UNIVERSITY or PITTSBURGH 'i) ex. r.
VRjiSi SH6^
Uarliiigton JVLeniorial -Library
MINSTRELSY
SCOTTISH BOEDER
VOL, I.
&:
EDI Tr
MINSTRELSY
COTTISH BORDER:
SIR WALTER SCOTT, Bakt.
HIS INTRODUCTIONS, ADDITIONS, AND THE EDITOR'S NOTES.
VOLUME L
ROBERT CADELL, EDINBURGH: HOULSTON & STONEMAN, LONDON.
MDCCCXLIX.
CONTENTS OF VOLUME FIRST.
PAGE
Advertisement, ...... iii
Dedication, ...... 1
Introductory Remarks on Popular Poetry, . 5
Introduction to Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, 93 Appendix.
No. I. 240
No. II. 245
No. III. 256
No. IV. 261
No. V. ...... 265
No. VI. 270
• No. VII. 274
No. VIII 284
Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. Part I.
|
Historical Ballads |
. |
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|
•^ir Patrick Spens, 295 |
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|
Auld IMaitland, |
306 |
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Appendix, The Battle of Otterbourne, |
331 345 |
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|
Appendix, Tlie Sang of the Outlaw Murraj |
363 369 |
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|
Jolinie Armstrong, |
392 |
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|
Supplement, Lord Ewrie, |
414 417 |
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|
The Lochmaben Harper, |
422 |
ADVERTISEMENT.
Two volumes of the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border were published in 1802; — a third fol- lowed in 1803 ; and, in the course of subsequent editions, the arrangement of the ballads under- went various changes, and numerous additions were made to the Notes. Sir Walter Scott drew up, in March 1830, the " Introductory Remarks on Popular Poetry," which appear at the head of the present volume, and an " Essay on Imi- tations of the Ancient Ballad," which will be given in the fourth volume of this edition. He kept by him, as long as his health permitted him to continue his literary pursuits, an interleaved
ADVERTISEMENT.
copy of the Collection by which his name was first established, inserting various readings as chance threw them in his way, and enriching his annotations with whatever new lights con- versation or books supplied. The Work is now printed according to the copy thus finally cor- rected, with some notes, distinguished by brack- ets, in which the Editor has endeavoured to compress such additional information concern- ing the incidents and localities mentioned in the Minstrelsy, as he could gather from the private correspondence of Sir Walter Scott, now in his hands, or remembered to have dropt from his lips in the course of his rides among the scenery of Border warfare.
One of the Reviewers of the Minstrelsy, when it first appeared, said, " In this collection are the materials for scores of metrical ro- mances." This was a prophetic critic. In the text and notes of tliis early publication, we can now trace the primary incident, or broad out-
ADVERTISEMENT. ' V
line of almost every romance, whether in verse or in prose, which Sir Walter Scott built in after life on the history or traditions of his country. The Editor has added references by which the reader will find it easy to compare the original detached anecdote, or brief sketch of character in these pages, with the expanded or embel- lished narratives and delineations of the Au- thor's greater poems and novels.
The airs of some of these old ballads are for the first time appended to the present edition. The selection includes those which Sir Walter Scott himself liked the best ; and they are transcribed, without variation, from the MSS. in his library.
According to Mr Motherwell, the Editor of " Minstrelsy, Ancient and Modern, 1827," the Old Ballads, which appeared for the first time in this collection, are forty-three in number, viz. : Auld Maitland, The Song of the Outlaw Murray, Lord Eivrie, The Lochmaben Harper,
VI ADVERTISEMENT,
Jamie TeJfer of the fair Dodhead, Kinmont Wil- lie, The Death of Featherstonehaugh, Bartrame's Dirge, Archie o' Cd field, Johnny Armstrong s Good Night, The Lads of Wamphray, The Bat- tle of Philiphaugh, The Gallant Grahames, The Battle of Pentland Hill, The Battle of Loudon Hill, The Battle of Both well Bridge, Erling- ton, The Douglas Tragedy, Young Bejyie, Proud Lady Margaret, Sir Hugh Le Blond, Grceme and Bewick, The I^ament of the Border Widow, Johnnie of Braidislee, Katharine Janfarie, The Dowie Dens of Yarrow, The Gay Goss-haivk, Brown Adam, Jellon Grahame, Willie's Lady, Clerk Saunders, The Demon Lover, Rose the Red and White Lilly, Pause Foudrage, Kempion, The Wife of Usher's Well, King Henry, Prince Robert, Annan Water, The Cruel Sister, The Queen's Marie, Jlie Bonny Hind, and TJiomas the Rhymer.
Mr Motherwell adds — " Fortunate it was for the heroic and legendary song of Scotland that
ADVERTISEMENT. A'll
the work was undertaken, and still more fortu- nate that its execution devolved upon one so well qualified in every respect to do its subject the most ample justice. Long will it live, a noble and interesting monument of his unwearied research, curious and minute learning, genius, and taste. It is truly a patriot's legacy to pos- terity ; and much as it may be now esteemed, it is only in times yet gathering in the bosom of futurity, when the interesting traditions, the chivalrous and romantic legends, the wild su- perstitions, the tragic songs of Scotland, have wholly failed from the living memory, that this gift can be duly appreciated. It is then that these volumes will be conned with feelings akin to religious enthusiasm, that their strange and mystic lore will be treasured up in the heart as the precious record of days for ever passed away — that their grand stern legends will be listened to with reverential awe, as if the voice of a re- mote ancestor from the depths of the tomb, had
VIU ADVERTISEMENT.
woke the thrilling strains of martial antiquity." — p. Ixxix.
The drawings executed for the illustration of the present volume, and indeed of all the volumes of the series which it commences, are from the hand of Mr Turner, to wliom the sub- jects were pointed out by Sir Walter Scott, when that great Artist ^^sited him at Abbots- ford in the autumn of 1830.
J. G. L.
London, March 12, 1833.
TO HIS GRACE
WALTER FRANCIS MONTAGU DOUGLAS SCOTT,
DUKE OF BUCCLEUCH AND QUEENSBERRY,
&c. &c. &c.
My Lord Duke, In inscribing these volumes' to your Grace, I am fortunately emancipated from the necessity of intruding upon you the commonplace sub- jects of dedication. Most of these Poems have been long before the public, and were inscribed, at the time of their publication, to the various
' [The collective edition of Sir Walter Scott's Poetical
Works. Edin. 1830 Ed.]
VOL. I. A
"1 DEDICATION.
excellent persons nearly connected with your Grace, whose names they retain. I am, there- fore, well aware, that these compositions, of little intrinsic value in themselves, will, like other me- morials of dear friends who have been removed from the world, claim some value in your Grace's estimation, from the names of their former patrons. May your Grace live long to exercise the virtues of your predecessors, whose duties you inherit along with their rank and possessions. Such is the sincere wish of.
My Lord Duke, Your Grace's early Friend,
And much obliged humble Servant,
Walter Scott.
Abbotsford, April 3. 1830.
MINSTRELSY
THE SCOTTISH BORDER.
IxNTRODUCTORY REMARKS POPULAR POETRY.
THE VARIOUS COLLECTIONS OF BALLADS OF BRITAIN, PARTICULARLY THOSE OF SCOTLAND.
The Introduction originally prefixed to " The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border," was rather of a historical than a literary nature ; and the re- marks which follow have been added, to afford the general reader some information upon the cha- racter of Ballad Poetry.
It would be throwing away words to prove, what all must admit, the general taste and pro- pensity of nations in their early state, to culti- vate some species of rude poetry. When the
' [These remarks were first appended to the edition of 1830._Ed.]
b INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON
organs and faculties of a primitive race have de- veloped themselves, each for its proper and ne- cessary use, there is a natural tendency to em- ploy them in a more refined and regulated man- ner for purposes of amusement. The savage, after proving the activity of his limbs in the chase or the battle, trains them to more mea- sured movements, to dance at the festivals of his tribe, or to perform obeisance before the altars of his deity. From the same impulse, he is dis- posed to refine the ordinary speech which forms the vehicle of social communication betwixt him and his brethren, until, by a more ornate diction, modulated by certain rules of rhythm, cadence, assonance of termination, or recurrence of sound or letter, he obtains a dialect more solemn in expression, to record the laws or exploits of his tribe, or more sweet in sound, in which to plead his own cause to his mistress.
This primeval poetry must have one general character in all nations, both as to its merits and its imperfections. The earlier poets have tiie advantage, and it is not a small one, of
POPULAR POETRY. 7
having the first choice out of the stock of mate- rials which are proper to the art ; and thus they compel later authors, if they would avoid slavish- ly imitating the fathers of verse, into various de- vices, 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 hap- pens, that early poets almost uniformly display a bold, rude, original cast of genius and expression. They have walked at free-will, and with uncon- strained steps, along the wilds of Parnassus, while their followers move with constrained ges- tures and forced attitudes, in order to avoid placing their feet where their predecessors have stepped before them. The first bard who com- pared his hero to a lion, struck a bold and con- genial note, though the simile, in a nation of hunters, be a very obvious one ; but every sub- sequent poet who shall use it, must either strug- gle hard to give his lion, as heralds say, with a difference^ or lie under the imputation of being a servile imitator.
8 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON
It is not probable that, by any researches of modern times, we shall ever reach back to an earlier model of poetry than Homer; but as there lived heroes before Agamemnon, so, un- questionably, poets existed before the immortal Bard who gave the King of kings his fame ; and he whom all civilized nations now acknowledge as the Father of Poetry, must have himself looked back to an ancestry of poetical predeces- sors, and is only held original because we know not from whom he copied. Indeed, though much must be ascribed to the riches of his own indi- vidual genius, the poetry of Homer argues a de- gree of perfection in an art which jiractice had already rendered regular, and concerning which, his frequent mention of the bards, or chanters of poetry, indicates plainly that it was studied by many, and known and admired by all.'
' [Sir Walter Scott, as this paragrapli intiiiiati's, nevor doubted that the lUad and Odyssey were substantially tiie works of one and tlic same individual. lie said of the Wolfian hy])othesis. that it wa-; tiie most hrr/iirioiix one lie had heard of, and could ncAcr be lu'licxed in liv auv poet. — Ed.]
POPULAR POETRV.
It is indeed easily discovered, that the quali- ties necessary for composing such poems are not the portion of every man in the tribe ; that the bard, to reach excellence in his art, must possess something more than a full command of words and phrases, and the knack of arranging them in such form as ancient examples have fixed upon as the recognised structure of national verse. The tribe speedily become sensible, that besides this degree of mechanical facility, which (like making what are called at school nonsense verses) may be attained by dint of memory and practice, much higher qualifications are demanded. A keen and active power of observation, capable of perceiving at a glance the leading circumstances from which the incident described derives its cha- racter; quick and powerful feelings, to enable the bard to comprehend and delineate those of the actors in his piece ; and a command of lan- guage, alternately soft and elevated, and suited to express the conceptions which he had formed in his mind, are all necessary to eminence in the poetical art.
10 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON
Above all, to attain the highest point of his profession, the poet must have that original power of embodying and detailing circumstances, which can place before the eyes of others a scene which only exists in his own imagination. This last high and creative faculty, namely, that of impressing the mind of the hearers with scenes and sentiments having no existence save through their art, has procured for the bards of Greece the term of Yloivrng, which, as it singularly hap- pens, is literally translated by the Scottish epithet for the same class of persons, whom they termed the Makers. The French phrase of Trouveurs, or Troubadours, namely, the Finders, or In- ventors, has the same reference to the quality of original conception and invention proper to the poetical art, and without which it can hardly be said to exist to any pleasing or useful purpose.
The mere arrangement of words into poetical rhythm, or combining them according to a tech- nical ride or measure, is so closely coimected with the art of music, that an alliance between these two fine arts is very soon closely formed.
POPULAR POETRY. 11
It is fruitless to enquire which of them has been first invented, since doubtless the precedence is accidental; and it signifies little whether the musician adapts verses to a rude tune, or whether the primitive poet, in reciting his productions, falls naturally into a chant or song. With this additional accomplishment, the poet becomes aoiSbj, or the man of song, and his character is complete when the additional accompaniment of a lute or harp is added to his vocal performance. Here, therefore, we have the history of early poetry in all nations. But it is evident that, though poetry seems a plant proper to almost all soils, yet not only is it of various kinds, according to the climate and country in which it has its origin, but the poetry of different nations diifers still more widely in the degree of excellence which it attains. This must depend in some measure, no doubt, on the temper and manners of the people, or their proximity to those spirit-stirring events which are naturally selected as the subject of poetry, and on the more comprehensive or energetic character of the language spoken by
12 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON
the tribe. But the progress of the art is far more dependent upon the rise of some highly- gifted individual, possessing in a preeminent and uncommon degree the powers demanded, whose talents influence the taste of a w^hole nation, and entail on their posterity and language a character almost indelibly sacred. In this respect Homer stands alone and unrivalled, as a light from whose lamp the genius of successive ages, and of distant nations, has caught fire and illumination ; and who, though the early poet of a rude age, has purchased for the era he has celebrated, so mucli reverence, that, not daring to bestow on it the term of barbarous, we distinguish it as the heroic period.
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, col- lected by the pious care of Pisistratus, who caused to be united into their present form those diviiu' poems, would otherwise, if preserved at all, ha\i'
POPULAR POETRY. 13
appeared to succeeding generations in the humble state of a collection of detached ballads, connect- ed only as referring to the same age, the same general subjects, and the same cycle of heroes, like the metrical poems of the Cid in Spain, ^ or of Robin Hood in England.
In other countries, less favoured, either in language or in picturesque incident, it cannot be supposed that even the genius of Homer could have soared to such exclusive eminence, since he must at once have been deprived of the subjects and themes so well adapted for his muse, and of the lofty, melodious, and flexible language in which he recorded them. Other nations, during the formation of their ancient poetry, wanted the genius of Homer, as well as his picturesque scenery and lofty language. Yet the investiga- tion of the early poetry of every nation, even
' [The " Poema del Cid"(of which Mr Frere has trans- lated some specimens) is, however, considered by every historian of Spanish literature, as the work of one hand ; and is evidently more ancient than the detached ballads on the Adventures of the Campeador, which are included in the Cancioneros. — Ed.]
14 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON
the rudest, carries with it an object of curiosity and interest. It is a chapter in the history of the childhood of society, and its resemblance to, or dissimilarity from, the popular rhymes of other nations in the same stage, must needs illustrate the ancient history of states ; their slower or swift- er progress towards civilisation ; their gradual or more rapid adoption of manners, sentiments, and religion. The study, therefore, of lays rescued from the gulf of oblivion, must in every case pos- sess considerable interest for the moral philoso- pher and general historian.
The historian of an individual nation is equally or more deeply interested in the researches into popular poetry, since he must not disdain to gather from the tradition conveyed in ancient ditties and ballads, the information necessary to confirm or correct intelligence collected from more certain sources. And although the poets were a fabling race from the very l)eginning of time, and so much addicted to exaggeration, that their accounts are seldom to be relied on without corroborative evidence, yet instances frequently
POPULAR POETRY. 15
occur where the statements of poetical tradition are unexpectedly confirmed.
To the lovers and admirers of poetry as an art, it cannot be uninteresting to have a glimpse of the National Muse in her cradle, or to hear her babbling the earliest attempts at the formation of the tuneful sounds with which she was after- wards to charm posterity. And I may venture to add, that among poetry, which, however rude, was a gift of Nature's first fruits, even a reader of refined taste will find his patience rewarded, by passages in which the rude minstrel rises into sublimity or melts into pathos. These were the merits which induced the classical Addison^ to write an elaborate commentary upon the ballad of Chevy Chase, and which roused, like the sound of a trumpet, the heroic blood of Sir Philip Sidney.^
' [See The Spectator, No. 70 and 74.]
- [I never heard the old song of Percie and Douglas, that I found not my heart moved more than with the sound of a trumpet ; and yet it is sung but by some blind crowder, with no rougher voice than rude style Sidney.]
16 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON
It is true, that passages of this high character occur seldom ; for during the infancy of the art of poetry, the bards have been generally satisfied with a rude and careless expression of their senti- ments ; and even when a more felicitous expres- sion, or loftier numbers, have been dictated by the enthusiasm of the composition, the advantage came unsought for, and perhaps unnoticed, either by the minstrel or thd* audience.
Another cause contributed to the tenuity of thought and poverty of expression, by which old ballads are too often distinguished. The appa- rent simplicity of the ballad stanza carried Mith it a strong temptation to loose and trivial compo- sition. The collection of rhymes, accumulated by the earliest of the craft, appear to have been considered asforming a joint stock for the common use of the profession ; and not mere rhymes only, but verses and stanzas, have l)cen used as common property, so as to give an appearance of sameness and crudity to the whole series of popular poetry. Such, for instance, is the salutation so often re- peated.
POPULAR POETRY. 17
" Now Heaven thee save, thou brave young knight, Now Heaven thee save and see."
And such the usual expression for taking counsel
with,
" Rede me, rede me, brother dear, My rede shall rise at thee."
Such also is the unvaried account of the rose and the brier, which are said to spring out of the grave of the hero and heroine of these metrical legends, with little effort at a variation of the expressions in which the incident is prescriptively told. The least acquaintance with the subject will recall a great number of commonplace verses, which each ballad-maker has unceremoniously appropriated to himself; thereby greatly facili- tating his own task, and at the same time degra- ding his art by his slovenly use of over-scutched phrases. From the same indolence, the ballad- mongers of most nations have availed themselves of every opportunity of prolonging their pieces, of the same kind, without the labour of actual composition. If a message is to be delivered, the poet saves himself a little trouble, by using
VOL. I. B
18 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON
exactly the same words in Avhich it was originally couched, to secure its being transmitted to the person for whose ear it was intended. The bards of ruder climes, and less favoured languages, may indeed claim the countenance of Homer for such repetitions ; but whilst, in the Father of Poetry, they give the reader an opportunity to pause, and look back upon (lie enchanted ground over which they have travelled, they afford nothing to the modern bard, save facilitating the power of stupi- fying the audience with stanzas of dull and tedious iteration.
Another cause of the flatness and insipidity, which is the great imperfection of ballad poetry, is to be ascribed less to the compositions in their original state, when rehearsed by their authors, than to the ignorance and errors of the reciters or transcribers, by whom they have been trans- mitted to us. The more popular the compo- sition of an ancient poet, or Maker, became, the greater chance there was of its being cor- rupted ; for a poem transmitted through a num- ber of reciters, like a book reprinted in a multi-
rOPULAR POETRY. 19
tude of editions, incurs the risk of impertinent interpolations from the conceit of one rehearser, unintelligible blunders from the stupidity of an- other, and omissions equally to be regretted, from the want of memory in a third. This sort of injury is felt very early, and the reader will find a curious instance in the Introduction to the Romance of Sir Tristrem. Robert de Brunne there complains, that though the Romance of Sir Tristrem was the best which had ever been made, if it could be recited as composed by the author, Thomas of Erceldoune ; yet that it was written in such an ornate style of language, and such a difficult strain of versification, as to lose all value in the mouths of ordinary minstrels, who could scarcely repeat one stanza without omitting some part of it, and marring, consequently, both the sense and the rhythm of the passage.^ This
' [" That thou may hear in Sir Tristrem : Over gestes it has the steem, Over all that is or was, K men it sayd as made Thomas ; But I hear it no man so say — But of some copple some is away," &c.]
20 INTRODUCTOnV REMARKS ON
deterioration could not be limited to one author alone ; others must have suffered from the same cause, in the same or a greater degree. Nay, we are authorized to conclude, that in proportion to the care bestowed by the author upon any poem, to attain what his age might suppose to be the highest graces of poetry, the greater was the damage which it sustained by the inaccuracy of reciters, or their desire to humble both the sense and diction of the poem to their powers of recollection, and the comprehension of a vulgar audience. It cannot be expected that composi- tions subjected in this way to mutilation and corruption, should continue to present their ori- ginal sense or diction ; and the accuracy of our editions of popular poetry, unless in the rare event of recovering original or early copies, is lessened in pro])orti()n.
But the chance of these corrujjtions is iiical- cuhil)ly increasc'd, when we consider tliat the ballads have been, not in one, but iiiinnner;il)le instances of transmission, lial)lc' to similar altera- tions, tinongh a long course of centuries, during
POPULAR POETRY. 21
which they have been handed from one ignorant reciter to another, each discarding- whatever ori- ginal words or phrases time or fashion had, in his opinion, rendered obsolete, and substituting anachronisms by expressions taken from the cus- toms of his own day. And here it may be re- marked, that the desire of the reciter to be intel- ligible, however natural and laudable, has been one of the greatest causes of the deterioration of ancient poetry. The minstrel who endeavoured to recite with fidelity the words of the author, might indeed fall into errors of sound and sense, and substitute corruptions for words he did not understand. But the ingenuity of a skilful critic could often, in that case, revive and restore the original meaning ; while the corrupted words be- came, in such cases, a warrant for the authenti- city of the whole poem.^
' An instance occurs in the valuable old ballad, called Auld Maitland. The reciter repeated a verse, descriptive of the defence of a castle, thus :
" Witt spring-wall, stanes, and goads of aim Among them fast he threw." Spring-wall, is a corruption of sprhigaU, a militarj- engine
22 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON
In general, however, the later reciters appear to have been far less desirous to speak the au- thor's vi'ords, than to introduce amendments and new readings of their own, which have always produced the effect of modernizing, and usually that of degrading and vulgarizing, the rugged sense and spirit of the antique minstrel. Thus, undergoing from age to age a gradual process of alteration and recomposition, our popular and oral minstrelsy has lost, in a great measure, its original appearance ; and the strong touches b}- which it had been formerly characterised, have been generally smoothed down and destroyed by a process similar to that by which a coin, pass- ing from hand to hand, loses in circulation all the finer marks of the impress.
The very fine ballad of Chevy Chase is an example of this degrading species of alchyni)-. by which the ore of antiquity is deteriorated and adulterated. While Addison, in an age which had never attended to j)()pular poetry, wrote his
tor casting darts or stonos ; the restoration of wliich read- ing gives a precise and clear sense to the lines.
POPULAR POETRY.
classical criticism on that ballad, he naturally took for his text the ordinary stall-copy, although he might, and ought to have suspected, that a ditty couched in the language nearly of his own time, could not be the same with that which Sir Philip Sidney, more than one hundred years be- fore, had spoken of, as being " evil apparelled in the dust and cobwebs of an uncivilized age." The venerable Bishop Percy was the first to correct this mistake, by producing a copy of the song, as old at least as the reign of Henry VII., bearing the name of the author, or transcriber, Richard Sheale.^ But even the Rev. Editor himself fell under the mistake of supposing the modern Chevy Chase to be a new copy of the original ballad, expressly modernized by some one later bard. On the contrary, the current version is now universally allowed to have been produced by the gradual alterations of numerous reciters, during two centuries, in the course of which the ballad has been gradually moulded into a composition bearing only a general re- ' See Percy's Reliques, vol. i. p. 2.
24 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON
semblance to the original — expressing the same events and sentiments in much smoother lan- guage, and more flowing and easy versification ; but losing in poetical fire and energy, and in the vigour and pithiness of the expression, a great deal more than it has gained in suavity of dic- tion. Thus : —
" The Percy owt of Northumberland,
And a vowe to God mayd he, That he wolde hunte in the mountajTis
Off Cheviot within daj-es thre, In the mauger of doughty Dougles,
And all that ever with him be,"
Becomes,
" The stout Earl of Northumberland
A vow to God did make. His pleasure in the Scottish woods
Three summer days to take," &c.
From this, and other examples of the same kind, of which many might be quoted, we must often expect to find the remains of Minstrel poetry, composed originally for the courts of princes and halls of nobles, disguised in the more modern and vulgar dialect in which tliey have been of late sung to the frequL'uters of the rustic ale-l)ench.
POPULAR POETRY. 25
It is unnecessary to mention more than one other remarkable and. humbling instance, printed in the curious collection entitled, a Ballad Book, where we find, in the words of the ingenious Editor,^ a stupid ballad printed as it was sung in Annan- dale, founded on the well-known story of the Prince of Salerno's daughter, but with the un- couth change of Dysmal for Ghismonda, and Guiscard transformed into a greasy kitchen-boy. " To what base uses may we not return ! " Sometimes a still more material and syste- matic diiference appears between the poems of antiquity, as they were originally composed, and as they now exist. This occurs in cases where the longer metrical romances, which were in fa- shion during the middle ages, were reduced to shorter compositions, in order that they might be chanted before an inferior audience. A ballad, for example, of Thomas of Erceldoune, and his intrigues with the Queen of Faery-Land, is, or
1 [Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, Esq. The Ballad-Book was printed in 1823, and inscribed to Sir Walter Scott; the impression consisting of only thirty copies.]
2b INTUODUCTORY REMARKS ON
has been, long current in Teviotdale, and other parts of Scotland. Two ancient copies of a poem , or romance, on the same subject, and containinu" very often the same words and turns of expres- sion, are preserved in the libraries of the Cathe- dral of Lincoln and Peterborough. We are left to conjecture whether the originals of such hn\- lads have been gradually contracted into their mo- dern shape by the impatience of later audiences, combined with the lack of memory displayed by more modern reciters, or whether, in particular cases, some ballad-maker may have actually set himself to work to retrench the old details of the minstrels, and regularly and systematically to modernize, and if the phrase be permitted, to balladize, a metrical romance. We are assured, however, that " Roswal and Lilian" was sung through the streets of Edinl)urgh two genera- tions since ; and we know that the Romance of " Sir Eger, Sir Grime, and Sir Greysteil," liad also its own particular chant, or time, Tlie stall- copies of both these romances, as they now exist, are very much abbreviated, and probably exliibit
POPULAR POETRY. 27
them when they were undergoing, or had nearly undergone, the process of being cut down into ballads.
Taking into consideration the various indirect channels by which the popular poetry of our an- cestors has been transmitted to their posterity, it is nothing surprising that it should reach us in a mutilated and degraded state, and that it should little correspond with the ideas we are apt to form of the first productions of national genius ; nay, it is more to be wondered at that we possess so many ballads of considerable merit, than that the much greater number of them which must have once existed, should have perished before our time.
Having given this brief account of ballad poetry in general, the purpose of the present prefatory remarks will be accomplished, by shortly noticing the popular poetry of Scotland, and some of the efforts which have been made to collect and illus- trate it.
It is now generally admitted that the Scots and Picts, however differing otherwise, were each by descent a Celtic race ; that they advanced in
28 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON
a course of victory somewhat farther than the present frontier between England and Scotland, and about the end of the eleventh century sub- dued and rendered tributary the Britons of Strath- cluyd, who were also a Celtic race like them- selves. Excepting, therefore, the provinces of Berwickshire and the Lothians, which were chiefly inhabited by an Anglo-Saxon population, the whole of Scotland was peopled by different tribes of the same aboriginal race,^ — a race passionately addicted to music, as appears from the kindred Celtic nations of Irish, Welsh, and Scottish, pre- serving each to this day a style and character of music peculiar to their own country, though all
• [The autlior seems to have latterh- modified his original opinion on some parts of this subject. In his reviewal of Mr P. F. Tytler's History of Scotland (Quart. Rev. vol. xli. p. 328), he says, speaking of the period of the final subjugation of the Picts, " It would appear the Scandina- vians had colonies along the fertile shores of Moray, and among the mountains of Sutherland, whose name speaks for itself, that it was given by tlie Norwegians ; and pro- bably they had also settlements in Caithness and the Or- cades." In this essay, however, he adheres iu tlie main to his Anti-Pinkertonian doctrine, and treats the Picts as Celts.— Ed.]
POPULAR POETRY. 29
three bear marks of general resemblance to each other. That of Scotland, in particular, is early noticed and extolled by ancient authors, and its remains, to which the natives are passionately attached, are still found to afford pleasure even to those who cultivate the art upon a more re- fined and varied system.
This skill in music did not, of course, exist without a corresponding degree of talent for a species of poetry, adapted to the habits of the country, celebrating the victories of triumphant clans, pouring forth lamentations over fallen he- roes, and recording such marvellous adventures as were calculated to amuse individual families around their household fires, or the whole tribe when regaling in the hall of the chief. It hap- pened, however, singularly enough, that while the music continued to be Celtic in its general measure, the language of Scotland, most com- monly spoken, began to be that of their neigh- bours the English, introduced by the multitude of Saxons who thronged to the court of Malcolm Canmore and his successors ; by the crowds of
30 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON
prisoners of war, whom the repeated ravages of the Scots in Northumberland carried off as slaves to their country ; by the influence of the inhabit- ants of the richest and most populous provinces in Scotland, Berwickshire, namely, and the Lo- thians, over the more movmtainous ; lastly, by the superiority which a language like the Anglo- Saxon, considerably refined, long since reduced to writing, and capable of expressing the wants, wishes, and sentiments of the speakers, must have possessed over the jargon of various tribes of Irish and British origin, limited and contracted in every varying dialect, and differing, at the same time, from each other. This superiority being considered, and a fair length of time being allow- ed, it is no wonder that, while the Scottish people retained their Celtic music, and many of their Celtic customs, together with their Celtic dy- nasty, they should nevertheless ha^■e adopted, throughout the Lowlands, the Saxon language, while in the Highlands they retained the Celtir dialect, along with the dress, arms, manners. :ind government of their fathers.
POPULAR POETRY. 31
There was, for a time, a solemn national recog- nisance that the Saxon language and poetry had not originally been that of the royal family. For at the coronations of the kings of Scotland, pre- vious to Alexander III., it was a part of the so- lemnity, that a Celtic bard stepped forth, so soon as the king assumed his seat upon the fated stone, and recited the genealogy of the monarch in Cel- tic verse, setting forth his descent, and the right which he had by birth to occupy the place of sovereignty. For a time, no doubt, the Celtic songs and poems remained current in the Low- lands, while any remnant of the language yet lasted. The Gaelic or Irish bards, we are also aware, occasionally strolled into the Lowlands, where their music might be received with favour, even after their recitation was no longer under- stood. But though these aboriginal poets showed themselves at festivals and other places of public resort, it does not appear that, as in Homer's time, they were honoured with high places at the board, and savoury morsels of the chine ; but they seem rather to have been accounted fit company
32 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS O.N
for the feigned fools and sturdy beggars, with whom they were ranked by a Scottish statute.^
Time was necessary wholly to eradicate one language and introduce another ; but it is remark- able that, at the death of Alexander the Third, the last Scottish king of the pure Celtic race, the popular lament for his death was composed in Scoto-English, and, though closely resembling the modern dialect, is the earliest example we have of that language, whether in prose or poetry/ About the same time flourished the celebrated Thomas the Rhymer, whose poem, written in English, or Lowland Scottish, with the most an- xious attention both to versification and allitera- tion, forms, even as it now exists, a very curious specimen of the early romance.' Such compli-
' A curious account of the reception of an Irish or Celtic bard at a festival, is given in Sir John Holland's Buke of the Houlat, Bauiiati/nc edition, p. liii.
2 [" Whan Alexander our king Avas ded, Wha Scotland led in hive and lee, Away was sons of ale and bred.
Of wine and wax, of game and glee," &c.]
' [See a subsequent volume of iliis collection.]
1
POPULAR POETRY. 33
cated construction was greatly too concise for the public ear, which is best amused by a looser dic- tion, in which numerous repetitions, and pro- longed descriptions, enable the comprehension of the audience to keep up with the voice of the singer or reciter, and supply the gaps which in general must have taken place, either through a failure of attention in the hearers, or of voice and distinct enunciation on the part of the minstrel. The usual stanza which was selected as the most natural to the language and the sweetest to the ear, after the complex system of the more courtly measures, used by Thomas of Erceldoune, was laid aside, was that which, when originally introduced, we very often find arranged in two lines, thus : — ^
" Earl Douglas on his milk-wliite steed, most like a baron
bold, Rode foremost of his company, whose armour shone like
gold;"
but which, after being divided into four, consti- tutes what is now generally called the ballad stanza, —
34
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON
'• Earl Douglas on his milk-white steed,
Most like a baron bold, Rode foremost of his company,
Whose armour shone like gold."
The breaking of the lines contains a plainer intimation, how the stanza ought to be read, than every one could gather from the original mode of writing out the poem, where the position of the CEesura, or inflection of voice, is left to the indi- vidual's own taste. This was sometimes ex- changed for a stanza of six lines, the third and sixth rhyming together. For works of more im- portance and pretension, a more complicated ver- sification was still retained, and may be found in the tale of Ralph Coilzear,^ the Adventures of Arthur at the Tarn-Wathelyn, Sir Gawain, and Sir Gologras, and other scarce romances. A spe- cimen of this structure of verse has been handed down to our times in the stanza of Christ Kirk on the Green, transmitted by King James I., to
' [This, and most of tlie otlier romances here referred to, maybe found reprinted in a volume entitled, " Select Ke- mains of the Ancient Popular Poetry of Scotland," (Ediii. 1822. Small 4to.) Edited by Mr David Laing, and in- scribed to Sir Walter Scott.]
POPULAR POETRY.
Allan Ramsay and to Burns. The excessive passion for alliteration, which formed a rule of the Saxon poetry, was also retained in the Scot- tish poems of a more elevated character, though the more ordinary minstrels and ballad-makers threw off the restraint.
The varieties of stanza thus adopted for popu- lar poetry were not, we may easily suppose, left long unemployed. In frontier regions, where men are continually engaged in active enterprise, be- twixt the task of defending themselves and an- noying their neighbours, they may be said to live in an atmosphere of danger, the excitation of which is peculiarly favourable to the encourage- ment of poetry. Hence, the expressions of Lesly the historian, quoted in the following Introduc- tion, in which he paints the delight taken by the Borderers in their peculiar species of music, and the rhyming ballads in which they cele- brated the feats of their ancestors, or recorded their own ingenious stratagems in predatory war- fare. In the same Introduction, the reader will find the reasons alleged why the taste for song
Sit . INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON
was and must have been longer preserved on the Border than in the interior of the country.
Having thus made some remarks on early- poetry in general, and on that of Scotland in particular, the Editor's purpose is, to mention the fate of some previous attempts to collect ballad poetry, and the principles of selection and publi- cation which have been adopted by various edi- tors of learning and information ; and although the present work chiefly regards the Ballads of Scotland, yet the investigation must necessarily include some of the principal collections among the EngUsh also.
Of manuscript records of ancient ballads, very few have been yet discovered. It is probable that the minstrels, seldom knowing either how to read or write, trusted to their well-exercised memories. Nor was it a difficult task to acquire a sufficient stock in trade for their purpose, since the Editor has not only known many persons capable of retaining a very large collection of legendary lore of this kind, but there was a period in his own life, when a memory that ought
POPULAR POETRY. 37
to have been charged with more valuable matter, enabled him to recollect as many of these old songs as would have occupied several days in the recitation.
The press, however, at length superseded the necessity of such exertions of recollection, and sheafs of ballads issued from it weekly, for the amusement of the sojourners at the alehouse, and the lovers of poetry in grange and hall, where such of the audience as could not read, had at least read unto them. These fugitive leaves, generally printed upon broadsides, or in small mis- cellanies called Garlands, and circulating amongst persons of loose and careless habits — so far as books were concerned — were subject to destruc- tion from many causes ; and as the editions in the early age of printing were probably much limited, even those published as chap-books in the early part of the 18th century, are rarely met with.
Some persons, however, seem to have had what their contemporaries probably thought the bizarre taste of gathering and preserving coUec-
38 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON
tions of this fugitive poetry. Hence the great body of ballads in the Pepysian collection at Cambridge, made by that Secretary Pepys, whose Diary is so very amusing ; and hence the still more valuable deposit, in three volumes folio, in which the late Duke John of Roxburghe took so much pleasure, that he was often found enlarging it with fresh acquisitions, which he pasted in and registered with his own hand.
The first attempt, however, to reprint a col- lection of ballads for a class of readers distinct from those for whose use the stall-copies were intended, was that of an anonymous editor of three 1 2mo volumes, which appeared in London,, with engravings. These volumes came out in various years, in the beginning of the 18th cen- tury.^ The editor writes with some flippancy,
> [" A Collection of Old Ballads, collected from the best, and most ancient Copies extant, with Introductions, His- torical and Critical, illustrated with copperplates." This anonymous collection, first published in 17"23, was so well received, that it soon passed to a second edition, and two more volumes were added in 1723 and 1725. The tliird edition of the first volume is dated 1727. — Eu.]
POPULAR POETRY. 39|
but with the air of a person superior to the ordi- nary drudgery of a mere collector. His work appears to have been got up at considerable ex- pense, and the general introductions and histori- cal illustrations which are prefixed to the various ballads, are written with an accuracy of which such a subject had not till then been deemed worthy. The principal part of the collection consists of stall-ballads, neither possessing much poetical merit, nor any particular rarity or curio- sity. Still this original Miscellany holds a consi- derable value amongst collectors ; and as the three volumes — being published at diiferent times — are seldom found together, they sell for a high price when complete.
We may now turn our eyes to Scotland, where the facility of the dialect, which cuts off the con- sonants in the termination of the words, so as greatly to simplify the task of rhyming, and the habits, dispositions, and manners of the people, were of old so favourable to the composition of ballad-poetry, that, had the Scottish songs been
40 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS OS
preserved, there is no doubt a very curious his- tory might have been composed by means of minstrelsy only, from the reign of Alexander III. in 1285, down to the close of the Civil Wars in 1745. That materials for such a collection ex- isted, cannot be disputed, since the Scottish his- torians often refer to old ballads as authorities for general tradition. But their regular preser- vation was not to be hoped for or expected. Suc- cessive garlands of song sprung, flourished, faded, and were forgotten, in their turn ; and the names of a few specimens are only preserved, to show us how abundant the display of these wild flowers had been.
Like the natural free gifts of Flora, these poe- tical garlands can only be successfully sought for where the land is uncultivated ; and civilisation and increase of learning are sure to banish them, as the plough of the agriculturist bears down the mountain daisy. Yet it is to be recorded with some interest, that the earliest surviving speci- men of the Scottish press, is a Miscellany of Mil-
POPULAR POETRY. 41
lar and Chapman,^ which preserves a consider- able fund of Scottish popular poetry, and among- other things, no bad specimen of the gests of Ro- bin Hood,-" the English ballad-maker's joy," and whose renown seems to have been as freshly pre- served in the north as on the southern shores of the Tweed. There were probably several col- lections of Scottish ballads and metrical pieces during the seventeenth century. A very fine one, belonging to Lord Montagu, perished in the fire which consumed Ditton House, about twenty years ago.
James Watson, in 1706, published, at Edin- burgh, a miscellaneous collection in three parts, containing some ancient poetry. But the first editor who seems to have made a determined effort to preserve our ancient popular poetry, was
' [A facsimile reprint, in black-letter, of the Original Tracts which issued from the press of Walter Chepman and Andro MyUar at Edinburgh, in the year 1508, was published under the title of " The Knightly Tale of Gola- grus and Gawane, and other Ancient Poems," in 1827, 4to. The " htil geste" of Robin Hood, referred to in the text, is a fragment of a piece contained in Ritson's Col- lection Ed.]
42 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON
the M^ell-known Allan Ramsay, in his Everg-reen, containing chiefly extracts from the ancient Scot- tish Makers, whose poems have been preserved in the Bannatyne Manuscript, but exhibiting amongst them some popular ballads. Amongst these is the Battle of Harlaw, apparently from a modernized copy, being probably the most an- cient Scottish historical ballad of any length now in existence.^ He also inserted in the same col- lection, the genuine Scottish Border ballad of
' That there was such an ancient ballad is certain, and the tune, adapted to the bagpipes, was long extremely po- pular, and, within the remembrance of man, the first which was played at kirns and other rustic festivals. B\it there is a suspicious phrase in the ballad as it is published by Allan Ramsay. When describing the national confusion, the bard says,
" Sen the days of auld King Harie, Such slauchter was not heard or seen."
Query, who was the " auld King Harie" here meant? If Henry VIII. be intended, as is most likely, it must bring the date of tlie poem, at least of that verse, as low iis Queen jNIary's tiuic. Tb.e ballad is said to have been l)riiit('<l in lG(jS. A copy (if that edition would be a great curiosity.
[See the preface to tlie reprint of this ballad, in a volume of " Early MctricalTales." \lmo, Edin. 1S2G.— Ed.]
POPULAR POETRY. 43*"
Johnnie Armstrong, copied from the recitation of a descendant of the unfortunate hero, in the sixth generation. This poet also inckided in the Ever- green, Hardyknute, which, though evidently modern, is a most spirited and beautiful imita- tion of the ancient ballad. In a subsequent col- lection of lyrical pieces, called the Tea- Table Miscellany, Allan Ramsay inserted several old ballads, such as Cruel Barbara Allan, The Bon- nie Earl of Murray, There came a Ghost to Mar- cjaret^s door, and two or three others. But his unhappy plan of writing new words to old tunes, without at the same time preserving the ancient verses, led him, with the assistance of " some ingenious young gentlemen," to throw aside many originals, the preservation of which would have been much more interesting than any thing which has been substituted in their stead. ^
1 Green be the pillow of honest Allan, at whose lamp Burns lighted his brilliant torch ! It is without enmity to his memory that we record his mistalce in this matter. But it is impossible not to regret that such an affecting tale as that of Bessie Bell and Mary Gray should have fallen into his hands. The southern reader must learn, (for what
44 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON
In fine, the task of collecting and illustrating ancient popular poetry, whether in England or Scotland, was never executed by a competent person, possessing the necessary powers of selec- tion and annotation, till it was undertaken by Dr Percy, afterwards Bishop of Dromore in Ireland.
northern reader is ignorant?) that these two beautiful women were kinsfolk, and so strictly united in fricndsliip, that even personal jealousy could not interrupt their union. They were visited by a handsome and agreeable young man, who was acceptable to them both, but so cap- tivated with their charms, that, while confident of a pre- ference on the part of both, he was unable to make a choice between them. While this singular situation of the three persons of tlie tale continued, the breaking out of the plague forced the two ladies to take refuge in the beautiful valley of Lynedoch, where they built themselves a bower, in order to avoid human intercourse and tlie danger of infec- tion. The lover Avas not included in their renunciation of society. He visited their retirement, brought Mith him the fatid disease, and unable to return to Perth, which was his usual residence, was nursed by the fair friends with all the tenderness of affection. He died, however, having first communicated the infection to his lovely attendants. Thev followed liim to the grave, lovely in their lives, and undivided in their death. Their burial place, in the vicinity of the bower which (liey built, is still visilile. in tlie roman- tic vicinity of Lord Lyndoch's nuuij-ion, and prolongs the
POPULAR POETRY. 45
This reverend gentleman, himself a poet, and ranldng high among the literati of the day, com-
memory of female friendship, which even rivalry could not dissolve. Two stanzas of the original ballad alone survive :
" Bessie Bell and Mary Gray,
They were twa bonnie lasses ; They bigged a bower on yon burn-brae,
And theekit it ower wi' rashes.
* « * *
They wadna rest in IMethvin kirk.
Among their gentle kin ; But they wad lie in Lednoch braes.
To beek against the sun."
There is, to a Scottish ear, so much tenderness and sim- plicity in these verses, as must induce us to regret that the rest should have been superseded by a pedantic modern song, turning upon the most unpoetic part of the legend, the hesitation, namely, of the lover, which of the ladies to prefer. One of the most touching expressions in the song is the following exclamation :
" Oh, Jove ! she's like thy Pallas." Another song, of which Ramsay chose a few words for the theme of a rifaciviento, seems to have been a curious specimen of minstrel recitation. It was partly verse, partly narrative, and was alternately sung and repeated. The story was the escape of a young gentleman, pursued by a cruel uncle, desirous of his estate ; or a bloody rival, greedy of his life ; or the relentless father of his lady-love, or some such remorseless character, having sinister intentions on
46 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON
manding access to the individuals and institutions which could best aftbrd him materials, gave the
the person of the fugitive. The oliject of his rapacitj- or vengeance being nearly overtaken, a sheplierd undertakes to mislead the pursuer, who comes in sight just as the ob- ject of his pursuit disappears, and greets the sliepherd tluis :—
" PURSUER,
Good morrow, shepherd, and my friend. Saw you a young man this way riding ;
"With long black hair, on a bob-tail'd mare, And I know that I cannot be far behind him ?
THE SHEPHERD.
Yes, I did see him this way riding,
And what did much surprise my wit. The man and the mare flew up in the air,
And I see, and I see, and I see her yet. Behind yon white cloud I see her tail wave.
And I see, and I see, and I see her yet."
The tunc of these verses is an extremch- good one, and Allan Ramsay has adopted a bacchanalian song to it with some success ; but we should have thanked him much had he taken the trouble to preserve the original legend of the old minstrel. The valuable and learned friend' to whom •we owe this mutilated account of it, has often heard it sung among the High Jinks of Scottish lawyers of the last gene- ration.
' [The Right Honourable William Adam, Lord Chief Commis- sioner of the Scotcli Jury Court. — Ed.]
POPULAR POETRY. 47
public the result of his researches in a work en- titled " Reliques of Ancient English Poetry," in three volumes, published in London 1765, which has since gone through four editions. ^ The taste with which the materials were chosen, the extreme felicity with which they were illus- trated, the display at once of antiquarian know- ledge and classical reading which the collection indicated, render it difficult to imitate, and im- possible to excel a work, which must always be held among the first of its class in point of merit, though not actually the foremost in point of time. But neither the high character of the work, nor the rank and respectability of the author, could protect him or his labours, from the invidious attacks of criticism.
The most formidable of these were directed by Joseph Ritson, a man of acute observation, pro- found research, and great labour. These valu- able attributes were unhappily combined with an
' [Sir Walter Scott corresponded frequently with the Bishop of Dromore, at the time when he was collecting the materials of the " Border Minstrelsy." — Ed.]
48 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON
eager irritability of temper, which induced him to treat antiquarian trifles with the same serious- ness which men of the world reserve for matters of importance, and disposed him to drive contro- versies into personal quarrels, by neglecting, in literary debate, the courtesies of ordinary society.^ It ought to be said, however, by one who knew him well, that this irritability of disposition was a constitutional and physical infirmity ; and that Ritson's extreme attachment to the severity of
^ For example, in quoting a popular song, well known by the name of Maggie Lauder, the editor of the Reliques had given a line of the Dame's address to the merry min- strel, thus :
" Gin ye be Rob, I've heard of you, You dwell upon tbe Border."
Ritson insisted the genuine reading was,
' ' Come ye frae the Border ? "
And he expatiates with great keenness on the crime of the Bishop's having sopliisticated the text, (of which he pro- duces no evidence,) to favour his opinion, that tlie Borders were a favourite abode of the minstrels of both kingdoms. The fact, it is believed, is undoubted, and the one reading seems to support it as well as the other — [Joseph Ritson died in 1803.]
POPULAR POETRY. 49
truth, corresponded to the rigour of his criti- cisms upon the labours of others. He seems to have attacked Bishop Percy with the greater animosity, as bearing no good-will to the hier- archy, in which that prelate held a distinguished place.
Ritson's criticism, in which there was too much horse-play, was grounded on two points of accu- sation. The first regarded Dr Percy's definition of the order and office of minstrels, which Ritson considered as designedly overcharged, for the sake of giving an undue importance to his sub- ject. The second objection respected the liber- ties which Dr Percy had taken with his mate- rials, in adding to, retrenching, and improving them, so as to bring them nearer to the taste of his own period. We will take some brief notice of both topics.
First, Dr Percy, in the first edition of his work, certainly laid himself open to the charge of having given an inaccurate, and somewhat exaggerated account, of the English Minstrels, whom he de- fined to be an " order of men in the middle ages^
VOL. I. D
50 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON
who subsisted by the arts of poetry and music, and sung to the harp the verses which they them- selves composed." The reverend editor of the Reliques produced in support of this definition many curious quotations, to show that in many instances the persons of these minstrels had been honoured and respected, their performances ap- plauded and rewarded by the great and the court- ly, and their craft imitated by princes themselves.
Against both these propositions, Ritson made a determined opposition. He contended, and probably with justice, that the minstrels were not necessarily poets, or in the regular habit of com- posing the verses which they sung to the harp ; and indeed, that the word minstrel, in its ordinary acceptation, meant no more than musician.
Dr Percy, from an amended edition of his Essay on Minstrelsy, prefixed to the fourth edi- tion of the Reliques of Ancient Poetry, seems to have been, to a certain point, convinced by tlie critic's reasoning ; for he has extended the defi- nition impugned by Ritson, and the minstrels are thus described as singing verses '* composed by themselves or others." This we a})j)rehen(l to
POPULAR POETRY. 51
be a tenable position ; for, as on the one hand it seems too broad an averment to say that all min- strels were by profession poets, so on the other, it is extravagant to affirm that men who were constantly in the habit of reciting verse, should not frequently have acquired that of composing it, especially when their bread depended on giving pleasure ; and to have the power of producing novelty, is a great step towards that desirable end. No unprejudiced reader, therefore, can have any hesitation in adopting Bishop Percy's defi- nition of the minstrels, and their occupation, as qualified in the fourth edition of his Essay, im- plying that they were sometimes poets, sometimes the mere reciters of the poetry of others.
On the critic's second proposition, Dr Percy successfully showed, that at no period of history- was the word minstrel applied to instrumental music exclusively ; and he has produced suffi- cient evidence, that the talents of the professioa were as frequently employed in chanting or reci- ting poetry as in playing the mere tunes. There is appearance of distinction being sometimes made
52 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON
between minstrel recitations and minstrelsy of music alone ; and we may add a curious instance, to those quoted by the Bishop. It is from the singular ballad respecting Thomas of Erccl- doune,^ which announces the proposition, that tongue is chief of minstrelsy.
We may also notice, that the M'ord minstrel being in fact derived from the ^Nlinnc-singer of the Germans, means, in its primary sense, one who sings of love, a sense totally inapplicable to a mere instrumental musician.
A second general point on Mliich Dr Percy was fiercely attacked by Mr Kitson, was also one on which both the parties might claim a right to sing Te De7un. It respected the rank or status which was held by the minstrels in society during the middle ages. On this point the editor of the Rcliques of Ancient Poetry had jiroduced the most satisfactory evidence, that, at the courts of the Anglo-Norman princes tlie professors of the gay science were tlie favourite solacers of tlic
' Sck'ct Ri-niaiiis of l\ipular Pieces of Poetry. Kiliu- biirrrh, 1822.
POPULAR POETRY. 53
leisure hours of princes, who did not themselves disdain to share their tuneful labours, and imitate their compositions. Mr Ritson replied to this with great ingenuity, arguing, that such instances of respect paid to French minstrels reciting in their native language in the court of Norman mo- narchs, though held in Britain, argued nothing in favour of English artists professing the same trade ; and of whose compositions, and not of those existing in the French language, Dr Percy pro- fessed to form his collection. The reason of the dis- tinction betwLxt the respectability of the French minstrels, and the degradation of the same class of men in England, Mr Ritson plausibly alleged to be, that the EngKsh language, a mixed speech betwixt Anglo-Saxon and Norman-French, was not known at the court of the Anglo-Norman kings until the reign of Edward III ;^ and that,
' That monarch first used the vernacular English dialect in a motto which he displayed on his shield at a celebrated tournament. The legend which graced the representation of a white swan on the king's buckler, ran thus :—
*' Ha ! La ! the whyte swan ! Bj' Goddis soule 1 am thy man."
54 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON
therefore, until a very late period, and when the lays of minstrelsy were going out of fashion, Eng- lish performers in that capacity must have con- fined the exercise of their talents to the amuse- ment of the vulgar. Now, as it must be conce- ded to Mr Ritson, that almost all the Enghsh metrical romances which have been preserved till the present day, are translated from the French, it may also be allowed, that a class of men em- ployed chiefly in rendering into English the works of others, could not hold so high a station as those •who aspired to original composition ; and so far the critic has the best of the dispute. But Mr Ritson has over-driven his argument, since there ■was assuredly a period in English history, when the national minstrels, writing in the national dialect, were, in proportion to their merit in their calling, held in honour and respect.
Thomas the Rhymer, for example, a minstrel who flourished in the end of the twelfth century, was not only a man of talent in his art, lint of some rank in society ; tlie companion of nobles, and himself a man of landed property. He, and
POPULAR POETRV. 55
his contemporary Kendal, wrote, as we are as- sured by Robert de Brunne, in a passage already alluded to, a kind of English, which was de- signed for " pride and nobleye," ^ and not for such inferior persons as Robert himself addressed, and to whose comprehension he avowedly lower- ed his language and structure of versification. There existed, therefore, during the time of this historian, a more refined dialect of the English language, used by such composers of popular poetry as moved in a higher circle ; and there can be no doubt, that while their productions were held in such high esteem, the authors must have been honoured in proportion.
The education bestowed upon James I. of
^ [The learned editor of Warton's History of English Poetry, is of opinion that Sir Walter Scott misinterpreted the passage referred to. De Brunne, according to this au- thor's text, says of the elder reciters of the metrical romance,
" They said it for pride and nobleye, That non were soulk as they ;"
i. e. they recited it in a style so lofty and noble, that none have since equalled them. — Warton, edit. 1824, vol. i. p. 183._Ed.]
56 INTRODUCTOIU" REMARKS ON
Scotland, ^vlien brought up under the charge of Henry IV., comprehended both music and the art of vernacular poetry ; in other words. Min- strelsy in both branches. That poetry, of which the King left several specimens, was, as is well known, English ; nor is it to be supposed that a prince, upon whose education such sedulous care was bestowed, would have been instructed in an art which, if we are to believe Mr Ritson, was degraded to the last degree, and discredit- able to its professors. The same argument is strengthened by the poetical exercises of the Duke of Orleans, in English, written during his captivity after the battle of Agincourt.^ It could not be supposed that the noble prisoner was to solace his hours of imprisonment with a degra- ding and vulgar species of composition.
We could produce other instances to show that this acute critic has carried his argument consi- derably too far. But Ave prefer taking a general view of the subject, Avhich seems to exjilain clearly
' Sec the edition priiiteil In Mr Watson Taylor, for the Roxburshe Club.
POPULAR POETRY. 57
how contradictory evidence should exist on it, and why instances of great personal respect to indivi- dual minstrels, and a high esteem of the art, are quite reconcilable with much contempt thrown on the order at large.
All professors of the fine arts — all those who contribute, not to the necessities of life, but to the enjoyments of society, hold their professional respectability by the severe tenure of exhibiting excellence in their department. We are well enough satisfied with the tradesman who goes through his task in a workmanlike manner, nor are we disposed to look down upon the divine, the lawyer, or the physician, unless they cUsplay gross ignorance of their profession : we hold it enough, that if they do not possess the highest knowledge of their respective sciences, they can at least instruct us on the points we desire to know. But
" mediocribus esse poetis
Non di, non homines, non concessere columnse."
The same is true respecting the professors of
58 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON
painting, of sculpture, of music, and the fine arts in general. If they exhibit paramount ex- cellence, no situation in society is too high for them which their manners enable them to fill ; if they fall short of the highest point of aim, they degenerate into sign-painters, stone-cutters, com- mon crowders, doggrel rhymers, and so forth, the most contemptible of mankind. The reason of this is evident. Men must be satisfied with such a supply of their actual wants as can be ob- tained in the circumstances, and should an indi- vidual want a coat, he must employ the village tailor, if Stultze is not to be had. But if he seeks for delight, the case is quite different ; and he that cannot hear Pasta or Sontag, would be little solaced for the absence of these sirens, by the strains of a crack-voiced ballad-singer. Nay, on the contrary, the offer of such inade- quate compensation, would only be regarded as an insult, and resented accordingly.
The theatre affords the most appropriate ex- ample of what we mean. The first circles in society are open to persons eminently distin-
POPULAR POETRY. 59
guished in the drama ; and their rewards are, in proportion to those who profess the useful arts, incalculably higher. But those who lag in the rear of the dramatic art, are proportionally poorer and more degraded than those who are the low- est of a useful trade or profession. These instan- ces will enable us readily to explain why the greater part of the minstrels, practising their profession in scenes of vulgar mirth and de- bauchery, humbling their art to please the ears of drunken clowns, and living with the dissipa- tion natural to men whose precarious subsistence is, according to the ordinary phrase, from hand to mouth only, should fall under general con- tempt, while the stars of the profession, to use a modern phrase, looked down on them from the distant empyrean, as the planets do upon those shooting exhalations arising from gross vapours in the nether atmosphere.
The debate, therefore, resembles the apologue of the gold and silver shield. Dr Percy looked on the minstrel in the palmy and exalted state to which, no doubt, many w ere elevated by their
60 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON
talents, like those who possess excellence in the fine arts in the present clay ; and Ritson consi- dered the reverse of the medal, when the poor and wandering glee-man was glad to purchase his bread by singing his ballads at the alehouse, wearing a fantastic habit, and latterly sinking into a mere crowder upon an untuned fiddle, ac- companying his rude strains with a ruder ditt}, the helpless associate of drunken revellers, and marvellously afraid of the constable and parish- beadle.^ The difference betwixt those holding
' In Fletcher's comedy of" Monsieur Tliomas," sucli a fiddler is questioned us to the ballads he is best versed in, and replies,
" Under your inastersliip's correction, I can sing,
* The Duke of Norfolk,' or the merry ballad
Of ' Dlvius and Lazarus ;' ' The Rose of England ; ' ' In Crete, where Dedimus first began ; '
* Jonas his crying out against Coventry.'
Thomas. Excellent ! Rare matters all.
Fiddler. ' Mawdlin the ^Merchant's Daughter ; '
* The Devil and ye Dainty Dames.'
Thomas. Rare still.
Fiddler. ' The Landing of the Spaniards at Bow, With the bloody battle at iMile-cnd."'
POPULAR POETRY. 61
the extreme positions of highest and lowest in such a profession, cannot surely be more marked than that which separated David Garrick or John Kemble from the outcasts of a strolling company,, exposed to penury, indigence, and persecution according to law.^
The poor minstrel is described as accompanying the young rake in his revels. Launcelot describes
" The gentlemaa himself, young Monsieur Thomas,
Errant with his furious myrmidons ;
The fiery fiddler and myself — now singing,
Now beating at the doors," &c.
' [The " Song of the Traveller," an ancient piece lately- discovered in the Cathedral Library of Exeter, and pub- lished by the Rev. Mr Coneybeare, in his Illustrations of Anglo-Saxon Poetry (1826), furnishes a most curious pic- ture of the life of the Northern Scald, or Minstrel, in the high and palmy state of the profession. The reverend edi- tor thus translates the closing hues :
" Ille est carissimus Terrse incolis
Cui Deus addidit Hominum imperiura gerendum,
Quum ille eos [bardos] habeat caros.
Ita comeantes cum cantilcnis feruntur
Bardi hominum per terras multas ;
Simul eos remuneratur ob cantilenas pulchras,
JVLuneribus immensis, ille qui ante nobiles
Vult judicium suum extollere, dignitatem sustinere.
Habet ille sub coelo stabilem famam." — P. 22.
62 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON
There was still another and more important subject of debate, between Dr Percy and his hos- tile critic. The former, as a poet and a man of taste, was tempted to take such freedoms with his original ballads, as might enal)le him to please a more critical age than that in which they were
Mr Coneybeare contrasts this " flattering picture" with the following " melancholy specimen" of the Minstrel life of later times — contained in some verses by Richard Sheale (the alleged author of the old Chevy Chase), wliich are preserved in one of the Ashmolean MSS.
" Now for tlie good cheere that I have had here,
I give you hearty thanks with bowing of my shankes.
Desiring you by petition to grant me such commission —
Because my name is Sheale, that both for meat and mealc,
To you I may resort sum tyme for my comforte.
For I perceive here at all tymes is goode cheere.
Both ale, wyne, and beere, as hyt doth now appere,
I perceive without fable ye keepe a good table.
I can be contente, if hyt be out of Lent,
A piece of beefe to take my hongor to aslake,
Both mutton and veale is goode for Rycharde Sheale ;
Though I looke so grave, I were a veri knave.
If I wold thinko skorne ether cvenynge or morne,
Beyng in honger, of frosshe samon or kongar,
I can fynde in my hearte, with my frendis to take a parte
Of such as Godde shal scnde, and thus I make an ende.
Now farewel, good myn Iloste, I thank youe for youre coste,
Uutyl another tyme, and thus do I ende my ryme." — P. 28.]
POPULAR POETRV. 63
composed. Words were thus altered, phrases im- proved, and whole verses were inserted or omitted at pleasure. Such freedoms were especially taken with the poems published from a folio manu- script in Dr Percy's own possession, very curious from the miscellaneous nature of its contents, but unfortunately having many of the leaves mu- tilated, and injured in other respects, by the gross carelessness and ignorance of the transcriber. Anxious to avail himself of the treasures which this manuscript contained, the editor of the Re- liques did not hesitate to repair and renovate the songs which he drew from this corrupted yet cu- rious source, and to accommodate them with such emendations as might recommend them to the modern taste.
For these liberties with his subject, R^tson cen- sured Dr Percy in the most uncompromising terms, accused him, in violent language, of interpolation and forgery, and insinuated that there existed no such thing in rerum natura as that folio manu- script, so often referred to as the authority of ori- ginals inserted in the Reliques. In tliis charge.
64 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON
the eagerness of Ritson again betrayed him far- ther than judgment and discretion, as Mell as courtesy, warranted. It is no doubt highly de- sirable that the text of ancient poetry should be given untouched and vmcorrupted. But this is a point which did not occur to the ecUtor of the lleliques in 1765, whose object it was to win the fiivour of the public, at a period when the great difficulty was not how to secure the very words of old ballads, but how to arrest attention upon the subject at all. That great and important service to national literature would probably never have been attained without the work of Dr Percy ; a work which first fixed the consideration of gene- ral readers on ancient poetry, and made it worth while to enquire how far its graces were really antique, or how far derived from the taste with which the publication had been superintended and revised. The object of Dr Percy was cer- tainly intimated in several parts of his work, wliere he ingenuously acknowledges, that certain ballads' have received emendations, and that others are not of pure and uinnixcd antiquity; that the be- 1
POPULAR POETRY. 65
ginning of some and end of others have been supplied; and upon the whole, that he has, in many instances, decorated the ancient ballads with the graces of a more refined period.
This system is so distinctly intimated, that if there be any critic still of opinion, like poor Rit- son, whose morbid temperament led him to such a conclusion, that the crime of literary imitation is equal to that of commercial forgery, he ought to recollect that guilt, in the latter case, does not exist without a corresponding charge of uttering the forged document, or causing it to be uttered, as genuine, without which the mere imitation is not culpable, at least not criminally so. This quality is totally awanting in the accusation so roughly brought against Dr Percy, who avow- edly indulged in such alterations and improve- ments upon his materials, as might adapt them to the taste of an age not otherwise disposed to be- stow its attention on them.
We have to add, that, in the fourth edition of the Reliques, Mr Thomas Percy of St John's
VOL. I. E
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College, Oxford, pleading the cause of his uncle with the most gentlemanlike moderation, and with every respect to Mr Ritson's science and talents, has combated the critic's opinion, without any attempt to retort his injurious language.
It would be now, no doubt, desirable to have had some more distinct account of Dr Percy's folio manuscript and its contents ; and Mr Tho- mas Percy, accordingly, gives the original of the Marriage of Sir Gawain, and collates it ■«ith the copy published in a complete state by his uncle, who has on this occasion given entire rein to his own fancy, though the rude origin of most of his ideas is to be found in the old ballad. There is also given a copy of that elegant metrical tale, " The Child of Elle," as it exists in the folio manuscript, which goes far to show it has derived all its beauties from Dr Percy's poetical powers. Judging from these two specimens, we can easily conceive why the Reverend Editor of the " Rc- liques" should have declined, by the production of the folio manuscript, to furnish his severe Aris- tarch with weapons ao;ainst him, which he was
POPULAR POETRY. 67
sure would be unsparingly used. Yet it is cer- tain, the manuscript contains much that is really excellent, though mutilated and sophisticated. A copy of the fine ballad of " Sir Caulin" is found in a Scottish shape, under the name of " King Malcolm and Sir Colvin," in Buchan's North Country Ballads, to be presently mentioned. It is, therefore, unquestionably ancient, though pos- sibly retouched, and perhaps with the addition of a second part, of which the Scottish copy has no vestiges. It would be desirable to know exactly to what extent Dr Percy had used the license of an editor, in these and other cases ; and cer- tainly, at this period, would be only a degree of justice due to his memory.
On the whole, we may dismiss the " Reliques of Ancient Poetry" with the praise and censure conferred on it by a gentleman, himself a valuable labourer in the vineyard of antiquities. " It is the most elegant compilation of the early poetry that has ever appeared in any age or country. But it must be frankly added, that so numerous are the alterations and corrections, that the severet
68 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON
antiquary, who desires to see the old English bal- lads in a genuine state, must consult a more ac- curate edition than this celebrated work."^
Of Ritson's own talents as an editor of ancient poetry, we shall have occasion to speak hereafter. The first collector who followed the example of Dr Percy, was Mr T. Evans, bookseller, father of the gentleman we have just quoted. His " Old Ballads, historical and narrative, with some of modern date," appeared in two volumes, in 1777, and were eminently successful. In 1 784, a second edition appeared, extending the work to four vo- lumes. In this collection, many ballads found acceptance, which Bishop Percy had not consider- ed as possessing sufficient merit to claim admit- tance into the Reliques. The 8vo Miscellany of 1723 yielded a great part of the materials. The collection of Evans contained several modern pieces of great merit, which are not to be found elsewhere, and which are understood to be the productions of William Julius Mickle, translator
' Introductiou to Evaiib's Ballads, ISIO. New edition, enlarged, &c.
POPULAR POETRY. 69
of the Lusiad, though they were never claimed by him, nor received among his works. Amongst them is the elegiac poem of Cumnor Hall, which suggested the fictitious narrative entitled Kenil- worth. The Red-Cross Knight, also by Mic- kle, which has furnished words for a beautiful glee, first occurred in the same collection. As Mickle, with a vein of great facility, united a power of verbal melody which might have been envied by bards of much greater renown,^ he must
* In evidence of what is above stated, the author would quote the introductory stanza to a forgotten poem of Mickle, originally published under the injudicious and equivocal title of " The Concubine," but in subsequent editions call- ed, " Sir Martyn, or The Progress of Dissipation."
" Awake, ye west winds, through the lonely dale,
And, Fancy, to thy faery bower betake ; Even now, with balmy sweetness breathes the gale.
Dimpling with downy wing the stilly lake ; Through the pale willows faltering whispers wake,
And evening comes with locks bedropp'd with dew ; On Desmond's mouldering turrets slowly shake
The wither'd ryegrass, and the hairbell blue, And ever and anon sweet Mulla's plaints renew."
Mickle's facility of versification was so great, that, beinfr a printer by profession, he frequently put his lines into
70 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON
be considered as very successful in these efforts,, if the ballads be regarded as avowedly modern. If they are to be judged of as accurate imitations of ancient poetry, they have less merit ; the de- ception being only maintained by a huge store of double consonants, strewed at random into ordi- nary words, resembling the real fashion of anti- quity as little as the niches, turrets, and tracery of plaster stuck upon a modern front. In the year 1810, the four volumes of 1784 were republished by Mr R. H. Evans, the son of the original editor, with very considerable alterations and additions. In this last edition, the more ordinary modern ballads were judiciously retrenched in number, and large and valuable additions made to the an- cient part of the collection. Being in some mea- sure a supplement to the Keliques of Ancient Poetry, this miscellany cannot be dispensed with on theshelvesofanybihlioniaiiiacwho ni;iy choose
types -without taking the trouble previously to put them into writing; thus uniting tlie comi)osition of tlie author ■with the mechanical operation wliith typograpliers c:il[ by the same name.
POPULAR POETRY. 71"
to emulate Captain Cox of Coventry, the proto- type of all collectors of popular poetry.
While Dr Percy was setting the example of a classical publication of ancient English poetry, the late David Herd was, in modest retirement, compiling a collection of Scottish Songs, which he has happUy described as " the poetry and music of the heart." The first part of his Mis- cellany contains heroic and historical ballads, of which there is a respectable and well-chosen se- lection. Mr Herd,^ an accountant, as the pro- fession is called in Edinburgh, was known and generally esteemed for his shrewd, manly com- mon sense and antiquarian science, mixed with much good-nature and great modesty. His hardy and antique mould of countenance, and his vene- rable grizzled locks, procured him, amongst his
1 [David Herd was a native of St Cjtus, in Kincardine- shire, and though often termed a writer, he was only a clerk in the office of Mr David Russell, accountant in Edinburgh. He died, aged 78, in 1810, and left a very curious library, which was dispersed by auction. Herd by no means merit- ed the character, given him by Pinkerton, of " an illiterate and injudicious compiler." — Ed.]
72 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON
acquaintance, the name of Graystell. His ori- ginal collection of songs, in one volume, appear- ed in 1 769 ; an enlarged one, in two volumes, came out in 1776. A publication of the same kind, being Herd's book still more enlarged, was print- ed for Lawrie and Symington in 1791. Some modern additions occur in this later work, of which by far the most valuable were two line imitations of the Scottish ballad, by the gifted author of the " Man of Feeling," — (now, alas ! no more,) — called " Duncan" and " Kenneth." John Pinkerton, a man of considerable learn- ing, and some severity as well as acuteness of disposition, was now endeavouring to force him- self into pul)lic attention ; and his collection of Select Ballads, London, 1783, contains sufficient evidence that he understood, in an extensive sense, Horace's maxim, quidlihet audcndi. As he was possessed of considerable jiowers of poetr}', though not equal to m hat he was willing to take credit for, he was resolved to enrich his collec- tion with all the novelty and interest which it could derive from a liberal insertion of pieces
POPULAR POETPvY. 73
dressed in the garb of antiquity, but equipped from the wardrobe of the editor's imagination. With a boldness, suggested perhaps by the suc- cess of Mr Macpherson, he included, within a collection amounting to only twenty-one tragic ballads, no less than five, of which he afterwards owned himself to have been altogether, or in great part, the author. The most remarkable article in this Miscellany was, a second part to the noble ballad of Hardyknute, which has some good verses. It labours, however, under this great defect, that, in order to append his own conclusion to the original tale, Mr Pinkerton found himself under the necessity of altering a leading circumstance in the old ballad, which would have rendered his catastrophe inapplicable. With such license, to write continuations and conclusions would be no difficult task. In the second volume of the Select Ballads, consisting of comic pieces, a list of fifty-two articles con- tained nine written entirely by the editor him- self. Of the manner in which these supposi- titious compositions are executed, it may be
74 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON
briefly stated, that they are the work of a scho- lar much better acquainted with ancient books and manuscripts, than with oral tradition and po- pular legends. The poetry smells of the lamp ; and it may be truly said, that if ever a ballad had existed in such quaint language as the author employs, it could never have been so popular as to be preserved by oral tradition. The glossary displays a much greater acquaintance with learn- ed lexicons, than with the familiar dialect still spoken by the Lowland Scottish, and it is, of course, full of errors.^ Neither was Mr Pinker- ton more happy in the way of conjectural illus- tration. He chose to fix on Sir John Bruce of Kinross, the paternity of the ballad of Hardy- knute, and of the fine poem called the Vision. The first is due to Mrs Halket of Wardlaw, the second to Allan Ramsay, although, it must bo owned, it is of a character superior to his ordi-
' lianders, for example, a word generally applied to tlu> men, on a harvest field, who bind the sheaves, is derivcti from han, to curse, and explained to mean, "blustering, swearing fellows."
POPULAR POETRY. 75^
nary poetry. Sir John Bruce was a brave, blunt soldier, who made no pretence whatever to litera- ture, though his daughter, Mrs Bruce of Arnot, had much talent, a circumstance which may per- haps have misled the antiquary.
Mr Pinkerton read a sort of recantation, in a List of Scottish Poets, prefixed to a Selection of Poems from the Maitland Manuscript, vol. i. 1786, in which he acknowledges, as his own composition, the pieces of spurious antiquity in- cluded in his " Select Ballads," with a coolness which, when his subsequent invectives against others who had taken similar liberties is consi- dered, infers as much audacity as the studied and laboured defence of obscenity with which he disgraced the same pages.
In the meantime, Joseph Ritson, a man of diligence and acumen equal to those of Pinker- ton, but of the most laudable accuracy and fide- lity as an editor, was engaged in various publi- cations respecting poetical antiquities, in which he employed profound research. A select col- lection of English Songs was compiled by him.
76 INTRODUCTORV REMARKS OX
with great care and considerable taste, and pub- lished at London, 1783. A new edition of this has appeared since Ritson's death, sanctioned by the name of the learned and indefatigable anti- quary, Thomas Park, and augmented with many original pieces, and some which Ritson had pre- pared for publication.
Ritson's Collection of Songs was followed by a curious volume, entitled, " Ancient Songs from the time of Henry III. to the Revolution," 1790 ; " Pieces of Ancient Popular Poetry," 1792 ; and " A collection of Scottish Songs, with the genuine music," London, 1794. This last is a genuine, but rather meagre collection of Caledonian popular songs. Next year Mr Rit- son published " Rol)in Hood," 2 vols., 1795, being " A Collection of all the Ancient Poems, Songs, and Ballads now extant, relative to that celelirated Outlaw." This work is a notal)le illustration of the excellences and defects of Mr Ritson's system. It is almost impossible to con- ceive so much zeal, research, and industry be- stowed on a subject of antiquity. There scarcely
POPULAR POETRY. 77
occurs a phrase or word relating- to Robin Hood, Avhether in history or poetry, in law books, in ancient proverbs, or common parlance, but it is here collected and explained. At the same time, the extreme fidelity of the editor seems driven to excess, when we find him pertinaciously retain- ing all the numerous and gross errors which re- peated recitations have introduced into the text, and regarding it as a sacred duty to prefer the worst to the better readings, as if their inferiority was a security for their being genuine. In short, when Ritson copied from rare books, or ancient manuscripts, there could not be a more accurate editor ; when taking his authority from oral tra- dition, and judging between two recited copies, he was apt to consider the worst as most genuine, as if a poem was not more likely to be dete- riorated than improved by passing through the mouths of many reciters. In the Ballads of Robin Hood, this superstitious scrupulosity was especially to be regretted, as it tended to enlarge the collection with a great number of doggerel compositions, which are all copies of each other.
78 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON
turning on the same idea of Bold Robin meetino; with a shepherd, a tinker, a mendicant, a tanner, &e. &;c., by each and eJI of whom he is sound!}" thrashed, and all of whom he receives into his band. The tradition, which avers that it was the brave outlaw's custom to try a bout at quar- ter-staff with his young recruits, might indeed have authorized one or two such tales, but the greater part ought to have been rejected as mo- dern imitations of the most paltry kind, compo- sed probably about the age of James I. of Eng- land. By adopting this spurious trash as part of Robin Hood's history, he is represented as the best cudgelled hero, Don Quixote excepted, that ever was celebrated in prose or rhyme. Ritson also pul)lished several garlands of North Country songs.
Looking on this eminent antiquary's labours in a general point of view, we may deprecate the eagerness and severity of his prejudices, and feel surprise that he should have shown so much irritability of disposition on such a topic as a collection of old ballads, which certauily have
POPULAR POETRY. 79
little in them to affect the passions ; and we may- be sometimes provoked at the pertinacity with which he has preferred bad readings to good. But while industry, research, and antiquarian learning, are recommendations to works of this nature, few editors will ever be found so compe- tent to the task as Joseph Ritson. It must also be added to his praise, that although not will- ing to yield his opinion rashly, yet if he saw reason to believe that he had been mistaken in any fact or argument, he resigned his own opi- nion with a candour equal to the w^armth with which he defended himself while confident he was in the right. Many of his works are now almost out of print, and an edition of them in common orthography, and altering the bizarre spelling and character which his prejudices induced the author to adopt, would be, to antiquaries, an ac- ceptable present.
We have now given a hasty account of various collections of popular poetry during the eigh- teenth century ; we have only further to observe, that, in the present century, this species of lore
80 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON
has been sedulously cultivated. The present Col- lection first appeared in 1802, in two volumes : and what may appear a singular coincidence, it was the first work printed by Mr James Ballan- tyne, (then residing at Kelso,) as it was the first serious demand which the present author made on the patience of the public. The Border Min- strelsy, augmented by a third volume, came to a second edition in 1803. In 1803, Mr John Grahame Dalzell, to whom his country is obliged for his antiquarian labours, published " Scottish Poems of the Sixteenth Century," which, among other subjects of interest, contains a curious con- temporary ballad of Belrinnes, which has some stjmzas of considerable merit, ^
The year 180G was distinguished by the ap- pearance of " Popular Ballads and Songs, from
' The first opening of the hallad lias nuicli of the inarti;U strain witli wliich a pihroch conniieiices. Propcrat in mc- dias res — according to the classic;d admonition.
" JIacCallanmore came from the west
With many a bow and brand ; To waste the Riniu's he thous^ht it best,
The Earl of Iluntlj's land."
1
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Traditions, Manuscripts, and Scarce Editions, with Translations of Similar Pieces from the Ancient Danish Language, and a few Originals by the Editor, Robert Jamieson, A.M., and r.A.S."^ This work, which was not greeted by the public with the attention it deserved, opened a new discovery respecting the original source of
' [After the completion of the Border Minstrelsy, and nearly three years previous to the pubhcation of his own Collection, Mr Jamieson printed in the Scots Magazine, (October 1803,) a List oi desiderata in Scottish Song. His communication to the Editor of that work contains the following paragraph : — ' ' I am now writing out for the press a Collection of popular Ballads and Songs from tradition, MSS., and scarce pubhcations, with a few of modern date, which have been written for, and are exclusively dedicated to my collection. As many of the pieces were common pro- perty, I have heretofore waited for the completion of Mr Walter Scott's Work, with more anxiety for the cause in general, than for any particular and selfish interest of my own; as I was sure of having the satisfaction of seeing such pieces as that gentleman might choose to adopt, appear with every advantage which I, partial as I was, could wish them. The most sanguine expectations of the pubhc have now been amply gratified ; and much curious and valuable matter is still left for me by Mr Scott, to whom I am much indebted for many acts of friendship, and much liberality and good will shown towards me and my undertaking." — Ed.] VOL. I. F
82 INTRODUCTORY REMAKKS ON
the Scottish ballads. Mr Jamieson's extensive acquaintance with the Scandina^-ian literature, enabled him to detect not only a general simila- rity betwixt these and the Danish ballads preser- ved in the " Kiempe Viser," an early collection of heroic ballads in that language, but to demon- strate that, in many cases, the stories and songs were distinctly the same, a circumstance which no antiquary had hitherto so much as suspected. jNlr Jamieson's annotations are also very valuable, and preserve some curious illustrations of the old poets. His imitations, though he is not entirely free from the affectation of using rather too many obsolete words, are generally highly interesting. The work fills an important place in the collec- tions of those who arc addicted to this branch of antiquarian study.
Mr John Finlay, a poet whose career Mas cut short by a premature death,' published a short
' [Mr I'iiilay, best known by bis " Wiillacc, or Tlio Vale of EUcrslie," died in 1810, in bis twonty-dgbtb }i-ar. An affectionate and oloirant tril>uto to bis memory from tlio pen of Professor Wilson appeared in Blackwood's I\Iagazin«', November, 1817 Ed.]
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collection of " Scottish Historical and Romantic Ballads," in 1808. The beauty of some imita- tions of the old Scotish ballad, with the good sense, learning, and modesty of the preliminary dissertations, must make all admirers of ancient lore regret the early loss of this accomplished young man.
Various valuable collections of ancient ballad- poetry have appeared of late years, some of which are illustrated with learning and acuteness, as those of Mr Motherwell^ and of Mr Kinloch" intimate much taste and feeling for this species of literature. Kor is there any want of editions of ballads, less designed for public sale, than to preserve floating pieces of minstrelsy which are in immediate danger of perishing. Several of
' [Minstrelsy ; Ancient and Modern, with an Historical Introduction and Notes. By William Motherwell. 4to. Glasg. 1827.]
^ [Ancient Scottish Ballads, recovered from Tradition, and never before pubhshed ; with Notes, Historical and Explanatory, and an Appendix, containing the Airs of several of the ballads. 8vo. Edin. 1827.]
84 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON
those, edited, as we have occasion to know, by men of distinguished talent, have appeared in a smaller form and more limited edition, and must soon be among the introuvahles of Scottish typo- graphy. We would particularize a duodecimo, under the modest title of a " Ballad Book," with- out place or date annexed, which indicates, by a few notes only, the capacity which the editor possesses for supplying the most extensive and ingenious illustrations upon antiquarian subjects. Most of the ballads are of a comic character, and some of them admirable specimens of Scottish dry humour. ^ Another collection which calls for particular distinction, is in the same size, or nearly so, and bears the same title with the preceding one, the date being, Edinburgh, 1827. But the contents are announced as containing the budget, or stock-in-trade, of an old Aberdeenshire min- strel, the very last, probably, of the race, who, according to Percy's definition of the profession,
» [This is Mr C. K. Sharpc's Work, alrcaiiy alluded to.— Eu.]
POPULAR POETRY. 85
sung his own compositions, and those of others, through the capital of the county, and other towns in that country of gentlemen. This man's name was Charles Leslie, but he was known more generally by the nickname of Mussel-mou'd Charlie, from a singular projection of his under lip. His death was thus announced in the news- papers for October, 1792 : — " Died at Old Rain, in Aberdeenshire, aged one hundred and four years, Charles Leslie, a hawker, or ballad-singer, well known in that country by the name of Mus- sel-mou'd Charlie. He followed his occupation till within a few weeks of his death." CharHe was a devoted Jacobite, and so popular in Aberdeen, that he enjoyed in that city a sort of monopoly of the minstrel calling, no other person being allowed, under any pretence, to chant ballads on. the causeway, or plain-stanes, of " the brave burgh." Like the former collection, most of Mussel-mou'd Charlie's songs were of a jocose character.
But the most extensive and valuable additions which have been of late made to this branch of
Ob INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON
ancient literature, are the collections of Mr Peter Buchan of Peterhead, a person of indefatigable research in that department, and whose industry- has been crowned with the most successful re- sults. This is partly owing to the country where Mr Buchan resides, which, full as it is of min- strel relics, has been but little ransacked by any former collectors ; so that, while it is a very rare event south of the Tay, to recover any ballad having a claim to antiquity, which has not been examined and republished in some one or other of our collections of ancient poetry, those of Aber- deenshire have been comparatively little attended to. The present Editor was the first to solicit attention to these northern songs, in consequence of a collection of ballads communicated to liim by his late respected friend. Lord Woodliouslee. Mr Jamieson, in his collections of " Songs and Ballads," being himself a native of INIorayshire, was able to push this enquiry much farther, and at the sanu' time, by doing so, to illustrate his theory of the connexion between the ancient Scottish and Danish ballads, upon which the pub-
POPULAR POETRY. 87
lication of Mr Buchan throws much light. It is, indeed, the most complete collection of the kind which has yet appeared.^
Of the originality of the ballads in Mr Buchan's collection we do not entertain the slightest doubt. Several (we may instance the curious tale of " The Two Magicians") are translated from the Norse, and Mr Buchan is probably unacquaint- ed with the originals. Others refer to points of history, with which the editor does not seem to be familiar. It is out of no disrespect to this laborious and useful antiquary, that we observe his prose composition is rather florid, and forms, in this respect, a strong contrast to the extreme simplicity of the ballads, which gives us the most distinct assurance that he has delivered the latter to the public in the shape in which he found them. Accordingly, we have never seen any col- lection of Scottish poetry appearing, from internal evidence, so decidedly and indubitably original.
> [ Ancient Ballads and Songs of the North of Scotland, hitherto unpublished ; with explanatory Notes. By P. B. 2 vols. 8vo. Edin. 1828.]
b» INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON
It is perhaps a pity that Mr Buchan did not re- move 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. Besides, although the exertion of this editorial privilege, of selecting readings, is an advantage to the ballads themselves, we are contented rather to take the whole in their pre- sent, though imperfect state, than that the least doubt should be thrown upon them, by amend- ments or alterations, which might render their authenticity doubtful. The historical poems, we observe, are few and of no remote date. That of the " Bridge of Dee," is among the oldest, and there are others referring to the times of the Covenanters. Some, indeed, are composed on still more recent events ; as the marriage of the mother of the late illustrious Byron, ^ and a catas- trophe of still later occurrence, " The Death of Leith-hall."
' [This song is quoted in Moore's Life of Byron, vol. i Ed.]
POPULAR POETRY. 89
As we wish to interest the admirers of ancient minstrel lore in this curious collection, we shall only add, that, on occasion of a new edition, we would recommend to Mr Buchan to leave out a number of songs which he has only inserted be- cause they are varied, sometimes for the worse, from sets which have appeared in other pubHca- tions. This restriction would make considerable room for such as, old though they be, possess to this age all the grace of novelty.
To these notices of late collections of Scottish Ballads, we ought to add some remarks on the very curious " Ancient Legendary Tales, print- ed chiefly from Original Sources, edited by the Rev. Charles Henry Hartshorne, M.A. 1829." The editor of this unostentatious work has done his duty to the public with much labour and care, and made the admirers of this species of poetry acquainted with very many ancient legendary poems, which were hitherto unpublished and very Httle known. It increases the value of the col- lection, that many of them are of a comic turn.
90 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON
a species of composition more rare, and, from its necessary allusion to domestic manners, more curious and interesting, than the serious class of Romances.
We have thus, in a cursory manner, gone through the history of English and Scottish po- pular poetry, and noticed the principal collections which have been formed from time to time of such compositions, and the principles on which the editors have proceeded. It is manifest that, of late, the public attention has been so much tm-ned to the subject by men of research and talent, that we may well hope to retrieve from oblivion as much of our ancient poetry as there is now any possibility of recovering.
Another important part of our task consists in giving some account of the modern imitation of the English Ballad, a species of literary labour
POPULAR POETRY. 91
wliicli the author has himself pursued with some success. Our remarks on this species of compo- sition are prefixed to the fourth volume of the present edition.
Abbotsford,
1st March, 1830.
MINSTRELSY
SCOTTISH BORDER :
COKSISTING OP
HISTORICAL AND ROMANTIC BALLADS,
COLLECTED
IN THE SOUTHERN COUNTIES OF SCOTLAND ; WITH A FEW
OF MODERN DATE, FOUNDED UPON
LOCAL TRADITION.
The songs, to savage virtue dear. That won of yore the public ear. Ere polity, sedate and sage, Had quench'd the fires of feudal rage.
Warton.
HIS GRACE
HENRY,
DUKE OF BUCCLEUCH, &c. &c. &c.
WHICH
IN ELDER TIMES HAVE CELEBRATED THE PROWESS,
AND CHEERED THE HALLS,
OF
HIS GALLANT ANCESTORS,
ARE RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED BY HIS grace's much OBLIGED
MOST HUMBLE SERVANT,
WALTER SCOTT.^
[• Edinburgli, 1802.]
INTRODUCTION.
[Edin. 1802.] From the remote period, when the Roman Pro- vince was contracted by the ramparts of Severus, until the union of the Kingdoms, the Borders of Scotland formed the stage, upon which were presented the most memorable conflicts of two gallant nations. The inhabitants, at the com- mencement of this era, formed the first wave of the torrent, which assaulted, and finally over- whelmed, the barriers of the Roman power in Britain. The subsequent events, in which they were engaged, tended little to diminish their mi- litary hardihood, or to reconcile them to a more ci\'ilized state of society. We have no occasion to trace the state of the Borders during the long and obscure period of Scottish history, which
VOL. I. G
y» INTRODUCTION.
preceded the accession of the Stuart family. To
illustrate a few ballads, the earliest of which is
hardly coeval with James V., such an enquiry
would be equally difficult and vain. If we may
trust the Welsh bards, in their account of 570
the wars betwixt the Saxons and Danes of
Deira and the Cumraig, imagination can hard!}- form any idea of conflicts more desperate, than were maintained, on the Borders, between the an- cient British and their Teutonic invaders. Thus, the Gododin^ describes the waste and devastation of mutual havoc, in colours so glowing, as strong- ly to recall the words of Tacitus ; " £^ uhi solitu- dinem faciunt^ pacem appellant.'''
At a later period, the Saxon families who fled from the exterminating sword of the Conqueror,
■ In the spirited translation of this poem, by Jones, tlic followini; verses are highly descriptive of the exhausted state of the victor army : —
At INIadoc's tent the clarion sounds,
With rapid clangour hurried far : Each echoina; dell the note resounds —
But whcu return the sons of war ! Thou, born of stern Necessity, Dull Peace ! the desert yields to thee,
And owns thy melancholy sway.
INTRODUCTION, 99
with many of the Normans themselves, whom dis- content and intestine feuds had driven into exile, began to rise into eminence upon the Scottish Borders. They brought with them arts, both of peace and of war, unknown in Scotland ; and, among their descendants, we soon number the most powerful Border chiefs. Such, during the reign of the last Alexander, were Patrick Earl
of March, and Lord Soulis, renowned in tra-
1249 dition ; and such were also the powerful Co-
myns, who early acquired the principal sway upon
the Scottish Marches. In the civil wars be-
1300 twixt Bruce and Baliol, all those powerM
chieftains espoused the unsuccessful party. They were forfeited and exiled ; and upon their ruins was founded the formidable house of Douglas. The Borders, from sea to sea, were now at the devotion of a succession of mighty chiefs, whose exorbitant power threatened to place a new dy- nasty upon the Scottish throne. It is not ray intention to trace the dazzling career of this race of heroes, whose exploits were alike formidable to the English and to their own sovereign.
The sun of Douglas set in blood. The mur- ders of the sLxth Earl, and his brother, in the
100 INTRODUCTION.
Castle of Edinburgh, were followed by that of their successor poniarded at Stirling by the hand of his prince. His brother, Earl James, appears neither to have possessed the abilities nor the am- bition of his ancestors. He drew, indeed, against his Sovereign, the formidable sword of Douglas, but with a timid and hesitating hand. Procrasti- nation ruined his cause ; and he was deserted, at Abercorn, by the Knight of Cadyow, chief of the Hamiltons, and by his most active adherents, after they had ineffectually exhorted him to com- mit his fate to the issue of a battle. The Border chiefs, who longed for independence, showed little inclination to follow the declining fortunes of Douglas. On the contrary, the most powerful class engaged and defeated him at Arkinholme, in Annandale, when, after a short residence in England, he again endeavoured to gain a footing in his native country.^ The
' At the battle of Arkinholme. tlie Karl of Angus, a near kinsman of Douglas, commanded the rojal forces ; and the difference of their complexion occasioned the say- ing, " that the Black Boiiglax had put down the lied." The Maxwells, the Johnstones, and the Scotts, composed his army. Archibald, Karl of Murray, brother to Douglas, was slain in the action ; and Hugh, Earl of Urmond, his
INTRODUCTION. 101
spoils of Douglas were liberally distributed among- his conquerors, and royal grants of his forfeited
second brother, was taken and executed. His captors. Lord Carlisle, and the Baron of Johnstone, were rewarded with a grant of the lands of Pittinane, upon Clyde. — Gods- croft, vol. i. p. 375. — Balfour's MS. in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh. — Abercrombie's Achievements, vol. ii. p. 36\, folio edition. — The other chiefs were also dis- tinguished by royal favour. By a charter, upon record, dated 25th February, 1348, the king grants to Walter Scott of Kirkurd, ancestor of the house of Buccleuch, the lands o£ Abingtown, Pliareholm, and Glentonan Craig, in La- narkshire, " Pro suojidcli servitio jiohis impenso, et pro quod interfuit in confiictu de Arkinholme in occisione et captio7ie nostrorum rebellium quondam Archibaldi et Hugonis de Douglas olim Comitum Moravice et de Onnond et aliorum rebellium nos- trorum in eonim comitiva exist en : ibidem captorum et inter Jecto- rum.'' Similar grants of land were made to Finnart and Ar- ran, the two branches of the house of Hamilton ; to the chief of the Battisons ; but above all to the Earl of Angus, who obtained from royal favour a donation of the Lordship of Douglas, and many other lands now held by Lord Dou- glas, as his representative. There appears, however, to be some doubt, whether, in this division, the Earl of Angus re- ceived more than his natural right. Our historians, indeed, say, that William, 1st Earl of Douglas, had three sons: 1. James the 2d Earl, who died in the field of Otterburn ; 2. Archibald the Grim, 3d Earl ; and 3. George, in right of his mother, Earl of Angus. Whether, however, this Ar- chibald was actually the son of William, seems very doubt-
102 INTRODUCTIO>f.
domains effectually interested them in excluding'
Ms return. An attempt on the East Borders by
" the Percy and the Douglas hoik together"
was equally unsuccessful. The Earl, grown
old in exile, longed once more to see his native
country, and vowed that, upon Saint Magdalen's
day, he would deposit his offering on the high
altar at Lochmaben. Accompanied by the
banished Earl of Albany, with his usual fortune,
he entered Scotland. The Borderers assembled
to oppose him, and he suffered a final defeat at
Burnswark, in Dumfries-shire. The aged Earl
was taken in the fight, by a son of Kirkpatrick
of Closeburn, one of his own vassals. A grant
ful ; and Sir David Dalninple has strenuously maintained the contrary. Now, if Archibald the Grim intruded into the Earldom of Douglas, without being a son of that fa- mily, it follows that the house of Angus, being kept out of their just rights for more than a century, were only resto- red to them after the battle of Arkinholme. Perhaps this may help to account for the eager interest taken by tlie Earl of Angus against his kinsman.' — See Remarks on the His- tory of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1773, p. 121.
i[Tlie connexion between tlie honse of Angus and the old line of Douglas has at lensrth, it is bt-lieved, been settled by the resoarclies of the learned John Riild.'ll. The first D..U!.'Ia< of Angus was, arcordingr to this authority, a natural son of the first Earl of Douglas.— Eu.]
INTRODUCTION. 103
of lands had been offered for his person : " Carry me to the King ! " said Douglas to Kirkpatrick : " thou art well entitled to profit by my misfor- tune ; for thou wast true to me, while I was true to myself." The young man wept bitterly, and offered to fly with the Earl into England. But Douglas, weary of exile, refused his proffered liberty, and only requested, that Kirkpatrick would not deliver him to the King, till he had secured his own reward.^ Kirkpatrick did more ; he stipulated for the personal safety of his old master. His generous intercession prevailed ; and the last of the Douglasses was permitted to die, in monastic seclusion, in the Abbey of Lindores. After the fall of the house of Douglas, no one chieftain appears to have enjoyed the same exten- sive supremacy over the Scottish Borders. The various barons, who had partaken of the spoil, combined in resisting a succession of uncontrolled domination. The Earl of Angus alone seems to have taken rapid steps in the same course of am-
' A grant of the King, dated 2d October, 1484, bestowed upon Kirkpatrick, for this acceptable service, the lands of Kirkmichael.
104 INTRODLCTION.
bition, uhicli had been pursued by his knismen, and rivals, the Earls of Douglas. Archibald, sixth Earl of Angus, called Bell-the-Caf, was, at once, Warden of the East and Middle ^Marches, Lord of Liddesdale, and Jedwood forest, and possessed of the strong castles of Douglas, Hermitage, and Tantallon. Highly esteemed by the ancient no- bility, a faction which he headed shook the throne of the feeble James HI., whose person they re- strained, and whose minions they led to an igno- minious death. The King failed not to show his sense of these insults, though unable effectually to avenge them. This hastened his fate : and the field of Bannockburn, once the scene of a more glorious conflict, beheld the com])ined chieftains of the Border counties arrayed against their sovereign, under the bainiers of his own son. The King was supported by almost all the barons of the north ; but the tumultuous ranks of the Highlanders were ill able to endure the steady and ra))id charge of the men of Ainiandale and Liddesdale, who bare spears two ells longer than were used by the rest of their countrymen. Tlie yells witli wliieli they accompanied their onset, caused the iieart of James to quail within him. He deserted his host,
INTRODUCTION. 105
and fled towards Stirling ; but, falling- from his horse, he was murdered by the pusuers.
James IV., a monarch of a vigorous and ener- getic character, was well aware of the danger which his ancestors had experienced from the pre- ponderance of one overgrown family. He is sup- posed to have smiled internally, when the Border and Highland champions bled and died in the savage sports of chivalry, by which his nuptials were solemnized. Upon the waxing power of Angus he kept a wary eye ; and, embracing the occasion of a casual slaughter, he compelled that Earl and his son to exchange the lordship of Lid- desdale, and the castle of Hermitage, for the castle and lordship of Bothwell. ^ By this policy he pre- vented the house of Angus, mighty as it was,
■ Spens of Kilspindie, a renowned cavalier, had been pre- sent in court, when the Earl of Angus was highly praised for strength and valour. " It may be," answered Spens, " if all be good that is upcome ;" insinuating that the cou- rage of the Earl might not answer the promise of his per- son. Shortly after, Angus, while hawking near Borthwick, with a single attendant, met Kilspindie. " What reason had ye," said the Earl, "for making question of my manhood? thou art a tall fellow, and so am I ; and by St Bride of Douglas, one of us shall pay for it!" — " Since it may be no better," answered Kilspindie, " I will defend myself against the best earl in Scotland." With these words they
106 INTRODUCTION.
from rising- to the height whence the elder branch of their family had been hurled.
Nor did James fail in affording his subjects on the Marches marks of his royal justice and protec- tion. The clan of Turnbull having been guilty of unbounded excesses, the King came suddenly to Jedburgh, by a night march, and executed the most rigid justice upon the asto- nished offenders. Their submission was made with singular solemnity. Two hundred of the tribe met the King, at the water of Rule, hold- ing in their hands the naked swords with Avhich they had perpetrated their crimes, and having-
encountered fiercely, till Angus, with one blow, severed the thigh of his antagonist, who died upon the spot. The Earl then addressed the attendant of Kilspindie : " Go thy way : tell my gossip, the King, that here was nothing but fair play. I know my gossip will be offended ; but I will get me into Liddesdale, and remain in my castle of the Hermitiige till his anger be abated." — Godscroft, vol. ii. p. 59. The price of the Earl's pardon seems to have been the exchange mentioned in the text. Bothwell is now the residence of Lord Doughus. The sword with which Ar- chibald Bell-the- Cat slew Spens, was, by his descendant, the famous Earl of Morton, presented to Lord Lindcsay of the Byres, when aliout to engage in single combat with
the noted Earl of Bothwell, at Carberry-hill Godscroft,
vol. ii. p. 175.
INTRODUCTION. 107
each around his neck the halter which he had well merited. A few were capitally punished, many imprisoned, and the rest dismissed, after they had given hostages for their future peaceable demeanour.^
The hopes of Scotland, excited by the prudent and spirited conduct of James, were doomed to a sudden and fatal reverse. V^y should we recapi- tulate the painful tale, of the defeat and death of a high-spirited prince ? Prudence, policy, the prodigies of superstition, and the advice of his most experienced counsellors, were alike unable to subdue in James the blazing zeal of romantic chivalry. The monarch, and the flower of his nobles, precipitately rushed to the fatal field of Flodden, whence they were never to return.
The minority of James V. presents a melan- choly scene. Scotland, through all its extent, felt the truth of the adage, that " the country is hapless, whose prince is a child." But the Border counties, exposed from their situation to the incursions of the English, deprived of many of their most gallant chiefs, and harassed by the
^ Holingshed's Chronicle — Lesly.
108 INTRODUCTION.
intestine struggles of the survivors, were reduced to a wilderness, inhabited only by the beasts of the field, and by a few more brutal warriors. Lord Home, the chamberlain and favourite of James IV., leagued with the Earl of Angus, wlio married the widow of his sovereign, held, for a time, the chief sway upon the East Border. Al- bany, the Regent of the kingdom, bred in the French court, and more accustomed to wield the pen than the sword, feebly endeavoured to con- trol a lawless nobility, to whom his manners appeared strange, and his person despicable. It was in vain that he inveigled the Lord Home to Edinburgh, where he was tried and exe- cuted. This example of justice, or severity, only irritated the kinsmen and followers of the decea- sed baron : for though, in other respects, not more sanguinary than the rest of a barbarous nation, the Borderers never dismissed from their memory a deadly feud, till blood for blood had been exacted to the uttermost drachm.^ Of this.
' The statute 1.59-1, cap. 2'M, ascribes tlie disorders on the Border in a ijreat measure to tlie " coiiiiselles, direc- tions, receipt, and jiartal^inc;, of cliiel'tains principalles of the branches, and liousehalders of the saids surnames, and
INTRODUCTION. 109
the fate of Anthony d'Arcey, Seigneur de la Bastie, aifords a melancholy example. This gallant French cavalier was appointed Warden of the East Marches by Albany, at his first dis- graceful retreat to France. Though De La Bastie was an able statesman, and a true son of chivalry, the choice of the regent was neverthe- less unhappy. The new warden was a foreigner, placed in the office of Lord Home, as the delegate of the very man who had brought that baron to the scaffold. A stratagem, contrived by Home of Wedderburn, who burned to avenge the death of his chief, drew De la Bastie towards Langton in the Merse. Here he found himself surrounded by his enemies. In attempting, by the speed of his horse, to gain the castle of Dun- bar, the warden plunged into a morass, where he was overtaken, and cruelly butchered. Wedder- Imrn himself cut off his head; and, in savage triumph, knitted it to his saddle-bow by the long flowing hair, which had been admired by the dames of France Pitscottie, edit. 1728, p.
c'lannes, quhilkis bears quarrel, and seeks revenge for the least hurting or slauchter of ony ane of their unhappy race, although it were orclour of justice, or in rescuing and fol- lowing of true mens geares stollen or reft." 1
110 INTKODUCTION.
130. Pinkerton's History of Scotland, vol. il. p. 169.^
The Earl of Arran, head of the house of Ha- milton, was appointed to succeed De la Bastie in his perilous office. But the Douglasses, the Homes, and the Kerrs, proved too strong for him
upon the Border. He was routed by those 1520
clans, at Kelso, and afterwards in a sharp
skirmish, fought betwixt his faction and that of
Angus, in the High Street of the metropolis.*
' This tragedy, or, perhaps, the preceding execution of Lord Home, must have been the subject of a song, tlu> iirst two lines of which are preserved in the Complayni of Scotland —
God sen' the Due bed byddin in France, And De la Bate had never come hame.
P. 100, Edin. 1801.
>The particulars of this encounter are interesting. The Hamiltons were the most numerous party, drawn chiefly from the western counties. Their leaders met in the pa- lace of Archbishop Beaton, and resolved to apprehend Angus, who was come to the city to attend the Conven- tion of Estates. Gawin Douglas, Bishop of Dunkeld, a near relation of Angus, in vain endeavoured to mediate betwixt the factions. He appealed to Beaton, and invoked his assistance to prevent bloodshed. "On my conscience," answered the Archbisliop, " 1 cannot help what is to hap- pen." As he laid his hand upon his breast, at this soleimi
INTRODUCTION. Ill
The return of the Regent was followed by the banishment of Angus, and by a desultory warfare with England, carried on with mutual incur- sions. Two gallant armies, levied by Albany, were dismissed without any exploit worthy notice,
declaration, the hauberk, concealed by his rochet, was heard to clatter : " Ah ! my lord ! " retorted Douglas, "your conscience sounds hollow." He then expostulated with the secular leaders, and Sir Patrick Hamilton, brother to Arran, was convinced by his remonstrances ; but Sir James, the natural son of the Earl, upbraided his uncle with reluctance to fight. " False bastard!" answered Sir Patrick, " I will fight to-day where thou darest not be seen." With these words they rushed tumultuously towards the High Street, where Angus, with the Prior of Colding- hame, and the redoubted Wedderburn, waited their assault, at the head of 400 spearmen, the flower of the East Marches, who, having broke down the gate of the Nether- bow, had arrived just in time to the Earl's assistance. The advantage of the ground, and the disorder of the Hamil- tons, soon gave the day to Angus. Sir Patrick Hamilton, and the Master of Montgomery, were slain. Arran, and Sir James Hamilton, escaped with difficulty ; and with no less difficulty was the mihtary prelate of Glasgow rescued from the ferocious Borderers, by the generous interposition of Gawin Douglas. The skirmish was long remembered in Edinburgh, by the name of " Cleanse the Causeway."
— Pixkerton's History, vol. ii. p. 181 Pitscottie,
Edit. r28, p. 120 Life of Gawain Douglas, prefixed to his
VirPi
112 INTRODUCTION.
whll? Surrey, at the head of ten thousand cavalry, burnt Jedburgh, and laid waste all Tiviotdale. This general pays a splendid tribute to the gal- lantry of the Border chiefs. He terms them,
" The boldest men and the hottest, that 1523 ^ . . „,
ever 1 saw in any nation. ^
Disgraced and detested, Albany bade adieu to Scotland for ever. The Queen-mother and the Earl of Arran for some time swayed the king- dom. But their power was despised on the Bor- ders, where Angus, though banished, had many friends. Scott of Buccleuch even appropriated to himself domains belonging to the Queen, worth 400 merks yearly ; being probably the castle of Newark, and her jointure lands in Ettrick forest." — This chief, with Kerr of Cessford, was com-
' A curious letter from Surrey to the King is printed in the Appendix, No. I.
* In a letter to the Duke of Norfolk, October 1524, Queen Margaret says, " Sen that the Lard of Sessford and the Lard of Baclw vas put in the Castcll of Edinbrouli, the ErI of Lenness hath past hyz vay vythout lycyens, and in despyt ; and thynkyth to make the brck that lie may, and to solyst other lordis to tak hyz part ; for the said Lard of Bavklw vas hyz man, and dyd the gretyst ewelyz that myght be dwn, and twk part playnly vytli theftyz as is well known."— CW. Mi'S. Cans'. B. I.
INTRODUCTION. 113
mittedto ward, from wldcli they escaped, to join the party of the exiled Angus. Leagued with these, and other Border chiefs, Angus effect- ed his return to Scotland, where he shortly after acquired possession of the supreme power, and of the person of the youthful King. " The ancient power of the Douglasses," says the accurate his- torian whom I have so often referred to, " seemed to have revived ; and, after a slumber of near a century, again to threaten destruction to the Scottish monarchy." — Pinkerton, vol. ii. p. 277.
In fact, the time now returned, when no one durst strive with a Douglas, or with his follower. For, although Angus used the outward pageant of conducting the King around the country, for punishing thieves and traitors, " yet," says Pit- scottie, " none were found greater than were in his own company." The high spirit of the young King was galled by the ignominious restraint under which he found himself; and, in a progress to the Border, for repressing the Armstrongs, he probably gave such signs of dissatisfaction, as excited the Laird of Buccleuch to attempt his
114 INTRODUCTION.
This powerful baron was the chief of a hardy clan, inhabiting Ettrick forest, Esk- dale, Ewsdale, the higher part of Tiviotdale, and a portion of Liddesdale. In this warlike district he easily levied a thousand horse, comprehending a large body of Elliots, Armstrongs, and other broken clans, over whom the Laird of Buccleuch exercised an extensive authority ; being termed, by Lord Dacre, " chief maintainer of all mis- guided men on the Borders of Scotland." — Let- ter to Wolsey, July 18, 1528. The Earl of An- gus, with his reluctant ward, had slept at Mel- rose ; and the clans of Home and Kerr, under the Lord Home, and the Barons of Cessford and Fairnihirst, had taken their leave of the King, when, in the grey of the morning, Buccleuch and his band of cavalry were discovered hanging, like a thunder-cloud, upon the neigldjouring hill of Haliden.^ A herald was sent to demand his pur- pose, and to charge him to retire. To tlie Jir.st
' Near Darnick. By a corruption from Skirmisli-ficM, the spot is called the Skinncrsfiold. Two lines of an old ballad on the subject are still preserved :
" There were sic belts and blows,
The Mattous burn ran blood." [Another part of the field is still called the Charge Lair — Ed.]
INTRODUCTION. 115
point he answered, that he came to show his elan to the King, according to the custom of the Bor- ders ; to the second, that he knew the King's mind better than Angus. — When this haughty answer was reported to the Earl, " Sir," said he to the King, " yonder is Buccleuch, with the thieves of Annandale and Liddesdale, to bar your grace's passage. I vow to God they shall either fight OT flee. Your grace shall tarry on this hillock with my brother George ; and I will either clear your road of yonder banditti, or die in the at- tempt." The Earl, with these words, alighted, and hastened to the charge ; while the Earl of Lennox (at whose instigation Buccleuch made the attempt) remained with the King, an inactive spectator. Buccleuch and his followers likewise dismounted, and received the assailants with a dreadful shout, and a shower of lances. The en- counter was fierce and obstinate ; but the Homes and Kerrs, returning at the noise of the battle, bore down and dispersed the left wing of Buc- cleuch's little army. The hired banditti fled on all sides ; but the chief himself, surrounded by liis clan, fought desperately in the retreat. The Laird of Cessford, chief of the Roxburgh Kerrs,
116 INTRODUCTION.
pursued the chase fiercely ; till, at the bottom of a steep path, Elliot of Stobs, a follower of Buc- cleuch, turned, and slew him with a stroke of his lance. When Cessford fell, the pursuit ceased.^ But his death, with those of Buccleuch's friends, who fell in the action, to the number of eighty, occasioned a deadly feud betwixt the names of Scott and Kerr, which cost much blood upon the Marches.^ — See Pitscottie, Lesly, and
GoDSCRaFT.
Stratagem at length effected what force
had been unable to accomplish ; and the
King, emancipated from the iron tutelage of
Angus, made the first use of his authority, by
' [Sir Walter Scott lived to be proprietor of the ground on which this battle was fought ; and a stone seat, on the edge of Kaeside, about half a mile above the house of Ab- botsford, marks the spot, called " Turnagain," where Stobbs Jialted, and Cessford died. — Ed.]
* Bucclcuch contrived to escape forfeiture, a doom pro- nounced againt those nobles, who assisted the Earl of Len- nox in a subsequent attempt to deliver the King, by force of arms. " The laird of Bukclcugh has a rcspccte, and is not forfeited ; and will get his pece, luid was in Lethquo, both Sondaye, Mondaye, and Tewisday last, which is grete displeasure to tlie Carres." — Letter from Sir C. Dacre to Lord Dacre, 2d December, 1526.
INTRODUCTION. 117
banishing from the kingdom his late lieutenant, and the whole race of Douglas. This command was not enforced without difficulty ; for the power of Angus was strongly rooted in the East Bor- der, where he possessed the castle of Tantallon, and the hearts of the Homes and Kerrs. The former, whose strength was proverbial,^ defied a royal army ; and the latter, at the Pass of Pease, baffled the Earl of Argyle's attempts to enter the Merse, as lieutenant of his sovereign. On this occasion, the Borderers regarded with won- der and contempt the barbarous array and rude equipage of their northern countrymen. Gods- croft has preserved the beginning of a scoffing^ rhyme, made upon this occasion : —
The Earl of Argyle is bound to ride From the border of Edgebucklin brae ; »
And all his habergeons him beside, Each man upon a sonk of strae i
They made their vow that they would slay...
*****
GoDSCROFT, vol. ii, p. 104, Edit. 1743.
' " To ding down Tantallon, and make a bridge to the Bass," was an adage expressive of impossibility. The shattered ruins of this celebrated fortress still overhang a tremendous rock on the coast of East Lothian.
* Edgebucklin, near Musselburgh.
118 INTRODUCTION.
The pertinacious opposition of Angus to his doom irritated to the extreme the fiery temper of James, and he swore, in his wrath, that a Dou- glas should never serve him ; an oath which he kept in circumstances, under which the spirit of chivalry which he worshipped' should have taught him other feelings.
' I allude to the affecting story of Douglas of Kilspindie, uncle to the Earl of Angus. This gentleman had been placed by Angus about the King's person, who, when a boy, loved him much on account of his singular activity of body, and Mas wont to call him liis Graystcil, after a champion of chivalry, in the romance of Sir Eger and Sir Gi-ime. He shared, however, the fate of his chief, and for many years served in France. Weary at length of exile, the aged warrior, recollecting the King's persona? attachment to him, resolved to throw himself on his cle- mency. As James returned from hunting in the park at Stirling, he saw a person at a distance, and, turning to hi< nobles, exclaimed, " Yonder is my Graysteil, Archibald of Kilspindie ! " As he approached, Douglas threw himself on his knees, and implored permission to lead an obscure life in his native land. But the name of Douglas was an amulet, which steel'd the King's heart against the influence of compassion and juvenile recollection. He passed the .suppliant without an answer, and rode briskly up the steep hill towards the castle. Kilspindie, though loaded with a hauberk under his clothes, kept pace witli tiie horse, in.
INTRODUCTION. 119
WTille these transactions, by which the fate of Scotland was influenced, were passing upon the Eastern Border, the Lord Maxwell seems to have exercised a most uncontrolled domination in Dumfries-shire. Even the power of the Earl of Angus was exerted in vain against the ban- ditti of Liddesdale, protected and bucklered by this mighty chief. Repeated complaints were made by the English residents, of the devastation occasioned by the depredations of the Elliots, Scotts, and Armstrongs, connived at and encou- raged by Maxwell, Buccleuch, and Fairnihirst. At a convention of Border commissioners, it was agreed that the King of England, in case the excesses of the Liddesdale freebooters were not duly redressed, should be at liberty to issue let-
Aain endeavouring to catch a glance from the implacable monarch. He sat down at the gate, weary and exhausted, and asked for a draught of water. Even this was refused by tlie royal attendants. The King afterwards blamed their discourtesy ; but Kilspindie was obliged to return to France, where he died of a broken heart ; the same dis- ease wliich afterwards brought to the grave his unrelent- ing sovereign. Even the stern Henry VIII. blamed his nephew's conduct, quoting the generous saying, " A King's face should give grace." — Godscroft, vol. ii. p. 107.
120 INTRODUCTION.
ters of reprisal to his injured subjects, granting- " power to invade the said inhabitants of Lid- desdale, to their slaughters, burning, herships, robbing, reifing, despoiling, and destruction, and so to continue the same at his Grace's pleasure," tiU the attempts of the inhabitants were fully atoned for. This impolitic expedient, by which the Scottish Prince, unable to execute justice on his turbulent subjects, committed to a rival sove- reign the power of unlimited chastisement, was a principal cause of the savage state of the Bor- ders. For the inhabitants, finding that the sword of revenge was substituted for that of justice, were loosened from their attachment to Scotland, and boldly threatened to carry on their depreda- tions, in spite of the efforts of both kingdoms.
James V., however, was not backward in using more honourable expedients to quell the banditti on the Borders. The imprison- ment of their chiefs, and a noted expedition, in which many of the principal thieves were exe- cuted, (see introduction to the ballad, called Johnie Armstromj,) produced such good effects, that, according to an ancient picturesque history, " thereafter there was great peace and rest a long
INTRODUCTION. 121
time, wherethrough the King had great profit ; for he had ten thousand sheep going in the Et- trick forest, in keeping by Andrew Bell, who made the King so good count of them as they had gone in the bounds of Fife." — Pitscottie, p. 153.
A breach with England interrupted the tran- quillity of the Borders. The Earl of ^ ^ . 1332
Northumberland, a formidable name to
Scotland, ravaged the Middle Marches, and burnt Branxholm, the abode of Buccleuch, the hereditary enemy of the English name. Buc- cleuch, with the Barons of Cessford and Fairni- hirst, retaliated by a raid into England, where they acquired much spoil. On the East March, Fowberry was destroyed by the Scotts, and Dunglass Castle by D'Arcy, and the banished Angus.
A short peace was quickly followed by another war, which proved fatal to Scotland, and to her King. In the battle of Haddenrig, the Eng- lish, and the exiled Douglasses, were defeated by the Lords Huntly and Home ; but this was a transient gleam of success. Kelso was burnt.
122 INTRODUCTION.
and the Borders ravasfed, by the Duke of 1542 ^ & ' .
Norfolk ; and finally, the rout of Solway
Moss, in which ten thousand men, the flower of the Scottish army, were dispersed and defeated by a band of five hundred English cavalry, or rather by their own dissensions, broke the proud heart of James ; a death more painful, a hun- dred-fold, than was met by his father in the field of Flodden.
When the strength of the Scottish army had sunk, without wounds, and without renown, the principal chiefs were led captive into England. Among these was the Lord Maxwell, who was compelled, by the menaces of Henry, to swear allegiance to the English monarch. There is still in existence the spirited instrument of vin- dication, by which he renounces his connexion with England, and the honours and estates which had been proffered him, as the price of treason to his infant sovereign. From various bonds of manrent, it appears that all the Western Marches
were swayed by this powerful chieftain. 1343 .
AVith Maxwell, and the other captives, re- turned to Scotland the banished Earl of Angus, and his brother, Sir George Douglas, after a
INTRODUCTION. 125
banishment of fifteen years. This powerful fa- mily regained at least a part of their influence upon the Borders ; and, grateful to the kingdom which had afforded them protection during their exile, became chiefs of the English faction in Scotland, whose object it was to urge a contract of marriage betwixt the young Queen and the heir-apparent of England. The impetuosity of Henry, the ancient hatred betwixt the nations, and the wavering temper of the Governor, Ar- ran, prevented the success of this measure. The wrath of the disappointed monarch discharged itself in a wide-wasting and furious invasion of the East Marches, conducted by the Earl of Hertford. Seton, Home, and Buccleuch, hang- ing on the mountains of Lammermoor, saw, with ineffectual regret, the fertile plains of Merse and Lothian, and the metropolis itself, reduced to a smoking desert. Hertford had scarcely re- treated with the main army, when Evers and Latoun laid waste the whole vale of Tiviot, with a ferocity of devastation hitherto unheard of.^
» In Hayne's State Papers, from p. 43 to p. 64, is an account of these destructive forays. One list of the places burnt and destroyed enumerates —
124 INTRODUCTION.
The same " lion mode of wooing," being pur- sued during the minority of Edward VI., totally alienated the affections even of those Scots who were most attached to the English interest. The Earl of Angus, in particular, united himself to the Governor, and gave the English a sharp defeat at Ancram Moor, a particular account of which action is subjoined to the ballad, entitled. The Eve of St John. Even the fatal defeat at Pinkey, which at once renewed the carnage of Flodden, and the disgrace of Solway, served to prejudice the cause of the victors. The Borders saw, with dread and detestation, the ruinous fortress of Roxburgh once more receive an English garrison, and the widow of Lord Home driven from his baronial castle to make
room for the " Southern Beivers." Many
1547 . . . -^
ot the barons made a reluctant submission
|
JMonasteries and Fieerehouses, . 7 |
|
|
Castles, towies, and piles, . .16 |
|
|
Market towncs, . . . 6 |
|
|
Villages 243 |
|
|
Mylnes, . . . .13 |
|
|
Spytells and hospitals, . . 3 |
|
|
See also official accounts of these expeditions. |
m Dal |
|
yell's Framncnts. |
INTRODUCTION. 125
to Somerset ; but those of the higher part of the Marches remained among their mountains, me- ditating revenge. A similar incursion was made on the West Borders by Lord Wharton, who, with five thousand men, ravaged and overran Annandale, Nithsdale, and Galloway, compel- ling the inhabitants to receive the yoke of I England.^
» Patten gives us a list of those East Border chiefs who did homage to the Duke of Somerset, on the 24th of Sep- tember, 1547 ; namely, the Lairds of Cessforth, Ferny- herst, Grenehead, Hunthill, Hundely, Makerstone, By- merside, Bounjedworth, Ormeston, Mellestaines, Warme- say, Synton, Egerston, Merton, Mowe, RydeU, Beamer- side. Of gentlemen, he enumerates George Tromboul, Jhon Hahburton, Robert Car, Robert Car of Greyden, Adam Kirton, Andrew Mether, Saunders Purvose of Erleston, Mark Car of Littledean, George Car of Falden- side, Alexander Mackdowal, Charles Rutherford, Thomas Car of the Yere, Jhon Car of Meynthorn, (Nenthorn,) Walter Haliburton, Richard Hangansyde, Andrew Car, James Douglas of Cavers, James Car of Mersington, George Hoppringle, William Ormeston of Emerden, John Grymslowe Patten, in Dalyell's Fragments, p. 87.
On the West Border, the following barons and clans submitted, and gave pledges to Lord Wharton, that they would serve the King of England, with the number of^ followers annexed to their names : — .
126
INTRODUCTION.
The arrival of French auxiliaries, and of French gold, rendered vain the splendid suc- cesses of the English. One by one, the fort- resses which they occupied were recovered hy
|
Annerdai-e. |
NiTHSDALE. |
||
|
Laird of Kirkmigliel, |
222 |
Mr Maxwell and more. |
1000 |
|
Rose, . . . |
165 |
Laird of Closeburn, . |
. 403 |
|
Hempsfield, |
163 |
Lag, . . |
. 202 |
|
Home Ends, . |
162 |
Crausficld, . |
. 27 |
|
Wamfrev, . . |
102 |
IVIr Ed. Creighton, . |
10 |
|
Dunwoddy, |
44 |
Laird of Cowhill, . |
91 |
|
Newby & Gratney |
122 |
Maxwells of Brackenside, |
|
|
Tinnel(Timvald), |
102 |
and ^'icar of Carlaveri |
ck, 310 |
|
Patrick l\Iurray, |
203 |
Akxerdale and Galway. |
|
|
Christie Urwin (Irvinji;) of |
Lord Carlisle, . . |
. 101 |
|
|
Coveshawe, |
102 |
Aknerdai.e & Clidsdale. |
|
|
Cutlibert Urwcn of Robbgi |
1,34 |
Laird of Applegirth, |
242 |
|
Urweus of Seunersack, , |
4') |
LiDDESDAI.E & DeBATEABI.I: |
|
|
Wat Urwcn, .... |
20 |
Land. |
|
|
Jeffrey Urwen, . |
<i:5 |
Armstrongs, |
300 |
|
T. Johnston of Crackl)urn, |
64 |
Ehvoods (Elliots,) . |
74 |
|
James Johnston of Coitos, |
162 |
jVixons, .... |
32 |
|
Johnstons of Craggyhmd, |
37 |
Gai.i.oway. |
|
|
Johnstons of Dricsdell, . |
46 |
Laird of Dawbaytie, |
41 |
|
Johnstons of lAIalinshaw, |
65 |
Oriherton, . . . |
111 |
|
Gawen Johnston, |
31 |
Carlisle, .... |
20(5 |
|
Will .Johnston, the lairdV |
Loiighcnwar, . . |
45 |
|
|
brother, .... |
110 |
Tutor of Bond)ie, . |
140 |
|
Eobiu Johnston of Loch- |
Abbot of Newabbey, |
141 |
|
|
mabc'u, .... |
67 |
Town of Dumfries, |
201 |
INTRODUCTION. 127
force, or by stratagem ; and the vindictive cruelty of the Scottish Borderers made dreadful retalia- tion for the injuries they had sustained. An idea may be conceived of this horrible warfare, from the Memoirs of Beaugue, a French officer, serving in Scotland.
The Castle of Fairnihirst, situated about three miles above Jedburgh, had been taken and gar- risoned by the English. The commander and his followers are accused of such excesses of lust and cruelty, " as would," says Beaugue, " have made to tremble the most savage Moor in Africa." A band of Frenchmen, with the Laird of Fairni- hirst, and his Borderers, assaulted this fort-
1549 ress. The English archers show^ered their
arrows down the steep ascent leading to the
|
Anxerdale. |
Galloway. |
||
|
Laird of Gillersbie, . |
30 |
Town of Kircubrie, |
3a |
|
Moffits, |
24 |
TlVIDALE. |
|
|
Bells of Tostiuts, . . |
142 |
Lainl of Drundirc, . . |
364 |
|
BeUs of Tindills, . . |
222 |
Caruthers, .... |
71 |
|
Sir Jolin Lawson, |
32 |
Trunibdls, .... |
12 |
|
Town of Annan, |
33 |
EsKDALE. |
|
|
Roomes of Toideplie, . |
32 |
Battisons and Thomsons, |
106 |
Total, 7008 men under English assurance.
Nicohon,from BeWs MS. Introduction to Ilistort/ of Cumherland,
p. 65.
128 INTRODUCTION.
castle, and from the outer wall by which it was sur- rounded. A vigorous escalade, however, gained the base court, and the sharp fire of the Frencli arquebusiers drove the bowmen into the square keep, or dungeon, of the fortress. Here the EngKsh defended themselves, till a breach in tlie wall was made by mining. Through this hole the commandant creeped forth ; and, surrender- ing himself to De la Mothe-rouge, implored prc- tection from the vengeance of the Borderers. But a Scottish Marchman, eyeing in the captive the ravisher of his wife, approached him ere the French officer could guess his intention, and, at one blow, carried his head four paces from the trunk. Above a hundred Scots rushed to wash their hands in the blood of their oppressor, ban- died about the severed head, and expressed their joy in such shouts, as if they had stormed the city of London. The prisoners, who fell into their merciless hands, were put to death, after their eyes had been torn out ; the victors con- tending who should display the greatest address in severing their legs and arms, before inflicting a mortal wound. When their own prisoners were slain, the Scottish, with an unextinguishuble tliirst
INTRODUCTION. 129
for blood, purchased those of the French ; parting willingly with their very arms, in exchange for an English captive. " I myself," says Beaugue, with military sang-froid, " I myself sold them a prisoner for a small horse. They laid him down upon the ground, galloped over him w ith their lances in rest, and wounded him as they passed. When slain, they cut his body in pieces, and bore the mangled gobbets, in triumph, on the points of their spears. I cannot greatly praise the Scot- tish for this practice. But the truth is, that the English tyrannized over the Borders in a most barbarous manner ; and I think it was but fair to repay them, according to the proverb, in their own coin." — Campagnes de Beaugue,^ (livre iii. chap. 13.)
A peace, in 1551, put an end to this war; the most destructive which, for a length of time, had ravaged Scotland. Some attention was paid by the governor and queen mother, to the admini- stration of justice on the Border; and the chief- tains, who had distinguished themselves during
[' The JMaitland Club of Glasgow printed, in 1830, a beautiful edition of the " Histoire de la Guerre d'Ecosse, par Ian de Beaugue, gentilhomme Fran9ois." — Ed.]
VOL. I. I
130 INTRODUCTION.
the late troubles, received the honour of knight- hood.^
At this time, also, the Debateable Land, 1552
a tract of country, situated betwixt the Esk
and Sarke, claimed by both kingdoms, was divi- ded by royal commissioners, appointed by the two crowns. By their award, this land of con- tention was separated by a line, drawn from east to west, betwixt the rivers. The upper half was adjudged to Scotland, and the more eastern part to England. Yet the Debateable Land conti- nued long after to be the residence of thieves and banditti, to whom its dubious state had afforded a desirable refuge.^
In 1557, a new war broke out, in which ren- counters on the Borders were, as usual, nume-
' These were the Lairds of Buccleuch, Cessford, aiul Fairnihirst, Littleden, Grcnched, andColdingknows. Buc- cleuch, whose gallant exploits we have noticed, did not long enjoy his new honours. He was murdered in the streets of Edinburgh by his hereditary enemies, the Kerr><, anno 1552.
• The jest of James VI. is well known, who, when a i'n- vourite cow liad found her way from London, back to iier native country of Fife, observed, " that nothing surprised him so much as her passing uninterrupted through the De- bateable Land!"
INTRODUCTION. 131
rous, and with varied success. In some of these, the too-famous Bothwell is said to have given proofs of his courage, which was at other times very questionable.^ About this time the Scottish Borderers seem to have acquired some ascend- ency over their southern neighbours. — Strype, vol. iii. — In 1559, peace was again restored.
The flame of reformation, long stifled in Scot- land, now burst forth, with the violence of a vol- canic eruption. The siege of Leith was com- menced by the combined forces of the Congre- gation and of England. The Borderers cared little about speculative points of religion ; but they showed themselves much interested in the treasures which passed through their country, for payment of the English forces at Edinburgh.
* He was Lord of Liddesdale, and keeper of the Hermi- tage Castle. But he had little eiFective power over that country, and was twice defeated by the Armstrongs, its lawless inhabitants. — Border History, p. 584. Yet the unfortunate Mary, in her famous Apology, says, " that m the weiris against Ingland, he gaif proof of his valyentnes, courage, and gude conduct ;" and praises him especially for subjugating " the rebellious subjectis inhabiting the cuntreis lying ewest the marches of Ingland." — Keith, p. 388. He appears actually to have defeated Sir Henry Percy, in a skirmish, called the Raid of Haltwellswire.
132 INTRODUCTION.
Much alarm was excited, lest the Marchers should I intercept these weighty Protestant arguments ; ; and it was, probably, by voluntarily imparting a | share in them to Lord Home, that he became & \ sudden convert to the new faith .^
Upon the arrival of the ill-fated Mary in her , native country, she found the Borders in a state | of great disorder. The exertions of her natural ^ brother (afterwards the famous Regent Murray) were necessary to restore some degree of tran- quillity. He marched to Jedburgh, executed twenty or thirty of the transgressors, burnt many houses, and brought a number of prisoners to Edinburgh. The chieftains of the principal clans were also obliged to grant pledges for their future obedience. A noted convention (for the particu- lars of which, see Border Laios, p. 84) adopted various regulations, Avhich were attended with great advantage to the INIarches."
1 This nobleman had, sliortly before, threatened to spoil the English East Marcli ; " but," says the Duke of Nor- folk, " we have provided such sauce for him, that I think iie will not deid in such matter; but, if he do fire but one liay-goff, he sliall not go to Hodk- again witliout torch- light, and, pcradvi'iiturc, may (iiul a lantliorn at liis own house."
* Tlie commisifioners on the EiiL'lish i^ide were, the elder
INTRODUCTION. 133
The unhappy match betwLxt Henry Darnley . and his sovereign led to new dissensions on the , Borders. The Homes, Kers, and other East i Marchers, hastened to support the Queen, against i Murray, Chatelherault, and other nobles, whom I her marriage had offended. For the same pur- pose, the Johnstones, Jardines, and clans of An- nandale, entered into bonds of confederacy. But Liddesdale was under the influence of England ; insomuch, that Randolph, the meddling English minister, proposed to hire a band of strajjping Elliots, to find Home business at Home, in looking after his corn and cattle. — Keith, p. 265. Ajjp. 133.
This storm was hardly overblown, when Both- well received the commission of Lieutenant upon the Borders ; but, as void of parts as of principle, he could not even recover to the Queen's alle- giance his own domains in Liddesdale. — Keith, App. 165. The Queen herself advanced to the Borders, to remedy this evil, and to hold courts
Lord Scroope of Bolton, Sir John Foster, Sir Thomas Gargrave, and Dr Rookby. On the Scottish side, ap- peared Sir John Maxwell of Terreagles, and Sir John Bellenden.
]34 INTRODUCTION.
at Jedburgh. Bothwell Mas already in Liddes dale, where he had been severely M'ounded, in an { attempt to seize John Elliot, of the Parke, a desperate freebooter ; and happy had it been for Mary, had the dagger of the mosstrooper struck more home. Bothwell, being transported to his Castle of Hermitage, the Queen, upon hearing the tidings, hastened thither. A dangerous mo- rass, still called the QueerCs Mire,^ is pointed out by tradition as the spot where the lovely Mary, and her white palfrey, were in danger of perish- ing. The distance betwixt Hermitage and Jed- burgh, by the way of Hawick, is nearly twenty- four English miles. The Queen went and re- turned the same day. Whether she visited a
^ The Queen's Mire is still a pass of danger, exhibiting, in many places, the bones of the horses which have been en- tangled in it. For what reason the Queen chose to enter Liddesdale, by the circuitous route of Hawick, is not told. There are other two passes from Jedburgh to Hermitage Castle ; the one by the Note of the Gate, the other over the mountain called Winburgh. Either of these, but espe- cially the latter, is sevenil miles shorter than that by Haw- ick and the Queen's Mire. But, by the circuitous way of Hawick, the Queen could traverse the districts of more friendly clans, than by going directly into the disorderly jjrovince of Liddesdale.
INTRODUCTION. 135
wounded subject, or a lover in danger, has been warmly disputed in our latter days.
To the death of Henry Darnley, it is said, some of the Border lords were privy. But the subsequent marriage, betwixt the Queen and Bothwell, alienated from her the affections of the chieftains of the Marches, most of whom aided the association of the insurgent barons. A few gentlemen of the Merse, however, joined the army which Mary brought to Carberry-hill. But no one was willing to fight for the detested Both- well, nor did Bothwell himself show any inclina- tion to put his person in jeopardy. The result to Mary was a rigorous captivity in Lochleven Castle ; and the name of Bothwell scarcely again pollutes the page of Scottish history.
The distress of a beautiful and afflicted princess softened the hearts of her subjects ; and when she escaped from her severe captivity, the most powerful barons in Scotland crowded around her standard. Among these were many of the West Border men, under the Lords Maxwell and Her- ries.^ But the defeat at Langside was a death- blow to her interest in Scotland.
' The followers of these barons are said to have stolen
136 INTRODUCTION'.
Not long afterwards occurred that period of general confusion on the Borders, when the in- surrection of the Catholic Earls of Northumber- land and Westmoreland took place upon the Borders of England. Their tumultuary forces were soon dispersed, and the Earls themselves, with their principal followers, sought refuge upon the Scottish Marches. Northumberland was be- trayed into the hands of the Regent ; but West- moreland, with his followers, took refuge in the Castle of Fairnihirst, where he was protected by its powerful OMuer. The Regent himself came to Jedburgh, to obtain possession of these im- portant pledges ; but as he marched towards the Castle of Fairnihirst, his men shrunk from him by degrees, till he was left with a small body of his own personal dependents, inadequate to the task for which he had undertaken the expedition. Westmoreland afterwards escaped to Flanders by sea. Robert Constable, a spy sent by Sir Ralph Sadler into Scotland, gives a lively account of the state of the Borders at this time.^
the horses of their frionds, wliilc tliey were engaged in the battle.
' He was guided by one P}le of Millheucli, (upon Ox-
INTRODUCTION. 137
The death of the Regent Murray, in 1569, excited the party of Mary to hope and to exer- tion. It seems, that the design of Bothwell- haugh, who slew him, was well known upon the
nam Water,) and gives the following account of his con- versation -with him on the state of the country, and the power of his master, the Baron of Fairnihirst : — " By the way as we rode, I tould my oste that the Lord of Farne- herst, his master, had taken such an entreprise in hand as not a subject in England durst do the like, to kepe any mann openly as he did the Earle of Westmorland, against the will of the chief in aucthoritie. He said that his mas- ter cared not so much for the Regent as the Regent cared for him, for he was well able to raise iij thousand men within his own rule, beside that his first wief, by whom he hed goodly children, was daughter to the Lord Grange, Captaine of Edenborowe Castell, and Provost of Edenbo- rowe. This wief that he married lately is sister to the Lord of Bucclewghe, a man of greater power then his mas- ter ; also my Lord Hume, and almost all the gentlemen in Tevydale, the Marsh, and Lowdyan, were knitt together in such friendship that they are agred all to take one part ; and that the Lord Grange was offended with the Lord Hume and the Lord Farneherst, because they toke not the Earle of Northumberland from my Lord Regent at Gedworthe, and sent plane word to the Lord Farneherst, that if the Lord Regent came any more to seeke him in Te\7dale, he should lose all liis bulles, both the Duke, the Lord Herris, the secretarv, and others, he should sett them
138 INTRODUCTION.
Borders ; for, the very day on which the slaugh- ter happened, Buecleuch and Fairnihirst, witli their elans, broke into England, and spread de- vastation along the frontiers, with unusual fcro-
all at libertye that would come witli all their power, with good will, to take his part ; and by as much as I hear siia e the Tevydale menn pretends to do the anoyances that they can to England, so sone as tliis storme is past, aiui meanes not to answer to any day of truce."
Another passage presents a lively picture of the inside of the outlaw's cabin : " I left Farneherst, and went to my ostes house, where I found many gests of dyvers factions, some outlawes of Ingland, some of Scotland, some neigh- bors therabout, at cards ; some for ale, some for plake and hardhedds ; and after tliat I had diligently learned and enquired that there was none of any surname that had me in deadly fude, nor none that knew me, I sat downe, and plaid for hardhedds emongs them, where I hard, voxpoptdi, that the Lord Regent would not, for his own honor, nor for thonor of his countery, deliver the Earles, if he had them bothe, unlest it were to have there Queue dehvered to him ; and if he wold agre to make that change, the Bor- derers wold stert up in his contrary, and reave both the Queue and the Lords from him, for the like shame was never done in Scotland ; and that he durst better eate his owne luggs then come again to seke Farneherst ; if he did, he should be fought with ere lie came over Sowtrey edge. Hector of Tliarlowes' hedd was wished to have been eaten
I Hector of Hnrliiw is nicint, an outliiw who bt-traji'd tlic Earl of >'orth umberlaud.
INTRODUCTION. 139
city. It is probable they well knew that the controlling hand of the Regent was that day pal- sied by death. Buchanan exclaims loudly against this breach of truce with Elizabeth, charging Queen Mary's party with having " houndit furth proude and uncircumspecte young men, to hery, burne, and slay, and tak prisoners, in her realme, and use all misordour and crueltie, not only vsit in weir, but detestabil to all barbar and wild Tartaris, in slaying of prisoneris, and contrair to all humanitie and justice, keeping na promeis to miserabil captives resavit anis to thair mercy." — Admonitioun to the trew Lordis, Striveling, 1571. He numbers, among these insurgents, Highland- ers as well as Borderers, Buccleuch and Fairni- hirst, the Johnstones and Armstrongs, the Grants, and the clan Chattan. Besides these powerful clans, Mary numbered among her adherents the Maxwells, and almost all the West Border lead- ers, excepting Drumlanrig, and Jardine of Apple- girth. On the Eastern Border, the faction of the infant King was more powerful ; for, although
amongs us at supper." — Sadler's State Papers, Edin. 1809^ .vol. ii. pp. 384, 388.
140
INTRODUCTION.
deserted by Lord Home, the greater part of Iiis clan, under the influence of Wedderburn, re- mahied attached to that party. The Laird of Cessford wished them well, and the Earl of An- gus naturally followed the steps of his uncle Morton. A sharp and bloody invasion of the Middle March, under the command of the Earl of Sussex, avenged Mith interest the raids of Buc- cleuch and Fairnihirst. The domains of these chiefs were laid waste, their castles burnt and de- stroyed. The narrow vales of Beaumont and Kale, belonging to Buccleuch, were treated with peculiar severity ; and the forays of Hertford were equalled by that of Sussex. Li vain did the chiefs request assistance from the government to defend their fortresses. Through the predominating in- terest of Elizabeth in the Scottish councils, this was refused to all but Home, whose castle, ne- vertheless, again received an English garrison ; while Buccleuch and Fairnihirst complained bit- terly that those, who had instigated their inva- sion, durst not even come so far as Lauder, to show countenance to their defence against the English. The bickerings which followed dis- tracted the wliole kingdom. One celebrated ex-
INTRODUCTION. 141
ploit may be selected, as an illustration of the Border fashion of war.
The Earl of Lennox, who had succeeded Mur- ray in the regency, held a parliament at Stirling, in 1571. The young King was exhibited to the great council of his nation. He had been tutored to repeat a set speech, composed for the occasion ; but, observing that the roof of the building was a little decayed, he interrupted his recitation, and exclaimed, with childish levity, " that there was a hole in the parliament," — words which, in those days, were held to presage the deadly breach shortly to be made in that body, by the death of him in whose name it was convoked.
Amid the most undisturbed security of confi- dence, the lords who composed this parliament were roused at daybreak by the shouts of their enemies, in the heart of the town. God and the Queen ! resounded from every quarter, and in a few minutes, the Regent, with the astonished nobles of his party, were prisoners to a band of two hundred Border cavalry, led by Scott of Buccleuch, and to the Lord Claud Hamilton, at the head of three hundred infantry. These en- terprising chiefs, by a rapid and well-concerted
142 INTRODUCTION.
manoeuvre, had reached Stilling in a night march from Edinburgh, and, without so much as being bayed at by a watch-dog, had seized the princi- pal street of the town. The fortunate obstinacy of Morton saved his party. Stubborn and un- daunted, he defended his house till the assailants set it in flames, and then yielded with reluctance to his kinsman, Buccleuch. But the time which he had gained effectually served his cause. The Borderers had dispersed to plunder the stables of the nobility ; the infantry thronged tumultuously together on the main street, when the Earl of Mar, issuing from the castle, placed one or two small pieces of ordnance, in his own half-built house,^ which commands the market-place. Hard- ly had the artillery begun to scour the street, when the assailants, surprised in their turn, fled with precipitation. Their alarm was increased by the townsmen thronging to arms. Those who had been so lately triumphant, were now, in many instances, asking the protection of their own pri- soners. In all probability, not a man would have escaped death, or captivity, but for the charactor-
' This building still [lBO-2] roniaiiis in tiie uiirtiiislu'J state which it then prL-senteti.
INTRODUCTION. 143
istic rapacity of Buccleuch's marauders, who, having seized and carried oiF all the horses in the town, left the victors no means of following the chase. The Regent was slain by an officer, na- med Caulder, in order to prevent his being res- cued. Spens of Ormiston, to whom he had sur- rendered, lost his life in a generous attempt to protect him.^ Hardly does our history present
' Birrel says, that " the Regent was shot by an unhappy fellow, while sitting on horseback behind the Laird of Buc- cleuch." — The following curious account of the whole transaction, is extracted from a journal of principal events, in the years 1570, 1571, 1572, and part of 1573, kept by Richard Bannatyne, amanuensis to John Knox. " The fourt of September, they of Edinburgh, horsemen and fut- men, (and, as was reported, the most part of Clidisdaill, that pertenit to the Hamiltons,) come to Striveling, the number of iii or iiii c men, on hors bak, guydit be ane George Bell, their hacbutteris being all horsed, enterit in Striveling, be fy\e houris in the morning, (whair thair was never one to mak watche,) crying this slogane, ' God and the Queen ! Ane Hamiltoune ! Think on the Bishop of St Androis — all is owres;' and so a certaine come to everio grit manis ludgene, and apprehendit the Lordis Mortouii and Glencarne ; but Mortounis hous they set on fyre, wha randerit him to tlie Laird of Balcleuch. Wormestoun being appointed to the Regentes hous, desyred him to cum furth, "which he had no will to doe, yet, be perswasione of Gar-
144 INTRODUCTION.
another enterprise, so well planned, so happily commenced, and so strangely disconcerted. To the licence of the Marchmen the failure was at- tributed ; but the same cause ensured a safe re- leys, and otheris with him, tho't it best to come in uill, nor to byde the extremitie, becaus they supposed there was no resistance, and saw the Regent come furth, and was rendered to Wormestoune, under promeis to save his lyfe. Captayne Crawfurde, being in the town, gat sum men out of the castell, and uther gentlemen being in tlie town, come as they my't best to the geat, chased them out of the town. The Regent was shot by ane Captain Ca- der, who confessed that he did it at commande of George Bell, wha was commandit so to doe be the Lord Huntlie and Claud Hamilton. Some says, that Wormestoun was schot by the same scliot that slew the Regent, but alwayis he was slane, notwithstanding the Regent cryed to save him, but it culd not be, the furie was so grit of the persew- aris, who, following so fast, the Lord of Mortone said to Balcleuch, ' I sail save you as ye savit me,' and so he was tane. Garleys, and sindrie otheris, ware slane at the Port, in the pursute of thame. Thair war ten or twel\ e gentlemen slane of the King's folk, and als mony of theris, or mea, as was said, and a dozen or xvi tane. Twa espe- i-iall servantis of the Lord Argj'le's were slane also. Tliis Cader, that schot the Regent, was once turned bak oft" the toune, and was send again (as is said) be the Lord Huut- lie, to cause Wormistoun retire ; but, before he come agaue. he was dispatched, and had gottin deidis woundis. " The Regent being schot, (as said is,) was brouglit to 1
INTRODUCTION. 145
treat. — Spottiswoode, Godscroft, Robert- son, Melville.
The wily Earl of Morton, who, after the short intervening regency of Mar, succeeded to the supreme authority, contrived, by force or artifice, to render the party of the King everywhere su- perior. Even on the Middle Borders, he had the address to engage in his cause the powerful, though savage and licentious, clans of Ruther- ford and Turnbull, as well as the citizens of Jed- burgh. He was thus enabled to counterpoise his powerful opponents, Buccleuch and Fairnihirst, in their own country ; and, after an unsuccessful attempt to surprise Jedburgh, even these warm adherents of Mary relinquished her cause in de- spair.
the castel, whar he callit for ane phisitione, one for liis soule, ane uther for his bodie. But all hope of life was past, for he was schot in his entreaUis ; and swa, after sum- thingis spokin to the Lordis, which I know not, he departed in the feare of God, and made a blised end ; whilk the rest of the Lordis, that tho't thame to his hiert, and lytle re- guardit him, shall not mak so blised ane end, unles they mend their maneirs."
This curious manuscript has been published under the inspection of John Graham DalyeU, Esq.
VOL. I. K
146 INTRODUCTION.
WTiile Morton swayed the state, his attacli- ment to Elizabeth, and the humihation which many of the Border chiefs had undergone, con- tributed to maintain good order on the Marches, till James VI. himself assumed the reins of go- vernment. The intervening skirmish of the Keid- swire, (see the ballad under that title,) was but a sudden explosion of the rivalry and suppressed hatred of the Borderers of both kingdoms. In truth, the stern rule of Morton, and of his dele- gates, men unconnected Avith the Borders by birth, maintained in that country more strict dis- cipline than had ever before been there exercised. Perhaps this hastened his fall.
The unpopularity of Morton, acquired })artlv by the strict administration of justice, and partly by avarice and severitv, forced him from the re- gency. In 1578, he retired, apparently, from state affairs, to his Castle of Dalkeith ; whicii the populace, emphatically expressing their aM e and dread of his person, termed the LioJi's Dc/i. But Morton could not live in retirement ; and, early in the same year, the aged lion again ruslicd from his cavern. By a mixture of policy and violence, he possessed himself of the fortress of
INTRODDCTION. 147
•Stirling, and of the person of James. His nephew, Angus, hastened to his assistance. Against him appeared his own old adherent Cessford, with many of the Homes, and the citizens of Edinburgh. Alluding to the restraint of the King's person, they bore his effigy on their banners, with a rude ihyme, demanding Hberty or death. — Birrel's Diary, ad annum 1578. The Earl of Morton marched against his foes as far as Falkirk, and a desperate action must have ensued, but for the persuasion of Bowes, the English ambassador. The only blood, then spilt, was in a duel betwixt Tait, a follower of Cessford, and Johnstone, a West Border man, attending upon Angus. They fought with lances, and on horseback, according- to the fashion of the Borders. The former was unhorsed and slain, the latter desperately wound- ed.— GoDSCROFT, vol. ii. p. 261. The pru- <lence of the late Regent appears to have aban- doned him, when he was decoyed into a treaty upon this occasion. It was not long before Mor- ton, the veteran warrior, and the crafty states- man, was forced to bend his neck to an engine of death, ^ the use of which he himself had introdu- ced into Scotland.
* A rude sort of guillotine, called the maiden. The im-
148 INTRODUCTION.
*
Released from the thraldom of Morton, the King, with more than youthful levity, threw his supreme power into the hands of Lennox and Arran. The religion of the first, and the infa- mous character of the second favourite, excited the hatred of the commons, while their exclusive and engrossing power awakened the jealousy of the other nobles. James, doomed to be the sport of contending factions, was seized at Stirling by the nobles, confederated in what was termed the raid of Ruthven. But the conspirators soon suf- fered their prize to escape, and were rewarded for their enterprise by exile or death.
In 1585, an affray took place at a Border meet- ing, in which Lord Russel, the Earl of Bedford's eldest son, chanced to be slain. Queen Eliza- beth imputed the guilt of this slaughter to Tho- mas Ker of Fairniliirst, instigated by Arran. Upon the imperious demand of the English am- bassador, both were committed to prison; but the minion, Arran, was soon restored to liberty
plement is now in possession of the Society of Scottish Antiquaries.
[By a curious coincidence, one of the very first tliat suf- fered by the Gidlhlinc, is said to have been the surgeon ■wlio invented and gave his name to that more celebrated maiden. — Eu.]
INTRODUCTION. 149
and favour ; while Fairnihirst, the dread of the English Borderers, and the gallant defender of Queen Mary, died in his confinement, of a bro- ken heart. — Spottiswoode, p. 341.
The tyranny of Arran becoming daily more insupportable, the exiled lords, joined by Max- well, Home, Bothwell, and other Border chief- tains, seized the town of Stirling, which was pil- laged by their disorderly followers, invested the castle, which surrendered at discretion, and drove the favourite from the King's council.^
The King, perceiving the Earl of Bothwell among the armed barons, to whom he surrendered his person, addressed him in these prophetic words : — " Francis, Francis, what moved thee to come in arms against thy prince, who never wronged thee ? I wish thee a more quiet spirit, else I foresee thy destruction." — Spottiswoode, p. 343.
' The associated nobles seem to have owed their success chiefly to the Border spearmen ; for though they had a band of mercenaries, who used fire-arms, yet they were such bad masters of their craft, their captain was heard to observe, " that those, who knew his soldiers as well as he did, would hardly choose to yrmrch before them" — Gods- CROFT, vol. ii. p. 368.
130 INTRODLCTION.
In fact, the extraordinary enterprises of this, nobleman disturbed the next ten years of James's reign. Francis Stuart, son to a bastard of James v., had been invested -svith the titles and estates belonging to his maternal uncle, James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, upon the forfeiture of that info- mous man ; and consequently became Lord of I.id- desdale, and of the Castle of Hermitage. This acquisition of power upon the Borders, -where he could easily levy followers willing to undertake the most desperate enterprises, joined to the man's- native daring and violent spirit, rendered Both- w^ell the most turbulent insurgent that ever dis- tracted the tranquillity of a kingdom. During the King's absence in Denmark, Bothwell, swav- ed by the superstition of his age, had tampered with certain soothsayers and witches, by whose pretended art he hoped to foretell, or perhaps ta achieve, the death of his monarch. In one of the courts of inquisition, which James delighted to hold upon the professors of the occult sciences, some of his cousin's proceedings Avere brouglit to light, for wliich lie was put in ward in the Castle of lulinburgh. Burning Avith revenge,, he l)roke from his continenicnt, and huked Ibr
INTRODUCTION. 151
some time upon the Borders, where he hoped for the countenance of his son-in-law, Buccleuch. Undeterred by the absence of that chief, who, in obedience to the royal command, had prudently retired to France, Bothwell attempted the des- perate enterprise of seizing the person of the King, while residing in his metropolis. At the dead of the night, followed by a band of Bor- derers, he occupied the court of the palace of Holyrood, and began to burst open the doors of the royal apartments. The nobility, distrustful of each other, and ignorant of the extent of the conspiracy, only endeavoured to make good the defence of their separate lodgings ; but darkness and confusion prevented the assailants from pro- fiting by their disunion. Melville, who was pre- sent, gives a lively picture of the scene of disor- der, transiently illuminated by the glare of pass- ing torches ; while the report of fire-arms, the clatter of armour, the din of hammers thundering on the gates, mingled wildly with the war-cry of the Borderers, who shouted incessantly, " Justic? ! Justice ! A Bothwell ! A Bothwell ! " The citi- zens of Edinburgh at length beofan to assemble
152 INTRODUCTION.
for the defence of their sovereign ; and Both well was compelled to retreat, which he did without considerable loss. — Melville, p. 356. A simi- lar attempt on the person of James, while resi- ding at Faulkland, also misgave ; but the credit which Bothwell obtained on the Borders, by these bold and desperate enterprises, was incre- dible. " All Tiviotdale," says Spottiswoode, " ran after him;" so that he finally obtained his object; and at Edinburgh, in 1593, he stood be- fore James, an unexpected apparition, with his naked sword in his hand. " Strike !" said James, with royal dignity — " Strike, and end thy work I I will not survive my dishonour." But Bothwell, with unexpected moderation, only stipulated for remission of his forfeiture, and did not even in- sist on remaining at court, whence his party was shortly expelled, by the return of the Lord Home, and his other enemies. Incensed at this reverse, Bothwell levied a body of four hundred cavalry, and attacked the King's guard in broad day, upon the Borough Moor near Edinburgh. The ready succour of the citizens saved James from falling once more into the hands of his turbulent
INTRODUCTIONr 153
subject.^ On a subsequent day, Bothwell met the Laird of Cessford, riding near Edinburgh, with whom he fought a single combat, which lasted for two hours. ^ But his credit was now fallen ; he retreated to England, whence he was driven by Elizabeth, and then wandered to Spain and Italy, where he subsisted, in indigence and obscurity, on the bread which he earned by apos- tatizing to the faith of Rome. So fell this agi- tator of domestic broils, whose name passed into a proverb, denoting a powerful and turbulent de- magogue.^
' Spottiswoode says, the King awaited this charge with firmness ; but Birrell avers, that he fled upon the gallop. The same author, instead of the firm deportment of James, when seized by Bothwell, describes " the king's majestic" as " flying down the back stair, with his breeches in his hand, in great fear." — Birrell, apiid Dalyell, p. 30. Such is the difference betwixt the narrative of the courtly arch- bishop, and that of the Presbyterian burgess of Edinburgh.
' This rencounter took place at Humbie, in East Lo- thian. Bothwell was attended by a servant, called Gibson, and Cessford by one of the Rutherfords, who was hurt in the cheek. The combatants parted from pure fatigue ; for the defensive armour of the times was so completely im- penetrable, that the wearer seldom sustained much da- mage by actual wounds.
^ Sir Walter Raleigh, in writing of Essex, then in pri-
154 INTRODUCTION.
While these scenes were passing in the metro- polis, the Middle and Western Borders were fu- riously agitated. The families of Cessford and Fairnihirst disputed their right to the wardenr}- of the Middle Marches, and to the provostry of Jed burgh; and William Kerr of Ancram, a follo^\l.'l of the latter, was murdered by the young chi^ ■ of Cessford, at the instigation of his mother. — Spottiswoode, p. 383. But this was trifling, compared to the civil war waged on the western frontier, between the Johnstones and JVIaxwells, of which there is a minute account in the intro- duction to the ballad, entitled, " ^laxicelVs Goodnight." Prefixed to that termed " Kinmont Willie" the reader will find an account of the last warden raids performed on the Border.
My sketch of Border history now draws to a close. The accession of James to the Eno-lish
son, says, " Let the Queen hold Bothwcll wliile slie hatli him." — MuRDiN, vol. ii. p. 812. It appears from Creicli- ton's Memoir.'!, that Botlnvell's grandson, though so nearly related to the royal family, actually rode a private in tlie
Scottish horse guards, in tlie reign of Charles 11 Edin-
hiirgfi, 1731, p. 42.
[See Notes to Old M,>rtai;/i/.—V.D.]
INTRODUCTION. 135
crown converted the extremity into the centre of his kingdom.
The East Marches of Scotland were, at this momentous period, in a state of comparative ci- vihsation. The rich soil of Berv.ickshire soon invited the inhabitants to the arts of agriculture. Even in the days of Lesley, the nobles and barons of the Merse differed in manners from the other Borderers, administered justice with regularity,
and abstained from plunder and depredation
De morihus Scoioriim, p. 7. But on the Middle and Western Marches, the inhabitants were unrestrained moss-troopers and cattle-drivers, " knowing no measure of law," says Camden, *' but the length of their swords." The sterility of the mountainous country which they inhabited, offered little encouragement to industry ; and, for the long series of centuries which we have hasti- ly reviewed, the hands of rapine were never there folded in inactivity, nor the sword of vio- lence returned to the scabbard. Various pro- clamations were in vain issued for interdicting the use of horses and arms upon the West Bor- der of England and Scotland.^ The evil was
* " Proclamation shall be made, that all inhabiting with-
155 INTRODUCTION.
found to require the radical cure of extirpation. Buccleuch collected under his banners the most desperate of the Border warriors, of whom he formed a legion, for the service of the states of Holland, who had as much reason to rejoice on their arrival upon the continent, as Britain to congratulate herself upon their departure. It may be presumed, that few of this corps ever returned to their native country. The clan of Graeme, a hardy and ferocious set of freebooters, inhabiting chiefly the Debateable Land, were, by a very summary exertion of authority, trans-
ia Tynedale and Riddesdalc, in Northumberland ; Bew- castledaJe, Willgavoy, the north part of Gilsland, Esk, and Levcn, in Cumberland ; East and West Tividale, Liddesdale, Eskdale, Ewsdale, and Annerdale, in Scot- land, (saving noblemen and gentlemen unsuspected ol" felony and theft, and not being of broken clans, and tlieir household servants, dwelling within those several places, before recited,) shall put away all armour and weapons, as well offensive as defensive, as jacks, spears, lances, swords, daggers, steel-caps, hackbuts, pistols, plate-sleeves, and such like ; and shall not keep any liorse, gelding, or mare, above the vidue of fifty shillings sterling, or thirty pounds Scots, upon tlie like pain of imprisonment." — Vro- <^cedi)i<is oj the Border Cotumisxiimcrx, l<)0.5. lutroductioii io History of Cumberland, p. I'i?.
INTRODUCTION. 157
ported to Ireland, and their return prohibited under pain of death. Against other offenders, measures equally arbitrary were without hesita- tion pursued. Numbers of Border riders were executed, without even the formality of a trial : and it is even said, that, in mockery of justice, assizes were held upon them after they had suf- fered. For these acts of tyranny, see John- ston, p. 374, 414, 39, 93. The memory of Dunbar's legal proceedings at Jedburgh, are preserved in the proverbial phrase, Jeddart Jus- tice, which signifies, trial after execution.' By this rigour, though sternly and unconscientiously exercised, the Border marauders were, in the course of years, either reclaimed or extermina- ted; though nearly a century elapsed ere their
' A similar proverb in England of tlie same interpreta- tion, is Lydford Law, derived from Lydford, a corporation in Devonshire, where, it seems, the same irregular admi- nistration of justice prevailed. A burlesque copy of verses on this tovrn begins,
" I oft have lieard of Lydford Law, How in tlie morn they hang and draw, And sit in judgment after."
See Wescott's History of Devonshire.
158 INTRODUCTION.
manners were altogether assimilated to those of their countrymen.^
> See tlie acts 18 Clia. II. ch. 3. and^.30 Cha. II. cli. 2. against the Border Moss-troopers ; to whicli we may add the following curious extracts from 2Ie?viirius Politicus, a newspaper, published during the usurpation.
" Thitrsd/it/, Xovciuber 11, 1662.
" Edinburgh The Scotts and Moss-troopers have
again revived their old custom of robbing and murthering the English, whether soldiers or otlier, upon all opportu- nities, within these three weeks. We have had notice of several robberies and murders, committed by them. Among the rest, a lieutenant, and one other of Col. Overton's re- giment, returning from England, were robbed not far from Dunbarr. A lieutenant, lately master of the customs at Kirkcudhriglit, was killed about twenty miles from this place ; and four foot-soldiers of Col. Overton's were killed, going to tlieir quarters, by some mosscrs, who, after tliey had given them quarter, tied tlieir hands behind them, and then threw them down a steep hill or rock, as it was re- lated by a Scotclmian, who was witli them, but escaped."
Pmlcm " Octohcr 13, 1663 The Parliament, Octo- ber 12, past an act, declaring, any person that shall disco- ver any felon, or felons, (commonly called, or known. In the name of Moss-troopers,) residing upon the Borders of England and Scotland, sliall have a reward of ten pound upon their conviction."
INTRODUCTIOX. 159
In these hasty sketches of Border history, I have endeavoured to select such incidents, as may introduce to the reader the character of the Marchmen, more briefly and better than a formal essay upon their manners. If I have been suc- cessful in the attempt, he is already acquainted Avith the mixture of courage and rapacity by which they were distinguished, and has review- ed some of the scenes in which they acted a principal part. It is, therefore, only necessary to notice, more minutely, some of their peculiar customs and modes of life.
Their morality was of a singular kind. The rapine, by which they subsisted, they accounted lawful and honourable. Ever liable to lose their whole substance, by an incursion of the English on a sudden breach of truce, they cared little to waste their time in cultivating crops to be reap- ed by their foes. Their cattle was, therefore, their chief property ; and these were nightly ex- posed to the southern Borderers, as rapacious and active as themselves. Hence robbery assiuned
160 INTRODUCTION.
the appearance of fair reprisal. The fatal privi- lege of pursuing the marauders into their own country, for recovery of stolen goods, led to continual skirmishes. The warden also, himself frequently the chieftain of a Border horde, when redress was not instantly granted by the opposite officer, for depredations sustained by his district, was entitled to retaliate upon England by a warden raid. In such cases, the moss-troopers, who crowded to his standard, found themselves pursuing their craft under legal authority, and became the followers and favourites of the mili- tary magistrate, whose ordinary duty it was to check and suppress them. See the curious his- tory of Geordie Bourne, App. Ko. II. Equally unable and unwilling to make nice distinctions, they were not to be convinced, that what was to-day fair booty, was to-morrow a subject of theft. National animosity usually gave an ad- ditional stimulus to their rapacity ; although it must be owned that their depredations extended also to the more cultivated parts of their own country.'
' The armorial bearings, adopted by many of the Border tribes, show how liltlc thi-y were ashamed of their trade
INTRODUCTION. 161
Satchells, who lived when the old Border ideas of meum and tuum were still in some force, endea- vours to draw a very nice distinction betwixt a freebooter and a thief; and thus sings he of the Armstrong-s : —
" On that Border was the Armstrongs, able men ; Somewhat unruly, and very ill to tame. I would have none think that I call them thieves, For, if I did, it would be arrant lies.
Near a Border frontier," in the time of war. There's ne'er a man but he's a freebooter.
Because to all men it may appear,
The freebooter he is a volunteer ;
In the muster-rolls he has no desire to stay ;
He lives by purchase, he gets no pay.
It's most clear, a freebooter doth live in hazard's train, A freebooter's a cavalier that ventures life for gain :
of rapine. Like Falstajf, they were " Gentlemen of the night, minions of the moon," under whose countenance they committed their depredations Hence, the emblem- atic moons and stars so frequently charged in the arms of Border families. Their mottos also bear an allusion to their profession : — " Reparabit conina Phccbe," i. e. " We'll have moonlight again," is that of the family, of Harden; " Ye shall want, ere I want," that of Graustoun ; " Watch weel," of Haliburton, &c.
VOL. I. L
162 INTRODUCTION.
But, since King James the Sixth to England went. There has been no cause of grief; And he that hath transgress'd since then Is no Freebooter, but a Thief. " . Hisiort/ of the Name of Scott.
The inhabitants of the inland counties did not understand these subtile distinctions. Sir David Lindsay, in the curious drama, published by Mr Pinkerton, introduces, as one of his dramatis per- soncjB, Common Thift, a Borderer, who is suppo- sed to come to Fife to steal the Earl of Rothes' best hackney, and Lord Lindsay's brown jennet. Oppression also, (another personage there intro- duced,) seems to be connected with the Borders : for, finding himself in danger, he exclaims, —
" War God that I were sound and haill,
Now lyftit into Liddesdail ;
The Mers sowld fynd me beif and caiU,
What rack of breid ? War I thair lyftit with my lyfe, The devill sowld styk me with a knyfFe, An' ever I cum agane in Fyfe,
TiU I were deid.' — Pinkerton's Scottish Poems, vol. ii. p. 180.
Again, when Common Thift is brought to condign
INTRODUCTION. 163
punishment, he remembers his Border fnends in. his dying speech :
" The widdefow wardanis tuik my geir. And left me nowthir horse nor meir. Nor erdly guid that me belangit ; Now, walloway ! I mon be hangit.
Adew ! my bruthir Annan thieves. That holpit me in my mischevis ; Adew ! Grossars, Nicksonis, and Bells, Oft have we fairne owrthreuch the fells : Adew ! Robsons, Howis, and Pylis, That in our craft has mony wilis : Littlis, Trumbells, and Armestranges ; Adew ! all theeves, that me belangis ; Bailowes, Erewynis, and Elwandis, Speedy of flicht, and slicht of handis ; The Scotts of Eisdale, and the Gramis, I haif na time to teU your nameis."
Pinkerton's Scottish Poems, vol. ii. p. 156.
When Common Tliift is executed, (which is per- formed upon the stage,) Falset, (Falsehood,) who is also brought forth for punishment, pronounces over him the following elegy :
" Waes me for thee, gude Common Thift ! Was never man made more honest chift. His living for to win :
164 INTRODUCTION.
Thair wes not, in all Liddcsdaill, That ky mair craftily could steil, Whar tliou hingis on that pin ! "
PiXKERTOx's Scottish Poems, vol. ii. p. 194.
Sir Richard Maitlaiul, incensed at the hokhiess and impunity of the thieves of Liddesdale in his time, has attacked them with keen iambics. His satire, which, I suppose, had very little effect at the time, forms No. III. of the Appendix to this Introduction.
The Borderers had, in fact, little reason to regard the inland Scots as their fellow-subjects, or to respect the poMcr of the Crown. They were frequently resigned, by express conijiact, to the bloody retaliation of the lMi<ili>li, without experiencing any assistance from their prince, and his more immediate subjects. If they beheld him, it was more frequently in the character of an avenging judge, than of a ])rotecting sovereign. Thev were in truth, during the time of jieace, a land of outcasts, against whom tlie united poweis of England and Scotland Mere often employed. Hence, the men of the Bordei-s had little attach- ment to their monarclis, whom they termed, in derision, the Kings of Fife and Lothian ; ])r()- vinccs which thev were not leii'allv entitled ti>
INTRODUCTION. 165
vuhabit,' and which, therefore, they pillaged with as little remorse as if they had belonged to a fo- reign country. This strange, precarious, and adventurous mode of life, led by the Borderers, was not without its pleasures, and seems, in all probability, hardly so disagreeable to us, as the monotony of regulated society must have been to those who had been long accustomed to a state of rapine. Well has it been remarked, by the elo- quent Burke, that the shifting tides of fear and hope, the flight and pursuit, the peril and escape, alternate famine and feast, of the savage and the robber, after a time render all course of slow, steady, progressive, unvaried occupation, and the prospect only of a limited mediocrity, at the end of long labour, to the last degree tame, languid, and insipid. The interesting nature of their exploits may be conceived from the account of Camden. " What manner of cattle-stealers they are that inhabit these valleys in the Marches of both king- "doms, John Lesly, a Scotchman himself, and Bishop of Ross, will inform you. They sally out
' By an act 1587, c. 96, Borderers are expelled from the inland counties, unless they can find security for their quiet deportment.
166 INTRODUCTION.
of their own Borders, in the nio;ht, in troo})s, through unfrequented by-wa}s, and many intri- cate windings. All the daytime they refresh them- selves and their horses in lurking holes they had pitched upon before, till they arrive in the darlv at those places they have a design upon. As soon as they have seized upon the booty, they, in like manner, return home in the night, through blind ways, and fetching many a compass. The more skilful any captain is to pass through those wild deserts, crooked turnings, and deep precipices, in the thickest mists and darkness, his reputation is the greater, and he is looked upon as a man of an excellent head. And they are so very cun- ning, that they seldom have their booty taken firom them, unless sometimes, v^hen, by the help of blood-hounds, following them exactly upon the track, they may chance to fall into the hands of their adversaries. When being taken, they have so much persuasive eloquence, and so many smooth insinuating words at command, that if they do not move their judges, nay, and even their ad- versaries (notwithstanding the severity of their natures) to have mercy, yet they incite them to admiration and compassion." — Camden's Britan-
INTRODUCTION. 167
nia. The reader is requested to compare this curious account, given by Lesley, with the ballad called Hobhie Noble}
The inroads of the Marchers, when stimulated only by the desire of plunder, were never marked with cruelty, and seldom even with bloodshed,
1 The following tradition is also illustrative of Lesley's account. Veitch of Dawyk, a man of great strength and l)ravery, who flourished in the 16th century, is said by tra- dition to have been upon bad terms with a neighbouring proprietor, Tweedie of Drummelzier, dwelling also near the source of Tweed. By some accidentaflock of Dawyk's sheep had strayed over into Drummelzier's grounds, at the time when Dickie of the Den, a Liddesdale outlaw, was making his rounds in Tweeddale. Seeing this flock of sheep, he drove them ofi" without ceremony. Next morning, Veitch, perceiving his loss, summoned his servants and retainers, laid a blood-hound upon the traces of the robber, by whom they were guided for many miles, till, on the banks of Lid- del, the dog stayed upon a very large hay-stack. The pur- suers were a good deal surprised at the obstinate pause of the blood-hound, till Dawyk puUed down some of the hay, and discovered a large excavation, containing the robber and his spoil. He instantly flew upon Dickie, and was about to poniard him, when the marauder, with the address noticed by Lesley, protested that he would never have touched a cloot (hoof) of the booty, had he not taken them for Drummelzier's property. This dexterous appeal to Veitch's passions saved the life of the freebooter.
168 INTRODUCTION.
unless In the case of opposition. They held, that property was common to all who stood in want of it ; but they abhorred and avoided the crime of unnecessary homicide. — Lesley, p. 63. This was, perhaps, partly owing to the habits of inti- macy betwixt the Borderers of both kingdoms, notwithstanding their mutual hostility and reci- procal depredations. A natural intercourse took place between the English and Scottish Marchers, •^t Border meetings, and during the short inter- vals of peace. They met frequently at parties of the chase and football ; and it required many and strict regulations, on both sides, to prevent them from forming intermarriages, and from cul- tivating too close a degree of intimacy. — Scottish Acts, 1587, c. 105 ; Wharton's Regulations, 6th Edward J I. The custom, also, of paying black- mail, or protection-rent, introduced a connexion betwixt the countries; for a Scottish Borderer, takinoflilack-mail from an Enij-lish inhabitant, was not only himself bound to abstain from injuring such person, but also to maintain his quarrel, and recover his property, if carried oft" by others. Hence, a union arose betwixt the parties, found- ed upon mutual interest, which counteracted, in
INTRODUCTION. 1G9
many instances, the effects of national prejudice. The similarity of their manners may be inferred from that of their language. In an old mystery, imprinted at London, 1654, a mendicant Borderer is introduced, soliciting alms of a citizen and his wife. To a question of the latter he replies, " Sa- vying your honour, good maistress, I was born in Redesdale, in Northumberlande, and come of a wight riding surname, call'd the Robsons : gude honeste men, and true, savying a little shiftyngc for theyr livyng ; God help them, silly pure men." The wife answers, " What doest thou here, in this countrie ? me thinke thou art a Scot by thy tongue." — Beggar. " Trowe me never mair then, good deam ; I had rather be hanged in a withie of a cow-taile, for thei are ever fare and fause." — Ajypendix to Ben Jonson^s Sad Shepherd, Edit. 1783, p. 188. From the wife's observation, as well as from the dialect of the beggar, we may infer that there was little difference between the Northumbrian and the border Scottish ; a circum- stance interesting in itself, and decisive of the occa- sional friendly intercourse among the Marchmen. From all these combining circumstances arose the lenity of the Borderers in their incursions, and
170 INTRODUCTION. i
i
the equivocal moderation which they soinetimL> observed towards each other in open war.^
This humanity and moderation was, on certain ; occasions, entirely laid aside by the Borderers.
* This practice of the Marchmen was observed and re- probated by Patten. " Another manner have they [the JEnglish Borderers] amoong them, of wearyng handkerchers roll'd about their armes, and letters brouder'd [embroidered'] upon their cappes : they said themselves, the use thearof was that ech of them might knowe his fellowe, and thear- bye the sooner assemble, or in nede to ayd one another, and such lyke respectes ; howbeit thear wear of the army amoong us (some suspicious men perchance) that thought thei used them for coUusion, and rather bycaus thei might be knowen to the enemic, as the enemies are knowen to them, (for thei have their markes too,) and so in conflict either ech to spare oother, or gently eche to take other. Indede, men have been mooved the rather to thinke so, bycaus sum of their crosses [tlie English red crosses] were so narrowe, and so singly set on, that a puffe of wj'nde might blowe them from their breastes, and that thei wear found right often talking with the Skottish prikkers within less than their gad's \_spears] length asunder; and when thei perceived thei had been espied, thei have begun one to run at anoother, but so apparently perlassent [/« parlctf] as the lookers on resembled their chasyng lyke the running at base in an uplondish toun, whear the match is made for a quart of good ale, or like the play in Kobin Cookes scole \a fencing school], whear, bycaus the punios mey lerne, thei strike few strokes but by assent and appointment. I hard
INTRODUCTION. 171
In the case of deadly feud, either against an Englishman, or against any neighbouring tribe, the whole force of the oflended clan was bent to avenge the death of any of their number. Their
sum men say, it clid mooch augment their suspicion that wey, bycaus at the battail they saw these prikkers so badly demean them, more intending the taking of prisoners, than the surety of victorye ; for while oother men fought, thei fell to their prey ; that as thear wear but fewe of them but brought home his prisoner, so wear thear many that had six or seven." — Patten's Account of Somerset's Expedition, apud Dalyell's Fragments, p. 76.
It is singular that, about this very period, the same circumstances are severally animadverted upon by the stre- nuous Scottishman, who wrote the Comjilaint of Scotland, as well as by the English author above quoted: " There is nothing that is occasione of your adhering to the opinion of Ingland contrair your natife cuntre', hot the grit fami- liarite that Inglis men and Scottes hes had on baith the Boirdours, ilk ane with utheris, in merchandeis, in selling and buying hors and nolt, and scheip, outfang and infang, ilk ane amang utheris, the whilk famiharite is express con- trar the lawis and consuetudis bayth of Ingland and Scot- land. In auld tjTiiis it was determit in the artiklis of the pace, be the twa wardanis of the Boirdours of Ingland and Scotland, that there should be na famiharite betwix Scottis men and IngUs men, nor marriage to be contrakit betwix them, nor conventions on holydais at gammis and plays, nor merchandres to be maid among them, nor Scottis men till enter on Inglis grond, without the king of Ingland's
172 INTRODUCTION.
vengeance not only vented itself upon the homi- cide and his family, but upon all his kindred, on his whole tribe ; and on every one, in fine, whose death or ruin could affect him with regret. — Lesley, p. 63 ; Bo7'der Laics, passim ; Scottish Acts, 1594, c. 231. The reader will find, in the following collection, many allusions to this infer- nal custom, which always overcame the Marcher's general reluctance to shed human blood, and ren- dered him remorselessly savage.
For fidelity to their word, Lesley ascribes high praise to the inhabitants of the Scottish frontier. Robert Constable (himself a traitorous spy) de- scribes the outlaws, who were his guides into Scotland, as men who would not hesitate to steal,
save conduct, nor Iiiglis men till enter on Scottis grond, Avithont the King of Scotland's save conduct, howbeit that ther war sure pace betwix the twa realmes. But tliir sevyn yeir Ingane, thai statutis and artiklis of the pace are adnuilit, for ther hes been as grit faniiliarite, and conven- tions, and makyng of merchandrcis, on the Boirdours, this lang tj'me betwix Inglis men and Scottis men, bayth in pace and weir, as Scottisnien usis amang theme selfis with- in the realme of Scotland : and sic faniiliarite hes bene the cause that the Kyng of Ingland gat intelligence with divers gentlemen of Scotland."
Complaint of Scotland, Edin. 1801, p. 1C4.
INTRODUCTION. ITS
yet would betray no man that trusted in them, for all the gold in Scotland or France. " They are my guides," said he; " and outlaws wh» might gain their pardon by surrendering me, yet I am secure of their fidelity, and have often proved it." Indeed, when an instance happened of breach of faith, the injured person, at the first Border meeting, rode through the field, displaying a glove (the pledge of faith) upon the point of his lance, and proclaiming the perfidy of the person who had broken his word. So great was the indigna- tion of the assembly against the perjured criminal, that he was often slain by his own clan, to wipe out the disgrace he had brought on them. In the same spirit of confidence, it was not unusual to behold the victors, after an engagement, dis- miss their prisoners upon parole, who never failed either to transmit the stipulated ransom, or to surrender themselves to bondage, if unable to do so. But the virtues of a barbarous people being founded, not upon moral principle, but upon the dreams of superstition, or the capricious dictates of ancient custom, can seldom be uniformly relied on. We must not, therefore, be surprised to find these very men, so true to their word in general.
174 INTRODDCTION.
i
using, upon other occasions, various resources of 1 cunning and chicane, against which the Border i Laws were in vain directed.
The immediate rulers of the Borders were the chiefs of the different clans, who exercised over their respective septs a dominion partly patriarchal and partly feudal. The latter bond of adherence was, however, the more slender ; for, in the acts regulating the Borders, we find repeated mention of " Clannes having captaines and chieftaines, whom on they depend, oft-times against the willes of their landelordes." — Stat. 1587, c. 95, and the roll thereto annexed. Of course, these laws looked less to the feudal superior than to the chieftain of the name, for the restraint of the dis- orderly tribes ; and it is repeatedly enacted, that the head of the clan should be first called upon to deliver those of his sept, who should commit any trespass, and that, on his failure to do so, he should be liable to the injured party in full redress. Ibidem, and Stat. 1574, c. 231. By the same statutes, the chieftains and landlords, presiding over Border clans, were obliged to find caution, and to grant hostages, that they Mould subject themselves to the due course of law. Such clans
INTRODUCTION. 175
as had no chieftain of sufficient note to enter bail for their quiet conduct, became broken men, out- lawed to both nations.
From these enactments, the power of the Bor- der chieftains may be conceived ; for it had been hard and useless to have punished them for the trespass of their tribes, unless they possessed over them unlimited authority. The abodes of these petty princes by no means corresponded to the extent of their power. We do not find, on the Scottish Borders, the splendid and extensive baronial castles which graced and defended the opposite frontier. The Gothic grandeur of Aln- wick, of Raby, and of Naworth, marks the weal- thier and more secure state of the English nobles. The Scottish chieftain, however extensive his domains, derived no pecuniary advantage, save from such parts as he could himself cultivate or occupy. Payment of rent was hardly known on the Borders, till after the Union of 1603.^ All
' Stowe, in detailing the happy consequences of the union of the crowns, observes, " that the Northern Bor- ders became as safe, and peaceable, as any part of the entire kingdome, so as in the fourthe year of the King's reigne, as well gentlemen and others inhabiting the places aforesayde, finding the auncient waste ground to be very
176
INTRODUCTION.
that the landlord could gain, from those residing ! upon his estate, was their personal service in bat- I tie, their assistance in labouring the land retained ' in his natural possession, some petty quit rents of j a nature resembling the feudal casualties, and per- i haps a share in the spoil which they acquired by rapine.i This, with his herds of cattle and of sheep, and with the hlack-mail which he exacted from his neighbours, constituted the revenue of the chieftain ; and, from funds