Part 35

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?’