Chapter 108

The Highlands are no for me,The Highlands are no for me;But gin ye wad my favour winThan carry me to Dundee.

The Highlands are no for me,

The Highlands are no for me;

But gin ye wad my favour win

Than carry me to Dundee.

His name is sometimes called Glendinnin, and his residence the same: however, I think it is a Highland ballad, from other circumstances.” W. Laidlaw to Sir W. Scott, September 11, 1802: Letters, I, No 73. CompareD.

P. 243. The Harris MS. has one stanza, fol. 27 b, from Mrs Isdale, Dron, ‘Robin Oigg’s Elopement.’

An they hae brocht her to a bed,An they hae laid her doun,An they’ve taen aff her petticoat,An stript her o her goun.

An they hae brocht her to a bed,

An they hae laid her doun,

An they’ve taen aff her petticoat,

An stript her o her goun.

226. Lizie Lindsay.

P. 255. Communicated by Mr Walker, of Aberdeen, as procured October 5, 1891, from George Nutchell, Ground Officer at Edzell Castle, who derived it from his step-grandmother Mrs Lamond (Nelly Low), fifty-eight years ago, she being at the time eighty years old.

1‘Will ye gang to the Highlands, Lizzie Lindsay?Will ye gang to the Highlands wi me?Will ye gang to the Highlands, Lizzie Lindsay,My bride an my darling to be?’2She turned her round on her heel,And a very loud laugh gaed she:‘I’d like to ken whaur I’m ganging,An wha I am gaun to gang wi.’3‘My name is Donald Macdonald,I’ll never think shame nor deny;My father he is an old shepherd,My mither she is an old dey.4‘Will ye gang to the Highlands, bonnie Lizzie?Will ye gang to the Highlands wi me?For ye shall get a bed o green rashes,A pillow an a covering o grey.’5Upraise then the bonny young lady,An drew till her stockings an sheen,An packd up her claise in fine bundles,An away wi young Donald she’s gaen.6When they cam near the end o their journey,To the house o his father’s milk-dey,He said, Stay still there, Lizzie Lindsay,Till I tell my mither o thee.7‘Now mak us a supper, dear mither,The best o yer curds an green whey,An mak up a bed o green rashes,A pillow an covering o grey.8‘Rise up, rise up, Lizzie Lindsay,Ye have lain oer lang i the day;Ye should hae been helping my mitherTo milk her ewes an her kye.’9Out then spak the bonnie young lady,As the saut tears drapt frae her ee,‘I wish I had bidden at hame;I can neither milk ewes or kye.’10‘Rise up, rise up, Lizzie Lindsay,There is mair ferlies to spy;For yonder’s the castle o Kingussie,An it stands high an dry.’11‘Ye are welcome here, Lizzie Lindsay,The flower o all your kin,For ye shall be lady o Kingussie,An ye shall get Donald my son.’

1‘Will ye gang to the Highlands, Lizzie Lindsay?Will ye gang to the Highlands wi me?Will ye gang to the Highlands, Lizzie Lindsay,My bride an my darling to be?’

‘Will ye gang to the Highlands, Lizzie Lindsay?

Will ye gang to the Highlands wi me?

Will ye gang to the Highlands, Lizzie Lindsay,

My bride an my darling to be?’

2She turned her round on her heel,And a very loud laugh gaed she:‘I’d like to ken whaur I’m ganging,An wha I am gaun to gang wi.’

She turned her round on her heel,

And a very loud laugh gaed she:

‘I’d like to ken whaur I’m ganging,

An wha I am gaun to gang wi.’

3‘My name is Donald Macdonald,I’ll never think shame nor deny;My father he is an old shepherd,My mither she is an old dey.

‘My name is Donald Macdonald,

I’ll never think shame nor deny;

My father he is an old shepherd,

My mither she is an old dey.

4‘Will ye gang to the Highlands, bonnie Lizzie?Will ye gang to the Highlands wi me?For ye shall get a bed o green rashes,A pillow an a covering o grey.’

‘Will ye gang to the Highlands, bonnie Lizzie?

Will ye gang to the Highlands wi me?

For ye shall get a bed o green rashes,

A pillow an a covering o grey.’

5Upraise then the bonny young lady,An drew till her stockings an sheen,An packd up her claise in fine bundles,An away wi young Donald she’s gaen.

Upraise then the bonny young lady,

An drew till her stockings an sheen,

An packd up her claise in fine bundles,

An away wi young Donald she’s gaen.

6When they cam near the end o their journey,To the house o his father’s milk-dey,He said, Stay still there, Lizzie Lindsay,Till I tell my mither o thee.

When they cam near the end o their journey,

To the house o his father’s milk-dey,

He said, Stay still there, Lizzie Lindsay,

Till I tell my mither o thee.

7‘Now mak us a supper, dear mither,The best o yer curds an green whey,An mak up a bed o green rashes,A pillow an covering o grey.

‘Now mak us a supper, dear mither,

The best o yer curds an green whey,

An mak up a bed o green rashes,

A pillow an covering o grey.

8‘Rise up, rise up, Lizzie Lindsay,Ye have lain oer lang i the day;Ye should hae been helping my mitherTo milk her ewes an her kye.’

‘Rise up, rise up, Lizzie Lindsay,

Ye have lain oer lang i the day;

Ye should hae been helping my mither

To milk her ewes an her kye.’

9Out then spak the bonnie young lady,As the saut tears drapt frae her ee,‘I wish I had bidden at hame;I can neither milk ewes or kye.’

Out then spak the bonnie young lady,

As the saut tears drapt frae her ee,

‘I wish I had bidden at hame;

I can neither milk ewes or kye.’

10‘Rise up, rise up, Lizzie Lindsay,There is mair ferlies to spy;For yonder’s the castle o Kingussie,An it stands high an dry.’

‘Rise up, rise up, Lizzie Lindsay,

There is mair ferlies to spy;

For yonder’s the castle o Kingussie,

An it stands high an dry.’

11‘Ye are welcome here, Lizzie Lindsay,The flower o all your kin,For ye shall be lady o Kingussie,An ye shall get Donald my son.’

‘Ye are welcome here, Lizzie Lindsay,

The flower o all your kin,

For ye shall be lady o Kingussie,

An ye shall get Donald my son.’

P. 360 a.B.There is another, and perhaps slightly earlier, copy of The Rambler’s Garland, British Museum, 11621, c. 2 (64), with a few trifling differences, for better or worse.

P. 396. ‘Bennachie,’ by Alex. Inkson McConnochie, Aberdeen, 1890, has a copy of this ballad, p. 66, longer by a few verses and with some verbal differences. But as this copy has been edited, though “without violence having been done,” the variations, in themselves quite immaterial, do not demand registration.

To be Corrected in the Print.

135 b,P132.ReadThere’s.

188 b, line 15.Read207.

200 b, line 6.ReadVidyádharí.

401 b, fourth paragraph, line 3 f.ReadNo 68, III, 117.

II,

10 a, eighth line from below.ReadBforC.

26 b 131.Readmoon.

84 b, last line of third paragraph.ReadG21.

266,B53.Readyou.

428 b,e.Read 34for 31.

482 b, third paragraph, last line.ReadV, 101.

507 a, Josefs Gedicht. Eighth line,readDen . . . in queme. First line of answer,readDe; third, deme; seventh, konde.

III,

41 b, third paragraph, second line.ReadMS.forMr.

264 a, 174.Readhee.b, 232.Readsoe.

264 a, 174.Readhee.

b, 232.Readsoe.

276 a, line 7.Readqueen’s own son.

281 a, 52.Readnew.

288 a, line 4 of the first paragraph.ReadWilliam Lord Douglas.b, line 16.Readwail.

288 a, line 4 of the first paragraph.ReadWilliam Lord Douglas.

b, line 16.Readwail.

306 a, note *, fourth line.ReadMinstrelsy, II, 325, ed. 1802.

348 b, [A121].Readsais. 152.Readmirrie.

376 b,G21.Readgreat.

379 a, 173,A a, first line.ReadSharpe’s.

383 a, line 32.Readpavlovsk.

384 a, 51.Readwas never.

397,P11.Readfather is.

435 a,E52.Readloon.

448 a,A, heading.Read1750.

459 a, 71.ReadBuss. 102.Reado the Dun.

463 a, first line of citation from Maitland.Readspuilzie.

473 b, 244.Readnever.

475 b, citation from Maitland, line 5.Readane guyd.

477 b, third paragraph, line 2.Readmoss-trooper.

485 b, first paragraph, line 9 from the end.Readwould.

489 b,B91.Read, There (==There are) six.

499 a,9, line 8 f.ReadVuk, II, 376, No 64.

504 a, third line from the bottom.ReadOforJ.

504 b, third line.ReadRae.

505 a, 134.ReadAnd aye. 181.Reado the.

510 b. The note to p. 215 belongs under No 76.

IV,

6 a, 81.Readwhan. (101. Gar seek in the early editions, Gae in ed. 1833.)

7 b, 411.Readthy kye.

8 a, 463.Readdare.

18 a, 103.ReadThen. 124.Read[to].b, 192.ReadWhan.

18 a, 103.ReadThen. 124.Read[to].

b, 192.ReadWhan.

21 b, 173.Readgrey.

23 a,A a, fourth line.Readformer [B].

28 a. Title of 194B, Laird o Waristoun, in the MS. copy; Laird of Wariestoun, in the printed.

34 b,B. Lord Maxwell’s Goodnight is the title in Scott’s Minstrelsy. It is Lord Maxwell’s Farewell in the Table of Contents of Glenriddell.

36 a, preface, last line but two, and b, line 3.ReadLord MaxwellforLord John.

38 a, 112.Read, perhaps,fathers’: cf. their, in line 3.

45 b,B71.Readhe’s.

47 b, 181.ReadLady.

54 a, No 199,B.Insert the title: ‘Bonny House of Airly.’

66 a,B51.ReadGar . . . manteel.

68 a,D, third line.ReadCorseforCragievar.

69 a, 63.ReadStincher. 83.Readkill.

75 a, ninth line of preface.Readin his Poems.

76 a, fifth line.ReadBeauchie.

81 b, seventeenth and twenty-fourth lines.ReadAbergeldy.

82 b, note, first line.ReadBrachally in Dee Water Side.

90 a,E.Insert‘Laird of Blackwood,’ as the title of the printed copy.

91 a, tenth line of the second paragraph.Readafter the birth of his sonforafter that event. note *.ReadIV, 277 f, II, 449 f.

92 a, second line.ReadA,C.

93 b,A21.Readcam.

94 a,B14.Readwont.

95 b,B123.ReadI’me.C64.Readcountry. 81,2.Readwell.

96 a,D33.Readfire-boams.

105 a, sixth line of Appendix.ReadBroadside.

110 b, No 207,D, third line.Readp. 135.

123 b,I b.Strike out(Lord?)K.Readp. 370.

124 b, fifth paragraph, last line but four.ReadPitbagnet’s.

129 a, 233.Readfeght. b, 283.Readburd.C b.Readin Wilkie’s hand,dropping what follows.

138 b,C b121,2.Read Wanting, forA man spoke loud.

139 a,I b34, 41.ReadPitbagnet’s.

152 b, 103.Readshowd.

153 b, 92.Readwas.

155 a, second line after title.Afterlibrary,insertP. 6.

157 a, 22.Readnourice.

168 a, 72.Readdoon.

201 b, 263.Readkye.

202 a,K22.ReadIt is.

207 a, 202.Readthem a’ out.

212 a, 43.Readsallads.

221 b, 132.Readgrey.

224 b, 221.Readhes he.

226 a, 63.ReadLammington.

248 a, 22.Readladie.

1. The brother is Peter o Whitfield. ‘Jock o the Side,’A, begins, ‘Peeter a Whifeildhehath slaine, and John a Side he is tane.’ ‘The great Earl of Whitfield,’ 103, seemed to Scott a corruption, and he suggested ‘the great Ralph’ Whitfield; but Surtees gave him information (which has not transpired) that led him to think that the reading ‘Earl’ might be right. Whitfield, in Northumberland, is a few miles southwest of Hexham, and about twenty-five, in a straight line, from Kershope, or the border.

2. Nicolson and Burn, History of Westmorland and Cumberland, p. xxxi.

3. [I have received, too late for present use, three traditional copies of ‘Hughie Grame’ from Abbotsford, two of which are varieties ofB, the third the original ofC.C2–5, 16, were taken from Ritson, not without changes. One of the varieties ofBhasE15 in a form very near to No 169,B b,c.]

4. I do not know whether the document cited is extant or accessible, or whether it was examined by Mr T. J. Carlyle for his paper on the Debateable Land; he mentions no Hugh Grame, p. 13 f.Though Grames are numerous (in 1592 they were considered the greatest surname on the west border of England, R. B. Armstrong), I have found only one Hugh out of the ballad. Hugh’s Francie, that is Hugh’s son Francie, is in the list of the Grames transported to Ireland in 1607. Nicolson and Burn, History of Westmorland and Cumberland, I, cxx.

4. I do not know whether the document cited is extant or accessible, or whether it was examined by Mr T. J. Carlyle for his paper on the Debateable Land; he mentions no Hugh Grame, p. 13 f.

Though Grames are numerous (in 1592 they were considered the greatest surname on the west border of England, R. B. Armstrong), I have found only one Hugh out of the ballad. Hugh’s Francie, that is Hugh’s son Francie, is in the list of the Grames transported to Ireland in 1607. Nicolson and Burn, History of Westmorland and Cumberland, I, cxx.

5. Nicolson and Burn, I, lxxxi, II, 279 f. As for Bishop Aldridge’s character, his being a trimmer does not make him a “limmer.” Ecclesiastics are not infrequently accused in ballads, but no man is to lose his reputation without better evidence than that.

6. Nicolson and Burn, I, x, xiii, xcii.

7. Ballads and Songs of Ayrshire, 1st Series, p. 50.

8. See also a paper by Dr Arthur Mitchell in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, XII, 260, June 11, 1877. Dr Mitchell was with Mr Murray when he visited Sarah Rae, and he supplies the date 1866. The last stanza of the ballad and the burden are cited in this paper.

9. The innocent comments of certain editors must not be lost. “The whole incident surely implies a very early and primitive system of manners, not to speak of the circumstance of the court being held at Carlisle, which never was the case in any late period of English history.” (Chambers’s Scottish Ballads, p. 306.) “In our version [E] the scene of the theft is laid at London, but Carlisle, we are inclined to think, is the true reading. The great distance between Scotland and London, and the nature of the roads in times of old, would render the event an improbable, if not altogether an impossible, one to have occurred; and we can easily imagine, when the court was at Carlisle, that such a good practical joke was planned and carried into execution by some waggish courtiers.” (Dixon, p. 93 f.)

10. So the Memorial referred to in the next note, p.VI. Sharpe, in his preface, p. iv, says nineteen.B9 is of course quite wrong as to the duration of her married life.

11. A Memorial of the Conversion of Jean Livingston, Lady Waristoun, etc., printed from the manuscript by C. K. Sharpe, Edinburgh, 1827. An Epitaphium Janetæ Livingstoune is subjoined. The record of Weir’s trial is given in the preface: see also Pitcairn’s Criminal Trials, II, 445 ff. The Memorial is powerfully interesting, but, in Sharpe’s words, would have been a mischievous present to the world, whatever one may think of the change of heart in this “dear saint of God,” as she is therein repeatedly called. It may be noted that Jean Livingston, when it was supposed her last hour had come, called for a drink and drank to all her friends. Memorial, p.XIII: cf. “Mary Hamilton.”

12. Rolling in a spiked barrel is well known as a popular form of punishment. For some examples later than Regulus, see Grundtvig, II, 174, No 58; Grundtvig, II, 547, No 101, A-D, Prior, I, 349, Afzelius, No 3 (two copies), Wolff, Halle der Völker, II, 161; Grundtvig, III, 700, No 178, A-D, Prior, II, 160, Arwidsson, II, 62, No 80, and Grundtvig,ib.p. 698; Hoffmann, Niederländische Volkslieder, 1856, p. 19, No 3, Le Jeune, p. 87, No 3, Prior, II, 238; Pidal, Asturian Romances, p. 163, No 36; Grimms, K.-u. H. märchen, Nos 13, 89, 135; Asbjørnsen og Moe, p. 464. Sharpe, in his preface to the Memorial, p. v, givesB8 in this form, “partly from tradition:”Up spak the laird o Dunypace,Sat at the king’s right knee;‘Gar nail her in a tar-barrelAnd hurl her in the sea.’

Up spak the laird o Dunypace,Sat at the king’s right knee;‘Gar nail her in a tar-barrelAnd hurl her in the sea.’

Up spak the laird o Dunypace,

Sat at the king’s right knee;

‘Gar nail her in a tar-barrel

And hurl her in the sea.’

13. The day before the execution Lady Wariston desired to see her infant son. The minister feared lest the sight of him should make her wae to leave him, but she assured that the contrair should be seen, took the child in her arms, kissed him, blessed him, and recommended him to the Lord’s care, and sent him away again without taking of any sorrow. Memorial, p.IX.

14. Fraser, The Book of Carlaverock, I, 300. “John, ninth Lord Maxwell, was born about the year 1586.” He was married in 1601, and imprisoned for his papistical propensity in the same year. Either the date is too late, or Maxwell was one of those avenging children who mature so very fast: see ‘Jellon Grame,’ II, 303, 513.

15. Some sort of “agreement” had been made in 1605, as we see by the “Summons” referred to further on, and Lord Maxwell mentions this agreement in a conversation with Sir Robert Maxwell. Pitcairn’s Trials, III, 36, 44.

16. In the indictment (“Summons, etc., against John, Lord Maxwell”), it is said that Johnstone was shot through the shoulder with two poisoned bullets. If there was evidence as to this aggravating circumstance, it has not been made accessible. In his “Offers of Submission,” etc., by which Lord Maxwell hoped to avoid the extreme penalty of the law, he makes oath on his salvation and damnation that the unhappy slaughter was nowise committed upon forethought felony or set purpose; and on the scaffold, while declaring that he had justly deserved his death and asking forgiveness of the Johnstone family, he protested that his act had been without dishonor or infamy; meaning, of course, perfidy.

17. Spotiswood’s History, ed. 1655, pp. 338 f., 400 f., 504 f.; Historie of King James the Sext, pp. 209 f., 297–99; Moysie’s Memoirs, p. 109 f.; Pitcairn’s Criminal Trials, III, 31–40, 43–47, 51–53; Fraser, The Book of Carlaverock, 1873, pp. 300 f., 314, 321; Taylor, The Great Historic Families of Scotland, 1887, II, 10, 14–25.

18. In a petition presented to the Privy Council by Robert Maxwell in behalf of his brother, the ‘sometime’ Lord Maxwell, by his attorney, craves “forgiveness of his offence done to the Marquís of Hamilton [his wife’s brother] and his friends.” Pitcairn, III, 52. Whether this was penitence or policy, it shows that great offence had been taken. Some verses inserted by Scott in his edition of the ballad, in which his lady urges Maxwell to go with her to her brother’s stately tower, where “Hamiltons and Douglas baith shall rise to succour thee,” are quite misplaced.

19. Frendraught is in the parish of Forgue, Aberdeenshire, Rothiemay in Banffshire; they lie on opposite sides of the Deveron.

20. A Genealogical History of the Earldom of Sutherland, 1813, pp. 412, 416 ff. Sir Robert Gordon’s book stops before the (inconclusive) legal and judicial proceedings were finished. He seems to share the suspicion of the “most part,” that the Leslies and Meldrum set the fire.

21. See Spalding, Memorialls of the Trubles in Scotland and in England, 1624–1645, Spalding Club, I, 45–51, 420–23, 430–35, and the continuator of Sir Robert Gordon, p. 474 f. Frendraught is generally represented to have been utterly ruined in his estate, but that is probably an exaggeration. His sufferings are thus depicted in the Charges against the Marquis of Huntly and others anent the disorders in the North (Spalding, I, 420): “Forasmuch as the Lords of Secret Council are informed that great numbers of sorners and broken men of the clan Gregor, clan Lachlan (etc.), as also divers of the name of Gordon ... have this long time, and now lately very grievously, infested his Majesty’s loyal subjects in the north parts, especially the laird of Frendraught and his tenants, by frequent slaughters, herships, and barbarous cruelties committed upon them, and by a late treasonable fireraising within the said laird of Frendraught his bounds, whereby not only is all the gentleman’s lands laid waste, his whole goods and bestial spoiled, slain and maigled, some of his servants killed and cruelly demeaned, but also the whole tenants of his lands and domestics of his house have left his service, and himself, with the hazard of his life, has been forced to steal away under night and have his refuge to his Majesty’s Council, etc.” It was reported that Frendraught obtained a decree against the marquis for 200,000 merks (Scots) for scathe, and another for 100,000 pounds (or merks) for spoliation of tithes, but that he recovered the money does not appear. (Spalding, I, 71, 115.) In 1636, through the exertions of Sir Robert Gordon, Huntly and Frendraught were brought to submit all differences on either side, “and particularly a great action of law prosecuted by Frendraught against the marquis,” to the arbitrament of friends. Huntly died before a decision was reached, but “the Laird of Frendraught retired himself home to his own lands, and there lived peaceably.” (Genealogical History of Sutherland, p. 479.)

22. Memorials, I, 17 ff., and the Appendix, p. 381 ff.

23. So John Gordon, Viscount Melgum, the second son of the Marquis of Huntly, was indifferently called, though the title of Viscount Aboyne belonged to his elder brother, George, and was not conferred uponhimuntil after John’s death. Sir Robert Gordon says that the Marquis of Huntly “ordained” for Melgum the lands of Aboyne, and others. Melgum was married to Sophia Hay, daughter of the Earl of Errol, as appears also in the ballad.

24. What manner of helping Frendraught could have given Spalding does not “condescend upon.” The way down stairs was barred by fire, the windows were barred with iron. [“But the stairs or monty being in fire, and the windows grated with strong bars of iron, there was no moyen to escape:” Blakhal’s Narration, Spalding Club, p. 125.] Ladders and crowbars occur to us, but a tower with walls ten feet thick was not expected to burn, the servants had not been drilled in managing fires, people smoked from their beds at two in the morning are not apt to have their wits about them, and the combustion was rapid.

25. All the documents will be found in the Appendix to Spalding. Dr John Hill Burton, in Narratives from Criminal Trials in Scotland, 1852, I, 202 ff, leans hard against Frendraught. “With pretty abundant materials, it is impossible, even at the present day, entirely to clear up the mystery, but we can see by what machinations inquiry was baffled.” “It will be seen that no evidence against him was received, that it was considered an offence to accuse him.” “Frendraught, though he had with a high hand averted even the pretence of inquiry on the part of the government, did not go unpunished,whether he was guilty or not.” Dr Burton speaks with more reserve in his History of Scotland, VI, 209; little more is insisted on than a wish of the Court to foster the Crichtons as a balance to the power of the house of Huntly. It is clear that Frendraught had all the consideration and help from the government which he could claim. Mr Charles Rampini, who has discussed the affair in The Scottish Review, X, 143 ff., 1887, concludes favorably to Frendraught’s innocence of the fire.

26. “Many years ago, when the well was cleared out, this tradition was corroborated by their finding the keys: at least, such was the report of the country.” (Finlay, I, xxi, citing a correspondent.) Of course we should have had to believe everything against Lady Frendraught, even that she had been so simple as to throw them in, if keys had been found in the well; but the land-steward of the proprietor of the estate informed the late Mr Norval Clyne that the draw-well was searched, and no keys were found.

27. This is, of course, the style of the kirk. The fifty-third psalm of the Vulgate would not have been out of place for Lord John, who was a Catholic; but no doubt Lord John is taken for a Presbyterian in the ballad, and the ‘three’ is for rhyme. Father Blakhal maintains that Frendraught burnt his tower, not to rid himself of Rothiemay, but out of theological malice to Melgum “for his zeal in defending and protecting the poor Catholics against the tyranny of our puritanical bishops and ministers.” “As he [Melgum] was dying for the defence of the poor Catholics, God did bestow upon him the grace to augment the number at the last hour of his life, persuading the Baron of Rothiemay to abjure the heresy of Calvin, and make the profession of the Catholic faith openly, to the hearing of the traitor and all who were with him in the court. They two being at a window, and whilst their legs were burning, they did sing togetherTe Deum; which ended, they did tell at the window that their legs being consumed even to their knees, etc.... And so this noble martyr finished this mortal life, at the age of four and twenty years.” A Brief Narration, etc., p. 124 f.Blakhal, who is far from being a cautious writer, also tells us that “the traitor,” Frendraught, “with his men,in arms, walked all the night in the court,” to kill Gordon and Rothiemay, if they should escape from the fire. There is a passage of the same purport in one of Arthur Johnston’s two poems on the burning of Frendraught, “Querela Sophiæ Hayæ,” etc.:Cur vigil insuetis noctem traduxit in armis,Cætera cum somno turba sepulta foret?The other piece ends with a ferocious demand for the use of torture to discover the guilty party. (Delitiæ Poetarum Scotorum, Amsterdam, 1637, pp. 585, 587; or, A. I. Poemata Omnia, Middelburg, 1642, pp. 329, 331.)

Blakhal, who is far from being a cautious writer, also tells us that “the traitor,” Frendraught, “with his men,in arms, walked all the night in the court,” to kill Gordon and Rothiemay, if they should escape from the fire. There is a passage of the same purport in one of Arthur Johnston’s two poems on the burning of Frendraught, “Querela Sophiæ Hayæ,” etc.:

Cur vigil insuetis noctem traduxit in armis,Cætera cum somno turba sepulta foret?

Cur vigil insuetis noctem traduxit in armis,

Cætera cum somno turba sepulta foret?

The other piece ends with a ferocious demand for the use of torture to discover the guilty party. (Delitiæ Poetarum Scotorum, Amsterdam, 1637, pp. 585, 587; or, A. I. Poemata Omnia, Middelburg, 1642, pp. 329, 331.)

28. Stanza 21 recalls the verses in Hume of Godscroft:Edinburgh castle, towne, and tower,God grant thou sink for sinne! etc.

28. Stanza 21 recalls the verses in Hume of Godscroft:

Edinburgh castle, towne, and tower,God grant thou sink for sinne! etc.

Edinburgh castle, towne, and tower,

God grant thou sink for sinne! etc.

29. Gordon’s History of Sutherland, p. 414; Spalding’s Memorials, I, 11, 21–23, 29 f., 43 f.

30. Gordon’s History, pp. 481, 460; Spalding, with details, I, 70.

31. Spalding, I, 141, 188, 244.

32. Gordon, History of Scots Affairs, II, 276–80; Spalding, Memorials, I, 209–11. Seton is called a bold, or brave,baron, inA2,B3, not in the mediæval way, but as one of the gentlemen of the king’s party. The Gordons and their associates “at this time were called the Barons, and their actings, by way of derision, the Barons’ Reign.” Gordon, p. 261. “Northern,”B13, should be southern, as inA.

33. Gordon, II, 274; Spalding, I, 208; Napier’s Montrose and the Covenanters, I, 284 f. The Hieland men, says Baillie, “avowed that they could not abidethe musket’s mother, and so fled in troops at the first volley.” Letters, ed. Laing, I, 221.

34. History of Scots Affairs, II, 281, note: see also what is added to that note.

35. “‘The deep, deep den’ referred to in the ballad is the Den of Airlie, celebrated for its fine scenery and romantic beauty. It extends about a mile below the junction of the Isla and the Melgum.” Christie, Traditional Ballad Airs, II, 296.

36. Spalding’s Memorials, ed. 1850, I, 290–2; Gordon’s History of Scots Affairs, III, 164 f.; also, II, 234; Gardiner, History of England, 1603–1642, ed., 1884, IX, 167 f. Both Spalding and Gordon say that Montrose besieged Airlie but did not succeed in taking it. Argyle, continues Spalding, “raises an army of about 5,000 men and marches towards Airlie; but the Lord Ogilvie, hearing of his coming with such irresistible forces, resolves to fly and leave the house manless, and so for their own safety they wisely fled. But Argyle most cruelly and inhumanly enters the house of Airlie,” etc. A letter of Argyle’s to one Dugald Campbell (dated July, 1640) would seem to show that he was not there in person during the razing and burning. “You need not let know,” says Argyle, “that ye have directions from me to fire it.” Notes and Queries, Fifth Series, IX, 364; reprinted by Gardiner.

37. Napier, Montrose and the Covenanters, 1838, I, 129.

38. In 18–21 the lady makes her lord not only forgive the abettors of Jockie Faa, whom he was about to hang, but present ten guineas to Jockie, whom he was minded to burn.

39. “Corse field may very possibly be Corse, the ancient seat of the Forbeses of Craigievar, from the close vicinity of which the reciter of this ballad came.” Burton, in Kinloch MSS, V, 334.

40. Recalling Carrick, of which Maybole is the capital. “The family of Cassilis, in early times, had been so powerful that the head of it was generally termed the King of Carrick:” Sharpe. But Garrick may have come in in some other way.

41.F7, if it belongs to the countess, gives her an unlady-like taste for brandy.

42. “There is indeed a stanza of no merit, which, in some copies, concludes the ballad, and states that eight of the gypsies were hanged at Carlisle, and the rest at the Border:” Finlay, II, 43.

43. Pitcairn’s Criminal Trials, III, 201, 307 f., 397–9, 559–62, 592–94; Acts of the Parliament of Scotland, IV, 440.

44. Sharpe’s Ballad Book, ed. Laing, 1880, pp. 142, 154. I have unluckily lost my voucher for Johnny Faa’s figuring in ‘The Douglas Tragedy.’

45. Finlay, II, 35; The Scots Magazine, LXXX, 306, and the Musical Museum, 1853, IV, *217, Sharpe; Chambers, Scottish Ballads, p. 143; The New Statistical Account of Scotland, V, 497; Paterson, The Ballads and Songs of Ayrshire, I, 10; Maidment, Scotish Ballads and Songs, 1868, II, 179.

46. She had four children according to the Historical Account of the Noble Family of Kennedy, Edinburgh, 1849, p. 44.

47. ‘We were a’ put downbut ane’ first appears in Herd, 1769.

48. These eight heads would correspond very neatly to the number of gypsies executed in 1624. But in the circumstantial account given by Chambers we are told that the house belonging to the family at Maybole was fitted for the countess’s reception “by the addition of a fine projecting stair-case, upon which were carved heads representing those of her lover and his band.... The effigies of the gypsies are very minute, being subservient to the decoration of a fine triple window at the top of the stair-case, and stuck upon the tops and bottoms of a series of little pilasters which adorn that part of the building. The head of Johnie Faa himself is distinct from the rest, larger, and more lachrymose in the expression of the features.Some windows in the upper flat of Cassilis Castle are similarly adorned; but regarding them tradition is silent.”

49. Sharp, in Johnson’s Museum, 1853, IV, 218*; Paterson, in Ballads and Songs of Ayrshire, I, 13. It is also clear from these letters that the countess was a sober and religious woman. Some minor difficulties which attend the supposition of this lady’s absconding with Johnny Faa, or any gypsy, are barely worth mentioning. At the time when Johnny Faa was put down, in 1624, the countess was seventeen years old, and yet she is made the mother of two children. If we shift the elopement to the other end of her life, there was then (so severe had been the measures taken with these limmers) perhaps not a gypsy left in Scotland. See Aytoun, 1859, I, 186.

50. John, seventh earl of Cassilis, son of the sixth earl by a second wife, married for his second wife, some time before 1700, Mary Foix (a name also spelt Faux): Crawford’s Peerage, 1716, p. 76, corrected by the Decreets of the Lords of Council and Session, vol. 145, div. 2. May this explain the Faws coming to be associated in the popular mind with a countess of Cassilis? (A suggestion of Mr Macmath’s.) The lady is even called Jeanie Faw inC7, 11, first by the gypsy, then by her husband. The seventh earl hadtwochildren by Mary Foix.

51. I have seen this piece only in Elizabeth Cochrane’s Song-Book, MS., p. 38, and in Buchan’s MSS, I, 220. Its contents agree with what is alleged in W. Fuller’s “Brief Discovery of the True Mother of the pretended Prince of Wales, known by the name of Mary Grey,” London, 1696, pp. 5 f, 11, 17 f, and it was probably composed not long after.

52. Afterwards inserted in the first volume of The Tea-Table Miscellany (p. 66 of A New Miscellany of Scots Sangs, London, 1727, p. 68 of T. T. M., Dublin, 1729), from which source it may have been adopted by Sharpe.

53. Here from the original, Communications to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. i, from a copy furnished by Mr Macmath.

54. The most of this account, and in nearly the same words, was given in an earlier letter from Major Barry to James Cant, who printed (Perth, 1774) an edition of ‘The Muses Threnodie, by Mr H. Adamson, 1638’ (p. 19). The principal items of the story are repeated from Cant by Pennant, Tour in Scotland, 1772, Part II, London, 1776, p. 112. Pennant cites Cant’s book as the Gabions of Perth. “It seems,” says Mr Macmath, who has extracted for me the passage in Cant, “that Adamson’s work was sometimes known as Gall’s Gabions, the latter being a coined word.”

55. An “old manuscript volume” cited in The New Statistical Account of Scotland, X, 37; Chambers, Domestic Annals of Scotland, 1858, II, 167.

56. The remark is made in The Scotsman, September 11, 1886.

57. In the manuscript cited in The New Statistical Account of Scotland, p. 37, we are told that, to prevent the spread of infection, “it was thought proper to put those out of the town at some distance who were sick. Accordingly, they went out and builded huts for themselves in different places around the town, particularly in the South Inch [etc.] and the grounds near the river Almond, at the mouth thereof, in all which places there are as yet the remains of their huts which they lodged in.” So, when this same pestilence was raging in the parish of Monivaird, the gentlemen “caused many huts to be built, and ordered all who perceived that they were infected immediately to repair into them:” Porteous, History of the Parishes of Monivaird and Strowan, MS., Communications to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. i, printed in the Transactions, II, 72, 1822.

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