THE LASS OF ANGLESEY.

THIS lively little ballad was printed in Lawrie and Symington's collection, 1791. Mr Buchan repeats it with slight variation, changing the name to Englessie, which may be the correct reading. I cannot offer even a conjecture as to its meaning.

UR king he has a secret to tell,

OUR

And aye we'll keep it, must and be ;
The English lords are coming down
To dance and win the victory.

Our king has cried a noble cry,
And aye we'll keep it, must and be ;
"Gar saddle ye, and bring to me
The bonnie lass of Anglesey."

Up she starts as white as the milk,
Between him and his company;

"What is the thing I hae to ask,

If I should win the victory?"

"Fifteen ploughs but and a mill,

I'll gie thee till the day thou die ;
And the fairest knight in a' my court,
To chuse thy husband for to be."

She's ta'en the fifteen lords by the hand, Saying, "Will ye come dance wi' me?' But on the morn, at ten o'clock,

They gave it o'er most shamefully.

Up then rose the fifteenth lord;
I wat an angry man was he;
Laid by frae him his belt and sword,
And to the floor gaed manfully.

He said, "My feet shall be my dead,
Before she win the victory;"
But before 'twas ten o'clock at night
He gaed it o'er as shamefully.

THE BROOMFIELD HILL.

VERSIONS of this ballad are popular both in England and Scotland. Mr Bell, in his "Ballads and Songs of the Peasantry of England," has printed a copy under the name of "The Merry Broomfield, or the West Country Wager," and expresses himself as satisfied of its antiquity. He says, moreover, "In Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border' is a ballad called the 'Broomfield Hill:' it is a mere fragment, but is evidently taken from the present ballad, and can be considered only as one of the many modern antiques to be found in that work." Mr Bell does not seem to be aware that the greater part of that ballad appeared in Herd's collection, 1776; and that another copy was recovered from recitation by Mr Buchan. The metre of the Scottish is essentially different from that of the English versions, a circumstance which deserves remark; and from a certain marked difference in the tone, I incline to the opinion that, in this case, the ballad has passed in remote times from the minstrelsy of the one country into that of the other, by a very simple process, as explained in the introduction. It was quite natural that a minstrel who had once heard a ditty recited or sung, should at his leisure attempt to reconstruct it from no other aid but that of memory, and so produce a ballad differing in words, and even in metre, but nearly the same in story and incident.

The following version is constructed from the copies peculiarly belonging to Scotland.

That a maid shanna go to yon bonny greenwood, And a maiden return again."

"I'll wager, I'll wager, I'll wager with you,

Five hundred merks and ten,

That a maiden shall go to yon bonny greenwood, And a maiden return again."

The lady stands in her bower door,
And thus she made her maen,
"O shall I gang to the Broomfield hill,
Or shall I stay at hame?

"For if I gang to the Broomfield hill,
A maid I'll not return;

And if I stay frae the Broomfield hill,
I'll be a maid mis-sworn."

Then out and spake a witch woman,
Sat in the room aboon ;

"O, ye may gang to Broomfield hill,
And yet come maiden hame.

66

For, when ye gang to the Broomfield hill,

Ye'll find your love asleep,

With a silver belt about his head,

And a broom-cow* at his feet.

* Bush.

"Take ye the blossom of the broom,
Strew't at his head and feet,
And aye the thicker that ye strew,
The sounder he will sleep.

"Take ye the rings off your fingers,
Put them on his right hand,
To let him know, when he does wake,
His love was at his command."

She pu'd the bloom frae aff the broom, Strew't on his white hals bane; "This is a sign whereby ye may know That your love has come and gane."

"O where were ye, my milk-white steed, That I hae coft sae dear,

That wadna watch and waken me,
When there was maiden here?"

"I stamped wi' my foot, master,
And gar'd my bridle ring ;
But na kin' thing wald waken ye,
Till she was past and gane."

66 'And wae betide ye, my gay goss-hawk, That I did love so dear,

That wadna watch and waken me,
When there was maiden here."

"I clapped wi' my wings, master, And aye my bells I rang,