English and Scottish Ballads, Volume VI

Notes with reference to ballad line numbers are presented at the end of each ballad and the presence of a note is indicated by links in the text.

EDITED BY FRANCIS JAMES CHILD.
VOLUME VI.
BOSTON: LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY. M.DCCC.LX.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1858, by Little, Brown and Company, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.
RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE: STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY H. O. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY.




This fine old ballad was first printed in the Musical Museum ( O heard ye e'er of a silly blind Harper , p. 598). Scott inserted a different copy, equally good, in the Border Minstrelsy , i. 422, and there is another, of very ordinary merits, in Scottish Traditional Versions of Ancient Ballads ( The Jolly Harper ), p. 37. In this the theft is done on a wager, and the booty duly restored. On account of the excellence of the ballad, we give two versions, though they differ but slightly.