4^4. _Var._ That we should take a dram: _Scott. Probably a jocose suggestion._ 203 THE BARON OF BRACKLEY #A. a.# ‘The Baronne of Braikley,’ [Alexander Laing’s] Scarce Ancient Ballads, 1822, p. 9. #b.# ‘The Baron of Braikley,’ Buchan’s Gleanings, 1825, p. 68. #c.# ‘The Barrone of Brackley,’ The New Deeside Guide, by James Brown (pseudonym for Joseph Robertson), Aberdeen, [1832[60]], p. 46. #B.# ‘The Baron of Brackley,’ Kinloch MSS, V, 379; in the handwriting of John Hill Burton. #C. a.# ‘The Baron of Braikly,’ Jamieson-Brown MS., Appendix, p. viii. #b.# ‘The Baron of Brackley,’ Jamieson’s Popular Ballads, 1806, I, 102. #D.# ‘The Baron of Breachell,’ Skene MS., p. 110. First printed by Jamieson (#C b#) in 1806, who says: “For the copy of the ballad here given I am indebted to Mrs Brown. I have also collated it with another, less perfect, but not materially different, so far as it goes, with which I was favored by the editor of the Border Minstrelsy, who took it down from the recitation of two ladies, great-grandchildren of Farquharson of Inverey; so that the ballad, and the notices that accompany it, are given upon the authority of a Gordon [Anne Gordon, Mrs Brown] and a Farquharson.”[61] #A c# is also a compounded copy: see the notes. The text in The Thistle of Scotland, p. 46, is #C b#. That which is cited in part in the Fourth Report on Historical Manuscripts, 1874, p. 534, is #A c#. The ballad is rewritten by Allan Cunningham, Songs of Scotland, II, 208. #A.# Inverey comes before day to Brackley’s gate, and calls to him to open and have his blood spilled. Brackley asks over the wall whether the people below are gentlemen or hired gallows-birds; if gentlemen, they may come in and eat and drink; in the other case, they may go on to the Lowlands and steal cattle. His wife urges him to get up; the men are nothing but hired gallows-birds. Brackley will go out to meet Inverey (both know it is he, 12, 19), but these same gallows-birds will prove themselves men. His wife derisively calls on her maids to bring their distaffs; if Brackley is not man enough to protect his cattle, she will drive off the robbers with her women. Brackley says he will go out, but he shall never come in. He arms and sallies forth, attended by his brother William, his uncle, and his cousin; but presently bids his brother turn back because he is a bridegroom. William refuses, and in turn, but equally to no effect, urges Brackley to turn back for his wife’s and his son’s sake. The Gordons are but four against four hundred of Inverey’s, and are all killed. Brackley’s wife, so far from tearing her hair, braids it, welcomes Inverey, and makes him a feast. The son, on the nurse’s knee, vows to be revenged if he lives to be a man. (Cf. ‘Johnie Armstrong,’ III, 367, where this should have been noted.)