The Ballad Book: A Selection of the Choicest British Ballads

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William Allingham
Macmillan, 1887 - Ballads, English - 393 pages

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Page 31 - THERE lived a wife at Usher's well, And a wealthy wife was she ; She had three stout and stalwart sons, And sent them o'er the sea. They hadna...
Page 42 - Tis not the frost, that freezes fell, Nor blawing snaw's inclemencie, 'Tis not sic cauld that makes me cry; But my Love's heart grown cauld to me. When we cam in by Glasgow toun. We were a comely sicht to see ; My Love was clad in the black velvet, And I mysel in cramasie. But had I wist, before I kist, That love had been sae ill to win, I had lock'd my heart in a case o' gowd, And pinn'd it wi
Page 66 - I must give; That I have but three days more to live: For if I do not answer him questions three, My head will be smitten from my bodie.
Page 249 - The warld's room : let them beg through life, Mither, Mither; The warld's room : let them beg through life ; For them never mair will I see, O.' 'And what will ye leave to your ain mither dear, Edward, Edward? And what will ye leave to your ain mither dear, My dear son, now tell me, O?' — ' The curse of hell frae me sall ye bear, Mither, Mither; The curse of hell frae me sall ye bear : Sic counsels ye gave to me, O...
Page 276 - To mount the first before us a'. He has ta'en the watchman by the throat, He flung him down upon the lead — "Had there not been peace between our lands, Upon the other side thou hadst gaed ! "Now sound out, trumpets!" quo' Buccleuch; "Let's waken Lord Scroope right merrilie !" Then loud the warden's trumpet blew — 0 who dare meddle wi me?
Page 61 - They hoysed their sails on Monenday morn, Wi' a' the speed they may; They hae landed in Noroway, Upon a Wodensday. They hadna been a week, a week In Noroway but twae, When that the lords o' Noroway Began aloud to say: 'Ye Scottishmen spend a' our king's goud, And a
Page 142 - These pretty Babes with hand in hand Went wandering up and down; But never more they saw the Man Approaching from the Town. In both these stanzas the words, and the order of the words, in no respect differ from the most unimpassioned conversation. There are words in both, for example, ' the Strand,
Page 283 - Lay me a green sod under my head, And another at my feet ; And lay my bent bow by my side, Which was my music sweet ; And make my grave of gravel and green, Which is most right and meet. Let me have length and breadth enough. With a green sod under my head ; That they may say, when I am dead, Here lies bold Robin Hood.
Page 143 - His conscience felt an hell : His barns were fired, his goods consumed, His lands were barren made, His cattle died within the field, And nothing with him stayed.
Page 111 - Now Robin Hood is to Nottingham gone, With a link a down, and a day, And there he met with a silly old palmer, Was walking along the highway.

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