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

Motherwell's MS., p. 255; Motherwell's Minstrelsy, p. 282. From the singing of Widow McCormick, Paisley, January 19, 1825. Learned by her of an old woman in Dumbarton: Motherwell's Note Book, fol. 4.

1

Child Noryce is a clever young man,
He wavers wi the wind;
His horse was silver-shod before,
With the beaten gold behind.

2

He called to his little man John,
Saying, You don't see what I see;
For O yonder I see the very first woman
That ever loved me.

3

‘Here is a glove, a glove,’ he said,
‘Lined with the silver grey;
You may tell her to come to the merry greenwood,
To speak to Child Nory.

4

‘Here is a ring, a ring,’ he says,
‘It's all gold but the stane;
You may tell her to come to the merry greenwood,
And ask the leave o nane.’

5

‘So well do I love your errand, my master,
But far better do I love my life;
O would ye have me go to Lord Barnard's castle,
To betray away his wife?’

6

‘O don't I give you meat,’ he says,
‘And don't I pay you fee?
How dare you stop my errand?’ he says;
‘My orders you must obey.’

7

O when he came to Lord Bernard's castle,
He tinkled at the ring;
Who was as ready as Lord Barnard himself
To let this little boy in?

8

‘Here is a glove, a glove,’ he says,
‘Lined with the silver grey;
You are bidden to come to the merry greenwood,
To speak to Child Nory.

9

‘Here is a ring, a ring,’ he says,
‘It's all gold but the stane;
You are bidden to come to the merry greenwood,
And ask the leave o nane.’

267

10

Lord Barnard he was standing by,
And an angry man was he:
‘O little did I think there was a lord in the world
My lady loved but me!’

11

O he dressed himself in the holland smock,
And garments that was gay,
And he is away to the merry green-wood,
To speak to Child Nory.

12

Child Noryce sits on yonder tree,
He whistles and he sings:
‘O wae be to me,’ says Child Noryce,
‘Yonder my mother comes!’

13

Child Noryce he came off the tree,
His mother to take off the horse:
‘Och alace, alace,’ says Child Noryce,
‘My mother was neer so gross!’

14

Lord Barnard he had a little small sword,
That hung low down by his knee;
He cut the head off Child Noryce,
And put the body on a tree.

15

And when he came home to his castell,
And to his ladie's hall,
He threw the head into her lap,
Saying, Lady, there's a ball!

16

She turned up the bloody head,
She kissed it frae cheek to chin:
‘Far better do I love this bloody head
Than all my royal kin.

17

‘When I was in my father's castel,
In my virginity,
There came a lord into the North,
Gat Child Noryce with me.’

18

‘O wae be to thee, Lady Margaret,’ he sayd,
‘And an ill death may you die;
For if you had told me he was your son,
He had neer been slain by me.’