11- Leezie Lindsay- McClure (WV) 1928 (Child 226)
11 - LEEZIE LINDSAY
(Lizie Lindsay, Child, No. 226)
Communicated by Miss Iris McClure, Morgantown, Monongalia County, November, 1928. Obtained from her uncle, Mr. J. F. McClure.
"Will ye gang to the Hielands, Leezie Lindsay?
Will ye gang to the Hielands with me?
Will ye gang to the Hielands, Leezie Lindsay,
My wife and my darling to be?"
"To gang to the Hielands wi' you, sir,
I dinna ken how that may be;
For I kenna the land that ye live in,
Nor ken I the lad I'm gaun wi'."
Then up bespake Leezie's best woman,
A bonnie young Lassie was she:
"Had I but a mark in my pocket,
It's Donald that I wad gaun wi'."
She has kilted her coate or green satine
She has kilted then up to her knee,
And she's aff to the Hielands wi' Donald,
His bride and his darling to be.
He has led her high up on a mountain,
And bade her look out on the sai
"Those lsles are lord Ronald McDonald's,
And his bride and his darling are ye."
This is one of the traditional ballads but rarely found in America. BES p. 297, report a text from Maine five stanzas and an air, in which Lizzie is invited to go to the Highlands where a choosen and Itfino han are prepared for her, but she declined. The name "Maodonell" is preserved in the fifth stanza. Iolnan and Eddy, Journall xxil p. 345, report "The Blaeberry Courtship" from Illinois,
which they Bay'rsoems to be founded on the traditional ballad of "Lizzie Lindsay." "The Blaeberry Courtship" is collected also by Mackenzie, pp. 230-264, and Mackenzie, Ballads, p. 69, remarkably reminiscent of "Lizzie Lindsey" (Cox).