LEEZIE LINDSAY
Traditional

"Will ye gang tae the Heilands, Leezie Lindsay?
   Will ye gang tae the Heilands wi' me?
Will ye gang tae the Heilands, Leezie Lindsay,
   My bride and my darling tae be?"

"To gang to the Heilands wi' you, Sir,
   I dinna ken how that may be,
For I ken nae the road I am gaeing,
   Nor yet wha I'm gaun wi'."

"O, Leezie, lass, ye maun ken little,
   Syne ye dinna ken me;
For I am Lord Ronald MacDonald,
   A Chieftain o' high degree."

"Oh, if ye're the Laird o' MacDonald,
   A great ane I ken ye maun be;
But how can a chieftain sae mighty
   Think o' a puir lassie like me?"

She has gotten a gown o' green satin.
   She has kilted them up tae her knee,
And she's aff wi' Lord Ronald MacDonald,
   His bride and his darling tae be.

Footnote: A song I learnt, many years ago, at primary school and heard more recently sung by Gaberlunzie at a splendid gig in Crook of Devon (December 2004).  Robert Burns contributed a fragment of this ballad to the Scots Musical Museum of 1796 and the complete version was published in Jamieson's Popular Ballads in 1806.  There are many variants of this song of young Donald MacDonald, heir of Kingcausie, who goes to Edinburgh to find a bride, under strict instructions from his mother to present himself as a poor man and to offer to 'the bonnie ladies' only curds and whey, and a bed of bracken.  Popular tradition identifies Leezie Lindsay as a daughter of Lindsay of Edzell.