The reader will find, prefixed to the foregoing ballad, an account
of the noted feud betwixt the families of Maxwell and Johnstone.
The following song celebrates the skirmish, in 1593, betwixt the
Johnstones and Crichtons, which led to the revival of the ancient
quarrel betwixt Johnstone and Maxwell, and finally to the battle of
Dryffe Sands, in which the latter lost his life. Wamphray is the name
of a parish in Annandale. Lethenhall was the abode of Johnstone of
Wamphray, and continued to be so till of late years. William Johnstone
of Wamphray, called the _Galliard_, was a noted freebooter. A place,
near the head of Tiviotdale, retains the name of the _Galliard's
Faulds_, (folds) being a valley where he used to secrete and divide
his spoil, with his Liddesdale and Eskdale associates. His _nom
de guerre_ seems to have been derived from the dance called _The
Galliard_. The word is still used in Scotland, to express an active,
gay, dissipated character.[199] Willie of the Kirkhill, nephew to the
Galliard, and his avenger, was also a noted border robber. Previous
to the battle of Dryffe Sands, so often mentioned, tradition reports,
that Maxwell had offered a ten-pound-land to any of his party, who
should bring him the head or hand of the laird of Johnstone.
This being reported to his antagonist, he answered, he had not a
ten-pound-land to offer, but would give a five-merk-land to the man
who should that day cut off the head or hand of Lord Maxwell. Willie
of the Kirkhill, mounted upon a young gray horse, rushed upon the
enemy, and earned the reward, by striking down their unfortunate
chieftain, and cutting off his right hand.
Leverhay, Stefenbiggin, Girth-head, &c. are all situated in the parish
of Wamphray. The Biddes-burn, where the skirmish took place betwixt
the Johnstones and their pursuers, is a rivulet which takes its course
among the mountains on the confines of Nithesdale and Annandale. The
Wellpath is a pass by which the Johnstones were retreating to their
fastnesses in Annandale. Ricklaw-holm is a place upon the Evan water,
which falls into the Annan, below Moffat. Wamphray-gate was in these
days an ale-house. With these local explanations, it is hoped the
following ballad will be easily understood.
From a pedigree in the appeal case of Sir James Johnstone of Westeraw,
claiming the honours and titles of Annandale, it appears that the
Johnstones of Wamphray were descended from James, sixth son of the
sixth baron of Johnstone. The male line became extinct in 1657.
[Footnote 199: Cleveland applies the phrase in a very different
manner, in treating of the assembly of Divines at Westminster, 1644:
And Selden is a _Galliard_ by himself.
And wel might be; there's more divines in him.
Than in all this their Jewish Sanhedrim.
Skelton, in his railing poem against James IV., terms him _Sir Skyr
Galyard_.]