Lyrics found in John Munro's book "The Emigrant and the Exile". Recorded on the album "Eric Bogle Live In Person", released in 1977 on the Autogram label in Germany.

Big Mansion Hoose On The Hill

It's six in the mornin' and a cauld wind does blaw
The Chimneys and rooftops are a' covered wi' snaw
I lie in ma bed in the cauld and the dark
And I think o' whit's ahead wi' a grim heavy heart
And I wonder if they're sleepin' still?
In the big mansion hoose on the hill

Bit it's up oot o' bed noo and run doon the stair
Cursin' and shiveren' in the cauld morning' air
though the cauld in the kitchen near freezes ma soul
I can't light the fire for we can't spare the coal

And I wonder if they feel the chill?
In that big mansion hoose on the hill

Oot the fonrt door noo, and walk through the toon
Wi' street lamps still shinin' like stars in the gloom
Walkin ' wi' footsteps that wearily drag
Wi' eyes that are listless and shoulders that sag
In the front gate o' the mill
Past the big mansion hoose on the hill

For three hundred years how my brothers have toiled
Whilst oor masters exploited, enslaved and despoiled
The sweat frae oor brows built ther great marble ha's
While oor children's sharp hunger pit meat in their craws
One day I will burn doon that mill
And the big mansion hoose on the hill.

E. Bogle