[27] Selkirkshire, otherwise called Ettrick Forest.
[28] Berwickshire, otherwise called the Merse.
"Against the proud Scottes' clattering,
That never wyll leave their tratlying;
Wan they the field and lost theyr kinge?
They may well say, fie on that winning!
Lo these fond sottes and tratlying Scottes,
How they are blinde in theyr own minde,
And will not know theyr overthrow.
At Branxton moore they are so stowre,
So frantike mad, they say they had,
And wan the field with speare and shielde:
That is as true as black is blue, &c.
Skelton Laureate against the Scottes.
[THE FLOWERS OF THE FOREST.]
PART FIRST.
The following well known, and beautiful stanzas, were composed many years ago, by a lady of family, in Roxburghshire. The manner of the ancient minstrels is so happily imitated, that it required the most positive evidence to convince the editor that the song was of modern date. Such evidence, however, he has been able to procure; having been favoured, through the kind intervention of Dr Somerville (well known to the literary world, as the historian of King William, &c.), with the following authentic copy of the Flowers of the Forest.
From the same respectable authority, the editor is enabled to state, that the tune of the ballad is ancient, as well as the two following lines of the first stanza: