Classic Poem

It fell on a day, a clear summer day,
When the corn grew green and bonny,
That there was a combat did fall out
'Tween Argyle and the bonny house of Airly.

Argyle he did raise five hundred men,
Five hundred men, so many,
And he did place them by Dunkeld,
Bade them shoot at the bonny house of Airly.

The lady looked over her own castle-wa,
And oh, but she looked weary!
And there she espied the gleyed Argyle,
Come to plunder the bonny house of Airly.

" Come down the stair now, Madam Ogilvie,
And let me kiss thee kindly;
Or I vow and I swear, by the sword that I wear,
That I winna leave a standing stone at Airly."

" O how can I come down the stair,
And how can I kiss thee kindly,
Since you vow and you swear, by the sword that you wear,
That you winna leave a standing stone on Airly?"

" Come down the stair then, Madam Ogilvie,
And let me see thy dowry;"
" O 't is east and it is west, and 't is down by yon burn-side,
And it stands at the planting sae bonny.

" But if my brave lord had been at hame this day,
As he is wi Prince Charlie,
There durst na a Campbell in all Scotland
Set a foot on the bowling-green of Airly

" O I hae born him seven, seven sons,
And an eighth neer saw his daddy,
And tho I were to bear him as many more,
They should a' carry arms for Prince Charlie."