They gave him a wheaten loaf to eat,
  And after that a can of beer;
  And they a’ cried, with one consent,
  “Eat, brave Noble, and make gude cheir!

  “Confess my lord’s horse, Hobbie,” they said,
  “And to-morrow in Carlisle thou’s na die.” 
  “How can I confess them,” Hobbie says,
  “When I never saw them with my e’e?”

  Then Hobbie has sworn a fu’ great aith,
  Bi the day that he was gotten and born,
  He never had ony thing o’ my lord’s,
  That either eat him grass or corn.

  “Now fare thee weel, sweet Mangerton! 
  For I think again I’ll ne’er thee see: 
  I wad hae betrayed nae lad alive,
  For a’ the gowd o’ Christentie.

  “And fare thee weel, sweet Liddesdale! 
  Baith the hie land and the law;
  Keep ye weel frae the traitor Mains! 
  For goud and gear he’ll sell ye a’.

  “Yet wad I rather be ca’d Hobbie Noble,
  In Carlisle, where he suffers for his fau’t,
  Than I’d be ca’d the traitor Mains,
  That eats and drinks o’ the meal and maut.”

[Footnote 181:  Feres—­Companions.]

[Footnote 182:  Earl of Whitfield—­The editor does not know who is here meant.]

[Footnote 183:  Forfoughen—­Quite fatigued.]

[Footnote 184:  Syke—­Ditch.]

NOTES ON HOBBIE NOBLE.

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  Aft has he driven our bluidhounds back.—­P. 234. v. 2.

  “The russet blood-hound wont, near Annand’s stream,
  “To trace the sly thief with avenging foot,
  “Close as an evil conscience still at hand.”

Our ancient statutes inform us, that the blood-hound, or sluith-hound (so called from its quality of tracing the slot, or track, of men and animals), was early used in the pursuit and detection of marauders. Nullus perturbet, aut impediat canem trassantem, aut homines trassantes cum ipso, ad sequendum latrones.—­Regiam Majestatem, Lib. 4tus, Cap. 32.  And, so late as 1616, there was an order from the king’s commissioners of the northern counties, that a certain number of slough-hounds should be maintained in every district of Cumberland, bordering upon Scotland.  They were of great value, being sometimes sold for a hundred crowns. Exposition of Bleau’s Atlas, voce Nithsdale.  The breed of this sagacious animal, which could trace the human footstep with the most unerring accuracy, is now nearly extinct.

ARCHIE OF CA’FIELD.

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