THE BONNIE EARL OF MORAY

Anon    

Ye highlands, and ye lowlands, 

    Oh! where hae ye been?

    They hae slain the Earl of Moray,

    And hae laid him on the green.

    Now woe be to thee, Huntly!

    And wherefore did you sae!

    I bade you bring him wi' you,

    But forbade you him to slay.

    He was a braw gallant,

  And he rid at the ring;

  And the bonnie Earl of Moray,

  Oh! he might hae been a king.

  He was a braw gallant,

  And he played at the ba';

  And the bonnie Earl of Murray

  Was the flower among them a'.

  He was a braw gallant,

  And he played at the glove;*

  And the bonnie Earl of Moray,

  Oh! he was the Queen's love.

  Oh! lang will his Lady

  Look o'er the Castle Doune,

  Ere she see the Earl of Moray

  Come sounding through the toon.

* And he played at the glove" - In "The Right Attitude to Rain" by Alexander McCall Smith, one of his characters, talking to her friends about the above ballad, believes that the phrase "means that he played real tennis - not lawn tennis but real tennis. That's the game with those strange racquets and the ball that you hit off the roof. At first they played it by hitting the ball with their hands. Then they started to use a glove." You can see a real tennis court at Falkland Palace in Fife, Scotland.

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