THE LAIRD O' DRUM. After Aytoun's collated version. Copies obtained from recitation are given by Kinloch and Buchan. The eccentric Laird o' Drum was an actual personage, who, in the seventeenth century, mortified his aristocratic relatives and delighted the commons by marrying a certain Margaret Coutts, a woman of lowly rank, his first wife having been a daughter of the Marquis of Huntly. The old shepherd speaks in the Aberdeen dialect. Weel-faur'd, well-favored. Gin, if. Speer, ask. Kebbuck, cheese. Yetts, gates. Gawsy, portly. But the pearlin' abune her bree, without the lace above her brow.
LIZIE LINDSAY. After Jamieson. Complete copies are given by Buchan and Whitelaw, also. Till, to. Braes, hills. Fit, foot. Gin, if. Tocher, dowry. Gait, way. Wale, choice. Dey, dairy-woman. Laverock, lark. Liltin', carolling. Shealin', sheep-shed. Gaits and kye, goats and cows.
KATHARINE JANFARIE. Mainly after Motherwell's version entitled Catherine Johnstone. Other renderings are given by Scott, Maidment, and Buchan. In Scott's version the name of the English suitor is Lord Lochinvar, and both name and story the thieving poet has turned, as everybody knows, to excellent account. The two closing stanzas here seem to betray the hand of an English balladist. Weel-faur'd, well-favored. Lave, rest. Spier'd, asked. Brae, hill.
GLENLOGIE. After Smith's version in the Scottish Minstrel,—a book wherein "great liberties," Motherwell claims, have been taken with ancient lays. A rough but spirited version is given by Sharpe, and a third by Buchan. Gar, make. His lane, alone.
GET UP AND BAR THE DOOR. After Herd. This ballad appears, too, in Johnson's Museum and Ritson's Scottish Songs. Martinmas, the eleventh of November. Intil, into. Hussyskep, house-keeping. Bree, broth. Scaud, scald.
THE LAWLANDS O' HOLLAND. After Herd. Another version, longer and poorer, occurs in Johnson's Museum. Withershins, the wrong way. Twinned, parted.
THE TWA CORBIES. After Scott, who received it from Mr. C. K. Sharpe, "as written down, from tradition, by a lady." This seems to be the Scottish equivalent of an old English poem, The Three Ravens, given by Ritson in his Ancient Songs. Corbies, ravens. Fail, turf. Kens, knows. Hause, neck. Pyke, pick. Theek, thatch.
HELEN OF KIRCONNEL. After Scott. Other versions are given by Herd, Ritson, and Jamieson. There is said to be a traditional basis for the ballad, and the grave of the lovers, Adam Fleming and Helen Irving (or Helen Bell), is still pointed out in the churchyard of Kirconnell, near Springkell. Burd, lady.
WALY WALY. After Ramsay, being first published in the Tea-Table Miscellany. These touching and tender stanzas have been pieced by Chambers into the patchwork ballad, Lord Jamie Douglas, but evidently it is not there that they belong. Waly, a cry of lamentation. Brae, hillside. Burn, brook. Syne, then. Lichtly, slight. Busk, adorn. Marti'mas, November. Fell, bitterly. Cramasie, crimson.
LORD RONALD. After Scott's version entitled Lord Randal. Scott adopts this name because he thinks the ballad may originally have had reference to the death of Thomas Randolph, or Randal, Earl of Murray,—a theory which Allingham, with more justice than mercy, briefly disposes of as "mere antiquarian moonshine." In point of fact the ballad recounts an old, old story, told in many literatures, Italian, German, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Magyar, Wendish, Bohemian, Catalan. The English offshoot takes on a bewildering variety of forms. (See Introduction, pp. xiii, xiv.) Broo', broth.