THE GYPSY LADDIE—B
[_]
a. The Edinburgh Magazine and Literary Miscellany,
being a new series of the Scots Magazine (vol. lxxx of the
entire work), November, 1817, p. 309, communicated by
Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, as taken down from the recitation
of a peasant in Galloway. b. A fragment recited by
Miss Fanny Walker, of Mount Pleasant, near Newburgh-on-Tay,
as communicated by Mr Alexander Laing, 1873.
1
The gypsies they came to my lord Cassilis' yett,
And O but they sang bonnie!
They sang sae sweet and sae complete
That down came our fair ladie.
2
She came tripping down the stairs,
And all her maids before her;
As soon as they saw her weel-far'd face,
They coost their glamourie owre her.
3
She gave to them the good wheat bread,
And they gave her the ginger;
But she gave them a far better thing,
The gold ring off her finger.
4
‘Will ye go with me, my hinny and my heart?
Will ye go with me, my dearie?
And I will swear, by the staff of my spear,
That your lord shall nae mair come near thee.’
5
‘Sae take from me my silk mantel,
And bring to me a plaidie,
For I will travel the world owre
Along with the gypsie laddie.
6
‘I could sail the seas with my Jockie Faa,
I could sail the seas with my dearie;
I could sail the seas with my Jockie Faa,
And with pleasure could drown with my dearie.
7
They wandred high, they wandred low,
They wandred late and early,
Untill they came to an old tenant's-barn,
And by this time she was weary.
8
‘Last night I lay in a weel-made bed,
And my noble lord beside me,
And now I must ly in an old tenant's-barn,
And the black crew glowring owre me.’
9
‘O hold your tongue, my hinny and my heart,
O hold your tongue, my dearie,
For I will swear, by the moon and the stars,
That thy lord shall nae mair come near thee.’
10
They wandred high, they wandred low,
They wandred late and early,
Untill they came to that wan water,
And by this time she was wearie.
11
‘Aften have I rode that wan water,
And my lord Cassilis beside me,
And now I must set in my white feet and wade,
And carry the gypsie laddie.’
12
By and by came home this noble lord,
And asking for his ladie,
The one did cry, the other did reply,
‘She is gone with the gypsie laddie.’
13
‘Go saddle to me the black,’ he says,
‘The brown rides never so speedie,
And I will neither eat nor drink
Till I bring home my ladie.’
14
He wandred high, he wandred low,
He wandred late and early,
Untill he came to that wan water,
And there he spied his ladie.
15
‘O wilt thou go home, my hinny and my heart,
O wilt thou go home, my dearie?
And I'll close thee in a close room,
Where no man shall come near thee.”
16
‘I will not go home, my hinny and my heart,
I will not go home, my dearie;
If I have brewn good beer, I will drink of the same,
And my lord shall nae mair come near me.
17
‘But I will swear, by the moon and the stars,
And the sun that shines so clearly,
That I am as free of the gypsie gang
As the hour my mother did bear me.’
18
They were fifteen valiant men,
Black, but very bonny,
And they lost all their lives for one,
The Earl of Cassillis' ladie.
