FINE FLOWERS IN THE VALLEY.

From Johnson's Musical Museum, p. 331.

THE first line of the burden is found also in The Cruel Brother, p. 258.

SHE sat down below a thorn,

Fine flowers in the valley;

And there she has her sweet babe born,
And the green leaves they grow rarely.

"Smile na sae sweet, my bonnie babe,
Fine flowers in the valley,

And ye smile sae sweet, ye'll smile me dead,”
And the green leaves they grow rarely.

She's taen out her little penknife,
Fine flowers in the valley,

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And twinn'd the sweet babe o' its life,

And the green leaves they grow rarely.

She's howket a grave by the light o' the moon,

Fine flowers in the valley,

And there she's buried her sweet babe in,

And the green leaves they grow rarely.

As she was going to the church,
Fine flowers in the valley,

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She saw a sweet babe in the porch,

And the green leaves they grow rarely.

"O sweet babe, and thou were mine,
Fine flowers in the valley,

I wad cleed thee in the silk so fine,"
And the green leaves they grow rarely.

"O mother dear, when I was thine, Fine flowers in the valley,

Ye did na prove to me sae kind,"

And the green leaves they grow rarely.

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THE CRUEL MOTHER.

From Motherwell's Minstrelsy, p. 161.

SHE leaned her back unto a thorn,
Three, three, and three by three;
And there she has her two babes born,
Three, three, and thirty-three.

She took frae 'bout her ribbon-belt,

And there she bound them hand and foot.

She has ta'en out her wee penknife,

And there she ended baith their life.

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She has howked a hole baith deep and wide, She has put them in baith side by side.

She has covered them o'er wi' a marble stane, Thinking she would gang maiden hame.

As she was walking by her father's castle wa', She saw twa pretty babes playing at the ba’.

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"O bonnie babes! gin ye were mine, I would dress you up in satin fine !

"O I would dress you in the silk, And wash you ay in morning milk!"

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"O cruel mother! we were thine,

And thou made us to wear the twine.

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"O cursed mother! heaven's high,

And that's where thou will ne'er win nigh.

"O cursed mother! hell is deep,

And there thou'll enter step by step."

THE CRUEL MOTHER.

From Kinloch's Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 46.

THREE stanzas of a Warwickshire version closely resembling Kinloch's are given in Notes and Queries, vol. viii. p. 358.

THERE lives a lady in London—

All alone, and alonie ;

She's gane wi' bairn to the clerk's son-
Doun by the greenwud sae bonnie.

She has tane her mantel her about-
All alone, and alonie ;

She's gane aff to the gude greenwud—
Doun by the greenwud sae bonnie.

She has set her back until an aik—
All alone, and alonie;

First it bowed, and syne it brake—

Doun by the greenwud sae bonnie.

She has set her back until a brier-
All alone, and alonie ;

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