ootnote 1: Introduction (p. xvi) to _English and Scottish Popular
Ballads, edited from the Collection of Francis James Child, by Helen
Child Sargent and George Lyman Kittredge_, 1905. This admirable
condensation of Child's five volumes, issued since my Second Series,
is enhanced by Professor Kittredge's _Introduction_, the best
possible substitute for the gap left in the larger book by the
death of Child before the completion of his task.]

Warned by these wise words, we may, perhaps, select the following
ballads from the present volume as 'historical, or at least founded on
actual occurrences.'

(i) This section, which we may call 'Historical,' includes _The Hunting
of the Cheviot_, _The Battle of Otterburn_, _Mary Hamilton_, _The Laird
o' Logie_, _Captain Car_, _Flodden Field_, _The Fire of Frendraught_,
_Bessy Bell and Mary Gray_, _Jamie Douglas_, _Earl Bothwell_, _Durham
Field_, _The Battle of Harlaw_, and _Lord Maxwell's Last Goodnight_.
Probably we should add _The Death of Parcy Reed_; possibly _Geordie_ and
_The Gipsy Laddie_. More doubtful still is _Sir Patrick Spence_; and
_The Baron of Brackley_ confuses two historical events.

(ii) From the above section I have eliminated those which may be
separately classified as 'Border Ballads.' _Sir Hugh in the Grime's
Downfall_ seems to have some historical foundation, but _Bewick and
Grahame_ has none. A sub-section of 'Armstrong Ballads' forms a good
quartet; _Johnie Armstrong_, _Kinmont Willie_, _Dick o' the Cow_, and
_John o' the Side_.

(iii) In the purely 'Romantic' class we may place _The Braes of Yarrow_,
_The Twa Brothers_, _The Outlyer Bold_, _Clyde's Water_, _Katharine
Jaffray_, _Lizie Lindsay_, _The Heir of Linne_, and _The Laird of
Knottington_.

(iv) There remain a lyrical ballad, _The Gardener_; a song, _Waly, waly,
gin love be bonny_; and the nondescript _Whummil Bore_. The Appendix
contains a ballad, _The Jolly Juggler_, which would have come more
fittingly in the First Series, had I known of it in time.

In the general arrangement, however, the above classes have been mixed,
in order that the reader may browse as he pleases.

I

A comparison of the first two ballads in this volume will show the
latitude with which it is possible for an historical incident to be
treated by tradition. The Battle of Otterburn was fought in 1388; but
our two versions belong to the middle of the sixteenth century. The
English _Battle of O