He 's ta'en three locks o' her yellow hair, And wi' them strung his harp sae rare. He went into her father's hall, And there was the court assembled all. He laid his harp upon a stane, And straight it began to play by lane. 'O yonder sits my father, the King, And yonder sits my mother, the Queen; 'And yonder stands my brother Hugh, And by him my William, sweet and true.' But the last tune that the harp play'd then-- Binnorie, O Binnorie! Was, 'Woe to my sister, false Helen!' By the bonnie milldams o' Binnorie. soummin'] swimming. Ballads and Songs By Unknown Authors. 17th Cent. 377. The Bonnie House o' Airlie IT fell on a day, and a bonnie simmer day, When green grew aits and barley, That there fell out a great dispute Between Argyll and Airlie. Argyll has raised an hunder men, An hunder harness'd rarely, And he 's awa' by the back of Dunkell, To plunder the castle of Airlie. Lady Ogilvie looks o'er her bower-window, And O but she looks warely! And there she spied the great Argyll, Come to plunder the bonnie house of Airlie. 'Come down, come down, my Lady Ogilvie, Come down and kiss me fairly:' 'O I winna kiss the fause Argyll, If he shouldna leave a standing stane in Airlie.' He hath taken her by the left shoulder, Says, 'Dame, where lies thy dowry?' 'O it 's east and west yon wan water side, And it 's down by the banks of the Airlie.' They hae sought it up, they hae sought it down, They hae sought it maist severely, Till they fand it in the fair plum-tree That shines on the bowling-green of Airlie. He hath taken her by the middle sae small, And O but she grat sairly! And laid her down by the bonnie burn-side, Til they plunder'd the castle of Airlie. 'Gif my gude lord war here this night, As he is with King Charlie, Neither you, nor ony ither Scottish lord, Durst avow to the plundering of Airlie. 'Gif my gude lord war now at hame, As he is with his king, There durst nae a Campbell in a' Argyll Set fit on Airlie green. 'Then bonnie sons I have borne unto him, The eleventh ne'er saw his daddy; But though I had an hunder mair, I'd gie them a' to King Charlie!' Ballads and Songs By Unknown Authors. 17th Cent. 378. The Wife of Usher's Well THERE lived a wife at Usher's well, And a wealthy wife was she; She had three stout and stalwart sons, And sent them o'er the sea. They hadna been a week from her, A week but barely ane, When word came to the carline wife That her three sons were gane. They hadna been a week from her, A week but barely three, When word came to the carline wife That her sons she'd never see. 'I wish the wind may never cease. Nor fashes in the flood, Till my three sons come hame to me, In earthly flesh and blood!' It fell about the Martinmas, When nights are lang and mirk, The carline wife's three sons came hame, And their hats were o' the birk.