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

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Skene MS., p. 55; taken down in the North of Scotland, 1802-3.

‘Oft have I playd at the cards an the dyce,
The war so very enticin;
But this is a sad an a sorrowfu seat,
To see my apron risin.

‘Oft hae I playd at the cards an the dice
For love of my [rantin] laddie;
But now I man sit in my father's kitchie-nouk,
A rokkin o my baby.

‘But gin I had ane o my father's servans,
For he has so mony,
That wad gae to the wood o Glentanner,
Wi a letter to the rantin laddie!’

‘Here am I, ane o your father's servans,
For he has sae mony,
That will gae to the wood o Glentanner,
Wi a letter to the rantin laddie.’

‘Fan ye gae to Aboyne,
To the woods o Glentanner sae bonny,
Wi your hat in your hand gie a bow to the ground,
In the presence o the rantin laddie.’

Fan he gaed to Aboyne,
To the woods o Glentanner sae bonny,
Wi his hat in his hand he gied a bow to the ground,
In the presence of the rantin laddie.

Fan he looked the letter on
Sae loud as he was laughin!
But or he read it to an end
The tears they cam down rappin.

‘O fa is this or fa is that
Has been so ill to my Maggie?
[OMITTED]
[OMITTED]

‘But ye gett four-and-twenty milk white steeds,
Wi an car [OMITTED]
An as mony gay ladies to ride them on,
To gae an bring hame my Maggie.’

‘Ye get four-an-twenty bonny brown steeds,
Wi an car o an ome,
An as mony knights to ride them on,
To gae an bring hame my Maggie.’

Ye lasses a', far ever ye be,
An ye match wi ony o our Deeside laddies,
Ye'll happy be, ye'l happy be,
For they are frank an kind.