[70]. Fraser, The Douglas Book, Edinburgh, 1885, II, 277 f, 449 f. The contract, being a mutual paper, may not express to the full the supposed grievances of either party.
[71]. The Douglas Book, II, 450 f. “Lawrie is mentioned by Lord Fountainhall as ‘late chamberlain to the Marquis of Douglas, and repute a bad instrument between him and his lady in their differences.’ Decisions, I, 196.”
What should prompt Lawrie to malice against the marchioness is unknown. Kinloch, Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 58, accepting the story of the old woman from whom he obtained E, says: “The Laird of Blackwood and the Marquis of —— were rivals in the affection of a lovely and amiable young lady, who, preferring the latter, became his wife. Blackwood ... vowed revenge,” etc. Chambers, who repeats this account, Scottish Ballads, p. 150, remarks that Lawrie seems to have been considerably advanced in life at the time. Lawrie’s son made a “retour of services” in 1650, and may be supposed then to have been of age. The Marquis of Douglas was in his twenty-fourth year when he married, in 1670, and probably Lady Barbara Erskine was not older. Maidment is surprised that Lawrie, “a man of uncertain lineage,” should have succeeded with the widow Marion Weir. What is to be thought of his aspiring, at the age of sixty, or more, to “the affection of a lovely and amiable young lady” of the family of Mar, one of the most ancient in Scotland?
[72]. Kinloch MSS, I, 95 f. For one or two points see Maidment’s Scotish Ballads and Songs, 1868, II, 262 ff., the preface to the ballad there called ‘Lady Barbara Erskine’s Lament.’
[73]. “Matthew Crawford, weaver, Howwood, sings ‘Jamie Douglas’ with the conclusion in which the lady dies after her return and reconciliation with her lord.” Motherwell’s Note-Book, p. 56.
“I was informed by A. Lile that she has heard a longer set of the ballad in which, while Lady Douglas is continuing her lament, she observes a troop of gentlemen coming to her father’s, and she expresses a wish that these should be sent by her lord to bring her home. They happen to be sent for that purpose, and she accompanies them. On her meeting, however, with her lord, and while putting a cup of wine to her lips, her heart breaks, and she drops down dead at his feet.” Motherwell, note to G, MS., p. 347.
Lawrie came near losing his head in 1683 for political reasons, but he survived the revolution of 1688, “got all the proceedings against him annulled, and a complete rehabilitation.” Wodrow, II, 295; Maidment, 1868, II, 268.
[74]. All but E have b 4: E has a 4. All but A, D, E, L, M have 1. A, C, E have 10; J has 2, 3; A has 8; F has 9.
[75]. It must be said, however, that stanza 8, ‘When we came in by Glasgow town,’ etc., hardly suits the song, and would be entirely appropriate to the ballad (as it is in A 2). It may have been taken up from this ballad (which must date from the last quarter of the seventeenth century), or from some other.
[76]. a is followed in Percy’s Reliques, 1765, III, 144, Herd, Ancient and Modern Scots Songs, 1769, p. 196; b, in the Musical Museum, p. 166, No 158; with slight variations in each copy.