Than demyt he, the fals Sotheroun amang,
How thai best mycht the Scottis barownis hang.
For gret bernys that tyme stud in till Ayr,
Wrocht for the king, quhen his lugyng wes thar;
Byggyt about, that no man entir mycht,
Bot ane at anys, nor haiff off othir sicht.
Thar ordand thai thir lordis suld be slayne.—V. 23.
Here the Minstrel introduces his account of the savage transaction ascribed to Edward I., in causing the greatest part of the barons of the west of Scotland to be hanged, without trial, under the semblance of peace; and of the vengeance taken by Wallace, in what has been usually called “the burning of the Barns of Ayr.”
Before examining this account, I may observe, that instead of For gret bernys, as in MS., Edit. 1594 reads, Four greit barnis; and that of 1620, to the same purpose, Foure greit barnes. Perhaps I ought to have adopted this reading, especially as the conjunction for, with which ver. 25 commences, does not seem necessary as marking the connection with the words preceding.
The story of the destruction of these buildings, and of the immediate reason of it, is supported by the universal tradition of the country to this day; and local tradition is often entitled to more regard than is given to it by the fastidiousness of the learned. Whatever allowances it may be necessary to make for subsequent exaggeration, it is not easily conceivable that an event should be connected with a particular spot, during a succession of ages, without some foundation.