That is made of mettal so fine,
That when he comes to the border-side
He may think of Hugh in the Grime.’
THE DEATH OF PARCY REED
The Text.—There are two texts available for this ballad, of which the second one, here given, was said to have been taken down from the singing of an old woman by James Telfer of Liddesdale, and was so printed in Richardson’s Borderers‘ Table Book (1846). It preserves almost the whole of the other version, taken from Robert White’s papers, who recorded it in 1829; but it obviously bears marks of having been tampered with by Telfer. However, it contains certain stanzas which Child says may be regarded as traditional, and it is therefore preferred here.
The Story.—Percival or Parcy Reed was warden of the district round Troughend, a high tract of land in Redesdale. In the discharge of his duties he incurred the enmity of the family of Hall of Girsonsfield (two miles east of Troughend) and of some moss-troopers named Crosier. As the ballad shows, the treachery of the Halls delivered Parcy Reed into the Crosiers’ hands at a hut in Batinghope, a glen westward of the Whitelee stream. Local tradition adds to the details narrated in the ballad that Parcy’s wife had been warned by a dream of her husband’s danger, and that on the following morning his loaf of bread happened to be turned upside down—a very bad omen.
Further, we learn from the same source, the Crosiers’ barbarous treatment of Parcy’s corpse aroused the indignation of the neighbourhood, and they and the treacherous Halls were driven away.
Girsonsfield has belonged to no one of the name of Hall as far back as Elizabeth, whence it is argued that the ballad is not later than the sixteenth century.