Traditional: Collected Lyrics
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Public-domain lyrics

Colonel Gardiner

Traditional

“Colonel Gardiner” as printed in The Book of Scottish Song (1843).

Traditional: Collected Lyrics Text 85 1843 · historical text
Public domainScottish songFolk
Complete public-domain lyrics

This text comes from The Book of Scottish Song, edited by Alexander Whitelaw, a historical songbook transcribed on Wikisource and reproduced from the pinned revision linked below.

Verse 1

'Twas at the hour of dark midnight,

Before the first cock's crowing,

When westland winds shook Stirling's towers

With hollow murmurs blowing;

When Fanny fair, all woe begone.

Sad on her bed was lying.

And from the roin'd towers she heard

The boding screech-owl crying.

"O dismal night!" she said, and wept,

"O night presaging sorrow,

O dismal night!" she said, and wept,

"But more I dread to-morrow.

For now the bloody hour draws nigh,

Each host to Preston bending;

At morn shall sons their fathers slay,

With deadly hate contending.

"Even in the visions of the night,

I saw fell death wide sweeping;

And all the matrons of the land,

And all the virgins, weeping."

And now she heard the massy gates

Harsh on their hinges turning;

And now through all the castle heard

The woeful voice of mourning.

Aghast, she started from her bed,

The fatal tidings dreading;

"O speak," she cried, "my father's slain!

I see, I see him bleeding!"—

"A pale corpse on the sullen shore,

At morn, fair maid, I left him;

Even at the threshhold of his gate.

The foe of life bereft him.

"Bold, in the battle's front, he fell,

With many a wound deformed;

A braver knight, nor better man,

This fair isle ne'er adorned." —

While thus he spake, the grief-struck maid

A deadly swoon invaded;

Lost was the lustre of her eyes,

And all her beauty faded.

Sad was the sight, and sad the news,

And sad was our complaining;

But, oh! for thee, my native kind,

What woes are still remaining!

But why complain? the hero's soul

Is high in heaven shining;

May providence defend our isle

From all our foes designing!

Credits

Written by Traditional

Traditional words. Historical text published in The Book of Scottish Song (1843); public domain. No claim to a modern recording or arrangement.

Source & text edition

The Book of Scottish Song (1843), edited by Alexander Whitelaw, “Colonel Gardiner”

Every contribution in this 1843 anthology predates modern copyright terms by more than a century; any contributor died at least 130 years ago, so the text is in the public domain worldwide (life+70 terms expired no later than 2020).

How to read this historical text and its source

Read the source on Wikisource

View copyright evidence · Transcription terms (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Retrieved 2026-10-12. Line spacing and section labels are adapted for reading. The displayed text follows the linked edition. Editorial notes and abstract artwork are by 52lyrics.
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