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

LOUDOUN CASTLE.
Before I'd give up this fair castle.
And my lord so far from home.
My good lord has an army strong.
He's now gone o'er the sea ;
He bade me keep this gay castle
As long as it would keep me.
I've four-and-twenty brave milk kye
Gangs on yon lily lee,
I'd give them a' for a blast of wind>
To blaw the reek from me.
O pitie on yon fair castle,
That's built with stone and lime,
But far mair pitie on lady Loudouny
And all her children nine.
The writer of the Statistical Aeeount of the parish of Loudoun, in quot- \
in^ the foregoing ballad, states that the old castle of that name is supposed
^
to have been destroyed by fire, about 350 years ago. " The current tra- \
dition," he adds, " ascribes that event to the Clan Kennedy ; and the re- )
mains of an old tower, at Auchi'uglen, on the Galston side of the valley, is
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still pointed out as baviiog been their residence." The balled assigns the \
foray to a different party, and a more recent period. The same ballad has f
been published as recording the destruction of Cowie Castle, in the north
of Scotland ; but it is well known that the wandering minstrels of a for-
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mer age were in the habit of changing the names of persons and places
j
to suit particular circumstances. It is, therefore, difficult to say which of l
the sets is the original. As the ballad, however, as given in the Statistical \
Account, has been familiar to the peasantry of the district of Loudoun l
from time immemorial, and considering the local event to which it alludes,
it has assuredly every claim to a place among the Ballads and Songs
I
OF Ayrshire.