# The Book of Scottish Song/Cromlet's Lilt

Cromlet’s Lilt.
[This song or dirge is given in the second volume of Ramsay's Tea-Table Miscellany with the signature X, signifying that the author is unknown. It is also given with the music, in the Orpheus Caledonius (1725.) The tune is the well-known one of "Robin Adair." Burns in his notes to Johnson's Museum, says: "The following interesting account of this plaintive dirge was communicated to Mr. Riddel by Alexander Frazer Tytler, Esq. of Woodhouselee;—'In the latter end of the 16th century the Chisholms were proprietors of the estate of Cromlecks (now possessed by the Drummonds.) The eldest son of that family was very much attached to a daughter of Stirling of Ardoch, commonly known by the name of fair Helen of Ardoch. At that time the opportunities of meeting betwixt the sexes were more rare, consequently more sought after, than now; and the Scottish ladies, far from priding themselves on extensive literature, were thought sufficiently book-learned if they could make out the Scriptures in their mother-tongue. Writing was entirely out of the line of female education:—at that period the most of our young men of family sought a fortune, or found a grave, in France. Cromlus, when he went abroad to the war, was obliged to leave the management of his correspondence with his mistress to a lay-brother of the monastery of Dumblain, in the immediate neighbourhood of Cromleck, and near Ardoch. This man, unfortunately, was deeply sensible of Helen's charms. He artfully prepossessed her with stories to the disadvantage of Cromlus; and by the misinterpreting or keeping up the letters and messages intrusted to his care, he entirely irritated both. All connection was broken off betwixt them : Helen was inconsolable, and Cromlus has left behind him, in the ballad called 'Cromlet's Lilt,' a proof of the elegance of his genius, as well as the steadiness of his love. When the artful monk thought time had sufficiently softened Helen's sorrow, he proposed himself as a lover: Helen was obdurate; but at last, overcome by the persuasions of her brother with whom she lived, and who, having a family of thirty-one children, was probably very well pleased to get her off his hands, she submitted rather than consented to the ceremony. But there her compliance ended; and, when forcibly put into bed, she started quite frantic from it, screaming out, that, after three gentle taps on the wainscot, at the bed-head, she heard Cromlus' voice, crying "Helen, Helen, mind me!" Cromlus soon after coming home, the treachery of the confidant was discovered, her marriage disannulled, and Helen became Lady Cromlecks.'—N. B. Margaret Murray, mother to these thirty-one children, was daughter to Murray of Strewan, one of the seventeen sons of Tullybardine, and whose youngest son, commonly called the Tutor of Ardoch, died in the year 1715, aged 111 years."]
Since all thy vows, false maid, Are blown to air, And my poor heart betray'd To sad despair; Into some wilderness My grief I will express, And thy hard-heartedness, Oh, cruel fair!
Have I not graven our loves On every tree In yonder spreading grove, Though false thou be? Was not a solemn oath Plighted betwixt us both, Thou thy faith, I my troth, Constant to be?
Some gloomy place I'll find, Some doleful shade, Where neither sun nor wind E'er entrance had. Into that bollow cave There will I sigh and rave, Because thou dost behave So faithlessly.
Wild fruit shall be my meat, I'll drink the spring; Cold earth shall be my seat; For covering, I'll have the starry sky My head to canopy, Until my soul on high Shall spread its wing.
I'll have no funeral fire, No tears nor sighs; No grave do I require, Nor obsequies: ​The courteous red-breast, he With leaves will cover me, And sing my elegy With doleful voice.
And when a ghost I am, I'll visit thee, Oh, thou deceitful dame, Whose cruelty Has kill'd the kindest heart That e'er felt Cupid's dart, And never can desert From loving thee!