20. The Bonnie House O' Airlie
20. THE BONNIE HOUSE O' AIRLIE (Child, No. 199)
The excellent version of this ballad found in West Virginia is, as a whole, most like Child C, but has many close likenesses to other versions, especially A. The incident of the search for the lady's dowry and the reference to her bonny sons fail to appear. Stanza 9 does not occur in any of the Child versions.
In The English Journal, April, 1918, p. 270, is printed "The Haunted Tower O' Airlie," contributed by Julia Tunnicliffe, "a high-school student born in Scotland, but long resident in this country," Moline, Illinois.
Contributed by Miss Fannie Eagan, Hinton, Summers County, January 12, 191 7; learned from Miss Amelia Bruce, who was born and bred in Edinburgh, came to America about twenty years previously, and had recently returned to Scotland to remain there. Reported by Cox, xlvi, 145.
1 It fell on a day, a bonnie summer day,
When the corn grew green and yellow,
That there fell out a great dispute
Between Argyle and Airlie.
2 Argyle he has ta'en a hundred of his men,
A hundred men and mairly,
And he 's awa' on yon green shaw
To plunder the bonnie house o' Airlie.
3 The lady looked on fra the castle wa',
And but she sighed sairly,
When she saw Argyle and all his men,
Come to plunder the bonnie house o' Airlie.
4 "Come down, Lady Margaret," he says,
"Come down to me, Lady Airlie;
Or I swear by the brand that I haud in my hand,
I winna leave a s tan 'in' stone in Airlie."
5 "I'll no come down, ye proud Argla,
Until that ye speak mair fairly,
Though ye swear by the sword that ye haud in your hand
That ye will not leave a stan'in' stone in Airlie.
6 "Had my ain lord been at his home,
But he's awa' wi' Charlie,
There 's no a Campbell in a' Argyle
Dare hae trod on the bonnie green o' Airlie.
7 "But since we can haud out na mair,
My hand I offer fairly;
lead me down to yonder glen,
That I may na see the burnin' o' Airlie."
8 He's ta'en [her] by the trembling hand,
But he's na ta'en her fairly;
For he led her up to a hie hill-top,
Where she saw the burnin' o' Airlie.
9 Clouds o' smoke and flames sae hie
Soon left the wa's but barely;
And she laid her down on that hill to die,
When she saw the burnin' o' Airlie.