| gypsie.mp3 |
Gypsie Laddie
Child #200 3:50 V, Guitar (G), Octave Mandolin (OM) & Hurdy-Gurdy (HG).
My favourite version of this well-known ballad of enchantment and elopement. As it sometimes has a happy ending, and I don’t have many of those in my repertoire, that’s how I sing it.
My favourite version of this well-known ballad of enchantment and elopement. As it sometimes has a happy ending, and I don’t have many of those in my repertoire, that’s how I sing it.
|
There were seven gypsies all in a gang
And they were brisk and bonny They rode till they came to th’Earl of Cassil’s gates And there they sang so sweetly The Earl of Cassil’s lady came down With all her maids before her As soon as her fair face they saw They cast the glamourie o’er her They gave to her the nutmeg brown And they gave to her the ginger She gave to them a far better thing The gold ring off her finger She’s pulled off her high-heeled shoes All made of Spanish leather And she’s put on her highland brogues To follow the gypsy laddie-o At night when my good lord came home And asking for his lady One she cried and the other she replied “She’s gone with the gypsy laddie-o” “Come saddle me my milk-white steed The black rides not so speedy For I will neither eat nor sleep Till I have found my lady-o” |
He rode all the summer’s night
And part of the next morning Until he spied his own wedded wife She was cold and wet and weary “Last night I lay in a well-made bed With my good lord beside me Tonight I will lie in the cold open fields Along with the gypsy laddie-o” “Come home come home my own wedded wife It’s get thee on behind me And I will swear by the handle of my sword That a gypsy never will come nigh thee” “O I have lain on the grass so green And I have drunk of the heather And as I brew so will I drink And I’ll follow my gypsy laddie-o”  |