celebrates it, must not be omitted.

In the twelfth

year of Richard II., A.D. 1388, the Scotch made a great raid over the Border, and ravaged the whole country about Carlisle, driving away large quantities of cattle, and taking no less than three hundred men prisoners. Another division of them extended their ravages into the counties of Northumberland and Durham ; and grew so insolent as to render a vigorous effort necessary to crush them, on the part of the English.

It fell about the Lammas tide
When yeomen win their hay,
The doughty Douglass 'gan to ride
In England to take a prey.

The Earl of Fife withoute strife
He bound him over Solway.
The great wolde even together ride,

The race they may rue for aye.

The version of the ballad, as given by Percy, is the only one of the many versions extant which makes allusion to the party that ravaged Carlisle. The main interest is centred around Newcastle-and on the doings of the other division of the Scotch. There is, however, another ballad of which Carlisle is more exclusively the theme. It is somewhat less known to the English reader, not being found in Percy's Reliques; and describes a scene which was very common to the Border for a long period. As it

serves to illustrate the picturesque sketch of Mr. Gilbert on the opposite side, the principal portions of it, sufficient to tell the story, are here transcribed. In the year 1596, William Armstrong, of K.amont, better known as Kinmont Willie, a noted reiver, or Border trooper, and stealer of Englishmen's cattle, was taken prisoner by Lord Scrope, the Warden of the Western Marches, and safely lodged in Carlisle Castle. A truce existed at the time between Lord Scrope and the Lord of Buccleugh, who severally watched over the interests of the English and Scottish sides of the Border; and the Lord of Buccleugh, incensed that the truce had been broken by the capture of Willie, demanded that he should be set at liberty. Lord Scrope refused; and the Lord of Buccleugh, with a small body of two hundred men, performed the daring feat of surprising the Castle of Carlisle, and rescuing his countryman. The "fause Sakelde," alluded to in the ballad, was the then possessor of Corby Castle, and Sheriff of Cumberland-the chief of the powerful family of the Salkeldes; and "Hairibee," was the slang phrase for the place of execution at Carlisle.

KINMONT WILLIE.

Oh have ye na heard o' the fause Sakelde,

Oh have ye na heard o' the keen Lord Scrope,
How they have taken bold Kinmont Willie
On Hairibee to hang him up?

Had Willie had but twenty men—
But twenty men as stout as he,

Fause Sakelde had never the Kinmont ta'en
Wi' eight score in his company.

Now word is gone to the bold keeper
In Branksome hall where that he lay,
That Lord Scrope had taken Kinmont Willie
Between the hours of night and day.

He struck the table with his hand,

He made the red wine spring on hie"Now Christ's curse on my head;" he said, "But avenged on Lord Scrope I will be.

"Oh is my helmet a widow's cap,

Or

my lance a wand of the willow-tree? Or my arm a lady's lily hand,

That an English Lord should lightly me?

"And have they taken him, Kinmont Willie, Against the truce of Border tide?

And forgotten that the bold Buccleugh
Is keeper here on the Scottish side?