TO HIS GRACE

HENRY, DUKE OF BUCCLEUCH, etc. etc. etc. These Tales,

WHICH IN ELDER TIMES HAVE CELEBRATED THE PROWESS,

AND CHEERED THE HALLS,

OF

HIS GALLANT ANCESTORS,

ARE RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED

BY BIS GRACE'S MUCH OBLIGED AND MOST HUMBLE SERVANT, WALTER SCOTT.'

2

SIR PATRICK SPENS.

One edition of the present ballad is well known; having appeared in the Reliques of Ancient Poetry, and having been inserted in almost every subsequent collection of Scottish songs. But it seems to have occurred to no editor, that a more complete copy of the song might be procured. That, with which the public is now presented, is taken from two MS. copies, collated with several verses, recited by the editor's friend Robert Hamilton, Esq. advocate being the 16th and the four which follow. But, even with the assistance of the common copy, the ballad seems still to be a fragment. The cause of Sir Patrick Spen's voyage is, however, pointed out distinctly; and it shows that the song has claim to high antiquity, as referring to a very remote period in Scottish history.

Alexander III. of Scotland died in 1285; and, for the misfortune of his country, as well as his own, he had been bereaved of all his children before his decease. The crown of Scotland descended upon his grand-daughter, Margaret, termed, by our historians, the Maid of Norway. She was the only offspring of a marriage betwixt Eric, King of Norway, and Margaret, daughter of Alexander III. The kingdom had been secured to her by the Parliament of Scotland held at Scone, the year preceding her grandfather's

[Edinburgh, 1820.]

⚫ That the public might possess this curious fragment as entire as possible, the editor gave one of these copies, which seems the most perfect, to Mr. R. Jamieson, to be inserted in his collection. It

death. The regency of Scotland entered into a congress with the ministers of the King of Norway, and with those of England, for the establishment of good order in the kingdom of the infant Princess. Shortly afterwards, Edward I. conceived the idea of matching his eldest son, Edward, Prince of Wales, with the young Queen of Scotland. The plan was eagerly embraced by the Scottish nobles; for, at that time, there was little of the national animosity, which afterwards blazed betwixt the countries, and they patriotically looked forward to the important advantage of uniting the island of Britain into one kingdom. But Eric of Norway seems to have been unwilling to deliver up his daughter; and, while the negociations were thus protracted, the death of the Maid of Norway effectually crushed a scheme, the consequences of which might have been, that the distinction betwixt England and Scotland would, in our day, have been as obscure and uninteresting as that of the realms of the heptarchy.-HAILES' Annals. FORDUN, etc.

The unfortunate voyage of Sir Patrick Spens may really have taken place, for the purpose of bringing back the Maid of Norway to her own kingdom; a purpose which was probably defeated by the jealousy of the Norwegians, and the reluctance of King Eric. I find no traces of the disaster in Scottish history; but, when we consider the meagre materials whence Scottish history is drawn, this is no conclusive argument against the truth of the tradition. That a Scottish vessel sent upon such an embassy, might, as represented in the ballad, have been freighted with the noblest youth in the kingdom, is sufficiently probable; and, having been delayed in Norway till the tempestuous season was come on, its fate can be no matter of surprise. The commissioners recorded in history as having been formally sent by the Scottish nation to receive their Queen, were Sir David Wemyss of Wemyss, and Sir Michael Scott of Belwearie; the same, whose knowledge, surpassing that of his age, procured him the reputation of a wizard. But, per

also has been published, with many curious illustrations, in Mr. J. Finlay's Scottish Historical and Romantic Ballads. Glasgow, 1808. 3 [Robert Hamilton, Esq. Sheriff of Lanarkshire, and one of the Principal Clerks of Session, died in 1854.]

haps, the expedition of Sir Patrick Spens was previous to this solemn embassy. The introduction of the King into the ballad seems a deviation from history; unless we suppose, that Alexander was, before his death, desirous to see his grandchild and heir.'

The Scottish monarchs were much addicted to "sit in Dunfermline town," previous to the accession of the Bruce dynasty. It was a favourite abode of Alexander himself, who was killed by a fall from his horse, in the vicinity, and was buried in the Abbey of Dunfermline.

There is a beautiful German translation of this ballad, as it appeared in the Reliques, in the Volk'sLieder of Professor Herder-an elegant work, in which it is only to be regretted than the actual popular songs of the Germans form so trifling a proportion.

The tune of Mr. Hamilton's copy of Sir Patrick Spens is different from that to which the words are commonly sung; being less plaintive, and having a bold nautical turn in the close.

SIR PATRICK SPENS.

The King sits in Dunfermline town,
Drinking the blude-red wine;

"O1 whare will I get a skeely skipper, 3 To sail this new ship of mine?

O up and spake an eldern knight,

Sat at the King's right knee,"Sir Patrick Spens is the best sailor, That ever sailed the sea."

Our King has written a braid letter,

And seal'd it with his hand,
And sent it to Sir Patrick Spens,
Was walking on the strand.

"To Noroway, to Noroway,
To Noroway o'er the faem;
The King's daughter of Noroway,
'T is thou maun bring her hame."

The first word that Sir Patrick read,
Sea loud loud laughed he;

The neist word that Sir Patrick read,
The tear blinded his ee.

"O wha is this has done this deed,
And tauld the King o' me,

To send us out, at this time of the year,
To sail upon the sea?4

"Be it wind, be it weet, be it hail, be it sleet,
Our ship must sail the faem;
The King's daughter of Noroway,
'Tis we must fetch her hame.”.
They hoysed their sails on Monenday morn,
Wi' a' the speed they may;

They hae landed in Noroway,
Upon a Wodensday.

They hadna been a week, a week,
In Noroway, but twae,

When that the lords o' Noroway

Began aloud to say,—6

5

"Ye Scottishmen spend a' our King's goud, And a' our Queenis fee.”

"Ye lie, ye lie, ye liars loud!

Fu' loud I hear ye lie;

"For I brought as much white monie,

As gane my men and me,

And I brought a half-fou3 of gude red goud, Out o'er the sea wi' me.

"Make ready, make ready, my merrymen a'! Our gude ship sails the morn.""Now, ever alake, my master dear,

[Mr. Buchan, in his "Ancient Ballads," 1828, inserts a copy of Sir Patrick Spens, which has three stanzas more than that adopted by Sir Walter Scott; and, among other variations, one in stanza 7th, which gets rid of this difficulty. See post. note 5. Buchan said he had it from "a wight of Homer's craft," a wandering minstrel, who has been travelling in the North as a mendicant these 50 years.-Vol. I. p. 289.]

2 In singing, the interjection O is added to the second and fourth lines.

3 Skeely skipper-Skilful mariner.

4 By a Scottish Act of parliament, it was enacted, that no ship should be freighted out of the kingdom, with any staple goods, betwixt the feast of St. Simon's day and Jude and Candlemas.James III. Parliament 2d, chap. 15. Such was the terror entertained for navigating the North Seas in winter. 5 [In Mr. Buchan's copy we have

He seems to have been distinguished for devotion as well as valour; for A.D. 1249, Dominus Ricardus de Mautlant gave to the Abbey of Dryburgh, "Terras suas de Haubent-side, in territorio suo de Thirlestane, pro salute animæ suæ, et sponsæ suæ, antecessorum suorum et successorum suorum, in perpetuum.”1 He also gave to the same convent, "Omnes terras quas Walterus de Giling tenuit in feodo suo de Thirlestane et pastura incommuni de Thirlestane, ad quadraginta oves, sexaginta vaccas, et viginti equos.". Cartulary of Dryburgh Abbey, in the Advocates' Library.

From the following ballad, and from the family traditions referred to in the Maitland MSS., Auld Maitland appears to have had three sons; but we learn, from the latter authority, that only one survived him, who was thence surnamed Burd alane, which signifies either unequalled, or solitary. A Consolation, addressed to Sir Richard Maitland of Lethington, a poet and scholar who flourished about the middle of the sixteenth century, and who gives name to the Maitland MSS., draws the following parallel betwixt his domestic misfortunes and those of the first Sir Richard, his great ancestor :

"Sic destanie and derfe devoring deid
Oft his own hous in hazard put of auld;
Bot your forbeiris, frovard fortounes steid
And bitter blastes ay buir with breistis bauld;
Luit wanweirdis work and walter as they wald,
Thair hardie hairtis, hawtie and heroik,
For fortounes feid or force wald never fauld,
But stormis withstand with stomak stout and stoik.

"Renowned Richert of your race record,
Quhai prais and prowis cannot be exprest;
Mair lustie lynyage nevir haid ane lord,
For he begat the bauldest bairnis and best,
Maist manful men, and madinis most modest,
That ever wes syn Pyramus son of Troy,
But piteouslie thai peirles perles a pest
Bereft him all bot Buird-allane, a boy.
"Himselfe was aiget, his hous hang be a har,
Duill and distres almaist to deid him draife;
Yet Burd-allane, his only son and air,
As wretched, vyiss, and valient, as the laive,
His hous uphail'd, quhilk ye with honor haive.
So nature that the lyk invyand name,
In kindlie cair dois kindly courage craif, 2
To follow him in fortoune and in fame.

"Richerd he wes, Richerd ye are also,
And Maitland als, and magnanime ar ye;
In als great age, als wrappit are in wo,
Sewin sons 3 ye haid might contravaill his thrie,

There exists also an indenture, or bond, entered into by Patrick, Abbot of Kelsau, and his convent, referring to an engagement betwixt them and Sir Richard Maitland, and Sir William, his eldest son, concerning the lands of Hedderwicke and the pasturages of Thirlestane and Blythe. This Patrick was Abbot of Kelso betwixt 1258 and 1260.

2 i. e. Similar family distress demands the same family courage. 3 Sewin sons-This must include sons-in-law; for the last Sir Richard, like his predecessor, had only three sons, namely, I. William, the famous secretary of Queen Mary; II. Sir John, who alone survived him, and is the Burd-allane of the Consolation; III. Thomas, a youth of great hopes, who died in Italy. But he had four daughters married to gentlemen of fortune.-PINKERTON's List of Scottish Poets, p. 414.

Bot Burd-allane ye haive behind as he:
The lord his linage so inlarge in lyne,
And mony hundreith nepotis grie and grie 4
Sen Richert wes as hundreth yeiris are hyne."

An Consolator Ballad, to the Richt Honorabill
Sir Richert Maitland of Lethingtoune.—
Maitland MSS. in Library of Edinburgh
University.

Sir William Mautlant, or Maitland, the eldest and sole surviving son of Sir Richard, ratified and confirmed, to the monks of Dryburgh, “Omnes terras quas Dominus Ricardus de Mautlant pater suus fecit

dictis monachis in territorio suo de Thirlestane." Sir William is supposed to have died about 1315.-CRAWFORD's Peerage.

Such were the heroes of the ballad. The castle of Thirlestane is situated upon the Leader, near the town of Lauder. Whether the present building, which was erected by Chancellor Maitland, and improved by the Duke of Lauderdale, occupies the site of the ancient castle, I do not know; but it still merits the epithet of a "darksome house." I find no notice of the siege in history; but there is nothing improbable in supposing, that the castle, during the stormy period of the Baliol wars, may have held out against the English. The creation of a nephew of Edward I., for the pleasure of slaying him by the hand of young Maitland, is a poetical license; and may induce us to place the date of the composition about the reign of David II., or of his successor, when the real exploits of Maitland, and his sons, were in some degree obscured, as well as magnified, by the lapse of time. The inveterate hatred against the English, founded upon the usurpation of Edward I., glows in every line of the ballad.

Auld Maitland is placed, by Gawain Douglas, Bishop of Dunkeld, among the popular heroes of romance, in his allegorical Palice of Honour.

"I saw Raf Coilyear with his thrawin brow,
Crabit John the Reif, and auld Cowkilbeis Sow;
And how the wran cam out of Ailesay,
And Piers Plowman, that meid his workmen few :
Gret Gowmacmorne, and Fin Mac Cowl, and how
They suld be goddis in Ireland, as they say.
Thair saw I Maitland upon auld beird gray,
Robin Hude, and Gilbert with the quhite hand,
How Hay of Nauchton flew in Madin land."6

In this curious verse, the most noted romances, or popular histories of the poet's day, seem to be no

4 Grie and grie-In regular descent; from gre, French.

5 Such liberties with the genealogy of monarchs were common to romancers. Henry the Ministrel makes Wallace slay more than one of King Edward's nephews; and Johnie Armstrong claims the merit of slaying a sister's son of Henry VIII.

6 It is impossible to pass over this curious list of Scottish romances without a note; to do any justice to the subject would require an essay.-Raf Coilyear is said to have been printed by Lekprevick, in 1572; and of late recovered, has been reprinted by Mr. David Laing of Edinburgh. Though it is now known only in its Scotch dress, this piece appears to have been originally French..... John the Reif, as well as the former personage, is mentioned by Dunbar, in one of his poems, where he styles mean persons,

:

ticed. The preceding stanza describes the sports of the field and that which follows refers to the tricks of jugailrie; so that the three verses comprehend the whole pastimes of the middle ages, which are aptly represented as the furniture of Dame Venus's chamber. The verse, referring to Maitland, is obviously corrupted; the true reading was probably, "with his auld beird gray." Indeed, the whole verse is full of errors and corruptions; which is the greater pity, as it conveys information to be found nowhere else.

The descendant of Auld Maitland, Sir Richard of Lethington, seems to have been frequently complimented on the popular renown of his great ancestor. We have already seen one instance; and in an ele

It is a curious circumstance, that this interesting tale, so often referred to by ancient authors, should

of Sir Richard's seat of Lethington, which he had built, or greatly improved, this obvious topic of flattery does not escape the poet. From the terms of his panegyric we learn that the exploits of auld Sir Richard with the gray beard, and of his three sons, were "sung in many a far countrie, albeit in rural rhyme;" from which we may infer, that they were narrated rather in the shape of a popular ballad, than in a romance of price. If this be the case, the song now published may have undergone little variation since the date of the Maitland MSS.; for, divesting the poem, in praise of Lethington, of its antique spelling, it would run as smoothly, and appear as modern, as any verse in the following ballad. The lines alluded to are addressed to the castle of Lethington :

"And happie art thou sic a place,
That few thy maikare sene!
But yit mair happie far that race
To quhome thou dois pertene.

Quha dois not knaw the Maitland bluid,
The best in all this land?

In quhilk sumtyme the honour stuid] And worship of Scotland.

"Of auld Sir Richard, of that name, We have hard sing and say;

"Kyne of Rauf Colyard, and Johne the Reif."

They seem to have been both robbers; Lord Hailes conjectured John the Reif to be the same with Johnnie Armstrong; but, surely, not with his usual accuracy; for the Palice of Honour was printed twenty-eight years before Johnnie's execution. John the Reif is mentioned by Lindesay, in his tragedy of cardinal

Beaton:

-"disagysit, like John the Raif, he gied." Cowkilbeis Sow is a strange legend in the Bannatyne MSS.-See Complaynt of Scotland, p. 131........ How the wren came out of Ailsay. The wren, I know not why, is often celebrated in Scottish song. The testament of the wren is still sung by the children, beginning,

"The wren she lles in care's nest,

Wi' meikle dole and pyne."

This may be a modification of the ballad in the text...... Piers Plowman is well known. Under the uncouth names of Gow Mac Morn, and of Fyn Mac Cowl, the admirers of Ossian are to recognise Gaul, the son of Morni, and Fingal himself; heu, quantum mutatus ab illo ...... To illustrate the familiar character of Robin Hood, would be an insult to my readers. But they may be less acquainted with Gilbert with the White Hand, one of his brave

readers may be pleased to see the following sensible observations, made by a person born in Ettrick Forest, in the humble situation of a shepherd :—" I am surprised to hear that this song is suspected by some to be a modern forgery; the contrary will be best proved, by most of the old people, hereabouts, having a great part of it by heart. Many, indeed, are not aware of the manners of this country: till this present age, the poor illiterate people, in these glens, knew of no other entertainment, in the long winter nights, than repeating, and listening to, the feats of their ancestors, recorded in songs, which I believe to be handed down, from father to son, for many generations, although, no doubt, had a copy been taken, at the end of every fifty years, there must have been some difference, occasioned by the gradual change of language. I believe it is thus that many very ancient songs have been gradually modernized, to the common ear; while, to the connoisseur, they present marks of their genuine antiquity."-Letter to the Editor, from Mr. JAMES HOGG. [June 30, 1801.] To the observations of my ingenious correspondent I have nothing to add, but that, in this, and a thousand other instances, they accurately coincide with my personal knowledge.

followers. He is mentioned in the oldest legend of that outlaw; Ritson's Robin Hood, p. 52:

"Thryes Robin shot about,

And alway he slist the wand, And so dyde good Gylberle With the White Hand."

Hay of Nachton I take to be the knight, mentioned by Wyntown, whose feats of war and travel may have become the subject of a romance or ballad. He fought in Flanders, under Alexander, Earl of Mar, in 1408, and is thus described :

"Lord of the Nachtane, Schire William,
Ane hanest knycht, and of gud fame,
A travalit knycht laug before than."

And again, before an engagement,

"The Lord of Nachtane, Schire William,
The Hay, a knycht than of gud fame,
Mad Schire Gilbert, the Hay, knycht."
Cronykil, B. IX. c. 27.

I apprehend we should read, "How Hay of Nachton slew in Madin Land." Perhaps Madin is a corruption for Maylin Land, or Milan.