Cecil Sharp's Note 39 (1916)

No. 39. O Waly, Waly

I have collected five variants of this song. The words are so closely allied to the well-known Scottish ballad, “Waly, Waly, up the bank” (Orpheus Caledonius), that I have published them under the same title. A close variant is to be found in Songs of the West (No. 86, 2d ed.) under the heading “A Ship came Sailing.” Mr. Baring-Gould, in a note to the latter, points out that the third stanza is in “The Distressed Virgin,” a ballad by Martin Parker, printed by J.Coles, 1646–74.

The traditional “Waly, Waly” is part of a long ballad, “Lord Jamie Douglas,” printed in the appendix to Motherwell’s Minstrelsy. Its origin seems very obscure. The tune is given in Rimbault’s Musical Illustrations of Percy’s Reliques (p. 102); in Chambers’s Scottish Songs prior to Burns (p. 280); and elsewhere.