Founded on an event in the wars between Kingsmen and Queensmen, in the
minority of James VI., while Queen Mary was imprisoned in England.
“Edom” was Adam Gordon of Auchindown, brother of Huntley, and a Queen’s
man. He, by his retainer, Car, or Ker, burned Towie House, a seat of the
Forbes’s. Ker recurs in the long and more or less literary ballad of
_The Battle of Balrinnes_. In variants the localities are much altered,
and, in one version, the scene is transferred to Ayrshire, and Loudoun
Castle. All the ballads of fire-raising, a very usual practice, have
points in common, and transference was easy.