LIBRARY fcftlll ~RNI* THE BALLAD MINSTRELSY SCOTLAND. ROMANTIC AND HISTORICAL. COLLATED AND ANNOTATED. GLASGOW: MAURICE OGLE AND COMPANY. 1871. GLASGOW : PRINTED BY BELL AND BAIN, 41 MITCHELL STREET. PREFATORY NOTE. THE Flotsam of our old Traditionary Ballad Lore, which came drifting down the Stream of Time much of it starting no one knows when, and coming from no one knows where was diligently sought after and collected from time to time by those who took pleasure therein, or who sought to derive profit therefrom. Beginning with Chepman and Myllor, whose issues have been so admirably reproduced in fac-simile by that still and long may he continue to be so hale and efficient veteran Editor and Illustrator of our Ancient Scotish Literature, Mr. David Laing.* Passing over the greater and darker portion of the long dark night of civil broil and literary darkness which settled down on Scotland during the reigns of the later Stuarts, we come towards its close, and, as the harbinger of the dawn of a brighter period, to Watson, the celebrated " undertaker " of several elegantly printed national works, whose Choice Collection of Comic and Serious Scots Poems has been pro- duced in fac-simile under the auspices of the publishers of this work, t Watson probably stimulated, and certainly was followed immediately after by Ramsay, who, in his turn, was followed at intervals by others whose names are recorded in the bead-roll of fame with which the General Introduction to this work terminates. Motherwell, after stating "that of every old traditionary ballad known, there exists what may be called different versions," next proceeds to classify and describe the different modes of editing them which had been practised by different Ballad Editors, thus : 1st. He who contents "himself with merely selecting that one of his copies which appears the most complete and least vitiated." 2nd. He who, "by selecting the most beautiful and striking passages which present themselves in " two or more versions, "suc- ceeds in producing from the conflicting (?) texts of his various authorities a third version, more perfect and ornate than any indi- vidual one as it originally stood." 3rd. He or they "who, under no authority of written or recited copy, but merely to gratify [his or] their own insatiate rage for innovation and improvement, recklessly and injudiciously cut and carve as they list, on these productions, and in some cases entirely re-write them. " 4th. "There is yet another class of old Song Editors," or rather Forgers, on "whose dishonest propensities" Mr. Motherwell pours the scorching vials of his sarcastic scorn. J It is a sad commentary on human consistency to state, and that on the authority of evidence furnished by himself, that the theory of Mr. Motherwell, who highly commends the firs.t, and unqualifiedly condemns the three other " modes," is at variance with his practice ; as it can easily be shown from Mr. Motherwell's own statements, * Edinburgh, MDCCCXXVII. f Glasgow, 1869. t Motherwell's Minstrelsy, Introduction, pp. vi.-ix. 1188905 PREFATORY NOTE. that he carefully collated in accordance with his definition of class 2nd* every previously imprinted Ballad of which more than one set came into his possession, and which he thought worthy of a place in his Minstrels'/. The Editor of the present work has followed in the same, and, as he regards it, commendable path, going, however, a step further, although quite in the same direction, by removing what appeared to be obvious inconsistencies and errors introduced through the ignorance or lapse of memory of oral reciters ; in performing which delicate and difficult work, it is not at all necessary to deface or vitiate the ancient Story which the Ballad tells; because, as is "granted" by even Mr. Motherwell himself, " the ' expressions and allusions' of these compositions fluctuate, and that frequently; but these changes never alter entirely the venerable aspect of the whole ballad. It is like repairing gradually the weather-worn face of an ancient cathedral by the insertion here and there of a freshly-hewn stone, as need may require. The outline of the building and the effect of the whole remain un changed. "f The work of Restoration, however, necessarily brings the Restorer within the scope of criticism ; and amid the great diversities of tastes which prevail, it would be passing strange if some were not very far from being satisfied with respect to many points, and few or none thoroughly pleased with regard to all. It is probable that some portions have been rejected which should have been retained, and others retained which should have been rejected; but it is consoling to know that nothing has beeu destroyed, and that those who wish to gaze upon the originals, in all their rugged and fragmentary simplicity, may find in this work a complete and ready reference to the different versions of the various ballads. In conclusion, the Editor has to express his indebtedness, and to tender his thanks, to Dr. Patrick Buchan son of the eminent collector to whose zeal and industry Scotish Ballad Literature is so largely in- debted, as this work so amply testifies for the kind and patriotic interest which he has manifested in this collection in the course of its progress through the press, nearly the whole of the proof sheets of the First Part having been submitted to him, and returned with many valuable suggestions and emendations. The removal of Dr. Buchan to England has, much to the Editor's regret, deprived him of the same valuable advice and assistance in the Second Part; but he is glad to learn that Dr. Buchan, although far from being well, has made considerable progress towards the completion of a work on the Proverbs of Scotland, as illustrated and explained by similar proverbs current among the people of other nations, by etymological definitions, by literary quotations, and by Scotish Anecdotes and Stories. The Editor has also to acknowledge his indebtedness to Messrs. Griffin & Co., Publishers, London, for permission to include "The Brave Earl Brand and the King of England's Daughter," post, p. 32. * For example, see post, p. 125, and post, p. 432. t Motherwell's Minstrelsy, Introduction, p. xi. GLASGOW, March, 1871. CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION, - ix ALISON GROSS, 215 ANDREW LAMMIE, 625 ANNAN WATER, 605 ARCHIE OF CA'FIELD, ........ 588 ARMSTRONG'S GOOD-NIGHT, 592 AS I WENT ON AE MONDAY 196 AULD MAITLAND, 401 BINNORIE, 295 BONNIE ANNIE, 342 BONNIE GEORGE CAMPBELL . . . 529 BONNIE SUSIE CLELLAND, ....... 78 BOTHWELL, 22J BROWN ADAM, 339 BROWN ROBYN'S CONFESSION, ........ 341 BURD HELEN, 240 CHIL ETHER, 25! CHILD ROWLAND AND BURD ELLEN, ..... 2OJ CLERK COLVILL AND THE MERMAID 212 CLERK SAUNDERS, 44 CLERK TAMMAS, ......... 268 COSPATRICK 222 DICK O' THE COW, 570 DUKE OF PERTH'S THREE DAUGHTERS, ..... 312 EARL RICHARD, . . 232 EARL RICHARD'S DAUGHTER, . , 133 EDOM O' GORDON 515 EDWARD ! EDWARD ! 293 ERLINTON, 26 FAIR ANNIE'S GHOST . . 267 FAIR ANNIE OF LOCHRYAN I PAUSE FOODRAGE 128 FINE FLOWERS IN THE VALLEY, ...... 28$ GEORDIE, , 654 GILDEROY, 632 GIL MORICE, 313 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. GLENKINDIE, 256 GLENLOGIE, 506 GUDE WALLACE, 418 HARDYKNUTE, 357 HOBBIE NOBLE, 583 HYNDE ETIN, 199 HYNDE HORN, 125 HUGHIE THE GRAEME 495 JAMIE TELFER OF THE FAIR DODHEAD, 564 JELLON GRAME, - . 335 JOCK O' THE SIDE, - ... 578 JOHNNIE ARMSTRANG, . 487 JOHNNIE OF BREADISLEE, 471 JOHNNIE FAA 6l6 JOHNNIE SCOT, 432 JOHN THOMSON AND THE TURK, 252 KATHERINE JANFARIE, 85 KEMPY KAYE, . 22O KEMP OWYNE; OR, KEMPION, 21 KINMONT WILLIE, 555 KING HENRIE, 217 KING MALCOLM AND SIR COLVINE, 150 LADYE ANNE, 304 LADY ANNE BQTHWELL's BALOW, ....... 6l2 LADY ELSPAT, 39 LADY ISABEL, l6 LADY ISABEL AND THE ELF KNIGHT, 165 LADY MAISRY, 74 LAMENT FOR FLODDEN, 4?6 LANG JOHNNIE MOIR, 648 LEESOME BRAND, 59 LORD BEICHAN AND SUSIE PYE, 112 LORD DONALD 308 LORD INGRAM AND CHILDE VYET, 80 LORD LUNDIE'S DAUGHTER AND SQUIRE WILLIAM, ... 89 LORD MAXWELL'S GOOD-NIGHT, 593 LORD RANDAL, 35 LORD THOMAS AND FAIR ANNIE, 103 LORD THOMAS OF WINESBERRY, 44 1 LORD WILLIAM, 270 MAY COLVINE AND PAUSE SIR JOHN, 159 PRINCE ROBERT. IJ CONTENTS. Vll PAGE PROUD LADY MARGARET AND THE COURTEOUS KNIGHT, . 177 RARE WILLIE DROWNED IN YARROW, 603 REEDISDALE AND WISE WILLIAM, 246 ROSE THE RED AND WHITE LILY, 327 SIR CAWLINE, 156 SIR HUGH LE BLOND, ' 347 SIR HUGH AND THE JEW'S DAUGHTER, 352 SIR JAMES THE ROSE, , 478 SIR PATRICK SPENS, 368 SIR ROLAND, 171 SIR WILLIAM WALLACE, 412 SWEET WILLIE AND FAIR JANET, 6^ SWEET WILLIE AND FAIR ANNIE, 26l SWEET WILLIE AND LADY MARGERIE, . . . . ' . 4! SWEET WILLIAM'S GHOST, .../.,. 50 TAMLANE, l86 TAMMIE DOODLE, . 198 THE BATTLE OF BALRINNES, 538 THE BATTLE OF CORICHIE, 503 THE BATTLE OF HARLAW (EVERGREEN VERSION), . . . 443 THE BATTLE OF HARLAW (TRADITIONARY VERSION), . . 450 THE BATTLE OF OTTERBOURNE, 424 THE BATTLE OF ROSLINE, 42O THE BENT SAE BROWN, 35 THE BIRTH OF ROBIN HOOD, 322 THE BONNIE BANKS OF FORDIE, , 310 THE BONNIE EARL OF MURRAY, 530 THE BRAVE EARL BRAND AND THE KING OF ENGLAND'S DAUGHTER, 32 THE BROOM BLOOMS BONNIE AND SAYS IT IS FAIR, . . 62 THE BROOMFIELD HILL, 229 THE BUCHANSHIRE TRAGEDY; OR, SIR JAMES THE ROSS, . 481 THE CLERKS OF OXENFORD, 53 THE CRUEL BROTHER, . 286 THE CRUEL MOTHER, ........ 300 THE DEMON LOVER, 167 THE DOUGLAS TRAGEDY, . 29 THE DOWIE DENS OF YARROW, 599 THE DROWNED LOVERS; OR, WILLIE AND MAY MARGARET, . 9 THE DUKE OF GORDON'S DAUGHTER, 548 THE EARL OF DOUGLAS AND DAME OLIPHANT, ... 63 THE EARL OF MAR'S DAUGHTER 98 THE EARL OF MURRAY, 53! Vlll BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. PACE THE ELFIN KNIGHT, l8l THE ENCHANTED RING, 143 THE FIRE OF FRENDRAUGHT, 619 THE GAY GOS-HAWK, 93 THE HEIR OF LINNE (PERCY MS. VERSION), . . . . 636 THE HEIR OF LINNE (TRADITIONARY VERSION), . . . 64! THE KNIGHT'S GHOST, 175 THE LADS OF WAMPHRAY, 552 THE LAIRD O' LOGIE, 532 THE LAIRD OF MUIRHEAD, 475 THE LAMENT OF THE BORDER WIDOW, 493 THE LAIRD OF WARISTOUN, . k 607 THE LOCHMABEN HARPER, ....... 500 THE MAID AND FAIRY, ...... l8$ THE MERMAID, 214 THE MILLER'S SON, 139 THE NEW-SLAIN KNIGHT, . . . . . 345 THE QUEEN'S MARIE, 509 THE RAID OF THE REIDSWIRE, 521 THE SANG OF THE OUTLAW MURRAY, . 459 THE TWA BROTHERS, ......... 288 THE TWA CORBIES, 343 THE WATER O* WEARIE'S WELL, 164 THE YOUNG LAIRD OF OCHILTREE, 535 THE WEE, WEE MAN, 193 THE WIFE OF USHER'S WELL, 57 THOMAS OF ERCILDOUNE, . . . . -391 THOMAS THE RHYMER PART I., . . . . . 374 THOMAS THE RHYMER PART II. 380 THOMAS O' YONDERDALE, . . . . . .109 WILLIE'S FATAL VISIT, 174 WILLIE'S LADYE, 18 WILLIE MACINTOSH; OR, THE BURNING OF AUCHINDOUN, . 537 WILLIAM AND MARGARET (BY DAVID MALLET), . . . 645 WIT AT NEED, 49 YOUNG BEARWELL 249 YOUNG BEKIE I2O YOUNG BENJIE, 28l YOUNG HASTINGS 2O6 YOUNG JOHNSTONE, 277 YOUNG RONALD, . . 146 YOUNG WATERS, ......... 454 GENERAL INTRODUCTION. BALLADS may be described as short narrative poems, each celebrating some real or fancied event, and suitable for singing or chanting to some simple natural melody. They often are, but ought not to be, confounded with songs, which, properly speaking, are the more polished and artistic vehicles of " senti- ment, expression, or even description." ' Ballads may therefore be reasonably regarded as the earlier, nay, probably, as the very earliest, form of literary composition, 2 and more especially as the earliest expression of the Historic Muse ; an opinion eloquently set forth and amply illustrated by Lord Macaulay, in the preface to his Lays of Ancient Rome. The same, or a similar opinion, appears to have commended itself to other distinguished writers and scholars, as the following quotations indicate. The Boole of Jasher, quoted by name in two of the Earlier Historic Books of The Bible, and probably still more largely incorporated in their narratives, is, by an eminent Biblical scholar and critic, described as " apparently a national collection, in the form of ballads, containing the record of great men and great deeds." 3 Homer, the historian of the Trojan War, " though the early poet of a rude age," writes Sir Walter Scott, " has purchased for the era he has celebrated, so much reverence, that not daring to bestow on it the term barbarous, we distinguish it as the heroic period ; " and though " no other poet (sacred and inspired authors excepted) ever did,'or ever will, possess the same influence over posterity, in so many distant lands, as has been acquired by the blind old man of Chios, yet we are assured that his works, collected by the pious care of Pisistratus, who caused to be united into their present form those divine poems, would otherwise, if preserved at all, have appeared to succeeding generations in the humble state of a collection of detached ballads, connected only as referring to the same age, the same 1 Ritson's Historical Essay on National Song, prefixed to English Songs. 2 "The Narrative Ballad we believe to be the oldest of all compositions; and we are not induced to alter our opinion by all that has been said of love aud innocence, and of golden, pastoral, and patriarchal ages." R. Jamieson, in Illustrations of Northern Antiquities, Popular Ballads, Introduction, p. 237. 8 Biblical Cyclopaedia, edited by John Eadie, D.D., LL.D., &c., article " Jasher." GENERAL INTRODUCTION. general subjects, and the same cycle of heroes, like the metrical poems of the Cid in Spain, or of Robin Hood in England." l Among the Latins, "In the middle of the third century B.C., we have a few trenchant relics of the Saturninian epic of Nasvius celebrating the main events of the first, and the more polished hexameters of Ennius celebrating the Second Punic War. But they are rather reflections after the event than incentives to action. Ennius, however, elsewhere alludes to the existence of older writers, or an earlier literature which had treated of the same or similar themes in a more popular style : and Cicero, in his ' Brutus,' quoting the passage, laments the loss of those more primitive strains. From these and other passages Macaulay, building on a theory of Niebuhr's, has imagined that a whole series of Roman national ballads, . . . had existed and passed away previous to the date of the Punic Wars. He maintains that these early poems were expelled from poetic literature by the flowing tide of Greek influence (which passed over Latium as that of the Normans did over England), but that the substance of them is preserved in the more fanciful pages of Livy. . . . " The first light that falls on the Gothic race all over Europe, by the shores of the Baltic, or under the shadow of the Hartz, reveals the old singers along with the old soldiers exalted by the same apotheosis into gods and heroes. The Norwegian chiefs took their harpers with them to battle, and when the Norse armies invaded England they used to pass free from camp to camp. "The earliest ballads as the lays out of which grew the ' Nibelungen Lied,' the ' Song of Roland,' the ' Death Song of Regner Lodbrog,' half the Eddas, [and] the old Norse legend of the ' Sword Tyrfingj . . belong to the Pagan period of our own history, and that of the countries with which we were most closely connected. " Their general character of wild defiance is admirably represented in Mr. Longfellow's ' Challenge of Thor,' and Mr. Motherwell's ' Sword Chaunt of Thorstein Raudi.' [But] the Conquest broke the stream of our early minstrelsy, [and] the more elaborate Romance took the place of the Ballad among the higher circles." 8 The view expressed in the last sentence fully accords with that advanced by Mr. Motherwell, who argues, "that the Romance of Chivalry was the legitimate descendant of the i Sir Walter Scott'8 Introductory Bemarks on Popular Poetry, &c., prefixed to Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, edit. 1830. * Professor Nichol, of Glasgow University, in a recent Lecture on " War Songs," as reported in the Glasgow Newspaper Press. GENERAL INTRODUCTION. Heroic Ballad. 1 The heroes whom the minstrels chose for their versifications, were uniformly selected from those worthies of antiquity whose names and famous actions the traditions and ancient songs of the land still kept in remembrance. These, again, were occasionally supplanted by others who flourished in more recent times ; and even contemporary warriors at last came in for their share of adulation, and of that glory with which the muse can arrest and halo an otherwise fleeting name. But the origin of Romantic* Fiction, instead of being thus sought for in the traditions of each particular land where it obtained, and being looked upon as the natural intellectual growth of that land, at a certain stage of its progress towards refine- ment and the courtesies of life; and as, step by step, advancing from the simple narrative ballad to the more elaborate composi- tion, which embraced a variety of such narratives, and at length bourgeoned and branched out into all those complicated and fictitious adventures, and singular poetic creations, for which the Metrical Romance is distinguished, has, with much learning and ingenuity, been by different writers traced to a variety of opposite and contradictory sources. One hath assigned it a Scandinavian, 3 another an Arabian, 4 a third an Armorican origin; 5 while others have claimed this distinction for Nor* 1 Dr. Leyden, on the other hand, supposes that "many of the wild romantic baUads which are still common in the Lowlands of Scotland, have the appearance of episodes which, in the progress of traditional recitation, have heen detached from the romances of which they originally formed a part." Complaynt, Preliminary Dissertation, p. 271. This may have occurred in some instances, but seems to have been the exception, and the other the rule. 3 "Under the head of RoMANTCc.'a phrase we are obliged to employ for lack of some* thing more significant and precise, may be ranged a numerous and highly interesting body of short metrical tales, chiefly of a tragic complexion, which, though possessing all the features of real incident and probably originating in fact, cannot now, after the lapse of many ages, be with certainty traced to any historical source, public or private. With these may also be classed that description of ANCIENT SONG which treats of incredible achievements, and strange adventures by flood and field, deals largely with the marvellous in all its multiform aspects, and occasionally pours a brief but intense glare of supernatural light over those dim _and untravelled realms of doubt and dread, whose every nook the giant superstition of elder days has colonized with a prodigal profusion of mysterious and spiritual inhabitants. And, in short, under this comprehensive head, we must include every legend relating to person, place, thing, or occurrence, to establish whose existence it would be vain to seek for other evidence than that which popular tradition supplies." Motherwell's Jfinstrtlsy, Introduction, p. iv. Sir Walter Scott's definition of the word " Eomance " is : "A fictitious narrative in prose or verse, the interest of which turns upon marvellous and uncommon incidents ; " but "the word 'Romance,' in its original meaning, signifies merely one or other of the popular dialects of Europe, founded, as almost all those dialects were, upon the Roman tongue, that is, upon the Latin." Essay on Romance. First published in the Supplement to the Encyclopaedia Britannica [1824], and now included in his Miscellaneous Works, vol. vi., p. 129. 3 By Mallet, by his translator Bishop Percy, and by Pinkerton. 4 " By Warburton, in his remarks on Love's Labour Lost, and supported with copious illustrations by Warton, in his Preliminary Dissertation to the Uistory of English Poetry." Leyden. 5 Favoured by Dr. Leyden in his Preliminary Dissertation to The Complaynt of Scotland. GENERAL INTRODUCTION. jnandy and Provence." 1 ["And a later system, patronized by later authors, has derived them, in a great measure, from the Fragments of Classical Superstition which continued to be pre- served after the fall of the Koman empire."] 8 " To examine into the merit of these respective hypotheses is foreign from our present purpose ; but to ascribe to any one of them the sole origin of that stupendous fabric of poetical invention which delighted the Middle Ages, would be as foolish as the shep- herd's thought, who, after tracing with affectionate fondness the windings of his slender native stream, till he found it termi- nate in the ocean sea, deemed the boundless expanse of waters before him no other than the accumulations of the small well- spring, which, in the solitude of the far uplands, he knew full well, did morning and evening hum its tiny song, and gush with the gladness of new-born life, in a silver-like thread, down the dark hill side. Each of the systems, it is true, does in part account for this species of poetic compositions; but it would require them all blended together to obviate every objection which applies to each singly." 3 Nor would even this suffice, as the flood of light more recently thrown upon comparative philology and mythology by that distinguished scholar Max Muller, and by other labourers in the same interesting and important field, reveals the broader and truer doctrine of later times, which carries back the date of much of this wide-spread traditionary lore, and assigns to it an origin prior to the disjunction of the different branches of our race from the one primeval stem. 4 Subsequent to such disjunctions, changes of scene and cir- cumstance introduced modifications and divergences resulting in the course of time in something like a Babel of tradition, which, age by age, grew greater and wider, until the traces of a common origin among the more divergent branches were 1 Ellis, in the Introduction to his Speciment of Early English Metrical Romanctf, con- tends that the Earliest Romances, properly so called, were composed in Norman French by minstrels pertaining to the court of the Anglo-Norman kings ; while he regards the southern portion of Scotland as the birthplace of the English language, and the earliest English Romances as the productions of "Scottish minstrels." Sir Walter Scott, referring to this seeming paradox, remarks: "Upon this hypothesis, it is curious to observe that, as the earliest French Romances were written in England, so the earliest English Romances were composed in Scotland." 2 Sir Walter Scott, in his Essay on Romance, Miscellaneous Works, voL vL, p. 174. 8 Motherwell's Minstrelsy, Introduction, p. xxxv. * Mr. Motherwell rises "to the height of this great argument" in the following passage : " As to the original source from whence these stories have flowed, the reader need scarcely be told, how utterly useless all conjecture becomes ; the same stories, or but slightly varied, we find everywhere, and in every language, the popular vehicles of amusement or instruction to the people. Countries far separated from each other, and having no affinity of language, still preserve this identity in their popular tales; and where these have disappeared in a measure from the litera- ture of the people, we may rest assured that then- vestiges can still be traced in the legends of the nursery. 1 ' Minstrelsy, Introduction, pp. xxiii.-xrriii. See also Intro- duction to " Lord Randal," post, p. 305. GENERAL INTRODUCTION. all but lost. 1 But by far the most fruitful source of confusion and mystification appears to have arisen from what seems to have been a common practice of the later bards, skalds, or minstrels namely, the adaptation and application of the older stories and traditions to new persons and events a practice, by the way, of which the careful reader will find several examples in this collection. Originality is a God-given gift conferred on few: but the capacity to imitate, to copy, or to reconstruct more or less skilfully under varied forms and in new combinations from pre-existent materials, are qualities possessed by multitudes. Nor does this apply to bards or ballad-writers merely, as much of our current literature in every department, and the bulk of our pulpit prelections, most amply and sadly testify. Literary patchwork in the press, and mosaic discourses in the pulpit, are leading characteristics of this age of shoddy. 8 The use made of the old material gleaned or pilfered, and re-constructed or re-dressed, is usually abuse of such a nature as finds its fitting analogy in the conduct of such Goths as ignorantly and wantonly lay sacrilegious hands on the remains of some stately Old Edifice, in order that they may, without much expenditure of labour or money, construct a barn, or rear a dry-stone wall. These remarks are not directed against honest work in the form of compilation, or the introduction of quotation honestly acknowledged, but against those counterfeiters who seek to stamp their own impress on the coinage of other men's brains those pilferers or forgers who take or convey over to themselves the intellectual property of other and better endowed minds, At the same time, it must be acknow- ledged that originality becomes in every succeeding age much more difficult; mental phenomena, or the principles of human thought, as developed by the intellectual faculties; of feeling, as manifested in the emotions and passions; or of will, as 1 " With respect to vulgar poetry, preserved by tradition," writes Ritson, " it is almost impossible to discriminate the ancient from the modern, the true from the false. Obsolete phrases will be perpetually changing for those better understood; and what the memory loses the invention must supply. So that a performance of genius and merit, as the purest stream becomes polluted by the foulness of its channel, may in time be degraded to the vilest jargon. Tradition, in short, is a species of alchemy which converts gold to lead. " He, however, who should have the patience to collect, the judgment to arrange, and the integrity to publish the best pieces of this description, would probably deserve the thanks of the antiquary and the man of taste ; but would more probably excite the malicious attacks and scurrilous language of a few despicable hirelings, who, to the disgrace of criticism, of letters, and liberality, are permitted to dictate their crude and superficial ideas as the criterion of literary eminence." Scotish Hong, Historical Essay, vol. i., pp. Ixxxi.-lxxxii. 2 If the Wise Man were alive at the present day, he might reiterate with greater force and propriety than ever, " The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be ; and that which is done it that which shall be done : and there is no new thing under the sun," &c., &c.cclesiastet, chap, i., verses 9-10. See also note,^o*<, p. 373. GENERAL INTRODUCTION. displayed in the actions ; as well as physical phenomena, as exhibited in the material universe, are, in their general characteristics, the same in every age, and consequently available to those who had, or have, the intuition and opportunity first to use them; priority of appropriation conferring a right of possession, and constituting in this, as in other matters, a material advantage. The general truth thus indicated has been admirably and elegantly expressed by Sir Walter Scott, with special reference to poetic themes and similes : "The earlier poets," says he, "have the advantage, and it is not a small one, of having the first choice out of the stock of materials which are proper to the art; and thus they compel later authors, if they would avoid slavishly imitating the fathers of verse, into various devices, often more ingenious than elegant, that they may establish, if not an absolute claim to originality, at least a visible distinction betwixt themselves and their predecessors. Thus it happens, that early poets almost uniformly display a bold, rude, original cast of genius and expression. They have walked at free-will, and with un- constrained steps, along the wilds of Parnassus, while their followers move with constrained gestures and forced attitudes, in order to avoid placing their feet where their predecessors have stepped before them. The first bard who compared his hero to a lion struck a bold and congenial note, though the simile, in a nation of hunters, be a very obvious one; but every subsequent poet who shall use it, must either struggle hard to give his lion, as heralds say, with a difference, or lie under the imputation of being a servile imitator." ' It may be reasonably inferred that the closer and more numerous the instances of affinity between the traditions of any two or more nations to each other, or vice versa, are, so in proportion will be their more immediate or remote identity as a community. Keeping this preliminary basis in view, let us now proceed to inquire into the origin of the ample, rich, and varied store of traditionary Ballad Lore which pertains to Scotland, or, to speak more precisely, to the Lowland Scots. As is well known to every one who has paid any attention to early Scotish History, the origin and language, or languages, of the Caledonians, Picts, and Scots, have formed the fruitful themes of much learned disquisition and vehement controversy. It forms no part of the writer's plan to trace elaborately, to examine minutely, or to discuss virulently the evidence pro and con advanced by the respective advocates of the Celtic or 1 Introductory Bemarks on Popular Poetry, prefixed to Scott's Minstrelsy, voL L, p. 6, edit. 1830, and since. GENERAL INTRODUCTION. XV the Gothic origin of the nation or nations known under the designations named above. Nor is it necessary to do so. It is quite sufficient for us to know that the earliest dawn of Scotish History reveals to the student of its early annals two apparently different races, speaking two different languages, occupying, the one. the North-western, and the other the Eastern and Southern portions of the country, the former speak- ing a Celtic and the other a Gothic language; that the relative positions thus disclosed continued to subsist during the various Avars and mutations which the country has passed through ; and that they still continue to exist down to the present day, although, as is well known, the Lowlanders of the East and South have, like an advancing tide, slowly but steadily enlarged their boundaries by encroachments on the territories of the no less heroic and chivalrous Highlanders of the North-West. It would ill become a modern Scot, in whose veins the blood of both those ancient and distinguished races probably mingles and courses, to institute odious comparisons between them, or to exalt one to the disparagement of the other. Such an un- grateful task is, however, fortunately altogether foreign to the purpose of this Essay, which has, if not purely and solely, at least more immediately to do with the Ballads preserved by the Lowland Scots. Affinity of language, of physical and mental characteristics, and of Folk or Traditionary Lore, all concur in identifying the Lowlanders of Scotland with the Northern or Scandinavian branch of the great Gothic family, which in the fifth and suc- ceeding centuries subverted the Koman empire and established Gothic kingdoms, not only over the whole of Northern and Western Europe, but also on the North-western shores of Africa. But in addition to such positive evidence of the most direct and convincing kind, we may add the negative evidence furnished by the fact, that Fingal and the other heroes of Ossian, as well as the other Traditions or Traditionary Stories current among the Gaelic Celts, find no place whatever in the popular traditions of the Lowlanders. The remains of Cymric traditions, such as of Arthur and the Knights of his Round Table, are likewise scanty, scattered, and obscure. 1 Although it is quite possible that the New-year's Mummers, who in the South- 1 A few literary notices occur in the works of Sir David Lindsay, &c., regarding " Gowmacmorne," " Fynmakcoul," " Arthour," and "Gavrane." The following curious references to two of those heroes occur in the Croniklis of Scotland:" It is said that Fynmakcoule, the sonne of Coelus Scottisman, was in thir dayes; ane man of huge statuore, of xvii. cubits of hicht. He was ane gret hunter, and richt terribil, for his huge quantite, to the pepill : of quhome ar mony vulgar fabillis amang us, nocht unlike to thir fabilis that are rehersit of King Arthure, and becaus his dedis is nocht authorist be authentik authoris, I will rehers na thing thairof.' Sevent Bute, chap. 18. "Arthure" and "The Bound Tabil" are also referred to in the same work Nint Bute, chap. 11. GENERAL INTRODUCTION. west of Scotland, the old home of the Scotish Cymri, 1 are designated "Galatians," or " Galashins," may derive their name from "Galashin." 8 who is said to have been the brother of the supposed hero of the ballad of " Kemp Owyne " (p. 21), and consequently nephew to King Arthur ; yet it is somewhat sin- gular to find the term " Kemp " prefixed to the name of the hero; a circumstance which renders it all but certain that the Ballad referred to has come to us from a Scandinavian source. To Kobert Jamieson belongs the honour of being the first to point out " the singular coincidence which exists betwixt the ballads of Scotland and those of Denmark and Sweden, not only in their incidents, but also in those characteristic peculiarities of phraseology and expression which distinguish our Traditionary Songs. "To those fond of tracing the obvious connection thus existing in the traditions and popular poetry of countries long separated from each other, the writings of Mr. Jamieson must ever prove both pleasing and profitable ; and there are few who know any- thing of the subject, on which he has bestowed so much attention and reflected so much light, but will readily subscribe to almost every one of the philosophic and ingenious views he has so well expressed in the Dissertation which precedes his masterly translations. To point out some of the striking resemblances between the Scottish and Scandinavian Ballad, it is only necessary to refer the reader to the translation of 'Skion Annie,' given in Popular Ballads, &c., s for comparison with the Ballad of 'Fair Annie,' founded on the same incidents (post, p. 103). To the ballads, 'Young Child Dyring' (in Illustrations , &c., page 1 Mr. Jamieson appears to identify them with the Cimbri of the Cimbric Cherson- esus. Others, however, contend that they were of the same race as those who are now styled Welsh. If the latter, their entire disappearance from the South-west of Scotland and North of England, is, to say the least, remarkable. 2 The speech with which he usually introduces himself is in these words : " Here comes I Galashin, Galashin is my name. Sword and buckler by my side, I hope to win the game.' * Popular Ballads and Songs, from Traditions, Manuscripts, and Scarce Editions. with Translations of Similar Pieces from the Ancient Danish Language, and a feu: Originals by the Editor, Robert Jamieson, A.M. and F.A.S., Edinburgh, 1806, 2 vols. 8vo. The work passed through the press while its editor was resident on the Con- tinent ; and the first intimation of his " discovery " is contained in a letter written at "Riga, Dec. 31, old style, A.D. 1805-6," and prefixed to his translation of " Skioen Anna,'' vol. ii., p. 99. The fuller, more matured, and accurate result of his researches may be found in his Popular, Heroic, and Romantic Ballads, translated from the Northern languages, with Notes and Illustrations, by R. Jamieson, A.M. and F.A.S., which forms Mr. Jamieson's contribution to Illustrations of Northern Antiquities, from the earlier Teutonic and Scandinavian Romances: being an Abstract of the Book of Heroes and Nibelungen Lay, with Translations of Metrical Tales, from the Old German, Danish, Steedish and Jslandic Languages. Edinburgh, 1811, 4to. This valuable work was the joint production of Henry Weber, Robert Jamieson, and Sir "Walter Scott. GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 335), and 'Catherine Janfarie' (post, page 85). To ' Ingefred and Gudrune' (Illustrations, page 340), the subject of which is the same with that of ' Cospatrick,' 'Bothwell,' or 'Gil Brenton' (post, pages 222-8). To 'Ribolt and Guldborg,' page 317, whose affinity to the ' Child of Elle,' ' Erlington,' and the ' Douglas Tragedy,' cannot be mistaken, (post, pages 26-34, &c.) To 'Sir Stig' and Lady Torelild,' page 344, which re- sembles 'Willie's Lady' (post, page 18). To 'Sir Wai and Lisa Lyle,' ' Fair Midel and Kirsten Lyle,' which ballads find a counterpart in a Scottish ballad called ' Leisome Brand,' though their catastrophes differ " * (see post, page 59). Sir Walter Scott also refers to Mr. Jamieson's Popular Ballads, &c., in the following terms: " This work, which was not greeted by the public with the attention it deserved, opened a new discovery respecting the original source of the Scottish Ballads. Mr. Jamieson's ex- tensive acquaintance with the Scandinavian literature enabled him to detect not only a general similarity betwixt these and the Danish Ballads preserved in the Kiempe Viser, an early collection of heroic ballads published in that language [1591 and 1695], but to demonstrate that, in many cases, the stories and songs were distinctly the same, a circumstance which no antiquary had hitherto so much as suspected." 2 And yet, in the face of the circumstantial account given by Motherwell, and the approval and acquiescence expressed by both him and Sir Walter Scott, as just quoted, and by him- self, as undernoted, 3 Dr. Robert Chambers had the assurance to pen the following grossly inaccurate statement : " Robert Jamieson found in the Kcempe Viser, a Danish collec- tion of ballads, published in 1695, one resembling the Scottish ballad of Fair Annie (otherwise called Lady Jane} ; and on this ground he became convinced that many of our traditionary ballads were of prodigious antiquity, though they had been intermediately subjected to many alterations. " Mr. Jamieson's belief seems remarkably ill-supported ; and as it has never obtained any adherents among Scottish ballad editors, I feel entitled to pass it over with but this slight notice."* 1 Motherwell's Minstrelsy, Introduction, p. Ixxxix 2 Sir Walter Scott's Introductory Bemarks on Popular Poetry, Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, rol. ii, p. 81. Edit. 1830, and since. See also post, p. 103. * "The Tale of Fair Annie," wrote Dr. (then simply Mr.) Chambers, with evident allusion to Mr. Jamieson's researches, " is found, with many others, in the great Danish Collection called the Kiempe Viser, which was published in 1593." Scottish Jiollads, &c., " Introductory," p. 6. * Edinburgh Papers, by Robert Chambers, F.B.S.E., F.S.A.S., F.Gr.S., F.L.S., &O. The Romantic Scottish Ballads, Their Epoch and Authorship, 1869. GENERAL INTRODUCTION. The reader who has perused the extracts from Motherwell and Scott, which precede that from Dr. Chambers, will not require to have the erroneous assumption of the statement made by the latter specifically exposed. It may, however, prove interesting, if not instructive, to note the ballads which Dr. Kobert Chambers manifested such a Quixotic anxiety to lay as a literary guerdon on the tomb of Lady Wardlaw, the reputed authoress of "Hardyknute" (p. 357). They are as follows: 1 "The Lass o' Lochryan" [p. 1]. " Willie and May Margaret ; or, The Drowned Lovers" [p. 9]. "The Douglas Tragedy" [p. 29]. " Clerk Saunders" [p. 44]. " Sweet William's Ghost" [p. 50]. " The Clerk's Twa Sons o 1 Uwsenford " [p. 53]. " Lady Maisry " [p. 74]. "The Gay Gos-hawk" [p. 93]. "Fair Annie" [p. 103]. "Fause Foodrage" [p. 128]. "Tamlane" [p. 186]. Burd Ellen " [p. 248]. " Sweet Willie and Fair Annie " [p. 261]. "Young Hun tin " [" Earl Richard " or " Lord William," p. 270] . "Edward! Edward!" [p. 293]. "GilMorrice" 2 [p. 313]. 1 The references within brackets are to the pages of this work. 2 "In the middle of the last century," writes Dr. Chambers, "appeared two editions of a brochure containing the now well-known ballad of ' Gil Morrice ; ' the date of the second was 1755. Prefixed to both was an advertisement setting forth that the preservation of this poem was owing to a lady, who favoured the printers with a copy, as it was carefully collected from the mouths of old women and nurses Who was the 'lady' that favoured the printers with the copy? I strongly suspect that the reviser was Lady Wardlaw, and that the poem was communicated to the printers either by her or by some of her near relations." The Romantic Scottish Ballads, &c., p. 11. Now, as Lady Wardlaw died in 1727, the " copy " could hardly be communicated by her, unless " the printers " were " favoured " with it through the medium of spirit-rapping! At the same tune it is quite evident, as stated by Burns, who apparently refers to, if he does not quote from, a communication of Captain Biddel's, "that the present ballad is a modern composition; perhaps not much above the age of the middle of the last century; at least, I should be glad to see or hear of a copy of the present words prior to 1650. That it was taken from an old ballad called 'Child Maurice,' now lost, I am inclined to believe; but the present one may , be classed with 'Hardyknute,' 'Kenneth,' 'Duncan,' 'Lord Woodhouselee,' 'Lord Livingston,' 'Binnorie' [Pinkerton's version], 'The Death of Monteith,' and many other productions which have been swallowed by many readers as ancient fragments of old poems." Cromek's JKeligues. The substantial accuracy of this opinion is borne out by the more specific state- ment made on the authority of Sir Walter Scott, and approved by Motherwell [post, p. 315]. But whether any one of the ruder, although in some respects more vigorous versions, more recently printed, can be regarded as the original used by the reviser, or who that personage may be, are matters which, like the authorship of Junius' Letters, are never likely to be determined. GENERAL INTRODUCTION. "The Jew's Daughter" [p. 352]. " Sir Patrick Spens" 1 [p. 368]. " Young Waters " [p. 454]. "Johnnie of Braidislee " [p. 471]. " Mary Hamilton " [p. 509]. "Edom o' Gordon" 2 [p. 515]. 1 Dr. Chambers objects to the antiquity of the ballad of "Sir Patrick Spens" on account of " the want of any ancient manuscript, the absence of the leaat trait of an ancient style of composition, the palpable modernness of the diction: for example, ' Our ship must sail the faem,' a glaring specimen of the poetical language of the reign of Queen Anne," p. 7. And again, " Sir Patrick tells his friends before starting on his voyage, ' Our ship must sail the faem ; ' and in the descrip- tion of the consequences of his shipwreck, we find, ' Mony was the feather-bed that nattered on the faem.' No old poet would use foam as an equivalent for the sea; but it was just such a phrase as a poet of the era of Pope would love to use in that sense." The Romantic Scottish Ballads, &c., p. 23. As to the first objection, Dr. Chambers, to be logically consistent, ought to deny the possibility of all transmission by oral tradition, which, as might be easily shown, he does not do. See post, p. 622. As to the second objection, style, words, and phrases are, in oral transmission, somewhat like a shifting quicksand, and liable to such constant change, that to found thereon an argument either pro or eon, resembles the conduct of "the foolish man who built his house upon the sand. ' And as to the alleged "palpablo modernness of the diction," as exemplified in the use of the word " faem," it is only necessary to cite the two lines of an old song, as given by Gawin Douglas in one of the prologues to his celebrated Scotish translation of Virgil's dZneid, which appeared in 1513. The lines referred to are " The schip sails ower the saut fame, Will tiring thir merchandis and my leman hame.'' 2 Curiously enough, Mr. Motherwell, who in the main is as reliable as Dr. Chambers is the reverse, specially refers to " Edom o' Gordon," as an example of " how excellently well tradition serves as a substitute for more efficient and less mutabte channels of communicating the things of past ages to posterity. In proof of this, it is only necessary to instance the well-known ballad of 'Edom o' Gordon,' which is traditionally preserved in Scotland, and of which there is fortunately extant a copy in an English MS., apparently coeval with the date of the subject of the ballad. The title of this copy is ' Captain Care.' We owe its publication to the late Mr. Ritson, in whose Ancient Songs it will be found, printed from a MS. in the Cottonian Library. Between the text of the traditionary version and that of the MS., a slight inspection will satisfy us that the variations are neither very numerous nor very important This is taking the MS. as the standard of the original text, although it can scarcely be considered as such, seeing it has been transcribed by an English clerk, who, perhaps, took it down from the imperfect recitation of some wandering Scottish minstrel, and thereafter altered it to suit his own ideas of poetical beauty." And in a note, Mr. Motherwell adds, "Ritson styles it the undoubted original of the Scottish ballad, and one of the few specimens now extant of the proper old English ballad, as composed, not by a Grub Street author for the stalls of London, but to be chaunted up and down the kingdom by the wandering Minstrels of the North Countrie. But here the critic has gratuitously assumed, that the name which appears at the end of it, as the copyist, is also that of the author." Minstrelsy, Introduction, pp. ii.-iii. Regarding this ballad, Dr. Chambers writes : " ' Edom o' Gordon ' is only a modern and improved version of an old ballad which Percy found in his Folio MS., under the name of Captain Adam Carre. . . . All that can be surmised here, is, that the revision was the work of the same pen with the pieces here cited as witness ,for example, the opening stanzas : " It fell about the Martinmas, When the wind blew shrill and cauld,* Said Edom o' Gordon to his men, ' We maun draw to a hauld.' Dr. Chambers's note is: " Young Waters " opens in the same manner: " About Yule, when the wind blew cool !* XX GENERAL INTRODUCTION. "The Bonnie Earl of Murray" [p. 531]. "Gilderoy"[p. 632]. " The Heir of Linrie " (Scotish version) [p. 641]. 1 " All of which," says Dr. Chambers, " besides others which must rest unnamed, bear traces of the same authorship." The reader may perceive (see note [ 2 ], preceding page) that Dr. Chambers regards a certain hackneyed repetition of stock phraseology as originating with and peculiar to Lady Wardlaw's alleged imitations of the ancient ballads, which phraseology " ' And what a hauld shall we draw till, My merry men and me ? We will pae to the house o' Rodes, To see that fair ladye.' " The ladye stood on her castle wa', Beheld baith dale and down ; There she was 'ware of a host of men, Come riding towards the town. * " ' Oh, see ye not, my merry men a', t On, see ye not what I see ? ' " -&c. Now, let it be observed that stanza 3 and the first two lines of stanza 4, as here quoted, do not occur in the version of the ballad first issued at Glasgow, in 1755. And to show the justice of the estimate here expressed, as to the relative merits of Mr. Motherwell and Dr. Chambers, it may be sufficient to quote the first five stanzas of the version referred to by the former, as published by Mr. Bitson from the MS. in the Cotton Library, which stanzas the intelligent reader may, if he or she chooses, compare with the stanzas and lines quoted above, and then form his or her own conclusion. The first five stanzas given by Mr. Ritson are as follows : " It befell at Martynmas, When wether waxed colde, Captaine Care saide to his men, We must go take a holde.' " 'Haille, master, and wether you will, And wether ye like best.' ' To the castle of Crecrynbroghe ; And there we will take our reste. " ' I know wher is a gay castle, la build of lyme and stone, Within there is a gay ladie, Her lord is ryd from horn.' " The ladie lend on her castle- walle, She loked npp and downe ; There was she ware of an host of men, Come riding to the towne. " ' Come you hether, my men men all, And look what I do see ; Yonder is ther a host of men, I musen who they bee.'" i Dr. Chambers ought to have known that the " Scotch Heir of Linne " was not " recovered by Mr. J. H. Dixon," but by Mr. Peter Buchan. It appears, however, for the first time, in the Scottish Traditional Versions of Ancient Ballads, edited by Mr. Dixon, for the Percy Society. Dr. Chambers's notes are : * We bave seen the same description in both "Young Waters" and "The Bonnie Earl of Murray." t Compare this with " Sir Patrick Spence," " Mak haste, mak haste, my merry men a'." GENERAL INTRODUCTION. really does not occur in the version of the ballad, " Edom o' Gordon," which he uses as the basis of an argument where- with to bring " Young Waters," &c., within his charmed circle. But as the sceptical theory of Dr. Eobert Chambers has been fully, perhaps even too verbosely, answered by Mr. Norval Clyne of Aberdeen, 1 and by Mr. James Hutton Watkins of this City;* as it has been since virtually abandoned by its advocate; as the Introductions prefixed to the respective ballads, taken in connection with what has been here said, quoted, and referred to, will enable each reader to form his or her own judgment on the matter; and, as the space at disposal is somewhat limited, the writer feels "entitled to pass it over with but this slight notice," which is perhaps more than it is "entitled" to receive. Most of the ballads assigned to Lady Wardlaw by Dr. Chambers belong to the class of Romantic Ballads included in Part First of this work. A few, however, belong to the class of ballads usually designated Historical, 3 which latter form the larger portion of the ballads comprehended in Part Second. The Historical and other ballads included in Part Second, are, as nearly as it can possibly be made out, or inferred, arranged in Chronological order, an arrangement which is quite im- possible as regards the ballads contained in Part First. Some attempt, however, has been there made to group together ballads similar in theme or in treatment, or to connect them by refer- ences in the respective Introductions prefixed to the individual ballads. 1 The Romantic Scottish Ballads and the Lady Wardlaw Heresy. By Norval Clyne, Aber- deen, MDCCCLIX. As shown by Dr. Chambers s notes to the stanzas quoted by him from " Edom o' Gordon," and therefore as accurately stated by Mr. Norval Clyne, "He " i.e., Dr. C. " dwells strongly on points of resemblance between the ballads In dispute, and argues somewhat in this fashion. Number one has expressions similar to those in ' Hardyknute ; ' number tuo contains lines or words wonderfully like some in number one; number three has, in a similar way, a resemblance to numbers one and two; and so forth through the whole twenty-five pieces. Take away number one therefore to wit, 'Sir Patrick Spence,' the corner-stone of the structure raised by Mr. Chambers and Mr. Chambers's logic [ ! ], unsound enough before, becomes too defective to be maintained with gravity." (P. 13.) It is painful to be under the necessity of passing censure on one who has done so much on behalf of a healthy popular literature. 2 Early Scottish Ballads. By James Hutton Watkins, Member of the Archaeological Society of Glasgow. Being a revised paper read at a meeting of the Society, 8th January, 1866. Printed, Glasgow, MDCCCLXVII. s This class, according to Mr. Motherwell's definition, "Embraces all those narrative songs which derive their origin from historical facts, whether of a public or private nature. The subjects of these are national or personal conflicts, family feuds, public or domestic transactions, personal adventure, or local incidents, which, in some shape or other, have fallen under the observation of contemporary and authentic annalists. In general, these compositions may be considered as coeval with the events which they commemorate; but, with this class as with that which has been styled the Eomantic ballad, it is not to be expected that, in their progress to our day, they have undergone no modification of form, and these very consider- able, from that in which they were originally produced and promulgated among the people." Minstrelsy, Introduction, p. ii. C GENERAL INTRODUCTION. The Introductions referred to preclude the necessity of any further reference to the ballads included in this collection. A few scattered notices regarding some Historical Ballads referred to and quoted by Hume of Godscroft, but which appear to be now lost, followed by excerpts of the most interesting passages in The Complaynt of Scotland, a passing reference to the Maitland and Bannatyne MSS., and some account of our principal printed collections, may, however, be deemed interesting. Of the notices occuring in Hume's work, 1 probably the earliest, in point of time, " relates to William, brother of King Achaius." * The next relates how: "The Lord of Liddesdale, being at his pastyme hunting in Attrick Forest, is beset by William Earle of Douglas, and such as he had ordained for that purpose, and there assailed, wounded, and slain, beside Galeswood, in the year 1353, upon a jealousie, that the Earle had conceived of him with his Lady, as the report goeth, for so sayes the old song: ' The Countesse of Douglas, out of her bowre she came, And loudly there that she did call; " It is for the Lord of Liddesdale, That I let all these teares down fall." ' The song also declareth how shee did write her love letters to Liddesdale, to disswade him from that hunting. It tells like- wise, the manner of the taking of his men, and his own killing at Galeswood, and how he was carried the first night to Linden Kirk, a mile from Selkirk, and was buried within the Abbacie of Melrose." 3 A stanza of an ancient ballad relating to the Battle of Otter- bourne (fought 1388), may be found quoted, post, p. 426. The same writer furnishes the following stanza: "Edinburgh Castle, town, and tower, God grant thou sinke for sinne ; And that even for the black dinner, Earl Douglas gat therein." 1 History of the Family of Douglas, by David Home of Godscroft, 1644. * One of the douzeperes of Charlemagne, and who "conquest," says Bellenden, "be his manheid and prowes. sic fame that he was callit The Knicht but Reproche in all his weris, and got sic riches and landis that he was gretumly renownit amang the princiss of France." "It is he," says Hume of G-odscroft, "who is named, in songs made of him, Scottish Gilmore," which words are simply Hume's rendering of the following words of Major, gut a nostratibus mtlgaliter Scotisgilmor vocatur. " May we presume then," inquires Finlay. "that since the expression, vulgaliter vocatur, when applied to Gilmore, appeared to Hume's mind equivalent to 'is named in songs,' these songs must have been still current in the days of the latter historian; or can we only conclude, that at the time when Major wrote (about 1508) he was still a popular heroin Scotland ? " Bellenden's Soece 10 buke, cap. 4. [Hume's] History of the Family of Douglas, Major, lib. 11, cap. 13. Finlay's Ballads, vol. i., p. 12. s Sir "Walter Scott quotes the above, and then intimates that "some fragments of this ballad are still current, and will be found in the ensuing work," Border Minstrelsy, vol. i., Introduction, p. 222. Sir Walter must, however, have overlooked the fragments he refers to, as they do not appear in his work. GENERAL INTRODUCTION. which stanza is supposed to be the sole surviving relic of a ballad referring to what Motherwell justly styles "the infamous murder of William, Sixth Earle of Douglas [and his brother], in the Castle of Edinburgh, in 1440." But not, as he states, "by the hands of his sovereign." Although William, the Eighth Earl, fell as infamously, and in violation of a safe conduct, "by the hands of the same sovereign" (1452), in what has since been known as the Douglas room of Stirling Castle. Hume has also " preserved the beginning of a scoffing rhyme made" with reference to the futile attempt of the Earl of Argyle "to enter the Merse as lieutenant of his Sovereign" (1528). The lines quoted are, " The Earl of Argyle is bound to ride From the border of Edgebucklin brae ; 1 And all his habergeons him beside, Each man upon a sonk of strae. They made their vow that they would slay." There issued from the press of "Walter Chepman and Andrew Myllar, Edinburgh, in the year M.D.VIII.," a series of early Tracts or Chap-books in black letter, forming the earliest specimens of popular poetry known to have issued from the Scotish press. But the only portion of this series falling specially within the scope of our subject, is "A Gest of Eobyn Hode," referred to, post, p. 322. The Complaynt of Scotland (1549) furnishes us with a curious and interesting list of the " Stories and . . flet taylis, . . sum . in prose, and sum . in verse: . [quhilk] the Scheiphirdis, 2 thir vyuis and saruadis [reherseit] ane by ane." [Omitting those derived from the Greek and Eoman classics; those which appear to be derived from Norman-French romances; as well as those by Chaucer, Dunbar, and Gavin Douglas; the following may be cited : ] "the tayle of the volfe of the varldis end" [post, p. 185]. " the taiyl of the reyde eyttyn vitht the thre heydis " [post, p. 199]. "the prophysie of merlyne" [post, pp. 208-9, 382, and 385-7]. "the tayl of the giantis that eit quyk men" [post, p. 200]. " on fut by fortht as i culd found." [Unknown.] * " Edgebucklin," near Musselburgh. Scott. The author of The Complaynt states that "euyrie scheipherd bed ane home spune in the lug of there bonet," p. 66. [Apparently after the same fashion as the tobacco Eipe which figures in the hat-band of an Irishman, as depicted or caricatured by rskine Nicol and the Punch artists.] He also relates how " the prencipal scheip- hirde maid ane orisone tyll al the laif of his compangzons " [p. 66] ; wherein he "indoctryne his nychtbours as he had studeit ptholeme, auerois, aristotel, galien, ypocrites or Cicero, quhilk var expert practicians in methamatic art," and yet strangely enough this learned " Scheiphirde " is described as " ane rustic pastour of bestialite, distitut of vrbanite, and of speculatione of natural philosophe " [p. 97]. XXIV GENERAL INTRODUCTION. "vallace." "thebruce." 1 " the tail of the thre futtit dog of narrouay." [Unknown.] " the tail quhou the kyng of est mure land mareit the kyngis dochter of vest mure land" [post, p. 128]. " Skail gillenderson the kyngis sone of skellye." * "the tail of Sir euan arthours knycht" [post, p. 21]. " Arthour knycht he raid on nycht vitht gyltin spur and candillycht." 3 " the tail of syr valtir the bald leslye." * " the tail of the pure tynt." s "robene hude and litil ihone." 6 "the tayl of the zog tamlene " [post, p. 186]. " the ryng of the roy Kobert." 7 " syr egeir and Byr gryme." 8 1 Henry the Minstrel, and Barbour, appear to have done for the Scotish Heroes what Pisistratus is credited with having done for those of Greece, who are celebrated in the Homeric Rhapsodies. See ante, p. ix., and pott, p. 414. 2 Mr. Pinkerton suggests, and Mr. Motherwell supposes, that the outline of this tale is " to be found in Wintown." Cronykil, A.D. 1158. * Leyden, in the Preliminary Dissertation prefixed to his edition of the Complaynt n1 Scotland (p. 229). mentions that he had heard these lines " repeated in a nursery tale, of which I only recollect," says he, "the following ridiculous verses: ' Chick my naggie ! chick my n aggie ! How mony miles to Aberdeagie? 'Tis eight, and eight, and other eight; Well no win there wi' candle light.' " * " Sir Walter Lesley accompanied his brother Norman to the east, to assist Peter, King of Cyprus; where, according to Fordun, Cceperunt civitatem Alexandrinam tempore ultimi regis David.'' Leyden. Ibid, p. 230. But "Mr. Finlay seeks to connect with this a tradition preserved by Verstegan, in his Restitution of Decayed Intelli- gence, Lond., 1634, p. 292: 'A combat being once fought in Scotland, between a gentleman of the family of Leslyes, and a knight of Hungary, wherein the Scottish gentleman was victor; in memory thereof, and of the place where it happened, these ensuing verses doe in Scotland yet remaine : 1 Betweene the lesseley, and the mare, He slew the Knight, and left him there.' Mackenzie, in his life of John Lesley, Bishop of Ross, gives a different account of this tradition, namely, that the family of Lesley sprung from Bartholemy Lesley, a Hungarian gentleman who accompanied Queen Margaret from Hungary to England, and from thence to Scotland, where he married one of her Maids of Honour, about 1067." Motherwell's Minstrelsy, Introduction, p. xlix.. note. See also Historical Records of the Family of Leslie, by Col. Leslie, K.H., of Balquhain. 3 vols., 1869. 5 "Probably the groundwork of the fairy tale of 'the pure tynt Rashycoat,' a common nursery tale." Leyden. Ibid, p. 23C. 6 Post, p. 322. Another ballad neither referred to there, nor printed in this work, is given by Mr. Buchan, under the title of " Jock the Leg and the Merry Merchant," Ancient Ballads, vol. ii., p. 165, and note, p. 325. It relates the discomfiture of "Jock the Leg," or "Little John," by the "Merchant," who is, therefore, accounted "the strongest and bravest man in the country," seeing that he " overcame Little John, Little John Robin Hood, and Robin Hood all the rest of the country." " Occurs in the Folio Maitland MS., and is there ascribed to "Deine David SteiL" A modernized copy is given in Watson's Collection, Part IL, p. iii.; see also post, p. 181. 8 This romance, or it may be some abridgment of it, is thus referred to in the books of the Lord High Treasurer, A.D. 1497. " Item [the xix day of Aprile, in Striuelin], giffin to twa flthelaris, that sang Gray-steil to the King, ixs." There are numerous references in the works of early Scotish writers to this romance, which seems to have been very popular in Scotland. GENERAL INTRODUCTION. XXV " the tail of the amours of leander and hero." * "the tayl of the thre vierd systirs."* " ^ Quhen thir Scheiphyrdis hed tald al thyr pleysand storeis, than they and their vyuis began to sing sueit melodius sangis of natural music of the antiquite, as eftir follouis." (See The Songs of Scotland, Chronologically Arranged, p. xxvii.) [Some of the pieces enumerated among the "sueit melodins sangis" are, however, properly speaking, ballads. For in- stance : "The frog cam to the myl dur." s " the sang of gilquhiskhar." * " god sen the due, hed byddin in France, And delabaute had neuyr cum hame." & "the battel of the hayrlau" [post, p. 443]. " The hunttis of cheuet " [post, p. 425-6]. " The persee and the mongumrye met that day, that gentil day " [post, p. 424]. " my luf is laid upon ane bnight " [post, p. 476], ] "^[ Thir Scheiphirdis ande there vyuis sang mony vthir melodi' eangis, the quhilkis i hef nocht in memorie. than eftir this sueit celest armonye, tha began to dance in ane ring, euyrie aid scheipherd led his vyfe be the hand, and euyrie zong scheip- herd led her quhome he luffit best." 6 The Complaynt of Scotland, edited by John Leyden, 8vo, 1801, pp. 98-103. i In the ROXBITRGHE COLLECTION, and in Mr. Payne Collier's Roxburghe Ballads, p. 227, occurs, "The Tragedy of Hero and Leander. To & pleasant new tune, or, / mil never love thee more." A song, or ballad founded on it, appeared in the Tea-table Miscellany, vol. ii., p. 138, and was inserted by Ritson in his Scotish Songs, voL ii., p. 198. It is not at all likely that either haa any claim to be identified with the story orflet tayle here referred to. a Mr. Motherwell supposes the outline of this story to be given in the following lines, relating to a dream which was dreamt, or vision which was seen, by Macbeth: " Thre werd systyris most lyk to be The first he heard say, gangande by, Lo yonder the Thayne o/Crumbachty! The Tother woman said agayn, Of Murray yonder I se the Thayn! The Thrid than said, I se the kyng!" This is the fountain-head of the story which the immortal Shakespeare introduces with such effect in his sublime tragedy of " Macbeth." Act I., Scene iii. * This is probably one of the numerous versions of the nursery ballad, "A frog he would a-wooing go." * Is supposed to have been an historic ballad, but time, place, circumstance, and person are alike unknown. 5 This appears to have been a ballad on the Chevalier De la Beaute, whom the Regent John, Duke of Albany, left as his deputy when he returned to France. The unfortunate Frenchman was savagely murdered by the Laird of Wedderburn and others, A.D. 1517. 6 The musical powers of " kyng amphion," " appollo," " al the scheipherdis that virgil makMs mention in his bucohkis," "orpheus," "the scheiphyrd pan," "nor XXVI GENERAL DITKODUCTION. [Among the dances enumerated, the following are named after ballad heroes : "Robene hude" [post, p. 322]. "thorn of lyn" [post, p. 186]. "johnne ermistrangis dance" [post, p. 489]. ] But, as remarked by Leyden, the list " cannot be considered as complete, though it marks the peculiar taste of the author." No reasonable argument against the antiquity of " Sir Patrick Spens," or any other presumedly ancient ballad or song, can therefore be founded on the silence of The Complaynt regarding them. In fact, many of the Romances enumerated in The Complaynt, but here omitted, could never have been popular among Scotish shepherds 1 and their wives, while the whole scene of Arcadian or " sweet celestial harmony" and simplicity conjured up by the author was entirely alien to the stern reality witnessed in the Scotland of that age. As The Complaynt is chiefly valued and referred to on account of the passages quoted above, it has been deemed advisable to give them in the orthography of the author, as represented by Leyden. * The Maitland MSS., Folio and Quarto, A.D. 1555-86, s the one written by Sir Richard Maitland, and the other by his daughter; and the Bannatyne MS., written by George Bannatyne, A.D. 1568 ;* contain poems by Dunbar, Gawin Douglas, Henryson, Alexander Scot, Sir Richard Maitland, and other makkars, named and un- named ; but, with the exception of two or three in the Bannatyne MS.? the poems contained in these MSS. cannot, properly speak- ing, be classed as ballads. The principal printed Collections containing Scotish Ballads or Poems, which have been printed and classed as such, are as follows : "A Choice Collection of Comic and Serious Scots Poems, mercnrius," "culd nocht be comparit to thir foir said scheiphyrdis." Complaynt, p. 102. The superlative excellence of their dancing is also graphically described : " for fyrst thai bega vitht tua bekkis and vitht a kysse. euripides, iuuenal, perseus, horasse, nor nane of the satiric poiettes quhilkis mouit ther bodies as thai bed bene dansand qunen thai prommcit ther tragiedeis, none of them kepit moir geomatrial mesure nor thir scheiphyrdis did in thir dansing. nor ludius that vas the fyrst dansar of rome, cnld nocht haf been comparit to thir scheiphirdis." Well might the author exclaim that he " beheld neuyr ane mair dilectabil recreatioe." Complaynt p. 102. 1 See note, ante, p. xxiii. s The Early English Text Society announced a new edition of this curious and interesting work for their issue of 1870, but it has not yet appeared. (1871.) s For an account of the contents of these MSS., see Pinker-ton's Ancient Scotish Poems, vol. ii., Appendix I. * Ibid, and more accurately in Memorials of George Bannatyne, 1829, 4to, a volume printed for the Bannatyne Club. 5 "The Baid of Eeidsquair," post, p. 521, is the only one given in this work. GENERAL INTRODUCTION. Both Ancient and Modern, By several Hands. Edinburgh, printed by James Watson: Sold by John Vallange" [Three Parts, 1706, 1709, and 1711. Second ed. of Part i., 1713.] l " The Evergreen, Being a Collection of Scots Poems, Wrote by the Ingenious before 1600. Published by Allan Kamsay. Edinburgh, 1724.". 2 vols. 2 " The Tea Table Miscellany: A Collection of Choice Songs, Scots and English. Edinburgh 1724, and after." 4 vols. s " Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, &c., By Thomas Percy, Lord Bishop of Dromore." London, 1st ed., 1765, 4th ed. (im- proved) 1794. * "Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc." [Edited by David Herd, assisted by George Paton.] Edinburgh, 1769. 2d ed., in 2 vols., 1776. & "The Scots Musical Museum," &c., by James Johnson. Edinburgh, 6 vols., 1787-1803. [3d ed., "With copious Notes and Illustrations ... by the late William Stenhouse," and "with additional Notes and Illustrations by David Laing and C. K. Sharpe, Edinburgh, 1853." 4 vols.] 8 " Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border," &c. [1st and 2d vols., 1802; 3d, 1803. Last ed. revised by Sir Walter Scott, Caddell, Edinburgh, 1830. 4 vols.] 7 " Popular Ballads and Songs ... by Eobert Jamieson." Edinburgh, 1806. 2 vols. 8 1 This is the earliest collection of Scots Poems issued in book form. 2 Most of the poems contained in The Evergreen were printed from the Bannatyne MS. ; but they are given very inaccurately. It contains also " Hardyknute," " The Vision," &c., which had no right to a place under such a title as the above. 3 The earliest Collection of Scots Songs, and the basis of all subsequent collections. * The Reliques contain a larger number of Scotish Ballads than had previously appeared in print, at least in a collected form. Most, if not all of them, were transmitted by Lord Hailes. 5 Contributes largely to our stock of ballads ; many fragments being also gleaned up and preserved which might otherwise have perished. The Notes and Illustrations were added to this last edition, of which they form the 4th volume; but in other respects the editions are the same, both being paged continuously; vols. i. to vi. of the 1st ed. corresponding with vols i to iii. of the 3d ed. Music, Words, and Notes all combine to render this the most valuable compendium of Scotish Song prior to the beginning of the present century, and indispensable to those who wish to know nearly all that is known or can be ascer- tained regarding our National Song and Music up to that period. i Mr. Motherwell, referring to " this great national work," remarks, " Fortunate it was for the Heroick aud Legendary Song of Scotland that this work was under- taken, and still more fortunate that its execution devolved upon one so well qualified in every respect to do its subject the most ample justice." The present work con- tains, with very few exceptions, all the genuine relics of Traditionary Ballads first given to the world by The Great Wizard of the North, who won his spurs as collector aud editor of the above-named work. 8 For some account of Mr. Jamieson's contributions to the Ballad Literature of Scotland, see ante, p. xvi. XXV111 GENERAL INTRODUCTION. " Minstrelsy, Ancient and Modern, with an Historical Intro- duction and Notes. By William Motherwell." Glasgow, 1827. l " Ancient Ballads and Songs of the North of Scotland, Hitherto Unpublished, With Explanatory Notes by Peter Buchan." Edinburgh: printed for W. & D. Laing, and J. Stevenson, &c., 1828. 2 vols. * Numerous collections, many of them of considerable value, although of minor importance, compared with those just named, are referred to tinder: 8 1 The "Historical Introduction and Notes" by Mr. Motherwell cannot be too highly praised, and rendered his Minstrelsy really invaluable to all who desired a comprehensive, and, at the same time, minute acquaintance with almost every- thing pertaining to or known regarding Scotish Ballads, up to the date of publication, and prior to the issue of the present work, in which the information he so industri- ously and intelligently gathered together and imparted is nearly all incorporated and supplemented. 2 " The most extensive and valuable additions," writes Sir Walter Scott, " which have been of late made to this branch of ancient literature, are the collections of Mr. Peter Bnchan. of Peterhead, a person of indefatigable research in that departs ment, and whose industry has been crowned with the most successful results ; " and again " Of the originality of the ballads in Mr. Buchan's collection, we do not enter- am the slightest doubt." After stating several good and valid reasons for this opinion, he further adds, "Accordingly, we have never seen any Collection of Scottish Poetry appearing, from internal evidence, BO decidedly and indubitably original. It is perhaps a pity that Mr. Buchan did not remove some obvious errors and corruptions; but in truth, though their remaining on record is an injury to the effect of the ballads in point of composition, it is, in some degree, a proof of their authenticity." Introductory Remarks on Popular Poetry, Minstrelsy, vol. i., pp. 85-8. s "Aberdeen Cantus; 1st. ed., 1662; 2nd. ed., 1666; 3rd. ed., 1682. Pinkerton's Scottish Tragic Ballads, 1781, and Select Scottish Ballads, 2 vols., 1783. Caw's Poetical Museum, Hawick, 1784. -iRitson's Scottish Song, 2 vols., 1794. Scottish Poems of the Sixteenth Century, Edited by J. G. Dalzell, 1801. Finlay's Scottish Historical and Romantic Ballads, 2 vols., 1808. Evan's Old Ballads, &c., 2 vols., 1777; 4 vols., 1784 ; new ed., revised, 1810. Cromek's Select Scottish Songs, 2 vols., 1810. Gilchrist's Collection of Ballads, &c., 2 vols., 1815. Hogg's Jacobite Relics of Scotland, 2 vols., 1819 and 1821. Smith's Scottish Minstrel, 6 vols., 1820-24. Struthers' British Minstrel, 1821. Laing's (David) Select Remains, &c., 1822. Laing's (Alex.), Scarce Ancient Ballads, 1822, and Thistle of Scotland, 1823. Webster's Curious Old Ballads, 1824. A Ballad Book by C. K. Sharpe, 1824. A North Countrie Gar/and, by Maidment, 1824. MacTaggart's Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopsedia, 1824. Buchan's Gleanings, 1825. Allan Cunningham's Songs of Scotland, 4 vols., 1825. David Laing's Early Metrical Tales, 1826. Kinloch's Ancient Scottish Ballads, 1827; and The Ballad Book, 1827. Lyle's Ancient Ballads and Songs, 1827. Jacobite Minstrelsy, Glasgow, 1829. Michel's Hughes de Lincoln, &c., Paris, 1834. Maidment's Ballads, &c., 1834. Dauney's Ancient Scottish Melodies, 1838. Madden's Syr Gawayne, Ac., 1839. Scottish Traditional Ver- sions of Ancient Ballads [from a MS. of Peter Bnchan's], edited by J. H. Dixon, 1845. Chambers's Popular Rhymes, &c. [three editions, 1826, 1842, and 1870]. A New Book of Old Ballads, by Maidment, 1844. Whitelaw's Book of Scottish Ballads, 1845. Richardson's Borderer's Table Book, 8 vols., 1841-6. The Ballads and Songs of Ayrshire, &c., By James Paterson 2 parts, 1846-7. Maidment's Scottish Ballads and Songs, 1859. Bishop Percy's Folio Manuscript, printed copy, 3 vols., 1868. Maidment's Scottish Ballads and Songs, &c., 2 vols., 1868. Logan's Pedlar's Pack, 1868. Professor Child's English i and Scottish Ballads, 8 vols., 1861 so often referred to and commended in this work is specially valuable on account of its giving nearly every British Ballad or Ballad version worthy of preservation. The professedly collated collections are: Chambers's Scottish Ballads, &C-V1829. Aytoun's Ballads of Scotland, 2 vols., 1858 ;fr 2nd edition, 1859. Allingham's Ballad Book (British);. 1864. Robert's Legendary Ballads of England and Scotland, 1868. THE BALLAD MINSTEELSY ROMANTIC AND HISTORICAL. PART I.-EAKLY EOMANTIC. FATE ANNIE OF LOCHRYAK The different versions of this favourite ballad are L Herd's " The Bonnie Lass of Lochroyan." Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, &c., vol. i, p. 149. II. Scott's "The Lass of Lochroyan. " Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, vol. iii., p. 199. III. Jamieson's " Fair Annie of Lochroyan." Popular Ballads and Songs, vol. i., p. 36. IV. Buchan's " Love Gregory." Ancient Ballads and Songs, &c., vol. ii., p. 198. The text here printed has been collated from the four versions named above. A short fragment appeared in Johnson's Museum, vol. i., p. 5; and ' ' Mr. Cunningham, in his Songs of Scotland, vol. i. , p. 298, favoured the world with an ample specimen of his own poetical talents,"* based on the version of Sir Walter Scott. Songs on the story of " fair Annie " have also been written by Dr. Wolcot, Burns, and Jamieson. Scott's version "is composed of verses selected from three MS. copies, and two obtained from recitation. Two of the copies are iu Herd's MS.; the third in that of Mrs. Brown, of Falkland." Minstrelsy, vol. iii., p. 199. * Motherwell's Afinstrefsy, Introduction, p. Ixil B BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. Jamieson's version is, he states, ' ' given verbatim from the large MS. collection, transmitted from Aberdeen, by my zealous and industrious friend, Professor Robert Scott, of that University. It was first written down many years ago, with no view towards being committed to the press ; and is now given from the copy then taken, with the addition only of stanzas 22 and 23 (41 and 42 of the present version), which the editor has inserted from memory. "- Popular ballads, vol. i., p. 36. Sir Walter Scott observes, that " the lover, who, if the story be real, may be supposed to have been detained by sickness, is re- presented in the legend as confined by fairy charms in an enchanted castle situated in the sea; " and he adds, that " the ruins of ancient edifices are still visible on the summits of most of those small islands, or rather insiilated rocks, which lie along the coast of Ayrshire and Galloway, as Ailsa and Big Scaur. " Mr. Chambers describes Lochryan as "a beautiful, though some- what wild and secluded bay, which projects from the Irish Channel into Wigtonshire (district of Galloway), having the little seaport of Stranraer situated at its bottom." Scottish Ballads, p. 225. Concerning this ballad, Burns remarks : "It is somewhat singular, that in Lanark, Renfrew, Ayr, Wigton, Kirkcudbright, and Dumfries shires, there is scarcely an old song or tune, which, from the title, &c., can be guessed to belong to, or be the production of, these counties. This, I conjecture, is one of these very few, as the ballad, which is a long one, is called, both by tradition and in printed collections, 'The Lass of Lochroyan,' which I take to be Lochryan, in Galloway. ''- Cromek's Reliqutis, p. 196. With reference to the " bonnie boat.'' which figures so prominent!" in the ballad, the following extract may be quoted as attesting thu accuracy with which its fittings and decorations are described: "According to Froissart, the vessels of the French fleet, prepared for the invasion of England in the tenth year of Richard II. , were painted with arms, and gilded ; their banners, pennons, and standards were formed of silk ; and the masts, which glittered like gold, were painted from the top to the bottom. When the ancient popular ballads, therefore, describe the masts of a vessel as shining like gold or silver, or mention the ' sails of light green silk, and the tows of taffetie,' they probably adhere more strictly to the ant'u/ue costume than a cursory observer would be apt to imagine." Leydeu's Preliminary Dissertation to The, Complaynt of ScotlanJ, p. 116. 1 OH, it fell on a Wodensday, Lord Gregory 's ta'en the sea, And he has left his fair Annie, And a weary woman was she. 2 He hadna sailed away from her A day but barely three, Till she has born a fair young son To her Lord Gresrorv. FAin AXXIE OF LOCHRYAX. 3 He hadna sailed away from her A week but barely ane, Till fair Annie, in child-bed laid, For Lord Gregory did mane. 4 " Oh, wha will shoe my bonnie foot? And wha will glove my hand? And wha will lace my middle jimp With a lang, lang linen band? 5 " Oh, wha will kame my yellow hair With a new-made silver kame? And wha will father my young son, Till Lord Gregory come name?" 6 " Thy father will shoe thy bonnie foot, Thy mother will glove thy hand, Thy sister will lace thy middle jimp, Till Lord Gregory come to land. 7 " Thy brother will kame thy yellow hair With a new-made silver kame, And God will be thy bairn's father Till Lord Gregory come hame." 8 She hadna born her fair young son A day but barely three, Till word has to fair Annie come, Her lord she'd nae mair see. 9 " Oh, I will get a carpenter To build a boat to me ; And I will get bold mariners, With me to sail the sea. 10 " And I will seek him, love Gregory, In lands where'er he be; Oh, I will gang to love Gregory, Since he canna come to me." 11 Her father he gar'd build a boat, And fitted it royallie; The sails were of the light green silk, The tows of taffetie. 12 The masts of burnish 'd gold were made, And far o'er sea they shone ; The bulwarks richly were inlaid With pearl and royal bone. BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 13 At every needle tack was in't There hung a silver bell, That softly tinkled with the breeze, Or salt sea's heaving swell. 14 And he has gi'en her the bonnie boat, And sent her to the strand; She 's ta'en her young son in her arms, And turn'd her back to land. 15 She hadna sail'd but twenty leagues, But twenty leagues and three, When she met with a rank rover, And all his companie. 16 "Now whether are ye the queen hersell (For sae ye weel might be), Or are ye the lass of Lochryau, Seekin' Lord Gregory?" 17 " Oh, I am not the queen," she said, " Tho' sic I seem to be ; But I am the lass of Lochryan, Seekin' Lord Gregory." 18 " Oh, see na thou yon bonnie bower? It 's all cover'd o'er with tin ; When thou hast sail'd it round about, Lord Gregory is within." 19 And when she saw the stately tower, Shining sae clear and bright, Whilk stood aboou the jawing wave, Built on a rock of height. 20 Says " Row, row ye, my mariners, And bring me to the land! For yonder I see my love's castle, Close by the salt sea strand." 21 She sail'd it round and round about, And loud and sair cried she " Now break, now break, ye fairy charms, And set my true love free ! " 22 She 's ta'en her young son in her arms, And to the door she 's gane; And long she knock'd, and sair she call'd, But answer got she nane. FAIR ANNIE OF LOCHRTAN. 23 " Oh, open the door, Lord Gregory ! Oh, open, and let me in ! For the wind blaws through my yellow hair, And the rain draps o'er my chin." 24 The night was dark, and the wind blew cauld, And lier love was fast asleep, And the bairn that was in her twa arms Full sair began to greet. 25 Lang stood she at her true love's door, And lang tirl'd at the pin ; At length up got his fause mother, Says" Wha 's that wou'd be in ? " 26 " Oh, it is Annie of Lochryan, Your love come o'er the sea, And your young son is in my arms, Sae open the door to me." 27 " Awa, awa, ye ill woman ! Ye're no come here for good, Ye're but some witch or wil' warlock, Or mermaid of the flood." 28 " I am neither witch nor wil' warlock, Nor mermaid of the sea ; But I am Annie of Lochryan ; Oh, open the door to me ! " 29 " If thou-be Annie of Lochryan (As I trow thou binna she), Now tell me some of the love-tokens That pass'd between thee and me." 30 " Oh, dinna ye mind, Lord Gregory, As we twa sat at dine, We chang'd the rings frae our fingers, And I can show thee thine? 31 " Oh, yours was gude, and gude enough, But no sae gude as mine ; For yours was of the gude red gold, But mine of the diamond fine. 32 " Now open the door, Lord Gregory, Open the door, I pray ! For thy young son is in my arms, And will be deid ere day." BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 33 " If thou be the lass of Lochryan (As I kenna thou to be), Tell me some mair of the love-tokens Pass'd between me and thee." 34 " Oh, dinna ye mind, Lord Gregory, When we sat at the wine, How we chang'd the napkins frae our necks- It 's nae sae lang sinsyne ? 35 u And yours was gude, and gude enough, But nae sae gude as mine ; For yours was of the cambric clear, But mine of the silk sae fine. 36 " Sae open the door, now, love Gregory, And open it with speed; Or your young son, that is in my arms, With cauld will soon be deid." 37 " Awa, awa, ye ill woman, Gae frae my door for shame; For I ha'e gotten anither fair love, Sae ye may hie ye hame." 38 " Oh, ha'e ye gotten anither fair love, For all the oaths ye sware? Then fare ye weel, fause Gregory, For me ye's ne'er see mair ! " 39 Fair Annie turn'd her round about " Weel ! since that it be sae, May ne'er a woman that has born a son Ha'e a heart sae full of wae! " 40 Oh, hooly, hooly gaed she back, As the day began to peep ; She set her foot on good ship board, And sair, sair did she weep. 41 " Take down, take down the mast of gold, Set up the mast of tree ; 111 sets it a forsaken lady To sail sae gallantlie. 42 "Take down, take down the sails of silk, Set up the sails of skin ; 111 sets the outside to be gay, When there 's sic grief within ! " FAIR ANNIE OF LOCHRYAN. 43 When the cock had crawn, and the day did dawn, And the sun began to peep, Lord Gregory started frae his sleep, And sair, sair did he weep. 44 " Oh, I ha'e dream'd a dream, mother, I wish it-may prove true, That the bonnie lass of Lochryan Was at the yate e'en now. 45 " Oh, I ha'e dream'd a dream, mother, I wish it be not sae ; I dream'd a dream last night, mother, That gars my heart feel wae. 46 " I dream'd that Annie of Lochryan. The flower of all her kin, Was standin' mournin' at my door, But nane wou'd let her in. 47 " Oh, I ha'e dream'd a dream, mother The thought o't gars me greet That fair Annie of Lochryan Lay cauld deid at my feet." 48 " If it be for Annie of Lochryan That ye make all this din, She stood all last night at your door, But I trow she wan na in." 49 " Oh, wae betide ye, ill woman ! An ill deid may ye dee! That wadna open the door to her, Nor yet wou'd wauken me." 50 Oh, lie's gane down to yon shore side As fast as he cou'd fare; He saw fair Annie in the boat, But the wind it toss'd her sair. 51 " And hey, Annie ! and how, Annie ! Annie, winna ye bide?" But aye the mair he cried " Annie," The braider grew the tide. 52 " And hey, Annie! and how, Annie! Dear Annie, speak to me! " But aye the louder he cried " Annie," The louder roar'd the sea. BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 53 The wind grew loud, the sea grew rough, And the ship was rent in twain; And soon he saw her, fair Annie, Come floating o'er the main. 54 He saw his young son in her arms, Baith toss'd aboon the tide ; He wrang his hands, and plung'd himsell Into the sea sae wide. 55 The wind blew loud, the sea grew rough, And dashed the boat on shore; Fair Annie floated through the foam, But the babie rase no more. 56 Lord Gregory tore his yellow hair, And made a heavy moan ; Fair Annie's corpse lay at his feet Her bonnie young son was gone. 57 Oh, cherry, cherry was her cheek, And golden was her hair ; But clay-cauld were her rosy lips Nae spark of life was there. ' 58 And first he kiss'd her cherry cheek, And syne he kiss'd her chin, And syne he kiss'd her rosy lips There was nae breath within. 59 " Oh, wae betide my cruel mother ! An ill death may she dee ! She tuni'd my true love frae my door, Wha came sae far to me. 60 " Oh, wae betide my cruel mother ! An ill death may she dee ! She turned fair Annie frae my door, Wha died for love of me." 61 Oh, he has mourn'd o'er fair Annie, Till the sun was ganging down ; Syne with a sigh his heart it burst, And his saul to heaven has flown. THE DROWNED LOVEES. THE DROWNED LOVERS; OR, WILLIE AND MAY MARGARET. A fragment of this Ballad, extending to sixteen stanzas, first appeared, under the title of " Willie and May Margaret," in Jamieson's Popular Ballads, vol. i., p. 134, where he says, "it was taken from the recitation of Mrs. Brown of Falkland." Motherwell reprinted the same fragment in his Minstrelsy, p. 155 ; and in his Appendix ii. , p. iii., appear sixteen additional stanzas, completing the ballad, which was also given in a complete state by Buchan, under the title of "The Drowned Lovers." Ancient Ballads, &c., voL i., p. 140. The earlier stanzas of this latter version differ in a few unimportant particulars from those of Jamieson's fragment. Professor Aytoun printed Mr. Jamieson's version, with the addition of "three stanzas, from Mr. Buchan's," under the title of "The Mother's Malison," as he considered that "there is a superfluity of Willies and Margarets in our popular minstrelsy." 7'Ae Ballads of Scotland, vol. i., p. 155. Buchan's version is the one here generally followed. The fatal end of both lovers is brought about through the deception of a malicious mother, who answers in the assumed voice of a lover, in which respect it resembles the preceding ballad, ' ' Fair Annie of Lochryan." A similar ballad of the North, but apparently of later date, named, "Willie's Drowned in Gamery," appears in a subsequent portion of this collection. 1 WILLIE stands in his stable door, Clapping his coal-black steed; And looking o'er his white fingers, His nose began to bleed. 2 " Gi'e corn to my horse, mother, And meat to my man, John ; And I'll awa to Marg'ret's bower, Before the night comes on." 3 " Oh, bide this night with me, Willie, Oh, bide this night with me ; The best, an' fowl of all the roost At your supper shall be." 4 " All your fowls, and all your roosts, I value not a prin ; Sae I'll awa to Marg'ret's bower, Before the night sets in." 10 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 5 " Stay this night with me, Willie, Oh, stay this night with me; The best, an' sheep in all the flock, At your supper shall be." 6 " All your sheep, and all your flocks, I value not a prin ; Sae I'll awa to Marg'ret's bower, I rnaun be there this e'en." 7 " Oh, stay at home, my son, Willie, The wind blaws cauld and shrill; The night will be baith rnirk and late, Ere her bower ye win till." 8 " Oh, tho' the night were e'er sae mirk, Or the wind blew e'er sae cauld, I will be in May Marg'ret's bower Before twa hours be tauld." 9 " Oh, an' ye gang to Marg'ret's bower, Without the leave of me, In the deepest pot* of Clyde's water, My malison drown thee." 10 " The gude steed that I ride upon Cost me thrice threttie pound ; And I'll put trust in his swift feet, To take me safe and sound." 11 He mounted on his coal-black steed, And fast he rode awa; But ere he came to Clyde's water, Full loud the wind did blaw. 12 As he rade o'er yon high, high hill, And down yon dowie den, The noise that was in Clyde's water Wou'd fear'd five hunder men. 13 " Oh, roaring Clyde, ye roar ower loud, Your streams seem wondrous strang; Make me your wreck as I come back, But spare me as I gang." 14 His heart was warm, his pride was up; Sweet Willie kentna fear; But yet his mother's malison Aye sounded in his ear. * "Pot: " hole, or eddy-pooL THE DROWNED LOVERS. 15 Oh, he has swam through Clyde water, Though it was wide and deep ; And he came to May Marg'ret's door When all were fast asleep. 16 Oh, he 's gane round and round about, And trrl'd at the pin; But doors were steek'd, and windows barr'd, And nane would let him in. 17 " Oh, open the door to me, Marg'ret Oh, open and let me in ! For my boots are full of Clyde's water, And frozen to the brim." 18 " Oh, wha is this at my bower door That calls me by my name?" " It is your first love, sweet Willie, This night newly come hame." 19 " I ha'e some lovers without, without, And I ha'e some within ; But the best lover that e'er I had, He was here late yestreen." 20 " Oh, if ye winna open the door, Nor yet be kind to me, Now tell me of some out-chamber Where I this night may be." 21 " My barns are full of corn, Willie ; My stables are full of hay ; My bowers are full of merry young men, They winna remove till day." 22 " Oh, fare ye weel, then, May Marg'ret, Since better mamma be; I've won my mother's malison Coming this night to thee." 23 He 's mounted on his coal-black steed Oh, but his heart was wae! But ere he came to Clyde water, 'Twas half up o'er the brae. 24 And when he came to Clyde water, 'Twas flowing o'er the brim; The rushing that was in Clyde water Took Willie's cane frae him. 12 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 25 He lean'd him o'er his saddle bow, To catch his cane again; The rushing that was in Clyde water Took Willie's hat frae him. 26 He lean'd him o'er his saddle bow, To catch his hat by force; The rushing that was in Clyde water Took Willie frae his horse. 27 His brother stood upon the bank, Says " Fye, man, will ye droon? Ye'll turn ye to your high horse head. And learn ye how to soom." 28 " How can I turn to my high horse head, And learn me how to soom? I've gotten my mother's malison, It 's here that I maun droon." 29 The very hour the young man sank Into the pot sae deep, Up it waken'd her, May Marg'ret, Out of her drowsy sleep. 30 " Come here, come here, my mother dear, And read this dreary dream; I dream'd my love was at our yetts, And nane wou'd let him in." 31 " Lye still, lye still now, May Marg'ret, Lye still, and take your rest, Since your true love was at our yetts, It 's but twa quarters past." 32 Nimbly, nimbly rase she up, And nimbly put she on; And nimbly to Clyde water side May Margaret has gone. 33 When she came to Clyde water side, Eight boldly she stepp'd in; And loud her true love's name she call'd, But louder blew the win'. 34 The firsten step that she stepp'd in, Her flesh with cauld did creep , "Alas, alas!" the lady said, " This water 's cauld and deep. PRINCE ROBERT. 13 35 The neisteu step that she wade in, She waded to the knee ; Says she " I would wade further in, If I my love cou'd see." 36 The neisten step that she wade in, She waded to the chin; The deepest pot in Clyde water She got sweet Willie in. 37 " You've had a cruel mother, Willie, And I have had another ; But we shall sleep in Clyde water, Like sister and like brother." PRINCE EGBERT. First published, "from the recitation of a lady nearly related to the editor," in Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, voL iii, p. 269. Another version appeared in Minstrelsy, Ancient and Modern, p. 200, " given," says Motherwell, "from the recitation of an old woman, a native of Bonhill, in Dumbartonshire ; and it is one of the earliest songs she remembers of having heard chanted on the classic banks of the Water of Leven. The variations between the two copies are not very many or striking." Mothenvell's version has furnished a few emendations on Scott s text; while stanzas 8 and 10 are partly, and 12 wholly, derived from it. The stanzas corresponding to stanzas 9 and 14, of the text here printed, are also given at the bottom of the respective pages. Motherwell further states, in Ms Introduction (p. Ixxxiii., note 95), that he had " seen a third copy, which gives two stanzas not found in either of the sets before the public : " " Lord Robert and Mary Florence, They were twa children ying: They were scarce seven years of ago, Till love began to spring. "Lord Robert loved Mary Florence, And she lov'd him above power ; But he durst not, for his cruel mither. Bring her intill his bower." "Lady Isabel," which immediately follows, and "Clerk Tamas," which appears further on, are both similar to " Prince Robert" in tlie method of poisoning described. 1 PRINCE ROBERT has wedded a gay ladye, He has wedded her with a ring; Prince Robert has wedded a gay ladye, But he darena bring her hame. 14 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 2 " Your blessing, your blessing, my mother dear ! Your blessing now grant to me ! " " Instead of a blessing, ye shall have my curse, And you'll get nae blessing frae me." 3 She has call'd upon her waiting-maid To fill a glass of wine ; She has call'd upon her fause steward To put rank poison in. 4 She has put it to her haggard * lips, And to her haggard chin; She has put it to her fause, fause mouth, But never a drap gaed in. 5 He has put it to his bonnie mouth, And to his bonnie chin ; He has put it to his cherry lips, And the rank poison ran in. 6 " Oh, you ha'e poison'd your ae son, mother, Your ae son and your heir; Oh, ye ha'e poison'd your ae son, mother, And sons you'll never ha'e mair. 7 " Oh, where will I get a little boy, That will win hose and shoon, To rin sae fast to Darlinton, And bid fair Eleanor come ? " 8 Then up and spake a little boy, To Prince Robert something akin : " I've oft with joy your errands ran, But this day with the tears I'll rin." 9 Oh, he has run to Darlinton, And tirl'd at the pin ; And wha was sae ready as Eleanor, To let the bonnie boy in ? f 10 " What news, what news, my bonnie boy, What news ha'e ye to me?" " I bring a message frae Prince Robert, And his lady mother, to thee. * The original reads "roudes," in place of "haggard," in both this and the fol- lowing line. t Motherwell's version-has the following stanza here: " Oh, when he came to Sittingen's rocks, To the middle of a' the ha', There were bells a-ringing, anil music playing, And ladies dancing a',' 1 Contrast this with stanza 14. PRIXCE ROBERT. 15 11 " Your gude-mother has made ye a rare dinner, She 's made it baith gude and fine ; Your gude-mother has made ye a gay dinner, And ye maun come to her and dine." 12 She call'd unto, her waiting-maid, To bring her a riding weed ; And she call'd to her stable groom, To saddle her milk-white steed. 13 Oh, it 's twenty lang miles to Sillertoun town, The langest that ever were gane : But the steed it was wight, and the ladye was light, And she rade briskly in. 14 But when she came to Sillertoun town. And into Sillertoun hall, The torches were burning, the ladies were mourning, And they were weeping all.* 15 " Oh, where is now my wedded lord? And where now can he be ? Oh, where is now my wedded lord ? For him I canna see." 1C " Your wedded lord," his mother said, " Will soon be laid in the clay : Your wedded lord is dead," she said, " And will be buried the day. 17 " Ye'se get nane of his gowd, ye'se get nane of his gear, Ye'se get nae thing frae me ; Ye'se no get an inch of his gude braid land, Though your heart shou'd burst in three." 18 " I want nane of his gowd, I want nane of his gear, I want nae land frae thee ; But I'll ha'e the rings frae his wee finger, For them he did promise to me." 19 '' Ye'se no get the rings frae his wee finger, Ye'se no get them frae me ; Ye'se no get the rings frae his wee finger, An' your heart shou'd burst in three." * The corresponding stanza in Motherwell's version reads " But when she came to Earl Robert's bouir, To the middle of a' the ha', There were bells a-ringing, and sheets down hinging, And ladies murning a'.' 1 16 BALLAD MIXSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 20 She 's turned her back unto the wall, And her face unto a rock ; And there, before the mother's face, Her very heart it broke. 21 The ane was buried in Marie's kirk, The other in Marie's quire ; And out of the ane there sprang a birk, And out of the other a brier. 22 And thae twa met, and thae twa plat, The birk but and the brier; And by that ye may very weel ken They were twa lovers dear. LADY ISABEL. Abridged from Buchan's Ancient Ballads and Songs, vol. i., p. 129. 1 'TWAS early on a May morning, Lady Isabel comb'd her hair ; But little kenn'd she on the morn She would never comb it mair. 2 Ben it came her stepmother, As wroth as wroth cou'd be ; " It 's tauld me that your father loves You better far than me." 3 " Oh, them that tauld you that, mother, Ha'e done it for some spite ; Oh, them that tauld you that, mother, May God their ill requite." 4 " It may be very well seen, Isabel, It may be very well seen, He buys to you the damask gowns, To me the dowie green." 5 " Ye are of age, and I am young, And young among my flowers ; The fairer that my claithing be, The mair honour is yours. G "I ha'e a love beyond the sea, And far ayont the faem ; For ilka gown my father buys, My love sends me ten hame." LADY ISABEL. 17 7 " Come ben, now, Lady Isabel, And drink the wine with me; I ha'e twa jewels in ae coffer, And I'll gi'e ane to thee." 8 " Stay still, stay still, my mother dear, Stay still a little while, Till I gang into Marykirk, It's but a little mile." 9 When she gaed on to Marykirk, And into Mary's quair, There she saw her ain mother Sit in a gowden chair. 10 " Oh, will I leave the lands, mother? And shall I sail the sea? Or shall I drink this dowie drink That is prepared for me? " 11 "Ye winna leave the lands, daughter, Nor will ye sail the sea, But ye will drink the drink prepared By this woman for thee. 12 " Your bed is made in a better place Than ever hers will be ; And ere ye're call'd into the room, Ye will be there with me." 13 She gaed unto her garden green, Her Marys all to see; And ga'e to each a broach or ring, A keepsake for to be. 14 Then slowly to the bower she gaed, And slowly enter'd in ; And being full of courtesie, Says " Begin, mother, begin." 15 She put it to her fause, iause cheek, Sae did she to her chin; Sae did she to her fause, fause lips, But never drap gaed in. 16 Lady Isabel put it to her cheek, Sae did she to her chin; Sae did she to her rosy lips, And the rank poison gaed in. c 18 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 17 " Oh, take this cup frae me, mother, Oh, take this cup frae me ; My bed is made in a better place Than ever yours will be. 18 " My bed is in the heavens high, Amang the angels fine; But yours is in the lowest hell, To drie, torment, and pine." 19 Nae mane was made for Lady Isabel, In bower where she lay dead; But all was for that ill woman In the fields gaed raving mad. WILLIE'S LADYE. ANCIENT COPY. FIRST PUBLISHED BY SIR WALTER SCOTT. "Mr. Lewis, in his Tales of Wonder (No. 56), has presented the public with a copy of this ballad, with additions and alterations. The editor has also seen a copy, containing some modern stanzas, published by Mr. Jamieson, of Macclesfield, in his Collection of Scottish Poetry. Yet, under these disadvantages, the editor cannot relinquish his purpose of publishing the old ballad, in its native simplicity, as taken from Mrs. Brown of Falkland's MS. "Those who wish to know how an incantation, or charin, of the distressing nature here described, was performed in classic days, may consult the story of Galanthis's Metamorphosis, in Ovid, or the following passage in Apuleius: ' Eadem (Saga scilicet queedam) amatoris uxorem, quod in earn dicacule probrurn dixerat, jam in sarcinam prsegnationis, obsepto utero, et repigrato fcetu, perpetua praegnatione damnavit. Et ut cuncti numeraiit, octo annorum onere, misella ilia, velut elephantum paritura, distenditur.' Apul., Metam., lib. i. "There is also a curious tale about a Count of Westeravia, whom a deserted concubiue bewitched upon his marriage, so as to preclude all hopes of his becoming a father. The spell continued to operate for three years, till one day, the Count happening to meet with his former mistress, she maliciously asked about the increase of his family. The Count, conceiving some suspicion from her manner, craftily answered, that God had blessed him with three line children ; on which she exclaimed, like Willie's mother in the ballad, ' May heaven confound the old hag, by whose counsel I threw an enchanted pitcher into the draw-well of your palace ! ' The spell being found and destroyed, the Count became the father of a numerous family (Hierarchie of the Blessed Angels, p. 474)." Sir Walter Scott's Min- strelsy, vol. iii., p. 168. To complete the story, stanzas 15 and 16 are adapted with slight WILLIE'S LADYE. 19 alteration from Jamieson's version, which appears under the title of " Sweet Willie," in Popular Ballads, &c., vol. ii., p. 367. The modernized copy which Sir Walter Scott refers to is probably "Sweet Willie of Liddesdale." Popular Ballads, &c., vol. ii., p. 178. The last two lines of stanzas 5 and 9 are the same as the two con- cluding lines of ' ' Kemp Owyue. " It is probable that in this ballad the last line of these stanzas originally read " I wish that I were dead and gane," and that the last word of stanzas 3, 7, and 11, originally read " wean," in place of "bairn." There is a Danish ballad, "Sir Stig and Lady Torelild," on the same subject, a translation of which is given by Jamieson, in Illus- trations of Northern Antiquities, p. 344, and "is the eighth (marked H) of nine Danish ballads given by Grundtvig, under the title Hustru og M anils Moder, vol. ii., p. 404. Three Swedish versions have [also] been printed." Prof. Child, English and Scottish Ballads, vol. i., p. 162. 1 WILLIE has ta'en him o'er the faem, He 's wooed a wife, and brought her hame ; He 's wooed her for her yellow hair, But his mother wrought her meikle care ; 2 And meikle dolour gar'd her dree, For lighter she can never be ; But in her bow'r she sits with pain, And Willie mourns o'er her in vain. 3 And to his mother he has gane, That vile rank witch, of vilest kind! He says " My lady has a cup, With gowd and silver set about; This gudely gift shall be your ain, And let her be lighter of her bairn." 4 " Of her bairn she 's never be lighter, Nor in her bow'r to shine the brighter; But she shall die, and turn to clay, And you shall wed another may." 5 " Another may I'll never wed, Another may I'll never bring hame." But, sighing, said that weary wight " I wish my life were at an end." G " Yet gae ye to your mother again, That vile rank witch, of vilest kind ! And say, your ladye has a steed, The like of him 's no in the land of Leed.* *"Land of Leed:" perhaps Lydia. [SCOTT.] Not at all probable: more likely either Liddesdale or the district of Leadhills, Lanarkshire. 20 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 7 " For he is silver shod before, And he is gowden shod behind; At every tuft of that horse mane There 's a golden chess,* and a bell to ring. This gudely gift shall be her ain, And let me be lighter of my bairn." 8 " Of her young bairn she 's ne'er be lighter, Nor in her bow'r to shine the brighter; But she shall die, and turn to clay, And ye shall wed another may." 9 " Another may I'll never wed, Another may I'll never bring hame." But, sighing, said that weary wight " I wish my life were at an end! " 10 " Yet gae ye to your mother again, That vile rank witch, of rankest kind ! And say, your ladye has a girdle, It 's all red gowd to the middle ; 11 " And aye, at ilka siller hem, Hang fifty siller bells and ten ; This gudely gift shall be her ain, And let me be lighter of my bairn." 12 " Of her young bairn she 's ne'er be lighter, Nor in your bow'r to shine the brighter ; For she shall die, and turn to clay, And thou shall wed another may." 13 " Another may I'll never wed, Another may I'll never bring hame." But, sighing, said that weary wight " I wish my days were at an end ! " 14 Then out and spak the Billy Blind, t He spak aye in good time [his mind] : " Yet gae ye to the market place, And there do buy a loaf of wace ; J Do shape it bairn and bairnly like, And in it two glassen een you'll put. * " Chess " should probably be jess the name of a hawk's bell. SCOTT t "Billy Blind:" a familiar genius, or propitious spirit, somewhat similar to the Brownie. He is mentioned repeatedly in Mrs. Brown's ballads ; but I have not met with him anywhere else, although he is alluded to in the rustic game of Bogle ('. e., goblin) Billy Blind. The word is, indeed, used in Sir David Lindsay's Plays, but apparently in a different sense : " Priests sail leid you like ane Billy Blinde." Pinkerton's Scottish Poems, 1792, vol. ii., p. L'32. t "Wace: " wax. KEMP OWYNE. 21 15 " Then to your mother you shall go, And bid her your boy's christening to ; But do you stand a little away, And notice weel what she may say." 16 Then to his mother he did go, And bade her his boy's christening to ; And he did stand a little away, To notice weel what she might say. 17 " Oh, wha has loosed the nine witch-knots That were amang that ladye's locks ? And wha 's ta'en out the kames of care, That were amang that ladye's hair ? 18 " And wha has ta'erj down that bush of woodbine That hung between her bow'r and mine ? And wha has kill'd the master kid That ran beneath that ladye's bed ? And wha has loosed her left foot shee, And let that ladye lighter be ? " 19 Syne, Willie 's loosed the nine witch-knots That were amang that ladye's locks ; And Willie 's ta'en out the kames of care That were into that ladye's hair ; And he 's ta'en down the bush of woodbine, Hung atween her bow'r and the witch carline. 20 And he has killed the master kid That ran beneath that ladye's bed ; And he has loosed her left foot shee, And latten that ladye lighter be ; And now he has gotten a bonnie son, And meikle grace be him upon. KEMP OWYNE; OR, KEMPION. The following ballad is collated from two different versions, namely : I. " Kempion," printed in The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, vol. iii., p. 230. "Chiefly from Mrs. Brown's MS., with corrections from a recited fragment. " II. " Keinp Owyne," printed in Minstrelsy, Ancient and Modern, p. 373. 22 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. In a note to "Young Hastings," Mr. Buchan states that it, and the five following-named ballads, "Reedisdale and Wise William," " Billi e Archie," "Young Bearwell," "Kemp Owyne," and "Earl Richard," were sent to him, "in MS., by Mr. Nicol, Strichen, who wrote them from memory, as he had learned them in earlier years from old people." Buchan sent these MSS. to Motherwell, in whose work, above-named, they first appeared. They were all shortly afterwards included in Buchan's Ancient Ballads and Songs, &c. " The tale of ' Kempion,' " says Sir Walter Scott, " seems, from the names of the personages and the nature of the adventure, to have been an old metrical romance, degraded into a ballad by the lapse of time and the corruption of reciters. "Such transformations as the song narrates are common in the annals of chivalry. In the 25th and 26th cantos of the second book of the Orlando Inamorato, the paladin, Brandimarte, after sur- mounting many obstacles, penetrates into the recesses of an enchanted palace. Here he finds a fair damsel seated upon a tomb, who announces to him that, in order to achieve her deliverance, he must raise the lid of the sepulchre, and kiss whatever being should issue forth. The knight, having pledged his faith, proceeds to open the tornb, out of which a monstrous snake issues forth with a tremendous hiss. Brandimarte, with much reluctance, fulfils the bizarre con- ditions of the adventure, and the monster is instantly changed into a beautiful fairy, who loads her deliverer with benefits. "There is a ballad somewhat resembling 'Kempion,' called 'The Laidley Worm of Spiiidleston-heugh,' which is very popular upon the Borders. The most common version was either entirely composed, or re-written, by the Reverend Mr. Lamb of Norham." Minstrelsy. vol. iii., p. 230. Mr. Motherwell considers that the copy given by him ' ' preserves in greater purity the name of the hero than any other yet published ;" and adds, "He was, no doubt, the same Ewein, or Owain, ap Urien, the king of Reged, who is celebrated by the bards Taliessin and Llywarch-Hen, as well as in the Welch Historical Triades." Minstrelsy, Introduction, p. Ixxxiii., note 92. Sir Ewein was nephew to King Arthur, and cousin of Sir Gawein, who "loved" him " beste of alle other."* Segramour is styled "nevew to the Emperour of Constantynnoble ;"t and both are cele- brated among the knights of King Arthur. 1 HER mother died when she was young, Which gave her cause to make great moan ; Her father married the warst woman That ever lived in Christendom. * Merlin; m; The Early History of King Arthur, p. 455. Published by Early English Text Society. t Same work, p. 373. KEMP OWYXE. 23 2 Dove Isabel, with foot and hand, In every thing that she could do, Did serve her wicked stepmother With servitude baith leal and true -, 3 Till ance in an unlucky time, When nane were near to hear nor see, This wicked witch to her did call, " Come here, dove Isabel, to me. 4 " Come here, come here, ye freely feed,* And lay your head low on my knee ; The heaviest weird I will you read That ever was read to gay ladye. 5 " Oh, meikle dolour shall ye dree, And aye the salt seas shall ye swim; And far mair dolour shall ye dree, On Estmere crags, when ye them climb. 6 "I weird ye to a fiery beast, And borrow'd shall ye never be, Till Kemp Owyne, the king's own son, Come to the crag, and thrice kiss thee." 7 The wicked witch, her stepmother, Then threw her in the craigy sea, Saying " Lye you there, dove Isabel, And all my sorrows lye with thee. ., 8 " Let all the world do what they will, Else borrow'd shall you never be, Till Kemp Owyne come o'er the sea, And borrow you with kisses three." 9 Her breath grew strang, her hair grew lang, And twisted thrice about the tree ; And all the people far and near Thought that a savage beast was she. 10 Oh, meikle dolour did she dree, And aye the salt seas o'er she swam ; And far mair dolour did she dree On Estmere crags, ere she them clamb. 11 And aye she cried for Kemp Owyne, " Kemp Owyne, come and borrow me ! " Till word has gane to Kemp Owyne, Where he lived far beyond the sea. * Sic Scott's Minstrelsy: but should probably read "frely feyd:" i.e., "frely," a noble or beautiful woman; "feyd," or doomed to destruction. 24 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 12 " Now, by my sooth," said Kemp Owyne, " This fiery beast I'll gang and see." " And, by my sooth," said Segramour, "My ae brother, I'll gang with thee." 13 Then bigged ha'e they a bonnie boat, And they ha'e set her to the sea ; But a mile before they reach'd the shore, Bound them she gart the red fire flee. 14 " Oh, Segramour, ply weel your oar, And mind ye weel how ye do steer ; For this wicked beast will fire the boat, If we to it do come ower near." 15 Syne he has bent an arblast bow, And aim'd an arrow at her head ; And swore, if she did not hold back, With that same shaft to shoot her dead. 16 " Oh, out of my stythe I winna rise (And it is not for the awe of thee), Till Kemp Owyne, the king's own son, Come to the crag, and thrice kiss me." 17 Her breath was strang, her hair was lang, And twisted thrice about the tree ; And with a swing she came about, " Kemp Owyne, come and kiss with me. 18 " Here is a royal belt," she cried, " That I have found in the green sea ; And while your body it is on, Drawn shall your blood never be ; But if you touch me tail or fin, I vow my belt your death shall be." 19 He louted o'er, gave her a kiss, The royal belt he brought him wi' ; Her breath was strang, her hair was lang, And twisted twice about the tree ; And with a swing she came about, " Kemp Owyne, come and kiss with me. 20 " Here is a royal ring," she said, "That I have found in the green sea; And while your finger it is on, Drawn shall your blood never be ; But if you touch me tail or fin, I swear my ring your death shall be." KEMP OWYNE. 25 21 He louted o'er, gave her a kiss, The royal ring he brought him wi' ; Her breath was strang, her hair was lang, And twisted ance around the tree ; And with a swing she came about, " Kemp Owyne, come and kiss with me. 22 " Here is a royal brand," she said, "That I have found in the green sea; And while your body it is on, Drawn shall your blood never be ; But if you touch me tail or fin, I swear my brand your death shall be." 23 He louted o'er, gave her a kiss, The royal brand he brought him wi' ; Her breath was sweet, her hair grew short, And twisted nane about the tree ; And smilingly she came about, As fair a woman as fair could be. 24 "And by my sooth," says Kemp Owyne, " My ain true love (for this is she), They surely had a heart of stane Could put thee to such miserie. 25 " Oh, was it warwolf in the wood, Or was it mermaid in the sea? Or was it man, or vile woman, My ain true love, that misshaped thee ? " 26 " It was na warwolf in the wood, Nor was it mermaid in the sea ; But it was my wicked stepmother, And wae and weary may she be ! " 27 " Oh, a heavier weird shall light her on Than ever she made light on thee ; Her hair shall grow rough, and her teeth grow lang, And on her four feet gang shall she. 28 " Nane shall take pity her upon, And borrow'd shall she never be ; But in Wormeswood she aye shall won, Till St. Mungo * come o'er the sea." And, sighing, said that weary wight " I doubt that day I'll never see ! " * Or St Kentigern; the patron saint of Glasgow. 26 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. ERLINTON. "This ballad is published from the collation of two copies, obtained from recitation. It seems to be the rude original, or perhaps a corrupted and imperfect copy, of 'The Child of Elle,' a beautiful legendary tale, published in Percy's Reliques of Ancient Poetry. It is singular that this charming ballad should have been translated or imitated by the celebrated Burger, without acknowledgment of the English original. As 'The Child of Elle' avowedly received correc- tions, we may ascribe its greatest beauties to the poetical taste of the ingenious editor." Sir Walter Scott, Minstrelsy, vol. ii., p. 351. It is now quite certain that the Percy folio MS. " merely suggested the poem which the editor of the Reliques wrote and printed." The fragment, as it appears in the MS. (p. 57), and in the genuine text, as printed by the Early English Text Society (vol. i., p. 132), extends to only 39 lines, but in the Reliques it is "puffed out" to 200. "Erlington," "The Child of Elle," "The Douglas Tragedy," "The Brave Earl Brand," "Robin Hood and the Tanner's Daughter," &c., are Scotish and English ballad versions, corresponding to "Eibolt og Guldborg," or the kindred ballad, "Hildebrand og Hilde," of both which numerous versions exist in Danish and Swedish ; while of the former there are also three in Icelandic, and two in Norse. An inferior copy of "Riboltog Guldborg," translated into Scotish verse by Jamieson, was printed in Illustrations of Northern Antiquities, p. 317; and "Hildebrand og Hilde " has recently been admirably rendered in English verse by Mr. Robert Buchanan, in Ballad Stories of the Affections, p. 15. In the Introduction to his translation of "Ribolt and Guldborg," Mr. Jamieson remarks, that "those who wish to see from what kind of materials these tales [it, ' Erlinton,' &c.] have beeu fabricated, may compare this piece with the romantic story of Sir Sampson and Hildesvida, the daughter of Jarl Rudgeir, with which the ' Wilkina Saga ' commences." " 'Erlington ' is much mutilated, and has a perverted conclusion, but retains," in lines 59 and 60, " a faint trace of one charac- teristic, and even fundamental trait of the older forms of the story, which is not found in any of the other [Scotish or] English versions." It is founded on " a northern superstition, that to call a man by name while he was engaged in fight was a fatal omen ; and hence a phrase, ' to name-to-death.' To avert this danger, Ribolt, in nearly all the Scandinavian ballads, entreats Guldborg not to pronounce his name, even if she sees him bleeding or struck down. In her agony at seeing the last of her brothers about to be slain, Guldborg forgets her lover's injunction, calls on him by name to stop, and thus brings about the catastrophe. Ignorant reciters have either dropped the corresponding passage in the English ballad, or (as in this case) have so corrupted it, that its significance is only to be made out by com- parison with the ancient copies. "Prof. Child, English and Scottish Ballads, vol. ii., p. 114, and vol. iii., p. 223. The explanatory foot-notes [marked S.] are from the pen of Sir Walter Scott. ERLINTON. 27 1 EELINTON had a fair daughter, I wot he weired her in a great sin ; * For he has built a bigly bower, And all to put that lady in. 2 And he has warn'd her sisters six, And sae has he her brethren seven, Either to watch her all the night, Or else to seek her rnorn and even. 3 She hadna been in that bigly bower Not a night, but barely ane, Till there was Willie, her ain true love, Chapp'd at the door, crying " Peace within ! " 4 "Oh, whae is this at my bower door, That chaps sae late, or kens the gin ? " f " Oh, it is Willie, your ain true love ; I pray you rise and let me in ! " 5 " Within my bower there is a waik, And of the waik there is nae wane ; J But I'll come to the green-wood the morn, Where blooms the brier, by mornin' dawn." G Then she has gane to her bed again, Where she has layen till the cock crew thrice ; And then she said to her sisters all " Maidens, 'tis time for us to rise." 7 She put on her back a silken gown, And on her breast a siller pin, And she 's ta'en a sister in ilka hand, And to the green-wood she is gane. 8 She hadna walk'd in the gude green-wood, Na, not a mile but barely ane, Till there was Willie, her ain true love, Whae frae her sisters has her ta'en. bended. t "Gin: " the slight or trick necessary to open the door. [S.] t " Wane: " a number of people. [S.] Scott's text of the first two lines of stanza 5 reads "But in my bower there is a wake, And at the wake there is a wane; " regarding which, it may be remarked, that the spelling and note on "wane " make sheer nonsense of the verse. "Waik" means watch; and "wane,'' want, defect, carelessness. See Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary. 2$ BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 9 He took her sisters by the hand, He kiss'd them baith, and sent them hame ; And he 's ta'en his true love him behind, And through the green-wood they are gane. 10 They hadna ridden in the bonnie green-wood, Na, not a mile but barely ane, When there came fifteen of the boldest knights That ever bare flesh, blood, or bane. 11 The foremost was an aged knight, He wore the gray hair on his chin ; Says " Yield to me thy lady bright, And thou shalt walk the woods within." 12 " For me to yield my lady bright, To such an aged knight as thee, People wou'd think I were gane mad, Or all the courage flown frae me." 13 But up then spake the second knight, I wot he spake right boustouslie, " Yield me thy life, or thy lady bright, Or here the tane * of us shall die." 14 " My lady is my world's meed, My life I winna yield to nane; But if ye be men of true manhood, Ye'll only fight me ane by ane." 15 He lighted off his milk-white horse, And gae 'm his lady by the head, Saying " See you dinna change your cheer, Until you see my body bleed." 16 He set his back into an aik, He set his feet against a stane ; And he has fought these fifteen men, And kill'd them all but barely ane; But he has left the aged knight, For to carry the tidings hame. 17 When he gaed to his lady fair, I wot he kiss'd her tenderlie : " Thou'rt mine ain love, I have thee bought; And we shall walk the green-wood free." * " Tane: " one or other. THE DOUGLAS TRAGEDY. 29 THE DOUGLAS TRAGEDY. "The ballad of 'The Douglas Tragedy' is one of the few to which popular tradition has ascribed complete locality. The farm of Blackhouse, in Selkirkshire, is said to have been the scene of this melancholy event. There are the remains of a very ancient tower, adjacent to the farm-house, in a wild solitary glen, upon a torrent named Douglas Burn, which joins the Yarrow after passing a craggy rock called the Douglas Craig. From this ancient tower, Lady Margaret is said to have been carried by her lover. Seven large stones, erected upon the neighbouring heights of Blackhouse, are shown as marking the spot where the seven brothers were slain ; and the Douglas Burn is averred to have been the stream at which the lovers stopped to drink. So minute is tradition in ascertaining the scene of a tragical tale, which, considering the rude state of former times, had probably foundation in some real event. "Many copies of this ballad are current among the vulgar, but chiefly in a state of great corruption, especially such as have been committed to the press in the shape of penny pamphlets. One of these is now before me, which, among many others, has the ridiculous error of 'blue gilded horn,' for 'bugetet horn.' The copy principally used in this [Scott's] edition of the ballad was supplied by Mr. Charles K. Sharpe. The three last verses are given from the printed copy, and from tradition. The hackneyed verse, of the rose and the brier springing from the grave of the lovers, is common to most tragic ballads ; but it is introduced into this with singular propriety, as the chapel of St. Mary, whose vestiges may be still traced upon the lake to which it has given name, is said to have been the burial- place of Lord William and fair Margaret. The wrath of the Black Douglas, which vented itself upon the brier, far surpasses the usual stanza: ' At length came the clerk of the parish, As you the truth Bhall hear, And by mischance he cut them down, Or else they had stifl been there.' " Sir W. Scott, Minstrelsy, vol. iii., p. 3. Motherwell adopted " the copy given in the work from which the above extract has been taken;" and says, " any recited copy that we have heard has been incomplete, wanting not only the circum- stance of the lovers halting at the stream, but likewise that of their death and burial." The latter editor appended to his prefatory note, above quoted, five verses of an incomplete ' ' recited copy, " such as he refers to. This fragment "supplies variations," some of which are here adopted in verses 4, 6, and 8. Other slight alterations have been made on the verses named, and also on most of the subsequent verses generally by repetition of one or two words from preceding lines so as to restore the uniform harmony of the metre ; but in no case has the sense, or ordinary phraseology of the baDad, been tampered with. With reference to Sir Walter Scott's remarks on the localities of this ballad, as above quoted, and a similar identification as to place 30 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. of some of the incidents in " Ribolt and Guldborg," by Grundtvig (pp. 342-3), the following observation of Jamieson, relative to the transposition of person, and of the unities of time and place, to widely different scenes and periods of action, is peculiarly applicable: ' ' Popular tales and anecdotes of every kind soon obtain locality wherever they are told ; and the intelligent and attentive traveller will not be surprised to find the same story which he had learned when a child, with every appropriate circumstance of names, time, and place, in a glen of Morven, Lochaber, or Rannoch, equally domesticated among the mountains of Norway, Caucasus, or Thibet." Illustrations qf Northern Antiquities, p. 317. 1 " EISE up, rise up, now, Lord Douglas," she says, "And put on your armour so bright ; Let it never be said that a daughter of thine Was married to a lord under night. 2 " Eise up, rise up, my seven bold sons, And put on your armour so bright ; And take better care of your youngest sister, For your eldest 's away the last night." 3 He 's mounted her on a milk-white steed, And himself on a dapple gray, With a bugelet horn hung down by his side, And lightly they baith rade away. 4 Lord William look'd over his left shoulder He look'd to see what he could see And he spy'd her father and brethren bold, Come riding hastily over the lea. 5 " Light down, light down, Lady Marg'ret," he said, "And hold my steed in your hand, Until that against your seven brethren bold, And your father I make a stand." C She held his steed in her milk-white hand, But spake not, nor shed not a tear, Until that she saw her seven brethren fall, And the blood of her father so dear. 7 " Oh, hold your hand, Lord William ! " she said, " For your strokes they are wondrous sair ; True lovers I can get many a ane, But a father I can never get mair." 8 Oh, she 's ta'en her kerchief from off her neck It was of the hollarid sae fine And aye she wiped her father's bloody wounds, That were redder than the wine. THE DOUGLAS TRAGEDY 9 " Oh chuse, oh chuse, Lady Marg'ret," he said, " Oh, whether will ye gang or bide ? " " I'll gang, I'll gang, Lord William," she said, "Ye have left me no other guide." 10 He 's lifted her on a milk-white steed, And himself on a dapple gray, With a hugelet horn hung down by his side, And slowly they baith rade away. 11 Oh, they rade slowly and sadly on, And all by the light of.the moon ; They rade till they came to yon wan water, And there they alighted them down. 12 They alighted them down to take a drink Of the water that ran so clear; And down the stream ran his gude heart's blood, And sair Lady Marg'ret did fear. 13 " Hold up, hold up, Lord William," she says, " For 1 fear me that you are slain!" " 'Tis but the shadow of my scarlet cloak That shines in the water sae plain." 14 Oh, they rade slowly and sadly on, And all by the light of the moon, Until they came to his mother's hall door. And there they alighted them down. 15 " Get up, get up, lady mother," he says, " Get up, get up and let me in ! Get up, get up, lady mother," he says, "For this night my fair lady I've win. 16 " Oh, make my bed, lady mother," he says, " Oh, make my bed baith braid and deep! And lay Lady Marg'ret close at my back, And the sounder we baith will sleep." 17 Lord William was dead lang ere midnight, Lady Marg'ret was dead lang ere day ; And all true lovers that go thegither, May they have better luck than they ! 18 Lord William was buried in St. Marie's kirk, Lady Marg'ret in St. Marie's quire ; Out of the lady's grave grew a red rose, And out of the knight's grew a brier. 32 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 19 And they twa they met, and they twa they plat, As if full fain they wou'd be near ; Sae that all the world might ken right weel That they grew frae twa lovers dear.* 20 But by chance that way the Black Douglas rade, And wow but he was rude and rough ! For he pull'd up the bonnie, bonnie brier, And flang it in St. Marie's Loch. THE BRAVE EARL BRAND AND THE KING OF ENGLAND'S DAUGHTER. "Taken down from the recitation of an old fiddler in Northum- berland. The refrain should be repeated in every verse." Bell's Ancient Poems, Ballads, and Songs, &c., p. 122. Verse 2 has been slightly altered in the interest of delicacy and perspicuity. Verses 5 and 6 are here inserted in place of verse 5 of the original, which reads, " Oh, Earl Brand, but my father has two, And thou shall have the best of tho'." An hiatus, in verse 11, has been filled by the addition of the four last words, while the last word, of the first line of the same verse, has been changed for the sake of the rhyme. Three words have also been added to verse 26. The alterations and additions referred to are sanctioned by, and mostly derived from, a similar ballad, named " Leesome Brand," which appears in a subsequent portion of this work. 1 OH, did you ever hear of the brave Earl Brand, Hey lillie, ho lillie lallie; He courted the king's daughter of fair England, In the brave nights so early. 2 She was scarcely fifteen years old, When to Earl Brand she came right bold. * If the testimony of numerous minstrels in different lands and ages may be credited, the miracle here narrated in stanzas IS and 19 was " frequently witnessed over the graves of faithful lovers. King Mark, according to the German romance, planted a rose on Tristan's grave, and a vine on that of Isold. The roots struck down into the very hearts of the dead lovers, and the stems twined lovingly together. The French account is somewhat different An eglantine sprung from the tomb of Tristan, and twisted itself round the monument of Isold. It was cut down three times, but grew up every morning fresher than before; so that it was allowed to stand.'' Several other instances of this miraculous phenomenon occur in this volume; in Swedish, Danish, and Breton ballad lore; " in a Servian tale, cited by SaM (Vertuch, &c., p. 139); and in an Afghan poem, described by Elphin- stone " (Account of the Kingdom ears to have existed as a subordinate state in connection with the Saxon kingdom of Mercia ; to some other place unknown ; or to some region purely imaginary, is a problem which cannot now be solved ; and, fortunately, it is a matter of no great consequence. The name occurs in a preceding ballad, as designating the domain of "Young Bekie," and it gives title to "The Heir of Linne," a ballad which appears in a subsequent portion of this work. The name of the heroine's father," King Honour," also appears in "Fause Foodrage," ante, p. 128. 1 IT fell upon the Lammas time, When flowers were fresh and green, And craig and cleugh were cover'd o'er With clothing that was clean. 2 'Twas at that time a noble squire, Sprung from an ancient line, Laid his love on a lady fair, The king's daughter of Linne. YOUNG RONALD. 147 3 When cocks did craw, and day did daw, And mint in meadows sprang, Young Ronald, and his little wee boy, They rode the way alang. 4 And when he unto Windsor came, And lighted on the green, Young Ronald spy'd his mother dear Was walking there alane. 5 "Where ha'e you been, my son Ronald, From gude school-house this day?" "Oh, I ha'e been at Linne, mother, Seeing yon bonnie May." 6 " Oh, waes me for you now, Ronald, For she will not you ha'e; For many a knight and bauld baron She 's nick'd them aye with Nay." 7 Young Ronald 's done him to his bow'r, And he took bed and lay; Nae woman cou'd come in his sight, For thoughts of this fair May. 8 Then Ronald call'd his stable groom To come right speedilie; Says " Ye'll gang to yon stable, boy, And saddle a steed for me. 9 " His saddle of the good red gold, His bits of polish'd steel, His bridle of a glittering hue ; See that ye saddle him weel." 10 When cocks did craw, and day did daw, And mint in meadows sprang, Young Ronald, and his little wee boy, The way they rode alang. 11 So they rode on, and farther on, To yonder pleasant green; And there they saw that lady fair, In her garden alane. 12 He rais'd his hat, and thus he spake, " Oh, pity have on me! For I cou'd pledge what is my right, All for the sake of thee." BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 13 " But I'm too young to wed, kind sir; You must not take it ill ; Whate'er my father bids me do, I maun be at his will. 14 " King Honour is my father's name, The morn to war maun fare; He gangs to fight a giant proud, That's wrought him meikle care. 15 " Alang with him he is to take Baith noble knights and squires; If you gae there a weel-graith'd knight, You'll honour my desires. 16 " And I'll give you a thousand crowns, To part among your men ; A robe upon your ain body, Weel sew'd with my ain hand. 17 ." Likewise a ring, a royal thing, Whose virtue is well known ; As lang 's this ring 's your finger on, Your bluid shall ne'er be drawn." 18 He kiss'd her then, and took his leave; His heart was all in pride; And he is on to Windsor gone, With his boy by his side. 19 And when he unto Windsor came, And lighted on the green, Young Konald saw his auld father Was walking there alane. 20 " Where ha'e ye been, my son Konald, From gude school-house the day?" " Oh, I ha'e been at Linne, father, Seeking yon bonnie May." 21 " Oh, waes me for you now, Ronald, For she will not you ha'e; Many a knight and bauld baron She 's nick'd them aye with Nay." 22 " Oh, hold your tongue, my father dear, Let all your folly be; The last words that I with her spake, Her love was granted me. YOUNG RONALD. 149 23 " The morn I join her father dear, His knights and noble squires, To fight against a giant proud, And honour her desires." 24 His father gave him a hundred men, To bear him companie; Besides as meikle gude harness As carry them on the lea. 25 When cocks did craw, and day did daw, And mint in meadows spread, Young Ronald and his merry young men Were ready for to ride. 26 So they rode on, and farther on, To yonder pleasant green; And there they spy'd that lady fair, With love-tears in her een. 27 And twenty times before he ceased, He kiss'd her lips sae clear; And said " I'll fight the giant proud For your sake, lady dear." 28 Then to his great steed he set spur, Which being swift of feet, They soon arriv'd upon the plain, Where all the rest did meet. 29 Then flew the foul thief frae the west, His maik was never seen; He had three heads upon ae hause, Three heads on ae breast-bane. 30 He bauldly stepp'd up to the king; Says " I'm a valiant man; Let you, or any in your train, Fight me now if ye can." 31 " Where is the man in all my train Will take this deed in hand ? And he shall ha'e my daughter dear, And third part of my land." 32 " Oh, here am I," said young Eonald, "Will take the deed in hand; If you give me your daughter dear, I'll seek nane of your land." 150 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 33 " I wou'dna for my life, Ronald, That you shou'd perish here; Remember that my daughter fair For you shed many a tear." 34 When he thought on that lady fair He ne'er might see again, He boldly coursed him to the fight, Like a lion frae a chain. 35 Then he cut aff the giant's heads With ae sweep of his hand, Gaed hame and marry'd that lady fair, And heir'd her father's land. KING MALCOLM AND SIR COLVIN#. This old romantic tale has appeared in print in the following works : I. Under the title of "Sir Cauline,"in Percy's Reliques, vol. i., p. 38, 2d edit., 1767. II. Under the above title, in Buchan's Ancient Ballads and Songs, vol. ii., p. 6. III. Under the title of " Sir Cawline," in Bishop Percy's Foiiu Manuscript (printed copy), vol. iii., p. 1. The version given in the Reliques extends to 392 lines, while the last-named copy contains 201 lines, only 162 of which are represented in the Reliques ; the concluding portion of the MS. copy being either omitted, or completely perverted by Bishop Percy in his version. These are facts which the apparently innate modesty of the ingenuous and venerable prelate led him, in this instance, to conceal under the prefatory statement that the copy "preserved in the editor's folio MS." was " in so very defective and mutilated a condition (not from any chasm in the MS. , but from great omission in the transcript, probably copied from the faulty recitation of some illiterate minstrel), and the whole appeared so far short of the perfection it seemed to deserve, that the editor was tempted to add several stanzas in the first part, and still more in the second, to connect and complete the story in the manner which appeared to him most interesting and affecting;" but which un- fortunately appears to others, as rather "most" stilted and affected. It is well, however, that the world, or at least the English reading portion of it, should now be aware of the full extent of its or their indebtedness to the worthy prelate ; and this it or they are now en- abled to estimate by comparing the "Sir Cauline"or the Reliques with the "Sir Cawline" of the MS., as it appears in the printed copy issued by or in connection with the Early English Text Society. Mr. Buchan's version comprises 27 stanzas, and numbers 110 lines. KING MALCOLM AND SIR COLVINE. 151 It omits the apocryphal billing and cooing which the taste and in- vention of the Bishop led him to tag on as a fitting finale to his first part ; and it entirely omits his second part, with its perverted termin- ation, but finishes with one stanza in accord with the denouement of the MS. copy. Yet the editor or editors of the MS. copy, not satisfied with his or their exposure of the English prelate, which there is ample evidence to substantiate, cannot stop short, but must in the flush of victory proceed to play the role of literary bravo or bravos against the Scotish editor, by insinuating that " there can be little doubt that this [his version] is one of that collector's many fabrications," not a tittle of evidence being adduced in support of this, to say the least of it, most uncharitable accusation. Probably the editor or editors thought something necessary in order to appease the manes of the convicted prelate, and satisfy the geniua of their country, too often tremblingly and meanly jealous of Scot- land and of Scotsmen ; but if so, it is much to be regretted that he or they could think of no other and better way than by this attempt to immolate the reputation and outrage the memory of a deceased collector and editor, notoriously as honest as he was painstaking. Nor is it on this ground alone that they are open to animadversion, as it can easily be shown that the ignorance and sycophancy of this contemptible coterie of padding manufacturers is quite on a par with their egotism, impertinence, and malignity. And that we do not need to travel far for proof of this, let the following fawning paragraph, which immediately precedes the attack made on the late Mr. Buchan, testify : " As Mr. Furnival, in his original proposal for the publication of the folio, said : ' With a true instinct Professor Child remarked in his Ballads (ed. 1861, vol. iii., p. 172), it is difficult to believe that this charming romance had so tragic and so sentimental a con- clusion.' " Now let us quote the words of Mr. Motherwell, the steadfast and appreciative friend of Mr. Buchan, and the precursor, if not the actual inspirer of this marvellous intuition which Mr. Furnival and his coadjutors delight to honour. He says : "How much it (Sir Catiline) owes to the taste and genius of its editor, we have not the means of ascertaining ; but that his interpola- tions and additions have been very considerable, any one acquainted with ancient minstrelsy will have little room to doubt. We suspect too that the original ballad had a less melancholy catastrophe, and that the brave Syr Cauline, after his combat with the 'hend soldan,' derived as much benefit from the leechcraft of fair Christabelle as he did after winning the Eldridge sword." Referring to the theory of another accomplished, but prematurely cut off, ballad editor and anuotator, Mr. Motherwell adds : " Between this ballad and some parts of the metrical romance of Sir Tristrem, the late Mr. Finlay of Glasgow affects to discover a resemblance ; but he has not condescended to trace a parallel between them. Indeed, we cannot help thinking, for all he says to the contrary, that his reasoning is no whit superior to Fluellin's : ' There 152 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. is a river at Macedon, and there is also moreover a river at Mon- mouth :' and, according to Mr. Finlay, 'there is an Irish king and his daughter in "Sir Cauline."' And there is also, moreover, an Irish king and his daughter in Sir Tristrem. The concealed love of Sir Cauline for one so much above him in station will remind the reader of the gentle ' Squyer of lowe degre That loved the king's donghter of Hungre.'" Minstrelsy, Ancient and Modern, p. 99. As regards the nationality of the ballad, it appears from the Percy Folio MS. (printed copy, vol. iii., p. 1, footnote), that Bishop Percy had indicated, and we believe correctly, his opinion in the following terms, as inscribed by him on the MS. i "A strange romantic old song, very defective and obscure. 2f.B. This seemes to have been originally a Scotch song, which will account for its being so corrupted. P." We presume his meaning to be that, on account of its being Scotch, the English reciter and transcriber did not fully understand, and consequently corrupted it. " King Malcolm and Sir Col vine," as here printed, is collated, with some editorial license, from " Sir Cawline," Bishop Percy's Folio MS., printed copy, vol. iii., pp. 4-11, lines 31 to 129 inclusive, and from Mr. Buchan r s ballad, "King Malcolm and Sir Colvin;" but the latter is the one chiefly followed. The original version of the latter ends with the following stanza : " Up he has ta'en that bluidy hand, Set it before the king; And the morn it was Wednesday. When he married his daughter Jean." As an appropriate prelude, the following stanzas, which form the beginning of the ballad of " Sir Cawline " in Bishop Percy's Folio MS., are here given verbatim from the printed copy, vol. iii, pp. 3 and 4 : " lesiis : lord mickle of might, that dyed ffor ys on the roode to maintains vs in all our right, 4 that loues true English blood. " ffor by a Knight I say my song, was bold & ffull hardye ; Sir Eobert Briuse wold fforth to flight 8 in-to Ireland ouer the sea; " & in that land dwells a king wAich ouer all does beare the bell, & with him there dwelled a curteous Knight, 12 men call him Sir Cawline. " And he hathe a Ladye to his daughter, of ffashyon shee hath noe peere : Knights and lordes they woed her both, 16 trusted to haue beene her peere. " Sir Cawline loues her best of one", but nothing durst hee say to descreeue his counsell to noe man, 20 but deerlye loued this niayd. KING MALCOLM AND SIR COLVINE. 153 " till itt beffell vppn a day, great dill to him was dight, the maydens loue remoued his mind, 24 to care bed went the Knight ; " & one while he spread his armes him flroe, & cryed soe pittyouslye ffor the maydens loue that I haue most minde, 28 this day may comfort mee, or else ere nopne I shal be dead! thus can Sir Cawline say." Compare, in particular, lines 21 to 28, with stanza 7 of " Young Ronald," ante, p. 146. 1 THERE lived a king in fair Scotland, King Malcolm call'd by name, Renown'd, as history doth record, For valour, worth, and fame. 2 Now, it fell ance upon a day, This king sat down to dine; And then he miss'd a favourite knight, Whose name was Sir Colvine. 3 But out then spake another knight, Ane of Sir Colvine's kin : " Sir Colvine 's sick and like to die, And needing good leechin'." 4 " Go fetch to him my daughter dear, She is a leech full fine; And take ye bread, and wine so red, To give to Sir Colvine. 5 " No dainties let Sir Colvine lack, Spare nothing that is mine; A knight so leal and brave as he, I wou'd be loth to tyne," 6 The king's daughter did bear the bread, Her page did bear the wine, And set a table at his bed, " Sir Colvine, rise and dine." 7 " Oh, well love I the wine, lady, Comes frae your lovely hand ; But better I love yoursel', lady, Than all fair Scotland's strand. 8 " And it is for your love, lady, That all this dule I dree ; But grant your love, seal'd with a kiss, And I wou'd pass from bale to bliss, And nane mair happy be." 154 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 9 "Oh, hold your tongue now, Sir Colvine, Let all your folly be; My love must be by honour won, Or nane shall marry me." 10 " Alas, full well I know, lady, I cannot be your peer, But I'd fain do some deed of arms To be your bacheleer." 11 " Then hie ye to the Elrick hill, Near by yon sharp hawthorn, Where never man did waik all night Since Christ our Lord was born. 12 " Oh, hie ye there and waik all night, And boldly blaw your horn; And if with honour ye return, I'll marry ye the morn." 13 Then up Sir Colvine quickly raise, For battle has him boun'; And said " Fair lady, for your sake, I'll walk th'e bent sae brown. 14 " And I will bring a token back, Or never mair be seen ;" Then forth Sir Colvine proudly walk'd, Clad in his armour keen. 15 He hied him to the Elrick hill, To walk and waik all night; And the lady to her chamber went, With all her maidens bright. 16 At midnight mirk the moon did rise, While he walk'd up and down ; And a lightsome bugle he heard sound, Over the bent sae brown. 17 Then near him by, the knight did spy, By the twinkling of an e'e, A fierce-like knight and lady bright, Wha comely was to see. 18 This fierce knight call'd to Sir Colvine, " man, I rede thee, flee; I bear a brand both sharp and broad, Will quarter you in three ; KING MALCOLM AND SIR COLVINE. 155 19 " For there 's never man comes to this hill, But he maun fight with me ; And if cryance come thy heart intil, It's here that ye maun dee." 20 Sir Colvine. said " I'm not afraid Of any here I see ; In Christ above I put my trust, And therefore dread not thee." 21 Sir Colvine then he drew his sword, The fierce knight drew his brand; And stiff and stoure and stark and doure, Each other did withstand. 22 But Colvine, with an awkward stroke, Struck off the knight's right hand, And down fell hand, and down fell brand, Upon the Elrick land. 23 The fingers of the hand that fell, Were girt with five rings round; And the rings that were these fingers on^ Were worth five hundred pound. 24 "I yield, I yield," the fierce knight saidj " I fairly yield to thee ; No man e'er came to Elrick hill E'er gain'd such victorie. 25 " I and my forbears here did haunt A thousand years and more; I'm safe to swear a solemn oath, We ne'er were beat before." 26 Then the knight's fair lady wrung her hand, And Colvine did implore: " For love of her, whom you love most, Pray smite my lord no more. 27 " But give me back my wounded knight, Let us fare on our way; And never more, on Elrick hill, For rapine or for play; 28 " No, never more, on Elrick hill, By night nor yet by day, Shall we molest the race of men, On Christ their trust doth lay." 156 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 29 Sir Colvine set the Elrick knight Upon his steed again, Who with his lady leal and fair Eade off with might and main. 30 Sir Colvine then took up the hand, With five rings it upon, Likewise the brand as hard as flint, And homeward he has gone. 31 There to the king's fair daughter gave These tokens of his love, Won by the might of his right arm, And trust in Christ above. SIR CAWLINE. The following stanzas, which nan-ate the adventures of " Sir Caw- line " after his return from his combat with the " Elrick" or " Eldridge king" or "knight," are here given verbatim from the Percy Folio MS., printed copy, vol. iii., p. 11. They begin abruptly, which led Bishop Percy to note on the MS., " Some very great omission here," and induced him to tax his inven- tion to fill the gap ; which he accordingly did, to the extent, and in the manner, previously indicated. The fight with the " Gyant " or " Soldan" bears considerable re- semblance to the concluding portion of "Young Konald " (ante, p. 149) ; though differently treated: 'Sovnerunerne,' Grundtvig, No. 81." There is also "a modernized English one of no value (' The West Country Wager') in Ancient Poems, &c. Percy Society, vol. xvii., p. 116." Professor Child, English and Scottish Ballads, voL i., p. 131. Kindred ballads are "The Baffled Knight," Percy's Eeliqv.es; "Too Courteous Knight," Ritson's Ancient Songs, vol. ii., p. 54 ; and " D'Urfey's Pills," &c., vol. iii., p. 37 ; " The Shepherd's Son," Herd, voL ii., p. 267 ; "Jock Sheep," Kinloch's Ballad Book, p. 17 ; "The Abashed Knight," Buchan's Ancient Ballads, vol. ii., p. 131 ; "Blow the Winds, Heigh Ho ! " Ancient Poems, &c. Percy Society, voL xvii., p. 123. 1 THERE was a knight, and a lady bright, Set a tryst among the broom ; The one went there in the morning aer, The other in the afternoon. 2 " I'll wager, I'll wager with you," he said, " Five hundred merks and ten, That ye shall not gang to yon Broomfield hill, And a maid return again." 3 " I'll wager, I'll wager with you," she said, " Five hundred merks and ten, That I shall gang to yon Broomneld hill. And a maid return again." 230 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 4 The lady stands in her bow'r door, And thus she made her mane, " Oh, shall I gang to the Broomfield hill, Or shall I stay at hame ? 5 " If I do gang to the Broomfield hill, A maid I'll not return ; And if I stay frae the Broomfield hill, I'll be a maid mis-sworn." 6 It's up then spake an auld witch-wife, Sat in the bow'r aboon, " Oh, ye shall gang to Broomfield hill, And yet come maiden hame. 7 " When ye gang to the Broomfield hill, Walk nine times round and round; And there, down by the bonnie burn bank, Your love will sleep full sound. 8 " Ye'll pull the bloom frae off the broom, The bloom that smells sae sweet, And strew it at your lover's h6ad, And likewise at his feet; And aye the thicker that ye strew, The sounder he will sleep. 9 " The rings that are on your fingers, Put them on his right hand, To let him know, when he does wake, Ye was at his command. 10 " The brooch that is on yottr napkin, Put it on his breast-bane, That he may know, when he does wake, His love has come and gane." 11 The lady gaed to the Broomfield hill, Did as the witch-wife bade, And hied her back to her bow'r again, A maid, as forth she gaed. 12 The knight he waken'd frae his sleep, And he saw, to his pain, By all the tokens she had left, His love had come and gane. 13 "Oh, where were ye, my gude greyhound, That I paid for sae dear, Ye didna waken me frae my sleep, When my true love was near ? " THE BROOMFIELD HILL. 231 14 " I stroked ye with my foot, master, While thus I whining sang, ' Oh, waken, waken, dear master^ Before your love does gang.'" 15 " Oh, where were ye, my milk-white steed, That I ha'e'coft sae dearj That ye did not watch and waken me; When there came maiden here? 1 ' 16 " I stampit with my foot, master, Until my bridle rang; And aye neigh'd, 'Waken, dear master^ Before the maiden gang.' " 17 " Then wae betide ye, toy gay gos-hawk^ That I did love so dear, That ye did not watch and waken me, When my love was sae near." 18 " I flappit with my wings, master, And aye my bells I rang ; And aye sang,' Waken, gude master, Before the ladye gang.'" 19 " Oh, where were ye, my merry young manj That I pay meet and fee, That ye did not waken me frae my sleep, When my love ye did see ? " 20 " Go sooner to your bed at e'en, And keep awake by day, When ye go down to Broomfield hill, In hope sic pranks to play. 21 " For had I seen an armed man Go riding o'er the hill, I wou'd ha'e stay'd him in his course Until I kenn'd your will ; But I only saw a fair ladye Gang quietly you until. 22 " When she gaed out, right bitter she wept, But singing came she hame, ' Oh, I ha'e been at Broomfield hill, And maid return'd again.' " 23 " But haste, and haste, my gude white steed, To come the maiden till, Or all the birds of gude greenwood Of your flesh shall have their fill." 232 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 24 " Ye needna burst your gude white steed, With racing o'er the howm ; Nae bird flies faster through the wood Than she fled through the broom." EARL EICHARD. " The locality of this ballad Barnisdale will bring to the remem- brance of the reader," says Motherwell, "tales of Robin Hood and Little John, who, according to the testimony of Andrew of Wyntown, ' In Yngilwode and Barnysdale, Their oysed all this tyme thare travaila' Whether the ballad is originally the production of an English or of a Scotch minstrel, admits of question ; certain, however, it is, that it has been received into both countries at a pretty early period. Hearne, in his preface to Gul. Neubrigiensis Historia, Oxon., 1719, vol. i., p. Ixx., mentions that ' The Knight and Shepherd's Daughter' was well known in the time of Queen Elizabeth. In Fletcher's 'Pilgrim,' act iv., scene 2, a stanza of the same ballad is quoted. The English version of this ballad is given in the Reliques of English Poetry, vol. iii. There are various copies of it current in Scotland ;" as, for instance, "Earl Richard," first published by Mr. Motherwell, in his Minstrelsy, p. 377, and afterwards by Mr. Buchan, from whom Mr. Motherwell had received it ; in Ancient Ballads and Songs, vol. ii., p. 81 (see ante, p. 22). Another and different version, also from recitation, followed it in the same work and volume (p. 91), under the title of " Earl Lithgow;" but previous to the appearance of the last-named work and version, two other printed versions were given by Mr. Kinloch, in his Ancient Scottish Ballads, under the respec- tive titles of " Earl Richard," p. 13, and ' ' The Shepherd's Daughter," p. 25. The present version has been collated from the Scotish ver- sions here referred to, but chiefly from the two furnished by Mr. Buchan. Stanzas 1 to 12 are peculiar to the first-named Scotish version, and are here printed all but verbatim. Mr. Motherwell, referring to it, afiirms that it "is out of sight the most circumstan- tial and elaborated that has yet been printed, [that] it possesses no small portion of humour, and [that] it appears to be of greater anti- quity than the copy published in the Reliques. " " The artifices," says Kinloch, " which the lady practises to main- tain the character of a 'beggar's brat,' and the lively description which she gives of the ' gentle craft, ' are kept up with great spirit and fancy. The English copy, which is decidedly inferior both in poeti- cal composition and archness of humour, is entirely destitute of this part, even in allusion." Professor Child also states it as his opinion that the " Scottish versions " are " superior to the English in every respect." 1 EARL RICHARD once upon a day, And all his valiant men so wight, He hied him down to Barnisdale, Where all the land is fair and light. EARL RICHARD. 233 2 And there he met with a damosel, I wot fast on she did her bound, With tow'rs of gold upon her head, As fair a woman as cou'd be found. 3 He said " Busk you, busk you ! fair ladye, With the white flowers and the red ; And I wou'd give my bonnie ship, If I your love and favour had." 4 "I wish your ship might rent and rive, And drown you in the sea ; For all this wou'd not mend the miss That you wou'd do to me." " The miss is not so great, ladye Soon mended it might be. 5 " In Scotland I've four-and-twenty mills, Stand on the water Tay : You'll have them, and as much good flour As they'll grind in a day." 6 "I wish your bonnie ship, rent and rive, And drown you in the sea; For all that wou'd not mend the misg That you wou'd do to me." " The miss is not so great, ladye ; Soon mended it might be. 7 "I have four-and-twenty milk-white cows, Were all calved in one day : You'll have them, and as much hain'd grass As they all on can gae." 8 "I wish your bonnie ship rent and rive, And drown you in the sea; For all that wou'd not mend the miss That you wou'd do to me." " The miss is not so great, ladye Soon mended it might be. 9 "I have four-and-twenty milk-white steeds, Were all foal'd in one year: You'll have them, and as much red gold As all their backs can bear." 10 She turn'd her right and round about, And she swore by the mold ; " I would not be your love," said she, " For that church full of gold." 234 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 11 He turn'd him right and round about, And he swore by the mass ; Says " Ladye, ye my love shall be, And gold ye shall have less." 12 She turn'd her right and round about, And she swore by the moon ; " I would not be your love," says she, " For all the gold in Rome." 13 He turn'd him right and round about, And he swore by the moon; Says " Ladye, ye iriy love shall bd, And gold ye shall have hone." 14 He caught her by the milk-white hand, The gude greenwood amang; And for all that she cou'd say or do, He did her sairly wrang. 15 The ladye frown'd and sadly blush'dj And oh! but she thought shame; Says " If you are a knight at all, You'll surely tell your name." 16 " In some places they call me Jack, In others they call me John; But when I am in the queen's court, Then Lithcock is my name." 17 " Lithcock! Lithcock! " the ladye said, And spelt it o'er again; " Lithcock is Latin," the ladye said, " But Richard 's your English name." 18 Then he has mounted on his horse, And said he wou'd go ride; And she has kilted her green clothes, And said she wou'd not bide. 19 The knight he rode, the ladye ran, A live-long summer's day, Till they came to the wan water, That all men do call Tay. 20 He set his horse head to the water, Just through it for to ride; And the ladye was as ready as him, The waters for to wade. EARL RICHARD. 235 21 For he was ne'er so kind-hearted As to bid the ladye ride ; And she was ne'er so low-hearted As for to bid him bide. 22 But deep into the wan water, Close by a great big stone, He turn'd his wight horse head about, Said " Ladye fair, loup on." 23 She 's taken the wand was in her hand, And struck it on the foam; " Ye need not stop for me," she said, " Sir Knight, ye may ride on. 24 " I learn'd it from my mother dear, There 's few ha'e learn'd it better When I come to a deep water, I can swim like ony otter. 25 " I learn'd it from my mother dear, I learn'd it for my weal When I come to a deep water, I can swim like ony eel. 26 " By the help of God and Our Ladye, I'll swim across the tide ; " And ere he reached the middle stream, She was on the other side. 27 And when she reach'd the other side, She sat down on a stone; She sat down there to rest herself, And wait till he came on. 28 " Turn back, turn back, you ladyd fair, You know not what I see; There is a ladye in that castle, That will burn you and me." " Betide me weal, betide rne woe, That ladye I will see." 29 Then she's gane on to the queen's court, And there tirl'd at the pin; The porter ready answer made, To see who wou'd be in. 30 She gave a ring from her finger, To the porter for his fee; Says " Take you that, my good porter, The queen I fain wou'd see." 236 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 31 The porter he went to the queen. And knelt low on his knee; " There is a ladye waits at your gates, Says she wou'd fain you see." 32 " Then open my gates both wide and braid, As wide as they can be ; Ye'll open my gates both wide and braid, And bring her here to me." 33 And when she came before the queen, She fell low on her knee ; " Win up, win up, my fair woman, What means this courtesie? " 34 " My errand it's to thee, queen! My errand it 's to thee ; There is a knight into your court Who has this day robb'd me." 35 " Oh, has he robb'd you of your gold, Or robb'd you of your fee ? " " He has not robb'd me of my gold, Nor robb'd me of my fee; But robb'd me of what 's dearer still, The flow'r of my bodie." 36 " There is no knight in all my court Has done this wrang to thee, But you'll have the troth of his right hand, Or for your sake he'll dee.* 37 " Tho' it were Earl Richard, my own brother,- But, oh! forbid it be!" Then, sighing, said the ladye fair, " I wot that it is he." 38 " Oh, wou'd ye ken this dastard knight Among a hundred men?" " That wou'd I," said the bonnie lass, " Tho' there were hundreds ten." 39 The queen made all her merry men pass, By ane, and twa, and three ; Earl Richard used to be the first, But the hindmost now was he. * Variation: "Oh, if he be a single man, Your husband he shall be ; But if he be a married man. It's high hang'd he shall be." EARL RICHARD. 237 40 He came hirpling on ae foot, And blinking with ae e'e; " Aha!" then cried the bonnie lass, " That same young man are ye." 41 He laid his brand and a gay gold ring Together on' a stone; She minted twice to take the brand, And then the ring put on. 42 Then he 's ta'en out one hundred pounds, And told it in his glove; Says " Take you that, my ladye fair, . And seek another love." 43 " Oh no, oh no," the ladye cried, " That 's what shall never be; I'll have the troth of your right hand; The queen she gave it me." 44 "I wish I had drunk the wan water, When I did drink the wine; That now for a carle's fair daughter, It gars me dree this pine." 45 " Maybe I am a carle's daughter, And maybe I am none; But when we met in the greenwood, Why not let me alone?" 46 " Will you wear the short clothing, Or will you wear the syde? Or will you walk to your wedding, Or will you to it ride?" 47 " I will not wear the short clothing, But I will wear the syde; I will not walk to my wedding, But I to it will ride." 48 When he was set upon the horse, The lady him behin', Then cauld and eerie were the words The twa had them between. 49 She said'" Gude e'en, ye nettles tall, Where ye grow by the dyke; If the auld carline, my mother, was here, Sae weel 's she wou'd you pyke. 238 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 50 " How she wou'd stap you in her pock, I wot she wou'dna fail; And hoil ye in her auld brass pan, And of ye make gude kail. 51 " And she wou'd meal you with mellering * That she gathers at the mill, And make you thick as any dough, Till the pan it was brimful. 52 " She wou'd mess you up with scuttlins, To sup till she were fu', Then lay her head upon a pock, And snore like any sow." 53 " Oh, hold your tongue, ye beggar's brat, My heart will break in three ! " " And so did mine in yon greenwood, When ye wou'dna let me be. 54 " Gude e'en, gude e'en, ye heather berries, There growing on the hill ; If the auld carle and his pocks were her-e, I wot he'd get his fill. 55 " Last night I sat till I was tired, And mended at their pocks ; But to-morrow morning I will bear The keys of an earl's locks.. 56 " Late, late last night, through baith their pocks, I drew the hempen strings; But to-morrow morning I will wear On my fingers gay gold rings." 57 " Away ! away ! ye ill woman, Your vile words grieve me sair; "When you heed so little for yourself, For me still less ye '11 care. 58 " But if you are a carle's daughter, As I take you to be, How did you get the gay clothing That on ye I do see?" 59 " My mother she is a poor woman, Nursed an earl's children three; And I got them from a foster-sister, To beguile such sparks as thee." * "Mellering:" corruption of meldering. t " Scuttlins: " light flour made from inferior grain. EARL RICHARD. 230 60 " But if you be a carle's daughter, As I take you to be, How did ye learn the good Latin That ye spoke unto me?" 61 " My mother she is a mean woman, Nursed an earl's children three; I learn'd it from their chapelain, To beguile such sparks as thee." 62 Then to a beggar wife that pass'd, The ladye flang a crown; " Tell all your neighbours, when ye go hame, Earl Eichard 's your gude-son." * 63 " Oh, hold your tongue, ye beggar's brat, My heart will break in three I " " And so did mine in yon greenwood, When ye wou'dna let me be." 64 And when they to Earl Richard's came, And were at dinner set, Then out and spake the bannie bride, I wot she was not blate. 65 " Go, take away the china plates, Go, take them far frae me, And bring to me a wooden dish^- It's that I'm best used wi'. 66 " And take away these silver spoons, The like I ne'er did see, And bring to me the horn spoons They're gude enough for me." 67 When bells were rung and mass was sung, And all men bound for rest, Earl Richard and his bonnie bride In ae chamber were placed. 68 " Oh, take away your sheets," she said, ' Made of the Holland fine, And bring to me the linsey clouts, That lang ha'e served as mine," 69 " Keep far away from me," he said, " Keep far away from me; It is not meet a carline's brat My bedfellow shou'd be." * "Gnde-Eon:" Bon-in-law. 240 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 70 " It 's maybe I'm a carline's brat, And maybe I am none; But when we met in yon greenwood, Why not let me alone?" 71 " Now rest content," said the Billy Blin', " The one may serve the other; The Earl of Stockford's fair daughter, And the queen of Scotland's brother." 72 " Oh, fair fall you, ye Billy Blin', Since such is her degree; For with this witty lady fair, How happy must I be ! " BURD HELEN. " Earl Richard," which precedes, and "Burd Helen," which follows, must either have had one common origin, or the one has borrowed largely from the other. The various versions of the latter ballad are as under: I. " Child Waters," published by Percy from his folio MS. Jteliques, vol. iii., p. 94. II. " Burd Ellen," in Jamieson's Popular Ballads, vol. i., p. 112 ; where it is "given from Mrs. Brown's recitation," and "with scrupulous exactness, except where the varia- tions are pointed out." III. "An imperfect copy," prefixed to the last-named, and communicated to Mr. Jamieson by " Mrs. Arrot of Arbroath." IV. " Lady Margaret," in Kinloch's Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 179. V. "Burd Helen," in Buchan's Ancient Ballads and Songs, vol. ii., p. 30. VI. " Burd Helen," in Chambers's Scottish Ballads, p. 193 ; collated from the above-named, with additions and emendations, from a MS. supplied by Mr. Kinloch. The text which follows is chiefly derived from Mr. Jamieson's and Mr. Buchan's versions. 1 LORD JOHN stood at his stable door, While a groom his steed did kaim; Burd Helen sat at her bow'r door, Sewing her silken seam. 2 Lord John stood in his stable door, Said he was bound to ride ; Burd Helen stood in her bow'r door, Said she'd run by his side. BCRD HELEN. 241 3 " The corn is turning ripe, Lord John, The nuts are growing fu', And ye are bound for your ain countrie, Fain wou'd I go with you." 4 "With me, Helen! with me, Helen! What wou'd ye do with me ? I've mair need of a little page, Than of the like of thee." 5 " Oh, I will be your little page, To wait upon your steed; And I will be your little page, Your leash of hounds to lead." 6 " But my hounds will eat the bread of wheat, And ye the dust and bran ; Then you will sit and sigh, Helen, That e'er our loves began." 7 " Oh, your dogs may eat the gude wheat bread, And I the dust and bran; Yet I will sing and say ' Well 's me, That e'er our loves began! '" 8 " Oh, I may drink the gude red wine, And you the water wan; Then you will sigh and say ' Alas, That e'er our loves began!'" 9 " Oh, you may drink the gude red wine, And I the water wan ; Yet I will sing and say ' Well 's me, That our two loves began!'" 10 " Oh, you'd better stay at hame, Helen, And sew your silken seam, Than go with me o'er moss and moor, And many a foaming stream." 11 "I will not stay at hame, Lord John, And sew my silken seam: I'll follow you o'er moss and moor, And o'er each foaming stream." 12 Lord John he mounted his white steed, And northward hame did ride ; Burd Helen, dress'd in page attire, Kan onward by his side. R 242 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 13 He ne'er was sic a courteous knight, As ask her for to ride; And she was ne'er so mean a May, As ask him for to bide. 14 Lord John he rade, Burd Helen ran, A live-long summer day; And when they came to Clyde water, 'Twas foiled from brae to brae. 15 The first atep that she waded in, She waded to the knee : "Alas! alas!" said Burd Helen, " This water 's no for me." 16 The next step that she waded in, She waded to the neck; And then she felt her unborn babe For cauld begin to quake. 17 " Lye still, lye still, my unborn babe, I can no better do ; Your father rides on high horseback, cares not for us two." 18 About the middle of the Clyde There stood an earth-fast stone ; And there she call'd to God for help, Since help from man came none. 19 Lord John he turn'd him round about, And took Burd Helen on; Then brought her to the other side, And there he set her down. 20 " Oh, tell me this now, good Lord John, In pity tell to me, How far is it to your lodging, Where we this night shou'd be ? " 21 " It 's thirty miles, Burd Helen," he said, "It's thirty miles and three." " Oh, wae is me," said Burd Helen, " It will ne'er be run by me!" 22 Then up and spake out in good time A pyet on a tree, " Ye lee, ye lee, ye false, false knight, So loud as I hear you lee. BURD HELEN. 243 23 " For yonder stand your goodly tow'rs, Of miles scarce distant three." " Oh, well is me," said Burd Helen, " They shall be run by me." 24 " But there -is a ladye in yon castle Will sinder you and I." " Betide me weal, betide me woe, I shall go there and try. 25 " I wish no ill to your ladye, She ne'er did ill to me; But I wish her most of your love, Who drees the most for thee. 26 " I wish no ill to your ladye, For sic I never thought; But I wish her most of your love, Has dearest that love bought." 27 Lord John was welcom'd hame again By ladies fair and gay; But a fairer ladye than any there Did lead his horse away. 28 Four-and-twenty ladies fair Sat with him in the hall ; But the fairest ladye that was there Did wait upon them all. 29 When bells were rung and mass was sung, And all were bound to meat, Burd Helen was at the bye-table, Amang the pages set. 30 " Oh, eat and drink, my bonnie boy, The white bread and the beer." " The never a bit can I eat or drink My heart 's sae full of fear." 31 " Oh, eat and drink, my bonnie boy, The white bread and the wine." " Oh, how shall I eat or drink, master, With a heart sae full of pine?" 32 Then up and spake Lord John's sister, A sweet young maid was she : " My brother has brought the bonniest page That ever I did see." 244 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 33 But out then spake Lord John's mother, A wise woman was she : " Where met ye with that bonnie boy, That looks so sad on thee ? 34 " Sometimes his cheek is rosy red, And sometimes deadly wan; He's liker a woman big with bairn, Than a young lord's serving man." 35 " Oh, it makes me laugh, my mother dear, Sic words to hear frae thee; He is a squire's ae dearest son, That for love has follow'd me. 36 " Eise up, rise up, my bonnie boy, Give my horse baith corn and hay." " Oh, that I will, my master dear, As quickly as I may." 37 She 's ta'en the hay beneath her arm, The corn intill her hand, And she's gane to the great stable As fast as e'er she can. 58 " Oh, room ye round, my bonnie brown steeds, Oh, room ye near the wall; For the pain that strikes through my twa sides, I fear, will gar me fall." 39 She lean'd her back against the wall, Strong travail came her on ; And e'en amang the horses' feet, Burd Helen bare her son. 40 Lord John's mother intill her bow'r Was sitting all alane, When, in the silence of the night, She heard Burd Helen's mane. 41 " Won up, won up, my son," she said, " Go see how all does fare; For I think I hear a woman's groans, And a bairnie greetin' sair ! " 42 Oh, hastily he got him up, Staid not for hose nor shoon ; But to the stable where she lay, He quickly hied him down. BUED HELEN. 245 43 " Oh, open the door, Burd Helen," he said, " Oh, open and let me in : I want to see if my steeds are fed, And what makes all this din." 44 " How carr 1 open, how shall I open, How can I open to thee? I'm lying amang your horses' feet, Your young son on my knee." 45 He hit the door then with his foot, Sae did he with his knee, Till door of deal and locks of steel In splinters he gar'd flee. 46 " An askin', an askin', Lord John," she said, " An askin' ye'll grant me : The warsten bow'r in all your tow'rs For thy young son and me." 47 " Oh yes, oh yes! Burd Helen," he said, " All that and mair frae me; The very best bow'r in all my tow'rs For my young son and thee." 48 " An askin', an askin', Lord John," she said, " An askin' ye'll grant me : The meanest maid in all the place To wait on him and me." 49 " I grant, I grant, Burd Helen," he said, " All that and mair frae me : The very best bed in all the place To my young son and thee. 50 " The highest ladye in all the place Shall wait on him and thee ; And that 's my sister, Isabel, And a sweet young maid is she. 51 " Take up, take up, my bonnie young son, Gar wash him with the milk ; Take up, take up my fair ladye, Gar row her in the silk. 52 " And cheer thee up, Burd Helen," he said, " Look nae mair sad nor wae, For your wedding and your kirking too Shall baith be in ae day." 246 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. EEEDISDALE AND WISE WILLIAM. "This excellent ballad is from the recitation of Mr. Nicol, Strichen, and was communicated by Mr. P. Buchan, of Peterhead, to Mr. Motherwell," in whose Minstrelsy, p. 298, it first appeared. See ante, p. 22. This ballad may also be found in Mr. Buchan's own collection of Ancient Ballads, vol. ii., p. 70. It resembles, in some respects, "The Twa Knights," which appears in the same work and volume, p. 271. A similar Scandinavian ballad, as translated by Mr. Robert Buchanan, may be found in his volume, Ballad Stones of the Affec- tions, p. 45, under the title of " Maid Mettelil. " 1 WHEN Reedisdale and Wise William Were drinking at the wine, There fell a roosing them amang, On an unruly time. 2 For some of them lia'e roosed their hawks, And some other their hounds; And some other their ladies fair, As the roosing went the rounds. 3 When' out it spake him Reedisdale, And a rash word spake he ; Says " There is not a ladye fair, In bow'r where'er she be, But I cou'd aye her favour win With one blink of my e'e." 4 Then out it spake him Wise William, And a rash word spake he; Says "I have a sister of my own, In bow'r where'er she be, And ye will not her favour win With three blinks of your e'e." 5 "What will you wager, Wise William? My lands I'll wad with thee; " " I'll wad my head against your land, Till I get more monie." 6 Then Reedisdale took Wise William, Laid him in prison strang, That he might neither gang nor ride, Nor ae word to her send. REEDISDALE AND WISE WILLIAM. 247 7 But he has written a braid letter, Between the night and day, And sent it to his own sister, By dun feather and gray. 8 When she had read Wise William's letter, She smiled and syne she leuch; Said "Very weel, my dear brother, Of this I have eneuch." 9 She looked out at her west window, To see what she could see, And there she spied him Reedisdale, Come riding o'er the lea. 10 "Come here to me, my maidens all, Come hitherward to me ; For here it comes him Keedisdale, Who comes a-courting me." 1 1 "Come down, come down, my ladye fair, A sight of you give me." "Go from my yetts now, Reedisdale, For me you will not see." 12 "Come down, come down, my ladye fair, A sight of you give me ; And bonnie are the gowns of silk That I will give to thee." 13 " If you have bonnie gowns of silk, Oh, mine is bonnie tee; Go from my yetts now, Reedisdale, For me you shall not see." 14 " Come down, come down, my ladye fair, A sight of you give me; And bonnie jewels, brooches, rings, I will give unto thee." 15 " If you have bonnie brooches, rings, Oh, mine are bonnie tee; Go from my yetts now, Reedisdale, For me you shall not see." 16 " Come down, come down, my ladye fair, One sight of you give me; And bonnie are the halls and bow'rs That I will give to thee." 248 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 17 " If you have bonnie halls and bow'rs, Oh, mine are bonnie tee; Go from my yetts now, Eeedisdale, For me you shall not see." 18 " Come down, come down, my ladye fair, A sight of you give me ; And bonnie are my lands so broad That I will give to thee." 19 " If you have bonnie lands so broad, Oh, mine are bonnie tee; Go from my yetts now, Reedisdale, For me you will not see." 20 " Come down, come down, my ladye fair, A sight of you give me ; And bonnie are the bags of gold That I will give to thee." 21 ' If you have bonnie bags of gold, I have bags of the same ; Go from my yetts now, Keedisdale, For down I will not come." 22 " Come down, come down, my ladye fair, One sight of you I'll see ; Or else I'll set your house on tire, If better cannot be." 23 Then he has set the house on fire, And at the first it took; He turned his wight horse head about, Said " Alas ! they'll ne'er get out." 24 " Look out, look out, my maidens fair, And see what I do see; How Reedisdale has fired our house, And now rides o'er the lea! 25 " Come hitherward, my maidens fair, Come hither unto me; For through this reek, and through this smeek, Oh, through it we must be ! " 26 They took wet mantles them about, Their coffers by the band; And through the reek and through the flame Alive they all have wan. YOUNG BEARWELL. 249 27 When they had got out through the fire, And able all to stand, She sent a maid to Wise William, To bruik Keedisdale's land. 28 " Your lands are mine now, Reedisdale, For I have won them free." " If there is a good woman in the world, Your ain sister is she." YOUNG BEARWELL " Is a fragment, and now printed," says Mr. Motherwell, "in the hope that the remainder of it may hereafter be recovered. From circumstances, one would almost be inclined to trace it to a Danish source ; or it may be an episode of some forgotten metrical romance ; but this cannot satisfactorily be ascertained, from its catastrophe being unfortunately wanting." This fragment first appeared in Motherwell's Minstrelsy, p. 345, and afterwards in Mr. Buchan's 4ncient Ballads, vol. ii., p. 75. It appears here in a revised and imended form. 1 WHEN two lovers love each other weel, 'Twere sin to have them twined ; And this I speak of young Bearwell, Who loved a ladye kind, The Mayor's daughter of Birktoun-brae, That lovely liesome thing. 2 One day, as she was looking out, Washing her milk-white hands, Then she beheld him, young Bearwell, As he came o'er the sands. \ 3 Says " Wae 's me for you, young Bearwell, Such tales of you are tauld ; They'll cause you sail the salt sea far, Beyond Orcades cauld." " Oh ! shall I bide in good greenwood, Or here in bow'r remain? " " The leaves are thick in good greenwood, Wou'd hold you from the rain ; And if you stay in bow'r with me, You will be ta'en and slain. " But I'll cause build a ship for you, Upon Saint Innocent's day ; I'll pray Saint Innocent be your guide, And Our Ladye, who meikle may. You are a ladye's first true love, God carry you well away ! " 250 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 6 Then he sailed east and he sailed west, By many a comely strand ; At length a puff of northern wind Did blow him to the land, 7 Where he did see the king and court Were playing at the ball, Gave him a harp into his hand, And welcomed him withal. 8 He has ta'en up the harp in hand, And unto play went he; And young Bearwell was the first man In all that companie. 9 He had not been in the king's court A twelvemonth and a day, Till there came many a lord and laird, To court that ladye gay. 10 They wooed her baith with brooch and ring, They nothing could keep back; The very charters of their lands Into her hands they pat. 11 She's done her down to her fiall,* With the ae light of the mune; Says " Will ye do this deed for me, And will ye do it suue? 12 " Will ye go seek him, young Bearwell, On seas where'er he be? And if I live and bruikf my life, Rewarded ye shall be." 13 "Alas! I am too young a skipper, So far to sail the faem ; ... But if I live and bruik my life, I'll strive to bring him hame." 14 So he sail'd east and then sail'd west, By many a comely strand, Till there came a blast of northern wind, And blew him to the land. 15 And there the king and all his court Were playing at the ball, And Bearwell, with his harp in hand, Play'd sweetly 'mang them all. ******* * "Fiall: " feudal vassal. t "Bruit:" endure or enjo; CFIIL ETHER. 251 CHIL ETHER.* From Buchan's Ancient Ballads, vol. ii., p. 228. 1 CHIL ETHER and Ladye Maisry Were baitli born at ae birth; They lov'd each other tenderlie, 'Boon everything on earth. 2 " The ley likesna the summer show'r, Nor girse the morning dew, Better, dear Ladye Maisry, Than Chil Ether loves you." 3 " The bonnie doo likesna its mate, Nor babe at breast its mither, Better, my dearest Chil Ether, Than Maisry loves her brither." 4 But he needs gae to gain renown, Into some far countrie; Sae Chil Ether has gane abroad, To fight in Paynimie. 5 And he has been in Paynimie A twelvemonth and a day; But tidings ne'er to Maisry came, Of his welfare to say. G Then she 's ta'en ship awa to sail, Out ower the roaring faetn, All for to find him Chil Ether, And for to bring him hame. 7 She hadna sail'd the sea a month, A month but barely three, Until she landed on Cyprus shore, By the mune-light sae hie. 8 Ladye Maisry did on her green mantle, Took her purse in her hand, And call'd to her her mariners, Syne walk'd up thro' the land. Oh, she walk'd up, and she walk'd down, Till she reach'd a castle high; And there sat down on the door-stane, And wept right bitterlie. * Childe 'Of." c ' Bring." f- Scott's version. d 'To." f 'Fetch." * Percy's version reads, " The next line that Sir Patrick read.' t Buchan's version has the following stanzas: " ' Yell eat and drink, my merry men a', An' see ye be well thorn; For blaw it weet, or blaw it wind. My gude ship sails the morn. " ' But I maun sail the seas the morn. And likewise sae maun you; To Noroway wi' our king's daughter, A chosen queen she 's now.' " SIR PATRICK SPENS. 371 8 They hoysed their sails on Monenday morn, With all the speed they may, And they ha'e landed in Noroway Upon a Wodensday. 9 They hadna been a week, a week In Noroway, but twae, When that the lords of Noroway Began aloud to say: * 10 " Ye Scottishmen spend all our king's gowd, And all our [young] queen's fee." " Ye lee, ye lee, ye liars loud! Full loud I hear ye lee ! 11 "For I ha'e brought as much white monie As gane { my men and me ; I brought a half-fouj of gude red gowd Out o'er the sea with me. 12 " But betide me weil, betide me wae, This day I'se leave the shore ; And never spend my king's monie 'Mong Noroway dogs no more." 13 Then out it spake a gude auld man, [In Sir Patrick's companie :] " Whatever ye do, my gude master, Take God your guide to be." 14 " Make ready, make ready, my merry men all, Our gude ship sails the morn." " Now, ever alake! my master dear, I fear a deadly storm! 15 " I saw the new moon, late yestreen, With the auld moon in her arm; And if we gang to sea, master, I fear we'll come to harm." * " They hadna stayed into that place A month but and a day, Till he caused the flap in mugs gae roun', And wine in cans sae gay. " The pipe and harp sae sweetly play'd, The trumpets loudly sound; In every hall wherein they stayed, Wi' their mirth did rebound." Buchan's version. t " Gane : " serve or suffice. J "I brought a half-fou o' gude red gowd." Percy and Scott Scott explains " half-fou " as meaning " the eighth part of a peck." "A gude death mot he dee." Buchan. 372 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 16 [Sir Patrick and his merry men all Were ance mair on the faem;] * With five-and-fifty Scots lords' sons, That lang'd to be at hame. 17 But they hadna sail'd upon the sea A day but barely three, When the lift grew dark, and the wind blew loud, And gurly grew the sea. 1 8 The ankers brak, and the topmasts lap, It was sic a deadly storm : And the waves came o'er the broken ship Till all her sides were torn. 19 " Oh, where will I get a gude sailor To take my helm in hand, Till I get up to the tall topmast, To see if I can spy land ? " 20 " Oh, here am I, a sailor gude, To take the helm in hand, Till you go up to the tall topmast; But I fear ye'll ne'er spy land." 21 Then up and came a mermaid wild, With a siller cup in her hand : " Sail on, sail on, my gude Scots lords, For ye soon will see dry land." 22 " Awa, awa, ye mermaid wild, And let your fleechin' be ; For, since your face we've seen the day, Dry land we'll never see." 23 He hadna gane a step, a step, A step but barely ane, When a bolt flew out of the goodly ship, f And the saut sea it came in. J * " Young Patrick he is on the sea, And even on the faem." Buchan. t "I believe a modern seaman would say, 'a plank had started.' . . . Mr. Finlay, however, thinks it rather means that ' a bolt gave way.' " Scott. On which sapient controversy Mr. Motherwell sagely remarks: "It seems to us particularly obvious, that 'if a bar or bolt (Scottice, bout) had loosened,' a plank must necessarily have started." % ' He hadna gane to his tapmast, A step but barely three, Till thro' and thro' the bonnie ship's side He saw the green haw sea. SIR PATRICK SPENS. 373 24 " Gae fetch a web of the silken claith. Another of the twine, And wap them into our gude ship's side, And let na the sea come in." * 25 They fetch'd a web of the silken claith, Another of the twine ; And they wapp'd them into the gude ship's side, But still the sea came in. 26 Oh, laith, laith were our gude Scots lords To weet their cork-heel'd "f shoon! But lang or all the play was play'd, They wet their hats aboon. 27 And mony was the feather bed That floated on the faem; And mony was the gude lord's son That never mair came hame. 28 Oh, lang, lang may the ladies sit, And gaze with fan in hand, J Before they see Sir Patrick Spens Come sailing to the strand. 29 And lang, lang may the maidens sit, With their gowd kaims in their hair, A-waiting for their ain dear loves; For them they'll see nae mair. " ' There are five-an'-flfty feather beds, Well packed in ae room; And ye'll get as muckle gude canvas As wrap the ship a' roun'; " ' Ye'll pict her well, and spare her not, And mak' her hale and scran'; ' But ere he had the word well spoke, The bonnie ship was down. " Oh, laith, laith were our gude lords' sons To weet their milk-white hands; But lang ere a' the play was ower, They wat their gowden bands." Buchan's version. * " The remedy applied seems to be that mentioned in Cook's Voyages, when, upon pome occasion, to stop a leak, which could not be got at in the inside, a quilted sail was brought under the vessel, which, being drawn into the leak by the suction, pre- vented the entry of more water. Chaucer says, ' There n'is na new guise that it na'as old.' "Scott, t "Coal-black." Buchan. t " Wi' their fans into their hand." Percy and Scott 374 BALLAD MIXSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 30 Half ower, half ower to Aberdour,* 'Tis fifty fathoms deep; And there lies gude Sir Patrick Speus, With the Scots lords at his feet. THOMAS THE KHYMER. PART FIRST. ANCIENT. From Scott's Minstrelsy, voL iv., p. 110. "Few personages are so renowned in tradition as Thomas of Ercil- doune, known by the appellation of 'The Rhymer.' Uniting, or supposing to unite, in his person the powers of poetical composition, f and of vaticination, his memory, even after the lapse of five hundred years, is regarded with veneration by his countrymen. To give any- thing like a certain history of this remarkable man would be indeed difficult ; but the curious may derive some satisfaction from the parti- culars here brought together. " It is agreed on all hands, that the residence, and probably the birthplace, of this ancient bard was Ercildouue, a village situated upon the Leader, two miles above its junction with the Tweed. The ruins of an ancient tower are still pointed out as the Rhymer's castle. The uniform tradition bears, that his surname was Lermont, or Lear- mont ; and that the appellation of ' The Rhymer ' was conferred on him in consequence of his poetical compositions. There remains, nevertheless, some doubt upon the subject. In a charter, which is subjoined at length, J the son of our poet designed himself 'Thomas * " In Scott's Border Minstrelsy, this line reads 'Oh, forty miles off Aberdeen; but we are inclined to favour the reading 'Half ower, half ower to Aberdour.' For, with submission to the opinion of Sir Walter Scott, the meaning of this line is not that the shipwreck took place in the Firth of Forth, but midway between Aberdour arid Norway. And, as it would seem from the narrative, at the commencement of the ballad, that Sir Patrick sailed from the Forth, it is but fair to infer that, in his disastrous voyage homeward, he would endeavour to make the same port. This opinion will be corroborated if we are correct in assigning the ballad to the histori- cal event mentioned in the introductory remarks." HotherwelL T Sir "Walter Scott, in his edition of Sir Tristrem, not only claims the authorship of that romance for "Thomas the Rhymer," but also ascribes to him the romance of " Kyng Horn." See Scott's Introduction, p. lix. The ballad of " Hynde Horn " will be found ante, p. 125. t "From the Charlulary of the. Trinity House ofSoltra Advocates' Library, W. 4. 44. "ERSYLTON. "Omnibus has literas visnris vel audituris Thomas de Ercildoun filius et heres Thomae Rymour de Ercildoun salutem in Domino. Noyeritis me per fustem et baculum in pleno judicio resignasse ac per pvesentes quietem clanmsse pro me et heredibus meis Magistro domus Sancta Trinitatis de Soltre et fratribus ejusdem riomus totam terrain meam cum omnibus pertinentibus suis quam in tenemento de Ercildoun hereditarie tenui renunciando de toto pro me et heredibus meis omni jure et clameo quee ego seu antecessores mei in eadem terra alioque tempore de perpetuo habuimns sive de futuro habere possumus. In cujus rei testimonio presentibus nis sigillum meum apposui data apud Ercildotm die Martis proximo post festum Sanctorum Apostolorum Symonis et Jude Anno Domini 1299." THOMAS THE RHYMER. 375 of Ercildoun, son and heir of Thomas Rymour of Ercildoun,' which seems to imply that the father did not bear the hereditary name of Learmont ; or, at least, was better known and distinguished by the epithet, which he had acquired by his personal accomplishments. I must, however, remark, that, down to a very late period, the practice of distinguishing the parties, even in formal writings, by the epithets which had been bestowed on them from personal circumstances, in- stead of the proper surnames of their families, was common, and in- deed necessary, among the Border clans. So early as the end of the thirteenth century, when surnames were hardly introduced in Scot- land, this custom must have been universal. There is, therefore, nothing inconsistent in supposing our poet's name to have been actually Learmont, although, in this charter, he is distinguished by the popular appellation of 'The Rhymer.' " We are better able to ascertain the period at which Thomas of Ercildoune lived, being the latter end of the thirteenth century. I am inclined to place his death a little further back than Mr. Pinker- ton, who supposes that he was alive in 1300 (List of Scottish Poets), which is hardly, I think, consistent with the charter already quoted, by which his son, in 1299, for himself and his heirs, conveys to the convent of the Trinity of Soltra, the tenement which he possessed by inheritance (hereditarie) in Ercildoune, with all claim which he or his predecessors could pretend thereto. From this we may infer, that the Rhymer was now dead, since we find the son disposing of the family property. Still, however, the argument of the learned historian will remain unimpeached as to the time of the poet's birth. For if, as we learn from Barbour, his prophecies were held in reputation * as early as 1306, when Bruce slew the Red Cummin, the sanctity, and (let me add to Mr. Pinkerton's words) the uncertainty of antiquity, must have already involved his character and writings. In a charter of Peter de Haga de Bemersyde, which unfortunately wants a date, the R.hymer, a near neighbour, and, if we may trust tradition, a friend of the family, appears as a witness. Chartulary of Melrose. " It cannot be doubted, that Thomas of Ercildoune was a remark- able and important person in his own time, since, very shortly after his death, we find him celebrated as a prophet and as a poet. Whether he himself made any pretensions to the first of these characters, or whether it was gratuitously conferred upon him by the credulity of posterity, it seems difficult to decide. If we may believe Mackenzie, Learmont only versified the prophecies delivered by Eliza, an inspired nun of a convent at Haddington. But of this there seems not to be the most distant proof. On' the contrary, all ancient authors, who quote the Rhymer's prophecies, uniformly suppose them to have been emitted by himself. Thus, in Wintown's Chronicle : ' Of this fycht quilum spak Thomas Of Ersyhloune, that sayd in derne, There suld meit stalwartly, starke and sterne. He sayd it in his prophecy; Bat how he wist it was felly.' Book -via., chap. 32. * " The lines alluded to are these : ' I hope that Thomas's prophecie, Of Erceldovm, shall truly be In him,' &c." 376 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. " There could have been no ferly (marvel) in Wintown's eyes at least, how Thomas came by his knowledge of future events, had he ever heard of the inspired nun of Haddington, which, it cannot be doubted, would have been a solution of the mystery, much to the taste of the prior of Lochleven.* "Whatever doubts, however, the learned might have as to the source of the Rhymer's prophetic skill, the vulgar had no hesitation to ascribe the whole to the intercourse between the bard and the Queen of Faery. The popular tale bears, that Thomas was carried off, at an early age, to the Fairy Land, where he acquired all the knowledge which made him afterwards so famous. Alter seven years' residence, he was permitted to return to the earth, to enlighten and astonish his countrymen by his prophetic powers; still, however, remaining bound to return to his royal mistress when she should intimate her pleasure. Accordingly, while Thomas was making- merry with his friends in the Tower of Ercildoune, a person came running in, and told, with marks of fear and astonishment, that a hart and hind had left the neighbouring forest, and were, composedly and slowly, parading the street of the village.^ The prophet instantly arose, left his habitation, and followed the wonderful animals to the forest, whence he was never seen to return. According to the popu- lar belief, he still ' drees his weird ' in Fairy Land, and is one day expected to revisit earth. In the meanwhile, his memory is held in the most profound respect. The Eildon Tree, from beneath the shade of which he delivered his prophecies, now no longer exists ; but the spot is marked by a large stone, called Eildon Tree Stone. A neighbouring rivulet takes the name of the Bogle Burn (Goblin Brook) from the Rhymer's supernatural visitants. " It seemed to the editor unpardonable to dismiss a person so im- portant in Border tradition as the Rhymer, without some further notice than a simple commentary upon the following ballad. It is given from, a copy, obtained from a lady residing not far from Ercildoune, corrected and enlarged by one in Mrs. Brown's MSS. The former copy, however, as might be expected, is far more minute as to local description. To this old tale the editor has ventured to add a Second Part, consisting of a kind of canto, from the printed prophecies vulgarly ascribed to the Rhymer, t To make his peace with the more severe antiquaries, the editor has prefixed to the * " Henry the Minstrel, who introduces Thomas into the History of Wallace, expresses the same doubt as to the source of his prophetic knowledge: ' Thomas Rhymer into the faile was than With the minister, which was a worthy man. He used oft to that religious place; The people deemed of wit he meikle can, And so he told, though that they bless or ban, In rule of war whether they tint or wan; Which happem d sooth in many divers case; I cannot say by wrong or righteousness. It may be deemed by division of grace.' &c. History of Wallace, book ii." t "There is a singular resemblance betwixt this tradition, and an incident occurring in the life of Merlin Caledonius, which the reader will find a few pages onwards." S. } "And a Third Part, entirely modern, founded upon the tradition of his having returned with the hart and hind to the Land of Faery." Which third part is here omitted. THOMAS THE RHYMER. 377 Second Part some remarks on Learmont's prophecies." Sir Walter Scott. Some additional stanzas and various readings are added in the notes, from a " copy procured in Scotland " by Mr. Jamieson, and given in his Popular Ballads, vol. ii., p. 7. 1 TRUE THOMAS lay on Huutly bank; A ferlie a he spied with his e'e ; And there he saw a ladye bright, Came riding down by the Eildon tree. 6 2 Her skirt was made" of the grass-green silk, Her mantle of the velvet fine ; At ilka telt of her horse's mane, Hung fifty siller bells and nine. 3 True Thomas he pull'd aff his cap, And louted low down to his knee: rf " All hail, thou mighty Queen of Heaven, For thy peer on earth I never did see ! " 4 " Oh no, oh no,* Thomas," she said, " That name does not belong to me; I am but the Queen of fair Elfland, That am hither come to visit thee ! 5 " Harp and carp, True Thomas," she said, " Harp and carp along with me; And if ye dare to kiss my lips, Sure of your body I shall be ! " 6 " Betide me weal, betide me woe, That weird shall never daunton me ! " / Syne he has kiss'd her rosy lips, All underneath the Eildon tree." 7 " Now ye maun go with me," she said. " True Thomas, ye maun go with me; And ye maun serve me seven years, Thro' weal or woe, as chance may be." a "Ferlie: " a wonder, a marvel. * Variations on stanzas 1 to 4, from Jamieson's fragment: "True Thomas lay o'er yonder bank, And he beheld a ladye gay ; A ladye, that was brisk and bold. Come riding o'er the fern e brae." c Omits "made." d "True Thomas he took off his hat, And bow'd him low down till his knee " 'Inserts "True." / " That weird," &c.: "That destiny shall never frighten me." Scott * Stanzas 5 and 6 do not appear in Jamieson's fragment. 878 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 8 She turn'd about her milk-white steed, And took True Thomas up behind ; And aye, whene'er her bridle rung, The steed flew swifter than the wind.* 9 Oh, they rade on, and farther on, The steed gaed swifter than the wind, Until they reach'd a desert wide, And living land was left behind. 6 10 " Light down, light down, now, True Thomas, And lean your head upon my knee; Abide, and rest a little space, And I will show you ferlies three. 11 " Oh, see ye na that braid, braid road, That lies across the lily leven? That is the path of wickedness, Tho' some call it the road to heaven. 12 " And see ye not yon narrow road, Sae thick beset with thorns and briers? That is the path of righteousness, Tho' after it but few inquires. 13 " And see ye not yon bonnie roatl, That winds about the ferny brae? That is the way to fair Elfland, Where you and I this night maun gae. a The variations of stanza 8, here noted, are from Scott's version, Jamieson's corresponding stanza being substituted in the text as preferable : "She's mounted on,' 1 &c. (line 1). "And gaed," &c. (line 2). 6 Stanza 9 is not in Jamieson's fragment; but th< stanzas come in between 9 and 10 of Scott's text: t the following inferior and irregular " Oh, they rade on, and farther on, Until they came to a garden green; 'Light down, light down, ye ladye free, Some of that fruit let me pull to thee.' " ' Oh no, oh no, True Thomas,' she says ' That fruit maun no be touch' d by thee; For all the plagues that are in hell Light on the fruit of this countrie. " ' But I have a laef here in my lap, Likewise a bottle of clarry wine; And now, ere we go farther on, We'll rest awhile, and ye may dine.' " When he had eaten and drank his fill, The ladye said' Ere we climb yon hill, Lay your head upon my knee, And I will show thee ferlies three.' " THOMAS THE RHYMER. 379 14 " But, Thomas, ye maun hauld your tongue, Whatever ye may hear or see; For if ye speak a word in Elfin land, Ye'll ne'er get back to your ain countrie !"" 15 Oh, they rade on, and farther on, And they waded through rivers abune the knee, And they saw neither sun nor moon, But they heard the roaring of the sea. 6 16 It was mirk, mirk night, there was nae stern-light, And they waded through red bluid to the knee; For all the bluid that 's shed on earth Rins through the springs of that countrie. 17 Syne they came on to a garden green, And she pull'd an apple frae a tree : " Take this for thy wages, True Thomas; It will give thee the tongue that will never lee ! " 18 '' My tongue is my ain," True Thomas said; "A gudely gift ye wou'd gi'e to me! I neither dought d to buy nor sell, At fair or tryste where I may be. 19 " I dought neither speak to prince or peer, Nor ask of grace from fair ladye ! " "Now, hauld thy peace," the ladye she said; " For as I say, so it must be." * 20 He has gotten a coat of the even cloth, And a pair of shoon of the velvet green; And till seven years were gone and past, True Thomas on earth was never seen/ Stanzas 11 to 14, inclusive, occur almost verbatim in Jamieson's fragment * ''For forty days and forty nights He wade through red blude to the knee; And he saw," &c. c " Stern-light: " starlight. <* " Dought : " durst * "The traditional commentary upon this ballad informs us, that the apple was the produce of the fatal Tree of Knowledge, and that the garden was the terrestrial Earadise. The repugnance of Thomas to be debarred the use of falsehood, when e might find it convenient, has a comic effect." Scott. Stanzas 16, 17, 18, and 19 with the exception of line 2, stanza 16 are not to be found in Jamieson's fragment / Occurs almost verbatim in Jamieson's fragment. 380 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. THOMAS THE RHYMER. ALTERED FROM ANCIENT PROPHECIES. PART SECOND. " The prophecies ascribed to Thomas of Ercildoune have been the principal means of securing to him remembrance ' amongst the sons of his people.' The author of Sir Tristrem would long ago have joined, in the vale of oblivion, ' Clerk of Tranent, who wrote the adventure of Schir Gawain,' if, by good hap, the same current of ideas respecting antiquity, which causes Virgil to be regarded as a magician by the lazaroni of Naples, had not exalted the bard of Ercildoune to the prophetic character. Perhaps, indeed, he himself affected it during his life. We know at least, for certain, that a belief in his supernatural knowledge was current soon after his death. His prophecies are alluded to by Barbour, by Wintown, and by Henry the Minstrel, or Blind Harry, as he is usually termed. None of these authors, however, give the words of any of the Ehymer's vaticinations, but merely narrate, historically, his having predicted the events of which they speak. The earliest of the prophecies ascribed to him. which is now extant, is quoted by Mr. Pinkerton from a MS. It is supposed to be a response from Thomas of Ercil- doune to a question from the heroic Countess of March, renowned for the defence of the Castle of Dunbar against the English, and termed, in the familiar dialect of her time, Black Agnes of Dunbar. This prophecy is remarkable, in so far as it bears very little resemblance to any verses published in the printed copy of the Pihymer's supposed prophecies. The verses are as follows: 'La countesse de Donbar rlemande a Thomas de Essedoune quant la guerre d'Escoce prendreit fyn. E yl 1'a repoundy et dyt, ' When man is mad a kyng of a capped man; When man is levere other mones thyng than his own ; When londe thouys forest, ant forest is felde; When hares kendles o' the her'stane; When Wyt and Wille werres togedere; When mon makes stables of kyrkes, and steles castels with stye; When Kokesboroughe nys no burgh ant market is at Forwyleye ; When Bambourne is donged with dede men; When men ledes men in ropes to buyen and to sellen; When a quarter of whaty whete is chaunged for a colt of ten markes; When prude (pride) prikes and pees is leyd in prisoun ; When a Scot ne me hym hude ase hare in forme that the English ne shall hym fynde; When ryeht ant wronge astente the togedere; When laddes weddeth lovedies ; When Scottes flen so faste, that, for faute of shep, hy drowneth hemselve; When shal this be ? Nouther in thine tynie ne in mine ; Ah comen ant gone Withinne twenty winter ant one.' Pinkerton's Poems, from Maitlands MSS. quoting from Karl. Lib. 2253. F. 127. "As I have never seen the MS. from which Mr. Pinkerton makes his extract, and as the date of it is fixed by him (certainly one of tlie TH01US THE RHYMER. 381 most able antiquaries of our age) to the reign of Edward I. or II., it is with great diffidence that I hazard a contrary opinion. There can, however, I believe, be little doubt, that these prophetic verses are a forgery, and not the production of our Thomas the Rhymer. But I am inclined to believe them of a later date than the reign of Edward I. or II. " The gallant defence of the Castle of Dunbar, by Black Agnes, took place in the year 1337. The Rhymer died previous to the year 1299 (see the charter, by his son, in the introduction to the foregoing ballad). It seems, therefore, very improbable that the Countess of Dunbar could ever have an opportunity of consulting Thomas the Rhymer, since that would infer that she was married, or at least engaged in state matters, previous to 1299 ; whereas she is described as a young, or middle-aged woman, at the period of her being besieged in the fortress which she so well defended. If the editor might indulge a conjecture, he would suppose that the prophecy was con- trived for the encouragement of the English invaders, during the Scottish wars ; and that the names of the Countess of Dunbar, and of Thomas of Ercildoune, were used for the greater credit of the forgery. According to this hypothesis, it seems likely to have been composed after the siege of Dunbar, which had made the name of the countess well known, and consequently in the reign of Edward III. The whole tendency of the prophecy is to aver that there shall be no end of the Scottish war (concerning which the question was proposed), till a final conquest of the country by England, attended by all the usual severities of war. ' When the cultivated country shall become forest,' says the prophecy; 'when the wild animals shall inhabit the abode of men ; when Scots shall not be able to escape the English, should they crouch as hares in their form,' all these denunciations seem to refer to the time of Edward III., upon whose victories the prediction was probably founded. The mention of the exchange betwixt a colt worth ten marks, and a quarter of ' whaty [indifferent] wheat,' seems to allude to the dreadful famine about the year 1388. The independence of Scotland was, however, as impregnable to the minds of superstition as to the steel of our more powerful and more wealthy neighbours. The war of Scotland is, thank God, at an end ; but it is ended without her people having either crouched like bases in their form, or being drowned in their flight, ' for faute of ships,' thank God for that too. The prophecy quoted is probably of the same date, and intended for the same purpose. " A minute search of the records of the time would probably throw additional light upon the allusions contained in these ancient legends. Among various rhymes of prophetic import, which are at this day current amongst the people of Teviotdale, is one supposed to be pro- nounced by Thomas the Rhymer, presaging the destruction of his habitation and family : ' The hare sail kittle [litter] on my hearth stane, And there will never be a laird Leannont again.' The first of these lines is obviously borrowed from that in the MS. of the Harl. Library, ' When hares kendles o' the her'stane' an 382 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. emphatic image of desolation. It is also inaccurately quoted in the prophecy of Waldhave, published by Andro Hart, 1613 : 'This is a true talking that Thomas of tells, The hare shall hirple on the hard [hearth] stane.' " Spottiswoode, an honest, but credulous historian, seems to have been a firm believer in the authenticity of the prophetic wares vended in the name of Thomas of Ercildoune. ' The prophecies yet extant in Scottish rhymes, whereupon he was commonly called Thomas the Rhymer, may justly be admired ; having foretold, so many ages before, the union of England and Scotland, in the ninth degree of the Brace's blood, with the succession of Bruce himself to the crown, being yet a child, and other divers particulars, which the event hath ratified and made good. Boethius, in his story, relateth his prediction of King Alexander's death, and that he did foretell the same to the Earl of March, the day before it fell out, saying, " That before the next day at noon, such a tempest should blow as Scotland had not felt for many years before." The next morning, the day being clear, and no change appearing in the air, the nobleman did challenge Thomas of his saying, calling him an impostor. He replied that noon was not yet passed. About which time a post came to advertise the earl of the king his sudden death. "Then," said Thomas, "this is the tempest I fore- told; and so it shall prove to Scotland." Whence, or how, he had this knowledge, can hardly be affirmed, but sure it is, that he did divine and answer truly of many things to come. ' Spottiswoode, p. 47. Besides that notable voucher, Master Hector Boece, the good archbishop might, had he been so minded, have referred to Fordun for the prophecy of King Alexander's death. That historian calls our bard 'ruralis ille vates.' Fordun, lib. x. , cap. 40. " What Spottiswoode calls ' the prophecies extant in Scottish rhyme,' are the metrical productions ascribed to the seer of Ercil- doune, which, with many other compositions of the same nature, bearing the names of Bede, Merlin, Gildas, and other approved soothsayers, are contained in one small volume, published by Andro Hart, at Edinburgh, 1615. Nisbet the herald (who claims the prophet of Ercildoune as a brother professor of his art, founding upon the various allegorical and emblematical allusions to heraldry), intimates the existence of some earlier copy of his prophecies than that of Andro Hart, which, however, he does not pretend to have seen. The late excellent Lord Hailes made these compositions the subject of a disser- tation, published in his Remarks on the History of Scotland. His attention is chiefly directed to the celebrated prophecy of our bard, mentioned by Bishop Spottiswoode, bearing that the crowns of England and Scotland should be united in the person of a king, son of a French queen, and related to Bruce in the ninth degree. Lord Hailes plainly proves, that this prophecy is perverted from its original purpose in order to apply it to the succession of James VI. The groundwork of the forgery is to be found in the prophecies of Berlington, contained in the same collection, and runs thus : ' Of Bruce's left side shall spring out a leafe, As neere as the ninth degree ; And shall be fleemed of faire Scotland, In France farre beyond the sea. THOMAS THE RHYMER. 383 And then shall come again ryding. With eyes that many men may see. At Aberladie he shall light, "With hempen helteres and horse of tre. 1 However it happen for to fall, The lyon shall be lord of all; The French quen shall bearre the sonne, Shall rule all Britainne to the sea; Ane from the Bruce s blood shal come also, As neere as the ninth degree. ' Tet shal there come a keene knight over the salt sea, A keene man of courage and bold man of armes ; A duke's son dowbled [t. e., dubbed], a born man hi France, That shall our mirths augment, and mend all our harmes ; After the date of our Lord 1513, and thrice three thereafter; Which shall brooke all the broad isle to himself. Between 13 and thrice three the threip shall be ended, The Saxons shall never recover after.' " There cannot be any doubt that this prophecy was intended to excite the confidence of the Scottish nation in the Duke of Albany, Regent of Scotland, who arrived from France in 1515, two years after the death of James IV. in the fatal field of Flodden. The regent was descended of Bruce by the left, i. e., by the female side, within the ninth degree. His mother was daughter of the Earl of Boulogne, his father banished from his country 'fleemit of fair Scotland.' His arrival must necessarily be by sea, and his landing was expected at Aberlady, in the Frith of Forth. He was a duke's son, dubbed knight; and nine years, from 1513, are allowed him, by the pretended prophet, for the accomplishment of the salvation of his country, and the exaltation of Scotland over her sister and rival. All this was a pious fraud, to excite the confidence and spirit of the country. " The prophecy put into the mouth of our Thomas the Khymer, as it stands in Hart's book, refers to a later period. The narrator meets the Rhymer upon a land beside a lee, who shows him many emble- matical visions, described in no mean strain of poetry. They chiefly relate to the fields of Flodden and Pinkie, to the national distress which followed these defeats, and to the future halcyon days which are promised to Scotland. One quotation or two will be sufficient to establish this fully : ' Our Scottish king sal come ful keene, The red lyon beareth he ; A foddered arrow sharp, I ween. Shall make him winke and warre to seo. Out of the field he shall be led, When he is bludie and woe for blood; Tet to his men shall he say, " For God's love turn you againe. And give yon Sutherne folk a frey! Why should I lose the right is mine? My date is not to die this day." ' " Who can doubt, for a moment, that this refers to the battle of Flodden, and to the popular reports concerning the doubtful fate of James IV. ? Allusion is immediately afterwards made to the death 381 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. of George Douglas, heir-apparent of Angus, who fought and fell with his sovereign : ' The sternes three that day shall die, That bears the harte in silver sheen.' The well-known arms of the Douglas family are the heart and three stars. In another place, the battle of Pinkie is expressly mentioned by name : 'At Pinken Cluch there shall be spilt Much gentle blood that day; There shall the bear lose the guilt. And the eagill bear it away.' " To the end of all this allegorical and mystical rhapsody, is interpolated, in the later edition by Andro Hart, a new edition of Berlington's verses, before quoted, altered and manufactured, so as to bear reference to the accession of James VI., which had just then taken place. The insertion is made with a peculiar degree of awkwardness, betwixt a question, put by the narrator, concerning the name and abode of the person who showed him these strange matters, and the answer of the prophet to that question : ' Then to the Beirne conld I say, Where dwells thou, or in what countrie? [Or who shall rule the isle of Britane, From the north to the south sey? A French queene shall bear the sonne, Shall rule all Britaine to the sea; Which of the Bruce's blood shall come, As neere as the nint degree : I framed fast what was his name. Where that he came, from what countrie.] In Erslingtoun I dwell at hame, Thomas Eymour men cals me.' ' ' There is surely no one, who will not conclude with Lord Hailes, that the eight lines, inclosed in brackets, are a clumsy interpolation, borrowed from Berlington, with such alterations as might render the supposed prophecy applicable to the union of the crowns. " While we are on this subject, it may be proper briefly to notice the scope of some of the other predictions in Hart's collection. As the prophecy of Berlington was intended to raise the spirits of the nation, during the regency of Albany, so those of Sybilla and Eltraine refer to that of the Earl of Arran, afterwards Duke of Chatelherault, during the minority of Mary, a period of similar calamity. This is obvious from the following verses : ' Take a thousand in calculation, And the longest of the lyon, Four crescents under one crowne, With Saint Andrew's croce thrise, Then threescore and thris three : Take tent to Merling truely, Then shall the wars ended be, And never again rise. In that yere there shall a king, A duke, and no crowned king : Becaus the prince shall bs yong, And tender of yeares.' THOMAS THE RHYMER. 385 "The date, above hinted at, seems to be 1549, when the Scottish Regent, by means of some succours derived from France, was en- deavouring to repair the consequences of the fatal battle of Pinkie. Allusion is made to the supply given to the ' Moldwarte [England] by the fained hart ' (the Earl of Angus). The regent is described by his bearing the antelope ; large supplies are promised from France, and complete conquest predicted to Scotland and her allies. Thus was the same hackneyed stratagem repeated whenever the interest of the rulers appeared to stand in need of it. The regent was not, indeed, till after this period, created Duke of Chatelherault ; but that honour was the object of his hopes and expectations. " The name of our renowned soothsayer is liberally used as an authority throughout all the prophecies published by Andro Hart. Besides "those expressly put in his name, Gildas, another assumed personage, is supposed to derive his knowledge from him ; for he concludes thus : ' True Thomas me told in a troublesome time, In a harvest morn at Eldoun hills.' The Prophecy of Gildas. " In the prophecy of Berlington, already quoted, we are told ' Marvellous Merlin, that many men of tells. And Thomas's sayings comes all at once.' " While 1 am upon the subject of these prophecies, may I be per- mitted to call the attention of antiquaries to Merdwynn Wyllt, or Merlin the Wild, in whose name, and by no means in that of Ambrose Merlin, the friend of Arthur, the Scottish prophecies are issued? That this personage resided at Drummelzier, and roamed, like a second Nebuchadnezzar, the woods of Tweeddale, in remorse for the death of his nephew, we learn from Fordun. In the Scoti-Chronkon, lib. iii., cap. 31, is an account of an interview betwixt St. Kentigern and Merlin, then in this distracted and miserable state. He is said to have been called Lailoken, from his mode of life. On being commanded by the saint to give an account of himself, he says, that the penance which he performs was imposed on him by a voice from heaven, during a bloody contest betwixt Lidel and Carwanolow, of which battle he had been the cause. According to his own prediction, he perished at once by wood, earth, and water ; for, being pursued with stones by the rustics, he fell from a rock into the river Tweed, and was transfixed by a sharp stake, fixed there for the purpose of extending a fishing-net : ' Sude perfossus, lapide percussus, et undo. Hsec tria Merlinum fertur inire necem. Sicque ruit, mersusque fuit lignoque prehensns, Et fecit vatem per terna pericula verum.' " But in a metrical history of Merlin of Caledonia, compiled by Geoffrey of Monmouth, from the traditions of the Welsh bards, this mode of death is attributed to a page whom Merlin's sister, desirous to convict the prophet of falsehood, because he had betrayed her intrigues, introduced to him, under three various disguises, inquiring each time in what manner the person should die. To the first demand Merlin answered, the party should perish by a fall from a rock ; to the second, that he should die by a tree ; and to the third, that he 20 386 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. should be drowned. The youth perished while hunting, in the mode imputed by Fordun to Merlin himself. " Fordun, contrary to the French authorities, confounds this per- son with the Merlin of Arthur ; but concludes by informing us, that many believed him to be a different person. The grave of Merlin is pointed out at Drummelzier, in Tweeddale, beneath an aged thorn- tree. On the east side of the churchyard, the brook, called Pausayl, falls into the Tweed; and the following prophecy is said to have been current concerning their union : ' When Tweed and Pausayl join at Merlin's grave, Scotland and England shall one monarch have.' On the day of the coronation of James VI., the Tweed accord- ingly overflowed, and joined the Pausayl at the prophet's grave. Pennycuick's History of Tweeddale, p. 26. These circumstances would seem to infer a communication betwixt the south-west of Scotland and Wales, of a nature peculiarly intimate ; for I presume that Merlin would retain sense enough to choose for the scene of his wanderings a country having a language and manners similar to his own. " Be this as it may, the memory of Merlin Sylvester, or the Wild, was fresh among the Scots during the reign of James V. Waldhave,* under whose name a set of prophecies was published, describes him- self as lying upon Lomond Law; he hears a voice, which bids him stand to his defence ; he looks around, and beholds a flock of hares and foxes pursued over the mountain by a savage figure, to whom he can hardly give the name of a man. At the sight of Waldhave, the apparition leaves the objects of his pursuit, and assaults him with a club. Waldhave defends himself with his sword, throws the savage to the earth, and refuses to let him arise till he swear, by the law and lead he lives upon, 'to do him no harm.' This clone, he permits him to arise, and marvels at his strange appearance : ' He was formed like a freike [man] all his four quarters; And then his chin and his face haired so thick, With haire growing so grime, fearful to see.' He answers briefly to Waldhave' s inquiry concerning his name and nature, that he 'drees his weird,' i. e., does penance in that wood; and, having hinted that questions as to his own state are offensive, he pours forth an obscure rhapsody concerning futurity, and concludes, 'Go musing upon Merlin if thou wilt : For I mean no more, man, at this time.' " This is exactly similar to the meeting betwixt Merlin and Ken- tigern in Fordun. These prophecies of Merlin seem to have been in request in the minority of James V. ; for, among the amusements with which Sir David Lindsay diverted that prince during his infancy, are, ' The prophecies of Kymer, Bede, and Merlin.' Sir David Lindsay's Epistle to the King. And we find, in Waldhave, at least one allusion to the very ancient prophecy, addressed to the Countess of Dunbar: 1 This is a true token that Thomas of tells, When a ladde with a ladye shall go over the fields.' * " I do not know whether the person here meant be Waldhave, an abhot of Mel- rose, who died, in the odour of sanctity, about 1160." S. THOMAS THE RHYMER. 387 The original stands thus : ' When laddes weddeth love dies.' " Another prophecy of Merlin seems to have been current about the time of the Regent Morton's execution. When that nobleman was committed to the charge of his accuser, Captain James Stewart, newly created Earl of Arran, to be conducted to his trial at Edinburgh, Spottiswoode says, that he asked, ' " Who was Earl of Arran? " and being answered that Captain James was the man, after a short pause, he said, " And is it so ? I know then what I may look for ! " mean- ing, as was thought, that the old prophecy of the "Falling of the heart* by the mouth of Arran," should then be fulfilled. Whether this was his mind or not, it is not known ; but some spared not, at the time when the Hamiltons were banished, in which business he was held too earnest, to say that he stood in fear of that prediction, and went that course only to disappoint it. But if so it was, he did find himself now deluded; for he fell by the mouth of another Arran than he imagined.' Spottiswoode, 313. The fatal words alluded to seem to be these, in the prophecy of Merlin : 'Tn the mouthe of Arrane a selcouth shall fall, Two bloodie hearts shall be taken with a false traine, And derfly dung down without any dome.' " To return from these desultory remarks, into which I have been led by the celebrated name of Merlin, the style of all these prophecies, published by Hart, is very much the same. The measure is allitera- tive, and somewhat similar to that of Pierce Plowman's Visions ; a circumstance which might entitle us to ascribe to some of them an earlier date than the reign of James V. , did we not know that Sir Galloran of Galloway and Gawaine and Gollograss, two romances rendered almost unintelligible by the extremity of affected allitera- tion, are perhaps not prior to that period. Indeed, although we may allow, that, during much earlier times, prophecies, under the names of those celebrated soothsayers, have been current in Scotland, yet those published by Hart have obviously been so often vamped and revamped, to serve the political purposes of different periods, that it may be shrewdly suspected, that, as in the case of Sir John Cutler's transmigrated stockings, very little of the original materials now remains. I cannot refrain from indulging my readers with the publisher's title to the last prophecy, as it contains certain curious information concerning the Queen of Sheba, who is identified with the Cumaean Sibyl : ' Here followeth a prophecie pronounced by a noble queene and matron, called Sybilla, Regina Austri, that came to Solomon. Through the which she compiled four bookes, at the instance of the said King Sol, and others divers ; and the fourth book was directed to a noble king, called Baldwine, king of the broad isle of Britain ; in the which she maketh mention of two noble princes and emperours, the which is called Leones. How these two shall subdue and overcome all earthlie princes to their diademe and crowne, and also be glorified and crowned in the heaven among saints. The first of these two is Constantinus Magnus ; that was Leprosus, the son of Saint Helena, that found the croce. The second is the sixt king * " The heart was the cognizance of Morton." S. 388 BALLAD HINSTKELSY OF SCOTLAND. of the name of Steward of Scotland, the which is our most noble king. ' With such editors and commentators, what wonder that the text became unintelligible, even beyond the usual oracular obscurity of prediction ? "If there still remains, therefore, among these predictions, any verses having a claim to real antiquity, it seems now impossible to discover them from those which are comparatively modern. Never- theless, as there are to be found, in these compositions, some un- commonly wild and masculine expressions, the editor has been induced to throw a few passages together, into the sort of ballad to which this disquisition is prefixed. It would, indeed, have been no difficult matter for him, by a judicious selection, to have excited, in favour of Thomas of Ercildoune, a share of the admiration bestowed by sundry wise persons upon Mass Robert Fleming.* For example : ' But then the lilye shall be loused when they least think; Then clear king's blood shal quake for fear of death; For churls shal chop off heads of their chief beirns, And carfe of the crowns that Christ hath appointed. Thereafter, on every side, sorrow shall arise; The barges of clear barons down shal be sunken; Seculars shal sit in spiritual seats, Occupying offices anointed as they were.' " Taking the lily for the emblem of France, can there be a more plain prophecy of the murder of her monarch, the destruction of her nobility, and the desolation of her hierarchy? " But, without looking further into the signs of the times, the editor, though the least of all the prophets, cannot help thinking, that every true Briton will approve of his application of the last prophecy quoted in the ballad. " Hart's collections of prophecies were frequently reprinted during the last century, probably to favour the pretensions of the unfortunate family of Stuart. For the prophetic renown of Gildas and Bede, see Fordun, lib. iii. " Before leaving the subject of Thomas's predictions, it may be noticed, that sundry rhymes, passing for his prophetic effusions, are still current among the vulgar Thus, he is said to have prophesied of the very ancient family of Haig of Bemerside : 1 Betide, betide, whate'er betide, Haig shall be Haig of Bemerside.' "The grandfather of the present proprietor of Bemerside had twelve daughters, before his lady brought him a male heir. The common people trembled for the credit of their favourite soothsayer. The late Mr. Haig was at length born, and their belief in the pro- phecy confirmed beyond a shadow of doubt. "Another memorable prophecy bore that the Old Kirk at Kelso, constructed out of the ruins of the abbey, should ' fall when at the fullest.' At a very crowded sermon, about thirty years ago, a piece * Author of Discourses on the Rise and Fall of Papacy, London, 1701. The Revolu- tions of 1789, 1830, and 1818, attracted considerable attention to the work named. THOMAS THE RHYMER. 389 of lime fell from the roof of the church. The alarm, for the fulfil- ment of the words of the seer, became universal, and happy were they who were nearest the door of the predestined edifice. The church was in consequence deserted, and has never since had an oppor- tunity of tumbling upon a full congregation. I hope, for the sake of a beautiful specimen of Saxo-Gothic architecture, that the accom- plishment of this prophecy is far distant. " Another prediction, ascribed to the Rhymer, seems to have been founded on that sort of insight into futurity, possessed by most men of a sound and combining judgment. It runs thus : ' At Eldon tree if you shall be, A brigg ower Tweed you there may see. " The spot in question commands an extensive prospect of the course of the river ; and it was easy to foresee, that when the country should become in the least degree improved, a bridge would be some- where thrown over the stream. In fact, you now see no less than three bridges from that elevated situation. " Corspatrick (Comes Patrick), Earl of March, but more commonly taking his title from his castle of Dunbar, acted a noted part during the wars of Edward I. in Scotland. As Thomas of Ercildoune is said to have delivered to him his famous prophecy of King Alexander's death, the editor has chosen to introduce him into the following ballad. All the prophetic verses are selected from Hart's publica- tion." Sir Walter Scott. The notes to the text are also his. 1 WHEN seven years were come and gane, The sun blink'd fair on pool and stream; And Thomas lay on Huntlie bank, Like one awaken'd from a dream. 2 He heard the trampling of a steed, He saw the flash of armour flee, And he beheld a gallant knight, Come riding down by the Eildon tree. 3 He was a stalwart knight, and strong, Of giant maks he 'pear'd to be ; He stirr'd his horse, as he were wode, With gilded spurs of fashion free. 4 Says " Well met, well met, True Thomas ! Some uncouth ferlies show to me." Says " Christ thee save, Corspatrick brave ! Thrice welcome, good Dunbar, to me ! 5 " Light down, light down, Corspatrick brave ! And I will show thee curses three, Shall gar fair Scotland greet and grane, And change the green to the black liverie. 390 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 6 " A storm shall roar this very hour, From Ross's hills to Sol way sea." " Ye lied, ye lied, ye warlock hoar ! For the sun shines sweet on fauld and lea." 7 He put his hand on the Earlie's head ; He show'd him a rock beside the sea, Where a king lay stiff beneath his steed,* And steel-dight nobles wiped their e'e. 8 " The neist curse lights on Branxton hills : By Flodden's high and heathery side Shall wave a banner red as bluid, And chieftains throng with meikle pride. 9 "A Scottish king shall come full keen, The ruddy lion beareth he ; A feather'd arrow sharp, I ween, Shall make him wink and warre to see. 10 " When he is bloody, and all to bledde, Thus to his men he still shall say, ' For God's sake, turn ye back again, And give yon Southern folk a fray ! Why should I lose the right is mine ? My doom is not to die this day.' f 11 " Yet turn ye to the eastern hand, And woe and wonder ye shall see ; How forty thousand spearmen stand, Where yon rank river meets the sea. 12 " There shall the lion lose the gylte, And the libbards bear it clean away ; At Pinkyn Cleuch there shall be spilt Much gentil bluid that day." 13 " Enough, enough of curse and ban ; Some blessings show thou now to me, Or, by the faith of my body," Corspatrick said, " Ye shall rue the day ye e'er saw me ! " * "King Alexander, killed (March 16, 1285-6) by falling over a cliff, near Kinghorn, in Fife, and opposite Edinburgh." t " The uncertainty which long prevailed in Scotland concerning the fate of James IV. is well known.' THOMAS OF ERCILDOUNE. 391 14 " The first of blessings I shall thee show, Is by a burn, that 's call'd of bread ; * Where Saxon men shall tine the bow, And find their arrows lack the head. 15 " Beside that brigg, out ower that burn, Where 'the water bickereth bright and sheen, Shall many a falling courser spurn, And knights shall die in battle keen. 16 " Beside a headless cross of stone, The libbards there shall lose the gree ; The raven shall come, the erne shall go, And drink the Saxon bluid sae free. The cross of stone they shall not know, So thick the corses there shall be." 17 " But tell me now," said brave Dunbar, " True Thomas, tell now unto me, What man shall rule the isle Britain, Even from the north to the southern sea ? " 18 "A French queen shall bear the son, Shall rule all Britain to the sea ; He of the Bruce's blood shall come, As near as in the ninth degree. 19 " The waters worship shall his race, Likewise the waves of the farthest sea ; For they shall ride over ocean wide, With hempen bridles and horse of tree." THOMAS OF ERCILDOUNE. The following remarkable tale is preserved hi three or more ancient manuscripts, all of them more or less mutilated. The verbal differ- ences between the copies are numerous but unimportant. The three principal MS. copies are deposited in the libraries, and have been printed respectively in the works mentioned under: I. The Cotton MS. copy, in the British Museum, first printed in Scott's Minstrelsy, voL iv., p. 122. a * " One of Thomas's rhymes, preserved by tradition, runs thus : The burn of breid Shall ran fow reid.' Bannockburn is the brook here meant. The Scots give the name of 'bannock' to a thick round cake of unleavened bread." 392 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. II. The Cambridge University Library MS. copy, first printed in Mr. Jamieson's Popular Ballads, &c., vol. ii., p. 11, as "carefully deciphered," says Mr. Laing, "from a volume of no ordinary curiosity, .... written in a very illegible hand, about the middle of the 15th century. " III. The Lincoln Cathedral Library MS. copy, first printed by Mr. David Laing, in his Select Remains of the Ancient Popular Poetry of Scotland. From "a volume compiled at a still earlier period " than the Cambridge MS. "In the Cambridge MS. none of the pieces have any titles; the Cotton copy is prefaced by Incipit prophesia Thome de Erseldoun; and the Lincoln MS. is entitled Thomas off Erseldoune, and is in- troduced in the following manner : ' Lystnys, Iprdyngs, bothe grete and small, And takls gude tente what I will say: I sail yow telle als trewe a tale, Als euer was herde by nyghte or daye. 'And the maste meruelle fforowttyn naye, That euer was herde byfore or syen, And therefore pristly I yow praye, That ye will of youre talkyng blyn. 'It es an harde thynge for to saye, Of doghety dedis that hase been done; Of felle feghtyngs and batells sere; And how that knyghtis hasse wonne thair schone. ' But Thesn Christ, that syttis in trone, Safe Inglysche bothe ferre and nere; And I sail telle yow tyte and sone, Of batells done sythen many a yere ; ' And of batells that done sail bee ; In what place, and how and whare; And wha shall have the heghere gree ; And whethir partye sail hafe the werro. ' Wha sail take the flyghte and flee ; And wha sail dye and byleue thare: But Ihesu Christ, that dyed on tre, Saue Inglysche men whare so they fare.' "From the prayer with which this exordium concludes, it may fairly be inferred that the writer was an Englishman ; and the pro- phetic part of the piece has been evidently intended to be used as an engine against the Scots. In the introduction to the prophecies, however, there is so much more fancy and elegance than in the prophecies themselves, that they can hardly be supposed to be the composition of the same person. Indeed, the internal evidence to the contrary almost amounts to a proof that they are not, and that the romance itself was of Scotish origin ; although no undubitably Scotish copy, so far as the editor knows, is now in existence. He has been told, but upon what authority he knows not, that there was a copy in the late king's * library at Paris, but uncertain of what country. . . . It is remarkable, that in all the three copies now before him, the poet begins the story in the first person, and seems * Louis XVI., victim of the first French revolution. THOMAS OF ERCILDOUNE. 393 disposed to tell the incidents, as if they had really happened to himself. (See stanzas 1 to 10. ) And although he afterwards, awkwardly and un- naturally enough, speaks of Thomas as a third person, yet even then he seems to insinuate, that the story, which he is garbling, was told by another before him. (See stanza 14.) If he assumes the mask with a bad grace here, he shows still less address when he drops it again at stanza 51. . " Would it not be pardonable, from such instances as these, to suppose it at least probable, that Thomas Rymour was really the original author of this romance ; and that in order to give a sanction to his predictions, which seem all to have been calculated in one way or other for the service of his country, he pretended to an intercourse with the Queen of Elfland, as Numa Pompilius did with the nymph Egeria? Such an intercourse, in the days of True Thomas, was accounted neither unnatural nor uncommon. " As both the English and the Scots availed themselves of the credit which his prophecies had obtained, in falsifying them, to serve their purposes against each other, it is now impossible to ascertain what the real prophecies of Thomas Rymour were, if ever he pub- lished any such. But as it would have been a measure of good policy to preserve as entire as possible the original introduction, from which the predictions were to derive their authority, it may be presumed that fewer liberties were taken with it ; that, notwithstanding the mutilated state in which we have found it, the general symmetry, and many of the original stamina, remain ; and that it has not suffered more from the license assumed by transcribers and reciters than other romances of that age have done. "'As to the romance itself,' says Scott, 'it will afford great amusement to those who would study the nature of traditional poetry, and the changes effected by oral tradition, to compare this ancient romance with the foregoing (traditional) ballad. The same incidents are narrated, even the expression is often the same ; yet the poems are as different in appearance as if the older tale had been regularly and systematically modernized by a poet of the present day.'" Jamieson's Popular Ballads, vol. ii., pp. 3-7. Both Mr. Jamieson and Mr. David Laing print their respective versions of this ancient poem entire. But in the text which follows, and which has been collated from all three copies, only the introductory portion, or First Fytte, is given, with the addition of stanzas 59, 60, and 61, from the commencement of the Second Fytte; and of 62, 63, and 64, from the close of the Third Fytte. The orthography has been modernized in the case of such words as are still in use either in England or Scotland, but the veritable words of the originals are retained. 1 As I me went this Andrew's day, Fast on my way, making my moan, In a merry morning of May, By Huntly's banks myself alone, 394 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 2 I heard the jay and the throstle, The mavis menyed in her song, The wodewale beryd 6 as a bell, That all the wood about me rung. 3 Alone in longing thus as I lay, Underneath a seemly tree, Saw I where a ladye gay Came riding o'er a lonely lea. 4 If I shou'd sit till Domisday, All with my tongue to know and see, Certainly all her array It shall never be 'scryed for me. 5 Her palfrey was a dapple gray, Like it saw I never none; As does the sun on summer's day, That fair ladye herself she shone. 6 Her saddle it was of royal bone, d Full seemly was that sight to see! Stiffly set with precious stone, Compass'd about with cramoisie. 7 Stones of orience, great plentie, Her hair about her head it hung: She rode over that lonely-' lea, Awhile she blew, awhile she sung. 8 Her girths of noble silk they were, The buckles they were of beryl stone ; Her stirrups were of crystal clear, And all with pearls o'er bedone. 9 Her patrel was of irale fine, " Her crupper was of orfare", h Her bridle was of gold [sae] fine; On every side [there] hung bells three. " "The mavis menyed:" the thrush lamented. b " The wodewale beryd : " the woodpecker made a noise. c '"Scryed:" described. d "Eoyal bone: " pure ivory. e "Orapotee," Lincoln MS.; "Crapste," Cotton MS. / " Fernyle " (ferny lee), Cotton MS. o " Her patrel, &c. : " i. e., the plate protecting the chest of her steed was of steel or iion fine. h "OrfareV embroidery. THOMAS OF ERCILDOUNE. 395 10 She led seven greyhounds in a leash, And seven raches a by her feet ran. To speak with her I wou'd not press; Her bree was as white as any swan. 11 She bare a horn about her halse, And under her girdle many a flonne. 6 Forsooth, lordlings, as I you tell, Thus was this ladye fair bedone. 12 Thomas lay and saw that sight, Underneath a seemly tree; He said " Yon is Mary of might, That bare the child that died for me. 13 " But I speak with that ladye bright, I hope my heart will burst in three; But I will go with all my might, Her for to meet at Eildon tree ! " 14 Thomas rathely c up he raise, And ran over that mountain hie ; And if it be sooth, as the story says, He her met at the Eildon tree. 15 He kneeled down upon his knee, Underneath the greenwood spray ; And said " Lovely ladye, rew d on me, Queen of heaven, as thou well may ! " 16 Then said that ladye, mild of thought, " Thomas, let such wordes be ; Queen of heaven am I not, I took never so high degree. 17 " But I am ladye of another countrie ; If I be parell'd most of price, I ride after the wilde fee,* My raches rinnin' at my device." 18 " If thou be parell'd most of price, And ridest here in thy folly, Lovely ladye, as thou art wise, Then give me leave to lye by thee." " Baches : " scenting hounds. b "Flonne: " arrow. c " Rathely: " readily, or quickly. d " Hew," or " rue : " have pity. " Fee : " deer. 396 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 19 " Do way, Thomas, that were folly! I pray thee heartily, let me be, For I say thee full sikerly, 6 That sin will fordo c all my beautie." 20 " Now, lovely ladye, rew on me, And I shall ever with thee dwell ; Here my troth I plight to thee, Whether thou wilt to heaven or hell!" 21 " Man of mold, thou wilt me mar, And yet but you may have your will ; Trow you well thou choosest the waur, * For all my beautie thou wilt spill." 22 Thomas stood up in that stead, And beheld that ladye gay ; The hair that hung upon her head, The one half black, the other gray. 23 All her rich clothing was away, That he before saw in that stead ; Her een seem'd out, that were so gray, And all her body like the lead. 24 Then Thomas sigh'd and said " Alas ! In faith, this is a doleful sight ; How art thou faded thus in the face, That shone before as the sun so bright?" 25 She said " Take thy leave of sun and moon, Of grass and leaves that grow on tree: This twelvemonth shalt thou with me gone, And middle earth thou shalt not see." 26 He kneeled down upon his knee, To Mary mild he made his moan : " Ladye, but that thou rew on me, All my games frae me are gone ! 27 " Alas !" he said, " and woe is me! I trow my deeds will work me woe: Jesu! my soul beteche* I thee, Wheresoever my body go ! " ' Scho sayde, ' The man.' "Lincoln MS. <* " Waur: " worse. Sikerly: " certainly, truly. e "Beteche:" commend, Fordo:" undo. THOMAS OF ERCILDOUNE. 397 28 She led him in at Eildon hill, Underneath the greenwood tree," Where it was dark as midnight mirk, And ever in water to the knee. 29 There the space of dayes three, He heard but soughing* of the flood; At the last, he said " Full woe is me; Almost I die, for fault of food ! " 30 She led him into a fair herbere, Where fruit was growing in great plentie ; Pears and apples both ripe they were, The date, and also the damson tree. 31 The fig, and also the wine-berry, The nightingales lying on their nest ; The popinjays fast about 'gan fly, And throstles song, wou'd have no rest. 32 He press'd to pull the fruit with his hand, As man for food that was near faint; She said " Thomas, thou let them stand, Or else the fiend will thee attaint. 33 " If thou [them] pull, the sooth to say, Thy soul goes to the fire of hell; It comes never out till Domisday, But there in pain aye for to dwell. 34 " [But] Thomas, soothly, I thee hight; Come, lay thy head down on my knee, And thou shalt see the fairest sight That ever saw man of thy countrie!" 35 He did in haste as she him bade, His head upon her knee he laid; For her to please he was full glad; And then that ladye to him said : 36 " See'st thou, Thomas, yon fair way That lyes over yonder high mountayne? Strait is the way to heaven for aye, When sinful souls have dree'd their pain, " " Underneathe a derne lee." Lincoln MS. "Undir nethe the derne lee." Cotton MS. "Soughing:" sounding. ''Swaghynge," Lincoln MS.; "swowyng," Cotton MS. " There is something uncommonly romantic and poetical in Thomas's going under TOiicd with the queen of Elfland, as .ffineas does with the Sibyl, marching for three lay* in 'pitchy darkness, and hearing nothing but the swechyng and swoinmgi. e., winging and booming of the waves over his head." Jamieson. 398 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 37 " See'st them now, Thomas, yonder way, That lyes so low under yonder rise? Yon is the way, the sooth to say. Unto the joy of Paradise. 38 " See'st thou yet yonder third way, That lyes over yon green plain? Yon is the way, the sooth to say, That sinful souls shall pass to pain. 39 " But see'st thou yonder fourth way, That lyes over yonder fell ? a Wide is the way, the sooth to say, 6 Unto the burning fire of hell ! 40 " See'st thou now yonder fair castell, That stands upon yon fair hill? Of town and tow'r it beareth the bell; In middle earth is none like ther' till," 41 " In sooth, Thomas, yon is mine own, And the king's of this countrie; But me were better be hanged and drawn, Than he wist that thou lay by me ! 42 " When thou comest to yon castell gay, I pray thee courteous man to be; And whatsoe'er any man to thee say. Look that thou answer none but me. 43 " My lord is served at ilka mess With thirty knights [sae] fair and free; And I shall say, sitting at the dais, I took thy speech beyond the sea. d 44 Thomas stood as still as a stone, 6 And beheld that ladye gay; Then she was fair and rich anon/ And also rode on her palfray. 45 Her greyhounds filled with deer's blood, Her raches coupled, by my fay; She blew her horn with main and mood, And to the castell she took the way. a " Ouer yone depe delle? " Lincoln MS. * " So waylawaye." Lincoln MS. c " In earthe es none lyk it vntilL" Lincoln MS. d " Lee." Cotton and Cambridge MSS. e " Still als stone he stude." Lincoln and Cambridge MSS. / " Scho came agayne als faire and gude." Lincoln MS. THOMAS OF ERCILDOUNE. 399 46 Into a hall soothly she went, Thomas follow'd at her hand; Ladyes came both fair and gent, Full courteously to her kneeland." 47 Harp and fiddle both they fand, Ghittern, and also the psaltry, The lute and rebeck, both gangand, And all manner of minstrelsy. 48 Knights were dancing by three and three ; There was revel, both game and play; Lovely ladyes, fair and free, Dancing with them * in rich array. 49 The greatest ferlie " there, Thomas thought, When thirty harts lay on [the] floor, And as many deer in were brought, That were both largely long and store. 50 Raches lay lappand in deer's blood; The cooks they stood with dressing-knife, Brittling the deer as they were wode, d Revel was among them rife. 51 There was revel, both game and play, More than I you say, pardie, Till it fell upon a day My lovely ladye 8aid to me : 52 " Busk thee, Thomas, for thou must be gone, For here no longer may'st thou be; Hie thee fast, with might and main, I shall thee bring to the Eildon tree." 53 Thomas answered with heavy cheer. " Lovely ladye, thou let me be, For certainly I have been here Nought but the space of days three ! " 54 " For sooth, Thomas, as I thee tell, Thou hast been here seven year and more; But longer here thou may not dwell, The skill I will thee tell wherefore. a "Kneeland:" kneeling. " Sat and sang." Lincoln and Cotton MSS. c "Ferlie:" wonder. d"Wode: " mad. 400 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 55 " To-morrow of hell the foul fiend Among these folk shall choose his fee ; Thou art a fair man and a hend, I trow full well he wou'd choose thee ! 56 " For all the gold that ever might be, Frae heaven unto the world's end, Thou be'st never betray'd for me; Therefore with me I rede thee wend." 57 She brought him again to the Eildon tree, Underneath the greenwood spray; In Huntly banks there for to be, Where birds sing both night and day. 58 " Far out over yon mountain gray, Thomas, a falcon makes her nest; A falcon is an eagle's prey, For they in place will have no rest.* 59 "Farewell, Thomas; I wend my way; I may no longer stand with thee." " Give me some token, ladye gay, That I may say I spake with thee." 60 " To harp and carp, wheresoever ye gone, Thomas, take thee these with thee." " Harping," said he, "ken I none, For tongue is the chief of minstrelsie ! " 61 " If thou wilt spell,f or tales tell, Thomas, thou never shall make lee: Wheresoever thou go, to frith or fell, I pray thee speak never no ill of me." 62 Then True Thomas a sorry man was he, The tears ran out of his een gray: " Lovely ladye, yet tell to me, If we shall part for ever and aye? " 63 " Nay; when thou sittest at Ercildoune, To Huntly bank thou take thy way, And then shall I be ready boun' To meet thee, Thomas, if that I may." * "Thomas" seems to be here represented by the "falcon." and the "foul fiend" by the "eagle: " "Thomas" being in as much danger from the visitation of the one, as the "falcon" would be from that of the other. "The elfln queen, after restoring Thomas to earth, pours forth a string of prophe- cies, in which we distinguish references to the events and personages of the Scottish wars of Edward III. The battles of Duplin and Halidon are mentioned, and also Black Agnes, Countess of Dunbar." Scott t "This is the real word which in Scotland has now taken the form of .t;xre." Jamieson. AULD MAITLAND. 401 64 She blew her horn on her palfray, And left Thomas at Eildon tree ; Till Helmesdale she took her way, And thus parted that ladye and he. AULD MAITLAND. From Scott's Minstrelsy, vol. L, p. 306. " This ballad, notwithstanding its present appearance, has a claim to very high antiquity. It has been preserved by tradition ; and is, perhaps, the most authentic instance of a long and very old poem exclusively thus preserved. It is only known to a few old people upon the sequestered banks of the Ettrick; and is published as written down from the recitation of the mother of Mr. James Hogg,* who sings, or rather chants it, with great animation. She learned the ballad from a blind man, who died at the advanced age of ninety, and is said to have been possessed of much traditionary knowledge. Although the language of this poem is much modernized, yet many words, which the reciters have retained without understanding them, still preserve traces of its antiquity. Such are the words springals (corruptedly pronounced springy/alls), sowies, portcullize, and many other appropriate terms of war and chivalry, which could never have been introduced by a modern ballad-maker. The incidents are striking and well managed ; and they are in strict conformity with the manners of the age in which they are placed. ' ' The date of the ballad cannot be ascertained with any degree of accuracy. Sir Richard Maitland, the hero of the poem, seems to have been in possession of his estate about 1250 ; so that, as he survived the commencement of the wars betwixt England and Scotland, in 1296, his prowess against the English, in defence of his castle of Lauder or Thirlestane, must have been exerted during his extreme old age. He seems to have been distinguished for devotion as well as valour; for, A.D. 1249, Dominus Ricardus de Mautlant gave to the Abbey of Dryburgh, ' Terras suas de Haubeutside, in territorio suo de Thirlestane, pro salute animre suce, et sponsce suce, antecessorum suorum et successorum suorum, in perpetuum. ' -f- He also gave to the same convent, ' Omnes terras, quas Walteras de Gilling tenuit in feodo suo de Thirlestane et pastura incommuni de Thirlestane, ad quadraginta oves, sexaginta vaccas, et ad viginti equos.' Cartulary of Dryburgh Abbey, in the Advocates' Library. "From the following ballad, and from the family traditions referred to in the Maitland MSS., Auld Maitland appears to have had three sons ; but we learn from the latter authority, that only one * This old woman is still alive, and at present resides at Craig of Douglas, in Selkirkshire (1805). The mother of the " Ettrick Shepherd " is now deceased (1820). t There exists also an indenture, or bond, entered into by Patrick, Abbot of Kelsau, and his convent, referring to an engagement betwixt them and Sir Richard Maitland, and Sir William, his eldest son, concerning the lands of Hedderwicke and the pasturages of Thirlestane and Blythe. This Patrick was Abbot of Kelso betwixt 1258 and 1260. 2D 402 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. survived him, who was thence surnamed Burd-alane, which signifies either unequalled, or solitary. A 'Consolation,' addressed to Sir Richard Maitland of Lethington, a poet and scholar who flourished about the middle of the sixteenth century, and who gives name to the Maitland MSS., draws the following parallel betwixt his domestic misfortunes and those of the first Sir Richard, his great ancestor: ' Sic destanie and derfe devoring deid Oft his own nous in hazard put of auld; Bot your forbeiris, frovard fortunes steid And bitter blastes ay buir with breistis bauld; Luit wanweirdis work and waiter as they wald, Thair hardie hairtis, hawtie and heroik, For fortounes feid or force wald never fauld, But stormis withstand with stomak stout and stoik. ' Renowned Ri chert of your race record, Quhai prais and prowis cannot be exprest; Mair lustie lynyage nevir haid ane lord, For he begat the bauldest bairnis and best, Maist manful men, and madinis most modest, That ever wes syn Pyramus son of Troy, But piteouslie thai peirles herles a pest Bereft him all bot Buird-allane, a boy. ' Himselfe was aiget, his hous hang be a har, Duill and distres almaist to deid him draife; Yet Burd-allane, his only son and air, As wretched, vyiss, and valient, as the laive, Hi a hous uphail'd, quhilk ye with honor haive. So nature that the lyk invyand name, In kindlie cair dois kindly courage craif,* To follow him in fortoune and in fame. ' Richerd he wes. Richerd ye are also. And Maitland als, and magnanime ar ye; In als great age, als wrappit are in wo, Sewin sonst ye haid might contra vaill his time, Bot Burd-allane ye haive behind as he: The lord his linage so inlarge in lyne, And mony hundreith nepotis grie and grie J Sen Richert wes as hundreth yeiris are hyne.' An Consolator Ballad, to the Eicht Honor abill Sir Richert Maitland of Lethingtoune. Maitland MSS. in Library of Edinburgh University. " Sir William Mautlant, or Maitland, the eldest and sole surviving son of Sir Richard, ratified and confirmed, to the monks of Dryburgh, ' Omnes terras quas Dominus Ricardus de Mautlant pater suus fecit dictis monachis in territorio suo de Thirlestane. ' Sir William is supposed to have died about 1315. Crawford's Peerage. " Such were the heroes of the ballad. The castle of Thirlestane is * I. e.. Similar family distress demands the same family courage. t " Sewin sons " this must include sons-in-law ; for the last Sir Richard, like his predecessor, had only three sons, namely, I. William, the famous secretary of Queen Mary; II. Sir John, who alone survived him, and is the Burd-allane of the Consolation ; III. Thomas, a youth of great hopes, who died in Italy. But he had four daughters married to gentlemen of fortune. Pinkerton's List of Scottish Poeli, p. 114. J " Grie and grie: " in regular descent; from gre, French. AULD MAITLAND. 403 situated upon the Leader, near the town of Lauder. Whether the present building, which was erected by Chancellor Maitland, and improved by the Duke of Lauderdale, occupies the site of the ancient castle, I do not know ; but it still merits the epithet of a ' darksome house. ' I find no notice of the siege in history ; but there is nothing improbable in supposing that the castle, during the stormy period of the Baliol wars, may have held out against the English. The creation of a nephew of Edward I., for the pleasure of slaying him by the hand of young Maitland, is a poetical license ; * and may induce us to place the date of the composition about the reign of David II., or of his successor, when the real exploits of Maitland, and his sons, were in some degree obscured, as well as magnified, by the lapse of time. The inveterate hatred against the English, founded upon the usurpation of Edward I. , glows in every line of the ballad. " Auld Maitland is placed by Gawain Douglas, bishop of Dunkeld, among the popular heroes of romance, in his allegorical ' Palice of Honour:' I saw Raf Coilyear with his thrawin brow, Crabit John the Beif, and anld Cowkilbeis Sow: And how the wran cam out of Ailesay, And Piers Plowman, that meid his workmen few : Great Gowmacmorne, and Fin Mac Cowl, and how They suld be goddis in Ireland, as they say. Thair saw I Maitland upon anld beird gray, Robin Hude, and Gilbert with the quhite hand, How Hay of Nauchton flew in Madin land.' In this curious verse, the most noted romances, or popular histories of the poet's day, seem to be noticed. The preceding stanza describes the sports of the field ; and that which follows refers to the tricks of jugailrie ; so that the three verses comprehend the whole pastimes of the middle ages, which are aptly represented as the furniture of Dame Venus s chamber. The verse, referring to Maitland, is obviously cor- rupted ; the true reading was probably, ' with his auld beird gray. ' Indeed, the whole verse is full of errors and corruptions ; which is the greater pity, as it conveys information to be found nowhere else. "The descendant of Auld Maitland, Sir Kichard of Lethington, seems to have been frequently complimented on the popular renown of his great ancestor. We have already seen one instance ; and in an elegant copy of verses in the Maitland MSS., in praise of Sir Richard's seat of Lethington, which he had built, or greatly improved, this ob- vious topic of flattery does not escape the poet From the terms of his panegyric we learn, that the exploits of auld Sir Richard with the gray beard, and of his three sons, were ' sung in many a far countrie, albeit in rural rhyme;' from which we may infer, that they were narrated rather in the shape of a popular ballad, than in a romance of price. If this be the case, the song now published may have tindergone little variation since the date of the Maitland MSS. ; for, divesting the poem, in praise of Lethington, of its antique spelling, * Such liberties with the genealogy of monarchs were common to romancers, Henry the Minstrel makes Wallace slay more than one of King Edward's nephews; and Johnie Armstrong claims the merit of slaying a sister's son of Henry YIIL 404 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. it would run as smoothly, and appear as modern, as any verse in the following ballad. The lines alluded to are addressed to the castle of Lethington : 1 And happie art thou sic a place, That few thy maik are sene! But yit mair happie far that race To quhome thou dois pertene. Quha dois not knaw the Maitland bluid. The best in all this land? In quhilk snmtyme the honour stuid And worship of Scotland. ' Of auld Sir Richard, of that name, We have hard sing and say; Of his triumphant Eobill fame, And of his auld baird gray, And of his nobill sonnis three, Quhilk that time had no maik ; Quhilk maid Scotland renpunit be, And all England to quaik. 'Quhals luiflng praysis, made trewlie Efter that simple tyme, Ar sung in monie far countrie, Albeit in rural rhyme. And, gif 1 dar the treuth declair, And nane me fleitschour call, I can to him find na compair, And till his barnis all' " It is a curious circumstance, that this interesting tale, so often referred to by ancient authors, should be now recovered in so perfect a state ; and many readers may be pleased to see the following sen- sible observations, made by a person born in Ettrick Forest, in the humble situation of a shepherd : ' I am surprised to hear that this song is suspected by some to be a modern forgery ; the contrary will be best proved, by most of the old people, hereabouts, having a great part of it by heart. Many, indeed, are not aware of the manners of this country ; till this present age, the poor illiterate people, in these glens, knew of no other entertainment, in the long winter nights, than repeating, and listening to, the feats of their ancestors, recorded in songs, which I believe to be handed down, from father to son, for many generations, although, no doubt, had a copy been taken, at the end of every fifty years, there must have been some difference, oc- casioned by the gradual change of language. I believe it is thus that very many ancient songs have been gradually modernized to the common ear ; while, to the connoisseur, they present marks of their genuine antiquity.' Letter to the Editor, from MR. JAMES HOGG. To the observations of my ingenious correspondent I have nothing to add, but that, in this, and a thousand other instances, they accurately coincide with my personal knowledge." The notes to the introduction and ballad are Sir Walter Scott's. 1 THERE lived a king in southern land, King Edward hight his name; Unwordily he wore the crown, Till fifty years were gane. AULD MAITLAND. 405 2 He had a sister's son o's ain, Was large of blood and bane; And afterward, when he came up, Young Edward hight his name.* 3 One day he came before the king, And kneel'd low on his knee : " A boon, a boon, my good uncle, I crave to ask of thee! 4 " At our lang wars, in fair Scotland, I fain ha'e wish'd to be; If fifteen hundred waled t wight men You'll grant to ride with me." 5 " Thou shall ha'e thae, thou shall ha'e mae; I say it sickerlie; And I myself, an auld gray man, Array 'd your host shall see." 6 King Edward rade, King Edward ran I wish him dool and pyne! J Till he had fifteen hundred men Assembled on the Tyne. 7 And thrice as many at Berwicke Were all for battle bound, [Who, marching forth with false Dunbar, A ready welcome found.] fl 8 They lighted on the banks of Tweed, And blew their coals sae het, And fired the Merse and Teviotdale, All in an evening late. 9 As they fared up o'er Lammermoor, They burn'd baith up and down, Until they came to a darksome house, Some call it Leader-Town. * Were it possible to find an authority for calling this personage Edmund, we should he a step nearer history; for a brother, though not a nephew of Edward I.. BO named, died in Gascony, during an unsuccessful campaign against the French, Knighton, lib. iii., cap. 8. t "Waled:" chosen. $ Thus Spencer, in "Mother Huberd'a Tale: " "Thus is the ape become a shepherd swain, And the false fox his dog, God give them pain'. " } North Berwick, according to some reciters. 1 These two lines have been inserted by Mr. Hogg to complete the verse. Dunbar, the fortress of St. Patrick, Earl of March, was too often opened to the English, by the treachery of that baron, during the reign of Edward L 406 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 10 " Wha bauds this house?" young Edward cried, "Or wha gi'est o'er to me?" A gray-hair'd knight set up his head, And crackit right crousely: 11 " Of Scotland's king I baud my house; He pays me meat and fee ; And I will keep my gude auld house, While my house will keep me." 12 They laid their sowies to the wall, With mony a heavy peal; But he threw o'er to them agen Baith pitch and tar barrel. 13 With springalds, stanes, and gads of aim, Atnang them fast he threw; Till mony of the Englishmen About the wall he slew. 14 Full fifteen days that braid host lay, Sieging Auld Maitland keen; Syne they ha'e left him, hail and feir, Within his strength of stane. 15 Then fifteen barks, all gaily good, Met them upon a day, Which they did lade with as much spoil As they cou'd bear away. 16 "England's our ain by heritage; And what can us withstand, Now we ha'e conquer'd fair Scotland, With buckler, bow, and brand? " 17 Then they are on to the land of France, Where auld king Edward lay, Burning baith castle, tower, and town, That he met in his way. 18 Until he came unto that town, Which some call Billop-Grace : * There were Auld Maitland 's sons, all three, Learning at school, alas ! *If this be a Flemish or Scottish corruption for Ville de Grace, in Normandy, that tow n was never besieged by Edward I., whose wars in France were confined to the province of Gascony. The rapid change of scene, from Scotland to France, excites a suspicion, that some verses may have been lost in this place. AULD MAITLAND. 407 19 The eldest to the youngest said, " Oh, see ye what I see? If all be true yon standard says,* We're fatherless all three. 20 " For Scotland 's conquer'd up and down ; Landmeh we'll never be ! Now, will you go, my brethren two, And try some jeopardy? " 21 Then they ha'e saddled twa black horse, Twa black horse and a gray ; And they are on to king Edward's host, Before the dawn of day. 22 When they arrived before the host, They hover'd on the lay : " Wilt thou lend me our king's standard, To bear a little way? " 23 "Where wast thou bred? where wast thou born? Where, or in what countrie? " " In north of England I was born; " (It needed him to lee.) 24 " A knight me gat, a ladye bore, I am a squire of high renown ; I well may bear't to any king That ever yet wore crown." 25 " He ne'er came of an Englishman, Had sic an e'e or bree ; But thou art the likest Auld Maitland, That ever I did see. 26 " But sic a gloom on ae browhead, Grant I ne'er see again! For mony of our men he slew, And mony put to pain." 27 When Maitland heard his father's name, An angry man was he; Then, lifting up a gilt dagger, Hung low down by his knee, 28 He stabb'd the knight the standard bore, He stabb'd him cruellie; * Edward had quartered the arms of Scotland with his own. 408 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. Then caught the standard by the neuk, And fast away rode he.* 29 "Now, is't na time, brothers," he cried, " Now, is't na time to flee ? " "Ay, by my sooth ! " they baith replied, " We'll bear you companye." 30 The youngest turn'd him in a path, And drew a burnish'd brand, And fifteen of the foremost slew, Till back the lave did stand. 31 He spurr'd the gray into the path. Till baith his sides they bled : " Gray ! thou maun carry me away, Or my life lies in wad ! " 32 The captain lookit o'er the wall, About the break of day; There he beheld the three Scots lads Pursued along the way. 33 " Pull up portcullize ! down draw-brig I My nephews are at hand ; And they shall lodge with me to-night, In spite of all England." 34 Whene'er they came within the yate, They thrust their horse them frae,f And took three lang spears in their hands, Saying "Here shall come nae mae!" 35 And they shot out, and they shot in, Till it was fairly day; When mony of the Englishmen About the draw-brig lay. 36 Then they ha'e yoked the carts and wains, To ca' their dead away, And shot auld dykes abune the lave, In gutters where they lay. Thus, Sir "Walter Mauny, retreating into the fortress of Hanyboute, after a successful sally, was pursued by the besiegers, who " ranne after them lyke madde men; than sir Gualtier saide, Let me never be beloved wyth my lady, wythout I have a course wyth one of these followers!" and turning, with his lance in the rest, he overthrew several of his pursuers, before he condescended to continue hie retreat. Froissart. t " The lord of Hangest (pursued by the English) came so to the barryrs (of Van- dpnne) that were open, as his happe was, and so entred in thereat, and then toke his speare, and turned him to defence, right valiantly." Froissart, voL i., chap. 367. AULD MAITLAND. 409 37 The king, at his pavilion door, Was heard aloud to say : " Last night, three of the lads of France My standard stole away. 38 " With a fause tale, disguised they came, And with a fauser trayne; And to regain my gaye standard, These men were all down slayne." 39 " It ill befits," the youngest said, " A crowned king to lee ; But, or that I taste meat and drink, Reproved shall he be." 40 He went before king Edward straight, And kneel'd low on his knee : " I wou'd ha'e leave, my lord," he said, " To speak a word with thee." 41 The king he turn'd him round about, And wistna what to say : Quo' he, " Man, thou 's ha'e leave to speak, Though thou should speak all day." 42 " Ye said that three young lads of France Your standard stole away, With a fause tale and fauser trayne, And mony men did slay; 43 " But we are nane the lads of France, Nor e'er pretend to be : We are three lads of fair Scotland, Auld Maitland's sons are we. 44 " Nor is there men in all your host Daur fight us three to three." " Now, by my sooth," young Edward said, "Weel fitted ye shall be! 45 " Piercy shall with the eldest fight, And Ethert Lunn with thee; William of Lancaster the third, And bring your fourth to me I 46 " Remember, Piercy, aft the Scot Has cower'd beneath thy hand; * For every drap of Maitland blood, I'll gi'e a rig of land." * Modern, to supply an imperfect stanza. 410 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 47 He clanked Piercy o'er the head A deep wound and a sair, Till the best blood of his body- Came running down his hair. 48 " Now, I've slayne ane; slay ye the twa ; And that's gude companye; And if the twa shou'd slay ye baith, Ye'se get nae help frae me." * 49 But Ethert Lunn, a baited bear, Had many battles seen ; He set the youngest wonder sair, Till the eldest he grew keen. 50 " I am nae king, nor nae sic thing: f My word it shanna stand! For Ethert shall a buffet bide, Come he beneath my brand." 51 He clankit Ethert o'er the head A deep wound and a sair, Till the best blood in his body Came running o'er his hair. 52 " Now, I've slayne twa; slay ye the ane; Isna that gude companye? And though the ane shou'd slay ye baith, Ye'se get nae help of me." 53 The twa-some they ha'e slayne the ane, They maul'd him cruellie ; J Then hung him over the draw-brig, That all the host might see. 54 They rade their horse, they ran their horse, Then hover'd on the lee : " We be three lads of fair Scotland, That fain wou'd fighting see." * According to the laws of chivalry, laws which were also for a long time observed in duels, when two or more persons were engaged on each side, he, who first conquered his immediate antagonist, was at liberty, if he pleased, to come to the assistance of his companions. t Maitland's apology for retracting his promise to stand neuter is as curious as his doing so is natural. The unfortunate John of France was wont to say, that if truth and faith were banished from all the rest of the universe, they should still reside in the breast and the mouth of kings. t This has a vulgar sound, but is actually a phrase of romance. Tant frappant et maillent lex deux vassaux 1'un sur 1'autre, quo leurs heauines, et leurs hauberts, sont tous cassez et rompuz. La Fleur des Battailes. AULD MAITLAND. 411 55 This boasting when young Edward heard, An angry man was he : " I'll take yon lad, I'll bind yon lad, And bring him bound to thee ! " 56 " Now, God forbid," king Edward said, " That ever thou shou'd try! Three worthy leaders we ha'e lost, And thou the fourth wou'd lie. 57 " If thou shou'dst hang on yon draw-brig, Blythe wou'd I never be." But, with the poll-axe in his hand, Upon the brig sprang he.* 58 The first stroke that young Edward ga'e, He struck with might and main; He clove the Maitland's helmet stout, And bit right nigh the brain. 59 When Maitland saw his ain blood fall, An angry man was he;"j- He let his weapon frae him fall, And at his throat did flee. * The sieges, during the Middle Agea, frequently afforded opportunity for single combat, of which the scene was usually the drawbridge, or barriers, of the town. The former, as the more desperate place of battle, was frequently chosen by knights, who chose to break a lance for honour and their ladies' love. In 1387, Sir "William Douglas, Lord of Nithsdale, upon the drawbridge of the town of Carlisle, consisting of two beams, hardly two feet in breadth, encountered and slew, first, a single champion of England, and afterwards two, who attacked him together. Forduni Scolichronicon, lib. xiv., chap. 5L " He brynt the suburbys of Carlele, And at the bareris he faucht sa wel, That on thare bryg he slew a man, The wychtast that in the town wes than; Quhare, on a plank of twa feet brade He stude, and swa gude payment made, That he feld twa stout fechteris, And but skath went till his feres." Wyntoum's Cronykil, book ix., chap. 8. These combats at the barriers, or palisades, which formed the outer fortification of a town, were so frequent, that the mode of attack and defence was early taught to the future knight, and continued long to be practised in the games of chivalry. The custom, therefore, of defying the inhabitants of a besieged town to this sort of contest, was highly fashionable in the Middle Ages; and an army could hardly appear before a place, without giving rise to a variety of combats at the barriers, which were, in general, conducted without any unfair advantage being taken on either part. t There is a saying, that a Scotchman fights best after seeing his own blood. Camerarius has contrived to hitch this foolish proverb into a national compliment, for he quotes it as an instance of the persevering gallantry of his countrymen. " Si in pugna proprium effundi sanguinem vidissent, non statim prostrato animo, con- cedebant, sed irato potius in hostes velut furentes omnibus viribus incurrebant." 412 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 60 And thrice about he did him swing, Till on the ground he light, Where he has halden young Edward, Tho 1 he was great in might. 61 " Now let him up," king Edward cried, " And let him come to me; And for the deed that thou hast done, Thou shalt ha'e earldomes three!" 62 " It 's ne'er be said in France, nor e'er In Scotland, when I'm hame, That Edward once lay under me,* And e'er g^t up again!" 63 He pierced him through and through the heart, He maul'd him cruellie; Then hung him o'er the draw-brig, Beside the other three. 64 " Now take frae me that feather-bed, Make me a bed of strae ! I wish I hadna lived this day, To make my heart sae wae. 65 " If I were ance at London Tow'r, Where I was wont to be, J never mair shou'd gang frae hame, Till borne on a bier-tree. SIR WILLIAM WALLACE. The unforttmate accident which deprived Alexander III. of life, on the 16th of March, 1285-6, opened the floodgates of civil broil in Scotland. These were temporarily closed, but only to burst again with greater violence, on the death of Margaret, the Maiden of Norway, the last lineal descendant of the ancient Scotish kings, A.D. 1290. Well, therefore, might the early poet sing the doleful ditty, " Quhen Alysandyr, oure kyng, wes dede, That Scotland led in luwe and le, Away wes sons of ale and brede, Of wyne and wax, of gamyu and gle. * Some reciters repeat it thus, "That Englishman lay under me," which is in the true spirit of Blind Harry, who makes Wallace say, " I better like to see the Southeron die, Than gold or land, that they can gi'e to me." In slaying Edward, Maitland acts pitilessly, but not contrary to the laws of arms. which did not enjoin a knight to show mercy to his antagonist, until he yielded him, " rescue or no rescue." SIB WILLIAM WALLACE. 413 " Oure gold wes changyd Into lede. Cryst, borne in-to virgynyte, Succour Scotland, and remede, That Btad is in perplexyt&" * Well might the Scotish nation stand aghast as it beheld the mus- tering hosts marshal themselves in fierce array under the banner of one or other of the numerous aspirants after the vacant throne, and as it witnessed the wily and unprincipled policy of the able but unscrupulous English king, as such was by him steadily and ruth- lessly developed. It was after this policy had culminated in the defeat, disgrace, and imprisonment of Baliol, the vassal king when the fortune of Scotland was at the lowest ebb, and her position as an independent nation seemed gone for ever it was then that Wallace, one of the greatest and noblest patriots the world has ever seen, was raised up, like one of the deliverers and judges of the Hebrew people of old ; and it was this fondly-revered champion of his country's liberty who, by the might of his strong right arm, and the force of his valiant and in- domitable example, rolled back the tide of Southern invasion, leaving Scotsmen as God created them to be freemen. Modern critics may sneer and cavil at the apparently superhuman exploits of the Scotish champion, as sung by the Scotish Homer ; but the fact remains, that Wallace, with his small but trusty band of kindred-souled compatriots, baffled the skill and might of one of the ablest monarchs at the head of one of the bravest and most powerful nations in the world ; and this in spite of the jealousy, treason, and mendacity of the Scotish nobles, who thwarted him to the utmost of their power, and by one of whom he was ultimately betrayed into the hands of his own and his country's enemy. The name of the " false Menteith." who basely thus, for English gold, did Judas-like betray " his country's savioui-," is, and ever shall be, execrated and made a byeword of reproach as long as a Scotsman lives and breathes. It forms no part of our plan to follow the patriot-martyr through the chequered events of his career, until its fatal termination on an English scaffold, 23d August, 1305, after which his head was placed on a pole on London bridge, and the quarters of his dismembered body sent respectively to Newcastle, Berwick, Perth, and Aberdeen. The crowned murderer, no doubt, exulted in the thought that Scotish independence had perished with his victim ; but it was not so, for "Freedom's battle once begun, Bequeath'd by bleeding sire to son, Tho' baffled oft, is ever won." And thus " From Wallace' blood, like precious seed-drops shed, Sprang up fresh patriots in his steps to tread." Nay, the avenger was even then within the gates of the English king, in the person of Robert Bruce, who, on the 27th of March, 1306, was * Winton's Cronykil, voL i., p. 401. The elegiac song thus preserved is supposed to be the earliest specimen of the Scotish, as distinguished from the Gaelic language. But if Sir Walter Scott he correct in ascribing the authorship of Sir Tristrem to "Thomas the Rhymer," that romance would of course take precedence. 414 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. crowned at Scone as King of Scotland, and who, after many severe and trying struggles and vicissitudes, fixed the liberty and indepen- dence of his country on a firm and permanent basis by the great and crowning victory of Bannockburn. "The industry of Henry the Minstrel has," says Motherwell, " done justice to the history of the Patriot [Wallace] ; and it is believed that in his heroick poem * will be found incorporated all the detached songs, founded on real or fabulous incident, which were living on the breath of tradition, regarding the hero at the time Henry lived. The disappearance of these detached songs can be ascribed to no other cause than the extreme popularity which the work of Henry has acquired. I have heard it as a byeword, in some parts of Stirlingshire, that a collier's library consists but of four books : the Confession of Faith, the Bible, a bunch of ballads, and ' Sir William Wallace : ' the first for the gude-wife, the second for the gude-man, the third for their daughter, and the last for the son a selection indicative of no mean taste in these grim moldwarps of humanity. " No ballads relative to the Bruce and his chivalry exist, the celebrity of Barbour's historick poem f having, in the course of time, wholly swept their memory away. That one, who, in his own person and fortunes, realized the most perfect picture we have of a ' Knight adventurous.' and who seems himself to have had a very lively relish for the compositions of the minstrel muse,:}: should fail being commemorated in song, is inconsistent with probability. We know that a herald, in a solemn feast, being desired by Edward of Carnarvon to say, what three knights then living were most approved in arms, unhesitatingly named Bruce as one of the number. The minstrel and the herald were at that period, oftentimes, one and the same profession. When Barbour wrote, ballads relative to this period appear to have been common ; for the poet, speaking of certain ' Thre worthi poyntis of wer,' omits the particulars of the 'Thrid, which fell into Esdaill,' being a victory gained by ' Schyr Johne the Soullis' over ' Schyr Andrew Hardclay,' for this reason : 'I will nocht rehers the maner, For wha sa likes thai may her, Young wemen quhen thai will play, Sing it aniang thaim ilk day.' " 'The monkishe rymes, truffes, and roundes,' made alternately by the Scottish or English, as either side prevailed, and of which some specimens are preserved in the chronicles of the latter, do not properly belong to the class of narrative ballads. These rhymes, it * Wallace, Dr. Jamieson's edition, reprint, Glasgow, 1869. t The Bruce, Dr. Jamieson's edition, reprint, Glasgow, 1869. t " Barbour gives an interesting account of him, in one instance comforting his followers by reading to them portions of the Romance of Ferumbrace, and on another occasion, of being accustomed to tell them 'Auld storyis of men that wer Set in tyll assayis ser.' " MotherwelL The Scotish portion of the satirical songs or pasquils here referred to, may be found quoted in the companion volume, Songs of Scotland, Chronologically Arranged, Introduction, pp. iiL and iv. SIR WILLIAM WALLACE. 415 may be stated, are written in what is called the 'ryme cowee,' and which appears to have borne a marked resemblance to that descrip- tion of metrical abuse styled ' Flyting ' by our Scottish Makers, of which we have some notable examples in the poeticl encounters of Dunbar and Kennedy, *and Montgomery and Hume, "a Motherwell's Minstrelsy, Introduction, pp. xlvi.-viii. Now that " these cruel wars are over," and Scotland united with England and Ireland, on free and equal terms, as portions of one great nation, let us trust that every Englishman, Irishman, ay, and every American yea, every lover of fair play and liberty all the world over will respond to the poetic prayer of the Scotish bard, Robert Burns : " O Thou! who pour'd the patriotic tide That stream'd thro' "Wallace's undaunted heart; Who dared, so nobly, stem tyrannic pride, Or nobly die, the second glorious part, (The patriot's God peculiarly thou art, His friend, inspirer, guardian, and reward!) Oh, never, never Scotia's realm desert : But still the patriot, and the patriot bard, In bright succession raise, her ornament and guard." J The two ballads which follow appear to be derived respectivel from Blind Harry's Wallace, books iv. and v. Of that first given, there are two versions, namely : I. " Sir William Wallace," in the Thistle of Scotland, p f 100. II. "Wallace and his Leman," in Buchan's Ancient Ballads, &c., voL ii., p. 226. The text is taken from version I., with the exception of stanza 15, which is given from version II., as are also other stanzas noted under the text as variations. Both conclude with portions of the ballad which comes next in order, and of which fuller versions appeared as under : I. In Johnson's Musical Museum, vol. v., p. 498. As com- municated by Burns. IL In the Illustrations or Notes to Johnson's Museum, p. 458*, as given by Mr. D. Laing, from a copy which " appeared in a common chap form, along with some Jacobite ballads, printed about the year 1750." III. Under the title of "Willie Wallace," in Buchan's Glean- ings, p. 114, as " taken down from an itinerant tinker and gypsey." The same ballad is also given by Jamieson and by Finlay, in their respective collections, and by Allan Cunningham, with editorial additions and embellishments, in The Songs of Scotland. Mr. Buchan's version (III.) is the one here printed under the title of " Gude Wallace ; " but it has received a few emendations. * See Dunbar's Poems, edited by Mr. David Laing. t See Watson's Collection of Scots Poems, reprint, Glasgow, 1869. t "The Cotter's Saturday Night," last stanza. 416 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 1 WOU'D ye hear of William Wallace, And seek him as he goes, Into the land of Lanark, Ainang his mortal foes ? 2 There were fifteen English sogers Unto his ladye came, Said " Gi'e us William Wallace, That we may have him slain. 3 " Wou'd ye gi'e William Wallace, That we may have him slain ? And ye'se be wedded to a lord, The best in Christendeem." 4 " This very night, at seven, Brave Walla.ce will come in, And he'll come to my chamber door, Without or dread or din." 5 The fifteen English sogers Around the house did wait ; And four brave Southron foragers Stood hie upon the gait. 6 That very night, at seven, Brave Wallace he came in, And he came to his ladye's bow'r Withouten dread or din.* 7 When she beheld brave Wallace, And stared him in the face " Ohon, alas!" said that ladye, " This is a woeful case. 8 " For I this night have sold you, This night you must be ta'en ; And I'm to be wedded to a lord, The best in Christendeem." 9 " Do you repent," said Wallace, "The ill you've done to me?" " Ay, that I do," said that ladye, " And will do till I dee. * Mr. Buchan's version begins " Wallace yight, tipon a night, Came riding o'er the linn; And he is to his leman's bow'r. And tirl'd at the pin." SIR WILLIAM WALLACE. 417 10 " Ay, that I do," said that ladye, "And will do ever still; And for the ill I've done to you, Let me burn upon a hill." 11 " Now, God forfend," says brave Wallace, "I should be so unkind; Whatever I am to Scotland's faes, I'm aye a woman's friend. 12 " Will ye gi'e me your gown, your gown, Your gown but and your kirtle, Your petticoat of bonnie brown, And belt about my middle? 13 " I'll take a pitcher in ilka hand, And do me to the well; They'll think I'm one of your maidens, Or think it is yoursel'." 14 She has gi'en him her gown, her gown, Her petticoat and kirtle ; Her broadest belt with silver clasps, To bind about his middle. 15 [Then he ga'e her a loving kiss, The tear dropp'd frae his e'e; Says " Fare ye well for evermair, Your face I'll nae mair see."]* 16 He 's ta'en a pitcher in ilka hand. And done him to the well; They thought him one of her maidens, They kenn'd 'twas not hersel'.f 17 Said one of the Southron foragers, " See ye yon lusty dame? I wou'd nae gi'e meikle to thee, neebor, To bring her back again." 18 Then all the Southrons follow'd him, They follow'd him all four; But he has drawn his trusty brand, And slain them pair by pair. * Inserted from Mr. Buchan's version. t " She dress'd him in her ain claithing, And frae her house he came, "Which made the Englishmen admire To see this stalwart dame." Buchan's version. 2E 418 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. GUDE WALLACE. 1 WALLACE was in the high Highlands, Neither meat nor drink got he ; Said "Fa 1 * me life, or fa' me death, Now to some town I maun be." 2 He has put on his short cleiding, And on his short cleiding put he; Says " Fa' me life, or fa' me death, Now to Saint Johnstoun's f I maun be." 3 Then he cross'd o'er the river Tay, On to the North Inch steppit he ; And he was 'ware of a weel-faur'd May, Was washing there aneath a tree. 4 " What news, what news, ye weel-faur'd May, What news ha'e ye this day to me? What news, what news, ye weel-faur'd May, What news ha'e ye in the South countrie?" 5 " Nae news, nae news, ye gentle knight, Nae news ha'e I this day to thee ; But fifteen lords in yon hostler-house, Waiting Gude Wallace for to see." 6 " If I had but in my pocket The worth of one single pennie, I wou'd go to the hostler-house, These fifteen Englishmen to see." 7 She put her hand in her pocket, And she has pull'd out half-a-crown ; Says " Take ye that, ye belted knight, And with it pay your lawin' down." 8 As he went frae the weel-faur'd May, A beggar bauld I wot met he, Was cover'd with a clouted J cloak, And in his hand a trusty tree. 9 " What news, what news, ye silly auld man, What news ha'e ye this day to gi'e? What news, what news, ye silly auld man, What news ha'e ye in the South countrie?" * "Fa 1 :" befalL t Perth. t " Clouted :" patched. GUDE WALLACE. 419 10 " 111 news, ill news, ye belted knight, 111 news ha'e I to tell to thee ; For there 's fifteen lords in yon hostler-house, Waiting Gude Wallace for to see." 11 " Ye'll lend to me your clouted cloak, That covers you frae head to knee, And I'll gang to the hostler-house, To ask of them for some supplie." 12 Now he 's gane to the West-muir wood, And there he pull'd a trusty tree, And then he 's on to the hostler-house, Asking them there for charitie. 13 Down the stair the captain comes, Aye the puir man for to see; " If ye be a captain as gude as ye look, Ye'll gi'e a puir man some supplie." 14 " Where were ye born, ye crooked carle? Where were ye born? in what countrie?" " In fair Scotland here I was born, Crooked carle, as ye call me." 15 " Oh, I wou'd gi'e ye fifty pounds Of gold and of the white monie; Oh, I wou'd gi'e ye fifty pounds, If the traitor Wallace ye'd let me see." 16 " Tell down your monie," said Gude Wallace, " Tell down your monie, if it be gude; For I'm sure I ha'e it in my pow'r, And I never had a better bode.* 17 " Tell down your monie, if it be gude, And let me see if it be fine ; I'm sure I ha'e it in my pow'r To bring the traitor, Wallace, in." 18 The monie was told down on the table, Silver and gold of pounds tiftie ; " Now, here I stand," said Gude Wallace, " And what ha'e ye to say to me ? " 19 He fell'd the captain where he stood, With a downright stroke upon the floor ; He slew the rest around the room, And ask'd if there were any more. * "Bode:" offer. 420 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 20 " Come, cover the table," said Gude Wallace, " Come, cover the table, now make haste ; For it will soon be three lang days Since I a bit of meat did taste." 21 The table it was scarcely cover'd, Nor yet had he sat down to dine, Till fifteen more of the English lords Surrounded the house where he was in. 22 " Come out, come out, thou traitor, Wallace, This is the day that ye maun dee ! " " I lippen* nae sae little to God," he says, " Altho' I be but little wordie."f 23 The gudewife she ran but J the floor, And aye the gudeman he ran ben; From eight o'clock till four at noon, Wallace has kill'd full thirty men. 24 He put his faes in sic a swither, That five of them he stickit dead ; Five of them he drown'd in the river, And five he hung in the West-muir wood. 25 Then he is on to the North Inch gane, Where the May was washing tenderly : " Now, by my sooth," said Gude Wallace, " It 's been a sair day's wark to me ! " 26 He 'a put his hand into his pocket, And he has pull'd out twenty pound; Says " Take ye that, ye weel-faured May, For the gude luck of your half-crown! " THE BATTLE OF KOSLINE. Copied from a Glasgow chap-book, " printed by J. and M. Robert- son, Saltmarket, 1803." It is prefaced thus : " The famous battle of Rosline, fought on the plains of Eosline, Anno Dom. 1303, [| about five miles south of Edinburgh, where 10,000 * " Lippen : " trust t This stanza is taken from Jamieson's version. t "But," the outer, and "ben," the inner apartment of a house or cottage. 5 ''Swither:" perplexity. || "Langtoft is open and candid as to the entire defeat of the English." For " the curious and minute account given by " him, see his work, vol. ii., p. 319. THE BATTLE OF ROSLINE. 421 Scots, led by Sir John Cummin and Sir Simon Fraser, defeated in three battles, in one day, 30,000 of their [English] enemies." Mr. Maidment, in his Scotish Ballads and Songs, p. 148, prints the same ballad from one "dated Edinburgh, 1785." They agree minutely; but the Glasgow edition has three lines more than the other; which three lines are necessary, in order to preserve the uniformity of the stanzas. Some of the early English historians state that Wallace led the Scotish army which achieved this triad of victories ; but others, as also the Scotish historians, make no mention of him in connection therewith. The English armies seem to have been commanded respectively by John de Segrave; by Ralph de Manton, called, from his office, Ralph the Cofferer ; and by Sir Kobert Neville all of whom appear to have fallen. Some of the Scotish nobles then in France, on hearing of this exploit, " addressed a letter to the governor and nobility of Scotland, in which they exhorted them to be of good courage, and to persevere in vindicating the liberties of their country. ' You would greatly rejoice,' they say in this letter, ' if you were aware what a weight of honour this last conflict with the English has conferred upon you throughout the world.' " * Sir Simon Fraser, the hero of this achievement, and compatriot of Wallace, was ultimately taken prisoner near Stirling, A.D. 1306. " He was carried to London, heavily ironed, with his legs tied under his horse's belly, and, as he passed through the city, a garland of periwinkles was in mockery placed upon his head. . . Fraser was tried and condemned, after which he suffered the death of a traitor, with all its circumstances of refined cruelty. He was hanged, cut down when still living, and beheaded ; his bowels were then torn out and burned,. and his head fixed beside that of Wallace, upon London Bridge, "f "A long ballad against the Scotch, written upon the execution of Sir Simon Fraser, 1306, from a manuscript of that time, Harl. Lib. 2253, f. v. 59," appears in Ancient Scotish Poems (printed by Pinker- ton, from the Maitland MSS.), vol. ii., Appendix, article iv., p. 488. 1 LEAVE off your tittle tattle, And I'll tell you of a battle, Where claymore and targe did rattle, At Rosline on the Lee : Ten thousand Scottish laddies, Drest in their tartan plaidies, With blue bonnets and cockadies A pleasant sight to see. * "Kymer, Feed., vol. i., new edit., p. 955. June 8, 1303," as quoted by Tytler, History of Scotland, voL i. (new edit., 1866), p. 172. t Tytler's History of Scotland, voL i., p. 217, edit. 18G6 ; as given on the authority of Matthew Westminster. 422 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 2 Led * by Sir Simon Fraser, Who was as bold as Csesar, Great Alexander never Could exceed that Hero bold.f And by brave Sir John Cummin. When he saw the foes a-coming, Set the bagpipes all a-bumming, " Stand firm, my hearts of gold ! " 3 Ten thousand English advancing, See how their arms are glancing ; We'll set them all a-dancing At Rosline on the Lee. Like furies our brave Highland men Most boldly they engaged them, On field they durst no longer stand, They soon began to flee. 4 They rush'd into the battle, Made sword and targe to rattle, Which made their foes to startle They fell dead on the ground. Our army gave a loud huzza, Our Highland lads have won the day, On field they | durst no longer stay; See how the cowards run ! 5 This battle was no sooner over, Than ten thousand of the other Came marching in good order, Most.boldly for to fight. Their colours were displaying, Their horse foaming and braying, Their generals are saying, " We'll soon put them to flight." C But our bowmen gave a volley, Made them repent their folly ; They soon turn'd melancholy, And stagger'd to and fro. * The chap copies read " commanded." t The late Mr. MacGregor Simpson, Scotish vocalist, dressed " in the garb of old Gaul," used to sing this piece with bagpipe prelude or accompaniment If the writer remembers rightly, it was sung with variations, the third and fourth lines of stanza 2 being changed to " Or as old Nebuchadnezzar, Those heroes stout and bold." Or something very similar. t The enemy. THE BATTLE OF ROSLINE. 423 Our spearmen then engaged, Their rage they soon assuaged,* Like lions our heroes raged, Death dealt at every blow. 7 For one hour and a quarter There was a bloody slaughter, Till the enemies cry'd quarter,*}" And in confusion flee. Our general says "Don't pursue; Ten thousand more are come in view; Take courage, lads, our hearts are true, And beat your enemy ! " 8 Then thinking for to cross us, They rallying all their forces, Both of foot and horses, To make the last attempt. The Scots cry'd out with bravery, " We disdain their English knavery, J We'll ne'er be brought to slavery, Till our last blood is spent." 9 With fresh courage they did engage, And manfully made for the charge, With their broadsword and their targe, Most boldly then they stood. The third battle it was very sore, Thousands lay reeking in their gore, The like was never seen before, The fields did swim with blood. 10 The English could no longer stay, In great confusion fled away, And sore they do lament the day That they came there to fight. Cummin cry'd " Chase them, do not spare, Quick as the hound doth chase the hare;" And many were ta'en prisoners [there], That day upon the flight. 11 The Douglas, Campbell, and the Hay, The Gordons from the water Spey, So boldly as they fought that day With the brave Montgomery. * This and the preceding line do not appear in Mr. Maidment's copy. t This, it appears, they did not receive, the Scots being too numerically weak to hold prisoners and flght the new army, t This line does not appear in Mr. Maidment's capy. The chap copies read " one" in place of " were." 424 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. The Kers and Murrays of renown, The Keiths, Boyds, and Hamiltons, They brought their foes down to the ground, And fought with bravery. 12 Sound, sound the music, sound it, Let hills and dales rebound it. Fill up the glass, and round wi't, In praise of our heroes bold. If Scotsmen were always true, We'd make our enemies to rue; But, alas ! we're not all true blue, As we were in days of old. BATTLE OF OTTERBOURNE. "The Scottish edition," from Scott's Minstrelsy, vol. i., p. 354, " The following ballad of the battle of Otterbourne, being essentially different from that which is published in the Reliques of Ancient Poetry, vol. i., and being obviously of Scottish composition, claims a place in the present collection. The particulars of that noted action are related by Froissart, with the highest encomiums upon the valour of the combatants on each side. James, Earl of Douglas, with his brother, the Earl of Murray, in 1387, invaded Northumberland, at the head of 3,000 men, while the Earls of Fife and Strathern, sons to the king of Scotland, ravaged the western borders of England, with a still more numerous army. Douglas penetrated as far as Newcastle, where the renowned Hotspur lay in garrison. In a skirmish before the walls, Percy's lance, with the pennon, or guidon, attached to it, was taken by Douglas as most authors affirm, in a personal en- counter betwixt the two heroes. The earl shook the pennon aloft, and swore he would carry it as his spoil into Scotland, and plant it upon his castle at Dalkeith. ' That, ' answered Percy, ' shalt thou never! ' Accordingly, having collected the forces of the marches, to a number equal, or (according to the Scottish historians) much superior, to the army of Douglas, Hotspur made a night attack upon the Scottish camp at Otterbourne, about thirty -two miles from New- castle. An action took place, fought by moonlight, with uncommon gallantry and desperation. At length, Douglas, armed with an iron mace, which few but he could wield, rushed into the thickest of the English battalions, followed only by his chaplain, and two squires of his body.* Before his followers could come up, their brave leader was stretched on the ground, with three mortal wounds ; his squires lay dead by his side ; the priest alone, armed with a lance, was pro- * Their names were Kobert Hart and Simon Glendinning. The chaplain was Bichard Lundie, afterwards archdeacon of Aberdeen. Godwoft. Hart, according to Wintoun, was a knight That historian says, no one knew how Douglas fell. BATTLE OF OTTEEBOURNE. 425 tecting his master from further injury. ' I die like my forefathers,' said the expiring hero, ' in a field of battle, and not on a bed of sick- ness. Conceal my death, defend my standard,* and avenge my fall! it is an old prophecy, that a dead man shall gain a field, t and I hope it will be accomplished this night.' Godscroft. With these words he expired ; and the fight was renewed with double obstinacy around his body. When morning appeared, however, victory began to incline to the Scottish side. Ralph Percy, brother to Hotspur, was made prisoner by the Earl Mareschal, and shortly after, Harry Percy J himself was taken by Lord Montgomery. The number of captives, according to Wintoun, nearly equalled that of the victors. Upon this the English retired, and left the Scots masters of the dear- bought honours of the field. But the Bishop of Durham approaching at the head of a body of fresh forces, not only checked the pursuit of the victors, but made prisoners of some of the stragglers, who had urged the chase too far. The battle was not, however, renewed, as the Bishop of Durham did not venture to attempt the rescue of Percy. The field was fought 15th August, 1388. Fordun, Froissart, Holm- shed, Godscroft. "The ground on which this memorable engagement took place still retains the name of Battle-Cross. A cross, erroneously termed Percy's Cross, has been erected upon the spot where the gallant Earl of Douglas is supposed to have fallen. The Castle of Otterbourne, which was besieged by Douglas, with its demesne lands, . . . [and] a neighbouring eminence called Fawdoun Hill, on which may yet be discerned the vestiges of the Scottish camp, agreeing with the des- cription of the ballad, 'They lighted high on Otterbourn.' Earl's Meadows, containing a fine spring, called Percy's Well, are a part of the same grounds, and probably derive their name from the battle. The camp on Fawdoun Hill is a mile distant from Battle- Cross ; but it must be remembered that the various changes of position and of fortune, during so long and fierce an engagement between two considerable armies, must have extended the conflict over all the vicinity. " The ballad published in the Eeliques, is avowedly an English pro- duction, and the author, with a natural partiality, leans to the side of his countrymen; yet that ballad, or some one similar, modified probably by national prejudice, must have been current in Scotland during the reign of James VI.; for Godscroft, in treating of this battle, mentions its having been the subject of popular song, and proceeds thus : ' But that which is commonly sung of the "Hunting of Cheviot," seemeth indeed poetical, and a mere fiction, perhaps to stir up virtue; yet a fiction whereof there is no mention, either in the * The banner of Douglas, upon this memorable occasion, was borne by his natural son, Archibald Douglas, ancestor of the family of Cavers, hereditary Sheriffs of Teviotdale, amongst whose archives this glorious relic is still preserved. The earl, at his onset, is said to have charged his son to defend it to the last drop of .his blood. t This prophecy occurs in the ballad as an ominous dream. t Hotspur, for his ransom, built the Castle of Penoon, in Ayrshire, belonging to the family of Montgomery, now Earls of Eglintoun. 426 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. Scottish or English chronicle.* Neither are the songs that are made of them both one ; for the Scots song made of Otterbourne telleth the time, about Larnrnas ; and also the occasion, to take preys out of England; also the dividing armies betwixt the Earls of Fife and Douglas, and their several journeys, almost as in the authentic his- tory. It beginneth thus : " It fell about the Lammas tide, When yeomen win their hay, The dochty Douglas 'gan to ride, In England to take a prey." ' Godscroft, ed. Edin., 1743, vol. i., p. 195. " I cannot venture to assert, that the stanzas, here published, Oelong to the ballad alluded to by Godscroft ; but they come much nearer to his description than the copy published in the first edition,^ which represented Douglas as falling by the poniard of a faithless page. Yet we learn from the same author, that the story of the assassination was not without foundation in tradition. ' There are that say, that he [Douglas] was not slain by the enemy, but by one of his own men, a groom of his chamber, whom he had struck the day before with a truncheon, in ordering of the battle, because he saw him make some- what slowly to. And they name this man John Bickerton of Luffness, who left a part of his armour behind unfastened, and when he was in the greatest conflict, this servant of his came behind his back, and slew him thereat. 'Godscroft, ut supra. 'But this narration,' adds the historian, ' is not so probable.' J Indeed, it seems to have no * ["The Hunting of Cheviot," or "Chevy Chace," of which, properly speaking, only English versions now exist, probably refers to the battle of Pepperden, fought betweeli the Scots under the Earl of Angus, and the English under the Earl of Northumber- land, A.D. 1436. The Scots were the victors, as at Otterbourne.] t " Out then spoke a bonny boy, That serv'd ane o' Earl Douglas' kin 'Metbinks I see an English host A-coming branking us upon.' " ' If this be true, thou little foot page, If this be true thou tells to me, The brawest bower in Otterbourne Shall be thy morning's fee. " 'But if it be false, thou little boy! But and a lie thou tells to me, On the highest tree in Otterbourne, Wi" my ain hands, I'll hang thee hie ! ' " The boy has ta'en out his little penknife That hung right low down by his gam And he gave Lord Douglas a deadly wound, I wot a deep wound and a sare. " Earl Douglas to the Montgomery said, ' Take thou the vanguard of the three; And bury me by the braken bush, That grows upon yon lilye lee.' " Minstrelsy, 1st edit, vol. L, p. 32. [And substantially the same in Herd.] J "Wintoun assigns another cause for Douglas being carelessly armed- " The Erie Jamys was sa besy, For till ordane his company, And on his fays for to pas, That reckles he of his armyng was: The Erie of Mwrrawys bassenet, Thai sayd, at thottyme wasferryhete." Book viii., chap. 7. The circumstance of Douglas' omitting to put on his helmet occurs in the ballad. BATTLE OF OTTEREOURNE. 427 foundation, but the common desire of assigning some remote and extraordinary cause for the death of a great mau. The following ballad is also inaccurate in many other particulars, and is much shorter and more indistinct, than that printed in the Reliques, al- though many verses are almost the same. Hotspur, for instance, is called Earl Percy, a title he never enjoyed. Neither was Douglas buried on the field of battle, but in Melrose Abbey, where his tomb is still shown. "This song was first published from Mr. Herd's Collection of Scottish Songs and Ballads, Edinburgh, 1776, 2 vols. octavo ; but for- tunately two copies have since been obtained from the recitation of old persons residing at the head of Ettrick Forest, by which the story is brought out, and completed in a manner much more con e- spondent to the true history. " I cannot dismiss the subject of the battle of Otterbourne without stating (with all the deference due to the father of this species of literature) some doubts which have occurred to an ingenious corre- spondent, and an excellent antiquary, concerning the remarks on the names subjoined to the ballads of ' Chevy Chace ' and ' Otterbourne,' in the Reliques of Ancient Poetry, vol. i., p. 34, 4th edition. " 'John de Lovele, sheriff of Northumberland, 34th Hen. VII.,' is evidently a mistake, as Henry VII. did not reign quite twenty -four years ; but the person meant was probably John de Lavale, knight, of Delavale Castle, who was sheriff, 34th Henry VIII. There seems little doubt that this was the person called in the ballad 'the gentil Lovel.' Sir Raff the rich Eugbe, was probably Sir Ralph Neville of Raby Castle, son of the first Earl of Westmoreland, and cousin-german to Hotspur. In the more modern edition of the ballad, he is expressly called Sir Ralph Raby, i. e. , of Raby. " With respect to the march of Douglas, as described in the ballad, it appears that he entered Northumberland from the westward. Redesdale, Rothely-crags, and Green Leighton, are a few miles east- ward of Otterbourne. Otterscope Hill lies south-west from Green Leighton. ' ' The celebrated Hotspur, son of the first Earl of Northumberland, was, in 1385, Governor of Berwick and Warden of the East Marches; in which last capacity it was his duty to repel the invasion of Douglas. "Sir Henry Fitzhugh, mentioned in the ballad, was one of the Earl of Northumberland's commanders at the battle of Homeldown. " As to the local situation of Otterbourne, it is thirty statute miles from Newcastle, though Buchanan has diminished the distance to eight miles only. ' ' The account given of Sir John of Agurstone seems also liable to some doubt. This personage is supposed by Bishop Percy to have been one of the Hagerstons of Hagerston, a Northumbrian family, who, according to the fate of war, were sometimes subjects of Scot- land. I cannot, however, think, that at this period, while the English were in possession both of Berwick and Roxburgh, with the intermediate fortresses of Wark, Cornhill, and Norham, the Scots possessed any part of Northumberland, much less a manor which 428 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. lay within that strong chain of castles. I should presume the per- son alluded to rather to have been one of the Kutherfords, Barons of Edgerstane, or Edgerston, a warlike family, which has long flourished on the Scottish Borders, and who were, at this very period, retainers of the house of Douglas. The same notes contain an account of the other Scottish warriors of distinction who were present at the battle. These were, the Earls of Monteith, Buchan, and Huntly ; the Barons of Maxwell and Johnston ; Swinton of that ilk, an ancient family, which about that period produced several dis- tinguished warriors ; Sir David (or rather, as the learned bishop well remarks, Sir Walter) Scott of Buccleuch, Stewart of Garlics, and Murray of Cockpool. " ' Kegibus et legibus, Scotici constantes, Vos clypeis et gladiis pro patriis pugnantes, Vestra est victoria, vestri est et gloria, In cantu et historia, perpes est memorial ' " 1 IT fell about the Lammas tide, When the muir-men win their hay, The doughty Douglas bound him to ride Into England, to drive a prey. 2 He chose the Gordons'* and the Grasmes, 6 With them the Lindsays, light and gay, c But the Jardines wou'd not with him ride, And they rue it to this day.* 3 And he has burn'd the dales of Tyne, And part of Bambrough shire ; And three good tow'rs on Eeidswire fells, He left them all on fire. 4 And he march'd up to Newcastle, And rode it round about: " Oh, wha 's the lord of this castle, Or wha 's the ladye o't ? " 5 But up spake proud Lord Percy then, And oh, but he spake hie ! "I am the lord of this castle; My wife 's the ladye gay." 6 "If thou'rt the lord of this castle, Sae weel it pleases me! For, ere I cross the Border fells, The ane of us shall dee." a & [Scott gives notes on these respective clans or families, and their chiefs, who were present at Oiterbourne; but they are too lengthy for insertion here.] * The Jardines were a clan of hardy West-Border men. Their chief was Jardini of Applegirth. Their refusal to ride with Douglas was, probably, the result of 0110 of 'those perpetual feuds, which usually rent to pieces a Scottish army. BATTLE OF OTTERBOURNE. 429 7 He took a lang spear in his hand, Shod with the metal free ; And for to meet the Douglas there, He rode right furiouslie. 8 But oh, how pale his ladye look'd, Frae aff the castle wall, When down before the Scottish spear She saw proud Percy fall ! 9 " Had we twa been upon the green, And never an eye to see, I wou'd ha'e had you, flesh and fell; * But your sword shall gae with me." 10 " But gae ye up to Otterbourne, And wait there dayis three; And, if I come not ere three dayis end, A fause knight call ye me." 11 " The Otterbourne 's a bonnic burn ; 'Tis pleasant there to be; But there is nought at Otterbourne To feed my men and me. 12 " The deer rins wild on hill and dale, The birds fly wild from tree to tree; But there is neither bread nor kale, To fend f my men and me. 13 " Yet I will stay at Otterbourne, Where you shall welcome be ; And, if you come not at three dayis end, A fause lord I'll call thee." 14 " Thither will I come," proud Percy said, " By the might of Our Ladye ! " " There will I bide thee," said the Douglas, " My troth I plight to thee." 15 They lighted high on Otterbourne, Upon the bent sae brown; They lighted high on Otterbourne, And threw their pallions down. * "Fell : " hide. Douglas insinuates that Percy was rescued by his soldiers, t "Fend:" support 430 BALLAD MINSTRELST OF SCOTLAND. 16 And he that had a bonnie boy, Sent out his horse to grass; And he that had not a bonnie boy, His ain servant he was. * 17 But up then spake a little page, Before the peep of dawn: " Oh, waken ye, waken ye, my good lord, For Percy's hard at hand." 18 "Ye lie, ye lie, ye liar loud ! Sae loud I hear ye lie; For Percy had not men yestreen To dight my men and me. 19 " But I have dream'd a dreary dream, Beyond the Isle of Skye : I saw a dead man win a fight, And I think that man was I." 20 He belted on his gude braid sword, And to the field he ran; But he forgot the helmet good That shou'd have kept his brain. 21 When Percy with the Douglas met, I wat he was full fain ! They swakk'd their swords, till sair they swat, And the blood ran down like rain.f * Froissart describes a Scottish host, of the same period, as consisting of " IIIL M. men of armes, knightis, and squires, mounted on good horses ; and other X. M. men of warre, armed, after their gyse, right hardy and flrse, mounted on lytle hackneys, the whiche were never tied, nor kept at hard meat, but leite go to pasture in the fleldis, and bushes." Chronykle of Froissart, translated by Lord Berners, chap. xvii. [The following stanzas, recovered by Mr. Finlay from recitation, come in after stanza 3 of Herd's version, and the above stanza in Scott's text: " Then out and spak a little wee boy, And he was near o' Percy's kin, ' Methinks I see the English host A-coming branking us upon; " ' Wi' nine waggons scaling wide, And seven banners bearing high; It wad do any living gude To see their bonnie colours fly.' " Scottish Ballads, vol. i., p. xviii] t "The Percy and the Douglas mette, That ether of other was f ayne : They schapped together whyll that they sweette, With swords of fine Collayne,* Tyll the bloode from their bassonets ran, As the brooke doth in the rayne." English ballad. " Collayne : " Cologne steel BATTLE OF OTTERBOURNE. 431 22 But Percy, with his good broad sword, That cou'd so sharply wound, Has wounded Douglas on the brow, Till he fell to the ground.* 23 Then he call'd on his little foot-page, And sai'd " Run speedily, And fetch my ain dear sister's son, Sir Hugh Montgomery. 24 " My nephew good," the Douglas said, "What recks the death of ane! Last night I dream'd a dreary dream, And I ken the day 's thy ain. 25 "My wound is deep; I fain wou'd sleep; Take thou the vanguard of the three, And hide me by the braken f bush, That grows on yonder lily lee. 26 " Oh, bury me by the braken bush, Beneath the blooming brier; Let never living mortal ken That a kindly Scot lies here." 27 He lifted up that noble lord, With the saut tears in his e'e ; He hid him in the braken bush, That his merry -men might not see. 28 The moon was clear, the day drew near, The spears in flinders flew; But mony a gallant Englishman Ere day the Scotsmen slew. 29 The Gordons good, in English blood They steep'd their hose and shoon ; The Lindsays flew like fire about, Till all the fray was done. 30 The Percy and Montgomery met, That either of other were fain ; They swapped swords, and they twa swat, And aye the blood ran down between. * [Thia stanza seems to be derived from the English version. No Scotish minstrel would ever have dreamt of inventing such a termination to the combat between these two redoubted heroes; and, as shown by Sir Walter Scott in the introduction, the tragic incident is as much at variance with history as it is repulsive to national feeling.] t "Braken:" fern. 432 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 31 " Now yield thee, yield thee, Percy," he said, " Or else I vow I'll lay thee low ! " " To whom must I yield," quoth Earl Percy, " Now that I see it must be so?" 32 "Thou shalt not yield to lord nor loun, Nor yet shalt thou yield to me ; But yield ye to the braken bush That grows upon yon lily lee ! " 33 " I will not yield to a braken bush, Nor yet will I yield to a brier ; But I wou'd yield to Earl Douglas, Or Sir Hugh Montgomery, if he were here." 34 As soon as he knew it was Montgomery, He struck his sword's point in the ground; The Montgomery was a courteous knight, And quickly took him by the hand. 35 This deed was done at Otterbourne, About the breaking of the day ; Earl Douglas was buried at the braken bush, And the Percy led captive away. JOHNNIE SCOT. " In preparing this ballad for the press," says Motherwell, " three recited copies, all obtained from people considerably advanced in years, have been used. The ballad itself is popular in the shires of Renfrew, Dumbarton, and Stirling ; and though the editor has ob- tained no copy of it from the south of Scotland, yet he has been assured that it is also well known there a fact of which there can be no doubt, as the Border names of Scot and Percy* sufficiently identify it with that part of the country. "As is to be expected, in all poetry which depends on oral tradition for its transmission to our own times, the copies of this ballad which the editor has recovered do not exactly correspond with each other. Numerous, though on the whole but trivial, verbal discrepancies exist among them; and in adjusting the text, he had therefore to rely on his own judgment in selecting, what he con- ceived, the best reading from each of his copies. In justice, however, to himself, and for the satisfaction of the rigid antiquary, he begs leave explicitly to state, that not a single word or expression has been admitted into the present text but what was duly authorized by one or other of these copies. . . . * Mothprwell's version makes the heroine a daughter of Earl Percy. But in all the other versions she is represented as "the King of England's fair daughter." JOHNNIE SCOT. 433 "With regard to the proper names in the ballad, considerable difficulty was experienced. In the few notes subjoined, the principal variations which occur in this particular between the different copies, in so far as relates to the minor personages of the drama, are pointed out ; but as to the hero himself, it is right to mention in this place, that two of the copies agree in styling him ' Johnie Scot,' while the third names him 'Johnie M'Nauchton.' In all other material points, none of the copies essentially differ, except in this, that in the copy which gave ' M'Nauchton ' as the hero, the champion with whom he measures blades does not enact that marvellous feat of agility which forms so remarkable a feature in the combat scene between ' Johnie Scot ' and the ' Tailliant,' ' "Who like a Swallow swift, Owre Johnie's head did flee.' . . . ' ' Whether the glory of the high achievement recorded in the ballad should of right belong to the name of Scot, or to that of M'Nauchton, is a question very hard of solution. Scot of Satchels, in that strangest of all literary curiosities, his metrical History of the Right Honourable Name of Scot, is dumb on the subject ; and Buchanan, in his account of Scottish Surnames, is as profoundly silent regarding any one belonging to the ancient family of M'Nauchton, to whom the nonour of this notable duel can with any degree of likelihood be attributed. For his own part, the editor has been somewhat gravelled to make up his mind on this momentous point; but at length he has been inclined to concede the adventure perilous, even to Johnnie Scot, whoever he was, not only on the account that two copies of the ballad, and these by far the most perfect in their narrative, are quite unanimous on this head, but that these likewise retain the word ' Tailliant, ' which, in the corresponding part of the third copy, is changed into ' Champion. ' This word Tailliant he has never before met with in any ballad ; but it is an evident derivative from the French verb Taillader.* "Mr. Eitson, in his Historical Dissertation on Scottish Song, gives in a foot-note a list of certain unedited ballads, contained in a MS. collection which belonged to the late Lord Woodhouselee. In this list occurs one, entitled ' Jack the Little Scot ; ' and from the same critic mentioning that many lines and indeed stanzas of ' Gil Morris ' would be found in said ballad, t the editor, both from the similarity of the titles and from their agreeing in the circumstance of having stanzas in common with 'Gil Morris,' conjectured that it ... and the present ballad were one and the same. He accordingly endeavoured to procure a copy of the ballad alluded to, for the purpose of collation, but without success, as the MSS. of Lord Wood- houselee were, after his death, dispersed among his relatives. " Perhaps, after all, it is but of little importance to ascertain this fact ; and even though the ballads were the same, it is questionable whether it would suggest any improvement upon the present text. * " Taillader : " "to cut or slash." Ay toun, in his Scottish Ballads, vol. ii., in reprinting Dalzell's copy of "Grange's Ballad," changes the word "tailzeour," "or tailor," to "tailliant" '. ., "holder or defender." t See stanzas 8, 11, and 21 of this ballad, compared with 11, 20, and 29 of " Gil Morice," ante, p. 313. 2F 434 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. " As it is, ' Johnnie Scot ' is altogether a very spirited and interest- ing composition, highly national in its character, and full of bustle, action, and incident. It is just such a one as we would always be flad to see transferred to more imperishable records, than the ecaying memories of Ancient Women, and Time-crazed Men." Motherwell's Minstrelsy, p. 204. Different versions of the same ballad subsequently appeared, as under : I. "Lord John," in Buchan's Gleanings, p. 122. In this version the questions asked, as to the name and rank of the hero, are, "Is this the Duke of Marlborough? Or James, the Scottish king? Or is it else some Scottish lord, Come here a- visiting ? " IL "Johnie Buneftan," in Kinloch's Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 77. In this version the hero is designated ' ' Jack, that little Scot ; " and the questions asked regarding him, are, " Is this the Duke of "Winesberrie ? Or James, the Scottish king ? Or is it a young gentleman. That wants for to be in? " In both of the last-named versions the "Tailliant" is metamorphosed into an "Italian." Referring to Mr. Motherwell's statement, that he had "never met with the word 'Tailliant' before," Mr. Kinloch remarks : "It would have been singular if he had, as 'Tailliant' is, in fact, nothing else but a corruption of ' Italian,' in the recitation of the old people from whom he procured his versions. " III. "Lang Johnny Moir," in Buchan's Ancient Ballads, vol. i., p. 248 ; which marvellous production will be found in the Appendix to this work. We are disposed to think that the "Johnnie Scot" or "M'Nauchton" of the following ballad is one of "the popular heroes of romance" referred to by Gawain Douglas, in the lines already quoted from his Police of Honour, ante, p. 403. The line specially naming him reads "How Hay of Nauchton flew in Madin land ; " and it is thus explained in a note by Sir Walter Scott : " Hay of Nachton I take to be the knight, mentioned by Wyntown, whose feats of war and travel may have become the subject of a romance or ballad. He fought in Flanders, under Alexander, Earl of Mar, in 1408, and is thus described : 1 Lord of the Nachtane, Schire William, Ane hanest knycht, and of gnd fame. A travalit knycht lang before than.' And again, before an engagement, ' The Lord of Nachtane, Schire William, The Hay, a knycht than of gud fame, Mad Schire Gilbert, the Hay, knycht.' Cronykil, b. is., c. 27. JOHNNIE SCOT. 435 I apprehend we should read, ' How Hay of Nachton slew in Madin Land.' Perhaps Madin is a corruption for Maylin Land, or Milan."* With the exception of the first six stanzas, Motherwell's version of " Johnie Scot " is the one chiefly followed. In a note to his 'Minstrelsy, Introduction, p. c., Mr. Motherwelt inserts " the following passage, illustrative of the famous feat of arms accomplished by Johnie Scot," which, says he, "was kindly pointed out to me by Mr. Sharpe : James Macgill of Lindores, having killed Sir Robert Balfour, of Denmiln, in a duel, immediately went up to London, in order to procure his pardon, which, it seems, the king (Charles II. ) offered to grant him, upon condition of his fighting an Italian gladiator, or bravo, or, as he was called, a bully, which, it is said, none could be found to do. Accordingly, a large stage was erected for the exhibition before the king and court. Sir James, it is said, stood on the defensive till the bully had spent himself a little ; being a taller man than Sir James, in his mighty gasconading and bravado- ing, he actually leaped over the knight as if he would swallow him alive ; but, in attempting to do this a second time, Sir James ran his sword up through him, and then called out, ' I have spitted him, let them roast him who will.' This not only procured his pardon, but he was also knighted on the spot. Small's Account of Roman Anti- quities, recently discovered in Fife, p. 217." Three different versions of a ballad, evidently belonging to the same circle, appear under the respective titles of " Lord Thomas of Winsberry," in Buchan's Gleanings, p. 127 ; "Lord Thomas of Wines- berrie," in Kinloch's Ancient Scottish Poems, p. 89 ; and " Lord Thomas of Winesberry and the King's Daughter," in Buchan's Ancient Ballads, voL ii., p. 212. Mr. Kinloch supposes it to refer to "the secret expedition of James V. to France, in 1536, in search of a wife," and quotes the account thereof from Pitscottie's Chronicles of Scotland, 8vo, vol. ii., p. 363, et seq. Mr. Buchan, however, combats this theory. A collated and slightly emendated copy of "Lord Thomas of Winesberry" follows " Johnnie Scot " next in order. 1 JOHNNIE has on to London gone, To London gone has he ; Johnnie has on to London gone, King's bannerman to be. 2 He had not been in London town, It 's but a little while, Till the King of England's fair daughter, On him did fondly smile. *Bnt if the present ballad relates to "Hay of Nauchton," the positions of the combatants seem simply reversed by the text of Gawain Douglas as it reads; while Sir Walter Scott's suggested emendation would, by this identification and reversal, prove not only unnecessary, but erroneous. 436 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 3 But Johnnie 's back to Scotland gone, To hunt in the greenwood free ; And left his true love all alone, And a sorry ladye was she. 4 For Johnnie 's on to Scotland gone, I wot he 's on with speed ; Oh, Johnnie 's on to Scotland gone, And as great was his need. 5 Then word unto the king has gone, His daughter mourn'd so ; And word has also to him gone, Of what did cause her woe. 6 But when the king heard word of it, An angry man was he ; And he cast her into prison strong, To pine there till she'd dee. 7 Then Johnnie thought upon his love He dare not go to see ; And he call'd on his waiting-man, His name was Germanic :* " It 's thou must to fair England go, Bring me that gay ladye. 8 " And here it is, a silken sark, Her ain hand sew'd the sleeve; Bid her come to the merry greenwood, At her friends ask no leave." 9 He rode till he came to the castle gate, And he tirl'd at the pin ; " Oh, wha is there? " said the proud porter; " But I darena let thee in." 10 It 's he rode up, and he rode down, He rode the castle about, Until he spied a fair ladye, At the window looking out. * ' " (Jermanie : ' all the copies which mention Johnnie's waiting-man concur in giving this name, which is probably descriptive of his country. In one copy, he, in place of Johnnie's uncle, is the person who heroically offers wager of battle. But in another copy the whole words and actions ascribed to Johnnie's uncle, who 'spake so bitterlie,' are transferred to 'Gude King James.'" Motherwell. JOHNNIE SCOT. 437 11 " Here is a silken sark," he said, " Thine ain hand sew'd the sleeve ; And ye must go to the merry greenwood, At your friends ask no leave." 12 " The Qastle it is high, young man, And well wall'd round about ; My feet they are in fetters strong, And how can I get out ? 13 " My garters are the black iron, And oh, but they be cold ! My girdle 's * of the sturdy steel, Instead of beaten gold. 14 " But had I paper, pen, and ink, With candle at my command, It 's I would write a long letter To Johnnie, in fair Scotland. 1 * 15 Then she has written a braid letter, And seal'd it with her hand ; And sent it to the merry greenwood, With her ain boy at command. 16 The first line of it Johnnie read, A loud, loud laugh laugh'd he ; But he had not read a line but two, Till the tears did blind his e'e. 17 " Oh, I must up to England go, Whatever me betide, For to relieve my fair ladye, And claim her for my bride." 18 Then up spake Johnnie's auld mither, A well-spoken woman was she : " If you do go to England, Johnnie, I may take fareweel of thee." 19 And out and spake his father then, A noble lord was he : " If thou unto fair England go, You'll ne'er come hame to me." 20 But out and spake his uncle then, And he spake bitterlie : " Five hundred of my good life-guards Shall bear him companie." * "My breastplate's," &c. MotherwelL 438 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 21 When they were all on saddle set, They were comely to behold ; The hair that hung o'er Johnnie's neck Shone like the links of gold. 22 When they went riding all* away, Most pleasant for to see, There was not so much as a married man In Johnnie's companie. 23 Johnnie himsel' was the foremost man In the company did ride ; His uncle was the second man, With his rapier by his side. 24 The first gude town that Johnnie came to, He made the bells be rung ; And when he rode the town all o'er, He made the massf be sung. 25 The next gude town that Johnnie came to, He made the drums beat round ; And the third gude town that he came to, He made the trumpets sound.J 26 And when they came to King Henry's tow'rs, They rode them round about ; And who saw he but his own true love, At a window looking out ! 27 " Oh! the doors are bolted with iron and steel, So are the windows about ; And my feet they are in fetters strong, And how can I win out?" 28 But when they came to the castle yett, They scarce tirl'd at the pin, For the porter was ready waiting there, To open and let them in. ' Went riding all." Motherwell's text reads, " Were all marching," which, looking to the context, is an evid well when it is really regulated by ' into the worst kind of pedantry. t " Mass." Buchan. " Psalms." Motherwell. J Motherwell s version adds " Till King Henry and all his merry men A-marveU'd at the sound." JOHNNIE SCOT. 439 29 " Art them the King of Aulsberry ? * Or art thou King of Spain? Or art thou one of our gay Scots lords, M'Nachton to thy name?" 30 " I'm not 'the King of Aulsberry, Nor yet the King of Spain; But I am one of our gay Scots lords, Johnnie Scot I am call'd by name." 31 When Johnnie came before the king, He fell low down on his knee : " If Johnnie Scot be thy name," he said, " As I trow well it be; Then to-morrow morn, by eight o'clock, It 's high hang'd thou shalt be." * " It may puzzle the historian to give any account of this king's reign, or to fix the limits of his dominions; being associated, however, with the King of Spain, this , , was preferred. This stanza, and that which precedes it, we give now as they occur in the three different copies of the ballad recovered by the editor, BO that the reader may have it in his power to choose the reading which hits his fancy. " JOHNNIE SCOT. ' Are you the Duke of York?' he said, ' Or James, our Scottish King? Or are you one of our Scottish lords, From hunting new come home?' " ' I'm not the Duke of York,' he said, ' Nor James, your Scottish King; But I'm one of the Scottish lords, .. Earl Hector is my name.' " JOHNNIE SCOT. ' Art thon the King of Aulsberry? Or art thou the King of Spain? Or art thou one of our gay Scots lords, M'Nachton to thy name?' " ' I'm not the King of Aulsberry, Nor yet the King of Spain ; But I am one of our gay Scots lords, Johnnie Scot I am call'd by name.' "JOHNNIE M'NACHTON. ' Are you the Duke of Mulberry? Or James, our Scottish King ? Are you the Duke of Mulberry, From Scotland new come home ? ' ' I'm not the Duke of Mulberry, Nor James, our Scottish King; But I am a true Scottishman, M'Nachton is my name.'" MotherwelL 440 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 32 Out and spoke Johnnie's uncle then, And he spake bitterlie : " Before that we see fair Johnnie hang'd. We'll all fight till we die." 33 " But is there a Tailliant about your court Will fight a duel with me? For ere I'd be hang'd," brave Johnnie said, " On his sword I will die." 34 " Say on, say on," then said the king, " It is well spoken of thee; For there is a Tailliant in my court Shall fight you manfullie." 35 Oh, some are to the good greenwood, And some are to the plain ; The Queen with all her ladyes fair, The King with his merry men, Either to see fair Johnnie flee, Or else to see him slain. 36 They fought on, and Johnnie fought on, With swords of temper'd steel, Until the draps of red, red blood Ran trinkling down the field.* 37 And they began at eight of the morn, And they fought on till three ; When the Tailliant, like the swallow swift, O'er Johnnie's head did flee. 38 But Johnnie, being a clever young boy, He wheel'd him round about ; And on the point of Johnnie's broadsword The Tailliant he slew out. 39 " A priest, a priest," fair Johnnie cried, " To wed my love and me !" " A clerk, a clerk," her father cried, " To sum her tocher free." 40 " I'll none of your gold," fair Johnnie cried. " Nor none of your other gear ; But I will have my own fair bride, For this day I've won her dear." 1 The following stanza occurs here in Motherwell's version : "They fought on, and Johnie fought on, They fought right manfullie. Till they left not alive in a' the king's court A man but only three " LORD THOMAS OF WINESBERRT. 441 41 He 's ta'en his true love by the hand, He led her up the plain : " Have you any more of your English dogs, That you want to have slain?" 42 He put a, little horn to his mouth, He blew't baith loud and shrill ; And Honour is into Scotland gone, In spite of England's skill. 43 He put his little horn to his mouth, He blew it o'er again ; And aye the sound the good horn made, Was " Johnnie and his men!" LORD THOMAS OF WINESBERRY. See introduction to preceding ballad. 1 IT fell upon a time, that the proud King of France Went a-hunting for five months and more, And his daughter fell in love with Lord Winesberry, Who from Scotland was newly come o'er. 2 When her father came home from hunting the deer, And his daughter before him came, Oh, she look'd sick, and very, very sick, For her fair colour it was wan. 3 " What ails thee, what ails thee, my daughter Jean ? What makes thee to look sae wan ? You've either been sick, and very, very sick, Or ye are in love with a man." 4 " You're welcome, you're welcome, my dear father, You're welcome name to ye're ain ; For I ha'e been sick, and very, very sick, Thinking long for your coming again. 5 " Yet pardon, yet pardon, my dear father, Your pardon I pray grant to me ; [For I am also in love with a man, Whom I wish my dear husband to be."] 6 " Oil, is your love laid on a man of might ? Or is it on one that is mean ? Or is it to one of the rank robbers That I took prisoner in Spain?" 442 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 7 " Oh, my love is not laid on a man of might, Nor on a prisoner from Spain ; But on Lord Thomas of Winesberry. Who serves me as chamberlain."* 8 The king call'd on his merry men all, Whom he paid meat and fee : " Go seize Lord Thomas of Winesberry, And bring him here to me. 9 " Go seize Lord Thomas of Winesberry, And bring him here to me ; For to-morrow, ere I eat or drink, It's high hang'd he shall be." 10 His daughter turn'd her round about, While the tear did blind her e'e : " If ye do any ill to Lord Thomas, Ye will never get gude of me."f 11 When Lord Thomas was brought before the king, His clothing was of the silk; His fine yellow hair like threads of gold, And his skin white as the milk.J 12 And when he came in before the king, He kneel'd low down on his knee; Saying " What is your will with me, my liege ? Oh, what is your will with me ? " 13 " No wonder, no wonder, Lord Thomas, That my daughter so loves thee ; For were you a woman, as you are a man, My own love you wou'd be. * " And for him I must suffer pain." Buchan's Gleanings. t The following stanzas come in at this place in the Gleanings version: " 'Get up, get up. Lord Thomas,' they said, ' Get up and bound your way, For the king has sworn, by his honour'd crown, That to-morrow is thy dying day.' " 'Oh, what have I robb'd? or what have I stolen? Or what have I kill'd or slain? That I should be afraid to speak to your king, For I have done him no wrong.' " t "His hair was like the threads o' gowd, His eyes like crystal clear." Buchan's Ancient Ballads. See "Gil Morice," stanza 29. Compare with stanza 34 of "Gil Morice," ante, p. 320. THE BATTLE OF HARLAW. 443 14 " But if you will many my daughter Jean, With the truth of your right hand, You'll get part both of my gold and my gear, And the third part of my land." 15 " Yes, I will marry your daughter Jean, With the truth of my right hand ; But take none of your gold nor none of your gear, I've enough in fair Scotland. 16 " Yes, I will marry your daughter Jean, Tho' I care not for your land; For she will be queen, and I will be king, When we come to fair Scotland." THE BATTLE OF HARLAW. From Ramsay's Evergreen, vol. i., p. 78.* "Antiquaries have differed in opinion regarding the age of this composition; but the best informed have agreed in looking upon it as of coeval production, or nearly so, with the historical event on which it is founded ; and in this opinion the present writer entirely coincides. t No edition prior to Ramsay's time has been preserved, though it was printed in 1668, as we are informed by Mr. Laing, in his Early Metrical Tales, p. 14 ; an edition of that date having been in the curious library of old Robert Mylne. " In the Complaynt of Scotland, 1549, this ballad is mentioned. In the Polemo Middinla its tune is referred to : ' Interea ante alios dnx piperlarius heros, Prsecedens magnamque gerens cum burdine pypam, Incipit Harlai cunctis sonare Batellum.' And in a MS. collection of tunes, written in the hand of Sir William Mure of Rowallan, which I have seen, occurs ' the battle of harlaw. ' + From the extreme popularity of the song, it is not to *"T/ie Evergreen; being a collection of Scots poems -wrote by the Ingenious before 1600." 2 vols. 12mo, Edinburgh, 1724. t In referring to the " sueit melodius sangis " mentioned in the Complaynt of Scot- land, Kitson, who was usually sceptical regarding Scotish traditions, thus expresses himself regarding " The Battel of Hayrlaw : " " This is presumed to be the fine poem printed in The Evergreen, which, with submission to the opinion of the late Lord Hailes, may, for anything that appears either in or out of it to the contrary, be as old as the 15th centurv." Kitten's Scotish Sana. vol. i.. Historical Essav n -rliii LiaiieD, fumy, lui ttiijuitug LLIUI> ci^pctti a omiDi in ui uuv m it iv inu CUIIUHI y, old as the 15th century." Bitson's Scotish Song, vol. i., Historical Essay, p. xliii. Scotish Jktllads and Songs, vol. L, p. 200 444 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. be wondered at though every early imprint of it has now disappeared. Ramsay probably gave his copy from a stall edition of his own day ; which copy has successively been edited by Mr. Sibbald, Mr. Finlay, and Mr. Laing, and has appeared in other collections. A copy, apparently taken from recitation, is given in The Thistle of Scotland, Aberdeen, 1823. The editor of which, among a good deal of stuff which is not very comprehensible, points out various localities, and gives three stanzas of a burlesque song on the same subject, popular in the North." Motherwell's Minstrelsy, Introduction, p. Ixii, note 2. The ballad gives a minute and accurate account of the circum- stances which gave rise to, as well as of the progress and issue of, the Battle of Harlaw, fought, under the regency of the Duke of Albany, in the district of Garioch, Aberdeenshire, near the village of Harlaw, and close to the highway between the town of Inverness and the city of Aberdeen, on the 24th of July, 1411, between Donald, Lord of the Isles, and the Earl of Mar.* The result of this bloody and obstinate contest between the Highlanders of the north-west and the Lowlanders of the east of Scotland, was to secure the permanent and undoubted supremacy of the Lowlanders. In the summer of the following year, the forces of the Regent attacked the Lord of the Isles in his own domains, compelled him to relinquish his assumed independence, give up all claim to the earldom of Ross, consent to become a vassal of the Scotish crown, and to deliver hostages for his future good behaviour in terms of a treaty concluded at Polgilbe, or Polgillip, now Lochgilp, in the district of Knapdale, Argyleshire. (See Ty tier's History of Scotland, vol. iii., edit. 1864, under the years 1411- 12, and note, p. 334.) The text which follows is modernized in the orthography, and it is followed by the traditionary version of the ballad as taken down from recitation. 1 FRAE Dunidier as I came through, Down by the hill of Banachie, Alangst the lands of Garioch, Great pitie was to hear and see The noise and dulesome harmonie, (That ever that dreary day did daw !) Cryin' the coronach" on hie, Alas, alas, for the Harlaw ! 2 I marvell'd what the matter meant ; All folks were in a fiery farie: 6 I wist nocht wha was fae or friend, Yet quietly I did me carrie. Alexander Stewart, natural son of Alexander, Earl of Buchan and Ross. The latter, who is best known by his sobriquet of the Wolf of Badenoch, was a brother of the Regent Albany. The leader of the royal forces was therefore nephew to the Regent, cousin to James I. King of Scots, then a captive in England, and to the assumed hero of "Young Waters," which follow*. He is also the Earl of Mar referred to in note (*) to "Johnnie Scot," ante, p. 432. <* "Coronach: " dirge or lament for the dead. 4 " Fiery farie: " confusion and consternation. THE BATTLE OF HARLAW. 445 But since the days of auld King Harrie Sic slauchter was not heard nor seen ; And there I had nae time to tarrie, For bisiness in Aberdeen. Thus as I walkit on the way, To luver'ury as I went, I met a man, and bade him stay, Requesting him to make me 'quaint Of the beginning and the event That happen'd there at the Harlaw; Then he beseech'd me to take tent, a And he the truth shou'd to me schaw. " Great Donald of the Isles did claim Unto the lands of Ross some richt, And to the Governour he came, Them for to have, gif that he micht, Wha saw his interest was but slicht; And therefore answer'd with disdain. He hasted hame baith day and nicht, And sent nae bodword 6 back again. " But Donald, richt impatient Of that answer Duke Robert gave, He vow'd to God omnipotent, All the hale lands of Ross to have, Or else be graithit in his grave. "* He wou'd not quat his richt for nocht, Nor be abused like a slave; That bargin shou'd be dearly bocht. " Then hastilie he did command That all his weir-men shou'd convene; Ilk ane weel harnessed frae hand, To meet and hear what he did mean. He waxed wrath and vowed tein; Swearin' he wou'd surprise the North, Subdue the burgh of Aberdeen, Mearns, Angus, and all Fyfe to Forth. " Thus with the weir-men of the Isles, Wha were aye at his bidding boun' ; With mony mae, with force and wiles, Richt far and near, baith up and doun ; Tent:" heed. 1 Bodword : " message. ' Hale : " whole. Graithit," &c.: buried clad in his armour. Tain:" rovengo. 446 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. Through mount and muir, frae toun to toun, Alangst the lands of Boss he roars, And all obey'd at his bandoun, Even frae the north to southern shores. 8 " Then all the countrie-men did yield, For nae resistance durst they mak', Nor offer battle in the field, By force of arms to bear him back. But they resolved all, and spak', That best it was for their behove, They shou'd him for their chieftain tak', Believing weel he did them love. 9 " Then he a proclamation made, All men to meet at Inverness, Through Murray-land to make a raid, Frae Arthursyre unto Spey-ness; And furthermair he sent express To show his colours and ensenzie, * To all and sundry, mair and less, Throughout the bounds of Boyne and Enzie. 10 " And then through fair Strathbogie land, His purpose was for to pursue ; And whasoever durst gainstand, That race they shou'd full sairly rue; Then he bade all his men be true, And him defend by force and slicht; And promised them rewards enow, " And make them men of meikle micht. 11 <: Without resistance, as he said, Through all these parts he stoutly pass'd, Where some were wae, and some were glad ; But Garioch was all aghast. Through all these fields he sped him fast, For sic a sight was never seen ; And then, forsooth, he langed, at last, To see the burgh of Aberdeen. 12 " To hinder this proud enterprise, The stout and mighty Earl of Mar, With all his men in arms did rise, Even frae Curgarf to Craigy var ; a "Bandoun:" command. t " Ensenzie : " ensigns. c "Enow:" enough. THE BATTLE OF HARLAW, 447 And down the side of Don right far, Angus and Mearns did all convene, To fight, or Donald came sae nar The royal burgh of Aberdeen. 13 " And thus the martial Earl of Mar March'd' with his men in right array ; Before his enemy was aware, His banner bauldly did display ; For weel enough they kenn'd the way, And all their semblance weel they saw ; Withoutin danger or delay, Come hastily to the Harlaw. 14 " With him the brave Lord Ogilvy, Of Angus sheriff principal ; The Constable of gude Dundee, The vanguard led before them all ; Suppose in number they were small, They first right bauldly did pursue, And made their faes before them fall, Wha then that race did sairly rue. 15 " And then the worthy Lord Saltoun, The strong undoubted Laird of Drum, The stalwart Laird of Lawriestoun, With ilk their forces all and some ; Panmuir, with all his men, did come ; The Provost of brave Aberdeen, With trumpets and with tuck of drum, Came shortly in their armour scheen. 16 " These with the Earl of Mar came on, In the rear-ward right orderlie, Their enemies to set upon ; In awful manner, hardilie, Together vow'd to live and dee, Since they had marched mony miles, For to suppress the tyrannie Of doubted" Donald of the Isles. 17 " But he, in number ten to ane, Bight subtilly alang did ride, With Malcomtosh, and fell Maclean, With all their power at their side ; Presuming on their strength and pride, Without all fear or any awe, Right bauldly battle till abide, Hard by the town of fair Harlaw. <* "Doubted:" redoubted. 448 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 18 " The armies met, the trumpet sounds, The dandring drums aloud did tuck : Baith armies byding on the bounds, Till ane of them the fields shou'd bruik; Nae help was therfore, nane wou'd jouk;* Fierce was the fight on ilka side, And on the ground lay many a bouk," Of them that there did battle bide. 19 " With doubtsome victory they dealt ; The bluidy battle lastit lang ; Each man his neighbour's force there felt, The weakest aft-times gat the wrang ; There was nae mowis d there them amang, Naething was heard but heavy knocks; That echo made a duleful sang Thereto resounding frae the rocks. 20 " But Donald's men at last gave back, For they were all out of array ; The Earl of Mar's men through them brak', Pursuing sharply in their way, Their enemies to take or slay. By dint of force to gar them yield ; Wha were right blythe to win away, And sae for feardness ' tint' the field. 21 " Then Donald fled, and that full fast, To mountains hich, for all his micht, For he and his were all aghast, And ran till they were out of sicht: And sae of Boss he lost his richt, Though mony men with him he brocht; Towards the Isles fled day and nicht, And all he won was dearlie bocht. 22 " This is (quod he) the richt report Of all that I did hear and knaw; Though my discourse be something short, Take this to be a richt sooth saw/ Contrarie God and the king's law, There was spilt meikle Christian bluid, Into the battle of Harlaw ; This is the sum, sae I conclude. a " Bruik : " retain possession of. " Feardness : " fright or cowardice. ^ "Jouk : " bend to avoid a blow. / " Tint: " lost c "Bouk:" body. ' "Sooth saw:" true narrative. * " Mowis: " jesting. THE BATTLE OF HARLAW. 449 23 " But yet a bonnie while abide, And I shall make thee clearly ken, What slauchter was on ilka side, Of Lawland and of Highland men, Wha for their awin have ever been ; These lazy loons might weel be spared, Chased like deers into their dens, And gat their wages for reward. 24 " Malcomtosh, of the clan head-chief, Maclean with his great hauchty head, With all their succour and relief, Were dulefully dung to the deid; And now we are free'd of their feid, 8 They will not lang to come again; Thousands with them, without remead, On Donald's side, that day were slain. 25 " And on the other side were lost, Into the field that dismal day, Chief men of worth (of meikle cost), To be lamented sair for aye : The Lord Saltoun of Rothemay, A man of micht and meikle main ; Great dolour was for his decay, That eae unhappily was slain. 26 " Of the best men amang them was The gracious gude Lord Ogilvy, The sheriff-principal of Angus, Benown'd for truth and equitie, For faith and magnanimitie; He had few fallows 6 in the field, Yet fell by fatal destinie, For he naeways wou'd grant to yield. 27 " Sir James Scrimgeour of Duddop, knicht, Great Constable of fair Dundee, Unto the duleful death was dicht; The king's chief bannerman was he, A valiant man of chivalrie, Whose predecessors wan that place At Spey, with gude King William frie 'Gainst Murray, and Macduncan's race. a "Feid:" fend. & "Fallows:" equals. c "Frie:" nobly. '2G 450 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 28 " Gude Sir Alexander Irvine, The much renowned laird of Drum, Nane in his days was better seen; When they were 'sembled all and some; To praise him we shou'd not be dumb, For valour, wit, and worthiness; To end his days he there did come, Whose ransom is remediless. 29 " And there the Knicht of Lawriestoun Was slain into his armour scheen; And gude Sir Eobert Davidson, Wha Provost was of Aberdeen; The Knicht of Panmure as was seen, A mortal man in armour bricht; Sir Thomas Murray, stout and keen, Left to the warld their last gude nicht. 30 " There was not, since King Kenneth's days, Sic strange intestine cruel strife In Scotland seen, as ilk man says, Where mony likelie lost their life ; Which made divorce 'tween man and wife, And mony children fatherless, Which in this realm has been full rife ; Lord! help these lands, our wrangs redress! 31 " In July, on Saint James his even, That four-and-twenty dismal day, Twelve hundred, ten score, and eleven, Of years since Christ, the sooth to say; Men will remember as they may, When thus the veritie they knaw; And mony a ane may mourn for aye The grim battle of the Harlaw." BATTLE OF HARLAW. TRADITIONARY VERSION. A set of this, as communicated by Lady Jane Scott to Professor Aytoun, appeared in Ballads of Scotland, vol. i., p. 75. And another set, almost identical, but with three additional stanzas, was com- municated by a Mr. A. Ferguson to Notes and Queries, third series, vol. vii., May 20, 1865. BATTLE OF HARLAW. 451 This last is the one here followed, with the exception of some little change in the orthography, and one or two verbal corrections. The additional stanzas are those here numbered 15, 16, and 18. 1 As I came in by Dunidier, And dawn by Wetherha', There were fifty thousand Hielan'men, All marching to Harlaw. (Chorus.} In a dree, dree, drady drumtie dree. 2 As I came on, and farther on, And down and by Balquhain, Oh, there I met Sir James the Bose, With him Sir John the Graeme. 3 " Oh, came ye frae the Hielan's, man? And came ye all the wye? Saw ye MacDonell and his men, Come marching frae the Skye?" 4 " Yes, she came frae the Hielan's, man, And she came all the wye; And she saw MacDonell and his men, Come marching frae the Skye." 5 " Oh, were ye near, and near enough? Did ye their numbers see ? Come, tell to me, John Hielan'man, What might their numbers be?" 6 " Yes, she was near, and near enough, And she their numbers saw ; There were fifty thousand Hielan'men All marching for Harlaw." 7 " If that be true," quo' James the Eose, " We'll no come meikle speed ; We'll cry upon our merry men, And turn our horses' heads." 8 " Oh no, oh no !" quo' John the Graeme, " That thing maun never be ; The gallant Graemes were never beat, We'll try what we can dee." [N.B. The battle has now commenced and is raging.] 452 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 9 As I came on, and farther on, And down and by Harlaw, They fell full close on ilka side, Sic fun* ye never saw. 10 They fell full close on ilka side, Sic fun ye never saw ; For Hielan' swords gaed clash for clash, At the battle of Harlaw! 11 The Hielan*men with their lang swords, They laid on us full sair ; And they drave back our merry men, Three acres, breadth and mair. 12 Brave Forbes did to his brother say, " Now, brother, dinna ye see, They beat us back on ilka side, And we'll be forced to flee 1 ," 13 " Oh no, oh no, my brither dear, That thing maun never be ; Take ye your gude sword in your hand, And come your ways with me." 14 ' ( Oh no, oh no, my brither dear, The clans they are ower strang; And they drive back our merry men With swords baith sharp and lang." 15 Brave Forbes unto his men did say, " Now take your rest awhile, Until I send to Drumminnor, To fetch my coat of mail." 16 Brave Forbes' henchman then did ride, And his horse did not fail ; For in twa hours and a quarter He brought the coat of mail. 17 Then back to back the brithers twa Gaed in amang the thrang ; And they swept down the Hielan'men, With swords baith sharp and lang. * Rather grim sport Professor Aytoun's copy, in place of " fun," reads " straiks." or strokes. The preceding version says truly (stanza 19), that ''There was nae rno wis " ('. e., no joke. BATTLE OF HAELAW. 453 18 MacDonell he was young and stout, Had on his coat of mail, And he has gane out thro' them all, To try his hand hiinsel'. 19 The first -ae stroke that Forbes struck, Made the great MacDonell reel ; The second stroke that Forbes struck, The brave MacDonell fell.* 20 And siccan a pilleurichie,f The like ye never saw, As was amang the Hielan'men, When they saw MacDonell fa'. 21 And when they saw that he was dead, They turn'd and ran awa; And they buried him in Legget's Den, A large mile frae Hariaw. $ 22 They rode, they ran, and some did gang, They were of small record ; For Forbes and his merry mea Slew maist all by the road. 23 On Munonday at morning, The battle it began ; On Saturday at gloamin', Ye'd scarce tell wha had wan. 24 And sic a weary burying, The like ye never saw, As there was the Sunday after that, On the muirs down by Hariaw. 25 And if Hielan' lasses speer at ye For them that gaed awa, Ye may tell them plain, and plain enough, They're sleeping at Hariaw! * MacDonell did not fall. See preceding version, stanza 21. t Professor Aytoun's copy reads " Pitlarichie." Either or both seem Aberdeen- Bhire words, meaning the same as Hullabuloo in ordinary Scots, or Hubbub in English. t " Some twa three miles awa." Notes and Queries version. Neither are accurate. Legget's Den is a farm steading, or house, situated about half a mile to the west cf the battlefield. Mr. Tytler suggests, that the tomb pointed out as that of Donald, Lord of the Isles, may either be that "of the chief of Maclean, or of Macintosh, both of whom fell in the battle." History oj Scotland, voL iit, note, p. 334 (edit. 1SG6). 454 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. YOUNG WATERS. Two versions of this ballad have appeared. For the publication of the first, which was printed ' ' at Glasgow, in one single sheet, * the world is indebted ... to the Lady Jean Hume (or Home), sister to the Earl of Hume (or Home), who died at Gibraltar," 1761. The ballad appeared shortly thereafter in Percy's Reliques, vol. ii. ; and it is there suggested that it "covertly alludes to the indiscreet partiality which Queen Anne of Denmark is said to have shown for the bonnie Earl of Murray ; " which tragic incident forms the theme of another ballad, further on in this work. A second, much longer and more circumstantial, version appears in Mr. Buchan's Ancient Ballads, vol. i., p. 15. In a note, p. 291, Mr. Buchan refers to the previous version as "a mutilated edition of this beautiful old ballad." He also states it as his opinion, "that the ' Young Waters ' was David Graham of Fintray, who was found guilty, and beheaded the 16th February, 1592, for being concerned in a Popish plot ; the particulars of which are to be found recorded in Spotiswood's History, p. 391." Dr. Eobert Chambers, who printed an edition, collated from the two preceding, in his Scottish Ballads (p. 29), has there suggested, "That it alludes to the fate of some one of the Scottish nobles executed by James I. , after his return from his captivity in England. It is very probable," he adds, " that Walter Stewart, second son of the Duke of Albany, is the individual referred to. Many circumstances in the ballad go to prove this : the name, which may be a corruption of Walter ; the mention of the Heading (beheading) Hill of Stirling, which is known to have been the very scene of Walter Stewart's execution ; the relationship which ' Young Waters ' claims with the king ; and the sympathy expressed by the people, in the last verse, for the fate of the young knight, which exactly tallies with what is told us by the Scottish historians, regarding the popular feeling expressed in favour of the numerous nobles and princes of his own blood, whom the king saw [or thought] it necessary to sacrifice. There is in the ballad just that precise degree of vagueness, inappli- cability, and exaggeration, which the people always give to such an historical fact when they are left to relate it in their own way." (Note, p. 34) The opinion so ably indicated in the last extract has been aban- doned by its writer, without much show of reason or argument for the change.t But until Dr. Chambers, or some one else, refutes his early con- fession of faith in a satisfactory manner, we shall continue to regard the above expression of it as an extremely likely solution of the matter ; and can only wonder at, and lament the sceptical and *The title is as follows: "Young Waters: an Ancient Scottish Poem, never before printed. Glasgow : Printed and sold by Bobert and Andrew Foulis, MDCCLV. Small 4to, pp. 8." t See Romantic Scottish Ballads : their Epoch and Authorship. ... By Eobert Chambers, F.B.S.E., &c., &c. 1859. YOUNG WATERS. 455 heretical notions which have induced him to deny the faith of his earlier years. That the assumed fact of Lady Wardlaw being the author of " Hardyknute " should lead a writer of Dr. Chambers's eminence, knowledge, and experience, to jump to the conclusion that she also wrote "Young Waters," "Sir Patrick Spens," "Gil Morice," "Fause Foodrage," and others of our most popular ballads, to the number of twenty-five, and to assert that she was the "literary foster-mother" of Sir Walter Scott, is certainly one of the greatest Curiosities of Literature in modern times. * Stanzas 1 to 9, inclusive, are from Lady Home's version ; 10 to 13, inclusive, from Mr. Buchan's ; 14 to 16 are nearly the same in both ; while the rest are from Mr. Buchan's version, with the exceptions noted under the text. 1 ABOUT Yule, when the wind blew cool, And the round table began, Oh, there is come to our king's court Mony a well-favour'd man.")- * In extenuation of Dr. Chambers, it may be mentioned that the first hint as to Lady Wardlaw's supposed authorship of " Sir Patrick Spens." was thrown out by Mr. David Laing, in his notes to Johnson's Museum, on "Hardyknute," p. 320*, and " Sir Patrick Spens," p. 457. Dr. Chambers has either improved upon this hint with a vengeance, or his Lady Wardlaw Heresy has been broached as a satirical way of demolishing it. If the latter, his paper ought to rank in future with such brochures as Archbishop "Whately's Historic Doubts Relative to Napoleon. It may be mentioned that, after an interval of ten years, Dr. Chambers issued another deliverance on the subject, in the form of a " Note for the Fourth Edition, 1869," of his Popular Rhymes of Scotland. In this note he states : " I am now sen- sible of having pressed the claims of Lady Wardlaw too exclusively ; it is more probable that several persons were engaged in this task throughout the eighteenth century, though it is difficult to make sure of the particular group attributable to each person. " Dr. Chambers next rather disingenuously lugs in Bitson and Scott as witnesses on the side of scepticism. He notes Scott's suspicion as to the authenticity of the ballads furnished to him and Mr. Jamieson, but fails to note also that Scott, after investigating the matter, expressed his most unhesitating faith In their authenticity. See ante, p. 128. Dr. Chambers uncharitably and ungallantly winds up by accusing Mrs. Brown of falsehood, fraud, and wilful imposition, in the words which we shall now quote: " That Scott was not incapable of being imposed upon, has already been fully estab- lished by the notable case of Mr. Surtees of Durham, who obtained his friendship by sending him two ballads of his own, vamped up as gatherings from tradition. " I am afraid that my venerated friend was not lees the victim of this Mrs. Brown, wife of the minister of Falkland, who herself was a scribbler of poetry, but too respectable to be capable of imposture." This additional somerset of Dr. Chambers leaves us still more puzzled than ever as to whether he is in jest or earnest. Some of our Southern friends, who believe themselves much smarter at seeing either the point of a jest, or through a mud fence, than any dull-headed Scotsman can pretend to be, may, however, kindly enlighten us on the subject t " I* fell about the gude Yule time. When cups and stoups gaed roun', Down it came him Young Waters, To welcome James, our king. " The great, the great together rade, The sma' came a' behin'; But wi' Young Waters, that brave knight, There came a gay gatherin'." Buchan's version. 456 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 2 The Queen look'd o'er the castle wall, Beheld baith dale and down, And there she saw [the] Young Waters Come riding to the town. 8 His footmen they did rin before, His horsemen rode behind ; And his mantle, of the burning gowd, Did keep him from the wind. 4 Gowden graith'd his horse before, And siller shod behind ; The horse Young Waters rade upon Was fleeter than the wind. 5 Out then spake a wylie lord, And to the Queen said he : " Oh, tell me, wha 's the fairest face Rides in the company?" 6 " I've seen lords, and I ve seen lairds, And knights of high degree ; But a fairer face than Young Waters' Mine een did never see." 7 Out then spake the jealous king, (And an angry man was he) : " Oh, if he had been twice as fair, You might ha'e excepted me." 8 "You're neither laird nor lord," she says, " But the king that wears the crown: There 's not a knight in fair Scotland, But to thee maun bow down." 9 But all that she cou'd do or say, Appeased he wou'dna be; And for the words which she had said, Young Waters he maun die. 10 Young Waters came before the king, Fell low down on his knee: " Win up, win up [now,] Young Waters, What 's this I hear of thee?" 11 " What ails the king at me," he said, "What ails the king at me?" " Oh, it is tauld me the day, Sir Knight, Ye've done me treasonie." YOUNG WATERS. 457 12 " Liars will lee on fell gude men, Sae will they do on me ; I wou'dna wish to be the man That liars on wou'dna lee." 13 " Yet, nevertheless," the king did say, " To prison strang gang ye ; And nevertheless," the king did say, " Young Waters, ye shall dee." 14 Syne they ha'e ta'en him Young Waters, Put fetters to his feet ; Syne they ha'e ta'en him Young Waters, Thrown him in dungeon deep. 15 " Aft ha'e I ridden thro' Stirling town, Thro' heavy wind and weet ; But ne'er rade I thro' Stirling town With fetters on my feet. 16 " Aft ha'e I ridden thro' Stirling town, Thro' heavy wind and rain ; Yet ne'er rade I thro' Stirling town, But I thought to ride again." * 17 They brought him to the Heading hill His horse bot and his saddle ; And they brought to the Heading hill His young son in his cradle. 18 And they brought to the Heading hill His hounds in til a leish ; And they brought to the Heading hill His gos-hawk in a jess. 19 King James he then rade up the hill And mony a man him wi'; And he call'd on his trusty page, To come right speedilie. 20 " Ye'll do ye to the Earl of Mar, Where he sits on yon hill ; Bid him loose the brand frae his body, Young Waters for to kill." * Lady Jean Home's version reads, "Ne'er to return again." And it terminates with the stanza which follows : " They ha'e ta'en him to the Headin' hilL That knight sae fair to see; And for the words the Queen had spak, Young Waters he did dee." 458 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 21 " Oh, God forbid," the earl he said, " The like shou'd e'er fa' me ; My bodie e'er shou'd bear the brand That gars Young Waters dee." 22 Then he has loosed his trusty brand, And cast it in the sea ; Says " Never let them get a. brand, Till it come back to me." 23 The scaffold it prepared was, And he did mount it hie ; And all spectators that were there, The tears did blind ilk e'e. 24 " Oh, haud your tongues, my brethren dear, And mourn nae mair for me; Ye're seeking grace frae a graceless face,* For there is nane to gi'e. 25 " Ye'll take a bit of canvas claith, And put it o'er ilk e'e ; And, Jack, my man, ye'll be at hand The hour that I shou'd dee. 26 " Syne aff ye'll take my bluidy sark, Gi'e it fair Margaret Grahame ; For she may curse the dowie day That brought King James here hame. 27 " Ye'll bid her make her bed narrow, And make it naeways wide ; For a brawer man than Young Waters Will ne'er streek by her side. 28 " Bid her do weel to my young son, And gi'e him nurses three; But if he live to be a man, King James will gar him dee." 29 He call'd upon the headsman then, A purse of gowd him ga'e ; Says " Do your office, headsman, now, And make nae mair delay. 30 " Oh, head me soon ! oh, head me clean, And put me out of pine ! For it is by the king's command; Sae head me till his min'. This line occurs in the subsequent ballad of "Johnnie Armstrong." THE SANG OF THE OUTLAW MURRAY. 459 31 " Tho' by him I'm condemn'd to dee, I'm lieve to his ain kin ; [His father and my father, they Were ilk ae father's son.] * 82 Then he laid by his napkin fine, Was saft as ony silk ; And on the block he laid his neck, Was whiter than the milk. 33 Says " Strike the blow, ye headsman, now, Strike with your axe sae keen ; Oh, strike the blow, ye headsman, now, And strike baith hard and clean." f 34 The head was ta'en frae Young Waters, And mony tears were shed; But mair did mourn for fair Margaret, As she lay raving mad. THE SANG OF THE OUTLAW MUREAY. From Scott's Minstrelsy, voL i., p. 369. "This ballad appears to have been composed about the reign of James V. It commemorates a transaction, supposed to have taken place betwixt a Scottish monarch, and an ancestor of the ancient family of Murray of Philiphaugh, in Selkirkshire. The editor is unable to ascertain the historical foundation of the tale ; nor is it probable that any light can be thrown upon the subject, without an accurate examination of the family charter chest. It is certain, that, during the civil wars betwixt Bruce and Baliol, the family of Philiphaugh existed and was powerful ; for their ancestor, Archibald de Moravia, subscribes the oath of fealty to Edward I., A.D. 1296. It is, therefore, not unlikely, that, residing in a wild and frontier country, they may * " 'And for the truth, I'll plainly tell, I am his sister's son.' " ' Gin ye're my sister's son,' he said, 'It is unkenn'd to me ; ' 'Oh, mindna ye on your sister Bess, That lives in the French countrie ? ' " ' Gin Bess then be your mither dear, As I trust well she be ; Gae hame, gae name, Young Waters, Ye'se ne'er ba slain by me.' " Buchan's version. t As this stanza has been altered from Mr. Buchan's text, the original is here noted as under : " Says' Strike the blow, ye headsman boy, And that right speedilie ; It 's never be said, Here goes a knight Was ance condemn'd to die.'" 460 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. have, at one period or other, during these commotions, refused allegiance to the feeble monarch of the day, and thus extorted from him some grant of territory or jurisdiction. It is also certain, that, by a charter from James IV., dated Nov. 30, 1509, John Murray of Philiphaugh is vested with the dignity of heritable sheriff of Ettrick Forest, an office held by his descendants till the final aboli- tion of such jurisdictions by 28th George II., cap. 23. But it seems difficult to believe, that the circumstances, mentioned in the ballad, could occur under the reign of so vigorous a monarch as James IV. It is true, that the Dramatis Persona; introduced seem to refer to the end of the fifteenth, or beginning of the sixteenth, century ; but from this it can only be argued, that the author himself lived soon after that period. It may, therefore, be supposed (unless further evidence can be procured, tending to invalidate the conclusion), that the bard, willing to pay his court to the family, has connected the grant of the sheriffship by James IV., with some former dispute betwixt the Hurrays of Philiphaugh and their sovereign, occurring, either while they were engaged upon the side of Baliol, or in the subsequent reigns of David II. and Robert II. and III., when the English possessed great part of the Scottish frontier, and the rest was in so lawless a state as hardly to acknowledge any superior. At the same time, this reasoning is not absolutely conclusive. James IV. had particular reasons for desiring that Ettrick Forest, which actually formed part of the jointure lands of Margaret, his queen, should be kept in a stats of tranquillity. Rymer, vol. xiii. , p. 66. In order to accomplish this object, it was natural for him, according to the policy of his pre- decessors, to invest one great family with the power of keeping order among the rest. It is even probable, that the Philiphaugh family may have had claims upon part of the lordship of Ettrick Forest, which lay intermingled with their own extensive possessions; and, in the course of arranging, not indeed the feudal superiority, but the property, of these lands, a dispute may have arisen, of sufficient importance to be the groundwork of a ballad. It is further probable, that the Murrays, like other Border clans, were in a very lawless state, and held their lands merely by occupancy, without any feudal right. Indeed, the lands of the various proprietors in Ettrick Forest (being a royal demesne) were held by the possessors, not in property, but as the kindly tenants, or rentaUers, of the crown ; and it is only about one hundred and fifty years since they obtained charters, striking the feu-duty of each proprietor, at the rate of the quit-rent, which he formerly paid. This state of possession naturally led to a confusion of rights and claims. The kings of Scotland were often reduced to the humiliating necessity of compromising such matters with their rebellious subjects, and James himself even entered into a sort of league with Johnnie Faa, the king of the gypsies. Perhaps, therefore, the tradition handed down in this song, may have had more foundation than it would at present be proper positively to assert. "The merit of this beautiful old tale, it is thought, will be fully acknowledged. It has been, 'for ages, a popular song in Selkirkshire. The scene is, by the common people, supposed to have been the castle of Newark, upon Yarrow. This is highly improbable, because Newark THE SANG OF THE OUTLAW MURRAY. 461 was always a royal fortress. Indeed, the late excellent antiquarian, Mr. Plnmmer, sheriff depute of Selkirkshire, has assured the editor that he remembered the insignia of the unicorns, &c., so often mentioned in the ballad, in existence upon the old tower of Hangingshaw, the seat of the Philiphaugh family, although, upon first perusing a copy of the ballad, he was inclined to subscribe to the popular opinion. The tower of Hangingshaw has been demolished for many years. It stood in a romantic and solitary situation, on the classical banks of the Yarrow. When the mountains around Hangingshaw were covered with the wild copse which constituted a Scottish forest, a more secure strong- hold for an outlawed baron can hardly be imagined. "The tradition of Ettrick Forest bears, that the Outlaw was a man of prodigious strength, possessing a baton or club, with which he laid lee (i. e., waste) the country for many miles round; and that he was, at length, slain by Buccleuch, or some of his clan, at a little mount, covered with fir-trees, adjoining to Newark castle, and said to have been a part of the garden. A varying tradition bears the place of his death to have been near to the house of the Duke of Buccleuch's game-keeper, beneath the castle; and, that the fatal arrow was shot by Scott of Haining, from the ruins of a cottage on the opposite side of the Yarrow. There was extant, within these twenty years, some verses of a song on his death. The feud betwixt the Outlaw and the Scotts may serve to explain the asperity, with which the chieftain of that clan is handled in the ballad. " In publishing the following ballad, the copy principally resorted to is one, apparently of considerable antiquity, which was found among the papers of the late Mrs. Cockburn, of Edinburgh, a lady whose memory will be long honoured by all who knew her.* Another copy, much more imperfect, is to be found in Glenriddel's MS. The names are in this last miserably mangled, as is always the case when ballads are taken down from the recitation of persons, li ving at a distance from the scenes in which they are laid. Mr. Plummer also gave the editor a few additional verses, not contained in either copy, which are thrown into what seemed their proper place. There is yet another copy, in Mr. Herd's MSS., which has been occasionally made use of. Two verses are restored in the present edition from the recitation of Mr. Mungo Park, whose toils, during his patient and intrepid travels in Africa, have not eradicated from his recollection the legendary lore of his native country. " The arms of the Philiphaugh family are said by tradition to allude to their outlawed state. They are indeed those of a hunts- man, and are blazoned thus : Argent, a hunting horn sable, stringed and garnished gules, on a chief azure, three stars of the first. Crest, a Demi Forrester, winding his horn, proper. Motto, ' Hinc usque superna venabor.' " Sir Walter Scott. [Another copy, as given "from an old manuscript in the Philip- haugh charter-chest," and supposed to have "been written " or copied "between the years 1689 and 1702," appears in Aytoun's Ballads of Scotland, vol. ii., p. 129. The copy above referred to as "in Mr. * [Authoress of the "Flowers of the Forest," "I've seen the smiling," &c.J 462 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. Herd's MSS.," has since passed into the hands of Mr. Maidment, by whom it has been inserted in his Scotish Ballads and Songs, vol. ii, p. 66. The differences between these three copies are immaterial, but the Minstrelsy copy is the most complete, and therefore the preferable version.] 1 ETTRICK Forest is a fair forest, In it grows many a seemly tree ; There 's hart and hind, and dae and rae, And of all wild beasts great plentie. 2 There 's a fair castle, bigg'd with lime and stane; Oh, gin it stands not pleasantlie ! n the forefront of that castle fair, Twa unicorns are braw to see. 3 There 's the picture of a knight, and a ladye bright, And the green hollin abune their brie ; There an Outlaw keeps five hundred men, He keeps a royal companie ! 4 His merry men are all in ae livery clad, Of the Lincoln green sae gay to see ; He and his ladye, in purple clad, Oh, gin they lived not royallie ! 5 Word is gane to our noble king, In Edinburgh, where that he lay, That there was an Outlaw in Ettrick Forest, Counted him nought, nor all his courtrie gay. 6 "I make a vow," then the gude king said, " Unto the man that dear bought me, I'se either be king of Ettrick Forest, Or king of Scotland that Outlaw shall be!" 7 Then spake the lord, bight Hamilton,* And to the noble king said he, " My sovereign prince, some counsel take, First at your nobles, syne at me. 8 "I redd ye, send yon braw Outlaw till, And see gif your man come will he : Desire him come and be your man, And hold of you yon Forest free. * This is, in most copies, the Earl bight Hamilton, which must be a mistake of the reciters, as the family did not enjoy that title till 1603. THE SANG OF THE OUTLAW MURRAY. 463 9 " Gif he refuses to do that, We'll conquess baith his lands and he ! Or else, we'll throw his castle down, And make a widow of his gay ladye." 10 The king then pall'd a gentleman, James Boyd (the Earl of Arran his brother was he) ;* When James he came before the king, He knelt before him on his knee. 11 " Welcome, James Boyd! " said our noble king, " A message ye maun gang for me ; Ye maun hie to Ettrick Forest, To yon Outlaw, where bideth he. 12 " Ask him of whom he halds his lands, Or man, wha may his master be ; And desire him come and be my man, And hald of me yon Forest free. 13 " To Edinburgh to come and gang, His safe warrant I shall gi'e ; And gif he refuses to do that, We'll conquess baith his lands and he. 14 " Thou may'st vow I'll cast his castle down, And make a widow of his gay ladye ; I'll hang his merry men, pair by pair, In ony frith where I may them see." 15 James Boyd- took his leave of the noble king ; To Ettrick Forest fair came he ; Down Birkendale Brae when that he came,f He saw the fair Forest with his e'e. 16 Baith dae and rae, and hart and hind, And of all wild beasts great plentie ; He heard the bows that bauldly ring, And arrows whidderan' him near by. * Thomas Boyd, Earl of Arran, was forfeited, with his father and uncle, in 1469, for an attempt on the person of James III. He had a son James, who was restored, and in favour with James IV., about 1482. If this be the person here meant, we should read, " The Earl of Arran his son was he." Glenriddel's copy reads, " A Highland laird I'm sure was he." Keciters sometimes call the messenger, the Laird of Skene. t Birkendale Brae, now commonly called Birkendailly, is a Bteep descent on the south side of Hinch-Moor, which separates Tweeddale from Ettrick Forest, and from the top of which you have the first view of the woods of Hangingshaw, the Castle of Newark, and the romantic dale of Yarrow. 464 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 17 Of that fair castle he got a sight ; The like he ne'er saw with his e'e ! On the fore front of that castle fair Twa unicorns were gay to see. 18 The picture of a knight, and a ladye bright, And the green hollin abune their brie ; Thereat he spy'd five hundred men, Shooting their bows on Newark Lee. 19 They were all in ae liv'ry clad, Of the Lincoln green sae gay to see ; His men were all clad in the green, The knight was armed capapie, 20 With a bended bow, on a milk-white steed, And I wot they rank'd right bonnilie ; Thereby Boyd kenn'd he was master man, And serv'd him in his ain degree : 21 " God mot thee save, brave Outlaw Murray ! Thy ladye, and all thy chivalrie !" " Marry, thou 's welcome, gentleman, Some king's messenger thou seems to be." 22 " The king of Scotland sent me here, And, gude Outlaw, I am sent to thee ; I wou'd wot of whom ye hold your lands, Or man, wha may thy master be?" 23 " Thir* lands are MINE!" the Outlaw said; " I ken nae king in Christentie ; Frae Southron I this Forest wan, When the king nor his knights were not to see." 24 " He desires you'll come to Edinburgh, And hold of him this Forest free; And, gif [that] ye refuse to do this, He'll conquess baith thy lands and thee ; He hath vow'd to cast thy castle down, And make a widow of thy gay ladye. 25 " He'll hang thy merry men, pair by pair, In ony frith where he may them find." " Aye, by my troth ! " the Outlaw said, " Then wou'd I think me far behind. *"Thir:" these. THE SANG OF THE OUTLAW MURRAY. 465 26 " E'er the king my fair countrie get, This land that's nativest to me, Mony of his nobles shall be cauld, Their ladyes shall be right wearie." 27 Then spake his ladye, fair of face, She said " Without consent of me That an Outlaw should come before a King ; I am right rad * of treasonrie : Bid him be gude to his lords at hame, For Edinburgh my lord shall never see." 28 James Boyd took his leave of the Outlaw keen, To Edinburgh boun' is he ; And when he came before the king, He knelt lowly on his knee. 29 " Welcome, James Boyd ! " said our noble king ; " What Forest is Ettrick Forest free?" " Ettrick Forest is the fairest Forest That ever man saw with his e'e. 30 " There 's the dae, the rae, the hart, the hynd, And of all wild beasts great plentie ; There's a pretty castle of lime and stane; Oh, gif it stands not pleasantlie ! 81 " There 's in the forefront of that castle Twa unicorns, sae braw to see ; There 's the picture of a knight, and a ladye bright, With the green hollin abune their bree. 32 " There the Outlaw keeps five hundred men; He keeps a royal companie ! His merry men in ae liv'ry clad, Of the Lincoln green sae gay to see; He and his ladye, in purple clad, Oh, gin they live not royallie ! 33 " He says, yon Forest is his own ; He wan it frae the Southronie ; Sae as he wan it, sae will he keep it, Contrair all kings in Christentie. " 34 " Gar warn me Perthshire, and Angus baith : Fife up and down, and the Lothians three, And graith my horse! " said the noble king, " For to Ettrick Forest hie will I me." * "Bad: " in dread. 2H 466 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 35 Then word is gane the Outlaw till, In Ettrick Forest, where dwelleth he, That the king was coming to his countrie, To conquess baith his lands and he. x 86 "I make a vow," the Outlaw said, " I make a vow, and that trulie, Were there but three men to take my part, Yon king's coming full dear shou'd bel" 37 Then messengers he called forth, And bade them hie them speedily: " Ane of ye gae to Halliday, The laird of the Corehead is he. 88 " He certain is my sister's son ; Bid him come quick and succour me ! The king comes on for Ettrick Forest, And landless men we all will be." 89 " What news ? what news ? " said Halliday, " Man, frae thy master unto me ? " "Not as we wou'd; seeking your aid; The king 's his mortal enemie." 40 " Aye, by my troth ! " said Halliday, " Even for that it repenteth me; For gif he lose fair Ettrick Forest, He'll take fair Moffatdale frae me.* 41 I'll meet him with five hundred men, And surely mair, if mae may be ; And before he gets the Forest fair, We all will die on Newark Lee ! " 42 The Outlaw call'd a messenger, And bid him hie him speedilie, o Andrew Murray of Cockpool : f " That man 's a dear cousin to me; Desire him come, and make me aid, With all the power that he may be." 43 " It stands me hard," Andrew Murray said, " Judge gif it stands na hard with me; * This is a place at the head of Aloffat-water. possessed of old by the family of Halliday. t This family were ancestors of the Murrays, Earls of Annandale ; but the name of the representative in the tune of James IV. was William, not Andrew. Glen- riddel's MS. reads, " the country-keeper." THE SANG OF THE OUTLAW MURRAY. 467 To enter against a king with crown, And set my lands in jeopardie ! Yet, if I come not on the day, Surely at night he shall me see." 44 To Sir James Murray of Traquair,* A message 'came right speedilie : " What news ? what news ? " James Murray said, " Man, frae thy master unto me ? " 45 " What needs I tell? for weel ye ken The king 's his mortal enemie ; And now he is coming to Ettrick Forest, And landless men ye all will be." 46 " And, by my troth," James Murray said, " With that Outlaw will I live and die; The king has gifted my lands lang syne It cannot be nae worse with me." 47 The king was coming thro' Caddon Ford,"|- And full five thousand men was he ; They saw the dark Forest them before ; They thought it awesome for to see. 48 Then spake the lord, hight Hamilton, And to the noble king said he, "My sovereign liege, some counsel take, First at your nobles, syne at me. 49 " Desire him meet thee at Penmanscore, And bring four in his companie ; Five earls shall gang yourself before, Gude cause that you shou'd honour'd be. 50 " And, gif he refuses to do that, We'll conquess baith his lands and he ; There shall never a Murray, after him, Hold land in Ettrick Forest free." * Before the Barony of Traquair became the property of the Stewarts, it belonged to a family of Hurrays, afterwards Hurrays of Black-barony, and ancestors of Lord Elibank. The old castle was situated on the Tweed. The lands of Traquair were forfeited by "Willielmus de Horavia, previous to 1464; for, in that year, a charter, proceeding upon his forfeiture, was granted by the crown " Willielmo Douglas de Cluny." Sir James was, perhaps, the heir of William Hurray. It would further seem, that the grant in 1464 was not made effectual by Douglas, for another charter from the crown, dated the 3d February, 1478, conveys the estate of Traquair to James Stewart, Earl of Buchan, son to the Black Knight of Lome, and maternal uncle to James III., from whom is descended the present Earl of Traquair. The first royal grant not being followed by possession, it is very possible that the Hurrays may liava continued to occupy Traquair long after the date of that charter. Hence, Sir James might have reason to say, as in the ballad" The king has gifted my lands lang syne." t A ford on the Tweed, at the mouth of the Caddon Burn, near Yair. 468 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 51 Then spake the keen laird of Buccleuch, A stalworth man and stern was he : " For a king to gang an Outlaw till, Is beneath his state and his dignitie. 52 " The man that wons yon Forest intil, He lives by reif and felonie ! Wherefore, braid on, my sovereign liege! With fire and sword we'll follow thee ; Or, gif your courtrie lords, fall back, Our borderers shall the onset gi'e." 53 Then out and spake the noble king, And round him cast a wilie e'e : " Now haud thy tongue, Sir Walter Scott, ' Nor speak of reif nor felonie ; For had every honest man his own kye, A right puir clan thy name wou'd be ! " 5-i The king then call'd a gentleman, Royal banner-bearer there was he ; James Hop Pringle of Torsonse, by name ; * He came and knelt upon his knee. 55 " Welcome, James Pringle of Torsonse ! A message ye maun gang for me ; Ye maun gae to yon Outlaw Murray, Surely where bauldly bideth he. 56 " Bid him meet me at Penmanscore, And bring four in his companie ; Five earls shall come with mysel', Gude reason I shou'd honour'd be. 57 " And, gif he refuses to do that, Bid him look for nae gude of me ! There shall never a Murray, after him, Have land in Ettrick Forest free." 58 James came before the Outlaw keen, And serv'd him in his ain degree : " Welcome, James Pringle of Torsonse, What message frae the king to me?" The honourable name of Pringle, or Hoppringle, is of great antiquity in Roxburghshire and Selkirkshire. The old tower of Torsonse is situated upon the banks of the Gala. There are three other ancient and distinguished families of this name those of Whitebank, Clifton, and Torwoodlee. THE SANG OF THE OUTLAW MURRAY. 469 59 " He bids ye meet him at Penmanscore,* And bring four in your companie; Five earls shall gang himsel' before, Nae mair in number will he be. CO " And, gif ypu refuse to do that, (I freely here upgive with thee,) He'll cast yon bonnie castle down, And make a widow of that gay ladye. 61 " He'll loose yon bluidhound borderers, With lire and sword to follow thee; There will never a Murray, after thysel', Have land in Ettrick Forest free." 62 " It stands me hard," the Outlaw said; " Judge gif it stands na hard with me! Wha reck not losing of myseP, But all my offspring after me. 63 " My merry men's lives, my widow's tears There lies the pang that pinches me! When I am straught in bluidie eard, Yon castle will be right drearie. 64 " Auld Halliday, young Halliday, Ye shall be twa to gang with me ; Andrew Murray, and Sir James Murray, We'll be nae mae in companie." 65 When that they came before the king, They fell before him on their knee: " Grant mercie, mercie, noble king! E'en for his sake that died on tree." * Commonly called Pennanscore, is a hollow on the top of a high ridge of hills, dividing the vales of Tweed and Yarrow, a little to the eastward of Minch-Moor. It is the outermost point of the lands of Broadmeadows. The Glenriddel MS., which, in this instance, is extremely inaccurate as to names, calls the place of rendezvous "The Poor Man's House," and hints that the Outlaw was surprised by the treachery of the king: " Then he was aware of the King's coming, "With hundreds three in company. I wot the muckle deel .... He learned kings to lie! For to fetch me here frae amang my men, Here, like a dog, for to die." I believe the reader will think, with me, that the catastrophe is better, as now printed from Mrs. Cockburn's copy. The deceit, supposed to be practised on the Outlaw, is unworthy of the military monarch, as he is painted in the ballad; especially if we admit him to be King James IV. 470 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 66 " Siccen like mercie shall ye have : On gallows ye shall hangit be!" " Over God forbode," quoth the Outlaw then, " I hope "your grace will better be! Else ere ye come to Edinburgh port, I trow thin guarded shall ye be. 67 " Thir lands of Ettrick Forest fair, I wan them from the enemie; Like as I wan them, sae will I keep them, Contrair all kings in Christentie." 68 All the nobles the king about, Said " Pitie it were to see him dee;" " Yet grant me mercie, sovereign Prince ! Extend your favour unto me ! 69 " I'll give thee the keys of my castle, With the blessings of my gay ladye, Gin thou'lt make me sheriff of this Forest, And all my offspring after me." 70 " Wilt thou give me the keys of thy castle, With the blessing of thy gay ladye? I'se make thee sheriff of Ettrick Forest, Surely while upwards grows the tree: If you be not traitor to the king, Forfaulted shalt thou never be." 71 "But, Prince, what shall come of my men? When I gae back, traitor they'll call me. I had rather lose my life and land, Ere my merry men rebuked me." 72 "Will your merry men amend their lives? And all their pardons I grant thee. Now, name thy lands where'er they lie, And here I RENDER them to thee." 73 " Fair Philiphaugh is mine by right,* And Lewinshope still mine shall be; Newark, Foulshiells, and Tinnies baith, My bow and arrow purchas'd me. * In this and the following verse, the ceremony of feudal investiture is supposed to be gone through, by the Outlaw resigning his possessions into the hands of the king, and receiving them back, to be held of him as superior. The lands of Philip- haugh are still possessed by the Outlaw's representative. Hangingshaw and Lewins- hope were sold of late years. Newark, Foulshiels, and Tinnies, have long belonged to the family of Buccleuch. JOHNNIE OF BREADISLEE. 471 74 " And I have native steads to me, The Newark Lee and Hangingshaw: I have mony steads in the Forest shaw, But them by name I dinna knaw." 75 The keys of the castle he gave the king, With the-blessing of his fair ladye; He was made sheriff of Ettrick Forest, Surely while upwards grows the tree, And if he was na traitor to the king, Forfaulted he shou'd never be. 76 Wha ever heard, in ony times, Siccen an Outlaw in his degree, Sic favour get before a king, As did the OUTLAW MURRAY of the Forest free? JOHNNIE OF BREADISLEE. ' ' History is silent with regard to this young Nimrod. ' He appears, ' says the editor of the Border Minstrelsy, ' to nave been ail outlaw and deer-stealer, probably one of the broken men residing upon the border. It is sometimes said that this outlaw possessed the old Castle of Morton, in Dumfriesshire, now ruinous.' Another tradition assigns Braid, in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, to have been the scene of his 'woeful hunting.'" MotherwelPs Minstrelsy, p. 17. Versions of the ballad have appeared as under : I. " Johnie of Breadislee," in Scott's Minstrelsy, voL iii., p. 114, collated from "several different copies, in one of which the principal personage is called 'Johnie of Cockielaw.' The stanzas of greatest merit have been selected from each copy." Scott. II. " Johny Cock," consisting of fragments of two versions, as given in Fry's Pieces of Ancient Poetry, Bristol, 1814, p. 55.- III. " Johnie of Braidisbank," in Motherwell's Minstrelsy, p. 17. IV. "Johnie of Cocklesmuir," hi Kinloch's Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 36. * These fragments are copied from a 4to MS. purchased in Glasgow, " in the year 1810," which MS. appears to have been "the text-book of some illiterate drummer." The editor, Mr. Fry, supposes, with great probability, that this is the ballad of "Johny Cox," mentioned by Ritson in these terms: "The Rev. Mr. Boyd, the ingenious translator of Dante, has a faint recollection of a ballad on some Arm- strong (not the well-known ballad of 'Johny Armstrong,' in Ramsay's Evergreen); another, called ' Johny Cox; ' and another, ' of a Scotch Minstrel who stole a horse from some of the Henries of England." The first of these ballads is possibly the famous old border song of 'Dick o' the Cow,' quoted by Mr. Pennant (Tour, 1772, part ii., p. 276), and printed at length in the Poetical Museum, Hawick, 1784." Ritson's Scottish Song, Historical Essay, p. xxxvi., note. 472 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. V. "Johnnie of Cocklesmuir," in Scottish Traditional Versions of Ancient Ballads (Percy Society, vol. xvii., p. 77). This last closely resembles Kinloch's version ; both termin- ate happily for "Johnnie," and both repeat the last line of each stanza, as a kind of refrain. Mr. Kinloch's (IV.) concludes thus : " He has killed six o' the proud foresters, And wounded the seventh sair; He laid his leg out ower his steed. Says ' I will kill nae m.air, mair.' " And Mr. Buchan's (V.) : " His mither's parrot i' the window sat, She whistled and she sang; An' aye the owerturn p' the note, 'Young Johnnie's biding lang, lang.' " When this reachit the king's ain ears, It griev'd him wond'rous sair; Says' I'd rather they'd hurt my subjects a', Than Johnnie o' Cocklesmuir, muir. " ' But where are a' my wa'-wight men, That I pay meat and fee ? We'll gang the morn to Johnnie's castle, See how the cause may be, be.' " Then he 's ca'd Johnnie up to court, Treated him handsomelie ; An' noo, to hunt i' the Bride's Braidmuir, For life he 's licence free, free." Dr. Chambers has also given a collated version, with some addi- tional stanzas, "taken from the recitation of a lady resident at Peebles, and from a manuscript copy submitted to" him "by Mr. Kinloch." Scottish Ballads, p. 183. Scott's version is the one here followed ; one stanza, however, has been deleted, and stanzas 2 and 6, from Kinloch, 18 from Motherwell, and 22 from Finlay, added. Some variations are also noted under the text. 1 JOHNNIE rose up in a May morning, Call'd for water to wash his hands: " Gae loose to me the gude gray dogs, That are bound with iron bands. 2 " Ye'll busk, ye'll busk my noble dogs, Ye'll busk and make them boun', For I am going to Durisdeer, To ding the dun deer down." 3 When Johnnie's mither gat word of that, Her hands for dule she wraug : " Oh, Johnnie, for my venison, To the greenwood dinna gang. JOHNNIE OF BREADISLEE. 473 4 " Enough ye ha'e of gude wheat bread, And enough of the bluid-red wine ; And therefore, for nae venison, Johnnie, I pray ye stir frae hame."* 5 But Johnnie busk'd up his gude bend bow, His arrows ane by ane ; And he has gane to Durisdeer, To hunt the dun deer down. 6 Johnnie look'd east, and Johnnie look'd west, And a little below the sun ; And there he spied a dun deer sleeping Aneath a bush of broom. 7 Johnnie he shot, and the dun deer lap, And he woundecl her on the side ; And atween the water and the wood, His hounds they laid her pride. 8 And Johnnie has brittled the deer sae weel, He 's had out her liver and lungs ; And on these he has feasted his bluidy hounds, As if they had been earls' sons. 9 They ate sae much of the venison, And drank sae much of the bluid, That Johnnie and all his bluidy hounds, Fell asleep, as they had been dead. 10 And by there came a silly auld carle An ill death mote he dee ! For he 's awa to Hislinton,f To tell what he did see. 11 " What news, what news, ye silly auld carle, What news ha'e ye to me ? " " Nae news, nae news," quo' the silly auld carle, " Save what my een did see. * " ' Your meat shall be of the very, very best And your diink of the finest wine; And ye will win your mither s benison, Gin ye wad stay at hame.' " His mither's counsel he wadna tak. Nor wad he stay at hame." Kinloch's version. t " And he 's an* to the proud forester's," &c. Kinloch. 474 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 12 " As I came doun by Merrimass, And doun amang the scroggs,* The bonniest youth that e'er I saw, Lay sleeping amang his dogs. 13 " The shirt that was upon his back Was of the Holland fine ; And the doublet which was over that Was of the Lincoln twine. 14 " The buttons that were on his sleeves Were of the gowd sae gude ; The gude greyhounds he lay amang, Their mouths were dyed in bluid." 15 Then out and spake the first forester, The head man ower them a' : " If this be Johnnie o' Braidislee, Nae nearer him we'll draw." 16 Then out and spake the next forester, (His sister's son was he) : " If this be Johnnie o' Braidislee, We soon shall gar him dee ! " 17 The first flight of arrows the foresters shot, They wounded him on the knee ; And out and spake the seventh forester, " The next will gar him dee." 18 They waken'd Johnnie out of his sleep, And he 's drawn to him his coat : " My fingers five, save me alive, And a stout heart fail me not." t 19 Johnnie set his back against an aik, His foot against a stane; And he has slain the seven foresters, He has slain them all but ane. 20 He has broke three ribs in that ane's side, But and his collar-bane ; . He 's laid him twa-fold ower his steed, Bade him carry the tidings hame. J * " Scroggs : " stunted trees, t " 'But fingers five, come here [come here], And faint heart fail me nought! And silver strings, value me sma' things, Till I get all this vengeance rought 1 ' "Johnny Cook. J " Then Johnnie kill'd six foresters, And wounded the seventh sair; Then drew a stroke at the silly auld man, That word he ne'er spak raair." Buchan's version. THE LAIRD OF MUIRHEAD. 475 21 " Oh, is there no a bonnie bird, Can sing as I can say ? Can flee awa to my mither's bow'r, And tell to fetch Johnnie away? 22 " [Is] there-no a bird in all this Forest Will do as meikle for me, As dip its wing in the wan water, And straik it on my e'e-bree?"* 23 The starling flew to his mither's window, It whistled and it sang; And aye the owerword of the tune Was " John tarries Jang! " 24 They made a rod of the hazel bush, Another of the slae-thorn tree; And mony, mony were the men At fetching our Johnnie. 25 Then out and spake his auld mither, And fast her tears did fa' : " Ye wou'dna be warned, my son Johnnie, Frae the hunting to bide awa. 26 " Aft ha'e I brocht to Braidislee The less gear and the mair; But I ne'er brocht to Braidislee What grieved my heart sae sair. 27 " But wae betide that silly auld carle, An ill death shall he dee ; For the highest tree in Merrimass Shall be his morning fee." 28 Now Johnnie's gude bend-bow is broke, And his gude gray dogs are slain; And his body lies dead in Durisdeer, And his hunting it is done. THE LAIRD OF MUIRHEAD. From Scott's Minstrelsy, vol. iii., p. 341. " This ballad is a fragment from Mr. Herd's MS., communicated to him by J. Grossett Muirhead, Esq. of Breadesholm, near Glasgow ; * This stanza, which describes expressively the languor of approaching death, is derived from Finlay's Scottish Ballads, voL i., p. xxxi. 476 BALLAD lilNSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. who stated that he extracted it, as relating to his own family, from the complete Song, in which the names of twenty or thirty gentlemen were mentioned, contained in a large collection, belonging to Mr. Alexander Monro, merchant of Lisbon, but supposed now to be lost. " It appears, from the Appendix to Nisbet's Heraldry, p. 264, that Muirhead of Lachop and Bullis, the person here called the Laird of Muirhead, was a man of rank, being rentaller, or perhaps feuar, of many crown-lands in Galloway ; and was, in truth, slain in ' Campo Belli de Northumberland sub vexillo Regis,' i. e., in the Field of Hodden." Scott. 1 AFORE the king in order stude The stout laird of Muirhead, Wi' that same twa-hand muckle sword That Bartram fell'd stark dead. 2 He sware he wadna lose his right To fight in ilka field; Nor budge him from his liege's sight, Till his last gasp should yield. 3 Twa hunder mair of his ain name, Frae Torwood and the Clyde, Sware they would never gang to hame, But a' die by his syde. 4 And wond'rous weel they kept their troth ; This sturdy royal band Eush'd down the brae, wi' sic a pith, That nane could them withstand. 5 Mony a bloody blow they dealt, The like was never seen; And hadna that braw leader fall'n, They ne'er had slain the king. LAMENT FOB FLODDEN. The following Lament relates to the death of a lover on the fatal field of Flodden, where the gallant but quixotic James IV. fell, with the flower of the Scotish nobility, A.D. 1513. Two beautiful songs, under the title of "The Flowers of the Forest," the one written by Miss Elliot, and the other by Mrs. Cockburn, nee Rutherford, appear in the companion volume of Scotish Songs. They are both usually supposed to have the battle of Flodden for the theme of their lamentation ; but the one by Mrs. Cockburn, beginning "I've seen the smiling Of Fortune beguiling," LAMENT FOR FLODDEN. 477 is stated not to have been written on that event. It, however, chimes in with it so naturally, that it is no marvel it should be supposed to relate thereto. Both of these songs may be found together in Herd's Scottish Songs, vol. i., p. 45, where they are conjoined under the title of " Flodden Field," along with a doggrel prelude, beginning " From Spey to the border, was peace and good order, The sway of our monarch was mild as the May; Peace he adored, whilk Soudrons abhorred, Our marches they plunder, our wardens they slay." Among the " sueit melodius sangis of natural music of the antiquite," mentioned in The Complaynt of Scotland, as sung by the " scheiphirdis and their vyuis," there occurs, " My Luf is laid apon ane Knycht," which very nearly coincides with the first line of the following Lament. It might very appropriately be begun and ended with the four beautiful lines of Leyden's " Ode on visiting Flodden," which Scott adopted for the motto to " Marmion : a Tale of Flodden Field : " " Alas ! that Scottish maid should sing The combat where her lover fell! That Scottish bard should wake the string, The triumph of our foes to tell." Scott's Minstrelsy, voL UL, p. 34& 1 MY love was laid upon a knight, A noble knight of high degree; Upon a knight of valour bright, Who also laid his love on me. 2 I loved him for his manly form, Majestic port and noble mien; His glittering sword, in war's wild storm, Was ever first in battle keen. 3 For country, king, or ladye bright, His blade he ever boldly drew; Yet, tho' he was a warlike knight, His heart was gentle, kind, and true. 4 But, ah! on Flodden's fatal plain, Where Scotland's best and bravest fell, My own true knight lay 'mid the slain, The gallant knight I loved so well. 5 The memory of that fatal day Deep graven on my heart shall be, Till death shall summon me away, To join again my love and me. 478 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. SIR JAMES THE ROSE. "This old North Country ballad, which appears to be founded on fact, is well known in almost every corner of Scotland. Pinkerton printed it in his Tragic Ballads, 1781 (p. 61), ' from,' as he says, ' a modern edition, in one sheet 12mo, after the old copy.' Notwith- standing this reference to authority, the ballad certainly received a few conjectural emendations from his own pen ; at least, the version which is given," by Mr. Motherwell, "as it occurs in early stall prints, and as it is to be obtained from the recitations of elderly people, does not exactly correspond with his. " Two modern ballads have sprung out of this old one viz., ' Sir James the Ross,' and ' Elfrida and Sir James of Perth.' The first of these is said to have been written by Michael Bruce ; the latter is an anonymous production," which seems to have first appeared in Caw's Museum, 1784, and to have subsequently "found its way into Evan's Collection, vide vol. iv., edit. 1810. It might be curious to ascertain which of these mournful ditties is the senior, were it for nothing else than perfectly to enjoy the cool impudence with which the graceless youngster has appropriated to itself, without thanks or acknow- ledgment, all the best things which occur in the other." * Mother- weirs Minstrelsy, p. 321. Motherwell's version does not differ materially from Pinkerton's. In the " Battle of Harlaw : Traditionary Version," ante, p. 450, a "James the Rose," and a "John the Graeme," both figure as combatants on the side of the royal forces ; but we can scarcely suppose the cowardly "James the Rose," or the heroic "John the Graeme." of that ballad, to be the parties here celebrated. The ballad is placed here because stanza 43 of the modern version refers to the principal actors as having fought at Flodden. This, in the absence of better data, must therefore serve as our guide as to the period when the tragedy occurred. In a note to " Sir James the Rose," Mr. Pinkerton states that " a renovation of this ballad, composed of new and improbable circum- stances, decked out with scraps of tragedies, may be found in the Annual Register for 1774, and other collections. " Rose is an ancient and honourable name in Scotland. Johnnes de Hose is a witness to the famous Charter of Robert II. testifying his marriage with Elizabeth More, as appears in the rare edition of it printed at Paris, 1695, 4to, p. 15." Scottish Tragic Ballads, p. 114. The modernized ballad of "The Buchanshire Tragedy; or, Sir James the Ross," as referred to by Motherwell and Pinkerton, was written by Michael Bruce, and appears "in the Weekly Magazine, or Edinburgh Amusement, vol. ix., Sept. 20, 1770, p. 371. * The version by Michael Brace is apparently the earliest, and it is certainly by far the most popular. SIR JAMES THE ROSE. 479 " Prefixed was the following short note : ' To the Publisher of the Weekly Magazine. 'SiR, Some days ago I met with an old Scottish ballad, of which the following is a copy; which, I dare say, you will be willing to preserve from oblivion by giving it a place in your entertaining Amusement. There are few of your readers, I am per- suaded, but will be pleased to see at once such a specimen of ancient Scottish poetry and valour.' " * The ballad was probably communicated, and the note written, by Logan, who, in this same year, issued a volume of Poems on several Occasions, by Michael Bruce, which volume contained the ballad referred to, with several additions, deletions, and other alterations, doubtless by Logan himself. The ancient ballad, as collated from Pinkerton's and Motherwell's versions, is here first given ; the orthography of the latter being generally adopted. It is followed by the modern version, as written by Michael Bruce; while an additional stanza and some variations from Logan's edition of 1770 are noted under the text. The version by Bruce seems to have superseded the ancient one as a chap book ; and it may be mentioned that one of these, bearing the imprint, "Glasgow, printed by J. and M. Robertson, (No. 20) Salt- market, 1809, is professedly "printed from the original manu- script ; " and that it agrees very closely with Bruce's text as here ijiven. 1 OH, heard ye of Sir James the Kose, The young heir of Baleighan ? For he has kill'd a gallant squire, Whose friends are out to take him. 2 Now he has gone to the house of Mar, Where none might seek to find him; To seek his dear he did repair, Thinking she wou'd befriend him. 3 " Where are ye going, Sir James ? " she said, " Or where now are you riding? " " Oh, I am bound to a foreign land, For now I'm under hiding. 4 " Where shall I go, where shall I run, Where shall I go to lay me? For I ha'e kill'd a gallant squire, And his friends seek to slay me." 5 " Oh, go ye down to yon ale-house, And I'll pay there your lawing ; And as I am your leman true, I'll meet ye at the dawing." * The Works of Michael Bruce, edited, with Memoir and Notes, by the Rev. Alexander B. Grosart. Edinburgh, 1865. The infamous conduct of Logan, who afterwards claimed many of the best pieces as his own, is fully discussed and ably exposed by Mr. Grosart 480 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 6 " I'll no gae down to yon ale-house, For you to pay my lawing, But I'll lie down upon the bent, And bide there till the dawing." 7 He 's turn'd him right and round about, And row'd him in his brechan,* And he has gone to take a sleep In the lawlands of Baleighan. 8 He wasna well gone out of sight, Nor was he past Millstrethen, When four-and-twenty belted knights Came riding o'er the Lethan. 9 " Oh, ha'e ye seen Sir James the Eose, The young heir of Baleighan? For he has kill'd a gallant squire, And we are sent to take him." 10 " Yea, I ha'e seen Sir James," she said, " He pass'd by here on Monday ; If the steed be swift that he rides on, He 's past the heights of Lundie." 11 But as with speed they rode away, She loudly cried behind them, " If ye'll give me a worthy meid, -j- I'll tell ye where to find him." 12 "Oh, tell, fair maid, and, by our faith, Ye'se get his purse and brechan." " Seek ye the bank aboon the mill, In the lawlands of Baleighan." 13 They sought the bank aboon the mill, In the lawlands of Baleighan, And there they found Sir James the Rose, Was lying in his brechan. 14 Then up and spake Sir John the Graeme, Who had the charge in keeping : " It shall ne'er be said, brave gentlemen, We kill'd him when a-sleeping." 15 They seized his broadsword and his targe, And closely him surrounded; And when he waked out of his sleep, His senses were confounded. * " Brechan : " plaid. t " Meid : " reward. THE BUCHAXSHIRE TRAGEDY; OR, SIR JAMES THE ROSS. 481 16 " Rise up, rise up, Sir James," he said, " Rise up, since now we've found ye ; We've ta'en the broadsword frae your side, And angry men are round ye." 17 " Oh, pardon, pardon, gentlemen, Ha'e mercy now upon me ! " " Such as you ga'e, such shall you ha'e, And so we fall upon thee." 18 Syne they've ta'en out his bleeding heart, And stuck it on a spear; Then took it to the house of Mar, And show'd it to his dear. 19 " We cou'dna give Sir James's purse ; We cou'dna give his brechan ; But ye shall ha'e his bleeding heart, But and his bleeding tartan." 20 " Sir James the Rose, oh, for thy sake My heart is now a-breaking I Curs'd be the day I wrought thy wae, Thou brave heir of Baleighan ! " 21 Then up she raise, and forth she gaes, And, in that hour of tein, She wandered to the dowie glen, And never mair was seen. THE BUCHANSHIRE TRAGEDY ; OR, SIR JAMES THE ROSS. BY MICHAEL BRUCE, BORN, 1746; DIED, 1767. 1 OF all the Scottish northern chiefs, Of high and warlike name, The bravest was Sir James the Ross, A knight of meikle fame. 2 His growth was as the tufted tir, That crowns the mountain's brow ; * * Brace's poem, "The Complaint of Nature," has a similar line, "Or trees, that crown the mountain's brow." And in the eighth of the " Scriptural Translations and Paraphrases," as used in the Presbyterian Churches of Scotland, which "paraphrase" is based on Brace's "Complaint," &c., there occurs the same line in stanza 6. We note these coincidences, as they are somewhat curious, and form ''a threefold cord " of connection with Bruce. 2i 482 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. And, waving o'er his shoulders broad, His locks of yellow flew.* 3 The chieftain of the brave clan Ross, A firm undaunted band ; Five hundred warriors drew their swords, Beneath his high command. 4 In bloody fight thrice had he stood, Against the English keen, Ere two-and-twenty opening springs This blooming youth had seen. 5 The fair Matilda dear he loved, A maid of beauty rare ; Ev'n Margaret, on the Scottish throne, Was never half so fair. 6 Lang had he wooed, lang she refused, With seeming scorn and pride ; Yet aft her eyes confess'd the love Her fearful words denied. 7 At last she bless'd his well-tried faith, Allow'd his tender claim ; She vow'd to him her virgin heart, And own'd an equal flame. 8 Her father, Buchan's cruel lord, Their passion disapproved ; And bade her wed Sir John the Graeme, And leave the youth she loved. 9 Ae night they met, as they were wont, Deep in a shady wood, Where, on a bank beside a burn, A blooming saugh ) tree stood. 10 Conceal'd among the underwood, The crafty Donald lay, The brother of Sir John the Graeme, To hear what they would say. * This stanza follows in Brace's Poems, Logan's edition of 1770 : " Wide were his fields, his herds were large, And large his flocks of sheep ; And numerous were his goats and deer Upon the mountain's steep." t " Sangh: " a willow. THE BUCHANSHIRE TRAGEDY; OR, SIR JAMES THE ROSS. 483 11 When thus the maid began, " My sire Your passion disapproves, And bids me wed Sir John the Graeme ; So here must end our loves. 12 " My father's will must be obey'd ; Naught boots me to withstand ; Some fairer maid, in beauty's bloom, Must bless thee with her hand. 13 " Matilda teoon shall be forgot, And from thy mind effaced : But may that happiness be thine, Which I can never taste." 14 " What do I hear ? is this thy vow ?" Sir James the Ross replied : " And will Matilda wed the Graeme, Though sworn to be my bride? 15 " His sword shall sooner pierce my heart, Than reive me of thy charms ; " Then clasp'd her to his beating breast, Fast lock'd into his arms. 16 " I spake to try thy love," she said ; " I'll ne'er wed man but thee : My grave shall be my bridal bed, Ere Graeme my husband be. 17 " Take then, dear youth, this faithful kiss, In witness of my troth ; And every plague become my lot, That day I break my oath ! " 18 They parted thus ; the sun was set ; Up hasty Donald flies ; And " Turn thee, turn thee, beardless youth!" He loud insulting cries. 19 Soon turn'd about the fearless chief, And soon his sword he drew ; For Donald's blade, before his breast, Had pierced his tartans through. 20 " This for my brother's slighted love ; His wrongs sit on my arm :" Three paces back the youth retired, And saved himself frae harm. 484 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 21 Eeturning swift, his hand he rear'd, Fierce Donald s head above, And through the brain and crashing bones His sharp-edged weapon drove. 22 He staggering reel'd, then tumbled down, A lump of breathless clay : " So fall my foes!" quoth valiant Ross, And stately strode away. 23 Through the green wood he quickly hied, Unto Lord Buchan's hall ; And at Matilda's window stood, And thus began to call : 24 " Art thou asleep, Matilda, dear? Awake, my love, awake ! Thy luckless lover on thee calls, A long farewell to take. 25 " For I have slain fierce Donald Graeme ; His blood is on my sword : And distant are my faithful men, Nor can assist their lord. 26 " To Skye I'll now direct my way, Where my two brothers bide, And raise the valiant of the Isles, To combat on my side." 27 " Oh, do not so," the maid replied ; " With me till morning stay ; For dark and dreary is the night, And dangerous the way. 28 " All night I'll watch you in the park ; My faithful page I'll send, To run and raise the brave clan Ross, Their master to defend." 29 Beneath a bush he laid him down, And wrapp'd him in his plaid ; While, trembling for her lover's fate, At distance stood the maid. 30 Swift ran the page o'er hill and dale, Till, in a lonely glen, He met the furious Sir John Graeme, With twenty of his men. THE BUCHANSHIRE TRAGEDY; OR, SIR JAMES THE ROSS. 485 31 "Where go'st thou, little page?" he said; " So late, who did thee send ?" " I go to raise the brave clan Ross, Their master to defend. 32 " For he. hath slain fierce Donald Graeme, Whose blood now dims his sword : And far, far distant are his men, That should assist their lord." 33 " And has he slain my brother dear?" The furious Graeme replies : " Dishonour blast my name, but he By me, ere morning, dies ! 34 " Tell me, where is Sir James the Boss? I will thee well reward ;" " He sleeps into Lord Buchan's park ; Matilda is his guard." 35 They spurr'd their steeds in furious mood, Then scour'd along the lee ; * And reach'd Lord Buchan's lofty tow'rs, By dawning of the day. 36 Matilda stood without the gate, To whom the Graeme did say,f " Saw ye Sir James the Ross last night? Or did he pass this way ? " 37 " Last day, at noon," Matilda said, " Sir James the Ross pass'd by : He furious prick'd his sweaty steed, And onward fast did hie. 38 " By this he is at Edinburgh, If horse and man hold good." " Your page, then, lied, who said he was Now sleeping in the wood." * " They spurr'd their steeds, and furious flew. Like lightning, o'er the lea." Bruce's Poems, Logan's edition. t " Matilda stood without the gate, Upon a rising ground, And watch'd each object in the dawn. All ear to every sound. " ' Where sleeps the Boss ? ' began the Graeme, 'Or has the felon fled? This hand shall lay the wretch on earth, By whom my brother bled.' " Ibid. Stanzas 37, 38, 39, and elso stanza 43, are omitted by Logan. 486 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 39 She wrung her hands, and tore her hair : " Brave Boss, thou art betrayed ; And ruin'd by those very means, From whence I hoped thine aid!" 40 By this the valiant knight awoke, The virgin's shrieks he heard ; And up he rose and drew his sword, When the fierce band appeared. 41 " Your sword last night my brother slew ; His blood yet dims its shine ; And, ere the setting of the sun, Your blood shall reek on mine." 42 " You word it well," the chief replied; " But deeds approve the man : Set by your band, and, hand to hand, We'll try what valour can. 43 " Oft boasting hides a coward's heart ; My weighty sword you fear, Which shone in front of Flodden-field, When you kept in the rear." 44 With dauntless step he forward strode, And dared him to the fight ; But Graeme gave back, and fear'd his arm; For well he knew its might. 45 Four of his men, the bravest four, Sunk down beneath his sword; But still he scorn'd the poor revenge, And sought their haughty lord. 46 Behind him basely came the Graeme, And pierced him in the side; Out spouting came the purple tide, And all his tartans dyed. 47 But yet his sword quat not the grip, Nor dropp'd he to the ground,* Till thro' his enemy's heart his steel Had forced a mortal wound. 48 Graeme, like a tree with wind o'erthrown, Fell breathless on the clay; And down beside him sank the Boss, And faint and dying lay. " But yet his hand not dropp'd the sword, Nor sunk he to the ground." Bruce s Poems, Logan's edition. JOHNNIE ARMSTRANG. 487 49 The sad Matilda saw him fall : " Oh, spare his life ! " she cried ; " Lord Buchan's daughter begs his life, Let her not be deny'd." 50 Her well-known voice the hero heard; He rais'd his death-closed eyes, And fix'd them on the weeping maid, And weakly thus replies : 51 " In vain Matilda begs the life, By death's arrest deny'd : My race is run adieu, my love ! " Then clos'd his eyes and died. 52 The sword, yet warm, from his left side With frantic hand she drew : " I come, Sir James the Boss," she cried ; "I come to follow you!" 53 She lean'd the hilt against the ground, And bared her snowy breast ; Then fell upon her lover's face, And sunk to endless rest. JOHNNIE ARMSTRANG. From Ramsay's Evergreen, vol. ii., p. 190. ' ' Ramsay mentions that this is the true old ballad of the famous John Armstrong of Gilnock-hall, in Liddisdale, and which he copied from a gentleman's mouth of the name of Armstrong, who was the sixth generation from this John, and who told him that it was ever esteemed the genuine ballad, the common one false. "The common ballad, alluded to by Ramsay, is the one, however, which is in the mouths of the people. His set I never heard sung or recited ; but the other frequently. The common set is printed in Wit Restored, London, 1658 [p. 123], under the title of ' A Northern Ballet,' and in the London Collection of Old Ballads, 1723 [vol. i., p. 170], as ' Johney Armstrong's Last Good-night.' That Collection has another ballad on the subject of Armstrong, entitled ' Armstrong and Musgrave's Contention.' "In J. Stevenson's Catalogue, Edinburgh, 1827, is a copy on a broadside, with this title, 'John Armstrong's Last Farewell,' declaring how he and eight-score men fought a bloody battle at Edinburgh ; to the tune of 'Fare thou well, bonny Gilt Knock Hall,' an edition still adhered to in the stall copies of the ballad. The version of the ballad, as given in the Evergreen, is followed by the editor of the 488 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND, Border Minstrelsy, in whose valuable compilation it finds a place, with suitable illustrations." Motherwell's Minstrelsy, Introduction, p. Ixii., note 3. From the "illustrations" referred to by Mr. Mother well, the fol- lowing account of this celebrated outlaw is extracted : " Johnnie Armstrong, of Gilnockie, the hero of the following ballad, is a noted personage, both in history and tradition. He was, it would seem from the ballad, a brother of the Laird of Mangertoun, chief of the name. His place of residence (now a roofless tower) was at the Hollows, a few miles from Langholm, where its ruins still serve to adorn a scene which, in natural beauty, has few equals in Scotland. At the head of a desperate band of freebooters, this Armstrong is said to have spread the terror of his name almost as far as Newcastle, and to have levied black-mail, or protection and forbearance money, for many miles round. James V., of whom it was long remembered by his grateful people that he made the ' rush-bush keep the cow,' about 1529, undertook an expedition through the Border counties, to suppress the turbulent spirit of the Marchmen. But before setting out upon his journey, he took the precaution of imprisoning the different Border chieftains, who were the chief protectors of the marauders. The Earl of Both well was forfeited, and confined in Edin- burgh castle. The lords of Home and Maxwell, the lairds of Buc- cleuch, Fairniherst, and Johnston, with many others, were also com- mitted to ward. Cockburn of Henderland, and Adam Scott of Tushielaw, called the King of the Border, were publicly executed. Lesley, p. 430. The king then marched rapidly forward, at the head of a flying army of ten thousand men, through Ettrick Forest and Ewsdale. The evil genius of our Johnnie Armstrong, or, as others say, the private advice of some courtiers, prompted him to present himself before James, at the head of thirty-six horse, arrayed in all the pomp of Border chivalry. Pitscottie uses nearly the words of the ballad, in describing the splendour of his equipment, and his high expecta- tions of favour from the king. ' But James, looking upon him sternly, said to his attendants, " What wants that knave that a king should have?" and ordered him and his followers to instant execu- tion.' 'But John Armstrong,' continues this minute historian, 'made great offers to the king. That he should sustain himself, with forty gentlemen, ever ready at his service, on their own cost, without wronging any Scottishman : secondly, that there was not a subject in England, duke, earl, or baron, but, within a certain day, he should bring him to his majestic, either quick or dead.* At length, he, * The Borderers, from their habits of life, were capable of most extraordinary exploits of this nature. In the year 1511, Sir Robert Ker of Cessford, Warden of the Middle Marches of Scotland, was murdered at a Border meeting, by the Bastard Heron, Starhead, and Lilburn. The English mgnarch delivered up Lilburn to justice in Scotland, but Heron and Starhead escaped. The latter chose his resi- dence in the very centre of England, to baffle the vengeance of Ker's clan and followers. Two dependants of the deceased, called Tail, were deputed by Andrew Ker of Cessford to revenge his father's murder. They travelled through England in various disguises, till they discovered the place of Starhead's retreat, murdered him in his bed, and brought his head in triumph to Edinburgh, where Ker caused it to be exposed at the Cross. The Bastard Heron would have shared the same fate, had he not spread abroad a report of his having died of the plague, and caused bis funeral obsequies to be performed. Ridpath's History, p. 481. See also Metrical Account of the Battle of Flodden, published by the Her. Mr. Lambe. JOHNNIE ARMSTRANG. 489 seeing no hope of favour, said very proudly, " It is folly to seek grace at a graceless face ; but," said he, "had I known this, I should have lived upon the Borders in despite of King Harry and you both ; for I know King Harry would downweigh my oest horse with gold to know that I were condemned to die this day."' Pitscottie's History, p. 145. Johnnie and all his retinue were accordingly hanged upon growing trees, at a place called Carlenrig Chapel, about ten miles above Hawick, on the high road to Langholm. The country people believe, that, to manifest the injustice of the execution, the trees withered away. Armstrong and his followers were buried in a deserted church- yard, where their graves are still shown. "As this Border hero was a person of great note in his way, he is frequently alluded to by the writers of the time. Sir David Lindsay of the Mount, in the curious play published by Mr. Pinker- ton, from the Bannatyne MS., introduces a pardoner, or knavish dealer in relics, who produces, among his holy rarities ' The cordi.s baith grit and lang, Quhilk hangit Johnie Armstrang, Of gude hempt, soft and sound. Gude haly pepil, I stand ford, Wha'evir beis hangid in this cord, Neidis never to be drowned! ' Pinkerton's Scottish Poems, vol. ii., p. 69. "In The Complaynt of Scotland, John Armistrangis' Dance, men- tioned as a popular tune, has probably some reference to our hero. "The common people of the high parts of Teviotdale, Liddesdale, and the country adjacent, hold the memory of Johnnie Armstrong in very high respect. They affirm, also, that one of his attendants broke through the king's guard, and carried to Gilnockie tower the news of the bloody catastrophe. " It is fortunate for the admirers of the old ballad that it did not fall into Ramsay's hands when he was equipping with new sets of words the old Scottish tunes in his Tea-Table Miscellany. Since his time it has been often reprinted." * Scott's Minstrelsy, vol. i., p. 392. [The ballad which follows, resembles, in many respects, "The Sang of the Outlaw Murray," ante, p. 459. The conduct of the respective kings towards, and the fate of, the two Outlaws, are, however, very different.] 1 SOME speak of lords, some speak of lairds, And sic like men of high degree; Of a gentleman I sing a sang, Some time call'd Laird of Gilnockie. 2 The king he writes a loving letter, With his ain hand sae tenderlie, And he hath sent it to Johnnie Armstrang, To come and speak with him speedilie. * [This remark will probably recall to the mind of its reader the -well-known adage about the pot calling the kettle black.] 490 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 3 The Elliots and Armstrangs did convene, They were a gallant companie : " We'll ride and meet our lawful king, And bring him safe to Gilnockie. 4 " Make kinnen * and capon ready, then, And venison in great plentie; We'll welcome here our royal king; I hope he'll dine at Gilnockie ! " 5 They ran their horse on the Langholm howm, And brake their spears with meikle main ; The ladies lookit frae their loft windows " God bring our men weel hame again ! " 6 When Johnnie came before the king, With all his men sae brave to see, The king he moved his bonnet to him ; He ween'd he was a king as well as he. 7 " May I find grace, my sovereign liege, Grace for my loyal men and me? For my name it is Johnnie Armstrang, And a subject of yours, my liege," said he. 8 "Away, away, thou traitor strang! Out of my sight soon may'st thou be ! I granted never a traitor's life, And now I'll not begin with thee." 9 " Grant me my life, my liege, my king I And a bonnie gift I'll gi'e to thee ; Full four-and-twenty milk-white steeds, Were all foal'd in ae year to me. 10 " I'll gi'e thee all these milk-white steeds, That prance and nicherf at a spear; And as meikle gude Inglish gilt,J As four of their braid backs dow bear." 11 "Away, away, thou traitor strang! Out of iny sight soon may'st thou be ! I granted never a traitor's life, And now I'll not begin with thee." * " Kinnen : " rabbits. J ' Gilt: " gold. 1 "Nicher: " neigh. j " Dow: " are able to. JOHNNIE ARMSTRANG. 491 12 " Grant me my life, my liege, my king! And a bonnie gift I'll gi'e to thee : Gude four-and-twenty ganging * mills, That gang thro' all the year to me. 13 "These four-and-twenty mills complete, Shall gang for thee thro' all the year; And as meikle of gude red wheat, As all their happers dow to bear." 14 "Away, away, thou traitor strang! Out of my sight soon may'st thou be! I granted never a traitor's life, And now I'll not begin with thee." 15 " Grant me my life, my liege, my king! And a great great gift I'll gi'e to thee : Bauld four-and-twenty sisters' sons Shall for thee fecht, tho' all shou'd flee." 16 "Away, away, thou traitor strang! Out of my sight soon may'st thou be! I granted never a traitor's life, And now I'll not begin with thee." 17 " Grant me my life, my liege, my king ! And a brave gift I'll gi'e to thee : All between here and Newcastle town Shall pay their yearly rent to thee." 18 " Away, away, thou traitor strang! Out of my sight soon may'st thou be ! I granted never a traitor's life, And now I'll not begin with thee." 19 " Ye lied, ye lied, now, king," he says, " Altho' a king and prince ye be ! For I've loved naething in my life, I weel dare say it, but honestie. 20 " Save a fat horse, and a fair woman, Twa bonnie dogs to kill a deer ; But England shou'd have found me meal and mault, Gif I had lived this hundred year. 21 " She shou'd have found me meal and mault, And beef and mutton in all plentie; But never a Scots wife cou'd have said, That e'er I skaith'd her a puir flee. * "Ganging: ' going. 492 BALLAD MIXSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 22 " To seek het water beneath cauld ice, Surely it is a great follie : I have ask'd grace at a graceless face,* But there is nane for my men and me. 23 " But had I kenn'd, ere I came frae hame, How unkind thou wou'dst been to me, I wou'd ha'e keepit the Border side, In spite of all thy force and thee. 24 " Wist England's king that I was ta'en, Oh, gin a blythe man he wou'd be ! For ance I slew his sister's son, And on his breast-bane brak a tree." 25 John wore a girdle about his middle, Embroider'd o'er with burning gold, Bespangled with the same metal, Maist beautiful was to behold. 26 There hang nine targats f at Johnnie's hat, And ilk ane worth three hundred pound: " What wants that knave that a king shou'd have, But the sword of honour and the crown? 27 " Oh, where got thee these targats, Johnnie, That blink sae brawly J aboon thy brie? " " I gat them in the field fechting, Where, cruel king, thou durst not be. 28 " Had I my horse and harness gude, And riding as I wont to be, It shou'd have been tauld this hundred year, The meeting of my king and me ! 29 "God be with thee, Kirsty, || my brother, Lang live thou laird of Mangertoun ! Lang may'st thou live on the Border side, Ere thou see thy brother ride up and down ! 30 " And God be with thee, Kirsty, my son, Where thou sits on thy nurse's knee ! But an thou live this hundred year, Thy father's better thou'lt never be. See " Young Waters," stanza 23, and note, ante, p. 458. t " Targats : " tassels. t "Blink sae brawly: " glance so bravely. ' Fechting: " fighting. li "Kirsty:" Christopher. THE LAMENT OF THE BORDER WIDOW. 493 31 " Farewell, my bonnie Gilnock hall, Where on Esk side thou standest stout! Gif I had lived but seven years mair, I wou'd ha'e gilt thee round about." 32 John murder'd was at Carlinrigg, And all his gallant companie; But Scotland's heart was ne'er sae wae, To see sae mony brave men die ; 33 Because they saved their country dear Frae Englishmen ! Nane were sae banld ; While Johnnie lived on the Border side, Nane of them durst come near his hauld. THE LAMENT OF THE BORDER WIDOW. From Scott's Minstrelsy, vol. iii., p. 94. " This fragment, obtained from recitation in the Forest of Ettrick, is said to relate to the execution of Cockburne of Henderland, a Border freebooter, hanged over the gate of his own tower, by James V., in the course of that memorable expedition, in 1529, which was fatal to Johnnie Armstrang, Adam Scott of Tushielaw, and many other marauders. The vestiges of the castle of Henderland are still to be traced upon the farm of that name, belonging to Mr. Murray of Henderland. They are situated near the mouth of the river Meggat, which falls into the lake of St. Mary, in Selkirkshire. The adjacent country, which now hardly bears a single tree, is celebrated by Lesley, as, in his time, affording shelter to the largest stags in Scot- land. A mountain torrent, called Henderland Burn, rushes impetu- ously from the hills, through a rocky chasm, named the Dowglen, and passes near the site of the tower. To the recesses of this glen, the wife of Cockburne is said to have retreated, during the execution of her husband ; and a place, called the Lady's Seat, is still shown, where she is said to have striven to drown, amid the roar of a foam- ing cataract, the tumultuous noise which announced the close of his existence. In a deserted burial-place, which once surrounded the chapel of the castle, the monument of Cockburne and his lady are still shown. It is a large stone, broken in three parts ; but some armorial bearings may yet be traced, and the following inscription is still legible, though defaced : HERE LYES PERYS OF COKBURNE AND HIS WYTE MARJORY. " Tradition says that Cockburne was surprised by the king while sitting at dinner. After the execution, James marched rapidly forward to surprise Adam Scott of Tushielaw, called the King of the Border, and sometimes the King of Thieves. A path through the 494 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. mountains, which separates the Vale of Ettrick from the head of Yarrow, is still called the King's Road, and seems to have been the route which he followed. The remains of the tower of Tushielaw are yet visible, overhanging the wild banks of the Ettrick ; and are an object of terror to the benighted peasant, from an idea of their being haunted by spectres. From these heights, and through the adjacent county of Peebles, passes a wild path, called still the Thief's Road, from having been used chiefly by the marauders of the Border." Scott. Mr. Motherwell says : "I am passing loath to deprive Scotland of the least remnant of her song ; but this appears to me to be nothing else than a fragment of the English ballad, entitled, 'The Famous Flower of Serving-men ; or, The Lady turn'd Serving-man. " Minstrelsy, Introduction, p. Ixxxi., note 80. A slightly varied version occurs in Chambers's Scottish Songs, vol. i., p. 174. There is also a Highland lament, entitled, " Oh ono Chrio," which appears in Johnson's Museum, vol. i., p. 90, wherein three or four lines of this ballad occur; and Burns mentions that "Dr. Blacklock informed " him ' ' that this [latter] song was composed on the in- famous massacre of Glencoe. " * 1 MY love he built me a bonnie bow'r, And clad it all with lilie flow'r; A brawer bow'r ye ne'er did Bee, Than my true love he built for me. 2 There came a man, by middle day, He spy'd his sport and went away; And brought the king that very night, Who brake my bow'r and slew my knight. 3 He slew my knight, to me sae dear; He slew my knight, and poin'd")" his gear; My servants all for life did flee, And left me in extremitie. 4 I sew'd his sheet, making my mane; I watch'd the corpse, myself alane; I watch'd his body night and day; No living creature came that way. 5 I took his body on my back, And whiles I gaed and whiles I sat ; I digg'd a grave, and laid him in, And happ'd J him with the sod sae green. * Cromek's Reliquet. t " Poin'd: " poinded attached by legal distress. } "Happ'd:" covered. HUGHIE THE GREME. 495 But think na ye my heart was sair, When I laid the moul' on his yellow hair? Oh, think na ye my heart was wae, When I turn'd about away to gae ? Nae living-man I'll love again, Since that my lovely knight is slain ; With ae lock of his yellow hair I'll chain my heart for evermair. HUGHIE THE GB^ME. From Scott's Minstrelsy, vol. iii. , p. 107. " The Graemes were a powerful and numerous clan, who chiefly inhabited the Debateable Land. They were said to be of Scottish extraction ; and their chief claimed his descent from Malice, Earl of Stratherne. In military service they were more attached to England than to Scotland ; but in their depredations on both countries, they appear to have been very impartial ; for in the year 1600, the gentle- men of Cumberland alleged to Lord Scroope, ' that the Graemes, and their clans, with their children, tenants, and servants, were the chiefest actors in the spoil and decay of the country. ' Accordingly, they were, at that time, obliged to give a bond of surety for each other's peaceable demeanour ; from which bond their numbers appear to have exceeded four hundred men. See Introduction to Nicolson's History of Cumberland, p. cviii. " Richard Graeme, of the family of Netherby, was one of the attendants upon Charles I. when Prince of Wales, and accom- panied him upon his romantic journey through France and Spam. The following little anecdote, which then occurred, will show that the memory of the Graemes' Border exploits was at that time still preserved: " 'They were now entered into the deep time of Lent, and could get no flesh in their inns. Whereupon fell out a pleasant passage, if I may insert it, by the way, among more serious. There was, near Bayonne, a herd of goats, with their young ones ; upon the sight whereof, Sir Richard Graham tells the Marquis (of Buckingham), that he would snap one of the kids, and make some shift to carry him snug to their lodging. Which the prince overhearing, "Why, Richard," says he, " do you think you may practise here your old tricks upon the Borders ? " Upon which words, they, in the first place, gave the goat-herd good contentment : and then, while the Marquis and Richard, being both on foot, were chasing the kid about the stack, the prince, from horseback, killed him in the head with a Scottish pistol. Which circumstance, though trifling, may yet serve to show how his Royal Highness, even in such slight and sportful damage, had a noble sense of just dealing.' Sir H. Wotton's Life of the Duke of Buckingham. 495 BALLAD MINSTRKLSY OF SCOTLAND. " I find no traces of this particular flughie Graeme of the ballad; but, from the mention of the bishop, I suspect he may have been one of about four hundred Borderers, against whom bills of complaint were exhibited to Robert Aldridge, lord bishop of Carlisle, about 1553, for divers incursions, burnings, murders, mutilations, and spoils by them committed. Nicolson s History, Introduction, IxxxL There appear a number of Grsemes in the specimen which we have of that list of delinquents. There occur, in particular, Ritchie Grame of Bailie, Will's Jock Grame, Fargue's Willie Grame, Muckle Willie Grame, Will Grame of Rosetrees, Ritchie Grame, younger of Netherby, Wat Grame, called Flaughtail, Will Grame, Nimble Willie, Will Grame, Mickle Willie, with many others. "In Mr. Ritson's curious and valuable collection of legendary poetry, entitled, Ancient Songs, he has published this Border ditty, from a collection of two old black-letter copies, one in the collection of the late John, Duke of Roxburghe, and another in the hands of John Bayne, Esq. The learned editor mentions another copy, be- ginning, 'Good Lord John is a-hunting gone.' The present edition was procured for me by my friend Mr. William Laidlaw, in Black- house, and has been long current in Selkirkshire ; but Mr. Rit- son's copy has occasionally been resorted to for better readings." Scott. The version referred to above, as appearing in Ritson's Ancient Songs (edit. 1790), p. 192, is entitled, "The Life and Death of Sir Hugh of the Grime." It first appeared in Durfey's Pills to Purge Melancholy, vol. iv., p. 289. The first Scotish version was communicated to Johnson's Museum (p. 312), by Burns, who states that he obtained it from oral tradition in Ayrshire. Mr. Cromek alleges that stanzas 3 and 8 were entirely composed, and that 9 and 10 were retouched, by Burns. The Museum version was followed by Scott's ; while a still subsequent Scotish version may be found in Scottish Traditional Versions of Ancient Ballads, Percy Society, vol. xvii., p. 73, under the title of " Sir Hugh the Grame." A note to this version (p. 106) truly states, " that it differs materially from all others, . . . and particularly in one respect, viz., that it has not a tragical ending, the hero making his escape," after his extraordinary leap. There seems to be no good ground for the allegations against the bishop and the wife of Hughie Grame. It is, however, quaintly and sarcastically stated by Anthony a Wood, that " there were many changes in his time, both in Church and State, but the worthy prelate retained his offices and preferments during them all. " So that he seems to have been a worthy exemplar of the notorious " Vicar of Bray." HUGHIE THE GRAEME. 497 According to the last-named version, the captor and judge of Sir Hugh is Lord Home. The concluding stanzas are as under : " ' Ye'll gi'e my brother John the sworde That's pointed wi' the metal clear, An' bid him come at eight o'clock, An' see me pay the bishop's meare. " ' An', brother James, tak' here the sworde That's pointed wi' the metal broun, Come up the morn at eight o'clock, An' see your brother putten down. " ' An', brother Allan, tak' this sworde That 's pointed wi' the metal fine, Come np the morn at eight o'clock, An' see the death o' Hugh the Graeme.* " ' Ye'll tell this news to Maggy, my wife, Neist time ye gang to Strievling toun; < She is the cause I lose my life, She wi' the bishop play'd the loon.' "Again he ower his shoulder look'd, It was to see what he_ could see, And there he saw his little son, Was screamin' by his nourice knee. " Then out it spak' the little son : ' Sin' 'tis the morn that he maun dee, If that I live to be a man, My father's death reveng'd shall be.' " 'If I must dee,' Sir Hugh replied, 'My friends o' me they wiU think lack; ' He leapt a wa' eighteen feet high, Wi' his ban's boun' behin' his back. "Lord Home then raised ten armed men. An' after him they did pursue; But he has trudg'd out ower the plain, As fast as any bird that flew. "He leuk'd ower his left shoulder, It was to see what he could see; His brother John was at his back, An' a" the rest o' his brothers three. "Some they woundit and some they slew, They fought sae fierce and valiantlie; They made his enemies for to yield, An' sent Sir Hugh out ower the sea." The text which follows is derived from Scott's Minstrelsy, as above indicated. Stanza 13 is inserted in the text from Burns's version ; the other principal variations being noted under. The nationality of the ballad is apparently as "debateable" as that of the "land" occupied in those days by this predatory tribe. Scott's version is, on the whole, decidedly the best. 1 GUDE Lord Scroope 's to the hunting gane, He has ridden o'er moss and muir; f And he has grippit Hughie the Graeme, For stealing of the bishop's mare. * The two first of these quoted stanzas are nearly the same as two in Burns's version, while the third resembles the last stanza of the text t "A-huntingo' the fallow deer." Burns's version. 2K 498 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 2 " Now, good Lord Scroope, this may not be ! Here hangs a broadsword by my side; And if that thou canst conquer me, The matter it may soon be try'd." 3 "I ne'er was afraid of a traitor thief; Although thy name be Hughie the Graeme, I'll make thee repent thee of thy deeds, If God but grant me life and time." 4 " Then do your worst now, good Lord Scroope, And deal your blows as hard as you can ! It shall be tried within an hour, Which of us two is the better man." 5 But as they were dealing their blows sae free, And both sae bloody at the time, Over the moss came ten yeomen so tall, All for to take brave Hughie the Graeme. 6 Then they ha'e grippit Hughie the Gramme, And brought him up through Carlisle town : The lasses and lads stood on the walls, Crying "Hughie the Graeme, thou'se ne'er gae down !"* 7 Then they ha'e chosen a jury of men, The best that were in Carlisle town ; And twelve of them cried out at once, " Hughie the Graeme, thou must gae down ! " 8 Then up bespake him gude Lord Hume, "f As he sat by the judge's J knee : " Twenty white owsen, my gude lord, If you'll grant Hughie the Graeme to me." 9 " Oh no, oh no, my gude Lord Hume! For sooth and sae it maunna be ; For were there but three Graemes of the name, || They shou'd be hanged all for me." * " And they ha'e tied him hand and foot, And led him up thro' Stirling town; The lads and lasses met him there, Cried Hughie Graham, thou art a loan! ' " ' Oh, lowse my right hand free,' he says, ' And put my braid sword in the same, He's no in Stirling town this day Daur tell the tale to Hughie Graham.' " Burns's version. Cromek states that the last of these two stanzas is Burns's own composition, t " Then up bespake the brave Whitefoord." Ibid. t ''Judge's: " " bishop's." Ibid. " If ye'll let Hughie Grseme gae free." Ibid. 1 " For tho' ten Grahams were in his coat" Ibid. HUGHIE THE GRAEME. 499 10 'Twas up and spake the gude Lady Hume,* As she sat by the judge's knee : "A peck of white pennies, my gude lord judge, If you'll grant Hughie the Graeme to me." 11 " Oh no, oh no, my gude Lady Hume ! For sooth and so it must na be ; Were he but the one Graeme of the name, He shou'd be hanged high for me." 12 " If I be guilty," said Hughie the Graeme, " Of me my friends shall have small talk ; " And he has loup'd fifteen feet and three, Tho' his hands were tied behind his back. 13 They've ta'en him to the gallows knowe ; He look'd [up] at the gallows tree, Yet never colour left his cheek, Nor ever did he blin' his e'e. f 14 [But] he look'd over his left shoulder, And for to see what he might see ; There was he aware of his auld father, Came tearing his hair most piteouslie. 15 " Oh, bald your tongue, my father," he says, " And see that ye dinna weep for me ! For they may ravish me of my life, But they cannot banish me frae Heaven hie. J 16 " Fair ye weel, fair Maggie, my wife! The last time we came ower the muir, 'Twas thou bereft me of my life, And with the Bishop thou play'd the whore. 17 " Here, Johnnie Armstrang, take thou my sword, That is made of the metal sae fine; And when thou comest to the English side, Remember the death of Hughie the Graeme." "Up then bespoke the fair Whitefoord." Burns's version, t Cromek states that this stanza is Bnrns's own composition. $ " 'Oh, haud your tongue, my father dear, And with your weeping let me be : Thy weeping 's sairer on my heart, Than a' that they can do to me.' "Ibid. Cromek states that this stanza was re-touched by Burns. 500 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. THE LOCHMABEN HAKPER. " The Castle of Lochtnaben was formerly a noble building, situated npon a peninsula, projecting into one of the four lakes which are in the neighbourhood of the royal burgh, and is said to have been the residence of Kobert Bruce, while Lord of Annandale. Accordingly it was always held to be a royal fortress, the keeping of which, according to the custom of the times, was granted to some powerful lord, with an allotment of lands and fishings, for the defence and maintenance of the place. There is extant a grant, dated 16th March, 1511, to Robert Lauder of the Bass, of the office of Captain and Keeper of Lochmaben Castle, for seven years, with many per- quisites. Among others, the 'lands stolen frae the King' are bestowed on the Captain, as his proper lands. What shall we say of a country, where the very ground was a subject of theft?" Scott. The following ballad is first referred to in a note to Eitson's Scottish Song, vol. i., quoted ante, p. 471, note (*). It was first published by Scott in his Minstrelsy (edit. 1802, as stated in the last edition, vol. i., p. 422). Another version had been, however, previously communicated by Burns to Johnson, and appears in his Musical Museum, vol. vi., p. 598 (1803). A third version, under the title of "The Jolly Harper," appeared subsequently in Scottish Traditional Versions of Ancient Ballads (Percy Society), p. 37. In this last, the purloining of the "wanton brown " is represented to be the result of a wager ; and on its being duly won by the Harper, the "wanton brown" is returned to its rightful owner. As to the age of the ballad, or the period to which it refers, it is not only impossible to say which of the Henrys is the one referred to, but even whether it occurred under the reign of one of the English kings of that name at all. The return of the "wanton brown" at any period prior to the union of the crowns is utterly improbable, wager or no wager. Sir Walter Scott, in a note, remarks, " that it is the most modern (ballad) in which the harp, as a Border instrument of music, is found to occur;" but he does not state on what data he founds any opinion as to its age. His and Burns's versions differ very slightly ; but the former has two stanzas (19 and 23) not in the latter ; while it has four stanzas (3, 4, 5, and 18) not in the other. In the former, also, the scene of the theft is laid at Carlisle, while the Lord Warden takes the place of King Henry. Burns's text is the one chiefly followed ; but a few emendations have been adopted, and the two stanzas above referred to added from Scott's. The reader may contrast the luck of the " Harper " with the fate of " Hughie Graeme," in the preceding ballad. THE LOCHMABEN HARPER. 501 1 OH, heard ye of a silly Harper, [Wha] lang lived in Lochmaben town, How he did gang to fair England, To steal King Henry's wanton brown? 2 But first he gaed to his gudewife, With all the haste that he cou'd thole; * " This wark," quo' he, " will ne'er gae weel, Without a mare that has a foal." 3 Quo' she " Thou has a gude gray mare, That'll rin o'er hills baith low and hie ; Gae set thee on the gray mare's back, And leave the foal at hame with me. 4 " And take a halter in thy hose, And of thy purpose dinna fail; But wap it o'er the wanton's nose, And tie him to the gray mare's tail. 5 " Syne ca' f her out at the back yett, O'er moss, and muir, and ilka dale; For she'll ne'er let the wanton bite, Till she come back to her ain foal." 6 So he is up to England gane, Even as fast as he can hie, Till he came to King Henry's yett ; Oh, wha was there but King Henriel 7 " Come in," quo' he, " thou silly Harper, And of thy harping let me hear." " Oh, by my sooth," quo' the silly Harper, " I'd rather ha'e stabling for my mare." 8 The king looks o'er his left shoulder, And says unto his stable groom, " Gae take the silly blind Harper's mare, And tie her beside my wanton brown." 9 And aye he harpit, and aye he carpit, Till all the Lordlings footed the floor; And oh, the music was sae sweet, That they forgat the stable door ! 10 And aye he harpit, and aye he carpit, Till all the nobles were fast asleep ; Then quickly he took aff his shoon, And saftly down the stair did creep. * " Thole: " suffer. f "Ca: " drive or turn. 502 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 11 Syne to the stable door he hied, With tread as light as light cou'd be ; And when he open'd and gaed in, There he fand thirty steeds and three. 12 He took a cowt halter * frae his hose, And of his purpose he didna fail ; He slipp'd it o'er the wanton's nose, And tied it to his gray mare's tail. 13 He ca'd her out at the back yett, f O'er moss, and muir, and ilka dale; And she ne'er let the wanton bite, But held him trotting at her tail. 14 The gray mare was richt swift of foot, And didna fail to find the way; For she was at Lochmaben yett Full lang three hours ere it was day. 15 When she came to the Harper's door, There she ga'e mony a nicher and sneer; J " Eise," quo' the wife, " thou lazy lass, Let in thy master and his mare." 16 Then up she rose, put on her clothes, And lookit through at the lock-hole : " Oh, by my sooth," then quoth the lass, " Our mare has gotten a braw brown foal ! " 17 " Come, haud thy tongue, thou foolish lass, The moon's but glancing in your e'e; " " I'll wad my haill fee against a groat, It's bigger than e'er our foal will be." 18 The neighbours too, that heard the noise, Cried to the wife to put her in. " By my sooth," then quoth the wife, " He 's better than ever he rade on." 19 Now all this while, in merry Carlisle, The Harper harpit to hie and law ; And nought cou'd they do but listen him to, Until that the day began to daw. * " Cowt halter: " colt's halter. t Variation: " He turn'd them loose at the castle gate." Scott's version. J " Nicher and sneer: " neigh and snort " Wad my haill fee : " bet my whole wages. THE BATTLE OF CORICHIE. 503 20 But on the morn, at fair daylight, When they had ended all their cheer. Behold the wanton brown was gane, And eke the poor blind Harper's mare ! 21 " Alace, alace! " quo' the cunning auld Harper, " And ever alace, that I came here ! In Scotland I lost a braw cowt foal ; In England they've stolen my gude gray mare ! " 22 " Come, cease thy alacing, thou silly Harper, And again of thy harping let us hear ; And weel paid shall thy cowt foal be, And thou shall get a better mare." 23 Then aye he harpit, and aye he carpit; Sae sweet were the harping he let them hear; He was paid for the foal he had never lost, And three times o'er for the gude gray mare. THE BATTLE OF COKICHIE. The battle, or skirmish, which the following ballad commemorates, was fought on the 28th of October, 1562. It seems to have been brought about by the ambitious designs of George, fourth Earl of Huntly, who intrigued to obtain the hand of the beautiful but un- fortunate Queen Mary for his third son, Sir John Gordon of Find- later; and, at the same time, to obtain for himself the reins of power, to the discomfiture and overthrow of his hated rival, the "Lord James," half-brother to the Queen, who, by her, had been recently created Earl of Moray, or Murray, a title previously be- stowed on, but afterwards withdrawn by, her mother, the Queen Eegent, from this same Earl of Huntly. At the commencement of the action, Murray's vanguard, which consisted of Forbeses, Leslies, and other northern men favourable to Huntly, retreated in con- fusion ; but the main body, consisting chiefly of cavalry, led by the Earl of Morton and Lord Lindsay, with levelled spears, bore back both dubious friends and open foes. Huntly himself, with his third son, Sir John, already named, and his sixth son, Sir Adam of Auchindoun, were taken prisoners ; but the Earl, being corpulent, was smothered in the crowd, as stated by Buchanan ; the partizans of the Gordons, however, allege that he was murdered by the express orders of Murray. But why Murray should sanction the private murder of a man whose life was forfeited by treason, they do not explain. ' ' Sir John was publicly beheaded five days after at Aberdeen, when his winning aspect and valorous deportment on the scaffold drew tears from the spectators." Sir Adam, who was spared on account of his youth, gives name to the 504 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. subsequent ballad, entitled, "Adam," or, as it is usually spelled, "Edom o' Gordon." The scene of the encounter is about fourteen miles west of the town of Aberdeen. The earliest known copy appeared in the Scots Weekly Magazine for July, 1772, with this intimation: " We have been favoured with the following copy of an old Scots ballad, by a gentleman of taste and literature, which we do not remember ever to have seen in print, and therefore have given it a place, for the sake of preservation. It is said to have been wrote by one Forbes, schoolmaster at Maryculter, upon Deeside." The Forbes here referred to is named John by Professor Aytoun ; but this is probably an error. Mr. Maidment supposes that " Robert, and not John, was the author or preserver of this ballad ; " but in his next sentence he confounds this Robert, author of " Ajax' Speech to the Grecian Knabbs," and other poems in " Broad Buchans," with William Forbes, some time schoolmaster at Peterculter, author of "The Dominie Deposed," who is said to have enlisted, or to have left Scotland for Ireland, about 1732. The last-named may, pro- bably, have been "the author or preserver of this ballad;" but this cannot be definitely affirmed. It is here printed in all its native simplicity, as a specimen of the language which seems to have prevailed from time immemorial in the districts of Buchan on the north-east, and of Galloway in the south- west, of Scotland. See note, ante, p. 218. 1 MURN, ye heighlands, and murn, ye leighlands! * I trow ye ha'e meikle need ; For the bonnie burn o' Corichie His run this day wi' bleid. 2 Thi hopefu' Laird o' Finliter, Erie Huntley's gallant son, For thi love hi bare our beauteous quine,f His gar't fair Scotland mone. 3 Hi has broken his ward in Aberdene, Throu' dreid o' thi fause Murry, And his gather't the gentle Gordone clan, An' his father, auld Huntly. 4 Fain \vid he tak' our bonnie, guide quine, An' beare hir awa' wi' him; But Murry's slee wyles spoilt a' thi sport, And reft him o' lyfe and lim. 5 Murry gar't rayse the tardy Merns men, An' Angis, an' mony ane mair; Erie Morton, and the Byres Lord Linsay, And campit at thi Hill o' Fare. * Highlands and Lowlands. f ''Quine " queen. THE BATTLE OF COBICHIE. 505 6 Erie Huntley cam' wi' Haddo Gordone, An' countit ane thusan' men; But Murry had abien twal hunder, Wi' sax score horsemen and ten. 7 They soundit thi bougills an' the trumpits, An' marchit on in brave array; Till the spiers and the axis forgatherit, An' than did begin thi fray. 8 Thi Gordones sae fercelie did fecht it, Withouten terrer or dreid ; That mony o' Hurry's men lay gaspin', And dyit thi grund wi' theire bleid. 9 Then fause Murry feignit to flee them, An' they pursuit at his backe, When thi haf o' thi Gordones desertit, An' turnit wi' Murry in a crack. 10 Wi' hether in thir bonnits they turnit, The traiter Haddo o' thir heid, An' slaid theire britheris an' their fatheris, An' spoilit, and left them for deid. 11 Then Murry cried to tak' thi auld Gordone, An' mony ane ran wi' speid ; But Stuart o' Inchbraik had him stickit, An' out gushit thi fat lurdane's * bleid. 12 Then they teuke his twa sones, quick an' hale, An' bare them awa' to Aberdene ; But sair did our gude quine lament Thi waefu' chance that they were tane. 13 Erie Murry lost mony a gallant stout man, Thi hopefu' laird o' Thornitune; Pittera's sons, and Eglis' far-fearit laird, An' mair to me unkend, fell doune. 14 Erie Huntley mist ten score o' his bra' men, Sum o' heigh, and sum o' leigh degree : Skeenis youngest son, thi pryde o' a' the clan, Was ther fun j- deid, he widna flee. 15 This bluidy fecht wis fercely faucht, Octobri's aught-and-twenty day, Christ's fyfteen hunder, thriscore year, An' twa, will merk the deidlie fray. * "Lurdane:" a heavy stupid fellow. t "Fun:" found. 506 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 16 But now thi day maist waefu' cam', That day the quine did greit her fill ; For Huntly's gallant, stalwart son, Wis headit on thi heidin hill. 17 Fyve noble Gordones wi' him hangit were, Upon thi samen fatal playne; Cruel Murry gar't thi waefu' quine luke out, And see her lover and liges slayne. * 18 I wis our quine had better frinds, I wis our countrie better peice ; I wis our lords wid na discord, I wis our weirs at hame may ceise! GLENLOGIE " ' The Scottish Minstrel a Selection from the Vocal Melodies of Scotland, Ancient and Modern, arranged for the Pianoforte, by R. A. Smith,' in six volumes, the last of which was published in 1824 a work valuable for the many original pieces of music contributed by the distinguished composer who superintended its progress through the press contains in its fourth volume, published in 1822, the first printed version of the following ballad. " Another version is given in Mr. Sharpe's Ballad Book, Edinburgh, 1824, and two years afterwards it appeared in The Popular Rhymes of Scotland, with this announcement : 'We subjoin a ballad never before published, in which they are styled gay (the writer is speaking of the Gordons), and in which a fine trait of their personal manners is pre- served.' P. 200. " It is said, the one-half of the world does not know how the other half lives, and it would seem, from the above quotation, that one-half of the literary population either forgets, or is in happy ignorance of what its other half has written. Of the two versions, that in the Scottish Minstrel is the more poetical" Motherwell's Minstrelsy, p. xcii., and note 128. A still ampler and more circumstantial version appears in Buchan's Ancient Ballads, vol. i., p. 188, under the title of "Jean o' Beth- elnie's Love for Sir George Gordon." The version which follows is based on a MS. version communicated to Mr. Buchan in a letter from Mr. Alexander Laing, dated Brechin, April 9th, 1829, and there given by him as taken down from "the recitation of the amiable daughter of" a clergyman in the North. A few emendations and corrections have, however, been adopted from the previously, printed versions. Stanza 10, as compounded out of the Scottish Minstrel and Buchan's versions, has also been added within brackets. * There is no reliable testimony in support of this last statement GLENLOGIE. 507 The date of the ballad, and the circumstances which furnished its theme, are thus stated by Mr. Buchan: "When the intestine troubles and broils of the North disturbed the public peace so much, in 1562, the Queen's presence was thought necessary to put a stop to some of them ; and for that purpose she appeared in the North among her friends and foes. "Jean, daughter of Baron Meldrum and Laird of Bethel nie, in Aberdeenshire, was one of Queen Mary's favourites, with whom she occasionally dined at the House of Fetternear, where the Queen resided for a few days ; and, having chanced to espy Sir George Gordon of Glenlogie, as he rode through the village of Banchory, fell desperately in love with him ; and, that he might know her case, she despatched a letter to him for that purpose ; but he, for a while, made light of the same, which came to the lady's ears, and threw her into a violent fever. Her father's chaplain, no doubt bred at the court of Cupid, undertook the correspondence, and was more success- ful. She was afterwards married to Sir George, the object of her wishes, in her fifteenth year." Ancient Ballads, vol. i., p. 310. Mr. Buchan's version opens as follows : "There were fonr-and-twenty ladies, Dined i' the Queen's ha' ; And Jean o' Bethelnie Was the flower o' them a'. " Four-and-twenty gentlemen Rode thro' Banchory fair; But bonnie Glenlogie Was the flower that was there. " Young Jean at a window, She chanced to sit nigh; And upon Glenlogie She fixed an eye." 1 THERE was monie a braw noble Came to our Queen's ha' ; But the bonnie Glenlogie Was the flower of them a'. And the young Ladye Jeanie, Sae gude and sae fair, She fancied Glenlogie Aboon a' that were there. 2 She speired at his footman, That ran by his side, His name, and his sirname, And where he did bide. " He bides at Glenlogie, When he is at hame ; He's of the gay Gordons, And George is his name." 508 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 3 She wrote to Glenlogie, To tell him her inind : " My love is laid on you, Oh, will you prove kind ? " He turn'd about lightly, As the Gordons do a' : " I thank you, fair ladye, But I'm promis'd awa." 4 She call'd on her maidens Her jewels to take, And to lay her in bed, For her heart it did break. " Glenlogie ! Glenlogie ! Glenlogie ! " said she ; " If I getna Glenlogie, I'm sure I will dee." 5 " Oh, hold your tongue, daughter, And weep na sae sair ; For you'll get Drumfindlay, His father's young heir." " Oh, hold your tongue, father, And let me alane ; If I getna Glenlogie, I'll never wed ane."* 6 Then her father's old chaplain A man of great skill He wrote to Glenlogie, The cause of this ill ; And her father, he sent off This letter with speed, By a trusty retainer, Who rode his best steed. The first line that he read, A light laugh gave he; The next line that he read, The tear fill'd each e'e: " Oh, what a man am I, That a leal heart should break? Or that sic a fair maid Should die for my sake? 'Oh, baud your tongue, dochter, ye'll get better than he: ' 1 Oh, say nae sae, mither, for that canna be ; Though Drumlie is richer, and greater than he, Yet if I maun tak' him, I'll certainly dee.' "Scottish Minstrel version. THE QUEEN'S MAEIE. 509 8 " Go, saddle my horse, Go, saddle him soon, Go, saddle the swiftest E'er rode frae the toun." But ere it was saddled, And brought to the door. Glenlogie was on the road Three miles or more. 9 When he came to her father's, Great grief there was there; There was weeping, and wailing, And sabbin' full sair. Oh, pale and wan was she When Glenlogie gaed in ; But she grew red and rosy When Glenlogie gaed ben. 10 [Then out spake her father, With tears in each e'e : " You're welcome, Glenlogie, You're welcome to me." And out spake her mother : " You're welcome," said she; " You're welcome, Glenlogie, Your Jeanie to see."] 11 " Oh, turn, Ladye Jeanie, Turn round to this side, And I'll be the bridegroom, And you'll be the bride." Oh, it was a blythe wedding, As ever was seen; And bonnie Jeanie Melville Was scarcely sixteen. THE QUEEN'S MARIE. From Scott's Minstrelsy, vol. iii., p. 294. " ' In the very time of the General Assembly, there comes to public knowledge a haynous murther, committed in the court ; yea, not far from the Queen's lap ; for a French woman, that served in the Queen's chamber, had played the whore with the Queen's own apothecary. The woman conceived and bare a childe, whom, with common consent, the father and mother murthered; yet were the cries of a new-borne childe hearde, searche was made, the childe and the mother were both apprehended, and so were the man and the 510 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. woman condemned to be hanged in the publicke street of Edinburgh. The punishment was suitable, because the crime was haynous. But yet was not the court purged of whores and whoredoms, which was the fountaine of such enormities ; for it was well known that shame hasted marriage betwixt John Sempill, called the Dancer, and Mary Levingston,* sirnamed the Lusty. What bruit the Maries, and the rest of the dancers of the court had, the ballads of that age doe witnesse, which we for modestie's sake omit ; but this was the common complaint of all godly and wise men, that if they thought such a court could long continue, and if they looked for no better life to come, they would have wished their sonnes and daughters rather to have been brought up with fiddlers and dancers, and to have been exercised with flinging upon a floore, and in the rest that thereof followes, than to have been exercised in the company of the godly, and exercised in virtue, which in that court was hated, and iilthenesse not only maintained, but also rewarded ; witnesse the Abbey of Abercorne, the Barony of Auchtennuchtie, and divers others, pertaining to the patrimony of the crown, given in heritage to skippers and dancers, and dalliers with dames. This was the beginning of the regiment of Mary, Queen of Scots, and these were the fruits that she brought forth of France. Lord! look on our miseries ! and deli ver us from the wickedness of this corrupt court ! ' Knox's History of the Reformation, pp. 373-4. "Such seems to be the subject of the following ballad, as narrated by the stern apostle of Presbytery. It will readily strike the reader, that the tale has suffered great alterations, as handed down by tradition ; the French waiting-woman being changed into Mary Hamil- ton, f and the Queen's apothecary into Henry Darnley. Yet this is * "John Semple, son of Kobert, Lord Semple (by Elizabeth Carlisle, a daughter of the Lord Torthorald), was ancestor of the Semples of Beltrees. He was married to Mary, sister to William Livingston, and one of the maids of honour to Queen Mary; by whom he had Sir James Semple of Beltrees. his son and heir," &c. ; afterwards ambassador to England, for King James VI., in 1599. Crawford's History of Renfrew, p. 101. (A very odd coincidence in name, crime, and catastrophe, occurred at the court of Czar Peter the Great It is thus detailed by the obliging correspondent who recommended it to my notice : " Miss Hambleton, a maid of honour to the Empress Catherine, had an amour, which, at different times, produced three children. She had always pleaded Bickness; but Peter, being suspicious, ordered his physician to attend her, who soon made the discovery. It also appeared that a sense of shame had triumphed over her humanity, and that the children had been put to death as soon as born. Peter inquired if the father of them was privy to the murder; the lady insisted that he was innocent ; for she had always deceived him, by pretending that they were sent to nurse. Justice now called upon the emperor to punish the offence. The lady was much beloved by the empress, who pleaded for her ; the amour was pardonable, tout not the murder. Peter sent her to the castle, and went himself to visit her; and the fact being confessed, he pronounced her sentence with tears ; telling her, that bis duty as a prince, and God's vicegerent, called on him for that justice which her crime had rendered indispensably necessary; and that she must therefore prepare for death. He attended her also on the scaffold, where he embraced her with the utmost tenderness, mixed with sorrow ; and some say, when the head was struck off, he took it up by the ear, whilst the lips were still trembling, and kissed them; a circumstance of an extraordinary nature, and yet not incredible, considering the peculiarities of his character." [The obliging correspondent was probably C. K. Sharpe, Esq., as he recapitulates th story in the introduction to his own version of the ballad, and adds: "I cannot help thinking that the two stories have been confused in the ballad; for, if Marie THE QUEEN'S MARIE. 511 less surprising, when we recollect, that one of the heaviest of the Queen's complaints against her ill-fated husband, was his infidelity, and that even with her personal attendants. I have been enabled to publish the following complete edition of the ballad, by copies from various quarters; that principally used was communicated to me, in the most polite manner, by Mr. Kirkpatricke Sharpe, of Hoddom, to whom I am indebted for many similar favours. " Scott. [Scott's version of this popular ballad was the one first published, and, in its latest form, it is on the whole the best. The versions which have since appeared are as under : II. " Marie Hamilton," in A Ballad Book (p. 18), edited by C. K. Sharpe. III. "Mary Hamilton," in A North Countrie Garland (p. 19), edited by Mr. Maidment. IV. " Mary Hamilton," in Motherwell's Minstrelsy, p. 401. This version " shows the state in which it is frequently to be met with, as preserved by tradition, in the West of Scotland." Mr. Motherwell has also appended sundry fragments of other versions, as gleaned from recitation. V. "Mary Hamilton," in Kinloch's Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 252, and is there stated to be a "North Country version." Two stanzas of a different version are also appended by him to his introductory note. VL " Warenston and the Duke of York's Daughter," in Buchan's Ancient Ballads, vol. ii., p. 190. As the paternity of the murdered bairn is, by Professor Aytoun and others, fathered upon Darnley, it may be noted that the incident quoted by Scott from Knox occurred in 1563, and that Darnley did not arrive in Scotland until 1564. Scott's text, with his introduction and notes, are here given, with the addition of stanza 19, from Kinloch's version. Various readings from the different versions are also noted under the text. The matter inserted in addition to Scott's is placed within brackets.] 1 MARIE HAMILTON 's to the kirk gane, With ribbons in her hair; The King thought mair of Marie Hamilton, Than ony that were there. Hamilton was executed in Scotland, it is not likely that her relations resided beyond seas; and we have no proof that Hamilton was really the name of the woman who made a slip with the Queen's apothecary." C. K. Sharpe surely overlooked the fact of the supposed delinquent being " a French woman," as stated in the quotation from Knox. It is quite likely, however, that the old ballad was re- christened after the Miss Hambleton, or Hamilton, of Russian notoriety; and it may have been also altered and corrupted, to adapt it better to the circumstances of the latter case.] 512 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 2 Marie Hamilton 's to the kirk gane, With ribbons on her breast; The King thought mair of Marie Hamilton, Than he listen'd to the priest. 8 Marie Hamilton 's to the kirk gane, With gloves upon her hands; The King thought mair of Marie Hamilton, Than the Queen and all her lands. 4 She hadna been about the King's court A month but barely one, Till she was beloved by all the King's court, And the King the only man.* 5 She hadna been about the King's court A month but barely three, Till frae the King's court Marie Hamilton, Marie. Hamilton durstna be. 6 The King is to the Abbey gane, To pull the Abbey tree, f To scale the babe frae Marie's heart! But the thing it wou'dna be. 7 Oh, she has row'd it in her apron, And set it on the sea : " Gae sink ye, or swim ye, bonnie babe, Ye'se get nae mair of me." 8 Word is to the kitchen gane, And word is to the ha', And word is to the noble room, Amang the ladyes a', That Marie Hamilton 's brought to bed, And the bonnie babe 's miss'd and awa. 9 Scarcely had she lain down again, And scarcely fa'en asleep, When up then started our good Queen, Just at her bed-feet ; * [Stanza 4 is somewhat obscure. It should probably read: " She hadna been about the King's court A month but barely twa. Till she was beloved by all the King's court, And by the King maist of a'."] t [" Abbey tree." Motherwell's version reads " Savin tree."] THE QUEEN'S MARIE. 513 Saying " Marie Hamilton, where 's your babe? For I'm sure I heard it greet." * 10 " Oh no, oh no, my noble Queen ! Think no such thing to be ; 'Twas but a stitch into my side, And sair it troubles me."f 11 " Get up, get up, Marie Hamilton : Get up and follow me ; For I am going to Edinburgh town, A rich wedding to see."J 12 Oh, slowly, slowly raise she up, And slowly put she on ; And slowly rode she out the way, With mony a weary groan. 13 The Queen was clad in scarlet, Her merry maids all in green ; And every town that they came to, They took Marie for the Queen. 14 " Bide hooly, hooly, gentlemen, Kide hooly now with me ! For never, I am sure, a wearier burd Rade in your companie." 15 But little wist Marie Hamilton, When she rade on the brown. That she was gaen to Edinburgh town, And all to be put down. 16 " Why weep ye so, ye burgess wives, Why look ye so on me ? Oh, I am going to Edinburgh town, A rich wedding to see." J.7 When she gaed up the tolbooth stairs, The corks frae her heels did flee ; And lang or e'er she came down again, She was condemn'd to dee. * [" Queen Mary came tripping down the stairs, Wi' the gold rings in her hair : 'Oh. where is the little babe.' she says, 1 That I heard greet sae sair? '" MotherwelTs version.] f [" 'There is nae babe within my bower, And I hope there ne'er will be ; But it's me wi' a sair and sick colic, And I'm just like to dee.' " Kinloch's version.] 3 [" ' For I will on to Edinburgh, And try the veritie.' " Buchan's version.] 2L 514 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 18 When she came to the Netherbow Port,* She laugh'd loud laughters three ; But when she came to the gallows foot, The tears blinded her e'e. 19 [" Oh, happy, happy is the maid That 's born of beauty free ! It was my dimpling rosie cheeks That 's been the dule of me.] 20 " Yestreen the Queen had four Maries, The night she'll ha'e but three; There was Marie Seaton, and Marie Beaton, And Marie Carmichael, and me.t 21 " Oh, often have I dress'd my Queen, And put gold upon her hair; But now I've gotten, for my reward, The gallows to be my share. 22 " Oh, often have I dress'd my Queen, And often made her bed; But now I've gotten, for my reward, The gallows tree to tread. 23 " I charge ye all, ye mariners, When ye sail o'er the faem, Let neither my father nor mother get wit, But that I'm coming hame. * The Netherbow Port was the gate which divided the City of Edinburgh from the suburb called the Canongate. It had towers and a spire, which formed a fine termination to the view from the Cross. The gate was pulled down in one of those llts of rage for indiscriminate destruction, with which the magistrates of a corpora- tion are sometimes visited. t The Queen's Maries were fonr young ladies of the highest families in Scotland, who were sent to France in her train, and returned with her to Scotland. They are mentioned by Knox, in the quotation introductory to this ballad. Keith gives us their names, p. 55. "The young Queen, Mary, embarked at Dumbarton for France, . . and with her went . . . and four young virgins, all of the name of Mary, viz., Livingston, Fleming, Seatoun, and Beatoun." The Queen's Maries are men- tioned again by the same author, pp. 288 and 291, in the note. Neither Mary Livingston, nor Mary Fleming, are mentioned in the ballad; nor are the Mary Hamilton, and Mary Carmichael, of the ballad, mentioned by Keith. But if this corps continued to consist of young virgins, as when originally raised, it could hardly have subsisted without occasional recruits; especially if we trust our old bard, and John Knox. The Queen's Maries are mentioned in many ballads, and the name seems to have* passed into a general denomination for female attendants: "Now bear a hand, my Maries a', And busk me brave, and make me fine." Old Ballad. [Mr. Maidment states that "Marie Carmichael was a daughter of John Car- michael of that ilk, and sister of Sir John Carmichael, warden of the Middle Marches," who figures in the subsequent ballad, " The Kaid of Heidswire. 1 '] EDOM 0' GORDON. 515 24 " I charge ye all, ye mariners, That sail upon the sea, Let neither my father nor mother get wit, This dog's death I'm to dee. 25 " For if my father and mother got wit, And my bold brethren three, Oh, meikle wou'd be the gude red bluid This day wou'd be spilt for me ! 26 " Oh, little did my mother ken, That day she cradled me, The lands I was to travel in, Or the death I was to dee ! " * EDOM 0' GORDON. " An ancient Scottish poem ; " was first " printed at Glasgow, by Eobert and Andrew Foules, MDCCLV., small 4to, 12 pages." " We are," says Percy, " indebted for its publication to Sir David Dalrymple, Bart., who gave it as it was preserved in the memory of a lady that is now dead." The ballad was next inserted by Percy in the Reliques, voL i. , " im- proved, and enlarged t with several fine stanzas, recovered from a * [This stanza occurs, almost verbatim, in the following passage of a letter written by Burns to Mrs. Dunlop, bearing date 25th January, 1795: " Little does the fond mother think, as she hangs delighted over the sweet little leech at her bosom, where the poor fellow may hereafter wander, and what may be bin fate. I remember a stanza in an old Scottish ballad, which, notwithstanding its rude simplicity, speaks feelingly to the heart, 'Little did my mother think, That day she cradled me, What land I was to travel in, Or what death I should dee.' " Old Scotch songs are, you know, a favourite study and pursuit of mine ; and now I am on that subject, allow me to give you two stanzas of another old simple ballad, which, I am sure, will please you. The catastrophe of the piece is a poor ruined female, lamenting her fate. She concludes with the pathetic wish, ' O that my father had ne'er on me smil'd; that my mother had ne'er to me sung; that my cradle had never been rock'd ; But that I had died when I was young! 'O that the grave it were my bed, My blankets were my winding-sheet; The clocks and the worms my bed-t'ellows a', And, O, sae sound as I should sleep ! ' " I do not remember, in all my reading, to have met with anything more truly the language of misery, than the exclamation in the last line. Misery is like love- to speak its language truly, the author must have felt it"j t Kitson says " Interpolated, and corrupted." 516 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. fragment of the same ballad, in the editor's folio MS. It is remai-k- able that the latter is entitled Captain Adam Carre, and is in the English idiom." Another version, closely resembling the Percy MS. copy, was next given by Ritson, in his Ancient Songs, London, 1790, p. 137. This was printed from a copy "preserved in a miscellaneous collection in the Cotton Library, marked Vespasian, A, xxv." Another version of the story, entitled Loudoun Castle, was given in the Statistical Account of the Parish of Loudoun, where it is stated that the old Castle of Loudoun is supposed to have been destroyed by fire, about three hundred and fifty years ago. "The current tradition," says its writer, " ascribes that event to the clan Kennedy." Ritson, in his Scottish Song, vol. ii.., p. 17, gives the version printed by Robert and Andrew Foules (with the exception of a few unimportant verbal and orthographical changes). Archbishop Spottiswoode gives the following historical account of the matter : " Anno 1571. In the north parts of Scotland, Adam Gordon (who was deputy for his brother, the Earl of Huntly) did keep a great stir ; and, under colour of the Queen's authority, committed divers oppressions, especially upon the Forbes's, . . . having killed Arthur Forbes, brother to the Lord Forbes. . . . Not long after, he sent to summon the house of Tavoy, pertaining to Alexander Forbes. The lady refusing to yield without direction from her husband, he put fire into it, and burnt her therein, with children and servants, being twenty-seven persons in all. "This inhuman and barbarous cruelty made his name odious, and stained all his former doings ; otherwise he was held very active and fortunate in his enterprises." History of the Church of Scotland, p. 259. From Crawford's Memoirs we learn that the party "sent" was "one Captain Ker, with a party of foot. . . . Nor was he ever so much as cashiered for this inhuman action, which made Gordon share both in the scandal and the guilt." An. 1571, p. 240, edit. 1706. "From the somewhat confused genealogy of the family of Forbes (Inverness, 1819, Svo, p. 44), by Mr. Mathew Lumsden of Tullikerne, written in 1580, we gather that the Lady of Towie, who was burnt, with her children, in 'the Castell of Cargaffe,' was named Margaret Campbell, a daughter of Sir John Campbell of Calder, Knight. Her husband's name was John ; and after the destruction of his wife and family, he married a daughter of Forbes of Reires, and by her had a son named Arthur." Maidment's Scotish Ballads and Songs, voL L, pp. 226-7. It will be seen, from this last extract, that the alleged felo-de-se of the bereaved husband, so pathetically described in the last stanza, is purely apocryphal. The version, first printed at Glasgow, is here mainly followed ; but Percy's additional stanzas, most of which are derived from his own EDOM O 1 GORDON. 517 or the Cotton MSS., are retained within brackets. These last have, however, been revised, and many of the original readings restored, from Eitson's text of the one, and the recently-printed copy of the other, issued by the Early English Text Society. 1 IT fell about the Martinmas, When the wind blew shrill and cauld, Said Edom o' Gordon to his men, " We maun draw to a hald.* 2 " And whatna hald shall we draw to, My merry men and me ? We will gae straight to Towie house ) f To see that fair ladye." 3 [The ladye stood on her castle wall, Beheld baith dale and down ; There she was 'ware of a host of men Came riding towards -the town.J 4 " Oh, see ye not, iny merry men all, Oh, see ye not what I see V Methinks I see a host of men ; I marvel who they be." 5 She thought it had been her own wed lord, As he came riding hame ; It was the traitor, Edom o' Gordon, Wha reck'd nae sin nor shame.] 6 She had nae sooner buskit hersel*, And putten on her gown, Till Edom o' Gordon and his men Were round about the town. 7 They had nae sooner supper set, Nae sooner said the grace, Till Edom o' Gordon and his men Were round about the place. "Hald:" hold. t Lord Hailes' copy reads, " We will gae to the house o' the Khodes.' Thus erroneously shifting the scene from its true location in Aberdeenshire, to Berwickshire, the original seat in Scotland of the northern Gordons. The line here substituted is taken from an emendation of Pinkerton's on the Relieves text. Scottish Tragic Ballads, p. 43. t This word in Scotland signifies not only a city or town, but a farm-steading, or residence. 518 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 8 The ladye ran to her tower head, As fast as she cou'd hie, To see if, by her fair speeches, She cou'd with him agree. 9 As soon as he saw this ladye fair, And her yetts all lockit fast, He fell into a rage of wrath, And his heart was all aghast. 10 " Come down to me, ye ladye gay, Come down, come down to me ; This night ye shall lye within my arms, The morn my bride shall be." 11 "I winna come down, ye false Gordon, I winna come down to thee ; I winna forsake my ain dear lord, That is sae far frae me." 12 " Gi'e up your house, ye ladye fair, Gi'e up your house to me ; Or I shall burn yoursel' therein, Bot and your babies three." 13 " I winna gi'e up, ye false Gordon, To nae sic traitor as thee ; Tho' you shou'd burn mysel' therein, Bot and my babies three. 14 [" But fetch to me my pistolette, And charge to me my gun ; For, but if I pierce that bluidy butcher, My babes we will be undone." 15 She stiffly stood on her castle wall, And let the bullets flee ; She miss'd that bluidy butcher's heart, Tho' she slew other three.] 16 " Set fire to the house !" quo' the false Gordon, " Since better may nae be ; And I will burn hersel' therein, Bot and her babies three." 17 " Wae worth, wae worth ye, Jock, my man, I paid ye weel your fee ; Why pull ye out the grund-wa'-stane, Lets in the reek* to me? * "Reek:" smoke. EDOM 0' GORDON. 519 18 " And e'en wae worth ye, Jock, my man, I paid ye weel your hire ; Why pull ye out my grund-wa'-stane, To me lets in the fire ? " 19 " Ye paid me weel my hire, ladye, Ye paid me weel my fee ; But now I'm Edom o' Gordon's man, Maun either do or dee." 20 Oh, then out spake her youngest son, Sat on the nurse's knee : Says " Mither dear, gi'e o'er this house, For the reek it smothers me." 21 [" I wou'd gi'e all my gold, my bairn, Sae wou'd I all my fee, For ae blast of the westlin' wind, To blaw the reek frae thee.] 22 " But I winna gi'e up my house, my dear, To nae sic traitor as he ; Come weal, come woe, my jewels fair, Ye maun take share with me." 23 Oh, then out spake her daughter dear, She was baith jimp and small : " Oh, row me in a pair of sheets, And tow me o'er the wall." 24 They row'd her in a pair of sheets, And tow'd her o'er the wall ; But on the point of Gordon's spear She got a deadly fall. 25 Oh, bonnie, bonnie was her mouth, And cherry were her cheeks ', And clear, clear was her yellow hair, Whereon the red bluid dreeps. 26 Then with his spear he turn'd her o'er, Oh, gin her face was wan ! He said " You are the first that e'er I wish'd alive again." 27 He turn'd her o'er and o'er again, Oh, gin her skin was white ! " I might ha'e spared that bonnie face To ha'e been some man's delight. 520 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 28 "Busk and boun, my merry men all, For ill dooms I do guess ; I canna look on that bonnie face, As it lyes on the grass ! " 29 " Wha looks to freits,* my master dear, Their freits will follow them ; Let it ne'er be said brave Edom o' Gordon Was daunted with a dame." 30 [But when the ladye saw the fire Come flaming o'er her head, She wept, and kiss'd her children twain ; Said " Bairns, we been but dead." 31 The Gordon then his bugle blew, And said "Away, away! The house of Towie is all in a flame, I hald it time to gae." f] 32 Oh, then he spied her ain dear lord, As he came o'er the lea ; He saw his castle all in a flame, As far as he could see. 33 Then sair, oh sair his mind misgave, And oh, his heart was wae ! " Put on, put on, my wighty J men, As fast as ye can gae. 34 " Put on, put on, my wighty men, As fast as ye can drie ; For he that is hindmost of the thrang Shall ne'er get gude of me ! " 35 Then some they rade, and some they ran, Full fast out o'er the bent ; But ere the foremost could win up, Baith ladye and babes were brent. 36 [He wrang his hands, he rent his hair, And wept in tearful mood; "Ah, traitors! for this cruel deed, Ye shall weep tears of bluid." *" Freits: ' omens. t This stanza seemi to be Percy's own. The Reliques text, however, reads 'Kodes," in place of " Towie." The Percy MS. copy has the following : " Then Captaine Carre he rode away, he staid noe longer at that tide, he thought that place it was to warme, soe neere for to abide." t "Wighty:" valiant. Brent : " burnt THE RAID OF THE REIDSWIRE. 521 37 And after the Gordon he has gane, Sae fast as he might drie ; And soon in the Gordon's foul heart's bluid He 's wroken * his dear ladye. f] 38 And mony were the mudie { men Lay gasping on the green; And mony were the fair ladyes Lay lemanless at hame. 39 And mony were the mudie men Lay gasping on the green ; For of fifty men the Gordon brocht, There were but five gaed hame. 40 And round, and round the walls he went, Their ashes for to view; At last into the flames he flew, And bade the world adieu. THE KAID OF THE KEIDSWIEE. From Scott's Minstrelsy, vol. ii., p. 15. " This poem is published from a copy in the Bannatyne MS., in the handwriting of the Hon. Mr. Carmichael, advocate. It first appeared in Allan Ramsay's Evergreen, but some liberties have been taken by him in transcribing it; and, what is altogether unpardonable, the MS. , which is itself rather inaccurate, has been interpolated to favour his readings ; of which there remain obvious marks. " The skirmish of the Reidswire happened upon the 7th of June, 1575, at one of the meetings held by the Wardens of the Marches, for arrangements necessary upon the Border. Sir John Carmichael, ancestor of the present Earl of Hyndford, was the Scottish Warden, and Sir John Forster held that office on the English Middle March. In the course of the day, which was employed as usual in redressing wrongs, a bill, or indictment, at the instance of a Scottish complainer, was fouled (i. e., found a true bill) against one Farn stein, a notorious English freebooter. Forster alleged that he had fled from justice: Carmichael, considering this as a pretext to avoid making compensa- tion for the felony, bade him ' play fair ! ' to which the haughty English Warden retorted, by some injurious expressions respecting Carmichael's family, and gave other open signs of resentment. His retinue, chiefly men of Redesdale and Tynedale, the most ferocious of the English Borderers, glad of any pretext for a quarrel, discharged a * " Wroken : " revenged. t The two highly-coloured stanzas numbered 36 and 37 appear to be Percy's own as no trace of them can be found elsewhere. } "Mudie:" bold. The title of Hyndford is now extinct (1830). 522 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. flight of arrows among the Scots. A warm conflict ensued, in which, Carmichael being beat down and made prisoner, success seemed at first to incline to the English side, till the Tynedale men, throwing themselves too greedily upon the plunder, fell into disorder ; and a body of Jedburgh citizens arriving at that instant, the skirmish ter- 5 minated in a complete victory on the part of the Scots, who took prisoners, the English Warden, James Ogle, Cuthbert Collingwood, Francis Russell, son to the Earl of Bedford, and son-in-law to Forster, some of the Fenwicks, and several other Border chiefs. They were sent to the Earl of Morton, then Regent, who detained them at Dalkeith for some days, till the heat of their resentment was abated ; which prudent precaution prevented a war betwixt the two kingdoms. He then dismissed them with great expressions of regard; and, to satisfy Queen Elizabeth,* sent Carmichael to York, whence he was soon after honourably dismissed. The field of battle, called the Reidswire, is a part of the Carter Mountain, about ten miles from Jedburgh. See, for these particulars, Godscroft, Spottiswoode, and John stone's History. " The editor has adopted the modern spelling of the word Reids- wire, to prevent the mistake in pronunciation which might be occasioned by the use of the Scottish ' qu ' for ' w. ' The MS. reads ' Reidsquair.' ' Swair,' or ' swire,' signifies the descent of a hill ; and the epithet ' Red ' is derived from the colour of the heath, or, per- haps, from the Reid Water, which rises at no great distance." Scott. [The notes, which are also from the pen of Scott, are, in one or two instances, abridged.] 1 THE seventh of July, the suith to say, At the Reidswire the tryst was set ; Our wardens they affixed the day, And, as they promised, st> they met. Alas! that day I'll ne'er forgett! Was sure sae feard, and then sae faine They came theare justice for to gett, Will never green "f to come again. 2 Carmichael J was our warden then, He caused the country to conveen ; * Her ambassador at Edinburgh refused to lie in a bed of state, which had been provided for him, till this " ondious fact" had been inquired into. Murdin's State Papers, vol. ii., p. 282. t "Green:" long. t Sir John Carmichael was a favourite of the Eegent Morton, by whom he was appointed Warden of the Middle Marches, in preference to the Border Chieftains. [He] was murdered, 16th June, 1600, by a party of Borderers, at a place called Raesknows, near Lochmaben, whither he was going to hold a court of justice. Two of the ringleaders in the slaughter, Thomas Armstrong, called Rinnan's Tarn, and Adam Scott, called the Pecket, were tried at Edinburgh, at the instance of Carmiehael of Edrom. They were condemned to have their right hand struck off, thereafter to be hanged, and their bodies gibbeted on the Borough Moor; which sentence was executed, 14th November, 1601. "This Pecket" saith Birrel, in his Diary, " was ane of the most notalrie thieffes that ever raid." He calls his name Steill, which appears, from the record, to be a mistake. Four years afterwards, an Armstrong, called Sandy of Eowanburn, and several others of that tribe, were executed for this and other excesses. Books of Adjourned of these dates. THE RAID OF THE REIDSWIRE. 523 And the Laird's Wat, that worthie man, Brought in that sirname wee! beseen: 6 The Armestranges, that aye ha'e been A hardy house, but not a hail," The Elliots' honours to maintaine, Brought down the lave d of Liddesdale. 3 Then Tividale came to with speid ; The SherifFe brought the Douglas down,* With Cranstane, Gladstain, good at need/ Baith Eewle Water, and Hawick town. Beanjeddart bauldy made him boun', With all the Trumbills, stronge and stout; The Rutherfoords, with grit renown, Convoy'd the town of Jedbrugh out.' a The Chief who led out the sirname of Scott upon this occasion was (saith Satchells) Walter Scott of Ancrum, a natural son of Walter of Buccleuch. The laird of Buccleuch was then a minor. The ballad seems to have been popular in Satchell's days, for he quotes it literally. He must, however, have been mistaken, in this particular; for the family of Scott of Ancrum, in all our books of genealogy, deduce their descent from the Scotts of Balwearie, in Fife, whom they represent. The first of this family, settled in Roxburghshire, is stated in Douglas' Baronage to have been Patrick Scott, who purchased the lands of Ancrum in the reign of James VI. He therefore could not be the Laird's Wat of the ballad; indeed, from the list of Border families in 1597, Kerr appears to have been proprietor of Anerum at the date of the ballad. It is plainly written in the MS. the Laird's Wat, i. e., the laird's son Wat: notwithstanding which, it has always hitherto been printed the Laird Wat. If Douglas be accurate in his genealogy, the person meant must be the young laird of Buccleuch, afterwards distinguished for the surprise of Carlisle Castle. See Kinmont Willie. I am the more confirmed in this opinion, because Kerr of Ancrum was at this time a fugitive, for slaying one of the Rntherfords, and the tower of Ancrum given in keeping to the Turnbulls, his hereditary enemies. His mother, however, a daughter of Home of Wedderburn, contrived to turn out the Tnrnbulls, and possess herself of the place by surprise. Godscroft, vol. it, p. 250. '-Weel beseen:" well appointed. The word occurs in Morte d' Arthur: "And when Sir Percival saw this, ne hied him thither, and found the ship covered with silke, more blacker than any beare; and therein was a gentlewoman, of great beautie, and she was richly beseene, that none might be better." c This clan are here mentioned as not being hail, or whole, because they were outlawed or broken men. Indeed, many of them had become Englishmen, as the phrase then went. Accordingly we find, from Patten, that forty of them, under the Laird of Mangertoun, joined Somerset, upon his expedition into Scotland. Patten, in Dalyell's Fragments, p. 1. There was an old alliance betwixt the Eliots and Arm- strongs, here alluded to. For the enterprise of the Armstrongs, against their native country, when under English assurance, see Murdin's State Papers, vol. i., p. 43. From which it appears, that, by command of Sir Ralph Evers, this clan ravaged almost the whole West Border of Scotland. t " Lave : " remainder. e Douglas of Cavers, hereditary Sheriff of Teviotdale, descended from Black Archibald, who carried the standard of his father, the Earl of Douglas, at the battle of Otterbourne. See the ballad of that name. [Ante, p. 424.] / Cranstoun of that ilk, ancestor to Lord Cranstoun ; and Gladstain of Gladstains. 3 These were ancient and powerful clans, residing chiefly upon the river Jed. Hence, they naturally convoyed the town of Jedburgh out. Although notorious freebooters, they were specially patronized by Morton, who, by their means, en- deavoured to counterpoise the power of Buccleuch and Ferniherst, during the civil wars attached to the Queen's faction. The lollpwing fragment of an old ballad is quoted in a letter from an aged gentleman of this name, residing in New York, to a friend in Scotland: " Bauld Rutherfurd, he was fou stout, Wi' a' his nine sons him round about; He led the town o' Jedburgh out, All bravely fought that day." 524 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 4 Of other clans I cannot tell, Because our warning was not wide Be this our folks ha'e ta'en the fell, And planted down palliones, a there to bide, We looked down the other side, And saw come breasting o'er the brae, With Sir John Forster for their guyde, 6 Full fifteen hundred men and mae. 5 It grieved him sair that day, I trow, With Sir George Hearoune of Schipsydehouse; Because we were not men enow, They counted us not worth a louse. Sir George was gentle, meek, and douse, But he was hail and het as fire ; And yet, for all his cracking crouse, d He rew'd the raid of the Keidswire. 6 To deal with proud men is but pain ; For either must ye fight or flee, Or else no answer make again, But play the beast, and let them be. It was nae wonder he was hie, Had Tindaill, Keedsdail," at his hand, With Cukdaill, Gladsdaill on the lee, And Hebsrime/and Northumberland. 7 Yett was our meeting meek eneugh, Begun with merriment and mowes, And at the brae, aboon the heugh, The clark sat down to call the rowes. * a "Palliones:'' tents. & Sir John Forster, or, more properly, Forrester, of Balmbrough Abbey, Warden of the Middle Marches in 1561, was deputy-governor of Berwick, and governor of Balm- borough Castle. He made a great figure on the Borders, and is said, on his monu- ment at Balmborough Church, to have possessed the office of Warden of the Mid Marches for thirty-seven years; indeed, if we can trust his successor, Carey, he re- tained the situation until he became rather unfit for its active duties. His family ended in the unfortunate Thomas Forster, one of the generals of the Northumbrian insurgents in 1715; and the estate, being forfeited, was purchased by his uncle, Lord Crewe, and devised for the support of his magnificent charity. c George Heron Miles of Chipchase Castle, probably the same who was slain at the Eeidswire, was Sheriff of Northumberland, 13th Elizabeth. A " Cracking crouse: " talking big. These are districts, or dales, on the English Border. /Mr. Ellis suggests, with great probability, that this is a mistake, not for Heb- burne, as the editor stated in an earlier edition, but for Hexham, which, with its territory, formed a county independent of Northumberland, with which it is here ranked. ' "Bowes:" rolls. THE RAID OF THE REIDSWIRE. 525 And some for kyne, and some for ewes, CalPd in of Dandrie, Hob, and Jock We saw come marching o'er the knowes, Five hundred Fennicks 6 in a flock, 8 With jack and spear, and bows all bent, And warlike weapons at their will : Although we were na weel content, Yet, by my troth, we fear'd no ill. Some gaed to drink, and some stude still, And some to cards and dice them sped ; Till on ane Farn stein they fyled a bill, And he was fugitive and fled, 9 Carmichaell bade them speik out plainlie, And cloke no cause for ill nor good ; The other, answering him as vainlie, Began to reckon kin and blood : He raise, and raxed" him where he stood, And bade him match him with his marrows ; * Then Tindaill heard them reasun rude, And they loot off a flight of arrows. 10 Then was there nought but bow and spear, And every man pull'd out a brand ; " A Schafton and a Fennick " there : Gude Symington was slain frae hand. The Scotsmen cried on other to stand, Frae time they saw John Robson slain What should they cry ? the King's command Could cause no cowards turn again. 11 Up rose the laird to red the cumber, 6 Which would not be for all his boast ; What could we doe with sic a number Fyve thousand men into a host? Then Henry Purdie proved his cost/ And very narrowlie had mischief'd him, And there we had our warden lost, Wer't not the grit God he relieved him. a [" Dandrie : " Andrew.] * The Fenwicks ; a powerful and numerous Northumberland clan. The original seat of this ancient family was at Fenwick tower, long since ruinous ; but, from the time of Henry IV., their principal mansion was Wallington. Sir John Fenwick, attainted and executed for treason in the reign of William III., represented the chieftain of this clan. "Raise, and raxed him : '' rose, and stretched himself up. d " Marrows : " equals. e " Red the cumber; " quell the tumult / "Cost:" signifies loss or risk. 526 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 12 Another throw the breiks him bair, Whill flatlies to the ground he fell : Than thought I weel we had lost him there, Into my stomach it struck a knell ! Yet up he raise, the treuth to tell ye, And laid about him dints full dour ; His horsemen they raid sturdilie, And stude about him in the stoure. 13 Then raise the slogan with ane shout " Fy, Tindaill, to it ! Jedburgh 's here ! " I trow he was not half sae stout, But anis his stomach was asteir. 6 With gun and genzie, c bow and spear, Men might see mony a cracked crown ! But up amang the merchant geir, i They were as busy as we were down. 14 The swallow taill frae tackles flew/ Five hundredth flain into a flight. But we had pestelets enew, And shot among them as we might, With help of God the game gaed right, Frae time the foremost of them fell; Then o'er the knowe, without goodnight, They ran with mony a shout and yell. 15 But after they had turned backs, Yet Tindail men they turn'd again, And had not been the merchant packs, f There had been mae of Scotland slain. The gathering-word peculiar to a certain name, or set of people, was termed "slogan, or "slughorn," and was always repeated at an onset, as well as on many other occasions. The custom of crying the slogan or ensenzie, is often alluded to in all our ancient histories and poems. It was usually the name of the clan, or place of rendezvous, or leader. In 1335. the English, led hy Thomas of Roslyne, and William Moutray, assaulted Aberdeen. The former was mortally wounded in the onset ; and, as his followers were pressing forward, shouting " Rosslyne : Rossi yne ! " "Cry Moubray," said the expiring chieftain; "Rosslyne is gone!" The Highland clans had also their appropriate slogans. The Macdonalds cried Frich (heather) ; the Macphersons, Craig-Ubh; the Grants, Craig-Elachie ; and the Macfarlanes, Loch-Sloy. * "But," &c.: till once his anger was set up. c " Genzie : " engine of war. <* The Scots, on this occasion, seem to have had chiefly firearms ; the English re- taining still their partiality for their ancient weapon, the longbow. It also appears, by a letter from the Duke of Norfolk to Cecil, that the English Borderers were un- skilful in firearms; or, as he says, " our countrymen be not so commyng with shots as I woolde wishe." See Murdin's State Papers, voL i., p. 319. e " Flam : " arrows ; hitherto absurdly printed slain. / The ballad-maker here ascribes the victory to the real cause; for the English Borderers, dispersing to plunder the merchandise, gave the opposite party time to recover from their surprise. It seems to have been usual for travelling merchants to attend Border meetings, although one would have thought the kind of company usually assembled there might have deterred them. THE RAID OF THE REIDSWIRE. 527 But, Jesu! if the folks were fain To put the bussing on their thies ; And so they fled, with all their main, Down o'er the brae, like clogged bees. 16 Sir Francis Russell " ta'en was there, And hurt, as we hear men rehearse; Proud Wallinton * was wounded sair, Albeit he be a Fennick fierce. But if you wald a souldier search, Among them all were ta'en that night, Was nane sae wordie to put in verse, As Collingwood, that courteous knight. 17 Young Henry Schafton^he is hurt; A souldier shot him wi' a bow; Scotland has cause to mak' great sturt, For laiming of the Laird of Mowe. ' The Laird's Wat did weel indeed; His friends stood stoutlie by himsell, With little Gladstain, gude in need, For Gretein/ kend na gude be ill. 18 The SherifFe wanted not gude will, Howbeit he might not fight so fast; Beanjeddart, Hundlie, and Hunthill, ' Three, on they laid weel at the last. Son to the Earl of Bedford, and Warden of the East Marches. He was, at this time, chamberlain of Berwick. He was afterwards killed in a fray of a similar nature, at a Border meeting between the same Sir John Forster (father-in-law to Russell) and Thomas Ker of Fairnihurst, A. D. 1585. Fen wick of Wallington, a powerful Northumbrian chief. c Sir Cuthbert Collingwood of Esslington, Sheriff of Northumberland, the 10th and 20th of Elizabeth. Besides these gentlemen, James Ogle, and many other Northumbrians of note, were made prisoners. Sir George Heron, of Chipchase and Ford, was slain, to the great regret of both parties, being a man highly esteemed by the Scots as well as the English. When the prisoners were brought to Morton, at Dalkeith, and, among other presents, received from him some Scottish falcons, one of his train observed, that the English were nobly treated, since they got live hawks for dead herons. Godscroft. <*The Shaftoes are an ancient family, settled at Bavington, in Northumberland, since the time of Edward I.; of which Sir Cuthbert Shaftoe, Sheriff of Northumber- land in 1795, is the present representative. e An ancient family on the Borders. The lands of Mowe are situated upon the river Bowmpnt, in Roxburghshire. The family is now represented by William Molle, Esq., of Mains, who has restored the ancient spelling of the name. The Laird of Mowe, here mentioned, was the only gentleman of note killed in the skirmish on the Scottish side. / Graden, a family of Kers. * Douglas of Beanjeddart, an ancient branch of the House of Cavers, possessing property near the junction of the Jed and Teviot Hundlie : Rutherford of Hundlie or Hundalee, situated on the Jed above Jedburgh. Hunthill : the old tower of Hunthill was situated about a mile above Jedbnrgh. It was the patrimony of an ancient family of Rutherfords. I suppose the person here meant to be the same who is renowned in tradition by the name of the Cock of Hunthill. His sons were executed for March-treason, or Border-theft, along with the lairds of Corbet, Green- head, and Overton, A.D. 1388. Johnstone s History, p. 129. 528 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. Except the horsemen of the guard, If I could put men to availe, None stoutlier stood out for their laird, Nor did the lads of Liddisdail. 19 But little harness had we there; But auld Badreule a had on a jack, And did right weel, I you declare, With all his Trumbills at his back. Gude Edderstane 6 was not to lack, Nor Kirktoun, Newton, noble men ! c Thir 's * all the specials I of speake, By"* others that I cou'd not ken. 20 Who did invent that day of play, We need not fear to find him soon; For Sir John Forster, I dare well say, Made us this noisome afternoon. Not that I speak preceislie out, That he supposed it would be perril ; But pride, and breaking out of feuid, Gar'd Tindaill lads begin the quarrel. 8 a Sir Andrew Turnbull, of Bedrule, upon Bule Water. This old laird was so noto- rious a thief, that the principal gentlemen of the clans of Hume and Kerr refused to sign a bond of alliance, to which he, with the Turnbulls and Butherfords, was a party; alleging that their proposed allies had stolen Hume of Wedderburn's cattle. The authority of Morton, however, compelled them to digest the affront. The debate (and a curious one it is) may be seen at length in Godscroft, vol. i., p. 221. The Butherfords became more lawless after having been deprived of the countenance of the court, for slaying the nephew of Forman, Archbishop of St. Andrews, who had attempted to carry off the heiress of Eutherford. This lady was afterwards married to Jaines Stewart of Traquair, son to James, Earl of Buchan, according to a Papal bull, dated 9th November, 15(H. By this lady a great estate in Teviotdale fell to the family of Traquair, which was sold by James, Earl of Traquair, Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, in consequence of the pecuniary difficulties to which he was reduced by his loyal exertions in favour of Charles I. 6 An ancient family of Eutherfords; I believe, Indeed, the most ancient now extant. tioned in the said roll of Border clans. "Thir's:" these are. "By:" besides. e In addition to what has been said of the ferocity of the Eeedisdale and Tynedale men, may be noticed a by-law of the incorporated Merchant-adven- turers of Newcastle, in 1564, which, alleging evil repute of these districts for thefts and felonies, enacts, that no apprentices shall be taken "proceeding from such leude and wicked progenitors." This law, though in desuetude, suosisted until 1771. BONNIE GEORGE CAMPBELL. 529 BONNIE GEOKGE CAMPBELL. From Motherwell's Minstrelsy, p. 44. "Is probably a Lament for one of the adherents of the house of Argyle, who fell in the battle of Glenlivat, stricken on Thursday, the 3d day of October, 1594 years.* Of this ballad Mr. Finlay had only recovered [eight lines], which he has given in the preface to his Scottish Historical and Romantic Ballads, p. xxxiii., introduced by the following remarks: 'There is another fragment still re- maining, which appears to have belonged to a ballad of adventure, perhaps of real history. I am acquainted with no poem of which the lines, as they stand, can be supposed to have formed a part.'" MotherwelL A slightly different version appears in Smith's Scottish Minstrel, vol. v /p. 42. Mr. Maidment, however, reasons with great plausibility, that this Lament con meliorates the assassination of John Campbell of Calder, in 1591. He was either father or brother to the lady who perished in the Castle of Towe, ante, p. 520. See Maidment's Scotish Ballads, &c., vol. i., p. 240. 1 HIE upon Highlands, And low upon Tay, Bonnie George Campbell Bade out on a day. Saddled and bridled And booted rade he ; Hame came his gude horse, But never came he ! 2 Out came his auld mither Greetin 1 full sair, And out came his bonnie bride Kivin' her hair. Saddled and bridled And booted rade he ; Toom hame came the saddle, But never came he ! 3 t; My meadow lies green, And my corn is unshorn ; My barn is to bigg, And my ba,bie 's unborn." Saddled and bridled And booted rade he ; Toom hame came the saddle, But never came he ! * Gordon's Genealogical History of the Earldom of Sutherland 2 -M 530 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. THE BONNIE EAEL OF MURRAY. From Ramsay's Tea-Table Miscellany, vol. ii., p. 188. " 'The 7 of February this zeire, 1592, the Earle of Murray was cruelly murthered by the Earle of Huntly, at his house in Duni- brissell, in Fyffeshyre, and with him Dumbar, Shriffe of Murray ; it [was] given out, and publickly talked that the Earle of Huntly was only the instrument of perpetratting this facte, to satisffie the Kinges jelosie of Murray, quhom the Queirie, more rashlie than wyslie, some few dayes before had commendit in the Kinges heiringe, with too many epithetts of a proper and gallant man. The ressons of these surmisses proceidit from proclamatione of the Kinges the 18 of Marche following, inhibitting the younge Earle of Murray to persew the Earle of Huntly for his father's slaughter, in respecte he, being wardit in the castell of Blacknesse for the same murther, was willing to abyde his tryell ; averring that he had done nothing, bot by the King's ma ae8 commissione : and so was neither airt nor pairt of the murther.' Annales of Scotland by Sir James Balfour, vol. i., Edin. 1824. For other accounts of this transaction, see Spottiswood, Moyse's Memoires, Calderwood's History of the Church, and Gordon's Genealogical History of the Earldom of Sutherland." Motherwell's ' y, p. 78. If Dr. Chambers's theory relative to " Young Waters " (ante, p. 454) be correct, the jealousy characteristic of James I. of Scotland seems to have coursed with full vigour in the blood of his descendant James the 6th of Scotland and 1st of England, and led to a tragic incident so analogous in its alleged motive, that the former ballad has been by some supposed to refer to this latter event. 1 YE Highlands, and ye Lawlands, Oh, where ha'e ye been ? They ha'e slain the Earl of Murray, And ha'e lain him on the green. 2 Now wae be to thee, Huntly ! And wherefore did you say ? I bade you bring him with you, But forbade you him to slay. 3 He was a braw gallant, And he rid at the ring; And the bonnie Earl of Murray, Oh ! he might ha'e been a king. 4 He was a braw gallant, And he play'd at the ba' ; And the bonnie Earl of Murray Was the flower amaner them a'. THE EARL OF MURRAY. 531 He was a braw gallant, And he play'd at the gluve; And the bonnie Earl of Murray, Oh ! he was the Queene's luve. Oh ! lang will his ladye Look o'er the castle Downe, Ere she see the Earl of Murray Come sounding thro' the towne. THE EARL OF MURRAY. From Finlay's Scottish Ballads, voL ii., p. 21. " Is a different ballad from the one that precedes it ; but, owing to the same peculiarity of measure of both, Mr. Finlay conjectures, which is not at all unlikely, that they may at one period have been united." Motherwell's Minstrelsy, p. 80. ' ' It resembles, in its structure of verse, the fragment of ' Bonnie George Campbell.' Several of the phrases employed are all but identical." Dr. Charles Mackay's Ballads of Scotland, p. 161. 1 " OPEN the gates, And let him come in ; He is my brother Huntly, He'll do him nae harm." 2 He's ben and ben, And ben to his bed ; And with a sharp rapier He stabbed him dead. 3 The ladye came down the stair, Wringing her hands : " He has slain the Earl of Murray, The flower of Scotland." 4 But Huntly lap on his horse, Rade to the King : " Ye're welcome hame, Huntly; And where ha'e ye been? 5 " Where ha'e ye been ? And how ha'e ye sped?" " I've killed the Earl of Murray, Dead in his bed." 532 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. i " Foul fa' you, Huntly ; And why did ye so ? ' You might ha'e ta'en the Earl of Murray, And saved his life too." ' " Her bread it 's to bake, Her yill is to brew ; My sister 's a widow, And sair do I rue." J " Her corn grows ripe, Her meadows grow green ; But in bonnie Dinnibristle I darena be seen." THE LAIRD 0' LOGIE. From Scott's Minstrelsy, vol. iii., p. 128. " An edition of this ballad is cm-rent, under the title of ' The Laird of Ochiltree ; ' but the editor, since the first publication of this work, has been fortunate enough to recover the following more correct and ancient copy, as recited by a gentleman residing near Biggar. It agrees more nearly, both in the name and in the circumstances, with the real fact, than the printed ballad of Ochiltree. " In the year 1592, Francis Stuart, Earl of Both well, was agitating his frantic and ill-concerted attempts against the person of James VI., whom he endeavoured to surprise in the Palace of Falkland. Through the emulation and private rancour of the courtiers, he found adherents even about the king's person ; among whom, it seems, was the hero of our ballad, whose history is thus narrated in that curious and valuable chronicle, of which the first part has been published under the title of ' The Historic of king James the Sext : ' " 'In this close tyme it fortunit, that a gentleman, callit Weymis of Logye, being also in credence at court, was delatit as a traffekker with Frances erle Bothwell ; and he, being examinat before king and counsall, confessit his accusation to be of veritie, that sundry tymes he had spokin with him, expresslie aganis the king's inhibitioun proclamit in the contrare, whilk confession he subscryvit with his hand ; and because the event of this mater had sic a success, it sail also be praysit be my pen, as a worthie turne, proceiding from honest chest love and charitie, whilk suld on na wayis be obscurit from the posteritie, for the gude example ; and therefore I have thought gude to insert the same for a perpetual memorie. " 'Queen Anne, our noble princess, was servit with dyverss gentil- wemen of hir awin cuntrie, and naymelie with ane callit Mres Mar- garet Twynstoun,* to whome this gentilman, Weymes of Logye, bure great honest affection, tending to the godlie band of marriage, the whilk was honestlie requytet be the said gentilwoman, yea even in his greatest mister ; t for howsone she understude the said gentilman * Twynlace, according to Spottiswoode. t " Mister: ' ' necessity. THE LAIRD 0' LOGIE. 533 to be in distress, and apperantlie be his confession to be puneist to the death, and she having prevelege to ly in the queynis chalmer that sameverie night of his accusation, whare the king was also reposing that same night, she came furth of the dure prevelie, bayth the prencis being then, at quyet rest, and past to the chalmer, whare the said gentilman was put in custodie to certayne of the garde, and commandit thayme that immediatelie he sould be broght to the king and queyne, whereunto they, geving sure credence, obeyet. But howsone she was cum bak to the chalmer dur, she desyrit the watches to stay till he sould cum furth agayne, and so she closit the dur, and convoyit the gentilman to a windo', whare she ministrat a long corde unto him to convoy himself doun upon ; and sa, be hir gude cheritable help, he happelie escapit be the subteltie of love. ' " Scott. ["The keepers, waiting upon his return, stayed there till the morning, and then found themselves deceived. This, with the manner of the escape, ministered great occasion of laughter; and, not many days after, the king being pacified by the queen's means, he was pardoned, and took to wife the gentlewoman who had, in this sort, hazarded her credit for his safety." Spottiswoode. Stanza 3 is added from the copy as reprinted by Motherwell. (See note to text.) The version referred to above, under the title of " The Young Laird of Ochiltrie," follows. Mr. Motherwell mentions that "there is another set of it to be found in stall prints, which has a chance of being the original ballad, as composed at the time of the Laird's deliverance in 1592. " Minstrelsy, p. Ixix. , note 20. The same diligent writer, referring to "the writings of the early English Dramatists," and to the "numberless snatches of ancient ditties introduced" by them in their writings, states : "In 'The Knight of the Burning Pestle,' Old Merrythought gives this verse, evidently a portion of a Scottish song, both in subject and style ; perhaps it may have belonged to some edition of the popular ballad of ' The Laird of Logic : ' 'She cares not for her mammy, nor She cares not for her daddy, for She is, she is, she is My lord of Lowgave's lassie.'" Minstrelsy, p. xL] 1 I WILL sing, if ye will hearken, If ye will hearken unto me ; The king has ta'en a poor prisoner. The wanton laird o' young Logie. 2 Young Logie 's laid in Edinburgh chapel ; Carmichael 's the keeper o' the key ; * And may Margaret 's lamenting sair, All for the love of young Logie. * Sir John Carmichael of Carmichael, the hero of the ballad called "Tho Rf.id of the Reidswire," was appointed captain of the king's guard in 158S, and usually 1: -\<1 the keeping of state criminals of rank. 534 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 3 [May Margaret sits in the queen's bow'r, Kincking her fingers ane be ane, Cursing the day that e'er she was born, Or that she e'er heard o' Logie's name.*] 4 " Lament, lament na, may Margaret, And of your weeping let me be ; For ye maun to the king himsel', To seek the life of young Logie." 5 May Margaret has kilted her green cleiding, And she has curled back her yellow hair ; " If I canna get young Logie's life, Farewell to Scotland for evermair." 6 When she came before the king, She knelt [down] lowly on her knee ; "Oh, what's the matter, may Margaret? And what needs all this courtesie ? " 7 "A boon, a boon, my noble liege, A boon, a boon, I beg of thee ! And the first boon that I come to crave, Is to grant me the life of young Logie." & " Oh na, oh na, may Margaret, Forsooth, and so it maunna be ; For all the gowd of fair Scotland Shall not save the life of young Logie." 9 But she has stown the king's redding-kaim,f Likewise the queen her wedding-knife, And sent the tokens to Carmichael, To cause young Logie get his life. 10 She sent him a purse of the red gowd, Another of the white monie ; She sent him a pistol for each hand, And bade him shoot when he gat free. 11 When he came to the tolbooth stair, There he let his volley flee ; It made the king in his chamber start, E'en in the bed where he might be. ["The third stanza in the present copy was obtained from recitation; and, as it describes very naturally the agitated behaviour of a person who, like May Margaret, had high interests at stake, it was considered worthy of being preserved." Mother- well, Minstrelsy, p. 56.] t "Kedding kaim: " comb for the hair. THE YOUNG LAIED OF OCHILTRIE. 535 12 " Gae out, gae out, my merry men all, And bid Carmichael come speak to me ; For I'll lay my life the pledge of that, That yon 's the shot of young Logic." 13 When Carmichael came before the king, He fell low down upon his knee ; The very first word that the king spake. Was " Where 's the laird o' young Logie ? " 14 Carmichael turn'd him round about, (I wot the tear blinded his e'e,) " There came a token frae your grace, Has ta'en away the laird frae me." 15 " Hast thou play'd me that, Carmichael ? And hast thou play'd me that ? " quoth he ; " The morn the justice-court 's to stand, And Logie's place ye maun supplie." 16 Carmichael 's awa to Margaret's bow'r, E'en as fast as he may dree : " Oh, if young Logie be within, Tell him to come and speak with me ! " 17 May Margaret turn'd her round about, (I wot a loud [loud] laugh laugh'd she,) ' The egg is chipp'd, the bird is flown, Ye'll see nae rriair of young Logie." 18 The ane is shipp'd at the pier of Leith, The other at the Queen's Ferrie ; [And may Margaret has gotten her love,*] The wanton laird of young Logie. THE YOUNG LAIRD OF OCHILTRIE. From Herd's Scottish Songs, vol. L, p. 21. Dr. Chambers, in his Scottish Ballads, p. 80, gives a version collated from the following and the preceding ; but, notwithstanding some ad- mixture of his own, the result is not very satisfactory, as it makes, in several instances, a somewhat confused jumble. 1 OH, listen, gude people, to my tale, Listen to what I tell to thee; The king has taken a poor prisoner, The wanton laird of Ochiltrie. * [Slightly altered, in the interest of truth and delicacy.] 536 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 2 When news came to our gudely queen, She sigh'd, and said right mournfullie, " Oh, what will come of Ladye Marg'ret, Wha bears sic love to Ochiltrie?" 3 Ladye Marg'ret tore her yellow hair, When as the queen told her the same : " I wish that I had ne'er been born, Nor e'er had known Ochiltrie's name." 4 " Fie, na ! " quoth the queen, " that maunna be ; Fie, na ! [fie, na !] that maunna be ; I'll find ye out a better way To save the life of Ochiltrie." 5 The queen she trippit up the stair, And lowly knelt upon her knee: " The first boon which I come to crave, Is the life of gentle Ochiltrie." 6 " Oh, if you had ask'd me castles or tow'rs, I wou'd ha'e gi'en them, twa or three; But all the money in fair Scotland Winna buy the life of Ochiltrie." 7 The queen she trippit down the stair, And down she gaed right mournfullie: " It 's all the money in fair Scotland Winna buy the life of Ochiltrie." 8 Ladye Marg'ret tore her yellow hair, When as the queen told her the same: " I'll take a knife and end my life, And be in the grave as soon as him." 9 " Ah ! fie, na ! fie, na 1 " quoth the queen ; " Fie, na! fie, na! this maunna be; I'll set ye on a better way To save the life of Ochiltrie." 10 The queen she slippit up the stair, And she gaed up right privatlie, And she has stolen the prison keys, And gane and set free Ochiltrie. 11 And she 's gi'en him a purse of gowd, And another of [the] white money, She 's gi'en him twa pistols by his side, Saying to him " Shoot when ye win free." WILLIE MACINTOSH; OB, THE BURNING OF AUCHINDOUN. 537 12 And when he came to the queen's window, Whaten a joyful shout ga'e he ! " Peace be to our royal queen, And peace be in her companie!" 13 " Oh, whaten a voice is that? " quoth the king, " Whaten a voice is that? " quoth he ; "Whaten a voice is that?" quoth the king. " I think it 's the voice of Ochiltrie. 14 " Go call to me my gaolers all, Callthem by thirty and by three; For on the morn, at twelve o'clock, It 's hangit shall they ilk ane be." 15 " Oh, didna ye send your keys to us? Ye sent them be thirty and be three; And with them sent a straight command, To set at large young Ochiltrie." 16 " Ah, na ! fie, na ! " quoth the queen, " Fie, my dear love, this maunna be ; And if ye're gaun to hang them all, Indeed, ye maun begin with me." 17 The ane was shippit at the pier of Leith, The other at the Queensferrie ; And now the ladye has gotten her love, The winsome laird of Ochiltrie. WILLIE MACINTOSH; OR, THE BURNING OF AUCHINDOUN. Mr. Finlay first published four stanzas of this ballad in his Scottish Ballads, vol. ii., p. 97. Other four stanzas were afterwards published by Mr. Laing, in The Thistle of Scotland, p. 106. The same number of stanzas of a third version were copied by Mr. Whitelaw, in 1854, from "an Aberdeen newspaper;" in which, he states, they appeared " about thirty years ago, with the following note prefixed : ' In 1592 the Mackintoshes, or clan Chattan, having offended Gordon of Huntly and Strathbogie, to whom they were vassals, the latter vowed vengeance, which the former fearing, requested their chief to proceed to Auchindoun Castle, the residence of their offended superior, and sue for peace. On his arrival there, Gordon was unfortunately from home : he was, however, introduced to his lady, to whom he told on what errand he had come, and pleaded for her intercession ; but she told him that she was sure her 538 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. lord would not be satisfied until the head of the chief of the clan Chattan was fixed on the castle gate. The chief despising her threat, and bowing scornfully low before he should depart, she snatched a sword from the wall, and severed his head from his body. His clan, on hearing of the "horrid deed," assembled under his son and successor, and marched to Auchindoun Castle in the dead of night, which they plundered and set on fire. The lady made her escape, but several of the inmates perished in the names. The ruins of this baronial residence are still to be seen on the banks of the river Fiddich, in Banffshire.'" Whitelaw's Book of Scottish Ballads, p. 248. Stanza 1 is from Finlay ; 2 and 3 are nearly the same in all three ; 4 is from Laing, and 5 from Whitelaw. It will be remembered that Auchindoun was the seat of Adam o' Gordon. 1 As I came in by Fiddich-side, In a May morning, I met Willie Macintosh An hour before the dawning. 2 " Turn, Willie Macintosh, Turn, turn, I bid ye ; If ye burn Auchindoun, Huutly he will head ye." 3 " Head me, or hang me, That winna fley me; I'll burn Auchindoun, Ere the life lea'e me." 4 Coming o'er Cairn Groom, And looking down, man, I saw Willie Macintosh Burn Auchindoun, man. 5 Light was the mirk hour At the day dawning, For Auchindoun was in a flame Ere the cock crawing. THE BATTLE OF BALEINNES. The Catholic Earls of Huntly and ErroL, with their associates and retainers in the North then, as it seems, in the interest of and sub- sidized by gold from Spain were opposed with all the bitterness of religious and party rancour, by the adherents of the Kirk, then dominant at Court, and whose " avowed object was to depose Anti- christ," and to spoil the Egyptians, or Catholic lords, in the interest of the Kirk, the English alliance, and, it may be, with some view, on the part of many, to their own special benefit. THE BATTLE OF BALRINNES. 539 "On the 21st of September, 1594, Argyle, having received the royal commission to pursue Huntly and his associates, set out on his expedition at the head of a force of six thousand men." This force consisted, for the most part, of hastily levied and poorly armed High- landers. But Argyle, who was only nineteen, ardent, and eager to revenge the murder of his brother-in-law, " the bonnie Earl of Murray," pressed forward to meet Huntly; "to whom he sent a message, that within three days he meant to sleep at Strathbogie. To this taunting challenge Huntly replied, that Argyle should be welcome : he would himself be his porter, and open all the gates of his palace to his young friend ; but he must not take it amiss if he rubbed his cloak against Argyle's plaid ere they parted." Argyle's army augmented by a rabble of " rascals and pokebearers," as they are designated by Bowes, Queen Elizabeth's representative num- bered about ten thousand men. On the other hand, the Catholic earls were unable to muster more than fifteen hundred, or at most two thousand men; " but of these the greater part were resolute and gallant gentlemen ; all well mounted and fully armed ; and among them some officers of veteran experience, who had served in the Low Countries. They had, besides, six pieces of ordnance, which were placed under the charge of Captain Andrew Gray, who afterwards commanded the English and Scottish auxiliaries in Bohemia. " * Having thus stated the circumstances which led to the battle, the ballad itself may be left to tell its own tale, as to the incidents of the fight. The action is variously styled "The Battle of Balrinnes," of " Glenlivet," or " Strathaven." It was fought on the 3d of October, 1594. Two copies of an edition printed at Edinburgh, in 1681, 12ino, exist one in Pepys' collection (ante, p. 181), and the other in the Advocates' Library. A copy, probably printed from the latter, appears in "Scottish Poems, of the XVI. Century, Edinburgh, 1801 ; one of the numerous useful publications, illustrative of Scottish history, edited by Mr. Dalzell, Advocate." The first four stanzas appear in Jamieson's Popular Ballads, vol. ii., p. 144. Another version, obviously printed from a stall copy, occurs in Scarce Ancient Ballads, p. 29, Aberdeen, 1822. Stanza 3, from Jamieson's, and stanzas 27, 33, 34, 39, and 40, from Laing's versions, as here inserted within brackets, do not occur in Dalzell's copy. The orthography has been modernized, and a few obvious errors corrected. 1 FRAE Dunnoter to Aberdeen, I rase and took the way, Believing weel that it had been Not half ane hour to day. * Tyller's History of Scotland, A. D. 1591. 540 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. The lift was clad with cloudis gray, And ower maskit was the moon, Which me deceived where I lay, And made me rise ower soon. On Towie Mount I met a man Well graithed in his gear ; Quoth I "What news?" then he began To tell a fitt of weir Quoth he " The ministers, I fear, A bloody browst have brewn; For yesterday, withouteu mair, On ane hill at Stradown, ["I saw three lords in battle fight Eight furiously awhile, Huntlie and Errol, as they hight, Were both against Argyle. Turn back with me and ride a mile, And I shall make it kenn'd, How they began the form and style, And of the battle's end."] Then I, as any man would be, Desirous was to know Mair of that tale he told to me, The which, he said, he saw. By then the day began to daw, And back with him I rade ; Then he began the sooth to show, And on this wise he said : MacCallen More came frae the west, With mony a bow and brand ; To waste the Ehinnes he thought best. The Earl of Huntlie's land. He swore that none shou'd him gainstand, Except that he were fey, But all shou'd be at his command, That dwelt be north of Tay. Then Huntlie, to prevent that peril, Directit hastilie, Unto the noble Earl of Errol Besought him for supplie. Wha said " It is my dutie For to give Huntlie support, For if he loses Strathbogie, My Slaines * will be ill hurt. * Slaines Castle, the seat of the Earl of Errol. TIIE BATTLE OF BALRINNES. 541 7 ''' Therefore I hald the subject vain, Wou'd reave us of our right, First shall one of us be slain, The other tak' the flight. Suppose Argyle be much of might, By force of Hielandmen ; We 's be a mote into his sight, Or he pass hame again. 8 ;< Be blithe, my merry men, be blithe, Argyle shall have the worse, Gif he into this country kythe,* I houp in God his cross ! " Then leap'd this lord upon his horse, And with warlike troop frae Turray, ( To meet with Huntlie and his force, Eade to Elgin in the Murray. 9 The same night that those two lords met, I wot 'twou'd be thought long; To tell you all, (I have forgot,) The mirth was them among. Then pipers play'd, and songsters sang, To glad the merry host; "VVha fear'd not the foemen strong, Nor yet Argyle his boast. 10 They for two days wou'd not remove, But blithely drank the wine ; Some to his lass, some to his love, Some to his ladye fine. And he that thought not for to blyne,^ His mistress' token tak's, They kiss'd it first, and set it syne Upon their helms and jacks. 11 They pass'd their time right wantonlie, Till word came at the last, Argyle, with ane great armie, Approached wond'rous fast. Then frae the toun those Barons pass'd, And Huntlie to them said, " Gude gentlemen, we will us cast To Strathbogie, but beed." * "Kythe: " is found. t "Turray: " Turrifl, in Aberdeenshire. t " Blyne: " stop. Seems to mean here, not to shrink in the battle. " Beed : " without delay. 542 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 12 When they unto Strathbogie came, To council soon they gaed; There to see how things might frame,* For they had meikle need. They vowed them unto a deed, As kirkmen cou'd devise, Syne pray'd that they might find good speed Of their gude enterprise. 13 Then every man himself did arm, To meet MacCallen More, Unto Strathdoun, who did great harm The Wedensday before. As lions do poor lambs devour, With bluidie teeth and nails, They brent the biggings, took the store, Syne slew the people's sells. 14 Beside all this hie crueltie, He said, ere he should cease, The standing-stones of Strathbogie Should be his pallion's place. But Huntlie said " With God his grace, First we shall fight them ones, Perchance that they may tak' the chase, Ere they come to the stones!" 15 Those Lords kept on at afternoon With all their weirmen wight, Then sped up to the Cabrach soon, Where they bade all that night. Upon the morn, when day was light, They raise and made them boune, Intil ane castle that stood on height; They called it Auchindoun. 16 Beside that castle, on a croft, They stended pallions there; Then spak' a man that had been oft In jeopardie of weir: " My Lords, your foes they are to fear, ' Though we were never so stout, Therefore command some men of weir To watch the rest about." 17 By this was done, some gentlemen, Of noble kin and bluid, To council with those Lords began, Of matters to conclude: * "Frame: " take form. THE BATTLE OF BALRINNES. 543 For weel eneugh they understood The matter was of weight, They hadna so manie men of good, In battle for to fight. 18 The firstin man in council spak', Good Errol, it was he ; Who says " I will the vanguard tak', And leading upon me. My Lord Huntlie, come succour me, When ye see me opprest; For frae the field I will not flee, So lang as I may last." 19 Thereat some Gordons waxed wraith, And said he did them wrong: To let this lord then they were laith, First to the battle gang. The meeting that was them among, Was no men that it heard ; But Huntlie, with ane troop full strong, Bade into the rear-guard. 20 This was the number of their force, Those Lords to battle led; Ane thousand gentlemen on horse, And some footmen they had; Three hundred that shot arrows braid, Four score that hagbuts bore; This was the number that they had, Of footmen with them sure. 21 Thus with their noble chivalry They marched into the field; Argyle, with ane great armie, Upon ane hill ta'en bield; Abiding them with spear and shield, With bullets, darts, and bows; The men could weel their weapons wield, To meet them was nae mows.* 22 When they so near other were come, That ilk man saw his foe, "Go to, essay the game," said some; But Captain Ker f said, " No : * See "Battle of Harlaw,'' stanza 19, line 5, ante, p. 448. t "Captain Ker." This personage is usually supposed to be the perpetrator of the Towie tragedy, but this identification seems doubtful, as the latter is named "Andrew," while the "Captain Ker "here referred to is named, by Tytler, "Thomas." 544 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. First let the guns before us go, That they may break the order." Quoth baith the Lords " Let it be so, / Or ever we gae farder." * 23 Then Andrew Gray, upon ane horse, Betwixt the battles rade, Making the sign of hally cross, " In manus tuas," he said. He lighted there the guns to lead, Till they came to the rest; Then Captain Ker unto him sped, And bade him shoot in haste. 24 " I will not shoot," quoth Andrew Gray, " Till they come o'er yon hill ; We ha'e an ower gude cause this day, Thro' misguidings to spill. Go back, and bid our men bide still, Till they come to the plain ; Then shall my shooting do them ill ; I will not shoot in vain." 25 " Shoot up, shoot up ! " quoth Captain Ker, " Shoot up to our comfort!" The firstin shot [it] was too near, It lighted all too short. The nextin shot their foes [it] hurt, It lighted wond'rous weel : Quoth Andrew Gray " I see ane sport, When they begin to reel! 26 " Go to, good mates, and 'say the game, Yon folks are in a fray; Let see how we can mell with them, Into their disarray; Go, go, it is not time to stay. All for my benison ; Save none this day, ye may gar die, Till we the field ha'e won!" 27 [Then awful Errol he 'gan say: " Good fellows, follow me ; I hope it shall be ours this day, Or else therefore to dee. Tho' they in number many be, Set on withouten words; Let ilk brave fellow brake his tree, And then pursue with swords."] * "Farder: " farther. THE BATTLE OF EALRINNES. 545 28 Then Errol hasted to the height Where he did battle bide, With him went Auchindoun and Gight, And Bonnitoun by his side; Where many gentlemen did with him bide, Whose praise should not be smoor'd; * But Captain Ker, that was their guide, Rade aye before my Lord. 29 They were not many men of weir, But they were wondrous true ; With hagbuts, pistols, bow, and spear, They did their foes pursue ; Where bullets, darts, and arrows flew, As thick as hail or rain, Whilk many hurt ; and some they slew, Of horse and gentlemen. 30 Huntlie made haste to succour him, And charged furiouslie, Where many [ane] man's sight grew dim, The shots so thick did flee : Whilk gar'd right many doughty dee,f Of some on every side ; Argyle with his tald J host did flee, But MacLean did still abide. 31 MacLean had on a habergeon, Ilk Lord had on ane jack, Together fiercely are they run, With many a gun's crack. The splinters of their spears they brak' Flew up into the air, And bore doun many on their back, Again raise never mair. 32 " Alace, I see ane sorry sight! M Said the Laird of MacLean; " Our feeble folks have ta'en the flight, And left me mine alane. Now maun I flee or else be slain, Since they will not return ; " With that he ran out o'er ane den, Alongside ane little burn. "Smoor'd:" smothered; suppressed. t " Doughty dee : " redoubtable men die. t "Tald" seems to mean here, aforesaid. Sir Lauchlan MacLean, of Dnart, second in command. "This chieftain," says Tytler, " was conspicuous from his great stature and strength. He was covered with a shirt of mail, wielded a double-edged Danish battle-axe, and appears to have been a more experienced officer than the rest." 2N 546 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 33 [Then some men said " We will be sure And tak' MacLean by course." " Go to ! for we are men anew To bear him doun by force." But noble Errol had remorse, And said " It is not best; For the Argyle has got the worst, Let him gang with the rest. 34 " What greater honour cou'd ye wish, In deeds of chivalry, Or braver victory than this, Where one has chased thrice three? Therefore, good fellows, let him be ; He'll dee before he yield; For he with his small company Bade longest in the field."] 35 Then, after great Argyle his host, Some horsemen took the chase; They turn'd their backs, for all their boast, Contrair their foes to face. They cried out, " Oh ! " and some, " Alace ! " But never for mercy sought ; Therefore the Gordons gave no grace, Because they crav'd it not. 86 Then some good man pursued sharp, With Errol and Huntlie, And they with ane captain did carp, Whose name was Ogilvie. He says "Gentlemen, let's see Who maniest slain [hast] slaid; Save nane this day ye may gar dee, For pleadis nor ransom paid." * 37 Like harts, up howes and hills they ran, Where horsemen might not win ; " Retire again," quoth Huntlie then, " Where we did first begin. Here lies many carved skins, And many ane bloody beard, For any help, with little din, Shall rot abune the yeard." f * For pleadings nor for promised ransom, t " Yeard: " earth. THE BATTLE OF BALRINNES: 547 38 When they came to the hill again, They set doun on their knees; Syne thanked God that they had slain So many enemies.* They rose before Argyle his eyes, Made Captain Ker ane knight, Syne bade amang the dead bodies Till they were out of sight. 39 [Now I have you already told, Huntly and Errol's men Could scarce be thirteen hundred call'd, The truth if ye wou'd ken. And yet Argyle and his thousands ten Were they that took the race; And tho' that they were nine to ane, They caused [them] tak' the chase. 40 So Argyle's boast it was in vain (He thocht sure not to tyne),f That if he durst come to the plain, He would gar every nine Of his lay hold upon ilk man Huntly and Errol had ; And yet for all his odds he ran, To tell how ill he sped.] 41 This deed sae doughtilie was done, As I heard true men tell, Upon a Thursday afternoon, Sanct Francis' eve befell. Good Auchindoun was slain himsel', With seven mair in battell, So was the laird of Lochenzell,J Great pitie was to tell. * Such blasphemous exhibitions of barbarous piety are neither rare nor extinct, witness the recent notorious despatches of a certain aged and pious monarch (Anno Dom. 1870). The following lines, ascribed to our national bard, Kobert Burns, may be here quoted, as peculiarly applicable : "Ye hypocrites, are ihese your pranks? To murder folks, and then give thanks ! Forbear, forbear, proceed no further, For (Jod delights in no such murder." t "Tyne:" lose. t Archibald and James Campbell of Lochnell, the nearest heirs of Argyle, were killed in this battle. Aytoun. f The poet appears to have been imbued with a truer idea, and purer spirit of Christianity, than that above commented on. 548 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. THE DUKE OF GORDON'S DAUGHTER. From Ritson's Scottish Song, vol. ii., p. 169. ' ' George (Gordon) , fourth Earl of Huntley, who succeeded his grand- father, Earl Alexander, in 1523, and was killed at the battle of Cori- chie, in 1563, had actually three daughters : Lady Elizabeth, the eldest, married to John, Earl of Athole ; Lady Margaret, the second, to John, Lord Forbes ; and Lady Jean, the youngest, to the famous James, Earl of Bothwell, from whom being divorced, anno 1568, she married Alexander, Earl of Sutherland, who died in 1594, and, sur- viving him, Alexander Ogilvie of Boyne. The dukedom of Gordon was not created till the year 1684 ; so that, if the ballad be older, instead of 'the Duke of Gordon,' the original reading must have been 'the Earl of Huntley.' As for Alexander Ogilvie, he appears to have succeeded his father, Sir Walter Ogilvie, in the barony of Boyne, about 1560, and to have died in 1606 : this Lady Jean being his first wife, by whom he seems to have had no issue. See Gordon's History of the Gordons, and Douglas's Peerage and Haronage.'" Eitson. [The first line should probably read as quoted by Burns in the fol- lowing note : "There is a song apparently as ancient as the 'Ewe- bughts, Marion,' which sings to the same tune, and is evidently of the North. It begins, ' The Lord o' Gordon had three daughters. ' " Cromek's Reliques.] 1 THE Duke of Gordon has three daughters, Elizabeth, Margaret, and Jean ; They wou'd not stay in bonnie Castle Gordon, But they wou'd go to bonnie Aberdeen. 2 They had not been in Aberdeen A twelvemonth and a day, Till Lady Jean fell in love with Captain Ogilvie, And away with him she wou'd gae. 3 Word came to the Duke of Gordon, In the chamber where he lay, " Lady Jane has fell in love with Captain Ogilvie, And away with him she wou'd gae." 4 " Go saddle me the black horse, And you'll ride on the gray ; And I will ride to bonnie Aberdeen, Where I have been many a day." 5 They were not a mile from Aberdeen, A mile but only three, Till he met with his two daughters walking, But away was Lady Jeanie. THE DUKE OF GORDON'S DAUGHTER. 549 6 "Where is your sister, maidens? Where is your sister, now ? Where is your sister, maidens, That she is not walking with you "t " 7 " Oh, pardon us, honoured father, Oh, pardon us," they did say ; " Lady Jean is with Captain Ogilvie, And away with him she will gae." 8 When he came to Aberdeen, And down upon the green, There did he see Captain Ogilvie, Training up his men. 9 " Oh, woe to you, Captain Ogilvie, And an ill death thou shalt die ; For taking to my daughter, Hanged thou shalt be." 10 Duke Gordon has wrote a broad letter, And sent it to the king, To cause hang Captain Ogilvie, If ever he hanged a man. 11 "I will not hang Captain Ogilvie, For no lord that I see ; But I'll cause him to put off the lace and scarlet, And put on the single livery." 12 Word came to Captain Ogilvie, In the chamber where he lay, To cast off the gold lace and scarlet, And put on the single livery. 13 " If this be for bonnie Jeanie Gordon, This penance I'll take wi' ; If this be for bonnie Jeanie Gordon, All this I will dree." 14 Lady Jean had not been married, Not a year but three, Till she had a babe in every arm, Another upon her knee. 15 " Oh, but I'm weary of wandering ! Oh, but my fortune is bad ! It sets not the Duke of Gordon's daughter To follow a soldier lad. 550 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 16 "Oh, but I'm weary of wandering! Oh, but I think lang! It sets not the Duke of Gordon's daughter To follow a single man."* 17 When they came to the Highland hills, Cold was the frost and snow; Lady Jean's shoes they were all torn, No farther cou'd she go. 18 "Oh, woe to the hills and the mountains! Woe to the wind and the rain ! My feet is sore with going barefoot, No farther ain I able to gang. 19 " Woe to the hills and the mountains! Woe to the frost and the snow! My feet is sore with going barefoot, No farther am I able for to go. 20 " Oh, if I were at the glens of Foudlen, Where hunting I have been, I wou'd find the way to bonnie Castle Gordon, Without either stockings or sheen." f 21 When she came to Castle Gordon, And down upon the green, The porter gave out a loud shout, "Oh, yonder comes Lady Jean !" 22 " Oh, you are welcome, bonnie Jeanie Gordon, You are dear welcome to me; You are welcome, dear Jeanie Gordon, But away with your Captain Ogilvie." 23 Now over seas went the Captain, As a soldier under command; A message soon followed after, To come and heir his brother's land. 24 " Come home, you pretty Captain Ogilvie, And heir your brother's land; Come home, ye pretty Captain Ogilvie, Be Earl of Northumberland." ' Single man: " a private. f Sheen." Aberdeenshire dialect THE DUKE OF GORDON'S DAUGHTER. 551 25 " Oh, what does this mean?" says the Captain, "Where's my brother's children three?" " They are [all] dead and buried, And the lands they are ready for thee." 26 " Then hoist up your sails, brave Captain, Let us be jovial and free; I'll to Northumberland, and heir my estate, Then my dear Jeanie I'll see." 27 He soon came to Castle Gordon, And down upon the green; The porter gave out with a loud shout, " Here comes Captain Ogilvie ! " 28 "You're welcome, pretty Captain Ogilvie, Your fortune's advanced, I hear; No stranger can come unto my gates, That I do love so dear." 29 " Sir, the last time I was at your gates, You wou'd not let me in; I'm come for my wife and children, No friendship else I claim." 30 " Come in, pretty Captain Ogilvie, And drink of the beer and the wine; And thou shalt have gold and silver, To count till the clock strike nine." 81 "I'll have none of your gold and silver, Nor none of your white money; But I'll have bonnie Jeanie Gordon, And she shall go now with me." 32 Then she came tripping down the stair, With the tear into her e'e; One [bonnie] babe was at her foot, Another upon her knee. 33 " You're welcome, bonnie Jeanie Gordon, With my young familie; Mount and go to Northumberland, There a countess thou shalt be." 552 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. THE LADS OF WAMPHRAY. From Scott's Minstrelsy, vol. ii., p. 148. " The following song celebrates the skirmish, in 1593, between the Johnstones and Crichtons, which led to the revival of the ancient quarrel betwixt Johnstone and Maxwell, and finally to the battle of Dryffe Sands, in which the latter lost his life. Wamphray is the name of a parish in Annandale. Lethenhall was the abode of John- stone of Wamphray, and continued to be so till of late years. William Johnstone of Wamphray, called the Galliard, was a noted freebooter. A place, near the head of Teviotdale, retains the name of the Galliard's fauld's (folds), being a valley, where he used to secrete and divide his spoil, with his Liddesdale and Eskdale associates. His nom de guerre seems to have been derived from the dance called ' The Galliard.' The word is still used in Scotland, to express an active, gay, dissipated character." Willie of the Kirkhill, nephew to the Galliard, and his avenger, was also a noted Border robber. Previous to the battle of Dryffe Sands, so often mentioned, tradition reports, that Maxwell had offered a ten-pound-land to any of his party, who should brino; the head or hand of the Laird of Johnstone. This being reported to his antagonist, he answered, he had not a ten-pound-land to offer, but would give a five-merk-land to the man who should that day cut off the head or hand of Lord Maxwell. Willie of the Kirkhill, mounted upon a young gray horse, rushed upon the enemy, and earned the reward by striking down their unfortunate chieftain, and cutting off his right hand. " From a pedigree in the appeal case of Sir James Johnstone of Westeraw, claiming the honours and titles of Annandale, it appears that the Johnstones of Wamphray were descended from James, sixth son of the sixth Baron of Johnstone. The male line became extinct in 1657." Scott. [See subsequent ballad, entitled " Lord Maxwell's Good-night."] 1 'TwiXT Girth-head f and the Langwood-end, Lived the Galliard, and the Galliard's men; But and the lads of Leverhay, That drove the Crichton's gear away. 2 It is the lads of Lethenha', The greatest rogues among them a' : But and the lads of Stefenbiggin, They broke the house in at the rigging. :> Cleveland applies the phrase in a very different manner, in treating of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, 1644 : "And Selden is a Galliard by himself, And wel might be; there 'e more divines in him, Than in all this their Jewish Sanhedrim." Skelton, in his railing poem against James IV., terms him Sir Skyr Qalyard. t Leverhay, Stefenbiggin, Girth-head, &c., are all situated in the parish of Wam- phray. THE LADS OF WAMPHRAY. 553 3 The lads of Fingland, and Helbeck-hill, They were never for good, but aye for ill; 'Twixt the Staywood-bush and Langside-hill, They steal'd the broked cow and the branded bull. 4 It is the lads of the Girth-head, The deil 's in them for pride and greed ; For the Galliard and the gay Galliard's men, They ne'er saw a horse but they made it their ain. 5 The Galliard to Nithsdale is gane, To steal Sim Crichton's winsome dun ; The Galliard is unto the stable gane, But instead of the dun, the blind he has ta'en. 6 " Now Simmy, Simmy of the Side, Come out and see a Johnstone ride! Here 's the bonniest horse in a' Nithside, And a gentle Johnstone aboon his hide." 7 Simmy Crichton 's mounted then, And Crichtons has raised mony a ane ; The Galliard trow'd his horse had been wight, But the Crichtons beat him out o' sight. 8 As soon as the Galliard the Crichton saw, Behind the saugh-bush he did draw ; And there the Crichtons the Galliard ha'e ta'en, And nane with him but Willie alane. 9 " Oh, Simmy, Simmy, now let me gang, And I'll never mair do a Crichton wraug ! Oh, Simmy, Simmy, now let me be, And a peck o' gowd I'll give to thee ! 10 " Oh, Simmy, Simmy, now let me gang, And my wife shall heap it with her hand." But the Crichtons wou'dna let the Galliard be, But they hang'd him hie upon a tree. 11 Oh, think then Willie he was right wae, When he saw his uncle guided sae ; " But if ever I live Wamphray to see, My uncle's death avenged shall be ! " 12 Back to Wamphray he is gane, And riders has raised mony a ane; Saying " My lads, if ye'll be true, Ye shall all be clad in the noble blue." 554 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 13 Back to Nithsdale they have gane, And awa the Crichtons' nowt" ha'e ta'en; But when they came to the Wellpath-head, 6 The Crichtons bade them 'light and lead. 14 And when they came to Biddes-burn," The Crichtons bade them stand and turn ; And when they carne to the Biddes-strand, The Crichtous they were hard at hand. 15 But when they came to the Biddes-law, d The Johnstones bade them stand and draw; " We've done nae ill, we'll thole e nae wrang, But back to Wamphray we will gang." 16 And out spoke Willie of the Kirkhill, " Of fighting, lads, ye'se ha'e your fill." And from his horse Willie he lap, And a burnish'd brand in his hand he gat. 17 Out through the Crichtons, Willie he ran, And dang them down baith horse and man; Oh, but the Johnstones were wond'rous rude, When the Biddes-burn ran three days blood ! 18 " Now, sirs, we have done a noble deed, We have revenged the Galliard's bleid ; For every finger of the Galliard's hand, I vow this day I've kill'd a man." 19 As they came in at Evan-head, At Ricklaw-holm they spread abread; r " Drive on, my lads, it will be late ; We'll ha'e a pint at Wamphray gate.' 20 " For where'er I gang, or e'er I ride, The lads of Wamphray are on my side; And of all the lads that I do ken, A Wamphray lad 's the king of men." "Nowt:" cattle. b The Wellpath is a pass by which the Johnstones were retreating to their fast- nesses in Annandale. c The Biddes-burn, where the skirmish took place betwixt the Johnstones and their pursuers, is a rivulet which takes its course among the mountains on the confines of Nithsdale and Annandale [at the summit level of the Caledonian Bail- way]. <* " Law :" a conical hill. e "Thole: '' enduro. /Ricklaw-holm is a place upon the Evan Water, which falls into the Annan, below Moffat. f Wamphray gate was in those days an alehouse. KINMONT WILLIE. 555 KINMONT WILLIE. From Scott's Minstrelsy, vol. ii. , p. 32. "In the following rude strains," says Scott, "our forefathers com- memorated one of the last and most gallant achievements performed upon the Border." [The events which the ballad records occurred in the year 1596, while Sir Walter Scott of Buccleuch, and Lord Scrope, were wardens of the West Marches of Scotland and England respectively ; Buccleuch 's deputy being Eobert Scott of Haining, one of his own clan; while Lord Scrope's deputy was a gentleman of the name of Salkeld. These deputies met on a day of truce, "at the Dayholme of Kershoup, where a burn divides England from Scotland, and Liddesdaill from Bew- castle." In contravention of Border law, William Armstrong of Kinmont, a renowned moss-trooper of great strength and stature, while returning home with but three or four in his company, was suddenly pursued by about two hundred of the English Borderers, who chased him for three or four miles, took him prisoner, brought him back to the deputy, and carried him in triumph to Carlisle Castle. "Such an outrageous violation of Border law" roused the wrath of the bold Buccleuch, who wrote to Lord Scrope demanding the release of the prisoner; but receiving no satisfactory reply, he " swore that he would bring Kinmont Willie out of Carlisle Castle, quick or dead, with his own hand. The threat was esteemed a mere bravado ; for the castle was strongly garrisoned and -well fortified, in the middle of a populous and hostile city, and under the command of Lord Scrope, as brave a soldier as in England. Yet Buccleuch was not intimidated. Choosing a dark tempestuous night (the 13th of April), he assembled two hundred of his bravest men at the tower of Morton, a fortalice on the debateable land, on the Water of Sark, about ten miles from Carlisle. Amongst these, the leader, whom he most relied on, was Watt Scott of Harden; but, along with him were Watt Scott of Branxholm, Watt Scott of Goldielands, Jock Elliot of the Copshaw, Sandie Armstrong;, son to Hobbie, the Laird of Mangerton, Kinmont's four sons Jock, Francie, Sandie, and Geordie Armstrong, Rob of the Langholm, and Willie Bell the Eedcloak ; all noted and daring men. . . . They passed the river Esk ; rode briskly through the Grahames' country ; forded the Eden, then swollen over its banks, and came to the brook Caday, close by Carlisle, where Buccleuch made his men dismount, arid silently led eighty of them to the foot of the wall of the base or outer court of the castle. ' ' Everything favoured them : the heavens were as black as pitch, the rain descended in torrents ; and as they raised their ladders to fix them on the cope-stone, they could hear the English sentinels challenge as they walked their rounds. To their rage and disappointment, the ladders proved too short ; but finding a postern in the wall, they undermined it, and soon made a breach enough for a soldier to squeeze through. In this way a dozen stout fellows passed into the outer court (Buccleuch himself being the fifth man who entered), BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. disarmed and bound the watch, wrenched open the postern from the inside, and thus admitting their companions, were masters of the place " Lord Scrope, believing, as he afterwards wrote to Burghley, that five hundred Scots were in possession of the castle, kept himself close within his chamber. Kinmont Will himself, as he was carried on his friends' shoulders beneath the warden's window, roared out a lusty 'Good-night ' to his lordship; and in a wonderfully brief space, Buccleuch had effected his purpose, joined his men on the Caday, remounted his troopers, forded once more the Esk and the Eden, and, bearing his rescued favourite in the middle of his little band, regained the Scottish Border before sunrise." Tytler's History of Scotland, 1596.*] " The Queen of England, having notice sent her of what was done, stormed not a little. [But] this affair of Kinmont Willie was not the only occasion upon which the undaunted keeper of Liddesdale gave offence to the haughty Elizabeth. For even before this business was settled, certain of the English Borderers having invaded Liddesdale, and wasted the country, the Laird of Buccleuch retaliated the injury by a raid into England, in which he not only brought off much spoil, but apprehended thirty-six of the Tynedale thieves, all of whom he put to death. Spottiswoode, p. 450. How highly the Queen of England's resentment blazed on this occasion, may be judged from the preface to her letter to Bowes, then her ambassador in Scotland. ' I wonder how base-minded that king thinks me, that, with patience, I can digest this dishonourable .... Let him know, therefore, that I will have satisfaction, or else ' These broken words of ire are inserted betwixt the subscription and the address of the letter. Rymer, vol. xvi., p. 318. Indeed, so deadly was the resentment of the English, on account of the affronts put upon them by this formid- able chieftain, that there seems at one time to have been a plan formed (not, as was alleged, without Elizabeth's privity) to assassinate Buccleuch. Rymer, vol. xvi., p. 107. The matter was at length arranged by the commissioners of both nations in Berwick, by whom it was agreed that delinquents should be delivered up on both sides, and that the chiefs themselves should enter into ward in the opposite countries till these were given up, and pledges granted for the future maintenance of the qiii&t of the Borders. Buccleuch and Sir Robert Ker of Cessford (ancestor of the Duke of Roxburghe) appear to have struggled hard against complying with this regulation ; so much so, that it required all James's authority to bring to order these two powerful chiefs Rymer, vol. xvi, p. 322; Spottiswoode, p. 448; Carey's Memoirs, p. 131, et sequen. * [The account of this gallant achievement, contained in Tytler, is here substituted in place of that in Scott's Minttrelsy, where it is given from "a manuscript of the period, the property of Mr. Campbell, of Shawfleld, which gives a minute detail of this celebrated exploit. The MS. [which] contains many curious articles relating to the Highlands and Borders, arranged in a miscellaneous order; appearfs] to have been a collection made for the purpose of assisting Archbishop Spottiswoode in compiling his work." It is headed: "Relation of the maner of surprizeing of the castell of Cairlell, by the Lord of Buccleugh, in ;he later end of Q. Elizabeth's Reigne. (Anno 1596.) " The subsequent information h-is been selected from the latter portion of Scott's introduction to this ballad.] KINMONT WILLIE. 557 "According to ancient family tradition, Buccleuch was presented to Elizabeth, who, with her usual rough and peremptory address, demanded of him, ' How he dared to undertake an enterprise so desperate and presumptuous?' 'What is it,' answered the un- daunted chieftain |what is it that a man dares not do?' Elizabeth, struck with the reply, turned to a lord in waiting; 'With ten thousand such men,' said she, ' our brother of Scotland might shake the firmest throne of Europe.' Luckily, perhaps, for the murderess of Queen Mary, James's talents did not lie that way. "The articles, settled by the commissioners at Berwick, were highly favourable to the peace of the Border. They may be seen at large, in the Border Laws, p. 103. By article sixth, all wardens and keepers are discharged from seeking reparation of injuries, in the ancient hostile mode of riding, or causing to ride, in warlike manner against the opposite March, and that under the highest penalty, unless authorized by a warrant under the hand of their sovereign. The mention of the word keeper, alludes obviously to the above-mentioned reprisals, made by Buccleuch, in the capacity of keeper of Liddesdale. " Scott of Satchells, in the extraordinary poetical performance, which he has been pleased to entitle 'A History of the Name of Scott' (published 1688), dwells, with great pleasure, upon this gallant achievement, at which, it would seem, his father had been present. He also mentions, that the Laird of Buccleuch employed the services of the younger sons and brothers only of his clan, lest the name should have been weakened by the landed men incurring forfeiture. But he adds, that three gentlemen of estate insisted upon attending their chief, notwithstanding this prohibition. These were, the Lairds of Harden and Commonside, and Sir Gilbert Elliot of the Stobbs, a relation of the Laird of Buccleuch, and ancestor to the present Sir William Elliot, Bart. In many things Satchells agrees with the ballads current in his time, from which, in all probability, he derived most of his information as to past events, and from which he sometimes pirates whole verses, as noticed in the annotations upon the ' Kaid of the Reidswire.' In the present instance, he mentions the prisoner's large spurs (alluding to the fetters), and some other little incidents noticed in the ballad, which were therefore, probably, well known in his days. "All contemporary historians unite in extolling the deed itself as the most daring and well-conducted achievement of that age. ' Audax /acinus, cum modica manu, in urbe mcenibus e.t multitudine oppidanorum munita, et callidse audaciae, vix ullo obsisti modo potuit.' Johnstoni Historia, ed. Amstael., p. 214. Birrel, in his gossiping way, says, the exploit was performed 'with shouting and crying, and sound of trumpet, puttand the said toun and countrie in sic ane fray, that the like of sic ane wassaladge was never done since the memory of man, no not in Wallace day is.' Birrel's Diary, April 6, 1596. This good old citizen of Edinburgh also mentions another incident, which I think proper to insert here, both as relating to the personages mentioned in the following ballad, and as tending to show the light in which the men of the Border were regarded, even at this late period, by their fellow-subjects. The author is talking of the king's return to Edinburgh, after the disgrace which he had sus- 558 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. tained there, during the riot excited by the seditious ministers, on December 17, 1596. Proclamation had been made, that the Earl of Mar should keep the West Port, Lord Seaton the Nether-Bow, and Buccleuch, with sundry others, the High Gate. ' Upon the morn at this time, and befoir this day, there was ane grate rumour and word among the tounes-men, that the Kinges M. sould send in Will Kinmonde, the common thieffe, and so many southlande men as sould spulyie the toun of Edinburgh. Upon the whilk, the haill merchants tuik their hail gear out of their buiths or chops, and transportit the same to the strongest hous that was in the toune, and remained in the said hous, thair, with themseltis, thair servants, and luiking for nothing bot that thaye sould have been all spulyeit. Sic lyke the hail craftsmen and commons convenit themselfis, their best guidis, as it wer ten or twelve householdes in ane, whilk wes the strongest hous, and might be best kepit from spuilyeing or burning, with hagbut, pistolet, and other sic armour, as might best defend them- seltis. Judge, gentil reader, giff this was playing. ' The fear of the Borderers being thus before the eyes of the contumacious citizens of Edinburgh, James obtained a quiet hearing for one of his favourite orisons, or harangues, and was finally enabled to prescribe terms to his fanatic metropolis. Good discipliue was, however, maintained by the chiefs upon this occasion ; although the fears of the inhabitants were but too well grounded, considering what had happened in Stirling ten years before, when the Earl of Angus, attended by Home, Buccleuch, and other Border chieftains, marched thither to remove the Earl of Arran from the king's councils: the town was miserably pillaged by the Borderers, particularly by a party of Arm- strongs, under this very Kinmont Willie, who not only made prey of horses and cattle, but even of the very iron grating of the windows. Johnstoni Historla, p. 102, ed. AmstaeL Moyse's Memoirs, p. 100. "The renown of Kinmont Willie is not surprising, since, in 1587, the apprehending that freebooter, and Robert Maxwell, natural brother to the Lord Maxwell, was the main, but unaccomplished, object of a royal expedition to Dumfries. ' Rex . . . Rombertum Max- vallium . . . et Gulielmum Armstrangum Kinmonthum latrociniis intestinis externisque famosum, conquiri jubet. Missi e ministerio regio qui per aspera loca vitabundos persequuntur, magnoque incom- modo afficiunt. At illi latebri ; aut silvis se eripiunt.' Johnstoni Hifitoria, p. 138. About this time, it is possible that Kinmont Willie may have held some connection with the Maxwells, though afterwards a retainer to Buccleuch, the enemy of that tribe. At least, the editor finds, that in a bond of manrent, granted by Simon Elliot of Whytheuch, in Liddesdale, to Lord Maxwell, styled therein Earl of Morton, dated February 28th, 1599, William Arm- strong, called Will of Kinmond, appears as a witness. Syme's MSS. According to Satchells, this freebooter was descended of Johne Arm- strong of Gilnockie (ante, p. 487) : Est in juvencis, est el in equis, patrum virtus. In fact, his rapacity made his very name proverbial. Mas James Melvine, in urging reasons against subscribing the Act of Supremacy, in 1584, asks ironically, ' Who shall take order with vice and wickedness ? The court and bishops ? As well as Martine KINMONT WILLIE. 559 Elliot, and Will of Kinmont, with stealing upon the Borders ! ' Calderwood, p. 168. "This ballad is preserved by tradition on the West Borders, but much mangled by reciters, so that some conjectured emendations have been absolutely necessary to render it intelligible. In particular, the ' Eden ' has been substituted for the Eske, the latter name being inconsistent with topography." Scott. 1 OH, have ye na heard of the fause Sakelde ? * Oh, have ye na heard of the keen Lord Scroope ? How they ha'e ta'en bauld Kinmont Willie, j* On Haribee to hang him up ? J 2 Had Willie had but twenty men, But twenty men as stout as he, Fause Sakelde had never the Kinmont ta'en, With eight score in his companie. 3 They band his legs beneath the steed, They tied his hands behind his back ; They guarded him, fivesome on each side, And they brought him o'er the Liddel-rack. 4 They led him thro' the Liddel-rack, And also thro' the Carlisle sands ; They brought him to Carlisle castell, To be at my Lord Scroope's commands. 5 " My hands are tied, but my tongue is free, And wha will dare this deed avow ? Or answer by the Border law ? Or answer to the bauld Buccleuch?" 6 " Now baud thy tongue, thou rank reiver ! There 's never a Scot shall set thee free ; Before ye cross my castle yate, I trow ye shall take farewell of me." * The Salkeldes, or Sakeldes, were a powerful family in Cumberland, possessing, among other manors, that of Corby, before it came into the possession of the Howards, in the beginning of the seventeenth century. A strange stratagem was practised by an outlaw, called Jock Graeme of the Peartree, upon Mr. Salkelde, Sheriff of Cumberland, who is probably the person alluded to in the ballad, as the fact is stated to have happened late in Elizabeth's time. The brother of this freebooter was lying in Carlisle jail for execution, when Jock of the Peartree came riding past the gate of Corby Castle. A child of the sheriff was playing before the door, to whom the outlaw gave an apple, saying, "Master, will you ride?" The boy willingly consenting, Greeme took him up before him, carried him into Scotland, and would never part with him, till he had his brother safe from the gallows. There is no historical ground for supposing, either that Salkelde, or any one else, lost his life in the raid of Carlisle. t In the list of Border clans, 1597, Will of Kinmonth, with Krystie Armestrange, and John Skynbanke, are mentioned as leaders of a baud of Armstrongs called Sandies Barnes, inhabiting the Debateable Land. t Haribee is the place of execution at Carlisle. 5 The Liddel-rack is a ford on the Liddel. SCO BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 7 " Fear na ye that, my lord," quo' Willie " By the faith of my body, Lord Scroope," he said, " I never yet lodged in a hostelrie," But I paid my lawing 6 before I gaed." 8 Now word is gane to the bauld Keeper, In Branksome Ha 1 , where that he lay, That Lord Scroope has ta'en the Kinmont Willie, Between the hours of night and day. 9 He has ta'en the table with his hand, He gar'd the red wine spring on hie: " Now Christ's curse on my head," he said, "But avenged of Lord Scroope I'll be! 10 " Oh, is my basnet a widow's curch? d Or my lance a wand of the willow tree? Or my arm a ladye's lily hand, That an English lord should lightly* me? 11 " And have they ta'en him, Kinmont Willie, Against the truce of Border tide ? And forgotten that the bauld Buccleuch Is Keeper here on the Scottish side ? - 12 " And have they e'en ta'en him, Kinmont Willie, Withouten either dread or fear? And forgotten that the bauld Buccleuch Can back a steed, or shake a spear ? 13 " Oh, were there war between the lands, As well I wot that there is none, I wou'd slight Carlisle castell high, Though it were builded of marble stone. 14 " I wou'd set that castell in a lowe/ And sloken it with English blood ! There 's never a man in Cumberland Shou'd ken where Carlisle castell stood. 15 " But since nae war 's between the lands, And there is peace, and peace shou'd be, I'll neither harm English lad or lass, And yet the Kinmont freed shall be ! " a " Hostelrie : " inn. <* " Curch: " coif. * u Lawing:" reckoning. "Lightly:" set light by. "Basnet:" helmet. / "Lowe:" flame. KINMONT WILLIE. 561 16 He has call'd him forty Marchmen bauld, I trow they were of his ain name, Except Sir Gilbert Elliot, call'd The Laird of Stobs, I mean the same. 17 He has call'd him forty Marchmen bauld, Were kinsmen to the bauld Buccleuch ; With spur on heel, and splent on spauld,* And gleuves of green, and feathers blue. 18 There were five and five before them all, With hunting-horns and bugles bright; And five and five came with Buccleuch, f Like warden's men, array'd for fight. 19 And five and five, like a mason gang, That carried the ladders lang and hie; And five and five, like broken men; And so they reach'd the Woodhouselee.f 20 And as we cross'd the 'Bateable land, When to the English side we held, The first of men that we met with, Wha shou'd it be but fause Sakelde! 21 " Where be ye gaun, ye hunters keen ?" Quo' fause Sakelde; "come tell to me!" " We go to hunt an English stag, Has trespass'd on the Scots cbuntrie." 22 "Where be ye gaun, ye marshal men?" Quo' fause Sakelde; "come tell me truef" " We go to catch a rank reiver, Has broken faith with the bauld Buccleuch." 23 " Where are ye gaun, ye mason lads, With all your ladders, lang and hie?" " We gang to berry a corbie's nest, That wons not far frae Woodhouselee." 24 " Where be ye gaun, ye broken men?" Quo' fause Sakelde; "come tell to me!" Now Dickie of Dryhope led that band, And the never a word of lear { had he. * ' Splent on spauld : " armour on shoulder. t " Woodhouselee : " a house on the Border, belonging to Buccleurh. t " Lear : '' learning. 2o 5G2 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 25 "Why trespass ye on the English side? Row-footed outlaws, stand! " quo' he; The never a word had Dickie to say, Sae he thrust the lance through his fause bodie. 26 Then on we held for Carlisle toun, And at Staneshaw-bank the Eden we cross'd; The water was great and meikle of spate, * But the never a horse nor man we lost. 27 And when we reached the Staneshaw-bank, The wind was rising loud and hie ; And there the laird gar'd leave our steeds, For fear that they shou'd stamp and nie. 28 And when we left the Staneshaw-bank, The wind began full loud to blaw; But 'twas wind and weet, and tire and sleet, When we came beneath the castle wa'. 29 We crept on knees, and held our breath, Till we placed the ladders against the wa', And sae ready was Buccleuch himsel' To mount the first before us a'. 80 He has ta>'en the watchman by the throat, He flung him down upon the lead- " Had there not been peace between our lands, Upon the other side thou hadst gaed ! 31 " Now sound out, trumpets !" quo' Buccleuch; " Let's waken Lord Scroope right merrilie!" Then loud the warden's trumpet blew "0 who. dare meddle wV me ?"f 32 Then speedilie to wark we gaed, And raised the slogan ane and a', And cut a hole through a sheet of lead, And so we wan to the castle ha'. 33 They thought King James and all his men Had won the house with bow and spear; It was but twenty Scots and ten, That put a thousand in sic a stear! J *" Spate:'' flood. t The name of a Border tune or slogan. t "Stear:" stir. KINMONT WILLIE. 563 34 With coulters, and with forehammers, We gar'd the bars bang merrilie, Until we came to the inner prison, Where Willie o' Kinmont he did lie, 35 And when we came to the lower prison, Where Willie o' Kinmont he did lie : " Oh, sleep ye, wake ye, Kinmont Willie, Upon the morn that thou's to die?" 36 " Oh, I sleep saft, and I wake aft; It's lang since sleeping was fley'd* frae me! Gi'e my service back to my wife and bairns, And all gude fellows that speir for me." 37 Then Red Rowan has hente him up, The starkest man in Teviotdale : " Abide, abide now, Red Rowan, Till of my Lord Scroope I take farewell. 38 " Farewell, farewell, my gude Lord Scroope! My gude Lord Scroope, farewell!" he cried; " I'll pay you for my lodging maill, d When first we meet on the Border side." 39 Then shoulder high, with shout and cry, We bore him down the ladder lang; At every stride Red Rowan made, I wot the Kinmont's aims play'd clang ! 40 " Oh, mony a time," quo' Kinmont Willie, "I have ridden horse baith wild and wud; But a rougher beast than Red Rowan, I ween my legs have ne'er bestrode. 41 " And mony a time," quo' Kinmont Willie, " I've prick'd a horse out o'er the furs; 8 But since the day I back'd a steed, I never wore sic cumbrous spurs!"-'' < ' Safe : " light a " Maill : " rent. * "Fley'd:" frightened. e "Furs: " furrows. c " Speir:" inquire. / [In many of the recitals, is a mixture of rough humour, which like the char- acterizing touches of Hogarth's pencil, gives an animation often attempted in vain by more polished writers. Of this, the ballad of " Kinmont Willie " affords many examples, especially where he is borne out of prison in irons on the shoulders of Bed Itowan, the btarkest man in Teviotdale. Edin. Review, Jan., 1803.] 5G4 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 42 We scarce had won the Staneshaw-bank, When all the Carlisle bells were rung, And a thousand men, on horse and foot, Came with the keen Lord Scroope along. 43 Buccleuch has turn'd to Eden Water, Even where it flowed frae bank to brim, And he has plunged in with all his band, And safely swam them through the stream. 44 He turn'd him on the other side, And at Lord Scroope his glove flung he: " If ye like na my visit in merry England, In fair Scotland come visit me!" 45 All sore astonish'd stood Lord Scroope, He stood as still as rock of stane ; He scarcely dared to trew his eyes, When through the water they had gane. 46 " He is either himsel' a devil frae hell, Or else his mother a witch maun be; I wou'dna have ridden that wan water For all the gowd in Christentie." JAMIE TELFER OF THE FAIR DODHEAD. From Scott's Minstrelsy, vol. ii., p. 3. " There is another ballad, under the same title as the following, in which nearly the same incidents are narrated, with little difference, except that the honour of rescuing the cattle is 'attributed to the Liddesdale Elliots, headed by a Chief, there called Martin Elliot of the Preakin Tower, whose son, Simon, is said to have fallen in the action. It is very possible that both the Teviotdale Scotts, and the Elliots, were engaged in the affair, and that each claimed the honour of the victory. "The editor presumes, that the Willie Scott, here mentioned, must have been a natural son of the Laird of Buccleuch." Scott. 1 IT fell about the Martinmas tyde, When our Border steeds get corn and hay, The Captain of Bewcastle hath bound him to ryde, And he 's o'er to Tividale to drive a prey. 2 The first ae guide that they met with, It was high up in Hardhaughswire; * The second guide that they met with, It was laigh down in Borthwick Water, f * Hardhaughswire is the pass from Liddesdale to the head of Teviotdale. t Borthwick Water is a stream which falls into the Teviot three miles above Ha wick. JAMIE TELFER OF THE FAIR DODHEAD. 565 3 " What tidings, what tidings, my trusty guide?" " Nae tidings, nae tidings I ha'e to thee; But gin ye'll gae to the fair Dodhead, Mony a cow's calf I'll let thee see." 4 And when they came to the fair Dodhead, Eight hastily they clamb the peel; They loosed the kye out, ane and all, And ranshackled* the house right weel. 5 Now Jamie Telfer's heart was sair," The tear aye rowing in his e'e; He pled with the Captain to ha'e his gear, Or else revenged he wou'd be. 6 The Captain turned him round and leugh ; Said " Man, there 's naething in thy house, But ae auld sword without a sheath, That hardly now would fell a mouse." 7 The sun wasna up, but the moon was down, It was the gryming d of a new-fa'n snaw ; Jamie Telfer has run ten miles a-foot, Between the Dodhead and the Stobs's Ha'.* 8 And when he came to the fair tower yate, He shouted loud, and cried weel " Hie ! " Till out bespak auld Gibby Elliot, " Wha's this that brings the fraye to me?" 9 " It 's I, Jamie Telfer of the fair Dodhead, And a harried man I think I be ! There 's naethiug left at the fair Dodhead, But a waefu' wife and bairnies three." 10 " Gae seek your succour at Branksome Ha'/ For succour ye'se get nane frae me ! Gae seek your succour where ye paid black-mail, For, man, ye ne'er paid money to me." 11 Jamie has turned him round about, I wat the tear blinded his e'e : " I'll ne'er pay mail to Elliot again, And the fair Dodhead I'll never see ! a The Dodhead, in Selkirkshire, near Singler, where there are still the vestiges of an old tower. * " Eanshackled : " ransacked. " There is still a family of Telfers, residing near Langholm, who pretend to derive their descent from the Telfers of the Dodhead. d " Gryming:" sprinkling. Stobs Hall, upon Slitterick. Jamie Telfer made his first application here, because he seems to have paid the proprietor of the castle black-mail, or protection-money. / The ancient family-seat of the Lairds of Buccleuch, near Hawick. 566 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 12 " My hounds may all rin masterless, My hawks may fly frae tree to tree, My lord may grip my vassal lands, For there again maun I never be!" 13 He has turn'd him to the Tiviot side, E'en as fast as he cou'd drie, Till he came to the Coultart Cleugh,* And there he shouted baith loud and hie. 14 Then up bespak' him auld Jock Grieve, " Wha 's this that brings the fraye to me ! " " It 's I, Jamie Telfer of the fair Dodhead, A harried man I trow I be. 15 " There 's naething left in the fair Dodhead, But a greeting wife and bairnies three ; And sax poor calfs stand in the stall, All routing loud for their minnie." f 16 " Alack a wae ! " quo' auld Jock Grieve, " Alack ! my heart is sair for thee ! For I was married on the elder sister, And you on the youngest of all the three." 17 Then he has ta'en out a bonnie black, Was right weel fed with corn and hay, And he 's set Jamie Telfer on his back, To the Catslockhill to tak' the fraye. 18 And when he came to the Catslockhill, He shouted loud, and cried weel " Hie ! " Till out and spak' him William's Wat, " Oh, wha 's this brings the fraye to me ? " 19 " It 's I, Jamie Telfer of the fair Dodhead, A harried man I think I be ! The Captain of Bewcastle has driven my gear; For God's sake rise, and succour me 1 " 20 " Alas for wae ! " quoth William's Wat, " Alack, for thee my heart is sair ! I never came by the fair Dodhead, That ever I fand thy basket bare." 21 He 's set his twa sons on coal-black steeds, Himsel' upon a freckled gray, And they are on with Jamie Telfer, To Branksome Ha' to tak' the fraye. * The Coultart Cleugh is nearly opposite to Carlinrig, on the road between Hawick and Mosspaul. t "Minnie:" mother. JAMIE TELFER OF THE FAIR DODHEAD. 567 22 And when they came to Branksome Ha', They shouted all baith loud and hie, Till up and spak' him auld Buccleuch, Said" Wha 's this brings the fraye to me ? " 23 " It 's I, Jamie Telfer of the fair Dodhead, And a harried man I think I be ! There 's naught left in the fair Dodhead, But a greeting wife and bairnies three." 2-A " Alack for wae ! " quoth the gude auld lord, " And ever my heart is wae for thee ! But fye, gar cry on Willie, my son, And see that he come to me speedilie ! 25 " Gar warn the water,* braid and wide, Gar warn it sune and hastilie ! They that winna ride for Telfer's kye, Let them never look in the face of me 1 2G " Warn Wat o' Harden, and his sons,f With them will Borthwick Water ride; Warn Gaudilands, and Allanhaugh, And Gilmanscleugh, and Commonside. 27 "Ride by the gate of Priesthaughswire, J And warn the Currors o' the Lea; As ye come down the Hermitage Slack, Warn doughty Willie o' Gorrinberry." 28 The Scotts they rade, the Scotts they ran, Sae starkly and sae steadilie ! And aye the ower-word o' the thrang Was " Rise for Branksome readilie ! " 29 The gear was driven the Frostylee up, Frae the Frostylee unto the plain, When Willie has look'd his men before, And saw the kye right fast drivan'. * The water, in the mountainous districts of Scotland, is often used to express the banks of the river, which are the only inhabitable parts of the country. To raise the water, therefore, was to alarm those who lived along its side. t The estates, mentioned in this verse, belonged to families of the name of Scott, residing upon the waters of Borthwick and Teviot, near the castle of their chief. J The pursuers seem to have taken the road through the hills of Liddesdale. in order to collect forces, and intercept the forayers at the passage of the Liddel, on their return to Bewcastle. The Ritterford and Kershope ford, after-mentioned, tire noted fords on the river Liddel. 5 The Frostylee is a brook which joins the Teviot near Mosspaul. 5G8 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 30 " Wlia drives thir kye ? " 'gan Willie say, " To make an outspeckle * of me ? " " It 's I, the Captain o' Bewcastle, Willie, I winna layne my name for thee." 31 " Oh, will ye let Telfer's kye gae back ? Or will ye do aught for regard of me V Or by the faith of my body," quo' Willie Scott, " I'se ware my dame's calf-skin on thee ! " 32 " I winna let the kye gae back, Neither for thy love, nor yet thy fear; But I will drive Jamie Telfer's kye, In spite of every Scott that's here." 33 " Set on them, lads ! " quo' Willie then; " Fye, lads, set on them cruellie ! For ere they win to the Kitterford, Mony a toom f saddle there shall be ! " 34 Then til't they gaed, with heart and hand, The blows fell fast as bickering hail ; And mony a horse ran masterless, And mony a comely cheek was pale. 35 But Willie was stricken o'er the head, And thro' the knapcap J the sword has gane; And Harden grat for very rage, When Willie on the grund lay slain. * "Outspeckle:" laughing-stock. t "Toom:" empty. t "Knapcap:" headpiece. Of this Border laird, commonly called Auld Wat of Harden, tradition has pre- served many anecdotes. He was married to Mary Scott, celebrated in song by the title of the Flower of Yarrow. By their marriage-contract, the father-in-law, Philip Scott of Dryhope, was to find Harden in horse meat, and man's meat, at his Tower of Dryhope, for a year and a day; but five barons pledge themselves that, at the expiry of that period, the son-in-law should remove, without attempting to continue in possession by force! A notary-public signed for all the parties to the deed, none of whom could write their names. The original is still in the charter-room of the present Mr. Scott of Harden. By the Flower of Yarrow the Laird of Harden had six sons; five of whom survived him, and founded the families of Harden (now extinct), Highchesters (now representing Harden), Keaburn, Wool, and Synton. The sixth son was slam at a fray, in a hunting-match, by the Scotts of Gilmans- cleugh. His brothers flew to arms ; but the old laird secured them in the dungeon of his tower, hurried to Edinburgh, stated the crime, and obtained a gift of the lands of the offenders from the Crown. He returned to Harden with equal speed, released his sons, and showed them the charter. " To horse, lads ! " cried the savage warrior, " and let us take possession ! The lands of Gilmanscleugh are well worth a dead son." The property thus obtained, continued in the family till the beginning of last century, when it was sold, by John Scott of Harden, to Ann, Duchess of Buccleuch. A beautiful ballad, founded on this tradition, occurs in the Mountain Bard, a collec- tion of legendary poetry by Mr. James Hogg. JAMIE TELFER OF THE FAIR DODHEAD. 569 36 But he 's ta'en aff his gude steel cap, And thrice he 's waved it in the air ; The Dinlay * snaw was ne'er mair white Nor the lyart locks of Harden's hair. 37 " Revenge ! revenge ! " auld Wat 'gan cry; " Fye, lads, lay on them cruellie ! We'll ne'er see Teviotside again, Or Willie's death reveng'd shall be."f 38 Oh, mony a horse ran masterless, The splinter'd lances flew on hie; But or they wan to the Kershope ford, The Scotts had gotten the victory. 39 John o' Brigham there was slain, J And John of Barlow, as I heard say; And thirty mae of the Captain's men Lay bleeding on the grund that day. 40 The Captain was run through the thick of the thigh, And broken was his right leg bane ; If he had lived this hundred years, He had never been loved by woman again. 41 " Ha'e back the kye ! " the Captain said; " Dear kye, I trow, to some they be ! For if I shou'd live a hundred years, There will ne'er fair ladye smile on me." 42 Then word is gone to the Captain's bride, Even in the bow'r where that she lay, That her lord was prisoner in enemy's land, Since into Tividale he had led the way. 43 " I wad lourd have had a winding-sheet, And help'd to put it o'er his head, Ere he had been disgraced by the Border Scott, When he o'er Liddel his men did lead ! " * The Dinlay is a mountain in Liddesdale. t [" Nothing can be more striking than the picture of old Harden, in the flght for Jamie Telfer's cattle." Edinburgh Review.] J Perhaps one of the ancient family of Brougham, in Cumberland. The editor has used some freedom with the original in the subsequent verse. The account of the Captain's disaster (teste lieva vulnerata) is rather too naive for literal publication. "Lourd:" liefer; rather. 570 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 44 There was a wild gallant amang us all, His name was Watty with the Wudspurs,* Cried " On for his house in Stanegirthside.'f If ony man will ride with us ! " 45 When they came to the Stanegirthside, They dang with trees, and burst the door; They loosed out all the Captain's kye, And set them forth our lads before. 46 There was an auld wife ayont the fire, A wee bit of the Captain's kin : " Wha dare loose out the Captain's kye, Or answer to him and his men? " 47 " It 's I, Watty Wudspurs, loose the kye, I winna layne my name frae thee ! And I will loose out the Captain's kye, In scorn of all his men and he." 48 When they came to the fair Dodhead, They were a welcome sight to see ! For instead of his ain ten milk kye, Jamie Telfer has gotten thirty and three. 49 And he has paid the rescue shot, Baith with gowd and white monie ; And at the burial of Willie Scott, I wat was mony a weeping e'e.J DICK 0' THE COW. " This ballad, and the two which immediately follow it in the collection, were first published, 1784, in the Hawick Museum, a provincial miscellany, to which they were communicated by John Elliot, Esq. of Eeiclheugh, a gentleman well skilled in the antiquities of the Western Border, and to whose friendly assistance the editor is indebted for many valuable communications. * " Wudepurs:" hotspur, ormadspur. t A house belonging to the Foresters, situated on the English side of the Liddel. % An article in the list of attempts upon England, fouled by the Commissioners at I orwick, in the year 1587, may relate to the subject of the foregoing ballad. October, 1582. Thomas Musgrave, deputy) Walter Scott, Laird of) OQA j, me an( j oxen 300 of Bewcastle, and the ten- v Buckluth, and his com- [ {t and saeep cnts, against ) plices; for ) Introduction to the Ilidory of Westmoreland and Cumberland, p. 41. DICK 0' THE COW. 571 " These ballads are connected with each other, and appear to have been composed by the same author. The actors seem to have nourished while Thomas Lord Scroope, of Bolton, was Warden of the West Marches of England, and Governor of Carlisle Castle; which offices he acquired upon the death of his father, about 1590, and retained till the union of the crowns. "Dick of the Cow, from the privileged insolence which he assumes, seems to have been Lord Scroope's jester. The Border custom of assuming nommes de guerre is exemplified in the follow- ing ballad, where one Armstrong is called the Laird's Jock (i. e., the Laird's son Jock), another fair Johnnie, a third Billie Willie (brother Willie), &c. The Laird's Jock, son to the Laird of Manger- toun, appears, as one of the men of name in Liddesdale, in the list of the Border clans, 1597. " Dick of the Cow is erroneously supposed to have been the same with one Ricardus Coldall, de Plumpton, a knight and celebrated warrior, who died in 1462, as appears from his epitaph in the church of Penrith Nicholson's History of Westmoreland and Cumberland, voL ii., p. 408. " This ballad is very popular in Liddesdale, and the reciter always adds, at the conclusion, that poor Dickie's cautious removal to Burgh tinder Stanemore, did not save him from the clutches of the Arm- strongs : for that, having fallen into their power several years after this exploit, he was put to an inhuman death. The ballad was well known in England so early as 1596. An allusion to it occurs in Parrot's Laquei- Ridiculosi, or Springes for Woodcocks. London, 1613. ' Owenus wondreth since he came to Wales, What the description of this isle should be, That nere had seen but mountains, hills and dales, Yet would he boast, and stand on pedigree, From Kice ap Kichard, sprung from Dick a Cow, Be cod, was right gud gentleman, look ye now ! ' Epigr. 76.' Scott's Minstrelsy, vol. ii., p. 61. [Elsewhere, Scott writes: "In the sixteenth century, these Northern tales appear to have been popular even in London ; for the learned Mr. Ritson has obligingly pointed out to me the follow- ing passages, respecting the noted ballad of 'Dick o' the Cow :' 'Dick o' the Cow, that mad demi-lance Northern Borderer, who plaid his prizes with the Lord Jockey so bravely.' Nashe's Have with you to Saffren Walden, or Gabriel Harvey's Hunt is up, 1596, 4to. Epistle Dedicatorie, sig. A.2.6. And in a list of books, printed for, and sold by, P. Brocksby (1668), occurs ' Dick-a-the-Cow, containing North Country Songs.' Could this collection have been found, it would probably have thrown much light on the present publication." Minstrelsy, Introduction, vol. i, p. 222.] 1 Now Liddesdale has layen lang in, There is na ryding there at all; The horses are all grown sae lither fat, They downa stir out of the stall. BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 2 Fair Johnnie Armstrong to Willie did say, " Billie, a-riding we will gae ; England and us have been lang at feid; Aiblins we'll light on some bootie." 3 Then they are come on to Hutton Ha'; They rade that proper place about: But the laird he was the wiser man, For he had left nae gear without. 4 For he had left nae gear to steal, Except sax sheep upon a lea: Quo' Johnnie " I'd rather in England dee, Ere thir sax sheep gae to Liddesdale with mo. 5 . " But how call they the man we last met, Billie, as we came o'er the knowe? " " That same he is an innocent fule, And men they call him Dick o' the Cow." 6 " That fule has three as good kye of his ain As there are in all Cumberland, Billie," quo' he: " Betide me life, betide me death, These kye shall go to Liddesdale with me." 7 Then they have come to the puir fule's house, And they ha'e broken his walls sae wide; They have loosed out Dick o' the Cow's three kye, And ta'en three coverlets frae his wife's bed. 8 Then on the morn, when the day was light, The shouts and cries raise loud and hie : " Oh, haud thy tongue, my wife," he says, " And of thy crying l&t me be! 9 " Oh, haud thy tongue, my wife," he says, " And of thy crying let me be; And aye, where thou hast lost ae cow, In gude sooth I shall bring thee three." 10 Now Dickie 's gane to the gude Lord Scroope, And I wat a drearie fule was he : " Now haud thy tongue, my fule," he says, " For I may not stand to jest with thee." 11 " Shame fall your jesting, my lord!" quo' Dickie, " For nae sic jesting 'grees with me; Liddesdale 's been in my house last night, And they ha'e awa my three kye frae me. DICK 0' THE COW. 573 12 " But I may nae longer in Cumberland dwell, To be your puir fule and your leal, Unless you gi'e me leave, my lord, To gae to Liddesdale and steal." 13 "I gi'e thee leave, my fule! " he says; " Thou speakest against my honour and me, Unless thou gi'e me thy trowth and thy hand, Thou'lt steal frae nane but wha stole frae thee." 14 " There is my trowth, and my right hand ! My head shall hang on Hairibee, I'll ne'er cross Carlisle sands again, If I steal frae a man but wha stole frae me." 15 Dickie 's ta'en leave of lord and master; I wat a merry fule was he! He 's bought a bridle and a pair of new spurs, And pack'd them up in his breek thie.* 16 Then Dickie 's come on to Pudding-burn house,t E'en as fast as he might dree ; J Then Dickie 's come on to Pudding-burn, Where there were thirty Armstrangs and three. 17 "Oh, what's this come of me now?" quo' Dickie; " What meikle wae is this ? " quo' he; " For here is but ae innocent fule, And there are thirty Armstrangs and three." 18 Yet he has come up to the fair hall board ; Sae well he 's become his courtesie ! " Well may ye be, my gude laird's Jock, But the deil bless all your companie. 19 " I'm come to 'plain of your man, fair Johnnie Armstrang, And syne of his billie Willie," quo' he; " How they've been in my house last night, And they ha'e ta'en my three kye frae me." 20 " Ha ! " quo' fair Johnnie Armstrang, " we will him hang." " Na," quo' Willie, " we will him slay." Then up and spake another young Armstrang, " We'll gi'e him his batts, and let him gae." * " Breek thie : " the side pocket of his breeches. t This was a house of strength held by the Armstrongs. The rnins at present form a sheepfold on the farm of Keidsmoes, belonging to the Duke of Buccleuch. t " Dree: " t. e., endure. "Gi'e him his batts, and let him gae: " dismiss him with a beating. 574 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 21 But up and spake the gude laird's Jock, The best falla in all the companie : " Sit down thy ways a little while, Dickie, And a piece of thy ain cow's hough I'll gi'e ye." 22 But Dickie's heart it grew sae grit, That the ne'er a bit o't he dought to eat ; Then he was aware of an auld peat-house, Where all the night he thought for to sleep. 23 Then Dickie was aware of an auld peat-house, Where all the night he thought for to lye ; And all the prayers the puir fule prayed, Were "I wish I had amends for my gude three kye!" 24 It was then the use of Pudding-burn house, And the house of Mangerton,* all hail, Them that came na at the first call, Gat nae mair meat till the neist meal. 25 The lads, that hungry and weary were, Abune the door-head they threw the key; Dickie he took gude notice of that ; Says " There will be a bootie for me." 26 Then Dickie has into the stable gane, Where there stood thirty horses and three ; He has tied them all with St. Mary's knot, All these horses but barely three. f 27 He has tied them all with St. Mary's knot, All these horses but barely three ; He 's loupen on ane, ta'en another in hand, And away as fast as he can hie. 28 But on the morn, when the day grew light, The shouts and cries rose loud and hie ; " Ah ! wha has done this ? " quo' the gude laird's Jock, Tell me the truth and the veritie! 29 " Wha has done this deed?" quo' the gude laird's Jock; " See that to me ye dinna lie ! " ' Dickie has been in the stable last night. And has ta'en my brother's horse and mine frae me." * The Laird of Hangerton was chief of the clan Armstrong. f Hamstringing a horse is termed, in the Border dialect, tying him with St. Mary's knot. Dickie used this cruel expedient to prevent a pursuit. It appears from the narration, that the horses left unhurt belonged to fair Johnnie Armstrang, his brother Willie, and the laird's Jock; of which Dickie carried off two, and left that of the laird's Jock, probably out of gratitude for the protection he had afforded him on his arrival. DICK 0' THE COW. 575 30 "Ye wou'd ne'er be tauld," quo' the gude laird's Jock; " Ha'e ye Dot found my tales fu' leal? Ye ne'er wou'd out of England bide, Till crooked, and blind, and all wou'd steal." 31 u But lend me- thy bay," fair Johnnie 'gan say; " There 's nae horse loose in the stable save he; And I'll either fetch Dick o' the Cow again, Or the day is come that he shall dee." 32 " To lend thee my bay !" the laird's Jock 'gan say; " He 's baith worth gowd and gude monie : Dick o' the Cow has awa twa horse, I wish na thou may make him three." 33 He has ta'en the laird's jack on his back, A twa-handed sword to hang by his thie ; He has ta'en a steel cap on his head, And galloped on to follow Dickie. 34 Dickie was na a mile frae aff the town, I wat a mile but barely three, When he was o'erta'en by fair Johnnie Arrnstrang, Hand for hand, on Cannobie lee.* 35 " Abide, abide, thou traitor thief! The day is come that thou maun dee." Then Dickie look't o'er his left shouther, Said " Johnnie, hast thou nae mae in companie? 36 " There is a preacher in our chapell, And all the live-lang day teaches he : When day is gane, and night is come, There 's ne'er a word I mark but three. 87 " The first and second is Faith and Conscience ; The third Ne'er let a traitor free ; But, Johnnie, what faith and conscience was thine, When thou took awa my three kye frae me ? 38 " And when thou had ta'en awa my three kye, Thou thought in thy heart thou wast not weel sped, Till thou sent thy billie Willie o'er the knowe, To take three coverlets off my wife's bed ! " 39 Then Johnnie let a spear fall laigh by his thie, Thought weel to ha'e slain the innocent, I trow; But the powers above were mair than he, For he ran but the puir fule's jerkin through. * A rising ground on Cannobie, on the Borders of Liddesdale. 676 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 40 Together they ran, or ever they blan: * This was Dickie the fule and he! Dickie cou'd na win at him with the blade of the sword, But fell'd him with the plummet under the e'e. 41 Thus Dickie has fell'd fair Johnnie Armstrang, The prettiest man in the south country : "Gramercy!" then 'gan Dickie say, " I had but twa horse, thou hast made me three !" 42 He 's ta'en the steel jack aff Johnnie's back, The twa-handed sword that Imng low by his thie ; He 's ta'en the steel cap aff his head, "Johnnie, I'll tell my master I met with thee." 43 When Johnnie wakened out of his dream, I wat a drearie man was he : " And is thou gane ? Now, Dickie, then The shame and dule is left with me. 44 " And is thou gane ? Now, Dickie, then The deil gae in thy companie! For if I shou'd live these hundred years, I ne'er shall fight with a fule after thee." 45 Then Dickie 's come hame to the gude Lord Scroope, E'en as fast as he might hie : " Now, Dickie, I'll neither eat nor drink, Till hie hanged thou shalt be." 46 " The shame speed the liars, my lord !" quo' Dickie; " This was na the promise ye made to me ! For I'd ne'er gang to Liddesdale to steal, Had I not got my leave frae thee." 47 " But what gar'd thee steal the laird's Jock's horse? And, limmer, what gar'd ye steal him?" quo' he; " For lang thou mightst in Cumberland dwelt, Ere the laird's Jock had stolen frae thee." f t The commendation of the laird's Jock's honesty Beems but indifferently founded; appears at the instance of one Andrew Eutlege of the Nook, against the laird's Jock and his accomplices, for fifty kine and oxen, besides furniture to the amount "They spuilye puir men of their pakis. They leif them nocht on bed nor bakis ; Baith hen and cok, With reil and rok, The lairdis Jock, All with him takis." DICK 0' THE COW. 577 48 " Indeed, I wat ye lied, my lord ! And e'en sae loud as I hear ye lie ! I wan the horse frae fair Johnnie Armstrang, Hand to hand, on Cannobie lee. 49 " There is the jack was on his back ; This twa-handed sword hung laigh by his thie ; And there's the steel cap was on his head; I brought all these tokens to let thee see." 50 " If that be true thou to me tells (And I think thou dares na tell a lie), I'll gi'e thee fifteen punds for the horse, Weel tauld on thy cloak lap shall be. 51 " I'll gi'e thee ane of my best milk kye, To maintain thy wife and children three ; And that may be as gude, I think, As ony twa of thine wou'd be." 52 " The shame speed the liars, my lord ! " quo' Dickie; " Trow ye aye to make a fule of me ? I'll either ha'e twenty punds for the gude horse, Or he 's gae to Morton fair with me." 53 He 's gi'en him twenty punds for the gude horse, All in gowd and gude monie; He 's gi'en him ane of his best milk kye, To maintain his wife and children three. 54 Then Dickie 's come down thro' Carlisle toun, E'en as fast as he cou'd drie ; The first of men that he met with Was my lord's brother, Bailiff Glozenburrie. 55 " Weel be ye met, my gude Ralph Scroope ! " " Welcome, my brother's fule ! " quo' he : "Where didst thou get fair Johnnie Armstrang's horse? " " Where did I get him, but steal him," quo' he. Those who plundered Dick had been bred up under an expert teacher. Tradition reports that the laird's Jock survived to extreme old age, when he died in the following extraordinary manner. A challenge had been given by an Englishman, named Forster, to any Scottish Borderer, to fight him at a place called Kershopefoot, exactly upon the Borders. The laird's Jock's only son accepted the defiance, and was armed by his father with his own two-handed sword. The old champion himself, though bedridden, insisted upon being present at the battle. He was borne to the place appointed, wrapped, it is said, in blankets, and placed upon a very high stone to witness the conflict. In the duel his son fell, treacherously slain, as the Scottish tradition affirms. The old man gave a loud yell of terror and despair when he saw him slain, and his noble weapon won by an Englishman, and died as they bore him home. A venerable Border poet (though of these latter days) hns com- posed a poem on this romantic incident. The stone on which the laird's Jock sat to behold the duel was in existence till wantonly destroyed a year or two since. It was always called THE LAIKD'S JOCK'S STONE, 1802. 2p 578 BALLAD SIIXSTEELST OF SCOTLAND. 56 " But wilt thou sell me the bonuie horse ? And, billie, wilt thou sell him to me?" quo' he: " Ay; if thou'lt tell me the monie on my cloak lap ; For there's never ae penny I'll trust thee." 57 " I'll gi'e thee ten punds for the gucle horse, Weel tauld on thy cloak lap they shall be ; And I'll gi'e thee ane of the best milk kye, To maintain thy wife and children three." 58 "The shame speed the liars, my lord!" quo' Dickie; " Trow ye aye to make a fule of me ! I'll either ha'e twenty punds for the gude horse, Or he 's gae to Morton fair with me." 59 He 's gi'en him twenty punds for the gude horse, Baith in gowd and gude monie; He 's gi'en him ane of his milk kye, To maintain his wife and children three. 60 Then Dickie lap a loup full hie, And I wat a loud laugh laughed he : " I wish the neck of the third horse was broken, If ony of the twa were better than he ! " 61 Then Dickie 's come hame to his wife again; Judge ye how the puir fule had sped ! He has gi'en her twa score English punds, For the three auld coverlets ta'en aff her bed. 62 " And take thee these twa as gude kye, I trow, as all thy three might be ; And yet here is a white-footed nagie, I trow he'll carry baith thee and me. 63 " But I may nae langer in Cumberland bide; The Armstrangs they wou'd hang me hie." So Dickie 's ta'en leave of lord and master, And at Burgh-under-Stanmuir there dwells he. JOCK 0' THE SIDE. "The subject of this ballad being a common event in those troublesome and disorderly times, became a favourite theme of the ballad-makers. There are in this collection no fewer than three JOCK 0' THE SIDE. 579 poems on the rescue of prisoners, the incidents in which nearly resemble each other ; though the poetical description is so different, that the editor did not think himself at liberty to reject any of them, as borrowed from the others. As, however, there are several verses, which, in recitation, are common to all these three songs, the editor, to prevent unnecessary and disagreeable repetition, has used the freedom of appropriating them to that in which they seem to have the best poetic effect. " The reality of this story rests solely upon the foundation of tradition. Jock o' the Side seems to have been nephew to the laird of Mangertoun, cousin to the laird's Jock, one of his deliverers, and probably brother to Christie of the Syde, mentioned in the list of Border clans, 1597. Like the laird's Jock, he also is commem- orated by Sir Richard Maitland : He is weil trend, Johne of the Syde, A greater thief did never ryde ; He nevir tyris, For to hrek byris, Our muir and myris Ouir gude ane guid,' &c. " Jock o' the Side appears to have assisted the Earl of Westmore- land in his escape after his unfortunate insurrection with the Earl of Northumberland, in the twelfth year of Elizabeth. ' The two rebellious rebels went into Liddesdale in Scotland, yesternight, where Martin Ellwood [Elliot] and others, that have given pledges to the Eegent of Scotland, did raise their forces against them ; being conducted by Black Ormeston, an outlaw of Scotland, that was a principal murtherer of the King of Scots, where the tight was offered, and both parties alighted from their horses ; and, in the end, Ell- wood said to Ormeston, he would be sorry to enter deadly feud with Trim by bloodshed ; but he would charge him and the rest before the regent for keeping of the rebels; and if he did not put them out of the country, the next day, he would doe his worst again them ; where- upon the two earls were driven to leave Liddesdale, and to fly to one of the Armstrongs, a Scott upon the batable [debateable] land on the Borders between Liddesdale and England. The same day the Liddesdale men stole the horses of the Countess of Northumberland, and of her two women, and ten others of their company ; so as, the earls being gone, the lady of Northumberland was left there on foot, at John o' the Side's house, a cottage not to be compared to many a dog-kennel in England. At their departing from her, they went not above fifty horse, and the Earl of Westmoreland, to be the more unknown, changed his coat of plate and sword with John o' the Side, and departed like a Scottish Borderer.' Advertisements from Hex- ham, 22d December, 1569, in the Cabala, p. 160." Scott's Minstrelsy, voL ii., p. 76. 1 Now Liddesdale has ridden a raid, But I wat they had better ha'e staid at hame; For Michael o' Winfield he is dead, And Jock o' the Side is prisoner ta'en. 580 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 2 For Mangerton house Lady Downie has gane, Her coats she has kilted up to her knee ; And down the water with speed she rins, While tears in spates fall fast frae her e'e. 3 Then up and spoke her gude auld lord, " What news, what news, sister Downie, to me?" " Bad news, bad news, my Lord Mangerton; Michael is killed, and they ha'e ta'en my son Johnnie." 4 " Ne'er fear, sister Downie," quo' Mangerton; " I have yokes of owsen, eighty and three; My barns, my byres, and my faulds, all well fill'd, I'll part with them all ere Johnnie shall die. 5 " Three men I'll send to set him free, All harneist with the best of steel ; The English louns may hear, and drie The weight of their braidswords to feel. 6 " The laird's Jock ane, the laird's Wat twa, Hobbie Noble, thou ane maun be ! Thy coat is blue, thou hast been true, Since England banished thee, to me." 7 Now, Hobbie was an English man, In Bewcastle-dale was bred and born; But his misdeeds they were sae great, They banished him ne'er to return. 8 Lord Mangerton then orders gave, " Your horses they wrang way maun be shod ; Like gentlemen ye maunua seem, But look like corn-cadgers * ga'en the road. 9 " Your armour gude ye maunna shaw, Nor yet appear like men of weir; As country lads be all array'd, With branks and brecham f on each mare." 10 Sae now their horses are the wrang way shod, And Hobbie has mounted his gray sae fine, Jock his lively bay, Wat 's on his white horse behind, And on they rode for the water of Tyne. 11 At the Cholerford J they all light down, And there, with the help of the light of the moon, A tree they cut, with fifteen nogs on each side, To climb up the wall of Newcastle touu. * " Cadgers : " carriers. t " Branks and brecham : " halter and cart-collar. t Cholerford is a ford on the Tyne, above Hexham. JOCK 0' THE SIDE. 581 12 But when they came to Newcastle touu, And were alighted at the wall, They fand their tree three ells o'er laigh, They fand their stick baith short and small. 13 Then up spake the laird's ain Jock, " There 's naething for't; the gates we maun force." But when they came the gate until, A proud porter withstood baith men and horse. 14 His neck in twa the Armstrangs wrang; With foot or hand he ne'er play'd pa! His life and his keys at ance they ha'e ta'en, And cast his body ahint the wa'. 15 Now sune they reached Newcastle jail, And to the prisoner thus they call: " Sleeps thou, wakes thou, Jock o' the Side, Or art thou weary of thy thrall?" 16 Jock answers thus, with doleful tone: "Aft, aft I wake I seldom sleep; But wha 's this kens my name sae weel, And thus to mese* my waes does seek?" 17 Then out and spake the gude laird's Jock : " Now fear ye na, my billie," quo' he; " For here are the laird's Jock, the laird's Wat, And Hobbie Noble, come to set thee free." 18 " Now haud thy tongue, my gude laird's Jock, For ever, alas! this canna be ; For if all Liddesdale were here the night, The morn 's the day that I maun die. 19 " Full fifteen stane of Spanish iron, They ha'e laid all right sair on me; With locks and keys I am fast bound Into this dungeon, dark and drearie." 20 " Fear ye na that," quo' the laird's Jock; " A faint heart ne'er wan a fair ladye; Work thou within, we'll work without, And I'll be sworn we'll set thee free." 21 The first strong door that they came at, They loosed it without a key; The next chain'd door that they came at, They gar'd it all to flinders flee. * " Mese : " soothe. 582 BALLAD MINSTRELST OF SCOTLAND. 22 The prisoner now upon his back The laird's Jock has gotten up full hie; And down the stairs, him, aims and all, With nae small speed and joy brings he. 23 " Now, Jock, my man," quo' Hobbie Noble, " Some of his weight ye may lay on me." " I Avat weel no," quo' the laird's ain Jock, "I count him lighter than a flee." 24 Sae out at the gates they all are gane, The prisoner's set on horseback hie; And now Avith speed they've ta'en the gate, While ilk ane jokes full wantonlie. 25 " Jock ! sae winsomely ye ride, With baith your feet upon ae side ; Sae weel ye're harneist, and sae trig, In troth ye sit like ony bride ! " 26 The night, tho' wat, they did na mind, But hied them on full merrilie, Until they came to Cholerford brae, Where the water ran like mountains hie. 27 But when they came to Cholerford, There they met with an auld man; Says "Honest man, will the water ride? Tell us in haste, if that ye can." 28 " I wat weel no," quo' the gude auld man; " I ha'e lived here thretty years and three, And I ne'er saw the Tyne sae big, Nor running ance sae like the sea." 29 Then out and spake the laird's saft Wat, The greatest coward in the companie, " Now halt, now halt ! we needna try't, The day is come we all maun die ! " 30 "Puir faint-hearted thief!" cried the laird's ain Jock, " There'll nae man die but him that 's fey; I'll guide ye all right safely thro'; Lift ye the pris'ner on ahint me." 31 With that the water they ha'e ta'en, By ane's and twa's they all swam thro'; " Here are we all safe," quo' the laird's Jock ; "And, puir faint Wat, what think ye now?" HOBBIE NOBLE. 583 32 They scarce the other brae had won, When twenty men they saw pursue ; Frae Newcastle toun they had been sent, All English lads baith stout and true. 33 But when the land-sergeant * the water saw, " It winna ride, my lads," says he ; Then cried aloud " The prisoner take, But leave the fetters, I pray, to me." 34 " I wat weel no," quo' the laird's ain Jock, "I'll keep them all; shoon to my mare they'll be,- My gude bay mare; for I am sure, She has bought them all right dear frae thee." 35 Sae now they are on to Liddesdale, E'en as fast as they cou'd them hie ; The prisoner is brought to 's ain fireside, And there o's aims they make him free. 36 " Now, Jock, my billie," quo' all the three, " The day is corned thou was to flee ; But thou 's as weel at thy ain ingle-side, Now sitting, I think, 'twixt thee and me." HOBBIE NOBLE. "We have seen the hero of this ballad act a distinguished part in the deliverance of Jock o' the Side, and are now to learn the un- grateful return which the Armstrongs made him for his faithful services, "f Halbert, or Hobbie Noble, appears to have been one of * The land-sergeant (mentioned also in "Hobbie Noble") was an officer under the warden, to whom was committed the apprehending of delinquents, and the care of the public peace. t The original editor of the Reliqites of Ancient Poetry has noticed the perfidy of this clan in another instance; the delivery of the banished Earl of Northumberland into the hands of the Scottish Regent, by Hector of Harelaw, an Armstrong, with whom he had taken refuge. Percy, vol. i., p. 283. This Hector of Harelaw seems to have been an Englishman, or under English assurance, for he is one of those against whom bills were exhibited by the Scottish commissioners, to the Lord Bishop of Carlisle. Introduction to the Ilistoryof Westmoreland and Cumberland, p. 81. In the list of Borderers, 1S97, Hector of Harelaw, with the Griefs and Cuts of Harelaw, also figures as an inhabitant of the Debateable Land. It would appear, from a spirited invective, in the Maitland MS., against the Begent, and those who delivered up the unfortunate earl to Elizabeth, that Hector had been guilty of this treachery, to redeem the pledge which had been exacted from him for his peaceable demeanour. The poet says, that the perfidy of Morton and Lochlevin was worse than even that of " The traitour Eckie of Harelaw, That says he sould him to redeem his pledge; Tour deed is war, as all the world does know You nothing can but covatice allege." Pinkerton's Maitland Poems, vol. i., p. 290. Eckie is the contraction of Hector among the vulgar. These little memoranda may serve still farther to illustrate the beautiful ballads, upon that subject, published in the Reliques. 584 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. those numerous English outlaws, who, being forced to fly their own country, had established themselves on the Scottish Borders. As Hobbie continued his depredations upon the English, they bribed some of his hosts, the Armstrongs, to decoy him into England under pretence of a predatory expedition. He was there delivered, by his treacherous companions, into the hands of the officers of justice, by whom he was conducted to Carlisle, and executed next morning. The Laird of Mangertoun, with whom Hobbie was in high favour, is said to have taken a severe revenge upon the traitors who betrayed him. The principal contriver of the scheme, called here Sim o' the Maynes, fled into England from the resentment of his chief ; but ex- perienced there the common fate of a traitor, being himself executed at Carlisle, about two months after Hobbie's death. Such is, at least, the tradition of Liddesdale. Sim o' the Maynes appears among the Armstrongs of Whitauch, in Liddesdale, in the list of Clans so often alluded to." Scott's Minstrelsy, vol. ii., p. 90. 1 FOUL fa' the breast first Treason bred in ! That Liddesdale may safely say; For in it there was baith meat and drink, And corn unto our geldings gay. 2 And we were all stout-hearted men, As England she might often say; But now we may turn our backs and flee, Since brave Noble is sold away. 3 Now Hobbie was an English man, And born in Bewcastle dale ; But his misdeeds they were so great, They banish'd him to Liddesdale. 4 At Kershope-foot the tryste was set, Kershope of the Hlye lee ; * And there was traitour Sim o' the Mains, -J- And with him a private companie. 5 Then Hobbie has graithed his body fair, Baith with the iron and with the steel; And he has ta'en out his fringed gray, And there, brave Hobbie, he rade him weel. 6 Then Hobbie is down the water gane, E'en as fast as he cou'd hie ; Tho' all shou'd ha'e burstea and broken their hearts, Frae that riding-tryst he wou'd na be< * Kershope-burn, where Hobbie met his treacherous companions, falls into the Liddel, from the English side, at a place called Turnersholm, where, according to tradition, tourneys and games of chivalry were often solemnized. t The Mains was anciently a Border keep, near Castletown, on the north side of the Liddel, but is now totally demolished. HOBBIE NOBLE. 585 7 " Well be ye met, my feres * five! And now, what is your will with me?" Then they cried all, with ae consent, " Thou'rt welcome here, brave Noble, to me. 8 " Wilt thou with us into England ride, And thy safe warrand we will be? If we get a horse worth a hundred pound, Upon his back thou sune shall be." 9 "I dare not by day into England ride ; The land-sergeant has me at feid : And I know not what evil may betide, For Peter of Whitfield, his brother, is dead. 10 " And Anton Sine] ho loves not me, For I gat twa drifts of his sheep ; The great Earl of Whitfield j- loves me not, For nae gear frae me he e'er cou'd keep. 11 " But will ye stay till the day gae down, Until the night come o'er the ground, And I'll be a guide worth ony twa That may in Liddesdale be found ? 12 " Though the night be black as pick and tar, I'll guide thee o'er yon hill sae hie ; And bring ye all in safety back, If ye'll be true and follow me." 13 He has guided them o'er moss and muir, O'er hill and hope, and mony a down, Until they came to the Foulbogshiel, And there, brave Noble, he lighted down. 14 But word is gane to the land-sergeant, In Askerton J where that he lay : " The deer, that ye ha'e hunted sae lang, Is seen into the Waste this day." * " Feres : " companions. t Whitfleld is explained by Mr. Ellis of Otterbourne to be a large and rather wild manorial district in the extreme south-west part of Northumberland; the proprietor of which might be naturally called the lord, though not Earl of Whitfleld. Sir Matthew Whitfleld of Whitfleld was Sheriff of Northumberland in 1433, and the estate continued in the family from, the reign of Kichard II., till about fifty years since. t Askerton is an old cistle, now ruinous, situated in the wilds of Cumberland, about seventeen miles north-east of Carlisle, amidst that mountainous and desolate tract of country bordering upon Liddesdale, emphatically termed tha Waste of Bewcastle. 586 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 15 " The Hobbie Noble is that deer ! I wat he carries the style full hie ; Aft has he driven our bluidhounds back,* And set ourselves at little lee. 16 " Gar warn the bows of Hartlie-burn ; See they sharp their arrows on the wall ! Warn Willeva and Speir Edom, f And see the morn they meet me all. 17 " Gar meet me on the Koderic-haugh, J And see it be by break of day ; And we will on to Conscouthart-green, For there, I think, we'll get our prey." 18 Then Hobbie Noble has dreamit a dream, In the Foulbogshiel where that he lay ; He dreamit his horse was aneath him shot, And he himself got hard away. 19 The cocks 'goud craw, the day 'goud daw, And I wot sae even fell down the rain; Had Hobbie na wakened at that time, In the Foulbogshiel he had been ta'en or slain. 20 " Awake, awake, my feres five ! I trow here makes a full ill day ; Yet the worst cloak of this company, I hope, shall cross the Waste this day." * " The russet bloodhound, wont, near Annand's stream, To trace the sly thief with avenging foot, Close as an evil conscience still at hand." Our ancient statutes inform us, that the bloodhound or sluith-hound (so called from its quality of tracing the slot, or track, of men and animals) was early used in the pursuit and detection of marauders. Nullus perturbet out impediat canem trassantem, out homines trassantes cum ipso, ad sequendum latrones. Regiam Majestatem, lib. 4tus, cap. 32. And, so late as 1616, there was an order from the king's commissioners of the northern counties, that a certain number of slough- hounds should be maintained in every district of Cumberland, bordering upon Scotland. They were of great value, being sometimes sold for a hundred crowns. Exposition of B/eau's Atlas, voce Nitltsdale. The breed of this sagacious animal, which could trace the human footstep with the most unerring accuracy, is now nearly extinct. t Willeva and Speir Edom are small districts in Bewcastledale, through which also the Hartlie-burn takes its course. % Conscouthart-green, and Eodric-haugh, and the Foulbogshiel, are the names of places in the same wilds, through which the Scottish plunderers generally made their raids upon England, as appears from the following passage in a letter from William, Lord Dacre, to Cardinal Wolsey, 18th July, 1528; Appendix to Pinkerton's Scotland, v. 12, No. XIX. " Like it also your grace, seeing the disordour within Scotlaund, that all the mysguyded men, Borderers of the same, inhabiting within Eskdale, Ewsdale, Walghopedale, Liddesdale and a part of Tividale, foranempt Bewcastelldale, and a part of the Middle Marches of this the King's Bordours, entres not this West and Middle Marches, to do any attemptate to the King our said Soveraine's subjects: but thaye come thorow Bewcastelldale, and retornes, for the most parte, the same waye agayne." " Goud : " t. e., begoud ; began. HOBBIE NOELE. 587 21 Now Hobble thought the gates were clear ; But, ever alas ! it was na sae ; They were beset by cruel men and keen, That away brave Hobbie might na gae. 22 " Yet follow me, my feres five, And see ye keep of me gude ray ; And the worst cloak of this coinpanie, Even yet may cross the Waste this day." 23 But the land-sergeant's men came Hobbie before, The traitor Sim came Hobbie behin'; So had Noble been wight as Wallace was, Away, alas ! he might na win. 24 Then Hobbie had but a laddie's sword ; But he did mair than a laddie's deed ; For that sword had clear'd Conscouthart-green, Had it not broke o'er Jerswigham's head. 25 Then they ha'e ta'en brave Hobbie Noble, Wi 's ain bowstring they band him sae ; But his gentle heart was ne'er sae sair, As when his ain five bound him on the brae. 26 They ha'e ta'en him on for West Carlisle; They ask'd him if he kenn'd the way ? Though much he thought, yet little he said; He knew the gate as weel as they. 27 They ha'e ta'en him up the Ricker-gate ; * The wives they cast their windows wide; And every wife to another can say, " That 's the man loosed Jock o' the Side!" 28 " Fy on ye, women ! why call ye me man? For it 's nae man that I'm used like ; I am but like a forfoughen f hound, Has been fighting in a dirty syke." 29 They ha'e had him up through Carlisle town, And set him by the chimney fire; They gave brave Noble a loaf to eat, And that wasl ittle his desire. 30 They gave him a wheaten loaf to eat, And after that a can of beer ; And they all cried, with one consent, " Eat, brave Noble, and make good cheer. * Ricker-gate: " a street in Carlisle, t Forfoughen: " quite fatigued. 588 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 31 " Confess my lord's horse, Hobbie," they said, " And to-morrow in Carlisle thou's na dee." " How can I confess them," Hobbie says, " When I ne'er saw them with my e'e ? " 32 Then Hobbie has sworn a full great aith, By the day that he was gotten and born, He never had onything of my lord's That either eat him grass or corn. 33 ' Now fare thee weel, sweet Mangerton ! * For I think again I'll ne'er thee see ; I wou'd ha'e betray'd nae lad alive, For all the gowd of Christentie. 84 " And fare thee weel, sweet Liddesdale ! Baith the hie land and the law; Keep ye weel frae the traitor Mains! For gowd and gear he'll sell thee a'. 35 " Yet wou'd I rather be Hobbie Noble, In Carlisle wha suffers for his fau't, Than I wou'd be the traitor Mains, That eats and drinks of the meal and maut." ARCHIE OF CA'FIELD. From Scott's Minstrelsy, voL ii., p. 116. " It may perhaps be thought, that, from the near resemblance which this ballad bears to ' Kinmont Willie ' and ' Jock o' the Side, ' the editor might have dispensed with inserting it in this Collection. But although the incidents in these three ballads are almost the same, yet there is considerable variety in the language ; and each contains minute particulars, highly characteristic of Border manners, which it is the object of this publication to illustrate. Ca'neld, or Calfield, is a place in Wauchopdale, belonging of old to the Arm- strongs. In the account betwixt the English and Scottish Marches, Jock and Geordie of Ca'neld, there called Calf-hill, are repeatedly marked as delinquents. History of Westmoreland and Cumberland, vol. i., Introduction, p. 33. * Of the Castle of Mangerton, so often mentioned in these ballads, there are very few vestiges. It was situated on the banks of the Liddell, below Castletoun. In the wall of a neighbouring mill, which has been entirely built from the ruins of the tower, there is a remarkable stone, bearing the arms of the Lairds of Mangertoun, and a long broadsword, with the figures 15S3, probably the date of building or repairing the castle. On each side of the shield arc the letters S. A. and E. E., standing probably for Symon Armstrong and Elizabeth Elliott Such is the only memorial of the Lairds of Mangertoun, except those rude ballads, which the editor now offers to the public. ARCHIE OF CA'FIELD. 589 " The editor has been enabled to add several stanzas to this ballad, since publication of the first edition. They were obtained from recitation ; and, as they contrast the brutal indifference of the elder brother with the zeal and spirit of his associates, they add consider- ably to the dramatip effect of the whole." [A North Country version, under the title of "Billie Archie," as communicated by Mr. Buchan, appears in Motherwell's Minstrelsy, p. 335; and a still different version, under the title of "The Three Brothers," is given by Mr. Buchan in his Ancient Ballads, vol. i, p. 111.] 1 As I was a-walking mine alane, It was by the dawning of the day, I heard twa brithers mak' their mane, And I listen'd weel to what they did say. 2 The youngest to the eldest said, " Blythe and merrie how can we jpe ? There were three brithren of us born, And ane of us is condemn'd to dee." 3 " An ye wou'd be merrie, an ye wou'd be sad, What the better wou'd billy* Archie be? Unless I had thirty men to mysel', And all to ride in my companie. 4 " Ten to hald the horses' heads, And other ten the watch to be, And ten to break up the strong prison, Where billy Archie he does lie." 5 Then up and spak' him mettled John Hallf (The luve of Teviotdale aye was he), " An I had eleven men to mysel', It 's aye the twalt man I wou'd be." 6 Then up bespak' him coarse Ca'field (I wot and little gude worth was he), "Thirty men is few anew, And all to ride in our companie." 7 There was horsing, horsing in haste, And there was marching on the lee, Until they came to Murraywhate, And they lighted there right speedilie. "Billy:" brother. t Mettled John Hall, from the Laigh Teviotdale, is perhaps John Hall of New- bigging, mentioned in the list of Border clans, as one of the chief men of name residing on the Middle Marches in 1697. 590 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 8 "A smith ! a smith ! " Dickie he cries, "A smith, a smith, right speedilie, To turn back the caukers of our horses' shoon ! For it 's unkensorae * we wou'd be." 9 " There lives a smith on the water-side, Will shoe my little black mare for me ; And I've a crown in my pocket, And every groat of it I wou'd gi'e." i 10 " The night is mirk, and it 's very mirk, And by candle-light I canna weel see ; The night is mirk, and it 's very pit mirk, And there will never a nail ca' right for me." 11 " Shame fall you and your trade baith, Canna tyeet f a good fellow by your mystery ; J But leeze me on thee, my little black mare, Thou's worth thy weight in gold to me." 12 There was horsing, horsing in haste, And there was marching upon the lee, Until they cam' to Dumfries port, And they lighted there rignt speedilie. 13 " There 's five of us will hold the horse, And other five will watchmen be ; But wha 's the man among you all, Will gae to the Tolbooth door with me?" 14 Oh, up then spak' him mettled John Hall (Frae the laigh Teviotdale was he), " If it shou'd cost my life this very night, I'll gae to the Tolbooth door with thee." 15 " Be of gude cheer, now, Archie, lad ! Be of gude cheer, now, dear billie ! Work thou within, and we without, And the morn thou's dine at Ca'field with me." 16 Oh, Jockie Hall stepp'd to the door, And he bended low back his knee, And he made the bolts the door hang on Loup frae the wall right wantonlie. * "Unkensome:" unknown. t 'Beet: 1 ' abet, aid. J" Mystery:' trade. (See Shafcetpeare.) ARCHIE OF CA'FIELD. 591 17 He took the prisoner on his back, And down the Tolbooth stair cam' he : The black mare stood ready at the door, I wot a foot ne'er stirred she. 18 They laid the links out o'er her neck, And that was her gold twist to be ; * And they cam' doun thro' Dumfries toun, And wow, but they cam' speedilie ! 19 The live-lang night these twelve men rade, And aye till they were right wearie, Until they cam' to the Murraywhate, And they lighted there right speedilie. 20 " A smith ! a smith ! " then Dickie he cries, " A smith, a smith, right speedilie, To file the irons frae my dear brither ! For forward, forward we wou'd be." 21 They hadna filed a shackle of iron, A shackle of iron but barely three, When out and spak' young Simon brave, " Oh, dinna you see what I do see ? 22 " Lo ! yonder comes Lieutenant Gordon, With a hundred men in his companie ; This night will be our lyke-wake night, The morn the day we all maun die." 23 Oh, there was mounting, mounting in haste, And there was marching upon the lee, Until they cam' to Annan water, And it was flowing like the sea. 24 " My mare is young and very skeigh, { And in o' the weil J she will drown me ; But ye'll tak' mine, and I'll tak' thine, And sune through the water we shall be." 25 Then up and spake him coarse Ca'field (I wot and little gude worth was he), "We had better lose ane than lose all the lave; We'll lose the prisoner, we'll gae free." * The Gold Twist means the small gilded chains drawn across the chest of a war horse, as a part of his caparison, t "Skeigh:" shy. t "Weil:" eddy. 592 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 26 " Shame fa' you and your lands baith ! Wou'd ye e'en * your lands to your born billy? But hey ! bear up, my boiinie black mare, And yet through the water we shall be." 27 Now they did swim that wan water, And wow, but they swam bonuilie ! Until they cam' to the other side, And they wrang their clothes right drunkily. 28 " Come thro', come thro', Lieutenant Gordon ! Come thro' and drink some wine with me ! For there is an ale-house here hard by, And it shall not cost thee ae penny." 29 " Throw me my irons," quo' Lieutenant Gordon ; " I wot they cost me dear eneugh." "The shame a ma," quo' mettled John Ha', " They'll be gude shackles to my pleugh." 30 " Come thro', come thro', Lieutenant Gordon ! Come thro' and drink some wine with me ! Yestreen I was your prisoner, But now this morning I am free." ARMSTRONG'S GOODNIGHT. "The following verses are said to have been composed by one of the Armstrongs, executed for the murder of Sir John Carmichael of Edrom, Warden of the Middle Marches, 1600. (See Notes on 'The Eaid of the Reidswire,' ante, p. 522.) The tune is popular in Scot- land ; but whether these are the original words, will admit of a doubt." Scott's Minstrelsy, vol. ii., p. 123. They appear in Herd's Scottish Songs, vol. ii., p. 225, with only a slight difference in the opening line, which reads " Oh, this is my departing time." The words and music next appear in Johnson's Museum, p. 620. Three maudlin stanzas, under the title of " The Last Gude-night," are given in Buchan's Ancient Ballads, vol. ii., p. 127. 1 THIS night is my departing night, For here nae langer must I stay; There 's neither friend nor foe of mine But wishes me away. 2 What I have done thro' lack of wit, I never, never can recall; I hope ye're all my friends as yet ; Goodnight, and joy be with you all! "E'en:" even; put into comparison. LORD MAXWELL'S GOODNIGHT. 593 LOKD MAXWELL'S GOODNIGHT.* From Scott's Minstrelsy, vol. ii., p. 133. "This beautiful Ballad is published from a copy in Glenriddel's MSS., with some slight variations from tradition. It alludes to one of the most remarkable feuds upon the West Marches. " A.D. 1585, John Lord Maxwell, or, as he styled himself, Earl of Morton, having quarrelled with the Earl of Arran, reigning favourite of James VI., and fallen, of course, under the displeasure of the court, was denounced rebel. A commission was also given to the Laird of Johnstone, then Warden of the West Marches, to pursue and apprehend the ancient rival and enemy of his house. Two bands of mercenaries, commanded by Captains Cranstoun and Lammie, who were sent from Edinburgh to support Johnstone, were attacked and cut to pieces at Crawford-muir, by Robert Maxwell, natural brother to the chieftain ;f who, following up his advantage, burned John- stone's Castle of Lochwood, observing, with savage glee, that he would give Lady Johnstone light enough by which ' to set her hood. ' In a subsequent conflict, Johnstone himself was defeated and made prisoner, and is said to have died of grief at the disgrace which he sustained. See Spottiswoode and Johnstone's Histories, and Moyse's Memoirs, ad annum 1585. "By one of the revolutions common in those days, Maxwell was soon after restored to the King's favour in his turn, and obtained the Wardenry of the West Marches. A bond of alliance was sub- scribed by him and by Sir James Johnstone, and for some time the two clans lived in harmony. In the year 1593, however, the hereditary feud was revived, on the following occasion : A band of marauders, of the clan Johnstone, drove a prey of cattle from the lands belonging to the Lairds of Crichton, Sanquhar, and Drum- lanrig ; and defeated, with slaughter, the pursuers, who attempted to rescue their property. (See ' The Lads of Wamphray,' ante, p. 552. ) The injured parties, being apprehensive that Maxwell would not cordially embrace their cause, on account of his late reconciliation with the Johnstones, endeavoured to overcome his reluctance, by offering to enter into bonds of manrent, and so to become his followers and liegemen ; he, on the other hand, granting to them a bond of maintenance or protection, by which he bound himself, in usual form, to maintain their quarrel against all mortals, saving his loyalty. Thus, the most powerful and respectable families in Dum- friesshire became, for a time, the vassals of Lord Maxwell. This secret alliance was discovered to Sir James Johnstone by the Laird of Cummertrees, one of his own clan, though a retainer to Maxwell. * [Lord Byron refers to this ballad, as having suggested the " Goodnight '' in the first canto of "Childe Harold." See Life and Works of Byron, vol. viii. Lockhart.] t It is devoutly to be wished that this Lammie (who was killed in the skirmish) may have been the same miscreant who, in the day of Queen Mary's distress, " hes ensign being of quhyt taffltae, had painted one it ye cruell murther of King Henry, and layed down before her majestie, at quhat time she presented herself as prisoner to ye lordis." Birrel's Diary, June 1-5. 1507. It would be some satisfaction to know that the gray hairs of this worthy personage did not go down to the grave in peace. 2Q 594 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. Cummertrees even contrived to possess himself of the bonds of man- rent, which he delivered to his chief. The petty warfare betwixt the rival barons was instantly renewed. Buccleuch, a near relation of Johnstone, came to his assistance with his clan, ' the most renowned freebooters, the fiercest and bravest warriors among the Border Tribes.'* With Buccleuch also came the Elliots, Arm- strongs, and Graemes. Thus reinforced, Johnstone surprised and cut to pieces a party of the Maxwells, stationed at Lochmaben. On the other hand, Lord Maxwell, armed with the royal authority, and numbering among his followers all the barons of Nithsdale, displayed his banner as the king's lieutenant, and invaded Annandale at the head of 2,000 men. In those days, however, the royal auspices seem to have carried as little good-fortune as effective strength with them. A desperate conflict, stSl renowned in tradition, took place at the Dryffe Sands, not far from Lockerby, in which Johnstone, although inferior in numbers, partly by his own conduct, partly by the valour of his allies, gained a decisive victory. Lord Maxwell, a tall man, and heavily armed, was struck from his horse in the flight, and cruelly slain, after the hand which he stretched out for quarter had been severed from his body. Many of his followers were slain in the battle, and many cruelly wounded, especially by slashes in the face, which wound was thence termed a ' Lockerby lick.' The Barons of Lag, Closeburn, and Drumlanrig escaped by the fleetness of their horses ; a circumstance alluded to in the following ballad. " This fatal battle was followed by a long feud, attended with all the circumstances of horror proper to a barbarous age. Johnstone, in his diffuse manner, describes it thus: 'Ab eo die ultra citroque, in Annandia et Nithia magnis utriusque regionis jacturis certatum. Ccedes, incendia, rapince, et ntfanda facinora; liberi in mater nis gremiis trucidati, mariti in conspectu conjugum suarum; incensce villf Clos- burn, to be bundin and oblist, and be the tenor heirof, bindis and oblissis me, be the faith and treuth of my body, in manrent and service to ane nobil and mychty lord, Bobert lord Harwell, induring all the days of my lyfe; and byndis and oblissis me, as said is, to be leil and trew mau and servant to the said Kobert lord Maxwell, my master, and sail nowthir heir nor se his skaith, but sail lat the samyn at my utir power, and warn him therof. And I sail coneeill it that the said lord schawis to me, and sail gif him agane the best leill and true counsale that I can, quhen he only askis at me ; and that I sail ryde with my kyn, freyndis, servandis, and allies, that wil do for me, or to gang with the said lords ; and to do him aefauld, trew, and thankful service, and take eefauld plane part with the said lord, my maister, in all and sindry his actionis, causis, quarrellis, leful and honest, movit, or to be movit, be him, or aganis him, baith in peace and weir, contrair or aganis all thae that leiffes or de may (my allegeance to owr soveran ladye the querns grace, her tutor and governor, allanerly except). And thir my lettres of manrent, for all the dayis of my life foresaid to indure, all dissimulations, fraud, or gyle, secludit and away put. In witness," &c. The deed is signed at Edinburgh, 3d of February, 1542. In the collection, from which this extract is made, there are bonds of a similar nature granted to Lord Maxwell, by Douglas of Drumlanrig, ancestor to the Dukes of Queensberry ; by Orichton Lord Sanquhar, ancestor of the Earls of Dumfries, and many of his kindred; by Stuart of Castlemilk; by Stuart of Garlies, ancestor of the Earls of Galloway; by Murray of Cockpool, ancestor of the Murrays, Lords Annan- dale; by Grierson of Lagg, Gordon of Lochmaben, and many other of the most ancient and respectable barons in the south-west of Scotland, binding themselves, in the most submissive terms, to become the liegemen and the vassals of the House of Maxwell; a circumstance which must highly excite our idea of the power of that family. Nay, even the rival chieftain, Johnstone of Johnstone, seems at one time to have come under a similar obligation to Maxwell, by a bond, dated llth of Feb- ruary, 1528, in which reference is made to the counter-obligation of the patron, in these words: "Forasmeikle as the said lord has oblist him to supple, maintene, and defend me, in the peciabill brouking and joysing of all my landis, rentis, &c., and to take my eefald, leill, and trew part, in all my good actionis, causis, and our soveraigne lord the king allanerly excepted, as at mair length is contained in his letters of maintenance maid to me thereupon; therefore," &c., he proceeds to bind himself as liegeman to the Maxwell. I cannot dismiss the subject without observing, that in the dangerous times of Queen Mary, when most of these bonds are dated, many barons, for the sake of maintaining unanimity and good order, may have chosen to enrol themselves among the clients of Lord Maxwell, then Warden of the Border, from which, at a less turbulent period, personal considerations would have deterred them. * This fortress is situated in the stewartry of Kirkcudbright, upon an island several acres in extent, formed by the river Dee. The walls are very thick and strong, and bear the marks of great antiquity. It was a royal castle; but the keeping of it, agreeable to the feudal practice, was granted by charter, or some- times by a more temporary and precarious right, to different powerful families, together with lands for their good service in maintaining and defending the place. This office of heritable keeper remained with the Nithesdale family (chief of the Maxwells) till their forfeiture, 1715. The garrison seems to have been victualled upon feudal principles; for each parish in the stewartry was burdened with the yearly payment of a lardner mart cow, i. e., a cow fit for being killed and salted at Martinmas for winter provis-ons. The right of levying these cattle was retained by the Nithesdale family, when they sold the castle and estate in 1704, and they did not cease to exercise it till their attainder. Fountaiuhall's Decisions, vol. L, p. 688. 598 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. With all my buildings there : Adieu ! Lochmaben's gate sae fair, The Langholm-holm, where birks there be ; Adieu ! my ladye, and only joy, For, trust me, I may not stay with thee. 5 " Adieu ! fair Eskdale, up and down, Where my puir friends do dwell ; The bangisters* will ding them down, And will them sair compel. But I'll avenge their feid raysel 1 When I come o'er the sea ! Adieu ! my ladye, and only joy, For I may not stay with thee." G " Lord of the land ! " that ladye said, " Oh, wou'd ye go with me, Unto my brother's stately tow'r, Where safest ye may be ? There Hamiltons, and Douglas baith, Shall rise to succour thee." " Thanks for thy kindness, my fair dame, But I may not stay with thee." 7 Then he took aff a gay gold ring, Thereat hang signets three ; " Ha'e, take thee that, mine ain dear thing, And still ha'e mind of me : But if thou take another lord, Ere I come o'er the sea, His life is but a three days' lease, Though I may not stay with thee." 8 The wind was fair, the ship was clear, That good lord went away ; And most part of his friends were there, "f To give him a fair convey. They drank the wine, they didna spare, Even in that glide lord's sight ; Sae now he 's o'er the floods sae gray, J And Lord Maxwell has ta'en his Good-night. * " Bangisters : " the prevailing party. t The ancestor of the present Mr. Maxwell of Broomhplm is particularly men- tioned in Glenriddel's MS. as having attended his chieftain in his distress, and ad having received a grant of lands, in reward of this manifestation of attachment. t This seems to have been a favourite epithet in old romances. Thus, in " Ho: a- childe, and Maiden Kimuild," " Thai sayled owcr the floJe to gray, In Inglond arrived were thay, Ther uiru levest ware." THE DOWIE DENS OF YARROW. 599 THE DOWIE DENS OF YARROW. " This ballad, which is a very great favourite among the inhabi- tants of Ettrick Forest, is universally believed to be founded in fact. I found it easy to collect a variety of copies ; but very difficult indeed to select from them such a collated edition as might, in any degree, suit the taste of ' these more light and giddy-paced times.' " Tradition places the event, recorded in the song, very early ; and it is probable that the ballad was composed soon afterwards, although the language has been gradually modernized, in the course of its transmission to us, through the inaccurate channel of oral tradition. The bard does not relate particulars, but barely the striking outlines of a fact, apparently so well known when he wrote, as to render minute detail as unnecessary as it is always tedious and un poetical. " The hero of the ballad was a knight of great bravery, called Scott, who is said to have resided at Kirkhope, or Oakwood Castle, and is, in tradition, termed the Baron of Oakwood. The estate of Kirkhope belonged anciently to the Scotts of Harden : Oakwood is still their property, and has been so from, time immemorial. The editor was therefore led to suppose, that the hero of the ballad might have been identified with John Scott, sixth son of the Laird of Harden, murdered in Ettrick Forest by his kinsmen, the Scotts of Oilman scleugh. (See notes to 'Jamie Telfer,' ante, p. 568.) This appeared the more probable, as the common people always affirm that this young man was treacherously slain, and that, in evidence thereof, his body remained uncorrupted for many years; so that even the roses on his shoes seemed as fresh as when he was first laid in the family vault at Hassendean. But from a passage in Nisbet's Heraldry, he now believes the ballad refers to a duel fought at Deucharswyre, of which Annan's Treat is a part, betwixt John Scott of Tushielaw and his brother-in-law, Walter Scott, third son of Robert of Thirlestane, in which the latter was slain. " In ploughing Annan's Treat, a huge monumental stone, with an inscription, was discovered; but being rather scratched than engraved, and the lines being run through each other, it is only possible to read one or two Latin words. It probably records the event of the combat. The person slain was the male ancestor of the present Lord Napier. " Tradition affirms, that the hero of the song (be he who he may) was murdered by the brother, either of his wife or betrothed bride. The alleged cause of malice was the lady's father having proposed to endow her with half of his property, upon her marriage with a warrior of such renown. The name of the murderer is said to have been Annan, and the place of combat is still called Annan's Treat. It is a low muir, on the banks of the Yarrow, lying to the west of Yarrow Kirk. Two tall unhewn masses of stone are erected, about eighty yards distant from each other ; and the least child that can herd a cow will tell the passenger, that there lie ' the two lords, who were slain in single combat.' 600 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. " It will be, with many readers, the greatest recommendation of these verses, that they are supposed to have suggested to Mr. Hamilton of Bangour, the modern ballad, beginning ' Busk ye, busk ye, my bonny bonny bride.' A fragment, apparently regarding the story of the following ballad, but in a different measure, occurs in Mr. Herd's MS., and runs thus: 1 When I look east, my heart is sair, But when I look west, it's mair and mair; For then I see the braes o' Yarrow, And there, for aye, I lost my marrow.'" Scott's Minstrelsy, vol. iii., p. 143. A fragment of four stanzas, "to the tune of Leaderhaughs and Yarrow," appears in Herd's Scottish Songs, vol. i., p. 145. Three of them correspond to the stanzas here numbered 15, 16, and 17 ; and one, which was reproduced in Scott's version of this ballad, seems, as pointed out by Professor Aytoun, to belong to the next ballad, to which it has therefore been transferred. Scott's version, which next appeared, forms the basis of the present collated version. The stanzas not bracketed are thence derived ; but a few emendations, chiefly on the last lines of some of the stanzas, have been introduced, and consist for the most part in the substitution of "dens" for "banks" or "hounis," and of " dowie dens " for " bonnie banks." Motherwell's Minstrelsy (p. 252) contains a version " taken from the recitation of an old woman in Kilbarchan." Stanzas 1 to 4 inclusive are from this source; but stanza 1 has been slightly emendated from Scott's. Buchan's Ancient Ballads (vol. ii., p. 203) contains a still different version, under the title of "The Braes o' Yarrow." It is repeated in vol. xvii. of the Percy Society Publications. Stanzas 15 and 22 are taken from this version. Stanza 19 is derived from " Eare Willie 's drown'd in Yarrow," in which it appears to be out of place. (See next ballad. ) " ' The Dowy Den,' in Evan's Collection, vol. iii., p. 342, is," says Professor Child, " the caput mortuum of this spirited ballad." Wordsworth's sympathy with, and appreciation of our Scotish ballad and song lore, is shown in several of his poems. " Yarrow Unvisited," "Yarrow Visited," and "Yarrow Revisited," are instances in point. 1 [LATE at evening, drinking the wine, Oil the dowie* dens of Yarrow, * [" Dowie: " melancholy: " Meek loveliness is round thee spread, A softness still and holy ; The grace of forest charms decayed, And pastoral melancholy." yarrow Visited.] THE DOWIE DENS OF YARROW. 601 They set a combat them between, To fight it on the morrow.* 2 " You took our sister to be your wife, And ne'er thought her your marrow ; You stole her frae her father's hame, When she was the Hose of Yarrow." 3 " Yes, I took your sister to be my wife, And I made her my marrow ; I took her frae her father's hame, And she 's still the Rose of Yarrow." 4 He is hame to his ladye gane, As he had done before, ; Says " Madam, I must go and fight On the dowie dens of Yarrow."] 5 " Oh, stay at harne, my noble lord, Oh, stay at hame, my marrow ! My cruel brother will you betray On the dowie dens of Yarrow." 6 " Oh, fare ye weel, my ladye dear! Fareweel, my winsome marrow ! f For I maun gae, though I ne'er return, Frae the dowie dens of Yarrow." 7 She kiss'd his cheek, she kaim'd his hair, As olt she had done before, ; She belted him with his noble brand, And he 's away to Yarrow. 8 As he gaed up the Tennies bank, I wot he gaed with sorrow, Till he espied nine armed men. On the dowie dens of Yarrow. 9 " Oh, come ye here to part your land, The bonnie Forest thorough ? Or come ye here to wield your brand. On the dowie dens of Yarrow?" * [Stanza 1, as it appears in Scott's version, re ids: " Late at e'en, drinking the wine. And ere they paid the la wing. They set a combat them between, To fight it in the dawing."] t [Scott's text, in place of "marrow," reads " Sarah," a name which, as Professor Aytoun justly remarks, " was better known in the Land of Canaan than in Ettrick Forest"] C02 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 10 " I coine not here to part my land, And neither to beg nor borrow ; I come to wield my noble brand, On the dowie dens of Yarrow. 11 " If I see all, ye're nine to ane ; And that 's unequal marrow : Yet will I fight, while lasts my brand, On the dowie dens of Yarrow." 12 Four has he hurt, and five has slain, On the bloody braes of Yarrow ; Till a coward knight came him behind, And ran his body thorough. 13 " Gae hame, gae hame, good-brother * John, And tell my winsome marrow To come and lift her leafu' lord, He 's sleeping sound on Yarrow." li [As he gaed o'er yon high, high hill, As he had done before, 0, It 's there he met his sister dear, Fast running on to Yarrow.] 15 " Yestreen I dream'd a doleful dream ; I fear there will be sorrow ! I dream'd I pull'd the birk sae green, With my true love, on Yarrow." 1C [" I'll read your dream, my sister dear, Your dream of dule and sorrow; Ye pull'd the birk for your true love, He 's kill'd, he 's kill'd on Yarrow.] 17 " For in yon glen strave armed men ; They've wrought thee dule and sorrow ; They've slain, they've slain your noble loru ; He bleeding lies on Yarrow." 18 As she sped down yon high, high hill, She gaed with dule and sorrow, And in the den spied ten slain men, On the dowie dens of Yarrow. 19 " She kiss'd his cheek, she kaim'd his hair, She search'd his wounds all thorough ; She kiss'd them, till her lips grew red, On the dowie dens of Yarrow. * "Good-brother: ' beau-frfcre ; brotlier-in-law. RARE WILLIE DROWNED IN YARROW. 603 20 [" Yestreen I made my bed fu' braid, This night I'll make it narrow ; For all the live-lang winter night, I'll lie twin'd of my marrow."] 21 " Now, hand your tongue, my daughter dear ! For all this breeds but sorrow ; I'll wed ye to a better lord Than him ye lost on Yarrow." 22 " Oh, haud your tongue, my father dear ! Ye mind me but of sorrow : A fairer rose did never bloom Than now lies cropp'd on Ytfrrow." 23 [She kiss'd his lips, she kaim'd his hair, As aft she had done before, ; Syne, with a crack, her heart it brak', On the dowie dens of Yarrow.] RARE WILLIE DROWNED IN YARROW. Four stanzas under the above title appear in Ramsay's Tea-Table Miscellany, vol. ii., p. 141. Three of them are given in the following collated ballad, and are numbered 2, 10, and 11. The other forms stanza 19 of the preceding ballad, to which it seems properly to belong, as it evidently speaks the language of a matron, while that here numbered stanza 2 is as evidently the language of a maid. (See also stanza 3. ) Stanza 9 is taken from " Willie's Drowned in Gamery ; " a similar ballad of the North, given in Buchan's Ancient Ballads, vol. i., p. 245, and of which a fragment, differing slightly from the complete copy, appears in the Percy Society, vol. xvii., already several times referred to. It was at first intended to insert the ballad just named in this collection ; but it is so similar in some of its stanzas to the following, and in others to "The Drowned Lovers," ante, p. 9, and so much inferior to both, that this intention has been abandoned. The remaining stanzas are from "The Haughs of Yarrow," "another of Yarrow's inspired songs," given by Mr. Buchan in his Ancient Ballads, vol. ii., p. 211. Scott's, or, more correctly speaking, Herd's version of stanza 4 has, however, been substituted for the corresponding stanza in Mr. Buchan's version, which is noted under the text. " Rare Willie 's Drowned in Yarrow " suggested Logan's admirable modern ballad, "The Braes of Yarrow," beginning " Thy braes were bonnie, Yarrow stream." 1 DOWN in yon garden, sweet and gay, Where bonnie grows the lilie, I heard a fair maid singing, say, " My wish be with sweet Willie. COt BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 2 " [Oh,] Willie 's rare and Willie 's fair, And Willie 's wond'rous bonnie, And Willie 's hecht to marry me, If e'er he married ony. 3 " [But] Willie 's gane, whom I thought on, And does not hear me weeping ; Nor see the tears frae true love's e'e,* When other maids are sleeping. 4 " Oh, gentle wind, that bloweth south, From where my love repairetb. Convey a kiss from his dear mouth, And tell me how he fareth. "f 5 " Oh, tell sweet Willie to come down, And bid him not be cruel ; Oh, tell him not to break the heart Of his love and only jewel. 6 " Oh, tell sweet Willie to come down, To hear the mavis singing ; To see the birds on ilka bush, And leaves around them hinging. 7 " The lav'rock there with her white breast, And gentle throat sae narrow ; There 's sport enough for gentlemen On Leader Haughs and Yarrow. 8 " Oh, Leader Haughs are wide and braid, And Yarrow Haughs are bonnie ; There Willie hecht to marry me, If e'er he married ony. J * Altered. The original reads : " Draws mony a tear frae 's true iove's e'e." t " Ye south, south winds, blaw to the north, To the place where he's remaining; Convey these kisses to his mouth, And tell him how I'm faring." J Buchan's version. " The Haughs o' Yarrow " ends thus. - " ' But if he plays the prodigal, I freely could forget him ; And if he choose another bride, I ever mair will hate him.' "But now sweet Willie he's come down. And eas'd her of her sorrow; And he 's made her his lawful bride, Upon the braes o' Yarrow." ANNAN WATER. 605 9 " [Oh,] Willie 'a fair and Willie 's rare, And Willie's wond'rons bonnie; There 's nane with him that can compare, I love him best of ony. 10 " Oh, came you by yon water-side? Pnll'd ye the rose or lilie ? Or came ye by yon meadow-green ? Or saw ye my sweet Willie ? " 11 She sought him east, she sought him west, She sought him braid and narrow ; Syne, in the cleaving of a craig, She found him drown'd in Yarrow.* ANNAN WATER. From Scott's Minstrelsy, vol. iii., p. 282. " The following verses are the original words of the tune of ' Allan Water,' by which name the song is mentioned in Ramsay's Tea-Tabte Miscellany. The ballad is given from tradition ; and it is said that a bridge over the Annan was built in consequence of the melancholy catastrophe which it narrates. Two verses are added in this edition, from another copy of the ballad, in which the conclusion proves fortunate. By the Gatehope-slack, is perhaps meant the Gate-slack, a pass in Annandale. The Annan and the Frith of Solway, into which it falls, are the frequent scenes of tragical accidents. The editor trusts he will be pardoned for inserting the following awfully impressive account of such an event, contained in a letter from Dr. Currie, of Liverpool, by whose correspondence, while in the course of preparing these volumes for the press, he has been alike honoured and instructed. After stating that he had some recollection of the ballad which follows, the biographer of Burns proceeds thus : 'I once in my early days heard (for it was night, and I could not see) a traveller drowning ; not in the Annan itself, but in the Frith of Solway, close by the mouth of that river. The influx of the tide had unhorsed him, in the night, as he was passing the sands from Cumberland. The west wind blew a tempest, and, according to the common expression, brought in the water three foot abreast. The traveller got upon a standing net, a little way from the shore. There he lashed himself to the post, shouting for half an hour for assistance till the tide rose over his head! In the darkness of the night, and amid the pauses of the hurricane, his voice, heard at intervals, was * " She sought it up, she sought it down, Till she was wet and wearie; And in the middle part of it, There she got her dearie." Penultimate stanza of " Willie 's Drowned in Gamery." The " it ' means tho river. COG BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. exquisitely mournful. No one could go to his assistance no one knew where he was the sound seemed to proceed from the spirit of the waters. But morning rose the tide had ebbed and the poor traveller was found lashed to the pole of the net, and bleaching in the wind.'" Scott. [The following bears some resemblance to the preceding ballad, and to " The Drowned Lovers," ante, p. 9.] 1 " ANNAN water 's wading deep, And my love Annie 's wond'rous bonnie ; And I am laith she shou'd weet her feet, Because I love her best of ony. 2 " Gar saddle me the bonnie black, Gar saddle sune, and make him ready ; For I will down the Gatehope-slack, And all to see my bonnie ladye." 3 He has loupen on the bonnie black, He stirr'd him with the spur right sairly ; But, or he wan the Gatehope-slack. I think the steed was wae and weary. 4 He has loupen on the bonnie gray, He rade the right gate and the ready ; I trow he wou'd neither stint nor stay, For he was seeking his bonnie ladye. 5 Oh, he has ridden o'er field and fell, Thro' muir and moss, and mony a mire : His spurs of steel were sair to bide, And frae her fore-feet flew the fire. 6 " Now, bonnie gray, now play your part, If ye be the steed that wins my deary, With corn and hay ye'se be fed for aye, And never spur shall make you weary." 7 The gray was a mare, and a right good mare : But when she wan the Annan water, She cou'dna ha'e ridden a furlong mair, Had a thousand merks been wadded * at her. 8 " Oh, boatman, boatman, put off your boat I Put off your boat for gowden money ! I cross the drumly stream the night, Or never mair I see my honey." * " Wadded : " wagered. THE LA1KD OF WARISTOUN. 607 9 " Oh, I was sworn sae late yestreen, And not by ae aith, but by many ; And for all the gowd in fair Scotland, I dare not take ye through to Annie." 10 The side was stey, and the bottom deep, Frae bank to brae the water pouring ; And the bonnie gray mare did sweat for fear, For she heard the water-kelpy roaring 11 Oh, he has pull'd aff his dapperpy * coat, The silver buttons glanced bonnie ; The waistcoat bursted aff his breast, He was sae full of melancholy. 12 He has ta'en the ford at that stream tail ; I wot he swam both strong and steady ; But the stream was broad, and his strength did fail, And he never saw his bonnie ladye ! 13 " Oh, wae betide the frush { saugh wand ! And wae betide the bush of brier ! It brake into my true love's hand, When his strength did fail, and his limbs did tire. 1J: " And wae betide ye, Annan water, This night that ye are a drumlie river ! For over thee I'll build a bridge, J That ye never more true love may sever." THE LAIRD OF WARISTOUN From the Records of Justiciary, it appears that "Jean Livingstone, guidewife of Waristoun, hdVing sustained ane deadly rancour, hatred, and malice against" her husband, "John Kincaid, of Waristoun, for the alleged biting of her in the arm, and striking her divers times, the said Jean, in the month of June, 1600 years, directed Janet Murdo, her nureis, to 'Robert Weir, sometime servant to the Laird of Duni- pace,' desiring him to come down to Waristoun and speak with her anent the cruel and unnatural taking away of her husband's life. And the said Robert, having come down twice or thrice to the said umwhile Jean, to the said place of Waristoun, he could get no speech of her. At jast, the said umwhile Jean, upon the tirst day of July. * Query cap-a-pie. [Variegated woollen cloth or Tweed.] t " Frush : " brittle ; without cohesion of parts, t See Introduction to ballad, p. 605. The spelling is here modernized. G08 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 1600 years, directed the said Janet Murdo her nureiss to him, desiring him of new again to come down to her; whereto the said Robert granted. . . . And for performance" of the said murder "Robert Weir was secretly convoyed to ane laicli celler within the said place, wherein he abade until midnight ;" when "he, accompanied with the said Jean Livingstone, came forth of the said laich celler, up to the hall of the said place, and therefrom came to the chamber where the said umwhile John was lying in his bed, taking the night's rest, and having entered within the said chamber, perceiving the said John to be wakened out of his sleep by their din, and to press under his bed- stock, the said Robert came then running to him, and most cruelly, with the folded nelves, gave him a deadly and cruel stroke on the vaine-organ [flank -vein], wherewith he dang the said umwhile John to the ground out over his bed, and thereafter cruelty struck him on the belly with his feet, whereupon he gave a great cry ; and the said Robert, fearing the cry should have been heard, he therefore most tyranously, barbarously, with his hand grippet him by the throat or waisen, till he wearied him ; during the which time the said John Kincaid lay struggling andfechting in the pains of death under him." The lady and her nurse were quickly apprehended, and met with swift punishment ; as the lady " was ta'en to the Girth cross,* upon the fifth day of July [three days after the murder], and her head struck frae her body, at the Conongate foot, who died very patiently, + [and] her nurse was burnt at the same time, at 4 hours in the morn- ing." Birrel's Diary, p. 49. Weir, the actual perpetrator of the murder, escaped at the time, but was apprehended three or four years thereafter, and "the Jury having found him guilty, he was sentenced to be broken alive on the Row, or Wheel, and be exposed thereon for twenty -four hours ; and thereafter the said Row, with the body on it, to be placed between Leith and Waristoun, till orders be given to bury the body." Records of Justiciary, as given by Mr. Buchan. Three different versions of this ballad have appeared as under: L " The Laird of Waristoun," Popular Ballads, vol. i., p. 109, as communicated to Jamieson by Scott, and "given as it was taken down by the " latter "from the recitation of his mother. " II. "The Laird of Waristoun," fcinloch's Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 49. IIL "The Death of Lord Warriston," Buchan's Ancient Ballads, vol. i., p. 56. The two first are fragmentary, and the third seems rather apocry- phal in some portions. * "Girth Cross, so called from having once s'ood at the foot of the Canongate, near the Girth or Sanctuary of Holyrood House." Kinloch. t It appears from the narrative of a contemporary Edinburgh clergyman, edited by C. K. Sharpe, Esq., and printed at Edinburgh, 1827, that the wretched woman, who was then only twenty-one years of age, improved what was almost literally her day of grace, and died as if she were a martyr, rather than a murderess, and grudging "every moment which she spent in this world as so much taken from that sum of eternal felicity which she was to enjoy in the next." THE LAIRD OF WAEISTOUN. 609 The present version has been collated from all three, and retains some of the emendations introduced by Dr. Chambers in his collated version ; given in The Scottish Ballads Collected and Illustrated, &c., p. 129. Stanzas 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 20, and 21, are mainly from Jamieson's version ; stanzas 3, 7, 8, 19, and 24, from Kinloch's version ; and the remainder from Buchan's version. 1 DOWN by yon bonnie garden green, Sae merrily as she gaes! She has, I trow, twa weel-made feet, And she trips upon her taes. 2 She has twa weel-made feet, I trow; Far better is her hand; She is as jimp in the middle small As ony willow wand. 3 It was at dinner as they sat, And when they drank the wine, How happy were the laird and lady Of bonnie Waristoun ! 4 But Waristoun spake a word in jest; Her answer was not good; And he has thrown a plate at her, Made her mouth gush with bluid. 5 She wasna frae her chamber door A step, but barely three, When straightway up at her richt hand There stood Man's Enemie ! 6 " Gif ye will do my bidding, lady, At my bidding for to be, I'll learn you a richt skeely wile, Avenged for to be. 7 " At evening, when ye sit and sup, And when ye drink the wine, See that ye fill the glass weel up To the Laird of Waristoun."* * There is less of the terrible about the following, but it is more in accordance with fact: " She 's cotrasell'd wi' her father's steward, What way she could revenged be ; Bad was the counsel then he gave, It was to gar her gude lord dee." Buchan's version. 2 l: 610 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. 8 So at the table as they sat, And when they drank the wine, She made the glass aft times gae round To the Laird of Waristoun. 9 The foul thief knotted the tether; She lifted his head on hie, And the fause nourice drew the knot That gar'd Laird Waristoun dee.* 10 Then word has gane to Leith, to Leith, And up to Edinbro' toun, That the lady she has kill'd the laird, The Laird of Waristoun.f 11 And they've ta'en her and the fause nourice, And in prison ha'e them boun'; The nourice she was hard of heart, But the lady fell in a swoon. 12 Then in it came her brother dear; A sorry man was he : " I wou'd gi'e all the lands I ha'e, Bonnie Jean, to borrow thee." 13 " Oh, borrow me, brother! borrow me! Borrowed shall I never be; For I gar'd kill my ain gude lord, And life 's nae joy to me." 14 Then in it came her mother dear; A sorry woman was she : " I wou'd gi'e my white money and gowd, Bonnie Jean, to borrow thee." 15 " Borrow me, mother! borrow me! Borrowed shall I never be; For I gar'd kill my ain gude lord, And life's nae joy to me." " The nonrice took the deed in hand ; I wat she was well paid her fee ; 'She kiest the knot, and the loop she ran, Which soon did gar this young lord dee." Buchan's version. t "Word 's gane to her father, the great Dunipace, And an angry man was he, Cry's fy ! gar mak a barrel o' pikes, And row her down some brae.' 1 Kinloch's version. Contrast with stanzas 16 and 17, taken from Buchan's version. THE LAIRD OF WARISTOUN. 611 16 Then in it came her father dear; A sorry man was he : " Ochon, alas, my bonnie Jean, If I had you at hame with me. 17 " Seven daughters I ha'e left at hame, As fair as fair can be ; But I wou'd gi'e them all ane by ane, Jean, to borrow thee." 18 " Oh, borrow me, father! borrow me! Borrowed shall I never be; I that is worthy of the death, It 's richt that I now shou'd dee. 19 " Waristoun, I was your wife, These nine years, running ten; And I never lo'ed ye half sae weel As when ye there lay slain ! 20 " And oh, ye maidens young and fair, Take warning now by me, And see ye never marry ane But wha pleases your e'e. 21 " For Waristoun married me for love, But I wed him for fee ; And sae broke out the deadly feud, That gar'd my dearie dee. 22 " A boon, a boon, my liege the king, A boon, I ask of thee." " Ask on, ask on, my bonnie Jean, Your boon shall granted be." 23 " Cause take me out at nicht, at nicht; Let the sun not on me shine, And on yon heading hill strike aff This dawie head of mine. 24 " But first take aff my gowd brocade; Let only my petticoat be ; And tie my mantle o'er my head, For my death I daurna see." 25 Sae they've ta'en her to the heading hill, At morn, afore the sun; And with mournfu' sighs they've ta'en her life, For the death of Waristoun. 612 BALLAD MINSTRELSY OF SCOTLAND. LADY ANNE BOTHWELL'S BALOW. In Brome's "Northern Lass," 1632, there are two stanzas of a Lament resembling portions of, but which do not occur verbatim in any extant version of the following ballad. They are : "Peace, wayward barne! oh, cea?e thy moan! Thy farre more wayward daddy 's gone, And never will recalled be, By cryes of either thee or me: For should we cry until we dye, Wee could not scant his cruelty. Ballon:, hallow,