52^1. leave of: thease bould. 52^2. they were. 53^4. was born. 55^4. well he would a. 56^4. two old. #h.# 2^4. like us best. 5^2. billie, _and always_. 41^3. he stuck his sword into the grund. 48^1. moudie hill. 51^3. on the sunny side. The Common Place Book of Ancient and Modern Ballad, etc., p. 292, _gives_ 18 _thus_: Then Christie Graham’s to his chamber gane, And his thoughts within him made him sick, Whether he suld fight wi his auld father, Or wi his billie, learnd Bewick. 212 THE DUKE OF ATHOLE’S NURSE #A.# Cromek’s Select Scotish Songs, 1810, II, 196. #B.# Skene MS., p. 10. #C.# ‘Duke of Athole’s Gates,’ Kinloch MSS, I, 335. #D.# ‘Duke of Athole’s Nurse,’ Kinloch MSS, I, 337. #E.# #a.# ‘Duke o Athole’s Nourice,’ Kinloch MSS, VII, 171. #b.# ‘The Duke of Athol’s Nourice,’ Kinloch’s Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 127. #F.# ‘The Duke of Athole’s Nurse.’ #a.# Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, II, 23. #b.# Christie’s Traditional Ballad Airs, I, 80. #M#, #N# of No 214 have stanzas belonging here. #M# 1, 3 = #A# 3, 5; #N# 4, 6, 7 = #A# 2, 4, 5. #A# 1^{1,2}, 2 nearly, are found in No 213, ‘Sir James the Rose,’ 4^{1,2}, 5, where also there is a treacherous leman. #B.# The ‘new-come darling’ of the Duke of Athole offers the duke’s nurse a ring if she will carry a word to her leman. This leman had previously been the nurse’s lover, and comes to tell her that another has now possession of his heart. The nurse plans revenge, but dissimulates; she tells the faithless fellow to go for the night to an ale-house, and she will meet him there in the morning. But instead of the nurse he sees a band of men, her seven brothers (nine brothers, #F#), coming towards the house, and easily divines that they are come to slay him. He appeals to the landlady to save him; she dresses him in woman’s clothes and sets him to her baking. The seven brothers ask the landlady if she had a lodger last night; they are come to pay his reckoning. A lodger had been there, but he did not stay till morning. They search the house and stab the beds, often passing the sham baking-maid without detecting the disguise. #C-F# have nothing about the ‘new-come darling,’ but begin at once with the nurse, who longs for her lover, and would give her half-year’s fee to see him. He appears, and avows to her that another woman has gained his heart. * * * * * A Cromek’s Select Scotish Songs, 1810, II, 196, 194; sent, with other fragments, by Robert Burns to William Tytler, August, 1790; stanzas 2–6. * * * * *