Its hold up your hand, kind sir, he said,
And let me see if your money be good;
And if it be true and right, says he,

Ye'll maybe get the downcome of Robinhood.

This, if genuine, is the earliest mention of this celebrated outlaw, whose actions were as famous in Scottish as in English tradition. "Hoc in

tempore de exheredatis et bannitis surrexit et caput erexit ille famosissimus sicarius Robertus Hode, et Litill Johanne, cum eorum complicibus, de quibus stolidum vulgus hianter in comadiis, et in tragadiis, prurienter festum faciunt, et præ ceteris romanciis, mimos, et bardanos cantitare delectantur." -FORD. Scotichr. p. 104. The passage that follows is a curious proof of the extensive diffusion of traditionary lore over the two kingdoms; as it relates, from Scottish tradition, an anecdote of this freebooter, which forms the subject of an English ballad still preserved in the public library of Cambridge, and published by Mr Jamieson.

10

Among the tales mentioned in the Complaynt of Scotland, printed originally at St Andrews about the year 1547, we find that of Sir Walter the Bauld Lesley. This epithet Lesley, the historian, translates in describing his character: "In bello contra Sarracenos gerendo, tam præclaram et extremam operam navavit, ut a quodam animi generoso impetu, quo hostes frangere, et sub jugum fortiter mittere solebat, generosi equitis cognomentum sit consecutus."-LESLEI. Hist. p. 201. Lond. 1675. Verstegan, in his "Restitution of Decayed Intelligence," has preserved a curious tradition, which perhaps refers to this hero: "A combat being once fought in Scotland, between a gentleman of the family of the Lesleys, and a knight of Hungary, wherein the Scottish gentleman was victor, in memory thereof, and of the place where it happened, these ensuing verses do in Scotland yet remain :

Between the lesse ley and the mare,
He slew the knight, and left him thare.

Verst. p. 323. Lond. 1673."

The battle of Otterburne, fought in 1888, was celebrated in the lays of the rival nations. Of these some are printed, and others perhaps yet remain in MS.; of which number appears to be one in the Bodleian Library, which is thus entered in the catalogue: "Ashm. MSS. 7003. ad fin. 862. p. 247. Anglorum et Scotorum prælium in quo Perci et Douglasii decantatæ virtutis, illud specimen rythmis Anglicanis explicatum." The Scottish copy of this popular song, at least as it is described by Hume, is probably now lost; or the changes it has undergone are even more considerable than the nature of traditionary poetry, uncertain and fluctuating as it is, will easily account for. In one recited copy, the appearance of the English army is given with considerable effect:

Then out an' spak a little wee boy,
And he was near o' Percy's kin,
"Methinks I see the English host
A coming branking us upon;

Wi' nine waggons scaling wide,
And seven banners bearing high,
It wad do any living gude,

To see their bonny colours fly."

The Queen's Marie.-A recited copy of this ballad, (in which the unfortunate heroine's name is Mary Moil,) contains the following variations from that given by Mr Scott, in the Minstrelsy of the Border, Vol. II. p. 18. 2d edit. The introductory stanza is:

There lived a lord into the south,

And he had dochters three;

And the youngest o' them went to the king's court,
To learn some courtesie.

After the seventh stanza follows,

She row'd it in a wee wee clout,

And flangt into the faem;

"Saying, sink ye soon, my bonny babe,

I'll go a maiden hame."

The first line of this and the preceding stanza is the same. The exclamation of the king appears to follow the eighth stanza:

'O, woe be to you, ye ill woman,
An ill death may ye die,

Gin

ye

had spared the sweet baby's life,

It might hae been an honour to thee."

And between the eleventh and twelfth are inserted these two, which add considerably to that expression of exulting gaiety, while she goes unconsciously to death, which appears in the ballad already known, and which certainly was not imagined by an unskilful poet :

She wadna put on her gowns o' black,
Nor yet wad she o' brown;

But she wad put on her gowns o' gowd,

To glance through Embro' town.

"Come saddle not to me the black," she says,

"Nor yet to me the brown;

But come saddle to me the milk-white steed,
That I may ride in renown."

Frennet Ha'.-The beautiful little poem on this subject, printed in Vol. I., is modern, and the editor's attempts to recover the ancient ballad have been unsuccessful. The following in