* * * * *
15 Whan they cam to her father's yett,
She tirled on the pin;
And an auld belly-blind man was sitting there,
As they war entering in.
16 'The meetest marriage,' the belly-blind did cry,
'Atween the ane and the ither,
Atween the Earl of Stockford's dochter
And the Queen o England's brither.'
E
a. Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland, II, 81, from Mr Nicol of Strichen, as learned in his youth from old people. b. Motherwell's MS., p. 459, derived, no doubt, from Buchan.
1 Earl Richard, once upon a day,
And all his valiant men so wight,
He did him down to Barnisdale,
Where all the land is fair and light.
2 He was aware of a damosel—
I wot fast on she did her bound—
With towers of gold upon her head,
As fair a woman as could be found.
3 He said, Busk on you, fair ladye,
The white flowers and the red;
For I would give my bonnie ship
To get your maidenhead.
4 'I wish your bonnie ship rent and rive,
And drown you in the sea;
For all this would not mend the miss
That ye would do to me.'
'The miss is not so great, ladye;
Soon mended it might be.