e bought wi' thee?

"I ken you by your middle sae jimp,
"An' your merry twinkling e'e,
"That ye're the bonny lass i'the Cowdenknow,
"An' ye may weel seem for to be."

Than he's leap'd off his berry-brown steed,
An' he's set that fair may on--
"Caw out your kye, gude father, yoursell,
"For she's never caw them out again.

"I am the laird of the Oakland hills,
"I hae thirty plows and three;
"Ah' I hae gotten the bonniest lass
"That's in a' the south country.

[Footnote A: _Cog_--Milking-pail.]

[Footnote B: _Tod_--Fox.]

LORD RANDAL.

There is a beautiful air to this old ballad. The hero is more generally
termed _Lord Ronald;_ but I willingly follow the authority of an Ettrick
Forest copy for calling him _Randal;_ because, though the circumstances
are so very different, I think it not impossible, that the ballad may
have originally regarded the death of Thomas Randolph, or Randal, earl
of Murray, nephew to Robert Bruce, and governor of Scotland. This great
warrior died at Musselburgh, 1332, at the moment when his services were
most necessary to his country, already threatened by an English army.
For this sole reason, perhaps, our historians obstinately impute his
death to poison. See _The Bruce_, book xx. Fordun repeats, and Boece
echoes, this story, both of whom charge the murder on Edward III. But it
is combated successfully by Lord Hailes, in his _Remarks on the History
of Scotland_.

The substitution of some venomous reptile for food, or putting it into
liquor, was anciently supposed to be a common mode of administering
poison; as appears from the following curious account of the death of
King John, extracted from a MS. Chronicle of England, _penes_ John
Clerk, esq. advocate. "And, in the same tyme, the pope sente into
Englond a legate, that men cald Swals, and he was prest cardinal of
Rome, for to mayntene King Johnes cause agens the barons of Englond; but
the barons had so much pte (_poustie_, i.e. power) through Lewys, the
kinges sone of Fraunce, that King Johne wist not wher for to wend ne
gone: and so hitt fell, that he wold have gone to Suchold; and as he
went thedurward, he come by the abbey of Swinshed, and ther he abode II
dayes. And, as he sate at meat, he askyd a monke of the house, how moche
a lofe was worth, that was before hym sete at the table? and the monke
sayd that loffe was worthe bot ane halfpenny. 'O!' quod the kyng, 'this
is a grette cheppe of bre