Quhilt hangit Johnnie Armistrang,
Of gude hempt, soft and sound,
Gude haly pepill, I stand ford,
Wha'evir beis hangit in this cord,
Neidis nevir to be drowned!
Pinkerton's Scottish Poems, Vol. II. p. 69.
In The Complaynt of Scotland, John Armistrangis's dance, mentioned as a popular tune, has probably some reference to our hero.
The common people of the high parts of Tiviotdale, Liddesdale, and the country adjacent, hold the memory of Johnie Armstrong in very high [117] respect. They affirm also, that one of his attendants broke through the king's guard, and carried to Gilnockie Tower the news of the bloody catastrophe.
This song was first published by Allan Ramsay, in his Evergreen, who says, he copied it from the mouth of a gentleman, called Armstrong, who was in the sixth generation from this John. The reciter assured him, that this was the genuine old ballad; the common one false. By the common one, Ramsay means an English ballad upon the same subject, but differing in various particulars, which is published in Mr. Ritson's English Songs, Vol. II. It is fortunate for the admirers of the old ballad, that it did not fall into Ramsay's hands, when he was equipping with new sets of words the old Scottish tunes in his Tea-Table Miscellany. Since his time it has been often reprinted.