B
Christie’s Traditional Ballad Airs, I, 144; from the recitation of a woman born in Buchan.
1
The sun shines high on yonder hill,
And low on yonder town;
In the place where my love Johnny dwells,
The sun gaes never down.
2
‘O when will ye be back, bonny lad,
O when will ye be hame?’
‘When heather-hills are nine times brunt,
And a’ grown green again.’
3
‘O that’s ower lang awa, bonny lad,
O that’s ower lang frae hame;
For I’ll be dead and in my grave
Ere ye come back again.’
4
He put his foot into the stirrup
And said he maun go ride,
But she kilted up her green claithing
And said she woudna bide.
5
The firsten town that they came to,
He bought her hose and sheen,
And bade her rue and return again,
And gang nae farther wi him.
6
‘Ye likena me at a’, bonny lad,
Ye likena me at a’;’
‘It’s sair for you likes me sae weel
And me nae you at a’.’
7
The nexten town that they came to,
He bought her a braw new gown,
And bade her rue and return again,
And gang nae farther wi him.
8
The nexten town that they came to,
He bought her a wedding ring,
And bade her dry her rosy cheeks,
And he would tak her wi him.
9
‘O wae be to your bonny face,
And your twa blinkin een!
And wae be to your rosy cheeks!
They’ve stown this heart o mine.
10
‘There’s comfort for the comfortless,
There’s honey for the bee;
There’s comfort for the comfortless,
There’s nane but you for me.’
A.
91. first and: come.
111, 131. next and.
Variations in Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, I, 268.
54. Shall I.
61. your choose.
73. turn back.
74. gang.
11, 12. Omitted.
133. as wanting.
144. In bonny Berwick.
219
THE GARDENER
A. Kinloch MSS, V, 47. ‘The Gardener,’ Kinloch MSS, VII, 19; Kinloch’s Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 74.
B. ‘The Gardener Lad,’ Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, II, 187.
C. Fragment communicated by Dr Thomas Davidson.
A gardener will apparel a maid from head to foot with flowers, if she will be his bride. He gets a wintry answer: the snow shall be his shirt, the wind his hat, the rain his coat.
B 1–6 is mere jargon, foisted into this pretty ballad as a preface.
A 7, B 15, C 3, is found, substantially, in the preceding ballad, and perhaps belonged originally to neither.
Freely translated from A and B by Rosa Warrens, Schottische Volkslieder, p. 134, No 30.