Erle Murry lost a gallant stout man, Erle Huntly mist tenscore o' his bra' men, Sum o' heigh, an' sum o' leigh degree; Skeenis youngest son, thi pride o' a' the clan, Was ther fun* deid, he widna flee. This bloody fecht wis fercely faucht But now the day maist waefu' came, Wis heidit on the Heidin Hill. Fyve nobles Gordones wi' him hangit were, Upon this samen fatal playne; Crule Murry gar't thi waefu' quine luke out, And see hir lover an' liges slayne. * Fun, found. + Grite, weep. Stalwart, stout. I wis our quine had better frinds; I wis our weirs* at hame may ceise. THE BATTLE OF HARLAW. THIS battle is so circumstantially described by the ballad-monger, that it does not appear necessary to prefix any prose account. The consternation it excited seems to have pervaded all ranks. "Nec cum exteris (says Major) prælium periculosius in tanto numero unquam habitum est; sic quod in schola grammaticali juvenculi ludentes, ad partes oppositas nos solemus retrahere, dicentes nos prælium de Harlaw struere velle." It is much to be regretted, that the literary history of the ballad is involved in so much uncertainty. We possess no copy which can be proved to be a century old; and yet, if internal evidence may be trusted, we may safely infer, that, with a few modern alterations, it is the. identical song alluded to in the " Complaynt of Scotland." It was unluckily first published by Allan Ramsay, whose well-known character for dishonesty in publishing ancient poetry, is in itself a circumstance sufficient to prejudice some against its authenticity. Mr Sibbald, a man of diligence, and its last editor, has indeed discovered from chronology, that it must have been composed subsequent to the year 1511; but chronology is unfortunately the touch-stone of madness in Mr Sibbald. The slaughter alluded to in the second stanza, not to speak of the absurd anachronism, may certainly refer to any Scottish battle with the Henrys of England, as well as to that of Flodden Field; the expression is as vague as that of King Kenneth in the last stanza but one. His conjecture respecting the misapplication of old words is equally injudicious: He particularises "bandoun," in the scventh stanza, which is used by ancient Scottish as well as English writers, in the sense required. "It may also admit of a question, (says he,) whether drums were used in the Scottish army so early as the reign of James the First, or even the regency of the earl of Arran, when the Complaynt of Scotland' was written." Without entering at large into the history of the military instruments used in the Scottish army at this period, we may safely conclude that drums. were actually used, as they are enumerated by Giraldus Cambrensis among the instruments of music popular in Scotland previous to the year 1200. The tune of the Battle of Harlaw maintained its consequence at a time when the ballad itself seems to have been unknown: Ꮮ |