The Book of Scottish Song/Slichtit Nancy

Slichtit Nancy.

[This appears in the first vol. of Ramsay's Tea-Table Miscellany (1724) without any mark. The reader will discover in it the origin of the English song, "Nobody coming to marry me." It is given in Ramsay to the tune of "Kirk wad let me be."]

It's I ha'e seven braw new gouns,
And ither seven better to mak';
And yet, for a' my new gouns,
My wooer has turn'd his back.
Besides, I have seven milk-kye,
And Sandy he has but three;
And yet, for a' my gude kye,
The laddie winna ha'e me.

My daddie's a delver o' dykes,
My mother can card and spin,
And I'm a fine fodgel lass,
And the siller comes linkin' in;
The siller comes linkin' in,
And it is fu' fair to see,
And fifty times, wow! O wow!
What ails the lads at me?

Whenever our Bawty does bark,
Then fast to the door I rin,
To see gin ony young spark
Will licht and venture but in;
But never a ane will come in,
Though mony a ane gaes by;
Syne ben the house I rin,
And a weary wicht am I.

When I was at my first prayers,
I pray'd but anes i' the year,
I wish'd for a handsome young lad,
And a lad wi' muckle gear.
When I was at my neist prayers,
I pray'd but now and then,
I fash'd na my head about gear,
If I got a handsome young man.

Now I am at my last prayers,
I pray on baith nicht and day,
And, oh, if a beggar wad come,
With that same beggar I'd gae.
And, oh, and what'll come o' me:
And, oh, and what'll I do!
That sic a braw lassie as I
Should die for a wooer, I trow!

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