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THE BATTLE OF OTTERBOURNE. 19 |
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THE BATTLE OF OTTERBOURNE.
From Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, i. 354. In the Complaynt of Scotland (1548), "The Persee and the Mongumrye met," (v. 117 of this piece,) occurs as the title, or rather the catchword, of one of the popular songs of the time.
It fell about the Lammas tide,
When the muir-men win their hay,
The doughty Douglas bound him to ride Into England, to drive a prey.
He chose the Gordons and the Graemes, «
With them the Lindesays, light and gay ;
But the Jardines wald not with him ride, And they rue it to this day.
And he has burn'd the dales of Tyne,
And part of Bambroughshire ; 10
6. " Light" is the appropriated designation of the Lindsays, as " gay " is that of the Gordons.
7. The Jardines were a clan of hardy West-Border men. Their chief was Jardine of Applegirth. Their refusal to ride with Douglas was, probably, the result of one of those perpetual feuds, which usually rent to pieces a Scottish army.—S. |
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