THE WEARY COBLE O' CARGILL.
From Motherwell's Minstrelsy, p. 230.
"This local ballad, which commemorates some real event, is given from the recitation of an old woman, residing in the neighbourhood of Cambus Michael, Perthshire. It possesses the elements of good poetry, and, had it fallen into the hands of those who make no scruple of interpolating and corrupting the text of oral song, it might have been made, with little trouble, a very interesting and pathetic composition.
"Kercock and Balathy are two small villages on the banks of the Tay; the latter is nearly opposite Stobhall. According to tradition, the ill-fated hero of the ballad had a leman in each of these places; and it was on the occasion of his paying a visit to his Kercock love, that the jealous dame in Balathy Toun, from a revengeful feeling, scuttled the boat in which he was to recross the Tay to Stobhall." Motherwell.
David Drummond's destinie,
Gude man o' appearance o' Cargill;
I wat his blude rins in the flude,
Sae sair against his parents' will.
She was the lass o' Balathy toun,5
And he the butler o' Stobhall;
And mony a time she wauked late,
To bore the coble o' Cargill.
His bed was made in Kercock ha',
Of gude clean sheets and of the hay;10
He wudna rest ae nicht therein,
But on the prude waters he wud gae.
His bed was made in Balathy toun,
Of the clean sheets and of the strae;
But I wat it was far better made,15
Into the bottom o' bonnie Tay.
She bored the coble in seven pairts,
I wat her heart might hae been sae sair;
For there she got the bonnie lad lost,
Wi' the curly locks and the yellow hair.20