With my dog and gun through the blooming heather
To seek for past-time I chanced to stray
There a maid I spied, she was tall and slender
Her looks enticed me a while to stay

Says I “my fair maid I own I love you
Tell me your name and your dwelling also”
“Excuse my name sir, you’ll find my dwelling
By the mountain stream where the moorcocks crow

“If you’d consent and go with a rover
My former rakings I would leave aside
I’m doomed to love you, so don’t prove cruel
But do agree to become my bride”

“If my parents knew that I loved a rover
It’s great affliction I would undergo
In a dungeon dark they would close confine me
By the mountain stream where the moorcocks crow”

“If you’ll call round, and frequent my parents
Lest a hasty marriage should produce a foe
I’ll stay at home for another season
By the mountain stream...”

“Then it’s hand in hand, we shall roam together
And I’ll escort you to the plains below
Where the linnet changes her notes more pleasant
By the mountain stream where the moorcocks crow”