dowie was his heart
When first he came hame.

24.
'O wha's blood is this,' he says,
'That lies in the chamer?'
'It is your lady's heart's blood;
'T is as clear as the lamer.'

25.
'And wha's blood is this,' he says,
'That lies in my ha'?'
'It is your young son's heart's blood;
'Tis the clearest ava.'

26.
O sweetly sang the black-bird
That sat upon the tree;
But sairer grat Lamkin,
When he was condemn'd to die.

27.
And bonny sang the mavis
Out o' the thorny brake;
But sairer grat the nourice,
When she was tied to the stake.

[Annotations:
6.1: 'limmer,' wretch, rascal.
7.3: 'shot-window': see special section of the Introduction.
12.2: 'gaire'; _i.e._ by his knee: see special section of the
Introduction.
13.3: 'bore,' hole, crevice.
14.4: 'greeting,' crying.
23.3: 'dowie,' sad.
24.2: 'chamer,' chamber.
24.4: 'lamer,' amber.
25.4: 'ava,' at all.
26.3: 'grat,' greeted, wept.]

FAIR MARY OF WALLINGTON

+The Text+ is from _Lovely Jenny's Garland_, as given with emendations
by Professor Child. There is also a curiously perverted version in
Herd's manuscript, in which the verses require rearrangement before
becoming intelligible.

+The Story+ can be gathered from the version here given without much
difficulty. It turns on the marriage of Fair Mary, who is one of seven
sisters fated to die of their first child. Fair Mary seems to be a
fatalist, and, after vowing never to marry, accepts as her destiny the
hand of Sir William Fenwick of Wallington. Three-quarters of a year
later she sends to fair Pudlington for her mother. Her mother is much
affected at the news (st. 22), and goes to Wallington. Her daughter, in
travail, lays the blame on her, cuts open her side to give birth to an
heir, and dies.

In a Breton ballad Pontplancoat thrice marries a Marguerite, and each of
his three sons costs his mother her life.

In the Scottish ballad, a 'scope' is put in Mary's mouth when the
operation takes place. In the Breton ballad it is a silver spoon or a
silver ball. 'Scope,' or 'scobs' as it appears in Herd, means a gag, and
was apparently used to prevent her from crying out. But the silver spoon
and ball in the Breton ballad would appear to have been used for
Marguerite to bite on in her anguish, just as sailors chewed bullets
while being flogged.

FAIR MARY OF WALLINGTON

1.
When we were silly sister