The Book of Scottish Song/Bonnie Mary Halliday

Bonnie Mary Halliday.

[Allan Cunningham.—Tune, "Luch'd n'a breachin."]

Bonnie Mary Halliday,
⁠Turn again, I call you;
If you go to the derry wood
⁠Sorrow will befall you.

The ring-dove from the derry wood
⁠Is wailing sore and calling;
And Annan water, 'tween its banks,
⁠Is foaming far and falling.

Gentle Mary Halliday,
⁠Come, my bonnie lady—
Upon the river's woody bank
⁠My steed is saddled ready.

And for thy haughty kinsman's throats
⁠My faith shall never falter—
The bridal banquet's ready made,
⁠The priest is at the altar.

Gentle Mary Halliday,
⁠The towers of merry Preston
Have bridal candles gleaming bright—
⁠So busk thee, love, and hasten.

Come busk thee, love, and bowne thee
⁠Through Tindal and green Mouswal;
I Come, be the grace and be the charm
⁠To the proud towers of Mochusel.

Bonnie Mary Halliday,
⁠Turn again, I tell you;
For wit, and grace, and loveliness,
⁠What maidens may excel you?

Though Annan has its beauteous dames,
⁠And Corrie many a fair one,
We canna want thee from our sight,
⁠Thou lovely and thou rare one.

Bonnie Mary Halliday,
⁠When the bittern’s sounding,
We'll miss thy lightsome lily foot
⁠Amang the blythe lads bounding.

The summer sun shall freeze our veins,
⁠The winter moon shall warm us,
Ere the like of thee shall come again
⁠To cheer us and to charm us.

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