Rosaleen Gregory, traditional ballad singer
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gypsie.mp3
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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.


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”


Rosaleen Gregory: Sheath and Knife
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