A b 2, D 1, 2, represent Argyle to be acting under the orders of Montrose, or in concert with him.
A piece in five or six stanzas which appears, with variations, in Cromek’s Remains, p. 195, Hogg’s Jacobite Relics, II, 151, Cunningham’s Songs of Scotland, III, 218, under the caption of ‘Young Airly’ (the title of C b also in Cromek), moves forward the burning of Airlie to “the 45;” not very strangely (if there is anything traditional in these verses), when we consider the prominence of the younger Lord Ogilvie and his wife among the supporters of Charles Edward. (The first three of Cromek’s stanzas are transcribed into Campbell MSS, I, 187.) No doubt the Charlie and Prince Charlie of some versions of our ballad were understood by the reciters to be the Young Chevalier.
The Committee of Estates, June 12, 1640, gave commission to the Earl of Argyle to rise in arms against certain people, among whom was the Earl of Airlie, as enemies to religion and unnatural to their country, and to pursue them with fire and sword until they should be brought to their duty or else utterly subdued and rooted out. The Earl of Airlie had gone to England, fearing lest he should be pressed to subscribe the Covenant, and had left his house to the keeping of his eldest son, Lord Ogilvie. Montrose, who had signed the commission as one of the Committee, but was not inclined to so strenuous proceedings, invested Airlie, forced a surrender, and put a garrison in the place to hold it for the “public.” Argyle did not interpret his commission in this mild way. He took Airlie in hand in the beginning of July, and caused both this house and that of Forthar, belonging to Lord Ogilvie, to be pillaged, burned, and demolished. Thereafter he fell upon the lands both of the proprietor and his tenantry, and carried off or destroyed “their whole goods, gear, corns, cattle, horse, nolt, sheep,” and left nothing but bare bounds.
According to one writer, Lady Ogilvie was residing at Forthar, and, being big with child, asked leave of Argyle to stay till she was brought to bed; but this was not allowed, and she was put out, though she knew not whither to go. By another account, Argyle accused Montrose of having suffered the lady to escape.[[36]]
The ballad puts Lady Airlie in command of the house or castle, but none of the family were there at the time it was sacked. She is called Lady Margaret in A b 4, but her name was Elizabeth. The earl, James, is called the great Sir John in C a 9. A 10 and the like elsewhere are applicable to the younger Lady Ogilvie in respect to the unborn child. Chambers says that Lady Airlie had three children and Lady Ogilvie but one, and “the poet must be wrong.” “The poet,” besides being inaccurate, does not tell the same story in all the versions, and this inconsistency is again observable in ‘Geordie,’ A 9, B 18, C 8, etc.
‘Gleyd Argyle’ is “generally described as of mean stature, with red hair and squinting eyes.”[[37]] His morals appear to some disadvantage again in ‘Geordie,’ I a 23.
A
a. Sharpe’s Ballad Book, p. 59, No 20, 1823. b. Finlay’s Ballads, II, 25, 1808, from two recited copies and “one printed about twenty years ago on a single sheet.” c. Skene MS., pp. 28, 54, from recitation in the north of Scotland, 1802–3. d. Campbell MSS, II, 113, probably from a stall-copy. e, f. Aberdeen stall copies, “printed for the booksellers.” g. Hogg’s Jacobite Relics, II, 152, No 76, “Cromek and a street ballad collated, 1821.” h. Kinloch MSS, VI, 5, one stanza, taken down from an old woman’s recitation by J. Robertson.
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