[A composite volume : containing The ballads and songs of Ayrshire ...

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names
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REMARKS.
overcome all the difficulties to which this mode of composition has
subjected him. At the same time, it will be owned that it is mvich
easier to sing about the captive lady than to put words in her mouth :
" O let not woman after me
Exult in youth and beauty.
My een, that once were bonnie blue,
Love's saftest glances flinging.
Are dimm'd, alas ! by sorrowing dew
From misery's fountain springing
My hair that once was lang and sleek,
Wi' grief is fast decaying :
And tears find channels down that cheek
Where rosy smiles were playing.
Now spring has flung o'er field and flower
The garment of her gladness :
While here I sit in prison tower
In mair than winter's sadness :
The wild birds flit frae tree to tree
The grove's wi' music ringing :
O I was ance as blythe and free
As onie bird that's singing !"
The ballad entitled Gypsy Davie, first printed by Motherwell, in his
Minstrelsy, is evidently a modern offshoot from the old version, of no
value ;—vulgar in its language, and reckless in its rhymes,
" We wonder how the d—1 it got there !"
It is just such a copy as might have been picked up by a certain antiquary
in the " North Countrie."
The Editor still believes—^and we agree with him in thinking—^that
\ this ballad was founded upon a reality ; but if so, it is clear, that the
antiquaries must search for some one else as the heroine than Lady
Jean Hamilton, the sixth Countess of Cassillis.
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( " Johnie Faa was no imaginary character. He was the acknow-
\ ledged head of the Egyptians, or Gypsies, in Scotland ;" and the Edi-
/ tor produces a letter under the Privy Seal, by King James V., in fa-
vour
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of " Johnie Faa, Lord and Erie of Litill Egypt." February 15, |
1540. This curious document, which is given at length, contains the '
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of twelve of Johnie's company and folks—all of them, appar-
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ently, of foreign extraction, who, if caught, were to be " pvmist con- ]
< forme to the lawis of Eigpt." We know not what " the lawis of
> Eigpt " were, but doubt not, that if any of Johnie's rebellious sub-
\ jects had fallen into his hands, he would have executed the said lawis
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upon them in as summary a manner as King James the Fifth did
upon Johnie Armstrong and his men—as disgraceful an act of treach-
! ery as ever was perpetrated by Turk or tyrant ; not that the riever
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did not deserve his fate, but that "the deed was foully done." Truth
in those days must have been lying at the bottom of an unfathom-
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\ able well, when even the tvord of a King could not be trusted ! In
this case, while justice grasped the sword, she must have dropped her
balance.
Lady Mary Ann, The Editor does not seem to be aware that we
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