THE GALLANT WEAVER

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Robert Burns re-worked this traditional ballad. The town of Paisley, though which the River Cart flows to join the Clyde, was a major centre of the weaving industry. The street names in the heart of the town still reflect that industrial history.

“Where Cart rins rowin' to the sea,

By mony a flower and spreading tree,

There lives a lad, the lad for me,

He is a gallant Weaver.

O, I had wooers aught or nine,

They gied me rings and ribbons fine;

And I was fear'd my heart wad tine,

And I gied it to the Weaver.

My daddie sign'd my tocher-band,

To gie the lad that has the land,

But to my heart I'll add my hand,

And give it to the Weaver.

While birds rejoice in leafy bowers,

While bees delight in opening flowers,

While corn grows green in summer showers,

I love my gallant Weaver.”