Your cage shall be of wiry goud,
Whar now it's but the wand."-

"Keep ye your cage o' goud, lady,
And I will keep my tree;
As ye hae done to Lord William,
Sae wad ye do to me."-

She set her foot on her door step,
A bonny marble stane;

And carried him to her chamber,
O'er him to make her mane.

And she has kept that good lord's corpse
Three quarters of a year,
Until that word began to spread,

Then she began to fear.

Then she cried on her waiting maid,

Aye ready at her ca';

"There is a knight into my bower, 'Tis time he were awa."

The ane has ta'en him by the head,
The ither by the feet,

And thrown him in the wan water,

That ran baith wide and deep.

"Look back, look back, now, lady fair, On him that lo'ed ye weel!

A better man than that blue corpse
N'er drew a sword of steel."-

THE BROOMFIELD HILL.

THE Concluding verses of this ballad were inserted in the copy of Tamlane, given to the public in the first edition of this work. They are now restored to their proper place. Considering how very apt the most accurate reciters are to patch up one ballad with verses from another, the utmost caution cannot always avoid such errors.

A more sanguine antiquary than the Editor might perhaps endeavour to identify this poem, which is of undoubted antiquity, with the "Broom Broom on Hill," mentioned by Lane, in his Progress of Queen Elizabeth into Warwickshire, as forming part of Captain Cox's collection, so much envied by the blackletter antiquaries of the present day.-DUGDALE'S Warwickshire, p. 166. The same ballad is quoted by one of the in a personages, very merry and pythie comedie," called, "The longer thou livest, the more Fool thou art." See Ritson's Dissertation prefixed to Ancient Songs, p. lx. "Brume brume on hill" is also

66

mentioned in the Complaynt of Scotland. See Ley

den's edition, p. 100.

THE BROOMFIELD HILL.

THERE was a knight and a lady bright
Had a true tryst1 at the broom;
The ane ga'ed early in the morning,
The other in the afternoon.

And aye she sat in her mother's bower door,

And aye she made her mane,

"O whether should I gang to the Broomfield hill, Or should I stay at hame ?

"For if I gang to the Broomfield hill,

And if I chance to stay at hame,

My love will ca' me mansworn."

Up then spake a witch woman,
Aye from the room aboon;

-

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

'Tryst Assignation.

"For when ye come to the Broomfield hill,

Ye'll find your love asleep,

With a silver belt about his head,
And a broom-cow1 at his feet.

"Take ye the blossom of the broom;
The blossom it smells sweet,
And strew it at your true love's head,
And likewise at his feet.

"Take ye the rings off your fingers,
Put them on his right hand,

To let him know, when he doth awake,
His love was at his command."-

She pu'd the broom flower on Hive-hill,
And strew'd on's white hals bane,2
And that was to be wittering true,
That maiden she had gane.

"O where were ye, my milk-white steed,
That I hae coft3 sae dear,

That wadna watch and waken me,

When there was maiden here?"

1 A broom-cow-A bush of broom.

2 Hals-Neck. (German.)

3 Coft-Bought. From the same root, are the old English cheap, i. e. market; German, Kauffman, i. e. merchant; Kopenhagen, the merchant's haven, &c. &c.