Lord Lovel
No: 75; variant: 75F
- AS LORD LOVEL was at the stable-door,
Mounting his milk-white steed,
Who came by but poor Nancy Bell,
And she wished Lovel good speed.
- 'O where are ye going, Lord Lovel?' she said,
'How long to tarry from me?'
'Before six months are past and gone,
Again I'll return to thee.'
- He had not been a twelvemonth away,
A twelvemonth and a day,
Till Nancy Bell grew sick and sad,
She pined and witherd away.
- The very first town that he came to,
He heard the death-bell knell;
The very next town that he came to,
They said it was Nancy Bell.
- He orderd the coffin to be broke open,
The sheet to be turned down,
And then he kissd her cold pale lips,
Till the tears ran tricklin down.
- The one was buried in St. John's church,
The other in the choir;
From Nancy Bell sprang a bonny red rose,
From Lord Lovel a bonny briar.
- They grew, and they grew, to the height o the church,
To they met from either side,
And at the top a true lover's knot
Shows that one for the other had died.