“Some fragments of this ballad are still current, and will be found in the ensuing work,” says Scott, Minstrelsy, I, 221, note, ed. 1833. It may be that Sir Walter became convinced that these fragments were not genuine; at any rate, they do not appear in his collection.
The Countesse of Douglas out of her boure she came,
And loudly there that she did call:
‘It is for the Lord of Liddesdale
That I let all these teares downe fall.’
161
THE BATTLE OF OTTERBURN
A. a. Cotton MS. Cleopatra, C. iv, leaf 24, of about 1550. b. Harleian MS. 293, leaf 52. Both in the British Museum.
B. a. Herd’s MSS, I, 149, II, 30; Herd’s Scottish Songs, 1776, I, 153. b. Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, 1802, I, 31.
C. Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, 1833, I, 354.
D. Finlay’s Scottish Ballads, I, xviii f., two stanzas.