The Fair Flower of Northumberland
No: 9; variant: 9C
- AS I went by a jail-house door,
Maid's love whiles is easy won
I saw a prisoner standing there,
'I wish I were home in fair Scotland.
- 'Fair maid, will you pity me?
Ye'll steal the keys, let me gae free:
I'll make you my lady in fair Scotland.
- 'I'm sure you have no need of me,
For ye have a wife and bairns three,
That lives at home in fair Scotland.'
- He swore by him that was crownd with thorn,
That he never had a wife since the day he was born,
But livd a free lord in fair Scotland.
- She went unto her father's bed-head,
She's stown the key o mony a lock,
She's let him out o prison strong.
- She's went to her father's stable,
She's stown a steed baith wight and able,
To carry them on to fair Scotland.
- They rode till they came to a muir,
He bade her light aff, they'd call her a whore,
If she didna return to Northumberland.
- They rode till they came to a moss,
He bade her light aff her father's best horse,
And return her again to Northumberland.
- 'I'm sure I have no need of thee,
When I have a wife and bairns three,
That lives at home in fair Scotland.'
- 'I'll be cook in your kitchen,
And serve your lady handsomelie,
For I darena gae back to Northumberland.'
- 'Ye cannot be cook in my kitchen,
My lady cannot fa sic servants as thee,
So ye'll return again to Northumberland.'
- When she went thro her father's ha,
She looted her low amongst them a',
She was the fair flower o Northumberland.
- Out spake her father, he spake bold,
'How could ye be a whore in fifteen years old,
And you the flower of Northumberland?'
- Out spake her mother, she spake wi a smile,
'She's nae the first his coat did beguile,
Ye're welcome again to Northumberland.'