| A. a. |
"I have here given another copy of this
Border Ballad, which I took from a Manuscript
collection of Mr. Henderson. It varies a
little from the former [A], which I had
from Dr. Clapperton of Lochmaben."
44, 134, 184. The Wanton Brown is a mare:
so b, and D, 94.
But the Brown is a stallion in C,
34, 84, 134, and is so made to be
in A c, 134, 173:
rightly, I should suppose.
82. say.
124. to wanting. |
| b. |
The third and fourth lines are repeated as burden.
11. O heard ye of a silly harper.
12. Livd long.
13, he did.
81. he wanting.
92. lords gaed through.
94. That they forgat.
144. ere it.
152. gae.
161. raise.
171. then (misprint) for those.
173. gainst.
213. shall. |
| C. |
No burden.
11. heard ye na o.
12. How lang he lived.
13. And how.
14, steal the Lord Warden's.
22. the haste.
23. will neer gae weel.
31. hast.
32. That can baith lance oer laigh.
33. Sae set thee on the gray mare's back.
4, 5, wanting.
62. And even: he may drie.
63. And when he cam to Carlisle gate.
64. whae: but the Warden, he.
71. into my hall, thou.
74. I wad.
81. The Warden lookd ower.
82. said.
83. silly blind.
84. beside.
91. Then aye.
92. the lordlings footed.
93. But an the.
94. The groom had nae mind o.
102. were fast.
111hied.
114. gude wanting.
121. took a cowt halter.
122. he did.
131. He turned them loose at the castle gate.
132. muir and moss.
133. neer let: bait.
134. But kept him a-galloping hame to her foal.
141. The mare she was: foot.
142. She didna.
144. A lang: before the day.
153. Rise up.
161. cloathes.
162. keekit through at the.
163. then cried.
164. braw brown.
171. haud thy tongue, thou silly wench.
172. morn's: in your ee.
173. 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.
193. Behold the Wanton Brown was gane.
194. poor blind.
201. quo the cunning auld.
202. And ever allace.
203. 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 sail thy cowt-foal be,
And thou sail 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. |
12, in a Bell town: see 131.
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. |
32, 42, 61, 181,
oh.
101, at,
161, then, added by
Mr. Murray in pencil above the line, as if
on reading over what he had written down.
184. Dr. Mitchell gives: An waps.
"The owerword," he adds, "was something like the
following:"
Hey turn tidly
Doodlem didly
Hey turn tidly
Doodley dan. |
| E. |
22. The reading is perhaps pounds.
72,3. Absurdity could be avoided by exchanging
grey mare and steed.
242. by for my. |
