Glen Collection of printed music > Printed text > Collection of ancient and modern Scottish ballads, tales, and songs > Volume 2

342
At e'en, in the gloaming, nae yoiuikers are roaming
'Bout stacks, with the lasses at bogle to play ;
But ilk maid sits dreary, lamenting her deary—
The flowers of the forest are weded awae.
Dool and wae for the order, sent our lads to the border !
The English, for ance, by guile wan the day ;
The flowers of the forest, that fought aye the foremost^
The prime of our land are cauld in the clay.
We'll hear nae mair lilting, at the ewe milking;
Women and bairns are heartless and wae :
Sighing and moaning, on ilka green loaning—
The flowers of the forest are a' wede awae.
THE FLOWERS OF THE FOKEST.
[" The late Mrs Cockburn, daughter of Rutherford of Fairnalie,
in Selkirkshire, and relict of Mr Cockburn of Ormiston (whose
father was Lord Justice-Clerk of Scotland), was the authoress
[of this song]. Mrs Cockburn has been dead but a few years.
Even at an age, advanced beyond the usual bounds of hu-
manity, she retained a play of inragination, and an activity of
intellect, which must have been attractive and delightful in
youth, but was almost preternatural at her period of life. Her
active benevolence, keeping pace with her genius, rendered her
equally an object of love and admiration.
•' The verses were written at an early period of life, and without
pecuHar relation to any event, unless it were the depopulation
of Ettrick forest. "—^or^?- Minstrelsy, vol. i. pp. 279, 280.
edition 1803.] '
I've seen the smiling of fortune beguiling,
I've tasted her favours, and felt her decay ;
Sweet is her blessing, and kind her caressing.
But soon it is fled — it is fled far away.