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

From a copy formerly in the possession of Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe. “Copied 1823” is endorsed on the sheet (in the hand which made an insertion in st. 11) and crossed out.

1

Two pretty boys lived in the North,
The went to the school so rare;
The one unto the other said,
We'll try some battle of war.

2

The worselaid up, the worselaid down,
Till John lay on the ground;
A pen-knife out of William's pocket
Gave John a deadly wound.

3

‘O is it for my gold?’ he said,
‘Or for my rich monie?
Or is it for my land sa broad,
That you have killed me?’

4

‘It's neither for your gold,’ he said,
‘Or for your rich monie,
But it is for your land sa broad
That I have killed thee.’

5

‘You'll take [me] up upon your back,
Carry me to Wastlen kirk-yard;
You'ill houk a hole large and deep,
And lay my body there.

6

‘You'll put a good stone ou my head,
Another at my feet,
A good green turf upon my breast,
That the sounder I m[a]y sleep.

7

‘And if my father chance to ask
What's come of your brother John,
[OMITTED]
[OMITTED]

[OMITTED]

8

‘What blood is this upon your coat?
I pray come tell to me;’
‘It is the blood of my grey hound,
It would not run for me.’

9

‘The blood of your greyhound was near so red,
I pray come tell to me;’
‘It is the blood of my black horse,
It would not hunt for me.’

10

‘The blood of your black horse was near so red,
I pray come tell to me;’
‘It is the blood of my brother John,
Since better canna be.’

[OMITTED]

11

He put his foot upon a ship,
Saying, I am gane our the sea;
‘O when will you come back again,
I pray come tell to me.’

12

‘When the sun and the moon passes over the broom,
That ['s] the day you'll never see.’