+The Text+ is given from Allan Ramsay's _Tea-Table Miscellany_, where it
first appeared in the tenth edition (1740) in vol. iv. pp. 356-7. Child
had not seen this, and gave his text from the eleventh edition of 1750.
There is, however, scarcely any difference.
+The Story+ of the murder of the Earl of Murray by the Earl of Huntly in
February 1592 is found in several histories and other accounts:-- _The
History of the Church of Scotland_ (1655) by John Spottiswoode,
Archbishop of Glasgow and of St. Andrews: _History of the Western
Highlands and Isles of Scotland_ (1836) by Donald Gregory: _The History
and Life of King James_ (the Sixth), ed. T. Thomson, Bannatyne Club,
(1825): _Extracts from the Diarey of R[obert] B[irrel], Burges of
Edinburgh_ (? 1820): and Sir Walter Scott's _Tales of a Grandfather_.
The following condensed account may suffice:--James Stewart, son of Sir
James Stewart of Doune ('Down,' 6.2), Earl of Murray by his marriage
with the heiress of the Regent Murray, 'was a comely personage, of a
great stature, and strong of body like a kemp,' whence he was generally
known as the Bonny Earl of Murray. In the last months of 1591, a rumour
reached the King's ears that the Earl of Murray had assisted in, or at
least countenanced, the attack recently made on Holyrood House by
Stewart, Earl of Bothwell; and Huntly was commissioned to arrest Murray
and bring him to trial. Murray, apprehended at Donibristle (or
Dunnibirsel), his mother the Lady Doune's house, refused to surrender to
his feudal enemy the Earl of Huntly, and the house was fired. Murray,
after remaining behind the rest of his party, rushed out and broke
through the enemy, but was subsequently discovered (by the plumes on his
headpiece, which had caught fire) and mortally wounded. Tradition says
that Huntly was compelled by his followers to incriminate himself in the
deed, and struck the dying Murray in the face, whereat the bonny Earl
said, 'You have spoiled a better face than your own.'