THE LASS OF LOCHROYAN.
Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, iii. 199.
"This edition of the ballad is composed of verses selected from three MS. copies, and two obtained from recitation. Two of the copies are in Herd's MS.; the third in that of Mrs. Brown of Falkland."
Lord Gregory is represented in Scott's version, "as confined by fairy charms in an enchanted castle situated in the sea." But Jamieson assures us that when a boy he had frequently heard this ballad chanted in Morayshire, and no mention was ever made of enchantment, or "fairy charms." "Indeed," he very justly adds, "the two stanzas on that subject [v. 41-52,] are in a style of composition very peculiar, and different from the rest of the piece, and strongly remind us of the interpolations in the ballad of Gil Morris."
"O wha will shoe my bonny foot?
And wha will glove my hand?
And wha will lace my middle jimp
Wi' a lang, lang linen band?
"O wha will kame my yellow hair,5
With a new-made silver kame?
And wha will father my young son,
Till Lord Gregory come hame?"—
"Thy father will shoe thy bonny foot,
Thy mother will glove thy hand,10
Thy sister will lace thy middle jimp,
Till Lord Gregory come to land.
"Thy brother will kame thy yellow hair
With a new-made silver kame,
And God will be thy bairn's father15
Till Lord Gregory come hame."—
"But I will get a bonny boat,
And I will sail the sea;
And I will gang to Lord Gregory,
Since he canna come hame to me."20
Syne she's gar'd build a bonny boat,
To sail the salt, salt sea;
The sails were o' the light green silk,
The tows o' taffety.