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the supposed tenure of his Castle of Tamworth, claimed the office of royal champion, and to do the service appertaining ; namely, on the day of coronation to ride completely armed, upon a barbed horse, into Westminster Hall, and there to challenge the combat against any who would gainsay the king's title. But this office was adjudged to Sir John Dymocke, to whom the manor of Scrivelby had descended by another of the coheiresses of Robert de Marmion; and it remains in that family, whose representative is Hereditary Champion of England at the present day. The family and possessions of Freville have merged in the Earls of Ferrars: I have not, therefore, created a new family, but only revived the titles of an old one in an ima ginary personage.

It was one of the Marmion family, who, in the reign of Ed ward II., performed that chivalrous feat before the very castle of Norham, which Bishop Percy has woven into his beautiful Ballad, "The Hermit of Warkworth." The story is thus told by Leland:

"The Scottes came yn to the marches of England, and destroyed the Castles of Werk and Herbotel, and overran much of Northumberland marches.

“At this tyme Thomas Gray and his friendes defended Norham from the Scottes.

"It were a wonderful processe to declare, what mischefes cam by hangre and asseges by the space of xi yeres in Nor thumberland; for the Scottes became so proude after they had got Berwick, that they nothing esteemed the Englishmen.

"About this tyme there was a greate feste made yn Lincolnshir, to which came many gentilmen and ladies; and amonge them one lady brought a healme for a man of were, with a very rich creste of gold, to William Marmion, knight, with a letter of commandement of her lady, that he should go into the daungerest place in England, and ther to let the heaulme be seene and known as famous. So he went to Norham; whither within 4 days of cumming cam Philip Moubray, guardian of Berwicke, having yn his bande 40 men of armes, the very flour of men of the Scottish marches.

"Thomas Gray, capitayne of Norham, seynge this, brought his garison afore the barriers of the castel, behind whom cam William, richly arrayed, as al glittering in gold, and wearing the heaulme, his lady's present.

"Then said Thomas Gray to Marmion, 'Sir knight, ye be cum hither to fame your helmet: mount up on yor horse, and ryde lyke a valiant man to yowr foes even here at hand, and I forsake God if I rescue not thy body deade or alyve, or myself wyl dye for it.'

"Whereupon he toke his cursere, and rode among the throng of ennemyes; the which layed sore stripes on hym, and pulled hym at the last out of his sadel to the grounde.

"Then Thomas Gray, with al the hole garrison, lette prick yn among the Scottes, and so wondid them and their horses, that they were overthrowan; and Marmion, sore beten, was horsid agayn, and, with Gray, persewed the Scottes yn chase. There were taken 50 horse of price; and the women of Nor ham brought them to the foote men to follow the chase."

Note XI.

Sir Hugh the Heron bold,

Baron of Twisell, and of Ford,

And Captain of the Hold.-P. 34.

Were accuracy of any consequence in a fictitious narrative, this castellan's name ought to have been William ; for William Heron of Ford, was husband to the famous Lady Ford, whose syren charms are said to have cost our James IV. so dear. Moreover, the said William Heron was, at the time supposed, a prisoner in Scotland, being surrendered by Henry VIII., on account of his share in the slaughter of Sir Robert Ker of Cessford. His wife, represented in the text as residing at the court of Scotland, was, in fact, living in her own castle at Ford.See Sir RICHARD HERON'S curious Genealogy of the Heron Family.

Note XII.

The whiles a Northern harper rude

Chaunted a rhyme of deadly feud,—

"How the fierce Thirwalls, and Ridleys all," &c.

Page 35.

This old Northumbrian ballad was taken down from the recitation of a woman eighty years of age, mother of one of the miners in Alston-moor, by an agent for the lead mines there, who communicated it to my friend and correspondent, R. Surtees, Esquire, of Mainsforth. She had not, she said, heard it

for many years; but when she was a girl, it used to be sung at merry makings, “till the roof rung again." To preserve this curious, though rude rhyme, it is here inserted. The ludicrous turn given to the slaughter, marks that wild and disorderly state of society, in which a murder was not merely a casual circumstance, but, in some cases, an exceedingly good jest. The structure of the ballad resembles the "Fray of Suport," having the same irregular stanza and wild chorus.

I.

Hoot awa', lads, hoot awa',

Ha'

ye heard how the Ridleys, and Thirwalls, and a’,

Ha' set upon Albany2 Featherstonhaugh,

And taken his life at the Deadmanshaugh:

There was Willimoteswick,

And Hardriding Dick,

And Hughie of Hawden, and Will of the Wa',
I canno' tell a', I canno' tell a',

And mony a mair that the deil may knaw.

II.

The auld man went down, but Nicol, his son,

Ran away afore the fight was begun;

And he run, and he run,

And afore they were done,

There was many a Featherston gat sic a stun,
As never was seen since the world begun.

* See Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, Vol. I. p. 250.

? Pronounced Awbony.

III.

I canna' tell a', I canna' tell a';

Some gat a skelp,' and some gat a claw;

But they gard the Featherstons haud their jaw,—2
Nicol, and Alick, and a'.

Some gat a hurt, and some gat nane;

Some had harness, and some gat sta’en.3

IV.

Ane gat a twist o' the craig;4

Ane gat a bunch5 o' the wame ;6

Symy Haw gat lamed of a leg,

And syne ran wallowing7 hame.

V.

Hoot, hoot, the auld man's slain outright!

Lay him now wi' his face down:—he's a sorrowful sight.
Janet, thou donot,8

I'll lay my best bonnet,

Thou gets a new gude-man afore it be night,

VI.

Hoo away, lads, hoo away,

Wi's a' be hangid if we stay.

1 Skelp signifies slap, or rather is the same word which was ori

ginally spelled schlap.

2 Hold their jaw, a vulgar expression still in use.

3 Got stolen or, or were plundered; a very likely termination

of the fray.

5 Punch.

6 Belly.

7 Bellowing.

4 Neck. 8 Silly slut. The Border Bard cails her so, because she was weeping for her slain husband; a loss which he seems to think might be soon repaired.

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