446

The lady blush'd red, but nothing she said;
Nor added the baron a word;

Then she stepp'd down the stair to her chamber fair,
And so did her moody lord.

In sleep the lady mourn'd, and the baron toss'd and
turn'd,

And oft to himself he said—

The worms around him creep, and his bloody grave is deep

It cannot give up the dead.>

It was near the ringing of matin-bell,
The night was well nigh done,
When a heavy sleep on that baron fell,
On the eve of good St John.

The lady look'd through the chamber fair,
By the light of a dying flame;

And she was aware of a knight stood there-
Sir Richard of Coldinghame!

«Alas! away, away!» she cried,

« For the holy Virgin's sake!»

Lady, I know who sleeps by thy side:
But, lady, he will not awake.

« By Eildon-tree, for long nights three,
In bloody grave have I lain;

The mass and the death-prayer are said for me,
But, lady, they are said in vain.

« By the baron's brand, near Tweed's fair strand,
Most foully slain I fell;

And my restless sprite on the beacon's height,
For a space is doom'd to dwell.

« At our trysting-place,' for a certain space,
I must wander to and fro;

But I had not had power to come to thy bower,
Hadst thou not conjured me so.>>

That nun, who ne'er beholds the day,
That monk, who speaks to none,
That nun was Smaylho'me's lady gay,
That monk the bold baron.

NOTES.

BATTLE OF ANCRAM MOOR.

Lord Evers, and Sir Brian Latoun, during the year 1544, committed the most dreadful ravages upon the Scottish frontiers, compelling most of the inhabitants, and especially the men of Liddesdale, to take assurance under the King of England. Upon the 17th November, in that year, the sum total of their depredations stood thus, in the bloody ledger of Lord Evers.

Towns, towers, barnekynes, paryshe
churches, bastill houses, burned

and destroyed

Scots slain.

Prisoners taken

Nolt (cattle)

Shepe

Boils of corn

12,492

1,296

200

850

Insight gear, etc. (furniture) an incalculable
quantity.

MURDIN'S State Papers, vol. i, p. 51.

The King of England had promised to these two barons a feudal grant of the country, which they had thus reduced to a desert; upon hearing which, Archibald Douglas, the seventh earl of Angus, is said to have sworn to write the deed of investiture upon their skins, with sharp pens and bloody ink, in resentment for their having defaced the tombs of his ancestors, at Melrose.-Godscroft. In 1545, Lord Evers and Latoun again entered Scotland with an army, consisting of 3000 mercenaries, 1500 English Borderers, and 700 assured Scottishmen, chiefly Armstrongs, Turnbulls, and other broken clans. In this second incursion, the English generals even exceeded their former cruelty. Evers burned the tower of Broomhouse with its lady (a noble and aged woman, says Lesley), and her whole family. The English penetrated as far as Melrose, which they had destroyed last year, and which they now again pillaged. As they returned towards Jedburgh, they were followed by Angus, at the head of 1000 horse, who was shortly after joined by the famous Norman Lesley, with a body of Fife-men. The English, being probably unwilling to cross the Teviot while the Scots hung upon their rear, halted upon Ancram Moor, above the village of that name; and the Scottish general was deliberating whether to advance or retire, when Sir Walter Scott

1 The editor has found no instance upon record of this family having taken assurance with England. Hence they usually suffered dreadfully from the English forays. In August, 1544 (the year preceding the battle), the whole lands belonging to Buccleuch, in West Teviotdale, were barried by Evers; the out-works, er barakia of the tower of Branxholm, burned; eight Scots slain, thirty made ! prisoners, and an immense prey of horses, cattle, and sheep, carried off. The lands upon Kale Water, belonging to the same chieftain. were also plundered, and much spoil obtained; thirty Scots slain, and the Moss Tower (a fortress near Eckford) smoked very sore. Thus Buccleuch had a long account to settle at Ancram Moor.— MURDIN'S State Papers, pp. 45, 46.

Fair maiden Lylliard lies under this stane,
Little was her stature, but great was her fame;
Upon the English louns she laid mony thumps,
And when her legs were cutted off, she fought upon her stumps.
Vide Account of the Parish of Melrose.

It appears, from a passage in Stowe, that an ancestor of Lord Evers held also a grant of Scottish lands from an English monarch. « I have seen,» says the histo

of Buccleuch came up, at full speed, with a small but chosen body of his retainers, the rest of whom were near at hand. By the advice of this experienced warrior (to whose conduct Pitscottie and Buchanan ascribe the success of the engagement), Angus withdrew from the height which he occupied, and drew up his forces behind it, upon a piece of low flat ground, called Panier-heugh, or Peniel-heugh. The spare horses, being sent to an eminence in their rear, appeared to the Eng-rian, « under the broad seale of the said King Edward glish to be the main body of the Scots, in the act of flight. Under this persuasion, Evers and Latoun hurried precipitately forward, and, having ascended the hill, which their foes had abandoned, were no less dismayed than astonished to find the phalanx of Scottish spearmen drawn up, in firm array, upon the flat ground

below. The Scots in their turn became the assailants. A heron, roused from the marshes by the tumult, soared away betwixt the encountering armies: «O!» exclaimed Angus, « that I had here my white goss-hawk, that we might all yoke at once!»-Godscroft. The English, breathless and fatigued, having the setting sun and wind full in their faces, were unable to withstand the resolute and desperate charge of the Scottish lances. No sooner had they begun to waver, than their own allies, the assured Borderers, who had been waiting the event, threw aside their red crosses, and, joining their countrymen, made a most merciless slaughter among the English fugitives, the pursuers calling upon each other to << remember Broomhouse!»-Lesley, p. 478. In the battle fell Lord Evers, and his son, together with Sir Brian Latoun, and 800 Englishmen, many of whom were persons of rank. A thousand prisoners were taken. Among these was a patriotic alderman of London, Read by name, who, having contumaciously refused to pay his portion of a benevolence, demanded from the city by Henry VIII, was sent by royal authority to serve against the Scots. These, at settling his ransom, he found still more exorbitant in their exactions than the monarch.-REDPATH'S Border History, Evers was much regretted by King Henry, who swore to avenge his death upon Angus; against whom he conceived himself to have particular grounds of resentment, on account of favours received by the earl at his hands. The answer of Angus was worthy of a Douglas. << Is our brother-in-law offended,» said he, that I, as a good Scotsman, have avenged my ravaged country, and the defaced tombs of my ancestors, upon Ralph Evers? They were better men than he, and I was bound to do no less-and will he take my life for that? Little knows King Henry the skirts of Kirnetable: I can keep myself there against all his English host.»-Godscroft.

P. 553.

Such was the noted battle of Ancram Moor. The spot on which it was fought is called Lyliard's Edge, from an Amazonian Scottish woman of that name, who is reported, by tradition, to have distinguished herself in the same manner as Squire Witherington. The old people point out her monument, now broken and defaced. The inscription is said to have been legible within this century, and to have run thus:

I, a manor called Ketnes, in the countie of Ferfare, in Scotland, and neere the furthest part of the same nation northward, given to John Eure and his heirs, ancestor to the Lord Eure that now is, and for his service done in these partes, with market, etc. dated at LanerSTOWE's Annals, p. 210. This grant, like that of Henry, cost, the 20th day of October, anno regis 34.»—

must have been dangerous to the receiver.

Stanza xlviii.

There is a nun in Dryburgh bower.

The circumstance of the nun, « who never saw the

day," is not entirely imaginary. About fifty years ago,
an unfortunate female wanderer took up her residence
in a dark vault, among the ruins of Dryburgh-Abbey,
which, during the day, she never quitted. When night
fell, she issued from this miserable habitation, and
went to the house of Mr Haliburton, of Newmains, the

editor's great-grandfather, or to that of Mr Erskine, of
Shielfield, two gentlemen of the neighbourhood. From
their charity she obtained such necessaries as she could
be prevailed upon to accept. At twelve, each night,
she lighted her candle, and returned to her vault; as-
suring her friendly neighbours that, during her ab-
sence, her habitation was arranged by a spirit, to whom
she gave the uncouth name of Fatlips; describing him
as a little man, wearing heavy iron shoes, with which
he trampled the clay floor of the vault, to dispel the
damps. This circumstance caused her to be regarded,
by the well-informed, with compassion, as deranged in
her understanding; and by the vulgar, with some de-
gree of terror. The cause of her adopting this extra-
ordinary mode of life she would never explain. It was,
however, believed to have been occasioned by a vow,
that, during the absence of a man, to whom she was
attached, she would never look upon the sun.
lover never returned. He fell during the civil war of
1745-6, and she never more would behold the light of
day.

Her

The vault, or rather dungeon, in which this unfortunate woman lived and died, passes still by the name of the supernatural being, with which its gloom was tenanted by her disturbed imagination, and few of the neighbouring peasants dare enter it by night.

CADYOW CASTLE.

ADDRESSED TO THE

RIGHT HON. LADY ANNE HAMILTON.

THE ruins of Cadyow, or Cadzow Castle, the ancient baronial residence of the family of Hamilton, are situ

1 Angus had married the widow of James IV, sister to kingated upon the precipitous banks of the river Evan,

Henry VIII.

* Kirnetable, now called Cairntable, is a mountainous tract at the head of Douglasdale.

about two miles above its junction with the Clyde. It was dismantled at the conclusion of the civil wars,

much regard to it, that he resolved to return by the same gate through which he had entered, and to fetch a compass round the town. But, as the crowd about the gate was great, and he himself unacquainted with fear, he proceeded directly along the street; and the throng of people obliging him to move very slowly, gave the assassin time to take so true an aim, that he shot him, with a single bullet, through the lower part of his belly, and killed the horse of a gentleman, who' rode on his other side. His followers instantly endeavoured to break into the house whence the blow had come; but they found the door strongly barricaded, and, before it could be forced open, Hamilton had mounted a fleet horse, which stood ready for him at a

during the reign of the unfortunate Mary, to whose during the night, in a house not far distant. Some incause the house of Hamilton devoted themselves with a distinct information of the danger which threatened generous zeal, which occasioned their temporary ob-him had been conveyed to the regent, and he paid so scurity, and, very nearly, their total ruin. The situation of the ruins, embosomed in wood, darkened by ivy and creeping shrubs, and overhanging the brawling torrent, is romantic in the highest degree. In the immediate vicinity of Cadyow is a grove of immense oaks, the remains of the Caledonian Forest, which anciently extended through the south of Scotland, from the Eastern to the Atlantic Ocean. Some of these trees measure twenty-five feet, and upwards, in circumference, and the state of decay, in which they now appear, shows, that they may have witnessed the rites of the druids. The whole scenery is included in the magnificent and extensive park of the Duke of Hamiltou. There was long preserved in this forest the breed of the Scottish wild cattle, until their ferocity occasion-back-passage, and was got far beyond their reach. The ed their being extirpated, about forty years ago. Their regent died the same night of his wound.»>-History of appearance was beautiful, being milk-white, with black Scotland, book v. muzzles, horns, and hoofs. The bulls are described by ancient authors, as having white manes; but those of latter days had lost that peculiarity, perhaps by intermixture with the tame breed.1

In detailing the death of the Regent Murray, which is made the subject of the following ballad, it would be injustice to my reader to use other words than those of Dr Robertson, whose account of that memorable event forms a beautiful piece of historical painting.

<< Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh was the person who committed this barbarous action. He had been condemned to death soon after the battle of Langside, as we have already related, and owed his life to the regent's clemency. But part of his estate had been bestowed upon one of the regent's favourites, who seized his house, and turned out his wife, naked, in a cold night, into the open fields, where, before next morning, she became furiously mad. This injury made a deeper impression on him than the benefit he had received, and from that moment he vowed to be revenged of the regent. Party rage strengthened and inflamed his private resentment. His kinsmen, the Hamiltons, applauded the enterprise. The maxims of that age justified the most desperate course he could take to obtain vengeance. He followed the regent for some time, and watched for an opportunity to strike the blow. He resolved, at last, to wait till his enemy should arrive at Linlithgow, through which he was to pass, in his way from Stirling to Edinburgh. He took his stand in a wooden gallery, which had a window towards the street; spread a feather-bed on the floor, to hinder the noise of his feet from being heard; hung up a black cloth behind him, that his shadow might not be observed from without; and after all this preparation, calmly expected the regent's approach, who had lodged,

1 Then were formerly kept in the park at Drumlayrig, and are still to be seen at Chillingham Castle in Northumberland. For their nature and ferocity, see Notes.

This was Sir James Ballenden, Lord-justice-clerk, whose shameful and inbuman rapacity occasioned the catastrophe in the text.Spottiswoode.

This projecting gallery is still shown. The house to which it was attached was the property of the Archbishop of St Andrews, a natural brother of the Duke of Chatellerault, and uncle to Bothwellbaugh. This, among many other circumstances, seems to evince the aid which Bothwellhaugh received from his clan in effecting his purpose.

Bothwellhaugh rode straight to Hamilton, where he was received in triumph; for the ashes of the houses in Clydesdale, which had been burned by Murray's army, were yet smoking; and party prejudice, the habits of the age, and the enormity of the provocation, seemed to his kinsmen to justify his deed. After a short abode at Hamilton, this fierce and determined man left Scotland, and served in France, under the patronage of the family of Guise, to whom he was doubtless recommended by having avenged the cause of their niece, Queen Mary, upon her ungrateful brother. De Thou has recorded, that an attempt was made to engage him to assassinate Gaspar de Coligni, the famous admiral of France, and the buckler of the Huguenot cause. But the character of Bothwellhaugh was mis

taken. He was no mercenary trader in blood, and rejected the offer with contempt and indignation. He had no authority, he said, from Scotland, to commit murders in France; he had avenged his own just quarrel, but he would neither, for price nor prayer, avenge that of another man.- Thuanus, cap. 46.

The regent's death happened 23d January, 1569. It is applauded, or stigmatized, by contemporary historiaus, according to their religious or party prejudices. The triumph of Blackwood is unbounded. lle not only extols the pious feat of Bothwellhaugh, « who,» he observes, « satisfied, with a single ounce of lead, him, whose sacrilegious avarice had stripped the metropolitan church of Saint Andrews of its covering; but he ascribes it to immediate divine inspiration, and the escape of Hamilton to little less than the miraculous interference of the Deity.-Jebb, vol. ii, p. 263. With equal injustice it was, by others, made the ground of a general national reflection; for, when Mather urged Berney to assassinate Burleigh, and quoted the examples of Poltrot and Bothwellhaugh, the other conspirator answered, « that neither Poltrot nor Hambleton did attempt their enterprise, without some reason or consideration to lead them to it: as the one, by hyre, and promise of preferment or rewarde; the other, upon desperate mind of revenge, for a lytle wrong done unto him, as the report goethe, accordinge to the vyle tray terous disposysyon of the hoole natyon of the Scoltes.» -MURDIN'S State Papers, vol. i, p. 197.

The gift of Lord John Hamilton, commendator of Arbroath.

1