The actual boat in which the gallant deed was performed was long preserved at Newton Hall, Stocksfield; but the owners have lately presented it to the Marine Laboratory at Cullercoats. [Illustration: Drawing of boat] CHAPTER XI. BALLADS AND POEMS. The ballads of Northumberland, as all true ballads should do, partake of the characteristics of the district which is their home. As we should expect, they treat chiefly of warlike themes, of the chieftain’s doughty deeds, the moss-trooper’s daring and skill, of the knight’s courtesies and gallant feats of arms, and the feuds of rival clans; in fact, they portray for us vividly the time of which they treat, and in a few graphic touches bring before us the very spirit of the period. In direct and simple phrases the narrative proceeds, giving with rare power just the necessary expression to the tale. These ballads fall naturally into three main divisions. The historical ballad is at its best in the famous “Chevy-Chase,” which has been the delight of gentle and simple for centuries; and the oft-quoted declaration of Sir Philip Sidney concerning it still finds an echo in our own day. Of the two best known versions of the ballad, the one here given is the more poetical by far; the other, however, contains the account of the courage of Hugh Widdrington which has made the gallant squire immortal. The latter version is as evidently English as the former is Scottish; or rather, each has grown to its present form as the reciters exercised their art to please an English or a Scottish audience. In the one version it is Douglas who takes the offensive, and challenges Percy, waiting for him at Otterbourne; in the other we are told that “The stout Erle of Northumberland A vow to God did make, His pleasure in the Scottish woods Three summer days to take.” On the death of Douglas— “Erle Percy took The dead man by the hand, And said, ‘Erle Douglas, for thy life Would I had lost my land!’” When the battle is over, “Next day did many widdowes come Their husbands to bewayle; Their bodyes bathed in purple blood They bore with them away; They kist them dead a thousand times Ere they were cladd in clay.” It was neither of these versions, however, that so moved the heart of gallant Sidney, but a much older one, beginning “The Perse owt off Northomberlande And a vow to God made he, That he wold hunt in the mountayns Off Chyviat within days iii.” Other historical ballads are “The Rising of the North,” “The Raid of the Reidswire,” “Flodden Field,” “Homildon Hils” and “Hedgeley Moor.”