try. A verse or two may be taken, as illustrative of the history of Roaring Willie, alluded to in the text.

Now Willie's gane to Jeddart,
And he's for the rude-day ; *
But Stobs and young Falnash, †
They followed him a' the way;
They followed him a' the way,

They sought him up and down,
In the links of Ousenam water,
They fand him sleeping sound.

Stobs lighted aff his horse,

And never a word he spak,
Till he tied Willie's hands

Fu' fast behind his back;

Fu' fast behind his back,

And down beneath his knee,

And drink will be dear to Willie,
When sweet milk gars him die.

Ah wae light on ye, Stobs!

An ill death mot ye die!

Ye're the first and foremost man
That e'er laid hands on me ;
That e'er laid hands on me,

And took my mare me frae;
Wae to you, Sir Gilbert Elliot!
Ye are my mortal fae!

The day of the Rood-fair at Jedburgh.

↑ Sir Gilbert Elliot of Stobs, and Scott of Falnash.
A wretched pun on his antagonist's name.

The lasses of Ousenam water

Are rugging and riving their hair,
And a' for the sake of Willie,

His beauty was so fair:

His beauty was so fair,

And comely for to see,

And drink will be dear to Willie,

When sweet milk gars him die.

Black Lord Archibald's battle laws,

In the old Douglas' day.-St. XXXIV. p. 134.

The title to the most ancient collection of Border regulations runs thus:

"Be it remembered, that, on the 18th day of December, 1468, Earl William Douglas assembled the whole lords, freeholders, and eldest Borderers, that best knowledge had, at the college of Linclouden; and there he caused those lords and Borderers bodily to be sworn, the Holy Gospel touched, that they justly and truly, after their cunning, should decrete, decern, deliver, and put in order and writing, the statutes, ordinances, and uses of marche, that were ordained in Black Archibald of Douglas's days, and "Archibald his son's days, in time of warfare; and they came again to him advisedly with these statutes and ordinances, which were in time of warfare before. The said Earl William, seeing the statutes in writing decreed and delivered by the said lords and Borderers, thought them right speedful and profitable to the Borders; the which statutes, ordinances, and points of warfare, he took, and the whole lords and Borderers he caused bodily to be sworn, that

they should maintain and supply him at their goodly power, to do the law upon those that should break the statutes underwritten. Also the said Earl William, and lords, and eldest Borderers, made certain points to be treason in time of warfare to be used, which were no treason before his time, but to be treason in his time, and in all time coming."

NOTES

ON

CANTO V.

The Bloody Heart blazed in the van,

Announcing Douglas, dreaded name !—St. IV. P. 144. The chief of this potent race of heroes, about the date of the poem, was Archibald Douglas, seventh Earl of Angus, a man of great courage and activity. The Bloody Heart was the well-known cognisance of the house of Douglas, assumed from the time of Good Lord James, to whose care Robert Bruce committed his heart, to be carried to the Holy Land.

-The Seven Spears of Wedderburne.-St. IV. p. 144. Sir David Home of Wedderburn, who was slain in the fatal battle of Flodden, left seven sons by his wife, Isabel, daughter of Hoppringle of Galashiels (now Pringle of Whitebank). They were called the Seven Spears of Wedderburne.