Addenda. In the following additions the Editor has | patient industry and careful search. It will be endeavoured to form a selection that shall be agreeable and interesting to the general reader, and not unsatisfactory to the antiquary or the scholar. perceived he has not modernized the orthography, believing that these "old and antique Songs," will be most readily welcomed in their ancient dress. "The garb our Muses wore in former years." It has been an essential part of his design to collect only the ballads that appeared most worthy of preservation, and not to reprint His leading purpose was, so to arrange those which have no stronger recommendation these pieces as to obtain variety of style than their rarity-rejecting none because they without regard to the period at which they are sufficiently known--and accepting none were written, or the sources in which they because they are merely scarce. He has originated-prefacing each by such explanaomitted no opportunities of consulting avail- tory remarks as should communicate all the able sources of information, whether acces- information he was able to obtain concerning sible to all readers or to be obtained only by its history. Robin Hood's Death and Burial. We copy this ballad from Ritson's "Col- | recordes in the Exchequer is to be seene: lection of all the Ancient Poems, Songs, and But of this promise no man enjoyed any Ballads, now extant, relative to that celebrated English Outlaw, Robin Hood." A brief notice of him has been already given; the notes we here introduce concern exclusively his "Death and Burial:" for the "facts" concerning which we are indebted to the indefatigable collector, who seems to have gathered together, by immense labour, every item of information that exists upon the subject. The old chronicles are somewhat circumstantial touching the final exit of the hero. "The king att last," says the Harleian MS., "sett furth a proclamation to have him apprehended," &c. Grafton, after having told us that he "practised robberyes, &c.," adds, "The which beyng certefyed to the king, and he, beyng greatly offended therewith, caused his proclamation to be made that whosoever would bryng him quicke or dead, the king would geve him a great summe of money, as by the benefite;" for as long as he had his "bent bow in his hand," it was scarcely safe to meddle with the "archer good." Time, however, subdued his strength and spirit. Finding the infirmities of old age increase upon him, and being "troubled with a sicknesse," according to Grafton, he came to a certain nonry in Yorkshire called Bircklies [Kircklies], where desiryng to be let blood, he was betrayed and bled to death." The Sloane MS. says, that "[being] dystempered with cowld and age, he had great payne in his lymmes, his bloud being corrupted; therfore, to be eased of his payne by letting bloud, he repayred to the priores of Kyrkesly, which some say was his aunt, a woman very skylful in physique & surgery; who, perceyving him to be Robyn Hood, & waying howe fel an enimy he was to religious persons, toke reveng of him for her owne (446) howse and all others by letting him bleed to death. It is also sayd that one sir Roger of Doncaster, bearing grudge to Robyn for some injury, incyted the priores, with whome he was very familiar, in such a manner to dispatch him." The Harleian MS., after mentioning the proclamation "set furth to have him apprehended," adds, "at which time it happened he fell sick at a nunnery in Yorkshire called Birkleys [Kirkleys]; & desiring there to be let blood, hee was betrayed & made bleed to death." According to the Sloane MS. the prioress, after "letting him bleed to death, buryed him under a great stone by the hywayes syde:" which is agreeable to the account in Grafton's Chronicle, where it is said that after his death, "the prioresse of the same place caused him to be buryed by the highway side, where he had used to rob and spoyle those that passed that way. And vpon his grave the sayde prioresse did lay a very fayre stone, wherein the names of Robert Hood, William of Goldesborough, and others were graven. And the cause why she buryed him there was, for that the common passengers and travailers, knowyng and seeyng him there buryed, might more safely and without feare take their jorneys that way, which they durst not do in the life of the sayd outlawes. And at eyther ende of the sayd tombe was erected a crosse of stone, which is to be seene there at this present." There appears to be reasonable ground for the belief that Robin Hood was thus treacherously dealt with. The circumstance is distinctly referred to in the ballad entitled "A Lytell Geste of Robine Hode,”- -a long metrical narration, consisting of eight fyttes or cantos, and containing no fewer than four hundred and fifty stanzas. It bears conclusive evidence of antiquity, and may be considered at least as old as the time of Chaucer. The ballad-"Robin Hood's Death and Burial" although its style is comparatively modern, is clearly based upon one much older:-it contains passages of too "genuine" a character to have been the production of an age much later than that in which flourished the hero of the grene-wode. The reader will, no doubt, desire to know something concerning the career of Robin's famous lieutenant, "Little John." 66 There standeth," as Stanihurst relates, "in Ostman towne greene (now in the centre of the city of Dublin), an hillocke, named Little John his Shot. The occasion," he says, "proceeded of this. In the yeere one thousand one hundred foure score and nine, there ranged three robbers and outlaws in England, among which Robert Hood and Little John weere cheefeteins, of all theeves doubtlesse the most courteous. Robert Hood being betrayed at a nunrie in Scotland called Bricklies, the remnant of the crue was scattered, and everie man forced to shift for himselfe. Whereupon Little John was faine to flee the realme by sailing into Ireland, where he sojourned for a few daies at Dublin. The citizens being doone to understand the wandering outcast to be an excellent archer, requested him hartilie to trie how far he could shoot at random; who yeelding to their behest, stood on the bridge of Dublin, and shot to that mole hill, leaving behind him a monument, rather by his posteritie to be woondered, than possiblie by anie man living to be counters cored. But as the repaire of so notorious a champion to anie countrie would soone be published, so his abode could not be long concealed: and therefore to eschew the danger of [the] lawes, he fled into Scotland, where he died at a towne or village called Moravie." into a conspiracy against Robert de Bruce, the object of which was the elevation of Soulis to the Scottish throne.* of such a hasty declaration: but they only arrived in time to witness the conclusion of the ceremony. The Castle of Hermitage, unable to support the load of iniquity which had been long accumulating within its walls, is supposed to have partly sunk beneath the ground; and its ruins are still regarded by the peasants with peculiar aversion and terror. The door of the chamber, where Lord Soulis is said to have held his conferences with the evil spirits, is supposed to be opened once in seven years, by that demon to which, when he left the castle 'never to return, he committed the keys, by throwing them over his left shoulder, and desiring it to keep them till his return. Into this chamber, which is really the dungeon of the castle, the peasant is afraid to look; for such is the active malignity of its inmate, that a willow inserted at the chinks of the door, is found peeled, or stripped of its bark, when drawn back. The Nine-Stane Rig, where Lord Soulis was boiled, is a declivity, about one mile in breadth and four in length, descending upon the Water of Hermitage, from the range of hills which separate Liddesdale and Teviotdale. It derives its name from one of those circles of large stones, which are termed Druidical, nine of which remained to a late period. Five of these stones are still visible; and two are particularly pointed out, as those which supported the iron bar upon which the fatal cauldron was suspended.” "Local tradition," writes Sir Walter Scott, "more faithful to the popular sentiment than history, has recorded the character of the chief, and attributed to him many actions which seem to correspond with that character. His portrait is by no means flattering; uniting every quality which could render strength formidable, and cruelty detestable. Combining prodigious bodily strength with cruelty, avarice, dissimulation, and treachery, is it surprising that a people, who attributed every event of life, in a great measure, to the interference of good or evil spirits, should have added to such a character the mystical horrors of sorcery? Thus, he is represented as a cruel tyrant and sorcerer; constantly employed in oppressing his vassals, harassing his neighbours, and fortifying his Castle of Hermitage against the King of Scotland; for which purpose he employed all means, human and infernal; invoking the fiends by his incantations, and forcing his vassals to drag materials, like beasts of burden. Tradition proceeds to relate, that the Scottish King, irritated by reiterated complaints, peevishly exclaimed to the petitioners, Boil him if you please, but let me hear no more of him.' Satisfied with this answer, they proceeded with the utmost haste to execute the commission; which they accomplished by boiling him alive on the Nine-stane Rig, in a cauldron said to have been long preserved at Skelf-hill, a hamlet betwixt Hawick and the Hermitage." Rambles in Northumberland, and on the Messengers, it is said, were immediately despatched by the King, to prevent the effects *One of his accomplices, David de Brechin, was executed. He was nephew to the king, and his only crime was his having concealed the treason in which he disdained to participate. "As the people thronged to the execution of the gallant youth, they were bitterly rebuked by Sir Ingram de Umfraville, an English or Norman knight, then a favourite follower of Robert Bruce. Why press you,' said he, to see the dismal catastrophe of so generous a knight? I have seen ye throng as eagerly around him to share his bounty, as now to behold his death.' With these words he turned from the scene of blood, and, repairing to the king, craved leave to sell his Scottish possessions, and to retire from the country. My heart,' said Umfraville, will not, for the wealth of the world, permit me to dwell any longer where I have seen such a knight die by the hands of the executioner.' With the king's leave, he interred the body of David de Brechin, sold his lands, The ruins of the Castle of Hermitage still exist; and still, according to Stephen Oliver— Scottish Border," the neighbouring peasantry whisper of the evil spirit believed to be confined there, and who, after locking the door of the dungeon, had thrown the key over his shoulder into the stream. The author also states that the cauldron, the muckle pot in which Soulis was reported to have been boiled, is an old kail-pot, of no very extraordinary size, which was purchased by some of the rebel army in 1715. The castle is now the property of the Duke of Buccleugh. It was, in 1546, the residence of the Earl of Bothwell; and here Queen Mary is said to have visited him, riding from Jedburg to Hermitage, and back again, in one day. The Earl was lying ill of a wound received from and left Scotland for ever. The story is beautifully told by John Elliot of the Park, a desperate freebooter, whom he had attempted to apprehend. Barbour, Book 19th." Sir Walter Scott considers that the idea of Lord Soulis' familiar was derived from the curious story of the "Spirit Orthone and the Lord of Corasse," which he prints in a note to the ballad, "in all its Gothic simplicity, as translated from Froissart, by the Lord of Berners." Orthone enters the service of the knight: "So this spyrite Orthone loved so the knyght, that oftentymes he would come and vysyte him, while he lay in his bedde aslepe, and outher pull him by the eare, or els stryke at his chambre dore or windowe. And whan the knyght awoke, than he would saye, 'Orthone, lat me slepe.' 'Nay,' quod Orthone, that I will nat do, tyll I have shewed thee such tydinges as are fallen a-late.' The ladyc, the knyghtes wife, wolde be sore afrayed, that her heer wald stand up, and hyde herself under the clothes. Than the knyght wolde saye, ‘Why, what tydinges hast thou brought me?' Quod Orthone, 'I am come out of England, or out of Hungry, or some other place, and yesterday I came hens, and such things are tallen, or such other.'" The connexion between them was broken by the knight unwisely desiring to see the form of the spirit, with whose voice he had become familiar. Orthone appeared before him in the semblance of "a leane and yvell favoured sow." The knight set his hounds upon it, at which the spirit took offence, and never afterwards came to the "bedde syde" of the lord. "The formation of ropes of sand, according to popular tradition, was a work of such difficulty, that it was assigned by Michael Scott to a number of spirits, for which it was necessary for him to find some interminable employment. Upon discovering the futility. of their attempts to accomplish the work assigned, they petitioned their taskmaster to be allowed to mingle a few handfuls of barleychaff with the sand. On his refusal, they were forced to leave untwisted the ropes which they had shaped. Such is the traditionary hypothesis of the vermicular ridges of the sand on the shore of the sea." LORD SOULIS he sat in Hermitage Castle, 'Now, tell me, thou sprite, who art meikle of might, The death that I must die ?" |