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

Motherwell's MS. p. 149,; Motherwell's Minstrelsy, p. 200: from the recitation of Mrs Thomson, Kilbarchan, a native of Bonhill, Dumbartonshire, aged betwixt sixty and seventy.

1

It's fifty miles to Sittingen's Rocks,
As eer was ridden or gane;
And Earl Robert has wedded a wife,
But he dare na bring her hame.
And Earl Robert has wedded a wife,
But he dare na bring her hame.

2

His mother, she called to her waiting-maid,
To bring her a pint o wine:
‘For I dinna weel ken what hour of the day
That my son Earl Robert shall dine.’

3

She's put it to her fause, fause cheek,
But an her fause, fause chin;
She's put it to her fause, fause lips,
But never a drap went in.

4

But he's put it to his bonny cheek,
Aye and his bonny chin;
He's put it to his red rosy lips,
And the poison went merrily doun.

5

‘O where will I get a bonny boy,
That will win hose and shoon,
That will gang quickly to Sittingen's Rocks,
And bid my lady come?’

6

It's out then speaks a bonny boy,
To Earl Robert was something akin:
‘Many a time have I ran thy errand,
But this day wi the tears I'll rin.’

7

Bat when he came to Sittingin's Rocks,
To the middle of a' the ha,
There were bells a ringing, and music playing,
And ladies dancing a'.

8

‘What news, what news, my bonny boy?
What news have ye to me?
Is Earl Robert in very good health,
And the ladies of your countrie?’

9

‘O Earl Robert's in very good health,
And as weel as a man can be;
But his mother this night has a drink to be druken,
And at it you must be.’

286

10

She called to her waiting-maid,
To bring her a riding-weed,
And she called to her stable-groom,
To saddle her milk-white steed.

11

But when she came to Earl Robert's bouir,
To the middle of a' the ha,
There were bells a ringing, and sheets doun hinging,
And ladies mourning a'.

12

‘I've come for none of his gold,’ she said,
‘Nor none of his white monie,
Excepting a ring of his smallest finger,
If that you will grant me.’

13

‘Thou'll not get none of his gold,’ she said,
‘Nor none of his white monie;
Thou'll not get a ring of his smallest finger,
Tho thy heart should break in three.’

14

She set her foot unto a stane,
Her back unto a tree;
She set her foot unto a stane,
And her heart did break in three.

15

The one was buried in Mary's kirk,
The other in Mary's quire;
Out of the one there grew a birk,
From the other a bonnie brier.

16

And these twa grew, and these twa threw,
Till their twa craps drew near;
So all the warld may plainly see
That they loved each other dear.