Fa la lilly.
Her lilly hands, sae white and sma',
Fa la lilly.
Wi' gouden rings were buskit braw,
Fa la lilly....
And here is a Bride of Elizabeth's day whom I chanced on in that packed and inexhaustible book, Shakespeare's England. When "buskit braw," she must have been as lovely to see as a hawthorn in May or a wax candle in a silver shrine:
"The bride being attired in a gown of sheeps russet, and a kirtle of fine worsted, her head attired with a billiment of gold, and her hair as yellow as gold hanging down behind her, which was curiously combed and pleated, according to the manner in those days: she was led to church between two sweet boys, with bride-laces and rosemary tied about their silken sleeves.... Then was there a fair bride-cup of silver and gilt carried before her wherein was a goodly branch of rosemary, gilded very fair, hung about with silken ribands of all colours: next was there a noise of musicians, that played all the way before her: after her came all the chiefest maidens of the country, some bearing great bride-cakes, and some garlands of wheat, finely gilded, and so she passed to the Church."
As for the silken ribands they may have been of Drakes colour or Ladies blush or Gozelinge colour or Marigold or Isabel or Peas porridge tawny or Popingay blew or Lusty gallant, but they were certainly not Judas colour, Devil in the hedge, or Dead Spaniard.
[355]. "And feed Her wi' new Milk and Bread."
The Yellow-haired Laddie sat down on yon brae,