rifhed at that time, and was ancestor of the Murrays fometime Earls of Annandale. See Doug. Peerage. Ver. 119. Fitz-hughe.] Dugdale (in his Baron. V. 1. p. 403.) informs us, that John fon of Henry Lord Fitzhugh, was killed at the battle of Otterbourne. This was a Northumberland family. Vid. Dugd. p. 403. col. 1. and Nicholson, p. 33. 60. Ver. 201. Harbotle.] HARBOTTLE is a village upon the river Coquet, about 10 m. weft of Rothbury. The family of Harbottle was once confiderable in Northumberland. (See Fuller. p. 312. 313.) A daughter of Sir Guifchard" Harbottle, Knt. married Sir Thomas Percy, Knt. Son of Henry the fifth,-and father of Thomas, Seventh Earl of Northumberland. III. THE JEW'S DAUGHTER, A SCOTTISH BALLAD, Is founded upon the supposed practice of the Jews in erucifying or otherwife murthering Chriftian children, out of batred to the religion of their parents: a practice, which bath been always alledged in excufe for the cruelties exercifed upon that wretched people, but which probably never happened in a fingle inftance. For if we confider, on the one band, the ignorance and fuperftition of the times when fuch ftories took their rife, the virulent prejudices of the monks who record them, and the eagerness with which they would be catched up by the barbarous populace as a pretence for plunder; on the other hand, the great danger incurred by the perpetrators, and the inadequate motives they could have to D 2 excite excite them to a crime of so much horror, we may reasonably conclude the whole charge to be groundless and malicious. The following ballad is probably built upon fome Italian Legend, and bears a great refemblance to the Prioreffe's Tale in Chaucer: the poet feems alfo to have had an eye to the known ftory of HUGH OF LINCOLN, a child faid to have been there murthered by the Jews in the reign of Henry III. The conclufion of this ballad appears to be wanting: what it probably contained may be feen in Chaucer. As for MIRRYLAND TOUN, it is probably a corruption of MILAN (called by the Dutch MEYLANDT) TOWN; fince the PA is evidently the river Pò. Printed from a MS. copy fent from Scotland. HE rain rins doun through Mirry-land toune TH Sae dois it doune the Pa: Sae dois the lads of Mirry-land toune, Quhan they play at the ba'. Than out and cam the Jewis dochter, Scho powd an apple reid and white And that the fweit bairne did win. And scho has taine out a little pen-knife, And low down by her gair, Scho has twin'd the zong thing and his life; 15 A word he nevir spak mair. And And out and cam the thick thick bluid, And out and cam the thin; And out and cam the bonny herts bluid: Thair was nae life left in. Scho laid him on a dressing borde, And dreft him like a fwine, And laughing faid, Gae nou and pley 20 Scho rowd him in a cake of lead, 25 Scho caft him in a deip draw-well, Was fifty fadom deip. Quhan bells wer rung, and mass was fung, And every lady went hame: Than ilka lady had her zong fonne, Bot lady Helen had nane. Scho rowd hir mantil hir about, And fair fair gan fhe weip: 30 And the ran into the Jewis caftèl, 35 My bonny fir Hew, my pretty fir Hew, I pray thee to me speik : O lady, rinn to the deip draw-well D 3 40 Lady Lady Helen ran to the deip draw-well, My bonny fir Hew, an ze be here, The lead is wondrous heavy, mither, 45 The well is wondrous deip, A keen pen-knife sticks in my hert, Gae hame, gae hame, my mither deir, Fetch me my windling sheet, And at the back o' Mirry-land toun, Its thair we twa fall meet. 50 IV. SIR CAULINE. This old romantic tale was preferved in the Editor's folio MS, but in jo defective and mutilated a condition that it was neceffary to Supply several stanzas in the first part, and ftill more in the fecond, to connect and compleat the story. There is fomething peculiar in the metre of this old ballad: it is not unusual to meet with redundant ftanzas of fix lines; but the occafional infertion of a double third or fourth line, as ver. 31, 44, &c. is an irregularity I do not remember to baug leen eliewhere. It It may be proper to inform the reader before he comes to Pt. 2. v. 110, 111. that the ROUND TABLE was not peculiar to the reign of K. Arthur, but was common in all the ages of Chivalry. The proclaiming a great turnament (probably with fome peculiar folemnities) was called "holding a Round Table." Dugdale tells us, that the great baron Roger de Mortimer "" having procured the honour of "knighthood to be conferred on his three fons' by K. "Edw. I. be, at his own cofts, caufed a tourneament to "be held at Kenilworth; where he fumptuously entertained an hundred knights, and as many ladies for three days; "the like whereof was never before in England; and "there began the ROUND TABLE, (fo called by reason "that the place wherein they practifed thofe feats, was en"vironed with a strong wall made in a round form :) "And upon the fourth day, the golden lion, in fign of tri"umph, being yielded to him; he carried it (with all the company) to Warwick."-It may further be added, that Matthew Paris frequently calls jufts and turnaments Hasti ludia Menfæ Rotundæ. As to what will be obferved in this ballad of the art of healing being practised by a young princess; it is no more than what is usual in all the old romances, and was conformable to real manners: it being a practice derived from the earliest times among all the Gothic and Celtic nations, for women, even of the highest rank, to exercise the art of furgery. In the Northern Chronicles we always find the young damfels franching the wounds of their lovers, and the wives thofe of their husbands +. And even fo late as the time of 2. Elizabeth, it is mentioned among the accomplishments of the ladies of her court, that the eldest of them are SKIL66 FUL IN SURGERY." See Harrifon's Defcription of England, prefixed to Hollingshed's Chronicle, &c. D 4 THE + See Defcript. of the ancient Danes, vol. 1. p. 318. Memoires de la Chevalerie. Tom. 1. p. 44. |