for many years; but when she was a girl, it used to be sung at merry-makings, " till the roof rung again." To preserve this curious, though rude rhyme, it is here inserted. The ludicrous turn given to the slaughter, marks that wild and disorderly state of society, in which a murder was not merely a casual circumstance, but in some cases, an exceedingly good jest. The structure of the ballad resembles the "Fray of Suport," having the same irregular stanza and wild chorus.

Hoot awa', lads, hoot awa',

I.

Ha' ye heard how the Ridleys, and Thirwalls, and a',
Ha' set upon Albany Featherstonhaugh,
And taken his life at the Deadmanshaugh:
There was Willimoteswick,

And Hardriding Dick,

And Hughie of Hawden, and Will of the Wa',
I canno' tell a', I canno' tell a',
And mony a mair that the de'il may knaw.

II.

The auld man went down, but Nicol, his son,
Ran away afore the fight was begun;

And he run, and he run,

And afore they were done,

There was many a Featherston gat sic a stun,

As never was seen since the world begun.

* See Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, Vol. I. p. 250: † Pronounced Awbony.

III.

I canna' tell a', I canna' tell a';

Some gat a skelp,* and some gat a claw;

But they gard the Featherstones haud their jaw,—†
Nicol, and Alick, and a'.

Some gat a hurt, and some gat nane,
Some had harness, and some gat sta'en.

IV.

Ane gat a twist o' the craig ;§
Ane gat a bunch|| o' the wame ;T
Symy Haw gat lamed of a leg,

And syne ran wallowing** hame.

V.

Hoot, hoot, the auld man's slain outright!

Lay him now wi' his face down: he's a sorrowful sight.
Janet, thou donot, t

I'll lay my best bonnet,

Thou gets a new gude-man afore it be night.

VI.

Hoo away, lads, hoo away,

Wi's a' be hangid if we stay.

Tak' up the dead man, and lay him anent the bigging;

* Skelp signifies slap, or rather is the same word which was originally spelled schlap.

† Hold their jaw, a vulgar expression still in use.

Got stolen, or were plundered; a very likely termination of the fray.

§ Neck.

|| Punch.

T Belly.

** Bellowing.

tt Silly slut. The Border Bard calls her so, because she was weeping for her slain husband; a loss which he seems to think might be soon repaired.

Here's the Bailey o' Haltwhistle,*

Wi' his great bull's pizzle,

That sup'd up the broo', and syne—in the piggin. †

In explanation of this ancient ditty, Mr. Surtees has furnished me with the following local memorandum: Willimoteswick, now more commonly called Ridley Hall, is situated at the confluence of the Allon and Tyne, and was the chief seat of the ancient family of Ridley. Hardriding Dick is not an epithet referring to horsemanship, but means Richard Ridley of Hardriding, the seat of another family of that name, which, in the time of Charles I., was sold on account of expenses incurred by the loyalty of the proprietor, the immediate ancestor of Sir Mathew Ridley. Will o' the Wa' seems to be William Ridley of Walltown, so called from its situation on the great Roman wall. Thirlwall Castle, whence the clan of Thirlwalls derived their name, is situated on the small river of Tippell, near the western boundary of Northumberland. It is near the wall, and takes its name from the rampart having been thirled, i. e. pierced, or breached, in its vicinity. Featherston Castle lies south of the Tyne, towards Alston-moor. Albany Featherstonhaugh, the chief of that ancient family, made a figure in the reign of Edward VI. A feud did certainly exist between the Ridleys and Featherstones, productive of such consequences as the ballad narrates. 24 Oct. 22do Henrici 8vi. Inquisitio capt. apud Huut-whistle, sup. visum corpus Alexandri Featherston, Gen. apud Grensilhaugh, felonice interfecti, 22 Oct. per Nicolaum Ridley de Unthanke, Gen. Hugon Ridle, Nicolaum Ridle, et alios ejusdem nominis. Nor were the Featherstones without their revenge; for 36to Henrici 8vi, we have-Utlagatin Nicolai Fetherston, us Thome Nyxson, gc. c. pro liomicidio Willmi. Ridle de Morale.

*The Bailiff of Haltwhistle seems to have arrived when the fray was over. This supporter of social order is treated with characteristic irreverence by the moss-trooping poet,

An iron-pot with two ears.

Note XIII.

James backed the cause of that mock prince,
Warbeck, that Flemish counterfeit,

Who on the gibbet paid the cheat.

Then did I march with Surrey's power,

What time we razed old Ayton tower.-P. 34.

The story of Perkin Warbeck, or Richard, Duke of York, is well known. In 1496, he was received honourably in Scotland: and James IV., after conferring upon him in marriage his own relation, the Lady Catharine Gordon, made war on England in behalf of his pretensions. To retaliate an invasion of England, Surrey advanced into Berwickshire at the head of considerable forces, but retreated after taking the inconsiderable fortress of Ayton. Ford, in his Dramatic Chronicle of Perkin Warbeck, makes the most of this inroad :

SURREY.

Are all our braving enemies shrunk back;
Hid in the fogges of their distempered climate,
Not daring to behold our colours wave
In spight of this infected ayre? Can they
Looke on the strength of Cundrestine defac't;
The glorie of Heydonhall devasted; that
Of Edington cast downe; the Pile of Fulden
Orethrowne; and this, the strongest of their forts,
Old Ayton Castle, yeelded, and demolished,
And yet not peepe abroad? The Scots are bold,
Hardie in battayle, but it seems the cause
They undertake considered, appears
Unfoynted in the frame on't.

Note XIV.

For here be some have pricked as far,

On Scottish ground, as to Dunbar ;

Have drunk the monks of St. Bothan's ale,
And driven the beeves of Lauderdale;

Harried the wives of Greenlaw's goods,

And given them light to set their hoods.-P. 35.

The garrisons of the English castles of Wark, Norhame, and Berwick, were, as may be easily supposed, very troublesome neighbours to Scotland. Sir Richard Maitland of Ledington wrote a poem, called "The Blind Baron's Comfort;" when his barony of Blythe, in Lauderdale, was haried by Rowland Foster, the English captain of Wark, with his company, to the number of 300 men. They spoiled the poetical knight of 5000 sheep, 200 nolt, 30 horses and mares; the whole furniture of his house of Blythe, worth 100 pounds Scots, (L. 8: 6: 8) and every thing else that was portable. "This spoil was committed the 16th day of May, 1570, (and the said Sir Richard was threescore and fourteen years of age, and grown blind,) in time of peace; when nane of that country lippened (expected) such a thing." "The Blind Baron's Comfort," consists in a string of puns on the word Blythe, the name of the lands thus despoiled. Like Sir John Littlewit, he had "a conceit left him in his misery, a miserable conceit."

The last line of the text contains a phrase, by which the borderers jocularly intimated the burning a house. When the Maxwells, in 1685, burned the castle of Lochwood, they said they did so to give the Lady Johnstone "light to set her hood." Nor was the phrase inapplicable; for, in a letter, to which I have mislaid the reference, the Earl of Northumberland writes to the king and council, that he dressed himself, at midnight, at Warwick, by the blaze of the neighbouring villages burned by the Scottish marauders