B. ‘The Rantin Laddie,’ Skene MS., p. 55.
C. ‘The Rantin Laddie,’ Laing’s Thistle of Scotland, p. 7.
D. ‘Bonnie Rantin Laddie,’ Murison MS., p. 74.
‘Lord Aboyne,’ in Smith’s Scotish Minstrel, IV, 6, is mostly A a; a few verses are from A b.
A young woman (Maggie in B) has played cards and dice with a rantin laddie till she has won a bastard baby. Slighted now by all her friends, she sends a letter to the rantin laddie, who is the Earl of Aboyne, to inform him of her uncomfortable circumstances. The Earl of Aboyne, struck with pity and indignation, sets out at once with five hundred men, A, C, or a select company of gentlemen and ladies, B, D, and brings her home as his wife.
C 24 is perhaps derived from ‘Geordie,’ but may be regarded as a commonplace.
A
a. Johnson’s Musical Museum, No 462, p. 474, communicated by Robert Burns; 1797. b. Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, II, 66, 1828.
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