Of all the ballads claimed to have been omitted from Child’s great canon ‘The English and Scottish Popular Ballads’ this one surely has the greatest claim. Whilst  broadside versions don’t appear till the nineteenth century the ballad is very likely much older as ‘The Young Laird of Craigston’ and is thought to be based on a real event of 1634. One of its stanzas is found in a seventeenth century ballad and whilst this could have been included in our ballad much later, it has all the hallmarks of an early piece.

Notes by Steve Gardham