I wot the Kinmont's airns play'd clang.

40.
'O mony a time,' quo' Kinmont Willie,
'I have ridden horse baith wild and wood;
But a rougher beast than Red Rowan
I ween my legs have ne'er bestrode.

41.
'And mony a time,' quo' Kinmont Willie,
'I've pricked a horse out oure the furs;
But since the day I backed a steed,
I never wore sic cumbrous spurs.'

42.
We scarce had won the Staneshaw-bank,
When a' the Carlisle bells were rung,
And a thousand men, in horse and foot,
Cam' wi' the keen Lord Scroop along.

43.
Buccleuch has turned to Eden Water,
Even where it flow'd frae bank to brim,
And he has plunged in wi' a' his band,
And safely swam them thro' the stream.

44.
He turned him on the other side,
And at Lord Scroop his glove flung he:
'If ye like na my visit in merry England,
In fair Scotland come visit me!'

45.
All sore astonished stood Lord Scroop,
He stood as still as rock of stane;
He scarcely dared to trew his eyes,
When thro' the water they had gane.

46.
'He is either himsell a devil frae hell,
Or else his mother a witch maun be;
I wad na have ridden that wan water
For a' the gowd in Christentie.'

[Annotations:
6.1: 'haud,' hold: 'reiver,' robber.
7.4: 'lawing,' reckoning.
10.1: 'basnet,' helmet: 'curch,' kerchief.
10.4: 'lightly,' insult.
13.3: 'slight,' destroy.
14.1: 'low,' fire.
17.3: 'splent on spauld,' plate-armour on their shoulders.
19.3: 'broken men,' outlaws.
24.4: 'lear,' information.
25.2: 'Row,' rough.
26.3: 'spait,' flood.
33.4: 'stear,' stir, disturbance.
34.1: 'forehammers,' sledge-hammers.
38.3: 'maill,' rent.
45.3: 'trew,' believe.]

THE LAIRD O' LOGIE

+The Text+ is that of Scott's _Minstrelsy,_ which was repeated in
Motherwell's collection, with the insertion of one stanza, obtained from
tradition, between Scott's 2 and 3.

+The Story+ as told in this variant of the ballad is remarkably true to
the historical facts.

The Laird was John Wemyss, younger of Logie, a gentleman-in-waiting to
King James VI. of Scotland, and an adherent of the notorious Francis
Stuart, Earl of Bothwell. After the failure of the two rash attempts of
Bothwell upon the King's person--the former at Holyrood House in 1591
and the second at Falkland in 1592--the Earl persuaded the Laird of
Logie and the Laird of Burleigh to join him in a thi