Thay leife tham nocht on bed nor bakis;
Baith henne and cok,
With reill and rok,
The Lairdis Jok all with him takis. (MS.)
Hutton Hall, 3, being more than twenty miles from the border, seems remote for the Armstrongs’ first reconnaissance, and it is no wonder that Fair Johnie stickled at driving six sheep to such a distance. We might ask how Dick, who evidently lives near Carlisle (for, besides other reasons, he is intimately acquainted with the Armstrongs), should have been met so far from home.
Harribie, 14, mentioned also in ‘Kinmont Willie,’ was the place of execution at Carlisle.
Puddingburn House, 16, according to Chambers, Scottish Ballads, p. 48, was a strong place on the side of the Tinnis Hill, about three miles westward from the Syde (and therefore a very little further from the house of Mangerton), of which the ruins now serve for a sheepfold. A MS. cited by Mr R. B. Armstrong says: “Joke Armestronge, called the Lord’s Joke, dwelleth under Denys Hill besides Kyrsoppe in Tenisborne;” and in another MS. the Lord Jock of Tennesborne is stated to have lived a mile west from Kersopp-foote. The name Puddingburn has not been found on any map.[[308]]
Cannobei, 34, is on the east of the Esk, just above its juncture with the Liddel. Mattan, 52, 58 (Morton in b), is perhaps the small town a few miles east of Whitehaven. There were cattle-fairs at Arlochden, which is very nigh, in the early part of this century: Lysons, Cumberland, p. 10.
The Cow in Dick’s name can have no reference to his cattle, for then his style would have been Dick o the Kye. Cow may possibly denote the hut in which he lived; or bush, or broom.
Translated by Knortz, Schottische Balladen, No 15, p. 42.