Familiar Songs - Their Authors & Histories

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THE BUSH ABOON TBAQUAIE.		327


Yet now she scornful flies the plain, The fields we then frequented; If e'er we meet she shows disdain, She looks as ne'er acquainted. The bonnie bush bloomed fair in May, Its sweets I'll aye remember; But now her frowns make it decay, It fades as in December.	I I Ye rural powers, who hear my strains, Why thus should Peggy grieve me ? Oh ! make her partner in my pains, Then let her smiles relieve me. If not, my love will turn despair, My passion no more tender; I'll leave the bush aboon Traquair, To lonely wilds I'll wander.
BARBARA ALLAN. This famous ballad is very old, and is of Scottish origin. The peasantry of a part of Scotland still sing more stanzas than have ever been in print. The English, or an EngUsh version of it, is called "Barbara Allan's Cruelty; or the Young Man's Tragedy." "Scarlet Town" is given as the home of Barbara, and plebeian Jemmy Grove is substituted for Sir John Graham. I give both versions, as the English one is a curious example of how