English and Scottish Ballads, Volume VII

Ballads, English -- England -- Texts; Ballads, Scots -- Scotland -- Texts

Ther was slayne upon the Skottes syde,
      For soth as I yow saye,
    Of fowre and forty thowsande Scotts                                135
      Went but eyghtene awaye.

    Ther was slayne upon the Ynglysshe syde,
      For soth and sertenlye,
    A gentell knyght, Sir John Fitz-hughe,
      Yt was the more petye.                                           140

    Syr James Harebotell ther was slayne,
      For hym ther hartes were sore;
    The gentyll Lovelle ther was slayne,[L143]
      That the Percyes standerd bore.

    Ther was slayne uppon the Ynglyssh perte,                          145
      For soth as I yow saye,
    Of nyne thowsand Ynglyssh men
      Fyve hondert cam awaye.

    The other were slayne in the fylde;
      Cryste kepe their sowles from wo!                                150
    Seying ther was so few fryndes
      Agaynst so many a foo.

    Then one the morne they mayd them beeres
      Of byrch, and haysell graye;
    Many a wydowe with wepyng teyres                                   155
      Ther makes they fette awaye.

    Thys fraye bygan at Otterborne,
      Bytwene the nyghte and the day:
    Ther the Dowglas lost hys lyfe,
      And the Percy was lede awaye.                                    160

    Then was ther a Scottyshe prisoner tayne,
      Syr Hughe Mongomery was hys name;[L162]
    For soth as I yow saye,
      He borowed the Percy home agayne.

    Now let us all for the Percy praye                                 165
      To Jesu most of myght,
    To bryng hys sowle to the blysse of heven,
      For he was a gentyll knyght.

96. Being all in armour he could not know him.--P.

128. Both the MSS. read here _Sir James_, but see above, Pt. I. ver.
112.--P.

143. Covelle, MS.

162. Supposed to be son of Lord John Montgomery, who took Hotspur
prisoner. In _The Hunting of the Cheviot_ this Sir Hugh is said to
have been slain with an arrow.




THE BATTLE OF OTTERBOURNE.


From _Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border_, i. 354. In the _Complaynt of
Scotland_ (1548), "The Persee and the Mongumrye met," (v. 117 of this
piece,) occurs as the title, or rather the catchword, of one of the
popular songs of the time.


    It fell about the Lammas tide,
      When the muir-men win their hay,
    The doughty Douglas bound him to ride
      Into England, to drive a prey.

    He chose the Gordons and the Græmes,                                 5
      With them the Lindesays, light and gay;[L6]
    But the Jardines wald not with him ride,[L7]
      And they rue it to this day.

    And he has burn'd the dales of Tyne,
      And part of Bambroughshire;                                       10
    And three good towers on Reidswire fells,
      He left them all on fire.

    And he march'd up to Newcastle,
      And rode it round about;
    "O wha's the lord of this castle,                                   15
      Or wha's the lady o't?"

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

English and Scottish Ballads, Volume VII

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