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

a. Motherwell's MS., p. 61, from the recitation of Miss Stevenson of Glasgow, January 22, 1825; Motherwell's Minstrelsy, p. 218. b. Motherwell's Minstrelsy, Appendix, p. xvii, VIII, one stanza.

1

Earl Richard is a hunting gone,
As fast as he can ride,
His hunting-horn hung about his neck,
And a small sword by his side.

2

When he came to my lady's gate
He tirled at the pin,
And wha was sae ready as the lady hersell
To open and let him in.

3

‘O light, O light, Earl Richard,’ she says,
‘O light and stay a' night;
You shall have cheer wi charcoal clear,
And candles burning bright.’

4

‘I will not light, I cannot light,
I cannot light at all;
A fairer lady than ten of thee
Is waiting at Richard's Wall.’

5

He stooped from his milk-white steed,
To kiss her rosy cheek;
She had a pen-knife in her hand,
And wounded him so deep.

6

‘O lie ye there, Earl Richard,’ she says,
‘O lie ye there till morn;
A fairer lady than ten of me
Will think lang of your coming home.’

7

She called her servants ane by ane,
She called them twa by twa:
‘I have got a dead man in my bower,
I wish he were awa.’

8

The one has taen [him] by the hand,
And the other by the feet,
And they've thrown him in a deep draw-well,
Full fifty fathom deep.

9

Then up bespake a little bird,
That sat upon a tree:
‘Gae hame, gae hame, ye false lady,
And pay your maids their fee.’

10

‘Come down, come down, my pretty bird,
That sits upon the tree;
I have a cage of beaten gold,
I'll gie it unto thee.’

11

‘Gae hame, gae hame, ye fause lady,
And pay your maids their fee;
As ye have done to Earl Richard,
Sae wud ye do to me.’

12

‘If I had an arrow in my hand,
And a bow bent on a string,
I'd shoot a dart at thy proud heart,
Amang the leaves sae green.’