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Broadside ballads entitled 'Bonny Wood o' Craigielee' and 'Row Weel, My Boatie'

Transcription

Bonny Wood o' Craigielee

Thou bonny wood o' Craigielee,
Thou bonny wood o' Craigielee;
Near thee I've spent life's early day,
And won my Mary's heart in thee.

The broom, the brier, the birken bush,
Bloom bonny o'er thy flow'ry lea ;
And a' the sweets that ane can wish,
Frae nature's hand are strewed on thee,

Far ben thy dark green ptantian'a shade,
The cushet croodles am'rously;
The mavis down thy budget glade
Gars echo ring frae ev'ry tree,
Thou bonny wood, &c.

Awa' ye thoughtless murd' ring gang,
Wha tear the nestlings ere they flee l
They'll sing you yet a canty sang,
Then, O, in pity, let them be !
Thou bonny wood, &c.

When winter blaws in sleety show'rs,
Frae aff the norlan' hills sae hie,
He lightly skiffs thy bonny bow'rs,
As laith to harm a flower as thee.
Thou bonny wood, &e.

Though fate should drag me south the line.
Or o'er the wide Atlantic sea;
The happy hours I'll ever min'
That I, in youth, hae spent in thee.
Thou bonny wood, &c.

ROW WEEL, MY BOATIE.

Row well, my boatie, row weel,
Row weel my merry men a' !
There's dool and there's wae in Glenflorah's bowers,
And there's grief in my father's ha'

And the skiff it danc't licht on the merry we waves,
And it flew ower the water sae blue;
And the wind it blew licht, and the moon it shone bright,
But the boatie ne'er reached Allandhu.

Ohon ! for fair Ellen, ohon!
Ohon! for the pride of Strathcoe;
In the deep, deep sea, in the salt, salt bree,
Lord Reoch, thy Ellen lies low.

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Probable period of publication: 1830-1850   shelfmark: L.C.Fol.178.A.2(201)
Broadside ballads entitled 'Bonny Wood o' Craigielee' and 'Row Weel, My Boatie'
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