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The English and Scottish Popular Ballads

Edited by Francis James Child.

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256

LITTLE MUSGRAVE AND LADY BARNARD—K

[_]

Dr Joseph Robertson's Journal of Excursions, No 5, taken down from a man in the parish of Leochel, Aberdeenshire, February 12, 1829.

1

It's four and twenty bonny boys
Were playin at the ba,
And out it cums Lord Barnet's ladie,
And playit out ower them a'.

2

And aye she shot it's Little Mousgray,
As clear as any sun:
‘O what wad ye gie, it's Little Mousgray,
It's in O my arms to won?’

3

‘For no, for no, my gay ladie,
For no, that maunna be;
For well ken I by the rings on your fingers,
Lord Barnet's ladie are ye.’

4

When supper was over, and mass was sung,
And a' man boun for bed,
It's Little Mousgray and that lady
In ae chamber was laid.

5

It's up and starts her little foot-page,
Just up at her bed-feet:
‘Hail weel, hail weel, my little foot-page,
Hail well this deed on me,
An ever I lee my life to brook,
I'se pay you well your fee.’

6

Out it spaks it's Little Mousgray:
‘I think I hear a horn blaw;
She blaws baith loud and shill at ilka turning of the tune,
Mousgray, gae ye your wa!’

7

‘Lie still, lie still, it's Little Mousgray,
Had the caul win frae my back;
It's bat my father's proud shepherds,
The're huntin their hogs to the fauld.’

8

O up it starts the bold Barnet:
[OMITTED]
[OMITTED]
[OMITTED]

9

‘Win up, win up, it's Little Mousgray,
Draw ti your stockins and sheen;
I winna have it for to be said
I killed a naked man.

10

‘There is two swords in my scabbart,
They cost me many a pun;
Tak ye the best, and I the warst,
And we sall to the green.’

11

The firsten strok Lord Barnet strak,
He wound Mousgray very sore;
The nexten stroke Lord Barnet strak,
Mousgray spak never more.

12

O he's taen out a lang, lang brand,
And stripped it athwart the straw,
And throch and throu his ain ladie
And he's gart it cum and ga.

13

There was nae main made for that ladie,
In bower whar she lay dead!
But a' was for her bonny young son,
Lay blobberin amang the bluid.