We scarce had won the Staneshaw-bank,
  When a’ the Carlisle bells were rung,
  And a thousand men, in horse and foot,
  Cam wi’ the keen Lord Scroope along.

  Buccleuch has turned to Eden water,
  Even where it flow’d frae bank to brim,
  And he has plunged in wi’ a’ his band,
  And safely swam them thro’ the stream.

  He turned him on the other side,
  And at Lord Scroope his glove flung he—­
  “If ye like na my visit in merry England,
  In fair Scotland come visit me!”

  All sore astonished stood Lord Scroope,
  He stood as still as rock of stane;
  He scarcely dared to trew his eyes,
  When thro’ the water they had gane.

  “He is either himsell a devil frae hell,
  Or else his mother a witch maun be;
  I wad na have ridden that wan water,
  For a’ the gowd in Christentie.”

[Footnote 160:  Hostelrie—­Inn.]

[Footnote 161:  Lawing—­Reckoning.]

[Footnote 162:  Basnet—­Helmet.]

[Footnote 163:  Curch—­Coif.]

[Footnote 164:  Lightly—­Set light by.]

[Footnote 165:  Low—­Flame.]

[Footnote 166:  Splent on spauld—­Armour on shoulder.]

[Footnote 167:  The name of a border tune.]

[Footnote 168:  Stear—­Stir.]

[Footnote 169:  Soft—­Light.]

[Footnote 170:  Fleyed—­Frightened.]

[Footnote 171:  Maill—­Rent.]

[Footnote 172:  Furs—­Furrows.]

NOTES ON KINMONT WILLIE.

* * * * *

  On Hairibee to hang him up?—­P. 188. v. 1.

Hairibee is the place of execution at Carlisle.

  And they brought him ower the Liddel-rack.—­P. 188. v. 3.

The Liddel-rack is a ford on the Liddel.

  And so they reached the Woodhouselee.—­P. 192. v. 1.

Woodhouselee; a house on the border, belonging to Buccleuch.

* * * * *

The Salkeldes, or Sakeldes, were a powerful family in Cumberland, possessing, among other manors, that of Corby, before it came into the possession of the Howards, in the beginning of the seventeenth century.  A strange stratagem was practised by an outlaw, called Jock Grame of the Peartree, upon Mr. Salkelde, sheriff of Cumberland; who is probably the person alluded to in the ballad, as the fact is stated to have happened late in Elizabeth’s time.  The brother of this freebooter was lying in Carlisle jail for execution, when Jock of the Peartree came riding past the gate of Corby castle.  A child of the sheriff was playing before the door, to whom the outlaw gave an apple, saying, “Master, will you ride?” The boy willingly consenting, Grame took him up before him, carried him into Scotland, and would never part with him, till he had his brother safe from the gallows.  There is no historical ground for supposing, either that Salkelde, or any one else, lost his life in the raid of Carlisle.