THE LIFE AND DEATH OF SIR HUGH OF THE GRIME. (See p. [51].)
From Durfey's Pills to purge Melancholy, vi. 289.
The same is printed in Ritson's Ancient Songs (ed. 1790), p. 192, from a collation of two blackletter copies, one in the collection of the Duke of Roxburgh, and "another in the hands of John Baynes, Esq." Several stanzas are corrupted, and the names are greatly disfigured. Ritson mentions in a note a somewhat different ballad on the same subject, beginning:—
"Good Lord John is a hunting gone."
As it befel upon one time,
About mid-summer of the year,
Every man was taxt of his crime,
For stealing the good Lord Bishop's mare.
The good Lord Screw sadled a horse,5
And rid after the same serime;
Before he did get over the moss,
There was he aware of Sir Hugh of the Grime.
"Turn, O turn, thou false traytor,
Turn, and yield thyself unto me:10
Thou hast stol'n the Lord Bishop's mare,
And now thinkest away to flee."
"No, soft, Lord Screw, that may not be;
Here is a broad sword by my side,
And if that thou canst conquer me,15
The victory will soon be try'd."