Ballads of Scottish Tradition and Romance Popular Ballads of the Olden Times - Third Series

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.'

7. Then they're com'd on to the poor fool's house, And they have broken his wals so wide; They have loos'd out Dick o' the Cow's kyne three, And tane three co'erlets off his wif...

+The Story+ is so slight that the song can scarcely be counted as a narrative. But it is one of the lyrical dialogues covered by the word 'ballad,' and was not ruled out by Prof...

+The Text+ is from Motherwell's MS., a copy from tradition in Renfrewshire in 1825. The ballad exists both in English and Scottish, and though the English ballad is probably der...

1. Woe worth thee, woe worth thee, false Scotland! For thou hast ever wrought by a sleight; For the worthiest prince that ever was born You hanged under a cloud by night.

4. The king he writt an a letter then, A letter which was large and long; He signëd it with his owne hand, And he promised to doe him no wrong.

27. And when we reach'd the Staneshaw-bank, The wind was rising loud and hie; And there the laird garr'd leave our steeds, For fear that they should stamp and nie.

37. Thorowe lyvar and longës bathe the sharpe arrowe ys gane, That never after in all his lyffe-days he spayke mo wordës but ane: That was, 'Fyghte ye, my myrry men, whyllys ye...

This text file comes in two formats, Latin-1 and ASCII (7-bit). In the ASCII-7 version, some information will be lost. The affected characters-- all lower-case-- are æ ë ï ü ÿ ç...

[Annotations: 1.2: 'knows,' knolls. 1.4: 'bught,' sheep-pen. 9.4: 'your lain,' by yourself. 11.1: 'tod,' fox. 18.2: 'plows': as much land as a plough will till in a year.]