Ballads & Songs of Southern Michigan-songbook
A Collection of 200+ traditional songs & variations with commentaries including Lyrics & Sheet music
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104 Ballads and Songs of Michigan |
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3* JESSIE OF BALLINGTON BRAE
For a text of eight and one-half stanzas very similar to the Michigan text see Dean, pp. 44-45. For a fragment of six lines and comment on an English broadÂside on file in the Harvard College library see Mackenzie, p. 101.
The present version was sung in 1935 by Mrs. Allan McClellan, near Bad Axe, who learned the song there in her childhood. |
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1 Come all you young ladies, I pray you draw near, And listen to the fate of two lovers so dear;
And the handsome young Jessie of Ballington Brae And the lord of the moorlands who led her astray.
2 One night as he on his pillow did sleep, Young Jessie came to him and o'er him did weep,
Saying, "The once blushing cheek, love, lies mouldering away Beneath the cold tomb in bright Ballington Brae."
3 Twas up from his pillow the young lord did rise, "It's the voice of my Jessie," he frantically cries, "And if she is dead, as the vision did say,
I'll lay down beside her on Ballington Brae."
4 He ordered a servant to saddle his steed,
And over hill and mountain he rode with great speed Till he came to the cot at the noontime of day, To the cot of young Jessie of Ballington Brae. |
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