20 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



He had not gone but a year and a day, 



Strange countries for to see, 



When anguishing thoughts came into his mind. 



Lady Nancy Bell he would see, see, 



Lady Nancy Bell he would see. 



He rode and he rode on his milk-white steed 



Till he came to London town. 



And there he saw the church-steeple top. 



And the people all mourning round, round, 



And the people all mourning round. 

 "Oh, what is the matter?" Lord Lovel he said, 

 "Oh, what is the matter ?" said he. 

 "A lord's lady is dead," a woman replied, 

 "And some call her Nancy, cy. 



And some call her Nancy." 



He ordered her grave to be opened wide. 



The shroud to be turned down. 



And there he kissed her clay-cold lips. 



Till the tears came trickling down, down, 



Till the tears came trickling down. 



Lady Nancy died, as it might be, to-night; 



Lord Lovel died as to-morrow. 



Lady Nancy died of pure, pure grief; 



Lord Lovel died of sorrow, sorrow. 



Lord Lovel died of sorrow. 



Lord Lovel was laid in St. Bernard's church; 



Lady Nancy was laid in the choir. 



And out of her bosom there grew a red rose; 



And out of her lover a brier, brier. 



And out of her lover a brier. 



They grew and grew to the church-steeple top. 



Where they could grow no higher; 



And there entwined in a true lover's knot. 



For all true lovers to admire, mire, 



For all true lovers to admire. 



b English and American Variants 



With the exception of a few minor differences, it is substantially 

 the same as version H^ of Francis Child's monumental collection of 

 English and Scottish Popular Ballads} Child's sources for his variant 

 H are a London broadside in Dixon's Ancient Poems'^ and Davidson's 

 Universal Melodist (I, 148). 



The most marked differences between our variant and that of 

 Child's are to be found in 5 and 9. Child's fifth stanza: 



1 Part HI, p. 2n. 



* Published in five volumes of two parts each, Boston, 1882-1898. 

 ^ Ancient Poems, Ballads and Songs of the Peasantry of England, p. 78, Percy 

 Society, Vol. XIX. 



