Duncan Frasier does not appear in the last stanza:
Now this fact, as it happened, is
For their good sung in rhime,
Lest they should some important part
Forget of it in time.
Along with this earlier copy of Lambe's is found another, undescribed, which shows both agreements and variations: 2 follows 3, and 6, 7 and the final stanza are the same. 17 and 22 are wanting, and there are, therefore, no witches and no rowan-tree. Instead of 21-23, we have this very bad stanza:
'Run, run, my men, my sailors send
Aboard yon ship so tall,
And bid them drown the Child of Wind;
But he soon slew them all.'
In the same parcel there is a copy of 'The Laidley Worm' which is somewhat more in the popular tone than the one already printed. It was sent in an undated letter [1775?] to J. Bulman, Esq., of Sheepwash, Morpeth, by E. G., that is, Captain E. Grow. "The above," says E. G., "is the Haggworm as I collected it from an old woman. I wrote to the Revrd Mr Lamb for his ballad, and directed him to send to you.... I think the inclosed more original then his, for Mr Lamb, tho a good antiquarian, is but a bad poet, and above the one half is his own composing." Mr J. Bulman appears to have transmitted this version to Percy, to whom, upon another occasion, May 25, 1775, he sends "a bold imitation of the song, now lost, of the Laidler Worm (written by Duncan Frazier, the monk on Cheviot, in 1270), by a lady, Miss Graham of Gloriorum, in Northumberland:" of which nothing need be said.
'The Hagg Worm,' obtained from an old woman by Captain E. Grow.
1 Bambrough Castle's a bonny place,
Built on a marble stone,
But long, long did the lady look
Eer her father came home.
2 She knotted the keys upon a string,
And with her she has them taen;
She cast them oer her left shoulder,
And to the gates she is gaen.
3 It fell out on a day the king
Brought his new lady home,
And all the lordling in his realm
To welcome them did come.
4 'You'r welcome, father,' the lady cries,
'To your halls and your towers,
And so are you, good queen,' said she,
'For all that's here is yours.'