* * * * *
This ballad, and the two which immediately follow it in the
collection, were published, 1784, in the _Hawick Museum_, a provincial
miscellany, to which they were communicated by John Elliot, Esq. of
Reidheugh, a gentleman well skilled in the antiquities of the western
border, and to whose friendly assistance the editor is indebted for
many valuable communications.
These ballads are connected with each other, and appear to have been
composed by the same author. The actors seem to have flourished, while
Thomas, Lord Scroope, of Bolton, was warden of the west marches of
England, and governor of Carlisle castle; which offices he acquired
upon the death of his father, about 1590; and retained it till the
union of the crowns.
_Dick of the Cow_, from the privileged insolence which he assumes,
seems to have been Lord Scroope's jester. In the preliminary
dissertation, the reader will find the border custom of assuming _noms
de guerre_ particularly noticed. It is exemplified in the following
ballad, where one Armstrong is called the _Laird's Jock_ (i.e. the
laird's son Jock), another _Fair Johnie_, a third _Billie Willie_
(brother Willie), &c. The _Laird's Jock_, son to the laird of
Mangerton, appears, as one of the men of name in Liddesdale, in the
list of border clans, _1597_.
_Dick of the Cow_ is erroneously supposed to have been the same with
one Ricardus Coldall, de Plumpton, a knight and celebrated warrior,
who died in 1462, as appears from his epitaph in the church of
Penrith.--_Nicolson's History of Westmoreland and Cumberland_, Vol.
II. p. 408.
This ballad is very popular in Liddesdale; and the reciter always
adds, at the conclusion, that poor Dickie's cautious removal to Burgh
under Stanemore, did not save him from the clutches of the Armstrongs;
for that, having fallen into their power several years after this
exploit, he was put to an inhuman death. The ballad was well known
in England, so early as 1556. An allusion to it likewise occurs in
_Parrot's Laquei Ridiculosi_, or _Springes for Woodcocks_; London,
1613.
Owenus wondreth, since he came to Wales,
What the description of this isle should be,
That nere had seen but mountains, hills, and dales.
Yet would he boast, and stand on pedigree,
From Rice ap Richard, sprung from Dick a Cow,
Be cod, was right gud gentleman, looke ye now!
_Epigr. 76_.