“ It is not clear whether the responsibility of giving the order to fire the castle attaches to Adam Gordon or to Captain Car or Ker, who was Adam’s right-hand man. But when all is said on either side, it is irrational, as Child points out, to apply modern standards of morality or expediency to sixteenth-century warfare. It is curious that this text, almost contemporary with the occurrence which gave rise to the ballad, should be wholly concerned with Captain Car and make no mention of Adam Gordon. ”

“ He has tane the laird’s jack of his back,
The twa-handed sword that hang leugh by his thigh;
He has tane the steel cap off his head;
‘Johnie, I’le tel my master I met with thee.’
43.
When Johnë waken’d out of his dream,
I wat a drery man was he;
‘Is thou gane now, Dickie, than?
The shame gae in thy company!
44.
‘Is thou gane now, Dickie, than?
The shame go in thy companie!
For if I should live this hundred year,
I shal never fight with a fool after thee.’
45.
Then Dickie comed home to lord and master,
Even as fast as he may drie. ”

“ Bessy Bell being come on a visit to Mary Gray, they retired, in order to avoid an outbreak of the plague, to a bower built by themselves in a romantic spot called Burnbraes, on the side of Branchie-burn, three-quarters of a mile from Lednock House. The ballad does not say how the ‘pest cam,’ but tradition finds a cause for their deaths by inventing a young man, in love with both, who visited them and brought the infection. ”

“ With his small army the Earl of Douglas passed rapidly through Northumberland, crossed the Tyne near Brancepeth, wasted the country as far as the gates of Durham, and returned to Newcastle as rapidly as they had advanced. Several skirmishes took place at the barriers of the town: and in one of these Sir Henry Percy (Hotspur) was personally opposed to Douglas. After an obstinate struggle the Earl won the pennon of the English leader, and boasted that he would carry it to Scotland, and set it high on his castle of Dalkeith. ”

“ The English chronicle puts John of Douglas with the Earl of Murray, and the Earl of Buchan with King David.
The ballad, therefore, that calls Angus ‘Anguish’ (11.1) and puts him on the side of the Scots, as well as Neville (17.1) , and apparently confuses the two Douglases (14 and 21) , is not more at variance with history than is to be expected, and in the present case is but little more vague than the historical records themselves.
‘Vaughan’ (13.1) may be Baughan or Buchan, though it is doubtful whether there was an Earl of Buchan in 1346. ”

“ The long pathetic ballad of Bewick and Grahame is a link between the romantic ballads and the ballads of the Border, Sir Hugh in the Grime’s Downfall connecting the Border ballads with the ‘historical’ ballads. The four splendid ‘Armstrong ballads’ also are mainly ‘historical,’ though Dick o’ the Cow requires further elucidation. Kinmont Willie is under suspicion of being the work of Sir Walter Scott, who alone of all ballad-editors, perhaps, could have compiled a ballad good enough to deceive posterity. We cannot doubt the excellence of Kinmont Willie ”

“ Many of the knights and nobles who accompanied her to Norway were drowned on the voyage home.
However, we need not elaborate our researches in 69 the attempt to prove that the ballad is historical. It is certainly of English and Scottish origin, and has no parallels in the ballads of other lands. ‘Haf owre to Aberdour,’ i.e. halfway between Aberdour in Buchan and the coast of Norway, lies the island of Papa Stronsay, on which there is a tumulus called ‘the Earl’s Knowe’ (knoll) ; but the tradition, that this marks the grave of Sir Patrick Spence, is in all probability a modern invention. ”

“ James V., in spite of the promise ‘to doe no wrong’ in his large and long letter, appears to have been incensed at the splendour of ‘Jonnë’s’ retinue. It seems curious that the outlaw should have been a Westmoreland man; but the Cronicles of Scotland say that ‘from the Scots border to Newcastle of England, there was not one, of whatsoever estate, but paid to this John Armstrong a tribute, to be free of his cumber, he was so doubtit in England.’ Jonnë’s offer in the stanza 16.3,4, may be compared to the similar feat of Sir Andrew Barton. ”

“ THE TWA BROTHERS
The Text is from Sharpe’s Ballad Book (1823) . Scott included no version of this ballad in his Minstrelsy; but Motherwell and Jamieson both had traditional versions. Motherwell considered it essential that the deadly wound should be accidental; but it is far more typical of a ballad-hero that he should lose his temper and kill his brother; and, as Child points out, it adds to the pathetic generosity of the slain brother in providing excuses for his absence to be made to his father, mother, and sister. ”

“ The Story.—We have as authorities for the history of the battle both Scottish and English chronicles, but the ballad, as might be expected, follows neither very closely. Indeed it is not easy to reconcile the Scottish account with the English. David Bruce, the young king of Scotland, seized the opportunity afforded by Edward III.’s absence in France at the siege of Calais to invade England with a large army. ”

“ From Percy’s ballad—the present text—we can gather that Sir Patrick Spence was chosen by the king to convey something of value to a certain destination; and later versions tell us that the ship is bound for Norway, the object of the voyage being either to bring home the king of Norway’s daughter, or the Scottish king’s daughter, or to take out the Scottish king’s daughter to be queen in Norway. The last variation can be supported by history, Margaret, daughter of Alexander III. of Scotland, being married in 1281 to Erik, king of Norway. ”

“ The Twa Brothers has become a game, and Lizie Lindsay a song. The Outlyer Bold is a title I have been forced to give to a version of the ballad best known as The Bonnie Banks o’ Fordie; this, it is true, might have come more aptly in the First Series. So also Katharine Jaffray, which enlarges the lesson taught in The Cruel Brother (First Series, p. 76) , and adds one of its own.
The Heir of Linne is another of the naïve, delightful ballads from the Percy Folio, and in general style may be compared with The Lord of Learne in the Second Series (p. 182) . ”

“ No other text is known to me. The volume of Anglia containing the ballad was not published till 1903, some five years after Professor Child’s death; and I believe he would have included it in his collection had he known of it.
The Story narrates the subjugation of a proud lady who scorns all her wooers, by a juggler who assumes the guise of a knight. On the morrow the lady discovers her paramour to be a churl, and he is led away to execution, but escapes by 212 juggling himself into a meal-bag: the dust falls in the lady’s eye. ”

“ The Lord John of the ballad was Viscount Melgum, the second son of the Marquis of Huntly, who was appealed to as a peacemaker between the factions of Leslie and Crichton. Lord John and Rothiemay were sent by the Marquis to escort Frendraught to his home, a precaution rendered necessary by the knowledge that the Leslies were in ambuscade. Arrived at Frendraught, the laird and lady entreated the two young men to remain the night, and eventually prevailed on them to do so. ”

“ In The Beggar Laddie (Child, No. 280, v. 116) a pretended beggar or shepherd-boy induces a lassie to follow him, ‘because he was a bonny laddie.’ They come to his father’s (or brother’s) hall; he knocks, four-and-twenty gentlemen welcome him in, and as many gay ladies attend the lassie, who is thenceforward a knight’s or squire’s lady.
In The Jolly Beggar (Child, No. 279, v. 109) , which, with the similar Scottish poem The Gaberlunzie Man, is attributed without authority to James V. of Scotland, a beggar takes up his quarters in a house, and will only lie behind the hall-door, or by the fire. ”

“ The Story.—Lesley in his History of Scotland (1830) says that when Mary Stuart was sent to France in 1548, she had in attendance ‘sundry gentlewomen and noblemen’s sons and daughters, almost of her own age, of the which there were four in special of whom everyone of them bore the same name of Mary, being of four sundry honourable houses, to wit, Fleming, Livingston, Seton, and Beaton of Creich.’ The four Maries were still with the Queen in 1564. Hamilton and Carmichael appear in the ballad in place of Fleming and Livingston. ”

“ Since history repeats itself, the possibility and even the probability must be entertained that every now and then a ballad which had been in circulation for some time was adapted to the circumstances of a recent occurrence, and has x come down to us only in such an adaptation. ”

“ An English song, printed as a broadside about 1640, The Lovely Northerne Lasse, is directed to be sung ‘to a pleasant Scotch tune, called The broom of Cowden Knowes.’ It is a poor variant of our ballad, in the usual broadside style, and cannot have been written by any one fully acquainted with the Scottish ballad. It is in the Roxburghe, Douce, and other collections. ”

“ The Battle of Otterburn was fought in 1388; but our two versions belong to the middle of the sixteenth century. The English Battle of Otterburn is the more faithful to history, and refers (35.2) to ‘the cronykle’ as authority. The Hunting of the Cheviot was in the repertory of Richard Sheale (see First Series, Introduction, xxvii) , who ends his version in the regular manner traditional amongst minstrels. Also, we have the broadside Chevy Chase, which well illustrates the degradation of a ballad in the hands of the hack-writers ”

“ In 1824, in his preface to the Ballad Book, Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe produced a similar story from 45 the Russian court. In 1885 this story was retold from authentic sources as follows. After the marriage of one of the ministers of Peter the Great’s father with a Hamilton, the Scottish family ranked with the Russian aristocracy. The Czar Peter required that all his Empress Catharine’s maids-of-honour should be remarkably handsome; and Mary Hamilton, a niece, it is supposed, of the above minister’s wife, was appointed on account of her beauty. ”

“ The Story is akin to that of Kinmont Willie (p. 49) . John of the Side (on the river Liddel, nearly opposite Mangerton) first appears about 1550 in a list of freebooters against whom complaints were laid before the Bishop of Carlisle. He was, it seems, another of the Armstrong family.
Hobby Noble has a ballad5 to himself (as the hero of the present ballad deserves) , in which mention is made of Peter of Whitfield. This is doubtless the person mentioned in the first line of John o’ the Side as having been killed presumably by John himself. ”

“ The Text is from Motherwell’s Minstrelsy (1827) . It is based on a stall-copy, presumably similar to one preserved by Sir Walter Scott at Abbotsford, combined with a version from recitation, which Child none the less calls ‘well remembered from print.’
The Story has no historical foundation, as far as can be discovered; and for once we have a traditional tale inculcating a moral, though we do not understand why the ‘nourice’ betrays Sir James to his enemies.
Michael Bruce wrote a version of the story of this ballad, which seems to have become more popular than the ballad itself. ”

“ Meggie awakes, and learns that she has dismissed her true-love in her sleep. Our ballad is deficient here, but it is obvious from st. 19 that both lovers are drowned. We must understand, therefore, that Meggie follows Willie across Clyde. A variant of the ballad explains that she found him ‘in the deepest pot’ in all Clyde’s water, and drowned herself.
Child notes that there is a very popular Italian 141 ballad of much the same story, except that the mother’s curse is on the girl and not the man.
There is a curious change in the style of spelling from stanza 15 to the end. ”

“ Business being concluded, Kinmont Willie took his leave, and made his way along the Scottish side of the Liddel river, which at that point is the boundary between England and Scotland. The English deputy and his party spied him from their side of the stream; and bearing an ancient grudge against him as a notorious cattle-lifter 50 and thief, they pursued and captured him, and he was placed in the castle of Carlisle.
This brings us to the ballad. ‘Hairibee’ (1.4) is the place of execution at Carlisle. The ‘Liddel-rack’ in 3.4 is a ford over the Liddel river. ”

“ Waly, xv waly, is not a ballad at all, and is only included because it has become confused with Jamie Douglas.
The Jolly Juggler seems to be a discovery, and I commend it to the notice of those better qualified to deal with it. The curious fifth line added to each verse may be the work of some minstrel—a humorous addition to, or comment upon, the foregoing stanza. ”

“ The ballad is narrated by ‘John Hielan’man’ to Sir James the Rose (derived from the ballad of that name given earlier in the present volume) and Sir 195 John the Gryme (Graeme) . ‘Macdonell’ is Donald of the Isles, who, as claimant to the Earldom of Ross, advanced on Aberdeen, and was met at Harlaw by the Earl of Mar and Alexander Ogilvy, sheriff of Angus. It was a stubborn fight, though it did not last from Monday to Saturday (23) , and Donald lost nine hundred men and the other party five hundred. ”

“ The Story is concerned with two fathers, who boast about their sons, and cause the two lads to fight. Christy Graham is faced with the dilemma of fighting either his father or his brother-in-arms, and decides to meet the latter; but, should he kill his friend, he determines not to return alive. Young Bewick takes a similar vow. They fight two hours, and at last an ‘ackward’ stroke kills Bewick, and Christy falls on his sword. The two fathers lament, and the ballad-singer finishes by putting the blame on them.
BEWICK AND GRAHAME
1. ”