THE LAMENT OF THE BORDER WIDOW.
Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, iii. 94.
This fragment was obtained from recitation in Ettrick Forest, where it is said to refer to the execution of Cockburne, of Henderland, a freebooter, hanged by James V. over the gate of his own tower. There is another version in Johnson's Museum, (Oh Ono Chrio, p. 90,) which, Dr. Blacklock informed Burns, was composed on the massacre of Glencoe. But in fact, these verses seem to be, as Motherwell has remarked, only a portion (expanded, indeed,) of The Famous Flower of Serving Men: see vol. iv. p. 174.
There are some verbal differences between Scott's copy and the one in Chambers's Scottish Songs, i. 174.
My love he built me a bonny bower,
And clad it a' wi' lilye flour,
A brawer bower ye ne'er did see,
Than my true love he built for me.
There came a man, by middle day,5
He spied his sport, and went away;
And brought the King that very night,
Who brake my bower, and slew my knight.
He slew my knight, to me sae dear;
He slew my knight, and poin'd his gear;10
My servants all for life did flee,
And left me in extremitie.
I sew'd his sheet, making my mane;
I watch'd the corpse, myself alane;
I watch'd his body, night and day;15
No living creature came that way.