+The Text.+--There are two texts available for this ballad, of which the
second one, here given, was said to have been taken down from the
singing of an old woman by James Telfer of Liddesdale, and was so
printed in Richardson's _Borderers' Table Book_ (1846). It preserves
almost the whole of the other version, taken from Robert White's papers,
who recorded it in 1829; but it obviously bears marks of having been
tampered with by Telfer. However, it contains certain stanzas which
Child says may be regarded as traditional, and it is therefore preferred
here.
+The Story.+--Percival or Parcy Reed was warden of the district round
Troughend, a high tract of land in Redesdale. In the discharge of his
duties he incurred the enmity of the family of Hall of Girsonsfield (two
miles east of Troughend) and of some moss-troopers named Crosier. As the
ballad shows, the treachery of the Halls delivered Parcy Reed into the
Crosiers' hands at a hut in Batinghope, a glen westward of the Whitelee
stream. Local tradition adds to the details narrated in the ballad that
Parcy's wife had been warned by a dream of her husband's danger, and
that on the following morning his loaf of bread happened to be turned
upside down--a very bad omen.
Further, we learn from the same source, the Crosiers' barbarous
treatment of Parcy's corpse aroused the indignation of the
neighbourhood, and they and the treacherous Halls were driven away.
Girsonsfield has belonged to no one of the name of Hall as far back as
Elizabeth, whence it is argued that the ballad is not later than the
sixteenth century.