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THE SANG OF THE OUTLAW MURRAY.

This ballad appears to have been composed about the reign of James V.
It commemorates a transaction, supposed to have taken place betwixt a
Scottish monarch, and an ancestor of the ancient family of Murray of
Philiphaugh in Selkirkshire. The editor is unable to ascertain the
historical foundation of the tale; nor is it probable that any light
can be thrown upon the subject, without an accurate examination of
the family charter chest. It is certain, that, during the civil wars
betwixt Bruce and Baliol, the family of Philiphaugh existed, and was
powerful; for their ancestor, Archibald de Moravia, subscribes the
oath of fealty to Edward I.A.D. 1296. It is, therefore, not unlikely,
that, residing in a wild and frontier country, they may have, at one
period or other, during these commotions, refused allegiance to the
feeble monarch of the day, and thus extorted from him some grant of
territory or jurisdiction. It is also certain, that, by a charter
from James IV., dated November 30, 1509, John Murray of Philiphaugh
is vested with the dignity of heritable sheriff of Ettrick Forest,
an office held by his descendants till the final abolition of such
jurisdictions by 28th George II. cap. 23. But it seems difficult to
believe that the circumstances, mentioned in the ballad, could occur
under the reign of so vigorous a monarch as James IV. It is true, that
the _Dramatis Personae_ introduced seem to refer to the end of the
fifteenth, or beginning of the sixteenth, century; but from this it
can only be argued, that the author himself lived soon after that
period. It may, therefore, be supposed (unless farther evidence can
be produced, tending to invalidate the conclusion), that the bard,
willing to pay his court to the family, has connected the grant of the
sheriffship by James IV. with some further dispute betwixt the Murrays
of Philiphaugh and their sovereign, occurring, either while they were
engaged upon the side of Baliol, or in the subsequent reigns of David
II. and Robert II. and III., when the English possessed great part
of the Scottish frontier, and the rest was in so lawless a state as
hardly to acknowledge any superior. At the same time, this reasoning
is not absolutely conclusive. James IV. had particular reasons for
desiring that Ettrick Forest, which actually formed part of the
jointure lands of Margaret, his queen, should be kept in