His wood-embosomed mansion stood;
In the dark glen, so deep below,
The herds of plunder'd England low;
His bold retainers' daily food,

And bought with danger, blows, and blood.
Marauding chief! his sole delight

The moonlight raid, the morning fight;
Not even the Flower of Yarrow's charms,
In youth, might tame his rage for arms;
And still, in age, he spurn'd at rest,
And still his brows the helmet press'd,
Albeit the blanched locks below
Were white as Dinlay's spotless snow;
Five stately warriors drew the sword
Before their father's band;

A braver knight than Harden's lord
Ne'er belted on a brand.'

X.2

Scotts of Eskdale, a stalwart band,3

1[See, besides the note on this stanza, one in the Border Minstrelsy, vol. ii. p. 10, respecting Wat of Harden, the Author's ancestor.

A satirical piece, entitled "The Town Eclogue," which made much noise in Edinburgh shortly after the appearance of The Minstrelsy, has these lines:

"A modern author spends a hundred leaves,

To prove his ancestors notorious thieves."-ED.] 2[Stanzas x. xi. xii. were not in the 1st Edition.]

8 In this and the following stanzas, some account is given of the mode in which the property in the valley of Eske was transferred from the Beattisons, its incient possessors, to the

Came trooping down the Todshawhill;
By the sword they won their land,
And by the sword they hold it still.
Hearken, Ladye, to the tale,
How thy sires won fair Eskdale.-

Earl Morton was lord of that valley fair,
The Beattisons were his vassals there.
The Earl was gentle, and mild of mood,

The vassals were warlike, and fierce, and rude:

High of heart, and haughty of word,

Little they reck'd of a tame liege lord.
The Earl into fair Eskdale came,
Homage and seignory to claim:

Of Gilbert the Galliard a heriot1 he sought,
Saying, "Give thy best steed, as a vassal ought."

"Dear to me is my bonny white steed,

Oft has he help'd me at pinch of need;
Lord and Earl though thou be, I trow,
I can rein Bucksfoot better than thou."-

name of Scott. It is needless to repeat the circumstances, which are given in the poem, literally as they have been preserved by tradition. Lord Maxwell, in the latter part of the sixteenth century, took upon himself the title of Earl of Morton.. The descendants of Beattison of Woodkerrick, who aided the Earl to escape from his disobedient vassals, continued to hold these lands within the memory of man, and were the only Beattisons who had property in the dale. The old people give locality to the story, by showing the Galliard's Haugh, the place where Buccleuch's men were concealed, &c.

The feudal superior, in certain cases, was entitled to the best horse of the vassal, in name of Heriot, or Herezeld.

Word on word gave fuel to fire,

Till so highly blazed the Beattison's ire,
But that the Earl the flight had ta’en,

The vassals there their lord had slain.
Sore he plied both whip and spur,

As he urged his steed through Eskdale muir;
And it fell down a weary weight,

Just on the threshold of Branksome gate.

XI.

The Earl was a wrathful man to see,
Full fain avenged would he be.
In haste to Branksome's Lord he spoke,
Saying "Take these traitors to thy yoke;
For a cast of hawks, and a purse of gold,
All Eskdale I'll sell thee, to have and hold:
Beshrew thy heart, of the Beattisons' clan
If thou leavest on Eske a landed man;
But spare Woodkerrick's lands alone,
For he lent me his horse to escape upon."
A glad man then was Branksome bold,
Down he flung him the purse of gold;
To Eskdale soon he spurr'd amain,
And with him five hundred riders has ta'en.
He left his merrymen in the mist of the hill,
And bade them hold them close and still;
And alone he wended to the plain,

To meet with the Galliard and all his train.
To Gilbert the Galliard thus he said:

"Know thou me for thy liege-lord and head;

Deal not with me as with Morton tame,

For Scotts play best at the roughest game.
Give me in peace my heriot due,
Thy bonny white steed, or thou shalt rue.
If my horn I three times wind,

Eskdale shall long have the sound in mind."..

XII.

Loudly the Beattison laugh'd in scorn;
"Little care we for thy winded horn.
Ne'er shall it be the Galliard's lot,
To yield his steed to a haughty Scott.
Wend thou to Branksome back on foot,
With rusty spur and miry boot."-

-

He blew his bugle so loud and hoarse,
That the dun deer started at far Craikcross;
He blew again so loud and clear,

Through the gray mountain-mist there did lances

appear;

And the third blast rang with such a din, That the echoes answer'd from Pentoun-linn, And all his riders came lightly in.

Then had you seen a gallant shock,

When saddles were emptied, and lances broke! For each scornful word the Galliard had said, A Beattison on the field was laid.

His own good sword the chieftain drew,

And he bore the Galliard through and through; Where the Beattisons' blood mix'd with the rill. The Galliard's Haugh men call it still.

The Scotts have scatter'd the Beattison clan,
In Eskdale they left but one landed man.
The valley of Eske, from the mouth to the
source,

Was lost and won for that bonny white horse.

XIII.

Whitslade the Hawk, and Headshaw came,
And warriors more than I
may name;

From Yarrow-cleugh to Hindhaugh-swair,'
From Woodhouselie to Chester-glen,
Troop'd man and horse, and bow and spear;
Their gathering word was Bellenden.2

And better hearts o'er Border sod

To siege or rescue never rode.

The Ladye mark'd the aids come in,

And high her heart of pride arose:
She bade her youthful son attend,
That he might know his father's friend,
And learn to face his foes.

"The boy is ripe to look on war;

I saw him draw a crossbow stiff,
And his true arrow struck afar

1 [This and the three following lines are not in the first edition.-ED.]

2 Bellenden is situated near the head of Borthwick water, and being in the centre of the possessions of the Scotts, was frequently used as their place of rendezvous and gathering word.-Survey of Selkirkshire, in Macfarlane's MSS., Advocates' Library. Hence Satchells calls one part of his genealogical account of the families of that clan, his Bellenden.