+The Text+ was sent to Percy in 1768 by R. Lambe of Norham. The ballad
is widely known in Scotland under several titles, but the most usual is
_The Broom of Cowdenknows_, which was the title used by Scott in the
_Minstrelsy_.
+The Story+ is not consistently told in this version, as in 11.3,4 the
daughter gives away her secret to her father in an absurd fashion.
An English song, printed as a broadside about 1640, _The Lovely
Northerne Lasse_, is directed to be sung 'to a pleasant Scotch tune,
called The broom of Cowden Knowes.' It is a poor variant of our ballad,
in the usual broadside style, and cannot have been written by any one
fully acquainted with the Scottish ballad. It is in the Roxburghe,
Douce, and other collections.