10. O rise, O rise, May Marget, h[e says], (_cut away by the binder_) O rise and let me in, For the very steed that I came on Does tremble at every limb. 11^3. mither and father’s baith awauk. 12. O hae ye neer a stable, he says, Or hae ye neer a barn, Or hae ye neer a wild-guse house, Where I might rest till morn? 14^1. My barn is. 14^2. My stable is. 14^3. The house is fu o wild, wild gees. 14^4. They canna be moved. 15^4. Rides in my companie. 16^1. his milk-white. 16^2. And who could ride like him. 16^4. ’Twas far outowre the brim. _After 16_: He swam high, and he swam low, And he swam to and fro, But he neer could spy the hazel-bush That would bring him to the brow. _Comment_: The mother was a witch; made responses for Margaret; met him in a green habit on his return home. He inquired for the ford; she directed him to the deepest linn. When he got into the water, two hounds seized on his horse, and left him to struggle with the current. _Willie’s mother had transferred herself to Margaret’s house according to the variation in 9^4; so she is the witch._ _All this is very paltry. The mother’s curse was enough to drown Willie without her bestirring herself further._ 217 THE BROOM OF COWDENKNOWS #A.# ‘The Laird of Knotington,’ Percy papers, 1768. #B.# ‘Bonny May.’ #a.# Herd’s Ancient and Modern Scots Songs, 1769, p. 308; 1776, I, 98. #b.# Johnson’s Museum, No 110, p. 113. #C.# ‘Laird o Ochiltree,’ Kinloch MSS, VII, 143; Kinloch’s Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 160. #D.# ‘The Laird o Ochiltree Wa’s,’ Motherwell’s MS., p. 517. #E.# Motherwell’s MS., p. 175. #F.# ‘Bonny May,’ Gibb MS., p. 9. #G.# ‘The Broom of Cowdenknows,’ Scott’s Minstrelsy, III, 280, 1803; III, 37, 1833. #H.# ‘The Maid o the Cowdenknows,’ Kinloch MSS, I, 137. #I.# ‘Laird o Lochnie,’ Kinloch MSS, VII, 153; Kinloch’s Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 167. #J.# Kinloch MSS, VI, 11. #K.# ‘Maiden o the Cowdenknowes,’ Dr Joseph Robertson’s Journal of Excursions, No 6. #L.# ‘The Broom of the Cowden Knowes,’ Buchan’s MSS, II, 178. #M.# ‘Broom o the Cowdenknowes,’ Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, I, 172. #N.# ‘The Laird of Lochinvar,’ Kinloch MSS, I, 145. This ballad was widely diffused in Scotland. “It would be useless,” says Motherwell, “to enumerate the titles of the different versions which are common among reciters.” “Each district has its own version,” says Kinloch. So it must have done no little mischief in its day. The earliest known copies, #A#, #B#, are of the second half of the last century.