Down in the willow garden
My love and I did meet,
And as we sat a-courting
My love dropped off to sleep.
I'd had a bottle of burgundy wine
My young love did not know,
And there I murdered that dear little girl
Down by the banks below.

I drove my sabre through her,
A sharp and bloody knife.
I drowned her in the river,
It were an awful site.
My pappy always told me
That money would set me free
If I'd just murder that dear little girl
Whose name was Rose Connelly.

But now he darkens his own cottage door
And wipes his weepin' eyes,
A-gazing at his only son
Upon the gallows high.
For my race is run beneath the sun
And hell's a waiting for me
'Cos I done murdered that dear little girl
Whose name was Rose Connelly.

Yeah my race is run beneath the sun
And hell's a waiting for me
'Cos I done murdered that dear little girl
Whose name was Rose Connelly.