SWEET WILLIE AND LADY MARGERIE.
From Motherwell's Minstrelsy, p. 370.
"This Ballad, which possesses considerable beauty and pathos, is given from the recitation of a lady, now far advanced in years, with whose grandmother it was a deserved favourite. It is now for the first time printed. It bears some resemblance to Clerk Saunders."
Subjoined is a different copy from Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland.
Sweet Willie was a widow's son,
And he wore a milk-white weed O;
And weel could Willie read and write,
Far better ride on steed O.
Lady Margerie was the first ladye5
That drank to him the wine O;
And aye as the healths gaed round and round,
"Laddy, your love is mine O."
Lady Margerie was the first ladye
That drank to him the beer O;10
And aye as the healths gaed round and round,
Laddy, ye're welcome here O.