English and Scottish Ballads, Volume VI

Ballads, English -- England -- Texts; Ballads, Scots -- Scotland -- Texts

"Gar meet me on the Rodrie-haugh,                               65
      And see it be by break o' day;
    And we will on to Conscowthart-Green,
      For there, I think, we'll get our prey."

    Then Hobie Noble has dream'd a dream,
      In the Foulbogsheil where that he lay;                        70
    He thought his horse was 'neath him shot,
      And he himself got hard away.

    The cocks could crow, and the day could dawn,
      And I wat so even down fell the rain;
    If Hobie had no waken'd at that time,                           75
      In the Foulbogshiel he had been tane or slain.

    "Get up, get up, my feiries five!
      For I wat here makes a fu' ill day;
    And the warst cloak of this companie,[L79]
      I hope shall cross the Waste this day."                       80

    Now Hobie thought the gates were clear;
      But, ever alas! it was not sae:
    They were beset wi' cruel men and keen,
      That away brave Noble could not gae.

    "Yet follow me, my feiries five,                                85
      And see of me ye keep good ray;
    And the worst cloak of this companie[L87]
      I hope shall cross the Waste this day."

    There was heaps of men now Hobie before,
      And other heaps was him behind,                               90
    That had he been as wight as Wallace was,
      Away brave Noble he could not win.

    Then Hobie he had but a laddies sword,
      But he did more than a laddies deed;
    In the midst of Conscouthart-Green,                             95
      He brake it o'er Jersawigham's head.

    Now they have tane brave Hobie Noble,
      Wi' his ain bowstring they band him sae;
    And I wat heart was ne'er sae sair,
      As when his ain five band him on the brae.                   100

    They have tane him for West Carlisle;
      They ask'd him if he knew the way;
    Whate'er he thought, yet little he said;
      He knew the way as well as they.

    They hae tane him up the Ricker-gate;[L105]                    105
      The wives they cast their windows wide,
    And ilka wife to anither can say,
      "That's the man loos'd Jock o' the Side!"

    "Fy on ye, women! why ca' ye me man?
      For it's nae man that I'm used like;                         110
    I'm but like a forfoughen hound,
      Has been fighting in a dirty syke."

    Then they hae tane him up thro' Carlisle town,
      And set him by the chimney fire;
    They gave brave Noble a wheat loaf to eat,                     115
      And that was little his desire.

    Then they gave him a wheat loaf to eat
      And after that a can o' beer;
    Then they cried a', wi' ae consent,
      "Eat, brave Noble, and make good cheer.                      120

    "Confess my lord's horse, Hobie," they say,
      "And the morn in Carlisle thou's no die;"
    "How shall I confess them?" Hobie says,
      "For I never saw them with mine eye."

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

English and Scottish Ballads, Volume VI

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