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

Communicated to Scott November 11, 1812, by Hugh Irvine, Drum, Aberdeenshire, as procured from the recitation of an old woman in Buchan: Letters, V, No 137, Abbotsford. (Not in Irvine's hand.)

1

Leady Margat stands in her boor-door,
Clead in the robs of green;
She longed to go to Charters Woods,
To pull the flowers her lean.

2

She had not puld a rose, a rose,
O not a rose but one,
Till up it starts True Thomas,
Said, Leady, let alone.

3

‘Why pull ye the rose, Marget?
Or why break ye the tree?
Or why come ye to Charters Woods
Without the leave of me?’

4

‘I will pull the rose,’ she said,
‘And I will break the tree,
For Charters Woods is all my own,
And I'l ask no leave of the.’

5

He's tean her by the milk-white hand,
And by the grass-green sleeve,
And laid her lo at the foot of the tree,
At her he askt no leave.

6

It fell once upon a day
They wer a pleaying at the ba,
And every one was reed and whyte,
Leady Marget's culler was all awa.

7

Out it speaks an elder man,
As he stood in the gate,
‘Our king's daughter she gos we bern,
And we will get the wait.’

8

‘If I be we bern,’ she said,
‘My own self beer the blame!
There is not a man in my father's court
Will get my bern's name.’

9

‘There grows a flower in Charters Woods,
It grows on gravel greay,
It ould destroy the boney young bern
That ye got in your pley.’

10

She's tean her mantle her about,
Her green glove on her hand,
And she's awa to Charters Woods,
As fest as she could gang.

11

She had no puld a pile, a pile,
O not a pile but one,
Up it startid True Thomas,
Said, Leady, lat alean.

12

‘Why pull ye the pile, Marget,
That grows on gravel green,
For to destroy the boney young bern
That we got us between?’

13

‘If it were to an earthly man,
As [it is] to an elphan knight,
I ould walk for my true-love's sake
All the long winter's night.’

14

‘When I was a boy of eleven years old,
And much was made of me,
I went out to my father's garden,
Fell asleep at yon aple tree:
The queen of Elphan [she] came by,
And laid on her hands on me.

15

‘Elphan it's a boney place,
In it fain wid I dwall;
But ey at every seven years end
We pay the teene to hell:
I'm so full of flesh and blood
I'm sear feart for mysel.

16

‘The morn's Hallow Even's night,
When a' our courts do ride,
Through England and through Irland,
Through a' the world wide:
And she that would her true-love borrow
At Miles Corse she may bide.

17

‘The first an court that ye come till,
Ye let them a' pass by;
The next an court that ye come till,
Ye hile them reverendly.

18

‘The next an court that ye come till,
An therein rides the queen,

Me upon a milk-whyte steed,
And a gold star in my croun;
Because I am a erle's soon,
I get that for my renoun.

19

‘Ye take me in your armes,
Give me a right sear fa;
The queen of Elphan she'l cry out,
True Thomas is awa!

20

‘First I'l be in your armes
The fire burning so bold;
Ye hold me fast, let me no pass
Till I be like iron cold.

21

‘Next I'l be in your armes
The fire burning so wild;
Ye hold me fast, let me no pass,
I'm the father of your child.’

22

The first court that came her till,
She let them a' pass by;
The nex an court that came her till,
She helt them reverendly.

23

The nex an court that came her till,
And therein read the queen,
True Thomas on a milk-whyte steed,
A gold star in his croun;
Because he was a earl's soon,
He got that for his renoun.

24

She's tean him in her arms,
Geen him a right sore fa;
The queen of Elphan she cried out,
True Thomas is awa!

25

He was into her arms
The fire burning so bold;
She held him fast, let him no pass
Till he was like iron cold.

26

He was into her arms
The fire burning so wild;
She held him fast, let him no pass,
He was the father of her child.

27

The queen of Elphan she cried out,
An angry woman was she,
‘Let Leady Marget an her true-love be,
She's bought him dearer than me.’