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The English and Scottish Popular Ballads

Edited by Francis James Child.

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Rob Roy
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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Rob Roy

ROB ROY—B

[_]

Kinloch MSS, I, 343.

1

Rob Roy frae the Hielands cam
Unto the Lawland border,
And he has stown a ladie fair,
To haud his house in order.

2

He guarded the house round about,
Himsel went in and found her out,
She hung close by her mither;
Wi dolefu cries and watery eyes
They parted frae each ither.

3

‘Gang wi me, my dear,’ he says,
‘Gang and be my honey;
Gang and be my wedded wife,
I loe ye best o onie.’

4

‘I winna gang wi you,’ she says,
‘I winna be your honey;
I winna be your wedded wife;
Ye loe me for my money.’

5

He gied na her na time to dress
As ladies whan they're brides,
But hurried her awa wi speed,
And rowd her in his plaids.

6

He gat her up upon a horse,
Himsel lap on ahind her;
And they're awa to the Hieland hills;
Her friends they canna find her.

7

As they gaed oure the Hieland hills,
This lady aften fainted,
Saying, Wae be to my cursed gowd,
This road to me invented!

8

As they gaed oure the Hieland hills,
And at Buchanan tarried,
He bought to her baith cloak and goun,
Yet she wadna be married.

9

Six held her up afore the priest,
Four laid her in a bed, O;
Maist mournfully she wept and cried
Whan she bye him was laid, O.

247

10

‘O be content, be content,
Be content to stay, ladie;
For now ye are my wedded wife
Unto your dying day, ladie.

11

‘Rob Roy was my father calld,
M'Gregor was his name, ladie;
And in a' the country whare he dwalt
He exceeded ae in fame, ladie.

12

‘He was a hedge unto his friends,
A heckle to his faes, ladie;
And ilka ane that did him wrang,
He beat him on the neis, ladie.

13

‘I'm as bold, I am as bold
As my father was afore, ladie;
Ilka ane that does me wrang
Sall feel my gude claymore, ladie.

14

‘There neer was frae Lochlomond west
That eer I did him fear, ladie;
For, if his person did escape,
I seizd upon his gear, ladie.

15

‘My father delights in horse and kye,
In sheep and goats and a', ladie,
And thee wi me and thirty merks
Will mak me a man fu braw, ladie.

16

‘I hae been in foreign lands,
And servd the king o France, ladie;
We will get the bagpipes,
And we'll hae a dance, ladie.’