J. ‘Gight’s Lady,’ Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, I, 133.

K. Motherwell’s MS., p. 400, two stanzas.

L. ‘Geordie,’ Cunningham’s Songs of Scotland, II, 186, two stanzas.

M. ‘Geordie,’ ‘Geordie Lukely,’ Motherwell’s Note-Book, p. 2, one stanza.

N. ‘Geordie,’ Motherwell’s Note-Book, p. 20, one stanza.

“Of this,” says Motherwell, “many variations exist among reciters,” and his remark is borne out by what is here given.

The copy in Cunningham’s Songs of Scotland, II, 186, is A retouched, with st. 5 dropped and two stanzas (L) inserted from recitation. The texts of Christie, I, 52, 84, are J abridged and E b. Of J Christie says that he heard in 1848 a version sung by a native of Buchan, Aberdeenshire, who had it through her grandmother and great-grandmother, which differed only in being more condensed and wanting the catastrophe, and in having Badenoch’s lady for Bignet’s, and Keith-Hall and Gartly for Black Riggs and Kincraigie.

Geordie Gordon, A, of Gight (Gigh), B b, C, D, I, of the Bog o Gight, H, is in prison, on a charge endangering his life. He sends a message to his wife to come to Edinburgh. She rides thither with the utmost haste, and finds Geordie in extremity. She is told that his life may be redeemed by the payment of a large sum of money. She raises a contribution on the spot, pays the ransom, and rides off with her husband.

Kinloch and others incline to take Geordie to be George Gordon, fourth earl of Huntly, who incurred the Queen Regent’s displeasure for failing to execute a commission against a Highland robber in 1554. Huntly was committed to Edinburgh Castle, and some of his many enemies urged that he should be banished to France, others that he should be put to death. The Earl of Cassilis, though a foe to Huntly, resisted these measures on grounds of patriotism, and proposed that he should be deprived of certain honors and offices and fined. A fine was exacted, and the places which had been taken from him were restored.[[88]] With regard to this hypothesis, it may at least be said that, if it should be accepted, the ballad would be quite as faithful to history as many others.

A-E are the purer forms of the ballad; F-J are corrupted by admixture.