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

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HUGHIE GRAHAM.
Thy weeping's sairer on my heart
Than a' that they can do to me.
And ye may gi'e my brother John
My sword that's bent in the middle clear,
And let him come at twelve o'clock,
And see me pay the bishop's mare.
And ye may gi'e my brother James
My sword that's bent in the middle brown,
And bid him come at four o'clock,
And see his brother Hugh cut down.
Remember me to Maggie my wife.
The neist time ye gang o'er the muir.
Tell her she staw the bishop's mare.
Tell her she was the bishop's w—e.
And ye may tell my kith and kin,
I never did disgrace their blood
And when they meet with the bishop's cloak,
To mak' it shorter by the hood.
Burns says, in his " Notes on Scottish Song," " there are several editions
of this ballad.
This here inserted is from oral tradition in Ayrshire, where,
when I was a boy, it was a popular song.
It originally had a simple old
tune, which I have forgotten."
The poet is somewhat mistaken, however.
He makes the scene of the tragedy Stirling, whereas it should be Carlisle.
The Bishop of Carlisle, it is said, about 1560, seduced the wife of Hughie
Graham, a Scottish borderer. In revenge Graham stole from the bishop
a fine mare, but was taken and executed, the bishop being resolved to remove
the main obstacle to the indulgence of his guilty passion. " Burns
did not cJioose," says Cromek, " to be quite correct in stating, that this
copy of the ballad of Hughie Graham is
printed from oral tradition in
Ayrshire. The truth is, that four of the stanzas are either altered or supper-added
by himself. Of this number the third and eighth are original;
the ninth and tenth have received his original corrections. Perhaps pathos
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