Saddled and bridled And booted rade he; Out cam' his auld mither And out cam' his bonnie bride Rivin' her hair. And booted rade he; Toom hame cam' the saddle, "My meadow lies green, And my corn is unshorn; And my babie's unborn." And booted rade he; YOUNG BENJIE. First printed, from recitation, by Sir Walter Scott, in the "Border Minstrelsy." The first two lines are almost identical with the chorus of the Scottish version of Old King Cole: "Of all the maids in fair Scotland, There's nane to compare wi' Marjorie." OF a' the maids o' fair Scotland, The fairest was our Marjorie; And young Benjie was her ae true love, And wow! but they were lovers dear, But aye the mair when they fell out, And they hae quarrelled on a day, And he was stout and proud hearted, And thought o't bitterlie; And he's gane by the wan moonlight To meet his Marjorie. open, open, my true love! 0 open and let me in!" "I dare na open, young Benjie, My three brothers are within." "Ye lie, ye lie, my bonnie burd, "But fare ye well, my ae fause love, That I have loved sae lang; It sets ye chuse another love, And let young Benjie gang." Then Marjorie turned her round about, The tear blinding her ee, "I dare na, dare na let thee in, But I'll come down to thee." Then saft she smiled, and said to him, "O what ill hae I dune?" He took her in his armis twa, And threw her o'er the linn. The stream was strang, the maid was stout, But ere she wan the Lowden's banks Then up an' spak her eldest brother, Out then spak her eldest brother, "O how shall we her ken?" And out then spak her youngest brother, "There's a honey-mark on her chin." Then they've ta'en up the comely corpse "O wha has killed our ae sister, "The night it is her low lykewake, And we maun watch at mirk midnight, Wi' doors ajar, and candle light, The streiket corpse, till still midnight, About the middle o' the night "O wha has done thee wrang, sister, Or dared the deadly sin? Wha was sae stout, and feared nae dout, As throw ye o'er the linn?" "Young Benjie was the first ae man He was sae stout and proud hearted "Shall we young Benjie head, sister, "Ye mauna Benjie head, brothers, Ye mauna Benjie hang, But ye maun pike out his twa grey een, "Tie a green gravat about his neck, your house "And aye, at every seven years' end, For that's the penance he maun dree, THE SONG OF THE OUTLAW MURRAY. This ballad appears to have been composed about the reign of James V. It commemorates a transaction, supposed to have taken place betwixt a Scottish monarch and an ancestor of the ancient family of Murray of Philiphaugh, in Selkirkshire. "The merit of this beautiful old tale, it is thought, will be fully acknowledged. It has been, for ages, a popular song in Selkirkshire. The scene is, by the common people, supposed to have been the Castle of Newark upon Yarrow. This is highly improbable, because Newark was always a royal fortress. Indeed, the late excellent antiquarian, Mr Plummer, Sheriff-depute of Selkirkshire, remembered the insignia of the unicorns, &c., so often mentioned in the ballad, in existence upon the old tower in Hanginshaw, the seat of the Philiphaugh family; although, upon first perusing a copy of the ballad, he was inclined to subscribe to the popular opinion. The tower of Hangingshaw has been demolished for many years. It stood in a romantic and solitary situation, on the classical banks of the Yarrow. When the mountains around Hangingshaw were covered with the wild copse which constituted a Scottish forest, a more secure stronghold for an outlawed baron can hardly be imagined. "The tradition of Ettrick Forest bears, that the Outlaw was a man of prodigious strength, possessing a baton or club, with which he laid lee (i.e., waste) the country for many miles round; and that he was at length slain by Buccleuch, or some of his clan, at a little mount, covered with fir-trees, adjoining to Newark Castle, and said to have been a part of the garden. A varying tradition bears the place of his death to have been near to the house of the Duke of Buccleuch's gamekeeper, beneath the castle; and that the fatal arrow was shot by Scott of Haining, from the ruins of a cottage on the opposite side of the Yarrow. There were extant, within these twenty years, some verses of a song on his death. The feud between the Outlaw and the Scotts may serve to explain the asperity with which the chieftain of that clan is handled in the ballad. G |