The Scottish ballads - National Library of Scotland

20
But I would yield to Earl Douglas,
Or Sir Hugh Montgomery, if he were here."
As sune as he knew it was Montgomery,
He stuck his sword's point in the ground
And Sir Hugh the Montgomery was a courteous knicht,
And quickly took him by the hand.
This deed was dune at Otterbourne,
About the breaking o' the day.
Earl Douglas was buriet at the braken-bush.
And Percy led captive away.*
THE BATTLE OF HARLAWf
Frae Dunidier as I came through,
Doun by the hill of Bannochie,
Alangst the lands of Garioch,
Grit pitie was to heir and see
The noise and dulesome harmonie,
(That evir that dulefu' day did daw !) J
* First published, in an imperfect state, in Herd's Collection, and afterwards,
in a completer shape, in the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. The
present copy is compiled from both these versions, with one or two additional
stanzas which have been preserved by Mr Finlay, in the •' Introduction"
to his " Historical and Romantic Ballads." It appears from Hume
of Godscroft's " History of the House of Douglas," written in 1646, tnat the
present ballad was then popular. Something of the kind must have also
been in the possession of the common people a century earher than even
that period, as, in the catalogue of songs and ballads given in " The Complaynt
of Scotland," 1548, there occurs one, under the title of " The Perssee
and Montgumerye met, that day, that gentil day."
t This disastrous conflict, which took place on Friday, the 24th of July,
1411, at the Harlaw, a place about ten miles north-west of Aberdeen, was
occasioned by a dispute between Donald of the Isles and the Regent Duke
of Albany, regarding the succession to the Earldom of Ross. As the real
incidents of the fight, and all its circumstances and consequences, are detailed
faithfully in the ballad, it is unnecessary to enter at length into its
history. It may only be mentioned, as a fact proving in a lively manner
the great contemporary fame of this incident, that, for a long time after,
it was customary, at schools, for the boys to arrange themselves in two parties,
and fight tlie battle of Hailaw over again, as an amusement.—See
Major's History,
If Dawn.
;