Douglas Tragedy- Bella Higgins (Perth) 1954 REC
[Fragment from School of Scottish Studies; SA1954.102.B3, http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/fullrecord/62098/1
Four verses with narrative, only two transcribed.
R. Matteson 2018]
Summary - The lady tells her lover Lord William to stop fighting her father as she can get many lovers but has only one father. He tells her to choose whether to go with him or stay, and she says she must go with him as he has not left her a guide. He puts her on a horse and together they ride away.
The story is that the girl's father would not give consent to the marriage, so they eloped. They were followed by her eight brothers and her father. Her lover killed them but received a fatal wound himself. He got to his mother's door and died. One grave produced a rose and one a briar.
The Douglas Tragedy- sung by Bella Higgins of Blairgowrie. Recorded by Hamish Henderson in 1954. Bella Higgins heard the song from her mother.
"O hold, O hold, Lord William," she says.
"You're stroke are wonderful sore,
"For many a sweetheart I ever will get
But a father I'll never get more."
"It's your choice, your choice, Lady Margaret," he says,
"It's you choice to come or to stay,
"For I may go with you Lord William,
For you've never left me no guide."