Lyr Add: Bartram's Dirge

Subject: Lyr Add: BARTRAM'S DIRGE
From: Mad Maudlin
Date: 03 Apr 01 - 05:33 PM

BARTRAM'S DIRGE (anon.)

They shot him dead at Ninestone Bridge
Beside the Headless Cross.
They left him lying in his blood
Among the moor and moss.

They made a bier of the broken bough,
The sauch and aspen grey.
They bore him to the Lady Chapel
And waked him there all day.

A lady came to this lonely bower,
She cast her robes aside,
She tore her lovely golden hair
And knelt by Bartram's side.

She bathed him in the Lady Well,
His wounds so deep and sair.
She made a garland for his breast
And a garland for his hair.

They rolled him in a lily sheet
And bore him to his earth
And a greyfriar sang the Dead Man's Mass
As they passed the chapel garth.

They buried him at the mirk midnight
When the air was cold and still,
When the aspen grey forgot to play
And the mist clung to the hill.

They dug his grave but one foot deep
At the edge of Ninestone Burn.
They covered him over with heather flowers,
With moss and lady fern.

The greyfriar stayed upon the grave
And sang till morning tide
And a friar shall sing for Bartram's soul
While the Headless Cross shall bide.

I read this in a book some years ago, and it stuck in
my head even after the first reading.
Unfortunately I forgot what book it was. But I do
remember that the author is not known.
To me it feels like a Border Reiver Ballad...

NG

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bartram's Dirge
From: GUEST,Bruce O.
Date: 03 Apr 01 - 06:26 PM

What's going on? I've been trying to post this for a half hour now. Mudcat isn't responding.

Here'a a bit of its history along with those of some other forgeries. Use your browsers Edit/Find on 'Bartram'.

Click

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bartram's Dirge
From: GUEST,Bruce O.
Date: 03 Apr 01 - 06:27 PM

What do you know? I finally made it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bartram's Dirge
From: Anglo
Date: 03 Apr 01 - 07:37 PM

This was unfamiliar to me, but a couple of days ago I just came across it on a recent recording by Isla St. Clair, "Murder & Mayhem." It is listed as "Bartham's Dirge" though she actually sings "Barthram." The words are slightly different as one might expect; she omits the second verse.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bartram's Dirge
From: GUEST,shyanni
Date: 16 Jan 04 - 06:26 PM

The Corries perform this song, but they call it "The Heidless Cross". Their version is a little different. It has an extra beginning verse that starts with the line, "Oh, red is the rose . . ." I downloaded a copy from WinMX, but I don't know the words well enough to share here -- sorry.It is a lovely, melancholy tune.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bartram's Dirge
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 16 Jan 04 - 08:23 PM

Bartram's Dirge, as Bruce pointed out, was a 19th century fake written by Robert Surtees and passed off as "collected from oral tradition", largely on the strength of the equally fake (but expertly shammed) "scholarly notes" attached to it, which took in Walter Scott among others. The Heidless Cross was written relatively recently by George Weir, who evidently based on it Surtees' pastiche. The Weir song, as recorded by the Corries, was never represented as being traditional, though a lot of people have assumed without thinking that it "must" have been.