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The Braes o Yarrow

No: 214; variant: 214[R]

  1. There were three lords drinking at the wine In the Leader Haughs of Yarrow: 'Shall we go play at cards and dice, As we have done before, O? Or shall we go play at the single sword, In the Leader Haughs of Yarrow?'

  1. Three he wounded, and five he slew, As he had [done] before, O, But an English lord lap from a bush, And he proved all the sorrow; He had a spear three quarters long, And her thrust his body thorogh.

  1. 'I dreamed . . . . I wis it prove nae sorrow! I dreamed I was puing the apples green In the dowie howms o Yarrow.'
  2. 'O sister, sister, I'll read your dream, And I'll read it in sorrow; Ye may gae bring hame your ain true-love, For he's sleepin sound in Yarrow.'
  3. She sought him east, she sought him west, She sought him all the forest thorogh; She found him asleep at the middle yett, In the dowie howms o Yarrow.
  4. Her hair it was three quarters lang, And the colour of it was yellow; She's bound it round his middle waist, And borne him hame from Yarrow.