[Footnote 117:  The borderers, from their habits of life, were capable of most extraordinary exploits of this nature.  In the year 1511, Sir Robert Ker of Cessford, warden of the middle marches of Scotland, was murdered at a border-meeting, by the bastard Heron, Starhead, and Lilburn.  The English monarch delivered up Lilburn to justice in Scotland, but Heron and Starhead escaped.  The latter chose his residence in the very centre of England, to baffle the vengeance of Ker’s clan and followers.  Two dependants of the deceased, called Tait, were deputed by Andrew Ker of Cessford to revenge his father’s murder.  They travelled through England in various disguises till they discovered the place of Starhead’s retreat, murdered him in his bed, and brought his head in triumph to Edinburgh, where Ker caused it to be exposed at the cross.  The bastard Heron would have shared the same fate, had he not spread abroad a report of his having died of the plague, and caused his funeral obsequies to be performed.—­Ridpath’s History, p. 481.—­See also Metrical Account of the Battle of Flodden, published by the Rev. Mr. Lambe.]

As this border hero was a person of great note in his way, he is frequently alluded to by the writers of the time.  Sir David Lindsay of the Mount, in the curious play published by Mr. Pinkerton, from the Bannatyne MS., introduces a pardoner, or knavish dealer in reliques, who produces, among his holy rarities—­

  —­The cordis, baith grit and lang,
  Quhilt hangit Johnnie Armistrang,
  Of gude hempt, soft and sound,
  Gude haly pepill, I stand ford,
  Wha’evir beis hangit in this cord,
  Neidis nevir to be drowned!

Pinkerton’s Scottish Poems, Vol.  II. p. 69.

In The Complaynt of Scotland, John Armistrangis’s dance, mentioned as a popular tune, has probably some reference to our hero.

The common people of the high parts of Tiviotdale, Liddesdale, and the country adjacent, hold the memory of Johnie Armstrong in very high respect.  They affirm also, that one of his attendants broke through the king’s guard, and carried to Gilnockie Tower the news of the bloody catastrophe.

This song was first published by Allan Ramsay, in his Evergreen, who says, he copied it from the mouth of a gentleman, called Armstrong, who was in the sixth generation from this John.  The reciter assured him, that this was the genuine old ballad; the common one false.  By the common one, Ramsay means an English ballad upon the same subject, but differing in various particulars, which is published in Mr. Ritson’s English Songs, Vol.  II.  It is fortunate for the admirers of the old ballad, that it did not fall into Ramsay’s hands, when he was equipping with new sets of words the old Scottish tunes in his Tea-Table Miscellany.  Since his time it has been often reprinted.

JOHNIE ARMSTRANG