Uploaded July 2025 | Updated September 2026, 4 days ago
I'll Cut Off My Long Yellow Hair / My Brother Built Me a Bancy Bower / My Father Built Me a Shady Bower / Sweet William / The Small Birds Whistle / Dukes and Earls / The Border Widow's Lament / The Famous Flower of Serving Men (Child No. 106) - Sung by Mrs. Martha "Peasie" Johnstone (Martha Reid), a Traveller of Birnam, Perthshire, Scotland. She learned the song from her grandmother Martha MacKenzie of Strathpeffer Wells. Recorded by Hamish Henderson in February 1957 for the School of Scottish Studies.
Note by Kevin W.:
The usual opening "My father built me a dandy bower" is missing but this is the most complete text of "The Famous Flower of Serving Men" (Child 106) recorded in Scotland in modern times as far as I can tell. Martha said her grandmother called the song "I'll Cut Off My Long Yellow Hair".
Perhaps this story needs some explanation. This young woman cuts off her long hair and dresses in men's clothes. And she goes to the King's hall and offers to work as a servant there. One day when all the ladies and gents left to go hunting the woman sings to herself lamenting her fate. No one is in the hall except a silly old man who overhears her lamenting and understands that she's really a woman in men's clothes. So when the ladies and gents come back from hunting the silly old man tells the King what he found out. And the King when he sees for himself offers to make her his Queen all in the robes of green.
Martha Johnstone learned the old songs from her grandparents and from older Travellers. We're indebted to her for sharing her songs with people and to Maurice Fleming and Hamish Henderson in the 1950s, Peter Shepheard in the 1960s and Linda Williamson in later years for visiting and recording her.
Martha told Linda Williamson how she tried to teach The Golden Vanity to her grandchildren, to get them interested in the old songs, but they had more interest in television than singing. Most singers, and especially Travellers felt regret at not being able to pass their songs on to a new generation. A song wasn't only a song, it was a living memory of their parents, their forebears. While singing there was a strong emotional connection with the person the song was learned from. When that person passed their memory lived on whenever the song was sung.
The original recording can be listened to here:
tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/31551?l=en
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
Song transcription:
I'll cut off my long yellow hair,
And I'll put myself into men's roparr'l.
To the king's own hall to do some work;
Say'n, What work, what work, oh it's can you do?
Sure it's anything that you put me to,
To be a hasher all in your hall.
[To be a hasher all in your hall,
To please your ladies and nobles all.] *
To make your beds all both soft and fine,
To please your ladies and 'obles all.
For as the gentry gane to hunting one day,
They left sweet William that silly old man.
Sometimes she sang and sometimes she mourned,
Say'n, God help, God help, all poor womankind.
For when ladies and gent from a-hunting came,
Say'n, What news, what news, has sweet William to tell?
Good news, good news, that I have to tell,
For a gentleman to become a queen.
If that's a lie that you tell to me,
Your head it lies, all into my gate.
If that's the truth that you tell to me,
I shall make you the laird of a high degree.
For they took her to aye a silent room
And the' found thye breast all it give the sook.
Oh fetch to me aa the robes of green,
To see hoo a gent shall become a queen.
At's pay to me my fee and let me be gone --
No longer do I stay here.
It's fetch to me aa the robes of green.
To see hoo a gent to become a queen;
* This verse was sung on other occasions but missed this time.
I'll Cut Off My Long Yellow Hair / My Brother Built Me a Bancy Bower / My Father Built Me a Shady Bower / Sweet William / The Small Birds Whistle / Dukes and Earls / The Border Widow's Lament / The Famous Flower of Serving Men (Child No. 106) - Sung by Mrs. Martha "Peasie" Johnstone (Martha Reid), a Traveller of Birnam, Perthshire, Scotland. She learned the song from her grandmother Martha MacKenzie of Strathpeffer Wells. Recorded by Hamish Henderson in February 1957 for the School of Scottish Studies.
Note by Kevin W.:
The usual opening "My father built me a dandy bower" is missing but this is the most complete text of "The Famous Flower of Serving Men" (Child 106) recorded in Scotland in modern times as far as I can tell. Martha said her grandmother called the song "I'll Cut Off My Long Yellow Hair".
Perhaps this story needs some explanation. This young woman cuts off her long hair and dresses in men's clothes. And she goes to the King's hall and offers to work as a servant there. One day when all the ladies and gents left to go hunting the woman sings to herself lamenting her fate. No one is in the hall except a silly old man who overhears her lamenting and understands that she's really a woman in men's clothes. So when the ladies and gents come back from hunting the silly old man tells the King what he found out. And the King when he sees for himself offers to make her his Queen all in the robes of green.
Martha Johnstone learned the old songs from her grandparents and from older Travellers. We're indebted to her for sharing her songs with people and to Maurice Fleming and Hamish Henderson in the 1950s, Peter Shepheard in the 1960s and Linda Williamson in later years for visiting and recording her.
Martha told Linda Williamson how she tried to teach The Golden Vanity to her grandchildren, to get them interested in the old songs, but they had more interest in television than singing. Most singers, and especially Travellers felt regret at not being able to pass their songs on to a new generation. A song wasn't only a song, it was a living memory of their parents, their forebears. While singing there was a strong emotional connection with the person the song was learned from. When that person passed their memory lived on whenever the song was sung.
The original recording can be listened to here:
tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/31551?l=en
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
Song transcription:
I'll cut off my long yellow hair,
And I'll put myself into men's roparr'l.
To the king's own hall to do some work;
Say'n, What work, what work, oh it's can you do?
Sure it's anything that you put me to,
To be a hasher all in your hall.
[To be a hasher all in your hall,
To please your ladies and nobles all.] *
To make your beds all both soft and fine,
To please your ladies and 'obles all.
For as the gentry gane to hunting one day,
They left sweet William that silly old man.
Sometimes she sang and sometimes she mourned,
Say'n, God help, God help, all poor womankind.
For when ladies and gent from a-hunting came,
Say'n, What news, what news, has sweet William to tell?
Good news, good news, that I have to tell,
For a gentleman to become a queen.
If that's a lie that you tell to me,
Your head it lies, all into my gate.
If that's the truth that you tell to me,
I shall make you the laird of a high degree.
For they took her to aye a silent room
And the' found thye breast all it give the sook.
Oh fetch to me aa the robes of green,
To see hoo a gent shall become a queen.
At's pay to me my fee and let me be gone --
No longer do I stay here.
It's fetch to me aa the robes of green.
To see hoo a gent to become a queen;
* This verse was sung on other occasions but missed this time.
