"Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy," No
72, Thomas Wilkie's Manuscript, 1813-15, p. 74, Abbotsford;
taken down from the recitation of a female friend, who
sang it to a lively air.
1 |
It fell about the Martinmas,
When the gentlemen were drinking there wine,
And a' the discourse that they had
Was about the ladies they gude fine. |
2 |
It's up an spake a tall young man,
The tallest o the companie;
'The bonniest lass that I ken off
She lives into the hee town hee. |
3 |
'O I would give a guinea of gold,
A guinea and a pint of wine,
I would give it to the hostler's wife,
For to wile that bonny lassie in.' |
4 |
The hostler's wife gaed down the stair,
And she's looked hersell round near by,
And there she spied the bonny handsom girl,
Coming walking down the hee town high. |
5 |
'Come in, come in, my bonny handsom girl,
Come speak one word with me;
Come taste a little of our wine,
For it's new come out of Italie.' |
6 |
So willillie she wil'd her up,
And so willillie she wil'd her in,
And so cunningly she's locked the door,
And she's comd down the stair again. |
7 |
One of them took her by the milk-white hand,
And he's laid her body on the ground,
And aye she sightd, and said, Alass,
'Tis a sin to do me wrong! |
8 |
'But since ye hae done sae muckle to me,
And brought me to so muckle shame,
O wad ye be so kind to me
As to tell to me your name.' |
9 |
'Of if I tell to you my name,
It's a thing I never did to none;
But I will tell to the, my dear;
I am the Earl of Beaton's son.' |
10 |
When two years were past and gone,
This gentleman came walking by,
And there he spied the bonny handsome girl,
Coming walking down the hie town high. |
11 |
'To whom belongs that pretty child,
That blinks with its pretty eye?'
'His father's from home and has left me alone,
And I have been at the fold milking my ky.' |
12 |
'You lie, you lie, my bonny handsome girl,
So loudlie I hear you lie;
O do not you mind that happie day
When ye was drinking the wine wi me?' |
13 |
He's lighted off his milk-white steed,
He's kissd her both cheeck and chin;
He's made a' the servants in Beaton castle
To welcome this fair lady in. |