Uploaded July 2025 | Updated September 2026, 7 hours ago
Willie's Ghost / Willie's Fate / Willie's Fatal Visit (Child No. 255) - Sung by Jeannie (Regina) Robertson (Mrs. Jean Higgins), a settled Traveller of Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Recorded by Alan Lomax on May 30, 1958. Jeannie learned the ballad from her mother when her brother and father were off fighting in World War I (1914-1918).
The original can be heard here:
archive.culturalequity.org/field-work/scotland-1951-1958/jeannie-robertson-558/willies-fate
Note by Kevin W.:
The tune is shared with Jeannie Robertson's version of "Clyde's Water" (Child 216) and she remarks 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.
Notes on the Song by Carl MacDougall (taken from "The Travelling Stewarts", Topic Records, 1967):
This ballad is from Peter Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, and is numbered 255 by Professor Child. The full story is of a maid who, inquiring after her lover, is told that he will be with her that night. The lover, Willie, is admitted and given the option of cards, dice, wine or bed. He chooses the latter, which, in Child’s opinion, is “a too familiar commonplace in Buchan’s ballads.” The maid, Meggie, charges the cock not to crow today, with the promise that:
Your kame shall be o the gude red gowd,
And your wings o the siller grey.
However, the cock crows an hour too soon. Willie dresses, leaves his love and on the road home meets with a ghost, who smiles on him. “The ghost tears him to pieces, and hangs a bit ‘on every seat’ of Mary’s kirk, the head right over Meggie’s pew! Meggie rives her yellow hair.” Jeannie’s version takes up the story from Willie leaving Meggie. The implication that the ghost is Willie’s former sweetheart is not in the Buchan version.
Song transcription:
For Willie’s gane o’er yon high, high hill,
And doon yon dowie den;
For it was there he met a grievious ghost
That would fear ten thousand men.
For he’s gane doon by Mary kirk,
And in by Mary’s stile.
Wan and weary was the ghost
On him that grimly smiled.
“Oft hae ye travelled this road, Willy,
Oft hae ye travelled and sang;
Nor thought what would come of your poor soul
When your sinful life was done.
“Oft hae ye travelled this road, Willy,
Your bonny new love tae see,
Oft hae ye travelled this road, Willy,
Nor thought of pooren me.
“Oft hae ye travelled this road, Willy,
Your bonny new love tae see.
But you’ll never travel this road again.
For this nicht avenged I’ll be.”
Then she has ta’en her perjured love,
And reived him gair by gair,
And ilka side o’ Mary’s stile.
Of him she hung a share.
His father and mither baith made moan,
His true love muckle mair;
His faither and mither baith made moan,
And his new love reived 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 Jeannie (Regina) Robertson (Mrs. Jean Higgins), a settled Traveller of Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Recorded by Alan Lomax on May 30, 1958. Jeannie learned the ballad from her mother when her brother and father were off fighting in World War I (1914-1918).
The original can be heard here:
archive.culturalequity.org/field-work/scotland-1951-1958/jeannie-robertson-558/willies-fate
Note by Kevin W.:
The tune is shared with Jeannie Robertson's version of "Clyde's Water" (Child 216) and she remarks 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.
Notes on the Song by Carl MacDougall (taken from "The Travelling Stewarts", Topic Records, 1967):
This ballad is from Peter Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, and is numbered 255 by Professor Child. The full story is of a maid who, inquiring after her lover, is told that he will be with her that night. The lover, Willie, is admitted and given the option of cards, dice, wine or bed. He chooses the latter, which, in Child’s opinion, is “a too familiar commonplace in Buchan’s ballads.” The maid, Meggie, charges the cock not to crow today, with the promise that:
Your kame shall be o the gude red gowd,
And your wings o the siller grey.
However, the cock crows an hour too soon. Willie dresses, leaves his love and on the road home meets with a ghost, who smiles on him. “The ghost tears him to pieces, and hangs a bit ‘on every seat’ of Mary’s kirk, the head right over Meggie’s pew! Meggie rives her yellow hair.” Jeannie’s version takes up the story from Willie leaving Meggie. The implication that the ghost is Willie’s former sweetheart is not in the Buchan version.
Song transcription:
For Willie’s gane o’er yon high, high hill,
And doon yon dowie den;
For it was there he met a grievious ghost
That would fear ten thousand men.
For he’s gane doon by Mary kirk,
And in by Mary’s stile.
Wan and weary was the ghost
On him that grimly smiled.
“Oft hae ye travelled this road, Willy,
Oft hae ye travelled and sang;
Nor thought what would come of your poor soul
When your sinful life was done.
“Oft hae ye travelled this road, Willy,
Your bonny new love tae see,
Oft hae ye travelled this road, Willy,
Nor thought of pooren me.
“Oft hae ye travelled this road, Willy,
Your bonny new love tae see.
But you’ll never travel this road again.
For this nicht avenged I’ll be.”
Then she has ta’en her perjured love,
And reived him gair by gair,
And ilka side o’ Mary’s stile.
Of him she hung a share.
His father and mither baith made moan,
His true love muckle mair;
His faither and mither baith made moan,
And his new love reived 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.
