"He is either himsell a devil frae hell, Or else his mother a witch maun be; I wadna have ridden that wan water For a' the gowd in Christentie." 4. Haribee is the place of execution at Carlisle.--S. 13. The Liddel-rack is a ford on the Liddel.--S. 76. A house on the Border, belonging to Buccleuch.--S. 102. Eden has been substituted for Eske, the latter name being inconsistent with geography.--S. 124. The name of a Border tune.--S. DICK O' THE COW. From Caw's _Poetical Museum_, p. 22. The personage from whom this ballad is named was jester to Lord Scroop, who was warden of the West Marches of England from 1590 to 1603. The Laird's Jock, that is John, the son of the Laird of Mangerton, "appears as one of the _men of name_ in Liddesdale, in the list of the Border Clans, 1597." _Dick o' the Cow_ is closely connected with _Jock o' the Side_ and _Hobie Noble_, which follow shortly after. All three were first printed in Caw's _Museum_, and seem to have been contributed by a Mr. Elliot, a Liddesdale gentleman, to whom Sir W. Scott acknowledges many obligations. We are told that both _Dick o' the Cow_ and _Jock o' the Side_ were until lately so popular in Liddesdale with all classes of people, that they were invariably sung, from beginning to end, at every festive meeting. The ballad of _Dick o' the Cow_ was well known in England as early as 1596. "An allusion to it likewise occurs in PARROT'S _Laquei Ridiculosi_, or _Springes for Woodcocks_; London, 1613. "Owenus wondreth since he came to Wales, What the description of this isle should be, That nere had seen but mountains, hills, and dales, Yet would he boast, and stand on pedigree, From Rice ap Richard, sprung from _Dick a Cow_, Be cod, was right gud gentleman, look ye now!" _Epigr. 76._--SCOTT. Now Liddisdale has lyan lang in, There is nae riding there at a'; The horses are grown sae lidder fat, They downa stur out o' the sta'. Then Johnie Armstrong to Willie can say-- 5 "Billie, a riding then we'll gae; England and us has been lang at a feid; Ablins we'll hit on some bootie." Then they're com'd on to Hutton Ha', They rade the proper place about; 10 But the laird he was the wiser man, For he had left nae gear without. Then he had left nae gear to steal, Except sax sheep upon a lee: Quo' Johnie--"I'd rather in England die, 15 Ere thir sax sheep gae t' Liddisdale wi' me. "But how ca'd they the man we last met, Billie, as we cam o'er the know?" "That same he is an innocent fool, And some men ca' him Dick o' the Cow." 20 "That fool has three as good ky o' his ain, As there's in a' Cumberland, billie," quo' he: "Betide me life, betide me death, These three ky shall gae t' Liddisdale wi' me."