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Willie Wastle / Sic a Wife as Willie Had

[ Roud 2702 ; Ballad Index CrMa132 ; DT WASTLE ; Robert Burns]

Helen Creighton: Maritime Folk Songs

Ian Campbell sang Willie Wastle in 1968 on his Transatlantic album of poems and songs from Robert Burns, Tam o‘ Shanter. He noted:

It has been thought that Willie was a farmer who lived near Ellisland with a wife renowned for her plainness, though no doubt female acquaintances of the poet took the opportunity to air their prejudices and settle old scores in their conjectures as to the real identity of the unfortunate weaver’s wife. I prefer to believe that Willie’s wife, like the town of Linkumdoddie, was a product of the poet’s fertile imagination. Surely his other works indicate that meanness of spirit rather than physical misfortune was likely to draw the acid from Burns’ pen?

Nigel Denver sang Willie Wastle in 1968 on his Major minor album of collected songs of Robert Burns, There Was a Lad.

Rod Paterson sang Willie Wassle in 1987 on their Greentrax album Two Hats. This track was also included in 2000 on his Greentrax compilation Up to Date. He also sang Willie Wastle in 1996 on the Linn anthology The Complete Songs of Robert Burns Volume 2.

Ceolbeg sang Willie Wastle in 1996 on their Greentrax album Five. This track was also included in 2013 on their Greentrax compilation Collected. They noted:

Had Robert Burns gone to Jamaica, as he threatened, we like to think the results might have been something like our treatment of this song which he wrote at a time when there was concern about the decline of the Scots language!

The Water Chorus sang Willie’s Wife on their 2026 EP ‘Scorn’.

Lyrics

Ceolbeg sing Willie Wastle

Willie Wastle dwalt on Tweed, the spot they ca’d it Linkumdoddie;
Willie was a wabster gude, could stown a clue wi’ ony body;
He had a wife was dour and din, o Tinkler Maidgie was her mither;
Sic a wife a Willie had, I wad na gie a button for her.

She has an ee’ (she has but ane), the cat has twa the very colour;
Five rusty teeth forbye a stump, a clapper tongue wad deave a miller;
A whiskin beard about her mou’, her nose and chin they threaten ither;
Sic a wife a Willie had, I wad na gie a button for her.

Chorus:
Sic a wife as Willie’s wife, sic a life as Willie led her,
Sic a wife as Willie’s wife, he rued the day he’d ever met her.
Sic a wife as Willie’s wife, sic a husband Willie made her,
Sic a wife as Willie’s wife, rued the day he’d ever laid her doon.

She’s bow-hough’d, she’s hem-shinn’d, ae limpin leg a hand-breed shorter;
She’s twisted right, she’s twisted left, to balance fair in ilka quarter;
She has a hump upon her breast, the twin o’ that upon her shouther;
Sic a wife as Willie had, I wad na gie a button for her.

Auld Baudrons by the ingle sits, an’ wi’ her loot her face a-washin;
But Willie’s wife is nae sae trig, she dights her grunzie wi’ a hushion;
Her walie nieves like midden-creels, her face wad fyle the Logan Water;
Sic a wife a Willie had, I wad na gie a button for her.