E
Jamieson’s Popular Ballads, I, 324.
1
There lives a landart laird in Fife,
And he has married a dandily wife.
2
She wadna shape, nor yet wad she sew,
But sit wi her cummers and fill hersell fu.
3
She wadna spin, nor yet wad she card,
But she wad sit and crack wi the laird.
4
He is down to his sheep-fald
And cleckit a weather by the back-spald.
5
He’s whirpled aff the gude weather’s-skin
And wrappit the dandily lady therein.
6
‘I darena pay you, for your gentle kin,
But weel I may skelp my weather’s-skin.’
A.
a. The refrain, altered by Jamieson, has been restored from his preface. Five stanzas added by him at the end have been dropped.
b. From the recitation of Miss Agnes Macmath, 29th April, 1893; learned by her from her mother, who had it from her mother, Janet Spark, Kirkcudbrightshire.
2.
She could na wash and she could na wring,
Hey, Wullie Wyliecot, noo, noo, noo
For the spoiling o her gay gold ring.
Wi my Hey, Wullie Wyliecot, tangie dooble,
That robes in the rassiecot, noo, noo, noo
(Refrain perhaps corrupt.)
3.
He’s gane oot unto the fauld,
He’s catched a wather by the spaul.
5.
‘I darena thrash ye, for yer kin,
But I may thrash my ain wather-skin.’