When they came to fair London town,
Into the courtiers' hall,
The lords and knights of fair London town35
Did him a traitor call.
"A traitor! a traitor!" says my lord,
"A traitor! how can that be?
An it be nae for the keeping five thousand men,
To fight for King Jamie.40
"O all you lords and knights in fair London town,
Come out and see me die;
O all you lords and knights in fair London town,
Be kind to my ladie.
"There's fifty pounds in my right pocket,45
Divide it to the poor;
There's other fifty in my left pocket,
Divide it from door to door."
THE BATTLE OF TRANENT-MUIR, OR OF PRESTON-PANS
Herd's Scottish Songs, i. 166: Ritson's Scotish Songs, ii. 76.
This ballad is the work of Adam Skirving, a clever and opulent farmer, father of Archibald Skirving, the portrait painter. It was printed shortly after the battle as a broadside, and next appeared in The Charmer, vol. ii. p. 349, Edinb. 1751. Neither of those editions contains the eleventh stanza. The foot-notes commonly attached to the subsequent re
prints are found in The Charmer. (Laing in Johnson's Museum, iv. 189*.)