_Ballad quoted by Sir Walter Scott._--Effie Deans, in the _Heart of
Mid-Lothian_, sings this stanza of a ballad:
"The elfin knight sate on the brae,
The broom grows bonnie, the broom grows fair,
And by there cam' lilting a lady so gay,
And we daurna' gang down to the broom nae mair."
There is a traditional ballad, very similar, of which the following is
the only stanza preserved:
"Ae kings dochter said to anither,
Broom blooms bonnie, an' grows sae fair,
We'll gae ride like sister and brither,
But we'll never gae down to the broom nae mair."
Sir Walter Scott delighted in preserving scraps of old ballads; and
perhaps the two fragments above quoted may be part and parcel of the
same original. Some friend in the "north countrie" may perhaps settle
this point.