36. The Bonny Earl of Murray (Child 181)
This song has appeared but seldom in recent times. Beatty reported it in 1907 (JAFL xx 156) as sung by a Scotchwoman visiting in Wisconsin; Elsie Crews Parsons in 1931 (JAFL xliv 297-8) reported it as one of the songs sung by Mrs. May Folwell Hoisington of Rye, N. Y., with the note that it was "heard in 1906 from a Scotchman who had heard it from a kinsman of the Murray family." Neither of these reports indicates that it is really alive in American tradition. It is not mentioned in the Folk-Song Society's Journal or in Greig's Last Leaves. But our North Carolina text seems to come from a longer-established folk tradition.
'The Earl of Moray.' Secured by Mrs. Sutton from the singing of "Aunt Becky" Gordon of Stateline Hill, Henderson county, one of the best of Mrs. Sutton's ballad sources. "She found that we were interested in old songs, so she sat down on the edge of her wash bench under a tall poplar with the sunlight making bars of gold on the hard ground of her little yard, and sang 'The Two Sisters' and 'The Earl of Moray.' "
1 Ye Highlands and ye Lowlands, it's where have ye been?
Oh, they've slain the Earl of Mo-ray and laid him on the ground.
2 Oh, he was a handsome feller, and wore a leather glove.
Oh, the bonny Earl of Mo-ray he was the Queen's love.
3 He was a noble rider, a-ridin' through the town.
And all the pretty ladies they watched him up and down.
4 He was a gallant player, a-playin' at the ball;
Oh, the bonny Earl of Mo-ray was the flower of them all.
5 He was a handsome feller and wore a golden ring.
Oh, the bonny Earl of Mo-ray he ort to a been king.
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36. The Bonny Earl of Murray (Child 181) [music]
'The Earl of Moray.' Sung by Aunt Becky Gordon. Recorded as ms score at Stateline Hill, Henderson county; no date given. The old Scotch version in Ballads of Britain, 80-1, gives the last line as "lay'd him on the green." Similar also in BMNE 133 and BBM 468.
Scale: Mode HI, plagal. Tonal Center: f. Structure: aa^bc (2,2,2,2) = ab (4,4)-