Jean Elliot (April 1727 – 29 March 1805), also known as Jane Elliot, was a Scottish poet, and the third daughter of Sir Gilbert Elliot of Minto, Lord Justice Clerk of Scotland.
Elliot wrote one of the most famous versions of The Flowers of the Forest, a song lamenting the disaster of Flodden Field in 1513 which begins "I've heard the lilting at our yowe-milking". Published in 1776, it is her only surviving work. The lyrics are set to a tune later collected into a melody by John Skene.
Another ballad with the same title beginning, "I've seen the smiling of fortune beguiling" had been written by Alicia Rutherford.
She died at Monteviot House in Scotland.
Famous quotes containing the word elliot:
“Dule and wae for the order sent our lads to the Border;
The English, for ance, by guile won the day:
The Flowers of the Forest, that foucht aye the foremost,
The prime o’ our land, are cauld in the clay.”
—Jean Elliot (1727–1805)