Kilmarnock’s Lament

By Old Ballad

A Scotch nobleman, who was executed on August 18, 1746, for his part in the Jacobite rebellion of that year.

FAREWELL to my Eppie,

My wish be wi’ Eppie,

Too soon will my Eppie receive my adieu:

My sentence is past,

To-morrow’s my last,

And I’ll never win hame to my Eppie I trow.

Oh Eppie my dearest,

Oh Eppie my fairest,

Sae mony sweet days I hae spent wi’ you;

Now cauld are my hands

In these iron bands,

And I’ll never mair stretch them, dear Eppie, to you.

But though I maun die,

I boldly defy

My foes to declare that my crime I do rue;

Nor need my proud kin

Be ashamed of my sin,

But sad is the heart of my Eppie, I trow.

Good angels be keeping

Her while she is sleeping,

Lest dreams should present my sad fate to her view;

And when I am dead,

Support her widowed head,

For sad will the heart o’ my Eppie be now.