aturday, at gloamin',
Ye'd scarce kent wha had wan.

24.
An' sic a weary buryin'
I'm sure ye never saw
As wis the Sunday after that,
On the muirs aneath Harlaw.

25.
Gin ony body speer at you
For them ye took awa',
Ye may tell their wives and bairnies
They're sleepin' at Harlaw.

[Annotations:
15.4: 'fess,' fetch.
19.1: 'ae,' one.
20.1: 'lierachie,' confusion, hubbub.
25.1: 'speer at,' ask of.]

THE LAIRD OF KNOTTINGTON

+The Text+ was sent to Percy in 1768 by R. Lambe of Norham. The ballad
is widely known in Scotland under several titles, but the most usual is
_The Broom of Cowdenknows_, which was the title used by Scott in the
_Minstrelsy_.

+The Story+ is not consistently told in this version, as in 11.3,4 the
daughter gives away her secret to her father in an absurd fashion.

An English song, printed as a broadside about 1640, _The Lovely
Northerne Lasse_, is directed to be sung 'to a pleasant Scotch tune,
called The broom of Cowden Knowes.' It is a poor variant of our ballad,
in the usual broadside style, and cannot have been written by any one
fully acquainted with the Scottish ballad. It is in the Roxburghe,
Douce, and other collections.

THE LAIRD OF KNOTTINGTON

1.
There was a troop of merry gentlemen
Was riding atween twa knows,
And they heard the voice of a bonny lass,
In a bught milking her ews.

2.
There's ane o' them lighted frae off his steed,
And has ty'd him to a tree,
And he's gane away to yon ew-bught,
To hear what it might be.

3.
'O pity me, fair maid,' he said,
'Take pity upon me;
O pity me, and my milk-white steed
That's trembling at yon tree.'

4.
'As for your steed, he shall not want
The best of corn and hay;
But as to you yoursel', kind sir,
I've naething for to say.'

5.
He's taen her by the milk-white hand,
And by the green gown-sleeve,
And he has led her into the ew-bught,
Of her friends he speer'd nae leave.

6.
He has put his hand in his pocket,
And given her guineas three;
'If I dinna come back in half a year,
Then luke nae mair for me.

7.
'Now show to me the king's hie street,
Now show to me the way;
Now show to me the king's hie street,
And the fair water of Tay.'

8.
She show'd to him the king's hie street,
She show'd to him the way;
She show'd him the way that he was to go,