YOUNG WATERS.

FIRST published on an octavo sheet, by Lady Jean Home, about the middle of the last century, and from this copy reprinted in Percy's Reliques, (ii. 227.) Buchan has a version (i. 15) twenty-five stanzas longer than the present, which is given in our Appendix. This ballad has been supposed to refer to the fate of the Earl of Murray, (see post, The Bonny Earl of Murray.) The additional circumstances furnished by Buchan's copy, however, have led Chambers to suggest that the unfortunate hero was Walter Stuart, second son of the Duke of Albany. In support of his conjecture, he adduces "the name, which may be a corruption of Walter; the mention of the Heading (beheading) Hill of Stirling, which is known to have been the very scene of Walter Stuart's execution; the relationship which Young Waters claims with the king; and the sympathy expressed by the people, in the last verse, for the fate of the young knight, which exactly tallies with what is told us by the Scottish historians, regarding the popular feeling expressed in favour of

the numerous nobles and princes of his own blood, whom the king saw it necessary to sacrifice." We do not consider these coincidences sufficient to establish the historical character of the piece.

ABOUT Zule, quhen the wind blew cule,
And the round tables began,

A'! there is cum to our kings court
Mony a well-favourd man.

The queen

luikt owre the castle wa',

Beheld baith dale and down,
And then she saw zoung Waters
Cum riding to the town.

His footmen they did rin before,
His horsemen rade behind;
Ane mantel of the burning gowd
Did keip him frae the wind.

Gowden graith'd his horse before,

And siller shod behind;

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The horse zoung Waters rade upon

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Was fleeter than the wind.

But then spake a wylie lord,

Unto the queen said he :

"O tell me quha's the fairest face

Rides in the company?"

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"I've sene lord, and I've sene laird,
And knights of high degree,
Bot a fairer face than zoung Waters
Mine eyne did never see."

Out then spaek the jealous king
(And an angry man was he):
"O if he had been twice as fair,
Zou micht have excepted me."

"Zou're neither laird nor lord," she says, "Bot the king that wears the crown ; There is not a knight in fair Scotland,

Bot to thee maun bow down."

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For a' that she could do or say,

"Aft I have ridden thro' Stirling town,

In the wind bot and the weit;

Bot I neir rade thro' Stirling town

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"Aft have I ridden thro' Stirling town,
In the wind bot and the rain ;
Bot I neir rade thro' Stirling town
Neir to return again."

They hae taen to the heiding-hill
His zoung son in his craddle;

And they hae taen to the heiding-hill

His horse bot and his saddle.

They hae taen to the heiding-hill

His lady fair to see;

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And for the words the queen had spoke

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Zoung Waters he did dee.

BONNIE GEORGE CAMPBELL.

Motherwell's Minstrelsy, p. 44.

THIS, says Motherwell," is probably a lament for one of the adherents of the house of Argyle, who fell in the battle of Glenlivat, stricken on Thursday, the third day of October, 1594 years." It is printed, somewhat differently, in Smith's Scottish Minstrel, v. 42. Finlay gives eight lines of this ballad in the Preface to his first volume, p. xxxiii.

HIE upon Hielands,
And low upon Tay,
Bonnie George Campbell

Rade out on a day.
Saddled and bridled

And gallant rade he;

Hame cam his gude horse,
But never cam he!

Out cam his auld mither

Greeting fu' sair,

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