43. The two Earls were Thomas Percy, Earl of Northumberland, and Charles Nevil, Earl of Westmoreland, who, on the 15th of November, 1569, at the head of their tenantry and others, took arms for the purpose of liberating Mary, Queen of Scots, and restoring the old religion. They besieged Barnard castle, which was, for eleven days, stoutly defended by Sir George Bowes, who, afterward, being appointed the Queen's marshal, hanged the poor constables and peasantry by dozens in a day, to the amount of 800. The Earl of Northumberland, betrayed by the Scots, with whom he had taken refuge, was beheaded at York, on the 22d of August, 1572; and the Earl of Westmoreland, deprived of the ancient and noble patrimony of the Nevils, and reduced to beggary, escaped over sea, into Flanders, and died in misery and disgrace, being the last of his family.--RITSON. See _The Rising in the North_ and _Northumberland betrayed by Douglas_.] 48. This is still the phraseology of Westmoreland: a _poorly_ man, a _softly_ day, and the like.--RITSON.] 52. The 6th of December.] 66. Now a straggling village so called; originally, it would seem, the gate-house, or ranger's lodge, at the east entrance of Stanhope-park. At some distance from this place is Westgate, so called for a similar reason.--RITSON. The mention of the bailiff's house at the East-gate is (were such a proof wanting) strongly indicative of the authenticity of the ballad. The family of Emerson of East-gate, a fief, if I may so call it, held under the bishop, long exercised the office of bailiff of Wolsingham, the chief town and borough of Weardale, and of Forster, &c., under successive prelates.--SURTEES.] 68. A place in the neighbourhood of East-gate, known at present, as well as the Dry-rig, or Smale-burns.--RITSON.] 92. The reciter, from his advanced age, could not recollect the original line thus imperfectly supplied.--RITSON.] THE RAID OF THE REIDSWIRE. From _Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border_, ii. 15. This ballad is preserved in the Bannatyne MS., and was first printed in Ramsay's _Evergreen_, ii. 224. Scott informs us that Ramsay took some liberties with the original text, and even interpolated the manuscript to favor his readings. A more accurate copy was given in the _Border Minstrelsy_. The text in Herd's _Scottish Songs_, i. 91, and Caw's _Museum_, p. 235, is that of the _Evergreen_.