+The Text+ is from Johnson's _Museum_, communicated by Robert Burns.
+The Story.+--Some editors have identified the hero of the ballad with
George Gordon, fourth earl of Huntly, but upon what grounds it is
difficult to see.
There are two English broadside ballads, of the first and second halves
respectively of the seventeenth century, which are either the originals
of, or copies from, the Scottish ballad, which exists in many variants.
The earlier is concerned with 'the death of a worthy gentleman named
George Stoole,' 'to a delicate Scottish tune,' and the second is called
'The Life and Death of George of Oxford. To a pleasant tune, called Poor
Georgy.' One of the Scottish versions has a burden resembling that of
'George Stoole.'
The 'battle in the north' and Sir Charles Hay are not identified.