A Collection of Ballads Part 39

THE BONNY HOUSE O' AIRLY

Lord Airly's houses were destroyed by Argyll, representing the Covenanters, and also in pursuance of a private feud, in 1639, or 1640. There are erroneous versions of this ballad, in which Lochiel appears, and the date is, apparently, transferred to 1745.

Montrose, in his early Covenanting days, was not actually concerned in the burning of the Bonnie House, which he, when a Royalist, revenged on the possessions of "gleyed Argyll." The reference to "Charlie" is out of keeping; no one, perhaps, ever called Charles I. by that affectionate name. Lady Ogilvie had not the large family attributed to her: her son, Lord Ogilvie, escaped from prison in the Castle of St. Andrews, after Philiphaugh. A Lord Ogilvie was out in 1745; and, later, had a regiment in the French Service. Few families have a record so consistently loyal.

ROB ROY

The abductors of the widowed young heiress of Edenh.e.l.ly were Rob's sons, Robin Oig, who went through a form of marriage with the girl, and James Mohr, a good soldier, but a double-dyed spy and scoundrel. Robin Oig was hanged in 1753. James Mohr, a detected traitor to Prince Charles, died miserably in Paris, in 1754.

Readers of Mr. Stevenson's Catriona know James well; information as to his villanies is extant in Additional MSS. (British Museum).

This is probably the latest ballad in the collection. It occurs in several variants, some of which, copied out by Burns, derive thence a certain accidental interest. In Mr. Stevenson's Catriona, the heroine of that name takes a thoroughly Highland view of the abduction. Robin Oig, in any case, was "nane the waur o' a hanging," for he shot a Maclaren at the plough-tail, before the Forty-Five. The trial of these sons of Alpen was published shortly after Scott's Rob Roy.

KILLIECRANKIE

Fought on July 27, 1689. NOT on the haugh near the modern road by the railway, but higher up the hill, in the grounds of Urrard House. Two shelter trenches, whence Dundee's men charged, are still visible, high on the hillside above Urrand. There is said, by Mr. Child, to have been a contemporary broadside of the ballad, which is an example of the evolution of popular ballads from the old traditional model. There is another song, by, or attributed to, Burns, and of remarkable spirit and vigour.

ANNAN WATER

From The Border Minstrelsy Scott says that these are the original words of the tune of "Allan Water," and that he has added two verses from a variant with a fortunate conclusion. "Allan Water"

is a common river name; the stream so called joins Teviot above Branxholme. Annan is the large stream that flows into the Solway Frith. The Gate-slack, in Annandale, fixes the locality.

THE ELPHIN NOURRICE

This curious poem is taken from the reprint of Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe's tiny Ballad Book, itself now almost introuvable. It does not, to the Editor's knowledge, occur elsewhere, but is probably authentic. The view of the Faery Queen is more pleasing and sympathetic than usual. Why mortal women were desired as nurses (except to attend on stolen mortal children, kept to "pay the Kane to h.e.l.l") is not obvious. Irish beliefs are precisely similar; in England they are of frequent occurrence.

JOHNNIE ARMSTRANG

Armstrang of Gilnockie was a brother of the laird of Mangertoun.

He had a kind of Robin Hood reputation on the Scottish Border, as one who only robbed the English. Pitscottie's account of his slaying by James V. (1529) reads as if the ballad were his authority, and an air for the subject is mentioned in the Complaint of Scotland. In Sir Herbert Maxwell's History of Dumfries and Galloway is an excellent account of the historical facts of the case.

EDOM O' GORDON

Founded on an event in the wars between Kingsmen and Queensmen, in the minority of James VI., while Queen Mary was imprisoned in England. "Edom" was Adam Gordon of Auchindown, brother of Huntley, and a Queen's man. He, by his retainer, Car, or Ker, burned Towie House, a seat of the Forbes's. Ker recurs in the long and more or less literary ballad of The Battle of Balrinnes. In variants the localities are much altered, and, in one version, the scene is transferred to Ayrs.h.i.+re, and Loudoun Castle. All the ballads of fire-raising, a very usual practice, have points in common, and transference was easy.

LADY ANNE BOTHWELL'S LAMENT

Tradition has confused the heroine of this piece with the wife of Bothwelhaugh, who slew the Regent Murray. That his motive was not mere political a.s.sa.s.sination, but to avenge the ill-treatment and death of his wife, seems to be disproved by Maidment. The affair, however, is still obscure. This deserted Lady Anne of the ballad was, in fact, not the wife of Bothwelhaugh, but the daughter of the Bishop of Orkney; her lover is said to have been her cousin, Alexander Erskine, son of the Earl of Mar. Part of the poem (Mr.

Child points out) occurs in Broome's play, The Northern La.s.s (1632). Though a popular favourite, the piece is clearly of literary origin, and has been severely "edited" by a literary hand.

This version is Allan Ramsay's.

JOCK O' THE SIDE

A Liddesdale chant. Jock flourished about 1550-1570, and is commemorated as a receiver by Sir Richard Maitland in a poem often quoted. The a.n.a.logies of this ballad with that of "Kinmont Willie"

are very close. The reference to a punch-bowl sounds modern, and the tale is much less plausible than that of "Kinmont Willie,"

which, however, bears a few obvious marks of Sir Walter's own hand.

A sceptical editor must choose between two theories: either Scott of Satch.e.l.ls founded his account of the affair of "Kinmont Willie"

on a pre-existing ballad of that name, or the ballad printed by Scott is based on the prose narrative of Scott of Satch.e.l.ls. The former hypothesis, everything considered, is the more probable.

LORD THOMAS AND FAIR ANNET

Published in Percy's Reliques, from a Scotch ma.n.u.script, "with some corrections." The situation, with various differences in detail and conclusion, is popular in Norse and Romaic ballads, and also in many Marchen of the type of The Black Bull of Norraway.

FAIR ANNIE

From The Border Minstrelsy. There are Danish, Swedish, Dutch, and German versions, and the theme enters artistic poetry as early as Marie de France (Le Lai del Freisne). In Scotch the Earl of Wemyss is a recent importation: the earldom dates from 1633. Of course this process of attaching a legend or Marchen to a well-known name, or place, is one of the most common in mythological evolution, and by itself invalidates the theory which would explain myths by a philological a.n.a.lysis of the proper names in the tale. These may not be, and probably are not, the original names.

THE DOWNIE DENS OF YARROW

From The Border Minstrelsy. Scott thought that the hero was Walter Scott, third son of Thirlestane, slain by Scott of Tus.h.i.+elaw. The "monument" (a standing stone near Yarrow) is really of a very early, rather Post-Roman date, and refers to no feud of Thirlestane, Oakwood, Kirkhope, or Tus.h.i.+elaw. The stone is not far from Yarrow Krik, near a place called Warrior's Rest. Hamilton of Bangour's version is beautiful and well known. Quite recently a very early interment of a corpse, in the curved position, was discovered not far from the standing stone with the inscription.

Ballad, stone, and interment may all be distinct and separate.

SIR ROLAND

From Motherwell's Minstrelsy. The authenticity of the ballad is dubious, but, if a forgery, it is a very skilled one for the early nineteenth century. Poets like Mr. Swinburne, Mr. Rossetti, and Mrs. Marriot Watson have imitated the genuine popular ballad, but never so closely as the author of "Sir Roland."

ROSE THE RED AND WHITE LILY

From the Jamieson-Brown MS., originally written out by Mrs. Brown in 1783: Sir Waiter made changes in The Border Minstrelsy. The ballad is clearly a composite affair. Robert Chambers regarded Mrs. Brown as the Mrs. Harris of ballad lore, but Mr. Norval Clyne's reply was absolutely crus.h.i.+ng and satisfactory.

THE BATTLE OF HARLAW