When I Was Young- Gillespie (Glas) 1905 Greig A

When I Was Young- Gillespie (Glas) 1905 Greig A

[From Greig-Duncan Collection, Volume 6, pp.266-268edited by Patrick N. Shuldham-Shaw, Emily B. Lyle, Edinburgh Mercat Press 1995 (version A). Stanza 6 is borrowed from Died for Love. Importantly, it shows the maid is pregnant, a condition implied by her loss of virginity in the broadsides.

R. Matteson 2017]

 "When I Was Young I Was Well Belov-ed,
" sung by Mrs. Margaret Gillespie (1841-1910) of Glasgow who is Rev. J. B. Duncan's sister, c. 1890.

1. When I was young I was well belov-ed
In every young man's company
When I was blooming in my blossom
A false Young man deceived me.

2. I didna think he was going to leave me
Until the morning when he came in
When he sat down and began a talking
Then all my sorrows they did begin.

3. He has used all his endeavour
He has tried all his power and skill
And he has spoiled all my good behaviour
And broken my fortune against my will.

4. If I had known before I courted
That love it was so ill to win
I'd have locked my heart in a chest of gold
And pinned it up with a siller pin.

5. But after evening there comes a morning
An after dawning there comes a day,
An after one lover comes another
They are ill to hold that winna stay.

6. But gine my baby it were born
And set upon its nurse's knee
An I mysel were dead an gone
An the green grass growing over me.

7. But turn around ye wheels o' fortune
Turn around and smile on me
For young men's words are so deceiving
And sad experience teaches me.