The Oxford Book of Ballads - online book

A Selection Of The Best English Lyric Ballads Chosen & Edited by Arthur Quiller-Couch

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JAMIE TELFER IN THE FAIR DODHEAD
XLIX
And he has paid the rescue shot, Baith wi' gowd and white monie ;
And at the burial o' Willie Scott, I wat was mony a weeping e'e.
142.            Dick O' the Com
I
N OW Liddesdale has lain lang in, There is na ryding there at a'; The horses are a' grown sae lither fat, They downa stir out o' the sta'.
11 Fair Johnie Armstrong to Willie did say—
' Billie, a-ryding then will we ; England and us have been lang at feid;
Aiblins we'll light on some bootie.'—
in Then they're come on to Hutton Ha';
They rade that proper place about. But the laird he was the wiser man,
For he had left nae gear without:
rv For he had left nae gear to steal,
Except sax sheep upon a lea : Quo' Johnie—' I'd rather in England die,
Ere thir sax sheep gae to Liddesdale wi' me.
ryding] raiding.        lither] here an adverb, vilely. aiblins]
perchance. 746
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