Minstrelsy of the Scottish border - National Library of Scotland

110 MINSTRELSY OF
THE SOUTERS OF SELKIRK.
This little lyric piece, with those which immediately
follow in the collection, relates to the fatal battle of
Flodden, ia which the flower of the Scottish nobility
fell around their sovereign, James IV.
The ancient and received tradition of the burgh of
Selkirk affirms, that the citizens of that town distin-
guished themselves by their gallantry on that disastrous
occasion. Eighty in number, and headed by their
town-clerk, they joined their monarch on his entrance
into England. James, pleased with the appearance of
tliis gallant troop, knighted their leader, William Bry-
done, upon the field of battle, from which few of the
men of Selkirk were destined to return. They distin-
guished themselves in the conflict, and were almost all
slain. The few survivors, on their return home, found,
by the side of Lady-Wood Edge, the corpse of a fe-
male, wife to one of their fallen comrades, with a child
sucking at her breast. In memory of tliis latter event,
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