About Yule, when the wind blew cool.
[ ] [ [15] ] We have seen the same description in both Young Waters and the Bonny Earl of Murray.
[ ] [ [16] ] Compare this with Sir Patrick Spence:
'Mak haste, mak haste, my merry men a'.'
[ ] [ [17] ] In a Collection of Old Ballads, printed for J. Roberts, London, 1723; also in Thomson's Orpheus Caledonius, 1733.
[ ] [ [18] ] The appellative, Gilderoy, means the ruddy-complexioned lad.
[ ] [ [19] ] Professor Aytoun says of this ballad, that 'it was adapted from the original by Sir Alexander Halket—at least, such was the general understanding until lately, when it became a mania with some literary antiquaries Hardyknute.' My learned friend is here very unlucky, for Lady Wardlaw had no brother, nor does any Sir Alexander Halket appear in her family history. This, however, is not all. It was a song to the tune of Gilderoy which was attributed to Sir Alexander Halket (Johnson's Scots Musical Museum)—namely, the well-known Ah, Chloris, which turns out to be a composition of Sir Charles Sedley, inserted by him in a play entitled the Mulberry Garden, which was acted in 1668.
[ ] [ [20] ] The above three verses are in the version printed in Lawrie and Symington's collection, 1791.
[ ] [ [21] ] A passage in Hardyknute maybe quoted as bearing a marked resemblance to one of the above verses:
Take aff, take aff his costly jupe,