Buchan's MSS, I, 18. J.H. Dixon, Scottish Traditional Versions of Ancient Ballads, p. 1.
1
Young Bonwell was a squire's ae son,
And a squire's ae son was he;
He went abroad to a foreign land,
To serve for meat and fee.
2
He hadna been in that country
A twalmonth and a day,
Till he was cast in prison strong,
For the sake of a lovely may.
3
'O if my father get word of this,
At hame in his ain country,
He'll send red gowd for my relief,
And a bag o white money.
4
'O gin an earl woud borrow me,
At his bridle I woud rin;
Or gin a widow woud borrow me,
I'd swear to be her son.
5
'Or gin a may woud borrow me,
I'd wed her wi a ring,
Infeft her wi the ha's and bowers
O the bonny towers o Linne.'
6
But it fell ance upon a day
Dame Essels she thought lang,
And she is to the jail-house door,
To hear Young Bondwell's sang.
7
'Sing on, sing on, my bonny Bondwell,
The sang ye sang just now:'
'I never sang the sang, lady,
But I woud war 't on you.
8
'O gin my father get word o this,
At hame in his ain country,
He'll send red gowd for my relief,
And a bag o white money.
9
'O gin an earl woud borrow me,
At his bridle I woud rin;
Or gin a widow would borrow me,
I'd swear to be her son.