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

Richardson's Borderer's Table Book, VIII, 410, 1846, communicated by Mrs Blackett, Newcastle, as taken down from the recitation of an old woman of Ovington, Northumberland, “several years ago;” previously in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1835, p. 11.

1

The lord said to his ladie,
as he mounted his horse,
Beware of Long Lonkin,
that lies in the moss.

2

The lord said to his ladie,
as he rode away,
Beware of Long Lonkin,
that lies in the clay.

3

‘What care I for Lonkin,
or any of his gang?
My doors are all shut,
and my windows penned in.’

4

There were six little windows,
and they were all shut,
But one little window,
and that was forgot.

5

[OMITTED]
[OMITTED]
And at that little window
long Lonkin crept in.

6

‘Where's the lord of the hall?’
says the Lonkin:
‘He's gone up to London,’
says Orange to him.

7

‘Where's the men of the hall?’
says the Lonkin:
‘They're at the field ploughing,’
says Orange to him.

8

‘Where's the maids of the hall?’
says the Lonkin:
‘They're at the well washing,’
says Orange to him.

9

‘Where's the ladies of the hall?’
says the Lonkin:
‘They're up in their chambers,’
says Orange to him.

10

‘How shall we get them down?’
says the Lonkin:
‘Prick the babe in the cradle,’
says Orange to him.

11

‘Rock well my cradle,
and bee-ba my son;
You shall have a new gown
when the lord he comes home.’

12

Still she did prick it,
and bee-ba she cried:
‘Come down, dearest mistress,
and still your own child.’

13

‘Oh still my child, Orange,
still him with a bell:’
‘I can't still him, ladie,
till you come down yoursell.’

[OMITTED]

14

‘Hold the gold basin,
for your heart's blood to run in,’
[OMITTED]
[OMITTED]

15

‘To hold the gold basin,
it grieves me full sore;
Oh kill me, dear Lonkin,
and let my mother go.’