L
“Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 27, Abbotsford; in the handwriting of William Laidlaw.
1
I charge ye, a’ ye ladies fair,
That wear goud in your hair,
To come an gang bye Carterhaugh,
For young Tam Lien is there.
* * * * * *
2
Then Janet kiltit her green cleadin
A wee aboon her knee,
An she’s gane away to Carterhaugh,
As fast as she can dree.
3
When Janet cam to Carterhaugh,
Tam Lien was at the wall,
An there he left his steed stannin,
But away he gaed his sell.
4
She had na pu’d a red, red rose,
A rose but only thre,
Till up then startit young Tam Lien,
Just at young Jenet’s knee.
5
‘What gars ye pu the rose, Janet,
Briek branches frae the tree,
An come an gang by Carterhaugh,
An speir nae leave of me?’
6
‘What need I speir leave o thee, Tam?
What need I speir leave o thee,
When Carterhaugh is a’ mine ain,
My father gae it me?’
* * * * * *
7
She’s kiltit up her green cleadin
A wee aboon her knee,
An she’s away to her ain bower-door,
As fast as she can dree.
* * * * * *
8
There war four-an-twentie fair ladies
A’ dancin in a chess,
An some war blue an some war green,
But Janet was like the gress.
9
There war four-an-twentie fair ladies
A’ playin at the ba,
An some war red an som wer white,
But Jennet was like the snaw.
13. To is doubtful; almost bound in.
64. gae written over left struck out.
82, 92. A’ in the MS.