NOTES

ON

HOBBIE NOBLE.

The great Earl of Whitfield loves me not.-P. 252. v. 2. Whitfield is explained by Mr Ellis of Otterbourne to be a large and rather wild manorial district in the extreme southwest part of Northumberland; the proprietor of which might be naturally called the Lord, though not Earl of Whitfield. I suspect, however, that the reciters may have corrupted the great Ralph Whitfield into Earl of Whitfield. Sir Matthew Whitfield of Whitfield was Sheriff of Northumberland in 1433, and the estate continued in the family from the reign of Richard II. till about fifty years since.

Aft has he driven our bluidhounds back.-P. 253. v. 2.
"The russet bloodhound, wont, near Annand's stream,
"To trace the sly thief with avenging foot,

"Close as an evil conscience still at hand."

Our ancient statutes inform us, that the blood-hound, or sluith-hound (so called from its quality of tracing the slot, or track, of men and animals), was early used in the pursuit and

detection of marauders. Nullus perturbet, aut impediat canem trassantem, aut homines trassantes cum ipso, ad sequendum latrones.-Regiam Majestatem, Lib. 4tus, Cap. 32. And, so late as 1616, there was an order from the king's commissioners of the northern counties, that a certain number of sloughhounds should be maintained in every district of Cumberland, bordering upon Scotland. They were of great value, being sometimes sold for a hundred crowns.-Exposition of Bleau's Atlas, voce Nithsdale. The breed of this sagacious animal, which could trace the human footstep with the most unerring accuracy, is now nearly extinct.

ROOKHOPE RYDE.

THIS is a bishoprick Border song, composed in 1569, taken down from the chanting of George Collingwood the elder, late of Boltsburn, in the neighbourhood of Ryhope, who was intered at Stanhope, the 16th De

cember, 1785.

Rookhope is the name of a valley about five miles in length; at the termination of which, Rookhope-burn empties itself into the river Wear: the dale lies in the north part of the parish of Stanhope, in Weardale, Rookhope-head is the top of the vale. The ballad derives some additional interest, from the date of the event being so precisely ascertained to be the 6th December, 1572,

when the Tynedale robbers, taking advantage of the public confusion occasioned by the rebellion of Westmoreland and Northumberland, and which particularly affected the bishoprick of Durham, determined to make this foray into Weardale. The late eminent antiquary,

Joseph Ritson, took down this ballad from the mouth of the reciter, and printed it as part of an intended collection of Border Ballads, which was never published. His nephew, Mr Frank, was so good as to favour me with the copy from which it is here given. To the illustrations of Mr Ritson, I have been enabled to add those of my friend Mr Surtees.

ROOKHOPE RYDE.

ROOKHOPE stands in a pleasant place,
If the false thieves wad let it be,
But away they steal our goods apace,
And ever an ill death may they dee!

And so is the man of Thirlwall and Willie-haver, And all their companies thereabout,

That is minded to do mischief,

And at their stealing stands not out.

But yet we will not slander them all,
For there is of them good enough;
It is a sore consumed tree

That on it bears not one fresh bough.