Minstrelsy of the Scottish border - National Library of Scotland

Tin: SCOTTISH BOllDEK.
Enough, enough, of curse and ban ;
" Some blessings shew thou now to me,
Or, by the faith o' my bodie," Corspatrick said,
" Ye shall rue the day ye e'er saw me !''
The first of blessings I shall tliee shew,
" Is by a burn, that's call'd of bread ;*
Where Saxon men shall tine the bow,
" And find their arrows lack the head.
" Beside that brigg, out ower that biun,
" Where the water bickereth bright and sheen,
" Shall many a falling courser spurn,
" And knights shall die in battle keen.
Beside a headless cross of stone,
" The libbards there shall lose the gree
The raven shall come, the erne shall go,
" And drink the Saxon blude sae free.
The cross of stone they shall not know,
" So thick the corses there shall be."
* One of Thomas's rhymes, preserved by tradition, runs thus :
The burn of breid
Shall run fow reid."
;
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Bannock-burn is the brook here meant. The Scots give the name
of buitiiu'.Ic to a thick round cake of unleavened bread.