Off byrch, and hasell so 'gray';

dre,

With many a bal-ful brande.

Cam to fach, ther makys a-way.

Northombarlond may mayk grat mone,

For towe such captayns, as slayne wear thear, On the march perti shall never be none.

Word ys commen to Edden burrowe,

To Jamy the Skottishe kyng,

140

That dougheti Duglas, lyff-tenant of the Merches,

He lay slean Chyviot with-in.

V. 108, strenge.... by, P. C. V. 115, Ioule, P. C. V. 121, in to, i. e. in two. V. 122, kny, P. C. V. 132, gay, P. C. V. 136, mon, P. C. V. 138, non, P. C.

For the names in this page, see the Remarks at the end of the next Ballad.

A common pleonasm, see the next poem, Fit 2d, v. 166. So Harding, in his Chronicle, chap. 140, fol. 148, describing the death of Richard I. says,

He shrove him then unto Abbots thre

With great sobbyng.... and wepyng teares.

So likewise Cavendish in his Life of Cardinal Wolsey, chap. 12, p. 31, 4to. "When the duke heard this, he replied with weeping teares," &c.

that, in the beginning of August,* they invaded Northumberland; and, having wasted part of the county of Durham,† advanced to the gates of Newcastle; where, in a skirmish, they took a 'penon' or colours‡ belonging to Henry Lord Percy, surnamed Hotspur, son to the Earl of Northumberland. In their retreat home, they attacked a castle near Otterbourn; and, in the evening of Aug. 9 (as the English writers say; or rather, according to Froissart, Aug. 15), after an unsuccessful assault, were surprised in their camp, which was very strong, by Henry, who at the first onset put them into a good deal of confusion. But James, Earl of Douglas, rallying his men, there ensued one of the best-fought actions that happened in that age; both armies showing the utmost bravery; the Earl Douglas himself being slain on the spot: the Earl of Murrey mortally wounded; and Hotspur, with his brother Ralph Percy, taken prisoners. These disasters on both sides have given occasion to the event of the engagement's being disputed; Froissart (who derives his relation from a Scotch knight, two gentlemen of the same country, and as many of Foix)** affirming that the Scots remained masters of the field: and the English writers insinuating the contrary. These last maintain that the English had the better of the day but night coming on, some of the northern lords, coming with the Bishop of Durham to their assistance, killed many of them by mistake, supposing them to be Scots;

* Froissart speaks of both parties (consisting in all of more than 40,000 men) as entering England at the same time; but the greater part by way of Carlisle.

And, according to the ballad, that part of Northumberland called Bamboroughshire; a large tract of land so

named from the town and castle of Bamborough, formerly

the residence of the Northumberland Kings.

This circumstance is omitted in the ballad. Hotspur

and Douglas were two young warriors much of the same age.

Froissart says the English exceeded the Scots in number three to one, but that these had the advantage of the

ground, and were also fresh from sleep, while the English were greatly fatigued with their previous march.

By Henry L. Percy, according to this ballad, and our old English historians, as Stow, Speed, &c. but borne down by numbers, if we may believe Froissart.

Hotspur (after a very sharp conflict) was taken prisoner by John Lord Montgomery, whose eldest son, Sir Hugh, was slain in the same action with an arrow, according to Crawford's Peerage (and seems also to be alluded to in the foregoing ballad but taken prisoner and exchanged for Hotspur, according to this ballad.

Froissart (according to the Eng. Translation) says he had his account from two squires of England, and from a knight and squire of Scotland, soon after the battle.

and the Earl of Dunbar, at the same time falling on another side upon Hotspur, took him and his brother prisoners, and carried them off while both parties were fighting. It is at least certain, that immediately after this battle the Scots engaged in it made the best of their way home: and the same party was taken by the other corps about Carlisle.”

Such is the account collected by Carte, in which he seems not to be free from partiality: for prejudice must own that Froissart's circircumstantial account carries a great appearance of truth, and he gives the victory to the Scots. He however does justice to the courage of both parties; and represents their mutual generosity in such a light, that the present age might edify by the example. "The Englysshmen on the one partye, and the Scottes on the other partye, are good men of warre, for whan they mete, there is a hard fighte without sparynge. There is no hoo* betwene them as long as speares, swordes, axes, or dager wyll endure; but lay on eche upon other: and whan they be well beaten, and that the one party hath obtayned the victory, they than glorifye so in their dedes of armes, and are so joyfull, that suche as be taken, they shall be ransomed or they go out of the felde;† so that shortely eche of them is so contente with other, that at their departynge curtoysly they will saye, God thanke you.

But in fyghtynge one with another there is no playe, nor sparynge." Froissart's Cronycle (as translated by Sir Johan Bourchier Lord Berners), cap. cxlij.

The following Ballad is (in this present edition) printed from an old MS. in the Cotton Library (Cleopatra, c. iv.) and contains many stanzas more than were in the former copy, which was transcribed from a MS. in the Harleian Collection [No. 293, fol. 52.] In the Cotton MS. this poem has no title, but in the Harleian copy it is thus inscribed, "A songe made in R. 2 his tyme of the battele of Otterburne, betweene Lord Henry Percye, Earle of Northomberlande, and the Earle Douglas of Scotlande, Anno 1388."

So in Langham's letter concerning Q. Elizabeth's entertainment at Killingworth castle, 1575, 12mo. p. 61 "Heer was no ho in devout drynkyng."

ti. e. They scorn to take the advantage, or to keep them lingering in long captivity.

The notice of this MS. I must acknowledge with many other obligations, owing to the friendship of Thomas Tyr whitt, Esq., late Clerk of the House of Commons.

-But this title is erroneous, and added by some ignorant transcriber of after-times; for, 1. The battle was not fought by the Earl of Northumberland, who was absent, but by his son Sir Henry Percy, Knt. surnamed Hotspur, (in those times they did not usually give the title of lord to an earl's eldest son.) 2. Although the battle was fought in Richard II.'s time, the song is evidently of later date, as appears from the poet's quoting the chronicles in Pt. II. ver. 26; and speaking of Percy in the last stanza as dead. It was however written in all likelihood as early as the foregoing song, if not earlier. This perhaps may be inferred from the minute circumstances with which the story is related, many of which are recorded in no chronicle, and were probably preserved in the memory of old people. It will be observed that the authors of these two poems have some lines in common; but which of them was the original proprietor must depend upon their priority; and this the sagacity of the reader must determine.

They sc. the Earl of Douglas and his party. The several stations here mentioned are well-known places in

Northumberland. Ottercap-hill is in the parish of KirkWhelpington, in Tynedale-ward. Rodeliffe (or, as it is more usually pronounced, Rodeley-) Cragge is a noted cliff near Rodeley, a small village in the parish of Hartburn, in Morpeth-ward: it lies south-east of Ottercap, and has, within these few years, been distinguished by a small tower erected by Sir Walter Blacket, Bart., which, in Armstrong's map of Northumberland, is pompously called Rodeleycastle. Green Leyton is another small village in the same parish of Hartburn, and is south-east of Rodeley.-Both the original MSS. read here corruptly, Hoppertop and Lynton.

The Dowglas turnyd hym homewarde agayne,
For soth withowghten naye,

He tooke his logeyng at Oterborne
Uppon a Wedyns-day:

And there he pyght hys standerd dowyn,
Hys gettyng more and lesse,

And syne he warned hys men to goo
To chose ther geldyngs gresse.

A Skottysshe knyght hoved upon the bent,
A wache I dare well saye:

So was he ware on the noble Percy
In the dawnynge of the daye.
He prycked to his pavyleon dore,
As faste as he myght ronne,
Awaken, Dowglas, cryed the knyght,
For hys love, that syttes yn trone.

Awaken, Dowglas, cryed the knyght,

For thow maiste waken wyth wynne; Yender have I spyed the prowde Percy, And seven standardes wyth hym.

Was I not yester daye at the Newe Castell,
That stonds so fayre on Tyne?
For all the men the Percy hade,

He cowde not garre me ones to dyne.

He stepped owt at hys pavelyon dore,
To loke and it were lesse ;
Araye yow, lordyngs, one and all,
For here bygynnes no peysse

95

100

The yerle of Mentayne,* thow art my eme,
The forwarde I gyve to the:

The yerlle of Huntlay cawte and kene,
He schall wyth the be.

The lorde of Bowghant in armure bryght 105
On the other hand he schall be;
Lord Jhonstone and Lorde Maxwell,
They to schall be wyth me.

70

75

80

85

V. 53, Roe-bucks were to be found upon the wastes not far from Hexham, in the reign of Geo. I. — Whitfield, Esq., of Whitfield, is said to have destroyed the last of them. V. 56, hye, MSS. V. 77, upon the best bent, MS.

* Otterbourn is near the old Waiting-street road, in the parish of Elsdon. The Scots were encamped in a grassy plain near the river Read. The place where the Scots and English fought is still called Battle Rigs.