THE GAY GOSS-HAWK. Mainly after Motherwell, although his version is entitled _The Jolly Goshawk_. The epithet _Gay_ has the sanction of Scott and Jamieson. Buchan gives a rendering of this ballad under title of _The Scottish Squire_. _Whin_, furze. _Bigly_, spacious. _Sark_, shroud. _Claith_, cloth. _Steeking_, stitching. _Gar'd_, made. _Chive_, morsel. _Skaith_, harm. YOUNG REDIN. After Allingham's collated copy. There are many versions of this ballad, the hero being variously known as Young Hunting, Earl Richard, Lord William, Lord John and Young Redin. _Birl'd_, plied. _Douk_, dive. _Weil-head_, eddy. _Linn_, the pool beneath a cataract. _Brin_, burn. _Balefire_, bonfire. WILLIE AND MAY MARGARET. After Allingham's copy framed by collating Jamieson's fragmentary version with Buchan's ballad of _The Drowned Lovers_. _Stour_, wild. _Pot_, a pool in a river. _Dowie den_, doleful hollow. _Tirled_, rattled. _Sleeked_, fastened. _Brae_, hillside. _Sowm, swim. _Minnie_, affectionate term for mother. YOUNG BEICHAN. Mainly after Jamieson, his version being based upon a copy taken down from the recitation of the indefatigable Mrs. Brown and collated with a manuscript and stall copy, both from Scotland, a recited copy from the North of England, and a short version "picked off an old wall in Piccadilly." Of this ballad of _Young Beichan_ there are numerous renderings, the name of the hero undergoing many variations,--Bicham, Brechin, Beachen, Bekie, Bateman, Bondwell--and the heroine, although Susie Pye or Susan Pye in ten of the fourteen versions, figuring also as Isbel, Essels, and Sophia. It was probably an English ballad at the start, but bears the traces of the Scottish minstrels who were doubtless prompt to borrow it. There is likelihood enough that the ballad was originally suggested by the legend of Gilbert Becket, father of the great archbishop; the story running that Becket, while a captive in Holy Land, plighted his troth to the daughter of a Saracenic prince. When the crusader had made good his escape, the lady followed him, inquiring her way to "England" and to "London," where she wandered up and down the streets, constantly repeating her lover's name, "Gilbert," the third and last word of English that she knew, until finally she found him, and all her woes were put to flight by the peal of wedding bells. _Termagant_, the name given in the old romances to the God of the Saracens. _Pine_, pain. _Sheave_, slice. _But and_, and also. _Dreed_, endured.