YOUNG HASTINGS THE GROOM.
(Motherwell's Minstrelsy, p. 287.)
"O well love I to ride in a mist,
And shoot in a northern wind;
And far better a lady to steal,
That's come of a noble kind."
5 Four-and-twenty fair ladies
Put on that lady's sheen;
And as many young gentlemen
Did lead her o'er the green.
Yet she preferred before them all
10 Him, young Hastings the Groom;
He's coosten a mist before them all,
And away this lady has ta'en.
He's taken the lady on him behind,
Spared neither the grass nor corn,
15 Till they came to the wood of Amonshaw,
Where again their loves were sworn.
And they have lived in that wood
Full many a year and day,
And were supported from time to time,
20 By what he made of prey.
And seven bairns, fair and fine,
There she has born to him,
And never was in good church door,
Nor never gat good kirking.