army of ten thousand men, through Ettrick Forest and Ewsdale. The evil genius of our Johnie Armstrong, or, as others say, the private advice of some courtiers, prompted him to present himself before James, at the head of thirty-six horse, arrayed in all the pomp of Border chivalry. Pitscottie uses nearly the words of the ballad, in describing the splendour of his equipment, and his high expectations of favour from the King. "But James, looking upon him sternly, said to his attendants, 'What wants that knave that a king should have?' and ordered him and his followers to instant execution."-"But John Armstrong," continues this minute historian, “made great offers to the King. That he should sustain himself, with forty gentlemen, ever ready at his service, on their own cost, without wronging any Scottishman Secondly, that there was not a subject in England, duke, earl, or baron, but, within a certain day, he should bring him to his majesty, either quick or dead. At length, he seeing no hope of favour, said very proudly, 'It is folly to seek grace at a graceless face; but,' said he, 'had I known this, I should have lived upon the Borders in despite of King Harry and you both; for I know King Harry would down weigh my best horse with gold, to know that I were condemned to die this day."-PITSCOTTIE'S History, p. 145. Johnie and all his retinue were accordingly hanged upon growing trees, at a place called Carlenrig Chapel, about ten miles above Hawick, on the high road to Langholm. The country people believe, that, to manifest the injustice of the execution, the trees withered away. Armstrong and his followers were buried in a deserted churchyard, where their graves are still shown.

in his way, he is frequently alluded to by the writers
of the time. Sir David Lindsay of the Mount, in the
curious play published by Mr. Pinkerton, from the
Bannatyne MS., introduces a pardouer, or knavish
dealer in relics, who produces, among his rarities-
--The cordis, baith grit and lang,
Quhilk hangit Johnie Armistrang,

Of gude hempt, soft and sound.
Gude haly pepil, I stand ford,
Wha'evir beis hangit in this cord,

Neidis never to be drowned!"
PINKERTON'S Scottish Poems, vol. ii. p. 69.

In The Complaynt of Scotland, John Armistrangis' dance, mentioned as a popular tune, has probably some reference to our hero.

The common people of the high parts of Teviotdale, Liddesdale, and the country adjacent, hold the memory of Johnie Armstrong in very high respect. They affirm also, that one of his attendants broke through the King's guard, and carried to Gilnockie Tower the news of the bloody catastrophe.

This song was first published by Allan Ramsay, in his Evergreen, who says, he copied it from the mouth of a gentleman, called Armstrong, who was in the sixth generation from this John. The reciter assured him, that this was the genuine old ballad, the common one false. By the common one, Ramsay means an English ballad upon the same subject, but differing in various particulars, which is published in Mr. Ritson's English Songs, vol. ii. It is fortunate for the admirers of the old ballad, that it did not fall into Ramsay's hands when he was equipping with new sets of words the old Scottish tunes in his Tea-Table Miscellany. Since his time it has been often re

The Borderers, from their habits of life, were capable of most extraordinary exploits of this nature. In the year 1511, Sir Robert Ker of Cessford, Warden of the Middle Marches of Scotland, was murdered at a Border meeting, by the bastard Heron, Starhead, and Lilburn. The English monarch delivered up Lilburn to justice in Scotland, but Heron and Starhead escaped. The latter chose his residence in the very centre of England, to baffle the vengeance of Ker's clan and followers. Two dependents of the deceased, called Tait, were deputed by Andrew Ker of Cessford to

revenge his father's murder. They travelled through England in various disguises, till they discovered the place of Starhead's retreat, murdered him in his bed, and brought his head in triumph to Edinburgh, where Ker caused it to be exposed at the Cross. The bastard Heron would have shared the same fate, had he not spread abroad a report of his having died of the plague, and caused his funeral obsequies to be performed.-RIDPATH'S History, p. 481.— See also Metrical Account of the Battle of Flodden, published by the Rev. Mr. LAMBE.

When Johnie cam before the King,

Wi' a' his men sae brave to see, The King he movit his bonnet to him; He ween'd he was a King as weel as he. "May I find grace, my sovereign liege, Grace for my loyal men and me? For my name it is Johnie Armstrang, And a subject of yours, my liege," said he. "Away, away, thou traitor strang!

Out o' my sight soon mayst thou be!
I grantit never a traitor's life,

And now I'll not begin wi' thee."—
"Grant me my life, my liege, my King!
And a bonny gift I'll gie to thee-
Full four-and-twenty milk-white steids,
Were a' foal'd in ae yeir to me.
"I'll gie thee a' these milk-white steids,
That prance and nicker at a speir;
And as mickle gude Inglish gilt,'

As four o' their braid backs dow3 bear."—

66 Away, away, thou traitor strang!

Out o' my sight soon mayst thou be!
I grantit never a traitor's life,

And now I'll not begin wi' thee!"-
"Grant me my life, my liege, my King!
And a bonny gift I'll gie to thee—
Gude four-and-twenty ganging' mills,
That gang thro' a' the yeir to me.
"These four-and-twenty mills complete
Sall gang for thee thro' a' the yeir;
And as mickle of gude reid wheit,

As a' thair happers dow to bear."
"Away, away, thou traitor strang!
Out o' my sight soon mayst thou be!
I grantit never a traitor's life,

And now I'll not begin wi' thee.'
"Grant me my life, my liege, my King!
And a great great gift I'll gie to thee-
Bauld four-and-twenty sisters' sons,

Sall for thee fecht, tho' a' should flee !"

"Away, away, thou traitor strang! Out o' my sight soon mayst thou be!

I grantit never a traitor's life,

And now I'll not begin wi' thee.""Grant me my life, my liege, my King! And a brave gift I'll gie to thee

Nicker-Neigh.

Gill-Gold.-3 Dow-Are able to.-4 Ganging-Going.

5 ["If this collection had no other merit than that of preserving the memorials of manners that can never return, it would be entitled to considerable praise. Subsisting by rapine, which they accounted lawful and honourable, they blotted honesty out of the list of their virtues, at the same time that they were trained, by their perilous expeditions, to a high degree of enterprising courage, activity, and finesse. The insecurity of their possessions made them free and hospitable in their expenditure; and the common danger bound the several clans together by assurances of inviolable

All between heir and Newcastle town Sall pay their yeirly rent to thee.""Away, away, thou traitor strang!

Out o' my sight soon mayst thou be! I grantit never a traitor's life,

And now I'll not begin wi' thee.”— "Ye lied, ye lied, now, King," he says, "Altho' a King and Prince ye be! For I've luved naething in my life,

I weel dare say it, but honesty"Save a fut horse, and a fair woman, Twa bonny dogs to kill a deir;

But England suld have found me meal and mault,
Gif I had lived this hundred yeir! 5

"She suld have found me meal and mault,,
And beef and mutton in a' plentie;
But never a Scots wyfe could have said,
That e'er I skath'd her a puir flee.
"To seik het water beneith cauld ice,

Surely it is a greit folie

I have asked grace at a graceless face,

But there is nane for my men and me!" "But had I kenn'd ere I cam frae hame, How thou unkind wadst been to me!

I wad have keepit the Border side,
In spite of all thy force and thee.
"Wist England's King that I was ta'en,
O gin a blythe man he wad he!
For anes I slew his sister's son,

And on his breist bane brak a trie."-
John wore a girdle about his middle,
Imbroider'd ower wi' burning gold,
Bespangled wi' the same metal,

Maist beautiful was to behold.

There hang nine targats 7 at Johnie's hat,
And ilk ane worth three hundred pound-
"What wants that knave that a King suld have,
But the sword of honour and the crown?

fidelity, and even softened their mutual hostility, by the tacit introduction of certain laws of honour and of war. In these traits,

we seem to be reading the description of a Tartarian or Arabic tribe, and can scarcely persuade ourselves that this country contained, within these two centuries, so exact a prototype of the Bedouin character."-Edinburgh Review (Sir John Stoddart) for February 1803.]

6 [This and the three preceding stanzas were among those that Sir Walter Scott most delighted to quote.-ED.] 7 Targals-Tassels.

8 Brink sae brawlie-Glance so bravely.

1

"God be with thee, Kirsty, my brother,
Lang live thou Laird of Mangertoun!
Lang mayst thou live on the Border syde,
Ere thou see thy brother ride up and down!
“And God be with thee, Kirsty, my son,
Where thou sits on thy nurse's knee!
But an thou live this hundred yeir,

Thy father's better thou❜lt never be.
"Farewell! my bonny Gilnock hall,
Where on Esk side thou standest stout!
Gif I had lived but seven yeirs mair,
I wad hae gilt thee round about."
John murder'd was at Carlinrigg,

And all his gallant companie;

But Scotland's heart was ne'er sae wae,
To see sae mony brave men die-
Because they saved their country deir
Frae Englishmen ! Nane were so bauld,
Whyle Johnie lived on the Border syde,
Nane of them durst cum neir his bauld.

SUPPLEMENT

TO THE

BALLAD OF JOHNIE ARMSTRANG.

The Editor believes his readers will not be displeased to see a Bond of Manrent, granted by this Border freebooter to the Scottish Warden of the West Marches, in return for the gift of a fendal casualty of certain lands particularized. It is extracted from Syme's Collections of Old Writings, MS., penes Dr. Robert Anderson, of Edinburgh.

BOND OF MANRENT.

Be it kend till all men, be thir present letters, me, Johne Armistrang, for to be bound and oblist, and be the tenor of thir present letters, and faith and trewth in my body, lelie and trewlie, bindis and oblissis me and myn airis, to ane nobil and michtie lord. Robert Lord Maxwell, Wardane of the West Marches of Scotland, that, forasmikle as my said lord has given and grantit to me, and mine airs perpetuallie, the non-entries of all and haill the landis underwritten, that is to say, the landis of Dalbetht, Shield, Dalblane, Stapil-Gortown, Langholme, and ******, with their pertindis, lyand in the lordship of Eskdale, as his gift maid to me, thereupon beris in the self: and that for all the tyme of the nonentres of the samyn. Theirfor, I, the said Johnne Armistrang, bindis and oblissis me and myne airis, in manrent and service to the said Robert Lord Maxwell and his airis, for evermair, first and before all uthirs, myne allegiance to cur soverane lord the King, allanerly except; and to be trewe, gude, and lele servant to my said lord, and be ready to do him service, baith in pece and weir, with all my kyn, friends, and servantes, that I may and dowe to raise, and beand to my said lord's airis for evermair. And sall tak his true and plane part in all maner of actions at myn outer power, and sall nouther wit, hear, nor se my said lordis skaith, lak, nor dishonestie, but we sall stop and lett the samyn, and geif we dowe not lett the samyn, we sall warn him thereof in all possible haist; and heif it happenis me, the said Johne Armistrang, or myne airis, to fail in our said service and manrent, any manner of way, to our said lord, (as God forbid we do,) than, and in that caiss, the gift and nonentres maid be him to us, of the said landis of Dalbetht, Schield, Dalblane, Stapil-Gortown, Langholme, and ******, with the pertinentis, to be of no avale, force, nor effect; but the said

lord and his airis to have free regress and ingress to the nonentres of the samyn, but ony pley or impediment. To the keeping and fulfilling of all and sundry the premisses, in form above writtin, I bind and obliss me and my airis foresaids, to the said lord and his airis for evermare, be the faithis treuthis in our bodies, but fraud or gile. In witness of the whilk thing, to thir letters of manrent subscrievit, with my hand at the pen, my sele is hangin, at Dumfries, the secund day of November, the yeir of God, MD. and XXV. yeiris. JOHNE ARMISTRANG, with my hand at the pen.

The lands, here mentioned, were the possessions of Armstrong himself, the investitures of which not having been regularly renewed, the feudal casualty of non-entry had been incurred by the vassal. The brother of Johne Armstrong is said to have founded, or rather repaired, Langholm castle, before which, as mentioned in the ballad, verse 5th, they "ran their horse," and "brak their spears," in the exercise of Border chivalry.—Account of the Parish of Langholm, apud Macfarlane's MSS. The lands of Lang. holm and Staplegorton continued in Armstrong's family; for there is in the same MS. collection a similar bond of manrent, granted by "Cristofer Armstrang, calit Johne's Pope," on 24th January, 1557. to Lord J hne Lord Maxwell, and to Sir Johne Maxwell of Terreglis, Knight, his tutor and governor, in return for the gift "of the males of all and haill the landis whilk are conteint in ane bond made by umquhile Johne Armistrang, my father, to unquhile Robert, Lord Maxwell, gudshore to the said Johne, now Lord Maxwell." It would therefore appear, that the bond of manrent, granted by John Armstrong, had been the price of his release from the feudal penalty arising from his having neglected to procure a regular investiture from his superior. As Johne only touched the pen, it appears that he could not write.

Christopher Armstrong, above mentioned, is the person alluded to in the conclusion of the ballad-“God be with thee, Kirsty, my son." He was the father, or grandfather, of William Armstrong, called Christie's Will, a renowned freebooter, some of whose exploits the reader will find recorded in another part of this work.

Mr. Ellis of Otterbourne has kindly pointed out the following instance of the ferocity of the Armstrongs, which occurs in the confession of one John Weir, a prisoner in the tolbooth of Edinburgh, under sentence of death, in 1700: "In May, 1700, John Weire went to Grandee Knows, (near Haltwhistle, in Northumberland,) to the mother of the four brethren the Armstrongs, which Armstrongs, and the aforesaid Burley, did cut the tongue and ear out of William Turner, for informing that they were bad persons, which Turner wrote with his blood that they had used him so."-Weire also mentions one Thomas Armstrong, called Luck i' the Bagg, who lived in Cumberland. The extent of their depredations in horse-stealing seems to have been astonishing.

LORD EWRIE.

Sir Ralph Evre, or Ewrie, or Evers, commemorated in the following lines, was one of the bravest men of a military race. He was son of the first, and father of the second Lord Ewrie; and was himself created a Lord of Parliament during his father's lifetime, in the 35th year of Henry VIII. The ballad is apparently a strain of gratulation upon that event. The poet, or more probably the reciter, has made some confusion in the lineage, by declaring that his hero was "married upon a Willoughbé." His mother, however, was of that family, and he was "kin to the Nevil and to the Percy." He was ennobled by Henry, on account of the vigour with which he

Lord Ewrie was as brave a man

As ever stood in his degree;
The King has sent him a broad letter,
All for his courage and loyalty.3

Lord Ewrie is of gentill blode,

A knighte's son sooth to say;

He is kin to the Nevill and to the Percy,
And is married upon a Willowbé.

A noble Knight him trained upp,

Sir Rafe Bulmer is the man I mean; 4

At Flodden field, as men do say,

No better capten there was seen.

He led the men of Bishopricke,

When Thomas Ruthal bore the sway:
Though the Scottish Habs' were stout and true,
The English bowmen wan that day.

And since he has kepte Berwick upon Tweed,
The town was never better kept I wot;
He maintained leal and order along the Border,
And still was ready to prick the Scot.

The country then lay in great peace,

And grain and grass was sown and won; Then plenty fill'd the market crosse,

When Lord Ewrie kept Berwick town.

With our Queene's brother he hath been,"
And rode rough shod through Scotland of late;
They have burn'd the Mers and Tiviotdale,

And knocked full loud at Edinburgh gate.
Now the King hath sent him a broad letter,
A Lord of Parliament to be:
It were well if every nobleman

Stood like Lord Ewrie in his degree.

THE LOCHMABEN HARPER.

NOW FIRST PUBLISHED. [1802.]

The Castle of Lochmaben was formerly a noble building, situated upon a peninsula, projecting into one of the four lakes which are in the neighbourhood of the royal burgh, and is said to have been the residence of Robert Bruce, while Lord of Annandale. Accordingly it was always held to be a royal fortress, the keeping of which, according to the custom of the times, was granted to some powerful lord, with an allotment of lands and fishings, for the defence and maintenance of the place. There is extant a grant, dated 16th March, 1511, to Robert Lauder of the Bass, of the office of Captain and keeper of Lochmaben Castle, for seven years, with many perquisites. Among others, the "lands stolen frae the King," are bestowed on the Captain, as his proper lands. What shall we say of a country, where the very ground was a subject of theft?

O heard ye na o' the silly blind Harper,

How long he lived in Lochmaben town? And how he wad gang to fair England, To steal the Lord Warden's Wanton Brown? But first he gaed to his gude wyfe,

Wi' a' the haste that he could thole-7
"This wark," quo' he, "will ne'er gae weel,
Without a mare that has a foal."-

Quo' she-"Thou hast a gude gray mare,
That can baith lance o'er laigh and hie;
Sae set thee on the gray mare's back,
And leave the foal at hame wi' me."-

So he is up to England gane,

And even as fast as he may drie; $ And when he cam to Carlisle gate,

8

O whae was there but the Warden hie? "Come into my hall, thou silly blind Harper, And of thy harping let me hear!""O, by my sooth," quo' the silly blind Harper, "I wad rather hae stabling for my mare.". The Warden look'd ower his left shoulder, And said unto his stable groom— "Gae take the silly blind Harper's mare,

And tie her beside my Wanton Brown." Then aye he harped, and aye he carped,9 Till a' the lordlings footed the floor;