VOLUME III.

BOSTON: LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY. M.DCCC.LX.

[Pg ii]

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857 by Little, Brown and Company, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts.

RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE: STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY H.O. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY.

[Pg iii]

CONTENTS OF VOLUME THIRD.

[Pg 1]

BOOK III. CONTINUED.

[Pg 3]

EARL RICHARD.

A fragment of this gloomy and impressive romance, (corresponding to v. 21-42,) was published in Herd's Scottish Songs, i. 184, from which, probably, it was copied into Pinkerton's Scottish Tragic Ballads, p. 84. The entire ballad was first printed in The Border Minstrelsy, together with another piece, Lord William, containing a part of the same incidents. Of the five versions which have appeared, four are given in this place, and the remaining one in the Appendix. In the Gentleman's Magazine, 1794, Vol. 64, Part I. p. 553, there is a modern ballad of extremely perverted orthography and vicious style, (meant for ancient,) in which the twenty lines of Herd's fragment are interwoven with an altogether different story. It is printed as authentic in Scarce "Ancient" Ballads, Aberdeen, 1822.

"There are two ballads in Mr. Herd's MSS. upon the following story, in one of which the unfortunate knight is termed Young Huntin'. [See Appendix.] The best verses are selected from both copies, and some trivial alterations have been adopted from tradition." Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, iii. 184.

30. Clyde, in Celtic, means white.—Lockhart.

86. These are unquestionably the corpse-lights, called in Wales Canhwyllan Cyrph, which are sometimes seen to illuminate the spot where a dead body is concealed. The Editor is informed, that, some years ago, the corpse of a man, drowned in the Ettrick, below Selkirk, was discovered by means of these candles. Such lights are common in churchyards, and are probably of a phosphoric nature. But rustic superstition derives them from supernatural agency, and supposes, that, as soon as life has departed, a pale flame appears at the window of the house, in which the person had died, and glides towards the churchyard, tracing through every winding the route of the future funeral, and pausing where the bier is to rest. This and other opinions, relating to the "tomb-fires' livid gleam," seem to be of Runic extraction. Scott.

87. The deep holes, scooped in the rock by the eddies of a river, are called pots; the motion of the water having there some resemblance to a boiling caldron. Linn, means the pool beneath a cataract. Scott.

120. The lines immediately preceding, "The maiden touched," &c., and which are restored from tradition, refer to a superstition formerly received in most parts of Europe, and even resorted to by judicial authority, for the discovery of murder. In Germany, this experiment was called bahrrecht, or the law of the bier; because, the murdered body being stretched upon a bier, the suspected person was obliged to put one hand upon the wound and the other upon the mouth of the deceased, and, in that posture, call upon heaven to attest his innocence. If, during this ceremony, the blood gushed from the mouth, nose, or wound, a circumstance not unlikely to happen in the course of shifting or stirring the body, it was held sufficient evidence of the guilt of the party. Scott.

[Pg 10]

EARL RICHARD.

Obtained from recitation by Motherwell, and printed in his Minstrelsy, p. 218.

[Pg 13]

YOUNG REDIN.

"From the recitation of Miss E. Beattie, of Edinburgh, a native of Mearnsshire, who sings it to a plaintive, though somewhat monotonous air of one measure."—Kinloch, Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 1.

[Pg 18]

LORD WILLIAM.

Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, iii. 23.

This ballad was communicated to Sir Walter Scott by Mr. James Hogg, accompanied with the following note:—

"I am fully convinced of the antiquity of this song; for, although much of the language seems somewhat modernized, this must be attributed to its currency, being much liked, and very much sung in this neighbourhood. I can trace it back several generations, but cannot hear of its ever having been in print. I have never heard it with any considerable variation, save that one reciter called the dwelling of the feigned sweet-heart, Castleswa."

11. Charcoal red. This circumstance marks the antiquity of the poem. While wood was plenty in Scotland, charcoal was the usual fuel in the chambers of the wealthy. Scott.

[Pg 22]

PRINCE ROBERT

Was first published in the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, iii. 269, and was obtained from the recitation of Miss Christian Rutherford. Another copy, also from recitation, is subjoined.

[Pg 26]

EARL ROBERT.

"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 Leaven."—Minstrelsy, p. 200.

Another copy is noted by the same editor as containing the following stanzas:—

[Pg 30]

THE WEARY COBLE O' CARGILL.

From Motherwell's Minstrelsy, p. 230.

"This local ballad, which commemorates some real event, is given from the recitation of an old woman, residing in the neighbourhood of Cambus Michael, Perthshire. It possesses the elements of good poetry, and, had it fallen into the hands of those who make no scruple of interpolating and corrupting the text of oral song, it might have been made, with little trouble, a very interesting and pathetic composition.

"Kercock and Balathy are two small villages on the banks of the Tay; the latter is nearly opposite Stobhall. According to tradition, the ill-fated hero of the ballad had a leman in each of these places; and it was on the occasion of his paying a visit to his Kercock love, that the jealous dame in Balathy Toun, from a revengeful feeling, scuttled the boat in which he was to recross the Tay to Stobhall." Motherwell.

[Pg 34]

OLD ROBIN OF PORTINGALE.

Percy's Reliques of English Poetry, iii. 88.

"From an ancient copy in the Editor's folio MS., which was judged to require considerable corrections.

"In the former edition the hero of this piece had been called Sir Robin, but that title not being in the MS. is now omitted.

"Giles, steward to a rich old merchant trading to Portugal, is qualified with the title of Sir, not as being a knight, but rather, I conceive, as having received an inferior order of priesthood." Percy.

19, unbethought.

MS. 32, blend.

47, or to-morrow.

MS. 75, first.

117. Every person who went on a Croisade to the Holy Land usually wore a cross on his upper garment, on the right shoulder, as a badge of his profession. Different nations were distinguished by crosses of different colors: the English wore white, the French red, &c. This circumstance seems to be confounded in the ballad. Percy.

MS. 118, fleshe.

[Pg 40]

FAUSE FOODRAGE.

First published in Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, iii. 220.

"This ballad has been popular in many parts of Scotland. It is chiefly given from Mrs. Brown of Falkland's MSS. The expression,

"The boy stared wild like a gray goss-hawk," v. 31,

strongly resembles that in Hardyknute,

"Norse e'en like gray goss-hawk stared wild;"

a circumstance which led the Editor to make the strictest inquiry into the authenticity of the song. But every doubt was removed by the evidence of a lady of high rank, who not only recollected the ballad, as having amused her infancy, but could repeat many of the verses, particularly those beautiful stanzas from the 20th to the 25th. The Editor is, therefore, compelled to believe, that the author of Hardyknute copied the old ballad, if the coincidence be not altogether accidental." Scott.

[Pg 47]

BONNIE ANNIE.

From Kinloch's Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 123.

"There is a prevalent belief among seafaring people, that if a person who has committed any heinous crime be on ship-board, the vessel, as if conscious of its guilty burden, becomes unmanageable, and will not sail till the offender be removed: to discover whom, they usually resort to the trial of those on board, by casting lots; and the individual upon whom the lot falls, is declared the criminal, it being believed that Divine Providence interposes in this manner to point out the guilty person."—Kinloch.

Motherwell is inclined to think this an Irish ballad, though popular in Scotland.

With Bonnie Annie may be compared Jon Rimaardsöns Skriftemaal, Danske Viser, ii. 220; or, Herr Peders Sjöresa, Svenska Folk-Visor, ii. 31, Arwiddson, ii. 5 (translated in Literature and Romance of Northern Europe, 276).

32. The last two lines are derived from Motherwell, p. xcix. The text in Kinloch is corrupt, and stands thus:—

[Pg 50]

WILLIAM GUISEMAN.

From Kinloch's Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 156.

[Pg 53]

THE ENCHANTED RING

Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland, i. 169. Annexed is a fragment published by Jamieson, under the title of Bonny Bee-Ho'm.

43, they look'd.

48, And stone.

[Pg 57]

BONNY BEE-HO'M.

Jamieson's Popular Ballads, i. 184, from Mrs. Brown's MS., the interpolations of the editor being omitted.

[Pg 59]

THE THREE RAVENS.

From Ritson's Ancient English Songs, ii. 53. It is there reprinted from Ravenscroft's Melismata, 1611. Another copy follows, taken from Scott's Minstrelsy. Motherwell has recast the ballad in modern style, p. 7 of his collection.

[Pg 61]

THE TWA CORBIES.

From Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, ii. 359. It was communicated to Scott by Mr. Sharpe, as written down, from tradition, by a lady.

[Pg 63]

THE DOWIE DENS OF YARROW.

Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, iii. 143.

"This ballad, which is a very great favourite among the inhabitants 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 unpoetical.

"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:[Pg 64] 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 Gilmanscleugh. (See notes to Jamie Telfer.) 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[Pg 65] 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.'

"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:—

We have added an uncollated copy from Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland. Another is furnished by Motherwell, Minstrelsy, p. 252. Some of Scott's verses are also found in Herd's fragment, (Scottish Songs, i. 202,) and Buchan's Haughs o' Yarrow, ii. 211. The Dowy Den, in Evans's collection, iii. 342, is the caput mortuum of this spirited ballad.

17. The Tennies is the name of a farm of the Duke of Buccleuch's, a little below Yarrow Kirk.

[Pg 69]

THE BRAES O' YARROW.

From Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland, ii. 203. Repeated in the xviith volume of the Percy Society Publications.

39. To dream of any thing green is regarded in Scotland as unlucky.

[Pg 73]

SIR JAMES THE ROSE.

Pinkerton first published this piece in his Scottish Tragic Ballads, p. 61. In a note, it is said to have been taken "from a modern edition in one sheet, 12mo. after the old copy." Motherwell gives another version "as it occurs in early stall prints," (Minstrelsy, p. 321,) and suspects a few conjectural emendations in Pinkerton's text. The passage from v. 51 to v. 59 is apparently defective, and has, probably, been tampered with; but Pinkerton's copy is on the whole much better than Motherwell's, or than Whitelaw's, (Scottish Ballads, 39,) which professes to be given chiefly from oral recitations.

Michael Bruce's Sir James the Rose will be found in another part of this collection. In Caw's Museum (p. 290) is a ballad in the worst possible taste, styled Elfrida and Sir James of Perth, which seems to be a mere disfiguration of Bruce's.

[Pg 77]

GRÆME AND BEWICK.

From Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, iii. 69. A single improved reading is adopted from a Newcastle chap-book.

"Given, in the first edition, from the recitation of a gentleman, who professed to have forgotten some verses. These have, in the present edition, been partly restored, from a copy obtained by the recitation of an ostler in Carlisle, which has also furnished some slight alterations."

"The ballad is remarkable, as containing, probably, the very latest allusion to the institution of brotherhood in arms, which was held so sacred in the days of chivalry, and whose origin may be traced up to the Scythian ancestors of Odin." Scott.

15, Scott, Ye sent;

16, Ye bought.

22. Newcastle C. B., and hay.

41, 42.

Shall I venture my body in field to fight With a man that's faith and troth to me? N. C. B.

107-118. Instead of this passage, the Newcastle copy has the following stanzas:—

[Pg 86]

THE LAMENT OF THE BORDER WIDOW.

Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, iii. 94.

This fragment was obtained from recitation in Ettrick Forest, where it is said to refer to the execution of Cockburne, of Henderland, a freebooter, hanged by James V. over the gate of his own tower. There is another version in Johnson's Museum, (Oh Ono Chrio, p. 90,) which, Dr. Blacklock informed Burns, was composed on the massacre of Glencoe. But in fact, these verses seem to be, as Motherwell has remarked, only a portion (expanded, indeed,) of The Famous Flower of Serving Men: see vol. iv. p. 174.

There are some verbal differences between Scott's copy and the one in Chambers's Scottish Songs, i. 174.

[Pg 88]

YOUNG WATERS.

First published on an octavo sheet, by Lady Jean Home, about the middle of the last century, and from this copy reprinted in Percy's Reliques, (ii. 227.) Buchan has a version (i. 15) twenty-five stanzas longer than the present, which is given in our Appendix. This ballad has been supposed to refer to the fate of the Earl of Murray, (see post, The Bonny Earl of Murray.) The additional circumstances furnished by Buchan's copy, however, have led Chambers to suggest that the unfortunate hero was Walter Stuart, second son of the Duke of Albany. In support of his conjecture, he adduces "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 Stuart'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[Pg 89] the numerous nobles and princes of his own blood,

whom the king saw it necessary to sacrifice." We do not consider these coincidences sufficient to establish the historical character of the piece.

[Pg 92]

BONNIE GEORGE CAMPBELL.

Motherwell's Minstrelsy, p. 44.

This, says Motherwell, "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 third day of October, 1594 years." It is printed, somewhat differently, in Smith's Scottish Minstrel, v. 42. Finlay gives eight lines of this ballad in the Preface to his first volume, p. xxxiii.

[Pg 94]

LAMKIN.

The following is believed to be a correct account of the various printed forms of this extremely popular ballad. In the second edition of Herd's Scottish Songs (1776) appeared a fragment of eighteen stanzas, called Lammikin, embellished in a puerile style by some modern hand. Jamieson published the story in a complete and authentic shape in his Popular Ballads, in 1806. Finlay's collection (1808) furnishes us with two more copies, the first of which (ii. 47) is made up in part of Herd's fragment, and the second (ii. 57) taken from a MS. "written by an old lady." Another was given, from recitation, in Motherwell's Minstrelsy, (1827,) with the more intelligible title of Lambert Linkin. An English fragment, called Long Lonkin, taken down from the recitation of an old woman, is said to have been inserted by Miss Landon, in the Drawing-Room Scrap-Book, for 1837. This was republished in Richardson's Borderer's Table-Book, 1846, vol. viii. 410, and the editor of that miscellany, who ought to have learned to be skeptical in such matters, urges the circumstantial

character of local tradition as strong evidence that the real scene of the cruel history was in Northumberland.[Pg 95] Lastly, we have to note a version resembling Motherwell's, styled Bold Rankin, printed in A New Book of Old Ballads, (p. 73,) and in Whitelaw's Book of Scottish Ballads, (p. 246,) and an imperfect ballad (Long Lankyn) in Notes and Queries, New Series, ii. 324.

We have printed Jamieson's, Motherwell's, the longer of Finlay's versions, and the English fragment: the last two in the Appendix. The following is from Jamieson's Popular Ballads, i. 176. "This piece was transmitted to the Editor by Mrs. Brown."

[Pg 100]

LAMBERT LINKIN.