"The following copy was transmitted by Mrs. Arrott of Aberbrothick. The stanzas, where the seven brothers are introduced, have been enlarged from two fragments, which, although very defective in themselves, furnished lines which, when incorporated with the text, seemed to improve it. Stanzas 21 and 22, were written by the editor; the idea of the _rose_ being suggested by the gentleman who recited, but who could not recollect the language in which it was expressed." This copy of _Clerk Saunders_ bears traces of having been made up from several sources. A portion of the concluding stanzas (v. 107-130) have a strong resemblance to the beginning and end of _Proud Lady Margaret_ (vol. viii. 83, 278), which ballad is itself in a corrupt condition. It may also be doubted whether the fragments Jamieson speaks of did not belong to a ballad resembling _Lady Maisry_, p. 78 of this volume. Accepting the ballad as it stands here, there is certainly likeness enough in the first part to suggest a community of origin with the Swedish ballad _Den Grymma Brodern_, _Svenska Folk-Visor_, No. 86 (translated in _Lit. and Rom. of Northern Europe_, p. 261). W. Grimm mentions (_Altdän. Heldenl._, p. 519) a Spanish ballad, _De la Blanca Niña_, in the _Romancero de Amberes_, in which the similarity to _Den Grymma Brodern_ is very striking. The series of questions (v. 30-62) sometimes appears apart from the story, and with a comic turn, as in _Det Hurtige Svar_, _Danske V._, No. 204, or _Thore och hans Syster_, Arwidsson, i. 358. In this shape they closely resemble the familiar old song, _Our gudeman came hame at e'en_, Herd, _Scottish Songs_, ii. 74. Clerk Saunders was an earl's son, He liv'd upon sea-sand; May Margaret was a king's daughter, She liv'd in upper land. Clerk Saunders was an earl's son, 5 Weel learned at the scheel; May Margaret was a king's daughter; They baith lo'ed ither weel. He's throw the dark, and throw the mark, And throw the leaves o' green; 10 Till he came to May Margaret's door, And tirled at the pin. "O sleep ye, wake ye, May Margaret, Or are ye the bower within?" "O wha is that at my bower door, 15 Sae weel my name does ken?" "It's I, Clerk Saunders, your true love, You'll open and lat me in. "O will ye to the cards, Margaret, Or to the table to dine? 20 Or to the bed, that's weel down spread, And sleep when we get time." "I'll no go to the cards," she says, "Nor to the table to dine; But I'll go to a bed, that's weel down spread, 25 And sleep when we get time." They were not weel lyen down, And no weel fa'en asleep, When up and stood May Margaret's brethren, Just up at their bed feet. 30