Lady Alice- Hawkins (England) 1856 Child A b.
From Notes and Queries by Edward Hawkins, Second Series, I, p. 418 published in 1856. The footnote at the bottom of the page says: "Lillies?"
1 Lady Alice was sitting in her bower window,
Mending her midnight coif,
And there she saw as fine a corpse
As ever she saw in her life.
2 'What bear ye, what bear ye, ye six men tall?
What bear ye on your shoulders?'
'We bear the corpse of Giles Collins,
An old and true lover of yours.'
3 'O lay him down gently, ye six men tall,
All on the grass so green,
And to-morrow, before the sun goes down,
Lady Alice a corpse shall be seen.
4 Giles Collins was buried all in the east,
Lady Alice all in the west,
And the roses* that grew on Giles Collins's grave,
They reach'd Lady Alice's breast.
6 The priest of the parish, he chanc'd to pass by,
And sever'd these roses* in twain;
Sure never were seen such true lovers before,
Nor ever will there be again.
*lilies?