Gin ever the dead come for the quick, It's hosen and shoon and gown alone, And there she lost the sight o' him. 40 "Is there ony room at your head, Saunders? 45 feet? Is there ony room at your "There's nae room at my head, Margret, There's nae room at my feet; My bed it is full lowly now : Amang the hungry worms I sleep. "Cauld mould is my covering now, But and my winding-sheet; "But plait a wand o' bonny birk, 50 55 57. The custom of binding the new-laid sod of the churchyard with osiers, or other saplings, prevailed both in England and Scotland, and served to protect the turf from injury by cattle, or otherwise. SCOTT. And shed a tear upon my grave, And wish my saul gude rest. "And fair Marg'ret, and rare Margret, And Marg❜ret o' veritie, Gin e'er ye love another man, Ne'er love him as ye did me.' 60 Then up and crew the milk-white cock, 65 And up and crew the grey; Her lover vanish'd in the air, And she gaed weeping away. SWEET WILLIE AND LADY MARGERIE. From Motherwell's Minstrelsy, p. 370. "THIS Ballad, which possesses considerable beauty and pathos, is given from the recitation of a lady, now far advanced in years, with whose grandmother it was a deserved favourite. It is now for the first time printed. It bears some resemblance to Clerk Saunders." Subjoined is a different copy from Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland. SWEET WILLIE was a widow's son, Lady Margerie was the first ladye That drank to him the wine O; And aye as the healths gaed round and round. "Laddy, your love is mine O." 5 Lady Margerie was the first ladye That drank to him the beer 0; And aye as the healths gaed round and round, Laddy, ye 're welcome here O. "You must come intill my bower, When the evening bells do ring 0; And you must come intill my bower, When the evening mass doth sing O." He's taen four-and-twenty braid arrows, And he 's awa to Lady Margerie's bower, He set his ae foot on the wa', And the other on a stane O ; And he 's kill'd a' the king's life guards, "O open, open, Lady Margerie, The weet weets a' my yellow hair, With her feet as white as sleet, She strode her bower within O; And with her fingers lang and sma', She's looten sweet Willie in O. 10 15 20 25 30 She's louted down unto his foot, To lowze sweet Willie's shoon 0; The buckles were sae stiff they wadna lowze, s The blood had frozen in O. "O Willie, O Willie, I fear that thou In then came her father dear, And a braid sword by his gare 0 ; And he 's gien Willie, the widow's son, A deep wound and a sair O. "Lye yont, lye yont, Willie," she says, “Your sweat weets a' my side O; Lye yont, lye yont, Willie, she says, For your sweat I downa bide O." She turned her back unto the wa', "Woe be to you, father," she said, "And an ill deid may you die O; For ye 've kill'd Willie, the widow's son, And he would have married me O." 45 50 55 |