The Broom of the Cowdenknowes

Child #217
(Andy M. Stewart)

How blythe was I each morn tae see
My lass come o'er yon hill.
She tripped a burn and ran tae me
I met her with good will.

Chorus (after every verse):
     Oh the broom, the bonnie, bonnie broom
     The broom o the Cowdenknowes.
     Fain would I be in my ain country
     Herding my faither's yowes.

We neither herded ewes nor lamb
While the flock near us lay.
She gathered in the sheep at night
And cheered me all the day.

Hard fate that I should banished be,
Gang wearily and mourn,
Because I loved the fairest lass
That ever yet was born.

Fareweel, ye Cowdenknowes, fareweel
Fareweel all pleasures there.
Tae wander by her side again
Is all I crave or care.


Andy Stewart says, "Easily traceable back to the early
seventeenth century where it appears in a small collection as
"The Lovely Northerne Lass." Allan Ramsay also published a
version in his "Tea Table Miscellany," during the 1720s. It is a
moving tale of love, banishment and exile, supported by a very
beautiful melody. Cowdenknowes is in Berwickshire, near to the
village of Earlston, a place much associated with the 13th
century poet and prophet, "Thomas The Rhymer". I got this song
years ago, from my friend and neighbour, Archie Fisher.

burn = brook
yowes = ewes

Words, music and chords appear in The Andy M. Stewart Collection
songbook, 1998