* * * * *
_On Hairibee to hang him up_?--P. 188. v. 1.
Hairibee is the place of execution at Carlisle.
_And they brought him ower the Liddel-rack_.--P. 188. v. 3.
The Liddel-rack is a ford on the Liddel.
_And so they reached the Woodhouselee_.--P. 192. v. 1.
Woodhouselee; a house on the border, belonging to Buccleuch.
* * * * *
The Salkeldes, or Sakeldes, were a powerful family in Cumberland,
possessing, among other manors, that of Corby, before it came into
the possession of the Howards, in the beginning of the seventeenth
century. A strange stratagem was practised by an outlaw, called Jock
Grame of the Peartree, upon Mr. Salkelde, sheriff of Cumberland; who
is probably the person alluded to in the ballad, as the fact is
stated to have happened late in Elizabeth's time. The brother of this
freebooter was lying in Carlisle jail for execution, when Jock of the
Peartree came riding past the gate of Corby castle. A child of the
sheriff was playing before the door, to whom the outlaw gave an apple,
saying, "Master, will you ride?" The boy willingly consenting, Grame
took him up before him, carried him into Scotland, and would never
part with him, till he had his brother safe from the gallows. There is
no historical ground for supposing, either that Salkelde, or any one
else, lost his life in the raid of Carlisle.
In the list of border clans, 1597, Will of Kinmonth, with Kyrstie
Armestrange, and John Skynbanke, are mentioned as leaders of a band of
Armstrongs, called _Sandies Barnes_, inhabiting the Debateable Land.
The ballad itself has never before been published.