when they came thorough Howbrame town,
John's horse there stumbled at a stone;
'Out and alas!' cried Much, the Miller,
'John, thou'll make us all be ta'en.'

37.
'But fie upon thee!' says Hobby Noble,
'Much, the Miller, fie on thee!
I know full well,' says Hobby Noble,
'Man that thou wilt never be.'

38.
And when they came into Howbrame wood,
He had Flanders files two or three
To file John's bolts beside his feet,
That he might ride more easily.

39.
Says 'John, now leap over a steed!'
And John then he lope over five.
'I know well,' says Hobby Noble,
'John, thy fellow is not alive.'

40.
Then he brought him home to Mangerton;
The lord then he was at his meat;
But when John o' the Side he there did see,
For fain he could no more eat.

41.
He says 'Blest be thou, Hobby Noble,
That ever thou wast man born!
Thou hast fetched us home good John o' the Side,
That was now clean from us gone.'

[Annotations:
8.4: 'badgers,' corn-dealers or pedlars.
9.2: 'barefoot,' unshod.
11.4: 'gate,' way.
12.2: 'see,' protect.
13.4: 'tree,' wood. The Folio gives '3'; Percy suggested the
emendation.
23.3: 'him' = man, which is suggested by Furnivall.
28.4: 'tent,' guard.
35.1: 'lough,' laughed.
39.2: 'lope,' leapt.]

JAMIE DOUGLAS
AND
WALY, WALY, GIN LOVE BE BONNY

+The Text+ of the ballad is here given from Kinloch's MSS., where it is
in the handwriting of John Hill Burton when a youth. The text of the
song _Waly, waly_, I take from Ramsay's _Tea-Table Miscellany_. The song
and the ballad have become inextricably confused, and the many variants
of the former contain a greater or a smaller proportion of verses
apparently taken from the latter.

+The Story+ of the ballad as here told is nevertheless quite simple and
straightforward. It is spoken in the first person by the daughter of the
Earl of Mar. (She also says she is sister to the Duke of York, 7.4,
a person often introduced into ballads.) Blacklaywood, the lady
complains, has spoken calumniously of her to her lord, and she leaves
him, saying farewell to her children, and taking her youngest son with
her.

The ballad is historical in so far as that Lady Barbara Erskine,
daughter of the Earl of Mar, was married in 1670 to James, second
Marquis of Douglas, and was formally separated from him in 1681.
Further, tradition puts the blame of the sep