Besides the want of connection between the last line and the two former, the second has a very modern sound, and the reading in the Rokeby MS., with the slight alteration in the text, is much better.
[83] Mad.
[84] Torn, pulled.
[85] Combat, perilous fight.
[86] This stanza, with the two following, and a fragment of a fourth, are not in Dr. Whitaker's edition.
[87] The residence of this facetious baron. Leland says, that "Mr. Rokeby hath a place called Mortham, a little beneath Grentey-bridge, almost on the mouth of Grentey." "This place and Rokeby," says Hutchinson, "were, in very distant ages, in the possession of the Rokebies; Robert de Rokeby lived in the time of the Conqueror. By the arms and date on Mortham tower, it appears that it was built in 1166 by the Rokebies."
[88] The rope about the sow's neck.
[89] Ralph Rokeby married Margery, eldest daughter and co-heir of Robert Danby, esq., of Yafforth near Northallerton, by a daughter of sir Richard Conyers, knt. Her will is dated 27 Sep. 1540.—See Richmond Wills by Surtees Soc.
[90] This line is illegible according to Scott; but Bell in his Ballads gives the verse:—
Scho gav her meete upon the flower