"Then he was aware of the king's coming,
With hundreds three in company,
I wot the muckle deel * * * * *
He learned kings to lie!
For to fetch me here frae amang my men,
Here like a dog for to die."
I believe the reader will think, with me, that the catastrophe is better, as now printed from Mrs. Cockburn's copy. The deceit supposed to be practised on the Outlaw, is unworthy of the military monarch, as he is painted in the ballad; especially if we admit him to be King James IV.
Fair Philiphaugh is mine by right.—P. 101. v. 1.
In this and the following verse, the ceremony of feudal investiture is supposed to be gone through, by the Outlaw resigning his possessions into the hands of the king, and receiving them back, to be held of him as superior. The lands of Philiphaugh are still possessed by the Outlaw's representative. Hangingshaw and Lewinshope were sold of late years. Newark, Foulshiels and Tinnies, have long belonged to the family of Buccleuch.