Ed de Moel

Child Ballads - Additions and Corrections

200. The Gypsy Laddie

P. 66. B a. A copy of this version in C.K. Sharpe's papers, "written from recitation in Nithisdale, November, 1814," shows that improvements had been introduced by two hands, one of them Sharpe's, neither of them the writer's. The changes are of no radical importance; simply of the familiar kind which almost every editor has, for some reason, felt himself called upon to make. It may be thought that they are no more worth indicating than they were worth making, but it has been an object in this book to give things exactly as they were delivered. The original readings are as follows.

   11. C for Cassilis throughout.
13. so.
14. Till.
24. cast.
31. to wanting.
32,3. give.
34. rings of her fingers.
41,2. you.
43. hilt of.
44, 94, 164. no more.
61,3. Jackie.
73, 83. farmer's barn.
83, 113. most.
84. crae.
91,2. O wanting.
103, 111, 143. on water.
111. Many a time have.
174. mother bore me.
183. And wanting.

73.

L

Communicated to the Journal of The Gypsy Society, II, 85, by Mr. John Sampson, from the dictation of Lias Robinson, a Gypsy. A translation into Gypsy, by Robinson and his brothers, is given at p. 84 of the same.

1   A band of gypsies, all in a road,
All so black and brawny, oh
Away come a lady all dressed in silk,
To follow the roving gypsies, oh
      The gypsies, oh!
      The gypsies, oh!
To follow the roving gypsies, oh!
2   Her husband came home at ten o'clock of night,
And asked for his lady fair;
The servant informed him very soon
She had gone with the roving gypsies.
      The gypsies, oh!
      The gypsies, oh!
She had gone with the roving gypsies.
3   'Saddle to me my bonny gray mare,
Saddle to me my pony;
I will go where the green grass grow,
To find out the roving gypsies.
      The gypsies, oh!
      The gypsies, oh!
To find out the roving gypsies.
4   'Last night she slept in a fair feather-bed,
And blankets by bonins;
Tonight she sleeps in a cold shed-barn,
Through following the roving gypsies.
      The gypsies, oh!
      The gypsies, oh!
Through following the roving gypsies.
5   'Why did you leave your houses and your lands?
Why did you leave your babies?
Why did you leave your decent married man,
To follow the roving gypsies?'
      The gypsies, oh!
      The gypsies, oh!
To follow the roving gypsies?'
6   'What cares I for my houses and my lands?
What cares I for my babies?
What cares I for my decent married man?
I will go with the roving gypsies.'
      The gypsies, oh!
      The gypsies, oh!
I will go with the roving gypsies.'
   12. Var. and bonny.

From a small Manuscript volume, "Songs," entirely in C.K. Sharpe's handwriting, p. 32 (corresponding to B 11, D 6, E 7.)

  Yestreen I rade yon wan water,
Wi my gude lord before me;
The day I maun pit down my bonnie fit and wade,
What ever may come oer me.

P. 61 ff., V, 252. The three stanzas which follow are given in H.A. Kennedy's "Professor Blackie: his Sayings and Doings, London, 1895" as they were sung by Marion Stodart, Professor Blackie's aunt, to her sister's children. P. 12 f. (Communicated by Mr. David MacRitchie, of Edinburgh.)

  There were seven gypsies all in a row,
And they were brisk and bonny; O
They sang till they came to the Earl o Cassilis' gate,
And there they sang sae sweetly. O
  They sang sae sweet and sae complete
That doun came the fair leddy;
And when they saw her weel-faured face
They cast the glamour ower her.
  So she's taen off her high-heeled shoes,
That are made o the Spanish leather,
And she's put on her Highland brogues,
To skip amang the heather.

"On the discovery of which the earl 'saddled to him his milk-white steed,' and rested not till he had hanged the seven gypsies on a tree."

O at the end of the second and the fourth verse of each stanza.

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