The book of British ballads . oral conveying a warning against the crime of Walter says, I remember to have heard a ballad, in which a fiend is introducedpaying his addresses to a beautiful maiden; but, disconcerted by the holy herbs shewore in her bosom, makes the following lines the burthen of his courtship :— Gin ye wish to be leman mine, Lay aside the St. Johns wort, and the vervain. The same power of keeping away evil spirits is attributed to the vervain in Ireland;where, when it is pulled by village mediciners, while the morning dew is on theground, this verse is generally
The book of British ballads . oral conveying a warning against the crime of Walter says, I remember to have heard a ballad, in which a fiend is introducedpaying his addresses to a beautiful maiden; but, disconcerted by the holy herbs shewore in her bosom, makes the following lines the burthen of his courtship :— Gin ye wish to be leman mine, Lay aside the St. Johns wort, and the vervain. The same power of keeping away evil spirits is attributed to the vervain in Ireland;where, when it is pulled by village mediciners, while the morning dew is on theground, this verse is generally repeated:— Vervain, thou growest upon holy ground,In Mount Calvary thou wert found ;Thou curest all sores and all diseases,And in the name of Holy Jesus,1 pull you out of the ground. The unhappy lady whose fate is described in the accompanying ballad had nosuch protection, and was without that surer safeguard, to which the great poetrefers as a possession, oer which No goblin or swart fairy of the mineHath hurtful He turned him right and round about,And the tear blinded his ee ; I wad never hae trodden on Irish ground,If it had not been for thee.
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1840, bookidg, bookpublisherlondonjhow
