This ballad appears to have been composed about the reign of James V.
It commemorates a transaction, supposed to have taken place betwixt a
Scottish monarch, and an ancestor of the ancient family of Murray of
Philiphaugh in Selkirkshire. The editor is unable to ascertain the
historical foundation of the tale; nor is it probable that any light
can be thrown upon the subject, without an accurate examination of
the family charter chest. It is certain, that, during the civil wars
betwixt Bruce and Baliol, the family of Philiphaugh existed, and was
powerful; for their ancestor, Archibald de Moravia, subscribes the
oath of fealty to Edward I.A.D. 1296. It is, therefore, not unlikely,
that, residing in a wild and frontier country, they may have, at one
period or other, during these commotions, refused allegiance to the
feeble monarch of the day, and thus extorted from him some grant of
territory or jurisdiction. It is also certain, that, by a charter
from James IV., dated November 30, 1509, John Murray of Philiphaugh
is vested with the dignity of heritable sheriff of Ettrick Forest,
an office held by his descendants till the final abolition of such
jurisdictions by 28th George II. cap. 23. But it seems difficult to
believe that the circumstances, mentioned in the ballad, could occur
under the reign of so vigorous a monarch as James IV. It is true, that
the _Dramatis Personae_ introduced seem to refer to the end of the
fifteenth, or beginning of the sixteenth, century; but from this it
can only be argued, that the author himself lived soon after that
period. It may, therefore, be supposed (unless farther evidence can
be produced, tending to invalidate the conclusion), that the bard,
willing to pay his court to the family, has connected the grant of the
sheriffship by James IV. with some further dispute betwixt the Murrays
of Philiphaugh and their sovereign, occurring, either while they were
engaged upon the side of Baliol, or in the subsequent reigns of David
II. and Robert II. and III., when the English possessed great part
of the Scottish frontier, and the rest was in so lawless a state as
hardly to acknowledge any superior. At the same time, this reasoning
is not absolutely conclusive. James IV. had particular reasons for
desiring that Ettrick Forest, which actually formed part of the
jointure lands of Margaret, his queen, should be kept in a state of
tranquillity.--_Rymer_, Vol. XIII. p. 66. In order to accomplish
this object, it was natural for him, according to the policy of his
predecessors to invest one great family with the power of keeping
order among the rest. It is even probable, that the Philiphaugh family
may have had claims upon part of the lordship of Ettrick Forest, which
lay intermingled with their own extensive possessions; and, in the
course of arranging, not indeed the feudal superiority, but the
property, of these lands, a dispute may have arisen, of sufficient
importance to be the ground-work of a ballad.--It is farther probable,
that the Murrays, like other border clans, were in a very lawless
state, and held their lands merely by occupancy, without any feudal
right. Indeed, the lands of the various proprietors in Ettrick Forest
(being a royal demesne) were held by the possessors, not in property,
but as the kindly tenants, or rentallers, of the crown; and it is only
about 150 years since they obtained charters, striking the feu-duty of
each proprietor, at the rate of the quit-rent, which he formerly paid.
This state of possession naturally led to a confusion of rights and
claims. The kings of Scotland were often reduced to the humiliating
necessity of compromising such matters with their rebellious subjects,
and James himself even entered into a sort of league with Johnie Faa,
the king of the gypsies.--Perhaps, therefore, the tradition, handed
down in this song, may have had more foundation than it would at
present be proper positively to assert.
The merit of this beautiful old tale, it is thought, will be fully
acknowledged. It has been, for ages, a popular song in Selkirkshire.
The scene is, by the common people, supposed to have been the castle
of Newark, upon Yarrow. This is highly improbable, because Newark was
always a royal fortress. Indeed, the late excellent antiquarian Mr.
Plummer, sheriff-depute of Selkirkshire, has assured the editor, that
he remembered the _insignia_ of the unicorns, &c. so often mentioned
in the ballad, in existence upon the old tower at Hangingshaw, the
seat of the Philiphaugh family; although, upon first perusing a copy
of the ballad, he was inclined to subscribe to the popular opinion.
The tower of Hangingshaw has been demolished for many years. It stood
in a romantic and solitary situation, on the classical banks of the
Yarrow. When the mountains around Hangingshaw were covered with
the wild copse which constituted a Scottish forest, a more secure
strong-hold for an outlawed baron can hardly be imagined.
The tradition of Ettrick Forest bears, that the Outlaw was a man of
prodigious strength, possessing a batton or club, with which he laid
_lee_ (i.e. waste) the country for many miles round; and that he was
at length slain by Buccleuch, or some of his clan, at a little mount,
covered with fir-trees, adjoining to Newark castle, and said to have
been a part of the garden. A varying tradition bears the place of
his death to have been near to the house of the Duke of Buccleuch's
game-keeper, beneath the castle; and, that the fatal arrow was shot by
Scot of Haining, from the ruins of a cottage on the opposite side of
the Yarrow. There was extant, within these twenty years, some verses
of a song on his death. The feud betwixt the Outlaw and the Scotts may
serve to explain the asperity, with which the chieftain of that clan
is handled in the ballad.
In publishing the following ballad, the copy principally resorted to
is one, apparently of considerable antiquity, which was found among
the papers of the late Mrs. Cockburn, of Edinburgh, a lady whose
memory will be long honoured by all who knew her. Another copy, much
more imperfect, is to be found in Glenriddel's MSS. The names are in
this last miserably mangled, as is always the case when ballads are
taken down from the recitation of persons living at a distance from
the scenes in which they are laid. Mr. Plummer also gave the editor a
few additional verses, not contained in either copy, which are thrown
into what seemed their proper place. There is yet another copy, in Mr.
Herd's MSS., which has been occasionally made use of. Two verses are
restored in the present edition, from the recitation of Mr. Mungo
Park, whose toils, during his patient and intrepid travels in Africa,
have not eradicated from his recollection the legendary lore of his
native country.
The arms of the Philiphaugh family are said by tradition to allude
to their outlawed state. They are indeed those of a huntsman, and are
blazoned thus; Argent, a hunting horn sable, stringed and garnished
gules, on a chief azure, three stars of the first. Crest, a Demi
Forester, winding his horn, proper. Motto, _Hinc usque superna
venabor_.
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