But the last tune that the harp play'd then, Binnorie, O Binnorie,

Was-"Woe to my sister false Helen!"

By the bonny milldams of Binnorie.

TH

Border Minstrelsy, vol. iii. p. 258.

HERE 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 Martin mas

When nights are lang and mirk,
The carline wife's three sons came hame,
And their hats were o' the birk.

It neither grew in syke nor ditch,
Nor yet in ony sheugh
But at the gates o' Paradise,
That birk grew fair eneugh.

66

Blow up the fire, my maidens,
Bring water from the well!

For a' my house shall feast this night
Since my three sons are well."-

And she has made to them a bed,
She's made it large and wide,

And she's ta'en her mantle her about,
Sat down at the bed-side.

The eldest to the youngest said, " "Tis time we were away.”—

The cock he hadna craw'd but once,
And clapp'd his wings at a',
When the youngest to the eldest said,
“Brother, we must awa.

"The cock doth craw, the day doth daw,
The chaunerin1 worm doth chide,

Gin we be mist out o' our place,
O sair pain we maun bide.

“ Fare ye weel, my mother dear!
Fare weel to barn and byre!
And fare ye weel, the bonny lass,
That kindles my mother's fire."

1 Fretting.

<

HE following explanation of the ballad of Sir Patrick Spens, is given by Sir Walter Scott.

"Alexander III. of Scotland died in 1285, and, for the misfortune of his country, as well

as his own, he had been bereaved of all his children before his decease. The crown of Scotland descended upon his grandaughter, Margaret, termed, by our historians, The Maid of Norway. She was the only offspring of a marriage betwixt Eric, King of Norway, and Margaret, daughter of Alexander III. The kingdom had been secured to her by the Parliament of Scotland held at Scone, the year preceding her grandfather's death. The regency of Scotland entered into a congress with the ministers of the King of Nor