THE GALLANT GRAHAMS

Now, fare thee well, sweet Ennerdale![#]

Baith kith and countrie I bid adieu;

For I maun away, and I may not stay,

To some uncouth land which I never knew.

[#] A corruption of Endrickdale. The principal and most ancient possessions of the Montrose family lie along the water of Endrick, in Dumbartonshire.

To wear the blue I think it best,

Of all the colours that I see;

And I'll wear it for the gallant Grahams,

That are banished from their countrie.

I have no gold, I have no land,

I have no pearl nor precious stane;

But I wald sell my silken snood,

To see the gallant Grahams come hame.

In Wallace days, when they began,

Sir John the Graham[#] did bear the gree

Through all the lands of Scotland wide:

He was lord of the south countrie.

[#] The faithful friend and adherent of the immortal Wallace slain at the battle of Falkirk.

And so was seen full many a time;

For the summer flowers did never spring,

But every Graham, in armour bright,

Would then appear before the king.

They were all drest in armour sheen,

Upon the pleasant banks of Tay;

Before a king they might be seen,

These gallant Grahams in their array.

At the Goukhead our camp we set,

Our leaguer down there for to lay;

And, in the bonny summer light,

We rode our white horse and our gray.

Our false commander sold our king,

Unto his deadly enemie,

Who was the traitor, Cromwell, then;

So I care not what they do with me.

They have betray'd our noble prince,

And banished him from his royal crown;'

But the gallant Grahams have ta'en in hand

For to command those traitors down.

In Glen-Prosen[#] we rendezvous'd,

March'd to Glenshie by night and day.

And took the town of Aberdeen,

And met the Campbells in their array.

[#] Glen-Prosen is in Angusshire, usually called Forfarshire. The Glenshee road, over the Grampians, is the highest road in Great Britain.

Five thousand men, in armour strong,

Did meet the gallant Grahams that day

At Inverlochie, where war began,

And scarce two thousand men were they.

Gallant Montrose, that chieftan bold,

Courageous in the best degree,

Did for the king fight well that day;—

The Lord preserve his majestie!

Then woe to Strachan, and Ilacket baith!

And, Lesly, ill death may thou die!

For ye have betray'd the gallant Grahams,

Who aye were true to majestie.

And the Laird of Assaint has seized Montrose,

And had him into Edinburgh town;

And frae his body taken the head,

And quarter'd him upon a trone,

And Huntly's[#] gone the self-same way,

And our noble king is also gone;

He suffer'd death for our nation,

Our mourning tears can ne'er be done.

[#] The Marquis of Huntly, one of the few Scottish nobles who never wavered in his devotion to King Charles I., was beheaded by the sentence of the Parliament of Scotland.

But our brave young king is now come home,

King Charles the Second in degree;

The Lord send peace into his time,

And God preserve his majestie!