Hughie Graham
No: 191; variant: 191[H]
- Lairds and lords a hounting gane,
Out-over hills and valleys clear,
And there they met Hughie Grame,
Was riding on the bishop's mare.
- And they have tied him hand and foot,
And they have carried him to Stirling town;
The lads and lasses there about
Crys, Hughie Grame, you are a lown!
- 'If I be a lown,' says he,
'I am sure my friends has had bad luck;'
We that he jumpted fifteen foot,
With his hands tied behind his back.
- Out and spoke Laidy Whiteford,
As she sat by the bishop's knee;
'Four-and-twenty milk-kie I'll give to thee,
If Hughie Grame you will let free.'
- 'Hold your tongue, my laidy Whiteford,
And of your pleading now lay by;
If fifty Grames were in his coat,
Upon my honour he shall die.'
- Out and spoke Lord Whiteford,
As he sat by the bishop's knee;
'Four-and-twenty stots I'll give thee,
If Hughie Grame you will let free.'
- 'Hold your tongue, my lord Whiteford,
And of your pleading now lay by;
If twenty Grames were in his coat,
Upon my honour he shall die.'
- 'You may tell to Meg, my wife,
The first time she comes through the mu[ir],
She was the causer of my death,
For with the bishop [she] plaid the whore.
- 'You may tell to Meg, my wife,
The first time she comes through the town,
She was the causer of my death,
For with the bishop [she ] plaid the lown.'
- He looked oer his left shoulder,
To see what he could spy or see,
And there he spied his old father,
Was weeping bitterly.
- 'Hold your tongue, my dear father,
And of your weeping now lay by;
They may rub me of my sweet life,
But not from me the heavence high.
- 'You may give my brother John
The sword that's of the mettle clear,
That he may come the morn at four o clock
To see me pay the bishop's mare.
- 'You may give my brother James
The sword that's of the mettle brown;
Tell him to come the morn at four o clock
To see his brother Hugh cut down.'
- Up and spoke his oldest son,
As he sat by his nurse's knee;
'If ere I come to be a man,
Revenged for my father['s] death I'll be.'