Where at hang sygnets three: - ‘Take thou that, my own kind thing, - And ay have mind of me. - - 14 - ‘Do not mary another lord - Agan or I come over the sea; - Adue, my leady and only joy! - For, trust me, I may not stay with the.’ - - 15 - The wind was fair, and the ship was clare, - And the good lord went away; - The most part of his frends was there, - Giving him a fair convoy. - - 16 - They drank the wine, they did not spare, - Presentting in that good lord’s sight; - Now he is over the floods so gray; - Lord Maxwell has te’n his last good-night. - - * * * * * - - - B - - Glenriddell MSS, XI, 18. 1791. - - 1 - ‘Adiew, madam my mother dear, - But and my sisters two! - Adiew, fair Robert of Oarchyardtoan! - For thee my heart is woe. - - 2 - ‘Adiew, the lilly and the rose, - The primrose, sweet to see! - Adiew, my lady and only joy! - For I manna stay with thee. - - 3 - ‘Tho I have killed the laird Johnston, - What care I for his feed? - My noble mind dis still incline; - He was my father’s dead. - - 4 - ‘Both night and day I laboured oft - Of him revenged to be, - And now I’ve got what I long sought; - But I manna stay with thee. - - 5 - ‘Adiew, Drumlanrig! false was ay, - And Cloesburn! in a band, - Where the laird of Lagg fra my father fled - When the Johnston struck off his hand. - - 6 - ‘They were three brethren in a band; - Joy may they never see! - But now I’ve got what I long sought, - And I maunna stay with thee. - - 7 - ‘Adiew, Dumfries, my proper place, - But and Carlaverock fair, - Adiew, the castle of the Thrieve, - And all my buildings there! - - 8 - ‘Adiew, Lochmaben’s gates so fair, - The Langholm shank, where birks they be! - Adiew, my lady and only joy! - And, trust me, I maunna stay with thee. - - 9 - ‘Adiew, fair Eskdale, up and down, - Where my poor friends do dwell! - The bangisters will ding them down, - And will them sore compel. - - 10 - ‘But I’ll revenge that feed mysell - When I come ou’r the sea; - Adiew, my lady and only joy! - For I maunna stay with thee.’ - - 11 - ‘Lord of the land, will you go then - Unto my father’s place, - And walk into their gardens green, - And I will you embrace. - - 12 - ‘Ten thousand times I’ll kiss your face, - And sport, and make you merry;’ - ‘I thank thee, my lady, for thy kindness, - But, trust me, I maunna stay with thee.’ - - 13 - Then he took off a great gold ring, - Where at hang signets three: - ‘Hae, take thee that, my ain dear thing, - And still hae mind of me. - - 14 - ‘But if thow marry another lord - Ere I come ou’r the sea— - Adiew, my lady and only joy! - For I maunna stay with thee.’ - - 15 - The wind was fair, the ship was close, - That good lord went away, - And most part of his friends were there, - To give him a fair convay. - - 16 - They drank thair wine, they did not spare, - Even in the good lord’s sight; - Now he is oer the floods so gray, - And Lord Maxwell has taen his good-night. - - * * * * * - -#A.# - - 1^2. faither’s place? _So_ #B#. - - 4^2. And a’ to be revainged on him. _Cf._ #B#. - - 5^2. Fair well the Lanríke faires. (?) - - 9^4. struet. (?) - - 13^{1,2}. - He took out a good gold ring [where it hang, _partly erased_.] - Where it hang signets three. - -#B.# - - _Written in stanzas of eight lines._ - - 4^1. labourod. - - _The variations of the Minstrelsy, being editorial, do not require - to be recorded, but some of them have a certain interest._ - - 1^2. sisters three. - - 1^4. My heart is wae for thee. - - 3^3. mind their wrath disdains. - - 6^{3,4}. - Their treacherous art and cowardly heart - Has twin’d my love and me. - - 11 - Lord of the land, that ladye said, - O wad ye go wi me - Unto my brother’s stately tower, - Where safest ye may be! - - 12^{1,2}. - There Hamiltons and Douglas baith - Shall rise to succour thee. - - 14^3. His life is but a three days’ lease. - - 15^1. was clear, _as in_ #A#. - - - - - 196 - - THE FIRE OF FRENDRAUGHT - - #A. a.# ‘The Fire of Frendraught,’ Motherwell’s Minstrelsy, p. 161, - 1827. #b.# ‘Burning of Frendraught,’ Maidment’s North Countrie - Garland, p. 4, 1824. - - #B.# ‘The Burning of Frendraught,’ Kinloch MSS, V, 399. - - #C.# ‘The Fire of Frendraught,’ from a note-book of Dr Joseph - Robertson’s. - - #D.# Ritson’s Scotish Songs, II, 35, 1794. - - #E.# Kinloch MSS, VI, 27, one stanza. - - -#A a# was communicated to Motherwell by Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe. -(Corrections have here been adopted from Motherwell’s Errata: see also -the Musical Museum, 1853, IV, 322*.) #A b#, says Motherwell, has the -“disadvantage of containing a very considerable number of slight verbal -and literal inaccuracies.” The implication is, or should be, that these -variations are of editorial origin. Some of the readings of #b# are in -themselves better than those of #a#. #b# is repeated in Buchan’s -Gleanings, p. 165. The copy in Maidment’s Scotish Ballads, 1868, I, 267, -is a with a reading or two from #b#, arbitrary alterations, and some -misprints. - -Dr Joseph Robertson has, in one of his notebooks, “Adversaria,” p. 63, -the two following stanzas, given him by a gentleman of Buchan as -belonging to “The Burning of Frendraught House.” - - ‘Will ye play at the cards, Lord John? - Will ye drink at the wine? - Or will ye [gang] to a weel made bed, - And sleep till it be time?’ - - ‘I’ll no play at the cards, ladie, - I’ll no drink at the wine; - But I’ll gang to a weel made bed, - An sleep till it be time.’ - -Undoubtedly these stanzas may have occurred in a version of this ballad, -but they are a commonplace, and sometimes an intrusive one. See II, 109, -‘Fair Janet,’ #F# 4, 5; 154, ‘Young Hunting,’ #K# 8, 9; 164, ‘Clerk -Saunders,’ #F#, 5, 6; 409, ‘Willie o Douglas Dale,’ #B# 20. - -The modern, and extremely vapid, ballad of ‘Frennet Hall’ appeared -originally (I suppose) in Herd’s Scottish Songs, 1776, I, 142, and was -afterwards received into Ritson’s Scotish Songs, II, 31, The Musical -Museum, No 286, etc. - - -James Crichton of Frendraught and William Gordon of Rothiemay (a -neighboring estate[19]) had a fierce quarrel about fishing-rights -pertaining to lands which Gordon had sold to Crichton. A legal decision -was rendered in favor of Frendraught, who, however, pursued his -adversary with excessive vigor and procured him to be outlawed. After -this, Rothiemay would hear to no terms of peace, and collected a party -of loose fellows with the intent to waste Frendraught’s lands. -Frendraught obtained a commission to arrest Rothiemay, and on the first -day of the year 1630 set out to put this in force, accompanied, among -others, by his uncle (George Gordon) James Leslie, son of the laird of -Pitcaple, and John Meldrum, who was married to young Leslie’s aunt. -Rothiemay, hearing of Frendraught’s coming, rode out to meet him, and -there was a fight, in which Rothiemay and George Gordon were mortally -wounded, and Meldrum badly. The feud waxed hot, and Frendraught’s lands -were in danger of being burned and ravaged by Highlanders, with whom -John Gordon of Rothiemay, son to the slain laird, had combined for the -purpose. But in the end, by the strenuous exertions of the Marquis of -Huntly and others, a settlement was effected. The laird of Rothiemay and -the children of George Gordon were “to remit their father’s slaughter -mutually,” and in satisfaction thereof the laird of Frendraught was to -pay a certain sum of money to young Rothiemay and to George Gordon’s -children: “which both, Frendraught obeyed and performed willingly, and -so, all parties having shaken hands, they were heartily reconciled.” - -This broil was no sooner settled than another sprouted, a side-shoot -from the same stem. Meldrum, who had been with Frendraught in the affray -with Rothiemay, and had been wounded, was dissatisfied with such -requital as he received, and, getting nothing more by his bickering and -threats, helped himself one night to two of Frendraught’s best horses. -Summoned to court for the theft, he “turned rebel” and did not appear. -Frendraught obtained a commission to arrest him, and went to look for -him at Pitcaple, a place belonging to John Leslie, Meldrum’s -brother-in-law. He did not find Meldrum, but fell in with James Leslie, -Pitcaple’s son, who had also been of Frendraught’s party at the -encounter on New Year’s day. There was talk about Meldrum’s behavior, in -which Frendraught comported himself forbearingly; but James Leslie and -Robert Crichton, a kinsman of Frendraught, had hot words, which ended in -Leslie’s getting a dangerous shot in the arm. Hereupon the larger part -of the surname of Leslie rose in arms against the Crichtons. -Frendraught, grieved for what had happened to James Leslie, betook -himself to the Marquis of Huntly, and entreated him to make peace. The -marquis sent for the Leslies, and did his best to reconcile them, but -Pitcaple would listen to nothing until he knew whether his son James was -to live or die. Huntly, fearing for Frendraught’s safety, kept him two -days at the Bog of Gight, and then, hearing that the Leslies were lying -in wait, sent his own son, Viscount Melgum, and the young laird of -Rothiemay, to protect him on the way home. Arrived there, the laird and -his lady begged these young gentlemen to remain overnight, “and did -their best, with all demonstration of love and kindness, to entertain -them, thinking themselves happy now to have purchased such friends who -had formerly been their foes.” At about two in the morning the tower of -Frendraught house, in which these guests lay, took fire, and they with -four of their servants were burnt to death. This occurred on the eighth -(ninth) of October. - -So far Sir Robert Gordon, uncle of the lady of Frendraught and cousin of -the Marquis of Huntly, who was perfectly acquainted with all the parties -and circumstances. He goes on to say, with entire fairness: “The rumor -of this unhappy accident did speedily spread itself throughout the whole -kingdom, every man bewailing it, and constructing it diversly as their -affections led them; some laying an aspersion upon Frendraught, as if he -had wilfully destroyed his guests, who had come thither to defend him -against his enemies; which carried no appearance of truth; for, besides -the improbability of the matter, he did lose therein a great quantity of -silver, both coined and uncoined, and likewise all his writs and -evidents were therein burnt.”[20] - -The monstrous wickedness of this act would not, in the light of the -history of those times, afford an argument that would of itself avail to -clear Frendraught; but what words could describe his recklessness and -folly! Supposing him willing to set fire to his own house, and sacrifice -his silver and securities, for the gratification of burning young -Rothiemay with the rest, he knew very well what consequences he had to -expect. He had been glad to compound his feud with the Rothiemays by the -payment of money (some say the considerable sum of 50,000 merks). He had -been alarmed, and with good reason, at the prospect of a feud with the -Leslies. But what were these to a feud with the Marquis of Huntly, which -would bring down upon him, and did bring down upon him, not only the -reprisals of the Gordons, but spoliation from all the brigands of the -country?[21] - - ‘Lewed people demen gladly to the badder ende,’ - -says Chaucer, and so it was with ballad-makers, and sometimes even with -clerks; John Spalding, for instance, the other contemporary authority -upon this subject, who gives a lively and detailed account of the -burning of the tower, as follows.[22] - -“The viscount was laid in a bed in the Old Tower, going off the hall, -and standing upon a vault, wherein there was a round hole, devised of -old, just under Aboyne’s[23] bed. Robert Gordon, born in Sutherland, his -servitor, and English Will, his page, was both laid beside him in the -same chamber. The laird of Rothiemay, with some servants beside him, was -laid in an upper chamber just above Aboyne’s chamber; and in another -room above that chamber was laid George Chalmer of Noth, and George -Gordon, another of the viscount’s servants; with whom also was laid -Captain Rollok, then in Frendraught’s own company. Thus all being at -rest, about midnight that dolorous tower took fire in so sudden and -furious manner, yea, and in a clap, that this noble viscount, the laird -of Rothiemay, English Will, Colin Ivat, another of Aboyne’s servitors, -and other two, being six in number, were cruelly burnt and tormented to -the death, but help or relief; the laird of Frendraught, his lady and -whole household looking on, without moving or stirring to deliver them -from the fury of this fearful fire, as was reported. Robert Gordon, -called Sutherland Robert, being in the viscount’s chamber, escaped this -fire with his life. George Chalmer and Captain Rollok, being in the -third room, escaped also this fire, and, as was said, Aboyne might have -saved himself also if he had gone out of doors, which he would not do, -but suddenly ran up stairs to Rothiemay’s chamber, and wakened him to -rise, and as he is wakening him, the timber passage and lofting of the -chamber hastily takes fire, so that none of them could win down stairs -again; so they turned to a window looking to the close, where they -piteously cried help, help, many times, for God’s cause! the laird and -the lady, with their servants, all seeing and hearing this woeful -crying, but made no help nor manner of helping;[24] which they -perceiving, they cried oftentimes mercy at God’s hands for their sins, -syne clasped in other arms, and cheerfully suffered this cruel -martyrdom. Thus died this noble viscount, of singular expectation, -Rothiemay, a brave youth, and the rest, by this doleful fire never -enough to be deplored, to the great grief and sorrow of their kin, -friends, parents, and whole country people, especially to the noble -marquis, who for his goodwill got this reward.” - -Spalding tells us that it was reported that, the morning after the fire, -Lady Frendraught, riding on a small nag, and with no attendants but a -boy to lead her horse, came weeping to the Bog, desiring to speak with -the marquis, but was refused. The Huntly-Gordons, the Earl of Errol -(brother of Viscountess Melgum), and many other friends held a council, -and after serious consideration came to the conclusion that the fire -“could not come by chance, sloth, or accident, but was plotted and -devised of set purpose;” Frendraught, his lady, his friends and -servants, one or other, knowing thereof. The marquis, however, was -resolved not to revenge himself “by way of deed,” but to invoke the -laws. Frendraught, as far as we can see, desired a legal inquiry no less -than Huntly. He addressed himself to the Lord Chancellor and to the -Privy Council, and offered to undergo any form of trial, and, delays -occurring, he repeated to the Council his wish to have “that hidden -mystery brought to a clear light.” Examinations and prosecutions, -extended to the middle of the year 1634, failed to fix the guilt of the -fire on him or anybody, although John Meldrum, on the strength of some -threats which he had uttered, was wrongfully convicted of the act and -was executed.[25] - -#A.# The date is the eighteenth of October, new style for the eighth. -When Gordon and Rothiemay (having convoyed Frendraught safely home) are -on the point of returning, Lady Frendraught urges them to stay, in token -of good feeling between Huntly and her husband. Lord John is quite -disposed to comply, but Rothiemay says that his horse has been tampered -with since their coming, and he fears that he is fey. After the regular -evening-mass of ballads (which would have suited Lady Frendraught, a -concealed Catholic, but not her husband), Lord John and Rothiemay are -laid in one chamber, an arrangement which would have allowed both to -escape, as Robert Gordon did, who slept in his master’s room. Lord John -wakes with the smoke and heat, and rouses Rothiemay. The doors and -windows are fastened. Rothiemay goes to the ‘wire-window,’ and finds the -stanchions too strong to be dealt with. He sees Lady Frendraught below, -and cries to her for mercy; her husband killed the father, and now she -is burning the son. Lady Frendraught is sorry that she must burn Lord -John in order to burn Rothiemay, but there is no help; the keys are cast -in the deep draw-well.[26] [Robert] Gordon, who has escaped though the -keys were in the well, calls to his master to jump from the window; he -will catch him in his arms. His master answers that no fire shall part -him and Rothiemay, and besides, the window is fast. He throws his -finger-rings down, to be given to his lady. When the servant goes home -to his mistress, she reproaches him for coming back alive and leaving -his master dead. She tears off the clothes which her maid puts on her, -exclaiming that she won a sore heart the day she was married, and that -that day has returned (which is not easy to understand: see Appendix). - -#B.# This fragment represents Lady Frendraught as being very importunate -with Lord John: she presses him three times over to stay, and promises -him a morning-gift of lands if he will comply; by a perversion of -tradition, Strathbogie, which had been in his family three hundred -years, and which, further on, he offers to give her if she will let him -out. Finding that he cannot escape (perhaps stanza 7 should come later), -Lord John takes out his psalm-book and sings three verses, with ‘God end -our misery’ at each verse’s end. In 9 he sees his elder brother, Lord -George, from the window, and asks what news he has, but a defect -conceals from us the point of this passage. Stanza 16 seems to belong to -Lord John’s wife. - -#C.# When the gentlemen are in their saddles, ready to ride away, Lady -Frendraught, on her bare knees, begs them to remain, and promises them a -firlot of red gold if they will. When everybody has gone to bed, the -doors are locked and the windows shut. The reek begins to rise and the -joists to crack; Lord John betakes himself to the window, and finds the -stanchions too strong to break. He goes back and wakens Rothiemay, and -proposes to him to praise the Lord in the fifty-third psalm,[27] for -there is treason about them. He calls to Lady Frendraught, walking on -the green, for mercy; she replies that the keys are in the well, and the -doors were locked yesterday. He reproaches her for burning her own -flesh. George Chalmers (who really escaped, though lodged in the third -story) is described as leaping the ditches and coming, from without, to -Rothiemay’s help, and Colin Irving (the Colin Ivat of Spalding, who was -burnt) as doing the same in behalf of Lord John, to whom he calls to -jump into his arms. Lord John is burning, and there is little more left -of him than his spirit; but he throws down a purse of gold for the poor -and his rings for his wife. Lady Rothiemay comes in the morning to cry -vengeance on Frendraught, who has betrayed the gay Gordons, killed her -lord, and burnt her son.[28] - -#D.# “‘There are some intermediate particulars,’ Mr Boyd says, -‘respecting the lady’s lodging her victims in a turret or flanker which -did not communicate with the castle.’ ‘This,’ adds he, ‘I only have from -tradition, as I never heard any other stanzas besides the foregoing.’ -The author of the original, we may perceive, either through ignorance or -design, had deviated from the fact in supposing Lady Frennet’s husband -to have been slain by Lord John’s father.” Ritson, p. 36.@ - -It may be noted that three of the most tragical of the Scottish -historical ballads are associated with the name of Gordon: the Burning -of Towie, as we might call ‘Captain Car,’ No 178, through Adam Gordon, -uncle of the first marquis of Huntly; the Burning of Donibristle, known -as ‘The Bonny Earl of Murray,’ No 181, of which the responsibility is -put upon the marquis (then earl) himself; and the Burning of -Frendraught, in which his son perished. - - * * * * * - - - A - - #a.# Motherwell’s Minstrelsy, p. 161, from a MS. of Charles - Kirkpatrick Sharpe. #b.# Maidment’s North Countrie Garland, p. 4; - “long preserved by tradition in Aberdeenshire, and procured from an - intelligent individual resident in that part of Scotland.” - - 1 - The eighteenth of October, - A dismal tale to hear - How good Lord John and Rothiemay - Was both burnt in the fire. - - 2 - When steeds was saddled and well bridled, - And ready for to ride, - Then out it came her false Frendraught, - Inviting them to bide. - - 3 - Said, ‘Stay this night untill we sup, - The morn untill we dine; - ‘Twill be a token of good greement - ’Twixt your good lord and mine.’ - - 4 - ‘We’ll turn again,’ said good Lord John; - ‘But no,’ said Rothiemay, - ‘My steed’s trapand, my bridle’s broken, - I fear the day I’m fey.’ - - 5 - When mass was sung, and bells was rung, - And all men bound for bed, - Then good Lord John and Rothiemay - In one chamber was laid. - - 6 - They had not long cast off their cloaths, - And were but now asleep. - When the weary smoke began to rise, - Likewise the scorching heat. - - 7 - ‘O waken, waken, Rothiemay! - O waken, brother dear! - And turn you to our Saviour; - There is strong treason here.’ - - 8 - When they were dressed in their cloaths, - And ready for to boun, - The doors and windows was all secur’d, - The roof-tree burning down. - - 9 - He did him to the wire-window, - As fast as we could gang; - Says, Wae to the hands put in the stancheons! - For out we’ll never win. - - 10 - When he stood at the wire-window, - Most doleful to be seen, - He did espy her Lady Frendraught, - Who stood upon the green. - - 11 - Cried, Mercy, mercy, Lady Frendraught! - Will ye not sink with sin? - For first your husband killed my father, - And now you burn his son. - - 12 - O then out spoke her Lady Frendraught, - And loudly did she cry; - ‘It were great pity for good Lord John, - But none for Rothiemay; - But the keys are casten in the deep draw-well, - Ye cannot get away.’ - - 13 - While he stood in this dreadful plight, - Most piteous to be seen, - There called out his servant Gordon, - As he had frantic been: - - 14 - ‘O loup, O loup, my dear master! - O loup and come to me! - I’ll catch you in my arms two, - One foot I will not flee. - - 15 - ‘O loup, O loup, my dear master! - O loup and come away! - I’ll catch you in my arms two, - But Rothiemay may lie.’ - - 16 - ‘The fish shall never swim in the flood, - Nor corn grow through the clay, - Nor the fiercest fire that ever was kindled - Twin me and Rothiemay. - - 17 - ‘But I cannot loup, I cannot come, - I cannot win to thee; - My head’s fast in the wire-window, - My feet burning from me. - - 18 - ‘My eyes are seething in my head, - My flesh roasting also, - My bowels are boiling with my blood; - Is not that a woeful woe? - - 19 - ‘Take here the rings from my white fingers, - That are so long and small, - And give them to my lady fair, - Where she sits in her hall. - - 20 - ‘So I cannot loup, I cannot come, - I cannot loup to thee; - My earthly part is all consumed, - My spirit but speaks to thee.’ - - 21 - Wringing her hands, tearing her hair, - His lady she was seen, - And thus addressed his servant Gordon, - Where he stood on the green. - - 22 - ‘O wae be to you, George Gordon! - An ill death may you die! - So safe and sound as you stand there, - And my lord bereaved from me.’ - - 23 - ‘I bad him loup, I bad him come, - I bad him loup to me; - I’d catch him in my arms two, - A foot I should not flee. &c. - - 24 - ‘He threw me the rings from his white fingers, - Which were so long and small, - To give to you, his lady fair, - Where you sat in your hall.’ &c. - - 25 - Sophia Hay, Sophia Hay, - O bonny Sophia was her name, - Her waiting maid put on her cloaths, - But I wot she tore them off again. - - 26 - And aft she cried, Ohon! alas! alas! - A sair heart’s ill to win; - I wan a sair heart when I married him, - And the day it’s well returnd again. - - * * * * * - - - B - - Kinloch MSS, V, 399, in the handwriting of John Hill Burton. - - * * * * * * - - 1 - ‘Ye’ll stay this night wi me, Lord John, - Ye’ll stay this night wi me, - For there is appearence of good greement - Betwixt Frendraught and thee.’ - - 2 - ‘How can I bide, or how shall I bide, - Or how can I bide wi thee, - Sin my lady is in the lands of Air, - And I long till I her see?’ - - 3 - ‘Oh stay this night wi me, Lord John, - Oh stay this night wi me, - And bonny[’s] be the morning-gift - That I will to you gie. - - 4 - ‘I’ll gie you a Strathboggie lands, - And the laigh lands o Strathray, - . . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . . - - 5 - ‘Ye’ll stay this night wi me, Lord John, - Ye’ll stay this night wi me, - And I’ll lay you in a bed of down, - And Rothiemay you wi.’ - - 6 - When mass was sung, and bells were rung, - And a’ men bun to bed, - Gude Lord John and Rothiemay - In one chamber were laid. - - * * * * * * - - 7 - Out hes he taen his little psalm-buik, - And verses sang he three, - And aye at every verse’s end, - ‘God end our misery!’ - - 8 - The doors were shut, the keys were thrown - Into a vault of stone, - . . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . . - - 9 - He is dune him to the weir-window, - The stauncheons were oer strong; - There he saw him Lord George Gordon - Come haisling to the town. - - 10 - ‘What news, what news now, George Gordon? - Whats news hae you to me? - . . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . . - - 11 - He’s dune him to the weir-window, - The stauncheons were oer strang; - And there he saw the Lady Frendraught, - Was walking on the green. - - 12 - ‘Open yer doors now, Lady Frendraught, - Ye’ll open yer doors to me; - And bonny’s be the mornin-gift - That I shall to you gie. - - 13 - ‘I’ll gie you a’ Straboggie lands, - And the laigh lands o Strathbrae, - . . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . . - - 14 - ‘Now there’s the rings frae my fingers, - And the broach frae my breast-bone; - Ye’ll gae that to my gude ladye - . . . . . . . - - * * * * * * - - 15 - ‘How can I loup, or how shall I loup? - How can I loup to thee? - When the blood is boiling in my body, - And my feet burnin frae me?’ - - * * * * * * - - 16 - ‘If I was swift as any swallow, - And then had wings to fly, - I could fly on to fause Frendraught - And cry vengeance till I die.’ - - * * * * * - - - C - - From a note-book of Dr Joseph Robertson: “procured in the parish of - Forgue by A. Scott; communicated to me by Mr John Stuart, Aberdeen, - 11 October, 1832.” - - 1 - It was in October the woe began— - It lasts for now and aye,— - The burning o the bonny house o fause Frendraught, - Lord John and Rothiemay. - - 2 - When they were in their saddles set, - And ready to ride away, - The lady sat down on her bare knees, - Beseeching them to stay. - - 3 - ‘Ye’s hae a firlot o the gude red gowd, - Well straiket wi a wan; - And if that winna please you well, - I’ll heap it wi my han.’ - - 4 - Then out it spake the gude Lord John, - And said to Rothiemay, - ‘It is a woman that we’re come o, - And a woman we’ll obey.’ - - 5 - When a’ man was well drunken, - And a’ man bound for bed, - The doors were lockd, the windows shut, - And the keys were casten by. - - 6 - When a’ man was well drunken, - And a’ man bound for sleep, - The dowy reek began to rise, - And the joists began to crack. - - 7 - He’s deen him to the wire-window, - And ruefu strack and dang; - But they would neither bow nor brack, - The staunchions were so strang. - - 8 - He’s deen him back and back again, - And back to Rothiemay; - Says, Waken, waken, brother dear! - Waken, Rothiemay! - - 9 - ‘Come let us praise the Lord our God, - The fiftieth psalm and three; - For the reek and smoke are us about, - And there’s fause treason tee. - - 10 - ‘O mercy, mercy, Lady Frendraught! - As ye walk on the green:’ - ‘The keys are in the deep draw-well, - The doors were lockt the streen.’ - - 11 - ‘O woe be to you, Lady Frendraught! - An ill death may you die! - For think na ye this a sad torment - Your own flesh for to burn?’ - - 12 - George Chalmers was a bonny boy; - He leapt the stanks so deep, - And he is on to Rothiemay, - His master for to help. - - 13 - Colin Irving was a bonny boy, - And leapt the stanks so deep: - ‘Come down, come down, my master dear! - In my arms I’ll thee kep.’ - - 14 - ‘Come down? come down? how can I come? - How can I come to thee? - My flesh is burning me about, - And yet my spirit speaks to thee.’ - - 15 - He’s taen a purse o the gude red gowd, - And threw it oer the wa: - ‘It’s ye’ll deal that among the poor, - Bid them pray for our souls a’.’ - - 16 - He’s taen the rings off his fingers, - And threw them oer the wa; - Says, Ye’ll gie that to my lady dear, - From me she’ll na get more. - - 17 - ‘Bid her make her bed well to the length, - But no more to the breadth, - For the day will never dawn - That I’ll sleep by her side.’ - - 18 - Ladie Rothiemay came on the morn, - She kneeled it roun and roun: - ‘Restore your lodgers, fause Frendraught, - That ye burnd here the streen. - - 19 - ‘O were I like yon turtle-dove, - Had I wings for to flie, - I’d fly about fause Frendraught - Crying vengeance till I die. - - 20 - ‘Frendraught fause, all thro the ha’s, - Both back and every side; - For ye’ve betrayd the gay Gordons, - And lands wherein they ride. - - 21 - ‘Frendraught fause, all thro the ha’s; - I wish you’d sink for sin; - For first you killd my own good lord, - And now you’ve burnd my son. - - 22 - ‘I caredna sae muckle for my good lord - I saw him in battle slain, - But a’ is for my own son dear, - The heir o a’ my lan. - - 23 - ‘I caredna sae muckle for my good lord - I saw him laid in clay, - But a’ is for my own son dear, - The heir o Rothiemay.’ - - * * * * * - - - D - - Ritson’s Scotish Songs, 1794, II, 35; remembered by the Rev. Mr - Boyd, translator of Dante, and communicated to the editor by J. C. - Walker. - - 1 - The reek it rose, and the flame it flew, - And oh! the fire augmented high, - Until it came to Lord John’s chamber-window, - And to the bed where Lord John lay. - - 2 - ‘O help me, help me, Lady Frennet! - I never ettled harm to thee; - And if my father slew thy lord, - Forget the deed and rescue me.’ - - 3 - He looked east, he looked west, - To see if any help was nigh; - At length his little page he saw, - Who to his lord aloud did cry: - - 4 - ‘Loup doun, loup doun, my master dear! - What though the window’s dreigh and his? - I’ll catch you in my arms twa, - And never a foot from you I’ll flee.’ - - 5 - ‘How can I loup, you little page? - How can I leave this window hie? - Do you not see the blazing low, - And my twa legs burnt to my knee?’ - - * * * * * - - - E - - Kinloch MSS, VI, 27, in the handwriting of Joseph Robertson when a - youth. - - Now wake, now wake you, Rothiemay! - I dread you sleep oer soun; - The bed is burnin us about - And the curtain’s faain down. - - * * * * * - -#A. a.# - - 23, 24. _The_ &c. _at the end denote that the servant repeated the - substance of 15–18 and of 20, which, however, was not written - out._ - -#b.# - - 1^1. day of. - - 1^4. Were. 2^1, 5^1, 5^4, 8^3. were. - - 2^3. out there came the. - - 6^2. but new. - - 6^3. the _wanting_. - - 7^3. to your. - - 8^1. dressed wi. - - 9^1. did flee to. - - 10^1. While he. - - 10^3, 12^1. the _for_ her. - - 11^1. Cried _wanting_. - - 12^5. The keys were casten. - - 12^6. win away. - - 13^3. Then called. - - 15^4. may lay. - - 17^1. But _wanting_. - - 18^1. are southering. - - 19^2. Which are. - - 20^1. So _wanting_. - - 20^4. but _wanting_. - - 21^2. fair _for_ she. - - 21^3. Calling unto his. - - 22^4. lord burned. - - 23^2. come to. - - 23^4. would not: _no_ &c. - - 24^4. sit: _no_ &c. - - 25^2. O _wanting_. - - 25^4. I wat _wanting_. - - 26^1. _One_ alas _wanting._ - - 26^2. heart’s easy wan. - - 26^4. And, well _wanting_. - - _Some readings of #b# are preferable, as in 6^2, 18^1, 21^3, 22^4; - others also, which may be editorial improvements._ - -#B.# - - 16. “This is another stanza which I afterwards received.” - -#C.# - - 4^1. _A small stroke between_ out _and_ it. - - * * * * * - - - APPENDIX - - #A# 26 - And aft she cried, ‘Ohon! alas! alas! - A sair heart’s ill to win; - I wan a sair heart when I married him, - And the day it’s well returned again.’ - - My friend the late Mr Norval Clyne thought that this obscure - stanza might perhaps be cleared up by the following verses, - communicated to him in 1873 by the Rev. George Sutherland, - Episcopal clergyman at Tillymorgan, Aberdeenshire. - - - YOUNG TOLQUHON - - Word has come to Young Tolquhon, - In his chamber where he lay, - That Sophia Hay, his first fair love, - Was wedded and away. - - ‘Sophia Hay, Sophia Hay, - My love, Sophia Hay, - I wish her anes as sair a heart - As she’s gien me the day. - - ‘She thinks she has done me great wrang, - But I don’t think it so; - I hope to live in quietness - When she shall live in woe. - - ‘She’ll live a discontented life - Since she is gone from me; - Ower seen, ower seen, a wood o green - Will shortly cover me. - - ‘When I am dead and in my grave, - Cause write upon me so: - “Here lies a lad who died for love, - And who can blame my woe.”’ - - Mr Sutherland wrote: This fragment I took down from the recitation - of my mother, twenty or twenty-five years ago. She was born in - 1790, and her great-grandmother was a servant of the last Forbes - of Tolquhon. She had a tradition that Sophia Hay was one of the - Errol family, and married Lord John Gordon, who was burned at - Frendraught. Mr Clyne remarked: The Young Tolquhon at the time - of this marriage, about 1628, was Alexander Forbes, eldest son - of William Forbes of Tolquhon. Alexander is recorded to have - died without issue, and the following additional particulars, - singularly suggestive of a determination on the unfortunate - lover’s part to renounce the world, have been communicated to me - by Dr John Stuart. In 1631 William Forbes granted a charter of - the lands of Tolquhon to his second son Walter and his heirs - male, and in 1632 another deed of the same sort to Walter, with - the express consent of Alexander, his elder brother. In 1641 - Alexander is supposed to have been dead, as Walter is then - styled “of Tolquhon.” The lady’s somewhat enigmatical - exclamation, - - ‘I wan a sair heart when I married him, - And the day it’s well returned again,’ - - may have its explanation in the words of Young Tolquhon, - - ‘I wish her anes as sair a heart - As she’s gien me the day.’ - - Mr Clyne did not fail to observe that Father Blakhal has recorded - of Lady Melgum that he had often heard her say that she had - never loved anybody but her husband, and never would love - another (Narration, p. 92). This testimony, if not decisive, may - be considered not less cogent as to the matter of fact than - anything in ‘Young Tolquhon’ to the contrary. But it may be that - stanza 24 became attached to the Frendraught ballad in - consequence of the coexistence of this or some similar ballad of - Young Tolquhon. - - - - - 197 - - JAMES GRANT - - Motherwelll’s MS., p. 470, communicated apparently by - Buchan; ‘The Gordons and the Grants,’ Buchan’s Ballads - - of the North of Scotland, II, 220. - - - There was an implacable feud between the Grants of Ballindalloch - and the Grants of Carron, “for divers ages,” Sir Robert Gordon - says, certainly for ninety years after 1550. This fragment has - to do with the later stage of their enmity. In 1628, John Grant - of Ballindalloch killed John Grant of Carron. James Grant of - Carron, uncle of the slain man, burnt all the corn, barns, and - byres of Ballindalloch young and old, and took to the hills - (1630). The Ballindallocbs complained to Murray, the lieutenant, - and he, “to gar ane devil ding another,” set the Clanchattan - upon James Grant. They laid siege to a house where he was with a - party of his men; he made his way out, was pursued, and was - taken after receiving eleven arrow-wounds. When he was well - enough to travel, he was sent to Edinburgh, and, as everybody - supposed, to his death; but after a confinement of more than a - year he broke ward (October, 1632). Large sums were offered for - him, alive or dead; but James Grant was hard to keep and hard to - catch, and in November, 1633, he began to kythe again in the - north. A gang of the forbidden name of McGregor, who had been - brought into the country by Ballindalloch to act against James - Grant, beset him in a small house in Carron where he was - visiting his wife, having only his son and one other man with - him; but he defended himself with the spirit of another - Cloudesly, shot the captain, and got off to the bog with his - men.[29] - - “The year of God one thousand six hundred thirty-six, some of - the Marquis of Huntly’s followers and servants did invade the - rebel James Grant and some of his associates, hard by - Strathbogy. They burnt the house wherein he was, but, the night - being dark and windy, he and his brother, Robert Grant, - escaped.”[30] - - This last escapade of James Grant may perhaps be the one to - which this fragment has reference, though Ballindalloch was not - personally engaged in the assault on the house, and I know of no - Douglas having sheltered Grant of Carron. One almost wonders - that this mettlesome and shifty outlaw was not celebrated in a - string of ballads. - - Early in 1639, James Grant got his peace from the king; later in - the year, he joined the “barons” at Aberdeen with five hundred - men, and in 1640, we are told, “he purchased his remission - orderly and went home to his own country peaceably (against all - men’s expectation, being such a blood-shedder and cruel - oppressor) after he had escaped so many dangers.”[31] - - * * * * * - - 1 - ‘Away with you, away with you, James de Grant! - And, Douglas, ye’ll be slain; - For Baddindalloch’s at your gates, - With many brave Highland men.’ - - 2 - ‘Baddindalloch has no feud at me, - And I have none at him; - Cast up my gates baith broad and wide, - Let Baddindalloch in.’ - - 3 - ‘James de Grant has made a vaunt, - And leaped the castle-wa; - But, if he comes this way again, - He’ll no win sae well awa. - - 4 - ‘Take him, take him, brave Gordons, - O take him, fine fellows a’! - If he wins but ae mile to the Highland hills, - He’ll defy you Gordons a’.’ - - * * * * * - - _As printed by Buchan:_ - - 1^3, 2^{1,4}. Balnadallach. - - 1^4. man. - - 2^4 come in. - - 3^4. nae won. - - 4^3. on the Highland hill. - - - - - 198 - - BONNY JOHN SETON - - #A.# ‘Bonny John Seton,’ Maidment’s North Countrie Garland, p. 15; - Buchan’s Gleanings, p. 161; Maidment’s Scotish Ballads and Songs, - Historical and Traditionary, I, 280. - - #B.# ‘The Death of John Seton,’ Buchan’s Ballads of the North of - Scotland, II, 136. - - -Buchan had another copy, sent him in manuscript by a young lady in -Aberdeen, in which the Earl Marischal was made prominent: Ballads, II, -321. Aytoun, I, 139, had a copy which had been annotated by C. K. -Sharpe, and from this he seems to have derived a few variations. The New -Deeside Guide [1832], p. 5 (nominally by James Brown, but written by Dr -Joseph Robertson), gives #A#, with a few trifling improvements which -seem to be editorial. - -#A, B, 1–8.# The ballad is accurate as to the date, not commonly a good -sign for such things. On Tuesday, the eighteenth of June, 1639, Montrose -began an attack on the bridge of Dee, which had been fortified and -manned by the royalists of Aberdeen to stop his advance on the city. The -bridge was bravely defended that day and part of the next by -Lieutenant-Colonel Johnston (not Middleton; Middleton was of the -assailants). The young Lord of Aboyne, just made the king’s lieutenant -in the north, had a small body of horse on the north side of the river. -Montrose’s cavalry were sent up the south side as if to cross (though -there was no ford), and Aboyne’s were moved along the opposite bank to -resist a passage. This exposed the latter to Montrose’s cannon, and the -Covenanters let fly some shot at them, one of which killed “a gallant -gentleman, John Seton of Pitmeddin, most part of his body above the -saddle being carried away.” Johnston’s leg was crushed by stones brought -down from one of the turrets of the bridge by a cannon-shot, and he had -to be carried off. The loss of their commander and the disappearance of -Aboyne’s horse discouraged the now small party who were holding the -bridge, and they abandoned it. Aboyne rode off, and left Aberdeen to to -shift for itself.[32] - -#A 9–12, B 9–13.# The spoiling of John Seton by order of Sir William -Forbes of Craigievar is not noticed by Gordon and Spalding, though other -matters of not greater proportion are. - -#A 13–15.# The reference is to the affair called the Raid of Stonehaven, -June 15, three days before that of the Bridge of Dee. Aboyne’s -Highlanders, a thousand or more, were totally unused to artillery, and a -few shots from Montrose’s cannon lighting among them so frightened them -that “they did run off, all in a confusion, never looking behind them, -till they were got into a moss.”[33] - -#B 14–17.# “When Montrose entered Aberdeen,” says James Gordon, “the -Earl Marischal and Lord Muchall pressed him to burn the town, and urged -him with the Committee of Estates’ warrant for that effect. He answered -that it were best to advise a night upon it, since Aberdeen was the -London of the north, and would prejudice themselves by want of it. So it -was taken to consideration for that night, and next day the Earl -Marischal and Lord Muchall came protesting he would spare it. He -answered he was desirous so to do, but durst not except they would be -his warrant. Whereupon they drew up a paper, signed with both their -hands, declaring that they had hindered it, and promising to interpose -with the Committee of Estates for him. Yet the next year, when he was -made prisoner and accused, this was objected to Montrose, that he had -not burned Aberdeen, as he had orders from the Committee of Estates. -Then he produced Marischal and Muchall’s paper, which hardly satisfied -the exasperated committee.”[34] - - * * * * * - - - A - - Maidment’s North Countrie Garland, p. 15. - - 1 - Upon the eighteenth day of June, - A dreary day to see, - The southern lords did pitch their camp - Just at the bridge of Dee. - - 2 - Bonny John Seton of Pitmeddin, - A bold baron was he, - He made his testament ere he went out, - The wiser man was he. - - 3 - He left his land to his young son, - His lady her dowry, - A thousand crowns to his daughter Jean, - Yet on the nurse’s knee. - - 4 - Then out came his lady fair, - A tear into her ee; - Says, Stay at home, my own good lord, - O stay at home with me! - - 5 - He looked over his left shoulder, - Cried, Souldiers, follow me! - O then she looked in his face, - An angry woman was she: - ‘God send me back my steed again, - But neer let me see thee!’ - - 6 - His name was Major Middleton - That manned the bridge of Dee, - His name was Colonel Henderson - That let the cannons flee. - - 7 - His name was Major Middleton - That manned the bridge of Dee, - And his name was Colonel Henderson - That dung Pitmeddin in three. - - 8 - Some rode on the black and grey, - And some rode on the brown, - But the bonny John Seton - Lay gasping on the ground. - - 9 - Then bye there comes a false Forbes, - Was riding from Driminere; - Says, Here there lies a proud Seton; - This day they ride the rear. - - 10 - Cragievar said to his men, - ‘You may play on your shield; - For the proudest Seton in all the lan - This day lies on the field.’ - - 11 - ‘O spoil him! spoil him!’ cried Cragievar, - ‘Him spoiled let me see; - For on my word,’ said Cragievar, - ‘He had no good will at me.’ - - 12 - They took from him his armour clear, - His sword, likewise his shield; - Yea, they have left him naked there, - Upon the open field. - - 13 - The Highland men, they’re clever men - At handling sword and shield, - But yet they are too naked men - To stay in battle field. - - 14 - The Highland men are clever men - At handling sword or gun, - But yet they are too naked men - To bear the cannon’s rung. - - 15 - For a cannon’s roar in a summer night - Is like thunder in the air; - There’s not a man in Highland dress - Can face the cannon’s fire. - - * * * * * - - - B - - Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, II, 136. - - 1 - It fell about the month of June, - On Tuesday, timouslie, - The northern lords hae pitchd their camps - Beyond the brig o Dee. - - 2 - They ca’ed him Major Middleton - That mand the brig o Dee; - They ca’ed him Colonel Henderson - That gard the cannons flee. - - 3 - Bonny John Seton o Pitmedden, - A brave baron was he; - He made his tesment ere he gaed, - And the wiser man was he. - - 4 - He left his lands unto his heir, - His ladie her dowrie; - Ten thousand crowns to Lady Jane, - Sat on the nourice knee. - - 5 - Then out it speaks his lady gay, - ‘O stay my lord wi me; - For word is come, the cause is won - Beyond the brig o Dee.’ - - 6 - He turned him right and round about, - And a light laugh gae he; - Says, I wouldna for my lands sae broad - I stayed this night wi thee. - - 7 - He’s taen his sword then by his side, - His buckler by his knee, - And laid his leg in oer his horse, - Said, Sodgers, follow me! - - 8 - So he rade on, and further on, - Till to the third mile corse; - The Covenanters’ cannon balls - Dang him aff o his horse. - - 9 - Up then rides him Cragievar, - Said, Wha’s this lying here? - It surely is the Lord o Aboyne, - For Huntly was not here. - - 10 - Then out it speaks a fause Forbes, - Lived up in Druminner; - ‘My lord, this is a proud Seton, - The rest will ride the thinner.’ - - 11 - ‘Spulyie him, spulyie him,’ said Craigievar, - ‘O spulyie him, presentlie; - For I could lay my lugs in pawn - He had nae gude will at me.’ - - 12 - They’ve taen the shoes frae aff his feet, - The garters frae his knee, - Likewise the gloves upon his hands; - They’ve left him not a flee. - - 13 - His fingers they were sae sair swelld - The rings would not come aff; - They cutted the grips out o his ears, - Took out the gowd signots. - - 14 - Then they rade on, and further on, - Till they came to the Crabestane, - And Craigievar, he had a mind - To burn a’ Aberdeen. - - 15 - Out it speaks the gallant Montrose, - Grace on his fair body! - ‘We winna burn the bonny burgh, - We’ll even laet it be.’ - - 16 - Then out it speaks the gallant Montrose, - ‘Your purpose I will break; - We winna burn the bonny burgh, - We’ll never build its make. - - 17 - ‘I see the women and their children - Climbing the craigs sae hie; - We’ll sleep this night in the bonny burgh, - And even lat it be.’ - - * * * * * - -#B.# - - 11^{1,2}. Spulzie. - -_Readings in Aytoun which may have been derived from Sharpe:_ - -#A.# - - 4^2. The tear stood in. - - 8^3. But bonny John Seton o Pitmeddin. - -#B.# - - 8^3. And there the Covenanters’ shot. - - 8^4. It dang him frae his. - - 10^2. Was riding frae D. - - 10^3. This is the proudest Seton of a’. - - 14^3. And wha sae ready as Craigievar. - - 15^1. Then up and spake the gude. - - 16^2. As he rade owre the field. - - 16^3. Why should we burn the bonny. - - 16^4. When its like we couldna build. - -_Readings in The New Deeside Guide:_ - -#A.# - - 1^3. lords their pallions pitched. - - 2^2. A baron bold. - - 3^1. To his. - - 4^1. and came. - - 5^5. your steed. - - 11^4. He bore: to me. - - 15^4. cannon’s rair. - - - - - 199 - - THE BONNIE HOUSE O AIRLIE - - #A. a.# Sharpe’s Ballad Book, p. 59, No 20. #b.# ‘The Bonnie House o - Airly,’ Finlay’s Ballads, II, 25. #c.# Skene MS., pp. 28, 54. #d.# - ‘The Bonny House of Airly,’ Campbell MSS, II, 113. #e.# ‘The Bonny - House of Airly,’ an Aberdeen stall-copy, without date. #f.# ‘The - Bonny House o Airly,’ another Aberdeen stall-copy, without date. - #g.# Hogg’s Jacobite Relics, II, 152. #h.# Kinloch MSS, VI, 5, one - stanza. - - #B.# Kinloch MSS, V, 273. - - #C. a.# ‘The Bonny House of Airley,’ Kinloch MSS, V, 205. #b.# ‘Young - Airly,’ Cromek’s Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song, p. 226. - #c.# ‘The Bonny House o Airlie,’ Smith’s Scottish Minstrel, II, 2. - #d.# ‘The Bonny House o Airlie,’ Christie’s Traditional Ballad Airs, - II, 276, 296. - - #D.# Kinloch MSS, V, 106; Kinloch MSS, VII, 207; Kinloch’s Ancient - Scottish Ballads, p. 104. - - -The earliest copy of this ballad hitherto found is a broadside of about -1790 (a hundred and fifty years later than the event celebrated), which -Finlay combined with two others, derived from recitation, for his -edition (#A b#). #C b#, #c#, #d#, are not purely traditional texts, and -#A g# has borrowed some stanzas from #C b#. #C b# is transcribed into -the Campbell MSS, I, 184. Aytoun’s edition, 1859, II, 270, is compounded -from #A a#, #A b#, with half a dozen words changed, and it is not quite -clear how the editor means to be understood when he says, “the -following, I have reason to believe, is the original.” - - -One summer day, Argyle, who has a quarrel with Airlie, sets out to -plunder the castle of that name. The lord of the place is at the time -with the king. Argyle (something in the style of Captain Car) summons -Lady Ogilvie to come down and kiss him; else he will not leave a -standing stone in Airlie. This she will not do, for all his threat. -Argyle demands of the lady where her dowry is (as if it were tied up in -a handkerchief). She gives no precise information: it is east and west, -up and down the water-side. Sharp search is made, and the dowry is found -in a plum-tree (balm-tree, cherry-tree, palm-tree, #A a#, #b#, #d#, #e#, -#g#). Argyle lays or leads the lady down somewhere while the plundering -goes forward. She tells him that no Campbell durst have taken in hand -such a thing if her lord had been at home. She has born seven (ten) -sons, and is expecting another; but had she as many more (a hundred -more), she would give them all to King Charles. - -In #A d# 7 Lady Ogilvie asks the favor of Argyle that he will take her -to a high hill-top that she may _not_ see the burning of Airlie; the -passage is of course corrupt. In #A g# 7 she more sensibly asks that her -face may not be turned that way. In #C a# 5, 6, #b# 5, 6, the rational -request is made that she may be taken to some dark dowey glen[35] to -avoid the sight; but Argyle leads her “down to the top of the town,” and -bids her look at the plundering, #a#; sets her upon a bonnie knowe-tap, -and bids her look at Airlie fa’ing, #b#. #D# 7, 8, goes a step further. -The lady asks that she may be thrown over the castle-wall rather than -see the plundering; Argyle lifts her up ‘sae rarely’ and throws her -over, and she never saw it. - -In #C a# 8 Argyle would have Lord Airlie informed that one kiss from his -lady would have saved all the plundering. In #D# 5 he tells Lady Ogilvie -that if she had surrendered on the first demand there would have been no -plundering; and this assurance he repeats to ‘Captain’ Ogilvie, whom he -meets on his way home. - -#A b# 2, #D# 1, 2, represent Argyle to be acting under the orders of -Montrose, or in concert with him. - -A piece in five or six stanzas which appears, with variations, in -Cromek’s Remains, p. 195, Hogg’s Jacobite Relics, II, 151, Cunningham’s -Songs of Scotland, III, 218, under the caption of ‘Young Airly’ (the -title of #C b# also in Cromek), moves forward the burning of Airlie to -“the 45;” not very strangely (if there is anything traditional in these -verses), when we consider the prominence of the younger Lord Ogilvie and -his wife among the supporters of Charles Edward. (The first three of -Cromek’s stanzas are transcribed into Campbell MSS, I, 187.) No doubt -the Charlie and Prince Charlie of some versions of our ballad were -understood by the reciters to be the Young Chevalier. - -The Committee of Estates, June 12, 1640, gave commission to the Earl of -Argyle to rise in arms against certain people, among whom was the Earl -of Airlie, as enemies to religion and unnatural to their country, and to -pursue them with fire and sword until they should be brought to their -duty or else utterly subdued and rooted out. The Earl of Airlie had gone -to England, fearing lest he should be pressed to subscribe the Covenant, -and had left his house to the keeping of his eldest son, Lord Ogilvie. -Montrose, who had signed the commission as one of the Committee, but was -not inclined to so strenuous proceedings, invested Airlie, forced a -surrender, and put a garrison in the place to hold it for the “public.” -Argyle did not interpret his commission in this mild way. He took Airlie -in hand in the beginning of July, and caused both this house and that of -Forthar, belonging to Lord Ogilvie, to be pillaged, burned, and -demolished. Thereafter he fell upon the lands both of the proprietor and -his tenantry, and carried off or destroyed “their whole goods, gear, -corns, cattle, horse, nolt, sheep,” and left nothing but bare bounds. - -According to one writer, Lady Ogilvie was residing at Forthar, and, -being big with child, asked leave of Argyle to stay till she was brought -to bed; but this was not allowed, and she was put out, though she knew -not whither to go. By another account, Argyle accused Montrose of having -suffered the lady to escape.[36] - -The ballad puts Lady Airlie in command of the house or castle, but none -of the family were there at the time it was sacked. She is called Lady -Margaret in #A b# 4, but her name was Elizabeth. The earl, James, is -called the great Sir John in #C a# 9. #A# 10 and the like elsewhere are -applicable to the younger Lady Ogilvie in respect to the unborn child. -Chambers says that Lady Airlie had three children and Lady Ogilvie but -one, and “the poet must be wrong.” “The poet,” besides being inaccurate, -does not tell the same story in all the versions, and this inconsistency -is again observable in ‘Geordie,’ #A# 9, #B# 18, #C# 8, etc. - -‘Gleyd Argyle’ is “generally described as of mean stature, with red hair -and squinting eyes.”[37] His morals appear to some disadvantage again in -‘Geordie,’ #I a# 23. - - * * * * * - - - A - - #a.# Sharpe’s Ballad Book, p. 59, No 20, 1823. #b.# Finlay’s - Ballads, II, 25, 1808, from two recited copies and “one printed - about twenty years ago on a single sheet.” #c.# Skene MS., pp. 28, - 54, from recitation in the north of Scotland, 1802–3. #d.# Campbell - MSS, II, 113, probably from a stall-copy. #e, f.# Aberdeen stall - copies, “printed for the booksellers.” #g.# Hogg’s Jacobite Relics, - II, 152, No 76, “Cromek and a street ballad collated, 1821.” #h.# - Kinloch MSS, VI, 5, one stanza, taken down from an old woman’s - recitation by J. Robertson. - - 1 - It fell on a day, and a bonny simmer day, - When green grew aits and barley, - That there fell out a great dispute - Between Argyll and Airlie. - - 2 - Argyll has raised an hunder men, - An hunder harnessd rarely, - And he’s awa by the back of Dunkell, - To plunder the castle of Airlie. - - 3 - Lady Ogilvie looks oer her bower-window. - And oh, but she looks weary! - And there she spy’d the great Argyll, - Come to plunder the bonny house of Airlie. - - 4 - ‘Come down, come down, my Lady Ogilvie, - Come down, and kiss me fairly:’ - ‘O I winna kiss the fause Argyll, - If he should na leave a standing stane in Airlie.’ - - 5 - He hath taken her by the left shoulder, - Says, Dame where lies thy dowry? - ‘O it’s east and west yon wan water side, - And it’s down by the banks of the Airlie.’ - - 6 - They hae sought it up, they hae sought it down, - They hae sought it maist severely, - Till they fand it in the fair plumb-tree - That shines on the bowling-green of Airlie. - - 7 - He hath taken her by the middle sae small, - And O but she grat sairly! - And laid her down by the bonny burn-side, - Till they plundered the castle of Airlie. - - 8 - ‘Gif my gude lord war here this night, - As he is with King Charlie, - Neither you, nor ony ither Scottish lord, - Durst avow to the plundering of Airlie. - - 9 - ‘Gif my gude lord war now at hame, - As he is with his king, - There durst nae a Campbell in a’ Argyll - Set fit on Airlie green. - - 10 - ‘Ten bonny sons I have born unto him, - The eleventh neer saw his daddy; - But though I had an hundred mair, - I’d gie them a’ to King Charlie.’ - - * * * * * - - - B - - Kinloch MSS, V, 273. - - 1 - It fell on a day, a clear summer day, - When the corn grew green and bonny, - That there was a combat did fall out - ‘Tween Argyle and the bonny house of Airly. - - 2 - Argyle he did raise five hundred men, - Five hundred men, so many, - And he did place them by Dunkeld, - Bade them shoot at the bonny house of Airly. - - 3 - The lady looked over her own castle-wa, - And oh, but she looked weary! - And there she espied the gleyed Argyle, - Come to plunder the bonny house of Airly. - - 4 - ‘Come down the stair now, Madam Ogilvie, - And let me kiss thee kindly; - Or I vow and I swear, by the sword that I wear, - That I winna leave a standing stone at Airly.’ - - 5 - ‘O how can I come down the stair, - And how can I kiss thee kindly, - Since you vow and you swear, by the sword that you wear, - That you winna leave a standing stone on Airly?’ - - 6 - ‘Come down the stair then, Madam Ogilvie, - And let me see thy dowry;’ - ‘O ’tis east and it is west, and ’tis down by yon burn-side, - And it stands at the planting sae bonny. - - 7 - ‘But if my brave lord had been at hame this day, - As he is wi Prince Charlie, - There durst na a Campbell in all Scotland - Set a foot on the bowling-green of Airly - - 8 - ‘O I hae born him seven, seven sons, - And an eighth neer saw his daddy, - And tho I were to bear him as many more, - They should a’ carry arms for Prince Charlie.’ - - * * * * * - - - C - - #a.# Kinloch MSS, V, 205, recited by John Rae. #b.# Cromek’s Remains - of Nithsdale and Galloway Song, p. 226, 1810. #c.# Smith’s Scottish - Minstrel, II, 2. #d.# Christie’s Traditional Ballad Airs, II, 276, - “from the recitation of a relative.” - - 1 - It fell on a day, on a bonny summer day, - When the corn grew green and yellow, - That there fell out a great dispute - Between Argyle and Airley. - - 2 - The great Argyle raised five hundred men, - Five hundred men and many, - And he has led them down by the bonny Dunkeld, - Bade them shoot at the bonny house of Airley. - - 3 - The lady was looking oer her castle-wa, - And O but she looked weary! - And there she spied the great Argyle, - Came to plunder the bonny house of Airley. - - 4 - ‘Come down stairs now, Madam,’ he says, - ‘Now come down and kiss me fairly;’ - ‘I’ll neither come down nor kiss you,’ she says, - ‘Tho you should na leave a standing stane in Airley.’ - - 5 - ‘I ask but one favour of you, Argyle, - And I hope you’ll grant me fairly - To tak me to some dark dowey glen, - That I may na see the plundering of Airley.’ - - 6 - He has taen her by the left shoulder, - And O but she looked weary! - And he has led her down to the top of the town, - Bade her look at the plundering of Airley. - - 7 - ‘Fire on, fire on, my merry men all, - And see that ye fire clearly; - For I vow and I swear by the broad sword I wear - That I winna leave a standing stane in Airley. - - 8 - ‘You may tell it to your lord,’ he says, - ‘You may tell it to Lord Airley, - That one kiss o his gay lady - Wad hae sav’d all the plundering of Airley.’ - - 9 - ‘If the great Sir John had been but at hame, - As he is this night wi Prince Charlie, - Neither Argyle nor no Scottish lord - Durst hae plundered the bonny house of Airley. - - 10 - ‘Seven, seven sons hae I born unto him, - And the eight neer saw his dady, - And altho I were to have a hundred more, - The should a’ draw their sword for Prince Charlie.’ - - * * * * * - - - D - - Kinloch MSS, V, 106, in the handwriting of James Beattie, and from - the recitation of Elizabeth Beattie. - - 1 - O gleyd Argyll has written to Montrose - To see gin the fields they were fairly, - And to see whether he sh_oul_d stay at hame, - ‘Or come to plunder bonnie Airly. - - 2 - Then great Montrose has written to Argyll - And that the fields they were fairly, - And not to keep his men at hame, - But to come and plunder bonnie Airly. - - 3 - The lady was looking oer her castle-wa, - She was carrying her courage sae rarely, - And there she spied him gleyd Arguill, - Was coming for to plunder bonnie Airly. - - 4 - ‘Wae be to ye, gleyd Argyll! - And are ye there sae rarely? - Ye might hae kept your men at hame, - And not come to plunder bonnie Airly.’ - - 5 - ‘And wae be to ye, Lady Ogilvie! - And are ye there sae rarely? - Gin ye had bowed when first I bade, - I never wad hae plunderd bonnie Airly.’ - - 6 - ‘But gin my guid lord had been at hame, - As he is wi Prince Charlie, - There durst not a rebel on a’ Scotch ground - Set a foot on the bonnie green of Airly. - - 7 - ‘But ye’ll tak me by the milk-white hand, - And ye’ll lift me up sae rarely, - And ye’ll throw me outoure my [ain] castle-wa, - Let me neuer see the plundering of Airly.’ - - 8 - He’s taen her by the milk-white hand, - And he’s lifted her up sae rarely, - And he’s thrown her outoure her ain castle-wa, - And she neuer saw the plundering of Airly. - - 9 - Now gleyd Argyll he has gane hame, - Awa frae the plundering of Airly, - And there he has met him Captain Ogilvie, - Coming over the mountains sae rarely. - - 10 - ‘O wae be to ye, gleyd Argyll! - And are you there sae rarely? - Ye might hae kept your men at hame, - And no gane to plunder bonnie Airly.’ - - 11 - ‘O wae be to ye, Captain Ogilvie! - And are you there sae rarely? - Gin ye wad hae bowed when first I bade, - I neer wad hae plunderd bonnie Airly.’ - - 12 - ‘But gin I had my lady gay, - Bot and my sister Mary, - One fig I wad na gie for ye a’, - Nor yet for the plundering of Airly.’ - - * * * * * - -#A. b.# - - 1^2. When the corn grew green and yellow. - - 2^{1,2}. The Duke o Montrose has written to Argyle To come in the - morning early. - - 2^3. An lead in his men by. - - 2^4. the bonnie house o Airly. - - 3^1. The lady lookd oer her window sae hie. - - 4^1. down Lady Margaret he says. - - 4^{2,3}. (_cf._ #f.#). - - ‘Or before the morning clear day light, - I’ll no leave a standing stane in Airly.’ - - ‘I wadna kiss thee, great Argyle, - I wadna kiss thee fairly, - I wadna kiss thee, great Argyle, - Gin you shoudna leave a standing stane in Airly.’ - - 5^1. by the middle sae sma. - - 5^2. Says, Lady, where is your drury? - - 5^{3,4}. It’s up and down by the bonnie burn-side, Amang the - planting of Airly. - - 6^2. They sought it late and early. - - 6^3. And found: bonnie balm-tree. - - 7^1. by the left shoulder. - - 7^3. And led: to yon green bank. - - 8^1 (10^1). lord had been at hame. - - 8^2 (10^2). As this night he is wi C. - - 8^3 (10^3). There durst na a Campbell in a’ the west. - - 8^4 (10^4). Hae plundered the bonnie house. - - 9. _Wanting._ - - 10^1 (9^1). O it’s I hae seven braw sons, she says. - - 10^2 (9^2). And the youngest. - - 10^3 (9^3). had as mony mae. - - 10^4 (9^4). to Charlie. - -#c.# - - _1–5^1 are repeated at p. 54, with some differences._ - - 1^1. fell about a [the] Lammass time. - - 1^2. corn [the corn] grew green and yellow. - - 2^1. has gathered three hunder. - - 2^2. Three hunder men and mair O. - - 2^3. is on to. - - 2^4. the bonnie house o A. - - 3^1. The lady lookit oure the castle-wa. - - 3^2. she was sorry. - - 3^3. Whan she saw gleyd Argyle an his [300] men. - - 4^1. Come down the stair, Lady Airly [he says]. - - 4^2. An it’s ye maun kiss [An kiss me fairly]. - - 4^3. I wad na kiss ye, gleyd Argyll. - - 4^4. Atho [Tho] ye leave na. - - 5^1. Come down the stair, Lady Airly, he says. - - 5^2. An tell whar. - - 5^3. Up and down the bonnie. - - 5^4. And by the bonnie bowling-green o. - - 6. _Wanting._ - - 7^1. took: the milk-white hand. - - 7^2. And led her fairly. - - 7^3. Up an down the bonnie water-side. - - 7^4. the bonnie house o Airly. - - 8^1. But an: were at hame (=9^1). - - 8^2. awa wi Charley. - - 8^3. The best Campbell in a’ your kin. - - 8^4. Durst na plunder the b. h. o. A. - - 9. _Wanting._ - - 10^1 (7^1). Seven sons have I born, she says. - - 10^2 (7^2). The eight: its. - - 10^3 (7^3). Altho: as many mare. - - 10^4 (7^4). a’ to fight for Charley. - -#d.# - - 1^2. When corn grew green. - - 2^1. has hired. - - 2^2. A hundred men and mairly. - - 2^3. to the. - - 2^4. the b. h. of A. - - 3^1. The lady lookit over her window. - - 3^2. lookit waely. - - 3^3. she saw. - - 3^4. Coming. - - 4^3. I wadna kiss the great. - - 4^4. Tho you. - - 5^1. by the milk-white hand. - - 5^2. Lady, where’s your. - - 5^3. It’s up and down yon bonny burn-side. - - 5^4. It shines in the bowling-green of A. - - 6^2. sought it late and early. - - 6^3. They’ve found: the bonny cherry-tree. - - 6^4. That grows in. - - _Between 6 and 7_: - - There is ae favour I ask of thee, - I beg but ye’ll grant it fairly: - That ye will take me to yon high hill-top, - That I maunna see the burning of Airly. - - 7^1. by the left shoulder. - - 7^2. lookit queerly. - - 7^4. he’s led. - - 7^4. the b. h. of A. - - _Between 7 and 8_: - - He’s taen her by the milk-white hand, - He’s led her right and fairly; - He’s led her to yon high hill-top, - Till they’ve burned the bonny house of Airly. - - 8^2. away wi Prince Charlie. - - 8^3. The great Argyle and a’ his men. - - 8^4. Wadna hae plunderd the b. h. of A. - - 9. _Wanting._ - - 10^3. And if I had a hundred men. - - 10^4. to Prince. - -#e.# - - 1^2. When the corn grew green and yellow. - - 2^2. A hundred men and mairly. - - 2^3. he has gone to. - - 2^4. the bonny house of Airly. - - 3^1. The lady looked over her window. - - 3^2. looked. - - 3^4. Coming. - - 4^1. down, madam, he says. - - 4^3. thee, great Argyle. - - 4^4. If you. - - 5^1. by the middle so small. - - 5^2. Says, Lady, where is your. - - 5^3. It is up and down the bonny burn-side. - - 5^4. Among the plantings of A. - - 6^2. They sought it late and early. - - 6^3. And found it in the bonny palm-tree. - - 7^1. by the left shoulder. - - 7^2. she looked weary. - - 7^3. down on the green bank. - - 7^4. he plundered the b. h. of A. - - 8^1. O if my lord was at home: this night _wanting_. - - 8^2. As this night he’s wi Charlie. - - 8^{3,4}. Great Argyle and all his men Durst not plunder the b. h. - of A. - - 9. _Wanting._ - - 10^1. ’Tis ten: unto him _wanting_. - - 10^3. But though. - - 10^4. to Charlie. - -#f.# - - 1^2. When the clans were a’ wi Charlie. - - 2^1. has called a hundred o his men. - - 2^2. To come in the morning early. - - 2^3. And they hae gane down by. - - 2^4. plunder the b. h. of A. - - 3^1. L. O. looked frae her window sae hie. - - 3^2. she grat sairly. - - 3^3. To see Argyle and a’ his men. - - 4^1. down, Lady Ogilvie, he cried. - - 4^{3,4}. Or ere the morning’s clear daylight I’ll no leave a - standing. - - _After 4_: - - I wadna come doon, great Argyle, she cried, - I wadna kiss thee fairly, - I wadna come doon, false Argyle, she cried, - Though you shouldna leave a standing stane in Airly. - - 5–7. _Wanting._ - - 8. - But were my ain guid lord at hame, - As he is noo wi Charlie, - The base Argyle and a his men - Durstna enter the bonny house o Airly. - - 9. _Wanting._ - - 10^1. O I hae seven bonny sons, she said. - - 10^2. And the youngest has neer seen. - - 10^3. had ane as mony mae. - - 10^4. They’d a’ be followers o Charlie. - - _After 10 this spurious stanza_: - - Then Argyle and his men attacked the bonny ha, - And O but they plundered it fairly! - In spite o the tears the lady let fa, - They burnt doon the bonny house o Airly. - -#g.# - - 1^2. When the flowers were blooming rarely. - - 2^2. An hundred men and mairly. - - 2^4. the b. h. of A. - - 3^1. The lady lookd oer her w. - - 3^2. she sighd sairly. - - 4^3. No, I winna kiss thee. - - 4^4. Though ye. - - 5^1. by the middle sae sma. - - 5^2. Says _wanting_: Lady where is your. - - 5^{3,4}. - It’s up and down by the bonny burn-side, - Amang the plantings o Airly. - - 6^2. it late and early. - - 6^3. under the bonny palm-tree. - - 6^4. That stands i. - - _After 6 (cf. #A d#, #C# 5):_ - - A favour I ask of thee, Argyle, - If ye will grant it fairly; - O dinna turn me wi my face - To see the destruction of Airly! - - _The remainder of #g# is taken from #C b#, with two or three - slight variations._ - -#h.# - - 8. - An my gude lord had been at hame, - As he’s awa wi Charlie, - There durstna a gleyd duke in a’ Argyle - Set a coal to the bonnie house o Airlie. - - #B.# - - 5^1, 8^1. Oh. - -#C. b.# - - _No reliance can be placed upon the genuineness of this copy, and - a particular collation is not required._ - - 1^{1,2}. It fell in about the Martinmas time, An the leaves were - fa’ing early. - - 4. _Two stanzas, much as in #A b#, #f#._ - - 5. - But take me by the milk-white hand, - An lead me down right hoolie, - An set me in a dowie, dowie glen, - That I mauna see the fall o Airly. - - 6. - He has taen her by the shouther-blade - An thurst her down afore him, - Syne set her upon a bonnie knowe-tap, - Bad her look at Airly fa’ing. - - _Here follows a stanza (6) not found elsewhere, no doubt - Cunningham’s_: - - Haste! bring to me a cup o gude wine, - As red as ony cherrie; - I’ll tauk the cup, an sip it up; - Here’s a health to bonnie Prince Charlie! - - 7, 8. _Wanting: found only in #a#._ - - 9. _Nearly #e#, #f#, 8._ - - 10^1. I hae born me eleven braw sons. - - _A concluding stanza may be assigned to Cunningham._ - - Were my gude lord but here this day, - As he’s awa wi Charlie, - The dearest blude o a’ thy kin - Wad sloken the lowe o Airly. - - _Another copy is said in the editor’s preface to begin thus_: - - The great Argyle raised ten thousand men, - Eer the sun was waukening early, - And he marched them down by the back o Dunkel, - Bade them fire on the bonnie house o Airlie. - -#c.# - - _Made over from a copy resembling #B#, #C a#._ - - 4. _Two stanzas here, as in #B#: kisses are dropped for - propriety._ - - 5, 6. _The last half of these is substantially preserved in #c# 7, - 8._ - -#d.# - - _A blending, perhaps not accidental, of various copies; mainly of - #A g#, #C b#, #C c#._ - - 1, 2. _Nearly #A g# 1, 2._ - - 3. _Nearly #c# 3._ - - 4^{1,2}. _Nearly #A g# 4^{1,2}._ - - 4^{3,4}. _Nearly #c# 4^{3,4}._ - - 5. _Nearly a compound of #A b#_ (Finlay) _5_ and _#c# 5; cf. #B# - 5._ - - 6. _Cf. #b# 4 (5 above), #c# 7._ - - 7. _Nearly #c# 8._ - - 8. _#b# 6 altered_. - - _The stanza cited by Christie at p. 296 is the spurious - conclusion_ of _#c#._ - - - - - 200 - - THE GYPSY LADDIE - - #A.# ‘Johny Faa, the Gypsy Laddie,’ Ramsay’s Tea-Table Miscellany, - vol. iv, 1740. Here from the edition of 1763, p. 427. - - #B. a.# The Edinburgh Magazine and Literary Miscellany (vol. lxxx of - the Scots Magazine), November, 1817, p. 309. #b.# A fragment recited - by Miss Fanny Walker, of Mount Pleasant, near Newburgh-on-Tay. - - #C.# ‘Davie Faw,’ Motherwell’s MS., p. 381; ‘Gypsie Davy,’ - Motherwell’s Minstrelsy, 1827, p. 360. - - #D.# ‘The Egyptian Laddy,’ Kinloch MSS, V, 331. - - #E.# ‘The Gypsie Laddie,’ Mactaggart’s Scottish Gallovidian - Encyclopedia, 1824, p. 284. - - #F.# ‘Johnny Faa, the Gypsey Laddie,’ The Songs of England and - Scotland [P. Cunningham], London, 1835, II, 346. - - #G. a.# ‘The Gypsie Loddy,’ a broadside, Roxburghe Ballads, III, 685. - #b.# A recent stall-copy, Catnach, 2 Monmouth Court, Seven Dials. - - #H.# ‘The Gipsy Laddie,’ Shropshire Folk-Lore, edited by Charlotte - Sophia Burne, p. 550. - - #I.# Communicated by Miss Margaret Reburn, as sung in County Meath, - Ireland, about 1860. - - #J. a.# ‘The Gipsey Davy,’ from Stockbridge, Massachusetts. #b.# From - a lady born in Maine. - - #K.# ‘Lord Garrick,’ #a#, #b#, communicated by ladies of New York. - - -The English ballad, though derived from the Scottish, may perhaps have -been printed earlier. A conjectural date of 1720 is given, with -hesitation, to #G a#, in the catalogue of the British Museum. - -The Scottish ballad appears to have been first printed in the fourth -volume of the Tea-Table Miscellany, 1740, but no copy of that edition -has been recovered. From the Tea-Table Miscellany it was repeated, with -variations, some traditional, some arbitrary, in: Herd’s Ancient and -Modern Scots Songs, 1769, ‘Gypsie Laddie,’ p. 88, ed. 1776, II, 54; The -Fond Mother’s Garland, not dated, but earlier than 1776; Pinkerton’s -Select Scotish Ballads, 1783, I, 67; Johnson’s Museum, ‘Johny Faa, or, -The Gypsie Laddie,’ No 181, p. 189; Ritson’s Scotish Songs, 1794, II, -176; and in this century, Cromek’s Select Scotish Songs, 1810, II, 15; -Cunningham’s Songs of Scotland, 1825, II, 175. A transcript in the -Campbell MSS, ‘The Gypsies,’ I, 16, is from Pinkerton. - -“The people in Ayrshire begin this song, - - ‘The gypsies cam to my lord Cassilis’ yett.’ - -They have a great many more stanzas ... than I ever yet saw in any -printed.” Burns, in Cromek’s Reliques, 1809, p. 161. (So Sharpe, in the -Musical Museum, 1853, IV, 217, but perhaps repeating Burns.) #B#, from -Galloway, has eight more stanzas than #A#, and #E#, also from Galloway, -fourteen more, but quite eight of the last are entirely -untraditional,[38] and the hand of the editor is frequently to be -recognized elsewhere. - -Finlay, Scottish Ballads, 1808, II, 39, inserted two stanzas after #A# -2, the first of which is nearly the same as 5, and the second as #B# 3, -#C# 3. The variations of his text, and others in his notes, are given -under #A#. Kinloch MSS, V, 299; Chambers, Scottish Ballads, 1829, p. -143; Aytoun, 1859, I, 187, repeat Finlay, with a few slight changes. The -Ballads and Songs of Ayrshire, I, 9, follows Chambers. - -The copy in Smith’s Scotish Minstrel, III, 90, is derived from #B a#, -but has readings of other texts, and is of no authority. That in -Maidment’s Scotish Ballads and Songs, 1868, II, 185, is #B a# with -changes. Ten stanzas in a manuscript of Scottish songs and ballads, -copied 1840 or 1850 by a granddaughter of Lord Woodhouselee, p. 46, are -from #B a#. This may be true also of #B b#, which, however, has not -Cassilis in 1^1. - -#C# is from a little further north, from Renfrewshire; #D# from -Aberdeenshire. #F# is from the north of England, and resembles #C#. The -final stanza of #G a# is cited by Ritson, Scotish Songs, II, 177, 1794. -‘The Rare Ballad of Johnnie Faa and the Countess o Cassilis,’ Sheldon’s -Minstrelsy of the English Border, p. 326, which the editor had “heard -sung repeatedly by Willie Faa,” and of which he “endeavored to preserve -as much as recollection would allow,” has the eleven stanzas of the -English broadside, and twelve more of which Sheldon must have been -unable to recollect anything. #H-K# are all varieties of the broadside. - -The Rev. S. Baring-Gould has most obligingly sent me a ballad, taken -down by him from the singing of an illiterate hedger in North Devon, in -which ‘The Gypsy Laddie,’ recomposed (mostly with middle rhyme in the -third verse, as in #A# 1, 8), forms the sequel to a story of an earl -marrying a very reluctant gypsy maid. When the vagrant who has been made -a lady against nature hears some of her tribe singing at the -castle-gate, the passion for a roving life returns, and she deserts her -noble partner, who pursues her, and, not being able to induce her to -return to him, smites her “lily-white” throat with his sword. This -little romance, retouched and repaired, is printed as No 50 of Songs and -Ballads of the West, now publishing by Baring-Gould and Sheppard. Mr -Baring-Gould has also given me a defective copy of the second part of -‘The Gipsy Countess’ (exhibiting many variations), which he obtained -from an old shoemaker of Tiverton. - -Among the Percy papers there is a set of ballads made over by the -Bishop, which may have been intended for the contemplated extension of -his Reliques. ‘The Gipsie Laddie,’ in eighteen stanzas, and not quite -finished, is one of these. After seven stanzas of #A#, not much altered, -the husband ineffectually pursues the lady, who adopts the gipsy trade, -with her reid cheek stained wi yallow. Seven years pass, during which -the laird has taken another wife. At Yule a wretched carline begs -charity at his gate, who, upon questioning, reveals that she had been a -lady gay, with a comely marrow, but had proved false and ruined herself. - - -#A.# Gypsies sing so sweetly at our lord’s gate as to entice his lady to -come down; as soon as she shows herself, they cast the glamour on her -(so #B-F#, #G b#). She gives herself over to the chief gypsy, Johny Faa -by name, without reserve of any description. Her lord, upon returning -and finding her gone, sets out to recover her, and captures and hangs -fifteen gypsies. (It is extremely likely that this version has lost -several stanzas.) - -Our lord, unnamed in #A#, is Lord Cassilis in #B#, #C#, #F# (so Burns, -and Johnson’s Museum). Cassilis has become Cassle, Castle in #E#, #G#, -Corsefield[39] in #D#, Cashan in Irish #I#, Garrick[40] in American #K#. -The Gypsy Laddie is again Johnie, Jockie, Faa in #B#, #D#, #E#; but -Gipsy Davy in #C# (where Lady Cassilis is twice called Jeanie Faw), and -in American #I a b#; and seems to be called both Johnnie Faw and Gypsie -Geordie in #F#. The lady gives the gypsies the good wheat bread #B#, #E# -(beer and wine, Finlay); they give her (sweetmeats, #C#) ginger, nutmeg, -or both, and she gives them the ring (rings) off her finger (fingers), -#B#, #C#, #E#, #G#, #I#, (and Finlay). - -#B a# has a full story from this point on. The gypsy asks the lady to go -with him, and swears that her lord shall never come near her. The lady -changes her silk mantle for a plaid, and is ready to travel the world -over with the gypsy, #B a# 5, #A# 3, #C# 4, #D# 3, #E# 4, #F# 4, (#B a# -6 is spurious). They wander high and low till they come to an old barn, -and by this time she is weary. The lady begins to find out what she has -undertaken: last night she lay with her lord in a well-made bed, now she -must lie in an old barn, #B a# 7, 8, #A# 4, #C# 6, #D# 7, #F# 5 (reeky -kill #E# 8, on a straw bed #H# 7, in the ash-corner #I# 6). The gypsy -bids her hold her peace, her lord shall never come near her. They wander -high and low till they come to a wan water, and by this time she is -weary. Oft has she ridden that wan water with her lord; now she must set -in her white feet and wade, #B a# 11, #C# 5, #D# 5, 6, #E# 7, (and carry -the gipsie laddie, #B a# 11, badly; follow, #B b#). The lord comes home, -is told that his lady is gone off with the gypsy, and immediately sets -out to bring her back (so all). He finds her at the wan water, #B a# 14; -in Abbey Dale, drinking wi Gipsey Davy, #C# 10; near Strabogie, drinking -wi Gypsie Geordie, #F# 10;[41] by the riverside, #J a# 4; at the Misty -Mount, #K# 5, 6. He asks her tenderly if she will go home, #B a# 15, #E# -15, #F# 12, he will shut her up so securely that no man shall come near, -#B a# 15, #E# 15; he expostulates with her, more or less reproachfully, -#C# 11, #F# 11, #G# 9, #H# 5, #J# 5. She will not go home; as she has -brewed, so will she drink, #B a# 16, #G# 10; she cares not for houses or -lands or babes (baby) #G# 10, #H# 6, #J# 6. But she swears to him that -she is as free of the gypsies as when her mother bare her, #B a# 17, #E# -16. - -Fifteen gypsies are hanged, or lose their lives, #A# 10, #B# 18, #D# 14; -sixteen, all sons of one mother, #C# 12, 13; seven, #F# 13, #G# 11, (cf. -#I# 1).[42] - -#D# 8–11 is ridiculously perverted in the interest of morals: compare #B -a# 17, #E# 16. ‘I swear that my hand shall never go near thee,’ #D# 8, -is transferred to the husband in #I# 5: ‘A hand I’ll neer lay on you’ -(in the way of correction). - -In #G# 4 the lady, in place of exchanging her silk mantle for a plaidie, -pulls off her high-heeled shoes, of Spanish leather, and puts on -Highland brogues. In #I# 7 gypsies take off her high-heeled shoes, and -she puts on Lowland brogues. The high-heeled shoes, to be sure, are not -adapted to following the Gypsy Laddie, but light may perhaps be derived -from #C# 12, where the gypsies ‘drink her stockings and her shoon.’ In -#K# these high-heeled shoes of Spanish leather are wrongly transferred -to Lord Garrick in the copy as delivered, but have been restored to the -lady. - -It is not said (except in the spurious portions of #E#) that the lady -was carried back by her husband, but this may perhaps be inferred from -his hanging the gypsies. In #D# and #K# we are left uncertain as to her -disposition, which is elsewhere, for the most part, to stick to the -gypsy. #J#, a copy of very slight authority, makes the lord marry again -within six months of his wife’s elopement. - -The earliest edition of the ballad styles the gypsy Johny Faa, but gives -no clew to the fair lady. Johnny Faa was a prominent and frequent name -among the gypsies. Johnnë Faw’s right and title as lord and earl of -Little Egypt were recognized by James V in a document under the Privy -Seal, February 15, 1540, and we learn from this paper that, even before -this date, letters had been issued to the king’s officers, enjoining -them to assist Johnnë Faw “in execution of justice upon his company and -folks, conform to the laws of Egypt, and in punishing of all them that -rebels against him.” But in the next year, by an act of the Lords of -Council, June 6, Egyptians are ordered to quit the realm within thirty -days on pain of death, notwithstanding any other letters or privileges -granted them by the king, his grace having discharged the same. The -gypsies were expelled from Scotland by act of Parliament in 1609. -Johnnë, _alias_ Willie, Faa, with three others of the name, remaining -notwithstanding, were sentenced to be hanged, 1611, July 31. In 1615, -January 25, a man was delated for harboring of Egyptians, “specially of -Johnnë Fall, a notorious Egyptian and chieftain of that unhappy sort of -people.” In 1616, July 24, Johnnë Faa, Egyptian, his son, and two others -were condemned to be hanged for contemptuous repairing to the country -and abiding therein. Finally, in 1624, January 24, Captain Johnnë Faa -and seven others were sentenced to be hanged for the same offence, and -on the following 29th Helen Faa, relict of the late Captain Johnnë Faa, -with ten other women, was sentenced to be drowned, but execution was -stayed. Eight men were executed, but the rest, “being either children -and of less-age and women with child or giving suck to children,” were, -after imprisonment, banished the country under pain of death, to be -inflicted without further process should they be found within the -kingdom after a day fixed.[43] The execution of the notorious Egyptian -and chieftain Johnny Faa must have made a considerable impression, and -it is presumable that this ballad may have arisen not long after. -Whether this were so or not, Johnny Faa acquired popular fame, and -became a personage to whom any adventure might plausibly be imputed. It -is said that he has even been foisted into ‘The Douglas Tragedy’ (‘Earl -Brand’), and Scott had a copy of ‘Captain Car’ in which, as in #F#, #G#, -of that ballad, the scene was transferred to Ayrshire, and the -incendiary was called Johnny Faa.[44] - -Toward the end of the last century we begin to hear that the people in -Ayrshire make the wife of the Earl of Cassilis the heroine of the -ballad. This name, under the instruction of Burns, was adopted into the -copy in Johnson’s Museum (which, as to the rest, is Ramsay’s), and in -the index to the second volume of the Museum, 1788, we read, -“neighboring tradition strongly vouches for the truth of this story.” -After this we get the tradition in full, of course with considerable -variety in the details, and sometimes with criticism, sometimes -without.[45] - -The main points in the traditional story are that John, sixth earl of -Cassilis, married, for his first wife, Lady Jean Hamilton, whose -affections were preëngaged to one Sir John Faa, of Dunbar. Several years -after, when Lady Cassilis had become the mother of two children,[46] Sir -John Faa took the opportunity of the earl’s absence from home (while -Lord Cassilis was attending the Westminster Assembly, say some) to -present himself at the castle, accompanied by a band of gypsies and -himself disguised as a gypsy, and induced his old love to elope with -him. But the earl returned in the nick of time, went in pursuit, -captured the whole party, or all but one,[47] who is supposed to tell -the story, and hanged them, on the dule tree, “a most umbrageous plane, -which yet flourishes upon a mound in front of the castle gate.” The -fugitive wife was banished from board and bed, and confined for life in -a tower at Maybole, built for the purpose. “Eight heads carved in stone -below one of the turrets are said to be the effigies of so many of the -gypsies.”[48] The ford by which the lady and her lover crossed the River -Doon is still called The Gypsies’ Steps. - -Several accounts put the abduction at the time when the Earl of Cassilis -was attending the Assembly of Divines at Westminster. This was in -September, 1643. It is now known that Lady Cassilis died in December, -1642. What is much more important, it is known from two letters written -by the earl immediately after her death that nothing could have occurred -of a nature to alienate his affection, for in the one he speaks of her -as a “dear friend” and “beloved yoke-fellow,” and in the other as his -“dear bed-fellow.”[49] - -“Seldom, when stripped of extraneous matter, has tradition been better -supported than it has been in the case of Johnie Faa and the Countess of -Cassilis:” Maidment, Scotish Ballads, 1868, II, 184. In a sense not -intended, this is quite true; most of the traditions which have grown -out of ballads have as slight a foundation as this. The connection of -the ballad with the Cassilis family (as Mr Macmath has suggested to me) -may possibly have arisen from the first line of some copy reading, ‘The -gypsies came to the castle-gate.’ As #F# 1^3 has perverted Earl of -Cassilis to Earl of Castle, so Castle may have been corrupted into -Cassilis.[50] - -Knortz, Schottische Balladen, p. 28, translates freely eight stanzas -from Aytoun. - - * * * * * - - - A - - Ramsay’s Tea-Table Miscellany, vol. iv, 1740. Here from the London - edition of 1763, p. 427. - - 1 - The gypsies came to our good lord’s gate, - And wow but they sang sweetly! - They sang sae sweet and sae very compleat - That down came the fair lady. - - 2 - And she came tripping down the stair, - And a’ her maids before her; - As soon as they saw her well-far’d face, - They coost the glamer oer her. - - 3 - ‘Gae tak frae me this gay mantile, - And bring to me a plaidie; - For if kith and kin and a’ had sworn, - I’ll follow the gypsie laddie. - - 4 - ‘Yestreen I lay in a well-made bed, - And my good lord beside me; - This night I’ll ly in a tenant’s barn, - Whatever shall betide me.’ - - 5 - ‘Come to your bed,’ says Johny Faa, - ‘Oh come to your bed, my deary; - For I vow and I swear, by the hilt of my sword, - That your lord shall nae mair come near ye.’ - - 6 - ‘I’ll go to bed to my Johny Faa, - I’ll go to bed to my deary; - For I vow and I swear, by what past yestreen, - That my lord shall nae mair come near me. - - 7 - ‘I’ll mak a hap to my Johnny Faa, - And I’ll mak a hap to my deary; - And he’s get a’ the coat gaes round, - And my lord shall nae mair come near me.’ - - 8 - And when our lord came hame at een, - And speir’d for his fair lady, - The tane she cry’d, and the other reply’d, - ‘She’s away with the gypsie laddie.’ - - 9 - ‘Gae saddle to me the black, black steed, - Gae saddle and make him ready; - Before that I either eat or sleep, - I’ll gae seek my fair lady.’ - - 10 - And we were fifteen well-made men, - Altho we were nae bonny; - And we were a’ put down for ane, - A fair young wanton lady. - - * * * * * - - - B - - #a.# The Edinburgh Magazine and Literary Miscellany, being a new - series of the Scots Magazine (vol. lxxx of the entire work), - November, 1817, p. 309, communicated by Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, - as taken down from the recitation of a peasant in Galloway. #b.# A - fragment recited by Miss Fanny Walker, of Mount Pleasant, near - Newburgh-on-Tay, as communicated by Mr Alexander Laing, 1873. - - 1 - The gypsies they came to my lord Cassilis’ yett, - And O but they sang bonnie! - They sang sae sweet and sae complete - That down came our fair ladie. - - 2 - She came tripping down the stairs, - And all her maids before her; - As soon as they saw her weel-far’d face, - They coost their glamourie owre her. - - 3 - She gave to them the good wheat bread, - And they gave her the ginger; - But she gave them a far better thing, - The gold ring off her finger. - - 4 - ‘Will ye go with me, my hinny and my heart? - Will ye go with me, my dearie? - And I will swear, by the staff of my spear, - That your lord shall nae mair come near thee.’ - - 5 - ‘Sae take from me my silk mantel, - And bring to me a plaidie, - For I will travel the world owre - Along with the gypsie laddie. - - 6 - ‘I could sail the seas with my Jockie Faa, - I could sail the seas with my dearie; - I could sail the seas with my Jockie Faa, - And with pleasure could drown with my dearie. - - 7 - They wandred high, they wandred low, - They wandred late and early, - Untill they came to an old tenant’s-barn, - And by this time she was weary. - - 8 - ‘Last night I lay in a weel-made bed, - And my noble lord beside me, - And now I must ly in an old tenant’s-barn, - And the black crew glowring owre me.’ - - 9 - ‘O hold your tongue, my hinny and my heart, - O hold your tongue, my dearie, - For I will swear, by the moon and the stars, - That thy lord shall nae mair come near thee.’ - - 10 - They wandred high, they wandred low, - They wandred late and early, - Untill they came to that wan water, - And by this time she was wearie. - - 11 - ‘Aften have I rode that wan water, - And my lord Cassilis beside me, - And now I must set in my white feet and wade, - And carry the gypsie laddie.’ - - 12 - By and by came home this noble lord, - And asking for his ladie, - The one did cry, the other did reply, - ‘She is gone with the gypsie laddie.’ - - 13 - ‘Go saddle to me the black,’ he says, - ‘The brown rides never so speedie, - And I will neither eat nor drink - Till I bring home my ladie.’ - - 14 - He wandred high, he wandred low, - He wandred late and early, - Untill he came to that wan water, - And there he spied his ladie. - - 15 - ‘O wilt thou go home, my hinny and my heart, - O wilt thou go home, my dearie? - And I’ll close thee in a close room, - Where no man shall come near thee.’ - - 16 - ‘I will not go home, my hinny and my heart, - I will not go home, my dearie; - If I have brewn good beer, I will drink of the same, - And my lord shall nae mair come near me. - - 17 - ‘But I will swear, by the moon and the stars, - And the sun that shines so clearly, - That I am as free of the gypsie gang - As the hour my mother did bear me.’ - - 18 - They were fifteen valiant men, - Black, but very bonny, - And they lost all their lives for one, - The Earl of Cassillis’ ladie. - - * * * * * - - - C - - Motherwell’s MS., p. 381, from the recitation of Agnes Lyle, - Kilbarchan, 27 July, 1825. - - 1 - There cam singers to Earl Cassillis’ gates, - And oh, but they sang bonnie! - They sang sae sweet and sae complete, - Till down cam the earl’s lady. - - 2 - She cam tripping down the stair, - And all her maids before her; - As soon as they saw her weel-faurd face, - They coost their glamourye owre her. - - 3 - They gave her o the gude sweetmeats, - The nutmeg and the ginger, - And she gied them a far better thing, - Ten gold rings aff her finger. - - 4 - ‘Tak from me my silken cloak, - And bring me down my plaidie; - For it is gude eneuch,’ she said, - ‘To follow a Gipsy Davy. - - 5 - ‘Yestreen I rode this water deep, - And my gude lord beside me; - But this nicht I maun set in my pretty fit and wade, - A wheen blackguards wading wi me. - - 6 - ‘Yestreen I lay in a fine feather-bed, - And my gude lord beyond me; - But this nicht I maun lye in some cauld tenant’s-barn, - A wheen blackguards waiting on me.’ - - 7 - ‘Come to thy bed, my bonny Jeanie Faw, - Come to thy bed, my dearie, - For I do swear, by the top o my spear, - Thy gude lord’ll nae mair come near thee.’ - - 8 - When her good lord cam hame at nicht, - It was asking for his fair ladye; - One spak slow, and another whisperd out, - ‘She’s awa wi Gipsey Davy!’ - - 9 - ‘Come saddle to me my horse,’ he said, - ‘Come saddle and mak him readie! - For I’ll neither sleep, eat, nor drink - Till I find out my lady.’ - - 10 - They socht her up, they socht her doun, - They socht her thro nations many, - Till at length they found her out in Abbey dale, - Drinking wi Gipsey Davy. - - 11 - ‘Rise, oh rise, my bonnie Jeanie Faw, - Oh rise, and do not tarry! - Is this the thing ye promised to me - When at first I did thee marry?’ - - 12 - They drank her cloak, so did they her goun, - They drank her stockings and her shoon, - And they drank the coat that was nigh to her smock, - And they pawned her pearled apron. - - 13 - They were sixteen clever men, - Suppose they were na bonny; - They are a’ to be hangd on ae tree, - For the stealing o Earl Cassilis’ lady. - - 14 - ‘We are sixteen clever men, - One woman was a’ our mother; - We are a’ to be hanged on ae day, - For the stealing of a wanton lady.’ - - * * * * * - - - D - - Kinloch MSS, V, 331, in the handwriting of John Hill Burton; from a - reciter who came from the vicinity of Craigievar. - - 1 - There came Gyptians to Corse Field yeats, - Black, tho they warna bonny; - They danced so neat and they danced so fine, - Till down came the bonny lady. - - 2 - She came trippin down the stair, - And her nine maidens afore her; - But up and starts him Johny Fa, - And he cast the glamour oer her. - - 3 - ‘Ye’ll take frae me this gay mantle, - And ye’ll gie to me a plaidie; - For I shall follow Johny Fa, - Lat weel or woe betide me.’ - - 4 - They’ve taen frae her her fine mantle, - And they’ve gaen to her a plaidie, - And she’s awa wi Johny Fa, - Whatever may betide her. - - 5 - When they came to a wan water, - I wite it wasna bonny, - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - - 6 - ‘Yestreen I wade this wan water, - And my good lord was wi me; - The night I man cast aff my shoes and wide, - And the black bands widen wi me. - - 7 - ‘Yestreen I lay in a well made bed, - And my good lord lay wi me; - The night I maun ly in a tenant’s barn, - And the black bauds lyin wi me.’ - - 8 - ‘Come to yer bed,’ says Johnie Fa, - ‘Come to yer bed, my dearie, - And I shall swer, by the coat that I wear, - That my hand it shall never go near thee. - - 9 - ‘I will never come to yer bed, - I will never be yer dearie; - For I think I hear his horse’s foot - That was once called my dearie.’ - - 10 - ‘Come to yer bed,’ says Johny Fa, - ‘Come to yer bed, my dearie, - And I shall swear, by the coat that I wear, - That my hand it shall never go oer thee.’ - - 11 - ‘I will niver come to yer bed, - I will niver be yer dearie; - For I think I hear his bridle ring - That was once called my dearie.’ - - * * * * * * - - 12 - When that good lord came hame at night, - He called for his lady; - The one maid said, and the other replied, - ‘She’s aff wi the Gyptian laddy.’ - - 13 - ‘Ye’ll saddle to me the good black steed, - Tho the brown it was never so bonny; - Before that ever I eat or drink, - I shall have back my lady.’ - - * * * * * * - - 14 - ‘Yestreen we were fifteen good armed men; - Tho black, we werena bonny; - The night we a’ ly slain for one, - It’s the Laird o Corse Field’s lady.’ - - * * * * * - - - E - - The Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopedia, by John Mactaggart, 1824, p. - 284. - - 1 - The gypsies they came to Lord Cassle’s yet, - And O but they sang ready! - They sang sae sweet and sae complete - That down came the lord’s fair lady. - - 2 - O she came tripping down the stair, - Wi a’ her maids afore her, - And as soon as they saw her weelfared face - They cuist their glaumry owre her. - - 3 - She gaed to them the gude white bread, - And they gaed to her the ginger, - Then she gaed to them a far brawer thing, - The gowd rings af her finger. - - 4 - Quo she to her maids, There’s my gay mantle, - And bring to me my plaidy, - And tell my lord whan he comes hame - I’m awa wi a gypsie laddie. - - 5 - For her lord he had to the hounting gane, - Awa in the wild green wuddie, - And Jockie Faw, the gypsie king, - Saw him there wi his cheeks sae ruddy. - - 6 - On they mounted, and af they rade, - Ilk gypsie had a cuddy, - And whan through the stincher they did prance - They made the water muddy. - - 7 - Quo she, Aft times this water I hae rade, - Wi many a lord and lady, - But never afore did I it wade - To follow a gypsie laddie. - - 8 - ‘Aft hae I lain in a saft feather-bed, - Wi my gude lord aside me, - But now I maun sleep in an auld reeky kilt, - Alang wi a gypsie laddie.’ - - 9 - Sae whan that the yirl he came hame, - His servants a’ stood ready; - Some took his horse, and some drew his boots, - But gane was his fair lady. - - 10 - And whan he came ben to the parlour-door, - He asked for his fair lady, - But some denied, and ithers some replied, - ‘She’s awa wi a gypsie laddie.’ - - 11 - ‘Then saddle,’ quoth he, ‘my gude black naig, - For the brown is never sae speedy; - As I will neither eat nor drink - Till I see my fair lady. - - 12 - ‘I met wi a cheel as I rade hame, - And thae queer stories said he; - Sir, I saw this day a fairy queen - Fu pack wi a gypsie laddie. - - 13 - ‘I hae been east, and I hae been west, - And in the lang town o Kircadie, - But the bonniest lass that ever I saw - Was following a gypsie laddie.’ - - 14 - Sae his lordship has rade owre hills and dales, - And owre mony a wild hie mountain, - Until that he heard his ain lady say, - ‘Now my lord will be hame frae the hounting.’ - - 15 - ‘Than will yon come hame, my hinnie and my love?’ - Quoth he to his charming dearie, - ‘And I’ll keep ye aye in a braw close room, - Where the gypsies will never can steer ye.’ - - 16 - Said she, ‘I can swear by the sun and the stars, - And the moon whilk shines sae clearie, - That I am as chaste for the gypsie Jockie Faw - As the day my minnie did bear me.’ - - 17 - ‘Gif ye wad swear by the sun,’ said he, - ‘And the moon, till ye wad deave me, - Ay and tho ye wad take a far bigger aith, - My dear, I wadna believe ye. - - 18 - ‘I’ll tak ye hame, and the gypsies I’ll hang, - Ay, I’ll make them girn in a wuddie, - And afterwards I’ll burn Jockie Faw, - Wha fashed himself wi my fair lady. - - 19 - Quoth the gypsies, We’re fifteen weel-made men, - Tho the maist o us be ill bred ay, - Yet it wad be a pity we should a’ hang for ane, - Wha fashed himself wi your fair lady. - - 20 - Quoth the lady, My lord, forgive them a’, - For they nae ill eer did ye, - And gie ten guineas to the chief, Jockie Faw, - For he is a worthy laddie. - - 21 - The lord he hearkened to his fair dame, - And O the gypsies war glad ay! - They danced round and round their merry Jockie Faw, - And roosed the gypsie laddie. - - 22 - Sae the lord rade hame wi his charming spouse, - Owre the hills and the haughs sae whunnie, - And the gypsies slade down by yon bonny burn-side, - To beek themsells there sae sunnie. - - * * * * * - - - F - - The Songs of England and Scotland [by P. Cunningham], London, 1835, - II, 346, taken down, as current in the north of England, from the - recitation of John Martin, the painter. - - 1 - The gypsies came to the Earl o Cassilis’ gate, - And O but they sang bonnie! - They sang sae sweet and sae complete - That down cam our fair ladie. - - 2 - And she cam tripping down the stair, - Wi her twa maids before her; - As soon as they saw her weel-far’d face, - They coost their glamer oer her. - - 3 - ‘O come wi me,’ says Johnnie Faw, - ‘O come wi me, my dearie, - For I vow and swear, by the hilt of my sword, - Your lord shall nae mair come near ye.’ - - 4 - ‘Here, tak frae me this gay mantile, - And gie to me a plaidie; - Tho kith and kin and a’ had sworn, - I’ll follow the gypsie laddie. - - 5 - ‘Yestreen I lay in a weel-made bed, - And my gude lord beside me; - This night I’ll lie in a tenant’s barn, - Whatever shall betide me. - - 6 - ‘Last night I lay in a weel-made bed, - Wi silken hangings round me; - But now I’ll lie in a farmer’s barn, - Wi the gypsies all around me. - - 7 - ‘The first ale-house that we come at, - We’ll hae a pot o brandie; - The next ale-house that we came at, - We’ll drink to gypsie Geordie.’ - - 8 - Now when our lord cam home at een, - He speir’d for his fair lady; - The ane she cried, [the] tither replied, - ‘She’s awa wi the gypsie laddie.’ - - 9 - ‘Gae saddle me the gude black steed; - The bay was neer sae bonnie; - For I will neither eat nor sleep - Till I be wi my lady.’ - - 10 - Then he rode east, and he rode west, - And he rode near Strabogie, - And there he found his ain dear wife, - Drinking wi gypsie Geordie. - - 11 - ‘And what made you leave your houses and land? - Or what made you leave your money? - Or what made you leave your ain wedded lord, - To follow the gypsie laddie? - - 12 - ‘Then come thee hame, my ain dear wife, - Then come thee hame, my hinnie, - And I do swear, by the hilt of my sword, - The gypsies nae mair shall come near thee.’ - - 13 - Then we were seven weel-made men, - But lack! we were nae bonnie, - And we were a’ put down for ane, - For the Earl o Cassilis’ ladie. - - * * * * * - - - G - - #a.# A broadside in the Roxburghe Ballads, III, 685, entered in the - catalogue, doubtfully, as of Newcastle upon Tyne, 1720. #b.# A - recent stall-copy, Catnach, 2 Monmouth Court, Seven Dials. - - 1 - There was seven gypsies all in a gang, - They were brisk and bonny; O - They rode till they came to the Earl of Castle’s house, - And there they sang most sweetly. O - - 2 - The Earl of Castle’s lady came down, - With the waiting-maid beside her; - As soon as her fair face they saw, - They called their grandmother over. - - 3 - They gave to her a nutmeg brown, - And a race of the best ginger; - She gave to them a far better thing, - ’Twas the ring from off her finger. - - 4 - She pulld off her high-heeld shoes, - They was made of Spanish leather; - She put on her highland brog[u]es, - To follow the gypsey loddy. - - 5 - At night when my good lord came home, - Enquiring for his lady, - The waiting-maid made this reply, - ‘She’s following the gypsey loddy.’ - - 6 - ‘Come saddle me my milk-white steed, - Come saddle it so bonny, - As I may go seek my own wedded wife, - That’s following the gypsey loddy. - - 7 - ‘Have you been east? have you been west? - Or have you been brisk and bonny? - Or have you seen a gay lady, - A following the gypsey loddy?’ - - 8 - He rode all that summer’s night, - And part of the next morning; - At length he spy’d his own wedded wife, - She was cold, wet, and weary. - - 9 - ‘Why did you leave your houses and land? - Or why did you leave your money? - Or why did you leave your good wedded lord, - To follow the gypsey loddy?’ - - 10 - ‘O what care I for houses and land? - Or what care I for money? - So as I have brewd, so will I return; - So fare you well, my honey!’ - - 11 - There was seven gypsies in a gang, - And they was brisk and bonny, - And they’re to be hanged all on a row, - For the Earl of Castle’s lady. - - * * * * * - - - H - - Shropshire Lolk-Lore, edited by Charlotte Sophia Burne, p. 550, as - sung May 23, 1885, by gypsy children. - - 1 - There came a gang o gipsies by, - And they was singing so merry, O - Till they gained the heart o my lady gay, - . . . . . . . - - 2 - As soon as the lord he did come in, - Enquired for his lady, O - And some o the sarvants did-a reply, - ‘Her’s away wi the gipsy laddie.’ O - - 3 - ‘O saddle me the bay, and saddle me the grey, - Till I go and sarch for my lady;’ - And some o the sarvants did-a reply, - ‘Her’s away wi the gipsy laddie.’ - - 4 - And he rode on, and he rode off, - Till he came to the gipsies’ tentie, - And there he saw his lady gay, - By the side o the gipsy laddie. - - 5 - ‘Didn’t I leave you houses and land? - And didn’t I leave you money? - Didn’t I leave you three pretty babes - As ever was in yonder green island?’ - - 6 - ‘What care I for houses and land? - And what care I for money? - What do I care for three pretty babes?’ - . . . . . . . - - 7 - ‘The tother night you was on a feather bed, - Now you’re on a straw one,’ - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - - * * * * * - - - I - - From Miss Margaret Reburn, “as sung in County Meath, Ireland, about - 1860.” - - 1 - There come seven gypsies on a day, - Oh, but they sang bonny! O - And they sang so sweet, and they sang so clear, - Down cam the earl’s ladie. O - - 2 - They gave to her the nutmeg, - And they gave to her the ginger; - But she gave to them a far better thing, - The seven gold rings off her fingers. - - 3 - When the earl he did come home, - Enquiring for his ladie, - One of the servants made this reply, - ‘She’s awa with the gypsie lad[d]ie.’ - - 4 - ‘Come saddle for me the brown,’ he said, - ‘For the black was neer so speedy, - And I will travel night and day - Till I find out my ladie. - - 5 - ‘Will you come home, my dear?’ he said, - ‘Oh will you come home, my honey? - And, by the point of my broad sword, - A hand I’ll neer lay on you.’ - - 6 - ‘Last night I lay on a good feather-bed, - And my own wedded lord beside me, - And tonight I’ll lie in the ash-corner, - With the gypsies all around me. - - 7 - ‘They took off my high-heeled shoes, - That were made of Spanish leather, - And I have put on coarse Lowland brogues, - To trip it oer the heather.’ - - 8 - ‘The Earl of Cashan is lying sick; - Not one hair I’m sorry; - I’d rather have a kiss from his fair lady’s lips - Than all his gold and his money.’ - - * * * * * - - - J - - #a.# Written down by Newton Pepoun, as learned from a boy with whom - he went to school in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, about 1845. #b.# - From the singing of Mrs Farmer, born in Maine, as learned by her - daughter, about 1840. - - 1 - There was a gip came oer the land, - He sung so sweet and gaily; - He sung with glee, neath the wild wood tree, - He charmed the great lord’s lady. - Ring a ding a ding go ding go da, - Ring a ding a ding go da dy, - Ring a ding a ding go ding go da, - She’s gone with the gipsey Davy. - - 2 - The lord he came home late that night; - Enquiring for his lady, - ‘She’s gone, she’s gone,’ said his old servant-man, - ‘She’s gone with the gipsey Davy.’ - - 3 - ‘Go saddle me my best black mare; - The grey is neer so speedy; - For I’ll ride all night, and I’ll ride all day, - Till I overtake my lady.’ - - 4 - Riding by the river-side, - The grass was wet and dewy; - Seated with her gipsey lad, - It’s there he spied his lady. - - 5 - ‘Would you forsake your house and home? - Would you forsake your baby? - Would you forsake your own true love, - And go with the gipsey Davy?’ - - 6 - ‘Yes, I’ll forsake my house and home, - Yes, I’ll forsake my baby; - What care I for my true love? - I love the gipsey Davy.’ - - 7 - The great lord he rode home that night, - He took good care of his baby, - And ere six months had passed away - He married another lady. - - * * * * * - - - K - - #a.# From Mrs Helena Titus Brown of New York. #b.# From Miss Emma A. - Clinch of New York. Derived, 1820, or a little later, #a# directly, - #b# indirectly, from the singing of Miss Phœbe Wood, Huntington, - Long Island, and perhaps learned from English soldiers there - stationed during the Revolutionary war. - - * * * * * * - - 1 - ‘Go bring me down my high-heeled shoes, - Made of the Spanish leather, - And I’ll take off my low-heeled shoes, - And away we’ll go together.’ - Lumpy dumpy linky dinky day - Lumpy dumpy linky dinky daddy - - 2 - They brought her down her high-heeled shoes, - Made of the Spanish leather, - And she took off her low-heeled shoes, - And away they went together. - - 3 - And when Lord Garrick he got there, - Inquiring for his lady, - Then up steps his best friend: - ‘She’s gone with a gipsy laddie.’ - - 4 - ‘Go saddle me my bonny brown, - For the grey is not so speedy, - And away we’ll go to the Misty Mount, - And overtake my lady.’ - - 5 - They saddled him his bonny brown, - For the grey was not so speedy, - And away they went to the Misty Mount, - And overtook his lady. - - 6 - And when Lord Garrick he got there, - ’Twas in the morning early, - And there he found his lady fair, - And she was wet and weary. - - 7 - ‘And it’s fare you well, my dearest dear, - And it’s fare you well for ever, - And if you don’t go with me now, - Don’t let me see you never.’ - - * * * * * - -#A.# - - _Variations of Finlay_, II, 39 ff. - - _Inserted after 2:_ - - ‘O come with me,’ says Johnie Faw, - ‘O come with me, my dearie; - For I vow and I swear, by the hilt of my sword, - That your lord shall nae mair come near ye.’ - - Then she gied them the beer and the wine, - And they gied her the ginger; - But she gied them a far better thing, - The goud ring aff her finger. - - 4^2. Wi my. - - 4^3. But this. - - 6^3. For I vow and I swear, by the fan in my hand. - - 7^2. _And wanting._ - - 9^2. _Otherwise_: The brown was neer sae ready. - - 10^3. but ane. - - 10^4. For a. - - _Herd has in 10^{3,4}_ but ane, For. _Pinkerton follows Herd, with - changes of his own in 1, 10, and the omission of 7. The copy in - Johnson’s Museum is Herd’s, with changes: in 10^{3,4},_ are a’ - put down for ane, The Earl of Cassilis’ lady. _Ritson follows - Ramsay, except that in 6^2 he has_ And I’ll, _found in Herd; - perhaps also in some edition of the Tea-Table Miscellany._ - -#B. a.# - - “Some lines have been omitted on account of their indelicacy:” p. - 308 b. _The reference is no doubt to a stanza corresponding to - #A# 7, or perhaps to a passage like 5–7._ - -#b.# - - _Only 1, 2, 5, 10–13, are preserved._ - - 1^1. gipsies cam to oor ha-door. - - 1^4. doon stairs cam oor gay leddie. - - 2^2. afore. - - 2^3. An whan they. - - 2^4. cuist the glamour. - - 5^1. my gay mantle. - - 5^2. me my. - - 5^3. For I maun leave my guid lord at hame. - - 5^4. An follow the. - - 10^1. They travelld east, they travelld wast. - - 10^2. They travelld. - - 10^3. to the. - - 10^4. By that time she. - - 11^1. I crost this. - - 11^2. An my guid man. - - 11^3. Noo I maun put. - - 11^4. An follow. - - 12^1. Whan her guid lord cam hame at nicht. - - 12^2. He spierd for his gay. - - 12^3. The tane she cried an the ither replied. - - 12^4. She’s aff. - - 13^1. the brown, he said. - - 13^2. The black neer rides. - - 13^3. For I. - - 13^4. Till I’ve brought back. - -#C.# - - 4^1. _Originally_ plaid _was written for_ cloak; _evidently by - accidental anticipation._ - - 5^3. fit _altered perhaps from_ fut; _printed_ fit. - - _Motherwell has made several verbal changes in printing, and has - inserted three stanzas to fill out the ballad._ - - _After 3_, - - ‘Come with me, my bonnie Jeanie Faw, - O come with me, my dearie; - For I do swear, by the head o my spear, - Thy gude lord’ll nae mair come near thee.’ - - _After 7_, - - ‘I’ll go to bed,’ the lady she said, - ‘I’ll go to bed to my dearie; - For I do swear, by the fan in my hand, - That my lord shall nae mair come near me. - - ‘I’ll mak a hap,’ the lady she said, - ‘I’ll mak a hap to my dearie, - And he’s get a’ this petticoat gaes round, - And my lord shall nae mair come near me.’ - -#E.# - - 12, 13. _After 9 of #A#, says Finlay, some copies insert_: - - And he’s rode east, and he’s rode west, - Till he came near Kirkaldy; - There he met a packman-lad, - And speir’d for his fair lady. - - ‘O cam ye east? or cam ye west? - Or cam ye through Kirkaldy? - O saw na ye a bonny lass, - Following the gypsie laddie?’ - - ‘I cam na east, I cam na west, - Nor cam I through Kirkaldy; - But the bonniest lass that eer I saw - Was following the gypsie laddie!’ - - _See also #G# 7._ - -#G. a.# - - 4^3. br oges. - -#b.# - - _In stanzas of eight lines._ - - 1^1. There were. - - 2^2. With her. - - 2^3. fair _wanting_. - - 2^4. They cast the glamer over her. - - 3^2. Which was of the belinger. - - 3^4. ’Twas _wanting_. - - 4^2. They were. - - 4^3. brogues. - - 4^4. laddy, _and always_. - - 6^1. me _wanting_. - - 6^3. That I may go and seek. - - 6^4. Who’s. - - 7^4. Following a. - - 8^1. all the summer. - - 8^3. espied. - - 8^4. and wet. - - 9^1. O why. - - 9^3. your own. - - 10^1. lands. - - 10^3. will I remain. - - 11^1. There were. - - 11^2. They were. - - 11^3. all in. - -#H.# - - 2^1. the lawyer did. - -#J. b.# - - 1. - The gypsy came tripping over the lea, - The gypsy he sang boldly; - He sang till he made the merry woods ring, - And he charmed the heart of the lady. - - _Order_: 1, 5, 6, 2, 3. - - 2 (_as 4_). - The lord came home that self-same night, - Inquired for his lady; - The merry maid made him this reply, - ‘She’s gone with the gypsy Davy.’ - - 3 (_as 5_). - ‘O bring me out the blackest steed; - The brown one’s not so speedy; - I’ll ride all day, and I’ll ride all night, - Till I overtake my lady.’ - - 4 (_as 7_). - He rode along by the river-side, - The water was black and rily, - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . - - 5 (_as 2_). - - 5^{1,2}. Will you. - - 5^3. Will you forsake your own wedded lord. - - 6 (_as 3_). - - 6^2. And I’ll. - - 6^3. I will forsake my own wedded lord. - - 6^4. And go with the gypsy Davy. - - 7. _Wanting._ - - #b# 6. I lay last night. _The rest wanting._ - - #b# 8. _Puts the question whether she will go back._ - - #b# 9. I lay last night. _The rest wanting._ - -#K. a.# - - _The order as delivered was 3, 1, 2,_ etc., _and the_ high-heeled - shoes _were attributed to Lord Garrick._ Him, his, he _in 2 have - been changed to_ her, her, she. _But a further change should be - made for sense,_ in _1, 2: the lady should take off her - high-heeled shoes and put on her low-heeled shoes; see #G# 4, I - 8._ - - _Burden given also_: - - Lal dee dumpy dinky diddle dah day - - #b.# _Burden_: - - Rump a dump a dink a dink a day - Rump a dump a dink a dink a dady. - - _Or_, - - Rink a dink a dink a dink a day - Rink a dink a dink a dink a day dee. - - _Order as in_ #a#. - - 1^1. fetch me. - - 1^3. And take away. - - 2^1. fetched him down his. - - 2^3. And they took away his. - - 3^1. got home. - - 3^4. with the. - - 4^1. Go fetch me out. - - 4^3. And we’ll away to. - - 4^4. To _for_ And. - - 5^1. They fetched him out. - - 5^4. To overtake my. - - 6^3. lady bright. - - 7^3. you won’t. - - - - - 201 - - BESSY BELL AND MARY GRAY - - #a.# Sharpe’s Ballad Book, 1823, p. 62. #b.# Lyle’s Ancient Ballads - and Songs, 1827, p. 160, “collated from the singing of two aged - persons, one of them a native of Perthshire.” #c.# Scott’s - Minstrelsy, 1833, I, 45, two stanzas. - - -A squib on the birth of the Chevalier St George, beginning - - Bessy Bell and Mary Grey, - Those famous bonny lasses, - -shows that this little ballad, or song, was very well known in the last -years of the seventeenth century.[51] The first stanza was made by -Ramsay the beginning of a song of his own, and stands thus in Ramsay’s -Poems, Edinburgh, 1721, p. 80:[52] - - O Bessy Bell and Mary Gray, - They are twa bonny lasses; - They biggd a bower on yon Burn-brae, - And theekd it oer wi rashes. - -Cunningham, Songs of Scotland, III, 60, gives, as recited to him by Sir -Walter Scott, four stanzas which are simply #a# with ‘Lyndoch brae’ -substituted in the third for Sharpe’s ‘Stronach haugh.’ ‘Dranoch haugh,’ -nearly as in #b#, is, as will presently appear, the right reading. -Sharpe’s third stanza, with the absurd variation of _royal_ kin, occurs -in a letter of his of the date November 25, 1811 (Letters, ed. -Allardyce, I, 504), and is printed in the Musical Museum, IV, *203, ed. -1853. - -In the course of a series of letters concerning the ballad in The -Scotsman (newspaper), August 30 to September 8, 1886, several verses are -cited with trivial variations from the texts here given. - -‘Bessy Bell’ was made into this nursery-song in England (Halliwell’s -Nursery Rhymes of England, 1874, p. 246, No 484): - - Bessy Bell and Mary Gray, - They were two bonny lasses; - They built their house upon the lea, - And covered it with rashes. - - Bessy kept the garden-gate, - And Mary kept the pantry; - Bessy always had to wait, - While Mary lived in plenty. - -The most important document relating to Bessy Bell and Mary Gray is a -letter written June 21, 1781, by Major Barry, then proprietor of -Lednock, and printed in the Transactions of the Society of the -Antiquaries of Scotland, II, 108, 1822.[53] - -“When I came first to Lednock,” says Major Barry, “I was shewn in a part -of my ground (called the Dranoch-haugh) an heap of stones almost covered -with briers, thorns and fern, which they assured me was the burial place -of Bessie Bell and Mary Gray. - -“The tradition of the country relating to these ladys is, that Mary -Gray’s father was laird of Lednock and Bessie Bell’s of Kinvaid, a place -in this neighbourhood; that they were both very handsome, and an -intimate friendship subsisted between them; that while Miss Bell was on -a visit to Miss Gray, the plague broke out, in the year 1666; in order -to avoid which they built themselves a bower about three quarters of a -mile west from Lednock House, in a very retired and romantic place -called Burn-braes, on the side of Brauchie-burn. Here they lived for -some time; but the plague raging with great fury, they caught the -infection, it is said, from a young gentleman who was in love with them -both. He used to bring them their provision. They died in this bower, -and were buried in the Dranoch-haugh, at the foot of a brae of the same -name, and near to the bank of the river Almond. The burial-place lies -about half a mile west from the present house of Lednock.[54] - -“I have removed all the rubbish from this little spot of classic ground, -inclosed it with a wall, planted it round with flowering shrubs, made up -the grave double, and fixed a stone in the wall, on which is engraved -the names of Bessie Bell and Mary [Gray].” - -The estate passed by purchase to Thomas Graham, afterwards Lord -Lynedoch, who replaced the wall, which had become dilapidated in the -course of half a century, with a stone parapet and iron railing, and -covered the grave with a slab inscribed, “They lived, they loved, they -died.” This slab is now hidden under a cairn of stones raised by -successive pilgrims. - -Major Barry’s date of 1666 should be put back twenty years. Perth and -the neighborhood (Lednock is seven miles distant) were fearfully ravaged -by the plague in 1645 and a year or two following. Three thousand people -are said to have perished. Scotland escaped the pestilence of -1665–6.[55] - -The young gentleman who is said to have brought food to Bessy and Mary -is sometimes described as the lover of both, sometimes as the lover of -one of the pair. Pennant says that the ballad was “composed by a lover -deeply stricken with the charms of both.” In the course of tradition, -the lover is said to have perished with the young women, which we might -expect to happen if he brought the contagion to the bower. But this -lover, who ought to have had his place in the song, appears only in -tradition, and his reality may be called in question. It is not rational -that the young women should seclude themselves to avoid the pest and -then take the risk of the visits of a person from the seat of the -infection.[56] To be sure it may be doubted, notwithstanding the tenor -of the ballad, whether the retirement of these young ladies was -voluntary, or at least whether they had not taken the plague before they -removed to their bower. In that case the risk would have been for the -lover, and would have been no more than he might naturally assume.[57] - - * * * * * - - 1 - O Bessie Bell and Mary Gray, - They war twa bonnie lasses; - They bigget a bower on yon burn-brae, - And theekit it oer wi rashes. - - 2 - They theekit it oer wi rashes green, - They theekit it oer wi heather; - But the pest cam frae the burrows-town, - And slew them baith thegither. - - 3 - They thought to lye in Methven kirk-yard, - Amang their noble kin; - But they maun lye in Stronach haugh, - To biek forenent the sin. - - 4 - And Bessy Bell and Mary Gray, - They war twa bonnie lasses; - They biggit a bower on yon burn-brae, - And theekit it oer wi rashes. - - * * * * * - -#a.# - - _In eight-line stanzas._ - -#b.# - - 1^3. house _for_ bower. - - 2^1. wi birk and brume. - - 2^3. Till the: frae the neibrin. - - 2^4. An streekit. - - 3^1. They were na buried in. - - 3^2. Amang the rest o their kin. - - 3^3. they were buried by Dornoch-haugh. - - 3^4. On the bent before. - - 4^1. Sing _for_ And. - - 4^3. Wha _for_ They. - - 4^4. wi thrashes. - -#c.# - - 1^1. O _wanting._ - - 2. _Wanting._ - - 3^1. They wadna rest in Methvin kirk. - - 3^2. gentle kin. - - 3^3. But they wad lie in Lednoch braes. - - 3^4. beek against. - - 4. _Wanting._ - - - - - 202 - - THE BATTLE OF PHILIPHAUGH - - Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, III, 153, 1803, II, 166, 1833; - “preserved by tradition in Selkirkshire.” - - -After six brilliant victories, at Tipper-muir, Aberdeen, Inverlochy, -Auldearn, Alford, Kilsyth, gained in less than a year, September 1, -1644–August 15, 1645, Montrose was surprised by David Leslie at -Philiphaugh, September 13 following, and his army cut to pieces or -dispersed. This army, consisting of only five hundred Irish foot and -twelve hundred Scottish horse, the last all gentry, was lying at -Philiphaugh, a meadow on the west side of the Ettrick, and at Selkirk, -on and above the opposite bank. Leslie came down from the north with -four thousand cavalry and some infantry, was less than four miles from -Selkirk the night of the twelfth, and on the morrow, favored by a heavy -mist, had advanced to about half a mile’s distance before his approach -was reported. A hundred and fifty of Montrose’s horse received and -repulsed two charges of greatly superior numbers; the rest stood off and -presently took to flight. The foot remained firm. Two thousand of -Leslie’s horse crossed the river and got into Montrose’s rear, and made -resistance vain. Montrose and a few friends hewed their way through the -enemy.[58] - -1. Harehead wood is at the western end of the plain of Philiphaugh. - -2, 3. Leslie had come up from Berwick along the eastern coast as far as -Tranent, and then suddenly turned south. His numbers are put too low, -and Montrose’s, in 10, about nine times too high. - -4. The Shaw burn is a small stream that flows into the Ettrick from the -south, a little north of the town. - -5. Lingly burn falls into the Ettrick from the north, a little above the -Shaw burn. - -The ‘aged father,’ 6, to accept a tradition reported by Sir Walter -Scott, was one “Brydone, ancestor to several families in the parish of -Ettrick.” This is probably the personage elsewhere called Will, upon -whose advice Leslie (according to tradition again) “sent a strong body -of horse over a dip in the bank that separated his advanced guard from -the river Ettrick, and still known as “Will’s Nick,” with instructions -to follow their guide up Netley burn, wheel to the left round Linglee -hill, and then fall upon the flank of Montrose’s army at -Philiphaugh.”[59] It does not appear that Leslie adopted that portion of -the aged father’s recommendation which is conveyed in stanzas 11, 12, -notwithstanding the venerable man’s unusual experience, which, as Scott -points out, extended from Solway Moss, 1542, to Dunbar, where, in 1650, -five years after Philiphaugh, Leslie was defeated by Cromwell. - -Other pieces of popular verse relating, in part or wholly, to Montrose -are ‘The Gallant Grahams,’ Roxburghe collection, III, 380, Douce, III, -39 back, Ebsworth, Roxburghe Ballads, VI, 587, Scott’s Minstrelsy, III, -371, 1803, II, 183, 1833; ‘The Haughs o Cromdale,’ Ritson’s Scotish -Songs, 1794, II, 40, Johnson’s Museum, No 488, Maidment’s Scotish -Ballads and Songs, 1868, I, 299, Hogg’s Jacobite Relics, I, 157 ff; ‘The -Battle of Alford,’ Laing’s Thistle of Scotland, p. 68. - - * * * * * - - 1 - On Philiphaugh a fray began, - At Hairheadwood it ended; - The Scots outoer the Græmes they ran, - Sae merrily they bended. - - 2 - Sir David frae the Border came, - Wi heart an hand came he; - Wi him three thousand bonny Scots, - To bear him company. - - 3 - Wi him three thousand valiant men, - A noble sight to see! - A cloud o mist them weel conceald, - As close as eer might be. - - 4 - When they came to the Shaw burn, - Said he, Sae weel we frame, - I think it is convenient - That we should sing a psalm. - - 5 - When they came to the Lingly burn, - As daylight did appear, - They spy’d an aged father, - And he did draw them near. - - 6 - ‘Come hither, aged father,’ - Sir David he did cry, - ‘And tell me where Montrose lies, - With all his great army.’ - - 7 - ‘But first you must come tell to me, - If friends or foes you be; - I fear you are Montrose’s men, - Come frae the north country.’ - - 8 - ‘No, we are nane o Montrose’s men, - Nor eer intend to be; - I am Sir David Lesly, - That’s speaking unto thee.’ - - 9 - ‘If you’re Sir David Lesly, - As I think weel ye be, - I am sorry ye hae brought so few - Into your company. - - 10 - ‘There’s fifteen thousand armed men - Encamped on yon lee; - Ye’ll never be a bite to them, - For aught that I can see. - - 11 - ‘But halve your men in equal parts, - Your purpose to fulfill; - Let ae half keep the - water-side, - The rest gae round the hill. - - 12 - ‘Your nether party fire must, - Then beat a flying drum; - And then they’ll think the day’s their ain, - And frae the trench they’ll come. - - 13 - ‘Then, those that are behind them maun - Gie shot, baith grit and sma; - And so, between your armies twa, - Ye may make them to fa.’ - - 14 - ‘O were ye ever a soldier?’ - Sir David Lesly said; - ‘O yes; I was at Solway Flow, - Where we were all betrayd. - - 15 - ‘Again I was at curst Dunbar, - And was a prisner taen, - And many weary night and day - In prison I hae lien.’ - - 16 - ‘If ye will lead these men aright, - Rewarded shall ye be; - But, if that ye a traitor prove, - I’ll hang thee on a tree.’ - - 17 - ‘Sir, I will not a traitor prove; - Montrose has plunderd me; - I’ll do my best to banish him - Away frae this country.’ - - 18 - He halvd his men in equal parts, - His purpose to fulfill; - The one part kept the water-side, - The other gaed round the hill. - - 19 - The nether party fired brisk, - Then turnd and seemd to rin; - And then they a’ came frae the trench, - And cry’d, The day’s our ain! - - 20 - The rest then ran into the trench, - And loosd their cannons a’: - And thus, between his armies twa, - He made them fast to fa. - - 21 - Now let us a’ for Lesly pray, - And his brave company, - For they hae vanquishd great Montrose, - Our cruel enemy. - - * * * * * - - 4^4. _Var._ That we should take a dram: _Scott. Probably a jocose - suggestion._ - - - - - 203 - - THE BARON OF BRACKLEY - - #A. a.# ‘The Baronne of Braikley,’ [Alexander Laing’s] Scarce Ancient - Ballads, 1822, p. 9. #b.# ‘The Baron of Braikley,’ Buchan’s - Gleanings, 1825, p. 68. #c.# ‘The Barrone of Brackley,’ The New - Deeside Guide, by James Brown (pseudonym for Joseph Robertson), - Aberdeen, [1832[60]], p. 46. - - #B.# ‘The Baron of Brackley,’ Kinloch MSS, V, 379; in the handwriting - of John Hill Burton. - - #C. a.# ‘The Baron of Braikly,’ Jamieson-Brown MS., Appendix, p. viii. - #b.# ‘The Baron of Brackley,’ Jamieson’s Popular Ballads, 1806, I, - 102. - - #D.# ‘The Baron of Breachell,’ Skene MS., p. 110. - - -First printed by Jamieson (#C b#) in 1806, who says: “For the copy of -the ballad here given I am indebted to Mrs Brown. I have also collated -it with another, less perfect, but not materially different, so far as -it goes, with which I was favored by the editor of the Border -Minstrelsy, who took it down from the recitation of two ladies, -great-grandchildren of Farquharson of Inverey; so that the ballad, and -the notices that accompany it, are given upon the authority of a Gordon -[Anne Gordon, Mrs Brown] and a Farquharson.”[61] #A c# is also a -compounded copy: see the notes. - -The text in The Thistle of Scotland, p. 46, is #C b#. That which is -cited in part in the Fourth Report on Historical Manuscripts, 1874, p. -534, is #A c#. The ballad is rewritten by Allan Cunningham, Songs of -Scotland, II, 208. - -#A.# Inverey comes before day to Brackley’s gate, and calls to him to -open and have his blood spilled. Brackley asks over the wall whether the -people below are gentlemen or hired gallows-birds; if gentlemen, they -may come in and eat and drink; in the other case, they may go on to the -Lowlands and steal cattle. His wife urges him to get up; the men are -nothing but hired gallows-birds. Brackley will go out to meet Inverey -(both know it is he, 12, 19), but these same gallows-birds will prove -themselves men. His wife derisively calls on her maids to bring their -distaffs; if Brackley is not man enough to protect his cattle, she will -drive off the robbers with her women. Brackley says he will go out, but -he shall never come in. He arms and sallies forth, attended by his -brother William, his uncle, and his cousin; but presently bids his -brother turn back because he is a bridegroom. William refuses, and in -turn, but equally to no effect, urges Brackley to turn back for his -wife’s and his son’s sake. The Gordons are but four against four hundred -of Inverey’s, and are all killed. Brackley’s wife, so far from tearing -her hair, braids it, welcomes Inverey, and makes him a feast. The son, -on the nurse’s knee, vows to be revenged if he lives to be a man. (Cf. -‘Johnie Armstrong,’ III, 367, where this should have been noted.) - -The other versions agree with #A a# in the material points. Inverey’s -numbers are diminished. In #B# 10, #C# 11, Brackley has only his brother -with him, meaning, perhaps, when he leaves his house. The fight was not -simply at the gates, but was extended over a considerable distance (#A# -33, #B# 11), and other men joined the Gordons in the course of it. In -#B# 12 we learn that the miller’s four sons (#D# 10, the miller and his -three sons) were killed with the Gordons (and William Gordon’s wife, or -bride, in #A# 25, is ‘bonnie Jean, the maid o the mill’). In #B# 15, #D# -12, Craigevar comes up with a party, and might have saved Brackley’s -life had he been there an hour sooner. In #A a#, #b#, #C#, #D#, -Brackley’s wife is Peggy (Peggy Dann, wrongly, #D# 14, 15); in #B# 19 -(wrongly) Catharine Fraser. #D# makes Catharine the wife of Gordon of -Glenmuick (Alexander Gordon, #A a# 35), who rives her hair, as -Brackley’s wife does not (14, 15, 18, 19). In #C#, Peggy Gordon, besides -feasting Inverey, keeps him till morning, and then shows him a road by -which he may go safely home. #C b# adds, for poetical justice, that -Inverey at once let this haggard down the wind. - -This affray occurred in September, 1666. The account of it given by the -Gordons (the son of the murdered laird and the Marquis of Huntly) was -that John Gordon of Brackley, having poinded cattle belonging to John -Farquharson of Inverey, or his followers, Inverey “convoked his people, -to revenge himself on Brackley for putting the law in execution; that he -came to the house of Brackley, and required the laird to restore his -cattle which had been poinded; and that, although the laird gave a fair -answer, yet the Farquharsons, with the view of drawing him out of his -house, drove away not only the poinded cattle but also Brackley’s own -cattle, and when the latter was thus forced to come out of his house, -the Farquharsons fell on him and murdered him and his brother.” - -A memorandum for John Farquharson of Inverey and others, 24 January, -1677, “sets forth that John Gordon of Brackley, having bought from the -sheriff of Aberdeen the fines exigible from Inverey and others for -killing of black-fish, the said Brackley made friendly arrangements with -others, but declined to settle with Inverey; whereupon the latter, being -on his way to the market at Tullich,[62] sent Mr John Ferguson, minister -at Glenmuick, John McHardy of Crathie, a notary, and Duncan Erskine, -portioner of Invergelder, to the laird of Brackley, with the view of -representing to him that Inverey and his tenants were willing to settle -their fines on the same terms as their neighbors. These proposals were -received by Brackley with contempt, and during the time of the communing -he gathered his friends and attacked Inverey, and having ‘loused -severall shotts’ against Inverey’s party, the return shots of the latter -were in self-defence. The result was that the laird of Brackley, with -his brother William and their cousin James Gordon in Cults, were killed -on the one side, and on the other Robert McWilliam in Inverey, John -McKenzie, sometime there, and Malcom Gordon the elder.” The convocation -of Inverey’s friends is accounted for in the same document by the fact -that Inverey was captain of the watch for the time; that he and his -ancestors had been used to go to the market with men to guard it; and -that it is the custom of the country for people who are going to the -market to join any numerous company that may be going the same way, -either for their own security or out of “kindness for the persons with -whom they go,” and also the custom of that mountainous country to go -with arms, especially at markets. (Abstract, by Dr. John Stuart, of a -MS. of Col. James Farquharson of Invercauld, Historical MSS Commission, -Fourth Report, p. 534). - -Another account, agreeing in all important points with the last, is -given in a history of the family of Macintosh.[63] It will be borne in -mind that Inverey belonged to this clan, and that acts of his would -therefore be put in a favorable light. Brackley had seized the horses of -some of Inverey’s people on account of fines alleged to be due by them -for taking salmon in the Dee out of season. Inverey represented to -Brackley that the sufferers by this proceeding were men who had incurred -no penalty, and offered, if the horses should be restored, to deliver -the guilty parties for punishment. Brackley would not return the horses -on these terms, and Inverey then proposed that the matter in dispute -should be left to friends. While Brackley was considering what to do, -Alexander Gordon of Aberfeldy came to offer his services, with a body of -armed men, and Brackley, now feeling himself strong, rejected the -suggestion of a peaceful solution, and set out to attack Inverey. When a -collision was impending, Inverey at first drew back, begging Brackley to -desist from violence, which only made Brackley and Aberfeldy the keener. -Two of Inverey’s followers were slain; and then Inverey and his men, in -self-defence, turned on their assailants, and killed Gordon of Brackley, -his brother William, and James Gordon of Cults. - -The Gordons, this account further says, began a prosecution of Inverey -and his party before the Court of Justiciary. Inverey had recourse to -Macintosh, his chief, who exerted himself so effectually in behalf of -his kinsman that when the case was called no plaintiff appeared. -Nevertheless Dr John Stuart (Historical MSS, as above) produces a -warrant “for apprehending John Farquharson of Inverey and others his -followers, who had been outlawed for not compearing to answer at their -trial, and had subsequently continued for many years in their outlawry, -associating with themselves a company of thieves, murderers, and -sorners; therefore empowering James Innes, Serjeant, and Corporal -Radnoch, commanding a party of troops at Kincardine O’Neill, to -apprehend the said John Farquharson and his accomplices.” From this -warrant Dr Stuart considers that we may infer that Inverey was the -aggressor in the affray with Brackley. But there is nothing to identify -the case, and the date of the warrant is February 12, 1685, nearly -twenty years from the affair which we are occupied with, during which -space, unless he were of an unusually peaceable habit, Inverey might -have had several broils on his hands. - -Gordon of Brackley, as reported by Mrs Brown, from what she may have -heard in her girlhood, a hundred years after his tragical end, was “a -man universally esteemed.”[64] “Farquharson of Inverey,” says Jamieson, -without giving his authority, “a renowned freebooter on Deeside, was his -relation, and in habits of friendly intercourse with him. Farquharson -was fierce, daring, and active, exhibiting all the worst characteristics -of a freebooter, with nothing of that blunt and partially just and manly -generosity which were then not uncommonly met with among that -description of men. The common people supposed him (as they did Dundee, -and others of the same cast who were remarkable for their fortunate -intrepidity and miraculous escapes) to be a warlock, and proof against -steel and lead. He is said to have been buried on the north side of a -hill, which the sun could never shine upon, etc.” All which, as far as -appears, is merely the tradition of Jamieson’s day, and will be taken at -different values by different readers. - -The ‘Peggy’ of #A a#, #b#, #C#, #D# was Margaret Burnet, daughter of Sir -Thomas Burnet of Leys, and own cousin of Gilbert Burnet, Bishop of -Salisbury.[65] This lady married Gordon of Brackley against her friends’ -wishes, or without their consent, and so probably made a love-match. -After Brackley’s death she married one James Leslie, Doctor of -Medicine,[66] a fact which will suffice to offset the unconfirmed -scandal of the ballad. - -It is now to be noted that a baron of Brackley had been murdered by -caterans towards the end of the preceding century. “The Clanchattan, -who, of all that faction, most eagerly endeavored to revenge the Earl of -Murray his death, assembling their forces under Angus Donald Williamson -his conduct, entered Strathdee and Glenmuick, where they invaded the -Earl of Huntly his lands, and killed four of the surname of Gordon, -Henry Gordon of the Knock, Alexander Gordon of Teldow, Thomas Gordon of -Blaircharrish, and the old baron of Breaghly, whose death and manner -thereof was so much the more lamented because he was very aged, and much -given to hospitality, and slain under trust. He was killed by them in -his own house after he had made them good cheer, without suspecting or -expecting any such reckoning for his kindly entertainment; which -happened the first day of November, 1592. In revenge whereof the Earl of -Huntly assembled some of his forces and made an expedition into Pettie,” -etc. (See No 183, III, 456.) So writes Sir Robert Gordon, before -1630.[67] - -Upon comparing Sir Robert Gordon’s description of the old baron of -Brackley who was murdered in 1592 with what is said of the baron in the -ballad (#A#), there is a likeness for which there is no historical -authority in the instance of the baron of 1666. The ballad intimates the -hospitality which is emphasized by Sir Robert Gordon, and also the -baron’s unconsciousness of his having any foe to dread. (“An honest aged -man,” says Spotiswood, “against whom they could pretend no quarrel.”) -Other details are not pertinent to the elder baron, but belong -demonstrably to the Brackley who had a quarrel with Farquharson. - -Of the two, the older Brackley would have a better chance of being -celebrated in a ballad. He was an aged and innocent man, slain while -dispensing habitual hospitality, “slain under trust.” The younger -Brackley treated Inverey’s people harshly, there was an encounter, -Brackley was killed, and others on both sides. His friends may have -mourned for him, but there was no call for the feeling expressed in the -ballad; that would be more naturally excited by the death of the kindly -old man, ‘who basely was slain.’ On the whole it may be surmised that -two occurrences, or even two ballads, have been blended, and some slight -items of corroborative evidence may favor this conclusion. - -‘The Gordons may mourn him and bann Inverey,’ says #B# 14. It appears -that the Earl of Aboyne sided with Inverey, though the Marquis of Huntly -supported the laird of Brackley’s son;[68] whereas all the Gordons would -have mourned the older baron, and none would have maintained the -caterans who slew him. - -In the affray with the Farquharsons in 1666 there were killed, of the -Gordons, besides Brackley, his brother William and his cousin James -Gordon of Cults. The Gordons killed by the Clanchattan in 1592 were -Brackley, Henry Gordon of the Knock, an Alexander Gordon (also a -Thomas). According to #A# 34, 35, the Gordons killed were Brackley and -his brother William, his cousin James of the Knox [Knocks, Knock], and -his uncle Alexander Gordon; according to #B# 12, 13, there were killed, -besides Brackley, “Harry Gordon and Harry of the Knock” (one and the -same person), Brackley’s brother, as we see from 10; in #D# 10, the -killed are Brackley, and Sandy Gordon o the Knock, called Peter in 21. A -Gordon of the Knock is named as killed in #A#, #B#, #D#, and it is Henry -Gordon in #B#; an Alexander Gordon is named in #A#, #B#. A William -Gordon and a James (of the Knocks, not of the Cults) are named in #A#. -On the whole, the names sort much better with the earlier story. - -In #B# 15 we are told that if Craigievar had come up an hour sooner, -Brackley had not been slain. Upon this Dr Joseph Robertson (who assigned -the ballad to 1592) has observed, Kinloch MSS, VI, 24, that Craigievar -passed to a branch of the family of Forbes in 1625; so that Craigievar -would have done nothing to save Brackley in 1666, the Gordons and the -Forbeses having long been at feud. To make sense of this stanza we must -suppose an earlier date than 1625. - -The fourth edition of Spotiswood’s history, printed in 1677 (about forty -years after the author’s death), calls Brackley of 1592 _John_ Gordon. -Further, there is this anonymous marginal note, not found in the -preceding editions: “I have read in a MS. called the Acts of the -Gordons, that Glenmuick, Glentaner, Strathdee and Birs were spoiled, and -Brachlie, with his son-in-law, slain, by Mackondoquy [that is -Maconochie, _alias_ Campbell] of Inner-Aw.”[69] - -Brackley, on the Muick, is in close vicinity to the village of Ballater, -on the Dee, some forty miles westward from Aberdeen. - - -Translated by Knortz, Lieder u. Romanzen Alt-Englands, p. 156, after -Allingham. - - * * * * * - - - A - - #a.# Scarce Ancient Ballads [Alexander Laing], Aberdeen, 1822, p. 9. - #b.# Buchan’s Gleanings, p. 68. #c.# The New Deeside Guide, by James - Brown (_i.e._ Joseph Robertson), Aberdeen [1832], p. 46. - - 1 - Inverey cam doun Deeside, whistlin and playin, - He was at brave Braikley’s yett ere it was dawin. - - 2 - He rappit fu loudly an wi a great roar, - Cried, Cum doun, cum doun, Braikley, and open the door. - - 3 - ‘Are ye sleepin, Baronne, or are ye wakin? - Ther’s sharpe swords at your yett, will gar your blood spin. - - 4 - ‘Open the yett, Braikley, and lat us within, - Till we on the green turf gar your bluid rin.’ - - 5 - Out spak the brave baronne, owre the castell-wa: - ‘Are ye cum to spulyie and plunder mi ha? - - 6 - ‘But gin ye be gentlemen, licht and cum in: - Gin ye drink o my wine, ye’ll nae gar my bluid spin. - - 7 - ‘Gin ye be hir’d widifus, ye may gang by, - Ye may gang to the lawlands and steal their fat ky. - - 8 - ‘Ther spulyie like rievers o wyld kettrin clan, - Who plunder unsparing baith houses and lan. - - 9 - ‘Gin ye be gentlemen, licht an cum [in], - Ther’s meat an drink i my ha for every man. - - 10 - ‘Gin ye be hir’d widifus, ye may gang by, - Gang doun to the lawlands, and steal horse and ky.’ - - 11 - Up spak his ladie, at his bak where she lay, - ‘Get up, get up, Braikley, and be not afraid; - The’r but young hir’d widifus wi belted plaids.’ - - 12 - ‘Cum kiss me, mi Peggy, I’le nae langer stay, - For I will go out and meet Inverey. - - 13 - ‘But haud your tongue, Peggy, and mak nae sic din, - For yon same hir’d widifus will prove themselves men.’ - - 14 - She called on her marys, they cam to her hand; - Cries, Bring me your rocks, lassies, we will them command. - - 15 - ‘Get up, get up, Braikley, and turn bak your ky, - Or me an mi women will them defy. - - 16 - ‘Cum forth then, mi maidens, and show them some play; - We’ll ficht them, and shortly the cowards will fly. - - 17 - ‘Gin I had a husband, whereas I hae nane, - He woud nae ly i his bed and see his ky taen. - - 18 - ‘Ther’s four-and-twenty milk-whit calves, twal o them ky, - In the woods o Glentanner, it’s ther thei a’ ly. - - 19 - ‘Ther’s goat i the Etnach, and sheep o the brae, - An a’ will be plunderd by young Inverey.’ - - 20 - ‘Now haud your tongue, Peggy, and gie me a gun, - Ye’ll see me gae furth, but I’ll never cum in. - - 21 - ‘Call mi brother William, mi unkl also, - Mi cousin James Gordon; we’ll mount and we’ll go.’ - - 22 - When Braikley was ready and stood i the closs, - He was the bravest baronne that eer mounted horse. - - 23 - Whan all wer assembld o the castell green, - No man like brave Braikley was ther to be seen. - - 24 - . . . . . . . - ‘Turn bak, brother William, ye are a bridegroom; - - 25 - ‘Wi bonnie Jean Gordon, the maid o the mill; - O sichin and sobbin she’ll soon get her fill.’ - - 26 - ‘I’m no coward, brother, ’tis kend I’m a man; - I’ll ficht i your quarral as lang’s I can stand. - - 27 - ‘I’ll ficht, my dear brother, wi heart and gude will, - And so will young Harry that lives at the mill. - - 28 - ‘But turn, mi dear brother, and nae langer stay: - What’ll cum o your ladie, gin Braikley thei slay? - - 29 - ‘What’ll cum o your ladie and bonnie young son? - O what’ll cum o them when Braikley is gone?’ - - 30 - ‘I never will turn: do you think I will fly? - But here I will ficht, and here I will die.’ - - 31 - ‘Strik dogs,’ crys Inverey, ‘and ficht till ye’re slayn, - For we are four hundered, ye are but four men. - - 32 - ‘Strik, strik, ye proud boaster, your honour is gone, - Your lands we will plunder, your castell we’ll burn.’ - - 33 - At the head o the Etnach the battel began, - At Little Auchoilzie thei killd the first man. - - 34 - First thei killd ane, and soon they killd twa, - Thei killd gallant Braikley, the flour o them a’. - - 35 - Thei killd William Gordon, and James o the Knox, - And brave Alexander, the flour o Glenmuïck. - - 36 - What sichin and moaning was heard i the glen, - For the Baronne o Braikley, who basely was slayn! - - 37 - ‘Cam ye bi the castell, and was ye in there? - Saw ye pretty Peggy tearing her hair?’ - - 38 - ‘Yes, I cam by Braikley, and I gaed in there, - And there [saw] his ladie braiding her hair. - - 39 - ‘She was rantin, and dancin, and singin for joy, - And vowin that nicht she woud feest Inverey. - - 40 - ‘She eat wi him, drank wi him, welcomd him in, - Was kind to the man that had slayn her baronne.’ - - 41 - Up spake the son on the nourice’s knee, - ‘Gin I live to be a man, revenged I’ll be.’ - - 42 - Ther’s dool i the kitchin, and mirth i the ha, - The Baronne o Braikley is dead and awa. - - * * * * * - - - B - - Kinloch MSS, V, 379, in the handwriting of John Hill Burton. - - 1 - ‘Baron of Brackley, are ye in there? - The’re sharp swords at yer yetts, winna ye spear.’ - - 2 - ‘If they be gentlemen, lat them cum in; - But if they be reavers, we’ll gar them be taen.’ - - 3 - ‘It is na gentlemen, nor yet pretty lads, - But a curn hir’d widdifus, wears belted plaids.’ - - 4 - She called on her women and bade them come in: - ‘Tack a’ yer rocks, lasses, and we’ll them coman. - - 5 - ‘We’ll fecht them, we’ll slight them, we’ll do what we can, - And I vow we will shoot them altho we shod bang. - - 6 - ‘Rise up, John,’ she said, ‘and turn in yer kye, - For they’ll hae them to the Hielands, and you they’l defie.’ - - 7 - ‘Had your still, Catharine, and still yer young son, - For ye’ll get me out, but I’ll never cum in.’ - - 8 - ‘If I had a man, as I hae na nane, - He wudna lye in his bed and see his kye tane.’ - - 9 - ‘Ye’ll cum kiss me, my Peggy, and bring me my gun, - For I’m gaing out, but I’ll never cum in.’ - - 10 - There was twenty wi Invery, twenty and ten; - There was nane wi the baron but his brother and him. - - 11 - At the head of Reneeten the battle began; - Ere they wan Auchoilzie, they killed mony a man. - - 12 - They killed Harry Gordon and Harry of the Knock, - The mullertd’s four sons up at Glenmuick. - - 13 - They killed Harry Gordon and Harry of the Knock, - And they made the brave baron like kail to a pot. - - 14 - First they killed ane, and then they killed twa, - Then they killed the brave baron, the flower o them a’. - - 15 - Then up came Craigievar, and a party wi him; - If he had come an hour sooner, Brackley had not been slain. - - 16 - ‘Came ye by Brackley? and was ye in there? - Or say ye his lady, was making great care?’ - - 17 - ‘I came by Brackley, and I was in there, - But I saw his lady no makin great care. - - 18 - ‘For she eat wi them, drank wi them, welcomed them in; - She drank to the villain that killed her guid man. - - 19 - ‘Woe to ye, Kate Fraser! sorry may yer heart be, - To see yer brave baron’s blood cum to yer knee.’ - - 20 - There is dule in the kitchen, and mirth i the ha, - But the Baron o B[r]ackley is dead and awa. - - * * * * * - - - C - - #a.# Jamieson-Brown MS., Appendix, p. viii, as transcribed for - Jamieson by Rev. Andrew Brown, and sent him by Mrs. Brown in a - letter of June 18, 1801. #b.# Jamieson’s Popular Ballads, I, 102; - Mrs. Brown’s copy combined with an imperfect one taken down by Sir - W. Scott “from the recitation of two ladies, great-grandchildren of - Farquharson of Inverey.” - - 1 - O Inverey came down Dee side, whistling and playing; - He’s landed at Braikly’s yates at the day dawing. - - 2 - Says, Baron of Braikly, are ye within? - There’s sharp swords at the yate will gar your blood spin. - - 3 - The lady raise up, to the window she went; - She heard her kye lowing oer hill and oer bent. - - 4 - ‘O rise up, John,’ she says, ‘turn back your kye; - They’re oer the hills rinning, they’re skipping away.’ - - 5 - ‘Come to your bed, Peggie, and let the kye rin, - For were I to gang out, I would never get in.’ - - 6 - Then she’s cry’d on her women, they quickly came ben: - ‘Take up your rocks, lassies, and fight a’ like men. - - 7 - ‘Though I’m but a woman, to head you I’ll try, - Nor let these vile Highland-men steal a’ our kye.’ - - 8 - Then up gat the baron, and cry’d for his graith; - Says, Lady, I’ll gang, tho to leave you I’m laith. - - 9 - ‘Come, kiss me, my Peggie, nor think I’m to blame; - For I may well gang out, but I’ll never win in.’ - - 10 - When the Baron of Braikly rade through the close, - A gallanter baron neer mounted a horse. - - 11 - Tho there came wi Inverey thirty and three, - There was nane wi bonny Braikly but his brother and he. - - 12 - Twa gallanter Gordons did never sword draw; - But against four and thirty, wae’s me, what was twa? - - 13 - Wi swords and wi daggers they did him surround, - And they’ve pierc’d bonny Braikly wi mony a wound. - - 14 - Frae the head of the Dee to the banks of the Spey, - The Gordons may mourn him, and bann Inverey. - - 15 - ‘O came ye by Braikly, and was ye in there? - Or saw ye his Peggy dear riving her hair?’ - - 16 - ‘O I came by Braikly, and I was in there, - But I saw not his Peggy dear riving her hair.’ - - 17 - ‘O fye on ye, lady! how could ye do sae? - You opend your yate to the faus Inverey.’ - - 18 - She eat wi him, drank wi him, welcomd him in; - She welcomd the villain that slew her baron. - - 19 - She kept him till morning, syne bad him be gane, - And showd him the road that he woud na be tane. - - 20 - ‘Thro Birss and Aboyne,’ she says, ‘lyin in a tour, - Oer the hills of Glentanor you’ll skip in an hour.’ - - 21 - There is grief in the kitchen, and mirth in the ha, - But the Baron of Braikly is dead and awa. - - * * * * * - - - D - - Skene MS., p. 110; north of Scotland, 1802–3. - - 1 - ‘Baron o Breachell, are ye within? - The sharp souerd is at yer gate, Breachell, we’ll gar yer blood spin.’ - - 2 - ‘Thei’r at yer gate, Breachel, thei’r neither men nor lads, - But fifty heard widifas, wi belted plaids.’ - - 3 - ‘O if I had a man,’ she says, ‘as it looks I had nane, - He widna sit in the house and see my kye tane. - - 4 - ‘But lasses tak down yer rocks, and we will defend - . . . . . . . - - 5 - ‘O kiss me, dear Peggy, and gee me down my gun, - I may well ga out, but I ll never come in.’ - - 6 - Out spak his brither, says, Gee me yer hand; - I’ll fight in yer cause sae lang as I may stand. - - 7 - Whan the Baron o Breachell came to the closs, - A braver baron neir red upon horse. - - 8 - . . . . . . . - I think the silly heard widifas are grown fighten men. - - 9 - First they killed ane, and syen they killed twa, - And the Baron o Breachell is dead and awa. - - 10 - They killed Sandy Gordon, Sandy Gordon o the Knock, - The miller and his three sons, that lived at Glenmuick. - - 11 - First they killed ane, and seyn they killed twa, - And the Baron o Breachell is dead and awa. - - 12 - Up came Crigevar and a’ his fighten men: - ‘Had I come an hour soonur, he sudna been slain.’ - - 13 - For first they killed ane, and seyn they killed twa, - And the Baron o Breachell is dead and awa. - - 14 - ‘O came ye by Breachell, lads? was ye in their? - Saw ye Peggy Dann riving her hair?’ - - 15 - ‘We cam by Breachell, lads, we was in there, - And saw Peggie Dann cairling her hair. - - 16 - ‘She eat wi them, drank wi them, bad them come in - To her house an bours that had slain her baron. - - 17 - ‘Come in, gentlemen, eat and drink wi me; - Tho ye ha slain my baron, I ha na a wite at ye.’ - - 18 - ‘O was [ye] at Glenmuik, lads? was ye in theire? - Saw ye Cathrin Gordon rivin her hair?’ - - 19 - ‘We was at Glenmuik, lads, we was in there, - We saw Cathrin Gordon rivin her hair. - - 20 - ‘Wi the tear in her eye, seven bairns at her foot, - The eighth on her knee.... - - 21 - They killed Peter Gordon, Peter Gordon of the Knock, - The miller and his three sons, that lived at Glenmuik. - - 22 - First they killed ane, and syn they killed twa, - And the Baron of Breachell is dead and awa. - - * * * * * - -#A.# - - _No division of stanzas. Both copies are probably from - stall-prints or broadsides. #b# differs frequently from #a# in - spelling._ - -#a.# - - 5^2, 8^1. spulzie. - - 6^1. gentlmen. - - 11^3, 25^1, 40^1. we _for_ wi. - - 22^1. thee. - - 30^1. I will never. - -#b.# - - 11^1. laid. - - 11^3. young _wanting_. - - 13^2. prove to be men. - - 15^2. For me. - - 16^1. ply. - - 19^1. Ther are goats. - - 20^2. never return. - - 22^1. thee. - - 25^2. seen (_phonetic_). - - 26^1. it’s kent. - - 30^1. I never will: ye. - - 30^2. No, here. - - 34^1. an syne. - - 36^1. was heard. - - 38^2. ther said. - -#c.# - - _This copy is to the extent of about two thirds taken from #a#; - half a dozen stanzas are from Jamieson’s text, #C b#; half a - dozen more agree, nearly or entirely, with #B#, and may have - been derived from Dr. J. H. Burton, or directly from some - traditional source. The order has been regulated by the editor, - who has also made a slight verbal change now and then._ - - 1–3==#a# 1–3. - - 4–8==5–9. - - 9==11^{1,2}, _nearly_: (#c# 9^2, and face Inverey). - - 11^2==13^2. - - 12–14==18, 19, 17. - - 15==15, _nearly_: _cf._ #B# 6^1. - - 17^1==16^2. - - 18==20, _nearly_. - - 19==21. - - 22==31, _with different numbers_. - - 23==33: Reneatan _for_ Etnach, _cf._ #B# 11^1. - - 24==35. - - 25==34. - - 29==38. - - 30==39. - - 31^1==40^1. - - 32^2==40^2, #B# 18^2. - - 35==41. - - 36==42. - - 37==36. - - _From #C b#._ - - 20==12. - - 21==13, _nearly_. - - 26==16. - - 33, 34==23, 24, _nearly_. - - 38==17. - - _10 (nearly #B# 6: cf. #c# 15^1)._ - - Get up, get up Brackley, and turn back your kye, - Or they’ll hae them to the Highlands, and you they’ll defy. - - _16 (nearly #B# 4: cf. #a# 14):_ - - She called on her maidens, and bade them come in: - Tak a’ your rocks, lasses, we will them comman. - - _27 (nearly #B# 15: cf. #D# 12)._ Had he come one hour, _etc._ - - 28==#B# 16. - - 31^2==#B# 18^2 (#a# 40^2). She drank to the villain that killed - her barrone. - - 32==#B# 19, _nearly_. Wae to you, Kate Fraser, sad may your heart - be. - -#B.# - - 11^1. Keneeten _perhaps_: #b.# Reneatan. - - 12^1. They _for_ The. - -#C. a.# - - _Not divided, but roughly marked off into stanzas of four verses._ - - 6^2. frocks _for_ rocks. - -#b.# - - 1^1. Down Dee side came Inverey. - - 1^2. lighted at Brackley yates. - - 2^1. O are. - - 4^1. rise up, ye baron, and. - - 4^2. - For the lads o Drumwharran are driving them bye. - - 5. - ‘How can I rise, lady, or turn them again? - Whareer I have ae man, I wat they hae ten.’ - - 6. - ‘Then rise up, my lasses, tak rocks in your hand, - And turn back the kye; I hae you at command. - - 7. - ‘Gin I had a husband, as I hae nane, - He wadna lye in his bower, see his kye tane.’ - - 8^1. got. - - _After 8_: - - Come kiss me then, Peggy, and gie me my speir; - I ay was for peace, tho I never feard weir. - - 9^1. me then, Peggy. - - 9^2. I weel may gae out. - - 10^1. When Brakley was busked and rade oer the closs. - - 10^2. neer lap to a. - - _After 10_: - - When Brackley was mounted and rade oer the green, - He was as bald a baron as ever was seen. - - 12^2. what is. - - 15^1. by Brackley yates, was. - - 16^1. by Brackley yates, I. - - 16^2. And I saw his Peggy a-making good cheer. - - _After 16_: - - The lady she feasted them, carried them ben; - She laughd wi the men that her baron had slain. - - 17^1. on you: could you. - - 17^2. yates. - - 19^2. shoudna. - - “Poetical justice requires that I should subjoin the concluding - stanza of the fragment, which could not be introduced into the - text; as the reader cannot be displeased to learn that the - unworthy spouse of the amiable, affectionate, and spirited baron - of Brackley was treated by her unprincipled gallant as she - deserved, and might have expected: - - Inverey spak a word, he spak it wrang; - ‘My wife and my bairns will be thinking lang.’ - - ‘O wae fa ye, Inverey! ill mat ye die! - First to kill Brackley, and then to slight me.’ - -#D.# - - _Title, 1^1, etc._ Breachell. _Perhaps miscopied by Skene from_ - Breachlie; _and so_ Crigeran, _12^1, for_ Crigevar. - - 17^2. at thee. - - - - - 204 - - JAMIE DOUGLAS - - #A.# ‘Lord Douglas,’ or, ‘The Laird of Blackwood,’ Kinloch MSS, I, 93. - - #B.# ‘Jamie Douglas,’ Kinloch MSS, V, 387. - - #C.# ‘Lady Douglas and Blackwood,’ Kinloch MSS, V, 207, I, 103. - - #D.# ‘Jamie Douglas,’ Kinloch MSS, I, 107. - - #E.# ‘The Laird o Blackwood,’ Kinloch MSS, VII, 127; Kinloch’s Ancient - Scottish Ballads, p. 58. - - #F.# ‘Jamie Douglas,’ Motherwell’s MS., p. 507. - - #G.# ‘Lord Jamie Douglas,’ Motherwell’s MS., p. 345. - - #H.# ‘Jamie Douglas,’ Motherwell’s MS., p. 297. - - #I.# ‘Jamie Douglas,’ Motherwell’s MS., p. 500. - - #J.# ‘Jamie Douglas,’ Motherwell’s MS., p. 299. - - #K.# ‘Jamie Douglas,’ Motherwell’s MS., p. 302. - - #L.# ‘Jamie Douglas,’ Finlay’s Scottish Ballads, II, 4. - - #M.# Herd’s MSS, I, 54; Herd’s Scottish Songs, 1776, I, 144. - - #N.# ‘Lord Jamie Douglas,’ Motherwell’s Minstrelsy, Appendix, p. v, - the last three stanzas. - - #O.# ‘Jamie Douglas,’ Motherwell’s Minstrelsy, Appendix, p. xvii, IX, - one stanza. - - -This ballad first appeared in print in the second edition of Herd’s -Scottish Songs, 1776, but only as a fragment of five stanzas. Pinkerton -repeats three stanzas from Herd, very slightly “polished by the editor,” -Tragic Ballads, 1781, pp. 83, 119. A stall-copy, says Motherwell, was -printed in 1798, under the title of ‘Fair Orange Green.’ #A# and #C# -were used by Aytoun for the copy given in his second edition, 1859, I, -133, and #D# for Part Fourth of Chambers’s compilation, Scottish -Ballads, p. 157. The “traditionary version,” in thirty-four stanzas, -given in the Appendix to Motherwell’s Minstrelsy, p. v (see his -Introduction, p. lxiii, note 5), is made up, all but the fifth stanza -and the three last, from #F#-#J# and #O#: see note to #N#. - -Lady Barbara Erskine, eldest daughter of John, Earl of Mar, was married -to James, second Marquis of Douglas, near the end of the year 1670. The -marriage did not prove to be happy, and the parties were formally -separated in 1681. They had had one child, James, Earl of Angus, and he -having been killed in battle in the Netherlands in 1692, the Marquis of -Douglas married again, and had two sons and a daughter. The second of -the sons was Archibald, the third marquis, and first and only duke of -Douglas. - -In an affectionate letter of December, 1676 (succeeding several others -to which no answer had been returned), the Marchioness of Douglas writes -to her husband: “I am not such a stranger to myself to pretend to the -exactness of obedience and duty that my humor or frowardness may not -have offended you, and all I can say is, that hereafter I shall so study -yours and what may please you that I shall endeavor a conformity to your -good will so near as I can. This only I must (most) complain of, that -you should retain those in your service or company who takes the liberty -of talking so much to the prejudice of your honor and mine. Sure I am I -never give the least occasion for it, neither do I think, my dear, that -you really believe it. If religion and virtue were not ties strong -enough, sense of your honor and mine own, and of that noble family of -yours and our posterity, could not but prevail against such base -thoughts, and God, who knows my heart, knows my innocence and the malice -of those who wounds us both by such base calumnies.” In February, 1677, -the marchioness (not for the first time, as it appears) invokes the -interposition of the Privy Council in her domestic affairs, and applies -for an “aliment” on which she may live apart from her husband, whom she -charges with shunning her company and treating her with contempt. The -marquis in his reply alleges that his wife had not treated him with due -respect, but seems to be averse to a separation. Four years after, a -separation was mutually agreed to, and in the contract to this effect -the ground is expressed to be “great animosities, mistakes and -differences betwixt the said marquis and his lady, which have risen to a -great height, so as neither of them are satisfied longer to continue -together.”[70] - -The blame of the alienation of Douglas from his wife is imputed by -tradition to William Lawrie, the marquis’s principal chamberlain or -factor, who was appointed to that place in 1670, the year of the -marriage. Lawrie married Marion Weir, of the family of Blackwood, then a -widow. He is often styled the laird of Blackwood, a title which belonged -to his son by this marriage, his own proper designation being, after -that event, the Tutor of Blackwood. “The belief that Blackwood was the -chief cause of this unhappy quarrel was current at the time among the -Douglas tenantry, with whom he was very unpopular, and it is -corroborated by letters and other documents in the Douglas -charter-chest. The marchioness, indeed, evinces temper, but the marquis -appears to have been morose and peevish, and incapable of managing his -own affairs. In this matter he consulted, and was advised by, Blackwood -at every step, sending him copies of the letters he wrote to his wife, -and subscribing whatever document Blackwood thought fit to prepare. -Members of the family and dependents alike characterized Lawrie as -hypocritical and double-dealing; but on the other hand, it is only fair -to mention that on two occasions, Charles, Earl of Mar, wrote to -Blackwood thanking him for his kindness to his sister, and assuring him -of his esteem.”[71] - -John, Earl of Mar, the father of Lady Barbara Erskine, died in 1668, -before his daughter’s marriage, and it would have been her brother -Charles, the next earl, who took her home. He was colonel of a regiment -of foot at the time of the separation, whence, probably, the drums, -trumpets, and soldiers in the ballad. Barbara Douglas died in 1690, two -years before the marquis’s second marriage. - -The reciter of #A#, who got her information from an old dey at Douglas -castle, as far back as 1770, told Kinloch that the ballad was a great -favorite with Archibald, Duke of Douglas, who lived till 1761. “The Duke -used often to get the old dey to sing it to him while he wheeled round -the room in a gilded chair ... and muttered anathemas against Lourie, -saying, O that Blackwood must have been a damned soul!”[72] - -The story of the ballad is very simple. A lady, daughter of the Earl of -Mar, #B#, #I#, married to Lord James Douglas, Marquis of Douglas, #D#, -lives happily with him until Blackwood (Blacklaywood, Blackly) makes her -husband believe that she has trespassed (with one Lockhart, #A#). Her -protestations of innocence and the blandishments with which she seeks to -win back her lord’s affections are fruitless. Her father sends for her -and takes her home. He offers to get a bill of divorce and make a better -match for her, but she will listen to no such proposal. - -The lady is daughter of the Earl of York, #D#; her brother is the Duke -of York (a somewhat favorite personage in ballads), #B#; her mother is -daughter of the Duke of York, #G#, and her father is the Lord of Murray. -Her husband is the Earl of March, #I# (and #F#?). Had she foreseen the -event of the marriage with Douglas, she would have staid at Lord -Torchard’s gates (Argyle’s, Athol’s, Lord Orgul’s) and have been his -lady, #G#, #H#, #I#, #L#, or in fair Orange green and have been his -(Orange’s?) #K#. (Orange gate appears in #D#, also, and so it may be -Orange wine, and not orange, that Jamie Douglas is invited to drink in -#I# 5.) A handsome nurse makes trouble in #F# 6, but nowhere else. It is -not Blackwood that whispers mischief into the husband’s ear in #J# 4, -but a small bird; a black bird, fause bird, in two of Finlay’s three -copies, a blackie in the other, #L#. In #E# 7 the lady will not wash her -face, comb her hair, or have fire or light in her bower: cf. Nos 69, 92, -II, 156, 317. In #I# 15, when the lady had returned to her father’s and -the tenants came to see her, she could not speak, and “the buttons off -her clothes did flee;” “an affecting image of overpowering grief,” says -Chambers. See also ‘Andrew Lammie.’ - -#D# 10–15, #N#, are palpable and vulgar tags to a complete story. James -Douglas comes to his father-in-law’s house with his three children, and -sends a soldier to the gate to bid his lady come down; he has hanged -false Blackwood, and she is to come home: #N#. In #D# the hanging of -Blackwood is not mentioned; Douglas calls for wine to drink to his gay -lady, she takes a cup in her hand, but her heart breaks.[73] - -#A#-#M# have all from one stanza to four of a beautiful song, known from -the first quarter of the eighteenth century, and printed fifty years -earlier than any copy of the ballad.[74] This song is the lament of an -unmarried woman for a lover who has proved false, and, as we find by the -last stanza, has left her with an unborn babe. #A#, #C# have this last -stanza, although the lady in these copies has born three children (as -she has in every version except the fragmentary #E#).[75] - - - WALY, WALY, GIN LOVE BE BONY. - - #a.# Ramsay’s Tea-Table Miscellany, the second volume, published - before 1727; here from the Dublin edition of 1729, p. 176. #b.# - Thomson’s Orpheus Caledonius, second edition, 1733, I, 71; four - stanzas in the first edition, 1725, No 34.[76] - - 1 - O waly, waly up the bank! - And waly, waly, down the brae! - And waly, waly yon burn-side, - Where I and my love wont to gae! - - 2 - I leand my back unto an aik, - I thought it was a trusty tree; - But first it bowd, and syne it brak, - Sae my true-love did lightly me. - - 3 - O waly, waly! but love be bony - A little time, while it is new; - But when ’tis auld, it waxeth cauld, - And fades away like morning dew. - - 4 - O wherefore shoud I busk my head? - Or wherfore shoud I kame my hair? - For my true-love has me forsook, - And says he’ll never love me mair. - - 5 - Now Arthur-Seat shall be my bed, - The sheets shall neer be fyl’d by me; - Saint Anton’s well shall be my drink, - Since my true-love has forsaken me. - - 6 - Martinmas wind, when wilt thou blaw, - And shake the green leaves off the tree? - O gentle death, when wilt thou come? - For of my life I am weary. - - 7 - ’Tis not the frost that freezes fell, - Nor blawing snaw’s inclemency; - ’Tis not sic cauld that makes me cry, - But my love’s heart grown cauld to me. - - 8 - When we came in by Glasgow town, - We were a comely sight to see; - My love was cled in the black velvet, - And I my sell in cramasie. - - 9 - But had I wist, before I kissd, - That love had been sae ill to win, - I’d lockd my heart in a case of gold, - And pin’d it with a silver pin. - - 10 - Oh, oh, if my young babe were born, - And set upon the nurse’s knee, - And I my sell were dead and gane! - For a maid again I’ll never be. - -A stanza closely resembling the third of this song occurs in a Yule -medley in Wood’s MSS, about 1620.[77] - - Hey trollie lollie, love is jolly - A qhyll qhill it is new; - Qhen it is old, it grows full cold, - Woe worth the love untrew! - -The Orpheus Caledonius has for the fourth stanza this, which is found -(with variations) in #A#-#M#, excepting the imperfect copy #E#: - - When cockle-shells turn siller bells, - And mussles grows on evry tree, - When frost and snaw shall warm us a’, - Then shall my love prove true to me. - - Ed. 1725. - -Several stanzas occur in a song with the title ‘Arthur’s Seat shall be -my bed,’ etc., which is thought to have been printed as early as the -Tea-Table Miscellany, or even considerably earlier. This song is given -in an appendix. - -Aytoun’s ballad, 1859, I, 135, is loosely translated by Knortz, -Schottische Balladen, p. 59. - - * * * * * - - - A - - Kinloch MSS, I, 93; from the recitation of Mary Barr, Lesmahago, - Lanarkshire, May, 1827, and learned by her about sixty years before - from an old dey at Douglas Castle. - - 1 - I was a lady of high renown - As lived in the north countrie; - I was a lady of high renown - Whan Earl Douglas loved me. - - 2 - Whan we came through Glasgow toun, - We war a comely sight to see; - My gude lord in velvet green, - And I mysel in cramasie. - - 3 - Whan we cam to Douglas toun, - We war a fine sight to behold; - My gude lord in cramasie, - And I myself in shining gold. - - 4 - Whan that my auld son was born, - And set upon the nurse’s knee, - I was as happy a woman as eer was born, - And my gude lord he loved me. - - 5 - But oh, an my young son was born, - And set upon the nurse’s knee, - And I mysel war dead and gane, - For a maid again I’ll never be! - - 6 - There cam a man into this house, - And Jamie Lockhart was his name, - And it was told to my gude lord - That I was in the bed wi him. - - 7 - There cam anither to this house, - And a bad friend he was to me; - He put Jamie’s shoon below my bed-stock, - And bade my gude lord come and see. - - 8 - O wae be unto thee, Blackwood, - And ae an ill death may ye dee! - For ye was the first and the foremost man - That parted my gude lord and me. - - 9 - Whan my gude lord cam in my room, - This grit falsehood for to see, - He turnd about, and, wi a gloom, - He straucht did tak farewell o me. - - 10 - ‘O fare thee well, my once lovely maid! - O fare thee well, once dear to me! - O fare thee well, my once lovely maid! - For wi me again ye sall never be.’ - - 11 - ‘Sit doun, sit doun, Jamie Douglas, - Sit thee doun and dine wi me, - And Ill set thee on a chair of gold, - And a silver towel on thy knee.’ - - 12 - ‘Whan cockle-shells turn silver bells, - And mussels they bud on a tree, - Whan frost and snaw turns fire to burn, - Then I’ll sit down and dine wi thee.’ - - 13 - O wae be unto thee, Blackwood, - And ae an ill death may ye dee! - Ye war the first and the foremost man - That parted my gude lord and me. - - 14 - Whan my father he heard word - That my gude lord had forsaken me, - He sent fifty o his brisk dragoons - To fesh me hame to my ain countrie. - - 15 - That morning before I did go, - My bonny palace for to leave, - I went into my gude lord’s room, - But alas! he wad na speak to me. - - 16 - ‘Fare thee well, Jamie Douglas! - Fare thee well, my ever dear to me! - Fare thee well, Jamie Douglas! - Be kind to the three babes I’ve born to thee.’ - - * * * * * - - - B - - Kinloch MSS, V, 387, in the handwriting of John Hill Burton when a - youth. - - 1 - Waly, waly up the bank! - And waly, waly down the brae! - And waly, waly to yon burn-side, - Where me and my love wunt to gae! - - 2 - As I lay sick, and very sick, - And sick was I, and like to die, - And Blacklaywood put in my love’s ears - That he staid in bower too lang wi me. - - 3 - As I lay sick, and very sick, - And sick was I, and like to die, - And walking into my garden green, - I heard my good lord lichtlie me. - - 4 - Now woe betide ye, Blacklaywood! - I’m sure an ill death you must die; - Ye’ll part me and my ain good lord, - And his face again I’ll never see. - - 5 - ‘Come down stairs now, Jamie Douglas, - Come down stairs and drink wine wi me; - I’ll set thee into a chair of gold, - And not one farthing shall it cost thee.’ - - 6 - ‘When cockle-shells turn silver bells, - And muscles grow on every tree, - When frost and snaw turn fiery baas, - I’ll come down the stair and drink wine wi thee.’ - - 7 - ‘What’s needs me value you, Jamie Douglas, - More than you do value me? - The Earl of Mar is my father, - The Duke of York is my brother gay. - - 8 - ‘But when my father gets word o this, - I trow a sorry man he’ll be; - He’ll send four score o his soldiers brave - To tak me hame to mine ain countrie.’ - - 9 - As I lay owre my castell-wa, - I beheld my father comin for me, - Wi trumpets sounding on every side; - But they werena music at a’ for me. - - 10 - ‘And fare ye weel now, Jamie Douglas! - And fare ye weel, my children three! - And fare ye weel, my own good lord! - For my face again ye shall never see. - - 11 - ‘And fare ye weel now, Jamie Douglas! - And fare ye weel, my children three! - And fare ye weel now, Jamie Douglas! - But my youngest son shall gae wi me.’ - - 12 - ‘What ails ye at yer youngest son, - Sits smilin at the nurse’s knee? - I’m sure he never knew any harm, - Except it was from his nurse or thee.’ - - 13 - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - And when I was into my coaches set, - He made his trumpets a’ to soun. - - 14 - I’ve heard it said, and it’s oft times seen, - The hawk that flies far frae her nest; - And a’ the world shall plainly see - It’s Jamie Douglas that I love best. - - 15 - Ive heard it said, and [it’s] oft times seen, - The hawk that flies from tree to tree; - And a’ the world shall plainly see - It’s for Jamie Douglas I maun die. - - * * * * * - - - C - - Kinloch MSS, V, 207, I, 103; from John Rae, Lesmahago. - - 1 - O wally, wally up yon bank! - And wally down yon brae! - And wally, wally up yon burn-side, - Where me and my lord wont to gae! - - 2 - I leand me on yon saugh sae sweet, - I leand me on yon saugh sae sour, - And my gude lord has forsaken me, - And he swears he’ll never loe me more. - - 3 - There came a young man to this town, - And Jamie Lockhart was his name; - Fause Blackwood lilted in my lord’s ear - That I was in the bed wi him. - - 4 - ‘Come up, come up, Jamie Douglas, - Come up, come up and dine wi me, - And I’ll set thee in a chair of gold, - And use you kindly on my knee.’ - - 5 - ‘When cockle-shells turn silver bells, - And mussels hing on every tree, - When frost and snow turn fire-brands, - Then I’ll come up and dine wi thee.’ - - 6 - When my father and mother they got word - That my good lord had forsaken me, - They sent fourscore of soldiers brave - To bring me hame to my ain countrie. - - 7 - That day that I was forc’d to go, - My pretty palace for to leave, - I went to the chamber were my lord lay, - But alas! he wad na speak to me. - - 8 - ‘O fare ye weel, Jamie Douglas! - And fare ye weel, my children three! - I hope your father will prove mair kind - To you than he has been to me. - - 9 - ‘You take every one to be like yoursel, - You take every one that comes unto thee; - But I could swear by the heavens high - That I never knew anither man but thee. - - 10 - ‘O foul fa ye, fause Blackwood, - And an ill death now may ye die! - For ye was the first occasioner - Of parting my gude lord and me.’ - - 11 - Whan we gaed in by Edinburgh town, - My father and mither they met me, - Wi trumpets sounding on every side; - But alas! they could na cherish me. - - 12 - ‘Hold your tongue, daughter,’ my father said, - ‘And with your weeping let me be; - And we’ll get out a bill of divorce, - And I’ll get a far better lord to thee.’ - - 13 - ‘O hold your tongue, father,’ she says, - ‘And with your talking let me be; - I wad na gie a kiss o my ain lord’s lips - For a’ the men in the west country.’ - - 14 - Oh an I had my baby born, - And set upon the nurse’s knee, - And I myself were dead and gone! - For a maid again I will never be. - - * * * * * - - - D - - Kinloch MSS, I, 107: “West-Country version.” - - 1 - I fell sick, and very, very sick, - Sick I was, and like to dee; - A friend o mine cam frae the west, - A friend o mine came me to see, - And the black told it to my gude lord - He was oure lang in the chamber wi me. - - * * * * * * - - 2 - ‘Come doun the stair, Jamie Douglas, - Come doun and drink wine wi me; - I’ll set ye on a chair of gold, - And not ae farthing will it cost thee.’ - - 3 - ‘Whan cockle-shells turn siller bells, - And fishes flee frae tree to tree, - Whan frost and snaw turn fire-beams, - I’ll come doun and drink wine wi thee.’ - - * * * * * * - - 4 - ‘What ails ye at your young son James, - That sits upo the nurse’s knee? - I’m sure he never did ye no harm, - If it war na for the nurse or me. - - 5 - ‘What care I for you, Jamie Douglas? - Not a small pin I value thee; - For my father he is the Earl of York, - And of that my mither’s the gay ladie; - They will send fourscore of his soldiers bold - For to tak me hame to my ain countrie.’ - - * * * * * * - - 6 - Whan I was set in my coach and six, - Taking fareweel o my babies three, - ‘I beg your father’s grace to be kind, - For your face again I’ll never see.’ - - * * * * * * - - 7 - As I was walking up London streets, - My father was coming to meet me, - Wi trumpets sounding on every side; - But that was na music at a’ for me. - - 8 - ‘Hold your tongue, my dochter dear, - And of your weeping let abee; - A bill o divorcement I’ll send to him, - A far better match I’ll get for thee.’ - - 9 - ‘Hold your tongue, my father dear, - And with your folly let abee; - There’ll never man sleep in my twa arms, - Sin my gude lord has forsaken me.’ - - * * * * * * - - 10 - As I was sitting at my bouer-window, - What a blythe sicht did I see! - I saw four score of his soldiers bold, - And I wishd that they were coming for me. - - 11 - Out bespeaks the foremost man, - And what a weel-spoken man was he! - ‘If the Marquis o Douglas’s lady be within, - You’ll bid her come doun and speak to me.’ - - 12 - It’s out bespak my auld father then, - I wat an angry man was he; - ‘Ye may gang back the road ye cam, - For her face again ye’ll never see.’ - - 13 - ‘Hold your tongue, my father dear, - And with your folly let abee; - For I’ll ga back, and I’ll ne’er return; - Do ye think I love you as weel as he?’ - - 14 - As I cam in by the Orange gate, - What a blythe sicht did I see! - I saw Jamie Douglas coming me to meet, - And at his foot war his babies three. - - 15 - ‘Ga fetch, ga fetch a bottle of wine, - That I may drink to my gay ladie;’ - She took the cup into her hand, - But her bonnie heart it broke in three. - - * * * * * - - - E - - Kinloch MSS, VII, 127; 24 April, 1826, from the recitation of Jenny - Watson, Lanark, aged 73, who had it from her grandmother. - - 1 - I lay sick, and very sick, - And I was bad, and like to dee; - . . . . . . . - A friend o mine cam to visit me, - And Blackwood whisperd in my lord’s ear - That he was oure lang in chamber wi me. - - 2 - ‘O what need I dress up my head, - Nor what need I caim doun my hair, - Whan my gude lord has forsaken me, - And says he will na love me mair! - - 3 - ‘But oh, an my young babe was born, - And set upon some nourice knee, - And I mysel war dead and gane! - For a maid again I’ll never be.’ - - 4 - ‘Na mair o this, my dochter dear, - And of your mourning let abee; - For a bill of divorce I’ll gar write for him, - A mair better lord I’ll get for thee.’ - - 5 - ‘Na mair o this, my father dear, - And of your folly let abee; - For I wad na gie ae look o my lord’s face - For aw the lords in the haill cuntree. - - 6 - ‘But I’ll cast aff my robes o red, - And I’ll put on my robes o blue, - And I will travel to some other land, - To see gin my love will on me rue. - - 7 - ‘There shall na wash come on my face, - There shall na kaim come on my hair; - There shall neither coal nor candle-licht - Be seen intil my bouer na mair. - - 8 - ‘O wae be to thee, Blackwood, - And an ill death may ye dee! - For ye’ve been the haill occasion - Of parting my lord and me.’ - - * * * * * - - - F - - Motherwell’s MS, p. 507; from the recitation of old Mrs Brown, - residing at Linsart, parish of Lochwinnoch, September, 1826. - - 1 - Waly, waly up yon bank! - And waly, waly up yon brae! - And waly, waly by yon river-side, - Where me and my love were wont to gae! - - 2 - My mither tauld me when I was young - That young men’s love was ill to trow; - But to her I would give nae ear, - And alas! my ain wand dings me now. - - 3 - But gin I had wist or I had kisst - That young man’s love was sae ill to win, - I would hae lockt my heart wi a key o gowd, - And pinnd it wi a sillar pin. - - 4 - When lairds and lords cam to this toun, - And gentlemen o a high degree, - I took my auld son in my arms, - And went to my chamber pleasantly. - - 5 - But when gentlemen come thro this toun, - And gentlemen o a high degree, - I must sit alane in the dark, - And the babie on the nurse’s knee. - - 6 - I had a nurse, and she was fair, - She was a dearly nurse to me; - She took my gay lord frae my side, - And used him in her company. - - 7 - Awa! awa, thou false Blackwood! - Ay and an ill death may thou die! - Thou wast the first occasioner - Of parting my gay lord and me. - - 8 - When I was sick, and very sick, - Sick I was, and like to die, - I drew me near to my stair-head, - And I heard my own lord lichtly me. - - 9 - ‘Come doun, come doun, thou Earl of March, - Come doun, come doun and dine with me; - I’ll set thee on a chair of gowd, - And treat thee kindly on my knee!’ - - 10 - ‘When cockle-shells grow sillar bells, - And mussells grow on every tree, - When frost and snaw turns fiery ba’s, - Then I’ll come doun and dine with thee.’ - - 11 - When my father and mother got word - That my gay lord had forsaken me, - They sent three score of soldiers bold - To bring me to my own countrie. - - 12 - When I in my coach was set, - My tenants all was with me tane; - They set them doun upon their knees, - And they begd me to come back again. - - 13 - Fare ye weel, Jamie Douglas! - And fare ye weel, my babies three! - I wish your father may be kind - To these three faces that I do see. - - 14 - When we cam in by Edinbro toun, - My father and mother they met me; - The cymbals sounded on every side, - But alace! the gave no comfort to me. - - 15 - ‘Hold your tongue, my daughter dear, - And of your weeping let abee, - And I’ll give him a bill of divorce, - And I’ll get as good a lord to thee.’ - - 16 - ‘Hold your tongue, my father dear, - And of your scoffing let me bee; - I would rather hae a kiss of my own lord’s mouth - As all the lords in the north countrie.’ - - * * * * * - - - G - - Motherwell’s MS., p. 345. - - 1 - O waly, waly up the bank! - And waly, waly down the brae! - And waly by yon river side, - Where me and my lord was wont to gae! - - 2 - An I had wit what I wit now, - Before I came over the river Tay, - I would hae staid at Lord Torchard’s yetts, - And I micht hae been his own lady gay. - - 3 - When I lay sick, and was very sick, - A friend of mine came me to see; - When our Blacklywood told it in my lord’s ears - That he staid too long in chamber with me. - - 4 - Woe be to thee, thou Blacklywood! - I wish an ill death may thou die; - For thou’s been the first and occasion last - That put strife between my good lord and me. - - 5 - When my father he heard of this, - His heart was like for to break in three; - He sent fourscore of his soldiers brave - For to take me home to mine own countree. - - 6 - In the morning when I arose, - My bonnie palace for to see, - I came unto my lord’s room-door, - But he would not speak one word to me. - - 7 - ‘Come down the stair, my lord Jamie Douglas, - Come down and speak one word with me; - I’ll set thee in a chair of gold, - And the never a penny it will cost thee.’ - - 8 - ‘When cockle-shells grow silver bells, - And grass grows over the highest tree, - When frost and snaw turns fiery bombs, - Then will I come down and drink wine with thee.’ - - 9 - O what need I care for Jamie Douglas - More than he needs to care for me? - For the Lord of Murray’s my father dear, - And the Duke of York’s daughter my mother be. - - 10 - Thou thocht that I was just like thyself, - And took every one that I did see; - But I can swear by the heavens above - That I never knew a man but thee. - - 11 - But fare thee weel, my lord Jamie Douglas! - And fare you weel, my sma childer three! - God grant your father grace to be kind - Till I see you all in my own countrie. - - 12 - Quickly, quickly then rose he up, - And quickly, quickly came he down; - When I was in my coaches set, - He made his trumpets all to sound. - - 13 - As we came in by Edinburgh town, - My loving father came to meet me, - With trumpets sounding on every side; - But it was not comfort at all to me. - - 14 - ‘O hold your tongue, my daughter dear, - And of your weeping pray let abee; - A bill of divorcement I’ll to him send, - And a better lord I will chose for thee.’ - - 15 - ‘Hold your tongue, my father dear, - And of your flattery pray let abee; - I’ll never lye in another man’s arms, - Since my Jamie Douglas has forsaken me.’ - - 16 - It’s often said in a foreign land - That the hawk she flies far from her nest; - It’s often said, and it’s very true, - He’s far from me this day that I luve best. - - * * * * * - - - H - - Motherwell’s MS, p. 297; from the recitation of Mrs Traill of - Paisley. - - 1 - O waly, waly up the bank! - And waly, waly doun the brae! - And waly, waly by yon burn-side, - Whare me and my luve was wont to gae! - - 2 - If I had kent what I ken now, - I wud neer hae crossed the waters o Tay; - For an I had staid at Argyle’s yetts, - I might hae been his lady gay. - - 3 - When I lay sick, and very sick, - And very sick, just like to die, - A gentleman, a friend of mine own, - A gentleman came me to see; - But Blackliewoods sounded in my luve’s ears - He was too long in chamer with me. - - 4 - O woe be to thee, Blackliewoods. - But an an ill death may you die! - Thou’s been the first and occasion last - That eer put ill twixt my luve and me. - - 5 - ‘Come down the stairs now, Jamie Douglas, - Come down the stairs and drink wine wi me; - I’ll set thee in a chair of gold, - And it’s not one penny it will cost thee.’ - - 6 - ‘When cockle-shells grow silver bells, - And gowd grows oer yon lily lea, - When frost and snaw grows fiery bombs, - I will come down and drink wine wi thee.’ - - 7 - ‘What ails you at our youngest son, - That sits upon the nurse’s knee? - I’m sure he’s never done any harm - And it’s not to his ain nurse and me.’ - - 8 - My loving father got word of this, - But and an angry man was he; - He sent three score of his soldiers brave - To take me to my own countrie. - - * * * * * * - - 9 - ‘O fare ye weel now, Jamie Douglas! - And fare ye weel, my children three! - God grant your father may prove kind - Till I see you in my own countrie.’ - - 10 - When she was set into her coach - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - - 11 - ‘Cheer up your heart, my loving daughter, - Cheer up your heart, let your weeping bee! - A bill of divorce I will write to him, - And a far better lord I’ll provide for thee.’ - - 12 - It’s very true, and it’s often said, - The hawk she’s flown and she’s left her nest; - But a’ the warld may plainly see - They’re far awa that I luve best. - - * * * * * - - - I - - Motherwell’s MS., p. 500; from Mrs Notman. - - 1 - ‘O waly, waly up yon bank! - And waly, waly down yon brae! - And waly, waly by yon burn-bank, - Where me and my lord wont to gae! - - 2 - ‘A gentleman of good account, - A friend of mine, came to visit me, - And Blackly whispered in my lord’s ears - He was too long in chamber with me. - - 3 - ‘When my father came to hear ‘t, - I wot an angry man was he; - He sent five score of his soldiers bright - To take me safe to my own countrie. - - 4 - ‘Up in the mornin when I arose, - My bonnie palace for to lea, - And when I came to my lord’s door, - The neer a word he would speak to me. - - 5 - ‘Come down, come down, O Jamie Douglas, - And drink the Orange wine with me; - I’ll set thee in a chair of gold, - That neer a penny it cost thee.’ - - 6 - ‘When sea and sand turns foreign land, - And mussels grow on every tree, - When cockle-shells turn silver bells, - I’ll drink the Orange wine with thee.’ - - 7 - ‘Wae be to you, Blackly,’ she said, - ‘Aye and an ill death may you die! - You are the first, and I hope the last, - That eer made my lord lichtly me.’ - - 8 - ‘Fare ye weel then, Jamie Douglas! - I value you as little as you do me; - The Earl of Mar is my father dear, - And I soon will see my own countrie. - - 9 - ‘Ye thought that I was like yoursell, - And loving each ane I did see; - But here I swear, by the day I die, - I never loved a man but thee. - - 10 - ‘Fare ye weel, my servants all! - And you, my bonny children three! - God grant your father grace to be kind - Till I see you safe in my own countrie.’ - - 11 - ‘As I came into Edinburgh toune, - With trumpets sounding my father met me; - But no mirth nor musick sounds in my ear, - Since the Earl of March has forsaken me.’ - - 12 - ‘O hold your tongue, my daughter dear, - And of your weeping let abee; - I’ll send a bill of divorce to the Earl of March, - And get a better lord for thee.’ - - 13 - ‘Hold your tongue, my father dear, - And of your folly let abee; - No other lord shall lye in my arms, - Since the Earl of March has forsaken me. - - 14 - ‘An I had known what I know now, - I’d never crossed the water o Tay, - But stayed still at Atholl’s gates; - He would have made me his lady gay.’ - - 15 - When she came to her father’s lands, - The tenants a’ came her to see; - Never a word she could speak to them, - But the buttons off her clothes did flee. - - 16 - ‘The linnet is a bonnie bird, - And aften flees far frae its nest; - So all the warld may plainly see - They’re far awa that I luve best.’ - - * * * * * - - - J - - Motherwell’s MS., p. 299; from the recitation of Rebecca Dunse, a - native of Galloway, 4 May, 1825. “A song of her mother’s, an old - woman.” - - 1 - O waly, waly up yon bank! - And waly, waly doun yon brae! - And waly, waly by yon burn-side, - Where me and my luve used to gae! - - 2 - Oh Johnie, Johnie, but love is bonnie - A little while, when it is new; - But when love grows aulder, it grows mair caulder, - And it fades awa like the mornin dew. - - 3 - I leaned my back against an aik, - I thocht it was a trusty tree; - But first [it] bowed, and syne it brak, - And sae did my fause luve to me. - - 4 - Once I lay sick, and very sick, - And a friend of mine cam to visit me, - But the small bird whispered in my love’s ears - That he was ower lang in the room wi me. - - 5 - ‘It’s come down stairs, my Jamie Douglas, - Come down stairs, luve, and dine wi me; - I’ll set you on a chair of gold, - And court ye kindly on my knee.’ - - 6 - ‘When cockle-shells grow silver bells, - And gold it grows on every tree, - When frost and snaw turns fiery balls, - Then, love, I’ll come down and dine wi thee.’ - - 7 - If I had known what I know now, - That love it was sae ill to win, - I should neer hae wet my cherry cheek - For onie man or woman’s son. - - 8 - When my father he cam to know - That my first luve had sae slighted me, - He sent four score of his soldiers bright - To guard me home to my own countrie. - - 9 - Slowly, slowly rose I up, - And slowly, slowly I came down, - And when he saw me sit in my coach, - He made his drums and trumpets sound. - - 10 - It’s fare ye weel, my pretty palace! - And fare ye weel, my children three! - And I hope your father will get mair grace, - And love you better than he’s done to me. - - 11 - When we came near to bonnie Edinburgh toun, - My father cam for to meet me; - He made his drums and trumpets sound, - But they were no comfort at all to me. - - 12 - ‘It’s hold your tongue, my daughter dear, - And of your weeping pray let be; - For a bill of divorcement I’ll send to him, - And a better husband I’ll you supply.’ - - 13 - ‘O hold your tongue, my father dear, - And of your folly pray now let be; - For there’s neer a lord shall enter my bower, - Since my first love has so slighted me.’ - - * * * * * - - - K - - Motherwell’s MS., p. 302; from Jean Nicol. - - 1 - O waly, waly up the bank! - And waly, waly doun the brae! - And waly by yon river-side, - Where me and my love were wont to gae! - - 2 - A gentleman, a friend of mine, - Came to the toun me for to see, - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - - 3 - ‘Come doun the stair, Jamie Douglas, - Come doun the stair and drink wine wi me; - For a chair of gold I will set thee in, - And not one farthing it will cost thee.’ - - 4 - ‘When cockle-shells grow siller bells, - And mussels grow on ilka tree, - When frost and snaw turns out fire-bombs, - Then I’ll come doun and drink wine wi thee.’ - - 5 - But when her father heard of this, - O but an angry man was he! - And he sent four score of his ain regiment - To bring her hame to her ain countrie. - - 6 - O when she was set in her coach and six, - And the saut tear was in her ee, - Saying, Fare you weel, my bonnie palace! - And fare ye weel, my children three! - - 7 - O when I came into Edinburgh toun, - My loving father for to see, - The trumpets were sounding on every side, - But they were not music at all for me. - - 8 - ‘O hold your tongue, my daughter dear, - And of your folly I pray let be; - For a bill of divorcement I’ll send him, - And a better lord I’ll provide for thee.’ - - 9 - ‘O hold your tongue, my father dear, - And of your folly I pray let be; - For if I had stayed in fair Orange Green, - I might have been his gay ladye.’ - - * * * * * - - - L - - Finlay’s Scottish Ballads, II, 1, a collation of three copies, one - of which was #M#. - - 1 - When I fell sick, an very sick, - An very sick, just like to die, - A gentleman of good account - He cam on purpose to visit me; - But his blackie whispered in my lord’s ear - He was owre lang in the room wi me. - - 2 - ‘Gae, little page, an tell your lord, - Gin he will come and dine wi me - I’ll set him on a chair of gold - And serve him on my bended knee.’ - - 3 - The little page gaed up the stair: - ‘Lord Douglas, dine wi your ladie; - She’ll set ye on a chair of gold, - And serve you on her bended knee.’ - - 4 - ‘When cockle-shells turn silver bells, - When wine drieps red frae ilka tree, - When frost and snaw will warm us a’, - Then I’ll cum down an dine wi thee.’ - - 5 - But whan my father gat word o this, - O what an angry man was he! - He sent fourscore o his archers bauld - To bring me safe to his countrie. - - 6 - When I rose up then in the morn, - My goodly palace for to lea, - I knocked at my lord’s chamber-door, - But neer a word wad he speak to me. - - 7 - But slowly, slowly, rose he up, - And slowly, slowly, cam he down, - And when he saw me set on my horse, - He caused his drums and trumpets soun. - - 8 - ‘Now fare ye weel, my goodly palace! - And fare ye weel, my children three! - God grant your father grace to love you - Far more than ever he loved me.’ - - 9 - He thocht that I was like himsel, - That had a woman in every hall; - But I could swear, by the heavens clear, - I never loved man but himsel. - - 10 - As on to Embro town we cam, - My guid father he welcomed me; - He caused his minstrels meet to sound, - It was nae music at a’ to me. - - 11 - ‘Now haud your tongue, my daughter dear, - Leave off your weeping, let it be; - For Jamie’s divorcement I’ll send over; - Far better lord I’ll provide for thee.’ - - 12 - ‘O haud your tongue, my father dear, - And of such talking let me be; - For never a man shall come to my arms, - Since my lord has sae slighted me.’ - - 13 - O an I had neer crossed the Tweed, - Nor yet been owre the river Dee, - I might hae staid at Lord Orgul’s gate, - Where I wad hae been a gay ladie. - - 14 - The ladies they will cum to town, - And they will cum and visit me; - But I’ll set me down now in the dark, - For ochanie! who’ll comfort me? - - 15 - An wae betide ye, black Fastness, - Ay, and an ill deid may ye die! - Ye was the first and foremost man - Wha parted my true lord and me. - - * * * * * - - - M - - Herd’s MSS, I, 54. - - 1 - Earl Douglas, than wham never knight - Had valour moe ne courtesie, - Yet he’s now blamet be a’ the land - For lightlying o his gay lady. - - 2 - ‘Go, little page, and tell your lord, - Gin he will cum and dine wi me, - I’ll set him on a seat of gold, - I’ll serve him on my bended knee.’ - - 3 - The little page gaed up the stair: - ‘Lord Douglas, dyne wi your lady; - She’ll set ye on a seat of gold, - And serve ye on her bended knee.’ - - 4 - ‘When cockle-shells turn siller bells, - When mussels grow on ilka tree, - When frost and snow sall warm us a’, - Then I sall dyne wi my ladie.’ - - 5 - ‘Now wae betide ye, black Fastness, - Ay and an ill dead met ye die! - Ye was the first and the foremost man - Wha parted my true lord and me.’ - - * * * * * - - - N - - Motherwell’s Minstrelsy, Appendix, p. v, the last three stanzas. - - 1 - She looked out at her father’s window, - To take a view of the countrie; - Who did she see but Jamie Douglas, - And along with him her children three! - - 2 - There came a soldier to the gate, - And he did knock right hastilie: - ‘If Lady Douglas be within, - Bid her come down and speak to me.’ - - 3 - ‘O come away, my lady fair, - Come away now alang with me, - For I have hanged fause Blackwood, - At the very place where he told the lie.’ - - * * * * * - - - O - - Motherwell’s Minstrelsy, Appendix, p. xvii, IX. - - ‘O come down stairs, Jamie Douglas, - O come down stairs and speak to me, - And I’ll set thee in a fine chair of gowd, - And I’ll kindly daut thee upon my knee. - - * * * * * - - _Variations of_ Waly, Waly, _etc._ - -#a.# - - _Put among_ ‘Auld Sangs brushd up’ _in Ramsay’s “Contents,”_ p. - 329. _ Printed in eight-line stanzas._ - - 4. _Burns had heard this stanza “in the west country” thus - (Cromek’s Reliques,_ 1817, p. 245): - - O wherefore need I busk my head? - Or wherefore need I kame my hair? - Sin my fause luve has me forsook, - And says he’ll never luve me mair. - - 7^3. my cry: me _in the London edition of 1733_. - -#b.# - - 1^1. up yon bank. - - 1^2. down yon brea. - - 1^3. And waly by yon river’s side. - - 1^4. Where my love and I was wont to gae. - - 2, 3 are 3, 2. - - 2^4. And sae did my fause love to me. - - 3^1. Waly, waly, gin love be bonny. - - 3^2. little while when. - - 3^3. it’s: waxes. - - 3^4. wears away like. - - 4. _Already given._ - - 6^1. O Martinmas. - - 6^4. And take a life that wearies me. - -#B.# - - 3^3. wlalking. - - 6^1. bells turn silver shells. - -#C.# - - _These variations in the second copy_ (I, 103) _are Kinloch’s_: - - 4^3. on a. - - 9^2. to thee. - - 12^2. let abee. - - 12^4. for thee. - - 13^1. father, I said. - - 13^3. ae kiss. - - 14^4. I’ll. - -#F.# - - 5^1. _For_ gentlemen _Motherwell queries,_ lairds and lords? - - 9^1. Earl of Marquis; March _queried by Motherwell. It is_ March - _in #I#._ - -#I.# - - 5^2, 6^4. Orange, _not_ orange, _in the MS._ - - 6^1. _Motherwell queries_ far in _for_ foreign. - -#J.# - - 2^1. nonnie, nonny _is written in pencil by Motherwell between 1 - and 2; no doubt as a conjectural emendation of_ Johnie, Johnie. - -#L.# - - _2, 3, 4, 15 are #M# 2–5, with slight changes_. - - 1^5. _“One copy here bears_ black-bird _and another_ a fause - bird.” _(Finlay.)_ - - 13^3. Lord Orgul. _“This name is differently given by reciters.” - (Finlay.)_ - - 15^1. Fastness _as a proper name, but evidently meant for_ - faustness, falseness, _as Motherwell has observed._ - -#M.# - - Quham, quhen, quha _are printed_ wham, when, wha; zet, ze, zour, - _are printed_ yet, ye, your. - -#N.# - - Motherwell’s ballad is “traditionary” to the extent that it is - substantially made up from traditionary material. The text of - the recited copies is not always strictly adhered to. The fifth - stanza happens not to occur in the texts used, but may have come - in in some other recitation obtained by Motherwell, or may - simply have been adopted from Ramsay. The three last stanzas - (#N#) are from some recitation not preserved in Motherwell’s - relics. Neglecting unimportant divergencies, the constituent - parts are as follows: - - 1==#H# 1^{1–3}, #G# 1^4. - - 2, 3==#J# 2, 3. - - 4==#F# 2. - - (5==Ramsay 4.) - - 6==#F# 3. - - 7==#I# 14. - - 8–10==#F# 4–6. - - 11==#F# 7^{1,2,4}, #H# 4^3. - - 12==#H# 3 (_see #E# 1^{4,5}, #L# 1^4_). - - 13==#F# 8. - - 14==#I# 5^{1–3}, #O#^4. - - 15==#I# 6. - - 16==#H# 7. - - 17==#J# 7. - - 18==#F# 11^2, #I# 3^{1,3,4}. - - 19, 20==#I# 4, 8. - - 21==#I# 9 (_see #L# 9^3_). - - 22==#J# 9. - - 23==#F# 12. - - 24==#J# 10. - - 25==#I# 10. - - 26==#I# 7^{1–3}, #G# 4^4. - - 27==#G# 13, #I# 11^{3,4}. - - 28==#F# 15, #G# 14. - - 29==#F# 16. - - 30, 31==#I# 15, 16. - - (_32 resembles #D# 10^{1,2}, 14^3,4; 33, #D# 11._) - - * * * * * - - - APPENDIX - - * * * * * - - - ARTHUR’S SEAT SHALL BE MY BED, ETC., OR, LOVE IN DESPAIR - -A new song much in request, sung with its own proper tune. - - Laing, Broadsides Ballads, No. 61, not dated but considered to have - been printed towards the end of the seventeenth or the beginning of - the eighteenth century, and probably at Edinburgh. - - 1 - Come lay me soft, and draw me near, - And lay thy white hand over me, - For I am starving in the cold, - And thou art bound to cover me. - - 2 - O cover me in my distress, - And help me in my miserie, - For I do wake when I should sleep, - All for the love of my dearie. - - 3 - My rents they are but very small - For to maintain my love withall, - But with my labour and my pain - I will maintain my love with them. - - 4 - O Arthur’s Seat shall be my bed, - And the sheets shall never be fil’d for me, - St Anthony’s well shall be my drink, - Since my true-love’s forsaken me. - - 5 - Should I be bound, that may go free? - Should I love them that loves not me? - I’le rather travel into Spain, - Where I’le get love for love again. - - 6 - And I’le cast off my robs of black, - And will put on the robs of blue, - And I will to some other land - Till I see my love will on me rue. - - 7 - It’s not the cold that makes me cry, - Nor is’t the weet that wearies me, - Nor is’t the frost that freezes fell; - But I love a lad, and I dare not tell. - - 8 - O faith is gone and truth is past, - And my true-love’s forsaken me; - If all be true that I hear say, - I’le mourn until the day I die. - - 9 - Oh, if I had nere been born - Than to have dy’d when I was young! - Then I had never wet my cheeks - For the love of any woman’s son. - - 10 - Oh, oh, if my young babe were born, - And set upon the nurse’s knee, - And I my self were dead and gone! - For a maid again I’le never be. - - 11 - Martinmas wind, when wilt thou blow, - And blow the green leafs off the tree - O gentle Death, when wilt thou come! - For of my life I am wearie. - - - 1^1. darw. - - - - - 205 - - LOUDON HILL, OR, DRUMCLOG - - ‘The Battle of Loudoun Hill,’ Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, - III, 188, 1803; II, 206, 1833. - - -The “gospel-lads,” otherwise self-styled the true Presbyterian party, -had in 1679, May 29 (observed both as the king’s birthday and the -anniversary of the Restoration), begun their testimony against the -iniquity of the times by publishing a Declaration, putting out loyal -bonfires, and burning all acts of Parliament obnoxious to Covenanters, -in retaliation for the burning of the Covenant at London seventeen years -before. They had intended to do this at Glasgow, but as Claverhouse had -established himself there, the demonstration was made at Rutherglen, a -little place two miles off. On the 31st Claverhouse laid hands on three -of the rioters and an outlawed minister. The Covenanters had appointed a -great meeting, an armed conventicle, for the next day, Sunday, June 1, -at Loudon Hill, on the borders of the shires of Ayr and Lanark. Not so -many came as were expected, for Claverhouse had been heard of, but there -were at least two hundred and fifty armed men; and these numbers were -subsequently increased.[78] It was resolved to rescue the prisoners -taken the day before, if the Lord should enable them, and in prosecution -of this object they moved on to Drumclog, a swampy farm two miles east -of Loudon Hill. The chief of command was Robert Hamilton, and with him -were associated John Balfour of Kinloch, called Burly, Hackston of -Rathillet, and others. What ensued is told in a frank letter of -Claverhouse, written the night of the same Sunday. - -The prisoners were to be conveyed to Glasgow. “I thought,” says -Claverhouse, “that we might make a little tour, to see if we could fall -upon a conventicle; which we did, little to our advantage. For, when we -came in sight of them, we found them drawn up in battle, upon a most -advantageous ground, to which there was no coming but through mosses and -lakes. They were not preaching, and had got away all their women and -children. They consisted of four battalions of foot, and all well armed -with fusils and pitchforks, and three squadrons of horse. We sent, both, -parties to skirmish, they of foot and we of dragoons; they run for it, -and sent down a battalion of foot against them (the dragoons). We sent -threescore of dragoons, who made them run again shamefully. But in the -end (they perceiving that we had the better of them in skirmish), they -resolved a general engagement, and immediately advanced with their foot, -the horse following. They came through the loch, and the greatest body -of all made up against my troop. We kept our fire till they were within -ten pace of us. They received our fire and advanced to shock. The first -they gave us brought down the cornet, Mr Crafford, and Captain Bleith. -Besides that, with a pitchfork, they made such an opening in my sorrel -horse’s belly that his guts hung out half an ell, and yet he carried me -off a mile; which so discouraged our men that they sustained not the -shock, but fell into disorder. Their horse took the occasion of this, -and pursued us so hotly that we got no time to rally. I saved the -standards, but lost on the place about eight or ten men, besides -wounded. But the dragoons lost many more. They are not come easily off -on the other side, for I saw several of them fall before we came to the -shock. I made the best retreat the confusion of our people would -suffer.”[79] - -The cornet killed was Robert Graham, the “nephew” of Claverhouse, of -whom so much is made in “Old Mortality.” There is no evidence beyond the -name to show that he was a near kinsman of his captain. The Covenanters -thought they had killed Claverhouse himself, because of the name Graham -being wrought into the cornet’s shirt, and treated the body with much -brutality. In ‘Bothwell Bridge,’ st. 12, Claverhouse is represented as -refusing quarter to the Covenanters in revenge for ‘his cornet’s -death.’[80] - - * * * * * - - 1 - You’l marvel when I tell ye o - Our noble Burly and his train, - When last he marchd up through the land, - Wi sax-and-twenty westland men. - - 2 - Than they I neer o braver heard, - For they had a’ baith wit and skill; - They proved right well, as I heard tell, - As they cam up oer Loudoun Hill. - - 3 - Weel prosper a’ the gospel-lads - That are into the west countrie - Ay wicked Claverse to demean, - And ay an ill dead may he die! - - 4 - For he’s drawn up i battle rank, - An that baith soon an hastilie; - But they wha live till simmer come. - Some bludie days for this will see. - - 5 - But up spak cruel Claverse then, - Wi hastie wit an wicked skill, - ‘Gae fire on you westlau men; - I think it is my sovreign’s will.’ - - 6 - But up bespake his cornet then, - ‘It’s be wi nae consent o me; - I ken I’ll neer come back again, - An mony mae as weel as me. - - 7 - ‘There is not ane of a’ yon men - But wha is worthy other three; - There is na ane amang them a’ - That in his cause will stap to die. - - 8 - ‘An as for Burly, him I knaw; - He’s a man of honour, birth, an fame; - Gie him a sword into his hand, - He’ll fight thysel an other ten.’ - - 9 - But up spake wicked Claverse then— - I wat his heart it raise fu hie— - And he has cry’d, that a’ might hear, - ‘Man, ye hae sair deceived me. - - 10 - ‘I never kend the like afore, - Na, never since I came frae hame, - That you sae cowardly here suld prove, - An yet come of a noble Græme.’ - - 11 - But up bespake his cornet then, - ‘Since that it is your honour’s will, - Mysel shall be the foremost man - That shall gie fire on Loudoun Hill. - - 12 - ‘At your command I’ll lead them on, - But yet wi nae consent o me; - For weel I ken I’ll neer return, - And mony mae as weel as me.’ - - 13 - Then up he drew in battle rank— - I wat he had a bonny train— - But the first time that bullets flew - Ay he lost twenty o his men. - - 14 - Then back he came the way he gaed, - I wat right soon an suddenly; - He gave command amang his men, - And sent them back, and bade them flee. - - 15 - Then up came Burly, bauld an stout, - Wi ‘s little train o westland men, - Wha mair than either aince or twice - In Edinburgh confind had been. - - 16 - They hae been up to London sent, - An yet they’re a’ come safely down; - Sax troop o horsemen they hae beat, - And chased them into Glasgow town. - - - - - 206 - - BOTHWELL BRIDGE - - Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, III, 209, 1803; II, 226, 1833. - From recitation. - - -The report of the success of the Covenanters at Drumclog brought four or -five thousand malcontents into the rising, many of whom, however, were -not radicals of the Hamilton type, but moderate Presbyterians. After not -a little moving up and down, they established their camp on the -nineteenth of June at Hamilton, on the south side of the Clyde, near the -point where the river is crossed by Bothwell Bridge. They were deficient -in arms and ammunition and in officers of military experience. “But,” as -a historian of their own party says, “the greatest loss was their want -of order and harmony among themselves; neither had they any person in -whom they heartily centred, nor could they agree upon the grounds of -their appearance.” Both before and after their final encampment at -Hamilton, they were principally occupied with debating what testimony -they should make against Popery, Prelacy, Erastianism, and the -Indulgence, and whether their declaration should contain an -acknowledgment of the king’s authority. Dissension ran high, “and -enemies had it to observe and remark that ministers preached and prayed -against one another.” - -The king named the Duke of Monmouth to command his army in Scotland. -Both the instructions which were given him and the duke’s own temper -were favorable to an accommodation. The royal forces were at Bothwell -Muir on the twenty-second of June, and their advanced guards within a -quarter of a mile of the bridge. The duke marched his army to an -eminence opposite the main body of the enemy, who lay on the moor (st. -10). The bridge was held by Hackston of Rathillet and other resolute -men. It was very defensible, being only twelve feet wide and rising from -each end to the middle, where there was a gate, and it was also -obstructed with stones. Early in the morning a deputation was sent by -the rebels to the duke to lay before him their demands. He heard them -patiently, and expressed his willingness to do all that he could for -them with the king, but would engage himself to nothing until they laid -down their arms. He gave them an hour to make up their mind. The -officers of the insurgents were unable to come to an agreement. -Hamilton, who assumed the general command, was against any pacific -arrangement, and no answer was returned. In the interim four -field-pieces had been planted against the bridge. The defenders -maintained themselves under the fire of these and of the musketeers and -dragoons until their own powder was exhausted, and then unwillingly -withdrew to the main body, by Hamilton’s order. The bridge was cleared -of obstructions, and the royal army crossed and advanced in order of -battle against the rebels on the moor. The first fire made the -Covenanters’ horse wheel about, and their retreat threw the nearest foot -into disorder; in consequence of which the whole army fell into -confusion. Twelve hundred surrendered without resistance, the rest fled, -and several hundred were killed in the pursuit.[81] - -1–9. William Gordon of Earlston, a hot Covenanter, while on his way to -Hamilton on the twenty-second to join the insurgents, fell in with some -dragoons who were pursuing his already routed copartisans, and, -resisting their attempt to make him prisoner, was killed. His son -Alexander, a man of more temperate views, was at Bothwell Bridge,[82] -and escaped. Although Earlston in st. 4 is represented as bidding -farewell to his father, the grotesque narrative with which the ballad -begins can be understood only of the father; sts. 7, 8 make this -certain. - -9. It seems to be meant, as grammar would require, that it is the -‘Lennox lad,’ and a Covenanter, that sets up ‘the flag of red set about -with blue.’ In “Old Mortality,” Sir Walter Scott makes the Covenanters -plant “the scarlet and blue colors of the Scottish covenant” on the keep -of Tillietudlem. Whether he had other authority than this ballad for the -scarlet, I have not been able to ascertain. All the flags of the -covenant may not have been alike, but all would probably have a ground -of blue, which is known to have been the Covenanters’ color. One flag, -which belonged to a Covenanter who figured at Drumclog and Bothwell -Bridge, has fortunately been preserved. It is of blue silk, with three -inscriptions, one of which is, “No Quarters to y^e Active Enimies of y^e -Covenant,” first painted in some light color, afterwards repainted in a -dull red. (Napier, I, xliv). - -The last half of the stanza must be spoken by Monmouth, and the tone of -it is more chivalrous than the circumstances call for. - -12–15. For Claverhouse’s cornet, see the preceding ballad. Captain John -Graham, for that was all he then was, was not conspicuous at Bothwell -Bridge. He commanded the horse on the right, and Captain Stuart the -dragoons on the left, when the advance was made on the Covenanters. He -was as capable of insubordination as Robert Hamilton was of Erastianism, -and it is nearly as unnecessary, at this day, to vindicate him from the -charge of cruelty as from that of procuring Monmouth’s execution six -years in advance of the fates.[83] - -‘Earlistoun,’ Chambers, Twelve Romantic Scottish Ballads, p. 26, is this -piece with the battle omitted, or stanzas 1–6, 7^{1,2}, 8^{3,4}, 16. - -Scott observes: “There is said to be another song upon this battle, once -very popular, but I have not been able to recover it.” - -There is a stall-ballad of Bothwell Brigg, not traditional, a very good -ballad of its sort, with a touching story and a kindly moral, which may -or may not be later than Sir Walter Scott’s day. It is of John Carr and -his wife Janet and a non-covenanting lady, who carries off John, badly -wounded, from the field (where he had fought better than most of his -party), and nurses him in her lord’s castle till he is well enough to be -visited by his wife. - - -Translated by Talvj, Charakteristik, p. 581. - - * * * * * - - 1 - ‘O billie, billie, bonny billie, - Will ye go to the wood wi me? - We’ll ca our horse hame masterless, - An gar them trow slain men are we.’ - - 2 - ‘O no, O no!’ says Earlstoun, - ‘For that’s the thing that mauna be; - For I am sworn to Bothwell Hill, - Where I maun either gae or die.’ - - 3 - So Earlstoun rose in the morning, - An mounted by the break o day, - An he has joind our Scottish lads, - As they were marching out the way. - - 4 - ‘Now, farewell, father! and farewell, mother! - An fare ye weel, my sisters three! - An fare ye well, my Earlstoun! - For thee again I—‘ll never see.’ - - 5 - So they’re awa to Bothwell Hill, - An waly, they rode bonnily! - When the Duke o Monmouth saw them comin, - He went to view their company. - - 6 - ‘Ye’re welcome, lads,’ then Monmouth said, - ‘Ye’re welcome, brave Scots lads, to me; - And sae are you, brave Earlstoun, - The foremost o your company. - - 7 - ‘But yield your weapons ane an a’, - O yield your weapons, lads, to me; - For, gin ye’ll yield your weapons up, - Ye’se a’ gae hame to your country.’ - - 8 - Out then spak a Lennox lad, - And waly, but he spoke bonnily! - ‘I winna yield my weapons up, - To you nor nae man that I see.’ - - 9 - Then he set up the flag o red, - A’ set about wi bonny blue: - ‘Since ye’ll no cease, and be at peace, - See that ye stand by ither true.’ - - 10 - They stelld their cannons on the height, - And showrd their shot down in the how, - An beat our Scots lads even down; - Thick they lay slain on every know. - - 11 - As eer you saw the rain down fa, - Or yet the arrow frae the bow, - Sae our Scottish lads fell even down, - An they lay slain on every know. - - 12 - ‘O hold your hand,’ then Monmouth cry’d, - ‘Gie quarters to yon men for me;’ - But wicked Claverhouse swore an oath - His cornet’s death revengd sud be. - - 13 - ‘O hold your hand,’ then Monmouth cry’d, - ‘If ony thing you’ll do for me; - Hold up your hand, you cursed Græme, - Else a rebel to our king ye’ll be.’ - - 14 - Then wicked Claverhouse turnd about— - I wot an angry man was he— - And he has lifted up his hat, - And cry’d, God bless his Majesty! - - 15 - Than he’s awa to London town, - Ay een as fast as he can dree; - Fause witnesses he has wi him taen, - An taen Monmouth’s head frae his body. - - 16 - Alang the brae beyond the brig, - Mony brave man lies cauld and still; - But lang we’ll mind, and sair we’ll rue, - The bloody battle of Bothwell Hill. - - - - - 207 - - LORD DELAMERE - - #A.# ‘The Long-armed Duke,’ first printed, about 1843, in a periodical - called the Story Teller; afterwards in Notes and Queries, First - Series, V, 243, 1852. - - #B.# ‘Devonshire’s Noble Duel with Lord Danby, in the year 1687,’ - Llewellynn Jewitt’s Ballads and Songs of Derbyshire, p. 55, 1867. - - #C.# Llewellynn Jewitt’s Ballads and Songs of Derbyshire, p. 57, two - stanzas. - - #D.# ‘Lord Delaware,’ Thomas Lyle’s Ancient Ballads and Songs, chiefly - from tradition, manuscripts, and scarce works, etc., London, 1827, - p. 125. ‘Lord Delamare,’ Motherwell’s MS., p. 539. Dixon, Ancient - Poems, Ballads and Songs of the Peasantry of England, p. 80, Percy - Society, vol. xvii, 1846; the same, ed. Robert Bell, 1857, p. 66. - - -Of #D# the editor says: “An imperfect copy ... was noted down by us from -the singing of a gentleman in this city [Glasgow], which has necessarily -been remodelled and smoothed down to the present measure, without any -other liberties, however, having been taken with the original narrative, -which is here carefully preserved as it was committed to us.” The air, -says Lyle, was “beautiful, and peculiar to the ballad.” - -E. Leigh, Ballads and Legends of Cheshire, p. 203, repeats #A#. - -Mr E. Peacock had an imperfect manuscript copy with the title ‘Lord -Delamere,’ beginning - - I wonder very much that our sovereign king - So many large taxes upon this land should bring. - - Notes and Queries, First Series, II, 104, 1851. - -Dr Rimbault remembered hearing a version sung at a village in -Staffordshire, about 1842, in which Hereford was substituted for -Devonshire: Notes and Queries, First Series, V, 348, 1852. - -Lord Delamere, upon occasion of the imposition of some new taxes, begs a -boon of the king, in the Parliament House; it is that he may have all -the poor men in the land down to Cheshire and hang them, since it would -be better for them to be hanged than to be starved. A French (Dutch) -lord says that Delamere ought to be stabbed for publicly affronting the -king. The Duke of Devonshire offers himself to fight for Delamere, and a -stage is set up for a duel to the utterance. Devonshire’s sword bends at -the first thrust and then breaks. An English lord who is standing by -(Willoughby, #B#) gives him another, and advises him to play low, for -there is treachery. Devonshire drops on his knee and gives his -antagonist his death-wound. The king orders the dead man to be taken -away, but Devonshire insists on first examining the body. He finds that -the French lord had been wearing armor, and the king’s armor, while he -himself was fighting bare. He reproaches the king with the purpose of -taking his life, and tells him that he shall not have his armor back -until he wins it. - -According to the title of #B#, the duel was between Devonshire and Lord -Danby, and in 1687. The other party is, however, called a Dutch lord in -the ballad. The king is James. Delamere is said to be under age (he was -thirty-five in 1687). - -In #D#, Delamere is changed to Delaware, of Lincolnshire; the Duke of -Devonshire is called a Welsh lord, and fights a Dutch lord in defence of -_young_ Delaware. When Devonshire’s sword breaks, he springs from the -stage, borrows another from a soldier in the ring, and leaps back to the -stage. - -It is scarcely necessary to say that the duel is on a par for historical -verity with that in ‘Johnie Scot’ (No 99). If there was to be a duel, -Devonshire (Earl, he was not created Duke till 1694, the last year of -Delamere’s life) was well chosen for the nonce. He had fought with Lord -Mohun, in 1676, and was credited with challenging Count Königsmark, in -1682. What is true in the ballad is that Delamere was a strenuous and -uncompromising advocate of constitutional government, and that he and -Devonshire were political and personal friends. Both were particularly -active in bringing in the Prince of Orange; and so was Lord Danby, with -whom, according to the title of #B#, Devonshire was fighting the duel -the year before the revolution. - -It has been suggested,[84] and it is barely conceivable, that the ballad -may have grown out of a perverted report of the affair of the Earl of -Devonshire with Colonel Colepepper. - -“On Sunday the 24th of April, 1687, the said earl, meeting on Colonel -Culpepper in the drawing-room in Whitehall (who had formerly affronted -the said earl in the king’s palace, for which he had not received any -satisfaction), he spake to the said colonel to go with him into the next -room, who went with him accordingly; and when they were there, the said -earl required of him to go down stairs, that he might have satisfaction -for the affront done him, as aforesaid; which the colonel refusing to -do, the said earl struck him with his stick, as is supposed.”[85] For -this, Devonshire was summoned to the King’s Bench and required to give -sureties to the amount of £30,000 that he would appear to stand trial. -Delamere was surety for £5,000. Devonshire was in the end fined £30,000, -and Delamere made a strong plea, apparently in the House of Lords, -against the legality of the proceedings of the court. - -There is the slightest possible similitude here to the facts of the -ballad. It is merely that one party stands up for the other; but -Delamere appears as the champion of Devonshire, not Devonshire of -Delamere. If Devonshire had testified for Delamere when the latter was -tried for high treason in 1686, there would be something to go upon. A -more plausible explanation is desirable. - - * * * * * - - - A - - Taken down from recitation in Derbyshire, and first printed, about - 1843, in a periodical called The Story Teller; afterwards in Notes - and Queries, First Series, V, 243, by C. W. G. - - 1 - Good people, give attention, a story you shall hear, - It is of the king and my lord Delamere; - The quarrel it arose in the Parliament House, - Concerning some taxations going to be put in force. - Ri toora loora la. - - 2 - Says my lord Delamere to his Majesty soon, - ‘If it please you, my liege, of you I’ll soon beg a boon.’ - ‘Then what is your boon? let me it understand:’ - ‘It’s to have all the poor men you have in your land. - - 3 - ‘And I’ll take them to Cheshire, and there I will sow - Both hempseed and flaxseed, and [hang] them all in a row. - Why, they’d better be hanged, and stopped soon their breath, - If it please you, my liege, than to starve them to death.’ - - 4 - Then up starts a French lord, as we do hear, - Saying, ‘Thou art a proud Jack,’ to my lord Delamere; - ‘Thou oughtest to be stabbed’—then he turnd him about— - ‘For affronting the king in the Parliament House.’ - - 5 - Then up starts his grace, the Duke of Devonshire, - Saying, I’ll fight in defence of my lord Delamere. - Then a stage was erected, to battle they went, - To kill or to be killed was our noble duke’s intent. - - 6 - The very first push, as we do understand, - The duke’s sword he bended it back into his hand. - He waited a while, but nothing he spoke, - Till on the king’s armour his rapier he broke. - - 7 - An English lord, who by that stage did stand, - Threw Devonshire another, and he got it in his hand: - ‘Play low for your life, brave Devonshire,’ said he, - ‘Play low for your life, or a dead man you will be.’ - - 8 - Devonshire dropped on his knee, and gave him his death-wound; - O then that French lord fell dead upon the ground. - The king called his guards, and he unto them did say, - ‘Bring Devonshire down, and take the dead man away.’ - - 9 - ‘No, if it please you, my liege, no! I’ve slain him like a man; - I’m resolved to see what clothing he’s got on. - Oh, fie upon your treachery, your treachery!’ said he, - ‘Oh, king, ’twas your intention to have took my life away. - - 10 - ‘For he fought in your armour, whilst I have fought in bare; - The same thou shalt win, king, before thou does it wear.’ - Then they all turned back to the Parliament House, - And the nobles made obesiance with their hands to their mouths. - - 11 - ‘God bless all the nobles we have in our land, - And send the Church of England may flourish still and stand; - For I’ve injured no king, no kingdom, nor no crown, - But I wish that every honest man might enjoy his own.’ - - * * * * * - - - B - - Llewellynn Jewitt, Ballads and Songs of Derbyshire, 1867, p. 55, - from a broad-sheet. - - 1 - Good people give attention to a story you shall hear: - Between the king and my lord Delamere, - A quarrel arose in the Parliament House, - Concerning the taxes to be put in force. - With my fal de ral de ra. - - 2 - I wonder, I wonder that James, our good king, - So many hard taxes upon the poor should bring; - So many hard taxes, as I have heard them say - Makes many a good farmer to break and run away. - - 3 - Such a rout has been in the parliament, as I hear, - Betwixt a Dutch lord and my lord Delamere. - He said to the king, as he sat on the throne, - ‘If it please you, my liege, to grant me a boon.’ - - 4 - ‘O what is thy boon? Come, let me understand.’ - ‘’Tis to give me all the poor you have in the land; - I’ll take them down to Cheshire, and there I will sow - Both hemp-seed and flax-seed, and hang them in a row. - - 5 - ‘It’s better, my liege, they should die a shorter death - Than for your Majesty to starve them on earth.’ - With that up starts a Dutch lord, as we hear, - And he says, ‘Thou proud Jack,’ to my lord Delamere, - - 6 - ‘Thou ought to be stabbed,’ and he turned him about, - ‘For affronting the king in the Parliament House.’ - Then up got a brave duke, the Duke of Devonshire, - Who said, I will fight for my lord Delamere. - - 7 - ‘He is under age, as I’ll make it appear, - So I’ll stand in defence of my lord Delamere.’ - A stage then was built, and to battle they went, - To kill or be killed it was their intent. - - 8 - The very first blow, as we understand, - Devonshire’s rapier went back to his hand; - Then he mused awhile, but not a word spoke, - When against the king’s armour his rapier he broke. - - 9 - O then he stept backward, and backward stept he, - And then stept forward my lord Willoughby; - He gave him a rapier, and thus he did say; - Play low, Devonshire, there’s treachery, I see. - - 10 - He knelt on his knee, and he gave him the wound, - With that the Dutch lord fell dead on the ground: - The king calld his soldiers, and thus he did say: - Call Devonshire down, take the dead man away. - - 11 - He answered, My liege, I’ve killed him like a man, - And it is my intent to see what clothing he’s got on. - O treachery! O treachery! as I well may say, - It was your intent, O king, to take my life away. - - 12 - ‘He fought in your armour, while I fought him bare, - And thou, king, shalt win it before thou dost it wear; - I neither do curse king, parliament, or throne, - But I wish every honest man may enjoy his own. - - 13 - ‘The rich men do flourish with silver and gold, - While poor men are starving with hunger and cold; - And if they hold on as they have begun, - They’ll make little England pay dear for a king.’ - - * * * * * - - - C - - Llewellynn Jewitt’s Ballads and Songs of Derbyshire, p. 57. “Another - version, which I have in MS., has, besides many minor variations, - these verses.” - - 1 - O the Duchess of Devonshire was standing hard by; - Upon her dear husband she cast her lovely eye: - ‘Oh, fie upon treachery! there’s been treachery I say, - It was your full intent to have taen my duke’s life away.’ - - 2 - Then away to the parliament these votes all went again, - And there they acted like just and honest men. - I neither curse my king, nor kingdom, crown or throne, - But I wish every honest man to enjoy but what is his own. - - * * * * * - - - D - - T. Lyle’s Ancient Ballads and Songs, p. 135, 1827, as “noted down - from the singing of a gentleman,” and then “remodelled and smoothed - down” by the editor. - - 1 - In the Parliament House a great rout has been there, - Betwixt our good king and the lord Delaware: - Says Lord Delaware to his Majesty full soon, - ‘Will it please you, my liege, to grant me a boon?’ - - 2 - ‘What’s your boon?’ says the king, ‘now let me understand.’ - ‘It’s, give me all the poor men we’ve starving in this land, - And without delay I’ll hie me to Lincolnshire, - To sow hemp-seed and flax-seed, and hang them all there. - - 3 - ‘For with hempen cord it’s better to stop each poor man’s breath - Than with famine you should see your subjects starve to death.’ - Up starts a Dutch lord, who to Delaware did say, - Thou deservest to be stabbd! then he turnd himself away. - - 4 - ‘Thou deservest to be stabbd, and the dogs have thine ears, - For insulting our king, in this parliament of peers.’ - Up sprang a Welsh lord, the brave Duke of Devonshire: - ‘In young Delaware’s defence, I’ll fight this Dutch lord, my sire. - - 5 - ‘For he is in the right, and I’ll make it so appear; - Him I dare to single combat, for insulting Delaware.’ - A stage was soon erected, and to combat they went; - For to kill or to be killd, it was either’s full intent. - - 6 - But the very first flourish, when the heralds gave command, - The sword of brave Devonshire bent backward on his hand. - In suspense he paused a while, scannd his foe before he strake, - Then against the king’s armour his bent sword he brake. - - 7 - Then he sprang from the stage to a soldier in the ring, - Saying, Lend your sword, that to an end this tragedy we bring. - Though he’s fighting me in armour, while I am fighting bare, - Even more than this I’d venture for young Lord Delaware. - - 8 - Leaping back on the stage, sword to buckler now resounds, - Till he left the Dutch lord a bleeding in his wounds. - This seeing, cries the king to his guards without delay, - Call Devonshire down! take the dead man away! - - 9 - ‘No,’ says brave Devonshire, ‘I’ve fought him as a man; - Since he’s dead, I will keep the trophies I have won. - For he fought me in your armour, while I fought him bare, - And the same you must win back, my liege, if ever you them wear. - - 10 - ‘God bless the Church of England! may it prosper on each hand, - And also every poor man now starving in this land. - And while I pray success may crown our king upon his throne, - I’ll wish that every poor man may long enjoy his own.’ - - * * * * * - -#A.# - - 4^1. Dutch _for_ French, _according to some reciters._ - - 8^2. Oh. - -#B.# - - 4^1, 9^1. Oh. - -#C.# - - 1^1. Oh. - -#D.# - - _Printed by Lyle in stanzas of eight short lines._ - - _The copy in Motherwell’s MS. is not in Motherwell’s handwriting. - It may have been written down from recollection of Lyle, or may - have been arbitrarily altered._ - - _The variations are as follows:_ - - 1^2. Delamare, _and always_. - - 2^1. pray let. - - 2^2. now _for_ we’ve. - - 2^4. with flax seed. - - 3^1. the poor men’s. - - 4^2. or _for_ our. - - 5^1. it _wanting_. - - 6^2. in his. - - 6^3. the stroke. - - 6^4. broke. - - 7^1. The sprang. - - 8^2. he laid. - - 8^3. to the. - - 9^4. must won: my liege _wanting_. - - 10^1. bliss. - - 10^3. the king. - - - - - 208 - - LORD DERWENTWATER - - #A.# ‘Lord Dunwaters,’ Motherwell’s MS., p. 331; ‘Lord Derwentwater,’ - Motherwell’s Minstrelsy, p. 349. - - #B.# ‘Lord Derwentwater,’ Notes and Queries, First Series, XII, 492. - - #C.# Bell’s Rhymes of Northern Bards, 1812, p. 225, three stanzas. - - #D.# ‘Lord Derntwater,’ Kinloch MSS, I, 323. - - #E.# ‘Lord Derwentwater,’ Notes and Queries, Fourth Series, XI, 499. - - #F.# ‘Lord Arnwaters,’ Buchan’s MSS, II, 478. - - #G.# ‘Lord Dunwaters,’ Motherwell’s MS., p. 126. - - #H.# ‘Lord Derwentwater’s Death,’ Shropshire Folk-Lore, edited by - Charlotte Sophia Burne, p. 537. - - #I.# The Gentleman’s Magazine, vol. xcv, 1825, Part First, p. 489. - - -Three stanzas of this ballad were printed in 1812 (#C#). #I# followed in -1825, a full copy, which would have been a very good one had it been -given as taken down, and not restored “to something like poetical -propriety.”[86] The editor of the “old song” observes that it was one of -the most popular in the north of England for a long period after the -event which it records, and a glance at what is here brought together -will show that the ballad was at least equally popular in Scotland. #I# -is repeated in Richardson’s Borderer’s Table-Book, VI, 291, and in -Harland and Wilkinson’s Ballads and Songs of Lancashire, 1882, p. 265. -Mr J. H. Dixon, in Notes and Queries, 4th Series, XI, 389, says that the -ballad “originally appeared in the Town and Country Magazine.” - -‘Lord Derwentwater’s Goodnight,’ Hogg’s Jacobite Relics, II, 30, 268, -was both communicated and composed by Robert Surtees. ‘Derwentwater,’ -Cromek’s Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song, 1810, p. 127, is from -the pen of Allan Cunningham. It is repeated in Hogg’s Jacobite Relics, -1821, II, 28, and in Cunningham’s Songs of Scotland, 1825, III, 192, -etc.; also in Kinloch MSS, V, 413, with two lines to fill out an eighth -stanza. (Translated by Loève-Veimars, p. 375.) ‘Young Ratcliffe,’ -Sheldon’s Minstrelsy of the English Border, p. 400, is another ballad of -the same class. - - -James Ratcliffe, Earl of Derwentwater, being suspected or known to be -engaged in concerting a rising in the north of England in behalf of the -Pretender, a warrant was issued by the Secretary of State for his -apprehension, towards the end of September, 1715. Hereupon he took arms, -and he was one of the fifteen hundred English and Scots who were forced -to an inglorious surrender at Preston, November 14. The more -distinguished prisoners were conveyed to London, where they had a -boisterous reception from the mob. Derwentwater was committed to the -Tower, December 9; was impeached of high treason, and pleaded guilty, in -January; was sentenced to death, February 9, at Westminster Hall, and -was executed February 24 (1716). In a paper which he read from the -scaffold he stated that he had regarded his plea of guilty as a -formality consequent upon his “having submitted to mercy,” and declared -that he had never had “any other but King James the Third for his -rightful and lawful sovereign.” - -Derwentwater had not attained the age of twenty-seven at the time of his -death. We may believe that the character given of him by the renegade -Patten was not overcharged: “The sweetness of his temper and -disposition, in which he had few equals, had so secured him the -affection of all his tenants, neighbors, and dependants that multitudes -would have lived and died with him. The truth is, he was a man formed by -nature to be generally beloved, for he was of so universal a beneficence -that he seemed to live for others. As he lived among his own people, -there he spent his estate, and continually did offices of kindness and -good neighborhood to everybody, as opportunity offered. He kept a house -of generous hospitality and noble entertainment, which few in that -country do, and none come up to. He was very charitable to poor and -distressed families on all occasions, whether known to him or not, and -whether Papist or Protestant. His fate will be sensibly felt by a great -many who had no kindness for the cause he died in.” - -The king’s letter, which, in the ballad, summons Derwentwater to London -(to answer for his head, #D# 3), suggests the Secretary of State’s -warrant of arrest, which his lordship, unhappily for himself, evaded. -But very probably the ballad-maker supposed Derwentwater to have gone -home after his less than six weeks in arms. As he is setting forth to -obey the mandate, his wife calls to him from child-bed to make his will. -This business does not delay him long: one third of his estate is to be -his wife’s, and the rest to go to his children. (He had a son not two -years old at the date of his execution, and a daughter who must have -been born, at the earliest, not much before the rising. His very large -estates first passed to the crown, and were afterwards bestowed on -Greenwich hospital.) Bad omens attend his departure. As he mounts his -horse, his ring drops from his finger, or breaks, and his nose begins to -bleed, #B# 5, #D# 6, #E# 8, #F# 9, #H# 7, #I# 10; presently his horse -stumbles, #A# 8, #E# 9, #F# 10, #I# 11; it begins to rain, #H# 8. When -he comes to London, to Westminster Hall, #B# 6, #F# 11, to Whitehall, -#D# 7, rides up Westminster Street, in sight of the White Hall, #I# 12, -the lords and knights, the lords and ladies, a mob, #H# 9, call him -“traitor.” How can that be, he answers, with surprise or indignation, -except for keeping five hundred men (five thousand, seven thousand, -eight score), to fight for King Jamie? #A# 10, #D# 8, #E# 11, #F# 12, -#H# 10, #I# 13. A man with an ax claims his life, which he ungrudgingly -resigns, #B# 8, #D# 9, 10, #E# 12, 13, #F# 13, 14, #H# 11, 12, #I# 14, -15, directing that a good sum of money which he has in his pockets shall -be given to the poor, #A# 12, #D# 11, #E# 14, #F# 15, #I# 17. - -In #A# 2, #D# 12, Derwentwater seems to be taken for a Scot. - -Ellis, Brand’s Antiquities, 1813, II, 261, note, remarks that he had -heard in Northumberland that when the Earl of Derwentwater was beheaded, -the stream (the Divelswater) that runs past his seat at Dilston Hall -flowed with blood.[87] - -The Northern Lights (perhaps the red-colored ones) were peculiarly vivid -on the night of February 16, 1716, and were long called Lord -Derwentwater’s Lights in the north of England, where, it is said, many -of the people know (or knew) them by no other name. It was even a -popular belief that the aurora borealis was first seen on that night: -Notes and Queries, Third Series, IX, 154, 268; Gibson, Dilston Hall, p. -111. - -The omen of nose-bleed occurs in the ballad of ‘The Mother’s Malison,’ -No 216, #C#; both nose-bleed and horse-stumbling, as omens, in Webster’s -Dutchess of Malfi, Act II, Scene 2, Dyce, 1859, p. 70, cited, with other -cases, in Ellis’s ed. of Brand’s Antiquities, II, 497. - -‘Brig. Macintosh’s Farewell to the Highlands,’ or ‘Macintosh was a -Soldier Brave,’ is one half a Derwentwater ballad: see Harland’s Ballads -and Songs of Lancashire, 1865, p. 75, Ritson’s Northumberland Garland, -p. 85, Hogg’s Jacobite Relics, II, 102, etc. - - * * * * * - - - A - - Motherwell’s MS., p. 331, July 19, 1825, “from the recitation of - Agnes Lile, Kilbarchan, a woman verging on fifty;” learned from her - father, who died fourteen years before, at the age of eighty. - - 1 - Our king has wrote a lang letter, - And sealed it owre with gold; - He sent it to my lord Dunwaters, - To read it if he could. - - 2 - He has not sent it with a boy, with a boy, - Nor with anie Scotch lord; - But he’s sent it with the noblest knight - Eer Scotland could afford. - - 3 - The very first line that my lord did read, - He gave a smirkling smile; - Before he had the half o ‘t read, - The tears from his eyes did fall. - - 4 - ‘Come saddle to me my horse,’ he said, - ‘Come saddle to me with speed; - For I must away to fair London town, - For me was neer more need.’ - - 5 - Out and spoke his lady gay, - In child-bed where she lay: - ‘I would have you make your will, my lord Dunwaters, - Before you go away.’ - - 6 - ‘I leave to yon, my eldest son, - My houses and my land; - I leave to you, my second son, - Ten thousand pounds in hand. - - 7 - ‘I leave to you, my lady gay— - You are my wedded wife— - I leave to you, the third of my estate; - That’ll keep you in a lady’s life.’ - - 8 - They had not rode a mile but one, - Till his horse fell owre a stane: - ‘It’s warning gude eneuch,’ my lord Dunwaters said, - ‘Alive I’ll neer come hame.’ - - 9 - When they came into fair London town, - Into the courtiers’ hall, - The lords and knichts in fair London town - Did him a traitor call. - - 10 - ‘A traitor! a traitor!’ says my lord, - ‘A traitor! how can that be, - An it was na for the keeping of five thousand men - To fight for King Jamie? - - 11 - ‘O all you lords and knichts in fair London town, - Come out and see me die; - O all you lords and knichts into fair London town, - Be kind to my ladie. - - 12 - ‘There’s fifty pounds in my richt pocket, - Divide it to the poor; - There’s other fifty pounds in my left pocket, - Divide it from door to door.’ - - * * * * * - - - B - - Notes and Queries, First Series, XII, 492, 1855; learned some forty - five years before from an old gentleman, who, about 1773, got it by - heart from an old washerwoman singing at her tub. - - 1 - The king he wrote a love-letter, - And he sealed it up with gold, - And he sent it to Lord Derwentwater, - For to read it if he could. - - 2 - The first two lines that he did read, - They made him for to smile; - But the next two lines he looked upon - Made the tears from his eyes to fall. - - 3 - ‘Oh,’ then cried out his lady fair, - As she in child-bed lay, - ‘Make your will, make your will, Lord Derwentwater, - Before that you go away.’ - - 4 - ‘Then here’s for thee, my lady fair, - . . . . . . . - A thousand pounds of beaten gold, - To lead you a lady’s life.’ - - 5 - . . . . . . . - . . . his milk-white steed, - The ring dropt from his little finger, - And his nose it began to bleed. - - 6 - He rode, and he rode, and he rode along, - Till he came to Westminster Hall, - Where all the lords of England’s court - A traitor did him call. - - 7 - ‘Oh, why am I a traitor?’ said he; - ‘Indeed, I am no such thing; - I have fought the battles valiantly - Of James, our noble king.’ - - 8 - O then stood up an old gray-headed man, - With a pole-axe in his hand: - ‘’Tis your head, ’tis your head, Lord Derwentwater, - ’Tis your head that I demand.’ - - 9 - . . . . . . . - His eyes with weeping sore, - He laid his head upon the block, - And words spake never more. - - * * * * * - - - C - - Bell’s Rhymes of Northern Bards, 1812, p. 225. - - 1 - The king has written a broad letter, - And seald it up with gold, - And sent it to the lord of Derwentwater, - To read it if he would. - - 2 - He sent it with no boy, no boy, - Nor yet with eer a slave, - But he sent it with as good a knight - As eer a king could have. - - 3 - When he read the three first lines, - He then began to smile; - And when he read the three next lines - The tears began to sile. - - * * * * * - - - D - - Kinloch MSS, I, 323. - - 1 - The king has written a braid letter, - And seald it up wi gowd, - And sent it to Lord Derntwater, - To read it if he coud. - - 2 - The first lines o ‘t that he read, - A blythe, blythe man was he; - But ere he had it half read through, - The tear blinded his ee. - - 3 - ‘Go saddle to me my milk-white horse, - Go saddle it with speed; - For I maun ride to Lun[n]on town, - To answer for my head.’ - - 4 - ‘Your will, your will, my lord Derntwater, - Your will before ye go; - For you will leave three dochters fair, - And a wife to wail and woe.’ - - 5 - ‘My will, my will, my lady Derntwater? - Ye are my wedded wife; - Be kind, be kind to my dochters dear, - If I should lose my life.’ - - 6 - He set his ae fit on the grund, - The tither on the steed; - The ring upon his finger burst, - And his nose began to bleed. - - 7 - He rode till he cam to Lunnon town, - To a place they ca Whiteha; - And a’ the lords o merry England - A traitor him gan ca. - - 8 - ‘A traitor! a traitor! O what means this? - A traitor! what mean ye?’ - ‘It’s a’ for the keeping o five hundred men - To fecht for bonny Jamie.’ - - 9 - Then up started a gray-headed man, - Wi a braid axe in his hand: - ‘Your life, your life, my lord Derntwater, - Your life’s at my command.’ - - 10 - ‘My life, my life, ye old gray-headed man, - My life I’ll freely gie; - But before ye tak my life awa - Let me speak twa words or three. - - 11 - ‘I’ve fifty pounds in ae pocket, - Go deal it frae door to door; - I’ve fifty five i the other pocket, - Go gie it to the poor. - - 12 - ‘The velvet coat that I hae on, - Ye may tak it for your fee; - And a’ ye lords o merry Scotland - Be kind to my ladie!’ - - * * * * * - - - E - - Communicated to Notes and Queries, Fourth Series, XI, 499, 1873, by - Mr J. P. Morris, as taken down by him from the recitation of a woman - nearly seventy years of age, at Ulverston, North Lancashire. - - 1 - The king wrote a letter to my lord Derwentwater, - And he sealed it with gold; - He sent it to my Lord Derwentwater, - To read it if he could. - - 2 - He sent it by no boy, - He sent it by no slave, - But he sent it by as true a knight - As heart could wish or have. - - 3 - The very first line that he looked upon - Made him for to laugh and to smile; - The very next line that he looked upon, - The tears from his eyes did fall. - - 4 - He called to his stable-boy - To saddle his bonny grey steed, - ‘That I unto loving London - May ride away with speed.’ - - 5 - His wife heard him say so, - In childbed as she lay; - Says she, ‘My lord Derwentwater, - Make thy will before thou goest away.’ - - 6 - ‘It’s to my little son I give - My houses and my land, - And to my little daughter - Ten thousand pounds in hand. - - 7 - ‘And unto thee, my lady gay, - Who is my wedded wife, - The third part of my estate thou shalt have, - To maintain thee through thy life.’ - - 8 - He set his foot in the level stirrup, - And mounted his bonny grey steed; - The gold rings from his fingers did break, - And his nose began for to bleed. - - 9 - He had not ridden past a mile or two, - When his horse stumbled over a stone; - ‘These are tokens enough,’ said my lord Derwentwater, - ‘That I shall never return.’ - - 10 - He rode and he rode till he came to merry London, - And near to that famous hall; - The lords and knights of merry London, - They did him a traitor call. - - 11 - ‘A traitor! a traitor! a traitor!’ he cried, - ‘A traitor! how can that be, - Unless it’s for keeping five hundred men - For to fight for King Jamie?’ - - 12 - It’s up yon steps there stands a good old man, - With a broad axe in his hand; - Says he, ‘Now, my lord Derwentwater, - Thy life’s at my command.’ - - 13 - ‘My life, my life, thou good old man, - My life I’ll give to thee, - And the green coat of velvet on my back - Thou mayst take it for thy fee. - - 14 - ‘There’s fifty pounds and five in my right pocket, - Give that unto the poor; - There’s twenty pounds and five in my left pocket, - Deal that from door to door.’ - - 15 - Then he laid his head on the fatal block, - - * * * * * * - - - * * * * * - - - F - - Buchan’s MSS, II, 478. - - 1 - The king has written a broad letter, - And seald it with his hand, - And sent it on to Lord Arnwaters, - To read and understand. - - 2 - Now he has sent it by no boy, - No boy, nor yet a slave, - But one of England’s fairest knights, - The one that he would have. - - 3 - When first he on the letter lookd, - Then he began to smile; - But ere he read it to an end, - The tears did trickling fall. - - 4 - He calld upon his saddle-groom - To saddle his milk-white steed, - ‘For I unto London must go, - For me there is much need.’ - - 5 - Out then speaks his gay lady, - In child-bed where she lay: - ‘Make your will, make your will, my knight, - For fear ye rue the day.’ - - 6 - ‘I’ll leave unto my eldest son - My houses and my lands; - I’ll leave unto my youngest son - Full forty thousand pounds. - - 7 - ‘I’ll leave unto my gay lady, - And to my loving wife, - The second part of my estate, - To maintain a lady’s life.’ - - 8 - He kissd her on the pillow soft, - In child-bed where she lay, - And bade farewell, neer to return, - Unto his lady gay. - - 9 - He put his foot in the stirup, - His nose began to bleed; - The ring from ‘s finger burst in two - When he mounted on his steed. - - 10 - He had not rode a mile or two - Till his horse stumbled down; - ‘A token good,’ said Lord Arnwaters, - ‘I’ll never reach London town.’ - - 11 - But when into Westminster Hall, - Amongst the nobles all, - ‘A traitor, a traitor, Lord Arnwaters, - A traitor,’ they did him call. - - 12 - ‘A traitor? a traitor how call ye me? - And a traitor how can I be - For keeping seven thousand valiant men - To fight for brave Jamie?’ - - 13 - Up then came a brave old man, - With a broad ax in his hand: - ‘Your life, your life, Lord Arnwaters, - Your life’s at my command.’ - - 14 - ‘My life, my life, my brave old man, - My life I’ll give to thee, - And the coat of green that’s on my back - You shall have for your fee. - - 15 - ‘There’s fifty pounds in one pocket, - Pray deal ‘t among the poor; - There’s fifty and four in the other pocket, - Pray deal ‘t from door to door. - - 16 - ‘There’s one thing more I have to say, - This day before I die; - To beg the lords and nobles all - To be kind to my lady.’ - - * * * * * - - - G - - Motherwell’s MS., p. 126, from the recitation of Mrs Trail, Paisley, - July 9, 1825: a song of her mother’s. - - 1 - The king has wrote a long letter, - And sealed it with his han, - And he has sent it to my lord Dunwaters, - To read it if he can. - - 2 - The very first line he lookit upon, - It made him to lauch and to smile; - The very next line he lookit upon, - The tear from his eye did fall. - - 3 - ‘As for you, my auldest son, - My houses and my land; - And as for you, my youngest son, - Ten thousand pound in hand. - - 4 - ‘As for you, my gay lady, - You being my wedded wife, - The third of my estate I will leave to you, - For to keep you in a lady’s life.’ - - - * * * * * * - - - * * * * * - - - H - - Shropshire Folk-Lore, edited by Charlotte Sophia Burne, p. 537; as - recited in 1881 by Mrs Dudley, of Much Wenlock. - - 1 - The king he wrote a letter, - And sealëd it with gold, - And sent it to Lor Derwentwater, - To read it if he could. - - 2 - The first three lines he looked upon, - They made him to smile; - And the next three lines he looked upon - Made tears fall from his eyes. - - 3 - O then bespoke his gay lady, - As she on a sick-bed lay: - ‘Make your will, my lord, - Before you go away.’ - - 4 - ‘O there is for my eldest son - My houses and my land, - And there is for my youngest son - Ten thousand pounds in hand. - - 5 - ‘There is for you, my gay lady, - My true and lawful wife, - The third part of my whole estate, - To maintain you a lady’s life.’ - - 6 - Then he called to his stable-groom - To bring him his gray steed; - For he must to London go, - The king had sent indeed. - - 7 - When he put his foot in the stirrup, - To mount his grey steed, - His gold ring from his finger burst, - And his nose began to bleed. - - 8 - He had not gone but half a mile - When it began to rain; - ‘Now this is a token,’ his lordship said, - ‘That I shall not return again.’ - - 9 - When he unto London came, - A mob did at him rise, - And they callëd him a traitor, - Made the tears fall from his eyes. - - 10 - ‘A traitor, a traitor!’ his lordship said, - . . . . . . . - Is it for keeping eight score men - To fight for pretty Jimmee?’ - - 11 - O then bespoke a grave man, - With a broad axe in his hand: - ‘Hold your tongue, Lord Derwentwater, - Your life lies at my command.’ - - 12 - ‘My life, my life,’ his lordship said, - ‘My life I will give to thee, - And the black velvet coat upon my back, - Take it for thy fee.’ - - 13 - Then he laid his head upon the block, - He did such courage show, - And asked the executioner - To cut it off at one blow. - - * * * * * - - - I - - The Gentleman’s Magazine, 1825, vol. xcv, Part First, p. 489, taken - down by G. H., apparently in Westmoreland, from the dictation of an - old person who had learned it from her father; restored “to - something like poetical propriety” by the assistance of “a poetical - friend.” - - 1 - King George he did a letter write, - And sealed it up with gold, - And sent it to Lord Derwentwater, - To read it if he could. - - 2 - He sent his letter by no post, - He sent it by no page, - But sent it by a gallant knight - As eer did combat wage. - - 3 - The first line that my lord lookd on - Struck him with strong surprise; - The second, more alarming still, - Made tears fall from his eyes. - - 4 - He called up his stable-groom, - Saying, Saddle me well my steed, - For I must up to London go, - Of me there seems great need. - - 5 - His lady, hearing what he said, - As she in child-bed lay, - Cry’d, My dear lord, pray make your will - Before you go away. - - 6 - ‘I’ll leave to thee, my eldest son, - My houses and my land; - I’ll leave to thee, my younger son, - Ten thousand pounds in hand. - - 7 - ‘I’ll leave to thee, my lady gay, - My lawful married wife, - A third part of my whole estate, - To keep thee a lady’s life.’ - - 8 - He knelt him down by her bed-side, - And kissed her lips so sweet; - The words that passd, alas! presaged - They never more should meet. - - 9 - Again he calld his stable-groom, - Saying, Bring me out my steed, - For I must up to London go, - With instant haste and speed. - - 10 - He took the reins into his hand, - Which shook with fear and dread; - The rings from off his fingers dropt, - His nose gushd out and bled. - - 11 - He had but ridden miles two or three - When stumbling fell his steed; - ‘Ill omens these,’ Derwentwater said, - ‘That I for James must bleed.’ - - 12 - As he rode up Westminster street, - In sight of the White Hall, - The lords and ladies of London town - A traitor they did him call. - - 13 - ‘A traitor!’ Lord Derwentwater said, - ‘A traitor how can I be, - Unless for keeping five hundred men - Fighting for King Jemmy?’ - - 14 - Then started forth a grave old man, - With a broad-mouthd axe in hand: - ‘Thy head, thy head, Lord Derwentwater, - Thy head’s at my command.’ - - 15 - ‘My head, my head, thou grave old man, - My head I will give thee; - Here’s a coat of velvet on my back - Will surely pay thy fee. - - 16 - ‘But give me leave,’ Derwentwater said, - ‘To speak words two or three; - Ye lords and ladies of London town, - Be kind to my lady. - - 17 - ‘Here’s a purse of fifty sterling pounds, - Pray give it to the poor; - Here’s one of forty-five beside - You may dole from door to door.’ - - 18 - He laid his head upon the block, - The axe was sharp and strong, - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - - * * * * * - -#A.# - - 2^4. Ere. - - 7^3. the 3rd. - - _Motherwell has made a few changes in his printed copy._ - - 12. _This stanza is given in Notes and Queries, First Series, I, - 318, by a scholar of Christ’s Hospital, who informs us that the - ballad was there current about 1785–1800:_ - - There’s fifty pounds in my right pocket, - To be given to the poor; - There’s fifty pounds in my left pocket, - To be given from door to door. - -#E.# - - 1^2. And sealëd it with gold _in Mr J. P. Morris’s communication - to Notes and Queries, the same volume_, p. 333. - -#F.# - - 2^1. by and by: _cf._ #E# 2. - - 2^2. No one, no not a slave: _cf._ #E# 2. - -#I.# - - 18. _The remainder of four stanzas appended by_ G. H. _is - omitted._ - - - - - 209 - - GEORDIE - - #A.# ‘Geordie,’ Johnson’s Musical Museum, No. 346, p. 357, 1792. - - #B.# “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” Abbotsford, - 1802. - - #C. a.# ‘The Laird of Geight, or Gae.’ #b.# ‘The Laird of Geight.’ - “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” Abbotsford, - 1813–15. - - #D.# ‘The Laird of Gigh, or Gae,’ “Scotch Ballads, Materials for - Border Minstrelsy,” Abbotsford, 1813–15. - - #E. a.# Kinloch MSS, V, 130. #b.# ‘Geordie,’ Kinloch’s Ancient - Scottish Ballads, p. 192. - - #F.# ‘Geordie Lukely,’ Motherwell’s MS., p. 367. - - #G.# ‘Geordie,’ ‘Geordie Lukelie,’ Motherwell’s Note-Book, p. 17, p. - 10. - - #H.# ‘Will ye go to the Hielans, Geordie?’ Christie, Traditional - Ballad Airs, II, 44. - - #I. a.# ‘Gight’s Lady,’ Buchan’s MSS, II, 143. #b.# ‘Laird (Lord?) of - Gight,’ Kinloch MSS, VI, 1. - - #J.# ‘Gight’s Lady,’ Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, I, - 133. - - #K.# Motherwell’s MS., p. 400, two stanzas. - - #L.# ‘Geordie,’ Cunningham’s Songs of Scotland, II, 186, two stanzas. - - #M.# ‘Geordie,’ ‘Geordie Lukely,’ Motherwell’s Note-Book, p. 2, one - stanza. - - #N.# ‘Geordie,’ Motherwell’s Note-Book, p. 20, one stanza. - - -“Of this,” says Motherwell, “many variations exist among reciters,” and -his remark is borne out by what is here given. - -The copy in Cunningham’s Songs of Scotland, II, 186, is #A# retouched, -with st. 5 dropped and two stanzas (#L#) inserted from recitation. The -texts of Christie, #I#, 52, 84, are #J# abridged and #E b#. Of #J# -Christie says that he heard in 1848 a version sung by a native of -Buchan, Aberdeenshire, who had it through her grandmother and -great-grandmother, which differed only in being more condensed and -wanting the catastrophe, and in having Badenoch’s lady for Bignet’s, and -Keith-Hall and Gartly for Black Riggs and Kincraigie. - - -Geordie Gordon, #A#, of Gight (Gigh), #B b#, #C#, #D#, #I#, of the Bog o -Gight, #H#, is in prison, on a charge endangering his life. He sends a -message to his wife to come to Edinburgh. She rides thither with the -utmost haste, and finds Geordie in extremity. She is told that his life -may be redeemed by the payment of a large sum of money. She raises a -contribution on the spot, pays the ransom, and rides off with her -husband. - -Kinloch and others incline to take Geordie to be George Gordon, fourth -earl of Huntly, who incurred the Queen Regent’s displeasure for failing -to execute a commission against a Highland robber in 1554. Huntly was -committed to Edinburgh Castle, and some of his many enemies urged that -he should be banished to France, others that he should be put to death. -The Earl of Cassilis, though a foe to Huntly, resisted these measures on -grounds of patriotism, and proposed that he should be deprived of -certain honors and offices and fined. A fine was exacted, and the places -which had been taken from him were restored.[88] With regard to this -hypothesis, it may at least be said that, if it should be accepted, the -ballad would be quite as faithful to history as many others. - -#A#-#E# are the purer forms of the ballad; #F#-#J# are corrupted by -admixture. - -Geordie is Geordie Lukely of Stirling in #F#. In #G#, he is the Earl of -Cassilis, ‘of Hye,’ as if some singer of the Gordons had turned the -tables on Huntly’s enemy. In #H#, Geordie lives at the Bog o Gight, and -should be the Earl, or Marquis, of Huntly; but writers of peerages will -consult st. 17. - -There has been a battle in the North in #A#-#E#. Sir Charles Hay[89] has -been killed, and Geordie is in custody for this, #A#, #B#. Geordie has -killed a man and is to die, #C#; the man is his wife’s brother, #D#. In -#E#, Geordie is a rebel. - -#F# begins with two stanzas from a vulgar last-dying-speech, of which -more by and by: otherwise the story is not essentially injured, though -the style is lowered. Geordie (in the first two stanzas) has done many -an ill deed, but no murder or slaughter; he has stolen fifteen of the -king’s horse and sold them in Bohemia. Earl Cassilis, likewise, in #G#, -could not keep his hand off horses; he has stolen three geldings out of -a park and sold them to Balleny (Balveny). Huntly, if it be he, in #H#, -has only made free with the king’s deer. In #I#, #J#, Geordie has had an -intrigue with Bignet’s (Pilbagnet’s, Badenoch’s) lady, for which the -husband has thrown him into prison, and he is to die. But he owns to -more than this in #J#. Beginning with an acknowledgment of one of the -king’s best steeds stolen and sold in ‘Bevany,’ upon being pressed, he -confesses to a woman abused and five orphan babes killed for their -money. - -Geordie points his message to his wife in #C# 2, #D# 4, by begging her -to sew him or bring him his linen shirt (shirts), a good side shirt, -which will be the last he shall need, and a lang side sark is equally -prominent in the lady’s thoughts in #I# 8. - -The lady stops for nothing in her ride to Edinburgh. She will not, and -does not, eat or drink all the way, #A# 4, 5. When she comes to the -water-side, finding no boat ready, she swims the Queen’s Ferry, #B# 7, -#C# 5, #D# 9, #J# 13, #L# 1; or pays a boatman prodigally to take her -over, #H# 9, #I# 9, #J# 14. - -When the lady gaes oer the pier of Leith, comes to Edinburgh, to the -West Port, the Canongate, the Parliament Close, the tolbooth-stair, the -prison-door, she deals out crowns and ducatoons, makes the handfus o red -gold fly, among the numerous poor, and bids them pray for Geordie. She -has the prudence, in #G# 5, to do the same among the nobles many at the -tolbooth-gate, that they may plead for Geordie. - -The block and axe are in sight, and Geordie, in chains, is coming down -the stair, #A#; the napkin is laid over his face, and the gallows is -making ready, #B# (so #F#, but put further on), his head is to go, #C#; -the rest of the nobles sit (stand) hat on head, but hat in hand stands -Geordie, #D#, #E#, #H#, #I#, #J#, #L#. - -The lady makes a plea for her husband’s life. She is the mother of many -children (the tale ranges from six to eleven) and is going with yet -another, #B#, #C#, #K#, #N#. She would bear them all over again for the -life of Geordie, #C#, #D#, or see them all streekit before her eyes, -#B#; and for his life she will part with all that she owns, #A# 10, #B# -11, 16, #D# 14. - -The king in #A# is moved by neither of these appeals. The number of her -children is so far from affecting him that he orders the heading-man to -make haste. But the Gordons collect and pass the word to be ready. There -would have been bloody bouks upon the green.[90] - -The lady is told that by paying a good round sum, 5,000 (500) pounds, -10,000 (1000) crowns, she can redeem Geordie’s life. An aged lord -prompts the king to offer these terms in #A#; in the other versions, -they are proposed directly; by the king himself, #F#, #G#, #I#; by the -queen, #B#, #I#; by the good Argyle, #D#; by an English lord, #H#. The -bystanders contribute handsomely; she pays the ransom down, and wins the -life of Geordie, #A#-#D#, #G#-#J#. - -In #E#, which is a mere fragment, there is no fine or collection: a bold -baron says, such true lovers shall not be parted, and she gets her -Geordie forthwith. In #F#, no contribution is required, because the -lady, after scattering the red gold among the poor, is still in a -condition to produce the five thousand pound from her own pocket. For -this she receives a ‘remit,’ with which she hies to the gallows and -stops the impending execution. In #I b#, which is defective, the money -collected is to pay the jailer’s fee. After the discharge has been -secured (in two or three copies earlier), Lord Corstorph, #B a#, the -Laird o Logie, #B b#, an Irish lord, #C#, #H#, an English lord, #D#, the -_gleid_ Argyle, #I#, Lord Montague, #J#, expresses a wish that Geordie’s -head were off, because he might have succeeded to the lady. The lady -checks this aspiration, sometimes in very abusive language. - -The pair now ride off together, and when she is set in her saddle, no -bird in bush or on briar ever sang so sweet as she, #B#, #C#, #E#, #F#, -#H#, #I#. If we were to trust some of those who recite her story, the -lady who has shown so much spirit and devotion was not one of those who -blush to find good deeds fame. ‘Gar print me ballants that I am a worthy -lady,’ #B# 30 makes her say; ‘Hae me to some writer’s house, that I may -write down Gight’s lament and how I borrowed Geordie,’ #I a# 25; ‘Call -for one of the best clerks, that he may write all this I’ve done for -Geordie,’ #J# 36. What she really did say is perhaps faithfully given in -#D# 18: ‘Where is there a writer’s house, that I may write to the north -that I have won the life of Geordie?’ - -#I# and #J# are probably from stall-prints, and it has not been thought -necessary to notice some things which may have been put into these to -eke them out to a convenient length. #J# has an entirely spurious -supplement. When the pair are riding away, and even as the wife is -protesting her affection, Geordie turns round and says, A finger of -Bignet’s lady’s hand is worth a’ your fair body. A dispute ensues, and -Geordie pulls out a dagger and stabs his lady; he then takes to flight, -and never is found. Another set, mentioned by Motherwell, makes Geordie -drown his deliverer in the sea, in a fit of jealousy (Minstrelsy, p. -lxxvi, 46). - -There is an English broadside ballad, on the death of “George Stoole” -which seemed to Motherwell “evidently imitated from the Scottish song.” -This was printed by H. Gosson, whose time is put at 1607–41.[91] This -ballad was to be sung “to a delicate Scottish tune;” Georgy comes in as -a rhyme at the end of stanzas not seldom; Georgy writes to his lady, -bewailing his folly; he never stole no oxe nor cow, nor ever murdered -any, but fifty horse he did receive of a merchant’s man of Gory, for -which he was condemned to die, and did die. These are the data for -determining the question of imitation. - -There is a later ‘Georgy’ ballad, of the same general cast, on the life -and death of “George of Oxford,” a professed and confessed highwayman, a -broadside printed in the last quarter of the seventeenth century. In -this, Lady Gray hastens to Newcastle to beg Georgy’s life of the judge, -and offers gold and land to save him, after the fashion of Lady Ward in -‘Hughie Graham;’ to no purpose, as in ‘Hughie Graham.’ This Georgy owns -and boasts himself a thief, but with limitations much the same as those -which are made a point of by the other; he never stole horse, mare, or -cloven-foot, with one exception—the king’s white steeds, which he sold -to Bohemia. - -Both of these ballads are given in an appendix. - -Whether the writers of these English ballads knew of the Scottish -‘Geordie,’ I would not undertake to affirm or deny; it is clear that -some far-back reciter of the Scottish ballad had knowledge of the later -English broadside. The English ballads, however, are mere “goodnights.” -The Scottish ballads have a proper story, with a beginning, middle, and -end, and (save one late copy), a good end, and they are most certainly -original and substantially independent of the English. The Scottish -Geordie is no thief, nor even a Johnie Armstrong. There are certain -passages in certain versions which give that impression, it is true, but -these are incongruous with the story, and have been adopted from some -copy of the broadside, the later rather than the earlier. These are, the -first two stanzas of #F#, utterly out of place, where we have the king’s -horses stolen and sold in Bohemia, almost exactly as in the ballad of -‘George of Oxford,’ 15; #G# 7, where the Earl of Cassilis is made to -steal geldings and sell them in Balleny; and #J# 23, in which the Laird -of Gight steals one of the king’s steeds (precisely as in ‘George of -Oxford’) and sells it in Bevany. That is to say, we have the very -familiar case of the introduction (generally accidental and often -infelicitous) of a portion of one ballad into another; which, if -accidental in the present instance, would easily be accounted for by a -George being the hero in each. Further; the burden of #E#, embodied in -the ballad in two versions, #I# 27, #J# 35, has a general resemblance to -that of ‘George Stoole,’ and could hardly have been original with the -Scottish ballad. There was probably a ‘Geordie Luklie,’ a Scottish -variety of one of the English broadsides. - - -#G# is translated by Gerhard, p. 56; #A#, in part, by Knortz, -Schottische Balladen, p. 101. - - * * * * * - - - A - - Johnson’s Museum, No 346, p. 357, 1792; communicated by Robert - Burns. - - 1 - There was a battle in the north, - And nobles there was many, - And they hae killd Sir Charlie Hay, - And they laid the wyte on Geordie. - - 2 - O he has written a lang letter, - He sent it to his lady: - ‘Ye maun cum up to Enbrugh town, - To see what word’s o Geordie.’ - - 3 - When first she lookd the letter on, - She was baith red and rosy; - But she had na read a word but twa - Till she wallowt like a lily. - - 4 - ‘Gar get to me my gude grey steed, - My menyie a’ gae wi me, - For I shall neither eat nor drink - Till Enbrugh town shall see me.’ - - 5 - And she has mountit her gude grey steed, - Her menyie a’ gaed wi her, - And she did neither eat nor drink - Till Enbrugh town did see her. - - 6 - And first appeard the fatal block, - And syne the aix to head him, - And Geordie cumin down the stair, - And bands o airn upon him. - - 7 - But tho he was chaind in fetters strang, - O airn and steel sae heavy, - There was na ane in a’ the court - Sae bra a man as Geordie. - - 8 - O she’s down on her bended knee, - I wat she’s pale and weary: - ‘O pardon, pardon, noble king, - And gie me back my dearie! - - 9 - ‘I hae born seven sons to my Geordie dear, - The seventh neer saw his daddie; - O pardon, pardon, noble king, - Pity a waefu lady!’ - - 10 - ‘Gar bid the headin-man mak haste,’ - Our king reply’d fu lordly: - ‘O noble king, tak a’ that’s mine, - But gie me back my Geordie!’ - - 11 - The Gordons cam, and the Gordons ran, - And they were stark and steady, - And ay the word amang them a’ - Was, Gordons, keep you ready! - - 12 - An aged lord at the king’s right hand - Says, Noble king, but hear me; - Gar her tell down five thousand pound, - And gie her back her dearie. - - 13 - Some gae her marks, some gae her crowns, - Some gae her dollars many, - And she’s telld down five thousand pound, - And she’s gotten again her dearie. - - 14 - She blinkit blythe in her Geordie’s face, - Says, Dear I’ve bought thee, Geordie; - But there sud been bluidy bouks on the green - Or I had tint my laddie. - - 15 - He claspit her by the middle sma, - And he kist her lips sae rosy: - ‘The fairest flower o woman-kind - Is my sweet, bonie lady!’ - - * * * * * - - - B - - #a.# “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 13, - Abbotsford. Sent to Scott by William Laidlaw, September 11, 1802 - (Letters, vol. i, No 73), as written down by Laidlaw from the - recitation of Mr Bartram of Biggar. #b.# Variations received by - Laidlaw from J. Scott. - - 1 - ‘There was a battle i the north - Amang our nobles many, - And they have killed Sir Charles Hay, - And they’ve taen thrae me my Geordie.’ - - 2 - ‘O where’ll I gett a wi bit boy, - A bonnie boy that’s ready, - That will gae in to my biggin - With a letter to my ladie?’ - - 3 - Then up and startit a wi bit boy, - An a bonnie boy was ready: - ‘It’s I’ll gae in to your biggin - Wi a letter to your ladie.’ - - 4 - When the day was fair an the way was clear, - An the wi bit boy was ready, - An he’s gane in to his biggin, - Wi a letter to his ladie. - - 5 - When she lookd the letter on, - She was no a wearit ladie; - But when she lookit the other side, - She mourned for her Geordie. - - 6 - ‘Gar sadle to me the black,’ she says, - ‘For the brown rade neer sey bonnie, - An I’ll gae down to Enbro town, - An see my true-love Geordie.’ - - 7 - When she cam to the water-side, - The cobles war na ready; - She’s turnd her horse’s head about, - An in by the Queen’s Ferry. - - 8 - When she cam to the West Port, - There war poor folks many; - She dealt crowns an the ducatdowns, - And bade them pray for Geordie. - - 9 - When she cam to the Parliament Closs, - There amang our nobles many, - Cravats an caps war standing there, - But low, low lay her Geordie. - - 10 - When she gaed up the tolbooth-stairs, - Amang our nobles manie, - The napkin’s tyed oer Geordie’s face, - And the gallows makin ready. - - 11 - ‘O wad ye hae his lands or rents? - Or wad ye hae his monie? - Take a’, a’ frae him but his sark alone, - Leave me my true-love Geordie.’ - - 12 - The captain pu’d her on his knee, - An ca’d her heart an honey: - ‘An ye wad wait se’en years for me, - Ye wad never jump for Geordie.’ - - 13 - ‘O hold your tongue, you foolish man, - Your speech it’s a’ but folly; - For an ye wad wait till the day ye die, - I wad neer take John for Geordie.’ - - 14 - ’Twas up an spak the Lord Corstarph, - The ill gae wi his body! - ‘O Geordie’s neck it war on a block, - Gif I had his fair ladie!’ - - 15 - ‘O haud yer tongue, ye foolish man, - Yer speech is a’ but folly; - For if Geordie’s neck war on a block, - Ye sould neer enjoy his ladie. - - 16 - ‘It’s I hae se’en weel gawn mills, - I wait they a’ gang daily; - I’ll gie them a’ an amang ye a’ - For the sparin o my Geordie. - - 17 - ‘I hae ele’en bairns i the wast, - I wait the’re a’ to Geordie; - I’d see them a’ streekit afore mine eyes - Afore I lose my Geordie. - - 18 - ‘I hae ele’en bairns i the wast, - The twalt bears up my body; - The youngest’s on his nurse’s knee, - An he never saw his dadie. - - 19 - ‘I hae se’en uncles in the north, - They gang baith proud an lordly; - I’d see them a’ tread down afore my eyes - Afore I lose my Geordie.’ - - 20 - Then out an spak an English lord, - The ill gae wi his bodie! - ‘It’s I gard hang Sir Francie Grey, - An I’ll soon gar hang your Geordie.’ - - 21 - It’s out an spak than a Scottish lord, - May the weel gae wi his body! - ‘It’s I’ll cast of my coat an feght - Afore ye lose your Geordie.’ - - 22 - It’s out then spak an English lord, - May the ill gae wi his bodie! - ‘Before the morn at ten o’clock, - I’s hae the head o Geordie.’ - - 23 - Out then spak the Scottish lord, - May the weel gae wi his body! - ‘I’ll fight i bluid up to the knees - Afore ye lose your Geordie.’ - - 24 - But out an spak the royal king, - May the weel gae wi his body! - ‘There’s be bluidie heads among us a’ - Afore ye lose your Geordie.’ - - 25 - ’Twas up than spak the royal queen, - ‘May the weel gae wi his body! - Tell down, tell down five hunder pound, - An ye’s get wi you yer Geordie.’ - - 26 - Some gae her gold, some gae her crowns, - Some gae her ducats many, - An she’s telld down five hundred pound, - An she’s taen away her Geordie. - - 27 - An ay she praisd the powers above, - An a’ the royal family, - An ay she blessed the royal queen, - For sparin o her Geordie. - - 28 - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - Nae bird sang sweeter in the bush - Than she did wi her Geordie. - - 29 - ‘It’s wo be to my Lord Costorph, - It’s wo be to him daily! - For if Geordie’s neck had been on the block - He had neer enjoyd his ladie. - - 30 - ‘Gar print me ballants weel,’ she said, - ‘Gar print me ballants many, - Gar print me ballants weel,’ she said, - ‘That I am a worthy ladie.’ - - * * * * * - - - C - - #a.# “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” Abbotsford, - No 38, MS. of Thomas Wilkie, 1813–15, p. 16; taken down from the - singing of Miss Christy Robertson, Dunse. #b.# “Scotch Ballads,” - etc., No 108, in a lady’s hand, and perhaps obtained directly from - Miss Robertson. - - 1 - There was a battle in the north, - Among the nobles many; - The Laird of Geight he’s killd a man, - And there’s nane to die but Geordie. - - * * * * * * - - 2 - ‘What news? what news, my bonny boy? - What news hae ye frae Geordie?’ - ‘He bids ye sew his linen shirts, - For he’s sure he’ll no need many.’ - - 3 - ‘Go saddle the black, go saddle the brown, - Go saddle to me the bonny; - For I will neither eat nor drink - Until I see my Geordie.’ - - 4 - They’ve saddled the black, they’ve saddled the brown, - They’ve saddled her the bonny, - And she is away to Edinborough town, - Straight away to see her Geordie. - - 5 - When she came to the sea-side, - The boats they were nae ready; - She turned her horse’s head about, - And swimd at the Queen’s Ferry. - - 6 - And when she came to the prison-door, - There poor folks they stood many; - She dealt the red guineas them among, - And bade them pray weel for Geordie. - - 7 - And when she came into the hall, - Amang the nobles many, - The napkin’s tied on Geordie’s face, - And the head’s to gae frae Geordie. - - 8 - ‘I have born ten bonny sons, - And the eleventh neer sa his dadie, - And I will bear them all oer again - For the life o bonny Geordie. - - 9 - ‘I have born the Laird of Gight, - And the Laird of bonny Pernonnie; - And I will gie them all to thee - For the life of my bonny Geordie.’ - - 10 - Up then spoke [a kind-hearted man], - Wha said, He’s done good to many; - If ye’ll tell down ten hundred crowns - Away ye shall hae yer Geordie. - - 11 - Some telld shillings, and some telld crowns, - But she telld the red guineas many, - Till they’ve telld down ten hundred crowns, - And away she’s got her Geordie. - - 12 - [It’s up then spoke an Irish lord, - And O but he spoke bauldly!] - ‘I wish his head had been on the block, - That I might hae got his fair lady.’ - - 13 - She turned about . . . . - And O but she spoke boldly! - ‘A pox upon your nasty face! - Will ye eer be compared to my Geordie?’ - - 14 - She set him on a milk-white steed, - Herself upon another; - The thrush on the briar neer sang so clear - As she sang behind her Geordie. - - * * * * * - - - D - - “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 64, MS. of - Thomas Wilkie, 1813–15, p. 50, Abbotsford. “I took this down from - the recitation of Janet Scott, Bowden, who sung it to a beautiful - plaintive old air.” - - 1 - There was a battle i the north - Among the nobles many, - The Laird of Gigh he’s killd a man, - The brother of his lady. - - 2 - ‘Where will I get a man or boy, - That will win both goud and money, - That will run into the north, - And fetch to me my lady?’ - - 3 - Up then spake a bonny boy, - He was both blythe and merry; - ‘O I will run into the north, - And fetch to you your lady.’ - - 4 - ‘You may tell her to sew me a gude side shirt, - She’ll no need to sew me mony; - Tell her to bring me a gude side shirt, - It will be the last of any.’ - - 5 - He has written a broad letter. - And he’s seald it sad and sorry; - He’s gaen it to that bonny boy, - To take to his fair lady. - - 6 - Away the bonny boy he’s gaen, - He was both blythe and merrie; - He’s to that fair lady gane, - And taen her word frae Geordie. - - 7 - When she looked the letter on, - She was both sad and sorrie: - ‘O I’ll away to fair Edinburgh town - Myself and see my Geordie. - - 8 - ‘Gar saddle to me the black,’ she says, - ‘The brown was neer sae bonny; - And I’ll straight to Edinburgh - Myself and see my Geordie.’ - - 9 - When she came to that wan water, - The boats was not yet ready; - She wheeld her horse’s head around, - And swimd at the Queen’s Ferry. - - 10 - When she came to the Parliament Close, - Amang the poor folks many, - She dealt the crowns with duckatoons, - And bade them pray for Geordy. - - 11 - When she came to the Parliament House, - Among the nobles many, - The rest sat all wi hat on head, - But hat in hand sat Geordie. - - 12 - Up bespake an English lord, - And he spake blythe and merrie; - ‘Was Geordie’s head upon the block, - I am sure I would have his lady.’ - - 13 - Up bespake that lady fair, - And O but she was sorrie! - ‘If Geordie’s head were on the block, - There’s never a man gain his lady. - - 14 - ‘I have land into the north, - And I have white rigs many, - And I could gie them a’ to you - To save the life of Geordie. - - 15 - ‘I have seven children in the north, - And they seem very bonnie, - And I could bear them a’ over again - For to win the life o Geordie.’ - - 16 - Up bespake the gude Argyle; - He has befriended many; - ‘If ye’ll tell down ten hundred crowns, - Ye’s win the life o Geordie.’ - - 17 - Some gaed her shillings, and some her crowns, - And some gaed her guineas many, - And she’s telld down ten hundred crowns, - And she’s wone the life o Geordie. - - 18 - When she came down through Edinborough, - And Geordie in her hand, O, - ‘Where will I get a writer’s [house], - A writer’s house so ready, - That I may write into the north - I have wone the life o Geordie’? - - * * * * * - - - E - - #a.# Kinloch MSS, V, 130; in the handwriting of James Beattie. #b.# - Kinloch’s Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 192. - - 1 - There was a battle in the north, - And rebels there were many, - And they were a’ brought before the king, - And taken was my Geordie. - My Geordie O, O my Geordie O, - O the love I bear to Geordie! - For the very ground I walk upon - Bears witness I love Geordie. - - 2 - As she went up the tolbooth-stair, - The cripples there stood many, - And she dealt the red gold them among, - For to pray for her love Geordie. - - 3 - And when she came unto the hall - The nobles there stood many, - And every one stood hat on head, - But hat in hand stood Geordie. - - 4 - O up bespoke a baron bold, - And O but he spoke bonnie! - ‘Such lovers true shall not parted be,’ - And she’s got her true-love Geordie. - - 5 - When she was mounted on her high horse, - And on behind her Geordie, - Nae bird on the brier eer sang sae clear - As the young knight and his lady. - O my Geordie O, O my Geordie O, - O the love I bear to Geordie! - The very stars in the firmament - Bear tokens I love Geordie. - - * * * * * - - - F - - Motherwell’s MS., p. 367; from the recitation of Agnes Lyle, - Kilbarchan. - - 1 - ‘Geordie Lukely is my name, - And many a one doth ken me; O - Many an ill deed I hae done, - But now death will owrecome me. O - - 2 - ‘I neither murdered nor yet have I slain, - I never murdered any; - But I stole fyfteen o the king’s bay horse, - And I sold them in Bohemia. - - 3 - ‘Where would I get a pretty little boy, - That would fain win gold and money, - That would carry this letter to Stirling town, - And give it to my lady?’ - - 4 - ‘Here am I, a pretty little boy, - That wud fain win gold and money; - I’ll carry your letter to Stirling town, - And give it to your lady.’ - - 5 - As he came in by Stirling town - He was baith weet and weary; - The cloth was spread, and supper set, - And the ladies dancing merry. - - 6 - When she read the first of it, - She was baith glad and cheery; - But before she had the half o ‘t read, - She was baith sad and sorry. - - 7 - ‘Come saddle to me the bonnie dapple gray, - Come saddle to me the wee poney; - For I’ll awa to the king mysell, - And plead for my ain love Geordie.’ - - 8 - She gaed up the Cannogate, - Amang the puir folk monie; - She made the handfus o red gold fly, - And bade them pray for Geordie, - And aye she wrang her lily-white hands, - Saying, I am a wearyd lady! - - 9 - Up and spoke the king himsell, - And oh, but he spok bonnie! - ‘It’s ye may see by her countenance - That she is Geordie’s lady.’ - - 10 - Up and spoke a bold bluidy wretch, - And oh, but he spoke boldly! - ‘Tho [thou] should pay ten thousand pounds, - Thou’ll never get thy own love Geordie. - - 11 - ‘For I had but ae brother to mysell, - I loved him best of any; - They cutted his head from his fair bodie, - And so will they thy love Geordie.’ - - 12 - Up and spoke the king again, - And oh, but he spak bonnie! - ‘If thou’ll pay me five thousand pound, - I’ll gie thee hame thy love Geordie.’ - - 13 - She put her hand in her pocket, - She freely paid the money, - And she’s awa to the Gallows Wynd, - To get her nain love Geordie. - - 14 - As she came up the Gallows Wynd, - The people was standing many; - The psalms was sung, and the bells was rung, - And silks and cords hung bonnie. - - 15 - The napkin was tyed on Geordie’s face, - And the hangman was just readie: - ‘Hold your hand, you bluidy wretch! - O hold it from my Geordie! - For I’ve got a remit from the king, - That I’ll get my ain love Geordie.’ - - 16 - When he heard his lady’s voice, - He was baith blythe and merry: - ‘There’s many ladies in this place; - Have not I a worthy ladie?’ - - 17 - She mounted him on the bonnie dapple grey, - Herself on the wee poney, - And she rode home on his right hand, - All for the pride o Geordie. - - * * * * * - - - G - - Motherwell’s Note-Book, p. 17, p. 10; from Mrs Rule, Paisley, August - 16, 1825. Apparently learned from a blind aunt, pp. 1, 3. - - 1 - The weather it is clear, and the wind blaws fair, - And yonder a boy rins bonnie, - And he is awa to the gates of Hye, - With a letter to my dear ladie. - - 2 - The first line that she lookit on, - She was baith red and rosy; - She droppit down, and she dropt in a swoon, - Crys, Och and alace for Geordie! - - 3 - ‘Gar saddle to me the black, black horse; - The brown is twice as bonnie; - But I will neither eat nor drink - Till I relieve my Geordie.’ - - 4 - When she cam to the canny Cannygate, - Amang the puir folk many, - She made the dollars flee amang them a’, - And she bade them plead for Geordie. - - 5 - When she came to the tolbooth-gate, - Amang the nobles many, - She made the red gold flee amang them a’, - And she bade them plead for Geordie. - - 6 - Out and spoke the king himsell, - ‘Wha’s aught this weary lady?’ - Out and spoke a pretty little page, - ‘She’s the Earl o Cassilis lady.’ - - 7 - ‘Has he killed? or has he slain? - Or has he ravishd any?’ - ‘He stole three geldings out o yon park, - And sold them to Balleny.’ - - 8 - ‘Pleading is idle,’ said the king, - ‘Pleading is idle with any; - But pay you down five hundred pund, - And tak you hame your Geordie.’ - - 9 - Some gave marks, and som gave crowns, - Some gave dollars many; - She’s paid down the five hundred pund, - And she’s relieved her Geordie. - - 10 - The lady smiled in Geordie’s face: - ‘Geordie, I have bocht thee; - But down in yon green there had been bluidy breeks - Or I had parted wi thee.’ - - * * * * * - - - H - - Christie’s Traditional Ballad Airs, II, 44; “long favorite in the - counties of Aberdeen and Banff.” - - 1 - ‘Will ye go to the Hielans, my bonny lad? - Will ye go to the Hielans, Geordie? - Though ye tak the high road and I tak the low, - I will be in the Hielans afore ye.’ - - 2 - He hadna been in the high Hielans - A month but barely twa, O, - Till he was laid in prison strong, - For hunting the king’s deer and rae, O. - - 3 - ‘O where will I get a bonny, bonny boy, - That will run my errand cannie, - And gae quickly on to the bonny Bog o Gight, - Wi a letter to my lady?’ - - 4 - ‘O here am I, a bonny, bonny boy, - That will run your errand cannie, - And will gae on to the bonny Bog o Gight, - Wi a letter to your lady.’ - - 5 - When she did get this broad letter, - A licht, licht laugh gae she, O; - But before she read it to an end - The saut tear was in her ee, O. - - 6 - ‘O has he robbd? or has he stown? - Or has he killëd ony? - Or what is the ill that he has done, - That he’s gaun to be hangd sae shortly?’ - - 7 - ‘He hasna robbd, he hasna stown, - He hasna killëd ony; - But he has hunted the king’s deer and rae, - And he will be hangëd shortly.’ - - 8 - ‘Come saddle to me the bonny brown steed, - For the black never rade sae bonny, - And I will gae on to Edinboro town - To borrow the life o my Geordie.’ - - 9 - The first water-side that she cam to, - The boatman wasna ready; - She gae anither skipper half-a-crown, - To boat her oer the ferry. - - 10 - When she cam on to Edinboro town, - The poor stood thick and mony; - She dealt them money roun and roun, - Bade them pray for the life o her Geordie. - - 11 - When she gaed up the tolbooth-stair, - She saw there nobles mony, - And ilka noble stood hat on head, - But hat in hand stood Geordie. - - 12 - Then out it spak an English lord, - And vow, but he spake bonny! - ‘If ye pay down ten thousand crouns, - Ye’ll get the life o your Geordie.’ - - 13 - Some gae her marks, some gae her crouns, - Some gae her guineas rarely, - Till she paid down ten thousand crouns, - And she got the life o her Geordie. - - 14 - Then out it spak an Irish lord, - O wae befa his body! - ‘It’s a pity the knicht didna lose his head, - That I micht hae gotten his lady.’ - - 15 - But out it spak the lady hersel, - And vow, but she spak bonny! - ‘The pock-marks are on your Irish face, - You could not compare wi my Geordie!’ - - 16 - When she was in the saddle set, - And on ahint her Geordie, - The bird on the bush neer sang sae sweet, - As she sung to her love Geordie. - - 17 - ‘First I was mistress o bonny Auchindown, - And I was lady o a’ Carnie, - But now I have come to the bonny Bog o Gight, - The wife o my true-love Geordie. - - 18 - ‘If I were in the high Hielans, - I would hear the white kye lowing; - But I’d rather be on the bonny banks o Spey, - To see the fish-boaties rowing.’ - - * * * * * - - - I - - #a.# Buchan’s MSS, II, 143. #b.# Kinloch MSS, VI, 1, in the - handwriting of Joseph Robertson. - - 1 - ‘I choosed my love at the bonny yates of Gight, - Where the birks an the flowers spring bony, - But pleasures I had never one, - But crosses very mony. - - 2 - ‘First I was mistress of Pitfan - And madam of Kincraigie, - And now my name is bonny Lady Anne, - And I am Gight’s own lady. - - 3 - ‘He does not use me as his wife, - Nor cherish me as his lady, - But day by day he saddles the grey, - And rides off to Bignet’s lady.’ - - 4 - Bignet he got word of this, - That Gight lay wi his lady; - He swore a vow, and kept it true, - To be revengd on’s body. - - 5 - ‘Where will I get a bonny boy - Will run my errand shortly, - That woud run on to the bonny yates o Gight - Wi a letter to my lady?’ - - 6 - Gight has written a broad letter, - And seald it soon and ready, - And sent it on to Gight’s own yates, - For to acquaint his lady. - - 7 - The first of it she looked on, - O dear! she smiled bonny; - But as she read it till an end - The tears were thick an mony. - - 8 - ‘Come saddle to me the black,’ she says, - ‘Come saddle him soon and shortly, - Ere I ride down to Edinburgh town, - Wi a lang side sark to Geordy.’ - - 9 - When she came to the boat of Leith, - I wad she did na tarry; - She gave the boatman a guinea o gold - To boat her oer the ferry. - - 10 - As she gaed oer the pier of Leith, - Among the peerls many, - She dealt the crowns and dukedoons, - Bade them a’ pray for Geordy. - - 11 - As she gaed up the tolbooth-stair, - Among the nobles many, - Every one sat hat on head, - But hat in hand stood Geordy. - - 12 - ‘Has he brunt? or has he slain? - Or has he robbëd any? - Or has he done any other crime, - That gars you head my Geordy?’ - - 13 - ‘He hasna brunt, he hasna slain, - He hasna robbed any; - But he has done another crime, - For which he will pay dearly.’ - - 14 - In it comes him First Lord Judge, - Says, George, I’m sorry for you; - You must prepare yourself for death, - For there’ll be nae mercy for you. - - 15 - In it comes him Second Lord Judge, - Says, George I’m sorry for you; - You must prepare yourself for death, - For there’ll be nae mercy for you. - - 16 - Out it speaks Gight’s lady herself, - And vow, but she spake wordy! - ‘Is there not a lord among you all - Can plead a word for Geordy?’ - - 17 - Out it speaks the first Lord Judge: - ‘What lady’s that amang you - That speaks to us so boldly here, - And bids us plead for Geordy?’ - - 18 - Out then spake a friend, her own, - And says, It’s Gight’s own lady, - Who is come to plead her own lord’s cause, - To which she’s true and steady. - - 19 - The queen, looking oer her shott-window, - Says, Ann, I’m sorry for you; - If ye’ll tell down ten thousand crowns, - Ye shall get home your Geordy. - - 20 - She’s taen the hat out of his hand, - And dear! it set her bonny; - She’s beggd the red gold them among, - And a’ to borrow Geordy. - - 21 - She turnd her right and round about - Among the nobles many; - Some gave her dollars, some her crowns, - And some gave guineas many. - - 22 - She spread her mantle on the floor, - O dear! she spread it bonny, - And she told down that noble sum; - Says, Put on your hat, my Geordy. - - 23 - But out it speaks him gleid Argyle, - Says, Woe be to your body! - I wish that Gight had lost his head, - I should enjoyd his lady. - - 24 - She looked oer her left shoulder, - A proud look and a saucy; - Says, Woe be to you, gleid Argyle! - Ye’ll neer be like my Geordy. - - 25 - ‘You’ll hae me to some writer’s house, - And that baith seen and shortly, - That I may write down Gight’s lament, - And how I borrowed Geordy.’ - - 26 - When she was in her saddle set, - And aye behind her Geordy, - Birds neer sang blyther in the bush - Than she behind her Geordy. - - 27 - ‘O bonny George, but I love thee well, - And O sae dear as I love thee! - The sun and moon and firmament above - Bear witness how I love thee!’ - - 28 - ‘O bonny Ann, but I love thee well, - And O but sae dear as I love thee! - The birds in the air, that fly together pair and pair, - Bear witness, Ann, that I love thee!’ - - * * * * * - - - J - - Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, I, 133. - - 1 - ‘First I was lady o Black Riggs, - And then into Kincraigie; - Now I am the Lady o Gight, - And my love he’s ca’d Geordie. - - 2 - ‘I was the mistress o Pitfan, - And madam o Kincraigie; - But now my name is Lady Anne, - And I am Gight’s own lady. - - 3 - ‘We courted in the woods o Gight, - Where birks and flowrs spring bonny; - But pleasures I had never one, - But sorrows thick and mony. - - 4 - ‘He never ownd me as his wife, - Nor honourd me as his lady, - But day by day he saddles the grey, - And rides to Bignet’s lady.’ - - 5 - When Bignet he got word of that, - That Gight lay wi his lady, - He’s casten him in prison strong, - To ly till lords were ready. - - 6 - ‘Where will I get a little wee boy, - That is baith true and steady, - That will run on to bonny Gight, - And bring to me my lady?’ - - 7 - ‘O here am I, a little wee boy, - That is baith true and steady, - That will run to the yates o Gight, - And bring to you your lady.’ - - 8 - ‘Ye’ll bid her saddle the grey, the grey, - The brown rode neer so smartly; - Ye’ll bid her come to Edinbro town, - A’ for the life of Geordie.’ - - 9 - The night was fair, the moon was clear, - And he rode by Bevany, - And stopped at the yates o Gight, - Where leaves were thick and mony. - - 10 - The lady lookd oer castle-wa, - And dear, but she was sorry! - ‘Here comes a page frae Edinbro town; - A’ is nae well wi Geordie. - - 11 - ‘What news, what news, my little boy? - Come tell me soon and shortly;’ - ‘Bad news, bad news, my lady,’ he said, - ‘They’re going to hang your Geordie.’ - - 12 - ‘Ye’ll saddle to me the grey, the grey, - The brown rade neer so smartly; - And I’ll awa to Edinbro town, - Borrow the life o Geordie.’ - - 13 - When she came near to Edinbro town, - I wyte she didna tarry, - But she has mounted her grey steed, - And ridden the Queen’s Ferry. - - 14 - When she came to the boat of Leith, - I wat she didna tarry; - She gae the boatman a guinea o gowd - To boat her ower the ferry. - - 15 - When she came to the pier o Leith, - The poor they were sae many; - She dealt the gowd right liberallie, - And bade them pray for Geordie. - - 16 - When she gaed up the tolbooth-stair, - The nobles there were many: - And ilka ane stood hat on head, - But hat in hand stood Geordie. - - 17 - She gae a blink out-ower them a’, - And three blinks to her Geordie; - But when she saw his een fast bound, - A swoon fell in this lady. - - 18 - ‘Whom has he robbd? What has he stole? - Or has he killed ony? - Or what’s the crime that he has done, - His foes they are sae mony?’ - - 19 - ‘He hasna brunt, he hasna slain, - He hasna robbed ony; - But he has done another crime, - For which he will pay dearly.’ - - 20 - Then out it speaks Lord Montague, - O wae be to his body! - ‘The day we hangd young Charles Hay, - The morn we’ll head your Geordie.’ - - 21 - Then out it speaks the king himsell, - Vow, but he spake bonny! - ‘Come here, young Gight, confess your sins, - Let’s hear if they be mony. - - 22 - ‘Come here, young Gight, confess your sins, - See ye be true and steady; - And if your sins they be but sma, - Then ye ‘se win wi your lady.’ - - 23 - ‘Nane have I robbd, nought have I stown, - Nor have I killed ony; - But ane o the king’s best brave steeds, - I sold him in Bevany.’ - - 24 - Then out it speaks the king again, - Dear, but he spake bonny! - ‘That crime’s nae great; for your lady’s sake, - Put on your hat now, Geordie.’ - - 25 - Then out it speaks Lord Montague, - O wae be to his body! - ‘There’s guilt appears in Gight’s ain face, - Ye’ll cross-examine Geordie.’ - - 26 - ‘Now since it all I must confess, - My crimes’ baith great and mony: - A woman abused, five orphan babes, - I killd them for their money.’ - - 27 - Out it speaks the king again, - And dear, but he was sorry! - ‘Your confession brings confusion, - Take aff your hat now, Geordie.’ - - 28 - Then out it speaks the lady hersell, - Vow, but she was sorry! - ‘Now all my life I’ll wear the black, - Mourn for the death o Geordie.’ - - 29 - Lord Huntly then he did speak out, - O fair mot fa his body! - ‘I there will fight doublet alane - Or ony thing ails Geordie.’ - - 30 - Then out it speaks the king again, - Vow, but he spake bonny! - ‘If ye’ll tell down ten thousand crowns, - Ye’ll buy the life o Geordie.’ - - 31 - She spread her mantle on the ground, - Dear, but she spread it bonny! - Some gae her crowns, some ducadoons, - And some gae dollars mony: - Then she tauld down ten thousand crowns, - ‘Put on your hat, my Geordie.’ - - 32 - Then out it speaks Lord Montague, - Wae be to his body! - ‘I wisht that Gight wanted the head; - I might enjoyd his lady.’ - - 33 - Out it speaks the lady hersell, - ‘Ye need neer wish my body; - O ill befa your wizzend snout! - Woud ye compare wi Geordie?’ - - 34 - When she was in her saddle set, - Riding the leys sae bonny, - The fiddle and fleet playd neer sae sweet - As she behind her Geordie. - - 35 - ‘O Geordie, Geordie, I love you well, - Nae jealousie coud move me; - The birds in air, that fly in pairs, - Can witness how I love you. - - 36 - ‘Ye’ll call for one, the best o clerks, - Ye’ll call him soon and shortly, - As he may write what I indite, - A’ this I’ve done for Geordie.’ - - 37 - He turned him right and round about, - And high, high looked Geordie: - ‘A finger o Bignet’s lady’s hand - Is worth a’ your fair body.’ - - 38 - ‘My lands may a’ be masterless, - My babes may want their mother; - But I’ve made a vow, will keep it true, - I’ll be bound to no other.’ - - 39 - These words they causd a great dispute, - And proud and fierce grew Geordie; - A sharp dagger he pulled out, - And pierced the heart o ‘s lady. - - 40 - The lady’s dead, and Gight he’s fled, - And left his lands behind him; - Altho they searched south and north, - There were nane there coud find him. - - 41 - Now a’ that lived into Black Riggs, - And likewise in Kincraigie, - For seven years were clad in black, - To mourn for Gight’s own lady. - - * * * * * - - - K - - Motherwell’s MS., p. 370, as sung by Agnes Lyle’s father. - - 1 - ‘I have eleven babes into the north, - And the twelfth is in my body, O - And the youngest o them’s in the nurse’s arms, - He neer yet saw his daddy.’ O - - 2 - Some gied her ducks, some gied her drakes, - And some gied her crowns monie, - And she’s paid him down five thousand pound, - And she’s gotten hame her Geordie. - - * * * * * - - - L - - Cunningham’s Songs of Scotland, II, 186, 188; “from the recitation - of Mrs Cunningham.” - - 1 - And soon she came to the water broad, - Nor boat nor barge was ready; - She turned her horse’s head to the flood, - And swam through at Queensferry. - - 2 - But when she to the presence came, - ‘Mang earls high and lordlie, - There hat on head sat every man, - While hat in hand stood Geordie. - - * * * * * - - - M - - Motherwell’s Note-Book, pp. 2, 1; from Miss Brown, sister of Dr - James Brown, of Glasgow. - - When he came out at the tolbooth-stair, - He was baith red and rosy; - But gin he cam to the gallows-fit, - He was wallourt like the lily. - - * * * * * - - - N - - Motherwell’s Note-Book, p. 20. - - I have nine children in the west, - The tenth ane’s in my bodie; - The eldest o them she never knew a man, - And she knows not wha’s her daddy. - - * * * * * - -#A.# - - 4^2, 5^2. menzie. - -#B. a.# - - 8^3, 9^3, 19^2, 21^3. & _for_ an. - - 13^2. for _struck out before_ Your. - - 14^3. O _has been altered from_ If, _and is not very distinct._ - - 25^2. wi her? - - 25^3. Tell down, tell tell down. - - 26. _Or_, - - She’s put her hand to her pocket, - She’s pulld out ducats many, - An she’s telld down, etc. - - 27^1. _Var._ she blessd. - - 28^{3,4}. _No indication that this is an imperfect stanza. The - last line is nearly bound in, and not easy to read._ - - 30^3. Gar print, etc. - -#b.# - - _Variations written on the margin of #a#._ - - 1^3. The Laird of Gigh has killd a man. - - 2^3. That will gae rin to the yates of Gigh. - - 7^1. Burntisland sands _for_ the water-side. - - 8^1. the water-yate. - - 8^3. dealt the red gold them amang. - - 14. - ’Twas up than spak a gentleman, - Was ca’d the Laird of Logie, - War Gighie’s head but on the blo[ck], - If I had his fair ladie!’ - - 21^1. the gude Argyle _for_ a Scottish lord. - - 21^2. He’s been a friend to many. - -#C. a.# - - “This song was taken down from a Miss Christy Robertson, Dunse, - who sung it to a very pretty old tune. Being an old maid - herself, she did not let it want any of the original plainture - which I suppose the original air would have.” - - _The MS. of Thomas Wilkie is inscribed, at the beginning,_ - Gattonside, 4th Sept., 1813; _at the end,_ Bowden, 2d Sept., - 1815. - - 6^3. goud _written over_ guineas. - - 8^{1,2}. _Var._ six _for_ ten, seventh _for_ eleventh. - - 10^1. a kind-hearted man, _wanting in #b#, has evidently been - supplied._ - - 12^{1,2}. _Supplied: originally only_ A man spoke loud. - - 12^3. Geordie’s _written over_ his; were _over_ had been. - -#b.# - - 2^3. shirt. - - 4^2. And they saddled to her. - - 6^3. red goud. - - 7^1. When she. - - 9^1. Geight. - - 10^1. a kind-hearted man _wanting_. - - 12^{1,2}. A man spoke loud. - - 13^4. my _wanting_. - - 14^2 And herself. - -#D.# - - 2^2. goud and money _substituted for_ hose and shoon _struck out_. - - 9^2. they _struck out before_ was. - - 18^{3–6}. _Written in two lines._ - -#E. b.# - - _No account is given of the variations of the printed copy from - the manuscript, but it is presumed that the larger ones were - traditional._ - - 1^3. And monie ane got broken heads. - - 2^1. she gaed. - - 2^4. To pray. - - 3^1. into. - - 3^3. And ilka ane. - - _After 3:_ - - Up bespak a Norlan lord, - I wat he spak na bonnie; - ‘If ye’ll stay here a little while, - Ye’ll see Geordie hangit shortly.’ - - 4^1. Then up bespak. - - 4^{3,4}. - If ye’ll pay doun five hundred crowns, - Ye ‘se get your true-love Geordie. - - _After 4:_ - - Some lent her guineas, some lent her crowns, - Some lent her shillings monie, - And she’s paid doun five hundred crowns, - And she’s gotten her bonnie love Geordie. - - 5^1. hie steed. - - 5^2. ahint. - -_Burden, first line_: My Geordie O, my Geordie O. - -#F.# - - “Sung to a tune something similar to ‘My Nannie O.’” - - 10^3. 10000. - - 12^3. 5000. - -#G.# - - 8^3, 9^3. 500. - - 10^3. breeks _is a corruption, for_ bouks, _#A# 14^3._ - -#I. a.# - - 10^3. crowns like duke o Downs: _cf._ #b# 21^3, #G# 31^3. - - 12^4. gars your. - -#b.# - - 1^1. I was courted a wife in the bonny woods of Fife. - - 1^2. and flowers. - - 1^3. And pleasures I’ve had never nane. - - 1^4. I’ve had mony. - - 2^1. was lady of bonny Pitfauns. - - 2^2. Then. - - 2^3. is Lady. - - 2^4. I’m even. - - 3^1. He never owns me. - - 3^2. Nor loves me. - - 3^3. But every day. - - 3^4. rides to Pilbagnet’s. - - 4^1. Pilbagnet he’s. - - 4^2. has lien wi. - - 4^3. And he’s put him in prison strang. - - 4^4. _Wanting._ - - 5^3. That will rin on to Ythan side. - - 5^4. Wi letters. - - 6. - Now here am I, a bonny boy, - Will rin your errand shortly, - That will rin on to Ythan side - Wi letters to your ladye. - - 7^1. But when she looked the letter on. - - 7^3. But ere: to an. - - 7^4. tears fell. - - 8^1. Ye’ll saddle: said. - - 8^2. Tho the brown should ride never so bonny. - - 8^3. I’ll go on to. - - 8^4. To see how they’re using my. - - 9. - As she rode down by the pier of Leith, - The poor met her never so mony, - And she dealt the red gold right liberally, - And bade them pray well for her Geordie. - - 10. - As she rode down by Edinbro town, - The poor met her never so mony, - And she dealt the red gold right liberallie, - And bade them pray weel for her Geordie. - - _After 10:_ - - The king looked ower his castle-wa, - And he spak seen and shortly; - ‘Now who is this,’ said our liege the king, - ‘Deals the red gold sae largely?’ - - Then up bespak a bonny boy, - Was richt nigh to her Geordie; - ‘I’ll wager my life and a’ my lan - That it is Gicht’s own ladye.’ - - 11^1. Then she went down the toolbooth-stair. - - 11^2. all the nobles so. - - 11^3. And every one had his hat on. - - 12–20. _Wanting._ - - 21. - Then she went down the toolbooth-stair, - Among all the nobles so many; - Some gave her guineas, some gave her crowns, - Some gave her dukedoons many, - And she has paid down the jailor’s fee, - And now she enjoys her Geordie. - - 22–26. _Wanting._ - - 27. - ‘O bonnie George, I love you weel! - O dear George, as I love you! - The sun and the moon, go together roun and roun, - Bear witness, dear George, how I love you!’ - - 28. - ‘O bonnie Anne, I love you weel! - Oh dear Anne, how I love you! - The birds of the air, fly together pair and pair, - Bear witness, dear Anne, how I love you!’ - -#J.# - - 13^4. the queen’s berry. - - 26^2. crimes. _I suppose_ crimes is _to be meant_. - -#K.# - - “Of the preceding ballad [#F#], Agnes Lile says she has heard her - father sing a different set, all of which she forgets except - this, that there was nothing said of ‘a bold bluidy wretch,’ and - in place of what is given to him in this version [#F# 10, 11], - there were the two following stanzas.” _Motherwell’s MS., p. 370 - f._ - - 2^3. 5000. - - * * * * * - - - APPENDIX - -“A lamentable new ditty, made upon the death of a worthy gentleman named -George Stoole, dwelling sometime on Gate-side Moore, and sometime at -New-Castle in Northumberland: with his penitent end. To a delicate -Scottish tune.” Roxburghe Collection, I, 186, 187. Roxburghe Ballads, -ed. W. Chappell, I, 576. Previously printed by [Ritson], Northumberland -Garland, Newcastle, 1793, p. 33 (p. 43 of Haslewood’s reprint, London, -1809), and in Bell’s Rhymes of Northern Bards, p. 162. - - 1 - Come, you lusty northerne lads, - That are so blith and bonny, - Prepare your hearts to be full sad, - To hear the end of Georgey. - Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, my bon[n]y love, - Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, my bonny! - Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, my owne deare love, - And God be with my Georgie! - - 2 - When Georgie to his triall came, - A thousand hearts were sorry; - A thousand lasses wept full sore, - And all for love of Georgy. - - 3 - Some did say he would escape, - Some at his fall did glory; - But these were clownes and fickle friends, - And none that lovëd Georgy. - - 4 - Might friends have satisfide the law, - Then Georgie would find many; - Yet bravely did he plead for life, - If mercy might be any. - - 5 - But when this doughty carle was cast, - He was full sad and sorry; - Yet boldly did he take his death, - So patiently dyde Georgie. - - 6 - As Georgie went up to the gate, - He tooke his leave of many; - He tooke his leave of his lard’s wife, - Whom he lovd best of any. - - 7 - With thousand sighs and heavy lookes, - Away from thence he parted - Where he so often blith had beene, - Though now so heavy-hearted. - - 8 - He writ a letter with his owne hand, - He thought he writ it bravely; - He sent to New-castle towne, - To his belovëd lady. - - 9 - Wherein he did at large bewaile - The occasion of his folly, - Bequeathing life unto the law, - His soule to heaven holy. - - 10 - ‘Why, lady, leave to weepe for me! - Let not my ending grieve ye! - Prove constant to the man you love, - For I cannot releeve ye. - - 11 - ‘Out upon the, Withrington! - And fie upon the, Phœnix! - Thou hast put downe the doughty one - That stole the sheepe from Anix. - - 12 - ‘And fie on all such cruell carles - Whose crueltie’s so fickle - To cast away a gentleman, - In hatred, for so little! - - 13 - ‘I would I were on yonder hill, - Where I have beene full merry, - My sword and buckeler by my side, - To fight till I be weary. - - 14 - ‘They well should know, that tooke me first, - Though hopes be now forsaken, - Had I but freedome, armes, and health, - I’de dye ere I’de be taken. - - 15 - ‘But law condemns me to my grave, - They have me in their power; - Ther’s none but Christ that can mee save - At this my dying houre.’ - - 16 - He calld his dearest love to him, - When as his heart was sorry, - And speaking thus, with manly heart, - ‘Deare sweeting, pray for Georgie.’ - - 17 - He gave to her a piece of gold, - And bade her give ‘t her barnes, - And oft he kist her rosie lips, - And laid him into her armes. - - 18 - And comming to the place of death, - He never changëd colour; - The more they thought he would looke pale, - The more his veines were fuller. - - 19 - And with a cheerefull countenance, - Being at that time entreated - For to confesse his former life, - These words he straight repeated. - - 20 - ‘I never stole no oxe nor cow, - Nor never murdered any; - But fifty horse I did receive - Of a merchant’s man of Gory. - - 21 - ‘For which I am condemnd to dye, - Though guiltlesse I stand dying; - Deare gracious God, my soule receive! - For now my life is flying.’ - - 22 - The man of death a part did act - Which grieves mee tell the story; - God comfort all are comfortlesse, - And did[e] so well as Georgie! - Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, my bonny love, - Heigh-ho, heigh[-ho], my bonny, - Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, mine own true love, - Sweet Christ receive my Georgie! - - - 1. _Burden to st. 1_: honny _in the second line_. - - 10^3. the ney. - - 14^2. whoops. - - 14^4. dye are. - - -“The Life and Death of George of Oxford. To a pleasant tune, called Poor -Georgy.” Roxburghe Collection, IV, 53, Pepys, II, 150, Jersey, I, 86, -Huth, I, 150, according to Mr J. W. Ebsworth, Roxburghe Ballads, VII, -70, 1890. It was printed for P. Brooksby, whose time Mr Ebsworth gives -as between 1671 and 1692. - - 1 - As I went over London Bridge, - All in a misty morning, - There did I see one weep and mourn, - Lamenting for her Georgy. - His time it is past, his life it will not last, - Alack and alas, there is no remédy! - Which makes the heart within me ready to burst in three, - To think on the death of poor Georgy. - - 2 - ‘George of Oxford is my name, - And few there’s but have known me; - Many a mad prank have I playd, - But now they’ve overthrown me.’ - - 3 - O then bespake the Lady Gray; - ‘I’le haste me in the morning, - And to the judge I’le make my way, - To save the life of Georgy. - - 4 - ‘Go saddle me my milk-white steed, - Go saddle me my bonny, - That I may to New-Castle speed, - To save the life of Georgy.’ - - 5 - But when she came the judge before, - Full low her knee she bended; - For Georgy’s life she did implore, - That she might be befriended. - - 6 - ‘O rise, O rise, fair Lady Gray, - Your suit cannot be granted; - Content your self as well you may, - For Georgy must be hanged.’ - - 7 - She wept, she waild, she [w]rung her hands, - And ceasëd not her mourning; - She offerd gold, she offerd lands, - To save the life of Georgy. - - 8 - ‘I have travelld through the land, - And met with many a man, sir, - But, knight or lord, I bid him stand; - He durst not make an answer. - - 9 - ‘The Brittain bold that durst deny - His money for to tender, - Though he were stout as valiant Guy, - I forced him to surrender. - - 10 - ‘But when the money I had got, - And made him cry _peccavi_, - To bear his charge and pay his shot, - A mark or noble gave I. - - 11 - ‘The ladies, when they had me seen, - Would ner have been affrighted; - To take a dance upon the green - With Georgy they delighted. - - 12 - ‘When I had ended this our wake, - And fairly them bespoken, - Their rings and jewels would I take, - To keep them for a token.’ - - 13 - The hue-and-cry for George is set, - A proper handsome fellow, - With diamond eyes as black as jet, - And locks like gold so yellow. - - 14 - Long it was, with all their art, - Ere they could apprehend him, - But at the last his valiant heart - No longer could defend him. - - 15 - ‘I ner stole horse nor mare in my life, - Nor cloven foot, or any, - But once, sir, of the king’s white steeds, - And I sold them to Bohemia.’ - - 16 - Georgy he went up the hill, - And after followed many; - Georgy was hanged in silken string, - The like was never any. - - * * * * * - - _The burden (here given with only the first stanza) is from time - to time varied._ - - 3^1, 6^1. Oh. - - _After 7._ George’s Confession. - - - - - 210 - - BONNIE JAMES CAMPBELL - - #A.# Herd’s MSS, I, 40, II, 184. - - #B.# Finlay’s Scottish Ballads, 1808, I, xxxiii. - - #C.# ‘Bonnie George Campbell,’ Smith’s Scotish Minstrel, V, 42. - - #D.# Cunningham’s Songs of Scotland, III, 2. - - -#A# was copied by Sir Walter Scott (with slight variations) into a MS. -at Abbotsford, ‘Scottish Songs,’ fol. 68 (1795–1806). The first half is -printed from notes of Scott in Laing’s edition of Sharpe’s Ballad Book, -pp. 143, 156 f, and to these two stanzas, nearly as here printed, there -are added in the second case, p. 157, the following verses, which are -evidently modern, with the exception of the last: - - His hawk and his hounds they are wandered and gane, - His lady sits dowie and weary her lane, - His bairns wi greetin hae blinded their een, - His croft is unshorn, and his meadow grows green. - -Scott subjoins, “I never heard more of this.” He was familiar with -Herd’s MSS. - -#C#, like many things in the Scotish Minstrel, has passed through -editorial hands, whence the ‘never return’ of st. 4, and ‘A plume in his -helmet, a sword at his knee,’ st. 5. This copy furnished the starting -point for Allan Cunningham, III, 1, who, however, substitutes Finlay’s -‘wife’ for the Minstrel’s ‘bryde,’ and presents her with three bairns. - -Motherwell made up his ‘Bonnie George Campbell’ (Minstrelsy, p. 44) from -#B#, #C#, #D#. In a manuscript copied out by a granddaughter of Lord -Woodhouselee (1840–50), #D# is combined with Cunningham’s ballad. - -Motherwell says that this ballad “is probably a lament for one of the -adherents of the house of Argyle who fell in the battle of Glenlivet, -stricken on Thursday, the third day of October, 1594.” Sir Robert Gordon -observes that Argyle lost in this battle his two cousins, Archibald and -James Campbell: Genealogical History of Sutherland, p. 229. Maidment, -Scotish Ballads, 1868, I, 240, chooses to think that “there can be -little doubt” that the ballad refers to the murder of Sir John Campbell -of Calder by one of his own surname, in 1591, and alters the title -accordingly to ‘Bonnie John Campbell.’ Motherwell has at least a name to -favor his supposition. But Campbells enow were killed, in battle or -feud, before and after 1590, to forbid a guess as to an individual James -or George grounded upon the slight data afforded by the ballad. - -Motherwell’s ballad is translated by Wolff, Halle der Völker, I, 79, -Hausschatz, p. 225. - - * * * * * - - - A - - Herd’s MSS, I, 40, II, 184. - - 1 - O it’s up in the Highlands, - and along the sweet Tay, - Did bonie James Campbell - ride monie a day. - - 2 - Sadled and bridled, - and bonie rode he; - Hame came horse, hame came sadle, - but neer hame cam he. - - 3 - And doun cam his sweet sisters, - greeting sae sair, - And down cam his bonie wife, - tearing her hair. - - 4 - ‘My house is unbigged, - my barn’s unbeen, - My corn’s unshorn, - my meadow grows green.’ - - * * * * * * - - * * * * * - - - B - - Finlay’s Scottish Ballads, 1808, I, xxxiii. - - 1 - Saddled and briddled - and booted rade he; - Toom hame cam the saddle, - but never cam he. - - 2 - Down cam his auld mither, - greetin fu sair, - And down cam his bonny wife, - wringin her hair. - - 3 - Saddled and briddled - and booted rade he; - Toom hame cam the saddle, - but never cam he. - - * * * * * - - - C - - Smith’s Scotish Minstrel, V, 42. - - 1 - Hie upon Hielands, - and laigh upon Tay, - Bonnie George Campbell - rode out on a day. - - 2 - He saddled, he bridled, - and gallant rode he, - And hame cam his guid horse, - but never cam he. - - 3 - Out cam his mother dear, - greeting fu sair, - And out cam his bonnie bryde, - riving her hair. - - 4 - ‘The meadow lies green, - the corn is unshorn, - But bonnie George Campbell - will never return.’ - - 5 - Saddled and bridled - and booted rode he, - A plume in his helmet, - a sword at his knee. - - 6 - But toom cam his saddle, - all bloody to see, - Oh, hame cam his guid horse, - but never cam he! - - * * * * * - - - D - - Cunningham’s Songs of Scotland, III, 2, communicated by Mr - Yellowlees. - - 1 - High upon Highlands, - and low upon Tay, - Bonnie George Campbell - rode out on a day. - - 2 - ‘My meadow lies green, - and my corn is unshorn, - My barn is to build, - and my babe is unborn. - - * * * * * - - _#A# is written, and #C# printed, in stanzas of four long lines._ - - #A.# 1^1. _Sharpe_, 143, O _wanting_. - - 1^2. _Scottish Songs and Sharpe_, and _wanting_. - - 2^2. _Scottish Songs_, and gallant, _as in_ #C#. - - 2^4. _Sharpe_, but hame cam na he. - - 4^4. _Scottish Songs_, meadows grow green. - - - - - 211 - - BEWICK AND GRAHAM - - #a.# ‘The Song of Bewick and Grahame,’ a stall-copy, in octavo, - British Museum, 11621. e. 1. (4.) #b.# ‘A Remarkable and Memorable - Song of Sir Robert Bewick and the Laird Graham,’ broadside, - Roxburghe Ballads, III, 624. #c.# ‘A Remarkable and Memorable Song - of Sir Robert Bewick and the Laird Graham,’ broadside, Percy papers. - #d.# ‘Bewick and Graham’s Garland,’ M. Angus and Son, Newcastle, - Bell Ballads, Abbotsford Library, P. 5, vol. i, No 60. #e.# - Broadside, in “A Jolly Book of Garlands collected by John Bell in - Newcastle,” No 29, Abbotsford Library, E. 1. #f.# ‘Bewick and - Graham,’ chapbook, Newcastle, W. Fordyce. #g.# “Scotch Ballads, - Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 145, Abbotsford. #h.# ‘Chirstie - Græme,’ the same, No 89. - - -No copy of this ballad earlier than the last century is known to me. The -Museum Catalogue gives a conjectural date of 1740 to #a# and of 1720 to -#b#, and, conjecturally again, assigns both to Newcastle. #c#, #d#, #e# -are also without date. #c# may be as old as #b#; #d#, #e# are at least -not old, and #f# is of this century. The ballad was given under the -title ‘Græme and Bewick,’ in Scott’s Minstrelsy, 1803, III, 93, “from -the recitation of a gentleman” who remembered it but imperfectly. In a -succeeding edition, III, 66, 1833, deficiencies were partly supplied and -some different readings adopted “from a copy obtained by the recitation -of an ostler in Carlisle.” The first copy (entitled ‘Chirstie Græme’) -was sent Scott by William Laidlaw, January 3, 1803 (Letters, vol. i, No -78), as taken down by him from the singing of Mr Walter Grieve, in -Craik, on Borthwick Water. It is preserved in “Scotch Ballads, Materials -for Border Minstrelsy,” No 89, Abbotsford (#h#); and in the same volume, -No 145, is what is shown by internal evidence to be the ostler’s copy -(#g#). Both copies were indisputably derived from print, though #h# may -have passed through several mouths. #g# agrees with #b-f# closely as to -minute points of phraseology which it is difficult to believe that a -reciter would have retained. It looks more like an immediate, though -faulty, transcript from print. Of many deviations, though most may be -charge-able to a bad copyist, or, if one pleases, a bad memory, others -indicate an original which differed in some particulars from #b-f#; and -the same may perhaps be true of #h#, which is, however, of only very -trifling value.[92] - -‘The Brothers-in-Arms,’ Maidment, Scotish Ballads and Songs, 1868, II, -150, is Scott’s later copy. - -Old Graham and old Bewick are drinking together at Carlisle. Graham -proposes the health of their respective sons. Bewick demurs. Young -Graham is no peer for young Bewick, who is good at both books and arms, -whereas Graham is no scholar. Old Graham goes home mortified and angry, -repeats to his son Christy what Bewick had said, and bids him, as he -would have his blessing, prove that he can at least hold his own in a -fight with young Bewick. Christy is ‘faith and troth,’ or sworn-brother, -to young Bewick, and begs his father to forbear. The father insists; -Christy may make his choice, to fight with young Bewick or with himself. -Christy, upon reflection, concludes that it would be a less crime to -kill his sworn-brother than to kill his father, but swears that, should -it be his lot to kill his friend, he will never come home alive. He arms -himself and goes to seek his comrade. Bewick, who has been teaching his -five scholars their fence, and apparently also their psalms, is walking -in his father’s close, with his sword under his arm, and sees a man in -armor riding towards him. Recognizing Graham, he welcomes him -affectionately. Graham informs him that he has come to fight with him, -rehearses the scene with old Graham, and puts by all his friend’s -remonstrances and the suggestion that the fathers may be reconciled -through arbitrators. Forced to fight, Bewick vows, as Graham had done, -that, if it be his fortune to kill his brother, he will never go home -alive. Graham throws off his armor that he may have no advantage; they -fight two hours with no result, and then Graham gives Bewick one of -those ‘ackward’ strokes which have determined several duels in foregoing -ballads. The wound is deadly; Bewick intreats Graham to fly the country; -Graham swears that his vow shall be kept, leaps on his sword and is the -first to die. Old Bewick comes up and is disposed to congratulate his -son on his victory. Young Bewick begs him to make one grave for both, -and to lay young Graham on the sunny side, for he had been the better -man. The two fathers indulge in exclamations of grief. - -I am persuaded that there was an older and better copy of this ballad -than those which are extant. The story is so well composed, proportion -is so well kept, on the whole, that it is reasonable to suppose that -certain passages (as stanzas 3, 4, 50) may have suffered some injury. -There are also phrases which are not up to the mark of the general -style, as the hack-rhymester lines at 7^3, 19^2. But it is a -fine-spirited ballad as it stands, and very infectious. - -“The ballad is remarkable,” observes Sir Walter Scott, “as containing -probably the very latest allusion to the institution of brotherhood in -arms.” And he goes on to say: “The quarrel of the two old chieftains -over their wine is highly in character. Two generations have not elapsed -[1803] since the custom of drinking deep and taking deadly revenge for -slight offences produced very tragical events on the border; to which -the custom of going armed to festive meetings contributed not a little.” - - -Scott’s later edition is translated by Loève-Veimars, p. 323; by Rosa -Warrens, Schottische Volkslieder der Vorzeit, p. 99, No 22. - - * * * * * - - 1 - Old Grahame [he] is to Carlisle gone, - Where Sir Rob_ert_ Bewick there met he; - In arms to the wine they are gone, - And drank till they were both merry. - - 2 - Old Grahame he took up the cup, - And said, ‘Brother Bewick, here’s to thee; - And here’s to our two sons at home, - For they live best in our country.’ - - 3 - ‘Nay, were thy son as good as mine, - And of some books he could but read, - With sword and buckler by his side, - To see how he could save his head, - - 4 - ‘They might have been calld two bold brethren - Where ever they did go or ride; - They might [have] been calld two bold brethren, - They might have crackd the Border-side. - - 5 - ‘Thy son is bad, and is but a lad, - And bully to my son cannot be; - For my son Bewick can both write and read, - And sure I am that cannot he.’ - - 6 - ‘I put him to school, but he would not learn, - I bought him books, but he would not read; - But my blessing he’s never have - Till I see how his hand can save his head.’ - - 7 - Old Grahame called for an account, - And he askd what was for to pay; - There he paid a crown, so it went round, - Which was all for good wine and hay. - - 8 - Old Grahame is into the stable gone, - Where stood thirty good steeds and three; - He’s taken his own steed by the head, - And home rode he right wantonly. - - 9 - When he came home, there did he espy, - A loving sight to spy or see, - There did he espy his own three sons, - Young Christy Grahame, the foremost was he. - - 10 - There did he espy his own three sons, - Young Christy Grahame, the foremost was he: - ‘Where have you been all day, father, - That no counsel you would take by me?’ - - 11 - ‘Nay, I have been in Carlisle town, - Where Sir Robert Bewick there met me; - He said thou was bad, and calld thee a lad, - And a baffled man by thou I be. - - 12 - ‘He said thou was bad, and calld thee a lad, - And bully to his son cannot be; - For his son Bewick can both write and read, - And sure I am that cannot thee. - - 13 - ‘I put thee to school, but thou would not learn. - I bought thee books, but thou would not read; - But my blessing thou’s never have - Till I see with Bewick thou can save thy head.’ - - 14 - ‘Oh, pray forbear, my father dear; - That ever such a thing should be! - Shall I venture my body in field to fight - With a man that’s faith and troth to me?’ - - 15 - ‘What’s that thou sayst, thou limmer loon? - Or how dare thou stand to speak to me? - If thou do not end this quarrel soon, - Here is my glove thou shalt fight me.’ - - 16 - Christy stoopd low unto the ground, - Unto the ground, as you’ll understand: - ‘O father, put on your glove again, - The wind hath blown it from your hand.’ - - 17 - ‘What’s that thou sayst, thou limmer loon? - Or how dare thou stand to speak to me? - If thou do not end this quarrel soon, - Here is my hand thou shalt fight me.’ - - 18 - Christy Grahame is to his chamber gone, - And for to study, as well might be, - Whether to fight with his father dear, - Or with his bully Bewick he. - - 19 - ‘If it be [my] fortune my bully to kill, - As you shall boldly understand, - In every town that I ride through, - They’ll say, There rides a brotherless man! - - 20 - ‘Nay, for to kill my bully dear, - I think it will be a deadly sin; - And for to kill my father dear, - The blessing of heaven I neer shall win. - - 21 - ‘O give me your blessing, father,’ he said, - ‘And pray well for me for to thrive; - If it be my fortune my bully to kill, - I swear I’ll neer come home alive.’ - - 22 - He put on his back a good plate-jack, - And on his head a cap of steel, - With sword and buckler by his side; - O gin he did not become them well! - - 23 - ‘O fare thee well, my father dear! - And fare thee well, thou Carlisle town! - If it be my fortune my bully to kill, - I swear I’ll neer eat bread again.’ - - 24 - Now we’ll leave talking of Christy Grahame, - And talk of him again belive; - But we will talk of bonny Bewick, - Where he was teaching his scholars five. - - 25 - Now when he had learnd them well to fence, - To handle their swords without any doubt, - He’s taken his own sword under his arm, - And walkd his father’s close about. - - 26 - He lookd between him and the sun, - To see what farleys he coud see; - There he spy’d a man with armour on, - As he came riding over the lee. - - 27 - ‘I wonder much what man yon be - That so boldly this way does come; - I think it is my nighest friend, - I think it is my bully Grahame. - - 28 - ‘O welcome, O welcome, bully Grahame! - O man, thou art my dear, welcome! - O man, thou art my dear, welcome! - For I love thee best in Christendom.’ - - 29 - ‘Away, away, O bully Bewick, - And of thy bullyship let me be! - The day is come I never thought on; - Bully, I’m come here to fight with thee.’ - - 30 - ‘O no! not so, O bully Grahame! - That eer such a word should spoken be! - I was thy master, thou was my scholar: - So well as I have learnëd thee.’ - - 31 - ‘My father he was in Carlisle town, - Where thy father Bewick there met he; - He said I was bad, and he calld me a lad, - And a baffled man by thou I be.’ - - 32 - ‘Away, away, O bully Grahame, - And of all that talk, man, let us be! - We’ll take three men of either side - To see if we can our fathers agree.’ - - 33 - ‘Away, away, O bully Bewick, - And of thy bullyship let me be! - But if thou be a man, as I trow thou art, - Come over this ditch and fight with me.’ - - 34 - ‘O no! not so, my bully Grahame! - That eer such a word should spoken be! - Shall I venture my body in field to fight - With a man that’s faith and troth to me?’ - - 35 - ‘Away, away, O bully Bewick, - And of all that care, man, let us be! - If thou be a man, as I trow thou art, - Come over this ditch and fight with me.’ - - 36 - ‘Now, if it be my fortune thee, Grahame, to kill, - As God’s will’s, man, it all must be; - But if it be my fortune thee, Grahame, to kill, - ’Tis home again I’ll never gae.’ - - 37 - ‘Thou art of my mind then, bully Bewick, - And sworn-brethren will we be; - If thou be a man, as I trow thou art, - Come over this ditch and fight with me.’ - - 38 - He flang his cloak from [off] his shoulders, - His psalm-book out of his hand flang he, - He clapd his hand upon the hedge, - And oer lap he right wantonly. - - 39 - When Grahame did see his bully come, - The salt tear stood long in his eye: - ‘Now needs must I say that thou art a man, - That dare venture thy body to fight with me. - - 40 - ‘Now I have a harness on my back; - I know that thou hath none on thine; - But as little as thou hath on thy back, - Sure as little shall there be on mine.’ - - 41 - He flang his jack from off his back, - His steel cap from his head flang he; - He’s taken his sword into his hand, - He’s tyed his horse unto a tree. - - 42 - Now they fell to it with two broa[d swords], - For two long hours fought Bewick [and he]; - Much sweat was to be seen on them both, - But never a drop of blood to see. - - 43 - Now Grahame gave Bewick an ackward stroke, - An ackward stroke surely struck he; - He struck him now under the left breast, - Then down to the ground as dead fell he. - - 44 - ‘Arise, arise, O bully Bewick, - Arise, and speak three words to me! - Whether this be thy deadly wound, - Or God and good surgeons will mend thee.’ - - 45 - ‘O horse, O horse, O bully Grahame, - And pray do get thee far from me! - Thy sword is sharp, it hath wounded my heart, - And so no further can I gae. - - 46 - ‘O horse, O horse, O bully Grahame, - And get thee far from me with speed! - And get thee out of this country quite! - That none may know who’s done the deed.’ - - 47 - ‘O if this be true, my bully dear, - The words that thou dost tell to me, - The vow I made, and the vow I’ll keep; - I swear I’ll be the first that die. - - 48 - Then he stuck his sword in a moody-hill, - Where he lap thirty good foot and three; - First he bequeathed his soul to God, - And upon his own sword-point lap he. - - 49 - Now Grahame he was the first that died, - And then came Robin Bewick to see; - ‘Arise, arise, O son!’ he said, - ‘For I see thou’s won the victory. - - 50 - ‘Arise, arise, O son!’ he said, - ‘For I see thou’s won the victory:’ - ‘[Father, co]uld ye not drunk your wine at home, - [And le]tten me and my brother be? - - 51 - ‘Nay, dig a grave both low and wide, - And in it us two pray bury; - But bury my bully Grahame on the sun-side, - For I’m sure he’s won the victory.’ - - 52 - Now we’ll leave talking of these two brethren, - In Carlisle town where they lie slain, - And talk of these two good old men, - Where they were making a pitiful moan. - - 53 - With that bespoke now Robin Bewick: - ‘O man, was I not much to blame? - I have lost one of the liveliest lads - That ever was bred unto my name.’ - - 54 - With that bespoke my good lord Grahame: - ‘O man, I have lost the better block; - I have lost my comfort and my joy, - I have lost my key, I have lost my lock. - - 55 - ‘Had I gone through all Ladderdale, - And forty horse had set on me, - Had Christy Grahame been at my back, - So well as he woud guarded me.’ - - 56 - I have no more of my song to sing, - But two or three words to you I’ll name; - But ‘twill be talk’d in Carlisle town - That these two [old] men were all the blame. - - * * * * * - -#a.# - - The Song of Bewick and Grahame: containing an account how the Lord - Grahame met with Sir Robert Bewick in the town of Carlisle, and, - going to the tavern, a dispute happened betwixt them which of - their sons was the better man; how Grahame rode away in a - passion, and, meeting with his son, persuaded him to go and - fight young Bewick, which he did accordingly; and how it prov’d - both their deaths. - - Licensd and enterd according to order. - - 2^4. love, #b-g# _have_ live; #h#, like us. - - 11^4. thou. _Cf._ 31^4. - - 13^4. you can. - - 18^2. might he. - - 25^1, 36^1, 40^1, 42^1, 43^1, 49^1. Nay _for_ Now. - - 37^1. art in mind then. #b#, #c#, #e#, #f#. art then of my mind. - - 40^{2,4}. of _for_ on. - - 41^3. spear _for_ sword: so #b-f#, _but_ #g#, #k#, sword. - - 42^{1,2}, 50^{3,4}. _The top corner is torn off: cf._ #b-f#. - -#b-f.# - - A remarkable and memorable Song [#f#, Remarkable and memorable - History] of Sir Robert Bewick and the Laird Graham, giving an - account of Laird Graham’s meeting with Sir Robert Bewick in the - town of Carlisle, and, they going to a tavern, a dispute - happened betwixt them which of their sons was the best man. How - Graham rode home in a passion, and caused his son to fight young - Bewick, which proved their deaths. - - 1^1. #b#, #c#, #d#, #e#. he is. #f.# he has. - - 1^4. #b.# drink. - - 2^1. #d.# he _wanting_. - - 2^4. live best. - - 3^4. #b.# safe. - - 4^2. do go. - - 4^3. might have. - - 5^1. he is. 5^{3,4}. _Wanting_. - - 6^4. how he can. - - 7^1. he calld. - - 7^2. what there was to. - - 7^4. #b#, #d#, #e#, #f#. good _wanting._ - - 8^1. is to. - - 9^1. came there he did. - - 9^3. #d.# spy. - - 10^{1,2}. _Wanting._ - - 10^4. you’ll take. - - 11^1. been at. - - 11^{3,4}. #d.# _Wanting._ - - 11^3. #f.# wast. #b.# calld thou. #e.# he called. - - 11^4. #b.# a _wanting_. #b#, #c#, #e#, #f#. by thee. - - 12^1. #d#, #f#. wast. #e.# he called. - - 12^4. #b#, #c#, #d#, #e#. cannot be. - - 13^1. #b#, #d#, #f#. wouldst. - - 13^2. #b#, #d#, #e#, #f#. wouldst. - - 13^3. #e.# blessings. - - 13^4. d, e. see if with. b, d, e, f. thou canst. - - 14^3. #d.# in a. - - 15^1. #d.# you say, you. #e.# thou says. - - 15^2. #d#, #e#, #f#. dare you. - - 16^1. #d#, #e#. Christy he. - - 17^2. dare you. #f.# Or _wanting_. - - 17^3. If you. - - 18^2. might be. #c.# for no study, _wrongly_. - - 19^1. be my. - - 19^3. #d.# town as. - - 20^1. my brother. - - 20^2. it were. - - 20^4. #d.# blessings. - - 21^2. me then to. - - 21^4. #b#, #d#, #e#, #f#. I shall, #b#-#f#. never. - - 22^1. good old. #b#, #d#, #e#, #f#. jacket. #c.# jack. - - 22^4. weel. - - 23^1. #b.# O fare the _torn away_. #d.# weel. - - 23^2. #b.# And fa _torn away_. - - 23^4. #c#, #d#, #e#. I’ll swear. - - 24^1. leave off. #d#, #e#, #f#. we leave. - - 24^2. #b#, #c#, #f#. of them. - - 25^1. #b#, #d#, #e#, #f#. Now, #c.# Nay. #b#-#f#. learned: well - _wanting_. - - 25^3. own _wanting_. - - 26^1. #b#, #c#. between them. - - 26^3. #b#, #c#, #d#, #e#. espy’d. #f.# And espied. - - 27^2. doth. - - 27^3. #b.# is _wanting_. - - 28^1. my bully. - - 29^3. #b#, #c#, #e#, #f#. come that I neer. #d.# come neer. - - 29^4. #b#, #c#, #d#, #e#. come hither. - - 30^1. #d.# my bully. - - 30^3. #b#, #d#, #e#, #f#. and thou wast. #c.# and thou was. - - 30^4. #b#, #c#, #d#. as _wanting_, #b.# have _wanting_. - - 31^3. #d#, #e#, #f#. he _wanting_. - - 31^4. #d.# a _wanting_. #f.# by you. - - 32^2. all _wanting_. - - 32^3. on either. #b#, #c.# make. - - 33^3, 35^3, 37^3. #b#, #c#, #e#. I true. - - 33^3. #d.# thou be. - - 34^3. #d.# in a. - - 34^4. #b.# truth. - - 35^1. thou _for_ O. - - 35^2. all that _wanting_. - - 36^1. #b#, #c#, #d#, #e#. Nay. #f.# Now. - - 36^2. will. #b#, #c#. almost. - - 36^3. #f.# But _wanting_. - - 36^4. #d.# I’d. - - 37^1. #b#, #c#, #e#, #f#. art then of my mind. #d.# then - _wanting_. - - 37^2. #d#, #e#, #f#. we will. - - 38^1. from off. #d.# flung. #b.# shoulder. - - 38^2. #b#, #c#, #d#, #e#. book from off (#d#, from) his shoulders. - - 39^2. tears. - - 39^3. that _wanting_. - - 40^1. Nay. - - 40^2. none on. #f.# hast. - - 40^3. #c#, #d#, #f#. hast. - - 40^4. be on. #f#. Sure _wanting_. - - 41^1. jacket. - - 41^2. #b#, #c#, #d#, #e#. from off. #f.# cap of steel. - - 41^3. his spear. - - 42^1. #b#, #d#, #e#, #f#. Now. #c.# Nay. #b#-#f#. broad swords. - - 42^2. and he. - - 43^1. #b#, #d#, #e#, #f#. Now. #c.# Nay. - - 43^3. #f.# now _wanting_. - - 44^3. #d#, #e#. Were this to be. - - 45^3. #b#, #c#, #f#. it is. #d.# has wounded. - - 46^4. That not one. - - 47^1. Oh. - - 47^2. #b#, #d#, #e#. doth. - - 47^4. #d#, #e#, #f#. first to. - - 48^1. #b#, #c#. struck, #b#-#f#. mould hill. - - 48^2. #b#, #c#, #d#, #e#. Then he leapd. #f.# And he leapt. - #b#-#f#. feet. - - 48^4. sword leapd he. - - 49^1. #b#, #d#, #e#, #f#. Now. #c.# Nay. - - 49^2. then Robert (#d#, #e#, #f#, Sir Robert) Bewick came. #c.# - see _wanting_. - - 50^{1,2}. #d#, #f#. _Wanting_. - - 50^3. #b#, #c#, #d#, #e#. Father, could you not drink. #f.# could - not you drink. - - 50^4. And letten: my bully. - - 51^1. #f.# Now. - - 52^1. leave of, off: these bold. - - 52^2. they were. - - 53^1. #b#, #c#, #d#, #e#. Robert, #b.# Berwick. - - 54^1. #d#, #e#, #f#. laird. - - 55^1. Lauderdale. - - 55^2. #d.# horses set. - - 55^4. well he would have. - - 56^2. #b#, #d#, #e#, #f#. to you _wanting_. #f.# I will. - - 56^3. #f.# But _wanting_. - - 56^4. #b#, #c#. two old. - - _Readings found only in #f# which have an editorial character._ - - 6^3. he shall. - - 12^4. And sure I cannot say that of thee. - - 13^3. thou shalt. - - 13^4. Till with Bewick thou canst. - - 22^4. And O he did become. - - 29^4. Bully _wanting_: I’m hither come to fight with thee. - - 38^2. psalm-book from his pouch. - - 44^3. Is this to be thy deadly wound. - - 53^1. And now up spake Sir Robert Bewick. - - 54^1. With that up spake my good laird. - -#g.# - -(_Only partially collated._) - - 1^2. he is. - - 2^2. Billy Bewick. - - 2^4. leave (==live). - - 5^2. billy, _and always_. - - 5^{3,4}. _Wanting._ - - 6^4. see with Bewick he can. _Cf._ 13^4. - - 7^4. good wine, _as in_ #a#, #c#. - - 10^{1,2}. _Wanting._ - - 10^4. you will take. - - 12^4. cannot be. - - 13^{1,2}. would. - - 13^3. thou shall. - - 14^2. should spoken be. _Cf._ 30^2. - - 20^1. my brother. - - 20^2. think that were. - - 22^1. good ould jack. - - 24^1. leave of. - - 25^1, 36^1, 40^1, 42^1, 43^1, 44^1. Nay. - - 25^1. had teacht. - - 28^1. my billey. - - 30^1. my billy. - - 30^4. have teacht. - - 31^4. by thou. - - 35^1. thou _for_ O. - - 36^2. will. - - 36^3. Nay _for_ But. - - 37^1. then _wanting_. - - 38^1. from of his back. - - 38^2. book from his shoulders. - - 39^2. tear. - - 39^4. in feald to fight. - - 40^4. Sure _wanting_. - - 41^1. jacket from. - - 41^3. sword _for_ spear: _much better_. - - 48^1. mould hill. - - 48^2. feet. - - 48^4. lept. - - 50^4. my billy. - - 51^3. sunney side. - - 52^1. leave of: thease bould. - - 52^2. they were. - - 53^4. was born. - - 55^4. well he would a. - - 56^4. two old. - -#h.# - - 2^4. like us best. - - 5^2. billie, _and always_. - - 41^3. he stuck his sword into the grund. - - 48^1. moudie hill. - - 51^3. on the sunny side. - - - The Common Place Book of Ancient and Modern Ballad, etc., p. 292, - _gives_ 18 _thus_: - - Then Christie Graham’s to his chamber gane, - And his thoughts within him made him sick, - Whether he suld fight wi his auld father, - Or wi his billie, learnd Bewick. - - - - - 212 - - THE DUKE OF ATHOLE’S NURSE - - #A.# Cromek’s Select Scotish Songs, 1810, II, 196. - - #B.# Skene MS., p. 10. - - #C.# ‘Duke of Athole’s Gates,’ Kinloch MSS, I, 335. - - #D.# ‘Duke of Athole’s Nurse,’ Kinloch MSS, I, 337. - - #E.# #a.# ‘Duke o Athole’s Nourice,’ Kinloch MSS, VII, 171. #b.# ‘The - Duke of Athol’s Nourice,’ Kinloch’s Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. - 127. - - #F.# ‘The Duke of Athole’s Nurse.’ #a.# Buchan’s Ballads of the North - of Scotland, II, 23. #b.# Christie’s Traditional Ballad Airs, I, 80. - - -#M#, #N# of No 214 have stanzas belonging here. #M# 1, 3 = #A# 3, 5; #N# -4, 6, 7 = #A# 2, 4, 5. #A# 1^{1,2}, 2 nearly, are found in No 213, ‘Sir -James the Rose,’ 4^{1,2}, 5, where also there is a treacherous leman. - -#B.# The ‘new-come darling’ of the Duke of Athole offers the duke’s -nurse a ring if she will carry a word to her leman. This leman had -previously been the nurse’s lover, and comes to tell her that another -has now possession of his heart. The nurse plans revenge, but -dissimulates; she tells the faithless fellow to go for the night to an -ale-house, and she will meet him there in the morning. But instead of -the nurse he sees a band of men, her seven brothers (nine brothers, -#F#), coming towards the house, and easily divines that they are come to -slay him. He appeals to the landlady to save him; she dresses him in -woman’s clothes and sets him to her baking. The seven brothers ask the -landlady if she had a lodger last night; they are come to pay his -reckoning. A lodger had been there, but he did not stay till morning. -They search the house and stab the beds, often passing the sham -baking-maid without detecting the disguise. - -#C-F# have nothing about the ‘new-come darling,’ but begin at once with -the nurse, who longs for her lover, and would give her half-year’s fee -to see him. He appears, and avows to her that another woman has gained -his heart. - - * * * * * - - - A - - Cromek’s Select Scotish Songs, 1810, II, 196, 194; sent, with other - fragments, by Robert Burns to William Tytler, August, 1790; stanzas - 2–6. - - * * * * * - - 1 - ‘Where shall I gang, my ain true love? - Where shall I gang to hide me? - For weel ye ken i yere father’s bowr - It wad be death to find me.’ - - 2 - ‘O go you to yon tavern-house, - An there count owre your lawin, - An, if I be a woman true, - I’ll meet you in the dawin.’ - - 3 - O he’s gone to yon tavern-house, - An ay he counted his lawin, - An ay he drank to her guid health - Was to meet him in the dawin. - - 4 - O he’s gone to yon tavern-house, - An counted owre his lawin, - When in there cam three armed men, - To meet him in the dawin. - - 5 - ‘O woe be unto woman’s wit! - It has beguiled many; - She promised to come hersel, - But she sent three men to slay me.’ - - * * * * * - - - B - - Skene MS., p. 10; taken down in the north of Scotland, 1802–3. - - 1 - ‘Ye are the Duke of Athol’s nurse, - And I’m the new-come darling; - I’ll gie you my gay gold rings - To get ae word of my leman.’ - - 2 - ‘I am the Duke of Athol’s nurse, - And ye’re the new-come darling; - Keep well your gay gold rings, - Ye sall get twa words o your leman.’ - - 3 - He leand oure his saddle-bow, - It was not for to kiss her: - ‘Anither woman has my heart, - And I but come here to see ye.’ - - 4 - ‘If anither woman has your heart, - O dear, but I am sorry! - Ye hie you down to yon ale house, - And stay untill ‘t be dawing, - And if I be a woman true - I’ll meet you in the dawing.’ - - 5 - He did him down to yon ale-house, - And drank untill ’twas dawing; - He drank the bonnie lassie’s health - That was to clear his lawing. - - 6 - He lookit out of a shot-window, - To see if she was coming, - And there he seed her seven brithers, - So fast as they were running! - - 7 - He went up and down the house, - Says, ‘Landlady, can you save me? - For yonder comes her seven brithers, - And they are coming to slay me.’ - - 8 - So quick she minded her on a wile - How she might protect him! - She dressd him in a suit of woman’s attire - And set him to her baking. - - 9 - ‘Had you a quarterer here last night, - Or staid he to the dawing? - Shew us the room the squire lay in, - We are come to clear his lawing.’ - - 10 - ‘I had a quarterer here last night, - But he staid not to the dawing; - He called for a pint, and paid as he went, - You have nothing to do with his lawing.’ - - 11 - They searchd the house baith up and down, - The curtains they spaird not to rive em, - And twenty times they passd - The squire at his baking. - - * * * * * - - - C - - Kinloch MSS, I, 335. - - 1 - As I went down by the Duke of Athole’s gates, - Where the bells of the court were ringing, - And there I heard a fair maid say, - O if I had but ae sight o my Johnie! - - 2 - ‘O here is your Johnie just by your side; - What have ye to say to your Johnie? - O here is my hand, but anither has my heart, - So ye’ll never get more o your Johnie.’ - - 3 - ‘O ye may go down to yon ale-house, - And there do sit till the dawing; - And call for the wine that is very, very fine, - And I’ll come and clear up your lawing.’ - - 4 - So he’s gane down to yon ale-house, - And he has sat till the dawing; - And he’s calld for the wine that’s very, very fine, - But she neer cam to clear up his lawing. - - 5 - Lang or the dawing he oure the window looks, - To see if his true-love was coming, - And there he spied twelve weel armd boys, - Coming over the plainstanes running. - - 6 - ‘O landlady, landlady, what shall I do? - For my life it’s not worth a farthing!’ - ‘O young man,’ said she, ‘tak counsel by me, - And I will be your undertaking. - - 7 - ‘I will clothe you in my own body-clothes - And I’ll send you like a girl to the baking:’ - And loudly, loudly they rapped at the door, - And loudly, loudly they rappëd. - - 8 - ‘O had you any strangers here late last night? - Or were they lang gane or the dawing? - O had you any strangers here late last night? - We are now come to clear up his lawing.’ - - 9 - ‘O I had a stranger here late last night, - But he was lang gane or the dawing; - He called for a pint, and he paid it as he went, - And ye’ve no more to do with his lawing.’ - - 10 - ‘O show me the room that your stranger lay in, - If he was lang gane or the dawing:’ - She showed them the room that her stranger lay in, - But he was lang gane or the dawing. - - 11 - O they stabbed the feather-bed all round and round, - And the curtains they neer stood to tear them; - And they gade as they cam, and left a’ things undone, - And left the young squire by his baking. - - * * * * * - - - D - - Kinloch MSS, I, 337. - - 1 - As I cam in by the Duke of Athole’s gate, - I heard a fair maid singing, - Wi a bonny baby on her knee, - And the bells o the court were ringing. - - 2 - ‘O it’s I am the Duke of Athole’s nurse, - And the place does well become me; - But I would gie a’ my half-year’s fee - Just for a sight o my Johnie. - - * * * * * * - - 3 - ‘If ye’ll gae down to yon ale-house, - And stop till it be dawing, - And ca for a pint o the very, very best, - And I’ll come and clear up your lawing.’ - - 4 - O he’s gane down to yon ale-house, - And stopt till it was dawing; - He ca’d for a pint o the very, very best, - But she cam na to clear up his lawing. - - 5 - He looked out at the chamber-window, - To see if she was coming; - And there he spied ten armed men, - Across the plain coming running. - - 6 - ‘O landlady, landlady, what shall I do? - For my life is not worth a farthing; - I paid you a guinea for my lodging last night, - But I fear I’ll never see sun shining.’ - - 7 - ‘If ye will be advised by me, - I’ll be your undertaking; - I’ll dress you up in my ain body-clothes - And set you to the baking.’ - - 8 - So loudly at the door they rapt, - So loudly are they calling, - ‘O had you a stranger here last night, - Or is he within your dwalling?’ - - 9 - ‘O I had a stranger here last night, - But he wos gane or dawing; - He ca’d for a pint, and he paid it or he went, - And I hae nae mair to do wi his lawing.’ - - 10 - They stabd the feather-beds round and round, - The curtains they spared na to tear them; - But they went as they came, and left a’ things undone, - And the young man busy baking. - - * * * * * - - - E - - #a.# Kinloch MSS, VII, 171; from the recitation of Mrs Charles, - Torry. #b.# Kinloch’s Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 127. - - 1 - ‘I am the Duke o Athole’s nurse, - My part does weill become me, - And I wad gie aw my half-year’s fee - For ae sicht o my Johnie.’ - - 2 - ‘Keep weill, keep weill your half-year’s fee, - For ye’ll soon get a sicht o your Johnie; - But anither woman has my heart, - And I’m sorry for to leave ye.’ - - 3 - ‘Ye’ll dow ye doun to yon changehouse, - And ye’ll drink till the day be dawin; - At ilka pint’s end ye’ll drink my health out, - And I’ll come and pay for the lawin.’ - - 4 - Ay he ranted and he sang, - And drank till the day was dawin, - And ay he drank the bonnie lassy’s health - That was coming to pay the lawin. - - 5 - He spared na the sack, tho it was dear, - The wine nor the sugar-candy, - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - - 6 - He’s dune him to the shot-window, - To see an she was coming, - And there he spied twelve armed men, - That oure the plain cam rinning. - - 7 - He’s dune him doun to the landlady, - To see gin she wad protect him; - She’s buskit him up into women’s claiths - And set him till a baking. - - 8 - Sae loudly as they rappit at the yett, - Sae loudly as they callit, - ‘Had ye onie strangers here last nicht, - That drank till the day was dawin?’ - - * * * * * * - - * * * * * - - - F - - #a.# Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, II, 23. #b.# - Christie’s Traditional Ballad Airs, I, 80. - - 1 - As I gaed in yon greenwood-side, - I heard a fair maid singing; - Her voice was sweet, she sang sae complete - That all the woods were ringing. - - 2 - ‘O I’m the Duke o Athole’s nurse, - My post is well becoming; - But I woud gie a’ my half-year’s fee - For ae sight o my leman.’ - - 3 - ‘Ye say, ye’re the Duke o Athole’s nurse, - Your post is well becoming; - Keep well, keep well your half-year’s fee, - Ye’se hae twa sights o your leman.’ - - 4 - He leand him ower his saddle-bow - And cannilie kissd his dearie: - ‘Ohon and alake! anither has my heart, - And I darena mair come near thee.’ - - 5 - ‘Ohon and alake! if anither hae your heart, - These words hae fairly undone me; - But let us set a time, tryst to meet again, - Then in gude friends you will twine me. - - 6 - ‘Ye will do you down to yon tavern-house - And drink till the day be dawing, - And, as sure as I ance had a love for you, - I’ll come there and clear your lawing. - - 7 - ‘Ye’ll spare not the wine, altho it be fine, - Nae Malago, tho it be rarely, - But ye’ll aye drink the bonnie lassie’s health - That’s to clear your lawing fairly.’ - - 8 - Then he’s done him down to yon tavern-house - And drank till day was dawing, - And aye he drank the bonny lassie’s health - That was coming to clear his lawing. - - 9 - And aye as he birled, and aye as he drank, - The gude beer and the brandy, - He spar’d not the wine, altho it was fine, - The sack nor the sugar candy. - - 10 - ‘It’s a wonder to me,’ the knight he did say, - ‘My bonnie lassie’s sae delaying; - She promisd, as sure as she loved me ance, - She woud be here by the dawing.’ - - 11 - He’s done him to a shott-window, - A little before the dawing, - And there he spied her nine brothers bauld, - Were coming to betray him. - - 12 - ‘Where shall I rin? where shall I gang? - Or where shall I gang hide me? - She that was to meet me in friendship this day - Has sent nine men to slay me!’ - - 13 - He’s gane to the landlady o the house, - Says, ‘O can you supply me? - For she that was to meet me in friendship this day - Has sent nine men to slay me.’ - - 14 - She gae him a suit o her ain female claise - And set him to the baking; - The bird never sang mair sweet on the bush - Nor the knight sung at the baking. - - 15 - As they came in at the ha-door, - Sae loudly as they rappit! - And when they came upon the floor, - Sae loudly as they chappit! - - 16 - ‘O had ye a stranger here last night, - Who drank till the day was dawing? - Come show us the chamber where he lyes in, - We’ll shortly clear his lawing.’ - - 17 - ‘I had nae stranger here last night - That drank till the day was dawing; - But ane that took a pint, and paid it ere he went, - And there’s naething to clear o his lawing.’ - - 18 - A lad amang the rest, being o a merry mood, - To the young knight fell a-talking; - The wife took her foot and gae him a kick, - Says, Be busy, ye jilt, at your baking. - - 19 - They stabbed the house baith but and ben, - The curtains they spared nae riving, - And for a’ that they did search and ca, - For a kiss o the knight they were striving. - -#E. a.# - - 1^1. nurse _altered to_ nurice. - - 3^3. drink the bonnie out, _originally_. - - 4^1. drank _struck out for_ sang. - - 7^2. and _struck out before_ gin. - - 8^2. callit _changed in pencil to_ were calling. - -#b.# - - _The printed copy seems to have been made up from_ #a# _and - Kinloch’s other versions._ - - 1. _Preceded by these two lines, taken from_ #D#: - - As I cam in by Athol’s yetts, - I heard a fair maid singing. - - 1^2. And I wat it weel does set me. - - 3^2. ye’ll _omitted_. 3^3. drink the lass’ health. - - 3^4. That’s coming to pay the. (_This stanza occurs in - Motherwell’s Note-Book,_ p. 46, _where it is credited to a MS._) - - _After 3_: - - He hied him doun to yon change-house, - And he drank till the day was dawing, - And at ilka pint’s end he drank the lass’ health - That was coming to pay for his lawing. - - 4^1. and aye. - - 6^2. see gin she war. - - 6^3. There he saw the duke and a’ his merry men. - - 6^4. the hill. 7^1. doun _omitted_. - - 7^3. She buskit: woman’s. - - 8^2. they war calling. - - 8^3. Had ye a young man here yestreen. - - _After 8_: - - ‘He drank but ae pint, and he paid it or he went, - And ye’ve na mair to do wi the lawing.’ - They searchit the house a’ round and round, - And they spared na the curtains to tear them, - - While the landlady stood upo the stair-head, - Crying, ‘Maid, be busy at your baking!’ - They gaed as they cam, and left a’ undone, - And left the bonnie maid at her baking. - -#F. b.# - - _“Some alterations made from the way it was sung” by the editor’s - maternal grandfather._ - - 4^2. And kindly said, My dearie. - - 6^3. as you ance had a love for me. - - 11^4. That were. - - 12^2. Where shall I gang to hide me. - - 14^4. Than the. - - - - - 213 - - SIR JAMES THE ROSE - - ‘Sir James the Rose.’ #a.# From a stall-tract of about 1780, - Abbotsford library. #b.# Motherwell’s Minstrelsy, p. 321. #c.# Sir - James the Rose’s Garland, one of a volume of the like from Heber’s - library. #d.# Motherwell’s MS., p. 281; from the recitation of Mrs - Gentles, of Paisley. #e.# Herd’s MSS, I, 82. #f.# The same, II, 42. - #g.# ‘Sir James the Rose,’ Pinkerton’s Scottish Tragic Ballads, - 1781, p. 61. - - -#b#, says Motherwell, “is given as it occurs in early stall-prints, and -as it is to be obtained from the recitations of elderly people.” Most of -the variations are derived from #d#. #c# may have been printed earlier -than #a#, but is astonishingly faulty. #d#, well remembered from print, -is what Motherwell meant by “the recitations of elderly people.” #e# was -obtained by Herd, probably from recitation, as early as 1776, but must -have been learned from print. #f# is #e# with a few missing lines -supplied. #g#, says Pinkerton, “is given from a modern edition in one -sheet 12mo,” but was beyond question considerably manipulated by the -editor. All the important variations are certainly his work. - -The copy in Buchan’s Gleanings, p. 9, is #g#. Whitelaw, in his Book of -Scotish Ballads, p. 39, has combined #b# and #g#. - -Half a dozen lines preserved by Burns, Cromek’s Select Scotish Songs, -II, 196 (see the preface to No 212), seem to belong to this ballad. - -‘Sir James the Ross, A Historical Ballad’ (sometimes called ‘The -Buchanshire Tragedy’), was composed by the youthful Michael Bruce ([+] -1767) upon the story of the popular ballad, and has perhaps enjoyed more -favor with “the general” than the original.[93] ‘Elfrida and Sir James -of Perth,’ Caw’s Poetical Museum, 1784, p. 290 (probably taken, as most -of the pieces are by the collector said to be, from some periodical -publication), looks more like an imitation of Bruce’s ballad than of its -prototype. It is in fact a stark plagiarism. - -Sir James the Rose has killed a squire, and men are out to take him. A -nurse at the house of Marr is his leman, and he resorts to her in the -hope that she may befriend him. She advises him to go to an ale-house -for the night, promising to meet him there in the morning; he says he -will do so, but, perhaps from distrust, which proves to be well -grounded, prefers to wrap himself in his plaid and sleep under the sky. -The party sent out to take him question the nurse, who at first makes a -deceptive answer, then gives them a direction to his hiding-place. They -find James the Rose asleep and take away his arms; he wakes and begs for -mercy, and is told that he shall have such as he has given. He appeals -to his servant to stay by him till death, and then to take his body to -Loch Largan (Loughargan), for which service the man shall have his -clothes and valuables. The avengers cut out his heart and take it to his -leman at the house of Marr; she raves over her treachery, and is ‘born -away’ bodily, to be seen no more. - -#e#, #f#, it may be by accident, lack the vulgar passage 18, 19, which -may be a later addition, for nothing is said of a man being in -attendance when Sir James goes to his lair. The leader of the band that -takes Sir James the Rose is Sir James the Graham, Sir James Graham, in -#c#, #e#, #f#; a simple error, evidently. No motive is furnished in -#a-f# for the woman’s betraying her leman. #g# makes her offer -information on condition of getting a proper reward, and she is promised -Sir James’s purse and brechan, but in the end is tendered his bleeding -heart and his bleeding tartan, whatever that may be other than his -brechan. This must be one of Pinkerton’s improvements. The moral tag, -st. 24, is dropped, or wanting, in #c#, #e#, #f#, #g#. - -The topography of traditional ballads frequently presents difficulties, -both because it is liable to be changed, wholly, or, what is more -embarrassing, partially, to suit a locality to which a ballad has been -transported, and again because unfamiliar names, when not exchanged, are -exposed to corruption. Some of the places, also, have not a dignity -which entitles them to notice in gazetteers. The first point, in the -case before us, would be to settle the whereabouts of the House of Marr, -in the vicinity of which the scene is laid. This I am unable to do. -There is a Ballechin in Logierait Parish, Perthshire. There is said to -be a Baleichan in Forfarshire.[94] It is not easy to see why the heir of -either of these places (Buleighan and the rest may stand for either) -should wish to have his body taken to Loch Largon in Invernesshire, if -Loch Largon means Loch Laggan, as seems likely.[95] - - -Translated by Knortz, Schottische Balladen, p. 79, after Aytoun. - - * * * * * - - 1 - O heard ye of Sir James the Rose, - The young heir of Buleighen? - For he has killd a gallant squire, - An ‘s friends are out to take him. - - 2 - Now he’s gone to the House of Marr, - Where the nourrice was his leman; - To see his dear he did repair, - Thinking she would befriend him. - - 3 - ‘Where are you going, Sir James?’ she says, - ‘Or where now are you riding?’ - ‘O I am bound to a foreign land, - For now I’m under hiding. - - 4 - ‘Where shall I go? Where shall I run? - Where shall I go to hide me? - For I have killd a gallant squire, - And they’re seeking to slay me.’ - - 5 - ‘O go ye down to yon ale-house, - And I’ll pay there your lawing; - And, if I be a woman true, - I’ll meet you in the dawing.’ - - 6 - ‘I’ll not go down to yon ale-house, - For you to pay my lawing; - There’s forty shillings for one supper, - I’ll stay in ‘t till the dawing.’ - - 7 - He’s turnd him right and round about - And rowd him in his brechan, - And he has gone to take a sleep, - In the lowlands of Buleighen. - - 8 - He was not well gone out of sight, - Nor was he past Milstrethen, - Till four and twenty belted knights - Came riding oer the Leathen. - - 9 - ‘O have you seen Sir James the Rose, - The young heir of Buleighen? - For he has killd a gallant squire, - And we’re sent out to take him.’ - - 10 - ‘O I have seen Sir James,’ she says, - ‘For he past here on Monday; - If the steed be swift that he rides on, - He’s past the gates of London.’ - - 11 - But as they were going away, - Then she calld out behind them; - ‘If you do seek Sir James,’ she says, - ‘I’ll tell you where you’ll find him. - - 12 - ‘You’ll seek the bank above the mill, - In the lowlands of Buleighen, - And there you’ll find Sir James the Rose, - Lying sleeping in his brechan. - - 13 - ‘You must not wake him out of sleep, - Nor yet must you affright him, - Till you run a dart quite thro his heart, - And thro the body pierce him.’ - - 14 - They sought the bank above the mill, - In the lowlands of Buleighan, - And there they found Sir James the Rose, - A sleeping in his brechan. - - 15 - Then out bespoke Sir John the Græme, - Who had the charge a keeping; - ‘It’s neer be said, dear gentlemen, - We’ll kill him when he’s sleeping.’ - - 16 - They seizd his broadsword and his targe, - And closely him surrounded; - But when he wak’d out of his sleep, - His senses were confounded. - - 17 - ‘O pardon, pardon, gentlemen! - Have mercy now upon me!’ - ‘Such as you gave, such you shall have, - And so we’ll fall upon thee.’ - - 18 - ‘Donald my man, wait me upon, - And I’ll give you my brechan, - And, if you stay here till I die, - You’ll get my trews of tartan. - - 19 - ‘There is fifty pounds in my pocket, - Besides my trews and brechan; - You’ll get my watch and diamond ring; - And take me to Loch Largon.’ - - 20 - Now they have taken out his heart - And stuck it on a spear, - Then took it to the House of Marr, - And gave it to his dear. - - 21 - But when she saw his bleeding heart - She was like one distracted; - She smote her breast, and wrung her hands, - Crying, ‘What now have I acted! - - 22 - ‘Sir James the Rose, now for thy sake - O but my heart’s a breaking! - Curst be the day I did thee betray, - Thou brave knight of Buleighen.’ - - 23 - Then up she rose, and forth she goes, - All in that fatal hour, - And bodily was born away, - And never was seen more. - - 24 - But where she went was never kend, - And so, to end the matter, - A traitor’s end, you may depend, - Can be expect’d no better. - - * * * * * - -#a.# - - _From_ “A collection of Popular Ballads and Tales,” _in six - volumes_, “formed by me,” _says Sir W. Scott_, “when a boy, from - the baskets of the travelling pedlars.... It contains most of - the pieces that were popular about thirty years since.” - (“1810.”) _Vol._ IV, _No_ 21. _In stanzas of eight lines._ - -#b.# - - 1^2. Buleighan, _and always_. - - 2^3. To seek (#d#). - - 5^2. there pay. - - 5^3. maiden true (#d#). - - 11^1. As they rode on, man after man. - - 11^2. she cried. - - 11^3. James the Rose. - - 12^1. Seek ye the bank abune. - - 13^3. you drive (#d#). - - 13^4. through his (#d#). - - 14^1. abune (#d#). - - 14^4. Lying sleeping (#d#). - - 15^1. Up then spake (#d#). - - 15^3. It shall (#d#). - - 15^4. We killed: when a (#d#). - - 16^3. And (#d#). - - 17^4. we fall (#d#). - - 20^1. they’ve taen out his bleeding heart (#d#). - - 21^3. wrung her hands and tore her hair (#d#). - - 21^4. Oh, what have I. - - 22^1. It’s for your sake, Sir J. the R. (#d#). - - 22^2. That my poor heart’s (#d#). - - 23^3. She bodily. - - 24^4. Can never be no. - -#c.# - - 1^1. Did you hear. - - 1^2. That young. - - 1^2, 7^4, 9^2. Belichan. - - 1^3. For _wanting_. - - 1^4. Who was sent out. - - 2^1. Now _wanting_. - - 2^2. nurse she was his layman. - - 3^2. where are you a. - - 3^3. I am going to some land. - - 3^4. For I am. - - 4^1. Where must: I turn. - - 4^2. I run. - - 4^3, 9^3. esquire. - - 4^4. And my friends are out to take me. - - 5^1. Go you. - - 5^2. There you’ll stay till the dawning. - - 5^4. I’ll come and pay your lawing. - - 6^1. down _wanting_. - - 6^2. To stay unto the dawning. - - 6^3. Now if you be a woman true. - - 6^4. [D] o (?) come and pay the lawning. - - 7^1. himself quite round. - - 7^3. he is. - - 8^1. not quite out. - - 8^2. _Wanting._ - - 8^4. ore Beligham. - - 9^1. did you see. - - 9^2. That. - - 9^3. For _wanting_. - - 9^4. Who was sent. - - 10^1. Oh yes, I seed S. J. the R. - - 10^2. He passed by here. - - 10^3. His steed was: rid. - - 10^4. And past. - - 11^1. Just as. - - 11^2. They thought no more upon him. - - 11^3. Oh if you want S. J. the R. - - 12^2. And the: Belighan. - - 12^3. And _wanting_. - - 13 _as_ 14. - - 13^1. him from his. - - 13^2. you _wanting_. - - 13^3. But in his breast must run a dart. - - 14 _as_ 13. - - 14^2. And lowlands. - - 14^4. Lying sleeping. - - 15^1. up bespoke Sir James the Graham. - - 15^2. charge in. - - 15^3. Let it neer: gentleman. - - 15^4. We killd a man a sleeping. - - 16^1. They have taken from him his sword and target. - - 16^3. wakened out of sleep. - - 16^4. was. - - 17^1. O _wanting_. - - 17^2. And now have mercy on. - - 17^3. Which as. - - 17^4. And so shall fall upon you. - - 18^2. Until I be a dead man. - - 18^3. You’ll get my hose, likewise my shoes. - - 18^4. Likewise my Highland brichan. - - 19^{1,2}. _Wanting._ - - 19^{3,4} _with_ 20^{1,2}: 20^{3,4} _with_ 21^{1,2}: 21^{3,4} - _with_ 22^{3,4}: 22^{1,2} _wanting_. - - 19^3. You shall have my. - - 19^4. If you’ll carry me to Loughargan. - - 20^1. tane out his bleeding heart. - - 20^2. And fetched it on a spear man. - - 20^3. And locked it to the Marr. - - 20^4. A present to. 21^2. She ran. - - 21^3. She wrung her hands and smote her breast. - - 21^4. Oh what have I done, what have I acted. - - 22^3. day I you betrayd. - - 22^4. of Brichan. - - 23^1. Then _wanting_. - - 23^2. And in. - - 23^3. Her body by. - - 23^4. never was heard tell of: more _wanting_. - - 24. _Wanting._ - -#d.# - - 1^2. Buleichan, _and always_. - - 1^4. And his. - - 2^1. Now _wanting_. - - 2^3. To seek. - - 3. _Wanting._ - - 4^4. They’re seeking for to. - - 5^2. there I’ll pay. - - 5^3. a maiden. - - 6^1. no gae. - - 6^3. thirty shillings for your. - - 6^4. And stay until the. - - 8^1. He had. - - 8^2. And past the Mill strethan. - - 10^1. S. J. the Rose. - - 11^1. But _wanting_. - - 11^2. She cried out. - - 11^3. S. J. the Rose. - - 12^1. Search the. - - 13^3. you drive. - - 13^4. through his. - - 14^1. They searched: abune. - - 14^4. Lying sleeping. - - 15^1. Up then spoke. - - 15^3. It shall. - - 15^4. We killed him when a. - - 16^3. And. - - 17^4. we fall. - - 19^1. There is _wanting_. - - 20^1. They’ve taen out his bleeding. - - 20^3. And they’ve gone to. - - 20^4. And gien. - - 21^1. But _wanting_. - - 21^3. She wrung her hands and tore her hair. - - 21^4. Crying, Now what. - - 22^1. It’s for your sake, S. J. the R. - - 22^2. That my poor heart’s. - - 23^1. Then _wanting_. - - 23^2. And in. - - 23^3. Bodily: She _prefixed later_. - - 24^1. kent. - - 24^4. Cannot expect no. - -#e, f.# - - #e.# Another song of Sir James the Ross; _this following Bruce’s - ballad, which has the title_ (_p._ 73) Sir James the Rose or de - Ross. #f.# Another song of Sir James de Ross. - - 1^1. O did ye na ken Sir. - - 1^2. #e.# Ballachen, _and always_. - - #f.# 1^2, 7^4, 9^2, Ballachen; - - 12^2. Ballichan; - - 14^2. Ballichin; - - 22^4. Ballichen. - - 1^4. #e.# And they seeking, #f.# And they’re seeking. - - 2^1. He’s hy’d him: Moor. - - 2^{2–4}, 3. #e.# _Wanting_. - - 3^2. #f.# O where away are. - - 3^3. #f.# to some. - - 4^1. O where. - - 4^2. O whither shall I hide me. - - 4^4. to kill. - - 5^1. #e.# gan ye. #f.# gang you. - - 5^2. I will pay your. - - 5^3. And gin there be. - - 6^1. gang. - - 6^3. shillings in my purse. - - 6^4. We’l stake it in the. - - 7^1. He turnd. - - 7^3. is gone. - - 8^2. Mill Strechin. - - 8^3. Ere. - - 8^4. the Rechin. - - 9^1. O saw ye. - - 10^1. O yes, I saw S. J. the R. - - 10^3. And gif: swift he: on _wanting_. - - 10^4. He’s near. - - 11^1. They were not well gane out o sight. - - 11^2. Ere she. - - 11^3. O gin ye seek S. J. the R. - - 11^4. ye where to. - - 12^1. Ye’ll search the bush aboon the know. - - 13^1. him from his sleep. - - 13^2. Neither man you - - 14^1. the bush aboon the know. - - 14^4. Lying sleeping. - - 15^1. O then spake up Sir James Graham. - - 15^3. Let it not be. - - 15^4. We killd: while. - - 16^1. They’ve tane his broadsword from his side. - - 16^2. him they have _for_ closely him. - - 16^3. o _for_ of his. - - 17^2. O pardon me, I pray ye. - - 17^8. ye gae, such shall ye hae. - - 17^4. There is no pardon for ye. - - 18, 19. _Wanting._ - - 20^1. they’ve tane out his bleeding heart. - - 20^2. #f.# stickt it. - - 20^3. Then carried, #e.# Mure, #f.# Moor. - - 20^4. And shewd. - - 21^1. But _wanting_. - - 21^2. She rav’d. - - 21^3. And cried, Alake, a weel (well) a day. - - 21^4. Alas what have. - - 22^2. My heart it is a. - - 22^3. Wae to the day I thee betrayd. - - 22^4. Thou bold. - - 23^2. In that unhappy hour. - - 23^4. neer was heard of more. - - 24. _Wanting._ - -#g.# - - 1^2. Buleighan, _and always_. - - 1^4. Whase friends. - - 2^1. has gane. - - 2^2. Whar nane might seek to find him. - - 2^4. Weining. - - 3^1. said. - - 3^2. O whar awa are ye. - - 3^3. I maun be bound. - - 3^4. And now. - - 4^2. I rin to lay. - - 4^4. And his friends seek. - - 5^1. yon laigh. - - 5^2. I sall pay there. - - 5^3. And as I am your leman trew. - - 5^4. at the. - - 6. _Wanting._ - - 7^1. He turnd. - - 7^2. And laid him doun to. - - 8^3. Whan. - - 9^4. sent to. - - 10^1. Yea, I: said. - - 10^2. He past by here. - - 10^3. Gin. - - 10^4. the Hichts of Lundie. - - 11^1. as wi speid they rade awa. - - 11^2. She leudly cryd. - - 11^3. Gin ye’ll gie me a worthy meid. - - 11^4. whar to. - - 12. - ‘O tell, fair maid, and, on our band, - Ye’se get his purse and brechan:’ - ‘He’s in the bank aboon the mill, - In the lawlands o Buleighan.’ - - 13, 14. _Wanting._ - - 15^1. out and spak. - - 15^3. said, my stalwart feres. - - 15^4. We killd him whan a. - - 16^{3,4}. - O pardon, mercy, gentlemen! - He then fou loudly sounded. - - 17^{3,4}–19. - ‘Sic as ye gae sic ye sall hae, - Nae grace we shaw to thee can.’ - ‘Donald my man, wait till I fa, - And ye shall hae my brechan; - Ye’ll get my purse, thouch fou o gowd, - To tak me to Loch Lagan.’ - - 20^1. Syne they tuke out his bleeding heart. - - 20^2. And set. - - 20^4. And shawd. - - 21. - We cold nae gie Sir James’s purse, - We cold nae gie his brechan, - But ye sall ha his bleeding heart, - Bot and his bleeding tartan. - - 22^1. O for. - - 22^2. My heart is now. - - 22^3. day I wrocht thy wae. - - 22^4. brave heir. - - 23^{2,3}. And in that hour o tein, She wanderd to the dowie glen. - - 23^4. never mair was sein. - - 24. _Wanting._ - - - - - 214 - - THE BRAES O YARROW - - #A.# ‘The Braes of Yarrow,’ communicated to Percy by Dr Robertson, - Principal of Edinburgh. - - #B.# ‘The Braes o Yarrow,’ Murison MS., p. 105. - - #C.# ‘The Dowie Downs o Yarrow,’ Motherwell’s MS., p. 334; - Motherwell’s Minstrelsy, p. 252. - - #D.# ‘The Bonny Braes of Yarrow,’ communicated to Percy by Robert - Lambe, of Norham, 1768. - - #E. a.# ‘The Dowy Houms o Yarrow,’ “Scotch Ballads, Materials for - Border Minstrelsy,” Abbotsford. #b.# ‘The Dowie Dens of Yarrow,’ - Scott’s Minstrelsy III, 72, 1803, III, 143, 1833. - - #F.# ‘The Dowie Dens o Yarrow,’ “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border - Minstrelsy,” Abbotsford. - - #G.# ‘The Dowie Dens of Yarrow,’ “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border - Minstrelsy,” Abbotsford. - - #H.# ‘The Dowie Dens of Yarrow,’ Campbell MSS, II, 55. - - #I.# ‘Braes of Yarrow,’ Buchan’s MSS, II, 161; Buchan’s Ballads of the - North of Scotland, II, 203; Dixon, Scottish Traditional Versions of - Ancient Ballads, p. 68, Percy Society, vol. xvii. - - #J.# ‘The Dowie Glens of Yarrow,’ “Scotch Ballads, Materials for - Border Minstrelsy,” Abbotsford. - - #K.# ‘The Dowie Den in Yarrow,’ Campbell MSS, I, 8. - - #L.# ‘The Dowie Dens,’ Blackwood’s Magazine, CXLVII, 741, June, 1890. - - #M.# ‘Dowie Banks of Yarrow,’ “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border - Minstrelsy,” Abbotsford. - - #N.# ‘The Yetts of Gowrie,’ “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border - Minstrelsy,” Abbotsford. - - #O.# Herd’s MSS, I, 35, II, 181; Herd’s Ancient and Modern Scottish - Songs, 1776, I, 145; four stanzas. - - #P.# Cromek’s Select Scotish Songs, 1810, II, 196; two stanzas. - - -First published in Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, 1803 (#E b#). -Scott remarks that he “found it easy to collect a variety of copies, but -very difficult indeed to select from them such a collated edition as -might in any degree suit the taste of ‘these more light and giddy-paced -times.’” The copy principally used was #E a#. St. 12 of Scott, which -suited the taste of the last century, but does not suit with a popular -ballad, is from #O#, and also st. 13, and there are traces of #F#, #G#, -#M#, but 5–7 have lines which do not occur in any version that I have -seen. - -#A# had been somewhat edited before it was communicated to Percy; the -places were, however, indicated by commas. Several copies besides #O#, -already referred to, have slight passages that never came from the -unsophisticated people; as #J# 2, in which a page “runs with sorrow,” -for rhyme and without reason, #L# 2^3, and #L# 12^{3,4}, which is -manifestly taken from Logan’s Braes of Yarrow.[96] #N# has been -interpolated with artificial nonsense,[97] and is an almost worthless -copy; the last stanza may defy competition for silliness. - -#M# 1, 3, and #N# 4, 6, 7, belong to ‘The Duke of Athole’s Nurse.’ So -also does one half of a fragment sent by Burns in a letter to William -Tytler, Cromek’s Select Scotish Songs, 1810, II, 194–8, which, however, -has two stanzas of this ballad (#P#) and two of ‘Rare Willie’s drowned -in Yarrow,’ No 215. - -The fragment in Ritson’s Scotish Songs, 1794, I, lxvii, is #O#. - -Herd’s MSS, I, 36, II, 182, have the following couplets, evidently from -a piece treating the story of this ballad: - - O when I look east my heart is sair, - But when I look west it’s mair and mair, - For there I see the braes of Yarrow, - And there I lost for ay my marrow. - -The groups #A-I# and #J-P# are distinguished by the circumstance, of no -importance to the story, that the hero and heroine in the former are man -and wife, in the other unmarried lovers. In all the versions (leaving -out of account the fragments #O#, #P#) the family of the woman are at -variance with the man. Her brothers think him an unfit match for their -sister, #A# 8, #B# 2.[98] In #C# 2 the brothers have taken offence -because their sister was not regarded as his equal by her husband, which -is perhaps too much of a refinement for ballads, and may be a -perversion. She was worth stealing in #C# as in #B#. The dispute in two -or three copies appears to take the form who is the flower, or rose, of -Yarrow, that is the best man, #C# 8, 9, 17, #B# 1, 12, #D# 1, 14; but -this matter is muddled, cf. #C# 2, 3, #D# 2. We hear nothing about the -unequal match in #D#-#I#, but in #J-L# a young lady displeases her -father by refusing nine gentlemen in favor of a servant-lad. - -Men who are drinking together fall out and set a combat for the next -day, #B-F#, #H#, #I#. It is three lords that drink and quarrel in -#B#-#D# (ten (?) in #I#). The lady fears that her three brothers will -slay her husband, #B# 5, #C# 5. The lord in #D# 2 seems not to be one of -the three in #D# 1, and we are probably to understand that three -brothers get into a brawl with a man who has surreptitiously married -their sister. Only one brother is spoken of in #A# (6), from whom -treachery is looked for, #E# 2. - -In #I-L# the father makes the servant-lad fight with the nine high-born -suitors. - -The wife tries to keep her husband at home, #A-E#, #I#; but he is -confident that all will go well, and that he shall come back to her -early, #A#, #B#, #C#, #I#. She kisses (washes) and combs him, and helps -to arm him, #B#, #C#, #E#, #F#, #G#, #I#; so #J#, #K#.[99] He finds nine -armed men awaiting him on the braes or houms of Yarrow, #A#, #E#-#G#, -#I-M#, ten #B#, #D#.[100] They ask if he has come to hawk, hunt (drink), -or fight; he replies that he has come to fight, #C#, #E#, #I#; cf. #A# -5, 6. Five (four) he slays and four (five) he wounds, #A#, #B#, #D#, -#E#, #I#, #J#, #K#; in #F# he kills all the nine; in #L# he gets no -further than the seventh; in #G# he kills all but one. - -These nine, after the way of ballads, should be the lady’s brothers, and -such they are in #A# 7, 8. Three of them, but only three, should be the -lady’s brothers according to #B# 1–5, #C# 1–5. Three brethren are -charged by the husband with a message to his lady in #D# 8, and these -might be his brothers-in-law. The message is sent in #E# 9 by a -good-brother, or wife’s brother, John, who clearly was not in the fight -in #E#, though the husband says he is going to meet this brother John in -#A# 6. This brother-in-law of #E# is probably intended by brother in #I# -8. - -After the hero has successively disposed of his nine or ten antagonists -(he takes them ‘man for man’), he is stabbed from behind in a cowardly -way, #A#, #B#, #C#, #E#, #I#, #L#, #N#, by somebody. The tradition is -much blurred here; it is a squire out of the bush, a cowardly man, a -fause lord. An Englishman shoots him with an arrow out of a bush in #D#. -But other reports are distinct. The lady’s father runs him through (not -from behind) in #J#, #K#. Her brother springs from a bush behind and -runs him through, #L#. Her brother John comes behind him and slays him, -#N#. Up and rose her brother James and slew him, #M#. In #E# “that -stubborn knight” comes behind him and runs his body through, and that -(a) “stubborn lord” is the author of his death in #G#, #F#. Taking #E# -2, 8, 9 together, the stubborn knight, at least in #E#, may be -interpreted as good-brother John, whose treachery is feared in #E# 2, -who is prominent in #A# 6, and who is expressly said to slay his -sister’s true-love in #N#. On the whole, the preponderance of tradition -is to the effect that the hero was treacherously slain by his wife’s -(love’s) brother. - -Word of her husband’s death is sent or carried to the wife by her -brother, brother John, #A#, #E#, #L#, #N#; her or his three brothers, -#D# 8; her or his brother, #I# 8; his man John, #C# 12, by mistake; her -father (?), #J#, #K#; her sister Anne, #F#, #G#, #H#. The wife has had a -dream that she, her lord or true-love and she, had been pulling green -heather (birk) in Yarrow, #A#, #C-F#, #I-M#, #O#.[101] The dream is -explained to signify her lord’s death, and she is enjoined to fetch him -home. In #A#, the dream occurs before the fight and is double, of -pulling green heather and of her love coming headless home; in #B#, the -lady dreams that her lord was sleeping sound in Yarrow, and in the -highly vitiated #N# that ‘he had lost his life.’ - -The wife hurries to Yarrow;[102] up a high, high hill and down into the -valley, where she sees nine (ten) dead men, #E#, #F#, #G#, #M# (nine -well-armed men, wrongly, #H#).[103] She sees her true-love lying slain, -finds him sleeping sound, in Yarrow, #A#, #B#, #J#, #K#. She kisses him -and combs his hair, #A#, #E#, #F#, #G#, #I#, #L#, #M#; she drinks the -blood that runs from him, #E# 12, #F# 11, #G# 7, #M# 9.[104] - -Her hair is five quarters long; she twists it round his hand and draws -him home, #C#; ties it round his middle and carries him home, #D#. She -takes three lachters of her hair, ties them tight round his middle and -carries him home, #B#. _His_ hair is five quarters long! she ties it to -her horse’s mane and trails him home, #K#.[105] The carrying strikes one -as unpractical, the trailing as barbarous. In #L#, after the lover is -slain, the surviving lords and her brother trail him by the heels to -Yarrow water and throw him into a whirlpool. The lady, searching for -him, sees him ‘deeply drowned.’ His hair, which we must suppose to -float, is five quarters long; she twines it round her hand and draws him -out. Raising no petty questions, it appears enough to say that this is -the only version of fourteen in which the drowning occurs, and that the -drowning of the lover is the characteristic of No 215, the next -following ballad, which has otherwise been partly confused with -this.[106] - -The lady’s father urges her to restrain her grief; he will wed her with -as good a lord as she has lost, or a better; she rejects his -suggestions. Her heart breaks, #B#, #I#; she dies in her father’s arms, -#D#, #F-H#, #J-L#, being at the time big with child, #B#, #D#, #F-H#, -#J#. - -The lady tells her father to wed his sons, #B# 12; his seven sons, #J# -18. So ‘Clerk Saunders’ (of which this may be a reminiscence, for we do -not hear of seven sons in this ballad), No 69, #G# 28; cf. #A# 26, #E# -19. - -She bids him take home his ousen and his kye, #E# 15, #F# 12, #G# 8, #H# -9. This I conceive to be an interpolation by a reciter who followed the -tradition cited from Hogg further on. - -The message to the mother to come take up her son in #I# 8 may possibly -be a reminiscence from ‘Johnie Cock,’ No 114. It occurs in no other -copy, and comes in awkwardly. - -‘The Braes of Yarrow’ (‘Busk ye, busk ye, my bony, bony bride’), written -by William Hamilton of Bangour “in imitation of the ancient Scottish -manner,’ was suggested by this ballad.[107] - -‘The Dowy Dens,’ Evans’s Old Ballads, 1810, III, 342, has the same -foundation. ‘The Haughs o Yarrow,’ a modern piece in Buchan’s Ballads of -the North of Scotland, II, 211, repeats with a slight change the third -stanza of #O#, and has further on half a stanza from ‘Willie’s rare,’ No -215. - -James Hogg, in sending #E# a to Sir Walter Scott, wrote as follows: -“Tradition placeth the event on which this song is founded very early. -That the song hath been written near the time of the transaction appears -quite evident, although, like others, by frequent singing the language -is become adapted to an age not so far distant. The bard does not at all -relate particulars, but only mentions some striking features of a -tragical event which everybody knew. This is observable in many of the -productions of early times; at least the secondary bards seem to have -regarded their songs as purely temporary. - -“The hero of the ballad is said to have been of the name of Scott, and -is called a knight of great bravery. He lived in Ettrick, some say at -Oakwood, others Kirkhope; but was treacherously slain by his -brother-in-law, as related in the ballad, who had him at ill will -because his father had parted with the half of all his goods and gear to -his sister on her marriage with such a respectable man. The name of the -murderer is said to be Annand, a name I believe merely conjectural from -the name of the place where they are said both to be buried, which at -this day is called Annan’s Treat, a low muir lying to the west of Yarrow -church, where two huge tall stones are erected, below which the least -child that can walk the road will tell you the two lords are buried that -were slain in a duel.” - -Sir Walter Scott, in the revised edition of his Minstrelsy, expressed a -conviction that this ballad referred to a duel fought between John Scott -of Tushielaw and his brother-in-law Walter Scott of Thirlestane, in -which the latter was slain.[108] Contemporary entries in the records of -the Presbytery of Selkirk show that John Scott, son to Walter of -Tushielaw, killed Walter Scott, brother of Sir Robert of Thirlestane, in -1609. The slain Walter Scott was not, however, the brother-in-law of -John of Tushielaw, for his wife was a daughter of Sir Patrick Porteous. -A violent feud ensued, as might be expected, between the Scotts of -Thirlestane and of Tushielaw. Seven years later, in 1616, a Walter Scott -of Tushielaw made “an informal and inordinat marriage with Grizel Scott -of Thirlestane without consent of her father.” The record of the -elopement is three months after followed by an entry of a summons to -Simeon Scott of Bonytoun (an adherent of Thirlestane) and three other -Scotts “to compear in Melrose to hear themselves excommunicat for the -horrible slaughter of Walter Scott” [of Tushielaw]. Disregarding the -so-called duel, we have a Walter Scott of Tushielaw carrying off a wife -from the Scotts of Thirlestane, with which family he was at feud; and a -Walter Scott of Tushielaw horribly slaughtered by Scotts of Thirlestane. -These facts correspond rather closely with the incidents of the ballad. -We do not know, to be sure, that the two Walter Scotts of Tushielaw were -the same person. There were Walter Scotts many; but tradition is capable -of confounding the two or the three connected with this series of -events. On the other hand, there is nothing in the ballad to connect it -preferably with the Scotts; the facts are such as are likely to have -occurred often in history, and a similar story is found in other -ballads. - -In the Scandinavian ballad ‘Herr Helmer,’ Helmer has married a lady -whose family are at feud with him for the unatoned slaughter of her -uncle; he meets her seven brothers, who will now hear of no -satisfaction; there is a fight; Helmer kills six, but spares the -seventh, who treacherously kills him: Afzelius, ed. Bergström, I, 264, -Arwidsson, I, 155 (etc., see II, 170 of this collection, note ‡). Other -forms make the last of the brothers willing to accept an arrangement: -‘Herr Helmer Blau,’ Danske Viser, IV, 251, No 209, ‘Herr Hjælm,’ -Grundtvig, Danske Folkeminder, 1861, p. 81. ‘Jomfruen i Skoven,’ Danske -Viser, III, 99, No 123, has also several features of our ballad. The -hero, on parting from a lady with whom he has passed the night in a -wood, is warned by her to avoid her seven brothers. This he is too brave -to do, and he meets them. They ask him where are his hawk and his hound. -He tries, unsuccessfully, to induce them to give him their sister for -wife; they fight; he kills all the seven brothers, and is slain himself, -in some way not explained. (These ballads are translated in Prior, III, -371, 230.) - -The next ballad has been partially confused with this. - - * * * * * - -#E b#, Scott’s ballad, is translated by Doenniges, p. 237; by -Loève-Veimars, p. 347. Knortz, Lieder und Romanzen Alt-Englands, p. 92, -translates Allingham’s ballad. - - * * * * * - - - A - - Communicated to Percy by Dr William Robertson, Principal of - Edinburgh. - - 1 - ‘I dreamed a dreary dream this night, - That fills my heart wi sorrow; - I dreamed I was pouing the heather green - Upon the braes of Yarrow. - - 2 - ‘O true-luve mine, stay still and dine, - As ye ha done before, O;’ - ‘O I’ll be hame by hours nine, - And frae the braes of Yarrow.’ - - 3 - I dreamed a dreary dream this night, - That fills my heart wi sorrow; - I dreamed my luve came headless hame, - O frae the braes of Yarrow! - - 4 - ‘O true-luve mine, stay still and dine, - As ye ha done before, O;’ - ‘O I’ll be hame by hours nine, - And frae the braes of Yarrow.’ - - 5 - ‘O are ye going to hawke,’ she says, - ‘As ye ha done before, O? - Or are ye going to weild your brand, - Upon the braes of Yarrow?’ - - 6 - ‘O I am not going to hawke,’ he says, - ‘As I have done before, O, - But for to meet your brother Jhon, - Upon the braes of Yarrow.’ - - 7 - As he gade down yon dowy den, - Sorrow went him before, O; - Nine well-wight men lay waiting him, - Upon the braes of Yarrow. - - 8 - ‘I have your sister to my wife, - ‘Ye’ think me an unmeet marrow; - But yet one foot will I never flee - Now frae the braes of Yarrow.’ - - 9 - ‘Than’ four he killd and five did wound, - That was an unmeet marrow! - ‘And he had weel nigh wan the day - Upon the braes of Yarrow.’ - - 10 - ‘Bot’ a cowardly ‘loon’ came him behind, - Our Lady lend him sorrow! - And wi a rappier pierced his heart, - And laid him low on Yarrow. - - 11 - ‘Now Douglas’ to his sister’s gane, - Wi meikle dule and sorrow: - ‘Gae to your luve, sister,’ he says, - ‘He’s sleeping sound on Yarrow.’ - - 12 - As she went down yon dowy den, - Sorrow went her before, O; - She saw her true-love lying slain - Upon the braes of Yarrow. - - 13 - ‘She swoond thrice upon his breist - That was her dearest marrow; - Said, Ever alace and wae the day - Thou wentst frae me to Yarrow!’ - - 14 - She kist his mouth, she kaimed his hair, - As she had done before, O; - She ‘wiped’ the blood that trickled doun - Upon the braes of Yarrow. - - 15 - Her hair it was three quarters lang, - It hang baith side and yellow; - She tied it round ‘her’ white hause-bane, - ‘And tint her life on Yarrow.’ - - * * * * * - - - B - - Murison MS., p. 105; Old Deer, Aberdeenshire. - - 1 - Three lords sat drinking at the wine - I the bonny braes o Yarrow, - An there cam a dispute them between, - Who was the Flower o Yarrow. - - 2 - ‘I’m wedded to your sister dear, - Ye coont nae me your marrow; - I stole her fae her father’s back, - An made her the Flower o Yarrow.’ - - 3 - ‘Will ye try hearts, or will ye try hans, - I the bonnie brace o Yarrow? - Or will ye try the weel airmt sword, - I the bonnie braes o Yarrow?’ - - 4 - ‘I winna try hearts, I winna try hans, - I the bonnie braes o Yarrow, - But I will try the weel airmt sword, - I the bonnie braes o Yarrow.’ - - 5 - ‘Ye’ll stay at home, my own good lord, - Ye’ll stay at home tomorrow; - My brethren three they will slay thee, - I the bonnie braes o Yarrow.’ - - 6 - ‘Bonnie, bonnie shines the sun, - An early sings the sparrow; - Before the clock it will strike nine - An I’ll be home tomorrow.’ - - 7 - She’s kissed his mouth, an combed his hair, - As she had done before, O; - She’s dressed him in his noble bow, - An he’s awa to Yarrow. - - 8 - As he gaed up yon high, high hill, - An doon the dens o Yarrow, - An there he spied ten weel airmt men - I the bonnie braes o Yarrow. - - 9 - It’s five he wounded, an five he slew, - I the bonnie braes o Yarrow; - There cam a squire out o the bush, - An pierced his body thorough. - - 10 - ‘I dreamed a dream now sin the streen, - God keep us a’ fae sorrow! - That my good lord was sleepin soun - I the bonnie braes o Yarrow.’ - - 11 - ‘O hold your tongue, my daughter dear, - An tak it not in sorrow; - I’ll wed you wi as good a lord - As you’ve lost this day in Yarrow.’ - - 12 - ‘O haud your tongue, my father dear, - An wed your sons wi sorrow; - For a fairer flower neer sprang in May nor June - Nor I’ve lost this day in Yarrow.’ - - 13 - Fast did she gang, fast did she rin, - Until she cam to Yarrow, - An there she fan her own good lord, - He was sleepin soun in Yarrow. - - 14 - She’s taen three lachters o her hair, - That hung doon her side sae bonny, - An she’s tied them roon his middle tight, - An she’s carried him hame frae Yarrow. - - 15 - This lady being big wi child, - She was fu o grief an sorrow; - Her heart did break, and then she died, - She did not live till morrow. - - * * * * * - - - C - - Motherwell’s MS., pp. 334, 331, from the recitation of Agnes Lile, - Kilbarchan, July 19, 1825; learned from her father, who died - fourteen years earlier, at the age of eighty. - - 1 - There were three lords birling at the wine - On the dowie downs o Yarrow; - They made a compact them between - They would go fight tomorrow. - - 2 - ‘Thou took our sister to be thy bride, - And thou neer thocht her thy marrow; - Thou stealed her frae her daddie’s back, - When she was the rose o Yarrow.’ - - 3 - ‘Yes, I took your sister to be my bride, - And I made her my marrow; - I stealed her frae her daddie’s back, - And she’s still the rose o Yarrow.’ - - 4 - He is hame to his lady gane, - As he had dune before! O; - Says, Madam, I must go and fight - On the dowie downs o Yarrow. - - 5 - ‘Stay at hame, my lord,’ she said, - ‘For that will cause much sorrow; - For my brethren three they will slay thee, - On the dowie downs o Yarrow.’ - - 6 - ‘Hold your tongue, my lady fair, - For what needs a’ this sorrow? - For I’ll be hame gin the clock strikes nine, - From the dowie downs o Yarrow.’ - - 7 - She wush his face, she kamed his hair, - As she had dune before, O; - She dressed him up in his armour clear, - Sent him furth to fight on Yarrow. - - 8 - ‘Come you here to hawk or hound, - Or drink the wine that’s so clear, O? - Or come you here to eat in your words, - That you’re not the rose o Yarrow?’ - - 9 - ‘I came not here to hawk or hound, - Nor to drink the wine that’s so clear, O; - Nor I came not here to eat in my words, - For I’m still the rose o Yarrow.’ - - 10 - Then they a’ begoud to fight, - I wad they focht richt sore, O, - Till a cowardly man came behind his back, - And pierced his body thorough. - - 11 - ‘Gae hame, gae hame, it’s my man John, - As ye have done before, O, - And tell it to my gay lady - That I soundly sleep on Yarrow.’ - - 12 - His man John he has gane hame, - As he had dune before, O, - And told it to his gay lady, - That he soundly slept on Yarrow. - - 13 - ‘I dreamd a dream now since the streen, - God keep us a’ frae sorrow! - That my lord and I was pu’ing the heather green - From the dowie downs o Yarrow.’ - - 14 - Sometimes she rade, sometimes she gaed, - As she had dune before, O, - And aye between she fell in a soune, - Lang or she cam to Yarrow. - - 15 - Her hair it was five quarters lang, - ’Twas like the gold for yellow; - She twisted it round his milk-white hand, - And she’s drawn him hame from Yarrow. - - 16 - Out and spak her father dear, - Says, What needs a’ this sorrow? - For I’ll get you a far better lord - Than ever died on Yarrow. - - 17 - ‘O hold your tongue, father,’ she said, - ‘For ye’ve bred a’ my sorrow; - For that rose’ll neer spring sae sweet in May - As that rose I lost on Yarrow.’ - - * * * * * - - - D - - Communicated to Percy by Robert Lambe, Norham, April 16, 1768. - - 1 - There were three lords drinking of wine - On the bonny braes of Yarrow; - There fell a combat them between, - _Wha_ was the rose of Yarrow. - - 2 - Up then spak a noble lord, - And I wot it was bot sorrow: - ‘I have as fair a flower,’ he said, - ‘As ever sprang on Yarrow.’ - - 3 - Then he went hame to his ain house, - For to sleep or the morrow, - But the first sound the trumpet gae - Was, Mount and haste to Yarrow. - - 4 - ‘Oh stay at hame,’ his lady said, - ‘Oh stay untill the morrow, - And I will mount upon a steed, - And ride with you to Yarrow.’ - - 5 - ‘Oh hawd your tongue, my dear,’ said he, - ‘And talk not of the morrow; - This day I have to fight again, - In the dowy deans of Yarrow.’ - - 6 - As he went up yon high, high hill, - Down the dowy deans of Yarrow, - There he spy’d ten weel armd men, - There was nane o them his marrow. - - 7 - Five he wounded and five he slew, - In the dowy deans of Yarrow, - But an English-man out of a bush - Shot at him a lang sharp arrow. - - 8 - ‘Ye may gang hame, my brethren three, - Ye may gang hame with sorrow, - And say this to my fair lady, - I am sleeping sound on Yarrow.’ - - 9 - ‘Sister, sister, I dreamt a dream— - You read a dream to gude, O! - That I was puing the heather green - On the bonny braes of Yarrow.’ - - 10 - ‘Sister, sister, I’ll read your dream, - But alas! it’s unto sorrow; - Your good lord is sleeping sound, - He is lying dead on Yarrow.’ - - 11 - She as pu’d the ribbons of her head, - And I wot it was wi sorrow, - And she’s gane up yon high, high hill, - Down the dowy deans of Yarrow. - - 12 - Her hair it was five quarters lang, - The colour of it was yellow; - She as ty’d it round his middle jimp, - And she as carried him frae Yarrow. - - 13 - ‘O hawd your tongue!’ her father says, - ‘What needs a’ this grief and sorrow? - I’ll wed you on as fair a flower - As ever sprang on Yarrow.’ - - 14 - ‘No, hawd your tongue, my father dear, - I’m fow of grief and sorrow; - For a fairer flower ne[v]er sprang - Than I’ve lost this day on Yarrow.’ - - 15 - This lady being big wi bairn, - And fow of grief and sorrow, - She as died within her father’s arms, - And she died lang or the morrow. - - * * * * * - - - E - - #a.# In the handwriting of James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, about - 1801; now in a volume with the title “Scotch Ballads, Materials for - Border Minstrelsy,” No 136, Abbotsford. #b.# Scott’s Minstrelsy, - III, 72, 1803, III, 143, 1833. - - 1 - Late at een, drinkin the wine, - Or early in a mornin, - The set a combat them between, - To fight it in the dawnin. - - 2 - ‘O stay at hame, my noble lord! - O stay at hame, my marrow! - My cruel brother will you betray, - On the dowy houms o Yarrow.’ - - 3 - ‘O fare ye weel, my lady gaye! - O fare ye weel, my Sarah! - For I maun gae, tho I neer return - Frae the dowy banks o Yarrow.’ - - 4 - She kissd his cheek, she kaimd his hair, - As she had done before, O; - She belted on his noble brand, - An he’s awa to Yarrow. - - 5 - O he’s gane up yon high, high hill— - I wat he gaed wi sorrow— - An in a den spied nine armd men, - I the dowy houms o Yarrow. - - 6 - ‘O ir ye come to drink the wine, - As ye hae doon before, O? - Or ir ye come to wield the brand, - On the bonny banks o Yarrow?’ - - 7 - ‘I im no come to drink the wine, - As I hae don before, O, - But I im come to wield the brand, - On the dowy houms o Yarrow.’ - - 8 - Four he hurt, an five he slew, - On the dowy houms o Yarrow, - Till that stubborn knight came him behind, - An ran his body thorrow. - - 9 - ‘Gae hame. gae hame, good-brother John, - An tell your sister Sarah - To come an lift her noble lord, - Who’s sleepin sound on Yarrow.’ - - 10 - ‘Yestreen I dreamd a dolefu dream; - I kend there wad be sorrow; - I dreamd I pu’d the heather green, - On the dowy banks o Yarrow.’ - - 11 - She gaed up yon high, high hill— - I wat she gaed wi sorrow— - An in a den spy’d nine dead men, - On the dowy houms o Yarrow. - - 12 - She kissd his cheek, she kaimd his hair, - As oft she did before, O; - She drank the red blood frae him ran, - On the dowy houms o Yarrow. - - 13 - ‘O haud your tongue, my douchter dear, - For what needs a’ this sorrow? - I’ll wed you on a better lord - Than him you lost on Yarrow.’ - - 14 - ‘O haud your tongue, my father dear, - An dinna grieve your Sarah; - A better lord was never born - Than him I lost on Yarrow. - - 15 - ‘Tak hame your ousen, tak hame your kye, - For they hae bred our sorrow; - I wiss that they had a’ gane mad - Whan they cam first to Yarrow.’ - - * * * * * - - - F - - “From Nelly Laidlaw.” In the handwriting of William Laidlaw, “Scotch - Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 20 a, Abbotsford. - - 1 - Late in the eenin, drinkin the wine, - Or early in the mornin, - The set a combat them between, - To fight it out i the dawnin. - - 2 - She’s kissd his lips, an she’s caimd his hair, - As she did ay afore, O, - She’s belted him in his noble brown, - Afore he gaed to Yarrow. - - 3 - Then he’s away oer yon high hill— - A wait he’s gane wi sorrow— - An in a den he spied nine armd men, - On the dowie banks o Yarrow. - - 4 - ‘If I see ye a’, ye ‘r nine for ane, - But ane’s [un]equal marrow; - Yet as lang’s I’m able wield my brand, - I’ll fight an bear ye marrow. - - 5 - ‘There are twa swords into my sheath, - The’re ane and equal marrow; - Now wale the best, I’ll take the warst, - An, man for man, I’ll try ye.’ - - 6 - He has slain a’ the nine men, - A ane an equal marrow, - But up there startit a stuborn lord, - That gard him sleep on Yarrow. - - * * * * * * - - 7 - ‘Gae hame, gae hame, my sister Anne, - An tell yer sister Sarah - That she may gang an seek her lord, - He’s lyin sleepin on Yarrow.’ - - 8 - ‘I dreamd a dream now sin yestreen, - I thought it wad be sorrow; - I thought I was pouin the hether green - On the dowie banks o Yarrow.’ - - 9 - Then she’s away oer yon high hill— - I wat she’s gane wi sorrow— - And in a den she’s spy’d ten slain men, - On the dowie banks o Yarrow. - - 10 - ‘My love was a’ clad oer last night - Wi the finest o the tartan, - But now he’s a’ clad oer wi red, - An he’s red bluid to the garten.’ - - 11 - She’s kissd his lips, she’s caimd his hair, - As she had done before, O; - She drank the red bluid that frae him ran, - On the dowie banks o Yarrow. - - 12 - ‘Tak hame your ousen, father, and yer kye, - For they’ve bred muckle sorrow; - I wiss that they had a’ gaen mad - Afore they came to Yarrow.’ - - 13 - ‘O haud yer tongue, my daughter dear, - For this breeds ay but sorrow; - I’ll wed you to a better lord - Than him you lost on Yarrow.’ - - 14 - ‘O haud yer tongue, my father dear, - For ye but breed mair sorrow; - A better rose will never spring - Than him I’ve lost on Yarrow.’ - - 15 - This lady being big wi child, - An fu o lamentation, - She died within her father’s arms, - Amang this stuborn nation. - - * * * * * - - - G - - “Carterhaugh, June 15, 1802.” “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border - Minstrelsy,” No 135, Abbotsford. - - * * * * * * - - 1 - She kissd his mouth and she combd his hair, - As she had done before, O, - She belted him in his noble broun, - Before he went to Yarrow. - - 2 - O he’s gone up yon high, [high] hill— - I wat it was with sorrow— - In a den he spied nine weal armd men, - On the bonny banks of Yarrow. - - 3 - ‘I see that you are nine for one, - Which are of an unequal marrow; - As lang’s I’m able to wield my bran, - I’ll fight and be your marrow.’ - - 4 - O he has killed them a’ but one, - Which bred to him great sorrow; - For up and rose that stubborn lord, - Made him sleep sound in Yarrow. - - 5 - ‘Rise up, rise up, my daughter Ann, - Go tell your sister Sarah - She may rise up go lift her lord; - He’s sleeping sound in Yarrow.’ - - 6 - She’s gone up yon high, high hill— - I wat it was with sorrow— - And in a den she spied nine slain men, - On the dowie banks o Yarrow. - - 7 - O she kissed his mouth, and she combd his hair, - As she had done before, O; - She drank the bleed that from him ran, - On the dowie banks o Yarrow. - - 8 - ‘Take hame your oxen, tak hame your kye, - They’ve bred to me great sorrow; - I wish they had all now gone mad - First when they came to Yarrow.’ - - 9 - ‘O hold your tongue now, daughter dear, - These words to me’s great sorrow; - I’ll wed you on a better lord - Than you have lost on Yarrow.’ - - 10 - ‘O hold your tongue now, father dear, - These words to me’s great sorrow; - A brighter O shall there never spread - Than I have lost in Yarrow.’ - - 11 - This lady being big with child, - And full of lamentation, - She died unto her father’s arms, - Among the stubborn nation. - - * * * * * - - - H - - Campbell MSS, II, 55. - - 1 - ’Twas late at evening drinking wine, - And early in the morning, - He set a combat them among, - And he fought it in the morning. - - * * * * * * - - 2 - ‘I have two swords by my side, - They cost me both gold and money; - Take ye the best, I’ll take the worst, - Come man for man, I’ll try ye.’ - - 3 - He has foughten them all round, - His equal man and marrow, - While up bespake the stubborn lord, - ‘He’s made them sleep in Yarrow.’ - - 4 - He says, Go home, my daughter Ann, - And tell your sister Sarah - To come and lift her stubborn lord; - The lad’s made him sleep in Yarrow. - - 5 - As she gaed up yon high, high hill, - I wot she gaed right sorrow, - And in a den spied nine well armd men, - In the dowie dens of Yarrow. - - 6 - ‘My love was dressd in the finest robes, - And of the finest tartan, - And now he’s a’ clad oer wi red, - He’s bloody to the gartan!’ - - 7 - ‘O hold yer tongue, daughter!’ he says, - ‘That would breed but sorrow; - Ye shall be wed to a finer lord - Than the one you’ve lost in Yarrow.’ - - 8 - ‘Hold your tongue, father!’ she says, - ‘For that will breed but sorrow; - A finer lord can neer be born - Than the one I’ve lost in Yarrow. - - 9 - ‘Take hame yer ox, and take hame yer kye, - You’ve bred me muckle sorrow; - I wish they’d a’ gane mad that day, - That day they came to Yarrow.’ - - 10 - This woman being big wi child, - And full of lamentation, - She died into her father’s arms, - Among that stubborn nation. - - * * * * * - - - I - - Buchan’s MSS, II, 161. - - 1 - Ten lords sat drinking at the wine - Intill a morning early; - There fell a combat them among, - It must be fought, nae parley. - - 2 - ‘O stay at hame, my ain gude lord! - O stay, my ain dear marrow!’ - ‘Sweetest min, I will be thine, - An dine wi you tomorrow.’ - - 3 - She kissd his lips, an combed his hair, - As she had done before O, - Gied him a brand down by his side, - An he is on to Yarrow. - - 4 - As he gaed oer yon dowey knowe, - As he had dane before O, - Nine armed men lay in a den, - Upo the braes o Yarrow. - - 5 - ‘O came ye here to hunt or hawk, - As ye hae dane before O? - Or came ye here to wiel your brand, - Upo the braes o Yarrow?’ - - 6 - ‘I came nae here to hunt nor hawk, - As I hae done before O; - But I came here to wiel my brand, - Upo the braes o Yarrow.’ - - 7 - Four he hurt, an five he slew, - Till down it fell himsell O; - There stood a fause lord him behin, - Who thrust his body thorrow. - - 8 - ‘Gae hame, gae hame, my brother John, - An tell your sister sorrow; - Your mither woud come take up her son, - Aff o the braes o Yarrow.’ - - 9 - As he gaed oer yon high, high hill, - As he had dane before O, - There he met his sister dear, - Came rinnin fast to Yarrow. - - 10 - ‘I dreamd a dream last night,’ she says, - ‘I wish it binna sorrow; - I dreamd I was puing the heather green - Upo the braes o Yarrow.’ - - 11 - ‘I’ll read your dream, sister,’ he says, - ‘I’ll read it into sorrow; - Ye’re bidden gae take up your luve, - He’s sleeping sound on Yarrow.’ - - 12 - She’s torn the ribbons frae her head— - They were baith thick an narrow— - She’s kilted up her green claithing, - An she’s awa to Yarrow. - - 13 - She’s taen him in her arms twa, - An gaen him kisses thorough, - An wi her tears she bath’d his wounds, - Upo the braes o Yarrow. - - 14 - Her father, looking oer the castle-wa, - Beheld his daughter’s sorrow; - ‘O had your tongue, daughter,’ he says, - ‘An lat be a’ your sorrow! - I’ll wed you wi a better lord - Than he that died on Yarrow.’ - - 15 - ‘O had your tongue, father,’ she says, - ‘An lat be till tomorrow! - A better lord there coudna be - Than he that died on Yarrow.’ - - 16 - She kissd his lips, an combd his hair, - As she had done before O, - An wi a crack her head did brack, - Upo the braes o Yarrow. - - * * * * * - - - J - - Taken down from the singing of Marion Miller, in Threepwood, in the - parish of Melrose. In Thomas Wilkie’s handwriting, “Scotch Ballads, - Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 107, Abbotsford. Another copy - in Thomas Wilkie’s MS., 1813–15, p. 57, No 67 of “Scotch Ballads,” - etc. - - 1 - In Thoro town there lives a maid, - I am sure she has no marrow; - For she has forsaken both lords and knights, - And loved a servant-lad in Galla. - - 2 - Evening and morning her page he ran, - Her page he ran wi sorrow, - With letters bound, just frae the town, - To the servant-lad in Galla. - - 3 - Her father he got word of that, - And he’s bred all her sorrow; - He sent him forth to fight wi nine, - In the dowie glens of Yarrow. - - 4 - She washd his face, she combd his hair, - She thought he had no marrow; - Wi a thrusty rapier by his side, - She sent him forth to Yarrow. - - 5 - She’s taen fareweel of him that day, - As she had done before, O, - And she’s comd back to her bonny bower, - But her love’s away to Yarrow. - - 6 - He wanderd up, he wandred down, - His heart was full of sorrow; - There he spied nine gentlemen, - Watering their steeds in Yarrow. - - 7 - ‘O come away, young man,’ they said, - ‘I’m sure ye’r no our marrow; - Ye’r welcome here, young man,’ they said, - ‘For the bonny lass o Thorro.’ - - 8 - ‘Nine against one, weel do ye ken, - That’s no an equal marrow; - Yet for my love’s sake I’ll venture my life, - In the dowie glens of Yarrow.’ - - 9 - Five was wounded, and four was slain, - Amongst them a’ he had no marrow; - He’s mounted on his horse again, - Cries, I have won the bonny lass of Thorro! - - 10 - Up then spake her father dear— - And he’s bred all her sororw— - And wi a broad sword ran him through, - In the dowie glens of Yarrow. - - 11 - ‘I have dreamd a dream, father, - I doubt I have dreamd for sorrow; - I dreamd I was pouing the heather green - Wi my true love in Yarrow.’ - - 12 - ‘O I will read your dream, daughter, - Although it be for your sorrow; - Go, and ye’ll find your love lying sound, - In a heather-bush in Yarrow.’ - - 13 - She’s calld on her maidens then— - Her heart was full of sorrow— - And she’s away wi her maidens twa, - To the dowie glens o Yarrow. - - 14 - She wandered up, she wandred down, - In the dowie glens of Yarrow, - And there she spied her love lying sound, - In a heather-bush in Yarrow. - - 15 - She’s washd him in the clear well-strand, - She’s dry’d him wi the holland, - And aye she sighd, and said, Alass! - For my love I had him chosen. - - 16 - His hair it was three quarters long, - Three quarters long and yellow; - And she’s rapt it round her middle small, - And brought it home to Thorro. - - 17 - ‘O hold your tongue, my daughter dear, - And talk no more of sorrow; - I’ll soon wed you on a better match - Than your servant-lad in Galla.’ - - 18 - ‘O you may wed a’ your seven sons, - I wish you may wed them in sorrow: - O you may wed a’ your seven sons, - For you’ll neer wed the bonny lass of Thoro.’ - - 19 - This lady being big wi child, - And her heart was full wi sorrow, - She died between her father’s arms, - In the bonny house of Thorro. - - * * * * * - - - K - - Campbell MS., I, 8; “communicated by Janet Ormstone, Innerleithen, - who sung it to a beautiful old air.” - - 1 - There lived a lady in the south, - She thought she had not her marrow; - And she was courted by nine gentlemen, - In the dowie dens in Yarrow. - - 2 - All their offers they proved in vain, - She thought that they were not her marrow; - She has forsaken a’ the nine, - Loved a servant-lad on Galla. - - 3 - Up bespoke her father dear, - Who bred them a’ this sorrow; - You must go far, far to fight the nine, - In the dowie den in Yarrow.’ - - 4 - She washd his face, she combd his hair, - Her heart being full of sorrow, - With a rusted rapier down by his side, - To fight his foes in Yarrow. - - 5 - He’s ridden east, he’s ridden west, - He’s ridden into Yarrow, - And there he espied all the nine, - Watering their steeds in Yarrow. - - 6 - ‘Ye’r welcome, welcome, young man,’ they said, - ‘But I think ye are not our marrow;’ - ‘But I’ll fight ye all out, one by one, - In the dowie dens o Yarrow.’ - - 7 - Four he has wounded, five he has slain, - He left them a’ sound in Yarrow; - He turned him round with rejoyfull looks, - Says, I wone the lady of Thoro. - - 8 - Up then spoke her father dear, - Who bred them a’ this sorrow; - He’s taen out a broadsword and run him through, - In the dowie dens o Yarrow. - - 9 - ‘I dreamed a dream last night,’ she says, - ‘I fear it is for sorrow; - I dreamd I was pulling the heather green - With my true love in Yarrow.’ - - 10 - ‘I’ll read your dream now, daughter dear, - I fear it is for sorrow; - You will find your true-love lying sound, - In a heather bush in Yarrow.’ - - 11 - She’s ridden east, she’s ridden west, - She’s ridden into Yarrow; - There she found her true lover sound, - In a heather bush in Yarrow. - - 12 - His hair it was five quarters lang, - It was baith lang and yellow; - She’s tied it to her horse’s mane, - She’s trailed him home from Yarrow. - - 13 - ‘O woe be to you, father dear! - You’ve bred me all this sorrow;’ - So she died between her father’s arms, - In the dowie dens o Yarrow. - - * * * * * - - - L - - Blackwood’s Magazine, CXLVII, 741, June, 1890; communicated by - Professor John Veitch, as received from William Welsh, a - Peeblesshire cottar and poet, born 1799, whose mother used to recite - the ballad, and whose grandmother had a copy in her father’s - handwriting. - - 1 - At Dryhope lived a lady fair, - The fairest flower in Yarrow, - And she refused nine noble men - For a servan lad in Gala. - - 2 - Her father said that he should fight - The nine lords all to-morrow, - And he that should the victor be - Would get the Rose of Yarrow. - - 3 - Quoth he, You’re nine, an I’m but ane, - And in that there’s no much marrow; - Yet I shall fecht ye, man for man, - In the dowie dens o Yarrow. - - 4 - She kissed his lips, and combed his hair, - As oft she’d done before, O, - An set him on her milk-white steed, - Which bore him on to Yarrow. - - 5 - When he got oer yon high, high hill, - An down the dens o Yarrow, - There did he see the nine lords all, - But there was not one his marrow. - - 6 - ‘Now here ye’re nine, an I’m but ane, - But yet I am not sorrow; - For here I’ll fecht ye, man for man, - For my true love in Yarrow.’ - - 7 - Then he wheeld round, and fought so fierce - Till the seventh fell in Yarrow, - When her brother sprang from a bush behind, - And ran his body thorough. - - 8 - He never spoke more words than these, - An they were words o sorrow; - ‘Ye may tell my true love, if ye please, - That I’m sleepin sound in Yarrow.’ - - 9 - They’ve taen the young man by the heels - And trailed him like a harrow, - And then they flung the comely youth - In a whirlpool o Yarrow. - - 10 - The lady said, I dreamed yestreen— - I fear it bodes some sorrow— - That I was pu’in the heather green - On the scroggy braes o Yarrow.’ - - 11 - Her brother said, I’ll read your dream, - But it should cause nae sorrow; - Ye may go seek your lover hame, - For he’s sleepin sound in Yarrow. - - 12 - Then she rode oer yon gloomy height, - An her heart was fu o sorrow, - But only saw the clud o night, - Or heard the roar o Yarrow. - - 13 - But she wandered east, so did she wast, - And searched the forest thorough, - Until she spied her ain true love, - Lyin deeply drowned in Yarrow. - - 14 - His hair it was five quarters lang, - Its colour was the yellow; - She twined it round her lily hand, - And drew him out o Yarrow. - - 15 - She kissed his lips, and combed his head, - As oft she’d done before, O; - She laid him oer her milk-white steed, - An bore him home from Yarrow. - - 16 - She washed his wounds in yon well-strand, - And dried him wi the hollan, - And aye she sighed, and said, Alas! - For my love I had him chosen. - - 17 - ‘Go hold your tongue,’ her father said, - ‘There’s little cause for sorrow; - I’ll wed ye on a better lad - Than ye hae lost in Yarrow.’ - - 18 - ‘Haud your ain tongue, my faither dear, - I canna help my sorrow; - A fairer flower neer sprang in May - Than I hae lost in Yarrow. - - 19 - ‘I meant to make my bed fu wide, - But you may make it narrow; - For now I’ve nane to be my guide - But a deid man drowned in Yarrow.’ - - 20 - An aye she screighed, and cried Alas! - Till her heart did break wi sorrow, - An sank into her faither’s arms, - Mang the dowie dens o Yarrow. - - * * * * * - - - M - - In the handwriting of James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd (later than - #E a#). “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 11 a, - Abbotsford. - - 1 - O ay he sat, and ay he drank, - An ay he counted the laying, - An ay he drank to the lass’es health - Was to meet him in the dawning. - - 2 - Up he gaes on yon high, high hill, - An a wat he gaes wi sorrow, - An in a den he spy’d nine well armd men, - On the dowie banks of Yarrow. - - 3 - ‘Oh woe be to young women’s wit! - For the’ve bred to me meikle sorrow; - She promisd for to meet me here, - An she’s sent nine men to slay me. - - 4 - ‘But there is two swords in my scabba[rd], - They cost me gold and money; - Tak ye the best, and I’ll tak the wa[rst], - An come man for man, I’ll not fly yo[u].’ - - 5 - Ay he stood, an ay he fought, - Till it was near the dawning, - Then up an rose her brother James, - An has slain him in the dawning. - - 6 - ‘O the last night I dreamd a dream, - God keep us a’ frae sorrow! - I dreamd I was powing the heather green - In the dowie banks of Yarrow.’ - - 7 - Up she gaes on yon high, high hill, - An a wat she gaes with sorrow, - An in a den she spy’d nine slain men, - In the dowie banks of Yarrow. - - 8 - ‘O the last time I saw my love - He was a’ clad oer in tartan; - But now he’s a’ clad oer in red, - An he’s a’ blood to the gartin.’ - - 9 - She kist his mouth, an she’s combd his hair, - As she had done before, O, - She drank the blood that from him ran, - In the dowie banks of Yarrow. - - 10 - ‘O hold your tongue now, daughter,’ he says, - ‘An breed to me no more sorrow; - For I’ll wed you on a better match - Than you have lost on Yarrow.’ - - 11 - ‘Hold your tongue now, father,’ she says, - ‘An breed to me no more sorrow; - For a better rose will never spring - Than I have lost on Yarrow.’ - - * * * * * - - - N - - Communicated to Scott by Mrs Christiana Greenwood, London, May 27, - 1806 (Letters, I, No 189); presumably learned by her at Longnewton, - near Jedburgh. “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No - 84, Abbotsford. - - 1 - The cock did craw, and the day did daw, - And the moon shone fair and clearly; - Sir James gade out o his castle-yett, - To meet fair Anne, his dearie. - - 2 - ‘O come down, come down, my true-love Anne; - And speak but ae word to me! - But ae kiss o your bonny mouth - Wad yield much comfort to me.’ - - 3 - ‘O how can I come down?’ she says, - ‘Or how can I win to thee? - When there is nane that I can trust - Wad safe convey me to thee. - - 4 - ‘But gang doun, gang doun, to yon hostess’ house, - And there take on yere lawing, - And, as I’m a woman kind and true, - I’ll meet you at the dawing.’ - - 5 - Then he gade thro the good green-wood, - And oer the moor sae eerie, - And lang he stayd, and sair he sighd, - But he never mair saw his dearie. - - 6 - And ay he sat, and lang he drank, - And ay he counted his lawing, - Till fifteen men did him surround, - To slay him or the dawing. - - 7 - ‘O she promisd ance to meet me this night, - But I find she has deceived me; - She promisd ance to meet me this night, - And she’s sent fifteen to slay me! - - 8 - ‘There are twa swords in my scabard, - They cost me gowd and money; - Take ye the best, and gie me the warst, - And man for man I’ll try ye.’ - - 9 - Then they fought on, and on they fought, - Till maist o them were fallen, - When her brother John cam him behind, - And slew him at the dawing. - - 10 - Then he’s away to his sister Anne, - To the chamber where’s she’s lying: - ‘Come doun, come doun, my sister Anne, - And take up your true-love Jamie! - - 11 - ‘Come doun, come doun now, sister Anne! - For he’s sleeping in yon logie; - Sound, sound he sleeps, nae mair to wake, - And nae mair need ye be vogie.’ - - 12 - ‘I dreamd a drearie dream yestreen, - Gin it be true, it will prove my sorrow; - I dreamd my luive had lost his life, - Within the yetts o Gowrie. - - 13 - ‘O wae betide ye, lassies o Gowrie - For ye hae sleepit soundly; - Gin ye had keepit your yetts shut, - Ye might hae sav’d the life o my Jamie. - - 14 - ‘Yestreen my luive had a suit o claise - Were o the finest tartan; - But lang or ere the day did daw - They war a’ red bluid to the garten. - - 15 - ‘Yestreen my luive had a suit o claise - Were o the apple reamin; - But lang or ere the day did daw - The red bluid had them streamin.’ - - 16 - In yon fair ha, where the winds did blaw, - When the moon shone fair and clearly, - She’s thrawn her green skirt oer her head, - And ay she cried out mercy. - - * * * * * - - - O - - Herd’s MSS, I, 35, II, 181. - - 1 - ‘I dreamd a dreary dream last night, - God keep us a’ frae sorrow! - I dreamd I pu’d the birk sae green - Wi my true luve on Yarrow.’ - - 2 - ‘I’ll read your dream, my sister dear, - I’ll tell you a’ your sorrow; - You pu’d the birk wi your true luve, - He’s killd, he’s killd on Yarrow!’ - - 3 - ‘O gentle wind, that blaweth south - To where my love repaireth, - Convey a kiss from his dear mouth, - And tell me how he fareth! - - 4 - ‘But oer yon glen run armed men, - Have wrought me dule and sorrow; - They’ve slain, they’ve slain the comliest swain, - He bleeding lies on Yarrow.’ - - * * * * * - - - P - - Cromek’s Select Scotish Songs, 1810, II, 196, the seventh and tenth - stanzas; sent by Burns to William Tytler in 1790. - - 1 - ‘Get up, get up now, sister Ann, - I fear we’ve wrought you sorrow; - Get up, ye’ll find your true love slain, - Among the banks of Yarrow.’ - - 2 - ‘I made my love a suit of clothes, - I clad him all in tartan, - But ere the morning sun arose, - He was a’ bluid to the gartan.’ - - * * * * * - -#A.# - - _The words in ’ ’ are so distinguished in the MS., and are of - course emendations._ ‘Than,’ 9^1, _is obviously an insertion_; - ‘Now Douglas,’ 11^1, _is entirely unauthorized, and, as before - said, is taken from Hamilton’s ballad_; ‘wiped,’ 14^3, _is - probably substituted for_ drank, _cf._ 12^3, _etc._; _and_ - ‘her,’ 15^3, _is very likely to have been_ his. - -#B.# - - 12^1. _Var._ O father dear, I pray forbear. - -#C.# - - 7^1. He. - - 7^3. SHe, _originally_ He. - - 9^{1,3}. a _in_ came _is not closed_; _possibly_ cume. _A few - changes were, as usual, made by Motherwell in printing._ - -#D.# - - 1^4. Wha _is blotted_. - -#E. b.# - - _A minute collation of a copy constructed by Scott would be - useless and deceptive, and therefore only the larger variations - will be noted._ - - 1^2. And ere they paid the lawing. - - 5^1. As he gaed up the Tennies bank. - - 6^{1,2}. - O come ye here to part your land, - The bonnie forest thorough. - - 7^{1,2}. - I come not here to part my land, - And neither to beg nor borrow. - - _After 7_: - - If I see all, ye’re nine to ane, (_Cf._ #F# 4^1.) - And that’s an unequal marrow; (_Cf._ #G# 3^2.) - Yet will I fight while lasts my brand, (_Cf._ #F# 4^3, #G# 3^3.) - On the bonny banks of Yarrow. (_Cf._ #E a# 6^4.) - - 10^4. Wi my true love, on Yarrow. (_Cf._ #O# 1^4.) - - _After 10, two stanzas which are nearly_ #O# 3, 4. - - 11^3. ten slain men. (_Cf._ #F# 9^3.) - - 12^{2,3}. - She searchd his wounds all thorough; - She kissd them till her lips grew red. - - 13^2. For a’ this breeds but sorrow. (_Cf._ #F# 13^2.) - - 14^2. Ye mind me but of sorrow. - - 14^{3,4}. - A fairer rose did never bloom - Than now lies croppd on Yarrow. - - (_Cf._ #M# 11^{3,4}.) - - _Scott gives in a note_, III, 79, 1803, “the last stanza, as - (_since?_) it occurs in most copies.” (_Cf._ #F#, #G#, #H#.) - - That lady, being big with child, - And full of consternation, - She swooned in her father’s arms, - Amidst that stubborn nation. - -#F.# - - 2^3. browns, _and so again_ #G# 1^3. _A derivation from_ bruny, - _mail-coat, is scarcely to be thought of_. _Apparently a - corruption of_ brand, (_cf._ #E# 4^3); _but_ brand _occurs in_ - #F# 4^3, #G# 3^3. - -#G.# - - 1^2. before him. 1^3. and his noble brouns. - - 10^3. shalt. - -#H.# - - 3, 4. The stubborn lord _in 3^3 is the wife’s father, and the - race, or family, is_ stubborn _according to 10_. _Stubborn folk - think opposers stubborn, no doubt; still the epithet is unlikely - in 4^3._ Lad _I suppose to refer to the man who in the other - versions stabs from behind_. - - 5^3. dern _for_ den. _The_ nine men _must be dead, as in_ #E# 11, - #F# 9, #G# 6. _The_ well armd _belongs to an earlier (lost) - stanza, corresponding to_ #E# 5, #F# 3, #G# 2. - -#I.# _Variations in Buchan’s printed copy_: - - 1^1. Ten lords. The lords _in my copy of the MS., but, as Dixon - has also_ Ten, _I presume_ The _to be an error. Otherwise I - should have read_ Th[re]e, _as in_ #B#, #C#, #D#. - - 4^2. As aft he’d. - - 7^4. thrust him thro body and mell, O. - - 8^3. mother to. 14^4. ower his. - -#J.# - - _The first copy seems to be the earlier, and that which was - transcribed into the MS. to have been slightly edited, but the - variations are few, mostly spellings. The first copy has no - title. The title of the second is altered from_ The Braes of - Yarrow _to_ The Dowie Glens of Yarrow. _At the end of the second - is this note_: This song I took down from Marion Miller in - Threepwood, in the Parish of Melrose. The air was plaintive and - extremely wild. I consider this song more valuable on account - that Mern had never sung it to any but myself for fifteen years, - and she had almost said, or rather promised, that she would - never sing it to another. - - Thoro, 1^1, _etc._, _is spelt_ Thorough, Thorrough, _in the first - copy_, Thorough, Thorrough, Thorro, Thoro, _in the second_; _but - in the latter_ ugh _is struck out wherever it occurs_. - - 4^3. thrusty, _in both_; _i.e._, trusty. - - 11^3. the (birks) heather green, _in both_. - - _First._ 5^2, 17^1, 18^1. oh, Oh. - - _Second._ 5^2. What she had neer done before, O. - - 6^2, 19^2. was filled wi. - - 9^1. Five he. 9^2. nae. 9^3. steed. - - 12^2. to your. - - 18^2. wi _for_ in. - -#K.# - - 3^3. far far _should probably be_ forth, _as in_ #J#; _possibly_ - forth for. - -#L.# - - 12^{3,4}, 13^{1,2}. _Compare Logan’s_ Braes of Yarrow. - - They sought him east, they sought him west, - They sought him all the forest thorough; - They only saw the cloud of night - They only heard the roar of Yarrow. - -#O.# - - “A fragment, to the tune of Leaderhaughs and Yarrow.” - - - - - 215 - - RARE WILLIE DROWNED IN YARROW, OR, THE WATER O GAMRIE - - #A.# ‘Willy’s rare and Willy’s fair,’ Thomson’s Orpheus Caledonius, - II, 110, 1733. - - #B. a.# Cromek’s Select Scotish Songs, 1810, II, 196. #b.# Stenhouse, - Musical Museum, 1853, IV, 464. - - #C.# ‘The Dowie Dens o Yarrow,’ Gibb MS., p. 37. - - #D.# Skene MS., p. 47. - - #E.# ‘Willie’s drowned in Gamery,’ Buchan’s Ballads of the North of - Scotland, I, 245. - - #F.# ‘The Water o Gamery,’ Buchan’s MSS, II, 159. Dixon, Scottish - Traditional Versions of Ancient Ballads, p. 66, Percy Society, vol. - xvii. - - #G.# ‘The Water o Ganrie,’ Motherwell’s MS., p. 637. - - #H.# ‘The Water o Gemrie,’ Campbell MSS, II, 78. - - -#A# was inserted in the fourth volume of The Tea-Table Miscellany, and -stands in the edition of 1763 at p. 321, ‘Rare Willie drowned in -Yarrow,’ It is given in Herd’s Ancient and Modern Scots Songs, 1769, p. -197 (with two or three trifling changes); in Johnson’s Museum, p. 542, -No 525. #F# is epitomized in Christie’s Traditional Ballad Airs, I, 66, -“with some changes from the way the editor has heard it sung.” - -The fragment in Cromek’s Select Scotish Songs, 1810, II, 196, sent by -Burns in a letter to William Tytler, 1790, belongs, as already said, -mostly with ‘The Duke of Athole’s Nurse,’ but has two stanzas of ‘Willie -drowned in Yarrow’ (#B#). - -‘The Braes of Yarrow,’ Ritson’s Scotish Song, I, 154, composed upon the -story of this ballad by the Rev. John Logan (1748–88), has two of the -original lines (nearly): - - They sought him east, they sought him west, - They sought him all the forest thorough. - -Willie is drowned in Yarrow according to the older (southern) tradition, -#A#; also #B#, #C#. In the northern copies, #D#, #E#, #F#, with which -#G#, #H#, agree, the scene is transferred to Gamrie, on the coast of the -Moray Frith, where, as Christie remarks, “there is no water that Willie -could have been drowned in but the sea, on his way along the sands to -the old kirk.”[109] In the ballad which follows this, a western variety -of the same story, Willie is drowned in the Clyde. - -#C# 2, 3, 5, 6, belong to the preceding ballad, and 4 is common to that -and this. - -#A# 2 would come in better at the end of the story (as it does in #C#, a -copy of slight authority), if it might properly find a place anywhere in -the ballad. But this stanza suits only a woman who has been for some -time living with her husband. A woman on her wedding-day could have no -call to make her bed broad in her mother’s house, whether yestreen or -the morrow. I therefore conclude that #A# 2 does not belong to this -ballad.[110] - -#D-H.# Rare Willie has promised to marry Meggie, #E# (also #A#, #C#, -#D#). His mother would give her the wale of all her other sons, but not -Willie; she will have him only; #D#, #E# (cf. #G# 1). The bridegroom, -with a large company, is mounted to ride for the bride; he tells his -friends to go forward, he has forgotten to ask his mother’s blessing; -#D#, #E#, #F#, #H#. He receives the blessing, #D#, #F#, #H#; her -blessing goes not with him, #G#; he gets her heavy curse, #E#; even in -#F# his mother, after giving her blessing, says that he will never see -his wedding. (The mother’s curse is the characteristic feature of the -next following ballad.) The bridal party come to the river, or burn, of -Gamrie; all the others pass the stream safely, but Willie is washed from -his saddle, #D-H#. The rest ride on to the kirk of Gamrie. The bride -asks where is the man who was to marry her, and is told that Willie is -drowned. She tears the ribbons from her hair and runs to the river, -plunges in, and finds Willie in the deepest pot, the middle, the deepest -weil. She will make her bed with him in Gamrie; both mothers shall be -alike sorry; #D-G#. - -In #H#, Willie’s horse comes home with an empty saddle. His mother is -sure that her son is dead; her daughter tries in vain to persuade her -that all is well; Meggie takes her lover’s body from the river and lays -it on the grass; she will sleep with him in the same grave at Gamrie. - -In #A#, #B#, the drowned body is found in the cleft of a rock, the -clifting or clintin of a craig; in #C# 4 neath a buss of brume, that -stanza belonging, as most of the copy does, to the preceding ballad; cf. -#J# 14, #K# 11 of No 214. The bride ties three links of her hair, which -is three quarters long, round Willie’s waist, and draws him out of the -water, #B# 2, #C# 5; for the hair, cf. No 214, where also it is not -advantageously used. The bride’s tearing the ribbons from her head, #D# -12, #E# 15, #F# 8, #G# 7, #H# 14, is found also in No 214, #D# 11, #I# -12, but is inappropriate there. A brother, brother John, whether the -man’s or the woman’s, tells the bad news in No 214, #A# 11, #E# 9, #I# -8, #L# 11, #N# 9, 10, as here #D# 11, #E# 14, #F# 7, #G# 6, #H# 13. - -‘Annan Water,’ a ballad in which a lover is drowned on his way to visit -his mistress, is given in an appendix. - - * * * * * - - - A - - Thomson’s Orpheus Caledonius, II, 110, 1733. - - 1 - ‘Willy’s rare, and Willy’s fair, - And Willy’s wondrous bony, - And Willy heght to marry me, - Gin eer he marryd ony. - - 2 - ‘Yestreen I made my bed fu brade, - The night I’ll make it narrow, - For a’ the live-long winter’s night - I lie twin’d of my marrow. - - 3 - ‘O came you by yon water-side? - Pu’d you the rose or lilly? - Or came you by yon meadow green? - Or saw you my sweet Willy?’ - - 4 - She sought him east, she sought him west, - She sought him brade and narrow; - Sine, in the clifting of a craig, - She found him drownd in Yarrow. - - * * * * * - - - B - - #a.# Cromek’s Select Scotish Songs, 1810, II, 196; eighth and ninth - stanzas of a fragment sent William Tytler by Burns in 1790. #b.# - Stenhouse’s edition of the Musical Museum, 1853, IV, 464. - - 1 - She sought him east, she sought him west, - She sought him braid and narrow, - Till in the clintin of a craig - She found him drownd in Yarrow. - - 2 - She’s taen three links of her yellow hair, - That hung down lang and yellow, - And she’s tied it about sweet Willie’s waist, - An drawn him out o Yarrow. - - * * * * * - - - C - - Gibb MS., No 7, p. 37; from recitation. “Traced to Eppie Fraser, - daughter of a tramp, and unable to read, _circa_ 1840.” - - 1 - ‘Willie’s fair, an Willie’s rare, - An Willie’s wondrous bonny, - An Willie’s promised to marry me, - If eer he marry ony.’ - - 2 - ‘O sister dear, I’ve dreamed a dream, - I’m afraid it’s unco sorrow; - I dreamed I was pu’in the heather green, - In the dowie dens o Yarrow.’ - - 3 - ‘O sister dear, I’ll read your dream, - I’m afraid it will be sorrow; - Ye’ll get a letter ere it’s een - Your lover’s drowned in Yarrow.’ - - 4 - She socht him up, she socht him doun, - In mickle dule an sorrow; - She found him neath a buss o brume, - In the dowie dens o Yarrow. - - 5 - Her hair it was three quarters lang, - Its colour it was yallow; - She tied it to his middle sma, - An pu’ed him oot o Yarrow. - - 6 - ‘My bed it was made wide yestreen, - The nicht it sall be narrow; - There’s neer a man lie by my side - Since Willie’s drowned in Yarrow.’ - - * * * * * - - - D - - Skene MS., p. 47; taken down from recitation in the north of - Scotland, 1802–3. - - 1 - ‘Willie’s fair, and Willie’s rare, - An he is wondrous bonnie, - An Willie has promist to marry me, - Gin ever he marry ony.’ - - 2 - ‘Ye’s get Jammie, or ye’s [get] Johnnie, - Or ye’s get bonny Peter; - Ye’s get the wale o a’ my sons, - But leave me Willie the writer.’ - - 3 - ‘I winna hae Jamie, I winna hae Johnie, - I winna hae bonny Peter; - I winna hae ony o a’ your sons, - An I get na Willie the writer.’ - - 4 - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - There was threescore and ten brisk young men - Was boun to briddal-stool wi him: - - 5 - ‘Ride on, ride on, my merry men a’, - I forgot something behind me; - I forgat my mither’s blessing, - To hae to bride-stool wi me.’ - - 6 - ‘God’s blessin an mine gae wi ye, Willie, - God’s blessing an mine gae wi ye; - For ye’re nae ane hour but bare nineteen, - Fan ye’re gauin to meet your Meggie.’ - - 7 - They rode on, and farther on, - Till they came to the water of Gamrie, - An they a’ wan safe through, - Unless it was sweet Willie. - - 8 - The first ae step that Willie’s horse steppit, - He steppit to the bridle; - The next ae step that Willie’s horse steppit, - Toom grew Willie’s saddle. - - 9 - They rod on, an farther on, - Till they came to the kirk of Gamrie. - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - - 10 - Out spak the bonny bride, - . . . . . . . - ‘Whar is the man that’s to gie me his han - This day at the kirk of Gamrie?’ - - 11 - Out spak his brother John, - An O bat he was sorrie! - ‘It fears me much, my bonny bride, - He sleeps oure soun in Gamerie.’ - - 12 - The ribbons that were on her haír— - An they were thick and monny— - She rive them a’, let them down fa, - An is on[to] the water o Gamerie. - - 13 - She sought it up, she sought it down, - She sought it braid and narrow; - An in the deepest pot o Gamerie, - There she got sweet Willie. - - 14 - She has kissd his comely mouth, - As she had done before [O]: - ‘Baith our mithers sall be alike sorry, - For we’s baith sleep in Gamery.’ - - * * * * * - - - E - - Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, #I#, 245. - - 1 - ‘O Willie is fair, and Willie is rare, - And Willie is wondrous bonny, - And Willie says he’ll marry me, - Gin ever he marry ony.’ - - 2 - ‘O ye’se get James, or ye’se get George, - Or ye’s get bonny Johnnie; - Ye’se get the flower o a’ my sons, - Gin ye’ll forsake my Willie.’ - - 3 - ‘O what care I for James or George, - Or yet for bonny Peter? - I dinna value their love a leek, - An I getna Willie the writer. - - 4 - ‘O Willie has a bonny hand, - And dear but it is bonny!’ - ‘He has nae mair for a’ his land; - What woud ye do wi Willie?’ - - 5 - ‘O Willie has a bonny face, - And dear but it is bonny!’ - ‘But Willie has nae other grace; - What woud ye do wi Willie?’ - - 6 - ‘Willie’s fair, and Willie’s rare, - And Willie’s wondrous bonny; - There’s nane wi him that can compare, - I love him best of ony.’ - - 7 - On Wednesday, that fatal day, - The people were convening; - Besides all this, threescore and ten, - To gang to the bride-steel wi him. - - 8 - ‘Ride on, ride on, my merry men a’, - I’ve forgot something behind me; - I’ve forgot to get my mother’s blessing, - To gae to the bride-steel wi me.’ - - 9 - ‘Your Peggy she’s but bare fifteen, - And ye are scarcely twenty; - The water o Gamery is wide and braid; - My heavy curse gang wi thee!’ - - 10 - Then they rode on, and further on, - Till they came on to Gamery; - The wind was loud, the stream was proud, - And wi the stream gaed Willie. - - 11 - Then they rode on, and further on, - Till they came to the kirk o Gamery; - And every one on high horse sat, - But Willie’s horse rade toomly. - - 12 - When they were settled at that place, - The people fell a mourning, - And a council held amo them a’, - But sair, sair wept Kinmundy. - - 13 - Then out it speaks the bride hersell, - Says, What means a’ this mourning? - Where is the man amo them a’ - That shoud gie me fair wedding? - - 14 - Then out it speaks his brother John, - Says, Meg, I’ll tell you plainly; - The stream was strong, the clerk rade wrong, - And Willie’s drownd in Gamery. - - 15 - She put her hand up to her head, - Where were the ribbons many; - She rave them a’, let them down fa’, - And straightway ran to Gamery. - - 16 - She sought it up, she sought it down, - Till she was wet and weary; - And in the middle part o it, - There she got her deary. - - 17 - Then she stroakd back his yellow hair, - And kissd his mou sae comely: - ‘My mother’s heart’s be as wae as thine! - We’se baith asleep in the water o Gamery.’ - - * * * * * - - - F - - Buchan MSS, II, 159. - - 1 - Whan Willie was in his saddle set, - And all his merry men wi him, - ‘Stay still, stay still, my merry men all, - I’ve forgot something behind me. - - 2 - ‘Gie me God’s blessing an yours, mither, - To hae me on to Gamery; - Gie me God’s blessing an yours, mither, - To gae to the bride-stool wi me.’ - - 3 - ‘I’ll gie ye God’s blessing an mine, Willie, - To hae you on to Gamery; - Ye’s hae God’s blessing an mine, Willie, - To gae to the bride-stool wi you. - - 4 - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - ‘But Gamery it is wide and deep, - An ye’ll never see your wedding;’ - - 5 - Some rede back, an some rede fore, - An some rede on to Gamery; - The bonniest knight’s saddle among them all - Stood teem in the Water o Gamery. - - 6 - Out it spake the bride hersell, - Says, What makes all this riding? - Where is the knight amongst you all - Aught me this day for wedding? - - 7 - Out it spake the bridegroom’s brother, - Says, Margaret, I’ll tell you plainly; - The knight ye should hae been wedded on - Is drownd in the Water o Gamery. - - 8 - She’s torn the ribbons aff her head— - They were baith thick an mony— - She kilted up her green claithing, - And she has passed the Gamery. - - 9 - She’s plunged in, so did she down, - That was baith black an jumly, - And in the middle o that water - She found her ain sweet Willie. - - 10 - She’s taen him in her arms twa - And gied him kisses many: - ‘My mother’s be as wae as thine! - We’ll baith lie in the Water o Gamery.’ - - * * * * * - - - G - - Motherwell’s MS., p. 637; from the recitation of the wife of James - Baird, forester at Dalrymple. - - 1 - ‘O stay at hame, my ain son Willie, - And let your bride tak Johnie! - O stay at hame, my ain son Willie! - For my blessing gaes not wi thee.’ - - 2 - ‘I canna stay, nor I winna stay, - And let my bride tak Johnie; - I canna stay, nor I winna stay, - Though your blessing gaes na wi me. - - 3 - ‘I have a steed in my stable - That cost me monie a pennie, - And on that steed I winna dread - To ride the water o Genrie.’ - - 4 - The firsten step that Willie stept, - He steppit to the bellie; - The wind blew loud, the stream ran proud, - And awa wi it gaed Willie. - - 5 - And when the bride gaed to the kirk, - Into the kirk o Ganrie, - She cuist her ee among them a’, - But she sawna her love Willie. - - 6 - Out and spak her auld brither, - Saying, Peggie, I will tell thee; - The man ye should been married till - Lyes in the water o Genrie. - - 7 - She tore the ribbons aff her head, - That were baith rich and manie, - And she has kiltit up her coat, - And ran to the water o Ganrie. - - 8 - She’s sought him up, sae did she doun, - Thro a’ the water o Ganrie; - In the deepest weil in a’ the burn, - Oh, there she fand her Willie! - - 9 - She has taen him in her arms twa, - Sae fondly as she kisst him! - Said, ‘My mither sall be wae as thine,’ - And she’s lain doun aside him. - - * * * * * - - - H - - Campbell MSS, II, 78. - - 1 - They were saddled a’, they were briddled a’, - Bridegroom and a’ was ready; - ‘Stop,’ says he, ‘my nobles a’, - For I’ve left something behind me. - - 2 - ‘It is your blessing, mother dear, - To bound [to] the bride-styl with me:’ - ‘God’s blessing now, my son,’ says she, - ‘And mine and a’ gang wi ye! - - 3 - ‘For ye are scarce nineteen years of age - When ye met in wi bonny Maggie, - And I’m sure, my dear, she’ll welcome you - This day in the kirk o Gemrie.’ - - 4 - It’s they have ridden up, it’s they have ridden down, - And joy was in their gallant company; - It’s they have ridden up, and they have ridden down, - Till they came to the water o Gemrie. - - 5 - When they came to the water, it was flooded; - In the middle Sweet William he fell; - The spray brook over his horse’s mane, - And the wind sang his funeral knell. - - 6 - ‘O much is the pity! O much is the pity!’ - Cried that joyful company; - ‘O much is the pity! O much is the pity!’ - But alas! now are woeful and wae. - - 7 - Hame and hame came his stead, - And ran to its ain stable; - They’ve gien it corn and hay to eat, - As much as it was able. - - 8 - His mother she was a waefu woman, - As dung as woman could be; - ‘My son,’ says she, ‘is either hurt or slain, - Or drowned in the waters of Gemrie.’ - - 9 - It’s up and spak her daughter Ann: - ‘What needs be a’ this mourning? - He’s lighted at yon bonny kirk-style, - And his steed has run away from him.’ - - 10 - ‘O had yer tongue, my daughter Ann, - Nor scold na me about mourning; - Hadna my son there men enew - To hae taken his steed from him?’ - - 11 - They’ve ridden up, they’ve ridden down, - Till they came to the kirk o Gemrie; - There they saw his winsome bride, - Alone at the kirk-style standing. - - 12 - ‘Where away is the man,’ says she, - ‘That promised me fair wedding? - This day he vowd to meet me here, - But O he’s lang o coming!’ - - 13 - Up and spak his brother John, - Says, ‘Meg, I’ll tell ye plainly; - The stream was strang, and we rade wrang, - And he’s drownd in the water o Gemrie.’ - - 14 - She’s torn the ribons frae her hair, - That were baith thick and many; - She’s torn them a’, lettin them fa’, - And she’s away to the waters o Gemrie. - - 15 - She[’s] sought him up, she’s sought him down, - Until that she’s gotten his body, - And she’s laid it on the green, green grass, - And flung her mantle oer him. - - 16 - ‘O Willie was red, but O now he’s white! - And Willie was wondrous bonny, - And Willie he said he’d marry me, - Gin ere he married oney. - - 17 - ‘He was red, he was white, he was my delight, - And aye, aye I thought him bonny; - But now since Willie has dy’d for me, - I will sleep wi him in the same grave at Gemrie.’ - - * * * * * - -#B. b.# - - “The editor has often heard the following additional stanza [_the - second_], though it is omitted by Thomson.” - - 2^1. links o her gowden locks. - - 2^3. She’s tied them about. - -#D.# - - _Not divided into stanzas in the MS._ - -#E.# - -_Variations in Christie_, I, 66: - - 2^{1–3}. ye’ll. - - 6^1. O Willie’s. - - 7^3. And there were mair than threescore and ten. - - 14^4. at Gamery. - - 15^2. Where she had ribbons. - - 15^3. And tore them a’ and let. - - 15^4. And syne she ran. - - 16^4. ’Twas there. - - 17^1. She straiked back. - - 17^4. We’ll baith sleep. - -#G.# - - 6^1. _Originally_ But out. - -#H.# - - 2^2. bound the bridgestyle. - - - APPENDIX - - - ANNAN WATER - - Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, 1833, III, 282; 1802, II, 138. - -The first edition lacks stanzas 5, 6, 8, 9. Two of these were inserted -“from another copy of the ballad in which the conclusion proves -fortunate.” - -“The ballad,” says Scott, “is given from tradition,” for which a more -precise expression would perhaps be “oral repetition.” It is asserted in -the Minstrelsy to be “the original words of the tune of ‘Allan Water,’ -by which name the song is mentioned in Ramsay’s Tea-Table Miscellany” -(‘Allan Water, or, My love Annie’s very bonny,’ T. T. M., vol. i, p. -105, of the Dublin edition of 1729). This assertion is not justified by -any reasons, nor does it seem pertinent, if the Allan was originally the -river of the ballad, to add, as the editor does, that “the Annan and the -Frith of Solway, into which it falls, are the frequent scenes of -tragical accidents.” - -A song which may pass for the original Allan Water until an earlier is -produced is among the Laing broadsides (now in the possession of Lord -Rosebery), No 59. There is no date or place, but it is thought to have -been printed toward the end of the seventeenth century, or the beginning -of the eighteenth, and probably at Edinburgh. - -The title is: ‘Allan Water, or, A Lover in Captivity.[111] A new song, -sung with a pleasant new air.’ There are three eight-line stanzas, and -it begins: - - Allan Water’s wide and deep, - and my dear Anny’s very bonny; - Wide’s the straith that lyes above ‘t, - if ‘t were mine, I’de give it all for Anny. - -Allan Cunningham says of the ballad, Songs of Scotland, II, 102: “I have -heard it sung on the banks of the Annan. Like all traditional verses, -there are many variations.” And he cites as “from an old fragment” these -couplets: - - O Annan water’s wading deep, [_i.e._ wide and] - Yet I am loth to weet my feet; - But if ye’ll consent to marry me, - I’ll hire a horse to carry thee.[112] - -It is my conviction that ‘Anna Water,’ in Ramsay’s language, is one of -the “Scots poems wrote by the ingenious before” 1800. - -“By the Gatehope Slack,” says Sir Walter Scott, “is perhaps meant the -Gate Slack, a pass in Annandale.” - - 1 - ‘Annan water’s wading deep, - And my love Annie’s wondrous bonny, - And I am laith she suld weet her feet, - Because I love her best of ony. - - 2 - ‘Gar saddle me the bonny black, - Gar saddle sune, and make him ready, - For I will down the Gatehope-Slack, - And all to see my bonny ladye.’ - - 3 - He has loupen on the bonny black, - He stirrd him wi the spur right sairly; - But, or he wan the Gatehope-Slack, - I think the steed was wae and weary. - - 4 - He has loupen on the bonny grey, - He rade the right gate and the ready; - I trow he would neither stint nor stay, - For he was seeking his bonny ladye. - - 5 - O he has ridden oer field and fell, - Through muir and moss, and mony a mire; - His spurs o steel were sair to bide, - And frae her fore-feet flew the fire. - - 6 - ‘Now, bonny grey, now play your part! - Gin ye be the steed that wins my deary, - Wi corn and hay ye’se be fed for aye, - And never spur sall make you wearie.’ - - 7 - The grey was a mare, and a right good mare, - But when she wan the Annan water - She couldna hae ridden a furlong mair - Had a thousand merks been wadded at her. - - 8 - ‘O boatman, boatman, put off your boat! - Put off your boat for gowden money! - I cross the drumly stream the night, - Or never mair I see my honey.’ - - 9 - ‘O I was sworn sae late yestreen, - And not by ae aith, but by many; - And for a’ the gowd in fair Scotland - I dare na take ye through to Annie.’ - - 10 - The ride was stey, and the bottom deep, - Frae bank to brae the water pouring, - And the bonny grey mare did sweat for fear, - For she heard the water-kelpy roaring. - - 11 - O he has poud aff his dapperpy coat, - The silver buttons glanced bonny; - The waistcoat bursted aff his breast, - He was sae full of melancholy. - - 12 - He has taen the ford at that stream tail; - I wot he swam both strong and steady; - But the stream was broad, and his strength did fail, - And he never saw his bonny ladye! - - 13 - ‘O wae betide the frush saugh wand! - And wae betide the bush of brier! - It brake into my true-love’s hand, - When his strength did fail, and his limbs did tire. - - 14 - ‘And wae betide ye, Annan Water, - This night that ye are a drumlie river! - For over thee I’ll build a bridge, - That ye never more true love may sever.’ - - - - - 216 - - THE MOTHER’S MALISON, OR, CLYDE’S WATER - - #A.# ‘Clyde’s Water,’ Skene MS., p. 50. - - #B.# ‘Willie and May Margaret,’ Jamieson’s Popular Ballads, 1806, I, - 135. - - #C.# ‘The Drowned Lovers,’ Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, - I, 140; ‘Willie and Margaret,’ Motherwell’s MS., p. 611; printed in - part in Motherwell’s Minstrelsy, Appendix, p. iii. - - -Stanzas 1, 5, 6, 7, 16, of #B# were printed by Jamieson (under the title -of Sweet Willie and May Margaret) in the Scots Magazine, October, 1803, -p. 700, in the hope of obtaining a complete copy. - -In notes to #B# are here given some various readings and supplementary -verses which were entered by Motherwell in a copy of his Minstrelsy, -without indication of their origin.[113] Motherwell made a few changes -in transcribing #C# into his MS., and others in the verses which he -printed in the appendix to his Minstrelsy. - -The copy of this ballad in Nimmo’s Songs and Ballads of Clydesdale, p. -134, was compounded from #B# and #C#. - - -Willie orders his horse and his man to be fed, for he means to be that -very night with his love Margaret. His mother would have him stay with -her: he shall have the best bed in the house and the best hen in the -roost, #A#; the best cock in the roost and the best sheep in the flock, -#B#; a sour wind is blowing and the night will be dark, #C#. He cares -for none of these, and will go. My malison drown thee in Clyde! says his -mother. Clyde is roaring fearfully, but he wins through. Arrived at -Margaret’s bower, he tirls at the pin and calls to her to open. A voice -asks, Who is there? It is her lover, his boots full of Clyde’s water. An -answer comes, as if from Margaret, that she has no lovers without and -none within, and she will not open, #A#, #C#; her mother is fast asleep, -and she dares make no din, #B#. Then he begs for some shelter for the -night; but is told that one chamber is full of corn, another full of -hay, and the third full of gentlemen, who will not go till morning. -Farewell, then; he has won his mother’s malison by coming. Clyde’s water -is half up over the brae, #B#, and sweeps him off his horse, #C#. -Margaret wakens from a dreary dream that her love had been ‘staring’ -(standing?) at the foot of her bed, #A#; had been at the gates, and -nobody would let him in, #C#. Her mother informs her that her lover had -really been at the gates but half an hour before. Margaret instantly -gets up and goes after Willie, crying to him against the loud wind. She -does not stop for the river. No more was ever seen of Willie but his -hat, no more of Margaret but her comb and her snood, #A#, which might -end well so, but has lost a few lines. #C# ends like the preceding -ballad: Margaret finds Willie in the deepest pot in Clyde; they shall -sleep together in its bed. - -#C# 20, 21 absurdly represents Willie’s brother as standing on the -river-bank and expostulating with him; this in the dead of night.[114] - -The passage in two of the copies, #A# 10–16, #C# 11–15, 22–25, in which -the mother, pretending to be her daughter, repels the lover, and the -daughter, who has dreamed that her lover had come and had been refused -admittance, is told by her mother that this had actually happened, and -sets off in pursuit of her lover, seems to have been adopted from ‘The -Lass of Roch Royal,’ No 76. Parts are exchanged, as happens not -infrequently with ballads; in the ‘Lass of Roch Royal,’ the lass is -turned away by her lover’s mother, pretending to speak in his person. -There is verbal correspondence, particularly in #A# 16; cf. No 76, #D# -26, 27, #E# 22, 23. In #D# 19 of No 76 the professed Love Gregor tells -Annie that he has another love, as the professed Meggie in #A# 11 -(inconsistently with what precedes) tells Willie. - -The three steps into the water, #C# 26–28, occur also in ‘Child Waters,’ -No 63, #B# 7–9, #C# 6–8, #I# 3, 4, 6. Nose-bleed, #C# 1, is a bad omen; -see No 208. - -Verses #A# 8^{1,2}, #C# 10^{1,2}, - - Make me your wrack as I come back, - But spare me as I go, - -are found in a broadside ‘Tragedy of Hero and Leander,’ Roxburghe -Ballads, III, 152, etc., of the date, it is thought, of about 1650; -Ebsworth’s Roxburghe Ballads, VI, 558, Collier’s Book of Roxburghe -Ballads, 1847, p. 227. The conceit does not overwell suit a popular -ballad. The original is Martial’s Parcite dum propero, mergite cum -redeo, otherwise, Mergite me, fluctus, cum rediturus ero, Epigr. lib., -25 b, and lib. xiv, 181. - -A very popular Italian ballad has some of the traits of ‘The Mother’s -Malison,’ parts being exchanged and the girl drowned. A girl is asked in -marriage; her mother objects, in most of the copies on the ground of her -daughter’s youth; she goes off with her lover; the mother wishes that -she may drown in the sea; arrived at the seashore her horse becomes -restive, and the girl is drowned (or she goes down in mid-sea): -‘Maledizione della Madre,’ Nigra, Canti popolari del Piemonte, p. 151, -No 23 #A#-#F#; ‘La Maledizione materna,’ Marcoaldi, p. 170, No 15; ‘La -Maledetta,’ Ferraro, C. p. monferrini, p. 35, No 27; ‘Buona-sera, -vedovella,’ Ferraro, C. p. del Basso Monferrato, p. 16, No 7; ‘La Figlia -disobbediente,’ Bolza, C. p. comasche, No 55; ‘Amor di Fratello,’ -Bernoni, C. p. veneziani, Puntata 9, No 4; Righi, C. p. veronesi, p. 30, -No 93; Wolf, Volkslieder aus Venetien, No 92 (a fragment). In ‘Marinai,’ -Ferraro, C. p. di Ferrara, etc., p. 59, No 9, the suitor is a sailor, -and the girl goes down in his ship, and so in ‘Il marinaro e la sua -amorosa,’ No 94, Wolf, but in this last she is still told to stick to -her horse. A fragment in Marie Aycard’s Bal-lades et ch. p. de la -Provence, p. xix, repeated in Arbaud, II, 166, makes it probable that -the Italian ballad was known in the south of France. (All the above are -cited by Count Nigra.) - -A mother’s curse upon her son, who is riding to fetch his bride, results -in his breaking his neck, in a Bohemian ballad already spoken of under -‘Clerk Colvil,’ No 42; see #I#, 368 (where a translation by Wenzig, -Slawische Volkslieder, p. 47, might have been noted). - -A mother refuses to give her daughter in marriage because the girl is -under age; the daughter is forcibly carried off; the mother wishes that -she may not live a year, which comes to pass: ‘Der Mutter Fluch,’ -Meinert, p. 246. - - -#B# is translated by Grundtvig, Engelske og skotshe Folkeviser, p. 64, -No 10, and (with use of #C#), by Wolff, Halle der Völker, I, 26, -Hausschatz, p. 203; Aytoun’s ballad (with use of #C#) by Rosa Warrens, -Schottische Volkslieder, p. 152, No 35; Allingham’s ballad by Knortz, L. -u. R. Alt-Englands, p. 123. - - * * * * * - - - A - - Skene MS., p. 50; taken down from recitation in the north of - Scotland, 1802–3. - - 1 - ‘Ye gie corn unto my horse, - An meat unto my man, - For I will gae to my true-love’s gates - This night, gin that I can.’ - - 2 - ‘O stay at hame this ae night, Willie, - This ae bare night wi me; - The best bed in a’ my house - Sall be well made to thee.’ - - 3 - ‘I carena for your beds, mither, - I carena ae pin, - For I’ll gae to my love’s gates - This night, gin I can win.’ - - 4 - ‘O stay, my son Willie, this night, - This ae night wi me; - The best hen in a’ my roost - Sall be well made ready for thee.’ - - 5 - ‘I carena for your hens, mither, - I carena ae pin; - I sall gae to my love’s gates - This night, gin I can win.’ - - 6 - ‘Gin ye winna stay, my son Willie, - This ae bare night wi me, - Gin Clyde’s water be deep and fu o flood, - My malisen drown ye!’ - - 7 - He rode up yon high hill, - An down yon dowie glen; - The roaring of Clyde’s water - Wad hae fleyt ten thousand men. - - 8 - ‘O spare me, Clyde’s water, - O spare me as I gae! - Mak me your wrack as I come back, - But spare me as I gae!’ - - 9 - He rade in, and farther in, - Till he came to the chin; - And he rade in, and farther in, - Till he came to dry lan. - - 10 - An whan he came to his love’s gates, - He tirled at the pin: - ‘Open your gates, Meggie, - Open your gates to me, - For my beets are fu o Clyde’s water, - And the rain rains oure my chin.’ - - 11 - ‘I hae nae lovers therout,’ she says, - ‘I hae nae love within; - My true-love is in my arms twa, - An nane will I lat in.’ - - 12 - ‘Open your gates, Meggie, this ae night, - Open your gates to me; - For Clyde’s water is fu o flood, - An my mither’s malison’ll drown me.’ - - 13 - ‘Ane o my chamers is fu o corn,’ she says, - ‘An ane is fu o hay; - Anither is fa o gentlemen, - An they winna move till day.’ - - 14 - Out waked her May Meggie, - Out o her drousy dream: - ‘I dreamed a dream sin the yestreen, - God read a’ dreams to guid! - That my true-love Willie - Was staring at my bed-feet.’ - - 15 - ‘Now lay ye still, my ae dochter, - An keep my back fra the call, - For it’s na the space of hafe an hour - Sen he gad fra yer hall.’ - - 16 - ‘An hey, Willie, an hoa, Willie, - Winne ye turn agen?’ - But ay the louder that she crayed - He rod agenst the wind. - - 17 - He rod up yon high hill, - An doun yon douey den; - The roring that was in Clid[e]‘s water - Wad ha flayed ten thousand men. - - 18 - He road in, an farder in, - Till he came to the chine; - An he road in, an farder in, - Bat neuer mare was seen. - - * * * * * * - - 19 - Ther was na mare seen of that guid lord - Bat his hat frae his head; - Ther was na mare seen of that lady - Bat her comb an her sneed. - - 20 - Ther waders went up an doun - Eadying Claid’s water - Hav don us wrang - - * * * * * - - - B - - Jamieson’s Popular Ballads, I, 135; from Mrs Brown’s recitation, - apparently in 1800. - - 1 - ‘Gie corn to my horse, mither, - Gie meat unto my man, - For I maun gang to Margaret’s bower - Before the nicht comes on.’ - - 2 - ‘O stay at hame now, my son Willie, - The wind blaws cald and sour; - The nicht will be baith mirk and late - Before ye reach her bower.’ - - 3 - ‘O tho the nicht were ever sae dark, - Or the wind blew never sae cald, - I will be in my Margaret’s bower - Before twa hours be tald.’ - - 4 - ‘O gin ye gang to May Margaret, - Without the leave of me, - Clyde’s water’s wide and deep enough, - My malison drown thee!’ - - 5 - He mounted on his coal-black steed, - And fast he rade awa, - But ere he came to Clyde’s water - Fu loud the wind did blaw. - - 6 - As he rode oer yon hich, hich hill, - And down yon dowie den, - There was a roar in Clyde’s water - Wad feard a hunder men. - - 7 - His heart was warm, his pride was up; - Sweet Willie kentna fear; - But yet his mither’s malison - Ay sounded in his ear. - - 8 - O he has swam through Clyde’s water, - Tho it was wide and deep, - And he came to May Margaret’s door, - When a’ were fast asleep. - - 9 - O he’s gane round and round about, - And tirled at the pin; - But doors were steekd, and windows barrd, - And nane wad let him in. - - 10 - ‘O open the door to me, Margaret! - O open and lat me in! - For my boots are full o Clyde’s water - And frozen to the brim.’ - - 11 - ‘I darena open the door to you, - Nor darena lat you in, - For my mither she is fast asleep, - And I darena mak nae din.’ - - 12 - ‘O gin ye winna open the door, - Nor yet be kind to me, - Now tell me o some out-chamber - Where I this nicht may be.’ - - 13 - ‘Ye canna win in this nicht, Willie, - Nor here ye canna be; - For I’ve nae chambers out nor in, - Nae ane but barely three. - - 14 - ‘The tane o them is fu o corn, - The tither is fu o hay; - The tither is fu o merry young men; - They winna remove till day.’ - - 15 - ‘O fare ye weel, then, May Margaret, - Sin better manna be; - I’ve win my mither’s malison, - Coming this nicht to thee.’ - - 16 - He’s mounted on his coal-black steed, - O but his heart was wae! - But, ere he came to Clyde’s water, - ’Twas half up oer the brae. - - * * * * * * - - 17 - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - . . . he plunged in, - But never raise again. - - * * * * * - - - C - - Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, I, 140. - - 1 - Willie stands in his stable-door, - And clapping at his steed, - And looking oer his white fingers - His nose began to bleed. - - 2 - ‘Gie corn to my horse, mother, - And meat to my young man, - And I’ll awa to Maggie’s bower; - I’ll win ere she lie down.’ - - 3 - ‘O bide this night wi me, Willie, - O bide this night wi me; - The best an cock o a’ the reest - At your supper shall be.’ - - 4 - ‘A’ your cocks, and a’ your reests, - I value not a prin, - For I’ll awa to Meggie’s bower; - I’ll win ere she lie down.’ - - 5 - ‘Stay this night wi me, Willie, - O stay this night wi me; - The best an sheep in a’ the flock - At your supper shall be.’ - - 6 - ‘A’ your sheep, and a’ your flocks, - I value not a prin, - For I’ll awa’ to Meggie’s bower; - I’ll win ere she lie down.’ - - 7 - ‘O an ye gang to Meggie’s bower, - Sae sair against my will, - The deepest pot in Clyde’s water, - My malison ye’s feel.’ - - 8 - ‘The guid steed that I ride upon - Cost me thrice thretty pound; - And I’ll put trust in his swift feet - To hae me safe to land.’ - - 9 - As he rade ower yon high, high hill, - And down yon dowie den, - The noise that was in Clyde’s water - Woud feard five huner men. - - 10 - ‘O roaring Clyde, ye roar ower loud, - Your streams seem wondrous strang; - Make me your wreck as I come back, - But spare me as I gang!’ - - 11 - Then he is on to Maggie’s bower, - And tirled at the pin; - ‘O sleep ye, wake ye, Meggie,’ he said, - ‘Ye’ll open, lat me come in.’ - - 12 - ‘O wha is this at my bower-door, - That calls me by my name?’ - ‘It is your first love, sweet Willie, - This night newly come hame.’ - - 13 - ‘I hae few lovers thereout, thereout, - As few hae I therein; - The best an love that ever I had - Was here just late yestreen.’ - - 14 - ‘The warstan stable in a’ your stables, - For my puir steed to stand! - The warstan bower in a’ your bowers, - For me to lie therein! - My boots are fu o Clyde’s water, - I’m shivering at the chin.’ - - 15 - ‘My barns are fu o corn, Willie, - My stables are fu o hay; - My bowers are fu o gentlemen, - They’ll nae remove till day.’ - - 16 - ‘O fare ye well, my fause Meggie, - O farewell, and adieu! - I’ve gotten my mither’s malison - This night coming to you.’ - - 17 - As he rode ower yon high, high hill, - And down yon dowie den, - The rushing that was in Clyde’s water - Took Willie’s cane frae him. - - 18 - He leand him ower his saddle-bow, - To catch his cane again; - The rushing that was in Clyde’s water - Took Willie’s hat frae him. - - 19 - He leand him ower his saddle-bow, - To catch his hat thro force; - The rushing that was in Clyde’s water - Took Willie frae his horse. - - 20 - His brither stood upo the bank, - Says, Fye, man, will ye drown? - Ye’ll turn ye to your high horse head - And learn how to sowm. - - 21 - ‘How can I turn to my horse head - And learn how to sowm? - I’ve gotten my mither’s malison, - It’s here that I maun drown.’ - - 22 - The very hour this young man sank - Into the pot sae deep, - Up it wakend his love Meggie - Out o her drowsy sleep. - - 23 - ‘Come here, come here, my mither dear, - And read this dreary dream; - I dreamd my love was at our gates, - And nane wad let him in.’ - - 24 - ‘Lye still, lye still now, my Meggie, - Lye still and tak your rest; - Sin your true-love was at your yates, - It’s but twa quarters past.’ - - 25 - Nimbly, nimbly raise she up, - And nimbly pat she on, - And the higher that the lady cried, - The louder blew the win. - - 26 - The first an step that she steppd in, - She stepped to the queet; - ‘Ohon, alas!’ said that lady, - ‘This water’s wondrous deep.’ - - 27 - The next an step that she wade in, - She wadit to the knee; - Says she, ‘I coud wide farther in, - If I my love coud see.’ - - 28 - The next an step that she wade in, - She wadit to the chin; - The deepest pot in Clyde’s water - She got sweet Willie in. - - 29 - ‘You’ve had a cruel mither, Willie, - And I have had anither; - But we shall sleep in Clyde’s water - Like sister an like brither.’ - - * * * * * - -#A.# - - _Not divided into stanzas in the MS.; sometimes not into verses._ - - 15^3. For _is written after_ call _in the preceding line._ - - 16^3. But ay _is written after_ agen _in the preceding line._ - - 16^4. He _is written after_ crayed _in the preceding line._ - - 18^2. Till _is written after_ in _in the preceding line._ - - 19. - Ther was na mare seen of - that guid lord bat his hat - frae his head ther was na - mare seen of that lady bat - her comb an her sneed. - - 20^1. Doun _stands at the beginning of the next line_. - - #A# 14–16 _might perhaps be better put after the drowning, as in_ - #C#. - -#B.# - - _Readings inserted by Motherwell in a copy of his Minstrelsy._ - - 4^{3,4}. - My malison and deidly curse - Shall bear ye companie. - - _After 7_: - - He swam high, and he swam low, - And he swam to and fro, - Until he gript a hazel-bush, - That brung him to the brow. - - 9^4. _Var._ But his mother answered him. - - 10. - O rise, O rise, May Marget, h[e says], - (_cut away by the binder_) - O rise and let me in, - For the very steed that I came on - Does tremble at every limb. - - 11^3. mither and father’s baith awauk. - - 12. - O hae ye neer a stable, he says, - Or hae ye neer a barn, - Or hae ye neer a wild-guse house, - Where I might rest till morn? - - 14^1. My barn is. - - 14^2. My stable is. - - 14^3. The house is fu o wild, wild gees. - - 14^4. They canna be moved. - - 15^4. Rides in my companie. - - 16^1. his milk-white. - - 16^2. And who could ride like him. - - 16^4. ’Twas far outowre the brim. - - _After 16_: - - He swam high, and he swam low, - And he swam to and fro, - But he neer could spy the hazel-bush - That would bring him to the brow. - - _Comment_: The mother was a witch; made responses for Margaret; - met him in a green habit on his return home. He inquired for the - ford; she directed him to the deepest linn. When he got into the - water, two hounds seized on his horse, and left him to struggle - with the current. - - _Willie’s mother had transferred herself to Margaret’s house - according to the variation in 9^4; so she is the witch._ - - _All this is very paltry. The mother’s curse was enough to drown - Willie without her bestirring herself further._ - - - - - 217 - - THE BROOM OF COWDENKNOWS - - #A.# ‘The Laird of Knotington,’ Percy papers, 1768. - - #B.# ‘Bonny May.’ #a.# Herd’s Ancient and Modern Scots Songs, 1769, p. - 308; 1776, I, 98. #b.# Johnson’s Museum, No 110, p. 113. - - #C.# ‘Laird o Ochiltree,’ Kinloch MSS, VII, 143; Kinloch’s Ancient - Scottish Ballads, p. 160. - - #D.# ‘The Laird o Ochiltree Wa’s,’ Motherwell’s MS., p. 517. - - #E.# Motherwell’s MS., p. 175. - - #F.# ‘Bonny May,’ Gibb MS., p. 9. - - #G.# ‘The Broom of Cowdenknows,’ Scott’s Minstrelsy, III, 280, 1803; - III, 37, 1833. - - #H.# ‘The Maid o the Cowdenknows,’ Kinloch MSS, I, 137. - - #I.# ‘Laird o Lochnie,’ Kinloch MSS, VII, 153; Kinloch’s Ancient - Scottish Ballads, p. 167. - - #J.# Kinloch MSS, VI, 11. - - #K.# ‘Maiden o the Cowdenknowes,’ Dr Joseph Robertson’s Journal of - Excursions, No 6. - - #L.# ‘The Broom of the Cowden Knowes,’ Buchan’s MSS, II, 178. - - #M.# ‘Broom o the Cowdenknowes,’ Buchan’s Ballads of the North of - Scotland, I, 172. - - #N.# ‘The Laird of Lochinvar,’ Kinloch MSS, I, 145. - - -This ballad was widely diffused in Scotland. “It would be useless,” says -Motherwell, “to enumerate the titles of the different versions which are -common among reciters.” “Each district has its own version,” says -Kinloch. So it must have done no little mischief in its day. The -earliest known copies, #A#, #B#, are of the second half of the last -century. - -There is an English “ditty” (not a traditional ballad) of a northern -lass who got harm while milking her father’s ewes, which was printed in -the first half of the seventeenth century. It is here given in an -appendix. This ditty is “to a pleasant Scotch tune called The broom of -Cowden Knowes,” and the burden is: - - With, O the broome, the bonny broome, - The broome of Cowden Knowes! - Fain would I be in the North Countrey, - To milk my dadyes ewes. - -The tune was remarkably popular, and the burden is found, variously -modified, in connection with several songs: see Chappell’s Popular -Music, pp. 458–461, 613, 783. ‘The Broom of Cowdenknows,’ a “new” song, -in the Tea-Table Miscellany, p. 22, Dublin, 1729, has the burden not -greatly changed; also #G#, #L#, #M#, of this ballad. - -There is very little story to the English ditty. A maid is beguiled by a -shepherd-boy while milking her father’s ewes; the consequences are what -might be expected; her mother puts her out of doors, and she ranges the -world; a young man who hears her complaint offers to marry her, and go -to the North Country with her to milk her father’s ewes. The Scottish -ballad could not have been developed from a story of this description. -On the other hand, it is scarcely to be believed that the author of the -English ditty, if he had known the Scottish ballad, would have dropped -all the interesting particulars. It is possible that he may have just -heard about it, but much more likely that he knew only the burden and -built his very slight tale on that. It may be observed that his maid, -though she haunts Liddesdale, and should have belonged to Cowdenknowes, -was born in Danby Forest, Yorkshire. - -Two passages which do not occur in #A# may have been later additions: -#D# 9, 10, #F# 5, 6, #G# 13, 14, #M# 19, 20, in which the laird, -returning to his men, is told that he has tarried long, and answers -that, east or west, he has never seen so bonny a lass as was in the -ewe-buchts; and #H# 12–15, #J# 2–5, #L# 5–8, where the laird tries to -pass himself off for one of his men, and the maid for one of her -mother’s servants (found in part, also, in #G# 9, 10, #I# 5, #M# 12–14). -“The maid of a place, such as the maid of the Cowdenknows,” as Dr Joseph -Robertson remarks, “means the eldest daughter of the tenant or -proprietor, who is generally called by the name of his farm.”[115] - -It is obvious that the maid would keep her counsel when she came back to -her father. She puts him off with a riddle, #C# 9, #D# 13, #E# 11, #F# -9, #G# 18, #H# 20, #J# 6, #L# 14, #M# 23, #N# 7, which it is the height -of absurdity to make her explain, as is done in #A# 11, #B# 4, #C# 10, -#D# 14, #E# 12; and so of the exclamation against the shepherd if -uttered in the father’s presence, as in #F# 8, #H# 19, #I# 11, #L# 13, -#N# 8. - -#H# 10, 11 (cf. #D# 6), where the maid asks the man’s name, is a -familiar commonplace: see No 39, I, 340 a; No 50, I, 444, 446; No 110, -II, 458 ff. (especially p. 473, #H# 3, 4); No 111, II, 478 f. - -#M# has many spurious stanzas of its own; as 3–5, 25, 30–32, 35. #N# is -quite perverted from 9 to 28. It is impossible that 9–14 should follow -upon 8, and stanzas 15–27 have not a genuine word in them. - -Cunningham has rewritten the ballad, Songs of Scotland, II, 113. He says -that through Dumfriesshire and Galloway the hero is always Lord -Lochinvar, and cites this stanza, which he had heard sung: - - For I do guess, by your golden-rimmed hat, - And by the silken string, - That ye are the lord of the Lochinvar, - Who beguiles all our young women. - -‘Malfred og Sadelmand,’ Kristensen, I, 258, No 99, is an independent -ballad, but has some of the traits of this: the maid, who is treated -with great violence, asks the knight’s name, as in #H#, #D#; he comes -back to marry her, after she has borne twins. - -Cowdenknowes is on the east bank of Leader, near Earlston, and some four -or five miles from Melrose. Auchentrone, in #B# #b# 11, Stenhouse -conjectures to be a corruption of Auchentroich, an estate in the county -of Stirling, and Oakland Hills, in #G#, to be Ochil Hills, in the same -county: Musical Museum, IV, 112. - - -#B# is translated by Knortz, Schottische Balladen, p. 92, No 29. - - * * * * * - - - A - - Percy papers; communicated to Percy by R. Lambe, of Norham, August - 17, 1768, and dated May, 1768. - - 1 - There was a troop of merry gentlemen - Was riding atween twa knows, - And they heard the voice of a bonny lass, - In a bught milking her ews. - - 2 - There’s ane o them lighted frae off his steed, - And has ty’d him to a tree, - And he’s gane away to yon ew-bught, - To hear what it might be. - - 3 - ‘O pity me, fair maid,’ he said, - ‘Take pity upon me; - O pity me, and my milk-white steed - That’s trembling at yon tree.’ - - 4 - ‘As for your steed, he shall not want - The best of corn and hay; - But as to you yoursel, kind sir, - I’ve naething for to say.’ - - 5 - He’s taen her by the milk-white hand, - And by the green gown-sleeve, - And he as led her into the ew-bught, - Of her friends he speerd nae leave. - - 6 - He as put his hand in his pocket, - And given her guineas three: - ‘If I dinna come back in half a year, - Then luke nae mair for me. - - 7 - ‘Now show to me the king’s hie street, - Now show to me the way; - Now show to me the king’s hie street, - And the fair water of Tay.’ - - 8 - She showd to him the king’s hie street, - She showd to him the way; - She showd him the way that he was to go, - By the fair water of Tay. - - 9 - When she came hame, her father said, - ‘Come, tell to me right plain; - I doubt you’ve met some in the way, - You have not been your lain.’ - - 10 - ‘The night it is baith mist and mirk, - You may gan out and see; - The night is mirk and misty too, - There’s nae body been wi me. - - 11 - ‘There was a tod came to your flock, - The like I neer did see; - When he spake, he lifted his hat, - He had a bonny twinkling eee.’ - - 12 - When fifteen weeks were past and gane, - Full fifteen weeks and three, - Then she began to think it lang - For the man wi the twinkling eee. - - 13 - It fell out on a certain day, - When she cawd out her father’s ky, - There was a troop of gentlemen - Came merrily riding by. - - 14 - ‘Weel may ye sigh and sob,’ says ane, - ‘Weel may you sigh and see; - Weel may you sigh, and say, fair maid, - Wha’s gotten this bairn wi thee?’ - - 15 - She turned her sel then quickly about, - And thinking meikle shame, - ‘O no kind sir, it is na sae, - For it has a dad at hame.’ - - 16 - ‘O hawd your tongue, my bonny lass, - Sae loud as I hear you lee! - For dinna you mind that summer night - I was in the bught wi thee?’ - - 17 - He lighted off his milk-white steed, - And set this fair maid on; - ‘Now caw out your ky, good father,’ he said, - ‘She’ll neer caw them out again. - - 18 - ‘I am the laird of Knottington, - I’ve fifty plows and three; - I’ve gotten now the bonniest lass - That is in the hale country.’ - - * * * * * - - - B - - #a.# Herd’s Ancient and Modern Scots Songs, 1769, p. 308. #b.# - Johnson’s Museum, No 110, p. 113. - - 1 - It was on an evning sae saft and sae clear - A bonny lass was milking the kye, - And by came a troup of gentlemen, - And rode the bonny lassie by. - - 2 - Then one of them said unto her, - ‘Bonny lass, prythee shew me the way:’ - ‘O if I do sae, it may breed me wae, - For langer I dare nae stay.’ - - * * * * * * - - 3 - But dark and misty was the night - Before the bonny lass came hame: - ‘Now where hae you been, my ae doughter? - I am sure you was nae your lane.’ - - 4 - ‘O father, a tod has come oer your lamb, - A gentleman of high degree, - And ay whan he spake he lifted his hat, - And bonny, bonny blinkit his ee.’ - - 5 - Or eer six months were past and gane, - Six months but and other three, - The lassie begud for to fret and to frown, - And think lang for his blinkin ee. - - 6 - ‘O wae be to my father’s shepherd, - An ill death may he die! - He bigged the bughts sae far frae hame, - And trysted a gentleman to me!’ - - 7 - It fell upon another fair evening - The bonny lassie was milking her ky, - And by came the troop of gentlemen, - And rode the bonny lassie by. - - 8 - Then one of them stopt, and said to her, - ‘Whae’s aught that baby ye are wi?’ - The lassie began for to blush, and think, - To a father as good as ye. - - 9 - ‘O had your tongue, my bonny may, - Sae loud I hear you lie! - O dinnae you mind the misty night - I was in the bught with thee?’ - - 10 - Now he’s come aff his milk-white steed, - And he has taen her hame: - ‘Now let your father bring hame the ky, - You neer mair shall ca them agen. - - 11 - ‘I am a lord of castles and towers, - With fifty ploughs of land and three, - And I have gotten the bonniest lass - That is in this countrie.’ - - * * * * * - - - C - - Kinloch MSS, VII, 143, from the recitation of Jenny Watson, 24 - April, 1826; Clydesdale. - - 1 - It was on a day whan a lovely may - Was cawing out her father’s kye, - And she spied a troop o’ gentlemen, - As they war passing bye. - - 2 - ‘O show me the way, my pretty maid, - O show me the way,’ said he; - ‘My steed has just now rode wrong, - And the way I canna see.’ - - 3 - ‘O haud you on the same way,’ she said, - ‘O haud ye on ‘t again, - For, if ye haud on the king’s hieway, - Rank rievers will do ye na harm.’ - - 4 - He took her by the milk-white hand, - And by the gerss-green sleeve, - And he has taiglet wi the fair may, - And of her he askd na leave. - - 5 - Whan ance he got her gudwill, - Of her he craved na mair, - But he poud out a ribbon frae his pouch, - And snooded up the may’s hair. - - 6 - He put his hand into his pouch, - And gave her guineas three: - ‘If I come na back in twenty weeks, - Ye need na look mair for me.’ - - 7 - But whan the may did gang hame, - Her father did her blame; - ‘Whare hae ye been now, dame?’ he said - ‘For ye’ve na been your lane.’ - - 8 - ‘The nicht is misty and mirk, father, - Ye may come to the door and see; - The nicht is misty and mirk, father, - And there’s na body wi me. - - 9 - ‘But there cam a tod to your flock, father, - The like o him I never saw; - Or he had tane the lambie that he had, - I wad rather he had tane them aw. - - 10 - ‘But he seemd to be a gentleman, - Or a man of some pious degree; - For whanever he spak, he lifted up his hat, - And he had [a] bonnie twinkling ee.’ - - 11 - Whan twenty weeks were come and gane, - Twenty weeks and three, - The lassie began to grow thick in the waist, - And thoucht lang for his twinkling ee. - - 12 - It fell upon a day whan bonnie may - Was cawing out the kye, - She spied the same troop o gentlemen, - As they war passing bye. - - 13 - ‘O well may you save, my pretty may, - Weill may you save and see! - Weill may ye save, my lovely may! - Go ye wi child to me?’ - - 14 - But the may she turnd her back to him, - She begoud to think meikle shame; - ‘Na, na, na, na, kind sir,’ she said, - ‘I’ve a gudeman o my ain.’ - - 15 - ‘Sae loud as I hear ye lie, fair may, - Sae loud as I hear ye lee! - Dinna ye mind o yon misty nicht - Whan I was in the bucht wi thee?’ - - 16 - He lichted aff his hie, hie horse, - And he set the bonnie may on: - ‘Now caw out your kye, gud father, - Ye maun caw them out your lone. - - 17 - ‘For lang will ye caw them out, - And weary will ye be, - Or ye get your dochter again - . . . . . . . - - 18 - He was the laird o Ochiltree, - Of therty ploughs and three, - And he has stown awa the loveliest may - In aw the south cuntree. - - * * * * * - - - D - - Motherwell’s MS., p. 517; from the singing of Mrs Storie, of - Lochwinnoch. - - 1 - O bonnie May is to the yowe-buchts gane, - For to milk her daddie’s yowes, - And ay she sang, and her voice it rang - Out-ower the tap o the knows, knows, knowes, - Out-owr the tap o the knowes. - - 2 - Ther cam a troop o gentilmen, - As they were rydand by, - And ane o them he lichtit doun, - For to see May milkand her kye. - - 3 - ‘Milk on, milk on, my bonnie lass, - Milk on, milk on,’ said he, - ‘For out o the buchts I winna gang - Till ye shaw me owr the lee.’ - - 4 - ‘Ryde on, ryde on, ye rank rydars, - Your steeds are stout and strang, - For out o the yowe-buchts I winna gae, - For fear that ye do me some wrang.’ - - 5 - He took her by the milk-white hand, - And by the green gown-sleive, - And thare he took his will o her, - Bot o her he askit nae leive. - - 6 - But whan he gat his will o her - He loot her up again, - And a’ this bonny maid said or did - Was, Kind sir, tell me your name. - - 7 - He pou’t out a sillar kame, - Sayand, Kame your yellow hair; - And, gin I be na back in three quarters o a year, - It’s o me ye’ll see nae mair. - - 8 - He pu’t out a silken purse - And he gied her guineas thrie, - Saying, Gin I may na be back in three quarters o a year, - It will pay the nourice fee. - - 9 - He put his fut into the stirrup - And rade after his men, - And a’ that his men said or did - Was, Kind maister, ye’ve taiglit lang. - - 10 - ‘I hae rade east, I hae rade wast, - And I hae rade owr the knowes, - But the bonniest lassie that I ever saw - Was in the yowe-buchts, milkand her yowes.’ - - 11 - She put the pail upon her heid, - And she’s gane merrilie hame, - And a’ that her faither said or did - Was, Kind dochter, ye’ve taiglit lang. - - 12 - ‘Oh, wae be to your men, faither, - And an ill deth may they die! - For they cawit a’ the yowes out-owre the knowes, - And they left naebody wi me. - - 13 - ‘There cam a tod unto the bucht, - The like I never saw, - An, afore that he took the ane that he took, - I wad leifar he had tane ither twa. - - 14 - ‘There cam a tod unto the bucht, - The like I never did see, - And, ay as he spak, he liftit his hat, - And he had a bonnie twinkland ee.’ - - 15 - It was on a day, and it was a fine simmer day, - She was cawing out her faither’s kye, - There cam a troup o gentilmen, - And they rade ways the lass near by. - - 16 - ‘Wha has dune to you this ill, my dear? - Wha has dune to you this wrang?’ - And she had na a word to say for hersell - But, ‘Kind sir, I hae a man o my ain.’ - - 17 - ‘Ye lie, ye lie, bonnie May,’ he says, - ‘Aloud I hear ye lie! - For dinna ye mind yon bonnie simmer nicht - Whan ye war in the yowe-buchts wi me? - - 18 - ‘Licht doun, licht doun, my foremaist man, - Licht doun and let her on, - For monie a time she cawit her faither’s kye, - But she’ll neir caw them again. - - 19 - ‘For I am the laird o Ochiltree Wawis, - I hae threttie pleuchs and thrie, - And I hae tane awa the bonniest lass - That is in a’ the north countrie.’ - - * * * * * - - - E - - Motherwell’s Manuscript, p. 175; “from the recitation of Mrs - Thomson, Kilbarchan, a native of Dumbartonshire, where she learned - it.” - - 1 - There was a may, and a bonnie may, - In the bught, milking the ewes, - And by came a troop of gentlemen, - And they rode by and by. - - 2 - ‘O I’ll give thee my milk-white steed, - It cost me three hundred pound, - If ye’ll go to yon sheep-bught, - And bring yon fair maid doun.’ - - 3 - ‘Your steed ye canna want, master, - But pay to ane a fee; - Fifty pound of good red gold, - To be paid down to me.’ - - 4 - ‘Come shew me the way, pretty may,’ he said, - ‘For our steeds are quite gone wrong; - Will you do to me such a courtesy - As to shew us the near-hand way?’ - - 5 - ‘O go ye doun to yon meadow, - Where the people are mowing the hay; - Go ye doun to yon meadow, - And they’ll shew you the near-hand way.’ - - 6 - But he’s taen her by the milk-white hand, - And by the grass-green sleeve; - He’s bowed her body to the ground, - Of her kin he asked no leave. - - 7 - When he lifted her up again - He’s gien her guineas three: - ‘If I be na back gin three quarters o a year, - Ye need neer think mair on me.’ - - * * * * * * - - 8 - ‘O where hast thou been, bonnie may,’ he said, - ‘O where hast thou been sae lang? - O where hast thou been, bonnie may?’ he said, - ‘Thou hast na been sae lang thy lane.’ - - 9 - ‘O come to the door and see, father, - O come to the door and see, - And see such a weety and a windy night; - There were nobody wi me. - - 10 - ‘But wae be to your herd, father, - And an ill death may he die! - For he left the ewes strayed owre the knowes, - And he left naebody wi me. - - 11 - ‘But there came a tod to your bught, father, - The like o him I neer saw; - For or he had taen the bonnie lamb he took, - Ye had as weel hae gien them a’. - - 12 - ‘There came a tod to your bught, father, - The like o him I neer did see; - For aye when he spak he lifted up his hat, - And he had a bonnie twinkling ee.’ - - 13 - But when twenty weeks were come and gane, - Aye, twenty weeks and three, - This lassie began to spit and to spew, - And to lang for the twinkling ee. - - 14 - It fell on a day, and a bonnie summer day, - She was ca‘ing out her father’s kye, - And by came a troop of gentlemen, - And they rode by and by. - - 15 - ‘O wha got the bairn wi thee, bonnie may? - O wha got the bairn wi thee?’ - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - - 16 - She turned hersell right round about. - She began to blush and think shame, - And never a word this bonnie lassie spok - But ‘I have a good-man at hame.’ - - 17 - ‘Thou lie, thou lie, my bonnie may, - Sae loud I hear thee lie! - Do ye mind o the weety and windy night - When I was in the ewe-bught wi thee? - - 18 - ‘Light off, light off, the gentlest of my men, - And set her on behind, - And ca out your kye, good father, yoursell, - For she’ll never ca them out again.’ - - 19 - He was the laird o twenty plough o land, - Aye, twenty plough and three, - And he’s taen awa the bonniest lass - Was in a’ the south countrie. - - * * * * * - - - F - - Gibb MS., p. 9. “From recitation; traced to Mary Jack, Lochlee, - Forfarshire, died 1881, aged 94.” - - 1 - Bonny may has to the ewe-bughts gane, - To milk her father’s ewes, - An aye as she milked her bonny voice rang - Far out amang the knowes. - - * * * * * * - - 2 - ‘Milk on, milk on, my bonny, bonny may, - Milk on, milk on,’ said he; - ‘Milk on, milk on, my bonny, bonny may; - Will ye shew me out-ower the lea?’ - - 3 - ‘Ride on, ride on, stout rider,’ she said, - ‘Yere steed’s baith stout and strang; - For out o the ewe-bught I daurna come, - For fear ye do me wrang.’ - - 4 - But he’s tane her by the milk-white hand, - An by the green gown-sleeve, - An he’s laid her low on the dewy grass, - An at nae ane spiered he leave. - - 5 - Then he’s mounted on his milk-white steed, - An ridden after his men, - An a’ that his men they said to him - Was, Dear master, ye’ve tarried lang. - - 6 - ‘I’ve ridden east, an I’ve ridden wast, - An I’ve ridden amang the knowes, - But the bonniest lassie eer I saw - Was milkin her daddie’s yowes.’ - - 7 - She’s taen the milk-pail on her heid, - An she’s gane langin hame, - An a her father said to her - Was, Daughter, ye’ve tarried lang. - - 8 - ‘Oh, wae be to your shepherds! father, - For they take nae care o the sheep; - For they’ve bygit the ewe-bught far frae hame, - An they’ve trysted a man to me. - - 9 - ‘There came a tod unto the bucht, - An a waefu tod was he, - An, or ever he had tane that ae ewe-lamb, - I had rather he had tane ither three.’ - - 10 - But it fell on a day, an a bonny summer day, - She was ca’in out her father’s kye, - An bye came a troop o gentlemen, - Cam ridin swiftly bye. - - 11 - Out an spoke the foremost ane, - Says, Lassie hae ye got a man? - She turned herself saucy round about, - Says, Yes, I’ve ane at hame. - - 12 - ‘Ye lee, ye lee, ye my bonny may, - Sae loud as I hear ye lee! - For dinna ye mind that misty nicht - Ye were in the ewe-bughts wi me?’ - - 13 - He ordered ane o his men to get down; - Says, Lift her up behind me; - Your father may ca in the kye when he likes, - They sall neer be ca’ed in by thee. - - 14 - ‘For I’m the laird o Athole swaird, - Wi fifty ploughs an three, - An I hae gotten the bonniest lass - In a’ the north countrie.’ - - * * * * * - - - G - - Scott’s Minstrelsy, III, 280, 1803; from Ettrick Forest. - - 1 - O the broom, and the bonny, bonny broom, - And the broom of the Cowdenknows! - And aye sae sweet as the lassie sang, - I the bought, milking the ewes. - - 2 - The hills were high on ilka side, - An the bought i the lirk o the hill, - And aye, as she sang, her voice it rang - Out-oer the head o yon hill. - - 3 - There was a troop o gentlemen - Came riding merrilie by, - And one o them has rode out o the way, - To the bought to the bonny may. - - 4 - ‘Weel may ye save an see, bonny lass, - An weel may ye save an see!’ - ‘An sae wi you, ye weel-bred knight, - And what’s your will wi me?’ - - 5 - ‘The night is misty and mirk, fair may, - And I have ridden astray, - And will ye be so kind, fair may, - As come out and point my way?’ - - 6 - ‘Ride out, ride out, ye ramp rider! - Your steed’s baith stout and strang; - For out of the bought I dare na come, - For fear at ye do me wrang.’ - - 7 - ‘O winna ye pity me, bonny lass? - O winna ye pity me? - An winna ye pity my poor steed, - Stands trembling at yon tree?’ - - 8 - ‘I wadna pity your poor steed, - Tho it were tied to a thorn; - For if ye wad gain my love the night - Ye wad slight me ere the morn. - - 9 - ‘For I ken you by your weel-busked hat, - And your merrie twinkling ee, - That ye’re the laird o the Oakland hills, - An ye may weel seem for to be.’ - - 10 - ‘But I am not the laird o the Oakland hills, - Ye’re far mistaen o me; - But I’m ane o the men about his house, - An right aft in his companie.’ - - 11 - He’s taen her by the middle jimp, - And by the grass-green sleeve, - He’s lifted her over the fauld-dyke, - And speerd at her sma leave. - - 12 - O he’s taen out a purse o gowd, - And streekd her yellow hair: - ‘Now take ye that, my bonnie may, - Of me till you hear mair.’ - - 13 - O he’s leapt on his berry-brown steed, - An soon he’s oertaen his men; - And ane and a’ cried out to him, - O master, ye’ve tarryd lang! - - 14 - ‘O I hae been east, and I hae been west, - An I hae been far oer the knows, - But the bonniest lass that ever I saw - Is i the bought, milkin the ewes.’ - - 15 - She set the cog upon her head, - An she’s gane singing hame: - ‘O where hae ye been, my ae daughter? - Ye hae na been your lane.’ - - 16 - ‘O nae body was wi me, father, - O nae body has been wi me; - The night is misty and mirk, father, - Ye may gang to the door and see. - - 17 - ‘But wae be to your ewe-herd, father, - And an ill deed may he die! - He bug the bought at the back o the know - And a tod has frighted me. - - 18 - ‘There came a tod to the bought-door, - The like I never saw; - And ere he had taken the lamb he did - I had lourd he had taen them a’.’ - - 19 - O whan fifteen weeks was come and gane, - Fifteen weeks and three, - That lassie began to look thin and pale, - An to long for his merry-twinkling ee. - - 20 - It fell on a day, on a het simmer day, - She was ca’ing out her father’s kye, - By came a troop o gentlemen, - A’ merrilie riding bye. - - 21 - ‘Weel may ye save an see, bonny may! - Weel may ye save and see! - Weel I wat ye be a very bonny may, - But whae’s aught that babe ye are wi?’ - - 22 - Never a word could that lassie say, - For never a ane could she blame, - An never a word could the lassie say, - But, I have a good man at hame. - - 23 - ‘Ye lied, ye lied, my very bonny may, - Sae loud as I hear you lie! - For dinna ye mind that misty night - I was i the bought wi thee? - - 24 - ‘I ken you by your middle sae jimp, - An your merry-twinkling ee, - That ye’re the bonny lass i the Cowdenknow, - An ye may weel seem for to be.’ - - 25 - Than he’s leapd off his berry-brown steed, - An he’s set that fair may on: - ‘Caw out your kye, gude father, yoursel, - For she’s never caw them out again. - - 26 - ‘I am the laird of the Oakland hills, - I hae thirty plows and three, - An I hae gotten the bonniest lass - That’s in a’ the south country.’ - - * * * * * - - - H - - Kinloch MSS, I, 137; from Mrs Boutchart. - - 1 - There was a may, a maiden sae gay, - Went out wi her milking-pail; - Lang she foucht or her ewes wad bucht, - And syne she a milking fell. - - 2 - And ay as she sang the rocks they rang, - Her voice gaed loud and shill; - Ye wad hae heard the voice o the maid - On the tap o the ither hill. - - 3 - And ay she sang, and the rocks they rang, - Her voice gaed loud and hie; - Till by there cam a troop o gentlemen, - A riding up that way. - - 4 - ‘Weel may ye sing, ye bonnie may, - Weel and weel may ye sing! - The nicht is misty, weet, and mirk, - And we hae ridden wrang.’ - - 5 - ‘Haud by the gate ye cam, kind sir, - Haud by the gate ye cam; - But tak tent o the rank river, - For our streams are unco strang.’ - - 6 - ‘Can ye na pity me, fair may, - Canna ye pity me? - Canna ye pity my puir steed, - Stands trembling at yon tree?’ - - 7 - ‘What pity wad ye hae, kind sir? - What wad ye hae frae me? - If he has neither corn nor hay, - He has gerss at libertie.’ - - 8 - ‘Can ye na pity me, fair may, - Can ye na pity me? - Can ye na pity a gentle knicht - That’s deeing for love o thee?’ - - 9 - He’s tane her by the milk-white hand, - And by the gerss-green sleeve; - He’s laid her laigh at the bucht-end, - At her kin speird na leave. - - 10 - ‘After ye hae tane your will o me, - Your will as ye hae tane, - Be as gude a gentle knicht - As tell to me your name.’ - - 11 - ‘Some do ca me Jack,’ says he, - ‘And some do ca me John; - But whan I’m in the king’s hie court - Duke William is my name. - - 12 - ‘But I ken by your weel-faurd face, - And by your blinking ee, - That ye are the Maid o the Cowdenknows, - And seem very weel to be.’ - - 13 - ‘I am na the maid o the Cowdenknows, - Nor does not think to be; - But I am ane o her best maids, - That’s aft in her companie. - - 14 - ‘But I ken by your black, black hat, - And by your gay gowd ring, - That ye are the Laird o Rochna hills, - Wha beguiles a’ our women.’ - - 15 - ‘I am na the Laird o Rochna hills. - Nor does na think to be; - But I am ane o his best men, - That’s aft in his companie.’ - - 16 - He’s put his hand in his pocket - And tane out guineas three; - Says, Tak ye that, my bonnie may; - It’ll pay the nourice fee. - - 17 - She’s tane her cog upon her head, - And fast, fast gaed she hame: - ‘Whare hae ye been, my dear dochter? - Ye hae na been your lane. - - 18 - ‘The nicht is misty, weet, and mirk; - Ye may look out and see; - The ewes war skippin oure the knowes, - They wad na bucht in for me. - - 19 - ‘But wae be to your shepherd, father, - An ill death may he dee! - He bigget the buchts sae far frae the toun, - And he trysted a man to me. - - 20 - ‘There cam a tod amang the flock, - The like o him I neer did see; - Afore he had tane the lamb that he took, - I’d rather he’d tane ither three.’ - - 21 - Whan twenty weeks war past and gane, - Twenty weeks and three, - The lassie begoud to spit and spue, - And thought lang for ‘s blinkin ee. - - 22 - ’Twas on a day, and a day near bye, - She was ca’ing out the kye, - That by cam a troop o merry gentlemen, - Cam riding bye that way. - - 23 - ‘Wha’s gien ye the scorn, bonnie may? - O wha’s done ye the wrang?’ - ‘Na body, na body, kind sir,’ she said, - ‘My baby’s father’s at hame.’ - - 24 - ‘Ye lee, ye lee, fause may,’ he said, - ‘Sae loud as I hear ye lee! - Dinna ye mind o the mirk misty nicht - I buchted the ewes wi thee?’ - - 25 - ‘Weel may I mind yon mirk misty nicht, - Weel may I mind,’ says she; - ‘For ay whan ye spak ye lifted up your hat, - Ye had a merry blinkin ee.’ - - 26 - He’s turned him round and richt about, - And tane the lassie on; - ‘Ca out your ky, auld father,’ he said, - ‘She sall neer ca them again. - - 27 - ‘For I am the Laird o Rochna hills, - O thirty plows and three; - And I hae gotten the bonniest lass - O a’ the west countrie.’ - - 28 - ‘And I’m the Maid o the Cowdenknows, - O twenty plows and three; - And I hae gotten the bonniest lad - In a’ the north countrie.’ - - * * * * * - - - I - - Kinloch MSS, VII, 153; from the recitation of Miss M. Kinnear, - August 23, 1826, a North Country version. - - 1 - The lassie sang sae loud, sae loud, - The lassie sang sae shill; - The lassie sang, and the greenwud rang, - At the farther side o yon hill. - - 2 - Bye there cam a troop o merry gentlemen, - They aw rode merry bye; - The very first and the foremaist - Was the first that spak to the may. - - 3 - ‘This is a mark and misty nicht, - And I have ridden wrang; - If ye wad be sae gude and kind - As to show me the way to gang.’ - - 4 - ‘If ye binna the laird o Lochnie’s lands, - Nor nane o his degree, - I’ll show ye a nearer road that will keep you frae - The glen-waters and the raging sea.’ - - 5 - ‘I’m na the laird o Lochnie’s lands, - Nor nane o his degree; - But I am as brave a knicht, - And ride aft in his company. - - 6 - ‘Have ye na pity on me, pretty maid? - Have ye na pity on me? - Have ye na pity on my puir steed, - That stands trembling by yon tree?’ - - 7 - ‘What pity wad ye hae, kind sir? - What pity wad ye hae frae me? - Though your steed has neither corn nor hay, - It has gerss at its liberty.’ - - 8 - He has trysted the pretty maid - Till they cam to the brume, - And at the end o yon ew-buchts - It’s there they baith sat doun. - - 9 - Till up she raise, took up her milk-pails, - And away gaed she hame; - Up bespak her auld father, - ‘It’s whare hae ye been sae lang?’ - - 10 - ‘This is a mark and a misty nicht, - Ye may gang to the door and see; - The ewes hae taen a skipping out-oure the knows, - They winna bucht in for me. - - 11 - ‘I may curse my father’s shepherd; - Some ill death mat he dee! - He has buchted the ewes sae far frae the toun, - And has trysted the young men to me.’ - - * * * * * - - - J - - Kinloch MSS, VI, 11; in the handwriting of Dr Joseph Robertson, and - given him by his mother, Christían Leslie. - - 1 - It was a dark and a misty night, - . . . . . . . - And by came a troop o gentlemen, - Said, Lassie, shew me the way. - - 2 - ‘Oh well ken I by your silk mantle, - And by your grass-green sleeve, - That you are the maid of the Cowdenknows, - And may well seem to be.’ - - 3 - ‘I’m nae the maid of the Cowdenknows, - Nor ever think to be; - I am but ane of her hirewomen, - Rides aft in her companie. - - 4 - ‘Oh well do I ken by your milk-white steed, - And by your merry winking ee, - That you are the laird of Lochinvar, - And may well seem to be.’ - - 5 - ‘I’m nae the laird of Lochinvar, - Nor may well seem to be; - But I am one of his merry young men, - And am oft in his companie.’ - - * * * * * * - - 6 - ‘The tod was among your sheep, father, - You may look forth and see; - And before he had taen the lamb he’s taen - I had rather he had taen three.’ - - 7 - When twenty weeks were come and gane, - Twenty weeks and three, - The lassie she turned pale and wan - . . . . . . . - - 8 - . . . . . . . - And was caain out her father’s kye, - When by came a troop of gentlemen, - Were riding along the way. - - 9 - ‘Fair may it fa thee, weel-fa’rt may! - Wha’s aught the bairn ye’re wi?’ - ‘O I hae a husband o my ain, - To father my bairn te.’ - - 10 - ‘You lie, you lie, you well-far’d may, - Sae loud’s I hear you lie! - Do you mind the dark and misty night - I was in the bught wi thee?’ - - 11 - ‘Oh well do I ken by your milk-white steed, - And by your merry winkin ee, - That you are the laird of Lochinvar, - That was in the bught wi me.’ - - * * * * * - - - K - - Joseph Robertson’s Journal of Excursions, No 6; “taken down from a - man in the parish of Leochel, 12 February, 1829.” - - * * * * * * - - 1 - There was four and twenty gentlemen, - As they were ridin by, - And aff there loups the head o them, - Cums in to this fair may. - - 2 - ‘It’s a mark and a mark and a misty night, - And we canna know the way; - And ye wad be as gude to us - As shew us on the way.’ - - 3 - ‘Ye’ll get a boy for meat,’ she says, - ‘Ye’ll get a boy for fee, - . . . . . . . - That will shew you the right way.’ - - 4 - ‘We’ll get a boy for meat,’ he says, - ‘We’ll get a boy for fee, - But we do not know where to seek - That bonny boy out.’ - - * * * * * * - - 5 - ‘It’s foul befa my auld father’s men, - An ill death mat they die! - They’ve biggit the ewe bucht sae far frae the town - They’ve tristed the men to me.’ - - * * * * * - - - L - - Buchan’s MSS, II, 178. - - O the broom, the bonny, bonny broom, - The broom grows oer the burn! - Aye when I mind on ‘s bonny yellow hair, - I aye hae cause to mourn. - - 1 - There was a bonny, a well-fared may, - In the fauld milking her kye, - When by came a troop of merry gentlemen, - And sae merrily they rode by. - O the broom, etc. - - 2 - The maid she sang till the hills they rang, - And a little more forebye, - Till in came ane of these gentlemen - To the bught o the bonny may. - - 3 - ‘Well mat ye sing, fair maid,’ he says, - ‘In the fauld, milking your kye; - The night is misty, weet and dark, - And I’ve gane out o my way.’ - - 4 - ‘Keep on the way ye ken, kind sir, - Keep on the way ye ken; - But I pray ye take care o Clyde’s water, - For the stream runs proud and fair.’ - - 5 - ‘I ken you by your lamar beads, - And by your blinking ee, - That your mother has some other maid - To send to the ewes than thee.’ - - 6 - ‘I ken you by your powderd locks, - And by your gay gold ring, - That ye are the laird o Rock-rock lays, - That beguiles all young women.’ - - 7 - ‘I’m not the laird o the Rock-rock lays, - Nor ever hopes to be; - But I am one o the finest knights - That’s in his companie. - - 8 - ‘Are ye the maid o the Cowden Knowes? - I think you seem to be;’ - ‘No, I’m not the maid o the Cowden Knowes, - Nor ever hopes to be; - But I am one o her mother’s maids, - And oft in her companie.’ - - 9 - He’s taen her by the milk-white hand, - And by her grass-green sleeve, - He’s set her down upon the ground - Of her kin spierd nae leave. - - 10 - He’s gien her a silver comb, - To comb her yellow hair; - He bade her keep it for his sake, - For fear she never got mair. - - 11 - He pat his hand in his pocket, - He’s gien her guineas three; - Says, Take ye that, fair maid, he says, - ‘Twill pay the nourice’s fee. - - 12 - She’s taen her milk-pail on her head, - And she gaed singing hame, - And a’ that her auld father did say, - ‘Daughter, ye’ve tarried lang.’ - - 13 - ‘Woe be to your shepherd, father, - And an ill death mat he die! - He’s biggit the bught sae far frae the town, - And trystit a man to me. - - 14 - ‘There came a tod into the bught, - The like o ‘m I neer did see: - Before he’d taen the lamb he’s taen, - I’d rather he’d taen other three.’ - - 15 - Or eer six months were past and gane, - Six months but other three, - The lassie begud for to fret and frown, - And lang for his blinking ee. - - 16 - It fell upon another day, - When ca’ing out her father’s kye, - That by came the troop o gentlemen, - Sae merrily riding by. - - 17 - Then ane of them stopt, and said to her, - ‘Wha’s aught that bairn ye’re wi?’ - The lassie began for to blush, and think, - To a father as good as ye. - - 18 - She turnd her right and round about - And thought nae little shame; - Then a’ to him that she did say, - ‘I’ve a father to my bairn at hame.’ - - 19 - ‘Ye lie, ye lie, ye well-fared may, - Sae loud’s I hear ye lie! - For dinna ye mind yon misty night - I was in the bught wi thee? - - 20 - ‘I gave you a silver comb, - To comb your yellow hair; - I bade you keep it for my sake, - For fear ye’d never get mair. - - 21 - ‘I pat my hand in my pocket, - I gae you guineas three; - I bade you keep them for my sake, - And pay the nourice’s fee.’ - - 22 - He’s lappen aff his berry-brown steed - And put that fair maid on; - ‘Ca hame your kye, auld father,’ he says, - ‘She shall never mair return. - - 23 - ‘I am the laird o the Rock-rock lays, - Hae thirty ploughs and three, - And this day will wed the fairest maid - That eer my eyes did see.’ - - O the broom, the bonny, bonny broom, - The broom grows oer the burn! - Aye when she minds on his yellow hair, - She shall neer hae cause to mourn. - - * * * * * - - - M - - Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, I, 172. - - 1 - ’Twas on a misty day, a fair maiden gay - Went out to the Cowdenknowes; - Lang, lang she thought ere her ewes woud bught, - Wi her pail for to milk the ewes. - O the broom, the bonny, bonny broom, - The broom o the Cowdenknowes! - And aye sae sweet as the lassie sang, - In the ewe-bught, milking her ewes. - - 2 - And aye as she sang the greenwoods rang, - Her voice was sae loud and shrill; - They heard the voice o this well-far’d maid - At the other side o the hill. - - 3 - ‘My mother she is an ill woman, - And an ill woman is she; - Or than she might have got some other maid - To milk her ewes without me. - - 4 - ‘My father was ance a landed laird, - As mony mair have been; - But he held on the gambling trade - Till a ‘s free lands were dune. - - 5 - ‘My father drank the brandy and beer, - My mother the wine sae red; - Gars me, poor girl, gang maiden lang, - For the lack o tocher guid.’ - - 6 - There was a troop o merry gentlemen - Came riding alang the way, - And one o them drew the ewe-bughts unto, - At the voice o this lovely may. - - 7 - ‘O well may you sing, my well-far’d maid, - And well may you sing, I say, - For this is a mirk and a misty night, - And I’ve ridden out o my way.’ - - 8 - ‘Ride on, ride on, young man,’ she said, - ‘Ride on the way ye ken; - But keep frae the streams o the Rock-river, - For they run proud and vain. - - 9 - ‘Ye winna want boys for meat, kind sir, - And ye winna want men for fee; - It sets not us that are young women - To show young men the way.’ - - 10 - ‘O winna ye pity me, fair maid? - O winna ye pity me? - O winna ye pity my poor steed, - Stands trembling at yon tree?’ - - 11 - ‘Ride on, ride on, ye rank rider, - Your steed’s baith stout and strang; - For out o the ewe-bught I winna come, - For fear that ye do me wrang. - - 12 - ‘For well ken I by your high-colld hat, - And by your gay gowd ring, - That ye are the Earl o Rock-rivers, - That beguiles a’ our young women.’ - - 13 - ‘O I’m not the Earl o the Rock-rivers, - Nor ever thinks to be; - But I am ane o his finest knights, - Rides aft in his companie. - - 14 - ‘I know you well by your lamar beads, - And by your merry winking ee, - That ye are the maid o the Cowdenknowes, - And may very well seem to be.’ - - 15 - He’s taen her by the milk-white hand, - And by the grass-green sleeve, - He’s laid her down by the ewe-bught-wa, - At her he spiered nae leave. - - 16 - When he had got his wills o her, - And his wills he had taen, - He lifted her up by the middle sae sma, - Says, Fair maid, rise up again. - - 17 - Then he has taen out a siller kaim, - Kaimd down her yellow hair; - Says, Fair maid, take that, keep it for my sake, - Case frae me ye never get mair. - - 18 - Then he put his hand in his pocket, - And gien her guineas three; - Says, Take that, fair maiden, till I return, - ‘Twill pay the nurse’s fee. - - 19 - Then he lap on his milk-white steed, - And he rade after his men, - And a’ that they did say to him, - ‘Dear master, ye’ve tarried lang.’ - - 20 - ‘I’ve ridden east, I’ve ridden west, - And over the Cowdenknowes, - But the bonniest lass that eer I did see, - Was i the ewe-bught, milking her ewes.’ - - 21 - She’s taen her milk-pail on her head, - And she gaed singing hame; - But a’ that her auld father did say, - ‘Daughter, ye’ve tarried lang.’ - ‘O the broom, the bonny, bonny broom, - The broom o the Cowdenknowes! - Aye sae sair’s I may rue the day, - In the ewe-bughts, milking my ewes. - - 22 - ‘O this is a mirk and a misty night, - O father, as ye may see; - The ewes they ran skipping over the knowes, - And they woudna bught in for me. - - 23 - . . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . . - ‘Before that he’d taen the lamb that he took, - I rather he’d taen other three.’ - - 24 - When twenty weeks were come and gane, - And twenty weeks and three, - The lassie’s colour grew pale and wan, - And she longed this knight to see. - - 25 - Says, ‘Wae to the fox came amo our flock! - I wish he had taen them a’ - Before that he’d taen frae me what he took; - It’s occasiond my downfa.’ - - 26 - It fell ance upon a time - She was ca’ing hame her kye, - There came a troop o merry gentlemen, - And they wyled the bonny lassie by. - - 27 - But one o them spake as he rode past, - Says, Who owes the bairn ye are wi? - A little she spake, but thought wi hersell, - ‘Perhaps to ane as gude as thee.’ - - 28 - O then she did blush as he did pass by, - And dear! but she thought shame, - And all that she did say to him, - ‘Sir, I have a husband at hame.’ - - 29 - ‘Ye lie, ye lie, ye well-far’d maid, - Sae loud as I hear you lie! - For dinna ye mind yon misty night, - Ye were in the bught wi me? - ‘O the broom, the bonny, bonny broom, - The broom o the Cowdenknowes! - Aye say sweet as I heard you sing, - In the ewe-bughts, milking your ewes.’ - - 30 - ‘O well do I mind, kind sir,’ she said, - ‘As ye rode over the hill; - Ye took frae me my maidenhead, - Fell sair against my will. - ‘O the broom, the bonny, bonny broom, - The broom o the Cowdenknowes! - And aye sae sair as I rue the day - I met you, milking my ewes. - - 31 - ‘And aye as ye spake, ye lifted your hat, - Ye had a merry winking ee; - I ken you well to be the man, - Then kind sir, O pity me!’ - - 32 - ‘Win up, win up, fair maiden,’ he said, - ‘Nae langer here ye’ll stay; - This night ye ‘se be my wedded wife, - Without any more delay.’ - - 33 - He lighted aff his milk-white steed - And set the lassie on; - ‘Ca in your kye, auld man,’ he did say, - ‘She’ll neer ca them in again. - - 34 - ‘I am the Earl o the Rock-rivers, - Hae fifty ploughs and three, - And am sure I’ve chosen the fairest maid - That ever my eyes did see.’ - - 35 - Then he stript her o the robes o grey, - Donned her in the robes o green, - And when she came to her lord’s ha - They took her to be some queen. - O the broom, the bonny, bonny broom, - The broom o the Cowdenknowes! - And aye sae sweet as the bonny lassie sang, - That ever she milked the ewes. - - * * * * * - - - N - - Kinloch MSS, I, 145; from Mary Barr. - - 1 - O there war a troop o merry gentlemen - Cam riding oure the knowes, - And they hear the voice o a bonny lass, - In the buchts, milking the yowes. - - 2 - ‘O save thee, O save thee, my bonnie may! - O saved may ye be! - My steed he has riden wrang, - Fain wad I ken the way.’ - - 3 - She has tane the steed by the bridle-reins, - Has led him till the way, - And he has tane out three gowd rings, - Gien them to that bonnie may. - - 4 - And he has tane her by the milk-white hand - And by the gerss-green sleeve, - And he laid her doun on the side o yon hill, - At her daddie speird na leave. - - 5 - Now she has hame to her father gane, - Her father did her blame: - ‘O whare hae ye been, my ae dochter? - For ye hae na been your lane.’ - - 6 - ‘O the nicht is mirk, and very, very wet, - Ye may gang to the door and see; - O there’s nabody been wi me, father, - There’s nabody been wi me. - - 7 - ‘But there cam a tod to your bucht, father, - The like o him I neer saw; - Afore you’d gien him the lamb that he took, - Ye’d rather hae gien them a’. - - 8 - ‘O wae be to my father’s sheep-hird, - An ill death may he dee! - For bigging the bucht sae nar the road, - Let the Lochinvar to me!’ - - 9 - She’s tane her pig and her cog in her hand, - And she’s gane to milk the kye; - But ere she was aware, the Laird o Lochinvar - Cam riding in the way. - - 10 - ‘O save thee, O save thee, my bonnie may! - I wish ye may be sound; - O save thee, O save thee, my bonnie may! - What maks thy belly sae round?’ - - 11 - O she has turnd hersel round about, - And she within her thoucht shame: - ‘O it’s nabody’s wills wi me, kind sir, - For I hae a gudeman o my ain.’ - - 12 - ‘Ye lee, ye lee, my bonnie may, - Weel do I ken ye lee! - For dinna ye mind o the three gowd rings - I gied ye o the new moneye?’ - - 13 - ‘O weel do I mind thee, kind sir, - O weel do I mind thee; - For ae whan ye spak ye lifted up your hat, - And ye had a bonnie twinklin ee.’ - - 14 - ‘O ye need na toil yoursel, my dear, - Neither to card nor to spin; - For there’s ten pieces I gie unto thee; - Keep them for your lying in.’ - - 15 - Now she has hame to her father gane, - As fast as she could hie; - And she was na weel crownd wi joy - Till her auld son gat she. - - 16 - But she’ll na tell the daddie o it - Till father nor to mither, - And she’ll na tell the daddie o it - To sister nor to brither. - 17 - And word is to the Lochinvar, - And word is to him gane, - That sic a tenant’s dochter - Has born a bastard son: - - 18 - And she’ll na tell the daddie o it - To father nor to mither, - And she’ll na tell the daddie o it - Till sister nor to brither. - - 19 - ‘O weel do I ken the reason o that, - And the reason weel do I ken; - O weel ken I the reason o that; - It’s to some o her father’s men. - - 20 - ‘But I will awa to Littlejohn’s house, - Shule them out o the door; - For there’s na tenant on a’ my land - Shall harbour an arrant hure.’ - - 21 - Then out and spak the house-keeper, - ‘Ye’d better lat her abee; - For an onie harm befa this may, - A’ the wyte will be on me.’ - - 22 - O he has turnd himsel round about, - Within himsel thoucht he - ‘Better do I loe her little finger - Than a’ thy haill bodie. - - 23 - ‘Gae saddle to me my six coach-mares, - Put a’ their harness on, - And I will awa to Littlejohn’s house - For reports o this bastard son.’ - - 24 - Now whan he cam to Littlejohn’s house, - Littlejohn was at the door: - ‘Ye rascal, ye rogue, ye impudent dog, - Will ye harbour an arrant hure!’ - - 25 - ‘O pardon me, my sovereign liege, - O pardon me, I pray; - Oh that the nicht that she was born - She’d deed the very neist day!’ - - 26 - But he is in to his bonnie lassie gane, - And has bolted the door behind, - And there he has kissd his bonnie lassie sweet, - It’s over and over again. - - 27 - ‘Ye did weel, ye did weel, my bonnie may, - To keep the secret twixt me and thee; - For I am the laird o the Ochilberry swair, - The lady o ‘t I’ll mak thee. - - 28 - ‘Come doun, come doun, now gentlemen a’, - And set this fair lady on; - Mither, ye may milk the ewes as ye will, - For she’ll neer milk them again. - - 29 - ‘For I am the laird o the Ochilberry swair, - O thirty plows and three, - And I hae gotten the bonniest may - That’s in a’ the south countrie.’ - - * * * * * - -#B.# #a.# - - 6 _should probably come before_ 5. - - 9^2. Whare. - -#b.# - - 2^2. lassie shew. - - 5^1. But when twenty weeks were. - - 5^2. O twenty weeks and three. - - 5^3. lassie began to grow pale and wan. - - 6^1. father’s herd. 6^4. And wadna bide wi me. - - 9^2. loud’s. - - 11. - He was the laird of Auchentrone, - With fifty ploughs and three, - And he has gotten the bonniest lass - In a’ the south countrie. - -#C.# - - 3^3. if he. - - _Kinloch has made changes in his printed copy._ - -#D.# - - 1. Oh. - - 1^3. _Changed later to_ ay as she sang, her. - - 2^4. _Burden_: To see. - - 3^4. _Changed to_ out owr. - - 5^4. axit _in the burden_. 6^1. But quhan. - - 7^4. neer _inserted later after_ ye’ll. - - _Burden_: It’s ye’ll see me. - - 8^1. purse-string _originally_. 8^3. in 3. - - 8^4. It will; t _seems to be crossed out_. I _in the burden_. - - 9^1. fit _originally_, _altered to_ fut, _or_ fot. - - 13^3. _Originally_, An afore the ane he took. - - 15^1. _Changed to_ and a bonnie simmer day. - - 16^{1,2}. Quha. 17^2. _Changed to_ Sae loud’s. - - _The first stanza is given by Motherwell, Minstrelsy, Appendix, - xvii, X, under the title_ ‘Ochiltree Walls,’ _with the - variation_, O May, bonnie May. - -#E.# - - 2^1. Oh. - -#I.# - - _Kinloch has made changes in his printed copy._ - -#J.# - - 11^4. thee _for_ me. - -#L.# - - 4^4. fair. vain? _Cf._ #M#, 8^4. - - - APPENDIX - - - THE LOVELY NORTHERNE LASSE - - #a.# Roxburghe Ballads, I, 190, in the Ballad Society’s reprint, ed. - W. Chappell, I, 587. #b.# Rawlinson Ballads, 566, fol. 205. - -#a# WAS printed at London for F. Coules, who, according to Mr Chappell, -flourished during the last five years of James First’s reign and -throughout that of Charles First: dated by Mr Bullen, 1640. #b# was -printed for F. Coles, T. Vere, and J. Wright, 1655–80 (Chappell). There -is another copy in the Euing collection, No 166, printed for Francis -Coles in the Old Bayly, who may be the same person as the printer of -#a#; and a fourth in the Douce collection, II, 137, _verso_, without -printer’s name. A copy differing from #a# by only three words is given -by R. H. Evans, Old Ballads, 1810, I, 88. - -Burton, in the fifth edition of his Anatomy of Melancholy, Oxford, 1638, -p. 536, says: “The very rusticks and hog-rubbers ... have their ballads, -country tunes, O the broome, the bonny, bonny broome,” etc. (Chappell). -This remark is not found in the fourth edition, Oxford, 1632, p. 544. -Concerning the air, see Chappell’s Popular Music, pp. 458–61, 613, 783. - - - THE LOVELY NORTHERNE LASSE. - - Who in this ditty, here complaining, shewes - What harme she got, milking her dadyes ewes. - -To a pleasant Scotch tune, called The broom of Cowden Knowes. - - 1 - Through Liddersdale as lately I went, - I musing on did passe; - I heard a maid was discontent, - she sighd, and said, Alas! - _All maids that ever deceived was - beare a part of these my woes, - For once I was a bonny lasse, - when I milkt my dadyes ewes. - With, O the broome, the bonny broome, - the broome of Cowdon Knowes! - Faine would I be in the North Countrey, - to milke my dadyes ewes._ - - 2 - ‘My love into the fields did come, - when my dady was at home; - Sugred words he gave me there, - praisd me for such a one. - His honey breath and lips so soft, - and his alluring eye - And tempting tong, hath woo’d me oft, - now forces me to cry, - _All maids_, &c. - - 3 - ‘He joyed me with his pretty chat, - so well discourse could he, - Talking of this thing and of that, - which greatly likëd me. - I was so greatly taken with his speech, - and with his comely making; - He usëd all the meanes could be - to inchant me with his speaking. - - 4 - ‘In Danby Forest I was borne; - my beauty did excell; - My parents dearely lovëd me - till my belly began to swell. - I might have beene a prince’s peere - when I came over the knoes, - Till the shepherds boy beguilëd me, - milking my dadyes ewes. - - 5 - ‘When once I felt my belly swell, - no longer might I abide; - My mother put me out of doores, - and bangd me backe and side. - Then did I range the world so wide, - wandering about the knoes, - Cursing the boy that helpëd me - to fold my dadyes ewes. - - 6 - ‘Who would have thought a boy so young - would have usd a maiden so - As to allure her with his tongue, - and then from her to goe? - Which hath also procured my woe, - to credit his faire shewes, - Which now too late repent I doe, - the milking of the ewes. - - 7 - ‘I often since have wisht that I - had never seen his face; - I needed not thus mournefully - have sighed, and said Alas! - I might have matchëd with the best, - as all the country knowes, - Had I escaped the shepherds boy - helpt me to fold my ewes. - - 8 - ‘All maidens faire, then have a care - when you a milking goe; - Trust not to young men’s tempting tongues, - that will deceive you so. - Them you shall finde to be unkinde - and glory in your woes; - For the shepheards boy beguilëd mee - folding my dadyes ewes.’ - - 9 - ‘If you your virgin honours keepe, - esteeming of them deare, - You need not then to waile and weepe, - or your parents anger feare. - As I have said, of them beware - would glory in your woes; - You then may sing with merry cheere, - milking your dadyes ewes.’ - - 10 - A young man, hearing her complaint, - did pity this her case, - Saying to her, Sweet beautious saint, - I grieve so faire a face - Should sorrow so; then, sweeting, know, - to ease thee of thy woes, - Ile goe with thee to the North Country, - to milke thy dadyes ewes. - - 11 - ‘Leander like, I will remaine - still constant to thee ever, - As Piramus, or Troyalus, - till death our lives shall sever. - Let me be hated evermore, - of all men that me knowes, - If false to thee, sweet heart, I bee, - milking thy dadyes ewes.’ - - 12 - Then modestly she did reply, - ‘Might I so happy bee - Of you to finde a husband kinde, - and for to marrie me, - Then to you I would during life - continue constant still, - And be a true, obedient wife, - observing of your will. - _With, O the broome, the bonny broome, - the broome of Cowden Knoes! - Faine would I be in the North Country, - milking my dadyes ewes._ - - 13 - Thus, with a gentle soft imbrace, - he tooke her in his armes, - And with a kisse he smiling said, - ‘Ile shield thee from all harmes, - And instantly will marry thee, - to ease thee of thy woes, - And goe with thee to the North Country, - to milke thy dadyes ewes.’ - _With, O the broome, the bonny broome, - the broome of Cowden Knoes! - Faine would I be in the North Country, - to milke my dadyes ewes._ - - * * * * * - -#a.# - - _After_ 7: The Second Part. - -#b.# - - _Title_: in the ditty. - - 2^1. field. - - 2^2. from home. - - 5^6. amongst _for_ about. - - 6^3. So to. - - 6^6. hath alas. - - 7. _Wanting._ - - 8^5. Then. - - 9^1. virgins. - - 10^5. I know. - - 13^3. my _for_ thy. - - 13^9. With O the broom, &c. - - - - - 218 - - THE FALSE LOVER WON BACK - - #A.# ‘The Fause Lover,’ Buchan’s MSS, I, 114; Buchan’s Ballads of the - North of Scotland, I, 268. - - #B.# ‘The place where my love Johnny dwells,’ Christie’s Traditional - Ballad Airs, I, 144. - - -A young man is deserting one maid for another. The object of his new -fancy lives at a distance, and he is on his way to her. He is followed -by his old love from stage to stage; he repelling her, and she tenderly -remonstrating. His heart gradually softens; he buys her gifts from town -to town, and though each time he bids her go back, he ends with buying -her a wedding gown (ring) and marrying her. - -Two pretty stanzas in #A#, 4, 5, seem not to belong to this story. The -inconstant youth would have been only too glad to have the faithful maid -look to other men, and gives her all liberty to do so. These two stanzas -are first found in Herd’s MSS, I, 53, and in Herd’s Ancient and Modern -Scottish Songs, 1776, II, 6, as follows: - - False luve, and hae ye played me this, - In the simmer, mid the flowers? - I sall repay ye back agen, - In the winter, mid the showers. - - Bot again, dear luve, and again, dear luve, - Will ye not turn again? - As ye look to ither women, - Sall I to ither men. - -In a manuscript at Abbotsford, entitled Scottish Songs, 1795 (containing -pieces dated up to 1806), fol. 69, they stand thus: - - False luve, and hae ye played me this, - In simmer amang the flowers? - I shall repay you back agen - In winter amang the showers. - - Unless again, again, dear luve, - But if ye turn agen, - As ye look other women to, - Sall I to other men. - -Scott has put these verses, a little varied, into Davie Gellatley’s -mouth, in the ninth chapter of ‘Waverley.’ The first, with a change, -occurs also in ‘The Gardener,’ No 219, #A# 7, #B# 15, #C# 3. - - -#A# is translated by Rosa Warrens, Schottische Volkslieder, p. 141, No -32; by Gerhard, p. 114. - - * * * * * - - - A - - <small>Buchan’s MSS, I, 114.</small> - - 1 - A Fair maid sat in her bower-door, - Wringing her lily hands, - And by it came a sprightly youth, - Fast tripping oer the strands. - - 2 - ‘Where gang ye, young John,’ she says, - ‘Sae early in the day? - It gars me think, by your fast trip, - Your journey’s far away.’ - - 3 - He turnd about wi surly look, - And said, What’s that to thee? - I’m gaen to see a lovely maid, - Mair fairer far than ye. - - 4 - ‘Now hae ye playd me this, fause love, - In simmer, mid the flowers? - I shall repay ye back again, - In winter, mid the showers. - - 5 - ‘But again, dear love, and again, dear love, - Will ye not turn again? - For as ye look to other women, - I shall to other men.’ - - 6 - ‘Make your choice of whom you please, - For I my choice will have; - I’ve chosen a maid more fair than thee, - I never will deceive.’ - - 7 - But she’s kilt up her claithing fine, - And after him gaed she; - But aye he said, Ye’ll turn again, - Nae farder gae wi me. - - 8 - ‘But again, dear love, and again, dear love, - Will ye never love me again? - Alas for loving you sae well, - And you nae me again!’ - - 9 - The first an town that they came till, - He bought her brooch and ring; - And aye he bade her turn again, - And gang nae farder wi him. - - 10 - ‘But again, dear love, and again, dear love, - Will ye never love me again? - Alas for loving you sae well, - And you nae me again!’ - - 11 - The next an town that they came till, - He bought her muff and gloves; - But aye he bade her turn again, - And choose some other loves. - - 12 - ‘But again, dear love, and again, dear love, - Will ye never love me again? - Alas for loving you sae well, - And you nae me again!’ - - 13 - The next an town that they came till, - His heart it grew mair fain, - And he was as deep in love wi her - As she was ower again. - - 14 - The next an town that they came till, - He bought her wedding gown, - And made her lady of ha’s and bowers, - Into sweet Berwick town. - - * * * * * - - - B - - Christie’s Traditional Ballad Airs, I, 144; from the recitation of a - woman born in Buchan. - - 1 - The sun shines high on yonder hill, - And low on yonder town; - In the place where my love Johnny dwells, - The sun gaes never down. - - 2 - ‘O when will ye be back, bonny lad, - O when will ye be hame?’ - ‘When heather-hills are nine times brunt, - And a’ grown green again.’ - - 3 - ‘O that’s ower lang awa, bonny lad, - O that’s ower lang frae hame; - For I’ll be dead and in my grave - Ere ye come back again.’ - - 4 - He put his foot into the stirrup - And said he maun go ride, - But she kilted up her green claithing - And said she woudna bide. - - 5 - The firsten town that they came to, - He bought her hose and sheen, - And bade her rue and return again, - And gang nae farther wi him. - - 6 - ‘Ye likena me at a’, bonny lad, - Ye likena me at a’;’ - ‘It’s sair for you likes me sae weel - And me nae you at a’.’ - - 7 - The nexten town that they came to, - He bought her a braw new gown, - And bade her rue and return again, - And gang nae farther wi him. - - 8 - The nexten town that they came to, - He bought her a wedding ring, - And bade her dry her rosy cheeks, - And he would tak her wi him. - - 9 - ‘O wae be to your bonny face, - And your twa blinkin een! - And wae be to your rosy cheeks! - They’ve stown this heart o mine. - - 10 - ‘There’s comfort for the comfortless, - There’s honey for the bee; - There’s comfort for the comfortless, - There’s nane but you for me.’ - - * * * * * - -#A.# - - 9^1. first and: come. - - 11^1, 13^1. next and. - - _Variations in_ Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, I, 268. - - 5^4. Shall I. - - 6^1. your choose. - - 7^3. turn back. - - 7^4. gang. - - 11, 12. _Omitted._ - - 13^3. as _wanting_. - - 14^4. In bonny Berwick. - - - - - 219 - - THE GARDENER - - #A.# Kinloch MSS, V, 47. ‘The Gardener,’ Kinloch MSS, VII, 19; - Kinloch’s Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 74. - - #B.# ‘The Gardener Lad,’ Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, - II, 187. - - #C.# Fragment communicated by Dr Thomas Davidson. - - -A gardener will apparel a maid from head to foot with flowers, if she -will be his bride. He gets a wintry answer: the snow shall be his shirt, -the wind his hat, the rain his coat. - -#B# 1–6 is mere jargon, foisted into this pretty ballad as a preface. - -#A# 7, #B# 15, #C# 3, is found, substantially, in the preceding ballad, -and perhaps belonged originally to neither. - - -Freely translated from #A# and #B# by Rosa Warrens, Schottische -Volkslieder, p. 134, No 30. - - * * * * * - - - A - - Kinloch MSS, V, 47, in the handwriting of James Beattie; from the - recitation of his aunt, Miss Elizabeth Beattie. - - 1 - The gardener stands in his bower-door, - With a primrose in his hand, - And by there came a leal maiden, - As jimp ‘s a willow wand. - And by, etc. - - 2 - ‘O lady, can you fancy me, - For to be my bride, - You’ll get a’ the flowers in my garden, - To be to you a weed. - - 3 - ‘The lily white shall be your smock; - Becomes your body neat; - And your head shall be deckd with jelly-flower, - And the primrose in your breast. - - 4 - ‘Your gown shall be o the sweet-william, - Your coat o camovine, - And your apron o the salads neat, - That taste baith sweet and fine. - - 5 - ‘Your stockings shall be o the broad kail-blade, - That is baith broad and long; - And narrow, narrow at the coot, - And broad, broad at the brawn. - - 6 - ‘Your gloves shall be the marygold, - All glittering to your hand, - Well spread oer wi the blue blaewort, - That grows in corn-land.’ - - 7 - ‘O fare you well, young man,’ she says, - ‘Farewell, and I bid adieu; - Since you’ve provided a weed for me, - Among the summer flowers, - Then I’ll provide another for you, - Among the winter showers. - - 8 - ‘The new-fallen snow to be your smock; - Becomes your body neat; - And your head shall be deckd with the eastern wind, - And the cold rain on your breast.’ - - * * * * * - - - B - - Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, II, 187 - - 1 - All ye young men, I pray draw near, - I’ll let you hear my mind - Concerning those who fickle are, - And inconstant as the wind. - - 2 - A pretty maid who late livd here, - And sweethearts many had, - The gardener-lad he viewd them all, - Just as they came and gaed. - - 3 - The gardener-lad he viewd them all, - But swore he had no skill: - ‘If I were to go as oft to her, - Ye surely would me kill. - - 4 - ‘I’m sure she’s not a proper maid, - I’m sure she is not tall;’ - Another young man standing by, - He said, Slight none at all. - - 5 - ‘For we’re all come of woman,’ he said, - ‘If ye woud call to mind, - And to all women for her sake - Ye surely should be kind.’ - - 6 - ‘The summer hours and warm showers - Make the trees yield in the ground, - And kindly words will woman win, - And this maid I’ll surround.’ - - 7 - The maid then stood in her bower-door, - As straight as ony wand, - When by it came the gardener-lad, - With his hat in his hand. - - 8 - ‘Will ye live on fruit,’ he said? - ‘Or will ye marry me? - And amongst the flowers in my garden - I’ll shape a weed for thee.’ - - 9 - ‘I will live on fruit,’ she says, - ‘But I’ll never marry thee; - For I can live without mankind, - And without mankind I’ll die.’ - - 10 - ‘Ye shall not live without mankind, - If ye’ll accept of me; - For among the flowers in my garden - I’ll shape a weed for thee. - - 11 - ‘The lily white to be your smock; - Becomes your body best; - And the jelly-flower to be your quill, - And the red rose in your breast. - - 12 - ‘Your gown shall be o the pingo white, - Your petticoat cammovine, - Your apron o the seel o downs; - Come smile, sweet heart o mine! - - 13 - ‘Your shoes shall be o the gude rue red— - Never did I garden ill— - Your stockings o the mary mild; - Come smile, sweet heart, your fill! - - 14 - ‘Your gloves shall be o the green clover, - Comes lockerin to your hand, - Well dropped oer wi blue blavers, - That grow among white land.’ - - 15 - ‘Young man, ye’ve shap’d a weed for me, - In summer among your flowers; - Now I will shape another for you, - Among the winter showers. - - 16 - ‘The snow so white shall be your shirt; - It becomes your body best; - The cold bleak wind to be your coat, - And the cold wind in your breast. - - 17 - ‘The steed that you shall ride upon - Shall be o the weather snell, - Well bridled wi the northern wind, - And cold sharp showers o hail. - - 18 - ‘The hat you on your head shall wear - Shall be o the weather gray, - And aye when you come into my sight - I’ll wish you were away.’ - - * * * * * - - - C - - Communicated from memory by Dr Thomas Davidson as learned in Old - Deer, Aberdeenshire. - - 1 - Burd Ellen stands in her bower-door, - As straucht ‘s a hollan wand, - And by it comes the gairdner-lad, - Wi a red rose in his hand. - - 2 - Says, I have shapen a weed for thee - Amang my simmer flowers; - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . - - * * * * * * - - 3 - ‘Gin ye hae shapen a weed for me, - Amang your simmer flowers, - It’s I’ll repay ye back again, - Amang the winter showers. - - 4 - ‘The steed that ye sall ride upon - Sall be o the frost sae snell, - And I’ll saddle him wi the norlan winds, - And some sharp showers o hail.’ - - * * * * * * - - * * * * * - -#A.# - - _Kinloch has made changes in MSS, VII, 19, which appear in his - printed copy._ - -#C.# - - 2. “He goes on to describe his weed, promising to array her in - flowers more gorgeously than Solomon in all his glory.” - - 4. “She continues, after the same style.” - - - - - 220 - - THE BONNY LASS OF ANGLESEY - - #A.# ‘The Bonny Lass of Anglesey,’ Herd’s MSS, I, 148; Herd’s Ancient - and Modern Scottish Songs, 1776, II, 231. - - #B.# ‘The Bonny Lass o Englessie’s Dance,’ Buchan’s Ballads of the - North of Scotland, II, 63. - - -This little ballad might perhaps rightfully have come in earlier, if I -had known what to make of it. There is a resemblance, remarkable as far -as it goes, to ‘Little Kirstin’s Dance,’ Grundtvig, V, 118, No 263. Here -the dance is for a match; the lass asks what she is to have if she wins, -and is promised fifteen (five) ploughs and a mill, and her choice of the -king’s knights for a husband. In the Danish ballad (#A#), a king’s son, -to induce Little Kirstin to dance before him, promises a succession of -gifts, none of which avail until he plights his honor and troth. The -remainder of the story is like the conclusion of ‘Gil Brenton,’ No 5: -see especially I, 66. (Danish #A# is translated by Prior, III, 89, No -112.) - -Kirstin tires out fifteen knights in Danish #A# 12, #B# 10, #D# 14 (in -#C# 7 eleven); and a Kirstin tires out fifteen partners again in -Grundtvig, No 126, #F# 32, No 245, #A# 16. In Norwegian versions of No -263, given by Grundtvig in an appendix, numbers are not specified; -Kirstin in Norwegian #A# 6, #D# 18, tires out all the king’s knights. - -Buchan quite frightens one by what he says of his version, II, 314: “It -is altogether a political piece, and I do not wish to interfere much -with it.” - - * * * * * - - - A - - Herd’s MSS, I, 148. - - 1 - Our king he has a secret to tell, - And ay well keepit it must be: - The English lords are coming down - To dance and win the victory. - - 2 - Our king has cry’d a noble cry, - And ay well keepit it must be: - ‘Gar saddle ye, and bring to me - The bonny lass of Anglesey.’ - - 3 - Up she starts, as white as the milk, - Between him and his company: - What is the thing I hae to ask, - If I sould win the victory?’ - - 4 - ‘Fifteen ploughs but and a mill - I gie thee till the day thou die, - And the fairest knight in a’ my court - To chuse thy husband for to be.’ - - 5 - She’s taen the fifteen lord[s] by the hand, - Saying, ‘Will ye come dance with me?’ - But on the morn at ten o’clock - They gave it oer most shamefully. - - 6 - Up then rais the fifteenth lord— - I wat an angry man was he— - Laid by frae him his belt and sword, - And to the floor gaed manfully. - - 7 - He said, ‘My feet shall be my dead - Before she win the victory;’ - But before ’twas ten o’clock at night - He gaed it oer as shamefully. - - * * * * * - - - B - - Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, II, 63. - - 1 - Word has gane thro a’ this land, - And O well noticed it maun be! - The English lords are coming down - To dance and gain the victorie. - - 2 - The king has made a noble cry, - And well attended it maun be: - ‘Come saddle ye, and bring to me - The bonny lass o Englessie.’ - - 3 - She started up, a’ dress’d in white, - Between him and his companie; - Said, What will ye gie, my royal liege, - If I will dance this dance for thee? - - 4 - ‘Five good ploughs but and a mill - I’ll give you till the day ye die; - The bravest knight in all my court, - I’ll give, your husband for to be.’ - - 5 - She’s taen the first lord by the hand, - Says, ‘Ye’ll rise up and dance wi me;’ - But she made a’ these lords fifeteen - To gie it up right shamefullie. - - 6 - Then out it speaks a younger lord, - Says, ‘Fye for shame! how can this be?’ - He loosd his brand frae aff his side, - Likewise his buckler frae his knee. - - 7 - He sware his feet should be his dead - Before he lost the victorie; - He danc’d full fast, but tired at last, - And gae it up as shamefullie. - - * * * * * - -#A.# - - 1^2, 2^2. we’ll keep it must and be. - - - - - 221 - - KATHARINE JAFFRAY - - #A. a.# ‘Katharine Jaffray,’ Herd’s MSS, I, 61, II, 56. #b.# The - Aldine edition of Burns, 1839, III, 181, four stanzas. - - #B.# ‘The Laird of Laminton,’ Herd’s MSS, I, 164, II, 58. - - #C.# ‘Katherine Jaffarie,’ “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border - Minstrelsy,” No 30, Abbotsford. - - #D.# ‘The Laird of Laminton,’ “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border - Minstrelsy,” No 3, Abbotsford. - - #E.# ‘Cathrine Jaffray,’ Skene MS., p. 81. - - #F.# ‘Catherine Janferry,’ Kinloch MSS, V, 315. - - #G.# ‘Catharine Jaffery,’ Maidment’s North Countrie Garland, 1824, p. - 34. - - #H.# Kinloch MSS, V, 313. - - #I.# Motherwell’s MS., p. 327. - - #J.# ‘Catherine Johnson,’ Motherwell’s MS., p. 75; ‘Catherine - Johnstone,’ Motherwell’s Minstrelsy, 1827, p. 225. - - #K.# ‘Loch-in-var,’ Buchan’s Gleanings, 1825, p. 74. - - #L.# Macmath MS., p. 72, two stanzas. - - -The ballad was first published by Sir Walter Scott, under the title ‘The -Laird of Laminton,’ in the first edition of the Minstrelsy, 1802, I, -216. This copy was fashioned by the editor from two in Herd’s MSS, #A#, -#B#. In later editions of the Minstrelsy (III, 122, 1833), the ballad -was given, with the title Katharine Janfarie, “in a more perfect state, -from several recited copies.” Twelve stanzas out of twenty-one, however, -are repeated from the first edition. Much the larger part of what is not -in Herd is taken from #C#; the name Lochinvar is adopted from #D#.[116] -A few peculiar readings may be from copies now not known, or may be the -editor’s. - -The ballad in Christie, II, 16, is Scott’s later copy, with the omission -of the 16th stanza. That in Nimmo’s Songs and Ballads of Clydesdale, p. -141, is #J#, from Motherwell’s Minstrelsy. - -A Scots laird wooes a Scots maid and wins her favor. An English laird or -lord, very liberal as to gowd and gear, comes to court the same lass, -gains the consent of her friends (who had at least made no opposition to -the earlier suit), and sets the wedding-day. The first lover comes to -the wedding, backed by a strong body of armed men, whom he keeps out of -sight. He is asked why he has come; it is for a sight of the bride or a -word with her, or to take a glass of wine with her or the bridegroom, -and this had he will go away. Getting near the bride on this pretence, -he swings her on to his horse and is off. A bloody fight follows, but -the bride is not retrieved. Englishmen may take warning by this not to -seek wives in Scotland; it will always end in their being tricked and -balked. - -The attitude of the young woman to her first lover is not distinctly -brought out in several copies. That she had jilted him in favor of a -wealthier Englishman would probably not lessen the Scot’s pleasure in -carrying her off. In #E# 18, she does not go willingly; she greets and -wrings her hands, and says it’s foul play.[117] In #F# 2, #G# 2, the -first lover openly charges her with changing and foul play, and such is -the implication in #E# 13. In #B# 14, the bride, seeing the bloodshed, -exclaims, Wae’s me for foul play! and her lover replies, Wae to your -wilful will for causing so much good blood to be spilt! from which we -must infer a fault on her part. #I# 2 has the ambiguous line ‘and his -love drew away,’ which cannot be interpreted to mean that the first -lover was inconstant without flying in the face of all the other copies. -#D#, #J#, #K#, unequivocally represent the lass as faithful to her first -love. The bridegroom, in these versions, arranges the match with the -family, and does not mention the matter to the lass until the -wedding-day: so in #C#, #H#.[118] She sends word to her lover that if he -will come for her she will go with him, #D#; writes ‘to let him -understand,’ #J#, #K#, and not to pay him the cold compliment of an -invitation to see her wed the man that has supplanted him, as in #B# 3, -#E# 5,#F# 5, #I# 3. - -In #E# 7–9, while the first lover is drinking with his comrades they -incite him to carry off the bride on her wedding-day; so #G# 6, without -explanation of the circumstances. In #E# 7–9, 12–15, he goes to the -bridal-house, and sitting at a table vents words which the other guests -cannot understand: there was a young man who loved a lass that to-day -goes another man’s bride, and plays her old love foul play; had _he_ -been so served, he would take the bride away. Upon this the English ask -if he wishes a fight. There is something of this in #B# 7–10, #F# 13, -14, #G# 11–14. - -The lover would wish to keep the strong body of men that he had brought -with him quite in the background until their cue came. When, therefore, -in #I# 8, 9, the bridegroom’s friends ask him what was that troop of -younkers they had seen, he puts them off with the phrase, It must have -been the Fairy Court; so in #L#. In #B# 5, 6 (where a stanza, and more, -has dropped out), when the bridegroom sees this troop from a high -window, the bride (from incredulity, it must be, and not because she is -in concert with her old lover) says he must have seen the Fairy Court. -#G# 15, 16, where the phrase comes in again, seems to have suffered -corruption; any way, the passage is not quite intelligible to me. - -Katharine Jaffray (Jamphray, Janfarie) is the lass’s name in #A#, #C-G#, -#K#, #L#; Katharine Johnstone[119] in #J#; in #B#, #H#, #I#, she is -nameless. - -The lover is Lochinvar in #E#, #F#, #G#, #I#, #K#, #L# (note); Lamington -in #D#, #H#, #J#; Lauderdale in #A#, #C#; he has no name in #B#. The -bridegroom is Lochinvar in #D#, #H#; Lamington in #B#, Lymington, #K#; -Lauderdale in #F#, #G#; Lochinton #A#, Lamendall #E#, Limberdale #I# -(obvious mixtures of the preceding); Faughanwood in #C#; in #J# he has -no name. The bridegroom should be an Englishman, but Lochinvar, -Lamington, and Lauderdale are all south-Scottish names. #B# puts a Scot -from the North Country in place of the titular Englishman of the other -copies, but this Norland man is laird of Lamington. - -The place of the fight is Cadan bank and Cadan brae, #C#, #D#; Cowden -bank (banks) and Cowden brae (braes), #A#, #H#, #J#, the variation being -perhaps due to the very familiar Cowdenknows; Callien, Caylin, Caley -bank (buss) and brae, in #E#, #I#, #F#; Foudlin dyke and Foudlin stane -in #K#. No place is named in #B#, #G#[120]. In #I#, the lass lives in -Bordershellin. - -A copy from the recitation of a young Irishwoman living in Taunton, -Massachusetts (learned from print, I suppose, and in parts imperfectly -remembered), puts the scene of the story at Edenborough town. A squire -of high degree had courted a comely country girl. When her father came -to hear of this, he was an angry man, and “requested of his daughter -dear to suit his company,” or to match within her degree. The only son -of a farmer in the east had courted this girl until he thought he had -won her, and had got the consent of her father and mother. The girl -writes the squire a letter to tell him that she is to be married to the -farmer’s son. He writes in answer that she must dress in green at her -wedding (a color which no Scots girl would wear, for ill luck), and he -will wear a suit of the same, and wed her ‘in spite of all that’s -there.’ He mounts eight squire-men on milk-white steeds, and rides ‘to -the wedding-house, with the company dressed in green.’ (See the note to -#L#.) - - ‘O welcome you, fair welcome! - And where have you spent all day? - Or did you see those gentlemen - That rode along this way?’ - - He looked at her and scoffed at her, - He smiled and this did say, - ‘They might have been some fairy troops, - That rode along this way.’ - -She fills him a glass of new port wine, which he drinks to all the -company, saying, Happy is the man that is called the groom, but another -may love her as well as he and take her from his side. - - Up spoke the intended groom, - And an angry man was he, - Saying, If it is to fight that you came here, - I am the man for thee. - - ‘It is not to fight that I came here, - But friendship for to show; - So give me one kiss from your lovely bride, - And away from you I’ll go.’ - - He took her by the waist so small, - And by the grass-green sleeve; - He took her out of the wedding-house, - Of the company asked no leave. - - The drums did beat and the trumpets sound, - Most glorious to be seen, - And then away to Edenborough town, - With the company dressed in green. - -Scott’s Lochinvar, in the fifth canto of Marmion, was modelled on -‘Katharine Jaffray.’ - -Another ballad (but a much later and inferior) in which a lover carries -off a bride on her wedding-day is ‘Lord William,’ otherwise ‘Lord -Lundy,’ to be given further on. - -A Norse ballad of the same description is ‘Magnus Algotsøn,’ Grundtvig, -No 181, III, 734,[121] Syv, No 77,==‘Ungen Essendal,’ Kristensen, Jydske -Folkeminder, I, 104, No 41, ‘Hr. Essendal,’ X, 247, No 61, A, B. Syv’s -version is translated by Jamieson, Illustrations of Northern -Antiquities, p. 335. - - -Scott’s ballad is translated by Schubart, p. 198, Doenniges, p. 15. -Knortz, Schottische Balladen, p. 65, translates Aytoun. - - * * * * * - - - A - - #a.# Herd’s MSS, I, 61, II, 56. #b.# The Aldine edition of Burns’s - Poems, by Sir Harris Nicolas, 1839, III, 181, from Burns’s - autograph. - - 1 - There livd a lass in yonder dale, - And doun in yonder glen, O - And Kathrine Jaffray was her name, - Well known by many men. O - - 2 - Out came the Laird of Lauderdale, - Out frae the South Countrie, - All for to court this pretty maid, - Her bridegroom for to be. - - 3 - He has teld her father and mither baith, - And a’ the rest o her kin, - And has teld the lass hersell, - And her consent has win. - - 4 - Then came the Laird of Lochinton, - Out frae the English border, - All for to court this pretty maid, - Well mounted in good order. - - 5 - He’s teld her father and mither baith, - As I hear sindry say, - But he has nae teld the lass her sell, - Till on her wedding day. - - 6 - When day was set, and friends were met, - And married to be, - Lord Lauderdale came to the place, - The bridal for to see. - - 7 - ‘O are you came for sport, young man: - Or are you come for play? - Or are you come for a sight o our bride, - Just on her wedding day?’ - - 8 - ‘I’m nouther come for sport,’ he says, - ‘Nor am I come for play; - But if I had one sight o your bride, - I’ll mount and ride away.’ - - 9 - There was a glass of the red wine - Filld up them atween, - And ay she drank to Lauderdale, - Wha her true-love had been. - - 10 - Then he took her by the milk-white hand, - And by the grass-green sleeve, - And he mounted her high behind him there, - At the bridegroom he askt nae leive. - - 11 - Then the blude run down by the Cowden Banks, - And down by Cowden Braes, - And ay she gard the trumpet sound, - ‘O this is foul, foul play!’ - - 12 - Now a’ ye that in England are, - Or are in England born, - Come nere to Scotland to court a lass, - Or else ye’l get the scorn. - - 13 - They haik ye up and settle ye by, - Till on your wedding day, - And gie ye frogs instead o fish, - And play ye foul, foul play. - - * * * * * - - - B - - Herd’s MSS, I, 164, II, 58. - - 1 - The gallant laird of Lamington - Cam frae the North Countree - To court a gallant gay lady, - And wi presents entered he. - - 2 - He neither stood for gould nor gear— - For she was a well-fared may— - And whan he got her friends’ consent - He set the wedding-day. - - 3 - She’s sent unto her first fere love, - Gin he would come to see, - And he has sent word back again - Weel ans_were_d should she be. - - 4 - He has sent a mess_en_g_e_r - Right quietly throe the land, - Wi mony armed men, - To be at his command. - - 5 - The bridegroom looked out at a high window, - Beheld baith dool and doon, - And there he spied her first fere love, - Come riding to the toun. - - 6 - She scoffed and she scorned him, - Upo the wedding-day, - And said it had been the Fairy Court - That he had seen in array. - - 7 - But as he sat at yon table-head, - Amo yon gentlemen, - And he began to speak some words - That na ane there could ken. - - 8 - ‘There is a lass into this town— - She is a weel-far’d may— - She is another man’s bride today, - But she’ll play him foul play.’ - - 9 - Up did start the bonny bridegroom, - His hat into his hand, - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . - - 10 - ‘O cam you here, young man, to fight? - Or came you here to flee? - Or cam you here to drink good wine, - And be good company?’ - - 11 - They filled a cup o good red wine, - Drunk out between them twa: - ‘For one dance wi your bonny bride, - I shall gae hame my wa.’ - - 12 - He’s taen her by the milk-white hand, - And by the grass-green sleeve, - He’s mounted her high behind himself, - At her kin’s speired nae leave. - - 13 - Now . . . . . . - And swords flew in the skies, - And droop and drowsie was the blood - Ran our yon lilly braes. - - 14 - The blood ran our the lilly bank, - And our the lilly brae, - And sighing said the bonny bride, - ‘A, wae’s me for foul play!’ - - 15 - ‘My blessing on your heart, sweet thing, - Wae to your wilfu will! - So many a gallant gentleman’s blood - This day as ye’ve garred spill. - - 16 - ‘But a’ you that is norland men, - If you be norland born, - Come never south to wed a bryde, - For they’ll play you the scorn. - - 17 - ‘They will play you the scorn - Upo your wedding-day, - And gie you frogs instead o fish, - And do you foul, foul play.’ - - * * * * * - - - C - - “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 30, - Abbotsford. Sent Scott by William Laidlaw, in September, 1802; - obtained by him from Jean Scott. - - 1 - There leeft a may, an a weel-far’d may, - High, high up in yon glen; O - Her name was Katarine Janfarie, - She was courtit by monie men. O - - 2 - Up then cam Lord Lauderdale, - Up thrae the Lawland border, - And he has come to court this may, - A’ mountit in gude order. - - 3 - He’s telld her father, he’s telld her mother, - An a’ the lave o her kin, - An he has telld the bonnie lass hersel, - An has her favour win. - - 4 - Out then cam Lord Faughanwood, - Out frae the English border, - An for to court this well-far’d may, - A’ mountit in gude order. - - 5 - He telld her father, he telld her mother, - An a’ the rest o her kin, - But he neer telld the bonnie lass hersell - Till on her waddin-een. - - 6 - When they war a’ at denner set, - Drinkin the bluid-red wine, - ’Twas up then cam Lord Lauderdale, - The bridegroom soud hae been. - - 7 - Up then spak Lord Faughanwood, - An he spak very slee: - ‘O are ye come for sport?’ he says, - ‘Or are ye come for play? - Or are ye come for a kiss o our bride, - An the morn her waddin-day?’ - - 8 - ‘O I’m no come for ought,’ he says, - ‘But for some sport or play; - An ae word o yer bonnie bride, - Than I’ll horse an ride away.’ - - 9 - She filld a cup o the gude red wine, - She filld it to the ee: - ‘Here’s a health to you, Lord Lauderdale, - An a’ your companie.’ - - 10 - She filld a cup o the gude red wine, - She filld it to the brim: - ‘Here’s a health to you, Lord Lauderdale, - My bridegroom should hae been.’ - - 11 - He’s taen her by the milk-white hand, - And by the gars-green sleeve, - An he has mountit her behind him, - O the bridegroom spierd nae leave. - - 12 - ‘It’[s] now take yer bride, Lord Faughanwood, - Now take her an ye may; - But if ye take yer bride again - We will ca it foul play.’ - - 13 - There war four a twenty bonnie boys, - A’ clad i the simple gray; - They said the wad take their bride again, - By the strang hand an the may. - - 14 - Some o them were fu willin men, - But they war na willin a’; - Sae four an twentie ladies gay - Bade them ride on their way. - - 15 - The bluid ran down by the Cadan bank, - An in by the Cadan brae, - An ther the gard the piper play - It was a’ for foul, foul play. - - 16 - A’ ye lords in fair England - That live by the English border, - Gang never to Scotland to seek a wife, - Or than ye’ll get the scorn. - - 17 - They’ll keep ye up i temper guid - Untill yer wadin-day, - They’ll thraw ye frogs instead o fish, - An steal your bride away. - - * * * * * - - - D - - “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No. 3, - Abbotsford. Sent Scott September 11, 1802, by William Laidlaw; - received by him from Mr Bartram of Biggar. - - 1 - There lives a lass into yon bank, - She lives hersell alone, - Her name is Kathrine Jamphray, - Well known by many a one. - - 2 - Than came the Laird of Lamington, - It’s frae the West Countrie, - And for to court this bonnie may, - Her bridegroom hopes to be. - - 3 - He asked at her father, sae did he at her mother, - And the chief of all her kin, - But still he askd the lass hersell, - Till he had her true love won. - - 4 - At length the Laird of Lachenware - Came from the English border, - And for to court this bonnie bride, - Was mounted in good order. - - 5 - He asked at her father, sae did he at her mother, - As I heard many say, - But he never loot the lassie wit - Till on her wedding-day. - - 6 - She sent a spy into the west - Where Lamington might be, - That an he wad come and meet wi her - That she wad with him gae. - - 7 - They taen her on to Lachenware, - As they have thought it meet; - They taen her on to Lachanware, - The wedding to compleat. - - 8 - When they came to Lachanware, - And near-han by the town, - There was a dinner-making, - Wi great mirth and renown. - - 9 - Lamington has mounted twenty-four wiel-wight men, - Well mounted in array, - And he’s away to see his bonnie bride, - Just on her wedding-day. - - 10 - When she came out into the green, - Amang her company, - Says, ‘Lamington and Lachanware - This day shall fight for me.’ - - 11 - When he came to Lachanware, - And lighted on the green, - There was a cup of good red wine - Was filled them between, - And ay she drank to Lamington, - Her former love who’d been. - - 12 - It’s out and spake the bridegroom, - And a angrie man was he: - ‘It’s wha is this, my bonnie bride, - That ye loe better than me? - - 13 - ‘It’s came you here for sport, young man? - Or came you here for play? - Or came you for a sight of my bonnie bride, - Upon her wedding-day?’ - - 14 - ‘I came not here for sport,’ he says, - ‘Nor came I here for play; - But an I had ae word of your bride, - I’ll horse and gae my way.’ - - 15 - The first time that he calld on her, - Her answer was him Nay; - But the next time that he calld on her, - She was not slow to gae. - - 16 - He took her by the milk-white hand, - And by the grass-green sleeve, - He’s pulld her on behind him, - At the bridegroom speard nae leave. - - 17 - The blood ran up the Caden bank, - And down the Caden brae, - And ay she bade the trumpet sound - ‘It’s a’ for foul, foul play.’ - - 18 - ‘I wonder o you English squires, - That are in England born, - That ye come to court our Scots lasses, - For fear ye get the scorn. - - 19 - ‘For fear you get the scorn,’ she says, - ‘Upon y_ou_r wedding-day; - They’ll gee you frogs instead of fish, - And take your bride away.’ - - 20 - Fair fa the lads of Lamington, - Has taen their bride away! - They’ll set them up in temper wood - And scorn you all day. - - * * * * * - - - E - - Skene MS., p. 81; taken down in the north of Scotland, 1802–3. - - 1 - Bonny Cathrin Jaffray, - That proper maid sae fare, - She has loved young Lochinvar, - She made him no compare. - - 2 - He courted her the live-long winter-night, - Sae has he the simmer’s day; - He has courted her sae long - Till he sta her heart away. - - 3 - But the lusty laird of Lamendall - Came frae the South Country, - An for to gain this lady’s love - In entreid he. - - 4 - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . - He has gained her friends’ consent, - An sett the wedding-day. - - 5 - The wedding-day it being set, - An a’ man to it . . . , - She sent for her first fair love, - The wedding to come to. - - 6 - His father an his mother came, - . . . . . . . - They came a’, but he came no; - It was a foul play. - - 7 - Lochinvar, as his comrads - Sat drinkine at the wine, - [‘Fie] on you,’ said his comrads, - ‘Tak yer bride for shame. - - 8 - ‘Had she been mine, as she was yours, - An done as she has done to you, - I wad tak her on her bridal-day, - Fra a’ her companie. - - 9 - ‘Fra a’ her companie, - Without any other stay; - I wad gie them frogs insted o fish, - An tak their bride away.’ - - 10 - He gat fifty young men, - They were gallant and gay, - An fifty maidens, - An left them on a lay. - - 11 - Whan he cam in by Callien bank, - An in by Callien brae, - He left his company - Dancing on a lay. - - 12 - He cam to the bridal-house, - An in entred he; - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - - 13 - ‘There was a young man in this place - Loved well a comly may, - But the day she gaes an ither man’s bride, - An played him foul play. - - 14 - ‘Had it been me as it was him, - An don as she has don him tee, - I wad ha geen them frogs instead o fish, - An taen their bride away.’ - - 15 - The English spiered gin he wad fight; - It spak well in his mind; - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - - 16 - ‘It was no for fightin I cam here, - But to bear good fellowship; - Gae me a glass wi your bridegroom, - An so I go my way.’ - - 17 - The glass was filled o guid red wine, - . . . between them twa: - ‘Man, man I see yer bride, - An so I gae my waa.’ - - 18 - He was on guid horseback, - An whipt the bride him wi; - She grat an wrang her hands, - An said, ‘It is foul play. - - 19 - . . . . . . . - ‘An this I dare well say, - For this day I gaed anither man’s bride, - An it’s been foul play.’ - - 20 - But now sh’s Lochinvar’s wife, - . . . . . . . - He gaed them frogs instead o fish, - An tain their bride away. - - * * * * * - - - F - - Kinloch MSS, V, 315, in the handwriting of John Hill Burton. - - 1 - Bonny Catherine Janferry, - The dainty dame so fair, - She’s faun in love wi young Lochinvar, - And she loved him without compare. - - 2 - She loved him well, and wondrous well - To change her mind away; - But the day she goes another man’s bride, - And plays him foul play. - - 3 - Home came the Laird o Lauderdale, - A’ from the South Countree, - And a’ to court this weel-fart may, - And I wat good tent took he. - - 4 - Gold nor gear he did no spare, - She was so fair a may, - And he agreed wi her friends all, - And set the wedding-day. - - 5 - She sent for her first true-love, - Her wedding to come tee; - His father and his mother both, - They were to come him wi. - - 6 - His father and his mother both, - They were to come him wi; - And they came both, and he came no, - And this was foul play. - - 7 - He’s sent a quiet messenger - Now out thro a’ the land, - To warn a hundred gentlemen, - O gallant and good renown. - - 8 - O gallant and good renown, - And all o good aray, - And now he’s made his trumpet soun - A voss o foul play. - - 9 - As they came up by Caley buss, - And in by Caley brae, - ‘Stay still, stay still, my merry young men, - Stay still, if that you may. - - 10 - ‘Stay still, stay still, my merry young men, - Stay still, if that you may; - I’ll go to the bridal-house, - And see what they will say.’ - - 11 - When he gaed to the bridal-house, - And lighted and gaed in, - There were four and twenty English lords, - O gallant and good renown. - - 12 - O gallant and good renown, - And all o good aray, - But aye he garred his trumpets soun - A voss o foul play. - - 13 - When he was at the table set, - Amang these gentlemen, - He begoud to vent some words - They couldna understan. - - 14 - The English lords, they waxed wroth - What could be in his mind; - They stert to foot, on horseback lap, - ‘Come fecht! what’s i your mind?’ - - 15 - ‘I came na here to feght,’ he said, - ‘But for good sport and play; - And one glass wi yer bonny bridegroom, - And I’ll go boun away.’ - - 16 - The glass was filled o good reed wine, - And drunken atween the twa; - ‘And one glass wi your bonny bride, - And I’se go boun away.’ - - 17 - Her maiden she stood forbye, - And quickly she said, ‘Nay - I winna gee a word o her - To none nor yet to thee.’ - - 18 - ‘Oh, one word o yer bonny bride! - Will ye refuse me one? - Before her wedding-day was set, - I would hae gotten ten. - - 19 - ‘Take here my promise, maiden, - My promise and my hand, - Out oer her father’s gates this day - Wi me she shanna gang.’ - - 20 - He’s bent him oer his saddle-bow, - To kiss her ere he gaed, - And he fastened his hand in her gown-breast, - And tust her him behind. - - 21 - He pat the spurs into his horse - And fast rade out at the gate; - Ye wouldna hae seen his yellow locks - For the dust o his horse feet. - - 22 - Fast has he ridden the wan water, - And merrily taen the know, - And then the battle it began; - I’me sure it was na mow. - - 23 - Bridles brack, and weight horse lap, - And blades flain in the skies, - And wan and drousie was the blood - Gaed lapperin down the lays. - - 24 - Now all ye English lords, - In England where ye’r borne, - Come never to Scotland to woo a bride, - For they’le gie you the scorn. - - 25 - For they’le gie you the scorn, - The scorn, if that they may; - They’ll gie you frogs instead of fish, - And steal your bride away. - - * * * * * - - - G - - Maidment’s North Countrie Garland, p. 34. - - 1 - O bonny Catharine Jaffery, - That dainty maid so fair, - Once lovd the laird of Lochinvar, - Without any compare. - - 2 - Long time she lood him very well, - But they changed her mind away, - And now she goes another’s bride, - And plays him foul play. - - 3 - The bonny laird of Lauderdale - Came from the South Countrie, - And he has wooed the pretty maid, - Thro presents entered he. - - 4 - For tocher-gear he did not stand, - She was a dainty may; - He ‘greed him with her friends all, - And set the wedding-day. - - 5 - When Lochinvar got word of this, - He knew not what to do, - For losing of a lady fair - That he did love so true. - - 6 - ‘But if I were young Lochinvar, - I woud not care a fly - To take her on her wedding-day - From all her company. - - 7 - ‘Get ye a quiet messenger, - Send him thro all your land - For a hundred and fifty brave young lads, - To be at your command. - - 8 - ‘To be all at your command, - And your bidding to obey, - Yet still cause you the trumpet sound - The voice of foul play.’ - - 9 - He got a quiet messenger - To send thro all his land, - And full three hundred pretty lads - Were all at his command. - - 10 - Were all at his command, - And his bidding did obey, - Yet still he made the trumpet sound - The voice of foul play. - - 11 - Then he went to the bridal-house. - Among the nobles a’, - And when he stepped upon the floor - He gave a loud huzza. - - 12 - ‘Huzza! huzza! you English men, - Or borderers who were born, - Neer come to Scotland for a maid, - Or else they will you scorn. - - 13 - ‘She’ll bring you on with tempting words, - Aye till the wedding-day, - Syne give you frogs instead of fish, - And play you foul play.’ - - 14 - The gentlemen all wondered - What could be in his mind, - And asked if he’d a mind to fight; - Why spoke he so unkind? - - 15 - Did he e’er see such pretty men - As were there in array? - ‘O yes,’ said he, ‘a Fairy Court - Were leaping on the hay. - - 16 - ‘As I came in by Hyland banks, - And in by Hyland braes, - There did I see a Fairy Court, - All leaping on the leas. - - 17 - ‘I came not here to fight,’ he said, - ‘But for good fellowship gay; - I want to drink with your bridegroom, - And then I’ll boun my way.’ - - 18 - The glass was filled with good red wine, - And drunk between them twae: - ‘Give me one shake of your bonny bride’s hand, - And then I’ll boun my way.’ - - 19 - He’s taen her by the milk-white hands, - And by the grass-green sleeve, - Pulld her on horseback him behind, - At her friends askd nae leave. - - 20 - Syne rode the water with great speed, - And merrily the knows; - There fifty from the bridal came— - Indeed it was nae mows— - - 21 - Thinking to take the bride again, - Thro strength if that they may; - But still he gart the trumpet sound - The voice of foul play. - - 22 - There were four and twenty ladies fair - All walking on the lea; - He gave to them the bonny bride, - And bade them boun their way. - - 23 - They splintered the spears in pieces now, - And the blades flew in the sky, - But the bonny laird of Lochinvar - Has gained the victory. - - 24 - Many a wife- and widow’s son - Lay gasping on the ground, - But the bonny laird of Lochinvar - He has the victory won. - - * * * * * - - - H - - Kinloch MSS, V, 313. - - 1 - There was a lady fair, fair, - Lived low down in yon glen, O - And she’s been courted far an near - By several gentlemen. O - - 2 - At length the laird of Lammington - Came frae the West Country, - All to court that pretty girl, - And her bridegroom for to be. - - 3 - He told her father, so did he her mother, - And all the rest of her kin, - And he has told the lass hersel, - And her kind favour has won. - - 4 - At length the laird of Laughenwaur - Came frae the English border, - And all to court that pretty girl, - Well mounted in good order. - - 5 - He told her father, so did he her mother, - As I heard people say, - But he ner told the lass hersel, - Till on her wedding-day. - - 6 - But when the wedding-day was fixed, - And married for to be, - Then Lamington came to the town, - The bridegroom for to see. - - 7 - ‘O are ye come for sport, sir?’ he said, - ‘Or are ye come for play? - Or are ye for a sight o my bonny bride, - Upon her wedding-day?’ - - 8 - ‘A ‘m neither come for sport, sir,’ he said, - ‘Nor am I come for play, - But if I had one word o the bride - I’d mount and go away.’ - - 9 - There was a cup of the good red wine - Was filled out them between, - And aye she drank to Lammington, - Who her true-love had been. - - 10 - He’s taen her by the milk-white hand, - And by the grass-green sleeve; - He’s mounted her behind him then, - At the bridegroom speered no leave. - - 11 - The blood ran down by Cowden banks, - And down by Cowden brae, - And aye they gaured the piper play - ‘It was a foul, foul play.’ - - 12 - Ye gentlemen of Lochenwaur, - That’s laigh in England born, - Come ner to Scotland to court a wife, - Or be sure ye’l get the scorn. - - 13 - The’ll keep ye up, and tamper ye at, - Until yer wedding-day, - And they’l gie ye frogs instead o fish, - And they’ll play ye a foul play. - - * * * * * - - - I - - Motherwell’s MS., p. 327, “from the recitation of Robert Sim, - weaver, in Paisley, 16 July, 1825. It was a song of his father’s, a - great reciter of heroick ballads.” - - 1 - In Bordershellin there did dwell - A comely, handsome may, - And Lochinvar he courted her, - And stole her heart away. - - 2 - She loved him but owre weel, - And his love drew away; - Another man then courted her, - And set the wedding-day, - - 3 - They set the wedding-day so plain, - As plain as it might be; - She sent a letter to her former love, - The wedding to come see. - - 4 - When Lochinvar the letter read, - He sent owre a’ his land - For four and twenty beltit knichts, - To come at his command. - - 5 - They all came to his hand, I say, - Upon that wedding-day; - He set them upon milk-white steeds, - And put them in array. - - 6 - He set them in array, I say, - Most pleasant to be seen, - And he’s awa to the wedding-house, - A single man his lane. - - 7 - And when he was to the wedding-house come, - They were all sitten down; - Baith gentlemen and knichts was there, - And lords of high renown. - - 8 - They saluted him, baith auld and young, - Speired how he had spent the day, - And what young Lankashires was yon - They saw all in array. - - 9 - But he answerd them richt scornfullie, - Upon their wedding-day; - He says, It’s been some Fairy Court - Ye’ve seen all in array. - - 10 - Then rose up the young bridegroom, - And an angry man was he: - ‘Lo, art thou come to fight, young man? - Indeed I’ll fight wi thee.’ - - 11 - ‘O I am not come to fight,’ he sayd, - ‘But good fellowship to hae, - And for to drink the wine sae red, - And then I’ll go away.’ - - 12 - Then they filld him up a brimming glass, - And drank it between them twa: - ‘Now one word of your bonnie bride, - And then I’ll go my wa.’ - - 13 - But some were friends, and some were faes, - Yet nane o them was free - To let the bride on her wedding-day - Gang out o their companie. - - 14 - But he took her by the milk-white hand, - And by the grass-green sleeve, - And set her on a milk-white steed, - And at nane o them speerd he leave. - - 15 - Then the blood ran down the Caylin bank, - And owre the Caylin brae; - The auld folks knew something o the sport, - Which gart them cry, Foul play! - - 16 - Ye lusty lads of Limberdale, - Tho ye be English born, - Come nae mair to Scotland to court a maid, - For fear ye get the scorn. - - 17 - For fear that ye do get the scorn - Upon your wedding-day; - Least ye catch frogs instead of fish, - And then ye’ll ca’t foul play. - - * * * * * - - - J - - Motherwell’s MS., p. 75, from the recitation of Mrs Thomson, an old - woman of Kilbarchan. - - 1 - There was a lass, as I heard say, - Lived low down in a glen; - Her name was Catharine Johnson, - Weel known to many men. - - 2 - Doun cam the laird o Lamingtoun, - Doun frae the South Countrie, - And he is for this bonnie lass, - Her bridegroom for to be. - - 3 - He’s askd her father and mother, - The chief of a’ her kin, - And then he askd the bonnie lass, - And did her favour win. - - 4 - Doun cam an English gentleman, - Doun frae the English border; - He is for this bonnie lass, - To keep his house in order. - - 5 - He askd her father and mother, - As I do hear them say, - But he never askd the lass hersell, - Till on her wedding-day. - - 6 - But she has wrote a lang letter, - And sealed it wi her hand, - And sent it to Lord Lamington, - To let him understand. - - 7 - The first line o the letter he read, - He was baith glad and fain; - But or he read the letter owre - He was baith pale and wan. - - 8 - Then he has sent a messenger, - And out through all his land, - And four-and-twenty armed men - Was all at his command. - - 9 - But he has left his merry men, - Left them on the lea; - And he’s awa to the wedding-house, - To see what he could see. - - 10 - But when he came to the wedding-house, - As I do understand, - There were four-and-twenty belted knights - Sat at a table round. - - 11 - They rose all for to honour him, - For he was of high renown; - They rose all for to welcome him, - And bade him to sit doun. - - 12 - O meikle was the good red wine - In silver cups did flow, - But aye she drank to Lamingtoun, - For with him would she go. - - 13 - O meikle was the good red wine - In silver cups gaed round; - At length they began to whisper words, - None could them understand. - - 14 - ‘O came ye here for sport, young man? - Or cam ye here for play? - Or cam ye for our bonnie bride, - On this her wedding-day?’ - - 15 - ‘I came not here for sport,’ he said, - ‘Neither did I for play; - But for one word o your bonnie bride - I’ll mount and ride away.’ - - 16 - They set her maids behind her, - To hear what they would say, - But the first question he askd at her - Was always [answered] nay; - The next question he askd at her - Was, ‘Mount and come away.’ - - 17 - It’s up the Couden bank, - And doun the Couden brae; - And aye she made the trumpet sound, - ‘It’s a weel won play.’ - - 18 - O meikle was the blood was shed - Upon the Couden brae; - And aye she made the trumpet sound, - ‘It’s a’ fair play.’ - - 19 - Come, all ye English gentlemen, - That is of England born, - Come nae doun to Scotland, - For fear ye get the scorn. - - 20 - They’ll feed ye up wi flattering words, - And that’s foul play; - And they’ll dress ye frogs instead o fish, - Just on your wedding-day. - - * * * * * - - - K - - Buchan’s Gleanings of Scotch, English and Irish Scarce Old Ballads, - 1825, pp. 74, 193; “taken down from oral tradition.” - - 1 - There lives a lass in yonder dale, - In yon bonny borrows-town, - Her name it is Catherine Jeffrey, - She is loved by mony a ane. - - 2 - Lord Lochinvar has courted her - These twelve months and a day; - With flattering words and fair speeches - He has stown her heart away. - - 3 - There came a knight from south sea-bank, - From north England I mean, - He alighted at her father’s yetts, - His stile is Lord Lymington. - - 4 - He has courted her father and moth - Her kinsfolk ane and aye, - But he never told the lady hersell - Till he set the wedding-day. - - 5 - ‘Prepare, prepare, my daughter dear, - Prepare, to you I say; - For the night it is good Wednesday night, - And the morn is your wedding-day.’ - - 6 - ‘O tell to me, father,’ she said, - ‘O tell me who it is wi; - For I’ll never wed a man on earth - Till I know what he be.’ - - 7 - ‘He’s come a knight from the south sea-bank. - From north England I mean, - For when he lighted at my yetts, - His stile is Lord Lymington.’ - - 8 - ‘O where will I get a bonny boy - Will win baith meet and fee, - And will run on to Lochinvar - And come again to me?’ - - 9 - ‘O here am I, a bonny boy - That will win baith hose and sheen, - And will run on to Lochinvar, - And come right seen again.’ - - 10 - ‘Where ye find the brigs broken, - Bend your bow and swim; - Where ye find the grass growing, - Slack your bow and run. - - 11 - ‘When ye come on to Lochinvar, - Byde not to chap nor ca, - But set your bent bow to your breast - And lightly loup the wa. - - 12 - ‘Bid him mind the words he last spake, - When we sendered on the lee; - Bid him saddle and ride full fast, - If he be set for me.’ - - 13 - Where he found the brigs broken, - He bent his bow and swam; - Where he found the grass growing, - He slackt his bow and ran. - - 14 - When he came on to Lochinvar, - He did not chap nor ca; - He set his bent bow till his breast - And lightly leapt the wa. - - 15 - ‘What news? what news, my bonny boy? - What news have ye to me?’ - ‘Bad news, bad news, my lord,’ he said, - ‘Your lady awa will be. - - 16 - ‘You’r bidden mind the words ye last spake, - When we sendered on the lee; - You’r bidden saddle and ride full fast, - Gin ye set for her be.’ - - 17 - When he came to her father’s yetts, - There he alighted down; - The cups of gold of good red wine - Were going roun and roun. - - 18 - ‘Now came ye here for sport?’ they said, - ‘Or came ye here for play? - Or for a sight of our bonny bride, - And then to boun your way? ’ - - 19 - ‘I came not here for sport,’ he says, - ‘Nor came I here for play, - But if I had a sight of your bonny bride - Then I will boun my way.’ - - 20 - When Lymington he called on her, - She would not come at a’, - But Lochinvar he called on her, - And she was not sweer to draw. - - 21 - He has taen her by the milk-white hand, - And by her silken sleeve, - He has mounted her high him behind, - He spiered nae mair their leave. - 22 - And aye she scoffed and scorned them, - And aye she rode away, - And aye she gart the trumpet sound - The voice of foul play, - To take the bride frae her bridegroom - Upon her wedding-day. - - 23 - As they came in by Foudlin dyke, - And in by Foudlin stane, - There were mony gallant Englishmen - Lay gasping on the green. - - 24 - Now a’ you that are English lords, - And are in England born, - Come never here to court your brides, - For fear ye get the scorn. - - 25 - For aye they’ll scoff and scorn you, - And aye they’ll ride away; - They’ll gie you frogs instead of fish, - And call it foul play. - - * * * * * - - - L - - Macmath MS., p. 72, communicated January 13, 1883, by Dr Robert - Trotter, as remembered from the recitation of his father, Dr Robert - Trotter, of Dalry, Kirkcudbrightshire. - - 1 - They askëd him and speirëd him, - And unto him did say, - ‘O saw ye ocht o an armed band, - As ye cam on your way?’ - - 2 - He jested them and jeerëd them, - And thus to them did say, - ‘O I saw nocht but a fairy troop, - As I rode on my way.’ - - * * * * * - -#A.# - - #a.# - - _The second copy has some different spellings, and drops the - second_ the _in_ 11^1. 3, 5 _are_ 5, 3 _in both. Sense requires - the change: cf. also_ #F# 5, #H# 5, #I# 4. - - #b.# - - 1^4. to many. 3==_the MS._ 3. 4^4. All mounted. - -#B.# - - _The first copy is written in long lines (two to a stanza); - neither is divided into stanzas. There are differences of - spelling._ 3^1, 5^3, fere _seems to be meant for_ fair: _cf._ - #C# 5^3. 4^4. At her, _both: cf._ #E# 7, #G# 4, #H# 8. 5^2. - _Both copies have_ doom. 5^2, 15^4. _First_, behold, garned, _in - my copy, probably by error. Second_, beheld, gard. - - _The second copy has these variations._ 2^3. got the. 3^1, 5^3. - fere _wanting_. 15^1. thing _wanting_. 16^1. that are. - - _The first edition of the ballad in Scott’s Minstrelsy is made up - as follows (it being remembered that the editor did not profess - or practice a servile fidelity in the treatment of his - materials)_: #B# 1–6; #B# 10, #A# 7; #A# 8, #B# 11; #A# 9; #B# - 12; #B# 13 (_but mostly Scott’s_); #A# 11, #B# 14; #B# 15; #B# - 16; #A# 13. - - _12 of these 15 stanzas are repeated in the later edition; the new - stanzas in that copy are 1–5, 14–16, 20. These are - substantially_ #C# 1–5, 12–14, 16. - - _Some variations will be noticed under_ #C#. - -#C.# - - O, _the tag to the second and fourth lines, is not written in_ 2, - 4, 16^2, 17^4. - - 1^2. into _written over_ up. - - 2^4. Weel _in the margin against_ A’. - - 3^2. rest _struck out before_ lave. - - 4^1. Up _struck out before_ Out. Faughan Wood, _here and_ 7^1; - _in_ 12^1, Faughan Wood. - - 7^1. Up the then. - - 9^1. gude _struck out before_ red, _and_ red _written over_. - - 15^1. _Originally_ down by; down _struck out_. - - 15^2. _Originally_ in by; in _struck out. These last two changes, - and others, seem to be editorial._ - - _1–5, 12–14, 16, with variations, are 1–5, 14–16, 20 of the later - edition of the ballad in Scott’s Minstrelsy. Slight alterations, - such as Scott was accustomed to make, do not require notice._ - - Scott, 3^{1,2}. He told na _in the Minstrelsy: almost certainly an - arbitrary change, and not a good one, since it makes the - hardship to Lauderdale the less._ - - 4^1. Lochinvar (_also in_ 14^1) _for_ Lord Faughanwood; - _introduced from_ #D#. - - 15^2. clad in the Johnstone grey: _for which no authority is - known_. - - 16^3. Leader lads _for_ ladies gay: _probably a conjectural - emendation_. - - 20^4. For fear of sic disorder: _presumably a change for rhyme_, - disorder _suggested by_ 2^4. - -#D.# - - 9^1. 24. - - 12^1. It’s _is of later insertion, perhaps editorial._ - - 14^1. I came not here: _obscured in the process of binding_. - - 20. _This must be a mixture of two stanzas. The third line has no - sense, and is not much improved by reading_ temper good, _as in - #C# 17^1._ - -#E.# - - _Written mostly in long lines, without separation of stanzas, - sometimes without a proper separation of verses. The division - here made is partly conjectural._ - - 2^1. She courted him. - - 3^4. entreid _or_ entried: _indistinct_. - - 6, 7^{1,2}. - His father an his mother came they came a - but he came no - It was a foul play Lochinvar - As his comrades sat drinkine at the wine - - 7^3. ... on. - - 13^2. Lodged _for_ Loved. - - 16^3. Gae man glass me your. - - 17^{2,3}. - between them tva man - Man I see, _etc._ - -#F.# - - 23^1. _We have had a similar verse in the north-Scottish version - of_ ‘Hugh Spencer,’ No 158, #C# 11: O bridles brak and great - horse lap. - -#H.# - - 11^4. It was awful foul foul play. Awful _was probably a - misunderstanding of_ a foul. - -#I.# - - 8^3. Lank-a-Shires. - - 14^3. He _is written over_ And. - - 15^1. bank, _the original reading, is changed to_ heuch. - -#J.# - - 12^1. Oh. - - 15^4. go _is written over_ ride. _Motherwell made two slight - changes in his printed copy._ - -#K.# - - 1^4. my mony. - - 2^1. Loch-in-var; _and always_. - - 3^1. South sea bank. - - 7^1. the South sea bank. - - 10^3. For _for_ Where: _probably a misprint, perhaps a - preservation of the northern_ f _for_ wh. - - 13^3. the brigs broken, _wrongly repeated_. - - 16^2. When we, _preserved from_ 12^2. - - 23^3. Englishman. - -#L.# - - “The story of the ballad was that Lochinvar went to Netherby with - a band of men dressed in green, whom he concealed near the - tower, and with whose assistance he forcibly abducted the young - lady.” - - - - - 222 - - BONNY BABY LIVINGSTON - - #A.# ‘Bonny Baby Livingston.’ #a.# Jamieson-Brown MS. #b.# Jamieson’s - Popular Ballads, II, 135. - - #B.# ‘Barbara Livingston,’ Buchan’s MSS, I, 77. - - #C.# Motherwell’s MS., p. 375; ‘Barbara Livingston,’ Motherwell’s - Minstrelsy, p. 304. - - #D.# ‘Annie Livingston,’ Campbell MSS, II, 254. - - #E.# ‘Baby Livingstone,’ Kinloch MSS, V, 355. - - -Mrs Brown was not satisfied with #A b#, which Jamieson had taken down -from her mouth, and after a short time she sent him #A a#. The verbal -differences are considerable. We need not suppose that Mrs Brown had -heard two “sets” or “ways,” of which she blended the readings; the fact -seems to be that, at the time when she recited to Jamieson, she was not -in good condition to remember accurately. - -#A a.# Glenlion carries off Barbara Livingston from Dundee and takes her -to the Highlands. She is in a stupor of grief. Glenlion folds her in his -arms, and says that he would give all his flocks and herds for a kind -look. She tells him that he shall never get look or smile unless he -takes her back to Dundee; and he her that she shall never see Dundee -till he has married her. His brother John tries to dissuade him; he -himself would scorn a hand without a heart; but Glenlion has long loved -her, and is resolved to keep her, nevertheless. Glenlion’s three sisters -receive Baby kindly, and the youngest begs her to disclose the cause of -her grief. Baby tells the sympathetic Jean that she has been stolen from -her friends and from her lover, and obtains not only the means of -writing a letter to Johny Hay, the lover, but a swift-footed boy to -carry it to Dundee. Johny Hay, with a band of armed men, makes all speed -to Glenlion’s castle. He calls to Baby to jump, and he will catch her; -she, more prudently, slips down on her sheets; her lover takes her on -his horse and rides away. Glenlion hears the ring of a bridle and thinks -it is the priest come to marry him. His brother corrects the mistake; -there are armed men at the castle-gate, and it turns out that there are -enough of them to deter Glenlion’s Highlanders from an attack. So Johny -Hay conveys Baby Livingstone safely back to Dundee. - -The other versions give the story a tragical catastrophe. In #B#, -Barbara is forced into Glenlion’s bed. Afterwards she exclaims that if -she had paper and pen she would write to her lover in Dundee. No -difficulty seems to be made; she writes her letter, and sends it by the -ever-ready boy. Geordie, lying in a window, sees the boy, asks for news, -and is told that his love is stolen by Glenlion. He orders his horse, in -fact three horses, and also a mourning hat and cloak; but though he -tires out all three horses, his love is dead before he reaches Glenlion. -This copy is pieced out with all sorts of commonplaces from other -ballads: see 9 (which is nonsense), 10, 13, 14, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 29, -30. - -#C# is a briefer, that is, an unfarced, form of #B#. Glenlion is -corrupted to Linlyon. - -#D# has its commonplaces again. For Barbara we have Annie, and -Glendinning for Glenlion, and a brother Jemmy instead of a lover. In #E# -the ravisher is Lochell. - -Dr Joseph Robertson in his Adversaria, MS., p. 87, gives these two lines -of ‘Baby Livingston:’ - - O bony Baby Livingston - Was playin at the ba.[122] - -The kidnapping of women for a compulsory marriage was a practice which -prevailed for hundreds of years, and down to a late date, and, of -course, not only in Great Britain. The unprotected female, especially if -she had any property, must have been in a state of miserable insecurity, -and even a convent was far from furnishing her an asylum. See for -England, in the first half of the fifteenth century, Beamont’s Annals of -the Lords of Warrington, pp. 256–61 and 265 f.; for Scotland, in the -same century and the two following, Sharpe’s Ballad Book, p. 99 ff., R. -Chambers’s Domestic Annals of Scotland, 1858, I, 223–5, 415 f.; for -Ireland, Froude, The English in Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, 1872, -I, 417 ff. Other Scottish ballads celebrating similar abductions are -‘Eppie Morrie,’ ‘The Lady of Arngosk,’ and ‘Rob Roy,’ which immediately -follow.[123] - - -#A b# is translated by Grundtvig, Engelske og skotske Folkeviser, p. -126, No 18. - - * * * * * - - - A - - #a.# Jamieson-Brown MS., Appendix, p. xii, sent by Mrs Brown to - Jamieson, in a letter dated September 15, 1800. #b.# Jamieson’s - Popular Ballads, II, 135, as taken from Mrs Brown’s recitation a - short time before a was written down. - - 1 - O bonny Baby Livingston - Went forth to view the hay, - And by it came him Glenlion, - Sta bonny Baby away. - - 2 - O first he’s taen her silken coat, - And neest her satten gown, - Syne rowd her in a tartan plaid, - And hapd her round and rown. - - 3 - He has set her upon his steed - And roundly rode away, - And neer loot her look back again - The live-long summer’s day. - - 4 - He’s carried her oer hills and muirs - Till they came to a Highland glen, - And there he’s met his brother John, - With twenty armed men. - - 5 - O there were cows, and there were ewes, - And lasses milking there, - But Baby neer anse lookd about, - Her heart was filld wi care. - - 6 - Glenlion took her in his arms, - And kissd her, cheek and chin; - Says, I’d gie a’ these cows and ewes - But ae kind look to win. - - 7 - ‘O ae kind look ye neer shall get, - Nor win a smile frae me, - Unless to me you’ll favour shew, - And take me to Dundee.’ - - 8 - ‘Dundee, Baby? Dundee, Baby? - Dundee you neer shall see - Till I’ve carried you to Glenlion - And have my bride made thee. - - 9 - ‘We’ll stay a while at Auchingour, - And get sweet milk and cheese, - And syne we’ll gang to Glenlion, - And there live at our ease.’ - - 10 - ‘I winna stay at Auchingour, - Nor eat sweet milk and cheese, - Nor go with thee to Glenlion, - For there I’ll neer find ease.’ - - 11 - Than out it spake his brother John, - ‘O were I in your place, - I’d take that lady hame again, - For a’ her bonny face. - - 12 - ‘Commend me to the lass that’s kind, - Tho na so gently born; - And, gin her heart I coudna gain, - To take her hand I’d scorn.’ - - 13 - ‘O had your tongue now, John,’ he says, - ‘You wis na what you say; - For I’ve lood that bonny face - This twelve month and a day. - - 14 - ‘And tho I’ve lood her lang and sair - A smile I neer coud win; - Yet what I’ve got anse in my power - To keep I think nae sin.’ - - 15 - When they came to Glenlion castle, - They lighted at the yate, - And out it came his sisters three, - Wha did them kindly greet. - - 16 - O they’ve taen Baby by the hands - And led her oer the green, - And ilka lady spake a word, - But bonny Baby spake nane. - - 17 - Then out it spake her bonny Jean, - The youngest o the three, - ‘O lady, dinna look sae sad, - But tell your grief to me.’ - - 18 - ‘O wherefore should I tell my grief, - Since lax I canna find? - I’m stown frae a’ my kin and friends, - And my love I left behind. - - 19 - ‘But had I paper, pen, and ink, - Before that it were day, - I yet might get a letter sent - In time to Johny Hay.’ - - 20 - O she’s got paper, pen, and ink, - And candle that she might see, - And she has written a broad letter - To Johny at Dundee. - - 21 - And she has gotten a bonny boy, - That was baith swift and strang, - Wi philabeg and bonnet blue, - Her errand for to gang. - - 22 - ‘O boy, gin ye’d my blessing win - And help me in my need, - Run wi this letter to my love, - And bid him come wi speed. - - 23 - ‘And here’s a chain of good red gowd, - And gowdn guineas three, - And when you’ve well your errand done, - You’ll get them for your fee.’ - - 24 - The boy he ran oer hill and dale. - Fast as a bird coud flee, - And eer the sun was twa hours height - The boy was at Dundee. - - 25 - And when he came to Johny’s door - He knocked loud and sair; - Then Johny to the window came, - And loudly cry’d, ‘Wha’s there?’ - - 26 - ‘O here’s a letter I have brought, - Which ye maun quickly read, - And, gin ye woud your lady save, - Gang back wi me wi speed.’ - - 27 - O when he had the letter read, - An angry man was he; - He says, Glenlion, thou shalt rue - This deed of villany! - - 28 - ‘O saddle to me the black, the black, - O saddle to me the brown, - O saddle to me the swiftest steed - That eer rade frae the town. - - 29 - ‘And arm ye well, my merry men a’. - And follow me to the glen, - For I vow I’ll neither eat nor sleep - Till I get my love again.’ - - 30 - He’s mounted on a milk-white steed, - The boy upon a gray, - And they got to Glenlion’s castle - About the close of day. - - 31 - As Baby at her window stood, - The west wind saft did bla; - She heard her Johny’s well-kent voice - Beneath the castle wa. - - 32 - ‘O Baby, haste, the window jump! - I’ll kep you in my arm; - My merry men a’ are at the yate, - To rescue you frae harm.’ - - 33 - She to the window fixt her sheets - And slipped safely down, - And Johny catchd her in his arms, - Neer loot her touch the ground. - - 34 - When mounted on her Johny’s horse, - Fou blithely did she say, - ‘Glenlion, you hae lost your bride! - She’s aff wi Johny Hay.’ - - 35 - Glenlion and his brother John - Were birling in the ha, - When they heard Johny’s bridle ring, - As first he rade awa. - - 36 - ‘Rise, Jock, gang out and meet the priest, - I hear his bridle ring; - My Baby now shall be my wife - Before the laverocks sing.’ - - 37 - ‘O brother, this is not the priest; - I fear he’ll come oer late; - For armed men with shining brands - Stand at the castle-yate.’ - - 38 - ‘Haste Donald, Duncan, Dugald, Hugh! - Haste, take your sword and spier! - We’ll gar these traytors rue the hour - That eer they ventured here.’ - - 39 - The Highland men drew their claymores, - And gae a warlike shout, - But Johny’s merry men kept the yate, - Nae ane durst venture out. - - 40 - The lovers rade the live-lang night, - And safe gat on their way, - And bonny Baby Livingston - Has gotten Johny Hay. - - 41 - ‘Awa, Glenlion! fy for shame! - Gae hide ye in some den! - You’ve lettn your bride be stown frae you. - For a’ your armed men.’ - - * * * * * - - - B - - Buchan’s MSS, I, 77. - - 1 - Bonny Barbara Livingston - Went out to take the air, - When came the laird o Glenlyon - And staw the maiden fair. - - 2 - He staw her in her cloak, her cloak, - He staw her in her gown; - Before he let her look again, - Was mony mile frae town. - - 3 - So they rade over hills and dales, - Through m[o]ny a wilsome way, - Till they came to the head o yon hill, - And showed her ewes and kye. - - 4 - ‘O will ye stay with me, Barbara, - And get good curds and whey? - Or will ye go to Glenlyon, - And be a lady gay?’ - - 5 - ‘The Highlands is nae for me, kind sir, - The Highlands is nae for me, - But, gin ye woud my favour win, - Have me to bonny Dundee.’ - - 6 - ‘Dundee, Barbara? Dundee, Barbara? - That town ye’se never see; - I’ll hae you to a finer place - Than eer was in Dundee.’ - - 7 - But when she came to Glenlyon, - And lighted on the green, - Every lady spake Earse to her, - But Barbara could speak nane. - - 8 - When they were all at dinner set, - And placed the table round, - Every one took some of it, - But Barbara took nane. - - 9 - She put it to her cheek, her cheek, - She put it to her chin, - And put it to her rosey lips, - But neer a bit gaed in. - - 10 - When day was gone, and night was come, - And a’ man bound for bed, - Glenlyon and that fair lady - To one chamber were laid. - - 11 - ‘O strip, O strip, my love,’ he said, - ‘O strip and lay you down;’ - ‘How can I strip? How can I strip, - To bed wi an unco man?’ - - 12 - He’s taen out his little pen-knife, - And he slit down her gown, - And cut her stays behind her back, - And forc’d her to lie down. - - 13 - ‘O day, dear sir! O day, dear sir! - O dear! if it were day, - And me upon my father’s steed, - I soon shoud ride away.’ - - 14 - ‘Your father’s steed is in my stable, - Eating good corn and hay, - And ye are in my arms twa; - What needs you lang for day?’ - - 15 - ‘If I had paper, pens, and ink, - And light that I may see, - I woud write a broad, broad letter - To my love in Dundee.’ - - 16 - They brought her paper, pen, and ink, - And light that she might see, - And she has written a broad letter - To her love in Dundee. - - 17 - And aye she wrote, and aye she grat, - The saut tear blinded her ee; - And aye at every verse’s end, - ‘Haste, my bonny love, to me!’ - - 18 - ‘If I had but a little wee boy, - Would work for meat and fee, - Would go and carry this letter - To my love in Dundee!’ - - 19 - ‘O here am I, a little wee boy - Will work for meat and fee, - Will go and carry that letter - To your love in Dundee.’ - - 20 - Upstarts the morn, the boy he ran - Oer mony a hill and dale, - And he wan on to bonny Dundee - About the hour o twall. - - 21 - There Geordy oer a window lay, - Beholding dale and down; - And he beheld a little wee boy - Come running to the town. - - 22 - ‘What news? what news, my little wee boy, - You run sae hastilie?’ - ‘Your love is stown by Glenlyon, - And langs your face to see.’ - - 23 - ‘Gae saddle to me the black, the black, - Gae saddle to me the brown; - Gae saddle to me the swiftest steed - Will hae me to the town. - - 24 - ‘Get me my hat, dyed o the black, - My mourning-mantle tee, - And I will on to Glenlyon, - See my love ere she die.’ - - 25 - First he tired the black, the black, - And then he tired the brown, - And next he tired the swiftest steed - Ere he wan to the town. - - 26 - But for as fast as her love rade, - And as fast as he ran, - Before he wan to Glenlyon - His love was dead and gane. - - 27 - Then he has kissd her cheek, her cheek, - And he has kissd her chin, - And he has kissd her comely mouth, - But no life was therein. - - 28 - ‘O wae mat worth you, Glenlyon, - An ill death mat ye die! - Ye’ve twind me and the fairest flower - My eyes did ever see. - - 29 - ‘But I will kiss your cheek, Barbara, - And I will kiss your chin, - And I will kiss your comely mouth, - But neer woman’s again. - - 30 - ‘Deal well, deal well at my love’s lyke - The beer but and the wine, - For ere the morn at this same time - Ye’ll deal the same at mine.’ - - * * * * * - - - C - - Motherwell’s MS., p. 375, from the recitation of Agnes Lyle of - Kilbarchan. - - 1 - Four-and-twenty ladies fair - Was playing at the ba, - And out cam Barbra Livingston, - The flower amang them a’. - - 2 - Out cam Barbra Livingston, - The flower amang them a’; - The lusty laird of Linlyon - Has stown her clean awa. - - 3 - ‘The Hielands is no for me, kind sir, - The Hielands is no for me; - But, if you wud my favour win, - You’ll tak me to Dundee.’ - - 4 - ‘The Hielands’ll be for thee, my dear, - The Hielands will be for thee; - To the lusty laird o Linlyon - A-married ye shall be.’ - - 5 - When they came to Linlyon’s yetts, - And lichted on the green, - Every ane spak Earse to her, - The tears cam trinkling down. - - 6 - When they went to bed at nicht, - To Linlyon she did say, - ‘Och and alace, a weary nicht! - Oh, but it’s lang till day!’ - - 7 - ‘Your father’s steed in my stable, - He’s eating corn and hay, - And you’re lying in my twa arms; - What need you long for day?’ - - 8 - ‘If I had paper, pen, and ink, - And candle for to see, - I wud write a lang letter - To my love in Dundee.’ - - 9 - They brocht her paper, pen, and ink, - And candle for to see, - And she did write a lang letter - To her love in Dundee. - - 10 - When he cam to Linlyon’s yetts, - And lichtit on the green, - But lang or he wan up the stair - His love was dead and gane. - - 11 - ‘Woe be to thee, Linlyon, - An ill death may thou die! - Thou micht hae taen anither woman, - And let my lady be.’ - - * * * * * - - - D - - Campbell MSS, II, 254. - - 1 - Bonnie Annie Livingstone - Was walking out the way, - By came the laird of Glendinning, - And he’s stolen her away. - The Highlands are no for me, kind sir, - The Highlands are no for me, - And, if you wad my favour win, - You’d take me to Dundee. - - 2 - He mounted her on a milk-white steed, - Himself upon a grey, - He’s taen her to the Highland hills, - And stolen her quite away. - - 3 - When they came to Glendinning gate, - They lighted on the green; - There many a Highland lord spoke free, - But fair Annie she spake nane. - - 4 - When bells were rung, and mass begun, - And a’ men bound for bed, - Bonnie Annie Livingstone - Was in her chamber laid. - - 5 - ‘O gin it were but day, kind sir! - O gin it were but day! - O gin it were but day, kind sir, - That I might win away!’ - - 6 - ‘Your steed stands in the stall, bonnie Ann, - Eating corn and hay, - And you are in Glendinning’s arms; - What need ye long for day?’ - - 7 - ‘O fetch me paper, pen, and ink, - A candle that I may see, - And I will write a long letter - To Jemmy at Dundee.’ - - 8 - When Jemmie looked the letter on, - A loud laughter gave he; - But eer he read the letter oer - The tear blinded his ee. - - 9 - ‘Gar saddle,’ he cried, ‘my war-horse fierce, - Warn a’ my trusty clan, - And I’ll away to Glendinning Castle - And see my sister Ann.’ - - 10 - When he came to Glendinning yet, - He lighted on the green, - But ere that he wan up the stair - Fair Annie she was gane. - - 11 - ‘The Highlands were not for thee, bonnie Ann, - The Highlands were not for thee, - And they that would have thy favour won - Should have brought you home to me. - - 12 - ‘O I will kiss thy cherry cheeks, - And I will kiss thy chin, - And I will kiss thy rosy lips, - For they will neer kiss mine.’ - - * * * * * - - - E - - Kinloch MSS, V, 355, in the handwriting of John Hill Burton. - - 1 - Bonny Baby Livingstone - Went out to view the hay, - And by there came a Hieland lord, - And he’s stown Baby away. - - 2 - He’s stown her in her coat, her coat, - And he’s stown her in her gown, - And he let not her look back again - Ere she was many a mile from town. - - 3 - He set her on a milk-white steed, - Himself upon another, - And they are on to bonny Lochell, - Like sister and like brother. - - 4 - The bells were rung, the mass was sung, - And all men bound to bed, - And Baby and her Hieland lord - They were both in one chamber laid. - - 5 - ‘Oh day, kind sir! Oh day, kind sir! - Oh day fain would I see! - I would gie a’ the lands o Livingstone - For day-light, to lat me see.’ - - 6 - ‘Oh day, Baby? Oh day, Baby? - What needs you long for day? - Your steed is in a good stable, - And he’s eating baith corn and hay. - - 7 - ‘Oh day, Baby? Oh day, Baby? - What needs you long for day? - You’r lying in a good knight’s arms, - What needs you long for day?’ - - 8 - ‘Ye’ll get me paper, pen, and ink, - And light to let me see, - Till I write on a broad letter - And send ‘t to Lord ...’ - - - - * * * * * - -#A.# - - “On the other page you will find the whole ballad of Bonny Baby - Livingston. I found upon recollection that I had the whole story - in my memory, and thought it better to write it out entire, as - what I repeated to you was, I think, more imperfect.” _Mrs - Brown, MS., Appendix, p. xv._ - -#a.# - - 35^4. first _may be_ fast, _as in_ #b#. - -#b.# - - 1^2. gaed out. - - 2^1. And first. - - 2^3. in his. - - 3^1. He’s mounted her upon a. - - 4^1. oer yon hich hich hill. - - 4^2. Intill #a.# - - 4^3. He met. - - 5^1. And there. - - 5^2. And there were kids sae fair. - - 5^3. But sad and wae was bonny Baby. - - 5^4. was fu o. - - 6^1. He’s taen her in his arms twa. - - 6^3. I wad gie a’ my flocks and herds. - - 6^4. Ae smile frae thee to. - - 7. - A smile frae me ye’se never win, - I’ll neer look kind on thee; - Ye’ve stown me awa frae a’ my kin, - Frae a’ that’s dear to me. - - Dundee, kind sir, Dundee, kind sir, - Tak me to bonny Dundee! - For ye sall neer my favour win - Till it ance mair I see. - - 8^3. But I will carry you. - - 8^4. Where you my bride shall be. - - 9^1. Or will ye stay at. - - 9^2. And get. - - 9^3. Or gang wi me to. - - 9^4. we’ll live. - - 10^2. I care neither for milk nor. - - 10^3. gang. - - 11^2. If I were in. - - 11^3. I’d send. - - 12^3. coudna win. - - 13^1. tongue, my brother John. - - 13^3. I hae. - - 13^4. This mony a year and day. - - 14^1. I’ve lued her lang and lued her weel. - - 14^2. But her love I. - - 14^3. And what I canna fairly gain. - - 14^4. To steal. - - 15^3. they cam, his three sisters. - - 15^4. Their brother for to greet. - - 16^1. And they have taen her bonny Baby. - - 17^3. why look ye sae. - - 17^4. Come tell. - - 18^3. I’m far frae. - - 19^2. Afore. - - 19^3. letter wrate. - - 19^4. And sent to. - - _After 19_: - - And gin I had a bonny boy - To help me in my need, - That he might rin to bonny Dundee, - And come again wi speed. - - 20. _Wanting._ - - 21^1. And they hae. - - 21^2. Their errand for to gang. - - 21^3. And bade him run to bonny Dundee. - - 21^4. And nae to tarry lang. - - 22, 23. _Wanting._ - - 24^1. oer muir. - - 24^2. As fast as he. - - 25, 26. _Wanting._ - - 27. - Whan Johnie lookit the letter on, - A hearty laugh leuch he; - But ere he read it till an end - The tear blinded his ee. - - O wha is this, or what is that, - Has stown my love frae me? - Although he were my ae brither, - An ill dead sall he die. - - 28^1. Gae saddle to me the black, he says. - - 28^{2,3}. Gae. - - 29^1. He’s called upon his merry. - - 29^2. To follow him to. - - 29^3. And he’s vowd he’d neither. - - 29^4. he got his. 30^1. him on. - - 30^2. And fast he rade away. - - 30^3. And he’s come to Glenlyon’s yett. - - 31^2. And the. - - 31^4. Aneath. - - 32^1. window loup. - - 34. _Wanting._ - - 35^4. As fast. - - 36^4. laverock. - - 37^1. nae the. - -#B.# - - 3^4. ewes. _Indistinctly written._ - - 5^2. fore. - - - - - 223 - - EPPIE MORRIE - - ‘Eppie Morrie,’ Maidment’s North Countrie Garland, p. 40, 18 - - -“This ballad,” says Maidment, “is probably much more than a century old, -though the circumstances which have given rise to it were unfortunately -too common to preclude the possibility of its being of a later date.” He -does not tell us where the ballad came from, and no other editor seems -to know of it. Two stanzas, 10, 11, occur in a copy of ‘Rob Roy’ (No -225, #J#) which had once been in Maidment’s hands, and perhaps was -obtained from the same region. - -Four-and-twenty Highlanders, the leader of whom is one Willie, come to -Strathdon from Carrie (Carvie?) side to steal away Eppie Morrie, who has -refused to marry Willie. They tie her on a horse and take her to a -minister, whom Willie, putting a pistol to his breast, orders to marry -them. The minister will not consent unless Eppie is willing, and she -strenuously refuses; so they take her to Carrie side and put her to bed. -She defends herself successfully, and in the morning comes in her lover, -Belbordlane, or John Forsyth, well armed, and we presume well supported, -who carries her back to her mother, to be his bride. - -Scott, Introduction to Rob Roy, Appendix, No V, cites two stanzas of a -ballad derived from tradition which, if we had the whole, might possibly -turn out to be the same story with different names. - - Four-and-twenty Hieland men - Came doun by Fiddoch side, - And they have sworn a deadly aith - Jean Muir suld be a bride. - - And they have sworn a deadly aith, - Ilke man upon his durke, - That she should wed with Duncan Ger, - Or they’d make bloody worke. - - * * * * * - - 1 - Four-and-twenty Highland men - Came a’ from Carrie side - To steal awa Eppie Morrie, - Cause she would not be a bride. - - 2 - Out it’s came her mother, - It was a moonlight night, - She could not see her daughter, - Their swords they shin’d so bright. - - 3 - ‘Haud far awa frae me, mother, - Haud far awa frae me; - There’s not a man in a’ Strathdon - Shall wedded be with me.’ - - 4 - They have taken Eppie Morrie, - And horse back bound her on, - And then awa to the minister, - As fast as horse could gang. - - 5 - He’s taken out a pistol, - And set it to the minister’s breast: - ‘Marry me, marry me, minister, - Or else I’ll be your priest.’ - - 6 - ‘Haud far awa frae me, good sir, - Haud far awa frae me; - For there’s not a man in all Strathdon - That shall married be with me.’ - - 7 - ‘Haud far awa frae me, Willie, - Haud far awa frae me; - For I darna avow to marry you, - Except she’s as willing as ye.’ - - 8 - They have taken Eppie Morrie, - Since better could nae be, - And they’re awa to Carrie side, - As fast as horse could flee. - - 9 - When mass was sung, and bells were rung, - And all were bound for bed, - Then Willie an Eppie Morrie - In one bed they were laid. - - 10 - ‘Haud far awa frae me, Willie, - Haud far awa frae me; - Before I’ll lose my maidenhead, - I’ll try my strength with thee.’ - - 11 - She took the cap from off her head - And threw it to the way; - Said, Ere I lose my maidenhead, - I’ll fight with you till day. - - 12 - Then early in the morning, - Before her clothes were on, - In came the maiden of Scalletter, - Gown and shirt alone. - - 13 - ‘Get up, get up, young woman, - And drink the wine wi me;’ - ‘You might have called me maiden, - I’m sure as leal as thee.’ - - 14 - ‘Wally fa you, Willie, - That ye could nae prove a man - And taen the lassie’s maidenhead! - She would have hired your han.’ - - 15 - ‘Haud far awa frae me, lady, - Haud far awa frae me; - There’s not a man in a’ Strathdon - The day shall wed wi me.’ - - 16 - Soon in there came Belbordlane, - With a pistol on every side: - ‘Come awa hame, Eppie Morrie, - And there you’ll be my bride.’ - - 17 - ‘Go get to me a horse, Willie, - And get it like a man, - And send me back to my mother - A maiden as I cam. - - 18 - ‘The sun shines oer the westlin hills; - By the light lamp of the moon, - Just saddle your horse, young John Forsyth, - And whistle, and I’ll come soon.’ - - * * * * * - - 5^1. pistol, and. - - 5^2. Set. - - 16^1. their. - - - - - 224 - - THE LADY OF ARNGOSK - - Sharpe’s Ballad Book, 1823, p. 99. - - -“The following fragment,” says Sharpe in his preface (he had not then -recovered the second stanza), “I cannot illustrate either from history -or tradition.” Very soon after the publication of the Ballad Book, full -particulars of the carrying off of the Lady of Arngosk were procured for -him by David Webster, the bookseller. Webster addressed himself to Mrs -Isobell Dow, otherwise Mrs Mac Leish, of Newburgh, Fife, whose mother, -he had learned, was waiting-maid to the lady at the time of the rape. -“In my very early years,” he wrote, July 4, 1823, “I have listened with -great delight to my mother when she sung me a song the first stanza of -which was this: - - The Highlandmen are a’ cum down, - They’re a’ cum down almost, - They’ve stowen awa the bonny lass, - The lady of Arngosk. - -“Now Miss Finlay informs me that Isobel Stewart, your mother, was -waiting-maid to the ‘bonny lass’ at the time she was ‘stowen awa,’ and -that you are the most likely person now alive who will be able to -recollect the song, or the particulars that gave rise to it. My reason -for requesting this favour from a lady I have not the pleasure to know -is, some gentlemen, my acquaintance, are making a collection of old -Scots songs, which is printing, and they are anxious to have it as full -as possible. We therefore wish a copy of the song entire, if you can -recollect it, and the name of the lady who was the ‘bonny lass,’” etc. -Mrs Dow replied, July 8, through John Masterton, that she was “sorrow” -to say that she could not recollect more of the song than Webster was -already in possession of, but the story she could never forget, having -heard her mother repeat it so often: and this story Masterton proceeds -to give in Mrs Dow’s own words. Although Mrs Dow was liberal of details, -Webster seems to have wanted to hear more, and accordingly Masterton -writes at greater length July 30, repeating what had been said before, -with “some particular incidents” omitted in the former letter, but -nothing very material except that Miss Gibb was rich, and that Isobell -Dow had “brought to her recolection another verse of the song” (st. 2). -The earlier letter even is somewhat out of proportion to so meagre a -relic of verse, an intolerable deal of bread to a half-penny worth of -sack; but it is very readable, and has some value as a chapter from -domestic life in Scotland in the first half of the last century.[124] - - NEWBURGH, _8 July, 1823_. - - DEAR SIR. I am directed by Isobell Dow to acknowledge the receipt of - your letter, and to write you an answer to your request respecting - the stealing awa the Lady of Arngosk. She is sorrow to say she - cannot recolect any more of the song than what you are in possession - off already. As for the truth of the story, she can never forget, - having heard her mother repeat it so often. I will therefore give - you it in her own words. - - Yours, &c., - - JN MASTERSON. - - My mother was waiting-maid to the Lady of Arngask, whose name was - Miss Margret Gibb, at which time two gentlemen paid addresses to - her; the one a Mr Jamieson, a writer in Strathmiglo, the other a Mr - Graham, of Bracko Castle, who was the subject of the story; but his - love did not meet with a return suitable to his wishes; he therefore - came to the strong resolution of taking her away by force. It will - be proper to mention that he came two nights previous, when my - mother was in the barn dighting corn, and accosted her thus: Tiby, I - want to see Margret. She answerd: I doubt, Mr Graham, you canna see - her the night, but I’ll gang an tell her. She went and was orderd to - tell him that he could not see her; which put him in such a frenzy - that he ran up and down the barn through chaff and corn up to the - middle; however, he forced in to her company, but what passed - betwixt them my mother did not know. But on the second night after, - at midnight, when in bed (my mother alway sleeping with Miss - Gibb),[125] a very sharp knock was heard at the door, which alarmd - them very much, it being a lonely place. My mother went and called, - who was there; she was answered, Open the door, Tiby, and see. She - said: Keep me! Mr Graham, what way are you here at this time? Ye - canna won in the night. She drew the bar, and was almost frighted - out of her sences by the appearance of above thirty Hillandmen on - horseback, all armed with swords and dirks, &c. She atempted to shut - the door again, but Mr Graham pressed his knee in and forced his - way. He went ben, and ordered them to put on their clothes an go - along with him. Miss Gibb insisted on stoping ere daylight, and she - would go with good will; but he would admit of no delay, but ordered - her to dress herself imediately, otherwise he would do it by force. - She then said she would not go unless Tiby acompanied her, which he - said he intended to propose had she not mentioned it; but my mother - would not go, she said, to ride behind none of these Hillandmen. Mr - Graham then proposed to take her behind himself. They did then all - mount; he at the same time used the precaution of placing sentries - on the houses where the other servants lodged, to prevent them - giving the alarm, and also three stout men at the bell of the - church, to prevent it being rung. They kept their posts till they - thought them a sufficient distance on the way, Mr Graham always - joking to my mother about something or other, asuring her so soon as - he had all over he would make her happy and comfortable all the days - of her life. They rode on over hill and dale till within sight of - Bracko Castle, when all of a sudden the Hillanmen dispersed, or - deserted them, excepting his own imediate servants; which my mother - thought was because he had deceived them, saying that the lady was - willing to marry him but her friends would not alow, which by this - time they must have found out. He told my mother that a minister was - waiting them at Bracko, but he must have been disappointed, for the - minister never appeared; else, she always thought, they would been - married. Report said that Mr Jamieson had so contrived to stop his - arrival. My mother and Miss Margret were then secured in an uper - room in the castle till the next day, when there appeared mostly all - the men of the parishes of Arngask and Strathmiglo, demanding their - lady; my father among the rest, demanding my mother as his intended - wife. It seemed so soon as the Hillan sentries were gone from the - houses and church-bell of Arngask, that the servants ran to the - bell, and rang such a peal as made all the Ochles resound wi the sad - news that their lady was stowen awa by Graham an his clan. Mr - Jamieson was no less busy in alarming and rousing the indignation of - the good folk of Strathmiglo, who were much atached to her interest, - so that both parishes rose to a man, and armed themselves with - whatever came in the way, and marched in a body to make an attack on - the castle, and rescue their much esteemed lady. But on their making - their appearance before the castle in such formidable array, Mr - Graham thought it prudent to surender rather than sustain the attack - of such a body of desperate men. Mr Graham conducted them down - stairs with his cap in hand (the gentlemen in those days wore velvet - caps), and addressed her thus: I shall see you on your horse, - Margret, for a’ the ill you’ve done me, and bade her a long and - lasting farewell; at which she stamped with her foot and recommended - him to the devil. They all came home in safety, and the bells, that - so lately rang to alarm and spread the dismal news, were again rung - to proclaim the happy return of the lady that was stowen awa. - Bonefires were also erected on the highest of the Ochles. She was - married that same year to Mr Jamieson, and I suppose some of their - children are alive to this day. It was generaly reported that Mr - Graham was so much affronted at the dissapointment that he left the - country soon after. - - Such, sir, is the story that gave rise to the song you are so much - in request off, which I have gathered from Isobell Dow, and put in - order according to my weak capacity, knowing it will fall into - better and abler hands, and that, altho the song be a wanting, there - is ample mater for composition. - - I remain your most Obed^t H^{le} Serv^t, - - JOHN MASTERTON, for ISOBELL DOW. - - P. S. I had almost forgot to mention as to the period of time when - it happened, which cannot be less than 87 years, which Isobell makes - out in the following maner; it being two years before her father and - mother was married, and that they lived together fifty-one years, it - being now thirty-four years since her mother died, which makes it to - have been about the year 1736. - - J. M. - - * * * * * - - 1 - The Highlandmen hae a’ come down, - They’ve a’ come down almost, - They’ve stowen away the bonny lass, - The Lady of Arngosk. - - 2 - They hae put on her petticoat, - Likewise her silken gown; - The Highland man he drew his sword, - Said, Follow me ye’s come. - - 3 - Behind her back they’ve tied her hands, - An then they set her on; - ‘I winna gang wi you,’ she said, - ‘Nor ony Highland loon.’ - - - - - 225 - - ROB ROY - - #A.# Skene MS., p. 44. - - #B.# ‘Rob Roy,’ Kinloch MSS, I, 343. - - #C.# ‘Rob Roy MacGregor,’ Motherwell’s MS., p. 93. - - #D.# ‘Rob Roy,’ “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No - 147, Abbotsford. - - #E.# ‘Rob Roy,’ Pitcairn’s MSS, III, 41. - - #F.# ‘Rob Roy,’ Campbell MSS, II, 229. - - #G.# ‘Rob Roy,’ Cromek’s Select Scotish Songs, 1810, II, 199. - - #H.# Sir Walter Scott’s Introduction to “Rob Roy,” Appendix, No V. - - #I.# ‘Rob Roy,’ Campbell’s MSS, II, 58. - - #J.# ‘Rob Oig,’ A Garland of Old Historical Ballads, p. 10, Aungervyle - Society, 1881. - - #K.# ‘Rob Roy,’ Laing’s Thistle of Scotland, p. 93. - - -The hero of this ballad was the youngest of the five sons of the Rob Roy -who has been immortalized by Sir Walter Scott, and was known as Robert -Oig, young, or junior. When a mere boy (only twelve years old, it is -said) he shot a man mortally whom he considered to have intruded on his -mother’s land, and for not appearing to underlie the law for this murder -he was outlawed in 1736. He had fled to the continent, and there he -enlisted in the British army, and was wounded and made prisoner at -Fontenoy in 1745. He was exchanged, returned to Scotland and obtained a -discharge from service, and, though still under ban, was able to effect -a marriage with a woman of respectable family. She lived but a few -years, and after her death, whether spontaneously or under the influence -of his brother James, a man of extraordinary hardihood, Rob Oig formed a -plan of bettering his own fortune, and incidentally that of his kin, by -a marriage of the Sabine fashion with a woman of means. The person -selected was Jean Key, who had been two months the widow of John Wright. -She was but nineteen years of age, and was living with her mother at -Edinbelly, in Stirlingshire, and her property is said to have been, not -the twenty thousand pounds of some of the ballads, but some sixteen or -eighteen thousand marks. - -On the night of December 8, 1750, Rob Oig, accompanied by his brothers -James and Duncan and others, first placing guards at the door and -windows, to prevent escape from within and help from without, entered -the house of Jean Key, and not finding her, because she had taken alarm -and hidden herself in a closet, obliged the mother to produce her -daughter, under threats “to murder every person in the family, or to -burn the house and every person in it alive.” Jean Key, on being brought -out, was told by James MacGregor that the party had come to marry her to -Robert, his brother.” Upon her desiring to be allowed till next morning, -or some few hours, to deliberate upon the answer she was to give to so -unexpected and sudden a proposal as a marriage betwixt her, then not two -months a widow, and a man with whom she had no manner of acquaintance,” -after some little expostulation, they laid hands upon her, dragged her -out of doors, tied her on the back of a horse, and carried her first to -a house at Buchanan, six miles from Edinbelly, thence to Rowerdennan, -“thence, by water, to some part of the Highlands about the upper part of -Loch Lomond, out of the reach of her friends and relations, where she -was detained in captivity and carried from place to place for upwards of -three months.” At Rowerdennan, or further north, a priest read the -marriage-service while the resolute James held up the young woman before -him, and declared Rob Oig and her to be man and wife. - -The rest of the story does not come into the ballad, but it may be added -that both the military and the civil power took the matter in hand; that -the MacGregors found it necessary to release their captive (who died, -but not of the violence she had undergone, ten months after she was -taken away); that James MacGregor was brought to trial in July, 1752, -for hamesucken (invasion of a private house), forcible abduction of a -woman, and constraining her to a marriage, was convicted of a part of -the charge but not of the last count, and while the court had the -verdict under consideration made his escape from Edinburgh castle; that -Rob Oig was apprehended the following year, tried and condemned to -death, and was executed in February, 1754.[126] - -We may easily believe that, as Scott says, the imagination of -half-civilized Highlanders was not much shocked at the idea of winning a -wife in a violent way. It had been common, and they may naturally have -wondered why it should seem so particular in their instance. It is -certain that Jean Key did not receive the sympathy of all of her own -sex. A lady of much celebrity has told us that it is safest in matrimony -to begin with a little aversion, and there were those in Jean Key’s day, -and after, who thought it mere silliness to make a coil about a little -compulsion. “It is not a great many years,” Sir Walter Scott testifies, -“since a respectable woman, above the lower rank of life, expressed -herself very warmly to the author on his taking the freedom to censure -the behaviour of the MacGregors on the occasion in question. She said, -‘that there was no use in giving a bride too much choice upon such -occasions; that the marriages were happiest lang syne which had been -done off hand.’ Finally, she averred that her ‘own mother had never seen -her father till the night he brought her up from the Lennox with ten -head of black cattle, and there had not been a happier couple in the -country.’” - -The ballad adheres to fact rather closely; indeed a reasonably good -“dittay” could be made out of it. The halt at Buchanan is mentioned #B# -8, #C# 10, #K# 14; the road would be through Drymen, as in #C# 10, #K# -13; and Balmaha, #H# 2, is a little beyond Buchanan. Ballyshine is -substituted for Buchanan in #E# 6, #J# 4. At Buchanan, or Ballyshine -(‘as they came in by Drimmen town, and in by Edingarry,’ #K# 13), a -cloak and gown are bought (fetched) for the young woman to be married -in, #B# 8, #C# 10, #F# 4. It is a cotton gown, #E# 6, coat and gown, #A# -8; in cotton gown she is married, #J# 4; meaning probably that she was -married in a night-gown, having been roused from her bed. It is at -Buchanan, or Ballyshine, that she is married. Four held her up to the -priest, #A#, #C#, #F# (two, #D#, #I#, #K#, three, #E#, #J#, six, #B#), -four laid her in bed, #A#, #B#, #E#, #F#, #I#, #J#, #K# (two, #C#, #D#). - -Rob Roy is said to come from Drunkie (the home of his first wife), #J# -1; to come over the Loch of Lynn, #G# 2. Jean Key’s abode seems to be -called White House (Wright?) in #A# 2, but Blackhills, #C# 2, and in #K# -2 Jean Key is called Blackhill’s daughter. Blackhill is apparently a -corruption of Mitchell, Jean’s mother’s maiden name. The mother is -called Jean Mitchell in #J# 2. - -In #A# 8, Rob Roy’s party are wrongly said to tarry at Stirling. In #J# -2, Glengyle is said to go with him to steal Jean Mitchell’s daughter. -Glengyle, Rob Oig’s cousin, and chief of his immediate family was, for a -MacGregor, an orderly man,[127] and did not countenance the proceeding. -#J# 6, 7 belong to the ballad of ‘Eppie Morrie,’ No 223. - -Rob Oig puts Jean Key’s fortune at £20,000, #A# 13, #C# 19; 50,000 -merks, #D# 14; 30,000, #K# 23; 20,000, which was not very far from -right, #E# 10. The reading in #B# 15 is a manifest corruption of thirty -thousand merks. - -Old Rob Roy is in several copies spoken of as still alive. Though the -time both of his birth and death is not accurately known, this was -certainly not the case. - - -#H# is translated by Fiedler, Geschichte der schottischen -Liederdichtung, I, 52. - - * * * * * - - - A - - Skene MS., p. 44; from recitation in the north of Scotland, 1802–3. - - 1 - Rob Roy, frae the high Highlands, - Came to the Lawlan border; - It was to steel a lady away, - To keep his Highland house in order. - - 2 - As he came in by White House, - He sent nae ane before him; - She wad hae secured the house, - For she did ay abhor him. - - 3 - Twenty men surrount the house, an twenty they went in, - They found her wi her mither; - Wi sighs an cries an watery eyes - They parted frae ane anither. - - 4 - ‘O will ye be my dear?’ he says, - ‘Or will ye be my honnie? - O will ye be my wedded wife? - I lee you best of ony.’ - - 5 - ‘I winna be your dear,’ [she says,] - ‘Nor will I be your honnie, - Nor will I be your wedded wife; - Ye lee me for my money.’ - - 6 - . . . . by the way, - This lady aftimes fainted; - Says, Woe be to my cursed gold, - This road for me’s invented! - - 7 - He gave her no time for to dress - Like ladies when they’re ridin, - But set her on hie horseback, - Himsel was ay beside her. - - 8 - Whan they came to the Black House, - And at Stirling tarried, - There he bought her coat an gown, - But she would not [be] married. - - 9 - Four men held her to the priest, - An four they did her bed, - Wi sighs an cries an watery eyes - Whan she by him was laid. - - 10 - ‘Be content, be content, - Be content wi me, lady; - Now ye are my wedded wife - Untill the day ye die, lady. - - 11 - ‘My father was a Highlan laird, - McGrigor was his name, lady; - A’ the country roun about - They dreadit his great fame, lady. - - 12 - ‘He kept a hedge about his lands, - A prickle to his foes, lady, - An every ane that did him wrang, - He took him by the nose, lady. - - 13 - ‘My father he delights in nout and goats, - An me in horse and sheep, lady; - You an twenty thousan pounds - Makes me a man complete, lady. - - 14 - ‘You’re welcome to this Highlan lan, - It is my native plain, lady; - Think nae mair of gauin back, - But tak it for your hame, lady. - - 15 - ‘I’m gauin, [I’m gauin,] - I’m gauin to France, lady; - Whan I come back - I’ll learn ye a dance, lady. - - 16 - ‘Set your foot, [set your foot,] - Set your foot to mine, lady; - Think nae mair of gauin back, - But tak it for your hame, lady.’ - - * * * * * - - - B - - Kinloch MSS, I, 343. - - 1 - Rob Roy frae the Hielands cam - Unto the Lawland border, - And he has stown a ladie fair, - To hand his house in order. - - 2 - He guarded the house round about, - Himsel went in and found her out, - She hung close by her mither; - Wi dolefu cries and watery eyes - They parted frae each ither. - - 3 - ‘Gang wi me, my dear,’ he says, - ‘Gang and be my honey; - Gang and be my wedded wife, - I loe ye best o onie.’ - - 4 - ‘I winna gang wi you,’ she says, - ‘I winna be your honey; - I winna be your wedded wife; - Ye loe me for my money.’ - - 5 - He gied na her na time to dress - As ladies whan they’re brides, - But hurried her awa wi speed, - And rowd her in his plaids. - - 6 - He gat her up upon a horse, - Himsel lap on ahind her; - And they’re awa to the Hieland hills; - Her friends they canna find her. - - 7 - As they gaed oure the Hieland hills, - This lady aften fainted, - Saying, Wae be to my cursed gowd, - This road to me invented! - - 8 - As they gaed oure the Hieland hills, - And at Buchanan tarried, - He bought to her baith cloak and goun, - Yet she wadna be married. - - 9 - Six held her up afore the priest, - Four laid her in a bed, O; - Maist mournfully she wept and cried - Whan she bye him was laid, O. - - 10 - ‘O be content, be content, - Be content to stay, ladie; - For now ye are my wedded wife - Unto your dying day, ladie. - - 11 - ‘Rob Roy was my father calld, - M’Gregor was his name, ladie; - And in a’ the country whare he dwalt - He exceeded ae in fame, ladie. - - 12 - ‘He was a hedge unto his friends, - A heckle to his faes, ladie; - And ilka ane that did him wrang, - He beat him on the neis, ladie. - - 13 - ‘I’m as bold, I am as bold - As my father was afore, ladie; - Ilka ane that does me wrang - Sall feel my gude claymore, ladie. - - 14 - ‘There neer was frae Lochlomond west - That eer I did him fear, ladie; - For, if his person did escape, - I seizd upon his gear, ladie. - - 15 - ‘My father delights in horse and kye, - In sheep and goats and a’, ladie, - And thee wi me and thirty merks - Will mak me a man fu braw, ladie. - - 16 - ‘I hae been in foreign lands, - And servd the king o France, ladie; - We will get the bagpipes, - And we’ll hae a dance, ladie.’ - - * * * * * - - - C - - Motherwell’s MS., p. 93. - - 1 - Rob Roy’s from the Hielands come - Unto our Lowland border, - And he has stolen a lady away, - To keep his house in order. - - 2 - Rob Roy’s come to Blackhill’s gate, - Twenty men his arms did carry, - And he has stolen a lady away, - On purpose her to marry. - - 3 - None knew till he surrounded the house, - No tidings came before him, - Or else she had been gone away, - For she did still abhor him. - - 4 - All doors and windows guarded were, - None could the plot discover; - Himself went in and found her out, - Professing how he loved her. - - 5 - ‘Come go with me, my dear,’ he said, - ‘Come go with me, my honey, - And you shall be my wedded wife, - I love you best of onie.’ - - 6 - ‘I will not go with you,’ she said, - ‘Nor will I be your honey; - I neer shall be your wedded wife, - You love me for my money.’ - - 7 - But he her drew amongst his crew, - She holding by her mother; - With mournful cries and watery eyes - They parted from each other. - - 8 - No time they gave her to be dressed - As ladies when they’re brides, O, - But hurried her away in haste; - They rowed her in their plaids, O. - - 9 - As they went over hills and rocks, - The lady often fainted; - Says, Wae may it be, my cursed money, - This road to me invented! - - 10 - They passed away by Drymen town, - And at Buchanan tarried; - They bought to her a cloak and gown, - Yet she would not be married. - - 11 - But without consent they joined their hands; - By law ought not to carry; - The priest his zeal it was so hot - On her will he would not tarry. - - 12 - Four held her up before the priest, - Two laid her in the bed, O; - Och, mournfully she weeped and cried - When she by him was laid, O. - - 13 - ‘Now you’re come to the Highland hills, - Out of your native clime, lady, - Never think of going back, - But take this for your hame, lady. - - 14 - ‘Be content, be content, - Be content to stay, lady; - Now ye are my wedded wife - Unto your dying day, lady. - - 15 - ‘O Rob Roy was my father called, - But McGregor was his name, lady; - In all the country far and near - None did exceed his fame, lady. - - 16 - ‘I’m as bold, I’m as bold, - I’m as bold as he, lady; - In France and Ireland I’ll dance and fight, - And from them take the gree, lady. - - 17 - ‘He was a hedge about his friends, - But a heckle to his faes, lady, - And every one that did him wrong, - He took them owre the nose, lady. - - 18 - ‘I’m as bold, I’m as bold, - I’m as bold, and more, lady; - Every one that does me wrong - Shall feel my good claymore, lady. - - 19 - ‘My father he has stots and ewes, - And he has goats and sheep, lady, - But you and twenty thousand punds - Makes me a man complete, lady.’ - - * * * * * - - - D - - “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 147, - Abbotsford; in a handwriting of the early part of this century. - - 1 - Rob Roy from the Highlands came - Unto the Lowland border; - It was to steal a ladie away, - To keep his house in order. - - 2 - He gae her nae time to dress herself - Like a lady that was to be married, - But he hoisd her out among his crew, - And rowd her in his plaidie. - - 3 - ‘Will ye go wi me, my dear?’ he says, - ‘Will ye go wi me, my honey? - Will ye go wi me, my dear?’ he says, - ‘For I love you best of ony.’ - - 4 - ‘I winna be your dear,’ she says, - ‘Nor I’ll never be your honey; - I’ll never be your wedded wife, - For you love me but for my money.’ - - 5 - He hoisd her out among his crew, - She holding by her mother; - Wi watry eyes and mournfu cries - They parted from each other. - - 6 - As they gaed oer yon high hill, - The ladie often fainted; - ‘Oh, wae be to my gold,’ she said, - ‘This road for me invented!’ - - 7 - Two held her up before the priest, - And two put her to bed, - Wi mournful cries and watry eyes - As she lay by his side. - - 8 - ‘Be content, be content, - Be content wi me, ladie, - For now you are my wedded wife - Until the day ye die, ladie. - - 9 - ‘Rob Roy was my father calld, - McGrigor was his name, ladie, - And a’ the country round about - Has heard of Roy’s fame, ladie. - - 10 - ‘You do not think yourself a match - For such a one as I, ladie; - But I been east and I been west, - And saird the king of France, ladie. - - 11 - ‘And now we hear the bag-pipe play, - And we maun hae a dance, ladie, - And a’ the country round about - Has heard of Roy’s fame, ladie. - - 12 - ‘Shake your foot, shake your foot, - Shake your foot wi me, ladie, - For now you are my wedded bride - Until the day ye die, ladie. - - 13 - ‘My father dealt in cows and ewes, - Likewise in goats and sheep, ladie, - And a’ the country round about - Has heard of Roy’s fame, ladie. - - 14 - ‘And ye have fifty thousand marks, - Makes me a man compleat, ladie; - Why mayn’t I maid - May I not ride in state, ladie? - - 15 - ‘My father was a Highland laird, - Altho he be now dead, ladie, - And a’ the country round about - Has heard of Roy’s fame, ladie.’ - - * * * * * - - - E - - Pitcairn’s MSS, III, 41; “from tradition (Widow Stevenson).” - - 1 - Rob Roy from the Highlands cam - Unto our Scottish border, - And he has stown a lady fair, - To hand his house in order. - - 2 - And when he cam he surrounded the house; - Twenty men their arms did carry; - And he has stown this lady fair, - On purpose her for to marry. - - 3 - And whan he cam he surrounded the house; - No tidings there cam before him, - Or else the lady would have been gone, - For still she did abhor him. - - 4 - Wi murnfu cries and watery eyes, - Fast hauding by her mother, - Wi murnfu cries and watery eyes - They parted frae each other. - - 5 - Nae time he gied her to be dressed - As ladys do when they’re bride, O, - But he hastened and hurried her awa, - And he rowd her in his plaid, O. - - 6 - They rade till they cam to Ballyshine, - At Ballyshine they tarried; - He bought to her a cotton gown, - Yet would she never be married. - - 7 - Three held her up before the priest, - Four carried her to bed, O, - Wi watery eyes and murnfu sighs - When she behind was laid, O. - - 8 - ‘O be content, be content, - Be content to stay, lady, - For you are my wedded wife - Unto my dying day, lady. - Be content, _etc._ - - 9 - ‘My father is Rob Roy called, - MacGregor is his name, lady; - In all the country whare he dwells, - He does succeed the fame, lady. - Be content, _etc._ - - 10 - ‘My father he has cows and ewes, - And goats he has anew, lady, - And you and twenty thousand merks - Will mak me a man complete, lady.’ - Be content, _etc._ - - * * * * * - - - F - - Campbell MSS, II, 229. - - 1 - Rob Roy frae the Highlands came - Unto the Lawland border, - And he has stolen a lady away, - To hand his house in order. - - 2 - He’s pu’d her out amang his men, - She holding by her mother; - With mournfu cries and watery eyes - They parted frae each other. - - 3 - When they came to the heigh hill-gate, - O it’s aye this lady fainted: - ‘O wae! what has that cursed monie - That’s thrown to me invented?’ - - 4 - When they came to the heigh hill-gate, - And at Buchanan tarried, - They fetchd to her a cloak and gown, - Yet wad she not be married. - - 5 - Four held her up before the priest, - Four laid her on her bed, - With mournfu cries and watery eyes - When she by him was laid. - - 6 - ‘I’ll be kind, I’ll be kind, - I’ll be kind to thee, lady, - And all the country for thy sake - Shall surely favoured be, lady. - - 7 - ‘Be content, be content, - Be content and stay, lady; - Now ye are my weded wife - Until your dying-day, ladie. - - 8 - ‘Rob Roy was my father called, - McGregor was his name, lady; - In every country where he was, - He did exceed the fame, lady. - - 9 - ‘He was a hedge about his friends, - A terror to his foes, lady, - And every one that did him wrong, - He hit them oer the nose, lady. - - 10 - ‘Be content, be content, - Be content and stay, lady; - Now ye are my wedded wife - Until your dying-day, lady. - - 11 - ‘We will go, we will go, - We will go to France, lady, - Where I before for safety fled, - And there wee’l get a dance, lady. - - 12 - ‘Shake a fit, shake a fit, - Shake a fit to me, lady; - Now ye are my wedded wife - Until your dying-day, lady. - - * * * * * - - - G - - Cromek, Select Scotish Songs, 1810, II, 194, 199; sent by Burns to - William Tytler, in a letter. - - 1 - Rob Roy from the Highlands cam - Unto the Lawlan border, - To steal awa a gay ladie, - To hand his house in order. - - 2 - He cam owre the Lock o Lynn, - Twenty men his arms did carry; - Himsel gaed in an fand her out, - Protesting he would marry. - - 3 - ‘O will ye gae wi me’? he says, - ‘Or will ye be my honey? - Or will ye be my wedded wife? - For I love you best of any.’ - - 4 - ‘I winna gae wi you,’ she says, - ‘Nor will I be your honey, - Nor will I be your wedded wife; - You love me for my money.’ - - * * * * * * - - 5 - But he set her on a coal-black steed, - Himsel lap on behind her, - An he’s awa to the Highland hills, - Whare her friens they canna find her. - - * * * * * * - - 6 - ‘Rob Roy was my father ca’d, - MacGregor was his name, ladie; - He led a band o heroes bauld, - An I am here the same, ladie. - - 7 - ‘Be content, be content, - Be content to stay, ladie; - For thou art my wedded wife - Until thy dying day, ladie. - - 8 - ‘He was a hedge unto his friens, - A heckle to his foes, ladie, - Every one that durst him wrang, - He took him by the nose, ladie. - - 9 - ‘I’m as bold, I’m as bold, - I’m as bold, an more, ladie; - He that daurs dispute my word - Shall feel my guid claymore, ladie.’ - - * * * * * - - - H - - Sir Walter Scott’s Introduction to his novel “ Rob Roy,” Appendix, - No V, Waverley Novels, Cadell, 1846, VII, cxxxiii; “from memory.” - - 1 - Rob Roy is frae the Hielands come - Down to the Lowland border, - And he has stolen that lady away, - To haud his house in order. - - 2 - He set her on a milk-white steed, - Of none he stood in awe, - Untill they reached the Hieland hills, - Aboon the Balmaha. - - 3 - Saying, Be content, be content, - Be content with me, lady; - Where will ye find in Lennox land - Sae braw a man as me, lady? - - 4 - ‘Rob Roy he was my father called, - MacGregor was his name, lady; - A’ the country, far and near, - Have heard MacGregor’s fame, lady. - - 5 - ‘He was a hedge about his friends, - A heckle to his foes, lady; - If any man did him gainsay, - He felt his deadly blows, lady. - - 6 - ‘I am as bold, I am as bold, - I am as bold, and more, lady; - Any man that doubts my word - May try my gude claymore, lady. - - 7 - ‘Then be content, be content, - Be content with me, lady, - For now you are my wedded wife - Until the day ye die, lady.’ - - * * * * * - - - I - - Campbell MSS, II, 58. - - 1 - Rob Roy is frae the Highlands come - Unto the Scottish border, - And he has stolen a lady gay, - To keep his house in order. - - 2 - He and his crew surrounded the house; - No tidings came before him, - Or else I’m sure she wad been gone, - For she did still abhore him. - - 3 - He drew her thro amang his crew, - She holding by her mother; - With watery eyes and mournfu cries - They parted from each other. - - 4 - He’s set her on a milk-white steed, - Himself jumped on behind her, - And he’s awa to the Highland hills, - And her friends they couldna find her. - - 5 - ‘O be content, be content, - O be content and stay, lady, - And never think of going back - Until your dying day, lady.’ - - 6 - As they went over hills and dales, - This lady oftimes fainted; - Cries, Wae be to that cursed money - This road to me invented! - - 7 - ‘O dinna think, O dinna think, - O dinna think to ly, lady; - O think na ye yersell weel matchd - On sic a lad as me, lady? - - 8 - ‘What think ye o my coal-black hair, - But and my twinkling een, lady, - A little bonnet on my head, - And cocket up aboon, lady? - - 9 - ‘O dinna think, O dinna think, - O dinna think to ly, lady; - O think nae ye yersell weel matchd - On sic a lad as me, lady? - - 10 - ‘Rob Roy was my father calld, - But Gregory was his name, lady; - There was neither duke nor lord - Could eer succeed his fame, lady. - - 11 - ‘O may not I, may not I, - May not I succeed, lady? - My old father did so design; - O now but he is dead, lady. - - 12 - ‘My father was a hedge about his friends, - A heckle to his foes, lady, - And every one that did him wrang, - He hit them oer the nose, lady. - - 13 - ‘I [’m] as bold, I [’m] as bold, - I [’m] as bold, and more, lady, - And every one that does me wrong - Shall feel my good claymore, lady. - - 14 - ‘You need not fear our country cheer, - Ye’se hae good entertain, lady; - For ye shall hae a feather-bed, - Both lang and broad and green, lady. - - 15 - ‘Come, be content, come, be content, - Come, be content and stay, lady, - And never think of going back - Until yer dying day, lady.’ - - 16 - Twa held her up before the priest, - Four laid her in her bed, - And sae mournfully she weeping cry’d - When she by him was laid! - - 17 - ‘Come, dinna think, come, dinna think, - Come, dinna think to ly, lady; - You’ll surely think yersell weel matchd - On sic a lad as me, lady. - - 18 - ‘Come, be content, come, be content, - Come, be content and stay, lady, - And never think of going back - Until your dying day, lady.’ - - * * * * * - - - J - - A Garland of Old Historical Ballads, p. 10, Aungervyle Society, - 1881, from a manuscript which had belonged to Maidment. - - 1 - From Drunkie in the Highlands, - With four and twenty men, - Rob Oig is cam, a lady fair - To carry from the plain. - - 2 - Glengyle and James with him are cam, - To steal Jean Mitchell’s dauchter, - And they have borne her far away, - To haud his house in order. - - 3 - And he has taen Jean Key’s white hand, - And torn her grass-green sleeve, - And rudely tyed her on his horse, - At her friends asked nae leave. - - 4 - They rode till they cam to Ballyshine, - At Ballyshine they tarried; - Nae time he gave her to be dressed, - In cotton gown her married. - - 5 - Three held her up before the priest, - Four carried her to bed, O; - Wi watery eyes and mournfu sighs - She in bed wi Rob was laid, O. - - 6 - ‘Haud far awa from me, Rob Oig, - Haud far awa from me! - Before I lose my maidenhead, - I’ll try my strength with thee.’ - - 7 - She’s torn the cap from off her head - And thrown it to the way, - But ere she lost her maidenhead - She fought with him till day. - - 8 - ‘Wae fa, Rob Oig, upon your head! - For you have ravished me, - And taen from me my maidenhead; - O would that I could dee!’ - - 9 - ‘My father he is Rob Roy called, - And he has cows and ewes, - And you are now my wedded wife, - And can nae longer chuse.’ - - * * * * * - - - K - - Laing’s Thistle of Scotland, p. 93; compounded, with some - alterations, from two copies, one from Miss Harper, Kildrummy, the - other from the Rev. R. Scott, Glenbucket. - - 1 - Rob Roy frae the Highlands came - Doun to our Lowland border; - It was to steal a lady away, - To haud his house in order. - - 2 - With four-and-twenty Highland men, - His arms for to carry, - He came to steal Blackhill’s daughter, - That lady for to marry. - - 3 - Nae are kend o his comming, - Nae tiddings came before him, - Else the lady woud hae been away, - For still she did abhore him. - - 4 - They guarded doors and windows round, - Nane coud their plot discover; - Rob Roy enterd then alane, - Expressing how he lovd her. - - 5 - ‘Come go with me, my dear,’ he said, - ‘Come go with me, my honey, - And ye shall be my wedded wife, - For I love you best of any.’ - - 6 - ‘I will not go with you,’ she said, - ‘I’ll never be your honey; - I will not be your wedded wife, - Your love is for my money.’ - - 7 - They woud noc stay till she was drest - As ladies when thei’r brides, O, - But hurried her awa in haste, - And rowd her in their plaids, O. - - 8 - He drew her out among his crew, - She holding by her mother; - With mournful cries and watry eyes - They parted from each other. - - 9 - He placed her upon a steed, - Then jumped on behind her, - And they are to the Highlands gone, - Her friends they cannot find her. - - 10 - With many a heavy sob and wail, - They saw, as they stood by her, - She was so guarded round about - Her friends could not come nigh her. - - 11 - Her mournful cries were often heard, - But no aid came unto her; - They guarded her on every side - That they could not rescue her. - - 12 - Over rugged hills and dales - They rode; the lady fainted; - Cried, Woe be to my cursed gold - That has such roads invented! - - 13 - As they came in by Drimmen town - And in by Edingarry, - He bought to her both cloak and gown, - Still thinking she would marry. - - 14 - As they went down yon bonny burn-side, - They at Buchanan tarried; - He clothed her there as a bride, - Yet she would not be married. - - 15 - Without consent they joind their hands, - Which law ought not to carry; - His passion waxed now so hot - He could no longer tarry. - - 16 - Two held her up before the priest, - Four laid her in the bed then, - With sighs and cries and watery eyes - When she was laid beside him. - - 17 - ‘Ye are come to our Highland hills, - Far frae thy native clan, lady; - Never think of going back, - But take it for thy home, lady. - - 18 - ‘I’ll be kind, I’ll be kind, - I’ll be kind to thee, lady; - All the country, for thy sake, - Shall surely favourd be, lady. - - 19 - ‘Rob Roy was my father calld, - MacGregor was his name, lady, - And all the country where he dwelt - He did exceed for fame, lady. - - 20 - ‘Now or then, now or then, - Now or then deny, lady; - Don’t you think yourself well of - With a pretty man like I, lady? - - 21 - ‘He was a hedge about his friends, - A heckle to his foes, lady, - And all that did him any wrong, - He took them by the nose, lady. - - 22 - ‘Don’t think, don’t think, - Don’t think I lie, lady, - Ye may know the truth by what - Was done in your country, lady. - - 23 - ‘My father delights in cows and horse, - Likewise in goats and sheep, lady, - And you with thirty thousand marks - Makes me a man complete, lady. - - 24 - ‘Be content, be content, - Be content and stay, lady; - Now ye are my wedded wife - Untill your dying day, lady. - - 25 - ‘Your friends will all seek after me, - But I’ll give them the scorn, lady; - Before dragoons come oer the Forth, - We shall be doun by Lorn, lady. - - 26 - ‘I am bold, I am bold, - But bolder than before, lady; - Any one dare come this way - Shall feel my good claymore, lady. - - 27 - ‘We shall cross the raging seas, - We shall go to France, lady; - There we’ll gar the piper play, - And then we’ll have a dance, lady. - - 28 - ‘Shake a foot, shake a foot, - Shake a foot wi me, lady, - And ye shall be my wedded wife - Until the day ye die, lady.’ - - * * * * * - -#A.# - - 6^{1,2}. _In one line_: By the way this lady aftimes fainted. - _Cf._ #B# 7, #C# 9, _etc._ - - 12^2. prickle: _a bad reading for_ heckle. - - 15, 16. _Each written in two lines in the MS._ - -#B.# - - 15^3. wi me and thirty merks. _Corrupted from_ wi, _or_ and, - thirty thousand merks: _cf._ #K#, 23^8. - -#C.# - - “Tune, Gipsy Laddy,” 1–12. - - 13. “Tune changes to Haud awa fra me, Donald.” - - 14, 16, 18 _are written as a burden to the stanzas preceding_ - them. - - 7^8. weepin _originally written for_ watery, _and erased_. - - 18^2. as bold I’ll roar: more _written over_ roar. - -#D.# - - _After 7_: Answer to Rob Roy. 8–15 _are written in four stanzas of - long lines_. - - 9^4. Rob _struck out before_ Roy’s. - -#E.# - - “The first part [1–7] is sung to the air of Bonny House of Airly, - and the last, Haud awa frae me, Donald.” - - 7^4. was laid behind, O: behind _wrongly for_ by him. _Cf._ A 9^4, - _etc._ - - 9^4. succeed the fame. _So_ #I# 10 _nearly_: #F# 8 did exceed the - fame. _This line evidently troubled reciters. Another set, says - Pitcairn, gives_. It did exceed the same. #B# 11, #C# 15, #K# 19 - _have a reading which we may take to be near the original_. - -#F.# - - 1^4. To keep (haud). - -#G.# - - _In stanzas of eight lines._ “Tune, a rude set of Mill, Mill O.” - _After 4_: “The song went on to narrate the forcing her to bed; - when the tune changes to something like Jenny dang the weaver.” - -#I.# - - 12^4. _As a variation, but wrongly_ (_see_ 13^4), Did feel his - good claymore, lady. - -#J.# - - “I had the first copy from Miss Harper, Kildrummy; but fearing - imperfections, I made application, and by chance got another - copy from the Rev. R. Scott, Glenbucket. These I blended - together and formed a very good copy; but I have taken the - liberty of altering the order of some of the stanzas, and in - particular, taking out the ninth and making it the eleventh, and - changing some of the words to make it more agreeable.” p. 97. - _Original readings in 2^2, specified by Laing, have been - restored, and his 11 put back to 9. What follows 16 has the - title_, Variation. - - - - - 226 - - LIZIE LINDSAY - - #A.# ‘Lizie Lindsay.’ #a.# Jamieson-Brown MS., Appendix, p. ii. #b.# - Jamieson’s Popular Ballads. II, 149. - - #B.# ‘Donald of the Isles,’ Kinloch MSS, I, 237. Aytoun’s Ballads of - Scotland, 1859, I, 277. - - #C.# ‘Donald of the Isles,’ Kinloch MSS, I, 253. - - #D.# ‘Lizzy Lindsay,’ from a Note-Book of Dr Joseph Robertson, - January, 1830, No 6. - - #E.# ‘Bonny Lizie Lindsay,’ Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, - II, 102. - - #F.# ‘Lizzie Lindsay,’ Whitelaw’s Book of Scottish Ballads, p. 51. - - #G.# ‘Leezie Lindsay,’ Notes and Queries, Third Series, I, 463. - - -Of #A# a Professor Robert Scott says, in the letter in which it was -enclosed: “You will find above, all I have been able to procure in order -to replace the lost fragment of ‘Lizie Lindsay.’ I believe it is not so -correct or so complete as what was formerly sent, but there are -materials enough to operate upon, and by forcing the memory of the -recorder more harm than good might have been done.” Jamieson says of -#b#: “Transmitted to the editor by Professor Scott of Aberdeen, as it -was taken down from the recitation of an old woman.[128] It is very -popular in the northeast[north-east] of Scotland, and was familiar to -the editor in his early youth; and from the imperfect recollection which -he still retains of it he has corrected the text in two or three -unimportant passages.” - -There is nothing to show whether the lost copy was recovered, unless it -be the fact that Jamieson prints about twice as many stanzas as there -are in #a#. But Jamieson was not always precise in the account he gave -of the changes he made in his texts. - -In his preface to #B#, Kinloch remarks that the ballad is very popular -in the North, “and few milk-maids in that quarter but can chaunt it, to -a very pleasant tune. Lizie Lindsay,” he adds, “according to the -tradition of Mearnsshire, is said to have been a daughter of Lindsay of -Edzell; but I have searched in vain for genealogical confirmation of the -tradition.” Kinloch gave Aytoun a copy of this version, changing a few -phrases, and inserting st. 20 of #C#. - -The following stanza, printed as No 434 of the Musical Museum, was sent -with the air to Johnson by Burns, who intended to communicate something -more. (Museum, 1853, IV, 382): - - Will ye go to the Highlands, Leezie Lindsay? - Will ye go to the Highlands wi me? - Will ye go to the Highlands, Leezie Lindsay, - My pride and my darling to be? - -Robert Allan added three stanzas to this, Smith’s Scotish Minstrel, II, -100, and again, p. 101 of the same, others (in which Lizie Lindsay is, -without authority, made ‘a puir lassie’). The second stanza of the -second “set” is traditional (cf. #B# 8, #C# 6, #D# 6, #E# 8): - - To gang to the Hielands wi you, sir, - I dinna ken how that may be, - For I ken nae the road I am gaeing, - Nor yet wha I’m gaun wi. - -Donald MacDonald, heir of Kingcausie, wishes to go to Edinburgh for a -wife (or to get Lizie Lindsay for his wife). His mother consents, on -condition that he shall use no flattery, and shall ‘court her in great -poverty’ (policy, #D#). He sees many bonny young ladies at Edinburgh, -but Lizie Lindsay is above compare with others. He presents himself to -her in simple Highland garb; what he can offer is a diet of curds and -whey and a bed of green rushes (bracken). Lizie would like to know where -she would be going, and with whom. His father is an old shepherd -(couper, souter), his mother an old dey, and his name is Donald -MacDonald. Lizie’s father and mother threaten to have him hanged, which -daunts him not in the least. Her maid warmly seconds the suit. Lizie -packs up her clothes and sets forth with Donald to foot the steep and -dirty ways; she wishes herself back in Edinburgh. They come at last to a -shieling, where a woman welcomes Sir Donald; he bids her call him Donald -her son, and orders a supper of curds and whey, and a bed of green -rushes. Lizie, ‘weary with travel,’ lies late in the morning, and is -roused as if to help at the milking; this makes her repine again. But -Donald takes her out of the hut and shows her Kingcausie, where she is -to be lady. - -Kingcausie is some seven miles from Aberdeen, on the south side of the -Dee. - -Ballads of this description are peculiarly liable to interpolation and -debasement, and there are two passages, each occurring in several -versions, which we may, without straining, set down to some plebeian -improver. - -In #B# 10, #D# 10, #E# 19, Lizie Lindsay, not quite ready to go with -Donald, makes him an offer of five or ten guineas if he will stay long -enough for her to take his picture, ‘to keep her from thinking long.’ In -#F# 11 Donald makes the same offer for her picture. In #E# 10, #F# 6, -Lizie tells Donald, who has asked where she lives, that if he will call -at the Canongate Port, she will drink a bottle of sherry with him, and -in the next stanza she is as good as her word. This convivial way of the -young ladies of Edinburgh is, owing to an injury to the text, not -perceptible in #D# 14, where Donald seems to be inviting Lizie’s mother -to bring a bottle of sherry with her in case she should call on him at -the Canongate Port. - - -#A b# is translated by Grundtvig, Engelske og skotske Folkeviser, p. -122; by Rosa Warrens, Schottische Volkslieder der Vorzeit, p. 125, with -deficient verses supplied from #F#. Knortz, Lieder u. Romanzen -Alt-Englands, p. 158, translates Allingham’s ballad. - - * * * * * - - - A - - #a.# Jamieson-Brown MS., Appendix, p. ii, as sent Jamieson by - Professor Scott of Aberdeen, June 9, 1805. b. Jamieson’s Popular - Ballads, 1806, II, 149, “transmitted to the editor by Professor - Scott of Aberdeen, as it was taken down from the recitation of an - old woman,” but “corrected” from Jamieson’s recollection in two or - three passages. - - * * * * * - - 1 - Out it spake Lizee Linzee, - The tear blinket in her ee; - How can I leave father and mother, - Along with young Donald to gae! - - 2 - Out spoke Lizee’s young handmaid, - A bonny young lassie was she; - Said, Were I heress to a kingdom, - Along with young Donald I’d ga. - - 3 - ‘O say ye so to me, Nelly? - O say ye so to me? - Must I leave Edinburgh city, - To the high Highland to gae?’ - - 4 - Out spoke Lizie’s own mother, - A good old lady was she; - If you speak such a word to my dochter, - I’ll gar hang [you] hi. - - 5 - ‘Keep well your dochter from me, madam. - Keep well your dochter fa me; - For I care as little for your dochter - As ye can care for me.’ - - 6 - The road grew wetty and dubby, - And Lizee began to think lang; - Said, I wish had staid with my mother, - And nae wi young Donald had gane. - - 7 - ‘You’r welcome hame, Sir Donald, - You’r thrice welcome to me; - You’r welcome hame, Sir Donald, - And your young lady you wi.’ - - 8 - . . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - ‘Ye call na me Sir Donald, - But ca me Donald your son.’ - - 9 - ‘Rise up, Lizee Linzee, - You [have] lain too long in the day; - Ye might have helped my mother - To milch her goats and her kie.’ - - 10 - Out it spake Lizee Linzee, - The tear blinket in her eye; - ‘The ladys of Edinb_u_r_gh_ city, - They neither milch goats nor kie.’ - - * * * * * - - - B - - Kinloch MSS, I, 237, from Miss Catherine Beattie, Mearnsshire. - - 1 - It’s of a young lord o the Hielands, - A bonnie braw castle had he, - And he says to his lady mither, - ‘My boon ye will grant to me: - Sail I gae to Edinbruch city, - And fesh hame a lady wi me?’ - - 2 - ‘Ye may gae to Edinbruch city, - And fesh hame a lady wi thee, - But see that ye bring her but flattrie, - And court her in grit povertie.’ - - 3 - ‘My coat, mither, sall be o the plaiden, - A tartan kilt oure my knee, - Wi hosens and brogues and the bonnet; - I’ll court her wi nae flattrie.’ - - 4 - Whan he cam to Edinbruch city, - He playd at the ring and the ba, - And saw monie a bonnie young ladie, - But Lizie Lindsay was first o them a’. - - 5 - Syne, dressd in his Hieland grey plaiden, - His bonnet abune his ee-bree, - He called on fair Lizie Lindsay; - Says, Lizie, will ye fancy me? - - 6 - ‘And gae to the Hielands, my lassie, - And gae, gae wi me? - O gae to the Hielands, Lizie Lindsay, - I’ll feed ye on curds and green whey. - - 7 - ‘And ye’se get a bed o green bracken, - My plaidie will hap thee and me; - Ye’se lie in my arms, bonnie Lizie, - If ye’ll gae to the Hielands wi me.’ - - 8 - ‘O how can I gae to the Hielands, - Or how can I gae wi thee, - Whan I dinna ken whare I’m gaing, - Nor wha I hae to gae wi?’ - - 9 - ‘My father, he is an auld shepherd, - My mither, she is an auld dey; - My name it is Donald Macdonald, - My name I’ll never deny.’ - - 10 - ‘O Donald, I’ll gie ye five guineas - To sit ae hour in my room, - Till I tak aff your ruddy picture; - Whan I hae’t, I’ll never think lang.’ - - 11 - ‘I dinna care for your five guineas; - It’s ye that’s the jewel to me; - I’ve plenty o kye in the Hielands, - To feed ye wi curds and green whey. - - 12 - ‘And ye’se get a bonnie blue plaidie, - Wi red and green strips thro it a’; - And I’ll be the lord o your dwalling, - And that’s the best picture ava. - - 13 - ‘And I am laird o a’ my possessions; - The king canna boast o na mair; - And ye’se hae my true heart in keeping, - There’ll be na ither een hae a share. - - 14 - ‘Sae gae to the Hielands, my lassie, - O gae awa happy wi me; - O gae to the Hielands, Lizie Lindsay, - And hird the wee lammies wi me.’ - - 15 - ‘O how can I gae wi a stranger, - Oure hills and oure glens frae my hame?’ - ‘I tell ye I am Donald Macdonald; - I’ll ever be proud o my name.’ - - 16 - Doun cam Lizie Lindsay’s ain father, - A knicht o a noble degree; - Says, If ye do steal my dear daughter, - It’s hangit ye quickly sall be. - - 17 - On his heel he turnd round wi a bouncie, - And a licht lauch he did gie: - ‘There’s nae law in Edinbruch city - This day that can dare to hang me.’ - - 18 - Then up bespak Lizie’s best woman, - And a bonnie young lass was she; - ‘Had I but a mark in my pouchie, - It’s Donald that I wad gae wi.’ - - 19 - ‘O Helen, wad ye leave your coffer, - And a’ your silk kirtles sae braw, - And gang wi a bare-houghd puir laddie, - And leave father, mither, and a’? - - 20 - ‘But I think he’s a witch or a warlock, - Or something o that fell degree, - For I’ll gae awa wi young Donald, - Whatever my fortune may be.’ - - 21 - Then Lizie laid doun her silk mantle, - And put on her waiting-maid’s goun, - And aff and awa to the Hielands - She’s gane wi this young shepherd loun. - - 22 - Thro glens and oure mountains they wanderd, - Till Lizie had scantlie a shoe; - ‘Alas and ohone!’ says fair Lizie, - ‘Sad was the first day I saw you! - I wish I war in Edinbruch city; - Fu sair, sair this pastime I rue.’ - - 23 - ‘O haud your tongue now, bonnie Lizie, - For yonder’s the shieling, my hame; - And there’s my guid auld honest mither, - That’s coming to meet ye her lane.’ - - 24 - ‘O ye’re welcome, ye’re welcome, Sir Donald, - Ye’re welcome hame to your ain.’ - ‘O ca me na young Sir Donald, - But ca me Donald my son;’ - And this they hae spoken in Erse, - That Lizie micht not understand. - - 25 The day being weetie and daggie, - They lay till ’twas lang o the day: - ‘Win up, win up, bonnie Lizie, - And help at the milking the kye.’ - - 26 - O slowly raise up Lizie Lindsay, - The saut tear blindit her ee: - ‘O, war I in Edinbruch city, - The Hielands shoud never see me!’ - - 27 - He led her up to a hie mountain - And bade her look out far and wide: - ‘I’m lord o thae isles and thae mountains, - And ye’re now my beautiful bride. - - 28 - ‘Sae rue na ye’ve come to the Hielands, - Sae rue na ye’ve come aff wi me, - For ye’re great Macdonald’s braw lady, - And will be to the dav that ye dee.’ - - * * * * * - - - C - - Kinloch MSS, I, 253; from the recitation of Mrs Bouchart, of Dundee. - - 1 - What wad ye gie to me, mither, - What wad ye gie to me, - If I wad gae to Edinbruch city - And bring hame Lizie Lindsey to thee?’ - - 2 - ‘Meikle wad I gie to thee, Donald, - Meikle wad I gie to thee, - If ye wad gang to Edinbruch city - And court her as in povertie.’ - - 3 - Whan he cam to Edinbruch city, - And there a while to resort, - He called on fair Lizie Lindsey, - Wha lived at the Canongate-Port. - - 4 - ‘Will ye gang to the Hielands, Lizie Lindsey? - Will ye gae to the Hielands wi me? - And I will gie ye a cup o the curds, - Likewise a cup of green whey. - - 5 - ‘And I will gie ye a bed o green threshes, - Likewise a happing o grey, - If ye will gae to the Hielands, Lizie Lindsey, - If ye’ll gae to the Hielands wi me.’ - - 6 - ‘How can I gang?’ says Lizie Lindsey, - ‘How can I gang wi thee? - I dinna ken whare I am gaing, - Nor wha I am gaing wi.’ - - 7 - ‘My father is a cowper o cattle, - My mither is an auld dey; - My name is Donald Macdonald, - My name I’ll never deny.’ - - 8 - Doun cam Lizie Lindsey’s father, - A revrend auld gentleman was he: - ‘If ye steal awa my dochter, - Hie hanged ye sall be.’ - - 9 - He turned him round on his heel - And [a] licht lauch gied he: - ‘There is na law in a’ Edinbruch city - This day that can hang me.’ - - 10 - It’s doun cam Lizie’s hand-maid, - A bonnie young lass was she: - ‘If I had ae crown in a’ the warld, - Awa wi that fellow I’d gae.’ - - 11 - ‘Do ye say sae to me, Nelly? - Do ye say sae to me? - Wad ye leave your father and mither, - And awa wi that fellow wad gae?’ - - 12 - She has kilted her coats o green silk - A little below her knee, - And she’s awa to the Hielands wi Donald, - To bear him companie. - - 13 - And whan they cam to the vallies - The hie hills war coverd wi snow, - Which caused monie a saut tear - From Lizie’s een to flow. - - 14 - ‘O, gin I war in Edinbruch city, - And safe in my ain countrie, - O, gin I war in Edinbruch city, - The Hielands shoud never see me.’ - - 15 - ‘O haud your tongue, Lizie Lindsey, - Na mair o that let me see; - I’ll tak ye back to Edinbruch city, - And safe to your ain countrie.’ - - 16 - ‘Though I war in Edinbruch city, - And safe in my ain countrie, - Though I war in Edinbruch city, - O wha wad care for me!’ - - 17 - Whan they cam to the shiels o Kilcushneuch, - Out there cam an auld dey: - ‘Ye’re welcome here, Sir Donald, - You and your lady gay.’ - - 18 - ‘Ca me na mair Sir Donald, - But ca me Donald your son, - And I’ll ca ye my auld mither, - Till the lang winter nicht is begun.’ - - 19 - ‘A’ this was spoken in Erse, - That Lizie micht na ken; - A’ this was spoken in Erse, - And syne the broad English began. - - 20 - ‘Ye’ll gae and mak to our supper - A cup o the curds and whey, - And ye’ll mak a bed o green threshes, - Likewise a happing o grey.’ - - * * * * * * - - 21 - ‘Won up, won up, Lizie Lindsey, - Ye’ve lain oure lang in the day; - Ye micht hae been helping my mither - To milk the ewes and the kye.’ - - 22 - Then up got Lizie Lindsey, - And the tear blindit her ee: - ‘O, gin I war in Edinbruch city, - The Hielands shoud never see me!’ - - 23 - ‘Won up, won up, Lizie Lindsey, - A fairer sicht ye hae to see: - Do ye see yon bonnie braw castle? - Lady o it ye will be.’ - - * * * * * - - - D - - From a Note-Book of Joseph Robertson, January, 1830, No. 6; derived - from John Hill Burton. - - 1 - There dwalt a lass in the South Countrie, - Lizzy Lindsay called by name, - And many a laird and lord sought her, - But nane o them a’ could her gain. - - 2 - Out spoke the heir o Kinkawsie, - An down to his fader spoke he; - ‘Fat would ye think o me, fadther, - Fat would ye think o me, - To go to Edinburgh city, - Bring hame Lizzy Lindsay wi me?’ - - 3 - Out and spoke his auld modther, - An auld revrend lady was she; - ‘Court her wi nae fause flatterie, - But in great policie.’ - - 4 - He was nae in Edinbruch citie - But a twalmont an a day, - When a’ the young lairds an the ladies - Went forth to sport an play: - There was nane like Lizzy Lindsay, - She was baith gallan an gay. - - 5 - ‘Will ye go to the Hielans, Lizzy Linsay? - Will ye go to the Hielans wi me? - If ye’ll go to the Hielans, Lizz[y] Linsay, - I’ll gar ye get crouds an green whey.’ - - 6 - ‘How can I go to the Hielans? - Or hoo will I go with thee? - I dinna ken whaar I’m going, - Or fa ‘t is I would go wi.’ - - 7 - ‘My fadther he is an auld couper, - My modther a brave auld dey; - If ye’ll go to the Hieland[s], Lizzy Linsay, - I’ll gar ye get cruds and green whey.’ - - 8 - Out it spoke Lizzy’s best maiden, - A wat a fine creature was she; - ‘Tho I were born heir till a crown, - It’s young Donald t_ha_t I would go wi.’ - - 9 - ‘Oh say ye sae to me, Nelly? - Oh say ye sae to me? - Will I cast off my fine gowns and laces, - An gae to the Highlans him wi?’ - - 10 - She’s putten her hand in her pocket, - She’s taen out ten guineas roun: - ‘And that wad I gie to thee, Donald, - To stay but ae hour i my room, - Till I get your fair pictur painted, - To haud me unthought lang.’ - - 11 - ‘I care as little for your guineas - As you can care for mine; - But gin that ye like my fair face, - Then gae wi me, if that ye incline.’ - - 12 - Out it spak Lizzy’s auld mither, - I wite a fine lady was she; - ‘Gin I hear you speak sae to my daughter, - I vow I’se cause them hang thee.’ - - 13 - He turned about on his heel, - And a loud, loud laughter gae he: - ‘They are not in Edinburgh city, - I trow, that dare hang me. - - 14 - ‘But an ye come to the Canongate-Port— - An there ye’ll be sure to see me— - Bring wi ye a bottle of sherry, - I’ll bear you good company.’ - - 15 - They sought all Edinboro citie, - They sought it roun an roun, - Thinkin to fin Lizzy Lindsay, - But awa to the Highlans she’s gane. - - 16 - Whan they came to the shielin, - Out bespoke the ould dye; - ‘You’re welcome home, Sir Donald, - Lang hae we been thinkin for thee.’ - - 17 - ‘Ye’ll call me nae mair Sir Donald, - Ye’ll call me nae sic thing; - But ye’se be my auld mither, - And I’se be Donald your sin. - - 18 - ‘Ye’ll mak for us a supper, - A supper o cruds and green whey, - And likewise a bed o green rashes, - For Lizzy and I to ly.’ - - 19 - She’s made for them a supper, - A supper o cruds and why, - And likewise a bed o green rashes, - For Lizzy an him to ly. - - 20 - But Donald rose up i the mornin, - The rest o his glens to spy; - It was to look for his goats, - His goats, his yows, an his kye. - - 21 - But Lizzy, beein wearied wi travel, - She lay till ’twas lang i the day: - ‘Get up, get up, Lizzy Linsay, - What maks you sae lang for to ly? - You had better been helping my mither - To milk her yews and her kye.’ - - 22 - But Lizzy drew till her her stockins, - The tears fell down on her eye: - ‘I wish I were at Edinboro city, - I can neither milk yews nor kye.’ - - 23 - ‘Oh hold your tongue, Lizzy Linsay, - Your weepin I mustna be wi; - I’ll sen you hame to your mither, - In the greatest o safety.’ - - 24 - But he has tane her by the han, - And has shewn her the straight way to go: - ‘An dont you see bonny Kincawsie, - Wher you and I is to ly?’ - - 25 - Out then comes his old mither, - An twenty brave knichts her wi: - ‘Y’er welcome home, Sir Donald, - Lang hae we been thinkin for thee.’ - - 26 - Out then comes his old father, - An twenty brave ladies him wi: - ‘You’r welcome home, Sir Donald, - An that fair creature you wi.’ - - 27 - He’s taken her by the han, - An he’s shewn her the straight way in: - ‘An ye’se be Lady Kincawsie, - An ye’se hae Donal, my sin.’ - - * * * * * - - - E - - Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, II, 102. - - 1 - In Edinburgh lived a lady, - Was ca’d Lizie Lindsay by name, - Was courted by mony fine suitors, - And mony rich person of fame: - Tho lords o renown had her courted, - Yet none her favour could gain. - - 2 - Then spake the young laird o Kingcaussie, - And a bonny young boy was he; - ‘Then let me a year to the city, - I’ll come, and that lady wi me.’ - - 3 - Then spake the auld laird o Kingcaussie, - A canty auld mannie was he; - ‘What think ye by our little Donald, - Sae proudly and crously cracks he? - - 4 - ‘But he’s win a year to the city, - If that I be a living man; - And what he can mak o this lady, - We shall lat him do as he can.’ - - 5 - He’s stript aff his fine costly robes, - And put on the single liverie; - With no equipage nor attendance, - To Edinburgh city went he. - - 6 - Now there was a ball in the city, - A ball o great mirth and great fame; - And fa danced wi Donald that day - But bonny Lizie Lindsay on the green! - - 7 - ‘Will ye gang to the Hielands, bonny Lizie? - Will ye gang to the Hielands wi me? - Will ye leave the South Country ladies, - And gang to the Hielands wi me?’ - - 8 - The lady she turned about, - And answered him courteouslie; - ‘I’d like to ken faer I am gaun first, - And fa I am gaun to gang wi.’ - - 9 - ‘O Lizie, ae favour I’ll ask you, - This favour I pray not deny; - Ye’ll tell me your place o abode, - And your nearest o kindred do stay.’ - - 10 - ‘Ye’ll call at the Canogate-Port, - At the Canogate-Port call ye; - I’ll gie you a bottle o wine, - And I’ll bear you my companie.’ - - 11 - Syne he called at the Canogate-Port, - At the Canogate-Port calld he; - She gae him a bottle o wine, - And she gae him her companie. - - 12 - ‘Will ye gang to the Hielands, bonny Lizie? - Will ye gang to the Hielands wi me? - Will ye leave the South Country ladies, - And gang to the Hielands wi me?’ - - 13 - Then out spake Lizie’s auld mither, - For a very auld lady was she; - ‘If ye cast ony creed on my dochter, - High hanged I’ll cause you to be.’ - - 14 - ‘O keep hame your dochter, auld woman, - And latna her gang wi me; - I can cast nae mair creed on your dochter, - Nae mair than she can on me.’ - - 15 - ‘Now, young man, ae question I’ll ask you, - Sin ye mean to honour us sae; - Ye’ll tell me how braid your lands lie, - Your name, and faer ye hae to gae.’ - - 16 - ‘My father he is an auld soutter, - My mither she is an auld dey, - And I’m but a puir broken trooper, - My kindred I winna deny. - - 17 - ‘Yet I’m nae a man o great honour, - Nor am I a man o great fame; - My name it is Donald M’Donald, - I’ll tell it, and winna think shame. - - 18 - ‘Will ye gang to the Hielands, bonny Lizie? - Will ye gang to the Hielands wi me? - Will ye leave the South Country ladies, - And gang to the Hielands wi me?’ - - 19 - ‘O Donald, I’ll gie you ten guineas, - If ye woud but stay in my room - Until that I draw your fair picture, - To look on it fan I think lang.’ - - 20 - ‘No, I carena mair for your guineas, - Nae mair than ye care for mine; - But if that ye love my ain person, - Gae wi me, maid, if ye incline.’ - - 21 - Then out spake Lizie’s bower-woman, - And a bonny young lassie was she; - Tho I was born heir to a crown, - Young Donald, I woud gang him wi. - - 22 - Up raise then the bonny young lady, - And drew till her stockings and sheen, - And packd up her claise in fine bundles, - And awa wi young Donald she’s gane. - - 23 - The roads they were rocky and knabby, - The mountains were baith strait and stay; - When Lizie grew wearied wi travel, - For she’d travelld a very lang way. - - 24 - ‘O turn again, bonny Lizie Lindsay, - O turn again,’ said he; - ‘We’re but ae day’s journey frae town, - O turn, and I’ll turn wi thee.’ - - 25 - Out speaks the bonny young lady, - Till the saut tear blinded her ee; - Altho I’d return to the city, - There’s nae person woud care for me. - - 26 - When they came near the end o their journey, - To the house o their father’s milk-dey, - He said, Stay still there, Lizie Lindsay, - Till I tell my mither o thee. - - 27 - When he came into the shielen, - She hailed him courteouslie; - Said, Ye’re welcome hame, Sir Donald, - There’s been mony ane calling for thee. - - 28 - ‘O ca me nae mair, Sir Donald, - But Donald M’Donald your son; - We’ll carry the joke a bit farther, - There’s a bonny young lady to come.’ - - 29 - When Lizie came into the shielen, - She lookd as if she’d been a feel; - She sawna a seat to sit down on, - But only some sunks o green feall. - - 30 - ‘Now make us a supper, dear mither, - The best o your cruds and green whey; - And make us a bed o green rashes, - And covert wi huddins sae grey.’ - - 31 - But Lizie being wearied wi travel, - She lay till ’twas up i the day: - ‘Ye might hae been up an hour seener, - To milk baith the ewes and the kye.’ - - 32 - Out then speaks the bonny young lady, - Whan the saut tear drapt frae her eye; - I wish that I had bidden at hame, - I can neither milk ewes nor kye. - - 33 - ‘I wish that I had bidden at hame, - The Hielands I never had seen, - Altho I love Donald M’Donald, - The laddie wi blythe blinking een.’ - - 34 - ‘Win up, win up, O bonny Lizie, - And dress in the silks sae gay; - I’ll show you the yetts o Kingcaussie, - Whare I’ve playd me mony a day.’ - - 35 - Up raise the bonny young lady, - And drest in the silks sae fine, - And into young Donald’s arms - Awa to Kingcaussie she’s gane. - - 36 - Forth came the auld laird o Kingcaussie, - And hailed her courteouslie; - Says, Ye’re welcome, bonny Lizie Lindsay, - Ye’re welcome hame to me. - - 37 - ‘Tho lords o renown hae you courted, - Young Donald your favour has won; - Ye’se get a’ the lands o Kingcaussie, - And Donald M’Donald, my son.’ - - * * * * * - - - F - - Whitelaw’s Book of Scottish Ballads, p. 51, “from the recitation of - a lady in Glasgow.” - - 1 - There was a braw ball in Edinburgh, - And mony braw ladies were there, - But nae ane at a’ the assembly - Could wi Lizzie Lindsay compare. - - 2 - In cam the young laird o Kincassie, - An a bonnie young laddie was he: - ‘Will ye lea yere ain kintra, Lizzie, - An gang to the Hielands wi me?’ - - 3 - She turned her roun on her heel, - An a very loud laughter gaed she: - ‘I wad like to ken whar I was ganging, - And wha I was gaun to gang wi.’ - - 4 - ‘My name is young Donald M’Donald, - My name I will never deny; - My father he is an auld shepherd, - Sae weel as he can herd the kye! - - 5 - ‘My father he is an auld shepherd, - My mother she is an auld dame; - If ye’ll gang to the Hielands, bonnie Lizzie, - Ye’s neither want curds nor cream.’ - - 6 - ‘If ye’ll call at the Canongate-Port, - At the Canongate-Port call on me, - I’ll give you a bottle o sherry, - And bear you companie.’ - - 7 - He ca’d at the Canongate-Port, - At the Canongate-Port called he; - She drank wi him a bottle o sherry, - And bore him guid companie. - - 8 - ‘Will ye go to the Hielands, bonnie Lizzie? - Will ye go to the Hielands wi me? - If ye’ll go to the Hielands, bonnie Lizzie, - Ye shall not want curds nor green whey.’ - - 9 - In there cam her auld mither, - A jolly auld lady was she: - ‘I wad like to ken whar she was ganging, - And wha she was gaun to gang wi.’ - - 10 - ‘My name is young Donald M’Donald, - My name I will never deny; - My father he is an auld shepherd, - Sae weel as he can herd the kye! - - 11 - ‘O but I would give you ten guineas - To have her one hour in a room, - To get her fair body a picture, - To keep me from thinking long.’ - - 12 - ‘O I value not your ten guineas, - As little as you value mine; - But if that you covet my daughter, - Take her with you, if you do incline.’ - - 13 - ‘Pack up my silks and my satins, - And pack up my hose and my shoon, - And likewise my clothes in small bundles, - And away wi young Donald I’ll gang.’ - - 14 - They packd up her silks and her satins, - They packd up her hose and her shoon, - And likewise her clothes in small bundles, - And away with young Donald she’s gane. - - 15 - When that they cam to the Hielands, - The braes they were baith lang and stey; - Bonnie Lizzie was wearied wi ganging, - She had travelld a lang summer day. - - 16 - ‘O are we near hame, Sir Donald? - O are we near hame, I pray?’ - ‘We’re no near hame, bonnie Lizzie, - Nor yet the half o the way.’ - - 17 - They cam to a homely poor cottage, - An auld man was standing by: - ‘Ye’re welcome hame, Sir Donald, - Ye’ve been sae lang away.’ - - 18 - ‘O call me no more Sir Donald, - But call me young Donald your son, - For I have a bonnie young lady - Behind me for to come in.’ - - 19 - ‘Come in, come in, bonnie Lizzie, - Come in, come in,’ said he; - ‘Although that our cottage be little, - Perhaps the better we’ll gree. - - 20 - ‘O make us a supper, dear mother, - And make it of curds an green whey; - And make us a bed o green rushes, - And cover it oer wi green hay.’ - - * * * * * * - - 21 - ‘Rise up, rise up, bonnie Lizzie, - Why lie ye so long in the day? - Ye might hae been helping my mother - To make the curds and green whey.’ - - 22 - ‘O haud your tongue, Sir Donald, - O haud your tongue, I pray; - I wish I had neer left my mother; - I can neither make curds nor whey.’ - - 23 - ‘Rise up, rise up, bonnie Lizzie, - And put on your satins so fine, - For we maun to be at Kincassie - Before that the clock strikes nine.’ - - 24 - But when they came to Kincassie - The porter was standing by: - ‘Ye’re welcome home, Sir Donald, - Ye’ve been so long away.’ - - 25 - It’s down then came his auld mither, - With all the keys in her hand, - Saying, Take you these, bonnie Lizzie, - All under them’s at your command. - - * * * * * - - - G - - Notes and Queries, Third Series, I, 463; “from recitation, - September, 1828.” - - 1 - ‘Will you go to the Highlands wi me, Leezie? - Will you go to the Highlands wi me? - Will you go to the Highlands wi me, Leezie? - And you shall have curds and green whey.’ - - 2 - Then up spoke Leezie’s mother, - A gallant old lady was she; - ‘If you talk so to my daughter, - High hanged I’ll gar you be.’ - - 3 - And then she changed her coaties, - And then she changed them to green, - And then she changed her coaties, - Young Donald to gang wi. - - 4 - But the roads grew broad and broad, - And the mountains grew high and high, - Which caused many a tear - To fall from Leezie’s eye. - - 5 - But the roads grew broad and broad, - And the mountains grew high and high, - Till they came to the glens of Glen Koustie, - And out there came an old die. - - 6 - ‘You’re welcome here, Sir Donald, - And your fair ladie, - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - - 7 - ‘O call not me Sir Donald, - But call me Donald your son, - And I will call you mother, - Till this long night be done.’ - - 8 - These words were spoken in Gaelic, - And Leezie did not them ken; - These words were spoken in Gaelic, - And then plain English began. - - 9 - ‘O make her a supper, mother, - O make her a supper wi me; - O make her a supper, mother, - Of curds and green whey.’ - - * * * * * * - - 10 - ‘You must get up, Leezie Lindsay, - . . . . . . . - You must get up, Leezie Lindsay, - For it is far in the day.’ - - 11 - And then they went out together, - And a braw new bigging saw she, - And out cam Lord Macdonald, - And his gay companie. - - 12 - ‘You ‘re welcome here, Leezie Lindsay, - The flower of a’ your kin, - And you shall be Lady Macdonald, - Since you have got Donald, my son.’ - - * * * * * - -#A. a.# - - _Written in stanzas of two long lines._ - - 3^2. Oh. - -#b.# - - #a# _and_ #b# _correspond nearly as follows_: #a.# 4, 5, 2, - 3^{1,2}, 8^{3,4}, 7, 9^{1,2}, 9^{3,4}, 10. #b.# 2, 3, 4, - 5^{1,2}, 13^{3,4}, 14, 16^{3,4}, 17^{3,4}, 18. - - 1 - ‘Will ye go to the Highlands, Lizie Lindsay? - Will ye go to the Highlands wi me? - Will ye go to the Highlands, Lizie Lindsay, - And dine on fresh cruds and green whey?’ - - 2 - Then out spak Lizie’s mother, - A good old lady was she; - Gin ye say sic a word to my daughter, - I’ll gar ye be hanged high. - - 3 - ‘Keep weel your daughter frae me, madam; - Keep weel your daughter frae me; - I care as little for your daughter - As ye can care for me.’ - - 4 - Then out spak Lizie’s ain maiden, - A bonny young lassie was she; - Says, Were I the heir to a kingdom, - Awa wi young Donald I’d be. - - 5 - ‘O say you sae to me, Nelly? - And does my Nelly say sae? - Maun I leave my father and mother, - Awa wi young Donald to gae?’ - - 6 - And Lizie’s taen till her her stockings, - And Lizie’s taen till her her shoen, - And kilted up her green claithing, - And awa wi young Donald she’s gane. - - 7 - The road it was lang and weary; - The braes they were ill to climb; - Bonny Lizie was weary wi travelling, - And a fit furder coudna win. - - 8 - And sair, O sair, did she sigh, - And the saut tear blin’d her ee: - ‘Gin this be the pleasures o looing, - They never will do wi me!’ - - 9 - ‘Now haud your tongue, bonny Lizie, - Ye never shall rue for me; - Gie me but your love for my love, - It is a’ that your tocher will be. - - 10 - ‘And haud your tongue, bonny Lizie, - Altho that the gait seem lang, - And you’s hae the wale o good living - Whan to Kincawsen we gang. - - 11 - ‘There my father he is an auld cobler, - My mother she is an auld dey, - And we’ll sleep on a bed o green rashes, - And dine on fresh cruds and green whey.’ - - 12 - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - ‘You’re welcome hame, Sir Donald, - You’re welcome hame to me.’ - - 13 - ‘O ca me nae mair Sir Donald; - There’s a bonny young lady to come; - Sae ca me nae mair Sir Donald, - But ae spring Donald your son.’ - - 14 - ‘Ye’re welcome hame, young Donald, - Ye’re welcome hame to me; - Ye’re welcome hame, young Donald, - And your bonny young lady wi ye.’ - - 15 - She’s made them a bed of green rashes, - Weel coverd wi hooding o grey; - Bonny Lizie was weary wi travelling, - And lay till ’twas lang o the day. - - 16 - ‘The sun looks in oer the hill-head, - And the laverock is liltin gay; - Get up, get up, bonny Lizie, - You’ve lain till it’s lang o the day. - - 17 - ‘You might hae been out at the shealin, - Instead o sae lang to lye, - And up and helping my mother - To milk baith her gaits and kye.’ - - 18 - Then out spak Lizie Lindsay, - The tear blindit her eye; - ‘The ladies o Edinburgh city, - They neither milk gaits nor kye.’ - - 19 - Then up spak young Sir Donald, - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - - 20 - ‘For I am the laird o Kincawsyn, - And you are the lady free, - And . . . . . - . . . . . . . - -#D.# - - 9^1. nay (not) sae, not _struck out_. - - 25^4. wi. - -#E.# - - 29. _In a much altered chap-book copy, printed by J. Morren, - Edinburgh, we have_: - - When they came to the braes o Kinkassie, - Young Lizie began for to fail; - There was not a seat in the house - But what was made of the green fell. - -#F.# - - 16^1, 22^1. _The_ Sir _is an anticipation._ - -#G.# - - 7^1, 9^{1–3}. Oh. - - - - - 227 - - BONNY LIZIE BAILLIE - - #a.# ‘Bonny Lizie Balie, A New Song very much in Request,’ Laing - broadsides, No 46; no date or place. #b.# ‘Bonny Lizzie Bailie,’ - Maidment’s Scotish Ballads and Songs, 1859, p. 13. #c.# ‘My bonny - Lizzie Baillie,’ Johnson’s Museum, ed. 1853, IV, *451. #d.# ‘Lizae - Baillie,’ Herd’s MSS, I, 101, and, in part, II, 121. #e.# ‘Lizie - Baillie,’ Campbell MSS, I, 98. #f.# ‘Lizzie Bailie,’ Smith’s Scotish - Minstrel, IV, 90. #g.# ‘Lizie Baillie,’ Buchan’s Ballads of the - North of Scotland, II, 173. - - -#a#, from the collection of broadsides made by David Laing, now in the -possession of Lord Rosebery, may probably have been printed at the -beginning of the last century, at Edinburgh. #b# was taken “from a -tolerably old copy printed at Glasgow.” Excepting the lack of two -stanzas, the variations from a are mostly of slight consequence; two or -three are for the better, #c# (only the beginning, stanzas 1–4^1) was -communicated by C. K. Sharpe, from a “MS. copy of some antiquity.” #d-g# -are of no authority. #d#, #e# are fragmentary stanzas, misremembered if -not corrupted. #f# has ten stanzas, eight of which (some with a word or -two changed) are from #d.# #g# is a washy _rifacimento_. - -#d# is printed in Herd’s Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, 1776, II, 3. -The copy in Johnson’s Museum, No 456, p. 469, is #d# without the first -stanza. - -Stanzas 19–21 of #a#, #b#, and their representatives in #d#, #e#, recall -‘The Gypsy Laddie.’ - -Lizzie Baillie, of Castle Gary, Stirlingshire, while paying a visit to a -sister at Gartartan, Perthshire, makes an excursion to Inchmahome, an -island in Loch Menteith. Here she meets Duncan Graham, who, against the -opposition of her parents, persuades her to prefer a Highland husband to -any Lowland or English match. - -“The heroine of this song,” says Sharpe, “was a daughter of Baillie of -Castle Carey, and sister, as it is said, to the wife of Macfarlane of -Gartartan.” The Baillies, as Maidment has shown, acquired Castle Gary -“at a comparatively recent date,” and that editor must be nearly, or -quite, right in declaring the ballad to be not older than the -commencement of the last century. Buchan has a bit of pseudo-history -anent Lizie Baillie in his notes, at II, 326. - -The story is told in a somewhat disorderly way even in a, and we may -believe that we have not attained the original yet, though this copy is -much older than any that has appeared in previous collections. - - * * * * * - - 1 - It fell about the Lambmass tide, - When the leaves were fresh and green, - Lizie Bailie is to Gartartain [gane], - To see her sister Jean. - - 2 - She had not been in Gartartain - Even but a little while - Till luck and fortune happend her, - And she went to the Isle. - - 3 - And when she went into the Isle - She met with Duncan Grahame; - So bravely as he courted her! - And he convoyd her hame. - - 4 - ‘My bonny Lizie Bailie, - I’ll row thee in my pladie, - If thou will go along with me - And be my Highland lady.’ - - 5 - ‘If I would go along with thee, - I think I were not wise; - For I cannot milk cow nor ewe, - Nor yet can I speak Erse.’ - - 6 - ‘Hold thy tongue, bonny Lizie Bailie, - And hold thy tongue,’ said he; - ‘For any thing that thou does lack, - My dear, I’ll learn thee.’ - - 7 - She would not have a Lowland laird, - He wears the high-heeld shoes; - She will marry Duncan Grahame, - For Duncan wears his trews. - - 8 - She would not have a gentleman, - A farmer in Kilsyth, - But she would have the Highland man, - He lives into Monteith. - - 9 - She would not have the Lowland man, - Nor yet the English laddie, - But she would have the Highland man, - To row her in his pladie. - - 10 - He took her by the milk-white hand, - And he convoyed her hame, - And still she thought, both night and day, - On bonny Duncan Grahame. - - 11 - ‘O bonny Duncan Grahame, - Why should ye me miscarry? - For, if you have a love for me, - We’ll meet a[t] Castle Carry. - - 12 - ‘As I came in by Dennie bridge, - And by the holland-bush, - My mother took from me my cloaths, - My rings, ay and my purse. - - 13 - ‘Hold your tongue, my mother dear, - For that I do not care; - For I will go with Duncan Grahame - Tho I should ner get mair. - - 14 - ‘For first when I met Duncan Grahame - I met with meikle joy, - And many pretty Highland men - Was there at my convoy.’ - - 15 - And now he is gone through the muir, - And she is through the glen: - ‘O bonny Lizie Bailie, - When will we meet again!’ - - 16 - Shame light on these logerheads - That lives in Castle Carry, - That let away the bonny lass - The Highland man to marry! - - 17 - ‘O bonny Lizie, stay at home! - Thy mother cannot want thee; - For any thing that thou does lack, - My dear, I’ll cause get thee.’ - - 18 - ‘I would not give my Duncan Grahame - For all my father’s land, - Although he had three lairdships more, - And all at my command.’ - - 19 - And she’s cast off her silken gowns, - That she weard in the Lowland, - And she’s up to the Highland hills, - To wear [the] gowns of tartain. - - 20 - And she’s cast off her high-heeld shoes, - Was made of the gilded leather, - And she’s up to Gillecrankie, - To go among the heather. - - 21 - And she’s cast off her high-heeld shoes, - And put on a pair of laigh ones, - And she’s away with Duncan Grahame, - To go among the brachans. - - 22 - ‘O my bonny Lizie Bailie, - Thy mother cannot want thee; - And if thou go with Duncan Grahame - Thou’ll be a Gilliecrankie.’ - - 23 - ‘Hold your tongue, my mother dear, - And folly let thee be; - Should not I fancie Duncan Grahame - When Duncan fancies me? - - 24 - ‘Hold your tongue, my father dear, - And folly let thee be; - For I will go with Duncan Grahame - Fore all the men I see.’ - - 25 - ‘Who is it that’s done this turn? - Who has done this deed?’ - ‘A minister it’s, father,’ she says, - ‘Lives at the Rughburn bridge.’ - - 26 - ‘A minister, daughter?’ he says, - ‘A minister for mister!’ - ‘O hold your tongue, my father dear, - He married first my sister.’ - - 27 - ‘O fare you well, my daughter dear, - So dearly as I lovd thee! - Since thou wilt go to Duncan Grahame, - My bonny Lizie Bailie.’ - - 28 - ‘O fare you well, my father dear, - Also my sister Betty; - O fare you well, my mother dear, - I leave you all compleatly.’ - - * * * * * - -#a.# - - 3^4. conveyd; _cf._ 10^2. - - 17^4. _Suspicious._ I’ll surely grant thee _in_ #b#, _which - preserves the rhyme, and is otherwise preferable_. - - 20^3. #b# _avoids_ Gillecrankie _here by reading_ to the Highland - hills, _and lacks_ 22. - - 23^2, 24^2. _Hardly possible._ _In 23^2_ #b# _has_, With your - folly let me be. - - 27^1. fair ye: _cf._ 28^{1,3}. - -#b#. - - 1^1, upon the. - - 1^3. gane. - - 2^1. been long at. - - 2^3. to her. - - 3^4. convoyd. - - 4^3. wilt. - - 5^1. I should: with you. - - 5^2. They’d think. - - 5^3. can neither. - - 6^3. dost. - - 6^4. I will teach. - - 7^2. That wears. - - 7^3. But she would. - - 7^4. he wears trews. - - 8^3. have a. - - 8^4. That lives. - - 11^2. you. - - 11^4. at. - - 14^3. mony a: Highlandman. - - 15^1. now she. - - 15^2. And he. - - 15^3. O my. - - 17^3. dost want. - - 17^4. I’ll surely grant thee: _better_. - - 19^1. Now she’s: gown. - - 19^2. wore: Lowlands. - - 19^4. the gowns. - - 20^2. oiled _for_ the gilded. - - 20^3. to the Highland hills. - - 20^4, 21^4. gang. - - 21^2. And _wanting_. - - 22. _Wanting._ - - 23^2. With your folly let me be. - - 23^4. ‘Fore all the men I see. - - 24 (_or_, 23^4 24^{1–3}). _Wanting._ - - 25^1. that has. - - 25^2. Or who hath. - - 25^4. Red Burn. - - 27^1. So _for_ O. - - 27^2. love. - - 27^3. go with. - - 27^4. Thou’lt get no gear from me. - -#c.# - - _Only_ 1–4^1 _given_. - - 1^1. It was in and about the Martinmass. - - _Absurd. Lammas, even, is late enough for leaves to be fresh and - green; in fact both are verbiage._ - - 1^3. gane. - - 2^1. She was nae in. - - 2^2. Even _wanting_. - - 2^3. When luck. - - 2^4. she gaed. - - 3^1. When she gaed to the bonny Isle. - -#d.# - - 11 _stanzas:_ 1^{3,4}, 3^{2,4}; 4; 5, _in two forms, one struck - out_; 6 (?), 20, 19, 9, 11 (?), 12, 18, 16. - - 5. - ‘I am sure they wad nae ca me wise, - Gin I wad gang wi you, sir, - For I can neither card nor spin, - Nor yet milk ewe nor cow, sir.’ - - 6. - ‘My bonie Liza Baillie, - Let nane o these things daunt ye; - Ye’ll hae nae need to card or spin, - Your mither weel can want ye.’ - - 9. - She wad nae hae a Lawland laird, - Nor be an English ladie, - But she wad gang wi Duncan Grame, - And row her in his plaidie. - - 11. - (?)She was nae ten miles frae the town - When she began to weary; - She often looked back and said, - ‘Farewell to Castlecarry!’ - - 12. - The first place I saw my Duncan Grame - Was near yon holland-bush; - My father took frae me my rings, - My rings but and my purse. - - 19. - And she’s cast aff her bonie goun, - Made o the silk and sattin, - And she’s put on a tartan plaid, - To row amang the bracken. (21^4.) - - 20. - Now she’s cast aff her bonie shoon, - Made o the gilded leather, - And she’s put on her Highland brogues, - To skip amang the heather. - - _This is enough to show the quality of #d#. It has been - extensively corrupted. 11 is out of character, and suggested by_ - ‘Lizie Lindsay.’ - -#e.# - - _Stanzas 4, 5, 17, 20, 19, 9, only._ - - 5. - ‘If I wad gang alang wi you - They wadna ca me wise, sir; - For I can neither card nor spin, - Nor yet can I speak Erse, sir.’ - - 9. - She wadna hae a Lawland laird, - Nor be a English lady, - But she’s awa wi Duncan Grahame - He’s rowd her in his plaidy. - - 17. - ‘My bonny Lizie Baillie, - Your minny canna want you; - Sae let the trooper gang his lane, - And carry his ain portmanteau.’ - - 19. _Nearly as in_ #d#. A’ wrought wi gowd an satin: To sport - amang. - - 20. _Nearly as in_ #d#. Spanish leather. - - 17^{3,4} _is not intelligible, and may have slipped in from some - “Trooper” ballad._ - -#f.# - - 10 _stanzas, edited from some copy of_ #d#. f 3–9, 10==d 2–8, 12, - _nearly_. - - 1^1. Lammas time. - - 1^2. trees were. - - 1^3. L. B. gaed to Garter town. - - 2,3. - She’d no been lang in Garter town - Till she met wi Duncan Graham, - Wha kindly there saluted her, - And wad convoy her hame. - - 4^2. Ye’s hae a tartan plaidie. - - 9^3. wad gang wi Duncan Graham. - - 9^4. And wear a tartan plaidie. - - 19^1. her lowland braws. - - 19^3. put on the worset gown. - - 19^4. To skip amang the breckin. - -#g.# - - 14 stanzas. - - 2. - She meant to go unto that place - To stay a little while; - But mark what fortune her befell - When she went to the Isle. - - It fell out upon a day, - Sheep-shearing at an end, - Lizie Baillie she walkd out, - To see a distant friend. - - 3. - But going down in a low glen - She met wi Duncan Græme, - Who courted her along the way, - Likewise convoyed her hame. - - _The whole ballad is treated with the like freedom and - feebleness._ - - 22. - ‘O stay at hame,’ her father said, - ‘Your mither cannot want thee; - And gin ye gang awa this night - We’ll hae a Killycrankie.’ - - Killycrankie _for a_ row: _a droll emendation of #a#, and the only - spirited line in the piece._ - - - - - 228 - - GLASGOW PEGGIE - - #A.# ‘Glasgow Peggie,’ Sharpe’s Ballad Book, p. 40. - - #B.# #a.# ‘Glasgow Peggy,’ Kinloch’s Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 174. - b. Kinloch MSS, VII, 259. c. ‘Glasgow Peggie,’ Aytoun’s Ballads of - Scotland, 1859, II, 230. - - #C.# #a.# ‘Galla Water,’ ‘Bonny Peggy,’ Motherwell’s MS., p. 89. b. - ‘Glasgow Peggie,’ “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” - No 116, and Sharpe’s Ballad Book, ed. 1880, p. 137, one stanza. - - #D.# ‘Donald of the Isles,’ Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, - II, 155. - - #E.# ‘Glasgow Peggy,’ Christie, Traditional Ballad Airs, I, 70. - - #F.# ‘The Young Maclean,’ Alexander Laing’s MS., p. 5. - - -“Common in stalls,” says Motherwell, “under this title [‘Glasgow -Peggie’], or that of the ‘Earl of Hume,’ or ‘The Banks of Omey:’” -Minstrelsy, p. xciii, note 133. In his MS., p. 90, the stall-copy is -said to be better than the imperfect #C a#. - -A young Highlander comes to Glasgow and is smitten with bonnie Peggie. -Her father says the Highlander may steal cow or ewe, but not Peggie; and -her mother asks in disgust whether her daughter, so long the object of -her care, would end with going off in such company. For all that, Peggie -goes. The Earl of Argyle, or the Earl of Hume, or the young Earl of -Hume, takes this much to heart. The pair ride to a low glen in the north -country, and lie down on the grass. The Lowland lass has some -compunctions, stimulated by the lack of the good beds at home. The -captivating Highlander reassures her. He has the same comforts which she -misses; they are his, and will soon be hers. He points out a fine castle -which is his too, and he himself is Donald, Earl of Skye, and she will -be a lady. #B# and #E#, to make the contrast of her two homes the -greater, maintain that, despite her regrets for the comforts of her -father’s mansion, all that Peggie left was a wee cot-house and a wee -kail-yairdie. - -In the fragment #F#, Maclean replaces Macdonald. - - * * * * * - - - A - - Sharpe’s Ballad Book, No XV, p. 40. - - 1 - ‘As I cam in by Glasgow town, - The Highland troops were a’ before me, - And the bonniest lass that eer I saw, - She lives in Glasgow, they ca her Peggie. - - 2 - ‘I wad gie my bonnie black horse, - So wad I my gude grey naigie, - If I were twa hundred miles in the north, - And nane wi me but my bonnie Peggie.’ - - 3 - Up then spak her father dear, - Dear wow! but he was wondrous sorrie; - ‘Weel may ye steal a cow or a yowe, - But ye dare nae steal my bonnie Peggie.’ - - 4 - Up then spak her mother dear, - Dear wow! but she spak wondrous sorrie; - Now since I have brought ye up this length, - Wad ye gang awa wi a Highland fellow?’ - - 5 - He set her on his bonnie black horse, - He set himsel on his gude gray naigie, - And they have ridden oer hills and dales, - And he’s awa wi his bonnie Peggie. - - 6 - They have ridden oer hills and dales, - They have ridden oer mountains many, - Until they cam to a low, low glen, - And there he’s lain down wi his bonnie Peggie. - - 7 - Up then spak the Earl of Argyle, - Dear wow! but he spak wondrous sorrie; - ‘The bonniest lass in a’ Scotland - Is off and awa wi a Highland fellow!’ - - 8 - Their bed was of the bonnie green grass, - Their blankets war o the hay sae bonnie; - He folded his philabeg below her head, - And he’s lain down wi his bonnie Peggie. - - 9 - Up then spak the bonny Lowland lass, - And wow! but she spak wondrous sorrie; - ‘I’se warrant my mither wad hae a gay sair heart - To see me lien here wi you, my Willie.’ - - 10 - ‘In my father’s house there’s feather-beds, - Feather-beds, and blankets mony; - They’re a’ mine, and they’ll sune be thine, - And what needs your mither be sae sorrie, Peggie? - - 11 - ‘Dinna you see yon nine score o kye, - Feeding on yon hill sae bonnie? - They’re a’ mine, and they’ll sune be thine, - And what needs your mither be sorrie, Peggie? - - 12 - ‘Dinna ye see yon nine score o sheep, - Feeding on yon brae sae bonnie? - They’re a’ mine, and they’ll sune be thine, - And what needs your mither be sorrie for ye? - - 13 - ‘Dinna ye see yon bonnie white house, - Shining on yon brae sae bonnie? - And I am the Earl of the Isle of Skye, - And surely my Peggie will be ca’d a lady.’ - - * * * * * - - - B - - #a.# Kinloch’s Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 174; from recitation, - #b.# Kinloch MSS, VII, 259; “from Mrs K.’s recitation.” #c.# - Aytoun’s Ballads of Scotland, 1859, II, 230. - - 1 - The Lawland lads think they are fine, - But the Hieland lads are brisk and gaucy, - And they are awa, near Glasgow toun, - To steal awa a bonnie lassie. - - 2 - ‘I wad gie my gude brown steed, - And sae wad I my gude grey naigie, - That I war fifty miles frae the toun, - And nane wi me but my bonnie Peggy.’ - - 3 - But up then spak the auld gudman, - And vow! but he spak wondrous saucie; - ‘Ye may steal awa our cows and ewes, - But ye sanna get our bonnie lassie.’ - - 4 - ‘I have got cows and ewes anew, - I’ve got gowd and gear already; - Sae I dinna want your cows nor ewes, - But I will hae your bonnie Peggy.’ - - 5 - ‘I’ll follow you oure moss and muir, - I’ll follow you oure mountains many, - I’ll follow you through frost and snaw, - I’ll stay na langer wi my daddie.’ - - 6 - He set her on a gude brown steed, - Himself upon a gude grey naigie; - They’re oure hills, and oure dales, - And he’s awa wi his bonnie Peggy. - - 7 - As they rade out by Glasgow toun, - And doun by the hills o Achildounie, - There they met the Earl of Hume, - And his auld son, riding bonnie. - - 8 - Out bespak the Earl of Hume, - And O! but he spak wondrous sorry; - ‘The bonniest lass about a’ Glasgow toun - This day is awa wi a Hieland laddie!’ - - 9 - As they rade bye auld Drymen toun, - The lasses leuch and lookit saucy, - That the bonniest lass they ever saw - Sud be riding awa wi a Hieland laddie. - - 10 - They rode on through moss and muir, - And so did they owre mountains many, - Until that they cam to yonder glen, - And she’s lain doun wi her Hieland laddie. - - 11 - Gude green hay was Peggy’s bed, - And brakens war her blankets bonnie, - Wi his tartan plaid aneath her head; - And she’s lain doun wi her Hieland laddie. - - 12 - ‘There’s beds and bowsters in my father’s house, - There’s sheets and blankets, and a’ thing ready, - And wadna they be angry wi me, - To see me lie sae wi a Hieland laddie!’ - - 13 - ‘Tho there’s beds and beddin in your father’s house, - Sheets and blankets, and a’ made ready, - Yet why sud they be angry wi thee, - Though I be but a Hieland laddie? - - 14 - ‘It’s I hae fifty acres of land, - It’s a’ plowd and sawn already; - I am Donald, the Lord of Skye, - And why sud na Peggy be calld a lady? - - 15 - ‘I hae fifty gude milk kye, - A’ tied to the staws already; - I am Donald, the Lord of Skye, - And why sud na Peggy be calld a lady? - - 16 - ‘See ye no a’ yon castles and towrs? - The sun sheens owre them a sae bonnie; - I am Donald, the Lord of Skye, - I think I’ll mak ye as blythe as onie.’ - - 17 - A’ that Peggy left behind - Was a cot-house and a wee kail-yardie; - Now I think she is better by far - Than tho she had got a Lawland lairdie. - - * * * * * - - - C - - #a.# Motherwell’s MS., p. 89; from recitation. #b.# “Scotch Ballads, - Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 116, and Sharpe’s Ballad Book, - ed. 1880, p. 137, the last stanza. - - * * * * * - - 1 - ‘He set her on his bonnie black horse, - He set himsel on his good gray naigie; - He has ridden over hills, he has ridden over dales, - And he’s quite awa wi my bonny Peggy. - - 2 - ‘Her brow it is brent and her middle it is jimp, - Her arms are long and her fingers slender; - One sight of her eyes makes my very heart rejoice, - And wae’s my heart that we should sunder!’ - - 3 - His sheets were of the good green hay, - His blankets were of the brackens bonnie; - He’s laid his trews beneath her head, - And she’s lain down wi her Highland laddie. - - 4 - ‘I am my mother’s ae daughter, - And she had nae mair unto my daddie, - And this night she would have a sore, sore heart - For to see me lye down with a Highland laddie.’ - - 5 - ‘Ye are your mother’s ae daughter, - And she had nae mae unto your daddie; - This night she need not have a sore, sore heart - For to see you lie down with a Highland laddie. - - 6 - ‘I have four-and-twenty acres of land, - It is ploughed, it is sown, and is always ready, - And you shall have servants at your command; - And why should you slight a Highland laddie? - - 7 - ‘I have four-and-twenty good milk-kye, - They are feeding on yon meadow bonnie; - Besides, I have both lambs and ewes, - Going low in the haughs o Galla water. - - 8 - ‘My house it stands on yon hill-side, - My broadsword, durk, and bow is ready, - And you shall have servants at your command; - And why may not Peggy be called a lady?’ - - * * * * * - - - D - - Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, II, 155. - - 1 - A bonny laddie brisk and gay, - A handsome youth sae brisk and gaddie, - And he is on to Glasgow town, - To steal awa his bonny Peggy. - - 2 - When he came into Glasgow town, - Upon her father’s green sae steady, - ‘Come forth, come forth, old man,’ he says, - ‘For I am come for bonny Peggy.’ - - 3 - Out it spake her father then; - ‘Begone from me, ye Highland laddie; - There’s nane in a’ the West Country - Dare steal from me my bonny Peggy.’ - - 4 - ‘I’ve ten young men all at my back, - That ance to me were baith true and steady; - If ance I call, they’ll soon be nigh, - And bring to me my bonny Peggy.’ - - 5 - Out it spake her mother then, - Dear! but she spake wondrous saucy; - Says, Ye may steal my cow or ewe, - But I’ll keep sight o my ain lassie. - - 6 - ‘Hold your tongue, old woman,’ he says, - ‘Ye think your wit it is fu ready; - For cow nor ewe I ever stole, - But I will steal your bonny Peggy.’ - - 7 - Then all his men they boldly came, - That was to him baith true and steady, - And thro the ha they quickly went, - And forth they carried bonny Peggy. - - 8 - Her father gae mony shout and cry, - Her mother cursed the Highland laddie; - But he heard them as he heard them not, - But fixd his eye on bonny Peggy. - - 9 - He set her on his milk-white steed, - And he himsell on his grey naigie; - Still along the way they rode, - And he’s awa wi bonny Peggy. - - 10 - Says, I wad gie baith cow and ewe, - And sae woud I this tartan plaidie, - That I was far into the north, - And alang wi me my bonny Peggy. - - 11 - As they rode down yon pleasant glen, - For trees and brambles were right mony, - There they met the Earl o Hume, - And his young son, were riding bonny. - - 12 - Then out it spake the young Earl Hume, - Dear! but he spake wondrous gaudie; - ‘I’m wae to see sae fair a dame - Riding alang wi a Highland laddie.’ - - 13 - ‘Hold your tongue, ye young Earl Hume, - O dear! but ye do speak right gaudie; - There’s nae a lord in a’ the south - Dare eer compete wi a Highland laddie.’ - - 14 - Then he rade five miles thro the north, - Thro mony hills sae rough and scroggie, - Till they came down to a low glen, - And he lay down wi bonny Peggy. - - 15 - Then he inclosed her in his arms, - And rowd her in his tartan plaidie: - ‘There are blankets and sheets in my father’s house, - How have I lien down wi a Highland laddie!’ - - 16 - Says he, There are sheep in my father’s fauld, - And every year their wool is ready; - By the same our debts we pay, - Altho I be but a Highland laddie. - - 17 - ‘There are fifty cows in my father’s byre, - That all are tyed to the stakes and ready; - Five thousand pounds I hae ilk year, - Altho I be but a Highland laddie. - - 18 - ‘My father has fifty well shod horse, - Besides your steed and my grey naigie; - I’m Donald o the Isle o Sky, - Why may not you be ca’d a lady? - - 19 - ‘See ye not yon fine castle, - On yonder hill that stands sae gaudie? - And there we’ll win this very night, - Where ye’ll enjoy your Highland laddie.’ - - * * * * * - - - E - - Christie, Traditional Ballad Airs, I, 70, as sang by an old woman - living near Keith, Banffshire. - - 1 - The Hielan lads sae brisk and braw, - The Hielan lads sae brisk and gaudie, - Hae gane awa to Glasgow town, - To steal awa the bonny Peggy. - - 2 - As they cam on to Glasgow town, - And passd the banks and braes sae bonny, - There they espied the weel-faurd may, - And she said to them her name was Peggy. - - 3 - Their chief did meet her father soon, - And O! but he was wondrous angry; - Says, Ye may steal my owsen and kye, - But ye maunna steal my bonnie Peggy. - - 4 - ‘O haud your tongue, ye gude auld man, - For I’ve got cows and ewes already; - I come na to steal your owsen and kye, - But I will steal your bonny Peggy.’ - - 5 - He set her on a milk-white steed, - And he himsel rode a gude grey naigie, - And they are on mony miles to the north, - And nane wi them but the bonny Peggy. - - 6 - ‘I hae fifty acres o gude red lan, - And a’ weel ploughd and sawn already, - And why should your father be angry wi me, - And ca me naething but a Hielan laddie? - - 7 - ‘I hae twenty weel mounted steeds, - Black and brown and grey, already; - And ilk ane o them is tended by a groom, - Altho I be but a Hielan laddie. - - 8 - ‘I hae now ten thousand sheep, - A’ feeding on yon braes sae bonny, - And ilka hundred a shepherd has, - Altho I be but a Hielan laddie. - - 9 - ‘I hae a castle on yonder hill, - It’s a’ set roun wi windows many; - I’m Lord M’Donald o the whole Isle of Skye; - And why shouldna Peggy be ca’d my Lady?’ - - 10 - Now a’ that Peggy had before - Was a wee cot-house and a little kail-yairdie, - But now she is lady o the whole Isle of Skye, - And now bonny Peggy is ca’d my Lady. - - * * * * * - - - F - - Alexander Laing’s MS., 1829, p. 5. - - 1 - The young Maclean is brisk an bauld, - The young Maclean is rash an ready. - An he is to the Lowlands gane, - To steal awa a bonnie ladye. - - * * * * * * - - 2 - Out an spak her auld father, - An O! but he spak wondrous angry; - ‘Ye may steal my cows an ewes, - But ye shall not steal my dochter Peggie.’ - - 3 - ‘O haud your tongue, ye gude auld man, - For I hae gear enough already; - I cum na for your cows an ewes, - But I cum for your dochter Peggie.’ - - 4 - He set her on a milk-white steed, - Himsel upon a gude gray naggie, - An they are to the Highlands gane, - The young Maclean an his bonnie ladye. - - * * * * * - -#B. b.# - - _Stanzas_ 7, 3, 12^2, 6, 4. - - 3. - And then out and spak her father dear, - And oh! but he was wondrous angrie; - ‘It’s ye may steal my cows and ews, - But ye maunna steal my bonnie Peggy.’ - - 4. - ‘Hold your tongue, you silly auld man, - For ye’ve said eneuch already; - I’ll neither steal your cows nor ews, - But I wat I’ll steal your bonnie Peggy.’ - - 6^1. He’s mounted her on a milk-white. - - 6^2. are ouer hill and they’re ouer dale. - - 6^4. he’s clean awa. - - 7^1. As I cam in by. - - 7^3. I met. - - 7^4. son, war. - - 12^2. Feather beds and bowsters many. (A, 10.^2) - -#c.# - - “I have carefully collated these [_Kinloch’s copy_, #B a#, _and - Sharpe’s_, #A#] with another _copy_, giving, for the most part, - the preference to the version of Mr Kinloch.” _Readings (quite - unimportant) which do not occur in_ #B a#, #A#: - - 1^3. they hae come doun to Glasgow toun. - - 2^1. O I. - - 2^3. were a hundred. - - 4^3. or. - - _After 4_, _cf._ #A# 4^{1,2}: - - But up then spak the auld gudewife, - And wow! but she lookd wondrous yellow. - - 5^{1–3}. follow him. - - 5^4. I’ll bide. - - 7^1. out frae. - - 7^2. And by the side o Antermony. - - 7^4. Wi him his. - - 8^2. sadly _for_ sorry. - - 10^1. It’s they. - - 11^4. wi the. - - 12^1. There’s mair than ae bed in. - - 16^2. on them. - - 16^3. It’s I. - -#C.# #b.# - - 8. _In a letter of John Hamilton’s to Sir W. Scott, dated August - 17, 1803 (“Scotch Ballads,” etc., No 116), this stanza is given - thus_: - - My palace stands on yon burn-brae, - My bow is bent an arrows ready; - My name is Donald, in the Isle of Sky, - Although I be but a Highland laddie. - - _Scott probably trusted to his memory when making the following - note to a, printed in Sharpe’s Ballad Book, ed. 1880_: - - ‘I have a dirk and a gude claymore, - My bow is bent and my arrow ready; - My castle stands in the Isle of Skye, - Although I am but a Highland laddie.’ - - “The above stanza, which I got from the late Mr Hamilton, - music-seller in Edinburgh, seems to belong to ‘Glasgow Peggie.’” - - - - - 229 - - EARL CRAWFORD - - #A. a.# ‘Earl Crawford,’ Christie’s Traditional Ballad Airs, I, 290, - from recitation. #b.# From recitation. - - #B.# ‘Earl Crawford,’ Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, I, - 61. Abridged, in Christie’s Traditional Ballad Airs, I, 68. - - -#A.# One of seven handsome sisters makes a great match with the Earl of -Crawford. In a fit of jealousy at the fondness which he shows his young -son, Ladie Lillie addresses to her husband a quip on that head, to which -the earl replies in the same tone. But the matter does not end there. -The earl sets his wife on a horse, with her son, and sends her home to -her father at Stobhall, never to enter his gates again. Her father is -surprised that she should come without notice or attendants; she tells -him that a word from her merry mouth has parted her and her lord. The -father offers to make a better match for her; she would not give a kiss -of Crawford’s for all her father’s gold. She sends a messenger to the -earl to see whether he retains affection for her; word is brought back -that she is to stay with her father and never enter Crawford’s gates -again. Her heart breaks. Her father puts on black, rides to Crawford’s, -and finds the earl just setting forth with a party to bring Lady Lillie -home. Upon learning that his wife is dead, the earl declares that the -sun shall nevermore shine on him. - -#B.# Lady Crawford rides to her husband’s castle in person to see if the -earl will pity her. He shuts his gates and steeks his doors, and will -neither come down to speak with her himself nor send his man. She -retires weeping. The earl in turn now goes to the castle where his lady -is lying, to see if she will pity him. She shuts the gates and steeks -the doors, and will neither come down to speak with him nor send her -waiting-maid. Not the less she takes to her bed, both she and Crawford -die before morning, and both are buried in one tomb. - -The late Earl of Crawford recognized an agreement with fact in some of -the details of this story: Christie, I, 289. David, eleventh earl of -Crawford, who succeeded his father in 1574, married Lilias Drummond, -daughter of David, second Lord Drummond, the Laird of Stobhall. This was -considered so great a match for the lady that a tocher was given with -her “far beyond what was customary in those times, to wit, ten thousand -merks.” Although the peerages mention no children by this marriage, -there is evidence that Earl David had by Lilias “an only child, David, -who died in infancy.” “These collateral verities” seemed to Earl -Crawford “to found a presumption in favor of the truth of the main -incident of the ballad.” Crawford did not live at Crawford Castle, as -the ballad has it. “That place had ceased to be the family residence for -a long while. Earl David lived at Finhaven Castle, in Angus; not too far -from Stobhall to be in keeping with the riding to and fro recorded in -the ballad.” - -The first lines of the ballad are probably borrowed from ‘Gil Brenton:’ -see No 5, #A# 43, #B# 34, #C# 1, #D# 1, #H# 1, 2. #A# 11, 12, #B# 15, -16, is a commonplace: see most of the versions of ‘Jamie Douglas,’ No -204, and of ‘The Braes o Yarrow,’ No 214, and ‘Clerk Saunders,’ No 69, -#E# 15, #G# 27. - -#B# is translated by Gerhard, p. 108. - - * * * * * - - - A - - #a.# Christie’s Traditional Ballad Airs, I, 290, as taken down - 1867–73, from the recitation of Mrs Mary Robertson, wife of James - Robertson, shoemaker, Bogmoor, near Fochabers. #b.# Obtained by Mr - Macmath, March 25, 1890, from the daughter of Mrs Robertson, Mrs - Mary Thomson, wife of James Thomson, gardener at Gordon Castle - gardens, Fochabers. - - 1 - O we were sisters, sisters seven, - We were a comely crew to see, - And some got lairds, and some got lords, - And some got knichts o hie degree; - And I mysel got the Earl o Crawford, - And wasna that a great match for me! - - 2 - It was at fifteen that I was married, - And at sixteen I had a son; - And wasna that an age ower tender - For a lady to hae her first-born! - And wasna, etc. - - 3 - But it fell ance upon a day - I gaed into the garden green, - And naebody was therein walking - But Earl Crawford and his young son. - - 4 - ‘I wonder at you, ye Earl Crawford, - I wonder at you wi your young son; - Ye daut your young son mair than your Lillie; - [I’m sure you got na him your lane.’] - - 5 - [He turned about upon his heel, - I wite an angry man was he; - Says, If I got nae my young son my lane, - Bring me here the one that helpet me.] - - 6 - [‘O hold your tongue, my Earl Crawford, - And a’ my folly lat it be; - There was nane at the gettin o oor son, - Nae body only but you and me.’] - - 7 - He set her on a milk-white steed, - Her little young son her before; - Says, Ye maun gae to bonny Stobha, - For ye will enter my yates no more. - - 8 - When she cam to her father’s bowers, - She lichtit low down on the stane, - And wha sae ready as her auld father - To welcome Lady Lillie in? - - 9 - ‘O how’s a’ wi you, my daughter Lillie, - That ye come here sae hastilie? - And how’s a’ wi’ the Earl o Crawford, - That he didna send a boy wi thee?’ - - 10 - ‘O haud your tongue now, my old father, - And ye’ll lat a’ your folly be; - For ae word that my merry mou spak - Has parted my good lord and me.’ - - 11 - ‘O haud your tongue, my daughter Lillie, - And a’ your follies lat them be; - I’ll double your portion ten times ower, - And a better match I’ll get for thee.’ - - 12 - ‘O haud your tongue now, my old father, - And a’ your folly lat it be; - I wouldna gie ae kiss o Crawford - For a’ the goud that ye can gie. - - 13 - ‘Whare will I get a bonny boy, - That’s willin to win meat and fee, - Wha will gae on to Earl Crawford - An see an’s heart be fawn to me?’ - - 14 - When he cam to the yates o Crawford, - They were a’ sitting down to dine: - ‘How comes it now, ye Earl Crawford, - Ye arena takin Lady Lillie hame?’ - - 15 - ‘Ye may gae tell her Lady Lillie, - And ye maun neither lee nor len, - She may stay in her father’s bowers, - For she’ll not enter my yates again.’ - - 16 - When he cam back to her father’s yates, - He lichtit low down on his knee: - ‘What news, what news, my bonny boy? - What news, what news hae ye to me ?’ - - 17 - ‘I’m bidden tell you, Lady Lillie— - I’m bidden neither to lee nor len— - She may stay in her father’s bowers, - For she’ll not enter my yates again.’ - - 18 - She stretched out her lily hand, - Says, ‘Adieu, adieu to ane and a! - Adieu, adieu to Earl Crawford!’ - Wi that her sair heart brak in twa. - - 19 - Then dowie, dowie her father raise up, - And dowie, dowie the black put on, - And dowie, dowie he mounted the brown, - And dowie, dowie sat thereon. - - 20 - And dowie rade to the yates o Crawford, - And when to Crawford’s yates he came, - They were a’ dressd in the robes o scarlet, - Just gaun to tak Lady Lillie hame. - - 21 - ‘Ye may cast aff your robes o scarlet— - I wyte they set you wondrous weel— - And now put on the black sae dowie, - And come and bury your Lady Lill.’ - - 22 - He took his hat into his hand, - And laid it low down by his knee: - ‘An it be true that Lillie’s dead, - The sun shall nae mair shine on me.’ - - * * * * * - - - B - - Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, I, 61. - - 1 - O we were seven bonny sisters, - As fair women as fair could be, - And some got lairds, and some got lords, - And some got knights o high degree: - When I was married to Earl Crawford, - This was the fate befell to me. - - 2 - When we had been married for some time, - We walked in our garden green, - And aye he clappd his young son’s head, - And aye he made sae much o him. - - 3 - I turnd me right and round about, - And aye the blythe blink in my ee: - ‘Ye think as much o your young son - As ye do o my fair body. - - 4 - ‘What need ye clap your young son’s head? - What need ye make so much o him? - What need ye clap your young son’s head? - I’m sure ye gotna him your lane.’ - - 5 - ‘O if I gotna him my lane, - Show here the man that helpëd me; - And for these words your ain mouth spoke - Heir o my land he neer shall be.’ - - 6 - He calld upon his stable-groom - To come to him right speedilie: - ‘Gae saddle a steed to Lady Crawford, - Be sure ye do it hastilie. - - 7 - ‘His bridle gilt wi gude red gowd, - That it may glitter in her ee; - And send her on to bonny Stobha, - All her relations for to see.’ - - 8 - Her mother lay oer the castle wa, - And she beheld baith dale and down, - And she beheld her Lady Crawford, - As she came riding to the town. - - 9 - ‘Come here, come here, my husband dear, - This day ye see not what I see; - For here there comes her Lady Crawford, - Riding alane upon the lee.’ - - 10 - When she came to her father’s yates, - She tirled gently at the pin: - ‘If ye sleep, awake, my mother dear, - Ye’ll rise lat Lady Crawford in.’ - - 11 - ‘What news, what news, ye Lady Crawford, - That ye come here so hastilie?’ - ‘Bad news, bad news, my mother dear, - For my gude lord’s forsaken me.’ - - 12 - ‘O wae’s me for you, Lady Crawford, - This is a dowie tale to me; - Alas! you were too young married - To thole sic cross and misery.’ - - 13 - ‘O had your tongue, my mother dear, - And ye’ll lat a’ your folly be; - It was a word my merry mouth spake - That sinderd my gude lord and me.’ - - 14 - Out it spake her brither then, - Aye as he stept ben the floor: - ‘My sister Lillie was but eighteen years - When Earl Crawford ca’ed her a whore. - - 15 - ‘But had your tongue, my sister dear, - And ye’ll lat a’ your mourning bee; - I’ll wed you to as fine a knight, - That is nine times as rich as hee.’ - - 16 - ‘O had your tongue, my brither dear, - And ye’ll lat a’ your folly bee; - I’d rather yae kiss o Crawford’s mouth - Than a’ his gowd and white monie. - - 17 - ‘But saddle to me my riding-steed, - And see him saddled speedilie, - And I will on to Earl Crawford’s, - And see if he will pity me.’ - - 18 - Earl Crawford lay o’er castle wa, - And he beheld baith dale and down, - And he beheld her Lady Crawford, - As she came riding to the town. - - 19 - He called ane o his livery men - To come to him right speedilie: - ‘Gae shut my yates, gae steek my doors, - Keep Lady Crawford out frae me.’ - - 20 - When she came to Earl Crawford’s yates, - She tirled gently at the pin: - ‘O sleep ye, wake ye, Earl Crawford, - Ye’ll open, lat Lady Crawford in. - - 21 - ‘Come down, come down, O Earl Crawford, - And speak some comfort unto me; - And if ye winna come yoursell, - Ye’ll send your gentleman to me.’ - - 22 - ‘Indeed I winna come mysell, - Nor send my gentleman to thee; - For I tauld you when we did part - Nae mair my spouse ye’d ever bee.’ - - 23 - She laid her mouth then to the yates, - And aye the tears drapt frae her ee; - Says, Fare ye well, Earl Crawford’s yates, - You again I’ll nae mair see. - - 24 - Earl Crawford calld on his stable-groom - To come to him right speedilie, - And sae did he his waiting-man, - That did attend his fair bodie. - - 25 - ‘Ye will gae saddle for me my steed, - And see and saddle him speedilie, - And I’ll gang to the Lady Crawford, - And see if she will pity me.’ - - 26 - Lady Crawford lay oer castle-wa, - And she beheld baith dale and down, - And she beheld him Earl Crawford, - As he came riding to the town. - - 27 - Then she has calld ane o her maids - To come to her right speedilie: - ‘Gae shut my yates, gae steek my doors, - Keep Earl Crawford out frae me.’ - - 28 - When he came to Lady Crawford’s yates, - He tirled gently at the pin: - ‘Sleep ye, wake ye, Lady Crawford, - Ye’ll rise and lat Earl Crawford in. - - 29 - ‘Come down, come down, O Lady Crawford, - Come down, come down, and speak wi me; - And gin ye winna come yoursell, - Ye’ll send your waiting-maid to me.’ - - 30 - ‘Indeed I winna come mysell, - Nor send my waiting-maid to thee; - Sae take your ain words hame again - At Crawford castle ye tauld me. - - 31 - ‘O mother dear, gae make my bed, - And ye will make it saft and soun, - And turn my face unto the west, - That I nae mair may see the sun.’ - - 32 - Her mother she did make her bed, - And she did make it saft and soun; - True were the words fair Lillie spake, - Her lovely eyes neer saw the sun. - - 33 - The Earl Crawford mounted his steed, - Wi sorrows great he did ride hame; - But ere the morning sun appeard - This fine lord was dead and gane. - - 34 - Then on ae night this couple died, - And baith were buried in ae tomb: - Let this a warning be to all, - Their pride may not bring them low down. - -#A. a.# - - 4^4, 5, 6. _Omitted; supplied from #b#. Dean Christie notes that - the lines omitted will be found in a copy which, with other - things of the kind, he had destined for use in this collection. - Unfortunately, and quite unaccountably, these pieces never came - to hand._ - - 19^2. put on the black. - -#b.# - - _Of #b#, which was obtained some twenty years after #a# was - written down, Mrs Thomson says_: Enclosed is the whole of the - ballad, as I had it from my mother.... She never sang those two - verses to us [5, 6]. She only repeated them to me when Dean - Christie wanted the ballad. _We may, perhaps, infer from these - last words that the ballad was originally taken down by the - daughter from her mother’s recitation, and not by Dean Christie. - It is to be observed that the mother was still living in 1890, - but when #b# was committed to paper is not said._ - -#a# - - 8^{3, 4}, 9^{1, 2}, are wanting in #b#; #b# _has a stanza, an - inevitable one, which #a# lacks, in answer to_ 13. - - 1^1. It’s we were sisters and. - - 1^3. Some got dukes. - - 1^4. got men. - - 1^5. But I: Earl Crawford. - - 1^6. a meet. - - 2^1. Fifteen years that. - - 2^2. And sixteen years I. - - 2^3. that a tender age. - - 3^2. We were walking in yon. - - 3^3. There was nae body walking there. - - 3^4. But the earl himself and. - - 4^1. you, Earl. - - 4^2. You mak sae much o your. - - 4^3. I wonder at you, Earl Crawford. - - 4^4, 5, 6. _Inserted in_ #a#. - - 7^2. little son he set her. - - 7^3. gee on to your father’s bowers. - - 8^2. down on her knee. - - 8^{3, 4}, 9^{1, 2}, _wanting_. - - 9^3. Hoo’s a’, hoo’s a. - - 9^4. thee wi. - - 10^1. now _wanting_. - - 10^2. And a’ my folly lat it. - - 10^3. For one: mouth. - - 11^1. my Lady. - - 11^2. And I’ll lat a’ your folly. - - 11^3. portion oer again. - - 11^4. I’ll provide for. - - 12^1. now _wanting_. - - 12^2. And speak nae mair o this to me. - - 12^3. For I wad nae. - - 12^4. ye could. - - 13^3. That will: Crawford’s. - - 13^4. see gin’s hairt be faen tae. - - _After 13_: - - ‘O here am I, a bonny boy, - That’s willin to win meat and fee, - That will go on to Earl Crawford’s, - And see an’s hairt be faen to thee.’ - - 14^1. to Earl Crawford’s gates. - - 14^2. He lighted low down on a stane. - - 14^3. Says, I wonder at you, E. C. - - 14^4. You’r nae gaun to tak. - - 15^1. tell to Lady. - - 15^2. Ye may neither. - - 15^3. stay weel in. - - 15^4. she’ll never. - - 16^1. came to her father’s bowers. - - 17^1. tell to Lady. - - 17^3. You’r bidden stay well in your. - - 17^4. For yu’ll never enter his. - - 18^1. lily-white. - - 18^3. to the Earl himsell. - - 18^4. And wi that her bonny hairt did brack. - - 19^1. Dowie, dowie raise up her father. - - 19^2. And _wanting_: the black put on. - - 19^3. And _wanting_: his steed he mounted. - - 20^1. When he came to Earl Crawford’s gates. - - 20^2. They were all going to dine. - - 20^3. And were all drest in robes of white. - - 21^1. He says, You may put aff the robes o white. - - 21^3. And ye’ll put on the dowie black. - - 22^1. Earl Crawford took his hat in’s hand. - - 22^3. Says, If this be true that L[ady] L[illie’s]. - - 22^4. sin shall never shine. - - - - - 230 - - THE SLAUGHTER OF THE LAIRD OF MELLERSTAIN - - In a folio volume with the title “Miscellanies,” the last piece in - the volume, Abbotsford. - - -Birrel’s Diary has this entry under date of January 3, 1603: “The 3 of -Januar Johne Hai[t]lie of Millstanes slaine at the Salt Tron be Williame -Home hes guidfather. This William of Ball[int]a wes of the hous of -Cowdenknowis.” P. 57. In a proclamation of the Privy Council against -reset of criminals, 20th January, 1603, the list of cases begins with -“the reset of the persons who lately most shamefully and barbarously -slew the Laird of Mellestanes.” Register, VI, 525 f. There is nothing to -show that these persons were ever brought to justice, and the efforts -made by the public authorities to stop hostilities between the families -concerned were, as usual, not readily successful. April 28, 1608, the -parties to the “feud between James Haitlie, now of Mellirstanes [son of -John], and Mr James Home of Eccles, on account of the slaughter of John -Haitlie of Mellirstanes,” are ordered to appear before the Council on -the 12th of May following, to be reconciled and to chop hands together. -Register, VIII, 81 f. - -An entry of the 4th of December, 1599, censures Sir George Home, sheriff -of Berwick, for not proceeding against “William Home, younger, called of -Coldenknowis and now of Ballinta, who slew within the said shire Mr -Alexander Dicksoun,” and was denounced therefor 29th December, 1596. -This William we may presume to have been the undegenerate son of the -William whom Birrel calls Mellerstain’s “guidfather.” Register, VI, 57. - -The lady of st. 1 was Marion Lumsden (otherwise Mariot, Margaret), “Lady -Mellirstanes,” “relicta Joannis Haitlie de Mellerstanes.” Register P. -C., VIII, 101; 366, Register of the Great Seal, VI, 722. Mellerstain -stands on a rising ground near the right bank of the Eden, 1^2. -Cowdenknows in 3^1 may have been Sir John Home of Cowdenknows, named as -one of the curators of James Haitlie (a minor in 1607). Earlstoun is not -determinate. Bemerside is an alternative reading for Earlstoun. The -laird of Bemerside at the date of the slaughter was the turbulent James -Haig. The lady in st. 4 is looking in several directions for the arrival -of her husband’s body. (I have not found Fieldiesha and Yirdandstane.) -The Salt Tron is a locality of much note in the history of Edinburgh: -see Wilson’s Memorials, p. 249. - -This fragment appears to have come into Sir Walter Scott’s hands through -Mr W. Yellowlees, who filled out two of the defective stanzas, and -appended some remarks under the date of 29th October, 1828.[129] - - * * * * * - - 1 - . . . . . . . - As they came in by the Eden side, - They heard a lady lamenting sair, - Bewailing the time she was a bride. - - 2 - . . . . . . . - A stately youth of blude and lane, - . . . . . . . - John Hately, the laird of Mellerstain. - - 3 - ‘Cowdenknows, had ye nae lack? - And Earlstoun, had ye nae shame? - Ye took him away beside my back, - But ye never saw to bring him hame.’ - - 4 - And she has lookit to Fieldiesha, - So has she through Yirdandstane; - She lookit to Earlstoun, and she saw the Fans, - But he’s coming hame by West Gordon. - - 5 - And she staggerd and she stood, - - 6 - ’ . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . wude; - How can I keep in my wits, - When I look on my husband’s blood?’ - - 7 - ‘Had we been men as we are women, - And been at his back when he was slain, - It should a been tauld for mony a lang year, - The slaughter o the laird of Mellerstain.’ - - * * * * * - - 2^4 [James/John]Hately - - 3^2 [Earlstoun/Bemerside] had. - - _Between 3 and 4 are two half stanzas which belong to_ ‘James - Hatley,’ No. 241, _and are there given_. - - 4^1. Fieldies ha. - - 4^2. yird and stane. - - - - - 231 - - THE EARL OF ERROL - - #A. a.# ‘Kate Carnegie,’ Campbell MSS, II, 94. #b.# The Edinburgh - Magazine, or Literary Miscellany, June, 1803, p. 458. - - #B.# Skene MS., p. 113. - - #C.# ‘The Countess of Erroll,’ Buchan’s Ballads of the North of - Scotland, II, 176. - - #D. a.# ‘Lord and Lady Errol,’ Buchan’s Gleanings, p. 158. #b.# - ‘Errol’s Place,’ Maidment’s North Countrie Garland, p. 31. #c.# - ‘Earl of Errol,’ Kinloch’s Ballad Book, p. 31. - - #E.# Letters from and to Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, edited by - Alexander Allardyce, I, 180; Sharpe’s Ballad Book, p. 89, No. 31. - - #F.# ‘The Earl of Erroll,’ Kinloch MSS, III, 133. - - -Sir Gilbert Hay, tenth Earl of Errol, was married to Lady Catherine -Carnegy, younger daughter of James, second Earl of Southesk, January 7, -1658, and had no children by her. He died in 1674. The ballad, says the -person who communicated #A b# to the Edinburgh Miscellany, was “founded, -it would seem, on some attempt to withhold from the Earl of Errol his -consort’s portion.” It will be observed that the father proposes a -beguiling to his daughter, and that she is ready to assent, in #A#, 12, -13. - -It appears from a letter cited by Sharpe in his Ballad Book that the -matters treated in the ballad were agitating, and had even “come to -public hearing,” in February, 1659. - -Sir John Hay of Killour, as the nearest male heir, became the eleventh -Earl of Errol. His wife was Lady Anne Drummond, only daughter of James, -third Earl of Perth, so that the Earl of Perth might seem to have an -interest in this affair of Errol’s. She, however, was not born till -January, 1656. Perth is actually made the other party in legal -proceedings in #A a# 1, but in #A b# seems to espouse Errol’s side. - -Carnegy’s other daughter, who in most of the versions censures her -sister’s conduct, is called Jean in #A# 5, #D a# 7, #F# 10, Anne in #D b -c#. These are stock ballad-names, and we need not suppose that Anne -comes from Lady Anne Drummond. The older daughter’s name was Elizabeth. - -Errol is in the Carse of Gowrie, a tract noted for its fertility; which -accounts for #B# 2, #D a# 1, #D c# 1, #F# 2. - -#E#, #F# go the length of imputing to Lady Errol an attempt to poison -her husband with wine which she offers him. A page, of Errol’s kin, -exposes her in #E#; in #F# Errol gives the drink to a greyhound, and the -dog bursts. - -The last stanza of #A b#, #C#, #D c# has reference to “the ancient -separate maintenance of a lady dissatisfied with or apart from her -husband.” (Edinburgh Magazine, as above.) - -#E# is introduced in Sharpe’s letter by some pages of mild pleasantry in -the form of a preface to “a specimen of the fourth volume of the Border -Minstrelsy, speedily to be published.” - - * * * * * - - - A - - #a.# Campbell MSS., II, 94. #b.# The Edinburgh Magazine, or Literary - Miscellany, June, 1803, p. 458. - - 1 - There was a jury sat at Perth, - In the merry month of May, - Betwixt the noble Duke of Perth - But and Sir Gilbert Hay. - - 2 - My lord Kingside has two daughters, - They are proper, straight and tall; - But my lord Carnegie he has two - That far excells them all. - - 3 - Then Errol he has dressd him, - As very well he could; - I’m sure there was not one cloth-yard - But what was trimmd with gold. - - 4 - ‘Ane asking, ane asking, my lord Carnegie, - Ane asking I’ve to thee; - I’m come to court your daughter Jean, - My wedded wife to be.’ - - 5 - ‘My daughter Jean was wed yestreen, - To one of high degree, - But where Jean got one guinea of gold - With Kate I’ll give thee three. - - 6 - ‘Full fifteen hundred pounds - Had Jean Carnegie, - But three fifteen hundred pounds - With Kate I’ll gie to thee.’ - - 7 - Then Errol he has wed her, - And fairly brought her hame; - There was nae peace between them twa - Till they sundered oer again. - - 8 - When bells were rung, and mess was sung, - And a’ man bound to bed, - The Earl of Errol and his countess - In one chamber was laid. - - 9 - Early in the morning - My lord Carnegie rose, - The Earl of Errol and his countess, - And they’ve put on their clothes. - - 10 - Up spake my lord Carnegie; - ‘Kate, is your toucher won?’ - ‘Ye may ask the Earl of Errol, - If he be your good-son. - - 11 - ‘What need I wash my petticoat - And hing it on a pin? - For I am as leal a maid yet - As yestreen when I lay down. - - 12 - ‘What need I wash my apron - And hing it on the door? - It’s baith side and wide enough, - Hangs even down before.’ - - 13 - Up spake my lord Carnegie; - ‘O Kate, what do ye think ? - We’ll beguile the Earl of Errol - As lang as he’s in drink.’ - - 14 - ‘O what will ye beguile him wi? - Or what will ye do than? - I’ll swear before a justice-court - That he’s no a sufficient man.’ - - 15 - Then Errol he cam down the stair, - As bold as oney rae: - ‘Go saddle to me my Irish coach, - To Edinbro I’ll go.’ - - 16 - When he came to Edinbro, - He lighted on the green; - There were four-and-twenty maidens - A’ dancing in a ring. - - 17 - There were four-and-twenty maidens - A’ dancing in a row; - The fatest and the fairest - To bed wi him must go. - - 18 - He’s taen his Peggy by the hand, - And he led her thro the green, - And twenty times he kissd her there, - Before his ain wife’s een. - - 19 - He’s taen his Peggy by the hand, - And he’s led her thro the hall, - And twenty times he’s kissd her there, - Before his nobles all. - - 20 - ‘Look up, look up, my Peggy lass, - Look up, and think nae shame; - Ten hundred pounds I’ll gie to you - To bear to me a son.’ - - 21 - He’s keepit his Peggy in his room - Three quarter of a year, - And just at the nine months’ end - She a son to him did bear. - - 22 - ‘Now if ye be Kate Carnegie, - And I Sir Gilbert Hay, - I’ll make your father sell his lands - Your toucher for to pay.’ - - 23 - ‘To make my father sell his lands, - It wad be a great sin, - To toucher oney John Sheephead - That canna toucher win.’ - - 24 - ‘Now hold your tongue, ye whorish bitch, - Sae loud as I hear ye lie! - For yonder sits Lord Errol’s son, - Upon his mother’s knee; - For yonder sits Lord Errol’s son, - Altho he’s no by thee.’ - - 25 - ‘You may take hame your daughter Kate, - And set her on the glen; - For Errol canna please her, - Nor nane o Errol’s men; - For Errol canna please her, - Nor twenty of his men.’ - - 26 - The ranting and the roving, - The thing we a’ do ken, - The lady lost her right that night, - The first night she lay down; - And the thing we ca the ranting o’t, - The lady lies her lane. - - * * * * * - - - B - - Skene MS., p. 113; taken down from recitation in the north of - Scotland, 1802–3. - - 1 - Earell is a bonny place, - It stands upon yon plain; - The greatest faut about the place - Earell’s no a man. - What ye ca the danting o’t, - According as ye ken, - For the pearting... - Lady Earell lyes her lane. - - 2 - Earell is a bonny place, - It stands upon yon plain; - The roses they graw red an white, - An apples they graw green. - - 3 - ‘What need I my apron wash - An hing upon yon pin? - For lang will I gae out an in - Or I hear my bairnie’s din. - - 4 - ‘What need I my apron wash - An hing upo yon door? - For side and wide is my petticoat, - An even down afore. - - 5 - ‘But I will lace my stays again, - My middle jimp an sma; - I’l gae a’ my days a maiden. - [Awa], Earell, awa!’ - - 6 - It fell ance upon a day Lord Earell - Went to hunt him lane, - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - - 7 - He was na a mile fra the town, - Nor yet sae far awa, - Till his lady is on to Edinburgh, - To try hir all the law. - - 8 - Little did Lord Earell think, - Whan he sat down to dine, - That his lady was on to Edinburgh, - Nor what was in her mind. - - 9 - Till his best servant came - For to lat him ken - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - - 10 - She was na in at the toun-end, - Nor yet sae far awa, - Till Earell was at her back, - His gaudy locks to sha. - - 11 - She was na in at the loan-head, - Nor just at the end, - Till Earell he was at her back, - Her errand for to ken. - - 12 - ‘As lang as they ca ye Kate Carnegie, - An me Sir Gilbert Hay, - I’s gar yer father sell Kinaird, - Yer tocher for to pay.’ - - 13 - ‘For to gar my father sell Kinnaird, - It wad be a sin, - To gee it to ony naughty knight - That a tocher canna win.’ - - 14 - Out spak the first lord, - The best amang them a’; - ‘I never seed a lady come - Wi sick matters to the law.’ - - 15 - Out spak the neest lord, - The best o the town; - ‘Ye get fifteen well-fared maids, - An put them in a roun, - An Earell in the midst o them, - An lat him chuse out ane.’ - - 16 - They ha gotten fifteen well-fared maids, - An pit them in a roun, - An Earell in the mids o them, - An bad him chuse out ane. - - 17 - He viewed them a’ intill a raw, - Even up an down, - An he has chosen a well-fared may, - An Meggie was her name. - - 18 - He took her by the hand, - Afore the nobles a’, - An twenty times he kissed her mou, - An led her thro the ha. - - 19 - ‘Look up, Megie, look up, Megie, - [Look up,] an think na shame; - As lang as ye see my gaudy locks, - Lady Earell’s be yer name.’ - - 20 - There were fifteen noblemen, - An as mony ladies gay, - To see Earell proven a man - . . . . . . . - - 21 - ‘Ye tak this well-fared may, - And keep her three roun raiths o a year, - An even at the three raiths’ end - I sall draw near.’ - - 22 - They hae taen that well-fared may, - An keepd her three roun raiths o a year, - And even at the three raiths’ end - Earell’s son she bare. - - 23 - The gentlemen they ga a shout, - The ladies ga a caa, - Fair mat fa him Earell! - But ran to his lady. - - 24 - He was na in at the town-head, - Nor just at the end, - Till the letters they were waiting him - That Earell had a son. - - 25 - ‘Look up, Meggie, look up, Meggie, - [Look up,] an think na shame; - As lang as ye see my bra black hat, - Lady Earell’s be yer name. - - 26 - ‘I will gie my Meggie a mill, - But an a piece o land, - . . . . . . . - To foster my young son. - - 27 - ‘Faur is a’ my merry men a’, - That I pay meat an gaire, - To convey my Meggy hame, - . . . . . . .?’ - - 28 - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - Even in Lord Earell’s coach - They conveyed the lassie hame. - - 29 - ‘Take hame yer daughter, Lord Kinnaird, - An take her to the glen, - For Earell canna pleas her, - Earell nor a’ his men.’ - - 30 - ‘Had I ben Lady Earell, - Of sic a bonny place, - I wad na gaen to Edinburgh - My husband to disgrace.’ - - * * * * * - - - C - - Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, II, 176. - - 1 - Erroll it’s a bonny place, - It stands upon a plain; - A bad report this ladie’s raisd, - That Erroll is nae a man. - - 2 - But it fell ance upon a day - Lord Erroll went frae hame, - And he is on to the hunting gane, - Single man alane. - - 3 - But he hadna been frae the town - A mile but barely twa, - Till his lady is on to Edinburgh, - To gain him at the law. - - 4 - O Erroll he kent little o that - Till he sat down to dine, - And as he was at dinner set - His servant loot him ken. - - 5 - ‘Now saddle to me the black, the black, - Go saddle to me the brown, - And I will on to Edinburgh, - Her errands there to ken.’ - - 6 - She wasna well thro Aberdeen, - Nor passd the well o Spa, - Till Erroll he was after her, - The verity to shaw. - - 7 - She wasna well in Edinburgh, - Nor even thro the town, - Till Erroll he was after her, - Her errands there to ken. - - 8 - When he came to the court-house, - And lighted on the green, - This lord was there in time enough - To hear her thus compleen: - - 9 - ‘What needs me wash my apron, - Or drie ‘t upon a door? - What needs I eek my petticoat, - Hings even down afore? - - 10 - ‘What needs me wash my apron, - Or hing it upon a pin? - For lang will I gang but and ben - Or I hear my young son’s din.’ - - 11 - ‘They ca you Kate Carnegie,’ he says, - ‘And my name’s Gilbert Hay; - I’ll gar your father sell his land, - Your tocher down to pay.’ - - 12 - ‘To gar my father sell his land - For that would be a sin, - To such a noughtless heir as you, - That canno get a son.’ - - 13 - Then out it speaks him Lord Brechen, - The best an lord ava; - ‘I never saw a lady come - Wi sic matters to the law.’ - - 14 - Then out it speaks another lord, - The best in a’ the town; - ‘Ye’ll wyle out fifeteen maidens bright - Before Lord Erroll come:’ - And he has chosen a tapster lass, - And Meggie was her name. - - 15 - They kept up this fair maiden - Three quarters of a year, - And then at that three quarters’ end - A young son she did bear. - - 16 - They hae gien to Meggie then - Five ploughs but and a mill, - And they hae gien her five hundred pounds, - For to bring up her chill. - - 17 - There was no lord in Edinburgh - But to Meggie gae a ring; - And there was na a boy in a’ the town - But on Katie had a sang. - - 18 - ‘Kinnaird, take hame your daughter, - And set her to the glen, - For Erroll canna pleasure her, - Nor nane o Erroll’s men.’ - - 19 - Seven years on Erroll’s table - There stand clean dish and speen, - And every day the bell is rung, - Cries, Lady, come and dine. - - * * * * * - - - D - - #a.# Buchan’s Gleanings, p. 158. #b.# Maidment’s North Countrie - Garland, p. 31. #c.# Kinloch’s Ballad Book, p. 31. - - 1 - O Errol’s place is a bonny place, - It stands upon yon plain; - The flowers on it grow red and white, - The apples red and green. - The ranting o ‘t and the danting o ‘t, - According as ye ken, - The thing they ca the danting o ‘t, - Lady Errol lies her lane. - - 2 - O Errol’s place is a bonny place, - It stands upon yon plain; - But what’s the use of Errol’s place? - He’s no like other men. - - 3 - ‘As I cam in by yon canal, - And by yon bowling-green, - I might hae pleased the best Carnegy - That ever bore that name. - - 4 - ‘As sure’s your name is Kate Carnegy, - And mine is Gibbie Hay, - I’ll gar your father sell his land, - Your tocher for to pay.’ - - 5 - ‘To gar my father sell his land, - Would it not be a sin, - To give it to a naughtless lord - That couldna get a son?’ - - 6 - Now she is on to Edinburgh, - For to try the law, - And Errol he has followed her, - His manhood for to shaw. - - 7 - Then out it spake her sister, - Whose name was Lady Jane; - ‘Had I been Lady Errol,’ she says, - ‘Or come of sic a clan, - I would not in this public way - Have sham’d my own gudeman.’ - - 8 - But Errol got it in his will - To choice a maid himsel, - And he has taen a country-girl, - Came in her milk to sell. - - 9 - He took her by the milk-white hand, - And led her up the green, - And twenty times he kissd her there, - Before his lady’s een. - - 10 - He took her by the milk-white hand, - And led her up the stair; - Says, Thrice three hundred pounds I’ll gie - To you to bear an heir. - - 11 - He kept her there into a room - Three quarters of a year, - And when the three quarters were out - A braw young son she bear. - - 12 - ‘Tak hame your daughter, Carnegy, - And put her till a man, - For Errol he cannot please her, - Nor any of his men.’ - - * * * * * - - - E - - C. K. Sharpe’s Letters, ed. Allardyce, I, 180 ff; written down from - the recitation of Violet Roddick, a woman living near Hoddam Castle, - 1803. Sharpe’s Ballad Book, 1823, p. 89. - - 1 - O Errol it’s a bonny place, - It stands in yonder glen; - The lady lost the rights of it - The first night she gaed hame. - A waly and a waly! - According as ye ken, - The thing we ca the ranting o ‘t, - Our lady lies her lane, O. - - 2 - ‘What need I wash my apron, - Or hing it on yon door? - What need I truce my petticoat? - It hangs even down before.’ - - 3 - Errol’s up to Edinburgh gaen, - That bonny burrows-town; - He has chusit the barber’s daughter, - The top of a’ that town. - - 4 - He has taen her by the milk-white hand, - He has led her through the room, - And twenty times he’s kisst her, - Before his lady’s een. - - 5 - ‘Look up, look up now, Peggy, - Look up, and think nae shame, - For I’ll gie thee five hundred pound, - To buy to thee a gown. - - 6 - ‘Look up, look up, now, Peggy, - Look up, and think nae shame, - For I’ll gie thee five hundred pound - To bear to me a son. - - 7 - ‘As thou was Kate Carnegie, - And I Sir Gilbert Hay, - I’ll gar your father sell his lands, - Your tocher-gude to pay. - - 8 - ‘Now he may take her back again, - Do wi her what he can, - For Errol canna please her, - Nor ane o a’ his men.’ - - 9 - ‘Go fetch to me a pint of wine, - Go fill it to the brim, - That I may drink my gude lord’s health, - Tho Errol be his name.’ - - 10 - She has taen the glass into her hand, - She has putten poison in, - She has signd it to her dorty lips, - But neer a drop went in. - - 11 - Up then spake a little page, - He was o Errol’s kin; - ‘Now fie upon ye, lady gay, - There’s poison there within. - - 12 - ‘It’s hold your hand now, Kate,’ he says, - ‘Hold it back again, - For Errol winna drink on ‘t, - Nor none o a’ his men.’ - - 13 - She has taen the sheets into her arms, - She has thrown them oer the wa: - ‘Since I maun gae maiden hame again, - Awa, Errol, awa!’ - - 14 - She’s down the back o the garden, - And O as she did murne! - ‘How can a workman crave his wage, - When he never wrought a turn?’ - - * * * * * - - - F - - Kinloch MSS, III, 133. - - 1 - O Errol is a bonny place, - And stands upon yon plane, - But the lady lost the rights o it - Yestreen or she came hame. - - 2 - O Erroll is a bonny place, - And lyes forenent the sun, - And the apples they grow red and white, - And peers o bonny green. - - 3 - ‘I nedna wash my apron, - Nor hing it on the door; - But I may tuck my petticoat, - Hangs even down before. - - 4 - ‘Oh, Erroll, Erroll, - Oh, Erroll if ye ken, - Why sh_oul_d I love Erroll, - Or any of his men?’ - - 5 - She’s turned her right and round about, - Poured out a glass o wine; - Says, I will drink to my true love, - He’ll drink to me again. - - 6 - O Erroll stud into the fleer, - He was an angry man: - ‘See here it is a good gray-hun, - We’ll try what is the run.’ - - 7 - Then Erroll stud into the fleer, - Steered neither ee nor bree, - Till that he saw his good gray-hun - Was burst and going free. - - 8 - ‘But ye are Kate Carnegie,’ he said, - ‘And I am Sir Gilbert Hay; - I’se gar your father sell Kinnaird, - Your tocher-good to pay.’ - - 9 - Now she is on to Edinburgh, - A’ for to use the law, - And brave Erroll has followed her, - His yellow locks to sheu. - - 10 - Out and spak her sister Jean, - And an angry woman was she; - ‘If I were lady of Erroll, - And hed as fair a face, - I w_oul_d no go to Edinburgh, - My good lord to disgrace.’ - - * * * * * - -#A. a.# - - 23^4. toucher one. - - 26. _May have been a burden._ - -#b.# - - Ballad of Gilbert, Earl of Errol, and Lady Catherine Carnegie - - . . . . . . . - - 13 - Up spake Lord Carnegie, - ’ O Kate, what do you think? - We’ll beguile the Earl of Errol, - As long as he’s in drink.’ - - 14 - ‘O what need you beguile him? - Or what would you do than? - For I can easy vow and testify - Lord Errol’s not a man. - - 12 - ‘You need not wash my petticoat - And hang it at the door; - For it’s baith side and wide enough, - And hangs even down before. - - 11 - ‘You need not wash my apron - And hang it on a pin; - For I’m as leil a maiden - As first when I went in.’ - - 15 - Down came the Earl of Errol, - As swift as any roe: - ‘Come harness me my Irish coach, - To Edinburgh I go.’ - - 16 - And when he came to Edinburgh, - A ganging through the green, - Full four-and-twenty maidens - A’ dancing there were seen. - - 17 - And there were fifteen maidens - All dancing in a row, - And the fairest and the fattest - To prove that she must go. - - 18 - He’s taen his Peggy by the hand, - And led her through the green, - And twenty times he’s kissed her, - Before his lady’s een. - - 19 - He’s taen his Peggy by the hand, - And led her through the hall, - And twenty times he’s kissed her, - Before the nobles all. - - He’s taen his Peggy by the hand, - And led her to a room, - And gave her a cup of claret wine, - And syne a bed of down. - - - 20^{1,2} - ‘Stand up, stand up, my Peggy, - Stand up, and think na shame, - Na hide your face within your hand, - On me be all the blame. - - ‘For you shall have a thousand pounds - As soon as it is won, - 20^{3,4} - And you shall have ten thousand pounds - If you bear to me a son.’ - - 21 - He kept his Peggy in a room - Full nine months and a day, - And at the very nine months’ end - She bore a son so gay. - - As they were all at dinner sat, - And merrily went the can, - Up spake the noble Earl of Perth, - ‘Kate, what ails you at your man?’ - - ‘Oh, all the lands and earldom - Are now to ruin gone, - For I can easy vow and testify - He’ll never get a son.’ - - 24^{1–4} - ‘Ye lie, ye lie, you filthy jade, - So loud I hear you lie! - For there sits Lord Errol’s son, - Upon his mither’s knee.’ - - 22 - ‘As you are Kate Carnegie - And I Sir Gilbert Hay, - I’ll gar your father sell his land - Your tocher for to pay.’ - - 23 - ‘To gar my father sell his land - I’m sure would be a sin, - For to tocher any John Sheephead - Who could neer a tocher win.’ - - 25^{1–4} - ‘You may take hame your daughter Kate, - And set her in a glen, - For Lord Errol cannot please her, - Nor none of Errol’s men. - - ‘You may provide a knife and fork, - A trencher and a spoon, - A little boy to call her, - Come to your dinner, dame; - A little boy to call her - Till seven years are done.’ - -#B.# - - _Written in long lines, without division into stanzas; carelessly - and in a bad hand, like other transcripts by Skene. The frequent - gaps (of which only one is indicated, 5^4) make the division - here adopted doubtful in some cases._ - - _The burden is given at the end only, and is badly corrupted._ 1. - the Darton all. 3. Pearting? - - 7^4. hir all. _Corrupted?_ hir, _or_ him, at? - - 10^1. tour end: _see_ 24^{1–2}. - - 15^3, 16^3. Earl. - - 20^2. gay ladies. - - 23^4. _Corrupted? some malediction on the lady?_ - - 27^2. gaire is, _I suppose_, gear. - -#D.# #b.# - - _Burden._ - 1. The wally o ‘t, the wally o ‘t. - 3. the ranting o ‘t. - 4. Our lady lies alane. - - 1^3. at it. - - 3^1. It’s I. - - 4^1. As sure as you’re Jean. - - 4^2. And I am. - - 4^3. I’ll cause. - - 5^1. To cause. - - 5^2. I think would be. - - 5^3. give to such a rogue as you. - - 5^4. Who never could it win. - - 6^1. So he must go. - - 6^2. Amang the nobles a’. - - 6^3. And there before good witnesses. - - 7^2. was called Miss Anne. - - 9^3. she says _wanting_. - - 8–12 - A servant girl there was found out, - On whom to show his skill; - He gave to her a hundred pounds, - To purchase her good-will. - - And still he cried, Look up, Peggy, - Look up, and think no shame, - And you shall have your hundred pounds - Before I lay you down. - - Now he has lain him down wi her, - A hundred pounds in pawn, - And all the noblemen cried out - That Errol is a man. - - ‘Tak hame your daughter,’ Errol said, - ‘And tak her to a glen, - For Errol canna pleasure her, - Nor can no other man.’ - -#c.# - - _Burden._ - 1. And the. - 3. And the thing we. - 4. Is, Errol’s na a man. - - 1^1, 2^1. O Errol is. - - 1^2. Into the simmer time. - - 1^3. The apples they grow. - - 1^4. And the pears they grow green. - - 3^4. bore the. - - 4^1. Tho your name be Dame Cathrine Carnegie. - - 4^2. mine Sir Gilbert. - - 4^3. sell Kinnaird. - - 4^4. tocher gude to. - - 5^1. If ye gar my father sell Kinnaird. - - 5^2. ‘T will be a crying. - - 5^{3,4}. To tocher onie weary dwrf, That canna tocher win. - - 6^1. The lady is. - - 6^2. A’ for. - - 6^4. His ainsell. - - 7^1. O up bespak. - - 7^2. Lady Ann. - - 7^3. she says _wanting_. - - _After 7, two stanzas which are clearly a spurious interpolation._ - - 8^1. Errol has got (But _wanting_). - - 8^3. has chosen a weel-faurd may. - - 8^4. Come. _After 8_ (==10): - - ‘Look up, look up, my weel-faurd may, - Look up, and think na shame; - I’ll gie to thee five hundred merk - To bear to me a son.’ - - 9^1. He’s tane the lassie by the han. - - 9^3. there _wanting_. - - 9^4. Afore. - - _After 9_: - - When they war laid in the proof-bed, - And a’ the lords looking on, - Then a’ the fifteen vowd and swore - That Errol was a man. - - 11^1. But they hae keepit this lassie. - - 11^3. And at the end o nine lang months. - - 11^4. A son to him she bare. - - _After 11_: - - And there was three thairbut, thairbut, - And there was three thairben, - And three looking oure the window hie, - Crying, Errol’s provd a man! - - And whan the word gaed thro the toun, - The sentry gied a cry, - ‘O fair befa you, Errol, now! - For ye hae won the day.’ - - ‘O I’ll tak off my robes o silk, - And fling them oure the wa, - And I’ll gae maiden hame again, - Awa, Errol, awa!’ - - 12^1. Sir Carnegie. - - 12^2. till the glen. - - 12^3. he _wanting_. - - 12^4. nane o Errol’s. - - (_12 is found in Kinloch’s MSS,_ VII, 95, _with_ Sir Carnegie - _beginning the line._) - - _After 12_: - - And ilka day her plate was laid, - Bot an a siller spune, - And three times cried oure Errol’s yett, - ‘Lady Errol, come and dine.’ - - _Kinloch gives the following as a variant. It is found in - Kinloch’s MSS_, VII, 95: - - Seven years the trencher sat, - And seven years the spune; - Seven years the servant cried, - ‘Lady Errol, come and dine.’ - - _Burden, at the end._ 3. ye ca. 4. Lady Errol lies her leen. - -#E.# - - _Sharpe made these changes in his Ballad Book_: - - 3^4. the toss. - - 4^2. He’s led her oer the green. - - 4^3. he kist. - - 7^1. Your name is. - - 7^2. And I’m. - - 12^3. shall not. - -#F.# - - 1^1, 2^1, 6^1. Oh. - - - - - 232 - - RICHIE STORY - - #A.# ‘Ritchie Storie,’ Motherwell’s MS., p. 426. - - #B.# Skene MS., p. 96. - - #C. a.# ‘Richie Story,’ “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border - Minstrelsy,” No 65, MS. of Thomas Wilkie, 1813–15, p. 53, - Abbotsford. #b.# ‘Ritchie’s Tory Laddie,’ Campbell MSS, II, 116. - - #D.# ‘Richy Story,’ the late Mr Robert White’s papers. - - E. ‘Richard Storie,’ “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border - Minstrelsy,” No 76, Abbotsford. - - #F. a.# ‘Richie Storie,’ Sharpe’s Ballad Book, 1823, p. 95. #b.# - ‘Richie Storrie,’ Nimmo, Songs and Ballads of Clydesdale, 1882, p. - 211. - - #G. a.# ‘Richard Storry,’ Kinloch MSS, I, 203. #b.# ‘Richie Tory,’ - Gibb MS., p. 77. #c.# ‘Ritchie’s Lady,’ Murison MS., p. 82. #d.# - ‘Richie’s Lady,’ Christie’s Traditional Ballad Airs, I, 72. #e.# - Kinloch MSS, VII, 263, a fragment. #f.# ‘The Earl of Winton’s - Daughter,’ Buchan’s MSS, I, 87. - - #H.# The Scots Magazine, 1803, LXV, 253, one stanza. - - -The youngest (eldest, #A#) and fairest of the daughters of the Earl of -Wigton, #A#, #F# (bonniest of his sisters, #E#), has fallen in love with -her footman, Richie Story (Tory). Richie brings her a letter from a -nobleman who desires to be her suitor; the Earl of Hume, #A#, #B#, #F#, -#G a#, #d#, #e#; the Earl of Hume’s son, #D#; the Earl of Aboyne, #E#; -of Cumbernauld, #G b#; of Mohun, #G c#; of Wemyss, #G f# and a variant -of #E#; the Earls of Hume and Skimmerjim, Skimmerham (Kimmerghame), #C#. -The lady has made a vow, and will keep it, to marry none but Richie. -Richie deprecates; he has nothing to maintain her with; she is ready to -descend to the lowest fortune. (In several versions she has enough of -her own. Hunten Tour and Tillebarn and the House of Athol are hers, #B#; -Musselburgh, #C#; the House of Athol and Taranadie, #G d#; -Blair-in-Athol and Dunkeld, #H#.) Asked by her sister, by Richie, or by -some one else, whether she is not sorry to have left Cumbernauld (Castle -Norry, #G f#) to follow a footman, she answers that there is no reason, -she has her heart’s desire and the lot that was ordained her. As she -goes up the Parliament close, rides through Edinburgh town, Glasgow city -(London city, #C b#, absurdly), she is greeted by many a lord, but few -or none of them thought she was a footman’s lady. Arrived at the -domicile of the Storys, her good-mother bids her, gars her, kilt up her -coats and muck the byres with Richie. - -#F#, #G#, are not satisfied with this conclusion. The footman is really -a lover in disguise, the Earl of Hume or of Cumbernauld, #F#, #G a b#. -(#G b 2# spoils the plot by making the Earl of Hume write to the lady -that he will be her footman-laddie.) Four-and-twenty gentlemen welcome -the bride at Ritchie’s gates, or elsewhere, and she blesses the day that -she was Richie’s lady. This is incontestably a later invention. - -#G f#, which is otherwise embellished, goes a good step beyond #G a-e#. -Richie is an Englishman and takes the lady to London. ‘Madam’ has left -her kindred to gang with a servant; he has ‘left the sceptre and the -crown’ her servant for to be; little she knew that her waiting-man was -England’s royal king. - -“Lillias Fleming, second daughter of John, Earl of Wigton by his wife -Jane Drummond (a daughter of the Earl of Perth), did elope with and -marry one of her father’s servants, named Richard Storry. In 1673, she, -with consent of her husband, resigned her portion, consisting of the -five-merk land of Smythson, etc., in the barony of Lenzie, into the -hands of her brother, Lieutenant-Colonel Fleming. The Fleming family -afterwards procured for Richie a situation in the Custom-House.” So -Hunter, Biggar and the House of Fleming, p. 555, and, in part, Douglas’s -Peerage, where, however, Lady Lillias is said to have married Richard -Storry, “Esq.:” ed. Wood, II, 616. - -Douglas notes that “John, third Earl of Wigton, ... had a charter of the -lordship of Cumbernauld, 1st February, 1634.” This place (Comarnad, -Campernadie, etc., #B#, #D#, #G a#, #c#, #d#) is in Dumbartonshire. In -#F 11# it is attributed to the young Earl of Hume, and the disguised -lover is the Earl of Cumbernauld in #G b#. - -The lady, ready for any extremity, says in #F 6# that she will lie ayont -a dyke (on the other side of a wall), in #E 6# sit below the dyke, in #D -5# sit aneath the duke, and that she will be at Richie’s command at all -times. This matter was not understood by the reciter of #B#, and in #B -7# the lady is made to say, We will go to sea, I’ll sit upon the _deck_ -(and be your servant, as in the other cases). In #A# the difficulty, -such as it is, seems to have been evaded, and we read, #6#, I’ll live -whereer you please (and be ready at your call late or early). - -For the relation of this ballad to ‘Huntingtower’ and ‘The Duke of -Athol,’ see an appendix. - - * * * * * - - - A - - Motherwell’s MS., p. 426; from the recitation of Mrs ——, of - Kilbarchan, January 3, 1826. - - 1 - The Earl of Wigton had three daughters, - Oh and a waly, but they were unco bonnie! - The eldest of them had the far brawest house, - But she’s fallen in love with her footman-laddie. - - 2 - As she was a walking doun by yon river-side, - Oh and a wally, but she was unco bonnie! - There she espied her own footman, - With ribbons hanging over his shoulders sae bonnie. - - 3 - ‘Here’s a letter to you, madame, - Here’s a letter to you, madame; - The Earl of Hume is waiting on, - And he has his service to you, madame.’ - - 4 - ‘I’ll have none of his service,’ says she, - ‘I’ll have none of his service,’ says she, - ‘For I’ve made a vow, and I’ll keep it true, - That I’ll marry none but you, Ritchie.’ - - 5 - ‘O say not so again, madame, - O say not so again, madame; - For I have neither lands nor rents - For to keep you on, madam.’ - - 6 - ‘I’ll live where eer you please, Ritchie, - I’ll live where eer you please, [Ritchie,] - And I’ll be ready at your ca’, - Either late or early, Ritchie.’ - - 7 - As they went in by Stirling toun, - O and a wally, but she was unco bonnie! - A’ her silks were sailing on the ground, - But few of them knew of Ritchie Story. - - 8 - As they went in by the Parliament Close, - O and a wally, but she was unco bonnie! - All the nobles took her by the hand, - But few of them knew she was Ritchie’s lady. - - 9 - As they came in by her goodmother’s yetts, - O and a wally, but she was unco bonnie! - Her goodmother bade her kilt her coats, - And muck the byre with Ritchie Storie. - - 10 - ‘Oh, may not ye be sorry, madame, - Oh, may not ye be sorry, madame, - To leave a’ your lands at bonnie Cumbernaud, - And follow home your footman-laddie?’ - - 11 - ‘What need I be sorry?’ says she, - ‘What need I be sorry?’ says she, - ‘For I’ve gotten my lot and my heart’s desire, - And what Providence has ordered for me.’ - - * * * * * - - - B - - Skene MS., p. 96; taken down in the north of Scotland, 1802–3. - - 1 - Comarnad is a very bonny place, - And there is ladies three, madam, - But the fairest and rairest o them a’ - Has married Richard Storry. - - 2 - ‘O here is a letter to ye, madam, - Here is a letter to ye, madam; - The Earle of Hume, that gallant knight, - Has fallen in love wi ye, madam.’ - - 3 - ‘There is a letter to ye, madam, - [There is a letter to ye, madam;] - That gallant knight, the Earl of Hume, - Desires to be yer servan true, madam. - - 4 - ‘I’ll hae nane o his letters, Richard, - I’ll hae nane o his letters, [Richard;] - I hae voued, and will keep it true, - I’ll marry nane but ye, Richie.’ - - 5 - ‘Say ne sae to me, lady, - Say ne sae to me, [lady,] - For I hae neither lands nor rents - To mentain ye, lady.’ - - 6 - ‘Hunten Tour and Tillebarn, - The House o Athol is mine, Richie, - An ye sal hae them a’ - Whan ere ye incline, Richie. - - 7 - ‘For we will gae to sea, Richie, - I’ll sit upon the deck, Richie, - And be your servant ere and late, - At any hour ye like, [Richie.’] - - 8 - ‘O manna ye be sad, sister, - An mann ye be sae sorry, - To leave the house o bonny Comarnad, - An follow Richard Storry?’ - - 9 - ‘O what neads I be sad, sister, - An how can I be sorry? - A bonny lad is my delit, - And my lot has been laid afore me.’ - - 10 - As she went up the Parliament Close, - Wi her laced shoon so fine, - Many ane bad the lady good day, - But few thought o Richard’s lady. - - 11 - As she gaed up the Parliament Close, - Wi her laced shoon so fine, - Mony ane hailed that gay lady, - But few hailed Richard Storry. - - * * * * * - - - C - - #a.# “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 65, MS. - of Thomas Wilkie, 1813–15, p. 53, from the singing or recitation of - Miss Euphemia Hislope. #b.# Campbell MSS, II, 116. - - 1 - There are three white hens i the green, madam, - There are three white hens i the green, madam, - But Richie Story he’s comd by, - And he’s stollen away the fairest of them. - - 2 - ‘O are’int ye now sad, sister, - O are’in[t] ye now sad, sister, - To leave your bowers and your bony Skimmerknow, - And follow the lad they call Richie Story?’ - - 3 - ‘O say not that again, sister, - O say not that again, sister, - For he is the lad that I love best, - And he is the lot that has fallen to me.’ - - 4 - ‘O there’s a letter to thee, madam, - O there’s a letter to thee, madam; - The Earl of Hume and Skimmerjim, - For to be sweethearts to thee, madam.’ - - 5 - ‘But I’ll hae none of them, Richie, - But I’ll hae none of them, Richie, - For I have made a vow, and I’ll keep it true, - I’ll have none but Ric[h]ie Story.’ - - 6 - ‘O say not that again, madam, - O say not that again, madam, - For the Earl of Hume and Skimmerjim, - They are men of high renown.’ - - 7 - ‘Musslebury’s mine, Richie, - Musslebury’s mine, Richie, - And a’ that’s mine it shall be thine, - If you will marry me, Richie.’ - - 8 - As she went up through Glasgow city, - Her gold watch was shining pretty; - Many [a] lord bade her good day, - But none thought she was a footman’s lady. - - 9 - As she went up through London city, - There she met her scolding minny: - ‘Cast off your silks and kilt your coats, - And muck the byre wi Richie Story.’ - - 10 - ‘Hold your tongue, my scolding minnie, - Hold your tongue, my scolding minnie; - For I’ll cast of my silks and kilt my coats, - And muck the byres wi Richie Story.’ - - * * * * * - - - D - - The late Mr Robert White’s papers. - - 1 - As I came in by Thirlwirl Bridge, - A coming frae the land of fair Camernadie, - There I met my ain true love, - Wi ribbons at her shoulders many. - - 2 - ‘Here is a letter to you, madam; - [Here is a letter to you, madam;] - The Earl of Hume’s eldest son - Sent this letter to you, madam. - - 3 - ‘I’ll have none of his [letters], Richy, - I’ll have none of his letters, Richy; - I made a vow, and I’ll keep it true, - I’ll wed wi nane but you, Richy.’ - - 4 - ‘Say not so again, madam, - Say not so again, madam; - I have neither lands nor rents - To maintain you on, madam.’ - - 5 - ‘I’ll sit aneath the duke, Richy, - I’ll sit aneath the duke, Richy; - I’ll sit on hand, at your command - At ony time ye like, Richy.’ - - 6 - As they came in by Thirlewirle bridge, - A coming frae fair Cummernadie, - She brak the ribbons that tied her shoon - Wi following after the footman-laddie. - - 7 - ‘O but ye be sad, sister, - O but ye be sad and sorry, - To leave the lands o bonnie Cummernad, - To gang alang wi a footman-laddie!’ - - 8 - ‘How can I be sad, sister? - How can I be sad or sorry? - I have gotten my heart’s delight; - And what can ye get mair?’ says she. - - 9 - To the house-end Richy brought his lady, - To the house-end Richy brought his lady; - Her mother-in-law gart her kilt her coats, - And muck the byre wi Richy Story. - - * * * * * - - - E - - “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 76, - Abbotsford. - - 1 - The Earl of Wigton has seven sisters, - And O but they be wondrous bonnie! - And the bonniest lass amang them a’ - Has fallen in love wi Richie Storie. - - 2 - As I came down by yon river-side, - And down by the banks of Eache bonnie, - There I met my own true-love, - Wi ribbons on her shoulders bonnie. - - 3 - ‘Here is a letter for you, madam, - Here is a letter for you, madam; - The Earl of Aboyne has a noble design - To be a suitor to you, madam.’ - - 4 - ‘I’ll hae nane of his letters, Richie, - I’ll hae nane of his letters, Richie, - For I’ve made a vow, and I’ll keep it true, - That I’ll hae nane but you, Richie.’ - - 5 - ‘Take your word again, madam, - Take your word again, madam, - For I have neither land nor rents - For to mentain you on, madam.’ - - 6 - ‘I’ll sit below the dyke, Richie, - I’ll sit below the dyke, Richie, - And I will be at your command - At ony time you like, Richie. - - 7 - ‘Ribbons you shall wear, Richie, - Ribbons you shall wear, Richie, - A cambric band about your neck, - And vow but ye’ll be braw, Richie!’ - - 8 - As they came in by the West Port, - The naps of gold were bobbing bonnie; - Many a one bade this lady gude-day, - But neer a one to Richie Storie. - - 9 - As they came up the Parliament Close, - Naps of gold were bobbing bonnie; - Many a gentleman lifted his cap, - But few kennd she was Richie’s lady. - - 10 - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - And ay methinks we’ll drink the night - In Cambernauld sae bonnie. - - 11 - ‘It’s are not you sick, sister, - Are not you very sorrie, - To leave the lands of bonnie Cambernauld, - And run awae wi Richie Storie?’ - - 12 - ‘Why should I be sick, sister, - O why should I be any sorrie, - When I hae gotten my heart’s delight? - I hae gotten the lot was laid afore me.’ - - * * * * * - - - F - - #a.# Sharpe’s Ballad Book, p. 95, 1823. #b#. Nimmo, Songs and - Ballads of Clydesdale, p. 211, 1882. - - 1 - The Erle o Wigton had three daughters, - O braw wallie, but they were bonnie! - The youngest o them, and the bonniest too, - Has fallen in love wi Richie Storie. - - 2 - ‘Here’s a letter for ye, madame, - Here’s a letter for ye, madame; - The Erle o Home wad fain presume - To be a suitor to ye, madame.’ - - 3 - ‘I’l hae nane o your letters, Richie; - I’l hae nane o your letters, Richie; - For I’ve made a vow, and I’ll keep it true, - That I’l have none but you, Richie.’ - - 4 - ‘O do not say so, madame; - O do not say so, madame; - For I have neither land nor rent, - For to maintain you o, madame. - - 5 - ‘Ribands ye maun wear, madame, - Ribands ye maun wear, madame; - With the bands about your neck - O the goud that shines sae clear, madame.’ - - 6 - ‘I’l lie ayont a dyke, Richie, - I’l lie ayont a dyke, Richie; - And I’l be aye at your command - And bidding, whan ye like, Richie.’ - - 7 - O he’s gane on the braid, braid road, - And she’s gane through the broom sae bonnie, - Her silken robes down to her heels, - And she’s awa wi Richie Storie. - - 8 - This lady gade up the Parliament stair, - Wi pendles in her lugs sae bonnie; - Mony a lord lifted his hat, - But little did they ken she was Richie’s lady. - - 9 - Up then spak the Erle o Home’s lady; - ‘Was na ye richt sorrie, Annie, - To leave the lands o bonnie Cumbernauld - And follow Richie Storie, Annie?’ - - 10 - ‘O what need I be sorrie, madame? - O what need I be sorrie, madame? - For I’ve got them that I like best, - And war ordained for me, madame.’ - - 11 - ‘Cumbernauld is mine, Annie, - Cumbernauld is mine, Annie; - And a’ that’s mine, it shall be thine, - As we sit at the wine, Annie.’ - - * * * * * - - - G - - #a.# Kinloch MSS, I, 203, from Alexander Kinnear, of Stonehaven. - #b.# Gibb MS., p. 77, from Mrs Gibb, senior. #c.# Murison MS., p. - 82. #d#. Christie’s Traditional Ballad Airs, I, 72, from the - recitation of a native of Buchan. #e.# Kinloch MSS, VII, 263 (a - fragment). #f.# Buchan’s MSS, I, 87. - - 1 - There were five ladies lived in a bouer, - Lived in a bouer at Cumbernaldie; - The fairest and youngest o them a’ - Has fa’n in love wi her footman-laddie. - - 2 - ‘Here is a letter to you, ladye, - Here is a letter to you, ladye; - The Earl o Hume has written doun - That he will be your footman-laddie.’ - - 3 - ‘I want nane o his service, Ritchie, - I want nane o his service, Ritchie; - For I’ve made a vow, and I’ll keep it true, - That I’ll wed nane but thee, Ritchie.’ - - 4 - ‘O that canna be, ladye, - O that canna be, ladye; - For I’ve neither house nor land, - Nor ought suiting ye, ladye.’ - - 5 - ‘Livd ye on yonder hill, Ritchie, - Livd ye on yonder hill, Ritchie, - There’s my hand, I’m at your command, - Marry me whan ye will, Ritchie!’ - - 6 - This boy he went to his bed, - It was a’ to try this fair ladye; - But she went up the stair to him: - ‘Ye maun leave your comrades, Ritchie. - - 7 - ‘To the Borders we maun gang, Ritchie, - To the Borders we maun gang, Ritchie, - For an my auld father he get word, - It’s you he will cause hang, Ritchie.’ - - 8 - ‘To the Borders we’ll na gang, ladye, - To the Borders we’ll na gang, ladye; - For altho your auld father got word, - It’s me he dare na hang, ladye.’ - - 9 - As they passed by her mither’s bouer, - O but her sisters they were sorry! - They bade her tak aff the robes o silk, - And muck the byres wi Ritchie Storry. - - 10 - Whan they cam to yon hie hill, - Dear vow, but the lady she was sorry! - She looked oure her left showther— - ‘O an I war in bonny Cumbernaldie!’ - - 11 - ‘O are na ye sorry now, ladye, - O are na ye sorry now, ladye, - For to forsake the Earl o Hume, - And follow me, your footman-laddie?’ - - 12 - ‘How could I be sorry, Ritchie, - How could I be sorry, Ritchie? - Such a gudely man as you, - And the lot that lies afore me, Ritchie.’ - - 13 - As they rode up through Edinburgh toun, - Her gowd watch hang doun sae gaudie; - Monie a lord made her a bow, - But nane o them thoucht she was Ritchie’s ladye. - - 14 - Whan they cam to Ritchie’s yetts, - Dear vow, but the music playd bonnie! - There were four-and-twenty gay ladies - To welcome hame Richard Storry’s ladye. - - 15 - He called for a priest wi speed, - A priest wi speed was soon ready, - And she was na married to the Earl of Hume, - But she blesses the day she got Richard Storry. - - 16 - A coach and six they did prepare, - A coach and six they did mak ready, - A coach and six they did prepare, - And she blesses the day made her Ritchie’s lady. - - * * * * * - - - H - - The Scots Magazine, LXV, 253, 1803, James Hogg. - - Blair-in-Athol’s mine, Ritchie, - Blair-in-Athol’s mine, Ritchie, - And bonny Dunkeld, where I do dwell, - And these shall a’ be thine, Ritchie. - - * * * * * - -#A.# - - 5^1. Oh. - - 7^4. Ritchie’s story. - -#B.# - - 7^4. ye lake, _or_ take. - - 8^2. manna ye be sorry? - - 9^2. An who. - -#C. a.# - - _The air is said in the MS. to be beautiful and very plaintive._ - - 5^{1,2}. madam _instead of_ Richie. _Richie in_ #b#. - - 6^3. Skimmerjim _is glossed in the margin_ Kimmerghame. - - 8^1. _Written twice._ - - 8^2. hining. shining _in_ #b#. - -#b.# - - 2^{1,2}, 3^{1,2}, 4^{1,2}, 5^{1,2}, 6^{1,2}, _are written in one - line_. - - 10^2. _is indicated by_ &c. - - 1^{1,2}. There’s. - - 1^3. And Richies tory he’s come by. - - 2^{1,2}. O care ye not sad. - - 2^3. Skimmer knowes. - - 2^4. And go wi the lad they ca Richies tory. - - 3^{1,2}. not so again. - - 4^{1,2}. O _wanting_. - - 4^2. madam _wanting_. - - 4^3. For the: Skimmerham. - - 4^4. They will be: to you. - - 5^{1,2}. Richie, _for_ madam _of_ #a#. - - 5^4. none but thee, Richie. - - 6. _Wanting._ - - 7^2. Richie _wanting_. - - 8^1. London city. - - 8^2. shining. - - 8^3. Many a. - - 8^4. But few thought her a. - - 9^2. mammy. - - 9^4. Richies Torry. - - 10^{1,2}. Now hold: mammy. - - 10^3. and cast (_wrongly_). - - 10^4. And I’ll muck the byre wi Richies Torry. - -#D.# - - 1^4. At his? _The ribbons seem more likely to belong to the - footman_: _see_ #A# 2, #G f# 1. _But compare_ #E 2#, #G d#, - _after_ 1. - -#E.# - - 1^4. _Var._: wi her brother’s foot-boy. - - 2^3. On his? - - 3^3. _Var._: Earl Wemyss. - - 11^3. _Marginal note_: Lady Hume, whose son was suitor to the - runnaway lady. - -#F. b.# - - _Evidently furbished, and therefore not collated. After 6 is - inserted this stanza, corresponding to 11_: - - Fair Powmoodie is mine, dear Richie, - And goud and pearlins too; - Gin ye’ll consent to be mine, dear Richie, - I will gie them a’ to you. - -#G.# - - _Trivial variations are not noticed._ - -#a#, - - 15^{3,4}. _It is certain from 16 and from other copies of G that - she was married to the_ Earl of Hume, _but I have let the text - stand as delivered._ - -#b.# - - _Stanzas_ 1, 9^{3,4}, 2, 7, 8, 10–14, 15^{3,4} (?), 16: _four - marked as wanting_. - - 1^{1,2}. Theres seven bonny ladies in yonder ha (_twice_). - - 1^3. The youngest an bonniest amon. - - 2^{3,4}. It’s from the Earl o Cumbernauld, An he is seekin you, - lady. - - 7^1. we will go, Richie. - - 7^2. go, laddie. - - 9^3. Ye’ll cast aff your gowns o silk. - - 9^4. wi your Richie Tory. - - 10^{1,2}. As they gaed down by yon bonny waterside, O but the sma - birds they sang bonnie! - - 11^2. sorry, lassie. - - 11^3. To leave the Earl o Cumbernauld. - - 12^2. sorry, laddie. - - 12^{3,4}. The thing that’s afore us we maun endure, So what need I - be sorry, laddie? - - 13^{1,2}. As they gaed down by yon bonny waterside, O but her gold - watch it hung bonny! - - 13^3. #a# ane gaed her a low bow. - - 13^4. But few kent she. - - 14^{1,2}. As she gaed doun by yon bonny ha-house, Oh but the - pibrochs they sang bonny! - - 14^3. f. an t. belted knichts. - - 15^{3,4}. Says, I’m the Earl o Cumbernauld, That for your sake was - a footman-laddie. - - 16^{3,4}. Now she rides in her coach-an-six, An blesses the day - she saw Richie Tory. - -#c.# - - 11 _stanzas_: 1, 6–9, 13, 10, 14, 16, _and_ 11, 12 _as a “chorus” - to each of the others_. - - 1^{1,2}. Seven sisters in yonder ha, Seven sisters in Campernadie. - - 6^{1–3}. Ritchie he went up the stair, Thinking for to meet his - lady; But sae quick as she turnëd round. - - 7^{1,2}. we will go. - - 8^{1,2}. I’ll nae go. - - 9^1. they rode up by her sisters’ bowers. - - 9^3. Says, Ye mann tak aff the goons. - - 9^4. byres, nor wi Ritchie tarry. - - 10^2. lady grew unco weary. - - 10^4. were back at Campernadie. - - 11^3. the yerl o Mohun. - - 11^4. And wed wi me but. - - 12^{3,4}. - What is before me must nae I endure? - An why should I be sorry, Ritchie? - - 13^2. O but her gowd it was shinin bonnie! - - 13^3. Monie ane gae her a low bow. - - 13^4. But few o. - - 14^1. As they rode doon by yonder glen. - - 14^2. the organs they. - - 14^{3,4}. Four-an-twenty gentlemen Cam a’. - - 16^3. An now she rides in her coach-an-six. - -#d.# - - 16 _stanzas_: 1; _a stanza corresponding to_ #A# 2, #D# 1, 2–9, - 13, 10–12, 14, 16. - - 1^{1,2}. There were ladies in yon ha, Seven ladies in - Cumbernaudie. _After 1_: He gaed down the garden green, In amang - the birks sae bonnie, And there he saw his lady gay, Wi ribbons - on her shoulders mony. - - 2^{3,4}. With Earl Hume’s humble desire Your servant for to be. - - 3^1. I’ll hae nane o his letters. - - 3^2. Nane from Earl Hume. - - 3^{3,4}. But I’ll hae him that I like best, And I’ll hae nane but - you, Richie. - - 4^{1,2}. Say na that to me. - - 4^3. lands nor rents. - - 4^4. For to maintain you wi. - - 5^{1,2}. Say na that again, Richie. - - 5^{3,4}. The House o Athole it is mine, Taranadie shall be thine, - Richie. - - 6^{1,2}. He gaed from the garden green, Thinking he would shun his - lady. - - 6^3. But quickly she followed after him. - - 7^2. I’ll gae to them wi thee, Richie. - - 8^{1,2}. To the Borders we will gae, We will to them gang, lady. - - 9^1. rode by her sister’s bowers. - - 9^4. And gang and beg wi her Richard Storie: _editorial nicety_. - - 10^2. she grew wondrous weary. - - 12^{3,4}. When I get him that I like best, And what is laid before - me, Richie. - - 13^1. rode thro yon burrow-town. - - 14^1. As they rode by yon bonny House. - - 14^{3,4}. And four-and-twenty gallant knichts Came. - - 16^3. And now she rides in her coach-and-four. _Christie touched - up his text here and there._ - -#e.# - - 11^{3,4}, 12, 14, 16^{3,4}. _Wanting._ - - 12^4. What wad make me sorry? - - 14^1. yonder gates. - - 14^2. playd pretty. - - 14^3. four-and-twenty noble knichts. - - 14^4. welcome in Ritchie Torry’s lady. - - 16^{3,4}. Now she rides in her coach-and-six, She blesses the day - she got Ritchie Torry. - -#f.# - - _18 stanzas. Much manipulated, and not entitled to confidence._ - - 1. - As I came in yon bonny burn-side, - And down below the bloom sae bonny, - There _I_ espied a handsome lad, - Wi ribbons on his shoulders mony. - - (_Cf._ A 2.) - - 2^{3,4}. Here’s a letter frae the Earl o Wemyss, That he’s in suit - o thee, madam. - - 11. - Out it speaks her mother then; - O daughter, may not you be sorry - To gang alang wi a servant-man, - And lose the rights o Castle Norry? - - 12^{3,4}. I’m sure I’ve chosen a bonny lad, The lot has just been - laid afore me. - - 14. - When they gaed through the Parliament Closs, - The silver loops hang down sae bonny; - Then four-and-twenty noble lords - Came hat in hand to Richard Storry. - - - APPENDIX - -Aytoun, II, 239, says of ‘Richie Storie,’ The words, recast in a -romantic form and applied to a more interesting subject, have been set -to music by a noble lady, and are now very popular under the title of -‘Huntingtower.’ The history of ‘Huntingtower’ is not so well known as -might be expected. I have not been able to ascertain the authorship or -the date of its first appearance (which was very probably in society -rather than in print). ‘Richie Storie’ is not carried by our texts -further back than 1802–3 (#B#, #H#). Kinloch published in 1827 a ballad -from recitation, ‘The Duke of Athol,’ which is ‘Huntingtower’ passed -through the popular mouth; for ‘Huntingtower’ became, and has continued -to be, a favorite with the people. Christie, Traditional Ballad Airs, I, -166, says that he had often heard ‘The Duke of Athol’ in his early -years, and he gives eight stanzas which do not differ remarkably from -Kinloch’s ballad. - -The marks of the derivation of ‘Huntingtower’ are the terminations of -lines 1, 2, 4 of each stanza, and substantial agreements in the last two -stanzas with #A#, #B#, #E#, 5, #D#, #F#, #G#, 4, and with #B# 6, #C# 7, -#H#, respectively. The name Huntingtower occurs only in #B# 6 of ‘Richie -Storie.’ The author of ‘Huntingtower’ was no doubt possessed of a -version of ‘Richie Storie’ which had its own peculiarities. - -‘Huntingtower’ is too well known to require citing. It has been often -printed; as, for example, in Mr G. F. Graham’s Popular Songs of -Scotland, revised by J. Muir Wood, Balmoral Edition, Glasgow, 1887, p. -152; The Songs of Scotland, the words revised by Dr Charles Mackay, p. -5, London, Boosey & Co. (Altered by the Baroness Nairne, and very little -left of it, Life and Songs of the Baroness Nairne, edited by the Rev. -Charles Rogers, 1872, p. 177.) The pleasing air strongly resembles, says -Mr Wood, one in D’Urfey’s Pills to Purge Melancholy, V, 42, ed. 1719. - -‘The Duke of Athol’ may be given for the interest it has as a popular -_rifacimento_. - - - THE DUKE OF ATHOL - - “Taken down from the recitation of an idiot boy in Wishaw;” - Kinloch’s Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 170. - - 1 - ‘I am gaing awa, Jeanie, - I am gaing awa; - I am gaing ayont the saut seas, - I’m gaing sae far awa.’ - - 2 - ‘What will ye buy to me, Jamie? - What will ye buy to me?’ - ‘I’ll buy to you a silken plaid, - And send it wi vanitie.’ - - 3 - ‘That’s na love at a’, Jamie, - That’s na love at a’; - All I want is love for love, - And that’s the best ava. - - 4 - ‘Whan will ye marry me, Jamie? - Whan will ye marry me? - Will ye tak me to your countrie, - Or will ye marry me?’ - - 5 - ‘How can I marry thee, Jeanie? - How can I marry thee, - Whan I’ve a wife and bairns three? - Twa wad na weill agree.’ - - 6 - ‘Wae be to your fause tongue, Jamie, - Wae be to your fause tongue; - Ye promised for to marry me, - And has a wife at hame! - - 7 - ‘But if your wife wad dee, Jamie, - And sae your bairns three, - Wad ye tak me to your countrie, - Or wad ye marry me? - - 8 - ‘But sin they’re all alive, Jamie, - But sin they’re all alive, - We’ll tak a glass in ilka hand, - And drink, Weill may they thrive!’ - - 9 - ‘If my wife wad dee, Jeanie, - And sae my bairns three, - I wad tak ye to my ain countrie, - And married we wad be.’ - - 10 - ‘O an your head war sair, Jamie, - O an your head war sair, - I’d tak the napkin frae my neck - And tie doun your yellow hair.’ - - 11 - ‘I hae na wife at a’, Jeanie, - I hae na wife at a’; - I hae neither wife nor bairns three; - I said it to try thee.’ - - 12 - ‘Licht are ye to loup, Jamie, - Licht are ye to loup; - Licht are ye to loup the dyke, - Whan I maun wale a slap.’ - - 13 - ‘Licht am I to loup, Jeanie, - Licht am I to loup; - But the hiest dyke that we come to - I’ll turn and tak you up. - - 14 - ‘Blair in Athol is mine, Jeanie, - Blair in Athol is mine; - Bonnie Dunkel is whare I dwell, - And the boats o Garry’s mine. - - 15 - ‘Huntingtower is mine, Jeanie, - Huntingtower is mine, - Huntingtower, and bonnie Belford, - And a’ Balquhither’s mine.’ - - - - - 233 - - ANDREW LAMMIE - - #A.# ‘The Trumpeter of Fyvie,’ Jamieson’s Popular Ballads, I, 126, - 1806. - - #B#. ‘Tifty’s Nanny,’ Jamieson’s Popular Ballads, II, 382, from a - stall-copy. - - #C. a.# ‘Andrew Lammie,’ Buchan’s Gleanings, p. 98, 1825 ; Laing’s - Thistle of Scotland, p. 55, 1823. #b.# Motherwell’s Minstrelsy, p. - 239. - - -Jamieson, in his preface, 1806, says that this ballad was current in the -Border counties within a few years, and that #A# was taken down by -Leyden from the recitation of a young lady who learned it in Teviotdale. -Writing to Scott, in November, 1804, of such ballads as he had already -prepared for the press, he says, “Trumpeter of Fyvie, from tradition, -furnished by Mr Leyden, and collated with a stall-copy” (probably #B#): -Letters addressed to Sir Walter Scott, Abbotsford, I, No. 117. - -Buchan, in the notes to his Gleanings, 1825, p. 197, says of #C a#: -“This is one of the greatest favorites of the people in Aberdeenshire -that I know. I took it first down from the memory of a very old woman, -and afterwards published thirty thousand copies of it. There are two -versions, an old and a new; but, although I have both, I prefer this -one, the younger of the two, having been composed and acted in the year -1674.” Laing, who reprints #A# in his Thistle of Scotland, p. 63, calls -that the “old way of Andrew Lammie.” Motherwell, 1827, reprints “a -stall-copy published at Glasgow several years ago, collated with a -recited copy which has furnished one or two verbal improvements:” #C b#. -There are a great many variations from #C a#, of which precisely one or -two are verbal improvements. But Motherwell also gives six stanzas which -are not in #a#. His copy is repeated in The Ballad Minstrelsy of -Scotland, Glasgow, 1871, and there the editor says that in a chap-book -printed by J. and M. Robertson, Saltmarket, Glasgow, 1808, “Andrew -Lammie is given with only a few slight verbal differences between it and -the copy here printed.” Such stall-copies as I have seen are late, and -are reprints of #C a# or of #C b#. Motherwell assures us that the ballad -as he has given it “agrees with any recited copy which the Editor has -hitherto met with in the West Country.” - -A professed edition, “most carefully collated with all previous -editions,” was published at Peterhead, 1872: “Mill o Tifty’s Annie, A -Buchan Ballad, with Introduction,” etc. This is attributed to the Rev. -Dr John Muir of Aberdeen. ‘Mill o Tiftie’s Annie’ in Christie, I, 48 “is -epitomized from traditional copies;” that is to say, it is taken from -Motherwell, with a trifling change here and there. A copy given in -Smith’s New History of Aberdeenshire is compounded of #A#, #B#, and a -couple of lines from #C b#. - -Annie, daughter to a well-to-do miller, loses her heart to a handsome -trumpeter in the service of Lord Fyvie. Her father will not hear of such -a match. (Annie has five thousand marks, and the man not a penny, #A# -11.) The trumpeter is obliged to go to Edinburgh for a time, and Annie -appoints him a tryst at a bridge. He will buy her her wedding-gear while -he is away, and marry her when he comes back. Annie knows that she shall -be dead ere he returns, and bids him an everlasting adieu.[130] The -trumpeter goes to the top of the castle and blows a blast which is heard -at his love’s house. Her father beats her, her mother beats her; her -brother beats her and breaks her back. Lord Fyvie is passing on one of -these occasions, comes in, and urges Mill of Tiftie to yield to his -daughter’s inclinations. The father is immovable; she must marry higher -than with a trumpeter. Annie is put to bed, with her face towards Fyvie, -and dies of a broken heart and of the cruel treatment which she has -undergone. - -This is a homely ditty,[131] but the gentleness and fidelity of Annie -under the brutal behavior of her family are genuinely pathetic, and -justify the remarkable popularity which the ballad has enjoyed in the -north of Scotland. In those parts the story has been played as well as -sung. “The ballad used in former times to be presented in a dramatic -shape at rustic meetings in Aberdeenshire,” says Chambers (Scottish -Ballads, p. 143); perhaps misinterpreting and expanding the enunciation -made by Buchan and in the title of some stall-copies that “this tragedy -was acted in the year 1674,” which may rather refer to the date of the -story. But however it may have been in former times, two rival companies -in Aberdeenshire were performing plays founded on the ballad in -1887–8.[132] - -“Bonny Andrew Lammie” was a well-known personage at the beginning of the -last century, for, as Jamieson has pointed out, he is mentioned in a way -that implies this by Allan Ramsay, in the second of his two cantos in -continuation of Christ’s Kirk on the Green, written, as Ramsay says, in -1718. (Poems, London, 1731, I, 76, v. 70.) - -Mill of Tiftie is, or was, a farm-house on the side of a glen about half -a mile northeast of the castle of Fyvie, and in view of its turrets (on -one of which there now stands a figure of the Trumpeter sounding towards -Tiftie). The mill proper, now a ruin, was in the bottom of the glen, and -gave its name to the house. The bridge of Sleugh, otherwise Skeugh, -etc., was in the hollow between Tiftie and the castle.[133] - -Annie was Agnes Smith, Nannie being among her people an affectionate -form for Agnes. There is reason to believe that she may have been -daughter of a William Smith who is known to have been a brother or near -kinsman of the laird of Inveramsay, a person of some local -consequence.[134] An inscription on her gravestone makes Agnes Smith to -have died January 19, 1673.[135] - -“Some years subsequent to the melancholy fate of poor Tifty’s Nanny,” -says Jamieson, II, 387, citing the current tradition of Fyvie, “her sad -story being mentioned and the ballad sung in a company in Edinburgh when -[Andrew Lammie] was present, he remained silent and motionless, till he -was discovered by a groan suddenly bursting from him and _several of the -buttons flying from his waistcoat_.” The peasants of Fyvie, Jamieson -continues, “borrowed this striking characteristic of excessive grief” -neither from the Laocoön group nor from Shakspere’s King Lear, but from -nature. The anecdote, and the comment too, is apt to be repeated by -editors of ‘Andrew Lammie.’ That “affecting image of overpowering -grief,” as Chambers calls it, the flying off of the buttons (or the -bursting of a waistcoat), we have had several times already, though in -no ballad (or version) of much note: see II, 118, #D# 17, 186, #C# 15, -308, 4; IV, 101, I 15, 185, 11. It must be owned to be a stroke that -does not well bear iteration. Mrs. Littlewit in ‘Bartholomew Fair’ has a -tedious life with her Puritan, she says: “he breaks his buttons and -cracks seams at every saying he sobs out.” Ben Jonson has taken out one -of the best things in our tragedy and put it into his comedy. - -The air to which this ballad was usually sung, Jamieson informs us, was -“of that class which in Teviotdale they term a northern drawl; and a -Perthshire set of it, but two notes lower than it is commonly sung, is -to be found in Johnson’s Scots Musical Museum [No. 175, p. 183], to the -song ‘How long and dreary is the night.’” - -#C b# is translated by Wolff, Hausschatz, p. 199, Halle der Völker, I, -65. - - * * * * * - - - A - - Jamieson’s Popular Ballads, I, 126; “taken down by Dr Leyden from - the recitation of a young lady, Miss Robson, of Edinburgh, who - learned it in Teviotdale.” - - 1 - ‘At Fyvie’s yetts there grows a flower, - It grows baith braid and bonny; - There’s a daisie in the midst o it, - And it’s ca’d by Andrew Lammie. - - 2 - ‘O gin that flower war in my breast, - For the love I bear the laddie! - I wad kiss it, and I wad clap it, - And daut it for Andrew Lammie. - - 3 - ‘The first time me and my love met - Was in the woods of Fyvie; - He kissed my lips five thousand times, - And ay he ca’d me bonny, - And a’ the answer he gat frae me, - Was, My bonny Andrew Lammie!’ - - 4 - ‘Love, I maun gang to Edinburgh; - Love, I maun gang and leave thee!’ - ‘I sighed right sair, and said nae mair - But, O gin I were wi ye!’ - - 5 - ‘But true and trusty will I be, - As I am Andrew Lammie; - I’ll never kiss a woman’s mouth - Till I come back and see thee.’ - - 6 - ‘And true and trusty will I be, - As I am Tiftie’s Annie; - I’ll never kiss a man again - Till ye come back and see me.’ - - 7 - Syne he’s come back frae Edinburgh - To the bonny hows o Fyvie, - And ay his face to the nor-east, - To look for Tiftie’s Annie. - - 8 - ‘I hae a love in Edinburgh, - Sae hae I intill Leith, man; - I hae a love intill Montrose, - Sae hae I in Dalkeith, man. - - 9 - ‘And east and west, whereer I go, - My love she’s always wi me; - For east and west, whereer I go, - My love she dwells in Fyvie. - - 10 - ‘My love possesses a’ my heart, - Nae pen can eer indite her; - She’s ay sae stately as she goes - That I see nae mae like her. - - 11 - ‘But Tiftie winna gie consent - His dochter me to marry, - Because she has five thousand marks, - And I have not a penny. - - 12 - ‘Love pines away, love dwines away, - Love, love decays the body; - For love o thee, oh I must die; - Adieu, my bonny Annie!’ - - 13 - Her mither raise out o her bed, - And ca’d on baith her women: - ‘What ails ye, Annie, my dochter dear? - O Annie, was ye dreamin? - - 14 - ‘What dule disturbd my dochter’s sleep? - O tell to me, my Annie!’ - She sighed right sair, and said nae mair - But, O for Andrew Lammie! - - 15 - Her father beat her cruellie, - Sae also did her mother; - Her sisters sair did scoff at her; - But wae betide her brother! - - 16 - Her brother beat her cruellie, - Till his straiks they werena canny; - He brak her back, and he beat her sides, - For the sake o Andrew Lammie. - - 17 - ‘O fie, O fie, my brother dear! - The gentlemen’ll shame ye; - The Laird o Fyvie he’s gaun by, - And he’ll come in and see me. - - 18 - ‘And he’ll kiss me, and he’ll clap me, - And he will speer what ails me; - And I will answer him again, - It’s a’ for Andrew Lammie.’ - - 19 - Her sisters they stood in the door, - Sair grievd her wi their folly: - ‘O sister dear, come to the door, - Your cow is lowin on you.’ - - 20 - ‘O fie, O fie, my sister dear! - Grieve me not wi your folly; - I’d rather hear the trumpet sound - Than a’ the kye o Fyvie. - - 21 - ‘Love pines away, love dwines away, - Love, love decays the body; - For love o thee now I maun die; - Adieu to Andrew Lammie!’ - - 22 - But Tiftie’s wrote a braid letter, - And sent it into Fyvie, - Saying his daughter was bewitchd - By bonny Andrew Lammie. - - 23 - ‘Now, Tiftie, ye maun gie consent, - And lat the lassie marry;’ - ‘I’ll never, never gie consent - To the trumpeter of Fyvie.’ - - 24 - When Fyvie looked the letter on, - He was baith sad and sorry: - Says, The bonniest lass o the country-side - Has died for Andrew Lammie. - - 25 - O Andrew’s gane to the house-top - O the bonny house o Fyvie, - He’s blawn his horn baith loud and shill - Oer the lawland leas o Fyvie. - - 26 - ‘Mony a time hae I walkd a’ night, - And never yet was weary; - But now I may walk wae my lane, - For I’ll never see my deary. - - 27 - ‘Love pines away, love dwines away, - Love, love decays the body; - For the love o thee now I maun die; - I come, my bonny Annie!’ - - * * * * * - - - B - - Jamieson’s Popular Ballads, II, 382; “from a stall copy, procured - from Scotland.” - - 1 - ‘There springs a rose in Fyvie’s yard, - And O but it springs bonny! - There’s a daisy in the middle of it, - Its name is Andrew Lammie. - - 2 - ‘I wish the rose were in my breast, - For the love I bear the daisy; - So blyth and merry as I would be, - And kiss my Andrew Lammie. - - 3 - ‘The first time I and my love met - Was in the wood of Fyvie; - He kissëd and he dawted me, - Calld me his bonny Annie. - - 4 - ‘Wi apples sweet he did me treat, - Which stole my heart so canny, - And ay sinsyne himself was kind, - My bonny Andrew Lammie.’ - - 5 - ‘But I am going to Edinburgh, - My love, I’m going to leave thee;’ - She sighd full sore, and said no more, - ‘I wish I were but wi you.’ - - 6 - ‘I will buy thee a wedding-gown, - My love, I’ll buy it bonny;’ - ‘But I’ll be dead or ye come back, - My bonny Andrew Lammie.’ - - 7 - ‘I will buy you brave bridal shoes, - My love, I’ll buy them bonny;’ - ‘But I’ll be dead or ye come back, - My bonny Andrew Lammie.’ - - 8 - ‘If you’ll be true and trusty too, - As I am Andrew Lammie, - That you will neer kiss lad nor lown - Till I return to Fyvie.’ - - 9 - ‘I shall be true and trusty too, - As my name’s Tifty’s Nanny, - That I’ll kiss neither lad nor lown - Till you return to Fyvie.’— - - 10 - ‘Love pines awa, love dwines awa, - Love pines awa my body; - And love’s crept in at my bed-foot, - And taen possession o me. - - 11 - ‘My father drags me by the hair, - My mother sore does scold me; - And they would give one hundred merks - To any one to wed me. - - 12 - ‘My sister stands at her bower-door, - And she full sore does mock me, - And when she hears the trumpet sound,— - “Your cow is lowing, Nanny!” - - 13 - ‘O be still, my sister Jane, - And leave off all your folly; - For I’d rather hear that cow low - Than all the kye in Fyvie. - - 14 - ‘My father locks the door at night, - Lays up the keys fu canny, - And when he hears the trumpet sound,— - “Your cow is lowing, Nanny!” - - 15 - ‘O hold your tongue, my father dear, - And let be a’ your folly; - For I would rather hear that cow - Than all the kye in Fyvie.’ - - * * * * * * - - 16 - ‘If you ding me, I will greet, - And gentlemen will hear me; - Laird Fyvie will be coming by, - And he’ll come in and see me.’ - - 17 - ‘Yea, I will ding you though ye greet - And gentlemen should hear you; - Though Laird Fyvie were coming by, - And did come in and see you.’ - - 18 - So they dang her, and she grat, - And gentlemen did hear her, - And Fyvie he was coming by, - And did come in to see her. - - 19 - ‘Mill of Tifty, give consent, - And let your daughter marry; - If she were full of as high blood - As she is full of beauty, - I would take her to myself, - And make her my own lady.’ - - 20 - ‘Fyvie lands ly broad and wide, - And O but they ly bonny! - But I would not give my own true-love - For all the lands in Fyvie. - - 21 - ‘But make my bed, and lay me down, - And turn my face to Fyvie, - That I may see before I die - My bonny Andrew Lammie.’ - - 22 - They made her bed, and laid her down, - And turnd her face to Fyvie; - She gave a groan, and died or morn, - So neer saw Andrew Lammie. - - 23 - Her father sorely did lament - The loss of his dear Nannie, - And wishd that he had gien consent - To wed with Andrew Lammie. - - 24 - But ah! alas! it was too late, - For he could not recall her; - Through time unhappy is his fate, - Because he did controul her. - - 25 - You parents grave who children have, - In crushing them be canny, - Lest for their part they break their heart, - As did young Tifty’s Nanny. - - * * * * * - - - C - - #a.# Buchan’s Gleanings, p. 98; taken down “from the memory of a - very old woman” (p. 197). #b.# Motherwell’s Minstrelsy, p. 239; a - stall copy collated with a recited copy. - - 1 - At Mill of Tifty lived a man, - In the neighbourhood of Fyvie; - He had a luvely daughter fair, - Was callëd bonny Annie. - - 2 - Her bloom was like the springing flower - That hails the rosy morning, - With innocence and graceful mein - Her beautous form adorning. - - 3 - Lord Fyvie had a trumpeter - Whose name was Andrew Lammie; - He had the art to gain the heart - Of Mill of Tifty’s Annie. - - 4 - Proper he was, both young and gay, - His like was not in Fyvie, - Nor was ane there that could compare - With this same Andrew Lammie. - - 5 - Lord Fyvie he rode by the door - Where livëd Tifty’s Annie; - His trumpeter rode him before, - Even this same Andrew Lammie. - - 6 - Her mother called her to the door: - ‘Come here to me, my Annie: - Did eer you see a prettier man - Than the trumpeter of Fyvie?’ - - 7 - Nothing she said, but sighing sore, - Alas for bonnie Annie! - She durst not own her heart was won - By the trumpeter of Fyvie. - - 8 - At night when all went to their bed, - All slept full soon but Annie; - Love so oppresst her tender breast, - Thinking on Andrew Lammie. - - 9 - ‘Love comes in at my bed-side, - And love lies down beyond me; - Love has possest my tender breast, - And love will waste my body. - - 10 - ‘The first time me and my love met - Was in the woods of Fyvie; - His lovely form and speech so soft - Soon gaind the heart of Annie. - - 11 - ‘He called me mistress; I said, No, - I’m Tifty’s bonny Annie; - With apples sweet he did me treat, - And kisses soft and mony. - - 12 - ‘It’s up and down in Tifty’s den, - Where the burn runs clear and bonny, - I’ve often gane to meet my love, - My bonny Andrew Lammie.’ - - 13 - But now alas! her father heard - That the trumpeter of Fyvie - Had had the art to gain the heart - Of Mill of Tifty’s Annie. - - 14 - Her father soon a letter wrote, - And sent it on to Fyvie, - To tell his daughter was bewitchd - By his servant, Andrew Lammie. - - 15 - Then up the stair his trumpeter - He callëd soon and shortly: - ‘Pray tell me soon what’s this you’ve done - To Tifty’s bonny Annie.’ - - 16 - ‘Woe be to Mill of Tifty’s pride, - For it has ruined many; - They’ll not have’t said that she should wed - The trumpeter of Fyvie. - - 17 - ‘In wicked art I had no part, - Nor therein am I canny; - True love alone the heart has won - Of Tifty’s bonny Annie. - - 18 - ‘Where will I find a boy so kind - That will carry a letter canny, - Who will run to Tifty’s town, - Give it to my love Annie? - - 19 - ‘Tifty he has daughters three - Who all are wonderous bonny; - But ye’ll ken her oer a’ the rest; - Give that to bonny Annie. - - 20 - ‘It’s up and down in Tifty’s den, - Where the burn runs clear and bonny, - There wilt thou come and I’ll attend; - My love, I long to see thee. - - 21 - ‘Thou mayst come to the brig of Slugh, - And there I’ll come and meet thee; - It’s there we will renew our love, - Before I go and leave you. - - 22 - ‘My love, I go to Edinburgh town, - And for a while must leave thee;’ - She sighëd sore, and said no more - But ‘I wish that I were with you!’ - - 23 - ‘I’ll buy to thee a bridal gown, - My love, I’ll buy it bonny;’ - ‘But I’ll be dead ere ye come back - To see your bonny Annie.’ - - 24 - ‘If ye’ll be true and constant too, - As I am Andrew Lammie, - I shall thee wed when I come back - To see the lands of Fyvie.’ - - 25 - ‘I will be true and constant too - To thee, my Andrew Lammie, - But my bridal bed or then’ll be made - In the green church-yard of Fyvie.’ - - 26 - ‘The time is gone, and now comes on - My dear, that I must leave thee; - If longer here I should appear, - Mill of Tifty he would see me.’ - - 27 - ‘I now for ever bid adieu - To thee, my Andrew Lammie; - Or ye come back I will be laid - In the green church-yard of Fyvie.’ - - 28 - He hied him to the head of the house, - To the house-top of Fyvie, - He blew his trumpet loud and shrill, - It was heard at Mill of Tifty. - - 29 - Her father lockd the door at night, - Laid by the keys fu canny, - And when he heard the trumpet sound - Said, Your cow is lowing, Annie. - - 30 - ‘My father dear, I pray forbear, - And reproach not your Annie; - I’d rather hear that cow to low - Than all the kye in Fyvie. - - 31 - ‘I would not for my braw new gown, - And all your gifts so many, - That it was told in Fyvie land - How cruel ye are to Annie. - - 32 - ‘But if ye strike me I will cry, - And gentlemen will hear me; - Lord Fyvie will be riding by, - And he’ll come in and see me.’ - - 33 - At the same time the lord came in; - He said, What ails thee Annie? - ‘It’s all for love now I must die, - For bonny Andrew Lammie.’ - - 34 - ‘Pray, Mill of Tifty, give consent, - And let your daughter marry;’ - ‘It will be with some higher match - Than the trumpeter of Fyvie.’ - - 35 - ‘If she were come of as high a kind - As she’s advanced in beauty, - I would take her unto myself, - And make her my own lady.’ - - 36 - ‘Fyvie lands are far and wide, - And they are wonderous bonny; - But I would not leave my own true-love - For all the lands in Fyvie.’ - - 37 - Her father struck her wonderous sore, - As also did her mother; - Her sisters also did her scorn, - But woe be to her brother! - - 38 - Her brother struck her wonderous sore, - With cruel strokes and many; - He broke her back in the hall-door, - For liking Andrew Lammie. - - 39 - ‘Alas! my father and my mother dear, - Why so cruel to your Annie? - My heart was broken first by love, - My brother has broke my body. - - 40 - ‘O mother dear, make me my bed, - And lay my face to Fyvie; - Thus will I lie, and thus will die - For my dear Andrew Lammie. - - 41 - ‘Ye neighbours hear, baith far and near, - And pity Tifty’s Annie, - Who dies for love of one poor lad, - For bonny Andrew Lammie. - - 42 - ‘No kind of vice eer staind my life, - Or hurt my virgin honour; - My youthful heart was won by love, - But death will me exoner.’ - - 43 - Her mother than she made her bed, - And laid her face to Fyvie; - Her tender heart it soon did break, - And never saw Andrew Lammie. - - 44 - Lord Fyvie he did wring his hands, - Said, Alas for Tifty’s Annie! - The fairest flower’s cut down by love - That ever sprang in Fyvie. - - 45 - ‘Woe be to Mill of Tifty’s pride! - He might have let them marry; - I should have given them both to live - Into the lands of Fyvie.’ - - 46 - Her father sorely now laments - The loss of his dear Annie, - And wishes he had given consent - To wed with Andrew Lammie. - - 47 - When Andrew home frae Edinburgh came, - With muckle grief and sorrow, - ‘My love is dead for me to-day, - I’ll die for her to-morrow. - - 48 - ‘Now I will run to Tifty’s den, - Where the burn runs clear and bonny; - With tears I’ll view the brig of Slugh, - Where I parted from my Annie. - - 49 - ‘Then will I speed to the green kirk-yard, - To the green kirk-yard of Fyvie, - With tears I’ll water my love’s grave, - Till I follow Tifty’s Annie.’ - - * * * * * - -#C. a.# - - 9^3. Love so oppressd: #b#, has possessd. - - 11^4. mony: #b#, many. - - 44^3. flower: #b#, flower’s. - - 47^1. home: #b#, hame. - - 48^2. For _perhaps Aberdonian for_ Where: #b#, Where. - -#b.# - - _Insignificant variations will not be noted._ - - 7^1. She sighed sore, but said no more. - - 8^2. Sound _for_ soon (soun?). - - 9^3. Love has possessd. - - 11^4. many. - - 13^4. Of Tiftie’s bonny Annie. _After 14_: - - When Lord Fyvie had this letter read, - O dear! but he was sorry: - ‘The bonniest lass in Fyvie’s land - Is bewitched by Andrew Lammie.’ - - 16, 17 _are_ 17, 16. - - 16^1. Woe betide Mill. - - 16^3. He’ll no hae’t. _After 18_: - - ‘Here you shall find a boy so kind - Who’ll carry a letter canny, - Who will run on to Tiftie’s town, - And gie’t to thy love Annie.’ - - 19^3. a’ the lave. - - 20^{3,4}. and meet thy love, Thy bonny Andrew Lammie. - - 21. - ‘When wilt thou come, and I’ll attend? - My love, I long to see thee:’ - ‘Thou mayst come to the bridge of Sleugh, - And there I’ll come and meet thee.’ - - 24^2. As my name’s. - - 26^1. Our time. - - 28^3. schill. - - 30^4. Than hae a’ the kine. - - 35^2. she’s adorned with. - - 36^1. are fair. - - _After 43_: - - But the word soon went up and down, - Through all the lands of Fyvie, - That she was dead and buried, - Even Tiftie’s bonny Annie. - - 44^3. flower’s. - - 45^1. O woe betide Mill. - - _After 46_: - - Her mother grieves both air and late, - Her sisters, cause they scornd her; - Surely her brother doth mourn and grieve - For the cruel usage he’d givn her. - - But now alas! it was too late, - For they could not recal her; - Through life unhappy is their fate - Because they did controul her. - - 47^1. hame. - - 47^3. love has died. - - 48^2. Where. - - 48^4. parted last with Annie. _After 49_: - - Ye parents grave who children have, - In crushing them be canny, - Lest when too late you do repent; - Remember Tiftie’s Annie. - - - - - 234 - - CHARLIE MACPHERSON - - #A.# ‘Charlie MacPherson,’ Harris MS., fol. 23 b. - - #B.# ‘Charlie M’Pherson,’ Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, - I, 85. - - -Charlie Macpherson comes to Kinaldie with a large party of men from the -West Isle to take away Helen, whom he has long courted, #A# 1, 4. -Helen’s mother is obliged to admit them. When her daughter is asked for, -MacPherson is told that she has gone to Whitehouse, to marry auld Gairn, -#A# 5 (Dalgairn, #B# 12). The party go on to Whitehouse, where indeed -they find Helen, and everybody there calling her bride. We expect a -collision, and judging by #A# 8 there was one, with the bride wishing -well to the assailants. But in #B# (where there is no hint that Helen -favors her irregular suitor), MacPherson comports himself very mildly, -and only wishes, as he goes off, that his heavy heart may light on -Whitehouse of Cromar. - -The ballad was known to Mrs Brown of Falkland.[136] She gives it the -title of ‘The Carrying-off of the Heiress of Kinady,’ from which it is -warrantable to conclude that MacPherson was so far successful. - -There are several Kinaldies and more than one Whitehouse. The Kinaldie -which we have to do with here is a small place in the parish of -Logie-Coldstone, Cromar. Milton of Whitehouse is about a mile to the -south of Kinaldie, and seems to be the place intended by Whitehouse o -Cromar, #B# 18, 20. Braemar, #A# 7^1, should then be Cromar. - - * * * * * - - - A - - Harris MS., fol. 23 b; from Mrs Harris’s singing. - - 1 - Charlie MacPherson, that braw Hieland lad[die], - On Valentine’s even cam doun to Kinaltie, - Courtit Burd Hellen, baith wakin an sleepin: - ‘Oh, fair fa them has my love in keepin!’ - - 2 - Charlie MacPherson cam doun the dykeside, - Baith Milton an Muirton an a’ bein his guide; - Baith Milton an Muirton an auld Water Nairn, - A’ gaed wi him, for to be his warn. - - 3 - Whan he cam to the hoose o Kinaltie, - ‘Open your yetts, mistress, an lat us come in! - Open your yetts, mistress, an lat us come in! - For here’s a commission come frae your gude-son. - - 4 - ‘Madam,’ says Charlie, ‘whare [i]s your dochter? - Mony time have I come to Kinatie an socht her; - Noo maun she goe wi me mony a mile, - Because I’ve brocht mony men frae the West Isle.’ - - 5 - ‘As for my dochter, she has gane abroad. - You’ll no get her for her tocher gude; - She’s on to Whitehouse, to marry auld Gairn: - Oh, fair fa them that wait on my bairn!’ - - 6 - Charlie MacPherson gaed up the dykeside, - Baith Muirtoun an Milton an a’ bein his guide; - Baith Muirton an Milton an auld Water Nairn, - A’ gaed wi him, for to be his warn. - - 7 - Whan he cam to the hoose in Braemar, - Sae weel as he kent that his Nellie was there! - An Nellie was sittin upon the bed-side, - An every one there was ca’ing her, bride. - - 8 - The canles gaed oot, they waurna weel licht, - Swords an spears they glancet fou bricht; - Sae laith as she was her true-love to beguile, - Because he brocht mony men frae the West Isle. - - * * * * * * - - * * * * * - - - B - - Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, I, 85. - - 1 - Charlie M’Pherson, that brisk Highland laddie, - At Valentine even he came to Kinadie: - - 2 - To court her Burd Helen, baith waking and sleeping; - Joy be wi them that has her a keeping! - - 3 - Auldtown and Muirtown, likewise Billy Beg, - All gaed wi Charlie, for to be his guide. - - 4 - Jamie M’Robbie, likewise Wattie Nairn, - All gaed wi Charlie, for to be his warran. - - 5 - When they came to Kinadie, they knockd at the door; - When nae ane woud answer, they gaed a loud roar. - - 6 - ‘Ye’ll open the door, mistress, and lat us come in; - For tidings we’ve brought frae your appearant guid-son.’ - - 7 - For to defend them, she was not able; - They bangd up the stair, sat down at the table. - - 8 - ‘Ye’ll eat and drink, gentlemen, and eat at your leisure; - Nae thing’s disturb you, take what’s your pleasure.’ - - 9 - ‘O madam,’ said he, ‘I’m come for your daughter; - Lang hae I come to Kinadie and there sought her. - - 10 - ‘Now she’s gae wi me for mony a mile, - Before that I return unto the West Isle.’ - - 11 - ‘My daughter’s not at home, she is gone abroad; - Ye darena now steal her, her tocher is guid. - - 12 - ‘My daughter’s in Whitehouse, wi Mistress Dalgairn; - Joy be wi them that waits on my bairn!’ - - 13 - The swords an the targe that hang about Charlie, - They had sic a glitter, and set him sae rarelie! - - 14 - They had sic a glitter, and kiest sic a glamour, - They showed mair light than they had in the chamour. - - 15 - To Whitehouse he went, and when he came there - Right sair was his heart when he went up the stair. - - 16 - Burd Helen was sitting by Thomas’ bed-side, - And all in the house were addressing her, bride. - - 17 - ‘O farewell now, Helen, I’ll bid you adieu; - Is this a’ the comfort I’m getting frae you? - - 18 - ‘It was never my intention ye shoud be the waur; - My heavy heart light on Whitehouse o Cromar! - - 19 - ‘For you I hae travelled full mony lang mile, - Awa to Kinadie, far frae the West Isle. - - 20 - ‘But now ye are married, and I am the waur; - My heavy heart light on Whitehouse o Cromar!’ - - * * * * * - -#A.# - - _Air_, Whilk o ye lasses. - -#B.# - - _Printed in stanzas of four short lines._ - - - - - 235 - - THE EARL OF ABOYNE - - #A.# ‘The Earl of Aboyne,’ Kinloch MSS, V, 351. - - #B.# ‘The Earl of Aboyne.’ #a.# Buchan’s Gleanings, p. 71. #b#. Gibb - MS., p. 29, No 5. - - #C.# Skene MS., p. 58. - - #D.# ‘The Earl o Boyn,’ “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border - Minstrelsy,” No 17, Abbotsford. - - #E.# ‘Earl of Aboyne,’ Harris MS., fol. 21 b. - - #F.# ‘The Earl of Aboyne,’ Motherwell’s MS., p. 635. - - #G.# Motherwell’s MS., p. 131. - - #H.# ‘Bonny Peggy Irvine,’ Campbell MSS, II, 105. - - #I.# ‘Earl of Aboyne,’ or, ‘Bonny Peggy Irvine,’ Motherwell’s MS., p. - 128. - - #J.# ‘Earl of Aboyne,’ or, ‘Bonny Peggy Irvine,’ Motherwell’s MS., p. - 135. - - #K.# From the recitation of Miss Fanny Walker, two stanzas. - - #L.# ‘Earl of Aboyne,’ Motherwell’s Note-Book, p. 54, one stanza. - - -The copy in The New Deeside Guide, by James Brown [Joseph Robertson], -Aberdeen, 1832, p. 26, is #B a# with a few editorial changes. It is -repeated in The Deeside Guide, Aberdeen, 1889, with slight variations. -The copy in Christie’s Traditional Ballad Airs, I, 22, is “given from -the way the editor has heard it sung, assisted by Mr Buchan’s copy in -his Gleanings;” in fact, it is #B a# with unimportant variations, which -must be treated as arbitrary. Smith’s New History of Aberdeenshire, I, -207, repeats Aytoun, nearly, and Aytoun, II, 309, 1859, #B a#, nearly. - -None of the versions here given go beyond 1800. Mrs Brown of Falkland, -in an unprinted letter to Alexander Fraser Tytler, December 23, 1800, -offers him ‘The Death of the Countess of Aboyne,’ which she had heard -sung when a child: see p. 309, note. - -#A-I.# The Earl of Aboyne (who is kind but careless, #E#) goes to London -without his wife, and stays overlong. Information comes by letter that -he has married there, #B#, or that he is in love with another woman, -#D#. Word is brought that he is on his way home, and very near. His lady -orders stable-grooms, minstrels, cooks, housemaids, to bestir -themselves, #A-E#, #I#, #K#, makes a handsome toilet, #A#, #B#, #D#, -#E#, #F#, and calls for wine to drink his health, #B#, #C#, #D#, #G#. -She comes down to the close to take him from his horse, #B#, #C#, #D#, -#F#, and bids him thrice welcome. “Kiss me then for my coming,” says the -earl, and surprises his wife, and all of us, by adding that the morrow -would have been his wedding-day, if he had stayed in London. The lady -gives him an angry and disdainful answer. This he resents, and orders -his men to mount again; he will go first to the Bog of Gight to see the -Marquis of Huntly, and then return to London. The lady attempts, through -a servant, to get permission to accompany him, but is repulsed, #A#, -#B#, #C#, #D# (misplaced in #G#). According to #A#, #C#, #D# 24, #F#, -the countess languished for about a twelvemonth, and then died of a -broken heart; but #D# 25, #G#, #H#, make her death ensue before or -shortly after the earl’s arrival at the Bog o Gight. Aboyne is very much -distressed at the tidings; he would rather have lost all his lands than -Margaret Irvine, #C#, #D#, #E#, #G#, #H#. He goes to the burial with a -train of gentlemen, all in black from the hose to the hat, #A#, #C# -(horse to the hat, #B#, #E#, #F#). - -#J.# No Earl of Aboyne ever married an Irvine, and no Earl of Aboyne -would have meditated open bigamy, and have informed his wife while -receiving her welcome home how near he had come to perpetrating the -same. The historical difficulty and the practical absurdity are removed -by assuming that #J# alone has preserved (or restored) the true and -original story, and that all the other copies, beginning with Mrs -Brown’s, which calls the lady the Countess of Aboyne, have gone wrong. -In #J#, Peggy Irvine is only Aboyne’s love, 1^3, and Aboyne is her true -lover, 8^3. Aboyne was careless and kind, and kind to every woman, and -Aboyne staid over long in London, #A#, and the ladies they did invite -him, #H#. Under these circumstances, some Aboyne may have been on the -brink of deserting a Peggy Irvine to whom he was engaged. - -Aboyne is Boyn, #D#, Boon, #H#; Irvine is Harboun, Harvey, #D#, Ewan, -#E#, #K#; Bog o Gight is Bogs o the Geich, #D#, Bogs o the Gay, #G#, -Bughts o the Gight, #H#, Bog o Keith, #J#. The Bog o Gight is made -Aboyne’s property in #D#, #G#, #H#. The Marquis of Huntly is blamed by -Aboyne for inciting him to unkindness, #D# 28, #G# 11. - - * * * * * - - - A - - Kinloch MSS, V, 351; in the handwriting of John Hill Burton. - - 1 - The Earl of Aboyne he’s courteous and kind, - He’s kind to every woman, - And the Earl of Aboyne he’s courteous and kind, - But he stays ower lang in London. - - 2 - The ladie she stood on her stair-head, - Beholding his grooms a coming; - She knew by their livery and raiment so rare - That their last voyage was from London. - - 3 - ‘My groms all, ye’ll be well in call, - Hold all the stables shining; - With a bretther o degs ye’ll clear up my nags, - Sin my gude Lord Aboyne is a coming. - - 4 - ‘My minstrels all, be well in call, - Hold all my galleries ringing; - With music springs ye’ll try well your strings, - Sin my gude lord’s a coming. - - 5 - ‘My cooks all, be well in call, - Wi pots and spits well ranked; - And nothing shall ye want that ye call for, - Sin my gude Lord Aboyne’s a coming. - - 6 - ‘My chamber-maids, ye’ll dress up my beds, - Hold all my rooms in shining; - With Dantzic waters ye’ll sprinkle my walls, - Sin my good lord’s a coming.’ - - 7 - Her shoes was of the small cordain, - Her stockings silken twisting; - Cambrick so clear was the pretty lady’s smock, - And her stays o the braided sattin. - - 8 - Her coat was of the white sarsenent, - Set out wi silver quiltin, - And her gown was o the silk damask, - Set about wi red gold walting. - - 9 - Her hair was like the threads of gold, - Wi the silk and sarsanet shining, - Wi her fingers sae white, and the gold rings sae grite, - To welcome her lord from London. - - 10 - Sae stately she steppit down the stair, - And walkit to meet him coming; - Said, O ye’r welcome, my bonny lord, - Ye’r thrice welcome home from London! - - 11 - ‘If this be so that ye let me know, - Ye’ll come kiss me for my coming, - For the morn should hae been my bonny wedding-day - Had I stayed the night in London.’ - - 12 - Then she turned her about wi an angry look, - O for such an a sorry woman! - ‘If this be so that ye let me know, - Gang kiss your ladies in London.’ - - 13 - Then he looked ower his left shoulder - To the worthie companie wi him; - Says he, Isna this an unworthy welcome - The we’ve got, comin from London! - - 14 - ‘Get yer horse in call, my nobles all, - And I’m sorry for yer coming, - But we’ll horse, and awa to the bonny Bog o Gight, - And then we’ll go on to London.’ - - 15 - ‘If this be Thomas, as they call you, - You’ll see if he’ll hae me with him; - And nothing shall he be troubled with me - But myself and my waiting-woman.’ - - 16 - ‘I’ve asked it already, lady,’ he says, - ‘And your humble servant, madam; - But one single mile he winna lat you ride - Wi his company and him to London.’ - - 17 - A year and mare she lived in care, - And doctors wi her dealin, - And with a crack her sweet heart brack, - And the letters is on to London. - - 18 - When the letters he got, they were all sealed in black, - And he fell in a grievous weeping; - He said, She is dead whom I loved best - If I had but her heart in keepin. - - 19 - Then fifteen o the finest lords - That London could afford him, - From their hose to their hat, they were all clad in black, - For the sake of her corpse, Margaret Irvine. - - 20 - The furder he gaed, the sorer he wept, - Come keping her corpse, Margaret Irvine. - Until that he came to the yetts of Aboyne, - Where the corpse of his lady was lying. - - * * * * * - - - B - - #a.# Buchan’s Gleanings, p. 71, 1825. #b.# Gibb MS., p. 29, No 5, - 1882, as learned by Mrs Gibb, senior, “fifty years ago,” in - Strachan, Kincardineshire. - - 1 - The Earl o Aboyne to old England’s gone, - An a his nobles wi him; - Sair was the heart his fair lady had - Because she wanna wi him. - - 2 - As she was a walking in her garden green, - Amang her gentlewomen, - Sad was the letter that came to her, - Her lord was wed in Lunan. - - 3 - ‘Is this true, my Jean,’ she says, - ‘My lord is wed in Lunan?’ - ‘O no, O no, my lady gay, - For the Lord o Aboyne is comin.’ - - 4 - When she was looking oer her castell-wa, - She spied twa boys comin: - ‘What news, what news, my bonny boys? - What news hae ye frae Lunan?’ - - 5 - ‘Good news, good news, my lady gay, - The Lord o Aboyne is comin; - He’s scarcely twa miles frae the place, - Ye’ll hear his bridles ringin.’ - - 6 - ‘O my grooms all, be well on call, - An hae your stables shinin; - Of corn an hay spare nane this day, - Sin the Lord o Aboyne is comin. - - 7 - ‘My minstrels all, be well on call, - And set your harps a tunin, - Wi the finest springs, spare not the strings, - Sin the Lord o Aboyne is comin. - - 8 - ‘My cooks all, be well on call, - An had your spits a runnin, - Wi the best o roast, an spare nae cost, - Sin the Lord o Aboyne is comin. - - 9 - ‘My maids all, be well on call, - An hae your flours a shinin; - Cover oer the stair wi herbs sweet an fair, - Cover the flours wi linen, - An dress my bodie in the finest array, - Sin the Lord o Aboyne is comin.’ - - 10 - Her gown was o the guid green silk, - Fastned wi red silk trimmin; - Her apron was o the guid black gaze, - Her hood o the finest linen. - - 11 - Sae stately she stept down the stair, - To look gin he was comin; - She called on Kate, her chamer-maid, - An Jean, her gentlewoman, - To bring her a bottle of the best wine, - To drink his health that’s comin. - - 12 - She’s gaen to the close, taen him frae’s horse, - Says, You’r thrice welcome fra Lunan! - ‘If I be as welcome hauf as ye say, - Come kiss me for my comin, - For tomorrow should been my wedding-day - Gin I’de staid on langer in Lunan.’ - - 13 - She turned about wi a disdainful look - To Jean, her gentlewoman: - ‘If tomorrow should been your wedding-day, - Go kiss your whores in Lunan.’ - - 14 - ‘O my nobles all, now turn your steeds, - I’m sorry for my comin; - For the night we’ll alight at the bonny Bog o Gight, - Tomorrow tak horse for Lunan.’ - - 15 - ‘O Thomas, my man, gae after him, - An spier gin I’ll win wi him;’ - ‘Yes, madam, I hae pleaded for thee, - But a mile ye winna win wi him.’ - - 16 - Here and there she ran in care, - An doctors wi her dealin; - But in a crak her bonny heart brak, - And letters gaed to Lunan. - - 17 - When he saw the letter sealed wi black, - He fell on’s horse a weeping: - ‘If she be dead that I love best, - She has my heart a keepin. - - 18 - ‘My nobles all, ye’ll turn your steeds, - That comely face [I] may see then; - Frae the horse to the hat, a’ must be black, - And mourn for bonny Peggy Irvine.’ - - 19 - When they came near to the place, - They heard the dead-bell knellin, - And aye the turnin o the bell - Said, Come bury bonny Peggy Irvine. - - * * * * * - - - C - - Skene MS., p. 58; taken down in the North of Scotland, 1802–3. - - 1 - The Earl of Aboyne he’s careless an kin, - An he is new come frae London; - He sent his man him before, - To tell o his hame-comin. - - 2 - First she called on her chamberline, - Sin on Jeanie, her gentlewoman: - ‘Bring me a glass o the best claret win, - To drink my good lord’s well-hame-comin. - - 3 - ‘My servants all, be ready at a call. - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - For the Lord of Aboyne is comin - - 4 - ‘My cooks all, be ready at a call - . . . . . . . - Wi the very best of meat, - For the Lord of Aboyne is comin. - - 5 - ‘My maids all, be ready at a call, - . . . . . . . - The rooms I’ve the best all to be dressd, - For the Lord of Aboyn is comin.’ - - 6 - She did her to the closs to take him fra his horse, - An she welcomed him frae London: - . . . . . . . - ‘Ye’r welcome, my good lord, frae London!’ - - 7 - ‘An I be sae welcome, he says, - ‘Ye’ll kiss me for my comin, - For the morn sud hae bin my weddin-day - Gif I had staid in London.’ - - 8 - She turned her about wi a disdainfull look, - Dear, she was a pretty woman! - ‘Gif the morn shud hae bin yer weddin-day, - Ye may kiss your whores in London.’ - - 9 - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - ‘So I shall, madam, an ye’s hae na mare to sey, - For I’ll dine wi the Marquis of Huntley.’ - - 10 - She did her to his servant-man, - I wat they caed him Peter Gordon: - ‘Ye will ask my good lord if he will let me - Wi him a single mile to ride [to London].’ - - 11 - ‘Ye need not, madam, . . . - I have asked him already; - He will not let ye a single mile ride, - For he is to dine with the Marquis o Huntly.’ - - 12 - She called on her chamber-maid, - Sin on Jean, her gentlewoman: - ‘Ge make my bed, an tye up my head, - Woe’s me for his hame-comin!’ - - 13 - She lived a year and day, wi mickle grief and wae, - The doctors were wi her dealin; - Within a crack, her heart it brack, - An the letters they went to London. - - 14 - He gae the table wi his foot, - An koupd it wi his knee, - Gared silver cup an easer dish - In flinders flee. - - 15 - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - ‘I wad I had lost a’ the lands o Aboyne - Or I had lost bonny Margat Irvine.’ - - 16 - He called on his best serving-man, - I wat the caed him Peter Gordon: - ‘Gae get our horses saddled wi speed, - Woe’s me for our hame-comin! - - 17 - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - ‘For we will a’ be in black, fra the hose to the hat, - Woe’s me for bonny Margat Irvine! - - 18 - ‘We must to the North, to bury her corps, - Alas for our hame-comin! - I rather I had lost a’ the lands o Aboyne - Or I had lost bonny Margat Irvine.’ - - * * * * * - - - D - - “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 17; in the - handwriting of Richard Heber. - - 1 - The guid Earl o Boyn’s awa to Lonon gone, - An a’ his gallan grooms wie him, - But, for a’ the ribbons that hing at her hat, - He has left his fair lady behind him. - - 2 - He had not been in London toun - A month but barely one, O, - Till the letters an the senes they came to her hand - That he was in love with another woman. - - 3 - ‘O what think ye o this, my bonny boy?’ she says, - ‘What think ye o my lord at London? - What think ye o this, my bonny boy?’ she says, - ‘He’s in love wie another woman.’ - - 4 - That lady lookd out at her closet-window, - An saw the gallan grooms coming; - ‘What think ye o this, my bonny boy?’ she says, - ‘For yonder the gallan grooms coming.’ - - 5 - Stately, stately steppit she doun - To welcome the gallan grooms from London: - ‘Ye’re welcome, ye’re welcome, gallan grooms a’; - Is the guid Earl o Boyn a coming? - - 6 - ‘What news, what news, my gallan grooms a’? - What news have ye from London? - What news, what news, my gallan grooms a’? - Is the guid Earl o Boyn a-coming?’ - - 7 - ‘No news, no news,’ said they gallan grooms a’, - ‘No news hae we from London; - No news, no news,’ said the gallan grooms a’, - ‘But the guid Earl o Boyn’s a coming, - An he’s not two miles from the palace-gates, - An he’s fast coming hame from London.’ - - 8 - ‘Ye stable-grooms a’, be ready at the ca, - An have a’ your stables in shening, - An sprinkle them over wie some costly water, - Since the guid Earl o Boyn’s a coming. - - 9 - ‘Ye pretty cooks a’, be ready at the ca, - An have a’ your spits in turning, - An see that ye spare neither cost nor pains, - Since the guid Earl o Boyn’s a coming. - - 10 - ‘Ye servant-maids, ye’ll trim up the beds, - An wipe a’ the rooms oer wie linnen, - An put a double daisy at every stair-head, - Since the guid Earl o Boyn’s a coming. - - 11 - ‘Ye’ll call to me my chambermaid, - An Jean, my gentlewoman, - An they’ll dress me in some fine array. - Since the good Earl o Boyn’s a coming.’ - - 12 - Her stockens were o the good fine silk, - An her shirt it was o the camric, - An her goun it was a’ giltit oer, - An she was a’ hung oer wie rubbies. - - 13 - That lady lookd out at her closet-window, - An she thought she saw him coming: - ‘Go fetch to me some fine Spanish wine, - That I may drink his health that’s a coming.’ - - 14 - Stately, stately steppit she doun - To welcome her lord from London, - An as she walked through the close - She’s peed him from his horse. - - 15 - ‘Ye’re welcome, ye’re welcome, my dearest dear, - Ye’re three times welcome from London!’ - ‘If I be as welcome as ye say, - Ye’ll kiss me for my coming; - Come kiss me, come kiss me, my dearest dear, - Come kiss me, my bonny Peggy Harboun.’ - - 16 - O she threw her arms aroun his neck, - To kiss him for his coming: - ‘If I had stayed another day, - I’d been in love wie another woman.’ - - 17 - She turned her about wie a very stingy look, - She was as sorry as any woman; - She threw a napkin out-oure her face, - Says, Gang kiss your whore at London. - - 18 - ‘Ye’ll mount an go, my gallan grooms a’, - Ye’ll mount and back again to London; - Had I known this to be the answer my Meggy’s gein me, - I had stayed some longer at London.’ - - 19 - ‘Go, Jack, my livery boy,’ she says, - ‘Go ask if he’ll take me wie him; - An he shall hae nae cumre o me - But mysel an my waiting-woman.’ - - 20 - ‘O the laus o London the’re very severe, - They are not for a woman; - An ye are too low in coach for to ride, - I’m your humble servant, madam. - - 21 - ‘My friends they were a’ angry at me - For marrying ane o the house o Harvey; - And ye are too low in coach for to ride, - I’m your humble servant, lady. - - 22 - ‘Go saddle for me my steeds,’ he says, - ‘Go saddle them soon and softly, - For I maun awa to the Bogs o the Geich, - An speak wi the Marquess o Huntly.’ - - 23 - The guid Earl o Boyn’s awa to London gone, - An a’ his gallan gro[o]ms wie him; - But his lady fair he’s left behind - Both a sick an a sorry woman. - - 24 - O many were the letters she after him did send, - A’ the way back again to London, - An in less than a twelvemonth her heart it did break, - For the loss o her lord at London. - - 25 - He was not won well to the Bogs o the Geich, - Nor his horses scarcely batit, - Till the letters and the senes they came to his hand - That his lady was newly strickit. - - 26 - ‘O is she dead? or is she sick? - O woe’s me for my coming! - I’d rather a lost a’ the Bogs o the Geich - Or I’d lost my bonny Peggy Harboun.’ - - 27 - He took the table wi his foot, - Made a’ the room to tremble: - ‘I’d rather a lost a’ the Bogs o the Geich - Or I’d lost my bonny Peggy Harboun. - - 28 - ‘Oh an alas! an O woe’s me! - An wo to the Marquess o Huntly. - Wha causd the Earl o Boyn prove sae very unkin - To a true an a beautifu lady!’ - - 29 - There were fifteen o the bravest gentlemen, - An the bravest o the lords o London, - They went a’ to attend her burial-day, - But the Earl o Boyn could not go wi them. - - * * * * * - - - E - - Harris MS., fol. 21 b; from the recitation of Mrs Harris. - - 1 - ‘My maidens fair, yoursels prepare.’ - - 2 - You may weel knaw by her hair, wi the diamonds sae rare, - That the Earl of Aboyne was comin. - - 3 - ‘My minstrels all, be at my call, - Haud a’ your rooms a ringin, - . . . . . . . - For the Earl of Aboyne is comin.’ - - 4 - ‘Tomorrow soud hae been my bonnie waddin-day, - If I had staid in London.’ - - 5 - She turned her aboot wi an angry look, - An sic an angry woman! - ‘Gin tomorrow soud hae been your bonnie waddin-day, - Gae back to your miss in Lunnon.’ - - 6 - For mony a day an year that lady lived in care, - An doctors wi her dealin, - Till just in a crack her very heart did brak, - An her letters went on to Lunnon. - - 7 - There waur four-an-twenty o the noblest lords - That Lonnon could aford him, - A’ clead in black frae the saidle to the hat, - To convey the corpse o Peggy Ewan. - - 8 - ‘I’d rather hae lost a’ the lands o Aboyne - Than lost my pretty Peggy Ewan.’ - - * * * * * - - - F - - Motherwell’s MS., p. 635; “from the recitation of Margaret Black, - wife of Archie Black, sailor in Ayr, a native of Aberdeenshire.” - - 1 - The Earl of Aboyne is to London gane, - And a’ his nobles with him; - He’s left his lady him behin, - He’s awa, to remain in Lundon. - - 2 - She’s called upon her waiting-maid - To busk her in her claithin; - Her sark was o cambrick very fine, - And her bodice was the red buckskin. - - 3 - Her stockings were o silk sae fine, - And her shoon o the fine cordan; - Her coat was o the guid green silk, - Turnit up wi a siller warden. - - 4 - Her goun was also o the silk, - Turned up wi a siller warden, - And stately tripped she doun the stair, - As she saw her gude lord comin. - - 5 - She gaed thro the close and grippit his horse, - Saying, Ye’re welcome hame frae London! - ‘Gin that be true, come kiss me now, - Come kiss me for my coming. - - 6 - ‘For blythe and cantie may ye be, - And thank me for my comin, - For the morn would hae been my wedding-day - Had I remained in London.’ - - 7 - She turnd her richt and round about, - She was a waefu woman: - ‘Gin the morn would hae been your weddin-day, - Gae kiss your whores in London.’ - - 8 - He turned him richt and round about, - He was sorry for his comin: - ‘Loup on your steeds, ye nobles a’, - The morn we’ll dine in London.’ - - 9 - She lived a year in meikle wae, - And the doctors dealin wi her; - At lang and last her heart it brast - And the letters gade to London. - - 10 - And when he saw the seals o black, - He fell in a deadly weeping; - He said, She’s dead whom I loed best, - And she had my heart in keeping. - - 11 - ‘Loup on your steeds, ye nobles a’, - I’m sorry for our comin; - Frae our horse to our hat, we’ll gae in black, - And we’ll murn for Peggy Irwine.’ - - 12 - They rade on but stap or stay - Till they came to her father’s garden, - Whare fifty o the bravest lords - Were convoying Peggy Irwine. - - * * * * * - - - G - - Motherwell’s MS., p. 131. - - 1 - The Earl Aboyne to London has gane, - And all his nobles with him; - For a’ the braw ribbands he wore at his hat, - He has left his lady behind him. - - 2 - She’s called on her little foot-page, - And Jean, her gentlewoman; - Said, Fill to me a full pint of wine, - And I’ll drink it at my lord’s coming. - - 3 - ‘You’re welcome, you’re welcome, you’re welcome,’ she says, - ‘You’re welcome home from London!’ - ‘If I be welcome as you now say, - Come kiss me, my bonnie Peggy Irvine. - - 4 - ‘Come kiss me, come kiss me, my lady,’ he says, - ‘Come kiss me for my coming, - For the morn should hae been my wedding-day, - Had I staid any longer in London.’ - - 5 - She turned about with an angry look, - Said, Woe’s me for your coming! - If the morn should hae been your wedding-day, - Go back to your whore in London. - - 6 - He’s called on his little foot-page, - Said, Saddle both sure and swiftly, - And I’l away to the Bogs o the Gay, - And speak wi the Marquis o Huntly. - - 7 - She has called on her little foot-page, - Said, See if he’ll take me with him; - And he shall hae nae mair cumber o me - But mysell and my servant-woman. - - 8 - ‘O London streets they are too strait, - They are not for a woman, - And it is too low to ride in coach wi me - With your humble servant-woman.’ - - 9 - He had not been at the Bogs o the Gay, - Nor yet his horse was baited, - Till a boy with a letter came to his hand - That his lady was lying streekit. - - 10 - ‘O woe! O woe! O woe!’ he says, - ‘O woe’s me for my coming! - I had rather lost the Bogs o the Gay - Or I’d lost my bonny Peggy Irvine. - - 11 - ‘O woe! O woe! O woe!’ he said, - ‘O woe to the Marquis o Huntly, - Gard the Earl of Aboyne prove very unkind - To a good and a dutiful lady!’ - - * * * * * - - - H - - Campbell MSS, II, 105. - - 1 - The Earl of Boon’s to London gone, - And all his merry men with him; - For a’ the ribbonds hang at his horse’s main. - He has left his lady behind him. - - 2 He had not been a night in town. - Nor a day into the city, - Until that the letters they came to him, - And the ladies they did invite him. - - 3 - His lady has lookit oer her left shoulder, - To see if she saw him coming, - And then she saw her ain good lord, - Just newly come from London. - - 4 - ‘Come kiss me, my dear, come kiss me,’ he said, - ‘Come kiss me for my coming, - For if I had staid another day in town - Tomorrow I would hae been married in Lunnon.’ - - 5 - She turned about wi a very saucy look, - As saucy as eer did a woman; - Says, If a’ be true that I’ve heard of you, - You may go back and kiss your whores in Lunnon. - - 6 - ‘Go call on Jack, my waiting-man,’ he said, - ‘Go saddle and make him ready; - For I maun away to the Bughts o Gight, - To speak to the Marquess of Huntly.’ - - 7 - He had not been at the Bughts of the Gight, - Nor the horses yet weel bated, - Until that the letters came ta him - That his lady was newly streeket. - - 8 - ‘Wae’s me, my dear! wae’s me!’ he said, - ‘It waes me for my coming; - For I wad rather lost a’ the Bughts o the Gight - Or I had lost my bonny Peggy Irvine.’ - - * * * * * - - - I - - Motherwell’s MS., p. 128. - - 1 - The Earl of Aboyne to London has gone, - And all his nobles with him; - For all the braw ribbands he wore at his hat, - He has left his lady behind him. - - 2 - She has to her high castle gane, - To see if she saw him coming; - And who did she spy but her own servant Jack, - Coming riding home again from London. - - 3 - ‘What news, what news, my own servant Jack? - What news have you got from London?’ - ‘Good news, good news, my lady,’ he says, - ‘For the Earl of Aboyne he is coming.’ - - 4 - She has to her kitchen-maid gane: - ‘Set your pots and your pans all a boiling; - Have every thing fine for gentry to dine, - For the Earl of Aboyne he is coming. - - 5 - ‘Stable-grooms all, pray be well employed, - Set your stable-bells all a ringing; - Let your hecks be overlaid with the finest of good hay, - For the Earl of Aboyne he is coming.’ - - 6 - She has to her low gates gane, - To see if she saw him coming, - And long seven miles before they came to town - She heard their bridles ringing. - - 7 - ‘Come kiss me, come kiss me, madam,’ he says, - ‘Come kiss me for my coming, - For the morn should hae been my wedding-day - Had I staid any longer in London.’ - - 8 - She’s turned about with an angry look, - Says, Woe’s me for thy coming! - If the morn should hae been your wedding-day, - Go back and kiss your whores in London. - - 9 - They’ve turned their horses’ heads around, - Their faces all for London; - With their hands to their hats they all rode off, - And they’re all away to London. - - * * * * * - - - J - - Motherwell’s MS., p. 135; from the recitation of Widow Nicol, of - Paisley. - - 1 - The Earl of Aboyne has up to London gone, - And all his nobles with him, - And three broad letters he sent into his love - He would wed another woman in London. - - 2 - She has turned the honey month about, - To see if he was coming, - And lang three miles ere he came to the town - She heard his bridle ringing. - - 3 - She’s went down unto the close and she’s taen him from his horse, - Says, Ye’re welcome home from London! - ‘If I be as welcome, dear Peggy, as you say, - Come kiss me for my coming. - - 4 - ‘Come kiss me, come kiss me, dear Peggy,’ he said, - ‘Come kiss me for my coming, - For tomorrow should have been my wedding-day - Had I tarried any longer in London.’ - - 5 - She has turned herself round about, - And she was an angry woman: - ‘If tomorrow should have been your wedding-day, - You may kiss with your sweethearts in London.’ - - 6 - ‘Go saddle me my steed,’ he said, - ‘Saddle and make him ready; - For I must away to the bonny Bog of Keith, - For to visit the Marquis of Huntley.’ - - 7 - ‘Go ask him, go ask, dear Thomas,’ she said, - ‘Go ask if he’ll take me with him;’ - ‘I’ve asked him once, and I’ll ask him no more, - For ye’ll never ride a mile in his company.’ - - 8 - ‘Go make to me my bed,’ she said, - ‘Make it soft and narrow; - For since my true lover has slighted me so, - I will die for him ere morrow.’ - - 9 - She has called her waiting-man, - And Jean her gentlewoman: - ‘Go bring to me a glass of red wine, - For I’m as sick as any woman.’ - - 10 - The bed it was not made nor well laid down, - Nor yet the curtains drawn on, - Till stays and gown and all did burst, - And it’s alace for bonny Peggy Irvine! - - 11 - The Earl of Aboyne was not at the Bog of Keith, - Nor met wi the Marquis of Huntley, - Till three broad letters were sent after him - That his pretty Peggy Irvine had left him. - - 12 - He gave such a rap on the table where he sat - It made all the room for to tremble: - ‘I would rather I had lost all the rents of Aboyne - Than have lost my pretty Peggy Irvine.’ - - * * * * * - - - K - - Communicated by Mr Alexander Laing; from the recitation of Miss - Fanny Walker, of Mount Pleasant, near Newburgh-on-Tay. - - 1 - The Earl o Aboyne is awa to Lunnon gane, - An he’s taen Joannan wi him, - An it ill be Yule ere he come again; - But he micht hae taen his bonnie Peggie Ewan. - - 2 - Cook-maidens all, be ready at my call, - Hae a’ your pats an pans a-reekin; - For the finest o flowrs, gae through your bowrs, - For the Earl o Aboyne ‘s a comin. - - * * * * * - - - L - - Motherwell’s Note-Book, p. 54. “An old woman (native of Banfshire) - sings ‘The Earl of Aboyne,’ beginning:” - - The Lord Aboyn’s to London gone, - And his hail court wi him; - Better he had staid at hame, - Or taen his lady wi him. - - * * * * * - -#A.# - - 3^3. _Perhaps_ bretlher a: _not understood by me in either case._ - clear _may be_ clean. - - 20^2. keping. _Glossed_ “meeting” _in a note, but the line is not - intelligible to me, and does not seem to be consistent with what - follows._ - -#B. a.# - - 9^3. herbs sweet air. _Robertson, New Deeside Guide, prints_ herbs - sweet an fair. - - 12^6. _Robertson prints_ ony langer. - -#b.# - - 1. - The Earl o Aboyne he’s courteous an kind, - He’s kind to every woman, - An he has left the castle o Aboyne - An gane to dwell in Lunan; - An sair was the heart his lady had, - Because she wan na wi him. - - 2. - As she was walking in her garden green, - Alang wi her gentlewoman, - There was a letter brocht to her - That her lord was wed in London. - - 3. _Wanting._ - - 4^2. saw twa bonny boys. - - 4^4. bring ye. - - 5^1. ye lady. - - 5^2. For the Earl o. - - 5^{3,4}. _Wanting._ - - 6^1. all _wanting_. - - 6^4, 8^4, 9^6. Earl _for_ Lord. - - 7, 8^{2,3}, 9^{2–5}, 10, 11^{1,2}. _Wanting._ - - 9^1. maidens. - - 11^5. Gae bring me a pint o the gude red wine. - - 12^2. Says, Ye’re welcome hame. - - 12^3. welcome, he cried, as. - - 12^5. wad hae been. - - 12^6. only langer. - - 13^1. her about wi a scornfu. - - 13^3. suld hae been his. - - 13^4. He may kiss his miss in. - - 14^1. My merry men a’. - - 14^2. I’m wae at heart for. - - 14^3. The nicht we’ll licht. - - 14^4. An the morn tak. - - 15, 16^{1,2}, 17^4, 18^2. _Wanting._ - - 18^1. My merry men a’ now turn. - - 19^1. near to bonny Aboyne. - - 19^3. the tollin. - - #a# _may have been derived from a printed copy, and #b# learned from - the same._ - -#C.# - - _The latter half of the Skene MS. is very carelessly copied. Here, - as in other places, stanzas are not separated, lines are - improperly divided, and there are omissions which are in no way - indicated._ - - 1^3. man hin | Before to, _etc._ - -#D.# - - 4^4. yonder’s? _But_ yonder _may_==yonder are. - - 14^4. She speed. - -#G.# - - 7, 8 #are# 2, 3 _in the MS._ - -#H.# - - 7^4. streeket. _MS._, _perhaps_, struket. - -#I.# - - 1^1, 3^4. of _is of later insertion_. - - 6^3. came hame, _originally_; hame _is erased and_ to town - _written above_. - -#J.# - - 2^1. _I do not understand_ turned the honey month. - - 3^1. taen from him. - - 3^3. as you say: _originally written_ he says. - - 7^1. him _struck out after the second_ ask. - - - - - 236 - - THE LAIRD O DRUM - - #A. a.# Kinloch MSS, V, 9. #b#. ‘Laird of Drum,’ Kinloch’s Ancient - Scottish Ballads, p. 199. - - #B.# ‘The Laird of Doune’ [miswritten for Drum], Skene MS., p. 78. - - #C.# MS. copy formerly in the possession of Sir Walter Scott. - - #D. a.# Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, II, 194. #b#. ‘The - Laird of Drum,’ Buchan’s MSS, II, 101; Dixon, Scottish Traditional - Versions of Ancient Ballads, p. 53, Percy Society, vol. xvii. #c#. - The New Deeside Guide, by James Brown, [1832,] p. 11. #d#. Gibb MS., - p. 21. - - #E.# ‘The Laird of Drum,’ MS., inserted in Dr Joseph Robertson’s - interleaved copy of The New Deeside Guide, Aberdeen [1832]. - - #F. a.# ‘The Ladye o the Drum,’ Loudon MS., p. 7. #b#. ‘The Laird o - the Drum,’ Macmath MS., p. 13. - - -First taken into a collection by Kinloch, 1827, who remarks that the -ballad had been printed as a broadside in the North, and was extremely -popular. #B#, the oldest version that has been recovered, was written -down in 1802–3. There are verbal agreements between #B#, especially, and -a fragment in Herd’s MSS (I, 55, II, 187, Herd’s Scottish Songs, 1776, -II, 6), and there has been borrowing from one side or the other. Herd’s -fragment belongs to a ballad of a shepherd’s daughter and an earl which -is preserved in two copies in Motherwell’s MS. (I, 37, 252). No 397 of -The Musical Museum, communicated to Johnson, says Stenhouse, by Burns, -[1792,] and probably in a large measure his work, begins with stanzas -which may have been suggested by the ballad before us or by the other. -See an appendix. - -The copy in Christie, I, 24, was epitomized from #A b#, with some -alterations. That in The Deeside Guide, 1889, p. 17, is Aytoun’s, -compounded of #A b# and #D a#. - -Alexander Irvine, the young laird of Drum, says Spalding, was married to -the lady Mary Gordon on December 7, 1643: Memorials of the Trubles in -Scotland, etc., II, 296. Lady Mary Gordon was fourth daughter to George -the second Marquis of Huntly, and niece to the Marquis of Argyll. The -Laird of Drum suffered extremely in his worldly fortunes through his -fidelity to the cause of the Stuarts. This would have been a natural -reason for his declining a peerage offered him at the Restoration, and -for his marrying, the second time, to win and not to spend. He took for -his second wife Margaret Coutts (#A# 9), “a woman of inferior birth and -manners, which step gave great offence to his relations.” (Kinloch.) He -died in 1687. After the death of Irvine of Drum, Margaret Coutts married -Irvine of Cults. She died in 1710, at the age of only forty-five.[137] - -Drum is ten miles west of Aberdeen.[138] - -For the commonplace in #A a# 3, #B# 8, #C# 5, etc., see II, 181 #b#. - - -Knortz, Lieder und Romanzen Alt-Englands, No 29, p. 105, translates -Allingham’s ballad. - - * * * * * - - - A - -#a.# Kinloch MSS, V, 9, in the handwriting of James Beattie. #b.# -Kinloch’s Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 199; “from recitation.” - - 1 - O it fell out upon a day, - When Drums was going to ride, O - And there he met with a well-far’d may, - Keeping her flocks on yon side. O - - 2 - ‘O fair may, O rare may, - Can not you fancy me? - Of a’ the lasses here about - I like nane so well as thee.’ - - 3 - ‘Set your love on another, kind sir, - Set it not on me, - For I’m not fit to be your bride, - And your whore I’ll never be.’ - - 4 - Drums is to her father gane, - Keeping his flocks on yon hill, - And he has gotten his consent, - And the maid was at his will. - - 5 - ‘My daughter can neither read nor write, - She was neer brought up at school; - But well can she milk cow and ewe, - And make a kebbuck well. - - 6 - ‘She’ll winn in your barn at bear-seed time, - Cast out your muck at Yule; - She’ll saddle your steed in time o need, - Draw aff your boots hersell.’ - - 7 - ‘Have not I no clergymen? - Pay I no clergy fee? - I’ll school her as I think fit, - And as I think fit to be.’ - - 8 - Drums is to the Highlands gane - For to be made ready, - And a’ the gentry thereabout - Says, Yonder comes Drums and his lady.] - - 9 - ‘Peggy Coutts is a very bonnie bride, - And Drums is a wealthy laddie; - But Drums might hae chosen a higher match - Than any shepherd’s daughter.’ - - 10 - Then up bespake his brother John, - Says, Brother you’ve done us wrong; - You’ve married ane below our degree, - A stain to a’ our kin. - - 11 - ‘Hold your tongue, my brother John, - I have done you no wrong; - For I’ve married ane to wirk and win, - And ye’ve married ane to spend. - - 12 - ‘The last time that I had a wife, - She was above my degree; - I durst not come in her presence - But with my hat on my knee.’ - - 13 - There was four-and-twenty gentlemen - Stood at the yetts o Drum; - There was na ane amang them a’ - That welcomd his lady in. - - 14 - He’s taen her by the milk-white hand - And led her in himsell, - And in thro ha’s and in thro bowers, - ‘And you’re welcome, Lady o Drum.’ - - 15 - Thrice he kissd her cherry cheek, - And thrice her cherry chin, - And twenty times her comely mouth, - ‘And you’re welcome, Lady o Drum.’ - - 16 - ‘Ye shall be cook in my kitchen, - Butler in my ha; - Ye shall be lady at my command - When I ride far awa.’ - - 17 - ‘But what will I do when auld Drum dies, - When auld Drum dies and leaves me? - Then I’ll tak back my word again, - And the Coutts will come and see me.’ - - * * * * * * - - * * * * * - - - B - - Skene MS., p. 78; taken down from recitation in the north of - Scotland, 1802–3. - - 1 - There was a knight, [an a gallant knight,] - An a gallant knight was he, - An he’s faen in love - Wi his shepherd’s daghterie. - - 2 - . . . . . . . - He could neither gang nor ride, - He fell so deep in her fancy, - Till his nose began to bleed. - - 3 - ‘Bonny may, an bra may, - Canna ye on me rue? - By a’ the maid[s] I ever saw, - There is nane I loo by you.’ - - 4 - ‘Ye’r a shepherd’s ae daghter, - An I’m a barron’s son; - An what pleasure I wad hae - To see ye gae out an in!’ - - 5 - ‘I’m a shepherd’s ae dochter, - An ye’r a barron’s son; - An there is nae pleasure I could ha - To see ye gae out or in. - - 6 - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - ‘For I wadna gie the fancy of my bonny love - For na love nor favour o you.’ - - 7 - ‘Bonny may, an bra may, - Canna ye on me rue? - By a’ the maids I ever saw - There is nane I loo by you.’ - - 8 - ‘Lay na yer fancy, sir, on me,’ she says, - ‘Lay na yer fancy on me; - For I’m our low to be yer bride, - An yer quine I’ll never be. - - 9 - ‘For I will wear nane o yer silks, - Nor nane o yer scarlet claes; - For the hue o the whin shall be my gown, - An I will gae as I pleas.’ - - 10 - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - ‘Ye’r na our laigh to be my bride, - An my quine ye’s never be. - - 11 - ‘Bonny may, and bra may, - Winna ye on me rue? - By a’ the maids I ever see, - There’s nane I loo but you.’ - - 12 - ‘Gin ye ha faen so deep in my fancy - Ye can neither gan[g] nor ride, - Gae tak me to the middle o the ring, - An bring me guid companie.’ - - 13 - He has taen her by the milk-white hand - And led her thro haas an bowers: - ‘Ye’r the choice of my heart, - An a’ I hae is yours.’ - - 14 - He took her by the milk-white hand - And led her out and in: - ‘Ye’r the choice o my heart, - My dear, ye’r welcome in.’ - - 15 - Out spake his brither John, - ‘Brither, ye ha done great wrong; - Ye hae married a wife this night - Disdained by a’ yer kin.’ - - 16 - ‘Hold yer tong, my brither John, - For I hae don na wrong; - For I ha married a wife to ..., - An ye ha ane to spend.’ - - * * * * * - - - C - - From a MS. copy formerly in possession of Sir Walter Scott; - communicated by the Rev. W. Forbes-Leith, through Mr Macmath. - - 1 - There was a shepherd’s daughter - Sheering at the bear, - And by cam the Laird o Drum, - On an evening clear. - - 2 - ‘O will ye fancy me, fair maid? - O will ye fancy me? - O will ye fancy me, fair maid, - An lat the sheering be?’ - - 3 - ‘O say na sae again, kind sir, - O say na sae again; - I’m owr low to be your bride, - Ye’r born owr high a man.’ - - 4 - Said, Fair maid, O rare maid, - Will ye on me rue? - Amang a’ the lasses o the land - I fancy nane but you. - - 5 - ‘Lay your love on another,’ she said, - ‘And lay it not on me, - For I’m owr low to be your bride, - Your miss I’ll never be. - - 6 - ‘Yonder is my father dear, - Wi hogs upon yon hill; - Gif ye get but his consent, - I shall be at your will.’ - - 7 - He’s taen him to her father dear, - Keeps hogs upon yon hill, - An he has gotten his consent, - The may was at his will. - - 8 - ‘My daughter canna read or write, - She never was at school; - Weel can she milk cow and ewe, - An serve your house fu weel. - - 9 - ‘Weel can she shack your barns - An gae to mill an kill, - Saddle your steed in time o need, - And draw your boots hirsel. - - 10 - ‘She canna wear your silk sae fine, - Nor yet your silver clear; - The hue o the ewe man be her weed, - Altho she was your dear.’ - - 11 - He’s wedded the shepherd’s daughter, - An he has taen her hame; - He’s wedded the shepherd’s daughter, - An led her on to Drum. - - 12 - There were four an twenty bold barons - Stood at the yet o Drum; - There was na ane amang them a’ - That welcomd his lady hame. - - 13 - Out then spak his brother dear, - Says, Ye’v done mickel wrong; - Ye’v wedded a mean woman, - The lack o a’ our kin. - - 14 - ‘I never did thee wrong, brother, - I never did thee wrong; - I’ve wedded a woman to work an win, - An ye hae ane to spen. - - 15 - ‘The last woman I wedded - Was aboon my degree; - I could na sit in her presence - But wi hat upon my knee.’ - - 16 - He’s taen her by the milk-white hand - An led her but an ben, - An in the ha, amang them a’, - He’s hailed her Lady Drum. - - 17 - ‘Now I’ve wedded the shepherd’s daughter, - An I hae brought her hame, - In the ha, amang ye a’, - She is welcome hame to Drum.’ - - * * * * * - - - D - - #a.# Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, II, 194. #b.# - Buchan’s MSS, II, 101. #c.# The New Deeside Guide, by James Brown - [Joseph Robertson], [1832], p. 11. #d.# Gibb MS., p. 21, No 4, from - the recitation of a schoolfellow at Auchinblae, Kincardineshire, - about 1851. - - 1 - The laird o Drum is a hunting gane, - All in a morning early, - And he did spy a well-far’d may, - Was shearing at her barley. - - 2 - ‘O will ye fancy me, fair may, - And let your shearing be, O - And gang and be the lady o Drum? - O will ye fancy me?’ O - - 3 - ‘I winna fancy you,’ she says, - ‘Nor let my shearing be; - For I’m ower low to be Lady Drum, - And your miss I’d scorn to be.’ - - 4 - ‘But ye’ll cast aff that gown o grey, - Put on the silk and scarlet; - I’ll make a vow, and keep it true, - You’ll neither be miss nor harlot.’ - - 5 - ‘Then dee you to my father dear, - Keeps sheep on yonder hill; - To ony thing he bids me do - I’m always at his will.’ - - 6 - He has gane to her father dear, - Keeps sheep on yonder hill: - ‘I’m come to marry your ae daughter, - If ye’ll gie me your gude will.’ - - 7 - ‘She’ll shake your barn, and winna your corn, - And gang to mill and kill; - In time of need she’ll saddle your steed; - And I’ll draw your boots mysell.’ - - 8 - ‘O wha will bake my bridal bread, - And wha will brew my ale, - And wha will welcome my lady hame, - It’s mair than I can tell.’ - - 9 - Four an twenty gentle knights - Gied in at the yetts o Drum; - But nae a man lifted his hat - Whan the lady o Drum came in. - - 10 - But he has taen her by the hand, - And led her but and ben; - Says, You’r welcome hame, my lady Drum, - For this is your ain land. - - 11 - For he has taen her by the hand, - And led her thro the ha; - Says, You’r welcome hame, my lady Drum, - To your bowers ane and a’. - - 12 - Then he [’s] stript her o the robes o grey, - Drest her in the robes o gold, - And taen her father frae the sheep-keeping, - Made him a bailie bold. - - 13 - She wasna forty weeks his wife - Till she brought hame a son; - She was as well a loved lady - As ever was in Drum. - - 14 - Out it speaks his brother dear, - Says, You’ve dune us great wrang; - You’ve married a wife below your degree, - She’s a mock to all our kin. - - 15 - Out then spake the Laird of Drum, - Says, I’ve dune you nae wrang; - I’ve married a wife to win my bread, - You’ve married ane to spend. - - 16 - ‘For the last time that I was married, - She was far abeen my degree; - She wadna gang to the bonny yetts o Drum - But the pearlin abeen her ee, - And I durstna gang in the room where she was - But my hat below my knee.’ - - 17 - When they had eaten and well drunken, - And all men bound for bed, - The Laird o Drum and his lady gay - In ae bed they were laid. - - 18 - ‘Gin ye had been o high renown, - As ye are o low degree, - We might hae baith gane down the streets - Amang gude companie.’ - - 19 - ‘I tauld you ere we were wed - You were far abeen my degree; - But now I’m married, in your bed laid, - And just as gude as ye. - - 20 - ‘Gin ye were dead, and I were dead, - And baith in grave had lain, - Ere seven years were at an end, - They’d not ken your dust frae mine.’ - - * * * * * - - - E - - From Dr Joseph Robertson’s interleaved and annotated copy of The New - Deeside Guide, [nominally] by James Brown [but written by Joseph - Robertson], Aberdeen [1832]; inserted at p. 12. - - 1 - The Laird of Drum is a wooing gane, - All in a morning early, - And there he spied a weel-far’d may, - She was shearing at her barley. - - 2 - ‘Will you fancy me, my bonny may, - And will you fancy me? O - And will you come and be Lady Drum, - And let your shearing a be?’ O - - 3 - ‘It’s I winna fancy you, kind sir, - I winna fancy thee; - For I’m too low to be lady o Drum, - And your whore I would scorn to be.’ - - 4 - ‘Ye’ll cast aff the robes of gray, - And put on the silk and the scarlet, - And here to you I’ll make a vow - Ye’se neither be whore nor harlot.’ - - 5 - ‘I winna cast aff the robes o gray, - To put on the silk and the scarlet, - But I’ll wear the colour of the ewe, - For they set me better than a’ that. - - 6 - ‘But ye’ll do you doun to my father dear, - Keeping sheep on yonder hill, - And the first ae thing that he bids me I’ll do, - For I wirk aye at his will.’ - - 7 - He’s done him doun to her father dear, - Keeping sheep on yonder hill: - ‘Ye hae a pretty creature for your daughter; - Dear me! but I like her well.’ - - 8 - ‘It’s she can neither read nor write, - She was never brought up at the squeel; - She canna wash your china cups, - Nor yet mak a dish o tea. - - 9 - ‘But well can she do a’ ither thing, - For I learnt the girly mysell; - She’ll fill in your barn, and winnow your corn, - She’ll gang to your kill and your mill, - And, time o need, she’ll saddle your steed, - And draw your boots hersell.’ - - 10 - ‘Wha will bake my bridal bread, - And wha will brew my ale? - Wha will welcome my lady in? - For it’s more than I can tell.’ - - 11 - There was four-and-twenty gentlemen - Stood a’ in the yetts o Drum, - But there was nane o them lifted their hats - To welcome the young lady in. - - 12 - But up spake his ae brither, - Says, Brither, ye hae done wrang; - Ye have married a wife this day - A lauch to a’ our kin. - - 13 - ‘I’ve married ane to win my bread, - But ye married ane to spend; - But as lang’s I’m able to walk to the yetts o Drum - On me she may depend. - - 14 - ‘The last lady that I did wed - Was far above my command; - I durst not enter the bower where she was - But my hat low in my hand.’ - - 15 - When bells were rung, and mass was sung, - And a’ man bound for bed, - The Laird o Drum and the shepherd’s dother - In one bed they were laid. - - 16 - ‘If ye were come o noble bleed - An were as high as me, - We could gang to the yetts o Drum - Amangst gueed companie.’ - - 17 - ‘I tald you ere we was wed - I was oer low for thee, - But now we are wedd and in ae bed laid, - And you must be content wi me. - - 18 - ‘For an ye were dead, an I were dead, - And laid in the dust low down, - When we were baith turnd up again - Wha could ken your mould frae mine?’ - - * * * * * - - - F - - #a.# Manuscript of David Louden, Morham, Haddington, p. 7, 1873; - from Mrs Dickson, Rentonhall, derived from her great-grandmother. - #b.# Macmath MS., p. 13; from Mr William Traquair, S. S. C., - Edinburgh, obtained originally in Perthshire. - - 1 - ‘Oh, will ye fancy me, fair maid? - Oh, will ye fancy me? O - Or will ye go to be ladye o the Drum, - An let a’ your shearin abe? O - An let a’ your shearin abe? O - An let a’ your shearin abe ?’ O - - 2 - ‘I can neither read nor write, - Nor neer been brocht up at schule; - But I can do all other things, - An keep a hoose richt weel. - - 3 - ‘My faither he’s a puir shepherd-man, - Herds his hogs on yonder hill; - Gin ye will go get his consent, - Then I’ll be at your call.’ - - 4 - He has gane to her father, - That herds hogs on yonder hill; - He said, ‘You’ve got a pretty daughter, - I’d fain tak her to my sel.’ - - 5 - ‘She can neither read nor write, - Was neer brocht up at schule; - But she can do all other things, - An I learnt aye the lassie my sel. - - 6 - ‘She’ll milk your cows, she’ll carry your corn, - She’ll gang to the mill or the kiln; - She’ll saddle your steed at any time of need, - And she’ll brush up your boots hersel.’ - - 7 - ‘It’s who will bake my bridal bread? - Or who will brew my ale? - Or who will welcome this bonnie lassie in? - For it’s more than I can tell.’ - - 8 - There’s four-and-twenty gentlemen - Stand doun at the gate o the Drum; - Not one of them all would take off his hat - For to welcome the bonnie lassie in. - - 9 - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - ‘Oh, brother, you’ve married a wife this day - A disgrace to all our kin.’ - - 10 - ‘Oh, brother, I’ve married a wife to win, - And ye’ve got one to spen, - And as long as the bonnie lassie walks out and in - She shall aye be the ladye o the Drum.’ - - 11 - When all was done, and no bells rung, - And all men bound for their bed, - The laird and the shepherd’s bonnie daughter - In one bed they were laid. - - 12 - ‘Though I’m not of as noble blood, - Nor yet of as high degree, - Now I lie locked in your arms two, - And you must be contented wi me. - - 13 - ‘If you were dead, and I were dead, - And baith laid in one grave, - If we were baith to be raised up again, - Wha would ken your dust frae mine? - - * * * * * - -#A. a.# - - 1^3. wellfar’d May. - - 2^1. fair May: rare May. - - 2^4. as thee May. - - 17. _This stanza looks like a spurious addition._ - - #b.# _Kinloch has taken fourteen of the seventeen stanzas of #a# - (all but 1, 2, 17) into his printed copy, with a change of a - word here and there (not here noticed), as was his way. The - remaining ten stanzas must be from recitation, if Kinloch is to - be understood strictly._ - - 1. - The laird o Drum is a-wooing gane; - It was on a morning early; - And he has fawn in wi a bonnie may, - A-shearing at her barley. - - 2. - ‘My bonnie may, my weel-faurd may, - O will ye fancy me, O - And gae and be the lady o Drum, - And lat your shearing abee?’ O - - 3. - ‘It’s I canna fancy thee, kind sir, - I winna fancy thee; - I winna gae and be lady o Drum, - And lat my shearing abee.’ - - _After 3._ - My father he is a shepherd mean, - Keeps sheep on yonder hill, - And ye may gae and spier at him, - For I am at his will. - - 4. Drum: _and always_. - - _After 7_: - - ‘I’ll learn your lassie to read and write, - And I’ll put her to the scheel; - She’ll neither need to saddle my steed, - Nor draw aff my boots hersell. - - ‘But wha will bake my bridal bread, - Or brew my bridal ale, - And wha will welcome my bonnie bride, - Is mair than I can tell.’ - - 10^4. lake _for_ stain, _and so entered in pencil in the MS._ - - _After 12_: - - ‘The first wife that I did wed, - She was far abeen my degree; - She wadna hae walkd to the yetts o Drum - But the pearls abeen her bree. - - ‘But an she was adord for as much gold - As Peggie’s for beautie, - She micht walk to the yetts o Drum - Amang gueed companie.’ - - 16^3. in my command, _a plausible reading_. - - _After 16_: - - ‘But I told ye afore we war wed - I was owre low for thee; - But now we are wed, and in ae bed laid, - And ye maun be content wi me. - - ‘For an I war dead, and ye war dead, - And baith in ae grave laid, - And ye and I war tane up again, - Wha could distan your mouls frae mine?’ - - O _is added to the second and fourth lines except when the rhyme - is in two syllables, as in_ 1. - -#B.# - - _Title._ The Laird o Doune. _So written twice_: _at p. 75 by - anticipation_, _again at p. 78_. - - 1^4. daighterie (i _undotted_): daghter he? - - 3^1. May: _and always_. - - 4^4, 11^4. May _added_, _for singing_. - - 6^4. Sir _added for singing_. - - _No division into stanzas, and no indication of gaps. The - deficiency at the end of 16^3 is noted by ..._ - -#D. a.# - - O _is added (for singing) to the second and fourth verse of every - stanza except_ 1, 4, _which have two-syllable rhyme_. - - _19 is by mistake printed twice._ - -#b.# O _added as in_ #a#. - - 2^1. me, bonny lassie. - - 2^3. O will ye fancy me, bonny lassie. - - 2^4. And lat your shearing be. - - 3^4, 4^4. whore _for_ miss. - - 4^1. ye cast. - - 7^4. And _wanting_. - - 12, 13. _Wanting._ - - 16^{2,4}, 19^2. above _for_ abeen. - - 16^5. durst not. - - 17^2. all man. - - 19. _Repeated, as in_ #a#. - - 20^2. in your grave: lien. - - _Dixon made changes in printing this copy._ - -#c#. - - O _is not added as in_ #a#. - - 1^3. he has spied. - - 2^1. you. - - 3^3. lady o. - - 5^1. go you. - - 7^1. winn. - - 7^2. mill or. - - 9^4. Drum was come. - - 10^4. is a’ your ain. - - 12^2. in robes. - - 14^4. all your. - - 19^1. you weel ere. - - 20. - Gin we were dead, and in grave laid, - And then taen up again, - I doubt they would look wi a gay clear ee - That would ken your dust frae mine. - - _In Robertson’s annotated and interleaved copy, besides some - readings from #E#, there are noted in the margin the following_: - - 7^2. to your mill and your kill. - - 9^3. But there was nae ane did lift. - - 17^3. and the herd’s dochter. - - 19^1. you before that we. _This stanza twice, as in_ #a#. - - 20 as in #a#. - -#d.# - - O is not added as in #a#, #b#. - - 1^2. Upon a. - - 1^3. he has spied. - - 2^2. O will you fancy me. - - 2^4. An let your shearin abee. - - 3^1. said. - - 3^2. abee. - - 3^3. For _wanting_. I’m far ower: lady o. - - 3^4. your whore I winna. - - 4, 5. _Wanting._ - - 6^1. her auld faither. - - 6^2. Kept sheep upon the. - - 6^3. _Wanting._ - - 6^4. That the may was at his will. - - 7. - But my daughter can neither read nor write, - She was never at the schule; - But she’ll saddle your steed in time of need, - An draw aff your boots hersel. - - 8^3. my bonny bride. - - 8^4. Is more. - - 9^1. gentlemen. - - 9^2. Stood at. - - 9^3. There was na ane that lifted. - - 9^4. Drum was come. - - 10^3. lady o. - - 10^4. is a’ your ain. - - 11–13. _Wanting._ - - 14^1. Out an spake his brither John. - - 14^4. a’ your. - - 15^1. Out an. - - 15^3. to save my gear. - - 16^1. the first time I had a wife. - - 16^{3,4}. I durstna, _etc._, ^{5,6} _come before_ ^{3,4}. - - 17^2. to bed. - - 17^3. an the weel-faured may. - - 19^1. afore we. - - 19^3. we are: in ae. - - 19^4. An I’m: as thee. - - 20^2. in ae grave lain. - - 20^3. were come an gane. - - 20^4. Wha could ken your mools. - -#E.# - - O _is appended, as in_ #D a#, #b#, _except in_ 1, 4, 5. - -#F. a.# - - “Mrs Dickson says her mother used to say she has heard her (her - mother’s) grandmother sing the following ballad with great glee. - Air, Boyne Water.” - - 9^{3,4}, 10 _are given as one stanza, the last two lines_ “instead - of repeat.” - - O _is appended throughout_. - -#b.# - - _Variations given only in part._ - - O _is appended as in_ #D#, #E#. - - _Begins_: - - The laird o the Drum a hunting went, - One morning very early, - And there he spied a bonny, bonny may, - A shearing at the barley. - - 1. - ‘And could ye fancy a gentleman? - An wad ye married be? O - Or wad ye be the lady o the Drum? - I pray ye tell to me.’ - - ‘I could, _etc._ - And I wad, _etc._ - But for to be the lady o the Drum, - It’s by far too high for me.’ - - 2. _Wanting._ - - 3^2, 4^2. Feeding sheep. - - 3^4. I’m entirely at his will. (_Good prose_: _cf._ 5^3.) - - 4^{3,4}. It’s I am in love wi your daughter, And I’ll. - - 5^3. But for all other things she’ll do very well. - - 6^{1,2}. _Wanting._ - - 7. _Wanting._ - - 8^2. Stood all at. - - 8^3. And nane o them would put their hand to their hat. - - 9. - ‘O brother, you’ve married a wife the day, - And you have done much ill; - O brother you’ve married a wife today - A scorn to a’ your kin.’ - - 10^{1,2}. I’ve got a wife to win my bread, And you’ve got ane to - spend it. - - 10^{3,4}. _Wanting._ - - _After 10_: - - The first wife that I married, - She was far above my degree; - I durst na enter the room she was in - But wi hat below my knee. - - 11–13. _Wanting._ - - * * * * * - - - APPENDIX - - Herd’s MSS, I, 55, II, 187; Herd’s Scottish Songs, 1776, II, 6. - - 1 - ‘O my bonie, bonie may, - Will ye not rue upon me? - A sound, sound sleep I’ll never get - Untill I lie ayon thee. - - 2 - ‘I’ll gie ye four-and-twenty good milk-kye, - Wer a’ caft in ae year, may, - And a bonie bull to gang them by, - That blude red is his hair, may.’ - - 3 - ‘I hae nae houses, I hae nae land, - I hae nae gowd or fee, sir; - I am oer low to be your bryde, - Your loon I’ll never be, sir.’ - - * * * * * * - - Motherwell’s MS., p. 37; from the recitation of Thomas Risk, smith, - learned by him in his youth at St Ninian’s, Stirlingshire. - - 1 - Montrose he had a poor shepherd, - And a poor shepherd was he; - He had as fair a daughter - As ever you could see, - And an earl has fallen in love wi her, - And his bride now she must be. - - 2 - The earl he came to the shepherd’s door, - And he tirled at the pin; - Slowly rose the fair maid - For to let the earl in. - - 3 - ‘Good day, good day, fair maid,’ he says; - ‘Good day, good day,’ said she; - ‘Good day unto thee, noble sir, - What is thy will with me?’ - - 4 - ‘I’m so possessed with love to thee, - That I cannot gang nor stand - Till you go unto yonder church, - To give me thy right hand.’ - - 5 - ‘Oh, no, oh no,’ the fair maid says, - ‘Oh that can never be; - For thou art a lord of good estate, - And I but of mean degree. - - 6 - ‘Oh no, oh no,’ the fair maid says, - ‘Thou’rt rich and I am poor; - And I am owre mean to be thy wife, - Too good to be thy whore. - - 7 - ‘I can shape, and I can sew, - And cows and yowes can milk, - But I was neer brought up in a lady’s room, - To sew satin nor silk. - - 8 - ‘And if you had your will of me - Ye wud me soon forget; - Ye wad gar turn me doun your stairs - And bar on me your yett.’ - - 9 - ‘Oh no, oh no,’ the earl says, - ‘For so shall never be; - For this night or I eat or drink - My honoured bride you shall be.’ - - 10 - ‘My father he’s a poor shepherd, - He’s herding on yon hill; - You may go to my old father, - And ask at him his will.’ - - 11 - The earl he went to the poor shepherd, - Who was herding on the lea; - ‘Good day, good day, shepherd,’ he says; - ‘Good day, good day,’ said he, - Good day unto your honour, sir; - What is your will with me?’ - - 12 - ‘Oh you have a fair daughter; - Will ye give her to me, - Silk and satin she shall wear, - And, shepherd, so shall ye.’ - - 13 - ‘It’s true I have a fair daughter, - But I’ll not give her to thee; - For thou art a lord of good estate, - And she but of mean degree. - - 14 - ‘The reason is, thou art too rich, - And my daughter is too poor; - She is ower mean to be thy wife, - Too good to be thy whoore. - - 15 - ‘She can shape, etc. (as verse 7). - - 16 - ‘And if you had your will of her, etc. (8). - - 17 - ‘Oh no, oh no,’ the earl says, etc. (9). - - 18 - The earl he to the fair maid again, - Who was spinning at her wheel; - She had but one petticoat on her, - But oh she set it weel! - - 19 - ‘Cast off, cast off that petticoat - That you were wont to wear, - And put on a gown of the satin silk, - With a garland in your hair.’ - - 20 - She cast off the petticoat - That she was wont to wear, - And she put on a gown of the satin silk, - With a garland in her hair. - - 21 - Many, many was there that night - To bear them company; - And she is the earl’s wife, - She’s thrice fairer than he. - - Motherwell’s MS., p. 252; from the recitation of Mrs Crum, - Dumbarton, 7 April, 1825. - - 1 - ‘O fair maid and true maid, - Will ye not on me rue, maid? - Here’s my hand, my heart’s command, - I’ll come and go by you, maid. - - 2 - ‘I’ve four-and-twenty good milk-kye, - A’ calved in a[e] year, maid, - And a bonnie bill to eisin them, - Just as red as your hair, maid.’ - - 3 - ‘Your kye go as far in my heart - As they go in my heel, sir; - And, altho I be but a shepherd’s dochter, - I love my body weel, sir. - - 4 - ‘I love my body weel, sir, - And my maidenhead far better; - And I’ll keep it to marry me, - Because I’m scarse o tocher.’ - - 5 - This knicht he turned his bridle about, - While the tear stood in his ee; - And he’s awa to her father gane, - As fast as he could dree. - - 6 - ‘Gude een, gude een, you gude auld man,’ - ‘Gude een, you earl’s knicht, sir;’ - ‘But you have a fair dochter,’ he says, - ‘Will you grant her to me, sir? - O silks and satins she shall wear, - Indeed and so shall ye, sir.’ - - 7 - ‘I have a fair dochter,’ he says, - ‘She’s fair of blood and bane, sir; - But an ye had your will o her - Ye wud leave her alane, sir.’ - - 8 - ‘Ye would steek her not your chamber-doors, - And bar her at your yett, sir; - And an ye had your will o her - Ye wud her soon forget, sir.’ - - 9 - This knicht he turned his bridle about, - While the tear stood in his ee, - And he’s awa to this fair maid gane, - As fast as he could drie. - - 10 - ‘O fair maid and true maid, - Will ye not on me rue, maid? - Here’s my hand, my heart’s command, - I’ll come and go by you, maid. - - 11 - ‘Cast aff, cast aff your gay black gowns, - Put on your gowns of silk, maid; - Cast aff, cast aff your gay black snoods, - Put the garlands on your hair, maid.’ - - 12 - ‘It’s I can bake, and I can brew, - And good kye can I milk, sir; - But I was neer born in the time o the year - To wear the gowns o silk, sir. - - 13 - ‘Yestreen I was a shepherd’s dochter, - Whistling my hogs to the hill; - But the nicht I am an earl’s lady, - I may wear what I will.’ - - Johnson’s Museum, No 397, p. 410. - - As I went out ae May morning, - A May morning it chanc’d to be, - There I was aware of a weelfar’d maid, - Cam linkin oer the lea to me. - - O but she was a weelfar’d maid, - The bonniest lass that’s under the sun; - I spier’d gin she could fancy me, - But her answer was, I am too young. - - ‘To be your bride I am too young, - To be your loun wad shame my kin; - So therefore, pray, young man, begone, - For you never, never shall my favour win.’ - - - - - 237 - - THE DUKE OF GORDON’S DAUGHTER - - #a.# ‘The Duke of Gordon’s Daughter,’ The Duke of Gordon’s Garland, - Percy Papers, and another edition in a volume of garlands formerly - in Heber’s library. #b.# ‘The Duke of Gordon’s Daughters,’ a - stall-copy, printed for John Sinclair, Dumfries. #c.# ‘The Duke of - Gordon’s Daughters,’ Stirling, printed by M. Randall. #d.# ‘The Duke - of Gordon’s Three Daughters,’ Peterhead, printed by P. Buchan. #e.# - ‘The Duke of Gordon’s Three Daughters,’ Kinloch MSS, I, 125. #f.# - ‘The Duke o Gordon’s Daughters,’ Murison MS., p. 90, Aberdeenshire. - #g.# ‘The Duke o Gordon’s Daughter,’ Gibb MS., p. 13, No 3, from the - recitation of Mrs Gibb, senior. #h.# ‘The Duke of Gordon’s Three - Daughters,’ Macmath MS., p. 31, a fragment recited by Mrs Macmath, - senior, in 1874, and learned by her fifty years before. - - -A copy of #a# was reprinted by Ritson, Scotish Songs, 1794, II, 169. -(There are three slight variations in Ritson, two of which are -misprints.) Fifteen stanzas are given from Ritson in Johnson’s Musical -Museum, ‘The Duke of Gordon has three daughters,’ No 419, p. 431, 1797 -(with a single variation and the correction of a misprint). Smith’s -Scotish Minstrel, IV, 98, repeats the stanzas in the Museum, inserting a -few words to fill out lines for singing. Christie, Traditional Ballad -Airs, I, 2, has made up a ballad from three “traditional” copies. A -fragment of four stanzas in Notes and Queries, Second Series, VII, 418, -requires no notice. - -Burns gave the first stanza as follows (Cromek’s Reliques, p. 229, ed, -1817; Cromek’s Select Scotish Songs, I, 86, 1810): - - The lord o Gordon had three dochters, - Mary, Marget, and Jean; - They wad na stay at bonie Castle Gordon, - But awa to Aberdeen. - -The first sister’s name is given as Mary in #e# also. - -It is very likely that the recited copies were originally learned from -print. #e# and #g# have two stanzas which do not appear in #a-d#, but -these may occur in some other stall-copy, or have been borrowed from -some other ballad. - -Ritson pointed out that George Gordon, the fourth Earl of Huntly, killed -at Corrichie in 1562, had three daughters, named Elizabeth, Margaret, -and Jean, and that Jean, the youngest, married Alexander Ogilvie, Laird -of Boyne. These facts, however, can have no relevancy to this ballad. -Ogilvie was Lady Jean Gordon’s third husband, and at the death of the -second, in 1594, she was in her fiftieth year, or near to that. Her -marriage with the Laird of Boyne was “for the utility and profit of her -children,” of which she had a full quiver.[139] - -Jean, one of the three daughters of the Duke of Gordon (there was no -Duke of Gordon before 1684, but that is early enough for our ballad), -falls in love with Captain Ogilvie at Aberdeen. Her father threatens to -have the captain hanged, and writes to the king to ask that favor. The -king refuses to hang Ogilvie, but reduces him to the ranks, makes him a -‘single’ man. The pair lead a wandering life for three years, and are -blessed with as many children. At the end of that time they journey -afoot to the Highland hills, and present themselves at Castle Gordon in -great destitution. Lady Jean is welcomed; the duke will have nothing to -do with Ogilvie. Ogilvie goes over seas as a private soldier, but is -soon after sent for as heir to the earldom of Northumberland. The duke -is now eager to open Castle Gordon to the Captain. Ogilvie wants nothing -there but Jean Gordon, whom, with her three children, he takes to -Northumberland to enjoy his inheritance. - -Nothing in the story of the ballad is known to have even a shadow of -foundation in fact. - - * * * * * - - 1 - The Duke of Gordon has three daughters, - Elizabeth, Margaret, and Jean; - They would not stay in bonny Castle Gordon, - But they would go to bonny Aberdeen. - - 2 - They had not been in Aberdeen - A twelvemonth and a day - Till Lady Jean fell in love with Captain Ogilvie, - And away with him she would gae. - - 3 - Word came to the Duke of Gordon, - In the chamber where he lay, - Lady Jean has fell in love with Captain Ogilvie, - And away with him she would gae. - - 4 - ‘Go saddle me the black horse, - And you’ll ride on the grey, - And I will ride to bonny Aberdeen, - Where I have been many a day.’ - - 5 - They were not a mile from Aberdeen, - A mile but only three, - Till he met with his two daughters walking, - But away was Lady Jean. - - 6 - ‘Where is your sister, maidens? - Where is your sister now? - Where is your sister, maidens, - That she is not walking with you?’ - - 7 - ‘O pardon us, honoured father, - O pardon us,’ they did say; - ‘Lady Jean is with Captain Ogilvie, - And away with him she will gae.’ - - 8 - When he came to Aberdeen, - And down upon the green, - There did he see Captain Ogilvie, - Training up his men. - - 9 - ‘O wo to you, Captain Ogilvie, - And an ill death thou shalt die; - For taking to thee my daughter, - Hangëd thou shalt be.’ - - 10 - Duke Gordon has wrote a broad letter, - And sent it to the king, - To cause hang Captain Ogilvie - If ever he hanged a man. - - 11 - ‘I will not hang Captain Ogilvie, - For no lord that I see; - But I’ll cause him to put off the lace and scarlet, - And put on the single livery.’ - - 12 - Word came to Captain Ogilvie, - In the chamber where he lay, - To cast off the gold lace and scarlet, - And put on the single livery. - - 13 - ‘If this be for bonny Jeany Gordon, - This pennance I’ll take wi; - If this be for bonny Jeany Gordon, - All this I will dree.’ - - 14 - Lady Jean had not been married, - Not a year but three, - Till she had a babe in every arm, - Another upon her knee. - - 15 - ‘O but I’m weary of wandering! - O but my fortune is bad! - It sets not the Duke of Gordon’s daughter - To follow a soldier-lad. - - 16 - ‘O but I’m weary of wandering! - O but I think lang! - It sets not the Duke of Gordon’s daughter - To follow a single man.’ - - 17 - When they came to the Highland hills, - Cold was the frost and snow; - Lady Jean’s shoes they were all torn, - No farther could she go. - - 18 - ‘O wo to the hills and the mountains! - Wo to the wind and the rain! - My feet is sore with going barefoot, - No further am I able to gang. - - 19 - ‘Wo to the hills and the mountains! - Wo to the frost and the snow! - My feet is sore with going barefoot, - No farther am I able for to go. - - 20 - ‘O if I were at the glens of Foudlen, - Where hunting I have been, - I would find the way to bonny Castle Gordon, - Without either stockings or shoon.’ - - 21 - When she came to Castle Gordon, - And down upon the green, - The porter gave out a loud shout, - ‘O yonder comes Lady Jean!’ - - 22 - ‘O you are welcome, bonny Jeany Gordon, - You are dear welcome to me; - You are welcome, dear Jeany Gordon, - But away with your Captain Ogilvie.’ - - 23 - Now over seas went the captain, - As a soldier under command; - A message soon followed after - To come and heir his brother’s land. - - 24 - ‘Come home, you pretty Captain Ogilvie, - And heir your brother’s land; - Come home, ye pretty Captain Ogilvie, - Be Earl of Northumberland.’ - - 25 - ‘O what does this mean?’ says the captain; - ‘Where’s my brother’s children three?’ - ‘They are dead and buried, - And the lands they are ready for thee.’ - - 26 - ‘Then hoist up your sails, brave captain, - Let’s be jovial and free; - I’ll to Northumberland and heir my estate, - Then my dear Jeany I’ll see.’ - - 27 - He soon came to Castle Gordon, - And down upon the green; - The porter gave out with a loud shout, - ‘Here comes Captain Ogilvie!’ - - 28 - ‘You’re welcome, pretty Captain Ogilvie, - Your fortune’s advanced I hear; - No stranger can come unto my gates - That I do love so dear.’ - - 29 - ‘Sir, the last time I was at your gates, - You would not let me in; - I’m come for my wife and children, - No friendship else I claim.’ - - 30 - ‘Come in, pretty Captain Ogilvie, - And drink of the beer and the wine; - And thou shalt have gold and silver - To count till the clock strike nine.’ - - 31 - ‘I’ll have none of your gold or silver, - Nor none of your white-money; - But I’ll have bonny Jeany Gordon, - And she shall go now with me.’ - - 32 - Then she came tripping down the stair, - With the tear into her eye; - One babe was at her foot, - Another upon her knee. - - 33 - ‘You’re welcome, bonny Jeany Gordon, - With my young family; - Mount and go to Northumberland, - There a countess thou shall be.’ - - * * * * * - -#a.# - - The Duke of Gordon’s Garland, composed of several excellent New - Songs. I. The Duke of Gordon’s Daughter. II. A new song calld - Newcastle Ale. Licensed and enterd according to order. - - _Heber’s copy differs in a few places from Percy’s, and generally - for the worse._ - - 4^2. on _wanting_. - - 7^4. she woud. - - 10^3. cause _wanting_. - - 13^4. will not. - - 16^2. think it. - - 18^2. and rain. - - 24^3. you. - - 24^4. And be. - - 32^2. tears in her eyes. - - _Ritson’s._ 9^3. wants thee. 13^3. wants for. 31^1. gold and. - -#b.# - - _Two copies, one in the British Museum_, 1078. i. 20 (7), Printed - at the St. Michael Press, by C. M’Lachlan, Dumfries, _dated in - the catalogue_ 1785? - -#c.# - - _British Museum_, 11621. b. 12 (28), _dated_ 1810? - - A beautiful old song, entitled the Duke of Gordon’s three - Daughters. To which is added The Challenge. Stirling: Printed by - M. Randall. - -#d.# - - _British Museum_, 1078. k. 4 (5), _dated_ 1820? The Duke of - Gordon’s Three Daughters. To which is added Mrs Burns Lament for - Burns. Peterhead: Printed by P. Buchan. - -#b, c, d.# - - 1^1. had. - - 1^3. stay at. - - 1^4. they went to. - - 2^1. in bonny. - - 2^3. Till Jean. - - 2^4. #b.# him went she. #c, d.# And from him she would not stay. - - 3^1. come. - - 3^{3,4}. How Lady Jean fell in love with a captain, And from him - she would not stay. - - 4^1. to me: horse, he cry’d. - - 4^2. My servant shall ride on. - - 4^3. will go. - - 4^4. Forthwith to bring her away. - - 5^2. only one. - - 5^3. walking _wanting_. - - 6^{2,3}. O where. - - 6^4. #c, d.# not along with. - - 7^1. #b.# us, they did say. - - 7^4. And from him she would (#c, d#, will) not stay. - - 8^1. to bonny. - - 8^4. #b.# A training of. #c, d.# A training his gallant. - - 9^1. woe be to thee. - - 9^4. High hanged. #b.# shalt thou. - - 10^1. #b.# The Duke he wrote. #c, d.# The D. of G. wrote a letter. - - 10^2. #b.# he sent. - - 10^3. Desiring him to hang. - - 10^4. #b.# eer he causd hang any. #c, d.# For marrying his - daughter Jean. - - 11^1. #b.# O no I. #c, d.# Said the king, I’ll not. - - 11^2. #b.# For any (#c, d#, all the) offence that. - - 11^3. him put off the scarlet. - - 12^1. Now word. - - 12^3. To strip off. - - 13^{1,3}. #b.# Jean. - - 13^3. #c, d.# for my true-love. - - 13^4. this and more I’ll. - - 14^2. #c, d.# Not _wanting_. #b, c, d.# but only. - - 14^4. And another. - - 15^1. #b.# weary, weary wandering. #c, d.# weary wandering. - - 16. - O hold thy tongue, bonny Jean Gordon, - O hold your tongue, my lamb! (#c, d.# thy) - For once I was a noble captain, - Now for thy sake a single man. - - 17^1. #b.# O high is the hills and the mountains. #c, d#, high - were: and mountains. - - 17^2. #b.# and the. - - 18,19. _Wanting._ - - 20^1. #b#. was in. #c, d.# were in. - - 20^3. I could go. #b.# Jean _for_ Castle, _wrongly_. - - _19–21 of #b#are displaced, and come after #b# 26: or, 23–27 of - #a# follow #a# 20, and then come this stanza (not in #a#) and - #a# 21, 22._ - - _After 20._ #b#: - - O hold thy tongue, bonny Jean (#c, d.# your) Gordon, - O hold your tongue, my dow! - I’ve but one half-crown in the world, - I’ll buy hose and shoon (#c, d.# And I’ll) to you. - - 21^1. #b.# Then, _wrongly_. #b, c, d.# to bonny. - - 21^2. And coming over the green. - - 21^3. #b.# porter cried out with a cry. #c, d.# called out very - loudly. - - 21^4. #b.# O _wanting_. #b, c, d.# comes our. - - 22^1. #b.# O _wanting_. #b, c, d.# Jean. - - 22^2. #b.# dearly. #c, d.# Her father he did say. - - 22^3. Thou art: Jean. - - 22^4. Captain _wanting_. - - 23^1. over the. - - 23^3. But a messenger. - - 23^4. Which caused a countermand. - - 24^1. #b.# home now pretty. #c, d.# home now brave. - - 24^2. To enjoy your. - - 24^3. #b#. home now pretty. #c, d.# O come home gallant. - - 24^4. You’r the heir of. - - 25^1. #c, d.# O _wanting_. - - 25^3. O they. #b.# are all. - - 25^4. The lands. #b.# all ready. - - 26^2. And let’s. - - 26^3. I’ll go home and have my. - - 26^4. And then. - - 27^1. bonny Castle. - - 27^2. #b.# And then at the gate stood he. #c, d.# he stood, - _wrongly_. - - 27^3. #b.# porter cry’d out. #c, d.# cry’d with a loud voice. - - 27^4. #c, d.# O here. #b.# comes the. - - 28^1. #c, d.# O you’re welcome now, Captain. - - 28^3. #b.# come to. #c, d.# come within. - - 29^1. #b.# at _wrongly omitted_. #b, c, d.# gate. - - 29^3. #c, d.# Now I’m. - - 30, 31. _Wanting._ - - 32^1. #c, d.# Then Jean came. - - 32^2. #c, d.# The salt tear in. - - 32^3. babe she had at every foot. - - 32^4. #c, d.# And one in her arms did ly. - - 33. #b.# - You’re welcome, bonny Jean Gordon, - You are dearly welcome to me; - You’re welcome, bonny Jeany Gordon, - Countess of Cumberland to be. - - #c, d.# - The Captain took her straight in his arms, - O a happy man was he! - Saying, Welcome, _etc._, _as in_ #b#. - - 33^4. #c, d.# Northumberland. - - _After 33._ #b.# - So the captain came off with his lady, (#c, d.# The captain) - And also his sweet babes three; (#c, d.# And his lovely babies - three) - Saying, I’m as good blood by descent, - Tho the great Duke o Gordon you be. - -#e-h# _are but partially collated_. - -#e.# - - 1^1. had. - - 1^2. Lady Mary, Margret, and Jean. - - 1^4. they wadna bide. - - 7^4. From him she will not stay. - - 8. _Wanting._ - - 9^4. Hie hangit shalt thou be. - - 10^3. Desiring to hang. - - 10^4. For marrying his dochter Jean. - - 11^2. For a’ the offence I see. - - 11^3. gar him throw aff his broad scarlet. - - 13^4. A’ this and mair I’ll dree. - - 14^2. A year but only three. - - 15^1. weary wandering. - - 16. _As in_ #b#, #c#, #d#. - - 17^1. High war the hills and the mountains. - - 18, 19. _Wanting._ - - 20^3. I could ga. - - _After 20_: - - ‘O an I war at bonnie Castle Gordon, - . . . . . . . - O an I war at bonnie Castle Gordon, - There I’d get hose and sheen.’ - - ‘Though ye war at bonnie Castle Gordon, - And standing on the green, - Your father is sae hard-hearted a man - He wad na lat you in.’ - - ‘If I war at bonnie Castle Gordon, - And standing on the green, - My mither’s a tender-hearted woman, - She wad rise and lat me in.’ - - _Then_: O haud your tongue—I’ll buy hose and sheen to you, _as in_ - #b#, #c#, #d#. - - 22^4. awa wi your Ogilvie. - - 23^3. But a messenger. - - 23^4. Which causd a countermand. - - 24^4. Ye’re the heir of. - - 26^3. I’ll gae hame and heir my estate. - - _After 26_: - - ‘Then hoist up your sail,’ said the Captain, - ‘And we’ll gae oure the sea, - And I’ll gae to bonnie Castle Gordon, - There my dear Jeanie to see.’ - - 27^2. And whan in sicht cam he. - - _Between 28, 29_: - - ‘The last time I cam to your yetts - Ye wadna let me in, - But now I’m again at your yetts, - And in I will not gang.’ - - 30, 31. _Wanting._ - - 32^2. Wi the saut tear in her ee. - - 32^3. A babe she held in every arm. - - 32^4. Anither gaun at her knee. - - 33. _As in #c#, #d#, and a concluding stanza as in #b#, #c#, #d#._ - -#f.# - - 1^1. had. - - 2^2. Months but barely three. - - 2^4, 3^4, 7^4. fae him she winna stay. - - 3^1. Word’s come. - - 6^2. sister Jean. - - 6^4. ye are walkin alane. - - 9^4. High hangëd. - - 10^4. If ever he hangëd ane. - - 13^{2,4}. A’ this I’ll dee an mair. - - 14. _Wanting._ - - 15^1. weary wanrin. - - 15^4. a single sodger lad. - - 16. _As in_ #b#, #c#, #d#. - - 18, 19. _Wanting._ - - 20^2. Fa monie merry day I hae been. - - _After 20 a stanza as in #b#, #c#, #d#, and then this silly one_: - - ‘O they would be bad stockins, - O they would be worse sheen, - O they would be bad stockins - Ye’d get for half a crown.’ - - 21^1. they cam to bonnie Aberdeen. - - 22^4. awa wi your Ogilvie. - - 23^3. But a messenger. - - 23^4. Which proved a counterman. - - 24^4. You’re the heir o. - - 26, 30, 31. _Wanting._ - - 32^2. Wi the saut tear in her ee. - - 32^3. She had a babe in ilka airm. - - 32^4. An a third whar nane could see. - - 33^2. Ye’re welcome, thrice welcome to me. - - 33^{3,4}. - Ye’re welcome, bonnie Jeannie Gordon, - Countess o Northumberlan to be. - -#g.# - - 1^1. had. - - 2^2. A month but only one. - - 3^4. from him she wald not stay. - - 4^2. My servant shall ride on. - - 4^4. An forthwith bring her away. - - 5^2. only one. - - 6^4. she’s not along with you. - - 7^4. from him she will not stay. - - 8^4. Training his gallant men. - - 9^4. It’s high hangit ye sall. - - 10^3. It was to hang. - - 10^4. For marrying his daughter Jean. - - 11^2. For all the offence I can see. - - 11^4. 12^4. Put on but the. - - 13. - ‘A’ this I will do for your sake, Jeanie Gordon, - A’ this I will do for thee; - I will cast aff the gold lace an scarlet, - Put on but the single livery.’ - - 14^2. Ae year but only three. - - 15^4. a single soldier-lad. - - 16. - ‘O haud your tongue, Jeannie Gordon, - An dinna ye lichtlie me; - I was tane frae a captain’s commission - An made low for lyin wi thee.’ - - (_17 as 15._) 17^1. High were the hills an the mountains. - - 18, 19. _Wanting._ - - _Before 20_: - - ‘Haud your tongue, Jeannie Gordon, - Ye needna gloom on me; - I hae but ae half-crown in the warld, - I’ll buy stockings an shoon to thee.’ - - 20^1. If I were in the bonny glens o Ourdlie. - - 20^2. Where mony bonny days I hae been. - - _After 20_: - - ‘If ye were at bonny Castle Gordon, - An lichtit on the green, - Your faither is a hard-hearted man, - He wald na let you in.’ - - ‘If I were at bonny Castle Gordon, - An lichtit on the green, - My mother’s a good-hearted woman, - She wald open an lat me in.’ - - 22. - The Duke o Gordon cam trippin doun stairs - Wi the saut tear in his ee: (_cf._ 32^2) - ‘Ye’re welcome here, Jeannie Gordon, - Wi a’ your young family, (_cf._ 33^2) - Ye’re welcome here, Jeannie Gordon, - But awa wi your Ogilvie.’ - - 23^{1,2}. - The Captain took ship an sailed, - He sailed from the land. - - 23^3. But a messenger. - - 23^4. Which caused a countermand. - - 24^{1,3}. Come back, come back, C. O. - - 24^4. You are earl. - - 25. _Wanting._ - - 26^3. I will gae hame an. - - 27^2. An lichtit on the green. - - 27^4. Says, Here’s Captain Ogilvie again. - - _After 27_: - - The Duke o Gordon cam trippin doun stairs, - Wi his hat into his hand: - ‘Ye’re welcome hame, Captain Ogilvie, - The heir o Northumberland.’ - - _After 28_: - - ‘Put up your hat, Duke o Gordon, - An do not let it fa; - It never set the noble Duke o Gordon - To bow to a single soldier-lad.’ - - 29^4. No ither favour I claim. - - 30, 31. _Wanting._ - - 32^2. the saut tear in her ee. - - 32^{3,4}. - You’re welcome hame, Captain Ogilvie, - You’re dearly welcome to me. - - 33. _Wanting._ - - _After 33_: The Captain went aff with his lady, _nearly as in_ - #b-e#. - - _The order of stanzas is deranged. Some of the variations are - clearly misremembrances._ - -#h.# - - _Nine stanzas only._ - - 1^1. had. - - 1^4. wud awa. - - 2^2. A month but barely twa. - - 2^4. from him she wudna stay. - - 3^4. from him she will not stay. - - 11^2. For any offence that. - - 15^1. weary, weary wanderin. - - _After 15_: Had yer tongue—I’ll buy hose and shoon for you, Had - yer tongue—For your sake I’m a single man. - - 22^4. awa wi your Ogilvie. - - _Christie’s ballad has many of the readings of #a#, and a few of - the editor’s. Of_ “two verses, as sung in the counties of Banff - and Moray, hitherto unpublished,” _one is in all copies except - #a#; the other is the inept stanza_ (_see_ #f#): - - ‘Oh, coarse, coarse would be the stockings, - And coarser would be the shoon, - Oh, coarse, coarse would they baith be, - You would buy for ae siller crown.’ - - - - - 238 - - GLENLOGIE, OR, JEAN O BETHELNIE - - #A.# Skene MS., p. 13. - - #B.# ‘Glenlogie,’ Sharpe’s Ballad Book, 1823, p. 37. - - #C.# ‘Glenlogie,’ Gibb MS., No 6, p. 33. - - #D.# ‘There waur aucht an forty nobles,’ Harris MS., fol. 17. - - #E. a.# ‘Jean o Bethelnie’s Love for Sir G. Gordon,’ Buchan’s Ballads - of the North of Scotland, I, 188. #b.# ‘Bonnie Jean o Bethelnie,’ - Christie’s Traditional Ballad Airs, I, 54. - - #F.# ‘Jean o Bethelnie,’ Percy Papers, communicated by R. Lambe, 1768. - - #G.# ‘Glenlogie,’ Alexander Laing’s MS., p. 8. - - #H.# ‘Glenlogie,’ Kinloch MSS, V, 431. - - #I. a.# “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 77, - Abbotsford. #b#. ‘Glenogie,’ Smith’s Scotish Minstrel, IV, 78, 1822. - - -‘Glenlogie,’ in Chambers’ Popular Rhymes of Scotland, 1826, p. 200, is a -repetition of #B#. #F#, the copy earliest taken down, is not pure and -unvarnished tradition. The reconstructed copy in the Ballad Minstrelsy -of Scotland, Glasgow, 1871, p. 506, was “based on a MS. version -communicated to Mr Buchan in a letter from Mr Alexander Laing, dated -Brechin, April 9th, 1829, and there given by him as taken down from the -recitation of the amiable daughter of a clergyman in the North.” #G#, -from Laing’s MS., may be supposed to be the ballad sent to Buchan by -Laing. #I b# has been touched up by one of “that parliament of gentle -ladies,” in Motherwell’s phrase, who had charge of the literary part of -Smith’s Scotish Minstrel. - -Jean of Bethelnie, #A#, #C#, #E#, #F#, Jean Melville, #B#, #D#, #G#, of -the age of fifteen or sixteen, scarce seventeen, #G#, falls in love at -sight with Glenlogie (Earl Ogie, #F#, Glenogie, #I b#), and opens her -mind to him. Glenlogie, though much flattered, is obliged to say that he -is already promised.[140] Jean takes to her bed, determined to die. Her -father (mother, #A#[141]), as all too frequently happens at such -conjunctures, proposes the miserable comfort of another and a better -match, and, as usual, is told to hold his tongue. The chaplain of the -family (the father himself is a king’s chaplain in #F#) takes the -business in hand, and writes a broad, long, and well-penned letter to -Glenlogie, setting forth the desperate condition of the girl. Glenlogie -is so much affected that he rides to Bethelnie with all haste and -presents himself to Jean as her bridegroom, although promised awa. - -The young lady is Jean Gordon in #C#. #H# has changed Bethelnie to -Belhelvie, another Aberdeenshire town. I has Glenfeldy for Bethelnie. - - -Gerhard, p. 103, has translated #E a#; Knortz, Schottische Balladen, p. -15, Aytoun’s copy, that is, #B#. - - * * * * * - - - A - - Skene MS., p. 13; taken down from recitation in the north of - Scotland, 1802–3. - - 1 - Four an twenty noblemen they rode thro Banchory fair, - But bonnie Glenlogie was flower [of a’] that was there. - - 2 - Four and twenty noblemen rode from Banchory ha, - But bonnie Glenlogie he was flower of them a’. - - 3 - ‘O bonnie Glenlogie, be constant and kind, - An, bonnie Glenlogie, I’ll tell you my mind. - - 4 - . . . . so frank and so free, - . . . and I get na Glenlogie, I’ll die.’ - - 5 - ‘O bonnie Jeanie, your portion’s but sma - To lay your love on me, that’s promist awa.’ - - 6 - Her cherry cheeks grew pale an wan; with the tear in her ee, - ‘Gin I get na Glenlogie, I surely will die.’ - - 7 - Ben came her father, steps to her bowr: - ‘Dear Jeanie, you’r acting the part of a [whore]. - - 8 - ‘You’re seeking ane that cares na for thee; - Ye’s get Lord William, let Glenlogie be.’ - - 9 - ‘O had you still, father, let your folly be; - Gin I get na Glenlogie, I surely will die.’ - - 10 - Ben came her mother, steps on the floor: - ‘Dear daughter Jeanie, you’re acting the [whore], - - 11 - ‘Seeking of ane that cares na for thee; - For ye’ll get Lord William, let Glenlogie be.’ - - 12 - ‘O had your tongue, mother, and let me be; - An I get na Glenlogie, I surely will die.’ - - 13 - O ben came her father’s chaplain, a man of great skill, - And he has written a broad letter, and he has pennd it well. - - 14 - H’as pennd it well, an sent it awa - To bonnie Glenlogie, the flower of them a’. - - 15 - When he got the letter, his tears did down fa - ‘She’s laid her love on me, that was promist awa.’ - - 16 - He calld on his servant wi speed, and bade him saddle his horses, and - bridle them a’: - ‘For she has laid her love on me, altho I was promist awa.’ - - 17 - The horses were saddled wi speed, but ere they came he was four mile - awa, - To Jean of Bethelny, the flowr of them a’. - - 18 - But when he came to her bowr she was pale and wan, - But she grew red and ruddy when Glenlogie came in. - - 19 - ‘Cheer up, bonnie Jeannie, ye are flowr o them a’; - I have laid my love on you, altho I was promist awa.’ - - 20 - Her beauty was charming, her tocher down tauld; - Bonnie Jean of Bethelny was scarce fifteen year auld. - - * * * * * - - - B - - Sharpe’s Ballad Book, p. 37, 1823. - - 1 - Four and twenty nobles sits in the king’s ha, - Bonnie Glenlogie is the flower among them a’. - - 2 - In came Lady Jean, skipping on the floor, - And she has chosen Glenlogie ‘mong a’ that was there. - - 3 - She turned to his footman, and thus she did say: - Oh, what is his name? and where does he stay? - - 4 - ‘His name is Glenlogie, when he is from home; - He is of the gay Gordons, his name it is John.’ - - 5 - ‘Glenlogie, Glenlogie, an you will prove kind, - My love is laid on you; I am telling my mind.’ - - 6 - He turned about lightly, as the Gordons does a’: - ‘I thank you, Lady Jean, my loves is promised awa.’ - - 7 - She called on her maidens her bed for to make, - Her rings and her jewels all from her to take. - - 8 - In came Jeanie’s father, a wae man was he; - Says, I’ll wed you to Drumfendrich, he has mair gold than he. - - 9 - Her father’s own chaplain, being a man of great skill, - He wrote him a letter, and indited it well. - - 10 - The first lines he looked at, a light laugh laughed he; - But ere he read through it the tears blinded his ee. - - 11 - Oh, pale and wan looked she when Glenlogie cam in, - But even rosy grew she when Glenlogie sat down. - - 12 - ‘Turn round, Jeanie Melville, turn round to this side, - And I’ll be the bridegroom, and you’ll be the bride.’ - - 13 - Oh, ‘t was a merry wedding, and the portion down told, - Of bonnie Jeanie Melville, who was scarce sixteen years old. - - * * * * * - - - C - - Gibb MS., No 6, p. 33, from the recitation of Mrs Gibb, senior; - traced to Mrs E. Lindsay, about 1800. - - 1 - There was three score o nobles sat at the king’s dine, - An bonny Glenlogie was flower o thrice nine. - - * * * * * * - - 2 - . . . . cam trippin downstair, - An she fancied Glenlogie ower a’ that was there. - - 3 - She called on the footman that ran by his side, - Says, What is that man’s name, an where does he bide? - - 4 - ‘His name is Glenlogie when he goes from home. - But he’s of the great Gordons, an his name is Lord John.’ - - 5 - ‘Glenlogie! Glenlogie! Glenlogie!’ said she, - ‘An for bonnie Glenlogie I surely will die.’ - - 6 - She called on her maidens to make her her bed, - . . . . . . . . . - - * * * * * * - - 7 - When Glenlogie got the letter, amang noble-men, - ‘Dear me,’ said Glenlogie, ‘what does young women mean!’ - - 8 - Then up spake his father, Let it never be said - That such a fine lady should die for your sake. - - 9 - ‘Go saddle my black horse, go saddle him soon, - Till I go to Bethelnie, to see Lady Jean.’ - - 10 - When he got to Bethelnie, there was naebody there - But was weeping an wailing an tearing their hair. - - * * * * * * - - 11 - ‘Turn round, Jeanie Gordon, turn round to this side; - I’ll be the bridegroom, an ye’s be the bride.’ - - * * * * * - - - D - - Harris MS., fol. 17; learned from Mrs Harris before 1832. - - 1 - There waur aucht an forty nobles rade to the king’s ha, - But bonnie Glenlogie was the flour o them a’. - - 2 - There waur aucht an forty nobles rade to the king’s dine, - But bonnie Glenlogie was the flour o thrice nine. - - 3 - Bonnie Jeanie Melville cam trippin doun the stair, - An whan she saw Glenlogie her hairt it grew sair. - - 4 - . . . . . . . . . - ‘He’s of the gay Gordons, his name it is John.’ - - 5 - ‘Oh, Logie! Oh, Logie! Oh, Logie!’ said she, - ‘If I get na Glenlogie, I surely will dee.’ - - 6 - He turned him aboot, as the Gordons do a’, - Says, I thank you, Lady Jeanie, but I’m promised awa. - - 7 - She called on her maidens her hands for to take, - An the rings from her fingers she did them a’ break. - - 8 - ‘Oh, what is my lineage, or what is my make. - That such a fine lady suld dee for my sake?’ - - 9 - Such a pretty wedding, as I have been told, - An bonnie Jeanie Melville was scarce sixteen years old. - - * * * * * - - - E - - #a.# Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, I, 188. #b.# - Christie’s Traditional Ballad Airs, I, 54. - - 1 - There were four-and-twenty ladies dined i the Queen’s ha, - And Jean o Bethelnie was the flower o them a’. - - 2 - Four-and-twenty gentlemen rode thro Banchory fair, - But bonny Glenlogie was the flower that was there. - - 3 - Young Jean at a window she chanced to sit nigh, - And upon Glenlogie she fixed an eye. - - 4 - She calld on his best man, unto him did say, - O what is that knight’s name? or where does he stay? - - 5 - ‘He’s of the noble Gordons, of great birth and fame; - He stays at Glenlogie, Sir George is his name.’ - - 6 - Then she wrote a broad letter, and wrote it in haste; - To send to Glenlogie, she thought it was best. - - 7 - Says, O brave Glenlogie, unto me be kind; - I’ve laid my love on you, and told you my mind. - - 8 - Then reading the letter, as he stood on the green, - Says, I leave you to judge, sirs; what does women mean? - - 9 - Then turnd about sprightly, as the Gordons do a’: - ‘Lay not your love on me, I’m promisd awa.’ - - 10 - When she heard this answer, her heart was like to break, - That she laid her love on him, and him so ungrate. - - 11 - Then she calld on her maidens to lay her to bed, - And take her fine jewels and lay them aside. - - 12 - ‘My seals and my signets, no more shall I crave; - But linen and trappin, a chest and a grave.’ - - 13 - Her father stood by her, possessëd with fear - To see his dear daughter possessëd with care. - - 14 - Says, Hold your tongue, Jeannie, let all your folly be; - I’ll wed you to Dumfedline, he is better than he. - - 15 - ‘O hold your tongue, father, and let me alane; - If I getna Glenlogie, I ‘ll never have ane. - - 16 - ‘His bonny jimp middle, his black rolling eye, - If I getna Glenlogie, I’m sure I shall die.’ - - 17 - But her father’s old chaplain, a man of great skill, - He wrote a broad letter, and pennëd it well. - - 18 - Saying, O brave Glenlogie, why must it be so? - A maid’s love laid on you, shall she die in her woe? - - 19 - Then reading the letter, his heart was like to break - That such a leal virgin should die for his sake. - - 20 - Then he calld on his footman, and likewise his groom, - Says, Get my horse saddled and bridlëd soon. - - 21 - Before the horse was saddled and brought to the yate, - Bonnie Glenlogie was five miles on foot. - - 22 - When he came to Bethelnie, he saw nothing there - But weeping and wailing, vexation and care. - - 23 - Then out spake her father, with the tear in his ee, - You’re welcome, Glenlogie, you’re welcome to me. - - 24 - ‘If ye make me welcome, as welcome’s ye say, - Ye’ll show me the chamber where Jeannie does lay.’ - - 25 - Then one o her maidens took him by the hand, - To show him the chamber where Jeannie lay in. - - 26 - Before that she saw him, she was pale and wan; - But when she did see him, she grew ruddy again. - - 27 - ‘O turn, bonny Jeannie, turn you to your side; - For I’ll be the bridegroom, and ye’ll be the bride.’ - - 28 - When Jeannie was married, her tocher down tauld, - Bonny Jean o Bethelnie was fifteen years auld. - - * * * * * - - - F - - Communicated to Percy by Robert Lambe, of Norham, August 17, 1768; - dated April, 1768. - - 1 - Fourscore nobles ride in the king’s court, - And bonny Earl Ogie’s the flower of the rout; - Fourscore lean oer the castle-wa, - But Jean of Bethelnie’s the flower of em a’. - - 2 - She writ a broad letter, and pennd it fou lang, - And sent it Earl Ogie as fast as ‘t can gang: - ‘Bonny Earl Ogie, be courteous and kind; - I’ve laid my love on thee; maun I die in my prime?’ - - 3 - ‘O pox on thee, Jenny, for being sae slaw! - Bonny Earl Ogie is promisd awa:’ - This letter was like to mak her heart break, - For revealing her mind to a man so ingrate. - - 4 - ‘Come here, all my handmaids, O do this with speed, - Take my gowns and my passments, and lay me to bed; - Lay me to my bed, it is all that I crave; - Wi my sark in my coffin, lay me in my grave.’ - - 5 - Her father beheld her with heart full of grief, - And spoke these words to her, to gi her relief: - Hawd your tongue, Jenny, your mourning let be, - You shall have Drumfinely, who’s as good as he. - - 6 - ‘Haud your tongue, father, your words make me sad; - If I get not Earl Ogie, I still shall be bad; - With his bonny streight body, and black rolling eee, - If I get not Earl Ogie, for him I mun dee.’ - - 7 - Her father, king’s chaplain, and one of great skill, - Did write a broad letter, and pennd it fou weel; - He as writ a broad letter, and pennd it fou lang, - And sent it Earl Ogie as fast as ‘t can gang. - - 8 - ‘Bonny Earl Ogie, be courteous and kind; - My daughter loves you; must she die in her prime?’ - When he read the first lines, a loud laugh gave he; - But or he redd the middle, the tear filld his ee. - - 9 - ‘Come here, all my footmen, and also my groom, - Go saddle my horses, and saddle them soon:’ - They were not weel saddled and set on the green - Or bonny Earl Ogie was twa mile his lain. - - 10 - When he came to Bethelnie, he nothing saw there - But mourning and weeping, lamentation and care: - ‘O you that’s her handmaid, take me by the hand, - Lead me to the chamber that Jenny lies in.’ - - 11 - When thither he came, she was pale and half dead; - As soon as she saw him, her cheeks they grew red: - ‘Come, turn thee, my Jenny, come, turn on thy side, - I’ll be the bridegroom, you shall be the bride.’ - - 12 - Her spirit revived to hear him say sae, - And thus ended luckily all her great wae; - Then streight were they married, with joy most profound, - And Jean of Bethelnie was sav’d from the ground. - - * * * * * - - - G - - Alexander Laing’s MS., “Ancient Ballads and Songs, etc., etc., from - the Recitation of Old People,” p. 8, 1829. - - 1 - There was mony a braw noble cum to our king’s ha, - But the bonnie Glenlogie was the flower o them a’; - An the young ladye Jeanye, sae gude an sae fair, - She fancyd Glenlogie aboon a’ that were there. - - 2 - She speered at his footman that rode by his side - His name an his surname an whare he did bide: - ‘He bides a[t] Glenlogie whan he is at hame, - He is of the gay Gordons, an John is his name.’ - - 3 - ‘Oh, Logie, Glenlogie, I’ll tell you my mind; - My luve is laid on you, O wad ye prove kind!’ - He turned him about, as the Gordons do a’, - ‘I thank [you], fair ladye, but I’m promised awa.’ - - 4 - She called on her maidens her hands for to take, - An the rings on her fingers she did them a’ break: - ‘Oh, Logie, Glenlogie! Oh, Logie!’ said she, - ‘Gin I get na Glenlogie, I’m sure I will die.’ - - 5 - ‘O hold your tongue, daughter, an weep na sae sair, - For ye’ll get Drumfindlay, his father’s young heir.’ - ‘O hold your tongue, father, an let me alane, - Gin I get na Glenlogie, I winna hae ane.’ - - 6 - Her father wrote a broad letter wi speed, - And ordered his footman to run and ride; - He wrote a broad letter, he wrote it wi skill, - An sent it to Glenlogie, who had dune her the ill. - - 7 - The first line that he read, a light laugh gae he; - The next line that he read, the tear filld his ee: - ‘O what a man am I, an hae I a maik, - That such a fine ladye shoud die for my sake? - - 8 - ‘Ye’ll saddle my horse, an ye’ll saddle him sune, - An, when he is saddled, bring him to the green:’ - His horse was na saddled an brocht to the green, - When Glenlogie was on the road three miles his lane. - - 9 - When he came to her father’s, he saw naething there - But weeping an wailing an sobbing fu sair: - O pale an wan was she when Logie gaed in, - But red an ruddie grew she when Logie gaed ben. - - 10 - ‘O turn, Ladye Jeany, turn ye to your side, - For I’ll be the bridegroom, an ye’ll be the bride:’ - It was a blythe wedding as ever I’ve seen, - An bonny Jeany Melville was scarce seventeen. - - * * * * * - - - H - - Kinloch MSS, V, 431; in Kinloch’s hand. - - 1 - Six and six nobles gaed to Belhelvie fair, - But bonnie Glenlogie was flowr o a’ there; - Bonnie Jean o Behelvie gaed tripping doun the stair, - And fancied Glenlogie afore a’ that was there. - - 2 - She said to his serving-man, as he stood aside, - O what is that man’s name, and whare does he bide ? - ‘They call him Glenlogie whan he goes frae home, - But he’s come o the grand Gordons, and [h]is name is Lord John.’ - - 3 - ‘Glenlogie, Glenlogie, be constant and kind; - I’ve laid my love on you, I’ll tell you my mind:’ - ‘O wae’s me heart, Jeanie, your tocher’s oure sma; - Lay na your love on me, for I’m promised awa.’ - - 4 - She called for the servant to show her a room, - Likewise for a handmaid to mak her bed doun; - Wi that Jeanie’s father cam stepping on the floor, - Says, What is the matter my dochter lies here? - - 5 - ‘Forgie, honourd father, my folly,’ said she, - ‘But for the sake o Glenlogie your dochter will dee:’ - ‘O cheer up, my dochter, for I’ll gie ye my hand - That ye’se get young Glenforbar, w’ an earldom of land. - - 6 - ‘O cheer up, my dochter, turn ance frae the wa, - And ye’ll get Glenforbar, the flowr o them a’:’ - ‘I wad rather tak Glenlogie wi his staff in his hand - Afore I wad tak Glenforbar wi an earldom of land.’ - - 7 - Jeanie’s father was a scholar, and a man o grit wit, - And he wrote him a letter, he thought it was fit. - - 8 - When Glenlogie gat the letter, he was amang nobles a’, - . . . . . he lute his hat fa: - ‘I wonder i the warld what women see at me, - For bonnie Jean o Belhelvie is a dying for me:’ - - 9 - He calld for his servant to saddle his steed, - . . . . . wi speed; - The horse was na saddled, but out on the green, - Till bonnie Glenlogie was some miles him leen. - - 10 - Whan he cam to Belhelvie, he rade round about, - And he saw Jeanie’s father at a window look out. - - 11 - Bonnie Jean o Belhevie lay pale and wan, - But red and ruddy grew she when Glenlogie cam in: - ‘Lie yont, bonnie Jeanie, and let me lie down, - For ye’se be bride, and I’se be bridegroom.’ - - * * * * * - - - I - - #a.# “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border-Minstrelsy,” No. 77. - Written down from the recitation of Mrs Graham, of Inchbrakie, by - Mrs Steuart, of Dalguise, and given, September, 1802, to Mr Robert - Carlyle, by whom it was communicated to Sir Walter Scott. #b.# - Smith’s Scotish Minstrel, IV, 78 (of the second edition). - - 1 - ‘There’s fifty young nobles rides up the king’s hall - And bonny Glenlogie’s the flower of them all; - Wi his milk-white steed, and his black rolling ee, - If I get na Glenlogie, it’s certain I’ll die. - - 2 - ‘Where will I get a bonny boy, to win hose and shoon, - To go to Glenlogie and bid Logie come?’ - ‘Here am I a pretty boy, to win baith hose and shoon, - To go to Glenlogie and bid Logie come.’ - - 3 - When he came to Glenlogie, it was ‘wash and go dine:’ - ‘Come in, my pretty boy, wash and go dine:’ - ‘It was no my father’s fashion, and I hope it’ll no be mine, - To run a lady’s hasty errand, then to go dine. - - 4 - ‘Here take this letter, Glenlogie,’ said he. - The first ane line that he read, a low smile gave he; - The next ane line that he read, the tear blinded his ee; - But the next line that he read he garrd the table flee. - - 5 - ‘O saddle to me the black horse, saddle to me the brown, - Saddle to me the swiftest horse that eer rode frae the town:’ - But lang or the horses could be brought to the green - Bonie Glenlogie was twa mile his lean. - - 6 - When he came to Glenfeldy’s gates, little mirth was there, - Bonie Jean’s mother was tearing her hair: - ‘You’re welcome, Glenlogie, you’re welcome to me, - You’re welcome, Glenlogie, your Jeanie to see.’ - - 7 - O pale and wan was she when Logie came in, - But red and rosy grew she wheneer he sat down: - ‘O turn you, bonie Jeanie, O turn you to me, - For, if you’ll be the bride, the bridegroom I will be.’ - - * * * * * - -#A.# _Not divided into stanzas._ - - 5^1. your portion’s. _Qy_, your fortune’s? (_your luck is small_). - - 5^2. I am promist awa, I’m promist awa, to lay your love on me - that’s promist awa. - - 6^2. Gin I get na Glenlogie, I surely will die, I surely will die. - - 7^1. fathers. - - 9^1. your still, _which may possibly be meant_. - - 10^1. mothers steps. - - 19. - Cheer up bonnie Jeannie - I have laid my love on you - Ye are flowr o them a’ - I have laid my love on you - Altho I was promist awa. - -#C.# _Written in stanzas of four short lines._ - -#D.# - - _Written, as far as the imperfect text would allow, in stanzas of - eight short lines._ - -#E.# _In stanzas of four short lines._ - -#b.# - - “Epitomized from Buchan’s Ballads, with a few alterations from the - way the Editor has heard it sung.” - - 1^2. Bonnie Jean: was flower. - - 2^1. There were four-and-twenty nobles. - - 2^2. And bonnie: was flower o them there. - - 3^1. Bonnie Jean. - - 3^2. And on young G.: her eye. - - 4^1. and to him. - - 6^2. for she. - - 7^1. And says. - - 9^1. Then he. - - 10^1. heard his. - - 10^2. she’d. - - 28^1. and her tocher was tauld. - -#H.# - - _7–11 are in couplets in the MS._ - -#I.# - -#b.# Glenogie _for_ Glenlogie. - - 1^1. Threescore o nobles rade. - - 1^2. But. - - 1^3. his bonny black. - - 1^4. Glenogie, dear mither, Glenogie for me! - - _After 1_: - - ‘O had your tongue, dochter, ye’ll get better than he.’ - ‘O say nae sae, mither, for that canna be; - Tho Drumlie is richer, and greater than he, - Yet, if I maun tak him, I’ll certainly dee.’ - - 2^{2,4}. Will gae: and cum shune again. - - 2^3. O here: a bonny: win hose. - - 3^1. he gaed. - - 3^2. ‘T was wash ye, my. - - 3^3. O ‘t was neer: and it neer shall. - - 3^4. To gar: wait till I dine. - - 4^1. But there is, Glenogie, a letter to thee. - - 4^2. first line. - - 4^3. next line. - - 4^4. the last. - - 5^1. Gar saddle the: gae saddle the. - - 5^2. Gar saddle the swiftest steed eer rade frae a. - - 5^3. ere the horse was drawn and brought. - - 5^4. O bonny. - - 6^1. door _for_ gates. - - 6^3. (_end_) welcome, said she. - - 7^1. O _wanting_: Glenogie gaed ben. - - 7^{3,4}. _An editorial improvement_: - - She turned awa her head, but the smile was in her ee: - ‘O binna feared, mither, I’ll may be no dee.’ - - - - - 239 - - LORD SALTOUN AND AUCHANACHIE - - #A.# ‘Lord Salton and Auchanachie.’ #a.# Buchan’s Ballads of the North - of Scotland, II, 133. #b.# Maidment’s North Countrie Garland, p. 10; - Buchan’s Gleanings, p. 161. - - #B. a.# ‘Young Annochie,’ Murison MS., p. 76. #b.# ‘Lord Saltoun and - Annachie,’ Christie’s Traditional Ballad Airs, I, 10. - - -#A.# Jeanie Gordon loves Auchanachie, who is bonny and braw, but she is -forced by her father to wed Saltoun, who is bowed in the back and -thrawin in the knee; and all for Saltoun’s lands. Jeanie refuses to be -bedded; her maidens, at her father’s order, loose off her gown (they cut -her gown and stays); she falls in a swoon and dies. Auchanachie comes -home from the sea the same day, learns what has happened, asks to be -taken to the chamber where Jeanie lies, kisses her cold lips, and dies. - -In #B# we have Gordon of Annachie in Buchan, instead of Gordon of -Auchanachie in Strathbogie as in #A#. Christie, on very slight grounds, -suggests that one Garden of Annachie was the proper hero: I, 287, 294. - -There can hardly be a doubt that this ballad is Mrs Brown of Falkland’s -‘Lass o Philorth’ (see note, p. 309). Philorth is the seat of the -Frasers of Saltoun, near Fraserburgh, in the extreme northeast corner of -Aberdeenshire. - -As to #A a# 2^{1,2}, #b# 1, #B# 2^{1,2}, see note [B] to the preceding -ballad, p. 339. - - * * * * * - - - A - - #a.# Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, II, 133, 1828. #b.# - Maidment’s North Countrie Garland, p. 10, 1824; Buchan’s Gleanings, - p. 161, 1825. - - 1 - ‘Auchanachie Gordon is bonny and braw, - He would tempt any woman that ever he saw; - He would tempt any woman, so has he tempted me, - And I’ll die if I getna my love Auchanachie.’ - - 2 - In came her father, tripping on the floor, - Says, Jeanie, ye’re trying the tricks o a whore; - Ye’re caring for them that cares little for thee; - Ye must marry Salton, leave Auchanachie. - - 3 - ‘Auchanachie Gordon, he is but a man; - Altho he be pretty, where lies his free land? - Salton’s lands they lie broad, his towers they stand hie, - Ye must marry Salton, leave Auchanachie. - - 4 - . . . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . . . - ‘Salton will gar you wear silk gowns fring’d to thy knee, - But ye’ll never wear that wi your love Auchanachie.’ - - 5 - ‘Wi Auchanachie Gordon I would beg my bread - Before that wi Salton I’d wear gowd on my head, - Wear gowd on my head, or gowns fring’d to the knee; - And I’ll die if I getna my love Auchanachie. - - 6 - ‘O Salton’s [a] valley lies low by the sea, - He’s bowed on the back, and thrawin on the knee;’ - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - - 7 - ‘O Salton’s a valley lies low by the sea; - Though he’s bowed on the back and thrawin on the knee, - Though he’s bowed on the back and thrawin on the knee, - The bonny rigs of Salton they’re nae thrawin tee.’ - - 8 - ‘O you that are my parents to church may me bring, - But unto young Salton I’ll never bear a son; - For son or for daughter, I’ll ne’er bow my knee, - And I’ll die if I getna my love Auchanachie.’ - - 9 - When Jeanie was married, from church was brought hame, - When she wi her maidens sae merry shoud hae been, - When she wi her maidens sae merry shoud hae been, - She’s called for a chamber, to weep there her lane. - - 10 - ‘Come to your bed, Jeanie, my honey and my sweet, - For to stile you mistress I do not think it meet:’ - ‘Mistress or Jeanie, it is a’ ane to me, - It’s in your bed, Salton, I never will be.’ - - 11 - Then out spake her father, he spake wi renown; - Some of you that are maidens, ye’ll loose aff her gown; - Some of you that are maidens, ye’ll loose aff her gown, - And I’ll mend the marriage wi ten thousand crowns. - - 12 - Then ane of her maidens they loosed aff her gown, - But bonny Jeanie Gordon she fell in a swoon; - She fell in a swoon low down by their knee; - Says, Look on, I die for my love Auchanachie! - - 13 - That very same day Miss Jeanie did die, - And hame came Auchanachie, hame frae the sea; - Her father and mither welcomd him at the gate; - He said, Where’s Miss Jeanie, that she’s nae here yet? - - 14 - Then forth came her maidens, all wringing their hands, - Saying, Alas for your staying sae lang frae the land! - Sae lang frae the land, and sae lang on the fleed! - They’ve wedded your Jeanie, and now she is dead. - - 15 - ‘Some of you, her maidens, take me by the hand, - And show me the chamber Miss Jeanie died in;’ - He kissd her cold lips, which were colder than stane, - And he died in the chamber that Jeanie died in. - - * * * * * - - - B - - #a.# Murison MS., p. 76. b. Christie’s Traditional Ballad Airs, I, - 10. - - 1 - ‘Buchan, it’s bonnie, an there lies my love, - My heart is fixt on him, it winna remove; - It winna remove for a’ at I can dee, - An I never will forsake him Young Annochie.’ - - 2 - Her father cam trippin, cam trippin ben the floor, - Says, Jeannie, ye hae but the tricks o a whore; - Ye care little for the man that cares muckle for thee, - But I’ll cause you marry Saltoun, let Annochie be. - - 3 - ‘Ye may marry me to Saltoun before that I go home, - But it is to Lord Saltoun I’ll never bear a son; - A son nor a daughter I’ll never bear to he, - An I never will forsake him Young Annochie.’ - - 4 - ‘All you that is her maidens, ye’ll tak her by the han, - An I will inheft her o five thousan poun; - She’ll wear silk to her heel and gowd to her knee, - An I’ll cause her to forsake him Young Annochie.’ - - 5 - ‘All you that is my maidens winna tak me by the han, - I winna be inhefted o five thousan poun; - I’ll nae wear silk to my heal nor wear gowd to my knee, - An I never will forsake him Young Annochie.’ - - 6 - ‘All you that is her maidens, ye’ll show her to her bed; - The blankets they are ready, the sheets are comely spread; - She shall lie in my airms till twelve o the day, - An I’ll cause her to forsake him Young Annochie.’ - - 7 - ‘All you that is my maidens winna show me to my bed, - Tho the blankets they be ready, the sheets be comely spread; - I’ll nae lie in your airms till twelve o the day, - An I never will forsake him Young Annochie.’ - - 8 - It’s that day they wedded her, an that day she died, - An that day Young Annochie cam in on the tide; - . . . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . . . - - 9 - Her maidens did meet him, a’ wringin their hans, - Sayin, It’s a’ for your stayin so long on the sans! - They’ve wedded your Jeannie, an now she is dead, - An it’s a’ for your stayin sae long on the fleed. - - 10 - ‘All you that is her maidens ye’ll tak me by the han, - Ye’ll show me the bower that Jeannie lies in:’ - He kissed her cold lips, they were both white an red, - And for bonnie Jeannie Gordon Young Annochie died. - - * * * * * - - #A. a.# _4–6 are disarranged, and an attempt has been made at a - better grouping. 4^{3,4}, 5^{1,2}, are 4; 5^{3,4} are 5^{1,2}; - 6^{1,2} are 5^{3,4}._ - - 14^2. _The reading of_ #b# _is better_: on the sands. - - 14^3. frae the fleed: #b# _reads, rightly_, on the flood (fleed). - -#b.# - - _Printed by Maidment in stanzas of four short lines; by Buchan, in - long lines, not properly grouped._ - - 1 - Ben came her father, skipping on the floor, - Said, Jeanie, you’re trying the tricks of a whore. - - 2 - ‘You’re caring for him that cares not for thee; - And I pray you take Salton, let Auchanachie be.’ - - 3 - ‘I will not have Salton, it lies low by the sea; - He is bowed in the back, he’s thrawen in the knee; - And I’ll die if I get not my brave Auchanachie.’ - - 4 - ‘I am bowed in the back, lassie, as ye see, - But the bonny lands of Salton are no crooked tee.’ - - 5 - And when she was married she would not lie down, - But they took out a knife, and cuttit her gown. - - 6 - Likewise of her stays the lacing in three; - And now she lies dead for her Auchanachie. - - 7 - Out comes her bower-woman, wringing her hands, - Says, Alas for the staying so long on the sands! - - 8 - ‘Alas for the staying so long on the flood! - For Jeanie was married, and now she is dead.’ - -#B. a.# - - _8, 9 are written together._ - - 9^4. on the sans: _cf._ #A a# 14^1, #b# 8^1, #B b#. - -#b.# - - _Some trivial variations are not noticed. Printed in six stanzas - of eight long lines._ - - 1^1. lives. - - 1^4. Oh, never will I forget my love Annachie. - - _After 1_: - - ‘For Annachie Gordon is bonnie and braw, - He’d entice any woman that ever him saw; - He’d entice any woman, and sae he has done me, - And I’ll die if I getna my love Annachie.’ - - 2^{1,2}. _As in_ #A a#. - - 2^3. care meikle: cares little. - - 2^4. Saltoun and leave Annachie. - - _After 2_: - - ‘For Annachie Gordon is nothing but a man; - Although he be brave, he has little free lan; - His towns a’ lie waste, and his lands a’ lie lea, - And I’ll cause you marry Saltoun, let Annachie be.’ - - 3^1. wed me: before he goes home. - - 3^2. neer hae. - - 3^{3,4}. - ‘A son or a daughter, it’s a’ ane to me, - For I’ll cause you marry Saltoun and leave Annachie.’ - - _After 3_: - - He wed her to Saltoun before he gaed home, - But unto Lord Saltoun she neer had a son; - For, instead of being merry her maidens among, - She gaed to her bower and wept there alone. - - 4^1. Some of you her. - - 4^2. infeft her in houses and land. - - 4^3. shall wear silk and satin, wi red goud. - - 4^4. to forget him the. - - 5^{1,2}. - Oh you, my maidens, you shall not take my hand, - Nor will I be infefted in houses and land. - - 5^3. Nor will I wear silk nor red goud. - - 5^4. For never will I forget my love #A#. - - _After 5_: - - ‘Wi Annachie Gordon I would beg my bread - Before wi Lord Saltoun I would wear goud red; - For he’s bowd on the back and he’s thrawn in the knee:’ - ‘But the bonnie rigs o Saltoun are nae thrawn tee.’ - - 6, 7. _Wanting._ - - 8. - The day she was married, that same day she died, - While Annachie Gordon was waiting for the tide; - He waited for the tide to tak him oer the fleed, - But he little thought his Jeanie Gordon was deed. - - 9^1. Then out cam her maidens. - - 9^2. Wae for: frae the. - - 9^3. hae married. - - 9^4. Oh, wae for: on the fleed. - - 10^1. Some of you her maidens: me ben. - - 10^2. the chamber where. - - 10^3. were colder than clay. - - 10^4. And he died in the chamber where his Jeanie lay. - - - - - 240 - - THE RANTIN LADDIE - - - #A. a.# ‘The Rantin Laddie,’ Johnson’s Museum, No 462, p. 474. #b.# - ‘Lord Aboyne,’ Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, II, 66. - - #B.# ‘The Rantin Laddie,’ Skene MS., p. 55. - - #C.# ‘The Rantin Laddie,’ Laing’s Thistle of Scotland, p. 7. - - #D.# ‘Bonnie Rantin Laddie,’ Murison MS., p. 74. - - -‘Lord Aboyne,’ in Smith’s Scotish Minstrel, IV, 6, is mostly #A a#; a -few verses are from #A b.# - -A young woman (Maggie in #B#) has played cards and dice with a rantin -laddie till she has won a bastard baby. Slighted now by all her friends, -she sends a letter to the rantin laddie, who is the Earl of Aboyne, to -inform him of her uncomfortable circumstances. The Earl of Aboyne, -struck with pity and indignation, sets out at once with five hundred -men, #A#, #C#, or a select company of gentlemen and ladies, #B#, #D#, -and brings her home as his wife. - -#C# 24 is perhaps derived from ‘Geordie,’ but may be regarded as a -commonplace. - - * * * * * - - - A - - #a.# Johnson’s Musical Museum, No 462, p. 474, communicated by - Robert Burns; 1797. #b.# Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, - II, 66, 1828. - - 1 - ‘Aften hae I playd at the cards and the dice, - For the love of a bonie rantin laddie, - But now I maun sit in my father’s kitchen-neuk - And balow a bastard babie. - - 2 - ‘For my father he will not me own, - And my mother she neglects me, - And a’ my friends hae lightlyed me, - And their servants they do slight me. - - 3 - ‘But had I a servant at my command, - As aft times I’ve had many, - That wad rin wi a letter to bonie Glenswood, - Wi a letter to my rantin laddie!’ - - 4 - ‘O is he either a laird or a lord, - Or is he but a cadie, - That ye do him ca sae aften by name - Your bonie, bonie rantin laddie?’ - - 5 - ‘Indeed he is baith a laird and a lord, - And he never was a cadie, - But he is the Earl o bonie Aboyne, - And he is my rantin laddie.’ - - 6 - ‘O ye’se get a servant at your command, - As aft times ye’ve had many, - That sall rin wi a letter to bonie Glenswood, - A letter to your rantin laddie.’ - - 7 - When Lord Aboyne did the letter get, - O but he blinket bonie! - But or he had read three lines of it - I think his heart was sorry. - - 8 - ‘O wha is [this] daur be sae bauld - Sae cruelly to use my lassie ? - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - - 9 - ‘For her father he will not her know, - And her mother she does slight her, - And a’ her friends hae lightlied her, - And their servants they neglect her. - - 10 - ‘Go raise to me my five hundred men, - Make haste and make them ready, - With a milk-white steed under every ane, - For to bring hame my lady.’ - - 11 - As they cam in thro Buchanshire, - They were a company bonie, - With a gude claymor in every hand, - And O but they shin’d bonie! - - * * * * * - - - B - - Skene MS., p. 55; taken down in the North of Scotland, 1802–3. - - 1 - ‘Oft have I playd at the cards an the dyce, - The war so very enticin; - But this is a sad an a sorrowfu seat, - To see my apron risin. - - 2 - ‘Oft hae I playd at the cards an the dice - For love of my [rantin] laddie; - But now I man sit in my father’s kitchie-nouk, - A rokkin o my baby. - - 3 - ‘But gin I had ane o my father’s servans, - For he has so mony, - That wad gae to the wood o Glentanner, - Wi a letter to the rantin laddie!’ - - 4 - ‘Here am I, ane o your father’s servans, - For he has sae mony, - That will gae to the wood o Glentanner, - Wi a letter to the rantin laddie.’ - - 5 - ‘Fan ye gae to Aboyne, - To the woods o Glentanner sae bonny, - Wi your hat in your hand gie a bow to the ground, - In the presence o the rantin laddie.’ - - 6 - Fan he gaed to Aboyne, - To the woods o Glentanner sae bonny, - Wi his hat in his hand he gied a bow to the ground, - In the presence of the rantin laddie. - - 7 - Fan he looked the letter on - Sae loud as he was laughin! - But or he read it to an end - The tears they cam down rappin. - - 8 - ‘O fa is this or fa is that - Has been so ill to my Maggie ? - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - - 9 - ‘But ye gett four-and-twenty milk white steeds, - Wi an car . . . . . - An as mony gay ladies to ride them on, - To gae an bring hame my Maggie. - - 10 - ‘Ye get four-an-twenty bonny brown steeds, - Wi an car o an ome, - An as mony knights to ride them on, - To gae an bring hame my Maggie.’ - - 11 - Ye lasses a’, far ever ye be, - An ye match wi ony o our Deeside laddies, - Ye’ll happy be, ye’l happy be, - For they are frank an kind. - - * * * * * - - - C - - Laing’s Thistle of Scotland, p. 7, 1823. - - 1 - ‘Aft hae I playd at cards and dice - For the love o a bonny rantin laddie, - But now I maun sit i my father’s kitchen-nook, - And sing, Hush, balow, my baby. - - 2 - ‘If I had been wise, and had taen advice, - And dane as my bonny love bade me, - I would hae been married at Martinmass, - And been wi my rantin laddie. - - 3 - ‘But I was na wise, I took nae advice, - Did not as my bonny love bade me, - And now I maun sit by mysel i the nook, - And rock my bastard baby. - - 4 - ‘If I had horse at my command, - As often I had many, - I would ride on to the Castle o Aboyne, - Wi a letter to my rantin laddie.’ - - 5 - Down the stair her father came, - And lookëd proud and saucy: - ‘Who is the man, and what is his name, - That ye ca your rantin laddie? - - 6 - ‘Is he a lord, or is he a laird? - Or is he but a caddie? - Or is it the young Earl o Aboyne - That ye ca your rantin laddie?’ - - 7 - ‘He is a young and noble lord, - He never was a caddie; - It is the noble Earl o Aboyne - That I ca my rantin laddie.’ - - 8 - ‘Ye shall hae a horse at your command, - As ye had often many, - To go to the Castle o Aboyne, - Wi a letter to your rantin laddie. - - 9 - ‘Where will I get a little page, - Where will I get a caddie, - That will run quick to bonny Aboyne, - Wi this letter to my rantin laddie?’ - - 10 - Then out spoke the young scullion-boy, - Said, Here am I, a caddie; - I will run on to bonny Aboyne, - Wi the letter to your rantin laddie. - - 11 - ‘Now when ye come to bonny Deeside, - Where woods are green and bonny, - There will ye see the Earl o Aboyne, - Among the bushes mony. - - 12 - ‘And when ye come to the lands o Aboyne, - Where all around is bonny, - Ye’ll take your hat into your hand, - Gie this letter to my rantin laddie.’ - - 13 - When he came near the banks of Dee, - The birks were blooming bonny, - And there he saw the Earl o Aboyne, - Among the bushes mony. - - 14 - ‘Where are ye going, my bonny boy? - Where are ye going, my caddie?’ - ‘I am going to the Castle o Aboyne, - Wi a letter to the rantin laddie.’ - - 15 - ‘See yonder is the castle then, - My young and handsome caddie, - And I myself am the Earl o Aboyne, - Tho they ca me the rantin laddie.’ - - 16 - ‘O pardon, my lord, if I’ve done wrong; - Forgive a simple caddie; - O pardon, pardon, Earl o Aboyne, - I said but what she bade me.’ - - 17 - ‘Ye have done no wrong, my bonny boy, - Ye’ve done no wrong, my caddie;’ - Wi hat in hand he bowed low, - Gave the letter to the rantin laddie. - - 18 - When young Aboyne looked the letter on, - O but he blinkit bonny! - But ere he read four lines on end - The tears came trickling mony. - - 19 - ‘My father will no pity shew, - My mother still does slight me, - And a’ my friends have turnd from me, - And servants disrespect me.’ - - 20 - ‘Who are they dare be so bold - To cruelly use my lassie? - But I’ll take her to bonny Aboyne, - Where oft she did caress me. - - 21 - ‘Go raise to me five hundred men, - Be quick and make them ready; - Each on a steed, to haste their speed, - To carry home my lady.’ - - 22 - As they rode on thro Buchanshire, - The company were many, - Wi a good claymore in every hand, - That glancëd wondrous bonny. - - 23 - When he came to her father’s gate, - He called for his lady: - ‘Come down, come down, my bonny maid, - And speak wi your rantin laddie.’ - - 24 - When she was set on high horseback, - Rowd in the Highland plaidie, - The bird i the bush sang not so sweet - As sung this bonny lady. - - 25 - As they rode on thro Buchanshire, - He cried, Each Lowland lassie, - Lay your love on some lowland lown, - And soon will he prove fause t’ ye. - - 26 - ‘But take my advice, and make your choice - Of some young Highland laddie, - Wi bonnet and plaid, whose heart is staid, - And he will not beguile ye.’ - - 27 - As they rode on thro Garioch land, - He rode up in a fury, - And cried, Fall back, each saucy dame, - Let the Countess of Aboyne before ye. - - * * * * * - - - D - - Murison MS., p. 74; Aberdeenshire. - - 1 - ‘Aft hae I played at the cards and the dice, - It was a’ for the sake o my laddie, - But noo I sit i my father’s kitchie-neuk, - Singing ba to a bonnie bastard babbie. - - 2 - ‘Whar will I get a bonnie boy sae kin - As will carry a letter cannie, - That will rin on to the gates o the Boyne, - Gie the letter to my rantin laddie?’ - - 3 - ‘Here am I, a bonnie boy sae kin, - As will carry a letter cannie, - That will rin on to the gates o the Boyne, - Gie the letter to your rantin laddie.’ - - 4 - ‘When ye come to the gates o the Boyne, - An low doon on yon cassie, - Ye’ll tak aff your hat an ye’ll mak a low bow, - Gie the letter to my rantin laddie.’ - - 5 - ‘When ye come to the gates o the Boyne, - Ye’ll see lords an nobles monie; - But ye’ll ken him among them a’, - He’s my bonnie, bonnie rantin laddie.’ - - 6 - ‘Is your bonnie love a laird or a lord, - Or is he a cadie, - That ye call him so very often by name - Your bonnie rantin laddie?’ - - 7 - ‘My love’s neither a laird nor a lord, - Nor is he a cadie, - But he is yerl o a’ the Boyne, - An he is my bonnie rantin laddie.’ - - 8 - When he read a line or two, - He smilëd eer sae bonnie; - But lang ere he cam to the end - The tears cam trinklin monie. - - 9 - ‘Whar will I find fifty noble lords, - An as monie gay ladies, - - * * * * * * - - * * * * * - -#A. a.# - - 1^4. below. - - 4^1. Oh. - - 8^{3,4}. _The gap should be filled, says Stenhouse, Musical - Museum, IV, 405, with these lines_: - - As to gar her sit in [her] father’s kitchen-neuk - And balow a bastard babie. - -#b.# - - 1, 2. - ‘Aft hae I played at the ring and the ba, - And lang was a rantin lassie, - But now my father does me forsake, - And my friends they all do neglect me.’ - - 3^1. But gin I had servants. - - 3^2. As I hae had right mony. - - 3^3. For to send awa to Glentanner’s yetts. - - 4^1. O is your true-love a laird or lord. - - 4^2. he a Highland caddie. - - 4^3. That ye sae aften call him by name. - - 5^1. My true-love he’s baith laird and lord. - - 5^2. Do ye think I hae married a caddie? - - 5^3. O he is the noble earl o Aboyne. - - 5^4. he’s my bonnie rantin. - - 6^1. ye’se hae servants. - - 6^2. As ye hae had right mony. - - 6^3. For to send awa to Glentanner’s yetts. - - 6^4. Wi a. - - 7^1. Aboyne the letter got. - - 7^2. Wow but. - - 7^3. But ere three lines o it he read. - - 7^4. O but his. - - 8^{1,2}. His face it reddened like a flame, He grasped his sword sae - massy. - - 8^3==8^1. O wha is this, _etc_. - - 8^4==8^2. Sae cruel to, _etc_. - - 9. _Wanting._ - - 10^1. Gae saddle to me five. - - 10^2. Gae saddle and. - - 10^4. For I’m gaing to. - - 11. - And when they came to auld Fedderate - He found her waiting ready, - And he brought her to Castle Aboyne, - And now she’s his ain dear lady. - -#B.# - - 9^1. he gett. - - 10^1. He gat. - -#D.# - - _There is an initial stanza which, it seems to me, cannot have - belonged originally to this ballad_: - - ‘My father he feet me far, far away, - He feet me in Kirkcaldy; - He feet me till an auld widow-wife, - But she had a bonnie rantin laddie.’ - - - - - 241 - - THE BARON O LEYS - - #A.# Skene MS., p. 20. - - #B.# ‘Laird o Leys,’ Kinloch’s Ballad Book, p. 74. - - #C.# ‘The Baron o Leys,’ Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, - II, 144. - - -‘The Baron o Leys,’ in The New Deeside Guide by James Brown [==Joseph -Robertson], Aberdeen [1832], p. 15, and The Deeside Guide, Aberdeen, -1889, p. 23, is #C#. #C# 4–11 seems to be an interpolation by a later -hand. - -“Part of this ballad,” says Buchan, II, 322, “by ballad-mongers has been -confused with the ballad of ‘The Earl of Aboyne’ [No 240, #A b#], called -in some instances ‘The Ranting Laddie.’” Laing, Thistle of Scotland, p. -11, appears to have confounded it with ‘The Earl of Aboyne’ proper. He -gives this stanza: - - ‘Some ca me that and some ca me this, - And The Baron o Leys they ca me, - But when I am on bonny Deeside - They ca me The Rantin Laddie.’ - -Herd’s MSS, I, 233, II, fol. 71, give the two following stanzas under -the title ‘The Linkin Ladie:’ - - ‘Wae’s me that eer I made your bed! - Wae’s me that eer I saw ye! - For now I’ve lost my maidenhead, - And I ken na how they ca ye.’ - - ‘My name is well kent in my ain country, - They ca me The Linking Ladie; - If ye had not been as willing as I, - Shame fa them wad eer hae bade ye!’ - -‘The Linkin Ladie,’ judging from this fragment (as it may be supposed to -be), was much of a fashion with the ballad which we are engaged with, -and may have been an earlier form of it. Sir Walter Scott, who cites -these verses from memory (Sharpe’s Ballad Book, ed. 1880, p. 162), says -that the hero of them was a brother of the celebrated [Thomas] Boston, -author of ‘The Fourfold State.’ - -‘The Baron o Leys’ relates, or purports to relate, to an escapade of one -of the Burnetts of Leys, Kincardineshire, Alexander, #A#, #B#, George, -#C#. A woman who is with child by him gives him his choice of marriage, -death, or the payment of ten thousand crowns. He is a married man; his -wife is ready to sell everything, to her silk gowns, to release her -husband from his awkward position. - - * * * * * - - - A - - Skene MS., p. 20; taken down in the north of Scotland, 1802–3. - - 1 - The Laird of Leys is on to Edinbrugh, - To shaw a fit o his follie; - He drest himsel in the crimson-brown, - An he provd a rantin laddie. - - 2 - Ben came a weel-faird lass, - Says, Laddie, how do they ca ye? - ‘They ca me this, an they ca me that, - Ye wudna ken fat they ca me; - But whan I’m at home on bonnie Deeside - They ca me The Rantin Laddie.’ - - 3 - They sought her up, they sought her down, - They sought her in the parlour; - She coudna be got but whar she was, - In the bed wi The Rantin Laddie. - - 4 - ‘Tell me, tell me, Baron of Leys, - Ye tell me how they ca ye! - Your gentle blood moves in my side, - An I dinna ken how they ca ye.’ - - 5 - ‘They ca me this, an they ca me that, - Ye couldna ken how they ca me; - But whan I’m at home on bonnie Deeside - They ca me The Rantin Laddie.’ - - 6 - ‘Tell me, tell me, Baron of Leys, - Ye tell me how they ca ye! - Your gentle blood moves in my side, - An I dinna ken how to ca ye.’ - - 7 - ‘Baron of Leys, it is my stile, - Alexander Burnett they ca me; - Whan I’m at hame on bonnie Deeside - My name is The Rantin Laddie.’ - - 8 - ‘Gin your name be Alexander Burnett, - Alas that ever I saw ye! - For ye hae a wife and bairns at hame, - An alas for lyin sae near ye! - - 9 - ‘But I’se gar ye be headit or hangt, - Or marry me the morn, - Or else pay down ten thousand crowns - For giein o me the scorn.’ - - 10 - ‘For my head, I canna want; - I love my lady dearly; - But some o my lands I maun lose in the case, - Alas for lyin sae near ye!’ - - 11 - Word has gane to the Lady of Leys - That the laird he had a bairn; - The warst word she said to that was, - ‘I wish I had it in my arms. - - 12 - ‘For I will sell my jointure-lands— - I am broken an I’m sorry— - An I’ll sell a’, to my silk gowns, - An get hame my rantin laddie.’ - - * * * * * - - - B - - Kinloch’s Ballad Book, p. 74, 1827. - - 1 - The Laird o Leys is to London gane; - He was baith full and gawdie; - For he shod his steed wi siller guid, - And he’s playd the ranting laddie. - - 2 - He hadna been in fair London - A twalmonth and a quarter, - Till he met wi a weel-faurd may, - Wha wishd to know how they ca’d him. - - 3 - ‘They ca me this, and they ca me that, - And they’re easy how they’ve ca’d me; - But whan I’m at hame on bonnie Deeside - They ca me The Ranting Laddie.’ - - 4 - ‘Awa wi your jesting, sir,’ she said, - ‘I trow you’re a ranting laddie; - But something swells atween my sides, - And I maun ken how they ca thee.’ - - 5 - ‘They ca me this, and they ca me that, - And they’re easy how they ca me; - The Baron o Leys my title is, - And Sandy Burnet they ca me.’ - - 6 - ‘Tell down, tell down ten thousand crowns, - Or ye maun marry me the morn; - Or headit or hangit ye sall be, - For ye sanna gie me the scorn.’ - - 7 - ‘My head’s the thing I canna weel want; - My lady she loves me dearlie; - Nor yet hae I means ye to maintain; - Alas for the lying sae near thee!’ - - 8 - But word’s gane doun to the Lady o Leys - That the Baron had got a babie: - ‘The waurst o news!’ my lady she said, - ‘I wish I had hame my laddie. - - 9 - ‘But I’ll sell aff my jointure-house, - Tho na mair I sud be a ladie; - I’ll sell a’ to my silken goun, - And bring hame my rantin laddie.’ - - 10 - So she is on to London gane, - And she paid the money on the morn; - She paid it doun and brought him hame, - And gien them a’ the scorn. - - * * * * * - - - C - - Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, II, 144. - - 1 - The Baron o Leys to France is gane, - The fashion and tongue to learn, - But hadna been there a month or twa - Till he gat a lady wi bairn. - - 2 - But it fell ance upon a day - The lady mournd fu sairlie; - Says, Who’s the man has me betrayed? - It gars me wonder and fairlie. - - 3 - Then to the fields to him she went, - Saying, Tell me what they ca thee; - Or else I’ll mourn and rue the day, - Crying, alas that ever I saw thee! - - 4 - ‘Some ca’s me this, some ca’s me that, - I carena fat befa me; - For when I’m at the schools o France - An awkward fellow they ca me.’ - - 5 - ‘Wae’s me now, ye awkward fellow, - And alas that ever I saw thee! - Wi you I’m in love, sick, sick in love, - And I kenna well fat they ca thee.’ - - 6 - ‘Some ca’s me this, some ca’s me that, - What name does best befa me; - For when I walk in Edinburgh streets - The Curling Buckle they ca me.’ - - 7 - ‘O wae’s me now, O Curling Buckle, - And alas that ever I saw thee! - For I’m in love, sick, sick in love, - And I kenna well fat they ca thee.’ - - 8 - ‘Some ca’s me this, some ca’s me that, - Whatever name best befa’s me; - But when I’m in Scotland’s king’s high court - Clatter the Speens they ca me.’ - - 9 - ‘O wae’s me now, O Clatter the Speens, - And alas that ever I saw thee! - For I’m in love, sick, sick in love, - And I kenna well fat to ca thee.’ - - 10 - ‘Some ca’s me this, some ca’s me that, - I carena what they ca me; - But when wi the Earl o Murray I ride - It’s Scour the Brass they ca me.’ - - 11 - ‘O wae’s me now, O Scour the Brass, - And alas that ever I saw thee! - For I’m in love, sick, sick in love, - And I kenna well fat to ca thee.’ - - 12 - ‘Some ca’s me this, some ca’s me that, - Whatever name best befa’s me; - But when I walk thro Saint Johnstone’s town - George Burnett they ca me.’ - - 13 - ‘O wae’s me, O wae’s me, George Burnett, - And alas that ever I saw thee! - For I’m in love, sick, sick in love, - And I kenna well fat to ca thee.’ - - 14 - ‘Some ca’s me this, some ca’s me that, - Whatever name best befa’s me; - But when I am on bonny Dee side - The Baron o Leys they ca me.’ - - 15 - ‘O weal is me now, O Baron o Leys, - This day that ever I saw thee! - There’s gentle blood within my sides, - And now [I] ken fat they ca thee. - - 16 - ‘But ye’ll pay down ten thousand crowns, - Or marry me the morn; - Else I’ll cause you be headed or hangd - For gieing me the scorn.’ - - 17 - ‘My head is a thing I cannot well want; - My lady loves me sae dearly; - But I’ll deal the gold right liberally - For lying ae night sae near thee.’ - - 18 - When word had gane to the Lady o Leys - The baron had gotten a bairn, - She clapped her hands, and this did say, - ‘I wish he were in my arms! - - 19 - ‘O weal is me now, O Baron o Leys, - For ye hae pleased me sairly; - Frae our house is banishd the vile reproach - That disturbed us late and early.’ - - 20 - When she looked ower her castle-wa, - To view the woods sae rarely, - There she spied the Baron o Leys - Ride on his steed sae rarely. - - 21 - Then forth she went her baron to meet, - Says, Ye’re welcome to me, fairly! - Ye’se hae spice-cakes, and seed-cakes sweet, - And claret to drink sae rarely. - - * * * * * - -#C.# - - 19^{3,4}. Frae her house she banishd the vile reproach That - disturbs us. _The Deeside Guide has nearly the reading here - substituted, and some correction is necessary. The reference - seems to be to childlessness. In #A# 8 the baron is said to have - bairns._ - - - - - 242 - - THE COBLE O CARGILL - - ‘The Coble o Cargill,’ Motherwell’s MS., p. 80; ‘The Weary Coble o - Cargill,’ Motherwell’s Minstrelsy, p. 230. Communicated to - Motherwell by William George, tenant in Cambus Michael, Perthshire, - who took it from the recitation of an old woman. - - -Stobhall is on the left bank of the Tay, eight miles above Perth, in -Cargill parish, and Cargill is a little further up. Balathy is opposite -Cargill, and Kercock is higher up the river on the right bank. The local -tradition, as given by Motherwell in his manuscript and his book, is -that the butler of Stobhall had a leman both at Kercock and at Balathy. -Upon an occasion when the butler had gone to Kercock, the lass of -Balathy scuttled the coble, which he had left below, “and waited his -return, deeming that her suspicions of his infidelity would be well -founded if he took the boat without visiting her in passing.” The butler -took the boat without stopping at Balathy, and in her sight the weary -coble sank. Local tradition in such cases seldom means more than a -theory which people have formed to explain a preëxisting ballad. The -jealousy of the lass of Balathy has, in the ballad, passed the point at -which confirmation would be waited for. She has many a time watched late -for her chance to bore the coble, and she bores it ‘wi gude will.’ - -St. 14 is a commonplace which has been already several times noted. - -The Rev. William Marshall’s Historic Scenes in Perthshire, Edinburgh, -1879, p. 246, gives us a “modern” version of this ballad; that is, one -written over in magazine style. This is repeated in Robert Ford’s Auld -Scots Ballants, 1889, p. 152. The Perthshire Antiquarian Miscellany, by -Robert S. Fittis, Perth, 1875, p. 466, cites some stanzas from another -ballad, composed by one James Beattie, journeyman-mason, but represented -as having been taken down verbatim from the mouth of an old man. In -these pieces the lass of Balathy has the name Jean, Jeanie Low (Low or -Gow, according to Ford, p. 149).[142] - - * * * * * - - 1 - David Drummond’s destinie, - Gude man o appearance o Cargill; - I wat his blude rins in the flude, - Sae sair against his parents’ will. - - 2 - She was the lass o Balathy toun, - And he the butler o Stobhall, - And mony a time she wauked late - To bore the coble o Cargill. - - 3 - His bed was made in Kercock ha, - Of gude clean sheets and of [the] hay; - He wudna rest ae nicht therein, - But on the prude waters he wud gae. - - 4 - His bed was made in Balathy toun, - Of the clean sheets and of the strae; - But I wat it was far better made - Into the bottom o bonnie Tay. - - 5 - She bored the coble in seven pairts, - I wat her heart might hae been fu sair; - For there she got the bonnie lad lost - Wi the curly locks and the yellow hair. - - 6 - He put his foot into the boat, - He little thocht o ony ill; - But before that he was mid-waters, - The weary coble began to fill. - - 7 - ‘Woe be to the lass o Balathy toun, - I wat an ill death may she die! - For she bored the coble in seven pairts, - And let the waters perish me. - - 8 - ‘Oh, help, oh help, I can get nane, - Nae help o man can to me come!’ - This was about his dying words, - When he was choaked up to the chin. - - 9 - ‘Gae tell my father and my mother - It was naebody did me this ill; - I was a-going my ain errands, - Lost at the coble o bonnie Cargill.’ - - 10 - She bored the boat in seven pairts, - I wat she bored it wi gude will; - And there they got the bonnie lad’s corpse, - In the kirk-shot o bonnie Cargill. - - 11 - Oh a’ the keys o bonnie Stobha - I wat they at his belt did hing; - But a’ the keys of bonnie Stobha - They now ly low into the stream. - - 12 - A braver page into his age - Neer set a foot upon the plain; - His father to his mother said, - ‘Oh, sae soon as we’ve wanted him! - - 13 - ‘I wat they had mair luve than this - When they were young and at the scule; - But for his sake she wauked late, - And bored the coble o bonnie Cargill.’ - - 14 - ‘There’s neer a clean sark gae on my back, - Nor yet a kame gae in my hair; - There’s neither coal nor candle-licht - Shall shine in my bouir for evir mair. - - 15 - ‘At kirk nor market I’se neer be at, - Nor yet a blythe blink in my ee; - There’s neer a ane shall say to anither, - That’s the lassie gard the young man die. - - 16 - ‘Between the yates o bonnie Stobha - And the kirk-style o bonnie Cargill, - There is mony a man and mother’s son - That was at my love’s burial.’ - - * * * * * - - 14^2. Not yet. - - - - - 243 - - JAMES HARRIS (THE DÆMON LOVER) - - #A.# A Warning for Married Women, being an example of Mrs Jane - Reynolds (a West-country woman), born near Plymouth, who, having - plighted her troth to a Seaman, was afterwards married to a - Carpenter, and at last carried away by a Spirit, the manner how - shall presently be recited. To a West-country tune called ‘The Fair - Maid of Bristol,’ ‘Bateman,’ or ‘John True.’ Pepys Ballads, IV, 101. - - #B.# ‘The Distressed Ship-Carpenter,’ The Rambler’s Garland, 1785 (?), - British Museum, 11621, c. 4 (57). - - #C.# ‘James Herries,’ Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, I, - 214. - - #D.# ‘The Carpenter’s Wife,’ Kinloch MSS, I, 297. - - #E.# ‘The Dæmon Lover,’ Motherwell’s MS., p. 97. - - #F.# ‘The Dæmon Lover,’ Scott’s Minstrelsy, II, 427, 1812. - - #G.# ‘The Dæmon Lover,’ Motherwell’s Minstrelsy, p. 93. - - #H.# ‘The Banks of Italy,’ Christie, Traditional Ballad Airs, I, 138, - two stanzas. - - -The Pepys copy was printed for Thackeray and Passenger. Others are: -Crawford, No 1114, Printed for A. M[ilbourne], W. O[nley], and T. -Thackeray; Ewing, 377, for Coles, Vere, and Gilbertson; the same, 378, -by and for W. O[nley]. No 71 in Thackeray’s List, printed 1685. A later -copy in the Douce ballads, II, fol. 249 b, Bodleian Library, printed by -Thomas Norris at the Looking-Glass on London Bridge. Another, without -publisher’s name, in the Roxburghe collection, I, 502; Ballad Society, -III, 200. - -‘The Dæmon Lover’ was first published in Scott’s Minstrelsy, 5th -edition, 1812 (#F#). William Laidlaw, who furnished the copy, inserted -four stanzas of his own (6, 12, 17, 18, here omitted).[143] Motherwell, -in 1827, had not been able to get more than nine stanzas (#G#), but -afterwards secured a version of twice as many (#E#). Kinloch says of -#D#, “My reciter, and others to whom I applied, assured me that they had -never heard any more of it than what is given here.” Buchan, I, 313, -referring to Motherwell’s fragment (#G#), is “happy to say ... there is -still a perfect copy of this curious and scarce legend in existence, -which is now for the first time given to the public” (#C#).@ - -An Americanized version of this ballad was printed not very long ago at -Philadelphia, under the title of ‘The House-Carpenter.’ I have been able -to secure only two stanzas, which were cited in Graham’s Illustrated -Magazine, September, 1858: - - ‘I might have married the king’s daughter dear;’ - ‘You might have married her,’ cried she, - ‘For I am married to a house-carpenter, - And a fine young man is he.’ - - ‘Oh dry up your tears, my own true love, - And cease your weeping,’ cried he, - ‘For soon you’ll see your own happy home, - On the banks of old Tennessee.’ - -#B-H# have for their basis the broadside #A#; the substance of the story -is repeated, with traditional modifications. Two or three stanzas of #A# -are of the popular description, but it does not seem necessary to posit -a tradition behind #A#. The correspondences of the several versions are -as follows: - - #A# 18^{1,2}, #C# 2. - #A# 18^{3,4}, 19, #B# 1, #D# 1, #E# 1, 2^{1,2}, #F# 1. - #A# 20, #C# 3, #D# 2, #E# 2^{3,4}, #F# 2. - #A# 21, #B# 4^{1,2}, 3^{3,4}, #C# 6^1, 12^{3,4}, #D# 3. - #A# 22, #B# 2, #C# 4^{3,4}, 5^{1,2}, #E# 3, #F# 4. - #A# 23, #C# 7. - #A# 24, #B# 5, #C# 8, #E# 5^{1,2}, #F# 6. - #A# 25, #B# 6, #C# 9, #F# 7, #G# 1. - #A# 26, #B# 8, #C# 10, #F# 9^{3,4}. - #A# 28, #B# 11. - #A# 30, #B# 12. - - #B# 3^{1,2}, #E# 4^{1,2}, #F# 5^{1,2}. - #B# 7, C 13, #E# 6^4, #G# 2, #H# 1. - #B# 9,10, #C# 14,17, #D# 5, #E# 12, 13, #G# 5. - #B# 12, #C# 23. - #B# 13, #C# 24. - - #C# 3, #D# 2, #E# 2, #F# 2. - #C# 11, #E# 7, #F# 8, #H# 2. - #C# 16, #D# 6, #E# 16, #F# 12, #G# 6. - #C# 21, #D# 8. - - #D# 1, #E# 1, #F# 1. - #D# 7, #E# 10, #F# 10, #G# 8. - - #E# 11, #F# 11, #G# 7. - #E# 14, #F# 13. - #E# 15, #F# 14. - #E# 18, #F# 15. - - #F# 9^2, #G# 4^{3,4}. - -It will be observed that each of the versions #B-F# adds something which -is taken up by a successor or successors. The arrangement of #E# and -#F#, of #E# especially, is objectionable. - -#A.# Jane Reynolds and James Harris, a seaman, had exchanged vows of -marriage. The young man was pressed as a sailor, and after three years -was reported as dead; the young woman married a ship-carpenter, and they -lived together happily for four years, and had children. One night when -the carpenter was absent from home, a spirit rapped at the window and -announced himself as James Harris, come after an absence of seven -years[144] to claim the woman for his wife. She explained the state of -things, but upon obtaining assurance that her long-lost lover had the -means to support her—seven ships upon the sea—consented to go with him, -for he was really much like unto a man. ‘The woman-kind’ was seen no -more after that; the carpenter hanged himself. - -The carpenter is preserved in #B-E#, and even his name in #C#. He swoons -in #B#, and runs distracted in #C#, when he learns what has become of -his wife; the other versions take no notice of him after the elopement. -#B-F# all begin with the return of the long-absent lover. The ship (as -it _is_ to have in #A# 26) has silken sails and gold masts, or the like, -#C# 10, #F# 9^{3,4} (_cf._ #B# 8, #G# 1); but there are no visible -mariners, #F# 9^{1,2}, #G# 4^{3,4}. The pair have been only a short time -afloat when the woman begins to weep for son, husband, or both, #B# 9, -10, #C# 14, #D# 5, #E# 12, 13, #G# 5. The seaman (as it will be -convenient to call him) tells her to hold her tongue, he will show her -how the lilies grow on the banks of Italy, #C# 16, #D# 6 (_cf._ #E# 16, -17), #F# 12, and, in a different connection, #G# 6. The seaman’s -countenance grows grim, and the sea gurly, #D# 7, #E# 10, #F# 10, #G# 8. -He will let her see the fishes swim, where the lilies grow, in the -bottom of the sea, #C# 21, #D# 8 (_cf._ #E# 16, 17). She discerns that -the seaman has a cloven foot, #E# 11, #F# 11, #G# 7. She asks, What is -yon bright hill? It is the hill of heaven, where she will never be. What -is yon dark hill? It is the hill of hell, where they two shall be: #E# -14, 15, #F# 13, 14. The seaman reaches his hand to the topmast, strikes -the sails, and the ship drowns, C 22; takes the woman up to the topmast -and sinks the ship in a flash of fire, #E# 18; strikes the topmast with -his hand, the fore-mast with his knee, and sinks the ship, #F# 15. In -#E# 9 he throws the woman into the main, and five-and-twenty hundred -ships are wrecked; in #G# 9 the little ship runs round about and never -is seen more. - -In A the _revenant_ is characterized as a spirit; in #B#, which is even -tamer than #A#, he is called the mariner, and is drowned with the woman; -in #C# he expressly says to the woman, I brought you away to punish you -for breaking your vows to me. This explicitness may be prosaic, but it -seems to me regrettable that the conception was not maintained. To -explain the eery personality and proceedings of the ship-master, #E-G#, -with a sort of vulgar rationalism, turn him into the devil, and as he is -still represented in #E#, #F# (#G# being defective at the beginning) as -returning to seek the fulfilment of old vows, he there figures as a -“dæmon lover.” #D# (probably by the fortunate accident of being a -fragment) leaves us to put our own construction upon the weird seaman; -and, though it retains the homely ship-carpenter, is on the whole the -most satisfactory of all the versions.[145] - -Scott’s ballad is translated by Talvj, Versuch, etc., p. 558; by -Gerhard, p. 84; and by Rosa Warrens, Schottische Volkslieder, No 14, p. -61 (after Aytoun, who repeats Scott, omitting one of Laidlaw’s stanzas). -Knortz, Lieder und Romanzen Alt-Englands, p. 192, translates Allingham’s -ballad. - - * * * * * - - - A - - Pepys Ballads, IV, 101; from a copy in Percy’s papers. - - 1 - There dwelt a fair maid in the West, - Of worthy birth and fame, - Neer unto Plimouth, stately town, - Jane Reynolds was her name. - - 2 - This damsel dearly was belovd - By many a proper youth, - And what of her is to be said - Is known for very truth. - - 3 - Among the rest a seaman brave - Unto her a wooing came; - A comely proper youth he was, - James Harris calld by name. - - 4 - The maid and young man was agreed, - As time did them allow, - And to each other secretly - They made a solemn vow, - - 5 - That they would ever faithfull be - Whilst Heaven afforded life; - He was to be her husband kind, - And she his faithfull wife. - - 6 - A day appointed was also - When they was to be married; - But before these things were brought to pass - Matters were strangely carried. - - 7 - All you that faithfull lovers be - Give ear and hearken well, - And what of them became at last - I will directly tell. - - 8 - The young man he was prest to sea, - And forcëd was to go; - His sweet-heart she must stay behind, - Whether she would or no. - - 9 - And after he was from her gone - She three years for him staid, - Expecting of his comeing home, - And kept herself a maid. - - 10 - At last news came that he was dead - Within a forraign land, - And how that he was buried - She well did understand, - - 11 - For whose sweet sake the maiden she - Lamented many a day, - And never was she known at all - The wanton for to play. - - 12 - A carpenter that livd hard by, - When he heard of the same, - Like as the other had done before, - To her a wooing came. - - 13 - But when that he had gained her love - They married were with speed, - And four years space, being man and wife, - They loveingly agreed. - - 14 - Three pritty children in this time - This loving couple had, - Which made their father’s heart rejoyce, - And mother wondrous glad. - - 15 - But as occasion servd, one time - The good man took his way - Some three days journey from his home, - Intending not to stay. - - 16 - But, whilst that he was gone away, - A spirit in the night - Came to the window of his wife, - And did her sorely fright. - - 17 - Which spirit spake like to a man, - And unto her did say, - ‘My dear and onely love,’ quoth he, - ‘Prepare and come away. - - 18 - ‘James Harris is my name,’ quoth he, - ‘Whom thou didst love so dear, - And I have traveld for thy sake - At least this seven year. - - 19 - ‘And now I am returnd again, - To take thee to my wife, - And thou with me shalt go to sea, - To end all further strife.’ - - 20 - ‘O tempt me not, sweet James,’ quoth she, - ‘With thee away to go; - If I should leave my children small, - Alas! what would they do? - - 21 - ‘My husband is a carpenter, - A carpenter of great fame; - I would not for five hundred pounds - That he should know the same.’ - - 22 - ‘I might have had a king’s daughter, - And she would have married me; - But I forsook her golden crown, - And for the love of thee. - - 23 - ‘Therefore, if thou’lt thy husband forsake, - And thy children three also, - I will forgive the[e] what is past, - If thou wilt with me go.’ - - 24 - ‘If I forsake my husband and - My little children three, - What means hast thou to bring me to, - If I should go with thee?’ - - 25 - ‘I have seven ships upon the sea; - When they are come to land, - Both marriners and marchandize - Shall be at thy command. - - 26 - ‘The ship wherein my love shall sail - Is glorious to behold; - The sails shall be of finest silk, - And the mast of shining gold.’ - - 27 - When he had told her these fair tales, - To love him she began, - Because he was in human shape, - Much like unto a man. - - 28 - And so together away they went - From off the English shore, - And since that time the woman-kind - Was never seen no more. - - 29 - But when her husband he come home - And found his wife was gone, - And left her three sweet pretty babes - Within the house alone, - - 30 - He beat his breast, he tore his hair, - The tears fell from his eyes, - And in the open streets he run - With heavy doleful cries. - - 31 - And in this sad distracted case - He hangd himself for woe - Upon a tree near to the place; - The truth of all is so. - - 32 - The children now are fatherless, - And left without a guide, - But yet no doubt the heavenly powers - Will for them well provide. - - * * * * * - - - B - - The Rambler’s Garland, British Museum, 11621, c. 4 (57). 1785 (?) - - 1 - ‘Well met, well met, my own true love, - Long time I have been seeking thee; - I am lately come from the salt sea, - And all for the sake, love, of thee. - - 2 - ‘I might have had a king’s daughter, - And fain she would have married me; - But I’ve forsaken all her crowns of gold, - And all for the sake, love, of thee.’ - - 3 - ‘If you might have had a king’s daughter, - I think you much to blame; - I would not for five hundred pounds - That my husband should hear the same. - - 4 - ‘For my husband is a carpenter, - And a young ship-carpenter is he, - And by him I have a little son, - Or else, love, I’d go along with thee. - - 5 - ‘But if I should leave my husband dear, - Likewise my little son also, - What have you to maintain me withal, - If I along with you should go?’ - - 6 - ‘I have seven ships upon the seas, - And one of them brought me to land, - And seventeen mariners to wait on thee, - For to be, love, at your command. - - 7 - ‘A pair of slippers thou shalt have, - They shall be made of beaten gold, - Nay and be lin’d with velvet soft, - For to keep thy feet from cold. - - 8 - ‘A gilded boat thou then shall have, - The oars shall gilded be also, - And mariners to row the[e] along, - For to keep thee from thy overthrow.’ - - 9 - They had not been long upon the sea - Before that she began to weep: - ‘What, weep you for my gold?’ he said, - ‘Or do you weep for my fee? - - 10 - ‘Or do you weep for some other young man - That you love much better than me?’ - ‘No, I do weep for my little son, - That should have come along with me.’ - - 11 - She had not been upon the seas - Passing days three or four - But the mariner and she were drowned, - And never were heard of more. - - 12 - When tidings to old England came - The ship-carpenter’s wife was drownd, - He wrung his hands and tore his hair, - And grievously fell in a swoon. - - 13 - ‘Oh cursed be those mariners! - For they do lead a wicked life; - They ruind me, a ship-carpenter, - By deluding away my wife.’ - - * * * * * - - - C - - Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, I, 214. - - 1 - ‘O are ye my father? Or are ye my mother? - Or are ye my brother John? - Or are ye James Herries, my first true-love, - Come back to Scotland again?’ - - 2 - ‘I am not your father, I am not your mother, - Nor am I your brother John; - But I’m James Herries, your first true-love, - Come back to Scotland again.’ - - 3 - ‘Awa, awa, ye former lovers, - Had far awa frae me! - For now I am another man’s wife - Ye’ll neer see joy o me.’ - - 4 - ‘Had I kent that ere I came here, - I neer had come to thee; - For I might hae married the king’s daughter, - Sae fain she woud had me. - - 5 - ‘I despised the crown o gold, - The yellow silk also, - And I am come to my true-love, - But with me she’ll not go.’ - - 6 - ‘My husband he is a carpenter, - Makes his bread on dry land, - And I hae born him a young son; - Wi you I will not gang.’ - - 7 - ‘You must forsake your dear husband, - Your little young son also, - Wi me to sail the raging seas, - Where the stormy winds do blow.’ - - 8 - ‘O what hae you to keep me wi, - If I should with you go, - If I’d forsake my dear husband, - My little young son also?’ - - 9 - ‘See ye not yon seven pretty ships? - The eighth brought me to land, - With merchandize and mariners, - And wealth in every hand.’ - - 10 - She turnd her round upon the shore - Her love’s ships to behold; - Their topmasts and their mainyards - Were coverd oer wi gold. - - 11 - Then she’s gane to her little young son, - And kissd him cheek and chin; - Sae has she to her sleeping husband, - And dune the same to him. - - 12 - ‘O sleep ye, wake ye, my husband? - I wish ye wake in time! - I woudna for ten thousand pounds - This night ye knew my mind.’ - - 13 - She’s drawn the slippers on her feet, - Were coverd oer wi gold, - Well lined within wi velvet fine, - To had her frae the cold. - - 14 - She hadna sailed upon the sea - A league but barely three - Till she minded on her dear husband, - Her little young son tee. - - 15 - ‘O gin I were at land again, - At land where I woud be, - The woman neer shoud bear the son - Shoud gar me sail the sea.’ - - 16 - ‘O hold your tongue, my sprightly flower, - Let a’ your mourning be; - I’ll show you how the lilies grow - On the banks o Italy.’ - - 17 - She hadna sailed on the sea - A day but barely ane - Till the thoughts o grief came in her mind, - And she langd for to be hame. - - 18 - ‘O gentle death, come cut my breath, - I may be dead ere morn! - I may be buried in Scottish ground, - Where I was bred and born!’ - - 19 - ‘O hold your tongue, my lily leesome thing, - Let a’ your mourning be; - But for a while we’ll stay at Rose Isle, - Then see a far countrie. - - 20 - ‘Ye’se neer be buried in Scottish ground, - Nor land ye’s nae mair see; - I brought you away to punish you - For the breaking your vows to me. - - 21 - ‘I said ye shoud see the lilies grow - On the banks o Italy; - But I’ll let you see the fishes swim, - In the bottom o the sea.’ - - 22 - He reached his hand to the topmast, - Made a’ the sails gae down, - And in the twinkling o an ee - Baith ship and crew did drown. - - 23 - The fatal flight o this wretched maid - Did reach her ain countrie; - Her husband then distracted ran, - And this lament made he: - - 24 - ‘O wae be to the ship, the ship, - And wae be to the sea, - And wae be to the mariners - Took Jeanie Douglas frae me! - - 25 - ‘O bonny, bonny was my love, - A pleasure to behold; - The very hair o my love’s head - Was like the threads o gold. - - 26 - ‘O bonny was her cheek, her cheek, - And bonny was her chin, - And bonny was the bride she was, - The day she was made mine!’ - - * * * * * - - - D - - Kinloch MSS, I, 297; from the recitation of T. Kinnear, Stonehaven. - - 1 - ‘O whare hae ye been, my dearest dear, - These seven lang years and more?’ - ‘O I am come to seek my former vows, - That ye promisd me before.’ - - 2 - ‘Awa wi your former vows,’ she says, - ‘Or else ye will breed strife; - Awa wi your former vows,’ she says, - ‘For I’m become a wife. - - 3 - ‘I am married to a ship-carpenter, - A ship-carpenter he’s bound; - I wadna he kend my mind this nicht - For twice five hundred pound.’ - - * * * * * * - - 4 - She has put her foot on gude ship-board, - And on ship-board she’s gane, - And the veil that hung oure her face - Was a’ wi gowd begane. - - 5 - She had na sailed a league, a league, - A league but barely twa, - Till she did mind on the husband she left, - And her wee young son alsua. - - 6 - ‘O haud your tongue, my dearest dear, - Let all your follies abee; - I’ll show whare the white lillies grow, - On the banks of Italie.’ - - 7 - She had na sailed a league, a league, - A league but barely three, - Till grim, grim grew his countenance, - And gurly grew the sea. - - 8 - ‘O haud your tongue, my dearest dear, - Let all your follies abee; - I’ll show whare the white lillies grow, - In the bottom of the sea.’ - - 9 - He’s tane her by the milk-white hand, - And he’s thrown her in the main; - And full five-and-twenty hundred ships - Perishd all on the coast of Spain. - - * * * * * - - - E - - Motherwell’s MS., p. 97. - - 1 - ‘Where have you been, my long lost lover, - This seven long years and more?’ - ‘I’ve been seeking gold for thee, my love, - And riches of great store. - - 2 - ‘Now I’m come for the vows you promised me, - You promised me long ago;’ - ‘My former vows you must forgive, - For I’m a wedded wife.’ - - 3 - ‘I might have been married to a king’s daughter, - Far, far ayont the sea; - But I refused the crown of gold, - And it’s all for the love of thee.’ - - 4 - ‘If you might have married a king’s daughter, - Yourself you have to blame; - For I’m married to a ship’s-carpenter, - And to him I have a son. - - 5 - ‘Have you any place to put me in, - If I with you should gang?’ - ‘I’ve seven brave ships upon the sea, - All laden to the brim. - - 6 - ‘I’ll build my love a bridge of steel, - All for to help her oer; - Likewise webs of silk down by her side, - To keep my love from the cold.’ - - 7 - She took her eldest son into her arms, - And sweetly did him kiss: - ‘My blessing go with you, and your father too, - For little does he know of this.’ - - 8 - As they were walking up the street, - Most beautiful for to behold, - He cast a glamour oer her face, - And it shone like the brightest gold. - - 9 - As they were walking along the sea-side, - Where his gallant ship lay in, - So ready was the chair of gold - To welcome this lady in. - - 10 - They had not sailed a league, a league, - A league but scarsely three, - Till altered grew his countenance, - And raging grew the sea. - - 11 - When they came to yon sea-side, - She set her down to rest; - It’s then she spied his cloven foot, - Most bitterly she wept. - - 12 - ‘O is it for gold that you do weep? - Or is it for fear? - Or is it for the man you left behind - When that you did come here?’ - - 13 - ‘It is not for gold that I do weep, - O no, nor yet for fear; - But it is for the man I left behind - When that I did come here. - - 14 - ‘O what a bright, bright hill is yon, - That shines so clear to see?’ - ‘O it is the hill of heaven,’ he said, - ‘Where you shall never be.’ - - 15 - ‘O what a black, dark hill is yon, - That looks so dark to me?’ - ‘O it is the hill of hell,’ he said, - ‘Where you and I shall be. - - 16 - ‘Would you wish to see the fishes swim - In the bottom of the sea, - Or wish to see the leaves grow green - On the banks of Italy?’ - - 17 - ‘I hope I’ll never see the fishes swim - On the bottom of the sea, - But I hope to see the leaves grow green - On the banks of Italy.’ - - 18 - He took her up to the topmast high, - To see what she could see; - He sunk the ship in a flash of fire, - To the bottom of the sea. - - * * * * * - - - F - - Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, fifth edition, 1812, II, 427; - taken down from the recitation of Walter Grieve by William Laidlaw. - - 1 - ‘O where have you been, my long, long love, - This long seven years and mair?’ - ‘O I’m come to seek my former vows - Ye granted me before.’ - - 2 - ‘O hold your tongue of your former vows, - For they will breed sad strife; - O hold your tongue of your former vows, - For I am become a wife.’ - - 3 - He turned him right and round about, - And the tear blinded his ee: - ‘I wad never hae trodden on Irish ground, - If it had not been for thee. - - 4 - ‘I might hae had a king’s daughter, - Far, far beyond the sea; - I might have had a king’s daughter, - Had it not been for love o thee.’ - - 5 - ‘If ye might have had a king’s daughter, - Yer sel ye had to blame; - Ye might have taken the king’s daughter, - For ye kend that I was nane. - - 6 - ‘If I was to leave my husband dear, - And my two babes also, - O what have you to take me to, - If with you I should go?’ - - 7 - ‘I hae seven ships upon the sea— - The eighth brought me to land— - With four-and-twenty bold mariners, - And music on every hand.’ - - 8 - She has taken up her two little babes, - Kissd them baith cheek and chin: - ‘O fair ye weel, my ain two babes, - For I’ll never see you again.’ - - 9 - She set her foot upon the ship, - No mariners could she behold; - But the sails were o the taffetie, - And the masts o the beaten gold. - - 10 - She had not sailed a league, a league, - A league but barely three, - When dismal grew his countenance, - And drumlie grew his ee. - - 11 - They had not sailed a league, a league, - A league but barely three, - Until she espied his cloven foot, - And she wept right bitterlie. - - 12 - ‘O hold your tongue of your weeping,’ says he, - ‘Of your weeping now let me be; - I will shew you how the lilies grow - On the banks of Italy.’ - - 13 - ‘O what hills are yon, yon pleasant hills, - That the sun shines sweetly on?’ - ‘O yon are the hills of heaven,’ he said, - ‘Where you will never win.’ - - 14 - ‘O whaten a mountain is yon,’ she said, - ‘All so dreary wi frost and snow?’ - ‘O yon is the mountain of hell,’ he cried, - ‘Where you and I will go.’ - - 15 - He strack the tap-mast wi his hand, - The fore-mast wi his knee, - And he brake that gallant ship in twain, - And sank her in the sea. - - * * * * * - - - G - - Motherwell’s Minstrelsy, p. 93. - - 1 - ‘I have seven ships upon the sea, - Laden with the finest gold, - And mariners to wait us upon; - All these you may behold. - - 2 - ‘And I have shoes for my love’s feet, - Beaten of the purest gold, - And lined wi the velvet soft, - To keep my love’s feet from the cold. - - 3 - ‘O how do you love the ship?’ he said, - ‘Or how do you love the sea? - And how do you love the bold mariners - That wait upon thee and me?’ - - 4 - ‘O I do love the ship,’ she said, - ‘And I do love the sea; - But woe be to the dim mariners, - That nowhere I can see!’ - - 5 - They had not sailed a mile awa, - Never a mile but one, - When she began to weep and mourn, - And to think on her little wee son. - - 6 - ‘O hold your tongue, my dear,’ he said, - ‘And let all your weeping abee, - For I’ll soon show to you how the lilies grow - On the banks of Italy.’ - - 7 - They had not sailed a mile awa, - Never a mile but two, - Until she espied his cloven foot, - From his gay robes sticking thro. - - 8 - They had not sailed a mile awa, - Never a mile but three, - When dark, dark, grew his eerie looks, - And raging grew the sea. - - 9 - They had not sailed a mile awa, - Never a mile but four, - When the little wee ship ran round about, - And never was seen more. - - * * * * * - - - H - - Christie, Traditional Ballad Airs, I, 138; taken down by the - editor’s father from the singing of an aged relative. - - 1 - He’s given her a pair of shoes, - To hold her frae the cold; - The one side of them was velvaret, - And the other beaten gold. - - 2 - Up she has taen her little wee son, - And given him kisses three; - Says, Fare ye weel, my little wee son, - I’m gaun to sail the sea. - - * * * * * - -#B.# - - The Rambler’s Garland, composed of some Delightful New Songs. - _There are four_: _the third_ is The distressed Ship Carpenter. - “1785?” - - 1^1. my my own. - -#E.# - - 3^2. _Originally_, Had it not been for love of thee. - - 10^3. _In the margin_, Till grim, grim grew. - - 11^4. Och hone _under the line_. - - 14^1. _Altered to_, O whatena. - - 15^1. _Altered to_, O whatena dark. (_The original readings are - likely to have been the traditional ones._) - - 17^3. sea. - -#F.# - - _In a letter to Scott, January 3, 1803, Laidlaw gives some account - of the ballad sung by Walter Grieve, and cites some verses from - recollection, which, not unnaturally, differ from what he - afterwards took down in writing._ - - “He likewise sung part of a very beautiful ballad which I think - you will not have seen. As a punishment for her inconstancy, the - Devil is supposed to come and entice a young woman from her - husband, in the form of her former lover. The tune is very - solemn and melancholy, and the effect is mixed with a - considerable proportion of horror. I remember but very few - verses. He prevails upon her to go abroad [aboard?] to hear his - musicians, after upbraiding her - - ‘I might hae marrit a king’s daughter, but - I mindit my love for thee.’ - - “The description of her setting her child on the nurse’s knee and - bidding him farewell is waesome, but I have forgot it.” - - She set her foot into the ship, to hear the music play; - The masts war o the beaten goud, and the sails o the silk sae gay. - - They hadna saild a league thrae land, a league but barely three, - Till drearie grew his countenance, and drumlie grew his ee. - - They hadna saild another league, another league but three, - Till she beheld his cloven fit, and she wept most bitterlie. - - ‘O had yer tongue, my love,’ he said, ‘why weep ye sae mournfulie? - We’re gaun to see how the lillies do grow on the banks o fair - Italie.’ - - ‘What hills are yon, yon pleasant hills, where the sun shines [_a - wafer here_] - ‘O yon’s the hills of heaven,’ he said, ‘where you will never - win!‘” - - _Letters addressed to Sir Walter Scott, Vol. I, No 78, - Abbotsford._ - - - - - 244 - - JAMES HATLEY - - #A. a.# “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 35, MS. - of Thomas Wilkie, p. 6, Abbotsford. #b.# ‘James Hatley,’ Campbell - MSS, II, 289. #c.# ‘James Hatelie,’ R. Chambers, The Romantic - Scottish Ballads, their Epoch and Authorship, p. 37. - - #B.# ‘James Hately,’ “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border - Minstrelsy,” No 39, MS. of Thomas Wilkie, p. 18. The same, - transcribed by Thomas Wilkie, “Scotch Ballads,” etc., No 79, - Abbotsford. - - #C.# ‘Jamie O’Lee,’ Motherwell’s MS., p. 654. - - -#A.# ‘Sir Fenwick’ steals the king’s jewels and lays the blame on James -Hatley, who is condemned to death. The king’s daughter steals the -prison-keys from under her father’s head and pays a visit to Hatley, who -assures her of his innocence, and tells her that Fenwick is the man. -[#b#, the king is angry, and says that for stealing his jewels Hatley -shall die ‘over the barriers:’ so #B#.] The princess goes to her father -and begs the life of Hatley, and her boon is granted without demur. She -asks one thing more, that Fenwick and Hatley may try their verity at the -sword, and this is unhesitatingly conceded. Hatley is but fifteen years -old (he is seventeen #b#, eighteen #c#, fifteen again #C#), and Fenwick -is thirty-three; nevertheless, Fenwick gets three wounds. An English -lord intermits: he would have given all his estates rather than Hatley -should escape; a Scots lord replies that he would have fought to the -knees in blood before Hatley should have been hanged. (The Scots lord is -wanting in b; the passage is likely to be borrowed from ‘Geordie,’ No -209.) The king’s eldest son asks Hatley to dine, and makes him his -captain by land and sea;[146] the king’s daughter invites him to dine, -and announces that she has made a vow to marry no other man. - -#B.# Hatley, accused of stealing the king’s jewels, goes to the little -prince and asks what he will do for his page; the prince goes to his -father and asks what _he_ will do for the page. The king says that -Hatley has stolen his jewels, so a Norland lord has informed him, and -Hatley must die ‘over the barriers.’ The prince offers to fight any man -who lays the blame on Hatley. Fenwick maintains that Hatley is the -thief. The prince gives Fenwick two or three mortal wounds; Fenwick -hands him the key of his coffer, and in the coffer the jewels will be -found. The king invests Hatley with Fenwick’s lands. - -#C.# A false knight, Phenix, steals the queen’s jewels, and leaves the -blame on Jamie O’Lee. The king sends for his son and tells him that -Jamie has been accused of the theft by an English lord, and shall be -banished from Scotland. The prince demands a man to fight with Jamie on -this charge, and false Phenix offers himself. The prince at first -objects, for Jamie is but fifteen years old, whereas Phenix is of course -thirty-three; however, he tells Jamie that he must fight or be banished -from _England_ (8, compare 14). Jamie protests his innocence. He fights -with Phenix and receives the first wound, then runs Phenix through the -body; Phenix owns his guilt. The king tells Jamie to come home with him; -every knight in the court shall be at his command. The queen bids Jamie -come home with her; he shall have a new livery every month. The prince -invites Jamie to come home with him; all his lands in Scotland shall be -at Jamie’s command. Jamie thanks king, queen, and nobility; he has been -a prince’s page all his life, and a prince’s page he still will be. - -Lines representing #B# 12^{3,4}, #C# 17^{3,4}, have been interpolated -into the fragment of ‘The Slaughter of the Laird of Mellerstain,’ No -230: - - They wad take the lands frae fause Fenwick, - And give them to James Hately. - - There is no a month in a’ the year - But changëd should his claithing be. - - * * * * * - - - A - - #a.# “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 35, MS. - of Thomas Wilkie, p. 6, Abbotsford; “from Betty Hoyl, who learned it - from her mother,” Gattonside. #b.# Campbell MSS, II, 289. #c.# R. - Chambers, The Romantic Scottish Ballads, etc., 1859, p. 37; “taken - down many years ago from the singing of an old man in the south of - Scotland.” - - 1 - It happened once upon a time, - When the king he was from home, - Sir Fenwick he has stolen his jewels, - And laid the blame on James Hatley. - - 2 - James Hatley was in prison strong, - A wait he was condemned to die; - There was not one in all the court - To speak one word for James Hatley. - - 3 - No one but the king’s daughter, - A wait she loved him tenderlie; - She’s stolen the keys from her father’s head, - And gaed and conversed wi James Hatley. - - 4 - ‘Come, tell to me now, James,’ she said, - ‘Come, tell to me if thou hast them stolen, - And I’ll make a vow, and I’ll keep it true, - Ye shall never be the worse of me.’ - - 5 - ‘I have not stolen them, lady,’ he said, - ‘Nor as little it was intended by me; - Sir Fenwick he has stolen them himself; - A wait he has laid the blame on me.’ - - 6 - ‘One asking, one asking, father dear, - One asking, one asking grant to me, - For I never asked one in my life; - I am sure you cannot but grant it to me.’ - - 7 - ‘Weel ask it, weel ask it, daughter dear, - Ask it, and it granted shall be; - If it should be my hole estate, - Naesaid, naesaid, it shall not be.’ - - 8 - ‘I want none of your gold, father, - And I want none of your fee; - All that I ask, father dear, - It is the life of James Hatley.’ - - 9 - ‘Weel ask it, weel ask it, daughter dear, - Weel ask it, and it answerëd shall be; - For I’ll make a vow, and I’ll keep it true, - James Hatley shall never hangëd be.’ - - 10 - ‘Another asking, father dear, - Another asking grant to me; - Let Fenwick and Hatley go [to] the sword, - And let them try their verity.’ - - 11 - ‘’Tis weel askëd, daughter dear, - ’Tis weel asked, and it granted shall be; - For eer the morn or twelve o’clock - They both at the point of the sword shall be.’ - - 12 - James Hatley was fifteen years old, - Sir Fenwick he was thirty three; - But James lap about, and he struck about, - Till he’s gaen Sir Fenwick wounds three. - - 13 - ‘Hold up, hold up, James Hatley,’ he cry’d, - ‘And let my breath go out and in; - For I have stolen them myself, - More shame and disgrace it is to me.’ - - 14 - Up and spake an English lord, - And O but he spake haughtily! - ‘I would reather given my whole estates - Before ye had not hanged James Hatley.’ - - 15 - But up and spake a Scottish lord, - And O but he spake boldly! - ‘I would reather hae foughten among blood to the knees - Before ye had hanged James Hatley.’ - - 16 - Up and spake the king’s eldest son, - ‘Come hame, James Hatley, and dine wi me; - For I’ve made a vow, I’ll keep it true, - Ye’s be my captain by land and by sea.’ - - 17 - Up and spake the king’s daughter, - ‘Come home, James Hatley, and dine wi me; - For I’ve made a vow, I’ll keep it true, - I’ll never marry a man but thee.’ - - * * * * * - - - B - - “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 39, MS. of - Thomas Wilkie, p. 18, “as sung by Chirsty Robertson, Dunse.” The - same, transcribed by Thomas Wilkie, “Scotch Ballads,” etc., No 79. - Abbotsford. - - 1 - It happened once upon a time, - When the king he was from home, - False Fennick he has stolen his jewels, - And laid the blame on James Hately. - - 2 - The day was sett . . . . - And the wind blew shill oer the lea; - There was not one in all the court - To speak a word for James Hately. - - 3 - James is to the prince’s chamber gone, - And he’s bowd low down on his knee: - ‘What will ye do for me, my little pretty prince? - O what will ye do for your page, James Hately?’ - - 4 - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - ‘And I will away to my father, the king, - And see if your life can savëd be.’ - - 5 - The prince he’s to his father gone, - And he’s bowed low down on his knee: - ‘What will ye do for me, my father? - O what will ye do for my page, James Hately?’ - - 6 - ‘James Hately has my jewels stolen, - A Norland lord hath told it to me; - James Hately has my jewels stolen, - And oer the barras he maun die.’ - - 7 - The prince he drew his little brown sword— - It was made of the metal so free— - And he swore he would fight them man by man - That would lay the blame on James Hately. - - 8 - Up then spoke the false Fennick, - And an ill-spoken man was he; - ‘James Hately has the king’s jewels stolen, - . . . . . . . .’ - - 9 - The prince he drew his little brown sword— - It was made of the metal so free— - And he’s thrust it in false Fennick’s side, - And given him death-wounds two or three. - - 10 - ‘O hold your hand, my little pretty prince, - And let my breath go out and in, - For spilling of my noble blood - And shaming of my noble kin. - - 11 - ‘O hold your hand, my little pretty prince, - And let my breath go out and in, - And there’s the key of my coffer, - And you’ll find the king’s jewels lying therein.’ - - 12 - ‘If this be true,’ the king he said, - ‘If this be true ye tell to me, - I will take your lands, false Fennick,’ he said, - ‘And give them all to James Hately.’ - - * * * * * - - - C - - Motherwell’s MS., p. 654; “from the recitation of the wife of - Charles Drain, sow-gelder, etc., Kilmarnock.” - - 1 - There was a fause knicht in the court, - And he was fu o treacherie, - And he staw the queen’s jewels in the nicht, - And left the wyte on Jamie O’Lee. - - 2 - The king he wrate a braid letter, - And sealed it richt tenderlie, - And he sent it to his only son, - To come and speak to him speedilie. - - 3 - When he cam afore the king, - He kneeled low down on his knee: - ‘What is your will, my sovereign leige? - What is your will? cum tell to me.’ - - 4 - ‘Jamie O’Lee has my jewels stown, - As the English lord tells unto me, - And out o Scotland he shall be sent, - And sent awa to Germanie.’ - - 5 - ‘O no, O no,’ then said the prince, - ‘Sic things as that can never be; - But get me a man that will take on hand - The morn to fecht young Jamie O’Lee.’ - - 6 - Syne out and spak the fause Phenix, - And oh, he spak richt spitefullie; - ‘I am the man will tak on han - To fecht and conquer Jamie O’Lee.’ - - 7 - ‘Oh no, oh no,’ syne said the prince, - ‘Sic things as that can never bee, - For Jamie O’Lee’s no fifteen years auld, - And ye, fause Phenix, are thretty three.’ - - 8 - The prince he mounted then wi speed, - He’s aff wi tidings to Jamie O’Lee, - Saying, The morn’s morning ye maun fecht, - Or out o England banisht bee. - - 9 - When Jamie O’Lee the tidings heard, - Fast the saut tear blindit his ee; - ‘I’m saikless o thae jewels,’ he said, - ‘As the bairn that sits on the nourice knee.’ - - 10 - Then Phenix munted a scaffold hie, - A’ for to shaw his veritie; - Whilk gart the nobles a’ to cry - ‘A dead man are ye, Jamie O’Lee!’ - - 11 - The first straik the fause Phenix gied, - He gart the blude rin speedilie; - It gart the prince’s heart to ache, - And cry, Oh, alace for my Jamie O’Lee! - - 12 - Jamie O’Lee he stepped back, - Waiting for opportunitie, - And wi his sword baith lang and sharp - He ran it thro Phenix fause bodie. - - 13 - ‘O haud your hand, Jamie O’Lee,’ he said, - ‘And let the breath remain in me, - And skail nae mair o my noble blude, - ’Tis a great disgrace to my loyaltie.’ - - 14 - ‘Confess, confess, ye fause Phenix, - Confess your faults this day to me; - Were there nae mair men in a’ England, - My ain twa hands your death suld be.’ - - 15 - ‘Ye were sae great wi king and queen, - I thocht I wuld hae banisht thee, - And I staw the queen’s jewels in the nicht, - And left the wyte on Jamie O’Lee.’ - - 16 - Syne out and spak the king himsell, - Saying, Jamie O’Lee, come hame wi me, - And there’s no a knicht in a’ my court - But what at your command sall be. - - 17 - Syne out and spak the queen hersell, - Saying, Jamie O’Lee, come hame wi me, - And there’s no a month in a’ the year - But changed and brothered ye sall be. - - 18 - Syne out and spak the prince himsell, - Saying, Jamie O’Lee, come hame wi me; - I hae free lands in a’ Scotland, - And at your command they a’ sall be. - - 19 - ‘I thank ye, king, and I thank ye, queen, - I thank ye a’, nobilitie, - But a prince’s page I was a’ my life, - And a prince’s page I yet will be.’ - - 20 - The king gied him a silk waistcoat, - And it was lined wi the taffetie, - Wi a band o gowd around his neck, - And a prince’s page he seems to be. - - * * * * * - -#A. a.# - - 1^1. day _written over_ time. - - 1^2. from home was he? - - 2^2, 3^2, 5^4. Await. - - 4^2. _The_ -ee _rhyme may be restored by transposing_ Come tell to - me, as in #c# (_or adding_ said she). - - 7^4. Nae said, nae said. - - 13^2–13^3. _Two half-stanzas are wanting here_: _see_ #b#, #c#. - - _16 follows 17, but see_ #b#, #c#. - -#b.# - - 1^2. king was from home but lately. - - 1^3. That Sir. - - 2^1. was laid. - - 2^2, 3^2, 5^4. I wat. - - 2^3. And there’s not a man in. - - 2^4. Wad speak. - - 3^1. king’s fair. - - 3^4. And went in and. - - 4^2. if you have. - - 4^3. vow, I’ll. - - 5^2. was it. - - 5^4. And I wat he’s. - - _After 5_: - - * * * * * - - Up then spak the king himsel, - And an angry man I wot was he: - ‘For stealin o my jewels rare, - Hatlie shall oer the barriers die.’ - - 6^{1,2}. A boon, a boon, O. - - 6^3. askit a boon before. - - 6^4. And I’m sure that you will grant it me. - - 7^1. O ask it, ask it. - - 7^3. And gin it be the half o my estate. - - 7^4. Granted sal it be to thee. - - 8. - ‘O grant me this favour, father dear, - O grant this favour unto me, - For I never askëd favour before; - O spare the life of James Hatlie!’ - - 9. _Wanting._ - - 10^3. Let Hatley and Fenwick go to. - - 11^1. Well askëd, well askëd. - - 11^2. Well asked. - - 11^3. Before the morn at. - - 12^1. he was seventeen. - - 12^3. But _wanting_: strak. - - 12^4. gien. - - 13^1. he said. _Between_ 13^2 _and_ 13^3: - - ‘For this is spillin of noble blude, - And shamein of my noble kin. - - ‘Hold up, hold up,’ Sir Fenwick he said, - ‘Hold up, and ye sal justified be;’ - - 13^3. stolen the jewels myself. - - 14^1. Up then spake a southern. - - 14^3. rather have given the half o my land. - - 14^4. Before James Hatlie should not hanged be. - - 15. _Wanting._ - - 16, 17. _The son speaks before the daughter._ - - 16^1, 17^1. Up then. - - 16^3. For from this hour receive this dower. - - 16^4. Ye sal be. - - 17^{3,4}. For ere the sun gae down this night, O there’s my hand, - I’ll marry thee. - -#c.# - - 1^1. It fell upon a certain day. - - 1^2. from home he chanced to be. - - 1^3. The king’s jewels they were stolen all. - - 1^4. And they. - - 2^1. And he is into prison cast. - - 2^2. And I wat he is. - - 2^3. For there was not a man. - - 2^4. speak a. - - 3. - But the king’s eldest daughter she loved him well, - But known her love it might not be; - And she has stolen the prison-keys, - And gane in and discoursed wi James Hatelie. - - 4^1. Oh, did you steal them, James. - - 4^2. Oh, did not you steal them? come tell to me. - - 4^3. For I’ll. - - 4^4. You’s. - - 5^1. I did not steal them, James. - - 5^2. And neither was it. - - 5^3. For the English they stole them themselves. - - 5^4. And I wat they’ve. - - 6^{1,2}. - Now she has hame to her father gane, - And bowed her low down on her knee; - ‘I ask, I ask, I ask, father,’ she said, - ‘I ask, I ask a boon of thee.’ - - 6^3. For _wanting_. - - 6^4. And one of them you must grant to me. - - 7^{1,2}. Ask on, ask on, daughter, he said, And aye weel answered - ye shall be. - - 7^3. For if it were my whole. - - 7^4. you shall. - - 8^1. I ask. - - 8^2. As little of your white monie. - - 8^3. But all the asken that I do ask. - - 9^1. Ask on, ask on, daughter, he said. - - 9^2. And aye weel answered ye. - - 9^3. and keep. - - 9^4. shall not. - - 10^1. asken I ask, father: dear _wanting_. - - 10^2. asken I ask of thee. 10^3. go to. - - 11^{1,2}. Ask on, ask on, daughter, he said, And aye weel answered - you shall be. - - 11^3. For before the morn at. - - 12^1. eighteen years of age. - - 12^2. False F. was thirty years and three. - - 12^3. He lap: strack. - - 12^4. And he gave false F. - - 13^1. Oh, hold your hand, J. H., he said. - - _Between 13^2 and 13^3_: - - ‘Were it not for the spilling of my noble blood, - And the shaming of my noble kin. - - ‘Oh, hold your hand, James Hatelie,’ he said, - ‘Oh, hold your hand, and let me be.’ - - 13^3. For I’m the man that stole the jewels. - - 13^4. And a: it was. 14^1. Then up bespoke. - - 14^2. I wat but he. - - 14^3. rather have lost all my lands. - - 14^4. they had. - - 15^1. Then up bespoke a good Scotch. - - 15^2. I wat a good Scotch lord was he. - - 15^3. to the knees in blood. - - 15^4. Than they. - - 16, 17. _The son speaks before the daughter._ - - 16^1, 17^1. Then up bespoke. - - 16^2, 17^2. Come in. - - 16^3, 17^3. I’ll make: and I’ll. - - 16^3. You’se: and sea. - - 17^1. king’s eldest. - -#B.# - - _The copy transcribed by Wilkie has been edited a little. 2^{1,2}, - originally written in one line, are rightly divided as here; - 2^{3,4} are made the concluding half of another stanza._ - - 2^4. Would speak one. - - 3^1. James he. - - 3^4. O _omitted_. - - 4^3. And _omitted_. - - 5^1. prince is: father’s chamber. - - 6^2. to _omitted_. - - 9^2. That hung low down by his knee. - - 9^3. it _wanting_. - - 9^4. Then gave him. - - 11 _is put before 10, and 10^{1,2} omitted._ - - 11^4. king’s laying (_careless copying_). - - 12^3. false _omitted_. - - _Wilkie notes (No 39) that he had_ “heard this sung also by a - shepherd on Soltra hill,” _but it is not likely that these - variations were derived from the shepherd._ - -#C.# - - 9^1. When Johnie. - - 14^3. War _for_ Were _originally_. - - 17^4. brothered _in the MS._ - - - - - 245 - - YOUNG ALLAN - - #A.# Skene MS., p. 33. - - #B.# ‘Young Allan,’ Buchan’s MSS, II, 182. - - #C.# ‘Young Allan,’ Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, II, 11. - - #D.# ‘Young Allan,’ Murison MS., p. 117. - - #E.# ‘Earl Patrick,’ Kinloch MSS, V, 395. - - -The copy in Christie’s Traditional Ballad Airs, I, 252, is abridged from -#C#, with half a dozen arbitrary and insignificant changes. - -Skippers (lords) of Lothain, #A#, of Scarsburgh, #C#, of Aberdeen, #D#, -are bragging over their drink: some, absurdly enough, of their hawks and -hounds, #A-C#, some of their ladies, young Allan of his ship, which will -outsail all others but three.[147] A boy in #A#, #C#, says that his -master has a boat (it is a coal-carrier in #C#) which will take the wind -from him. A wager is laid, #A#, #B#, #C#. All the rest go to drinking, -‘to the tows,’ but Allan to his prayers, #C# 8. They sail; there is a -terrible storm, in the course of which the three competitors are ‘rent -in nine,’ #A# 9, or two of them sink, and the topmast of the third ‘gaes -in nine,’ #E# 7–9. - -In #A# they have sailed only a few leagues, when Allan’s ship is so -racked by the storm that they see water through her sides. At this -point, especially in #A#, Allan’s seamanship appears to very little -advantage; he is more of a fair-weather yachtsman than of a skeely -skipper. If he could get a bonny boy to take the helm and bring the ship -in safe, the boy should have a liberal share of his gold and land, and a -daughter Ann besides, whom one is surprised that Young Allan should have -to offer. In #A# and #D# the bonny boy evidently takes command of the -ship, although in #A# 18 the sailors ascribe their safety, under God, to -their good master. The ballad indeed suffers almost as grievously as the -comely cog. - -In #B-E# Allan calls for a bonny boy to take the helm while he goes to -the masthead to look for land. In #D# he makes the same promises as in -#A#, but the bonny boy cares only for Ann. In #B#, #C# the bonny boy -suggests that Allan should waken his drunken men, for whom good thick -shoes had been bought, though none had been given him. But in all the -boy takes the helm, and in fact keeps it till the ship is in. Allan, at -the masthead, can see neither day nor landmark; many feather-beds are -floating on the water, #B#, #C#. The boy calls his master down; the sea -can be seen through the ship’s sides, #B-E#. - -Orders are given, by the boy or by Allan (by the boy certainly in #D#, -and by Allan in #E#), to take feather-beds and canvas and lay, busk, or -wrap the ship round; pitch and tar are also recommended in #B#, #C#. -This done, Allan addresses the ship: Spring up, and gold shall be your -hire, #A#; Haste to dry land, and every nail that is in you shall be a -gold pin, #B#; For every iron nail in you, of gold there shall be ten, -#C#; in #D#, indirectly, Where she wants an iron nail drive in a silver -pin, and where she wants an oaken bolt beat in the gold, and the like in -#E#. When the ship hears this, she springs from the water like sparks -from the fire, #A-C#. - -The first shore they come to is Troup, #B#, Howdoloot, #C#, Linn, #D#, -#E#. The ship is kept off with cannon, #B#, #C#, with spears and -bayonets, #D#; is towed in (wrongly), #E#. The next shore they come to -is Lee, #B#, #E#, Howdilee, #C#, wanting in #D#; ‘they bare her to the -sea,’ #C#, ‘they turned their ship about,’ #D#, the ship is towed in -(wrongly), #B#, #E#. The third shore they come to is Lin, #B#, Howdilin, -#C#, Aberdeen, #D#; the ship is towed in (welcomed), with drums beating -and pipes playing, #B#, #C#, #D#. - -Allan calls for the bonny boy that brought the ship safe in, that took -the helm in hand, and offers him gold, land, and his daughter; the boy -rejects gold and land, and takes the daughter, #A#, #D#; Allan makes -over to the boy his comely cog and gives him his daughter, #B#; gives -him his daughter, #C#. - -Five-and-forty ships, #A#, three-and-fifty, #C#, one-and-twenty, #E#, -went to sea, and only one came back.[148] - -This ballad is mixed with that of ‘Sir Patrick Spens,’ No 58, II, 21 ff. -#E# 1–6 belong entirely to No 58, and #K# 6–10, #M# 1, 3, of No 58 -belong to ‘Young Allan.’ The bonny boy is found in 58, #B#, #C#, #E#, -#G#, #I#, #J#; the floating feather-beds occur in #E-H#, #J#, #O#, #R#; -the sea is seen through the ship in 58, #C# 15, #I# 21; cloth is wapped -into the ship’s side to keep out water, #H# 19, 20; feather-beds and -canvas (and pitch) are used as here in #I# 22, 23. - -By far the most interesting feature in this ballad is Allan’s addressing -his ship and the ship’s intelligent behavior, #A# 16, 17, #B# 12–15, #C# -21–22. Friðþjóf’s ship Elliða understood and obeyed the speech of its -master: Fornaldar Sogur, II, 79, 443 (cited by Bugge). Ranild’s ship -came to him when he blew his horn: ‘Svend Ranild,’ Grundtvig, No 28, I, -367 (translated by Prior, I, 286). In another Danish ballad, and one of -the best, the Ox when sailed by St Olav, responds to his commands as if -fully endowed with consciousness; he thwacks it in the side and over the -eye, and it goes faster and faster; but it is animate only for the -nonce: ‘Hellig-Olavs Væddefart,’ Grundtvig, No 50, II, 134, Prior, I, -356. - -The Phæacian ships have neither helmsman nor helm, and know men’s minds -and the way to all cities: Odyssey, viii, 557 ff. There is a magical -self-moving ship in Marie de France’s Guigemar, and elsewhere. - - * * * * * - - - A - - Skene MS., p. 33; taken down in the north of Scotland, 1802–3 - - 1 - A’ the skippers of bonny Lothain, - As they sat at the wine, - There fell a reesin them amang, - An it was in unhappy time. - - 2 - Some o them reesd their hawks, - An some o them their hounds, - An some o them their ladies gay, - Trod neatly on the ground; - Young Allan he reesd his comely cog, - That lay upon the strand. - - 3 - ‘I hae as good a ship this day - As ever sailed our seas, - Except it be the Burges Black, - But an the Small Cordvine, - The Comely Cog of Dornisdale; - We’s lay that three bye in time.’ - - 4 - Out spak there a little boy, - Just at Young Allan’s knee: - ‘Ye lie, ye lie, Young Allan, - Sae loud’s I hear ye lie. - - 5 - ‘For my master has a little boat - Will sail thrice as well as thine; - For she’ll gang in at your foremast, - An gae out your fore-lee, - An nine times in a winter night - She’ll tak the wind frae thee.’ - - 6 - ‘O what will ye wad, ye Young Allan? - Or what will ye wad wi me?’ - ‘I’ll wad my head against your land - Till I get more monnie.’ - - 7 - They had na saild a league, - A league but barely three, - But through an thro the bonny ship - They saw the green wall sea. - - 8 - They had na saild a league, - A league but barely five, - But through an thro their bonny ship - They saw the green well wave. - - 9 - He gaed up to the topmast, - To see what he coud see, - And there he saw the Burgess Black, - But an the Small Cordvine, - The Comely Cog of Dornisdale; - The three was rent in nine. - - 10 - Young Allan grat an wrang his hands, - An he kent na what to dee: - ‘The win is loud, and the waves are proud, - An we’ll a’ sink in the sea. - - 11 - ‘But gin I coud get a bonny boy - Wad tak my helm in han, - That would steer my bonny ship, - An bring her safe to land, - - 12 - ‘He shoud get the twa part o my goud, - The third part o my land, - An gin we win safe to shore - He shoud get my dochter Ann.’ - - 13 - ‘O here am I, a bonny boy - That will tak your helm in han, - An will steer your bonny ship - An bring her safe to lan. - - 14 - ‘Ye tak four-an-twenty feather-beds - An lay the bonny ship round, - An as much of the good canvas - As mak her hale an soun.’ - - 15 - They took four-an-twenty feather-beds - An laid the bonny ship roun, - An as much o the good canvas - As made her hale an soun. - - 16 - ‘Spring up, spring up, my bonny ship, - An goud sall be your hire!’ - Whan the bonny ship heard o that, - That goud shoud be her hire, - She sprang as fast frae the sat water - As sparks do frae the fire. - - 17 - ‘Spring up, spring up, my bonny ship, - And goud sall be your fee!’ - Whan the bonny ship heard o that, - That goud shoud be her fee, - She sprang as fast frae the sat water - As the leaf does frae the tree. - - 18 - The sailors stan on the shore-side, - Wi their auld baucheld sheen: - ‘Thanks to God an our guid master - That ever we came safe to land!’ - - 19 - ‘Whar is the bonny boy - That took my helm in han, - That steerd my bonny ship, - An brought her safe to lan? - - 20 - ‘He’s get the twa part o my goud, - The third part o my lan, - An, since we’re come safe to shore, - He’s get my dochter Ann.’ - - 21 - ‘O here am I, the bonny boy - That took your helm in han, - That steered your bonny ship, - An brought her safe to lan. - - 22 - ‘I winna hae the twa part o your goud, - Nor the third part o your lan, - But, since we hae win safe to shore, - I’ll wed your dochter Ann.’ - - 23 - Forty ships went to the sea, - Forty ships and five, - An there never came ane o a’ back, - But Young Allan, alive. - - * * * * * - - - B - - Buchan’s MSS, II, 182 - - 1 - There were four-an-twenty sailors bold - Sat drinking at the wine; - There fell a rousing them among, - In an unseally time. - - 2 - Some there reasd their hawk, their hawk, - And some there reasd their hound, - But Young Allan reasd his comely cog, - As she floats on the feam. - - 3 - ‘There’s not a ship amang you a’ - Will sail alang wi me, - But the comely cog o Heckland Hawk, - And Flower o Germanie, - And the Black Snake o Leve London; - They are all gane frae me.’ - - 4 - The wager was a gude wager, - Of fifty tuns of wine, - And as much o the gude black silk - As cleathd their lemans fine. - - 5 - At midnight dark the wind up stark, - The seas began to rout; - Young Allan and his bonny new ship - Gaed three times witherlins about. - - 6 - ‘O faer will I get a bonny boy - Will take my helm in hand - Ere I gang up to the tapmast-head - To look for some dry land?’ - - 7 - ‘O waken, waken your drunken men, - As they lie drunk wi wine; - For when ye came thro Edinburgh town - Ye bought them shoes o ben. - - 8 - ‘There was no shoe made for my feet, - Nor gluve made for my hand; - But nevertheless, my dear master, - I’ll take your helm in hand - Till ye gae to the topmast head - And look for some dry land.’ - - 9 - ‘I cannot see no day, no day, - Nor no meathe can I ken; - But mony a bonny feather-bed - Lies floating on the faem.’ - - 10 - ‘Come down, come down, my dear master, - You see not what I see; - Through an through your bonny new ship - Comes in the green haw sea.’ - - 11 - ‘Take fifty ells o the canvas broad - And wrap it in a’ roun, - And as much o good pich an tar - Make her go hale an soun. - - 12 - ‘Sail on, sail on, my bonny ship, - And haste ye to dry lan, - And every nail that is in you - Shall be a gay gold pin. - - 13 - ‘Sail on, sail on, my bonny ship, - And hae me to some lan, - And a firlot full o guineas red - Will be dealt at the lan’s end.’ - - 14 - The ship she hearkend to their voice - And listend to their leed, - And she gaed thro the green haw sea - Like fire out o a gleed. - - 15 - When the ship got word o that, - Goud was to be her beat, - She’s flowen thro the stormy seas - Like sparks out o a weet. - - 16 - The first an shore that they came till, - It was the shore o Troup; - Wi cannons an great shooting there, - They held Young Allan out. - - 17 - The next an shore that they came till, - It was the shore o Lee; - Wi piping an sweet singing there, - They towed Young Allan tee. - - 18 - The next an shore that they came till, - It was the shore o Lin; - Wi drums beating and pipers playing, - They towed Young Allan in, - And Allan’s lady she was there, - To welcome Allan hame. - - 19 - ‘O faer is my little boy,’ he said, - ‘That I brought oer the sea?’ - ‘I’m coming, master, running, master, - At your command shall be.’ - - 20 - ‘O take to you my comely cog, - And wed my daughter free, - And a’ for this ae night’s wark - That ye did wake wi me.’ - - * * * * * - - - C - - Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, II, 11 - - 1 - All the skippers o Scarsburgh - Sat drinking at the wine; - There fell a rousing them amang, - On an unseally time. - - 2 - Some there rousd their hawk, their hawk, - And some there rousd their hound, - But Young Allan rousd his comely cog, - As she stood on dry ground. - - 3 - ‘There’s nae a ship in Scarsburgh - Will sail the seas wi mine, - Except it be the Burgess Black, - Or than the smack calld Twine. - - 4 - ‘There’s nae a ship amang you a’ - Will sail alang wi me, - But the comely cog o Hecklandhawk, - And Flower o Yermanie, - And the Black Snake o Leve London; - They are a’ gane frae me.’ - - 5 - Out it speaks a little wee boy - Stood by Young Allan’s knee; - ‘My master has a coal-carrier - Will take the wind frae thee. - - 6 - ‘She will gae out under the leaf, - Come in under the lee, - And nine times in a winter night - She’ll turn the wind wi thee.’ - - 7 - When they had wagerd them amang - Full fifty tuns o wine, - Besides as mickle gude black silk - As clathe their lemans fine, - - 8 - When all the rest went to the tows, - All the whole night to stay, - Young Allan he went to his bower, - There with his God to pray. - - 9 - ‘There shall nae man gang to my ship - Till I say mass and dine, - And take my leave o my lady; - Gae to my bonny ship syne.’ - - 10 - Then they saild east on Saturday, - On Sunday sailëd west; - Likewise they sailed on Mononday - Till twelve, when they did rest. - - 11 - At midnight dark the wind up stark, - And seas began to rout, - Till Allan and his bonny new ship - Gaed three times witherlands about. - - 12 - ‘O,’ sighing says the Young Allan, - ‘I fear a deadly storm; - For mony a heaving sinking sea - Strikes sair on my ship’s stern. - - 13 - ‘Where will I get a little wee boy - Will take my helm in hand - Till I gang up to my tapmast - And see for some dry land?’ - - 14 - ‘O waken, waken your drunken men, - As they lye drunk wi wine; - For when ye came thro Edinbro town - Ye bought them sheen o ben. - - 15 - ‘There was nae shoe made for my foot, - Nor gluve made for my hand; - But nevertheless, my dear master, - I’ll take your helm in hand - Till ye gang to the tall tapmast - And look for some dry land. - - 16 - ‘And here am I, a little wee boy - Will take your helm in han - Till ye gang up to your tapmast, - But, master, stay not lang.’ - - 17 - ‘I cannot see nae day, nae day, - Nor nae meathe can I ken; - But mony a bonny feather-bed - Lyes floating on the faem, - And the comely cog o Normanshore, - She never will gang hame.’ - - 18 - The comely cog o Nicklingame - Came sailing by his hand; - Says, Gae down, gae down, ye gude skipper, - Your ship sails on the sand. - - 19 - ‘Come down, come down, my gude master, - Ye see not what I see; - For thro and thro our comely cog - I see the green haw sea.’ - - 20 - ‘Take fifty ells o gude canvas - And wrap the ship a’ round; - And pick her weell, and spare her not, - And make her hale and sound. - - 21 - ‘If ye will sail, my bonny ship, - Till we come to dry land, - For ilka iron nail in you, - Of gowd there shall be ten.’ - - 22 - The ship she listend all the while, - And, hearing of her hire, - She flew as swift threw the saut sea - As sparks do frae the fire. - - 23 - The first an shore that they came till, - They ca’d it Howdoloot; - Wi drums beating and cannons shouting, - They held our gude ship out. - - 24 - The next an shore that they came till, - They ca’d it Howdilee; - Wi drums beating and fifes playing, - They bare her to the sea. - - 25 - The third an shore that they came till, - They ca’d it Howdilin; - Wi drums beating and pipes playing, - They towd our gude ship in. - - 26 - The sailors walkd upon the shore, - Wi their auld baucheld sheen, - And thanked God and their Lady, - That brought them safe again. - - 27 - ‘For we went out o Scarsburgh - Wi fifty ships and three; - But nane o them came back again - But Young Allan, ye see.’ - - 28 - ‘Come down, come down, my little wee boy, - Till I pay you your fee; - I hae but only ae daughter, - And wedded to her ye’se be.’ - - * * * * * - - - D - - Murison MS., p. 117; learned by Mrs Murison from her mother, Old - Deer, Aberdeenshire. - - 1 - There was three lords sat drinkin wine - In bonnie Aberdeen, [O] - . . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . . - - 2 - Some o them talked o their merchandise, - An some o their ladies fine, [O] - But Young Allan he talked o his bonnie ship, - That cost him mony a poun. - - * * * * * * - - 3 - ‘Whar will I get a bonnie wee boy - That’ll tak my helm in han, O - Till I gang up to my high topmast - An look oot for some dry lan? - - 4 - ‘He’ll get half o my gowd, an half o my gear, - An the third pairt o my lan, - An gin he row me safe on shore - He shall hae my daughter Ann.’ - - 5 - ‘O here am I, a bonny wee boy - That’ll tak your helm in han - Till ye gang up to your high topmast - An look oot for some dry lan. - - 6 - ‘I’ll nae seek your gowd, nor I’ll nae seek your gear, - Nor the third pairt o your lan, - But gin I row you safe to shore - I shall hae your daughter Ann. - - 7 - ‘Come doon, come doon, Young Allan,’ he cries, - ‘Ye see nae what I see; - For through an through your bonnie ship-side - An I see the open sea. - - 8 - ‘Ye’ll tak twenty-four o your feather-beds, - Ye’ll busk your bonnie ship roon, - An as much o the guid canvas-claith - As gar her gang hale an soun. - - 9 - ‘An whar ye want an iron bolt - Ye’ll ca a siller pin, - An whar ye want an oaken bolt - Ye’ll beat the yellow gold in.’ - - 10 - He’s taen twenty-four o his feather-beds - An buskit’s bonnie ship roon, - An as much o the guid canvas-claith - As gar her gang hale an soun. - - 11 - An whar he’s wantit an iron bolt - He’s ca’d a siller pin, - An whar he’s wantit an oaken bolt - He’s beat the yellow gold in. - - 12 - The firstan shore that they cam till, - It was the shore o Linn; - They held their spears an beenits oot, - An they wouldna lat Allan in. - - 13 - The neistan shore that they cam till - It was the shore o . . . ; - . . . . . . . - An they turned their ship aboot. - - 14 - But the neistan shore that they cam till, - ‘T was bonnie Aberdeen; - The fifes an drums they a’ did play, - To welcome Allan in. - - 15 - ‘O where is he, the bonnie wee boy - That took my helm in han - Till I gied up to my high topmast - An lookd oot for some dry lan? - - 16 - ‘He’s get half o my gowd, an half o my gear, - An the third pairt o my lan, - An since he’s rowt me safe to shore - He sall hae my daughter Ann.’ - - 17 - ‘O here am I, the bonnie wee boy - That took your helm in han - Till ye gied up to your high topmast - An lookd oot for some dry lan. - - 18 - ‘I’ll nae seek half o your good, nor half o your gear, - Nor the third pairt o your lan, - But since I’ve rowt you safe to shore - I sall hae your daughter Ann.’ - - * * * * * - - - E - - Kinloch MSS, V, 395; in the handwriting of John Hill Burton, when a - youth - - 1 - The king he sits in Dumfermline, - Birlin at the wine, - And callin for the best skipper - That ever sailed the faem. - - 2 - Then out it spak a bonny boy, - Sat at the king’s right knee; - ‘Earl Patrick is the best skipper - That ever sailed the sea.’ - - 3 - The king he wrote a braed letter, - And sealed it wi his ring, - And sent it to Earl Patrick, - . . . . . . - - 4 - ‘Oh wha is this, or wha is that, - Has tald the king o me? - For I was niver a gude mariner, - And niver sailed the sea. - - * * * * * * - - 5 - ‘Ye’ll eat and drink, my merry young men, - The red wine you amang, - For blaw it wind, or blaw it sleet, - Our ship maun sail the morn. - - 6 - ‘Late yestreen I saw the new meen - Wi the auld meen in hir arm,’ - And sichand said him Earl Patrick, - ‘I fear a deadly storm.’ - - 7 - They sailed up, sae did they down, - Thro mony a stormy stream, - Till they saw the Dam o Micklengaem, - When she sank amang the faem. - - 8 - They sailed up, sae did they down, - Thro many a stormy stream, - Till they saw the Duke o Normandy, - And she sank among the faem. - - 9 - They sailed up, sae did they down, - Thro many a stormy stream, - Till they saw the Black Shater o Leve London, - And her topmast gaed in nine. - - 10 - ‘Where will I get a bonny boy - That will tack my helm in hand - Till I gang up to my topmast, - And spy for some dry land?’ - - 11 - ‘Now here am I, a bonny boy - Will tack yer helm in hand - Till ye go up to your topmast - But I fear ye’ll never see land.’ - - 12 - ‘Cum down, cum down, my gude master, - Ye see not what I see, - For through and through yer bonny ship - I see the raging sea.’ - - 13 - ‘Ye’ll tak four-and-twenty fether-beds - And lay my bonny ship roun, - And as muckle o the fine canvas - As make her haill and soun. - - 14 - ‘And where she wants an iron nail - O silver she’s hae three, - And where she wants a timmer-pin - We’ll rap the red goud in.’ - - * * * * * * - - 15 - The firsten shore that they cam till, - They cad it shore the Linn; - Wi heart and hand and good command, - They towed their bonny ship in. - - 16 - The nexten shore that they came till, - They caad it shore the Lee; - With heart and hand and good command, - They towed the bonny ship tee. - - 17 - There was twenty ships gaed to the sea, - Twenty ships and ane, - And there was na ane came back again - But Earl Patrick alane. - - * * * * * - -#A.# - - 18^2. ill buckled _corruptly for the_ auld baucheld _of_ #C# 26 - (baucheld==down at the heels). - -#B.# - - 2^2. hind. - - 3^5. snakes o Leveland den; _and_ snakes o Levelanden, #C# 4^5. _I - have not found_ snake, _for_ ship, _in late English, but the A. - S._ snacc==_Icelandic_ snekkja, a fast ship, _may well have come - down_. _For_ Leve London _see_ #E# 9^3. - - 11^4. _We should perhaps read_ As make; _cf._ #A# 14^4, #D.# 8^4. - -#C.# - - 4^5. black snakes o Levelanden. - -#D.# - - _After 2._ “A long, long gap, that I have got nobody to fill up. I - learned it from my mother, but she has quite forgotten it.” - - 9^1. whar he. - - 13^3. _Remark_: “Not let land here either.” - - 17^3. to yon, _or_ you. - - O _is added at the end of every second line._ - -#E.# - - 6^3. sich and. - - 9^3. shater. Cf. _#B# 3^5, #C# 4^5, where the texts have_ snakes - _(corrected here to_ snake). _The writer of #E# had begun the - word with something different from_ sh, _but with what I cannot - make out._ - - 11^4. feear. - - 14^1. when _or_ wher. - - - - - 246 - - REDESDALE AND WISE WILLIAM - - #A.# ‘Reedisdale and Wise William,’ Buchan’s Ballads of the North of - Scotland, II, 70; Motherwell’s MS., p. 452; Motherwell’s Minstrelsy, - p. 298. - - #B.# ‘Roudesdales,’ Harris MS., fol. 14 b. - - #C.# Kinloch MSS, V, 423, two stanzas. - - -Redesdale boasts to William that he can win any woman with a blink of -his eye. William has a sister who, he maintains, is not to be had so -easily. A wager is laid, William’s head against Redesdale’s lands. -William is shut up to prevent his warning his sister, but sends her a -letter by a carrier-bird. Redesdale rides to the maiden’s bower, and, -seeing her at the window, tries to induce her to come down by a series -of offers of silk-gowns, jewels, etc. His offers proving bootless, he -threatens to fire the house, and does so. The maid and her women don wet -mantles and pass the reek and flame unhurt. She sends word to her -brother, who claims Redesdale’s lands. - -#A# 1, 2, 5 are substantially a repetition of No 245, #A# 1, 2^{1,4}, 6, -etc. The sharp shower in #B# 16–18, which puts out, and does not put -out, the fire, is an inept interpolation. - -This ballad may be an offshoot from a widely spread story which is -tediously told further on in ‘Twa Knights.’ - - * * * * * - - - A - - Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, II, 70; written down from - memory by Mr Nicol, Strichen, as learned in his earlier years from - old people - - 1 - When Reedisdale and Wise William - Were drinking at the wine, - There fell a roosing them amang, - On an unruly time. - - 2 - For some o them hae roosd their hawks, - And other some their hounds, - And other some their ladies fair, - And their bowers whare they walkd in. - - 3 - When out it spake him Reedisdale, - And a rash word spake he; - Says, There is not a lady fair, - In bower wherever she be, - But I could aye her favour win - Wi ae blink o my ee. - - 4 - Then out it spake him Wise William, - And a rash word spake he; - Says, I have a sister of my own, - In bower where ever she be, - And ye will not her favour win - With three blinks of your ee. - - 5 - ‘What will ye wager, Wise William? - My lands I’ll wad with thee;’ - ‘I’ll wad my head against your land, - Till I get more monie.’ - - 6 - Then Reedisdale took Wise William, - Laid him in prison strang, - That he might neither gang nor ride, - Nor ae word to her send. - - 7 - But he has written a braid letter, - Between the night and day, - And sent it to his own sister - By dun feather and gray. - - 8 - When she had read Wise William’s letter, - She smilëd and she leugh; - Said, Very well, my dear brother, - Of this I have eneuch. - - 9 - She looked out at her west window - To see what she could see, - And there she spied him Reedisdale - Come riding ower the lea. - - 10 - Says, Come to me, my maidens all, - Come hitherward to me; - For here it comes him Reedisdale, - Who comes a-courting me. - - 11 - ‘Come down, come down, my lady fair, - A sight of you give me;’ - ‘Go from my yetts now, Reedisdale, - For me you will not see.’ - - 12 - ‘Come down, come down, my lady fair, - A sight of you give me; - And bonny are the gowns of silk - That I will give to thee.’ - - 13 - ‘If you have bonny gowns of silk, - O mine is bonny tee; - Go from my yetts now, Reedisdale, - For me you shall not see.’ - - 14 - ‘Come down, come down, my lady fair, - A sight of you I’ll see; - And bonny jewels, brooches and rings - I will give unto thee.’ - - 15 - ‘If you have bonny brooches and rings, - O mine are bonny tee; - Go from my yetts now, Reedisdale, - For me you shall not see.’ - - 16 - ‘Come down, come down, my lady fair, - One sight of you I’ll see; - And bonny are the ha’s and bowers - That I will give to thee.’ - - 17 - ‘If you have bonny ha’s and bowers, - O mine are bonny tee; - Go from my yetts now, Reedisdale, - For me you shall not see.’ - - 18 - ‘Come down, come down, my lady fair, - A sight of you I’ll see; - And bonny are my lands so broad - That I will give to thee.’ - - 19 - ‘If you have bonny lands so broad, - O mine are bonny tee; - Go from my yetts now, Reedisdale, - For me ye will not see.’ - - 20 - ‘Come down, come down, my lady fair, - A sight of you I’ll see; - And bonny are the bags of gold - That I will give to thee.’ - - 21 - ‘If you have bonny bags of gold, - I have bags of the same; - Go from my yetts now, Reedisdale, - For down I will not come.’ - - 22 - ‘Come down, come down, my lady fair, - One sight of you I’ll see; - Or else I’ll set your house on fire, - If better cannot be.’ - - 23 - Then he has set the house on fire, - And all the rest it tuke; - He turned his wight horse head about, - Said, Alas, they’ll ne’er get out! - - 24 - ‘Look out, look out, my maidens fair, - And see what I do see, - How Reedisdale has fired our house, - And now rides oer the lea. - - 25 - ‘Come hitherwards, my maidens fair, - Come hither unto me; - For thro this reek, and thro this smeek, - O thro it we must be!’ - - 26 - They took wet mantles them about, - Their coffers by the band, - And thro the reek, and thro the flame, - Alive they all have wan. - - 27 - When they had got out thro the fire, - And able all to stand, - She sent a maid to Wise William, - To bruik Reedisdale’s land. - - 28 - ‘Your lands is mine now, Reedisdale, - For I have won them free;’ - ‘If there is a gude woman in the world, - Your one sister is she.’ - - * * * * * - - - B - - Harris MS., fol. 14 b; from Mrs Harris. - - 1 - Roudesdales an Clerk William - Sat birlin at the wine, - An a’ the talk was them atween - Was aboot the ladies fine, fine, - Was aboot the ladies fine. - - 2 - Says Roudesdales to Clerk William, - I’ll wad my lands wi thee, - I’ll wad my lands against thy head, - An that is what I’ll dee, - - 3 - ‘That there’s no a leddy in a’ the land, - That’s fair, baith ee an bree, - That I winna wed withoot courtin, - Wi ae blink o my ee.’ - - 4 - Says William, I’ve an ae sister, - She’s fair, baith ee an bree; - An you’ll no wed her withoot courtin, - Wi ae blink o your ee.’ - - 5 - He has wrote a broad letter, - Between the nicht an the day, - An sent it to his ae sister - Wi the white feather an the gray. - - 6 - The firsten line she luekit on, - A licht lauchter gae she; - But eer she read it to the end - The tear blindit her ee. - - 7 - ‘Oh wae betide my ae brither, - Wald wad his head for me, - . . . . . . - . . . . . .’ - - 8 - Roudesdales to her bour has gane, - An rade it round aboot, - An there he saw that fair ladie, - At a window lookin oot. - - 9 - ‘Come doon, come doon, you fair ladie, - Ae sicht o you to see; - For the rings are o the goud sae ried - That I will gie to thee.’ - - 10 - ‘If yours are o the goud sae ried, - Mine’s o the silver clear; - So get you gone, you Roudesdales, - For you sall no be here.’ - - 11 - ‘Come doon, come doon, you lady fair, - Ae sicht o you to see; - For the gouns are o the silk sae fine - That I will gie to thee.’ - - 12 - ‘If yours are o the silk sae fine, - Mine’s o the bonnie broun; - Sa get you gone, you Roudesdales, - For I will no come doon.’ - - 13 - ‘Come doon, come doon, you ladie fair, - Ae sicht o you to see; - For the steeds are o the milk sae white - That I will gie to thee.’ - - 14 - ‘If yours are o the milk sae white, - Mine’s o the bonnie broun; - Sae get you gone, you Roudesdales, - For I will no come doon.’ - - 15 - ‘Come doon, come doon, you ladie fair, - Ae sicht o you to see; - Or I will set your bour on fire - Atween your nurse an thee.’ - - 16 - ‘You may set my bowr on fire, - As I doubt na you will dee, - But there’ll come a sharp shour frae the wast - Will slocken’t speedilie.’ - - 17 - He has set her bour on fire, - An quickly it did flame; - But there cam a sharp shour frae the wast - That put it oot again. - - 18 - Oot amang the fire an smoke - That bonnie lady cam, - Wi as muckle goud aboon her bree - As wald bocht an earldom. - - 19 - ‘Oh wae betide you, ill woman, - An ill, ill died may you dee! - For ye hae won your brither’s head, - An I go landless free.’ - - * * * * * - - - C - - Kinloch MSS, V, 423. - - 1 - Redesdale and Clerk William - Sat drinking at the wine; - They hae fawn a wagering them atween - At a wanhappy time. - - 2 - ‘What will ye wad,’ says Redesdale, - ‘O what will ye wad wi me - That there’s na a lady in a’ the land - But I wad win wi ae blink o my ee?’ - - * * * * * - -#A.# - - _There are some very trivial variations from Buchan’s text in - Motherwell’s copies; mostly_ is, _with a plural subject, - Scottice, for_ are. _Motherwell received the ballad from Buchan, - and was much in the way of making small betterments._ - -#B.# - - _Air_, ‘Johnnie Brod.’ - - 4^4. o her. - - 5^2. _Perhaps_ necht. - - 6^2. _Perhaps_ leiht. - - - - - 247 - - LADY ELSPAT - - ‘Lady Elspat.’ #a.# Jamieson-Brown MS., p. 19. Printed in Jamieson’s - Popular Ballads, II, 191. #b.# “Scottish Songs,” MS., fol. 30, - Abbotsford Library, N. 3, in the handwriting of Walter Scott, about - 1795 - - -This ballad was No 10 of the fifteen of Mrs Brown’s which were obtained -by William Tytler from Professor Thomas Gordon in 1783: Anderson to -Percy, December 29, 1800, in Nichols’s Illustrations, VII, 177, where -the first stanza (of twelve) is cited. These transcripts were -accompanied with the airs. In #b#, which is now ascertained to be in the -handwriting of Walter Scott,[149] there is a mawkish stanza after 4, and -another after 9, which do not occur in #a#, and many verbal variations. -These two stanzas are not likely to have been inserted by Scott, for, so -far as we know, the ballad has been preserved only by Mrs Brown. As for -the other variations, we are not in a condition to say which are Mrs -Brown’s, which Scott’s. - -An appointment for an elopement made by Lady Elspat with Sweet William -is revealed to her mother by an eavesdropping page. William is bound -with his own bow-string and brought before the Lord Justice. The mother -accuses him of stealing her jewels; Lady Elspat denies this, and says -that his only crime is too small an estate. The judge sees no fault in -the young man (whom he discovers to be his sister’s son!), hands him -over to Lady Elspat, and promises the pair as much land as a valuable -horse of his can ride about in a summer’s day. - -Truly not impressive in story or style, and very fit to have been -forgotten by Mrs Brown. - - -Translated from Jamieson by Grundtvig, Engelske og skotske Folkeviser, -p. 196, No 30; by Rosa Warrens, Schottische Volkslieder, p. 118, No 26; -by Loève-Veimars, p. 337. - - * * * * * - - 1 - ‘How brent’s your brow, my Lady Elspat! - How golden yallow is your hair! - Of all the maids of fair Scotland, - There’s nane like Lady Elspat fair.’ - - 2 - ‘Perform your vows, Sweet William,’ she says, - ‘The vows which ye ha made to me, - An at the back o my mother’s castle - This night I’ll surely meet wi thee.’ - - 3 - But wae be to her brother’s page, - Who heard the words this twa did say! - He’s told them to her lady mother, - Who wrought Sweet William mieckle wae. - - 4 - For she has taen him Sweet William, - An she’s gard bind him wi his bow-string - Till the red bluide o his fair body - Frae ilka nail o his hand did spring. - - 5 - O it fell once upon a time - That the Lord Justice came to town; - Out has she taen him Sweet William, - Brought him before Lord Justice boun. - - 6 - ‘An what is the crime, now, madame,’ he says, - ‘Has been committed by this young man?’ - ‘O he has broken my bonny castel, - That was well biggit wi lime an stane. - - 7 - ‘An he has broken my bonny coffers, - That was well banded wi aiken ban, - An he has stoln my rich jewels; - I wot he has them every one.’ - - 8 - Then out it spake her Lady Elspat, - As she sat by Lord Justice knee; - ‘Now ye hae taul your tale, mother, - I pray, Lord Justice, you’l now hear me. - - 9 - ‘He has na broken her bonny castel, - That was well biggit wi lime an stane, - Nor has he stoln her rich jewels, - For I wot she has them every one. - - 10 - ‘But tho he was my first true love, - An tho I had sworn to be his bride, - Cause he had not a great estate, - She would this way our loves divide.’ - - 11 - An out it spake the Lord Justice, - I wot the tear was in his ee; - ‘I see nae fault in this young man, - Sae loose his bans, an set him free. - - 12 - ‘Take back your love, now, Lady Elspat, - An my best blessing you baith upon! - For gin he be your first true love, - He is my eldest sister’s son. - - 13 - ‘There is a steed in my stable - Cost me baith gold and white money; - Ye’s get as mieckle o my free lan - As he’ll ride about in a summer’s day.’ - - * * * * * - -#a.# - - 3^1. to our. - - 5^3. has he. - -#b.# - - 1^3. maids in. - - 2^1. said. - - 3^{1,2}. - And this beheard her mother’s foot-page, - Who listed the words thae twa. - - 3^3. He tauld them ower to. - - 4^2. Gart bind: his ain. - - 4^4. hands. - - _After 4_: - - They threw him into dungeon-keep; - Full little he reckd the pain; - But sair he mournd each springing hope - That was blasted a’ sae sune. - - 5^1. fell out. - - 5^2. That _wanting_. - - 5^3. And they hae. - - 5^4. him to thole a deadly doom. - - 6^{3,4}. For gin I judge frae his gentle look I think he is where - he should na stand. - - 7. - ‘Yet has he broken my highest towr, - Was bigged strong wi stane and lime, - And stolen forth my rich jewels - Frae my coffer bound wi aiken beam.’ - - 8^1. out and spak sweet. - - 8^2. sat near hir mother’s. - - 8^3. hae ye tauld. - - 8^4. Justice, hear you. - - 9^{1,2}. has not broken her highest towr, Was bigged strong wi - stane and lime. - - 9^4. ane. _After 9_: - - ‘Yet has he stolen a dearer pledge, - Not frae my mother, but frae me; - For he has stolen a virgin’s heart - Should have waited for ane o high degree.’ - - 10^1. first fair. - - 11^1. Then out and spake the good. - - 11^3. nae harm. - - 11^4. his hands. - - 12^1. love, sweet Lady. - - 12^3. first fair. - - 13. _Wanting, and probably also in W. Tytler’s copy._ - - - - - 248 - - THE GREY COCK, OR, SAW YOU MY FATHER? - - - #a.#.’The Grey Cock,’ Herd’s Ancient and Modern Scots Songs, 1769, p. - 324; Herd’s MSS, I, 4; Herd’s Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, - 1776, II, 208. #b.# ‘Saw you my father?’ Chappell’s Popular Music, - p. 731 - - -Stanzas 1, 4, 6, 7, are printed in Herd, 1769; the three others are -among the “Additions to songs in the former volume” [of 1769], at the -beginning of the first volume of the MS.; the whole is given in Herd, -1776. - -Repeated from Herd, 1776 (with a change or two) in Pinkerton’s Select -Scotish Ballads II, 155, 1783, and in Johnson’s Museum, p. 77, No 76, -1787, ‘O saw ye my father?’ Stenhouse had not found the verses in any -collection prior to that of Herd, but asserts that the song had been “a -great favorite in Scotland for a long time past” (1820, Museum, ed. -1853, IV, 81). - -“This song,” says Chappell, “is printed on broadsides, with the tune, -and in Vocal Music, or the Songster’s Companion, II, 36, second edition, -1772. This collection was printed by Robert Horsfield, in Ludgate -Street, and probably the words and music will also be found in the first -edition, which I have not seen.” The words, he adds, are in several -“Songsters.” - -Three stanzas from recitation, wrongly attached to ‘The Broomfield -Hill,’ No 43, #E#, have been given at p. 399 of the first volume of this -collection. Much of the ballad has been adopted into ‘Willie’s Fatal -Visit,’ Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, II, 259, the two -concluding stanzas with little change. These two stanzas are given by a -correspondent[150] of Notes and Queries, First Series, XII, 227, as -heard by him in the nursery about 1787. They have been made the kernel -of a song by Allan Cunningham, impudently put forward as “the precious -relique of the original,” Cromek, Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway -Song, 1810, p. 72. - -The injunction to the cock is found in ‘The Swain’s Resolve,’ Lyle’s -Ancient Ballads and Songs, 1827, p. 142: - - She cries to the cock, saying, Thou must not crow - Until that the day be worn, - And thy wings shall be made of the silvery gray, - And thy voice of the silver horn. - -It is also cited in Graves’s Irish Songs and Ballads, London, 1882, p. -249, No 50, as occurring “in a ballad descriptive of the visit of a -lover’s ghost to his betrothed,” in which the woman, to protract the -interview, says: - - ‘O my pretty cock, O my handsome cock, - I pray you do not crow before day, - And your comb shall be made of the very beaten gold, - And your wings of the silver so gray.’ - -The cock is remiss or unfaithful, again, in a little ballad picked up by -Burns in Nithsdale, ‘A Waukrife Minnie,’ Cromek, Select Scotish Songs, -1810, II, 116 (of which another version is furnished by Lyle, p. 155, -‘The Wakerife Mammy’): - - O weary fa the waukrife cock, - And the foumart lay his crawin! - He waukend the auld wife frae her sleep - A wee blink or the dawin. - -The first stanza of ‘The Grey Cock’ seems to have been suggested by -‘Sweet William’s Ghost’ (of which the Irish ballad noted by Graves may -have been a variety), as again is the case in Buchan’s ‘James Herries.’ -The fantastic reward promised the cock in stanza 6 is an imitation, or a -corruption, of the bribe to the parrot in No 4, #D# 23, #E# 15, #F# 10, -or in No 68, #A# 10, #B# 13, #C# 14, etc. - -Of the same general description is ‘Le Chant de l’Alouette,’ Victor -Smith, Chansons de Velay, etc., Romania, VII, 56 (see further note 6 of -Smith); ‘Le Rendez-vous,’ Mélusine, I, 285 ff., Rolland, Recueil, etc., -IV, 43, No 196. Again, ‘La Rondinella,’ Kopisch, Agrumi, p. 80, 1837; -‘La Visita,’ Wolf, Volkslieder aus Venetien, p. 8; ‘La Rondine -importuna,’ Ferraro, C. p. monferrini, p. 75, No 54; ‘Il Furto amoroso’ -Gianandrea, C. p. marchigiani, p. 274; ‘La Rondinella,’ Archivio, VII, -401, No 6. The treacherous or troublesome bird is in French the lark, in -one case the cock; in Italian the swallow. - -This piece is a variety of the _aube_ (concerning which species see -Jeanroy, Les Origines de la Poésie lyrique en France, the third -chapter), but is none the less quite modern. - - * * * * * - - 1 - ‘O saw ye my father? or saw ye my mother? - Or saw ye my true-love John?’ - ‘I saw not your father, I saw not your mother, - But I saw your true-love John. - - 2 - ‘It’s now ten at night, and the stars gie nae light, - And the bells they ring ding, dang; - He’s met wi some delay that causeth him to stay, - But he will be here ere lang.’ - - 3 - The surly auld carl did naething but snarl, - And Johny’s face it grew red; - Yet, tho he often sighd, he neer a word replied - Till all were asleep in bed. - - 4 - Up Johny rose, and to the door he goes, - And gently tirlëd the pin; - The lassie taking tent unto the door she went, - And she opend and let him in. - - 5 - ‘And are ye come at last? and do I hold ye fast? - And is my Johny true?’ - ‘I hae nae time to tell, but sae lang’s I like mysell - Sae lang will I love you.’ - - 6 - ‘Flee, flee up, my bonny grey cock, - And craw whan it is day; - Your neck shall be like the bonny beaten gold, - And your wings of the silver grey.’ - - 7 - The cock prov’d false, and untrue he was, - For he crew an hour oer soon; - The lassie thought it day when she sent her love away, - And it was but a blink of the moon - - * * * * * - -#a.# - - 4^1. _MS._ Then up. - - 5^4. _Ed._ 1776, sall I. - -#b.# - - 1^1. Saw you my father? Saw you my mother. - - 1^2. Saw you. - - 1^{3,4}. He told his only dear that he soon would be here, But he - to another is gone. - - 2^{1,2}==1^{3,4}. - - 2^3. has met with ... which has caused. - - 2^4. here anon. - - 3. _Wanting._ - - 4^1. Then John he up arose. - - 4^2. And he twirld, he twirld at. - - 4^3. lassie took the hint and to the. - - 4^4. she let her true love in. - - 5. _Wanting._ - - 6^1. Fly up, fly up. - - 6^3. Your breast shall be of the beaming gold. - - 7^1. cock he. - - 7^2. crowd an hour too soon. - - 7^3. day, so she. - - 7^4. it prov’d but the. - - _Notes and Queries_, I, xii, 227: - - 6^2. But crow not until it be day. - - 6^3. And your breast shall be made of the burnishd gold. - - - - - 249 - - AULD MATRONS - - ‘Auld Matrons,’ Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, II, 238; - Motherwell’s MS., p. 585, with the title - - ‘Love Annie.’ - - -Willie tirls at Annie’s bower-door and is admitted. After the exchange -of familiar formulas, Willie expresses apprehension of “Matrons,” an old -woman who is sitting by the kitchen-fire. Annie says there is no -occasion to mind the old woman; she has not walked for seven years. But -while the lovers are occupied with endearments the old woman makes speed -to the sheriff, and informs him that Willie is with his daughter. The -sheriff, guided by Matrons, goes to the bower, with men in mail. Annie -hears the bridles ring, and wakens Willie. There is shooting of arrows -and fire is set to the bower (_cf._ st. 17 and st. 33 of No 116). Willie -maintains himself with spirit, but is so hard pressed that he is fain to -blow his horn for his brother John, who is lying in Ringlewood. John -wounds fifty and fifteen with his first shot, and with the next strikes -out the sheriff’s eyes. The sheriff orders a retreat, and threatens, -very illogically, to burn the old woman. - -This piece was made by some one who had acquaintance with the first fit -of ‘Adam Bell.’ The anonymous ‘old wife’ becomes ‘auld Matrons;’ -Inglewood, Ringlewood. The conclusion is in imitation of the rescues in -Robin Hood ballads. Stanzas 2–5 are hacknied commonplaces. - -It is not considerate of Willie to take a foot-groom with him when he -goes to pass a night at the bower of an unprovided seamstress, though -the seamstress be a gentlewoman and the daughter of a sheriff. William -of Cloudesly did not so. That the sheriff’s unmarried daughter should be -living apart from her father is unusual, but a separate establishment -was probably a necessity in Kelso for a gentlewoman who had ‘her living -by the seam.’ - - * * * * * - - 1 - My love she is a gentlewoman, - Has her living by the seam; - I kenna how she is provided - This night for me and my foot-groom. - - 2 - He is gane to Annie’s bower-door, - And gently tirled at the pin: - ‘Ye sleep, ye wake, my love Annie, - Ye’ll rise and lat your true-love in.’ - - 3 - Wi her white fingers lang and sma - She gently lifted up the pin; - Wi her arms lang and bent - She kindly caught sweet Willie in. - - 4 - ‘O will ye go to cards or dice? - Or will ye go to play? - Or will ye go to a well made bed, - And sleep a while till day?’ - - 5 - ‘I winna gang to cards nor dice, - Nor yet will I to play; - But I will gang to a well made bed, - And sleep a while till day. - - 6 - ‘My love Annie, my dear Annie, - I would be at your desire; - But wae mat fa the auld Matrons, - As she sits by the kitchen fire!’ - - 7 - ‘Keep up your heart, Willie,’ she said, - ‘Keep up your heart, dinna fear; - It’s seven years, and some guid mair, - Sin her foot did file the flear.’ - - 8 - They hadna kissd nor love clapped, - As lovers when they meet, - Till up it raise the auld Matrons, - Sae well’s she spread her feet. - - 9 - O wae mat fa the auld Matrons, - Sae clever’s she took the gate! - And she’s gaen ower yon lang, lang hill, - Knockd at the sheriff’s yate. - - 10 - ‘Ye sleep, ye wake, my lord?’ she said; - ‘Are ye not your bower within? - There’s a knight in bed wi your daughter, - I fear she’s gotten wrang.’ - - 11 - ‘Ye’ll do ye down thro Kelso town, - Waken my wall-wight men; - And gin ye hae your wark well dune - I’ll be there at command.’ - - 12 - She’s done her down thro Kelso town, - Wakend his wall-wight men; - But gin she had her wark well done - He was there at command. - - 13 - He had his horse wi corn fodderd, - His men armd in mail; - He gae the Matrons half a merk - To show them ower the hill. - - 14 - Willie sleepd, but Annie waked - Till she heard their bridles ring; - Then tapped on her love’s shoulder, - And said, Ye’ve sleepit lang. - - 15 - ‘O save me, save me, my blessd lady, - Till I’ve on my shooting-gear; - I dinna fear the king himsell, - Tho he an’s men were here.’ - - 16 - Then they shot in, and Willie out, - The arrows graz’d his brow; - The maid she wept and tore her hair, - Says, This can never do. - - 17 - Then they shot in, and he shot out, - The bow brunt Willie’s hand; - But aye he kissd her ruby lips, - Said, My dear, thinkna lang. - - 18 - He set his horn to his mouth, - And has blawn loud and shrill, - And he’s calld on his brother John, - In Ringlewood he lay still. - - 19 - The first an shot that Lord John shot, - He wound fifty and fifteen; - The next an shot that Lord John shot, - He ca’d out the sheriff’s een. - - 20 - ‘O some o you lend me an arm, - Some o you lend me twa; - And they that came for strife this day, - Take horse, ride fast awa. - - 21 - ‘But wae mat fa yon, auld Matrons, - An ill death mat ye die! - I’ll burn you on yon high hill-head, - Blaw your ashes in the sea.’ - - * * * * * - - 2^3. Ye sleep ye, wake ye: _cf._ 10^1. - - 21^2: All ill. - - 21^3: And burn. _Motherwell_, I’ll. - - - - - 250 - - HENRY MARTYN - - - #A.# #a, b.# ‘Henry Martyn;’ taken down from recitation, by the Rev. - S. Baring-Gould. - - #B.# #a.# A broadside, Catnach, Seven Dials. #b.# ‘Henry Martin,’ - Kidson, Traditional Tunes, p. 31. #c.# The same, p. 30. - - #C.# ‘Robin Hood,’ Motherwell’s MS., p. 660. - - #D.# [‘Andrew Bodee’], from New Hampshire, U. S. A., communicated by - Mr George M. Richardson; two stanzas. - - -A copy edited from #A#, #B a#, with the addition of one stanza for a -“snapper,” is printed in Baring-Gould and Sheppard’s Songs and Ballads -of the West, No 53. Four traditional versions were obtained by Mr -Baring-Gould. - -Three brothers in Scotland cast lots to determine which of them shall -rob on the sea to maintain them. The lot falls on the youngest, Henry -Martyn, #A#, #B#; Robin Hood, #C#; Andrew Bodee, #D#. The pirate meets -and stops an English ship the very first day (third, #A b#; fifth, #B#, -#C#). There is a brisk fight, and the English ship is sunk by shot, #A#, -#B#. She is plundered and then scuttled, #C#. In #A a#, Henry Martyn -gets a deep wound and falls by the mast. - -The ballad must have sprung from the ashes of ‘Andrew Barton,’ of which -name Henry Martyn would be no extraordinary corruption. Only one copy, -#A a#, preserves the trait of Barton’s death, an incident not quite in -keeping with the rest of the story of the new ballad. - -Robin Hood, #C#, is always at the service of any ballad-monger who wants -a name for his hero. But it will be remembered that he is credited with -taking a French ship in ‘The Noble Fisherman,’ No 148, and that is -enough to explain his appearance here. ‘Andrew Bodee’ may just -conceivably be a corruption of Andrew Wood, who displaces Patrick Spens -in two versions of No 58 (#A b#, #D#). Motherwell knew of a copy in -which the hero was called Roberton: MS., p. 660. - - * * * * * - - - A - - Taken down by the Rev. S. Baring-Gould. #a.# From Matthew Baker, an - old cripple, Lew Down, Devon. #b.# From Roger Luxton, an old man at - Halwell, North Devon. - - 1 - In merry Scotland, in merry Scotland - There lived brothers three; - They all did cast lots which of them should go - A robbing upon the salt sea, - - 2 - The lot it fell on Henry Martyn, - The youngest of the three; - That he should go rob on the salt, salt sea, - To maintain his brothers and he. - - 3 - He had not a sailed a long winter’s night, - Nor yet a short winter’s day, - Before that he met with a lofty old ship, - Come sailing along that way. - - 4 - O when she came by Henry Martyn, - ‘I prithee now, let us go!’ - ‘O no! God wot, that, that will I not, - O that will I never do. - - 5 - ‘Stand off! stand off!’ said Henry Martyn, - ‘For you shall not pass by me; - For I am a robber all on the salt seas, - To maintain us brothers three. - - 6 - ‘How far, how far,’ cries Henry Martyn, - ‘How far do you make it?’ said he; - ‘For I am a robber all on the salt seas, - To maintain us brothers three.’ - - 7 - For three long hours they merrily fought, - For hours they fought full three; - At last a deep wound got Henry Martyn, - And down by the mast fell he. - - 8 - ’Twas broadside to a broadside then, - And a rain and hail of blows, - But the salt sea ran in, ran in, ran in, - To the bottom then she goes. - - 9 - Bad news, bad news for old England, - Bad news has come to the town, - For a rich merchant’s vessel is cast away, - And all her brave seamen drown. - - 10 - Bad news, bad news through London street, - Bad news has come to the king, - For all the brave lives of the mariners lost, - That are sunk in the watery main. - - * * * * * - - - B - - #a.# A broadside, Catnach, Seven Dials. #b.# Kidson, Traditional - Tunes, p. 31, 1891; from fishermen at Flamborough, Yorkshire. #c.# - Kidson, etc., p. 30; “sung by a very old woman ... about ninety - years ago.” - - 1 - There was three brothers in merry Scotland, - In merry Scotland there were three, - And each of these brothers they did cast lots, - To see which should rob the salt sea. - - 2 - Then this lot did fall on young Henry Martyn, - The youngest of these brothers three, - So now he’s turnd robber all on the salt seas, - To maintain his two brothers and he. - - 3 - He had not saild one long winter’s night, - One cold winter’s night before day, - Before he espied a rich merchant-ship, - Come bearing straight down that way. - - 4 - ‘Who are you? Who are you?’ said Henry Martyn, - ‘Or how durst thou come so nigh?’ - ‘I’m a rich merchant-ship for old England bound, - If you please, will you let me pass by.’ - - 5 - ‘O no! O no!’ cried Henry Martyn, - ‘O no! that never can be, - Since I have turnd robber all on the salt seas, - To maintain my two brothers and me. - - 6 - ‘Now lower your topsails, you alderman bold, - Come lower them under my lee;’ - Saying, ‘I am resolved to pirate you here, - To maintain my two brothers and me.’ - - 7 - Then broadside to broadside to battle they went - For two or three hours or more; - At last Henry Martyn gave her a death-wound, - And down to the bottom went she. - - 8 - Bad news, bad news to England has come, - Bad news I will tell to you all, - ’Twas a rich merchant-ship to England was bound, - And most of her merry men drownd. - - * * * * * - - - C - - Motherwell’s MS., p. 660; from the recitation of Alexander - Macdonald, coal-heaver, Barkip, parish of Dalry, Ayr; a song of his - mother’s, a native of Ireland. - - 1 - There were three brothers in bonnie Scotland, - In bonnie Scotland lived they, - And they cuist kevels themsells amang, - Wha sould gae rob upon the salt sea. - - 2 - The lot it fell upon bold Robin Hood, - The youngest brither of the hale three: - ‘O, I sall gae rob upon the salt sea, - And it’s all to mauntain my two brothers and me.’ - - 3 - They hadna sailed a lang winter night, - A lang winter night scarselie, - Till they were aware of a tall, tall ship, - Coming sailin down under the lee. - - 4 - ‘O where are you bound for, my bonnie ship?’ - Bold Robin Hood he did cry; - ‘O I’m a bold merchantman, for London bound, - And I pray you, good sir, let us by.’ - - 5 - ‘O no! O no!’ said bold Robin Hood, - ‘O no such thing may be; - For I will gae in and plunder your ship, - And your fair bodies I’ll drown in the sea.’ - - 6 - O he has gone in and plundered their ship, - And holes in her bottom bored three; - The water came in so thick and so fast - That down, down to the bottom gade she. - - 7 - Bad news, bad news to old England is gone, - Bad news to our king, old Henrie, - That his merchant-goods were taken on board, - And thirty-five seamen drownd in the sea. - - * * * * * - - - D - - Communicated by Mr George M. Richardson, as learned by a lady in - northern New Hampshire more than fifty years ago from an aged aunt. - - 1 - Three loving brothers in Scotland dwelt, - Three loving brothers were they, - And they cast lots to see which of the three - Should go robbing all oer the salt sea, salt sea, - Should go robbing all oer the salt sea. - - 2 - The lot it fell to Andrew Bodee, - The youngest of the three, - That he should leave the other two, - And go robbing all oer the salt sea. - - * * * * * - -#A. b.# - - 3^1. a sailed three winter’s nights. - - 3^2. When a little before the day. - - 3^3. He spied the king his gay gallant ship. - - 4. _Wanting._ - - 5. - ‘Stand off! Stand off!’ the captain he cried, - ‘The life-guards they are aboard; - My cannons are loaden with powder and shot, - And every man hath a sword.’ - - 7. - They merrily fought for three long hours, - They fought for hours full three, - And many a blow dealt many a wound, - As they fought on the salt, salt sea. - - 8. - ’Twas a broadside to a broadside then, - And at it the which should win; - A shot in the gallant ship bored a hole, - And then did the water rush in. - - 9. _Wanting._ - - 10^3. of the life-guards. - - 10^4. O the tidings be sad that I bring. - -#B. b.# - - 1 - In Scotland there lived three brothers of late, - In Scotland there lived brothers three; - Now the youngest cast lots with the other two, - Which should go rob on the salt sea. - - 2 - The lot it did fall to bold Henry Martin, - The youngest of all the three, - And he had to turn robber all on the salt seas, - To maintain his two brothers and he. - - 3 - He had not been sailing past a long winter’s night, - Past a long winter’s night before day, - Before he espied a lofty fine ship - Come sailing all on the salt sea. - - 4 - ‘O where are you bound for?’ cried Henry Martin, - ‘O where are you bound for?’ cried he; - ‘I’m a rich-loaded ship bound for fair England, - I pray you to let me pass free.’ - - 5 - ‘O no! O no!’ cried Henry Martin, - ‘O no! that can never be, - Since I have turned robber all on the salt sea, - To maintain my two brothers and me. - - 6 - ‘Heave down your main tack, likewise your main tie, - And lig yourself under my lee; - For your rich glowing gold I will take it away, - And your fair bodies drown in the salt sea.’ - - 7 - Then broadside to broadside they merrily fought, - For fully two hours or three, - When by chance Henry Martin gave her a broadside, - And right down to the bottom went she. - - 8 - Bad news, bad news unto old England, - Bad news I tell unto thee; - For your rich glowing gold is all wasted away, - And your mariners are drownd in the salt sea. - - #c.# - - 1 - There lived three brothers in merry Scotland, - In merry Scotland lived brothers three, - And they did cast lots which should rob on the sea, - To maintain his two brothers and he. - - 2 - And the lot it did light on Henry Martin, - The youngest of all the brothers three, - And he went a roaming on the salt sea, - To maintain his two brothers and he. - - 3 - And when they had sailëd five days and more - On a rich merchant-ship coming down they then bore, - As he went a roaming on the salt sea, - To maintain his two brothers and he. - - 4 - The rich merchant-ship got wounded by he, - And right down to the bottom of the salt sea went she, - As he went a roaming on the salt sea, - To maintain his two brothers and he. - - #B. c.# - - 1^2. three brothers. - -#C.# - - 1^4. sould _may possibly_ be wuld. - - 2^3, 4^1, 6^1. Oh. - - - - - 251 - - LANG JOHNNY MORE - - ‘Lang Johnny Moir,’ Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, I, - 248. - - -‘Lang Johnny More,’ Christie’s Traditional Ballad Airs, I, 44, is -epitomized from Buchan, “with a few alterations from the way the editor -has heard it sung.” The variations are absolutely of no account, as in -other cases in which Christie has used this phrase. - -Johnny More, a youth fourteen feet tall and three yards round the waist, -goes to London to bear the king’s banner. He falls in love with the -king’s daughter, and she with him, and the king locks the lady up in her -chamber and swears that he will hang the Scot. Johnny laughs at the -hanging; but the English give him laudanum, and when he wakes he finds -his jaws and hands in iron bands and his feet in fetters. He sends a boy -with a letter asking his uncle to come to his aid, and to bring with him -Jock o Noth. These champions, ‘twa grizly ghosts to see,’ have three -feet between their brows and three yards between their shoulders. Coming -to London they find the gates locked, because, as they learn from a -keeper, a Scot is to be hanged that morn. The keeper declining to open -the gates, Jock o Noth drives in three yards of the wall with his foot. -Johnny More is standing with the rope round his neck, ready to be turned -off. Though the portentous pair have a giant’s strength, they are quite -too superior to use it like a giant; they tell Johnny that there is no -help for him if he has been guilty of a heinous crime. Learning that his -only crime is loving a gay lady, they require that his sword shall be -given back to him, then go before the king and demand the lady; they -have come to her wedding. Take her, says the king. I never thought to -see such men. Jock of Noth could have brought a man thrice three times -bigger, if he had supposed that his own size would cause such -astonishment. Any way, says the craven king, the boy that took the -message shall be hanged. In that case, replies Jock, we shall attend the -burial and see that you get your reward. The king yields everything. -Johnny More calls for a priest to join him and his love; the king for a -clerk to seal the tocher. Johnny is rich, and spurns tocher. Auld Johnny -More, Young Johnny More, Jock o Noth and the boy go off with the lady. - -This ballad has been referred to under No 99, II, 378, as perhaps an -imitation, and in fact almost a parody, of ‘Johnie Scot.’ In No 99 John -is the little Scot; here he is the muckle Scot, stanza 6 (Gaelic -mor==big), and his helpmates, as well as he, are of gigantic size. -Excepting in this and one other particular, the stories are materially -the same. In both Johnie goes to England to bear the king’s banner; a -love-affair ensues between him and the king’s daughter; the king puts -his daughter into confinement, and threatens to hang Johnie, but in the -end is constrained to give him his daughter; Johnie calls for a priest -to marry him and the princess, the king calls for a clerk to arrange the -tocher; Johnie refuses tocher, and goes off with his love or bride. - -In No 99 Johnie, who has escaped, comes to the rescue of the princess -with a redoubtable force; in this ballad Johnie is made prisoner, and -sends for his uncle and another giant to come to his help. Their -monstrous dimensions make them, for ballad-purposes, fairly equivalent -to the five hundred men who accompany Johnie in No 99. - -Some versions of No 99, as already remarked, have borrowed features from -this ballad. Auld Johnie and Jock o Noth are presented here, stanza 21, -as twa grizly ghosts to see, and their brows are three feet apart, their -shoulders three yards; and so with the champion in #A#, #H#, #L#, of No -99. - -Quite curiously, the hero of the Breton ballad which resembles ‘Johnie -Scot’ is described as a giant (we must suppose on traditionary -authority) in the title of two copies. - -Auchindoir and Rhynie (parishes) are in the west of Aberdeenshire, north -of the Don. Noth is a considerable hill in the latter. - - * * * * * - - 1 - There lives a man in Rynie’s land, - Anither in Auchindore, - The bravest lad amo them a’ - Was lang Johnny Moir. - - 2 - Young Johnny was an airy blade, - Fu sturdy, stout, and strang; - The sword that hang by Johnny’s side - Was just full ten feet lang. - - 3 - Young Johnny was a clever youth, - Fu sturdy, stout, and wight, - Just full three yards around the waist, - And fourteen feet in hight. - - 4 - But if a’ be true they tell me now, - And a’ be true I hear, - Young Johnny’s on to Lundan gane, - The king’s banner to bear. - - 5 - He hadna been in fair Lundan - But twalmonths twa or three - Till the fairest lady in a’ Lundan - Fell in love wi young Johnny. - - 6 - This news did sound thro Lundan town, - Till it came to the king - That the muckle Scot had fa’in in love - Wi his daughter, Lady Jean. - - 7 - Whan the king got word o that, - A solemn oath sware he, - This weighty Scot sall strait a rope, - And hanged he shall be. - - 8 - When Johnny heard the sentence past, - A light laugh then gae he: - ‘While I hae strength to wield my blade, - Ye darena a’ hang me.’ - - 9 - The English dogs were cunning rogues; - About him they did creep, - And gae him draps o lodomy - That laid him fast asleep. - - 10 - Whan Johnny wakend frae his sleep - A sorry heart had he; - His jaws and hands in iron bands, - His feet in fetters three. - - 11 - ‘O whar will I get a little wee boy - Will work for meat and fee, - That will rin on to my uncle, - At the foot of Benachie?’ - - 12 - ‘Here am I, a little wee boy - Will work for meat and fee, - That will rin on to your uncle, - At the foot of Benachie.’ - - 13 - ‘Whan ye come whar grass grows green, - Slack your shoes and rin; - And whan ye come whar water’s strong, - Ye’ll bend your bow and swim. - - 14 - ‘And whan ye come to Benachie - Ye’ll neither chap nor ca; - Sae well’s ye’ll ken auld Johnny there, - Three feet abeen them a’. - - 15 - ‘Ye’ll gie to him this braid letter, - Seald wi my faith and troth, - And ye’ll bid him bring alang wi him - The body Jock o Noth.’ - - 16 - Whan he came whar grass grew green, - He slackt his shoes and ran; - And whan he came whar water’s strong - He bent his bow and swam. - - 17 - And whan he came to Benachie - Did neither chap nor ca; - Sae well’s he kent auld Johnny there, - Three feet abeen them a’. - - 18 - ‘What news, what news, my little wee boy? - Ye never were here before;’ - ‘Nae news, nae news, but a letter from - Your nephew, Johnny Moir. - - 19 - ‘Ye’ll take here this braid letter, - Seald wi his faith and troth, - And ye’re bidden bring alang wi you - The body Jock o Noth.’ - - 20 - Benachie lyes very low, - The tap o Noth lyes high; - For a’ the distance that’s between, - He heard auld Johnny cry. - - 21 - Whan on the plain these champions met, - Twa grizly ghosts to see, - There were three feet between their brows, - And shoulders were yards three. - - 22 - These men they ran ower hills and dales, - And ower mountains high, - Till they came on to Lundan town, - At the dawn o the third day. - - 23 - And whan they came to Lundan town - The yetts were lockit wi bands, - And wha were there but a trumpeter, - Wi trumpet in his hands? - - 24 - ‘What is the matter, ye keepers all? - Or what’s the matter within - That the drums do beat and bells do ring, - And make sic dolefu din?’ - - 25 - ‘There’s naething the matter,’ the keeper said, - ‘There’s naething the matter to thee, - But a weighty Scot to strait the rope, - And the morn he maun die.’ - - 26 - ‘O open the yetts, ye proud keepers, - Ye’ll open without delay;’ - The trembling keeper, smiling, said, - ‘O I hae not the key.’ - - 27 - ‘Ye’ll open the yetts, ye proud keepers, - Ye’ll open without delay, - Or here is a body at my back - Frae Scotland has brought the key.’ - - 28 - ‘Ye’ll open the yetts,’ says Jock o Noth, - ‘Ye’ll open them at my call;’ - Then wi his foot he has drove in - Three yards braid o the wall. - - 29 - As they gaed in by Drury Lane, - And down by the town’s hall, - And there they saw young Johnny Moir - Stand on their English wall. - - 30 - ‘Ye’re welcome here, my uncle dear, - Ye’re welcome unto me; - Ye’ll loose the knot, and slack the rope, - And set me frae the tree.’ - - 31 - ‘Is it for murder, or for theft? - Or is it for robberie? - If it is for ony heinous crime, - There’s nae remeid for thee.’ - - 32 - ‘It’s nae for murder, nor for theft, - Nor yet for robberie; - A’ is for the loving a gay lady - They’re gaun to gar me die.’ - - 33 - ‘O whar’s thy sword,’ says Jock o Noth, - ‘Ye brought frae Scotland wi thee? - I never saw a Scotsman yet - But coud wield a sword or tree.’ - - 34 - ‘A pox upo their lodomy, - On me had sic a sway - Four o their men, the bravest four, - They bore my blade away.’ - - 35 - ‘Bring back his blade,’ says Jock o Noth, - ‘And freely to him it gie, - Or I hae sworn a black Scot’s oath - I’ll gar five million die. - - 36 - ‘Now whar’s the lady?’ says Jock o Noth, - ‘Sae fain I woud her see;’ - ‘She’s lockd up in her ain chamber, - The king he keeps the key.’ - - 37 - So they hae gane before the king, - With courage bauld and free; - Their armour bright cast sic a light - That almost dim’d his ee. - - 38 - ‘O whar’s the lady?’ says Jock o Noth, - ‘Sae fain as I woud her see; - For we are come to her wedding, - Frae the foot o Benachie.’ - - 39 - ‘O take the lady,’ said the king, - ‘Ye welcome are for me; - I never thought to see sic men, - Frae the foot o Benachie.’ - - 40 - ‘If I had kend,’ said Jock o Noth, - ‘Ye’d wonderd sae muckle at me, - I woud hae brought ane larger far - By sizes three times three. - - 41 - ‘Likewise if I had thought I’d been - Sic a great fright to thee, - I’d brought Sir John o Erskine Park; - He’s thretty feet and three.’ - - 42 - ‘Wae to the little boy,’ said the king, - ‘Brought tidings unto thee! - Let all England say what they will, - High hangëd shall he be.’ - - 43 - ‘O if ye hang the little wee boy - Brought tidings unto me, - We shall attend his burial, - And rewarded ye shall be.’ - - 44 - ‘O take the lady,’ said the king, - ‘And the boy shall be free;’ - ‘A priest, a priest,’ then Johnny cried, - ‘To join my love and me.’ - - 45 - ‘A clerk, a clerk,’ the king replied, - ‘To seal her tocher wi thee;’ - Out it speaks auld Johnny then, - These words pronounced he: - - 46 - ‘I want nae lands and rents at hame, - I’ll ask nae gowd frae thee; - I am possessd o riches great, - Hae fifty ploughs and three; - Likewise fa’s heir to ane estate - At the foot o Benachie. - - 47 - ‘Hae ye ony masons in this place, - Or ony at your call, - That ye may now send some o them - To build your broken wall?’ - - 48 - ‘Yes, there are masons in this place, - And plenty at my call; - But ye may gang frae whence ye came, - Never mind my broken wall.’ - - 49 - They’ve taen the lady by the hand - And set her prison-free; - Wi drums beating, and fifes playing, - They spent the night wi glee. - - 50 - Now auld Johnny Moir, and young Johnny Moir, - And Jock o Noth, a’ three, - The English lady, and little wee boy, - Went a’ to Benachie. - - * * * * * - - 27^4. hae. - - - - - 252 - - THE KITCHIE-BOY - - #A.# Skene MS., p. 89. - - #B.# ‘Earl Richard’s Daughter,’ Buchan’s Ballads of the North of - Scotland, I, 145. - - #C.# ‘Bonny Foot-Boy,’ Alexander Fraser Tytler’s Brown MS., No 7. - - #D.# ‘The Kitchie-Boy,’ Harris MS., fol. 21. - - #E.# ‘Willie, the Kitchie-Boy,’ Joseph Robertson’s Note-Book, - ‘Adversaria,’ p. 88. - - -A lady of birth falls in love with her father’s kitchen-boy (foot-boy, -#C#). She makes her passion known to him. He begs for secrecy, for her -father would hang him; this is quite too likely, and she would be sent -to a nunnery. The danger quickens her wits: she will send him off in a -fine ship, and he can come back ‘like some earl or baron’s son’ and -marry her (#C#). Being well provided with gold, her mother’s legacy, she -has no difficulty in carrying out her plan; a very noble ship is -provided, and she gives Willie (#B#, #C#, #E#) a ring to mind him of -her. She warns him, #C# 8, #E# 13, that there are pressing reasons why -he should not stay away very long. After a voyage of from three weeks to -twelve months, Willie lands at London, #A#, #E#; in Spain, #B#, #C#, -#D#. A lady, looking over her castle-wall, sees the ship coming in, and -goes down to the shore with her maries to invite the master to dine. The -master excuses himself; she asks him if he can fancy her; the woman he -loves is far over the sea; the fairest woman in Scotland would break her -heart if he should not return to her. The Spanish (or English) lady -offers him a rich ring, to wear for her sake; he has a ring on his -finger which is far dearer than any she could give him. He sails -homeward; the lady’s father sees the ship coming in, and is as much -impressed as his daughter could desire; he thinks some man of mark must -be aboard, and tells his daughter to busk herself, for he means to ask -the squire or lord to dine; he would give all his rents to have this -same marry his daughter. Willie blackens or paints or masks or veils his -face, and goes with the father to the castle. He asks the lady if she -can fancy him; her father asks her if she will marry this lord, #C#. The -man is far over sea that shall have her love, she replies. Willie hands -her the ring which she had given him. Gat ye that by sea? or gat ye that -by land? or gat ye it on the Spanish coast upon a dead man’s hand? He -gat it on a drowned man’s hand. Alas! she cries, my true-love Willie! -Upon this, Willie reveals himself. The father calls for a priest, little -knowing that this lord was his own kitchen-boy. - -The ballad is a modern “adaptation” of ‘King Horn,’ No 17, from which -#A# 33, 34, #B# 47, #D# 7, 8, are taken outright. In the particular of -the hero’s having his choice of two women it is more like the _gest_ of -‘King Horn,’ or ‘Horn Childe and Maiden Rimnild;’ but an independent -invention of the Spanish lady is not beyond the humble ability of the -composer of ‘The Kitchie-Boy.’ - - * * * * * - - - A - - Skene MS., p. 89; taken down in the north of Scotland, 1802–3. - - 1 - There was a lady fair, - An een a lady of birth an fame, - She eyed her father’s kitchen-boy, - The greater was her shame. - - 2 - She could never her love reveal, - Nor to him talk, - But in the forest wide an brade, - Where they were wont to walk. - - 3 - It fell ance upon a day - Her father gaed frae home, - And she sent for the kitchen-boy - To her own room. - - 4 - ‘Canna ye fancy me, Willie? - Canna ye fancy me? - By a’ the lords I ever saw - There is nane I loo but ye.’ - - 5 - ‘O latna this be kent, lady, - O latna this be . . . , - For gin yer father got word of this - I vou he’d gar me die.’ - - 6 - ‘Yer life shall no be taen, Willie, - Yer life sal na be taen; - I wad er loss my ain heart’s blood - Or thy body gat wrang.’ - - 7 - Wi her monny fair speeches - She made the boy bold, - Till he began to kiss an clap, - An on her sine lay hold. - - 8 - They hadna kissed an love claped, - As lovers whan they meet, - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - - 9 - ‘The master-cook he will on me call, - An answered he man be; - An it wer kent I war in bower wi thee, - I fear they wad gar me die.’ - - 10 - ‘The master-cook may on ye call, - But answerd he will never be, - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - - 11 - ‘For I hae three coffers fu o goud, - Yer eyen did never see, - An I will build a bonny ship for my love, - An set her to the sea, - And sail she east or sail she wast - The ship sal be fair to see.’ - - 12 - She has built a bonny ship, - And set her to the sea; - The topmasts war o the red goud, - The sails of tafetie. - - 13 - She gae him a gay goud ring, - . . . . . . . - To mind him on a gay lady - That ance bear love to him. - - 14 - The day was fair, the ship was rare, - Whan that swain set to sea; - Whan that day twal-moth came and gaed, - At London landed he. - - 15 - A lady looked our the castle-wa, - Beheld the day gae down, - And she beheld that bonny ship - Come hailing to the town. - - 16 - ‘Come here, come here, my maries a’, - Ye see na what I see; - The bonniest ship is come to land - Yer eyes did ever see. - - 17 - ‘Gae busk ye, busk ye, my maries a’, - Busk ye unco fine, - Till I gae down to yon shore-side, - To invite yon squar to dine. - - 18 - ‘O ye come up, gay young squar, - An take wi me a dine; - Ye sal eat o the guid white loaf, - An drink the claret wine.’ - - 19 - ‘I thank ye for yer bread, - I thank ye for yer wine, - I thank ye for yer courticie, - But indeed I hanna time.’ - - 20 - ‘Canna ye fancy me?’ she says, - ‘Canna ye fancy me? - O a’ the lords an lairds I see - There’s nane I fancy but ye.’ - - 21 - ‘The’r far awa fra me,’ he says, - ‘The’r clean ayont the sea, - That has my heart in hand, - An my love ae sal be.’ - - 22 - ‘Here is a guid goud ring, - . . . . . . - It will mind ye on a gay lady - That ance bare love to ye.’ - - 23 - ‘I ha a ring on my finger - I loe thrice as well as thine, - Tho yours were o the guid red goud - An mine but simple tin.’ - - 24 - The day was fair, the ship was rare, - Whan that squar set to sea; - Whan that day twal-month came an gaed, - At hame again landed he. - - 25 - The lady’s father looked our castle-wa, - To see the day gae down, - An he beheld that bonny ship - Come hailing to the town. - - 26 - ‘Come here, my daughter, - Ye see na what I see; - The bonniest ship is come to land - My eyes did ever see. - - 27 - ‘Gae busk ye, my dochter, - G[a]e busk ye unco fine, - An I’ll gae down to yon shore-side, - To invite the squar to dine; - I wad gie a’ my rents - To hae ye married to him.’ - - 28 - ‘The’r far awa frae me,’ she says, - ‘Far ayont the sea, - That has my heart in hand - An my love ai sal be.’ - - 29 - ‘O will ye come, ye gay hine squar, - An take wi me a dine? - Ye sal eat o the guid white bread, - And drink the claret wine.’ - - 30 - ‘I thank ye for yer bread, - I thank ye for yer wine, - I thank ye for yer courticie, - For indeed I hanna grait time. - - 31 - ‘O canna ye fancy me?’ he says, - ‘O canna ye fancy me? - O a’ the ladys I eer did see - There’s nane I loo by ye.’ - - 32 - ‘They are far awa fra me,’ she says, - ‘The’r far ayont the sea, - That has my heart in hand, - An my love ay sall be.’ - - 33 - ‘Here it is, a gay goud ring, - . . . . . . - It will mind ye on a gay hin chil - That ance bare love to ye.’ - - 34 - ‘O gat ye that ring on the sea sailing? - Or gat ye it on the land? - O gat ye it on the shore laying, - On a drowned man’s hand?’ - - 35 - ‘I got na it on the sea sailing, - I got na it on the land, - But I got it on the shore lying, - On a drowned man’s hand. - - 36 - ‘O bonny was his cheek, - An lovely was his face!’ - ‘Allas!’ says she, ‘it is my true-love Willie,’ - . . . . . . - - 37 - He turned him round about, - An sweetly could he smile; - She turned her round, says, My love Willie, - How could ye me beguile? - - 38 - ‘A priest! a priest!’ the old man cries, - ‘An lat this twa married be:’ - Little did the old man kin - It was his ain kitchen-boy. - - * * * * * - - - B - - Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, I, 145. - - 1 - Earl Richard had but ae daughter, - A maid o birth and fame; - She loved her father’s kitchen-boy, - The greater was her shame. - - 2 - But she could neer her true-love see, - Nor with him could she talk, - In towns where she had wont to go, - Nor fields where she could walk. - - 3 - But it fell ance upon a day - Her father went from home; - She’s calld upon the kitchen boy - To come and clean her room. - - 4 - ‘Come sit ye down by me, Willie, - Come sit ye down by me; - There ‘s nae a lord in a’ the north - That I can love but thee.’ - - 5 - ‘Let never the like be heard, lady, - Nor let it ever be; - For if your father get word o this - He will gar hang me hie.’ - - 6 - ‘O ye shall neer be hangd, Willie, - Your blude shall neer be drawn; - I’ll lay my life in pledge o thine - Your body’s neer get wrang.’ - - 7 - ‘Excuse me now, my comely dame, - No langer here I’ll stay; - You know my time is near expir’d, - And now I must away. - - 8 - ‘The master-cook will on me call, - And answered he must be; - If I am found in bower with thee, - Great anger will there be.’ - - 9 - ‘The master-cook will on you call, - But shall not answerd be; - I’ll put you in a higher place - Than any cook’s degree. - - 10 - ‘I have a coffer full of gold, - Another of white monie, - And I will build a bonny ship, - And set my love to sea. - - 11 - ‘Silk shall be your sailing-clothes, - Gold yellow is your hair, - As white like milk are your twa hands, - Your body neat and fair.’ - - 12 - This lady, with her fair speeches, - She made the boy grow bold, - And he began to kiss and clap, - And on his love lay hold. - - 13 - And she has built a bonny ship, - Set her love to the sea, - Seven score o brisk young men - To bear him companie. - - 14 - Then she’s taen out a gay gold ring, - To him she did it gie: - ‘This will mind you on the ladie, Willie, - That’s laid her love on thee.’ - - 15 - Then he’s taen out a piece of gold, - And he brake it in two: - ‘All I have in the world, my dame, - For love I give to you.’ - - 16 - Now he is to his bonny ship, - And merrily taen the sea; - The lady lay oer castle-wa, - The tear blinded her ee. - - 17 - They had not saild upon the sea - A week but barely three - When came a prosperous gale of wind, - On Spain’s coast landed he. - - 18 - A lady lay oer castle-wa, - Beholding dale and down, - And she beheld the bonny ship - Come sailing to the town. - - 19 - ‘Come here, come here, my maries a’, - Ye see not what I see; - For here I see the bonniest ship - That ever saild the sea. - - 20 - ‘In her there is the bravest squire - That eer my eyes did see; - All clad in silk and rich attire, - And comely, comely’s he. - - 21 - ‘O busk, O busk, my maries all, - O busk and make ye fine; - And we will on to yon shore-side, - Invite yon squire to dine. - - 22 - ‘Will ye come up to my castle - Wi me and take your dine? - And ye shall eat the gude white bread, - And drink the claret wine.’ - - 23 - ‘I thank you for your bread, lady, - I thank you for your wine; - I thank you for your kind offer, - But now I have not time.’ - - 24 - ‘I would gie all my land,’ she says, - ‘Your gay bride were I she; - And then to live on a small portion - Contented I would be.’ - - 25 - ‘She’s far awa frae me, lady, - She’s far awa frae me - That has my heart a-keeping fast, - And my love still she’ll be.’ - - 26 - ‘But ladies they are unconstant, - When their loves go to sea, - And she’ll be wed ere ye gae back; - My love, pray stay wi me.’ - - 27 - ‘If she be wed ere I go back, - And prove sae false to me, - I shall live single all my life; - I’ll neer wed one but she.’ - - 28 - Then she’s taen out a gay gold ring, - And gae him presentlie: - ‘'T will mind you on the lady, young man, - That laid her love on thee.’ - - 29 - ‘The ring that’s on my mid-finger - Is far dearer to me, - Tho yours were o the gude red gold, - And mine the metal free.’ - - 30 - He viewd them all, baith neat and small, - As they stood on the shore, - Then hoist the mainsail to the wind, - Adieu, for evermore! - - 31 - He had not saild upon the sea - A week but barely three - Until there came a prosperous gale, - In Scotland landed he. - - 32 - But he put paint upon his face, - And oil upon his hair, - Likewise a mask above his brow, - Which did disguise him sair. - - 33 - Earl Richard lay oer castle-wa, - Beholding dale and down, - And he beheld the bonny ship - Come sailing to the town. - - 34 - ‘Come here, come here, my daughter dear, - Ye see not what I see; - For here I see the bonniest ship - That ever saild the sea. - - 35 - ‘In her there is the bravest squire - That eer my eyes did see; - O busk, O busk, my daughter dear, - Come here, come here, to me. - - 36 - ‘O busk, O busk, my daughter dear, - O busk, and make ye fine, - And we will on to the shore-side, - Invite yon squire to dine.’ - - 37 - ‘He’s far awa frae me, father, - He’s far awa frae me - Who has the keeping o my heart, - And I’ll wed nane but he.’ - - 38 - ‘Whoever has your heart in hand, - Yon lad’s the match for thee, - And he shall come to my castle - This day and dine wi me. - - 39 - ‘Will ye come up to my castle - With me and take your dine? - And ye shall eat the gude white bread, - And drink the claret wine.’ - - 40 - ‘Yes, I’ll come up to your castle - With you and take my dine, - For I would give my bonny ship - Were your fair daughter mine.’ - - 41 - ‘I would give all my lands,’ he said, - ‘That your bride she would be; - Then to live on a small portion - Contented would I be.’ - - 42 - As they gaed up from yon sea-strand - And down the bowling-green, - He drew the mask out-oer his face, - For fear he should be seen. - - 43 - He’s done him down from bower to bower, - Likewise from bower to ha, - And there he saw that lady gay, - The flower out-oer them a’. - - 44 - He’s taen her in his arms twa, - And haild her courteouslie: - ‘Excuse me, sir, there’s no strange man - Such freedom use with me.’ - - 45 - Her father turnd him round about, - A light laugh then gave he: - ‘Stay, I’ll retire a little while, - Perhaps you may agree.’ - - 46 - Now Willie’s taen a gay gold ring, - And gave her presentlie; - Says, Take ye that, ye lady fair, - A love-token from me. - - 47 - ‘O got ye’t on the sea sailing? - Or got ye’t on the sand? - Or got ye’t on the coast of Spain, - Upon a dead man’s hand?’ - - 48 - ‘Fine silk it was his sailing-clothes, - Gold yellow was his hair; - It would hae made a hale heart bleed - To see him lying there. - - 49 - ‘He was not dead as I passd by, - But no remeid could be; - He gave me this token to bear - Unto a fair ladie. - - 50 - ‘And by the marks he has descryvd - I’m sure that you are she; - So take this token of free will, - For him you’ll never see.’ - - 51 - In sorrow she tore her mantle, - With care she tore her hair: - ‘Now since I’ve lost my own true-love, - I’ll neer love young men mair.’ - - 52 - He drew the mask from off his face, - The lady sweetly smiled: - ‘Awa, awa, ye fause Willie! - How have you me beguiled?’ - - 53 - Earl Richard he went thro the ha, - The wine-glass in his hand, - But little thought his kitchen-boy - Was heir oer a’ his land. - - 54 - But this she kept within her heart, - And never told to one - Until nine months they were expir’d, - That her young son came home. - - 55 - She told it to her father dear; - He said, Daughter, well won; - You’ve married for love, not for gold, - Your joys will neer be done. - - * * * * * - - - C - - Alexander Fraser Tytler’s Brown MS., No 7. - - 1 - O there was a ladie, a noble ladie, - She was a ladie of birth and fame, - But she fell in love wi her father’s foot-boy, - I wis she was the mair to blame. - - 2 - A word of him she neer could get - Till her father was a hunting gone; - Then she calld on the bonny foot-boy - To speak wi her in her bower alone. - - 3 - Says, Ye ken you are my love, Willie, - And that I am a ladie free, - And there’s naething ye can ask, Willie, - But at your bidding I maun be. - - 4 - O the loving looks that ladie gave - Soon made the bonny boy grow bold, - And the loving words that ladie spake - As soon on them he did lay hold. - - 5 - She has taen a ring frae her white finger, - And unto him she did it gie; - Says, Wear this token for my sake, - And keep it till the day you die. - - 6 - ‘But shoud my father get word of this - I fear we baith will have cause to rue, - For to some nunnery I shoud be sent, - And I fear, my love, he would ruin you. - - 7 - ‘But here is a coffer of the good red gowd, - I wot my mother left it to me; - And wi it you’ll buy a bonny ship, - And ye maun sail the raging sea; - Then like some earl or baron’s son - You can come back and marrie me. - - 8 - ‘But stay not lang awa, Willie, - O stay not lang across the fame, - For fear your ladie shoud lighter be, - Or your young son shoud want a name.’ - - 9 - He had not been o the sea sailling - But till three months were come and gane, - Till he has landed his bonny ship; - It was upon the coast of Spain. - - 10 - There was a ladie of high degree - That saw him walking up and down; - She fell in love wi sweet Willie, - But she wist no how to make it known. - - 11 - She has calld up her maries a’, - Says, Hearken well to what I say; - There is a young man in yon ship - That has been my love this many a day. - - 12 - ‘Now bear a hand, my maries a’, - And busk me brave and make me fine, - And go wi me to yon shore-side - To invite that noble youth to dine.’ - - 13 - O they have buskit that ladie gay - In velvet pall and jewels rare; - A poor man might have been made rich - Wi half the pearles they pat in her hair. - - 14 - Her mantle was of gowd sae red, - It glaned as far as ane coud see; - Sweet Willie thought she had been the queen, - And bowd full low and bent his knee. - - 15 - She’s gard her maries step aside, - And on sweet Willie sae did smile; - She thought that man was not on earth - But of his heart she could beguile. - - 16 - Says, Ye maun leave your bonny ship - And go this day wi me and dine, - And you shall eat the baken meat, - And you shall drink the Spanish wine. - - 17 - ‘I canna leave my bonny ship, - Nor go this day to dine wi thee, - For a’ my sails are ready bent - To bear me back to my ain countrie.’ - - 18 - ‘O gin you’d forsake your bonny ship - And wed a ladie of this countrie, - I would make you lord of a’ this town, - And towns and castles twa or three.’ - - 19 - ‘Should I wed a ladie of this countrie, - In sooth I woud be sair to blame, - For the fairest ladie in fair Scotland - Woud break her heart gin I gaed na hame.’ - - 20 - ‘That ladie may choose another lord, - And you another love may choose; - There is not a lord in this countrie - That such a proffer could refuse.’ - - 21 - ‘O ladie, shoud I your proffer take, - You’d soon yoursell have cause to rue, - For the man that his first love forsakes - Woud to a seccond neer prove true.’ - - 22 - She has taen a ring frae her white finger, - It might have been a prince’s fee; - Says, Wear this token for my sake, - And give me that which now I see. - - 23 - ‘Take back your token, ye ladie fair; - This ring you see on my right hand - Was gien me by my ain true-love, - Before I left my native land. - - 24 - ‘And tho yours woud buy it nine times oer - I far more dearly prize my ain; - Nor woud I make the niffer,’ he says, - ‘For a’ the gowd that is in Spain.’ - - 25 - The ladie turnd her head away - To dry the sat tears frae her eyne; - She naething more to him did say - But, I wish your face I neer had seen! - - 26 - He has set his foot on good ship-board, - The ladie waved her milk-white hand, - The wind sprang up and filld his sails, - And he quickly left the Spanish land. - - 27 - He soon came back to his native strand, - He langd his ain true-love to see; - Her father saw him come to land, - And took him some great lord to be. - - 28 - Says, Will ye leave your bonny ship - And come wi me this day to dine? - And you shall eat the baken meat, - And you shall drink the claret wine. - - 29 - ‘O I will leave my bonny ship, - And gladly go wi you to dine, - And I woud gie thrice three thousand pounds - That your fair daughter were but mine.’ - - 30 - ‘O gin ye will part wi your bonny ship - And wed a ladie of this countrie, - I will gie you my ae daughter, - Gin she’ll consent your bride to be.’ - - 31 - O he has blaket his bonny face - And closs tuckd up his yellow hair; - His true-love met them at the yate, - But she little thought her love was there. - - 32 - ‘O will you marrie this lord, daughter, - That I’ve brought hame to dine wi me? - You shall be heir of a’ my lands, - Gin you’ll consent his bride to be.’ - - 33 - She looked oer her left shoulder, - I wot the tears stood in her eye; - Says, The man is on the sea sailling - That fair wedding shall get of me. - - 34 - Then Willie has washd his bonny face, - And he’s kaimd down his yellow hair; - He took his true-love in his arms, - And kindly has he kissd her there. - - 35 - She’s looked in his bonny face, - And thro her tears did sweetly smile, - Then sayd, Awa, awa, Willie! - How could you thus your love beguile? - - 36 - She kept the secret in her breast, - Full seven years she’s kept the same, - Till it fell out at a christning-feast, - And then of it she made good game. - - 37 - And her father laughd aboon the rest, - And said, My daughter, you’r nae to blame; - For you’ve married for love, and no for land, - So a’ my gowd is yours to claim. - - * * * * * - - - D - - Harris MS., fol. 21; from the recitation of Mrs Harris and others. - - 1 - There lived a lady in the north - O muckle birth an fame; - She’s faun in love wi her kitchie-boy, - The greater was her shame. - - * * * * * * - - 2 - ‘Maister cook, he will cry oot, - An answered he maun be;’ - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - - 3 - ‘I hae a coffer o ried gowd - My mither left to me, - An I will build a bonnie ship, - And send her ower the sea, - An you’ll come hame like lord or squire, - An answered you maun be.’ - - 4 - She has biggit a bonnie ship, - Sent her across the main, - An in less than sax months an a day - That ship cam back again. - - 5 - ‘Go dress, go dress, my dochter Janet, - Go dress, an mak you fine, - An we’ll go doun to yon shore-side - An bid yon lords to dine.’ - - 6 - He’s pued the black mask ower his face, - Kaimed doun his yellow hair, - A’ no to lat her father ken - That ere he had been there. - - * * * * * * - - 7 - ‘Oh, got you that by sea sailin? - Or got you that by land? - Or got you that on Spanish coast, - Upon a died man’s hand?’ - - 8 - ‘I got na that by sea sailin, - I got na that by land; - But I got that on Spanish coast, - Upon a died man’s hand.’ - - 9 - He’s pued the black mask aff his face, - Threw back his yellow hair, - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - - 10 - ‘A priest, a priest,’ the lady she cried, - ‘To marry my love an me;’ - ‘A clerk, a clerk,’ her father cried, - ‘To sign her tocher free.’ - - * * * * * - - - E - - Joseph Robertson’s Note-Book “Adversaria,” p. 88; from tradition. - - * * * * * * - - 1 - And she has built a lofty ship, - And set her to the main; - The masts o her were o gude reed gowd, - And the sails o silver clear. - - 2 - ‘Ye winna bide three months awa - When ye’ll return again, - In case your lady lichter be, - And your baby want the name.’ - - 3 - But the wind blew high, - The mariners they did land at Lundin soon. - - 4 - A lady sat on the castell-wa, - Beheld baith dale and down, - And there she saw this lofty ship, - Comin sailin in the Downs. - - 5 - ‘Look out, look out, my maidens a’, - Ye seena what I see; - For I do see as bonny a ship - As ever sailed the sea, - And the master o her’s the bonniest boy - That ever my eyes did see.’ - - 6 - She’s taen her mantell her about, - Her cane intill her han, - And she’s away to the shore-side, - Till invite the square to dine. - - 7 - ‘O will ye come to our castell? - Or will ye sup or dine?’ - ‘O excuse me, madam,’ he said, - ‘For I hae but little time.’ - - * * * * * * - - 8 - The wind blew high, - The mariners they did land at home again. - - 9 - The old man sat in the castell-wa, - Beholding dale and down, - And there he spied this goodly ship - Come sailin to the town. - - 10 - ‘Look out, look out, my dauchter dear, - Ye see not what I see; - For I do see as bonny a ship - As ever sailed the sea. - - 11 - ‘And the master o her’s the bonniest boy - That my eyes did ever see, - And if I were a woman as I’m a man - My husband he should be.’ - - 12 - ‘Haud far awa frae me, fader, - Haud far awa frae me, - For I never had a lad but ane, - And he’s far awa at sea. - - 13 - ‘There is a love-token atween us twa, - It’ll be mair ere it be less, - An aye the langer he bides awa - It will the mair encreass.’ - - 14 - He’s taen his mantell him about, - His cane intil his hand, - And he’s awa to the shore-side, - To invite the square to dine. - - 15 - ‘O will ye come to our castle? - Or will ye sup or dine?’ - ‘Indeed I will, kind sir,’ he said, - ‘Tho I’ve but little time.’ - - 16 - The lady sat on castle-wa, - Beholding dale and down, - But he’s put his veil upon his face, - That she might not him ken. - - * * * * * * - - * * * * * - -#A.# - - _Written in long couplets._ - - 8^1. hadne. - - 22^4, 32^4. ance hane? _Cf._ 3^4. - - 23^2. I lee. 35^2. got no. - -#B.# - - 11^2. yellow in. - -#C.# - - 14^2. glaned. Glant, glent _is probably intended_. Glancd _is less - likely_. - - 20^4. could. _MS. possibly_ would. - -#E.# - - _Before_ 1: “A lady falls in love with her father’s kitchie-boy - when her father is absent, and to conceal him from him procures - a ship and puts him to sea. Her father thinks he has run away.” - - _After 7_: She kills herself. - - _After 16_: Continued on page [ ]: _but not continued_. - - - - - 253 - - THOMAS O YONDERDALE - - #a.# Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, I, 221. - - #b.# Christie’s Traditional Ballad Airs, I, 96. - - -#b# is epitomized from #a#, with a few variations, mostly very trifling, -as Christie had heard the ballad sung. - -Thomas of Yonderdale gains Lady Maisry’s love and has a son by her. -Overhearing some reproachful words one day as he passes her bower, he is -touched, and promises to marry her after returning from a voyage, but -while he is in a strange country wooes another woman. He dreams that -Maisry stands by his bed upbraiding him for his inconstancy, and sends a -boy to her to bring her to his wedding. Maisry comes, arrayed, as she -had been directed, in noble style. The bride asks the boy who she may -be, and is told that she is Thomas’s first love. Maisry asks Thomas why -she was sent for: she is to be his wife. The nominal bride asks his -will: she is to go home, with the comfort of being sent back in a coach, -whereas she came on a hired horse! This ill-used, but not diffident, -young woman proposes that Thomas shall give two thirds of his lands to -his brother and make him marry her. Thomas refuses to divide his lands -for any woman, and has no power over his brother. According to #b#, the -discarded bride asks only a modest third of Thomas’s lands for the -brother; Thomas promises to give a third to _her_, but disclaims, as in -#a#, his competency to arrange a marriage for his brother. - - -This looks like a recent piece, fabricated, with a certain amount of -cheap mortar, from recollections of ‘Fair Annie,’ No 62, ‘Lord Thomas -and Fair Annet,’ No 73, and ‘Young Beichan,’ No 53. - - * * * * * - - 1 - Lady Maisry lives intill a bower, - She never wore but what she would; - Her gowns were o the silks sae fine, - Her coats stood up wi bolts o gold. - - 2 - Mony a knight there courted her, - And gentlemen o high degree, - But it was Thomas o Yonderdale - That gaind the love o this ladie. - - 3 - Now he has hunted her till her bower, - Baith late at night and the mid day, - But when he stole her virgin rose - Nae mair this maid he would come nigh. - - 4 - But it fell ance upon a time - Thomas her bower he walkëd by; - There he saw her Lady Maisry, - Nursing her young son on her knee. - - 5 - ‘O seal on you, my bonny babe, - And lang may ye my comfort be! - Your father passes by our bower, - And now minds neither you nor me.’ - - 6 - Now when Thomas heard her speak, - The saut tear trinkled frae his ee; - To Lady Maisry’s bower he went, - Says, Now I’m come to comfort thee. - - 7 - ‘Is this the promise ye did make - Last when I was in your companie? - You said before nine months were gane - Your wedded wife that I should be.’ - - 8 - ‘If Saturday be a bonny day, - Then, my love, I maun sail the sea; - But if I live for to return, - O then, my love, I’ll marry thee.’ - - 9 - ‘I wish Saturday a stormy day, - High and stormy be the sea, - Ships may not sail, nor boats row, - But gar true Thomas stay wi me.’ - - 10 - Saturday was a bonny day, - Fair and leesome blew the wind; - Ships did sail, and boats did row, - Which had true Thomas to unco ground. - - 11 - He hadna been on unco ground - A month, a month but barely three, - Till he has courted anither maid, - And quite forgotten Lady Maisry. - - 12 - Ae night as he lay on his bed, - In a dreary dream dreamed he - That Maisry stood by his bedside, - Upbraiding him for’s inconstancie. - - 13 - He’s calld upon his little boy, - Says, Bring me candle, that I see; - And ye maun gang this night, [my] boy, - Wi a letter to a gay ladie. - - 14 - ‘It is my duty you to serve, - And bring you coal and candle-light, - And I would rin your errand, master, - If’t were to Lady Maisry bright. - - 15 - ‘Tho my legs were sair I coudna gang, - Tho the night were dark I coudna see, - Tho I should creep on hands and feet, - I woud gae to Lady Maisry.’ - - 16 - ‘Win up, win up, my bonny boy, - And at my bidding for to be; - For ye maun quickly my errand rin, - For it is to Lady Maisry. - - 17 - ‘Ye’ll bid her dress in the gowns o silk, - Likewise in the coats o cramasie; - Ye’ll bid her come alang wi you, - True Thomas’s wedding for to see. - - 18 - ‘Ye’ll bid her shoe her steed before, - And a’ gowd graithing him behind; - On ilka tip o her horse mane, - Twa bonny bells to loudly ring. - - 19 - ‘And on the tor o her saddle - A courtly bird to sweetly sing; - Her bridle-reins o silver fine, - And stirrups by her side to hing.’ - - 20 - She dressd her in the finest silk, - Her coats were o the cramasie, - And she’s awa to unco land, - True Thomas’s wedding for to see. - - 21 - At ilka tippet o her horse mane, - Twa bonny bells did loudly ring, - And on the tor o her saddle - A courtly bird did sweetly sing. - - 22 - The bells they rang, the bird he sang, - As they rode in yon pleasant plain; - Then soon she met true Thomas’s bride, - Wi a’ her maidens and young men. - - 23 - The bride she garned round about, - ‘I wonder,’ said she, ‘who this may be? - It surely is our Scottish queen, - Come here our wedding for to see.’ - - 24 - Out it speaks true Thomas’s boy, - ‘She maunna lift her head sae hie; - But it’s true Thomas’s first love, - Come here your wedding for to see.’ - - 25 - Then out bespake true Thomas’s bride, - I wyte the tear did blind her ee; - If this be Thomas’s first true-love, - I’m sair afraid he’ll neer hae me. - - 26 - Then in it came her Lady Maisry, - And aye as she trips in the fleer, - ‘What is your will, Thomas?’ she said, - ‘This day, ye know, ye calld me here.’ - - 27 - ‘Come hither by me, ye lily flower, - Come hither and set ye down by me, - For ye’re the ane I’ve call’d upon, - And ye my wedded wife maun be.’ - - 28 - Then in it came true Thomas’s bride, - And aye as she trippd on the stane, - ‘What is your will, Thomas?’ she said, - ‘This day, ye know, ye calld me hame.’ - - 29 - ‘Ye hae come on hired horseback, - But ye’se gae hame in coach sae free; - For here’s the flower into my bower - I mean my wedded wife shall be.’ - - 30 - ‘O ye will break your lands, Thomas, - And part them in divisions three; - Gie twa o them to your ae brother, - And cause your brother marry me.’ - - 31 - ‘I winna break my lands,’ he said, - ‘For ony woman that I see; - My brother’s a knight o wealth and might, - He’ll wed nane but he will for me.’ - - * * * * * - -#b.# - - 1^4. And a’ stood. - - 2^1. And mony knight. - - 2^4. this gay. - - 8^3. return again. - - 10^1. And Saturday. - - 10^4. took true. - - 13^2. I may see. - - 13^3. my boy. - - 16^2. ye maun be. - - 24^3. ain first. - - 30^3. Gie ane. - - 31 - ‘O I will break my lands,’ he said, - ‘And ae third will I gie to thee; - But my brother’s ane o wealth and might, - And he’ll wed nane but he will for me.’ - - - - - 254 - - LORD WILLIAM, OR, LORD LUNDY - - #A.# Motherwell’s MS., p. 361. ‘Sweet William,’ Motherwell’s - Minstrelsy, p. 307. - - #B.# ‘Lord Lundy,’ Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, II, 57. - - #C.# ‘Lord William,’ Buchan’s MSS, II, 126; Dixon, Scottish - Traditional Versions of Ancient Ballads, p. 57, Percy Society, vol. - xvii. - - -Sweet William (Lord William’s son, or Lord William) and the Baillie’s -daughter (Lord Lundy’s daughter) have been lovers: they have in fact -been over-sea together, learning “some unco lair.” The young woman’s -father recalls her from her studies abroad, and requires her to marry a -Southland lord (the young prince of England). She will submit to her -father’s will, though she had rather die. In #A# she sends a letter to -William by a bird. The minister has begun the marriage-service, when the -lover enters the church with a party of armed men and bids the -bridegroom stand back; the bride shall join with him. The father fumes; -would shoot William if he had a pistol, #A#; will give his daughter no -dowry, #B#. William of course cares not the least for dowry; he has what -he wants. He tells his ‘foremost man’ to lift his bride on her horse, -and sends commendations to her mother. - - -#A# 4, #B# 10, 11, #C# 6, 7, may be borrowed from ‘Fair Janet,’ No 64, -#G# 1, 2, II, 110. - - * * * * * - - - A - - Motherwell’s MS., p. 361; from the recitation of Agnes Lyle, an old - woman of Kilbarchan. - - 1 - Sweet William’s gone over seas, - Some unco lair to learn, - And our gude Bailie’s ae dochter - Is awa to learn the same. - - 2 - In one broad buke they learned baith, - In one broad bed they lay; - But when her father came to know - He gart her come away. - - 3 - ‘It’s you must marry that Southland lord, - His lady for to be; - It’s ye maun marry that Southland lord, - Or nocht ye’ll get frae me.’ - - 4 - ‘I must marry that Southland lord, - Father, an it be your will; - But I rather it were my burial-day, - My grave for to fill.’ - - 5 - She walked up, she walked down, - Had none to make her moan, - Nothing but the pretty bird - Sat on the causey-stone. - - 6 - ‘If thou could speak, wee bird,’ she says, - ‘As weell as thou can flee, - I would write a long letter - To Will ayont the sea.’ - - 7 - ‘What thou wants wi Will,’ it says, - ‘Thou’ll seal it with thy ring, - Tak a thread o silk and anither o twine, - About my neck will hing.’ - - 8 - What she wanted wi Willie - She sealed it wi a ring, - Took a thread of silk, another o twine, - About its neck did hing. - - 9 - This bird flew high, this bird flew low, - This bird flew owre the sea, - Until it entered the same room - Wherein was Sweet Willie. - - 10 - This bird flew high, this bird flew low, - Poor bird, it was mistaen! - It let the letter fa on Baldie’s breist, - Instead of Sweet William. - - 11 - ‘Here’s a letter, William,’ he says, - ‘I’m sure it’s not to me; - And gin the morn gin twelve o’clock - Your love shall married be.’ - - 12 - ‘Come saddle to me my horse,’ he said, - ‘The brown and a’ that’s speedie, - And I’ll awa to Old England, - To bring home my ladie.’ - - 13 - Awa he gaed, awa he rade, - Awa wi mickle speed; - He lichtit at every twa miles’ end, - Lichtit and changed his steed. - - 14 - When she entered the church-style, - The tear was in her ee; - But when she entered the church-door - A blythe sicht did she see. - - 15 - ‘O hold your hand, you minister, - Hold it a little wee, - Till I speak wi the bonnie bride, - For she’s a friend to me. - - 16 - ‘Stand off, stand off, you braw bridegroom, - Stand off a little wee; - Stand off, stand off, you braw bridegroom, - For the bride shall join wi me.’ - - 17 - Up and spak the bride’s father, - And an angry man was he; - ‘If I had pistol, powther and lead, - And all at my command, - I would shoot thee stiff and dead - In the place where thou dost stand.’ - - 18 - Up and spoke then Sweet William, - And a blithe blink from his ee; - ‘If ye neer be shot till I shoot you, - Ye’se neer be shot for me. - - 19 - ‘Come out, come out, my foremost man, - And lift my lady on; - Commend me all to my good-mother, - At night when ye gang home.’ - - * * * * * - - - B - - Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, II, 57. - - 1 - Lord William has but ae dear son, - In this world had nae mair; - Lord Lundie had but ae daughter, - And he will hae nane but her. - - 2 - They dressed up in maids’ array, - And passd for sisters fair; - With ae consent gaed ower the sea, - For to seek after lear. - - 3 - They baith did eat at ae braid board, - In ae bed baith did lye; - When Lord Lundie got word o that, - He’s taen her soon away. - - 4 - When Lord Lundie got word of that, - An angry man was he; - He wrote his daughter on great haste - To return right speedilie. - - 5 - When she looked the letter upon, - A light laugh then gae she; - But ere she read it till an end - The tear blinded her ee. - - 6 - ‘Bad news, bad news, my love Willie, - Bad news is come to me; - My father’s written a braid letter, - Bids me gae speedilie. - - 7 - ‘Set trysts, set trysts, my love Willie, - Set trysts, I pray, wi me; - Set trysts, set trysts, my love Willie, - When will our wedding be.’ - - 8 - ‘On Wednesday, on Wednesday, - The first that ever ye see; - On Wednesday at twelve o’clock, - My dear, I’ll meet wi thee.’ - - 9 - When she came to her father’s ha, - He hailed her courteouslie; - Says, I’ll forgie offences past, - If now ye’ll answer me. - - 10 - ‘Will ye marry yon young prince, - Queen of England to be? - Or will you marry Lord William’s son, - Be loved by nane but he?’ - - 11 - ‘I will marry yon young prince, - Father, if it be your will; - But I woud rather I were dead and gane, - My grave I woud win till.’ - - 12 - When she was in her saddle set, - She skyred like the fire, - To go her bridegroom for to meet, - For whom she’d nae desire. - - 13 - On every tippet o her horse mane - There hang a siller bell, - And whether the wind blew east or west - They gae a sundry knell. - - 14 - And when she came to Mary’s kirk - She skyred like the fire; - There her young bridegroom she did meet, - For whom she’d nae desire. - - 15 - She looked ower her left shoulder, - The tear blinded her ee; - But looking ower her right shoulder, - A blythe sight then saw she. - - 16 - There she saw Lord William’s son, - And mony a man him wi, - Wi targes braid and glittering spears - All marching ower the lee. - - 17 - The minister looked on a book - Her marriage to begin: - ‘If there is naething to be said, - These two may join in ane.’ - - 18 - ‘O huly, huly, sir,’ she said, - ‘O stay a little wee; - I hae a friend to welcome yet - That’s been a dear friend to me.’ - - 19 - O then the parson he spake out, - A wise word then spake he; - ‘You might hae had your friends welcomd - Before ye’d come to me.’ - - 20 - Then in it came the bride’s first love, - And mony a man him wi: - ‘Stand back, stand back, ye jelly bridegroom, - Bride, ye maun join wi me.’ - - 21 - Then out it speaks him Lord Lundie, - An angry man was he; - ‘Lord William’s son will hae my daughter - Without leave askd of me. - - 22 - ‘But since it’s sae that she will gang, - And proved sae fause to thee, - I’ll make a vow, and keep it true, - Nae portion shall I gie.’ - - 23 - Then out it speaks the bride’s first love, - And [a] light laugh then gae he; - ‘I’ve got the best portion now, my lord, - That ye can gie to me. - - 24 - ‘Your gude red gold I value not, - Nor yet your white monie; - I hae her by the hand this day - That’s far dearer to me. - - 25 - ‘So gie the prince a coffer o gold - When he gaes to his bed, - And bid him clap his coffer o gold, - And I’ll clap my bonny bride.’ - - * * * * * - - - C - - Buchan’s MSS, II, 126. - - 1 - Lord William has gane oer the sea - For to seek after lear; - Lord Lundie had but ae daughter, - And he’d wed nane but her. - - 2 - Upon a book they both did read, - And in ae bed did ly: - ‘But if my father get word of this, - I’ll soon be taen away.’ - - 3 - ‘Your father’s gotten word of this, - Soon married then ye’ll be; - Set trysts, set trysts wi me, Janet, - Set trysts, set trysts wi me. - - 4 - ‘Set trysts, set trysts wi me, Janet, - When your wedding-day’s to be; - ‘On Saturday, the first that comes, - Must be my wedding-day.’ - - 5 - ‘Bad news, bad news is come, Janet, - Bad news is come to me; - Your father’s gotten word of this, - Soon married then ye’ll be.’ - - 6 - ‘O will ye marry the young prince, daughter, - The queen of England to be? - Or will ye marry Lord William, - And die immediately?’ - - 7 - ‘O I will marry the young prince, father, - Because it is your will; - But I wish it was my burial-day, - For my grave I could gang till.’ - - 8 - When they gaed in into the kirk, - And ae seat they sat in, - The minister took up the book, - The marriage to begin. - - 9 - ‘Lay down the book, O dear, kind sir, - And wait a little wee; - I have a lady to welcome yet, - She’s been a good friend to me.’ - - 10 - Out then spake the minister, - An angry man was he; - ‘You might have had your ladies welcomd - Before ye came to me.’ - - 11 - She looked oer her left shoulder, - And tears did blind her ee; - But she looked oer her right shoulder, - And a blythe sight saw she, - For in there came him Lord William, - And his valiant company. - - 12 - And in there came him Lord William, - His armour shining clear, - And in it came him Lord William, - And many glittering spear. - - 13 - ‘Stand by, stand by, ye bonny bridegroom, - Stand by, stand by,’ said he; - ‘Stand by, stand by, ye bonny bridegroom, - Bride, ye maun join wi me. - - 14 - ‘Let the young prince clap his coffer of gold - When he gangs to his bed; - Let the young prince clap his coffer of gold, - But I’ll clap my bonny bride.’ - - 15 - Out it spake him Lord Lundie, - And an angry man was he; - ‘My daughter will marry him Lord William, - It seems, in spite of me.’ - - * * * * * - -#A, C.# - - _Motherwell and Dixon have made a few slight changes._ - - - - - 255 - - WILLIE’S FATAL VISIT - - Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, II, 259. - - -A maid, Meggie, inquires after her lover, Willie, and is told that he -will be with her at night. Willie tirls the pin and is admitted. He is -given the option of cards, wine, or bed, and chooses the bed, a too -familiar commonplace in Buchan’s ballads. Meggie charges the cock not to -crow till day, but the cock crows an hour too soon. Willie dons his -clothes, and in a dowie den encounters a grievous ghost, which, wan and -weary though it be, smiles upon him; smiles, we may suppose, to have -caught him. Willie has travelled this road often, and never uttered a -prayer for safety; but he will never travel that road again. The ghost -tears him to pieces, and hangs a bit ‘on every seat’ of Mary’s kirk, the -head right over Meggie’s pew! Meggie rives her yellow hair. - -The first half of this piece is a medley of ‘Sweet William’s Ghost,’ -‘Clerk Saunders,’ and ‘The Grey Cock.’ For 1^{3–6}, 2, compare No 77, -#A#, #E#, 2, 3, No 248, 1; for 5–8, No 69, #F# 3–6, No 70, #B# 2, 4; for -9, 10, No 248, 6, 7. 13 is caught, or taken, from ‘Clyde’s Water,’ No -216, #A# 7. - -Stanzas 15–17, wherever they came from, are too good for the setting: -nothing so spirited, word or deed, could have been looked for from a -ghost wan, weary, and smiling. - - * * * * * - - 1 - ’Twas on an evening fair I went to take the air, - I heard a maid making her moan; - Said, Saw ye my father? Or saw ye my mother? - Or saw ye my brother John? - Or saw ye the lad that I love best, - And his name it is Sweet William? - - 2 - ‘I saw not your father, I saw not your mother, - Nor saw I your brother John; - But I saw the lad that ye love best, - And his name it is Sweet William.’ - - 3 - ‘O was my love riding? or was he running? - Or was he walking alone? - Or says he that he will be here this night? - O dear, but he tarries long!’ - - 4 - ‘Your love was not riding, nor yet was he running, - But fast was he walking alone; - He says that he will be here this night to thee, - And forbids you to think long.’ - - 5 - Then Willie he has gane to his love’s door, - And gently tirled the pin: - ‘O sleep ye, wake ye, my bonny Meggie, - Ye’ll rise, lat your true love in.’ - - 6 - The lassie being swack ran to the door fu snack, - And gently she lifted the pin, - Then into her arms sae large and sae lang - She embraced her bonny love in. - - 7 - ‘O will ye gang to the cards or the dice, - Or to a table o wine? - Or will ye gang to a well-made bed, - Well coverd wi blankets fine?’ - - 8 - ‘O I winna gang to the cards nor the dice. - Nor yet to a table o wine; - But I’ll rather gang to a well-made bed, - Well coverd wi blankets fine.’ - - 9 - ‘My braw little cock, sits on the house tap, - Ye’ll craw not till it be day, - And your kame shall be o the gude red gowd, - And your wings o the siller grey.’ - - 10 - The cock being fause untrue he was, - And he crew an hour ower seen; - They thought it was the gude day-light, - But it was but the light o the meen. - - 11 - ‘Ohon, alas!’ says bonny Meggie then, - ‘This night we hae sleeped ower lang!’ - ‘O what is the matter?’ then Willie replied, - ‘The faster then I must gang.’ - - 12 - Then Sweet Willie raise, and put on his claise, - And drew till him stockings and sheen, - And took by his side his berry-brown sword, - And ower yon lang hill he’s gane. - - 13 - As he gaed ower yon high, high hill, - And down yon dowie den, - Great and grievous was the ghost he saw, - Would fear ten thousand men. - - 14 - As he gaed in by Mary kirk, - And in by Mary stile, - Wan and weary was the ghost - Upon sweet Willie did smile. - - 15 - ‘Aft hae ye travelld this road, Willie, - Aft hae ye travelld in sin; - Ye neer said sae muckle for your saul - As My Maker bring me hame! - - 16 - ‘Aft hae ye travelld this road, Willie, - Your bonny love to see; - But ye’ll never travel this road again - Till ye leave a token wi me.’ - - 17 - Then she has taen him Sweet Willie, - Riven him frae gair to gair, - And on ilka seat o Mary’s kirk - O Willie she hang a share; - Even abeen his love Meggie’s dice, - Hang’s head and yellow hair. - - 18 - His father made moan, his mother made moan, - But Meggie made muckle mair; - His father made moan, his mother made moan, - But Meggie reave her yellow hair. - - - - - 256 - - ALISON AND WILLIE - - #A.# ‘My luve she lives in Lincolnshire,’ Harris MS., fol. 18 b; Mrs - Harris. #b.# ‘Alison’ Buchan’s MSS., I, 231. - - -Alison gaily invites Willie to her wedding; he will not come unless to -be the bridegroom, with her for bride. That day you will never see, says -Alison; once on your horse, you will have no more mind of me than if I -were dead. Willie rides slowly away, and his heart breaks with the pains -of love; he dies by the way, and is left to the birds. A letter stops -the wedding, and breaks Alison’s heart. - - -Stanza 7 must be left to those who can interpret Thomas of Erceldoune’s -prophecies. - - * * * * * - - 1 - ‘My luve she lives in Lincolnshire, - I wat she’s neither black nor broun, - But her hair is like the thread o gowd, - Aye an it waur weel kaimëd doun.’ - - 2 - She’s pued the black mask owre her face, - An blinkit gaily wi her ee: - ‘O will you to my weddin come, - An will you bear me gude companie?’ - - 3 - ‘I winna to your weddin come, - Nor [will] I bear you gude companie, - Unless you be the bride yoursell, - An me the bridegroom to be.’ - - 4 - ‘For me to be the bride mysel, - An you the bonnie bridegroom to be— - Cheer up your heart, Sweet Willie,’ she said, - ‘For that’s the day you’ll never see. - - 5 - ‘Gin you waur on your saiddle set, - An gaily ridin on the way, - You’ll hae nae mair mind o Alison - Than she waur dead an laid in clay.’ - - 6 - When he was on his saiddle set, - An slowly ridin on the way, - He had mair mind o Alison - Than he had o the licht o day. - - 7 - He saw a hart draw near a hare, - An aye that hare drew near a toun, - An that same hart did get a hare, - But the gentle knicht got neer a toun. - - 8 - He leant him owre his saiddle-bow, - An his heart did brak in pieces three; - Wi sighen said him Sweet Willie, - ‘The pains o luve hae taen hald o me.’ - - 9 - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - There cam a white horse an a letter, - That stopped the weddin speidilie. - - 10 - She leant her back on her bed-side, - An her heart did brak in pieces three; - She was buried an bemoaned, - But the birds waur Willie’s companie. - - * * * * * - -#a.# - - 2^3. Oh. 10^3. He was. - -#b.# - - But _wanting:_ threads. - - 2^1. She pu’d: mask aff. - - 2^2. blinked blythely. - - 2^3. Says, Will ye. - - 2^4. Or: gude _wanting_. - - 3^2. Nor will; gude wanting. - - 3^4. the bonny bridegroom be. - - 4^2. to _wanting_. - - 4^3. Sweet _wanting_. - - 5^2. And merry. - - 5^3. Ye’ll mind nae mair o. - - 5^4. When. - - 6^2. An weary. - - 7^1. He spied: draw till. - - 7^2. aye the. - - 7^3. An _wanting_. - - 8^1. leand his back to his. - - 8^3. said that sweet. - - 8^4. luve’s taen. - - 9^{1,2}. Their wedding-day it was well set, And a’ their friends - invited there. - - 9^3. While came. - - 9^4. wedding in prepare. - - _Before 10^1_: She said, If Willie he be dead, A wedded wife I’ll - never be. - - 10^1. Then leand her back to her bed-stock. - - 10^2. Her heart in pieces broke in three. - - 10^3. then was. - - - - - 257 - - BURD ISABEL AND EARL PATRICK - - #A.# ‘Burd Bell,’ Kinloch MSS, I, 211. - - #B.# ‘Burd Isbel and Sir Patrick,’ Buchan’s Ballads of the North of - Scotland, I, 76. - - #C.# ‘Earl Patrick and Burd Isabel,’ Motherwell’s MS., p. 440. - - -Christie, Traditional Ballad Airs, II, 34, I, 42, says that an old woman -in Buckie, Enzie, Banff, who died in 1866 at the age of nearly eighty, -and whose father was a noted ballad-singer, sang him words which, so far -as he could remember, were like those of #B#. - -#A.# Unmarried Burd Isabel bears a son to Earl Patrick. He has passed -his word to make her his wife in case the expected bairn should be a -boy, but his mother objects. He now promises to bring her home after the -demise of his parents, and in the mean while builds her a gold and -silver bower (which for a reason inscrutable is ‘strawn round wi sand’). -Father and mother die; Patrick takes no step to fulfil his engagement, -and Isabel asks why. Patrick wishes that a hundred evils may enter him, -and he ‘fa oure the brim,’ if ever he marries another; nevertheless he -weds a duke’s daughter. His bride has a fancy to see his son, and -Patrick sends his aunt (or his grand-aunt, or his great-grand-aunt) to -fetch the boy. Isabel dares any woman to take the bairn away. Patrick -comes in person. Isabel repeats the words she had used to his aunt, and -reminds him of the curse which he had conditionally wished himself at -their last interview. The perjured man turns to go away, the hundred -evils enter him, and he falls ‘oure the brim.’ - -#B# has nearly the same story with additional circumstances. Patrick -wishes that eleven devils may attend his last day should he wed another -woman. When he goes to inquire how Isabel came to refuse the request he -had made through his aunt, he takes the opportunity to make over to her -child the third part of his land. She has two clerks, her cousins, at -her call, who see to the legal formalities pertaining to this transfer; -she commits the boy to one of these, and herself goes to an unco land to -drive love out of her mind. We hear of nothing worse happening to Earl -Patrick for selling his precious soul than his never getting further ben -the church than the door. - -#C# is a variety of #B#, but not half so long. Whether #B# has added or -#C# omitted, no reader will much concern himself to know. - -St. 7 (nearly) occurs in No 92, #B# 17, II, 313, and something similar -in various ballads. - - * * * * * - - - A - - Kinloch MSS, I, 211; “obtained in the North Country, from the - recitation of Mrs Charles.” - - 1 - There is a stane in yon water, - It’s lang or it grow green; - It’s a maid that maks her ain fortune, - It’ll never end its leen. - - 2 - Burd Bell was na full fyfteen - Till to service she did gae; - Burd Bell was na full sixteen - Till big wi bairn was scho. - - * * * * * * - - 3 - ‘Burd Bell she is a gude woman, - She bides at hame wi me; - She never seeks to gang to church, - But bides at hame wi me.’ - - 4 - It fell ance upon a day - She fell in travail-pain; - He is gane to the stair-head - Some ladies to call in. - - 5 - ‘O gin ye hae a lass-bairn, Burd Bell, - A lass-bairn though it be, - Twenty ploughs bot and a mill - Will mak ye lady free. - - 6 - ‘But gin ye hae a son, Burd Bell, - Ye’se be my wedded wife, - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . .’ - - 7 - The knichts they knack their white fingers, - The ladies sat and sang, - T was a’ to cheer bonnie Burd Bell, - She was far sunk in pain. - - * * * * * * - - 8 - Earl Patrick is to his mither gane, - As fast as he could hie: - ‘An askin, an askin, dear mither, - An askin I want frae thee. - - 9 - ‘Burd Bell has born to me a son; - What sail I do her wi?’ - ‘Gie her what ye like, Patrick, - Mak na her your ladie.’ - - 10 - He has gane to bonnie Burd Bell, - Hir heart was pressd wi care: - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - - 11 - ‘My father will dee, bonnie Burd Bell, - My mither will do the same, - And whan ye hear that they are gane - It’s then I’ll bring ye hame.’ - - 12 - Earl Patrick’s bigget to her a hour, - And strawn it round wi sand; - He coverd it wi silver on the outside, - Wi the red gowd within. - - 13 - It happened ance upon a day - She was kaiming his yellow hair, - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - - 14 - ‘Your father is dead, Earl Patrick, - Your mither is the same; - And what is the reason, Earl Patrick, - Ye winna tak me hame?’ - - 15 - ‘I’ve bigget to you a bonnie bour, - I’ve strawn it round wi sand; - I’ve coverd it wi silver on the outside, - Wi gude red gowd within. - - 16 - ‘If eer I marry anither woman, - Or bring anither hame, - I wish a hundred evils may enter me, - And may I fa oure the brim!’ - - 17 - It was na very lang after this - That a duke’s dochter he’s wed, - Wi a waggon fu of gowd - . . . . . . . - - 18 - Burd Bell lookit oure her castle-wa, - And spied baith dale and down, - And there she saw Earl Patrick’s aunt - Come riding to the town. - - 19 - ‘What want ye here, Earl Patrick’s aunt? - What want ye here wi me?’ - ‘I want Earl Patrick’s bonnie young son; - His bride fain wad him see.’ - - 20 - ‘I wad like to see that woman or man, - Of high or low degree, - That wad tak the bairn frae my foot - That I ance for bowd my knee.’ - - * * * * * * - - 21 - ‘Burd Bell, she’s the bauldest woman - That ever I did see:’ - ‘It’s I’ll gang to bonnie Burd Bell, - She was never bauld to me.’ - - 22 - Burd Bell lookit oure her castle-wa, - Behauding brave dale and down, - And there she spied him Earl Patrick - Slowly riding to the town. - - 23 - ‘What said ye to my great-grand-aunt - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . .’ - - 24 - ‘I said nathing to your great-grand-aunt - But I will say to thee: - I wad like to see the woman or man, - Of high or low degree, - That wad tak the bairn frae my foot - I ance for bowd my knee. - - 25 - ‘O dinna ye mind, Earl Patrick, - The vows ye made to me, - That a hundred evils wad enter you - If ye provd fause to me?’ - - 26 - He’s turnd him richt and round about, - His horse head to the wind, - The hundred evils enterd him, - And he fell oure the brim. - - * * * * * - - - B - - Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, I, 76. - - 1 - Take warning, a’ ye young women, - Of low station or hie, - Lay never your love upon a man - Above your ain degree. - - 2 - Thus I speak by Burd Isbel; - She was a maid sae fair, - She laid her love on Sir Patrick, - She’ll rue it for evermair. - - 3 - And likewise, a’ ye sprightly youths, - Of low station or hie, - Lay never your love upon a maid - Below your ain degree. - - 4 - And thus I speak by Sir Patrick, - Who was a knight sae rare; - He’s laid his love on Burd Isbel, - He’ll rue it for evermair. - - 5 - Burd Isbel was but ten years auld, - To service she has gane; - And Burd Isbel was but fifeteen - Whan her young son came hame. - - 6 - It fell ance upon a day - Strong travelling took she; - None there was her bower within - But Sir Patrick and she. - - 7 - ‘This is a wark now, Sir Patrick, - That we twa neer will end; - Ye’ll do you to the outer court - And call some women in.’ - - 8 - He’s done him to the outer court, - And stately there did stand; - Eleven ladies he’s calld in, - Wi ae shake o his hand. - - 9 - ‘Be favourable to Burd Isbel, - Deal favourable if ye may; - Her kirking and her fair wedding - Shall baith stand on ae day. - - 10 - ‘Deal favourable to Burd Isbel, - Whom I love as my life; - Ere this day month be come and gane, - She’s be my wedded wife.’ - - 11 - Then he is on to his father, - Fell low down on his knee; - Says, Will I marry Burd Isbel? - She’s born a son to me. - - 12 - ‘O marry, marry Burd Isbel, - Or use her as ye like; - Ye’ll gar her wear the silks sae red - And sae may ye the white. - O woud ye marry Burd Isbel, - Make her your heart’s delight? - - 13 - ‘You want not lands nor rents, Patrick, - You know your fortune’s free; - But ere you’d marry Burd Isbel - I’d rather bury thee. - - 14 - ‘Ye’ll build a bower for Burd Isbel, - And set it round wi sand; - Make as much mirth in Isbel’s bower - As ony in a’ the land.’ - - 15 - Then he is to his mother gane, - Fell low down on his knee: - ‘O shall I marry Burd Isbel? - She’s born a son to me.’ - - 16 - ‘O marry, marry Burd Isbel, - Or use her as ye like; - Ye’ll gar her wear the silks sae red, - And sae may ye the white. - O would ye marry Burd Isbel, - Make her wi me alike? - - 17 - ‘You want not lands and rents, Patrick, - You know your fortune’s free; - But ere you marry Burd Isbel - I’d rather bury thee. - - 18 - ‘Ye’ll build a bower to Burd Isbel, - And set it round wi glass; - Make as much mirth in Isbel’s bower - As ony in a’ the place.’ - - 19 - He’s done him down thro ha, thro ha, - Sae has he in thro bower; - The tears ran frae his twa grey eyes, - And loot them fast down pour. - - 20 - ‘My father and my mother baith - To age are coming on; - When they are dead and buried baith, - Burd Isbel I’ll bring home.’ - - 21 - The words that passd atween these twa - Ought never to be spoken; - The vows that passd atween these twa - Ought never to be broken. - - 22 - Says he, If I another court, - Or wed another wife, - May eleven devils me attend - At the end-day o my life. - - 23 - But his father he soon did die, - His mother nae lang behind; - But Sir Patrick of Burd Isbel - He now had little mind. - - 24 - It fell ance upon a day, - As she went out to walk, - And there she saw him Sir Patrick, - Going wi his hound and hawk. - - 25 - ‘Stay still, stay still, now Sir Patrick, - O stay a little wee, - And think upon the fair promise - Last year ye made to me. - - 26 - ‘Now your father’s dead, kind sir, - And your mother the same; - Yet nevertheless now, Sir Patrick, - Ye’re nae bringing me hame.’ - - 27 - ‘If the morn be a pleasant day, - I mean to sail the sea, - To spend my time in fair England, - All for a month or three.’ - - 28 - He hadna been in fair England - A month but barely ane - Till he forgot her Burd Isbel, - The mother of his son. - - 29 - Some time he spent in fair England, - And when returnd again - He laid his love on a duke’s daughter, - And he has brought her hame. - - 30 - Now he’s forgot his first true love - He ance lovd ower them a’; - But now the devil did begin - To work between them twa. - - 31 - When Sir Patrick he was wed, - And all set down to dine, - Upon his first love, Burd Isbel, - A thought ran in his mind. - - 32 - He calld upon his gude grand-aunt - To come right speedilie; - Says, Ye’ll gae on to Burd Isbel, - Bring my young son to me. - - 33 - She’s taen her mantle her about, - Wi gowd gloves on her hand, - And she is on to Burd Isbel, - As fast as she coud gang. - - 34 - She haild her high, she haild her low, - With stile in great degree: - ‘O busk, O busk your little young son, - For he maun gang wi me.’ - - 35 - ‘I woud fain see the one,’ she said, - ‘O low station or hie, - Woud take the bairn frae my foot, - For him I bowed my knee. - - 36 - ‘I woud fain see the one,’ she said, - ‘O low station or mean, - Woud take the bairn frae my foot - Whom I own to be mine.’ - - 37 - Then she has done her hame again, - As fast as gang coud she; - ‘Present,’ said he, ‘my little young son, - For him I wish to see.’ - - 38 - ‘Burd Isbel’s a bauld woman,’ she said, - ‘As eer I yet spake wi;’ - But sighing said him Sir Patrick, - She ne’er was bauld to me. - - 39 - But he’s dressd in his best array, - His gowd rod in his hand, - And he is to Burd Isbel’s bower, - As fast as he coud gang. - - 40 - ‘O how is this, Burd Isbel,’ he said, - ‘So ill ye’ve used me? - What gart you anger my gude grand-aunt, - That I did send to thee?’ - - 41 - ‘If I hae angerd your gude grand-aunt, - O then sae lat it be; - I said naething to your gude grand-aunt - But what I’ll say to thee. - - 42 - ‘I woud fain see the one, I said, - O low station or hie, - Wha woud take this bairn frae my foot, - For him I bowed the knee. - - 43 - ‘I woud fain see the one, I said, - O low station or mean, - Woud take this bairn frae my foot - Whom I own to be mine.’ - - 44 - ‘O if I had some counsellers here, - And clerks to seal the band, - I woud infeft your son this day - In third part o my land.’ - - 45 - ‘I hae two couzins, Scottish clerks, - Wi bills into their hand, - An ye’ll infeft my son this day - In third part o your land.’ - - 46 - Then he calld in her Scottish clerks, - Wi bills into their hand, - And he’s infeft his son that day - The third part o his land. - - 47 - To ane o these young clerks she spoke, - Clerk John it was his name; - Says, Of my son I gie you charge - Till I return again. - - 48 - ‘Ye’ll take here my son, clerk John, - Learn him to dance and sing, - And I will to some unco land, - Drive love out of my mind. - - 49 - ‘And ye’ll take here my son, clerk John, - Learn him to hunt the roe, - And I will to some unco land; - Now lat Sir Patrick go. - - 50 - ‘But I’ll cause this knight at church-door stand, - For a’ his noble train; - For selling o his precious soul - Dare never come farther ben.’ - - * * * * * - - - C - - Motherwell’s MS., p. 440. - - 1 - All young maidens fair and gay, - Whatever your station be, - Never lay your love upon a man - Above your own degree. - - 2 - I speak it all by Bird Isabel; - She was her father’s dear, - She laid her love on Earl Patrick, - Which she rues ever mair. - - 3 - ‘Oh, we began a wark, Patrick, - That we two cannot end; - Go you unto the outer stair - And call some women in.’ - - 4 - He’s gone unto the outer stair, - And up in it did stand, - And did bring in eleven ladies, - With one sign of his hand. - - 5 - He did him to the doctor’s shop, - As fast as he could gang, - But ere the doctor could get there - Bird Isabel bore a son. - - 6 - But he has courted a duke’s daughter, - Lived far beyont the sea; - Burd Isabel’s parents were but mean, - They had not gear to gie. - - 7 - He has courted a duke’s daughter, - Lived far beyond the foam; - Burd Isabel was a mean woman, - And tocher she had none. - - 8 - Now it fell once upon a day - His wedding day was come; - He’s hied him to his great-grand-aunt, - As fast as he could gang. - - 9 - Says, Will you go this errand, aunt? - Go you this errand for me, - And if I live and bruick my life - I will go as far for thee. - - 10 - ‘Go and bring me Bird Isbel’s son, - Dressed in silks so fine, - And if he live to be a man - He shall heir all my land.’ - - 11 - Now she went hailing to the door, - And hailing ben the floor, - And Isabel styled her madame, - And she, her Isabel dear. - - 12 - ‘I came to take Earl Patrick’s son, - To dress in silks so fine; - For if he live to be a man - He is to heir his land.’ - - 13 - ‘Oh is there ever a woman,’ she said, - ‘Of high station or mean, - Daur take this bairn from my knee? - For he is called mine. - - 14 - ‘Oh is there ever a woman,’ she said, - ‘Of mean station or hie, - Daur tak this bairn frae my foot? - For him I bowed my knee.’ - - 15 - His aunt went hailing to his door, - And hailing ben the floor, - And she has styled him, Patrick, - And [he] her, aunty dear. - - 16 - She says, I have been east and west, - And far beyond the sea, - But Isabel is the boldest woman - That ever my eyes did see. - - 17 - ‘You surely dream, my aunty dear, - For that can never be; - Burd Isabel’s not a bold woman, - She never was bold to me.’ - - 18 - Now he went hailing to her door, - And hailing ben the floor, - And she has styled him, Patrick, - And he her, Isabel dear. - - 19 - ‘O ye have angered my great-grand-aunt; - You know she’s a lady free;’ - ‘I said naught to your great-grand-aunt - But what I’ll say to thee. - - 20 - ‘Oh is there ever a woman, I said, - Of high station or mean, - Daur tak this bairn from my knee? - For he is called mine. - - 21 - ‘Oh is there ever a woman, I said, - Of mean station or hie, - Daur tak this bairn from my foot? - For him I bowed my knee. - - 22 - ‘But I’ll cause you stand at good church-door, - For all your noble train; - For selling of your precious soul, - You shall not get further ben.’ - - - - - 258 - - BROUGHTY WA’S - - - #a.# ‘Helen,’ Buchan’s MSS, I, 233. - - #b.# ‘Burd Hellen,’ or, ‘Browghty Wa’s,’ Harris MS., fol. 17 b; from - Mrs Harris. - - -A young woman is carried off from Broughty Castle, near Dundee, by a -body of armed Highlanders. Her lover, who is making her a visit at the -time, is either taken along with her—an unnecessary incumbrance, one -would think—or follows her. The pair go out to take the air; she throws -herself into a river; her lover leaps in after her and is drowned. She -kilts up her clothes and makes her way to Dundee, congratulating herself -that she had learned to swim for liberty. - -Stanza 9, as it runs in #b#, is a reminiscence of ‘Bonny Baby -Livingston,’ and 13 recalls ‘Child Waters,’ or ‘The Knight and the -Shepherd’s Daughter.’ - - * * * * * - - 1 - Burd Helen was her mother’s dear, - Her father’s heir to be; - He was the laird of Broughty Walls, - And the provost o Dundee. - - 2 - Burd Helen she was much admired - By all that were round about; - Unto Hazelan she was betrothed, - Her virgin days were out. - - 3 - Glenhazlen was a comely youth, - And virtuous were his friends; - He left the schools o bonny Dundee - And on to Aberdeen. - - 4 - It fell upon a Christmas Day - Burd Helen was left alone - For to keep her father’s towers; - They stand two miles from town. - - 5 - Glenhazlen’s on to Broughty Walls, - Was thinking to win in; - But the wind it blew, and the rain dang on - And wat him to the skin. - - 6 - He was very well entertaind, - Baith for his bed and board, - Till a band o men surrounded them, - Well armd wi spear and sword. - - 7 - They hurried her along wi them, - Lockd up her maids behind; - They threw the keys out-ower the walls, - That none the plot might find. - - 8 - They hurried her along wi them, - Ower mony a rock and glen, - But, all that they could say or do, - From weeping would not refrain. - - 9 - ‘The Hiland hills are hie, hie hills, - The Hiland hills are hie; - They are no like the banks o Tay, - Or bonny town o Dundee.’ - - 10 - It fell out ance upon a day - They went to take the air; - She threw hersell upon the stream, - Against wind and despair. - - 11 - It was sae deep he coudna wide, - Boats werna to be found, - But he leapt in after himsell, - And sunk down like a stone. - - 12 - She kilted up her green claiding - A little below her knee, - And never rest nor was undrest - Till she reachd again Dundee. - - 13 - ‘I learned this at Broughty Walls, - At Broughty near Dundee, - That if water were my prison strong - I would swim for libertie.’ - - * * * * * - -#a.# - - 7^2. Tuckd. - -#b.# - - 1^4. the _wanting_. - - 2^3. But to Hunglen. - - 3^2. were _wanting_. - - 4^1. fell oot once upon a time. - - 4^3. All for. - - 4^4. stand ten. - - 5^1. Glenhazlen he cam ridin bye. - - 5^2. An thinkin to get in. - - 7^1, 8^1. They hies̄ēd. - - 7^2. Locked up. - - 7^3. An flang. - - 8^4. To weep she wald. - - 9^{3,4}. An if you wald my favour gain, Oh, tak me to Dundee! - - 10^1. once upon a time. - - 10^2. went oot to. - - 10^3. into the. - - 10^4. Between. - - 11^1. The stream was deep. - - 11^2. So he: after her himsell. - - _After 11_: - - ‘The Highland hills are high, high hills, - The Highland hills are hie; - They’re no like the pleasant banks o Tay, - Nor the bonnie town o Dundee’. - - 13^3. water waur my prison-walls. - - 13^4. I could. - - - - - 259 - - LORD THOMAS STUART - - Maidment’s North Countrie Garland, p. 1. - - -Lord Thomas Stuart has married a young countess, and has given her -Strathbogie and Aboyne for a morning-gift. The lady has a desire to see -these places. As they are on their way thither (from Edinburgh), her -husband is attacked with a pain which obliges him to turn back; he tells -her to ride on, and she seems so to do. The pain proves to be beyond the -skill of leeches. Lord Thomas begs his father to see that his wife gets -what he has given her. He dies; the horses turn wild in the stables, the -hounds howl on the leash. Lady Stuart has the usual dream (No 74, #A# 8, -#B# 11, etc.). She comes back wringing her hands; she knows by the -horses that are standing about the house that the burial is preparing. - - * * * * * - - 1 - Thomas Stuart was a lord, - A lord of mickle land; - He used to wear a coat of gold, - But now his grave is green. - - 2 - Now he has wooed the young countess, - The Countess of Balquhin, - An given her for a morning-gift - Strathboggie and Aboyne. - - 3 - But women’s wit is aye willful, - Alas that ever it was sae! - She longed to see the morning-gift - That her gude lord to her gae. - - 4 - When steeds were saddled an weel bridled, - An ready for to ride, - There came a pain on that gude lord, - His back, likewise his side. - - 5 - He said, Ride on, my lady fair, - May goodness be your guide! - For I’m sae sick an weary that - No farther can I ride. - - 6 - Now ben did come his father dear, - Wearing a golden band; - Says, Is there nae leech in Edinburgh - Can cure my son from wrang? - - 7 - ‘O leech is come, an leech is gane, - Yet, father, I’m aye waur; - There’s not a leech in Edinbro - Can death from me debar. - - 8 - ‘But be a friend to my wife, father, - Restore to her her own; - Restore to her my morning-gift, - Strathboggie and Aboyne. - - 9 - ‘It had been gude for my wife, father, - To me she’d born a son; - He would have got my land an rents, - Where they lie out an in. - - 10 - ‘It had been gude for my wife, father, - To me she’d born an heir; - He would have got my land an rents, - Where they lie fine an fair.’ - - 11 - The steeds they strave into their stables, - The boys could’nt get them bound; - The hounds lay howling on the leech, - Cause their master was behind. - - 12 - ‘I dreamed a dream since late yestreen, - I wish it may be good, - That our chamber was full of swine, - An our bed full of blood.’ - - 13 - I saw a woman come from the West, - Full sore wringing her hands, - And aye she cried, Ohon, alas! - My good lord’s broken bands. - - 14 - As she came by my good lord’s bower, - Saw mony black steeds an brown: - ‘I’m feared it be mony unco lords - Havin my love from town!’ - - 15 - As she came by my gude lord’s bower, - Saw mony black steeds an grey: - ‘I’m feared it’s mony unco lords - Havin my love to the clay!’ - - - - - 260 - - LORD THOMAS AND LADY MARGARET - - #A. a.# ‘Lord Thomas,’ Motherwell’s MS., p. 407. #b.# ‘Lord Thomas and - Lady Margaret,’ the same, p. 71. - - #B.# ‘Clerk Tamas,’ Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, I, 43. - - -Christie, who gives #B#, “epitomized and slightly changed,” under the -title ‘Clerk Tamas and Fair Annie,’ Traditional Ballad Airs, II, 12, -says that he can trace the ballad, traditionally, far into the last -century. - -#A.# Lord Thomas goes a-hunting, and Lady Margaret rides after him; when -he sees her following, he orders his servants to hunt her far from him, -and they hunt her high and low. She comes upon a tall young man, and -begs ‘relief’ from him for a lady wronged in love and chased from her -‘country.’ No relief is to be had from him unless she will renounce all -other men and be his wife. After a time, Lady Margaret, sewing at her -window, observes a vagrant body, who turns out to be Lord Thomas, -reduced to beggary; he has been banished from his own country, and asks -relief. No relief from her; she would hang him were he within her bower. -Not so, says Lord Thomas; rather he would kill her lord with his -broadsword and carry her off. Not so, says Lady Margaret, but you must -come in and drink with me. She poisons three bottles of wine, and -pretends to be his taster. Lord Thomas drinks away merrily, but soon -feels the poison. I am wearied with this drinking, he says. And so was I -when you set your hounds at me, she replies; but you shall be buried as -if you were one of my own. - -#B# has Clerk Tamas for Lord Thomas, and Fair Annie for Lady Margaret. -Tamas has loved Annie devotedly, but now hates her and the lands she -lives in. Annie goes to ask him to pity her; he sees her coming, as he -lies ‘over his shot-window,’ and orders his men to hunt her to the sea. -A captain, lying ‘over his ship-window,’ sees Annie driven from the -town, and offers to take her in if she will forsake friends and lands -for him. The story goes on much as in #A#. - -#A# 8 is borrowed from ‘The Douglas Tragedy,’ see No 7, #C# 9. #B# -14^{3,4} is a commonplace, which, in inferior traditional ballads, is -often, as here, an out-of-place. #B# 15, 16 is another commonplace, of -the silly sort: see No 87, #B# 3, 4, #D# 4, 5, and Buchan’s ‘Lady -Isabel,’ 20, 21. - - * * * * * - - - A - - #a.# Motherwell’s MS., p. 407; from the recitation of Mrs Parkhill, - Maxweltown, 28 September, 1825 (with variations, furnished by - another person of the same neighborhood, interlined). #b.# - Motherwell’s MS., p. 71; from Miss ——, Glasgow. - - 1 - Lord Thomas is to the hunting gone, - To hunt the fallow deer; - Lady Margaret’s to the greenwood shaw, - To see her lover hunt there. - - 2 - He has looked over his left shoulder, - To see what might be seen, - And there he saw Lady Margaret, - As she was riding her lane. - - 3 - He called on his servants all, - By one, by two, by three: - ‘Go hunt, go hunt that wild woman, - Go hunt her far from me!’ - - 4 - They hunted her high, they hunted her low, - They hunted her over the plain, - And the red scarlet robes Lady Margaret had on - Would never be mended again. - - 5 - They hunted her high, they hunted her low, - They hunted her over the plain, - Till at last she spy’d a tall young man, - As he was riding alane. - - 6 - ‘Some relief, some relief, thou tall young man! - Some relief I pray thee grant me! - For I am a lady deep wronged in love, - And chased from my own countrie.’ - - 7 - ‘No relief, no relief, thou lady fair, - No relief will I grant unto thee - Till once thou renounce all the men in the world - My wedded wife for to be.’ - - 8 - Then he set her on a milk-white steed, - Himself upon a gray, - And he has drawn his hat over his face, - And chearfully they rode away. - - 9 - Lady Margaret was at her bower-window, - Sewing her silken seam, - And there she spy’d, like a wandering bodie, - Lord Thomas begging alane. - - 10 - ‘Some relief, some relief, thou lady fair! - Some relief, I pray thee grant me! - For I am a puir auld doited carle, - And banishd from my ain countrie.’ - - 11 - ‘No relief, no relief, thou perjured man, - No relief will I grant unto thee; - For oh, if I had thee within my bower, - There hanged dead thou would be.’ - - 12 - ‘No such thing, Lady Margaret,’ he said, - ‘Such a thing would never be; - For with my broadsword I would kill thy wedded lord, - And carry thee far off with me.’ - - 13 - ‘Oh no, no! Lord Thomas,’ she said, - ‘Oh, no such things must be; - For I have wine in my cellars, - And you must drink with me.’ - - 14 - Lady Margaret then called her servants all, - By one, by two, by three: - ‘Go fetch me the bottles of blude-red wine, - That Lord Thomas may drink with me.’ - - 15 - They brought her the bottles of blude-red wine, - By one, by two, by three, - And with her fingers long and small - She poisond them all three. - - 16 - She took the cup in her lilly-white hand, - Betwixt her finger and her thumb, - She put it to her red rosy lips, - But never a drop went down. - - 17 - Then he took the cup in his manly hand, - Betwixt his finger and his thumb, - He put it to his red rosy lips, - And so merrily it ran down. - - 18 - ‘Oh, I am wearied drinking with thee, Margaret! - I am wearied drinking with thee!’ - ‘And so was I,’ Lady Margaret said, - ‘When thou hunted thy hounds after me.’ - - 19 - ‘But I will bury thee, Lord Thomas,’ she said, - ‘Just as if thou wert one of my own; - And when that my good lord comes home - I will say thou’s my sister’s son.’ - - * * * * * - - - B - - Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, I, 43. - - 1 - Clerk Tamas lovd her fair Annie - As well as Mary lovd her son; - But now he hates her fair Annie, - And hates the lands that she lives in. - - 2 - ‘Ohon, alas!’ said fair Annie, - ‘Alas! this day I fear I’ll die; - But I will on to sweet Tamas, - And see gin he will pity me.’ - - 3 - As Tamas lay ower his shott-window, - Just as the sun was gaen down, - There he beheld her fair Annie, - As she came walking to the town. - - 4 - ‘O where are a’ my well-wight men, - I wat, that I pay meat and fee, - For to lat a’ my hounds gang loose - To hunt this vile whore to the sea.’ - - 5 - The hounds they knew the lady well, - And nane o them they woud her bite, - Save ane that is ca’d Gaudywhere, - I wat he did the lady smite. - - 6 - ‘O wae mat worth ye, Gaudywhere! - An ill reward this is to me; - For ae bit that I gae the lave, - I’m very sure I’ve gien you three. - - 7 - ‘For me, alas! there’s nae remeid, - Here comes the day that I maun die; - I ken ye lovd your master well, - And sae, alas for me! did I.’ - - 8 - A captain lay ower his ship-window, - Just as the sun was gaen down; - There he beheld her fair Annie, - As she was hunted frae the town. - - 9 - ‘Gin ye’ll forsake father and mither, - And sae will ye your friends and kin, - Gin ye’ll forsake your lands sae broad, - Then come and I will take you in.’ - - 10 - ‘Yes, I’ll forsake baith father and mither, - And sae will I my friends and kin; - Yes, I’ll forsake my lands sae broad, - And come, gin ye will take me in.’ - - 11 - Then a’ thing gaed frae fause Tamas, - And there was naething byde him wi; - Then he thought lang for Arrandella, - It was fair Annie for to see. - - 12 - ‘How do ye now, ye sweet Tamas? - And how gaes a’ in your countrie?’ - ‘I’ll do better to you than ever I’ve done, - Fair Annie, gin ye’ll come an see.’ - - 13 - ‘O Guid forbid,’ said fair Annie, - ‘That e’er the like fa in my hand! - Woud I forsake my ain gude lord - And follow you, a gae-through-land? - - 14 - ‘Yet nevertheless now, sweet Tamas, - Ye’ll drink a cup o wine wi me, - And nine times in the live lang day - Your fair claithing shall changed be.’ - - 15 - Fair Annie pat it till her cheek, - Sae did she till her milk-white chin, - Sae did she till her flattering lips, - But never a drap o wine gaed in. - - 16 - Tamas pat it till his cheek, - Sae did he till his dimpled chin; - He pat it till his rosy lips, - And then the well o wine gaed in. - - 17 - ‘These pains,’ said he, ‘are ill to bide; - Here is the day that I maun die; - O take this cup frae me, Annie, - For o the same I am weary.’ - - 18 - ‘And sae was I o you, Tamas, - When I was hunted to the sea; - But I’se gar bury you in state, - Which is mair than ye’d done to me.’ - - * * * * * - -#A. a.# - - 12^1. (no such thing) _a second time_; _inserted apparently by - Motherwell_. - - _Interlineations_: 2^2. what he might spy. 2^4. riding by. - - 8^3. his broadsword from his side. - - 8^4. And slowly. - - 9^2. To see what she might spy. - - 9^3. spy’d Lord Thomas. - - 9^4. A begging along the highway. - - 10^3. puir oppressed man. - - 15^1. They glowred, but they brought the blude-red wine. - -#b.# - - 1^1. is a. - - 1^2. the green wood oer. - - 1^3. Lady Margaret has followed him. - - 1^4. To seek her own true-love. - - 2. _Wanting._ - - 3^1. He has called up his merrie men all. - - 3^3. Hunt away, hunt away this. - - 3^4. her away from. - - 4^1, 5^1. and they. - - 4^2, 5^2. Till she ran quite over. - - 4^3. The scarlet robes. - - 4^4. They can never. - - 5^3. And there she spied. - - 5^4. Just as. - - 6^2. Some relief, some relief grant me. - - 6^3. lady that is deep, deep in. - - 6^4. And I am banished from. - - 7^1. fair ladie. - - 7^2. No relief, no relief I’ll grant thee. - - 7^3. Unless you forsake: in this. - - 7^4. And my: you will be. - - 8^1. He has mounted her. - - 8^2. And himself on a dapple. - - 8^3. The buglet horn hung done by there side. - - 8^4. And so slowly as they both. - - 9^1. One day L. M. at her castle-window. - - 9^2. Was sewing. - - 9^3. espied L. T. - - 9^4. A begging all. - - 10^1. fair ladie. - - 10^2. Some relief, some relief grant me. - - 10^{3,4}, 11. No relief, no relief, Lord Thomas, she said, But - hanged thou shalt be. - - 12^1. O no, O no, Lady. - - 12^2. For no such things must be. - - 12^3. But with: I will. - - 12^4. And I’ll ride far off with thee. - - 13^1. O no, O no. - - 13^2. O no: must not. - - 14^1. She has called up her. - - 14^2, 15^2. and by. - - 14^3. Go bring to me a bottle of wine. - - 15^1. her up a bottle of wine. - - 15^3. so long. - - 15^4. The rank poison in put she. - - 16, 17. _Wanting._ - - 18^1. I’m wearied, I’m wearied, Lady Margaret, he said. - - 18^2. O I’m: talking to. - - 18^3. I, Lord Thomas, she. - - 18^4. you hounded your dogs. - - 19^1. bury you as one of my own. - - 19^2. And all in my own ground. - - 19^4. say you’re. - - - - - 261 - - LADY ISABEL - - ‘Lady Isabel,’ Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, I, 129. - - -Lady Isabel’s step-mother accuses her of being her father’s leman; he -gives her finer gowns than he gives his wife. Isabel replies that, in -the first place, she is young, which is reason enough why her gowns -should be fairer; but that, as a matter of fact, a lover of hers over -seas sends her ten gowns to one that her father buys her. The -step-mother invites Isabel to take wine with her. Isabel wishes first to -go to a church. At this church she sees her own mother, and asks whether -she shall flee the country or drink what has been prepared for her. Her -mother enjoins her to drink the dowie drink; before she is cold she will -be in a better place. Upon returning, Isabel is again pressed to take -wine, and again begs to be excused for the moment; she wishes to see her -maids in the garden. She gives her maids ring and brooch. A third time -the step-mother proposes that they shall take wine together; the -daughter, with due courtesy, begs the elder to begin. The step-mother -goes through certain motions customary in ballads of this description, -and swallows not a drop; Isabel duly repeats the mummery, but drinks. -She has time to tell this wicked dame that their beds will be made very -far apart. The step-mother goes mad. - -Stanzas 20, 21, as has already been intimated, are a commonplace, and a -foolish one. Stanza 24, in various forms, not always well adapted to the -particular circumstances, ends several ballads: as No 64, #F#; No 65, -#H#; No 66, #A# 28, 29, #B# 20, 21; No 67, #B#; No 70, #B#. - - -Translated by Gerhard, p. 161. - - * * * * * - - 1 - ‘T was early on a May morning - Lady Isabel combd her hair; - But little kent she, or the morn - She woud never comb it mair. - - 2 - ‘T was early on a May morning - Lady Isabel rang the keys; - But little kent she, or the morn - A fey woman she was. - - 3 - Ben it came her step-mother, - As white ‘s the lily flower: - ‘It’s tauld me this day, Isabel, - You are your father’s whore.’ - - 4 - ‘O them that tauld you that, mother, - I wish they neer drink wine; - For if I be the same woman - My ain sell drees the pine. - - 5 - ‘And them that’s tauld you that, mother, - I wish they neer drink ale; - For if I be the same woman - My ain sell drees the dail.’ - - 6 - ‘It may be very well seen, Isabel, - It may be very well seen; - He buys to you the damask gowns, - To me the dowie green.’ - - 7 - ‘Ye are of age and I am young, - And young amo my flowers; - The fairer that my claithing be, - The mair honour is yours. - - 8 - ‘I hae a love beyond the sea, - And far ayont the faem; - For ilka gown my father buys me, - My ain luve sends me ten.’ - - 9 - ‘Come ben, come ben now, Lady Isabel, - And drink the wine wi me; - I hae twa jewels in ae coffer, - And ane o them I’ll gie [ye].’ - - 10 - ‘Stay still, stay still, my mother dear, - Stay still a little while, - Till I gang into Marykirk; - It’s but a little mile.’ - - 11 - When she gaed on to Marykirk, - And into Mary’s quire, - There she saw her ain mother - Sit in a gowden chair. - - 12 - ‘O will I leave the lands, mother? - Or shall I sail the sea? - Or shall I drink this dowie drink - That is prepar’d for me?’ - - 13 - ‘Ye winna leave the lands, daughter, - Nor will ye sail the sea, - But ye will drink this dowie drink - This woman’s prepar’d for thee. - - 14 - ‘Your bed is made in a better place - Than ever hers will be, - And ere ye’re cauld into the room - Ye will be there wi me.’ - - 15 - ‘Come in, come in now, Lady Isabel, - And drink the wine wi me; - I hae twa jewels in ae coffer, - And ane o them I’ll gie [ye].’ - - 16 - ‘Stay still, stay still, my mother dear, - Stay still a little wee, - Till I gang to yon garden green, - My Maries a’ to see.’ - - 17 - To some she gae the broach, the broach, - To some she gae a ring; - But wae befa her step-mother! - To her she gae nae thing. - - 18 - ‘Come in, come in now, Lady Isabel, - And drink the wine wi me; - I hae twa jewels in ae coffer, - And ane o them I’ll gie [ye].’ - - 19 - Slowly to the bower she came, - And slowly enterd in, - And being full o courtesie, - Says, Begin, mother, begin. - - 20 - She put it till her cheek, her cheek, - Sae did she till her chin, - Sae did she till her fu fause lips, - But never a drap gaed in. - - 21 - Lady Isabel put it till her cheek, - Sae did she till her chin, - Sae did she till her rosy lips, - And the rank poison gaed in. - - 22 - ‘O take this cup frae me, mother, - O take this cup frae me; - My bed is made in a better place - Than ever yours will be. - - 23 - ‘My bed is in the heavens high, - Amang the angels fine; - But yours is in the lowest hell, - To drie torment and pine.’ - - 24 - Nae moan was made for Lady Isabel - In bower where she lay dead, - But a’ was for that ill woman, - In the fields mad she gaed. - - - - - 262 - - LORD LIVINGSTON - - ‘Lord Livingston,’ Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, II, - 39. - - -As far as can be made out, Livingston and Seaton engage themselves to -play against one another at some game, the victor expecting to stand the -better in the eyes of a lady. They then proceed to Edinburgh castle, -where a lady, whose ‘gowns seem like green,’ marshals the company in -pairs, and chooses Livingston for her own partner. This preference -enrages Seaton, who challenges Livingston to fight with him the next -day. Up to this point the pairing may have been for a dance, or what -not, but now we are told that Livingston and the fair dame are laid in -the same bed, and further on that they were wedded that same night. In -the morning Livingston arms himself for his fight; he declines to let -his lady dress herself in man’s clothes and fight in his stead. On his -way ‘to plain fields’ a witch warns him that she has had the dream which -Sweet William dreams in No 74, and others elsewhere. Livingston is -‘slain,’ but for all that stands presently bleeding by his lady’s knee: -see No 73, #B# 34, #D# 17. She begs him to hold out but half an hour, -and every leech in Edinburgh shall come to him: see No 88, #A# 12, etc. -He orders his lands to be dealt to the auld that may not, the young that -cannot, etc.: see No 92, #A# 10, #B# 15. The lady declares that it was -known from her birth that she was to marry a knight and lose him the -next day. She will now do for his sake what other ladies would not be -equal to (and which nevertheless many other ballad-ladies have -undertaken, as in No 69 and elsewhere). When seven years are near an end -her heart breaks. - -This ballad, or something like it, was known at the end of the last -century. The story has a faint resemblance to that of ‘Armstrong and -Musgrave,’ a broadside printed in the last quarter of the seventeenth -century: Crawford Ballads, No 123, Old Ballads, 1723, I, 175; Evans, Old -Ballads, 1777, II, 70. Pinkerton acknowledges that he composed the ‘Lord -Livingston’ of his Tragic Ballads, 1781, p. 69, but he says that he had -“small lines from tradition.” (Ancient Scotish Poems, 1786, I, cxxxi.) -Pinkerton’s ballad is the one which Buchan refers to, II, 308. It is -translated by Grundtvig, Engelske og skotske Folkeviser, p. 139, No 21. - - * * * * * - - 1 - It fell about the Lammas time, - When wightsmen won their hay, - A’ the squires in merry Linkum - Went a’ forth till a play. - - 2 - They playd until the evening tide, - The sun was gaeing down; - A lady thro plain fields was bound, - A lily leesome thing. - - 3 - Two squires that for this lady pledged, - In hopes for a renown, - The one was calld the proud Seaton, - The other Livingston. - - 4 - ‘When will ye, Michaell o Livingston, - Wad for this lady gay?’ - ‘To-morrow, to-morrow,’ said Livingston, - ‘To-morrow, if you may.’ - - 5 - Then they hae wadded their wagers, - And laid their pledges down; - To the high castle o Edinbro - They made them ready boun. - - 6 - The chamber that they did gang in, - There it was daily dight; - The kipples were like the gude red gowd, - As they stood up in hight, - And the roof-tree like the siller white, - And shin’d like candles bright. - - 7 - The lady fair into that ha - Was comely to be seen; - Her kirtle was made o the pa, - Her gowns seemd o the green. - - 8 - Her gowns seemd like green, like green, - Her kirtle o the pa; - A siller wand intill her hand, - She marshalld ower them a’. - - 9 - She gae every knight a lady bright, - And every squire a may; - Her own sell chose him Livingston, - They were a comely tway. - - 10 - Then Seaton started till his foot, - The fierce flame in his ee: - ‘On the next day, wi sword in hand, - On plain fields meet ye me.’ - - 11 - When bells were rung, and mass was sung, - And a’ man bound for bed, - Lord Livingston and his fair dame - In bed were sweetly laid. - - 12 - The bed, the bed where they lay in - Was coverd wi the pa; - A covering o the gude red gowd - Lay nightly ower the twa. - - 13 - So they lay there, till on the morn - The sun shone on their feet; - Then up it raise him Livingston - To draw to him a weed. - - 14 - The first an weed that he drew on - Was o the linen clear; - The next an weed that he drew on, - It was a weed o weir. - - 15 - The niest an weed that he drew on - Was gude iron and steel; - Twa gloves o plate, a gowden helmet, - Became that hind chiel weel. - - 16 - Then out it speaks that lady gay— - A little forbye stood she— - ‘I’ll dress mysell in men’s array, - Gae to the fields for thee.’ - - 17 - ‘O God forbid,’ said Livingston, - ‘That eer I dree the shame; - My lady slain in plain fields, - And I coward knight at hame!’ - - 18 - He scarcely travelled frae the town - A mile but barely twa - Till he met wi a witch-woman, - I pray to send her wae! - - 19 - ‘This is too gude a day, my lord, - To gang sae far frae town; - This is too gude a day, my lord, - On field to make you boun. - - 20 - ‘I dreamd a dream concerning thee, - O read ill dreams to guid! - Your bower was full o milk-white swans, - Your bride’s bed full o bluid.’ - - 21 - ‘O bluid is gude,’ said Livingston, - ‘To bide it whoso may; - If I be frae yon plain fields, - Nane knew the plight I lay.’ - - 22 - Then he rade on to plain fields - As swift’s his horse coud hie, - And there he met the proud Seaton, - Come boldly ower the lee. - - 23 - ‘Come on to me now, Livingston, - Or then take foot and flee; - This is the day that we must try - Who gains the victorie.’ - - 24 - Then they fought with sword in hand - Till they were bluidy men; - But on the point o Seaton’s sword - Brave Livingston was slain. - - 25 - His lady lay ower castle-wa, - Beholding dale and down, - When Blenchant brave, his gallant steed, - Came prancing to the town. - - 26 - ‘O where is now my ain gude lord - He stays sae far frae me?’ - ‘O dinna ye see your ain gude lord - Stand bleeding by your knee?’ - - 27 - ‘O live, O live, Lord Livingston, - The space o ae half hour, - There’s nae a leech in Edinbro town - But I’ll bring to your door.’ - - 28 - ‘Awa wi your leeches, lady,’ he said, - ‘Of them I’ll be the waur; - There’s nae a leech in Edinbro town - That can strong death debar. - - 29 - ‘Ye’ll take the lands o Livingston - And deal them liberallie, - To the auld that may not, the young that cannot, - And blind that does na see, - And help young maidens’ marriages, - That has nae gear to gie.’ - - 30 - ‘My mother got it in a book, - The first night I was born, - I woud be wedded till a knight, - And him slain on the morn. - - 31 - ‘But I will do for my love’s sake - What ladies woudna thole; - Ere seven years shall hae an end, - Nae shoe’s gang on my sole. - - 32 - ‘There’s never lint gang on my head, - Nor kame gang in my hair, - Nor ever coal nor candle-light - Shine in my bower mair.’ - - 33 - When seven years were near an end, - The lady she thought lang, - And wi a crack her heart did brake, - And sae this ends my sang. - - - - - 263 - - THE NEW-SLAIN KNIGHT - - ‘The New-Slain Knight,’ Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, - I, 197. - - -A knight (who twaddles in the first person at the beginning) finds a -maid sleeping under a hedge, wakes her, and tells her that he has seen a -dead man in her father’s garden. She asks about the dead man’s hawk, -hound, sword. His hawk and hound were gone, his horse was tied to a -tree, a bloody sword lay under his head. She asks about his clothes, and -receives a description, with the addition that his hair was bonny and -new combed. ‘I combed it late yesterday!’ says the lady. ‘Who now will -shoe my foot, and glove my hand, and father my bairn?’ The knight offers -himself for all these, but the lady will commit herself only to Heaven. -The knight, after knacking his fingers quite superfluously, unmasks; he -has only been making a trial of her truth. - -A large part of this piece is imitated or taken outright from very well -known ballads (as has already been pointed out by the editor of the -Ballad Minstrelsy of Scotland, 1871, p. 345): 5–8 from ‘Young -Johnstone,’ No 88; 10, 11 from ‘The Lass of Roch Royal,’ No 76 (see -particularly #E# 1–4, and compare No 66, #A# 24, etc.); for 13^{1,2} see -No 91, #B# 5^1, 6^1, 7^1, #D# 7^{1,2}, No 257, #A# 7. - -Grundtvig notes that this piece is of the same description as the Danish -‘Troskabspröven,’ Danmarks gamle Folkeviser, IV, 553, No 252, one -version of which is translated by Prior, III, 289, No 146. Naturally, -the fidelity of maid or wife is celebrated in the ballads of every -tongue and people. This particular ballad, so far as it is original, is -of very ordinary quality. The ninth stanza is pretty, but not quite -artless. - - -Translated by Grundtvig, Engelske og skotske Folkeviser, p. 294, No 46. - - * * * * * - - 1 - My heart is lighter than the poll; - My folly made me glad, - As on my rambles I went out, - Near by a garden-side. - - 2 - I walked on, and farther on, - Love did my heart engage; - There I spied a well-faird maid, - Lay sleeping near a hedge. - - 3 - Then I kissd her with my lips - And stroked her with my hand: - ‘Win up, win up, ye well-faird maid, - This day ye sleep oer lang. - - 4 - ‘This dreary sight that I hae seen - Unto my heart gives pain; - At the south side o your father’s garden, - I see a knight lies slain.’ - - 5 - ‘O what like was his hawk, his hawk? - Or what like was his hound? - And what like was the trusty brand - This new-slain knight had on?’ - - 6 - ‘His hawk and hound were from him gone, - His steed tied to a tree; - A bloody brand beneath his head, - And on the ground lies he.’ - - 7 - ‘O what like was his hose, his hose? - And what like were his shoon? - And what like was the gay clothing - This new-slain knight had on?’ - - 8 - ‘His coat was of the red scarlet, - His waistcoat of the same; - His hose were of the bonny black, - And shoon laced with cordin. - - 9 - ‘Bonny was his yellow hair, - For it was new combd down;’ - Then, sighing sair, said the lady fair, - ‘I combd it late yestreen. - - 10 - ‘O wha will shoe my fu fair foot? - Or wha will glove my hand? - Or wha will father my dear bairn, - Since my love’s dead and gane?’ - - 11 - ‘O I will shoe your fu fair foot, - And I will glove your hand; - And I’ll be father to your bairn, - Since your love’s dead and gane.’ - - 12 - ‘I winna father my bairn,’ she said, - ‘Upon an unkent man; - I’ll father it on the King of Heaven, - Since my love’s dead and gane.’ - - 13 - The knight he knackd his white fingers, - The lady tore her hair; - He’s drawn the mask from off his face, - Says, Lady, mourn nae mair. - - 14 - ‘For ye are mine, and I am thine, - I see your love is true; - And if I live and brook my life - Ye’se never hae cause to rue.’ - - * * * * * - - 10^1, 11^1. fair fu. - - - - - 264 - - THE WHITE FISHER - - ‘The White Fisher,’ Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, I, - 200. - - -A young lord, Willie, asks his ‘gay lady’ whose the child is that she is -going with. She owns that a priest is the father, which does not appear -to disconcert Willie. A boy is born, and the mother charges Willie to -throw him into the sea, ‘never to return till white fish he bring hame.’ -Willie takes the boy (now called his son) to his mother, and tells her -that his ‘bride’ is a king’s daughter; upon which his mother, who had -had an ill opinion of the lady, promises to do as well by Willie’s son -as she had done by Willie. Returning to his wife, he finds her weeping -and repining for the ‘white fisher’ that she had ‘sent to the sea.’ -Willie offers her a cordial; she says that the man who could have -drowned her son would be capable of poisoning her. Willie then tells her -that his mother has the boy in charge; she is consoled, and declares -that if he had not been the father she should not have been the mother. - -To make this story hang together at all, we must suppose that the third -and fourth stanzas are tropical, and that Willie was the priest; or else -that they are sarcastic, and are uttered in bitter resentment of -Willie’s suspicion, or affected suspicion. But we need not trouble -ourselves much to make these counterfeits reasonable. Those who utter -them rely confidently upon our taking folly and jargon as the marks of -genuineness. The white fisher is a trumpery fancy; 2, 7, 8, 12 are -frippery commonplaces. - - * * * * * - - 1 - ‘It is a month, and isna mair, - Love, sin I was at thee, - But find a stirring in your side; - Who may the father be? - - 2 - ‘Is it to a lord of might, - Or baron of high degree? - Or is it to the little wee page - That rode along wi me?’ - - 3 - ‘It is not to a man of might, - Nor baron of high degree, - But it is to a popish priest; - My lord, I winna lie. - - 4 - ‘He got me in my bower alone, - As I sat pensively; - He vowed he would forgive my sins, - If I would him obey.’ - - 5 - Now it fell ance upon a day - This young lord went from home, - And great and heavy were the pains - That came this lady on. - - 6 - Then word has gane to her gude lord, - As he sat at the wine, - And when the tidings he did hear - Then he came singing hame. - - 7 - When he came to his own bower-door, - He tirled at the pin: - ‘Sleep ye, wake ye, my gay lady, - Ye’ll let your gude lord in.’ - - 8 - Huly, huly raise she up, - And slowly put she on, - And slowly came she to the door; - She was a weary woman. - - 9 - ‘Ye’ll take up my son, Willie, - That ye see here wi me, - And hae him down to yon shore-side, - And throw him in the sea. - - 10 - ‘Gin he sink, ye’ll let him sink, - Gin he swim, ye’ll let him swim; - And never let him return again - Till white fish he bring hame.’ - - 11 - Then he’s taen up his little young son, - And rowd him in a band, - And he is on to his mother, - As fast as he could gang. - - 12 - ‘Ye’ll open the door, my mother dear, - Ye’ll open, let me come in; - My young son is in my arms twa, - And shivering at the chin.’ - - 13 - ‘I tauld you true, my son Willie, - When ye was gaun to ride, - That lady was an ill woman - That ye chose for your bride.’ - - 14 - ‘O hold your tongue, my mother dear, - Let a’ your folly be; - I wat she is a king’s daughter - That’s sent this son to thee. - - 15 - ‘I wat she was a king’s daughter - I loved beyond the sea, - And if my lady hear of this - Right angry will she be.’ - - 16 - ‘If that be true, my son Willie— - Your ain tongue winna lie— - Nae waur to your son will be done - Than what was done to thee.’ - - 17 - He’s gane hame to his lady, - And sair mourning was she: - ‘What ails you now, my lady gay, - Ye weep sa bitterlie?’ - - 18 - ‘O bonny was the white fisher - That I sent to the sea; - But lang, lang will I look for fish - Ere white fish he bring me! - - 19 - ‘O bonny was the white fisher - That ye kiest in the faem; - But lang, lang will I look for fish - Ere white fish he fetch hame! - - 20 - ‘I fell a slumbering on my bed - That time ye went frae me, - And dreamd my young son filld my arms, - But when waked, he’s in the sea.’ - - 21 - ‘O hold your tongue, my gay lady, - Let a’ your mourning be, - And I’ll gie you some fine cordial, - My love, to comfort thee.’ - - 22 - ‘I value not your fine cordial, - Nor aught that ye can gie; - Who could hae drownd my bonny young son - Could as well poison me.’ - - 28 - ‘Cheer up your heart, my lily flower, - Think nae sic ill o me; - Your young son’s in my mother’s bower, - Set on the nourice knee. - - 24 - ‘Now, if ye’ll be a gude woman, - I’ll neer mind this to thee; - Nae waur is done to your young son - Than what was done to me.’ - - 25 - ‘Well fell’s me now, my ain gude lord; - These words do cherish me; - If it hadna come o yoursell, my lord, - ‘T would neer hae come o me.’ - - * * * * * - - 7^3. Ye sleep ye, wake ye. - - - - - 265 - - THE KNIGHT’S GHOST - - ‘The Knight’s Ghost,’ Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, I, - 227. - - -A lady who is expecting the return of her lord from sea goes down to the -strand to meet him. The ship comes in, but the sailors tell her that she -will never see her husband; he has been slain. She invites the men to -drink with her, takes them down to the cellar, makes them drunk, locks -the door, and bids them lie there for the bad news they have told; then -she throws the keys into the sea, to lie there till her lord returns. -After these efforts she falls asleep in her own room, and her dead lord -starts up at her feet; he brings the keys with him, and charges her to -release his men, who had done their best for him and were not to blame -for his death. The lady, to turn this visit to the more account, asks to -be informed what day she is to die, and what day to be buried. The -knight is not empowered to answer, but, come to heaven when she will, he -will be her porter. He sees no objection to telling her that she will be -married again and have nine children, six ladies free and three bold -young men. - -The piece has not a perceptible globule of old blood in it, yet it has -had the distinction of being more than once translated as a specimen of -Scottish popular ballads. ‘Monie’ in 2^2 may be plausibly read, or -understood, ‘menie,’ retinue; still the antecedent presumption in favor -of nonsense in ballads of this class makes one hesitate. 7^{3,4} is -unnatural; no dissembling would be required to induce the young men to -drink. In 8^3, ‘birled them wi the beer’ is what we should expect, not -‘birled wi them.’ - - -Translated by Rosa Warrens, Schottische Volkslieder der Vorzeit, p. 57, -No 13; by Gerhard, p. 154. - - * * * * * - - 1 - ‘There is a fashion in this land, - And even come to this country, - That every lady should meet her lord - When he is newly come frae sea: - - 2 - ‘Some wi hawks, and some wi hounds, - And other some wi gay monie; - But I will gae myself alone, - And set his young son on his knee.’ - - 3 - She’s taen her young son in her arms, - And nimbly walkd by yon sea-strand, - And there she spy’d her father’s ship, - As she was sailing to dry land. - - 4 - ‘Where hae ye put my ain gude lord, - This day he stays sae far frae me?’ - ‘If ye be wanting your ain gude lord, - A sight o him ye’ll never see.’ - - 5 - ‘Was he brunt? or was he shot? - Or was he drowned in the sea? - Or what’s become o my ain gude lord, - That he will neer appear to me?’ - - 6 - ‘He wasna brunt, nor was he shot, - Nor was he drowned in the sea; - He was slain in Dumfermling, - A fatal day to you and me.’ - - 7 - ‘Come in, come in, my merry young men, - Come in and drink the wine wi me; - And a’ the better ye shall fare - For this gude news ye tell to me.’ - - 8 - She’s brought them down to yon cellar, - She brought them fifty steps and three; - She birled wi them the beer and wine, - Till they were as drunk as drunk could be. - - 9 - Then she has lockd her cellar-door, - For there were fifty steps and three: - ‘Lie there, wi my sad malison, - For this bad news ye’ve tauld to me.’ - - 10 - She’s taen the keys intill her hand - And threw them deep, deep in the sea: - ‘Lie there, wi my sad malison, - Till my gude lord return to me.’ - - 11 - Then she sat down in her own room, - And sorrow lulld her fast asleep, - And up it starts her own gude lord, - And even at that lady’s feet. - - 12 - ‘Take here the keys, Janet,’ he says, - ‘That ye threw deep, deep in the sea; - And ye’ll relieve my merry young men, - For they’ve nane o the swick o me. - - 13 - ‘They shot the shot, and drew the stroke, - And wad in red bluid to the knee; - Nae sailors mair for their lord coud do - Nor my young men they did for me.’ - - 14 - ‘I hae a question at you to ask, - Before that ye depart frae me; - You’ll tell to me what day I’ll die, - And what day will my burial be?’ - - 15 - ‘I hae nae mair o God’s power - Than he has granted unto me; - But come to heaven when ye will, - There porter to you I will be. - - 16 - ‘But ye’ll be wed to a finer knight - Than ever was in my degree; - Unto him ye’ll hae children nine, - And six o them will be ladies free. - - 17 - ‘The other three will be bold young men, - To fight for king and countrie; - The ane a duke, the second a knight, - And third a laird o lands sae free.’ - - - - - ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS - - - VOL. I. - - - 1. Riddles Wisely Expounded. - -Pp. 1–3, 484; II, 495 a. #Little-Russian#. Three lads give a girl -riddles. ‘If you guess right, shall you be ours?’ Golovatsky, II, 83, -19. Two other pieces in the same, III, 180, 55. (W. W.) - -A king’s daughter, or other maid, makes the reading of her riddles a -condition of marriage in several Polish tales; it may be further -stipulated that a riddle shall be also given which the woman cannot -guess, or that those who fail shall forfeit their life. Karłowicz in -Wisła, III, 258, 270, where are cited, besides a MS. communication, -Zbiór wiadomości do antropologii krajowej, V, 194, VII, 12; Gli[‘n]ski, -Bajarz Polski, III, No 1; Kolberg, Krakowskie, IV, 204. - - - 2. The Elfin Knight. - -P. 7 a. The last two stanzas of #F# are also in Kinloch MSS, V, 275, -with one trivial variation, and the burden, ‘And then, etc.’ - -Sir Walter Scott had a copy beginning, ‘There lived a wife in the wilds -of Kent:’ Sharpe’s Ballad Book, 1880, p. 147 f. - -7 b, 484 a. Add: #P#, #Q#, Hruschka u. Toischer, Deutsche Volkslieder -aus Böhmen, p. 171, No 124, a, b. - -7 b, III, 496 a. ‘Store Fordringer,’ Kristensen, Jyske Folkeminder, X, -342, No 85 (with the stupid painted roses). - -7 f, 484 a, II, 495 a, III, 496 a. Add: ‘I tre Tamburi,’ Ferraro, C. P. -del Basso Monferrato, p. 52; ‘Il Compito,’ Romaic, Tommaseo, III, 13 -(already cited by Nigra). - -8 a, II, 495 a. Tasks. #Servian# ballads. Karadžić, Sr. n. pj., I, -164, No 240, ‘The Spinster and the Tsar;’ I, 165, No 242, ‘The -Spinster and the Goldsmith.’ Cf. I, 166, No 243. Also, Karadžić, Sr. -n. pj. iz Herz., p. 217, No 191; Petranović, I, 13, No 16 (where the -girl’s father sets the tasks), and p. 218, No 238; Rajković, p. 209, -No 237. #Bulgarian.# Collection of the Bulgarian Ministry of Public -Instruction, II, 31, 3; III, 28, 4. Cf. Verković, p. 52, 43; Bezsonov, -II, 74, 105; Miladinof, p. 471, 536. #Russian.# An episode in the old -Russian legend of Prince Peter of Murom and his wife Fevronija, three -versions: Kušelev-Bezborodko, Monuments of Old Russian Literature, I, -29 ff. (W. W.) - -Wit-contests in verse, the motive of love or marriage having probably -dropped out. Polish. Five examples are cited by Karłowicz, Wisła, III, -267 ff.: Kolberg, Krakowskie, II, 149, and Mazowsze, II, 149, No 332, -Zbiór wiad. do antrop., X, 297, No 217, and two not before printed. -Moravian examples from Sušil, p. 692 f., No 809, p. 701 ff., No 815: -make me a shirt without needle or thread, twist me silk out of oaten -straw; count me the stars, build me a ladder to go up to them; drain the -Red Sea, make me a bucket that will hold it; etc. Zapolski, White -Russian Weddings and Wedding-Songs, p. 35, No 19. Wisła, as before, III, -532 ff. - -Polish tales of The Clever Wench are numerous: Wisła, III, 270 ff. - -13 b. A fragment of a riddle given by a wise man to the gods is -preserved in a cuneiform inscription: [What is that] which is in the -house? which roars like a bull? which growls like a bear? which enters -into the heart of a man? etc. The answer is evidently air, wind. George -Smith, The Chaldean Account of Genesis, 1876, p. 156 : cited by J. -Karłowicz, Wisła, III, 273. - -15–20, 484 f., II, 495 f. Communicated by the Rev. S. Baring-Gould. -“From the north of Cornwall, near Camelford. This used to be sung as a -sort of game in farm-houses, between a young man who went outside the -room and a girl who sat on the settle or a chair, and a sort of chorus -of farm lads and lasses. Now quite discontinued.” The dead lover -represents the auld man in #I#. - - 1 - A fair pretty maiden she sat on her bed, - The wind is blowing in forest and town - She sighed and she said, O my love he is dead! - And the wind it shaketh the acorns down - - 2 - The maiden she sighed; ‘I would,’ said she, - ‘That again my lover might be with me!’ - - 3 - Before ever a word the maid she spake, - But she for fear did shiver and shake. - - 4 - There stood at her side her lover dead; - ‘Take me by the hand, sweet love,’ he said. - - 5 - . . . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . . . - - 6 - ‘Thou must buy me, my lady, a cambrick shirt, - Whilst every grove rings with a merry antine - And stitch it without any needle-work. - O and thus shalt thou be a true love of mine - - 7 - ‘And thou must wash it in yonder well, - Whilst, etc. - Where never a drop of water in fell. - O and thus, etc. - - 8 - ‘And thou must hang it upon a white thorn - That never has blossomed since Adam was born. - - 9 - ‘And when that these tasks are finished and done - I’ll take thee and marry thee under the sun.’ - - 10 - ‘Before ever I do these two and three, - I will set of tasks as many to thee. - - 11 - ‘Thou must buy for me an acre of land - Between the salt ocean and the yellow sand. - - 12 - ‘Thou must plough it oer with a horse’s horn, - And sow it over with one peppercorn. - - 13 - ‘Thou must reap it too with a piece of leather, - And bind it up with a peacock’s feather. - - 14 - ‘And when that these tasks are finished and done, - O then will I marry thee under the sun.’ - - 15 - ‘Now thou hast answered me well,’ he said, - The wind, etc. - ‘Or thou must have gone away with the dead.’ - And the wind, etc. - - 16 - . . . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . . . - -Mr Frank Kidsen has given a copy of ‘Scarborough Fair,’ with some better -readings, as sung “in Whitby streets twenty or thirty years ago,” in -Traditional Tunes, p. 43, 1891. - - * * * * * - - 1–4, _second line of burden_, true love. - - 2^2. Without any seam or needlework. - - 3^1. yonder dry well. - - 3^2. no water sprung. - - 4^1. Tell her to dry it on yonder thorn. - - 4^2. Which never bore blossom since. - - 5, 6. _Wanting._ - - 7^1. O will you find me. - - 7^2. Between the sea-foam [and] the sea-sand. Or never be a true - lover of mine. - - 8^1. O will you plough. - - 9^1. O will you reap it. - - 9^2. And tie it all up. - - 10^1. And when you have done and finished your work. - - 10^2. You may come to me for your. And then you shall be a. _At p. - 172, the first stanza of another version is given, with_ Rue, - parsley, rosemary and thyme _for the first line of the burden_. - - - 3. The Fause Knight upon the Road. - -Pp. 20, 485 (also, 14 a, 484 a), III, 496 a. Foiling mischievous sprites -and ghosts by getting the last word, or prolonging talk till the time -when they must go, especially the noon-sprite: Wisła, III, 275 f., and -notes 44–6; also, 269 f. The Wends have the proverbial phrase, to ask as -many questions as a noon-sprite. The Poles have many stories of beings -that take service without wages, on condition of no fault being found, -and make off instantly upon the terms being broken. - -20, III, 496 a. The last verses of ‘Tsanno d’Oymé,’ Daymard, Vieux -Chants pop. recueillis en Quercy, p. 70, are after the fashion of this -ballad. - - ‘Tsano d’Oymé, atal fuessés négado!’ - ‘Lou fil del rey, et bous né fuessés l’aygo!’ - - ‘Tsano d’Oymé, atal fuessés brullado!’ - ‘Lou fil del rey, et bous fuessés las clappos!’ - - - 4. Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight. - -P. 24 a. A copy in Christie’s Traditional Ballad Airs, II, 236, ‘May -Colvine and Fause Sir John’ (of which no account is given), is a free -compilation from #D b#, #D a#, and #C c#. - -The Gaelic tale referred to by Jamieson may be seen, as Mr Macmath has -pointed out to me, in Rev. Alexander Stewart’s ’Twixt Ben Nevis and -Glencoe, Edinburgh, 1885, p. 205 ff. Dr Stewart gives nine stanzas of a -Gaelic ballad, and furnishes an English rendering. The story has no -connection with that of No 4. - -25 b, note. ‘Halewyn en het kleyne Kind,’ in the first volume of the MS. -Poésies pop. de la France, was communicated by Crussemaker, and is the -same piece that he printed. Other copies in Lootens et Feys, No 45, p. -85 (see p. 296); Volkskunde, II, 194, ‘Van Mijn-heerken van -Bruindergestem.’ - -27 a, note †. Add: MacInness, Folk and Hero Tales [Gaelic], p. 301, a -Highland St George: see I, 487, note. - -27 f. Professor Bugge, Arkiv för nordisk Filologi, VII, 120–36, 1891, -points out that a Swedish ballad given in Grundtvig, D. g. F. IV, 813 -f., #F#, and here referred to under ‘Hind Etin,’ I, 364 b, as Swedish -#C#, has resemblances with ‘Kvindemorderen.’ Fru Malin is combing her -hair _al fresco_, when a suitor enters her premises; he remarks that a -crown would sit well on her head. The lady skips off to her chamber, and -exclaims, Christ grant he may wish to be mine! The suitor follows her, -and asks, Where is the fair dame who wishes to be mine? But when Fru -Malin comes to table she is in trouble, and the suitor puts her several -leading questions. She is sad, not for any of several reasons suggested, -but for the bridge under which her seven sisters (syskon) lie. ‘Sorrow -not,’ he says, ‘we shall build the bridge so broad and long that -four-and-twenty horses may go over at a time.’ They pass through a wood; -on the bridge her horse stumbles, and she is thrown into the water. She -cries for help; she will give him her gold crown. He cares nothing for -the crown, and never will help her out. Bugge maintains that this ballad -is not, as Grundtvig considered it, a compound of ‘Nökkens Svig’ and -‘Harpens Kraft,’ but an independent ballad, ‘The Bride Drowned,’ of a -set to which belong ‘Der Wasserman,’ Haupt and Schmaler, I, 62, No 34, -and many German ballads: see Grundtvig, IV, 810 f, and here I, 365 f., -38. - -29–37, 486 a. Add: #E E#, Hruschka u. Toischer, Deutsche Volkslieder aus -Böhmen, p. 126, No 35. Like #Q#, p. 35. - -39 ff. The Polish ballad ‘Jás i Kasia.’ Mr John Karłowicz has given, in -Wisła, IV, 393–424, the results of a study of this ballad, and they are -here briefly summarized. - -Ten unprinted versions are there added to the large number already -published, making about ninety copies, if fragments are counted. Copies -not noted at I, 39, 486, are, besides these ten, the following. Kolberg, -Krakowskie, II, 111, 168, Nos 208, 336; Kieleckie, II, 148, No 453; -Leęczychie, p. 131, No 223; Lubelskie, I, 289 ff., Nos 473, 474; -Pozna[‘n]skie, IV, 63, No 131; Mazowsze, III, 274, No 386, IV, 320, No -346. Zbiór wiadomości do antropologii krajowej, II, 78, Nos 89, 90; IV, -129; X, 123. Wisła, II, 132, 159. Prace filologiczne, II, 568. -Keętrzy[‘n]ski, O Mazurach, p. 35, No 1. Zawili[‘n]ski, Z powieści i -pieśni górali beskidowych, p. 88, No 66. Wasilewski, Jagodne, etc., No -120. Federowski, Lud okolic Żarek, etc., p. 102, No 49. - -Most of the ten versions printed in Wisła agree with others previously -published; in some there are novel details. In No 3, p. 398, Kasia, -thrown into the water by her lover, is rescued by her brother. In No 10, -p. 404, Jás, when drowning the girl, tells her that he has drowned four -already, and she shall be the fifth; her brother comes sliding down a -silken rope; fishermen take the girl out dead. There are still only two -of all the Polish versions in which Catharine kills John, #A a#, #b#. -The name Ligar, in the latter, points clearly, Mr Karłowicz remarks, to -the U-linger, Ad-elger, Ol-legehr of the German versions, and he is -convinced that the ballad came into Poland from Germany, although the -girl is not drowned in the German ballad, as in the Polish, English, and -French. - -John, who is commonly the hero in the Polish ballad, is at the beginning -of many copies declared to have sung, and the words have no apparent -sense. But we observe that in the versions of western Europe the hero -plays on the horn, sings a seductive song, promises to teach the girl to -sing, etc.; the unmeaning Polish phrase is therefore a survival. - -In many of the German versions a bird warns the maid of her danger. This -feature is found once only in Polish: in Zawili[‘n]ski (No 69 A of -Karłowicz). - -At p. 777 of Sušil’s Moravian Songs there are two other versions which I -have not noticed, the second of them manifestly derived from Poland. - -There is a Little-Russian ballad which begins like the Polish ‘Jás i -Kasia,’ but ends with the girl being tied to a tree and burned, instead -of being drowned: Wisła, IV, 423, from Zbiór wiadom. do antrop., III, -150, No 17. Traces of the incident of the burning are also found in -Polish and Moravian songs: Wisła, pp. 418–22. It is probable that there -were two independent ballads, and that these have been confounded. - -42 a, III, 497 a. #A#. Add: ‘Renaud et ses Femmes,’ Revue des Traditions -Populaires, VI, 34. - -43 a. ‘Lou Cros dé Proucinello,’ Daymard, Vieux Chants p. recueillis en -Quercy, p. 130, has at the end two traits of this ballad. A young man -carries off a girl whom he has been in love with seven years; he throws -her into a ravine; as she falls, she catches at a tree; he cuts it away; -she cries, What shall I do with my pretty gowns? and is answered, Give -them to me for another mistress. Cf. also Daymard, p. 128. - -43 b, III, 497 a. ‘La Fille de Saint-Martin.’ Add: ‘Le Mari Assassin,’ -Chanson du pays de Caux, Revue des Traditions Populaires, IV, 133. - -43 f., 488 a, III, 497. #Italian.# The ballad in Nannarelli (488 a) I -have seen: it is like ‘La Monferrina incontaminata.’ Add: ‘La bella -Inglese,’ Salvadori, in Giornale di Filologia Romanza, II, 201; ‘Un’ -eroina,’ A. Giannini, Canzoni del Contado di Massa Lunense, No 1, -Archivio, VIII, 273; [‘Montiglia’], [‘Inglesa’], Bolognini, Annuario -degli Alpinisti Tridentini, XIII, Usi e Costumi del Trentino, 1888, p. -37 f. - -44 b. ‘La Princesa Isabel,’ Pidal, Romancero Asturiano, p. 350 (sung by -children as an accompaniment to a game), is a variety of ‘Rico Franco.’ - -45 a, 488 a. Another Portuguese version, ‘O caso de D. Ignez,’ Braga, -Ampliações ao Romanceiro das Ilhas dos Açores, Revista Lusitana, I, 103. - -45 b. Breton, 5. Marivonnic also in Quellien, Chansons et Danses des -Bretons, 1889, p. 99. - -50 b, note ǁ. As to this use of blood, cf. H. von Wlisłocki, -Volksthümliches zum Armen Heinrich, Ztschr. f. deutsche Philologie, -1890, XXIII, 217 ff; Notes and Queries, 7th Series, VIII, 363. (G. L. -K.) - -55. #B#. A copy in Walks near Edinburgh, by Margaret Warrender, 1890, p. -104, differs from #B b# in only a few words, as any ordinary -recollection would. As: - - * * * * * - - 4^3, 6^3, 8^3. my guid steed. - - 9^4. It will gar our loves to twine. - - 10^4. An I’ll ring for you the bell. - - 11^3. Grant me ae kiss o your fause, fause mouth (_improbable - reading_). - - 14^2. she won. - - 14^3. most heartily. - -56 ff., 488 f., II, 497 f. - -The copy of ‘May Collin’ which follows is quite the best of the series -#C-G#. It is written on the same sheet of paper as the “copy of some -antiquity” used by Scott in making up his ‘Gay Goss Hawk’ (ed. 1802, II, -7). The sheet is perhaps as old as any in the volume in which it occurs, -but may possibly not be the original. ‘May Collin’ is not in the same -hand as the other ballad. - -According to the preface to a stall-copy spoken of by Motherwell, -Minstrelsy, p. lxx, 24, “the treacherous and murder-minting lover was an -ecclesiastic of the monastery of Maybole,” and the preface to #D d# (see -I, 488) makes him a Dominican friar. So, if we were to accept these -guides, the ‘Sir’ would be the old ecclesiastical title and equivalent -to the ‘Mess’ of the copy now to be given. - - -‘May Collin,’ “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 146, -Abbotsford. - - 1 - May Collin . . . . . - . . . was her father’s heir, - And she fell in love with a falsh priest, - And she rued it ever mair. - - 2 - He followd her butt, he followd her benn, - He followd her through the hall, - Till she had neither tongue nor teeth - Nor lips to say him naw. - - 3 - ‘We’ll take the steed out where he is, - The gold where eer it be, - And we’ll away to some unco land, - And married we shall be.’ - - 4 - They had not riden a mile, a mile, - A mile but barely three, - Till they came to a rank river, - Was raging like the sea. - - 5 - ‘Light off, light off now, May Collin, - It’s here that you must die; - Here I have drownd seven king’s daughters, - The eight now you must be. - - 6 - ‘Cast off, cast off now, May Collin, - Your gown that’s of the green; - For it’s oer good and oer costly - To rot in the sea-stream. - - 7 - ‘Cast off, cast off now, May Collin, - Your coat that’s of the black; - For it’s oer good and oer costly - To rot in the sea-wreck. - - 8 - ‘Cast off, cast off now, May Collin, - Your stays that are well laced; - For thei’r oer good and costly - In the sea’s ground to waste. - - 9 - ‘Cast [off, cast off now, May Collin,] - Your sark that’s of the holland; - For [it’s oer good and oer costly] - To rot in the sea-bottom.’ - - 10 - ‘Turn you about now, falsh Mess John, - To the green leaf of the tree; - It does not fit a mansworn man - A naked woman to see.’ - - 11 - He turnd him quickly round about, - To the green leaf of the tree; - She took him hastly in her arms - And flung him in the sea. - - 12 - ‘Now lye you there, you falsh Mess John, - My mallasin go with thee! - You thought to drown me naked and bare, - But take your cloaths with thee, - And if there be seven king’s daughters there - Bear you them company.’ - - 13 - She lap on her milk steed - And fast she bent the way, - And she was at her father’s yate - Three long hours or day. - - 14 - Up and speaks the wylie parrot, - So wylily and slee: - ‘Where is the man now, May Collin, - That gaed away wie thee?’ - - 15 - ‘Hold your tongue, my wylie parrot, - And tell no tales of me, - And where I gave a pickle befor - It’s now I’ll give you three.’ - - * * * * * - - 1^{1,2}. _One line_: May Collin was her father’s heir. - - 7^4. on the. - - 8^4. ina? _indistinct._ - - 12^5. 7. - - - 5. Gil Brenton. - -P. 63 b. #Swedish.# ‘Riddar Olof,’ Lagus, Nyländska Folkvisor, I, 63, No -16, _a_, _b_, imperfect copies. - -64 b. #Danish.# ‘Den rette Brudgom’ (Samson and Vendelru), Kristensen, -Jyske Folkeminder, X, 363, No 97. - -65 b. ‘Herr Peders Hustru,’ the same, p. 365,==Grundtvig, No 278. - -70. #B#. The three stanzas which follow were communicated to Scott by -Major Henry Hutton, Royal Artillery, 24th December, 1802 (Letters, I, No -77), as recollected by his father and the family. “Scotch Ballads, -Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 18. Instead of 3, 4: - - There’s five o them with meal and malt, - And other five wi beef and salt; - There’s five o them wi well-bak’d bread, - And other five wi goud so red. - - There’s five o them wi the ladies bright, - There’s other five o belted knights; - There’s five o them wi a good black neat, - And other five wi bleating sheep. - -“And before the two last stanzas, introduce” - - O there was seald on his breast-bane, - ‘Cospatric is his father’s name;’ - O there was seald on his right hand - He should inherit his father’s land. - - so _is written over the second_ and _in_ 1^2. - - - 7. Earl Brand. - -P. 88. ‘Ribold og Guldborg:’ Kristensen, Jyske Folkeminder, X, 33, -‘Nævnet til døde,’ No 15, #A-I#. - -91 b. #Swedish.# ‘Kung Valdemo,’ ‘Ellibrand och Fröken Gyllenborg,’ -Lagus, Nyländska Folkvisor, I, 1, No 1, _a_, _b_. (“Name not my name,” -_a_ 20, _b_ 12.) - -95 b, 489 b; III, 498 a. For the whole subject, see K. Nyrop. Navnets -Magt, 1887, and especially sections 4, 5, pp. 46–70. As to reluctance to -have one’s name known, and the advantage such knowledge gives an -adversary, see E. Clodd, in The Folk Lore Journal, VII, 154 ff., and, in -continuation, Folk-Lore, I, 272. - -The berserkr Glammaðr could pick off any man with his pike, if only he -knew his name. Saga Egils ok Ásmundar, Rafn, Fornaldar Sögur, III, 387, -Ásmundarson, F. s. Norðrlanða, III, 292. (G. L. K.) - -The demonic Gelô informs certain saints who force her “to tell them how -other people’s children [may] be defended from her attacks,” that if -they “can write her twelve names and a half she shall never be able to -come within seventy-five stadia and a half:” Thomas Wright, Essays on -Subjects connected with the Literature, etc., of the Middle Ages, 1846, -I, 294 (referring to Leo Allatius, De Græcorum hodie quorundam -opinationibus). The passage in question is to be found at p. 127 of Leo -Allatius, De templis Græcorum recentioribus, ad Ioannem Morinum; De -Narthece ecclesiæ veteris; nec non De Græcorum hodie quorundam -opinationibus, ad Paullum Zacchiam. Coloniæ Agrippinæ, 1645. (G. L. K.) - -96 b. #Swedish.# Two copies of ‘Rosen lilla’ in Lagus, Nyländska -Folkvisor, I, 37, No 10. - -#Danish.# Kristensen, Jyske Folkeminder, X, 215, No 52, #C# 9, two -lilies; p. 318, No 78, 9, 10, graves south and north, two lilies. - -97 b. #French.# ‘Les deux Amoureux,’ Daymard, Vieux Chants p. rec. en -Quercy, p. 122, lavender and tree. - -97 b, 489 b, II, 498 a, III, 498 b. #Slavic.# (1.) White-Russian: he -buried in church, she in ditch; plane and linden (planted); plane -embraces linden. MS. (2.) Little-Russian: buried apart; plane grows over -his grave, two birches over hers; branches do _not_ interlace. Kolberg, -Pokucie, p. 41. (3.) White-Russian: he in church, she near church; oak, -birch (planted); trees touch. Zbiór wiado do antropol., XIII, 102 f. -(4.) Little-Russian: burial apart in a church; rosemary and lily from -graves. Var.: rose and sage, rosemary; flowers interlace. Holovatzky, -III, 254. (J. Karłowicz, in Mélusine, V, 39 ff.) - -#Bulgarian.# A poplar from the maid’s grave, a pine from her lover’s: -Collection of the Bulgarian Ministry of Instruction, I, 35. (W. W.) - -97 b, 490 a, III, 498 b. #Breton.# Luzel, Soniou, I, 272–3: a tree from -the young man’s grave, a rose from the maid’s. - -99 ff., 490 ff. ‘The Earl o Bran,’ “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border -Minstrelsy,” No 22 b, Abbotsford; in the handwriting of Richard Heber. - - 1 - Did ye ever hear o guid Earl o Bran - An the queen’s daughter o the south-lan? - - 2 - She was na fifteen years o age - Till she came to the Earl’s bed-side. - - 3 - ‘O guid Earl o Bran, I fain wad see - My grey hounds run over the lea.’ - - 4 - ‘O kind lady, I have no steeds but one, - But ye shall ride, an I shall run.’ - - 5 - ‘O guid Earl o Bran, but I have tua, - An ye shall hae yere wael o those.’ - - 6 - The’re ovr moss an the’re over muir, - An they saw neither rich nor poor. - - 7 - Till they came to ald Carl Hood, - He’s ay for ill, but he’s never for good. - - 8 - ‘O guid Earl o Bran, if ye loe me, - Kill Carl Hood an gar him die.’ - - 9 - ‘O kind lady, we had better spare; - I never killd ane that wore grey hair. - - 10 - ‘We’ll gie him a penny-fie an let him gae, - An then he’ll carry nae tiddings away.’ - - 11 - ‘Where hae been riding this lang simmer-day? - Or where hae stolen this lady away?’ - - 12 - ‘O I hae not riden this lang simmer-day, - Nor hae I stolen this lady away. - - 13 - ‘For she is my sick sister - I got at the Wamshester.’ - - 14 - ‘If she were sick an like to die, - She wad na be wearing the gold sae high.’ - - 15 - Ald Carl Hood is over the know, - Where they rode one mile, he ran four. - - 16 - Till he came to her mother’s yetts, - An I wat he rapped rudely at. - - 17 - ‘Where is the lady o this ha?’ - ‘She’s out wie her maidens, playing at the ba.’ - - 18 - ‘O na! fy na! - For I met her fifteen miles awa. - - 19 - ‘She’s over moss, an she’s over muir, - An a’ to be the Earl o Bran’s whore.’ - - 20 - Some rode wie sticks, an some wie rungs, - An a’ to get the Earl o Bran slain. - - 21 - That lady lookd over her left shoudder-bane: - ‘O guid Earl o Bran, we’ll a’ be taen! - For yond’r a’ my father’s men. - - 22 - ‘But if ye’ll take my claiths, I’ll take thine, - An I’ll fight a’ my father’s men.’ - - 23 - ‘It’s no the custom in our land - For ladies to fight an knights to stand. - - 24 - ‘If they come on me ane by ane, - I’ll smash them a’ doun bane by bane. - - 25 - ‘If they come on me ane and a’, - Ye soon will see my body fa.’ - - 26 - He has luppen from his steed, - An he has gein her that to had. - - 27 - An bad her never change her cheer - Untill she saw his body bleed. - - 28 - They came on him ane by ane, - An he smashed them doun a’ bane by bane. - - 29 - He sat him doun on the green grass, - For I wat a wearit man he was. - - 30 - But ald Carl Hood came him behind, - An I wat he gae him a deadly wound. - - 31 - He’s awa to his lady then, - He kissed her, an set her on her steed again. - - 32 - He rode whistlin out the way, - An a’ to hearten his lady gay. - - 33 - ‘Till he came to the water-flood: - ‘O guid Earl o Bran, I see blood!’ - - 34 - ‘O it is but my scarlet hood, - That shines upon the water-flood.’ - - 35 - They came on ‘till his mother’s yett, - An I wat he rappit poorly at. - - 36 - His mother she’s come to the door: - ‘O son, ye’ve gotten yere dead wie an Eng_lish_ wh_o_re!’ - - 37 - ‘She was never a wh_o_re to me; - Sae let my brother her husband be.’ - - 38 - Sae ald Carl Hood was not the dead o ane, - But he was the dead o hale seeventeen. - - _Note at the end_: I have not written the chorus, but Mr Leyden, - having it by him, knows how to insert it. - - - “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 22 d. In - the handwriting of William Laidlaw. Scott has written at the - head, Earl Bran, another copy. - - 1 - Earl Bran’s a wooing gane; - Ae lalie, O lilly lalie - He woo’d a lady, an was bringing her hame. - O the gae knights o Airly - - 2 - . . . . . . . . - They met neither wi rich nor poor. - - 3 - Till they met wi an auld palmer Hood, - Was ay for ill, an never for good. - - 4 - ‘O yonder is an auld palmer Heed: - Tak your sword an kill him dead.’ - - 5 - ‘Gude forbid, O ladie fair, - That I kill an auld man an grey hair. - - 6 - ‘We’ll gie him a an forbid him to tell;’ - The gae him a an forbad him to tell. - - 7 - The auld man than he’s away hame, - He telld o Jane whan he gaed hame. - - 8 - ‘I thought I saw her on yon moss, - Riding on a milk-white horse. - - 9 - ‘I thought I saw her on yon muir; - By this time she’s Earl Bran’s wh_ore_.’ - - 10 - Her father he’s ca’d on his men: - ‘Gae follow, an fetch her again.’ - - 11 - She’s lookit oer her left shoulder: - ‘O yonder is my father’s men! - - 12 - ‘O yonder is my father’s men: - Take my cleadin, an I’ll take thine.’ - - 13 - ‘O that was never law in land, - For a ladie to feiht an a knight to stand. - - 14 - ‘But if yer father’s men come ane an ane, - Stand ye by, an ye’ll see them slain. - - 15 - ‘If they come twae an twae, - Stand ye by, an ye’ll see them gae. - - 16 - ‘And if they come three an three, - Stand ye by, an ye’ll see them die.’ - - 17 - Her father’s men came ane an ane, - She stood by . . . . - - 18 - Than they cam by twae an twae, - . . . . . . . - - 19 - Than they cam by three an three, - . . . . . . . - - 20 - But ahint him cam the auld palmer Hood, - An ran him outthro the heart’s blood. - - 21 - ‘I think I see your heart’s blood:’ - ‘It’s but the glistering o your scarlet hood.’ - - * * * * * * - - * * * * * - - 7^1. _MS._, he’s *, _and, in the margin_, * away has been gane. - _Over_ away hame _is written_ thre them (==thrae, frae, them), - _or, perhaps_, thre than. - - 20^1. _MS_., palmer weed: _cf._ 3^1, 4^1. - - 20^2. outr thro. - -P. 100, #B#; 489 b, 492, #I#. The printed copy used by Scott was ‘Lord -Douglas’ Tragedy,’ the first of four pieces in a stall-pamphlet, -“licensed and entered, 1792:” “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border -Minstrelsy,” No 1. #I# is another edition of the same. The variations -from #I# are as follows: - - * * * * * - - 1^1, says. - - 2^2. your arms. - - 3^4. father who. - - 4^3. seven _wanting_. - - 4^4. just now. - - 5^1. better _for_ (_the obvious misprint_) bitter. - - 5^3. once that. - - 6^1. Hold your hand. - - 7^2. wounds. - - 7^4. forkd in the. - - 8^1. Lady Margret. - - 9^3, 13^3. blue gilded, _as in_ #I#, _for_ bugelet: hanging down. - - 9^4, 13^4. slowly they both. - - 10^3. yon clear river-side. - - 11^3. his pretty. - - 12^3. ’Tis nothing. - - 15^2. soft. - - 16^2. long ere day. - - 16^4. died _wanting_. - - 17^1. St _for_ Lady. - - 17^3. sprung. - - 18^2. be near. - - 18^3. ye: weil. - - - 8. Erlinton. - -P. 107. The two copies from which (with some editorial garnish and -filling out) #A# was compounded were: #a#. “Scotch Ballads, Materials -for Border Minstrelsy,” No 20, obtained from Nelly Laidlaw, and in the -handwriting of William Laidlaw; #b#. ‘Earlington’s Daughter,’ the same -collection, No 11, in the handwriting of James Hogg. The differences are -purely verbal, and both copies may probably have been derived from the -same reciter; still, since only seven or eight verses in sixty-eight -agree, both will be given entire, instead of a list of the variations. - - #a.# - 1 - Lord Erlinton had ae daughter, - I trow he’s weird her a grit sin; - For he has bugn a bigly bower, - An a’ to pit his ae daughter in. - An he has buggin, etc. - - 2 - An he has warn her sisters six, - Her sisters six an her brethren se’en, - Thei’r either to watch her a’ the night, - Or than to gang i the mornin soon. - - 3 - She had na been i that bigly bower - Not ae night but only ane - Untill that Willie, her true-love, - Chappit at the bower-door, no at the gin. - - 4 - ‘Whae’s this, whae’s this chaps at my bower-door, - At my bower-door, no at the gin?’ - ‘O it is Willie, thy ain true-love; - O will ye rise an let me in?’ - - 5 - ‘In my bower, Willie, there is a wane, - An in the wane there is a wake; - But I will come to the green woods - The morn, for my ain true-love’s sake.’ - - 6 - This lady she’s lain down again, - An she has lain till the cock crew thrice; - She said unto her sisters baith, - Lasses, it’s time at we soud rise. - - 7 - She’s putten on her breast a silver tee, - An on her back a silken gown; - She’s taen a sister in ilka hand, - An away to the bonnie green wood she’s gane. - - 8 - They hadna gane a mile in that bonnie green wood, - They had na gane a mile but only ane, - Till they met wi Willie, her ain true-love, - An thrae her sisters he has her taen. - - 9 - He’s taen her sisters ilk by the hand, - He’s kissd them baith, an he’s sent them hame; - He’s muntit his ladie him high behind, - An thro the bonnie green wood thei’r gane. - - 10 - They’d ridden a mile i that bonnie green wood, - They hadna ridden but only ane, - When there cam fifteen o the baldest knights - That ever boor flesh, bluid an bane. - - 11 - Than up bespak the foremost knight, - He woor the gray hair on his chin; - ‘Yield me yer life or your lady fair, - An ye sal walk the green woods within.’ - - 12 - ‘For to gie my wife to thee, - I wad be very laith,’ said he; - ‘For than the folk wad think I was gane mad, - Or that the senses war taen frae me.’ - - 13 - Up than bespak the niest foremost knight, - I trow he spak right boustrouslie; - ‘Yield me yer life or your ladie fair, - An ye sall walk the green woods wi me.’ - - 14 - ‘My wife, she is my warld’s meed, - My life, it lyes me very near; - But if ye be man o your manhood - I serve will while my days are near.’ - - 15 - He’s luppen off his milk-white steed, - He’s gien his lady him by the head: - ‘See that ye never change yer cheer - Till ance ye see my body bleed.’ - - 16 - An he’s killd a’ the fifteen knights, - He’s killed them a’ but only ane; - A’ but the auld grey-headed knight, - He bade him carry the tiddins hame. - - 17 - He’s gane to his lady again, - I trow he’s kissd her, baith cheek an chin; - ‘Now ye’r my ain, I have ye win, - An we will walk the green woods within.’ - - * * * * * - - 2^3. Their _struck out_. - - 9^3. muntit _struck out, and_ set _written above_. - - 12^3. than _struck out_. - - 14^4. while, are, _struck out, and_ till, be, _written above_. - - 16^4. tiddins: _one_ d _struck out_. _These changes would seem to - be somebody’s editorial improvements._ - - Wi me _in_ 13^4 _sacrifices sense to rhyme_. _We are to understand - in_ 11^{3,4}, 13^{3,4} _that Willie is to die if he will not - give up the lady, but if he will resign her he may live, and - walk the wood at his pleasure._ 14^4 _is corrupt in both texts_. - - #b.# - 1 - O Earlington, he has ae daughter, - And I wot he has ward her in a great sin; - He has buggin to her a bigly bowr, - And a’ to put his daughter in. - - 2 - O he has warnd her sisters six, - Her sisters six and her brethren seven, - Either to watch her a’ the night, - Or else to search her soon at morn. - - 3 - They had na been a night in that bigly bowr, - ’Tis not a night but barely ane, - Till there was Willie, her ain true-love, - Rappd at the door, and knew not the gin. - - 4 - ‘Whoe’s this, whoe’s this raps at my bowr-door, - Raps at my bowr-door, and knows not the gin?’ - ‘O it is Willie, thy ain true-love; - I pray thee rise and let me in.’ - - 5 - ‘O in my bower, Willie, there is a wake, - And in the wake there is a wan; - But I’ll come to the green wood the morn, - To the green wood for thy name’s sake.’ - - 6 - O she has gaen to her bed again, - And a wait she has lain till the cock crew thrice; - Then she said to her sisters baith, - Lasses, ’tis time for us to rise. - - 7 - She’s puten on her back a silken gown, - And on her breast a silver tie; - She’s taen a sister in ilka hand, - And thro the green wood they are gane. - - 8 - They had na walkt a mile in that good green wood, - ’Tis not a mile but barely ane, - Till there was Willie, her ain true-love, - And from her sisters he has her taen. - - 9 - He’s taen her sisters by the hand, - He kist them baith, he sent them hame; - He’s taen his lady him behind, - And thro the green wood they are gane. - - 10 - They had na ridden a mile in the good green wood, - ’Tis not a mile but barely ane, - Till there was fifteen of the boldest knights - That ever bore flesh, blood or bane. - - 11 - The foremost of them was an aged knight, - He wore the gray hair on his chin: - ‘Yield me thy life or thy lady bright, - And thou shalt walk these woods within.’ - - 12 - ‘’Tis for to give my lady fair - To such an aged knight as thee, - People wad think I were gane mad, - Or else the senses taen frae me.’ - - 13 - Up then spake the second of them, - And he spake ay right bousterously; - ‘Yield me thy life or thy lady bright, - And thou shalt walk these woods within.’ - - 14 - ‘My wife, she is my warld’s meed, - My life it lies me very near; - But if you’ll be man of your manheed, - I’ll serve you till my days be near.’ - - 15 - He’s lighted of his milk-white steed, - He’s given his lady him by the head: - ‘And see ye dinna change your cheer - Till you do see my body bleed.’ - - 16 - O he has killd these fifteen lords, - And he has killd them a’ but ane, - And he has left that old aged knight, - And a’ to carry the tidings hame. - - 17 - O he’s gane to his lady again, - And a wait he has kist her, baith cheek and chin: - ‘Thou art my ain love, I have thee bought, - And thou shalt walk these woods within.’ - - 5. wake _should be_ wane _and_ wan wake, _as in #A#._ - - - 10. The Twa Sisters. - - P. 119 a. #Danish.# ‘De talende Strenge,’ Kristensen, Jyske - Folkeminder, X, 68, 375, No 19, #A-E#. - - 119 b. #Swedish.# ‘De två systrarna,’ Lagus, Nyländska Folkvisor, I, - 27, No 7, _a_, _b_; the latter imperfect. - - 124 b. Bohemian, Waldau, Böhmische Granaten, II, 97, No 137 (with - the usual variations). - - 125 b, 493 b; II, 498 b; III, 499 a. Add: ‘Les roseaux qui - chantent,’ Revue des Traditions Populaires, IV, 463, V, 178; ‘La - rose de Pimperlé,’ Meyrac, Traditions, etc., des Ardennes, p. 486 - ff.; ‘L’os qui chante,’ seven Walloon versions, E. Monseur, Bulletin - de Folklore Wallon, I, 39 ff. - - 128. #C.# ‘The Cruel Sister,’ “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border - Minstrelsy,” No 16; communicated to Scott by Major Henry Hutton, - Royal Artillery, December 24, 1802 (Letters, I, No 77), as - recollected by his father “and the family.” - - 1 - There were twa sisters in a bowr, - Binnorie, O Binnorie - The eldest was black and the youngest fair. - By the bonny milldams o Binnorie - - After 13 (or as 14): - Your rosie cheeks and white hause-bane - Garrd me bide lang maiden at hame. - - After 15: - The miller’s daughter went out wi speed - To fetch some water to make her bread. - - After 17: - He coud not see her fingers sma, - For the goud rings they glistend a’. - He coud na see her yellow hair - For pearlin and jewels that were so rare. - - And when he saw her white hause-bane - Round it hung a gouden chain. - - He stretched her owt-our the bra - And moanëd her wi mekle wa. - -“Then, at the end, introduce the following” (which, however, are not -traditional). - - The last tune the harp did sing, - ‘And yonder stands my false sister Alison. - - ‘O listen, listen, all my kin, - ’Twas she wha drownd me in the lin.’ - - And when the harp this song had done - It brast a’ o pieces oer the stane. - -“Alison. The writer of these additional stanzas understands the name was -Alison, and not Helen.” Alison occurs in #D#, #K#. - -Pp. 133, 139. #L.# Anna Seward to Walter Scott, April 25–29, 1802: -Letters addressed to Sir Walter Scott, I, No 54, Abbotsford. “The -Binnorie of endless repetition has nothing truly pathetic, and the -ludicrous use made of the drowned sister’s body is well burlesqued in a -ridiculous ballad, which I first heard sung, with farcial grimace, in my -infancy [born 1747], thus:” - - 1 - And O was it a pheasant cock, - Or eke a pheasant hen? - Or was it and a gay lady, - Came swimming down the stream? - - 2 - O it was not a pheasant cock, - Or eke a pheasant hen, - But it was and a gay lady, - Came swimming down the stream. - - 3 - And when she came to the mill-dam - The miller he took her body, - And with it he made him a fiddling thing, - To make him sweet melody. - - 4 - And what did he do with her fingers small? - He made of them pegs to his vial. - - 5 - And what did he do with her nose-ridge? - Why to his fiddle he made it a bridge. - Sing, O the damnd mill-dam, O - - 6 - And what did he do with her veins so blue? - Why he made him strings his fiddle unto. - - 7 - And what did he do with her two shins? - Why to his vial they dancd Moll Sims. - - 8 - And what did he do with her two sides? - Why he made of them sides to his fiddle besides. - - 9 - And what did he do with her great toes? - Why what he did with them that nobody knows. - Sing, O the damnd mill-dam, O - -For 4, 5, 6, 7, see #A# 8, 9, 10, 13. - -P. 137. MS. of Thomas Wilkie, p. 1, in “Scotch Ballads, Materials for -Border Minstrelsy,” No 32; taken down “from a Miss Nancy Brockie, -Bemerside.” 1813. - - 1 - There were twa sisters sat in a bower, - By Nera and by Nora - The youngest was the fairest flower. - Of all the mill-dams of Bennora - - 2 - It happened upon a bonnie summer’s day - The eldest to the youngest did say: - In the bonnie mill-dams of Bennora - - 3 - ‘We must go and we shall go - To see our brother’s ships come to land.’ - In, etc. (_and throughout_). - - 4 - ‘I winna go and I downa go, - For weeting the corks o my coal-black shoes.’ - - 5 - She set her foot into a rash-bush, - To see how tightly she was dressd. - - 6 - But the youngest sat upon a stone, - But the eldest threw the youngest in. - - 7 - ‘O sister, oh sister, come lend me your hand, - And draw my life into dry land!’ - - 8 - ‘You shall not have one bit o my hand; - Nor will I draw you to dry land.’ - - 9 - ‘O sister, O sister, come lend me your hand, - And you shall have Sir John and all his land.’ - - 10 - ‘You shall not have one bit o my hand, - And I’ll have Sir John and all his land. - - 11 - The miller’s daughter, clad in red, - Came for some water to bake her bread. - - 12 - ‘O father, O father, go fish your mill-dams, - For there either a swan or a drownd woman.’ - - 13 - You wad not have seen one bit o her waist, - The body was swelld, and the stays strait laced. - - 14 - You wad not have seen one bit o her neck, - The chains of gold they hang so thick. - - 15 - He has taen a tait of her bonnie yellow hair, - He’s tied it to his fiddle-strings there. - - 16 - The verry first spring that that fiddle playd - Was, Blest be [the] queen, my mother! [it] has said. - - 17 - The verry next spring that that fiddle playd - Was, Blest be Sir John, my own true-love! - - 18 - The very next spring that that fiddle playd - Was, Burn my sister for her sins! - - 4^2. _Written at first_ my black heeld shoes. - - 12^2. swain. - - 17^2. thy own. - - - 11. The Cruel Brother. - -#P.# 142 b, 496 a, III, 499 a. #B# was repeated by Salvadori in Giornale -di Filologia Romanza, II, 197; and #E# was first published by Mazzatinti -in IV, 69, of the same. - -142 f. A variety of ‘Graf Friedrich’ in Hruschka u. Toischer, Deutsche -Volkslieder aus Böhmen, p. 101, No 25. - -143 b. III, 499. Testament. ‘Hr. Adelbrand,’ Kristensen, Jyske -Folkeminder, #X#, 227, 232, No 54, #A#, 20 ff., #F#, 10 ff.==‘Herr -Radibrand och lilla Lena,’ ‘Skön Helena och riddaren Hildebrand,’ Lagus, -Nyländska Folkvisor, I, 89, No 25, _a_,_ b_. - -‘Adelbrand’ is No 311 of Danmarks gamle Folkeviser, V, II, 297, ed. -Olrik, of which the versions that have been cited in this book are #B#, -#K e#, #G e#, #F#, #K b#, #I#. There is a testament in other copies of -the same. Also in No 320, not yet published. - -145 ff. “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 22 a. In -the handwriting of William Laidlaw; “from Jean Scott.” - - There was three ladies playd at the ba, - With a hey hey an a lilly gay - - Bye cam three lords an woo’d them a’. - Whan the roses smelld sae sweetly - - The first o them was clad in yellow: - ‘O fair may, will ye be my marrow?’ - Whan the roses smell, etc. - - The niest o them was clad i ried: - ‘O fair may, will ye be my bride?’ - - The thrid o them was clad i green: - He said, O fair may, will ye be my queen? - - - 12. Lord Randal. - -Pp. 152 b, 498 b, III, 499 b. #Italian.# Add #L#, ‘'U Cavalieru -Traditu;’ communicated to La Calabria, October 15, 1888, p. 5, ‘Storie -popolari Acresi,’ by Antonio Julia. - -_154_ a. #Danish.# ‘Den forgivne Søster’ (with testament), Kristensen, -Jyske Folkeminder, X, 358, No 92. - -156 b. Vuk, I, No _302_, is translated by Bowring, p. 143. - -157 ff., 499 ff. “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No -22 g, in the handwriting of William Laidlaw. - - 1 - ‘Where ha ye been, Lord Randal, my son?’ - ‘I been at the huntin, mother, mak my bed soon; - I’m weariet wi huntin, I fain wad lie down.’ - - 2 - ‘What gat ye to yer supper, Lord Randal, my son?’ - ‘An eel boild i broo, mother, mak my bed soon; - I’m,’ etc. - - 3 - ‘What gat yer dogs, Earl Randal, my son?’ - ‘The broo o the eel, mother,’ etc. - - 4 - ‘What leave [ye] yer false love, Lord Randal, my son?’ - ‘My goud silken garters, to hang hersel on; - I’m,’ etc. - - 4^1. leave year. - - * * * * * - - - U - - Letters addressed to Sir Walter Scott, XX, No 77, Abbotsford; from - Joseph Jamieson Archibald, Largs, 18th February, 1830. - -“By the bye! How does your copy of ‘Willie Doo’ go? Or is it the same as -our ‘Auld Nursery Lilt,’ better known by the name of ‘My Wee Croodling -Doo’? To give you every justice, I shall copy a stanza or two.” - - 1 - ‘Whare were ye the lea lang day, - My wee crooding doo, doo?’ - ‘I hae been at my step-dame’s; - Mammy, mak my bed noo, noo!’ - - 2 - ‘Whare gat she the wee, wee fish?’ - ‘She gat it neist the edder-flowe.’ - - 3 - ‘What did she wi the fishie’s banes?’ - ‘The wee black dog gat them to eat.’ - - 4 - ‘What did the wee black doggie then?’ - ‘He shot out his fittie an deed; - An sae maun I now too, too.’ Etc. - -“The wee crooding doo next received a fatal drink, and syne a lullaby, -when his bed was made ‘baith saft an fine,’ while his lang fareweel and -dying lamentation was certainly both trying and afflicting to the loving -parents.” _The drink after the fish was a senseless interpolation_; -_the_ ‘lang fareweel’ _was probably the testament of the longer ballad_. - -500. The title of #Q# in the MS. is ‘Lord Randal;’ of #R#, ‘Little wee -toorin dow.’ - - - 14. Babylon, or, The Bonnie Banks o Fordie. - -P. 171 a. #Danish.# ‘Herr Tures Døtre,’ Kristensen, Jyske Folkeminder, -X, 294, No 72. - - - 15. Leesome Brand. - -P. 178 a. ‘Jomfru i Hindeham,’ D. g. F. No 58, Kristensen, Jyske -Folkeminder, X, 14, No 7. - -179 a, III, 500 b. #Danish#, II, ‘Barnefødsel i Lunden,’ six copies and -a fragment, in Kristensen’s Skattegraveren, X, 145 ff., Nos 416–22, -1888. (‘Sadlen for trang, vejen for lang,’ 416, 17, 20; man’s help, 416, -419; children buried alive, 417, 18, 22; sister and brother, 418; lilies -from grave, 416, 17.) ‘Skjøn Medler,’ Kristensen, Jyske Folkeminder, X, -182, No 46, #A-H#. (Saddle, way, #A#; man’s help, #A#, #B#, #E#, #F#, -#H#; children buried alive, #A#, #B#, #C#, #E#, #F#.) - -#Swedish.# ‘Herr Riddervall,’ Lagus, Nyländska Folkvisor, I, 75, No 20. - - - 16. Sheath and Knife. - -P. 186. #D# is in or from T. Lyle’s Ancient Ballads and Songs, 1827, p. -241. Scott, as Lyle says, has nearly the same burden in a stanza (of his -own?) which he makes E. Deans sing, in The Heart of Mid-Lothian. - - - 17. Hind Horn. - -P. 193 b (2). ‘Hr. Lovmand,’ Kristensen, Jyske Folkeminder, X, 252, No -62, #A-D#. - -194 ff., 502 f.; II, 499 b; III, 501 b. Ring stories. Cf. MacInnes, Folk -and Hero Tales (Argyllshire), 1890, p. 157. (G. L. K.) - -Bulgarian ballad.—Stojan is married on Sunday; on Monday he is ordered -to join the army. His wife gives him a posy, which will remain fresh -until she marries another man. He serves nine years; the tenth the queen -discovers from his talk that he has a wife, and gives him permission to -go home. He arrives the very day on which his wife is to be remarried, -goes to the wedding, and asks her to kiss his hand and accept a gift -from him. She recognizes him by the ring on his hand, sends off the -guests, and goes home with him. Collection of the Ministry of -Instruction, I, 39. In a variant, Verković, p. 329, No 301, the man is -gone three years, and arrives just as the wedding procession comes for -the bride. (W. W.) - -198 b. ‘Le Retour du Mari.’ ‘Un Retour de Guerre’ (cards), Daymard, pp. -203, 4. - -202 a, III, 501 b. For more of these curiosities (in Salman u. Morolf, -Orendel, Virginal, Laurin, etc.), see Vogt’s note, p. 181 (248 ff.), to -Salman u. Morolf. - -206. #H.# I have received from Mr Walker, of Aberdeen, author of ‘The -Bards of Bonaccord,’ a copy of ‘Hind Horn’ which was taken down by a -correspondent of his on lower Deeside about 1880. It closely resembles -#G# and #H#. Collated with #H#, the more note-worthy variations are as -follows: - - 1^1. Hey how, bound, lovie, hey how, free. - - 6^2. An the glintin o ‘t was aboon. - - 10. An when he looked the ring upon, O but it was pale an wan! - - 13^2. What news, what news is in this lan? - - 19. - Ye’ll ging up to yon high hill, - An ye’ll blaw yer trumpet loud an shrill. - - 20. - Doun at yon gate ye will enter in, - And at yon stair ye will stan still. - - 21. - Ye’ll seek meat frae ane, ye’ll seek meat frae twa, - Ye’ll seek meat fra the highest to the lowest o them a’. - - 22. - But it’s out o their hans an ye will tak nane - Till it comes out o the bride’s ain han. - - 26^2. Wi the links o the yellow gowd in her hair. - - _After 27_: An when she looked the ring upon, O but she grew pale - an wan! - - _After 28_: Or got ye it frae ane that is far, far away, To gie - unto me upon my weddin-day? - - 30. But I got it frae you when I gaed away, To gie unto you on - your weddin-day. - - 32. It’s I’ll gang wi you for evermore, An beg my bread frae door - to door. - -502 a. There can hardly be a doubt that the two stanzas cited belonged -to ‘The Kitchie-Boy,’ ‘Bonny Foot-Boy,’ No 252. Cf. #A# 34, 35, #B# 47, -#D# 7, 8, of that ballad. - - - 18. Sir Lionel. - -P. 209 b. ‘Blow thy horne, hunter.’ Found, with slight variations, in -Add. MS. 31922, British Museum, 39, b (Henry VIII): Ewald, in Anglia, -XII, 238. - - - 19. King Orfeo. - -P. 215. The relations of the Danish ‘Harpens Kraft,’ and incidentally -those of this ballad, to the English romance are discussed, with his -usual acuteness, by Professor Sophus Bugge in Arkiv för nordisk -Filologi, VII, 97 ff., 1891. See II, 137, of this collection. - - - 20. The Cruel Mother. - -P. 218 b, III, 502 a. ‘Barnemordersken,’ Kristensen, Jyske Folkeminder, -X, 356, No 90, #A#, #B#. - -219 b, 504 a, II, 500 a, III, 502 b. Add: #Q#, #R#, Hruschka u. -Toischer, Deutsche Volkslieder aus Böhmen, p. 129, No 40 a, b. - -220 ff. #a.# MS. of Thomas Wilkie, p. 4, in “Scotch Ballads, Materials -for Border Minstrelsy,” No 33. “Taken down from Mrs Hislope, Gattonside. -The air is plaintive and very wild.” 1813. #b.# “Scotch Ballads, -Materials,” etc., No 113; in the hand of T. Wilkie. - - 1 - As I looked over my father’s castle-wa, - All alone and alone, O - I saw two pretty babes playing at the ba. - Down by yone greenwood side, O - - 2 - ‘O pretty babes, if ye were mine,’ - All alone, etc., - ‘I would clead you o the silk so fine.’ - Alone by the, etc. - - 3 - ‘O mother dear, when we were thine, - Ye houket a hole fornent the sun,’ - And laid yer two babes in, O - - 4 - ‘O pretty babes, if ye were mine, - I would feed you wi the morning’s milk.’ - Alone by, etc. - - 5 - ‘O mother dear, when we were thine, - Ye houket a hole fornent the sun. - And laid yer two babes in, O. - - 6 - ‘But we are in the heavens high, - And ye hae the pains of hell to dri.’ - Alone by, etc. - - 7 - ‘O pretty babes, pray weel for me!’ - ‘Aye, mother, as ye did for we.’ - Down by, etc. - - * * * * * - -#a.# - - 3^1. when that ye had done _is written above_ we were thine. - -#b.# - - 1. _Burden, second line_, by the. - - 2^2. with the. - - _After 2_: - - ‘O mother dear, when we were thine, - Ye stabd us wi your little penknife.’ - Down by the, etc. - - 3^1. when that ye had done. - - 4, 5. _Wanting._ - - 6. _Burden, second line_, Down by the, etc. - -The copy at II, 500 b (Pepys, V, 4, No 2), is also in the Crawford -collection, No 1127, and in that from the Osterley Park library, British -Museum, C. 39. k. 6 (60). It is dated 1688–95 in the Crawford catalogue, -and 1690? in the Museum catalogue. - -The text printed II, 500 is here corrected according to the Museum copy. - - 2^1. lovd. - - 3^2. for her heaviness. - - 6^2. pritty. - - 8^1. long and sharp. - - 12^2. other as naked as. - - 13^2. would. - - 14^2. dress us. - - 21^1, 22^1. O mother, O mother. - - 23^1. Alass! said. - - _After_ 10, _etc._: hair and. - - _Title_: Infants whom. - - _Imprint_: London: Printed, _etc._: Guiltspur. - - (9^2, 19^2. _have_ into, _wrongly_.) - - - 21. The Maid and the Palmer. - -P. 228, III, 502. ‘Synderinden,’ Kristensen, Jyske Folkeminder, X, 71, -No 20. - -Swedish #K# is repeated in Lagus, Nyländska Folkvisor, I, 105, No 32. - -230 b. A Bohemian ballad, to the same effect, in Waldau’s Böhmische -Granaten, II, 210, No 299. - -231, III, 502 b. #French.# #A# has been printed by Rolland, Chansons -Populaires, VI, 22, _o_ (it is folio 60 of the MS.). Two other before -unprinted versions _p, q,_ at pp. 25, 26, of Rolland. - -232, 504 b. ‘Maria Maddalena,’ three stanzas only, Archivio, VIII, 323, -Canti Parmigiani, No 2. - - - 22. St Stephen and Herod. - -P. 236 a. #French.# ‘Trois Pelerins de Dieu,’ Meyrac, Traditions, etc., -des Ardennes, p. 280. - -240 f., 505 f., II, 501 b. Add: - - Cantou il gatsu: - ¡Cristu naciú! - Dixu il buey: - ¿Agú? - Dixu la ubecha: - ¡En Bilén! - Dixu la cabra: - ¡Catsa, cascarra, - Que nació en Grenada! - -Munthe, Folkpoesi från Asturien, III, No 24, cited by Pitrè in Archivio, -VIII, 141. - -“Quando Christo nasceu, disse o gallo: Jesus-Christo é ná ... á ... -á ... do.” Leite de Vasconcellos, Tradições pop. de Portugal, p. 148, No -285 _b_. - -241. Greek ballad, The Taking of Constantinople. There is a Bulgarian -version. A roasted cock crows, fried fish come to life: Sbornik of the -Ministry of Public Instruction, II, 82. In other ballads the same -incident is transferred to the downfall of Bulgaria: Kačanofskij, p. -235, No 116; Sbornik, II, 129, 2, and II, 131, 2. (W. W.) - -24. Bonnie Annie. - -P. 245 ff. The Rev. S. Baring-Gould has recently found this ballad in -South Devon. - -#a.# Taken down from a man of above eighty years at Bradstone. #b.# From -a young man at Dartmoor. #c.# From an old man at Holne. - - 1 - ‘T was of a sea-captain came oer the salt billow, - He courted a maiden down by the green willow: - ‘O take of your father his gold and his treasure, - O take of your mother her fee without measure.’ - - 2 - ‘I’ll take of my father his gold and his treasure, - I’ll take of my mother her fee without measure:’ - She has come with the captain unto the sea-side, O, - ‘We’ll sail to lands foreign upon the blue tide, O!’ - - 3 - And when she had sailed today and tomorrow, - She was beating her hands, she was crying in sorrow; - And when she had sailed the days were not many, - The sails were outspread, but of miles made not any. - - 4 - And when she had sailed today and tomorrow, - She was beating her hands, she was crying in sorrow; - And when she had sailed not many a mile, O, - The maid was delivered of a beautiful child, O. - - 5 - . . . . . . . . . - - 6 - ‘O take a white napkin, about my head bind it! - O take a white napkin, about my feet wind it! - Alack! I must sink, both me and my baby, - Alack! I must sink in the deep salten water. - - 7 - ‘O captain, O captain, here’s fifty gold crown, O, - I pray thee to bear me and turn the ship round, O; - O captain, O captain, here’s fifty gold pound, O, - If thou wilt but set me upon the green ground, O.’ - - 8 - ‘O never, O never! the wind it blows stronger, - O never, O never! the time it grows longer; - And better it were that thy baby and thou, O, - Should drown than the crew of the vessel, I vow, O.’ - - 9 - ‘O get me a boat that is narrow and thin, O, - And set me and my little baby therein, O:’ - ‘O no, it were better that thy baby and thou, O, - Should drown than the crew of the vessel, I vow, O.’ - - 10 - They got a white napkin, about her head bound it, - They got a white napkin, about her feet wound it; - They cast her then overboard, baby and she, O, - Together to sink in the cruel salt sea, O. - - 11 - The moon it was shining, the tide it was running; - O what in the wake of the vessel was swimming? - ‘O see, boys! O see how she floats on the water! - O see, boys! O see! the undutiful daughter! - - 12 - ‘Why swim in the moonlight, upon the sea swaying? - O what art thou seeking? for what art thou praying?’ - ‘O captain, O captain, I float on the water; - For the sea giveth up the undutiful daughter. - - 13 - ‘O take of my father the gold and the treasure, - O take of my mother her fee without measure; - O make me a coffin of gold that is yellow, - And bury me under the banks of green willow!’ - - 14 - ‘I will make thee a coffin of gold that is yellow, - I’ll bury thee under the banks of green willow; - I’ll bury thee there as becometh a lady, - I’ll bury thee there, both thou and thy baby.’ - - 15 - The sails they were spread, and the wind it was blowing, - The sea was so salt, and the tide it was flowing; - They steered for the land, and they reachd the shore, O, - But the corpse of the maiden had reachd there before, O. - -#b.# - - 1^{1,2}. - There was a sea-captain came to the sea-side, O, - He courted a damsel and got her in trouble. - - 13^3. coffin of the deepest stoll yellow. - - 15^4. But the mother and baby had got there before, O. - -#c.# - - 1 - ’Tis of a sea-captain, down by the green willow, - He courted a damsel and brought her in trouble; - When gone her mother’s good will and all her father’s money, - She fled across the wide sea along with her Johnny. - - 2 - They had not been sailing the miles they were many - Before she was delivered of a beautiful baby: - ‘O tie up my head! O and tie it up easy, - And throw me overboard, both me and my baby!’ - - 3 - She floated on the waves, and she floated so easy, - That they took her on board again, both she and her baby. - - (_The rest forgotten._) - - - 25. Willie’s Lyke-Wake. - -Pp. 247 ff., 506. ‘The Blue Flowers and the Yellow,’ Greenock, printed -by W. Scott [1810]. - - 1 - ‘This seven long years I’ve courted a maid,’ - As the sun shines over the valley - ‘And she neer would consent for to be my bride.’ - Among the blue flowers and the yellow - - 2 - ‘O Jamie, O Jamie, I’ll learn you the way - How your innocent love you’ll betray. - - 3 - ‘If you will give to the bell-man a groat, - And he’ll toll you down a merry night-wake.’ - - 4 - Now he has given the bell-man a groat, - And he has tolld him down a merry night-wake. - - 5 - ‘It’s I must go to my true-love’s wake, - For late last night I heard he was dead.’ - - 6 - ‘Take with you your horse and boy, - And give your true lover his last convoy.’ - - 7 - ‘I’ll have neither horse nor boy, - But I’ll go alone, and I’ll mourn and cry.’ - - 8 - When that she came to her true-love’s hall, - Then the tears they did down fall. - - 9 - She lifted up the sheets so small, - He took her in his arms and he threw her to the wa. - - 10 - ‘It’s let me go a maid, young Jamie,’ she said, - ‘And I will be your bride, and to-morrow we’ll be wed.’ - - 11 - ‘If all your friends were in this bower, - You should not be a maid one quarter of an hour. - - 12 - ‘You came here a maid meek and mild, - But you shall go home both marryd and with child.’ - - 13 - He gave to her a gay gold ring, - And the next day they had a gay wedding. - -The unfortunate Weaver. To which are added The Farmer’s Daughter and The -Blue Flowers and the Yellow. Greenock. Printed by W. Scott. [1810.] -British Museum, 11621. b. 7 (43). - -248 a (#C#), III, 503 a. ‘Hr. Mortens Klosterrov,’ Kristensen, Jyske -Folkeminder, X, 264, No 64. - -249 b, 506 a, III, 503 a. #Swedish.# ‘Herr Karl,’ Lagus, Nyländska -Folkvisor, I, 51, No 12. - - - 26. The Three Ravens. - -P. 253. J. Haslewood made an entry in his copy of Ritson’s Scotish Song -of a MS. Lute-Book (presented to Dr C. Burney by Dr Skene, of Marischal -College, in 1781), which contained airs “noted and collected by Robert -Gordon, at Aberdeen, in the year of our Lord 1627.” Among some ninety -titles of tunes mentioned, there occur ‘Ther wer three ravens,’ and ‘God -be with the, Geordie.’ (W. Macmath.) - -“The song of ‘The Twa Corbies’ was given to me by Miss Erskine of Alva -(now Mrs Kerr), who, I think, said that she had written it down from the -recitation of an old woman at Alva.” C. K. Sharpe to Scott, August 8, -1802, Letters, I, 70, Abbotsford; printed in Sharpe’s Letters, ed. -Allardyce, I, 136. - - - 29. The Boy and the Mantle. - -P. 268 a. #Flowers.# 2. A garland, Kathá Sarit Ságara, Tawney’s -translation, II, 601. - -269 b. The chaste Sítá clears herself of unjust suspicion by passing -safely over a certain lake: Kathá Sarit Ságara, Tawney’s translation, I, -486 f. - -A chessboard that can be “mated” only by one that has never been false -in love: English Prose Merlin, ed. Wheatley, ch. 21, vol. i, part II, p. -363. (G. L. K.) - - - 31. The Marriage of Sir Gawain. - -P. 289, II, 502 b. On the loathly damsel in the Perceval of Chrestien de -Troyes, see The Academy, October 19, 1889, p. 255. (G. L. K.) - -290, note †. One shape by day, another by night: Curtin, Myths and -Folk-Lore of Ireland, 1890, pp. 51, 68, 69, 71, 136. - - - 32. King Henry. - -P. 298 b. Second paragraph. Prince as lindworm restored by maid’s lying -in bed with him one night: ‘Lindormen,’ Kristensen, Jyske Folkeminder, -X, 20, No 9, Lagus, Nyländske Folkvisor, I, 97, No 29, _a, b_. (Lindworm -asks for a kiss in _a_ 4, _b_ 2.) - - - 34. Kemp Owyne. - -P. 307 b. Second paragraph. ‘Jomfruen i Linden,’ Kristensen, Jyske -Folkeminder, X, 22, No 10. - - - 37. Thomas Rymer. - -P. 323 ff. “Thomas the Rhymer. Variations. J. Ormiston, Kelso.” “Scotch -Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 96, Abbotsford; in the -handwriting of John Leyden. - - Her horse was o the dapple-gray, - And in her hands she held bells nine: - ‘Harp and carp, Thomas,’ she said, - ‘For a’ thae bonny bells shall be thine.’ - - It was a night without delight, - - And they rade on and on, I wiss, (amiss) - Till they came to a garden green; - He reached his hand to pu an apple, - For lack o fruit he was like to tyne. - - ‘Now had your hand, Thomas,’ she said, - ‘Had your hand, and go wi me; - That is the evil fruit o hell, - Beguiled man and women in your countrie. - - ‘O see you not that road, Thomas, - That lies down by that little hill? - Curst is the man has that road to gang, - For it takes him to the lowest hell. - - ‘O see you not that road, Thomas, - That lies across yon lily lea? - Blest is the man has that road to gang, - For it takes him to the heavens hie. - - ‘When ye come to my father’s ha, - To see what a learned man you be - They will you question, one and a’, - But you must answer none but me, - And I will answer them again - I gat you at the Eildon tree.’ - - And when, etc. - He answered none but that gay ladie. - - ‘Harp and carp, gin ye gang wi me, - It shall be seven year and day - Or ye return to your countrie. - - ‘Wherever ye gang, or wherever ye be, - Ye’se bear the tongue that can never lie. - - ‘Gin ere ye want to see me again, - Gang to the bonny banks o Farnalie.’ - - ‘Thomas the Rhymer,’ “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border - Minstrelsy,” No 97, Abbotsford; communicated to Sir Walter Scott by - Mrs Christiana Greenwood, London, May 27, 1806 (Letters, I, 189), - from the recitation of her mother and of her aunt, both then above - sixty, who learned it in their childhood from Kirstan Scot, a very - old woman, at Longnewton, near Jedburgh. - - 1 - Thomas lay on the Huntlie bank, - A spying ferlies wi his eee, - And he did spy a lady gay, - Come riding down by the lang lee. - - 2 - Her steed was o the dapple grey, - And at its mane there hung bells nine; - He thought he heard that lady say, - ‘They gowden bells sall a’ be thine.’ - - 3 - Her mantle was o velvet green, - And a’ set round wi jewels fine; - Her hawk and hounds were at her side, - And her bugle-horn in gowd did shine. - - 4 - Thomas took aff baith cloak and cap, - For to salute this gay lady: - ‘O save ye, save ye, fair Queen o Heavn, - And ay weel met ye save and see!’ - - 5 - ‘I’m no the Queen o Heavn, Thomas; - I never carried my head sae hee; - For I am but a lady gay, - Come out to hunt in my follee. - - 6 - ‘Now gin ye kiss my mouth, Thomas, - Ye mauna miss my fair bodee; - Then ye may een gang hame and tell - That ye’ve lain wi a gay ladee.’ - - 7 - ‘O gin I loe a lady fair, - Nae ill tales o her wad I tell, - And it’s wi thee I fain wad gae, - Tho it were een to heavn or hell.’ - - 8 - ‘Then harp and carp, Thomas,’ she said, - ‘Then harp and carp alang wi me; - But it will be seven years and a day - Till ye win back to yere ain countrie.’ - - 9 - The lady rade, True Thomas ran, - Untill they cam to a water wan; - O it was night, and nae delight, - And Thomas wade aboon the knee. - - 10 - It was dark night, and nae starn-light, - And on they waded lang days three, - And they heard the roaring o a flood, - And Thomas a waefou man was he. - - 11 - Then they rade on, and farther on, - Untill they came to a garden green; - To pu an apple he put up his hand, - For the lack o food he was like to tyne. - - 12 - ‘O haud yere hand, Thomas,’ she cried, - ‘And let that green flourishing be; - For it’s the very fruit o hell, - Beguiles baith man and woman o yere countrie. - - 13 - ‘But look afore ye, True Thomas, - And I shall show ye ferlies three; - Yon is the gate leads to our land, - Where thou and I sae soon shall be. - - 14 - ‘And dinna ye see yon road, Thomas, - That lies out-owr yon lilly lee? - Weel is the man yon gate may gang, - For it leads him straight to the heavens hie. - - 15 - ‘But do you see yon road, Thomas, - That lies out-owr yon frosty fell? - Ill is the man yon gate may gang, - For it leads him straight to the pit o hell. - - 16 - ‘Now when ye come to our court, Thomas, - See that a weel-learnd man ye be; - For they will ask ye, one and all, - But ye maun answer nane but me. - - 17 - ‘And when nae answer they obtain, - Then will they come and question me, - And I will answer them again - That I gat yere aith at the Eildon tree. - - * * * * * * - - 18 - ‘Ilka seven years, Thomas, - We pay our teindings unto hell, - And ye’re sae leesome and sae strang - That I fear, Thomas, it will be yeresell.’ - - * * * * * - - 1^4. the Lang-lee. - - 12^2. flour is hing. - - - 39. Tam Lin. - -P. 335. #D a#, excepting the title and the first stanza, is in a hand -not Motherwell’s. - -#I a# first appeared in the second edition of the Minstrelsy, 1803, II, -245. The “gentleman residing near Langholm,” from whom Scott derived the -stanzas of a modern cast, was a Mr Beattie, of Meikledale, and Scott -suspected that they might be the work of some poetical clergyman or -schoolmaster: letter to W. Laidlaw, January 21, 1803, cited by -Carruthers, Abbotsford Notanda, appended to R. Chambers’s Life of Scott, -1871, p. 121 f. - -336 b. ‘Den förtrollade prinsessan,’ Lagus, Nyländska Folkvisor, I, 67, -No 17. - -356 b. Add: #D c#, 12^2. aft. - -340 a, II, 505 b, III, 505 b. Sleeping under an apple-tree. See also st. -14 of the version immediately following. - -So Lancelot goes to sleep about noon under an apple-tree, and is -enchanted by Morgan the Fay. Malory’s Morte Darthur, bk. vi, ch. 1, ch. -3, ed. Sommer, I, 183, 186. (G. L. K.) - - * * * * * - - - K - -Communicated to Scott November 11, 1812, by Hugh Irvine, Drum, -Aberdeenshire, as procured from the recitation of an old woman in -Buchan: Letters, V, No 137, Abbotsford. (Not in Irvine’s hand.) - - 1 - Leady Margat stands in her boor-door, - Clead in the robs of green; - She longed to go to Charters Woods, - To pull the flowers her lean. - - 2 - She had not puld a rose, a rose, - O not a rose but one, - Till up it starts True Thomas, - Said, Leady, let alone. - - 3 - ‘Why pull ye the rose, Marget? - Or why break ye the tree? - Or why come ye to Charters Woods - Without the leave of me?’ - - 4 - ‘I will pull the rose,’ she said, - ‘And I will break the tree, - For Charters Woods is all my own, - And I’l ask no leave of the.’ - - 5 - He’s tean her by the milk-white hand, - And by the grass-green sleeve, - And laid her lo at the foot of the tree, - At her he askt no leave. - - 6 - It fell once upon a day - They wer a pleaying at the ba, - And every one was reed and whyte, - Leady Marget’s culler was all awa. - - 7 - Out it speaks an elder man, - As he stood in the gate, - ‘Our king’s daughter she gos we bern, - And we will get the wait.’ - - 8 - ‘If I be we bern,’ she said, - ‘My own self beer the blame! - There is not a man in my father’s court - Will get my bern’s name.’ - - 9 - ‘There grows a flower in Charters Woods, - It grows on gravel greay, - It ould destroy the boney young bern - That ye got in your pley.’ - - 10 - She’s tean her mantle her about, - Her green glove on her hand, - And she’s awa to Charters Woods, - As fest as she could gang. - - 11 - She had no puld a pile, a pile, - O not a pile but one, - Up it startid True Thomas, - Said, Leady, lat alean. - - 12 - ‘Why pull ye the pile, Marget, - That grows on gravel green, - For to destroy the boney young bern - That we got us between?’ - - 13 - ‘If it were to an earthly man, - As [it is] to an elphan knight, - I ould walk for my true-love’s sake - All the long winter’s night.’ - - 14 - ‘When I was a boy of eleven years old, - And much was made of me, - I went out to my father’s garden, - Fell asleep at yon aple tree: - The queen of Elphan [she] came by, - And laid on her hands on me. - - 15 - ‘Elphan it’s a boney place, - In it fain wid I dwall; - But ey at every seven years end - We pay the teene to hell: - I’m so full of flesh and blood - I’m sear feart for mysel. - - 16 - ‘The morn’s Hallow Even’s night, - When a’ our courts do ride, - Through England and through Irland, - Through a’ the world wide: - And she that would her true-love borrow - At Miles Corse she may bide. - - 17 - ‘The first an court that ye come till, - Ye let them a’ pass by; - The next an court that ye come till, - Ye hile them reverendly. - - 18 - ‘The next an court that ye come till, - An therein rides the queen, - Me upon a milk-whyte steed, - And a gold star in my croun; - Because I am a erle’s soon, - I get that for my renoun. - - 19 - ‘Ye take me in your armes, - Give me a right sear fa; - The queen of Elphan she’l cry out, - True Thomas is awa! - - 20 - ‘First I’l be in your armes - The fire burning so bold; - Ye hold me fast, let me no pass - Till I be like iron cold. - - 21 - ‘Next I’l be in your armes - The fire burning so wild; - Ye hold me fast, let me no pass, - I’m the father of your child.’ - - 22 - The first court that came her till, - She let them a’ pass by; - The nex an court that came her till, - She helt them reverendly. - - 23 - The nex an court that came her till, - And therein read the queen, - True Thomas on a milk-whyte steed, - A gold star in his croun; - Because he was a earl’s soon, - He got that for his renoun. - - 24 - She’s tean him in her arms, - Geen him a right sore fa; - The queen of Elphan she cried out, - True Thomas is awa! - - 25 - He was into her arms - The fire burning so bold; - She held him fast, let him no pass - Till he was like iron cold. - - 26 - He was into her arms - The fire burning so wild; - She held him fast, let him no pass, - He was the father of her child. - - 27 - The queen of Elphan she cried out, - An angry woman was she, - ‘Let Leady Marget an her true-love be, - She’s bought him dearer than me.’ - - * * * * * - - 3^2. breat. - - 15^4. tune (?). - - 16^1. Thee. - - 27^2. woman _is struck out_. - -The following fragment does not appear to have been among the “several -recitals from tradition” used by Scott in making up his ballad. Some -lines which it might be supposed to have furnished occur in the edition -of 1802, issued before Scott’s acquaintance with Laidlaw began. - - * * * * * - - - L - - “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 27, - Abbotsford; in the handwriting of William Laidlaw. - - 1 - I charge ye, a’ ye ladies fair, - That wear goud in your hair, - To come an gang bye Carterhaugh, - For young Tam Lien is there. - - * * * * * * - - 2 - Then Janet kiltit her green cleadin - A wee aboon her knee, - An she’s gane away to Carterhaugh, - As fast as she can dree. - - 3 - When Janet cam to Carterhaugh, - Tam Lien was at the wall, - An there he left his steed stannin, - But away he gaed his sell. - - 4 - She had na pu’d a red, red rose, - A rose but only thre, - Till up then startit young Tam Lien, - Just at young Jenet’s knee. - - 5 - ‘What gars ye pu the rose, Janet, - Briek branches frae the tree, - An come an gang by Carterhaugh, - An speir nae leave of me?’ - - 6 - ‘What need I speir leave o thee, Tam? - What need I speir leave o thee, - When Carterhaugh is a’ mine ain, - My father gae it me?’ - - * * * * * * - - 7 - She’s kiltit up her green cleadin - A wee aboon her knee, - An she’s away to her ain bower-door, - As fast as she can dree. - - * * * * * * - - 8 - There war four-an-twentie fair ladies - A’ dancin in a chess, - An some war blue an some war green, - But Janet was like the gress. - - 9 - There war four-an-twentie fair ladies - A’ playin at the ba, - An some war red an som wer white, - But Jennet was like the snaw. - - * * * * * - - 1^3. To _is doubtful_; _almost bound in_. - - 6^4. gae _written over_ left _struck out._ - - 8^2, 9^2. A’ _in the MS._ - - * * * * * - - - M - -“Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 15. Communicated -to Scott by Major Henry Hutton, Royal Artillery, 24th December, 1802, as -recollected by his father “and the family:” Letters I, No 77. Major -Hutton intimates that stanzas 46–49 of the first edition of ‘Tamlane’ -(‘Roxburgh was my grandfather,’ ff., corresponding to #I# 28–32) should -be struck out, and his verses inserted. But 4–12 of Hutton’s stanzas -belong to ‘Thomas Rymer.’ - - 1 - My father was a noble knight, - And was much gi’n to play, - And I myself a bonny boy, - And followed him away. - - 2 - He rowd me in his hunting-coat - And layd me down to sleep, - And by the queen of fairies came, - And took me up to keep. - - 3 - She set me on a milk-white steed; - ’Twas o the elfin kind; - His feet were shot wi beaten goud, - And fleeter than the wind. - - 4 - Then we raid on and on’ard mair, - Oer mountain, hill and lee, - Till we came to a hie, hie wa, - Upon a mountain’s bree. - - 5 - The apples hung like stars of goud - Out-our that wa sa fine; - I put my hand to pu down ane, - For want of food I thought to tine. - - 6 - ‘O had your hand, Tamas!’ she said, - ‘O let that evil fruit now be! - It was that apple ye see there - Beguil’d man and woman in your country. - - 7 - ‘O dinna ye see yon road, Tamas, - Down by yon lilie lee? - Blessd is the man who yon gate gaes, - It leads him to the heavens hie. - - 8 - ‘And dinna ye see yon road, Tamas, - Down by yon frosty fell? - Curst is the man that yon gate gaes, - For it leads to the gates of hell. - - 9 - ‘O dinna ye see yon castle, Tamas, - That’s biggit between the twa, - And theekit wi the beaten goud? - O that’s the fairies’ ha. - - 10 - ‘O when ye come to the ha, Tamas, - See that a weel-learnd boy ye be; - They’ll ask ye questions ane and a’, - But see ye answer nane but me. - - 11 - ‘If ye speak to ain but me, Tamas, - A fairie ye maun ever bide; - But if ye speak to nane but me, Tamas, - Ye may come to be your country’s pride.’ - - 12 - And when he came to Fairie Ha, - I wot a weel-learnd boy was he; - They askd him questions ane and a’, - But he answerd nane but his ladie. - - 13 - There was four-and-twenty gude knights’-sons - In fairie land obliged to bide, - And of a’ the pages that were there - Fair Tamas was his ladie’s pride. - - 14 - There was four-and-twenty earthly boys, - Wha all played at the ba, - But Tamas was the bonniest boy, - And playd the best amang them a’. - - 15 - There was four-and-twenty earthly maids, - Wha a’ playd at the chess, - Their colour rosy-red and white, - Their gowns were green as grass. - - 16 - ‘And pleasant are our fairie sports, - We flie o’er hill and dale; - But at the end of seven years - They pay the teen to hell. - - 17 - ‘And now’s the time, at Hallowmess, - Late on the morrow’s even, - And if ye miss me then, Janet, - I’m lost for yearis seven.’ - - * * * * * - - - N - - ‘Tamlane,’ “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 96 - a; in the handwriting of John Leyden. - - ‘Gowd rings I can buy, Thomas, - Green mantles I can spin, - But gin ye take my maidenheid - I’ll neer get that again.’ - - Out and spak the queen o fairies, - Out o a shot o wheat, - ‘She that has gotten young Tamlane - Has gotten my heart’s delight.’ - - - 40. The Queen of Elfan’s Nourice. - -P. 358, II, 505 b, III, 505 b. More cases in ‘Fairy Births and Human -Midwives,’ E. S. Hartland, The Archæological Review, IV, 328 ff. - -The elf-woman’s daughter has lain on the floor nineteen days in travail, -for she cannot be delivered unless a mortal man lay hands upon her. -Hrólfr is lured to the elf-woman’s hall for this purpose. Göngu-Hrólfs -Saga, c. 15, Rafn, Fornaldar Sögur, III, 276, Ásmundarson, -Fornaldarsögur Norðrlanda, III, 174, 175. (G. L. K.) - - - 41. Hind Etin. - -P. 361 b, III, 506 a. #Danish.# #X#, ‘Agnete i Bjærget,’ Kristensen, -Jyske Folkeminder, X, 3, No 2. - -364 a, III, 506 a. #Danish.# #M-O#, ‘Agnete i Havet,’ Kristensen, Jyske -Folkeminder, X, 6, No 3, #A-C#. - -365 a, II, 506 a. #German.# #J.# ‘Die schöne Dorothea,’ Gadde-Gloddow, -V. 1. aus Hinterpommern, Zeitschrift für Volkskunde, III, 227. - - - 42. Clerk Colvill. - -P. 374 b. #Danish.# ‘Elvedansen,’ Kristensen, Jyske Folkeminder, X, 10, -372, No 5, A, B, C. - -380, II, 506 a, III, 506 a. #PP#, #QQ#, ‘Arnaud,’ Quercy, Daymard, p. -167 f., 34 verses, 26 verses. #RR#, ‘Lou Counte Arnaud,’ Bas-Quercy, -Soleville, Chants p. du Bas-Quercy, 1889, p. 13, 10 stanzas. #SS,# -version limousine, La Tradition, V, 184. - -384, III, 506 a. #Spanish.# ‘Don Pedro,’ El Folk-Lore Frexnense y -Bético-Extremeño, Fregenal, 1883–84; (1) p. 129 (and 180), Zafra, -Badajoz, D. Sergio Hernandez; (2) p. 182, Badajoz; (3) p. 183, -Montanchez, provincia de Cácares; (4) Constantina, provincia de Sevilla, -D. Antonio Machado y Alvarez. - -386 a. #Bohemian.# #A a# also==Wenzig, Slawische V. 1., 1830, p. 47. - - - 43. The Broomfield Hill. - -P. 392 b, III, 506. Sleep-thorn, sleep-pin. Add: Curtin, Myths and -Folk-Lore of Ireland, 1890, pp. 40, 130 ff., 200; Hyde, Beside the Fire, -Irish-Gaelic Folk-Stories, p. 43; MacInnes, Folk and Hero Tales, 1890, -p. 141 (cf. p. 459). - -Sleep-pin, Wlisłocki, M. u. S. der transylvanischen Zigeuner, p. 46. -Compare the wand in J. H. Knowles’s Folk-Tales of Kashmir, p. 199. (G. -L. K.) - -393, III, 506 b. #Italian.# ‘La bella Brunetta,’ Ferrari, C. p. in San -Pietro Capofiume; ‘La Bevanda sonnifera,’ Giannini, Canzoni del Contado -di Massa Lunense, Archivio, VII, 109, No 11, 279, No 7. - - - 44. The Twa Magicians. - -P. 400 a, II, 506 b, III, 506 b. #French.# #W#, ‘J’ai fait une -maîtresse,’ Daymard, p. 51, Quercy. #X#, ‘Margarideto,’ Soleville, -Chants p. du Bas-Quercy, p. 94. - -#Italian.# Add to Tigri’s _rispetto_: Vigo, Canti p. siciliani, 1870–74, -No 1711, Pitrè, Studj di Poesia pop., p. 76; Casetti e Imbriani, C. p. -delle Provincie meridionali, p. 187: all cited by d’Ancona, Poesia pop., -p. 341. - -400 b. #Bohemian.# Waldau, Böhmische Granaten, II, 75, No 107, dove, -gun; fish, hook; hare, dog. - -401 b. Tale in Curtin’s Myths and Folk-Lore of Ireland, pp. 152–6. - -Cf. also Notes and Queries, 7th Series, IX, 101, 295; Clouston, Popular -Tales and Fictions, I, 413 ff. (G. L. K.) - - - 45. King John and the Bishop. - -P. 403 f. Roxburghe, III, 883, is #B#. Roxburghe, III, 494 was printed -and sold by John White, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, “circa 1777:” Ebsworth, -Roxburghe Ballads, VI, 749. ‘The King and the Bishop,’ Roxburghe, III, -170, is printed in the same volume, p. 751, and ‘The Old Abbot and King -Olfrey,’ Pepys, II, 127, at p. 753. - -405 b, II, 507. An Armenian, a Slovak, and a Hungarian version, by H. v. -Wlisłocki, Zs. f. vergleichende Litteraturgeschichte, u. s. w., N. F., -IV, 106 ff., 1891. - -404 b, 2d paragraph. Of this kind is the Russian tale, How Fraud made -entrance into Russia. Ivan the Terrible demands tribute of neighboring -princes. They propose to him three riddles: if he guesses them, they are -to pay twelve casks of gold and tribute; if he fails, they take his -kingdom. A marvellous old man helps the Tsar out. He has been promised a -cask of gold, but the Tsar fills one of the casks two thirds with sand, -and offers that. The old man tells him that he, the Tsar, has brought -Fraud into the land, never to be eradicated. Ivan begs him to take one -of the other casks, but in vain. The old man vanishes; it was God. -Rybnikof, II, 232, No 39. (W. W.) - - - 46. Captain Wedderburn’s Courtship. - -P. 417 a, II, 507 b, III, 507 a. Heads on spikes; only one spike without -a head: Curtin, Myths and Folk-Lore of Ireland, 1890, pp. 37, 114 f, -193; Mac Innes, Folk and Hero Tales, Folk-Lore Society, 1890, pp. 79, -453. - - - 47. Proud Lady Margaret. - -P. 426. #A.# Two stanzas (6, 9) and a line were wanting in the copy -supplied by Hamilton. March 23, 1803, Hamilton sent to Scott the -following verses, “to come in at the first break.” There were still four -lines, which should come before these, that Hamilton could not -recollect. “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 117. -See #B# 17, #C# 11, where also there is defect, and #D# 6, 7. - - ‘O wherein leems the beer?’ she said, - ‘Or wherein leems the wine? - O wherein leems the gold?’ she said, - ‘Or wherein leems the twine?’ - - ‘The beer is put in a drinking-horn, - The wine in glasses fine, - There’s gold in store between two kings, - When they are fighting keen, - And the twine is between a lady’s two hands - When they are washen clean.’ - - - 49. The Twa Brothers. - -P. 436, II, 14, III, 381 b. ‘Tell my mother I am married,’ etc.: so in -the beautiful Roumanian ‘Miorita,’ Alecsandri, p. 3. - -438. #A b.# ‘The Two Brothers,’ Walks near Edinburgh, by Margaret -Warrender, 1890, p. 60. Given to Lady John Scott many years ago by -Campbell Riddell, brother of Sir James Riddell of Ardnamurchan. - - 1 - There were two brothers in the north, - Lord William and Lord John, - And they would try a wrestling match, - So to the fields they’ve gone, gone, gone, - So to the fields they’ve gone. - - 2 - They wrestled up, they wrestled down, - Till Lord John fell on the ground. - And a knife into Lord William’s pocket - Gave him a deadly wound. - - 3 - ‘Oh take me on your back, dear William,’ he said, - ‘And carry me to the burnie clear, - And wash my wound sae deep and dark, - Maybe’t will bleed nae mair.’ - - 4 - He took him up upon his back, - An carried him to the burnie clear, - But aye the mair he washed his wound - It aye did bleed the mair. - - 5 - ‘Oh take me on your back, dear William,’ he said, - ‘And carry me to the kirkyard fair, - And dig a grave sae deep and dark, - And lay my body there.’ - - 6 - ‘But what shall I say to my father dear - When he says, Willie, what’s become of John?’ - ‘Oh tell him I am gone to Greenock town, - To buy him a puncheon of rum.’ - - 7 - ‘And what shall I say to my sister dear - When she says, Willie, what’s become of John?’ - ‘Oh tell her I’ve gone to London town - To buy her a marriage-gown.’ - - 8 - ‘But what shall I say to my grandmother dear - When she says, Willie, what’s become of John?’ - ‘Oh tell her I’m in the kirkyard dark, - And that I’m dead and gone.’ - - - 53. Young Beichan. - -P. 459 a. #Danish.# ‘Ellen henter sin Fæstemand,’ Kristensen, Jyske -Folkeminder, X, 125, No 34, #A#, #B#. - -462 a, III, 507 b. ‘Gerineldo,’ again, in Munthe, Folkpoesie från -Asturien, No 2, second part, p. 112 b (Upsala Universitets Årsskrift); -but imperfect. - -462 b, 463 a, II, 508 a. Another version of the French ballad (‘Tout au -milieu de Paris’) in Meyrac, Traditions, etc., des Ardennes, p. 238. - -463 ff. ‘Earl Bichet,’ “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border -Minstrelsy,” No 83, Abbotsford. Communicated to Scott by Mrs Christiana -Greenwood, London, May 27, 1806 (Letters, I, No 189), as heard by her in -her youth at Longnewton, near Jedburgh, “where most of the old women -could sing it.” - - 1 - Earl Bichet’s sworn a mighty aith, - And a solemn vow made he, - That he wad to the Holy Land, - To the Holy Land wad he gae. - - 2 - When he came to the Holy Land, - Amang the Infidels sae black, - They hae consulted them amang - The Earl Bichet for to take. - - 3 - And when they basely him betrayd - They put him into fetters strang, - And threw him in a dungeon dark, - To spend the weary night sae lang. - - 4 - Then in ilka shoulder they bored a hole, - In his right shoulder they bored three, - And they gard him draw the coops o wine, - Till he was sick and like to dee. - - 5 - Then they took him out o their carts and wains, - And put him in a castle of stone; - When the stars shone bright, and the moon gave light, - The sad Earl Bichet he saw none. - - 6 - The king had only ae daughter, - And it was orderd sae to be - That, as she walked up and down, - By the strong-prison-door cam she. - - 7 - Then she heard Earl Bichet sad - Making his pityful mane, - In doolfu sounds and moving sighs - Wad melt a heart o stane. - - 8 - ‘When I was in my ain countrie, - I drank the wine sae clear; - But now I canna get bare bread; - O I wis I had neer come here! - - 9 - ‘When I was in my ain countrie, - I drank the wine sae red; - But now I canna get a bite o bare bread; - O I wis that I were dead!’ - - * * * * * * - - 10 - ‘Gae bring to me the good leaven [bread], - To eat when I do need; - Gae bring to me the good red wine, - To drink when I do dread.’ - - 11 - ‘Gae ask my father for his leave - To bring them unto me, - And for the keys o the prison-door, - To set Earl Bichet free.’ - - * * * * * * - - 12 - Then she went into her ain chamber - And prayd most heartilie, - And when that she rose up again - The keys fell at her knee. - - * * * * * * - - 13 - Then they hae made a solemn vow - Between themselves alone, - That he was to marry no other woman, - And she no other man. - - 14 - And Earl Bichet’s to sail to fair Scotland, - Far oer the roaring faem, - And till seven years were past and gone - This vow was to remain. - - 15 - Then she built him a stately ship, - And set it on the sea, - Wi four-and-twenty mariners, - To bear him companie. - - 16 - ‘My blessing gae wi ye, Earl Bichet, - My blessing gae wi thee; - My blessing be wi a’ the mariners - That are to sail wi thee.’ - - 17 - Then they saild east, and they saild wast, - Till they saild to Earl Bichet’s yett, - When nane was sae ready as his mother dear - To welcome her ain son back. - - 18 - ‘Ye’re welcome, welcome, Earl Bichet, - Ye’re dearly welcome hame to me! - And ye’re as welcome to Lady Jean, - For she has lang looked for thee.’ - - 19 - ‘What haste, what haste, O mother dear, - To wale a wife for me? - For what will I do wi the bonny bride - That I hae left ayont the sea?’ - - 20 - When seven years were past and gone, - Seven years but and a day, - The Saracen lady took a crying in her sleep, - And she has cried sair till day. - - 21 - ‘O daughter, is it for a man o might? - Or is it for a man o mine?’ - ‘It’s neither for a man o might, - Nor is it for a man o thine. - - 22 - ‘Bat if ye’ll build me a ship, father, - And set it on the sea, - I will away to some other land, - To seek a true-love free.’ - - 23 - Then he built her a gallant ship, - And set it on the sea, - Wi a hunder and fifty mariners, - To bear her companie. - - 24 - At every corner o the ship - A siller bell did hing, - And at ilka jawing o the faem - The siller bells did ring. - - 25 - Then they saild east, and they saild wast, - Till they cam to Earl Bichet’s yett; - Nane was sae ready as the porter - To open and let her in thereat. - - 26 - ‘O is this Earl Bichet’s castle-yett? - Or is that noble knight within? - For I am weary, sad and wet, - And far I’ve come ayont the faem.’ - - 27 - ‘He’s up the stair at supper set, - And mony a noble knight wi him; - He’s up the stair wi his bonny bride, - And mony a lady gay wi them.’ - - 28 - She’s put her hand into her purse - And taen out fifty merks and three: - ‘If this be the Earl Bichet’s castle, - Tell him to speak three words wi me. - - 29 - ‘Tell him to send me a bit o his bread - But an a bottle o his wine, - And no forget the lady’s love - That freed him out o prison strong.’ - - 30 - The porter he gaed up the stair, - And mony bow and binge gae he; - ‘What means, what means,’ cried Earl Bichet, - ‘O what means a’ this courtesie?’ - - 31 - ‘O I hae been porter at yere yett - These four-and-twenty years and three; - But the fairest lady now stands thereat - That ever my two eyes did see. - - 32 - ‘She has a ring on her foremost finger, - And on her middle-finger three; - She has as much gowd about her waist - As wad buy earldoms o land for thee. - - 33 - ‘She wants to speak three words wi thee, - And a little o yere bread and wine, - And not to forget the lady’s love - That freed ye out o prison strong.’ - - 34 - ‘I’ll lay my life,’ cried Earl Bichet, - ‘It’s my true love come oer the sea!’ - Then up and spake the bride’s mother, - ‘It’s a bonny time to speak wi thee!’ - - 35 - ‘O your doughter came here on a horse’s back, - But I’ll set her hame in a chariot free; - For, except a kiss o her bonny mouth, - Of her fair body I am free.’ - - 36 - There war thirty cups on the table set, - He gard them a’ in flinders flee; - There war thirty steps into the stair, - And he has louped them a’ but three. - - 37 - Then he took her saftly in his arms, - And kissed her right tenderlie: - ‘Ye’re welcome here, my ain true love, - Sae dearly welcome ye’re to me!’ - - * * * * * * - - * * * * * - - 7^3. doolfu: l _struck out_. - - _At the end_: “Some verses are wanting at the conclusion.” - - -The following stanza, entered by Scott in the quarto volume “Scottish -Songs,” 1795, fol. 29 back, Abbotsford library, N. 3, is much too good -to be lost: - - Young Bechin was in Scotland born, - He longed far countries for to see, - And he bound himself to a savage Moor, - Who used him but indifferently. - - - VOL. II. - - - 55. The Carnal and the Crane. - -P. 7, 509 b, III, 507 b. The Sower. Add: Legeay, Noëls Anciens, Première -Série, 1875, ‘Saint Joseph avec Marie,’ No 34, p. 68; Daymard, Vieux -Chants p. rec. en Quercy, ‘La Fuite en Egypte,’ p. 333; Soleville, Ch. -p. du Bas-Quercy, ‘Lou Bouiaje,’ p. 126; La Tradition, IV, 139. - - - 56. Dives and Lazarus. - -P. 10, III, 507 b. ‘Le mauvais riche,’ Daymard, Vieux Chants p. rec. en -Quercy, p. 282. - - - 57. Brown Robyn’s Confession. - -P. 13. #Swedish.# ‘Herr Päders Sjöresa,’ Lagus, Nyländska Folkvisor, I, -56, No 14, _a_, _b_. - -#Danish.# ‘Jon Rimaardsens Sejlads,’ Kristensen, Jyske Folkeminder, X, -296, No 73, #A-D#. - -13 ff., II, 510, also No 20, I, 244. While Prince Lundarasena is on a -voyage, a great hurricane arises. An offering of jewels is made to the -sea, but does not quiet it. Lundarasena says: “It is through my demerits -in former births that this day of doom has suddenly come upon you.” He -flings himself into the water; the wind falls immediately and the sea -becomes calm. (He is not drowned.) Kathá Sarit Ságara, Tawney’s -translation, II, 375. - -A ship stopped. Cf. the story told by Henry of Huntingdon, viii, 22, of -one Reiner, a follower of Geoffrey Mandeville (Gaufridus de Magna -Villa). - -“Princeps autem peditum suorum, Reinerus nomine, cujus officium fuerat -ecclesias frangere vel incendere, dum mare cum uxore sua transiret, ut -multi perhibuerunt, navis immobilis facta est. Quod monstrum nautis -stupentibus, sorte data rei causam inquirentibus, sors cecidit super -Reinerum. Quod cum ille nimirum totis contradiceret nisibus, secundo et -tertio sors jacta in eum devenit. Positus igitur in scapha est, et uxor -ejus, et pecunia scelestissime adquisita, et statim navis cursu -velocissimo ut prius fecerat pelagus sulcat, scapha vero cum nequissimis -subita voragine circumducta in æternum absorpta est.” This was in the -year 1144. Henrici Archidiaconi Huntendunensis Historia Anglorum, ed. -Arnold, Rolls Series, 1879, p. 278. (G. L. K.) - -“Audivi a fratre Galtero de Leus quod, cum quedam mulier, mare -transiens, pulcritudine sua omnes qui erant in navi ita attraxisset ut -omnes qui erant ibi fere cum ea peccassent vel per actum aut consensum, -et non evitaret patrem aut filium, sed indifferenter omnibus, licet -occulte, se exponeret, facta in mari tempestate et navi periclitante, -cepit clamare coram omnibus omnia peccata sua et confiteri ea, credens -quod alii propter ea deberent periclitari. Tunc, aliis confitentibus, -cessavit mare a furore suo. Facta tranquillitate, nullus potuit scire -que esset illa mulier aut cognoscere eam.” Anecdotes historiques, -Légendes et Apologues tirés du Recueil inédit d’Étienne de Bourbon, ed. -Lecoy de la Marche, 1877, p. 160. (G. L. K.) - -A merchant is making a voyage to Mount Athos with a cargo of wax and -incense. St Nicolas freezes the ship in, and will not thaw it out until -the master makes a vow to present the cargo to the monastery there. -#Bulgarian#, Miladinof, p. 56, No 50. A ship in which Milica is captive -is stopped by her tears and plaints until she and her brother are -released. #Servian#, Karadžić, I, 556, No 729. (W. W.) - -16. ‘Captain Glen.’ Christie’s Traditional Ballad Airs, I, 241, from -recitation. As Christie remarks, some verses of the ballad are -introduced into Scott’s Pirate, ch. 36. - - - 59. Sir Aldingar. - -P. 33 f. The child champion in #A#. (Compare also the notes to No 90, -II, 513 b, III, 515 b.) Children who distinguish themselves by valorous -exploits, and even get the better of heroes, are especially common in -Bulgarian epos. A child of three days kills a monster that stops the way -of a marriage-train, and then requires the guests to come to its -baptism: Miladinof, p. 79, No 59. Marko Kraljević is vanquished by one -of these, seven years old: Miladinof, p. 173, No 121; Kačanofskij, pp. -341–55, Nos 151–55. In Kačanofskij, p. 355, No 156, the child is but -seven months old. More of this extravagance in Miladinof, p. 266, No -173; Sbornik of the Ministry of Instruction, I, 59, No 4. (W. W.) - -35, note. In The Order of Combats for Life in Scotland, Spalding Club -Misc., II, 387 (of uncertain date), the second oath to be proposed to -the parties is, that they have not brought into the lists other armor or -weapons than was allowed, neither any engine, charm, herb, or -enchantment, etc. - - - 60. King Estmere. - -P. 50 b, the last paragraph. It might have been remarked that ‘King -Estmere’ resembles in a general way a series of German poems of -adventure, in which a young king (or his guardians) is nice about a -wife, and the princess proposed to him is won only with great -difficulty: König Rother (ed. Rückert, v. 13 ff.); Ortnit (Ortnit und -die Wolfdietriche, ed. Amelung und Jänicke, I, 4, st. 8 ff.); -Hugdietrich (the same, p. 168, st. 9 ff.); Oswald (Sant Oswaldes Leben, -ed. Ettmüller, p. 6, v. 140 ff); Orendel (ed. Berger, p. 8, v. 192 ff.); -Dietwart (Dietrichs Flucht, ed. Martin, Heldenbuch, II^r Teil, p. 68, v. -785 ff.). To which may be added Fore, in Salman und Marolf (ed. Vogt, p. -5, str. 24 ff.), and Tsar Vasily, in Russian _byliny_ (see Vogt, p. -XLII). - - - 61. Sir Cawline. - -P. 60, III, 508 b. Cucúlin pulls liver and lights out of the throats of -two lions: Curtin, Myths and Folk-Lore of Ireland, p. 317. - - - 62. Fair Annie. - -P. 65 a. #Swedish.# ‘Skön Anna,’ ‘Skön Anna och Herr Peder,’ Lagus, -Nyländska Folkvisor, I, 13, No 4, _a, b_. The bride throws down one half -of a gold ring, Fair Annie the other; the parts run together: _a_ 23, -_b_ 16. - -67. The romance of Galerent follows the story of Marie’s _lai_, and is -thought to be founded on it: Le Roman de Galerent, Comte de Bretagne, -par le trouvère Renaut, A. Boucherie, 1888. (G. L. K.) - -68, note. The story is in Coryat’s Crudities, 1611, p. 646 f.; III, 81 -f., of the ed. of 1776. (G. L. K.) - - - 63. Child Waters. - -P. 84 b, III, 508 b. Add: Skattegraveren, 1888, II, 135, Nos 408–11. - - - 64. Fair Janet. - -P. 101 b. #Danish.# ‘Kong Valdemar og hans Søster,’ Kristensen, Jyske -Folkeminder, X, 75, 378, No 23. - -102 b. #Breton# ballad. After Luzel, II, 6–15, add 558, the page of the -third ballad. - -Quellien, Chansons et Danses des Bretons, p. 73, is a fourth version. -This ballad, says Quellien, is widely spread, and has various titles, -one of which is ‘Le Comte de Poitou.’ - -103 ff. “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” Abbotsford, -No 25. In the handwriting of William Laidlaw; “from Jean Scott.” - - 1 - Young Janet sits in her garden, - Makin a heavie maen, - Whan by cam her father dear, - Walkin himself alane. - - 2 - ‘It’s telld me in my bower, Janet, - It’s telld me in my bed, - That ye’re in love wi Sweet Willie; - But a French lord ye maun wed.’ - - 3 - ‘In it be telld ye in yer bower, father, - In it be telld ye in your bed, - That me an Willie bears a love, - Yet a French lord I maun wed, - But here I mak a leel, leel vow - He’s neer come in my bed. - - 4 - ‘An for to please my father dear - A French lord I will wed; - But I hae sworn a solemn oth - He’s neer come in my bed.’ - - 5 - Y_oung_ Janet’s away to her bower-door, - As fast as she can hie, - An Willie he has followd her, - He’s followd speedilie. - - 6 - An whan he cam to her bowr-door - He tirlt at the pin: - ‘O open, open, Janet love, - Open an let me in.’ - - 7 - ‘It was never my mother’s custm, Willie, - It never sal be mine, - For a man to come the bower within - When a woman’s travelin. - - 8 - ‘Gae yer ways to my sisters’ bower, - Crie, Meg, Marion an Jean, - Ye maun come to yer sister Janet, - For fear that she be gane.’ - - 9 - Sae he gaed to her sisters’ bower, - Cry’d, Meg, Marion an Jean, - Ye maun come to yer sister Janet, - For fear that she be gane. - - 10 - Some drew to their silk stokins, - An some drew to their shoon, - An some drew to their silk cleadin, - For fear she had been gane. - - 11 - When they cam to her bower-door - They tirlt at the pin; - For as sick a woman as she was, - She raise an loot them in. - - 12 - They had na the babie weel buskit, - Nor her laid in her bed, - Untill her cruel father cam, - Cried, Fye, gar busk the bride! - - 13 - ‘There a sair pain in my back, father, - There a sair pain in my head, - An sair, sair is my sidies to; - This day I downa ride.’ - - 14 - ‘But I hae sorn a solemn oath, - Afore a companie, - That ye sal ride this day, Janet, - This day an ye soud die. - - 15 - ‘Whae’ll horse ye to the kirk, Janet? - An whae will horse ye best?’ - ‘Whae but Willie, my true-love? - He kens my mister best.’ - - 16 - ‘Whae’ll horse ye to the kirk, Janet? - An whae will horse ye there?’ - ‘Whae but Willie, my true-love? - He neer will doo ‘d nae maer. - - 17 - ‘Ye may saddle a steed, Willie, - An see that ye saddle ‘t soft; - Ye may saddle a steed, Willie, - For ye winna saddle ‘t oft. - - 18 - ‘Ye may saddle a steed, Willie, - An see that ye saddle ‘t side; - Ye may saddle a steed, Willie; - But I thought to have been yer bride.’ - - 19 - When they war a’ on horse-back set, - On horse-back set sae hie, - Then up spak the bold bridegroom, - An he spak boustresslie. - - 20 - Up then spak the bold bridegroom, - An he spak loud an thrawn; - ‘I think the bride she be wi bairn, - She looks sae pale an wan.’ - - 21 - Then she took out her bible-book, - Swoor by her fingers five - That she was neither wi lad nor lass - To no man was alive. - - 22 - Then she took out her bible-book, - Swoor by her fingers ten - An ever she had born a bairn in her days - She had born ‘d sin yestreen: - Then a’ the ladies round about - Said, That’s a loud leesin. - - 23 - Atween the kitchin an the kirk - It was a weel-met mile; - It was a stra’d i the red roses, - But than the camomile. - - 24 - When the war a’ at dener set, - Drinkin at the wine, - Janet could neither eat nor drink - But the water that ran so fine. - - 25 - Up spak the bride’s father, - Said, Bride, will ye dance wi me? - ‘Away, away, my cruel father! - There nae dancin wi me.’ - - 26 - Up then spak the bride’s mother, - Said, Bride, will ye dance wi me? - ‘Away, away, my mother dear! - There nae dancin wi me.’ - - 27 - Up then spak the bride’s sisters, etc. - - 28 - Up then spak the bride’s brother, etc. - - 29 - Then up spak the bold bridegroom, [etc.] - - 30 - Up then spak the Sweet Willie, - An he spak wi a vance; - ‘An ye’ll draw of my boots, Janet, - I’ll gie a’ yer lassies a dance.’ - - 31 - ‘I seen ‘t other ways, Willie, - An sae has mae than me, - When ye wad hae danced wi my fair body, - An leten a’ my maidens be.’ - - 32 - He took her by the milk-white hand, - An led her wi mickle care, - But she drapit down just at his feet, - And word spak little mair. - - 33 - ‘Ye may gae hire a nurse, Willie, - An take yer young son hame; - Ye may gae hire a nurse, Willie, - For bairn’s nurse I’ll be nane.’ - - 34 - She’s pu’d out the keys o her coffer, - Hung leugh down by her gair; - She said, Gie thae to my young son, - Thrae me he’ll neer get mair.’ - - 35 - Up then spak the bold bridegroom, - An he spak bousterouslie; - ‘I’ve gien you the skaeth, Willie, - But ye’ve gien me the scorn; - Sae there’s no a bell i St Mary’s kirk - Sall ring for her the morn.’ - - 36 - ‘Ye’ve gien me the skaeth, bridegroom, - But I’ll gee you the scorn; - For there’s no a bell i St Marie’s kirk - But sal ring for her the morn. - - 37 - ‘Gar deal, gar deal at my love’s burial - The wheat-bread an the wine, - For or the morn at ten o clock - Ye’ll deal ‘d as fast at mine.’ - - 38 - Then he’s drawn out a nut-brown sword, - Hang leugh down by his gair, - He’s thrust it in just at his heart, - An word spak never mair. - - 39 - The taen was buried i St Mary’s kirk, - The tother i St Mary’s queer, - An throw the taen there sprang a birk, - Throw the tother a bonnie brier. - - 40 - Thae twae met, an thae twae plaet, - An ay they knitit near, - An ilka ane that cam thereby - Said, There lies twa lovers dear. - - 41 - Till by there came an ill French lord, - An ill death may he die! - For he pu’d up the bonnie brier, - . . . . . . . . - - 5^1. Away _struck out, and_ on _written over._ - - 9^1. An _at the beginning struck out._ - - 10^{1,2,3}. drew to them their? Cf. #A# 10. - - 11^4. _The fourth verse is written as the second_ (it _for_ in), - _but struck out_. - - 12^1. bukit. - - 13^3. _Changed, by striking out, to_ An sair, sair my side. An - sair, sair is my side _should probably be the second line._ - - _Cf._ #A# 17, #C# 12. - - 15^2. An whae I will. - - 16^4. He’ll neer will. - - 18^4. But _struck out._ - - 23^4. But an? - - 30^1. he Sweet Willie? - - 34^2. Hang? Cf. 38^2. - - 39^2. _MS._ queer Choir. - - 40^4. twa _struck out._ - - - 65. Lady Maisry. - -P. 112 b. #I.# “Mrs Baird says that this ballad was printed in the -Saltmarket [Glasgow] by the Robertsons about seventy years ago.” Note by -Motherwell in a copy of his Minstrelsy. - -113, note §. ‘Galancina’ also in Munthe, Folkpoesi från Asturien, No 3, -Upsala Universitets Årsskrift, 1887. - - * * * * * - - - J - -‘Lady Margery,’ “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No -71, MS. of Thomas Wilkie, p. 71, Abbotsford. “From the recitation of -Janet Scott, Bowden, who sung a dysmal air, as she called it, to the -words.” - -This version resembles #D#. 12, 13, may be caught from ‘Lord -Derwentwater:’ see No 208, #E# 8, 9, #F# 9, 10. Omens are not in place -after the positive information given in 11. - - 1 - Lady Margery was the king’s ae daughter, - But an the prince’s heir; O - She’s away to Strawberry Castle, - To learn some English lair. O - - 2 - She had not been in Strawberry Castle - A twelvemonth and a day - Till she’s even as big wi child - As ever a lady could gae. - - 3 - Her father’s to the cutting o the birks, - Her mother to the broom, - And a’ for to get a bundle o sticks - To burn that fair lady in. - - 4 - ‘O hold your hand now, father dear, - O hold a little while, - For if my true-love be yet alive - I’ll hear his bridle ring. - - 5 - ‘Where will I get a bonny boy, - That will win hoes and shoon, - That will run to Strawberry Castle - And tell my love to come?’ - - 6 - She’s called on her waiting-maid - To bring out bread and wine: - ‘Now eat and drink, my bonny boy, - Ye’ll neer eat mair o mine.’ - - 7 - Away that bonny boy he’s gaen, - As fast as he could rin; - When he cam where grass grew green - Set down his feet and ran. - - 8 - And when he cam where brigs were broken - He bent his bow and swam; - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - - 9 - When he came to Strawberry Castle, - He lighted on the green; - Who was so ready as the noble lord - To rise and let the boy in! - - 10 - ‘What news? what news, my pretty page? - What tydings do ye bring? - Is my lady lighter yet - Of a daughter or a son?’ - - 11 - ‘Bad news, bad news, my noble lord, - Bad tydings have I brung; - The fairest lady in a’ Scotland - This day for you does burn.’ - - 12 - He has mounted a stately steed - And he was bound to ride; - The silver buttons flew off his coat - And his nose began to bleed. - - 13 - The second steed that lord mounted - Stumbled at a stone; - ‘Alass! alass!’ he cried with grief, - ‘My lady will be gone.’ - - 14 - When he came from Strawberry Castle - He lighted boots and a’; - He thought to have goten a kiss from her, - But her body fell in twa. - - 15 - For the sake o Lady Margery - He’s cursed her father and mother, - For the sake o Lady Margery - He’s cursed her sister and brother. - - 16 - And for the sake o Lady Margery - He’s cursed all her kin; - He cried, Scotland is the ae warst place - That ever my fit was in! - - O, _added in singing to the second and fourth lines of each - stanza, is sometimes not written in the MS._ - - 9 _is written as the third and fourth lines of_ 8. - - 15 _and_ 16 _are written as one stanza of four long lines_. - - * * * * * - - - K - - “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 22 f; in the - handwriting of William Laidlaw. “From Jean Scott.” This version - resembles #E#. - - 1 - Marjorie was her father’s dear, - Her mother’s only heir, - An she’s away to Strawberry Castle, - To learn some unco lear. - - 2 - She had na been i Strawberry Castle - A year but barely three - Till Marjorie turnd big wi child, - As big as big could be. - - * * * * * * - - 3 - ‘Will ye hae that old, old man - To be yer daily mate, - Or will ye burn in fire strong - For your true lover’s sake?’ - - 4 - ‘I winna marry that old, old man - To be my daily mate; - I’ll rather burn i fire strong - For my true lover’s sake. - - * * * * * * - - 5 - ‘O where will I get a bonnie boy - That will win hose an shoon - An will gae rin to Strawberry Castle, - To gar my good lord come soon?’ - - 6 - ‘Here am I, a bonnie boy - That will win hose an shoon, - An I’ll gae rin to Strawberry Castle, - And gar your lord come soon.’ - - 7 - ‘Should ye come to a brocken brig, - Than bend your bow an swim; - An whan ye com to garse growin - Set down yer feet an rin.’ - - 8 - When eer he came to brigs broken, - He bent his bow an swam, - And whan he cam to grass growin - He set down his feet an ran. - - 7 - When eer he cam to Strawberry Castle - He tirlt at the pin; - There was nane sae ready as that young lord - To open an let him in. - - 8 - ‘Is there ony o my brigs broken? - Or ony o my castles win? - Or is my lady brought to bed - Of a daughter or a son?’ - - 9 - ‘There’s nane o a’ yer brigs broken, - Ther’s nane of your castles win; - But the fairest lady in a’ your land - This day for you will burn.’ - - 10 - ‘Gar saddle me the black, black horse, - Gar saddle me the brown, - Gar saddle me the swiftest stead - That eer carried man to town.’ - - 11 - He’s burstit the black unto the slack, - The grey unto the brae, - An ay the page that ran afore - Cried, Ride, sir, an ye may. - - 12 - Her father kindlet the bale-fire, - Her brother set the stake, - Her mother sat an saw her burn, - An never cried Alack! - - 13 - ‘Beet on, beet [on], my cruel father, - For you I cound nae friend; - But for fifteen well mete mile - I’ll hear my love’s bridle ring.’ - - 14 - When he cam to the bonnie Dundee, - He lightit wi a glent; - Wi jet-black boots an glittrin spurs - Through that bale-fire he went. - - 15 - He thought his love wad hae datit him, - But she was dead an gane; - He was na sae wae for that lady - As he was for her yong son. - - 16 - ‘But I’ll gar burn for you, Marjorie, - Yer father an yer mother, - An I’ll gar burn for you, Marjorie, - Your sister an your brother. - - 17 - ‘An I will burn for you, Marjorie, - The town that ye’r brunt in, - An monie ane’s be fatherless - That has but little sin.’ - - 4^3. But _at the beginning struck out._ - - 10. grey _is written over brown in the second line (perhaps - because of_ grey _in 11^2), and_ to town _is struck out in the - fourth line, but nothing supplied._ - - - 67. Glasgerion. - -P. 136. “Glen Kindy, or rather Glen Skeeny, I have heard, and there is a -ballad in Percy’s collection that is very much the same.” Mrs Brown, in -a letter to Jamieson, June 18, 1801, Jamieson-Brown MS., Appendix, p. x. - -137 a, second paragraph. ‘Riddaren och torpar-drängen,’ Lagus, Nyländska -Folkvisor, I, 133, No 43. - - - 68. Young Hunting. - -P. 142 b. The four additional stanzas in #J# first appeared in the -second edition of the Minstrelsy, 1803, II, 44. - -143 b, 512 a, III, 509 a. Discovery of drowned bodies. Add: La -Tradition, IV, 236. - -143 b, second paragraph. Many cases in Pitcairn’s Criminal Trials, III, -182–99. - - - 69. Clerk Saunders. - -P. 157 f. Scandinavian ballads. See Danmarks gamle Folkeviser, now -edited by Axel Olrik, V, II, 210, No 304, ‘De hurtige Svar.’ There are -two Färöe versions, #A a#, #A b#, #B#, now No 124 of the MS. -Føroyjakvæði. Hammershaimb’s ballad is a compound of #A a#, #B#. There -is a Norwegian copy, which I failed to note, in Danske Viser, IV, 363 f, -and there are others in the hands of Professor Bugge. There are two -Swedish unprinted copies in Arwidsson’s collection, and others are -referred to by Afzelius. #Danish#, #A-D# : #A a# and #B c# are the -copies referred to at p. 158, #C, D# were published in 1889, in -Kristensen’s Jyske Folkeminder, X, 210 ff., No 51. For the Icelandic -ballads see Olrik, No 294, p. 69 ff. A tendency to the comic is to be -remarked in the Swedish and Danish group, in which (with one exception) -a brother takes the place of the father. - -158 a, III, 509 a. #Spanish#, add: ‘Mañanita, mañanita,’ El Folk-Lore -Frexnense y Bético-Extremeño, Fregenal, 1883–84, p. 171. - -158 ff. ‘Clerk Sandy,’ “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border -Minstrelsy,” No 22 c; in the handwriting of Richard Heber. - - 1 - Clerk Sandy an his true-love - Came oer the bent so brown, - There was never sic a word between them tua - Till the bells rang in the toun. - - 2 - ‘Ye maun take out your pocket-napkin - An put it on my een, - That safely I may say the morn - I saw na yow yestreen. - - 3 - ‘Take me on your back, lady, - An carry me to your bed, - That safely I may say the morn - Yere bouer’s floor I never tread.’ - - 4 - She’s taen him in her armeys tua, - An carried him to her bed, - That safely he may say the morn - Her bouer’s floor he never tread. - - 5 - ‘I have seven brethren,’ she says, - ‘An bold young men they be; - If they see me an you thegether, - Yere butcher they will be.’ - - 6 - They had na sutten as lang, as lang - As other lovers when they meet, - Till Clerk Sandy an his true-love - They fell baith sound asleep. - - 7 - In an came her seven brethren, - An bold young men they’ve been: - ‘We have only ae sister in a’ the world, - An wi Clerk Sandy she’s lein.’ - - 8 - Out an spake her second brother: - ‘I’m sure it’s nae injury; - If there was na another man in a’ the world. - His butcher I will be.’ - - 9 - He’s taen out a little pen-knife, - Hang low doun by his gaer, - An thro an thro Clerk Sandy’s middle; - A word spake he never mair. - - 10 - They lay lang, an lang they lay, - Till the bird in its cage did sing; - She softly unto him did say, - I wonder ye sleep sae soun. - - 11 - They lay lang, an lang they lay, - Till the sun shane on their feet; - She softly unto him did say, - Ye ly too sound asleep. - - 12 - She softly turnd her round about, - An wondred he slept sae soun; - An she lookd ovr her left shoulder, - An the blood about them ran. - - 1^2. bents o Broun. - - - 71. The Bent Sae Brown. - -P. 170 a, III, 509 a, IV, 164 b. #Danish.# ‘Jomfruens Brødre,’ ‘Hr. -Hjælm,’ Kristensen, Jyske Folkeminder, X, 266, 269, No 65, #A, B#, No -66. - - - 72. The Clerk’s Twa Sons o Owsenford. - -P. 174, 512 a, III, 509 a. M. Gaston Paris has made it strongly probable -that Pontoise, and not Toulouse, was originally the scene of the -French-Catalan-Italian ballad. Three students had inadvertently -trespassed on the hunting-grounds of Enguerrand de Couci; the baron had -them arrested by his foresters and hanged from the battlements of his -castle; for which St Louis made him pay a heavy fine, and with the money -founded a hospital at Pontoise. Journal des Savants, Sept.-Nov., 1889, -p. 614. - - - 73. Lord Thomas and Fair Annet. - -P. 180. Norse (1). ‘Peder och liten Stina,’ Lagus, Nyländska Folkvisor, -I, 18, No 5. Stina hangs herself in the orchard. Peder runs on his -spear. - -181, III, 510 b. French ballads. ‘La Délaissée,’ Daymard, Vieux Chants -p. rec. en Quercy, p. 50. ‘Le Rossignolet,’ Revue des Traditions pop., -V, 144, 205. - - * * * * * - - - I - -P. 182 f. “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 22 h; in -the handwriting of William Laidlaw. From Jean Scott. - - 1 - Fair Annie an Sweet Willie - Sat a’ day on yon hill; - Whan day was gane an night was comd, - They hadna said their fill. - - 2 - Willie spak but ae wrang word, - An Annie took it ill: - ‘I’ll never marry a fair woman - Against my friends’s will.’ - - 3 - Annie spak but ae wrang word, - An Willy lookit down: - ‘If I binna gude eneugh for yer wife, - I’m our-gude for yer loun.’ - - 4 - Willie’s turnd his horse’s head about, - He’s turnd it to the broom, - An he’s away to his father’s bower, - I the ae light o the moon. - - 5 - Whan he cam to his father’s bower, - [He tirlt at the pin; - Nane was sae ready as his father - To rise an let him in.] - - 6 - ‘An askin, an askin, dear father, - An askin I’ll ask thee;’ - ‘Say on, say on, my son Willie, - Whatever your askin be.’ - - 7 - ‘O sall I marry the nit-brown bride, - Has corn, caitle an kye, - Or sall I marry Fair Annie, - Has nought but fair beauty?’ - - 8 - ‘Ye ma sit a gude sate, Willy, - Wi corn, caitle an kye; - But ye’ll but sit a silly sate - Wi nought but fair beauty.’ - - 9 - Up than spak his sister’s son, - Sat on the nurse’s knee, - Sun-bruist in his mother’s wame, - Sun-brunt on his nurse’s knee: - - 10 - ‘O yer hogs will die out i the field, - Yer kye ill die i the byre; - An than, whan a’ yer gear is gane, - A fusom fag by yer fire! - But a’ will thrive at is wi you - An ye get yer heart’s desire.’ - - 11 - Willie’s turnd his horse’s head about, - He’s away to his mother’s bour, etc. - - 12 - ‘O my hogs ill die out i the field, - My kye die i the byre, - An than, whan a’ my gear is gane, - A fusom fag bi my fire! - But a’ will thrive at is wi me - Gin I get my heart’s desire.’ - - 13 - Willie’s, etc., - He’s awae to his brother’s bower, etc. - - 14 - “ ” “ ” sister’s bower, etc.@ - - 15 - Than Willie has set his wadin-day - Within thirty days an three, - An he has sent to Fair Annie - His waddin to come an see. - - 16 - The man that gade to Fair Annie - Sae weel his errant coud tell: - ‘The morn it’s Willie’s wadin-day, - Ye maun be there yer sell.’ - - 17 - ’Twas up an spak her aged father, - He spak wi muckle care; - ‘An the morn be Willie’s wadin-day, - I wate she maun be there. - - 18 - ‘Gar take a steed to the smiddie, - Caw on o it four shoon; - Gar take her to a merchant’s shop, - Cut off for her a gown.’ - - 19 - She wadna ha’t o the red sae red, - Nor yet o the grey sae grey, - But she wad ha’t o the sky couler - That she woor ilka day. - - * * * * * * - - 20 - There war four-an-twontie gray goss-hawks - A flaffin their wings sae wide, - To flaff the stour thra off the road - That Fair Annie did ride. - - 21 - The[re] war four-a-twontie milk-white dows - A fleein aboon her head, - An four-an-twontie milk-white swans - Her out the gate to lead. - - 22 - Whan she cam to St Marie’s kirk, - She lightit on a stane; - The beauty o that fair creature - Shone oer mony ane. - - 23 - ’Twas than out cam the nit-brown bride, - She spak wi muckle spite; - ‘O where gat ye the water, Annie, - That washes you sae white?’ - - 24 - ‘I gat my beauty - Where ye was no to see; - I gat it i my father’s garden, - Aneath an apple tree. - - 25 - ‘Ye ma wash i dubs,’ she said, - ‘An ye ma wash i syke, - But an ye wad wash till doomsday - Ye neer will be as white. - - 26 - ‘Ye ma wash i dubs,’ she said, - ‘An ye ma wash i the sea, - But an ye soud wash till doomsday - Ye’ll neer be as white as me. - - 27 - ‘For I gat a’ this fair beauty - Where ye gat never none, - For I gat a’ this fair beauty - Or ever I was born.’ - - 28 - It was than out cam Willie, - Wi hats o silks and flowers; - He said, Keep ye thae, my Fair Annie, - An brook them weel for yours.’ - - 29 - ‘Na, keep ye thae, Willie,’ she said, - ‘Gie them to yer nit-brown bride; - Bid her wear them wi mukle care, - For woman has na born a son - Sal mak my heart as sair.’ - - 30 - Annie’s luppen on her steed - An she has ridden hame, - Than Annie’s luppen of her steed - An her bed she has taen. - - 31 - When mass was sung, an bells war rung, - An a’ man bound to bed, - An Willie an his nit-brown bride - I their chamber war laid. - - 32 - They war na weel laid in their bed, - Nor yet weel faen asleep, - Till up an startit Fair Annie, - Just up at Willie’s feet. - - 33 - ‘How like ye yer bed, Willie? - An how like ye yer sheets? - An how like ye yer nut-brown bride, - Lies in yer arms an sleeps?’ - - 34 - ‘Weel eneugh I like my bed, Annie, - Weel eneugh I like my sheets; - But wae be to the nit-brown bride - Lies in my arms an sleeps!’ - - 35 - Willie’s ca’d on his merry men a’ - To rise an pit on their shoon; - ‘An we’ll awae to Annie’s bower, - Wi the ae light o the moon.’ - - 36 - An whan he cam to Annie’s bower, - He tirlt at the pin; - Nane was sae ready as her father - To rise an let him in. - - 37 - There was her father a[n] her se’en brethren - A makin to her a bier, - Wi ae stamp o the melten goud, - Another o siller clear. - - 38 - When he cam to the chamber-door - Where that the dead lay in, - There was her mother an six sisters - A makin to her a sheet, - Wi ae drap o . . . . - Another o silk sae white. - - 39 - ‘Stand by, stand by now, ladies a’, - Let me look on the dead; - The last time that I kiss[t] her lips - They war mair bonny red.’ - - 40 - ‘Stand by, stand by now, Willie,’ they said, - ‘An let ye her alane; - Gin ye had done as ye soud done, - She wad na there ha lien.’ - - 41 - ‘Gar deal, gar deal at Annie’s burrial - The wheat bread an the wine, - For or the morn at ten o clock - Ye’s deal’d as fast at mine.’ - - 5. Whan he cam to his father’s bower, etc. _Completed from 36._ - - 7^2. caitle _written under_ cattle. - - 8^4. Annie _written over_ nought. - - 11. _4–8 are intended to be repeated, with mother substituted for_ - father. - - 13, 14. 4–8, 12, _are intended to be repeated, with the proper - substitutions for_ brother, sister. - - _After 19_: Something about her sadle and steed. - - 20^2, 37^2, 38^4. A’; _which may be intended_. - - 29. _Compare #E# 30: but I am unable to suggest a satisfactory - restoration of the stanza._ - - _After 41_: etc. See Sweet Willie an Janet. _What should follow is - probably_, Sweet Willie was buried, _etc._ - -There are six stanzas of ‘Lord Thomas and Fair Elenor,’ from Mrs -Gammell’s recitation, in Pitcairn’s MSS, III, 35. They are of no value. - - - 75. Lord Lovel. - -P. 204 f., note †, 512 b. Add: Hruschka u. Toischer, Deutsche V. l. aus -Böhmen, p. 108, No 20, #a-f#. - -205 a, note, III, 510 b. For ‘Stolten Hellelille, see Danmarks gamle -Folkeviser, V, II, 352, No 312, ‘Gøde og Hillelille.’ Add: ‘Greven og -lille Lise,’ Kristensen, Jyske Folkeminder, X, 319, No 79, #A-E#. - -205 b, III, 510 b. ‘Den elskedes Død:’ the same volume of Kristensen, -‘Herr Peders Kjæreste,’ p. 327, No 80. - -206, 512 b, III, 510 b. ‘Lou Fil del Rey et sa Mio morto,’ Daymard, -Vieux Chants p. rec. en Quercy, p. 82. - -There is a similar ballad, ending with admonition from the dead -mistress, in Luzel, Soniou, I, 324, 25, ‘Cloaregic ar Stanc.’ - - - 76. The Lass of Roch Royal. - -213 a. Title of #B#. Not Lochroyan in Herd, I, 144, but, both in title -and text, Lochvoyan. In Herd, II, 60, the title has Lochroyan; the word -does not occur in so much of the text as remains. Printed Lochroyan by -Herd, and probably Lochroyan was intended in I, 144, as the alternative, -though the last letter but one is indistinctly written, and may be read -_e_. #B# came to Herd “by post from a lady in Ayrshire (?), name -unknown.” Also, No 38, #A a#, No 51, #A a#; No 161, #B a#; No 220, #A#. -Note (in pencil, and indistinct as to the place), Herd’s MSS, I, 143. - -215 a. A part of this ballad is introduced into two versions of ‘The -Mother’s Malison,’ No 216; see IV, 186. See also ‘Fair Janet,’ No 64, -#A# 13, #D# 5, #G# 5. - -217. #B.# Lochvoyan everywhere, not Lochroyan. - -221. #E# 2^2. Finlay, in a letter to Scott, March 27, 1803 (Letters, I, -No 87), says, “in a copy which I have seen, with the music, it is a -birchen, instead of a silver, kame.” - - ‘The Lass of Lochroyan,’ “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border - Minstrelsy,” No 82, Abbotsford. Communicated to Scott by Major Henry - Hutton, Royal Artillery, 24th December, 1802 (Letters I, No 77), as - recollected by his father and the family. - - Some ten stanzas of this version (16–19, 25–27, 30, 32, 34) appear - to have been used by Scott in compiling the copy printed in his - Minstrelsy, #E b#. (The note on #E b#, p. 226, requires correction.) - There is much in common with #B#, #E a#, #F#. - - 1 - ‘O wha will shoe my bonny foot? - And wha will glove my hand? - And wha will bind my middle jimp - Wi a lang, lang linen band? - - 2 - ‘O wha will kame my yellow hair, - With a haw bayberry kame? - And wha will be my babe’s father - Till Gregory come hame?’ - - 3 - ‘Thy father, he will shoe thy foot, - Thy brother will glove thy hand, - Thy mither will bind thy middle jimp - Wi a lang, lang linen band. - - 4 - ‘Thy sister will kame thy yellow hair, - Wi a haw bayberry kame; - The Almighty will be thy babe’s father - Till Gregory come hame.’ - - 5 - ‘And wha will build a bonny ship, - And set it on the sea? - For I will go to seek my love, - My ain love Gregory.’ - - 6 - Up then spak her father dear, - A wafu man was he; - ‘And I will build a bonny ship, - And set her on the sea. - - 7 - ‘And I will build a bonny ship, - And set her on the sea, - And ye sal gae and seek your love, - Your ain love Gregory.’ - - 8 - Then he’s gard build a bonny ship, - And set it on the sea, - Wi four-and-twenty mariners, - To bear her company. - - 9 - O he’s gart build a bonny ship, - To sail on the salt sea; - The mast was o the beaten gold, - The sails [o] cramoisie. - - 10 - The sides were o the gude stout aik, - The deck o mountain pine, - The anchor o the silver shene, - The ropes o silken twine. - - 11 - She had na saild but twenty leagues, - But twenty leagues and three, - When she met wi a rank rever, - And a’ his companie. - - 12 - ‘Now are ye queen of heaven hie, - Come to pardon a’ our sin? - Or are ye Mary Magdalane, - Was born at Bethlam?’ - - 13 - ‘I’m no the queen of heaven hie, - Come to pardon ye your sin, - Nor am I Mary Magdalane, - Was born in Bethlam. - - 14 - ‘But I’m the lass of Lochroyan, - That’s sailing on the sea - To see if I can find my love, - My ain love Gregory.’ - - 15 - ‘O see na ye yon bonny bower? - It’s a’ covered oer wi tin; - When thou hast saild it round about, - Lord Gregory is within.’ - - 16 - And when she saw the stately tower, - Shining both clear and bright, - Whilk stood aboon the jawing wave, - Built on a rock of height, - - 17 - Says, Row the boat, my mariners, - And bring me to the land, - For yonder I see my love’s castle, - Close by the salt sea strand. - - 18 - She saild it round, and saild it round, - And loud and loud cried she - ‘Now break, now break your fairy charms, - And set my true-love free.’ - - 19 - She’s taen her young son in her arms - And to the door she’s gane, - And long she knockd, and sair she ca’d, - But answer got she nane. - - 20 - ‘O open, open, Gregory! - O open! if ye be within; - For here’s the lass of Lochroyan, - Come far fra kith and kin. - - 21 - ‘O open the door, Lord Gregory! - O open and let me in! - The wind blows loud and cauld, Gregory, - The rain drops fra my chin. - - 22 - ‘The shoe is frozen to my foot, - The glove unto my hand, - The wet drops fra my yellow hair, - Na langer dow I stand.’ - - 23 - O up then spak his ill mither, - An ill death may she die! - ‘Y’re no the lass of Lochroyan, - She’s far out-our the sea. - - 24 - ‘Awa, awa, ye ill woman, - Ye’re no come here for gude; - Ye’re but some witch or wil warlock, - Or mermaid o the flood.’ - - 25 - ‘I am neither witch nor wil warlock, - Nor mermaid o the sea, - But I am Annie of Lochroyan, - O open the door to me!’ - - 26 - ‘Gin ye be Annie of Lochroyan, - As I trow thou binna she, - Now tell me of some love-tokens - That past tween thee and me.’ - - 27 - ‘O dinna ye mind, love Gregory, - As we sat at the wine, - We chang’d the rings frae our fingers? - And I can shew thee thine. - - 28 - ‘O yours was gude, and gude enough, - But ay the best was mine, - For yours was o the gude red gowd, - But mine o the diamond fine. - - 29 - ‘Yours was o the gude red gowd, - Mine o the diamond fine; - Mine was o the purest troth, - But thine was false within.’ - - 30 - ‘If ye be the lass of Lochroyan, - As I kenna thou be, - Tell me some mair o the love-tokens - Past between thee and me.’ - - 31 - ‘And dinna ye mind, love Gregory, - As we sat on the hill, - Thou twin’d me o my maidenheid, - Right sair against my will? - - 32 - ‘Now open the door, love Gregory! - Open the door! I pray; - For thy young son is in my arms, - And will be dead ere day.’ - - 33 - ‘Ye lie, ye lie, ye ill woman, - So loud I hear ye lie; - For Annie of the Lochroyan - Is far out-our the sea.’ - - 34 - Fair Annie turnd her round about: - ‘Weel, sine that it be sae, - May neer woman that has borne a son - Hae a heart sae fu o wae! - - 35 - ‘Take down, take down that mast o gowd, - Set up a mast of tree; - It disna become a forsaken lady - To sail sae royallie.’ - - 36 - When the cock had crawn, and the day did dawn, - And the sun began to peep, - Up then raise Lord Gregory, - And sair, sair did he weep. - - 37 - ‘O I hae dreamd a dream, mither, - I wish it may bring good! - That the bonny lass of Lochroyan - At my bower-window stood. - - 38 - ‘O I hae dreamd a dream, mither, - The thought o’t gars me greet! - That fair Annie of Lochroyan - Lay dead at my bed-feet.’ - - 39 - ‘Gin it be for Annie of Lochroyan - That ye make a’ this main, - She stood last night at your bower-door, - But I hae sent her hame.’ - - 40 - ‘O wae betide ye, ill woman, - An ill death may ye die! - That wadna open the door yoursell - Nor yet wad waken me.’ - - 41 - O he’s gane down to yon shore-side, - As fast as he coud dree, - And there he saw fair Annie’s bark - A rowing our the sea. - - 42 - ‘O Annie, Annie,’ loud he cried, - ‘O Annie, O Annie, bide!’ - But ay the mair he cried Annie - The braider grew the tide. - - 43 - ‘O Annie, Annie, dear Annie, - Dear Annie, speak to me!’ - But ay the louder he gan call - The louder roard the sea. - - 44 - The wind blew loud, the waves rose hie - And dashd the boat on shore; - Fair Annie’s corpse was in the feume, - The babe rose never more. - - 45 - Lord Gregory tore his gowden locks - And made a wafu moan; - Fair Annie’s corpse lay at his feet, - His bonny son was gone. - - 46 - ‘O cherry, cherry was her cheek, - And gowden was her hair, - And coral, coral was her lips, - Nane might with her compare.’ - - 47 - Then first he kissd her pale, pale cheek, - And syne he kissd her chin, - And syne he kissd her wane, wane lips, - There was na breath within. - - 48 - ‘O wae betide my ill mither, - An ill death may she die! - She turnd my true-love frae my door, - Who came so far to me. - - 49 - ‘O wae betide my ill mither, - An ill death may she die! - She has no been the deid o ane, - But she’s been the deid of three.’ - - 50 - Then he’s taen out a little dart, - Hung low down by his gore, - He thrust it through and through his heart, - And words spak never more. - - 1^1, 43^1. Oh. - - - 77. Sweet William’s Ghost. - -P. 233. #G.# These three stanzas, which Scott annexed to ‘Clerk -Saunders’ in the second edition of the Minstrelsy, 1803, II, 41, were -contributed by the Ettrick Shepherd, who writes, not quite lucidly: -“Altho this ballad [Clerk Saunders] is mixed with another, according to -my mother’s edition, in favour of whose originality I am strongly -prepossessed, yet, as the one does in no sense disgrace the other in -their present form, according to her it ends thus.” - - -“Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 141, Abbotsford; -in the handwriting of James Hogg. - - 1 - ‘But plett a wand o bonnie birk - An lay it on my breast, - An drap a tear upon my grave, - An wiss my saul gude rest. - - 2 - ‘But fair Marget, an rare Marget, - An Marget, o verity, - If eer ye loe another man, - Neer loe him as ye did me.’ - - 3 - But up then crew the milk-white cock, - An up then crew the grey; - Her lover vanishd in the air, - An she gaed weepin away. - - - 78. The Unquiet Grave. - -P. 236 b. Add: Waldau’s Böhmische Granaten, II, 121, No 176. - -236 f., III, 512 f. The Rev. S. Baring-Gould has recovered several -copies of ‘The Unquiet Grave’ in the West Country. It will be observed -that the variations in this ballad do not take a wide range. The verses -are not always sung in the same order; there is not story enough to keep -them in place. Mr Baring-Gould informs me that there is a Devon popular -tale which is very similar (possibly a prose version of the ballad). In -this, a bramble-leaf comes between the lips of the maiden and her dead -lover, and her life is saved thereby. This tale is utilized in the -ballad as printed in Songs of the West, No 6, ‘Cold blows the wind, -sweetheart!’ - - * * * * * - - - H - -#a.# Sent Rev. S. Baring-Gould by Mrs Gibbons, daughter of the late Sir -W. L. Trelawney, as she remembered it sung by her nurse, Elizabeth -Doidge, a woman of the neighborhood of Brentor, about 1828. #b.# -Obtained by the same from John Woodrich, blacksmith, parish of -Thrustleton, as heard from his grandmother about 1848. #c.# By the same, -from Anne Roberts, Scobbeter. - - 1 - ‘Cold blows the wind tonight, sweet-heart, - Cold are the drops of rain; - The very first love that ever I had - In greenwood he was slain. - - 2 - ‘I’ll do as much for my sweet-heart - As any young woman may; - I’ll sit and mourn on his grave-side - A twelve-month and a day.’ - - 3 - A twelve-month and a day being up, - The ghost began to speak: - ‘Why sit you here by my grave-side - And will not let me sleep? - - 4 - ‘What is it that you want of me, - Or what of me would have?’ - ‘A kiss from off your lily-white lips, - And that is all I crave!’ - - 5 - ‘Cold are my lips in death, sweet-heart, - My breath is earthy strong; - To gain a kiss of my cold lips, - Your time would not be long. - - 6 - ‘If you were not my own sweet-heart, - As now I know you be, - I’d tear you as the withered leaves - That grew on yonder tree.’ - - 7 - ‘O don’t you mind the garden, love, - Where you and I did walk? - The fairest flower that blossomd there - Is withered on the stalk. - - * * * * * * - - 8 - ‘And now I’ve mourned upon his grave - A twelvemonth and a day, - We’ll set our sails before the wind - And so we’ll sail away.’ - - -b. - - 1 - Cold blows the wind to-night, my love, - Cold are the drops of rain; - The very first love that ever I had - In greenwood he was slain. - - 2 - ‘I’ll do as much for my true-love - As any young woman may; - I’ll sit and mourn upon his grave - A twelve-month and a day.’ - - 3 - When a twelve-month and a day were up, - His body straight arose: - ‘What brings you weeping oer my grave - That I get no repose?’ - - 4 - ‘O think upon the garden, love, - Where you and I did walk; - The fairest flower that blossomd there - Is withered on the stalk. - - 5 - ‘The stalk will bear no leaves, sweet-heart. - The flower will neer return, - And my true-love is dead, is dead, - And I do naught but mourn.’ - - 6 - ‘What is it that you want of me - And will not let me sleep? - Your salten tears they trickle down - And wet my winding-sheet.’ - - 7 - ‘What is it that I want of thee, - O what of thee in grave? - A kiss from off your lily-white lips, - And that is all I crave.’ - - 8 - ‘Cold are my lips in death, sweet-heart, - My breath is earthy strong; - If you do touch my clay-cold lips, - Your time will not be long.’ - - 9 - ‘Cold though your lips in death, sweet-heart, - One kiss is all I crave; - I care not, if I kiss but thee, - That I should share thy grave.’ - - 10 - ‘Go fetch me a light from dungeon deep, - Wring water from a stone, - And likewise milk from a maiden’s breast - That never maid hath none. (_Read_ babe had.) - - * * * * * * - - 11 - ‘Now if you were not true in word, - As now I know you be, - I’d tear you as the withered leaves - Are torn from off the tree.’ - - -c. - - 1 - ‘It’s for to meet the falling drops, - Cold fall the drops of rain; - The last true-love, _etc._ - - 2 - ‘I’ll do as much for my fair love - As any,’ _etc._ - -_The rest “almost exactly” as #b#._ - -‘Charles Graeme,’ Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, I, 89, -Motherwell’s MS., p. 624, begins with stanzas which belong to this -ballad. What follows after the third, or just possibly the sixth, stanza -reads as if some contributor had been diverting himself with an -imposition on the editor’s simplicity. Buchan himself remarks in a note, -p. 299: “There seems to be a very great inconsistency manifested -throughout the whole of this ballad in the lady’s behavior towards the -ghost of her departed lover. Perhaps she wished to sit and sigh alone, -undisturbed with visits from the inhabitants of the grave.” (Translated -by Gerhard, p. 63.) - - 1 - ‘Cauld, cauld blaws the winter night, - Sair beats the heavy rain; - Young Charles Graeme’s the lad I love, - In greenwood he lies slain. - - 2 - ‘But I will do for Charles Graeme - What other maidens may; - I’ll sit and harp upon his grave - A twelvemonth and a day.’ - - 3 - She harped a’ the live-lang night, - The saut tears she did weep, - Till at the hour o one o’clock - His ghost began to peep. - - 4 - Pale and deadly was his cheek, - And pale, pale was his chin; - And how and hollow were his een, - No light appeard therein. - - 5 - ‘Why sit ye here, ye maiden fair, - To mourn sae sair for me?’ - ‘I am sae sick, and very love-sick, - Aye foot I cannot jee. - - 6 - ‘Sae well’s I loved young Charles Graeme, - I kent he loved me; - My very heart’s now like to break - For his sweet companie.’ - - 7 - ‘Will ye hae an apple, lady, - And I will sheave it sma?’ - ‘I am sae sick, and very love-sick, - I cannot eat at a’.’ - - 8 - ‘Will ye hae the wine, lady, - And I will drain it sma?’ - ‘I am sae sick, and very love-sick, - I cannot drink at a’. - - 9 - ‘See ye not my father’s castle, - Well covered ower wi tin? - There’s nane has sic an anxious wish - As I hae to be in.’ - - 10 - ‘O hame, fair maid, ye’se quickly won, - But this request grant me; - When ye are safe in downbed laid, - That I may sleep wi thee.’ - - 11 - ‘If hame again, sir, I could win, - I’ll this request grant thee; - When I am safe in downbed laid, - This night ye’se sleep wi me.’ - - 12 - Then he poud up a birken bow, - Pat it in her right han, - And they are to yon castle fair, - As fast as they coud gang. - - 13 - When they came to yon castle fair, - It was piled round about; - She slipped in and bolted the yetts, - Says, Ghaists may stand thereout. - - 14 - Then he vanishd frae her sight - In the twinkling o an ee; - Says, Let never ane a woman trust - Sae much as I’ve done thee. - - - 80. Old Robin of Portingale. - -P. 240, 513 a, III, 514. Mabillon cites Balderic’s history of the first -crusade, whose words are: “Multi etiam de gente plebeia crucem sibi -divinitus innatam jactando ostentabant, quod et idem quædam ex -mulierculis præsumpserunt; hoc enim falsum deprehensum est omnino. Multi -vero ferrum callidum instar crucis sibi adhibuerunt, vel peste -jactantiæ, vel bonæ suæ voluntatis ostentatione.” Migne, Patrologiæ -Curs. Compl., tom. clxvi, col. 1070. - -A man who is looking forward to a pilgrimage to the Holy Land wishes to -have the cross burned into his right shoulder, since then, though he -should be stript of his clothes, the cross would remain: Miracula S. -Thomæ, Auctore Benedicto, Robertson, Materials for the History of Thomas -Becket, II, 175. The branding of the cross in the flesh must have become -common, since it was forbidden by the canon law. In some editions of the -Sarum Missal, a warning is inserted in the Servitium Peregrinorum: -“Combustio crucis in carne peregrinis euntibus Hierusalem prohibitum est -in lege, secundum jura canonica, sub pœna excommunicationis majoris.” -Sarum Missal, Burntisland, 1867, col. 856*. (Cited by Cutts, Scenes and -Characters of the Middle Ages, p. 167.) - - - 81. Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard. - -P. 242 ff. #F#, which Jamieson says he received from Scotland, happens -to have been preserved at Abbotsford. Since Jamieson made a considerable -number of small changes, the original text is now given here. - -“Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 133 c, Abbotsford; -in the handwriting of James Hogg. - - 1 - ‘I have a towr in Dalesberry, - Whilk now is dearly dight, - And I will gie it to young Musgrave, - To lodge wi me a night.’ - - 2 - ‘To lodge wi thee a night, fair lady, - Wad breed baith sorrow and strife; - For I see by the rings on your fingers - Ye’re good Lord Barnaby’s wife.’ - - 3 - ‘Lord Barnaby’s wife although I be, - Yet what is that to thee? - For we’l beguile him for this ae night; - He’s on to fair Dundee. - - 4 - ‘Come here, come here, my little foot-page, - This guinea I will give thee, - If ye will keep thir secrets closs - Tween young Musgrave an me. - - 5 - ‘But here hae I a little pen-knife, - Hings low down by my gare; - If ye dinna keep thir secrets closs, - Ye’l find it wonder sair.’ - - 6 - Then she’s taen him to her chamber, - An down in her arms lay he; - The boy koost off his hose an shoon - An ran for fair Dundee. - - 7 - When he came to the wan water, - He slackd his bow an swam, - An when he wan to growan gress - Set down his feet an ran. - - 8 - And whan he came to fair Dundee, - Could nouther rap nor ca, - But set his braid bow to his breast - An merrily jumpd the wa. - - 9 - ‘O waken ye, waken ye, my good lord, - Waken, an come away!’ - ‘What ails, what ails my wee foot-page - He cry’s sae lang or day? - - 10 - ‘O is my towers burnt, my boy? - Or is my castle won? - Or has the lady that I loe best - Brought me a daughter or son?’ - - 11 - ‘Your halls are safe, your towers are safe - An free frae all alarms; - But oh, the lady that ye loe best - Lyes sound i Musgrave’s arms.’ - - 12 - ‘Gae saddle me the black,’ he cry’d, - ‘Gae saddle me the gray; - Gae saddle me the milk-white steed, - To hie me out the way.’ - - 13 - ‘O lady, I heard a wee horn tout, - An it blew wonder clear, - An ay the turnin o the note - Was, Barnaby will be here! - - 14 - ‘I thought I heard a wee horn blaw, - An it blew loud an hie, - An ay at ilka turn it said, - Away, Musgrave, away!’ - - 15 - ‘Lye still, my dear, lye still, my dear, - Ye keep me frae the cold! - For it is but my father’s shepherds, - Drivin there flocks to the fold.’ - - 16 - Up they lookit, an down they lay, - An they’re fa’n sound asleep; - Till up start good Lord Barnaby, - Just closs at their bed-feet. - - 17 - ‘How do ye like my bed, Musgrave? - An how like ye my sheets? - An how like ye my fair lady, - Lyes in your arms an sleeps?’ - - 18 - ‘Weel I like your bed, my lord, - An weel I like your sheets; - But ill like I your fair lady, - Lyes in my arms an sleeps. - - 19 - ‘You got your wale o se’en sisters, - An I got mine o five; - So take ye mine, an I’s take thine, - An we nae mair shall strive.’ - - 20 - ‘O my woman’s the best woman - That ever brake world’s bread, - But your woman’s the worst woman - That ever drew coat oer head. - - 21 - ‘I have two swords in my scabbart, - They are baith sharp an clear; - Take ye the best, and I the worst, - An we’l end the matter here. - - 22 - ‘But up an arm thee, young Musgrave, - We’l try it hand to hand; - It’s neer be said o Lord Barnaby - He struck at a naked man.’ - - 23 - The first stroke that young Musgrave got, - It was baith deep an sair, - An down he fell at Barnaby’s feet, - An word spak never mair. - - 24 - ‘A grave! a grave!’ Lord Barnaby cry’d, - ‘A grave to lay them in! - My lady shall lye on the sunny side, - Because of her noble kin.’ - - 25 - But O how sorry was that good lord, - For a’ his angry mood, - When he espy’d his ain young son - All weltering in his blood! - -The following copy was kindly communicated to me by Mr David MacRitchie, -Honorary Secretary of the Gypsy Lore Society, in advance of its -publication in the Journal of the society. While it preserves the -framework of the story, it differs very considerably in details from all -the printed copies. It is evidently of the same origin as some of the -Scottish versions (all of which seem to derive from print), though it -has no marked resemblance to the actual form of any particular one of -these. Some peculiarities are plausibly attributable to dim or imperfect -recollection. Thus, the ball-play of #D#, #E#, etc., is turned into a -ball. Lord Barnard is made a king, and the page the king’s brother -(neither of which changes is an improvement). We may observe that in #J# -Lord Barnabas is at the king’s court, and in #I# Sir Grove is Lord -Bengwill’s brother; but these points are not decisive, and the changes -may be purely arbitrary. 4 shows traces of #E# 5 and #F# 3; 8 may have -been suggested by something like #G# 4; and the last line of 14 looks -like a corruption of #G# 29. This involves the supposition that the -source of the ballad was a version somewhat different from any hitherto -recovered; but ‘Little Musgrave’ is one of the best known of all -ballads, and the variants must have been innumerable. On the whole, 1–8, -14, present a free treatment of ill-remembered matter; 9–13 are fairly -well preserved; compare #E# 13–17. - - * * * * * - - - O - -‘Moss Groves,’ taken down in 1891 by Mr John Sampson, Liverpool, from -Philip Murray, an old tinker, who learned the ballad in his boyhood from -an old gypsy named Amos Rice. - - 1 - There was four-and-twenty ladies - Assembled at a ball, - And who being there but the king’s wife, - The fairest of them all. - - 2 - She put her eye on the Moss Groves, - Moss Groves put his eye upon she: - ‘How would you like, my little Moss Groves, - One night to tarry with me?’ - - 3 - ‘To sleep one night with you, fair lady, - It would cause a wonderful sight; - For I know by the ring upon your hand - You are the king’s wife.’ - - 4 - ‘If I am the king’s wife, - I mean him to beguile; - For he has gone on a long distance, - And won’t be back for a while.’ - - 5 - Up spoke his brother, - An angry man was he; - ‘Another night I’ll not stop in the castle - Till my brother I’ll go see.’ - - 6 - When he come to his brother, - He was in a hell of a fright: - ‘Get up, get up, brother dear! - There’s a man in bed with your wife.’ - - 7 - ‘If it’s true you tell unto me, - A man I’ll make of thee; - If it’s a lie you tell unto me, - It’s slain thou shalt be.’ - - 8 - When he came to his hall, - The bells begun to ring, - And all the birds upon the bush - They begun to sing. - - 9 - ‘How do you like my covering-cloths? - And how do you like my sheets? - How do you like my lady fair, - All night in her arms to sleep?’ - - 10 - ‘Your covering-cloths I like right well, - Far better than your sheets; - Far better than all your lady fair, - All night in her arms to sleep.’ - - 11 - ‘Get up, get up now, little Moss Groves, - Your clothing do put on; - It shall never be said in all England - That I drew on a naked man. - - 12 - ‘There is two swords all in the castle - That cost me very dear; - You take the best, and I the worst, - And let’s decide it here.’ - - 13 - The very first blow Moss Groves he gave, - He wounded the king most sore; - The very first blow the king gave him, - Moss Groves he struck no more. - - 14 - She lifted up his dying head - And kissed his cheek and chin: - ‘I’d sooner have you now, little Moss Groves, - Than all their castles or kings.’ - -259 a. Insert under #C#: #d.# Printed and sold in Aldermary Church-yard, -Bow Lane, London. - - - 83. Child Maurice. - -P. 266. #B.# Motherwell sent ‘Child Noryce’ to Sir Walter Scott in a -letter dated 28 April, 1825 (Letters, XIV, No 94, Abbotsford). He -changed several readings (as, orders to errand, in 6^4), and in three -cases went back to original readings which he has altered in his -manuscript. I am now convinced that the alterations made in the -manuscript are not in general, if ever, corrections derived from the -reciters, but Motherwell’s own improvements, and that the original -readings should be adhered to. - - - 86. Young Benjie. - -P. 281. “From Jean Scott.” In the handwriting of William Laidlaw. -“Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 29, Abbotsford. - -Excepting the first stanza, the whole of this fragment (with slight -changes) is found in the ballad in Scott’s Minstrelsy. That ballad has -about twice as many verses, and the other half might easily have been -supplied by the editor. - - 1 - Fair Marjorie sat i her bower-door, - Sewin her silken seam, - When by then cam her false true-love, - Gard a’ his bridles ring. - - 2 - ‘Open, open, my true-love, - Open an let me in;’ - ‘I dare na, I dare na, my true-love, - My brethren are within.’ - - 3 - ‘Ye lee, ye lee, my ain true-love, - Sae loud I hear ye lee! - For or I cam thrae Lothian banks - They took fare-weel o me.’ - - 4 - The wind was loud, that maid was proud, - An leath, leath to be dung, - But or she wan the Lothian banks - Her fair coulour was gane. - - 5 - He took her up in his armis, - An threw her in the lynn. - - 6 - Up then spak her eldest brother, - Said, What is yon I see? - Sure, youn is either a drowned ladie - Or my sister Marjorie. - - 7 - Up then spak her second brother, - Said, How will wi her ken? - Up then spak her . . . brother, - There a hinnie-mark on her chin. - - 8 - About the midle o the night - The cock began to craw; - About the middle o the night - The corpse began to thraw. - - 9 - ‘O whae has doon ye wrang, sister? - O whae has doon ye wrang?’ - - 10 - ‘Young Boonjie was the ae first man - I laid my love upon; - He was sae proud an hardie - He threw me oer the lynne.’ - - 11 - ‘O shall we Boonjie head, sister? - Or shall we Boonjie hang? - Or shall we pyke out his twa grey eyes, - An punish him or he gang?’ - - 12 - ‘O ye sanna Boonjie head, brother, - Ye sana Boonjie hang; - But ye maun pyke out his twa grey eyes, - An punish him or he gang.’ - - 13 - ‘The ae best man about your house - Maun wait young Boonjie on.’ - - 3^3. _thare._ - - 4 _should probably follow 5._ - - 6^3. either a _substituted for_ some. - - 7^3. her second: second _struck out_. youngest? - - 8^2. The corpse: corpse _struck out_. - - - 89. Fause Foodrage. - -P. 297. #Danish.# Now printed as No 298 of Danmarks gamle Folkeviser, by -Axel Olrik, the continuator of that noble collection, with the title -‘Svend af Vollersløv.’ There are fifteen old versions besides Tragica 18 -(which is a compounded and partly ungenuine text) and the one recently -printed by Kristensen, the basis of which is the copy in Tragica. ‘Ung -Villum’ is Tragica 18 with two stanzas omitted. - -298, III, 515 b. ‘Liden Engel’ is No 297 of Danmarks gamle Folkeviser. -There are eight old copies, and Kristensen has added five from recent -tradition: the two here noted and three in Jyske Folkeminder, No 49, -#A-C#, 201 ff. There is also a Swedish copy of 1693, printed in Dybeck’s -Runa, 1844, p. 98, which I had not observed. - - - 90. Jellon Grame. - -P. 303 b, 513 b, III, 515 b. Robert le Diable in Luzel’s ballad, II, 24 -f, when one year old, was as big as a child of five. - -At the age of five, Cuchulinn sets out for his uncle’s court, where he -performs prodigies of strength. In his seventh year he is received among -the heroes, etc.: Zimmer, Göttingische Gelehrte Anzeigen, 1890, pp. -519–20. Merlin, when two years old, “speaks and goes,” and defends his -mother before the justice: Arthour and Merlin, vv. 1069–70, ed. Turnbull -for the Abbotsford Club, p. 41. Ögmundr when seven years old was as -strong as a full-grown man: Örvar-Odds Saga, c. 19, Rafn, Fornaldar -Sögur, II, 241. The three-nights-old son of Thórr and Járnsaxa removes -the foot of Hrungnir from the neck of his father when all the gods have -tried in vain. He also speaks. Skáldskaparmál, c. 17. “The Shee an -Gannon was born in the morning, named at noon, and went in the evening -to ask his daughter of the king of Erin:” Curtin, Myths and Folk-Lore of -Ireland, p. 114. Cf. p. 223, where a champion jumps out of the cradle. -(G. L. K.) - - - 91. Fair Mary of Wallington. - -P. 309. #B.# “The ballad about Lady Livingston appears to be founded on -a truth; her fate is mentioned by Sir R. Gordon. Only her mother, Lady -Huntley, is made a queen; which it was natural enough in a Highland poet -to do.” Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe to Sir Walter Scott, Letters, XV, No -231, Abbotsford, 1825 or 26. - -What Sir Robert Gordon says is: “In July 1616 yeirs, Elizabeth Gordoun, -Ladie of Livingstoun (wyff to the Lord Livingstoun, now Earle of -Lithgow), daughter to the Marquis of Huntly, died in chyld-bed, at -Edinburgh, of a son called George, who is now Lord Livingstoun.” -(Genealogy of the Earls of Sutherland, p. 335.) The characteristic -particulars are wanting. - -#D# is also in Kinloch MSS, V, 363, in the youthful handwriting of J. H. -Burton, and is probably the original copy. The differences from the text -of #D#, p. 314, except spellings, are these: - - 1^1, it was. 1^3, and me. - - - 93. Lamkin. - -P. 321, note *. See further in Notes and Queries, First Series, II, 519; -V, 32, 112, 184, 355. - -321 ff., 513. - - * * * * * - - - X - -‘Lamkin,’ “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 133, -Abbotsford; in the handwriting of James Hogg. - - 1 - Lamkin was as good a mason - As ever liftit stane; - He built to the laird o Lariston, - But payment gat he nane. - - 2 - Oft he came, an ay he came, - To that good lord’s yett, - But neither at dor nor window - Ony entrance could get. - - 3 - Till ae wae an weary day - Early he came, - An it fell out on that day - That good lord was frae hame. - - 4 - He bade steek dor an window, - An prick them to the gin, - Nor leave a little wee hole, - Else Lamkin wad be in. - - 5 - Noorice steekit dor an window, - She steekit them to the gin; - But she left a little wee hole - That Lamkin might win in. - - 6 - ‘O where’s the lady o this house?’ - Said cruel Lamkin; - ‘She’s up the stair sleepin,’ - Said fause noorice then. - - 7 - ‘How will we get her down the stair?’ - Said cruel Lamkin; - ‘We’l stogg the baby i the cradle,’ - Said fause noorice then. - - 8 - He stoggit, and she rockit, - Till a’ the floor swam, - An a’ the tors o the cradle - Red wi blude ran. - - 9 - ‘O still my son, noorise, - O still him wi the kane;’ - ‘He winna still, madam, - Till Lariston come hame.’ - - 10 - ‘O still my son, noorice, - O still him wi the knife;’ - ‘I canna still him, madam, - If ye sude tak my life.’ - - 11 - ‘O still my soon, noorice, - O still him wi the bell;’ - ‘He winna still, madam, - Come see him yoursel.’ - - 12 - Wae an weary rase she up, - Slowly pat her on - Her green claethin o the silk, - An slowly came she down. - - 13 - The first step she steppit, - It was on a stone; - The first body she saw - Was cruel Lamkin. - - 14 - ‘O pity, pity, Lamkin, - Hae pity on me!’ - ‘Just as meikle pity, madam, - As ye paid me o my fee.’ - - 15 - ‘I’ll g’ye a peck o good red goud, - Streekit wi the wand; - An if that winna please ye, - I’ll heap it wi my hand. - - 16 - ‘An if that winna please ye, - O goud an o fee, - I’ll g’ye my eldest daughter, - Your wedded wife to be.’ - - 17 - ‘Gae wash the bason, lady, - Gae wash’t an mak it clean, - To kep your mother’s heart’s-blude, - For she’s of noble kin.’ - - 18 - ‘To kep my mother’s heart’s-blude - I wad be right wae; - O tak mysel, Lamkin, - An let my mother gae.’ - - 19 - ‘Gae wash the bason, noorice, - Gae wash’t an mak it clean, - To kep your lady’s heart’s-blude, - For she’s o noble kin.’ - - 20 - ‘To wash the bason, Lamkin, - I will be right glad, - For mony, mony bursen day - About her house I’ve had.’ - - 21 - But oh, what dule an sorrow - Was about that lord’s ha, - When he fand his lady lyin - As white as driven snaw! - - 22 - O what dule an sorrow - Whan that good lord cam in, - An fand his young son murderd, - I the chimley lyin! - - 9^2. kane. kame, #B# 13^2. But _cf._ wand, #A# 16^2 #J# 10^2, #M# - 3^2. - - - 95. The Maid freed from the Gallows. - -P. 346, III, 516 a. Add ‘Leggenda Napitina’ (still sung by the sailors -of Pizzo); communicated to La Calabria, June 15, 1889, p. 74, by -Salvatore Mele; Canto Marinaresco di Nicotera, the same, September 15, -1890. A wife is rescued by her husband. - -347 b. #Swedish.# ‘Den bortsålda,’ Lagus, Nyländska Folkvisor, I, 22, No -6, _a_, _b_, _c_. - -349 b, 514 a, III, 516 b, and especially 517 a. A wounded soldier calls -to mother, sister, father, brother for a drink of water, and gets none; -calls to his love, and she brings it: Waldau, Böhmische Granaten, II, -57, No 81. - - * * * * * - - - I - -“Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 127, Abbotsford. -Sent to John Leyden, by whom and when does not appear. - - 1 - ‘Hold your tongue, Lord Judge,’ she says, - ‘Yet hold it a little while; - Methinks I see my ain dear father - Coming wandering many a mile. - - 2 - ‘O have you brought me gold, father? - Or have you brought me fee? - Or are you come to save my life - From off this gallows-tree?’ - - 3 - ‘I have not brought you gold, daughter, - Nor have I brought you fee, - But I am come to see you hangd, - As you this day shall be.’ - -[“The verses run thus untill she has seen her mother, her brother, and -her sister likewise arrive, and then - - Methinks I see my ain dear lover, etc.”] - - 4 - ‘I have not brought you gold, true-love, - Nor yet have I brought fee, - But I am come to save thy life - From off this gallows-tree.’ - - 5 - ‘Gae hame, gae hame, father,’ she says, - ‘Gae hame and saw yer seed; - And I wish not a pickle of it may grow up, - But the thistle and the weed. - - 6 - ‘Gae hame, gae hame, gae hame, mother, - Gae hame and brew yer yill; - And I wish the girds may a’ loup off, - And the Deil spill a’ yer yill. - - 7 - ‘Gae hame, gae hame, gae hame, brother, - Gae hame and lie with yer wife; - And I wish that the first news I may hear - That she has tane your life. - - 8 - ‘Gae hame, gae hame, sister,’ she says, - ‘Gae hame and sew yer seam; - I wish that the needle-point may break, - And the craws pyke out yer een.’ - - * * * * * - - - J - -Communicated by Dr George Birkbeck Hill, May 10, 1890, as learned forty -years before from a schoolfellow, who came from the north of -Somersetshire and sang it in the dialect of that region. Given from -memory. - - 1 - ‘Hold up, hold up your hands so high! - Hold up your hands so high! - For I think I see my own father - Coming over yonder stile to me. - - 2 - ‘Oh father, have you got any gold for me? - Any money for to pay me free? - To keep my body from the cold clay ground, - And my neck from the gallows-tree?’ - - 3 - ‘Oh no, I’ve got no gold for thee, - No money for to pay thee free, - For I’ve come to see thee hangd this day, - And hangëd thou shalt be.’ - - 4 - ‘Oh the briers, prickly briers, - Come prick my heart so sore; - If ever I get from the gallows-tree, - I’ll never get there any more.’ - -[“The same verses are repeated, with mother, brother, and sister -substituted for father. At last the sweetheart comes. The two first -verses are the same, and the third and fourth as follows.”] - - 5 - ‘Oh yes, I’ve got some gold for thee, - Some money for to pay thee free; - I’ll save thy body from the cold clay ground, - And thy neck from the gallows-tree.’ - - 6 - ‘Oh the briers, prickly briers, - Don’t prick my heart any more; - For now I’ve got from the gallows-tree - I’ll never get there any more.’ - -[“I do not know any title to this song except ‘Hold up, hold up your -hands so high!’ It was by that title that we called for it.”] - -Julius Krohn has lately made an important contribution to our knowledge -of this ballad in an article in Virittäjä, II, 36–50, translated into -German under the title ‘Das Lied vom Mädchen welches erlöst werden -soll,’ Helsingfors, 1891. Professor Estlander had previously discussed -the ballad in Finsk Tidskrift, X, 1881 (which I have not yet seen), and -had sought to show that it was of Finnish origin, a view which Krohn -disputes and refutes. There are nearly fifty Finnish versions. The curse -with which #I# ends, and which is noted as occurring in Swedish #C# -(compare also the Sicilian ballad), is never wanting in the Finnish, and -is found also in the Esthonian copies. - - - 96. The Gay Goshawk. - -P. 356 a, III, 517 a. Add: (18) ‘La Fille dans la Tour,’ Daymard, Vieux -Chants p. rec. en Quercy, p. 174 ; (19) ‘La belle dans la Tour,’ Pas de -Calais, communicated by M. G. Doncieux to Revue des Traditions -populaires, VI, 603 ; (20) ‘Belle Idoine,’ Questionnaire de Folklore, -publié par la Société du Folklore Wallon, p. 79. - -M. Doucieux has attempted a reconstruction of the text in Mélusine, V, -265 ff. He cites M. Gaston Paris as having lately pointed out a striking -similitude between the first half of the French popular ballad and that -of a little romance of Bele Ydoine composed in the twelfth century by -Audefrois le Bastars (Bartsch, Altfranzösische Romanzen und -Pastourellen, p. 59, No 57). This resemblance has, I suppose, occasioned -the title of ‘Belle Idoine’ to be given editorially to No 20 above, for -the name does not occur in the ballad. - -356 b, III, 517 a. Add: ‘Au Jardin des Olives,’ Guillon, p. 83, ‘Dessous -le Rosier blanc,’ Daymard, p. 171 (Les trois Capitaines). A girl feigns -death to avoid becoming a king’s mistress, ‘Hertig Henrik och Konungen,’ -Lagus, Nyländska Folkvisor, I, 117, No 37. - -363. #E.# The following is the MS. copy, “of some antiquity,” from which -#E# was in part constructed. (Whether it be the original or a transcript -cannot be determined, but Mr Macmath informs me that the paper on which -it is written “seems about the oldest sheet in the volume.”) The text -was freely handled. ‘Lord William’ does not occur in it, but the name is -found in another version which follows this. - - -“Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 146 a, Abbotsford. - - 1 - ‘O waly, waly, my gay goss-hawk, - Gin your feathering be sheen!’ - ‘O waly, waly, my master dear, - Gin ye look pale and lean! - - 2 - ‘Whether is it for the gold sae rid, - Or is it for the silver clear? - Or is it for the lass in southen land, - That she cannot win here.’ - - 3 - ‘It is not for the gold sae rid, - Nor is it for the silver clear, - But it is for the lass in southen land, - That she cannot win her[e].’ - - 4 - ‘Sit down, sit down, my master dear, - Write a love-letter hastily, - And put it in under my feathern gray, - And I’ll away to southen land as fast as I can flee. - - 5 - ‘But how shall I your true-love ken? - Or how shall I her know? - I bear the tongue never wi her spake, - The eye that never her saw.’ - - 6 - ‘The red that is in my love’s cheek - Is like blood spilt amang the snaw; - The white that is on her breast-bone - Is like the down on the white sea-maw. - - 7 - ‘There’s one that stands at my love’s gate - And opens the silver pin, - And there ye may safely set ye on - And sing a lovely song. - - 8 - ‘First ye may sing it loud, loud, loud, - And then ye may sing it clear, - And ay the oerword of the tune - Is, Your love cannot win here.’ - - 9 - He has written a love-letter, - Put it under his feathern gray, - And he’s awa to southen land, - As fast as ever he may. - - 10 - When he came to the lady’s gate, - There he lighted down, - And there he sat him on the pin - And sang a lovely song. - - 11 - First he sang it loud, loud, loud, - And then he sang it clear, - And ay the oerword of the tune - Was, Your love cannot win here. - - 12 - ‘Hold your tongues, my merry maids all, - And hold them a little while; - I hear some word from my true-love, - That lives in Scotland’s isle.’ - - 13 - Up she rose, to the door she goes, - To hear what the bird woud say, - And he’s let the love-letter fall - From under his feathern gray. - - 14 - When she looked the letter on, - The tear blinded her eye, - And when she read it oer and oer - A loud laughter took she. - - 15 - ‘Go hame, go hame, my bonny bird, - And to your master tell, - If I be nae wi him at Martinmass, - I shall be wi him at Yule.’ - - 16 - The lady’s to her chamber gane, - And a sick woman grew she; - The lady’s taen a sudden brash, - And nathing she’ll do but die. - - 17 - ‘An asking, an asking, my father dear, - An asking grant to me! - If that I die in southen land, - In Scotland bury me.’ - - 18 - ‘Ask on, ask on, my daughter dear, - That asking is granted thee; - If that you die in southen land, - In Scotland I’ll bury thee.’ - - 19 - ‘Gar call to me my seven bretheren, - To hew to me my bier, - The one half of the beaten gold, - The other of the silver clear. - - 20 - ‘Go call to me my seven sisters, - To sew to me my caul; - Every needle-steik that they put in - Put by a silver bell.’ - - 21 - The first Scots kirk that they came to, - They heard the mavis sing; - The next Scots kirk that they came to, - They heard the dead-bell ring. - - 22 - The next Scots kirk that they came to, - They were playing at the foot-ball, - And her true-love was them among, - The chieftian amangst them all. - - 23 - ‘Set down, set down these corps,’ said he, - ‘Let me look them upon;’ - As soon as he lookd the lady on, - The blood sprang in her chin. - - 24 - ‘One bite of your bread, my love, - And one glass of your wine! - For I have fasted these five long days, - All for your sake and mine. - - 25 - ‘Go hame, go hame, my seven brothers, - Go hame and blaw your horn, - And ye may tell thro southen land - How I playd you the scorn.’ - - 26 - ‘Woe to you, my sister dear, - And ane ill death may you die! - For we left father and mother at hame - Breaking their heart for thee.’ - -The Ettrick Shepherd sent Scott the following stanzas to be inserted in -the first edition at places indicated. Most of them are either -absolutely base metal or very much worn by circulation. The clever -contrivance for breathing (found also in #G# 39, #H# 19) and the bribing -of the surgeon provoke scorn and resentment. - - -‘Gay Gos Hawk,’ “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No -143, No 133 a, Abbotsford; in the handwriting of James Hogg. - - After 12 of ed. 1802 (E 13): - - He happit off the flowry birk, - Sat down on the yett-pin, - And sang sae sweet the notes o love - Till a’ was coush within. - - After 15 (E 16): - ‘O ye maun send your love a kiss, - For he has sent you three; - O ye maun send your love a kiss, - And ye maun send it wi me.’ - - ‘He has the rings off my fingers, - The garland off my hair; - He has the heart out o my bouk, - What can I send him mair?’ - - After 22: - ‘The third Scotts kirk that ye gang to - Ye’s gar them blaw the horn, - That a’ the lords o fair Scotland - May hear afore the morn.’ - - After 23: - She wyld a wright to bore her chest, - For caller air she’d need; - She brib’d her surgeon wi the goud - To say that she was dead. - - After 25: - ‘What ails, what ails my daughter dear - Her colour bides sae fine?’ - The surgeon-lad reply’d again, - She’s nouther pin’d nor lien. - - After 30: - The third Scotts kirk that they cam to, - Sae loud they blew the horn, - An a’ the lads on yon water - Was warnd afore the morn. - - After 31: - ‘Set down, set down the bier,’ he said, - ‘These comely corps I’ll see;’ - ‘Away, away,’ her brothers said, - ‘For nae sick thing shall be. - - ‘Her een are sunk, her lips are cold, - Her rosy colour gane; - ‘T is nine lang nights an nine lang days - Sin she deceasd at hame.’ - - ‘Wer’t nine times nine an nine times nine, - My true-love’s face I’ll see; - Set down the bier, or here I swear - My prisners you shall be.’ - - He drew the nails frae the coffin, - An liftit up the cone, - An for a’ sae lang as she’d been dead - She smil’d her love upon. - - After 35: - ‘And tell my father he sent me - To rot in Scotland’s clay; - But he sent me to my Willie, - To be his lady gay.’ - - * * * * * - - - H - -“Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 28 b, Abbotsford; -in the handwriting of William Laidlaw. - - 1 - Lord William was walkin i the garden green, - Viewin the roses red, - An there he spyed his bonnie spier-hawk, - Was fleein aboon his head. - - 2 - ‘O could ye speak, my bonnie spier-hawk, - As ye hae wings to flee, - Then ye wad carry a luve-letter - Atween my love an me.’ - - 3 - ‘But how can I your true-love ken? - Or how can I her know? - Or how can I your true-love ken, - The face I never saw?’ - - 4 - ‘Ye may esily my love ken - Amang them ye never saw; - The red that’s on o my love’s cheek - Is like bluid drapt on the snaw.’ - - * * * * * * - - 5 - ‘O what will be my meat, master? - An what’ll be my fee? - An what will be the love-tokens - That ye will send wi me?’ - - 6 - ‘Ye may tell my love I’ll send her a kiss, - A kiss, aye, will I three; - If ever she come [to] fair Scotland, - My wedded wife she’s be. - - 7 - ‘Ye may tell my love I’ll send her a kiss, - A kiss, aye, will I twae; - An ever she come to fair Scotland, - I the red gold she sall gae.’ - - * * * * * * - - 8 - The hawk flew high, an she flew leugh, - An south aneath the sun, - Untill it cam, etc. - - 9 - ‘Sit still, sit still, my six sisters, - An sew your silken seam, - Till I gae to my bower-window - An hear yon Scottish bird sing.’ - - 10 - Than she flew high, an she flew leugh, - An’ far aboon the wa; - She drapit to that ladie’s side, - An loot the letter fa. - - 11 - ‘What news, what news, my bonnie burd? - An what word carry ye? - An what are a’ the love-tokens - My love has sent to me?’ - - 12 - ‘O ye may send your love a kiss, - For he has sent ye three; - Ye hae the heart within his buik, - What mair can he send thee?’ - - 13 - ‘O I will send my love a kiss, - A kiss, I, will I three; - If I can win to fair Scotland, - His wedded wife I’ll be. - - 14 - ‘O I will send my love a kiss, - An the caim out o my hair; - He has the heart that’s in my buik, - What can I send him mair? - - 15 - ‘An gae yer ways, my bonnie burd, - An tell my love frae me, - If [I] be na there gin Martinmas, - Gin Yool I there will be.’ - - * * * * * * - - 16 - ’Twas up an spak her ill step-minnie, - An ill deed may she die! - ‘Yer daughter Janet’s taen her bed, - An she’ll do nought but die.’ - - 17 - ‘An askin, an askin, dear father, - An askin I crave o thee; - If I should die just at this time, - In Scotland burry me.’ - - 18 - ‘There’s room enough in wide England - To burry thee an me; - But sould ye die, my dear daughter, - I Scotland I’ll burry thee.’ - - 19 - She’s warnd the wrights in lilly Londeen, - She’s warnd them ane an a’, - To mak a kist wi three windows, - The cauler air to blaw. - - 20 - ‘O will ye gae, my six sisters, - An sew to me a sheet, - The tae half o the silk sae fine, - The tother o cambric white.’ - - 21 - Then they hae askit the surgeon at, etc. - - 22 - Then said her cruel step-minnie, - Take ye the boilin lead - An some o ‘t drap on her bosom; - We’ll see gif she be dead. - - 23 - Then boilin lead than they hae taen - An drappit on her breast; - ‘Alas! alas!’ than her father he cried, - ‘For she’s dead without the priest!’ - - 24 - She neither chatterd in her teeth - Nor shivert wi her chin; - ‘Alas! alas!’ her father cried, - ‘For there nae life within!’ - - * * * * * * - - 25 - ‘It’s nine lang days, an nine lang nights, - She’s wantit meat for me; - But for nine days, nine langer nights, - Her face ye salna see.’ - - 26 - He’s taen the coffin wi his fit, - Gard it in flinders flie, etc. - - 27 - ‘Fetch me,’ she said, ‘a cake o yer bread - An a wi drap o your wine, - For luve o you an for your sake - I’ve fastit lang nights nine.’ - - 28 - ’Twas up then spak an eldrin knight, - A grey-haird knight was he; - ‘Now ye hae left yer auld father, - For you he’s like to die. - - 29 - ‘An ye hae left yer sax sisters - Lamentin a’ for you; - I wiss that this, my dear ladie, - Ye near may hae to rue.’ - - 30 - ‘Commend me to my auld father, - If eer ye come him niest; - But nought say to my ill step-minnie. - Gard burn me on the breist. - - 31 - ‘Commend me to my six sisters, - If ye gang bak again; - But nought say to my ill step-minnie, - Gard burn me on the chin. - - 32 - ‘Commend me to my brethren bald, - An ever ye them see; - If ever they come to fair Scotland - They’s fare nae war than me. - - 33 - ‘For I cam na to fair Scotland - To lie amang the dead, - But I cam down to fair Scotland - To wear goud on my head. - - 34 - ‘Nor did I come to fair Scotland - To rot amang the clay, - But I cam to fair Scotland - To wear goud ilka day.’ - - 10^2. _Var._ aboon them a’. - -367 b. The second edition of the Minstrelsy, 1803, II, 6, inserted 13, -from Hogg’s communication, substituted 22, 23, 24 of Laidlaw’s (#H#) for -27, 28, introduced 30 of Laidlaw after 36 (all with changes), and made -the consequently necessary alteration in 37. - - - 99. Johnie Scot. - -P. 378 b. Another copy of the Breton ballad, ‘Lézobré,’ in Quellien, -Chansons et Danses des Bretons, 1889, p. 65. - -379 ff. - - * * * * * - - - Q - -“Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 4 a, Abbotsford; -in the handwriting of William Laidlaw. - - 1 - Young Johnie’s up to England gane - Three quarters of a year; - Young Johnie’s up to England gane, - The king’s banner for to bear. - - 2 - But he had not in England been - The one half of the time - Till the fairest laidy in all the court - Was going with child to him. - - 3 - Word unto the kitchen’s gane, - And word’s to the hall, - And word unto the court has gane, - Among the nobles all. - - 4 - And word unto the chamber’s gane, - The place where the king sat, - That his only daughter is with child - To Johnie, the little Scott. - - 5 - ‘If this be true,’ then sais the king, - ‘As I true well it be, - I’ll put hir in a strong castle, - And hungre hir till she dee.’ - - 6 - Hir breast-plate was made of iron, - In place of the beaten gold, - A belt of steel about hir waist, - And O but she was cold! - - 7 - ‘O where will I get a pritty little boy, - That will win hoes and shoon, - That will go doun to yonder lee - And tell my Johnie to come?’ - - 8 - ‘Here am I, a pritty little boy, - That will win hoes and shoon, - And I’ll go doun to yonder lee - And tell young Johnie to come.’ - - 9 - She has wrote a brod letter, - And seald it tenderly, - And she has sent it to Johnie the Scott, - That lay on yonder lee. - - 10 - When Johnie first the letter got, - A blith, blith man was he; - But or he read the half of it - The salt teer blind Johnie’s ee. - - 11 - ‘I will go to fair England,’ says he, - ‘What ever may betide, - For to releave that gay laidy - Who last lay by my side.’ - - 12 - Up then spoke his old mother, - A sorrifull woman was she; - ‘If you go to England, John, - I’ll never see you mare.’ - - 13 - Up then spoke Johnie’s father, - His head was growing gray; - ‘If you go to England, John, - O fair you well for me!’ - - 14 - Up then spoke Johnie’s uncle, - Our Scottish king was he; - ‘Five hundred of my merry men - Shall bear you company.’ - - 15 - When Johnie was mounted on his steed - He looked wondorous bold, - The hair that oer his shouldiers hang - Like threeds of yellow gold. - - 16 - ‘Now come along with me, my men, - O come along with me, - We’l blow thier castles in the air, - And set free my gay laidy.’ - - 17 - The first gay town that they came to, - Made mass for to be sung; - The nixt gay town that they came to, - Made bells for to be rung. - - 18 - But when they came to London town, - They made the drums beat round, - Who made the king and all his court - To wonder at the sound. - - 19 - ‘Is this the Duke of Mulberry, - Or James the Scottish king? - Or is it a young gentleman - To England new come home?’ - - 20 - ‘It is not the Duke of Mulberry, - Nor James the Scottish [king]; - But it is a young gentleman, - MacNaughten is his name.’ - - 21 - ‘If MacNaughten be your name,’ says the king, - ‘As I true well it be, - Before the morn at eight o clock - Dead hanged you shall be.’ - - 22 - Up bespoke one of Johnie’s little boys, - And a well-spoke boy was he; - ‘Before we see our master hangd, - We’l all fight till we dee.’ - - 23 - ‘Well spoke, well spoke, my little boy, - That is well spoke of thee; - But I have a champian in my bower - That will fight you three by three.’ - - 24 - Up then spoke Johnie himself, - And he spoke manfully; - ‘If it please your Majesty, - May I this champian see?’ - - 25 - The king and all his nobles then - Rode down unto the plain, - The queen and all [her] gay marries, - To see young Johnie slain. - - 26 - When the champian came out of the bower, - He looked at Johnie with disdain; - But upon the tope of Johnie’s brodsword - This champian soon was slain. - - 27 - He fought on, and Johnie fought on, - With swords of tempered steel, - And ay the blood like dropes of rain - Came trinkling down thier hiel. - - 28 - The very nixt stroke that Johnie gave, - He brought him till his knee; - The nixt stroke that Johnie gave, - He clove his head in twa. - - 29 - He swapt his sword on every side, - And turned him on the plain: - ‘Have you any more of your English dogs - That wants for to be slain?’ - - 30 - ‘A clerk, a clerk!’ the king he crys, - ‘I’ll seal her taucher free;’ - ‘A priest, a priest!’ the queen she crys, - ‘For weded they shall be.’ - - 31 - ‘I’ll have none of your [gold],’ say[s] he, - ‘Nor any of your white money; - But I will have my ain true-love; - This day she has cost me dear.’ - - 27^4. hill. - - 29^4. two. - - * * * * * - - - R - -“Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 37, Abbotsford, -MS. of Thomas Wilkie, p. 11; from Miss Nancy Brockie, Bemerside. Another -copy, “Scotch Ballads,” etc., No 139, in the handwriting of T. Wilkie, -and somewhat retouched by him. - - 1 - Lord Jonnie’s up to England gone - Three quarters of an year; - Lord Jonnie’s up to England gone, - The king’s banner to bear. - - 2 - He had not been in fair England, - Three quarters he was not, - Till the king’s eldest daughter - Goes with child to Lord Jonnie Scott. - - 3 - Word is to the kitchen gone, - And word’s gone to the hall, - And word’s gone to the high, high room, - Among the nobles all. - - 4 - Word’s gone to the king himsel, - In the chamber where he sat, - That his eldest daughter goes with child - To Lord Jonnie Scott. - - 5 - ‘If that be true,’ the king replied, - ‘As I suppose it be, - I’ll put her in a prison strong, - And starve her till she die.’ - - 6 - ‘O where will I get a little boy, - That has baith hose and shoon, - That will run into fair Scotland, - And tell my love to come?’ - - 7 - ‘O here is a shirt, little boy, - Her own hand sewed the sleeve; - Tell her to come to good greenwood, - Not ask her father’s leave.’ - - 8 - ‘What news, what news, my little boy? - What news have ye brought to me?’ - ‘No news, no news, my master dear, - But what I will tell thee. - - 9 - ‘O here is a shirt, madam, - Your awn hand sewed the sleeve; - You must gang to good greenwood, - Not ask your parents’ leave.’ - - 10 - ‘My doors they are all shut, little boy, - My windows round about; - My feet is in the fetters strong, - And I cannot get out. - - 11 - ‘My garters are of the black, black iron, - And O but they are cold! - My breast-plate’s o the strong, strong steel, - Instead of beaten gold. - - 12 - ‘But tell him for to bide away, - And not come near to me, - For there’s a champion in my father’s ha - Will fight him till he dee.’ - - 13 - ‘What news, what news, my little boy? - What news have ye to me?’ - ‘No news, no news, my master dear, - But what I will tell thee. - - 14 - ‘Her doors they are all shut, kind sir, - Her windows round about; - Her feet are in the fetters strong, - And she cannot get out. - - 15 - ‘Her garters are of the black, black iron, - And O but they are cold! - Her breast-plate’s of the strong, strong steel, - Instead of beaten gold. - - 16 - ‘She bids you for to bide away, - And not go near to see, - For there’s a champion in her father’s house - Will fight you till you die.’ - - 17 - Then up and spoke Lord Jonnie’s mother, - But she spoke out of time; - ‘O if you go to fair England - I fear you will be slain.’ - - 18 - But up and spoke a little boy, - Just at Lord Jonnie’s knee, - ‘Before you lose your ain true-love, - We’ll a’ fight till we die.’ - - 19 - The first church-town that they came to, - They made the bells be rung; - The next church-town that they came to, - The[y] gard the mass be sung. - - 20 - The next church-town that they came to, - They made the drums go through; - The king and all his nobles stood - Amazing for to view. - - 21 - ‘Is this any English gentleman, - Or James our Scottish king? - Or is it a Scottish gentleman, - To England new come in?’ - - 22 - ‘No, ‘t is no English gentleman, - Nor James the Scottish king; - But it is a Scottish gentleman, - Lord Jonnie is my name.’ - - 23 - ‘If Lord Jonnie be your name, - As I suppose it be, - I have a champion in my hall - Will fight you till you die.’ - - 24 - ‘O go fetch out that gurrley fellow, - Go fetch him out to me; - Before I lose my ain true-love, - We’ll all fight till we die.’ - - 25 - Then out and came that gurrly fellow, - A gurrly fellow was he, - With twa lang sclasps between his eyes, - His shoulders there were three. - - 26 - The king and all his nobles stood - To see the battle gained; - The queen and all her maries stood - To see Lord Jonnie slain. - - 27 - The first stroke that Lord Jonnie gave, - He wounded very sore; - The next stroke that Lord Jonnie gave, - The champion could fight no more. - - 28 - He’s taen a whistle out from his side, - He’s blawn a blast loud and shill: - ‘Is there any more of your English dogs - To come here and be killed?’ - - 29 - ‘A clerk, a clerk!’ the king did say, - ‘To cry her toucher free;’ - ‘A priest, a priest!’ Lord Jonnie [did] cry - ‘To wed my love and me. - - 30 - ‘’Twas for none of your monnie I fought, - Nor for none of your world’s gear; - But it was for my own true-love; - I think I’ve bought her dear.’ - -“This song (L. Jonnie) I took down from the same girl who sung Hughie -Graeme.” - - 5^2. supose. - - 8^3. no news _thrice:_ master _wrongly, in anticipation of 13^3._ - - _In No 139._ - - 4^{3,4}. That the king’s eldest daughter Goes with child to. - - 7^1. There is a shift, little boy. - - 7^4. parents leave. - - 8^2. ye to. - - 16^1. But she. - - 16^3. father’s hall. - - 19^2. They gard. - - 19^4. They made. - - 22^2. James our. - - 23^1. name, kind sir. - - 25^1. out soon. - - 28^2. blown it baith loud. - - 29^1. did cry. - - 29^2. tocher fee. - - 29^3. Jonnie cri’s. - - 30^1. our. - - 30^2. Nor none. - - * * * * * - - - S - -“Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 140, Abbotsford; -in the handwriting of James Hogg, who remarks at the end: “The repeater -of the above song called the hero once or twice Johny Scott, which I -ommitted in the MS., seeing it contradicted in the 22 verse. I thought -it best to apprise you of this, in case you might find any tract of its -being founded on fact, because, if it is not, it hath little else to -reccomend it.” - - 1 - O Johny’s up thro England gane - Three quarters of a year, - An Johny’s up thro England gane, - The king’s banner to bear. - - 2 - He had not been in London town - But a very little while - Till the fairest lady in the court - By Johny gaes wi child. - - 3 - But word is to the kitchin gane, - An word’s gane to the ha, - An word’s gane to yon high, high court, - Amang our nobles a’. - - 4 - An when the king got wit o that - An angry man was he: - ‘On the highest tree in a’ the wood - High hangit shall he be! - - 5 - ‘An for the lady, if it’s true, - As I do fear it be, - I’ll put her in yon castle strong, - An starve her till she die.’ - - 6 - But Johny had a clever boy, - A clever boy was he, - O Johny had a clever boy, - His name was Gregory. - - 7 - ‘O run, my boy, to yon castle, - All windows round about, - An there you’l see a fair lady, - At a window looking out. - - 8 - ‘Ye maun bid her take this silken sark— - Her ain hand sewd the gare— - An bid her come to the green wood, - For Johny waits her there.’ - - 9 - Away he ran to yon castle, - All windows round about, - Where he espy’d a lady fair, - At a window looking out. - - 10 - ‘O madam, there’s a silken sark— - Your ain hand sewd the gare— - An haste ye to the good green wood, - For Johny waits you there.’ - - 11 - ‘O I’m confin’d in this castle, - Though lighted round about; - My feet are bound with fetters strong, - That I cannot win out. - - 12 - ‘My gartens are of stubborn ern, - Alas! baith stiff and cold; - My breastplate of the sturdy steel, - Instead of beaten gold. - - 13 - ‘Instead of silken stays, my boy, - With steel I’m lac’d about; - My feet are bound with fetters strong, - And how can I get out? - - 14 - ‘But tell him he must stay at home, - Nor venture here for me; - Else an Italian in our court - Must fight him till he die.’ - - 15 - When Johny he got wit o that, - An angry man was he: - ‘But I will gae wi a’ my men - My dearest dear to see.’ - - 16 - But up then spake a noble lord, - A noble lord was he; - ‘The best of a’ my merry men - Shall bear you company.’ - - 17 - But up then spake his auld mother, - I wat wi meikle pain; - ‘If ye will gae to London, son, - Ye’l neer come back again.’ - - 18 - But Johny turnd him round about, - I wat wi meikle pride: - ‘But I will gae to London town, - Whatever may betide.’ - - 19 - When they were a’ on horseback set, - How comely to behold! - For a’ the hairs o Johny’s head - Did shine like threads o gold. - - 20 - The first ae town that they gaed through, - They gart the bells be rung, - But the neist town that they gaed through - They gart the mass be sung. - - 21 - But when they gaed to London town - The trumpets loud were blown, - Which made the king and a’ his court - To marvel at the sound. - - 22 - ‘Is this the Duke of Morebattle? - Or James the Scottish king?’ - ‘No, sire, I’m a Scottish lord, - McNaughten is my name.’ - - 23 - ‘If you be that young Scottish lord, - As I believe you be, - The fairest lady in my court - She gaes wi child by thee.’ - - 24 - ‘And if she be with child by me, - As I think sae may be, - It shall be heir of a’ my land, - And she my gay lady.’ - - 25 - ‘O no, O no,’ the king reply’d, - ‘That thing can never be, - For ere the morn at ten o clock - I’ll slay thy men an thee. - - 26 - ‘A bold Italian in my court - Has vanquishd Scotchmen three, - And ere the morn at ten o clock - I’m sure he will slay thee.’ - - 27 - But up then spake young Johny’s boy, - A clever boy was he; - ‘O master, ere that you be slain, - There’s mae be slain than thee.’ - - 28 - The king and all his court appeard - Neist morning on the plain, - The queen and all her ladies came - To see youn[g] Johny slain. - - 29 - Out then stepd the Italian bold, - And they met on the green; - Between his shoulders was an ell, - A span between his een. - - 30 - When Johny in the list appeard, - Sae young and fair to see, - A prayer staw frae ilka heart, - A tear frae ilka ee. - - 31 - And lang they fought, and sair they fought, - Wi swords o temperd steel, - Until the blood like draps o rain - Came trickling to their heal. - - 32 - But Johny was a wannle youth, - And that he weel did show; - For wi a stroke o his broad sword - He clove his head in two. - - 33 - ‘A priest, a priest!’ then Johny cry’d, - ‘To wed my love and me;’ - ‘A clerk, a clerk!’ the king reply’d, - ‘To write her tocher free.’ - - * * * * * - - - T - -‘John, the little Scot;’ in the youthful handwriting of Sir Walter -Scott, inserted, as No 4, at the beginning of a MS. volume, in small -folio, containing a number of prose pieces, etc., Abbotsford Library, L. -2. - - 1 - Johnny’s gane up to fair England - Three quarters of a year, - And Johny’s gane up to fair England, - The king’s broad banner to bear. - - 2 - He had not been in fair England, - Even but a little while, - When that the king’s ae dochter - To Johnny gaes wi child. - - 3 - And word is gane to the kitchen, - And word’s gane to the ha, - And word’s gane to the high, high court, - Amang the nobles a’. - - 4 - And word is gane unto the king, - In the chair where he sat, - That his ae dochter’s wi bairn - To John the little Scott. - - 5 - ‘If that I thought she is wi bairn, - As I true weell she be, - I’ll put her up in high prison, - And hunger her till she die.’ - - 6 - ‘There is a silken sark, Johnny, - My ain sell sewed the gare, - And if ye come to tak me hence - Ye need nae taken mare. - - 7 - ‘For I am up in high prison, - And O but it is cold! - My garters are o the cold, cold iron, - In place o the beaten gold.’ - - 8 - ‘Is this the Duke o York?’ they said, - ‘Or James the Scottish king? - Or is it John the little Scott, - Frae Scotland new come hame?’ - - 9 - ‘I have an Italian in my bower, - This day he has eaten three; - Before I either eat or sleep - The fourth man ye shall be.’ - - 10 - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - Between his een there was two spans, - His shoulders ells were three. - - 11 - Johnny drew forth his good braid glaive - And slate it on the plain: - ‘Is there any more of your Italian dogs - That wanteth to be slain?’ - - 12 - ‘A clerk, a clerk!’ her father cry’d - ‘To register this deed;’ - ‘A priest, a priest!’ her mother cry’d, - ‘To marry them wi speed.’ - - 1^1. gane _struck out_. - - 1^4. broad _struck out_. - - 8^1. king o Scots, _originally_, _for_ Duke o York. - - 9^1. n Italian _struck out, and_ Lion _written above_. - - - 100. Willie o Winsbury. - -P. 399 ff. MS. of Thomas Wilkie, p. 5, in “Scotch Ballads, Materials for -Border Minstrelsy,” No 34. From Mrs Hislope, Gattonside. 1813. - - 1 - The king calld on his merry men all, - By one, by two, and by three; - Lord Thomas should been the foremost man, - But the hindmost man was he. - - 2 - As he came tripping down the stairs, - His stockings were of the silk, - His face was like the morning sun, - And his hand as white as milk. - - 3 - ‘No wonder, no wonder, Lord Thomas,’ he said, - ‘Then my daughter she loved thee; - For, if I had been a woman as I am a man, - Tom, I would hae loved thee.’ - - - 106. The Famous Flower of Serving-Men. - -P. 429. The fragment printed by Scott was given him by the Ettrick -Shepherd. It was printed with no important change except in the last -stanza, all of which is the editor’s but the second line. The two lines -of stanza 7 are scored through in the MS. - - -“Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 133 b, Abbotsford; -in the handwriting of James Hogg. - - 1 - My love he built me a bonny bowr, - An cled it a’ wi lily-flowr; - A brawer bowr ye neer did see - Than my true-love he built to me. - - 2 - There came a man by middle day, - He spy’d his sport an went away, - An brought the king that very night, - Who brak my bowr, an slew my knight. - - 3 - He slew my knight, to me sae dear; - He slew my knight, an poind his gear; - My servants all for life did flee, - An left me in extremity. - - 4 - I sewd his sheet, making my moan; - I watchd the corpse, mysel alone; - I watchd his body night and day; - No living creature came that way. - - 5 - I took the corpse then on my back, - And whiles I gaed, and whiles I sat; - I digd a grave, and laid him in, - And hapd him wi the sod sae green. - - 6 - But thinkna ye my heart was sair - When I laid the mool on his yellow hair? - O thinkna ye my heart was wae - When I turnd about, away to gae? - - 7 - Nae langer there I could remain - Since that my lovely knight was slain; - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - - - 110. The Knight and the Shepherd’s - -Daughter. - -P. 457 a, 476 f. #A. b# is printed in the Ballad Society’s ed. of the -Roxburghe Ballads, III, 449. It is in the Crawford collection, No 1142. -There are four copies in the Douce collection: I, 11 b, 14, 21 b, IV, -33, two of Charles II.’s time, two of no account (Chappell). - -458 b. The Danish ballad is now No 314 of Danmarks gamle Folkeviser, -continued by Axel Olrik, V, II, 377, ‘Ebbe Galt—Hr. Tidemand.’ There are -four Danish versions, #A-D#, some of the sixteenth century; a Färöe -version in five copies, ‘Ebbin kall,’ Føroyjakvæði, as elaborated by -Grundtvig and Bloch, No 123, D. g. F., #E#; an Icelandic version, -‘Símonar kvæði,’ Íslenzk Fornkvæði, I, 224, No 26. Danish #C#, Vedel, -III, No 17, is compounded of #B# and a lost version which must have -resembled #A#. The copy in Danske Viser, Abrahamson, No 63, is -recompounded from C and one of the varieties of #D#. Herr Tidemand is -the offending knight in #A#, #C#; Ebbe Galt in #B#, #D# and the Färöe -#E#; Kóng Símon in the Icelandic version. #A# has fifteen stanzas, #B# -only eleven; the story is extended to sixty-seven in #D#. A begins -directly with a complaint on the part of the injured husband before the -King’s Bench; the husband in this version is of a higher class than in -the others,—Herr Peder, and not a peasant. The forcing is done at the -woman’s house in A and the Icelandic version; in #B-E# in a wood. In -all, the ravisher is capitally punished. - -Hr. Olrik is disposed to think ‘The Knight and the Shepherd’s Daughter’ -a not very happy patching together of ‘Ebbe Galt,’ a lost ballad, and -‘Tærning-spillet,’ D. g. F., No 248, by a minstrel who may perhaps have -had Chaucer’s story in mind. I am not prepared to go further than to -admit that there is a gross inconsistency, even absurdity, in the -English ballad; the shepherd’s daughter of the beginning could not -possibly turn out a duke’s, an earl’s, or a king’s daughter in the -conclusion. - -‘Malfred og Sallemand,’ p. 458, note §, which has many verses in common -with ‘Ebbe Galt,’ is now No 313 of Danmarks gamle Folkeviser, V, II, -367. - - * * * * * - - - M - -‘Earl Richmond,’ “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No -81, Abbotsford; in the handwriting of James Skene of Rubislaw. - - 1 - There was a shepherd’s daughter - Kept hogs upo yon hill, - By cam her a gentle knight, - And he would hae his will. - - 2 - Whan his will o her he had, - [His will] as he had taen, - ‘Kind sir, for yer courtesy, - Will ye tell me yer name?’ - - 3 - ‘Some they ca me Jock,’ he says, - ‘And some they ca me John; - But whan ‘m in our king’s court - Hitchcock is my name.’ - - 4 - The lady being well book-read, - She spelt it oer again: - ‘Hitchcock in our king’s court - Is Earl Richard at hame.’ - - 5 - He pat his leg out-oer his steed - And to the get he’s gane; - She keltit up her green clothing, - And fast, fast followed him. - - 6 - ‘Turn back, turn back, ye carl’s daughter, - And dinna follow me; - It sets na carl’s daughters - Kings’ courts for to see.’ - - 7 - ‘Perhaps I am a cerl’s daughter, - Perhaps I am nane, - But whan ye gat me in free forest - Ye might ha latten’s alane.’ - - 8 - Whan they cam to yon wan water - That a’ man does call Clyde, - He looket oer his left shuder, - Says, Fair may, will ye ride? - - 9 - ‘I learnt it in my mother’s bowr, - I wis I had learnt it better, - Whan I cam to wan water - To soom as does the otter.’ - - 10 - Or the knight was i the middle o the water, - The lady she was oer; - She took out a came o gold, - To came down her yellow hair. - - 11 - ‘Whar gat ye that, ye cerl’s daughter? - I pray ye tell to me:’ - ‘I got it fra my mither,’ she says, - ‘To beguil sick chaps as thee.’ - - 12 - Whan they cam to our king’s court, - He rade it round about, - And he gade in at a shot-window, - And left the lady without. - - 13 - She gade to our king hersel, - She fell low down upon her knee: - ‘There is a knight into your court - This day has robbed me.’ - - 14 - ‘Has he robbd ye o your goud? - Or o yer well-won fee? - Or o yer maidenhead, - The flower o yer body?’ - - 15 - ‘He has na robbd me o my goud, - For I ha nane to gee; - But he has robbd me o my maidenhead, - The flower o my body.’ - - 16 - ‘O wud ye ken the knight,’ he says, - ‘If that ye did him see?’ - ‘I wud him ken by his well-fared face - And the blyth blink o his ee.’ - - 17 - ‘An he be a married man, - High hanged sall he be, - And an he be a free man, - Well wedded to him ye’s be, - Altho it be my brother Richie, - And I wiss it be no he.’ - - 18 - The king called on his merry young men, - By ane, by twa, by three; - Earl Richmond had used to be the first, - But the hindmost was he. - - 19 - By that ye mith ha well kent - That the guilty man was he; - She took him by the milk-white hand, - Says, This same ane is he. - - 20 - There was a brand laid down to her, - A brand but an a ring, - Three times she minted to the brand, - But she took up the ring; - A’ that was in our king’s court - Countet her a wise woman. - - 21 - ‘I’ll gi ye five hundred pounds, - To mak yer marriage we, - An ye’l turn back, ye cerl’s daughter, - And fash nae mere wi me.’ - - 22 - ‘Gae keep yer five hundred pounds - To mak yer merriage we, - For I’ll hae nathing but yersel - The king he promised me.’ - - 23 - ‘I’ll gae ye one thousand pounds - To mak yer marriage we, - An ye’l turn back, ye cerl’s daughter, - And fash nae mere wi me.’ - - 24 - ‘Gae keep yer one thousand pounds, - To mak yer merriage we, - For I’ll hae nathing but yersel - The king he promised me.’ - - 25 - He took her down to yon garden, - And clothed her in the green; - Whan she cam up again, - Sh[e] was fairer than the queen. - - 26 - They gad on to Mary kirk, and on to Mary quire, - The nettles they grew by the dyke: - ‘O, an my mither wer her[e], - So clean as she wud them pick!’ - - 27 - ‘I wiss I had druken water,’ he says, - ‘Whan I drank the ale, - That ony cerl’s daughter - Sud tell me sick a tale.’ - - 28 - ‘Perhaps I am a cerl’s daughter, - Perhaps I am nane; - But whan ye gat me in free forest - Ye might ha latten’s alane. - - 29 - ‘Well mat this mill be, - And well mat the gae! - Mony a day they ha filled me pock - O the white meal and the gray.’ - - 30 - ‘I wiss I had druken water,’ he says, - ‘When I drank the ale, - That ony cerl’s daughter - Sud tell me sick a tale.’ - - 31 - ‘Perhaps I am a cerl’s daughter, - Perhaps I am nane; - But whan ye gat me in free forest - Ye might ha latten’s alane. - - 32 - ‘Tak awa yer siller spoons, - Tak awa fra me, - An gae me the gude horn spoons, - It’s what I’m used tee. - - 33 - ‘O an my mukle dish wer here, - And sine we hit were fu, - I wud sup file I am saerd, - And sine lay down me head and sleep wi ony sow.’ - - 34 - ‘I wiss I had druken water,’ he says, - ‘Whan I drank the ale, - That any cerl’s daughter - Sud tell me sick a tale.’ - - 35 - ‘Perhaps I am a cerl’s daughter, - Perhaps I am nane, - But whan ye gat me in free forest, - Ye might ha latten’s alane.’ - - 36 - He took his hat in oer his face, - The tear blindit his ee; - She threw back her yellow locks, - And a light laughter leugh she. - - 37 - ‘Bot an ye be a beggar geet, - As I trust well ye be, - Whar gat ye their fine clothing - Yer body was covered we?’ - - 38 - ‘My mother was an ill woman, - And an ill woman was she; - She gat them . . . . - Fra sic chaps as thee.’ - - 39 - Whan bells were rung, and mess was sung, - And aa man bound to bed, - Earl Richard and the carl’s daughter - In a chamer were laid. - - 40 - ‘Lie yont, lie yont, ye carl’s daughter, - Yer hot skin burns me; - It sets na carl’s daughters - In earls’ beds to be.’ - - 41 - ‘Perhaps I am a carl’s daughter, - Perhaps I am nane; - But whan ye gat me in free forest - Ye might ha latten’s alane.’ - - 42 - Up it starts the Belly Blin, - Just at their bed-feet. - - 43 - ‘I think it is a meet marrige - Atween the taen and the tither, - The Earl of Hertford’s ae daughter - And the Queen of England’s brither.’ - - 44 - ‘An this be the Earl of Hertford’s ae daughter, - As I trust well it be, - Mony a gude horse ha I ridden - For the love o thee.’ - - 1–34. _Written as far as 36 in long lines, two to a stanza: there - is no division of stanzas._. - - 23, 24, 28, 30, 31, 34, 35, 41, _are not fully written out_. - - 29^2. _Possibly_ mat she gae, _but observe the plural in the next - line._ - - - 112. The Baffled Knight. - -P. 480 a. There is another variety of #D# in The Calleen Fuine, to which -are added The Shepherd’s Boy, etc. Limerick, Printed by W. Goggin, -corner of Bridge-Street. British Museum, 11621. e. 14 (16). Dated 1810? -in the catalogue. - -This begins: - - There was a shepherd’s boy, - He kept sheep upon a hill, - And he went out upon a morning - To see what he could kill. - It’s blow away the morning dew, - It’s blow, you winds, hi ho! - You stole away my morning blush, - And blow a little, blow. - -481 a. ‘Lou Cabalier discret’ (‘Je vous passerai le bois’), Daymard, -Vieux Chants p. rec. en Quercy, p. 126. - -481 b, III, 518 a. Dans le bois elle s’est mise à pleurer: Revue des -Traditions Populaires, IV, 514; ‘J’ai fini ma journée,’ Gothier, Recueil -de Crâmignons, p. 5, ‘Youp ta deritou la la,’ Terry et Chaumont, Recueil -d’Airs de Crâmignons, etc., p. 66, No 34; ‘Après ma journée faite,’ -Meyrac, Traditions, etc., des Ardennes, pp. 277, 279. - -Varieties: ‘Lou Pastour brégountsous (trop discret),’ Daymard, p. 124; -‘A la ronde, mesdames,’ Terry et Chaumont, p. 22, No 13; ‘La belle et -l’ermite,’ ‘La jeune couturière,’ La Tradition, IV, 346, 348, Chansons -populaires de la Picardie (half-popular). - -482 a. A #Breton# song gives the essence of the story in seven couplets: -Quellien, Chansons et Danses des Bretons, p. 156. - -#Danish.# ‘Den dyre Kaabe,’ Kristensen, Jyske Folkeminder, X, 142, No -38. - -482 b, third paragraph. The incident of the boots in Hazlitt, -Jest-Books, II, 241 (Tarlton’s Jests, 1611, but printed before 1600). - - - 113. The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry. - -P. 494, III, 518. See David MacRitchie, The Finn-Men of Britain, in The -Archæological Review, IV, 1–26, 107–129, 190 ff., and Alfred Nutt, p. -232. - -A husband who is a man by day, but at night a seal: Curtin, Myths and -Folk-Lore of Ireland, p. 51. (G. L. K.) - - - VOL. III. - - - 114. Johnie Cock. - -P. 1. There is a ballad of ‘Bertram, the Bauld Archer’ in Pitcairn’s -MSS, III, 51; printed in Maidment’s Scotish Ballads and Songs, 1859, p. -46. Pitcairn derived it from Mrs McCorquodale, Stirling, a farmer’s -wife, who remembered it “to have been sung by her grandmother, a woman -above eighty years old, who stated that she had it from an old woman, -her aunt.” The reciter herself was above sixty-five, and had “first -heard it when a little girl.” Nevertheless, Bertram is fustian, of a -sort all too familiar in the last century. The story, excepting perhaps -the first stanza, is put into the mouth of Bertram’s mistress, _à la_ -Gilderoy. The bauld archer has gone to the forest for to mak a robberie. -The king has made proclamation that he will give five hunder merk for -Bertram’s life. John o Shoumacnair (Stronmaknair, Maidment) proposes to -his billies to kill Bertram and get the money. They busk themselves in -hodden gray, ‘like to friers o low degree,’ present themselves to -Bertram and ask a boon of him, which Bertram grants without inquiry. -While they are parleying, Shoumacnair drives his dirk into Bertram’s -back. But, though he swirls wi the straik, Bertram draws his awsome -bran, kills ane, wounds twa, and then his stalwart, gallant soul takes -its flight to heaven. - -2b. Braid. “This version [‘Johnie of Braidisbank,’ I] was taken down by -Motherwell and me from the recitation of Mr James Knox, land-surveyor at -Tipperlinne, near Edinburgh, in the month of May, 1824, when we met him -in the good town of Paisley. At 17 a tradition is mentioned which -assigns Braid to have been the scene of this woeful hunting. Mr Knox is -the authority for this tradition. Braid is in the neighborhood of -Tipperlinne.” Note by Mr P. A. Ramsay in a copy of the Minstrelsy which -had belonged to Motherwell. (W. Macmath.) - -Wolves in Scotland. “It is usually said that the species was extirpated -about 1680 by Sir Ewen Cameron of Lochiel, but the tradition to that -effect appears to be true only of Sir Ewen’s own district of western -Invernessshire.” The _very_ last wolf may have been killed in 1743. R. -Chambers, Domestic Annals of Scotland, III, 690. - -7. #F# was made up from several copies, one of which was the following, -‘John o Cockielaw,’ in Scott’s youthful handwriting, inserted, as No 3, -at the beginning of a MS. volume, in small folio, containing a number of -prose pieces, and beginning with excerpts from Law’s Memorials. -Abbotsford Library, L. 2. - - 1 - Johnny got up in a May morning, - Calld for water to wash his hands: - ‘Gar louse to me my good gray dogs - That are tied with iron bands.’ - - 2 - When Johnny’s mother got word o that, - For grief she has lain down: - ‘O Johnny, for my benison, - I red you bide at hame!’ - - 3 - He’s putten on his black velvet, - Likewise his London brown, - And he’s awa to Durrisdeer, - To hunt the dun deer down. - - 4 - Johnny shot, and the dun deer lap, - And he wounded her on the side; - Between the water and the brae, - There he laid her pride. - - 5 - He’s taken out the liver o her, - And likewise sae the lungs, - And he has made a’ his dogs to feast - As they had been earl’s sons. - - 6 - They eat sae much o the venison, - And drank sae much of the blood, - That they a’ then lay down and slept, - And slept as they had been dead. - - 7 - And bye there cam a silly ald man, - And an ill death might he die! - And he’s awa to the seven forresters, - As fast as he can drie. - - 8 - ‘As I cam down by Merriemas, - And down aboon the scroggs, - The bonniest boy that ever I saw - Lay sleeping amang his doggs. - - 9 - ‘The shirt that was upon his back - Was of the holland fine, - The cravat that was about his neck - Was of the cambrick lawn. - - 10 - ‘The coat that was upon his back - Was of the London brown, - The doublet . . . . - Was of the Lincome twine.’ - - 11 - Out and spak the first forrester, - That was a forrester our them a’; - If this be John o Cockielaw, - Nae nearer him we’ll draw. - - 12 - Then out and spak the sixth, - That was . forrester amang them a’; - If this is John o Cockielaw, - Nearer to him we’ll draw. - - 13 - Johnny shot six of the forresters, - And wounded the seventh, we say, - And set him on a milk-white steed - To carry tidings away. - - 4^4. Wi He there he (he _written in place of another word_). Wi He - _struck out_. - - 6^3. _Originally_, That they lay a’ them down. - - 7^2. _Originally_, And a silly ald man was he. - - 11^2. was hed. hed _struck out_. - - - 116. Adam Bell, etc. - -P. 18. The Tell story in The Braemar Highlands, by Elizabeth Taylor, -Edinburgh, 1869, pp. 99–103, is a transparent plagiarism, as indeed the -author of the book seems to be aware. - - - 117. A Gest of Robyn Hode. - -P. 40 ff. Thomas Robinhood is one of six witnesses to a grant in the 4th -of Richard II. (June 22, 1380–June 21, 1381). See Historical MSS -Commission, Fifth Report, Appendix, p. 511, col. 2. The pronunciation, -Robinhood (p. 41 a, note †), is clearly seen in the jingle quoted by -Nash, Strange Newes, 1593, Works, ed. Grosart, II, 230: “Ah, -neighbourhood, neighbourhood, Dead and buried art thou with Robinhood.” - -Among the disbursements of John Lord Howard, afterwards Duke of Norfolk, -occurs the following: “And the same day, my Lord paide to Robard Hoode -for viij. shafftys xvj. d.” (This is Friday, Sept. 26, 1483.) Household -Books of John Duke of Norfolk and Thomas Earl of Surrey, temp. -1481–1490, ed. by J. P. Collier, 1844, Roxburghe Club, p. 464. Collier, -p. 525, remarks that “the coincidence that the duke bought them of a -person of the name of Robin Hood is singular.” - -The Crosscombe Church-Wardens’ Accounts (in Church-Wardens’ Accounts of -Croscombe, Pilton, Yatton, etc., ranging from 1349 to 1560, ed. by Right -Rev. Bishop Hobhouse, Somerset Record Soc. Publications, IV, 1890): - -“Comes Thomas Blower and John Hille, and presents in xl _s._ of Roben -Hod’s recones.” 147[6 7] (accounts for 147⅚), p. 4. - -“Comys Robin Hode and presents in xxxiij _s._ iv _d_.” 148⅔ (for 148½), -p. 10. - - “Ric. Willes was Roben Hode, and presents in for yere past xxiij _s._” -148¾ (for 148⅔), p. 11. - -“Comys Robyn Hode, Wyllyam Wyndylsor, and presents in for the yere paste -iij _l._ vj _s._ viij _d._ ob.” 148[6 7] (for 148⅚), p. 14. - -“Robyn Hode presents in xlvj _s._ viij. _d._” 149⅘ (for 149¾), p. 20. - -And so of later years. - -A pasture called Robynhode Closse is mentioned in the Chamberlains’ -Accounts of the town of Nottingham in 1485, 1486, and 1500: Records of -the Borough of Nottingham, III, 64, 230, 254. A Robynhode Well near the -same town is mentioned in a presentment at the sessions of July 20, 1500 -(III, 74), and again in 1548 as Robyn’s Wood Well (IV, 441). Robin -Hood’s Acre is mentioned in 162⅘ (IV, 441). Robbin-hoodes Wele is -mentioned in Jack of Dover, his Quest of Inquirie, 1604, Hazlitt, -Jest-Books, II, 315. (The above by G. L. K.) - -49 b. Italian robber-songs. “Sulle piazze romane e napoletane ognuno ha -potuto sentire ripetere i canti epici che celebrano le imprese di famosi -banditi o prepotenti, Meo Pataca, Mastrilli, Frà Diavolo:” Cantù, -Documenti alla Storia universale (1858), V, 891. - -53 a. Note on 243–47. The same incident in The Jests of Scogin, -Hazlitt’s Jest-Books, II, 151. (G. L. K.) - -53 f., 519 a. See also the traditional story how Bishop Forbes, of -Corse, lent his brother a thousand marks on the security of God -Almighty, in The Scotsman’s Library, by James Mitchell, 1825, p. 576. -(W. Macmath.) - - - 121. Robin Hood and the Potter. - -P. 108 a. Compare the Great-Russian bylinas about Il’ja of Murom and his -son (daughter). Il’ja is captain of the march-keepers, Dobrynja second -in command. No man, on foot or on horse, no bird or beast, undertakes to -pass. But one day a young hero crosses, neither greeting nor paying -toll. One of the guards, commonly Dobrynja, is sent after him, but comes -back in a fright. Il’ja takes the matter in hand, has a fight with the -young man, is worsted at first, but afterwards gets the better of him. -Wollner, Volksepik der Grossrussen, p. 115. (W. W.) - - - 141. Robin Hood rescuing Will Stutly. - -P. 186. Stanzas 19, 20. The boon of being allowed to fight at odds, -rather than be judicially executed, is of very common occurrence in -South-Slavic songs, generally with the nuance that the hero asks to have -the worst horse and the worst weapon. A well-known instance is the -Servian song of Jurišić Janko, Karadžić, II, 319, No 52, and the older -Croat song of Svilojević (treating the same matter), Bogišić, p. 120 No -46. (W. W.) - - - 155. Sir Hugh, or, The Jew’s Daughter. - -P. 241. For the subject in general, and particularly ‘el santo niño de -la Guardia,’ see further H. C. Lea, in The English Historical Review, -IV, 229, 1889. - -242 b, fourth paragraph. See J. Loeb, Un mémoire de Laurent Ganganelli -sur la calomnie du meurtre rituel, in Revue des Etudes juives, XVIII, -179 ff., 1889. (G. L. K.) For the other side: Il sangue cristiano nei -riti ebraici della moderna sinagoga. Versione dal greco del Professore -N. F. S. Prato, 1883. Henri Desportes, Le mystère du sang chez les Juifs -de tous les temps. Paris, 1889. - -246 b. #E# 5. The following stanza was inserted by Motherwell as a -variation in a copy of his Minstrelsy afterwards acquired by Mr P. A. -Ramsay: - - She went down to the Jew’s garden, - Where the grass grows lang and green, - She pulled an apple aff the tree, - Wi a red cheek and a green, - She hung it on a gouden chain, - To wile that bonnie babe in. - -249 ff. A version resembling #H-M#, #O# has been kindly communicated by -Mr P. Z. Round. - - * * * * * - - - S - -Written down April, 1891, by Mrs W. H. Gill, of Sidcup, Kent, as recited -to her in childhood by a maid-servant in London. - - 1 - It rained so high, it rained so low, - . . . . . . . - In the Jew’s garden all below. - - 2 - Out came a Jew, - All clothëd in green, - Saying, Come hither, come hither, my sweet little boy, - And fetch your ball again. - - 3 - ‘I won’t come hither, I shan’t come hither, - Without my school-fellows all; - My mother would beat me, my father would kill me, - And cause my blood to pour. - - 4 - ‘He showed me an apple as green as grass, - He showed me a gay gold ring, - He showed me a cherry as red as blood, - And that enticed me in. - - 5 - ‘He enticed me into the parlour, - He enticed me into the kitchen, - And there I saw my own dear sister, - A picking of a chicken. - - 6 - ‘He set me in a golden chair - And gave me sugar sweet; - He laid me on a dresser-board, - And stabbed me like a sheep. - - 7 - ‘With a Bible at my head, - A Testament at my feet, - A prayer-book at the side of me, - And a penknife in so deep. - - 8 - ‘If my mother should enquire for me, - Tell her I’m asleep; - Tell her I’m at heaven’s gate, - Where her and I shall meet.’ - - - 156. Queen Eleanor’s Confession. - - Pp. 258 ff. - - * * * * * - - - G - - ‘Earl Marshall,’ “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” - No 4 b, Abbotsford; in the handwriting of William Laidlaw. - - 1 - The queen of England she is seek, - And seek and like to dee; - She has sent for friers out of France, - To bespeek hir speed[i]ly. - - 2 - The king has cald on his merrymen, - By thirtys and by threes; - Earl Marshall should have been the formest man, - But the very last man was he. - - 3 - ‘The queen of England s[h]e is seek, - And seek and like to dee, - And she has sent for friers out of France, - To bespeek hir speedyly. - - 4 - ‘But I will put on a frier’s weeg, - And ye’l put on another, - And we’ll away to Queen Helen gaits, - Like friers both together.’ - - 5 - ‘O no, no,’ says Earl Marshall, - ‘For this it must not be; - For if the queen get word of that, - High hanged I will be.’ - - 6 - ‘But I will swear by my septer and crown, - And by the seas so free, - I will swear by my septer and crown, - Earl Marshall, thow’s no dee.’ - - 7 - So he has put on a frier’s wig, - And the king has put on another, - And they are away to Queen Helen gaits, - Like friers both together. - - 8 - When they came to Queen Helen gaits, - They tirled at the pin; - There was non so ready as the queene herself - To open and let them in. - - 9 - ‘O are you two Scottish dogs?— - And hanged you shall be— - Or are [you] friers come out of France, - To bespeek me speedily?’ - - 10 - ‘We are not two Scottish dogs, - Nor hanged we shall be; - For we have not spoken a wrong word - Since we came over the sea.’ - - 11 - ‘Well then, the very first that ever I sind - I freely confess to thee; - Earl Marshall took my maidenhead - Below yon greenwood tree.’ - - 12 - ‘That is a sin, and very great sin, - But the Pope will pardon thee;’ - ‘Amene, Amene,’ says Earl Marshall, - But a feert, feert heart had he. - - 13 - ‘The very next sin that ever I sind - I freely confess to thee; - I had [poisen] seven years in my breast - To poisen King Hendry.’ - - 14 - ‘That is a sin, and very great sin, - But the Pope forgiveth thee;’ - ‘Amene, Amene,’ says Earl Marshall, - But a feert, feert heart had he. - - 15 - ‘The very next sin that ever I sind - I freely confess to thee; - I poisened one of my court’s ladies, - Was far more fairer than me.’ - - 16 - ‘That is a sin, and a very great sin, - But the Pope forgiveth thee;’ - ‘Amene, Amene,’ says Earl Marshall, - But a feert, feert heart had he. - - 17 - ‘Do you see yon bony boys, - Playing at the baw? - The oldest of them is Earl Marshall’s, - And I like him best of all.’ - - 18 - ‘That is a sin, and very great sin, - But the Pope forgiveth thee;’ - ‘Amene, Amene,’ says Earl Marshall, - But a feert, feert heart had he. - - 19 - ‘Do ye see two bony [boys], - Playing at the baw? - The youngest of them is King Hendry’s, - And I like him worst of all. - - 20 - ‘Because he is headed like a bull, - And his nose is like a boar;’ - ‘What is the matter?’ says King Henry, - ‘For he shall be my heir.’ - - 21 - Now he put off his frier’s wig - And drest himself [in] red; - She wrung hir hands, and tore hir hair, - And s[w]ore she was betraid. - - 22 - ‘Had I not sworn by my septer and crown, - And by the seas so free, - Had I not sworn by my septer and crown, - Earl Marshall, thowst have died.’ - - 4^2. yet. - - 4^3. will. - - 14^2. they. - - 19^2. is Earl Marshall’s. - - - 158. Hugh Spencer’s Feats in France. - -III, 276, note †. I had remarked that this ballad was after the fashion -of Russian bylinas. Professor Wollner indicates especially the bylina of -Dobrynja and Vasilij Kazimirović, which in a general way is singularly -like ‘Hugh Spencer.’ In this very fine ballad, Vladimir is in arrears -with his tribute to a Saracen king, and appoints Vasilij his envoy, to -make payment. Vasilij asks that he may have Dobrynja go with him, and -Dobrynja asks for Ivanuka’s company. (Compare #B#.) Dobrynja beats the -king at chess and at the bow (which corresponds to the justing in the -English ballad); then follows a great fight, the result of which is that -the Saracen king is fain to pay tribute himself. Wollner, Volksepik der -Grossrussen, pp. 123–125. - -Other examples of difficult feats done in foreign lands, commonly by -comrades of the hero, in Karadić, II, 445, 465, Nos 75, 79; also II, -132, No 29; and the Bulgarian Sbornik, II, 130, 1, 132, 3. (W. W.) - - - 161. The Battle of Otterburn. - -Pp. 294, 520. St George Our Lady’s Knight. ‘Swete Sainct George, our -ladies knyght,’ Skelton, ‘Against the Scottes,’ v. 141, Dyce, I, 186; -‘Thankyd be Saynte Gorge our ladyes knythe,’ in the ‘Ballade of the -Scottysche Kynge,’ p. 95 of the fac-simile edition by J. Ashton, 1882 -(where the passage is somewhat different). In his note, II, 220, to the -poem ‘Against the Scottes,’ Dyce remarks that St George is called Our -Lady’s Knight “in a song written about the same time as the present -poem, Cott. MS. Domit. A. xviii. fol. 248.” This appears to be the song -quoted from the same MS. by Sir H. Ellis, Original Letters, First -Series, I, 79: - - ‘Swet Sent Jorge, our Ladyes knyte, - Save Kyng Hary bothe be day and nyȝth.’ - -In his Chorus de Dis, super triumphali victoria contra Gallos, etc., -Skelton speaks of St George as Gloria Cappadocis divæ milesque Mariæ, v. -13; Dyce, I, 191. See also John Anstis, The Register of the Most Noble -Order of the Garter, London, 1724, I, 122; II, 27, 48 f. (G. L. K.) - -299. #C.# First published in the second edition of the Minstrelsy, 1803, -I, 27. 1^{3,4} there read The doughty earl of Douglas rode Into England, -to catch a prey; 31^1, Yield thee, O yield thee, etc., and 31^3, Whom to -shall I yield, said, etc. - -For his later edition of ‘The Battle of Otterburn,’ Scott says he used -“two copies ... obtained from the recitation of old persons residing at -the head of Ettrick Forest.” James Hogg sent Scott, in a letter dated -September 10 (1802?), twenty-nine stanzas “collected from two different -people, a crazy old man and a woman deranged in her mind,” and -subsequently recovered, by “pumping” his “old friends’ memory,” other -lines and half lines out of which (using the necessary cement, and not a -little) he built up eleven stanzas more, and these he seems to have -forwarded in the same letter. These two communications are what is -described by Scott as two copies. They will be combined here according -to Hogg’s directions, and the second set of verses bracketed for -distinction. - -The materials out of which #C# was constructed can now easily be -separated. We must bear in mind that Scott allowed himself a liberty of -alteration; this he did not, however, carry very far in the present -instance. 1–13, 15–19, 23 are taken, with slight change or none, from -Hogg’s first “copy” of verses; 24, 26–29 from the second; 30–35 are -repeated from Scott’s first edition. 14 is altered from #A# 16; 20=Hogg -21^{1,2} + Scott; 21=Hogg 22^1 + Hogg 35^{2–4}; 22=Hogg 23^{1,3} + -Scott; 25=Hogg 28^1 + #B# 8^{2–4}. Scott did well to drop Hogg 9, and -ought to have dropped Hogg 8. - - -“Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 132, Abbotsford, -stanzas 1–24, 35–38, 40; the same, No 5, stanzas 25–34, 39. Communicated -to Scott, in a letter, by James Hogg. - - 1 - It fell about the Lammas time, - When the muir-men won their hay, - That the doughty Earl Douglas went - Into England to catch a prey. - - 2 - He chose the Gordons and the Graemes, - With the Lindsays light and gay; - But the Jardines wadna wi him ride, - And they rued it to this day. - - 3 - And he has burnt the dales o Tine - And part of Almonshire, - And three good towers on Roxburgh fells - He left them all on fire. - - 4 - Then he marchd up to Newcastle, - And rode it round about: - ‘O whae’s the lord of this castle, - Or whae’s the lady o ‘t?’ - - 5 - But up spake proud Lord Piercy then, - And O but he spak hie! - I am the lord of this castle, - And my wife’s the lady gaye.’ - - 6 - ‘If you are lord of this castle, - Sae weel it pleases me; - For ere I cross the border again - The ane of us shall die.’ - - 7 - He took a lang speir in his hand, - Was made of the metal free, - And for to meet the Douglas then - He rode most furiously. - - 8 - But O how pale his lady lookd, - Frae off the castle wa, - When down before the Scottish spear - She saw brave Piercy fa! - - 9 - How pale and wan his lady lookd, - Frae off the castle hieght, - When she beheld her Piercy yield - To doughty Douglas’ might! - - 10 - ‘Had we twa been upon the green, - And never an eye to see, - I should have had ye flesh and fell; - But your sword shall gae wi me.’ - - 11 - ‘But gae you up to Otterburn, - And there wait dayes three, - And if I come not ere three days’ end - A fause lord ca ye me.’ - - 12 - ‘The Otterburn’s a bonny burn, - ’Tis pleasant there to be, - But there is naught at Otterburn - To feed my men and me. - - 13 - ‘The deer rins wild owr hill and dale, - The birds fly wild frae tree to tree, - And there is neither bread nor kale - To fend my men and me. - - 14 - ‘But I will stay at Otterburn, - Where you shall welcome be; - And if ye come not ere three days’ end - A coward I’ll ca thee.’ - - 15 - ‘Then gae your ways to Otterburn, - And there wait dayes three; - And if I come not ere three days’ end - A coward ye’s ca me.’ - - 16 - They lighted high on Otterburn, - Upon the bent so brown, - They lighted high on Otterburn, - And threw their pallions down. - - 17 - And he that had a bonny boy - Sent his horses to grass, - And he that had not a bonny boy - His ain servant he was. - - 18 - But up then spak a little page, - Before the peep of the dawn; - ‘O waken ye, waken ye, my good lord, - For Piercy’s hard at hand!’ - - 19 - ‘Ye lie, ye lie, ye loud liar, - Sae loud I hear ye lie! - The Piercy hadna men yestreen - To dight my men and me. - - 20 - ‘But I have seen a dreary dream, - Beyond the isle o Sky; - I saw a dead man won the fight, - And I think that man was I.’ - - 21 - He belted on his good broad-sword - And to the field he ran, - Where he met wi the proud Piercy, - And a’ his goodly train. - - 22 - When Piercy wi the Douglas met, - I wat he was right keen; - They swakked their swords till sair they swat, - And the blood ran them between. - - 23 - But Piercy wi his good broad-sword, - Was made o the metal free, - Has wounded Douglas on the brow - Till backward he did flee. - - 24 - Then he calld on his little page, - And said, Run speedily, - And bring my ain dear sister’s son, - Sir Hugh Montgomery. - - 25 - [Who, when he saw the Douglas bleed, - His heart was wonder wae: - ‘Now, by my sword, that haughty lord - Shall rue before he gae.’ - - 26 - ‘My nephew bauld,’ the Douglas said, - ‘What boots the death of ane? - Last night I dreamd a dreary dream, - And I ken the day’s thy ain. - - 27 - ‘I dreamd I saw a battle fought - Beyond the isle o Sky, - When lo, a dead man wan the field, - And I thought that man was I. - - 28 - ‘My wound is deep, I fain wad sleep, - Nae mair I’ll fighting see; - Gae lay me in the breaken bush - That grows on yonder lee. - - 29 - ‘But tell na ane of my brave men - That I lye bleeding wan, - But let the name of Douglas still - Be shouted in the van. - - 30 - ‘And bury me here on this lee, - Beneath the blooming brier, - And never let a mortal ken - A kindly Scot lyes here.’ - - 31 - He liftit up that noble lord, - Wi the saut tear in his ee, - And hid him in the breaken bush, - On yonder lily lee. - - 32 - The moon was clear, the day drew near, - The spears in flinters flew, - But mony gallant Englishman - Ere day the Scotsmen slew. - - 33 - Sir Hugh Montgomery he rode - Thro all the field in sight, - And loud the name of Douglas still - He urgd wi a’ his might. - - 34 - The Gordons good, in English blood - They steepd their hose and shoon, - The Lindsays flew like fire about, - Till a’ the fray was doon.] - - 35 - When stout Sir Hugh wi Piercy met, - I wat he was right fain; - They swakked their swords till sair they swat, - And the blood ran down like rain. - - 36 - ‘O yield thee, Piercy,’ said Sir Hugh, - ‘O yield, or ye shall die!’ - ‘Fain wad I yield,’ proud Piercy said, - ‘But neer to loun like thee.’ - - 37 - ‘Thou shalt not yield to knave nor loun, - Nor shalt thou yield to me; - But yield thee to the breaken bush - That grows on yonder lee.’ - - 38 - ‘I will not yield to bush or brier, - Nor will I yield to thee; - But I will yield to Lord Douglas, - Or Sir Hugh Montgomery.’ - - 39 - [When Piercy knew it was Sir Hugh, - He fell low on his knee, - But soon he raisd him up again, - Wi mickle courtesy.] - - 40 - He left not an Englishman on the field - . . . . . . . - That he hadna either killd or taen - Ere his heart’s blood was cauld. - - 35^3. swords still. - -Hogg writes: - -“As for the scraps of Otterburn which I have got, they seem to have been -some confused jumble, made by some person who had learned both the songs -which you have, and in time had been straitened to make one out of them -both. But you shall have it as I had it, saving that, as usual, I have -sometimes helped the measure, without altering one original word.” - -After 24: “This ballad, which I have collected from two different -people, a crazy old man and a woman deranged in her mind, seems hitherto -considerably entire; but now, when it becomes most interesting, they -have both failed me, and I have been obliged to take much of it in plain -prose. However, as none of them seemed to know anything of the history -save what they had learned from the song, I took it the more kindly. Any -few verses which follow are to me unintelligible. - -“He told Sir Hugh that he was dying, and ordered him to conceal his -body, and neither let his own men nor Piercy’s know; which he did, and -the battle went on headed by Sir Hugh Montgomery, and at length” (35, -etc.). - -After 38: “Piercy seems to have been fighting devilishly in the dark; -indeed, my relaters added no more, but told me that Sir Hugh died on the -field, but that” (40). - -In the postscript, Hogg writes: - -“Not being able to get the letter away to the post, I have taken the -opportunity of again pumping my old friends’ memory, and have recovered -some more lines and half lines of Otterburn, of which I am become -somewhat enamourd. These I have been obliged to arrange somewhat myself, -as you will see below; but so mixed are they with original lines and -sentences that I think, if you pleased, they might pass without any -acknowledgment. Sure no man will like an old song the worse of being -somewhat harmonious. After [24] you may read [25–34]. Then after [38] -read [39].” - -Of Almonshire [3^2] Hogg writes: “Almon shire may probably be a -corruption of Banburgh shire, but as both my relaters called it so, I -thought proper to preserve it.” - -Andrew Livingston writes to Scott, Airds by Castle Douglas, 28th April, -1806, Letters, I, No 183: “My mother recollects seven or eight verses of -the ballad of ‘The Battle of Otterburn’ different from any I have seen -either in the first and second editions of the Minstrelsy or in Percy’s -Reliques.... In several parts they bear a great resemblance to the copy -in the first edition of the Minstrelsy.” - - - 162. The Hunting of the Cheviot. - -P. 306. Fighting on or with stumps, etc. - -Ketilbjörn’s foot is cut off at the ankle-joint. He does not fall, but -hobbles against his enemies and kills two of them before his strength -gives out: Gull-þóris Saga, c. 18, ed. Maurer, p. 75. Gnúpr fought on -his knees after his foot was off: Vemundar Saga ok Vígaskútu, c. 13, -Rafn, Íslendinga Sögur, II, 266. Sörli kills eleven men with his club, -hobbling round on one foot and one stump (apparently, though Sörli and -Hárr are perhaps confused in the narrative): Göngu-Hrólfs Saga, c. 31, -Rafn, Fornaldar Sögur, III, 329, Ásmundarson, III, 214 (wrongly, 114). -Már fights when both his hands are off: Gull-þóris Saga, c. 10, Maurer, -p. 59. Compare the exploits of Sölvi after both his hands have been cut -off: Göngu-Hrólfs Saga, c. 31, Rafn, F. S., III, 331, Ásmundarson, III, -215 (wrongly 115); and Röndólfr’s performances after one of his hands -has been cut off and all the toes of one foot, in the same saga, c. 30, -Rafn, p. 324 f., Ásmundarson, p. 211 (111); and Göngu-Hrólfr’s, who has -had both feet cut off while he slept, the same saga, c. 25, Rafn, pp. -307–9, Ásmundarson, 197 f. The Highlander at the battle of Gasklune had -his predecessor in Ali, in the same saga, c. 30, Rafn, p. 324, -Ásmundarson, p. 210 (110). (G. L. K.) - - - 167. Sir Andrew Barton. - -P. 338 b. Gold to bury body. So in the story of Buridan and the Queen of -France, Haupt’s Zeitschrift II, 364. (G. L. K.) - -In Apollonius of Tyre: puellam in loculo conposuit . . . et uiginti -sestertios ad caput ipsius posuit, et scripturam sic continentem: -Quicumque corpus istud inuenerit et humo tradiderit medios sibi teneat, -medios pro funere expendat; et misit in mare. C. 25, ed. Riese, p. 29. -Cf. Jourdains de Blaivies, 2222–33, K. Hofmann, Amis et Amiles und -Jourdains de Blaivies, 1882, p. 168 f. (P. Z. Round.) - -‘The Sonnge of Sir Andraye Barton, Knight,’ English Miscellanies, edited -by James Raine, Surtees Society, vol. lxxxv, p. 64, 1890; from a MS. in -a hand of the sixteenth century now in York Minster Library. - -This very interesting version of Sir Andrew Barton, the editor informs -us, was originally No 25 of a ballad-book in small quarto. It came -recently “into the possession of the Dean and Chapter of York with a -number of papers which belonged in the seventeenth century to the -episcopal families of Lamplugh and Davenant.” If, as is altogether -probable, there were copies of other ballads in the same book in quality -as good as this, and if, as is equally probable, no more of the book can -be recovered, our only comfort is the cold one of having had losses. In -several details this copy differs from that of the Percy MS., but not -more than would be expected. The English sail out of the Thames on the -morrow after midsummer month, July 1, and come back the night before St -Maudlen’s eve, or the night of July 20, stanzas 17, 74. In stanza 42 -Barton boasts that he had once sent thirty Portingail heads home salted— -‘to eat with bread’! We read in Lesley’s History that the Hollanders had -taken and spoiled divers Scots ships, and had cruelly murdered and cast -overboard the merchants and passengers; in revenge for which Andrew -Barton took many ships of that country, and filled certain pipes with -the heads of the Hollanders and sent them to the Scottish king. (Ed. -1830, p. 74; ed. 1578, p. 329.) The eating is a ferocious addition of -the ballad. Several passages of this copy are corrupted. A throws light -upon some of these places, but others remain to me unamendable. - - 1 - It fell against a midsomer moneth, - When birds soonge well in every tree, - Our worthë prence, Kinge Henrye, - He roode untoe a chelvellrye. - - 2 - And allsoe toe a forrest soe faire, - Wher his Grace wente toe tak the ayre; - And twentye marchantes of London citie - Then on there knees they kneelled there. - - 3 - ‘Ye are welcome home, my rich merchantes, - The best salers in Christentie!’ - ‘We thanke yowe; by the rood, we are salers good, - But rich merchantes we cannot be. - - 4 - ‘To France nor Flanders we der not goe, - Nor a Burgesse voy[a]ge we der not fare, - For a robber that lyes abrod on the sea, - And robs us of oure merchantes-ware.’ - - 5 - King Henry was stout, and turnd hime about; - He sware by the lord that was mickell of might, - ‘Is ther any rober in the world soe stoute - Der worke toe England that unrighte?’ - - 6 - The merchantes answered, soore they sight, - With a woefull harte to the kinge againe, - ‘He is one that robes us of our right, - Were we twentie shippes and he but one.’ - - 7 - King Henrye lookte over his shoulder agayne, - Amongst his lordes of hye degree: - ‘Have I not a lord in all my land soe stoute - Der take yon robber upon the sea?’ - - 8 - ‘Yes,’ then did answeer my lord Charls Howwarde, - Neare the kinge’s grace that he did stande; - He saide, If your Grace will give me leave, - My selfe will be the onlie man, - - 9 - ‘That will goe beat Sir Andrewe Barton - Upon the seas, if he be there; - I’le ether bringe hime and his shippe toe this lande, - Ore I’le come in England never more.’ - - 10 - ‘Yow shall have five hundrethe men,’ saide Kinge Henrye, - ‘Chuse them within my realme soe free, - Beside all other merriners and boys, - Toe gide the great shippe on the sea.’ - - 11 - The first of all the lord up cald, - A noble gunner he was one; - This man was thre score yeares and ten, - And Petter Symond height his name. - - 12 - ‘Petter,’ quoeth he, ‘I must saill the sea, - Toe looke an enemye, God be my speede! - As thowe arte ould, I have chossen the - Of a hundreth gunners to be the headde.’ - - 13 - He said, If your Honor have chossen me - Of a hundreth gunners to be the headd, - On your mayn-mast-tre let me be hangd, - If I miss thre mille a pennye breed. - - 14 - Then next of all my lord up cald, - A noble boweman he was ane; - In Yorkeshier was this gentleman borne, - And William Horsley height his name. - - 15 - ‘Horsley,’ saide he, ‘I must saill the sea, - To meete an enemee, thow must knowe; - I have oft [been] told of thy artillorye, - But of thy shootinge I never sawe. - - 16 - ‘Yet fore thye drawght that thowe dost drawe, - Of a hundreth bowemen to be the heade;’ - Said Horsley then, Let me be hang[d]e, - If I mis twelve score a twelt penc[e] breed. - - 17 - Yea, pickmen more, and bowmen both, - This worthë Howward tooke to the sea; - On the morowe after midsomer moneth - Out of Temes mouth saillëd he. - - 18 - Hee had not sailled one daie but three, - After his Honor tooke to the sea, - When he mette with one Harrie Huntte, - In Newcastell ther dwelte hee. - - 19 - When he sawe the lion of England out blaisse, - The streemers and the roose about his eye, - Full soonne he let his toppe-saill fall; - That was a tooken of curtissie. - - 20 - My lord he cald of Henry Huntte, - Bad Harry Hunt both stay and stande; - Saies, Tell me where thy dwellinge is, - And whome unto thye shippe belonnges. - - 21 - Henrye Hunt he answered, sore he sight, - With a woefull hart and a sorrowefull minde, - ‘I and this shippe doth both belonge - Unto the Newe Castell that stands upon Tyne.’ - - 22 - ‘But haist thowe harde,’ said my lord Charles Hawward, - ‘Wher thowe haist travelled, by daie or by night, - Of a robber that lies abroode on the sea, - They call him Sir Andrewe Barton, knight?’ - - 23 - ‘Yes,’ Harye answered, sore he sight, - With a woefull hart thus did he saye; - ‘Mary, overwell I knowe that wight, - I was his pressoner yesterdaie. - - 24 - ‘Toe frome home, my lord, that I was boune, - A Burgess voyage was boune so faire, - Sir Andrewe Barton met with me, - And robd me of mye merchantes-waire. - - 25 - ‘And I ame a man in mickle debte, - And everye one craves his owne of mee; - And I am boune to London, my lorde, - Fore toe comepleanne to good King Henrye.’ - - 26 - ‘But even I pray the,’ saies Lord Charlles Howeerd, - ‘Henrye, let me that robber see, - Where that Scoott hath teyne from the a grootte, - I’le paye the back a shillinge,’ said hee. - - 27 - ‘Nay, God forbid! yea, noble lord, - I heare your Honor speake amisse; - Christ keepe yowe out of his companye! - Ye wott not what kine a man he is. - - 28 - ‘He is brase within and steelle without, - He beares beames in his topcastle hye, - He hath threscore peece on ether side, - Besides, my lorde, well mande is he. - - 29 - ‘He hath a pennis is dearelye deighte, - She is dearelye deighte and of mickell pried; - His pennis hath ninescorre men and more, - And thirtene peece on ethere side. - - 30 - ‘Were yowe twentie shippes, my lorde, - As your Honor is but one, - Ethere bye lerbord or by lowe - That Scootte would overcome yowe, everye one.’ - - 31 - ‘Marye, that’s ill hartinge,’ saies my lord Charlls Howeward, - ‘Harye, to welcome a stranger to the sea; - I’le ether bringe thatt Scootte and his shippe toe England, - Or into Scootteland hee [’s] carrye me.’ - - 32 - ‘Well, since the matter is soe flatte, - Take heed, I’le tell yowe this before; - If yowe Sir Andrewe chance toe borde, - Let noe man toe his topcastle goe. - - 33 - ‘Excepte yowe have a gunner goode - That can well marke with his eye; - First seeke to gette his pennis sunk, - The soonner overcome his selfe may bee. - - 34 - ‘Yesterdaie I was Sir Andrewe’s pressonner, - And ther he tooke me sworne,’ saide hee; - ‘Before I’le leave off my serving God, - My wild-maide oeth may brooken be. - - 35 - ‘Will yowe lend me sexe peece of ordenance, my lord, - To carye into my shippe with mee? - Toe morrowe by seven a clocke, and souner, - In the morne yowe shall Sir Andrewe see. - - 36 - ‘Fore I will set yowe a glasse, my lord, - That yowe shall saille forth all this night; - Toe morrowe be seven a clocke, and souner, - Yow’s se Sir Andrewe Barton, knight.’ - - 37 - Nowe will we leave talkinge of Harry Hunt; - The worthye Howwarde tooke to the sea; - By the morne, by seven a clocke, and souner, - My lord hee did Sir Andrewe see. - - 38 - A larborde, wher Sir Andrewe laye, - They saide he tould his gold in the light; - ‘Nowe, by my faith,’ saide my lord Charlles Howwarde, - ‘I se yonne Scootte, a worthë wight! - - 39 - ‘All our greatt ordienance wee’ll take in; - Fetch downe my streemers,’ then saide hee, - ‘And hange me forth a white willowe-wande, - As a marchante-man that sailles by the sea.’ - - 40 - By Sir Andrewe then mye lord he past, - And noe topsaille let fall would hee: - ‘What meanes yonne English dogg?’ he saies, - ‘Dogs doe knowe noe curtissie. - - 41 - ‘For I have staid heare in this place - Admirall more then yearës three; - Yet was not ther Englisheman or Portingaill - Could passe by me with his liffe,’ saide he. - - 42 - ‘Once I met with the Portingaills, - Yea, I met with them, ye, I indeed; - I salted thirtie of ther heades, - And sent them home to eate with breade. - - 43 - ‘Nowe by me is yoen pedler past; - It greves me at the hart,’ said hee; - ‘Fetch me yoen English dogs,’ he saide, - ‘I’le hange them al on my mayn-mast-tree.’ - - 44 - Then his pennis shotte of a peec[e] of ordenance; - The shootte my lord might verye well ken, - Fore he shootte downe his missonne-mast, - And kild fifteen of my lordë’s men. - - 45 - ‘Come hether, Peter Simond,’ said my lord Charles Howward, - ‘Letes se thi word standis in steede; - On my mayn-mast-tre thowe must be hunge, - If thowe misse three mill a penney breed.’ - - 46 - Petter was ould, his hart was bould; - He tooke a peece frome hie and laid hir beloue; - He put in a chean of yeard[ë]s nine, - Besides all other greate shoote and smalle. - - 47 - And as he maide that gune to goe, - And verye well he marke[d] with his eie, - The first sight that Sir Andrewe sawe, - He sawe his penis sunke in the sea. - - 48 - When Sir Andrewe sawe his pennis sunke, - That man in his hart was no thinge well: - ‘Cut me my cabells! let me be lousse! - I’le fetch yoen English dogges me selne.’ - - 49 - When my lord sawe Sir Andrewe from his anker loouse, - Nay, Lord! a mighty man was hee: - ‘Let my drumes strike up and my trumpetes sound, - And blaise my banners vailliantlie.’ - - 50 - Peter Simon’s sonne shoote of a gune; - That Sir Andrewe might very well ken; - Fore he shoott throughe his over-decke, - And kild fifttie of Sir Andrewe’s men. - - 51 - ‘Ever alack!’ said Sir Andrewe Barton, - ‘I like not of this geare,’ saide hee; - ‘I doubt this is some English lorde - That’s comed to taik me on the sea.’ - - 52 - Harrye Hunt came in on the other side; - The shoote Sir Andrewe might very well ken; - Fore he shoote downe his misson-mast, - And kild other fortye of his men. - - 53 - ‘Ever alacke!’ said Sir Andrewe Barton, - ‘What maye a trewe man thinke or saye? - He is becomed my greatest enymye - That was my pressonner yesterdaie. - - 54 - ‘Yet feare no English dogges,’ said Sir Andrew Barton, - ‘Nor fore ther forse stand ye [in] no awe; - My hands shall hange them all my selfe, - Froe once I let my beames downe fawe. - - 55 - ‘Come hether quick, thou Girdon goode, - And come thou hether at my call, - Fore heare I may noe longer staye; - Goe up and let my beames down fall.’ - - 56 - Then he swarmd up the maine-mast-tree, - With mickell might and all his maine; - Then Horsley with a broode-headed arrowe - Stroke then Girdon throughe the weame. - - 57 - And he fell backe to the hatches againe, - And in that wound full sore did bleed; - The blood that ran soe fast from hime, - They said it was the Girdon’s deed. - - 58 - ‘Come hether, thow James Hamelton, - Thowe my sister’s sonne, I have noe moe; - I’le give the five hundreth pound,’ he saide, - ‘Ife thowe wilt toe the top[ca]saille goe.’ - - 59 - Then he swarmd up the mayn-mast-tree. - With mickell might and all his mayne; - Then Horsley with a broode-arrowe-head - Tooke hime in at the buttuke of the utuer beame. - - 60 - Yet frome the tre he would not parte, - But up in haist he did prossed; - Then Horsley with anotheir arrowe - Strooke then Hamelton throughe the heade. - - 61 - When Sir Andrewe sawe his sister’s sonne slayne, - That man in his heart was nothinge well: - ‘Fight, maisters!’ said Sir Andrewe Barton, - ‘It’s time I’le to the top myselne.’ - - 62 - Then he put on the armere of prooffe, - And it was guilt with gold full cleare: - ‘My brother John of Barton,’ he saide, - ‘Full longe against Portingaill he it weare.’ - - 63 - When he had on that armore of prooffe, - Yea, on his bodye he had that on, - Marry, they that sawe Sir Andrewe Barton - Said arrowes nor guns he feared none. - - 64 - Yet Horsley drewe a broode-headed arrowe, - With mickell might and all his mayne; - That shaft against Sir Andrewe’s brest - Came back to my lord Howwarde’s shippe agayne. - - 65 - When my lord he sawe that arrowe comme, - My lord he was a woefull wight; - ‘Marke well thine ame, Horsley,’ he saide, - ‘Fore that same shoote I’le make the knight.’ - - 66 - ‘Ever alacke!’ said Horsley then, - ’ For howe soe ever this geare doth goe, - If I for my service louse my heade, - I have in this shippe but arrowe[s] towe.’ - - 67 - Yet he mar[k]t hime with the one of them, - In a previe place and a secrete pert; - He shoote hime in at the left oxtere, - The arrowe quiett throughe [the] harte. - - 68 - ‘Feight, maisters!’ said Sir Andrewe Barton, - ‘I’se a lettle hurt, but I ame not slayne; - I’le lie me downe and bleede a whill, - I’le risse and feight with yowe agayne. - - 69 - ‘Yet feare noe English dogges,’ said Sir Andrewe Barton, - ‘Nore fore there force stand ye [in] noe awe; - Stick stifeley to Sir Andrewe Barton, - Feight till ye heare my whisstill blowe.’ - - 70 - The could noe skill of the whisstill heare; - Quoeth Hary Hunt, I der lay my heade, - My lord, yowe maye take the shippe when yowe will, - I se Sir Andrewe Barton [’s] deade. - - 71 - And then they borded that noble shippe, - On both the sides, with all ther men; - Ther was eighten [score] Scootes a live, - Besides all other was hurte and slayne. - - 72 - Then up my lord tooke Sir Andrewe Barton, - And of he cutt the dead man’s head: - ‘I would forsweare England for twenty years, - Toe have the quicke as thowe art deade. - - 73 - But of he cut the dead man’s heade, - And bounde his bodye toe borden tre, - And tiede five hundreth angels about his midle, - That was toe cause hime buried toe bee. - - 74 - Then they sailled toe Ingland agayne, - With mickle merienes, as I weane; - They entred Englishe land agayn - On the night before S^{te} Maudlen even. - - 75 - Toe mete my lord came the kinge an quen, - And many nobles of hie degree; - They came fore noe kind of thinge - But Sir Andrewe Barton they would see. - - 76 - Quoth my lord, Yowe may thanke Allmighty God, - And foure men in the shippe with mee, - That ever we scaipt Sir Andrewe [’s] hands; - England had never such an enniemie. - - 77 - ‘That’s Henrye Hunt and Petter Symon, - William Horsley and Petter Symon [’s] sonne; - Reward all thoesse fore there paynes, - They did good service att that time.’ - - 78 - ‘Henry Hunt shall have his whistle and chean, - A noble a daie I’le give him,’ quoeth hee, - ‘And his coustome betwexte Trent tid and Tyne, - Soe longe as he doth use the sea. - - 79 - ‘Petter Symon shall have a crowne a daie, - Halfe a crowne I’le give his sonne; - That was fore a shoott he sente - Sir Andrew Barton with his gune. - - 80 - ‘Horsley, right I’le make the a knight, - In Yorkshiere shall thy dwellinge be; - My lord Charlles Howwarde shall be an earle, - And soe was never Howward before,’ quoth he. - - 81 - ‘Everye Englishe man shall have eightten pens a daie - That did mainetayne [t]his feight soe free, - And everye Scotchman a shillinge a daie - Till they come atte my brother Jamie.’ - - _In eight-line stanzas._ - - 1^4. chelvellrye. chevachie? _or some sort of_ vallie? - - 3^1. Yea. - - 4^2. farre. - - 10^3. and blause. - - 10^4. give the the. - - 14^4. height: was _interlined_. - - 16^2. thou’s be? - - 19^2. sterne. _For_ streemers, _see_ 39^2, _and_ B 33^2. - - 23^3. weight. - - 28^3. threscoree. - - 29^4. sidde. - - 30^1. Were yare. _Perhaps_ thare. - - 30^3. by lowe. _Cf._ #A# 29^2:==hull? - - 32^3. you and. - - 38^4, 65^2. weight. - - 44^4. xv^{th}. - - 45^2. the word. - - 46^3. ninee. - - 47^3. sawee. - - 52^1. sidde. - - 54^2. yea no. - - 55^1. hether, drinke. - - 58^2. noe more. - - 58^4, 66^2. goee. - - 59^3. _Probably_ broode-headed arrowe, _as in_ 56^3, 64^1. - - 59^4. utuer==outer? bane? _But I do not understand._ - - 62^4. Portingaill they weare: _cf._ #A# 59^4. - - 72^3. xx^{th}. - - 73^3. 5: angles. - - 75^1. Toe might. - - 78^2. An noble. - - 79^4. gunee. - - 81^4. Jamie, Jamiee. - - - 168. Flodden Field. - -P, 351 b, 12. See an account of the exhumation of a corpse wrapped in a -hide without a covering of lead, in Archæologia, I, 34. (G. L. K.) - - - 169. Johnie Armstrong. - -P. 367, note †. A new-born child thrown into the water by its mother -tells her that she has lost Paradise: ‘L’Enfant noyé,’ La Tradition, V, -116. - - - 172. Musselburgh Field. - -P. 378. Is this the song quoted by Sir Toby in Twelfth Night, II, 3 (and -hitherto unidentified), “O, the twelfth day of December”? (G. L. K.) - - - 173. Mary Hamilton. - -Pp. 379–97. #I# a was first printed in the second edition of the -Minstrelsy, 1803, II, 163. (Read in 1^2, on her; in 3^2, hand.) The copy -principally used was one furnished by Sharpe, which was not #A a#, and -has not so far been recovered. Besides this, “copies from various -quarters” were resorted to. (Half a dozen stanzas are found in #G#, but -#G# itself is very likely a compilation). Eight copies from Abbotsford -are now printed for the first time. Two of these may have been in -Scott’s hands in time to be used, two were certainly not, and for the -others we have no date. - -There is only one novel feature in all these copies: in #U# 13 Mary’s -paramour is a pottinger. The remark that there is no trace of an -admixture of the Russian story with that of the apothecary, page 383, -must therefore be withdrawn.[151] Mary in this version, as in #E#, #F#, -#Q#, #T#, #U#, #V#, #Y#, is daughter of the Duke of York. - -#X#, like #E#, #F#, has borrowed from No 95: see 13–15. - - * * * * * - - - S - -Finlay sent Scott, March 27, 1803, the following copy of ‘The Queen’s -Marie,’ as he “had written it down from memory:” Letters addressed to -Sir Walter Scott, I, No 87, Abbotsford. Stanzas 10, 9, 12 appear in the -second volume of the Minstrelsy, 1802, p. 154, with the variation of a -couple of words, as ‘The Lament of the Queen’s Marie’ (here #I b#). -Perhaps Finlay adopted these three stanzas into his copy. Stanzas 1, 3, -6, 8, with very slight variations, were printed by Finlay in the preface -to his Scottish Ballads, 1808 (#O#). - - 1 - There lived a lord into the South, - An he had daughters three; - The youngest o them’s gaen to the king’s court, - To learn some courtesie. - - 2 - She had na been in the king’s court - A twelvemonth an a day, - When word is thro the kitchen gaen, - An likewise thro the ha, - That Mary Moil was gane wi child - To the highest steward of a’. - - 3 - She rowd it into a basket - An flang’t into the sea, - Saying, Sink ye soon, my bonny babe, - Ye’se neer get mair o me. - - 4 - She rowd it into a basket - An flang’t into the faem, - Saying, Sink ye soon, my bonny babe, - I’se gang a maiden hame. - - 5 - O whan the news cam to the king - An angry man was he; - He has taen the table wi his foot, - An in flinders gart it flie. - - 6 - ‘O woe be to you, ye ill woman, - An ill death may ye die! - Gin ye had spared the sweet baby’s life, - It might have been an honour to thee. - - 7 - ‘O busk ye, busk ye, Mary Moil, - O busk, an gang wi me, - For agen the morn at ten o clock - A rare sight ye sall see.’ - - 8 - She wadna put on her gown o black, - Nor yet wad she o brown, - But she wad put on her gown o gowd, - To glance thro Embro town. - - 9 - O whan she cam to the Netherbow Port - She gied loud laughters three, - But whan she cam to the gallows-foot - The tear blinded her ee. - - 10 - Saying, O ye mariners, mariners, - That sail upon the sea, - Let not my father nor mother to wit - The death that I maun die. - - 11 - ‘For little did father or mother wit, - The day they cradled me, - What foreign lands I should travel in, - Or what death I should die. - - 12 - ‘Yestreen the Queen had four Maries, - The night she’ll hae but three; - There was Mary Seton, an Mary Beaton, - An Mary Carmichael, an me.’ - - 3^3, 4^3. _We should read_ Sink ye, soom ye, _as in A 3^3, U 14^3, - X 4^3, and other copies._ - - * * * * * - - - T - -Communicated to Sir Walter Scott by Mrs Christiana Greenwood, London, -21st February and 27th May, 1806, from the recitation of her mother and -her aunt, who learned the ballad above fifty years before from Kirstan -Scot, then an old woman, at Longnewton, near Jedburgh: Letters at -Abbotsford, I, Nos 173, 189. - - 1 - There was a duke, and he dwelt in York, - And he had daughters three; - One of them was an hostler-wife, - And two were gay ladies. - - 2 - O word’s gane to Queen Mary’s court, - As fast as it coud gee, - That Mary Hamilton’s born a bairn, - And the baby they coud na see. - - 3 - Then came the queen and a’ her maids, - Swift tripping down the stair: - ‘Where is the baby, Mary, - That we heard weep sae sair?’ - - 4 - ‘O say not so, Queen Mary, - Nor bear ill tales o me, - For this is but a sore sickness - That oft times troubles me.’ - - 5 - They sought it up, they sought it down, - They sought it below the bed, - And there the[y] saw the bonny wee babe, - Lying wallowing in its bluid. - - 6 - ‘Now busk ye, busk ye, Mary Hamilton, - Busk ye and gang wi me, - For I maun away to Edinbro town, - A rich wedding to see.’ - - 7 - Mary wad na put on the black velvet, - Nor yet wad put on the brown, - But she’s put on the red velvet, - To shine thro Edinbro town. - - 8 - When she came unto the town, - And near the Tolbooth stair, - There stood many a lady gay, - Weeping for Mary fair. - - 9 - ‘O haud yeer tongue[s], ye ladys a’, - And weep na mair for me! - O haud yeer tongues, ye ladys a’, - For it’s for my fault I dee. - - 10 - ‘The king he took me on his knee - And he gae three drinks to me, - And a’ to put the babie back, - But it wad na gang back for me. - - 11 - ‘O ye mariners, ye mariners a’, - That sail out-owr the sea, - Let neither my father nor mother get wit - What has become o me! - - 12 - ‘Let neither my father nor mother ken, - Nor my bauld brethren three, - For muckle wad be the gude red bluid - That wad be shed for me. - - 13 - ‘Aft hae I laced Queen Mary’s back, - Aft hae I kaimed her hair, - And a’ the reward she’s gein to me’s - The gallows to be my heir. - - 14 - ‘Yestreen the queen had four Marys, - The night she’l hae but three; - There was Mary Seatoun, and Mary Beatoun, - An Mary Carmichal, an me.’ - - * * * * * - - - U - -‘Lament of the Queen’s Marie,’ “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border -Minstrelsy,” No 92, Abbotsford. Communicated to Scott, 7th January, -1804, by Rev. George Paxton, Kilmaurs, near Kilmarnock, Ayrshire -(afterwards professor of divinity at Edinburgh); from the mouth of Jean -Milne, his “aged mother, formerly an unwearied singer of Scotish songs.” - - 1 - ‘My father was the Duke of York, - My mother a gay ladye, - And I myself a daintie dame; - The queen she sent for me. - - 2 - ‘But the queen’s meat it was sae sweet, - And her clothing was sae rare, - It made me long for a young man’s bed, - And I rued it evermair.’ - - 3 - But word is up, and word is down, - Amang the ladyes a’, - That Marie’s born a babe sin yestreen, - That babe it is awa. - - 4 - But the queen she gat wit of this, - She calld for a berry-brown gown, - And she’s awa to Marie’s bower, - The bower that Marie lay in. - - 5 - ‘Open your door, my Marie,’ she says, - ‘My bonny and fair Marie; - They say you have born a babe sin yestreen, - That babe I fain wad see.’ - - 6 - ‘It is not sae wi me, madam, - It is not sae wi me; - It is but a fit of my sair sickness, - That oft times troubles me.’ - - 7 - ‘Get up, get up, my Marie,’ she says, - ‘My bonny and fair Marie, - And we’ll away to Edinburgh town, - And try the verity.’ - - 8 - Slowly, slowly, gat she up, - And slowly pat she on, - And slowly went she to that milk-steed, - To ride to Edinburgh town. - - 9 - But when they cam to Edinburgh, - And in by the Towbooth stair, - There was mony a virtuous ladye - Letting the tears fa there. - - 10 - ‘Why weep ye sae for me, madams? - Why weep ye sae for me? - For sin ye brought me to this town - This death ye gar me die.’ - - 11 - When she cam to the Netherbow Port, - She gae loud laughters three; - But when she cam to the gallows-foot - The tear blinded her ee. - - 12 - ‘Yestreen the queen had four Maries, - The night she’ll hae but three; - There was Marie Seton, and Marie Beatoun, - And Marie Carmichael, and me. - - 13 - ‘My love he was a pottinger, - Mony drink he gae me, - And a’ to put back that bonnie babe, - But alas! it wad na do. - - 14 - ‘I pat that bonny babe in a box, - And set it on the sea; - O sink ye, swim ye, bonny babe! - Ye’s neer get mair o me. - - 15 - ‘O all ye jolly sailors, - That sail upon the sea, - Let neither my father nor mother ken - The death that I maun die. - - 16 - ‘But if my father and mother kend - The death that I maun die, - O mony wad be the good red guineas - That wad be gien for me.’ - - * * * * * - - - V - -“Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 9, Abbotsford; in -the handwriting of William Laidlaw. - - 1 - ‘My father was the Duke of York, - My mother the gay ladie, - An I myself a maiden bright, - An the queen desired me.’ - - 2 - But there word gane to the kitchen, - There’s word gane to the ha, - That Mary mild she gangs wi child - To the uppermost stewart of a’. - - 3 - Than they sought but, and they sou[ght] ben, - They sought aneath the bed, - An there the fand the bonnie lad-bairn, - Lyin lappin in his blood. - - 4 - ‘Gae buss ye, Marie Hamilton, - Gae buss ye, buss ye bra, - For ye maun away to Edin[brough] town, - The queen’s birthday ...’ - - 5 - She wadna put on her black, bla[ck] silk, - Nor wad she put on the brown, - But she pat on the glisterin stufs, - To glister in Edinbrough town. - - 6 - An whan she cam to the water-gate - Loud laughters gae she three, - But whan she cam to the Netherbow Port - The tear blinded Marie’s ee. - - 7 - ’Twas up than spak Queen Marie’s nurse, - An a sorry woman was she: - ‘Whae sae clever o fit and ready o wit - Has telld sic news o thee!’ - - 8 - ‘Oft have I Queen Marie’s head - Oft have I caimd her hair, - An a’ the thanks I’ve gotten for that - Is the gallows to be my heir! - - 9 - ‘Oft have I dressd Queen Marie’s head, - An laid her in her bed, - An a’ the thanks I’ve gotten for that - Is the green gallows-tree to tread! - - 10 - ‘O spare, O spare, O judge,’ she cried, - ‘O spair a day for me!’ - ‘There is nae law in our land, ladie, - To let a murderer be.’ - - 11 - ‘Yestreen the queen had four Maries, - The night she’ll hae but three; - There was Marie Seaton, and Ma[rie] Bea[ton], - An Marie Carmichael, an me. - - 12 - ‘O if my father now but kend - The death that I’m to die, - O muckle, muckle wad be the red gowd - That he wad gie for me. - - 13 - ‘An if my brothers kend the death - That I am now to die, - O muckle, muckle wad be the red blood - That wad be shed for me.’ - - 2^{3,4}. Or: - - That Mary Hamilton’s born a bairn - An murderd it at the wa. - - 3^1, 11^3. _Edge bound in._ - - 8^1. caimd _written_, _but struck out_. - - 8^3. & I the. - - * * * * * - - - W - -“Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 85, Abbotsford. - - 1 - There lived a man in the North Countree - And he had doghters three; - The youngest o them’s to Edinbourgh gaen, - Ane o the queen’s Marys to be. - - 2 - Queen Mary’s bread it was sae white, - And her wine it ran sae clear, - It shewed her the way to the butler’s bed, - And I wait she’s bought dear. - - 3 - For Mary’s to the garden gaen, - To eat o the saven tree, - And a’ ‘s to pit her young son back, - But back he wad na be. - - 4 - So Mary’s to her chamber gaen, - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - - 5 - Queen Mary she came down the stair, - And a’ her maids afore her: - ‘Oh, Mary Miles, where is the child - That I have heard greet sae sore O?’ - - 6 - ‘There is no child with me, madam, - There is no child with me; - It was only a bit of a cholick I took, - And I thought I was gawen to dee.’ - - 7 - So they looked up, and they looked down, - And they looked beneath the bed-foot, - And there they saw a bonnie boy, - Lying weltering in his blood. - - 8 - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - ‘Since that you have killed your own dear child, - The same death you shall dee.’ - - 9 - When Mary came afore the court, - A loud laugh laughed she; - But when she came to the [gallows-]fit - The tear blinded her ee. - - * * * * * * - - 10 - ‘O wha will comb Queen Mary’s heed? - Or wha will brade her hair? - And wha will lace her middle sae jimp - Whan [I] am nae langer there? - - 11 - ‘Yestreen the queen [had] four Maries, - The night she’ll hae but three; - There was Mary Seaten, and Mary Beaten, - And Mary Carmichal, and me. - - * * * * * * - - 12 - ‘I’ll not put on my robes of black, - Nor yet my robes of brown, - But I’ll put on a shining braw garb, - That will shine thro Edinbourgh town.’ - - * * * * * * - - 13 - Oh, whan she came to the Cannongate, - The Cannongate sae hee, - There mony a lord and belted knight - Was grieved for her beautee. - - * * * * * * - - 14 - And whan she came to [the] Hee Town, - The Hee Town sae hee, - - * * * * * * - - 10^1. Oh. - - 11^{1,2}. _Added in a different hand._ - - 12^3. shinning. - - * * * * * - - - X - -‘The Queen’s Maries,’ “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” -No 91, Abbotsford. - - 1 - There livd a lord in the West Country, - And he had daughters three; - The youngest o them’s to the queen’s court, - To learn some courtesy. - - 2 - She hadna been at the queen’s court - A year but and a day - Till she has fa’n as big wi child, - As big as she coud gae. - - 3 - She’s gane into the garden - To pu the sycamore tree, - And taen the bony bairn in her arms - And thrown it in the sea. - - 4 - She rowd it in her apron - And threw it in the sea: - ‘Gae sink or soom, my bony sweet babe, - Ye’ll never get mair o me.’ - - 5 - Then in an came Queen Mary, - Wi gowd rings on her hair: - ‘O Mary mild, where is the child - That I heard greet sae sair?’ - - 6 - ‘It wasna a babe, my royal liege, - Last night that troubled me, - But it was a fit o sair sickness, - And I was lyken to dee.’ - - 7 - ‘O hold yere tongue, Mary Hamilton, - Sae loud as I hear ye lee! - For I’ll send you to Enbro town, - The verity to see.’ - - 8 - She wadna put on the ribbons o black, - Nor yet wad she the brown, - But she wad put on the ribbons o gowd, - To gae glittring through Enbro town. - - 9 - As she rade up the Sands o Leith, - Riding on a white horse, - O little did she think that day - To die at Enbro Corss! - - 10 - As she rade up the Cannongate, - She leugh loud laughters three, - And mony a lord and lady said, - ‘Alas for that lady!’ - - 11 - ‘Ye needna say Oh, ye needna cry Eh, - Alas for that lady! - Ye’ll neer see grace in a graceless face, - As little ye’ll see in me.’ - - 12 - When she came to the Netherbow Port, - She leugh loud laughters three, - But ere she came to the gallows-foot - The tear blinded her eie; - Saying, Tye a white napkin owr my face, - For that gibbet I downa see. - - 13 - ‘O hold yere hand, Lord Justice! - O hold it a little while! - I think I see my ain true-love - Come wandring mony a mile. - - 14 - ‘O have ye brought me ony o my gowd? - Or ony o my weel-won fee? - Or are ye come to see me hangd, - Upon this gallows-tree?’ - - 15 - ‘O I hae brought ye nane o yere gowd, - Nor nane o yere weel-won fee, - But I am come to see ye hangd, - And hangit ye shall be.’ - - 16 - ‘O all ye men and mariners, - That sail for wealth or fame, - Let never my father or mother get wit - But what I’m coming hame. - - 17 - ‘O all ye men and mariners, - That sail upon the sea, - Let never my father or mother get wit - The death that I maun dee. - - 18 - ‘Yestreen the queen had four Maries, - The night she’ll hae but three; - There was Mary Seaton, and Mary Beaton, - And Mary Carmichael, and me.’ - - * * * * * - - - Y - -‘The Queen’s Marys,’ “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” -No 144, Abbotsford. - - 1 - ‘Yestreen the queen had four Marys, - The night she’ll hae but three; - She had Mary Beaton, and Mary Seaton, - And Mary Carmichael, and me. - - 2 - ‘My feather was the Duke of York, - My mother a gay lady, - And I mysell a bonnie young may, - And the king fell in love we me. - - 3 - ‘The king’s kisses they were so sweet, - And his wine it was so strong, - That I became a mother - Before fifteen years old.’ - - 4 - ‘O tell the truth now, Mary, - And sett this matter right; - What hae ye made o the babey - Was greeting yesternight?’ - - 5 - ‘O I will tell you, madam the queen, - I winna tell a lie; - I put it in a bottomless boat - And bad it sail the sea.’ - - 6 - ‘Ye lie, ye lie now, Mary, - Sae loud’s I hear you lie! - You wasnae out o the palace, - So that coud never be.’ - - 7 - ‘Weel I will tell you, madam, - Though it should gar me weep; - I stabbd it we my little pen-knife, - And bad it take a sleep.’ - - 8 - When she came up the Netherbow, - She geed loud laughters three; - But when she came out o the Parliament Close - The tear blinded her ee. - - 9 - ‘O little does my feather ken - The death I am to die, - Or muckel wad be the red, red gould - Wad be payed doun for me. - - 10 - ‘O little does my mother think - The death that I am to die, - Or monie wad be the saut, saut tears - That she wad shed for me. - - 11 - ‘O never lett my brothers ken - The death that I am to die, - For muckel wad be the red, red blood - That wad be shed for me. - - 12 - ‘Aft hae I washd the king’s bonnie face, - Kaimd doun his yellow hair, - And this is a’ the reward he’s geen me, - The gallows to be my share.’ - - * * * * * - - - Z - -‘The Queen’s Marie,’ “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” -No 90 a, Abbotsford; in the handwriting of John Leyden. - - 1 - ‘Buss ye, bonny Marie Hamilton, - Buss and gae wi me, - For ye maun gae to Edinborough, - A great wedding to see.’ - - 2 - ‘Ride hooly, hooly, gentlemen, - Ride hooly now wi me, - For never, I’m sure, a wearier bride - Rode in your cumpany.’ - - 3 - Little wist Marie Hamilton, - When she rode on the brown, - That she was gawn to Edinborough, - And a’ to be put down. - - 4 - When she came to the Council stairs, - She ga loud laughters three; - But or that she came down again - She was condemmd to dee. - - 5 - ‘O ye mariners, mariners, mariners, - When ye sail oer the faem, - Let never my father nor mother to wit - But I’m just coming hame. - - 6 - ‘Let never my father nor mother to wit, - Nor my bauld brether[en] three, - Or meckle wad be the red, red gowd - This day be gien for me. - - 7 - ‘Let never my father or mother to wit, - Nor my bauld brethren three, - Or meckle war the red, red blude - This day wad fa for me.’ - - - AA - -“Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 142, Abbotsford; -in the handwriting of James Hogg. - - ‘Oft hae I kaimd Queen Mary’s head, - An oft hae I curld her hair, - An now I hae gotten for my reward - A gallows to be heir.’ - - - 178. Captain Car, or, Edom o Gordon. - -P. 426, note *. This history borrows from Sir Robert Gordon. See what he -says, p. 166 f., and also previously, p. 164 ff. - -428 a. #F#, #G#. “I have a manuscript where the whole scene is -transferred to Ayrshire, and the incendiary is called Johnnie Faa.” Note -of Sir W. Scott in Sharpe’s Ballad Book, ed. 1880, p. 142. - -This copy has not as yet been recovered, but there is another at -Abbotsford, a fine fragment, in which Lady Campbell is the heroine. As -to Adam McGordon, the c of Mac is often dropped, so that Adam MaGordon -and Adam o Gordon are of pretty much the same sound (a remark of Mr -Macmath). The Andrew Watty of 13^3 is noted on the last page of the MS. -to be “a riding man.” - - * * * * * - - - H - -“Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 75, Abbotsford. -Communicated to Scott November 6, 1803, by Brace Campbell, Sornbeg, -Galston, Ayrshire, through David Boyle, Advocate, afterwards Lord -Justice General of Scotland. - - 1 - It fell about the Martinmass time, - When the wind blew shill and cald, - That Adam McGordon said to his men, - Where will we get a hall? - - 2 - ‘There is a hall here near by, - Well built with lime and stone; - There is a lady there within - As white as the . . bone.’ - - 3 - ‘Seven year and more this lord and I - Has had a deadly feud, - And now, since her good lord’s frae hame, - His place to me she’ll yield.’ - - 4 - She looked oer her castle-wall, - And so she looked down, - And saw Adam McGordon and his men - Approaching the wood-end. - - 5 - ‘Steik up, steik up my yett,’ she says, - ‘And let my draw-bridge fall; - There is meickle treachery - Walking about my wall.’ - - 6 - She had not the sentence past, - Nor yet the word well said, - When Adam McGordon and his men - About the walls were laid. - - 7 - She looked out at her window, - And then she looked down, - And then she saw Jack, her own man, - Lifting the pavement-stane. - - 8 - ‘Awa, awa, Jack my man! - Seven year I paid you meat and fee, - And now you lift the pavement-stane - To let in the low to me.’ - - 9 - ‘I yield, I yield, O lady fair, - Seven year ye paid me meat and fee; - But now I am Adam McGordon’s man, - I must either do or die.’ - - 10 - ‘If ye be Adam McGordon’s man, - As I true well ye be, - Prove true unto your own master, - And work your will to me.’ - - 11 - ‘Come down, come down, my lady Campbell, - Come down into my hand; - Ye shall lye all night by my side, - And the morn at my command.’ - - 12 - ‘I winna come down,’ this lady says, - ‘For neither laird nor lown, - Nor to no bloody butcher’s son, - The Laird of Auchindown. - - 13 - ‘I wald give all my kine,’ she says, - ‘So wald I fifty pound, - That Andrew Watty he were here; - He would charge me my gun. - - 14 - ‘He would charge me my gun, - And put in bullets three, - That I might shoot that cruel traitor - That works his wills on me.’ - - 15 - He shot in, and [s]he shot out, - The value of an hour, - Until the hall Craigie North - Was like to be blawn in the air. - - 16 - He fired in, and she fired out, - The value of houris three, - Until the hall Craigie North - The reik went to the sea. - - 17 - ‘O the frost, and ae the frost, - The frost that freezes fell! - I cannot stay within my bower, - The powder it blaws sae bald.’ - - 18 - But then spake her oldest son, - He was both white and red; - ‘O mither dear, yield up your house! - We’ll all be burnt to deed.’ - - 19 - Out then spake the second son, - He was both red and fair; - ‘O brother dear, would you yield up your house, - And you your father’s heir!’ - - 20 - Out then spake the little babe, - Stood at the nurse’s knee; - ‘O mither dear, yield up your house! - The reik will worry me.’ - - 21 - Out then speaks the little nurse, - The babe upon her knee; - ‘O lady, take from me your child! - I’ll never crave my fee.’ - - 22 - ‘Hold thy tongue, thou little nurse, - Of thy prating let me bee; - For be it death or be it life, - Thou shall take share with me. - - 23 - ‘I wald give a’ my sheep,’ she says, - ‘T[hat] . . yon . . s[ha], - I had a drink of that wan water - That runs down by my wa.’ - - 2^1. hall there. - - 2^4. _An illegible word ending seemingly in_ hie. - - 3^1. this lord and I _begins the second line_. - - 3^3. has good: has _caught from the line above_. - - 3^4. shall _altered to_ she’ll; _but_ she shall _is clearly - meant_. - - 7^4, 11^4, 15^4, 16^3, 21^1. y^e. - - 14^1. would: wald, _perhaps_. - - 16^2. valuue, _or_, valaue, _or_, valuae. - - 16^3. _A preposition seems to be wanting._ Hall _here and in_ 15^3 - _is troublesome. Perhaps the reading should be in_ 15^3 _that - all, in_ 16^3 that through all. - - 23^2. _The paper is folded here, and the line has been so much - rubbed as to be illegible._ - -“An old ballad upon the burning of an old castle of Loudoun by the -Kennedys of Auchruglan.” Bruce Campbell. - - - 181. The Bonny Earl of Murray. - -P. 447. Add to the citation from Spottiswood: History of the Church of -Scotland, 1655, p. 387. - - - 182. The Laird o Logie. - -P. 449. #A# was first published in the second edition of Scott’s -Minstrelsy, 1803, I, 243. - -#B# was repeated in the first edition of Scott’s Minstrelsy, I, 220, -1802, ‘The Laird of Ochiltree.’ - -452. The following is the original, unimproved copy of #A#. There is a -transcript of this, in William Laidlaw’s hand, “Scotch Ballads,” etc., -No 23, which is somewhat retouched, but by no means with the freedom -exercised by the editor of the Minstrelsy. Some of Laidlaw’s changes -were adopted by Scott. - - * * * * * - - - A - -‘The Laird of Logie,’ “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” -No 3 a, Abbotsford. Sent Scott September 11, 1802, by William Laidlaw; -received by him from Mr Bartram of Biggar. - - 1 - I will sing, if ye will harken, - An ye wad listen unto me; - I’ll tell ye of a merry passage - Of the wanton laird of Young Logie. - - 2 - Young Logie’s laid in Edin_borough_ chapel, - Carmichaell’s keeper of the key; - I heard a may lamenting sair, - All for the laird of Young Logie. - - 3 - ‘Lament, lament na, May Margret, - And o your weeping let me be; - For ye maun to the king y_ou_r sell, - And ask the life of Young Logie.’ - - 4 - May Margaret has kilted her green cleeding, - And she’s currld back her yellow hair, - And she’s away to the king hersell, - And adieu to Scotland for ever mair! - - 5 - When she came before the king, - She fell low down on her knee: - ‘It’s what’s your will wi me, May Margret, - And what makes all this courtesey?’ - ‘Naething, naething, my sovreign liege, - But grant me the life of Young Logie.’ - - 6 - ‘O no, O no, May Margret, - No, in sooth it maun na be; - For the morn, or I taste meat or drink, - Hee hanged shall Young Logie be.’ - - 7 - She has stolen the king’s reeding-comb, - But an the queen her wedding-knife, - And she has sent it to Carmichaell, - To cause Young Logie come by life. - - 8 - She sent him a purse of the red gold, - Another of the white money, - And sent him a pistol into each hand, - And bade him shoot when he got fra. - - 9 - When he came to the Tolbooth stair, - There he loot his volley flee, - Wh_ich_ made the king in his chamber start, - Even in the chamber where he lay. - - 10 - ‘Gae out, gae out, my merrie men, - And gar Carmichael come speake wi me, - For I’ll lay my life the pledge of that, - That yon’s the volley of Young Logie.’ - - 11 - When Carmichael came before the king, - He fell low down on his knee; - The very first word that the king spake, - ‘How dois the laird o Young Logie?’ - - 12 - Carmichael turnd him round about, - A wait the salt tear blint his eye: - ‘There came a tacken frae the king - Has tean the laird awa frae me.’ - - 13 - ‘Hast thou playd me that, Carmichael? - Hast thou playd me that?’ quo he; - ‘The morn the Justice Court’s to stand, - And Logie’s place ye maun supply.’ - - 14 - Carmichal’s awa to May Margr[e]t’s bower, - Een as fast as he may dree: - ‘It’s if Young Logie be within, - Tell him to come speak to me.’ - - 15 - May Margret’s turnd her round about, - A wait a loud laughter gae she: - ‘The egg is cheeped and the bird is flown, - And seek ye the laird of Young Logie.’ - - 16 - The one is sheppd at the pier o Leith, - The other at the Queen’s Ferry, - And she has gotten a father to her bairn, - The wanton laird of Young [Logie]. - - 4^2. yer _for_ her. - - 6^4. Yea _for_ Hee. Hie _in Laidlaw’s transcript. Taking into - account the apparent_ yer _for_ her _in 4^2, it looks as if_ - hea, _her were intended._ - - 8^4. free? - - 12^2. blint _may be_ blent. - -453. #B.# ‘The Winsome Laird of Young Logie,’ “Scotch Ballads, Materials -for Border Minstrelsy,” No 137 a, “sung by Lady A. Lindsay,” closely -resembles Herd’s version, but in one passage approaches #C#, and Young -Logie displaces Ochiltrie. This copy will be treated as #B b#. - - * * * * * - -#b.# - - 1^1. O _wanting_. - - 1^2. To the tale I tell. - - 1^8. How the. - - 1^4. The winsom laird of Young Logie. - - 2^1. Whan the queen did hear the same. - - 2^8. Alas for poor Lady Margaret. - - 3^2, 8^2. as _wanting_. - - 3^4. Or never kend. - - 4^1. Fye, oh no, said: that maunna be _wanting_. - - 4^2. Fy, O no, thus (_partly altered to_ this). - - 4^3. find out some cunning way. - - 4^4. To loose and let Young Logie free. - - _Between 5^2 and 5^3_: - The king he’s risen and taen her up, - Says, What means a’ this curtesy. (_As_ 5^{3,4}.) - - When you took me to be your queen, - You promisd me favours twa or three. (_As_ 6^{1,2}.)[152] - - 5^{3,4}: - The first ane that I ask of yow - Is to loose and let Young Logie free. (_As_ 6^{3,4}.) - - 6^1. O _wanting_: of me. - - 6^2. would hae granted. - - 6^4, 7^4. Winna save. - - 7^1. queen than she came. - - 7^2. And she came down. - - 8^{3–4}: - I wish that I had neer been born, - Or never kend Young Logie’s name. (_As in_ 3.) - - 9^1. Fye, oh no, said. - - 9^2. Fye, O no, this maun ne. - - 9^3. I ‘ll find out some other. - - 9^4. To save the life o. - - 10^1. she triped. - - 11^1. She gae to. - - 11^3. And twa. - - 11^4. And bade him shoot as he gaed by. - - 12^1. And _wanting_. - - 12^3. O peace: our gudely. - - 13^1. O _wanting_. - - 14^1. Gae bring to. - - 14^2. Gae bring them. - - 14^3. Before the: by ten. - - 14^4. they each ane. - - 15. _Wanting._ - - 16^1. Fye, O no, said. - - 16^2. Fye, O no, this maun ne. - - 16^3. hang at a’. - - 17^1. Lady Marg took shiping. - - 17^2. Young Logie at. - - 17^8. the lass: her lad. Tune of Logan Water. - - - 183. Willie Macintosh. - -P. 456. The account in ‘The History of the Feuds’ is taken from Sir -Robert Gordon’s History of Sutherland, p. 217. - -Jamieson, writing to Scott, in November, 1804, says: “I have heard a -scrap of the rude ballad on the burning of Achindoun, ‘Bonny Willie -Mackintosh—You’ve tint a feather frae your cap—By the day dawing,’ etc., -or something of this kind, from the Rev^d John Grant of Elgin. The -Duchess of Gordon applied to him about it some years ago, but he could -never recover it.” (Letters addressed to Sir W. Scott, I, No 117, -Abbotsford.) - - - 186. Kinmont Willie. - -P. 470 b, at the end of the first paragraph. Strike out 1639. -Spottiswood’s account begins at the same page, 413, in the edition of -1655. - - - 188. Archie o Cawfield. - -P. 484. #B b# was first printed in the second edition of the Minstrelsy, -1803, I, 195. - -The following is the copy from which Scott derived the stanzas -introduced into this later edition of the ballad. It will be observed -that ‘luve of Teviotdale’ is the reading of 4^2, and not a correction of -Scott’s, as suggested at 486 b. - - -‘Archie o Ca’field, Variations,’ “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border -Minstrelsy,” No 90, Abbotsford; in the handwriting of John Leyden. - - 1 - The one unto the other did say, - ‘Blythe and merry how can we be, - When the night is billie Archie’s lyke-wake, - The morn the day that he maun die?’ - - 2 - ‘An ye wad be blythe an ye wad be sad, - What better wad billie Archie be, - Unless I had thirty men to mysell, - And a’ to ride in our companie? - - 3 - ‘Ten to had the horses’ heads, - And other ten to walk alee, - And ten to break up the strang prisoun - Where billie Archie he does lie.’ - - 4 - Up bespak him mettled John Hall, - The luve o Teviotdale ay was he; - ‘An I had eleven men to mysell, - It’s ay the twalt man I wad be.’ - - 5 - Up bespak him coarse Ca’field, - I wat and little gude worth was he; - ‘Thirty men is few enow, - And a’ to ride in our cumpanie.’ - - 6 - Then a’ the night thae twal men rade, - And ay untill they were a’ wearie, - Till they came to the strang prisoun - Where billie Archie he did lie. - - 7 - ‘Sleeps thou, wakes thou, billie?’ he said, - ‘Or did ye hear whan I did cry? - The night it is your lyke-wake night, - The morn it is your day to die.’ - - 8 - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - ‘Work ye within and I without, - And soon a loose man shall you be.’ - - 9 - Dickie pu’d the prisoner on o his back, - And down the stair cam merrilie; - ‘Now by my sooth,’ quo mettled John Hall, - ‘Ye may let a leg o him lean to me.’ - - 10 - ‘I have my billie upon my back, - I count him lighter than a flee; - Gin I were at my little black mare, - At Ca’field soon I trust to be.’ - - 11 - Then a’ the night these twelve men rade, - And aye untill they were a’ wearie, - Untill they came to the wan water, - And it was gawn like ony see. - - 12 - ‘There lives a smith on the water-side, - Sae has he done thirty years and three: - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - - 13 - ‘O I have a crown in my pocket, - And I’ll give it every groat to thee - . . . . . . . - Gin thou shoe my little black mare for me.’ - - 14 - ‘The night is mirk, and vera pit-mirk, - And wi candle-light I canna weel see; - The night it is mirk, and vera pit-mirk, - And there’ll never a nail ca right for me.’ - - 15 - ‘Shame fa you and your trade baith, - Canna beet a gude fallow by your mysterie! - But lees me on thee, my little black mare, - Thou’s worth thy weight o gowd to me.’ - - 16 - Then thay lay down to take a sleep, - But ay’ on fit stood noble Dickie, - And he’s looked oer his left shoulder, - And a’ to see what he could see. - - 17 - ‘Get up, get up, ye drowsy sleepers! - Ye dinna see what I do see; - For yonder comes the land-lieutenant, - Two hunder men in his cumpanie. - - 18 - ‘This night an they lay hands on us, - This night, as I think weel it will be, - This night sall be our lyke-wake night, - The morn like as mony dogs we’ll die.’ - - 19 - ‘My mare is young, and vera young, - And in o the weel she will drown me;’ - ‘But ye’ll take mine, and I’ll take thine, - And soon thro the water we sall be.’ - - 20 - Then up bespak him coarse Ca’field, - I wate and little gude worth was he; - ‘We had better lose ane than lose a’ the lave, - We’ll leave the prisoner, we’ll gae free.’ - - 21 - ‘Shame fa you and your lands baith, - Wad ye een your lands to your born billie? - But hey! bear up, my little black mare, - And yet thro the water we sall be.’ - - * * * * * * - - 22 - ‘Come thro, come thro now,’ Dickie he said, - ‘Come thro, come thro and drink wi me; - There’s no be a Saturday in a’ the year - But changed sall your garments be. - - * * * * * * - - 23 - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - While a bit o your iron hads thegether, - Barefit sall she never be.’ - - 12^1. _Var._ other side o the water. - - 12, 13 _are written as one stanza_. - - - VOL. IV. - - - 190. Jamie Telfer of the Fair Dodhead. - -P. 4 a. James Hogg, writing to Scott, June 30, [1802?] says: “I am -surprised to find that the songs in your collection differ so widely -from my mother’s.... ‘Jamie Telfer’ differs in many particulars.” -(Letters, I, No. 44.) Scott’s remarks should have been cited from the -edition of 1802, I, 91. - -5. Mr Andrew Lang has obligingly called my attention to difficulties -which attend the assumption that the Dodhead of the ballad is the place -of that name in Selkirkshire. Jamie Telfer, st. 7, runs ten miles -between Dodhead and Stobs, and this is far enough if help is to be -timely; but he would have to run thirty if his Dodhead were in -Selkirkshire. With succor not nearer than that, Telfer would soon have -been harried out of existence. The distances are too great both for the -English and the Scots. But there is a Dod south of the Teviot, not far -from Skelfhill, which is some seven miles only from Stobs. (Dodhead is -not entered here on the Ordnance map, “but Dodburn is just under Dodrig, -and where there is a Dodburn there is ‘tied’ to be a Dodhead in this -country.”) Turning from Stobs to Teviot, Telfer would come in due order -to Coltherdscleugh, Branxholm, and Borthwick Water, without the loss of -time which he would, on the other supposition, incur in passing and -returning. (See a note, by Mr Lang, in Mrs G. R. Tomson’s Ballads of the -North Countrie, 1888, p. 435.) - -Several other matters are not quite clear. Catslockhill, for instance, -seems to be misplaced. Mr Lang, a native of Ettrick valley, knows of no -Catslack but that in Yarrow. Of this, Mr T. Craig-Brown (Selkirkshire, -I, 21), who accepts Scott’s Dodhead, says, “A long ride, if Catslack is -in Yarrow.” - - - 191. Hughie Grame. - -P. 8. #C.# Substitute for Scott’s Minstrelsy, etc., “Scotch Ballads, -Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 87, Abbotsford. Add: #H.# ‘Hughie -Grame,’ “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 4. #I#. -‘Hughie Graeme,’ Wilkie’s MS., in “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border -Minstrelsy,” No 36. - -P. 10 ff. For #C# substitute this, the original copy, as procured for -Scott by William Laidlaw. - - -“Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 87, Abbotsford; in -the handwriting of William Laidlaw. “From Robert Laidlaw.” - - 1 - Gude Lord Scroop’s to the huntin gane; - He’s ridden oer monie a moss an muir, - An he has grippit Hughie the Græme, - For stealin o the bishop’s mare. - - 2 - An they hae grippit Hughie the Græme, - An brought him up thro Carlisle town; - The lasses an lads they stood by the wa’s, - Cryin, Hughie the Græme, thou’s no gae - down! - - 3 - They ha chosen a jury o men, - The best that were i Coventry, - An fifteen o them out a’ at anse, - ‘Hughie the Græme, thou art guiltie.’ - - 4 - Than up bespak him gude Lord Hume, - As he sat at the judge’s knee; - ‘Twentie white ousen, my gude lord, - If ye’ll grant Hughie the Græme to me.’ - - 5 - ‘O no, no, no, my gude Lord Hume, - For sooth an so it mauna be; - For war there but twae Græms o the name, - They sould be hangit a’ for me.’ - - 6 - ’Twas up than spak her gude Lady Hume, - As she sat by the judge’s knee; - ‘A peck o white pennies, my gude lord, - If ye’ll grant Hughie the Græme to me.’ - - 7 - ‘O no, O no, my gude Lady Hume, - For sooth an so it sal na be; - For war there but twae Greames of the name, - They soud be hangit a’ for me.’ - - 8 - ‘If I be guilty,’ said Hughie the Graeme, - ‘Of me my friends sal hae nae lack;’ - An he has luppen fifteen feet an three, - An his hands they war tyed ahint his back. - - 9 - He’s lookit oer his left shouther, - To see what he coud see, - An there he saw his auld father commin, - An he was weepin bitterlie. - - 10 - ‘O had yer tongue, my father,’ he says, - ‘An see that ye dinna weep for me, - For they may ravish me o my life, - But they canna banish me thrae the heavens - hie. - - 11 - ‘Fare ye weel, Maggie, my wife; - The last time I came oer the muir, - It was you berievt me o my life, - An wi the bishop playd the w[hore].’ - - * * * * * - - - H - -“Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 4, Abbotsford; in -the handwriting of William Laidlaw. - - 1 - Lairds and lords a hounting gane, - Out-over hills and valleys clear, - And there they met Hughie Grame, - Was riding on the bishop’s mare. - - 2 - And they have tied him hand and foot, - And they have carried him to Stirling - town; - The lads and lasses there about - Crys, Hughie Grame, you are a lown! - - 3 - ‘If I be a lown,’ says he, - ‘I am sure my friends has had bad luck;’ - We that he jumpted fifteen foot, - With his hands tied behind his back. - - 4 - Out and spoke Laidy Whiteford, - As she sat by the bishop’s knee; - ‘Four-and-twenty milk-kie I’ll give to thee, - If Hughie Grame you will let free.’ - - 5 - ‘Hold your tongue, my laidy Whiteford, - And of your pleading now lay by; - If fifty Grames were in his coat, - Upon my honour he shall die.’ - - 6 - Out and spoke Lord Whiteford, - As he sat by the bishop’s knee; - ‘Four-and-twenty stots I’ll give thee, - If Hughie Grame you will let free.’ - - 7 - ‘Hold your tongue, my lord Whiteford, - And of your pleading now lay by; - If twenty Grames were in his coat, - Upon my honour he shall die.’ - - 8 - ‘You may tell to Meg, my wife, - The first time she comes through the mu[ir], - She was the causer of my death, - For with the bishop [she] plaid the whore. - - 9 - ‘You may tell to Meg, my wife, - The first time she comes through the town, - She was the causer of my death, - For with the bishop [she] plaid the lown.’ - - 10 - He looked oer his left shoulder, - To see what he could spy or see, - And there he spied his old father, - Was weeping bitterly. - - 11 - ‘Hold your tongue, my dear father, - And of your weeping now lay by; - They may rub me of my sweet life, - But not from me the heavence high. - - 12 - ‘You may give my brother John - The sword that’s of the mettle clear, - That he may come the morn at four o clock - To see me pay the bishop’s mare. - - 13 - ‘You may give my brother James - The sword that’s of the mettle brown; - Tell him to come the morn at four o clock - To see his brother Hugh cut down.’ - - 14 - Up and spoke his oldest son, - As he sat by his nurse’s knee; - ‘If ere I come to be a man, - Revenged for my father [’s] death I’ll be.’ - - * * * * * - - - I - -“Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 36, Abbotsford, -MS. of Thomas Wilkie, 1813–15, p. 9; “from a young girl, a Miss Nancy -Brockie, Bemerside, who learned it from an old woman called Maron -Miller, Threepwood.” Another copy, in Wilkie’s hand, No 86 of the same. - - 1 - Ye dukes and lords that hunt and go - Out-over moors and mountains clear, - And they have taen up poor Hughie Græme. - For stealing of the bishope’s mare. - Fall all the day, fall all the daudy, - Fall all the day, fall the daudy O. - - 2 - They hae tied him hand and foot, - They hae led him thro the town; - The lads and lassies they all met, - Cried, Hughie Græme, ye’ve playd the - loon! - - 3 - ‘O if that I had playd the loon, - My friends of me they hae bad luck;’ - With that he jumped fifteen feet, - Wi his hands tied fast behind his back. - - 4 - Up then spoke my lady Whiteford, - As she sat by the bishope’s knee; - ‘Five hundred white pence I’ll give thee, - If you let Hughie Græme go free.’ - - 5 - ‘I’ll hae nane of your hundred pense, - And your presents you may lay by; - For if Græme was ten times in his coat, - By my honour, Hugh shall die.’ - - 6 - Up then spoke my lord Whiteford, - As he sat by the bishope’s knee; - ‘Five score of good stotts I’ll thee give, - If you’ll sett Hughie Græme but free.’ - - 7 - ‘I’ll have none of your hundred stotts, - And all your presents you may keep to yoursell; - ‘For if Græme was ten times in his coat - Hugh shall die, and die he shall.’ - - 8 - Then they hae tied him hand and foot, - And they hae led [him] to the gallows high; - The lads and lassies they all met, - Cried, Hughie Græme, thou art to die! - - 9 - Now’s he looked oer his left shoulder, - All for to see what he could spy, - And there he saw his father dear, - Stood weeping there most bitterlie. - - 10 - ‘O hold your tongue now, father,’ he said, - ‘And of your weeping lai’d now by; - For they can rob me of my life, - But they cannot rob me of the heavens high. - - 11 - ‘But you must give to my brother John - The sword that’s bent in the middle clear, - And tell him to come at twelve o clock - And see me pay the bishope’s mare. - - 12 - ‘And you may give to my brother James - The sword that’s bent in the middle brown, - And tell him to come at four o clock - And see his brother Hugh cut down. - - 13 - ‘And you may tell to Meg, my wife, - The first time she comes thro the town, - She was the occasion of my death - And wi the bishope playd the loon. - - 14 - ‘And you may tell to Meg, my wife, - The first time she comes thro the fair, - She was the occasion of my death, - And from the bishope stole the mare.’ - - * * * * * - -#A.# - - _A copy in_ The Northern Garland, Newcastle Garlands, No 1, Bell - Ballads, Abbotsford Library, P. 5, _has these readings, some of - which appear to be editorial_: - - 2^2. after him for some time. - - 4^4. shall soon. - - 11^3. my fault. - - 16^2. down low. - - 22^3. cause and the loss. - -#H.# - - 8^3, 9^3. the casurer, the casure. _Perhaps we should read_ - occasion: _cf._ #I# 13^3, 14^3. - - 9^4. plaid the whore; _but cf._ #E# 13^4, #I# 13^4. - -#I.# - - 2^3. they (all met) ran in flocks: _cf._ 8^3. - - 3^1. Of that: _see No_ 86, _below_. - - 5^3. in==his coat==ocent (_sic_). - - 10^2. (laid==lay it.) - - _No 86, the other copy of #I#, has variations which seem to be - mostly, if not wholly, editorial._ - - 1^3. taken Hughie Græme. - - 2^3. lassies ran in flocks. - - 3^1. O if. 3^2. has had. - - 3^4. And his. - - 4^3. I will give. - - 4^4. ye’ll let. - - 5^2. And of your. - - 6^2. at the. - - 6^4. ye’ll let: go free. - - 7^1. _Above_ hundred _is written_ five score. - - 7^2. And of your presents ye may lay by. - - 7^4. By my honour, Hugh shall die, _bracketed with the reading in - the text_. - - 8^2. And led him to. - - 9^1. Now he’s. - - 9^3. he spied. - - 10^1. now, father dear: he said _wanting_. - - 10^2. laid. - - 11^1. may give my. - - 12^1. give my. - - 13^3, 14^3. That she’s. - - - 193. The Death of Parcy Reed. - -P. 24 a. #B.# Telfer sent “the real verses” to Sir Walter Scott. It -appears, as might be surmised, that one half of #B# is of his own -making. 1–3==#B# 4, 5, 7; 4, 5==#A# 4, 18; 6==#B# 14; 7==#B# 15, #A# 6; -8==#A# 7, #B# 16; 9–14==#B# 18–23; 15==#A# 15; 16==#B# 25; 17–20==#B# -38, 39, 33, 41. - - * * * * * - - - B - -Letters addressed to Sir Walter Scott, XIII, No 73, Abbotsford. “Parcy -Reed, exactly as it is sung by an old woman of the name of Cathrine -Hall, living at Fairloans, in the remotest corner of Oxnam parish:” -James Telfer, Browndeanlaws, May 18, 1824. - - 1 - O Parcy Reed has Crozer taen, - And has deliverd him to the law; - But Crozer says he’ll do warse than that, - For he’ll gar the tower of the Troughend fa. - - 2 - And Crozer says he will do warse, - He will do warse, if warse can be; - For he’ll make the bairns a’ fatherless, - And then the land it may lie lea. - - 3 - O Parcy Reed has ridden a raid, - But he had better have staid at hame; - For the three fause Ha’s of Girsenfield - Alang with him he has them taen. - - 4 - He’s hunted up, and he’s hunted down, - He’s hunted a’ the water of Reed, - Till wearydness has on him taen, - I the Baitinghope he’s faen asleep. - - 5 - . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . - And the fause, fause Ha’s o Girsenfield, - They’ll never be trowed nor trusted again. - - 6 - They’ve taen frae him his powther-bag, - And they’ve put water i his lang gun; - They’ve put the sword into the sheathe - That out again it’ll never come. - - 7 - ‘Awaken ye, awaken ye, Parcy Reed, - For I do fear ye’ve slept owre lang; - For yonder are the five Crozers, - A coming owre by the hinging-stane.’ - - 8 - ‘If they be five and we be four, - If that ye will stand true to me, - If every man ye will take one, - Ye surely will leave two to me. - - 9 - ‘O turn, O turn, O Johny Ha, - O turn now, man, and fight wi me; - If ever ye come to Troughend again, - A good black nag I will gie to thee; - He cost me twenty pounds o gowd - Atween my brother John and me.’ - - 10 - ‘I winna turn, I canna turn; - I darena turn and fight wi thee; - For they will find out Parcy Reed, - And then they’ll kill baith thee and me.’ - - 11 - ‘O turn, O turn now, Willie Ha, - O turn, O man, and fight wi me, - And if ever ye come to the Troughend again - A yoke of owsen I will gie thee.’ - - 12 - ‘I winna turn, I canna turn; - I darena turn and fight wi thee; - For they will find out Parcy Reed, - And they will kill baith thee and me.’ - - 13 - ‘O turn, O turn, O Thommy Ha, - O turn now, man, and fight wi me; - If ever ye come to the Troughend again, - My daughter Jean I’ll gie to thee.’ - - 14 - ‘I winna turn, I darena turn; - I winna turn and fight with thee; - For they will find out Parcy Reed, - And then they’ll kill baith thee and me.’ - - 15 - ‘O woe be to ye, traitors a’! - I wish England ye may never win; - Ye’ve left me in the field to stand, - And in my hand an uncharged gun. - - 16 - ‘Ye’ve taen frae me my powther-bag, - And ye’ve put water i my lang gun; - Ye’ve put the sword into the sheath - That out again it’ll never come. - - 17 - ‘O fare ye weel, my married wife! - And fare ye weel, my brother John! - That sits into the Troughend ha - With heart as black as any stone. - - 18 - ‘O fare ye weel, my married wife! - And fare ye weel now, my sons five! - For had ye been wi me this day - I surely had been man alive. - - 19 - ‘O fare ye weel, my married wife! - And fare ye weel now, my sons five! - And fare ye weel, my daughter Jean! - I loved ye best ye were born alive. - - 20 - ‘O some do ca me Parcy Reed, - And some do ca me Laird Troughend, - But it’s nae matter what they ca me, - My faes have made me ill to ken. - - 21 - ‘The laird o Clennel wears my bow, - The laird o Brandon wears my brand; - Whae ever rides i the Border side - Will mind the laird o the Troughend.’ - - 9^2. wi me. along with _in the margin_. - - 13^3. ever I. - - “There is,” says Telfer in his letter, “a place in Reed water - called Deadwood Haughs, where the country-people still point out - a stone where the unshriven soul of Parcy used to frequent in - the shape of a blue hawk, and it is only a few years since he - disappeared.... The ballad of Parcy Reed has a tune of its - own.... It is a very mournfull air.” - - - 196. The Fire of Frendraught. - -P. 39. Miscellanea Curiosa, MS., vol. vi, Abbotsford Library, #A.# 3, -has for its last piece “The Burning of the Tower of Frendraught, an -Historical Ballad,” in forty-eight stanzas. It begins: - - O passd ye by the Bog of Gicht? - Heard ye the cry of grief and care? - Or in the bowers of Rothymay - Saw ye the lady tear her hair? - -“A Satyre against Frendraught, in which ware burned the Vicount of -Melgum, Laird of Rothiemay, and sundrie other gentlemen, in anno 1630,” -218 lines, MS. in a seventeenth-century hand, is No 1 in a volume with -the title Scottish Tracts, Abbotsford Library, B. 7. Mr. Macmath -suggests that this may be the “flyte” which Sharpe and Sir W. Scott -thought of printing. - - - 200. The Gypsy Laddie. - -IV, 61 b. ‘Johnnie Faa’ in [Wm Chambers’s] Exploits . . . of the most -remarkable Scottish Gypsies or Tinklers, 3d ed., 1823, p. 17, is #B a#. -The ballad is not in the second edition, 1821, reprinted in 1886. (W. -Macmath.) - - - 201. Bessy Bell and Mary Gray. - -P. 75 b., first line. Say: #c.# Scott’s Minstrelsy, 1830, XI, 39, 1833, -etc. - - - 203. The Baron of Brackley. - -P. 83, note †. - -I prefer to say, two or more events. The citations already given in this -work may possibly cover four distinct tragedies, and William Anderson, -in his Genealogy and Surnames, 1865, p. 104, tells us (but without -stating his authority) there was “a line of nine barons, all of whom, in -the unruly times in which they lived, died violent deaths.” The ballad -may have commenced originally: “Inverawe (==Inner-Aw) cam doun Deeside.” -(W. Macmath.) - - - 208. Lord Derwentwater. - -P. 117 b. The omen of nose-bleed occurs in the Breton ballad ‘Ervoan -Camus,’ Luzel, Soniou, I, 216. - - - 211. Bewick and Graham. - -P. 144 a. Scott’s improved copy first appeared in the third edition of -the Minstrelsy, 1806, II, 277. - - - 214. The Braes o Yarrow. - -Q - -P. 164 ff. ‘The Dowie Dens of Yarrow,’ Kidson’s Traditional Tunes, etc., -1891, p. 21. From Mrs Calvert, of Gilnockie, Eskdale; obtained by her on -the braes of Yarrow from her grandmother, Tibbie Stuel. (Compare, -especially, #J-L#.) - - 1 - There lived a lady in the West, - I neer could find her marrow; - She was courted by nine gentlemen, - And a ploughboy-lad in Yarrow. - - 2 - These nine sat drinking at the wine, - Sat drinking wine in Yarrow; - They made a vow among themselves - To fight for her in Yarrow. - - 3 - She washed his face, she kaimed his hair, - As oft she ‘d done before, O, - She made him like a knight sae bright, - To fight for her in Yarrow. - - 4 - As he walked up yon high, high hill, - And down by the holmes of Yarrow, - There he saw nine armëd men, - Come to fight with him in Yarrow. - - 5 - ‘There ‘s nine of you, there ‘s one of me, - It’s an unequal marrow; - But I’ll fight you all one by one, - On the dowie dens of Yarrow.’ - - 6 - Three he slew, and three they flew, - And three he wounded sorely, - Till her brother John he came in beyond, - And pierced his heart most foully. - - 7 - ‘Go home, go home, thou false young man, - And tell thy sister Sarah - That her true-love John lies dead and gone - On the dowie dens of Yarrow.’ - - 8 - ‘O father dear, I dreamed a dream, - I’m afraid it will bring sorrow; - I dreamed I was pulling the heather-bell - In the dowie dens of Yarrow.’ - - 9 - ‘O daughter dear, I read your dream, - I doubt it will prove sorrow; - For your true-love John lies dead and gone - On the dowie dens of Yarrow.’ - - 10 - As she walked up yon high, high hill, - And down by the holmes of Yarrow, - There she saw her true-love John, - Lying pale and dead on Yarrow. - - 11 - Her hair it being three quarters long— - The colour it was yellow— - She wrapped it round his middle sma, - And carried him hame to Yarrow. - - 12 - ‘O father dear, you’ve seven sons, - You may wed them a’ tomorrow, - But a fairer flower I never saw - Than the lad I loved in Yarrow.’ - - 13 - The fair maid being great with child, - It filled her heart with sorrow; - She died within her lover’s arms, - Between that day and morrow. - - 6^{1,2}. Three _misprinted_ there. - - 8^1, 9^1, 12^1. Oh. - - * * * * * - - - R - -Macmath MS. p. 91. Inserted in a copy of The Scottish Ballads . . . by -Robert Chambers, 1829, p. 145, latterly belonging to Rev. Dr James C. -Burns, Free Church, Kirkliston. - - 1 - There were three lords drinking at the wine - In the Leader Haughs of Yarrow: - ‘Shall we go play at cards and dice, - As we have done before, O? - Or shall we go play at the single sword, - In the Leader Haughs of Yarrow?’ - - * * * * * * - - 2 - Three he wounded, and five he slew, - As he had [done] before, O, - But an English lord lap from a bush, - And he proved all the sorrow; - He had a spear three quarters long, - And he thrust his body thorogh. - - * * * * * * - - 3 - ‘I dreamed . . . . - I wis it prove nae sorrow! - I dreamed I was puing the apples green - In the dowie howms o Yarrow.’ - - 4 - ‘O sister, sister, I’ll read your dream, - And I’ll read it in sorrow; - Ye may gae bring hame your ain true-love, - For he’s sleepin sound in Yarrow.’ - - 5 - She sought him east, she sought him west, - She sought him all the forest thorogh; - She found him asleep at the middle yett, - In the dowie howms o Yarrow. - - 6 - Her hair it was three quarters lang, - And the colour of it was yellow; - She’s bound it round his middle waist, - And borne him hame from Yarrow. - - 1^{2,6}. Leader Haughs. “Obviously nonsense, but so my minstreless - sung it.” - - 3^1. _The rest torn away._ - - 3^3. apples _substituted for_ heather _struck out_. - - - 217. The Broom of Cowdenknows. - -P. 192. Mrs Greenwood, of London, had heard (presumably at Longnewton, -near Jedburgh) “the old Cowdenknows, where, instead of the Laird of the -Oakland hills, it is the Laird of the Hawthorn-wide.” Letters addressed -to Sir W. Scott, I, No 189, May 27, [1806.] - - - 221. Katharine Jaffray. - -P. 216 a. Scott’s ‘Katherine Janfarie’ was printed in the second edition -of the Minstrelsy, 1803, I, 238. - - - 222. Bonny Baby Livingston. - -P. 231 f. “I can get a copy of a ballad the repeating verse of which is: - - The Highlands are no for me, - The Highlands are no for me; - But gin ye wad my favour win - Than carry me to Dundee. - -His name is sometimes called Glendinnin, and his residence the same: -however, I think it is a Highland ballad, from other circumstances.” W. -Laidlaw to Sir W. Scott, September 11, 1802: Letters, I, No 73. Compare -#D#. - - - 225. Rob Roy. - -P. 243. The Harris MS. has one stanza, fol. 27 b, from Mrs Isdale, Dron, -‘Robin Oigg’s Elopement.’ - - An they hae brocht her to a bed, - An they hae laid her doun, - An they’ve taen aff her petticoat, - An stript her o her goun. - - - 226. Lizie Lindsay. - -P. 255. Communicated by Mr Walker, of Aberdeen, as procured October 5, -1891, from George Nutchell, Ground Officer at Edzell Castle, who derived -it from his step-grandmother Mrs Lamond (Nelly Low), fifty-eight years -ago, she being at the time eighty years old. - - 1 - ‘Will ye gang to the Highlands, Lizzie Lindsay? - Will ye gang to the Highlands wi me? - Will ye gang to the Highlands, Lizzie Lindsay, - My bride an my darling to be?’ - - 2 - She turned her round on her heel, - And a very loud laugh gaed she: - ‘I’d like to ken whaur I’m ganging, - An wha I am gaun to gang wi.’ - - 3 - ‘My name is Donald Macdonald, - I’ll never think shame nor deny; - My father he is an old shepherd, - My mither she is an old dey. - - 4 - ‘Will ye gang to the Highlands, bonnie Lizzie? - Will ye gang to the Highlands wi me? - For ye shall get a bed o green rashes, - A pillow an a covering o grey.’ - - 5 - Upraise then the bonny young lady, - An drew till her stockings an sheen, - An packd up her claise in fine bundles, - An away wi young Donald she’s gaen. - - 6 - When they cam near the end o their journey, - To the house o his father’s milk-dey, - He said, Stay still there, Lizzie Lindsay, - Till I tell my mither o thee. - - 7 - ‘Now mak us a supper, dear mither, - The best o yer curds an green whey, - An mak up a bed o green rashes, - A pillow an covering o grey. - - 8 - ‘Rise up, rise up, Lizzie Lindsay, - Ye have lain oer lang i the day; - Ye should hae been helping my mither - To milk her ewes an her kye.’ - - 9 - Out then spak the bonnie young lady, - As the saut tears drapt frae her ee, - ‘I wish I had bidden at hame; - I can neither milk ewes or kye.’ - - 10 - ‘Rise up, rise up, Lizzie Lindsay, - There is mair ferlies to spy; - For yonder’s the castle o Kingussie, - An it stands high an dry.’ - - 11 - ‘Ye are welcome here, Lizzie Lindsay, - The flower o all your kin, - For ye shall be lady o Kingussie, - An ye shall get Donald my son.’ - - - 243. James Harris. - -P. 360 a. #B.# There is another, and perhaps slightly earlier, copy of -The Rambler’s Garland, British Museum, 11621, c. 2 (64), with a few -trifling differences, for better or worse. - - - 251. Lang Johnny More. - -P. 396. ‘Bennachie,’ by Alex. Inkson McConnochie, Aberdeen, 1890, has a -copy of this ballad, p. 66, longer by a few verses and with some verbal -differences. But as this copy has been edited, though “without violence -having been done,” the variations, in themselves quite immaterial, do -not demand registration. - - - To be Corrected in the Print. - -#I,# - - 135 b, #P# 13^2. _Read_ There’s. - - 188 b, line 15. _Read_ 207. - - 200 b, line 6. _Read_ Vidyádharí. - - 401 b, fourth paragraph, line 3 f. _Read_ No 68, III, 117. - -#II,# - - 10 a, eighth line from below. _Read_ #B# _for_ #C#. - - 26 b 13^1. _Read_ moon. - - 84 b, last line of third paragraph. _Read_ #G# 21. - - 266, #B# 5^3. _Read_ you. - - 428 b, #e#. _Read 3^4 for 3^1._ - - 482 b, third paragraph, last line. _Read_ V, 101. - - 507 a, Josefs Gedicht. Eighth line, _read_ Den . . . in queme. - First line of answer, _read_ De; third, deme; seventh, konde. - -#III,# - - 41 b, third paragraph, second line. _Read_ MS. _for_ Mr. - - 264 a, 17^4. _Read_ hee. - b, 23^2. _Read_ soe. - - 276 a, line 7. _Read_ queen’s own son. - - 281 a, 5^2. _Read_ new. - - 288 a, line 4 of the first paragraph. _Read_ William Lord Douglas. - b, line 16. _Read_ wail. - - 306 a, note *, fourth line. _Read_ Minstrelsy, II, 325, ed. 1802. - - 348 b, [#A# 12^1]. _Read_ sais. 15^2. _Read_ mirrie. - - 376 b, #G# 2^1. _Read_ g_rea_t. - - 379 a, 173, #A a#, first line. _Read_ Sharpe’s. - - 383 a, line 32. _Read_ pavlovsk. - - 384 a, 5^1. _Read_ was never. - - 397, #P# 1^1. _Read_ father is. - - 435 a, #E# 5^2. _Read_ loon. - - 448 a, #A#, heading. _Read_ 1750. - - 459 a, 7^1. _Read_ Buss. 10^2. _Read_ o the Dun. - - 463 a, first line of citation from Maitland. _Read_ spuilzie. - - 473 b, 24^4. _Read_ never. - - 475 b, citation from Maitland, line 5. _Read_ ane guyd. - - 477 b, third paragraph, line 2. _Read_ moss-trooper. - - 485 b, first paragraph, line 9 from the end. _Read_ would. - - 489 b, #B# 9^1. _Read_, There (==There are) six. - - 499 a, #9#, line 8 f. _Read_ Vuk, II, 376, No 64. - - 504 a, third line from the bottom. _Read #O# for #J#._ - - 504 b, third line. _Read_ Rae. - - 505 a, 13^4. _Read_ And aye. 18^1. _Read_ o the. - - 510 b. The note to p. 215 belongs under No 76. - -#IV#, - - 6 a, 8^1. _Read_ whan. (10^1. Gar seek in the early editions, Gae - in ed. 1833.) - - 7 b, 41^1. _Read_ thy kye. - - 8 a, 46^3. _Read_ dare. - - 18 a, 10^3. _Read_ Then. 12^4. _Read_ [to]. - b, 19^2. _Read_ Whan. - - 21 b, 17^3. _Read_ grey. - - 23 a, #A a#, fourth line. _Read_ former [#B#]. - - 28 a. Title of 194 #B#, Laird o Waristoun, in the MS. copy; Laird - of Wariestoun, in the printed. - - 34 b, #B#. Lord Maxwell’s Goodnight is the title in Scott’s - Minstrelsy. It is Lord Maxwell’s Farewell in the Table of - Contents of Glenriddell. - - 36 a, preface, last line but two, and b, line 3. _Read_ Lord - Maxwell _for_ Lord John. - - 38 a, 11^2. _Read, perhaps,_ fathers’: cf. their, in line 3. - - 45 b, #B# 7^1. _Read_ he’s. - - 47 b, 18^1. _Read_ Lady. - - 54 a, No 199, #B#. _Insert the title_: ‘Bonny House of Airly.’ - - 66 a, #B# 5^1. _Read_ Gar . . . manteel. - - 68 a, #D#, third line. _Read_ Corse _for_ Cragievar. - - 69 a, 6^3. _Read_ Stincher. 8^3. _Read_ kill. - - 75 a, ninth line of preface. _Read_ in his Poems. - - 76 a, fifth line. _Read_ Beauchie. - - 81 b, seventeenth and twenty-fourth lines. _Read_ Abergeldy. - - 82 b, note, first line. _Read_ Brachally in Dee Water Side. - - 90 a, #E#. _Insert_ ‘Laird of Blackwood,’ as the title of the - printed copy. - - 91 a, tenth line of the second paragraph. _Read_ after the birth - of his son _for_ after that event. note *. _Read_ IV, 277 f, II, - 449 f. - - 92 a, second line. _Read_ #A#, #C#. - - 93 b, #A# 2^1. _Read_ cam. - - 94 a, #B# 1^4. _Read_ wont. - - 95 b, #B# 12^3. _Read_ I’me. #C# 6^4. _Read_ country. 8^{1,2}. - _Read_ well. - - 96 a, #D# 3^3. _Read_ fire-boams. - - 105 a, sixth line of Appendix. _Read_ Broadside. - - 110 b, No 207, #D#, third line. _Read_ p. 135. - - 123 b, #I b#. _Strike out_ (Lord?) #K.# _Read_ p. 370. - - 124 b, fifth paragraph, last line but four. _Read_ Pitbagnet’s. - - 129 a, 23^3. _Read_ feght. b, 28^3. _Read_ burd. #C b.# _Read_ in - Wilkie’s hand, _dropping what follows_. - - 138 b, #C b# 12^{1,2}. _Read Wanting, for_ A man spoke loud. - - 139 a, #I b# 3^4, 4^1. _Read_ Pitbagnet’s. - - 152 b, 10^3. _Read_ showd. - - 153 b, 9^2. _Read_ was. - - 155 a, second line after title. _After_ library, _insert_ P. 6. - - 157 a, 2^2. _Read_ nourice. - - 168 a, 7^2. _Read_ doon. - - 201 b, 26^3. _Read_ kye. - - 202 a, #K# 2^2. _Read_ It is. - - 207 a, 20^2. _Read_ them a’ out. - - 212 a, 4^3. _Read_ sallads. - - 221 b, 13^2. _Read_ grey. - - 224 b, 22^1. _Read_ hes he. - - 226 a, 6^3. _Read_ Lammington. - - 248 a, 2^2. _Read_ ladie. - ------ - -Footnote 1: - - The brother is Peter o Whitfield. ‘Jock o the Side,’ #A#, begins, - ‘Peeter a Whifeild _he_ hath slaine, and John a Side he is tane.’ ‘The - great Earl of Whitfield,’ 10^3, seemed to Scott a corruption, and he - suggested ‘the great Ralph’ Whitfield; but Surtees gave him - information (which has not transpired) that led him to think that the - reading ‘Earl’ might be right. Whitfield, in Northumberland, is a few - miles southwest of Hexham, and about twenty-five, in a straight line, - from Kershope, or the border. - -Footnote 2: - - Nicolson and Burn, History of Westmorland and Cumberland, p. xxxi. - -Footnote 3: - - [I have received, too late for present use, three traditional copies - of ‘Hughie Grame’ from Abbotsford, two of which are varieties of #B#, - the third the original of #C#. #C# 2–5, 16, were taken from Ritson, - not without changes. One of the varieties of #B# has #E# 15 in a form - very near to No 169, #B b#, #c#.] - -Footnote 4: - - I do not know whether the document cited is extant or accessible, or - whether it was examined by Mr T. J. Carlyle for his paper on the - Debateable Land; he mentions no Hugh Grame, p. 13 f. - - Though Grames are numerous (in 1592 they were considered the greatest - surname on the west border of England, R. B. Armstrong), I have found - only one Hugh out of the ballad. Hugh’s Francie, that is Hugh’s son - Francie, is in the list of the Grames transported to Ireland in 1607. - Nicolson and Burn, History of Westmorland and Cumberland, I, cxx. - -Footnote 5: - - Nicolson and Burn, I, lxxxi, II, 279 f. As for Bishop Aldridge’s - character, his being a trimmer does not make him a “limmer.” - Ecclesiastics are not infrequently accused in ballads, but no man is - to lose his reputation without better evidence than that. - -Footnote 6: - - Nicolson and Burn, I, x, xiii, xcii. - -Footnote 7: - - Ballads and Songs of Ayrshire, 1st Series, p. 50. - -Footnote 8: - - See also a paper by Dr Arthur Mitchell in the Proceedings of the - Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, XII, 260, June 11, 1877. Dr - Mitchell was with Mr Murray when he visited Sarah Rae, and he supplies - the date 1866. The last stanza of the ballad and the burden are cited - in this paper. - -Footnote 9: - - The innocent comments of certain editors must not be lost. “The whole - incident surely implies a very early and primitive system of manners, - not to speak of the circumstance of the court being held at Carlisle, - which never was the case in any late period of English history.” - (Chambers’s Scottish Ballads, p. 306.) “In our version [#E#] the scene - of the theft is laid at London, but Carlisle, we are inclined to - think, is the true reading. The great distance between Scotland and - London, and the nature of the roads in times of old, would render the - event an improbable, if not altogether an impossible, one to have - occurred; and we can easily imagine, when the court was at Carlisle, - that such a good practical joke was planned and carried into execution - by some waggish courtiers.” (Dixon, p. 93 f.) - -Footnote 10: - - So the Memorial referred to in the next note, p. VI. Sharpe, in his - preface, p. iv, says nineteen. #B# 9 is of course quite wrong as to - the duration of her married life. - -Footnote 11: - - A Memorial of the Conversion of Jean Livingston, Lady Waristoun, etc., - printed from the manuscript by C. K. Sharpe, Edinburgh, 1827. An - Epitaphium Janetæ Livingstoune is subjoined. The record of Weir’s - trial is given in the preface: see also Pitcairn’s Criminal Trials, - II, 445 ff. The Memorial is powerfully interesting, but, in Sharpe’s - words, would have been a mischievous present to the world, whatever - one may think of the change of heart in this “dear saint of God,” as - she is therein repeatedly called. It may be noted that Jean - Livingston, when it was supposed her last hour had come, called for a - drink and drank to all her friends. Memorial, p. XIII: cf. “Mary - Hamilton.” - -Footnote 12: - - Rolling in a spiked barrel is well known as a popular form of - punishment. For some examples later than Regulus, see Grundtvig, II, - 174, No 58; Grundtvig, II, 547, No 101, A-D, Prior, I, 349, Afzelius, - No 3 (two copies), Wolff, Halle der Völker, II, 161; Grundtvig, III, - 700, No 178, A-D, Prior, II, 160, Arwidsson, II, 62, No 80, and - Grundtvig, _ib._ p. 698; Hoffmann, Niederländische Volkslieder, 1856, - p. 19, No 3, Le Jeune, p. 87, No 3, Prior, II, 238; Pidal, Asturian - Romances, p. 163, No 36; Grimms, K.-u. H. märchen, Nos 13, 89, 135; - Asbjørnsen og Moe, p. 464. Sharpe, in his preface to the Memorial, p. - v, gives #B# 8 in this form, “partly from tradition:” - - Up spak the laird o Dunypace, - Sat at the king’s right knee; - ‘Gar nail her in a tar-barrel - And hurl her in the sea.’ - -Footnote 13: - - The day before the execution Lady Wariston desired to see her infant - son. The minister feared lest the sight of him should make her wae to - leave him, but she assured that the contrair should be seen, took the - child in her arms, kissed him, blessed him, and recommended him to the - Lord’s care, and sent him away again without taking of any sorrow. - Memorial, p. IX. - -Footnote 14: - - Fraser, The Book of Carlaverock, I, 300. “John, ninth Lord Maxwell, - was born about the year 1586.” He was married in 1601, and imprisoned - for his papistical propensity in the same year. Either the date is too - late, or Maxwell was one of those avenging children who mature so very - fast: see ‘Jellon Grame,’ II, 303, 513. - -Footnote 15: - - Some sort of “agreement” had been made in 1605, as we see by the - “Summons” referred to further on, and Lord Maxwell mentions this - agreement in a conversation with Sir Robert Maxwell. Pitcairn’s - Trials, III, 36, 44. - -Footnote 16: - - In the indictment (“Summons, etc., against John, Lord Maxwell”), it is - said that Johnstone was shot through the shoulder with two poisoned - bullets. If there was evidence as to this aggravating circumstance, it - has not been made accessible. In his “Offers of Submission,” etc., by - which Lord Maxwell hoped to avoid the extreme penalty of the law, he - makes oath on his salvation and damnation that the unhappy slaughter - was nowise committed upon forethought felony or set purpose; and on - the scaffold, while declaring that he had justly deserved his death - and asking forgiveness of the Johnstone family, he protested that his - act had been without dishonor or infamy; meaning, of course, perfidy. - -Footnote 17: - - Spotiswood’s History, ed. 1655, pp. 338 f., 400 f., 504 f.; Historie - of King James the Sext, pp. 209 f., 297–99; Moysie’s Memoirs, p. 109 - f.; Pitcairn’s Criminal Trials, III, 31–40, 43–47, 51–53; Fraser, The - Book of Carlaverock, 1873, pp. 300 f., 314, 321; Taylor, The Great - Historic Families of Scotland, 1887, II, 10, 14–25. - -Footnote 18: - - In a petition presented to the Privy Council by Robert Maxwell in - behalf of his brother, the ‘sometime’ Lord Maxwell, by his attorney, - craves “forgiveness of his offence done to the Marquís of Hamilton - [his wife’s brother] and his friends.” Pitcairn, III, 52. Whether this - was penitence or policy, it shows that great offence had been taken. - Some verses inserted by Scott in his edition of the ballad, in which - his lady urges Maxwell to go with her to her brother’s stately tower, - where “Hamiltons and Douglas baith shall rise to succour thee,” are - quite misplaced. - -Footnote 19: - - Frendraught is in the parish of Forgue, Aberdeenshire, Rothiemay in - Banffshire; they lie on opposite sides of the Deveron. - -Footnote 20: - - A Genealogical History of the Earldom of Sutherland, 1813, pp. 412, - 416 ff. Sir Robert Gordon’s book stops before the (inconclusive) legal - and judicial proceedings were finished. He seems to share the - suspicion of the “most part,” that the Leslies and Meldrum set the - fire. - -Footnote 21: - - See Spalding, Memorialls of the Trubles in Scotland and in England, - 1624–1645, Spalding Club, I, 45–51, 420–23, 430–35, and the - continuator of Sir Robert Gordon, p. 474 f. Frendraught is generally - represented to have been utterly ruined in his estate, but that is - probably an exaggeration. His sufferings are thus depicted in the - Charges against the Marquis of Huntly and others anent the disorders - in the North (Spalding, I, 420): “Forasmuch as the Lords of Secret - Council are informed that great numbers of sorners and broken men of - the clan Gregor, clan Lachlan (etc.), as also divers of the name of - Gordon ... have this long time, and now lately very grievously, - infested his Majesty’s loyal subjects in the north parts, especially - the laird of Frendraught and his tenants, by frequent slaughters, - herships, and barbarous cruelties committed upon them, and by a late - treasonable fireraising within the said laird of Frendraught his - bounds, whereby not only is all the gentleman’s lands laid waste, his - whole goods and bestial spoiled, slain and maigled, some of his - servants killed and cruelly demeaned, but also the whole tenants of - his lands and domestics of his house have left his service, and - himself, with the hazard of his life, has been forced to steal away - under night and have his refuge to his Majesty’s Council, etc.” It was - reported that Frendraught obtained a decree against the marquis for - 200,000 merks (Scots) for scathe, and another for 100,000 pounds (or - merks) for spoliation of tithes, but that he recovered the money does - not appear. (Spalding, I, 71, 115.) In 1636, through the exertions of - Sir Robert Gordon, Huntly and Frendraught were brought to submit all - differences on either side, “and particularly a great action of law - prosecuted by Frendraught against the marquis,” to the arbitrament of - friends. Huntly died before a decision was reached, but “the Laird of - Frendraught retired himself home to his own lands, and there lived - peaceably.” (Genealogical History of Sutherland, p. 479.) - -Footnote 22: - - Memorials, I, 17 ff., and the Appendix, p. 381 ff. - -Footnote 23: - - So John Gordon, Viscount Melgum, the second son of the Marquis of - Huntly, was indifferently called, though the title of Viscount Aboyne - belonged to his elder brother, George, and was not conferred upon - _him_ until after John’s death. Sir Robert Gordon says that the - Marquis of Huntly “ordained” for Melgum the lands of Aboyne, and - others. Melgum was married to Sophia Hay, daughter of the Earl of - Errol, as appears also in the ballad. - -Footnote 24: - - What manner of helping Frendraught could have given Spalding does not - “condescend upon.” The way down stairs was barred by fire, the windows - were barred with iron. [“But the stairs or monty being in fire, and - the windows grated with strong bars of iron, there was no moyen to - escape:” Blakhal’s Narration, Spalding Club, p. 125.] Ladders and - crowbars occur to us, but a tower with walls ten feet thick was not - expected to burn, the servants had not been drilled in managing fires, - people smoked from their beds at two in the morning are not apt to - have their wits about them, and the combustion was rapid. - -Footnote 25: - - All the documents will be found in the Appendix to Spalding. Dr John - Hill Burton, in Narratives from Criminal Trials in Scotland, 1852, I, - 202 ff, leans hard against Frendraught. “With pretty abundant - materials, it is impossible, even at the present day, entirely to - clear up the mystery, but we can see by what machinations inquiry was - baffled.” “It will be seen that no evidence against him was received, - that it was considered an offence to accuse him.” “Frendraught, though - he had with a high hand averted even the pretence of inquiry on the - part of the government, did not go unpunished, _whether he was guilty - or not_.” Dr Burton speaks with more reserve in his History of - Scotland, VI, 209; little more is insisted on than a wish of the Court - to foster the Crichtons as a balance to the power of the house of - Huntly. It is clear that Frendraught had all the consideration and - help from the government which he could claim. Mr Charles Rampini, who - has discussed the affair in The Scottish Review, X, 143 ff., 1887, - concludes favorably to Frendraught’s innocence of the fire. - -Footnote 26: - - “Many years ago, when the well was cleared out, this tradition was - corroborated by their finding the keys: at least, such was the report - of the country.” (Finlay, I, xxi, citing a correspondent.) Of course - we should have had to believe everything against Lady Frendraught, - even that she had been so simple as to throw them in, if keys had been - found in the well; but the land-steward of the proprietor of the - estate informed the late Mr Norval Clyne that the draw-well was - searched, and no keys were found. - -Footnote 27: - - This is, of course, the style of the kirk. The fifty-third psalm of - the Vulgate would not have been out of place for Lord John, who was a - Catholic; but no doubt Lord John is taken for a Presbyterian in the - ballad, and the ‘three’ is for rhyme. Father Blakhal maintains that - Frendraught burnt his tower, not to rid himself of Rothiemay, but out - of theological malice to Melgum “for his zeal in defending and - protecting the poor Catholics against the tyranny of our puritanical - bishops and ministers.” “As he [Melgum] was dying for the defence of - the poor Catholics, God did bestow upon him the grace to augment the - number at the last hour of his life, persuading the Baron of Rothiemay - to abjure the heresy of Calvin, and make the profession of the - Catholic faith openly, to the hearing of the traitor and all who were - with him in the court. They two being at a window, and whilst their - legs were burning, they did sing together _Te Deum_; which ended, they - did tell at the window that their legs being consumed even to their - knees, etc.... And so this noble martyr finished this mortal life, at - the age of four and twenty years.” A Brief Narration, etc., p. 124 f. - - Blakhal, who is far from being a cautious writer, also tells us that - “the traitor,” Frendraught, “with his men,in arms, walked all the - night in the court,” to kill Gordon and Rothiemay, if they should - escape from the fire. There is a passage of the same purport in one of - Arthur Johnston’s two poems on the burning of Frendraught, “Querela - Sophiæ Hayæ,” etc.: - - Cur vigil insuetis noctem traduxit in armis, - Cætera cum somno turba sepulta foret? - - The other piece ends with a ferocious demand for the use of torture to - discover the guilty party. (Delitiæ Poetarum Scotorum, Amsterdam, - 1637, pp. 585, 587; or, A. I. Poemata Omnia, Middelburg, 1642, pp. - 329, 331.) - -Footnote 28: - - Stanza 21 recalls the verses in Hume of Godscroft: - - Edinburgh castle, towne, and tower, - God grant thou sink for sinne! etc. - -Footnote 29: - - Gordon’s History of Sutherland, p. 414; Spalding’s Memorials, I, 11, - 21–23, 29 f., 43 f. - -Footnote 30: - - Gordon’s History, pp. 481, 460; Spalding, with details, I, 70. - -Footnote 31: - - Spalding, I, 141, 188, 244. - -Footnote 32: - - Gordon, History of Scots Affairs, II, 276–80; Spalding, Memorials, I, - 209–11. Seton is called a bold, or brave, _baron_, in #A# 2, #B# 3, - not in the mediæval way, but as one of the gentlemen of the king’s - party. The Gordons and their associates “at this time were called the - Barons, and their actings, by way of derision, the Barons’ Reign.” - Gordon, p. 261. “Northern,” #B# 1^3, should be southern, as in #A#. - -Footnote 33: - - Gordon, II, 274; Spalding, I, 208; Napier’s Montrose and the - Covenanters, I, 284 f. The Hieland men, says Baillie, “avowed that - they could not abide _the musket’s mother_, and so fled in troops at - the first volley.” Letters, ed. Laing, I, 221. - -Footnote 34: - - History of Scots Affairs, II, 281, note: see also what is added to - that note. - -Footnote 35: - - “‘The deep, deep den’ referred to in the ballad is the Den of Airlie, - celebrated for its fine scenery and romantic beauty. It extends about - a mile below the junction of the Isla and the Melgum.” Christie, - Traditional Ballad Airs, II, 296. - -Footnote 36: - - Spalding’s Memorials, ed. 1850, I, 290–2; Gordon’s History of Scots - Affairs, III, 164 f.; also, II, 234; Gardiner, History of England, - 1603–1642, ed., 1884, IX, 167 f. Both Spalding and Gordon say that - Montrose besieged Airlie but did not succeed in taking it. Argyle, - continues Spalding, “raises an army of about 5,000 men and marches - towards Airlie; but the Lord Ogilvie, hearing of his coming with such - irresistible forces, resolves to fly and leave the house manless, and - so for their own safety they wisely fled. But Argyle most cruelly and - inhumanly enters the house of Airlie,” etc. A letter of Argyle’s to - one Dugald Campbell (dated July, 1640) would seem to show that he was - not there in person during the razing and burning. “You need not let - know,” says Argyle, “that ye have directions from me to fire it.” - Notes and Queries, Fifth Series, IX, 364; reprinted by Gardiner. - -Footnote 37: - - Napier, Montrose and the Covenanters, 1838, I, 129. - -Footnote 38: - - In 18–21 the lady makes her lord not only forgive the abettors of - Jockie Faa, whom he was about to hang, but present ten guineas to - Jockie, whom he was minded to burn. - -Footnote 39: - - “Corse field may very possibly be Corse, the ancient seat of the - Forbeses of Craigievar, from the close vicinity of which the reciter - of this ballad came.” Burton, in Kinloch MSS, V, 334. - -Footnote 40: - - Recalling Carrick, of which Maybole is the capital. “The family of - Cassilis, in early times, had been so powerful that the head of it was - generally termed the King of Carrick:” Sharpe. But Garrick may have - come in in some other way. - -Footnote 41: - - #F# 7, if it belongs to the countess, gives her an unlady-like taste - for brandy. - -Footnote 42: - - “There is indeed a stanza of no merit, which, in some copies, - concludes the ballad, and states that eight of the gypsies were hanged - at Carlisle, and the rest at the Border:” Finlay, II, 43. - -Footnote 43: - - Pitcairn’s Criminal Trials, III, 201, 307 f., 397–9, 559–62, 592–94; - Acts of the Parliament of Scotland, IV, 440. - -Footnote 44: - - Sharpe’s Ballad Book, ed. Laing, 1880, pp. 142, 154. I have unluckily - lost my voucher for Johnny Faa’s figuring in ‘The Douglas Tragedy.’ - -Footnote 45: - - Finlay, II, 35; The Scots Magazine, LXXX, 306, and the Musical Museum, - 1853, IV, *217, Sharpe; Chambers, Scottish Ballads, p. 143; The New - Statistical Account of Scotland, V, 497; Paterson, The Ballads and - Songs of Ayrshire, I, 10; Maidment, Scotish Ballads and Songs, 1868, - II, 179. - -Footnote 46: - - She had four children according to the Historical Account of the Noble - Family of Kennedy, Edinburgh, 1849, p. 44. - -Footnote 47: - - ‘We were a’ put down _but ane_’ first appears in Herd, 1769. - -Footnote 48: - - These eight heads would correspond very neatly to the number of - gypsies executed in 1624. But in the circumstantial account given by - Chambers we are told that the house belonging to the family at Maybole - was fitted for the countess’s reception “by the addition of a fine - projecting stair-case, upon which were carved heads representing those - of her lover and his band.... The effigies of the gypsies are very - minute, being subservient to the decoration of a fine triple window at - the top of the stair-case, and stuck upon the tops and bottoms of a - series of little pilasters which adorn that part of the building. The - head of Johnie Faa himself is distinct from the rest, larger, and more - lachrymose in the expression of the features. _Some windows in the - upper flat of Cassilis Castle are similarly adorned; but regarding - them tradition is silent._” - -Footnote 49: - - Sharp, in Johnson’s Museum, 1853, IV, 218*; Paterson, in Ballads and - Songs of Ayrshire, I, 13. It is also clear from these letters that the - countess was a sober and religious woman. Some minor difficulties - which attend the supposition of this lady’s absconding with Johnny - Faa, or any gypsy, are barely worth mentioning. At the time when - Johnny Faa was put down, in 1624, the countess was seventeen years - old, and yet she is made the mother of two children. If we shift the - elopement to the other end of her life, there was then (so severe had - been the measures taken with these limmers) perhaps not a gypsy left - in Scotland. See Aytoun, 1859, I, 186. - -Footnote 50: - - John, seventh earl of Cassilis, son of the sixth earl by a second - wife, married for his second wife, some time before 1700, Mary Foix (a - name also spelt Faux): Crawford’s Peerage, 1716, p. 76, corrected by - the Decreets of the Lords of Council and Session, vol. 145, div. 2. - May this explain the Faws coming to be associated in the popular mind - with a countess of Cassilis? (A suggestion of Mr Macmath’s.) The lady - is even called Jeanie Faw in #C# 7, 11, first by the gypsy, then by - her husband. The seventh earl had _two_ children by Mary Foix. - -Footnote 51: - - I have seen this piece only in Elizabeth Cochrane’s Song-Book, MS., p. - 38, and in Buchan’s MSS, I, 220. Its contents agree with what is - alleged in W. Fuller’s “Brief Discovery of the True Mother of the - pretended Prince of Wales, known by the name of Mary Grey,” London, - 1696, pp. 5 f, 11, 17 f, and it was probably composed not long after. - -Footnote 52: - - Afterwards inserted in the first volume of The Tea-Table Miscellany - (p. 66 of A New Miscellany of Scots Sangs, London, 1727, p. 68 of T. - T. M., Dublin, 1729), from which source it may have been adopted by - Sharpe. - -Footnote 53: - - Here from the original, Communications to the Society of Antiquaries - of Scotland, vol. i, from a copy furnished by Mr Macmath. - -Footnote 54: - - The most of this account, and in nearly the same words, was given in - an earlier letter from Major Barry to James Cant, who printed (Perth, - 1774) an edition of ‘The Muses Threnodie, by Mr H. Adamson, 1638’ (p. - 19). The principal items of the story are repeated from Cant by - Pennant, Tour in Scotland, 1772, Part II, London, 1776, p. 112. - Pennant cites Cant’s book as the Gabions of Perth. “It seems,” says Mr - Macmath, who has extracted for me the passage in Cant, “that Adamson’s - work was sometimes known as Gall’s Gabions, the latter being a coined - word.” - -Footnote 55: - - An “old manuscript volume” cited in The New Statistical Account of - Scotland, X, 37; Chambers, Domestic Annals of Scotland, 1858, II, 167. - -Footnote 56: - - The remark is made in The Scotsman, September 11, 1886. - -Footnote 57: - - In the manuscript cited in The New Statistical Account of Scotland, p. - 37, we are told that, to prevent the spread of infection, “it was - thought proper to put those out of the town at some distance who were - sick. Accordingly, they went out and builded huts for themselves in - different places around the town, particularly in the South Inch - [etc.] and the grounds near the river Almond, at the mouth thereof, in - all which places there are as yet the remains of their huts which they - lodged in.” So, when this same pestilence was raging in the parish of - Monivaird, the gentlemen “caused many huts to be built, and ordered - all who perceived that they were infected immediately to repair into - them:” Porteous, History of the Parishes of Monivaird and Strowan, - MS., Communications to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. i, - printed in the Transactions, II, 72, 1822. - -Footnote 58: - - This is Wishart’s account. Another, by Covenanters, makes Montrose to - have been more on the alert, and has nothing of the two thousand horse - sent to take him in the rear. The royalists are admitted to have - maintained their ground with great resolution for almost an hour. The - numbers are as given by Gardiner, History of the Great Civil War, II, - 335 f. - -Footnote 59: - - T. Craig-Brown, History of Selkirkshire, 1886, I, 188. - -Footnote 60: - - Not 1829, as put in the reprint of 1869. “Written hurriedly, in supply - of the press, in April and May, 1832. J. R.”: Dr J. Robertson’s - interleaved copy of the undated first edition. #A c# is reprinted - (with some errors) in The Great North of Scotland Railway, A Guide, by - W. Ferguson, 1881, p. 163. - -Footnote 61: - - Jamieson writes to the Scots Magazine, October, 1803, p. 699: “The - Baron of Braikly begins, - - O Inverey cam down Dee-side - Whistling and playing; - He’s landed at Braikly’s yates - At the day dawing. - - Of this I have got a compleat copy, and the story is very interesting; - but I have got a fragment of it from another quarter, which, so far as - it goes, is superior.” Etc. - -Footnote 62: - - A market was established here in 1661 by an act in favor of William - Farquharson of Inverey, his heirs, etc. This William had a brother and - a son John. William Farquharson of Inverey younger, as “a person of - known trust and approven ability,” is appointed to keep a guard “this - summer for the sherifdom of Kincardine” against cattle-driving - Highlanders, July of the same year. Thomson’s Acts, VII, 18, I, 286: - pointed out to me by Mr Macmath. - -Footnote 63: - - Macfarlane’s Genealogical Collections, MS., in the Advocates’ Library, - I, 299 f; already cited by Jamieson, Ballads, I, 108. - -Footnote 64: - - See a little further on. - -Footnote 65: - - Gilmour’s Decisions, 1701, p. 43. (Macmath.) - -Footnote 66: - - Col. H. W. Lumsden’s Memorials of the Families of Lumsdaine, etc., p. - 59. - -Footnote 67: - - History of the Earldom of Sutherland, p. 217 f. To the same effect, - Johnstone, Historia Rerum Britannicarum, Amsterdam, 1655, p. 160 f, - under the year 1591, and Spotiswood, p. 390, of the editions of 1655, - 1666, 1668, under the year 1592. “The History of the Feuds,” etc., p. - 67, ed. 1764, merely repeats Sir Robert Gordon. William Gordon’s - History of the Family of Gordon, cites Sir Robert Gordon and - Johnstone, and calls Gordon of Brackley Alexander. - - Still another “Gordon, Baron of Brackley in Deeside,” is said to have - been murdered by the country people about him in or near 1540: The - Genealogy of the Grants, in Macfarlane’s Genealogical Collections, I, - 168, and An Account of the Rise and Offspring of the Name of Grant, - printed for Sir Archibald Grant, Bart., of Monymusk, 1876, p. 30 ff, - where the date is put (perhaps through a misprint) before 1480. A - horrible revenge was said to have been taken by the Earl of Huntly and - James Grant: see the well-known story of the orphans fed at a trough, - in Scott’s Tales of a Grandfather, chap. xxxix. - -Footnote 68: - - See the Memorandum for Farquharson in “Fourth Report,” as above, p. - 534. - -Footnote 69: - - Pointed out to me by Mr. Macmath, who, in making this and other - communications relating to the Gordons of Brackley, suggested and - urged the hypothesis of a mixture of two events in this ballad. - -Footnote 70: - - Fraser, The Douglas Book, Edinburgh, 1885, II, 277 f, 449 f. The - contract, being a mutual paper, may not express to the full the - supposed grievances of either party. - -Footnote 71: - - The Douglas Book, II, 450 f. “Lawrie is mentioned by Lord Fountainhall - as ‘late chamberlain to the Marquis of Douglas, and repute a bad - instrument between him and his lady in their differences.’ Decisions, - I, 196.” - - What should prompt Lawrie to malice against the marchioness is - unknown. Kinloch, Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 58, accepting the story - of the old woman from whom he obtained #E#, says: “The Laird of - Blackwood and the Marquis of —— were rivals in the affection of a - lovely and amiable young lady, who, preferring the latter, became his - wife. Blackwood ... vowed revenge,” etc. Chambers, who repeats this - account, Scottish Ballads, p. 150, remarks that Lawrie seems to have - been considerably advanced in life at the time. Lawrie’s son made a - “retour of services” in 1650, and may be supposed then to have been of - age. The Marquis of Douglas was in his twenty-fourth year when he - married, in 1670, and probably Lady Barbara Erskine was not older. - Maidment is surprised that Lawrie, “a man of uncertain lineage,” - should have succeeded with the widow Marion Weir. What is to be - thought of his aspiring, at the age of sixty, or more, to “the - affection of a lovely and amiable young lady” of the family of Mar, - one of the most ancient in Scotland? - -Footnote 72: - - Kinloch MSS, I, 95 f. For one or two points see Maidment’s Scotish - Ballads and Songs, 1868, II, 262 ff., the preface to the ballad there - called ‘Lady Barbara Erskine’s Lament.’ - -Footnote 73: - - “Matthew Crawford, weaver, Howwood, sings ‘Jamie Douglas’ with the - conclusion in which the lady dies after her return and reconciliation - with her lord.” Motherwell’s Note-Book, p. 56. - - “I was informed by A. Lile that she has heard a longer set of the - ballad in which, while Lady Douglas is continuing her lament, she - observes a troop of gentlemen coming to her father’s, and she - expresses a wish that these should be sent by her lord to bring her - home. They happen to be sent for that purpose, and she accompanies - them. On her meeting, however, with her lord, and while putting a cup - of wine to her lips, her heart breaks, and she drops down dead at his - feet.” Motherwell, note to #G#, MS., p. 347. - - Lawrie came near losing his head in 1683 for political reasons, but he - survived the revolution of 1688, “got all the proceedings against him - annulled, and a complete rehabilitation.” Wodrow, II, 295; Maidment, - 1868, II, 268. - -Footnote 74: - - All but #E# have #b# 4: #E# has #a# 4. All but #A#, #D#, #E#, #L#, #M# - have 1. #A#, #C#, #E# have 10; #J# has 2, 3; #A# has 8; #F# has 9. - -Footnote 75: - - It must be said, however, that stanza 8, ‘When we came in by Glasgow - town,’ etc., hardly suits the song, and would be entirely appropriate - to the ballad (as it is in #A# 2). It may have been taken up from this - ballad (which must date from the last quarter of the seventeenth - century), or from some other. - -Footnote 76: - - #a# is followed in Percy’s Reliques, 1765, III, 144, Herd, Ancient and - Modern Scots Songs, 1769, p. 196; #b#, in the Musical Museum, p. 166, - No 158; with slight variations in each copy. - -Footnote 77: - - Scottish Psalter, 1566, Wood’s MSS, Bassus, Laing’s MSS, University of - Edinburgh, MS. Books, 483, III, p. 209. The medley is by a different - and later hand: Laing in the Musical Museum, 1853, I, xxviii f., IV, - 440*. It is printed in the second edition of Forbes’s Cantus, - Aberdeen, 1666. - - There was a much older stave, or proverb, to the same purport, as we - see by Chaucer’s Clerk’s Tale, vv. 855, 57. - - But sooth is seyd, algate I fynde it trewe, - Loue is noght old as whan that it is newe. - -Footnote 78: - - “Public worship was begun by Mr Douglas, when the accounts came to - them that Claverhouse and his men were coming upon them, and had Mr - King and others their friends prisoners. Upon this, finding evil was - determined against them, all who had arms drew out from the rest of - the meeting, and resolved to go and meet the soldiers and prevent - their dismissing the meeting, and, if possible, relieve Mr King and - the other prisoners.” Wodrow’s History, 1722, II, 46. - -Footnote 79: - - (_Postscript_: “My lord, I am so wearied and so sleepy that I have - written this very confusedly.”) See Russell, in the Appendix to C. K. - Sharpe’s edition of Kirkton’s Secret and True History of the Church of - Scotland, p. 438 ff.; Napier’s Memorials and Letters of John Graham of - Claverhouse, II, 219–223. There is a good account of the affair in - Mowbray Morris’s “Claverhouse,” ch. iv. - -Footnote 80: - - Napier interprets the cornet to be Mr Crafford (Crawford), who, in the - preceding February, was a corporal in the troop: Memorials, II, 191. - But Creichton, in his Memoirs, mentions “the loss of Cornet Robert - Graham” at Drumclog. Russell speaks of a Graham killed at Drumclog, - and, like Creichton, tells a story of the disfigurement of his face - (which he attributes to the cornet’s own dog). Lawrie of Blackwood, - Lord Jamie Douglas’s Jago, was indicted and tried, Nov. 24, 1682–Feb. - 7. 1683, for (among other things) countenancing John Aulston, who “in - the late rebellion” murdered Cornet Graham: Wodrow, II, 293, 295. - Guild, in his Bellum Bothuellianum, cited by Scott, has “signifer, - trajectus globulo, Græmus.” - - Napier will know only of a William Graham as cornet to Claverhouse, - “and certainly not killed at Drumclog.” William Graham is referred to - in a dispatch of Claverhouse’s, March (?) 1679, as commanding a small - garrison: Napier II, 201. A Cornet Graham in Claverhouse’s troop - captured a rebel in March, 1682: R. Law’s Memorials, ed. Sharpe, p. - 222. A William Graham was “cornet to Claverhouse,” January 3, 1684: - Wodrow, II, 338. (See “Clavers, The Despot’s Champion, by a Southern,” - London, 1889, p. 48 f., a careful and impartial book, to which I owe a - couple of points that I had not myself noticed.) - - C. K. Sharpe calls Robert Graham Claverhouse’s cousin, Napier, I, 271, - but probably would not wish the title to be taken strictly. - -Footnote 81: - - Wodrow’s History, 1722, II, 54–67; Creichton’s Memoirs; Russell, in - Sharpe’s ed. of Kirkton, p. 447 ff. - -Footnote 82: - - Russell, as above, p. 464; Wodrow, II, 86. - -Footnote 83: - - But see “Clavers, the Despot’s Champion,” p. 72 ff. - -Footnote 84: - - In Notes and Queries, First Series, V, 249. - -Footnote 85: - - The Works of the late L. Delamer, 1694, The Case of William, Earl of - Devonshire, p. 563; which is the plea referred to further on. - -Footnote 86: - - Such poetical propriety as ‘The second, more alarming still,’ 3^2; - ‘The words that passd, alas! presaged’ 18^3. But really the text was - not very much altered. Some verses, here dropped, were added “to give - a finish.” - -Footnote 87: - - See W. S. Gibson, Dilston Hall, etc., 1850, p. 54. - -Footnote 88: - - Buchanan, Rer. Scot. Hist., fol. 186; Lesley, History of Scotland, p. - 251 f. - -Footnote 89: - - In #J#, which cannot be relied on for smaller points, we read that - Charles Hay has been hanged, for reasons not given: st. 20. - -Footnote 90: - - This intimation is repeated in #G# 10, with the ludicrous variation of - bloody ‘breeks.’ In #B#, an English lord, whose competency and - interest in the matter are alike difficult to comprehend, declares - that he will have Geordie hanged, will have Geordie’s head, before the - morrow. A Scottish lord rejoins that he will cast off his coat and - fight, will fight in blood up to the knees; and the king adds, there - will be bloody heads among us all, before that happens. Who the - parties to the fight are to be, unless it is the English lord against - Scotland, is not evident. #B# is inflated with superfluous verses. - -Footnote 91: - - It seems to have been familiar in Aberdeen as early as 1627. Joseph - Haslewood made an entry in his copy of Ritson’s Scotish Song of a - manuscript Lute-Book (presented in 1781 to Dr Charles Burney by Dr - Skene of Marischal College) which contained airs noted and collected - by Robert Gordon, “at Aberdein, in the yeare of our Lord 1627.” Among - some ninety titles of tunes mentioned, there occur ‘Ther wer three - ravns’ and ‘God be with the, Geordie.’ (W. Macmath.) - -Footnote 92: - - Somebody, perhaps J., the editor of The Common-Place Book of Ancient - and Modern Ballad, etc., Edinburgh, 1824, attempted an improvement of - the later edition of Scott’s ballad. The recension was used by - Loève-Veimars for his translation, and is given in his Popular Ballads - and Songs from Tradition, Manuscripts, and Scarce Editions, Paris, - 1825, p. 71. This copy, with variations, is found in the Campbell MSS, - I, 348. The alterations are mostly trivial. - -Footnote 93: - - ‘Sir James the Ross’ was first printed in The Weekly Magazine, or, - Edinburgh Amusement, IX, 371, in 1770 (Grosart, Works of Michael - Bruce, p. 257, the ballad at p. 197), and in the same year in “Poems - on Several Occasions, by Michael Bruce” (p. 30), with differences, - which are attributed to Logan, the editor. - -Footnote 94: - - “The older ballad, entitled ‘The Young Heir of Baleichan,’ or - Baleighan,... is claimed for this parish [Crimond, Aberdeenshire]; - while the same ballad is said to be founded on a traditionary tale of - Baleichan in Forfarshire.” Smith, A New History of Aberdeenshire, - 1875, p. 429. - -Footnote 95: - - Pinkerton reads Loch Lagan. He also reads ‘the Hichts of Lundie,’ in - 10^4, for ‘the gates of London.’ Lundie is in Forfarshire. I suppose - both readings to be Pinkerton’s emendations. - -Footnote 96: - - Logan has a page, and the page may have come from some previously - corrupted version of the popular ballad which #J# may follow. The - first half of the stanza corresponding to #L# 12 in Logan is from the - popular ballad. - -Footnote 97: - - Sometimes also with sensible prose, as 7^2, ‘But I find she has - deceived me;’ 12^3, ‘I dreamed my luive had lost his life.’ - - The loose, though limited, rhyme in this ballad, in ‘The Bonnie House - of Airlie,’ etc., does not favor exact recollection, and furnishes a - temptation to invention: hence the sparrow in #B# 6, the arrow in #D# - 7, the narrow in #I# 12, and, I fear, the harrow in #L# 9, which of - itself is good, while all the others are bad. - -Footnote 98: - - It must be noted, however, that in ‘Ye think me an unmeet marrow,’ #A# - 8^2, Ye is an editorial reading. I may remark that I have included - #M-P# in the second group simply because the hero in these is called - love or true-love. The husband, however, has both titles in #A#. - -Footnote 99: - - ‘Wi a _thrusty_ rapier,’ #J#, which I feel compelled to understand as - the commonplace ‘trusty;’ but, guided by ‘a rusted rapier,’ #K#, we - ought perhaps to read ‘rusty.’ In #L# the lady kisses and combs the - swain, and sets him on her milk-white steed.—Since I suppose lover to - have been substituted for husband in the course of tradition, I shall - not be so precise as to distinguish the two when this would be - inconvenient. - -Footnote 100: - - Nine is the number also in #H#, as we see from st. 5, compared with - #E#, 5, 11. - -Footnote 101: - - It will be remembered that green is an unlucky color: see II, 181 f. - -Footnote 102: - - She tears the ribbons from her head in #D# 11, #I# 12, when she hears - the tidings: but this belongs to the bride in the ballad which - succeeds, No 215. - -Footnote 103: - - Ten in #F#, to include the lord with his nine foemen. But why only - nine in #E#, #G#, #M#? Is it not because one of the brothers had not - been mortally wounded, the brother who is said to kill the husband - (lover) in #L#, #M#, #N#, and who may reasonably be supposed to do - this in #E#, #F#, #G#? Such a matter would not be left in obscurity in - the original ballad. - -Footnote 104: - - This is disagreeable, assuredly, and unnatural too. It is ‘drank,’ - probably, that is softened to ‘wiped’ in #A# 14. Scott, to avoid - unpleasantness, reads ‘She kissd them (his wounds) till her lips grew - red;’ which would not take long. This is all nicely arranged in #L#: - ‘She laid him on her milk-white steed, and bore him home from Yarrow; - she washed his wounds in yon well-strand, and dried him wi the - hollan.’ The washing and drying are done in #J# on the spot, where - there might have been water, but no hollan. - -Footnote 105: - - The reciters of #A# and #J#, whether they gave what they had received, - or tried to avoid the material difficulties about the hair, graze upon - absurdity. Her hair was three quarters long, she tied it round ‘her’ - (for his?) white hause-bane—and died, #A# 15. His hair was three - quarters long, she’s wrapt it round her middle—and brought it home, - #J# 16. The hair comes in again in the next two ballads, and causes - difficulty. Wonderful things are done with hair in ballads and tales: - see #I#, 40 b, and the note at 486 b. - -Footnote 106: - - #L# 19 is also found only in that copy. It seems to me, but only - because #L# does not strike me as being of an original cast—rather a - ballad improved by reciters,—to be an adaptation of No 215, #A# 2. - -Footnote 107: - - James Chalmers, in Archæologia Scotica, III, 261, says that Hamilton’s - ballad was contributed to the second volume of the Tea Table - Miscellany in 1724. It is not in the Dublin edition of 1729. It is at - p. 242 of the London edition of 1733; in Thomson’s Orpheus Caledonius, - II, 34, of the same year; at p. 46 of the first edition of - [Hamilton’s] Poems on Several Occasions, Glasgow, 1748. The author - died in 1754. The copy in the second edition of Hamilton’s Poems, - 1760, p. 67, says Chalmers, is somewhat altered. - - In Hamilton’s ballad it is a lover, and not a husband, who is slain, - and he is thrown into the Yarrow. It is a question whether Hamilton’s - ballad did not affect tradition in the case of #J#, #K#, #L#, - particularly #L#. The editorial Douglas in #A# 11 is from Hamilton 24. - ‘Wi her tears she bathed his wounds,’ #I# 13^3, looks like Hamilton - 9^1. The ‘dule and sorrow’ of #O# 4^2 is a recurring phrase in - Hamilton, and ‘slain the comeliest swain,’ #O# 4^3, is in Hamilton - 6^3. - - In Hamilton’s ballad the slayer of the lover endeavors to induce the - lady to marry _him_, as is done in the Icelandic ballad spoken of - under No 89, II, 297 f. - - A song by Ramsay, T. T. M., Dublin, 1729, p. 139, has nearly the same - first four lines as Hamilton’s ballad, and these have been thought to - be traditional. - -Footnote 108: - - Minstrelsy, 1833, III, 144. For a criticism of Sir Walter Scott’s - remarks and a correction of some errors, with much new information, - see Mr T. Craig-Brown’s History of Selkirkshire, Edinburgh, 1886, I, - 14–16, 311–15, of which work grateful use is here made. - -Footnote 109: - - Buchan’s note to #E# is, for a wonder, to the purpose. With his usual - simplicity, he informs us that “the unfortunate hero of this ballad - was a factor to the laird of Kinmundy.” He then goes on to say: “As - the young woman to whom he was to be united in connubial wedlock - resided in Gamery, a small fishing-town on the east coast of the - Murray Frith, the marriage was to be solemnized in the church of that - parish; to which he was on his way when overtaken by some of the - breakers which overflow a part of the road he had to pass, and dash - with impetuous fury against the lofty and adamantine rocks with which - it is skirted.” I, 315. - -Footnote 110: - - Professor Veitch has remarked on the incongruousness of this stanza in - Blackwood’s Magazine, June, 1890, p. 739 ff. Something like it, but - adjusted to the circumstances of a maid, occurs in the ballad which he - there prints as the “Original Ballad of the Dowie Dens.” See No 214, - p. 174, #L# 19. - -Footnote 111: - - Mr Macmath informs me that in “A Collection of Old Ballads, etc., - printed at Edinburgh between the years 1660 and 1720,” No 7228 of the - catalogue issued by John Stevenson, Edinburgh, 1827, there is this - item: “Be valiant still, etc., a new song much in request; also Logan - Water, or, A Lover in Captivity.” - -Footnote 112: - - “Hire a horse,” in an “old fragment”?—Cunningham gives the first two - stanzas of the ballad, with variations in the first, in his edition of - Burns, 1834, V, 107. - -Footnote 113: - - This volume came in 1836 into the hands of Motherwell’s friend, Mr P. - A. Ramsay. The entries have been communicated to me by Mr Macmath. - -Footnote 114: - - The cane in 18^1 of this copy is a touch of “realism” which we have - had in a late copy of Tam Lin; see #J# 16, III, 505. - -Footnote 115: - - The attempt to lessen the disproportion of the match seems to me a - decidedly modern trait. In #H# 27, 28, this goes so far that the maid - has twenty ploughs and three against the laird’s thirty and three. In - #M# 3–5, the maid’s father was once a landed laird, but gambles away - his estate, and then both father and mother take to drinking! - -Footnote 116: - - Of #D#, W. Laidlaw writes as follows, September 11, 1802: “I had the - surprise of a visit from my crack-brained acquaintance Mr Bartram of - Biggar, the other day. He brought me a copy of the ‘Laird of - Laminton,’ which has greatly disappointed my expectations. It is - composed of those you have and some nonsense. But it overturns the - tradition of this country, for it makes the wedding and battle to have - been at Lauchinwar.” Letters addressed to Sir Walter Scott, I, No 73, - Abbotsford. - - For the particulars of the compilation of the copies in the - Minstrelsy, see the notes to #B#, #C#. - -Footnote 117: - - This phrase, owing to the accidents of tradition, comes in without - much pertinency in some places; as in #A# 11, #K# 22, where _she_ gars - the trumpet sound foul play (altered in #J# 17, 18, to ‘a weel won - play’ and ‘a’ fair play’). - -Footnote 118: - - And in #A#, as here printed; but in the MS., by misplacement of 3, 5, - the _lover_ is absurdly made to omit telling the lass till her - wedding-day. - -Footnote 119: - - Four-and-twenty bonnie boys of the bridegroom’s party are in #C# 13 - clad in ‘the simple gray;’ for which Scott reads ‘Johnstone grey,’ - ‘the livery of the ancient family of Johnstone.’ This circumstance, - says this editor, appears to support #J#, “which gives Katharine the - surname of Johnstone.” But the grey is the livery of Lord - ‘Faughanwood’ in #C#, and the Johnstone seems to be a purely - capricious venture of Scott’s. - -Footnote 120: - - “Caddon bank,” says W. Laidlaw in a letter to Scott, September 28, - [1802], “is a very difficult pass on Tweedside opposite Innerliethen. - The road is now formed through the plantation of firs. The bank is - exceedingly steep, and I would not think it difficult even yet with - ten clever fellows to give a hundred horsemen a vast of trouble.” - Letters addressed to Sir Walter Scott, I, No 74, Abbotsford.—Callien, - etc., may be taken to be corruptions of Caden. Foudlin, in the - northern #K#, might be Foudland, Aberdeenshire. - -Footnote 121: - - The heroine of this ballad, an historical lady of high rank, was the - third in a regular line to be forcibly carried off by a lover. The - date is 1287. Her mother and her grandmother were taken by the strong - hand out of a convent in 1245 and about 1210; these much against their - will, the other not so reluctantly, according to ballads in which they - are celebrated, for curiously enough each has her ballad. See - Grundtvig, vol. iii, Nos 138, 155, and No. 181, as above, and his - remarks, p. 234, third note, and p. 738 f. - -Footnote 122: - - At the end of the account of the parish of Livingstone, in The - Statistical Account of Scotland, XX, 17, 1798, there is this - paragraph: “It may also be expected that something should be said of - the Bonny Lass of Livingstone, so famed in song; but although this - ballad and the air to which it is sung seem to have as little claim to - antiquity as they have to merit, yet we cannot give any satisfactory - information upon the subject. All we can say is, that we have heard - that she kept a public house at a place called the High House of - Livingstone, about a mile west of the church; that she was esteemed - handsome, and knew how to turn her charms to the best account.” Dr - Robertson, at the place above cited, treats this passage as pertaining - to the ballad before us. But the reference is certainly to a song - known as the “Lass o Livingston,” beginning, ‘The bonie lass o - Liviston;’ concerning which see Cromek’s Reliques of Robert Burns, p. - 204 of the edition of 1817, and Johnson’s Museum, IV, 18, 1853. - -Footnote 123: - - I will add one more corn to a heap. “Mrs Wharton, who was lately - stole, is returned home to her friends, having been married against - her consent to Captain Campbell” (November, 1690). Luttrell’s - Relation, II, 130. There is partial comfort, but somewhat cold, in the - fact that the ravisher was in many cases ultimately unsuccessful in - his object, as he is in all the ballads here given. - -Footnote 124: - - I owe the knowledge of these letters to Mr Macmath, who sent me a copy - that he was allowed to make by the courtesy of the Messrs Brodie of - Edinburgh, in whose possession they now are. - -Footnote 125: - - “Being her guardian as well as waiting-maid, as appointed by old Mrs - Gibb when on her death-bed, they being, as the saying is, cousins once - removed.” Letter of July 30. - -Footnote 126: - - The jury, in James’s trial, brought in a special verdict with the - intent to save his life, but no such effort was made in favor of Rob - Oig, though there was a mitigating circumstance in his case. For Jean - Key “had informed her friends that, on the night of her being carried - off, Robin Oig, moved by her cries and tears, had partly consented to - let her return, when James came up, with a pistol in his hand, and - asking whether he was such a coward as to relinquish an enterprise in - which he had risked everything to procure him a fortune, in a manner - compelled his brother to persevere.” It may be remarked, by the way, - that Duncan MacGregor had his trial as well, but was found not guilty. - (Scott, Introduction to “Rob Roy,” which I have mostly followed, - introducing passages from the indictment in James MacGregor’s case - when brevity would allow.) - -Footnote 127: - - “Such, at least, was his general character; for when James Mohr [the - Big], while perpetrating the violence at Edinbelly, called out, in - order to overawe opposition, that Glengyle was lying in the moor with - a hundred men to patronise his enterprise, Jean Key told him he lied, - since she was confident Glengyle would never countenance so - scoundrelly a business.” Scott, Introduction to “Rob Roy,” ed. 1846, - p. c. - -Footnote 128: - - “Leezie Lindsay from a maid-servant in Aberdeen, taken down by - Professor Scott:” Jamieson to Scott, November, 1804, Letters addressed - to Sir Walter Scott, I, No 117, Abbotsford. - -Footnote 129: - - It would have come in earlier (as No 195), had it been discovered in - time. - -Footnote 130: - - “It is a received superstition in Scotland,” says Motherwell, “that - when friends or lovers part at a bridge they shall never again meet.” - Surely, lovers who were of this way of thinking would not appoint a - bridge for a meeting. - -Footnote 131: - - But not homely enough while #C# 2, 42 are retained. The mystical - verses with which #A# and #B# begin are also not quite artless. - -Footnote 132: - - The Scotsman newspaper, November 16, 1888. - -Footnote 133: - - Buchan, by the Rev. John B. Pratt, 3d ed., 1870, p. 324 f. - -Footnote 134: - - An Aberdeen newspaper of April, 1885, from which I have a cutting. - -Footnote 135: - - Buchan gives the year as 1631, and is followed by Chambers and Aytoun. - The original tombstone having become “decayed,” Mr Gordon of Fyvie had - it replaced in 1845 with “a fac-simile in every respect.” A headstone - in the form of a cross of polished granite was added in 1869, by - public subscription. (New Statistical Account of Scotland, XII, 325; - Mill o Tifty’s Annie, Peterhead, 1872, p. 4.) - -Footnote 136: - - “I have lately, by rummaging in a by-corner of my memory, found some - Aberdeenshire ballads which totally escaped me before. They are of a - different class from those I sent you, not near so ancient, but may be - about a century ago. I cannot boast much of their poetical merits, but - the family incidents upon which they are founded, the local allusions - which they contain, may perhaps render them curious and not - uninteresting to many people. They are as follows: 1st, ‘The Baron of - Braichly’ [No 203]; 2d, ‘The Lass of Philorth [No 239 ?];’ 3d, ‘The - Tryal of the Laird of Gycht’ [No 209]; 4th, ‘The Death of the Countess - of Aboyne’ [No 235]; 5[th], ‘The Carrying-off of the Heiress of - Kinady.’ All these I can recollect pretty exactly. I never saw any of - them either in print or manuscript, but have kept them entirely from - hearing them sung when a child.” Letter to Alexander Fraser Tytler, - December 23, 1800. - - ‘Charlie MacPherson’ should have been put with Nos 221–5. - -Footnote 137: - - Epitaphs and Inscriptions . . . in the North East of Scotland, by - Andrew Jervise, 1875, I, 17. (W. Macmath.) - -Footnote 138: - - The House of Drum is a well-known mansion in Liberton, near Edinburgh, - and there is a note to #F a# importing (wrongly) that the ballad - refers to this place. - -Footnote 139: - - Lady Jean Gordon was divorced from the Earl of Bothwell in 1567, - “being then twenty years of age,” says Sir Robert Gordon. His - continuator puts her death at 1629, in her eighty-fourth year. - Genealogy of the Earls of Sutherland, pp. 143, 145, 169, 469. - -Footnote 140: - - There is, to tell the whole truth, an allusion in #A#, #H# to Jean’s - portion, or tocher, as not being sufficient to justify the breaking of - a previous engagement. One would wish to think that ‘portion’ in #A# 5 - is a corruption of ‘fortune,’ and that what is meant is that her luck - is hard. But tocher in #H# 3 is not easily disposed of. - -Footnote 141: - - The gross and uncalled-for language of father and mother in #A# 7, 10, - has slipped in by a mere trick of memory, I am convinced, from ‘Lady - Maisry,’ No 65, #B#, #C#. See again the ballad which follows this. - -Footnote 142: - - I owe the knowledge of Marshall’s and Fittis’s publications to Mr - Macmath. - -Footnote 143: - - Carruthers, Abbotsford Notanda, appended to R. Chambers’s Life of - Scott, 1871, p. 122. - - In the last edition of Sharpe’s Ballad Book (1880), p. 158, we find - this note by Scott: “I remember something of another ballad of - diablerie. A man sells himself to the fause thief for a term of years, - and the devil comes to claim his forfeit. He implores for mercy, or at - least reprieve, and, if granted, promises this: - - ‘And I will show how the lilies grow - On the banks of Italy.’ - - Satan, being no horticulturist, pays no attention to this proffer.” - Scott’s memory seems to have gone quite astray here. - -Footnote 144: - - Why the ghost should wait four years, and what is meant in st. 18 by - his travelling seven years, it is not easy to understand. The author - would probably take up the impregnable position that he was simply - relating the facts as they occurred. - -Footnote 145: - - We must not be critical about copies which have been patched by - tradition, but #F# 3 is singularly out of place for a “dæmon lover.” - -Footnote 146: - - Justifying Thackeray’s ‘Little Billee.’ - -Footnote 147: - - Five are named in #C# 3, 4, but that is too many to allow. Probably - two versions may have been combined here. #B# has only the three - mentioned in #C# 4; the three of #A# 3 are repeated in #A# 9; and - there are three only in #E# 7–9. The Black Burgess of #C# 3 occurs in - #A# 3, and ‘the smack calld (caud) Twine’ of #C# 3 looks like a - corruption of ‘the small (sma’) Cordvine.’ - -Footnote 148: - - In a note at the end of #E# (which he regarded as a variety of ‘Sir - Patrick Spens’), Burton says: “There appears to be still lurking in - some part of Aberdeenshire a totally different version of this ballad, - connected with the localities of the North [that is, not with - Dunfermline, with which ‘Young Allan’ has no concern, or with Linn or - Lee, which are in Outopia]. A person who remembered having heard it - said that it ends happily, with the mariners drinking the bluid-red - wine at Aberdeen. It mentions Bennachie, or the Hill of Mist, a - celebrated hill in Aberdeenshire, which is seen far out at sea, and - seems to have guided the gallant mariner to the shore.” All the copies - “end happily” so far as Young Allan is concerned, and this is all that - we are supposed to care for. - -Footnote 149: - - Mr Macmath informs me that all the traditional pieces in “Scottish - Songs” are in the hand of Scott, of about 1795. At folio 11 (the top - part of which has been torn away), Scott says: “These ballads are all - in the Northern dialect, but I recollect several of them as recited in - the south of Scotland divested of their Norlandisms, and also varying - considerably in other respects. In a few instances where my memory - served me, I have adopted either additional verses or better readings - than those in Mr Tytler’s collection. Such variations can excite no - reasonable surprise in any species of composition which owes - preservation to oral tradition only.” - -Footnote 150: - - ‘C,’ safely to be identified with John Wilson Croker, says Colonel W. - F. Prideaux, who, in Notes and Queries, VI, xii, 223, has brought - together most of the matter pertaining to this ballad. If Colonel - Prideaux’s supposition is well founded, ‘The Grey Cock’ was known in - Ireland in the last century. - -Footnote 151: - - Scott suggested that the passage in Knox was the foundation of the - ballad, January, 1802, in the first edition of his Minstrelsy, where - only three stanzas were given. The Rev. Mr Paxton, however, first saw - Scott’s fragment not long before 1804, and then in the second number - of the Edinburgh Review, where there is no mention of the apothecary. - Thereupon, he says, I “instantly” wrote the enclosed piece from the - mouth of my aged mother. There is no room, consequently, for the - supposition that either mother or son might have taken a hint from - Knox, and put in the pottinger. - -Footnote 152: - - Compare here ‘Adam Bell,’ V, 28, stanzas 125, 128. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES - - - Page Changed from Changed to - - 49 Motherwelll’s MS. Motherwell’s MS. - - 2^1. wi birk and brume. Note: The ‘i’ in “birk” appears - 77 to have a ring instead of a - dot. - - #O.# ‘Lord Jamie Douglas,’ “#N.# ‘Lord Jamie Douglas,’ - Motherwell’s Minstrelsy, Motherwell’s Minstrelsy, - Appendix, p. v, the last three Appendix, p. v, the last three - 90 stanzas. stanzas. - #N.# ‘Jamie Douglas,’ #O.# ‘Jamie Douglas,’ - Motherwell’s Minstrelsy, Motherwell’s Minstrelsy, - Appendix, p. xvii, IX, one Appendix, p. xvii, IX, one - stanza. stanza. - - 1. Except as noted, all spelling errors were left uncorrected. - 2. All punctuation was left uncorrected, except as follows. - 3. A beginning or ending quote mark was added for obviously unbalanced - pairs of quotes. - 4. Full stops and commas were made consistent for the verse & line - references, for example, “12^1,” was corrected to “12^1.” - 5. Footnotes have been re-indexed using numbers and collected together - at the end of the last chapter. - 6. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_. - 7. Enclosed bold font in #number signs#. - 8. Enclosed letter spaced font in _double angle quotation marks_. - 9. Superscripts are denoted by a caret before a single superscript - character or a series of superscripted characters enclosed in - curly braces, e.g. M^r. or M^{ister}. -10. Superscript letters centered over subscript periods or colons are - denoted by [th :]. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The English and Scottish Popular -Ballads, Volume 4 (of 5), by Various - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENGLISH, SCOTTISH POPULAR BALLADS, VOL 4 *** - -***** This file should be named 63116-0.txt or 63116-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/3/1/1/63116/ - -Produced by Richard Tonsing, Katherine Ward, Alicia -Williams, David T. Jones, and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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