The English and Scottish Popular Ballads :: :: University of Virginia Library

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Kinloch's Ballad Book, p. 74, 1827.

The Laird o Leys is to London gane;
He was baith full and gawdie;
For he shod his steed wi siller guid,
And he's playd the ranting laddie.

He hadna been in fair London
A twalmonth and a quarter,
Till he met wi a weel-faurd may,
Wha wishd to know how they ca'd him.

‘They ca me this, and they ca me that,
And they're easy how they've ca'd me;

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But whan I'm at hame on bonnie Deeside
They ca me The Ranting Laddie.’

‘Awa wi your jesting, sir,’ she said,
‘I trow you're a ranting laddie;
But something swells atween my sides,
And I maun ken how they ca thee.’

‘They ca me this, and they ca me that,
And they're easy how they ca me;
The Baron o Leys my title is,
And Sandy Burnet they ca me.’

‘Tell down, tell down ten thousand crowns,
Or ye maun marry me the morn;
Or headit or hangit ye sall be,
For ye sanna gie me the scorn.’

‘My head's the thing I canna weel want;
My lady she loves me dearlie;
Nor yet hae I means ye to maintain;
Alas for the lying sae near thee!’

But word's gane doun to the Lady o Leys
That the Baron had got a babie:
‘The waurst o news!’ my lady she said,
‘I wish I had hame my laddie.

‘But I'll sell aff my jointure-house,
Tho na mair I sud be a ladie;
I'll sell a' to my silken goun,
And bring hame my rantin laddie.’

So she is on to London gane,
And she paid the money on the morn;
She paid it doun and brought him hame,
And gien them a' the scorn.