"Gae, fetch a web o' the silken claith,

"Another o' the twine,

"And wap them into our ship's side, "And let na the sea come in."

They fetched a web o' the silken claith,

Another of the twine,

And they wapped them round that gude ship's side, But still the sea came in.

O laith, laith, were our gude Scots lords

To weet their cork-heel'd shoon!

But lang or a' the play was play'd,
They wat their hats aboon.

And mony was the feather-bed,

*

That flattered on the faem;

And mony was the gude lord's son,
That never mair cam hame.

The ladyes wrang their fingers white,
The maidens tore their hair,

A' for the sake of their true loves;
For them they'll see na mair.

* Flattered-Fluttered, or rather floated, on the foam.

O lang, lang, may the ladyes sit,
Wi' their fans into their hand,
Before they see Sir Patrick Spens
Come sailing to the strand!

And lang, lang, may the maidens sit, Wi' their goud kaims in their hair, A' waiting for their ain dear loves! For them they'll see na mair.

O forty miles off Aberdeen, "Tis fifty fathom deep,

And there lies gude Sir Patrick Spens, Wi' the Scots lords at his feet.

NOTES

ON

SIR PATRICK SPENS.

To send us out at this time of the year,
To sail upon the sea?-P. 8, v. 3.

By a Scottish act of parliament, it was enacted, that no ship should be fraughted out of the kingdom, with any staple goods, betwixt the feast of St Simon's day and Jude and Candelmas.—James III. Parliament 2d, chap. 15. Such was the terror entertained for navigating the north seas in winter.

When a bout flew out of our goodly ship.-P. 10. v. 5.

I believe a modern seaman would say, a plank had started, which must have been a frequent incident during the infancy of ship-building. The remedy applied seems to be that mentioned in Cook's Voyages, when, upon some occasion, to stop a leak, which could not be got at in the inside, a quilted sail was brought under the vessel, which, being drawn into the leak by the suction, prevented the entry of more water. Chaucer says,

"There n'is no new guise that it na'as old."

O forty miles off Aberdeen,—P. 11. v. 3.

This concluding verse differs in the three copies of the ballad, which I have collated. The printed edition bears,

"Have owre, have owre to Aberdour;"

And one of the MSS. reads,

"At the back of auld St Johnstowne Dykes."

But, in a voyage from Norway, a shipwreck on the north coast seems as probable as either in the Firth of Forth, or Tay; and the ballad states the disaster to have taken place out of sight of land.

AULD MAITLAND.

NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED.

THIS ballad, notwithstanding its present appearance, has a claim to very high antiquity. It has been preserved by tradition; and is, perhaps, the most authentic instance of a long and very old poem, exclusively thus preserved. It is only known to a few old people, upon the sequestered banks of the Ettrick; and is published, as written down from the recitation of the mother of Mr James Hogg who sings, or rather chaunts it, with great animation. She learned the ballad from a blind man, who died at the advanced age of ninety, and is said to have been possessed of much traditionary knowledge. Although the language of this poem is much modernised, yet many words, which the reciters have retained, without understanding them, still preserve traces of its antiquity. Such are the words

This old woman is still alive, and at present resides at Craig of Douglas, in Selkirkshire.