Het ys not worthe a selo. Be mey fay, qod the freyr, The boy can make het pype cler, Y besero hem for hes mede. The offecial bad the boy a say. Nay, qod the freyr, er that a way For that y for bede. Pype on, qod the offeciall, and not spar. The freyr began to star, Jake hes pype hent, As sone as Gake began to blow, All they lepyd on a rowe, And ronde abowt they went. The offeciall had so gret hast, That boyt hes schenys brast, The clerkys to dans they hem sped, And som cast ther boky[s] at the wall, Ther was withowt let, They stombylled on a hepe, They dansed all a bowthe, And yever the freyr creyd owt, Y may no lengger daus for soyt, Y haffe lost halffe mey cod war, Som to crey they began, Som creyd withowt let, Som seyde het was a god game, Tell they helde owt the townge, 465 470 475 The offyeyall and the sompnere, His stepdame and the frere, With great ioye and moche pryde. 480 And a nethe meyt hepe. The offeciall began to star, And seyde, hafe for they heyr, Stent of they lay, And boldeley haske of me, What thou welt hafe for thy gle, Y schall the redey pay. Then to stend Jake began, The offeciall was a werey man, Mey trowet y pleyt y the, Thes was a god gle, And seyde the worst that euer they se, For het was er neyth. Then bespake the offeciall, And leytley Gake can call, Hes pype he hem hent, And euer mor hes blesyng, For that merey fet. When Gake had that money hent, Anon homard he went, Glad sherof was he; He waxed a wordeley marchande, A man of gret degre. Hes stepdame, y dar say, Nat wonley ones desplese. And that they ded, soyt to say, Now god that dyed for os all, Kempion. WE copy tnis ballad from the "Minstrelsy | the stream carried away the dissevered parts, of the Scottish Border;" where it is given and thus prevented their subsequent adhesion. "chiefly" from "Mrs. Brown's MS.," with The knight had promised, however, that he "corrections from a recited fragment." Sir would slay the first living thing that met him Walter Scott, in some prefatory remarks, re- after his victory; this chanced to be his fers to several traditionary anecdotes, still father, and, as he refused to keep his vow, current in Scotland and on the borders, con- it was decreed that no chief of his family cerning huge and poisonous snakes, or should die in his bed for nine generations. "worms," destroyed by gallant knights in Popular tradition continues to point out the the olden time. The manor of Sockburne, scene of the encounter. Stories of men and in the bishopric of Durham, is held of the women transformed into monsters are suffibishop by the service of presenting to him ciently numerous, and have been found on his first entrance into his diocese, an an- among every people. Many such exist in tique sword or falchion, to commemorate the England, in Scotland, and in Ireland; in the slaying of a monstrous creature that devoured latter country they are invariably supposed men, women, and children,-by Sir John to occupy lakes of unfathomed depth, out of Conyers, who received the manor as a reward which they occasionally arise and make exfor his bravery. Pollard's lands, near Bishop cursions among adjacent mountains, bearing Auckland, are held by a similar tenure; and with them to their "palaces" beneath the the founder of the noble family of Somerville waters, the cattle of some unhappy "neighis said to have performed a deed as wonder- bour," and not unfrequently the neighbour ful-by thrusting down the throat of the himself. The origin of the superstition is snake a burning peat, "bedabbed with pitch, believed to have been Danish. The tradirosett, and brimstone." A rude sculpture tions of Denmark are full of such romances; carved above the entrance to the ancient and it is more than probable, that it may church at Linton in Roxburghshire, is said have been introduced, by its sea-kings, into to represent this exploit; of which "the vul- the British Islands. gar tell us," The wode Laird of Lariestoun The story of the "Lambton worm" as recorded in Surtees' "History of Durham," is still more remarkable. The heir of Lambton, profanely fishing on a sabbath day, hooked a small worm or elf, which he carelessly threw into a well; in process of time it grew to a huge size, and made prey of the whole country, levying a contribution daily of "nine cows' milk," and, in default of payment, devouring man and beast. The heir who had wrought the mischief, returning from the crusades, determined to destroy it; and, by the advice of a witch, or wise woman, clad himself in a coat of mail studded with razor blades; select ing as the scene of battle the middle of a river, so that as fast as the worm was cut to pieces "The ballad of Kempion," writes Sir Walter Scott, "seems, from the names of the personages and the nature of the adventure, to have been an old metrical romance degraded into a ballad by the lapse of time, and the corruption of reciters." The allusion to the "arblast bow" would seem to affix the comTwo ballads position to a remote date.* which relate to a similar incident have been preserved; one entitled "Kemp Owyne," by Mr. Motherwell, and another "The Laidly Worm of Spindleston-Heugh," affirmed to have been composed, in 1270, by Duncan Frazier, "living on Cheviot," but supposed to have been, at least re-written, by Mr. Robert Lambe, vicar of Norham. In "Kemp Owyne," 'dove Isabel' is transformed into a monster by her stepmother, and doomed to retain her savage form the notch in the centre by means of a wheel, which was usually hung to the girdle of the archer. The string of the arbalast, or arbalist, was drawn to |