Uploaded July 2025 | Updated September 2026, 20 hours ago
Child Ballad Fragments - Sung by Mrs. Martha "Peasie" Johnstone (Martha Reid), a Traveller of Birnam, Perthshire, Scotland. Recorded by Hamish Henderson for the School of Scottish Studies.
00:00:00 The Cruel Mother (Child 20)
00:00:33 Tam Lin (Child 39) / Nancy You're My Fancy
00:01:50 The False Knight Upon the Road (Child 3) / The Twa Brothers (Child 49)
00:03:36 The Duke of Gordon's Daughter (Child 237)
00:04:56 The Baron of Brackley (Child 203)
00:05:28 The Duke of Athole's Nurse (Child 212)
Note by Kevin W.:
A biography of Martha Johnstone along with many further sound recordings can be found here:
tobarandualchais.co.uk/person/2719?l=en
Linda Williamson's thesis on Scottish Traveller singing can be read here, it is well worth your time if you are interested in Martha Johnstone's song repertoire: era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/8223
The Cruel Mother (Child No. 20) - Recorded in February 1957. She learned it from (her first husband Sandy Reid's?) grandfather Donald Reid.
The original recording can be listened to here:
tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/21696?l=en
There being a lady in the window
Spied two lovely babes
Oh babes oh babes if you were mine
I would have you dressed in silks of the fine
Tam Lin (Child No. 39) / Nancy You're My Fancy - Recorded on March 19th, 1957. She learned it from old Travellers. A conflation of two songs. Linda Williamson makes it clear in her PhD thesis that Martha considered this to be a separate song from Tam Lin. The line about the Fairy Queen is found in Duncan Williamson's Tam Lin. The line "Nancy, You're My Fancy" is found in the song "The Blazing Star of Drung" (Roud 2945) and in a popular song, "Nancy, You're My Fancy" (1880) by J. F. Mitchell.
The original recording can be listened to here:
tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/16559?l=en
Oh Nancy you're my fancy
You're the pride of all my joy
For the Fairy Queen stole me away
When I was but a little boy
For many a walk in the wild wood
Till you came and you broke my heart
Oh Nancy you're my fancy
You're the pride of all my joy
As the Fairy Queen stole me away
When I was but a little boy
For it's many a walk in that wild wood
Till you came and you broke my heart
The False Knight Upon the Road (Child No. 3) / The Twa Brothers (Child No. 49) - Recorded in 1956. She learned the song from her great-grandfather David Whyte from Aberdeenshire. A conflation of two songs.
The original recording can be listened to here:
tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/22795?l=en
My mother sent me to London school
And a good scholar I'll come home
My mother sent me to London school
And good books I'll fetch home
For what is that said the black knight on the road
And still he stood
That's my bannocks and my books said the wee lad
And still he stood
Oh give me your bannocks and the books
And still he stood
He put his hand in his pouch
And brought out a knife
He stookit it in his brother John
He tore his satin shirt from gore to gore
And tied it round his deadly wound
When heart blood ten times more
For my mother sent me to London school
And good books I'll fetch home
My mother sent me to London school
And a good scholar I'll come home
My mother sent me to London school
And she prayed I would never come home
For what is that said the black knight on the road
And still he stood
The Duke of Gordon's Daughter (Child No. 237) - Recorded on March 19th, 1957. She learned it from old Travellers.
The original recording can be listened to here:
tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/16530?l=en
Oh but I'm wearied wandering
Oh but my fortune seems hard
Oh but I'm wearied wandering
Following the road aye to bonny castle Gordon
Oh but I'm wearied wandering
Aye without either stocking or shoe
For you will show me the road aye to bonny castle Gordon
Oh but my fortune seems hard
Oh but I'm wearied wandering
Following that single soldier lad
Oh but I'm wearied wandering
For to find the road to bonny castle Gordon
The Baron of Brackley (Child No. 203) - Recorded on March 19th, 1957. She heard her great-grandfather David Whyte from Aberdeenshire sing it.
The original recording can be listened to here:
tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/16576?l=en
A longer text was recorded by Dr. Linda Williamson from Johnnie Whyte at Laurencekirk, Angus in 1975:
youtu.be/LRW9fBoQH50
Oh rise up Betsy Gordon and hand to me my gun
For once that I go out love I'll never now come in
For Betsy given him his gun never to come in
The Duke of Athole's Nurse (Child No. 212) - Recorded on March 19th, 1957. Martha could only recall a single line. She says it was a good old song, a good story but she can't remember it. All she remembers is that a man was killed and his sweetheart or his mother comes asking for him.
The original recording can be listened to here:
tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/16543?l=en
Where is the stranger been drinking here last night
Child Ballad Fragments - Sung by Mrs. Martha "Peasie" Johnstone (Martha Reid), a Traveller of Birnam, Perthshire, Scotland. Recorded by Hamish Henderson for the School of Scottish Studies.
00:00:00 The Cruel Mother (Child 20)
00:00:33 Tam Lin (Child 39) / Nancy You're My Fancy
00:01:50 The False Knight Upon the Road (Child 3) / The Twa Brothers (Child 49)
00:03:36 The Duke of Gordon's Daughter (Child 237)
00:04:56 The Baron of Brackley (Child 203)
00:05:28 The Duke of Athole's Nurse (Child 212)
Note by Kevin W.:
A biography of Martha Johnstone along with many further sound recordings can be found here:
tobarandualchais.co.uk/person/2719?l=en
Linda Williamson's thesis on Scottish Traveller singing can be read here, it is well worth your time if you are interested in Martha Johnstone's song repertoire: era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/8223
The Cruel Mother (Child No. 20) - Recorded in February 1957. She learned it from (her first husband Sandy Reid's?) grandfather Donald Reid.
The original recording can be listened to here:
tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/21696?l=en
There being a lady in the window
Spied two lovely babes
Oh babes oh babes if you were mine
I would have you dressed in silks of the fine
Tam Lin (Child No. 39) / Nancy You're My Fancy - Recorded on March 19th, 1957. She learned it from old Travellers. A conflation of two songs. Linda Williamson makes it clear in her PhD thesis that Martha considered this to be a separate song from Tam Lin. The line about the Fairy Queen is found in Duncan Williamson's Tam Lin. The line "Nancy, You're My Fancy" is found in the song "The Blazing Star of Drung" (Roud 2945) and in a popular song, "Nancy, You're My Fancy" (1880) by J. F. Mitchell.
The original recording can be listened to here:
tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/16559?l=en
Oh Nancy you're my fancy
You're the pride of all my joy
For the Fairy Queen stole me away
When I was but a little boy
For many a walk in the wild wood
Till you came and you broke my heart
Oh Nancy you're my fancy
You're the pride of all my joy
As the Fairy Queen stole me away
When I was but a little boy
For it's many a walk in that wild wood
Till you came and you broke my heart
The False Knight Upon the Road (Child No. 3) / The Twa Brothers (Child No. 49) - Recorded in 1956. She learned the song from her great-grandfather David Whyte from Aberdeenshire. A conflation of two songs.
The original recording can be listened to here:
tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/22795?l=en
My mother sent me to London school
And a good scholar I'll come home
My mother sent me to London school
And good books I'll fetch home
For what is that said the black knight on the road
And still he stood
That's my bannocks and my books said the wee lad
And still he stood
Oh give me your bannocks and the books
And still he stood
He put his hand in his pouch
And brought out a knife
He stookit it in his brother John
He tore his satin shirt from gore to gore
And tied it round his deadly wound
When heart blood ten times more
For my mother sent me to London school
And good books I'll fetch home
My mother sent me to London school
And a good scholar I'll come home
My mother sent me to London school
And she prayed I would never come home
For what is that said the black knight on the road
And still he stood
The Duke of Gordon's Daughter (Child No. 237) - Recorded on March 19th, 1957. She learned it from old Travellers.
The original recording can be listened to here:
tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/16530?l=en
Oh but I'm wearied wandering
Oh but my fortune seems hard
Oh but I'm wearied wandering
Following the road aye to bonny castle Gordon
Oh but I'm wearied wandering
Aye without either stocking or shoe
For you will show me the road aye to bonny castle Gordon
Oh but my fortune seems hard
Oh but I'm wearied wandering
Following that single soldier lad
Oh but I'm wearied wandering
For to find the road to bonny castle Gordon
The Baron of Brackley (Child No. 203) - Recorded on March 19th, 1957. She heard her great-grandfather David Whyte from Aberdeenshire sing it.
The original recording can be listened to here:
tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/16576?l=en
A longer text was recorded by Dr. Linda Williamson from Johnnie Whyte at Laurencekirk, Angus in 1975:
youtu.be/LRW9fBoQH50
Oh rise up Betsy Gordon and hand to me my gun
For once that I go out love I'll never now come in
For Betsy given him his gun never to come in
The Duke of Athole's Nurse (Child No. 212) - Recorded on March 19th, 1957. Martha could only recall a single line. She says it was a good old song, a good story but she can't remember it. All she remembers is that a man was killed and his sweetheart or his mother comes asking for him.
The original recording can be listened to here:
tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/16543?l=en
Where is the stranger been drinking here last night
