Minstrelsy of the Scottish border - National Library of Scotland

416 MINSTRELSY OF
witnessed the rites of the Druids. The whole scenery
is included in the magnificent and extensive park of the
Duke of Hamilton. There was long preserved in this
forest the breed of the Scottish wild cattle, until their
ferocity occasioned their being extirpated, about forty
years ago. Their appearance was beautiful, being milk-
white, with black muzzles, horns, and hoofs. The bulls
are described by ancient authors as having white manes;
but those of latter days had lost that peculiarity, per-
haps by intermixture with the tame breed.*
In detailing the death of the Regent Murray, which
is made the subject of the following ballad, it would be
injustice to my reader to use other words than those of
Dr Robertson, whose account of that memorable event
forms a beautiful piece of historical painting.
" Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh was the person who
" committed this barbarous action. He had been con-
" demned to death soon after the battle of Langside, as
" we have already related, and owed his life to the Re-
" gent's clemency. But part of his estate had been be-
" stowed upon one of the Regent's favourites,t who
They were formerly kept in the park at Drumlanrig, and are still
to be seen at Chillingham Castle, in Northumberland. For their na-
ture and ferocity, see Notes.
t This was Sir James Ballenden, Lord Justice-Clerk, whose shame-
ful and inhuman rapacity occasioned the catastrophe in the text.—
Spottiswoode.