Henry's Songbook

Johnny arose on a May morning
Called for water tae wash his hand
Gae lowse tae me my twa grey dogs
That lie bound in iron bands

When Johnny's mother she heard o' this
Her hands for a duel she wrang
Crying, Johnny for your venison
Tae the green wood dare no' gang

But he has ta'en his good ben bow
His arrows one by one
And he's awa' tae the green wood ga'en
Tae ding the dun deer doon

Johnny shot and the dun deer leapt
And he wounded her in the side
And between the water and the wood
The grey dogs laid her pride

By there come a silly auld man
And an ill death may he dee
For he's awa' tae Esslemont
The king's seven foresters tae see

Then up and spoke the first forester
He was heid man ower them a'
Gin this be Jock O'Breadislee
Untae him we will draw

The first shot that the forester fired
It wounded him in the knee
And the next shot that the forester fired
His heart's blood blint his e'e

He's leant his back against an oak
His foot against a stane
And he's fired on the seven foresters
And he's killed them a' but ane

He's broken four o' this man's ribs
His airm and his collar bane
And then he sat him on a horse
Tae carry the tidings hame

Noo Johnny's good bent bow lies broke
His twa grey dogs lie slain
And his body lies in Monymusk
And his huntin' days are dane

(as sung by Hamish Imlach)

[1880:] [An] old Nithsdale ballad, first published in the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. [...] The hero was evidently a deer-stealer and an outlaw. He is said to have possessed the old castle of Morton, built, according to an "account of Presbytery of Penpont", "on the face of a very great and high hill, so artificially, that, by the advantage of the hill, all wild beasts, such as deers, harts and roes, and hares, did easily leap in but could not get out again; and if any other cattle, such as cows, sheep, or goats, did voluntary leap in, or were forced to do it, it is doubted if their owners were permitted to get them out again." Sir Walter Scott adds very appropriately, "Such a park would form a convenient domain to an outlaw's castle, and the mention of Durisdeer, a neighbouring parish, adds weight to this tradition." (Ord, Glasgow Weekly Herald, July 10)

[1912:] Scott conjectures [in his 'Minstrelsy, III. 114] that the hero of this ballad was "an outlaw and deer-stealer, probably one of the broken-out men residing upon the Border." He is sometimes said to have "possessed the old castle of Morton, in Dumfriesshire, now ruinous." (Johnson, Ballads xvii)

[1980:] Much ink has flowed in efforts to fix the true location of ballad such as this, but the real point is not historicity but ethos. Some versions have a happy ending, with Johnny recovering and being honoured by the king, but they are at variance with the feeling of doomed defiance which pervades the ballad as a whole. No text is extant from earlier than the eighteenth century [...]. (Palmer, Ballads 112)

[1995:] Greig and Duncan found no less than 18 versions of this very fine ballad. Professor Child, in whose anthology it is number 114, calls it 'a precious specimen of the unspoiled traditional ballad'. Although not appearing in the 1765 'Reliques of Bishop Percy' it is among his papers, as from a Miss Fisher of Carlisle (1780) and most early versions are attributable to the Borders or the south of Scotland from where Greig acknowledges it probably came. In the south the hero is usually Johnny Cock or Cocklesmuir, but our northern examples have Braidisleys, or something similar, and local place names like Monymusk are introduced. All the tunes from the North-East are basically the same and the ballad in this form continues to be sung as witness sets collected by the School of Scottish Studies. (Peter Hall, notes 'Folk Songs of North-East Scotland')

[1995:] Old Scots ballad most of which is from the version recorded in 1953 by Alan Lomax of John Strachan. (Notes Hamish Imlach, 'More and Merrier')