Lady Margaret- Perry (NC) c.1940 Brown B
[From: The Brown Collection of NC Folklore, Vol. 2, 1952. No date is given, I'm assigning an average date of c.1940, more information is needed on the date.
R. Matteson 2012, 2104]
B. 'Lady Margaret.' Reported by L. W. Anderson of Nag's Head as sung to Arnold Perry of Kitty Hawk by his father, George Perry. A fragmentary text. The "bell" of the first line may be miswritten for "ball"; if not, I cannot guess its meaning. The manuscript is written in long lines, but there seems no reason to doubt that the text is really in the ordinary ballad meter, and it is so printed here.
1 Lady Margaret sitting in a high bell room, [1]
Combing back her yellow hair,
She spied sweet William and his brown bride
Go passing down by there.
2 Down she threw her ivory comb,
Rolled back her yellow hair.
'That's a life, that's a life that I never can endure.
In my chamber I will die.'
3 Lady Margaret was buried in the old church yard,
Sweet William in the prior.
From Lady Margaret's head grew a blood-red rose.
And from sweet William's a milk-white brier.
4 They grew to the top of the old steepily high
And could not grow any higher.
They tied themselves in a true lover's knot
For all young people to admire.
1. a bell tower is a high room.