Uploaded July 2025 | Updated September 2026, 21 hours ago
Willie's Ghost / Willie's Fate / Willie's Fatal Visit (Child No. 255) - Sung by Ellen Mitchell on "Have a Drop Mair" (2015) MTCD315-6. Learned from the singing of Lizzie Higgins of Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Scotland who had it from her mother, the famous Scottish traditional singer Jeannie Robertson.
Note by Kevin W.:
The tune is shared with Jeannie Robertson's version of "Clyde's Water" (Child 216) and Jeannie remarked on a similar stanza in both ballads:
Willie's gaen ower yon high, high hill
And doon yon dowie den,
And the clatterin o the Clyde's waters
Would fear ten thousand men.
This is another ballad that was sung only by Scottish Travellers, Margaret (Maggie) Stewart of Banchory, Kincardineshire also sang it according to Jeannie's nephew Stanley Robertson.
The first half of the song which by itself is a version of The Grey Cock (Child 248) can be heard here in a wax cylinder recording made by Dr. James Madison Carpenter in the 1930s:
youtu.be/pwKZDOSAcOE
Jeannie's lyrics follow seamlessly after the Carpenter recording ends.
Liner Notes by Rod Stradling and Ellen Mitchell:
Ellen: Again from Lizzie [Higgins], and I know her mother sang it too. Lizzie said this was based on a true story of a slighted girl who dies in childbirth. Her dead baby could be buried in consecrated ground but she was buried outside the churchyard, with rather terrifying results for William.
Although this ballad was published in three Scots song books, and in Child, it doesn’t appear to have had a broadside printing, and the only named sources within the oral tradition have been Jeannie Robertson and her daughter Lizzie Higgins.
Song transcription:
Oh Willie’s gaed ower yon high high hill,
And doon yon dowie den.
It was there he spied a grievious ghost
Would a feared a thousand men.
Willie’s gaed ower yon high, high hill
And doon by Mary’s Stile,
Wan and weary was the ghost
That on him grimly smiled.
“Aft hae ye travelled this road, Willie,
Your new love for to see,
Aft hae ye travelled this road, Willie,
Wi ne’er a thought for me.
“Aft hae ye travelled this road, Willie,
Your bonny new love to see,
Wi ne’er a thought for your poor soul
When your sinful life is done.
“Aft hae ye travelled this road, Willie,
Your new love for to see,
But you’ll never travel this road again,
For tonight avenged I’ll be.”
And she has ta’en her perjured love
An she’s rieved him frae gare tae gare,
And on ilka side o’ Mary’s Stile
O him she’s left a share.
His faither and mither they both mak main
And his new love muckle mare,
His faither and mother they both mak main
And his new love rieves her hair.
Here is the full Carpenter text for comparison:
"Saa ye my faether? or saa ye my maether?
Or saa ye my truelove, John?"
"I never saa yer maether, nor yet saa yer faether,
But I saa yer truelove, John."
"Wis John rinnin? or wis John comin?
Or wis John gaein hame?"
"John wis rinnin fast, love, an' John'll be here at last."
An' he rattled at the gate, love, sae fine,
Up the lassie raise, an' she pit on her claes,
An' she's clasped him in her airms again,
Crying, "O if it were but as lang, fie day
As sin eever the warld began!
"Ye my bonie cockie, an' O my pretty cockie
That cries i' the morning sae shoon,
'O if it were but as lang, fie day
As sin eever the warld began!'"
(The cylinder recording ends here)
He's mounted on his white milk steg,
An' he's awa ridin hame;
An' what stid up by yon kirk stile
But a ghost on the side o the road.
"Often ye hae roden this road, Willie,
An' over me ye've gane;
An' often ye hae trodden this road, Willie,
But ye'll never trod them again."
She's taen Willie, torn him fae ear tee ear,
Cut him fae gair tee gair;
In a' the four corners o the churchyaird
An' bits o Sweet Willie lie there.
Willie's Ghost / Willie's Fate / Willie's Fatal Visit (Child No. 255) - Sung by Ellen Mitchell on "Have a Drop Mair" (2015) MTCD315-6. Learned from the singing of Lizzie Higgins of Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Scotland who had it from her mother, the famous Scottish traditional singer Jeannie Robertson.
Note by Kevin W.:
The tune is shared with Jeannie Robertson's version of "Clyde's Water" (Child 216) and Jeannie remarked on a similar stanza in both ballads:
Willie's gaen ower yon high, high hill
And doon yon dowie den,
And the clatterin o the Clyde's waters
Would fear ten thousand men.
This is another ballad that was sung only by Scottish Travellers, Margaret (Maggie) Stewart of Banchory, Kincardineshire also sang it according to Jeannie's nephew Stanley Robertson.
The first half of the song which by itself is a version of The Grey Cock (Child 248) can be heard here in a wax cylinder recording made by Dr. James Madison Carpenter in the 1930s:
youtu.be/pwKZDOSAcOE
Jeannie's lyrics follow seamlessly after the Carpenter recording ends.
Liner Notes by Rod Stradling and Ellen Mitchell:
Ellen: Again from Lizzie [Higgins], and I know her mother sang it too. Lizzie said this was based on a true story of a slighted girl who dies in childbirth. Her dead baby could be buried in consecrated ground but she was buried outside the churchyard, with rather terrifying results for William.
Although this ballad was published in three Scots song books, and in Child, it doesn’t appear to have had a broadside printing, and the only named sources within the oral tradition have been Jeannie Robertson and her daughter Lizzie Higgins.
Song transcription:
Oh Willie’s gaed ower yon high high hill,
And doon yon dowie den.
It was there he spied a grievious ghost
Would a feared a thousand men.
Willie’s gaed ower yon high, high hill
And doon by Mary’s Stile,
Wan and weary was the ghost
That on him grimly smiled.
“Aft hae ye travelled this road, Willie,
Your new love for to see,
Aft hae ye travelled this road, Willie,
Wi ne’er a thought for me.
“Aft hae ye travelled this road, Willie,
Your bonny new love to see,
Wi ne’er a thought for your poor soul
When your sinful life is done.
“Aft hae ye travelled this road, Willie,
Your new love for to see,
But you’ll never travel this road again,
For tonight avenged I’ll be.”
And she has ta’en her perjured love
An she’s rieved him frae gare tae gare,
And on ilka side o’ Mary’s Stile
O him she’s left a share.
His faither and mither they both mak main
And his new love muckle mare,
His faither and mother they both mak main
And his new love rieves her hair.
Here is the full Carpenter text for comparison:
"Saa ye my faether? or saa ye my maether?
Or saa ye my truelove, John?"
"I never saa yer maether, nor yet saa yer faether,
But I saa yer truelove, John."
"Wis John rinnin? or wis John comin?
Or wis John gaein hame?"
"John wis rinnin fast, love, an' John'll be here at last."
An' he rattled at the gate, love, sae fine,
Up the lassie raise, an' she pit on her claes,
An' she's clasped him in her airms again,
Crying, "O if it were but as lang, fie day
As sin eever the warld began!
"Ye my bonie cockie, an' O my pretty cockie
That cries i' the morning sae shoon,
'O if it were but as lang, fie day
As sin eever the warld began!'"
(The cylinder recording ends here)
He's mounted on his white milk steg,
An' he's awa ridin hame;
An' what stid up by yon kirk stile
But a ghost on the side o the road.
"Often ye hae roden this road, Willie,
An' over me ye've gane;
An' often ye hae trodden this road, Willie,
But ye'll never trod them again."
She's taen Willie, torn him fae ear tee ear,
Cut him fae gair tee gair;
In a' the four corners o the churchyaird
An' bits o Sweet Willie lie there.
