MINSTRELSY
OF THE
SCOTTISH BORDER:


CONSISTING OF
HISTORICAL AND ROMANTIC BALLADS,
COLLECTED
IN THE SOUTHERN COUNTIES OF SCOTLAND; WITH A FEW
OF MODERN DATE, FOUNDED UPON
LOCAL TRADITION.


IN THREE VOLUMES.


VOL. II.


 The songs, to savage virtue dear.
 That won of yore the public ear,
 Ere Polity, sedate and sage,
 Had quench'd the fires of feudal rage.--WARTON.


THIRD EDITION.

1806.



CONTENTS
TO
THE SECOND VOLUME.


LESLEY'S MARCH
The Battle of Philiphaugh
The Gallant Grahams
The Battle of Pentland Hills
The Battle of Loudonhill
The Battle of Bothwell-bridge



PART SECOND.

_ROMANTIC BALLADS._


Scottish Music, an Ode
Introduction to the Tale of Tamlane
The Young Tamlane
Erlinton
The Twa Corbies
The Douglas Tragedy
Young Benjie
Lady Anne
Lord William
The Broomfield-Hill
Proud Lady Margaret
The Original Ballad of the Broom of Cowdenknows
Lord Randal
Sir Hugh Le Blond
Graeme and Bewick
The Duel of Wharton and Stuart, Part I.
    Part II.
The Lament of the Border Widow
Fair Helen of Kirkonnel, Part I.
    Part II.
Hughie the Graeme
Johnie of Breadislee
Katherine Janfarie
The Laird o' Logie
A Lyke-wake Dirge
The Dowie Dens of Yarrow
The Gay Goss Hawk
Brown Adam
Jellon Grame
Willie's Ladye
Clerk Saunders
Earl Richard
The Lass of Lochroyan
Rose the Red and White Lilly



MINSTRELSY
OF THE
SCOTTISH BORDER.


PART FIRST.--CONTINUED.

_HISTORICAL BALLADS._




LESLY'S MARCH.


  "But, O my country! how shall memory trace
  "Thy glories, lost in either Charles's days,
  "When through thy fields destructive rapine spread,
  "Nor sparing infants' tears, nor hoary head!
  "In those dread days, the unprotected swain
  "Mourn'd, in the mountains, o'er his wasted plain;
  "Nor longer vocal, with the shepherd's lay,
  "Were Yarrow's banks, or groves of Endermay."
      LANGHORN--_Genius and Valour_.


Such are the verses, in which a modern bard has painted the desolate
state of Scotland, during a period highly unfavourable to poetical
composition. Yet the civil and religious wars of the seventeenth century
have afforded some subjects for traditionary poetry, and the reader is
here presented with the ballads of that disastrous aera. Some prefatory
history may not be unacceptable.

That the Reformation was a good and a glorious work, few will be such
slavish bigots as to deny. But the enemy came, by night, and sowed tares
among the wheat; or rather; the foul and rank soil, upon which the seed
was thrown, pushed forth, together with the rising crop, a plentiful
proportion of pestilential weeds. The morals of the reformed clergy were
severe; their learning was usually respectable, sometimes profound;
and their eloquence, though often coarse, was vehement, animated, and
popular. But they never could forget, that their rise had been achieved
by the degradation, if not the fall, of the crown; and hence, a body of
men, who, in most countries, have been attached to monarchy, were in
Scotland, for nearly two centuries, sometimes the avowed enemies, always
the ambitious rivals, of their prince. The disciples of Calvin could
scarcely avoid a tendency to democracy, and the republican form of
church government was sometimes hinted at, as no unfit model for the
state; at least, the kirkmen laboured to impress, upon their followers
and hearers, the fundamental principle, that the church should be solely
governed by those, unto whom God had given the spiritual sceptre. The
elder Melvine, in a conference with James VI., seized the monarch by the
sleeve, and, addressing him as _God's sillie vassal_, told him, "There
are two kings, and two kingdomes. There is Christ, and his kingdome, the
kirke; whose subject King James the sixth is, and of whose kingdome he
is not a king, nor a head, nor a lord, but a member; and they, whom
Christ hath called and commanded to watch ower his kirke, and govern his
spiritual kingdome, have sufficient authorise and power from him so to
do; which no christian king, no prince, should controul or discharge,
but fortifie and assist: otherwise they are not faithful subjects to
Christ."--_Calderwood_, p. 329. The delegated theocracy, thus sternly
claimed, was exercised with equal rigour. The offences in the king's
household fell under their unceremonious jurisdiction, and he was
formally reminded of his occasional neglect to say grace before and
after meat--his repairing to hear the word more rarely than was
fitting--his profane banning and swearing, and keeping of evil
company--and finally, of his queen's carding, dancing, night-walking,
and such like profane pastimes.--_Calderwood_, p. 313. A curse, direct
or implied, was formally denounced against every man, horse, and spear,
who should assist the king in his quarrel with the Earl of Gowrie; and
from the pulpit, the favourites of the listening sovereign were likened
to Haman, his wife to Herodias, and he himself to Ahab, to Herod, and
to Jeroboam. These effusions of zeal could not be very agreeable to the
temper of James: and accordingly, by a course of slow, and often crooked
and cunning policy, he laboured to arrange the church-government upon
a less turbulent and menacing footing. His eyes were naturally turned
towards the English hierarchy, which had been modelled, by the despotic
Henry VIII., into such a form, as to connect indissolubly the interest
of the church with that of the regal power.[A] The Reformation, in
England, had originated in the arbitrary will of the prince; in
Scotland, and in all other countries of Europe, it had commenced among
insurgents of the lower ranks. Hence, the deep and essential
difference which separated the Huguenots, the Lutherans, the Scottish
presbyterians, and, in fine, all the other reformed churches, from that
of England. But James, with a timidity which sometimes supplies the
place of prudence, contented himself with gradually imposing upon the
Scottish nation a limited and moderate system of episcopacy, which,
while it gave to a proportion of the churchmen a seat in the council of
the nation, induced them to look up to the sovereign, as the power to
whose influence they owed their elevation. But, in other respects, James
spared the prejudices of his subjects; no ceremonial ritual was imposed
upon their consciences; the pastors were reconciled by the prospect of
preferment,[B] the dress and train of the bishops were plain and decent;
the system of tythes was placed upon a moderate and unoppressive
footing;[C] and, perhaps, on the whole, the Scottish hierarchy contained
as few objectionable points as any system of church-government in
Europe. Had it subsisted to the present day, although its doctrines
could not have been more pure, nor its morals more exemplary, than those
of the present kirk of Scotland, yet its degrees of promotion might have
afforded greater encouragement to learning, and objects of laudable
ambition to those, who might dedicate themselves to its service. But
the precipitate bigotry of the unfortunate Charles I. was a blow to
episcopacy in Scotland, from which it never perfectly recovered.

[Footnote A: Of this the Covenanters were so sensible, as to trace
(what they called) the Antichristian hierarchy, with its idolatry,
superstition, and human inventions, "to the prelacy of England, the
fountain whence all these Babylonish streams issue unto us."--See their
manifesto on entering England, in 1640.]

[Footnote B: Many of the preachers, who had been loudest in the cause of
presbytery, were induced to accept of bishoprics. Such was, for example,
William Cooper, who was created bishop of Galloway. This recreant Mass
John was a hypochondriac, and conceived his lower extremities to be
composed of glass; hence, on his court advancement, the following
epigram was composed:

    _"Aureus heu! frugilem confregit malleus urnam."_]

[Footnote C: This part of the system was perfected in the reign of
Charles I.]

It has frequently happened, that the virtues of the individual, at least
their excess (if, indeed, there can be an excess in virtue), have been
fatal to the prince. Never was this more fully exemplified than in the
history of Charles I. His zeal for religion, his family affection, the
spirit with which he defended his supposed rights, while they do honour
to the man, were the fatal shelves upon which the monarchy was wrecked.
Impatient to accomplish the total revolution, which his father's
cautious timidity had left incomplete, Charles endeavoured at once to
introduce into Scotland the church-government, and to renew, in England,
the temporal domination, of his predecessor, Henry VIII. The furious
temper of the Scottish nation first took fire; and the brandished
footstool of a prostitute[A] gave the signal for civil dissension,
which ceased not till the church was buried under the ruins of the
constitution; till the nation had stooped to a military despotism; and
the monarch to the block of the executioner.

[Footnote A: "_Out, false loon! wilt thou say the mass at my lug
(ear)_," was the well known exclamation of Margaret Geddes, as she
discharged her missile tripod against the bishop of Edinburgh, who,
in obedience to the orders of the privy-council, was endeavouring to
rehearse the common prayer. Upon a seat more elevated, the said Margaret
had shortly before done penance, before the congregation, for the sin of
fornication: such, at least, is the tory tradition.]

The consequence of Charles' hasty and arbitrary measures were soon
evident. The united nobility, gentry, and clergy of Scotland, entered
into the SOLEMN LEAGUE AND COVENANT, by which memorable deed, they
subscribed and swore a national renunciation of the hierarchy. The walls
of the prelatic Jericho (to use the language of the times) were thus
levelled with the ground, and the curse of Hiel, the Bethelite,
denounced against those who should rebuild them. While the clergy
thundered, from the pulpits, against the prelatists and malignants (by
which names were distinguished the scattered and heartless adherents of
Charles), the nobility and gentry, in arms, hurried to oppose the march
of the English army, which now advanced towards their borders. At the
head of their defensive forces they placed Alexander Lesley, who, with
many of his best officers, had been trained to war under the great
Gustavus Adolphus. They soon assembled an army of 26,000 men, whose
camp, upon Dunse-law, is thus described by an eye-witness.

"Mr Baillie acknowledges, that it was an agreeable feast to his eyes,
to survey the place: it is a round hill, about a Scots mile in circle,
rising, with very little declivity, to the height of a bow-shot, and the
head somewhat plain, and near a quarter of a mile in length and breadth;
on the top it was garnished with near forty field pieces, pointed
towards the east and south. The colonels, who were mostly noblemen, as
Rothes, Cassilis, Eglinton, Dalhousie, Lindsay, Lowdon, Boyd, Sinclair,
Balcarras, Flemyng, Kirkcudbright, Erskine, Montgomery, Yester, &c.
lay in large tents at the head of their respective regiments; their
captains, who generally were barons, or chief gentlemen, lay around
them: next to these were the lieutenants, who were generally old
veterans, and had served in that, or a higher station, over sea; and the
common soldiers lay outmost, all in huts of timber, covered with divot,
or straw. Every company, which, according to the first plan, did consist
of two hundred men, had their colours flying at the captain's tent door,
with the Scots arms upon them, and this motto, in golden letters, "FOR
CHRIST'S CROWN AND COVENANT." Against this army, so well arrayed and
disciplined, and whose natural hardihood was edged and exalted by a high
opinion of their sacred cause, Charles marched at the head of a large
force, but divided, by the emulation of the commanders, and enervated,
by disuse of arms. A faintness of spirit pervaded the royal army, and
the king stooped to a treaty with his Scottish subjects. The treaty was
soon broken; and, in the following year, Dunse-law again presented the
same edifying spectacle of a presbyterian army. But the Scots were not
contented with remaining there. They passed the Tweed; and the English
troops, in a skirmish at Newburn, shewed either more disaffection,
or cowardice, than had at any former period disgraced their national
character. This war was concluded by the treaty of Rippon; in
consequence of which, and of Charles's concessions, made during his
subsequent visit to his native country, the Scottish parliament
congratulated him on departing "a contented king, from a contented
people." If such content ever existed, it was of short duration.

The storm, which had been soothed to temporary rest in Scotland, burst
forth in England with treble violence. The popular clamour accused
Charles, or his ministers, of fetching into Britain the religion of
Rome, and the policy of Constantinople. The Scots felt most keenly the
first, and the English the second, of these aggressions. Accordingly,
when the civil war of England broke forth, the Scots nation, for a time,
regarded it in neutrality, though not with indifference. But, when the
successes of a prelatic monarch, against a presbyterian parliament, were
paving the way for rebuilding the system of hierarchy, they could no
longer remain inactive. Bribed by the delusive promise of Sir Henry
Vane, and Marshall, the parliamentary commissioners, that the church of
England should be reformed, _according to the word of God_, which, they
fondly believed, amounted to an adoption of presbytery, they agreed to
send succours to their brethren of England. Alexander Lesly, who ought
to have ranked among the _contented_ subjects, having been raised by the
king to the honours of Earl of Leven, was, nevertheless, readily induced
to accept the command of this second army. Doubtless, where insurrection
is not only pardoned, but rewarded, a monarch has little right to expect
gratitude for benefits, which all the world, as well as the receiver,
must attribute to fear. Yet something is due to decency; and the best
apology for Lesly, is his zeal for propagating presbyterianism in
England, the bait which had caught the whole parliament of Scotland.
But, although the Earl of Leven was commander in chief, David Lesly, a
yet more renowned and active soldier than himself, was major-general of
the cavalry, and, in truth, bore away the laurels of the expedition.

The words of the following march, which was played in the van of this
presbyterian crusade, were first published by Allan Ramsay, in his
_Evergreen_; and they breathe the very spirit we might expect. Mr
Ritson, in his collection of Scottish songs, has favoured the public
with the music, which seems to have been adapted to the bagpipes.

The hatred of the old presbyterians to the organ was, apparently,
invincible. It is here vilified with the name of a "_chest-full of
whistles_," as the episcopal chapel at Glasgow was, by the vulgar,
opprobriously termed the _Whistling Kirk_. Yet, such is the revolution
of sentiment upon this, as upon more important points, that reports have
lately been current, of a plan to introduce this noble instrument into
presbyterian congregations.

The share, which Lesly's army bore in the action of Marston Moor, has
been exalted, or depressed, as writers were attached to the English or
Scottish nations, to the presbyterian or independent factions. Mr Laing
concludes, with laudable impartiality, that the victory was equally due
to "Cromwell's iron brigade of disciplined independents, and to three
regiments of Lesly's horse."--Vol I. p. 244.



LESLEY'S MARCH.


  March! march!
  Why the devil do ye na march?
  Stand to your arms, my lads,
  Fight in good order;
  Front about, ye musketeers all,
  Till ye come to the English border:
    Stand til't, and fight like men,
    True gospel to maintain.
  The parliament's blythe to see us a' coming.
    When to the kirk we come,
    We'll purge it ilka room,
  Frae popish reliques, and a' sic innovation,
    That a' the warld may see,
    There's nane in the right but we,
  Of the auld Scottish nation.
  _Jenny_ shall wear the hood,
  _Jocky_ the sark of God;
  And the kist-fou of whistles,
  That mak sic a cleiro,
    Our piper's braw
    Shall hae them a',
    Whate'er come on it:
    Busk up your plaids, my lads!
    Cock up your bonnets!
          _Da Capo._



THE BATTLE OF PHILIPHAUGH.


This ballad is so immediately connected with the former, that the editor
is enabled to continue his sketch of historical transactions, from the
march of Lesly.

In the insurrection of 1680, all Scotland, south from the Grampians, was
actively and zealously engaged. But, after the treaty of Rippon, the
first fury of the revolutionary torrent may be said to have foamed off
its force, and many of the nobility began to look round, with horror,
upon the rocks and shelves amongst which it had hurried them. Numbers
regarded the defence of Scotland as a just and necessary warfare, who
did not see the same reason for interfering in the affairs of England.
The visit of King Charles to the metropolis of his fathers, in all
probability, produced its effect on his nobles. Some were allied to
the house of Stuart by blood; all regarded it as the source of their
honours, and venerated the ancient in obtaining the private objects of
ambition, or selfish policy which had induced them to rise up against
the crown. Amongst these late penitents, the well known marquis of
Montrose was distinguished, as the first who endeavoured to recede from
the paths of rude rebellion. Moved by the enthusiasm of patriotism, or
perhaps of religion, but yet more by ambition, the sin of noble
minds, Montrose had engaged, eagerly and deeply, upon the side of the
covenanters He had been active in pressing the town of Aberdeen to take
the covenant, and his success against the Gordons, at the bridge of Dee,
left that royal burgh no other means of safety from pillage. At the head
of his own battalion, he waded through the Tweed, in 1640, and totally
routed the vanguard of the king's cavalry. But, in 1643, moved with
resentment against the covenanters who preferred, to his prompt and
ardent character, the caution of the wily and politic earl of Argyle, or
seeing, perhaps, that the final views of that party were inconsistent
with the interests of monarchy, and of the constitution, Montrose
espoused the falling cause of royalty and raised the Highland clans,
whom he united to a small body of Irish, commanded by Alexander
Macdonald, still renowned in the north, under the title of Colkitto.
With these tumultuary and uncertain forces, he rushed forth, like a
torrent from the mountains, and commenced a rapid and brilliant career
of victory. At Tippermoor, where he first met the covenanters, their
defeat was so effectual, as to appal the presbyterian courage, even
after the lapse of eighty years.[A] A second army was defeated under the
walls of Aberdeen; and the pillage of the ill-fated town was doomed to
expiate the principles, which Montrose himself had formerly imposed upon
them. Argyleshire next experienced his arms; the domains of his rival
were treated with more than military severity; and Argyle himself,
advancing to Inverlochy for the defence of his country, was totally
and disgracefully routed by Montrose. Pressed betwixt two armies,
well appointed, and commanded by the most experienced generals of the
Covenant, Mozitrose displayed more military skill in the astonishingly
rapid marches, by which he avoided fighting to disadvantage, than even
in the field of victory. By one of those hurried marches, from the banks
of Loch Katrine to the heart of Inverness-shire, he was enabled to
attack, and totally to defeat, the Covenanters, at Aulderne though he
brought into the field hardly one half of their forces. Baillie, a
veteran officer, was next routed by him, at the village of Alford,
in Strathbogie. Encouraged by these repeated and splendid successes,
Montrose now descended into the heart of Scotland, and fought a bloody
and decisive battle, near Kilsyth, where four thousand covenanters fell
under the Highland claymore.

[Footnote A: Upon the breaking out of the insurrection, in the year
1715, the earl of Rothes, sheriff and lord-lieutenant of the county of
Fife, issued out an order for "all the fencible men of the countie to
meet him, at a place called Cashmoor. The gentlemen took no notice of
his orders, nor did the commons, except those whom the ministers forced
to goe to the place of rendezvouse, to the number of fifteen hundred
men, being all that their utmost diligence could perform. But those of
that countie, having been taught by their experience, that it is not
good meddling with edge tools, especiallie in the hands of Highlandmen,
were very averse from taking armes. No sooner they reflected on the name
of the place of rendezvouse, Cashmoor, than Tippermoor was called to
mind; a place not far from thence, where Montrose had routed them, when
under the command of my great-grand-uncle the earl of Wemyss, then
generall of God's armie. In a word, the unlucky choice of a place,
called _Moo_, appeared ominous; and that, with the flying report of the
Highlandmen having made themselves masters of Perth, made them throw
down their armes, and run, notwithstanding the trouble that Rothes and
the ministers gave themselves to stop them."--M.S. _Memoirs of Lord St
Clair._]

This victory opened the whole of Scotland to Montrose He occupied the
capital, and marched forward to the border; not merely to complete the
subjection of the southern provinces, but with the flattering hope of
pouring his victorious army into England, and bringing to the support of
Charles the sword of his paternal tribes.

Half a century before Montrose's career, the state of the borders was
such as might have enabled him easily to have accomplished his daring
plan. The marquis of Douglas, the earls of Hume, Roxburgh, Traquair, and
Annandale, were all descended of mighty border chiefs, whose ancestors
could, each of them, have led into the field a body of their own
vassals, equal in numbers, and superior in discipline, to the army of
Montrose. But the military spirit of the borderers, and their attachment
to their chiefs, had been much broken since the union of the crowns. The
disarming acts of James had been carried rigorously into execution, and
the smaller proprietors, no longer feeling the necessity of protection
from their chiefs in war, had aspired to independence, and embraced
the tenets of the covenant. Without imputing, with Wishart, absolute
treachery to the border nobles, it may be allowed, that they looked with
envy upon Montrose, and with dread and aversion upon his rapacious and
disorderly forces. Hence, had it been in their power, it might not have
altogether suited their inclinations, to have brought the strength
of the border lances to the support of the northern clans. The once
formidable name of Douglas still sufficed to raise some bands, by
whom Montrose was joined, in his march down the Gala. With these
reinforcements, and with the remnant of his Highlanders (for a great
number had returned home with Colkitto, to deposit their plunder, and
provide for their families), Montrose after traversing the border,
finally encamped upon the field of Philiphaugh.

The river Ettrick, immediately after its junction with the Yarrow, and
previous to its falling into the Tweed, makes a large sweep to the
southward, and winds almost beneath the lofty bank, on which the town
of Selkirk stands; leaving, upon the northern side, a large and level
plain, extending in an easterly direction, from a hill, covered with
natural copse-wood, called the Harehead-wood, to the high ground which
forms the banks of the Tweed, near Sunderland-hall. This plain is called
Philliphaugh:[A] it is about a mile and a half in length, and a quarter
of a mile broad; and, being defended, to the northward, by the high
hills which separate Tweed from Yarrow, by the river in front, and by
the high grounds, already mentioned on each flank, it forms, at once,
a convenient and a secure field of encampment. On each flank Montrose
threw up some trenches, which are still visible; and here he posted his
infantry, amounting to about twelve or fifteen hundred men. He himself
took up his quarters in the burgh of Selkirk, and, with him, the
cavalry, in number hardly one thousand, but respectable, as being
chiefly composed of gentlemen, and their immediate retainers. In this
manner, by a fatal and unaccountable error, the river Ettrick was thrown
betwixt the cavalry and infantry, which were to depend upon each other
for intelligence and mutual support. But this might be overlooked by
Montrose, in the conviction, that there was no armed enemy of Charles
in the realm of Scotland; for he is said to have employed the night in
writing and dispatching this agreeable intelligence to the king. Such an
enemy was already within four miles of his camp.

[Footnote A: The Scottish language is rich in words, expressive of local
situation The single word _haugh_, conveys, to a Scotsman, almost all
that I have endeavoured to explain in the text, by circumlocutory
description.]

Recalled by the danger of the cause of the Covenant, General David Lesly
came down from England, at the head of those iron squadrons, whose force
had been proved in the fatal battle of Long Marston Moor. His array
consisted of from five to six thousand men, chiefly cavalry. Lesly's
first plan seems to have been, to occupy the mid-land counties, so as to
intercept the return of Montrose's Highlanders, and to force him to an
unequal combat Accordingly, he marched along the eastern coast, from
Berwick to Tranent; but there he suddenly altered his direction, and,
crossing through Mid-Lothian, turned again to the southward, and,
following the course of Gala water, arrived at Melrose, the evening
before the engagement How it is possible that Montrose should have
received no notice whatever of the march of so considerable an army,
seems almost inconceivable, and proves, that the country was strongly
disaffected to his cause, or person. Still more extraordinary does it
appear, that, even with the advantage of a thick mist, Lesly should
have, the next morning, advanced towards Montrose's encampment without
being descried by a single scout. Such, however, was the case, and it
was attended with all the consequences of the most complete surprisal.
The first intimation that Montrose received of the march of Lesly,
was the noise of the conflict, or, rather, that which attended the
unresisted slaughter of his infantry, who never formed a line of battle:
the right wing alone, supported by the thickets of Harehead-wood, and
by the entrenchments which are there still visible, stood firm for some
time. But Lesly had detached two thousand men, who, crossing the Ettrick
still higher up than his main body, assaulted the rear of Montrose's
right wing. At this moment, the marquis himself arrived, and beheld
his army dispersed, for the first time, in irretrievable route. He
had thrown himself upon a horse the instant he heard the firing, and,
followed by such of his disorderly cavalry as had gathered upon the
alarm, he galloped from Selkirk, crossed the Ettrick, and made a bold
and desperate attempt to retrieve the fortune of the day. But all was
in vain; and, after cutting his way, almost singly, through a body of
Lesly's troopers, the gallant Montrose graced by his example the
retreat of the fugitives. That retreat he continued up Yarrow, and over
Minch-moor; nor did he stop till he arrived at Traquair, sixteen miles
from the field of battle. Upon Philiphaugh he lost, in one defeat, the
fruit of six splendid victories: nor was he again able effectually to
make head, in Scotland, against the covenanted cause. The number slain
in the field did not exceed three or four hundred; for the fugitives
found refuge in the mountains, which had often been the retreat of
vanquished armies, and were impervious to the pursuer's cavalry. Lesly
abused his victory, and dishonoured his arms, by slaughtering, in cold
blood, many of the prisoners whom he had taken; and the court-yard of
Newark castle is said to have been the spot, upon which they were
shot by his command. Many others are said, by Wishart, to have been
precipitated from a high bridge over the Tweed. This, as Mr Laing
remarks, is impossible; because there was not a bridge over the Tweed
betwixt Peebles and Berwick. But there is an old bridge, over the
Ettrick, only four miles from Philiphaugh, and another over the Yarrow,
both of which lay in the very line of flight and pursuit; and either
might have been the scene of the massacre. But if this is doubtful,
it is too certain, that several of the royalists were executed by the
Covenanters, as traitors to the king and parliament.[A]

[Footnote A: A covenanted minister, present at the execution of these
gentlemen observed, "This wark gaes bonnilie on!" an amiable
exclamation equivalent to the modern _Г§a ira_, so often used on similar
occasions.--_Wishart's Memoirs of Montrose._]

I have reviewed, at some length, the details of this memorable
engagement, which, at the same time, terminated the career of a hero,
likened, by no mean judge of mankind[A] to those of antiquity, and
decided the fate of his country. It is further remarkable, as the last
field which was fought in Ettrick forest, the scene of so many bloody
actions. The unaccountable neglect of patroles, and the imprudent
separation betwixt the horse and foot, seem to have been the immediate
causes of Montrose's defeat. But the ardent and impetuous character
of this great warrior, corresponding with that of the troops which he
commanded was better calculated for attack than defence; for surprising
others, rather than for providing against surprise himself. Thus, he
suffered loss by a sudden attack upon part of his forces, stationed at
Aberdeen;[B] and, had he not extricated himself with the most singular
ability, he must have lost his whole army, when surprised by Baillie,
during the plunder of Dundee. Nor has it escaped an ingenious modern
historian, that his final defeat at Dunbeath, so nearly resembles in its
circumstances the surprise at Philiphaugh, as to throw some shade on his
military talents.--LAING'S _History_.

[Footnote A: Cardinal du Retz.]

[Footnote B: Colonel Hurry, with a party of horse, surprised the town,
while Montrose's Highlanders and cavaliers were "dispersed through the
town, drinking carelessly in their lodgings; and, hearing the horse's
feet, and great noise, were astonished, never dreaming of their enemy.
However, Donald Farquharson happened to come to the causey, where he was
cruelly slain, anent the Court de Guard; a brave gentleman, and one of
the noblest captains amongst all the Highlanders of Scotland. Two or
three others were killed, and some (taken prisoners) had to Edinburgh,
and cast into irons in the tolbooth. Great lamentation was made for this
gallant, being still the king's man for life and death."--SPALDING
Vol. II. p. 281. The journalist, to whom all matters were of equal
importance, proceeds to inform us, that Hurry took the marquis of
Huntly's best horse, and, in his retreat through Montrose seized upon
the marquis's second son. He also expresses his regret, that "the said
Donald Farquharson's body was found in the street, stripped naked: for
they tirr'd from off his body a rich stand of apparel, but put on the
same day."--_Ibid._]

The following ballad, which is preserved by tradition in Selkirkshire,
coincides accurately with historical fact. This, indeed, constitutes its
sole merit. The Covenanters were not, I dare say, addicted, more
than their successors "to the profane and unprofitable art of
poem-making."[A] Still, however, they could not refrain from some
strains of exultation, over the defeat of the _truculent tyrant_, James
Grahame. For, gentle reader, Montrose, who, with resources which seemed
as none, gained six victories, and reconquered a kingdom; who, a poet, a
scholar, a cavalier, and a general, could have graced alike a court,
and governed a camp; this Montrose was numbered, by his covenanted
countrymen, among "the troublers of Israel, the fire-brands of hell, the
Corahs, the Balaams, the Doegs, the Rabshakahs, the Hamans, the Tobiahs,
and Sanballats of the time."

[Footnote A: So little was the spirit of illiberal fanaticism decayed
in some parts of Scotland, that only thirty years ago, when Wilson,
the ingenious author of a poem, called "_Clyde_," now republished, was
inducted into the office of schoolmaster at Greenock, he was obliged
formally, and in writing, to abjure _"the profane and unprofitable art
of poem-making."_ It is proper to add, that such an incident is _now_ as
unlikely to happen in Greenock as in London.]



THE BATTLE OF PHILIPHAUGH.


  On Philiphaugh a fray began,
    At Hairhead wood it ended;
  The Scots out o'er the Graemes they ran,
    Sae merrily they bended.

  Sir David frae the border came,
    Wi' heart an' hand came he;
  Wi' him three thousand bonny Scotts,
    To bear him company.

  Wi' him three thousand valiant men,
    A noble sight to see!
  A cloud o' mist them weel concealed,
    As close as e'er might be.

  When they came to the Shaw burn,
    Said he, "Sae weel we frame,
  "I think it is convenient,
    "That we should sing a psalm."[A]

  When they came to the Lingly burn,
    As day-light did appear,
  They spy'd an aged father,
    And he did draw them near.

  "Come hither, aged father!"
    Sir David he did cry,
  "And tell me where Montrose lies,
    "With all his great army."

  "But, first, you must come tell to me,
    "If friends or foes you be;
  "I fear you are Montrose's men,
    "Come frae the north country."

  "No, we are nane o' Montrose's men,
    "Nor e'er intend to be;
  "I am sir David Lesly,
    "That's speaking unto thee."

  "If you're sir David Lesly,
    "As I think weel ye be,
  "I'm sorry ye hae brought so few
    "Into your company.

  "There's fifteen thousand armed men,
    "Encamped on yon lee;
  "Ye'll never be a bite to them,
    "For aught that I can see.

  "But, halve your men in equal parts,
    "Your purpose to fulfil;
  "Let ae half keep the water side,
    "The rest gae round the hill.

  "Your nether party fire must,
    "Then beat a flying drum;
  "And then they'll think the day's their ain,
    "And frae the trench they'll come.

  "Then, those that are behind them maun
    "Gie shot, baith grit and sma';
  "And so, between your armies twa,
    "Ye may make them to fa'."

  "O were ye ever a soldier?"
    Sir David Lesly said;
  "O yes; I was at Solway flow,
    "Where we were all betray'd.

  "Again I was at curst Dunbar,
    "And was a pris'ner ta'en;
  "And many weary night and day,
    "In prison I hae lien."

  "If ye will lead these men aright,
    "Rewarded shall ye be;
  "But, if that ye a traitor prove,
    "I'll hang thee on a tree."

  "Sir, I will not a traitor prove;
    "Montrose has plundered me;
  "I'll do my best to banish him
    "Away frae this country."

  He halv'd his men in equal parts,
    His purpose to fulfill;
  The one part kept the water side,
    The other gaed round the hill.

  The nether party fired brisk,
    Then turn'd and seem'd to rin;
  And then they a' came frae the trench,
    And cry'd, "the day's our ain!"

  The rest then ran into the trench,
    And loos'd their cannons a':
  And thus, between his armies twa,
    He made them fast to fa'.

  Now, let us a' for Lesly pray,
    And his brave company!
  For they hae vanquish'd great Montrose,
    Our cruel enemy.

[Footnote A: Various reading; "That we should take a dram."]



NOTES ON THE BATTLE OF PHILIPHAUGH.


_When they came to the Shaw burn._--P. 27. v. 1. A small stream, that
joins the Ettrick, near Selkirk, on the south side of the river.

_When they came to the Lingly burn._--P. 27. v. 2. A brook, which falls
into the Ettrick, from the north, a little above the Shaw burn.

_They spy'd an aged father._--P. 27. v. 2. The traditional commentary
upon the ballad states this man's name to have been Brydone, ancestor to
several families in the parish of Ettrick, particularly those occupying
the farms of Midgehope and Redford Green. It is a strange anachronism,
to make this aged father state himself at the battle of _Solway flow,_
which was fought a hundred years before Philiphaugh; and a still
stranger, to mention that of Dunbar, which did not take place till five
years after Montrose's defeat.

A tradition, annexed to a copy of this ballad, transmitted to me by Mr
James Hogg, bears, that the earl of Traquair, on the day of the battle,
was advancing with a large sum of money, for the payment of Montrose's
forces, attended by a blacksmith, one of his retainers. As they crossed
Minch-moor, they were alarmed by firing, which the earl conceived to
be Montrose exercising his forces, but which his attendant, from the
constancy and irregularity of the noise, affirmed to be the tumult of an
engagement. As they came below Broadmeadows, upon Yarrow, they met their
fugitive friends, hotly pursued by the parliamentary troopers. The earl,
of course, turned, and fled also: but his horse, jaded with the weight
of dollars which he carried, refused to take the hill; so that the earl
was fain to exchange with his attendant, leaving him with the breathless
horse, and bag of silver, to shift for himself; which he is supposed
to have done very effectually. Some of the dragoons, attracted by the
appearance of the horse and trappings, gave chase to the smith, who
fled up the Yarrow; but finding himself as he said, encumbered with the
treasure, and unwilling that it should be taken, he flung it into a
well, or pond, near the Tinnies, above Hangingshaw. Many wells were
afterwards searched in vain; but it is the general belief, that the
smith, if he ever hid the money, knew too well how to anticipate the
scrutiny. There is, however, a pond, which some peasants began to drain,
not long ago, in hopes of finding the golden prize, but were prevented,
as they pretended, by supernatural interference.



THE GALLANT GRAHAMS.


The preceding ballad was a song of triumph over the defeat of Montrose
at Philiphaugh; the verses, which follow are a lamentation for his final
discomfiture and cruel death. The present edition of _"The Gallant
Grahams"_ is given from tradition, enlarged and corrected by an ancient
printed edition, entitled, _"The Gallant Grahams of Scotland"_ to the
tune of _"I will away, and I will not tarry,"_ of which Mr Ritson
favoured the editor with an accurate copy.

The conclusion of Montrose's melancholy history is too well known. The
Scottish army, which sold king Charles I. to his parliament, had, we may
charitably hope, no idea that they were bartering his blood; although
they must have been aware, that they were consigning him to perpetual
bondage.[A] At least the sentiments of the kingdom at large differed
widely from those of the military merchants, and the danger of king
Charles drew into England a well appointed Scottish army, under the
command of the duke of Hamilton. But he met with Cromwell, and to meet
with Cromwell was inevitable defeat. The death of Charles, and the
triumph of the independents, excited still more highly the hatred and
the fears of the Scottish nation. The outwitted presbyterians, who saw,
too late, that their own hands had been employed in the hateful task
of erecting the power of a sect, yet more fierce and fanatical than
themselves, deputed a commission to the Hague, to treat with Charles
II., whom, upon certain conditions they now wished to restore to the
throne of his fathers. At the court of the exiled monarch, Montrose also
offered to his acceptance a splendid plan of victory and conquest, and
pressed for his permission to enter Scotland; and there, collecting the
remains of the royalists to claim the crown for his master, with the
sword in his hand. An able statesman might perhaps have reconciled these
jarring projects; a good man would certainly have made a decided choice
betwixt them. Charles was neither the one not the other; and, while he
treated with the presbyterians, with a view of accepting the crown from
their hands, he scrupled not to authorise Montrose, the mortal enemy of
the sect, to pursue his separate and inconsistent plan of conquest.

[Footnote A: As Salmasius quaintly, but truly, expresses it,
_Presbyterian iligaverunt independantes trucidaverunt_.]

Montrose arrived in the Orkneys with six hundred Germans, was furnished
with some recruits from those islands, and was joined by several
royalists, as he traversed the wilds of Caithness and Sutherland: but,
advancing into Ross-shire, he was surprised, and totally defeated,
by colonel Strachan, an officer of the Scottish parliament, who had
distinguished himself in the civil wars, and who afterwards became a
decided Cromwellian. Montrose, after a fruitless resistance, at length
fled from the field of defeat, and concealed himself in the grounds of
Macleod of Assint to whose fidelity he entrusted his life, and by whom
he was delivered up to Lesly, his most bitter enemy.

He was tried for what was termed treason against the estates of the
kingdom; and, despite the commission of Charles for his proceedings, he
was condemned to die by a parliament, who acknowledged Charles to be
their king, and whom, on that account only, Montrose acknowledged to be
a parliament.

"The clergy," says a late animated historian, "whose vocation it was to
persecute the repose of his last moments, sought, by the terrors of his
sentence, to extort repentance; but his behaviour, firm and dignified to
the end, repelled their insulting advances with scorn and disdain. He
was prouder, he replied, to have his head affixed to the prison-walls,
than to have his picture placed in the king's bed-chamber: 'and, far
from being troubled that my limbs are to be sent to your principal
cities, I wish I had flesh enough to be dispersed through Christendom,
to attest my dying attachment to my king.' It was the calm employment of
his mind, that night, to reduce this extravagant sentiment to verse.
He appeared next day, on the scaffold, in a rich habit, with the same
serene and undaunted countenance, and addressed the people, to vindicate
his dying unabsolved by the church, rather than to justify an invasion
of the kingdom, during a treaty with the estates. The insults of his
enemies were not yet exhausted. The history of his exploits was attached
to his neck by the public executioner: but he smiled at their inventive
malice; declared, that he wore it with more pride than he had done the
garter; and, when his devotions were finished, demanding if any more
indignities remained to be practised, submitted calmly to an unmerited
fate."--_Laing's History of Scotland,_ Vol. I. p. 404.

Such was the death of James Graham, the great marquis of Montrose, over
whom some lowly bard has poured forth the following elegiac verses. To
say, that they are far unworthy of the subject, is no great reproach;
for a nobler poet might have failed in the attempt. Indifferent as the
ballad is, we may regret its being still more degraded by many apparent
corruptions. There seems an attempt to trace Montrose's career, from his
first raising the royal standard, to his second expedition and death;
but it is interrupted and imperfect. From the concluding stanza, I
presume the song was composed upon the arrival of Charles in Scotland,
which so speedily followed the execution of Montrose, that the king
entered the city while the head of his most faithful and most successful
adherent was still blackening in the sun.



THE GALLANT GRAHAMS.


  Now, fare thee weel, sweet Ennerdale!
    Baith kith and countrie I bid adieu;
  For I maun away, and I may not stay,
    To some uncouth land which I never knew.

  To wear the blue I think it best,
    Of all the colours that I see;
  And I'll wear it for the gallant Grahams,
    That are banished from their countrie.

  I have no gold, I have no land,
    I have no pearl, nor precious stane;
  But I wald sell my silken snood,
    To see the gallant Grahams come hame.

  In Wallace days when they began,
    Sir John the Graham did bear the gree,
  Through all the lands of Scotland wide;
    He was a lord of the south countrie.

  And so was seen full many a time;
    For the summer flowers did never spring,
  But every Graham, in armour bright,
    Would then appear before the king.

  They all were dressed in armour sheen,
    Upon the pleasant banks of Tay;
  Before a king they might be seen,
    These gallant Grahams in their array.

  At the Goukhead our camp we set,
    Our leaguer down there for to lay;
  And, in the bonnie summer light,
    We rode our white horse and our gray.

  Our false commander sold our king
    Unto his deadly enemie,
  Who was the traitor Cromwell, then;
    So I care not what they do with me.

  They have betrayed our noble prince,
    And banish'd him from his royal crown;
  But the gallant Grahams have ta'en in hand,
    For to command those traitors down.

  In Glen-Prosen[A] we rendezvoused,
    March'd to Glenshie by night and day,
  And took the town of Aberdeen,
    And met the Campbells in their array.

  Five thousand men, in armour strong.
    Did meet the gallant Grahams that day
  At Inverlochie, where war began,
    And scarce two thousand men were they.

  Gallant Montrose, that chieftain bold,
    Courageous in the best degree,
  Did for the king fight well that day;
    The lord preserve his majestie!

  Nathaniel Gordon, stout and bold,
    Did for king Charles wear the blue;
  But the cavaliers they all were sold,
    And brave Harthill, a cavalier too.

  And Newton Gordon, burd-alone
    And Dalgatie, both stout and keen,
  And gallant Veitch upon the field,
    A braver face was never seen.

  Now, fare ye weel, sweet Ennerdale!
    Countrie and kin I quit ye free;
  Chear up your hearts, brave cavaliers,
    For the Grahams are gone to high Germany.

  Now brave Montrose he went to France,
    And to Germany, to gather fame;
  And bold Aboyne is to the sea,
    Young Huntly is his noble name.

  Montrose again, that chieftain bold,
    Back unto Scotland fair he came,
  For to redeem fair Scotland's land,
    The pleasant, gallant, worthy Graham!

  At the water of Carron he did begin,
    And fought the battle to the end;
  Where there were killed, for our noble king,
    Two thousand of our Danish men.

  Gilbert Menzies, of high degree,
    By whom the king's banner was borne;
  For a brave cavalier was he,
    But now to glory he is gone.

  Then woe to Strachan, and Hacket baith!
    And, Lesly, ill death may thou die!
  For ye have betrayed the gallant Grahams,
    Who aye were true to majestic.

  And the laird of Assint has seized Montrose,
    And had him into Edinburgh town;
  And frae his body taken the head,
    And quartered him upon a trone.

  And Huntly's gone the selfsame way,
    And our noble king is also gone;
  He suffered death for our nation,
    Our mourning tears can ne'er be done.

  But our brave young king is now come home,
    King Charles the second in degree;
  The Lord send peace into his time,
    And God preserve his majestie!

[Footnote A: Glen-Prosen, in Angus-shire.]



NOTES ON THE GALLANT GRAHAMS.


_Now, fare thee weel, sweet Ennerdale._--P. 38. v. 1. A corruption of
Endrickdale. The principal, and most ancient possessions of the Montrose
family lie along the water of Endrick, in Dumbartonshire.

_Sir John the Graham did bear the gree._--P. 39. v. 1. The faithful
friend and adherent of the immortal Wallace, slain at the battle of
Falkirk.

_Who was the traitor Cromwell, then._--P. 39. v. 5. This extraordinary
character, to whom, in crimes and in success our days only have produced
a parallel, was no favourite in Scotland. There occurs the following
invective against him, in a MS. in the Advocates' Library. The humour
consists in the dialect of a Highlander, speaking English, and confusing
_Cromwell_ with _Gramach,_ ugly:

  Te commonwelt, tat Gramagh ting.
  Gar brek hem's word, gar do hem's king;

  Gar pay hem's sesse, or take hem's (geers)
  We'l no de at, del come de leers;
  We'l bide a file amang te crowes, (_i.e._ in the woods)
  We'l scor te sword, and wiske to bowes;
  And fen her nen-sel se te re, (the king)
  Te del my care for _Gromaghee_.

The following tradition, concerning Cromwell, is preserved by an
uncommonly direct line of traditional evidence; being narrated (as I am
informed) by the grandson of an eye-witness. When Cromwell, in 1650,
entered Glasgow, he attended divine service in the High Church; but the
presbyterian divine, who officiated, poured forth, with more zeal than
prudence, the vial of his indignation upon the person, principles, and
cause, of the independent general. One of Cromwell's officers rose,
and whispered his commander; who seemed to give him a short and stern
answer, and the sermon was concluded without interruption Among the
crowd, who were assembled to gaze at the general, as he came out of the
church, was a shoemaker, the son of one of James the sixth's Scottish
footmen. This man had been born and bred in England, but, after his
father's death, had settled in Glasgow. Cromwell eyed him among the
crowd, and immediately called him by his name--the man fled; but, at
Cromwell's command, one of his retinue followed him, and brought him
to the general's lodgings. A number of the inhabitants remained at the
door, waiting the end of this extraordinary scene. The shoemaker soon
came out, in high spirits, and, shewing some gold, declared, he was
going to drink Cromwell's health. Many attended him to hear the
particulars of his interview; among others, the grandfather of the
narrator. The shoemaker said, that he had been a playfellow of Cromwell
when they were both boys, their parents residing in the same street;
that he had fled, when the general first called to him, thinking he
might owe him some ill-will, on account of his father being in the
service of the royal family. He added, that Cromwell had been so very
kind and familiar with him, that he ventured to ask him, what the
officer had said to him in the church. "He proposed," said Cromwell, "to
pull forth the "minister by the ears; and I answered, that the preacher
was "one fool, and he another." In the course of the day, Cromwell held
an interview with the minister, and contrived to satisfy his scruples so
effectually, that the evening discourse, by the same man, was tuned to
the praise and glory of the victor of Naseby.