predecessor, had only three sons, namely,
I. William, the famous secretary of Queen Mary; II. Sir John, who
alone survived him, and is the _Burd-allane_ of the consolation; III.
Thomas, a youth of great hopes, who died in Italy. But he had four
daughters, married to gentlemen of fortune.--_Pinkerton's List of
Scottish Poets_, p. 114.]

[Footnote 87: _Grie and grie_--In regular descent; from _gre_,
French.]

Sir William Mautlant, or Maitland, the eldest and sole surviving son
of Sir Richard, ratified and confirmed, to the monks of Dryburgh,
"_Omnes terras quas Dominus Ricardus de Mautlant pater suus fecit
dictis monachis_ _in territorio suo de Thirlestane," Sir William is
supposed to have died about 1315.--Crawford's Peerage_.

Such were the heroes of the ballad. The castle of Thirlestane is
situated upon the Leader, near the town of Lauder. Whether the present
building, which was erected by Chancellor Maitland, and improved by
the Duke of Lauderdale, occupies the site of the ancient castle, I do
not know; but it still merits the epithet of a "_darksome house_."
I find no notice of the siege in history; but there is nothing
improbable in supposing, that the castle, during the stormy period of
the Baliol wars, may have held out against the English. The creation
of a nephew of Edward I., for the pleasure of slaying him by the hand
of young Maitland, is a poetical licence[88]; and may induce us to
place the date of the composition about the reign of David II., or of
his successor, when the real exploits of Maitland, and his sons, were
in some degree obscured, as well as magnified, by the lapse of time.
The inveterate hatred against the English, founded upon the usurpation
of Edward I., glows in every line of the ballad.

[Footnote 88: Such liberties with the genealogy of monarchs were
common to romancers. Henry the Minstrel makes Wallace slay more than
one of King Edward's nephews; and Johnie Armstrong claims the merit of
slaying a sister's son of Henry VIII.]

Auld Maitland is placed, by Gawain Douglas, bishop of Dunkeld,
among the popular heroes of romance, in his allegorical Palice of
Honour[89]:

[Footnote 89: It is impossible to pass over this curious list of
Scottish romances without a note; to do any justice to the subject
would require an essay.--_Raf Coilyear_ is said to have been printed
by Lekprevik, in 1572; but no copy of the edition is known to exist,
and the hero is forgotten, even by popular tradit