The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #98210   Message #3959970
Posted By: Joe Offer
03-Nov-18 - 11:12 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Matt Hyland
Subject: ADD Version: Matt Highland
One more. This was sung by Liz Jefferies, recorded by Barry & Chris Morgan in their home in Bristol in September 1976.
Voice of the People Volume 6, Tonight I'll Make You My Bride, Track 13 (from the CD booklet)

MATT HIGHLAND

There was a lord lived in the town,
He had one handsome, comely daughter,
Who fell in love with a fair young man,
He being a servant to her father,
But when her parents came to know,
They swore they’d banish him from the island,
But the maid she knew her heart was true,
For she loved no one but young Matt Highland.

So straightaway to her love she went
Into his room for to awake him,
Saying, “Arise, my love, and go away.
This very night you will be taken.
I overheard my parents say
In spite of me they would transport you.
So arise, my love, and go away.
I wish to God I’d gone before you.”

They both sat down upon the bed
Just for the size of one half-hour,
And not a word did either speak,
But down her cheeks the tears did shower.
She laid her head upon his breast
And around his neck her arms she did twine them,
Saying, “No lord or duke will I e’er wed,
But I’ll wait for you, my own Matt Highland.”

The lord discussed with his daughter fair
One night alone in her bedchamber,
Saying, “I’ll give you leave to bring him back,
Since there’s no one can win your favour.”
She wrote away to him in haste,
For him her heart it was truly pining.
She brought him to the church; they wed
And she made a lord of young Matt Highland.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EIq5BaL3QQ (may not play outside the U.S.)

Andy M. Stewart recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LF89Z2nbFMk