"Your cherry cheeks and your yellow hair, Binnorie, O Binnorie; "Garr'd me gang maiden evermair." By the bonny milldams of Binnorię. Sometimes she sunk, and sometimes she swam, Binnorie, O Binnorie; Until she cam to the miller's dam, "O father, father, draw your dam! Binnorie, O Binnorie; "There's either a mermaid, or a milk-white swan." By the bonny milldams of Binnorie. The miller hasted and drew his dam, Binnorie, O Binnorie; And there he found a drowned woman, By the bonny milldams of Binnorie. You could not see her yellow hair, Binnorie, O Binnorie; For gowd and pearls that were sae rare, By the bonny milldams of Binnorie. You could na see her middle sma', Binnorie, O Binnorie; Her gowden girdle was sae bra'; By the bonny milldams of Binnorie.. A famous harper passing by, Binnorie, O Binnorie; The sweet pale face he chanced to spy; By the bonny milldams of Binnorie. And when he looked that lady on, Binnorie, O Binnorie; He sighed, and made a heavy moan; By the bonny milldams of Binnorie. He made a harp of her breast-bone, Binnorie, O Binnorie; Whose sounds would melt a heart of stone; By the bonny milldams of Binnorie. The strings he framed of her yellow hair, Whose notes made sad the listening ear; By the bonny milldams of Binnorie. He brought it to her father's hall; Binnorie, O Binnorie; And there was the court assembled all; By the bonny milldams of Binnorie. He laid this harp upon a stone, Binnorie, O Binnorie; And straight it began to play alone; By the bonny milldams of Binnorie. "O yonder sits my father, the king, Binnorie, O Binnorie; "And yonder sits my mother, the queen; By the bonny milldams of Binnorie. "And yonder stands my brother Hugh, "And by him Binnorie, O Binnorie; my But the last tune that the harp play'd then, Binnorie, O Binnorie; Was "Woe to my sister, false Helen!" By the bonny milldams of Binnorie. THE QUEEN'S MARIE. NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED. very "IN the time of the General Assembly, there comes "to public knowledge a haynous murther, committed in "the court; yea, not far from the queen's lap for a "French woman, that served in the queen's chamber, had "played the whore with the queen's own apothecary. "The woman conceived and bare a childe, whom, with "common consent, the father and mother murthered; yet were the cries of a new-borne childe hearde, searche was made, the childe and the mother were both appre - hended, and so was the man and the woman condemn"ed to be hanged in the publicke street of Edinburgh."The punishment was suitable, because the crime was haynous. But yet was not the court purged of whores "and whoredoms, which was the fountaine of such enor« mities; for it was well known that shame hasted mar riage betwixt John Sempill, called the Dancer, and "Mary Leringston*, sirnamed the Lusty. What bruit "the Maries, and the rest of the dancers of the court « had, the ballads of that age do witnesse, which we, for "modestie's sake, omit: but this was the common com"plaint of all godly and wise men, that, if they thought "such a court could long continue, and if they looked for no better life to come, they would have wished their sonnes and daughters rather to have been brought up "with fiddlers and dancers, and to have been exercised "with flinging upon a floore, and in the rest that thereof "followes, than to have been exercised in the company "of the godly, and exercised in virtue, which, in that "court was hated, and filthenesse not only maintained, "but also rewarded; witnesse the abbey of Abercorne, "the barony of Auchvermuchtie, and divers others, per"taining to the patrimony of the crown, given in heritage "to skippers and dancers, and dalliers with dames. This "was the beginning of the regiment of Mary, queen of "Scots, and these were the fruits that she brought forth of "France.-Lord! look on our miseries! and deliver us from The name should be Livingston. "John Semple, son of Ro"bert, Lord Semple, (by Elizabeth Carlisle, a daughter of the Lord "Torthorald) was ancestor of the Semples of Beltrees. He was "married to Mary, sister to William Livingston, and one of the "maids of honour to Queen Mary; by whom he had Sir James Sem"ple of Beltrees, his son and heir," &c.; afterwards ambassador to England, for King James VI. in 1599.-Crawford's History of Renfrew, p. 101. |