"Thir lands of Ettricke Forest fair, All the nobles the king about, Said pitie it were to see him die"Yet grant me mercie, sovereign prince ! Extend your favour unto me! "I'll give thee the keys of my castell, Wi' the blessing o' my gay ladye, Gin thou 'lt make me sheriffe of this Forest, "Wilt thou give me the keys of thy castell, "But, prince, what sall come o' my men? When I gae back, traitour they'll ca' me. I had rather lose my life and land, Ere my merrymen rebuked me." 'Will your merrymen amend their lives? "Fair Philiphaugh is mine by right, "And I have native steads to me, The keys o' the castell he gave the king, Wha ever heard, in ony times, Siccan an Outlaw in his degree, Sic favour get before a king, As the OUTLAW MURRAY of the Forest JOHNNIE OF BREADISLEE. History is silent with regard to this young Nimrod. "He appears," says the Editor of the Border Minstrelsy, "to have been an outlaw and deer-stealer,-probably one of the broken men residing upon the border. It is sometimes said that this outlaw possessed the old castle of Morton, in Dumfriesshire, now ruinous." Another tradition assigns Braid, in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, to have been the scene of his "woeful hunting."-MOTHER WELL. Another version of this ballad, under the title of Johnnie o' Cocklesmuir, has been reprinted in Scottish Ancient Traditional Ballads," by the Percy Society; but it is of inferior merit.-C. M. JOHNNIE rose up in a May morning, When Johnnie's mother gat word o' that, "Eneugh ye hae o' the gude wheat bread, But Johnnie's busk't up his gude bend bow, His arrows, ane by ane; And he has gane to Durrisdeer To hunt the dun deer down. As he came down by Merriemass, Johnnie he shot, and the dun deer lap, And Johnnie has bryttled the deer sae weel, And wi' these he has feasted his bludy hounds, As if they had been earl's sons. They eat sae much o' the venison, And drank sae much o' the blude, That Johnnie and a' his bludy hounds Fell asleep, as they had been dead. * "Ling:" heath. "Bryttled:" to cut up venison. And by there came a silly auld carle, For he's away to Hislinton, Where the Seven Foresters did lie. "What news, what news, ye gray-headed carle, What news bring ye to me?" "I bring nae news," said the gray-headed carle, Save what these eyes did see. * "As I came down by Merriemass, "The shirt that was upon his back "The buttons that were on his sleeve The gude graie hounds he lay amang, Then out and spak the First Forester, But up and spak the Sixth Forester, (His sister's son was he) "If this be Johnnie o' Breadislee, We soon shall gar him die!" * "Scroggs:" stunted trees. "Lincome:" Lincoln. The first flight of arrows the Foresters shot, Johnnie's set his back against an aik, * His fute against a stane; And he has slain the Seven Foresters, He has broke three ribs in that ane's side, He's laid him twa-fald ower his steed, "O is there na a bonnie bird, Could flee away to my mother's bower, The starling flew to his mother's window-stane, And aye the ower word o' the tune They made a rod o' the hazel bush, Perhaps, after this stanza should be inserted the beautiful one preserved by Mr Finlay, so descriptive, as he justly remarks, of the languor of approaching death: "There's no a bird in a' this forest As dip its wing in the wan water, |