But if you come to wour town end,
They’ll footy again the wa’.
Then hie, &c.
THE BATTLE OF OTTERBURN.
Fought the 9th of August, 1388.
Camden, in his Britannia, page 850, gives the following account of this battle:—“There happened this year, (1388) at Otterburn, in Northumberland, a stout engagement between the Scots and English:—Victory three or four times changing sides, and at last fixing with the Scots; for Henry Piercy, (for his youthful forwardness, by-named Hotspur) who commanded the English, was himself taken prisoner, and lost 1500 of his men; and William Douglass, the Scots general, fell, with the greatest part of his army; so that never was there a greater instance of the martial prowess of both nations.” Sir John Froysart (who lived at that time) gives a full account of this battle, and says, that it was Earl James Douglass who was the Scottish general. See Eachard, Rapin, &c.
From an old MSS.