This is a very old ballad, found in many forms with many melodies throughout the British Isles. The story itself is as old as civilization: a woman, abandoned and facing utter ruin, takes drastic and terrible action.
Listen and Purchase
There was a lady lived in York
Listen and Purchase
There was a lady lived in York
Oh the rose and the lindsey-o
She fell in with her father's clerk
Down by the greenwood sidey-o
She loved him up, she loved him down
She loved him up, she loved him down
She loved him 'till he filled her arms
She leaned her back against an oak
She leaned her back against an oak
But first it bent and then it broke
She leaned her back against a thorn
She leaned her back against a thorn
And there she had two pretty babes born
She pulled out her wee penknife
She pulled out her wee penknife
And then she took those fine babes' lives
She buried them beneath a stone
She buried them beneath a stone
And thought to go a maiden home
As she rode back to her father's hall
As she rode back to her father's hall
She spied two babes a-playin' at ball
Oh babes, oh babes, if you were mine
Oh babes, oh babes, if you were mine
I'd dress you up in scarlet fine
Oh mother, oh mother, when we were yours
Oh mother, oh mother, when we were yours
Scarlet was our own heart's blood
Seven years a fish in the flood
Seven years a fish in the flood
Seven years a bird in the wood
Seven years a tongue in the tolling bell
Seven years a tongue in the tolling bell
Seven years in the flames of hell
Oh come oh come, the fish in the flood
Oh come oh come, the fish in the flood
Oh come oh come the bird in the wood
Oh come oh come, the tongue in the tolling bell
Oh come oh come, the tongue in the tolling bell
But God save me from the flames of hell
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