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Saddled and bridled

And booted rade he;
Hame cam' his gude horse,
But never cam' he!

Out cam' his auld mither
Greeting fu' sair,

And out cam' his bonnie bride

Rivin' her hair.
Saddled and bridled

And booted rade he;

Toom hame cam' the saddle,
But never cam' he!

"My meadow lies green,

And my corn is unshorn;
My barn is to bigg,

And my babie's unborn."
Saddled and bridled

And booted rade he;
Toom hame cam' the saddle,
But never cam' he!

YOUNG BENJIE.

First printed, from recitation, by Sir Walter Scott, in the "Border Minstrelsy." The first two lines are almost identical with the chorus of the Scottish version of Old King Cole:

"Of all the maids in fair Scotland,

There's nane to compare wi' Marjorie."

OF a' the maids o' fair Scotland,

The fairest was our Marjorie;

And young Benjie was her ae true love,
And a dear true love was he.

And wow! but they were lovers dear,
And loved fu' constantlie;

But aye the mair when they fell out,
The sairer was their plea.

And they hae quarrelled on a day,
Till Marjorie's heart grew wae,
And she said she'd chuse another love,
And let young Benjie gae.

And he was stout and proud hearted, And thought o't bitterlie;

And he's gane by the wan moonlight To meet his Marjorie.

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open, open, my true love! 0 open and let me in!"

"I dare na open, young Benjie, My three brothers are within."

"Ye lie, ye lie, my bonnie burd,
Sae loud's I hear ye lie;
As I came by the Lowden banks,
They bade gude e'en to me.

"But fare ye well, my ae fause love, That I have loved sae lang;

It sets ye chuse another love,

And let young Benjie gang."

Then Marjorie turned her round about,

The tear blinding her ee,

"I dare na, dare na let thee in,

But I'll come down to thee."

Then saft she smiled, and said to him, "O what ill hae I dune?"

He took her in his armis twa,

And threw her o'er the linn.

The stream was strang, the maid was stout,
And laith, laith to be dang;

But ere she wan the Lowden's banks
Her fair colour was wan.

Then up an' spak her eldest brother,
"O see na ye what I see?"
And out then spak her second brother,
"It's our sister Marjorie !"

Out then spak her eldest brother, "O how shall we her ken?"

And out then spak her youngest brother, "There's a honey-mark on her chin."

Then they've ta'en up the comely corpse
And laid it on the ground:

"O wha has killed our ae sister,
And how can he be found?

"The night it is her low lykewake,
The morn her burial day,

And we maun watch at mirk midnight,
And hear what she will say."

Wi' doors ajar, and candle light,
And torches burning clear,

The streiket corpse, till still midnight,
They wake, but naething hear.

About the middle o' the night
The cocks began to craw,
And at the dead hour o' the night
The corpse began to thraw.

"O wha has done thee wrang, sister,

Or dared the deadly sin?

Wha was sae stout, and feared nae dout, As throw ye o'er the linn?"

"Young Benjie was the first ae man
I laid my love upon;

He was sae stout and proud hearted
He threw me o'er the linn."

"Shall we young Benjie head, sister,
Shall we young Benjie hang,
Or shall we pike out his twa grey een,
And punish him ere he gang?"

"Ye mauna Benjie head, brothers,

Ye mauna Benjie hang,

But ye maun pike out his twa grey een,
And punish him ere he gang.

"Tie a green gravat about his neck,
And lead him out and in,
And the best ae servant about
To wait young Benjie on.

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house

"And aye, at every seven years' end,
Ye'll tak him to the linn;

For that's the penance he maun dree,
To scug* his deadly sin."

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THE SONG OF THE OUTLAW MURRAY.

This ballad appears to have been composed about the reign of James V. It commemorates a transaction, supposed to have taken place betwixt a Scottish monarch and an ancestor of the ancient family of Murray of Philiphaugh, in Selkirkshire.

"The merit of this beautiful old tale, it is thought, will be fully acknowledged. It has been, for ages, a popular song in Selkirkshire. The scene is, by the common people, supposed to have been the Castle of Newark upon Yarrow. This is highly improbable, because Newark was always a royal fortress. Indeed, the late excellent antiquarian, Mr Plummer, Sheriff-depute of Selkirkshire, remembered the insignia of the unicorns, &c., so often mentioned in the ballad, in existence upon the old tower in Hanginshaw, the seat of the Philiphaugh family; although, upon first perusing a copy of the ballad, he was inclined to subscribe to the popular opinion. The tower of Hangingshaw has been demolished for many years. It stood in a romantic and solitary situation, on the classical banks of the Yarrow. When the mountains around Hangingshaw were covered with the wild copse which constituted a Scottish forest, a more secure stronghold for an outlawed baron can hardly be imagined.

"The tradition of Ettrick Forest bears, that the Outlaw was a man of prodigious strength, possessing a baton or club, with which he laid lee (i.e., waste) the country for many miles round; and that he was at length slain by Buccleuch, or some of his clan, at a little mount, covered with fir-trees, adjoining to Newark Castle, and said to have been a part of the garden. A varying tradition bears the place of his death to have been near to the house of the Duke of Buccleuch's gamekeeper, beneath the castle; and that the fatal arrow was shot by Scott of Haining, from the ruins of a cottage on the opposite side of the Yarrow. There were extant, within these twenty years, some verses of a song on his death. The feud between the Outlaw and the Scotts may serve to explain the asperity with which the chieftain of that clan is handled in the ballad.

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