Twa Corbies- Campbell (Scotland) c.1815 Child A b.
In 1815 Alexander Campbell (1764-1824) collected ballads through the Highlands of Scotland. Mr. Campbell published, in 1816, the first part of his collection of native Highland music, under the title Albyn's Anthology, for which Sir Walter Scott, Sir Alexander Boswell, and other eminent literary men, contributed modern verses. A second volume, Albyn's Anthology II, with the ballad Twa Corbies, was published in 1818.
The Twa Corbies; Child A b.
b. Albyn's Anthology, II, 27, 1818, "from the singing of Mr. Thomas Shortreed, of Jedburgh, as sung and recited by his mother."
1. As I cam by yon auld house end,
I saw twa corbies sittin thereon.
2. Whare but by yon new fa'en birk.
I wot there lies a new slain knight;
And naebody kens that he lies there,
But his hawk, his hound, and lady fair.
3 We'll sit upon his bonny breast-bane,
And we'll pick out his bonny gray een;
We'll set our claws intil his yallow hair,
And big our bowr, it's a' blawn bare.
4 My mother clekit me o an egg,
And brought me up i the feathers gray,
And bade me flee whereer I wad,
For winter wad be my dying day.
5 Now winter it is come and past,
And a' the birds are biggin their nests,
But I'll flee high aboon them a',
And sing a sang for summer's sake