Footnote 277:
“For many miserable months Scotland presented a sight which might have
drawn pity from the hardest heart: her sons engaged in a furious and
constant butchery of each other; ... nothing seen but villages in
flames, towns beleagured by armed men, women and children flying from
the cottages where their fathers or husbands had been massacred; ...
prisoners tortured, or massacred in cold blood, or hung by forties and
fifties at a time.” Tytler, VII, 370.
Footnote 278:
These are nearly the words of Lieut.-Col. Lumsden, upon whom I am very
glad to lean. That Ker was a valuable officer is well known.
Footnote 279:
The History of the Feuds and Conflicts among the Clans, p. 54 f.
Footnote 280:
Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 304 f. Also The Historie of King James the
Sext, p. 111.
As to the ‘Bank of Fair,’ otherwise called Corrichie, the Earl of
Huntly and two of his sons, John and Adam, were made prisoners at the
battle there in 1562. The father, a corpulent man, “by reason of the
throng that pressed him, expired in the hands of his takers.” John was
executed, but Adam was spared because of his tender age. (Spottiswood,
p. 187.)
Tytler observes of Adam Gordon: “In his character we find a singular
mixture of knightly chivalry with the ferocity of the highland
freebooter.... Such a combination as that exhibited by Gordon was no
infrequent production in these dark and sanguinary times.” VII, 367.
But it would have been a good thing to cite other instances.
Footnote 281:
Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, II, 355 f., 420, 480, 720.
Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 350. Chronicle of Aberdeen, in The
Miscellany of the Spalding Club, II, 53.
Footnote 282:
Register of the Privy Council, II, 199, 725; III, 10; V, 46, 187.
Register of the Great Seal, No 1554, vol. V. Miscellany of the
Spalding Club, III, 163. Historie of King James the Sext, pp 339 f.,
342. The so-called ballad in Dalzell’s Scotish Poems of the Sixteenth
Century, II, 347, which was in circulation as a broadside.
Footnote 283:
That a Margaret Campbell was the wife of John Forbes of Towie in
1556–63 appears from the Register of the Great Seal of Scotland, Nos
1124, 1404, 1469. But Lieut.-Col. Lumsden remarks that Sir John
Campbell of Calder had no daughter of the name of Margaret, and that
there is no record of such a marriage in the Cawdor papers. It may be
observed in passing that Buchanan’s and Spottiswood’s error (as it
seems to be) of substituting Alexander Forbes for John might easily
arise, since, according to the Genealogy, John’s father, one of his
brothers, a son, and a grandson, all bore the name Alexander.
Footnote 284:
“After making considerable researches upon the subject, I am come to
the conclusion that it was Towie House that was burnt. Cargarf never
was in possession of a Forbes.” (Joseph Robertson, Kinloch MSS, VI,
28.) What is said of Corgarf in the View of the Diocese of Aberdeen,
1732, Robertson, Collections for a History of the Shires of Aberdeen
and Banff, pp. 611, 616, is derived from Lumsden. Robert Gordon,
writing about 1654, says, “Non procul a fontibus [Donæ] jacet Corgarf,
exigui nominis.” A description of the parish of Strathdon, written
about 1725, in Macfarlane’s Geographical Collections, MS., says of
Curgarf, “This is an old castle belonging to the earls of Mar, but
nothing remarkable about it:” pp. 26, 616, of the work last cited. The
Statistical Accounts of Scotland give no light; the older tells the
story of Corgarf, the later of both Corgarf and Towie, and the one is
as uncritical as the other.
John Forbes of Towie (Tolleis) is one of a long list of that name in
an order of the Lords of Council concerning an action of the Forbes
clan against the Earl of Huntly in 1573; and in another paper, dated
July, 1578, which has reference to the same action, the Forbeses
complain that “sum of thair housiss, wyiffis and bairnis being
thairin, were all uterlie wraikit and brount.” (Robertson,
Illustrations, etc., IV, 762, 765.) Bearing in mind the latitude of
phraseology customary in indictments, we are perhaps under no
necessity of thinking that the atrocity of Towie was but one of
several instances of houses burnt, wives (women) and bairns being
therein. There may be those who will think it plausible that
“Carrigill” in the Diurnal of Occurrents should be Corgarf, and that
both were burnt.
Footnote 285:
The making Gordon burn a house of the Hamiltons, who were of the
queen’s party, is a heedless perversion of history such as is to be
found only in ‘historical’ ballads. The castle of Hamilton had been
burnt in 1570, “and the toun and palice of Hamiltoun thairwith,” more
than a year before the burning of Towie, but by Lennox and his English
allies. (Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 177.)
“The old castle of Loudoun,” says the Rev. Norman Macleod, “was
destroyed by fire about 350 years ago [that is, about 1500]. The
current tradition regarding the burning of the old castle ascribes
that event to the clan Kennedy at the period above mentioned, and the
remains of an old tower at Achruglen, on the Galston side of the
valley, is still pointed out as having been their residence.”
Footnote 286:
#F.# 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18.
#G.# 1, 2, 3, 4, 13, 14, 5, 6, 30, 20, 15, 16, 22, 24, 25, 26, 34, 35.
Footnote 287:
“At the queen last being at Stirling, the prince being brought unto
her, she offered to kiss him, but he would not, but put her away, and
did to his strength scratch her. She offered him an apple, but it
would not be received of him, and to a greyhound bitch having whelps
was thrown, who eat it, and she and her whelps died presently. A
sugar-loaf also for the prince was brought at the same time; it is
judged to be very ill compounded.” Calendar of State Papers, Foreign,
May 20, 1567, p. 235: cited by Burton. Considering that the prince had
only just passed his eleventh month, it would seem that the apple or
the sugar-loaf might have served without any compounding.
Footnote 288:
Historie of King James the Sext, p. 165 ff; Tytler’s History, VIII, 35
ff; Burton, V, 163 ff.
Footnote 289:
Historie of King James the Sext, p. 246.
Footnote 290:
Spottiswood’s History, ed. 1666, p. 387. See also The Historie of King
James the Sext, p. 246 ff.; Moysie’s Memoirs, p. 88 ff.; Birrel’s
Diary, p. 26 f.
Footnote 291:
History of the Church of Scotland, published by the Wodrow Society,
Edinburgh, 1844, V, 173; in Maidment’s Scotish Ballads and Songs,
1859, p. 8.
Footnote 292:
History of the Church of Scotland, ed. 1666, p. 389.
Footnote 293:
Calendar of the State Papers relating to Scotland, Thorpe, II, 611.
Footnote 294:
Carta Ioanni, filio natu maximo et heredi Andreæ Weymis de Myrecarny,
et Margarete Weiksterne, sue sponse, Terrarum de Myrecarny, etc. Fife,
25 Dec^{rs}, 1594. Weymis de Myrecarny and Wemys de Logy are one, as
appears by a charter of July 25, 1564. Register of the Great Seal of
Scotland, Index, in the Signet Library, noted for me by Mr Macmath.
Footnote 295:
Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, V, 11. And again: 1594,
April 13. Caution in £2000 by ——Wemys, apparent of that Ilk, for
Johnne Wemyss, apparent of Logy, that he shall remain in ward with
David Wemys of that Ilk till relieved.
May 2. Caution in 300 merks by Johnne Wemys, younger of that Ilk, for
Johnne Wemys of Logy, that he shall answer before the Privy Council at
Edinburgh upon 22d instant “to sic thingis as salbe inquirit of him.”
September 27. Sir Johnne Wemys of Tullibrek, Michaell Balfour of
Monquhaine, and Andro Wemyss of Myrecairny, for Johnne Wemyss, son and
apparent heir of Andro, £20,000, to go abroad by the 15th October next
and not return without licence. Deleted by warrant subscribed by the
king and treasurer-depute at Haliruidhous 20th February, 1594. _Ib._,
pp 141 f., 144, 638. The entries in 1594 may have reference to later
offences.
Footnote 296:
Sir John Carmichael was appointed captain of the king’s guard in 1588,
and usually had the keeping of state criminals of rank. Scott.
Footnote 297:
The Historie of King James the Sext, p. 303 f.; Register of the Privy
Council of Scotland, V, 144.
Footnote 298:
Calendar of State Papers relating to Scotland, Thorpe, II, 611, No 6.
Footnote 299:
The History of the Feuds and Conflicts among the Clans, etc., p. 41 f,
in Miscellanea Scotica, Spottiswood, ed. 1666, p. 390.
Footnote 300:
Lesley, History of Scotland, p. 235; Gregory, History of the Western
Highlands, ed. 1881, p. 184; Browne, History of the Highlands, IV,
476. For the traditional story, Finlay, II, 95, note; Laing’s Thistle
of Scotland, p. 107 f.; Whitelaw, p. 248.
Footnote 301:
“In the end of this year [1593] there fell out great troubles in the
west marches. Some of the surname of Johnston having in the July
preceding made a great depredation upon the lands of Sanwhare and
Drumlanrig, and killed eighteen persons that followed for rescue of
their goods,” etc. Spottiswood, p. 400, ed. 1666.
Footnote 302:
37 does not come in happily. Scott put this stanza after 29, omitting
‘Sin’; but there is no rational sense gained, unless the Johnstones
are supposed to deny the cattle-lifting. Admitting a bold anacoluthon
in the first verse (a mixture of since—so and neither—nor), 37 might
stand as and where it is. The Johnstones have done no wanton injury;
they have only revenged in a proper way the death of the Galliard. But
even then the Johnstones would be made to blink the Galliard’s
horse-stealing.
Footnote 303:
As there was no great “routh” of Christian names among the clansmen of
the borders, to-names became necessary for the distinction of the
numerous Jocks, Christies, Watties and Archies. The name of parent, or
of parent and grandparent, was sometimes prefixed, as John’s Christie,
Agnes’ Christie, Peggie’s Wattie, Gibb’s Jack’s Johnie, Pattie’s
Geordie’s Johnie; sometimes the place of abode was added, as Jock o
the Side; sometimes there was distinction by personal peculiarities,
dress, or arms, as Fair Johnie, Red Cloak, John with the Jack, etc.,
etc. See lists of all varieties in Mr R. B. Armstrong’s History of
Liddesdale, etc., p. 78 f.
Footnote 304:
Ties them with St Mary’s knot: hamstrings them, says Caw, and say
others after him. A St John’s knot is double, a St Mary’s triple.
Observe that in 31 it is simply said that there is only one horse
loose in the stable.
Footnote 305:
“The Armstrongs at length got Dick o the Cow in their clutches, and,
out of revenge, they tore his flesh from his bones with red-hot
pincers:” note in Caw’s Museum, p. 35. “At the conclusion of the
ballad, the singer used invariably to add that Dickie’s removal to
Burgh under Stainmuir did not save him from the clutches of the
Armstrongs. Having fallen into their power, several years after this
exploit, he was plunged into a large boiling pot, and so put to death.
The scene of this cruel transaction is pointed out somewhere in
Cumberland.” Chambers, Scottish Ballads, p. 55, note. No well-wisher
of Dick has the least occasion to be troubled by these puerile
supplements of the singers.
Footnote 306:
I am indebted to Mr R. B. Armstrong for all information not hitherto
published.
Footnote 307:
“It was not unusual to call two sons by a favorite name, and the
brother of Gilnockie would have probably called his sons by that
name:” R. B. A.
Footnote 308:
“The place which is alluded to by Scott was pointed out to me about
thirty years since. There then were the remains of a tower which stood
on a small plateau where the Dow Sike and the Blaik Grain join the
Stanygillburn, a tributary of the Tinnisburn. Some remains of the
building may still be traced at the northern angle of the sheepfold of
which it forms part. The walls that remain are 4 feet 3 inches thick,
and measured on the inside about 6 feet high. They extend about 18
feet 6 inches in one direction and 14 feet in another, forming
portions of two sides with the angle of the tower.... There must have
been a considerable building of a rude kind.... This place, as the
crow flies, is quite two miles and a quarter from Kershope-foot, and
by the burn two miles and a half.... The Laird’s Jock’s residence is
marked on a sketch map of Liddesdale by Lord Burleigh, drawn when
Simon was laird of Mangerton. (Simon, son of Thomas, was laird in
1578–9.) It is also marked at the mouth of the Tinnisburn on a ‘platt’
of the country, of 1590.” R. B. A.
Footnote 309:
The Archbishop’s account is apparently based upon a more minute
“relation of the maner of surprizeing of the Castell of Cairlell by
the lord of Buccleugh,” given, from a manuscript of the period, in the
later edition of the Minstrelsy, II, 32. There is another account of
the rescue in The Historie of King James the Sext, p. 366 ff.
Footnote 310:
Near the water of Sark, in the Debateable Land, and belonging to
Kinmont Willie: “William Armstrong, in Morton Tower, called Will of
Kinmouth, 1569.” Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, II, 44.
Footnote 311:
“The queen of England, having notice sent her of what was done,
stormed not a little,” and her ambassador was instructed to say that
peace could not continue between the two realms unless Buccleuch were
delivered to England, to be punished at the queen’s pleasure.
Buccleuch professed himself willing to be tried, according to ancient
treaties, by commissioners of the respective kingdoms, and the Scots
made the proposal, but Elizabeth did not immediately consent to this
arrangement. At last, to satisfy the queen, Buccleuch was put in ward
at the castle of St Andrews. Spotiswood adds that he was “afterwards
entered in England, where he remained not long” (and Tytler to the
same effect, IX, 226). According to one of the MSS of The Historie of
King James the Sext, the king, to please and pleasure her Majesty,
entered Buccleuch in ward at Berwick with all expedition possible, and
the queen, of her courtesy, released him back in due and sufficient
time: p. 421. But Buccleuch seems to have been entered in England only
once, and that in 1597, and not for the assault on Carlisle castle, or
for a raid which he made in the next year, but because he did not
deliver his pledges, as he was under obligation to do according to a
treaty made by a joint commission in 1597. See Ridpath’s Border
History, 1848, pp. 473, 477.
Footnote 312:
Tytler’s History, IX, 437. “The greatest nomber whareof war ordinar
nycht-walkers” (H. of K. J. the Sext, p. 369).
Footnote 313:
“Dike Armestronge of Dryup dwelleth neare High Morgarton” (Mangerton).
Dike Armestronge of Dryup appears in a list of the principal men in
Liddesdale, drawn up when Simon Armstrong was laird of Mangerton,
among Simon’s uncles or uncles’ sons. Dick of Dryup is complained of,
with others, for reif and burning, in 1583, 1586, 1587, 1603, and his
name is among the outlaws proclaimed at Carlisle July 23, 1603. (Notes
of Mr R. B. Armstrong.)
Footnote 314:
“The informer saith that Buclughe was the fifth man which entered the
castle:” Lord Scroop’s letter, Tytler, IX, 437. But the MS. used by
Scott, Spotiswood’s account (founded chiefly or altogether upon that
MS.), and The Historie of King James the Sext agree in saying that
Buccleuch remained outside, “to assure the retreat of his awin from
the castell againe.”
Footnote 315:
“Red Rowy Forster” is one of the list complained of to the Bishop of
Carlisle, about 1550 (see ‘Hughie Grame’), and he is in company with
Jock of Kinmont, one of Will’s four sons, Archie of Gingles, Jock of
Gingles, and George of the Gingles, who may represent “The Chingles”
in the informer’s list already cited. Nicolson and Burn, I, lxxxii.
Footnote 316:
This is also to be observed: “There are in this collection no fewer
than three poems on the rescue of prisoners, the incidents in which
nearly resemble each other, though the poetical description is so
different that the editor did not think himself at liberty to reject
any one of them, as borrowed from the others. As, however, there are
several verses which, in recitation, are common to all these three
songs, the editor, to prevent unnecessary and disagreeable repetition,
has used the freedom of appropriating them to that in which they seem
to have the best poetic effect.” ‘Jock o the Side,’ Minstrelsy, II,
76, ed. 1833.
Footnote 317:
Campbell “projected” his work as early as 1790, and he intimates in
his preface, p. viii (if I have rightly understood him), that he gave
help to Scott.
Footnote 318:
For the Laird’s Jock, see ‘Dick o the Cow,’ No 185. “I do not say
there never was a Laird’s Wat, but I do not recollect having met with
an Armstrong called Walter during the sixteenth century:” Mr R. B.
Armstrong.
Footnote 319:
If the text is right, John (or was it Hobbie Noble?) had killed Peeter
a Whifeild. See ‘Hobbie Noble,’ 9^4.
Footnote 320:
“I am a bastard brother of thine,” says Hobby in 26^3; cf. 28^2. But
in #B# 7 and ‘Hobie Noble,’ 3, he is an Englishman, born in Bewcastle,
and banished to Liddesdale.
Footnote 321:
This device, whether of great practical use or not, has much authority
to favor it: Hereward, De Gestis Herwardi, Michel, Chroniques A.
Normandes, p. 81; Fulk Fitz-Warin, Wright, p. 92; Eustache le Moine,
Michel, p. 55, vv. 1505 ff. (see Michel’s note, p. 104 f.); Robert
Bruce, Scotichronicon, Goodall, II, 226; other cases in Miss Burne’s
Shropshire Folk-Lore, pp. 16, 20, 93 note. It is repeated in ‘Archie o
Cawfield.’
Footnote 322:
Bay and grey should be exchanged in #B# 10, #C# 7.
Footnote 323:
Miswritten Capeld; again in 12^4.
Footnote 324:
“Tradition says that his [Archie’s] name was Archibald Armstrong.”
(Note at the end of the MS.)
Footnote 325:
Belonging to John’s Christie, son of Johnie Armstrong. Christie of
Barnglish was in Kinmont Willie’s rescue. R. B. Armstrong, Appendix,
p. cii, No LXIV; T. J. Carlyle, The Debateable Land, p. 22. Tytler,
IX, 437.
Footnote 326:
The “white hand” in the Slovenian ballad, II, 350, is hard to explain
unless there is a mixture of a prison-ballad and a snake-ballad.
Footnote 327:
“The earldom of Huntingdon was vacant from about 1487 to 1529, and, as
the Fitz-Walters were lineally descended from the daughter of the
first Simon de St Liz, Earl of Huntingdon, this may have suggested to
Skelton the idea of giving that title to the husband of Matilda
Fitz-Walter.”
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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
1. P. 204, changed "3. unto her lovely." to "3^3. unto her lovely.".
2. P. 287, changed "25. 5 score" to "25^1. 5 score".
3. Except as noted, all spelling errors were left uncorrected.
4. All punctuation was left uncorrected, except as follows.
5. A beginning or ending quote mark was added for obviously unbalanced
pairs of quotes.
6. Full stops and commas were made consistent for the verse & line
references, for example, "12^1," was corrected to "12^1."
7. Footnotes have been re-indexed using numbers and collected together
at the end of the last chapter.
8. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.
9. Enclosed bold font in #number signs#.
10. Enclosed letter spaced font in _double angle quotation marks_.
11. Superscripts are denoted by a caret before a single superscript
character or a series of superscripted characters enclosed in
curly braces, e.g. M^r. or M^{ister}.
12. Superscript letters centered over subscript periods or colons are
denoted by [th :].