Uploaded July 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 days ago
Lady Margaret / Tam Lin (Child No. 39) - Sung by Duncan Williamson, a Traveller of Furnace, Argyllshire, Scotland, later settled in Fife. Recorded by David Engle on January 18, 1987.
The original recording can be listened to here:
tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/91101?l=en
A biography of Duncan Williamson along with many further sound recordings can be found here:
tobarandualchais.co.uk/person/4292?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 Duncan Williamson's song repertoire: era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/8223
Note by Kevin W.:
Duncan first knew Tam Lin in fragmentary form from the singing of his grandmother Bett MacColl in Tarbert, Loch Fyne, Kintyre, and later completed it by adding verses he heard from other family members later in his life. Travellers called the song "Lady Margaret".
Linda Williamson, who married and lived with Duncan for many years, noted in her thesis on Traveller singing:
In October 1982 Duncan invited his second cousin Robbie Townsley to stay with him for a few weeks, so the two of them could collaborate on some narrative fragments Duncan knew. The result was the completion of Duncan's "Lady Margaret". Until 1982 the song had never been more than a partially sung and spoken fairy story in Duncan's repertoire.
Duncan ends the song with a verse that properly belongs to "The Douglas Tragedy" (Child No. 7):
So Lady Margaret on the white milk steed
Lord William on his dappled grey
With a bugle and horn hanging down by the side
It's merrily they rode away, away
It's merrily they rode away
Duncan explained how he once had a disagreement with Hamish Henderson over which of the two ballads the verse properly belongs to. Duncan said in The Douglas Tragedy they both died, there is no one riding away at the end. So he kept the verse at the end of Tam Lin which has a happy ending.
A 1967 recording made by George McIntyre and Helen Fullarton of Duncan's Tam Lin fragment before he reconstructed it can be heard here:
youtube.com/watch?v=k13q3xA5Gkg
Hamish Henderson recorded Betsy Johnston, a Traveller in Glasgow singing Tam Lin in 1956:
youtube.com/watch?v=4XqF0NQ5XkI
Song transcription:
O Lady Margaret she sat in her high chamber
She was sewing her silken seams
She luikit east and she luikit west
And she saw those woods grow green
So picking up her petticoats
Beneath a harlin gown
And when she came to the merry green woods
There she laid them down
She had not pulled one nut, one nut
One nut nor scarcely three
When the highest lord in all the countryside
Came a-riding through the trees
He said why do you pull those nuts, those nuts
How dare you bend those trees
How dare you come to this merry green woods
Without the leave of me?
She said onceten time those woods were mine
Without the leave of yours
And I can pull those nuts, those nuts
And I can bend those trees, those trees
I can bend those trees
So he took her gently by the hand
And he gently laid her down
And when he had his will of her
He rose her up again
She said - Now you've had your will of me
Come tell to me your name
And if a baby I do have
I will call it the same
He said - I'm an earl's son from Carlyle
And I owned all those woods so green
But I was taken when I was young
By an evil fairy queen
But tomorrow night is Hallo'een
And all those nobles you can see
And if you would come to the five mile gate
It is there you could set me free, O free
It is there you could set me free
O first they will come some dark, some dark
And then they will come some brown
But when there comes a milk white steed
You must pull its rider down, down
You must pull its rider down
O first I'll turn to a wicked snake
And then to a lion so wild
Just hold me fast and fear me not
I may be the father of your child
And then I'll turn to a naked man
O an angry man I'll be
Just throw your mantle over me
And then you shall have me free, O free
Then you shall have me free
So that night at the midnight hour
Lady Margaret made her way
And when she came to the five mile gate
She waited patiently
O first there came some dark, some dark
Then there came some brown
But when there came a milk white steed
She pulled its rider down, down
She pulled its rider down
First he turned to a wicked snake
And then to a lion so wild
She held him fast and feared him not
He might be the father of her child
Then he turned to a naked man
O an angry man was he
She threw her mantle over him
And then she had him free
Then cried a voice of the fairy queen
O an angry queen was she
Saying - If I had a-known yesterday O what I know today
I'd took out your very heart's blood
And put in a heart of clay, of clay
And put in a heart of clay
So Lady Margaret on the white milk steed
Lord William on a dappled grey
With the bugle and the horn hanging down by his side
It's merrily they rode away, away
It's merrily they rode away
Lady Margaret / Tam Lin (Child No. 39) - Sung by Duncan Williamson, a Traveller of Furnace, Argyllshire, Scotland, later settled in Fife. Recorded by David Engle on January 18, 1987.
The original recording can be listened to here:
tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/91101?l=en
A biography of Duncan Williamson along with many further sound recordings can be found here:
tobarandualchais.co.uk/person/4292?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 Duncan Williamson's song repertoire: era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/8223
Note by Kevin W.:
Duncan first knew Tam Lin in fragmentary form from the singing of his grandmother Bett MacColl in Tarbert, Loch Fyne, Kintyre, and later completed it by adding verses he heard from other family members later in his life. Travellers called the song "Lady Margaret".
Linda Williamson, who married and lived with Duncan for many years, noted in her thesis on Traveller singing:
In October 1982 Duncan invited his second cousin Robbie Townsley to stay with him for a few weeks, so the two of them could collaborate on some narrative fragments Duncan knew. The result was the completion of Duncan's "Lady Margaret". Until 1982 the song had never been more than a partially sung and spoken fairy story in Duncan's repertoire.
Duncan ends the song with a verse that properly belongs to "The Douglas Tragedy" (Child No. 7):
So Lady Margaret on the white milk steed
Lord William on his dappled grey
With a bugle and horn hanging down by the side
It's merrily they rode away, away
It's merrily they rode away
Duncan explained how he once had a disagreement with Hamish Henderson over which of the two ballads the verse properly belongs to. Duncan said in The Douglas Tragedy they both died, there is no one riding away at the end. So he kept the verse at the end of Tam Lin which has a happy ending.
A 1967 recording made by George McIntyre and Helen Fullarton of Duncan's Tam Lin fragment before he reconstructed it can be heard here:
youtube.com/watch?v=k13q3xA5Gkg
Hamish Henderson recorded Betsy Johnston, a Traveller in Glasgow singing Tam Lin in 1956:
youtube.com/watch?v=4XqF0NQ5XkI
Song transcription:
O Lady Margaret she sat in her high chamber
She was sewing her silken seams
She luikit east and she luikit west
And she saw those woods grow green
So picking up her petticoats
Beneath a harlin gown
And when she came to the merry green woods
There she laid them down
She had not pulled one nut, one nut
One nut nor scarcely three
When the highest lord in all the countryside
Came a-riding through the trees
He said why do you pull those nuts, those nuts
How dare you bend those trees
How dare you come to this merry green woods
Without the leave of me?
She said onceten time those woods were mine
Without the leave of yours
And I can pull those nuts, those nuts
And I can bend those trees, those trees
I can bend those trees
So he took her gently by the hand
And he gently laid her down
And when he had his will of her
He rose her up again
She said - Now you've had your will of me
Come tell to me your name
And if a baby I do have
I will call it the same
He said - I'm an earl's son from Carlyle
And I owned all those woods so green
But I was taken when I was young
By an evil fairy queen
But tomorrow night is Hallo'een
And all those nobles you can see
And if you would come to the five mile gate
It is there you could set me free, O free
It is there you could set me free
O first they will come some dark, some dark
And then they will come some brown
But when there comes a milk white steed
You must pull its rider down, down
You must pull its rider down
O first I'll turn to a wicked snake
And then to a lion so wild
Just hold me fast and fear me not
I may be the father of your child
And then I'll turn to a naked man
O an angry man I'll be
Just throw your mantle over me
And then you shall have me free, O free
Then you shall have me free
So that night at the midnight hour
Lady Margaret made her way
And when she came to the five mile gate
She waited patiently
O first there came some dark, some dark
Then there came some brown
But when there came a milk white steed
She pulled its rider down, down
She pulled its rider down
First he turned to a wicked snake
And then to a lion so wild
She held him fast and feared him not
He might be the father of her child
Then he turned to a naked man
O an angry man was he
She threw her mantle over him
And then she had him free
Then cried a voice of the fairy queen
O an angry queen was she
Saying - If I had a-known yesterday O what I know today
I'd took out your very heart's blood
And put in a heart of clay, of clay
And put in a heart of clay
So Lady Margaret on the white milk steed
Lord William on a dappled grey
With the bugle and the horn hanging down by his side
It's merrily they rode away, away
It's merrily they rode away
