BALLAD PAGE
189.Hobie Noble[1]
190.Jamie Telfer of the Fair Dodhead[4]
(Additions and Corrections: IV, 518; V, 249, 300.)
191.Hughie Grame[8]
(Additions and Corrections: IV, 518; V, 300.)
192.The Lochmaben Harper[16]
(Additions and Corrections: V, 300.)
193.The Death of Parcy Reed[24]
(Additions and Corrections: IV, 520.)
194.The Laird of Wariston[28]
195.Lord Maxwell’s Last Goodnight[34]
(Additions and Corrections: V, 251.)
196.The Fire of Frendraught[39]
(Additions and Corrections: IV, 521; V, 251, 301.)
197.James Grant[49]
(Additions and Corrections: V, 251.)
198.Bonny John Seton[51]
(Additions and Corrections: V, 251.)
199.The Bonnie House o Airlie[54]
(Additions and Corrections: V, 252.)
200.The Gypsy Laddie[61]
(Additions and Corrections: IV, 522; V, 252, 301.)
201.Bessy Bell and Mary Gray[75]
(Additions and Corrections: IV, 522; V, 253.)
202.The Battle of Philiphaugh[77]
203.The Baron of Brackley[79]
(Additions and Corrections: IV, 522; V, 253.)
204.Jamie Douglas[90]
205.Loudon Hill, or, Drumclog[105]
206.Bothwell Bridge[108]
207.Lord Delamere[110]
208.Lord Derwentwater[115]
(Additions and Corrections: IV, 522; V, 254.)
209.Geordie[123]
210.Bonnie James Campbell[142]
211.Bewick and Graham[144]
(Additions and Corrections: IV, 522.)
212.The Duke of Athole’s Nurse[150]
213.Sir James the Rose[155]
214.The Braes o Yarrow[160]
(Additions and Corrections: IV, 522; V, 255.)
215.Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow, or, The Water o Gamrie[178]
(Additions and Corrections: V, 256.)
216.The Mother’s Malison, or, Clyde’s Water[185]
(Additions and Corrections: V, 256, 301.)
217.The Broom of Cowdenknows[191]
(Additions and Corrections: IV, 523; V, 257.)
218.The False Lover won back[209]
219.The Gardener[212]
(Additions and Corrections: V, 258.)
220.The Bonny Lass of Anglesey[214]
221.Katharine Jaffray[216]
(Additions and Corrections: IV, 523; V, 260.)
222.Bonny Baby Livingston[231]
(Additions and Corrections: IV, 523; V, 261.)
223.Eppie Morrie[239]
(Additions and Corrections: V, 262.)
224.The Lady of Arngosk[241]
225.Rob Roy[243]
(Additions and Corrections: IV, 523; V, 262.)
226.Lizie Lindsay[255]
(Additions and Corrections: IV, 524; V, 264.)
227.Bonny Lizie Baillie[266]
(Additions and Corrections: V, 265.)
228.Glasgow Peggie[270]
(Additions and Corrections: V, 266.)
229.Earl Crawford[276]
(Additions and Corrections: V, 301.)
230.The Slaughter of the Laird of Mellerstain[281]
231.The Earl of Errol[282]
(Additions and Corrections: V, 267.)
232.Richie Story[291]
(Additions and Corrections: V, 270.)
233.Andrew Lammie[300]
234.Charlie MacPherson[308]
(Additions and Corrections: V, 301.)
235.The Earl of Aboyne[311]
(Additions and Corrections: V, 270, 301.)
236.The Laird o Drum[322]
(Additions and Corrections: V, 272.)
237.The Duke of Gordon’s Daughter[332]
(Additions and Corrections: V, 273.)
238.Glenlogie, or, Jean o Bethelnie[338]
(Additions and Corrections: V, 273, 302.)
239.Lord Saltoun and Auchanachie[347]
(Additions and Corrections: V, 273.)
240.The Rantin Laddie[351]
(Additions and Corrections: V, 274.)
241.The Baron o Leys[355]
(Additions and Corrections: V, 275.)
242.The Coble o Cargill[358]
243.James Harris (The Dæmon Lover)[360]
(Additions and Corrections: IV, 524.)
244.James Hatley[370]
245.Young Allan[375]
(Additions and Corrections: V, 275.)
246.Redesdale and Wise William[383]
(Additions and Corrections: V, 276.)
247.Lady Elspat[387]
248.The Grey Cock, or, Saw you my Father?[389]
(Additions and Corrections: V, 302.)
249.Auld Matrons[391]
250.Henry Martyn[393]
(Additions and Corrections: V, 302.)
251.Lang Johnny More[396]
(Additions and Corrections: IV, 524.)
252.The Kitchie-Boy[400]
(Additions and Corrections: V, 277.)
253.Thomas o Yonderdale[409]
254.Lord William, or, Lord Lundy[411]
255.Willie’s Fatal Visit[415]
256.Alison and Willie[416]
257.Burd Isabel and Earl Patrick[417]
(Additions and Corrections: V, 278.)
258.Broughty Wa’s[423]
259.Lord Thomas Stuart[425]
(Additions and Corrections: V, 279.)
260.Lord Thomas and Lady Margaret[426]
261.Lady Isabel[429]
262.Lord Livingston[431]
263.The New-Slain Knight[434]
(Additions and Corrections: V, 279.)
264.The White Fisher[435]
265.The Knight’s Ghost[437]
Additions and Corrections[439]

189
HOBIE NOBLE

a. Caw’s Poetical Museum, p. 193.

b. ‘Hobie Noble,’ Percy Papers.

Scott’s Minstrelsy, I, 164, 1802, II, 90, 1833. The source is not mentioned, but was undoubtedly Caw’s Museum, though there are variations of text, attributable to the editor. A copy in the Campbell MSS, I, 230, is again from the Museum, with several corrections, two of which are also found in Scott. Caw received the ballad, says Sir Walter, from John Elliot of Reidheugh. b seems to have been sent Percy (with ‘Dick o the Cow’) by Roger Halt, in 1775.

Hobie Noble, though banished from Bewcastle for his irregularities, will always command the hearty liking of those who live too late to suffer from them, on account of his gallant bearing in the rescue of Jock o the Side. See especially No 187, A, of which Hobie is the hero. All that we know of him is so much as we are told in that ballad and in this. He attached himself, after his expulsion from England, to the laird of Mangerton, who gives him the praise ‘Thy coat is blue, thou has been true.’

Sim o the Mains, an Armstrong of the Whithaugh branch (the most important after that of Mangerton), undertakes to betray Hobie to the English land-sergeant. A tryst is set at Kershope-foot, the junction of that stream with the Liddel; and Hobie, who lives a little way up the Liddel, rides eagerly down the water to keep it. He meets five men, who ask him to join them in a raid into England. Hobie dares not go by day; the land-sergeant is at feud with him on account of a brother’s death, in which Hobie must have had a hand, and ‘the great earl of Whitfield’ has suffered from his depredations;[[1]] but he will be their guide if they will wait till night. He takes them to the Foulbogshiel, where they alight, and word is sent by Sim to the land-sergeant at Askerton, his adversary’s residence; the land-sergeant orders the men of the neighborhood to meet him at daybreak. Hobie has a bad dream, wakes his comrades in alarm, and sets out to guide them across the Waste; but the sergeant’s force come before him, and Sim behind; his sword breaks; he is bound with his own bow-string and taken to Carlisle. As he goes up the quarter called the Rickergate, the wives say one to the other, That’s the man that loosed Jock o the Side! They offer him bread and beer, and urge him to confess stealing “my lord’s” horses; he swears a great oath that he never had beast of my lord’s. He is to die the next day, and says his farewell to Mangerton; he would rather be called ‘Hobie Noble’ and be hanged in Carlisle, than be called ‘Traitor Mains’ and eat and drink.

Mr R. B. Armstrong informs me that he has found no notice of Hobie Noble except that Hobbe Noble, with eight others, “lived within the Nyxons, near to Bewcastle.”

1569. “Lancy Armistrang of Quhithauch obliged him ... for Sym Armistrang of the Mains and the rest of the Armistrangis of his gang. Syme of the Mains was lodged in Wester Wemys.” (Register of the Privy Council of Scotland.)

4. The Mains was a place a very little to the east of Castleton, on the opposite, or north, side of the Liddel. 13–17. Askerton is in the Waste of Bewcastle, “about seventeen miles” northeast of Carlisle. “Willeva and Spear-Edom [otherwise Spade-Adam] are small districts in Bewcastle dale, through which also the Hartlie-burn takes its course. Conscowthart-Green and Rodric-haugh and the Foulbogshiel are the names of places in the same wilds, through which the Scottish plunderers generally made their raids upon England.” (Scott.)