In deepe revolving thought he ftoode,

185

And mufde a little space;

Then raifde faire Emmeline from the grounde,

With many a fond embrace.

Here take her, child of Elle, he fayd,

In fondneffe for thy bride.

And as thou love her, and hold her deare,
Heaven profper thee and thine :

And nowe my bleffing wend wi' thee,

My lovelye Emmeline.

195

200

XI.

EDOM O GORDON,

A SCOTTISH BALLAD,

was printed at Glafgaw, by Robert and Andrew Foulis, MDCCLV. 8vo. 12 pages. We are indebted for its publication (with many other valuable things in these volumes) to Sir David Dalrymple Bart. who gave it as it was. preferved in the memory of a lady, that is now dead.

The reader will here find it improved, and enlarged with Several fine stanzas, recovered from a fragment of the Same

ballad,

ballad, in the Editor's folio MS. It is remarkable that the latter is intituled CAPTAIN ADAM CARRE, and is in the English idiom. But whether the author was English or Scotch, the difference originaly was not great. The English Ballads are generaly of the north of England, the Scottish are of the South of Scotland, and of confequence the country of Ballad-fingers was fometimes fubject to one crown, and sometimes to the other, and most frequently to neither. Most of the finest old Scotch fangs have the Scene laid within 20 miles of England; which is indeed all poetic ground, green hills, remains of woods, clear brooks. The paftoral Scenes remain: Of the rude chivalry of former ages happilly nothing remains but the ruins of the castles, where the more daring and successful robbers refided. The Castle of the Rhodes is fixed by tradition in the neighbourhood of Dunse in Berwickshire. The Gordons were anciently feated in the fame county. Whether this ballad bath any foundation in fact, we have not been able to discover. It contains however but too just a picture of the violences practised in the feudal times all over Europe.

From the different titles of this ballad, it should seem that the old strolling bards or minstrels (who gained a livelihood by reciting these poems) made no fcruple of changing the names of the perfonages they introduced, to humour their hearers. For instance, if a Gordon's conduct was blameworthy in the opinion of that age, the obsequious minstrel would, when among Gordons, change the name to Car, whose clan or fept lay further west, and vice versâ. In another volume the reader will find a fimilar inftance. See the Song of GIL MORRIS, the hero of which had different names given him, probably from the fame caufe.

It may be proper to mention, that in the English copy, instead of the Castle of the Rhodes," it is the "Castle of

دو

„Bittons-borrow" (or "Diactours-borrow," for it is very obfcurely written) and "Capt. Adam Carre" is called the "Lord of Westerton-town." Uniformity required that the additional stanzas supplied from that copy should be clothed in the Scottish orthography and idiom: this has therefore been attempted, though perhaps imperfectly.

T fell about the Martinmas,

IT

Quhen the wind blew fchril an cauld,
Said Edom o' Gordon to his men,

We maun draw to a hauld.

And quhat a hauld fall we draw to,

My mirry men and me?

We wul gae to the house o' the Rhodes,

To fee that fair ladie.

The lady ftude on hir caftle wa',

Beheld baith dale and down:
There fhe was ware of a hoft of men
Cum ryding towards the toun.

O fee ze nat my myrry men a'?

O fee ze nat quhat I fee?
Methinks I fee a hoft of men:

I merveil quha they be

She weend it had been hir luvely lord,
As he cam ryding hame;

It was the traitor Edom o' Gordon,
Quha reckt nae fin nor fhame.

She had nae fooner bufkit hirfel,

And putten on hir goun,

Till Edom o' Gordon and his men,
Were light about the place..

The lady ran up to hir towir head,
Sa fast as she could drie,
To fee if by hir fair speechès
She could wi' him agree.

But quhan he fee this lady faif,
And hir yates all locked faft,
He fell into a rage of wrath,

And his hart was all agahft.

Cum doun to me, ze lady gay,
Cum doun, cum doun to me:

This night fall ye lig within mine armes,
To morrow my bride fall be.

I winnae cum doun, ze fals Gordon,
I winnae cum down to thee;

I winnae forfake my ain dear lord,
That is fae far frae me.

Give owre zour houfe, ze lady fair,

Give owre zour houfe to me,
Or I fall brenn yourfel therein,
Bot and zour babies three.

I winnae give owre, ze falfe Gordon,
To nae fik traitor as zee;

And if ze brenn my ain dear babes,
My lord fall make ze drie.

But reach my piftol, Glaud, my man,
And charge ze weil my gun:

For, but if I pierce that bluidy butcher,

My babes we been undone.

She ftude upon hir castle wa,

And let twa bullets flee:

She mist that bluidy butchers hart,
And only raz'd his knee.

Set fire to the houfe, quo' fals Gordon,

All wood wi' 'dule and ire:

Fals lady, ze fall rue this deid,

As ze brenn in the fire.

Wae worth, wae worth ze, Jock my man,

I paid ze weil zour fee;

Quhy pow ze out the ground - wa ftane

Lets in the reek to me?

And ein wae worth ze, Jock my man

I paid ze weil zour hire;

Quhy pow ze out the ground - wa ftane,

To me lets in the fire?

Sayes, Mither dear, gi owre this house,

For the reek it fmithers me.

I wad gie a' my gowd, my childe,

Sae wad I a' my fee,

For

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