The Glenriddel MS., which, in this instance, is extremely inaccurate
as to names, calls the place of rendezvous "_The Poor Man's house_,"
and hints, that the Outlaw was surprised by the treachery of the
king:--
"Then he was aware of the king's coming,
With hundreds three in company,
I wot the muckle deel * * * * *
He learned kings to lie!
For to fetch me here frae amang my men,
Here like a dog for to die."
I believe the reader will think, with me, that the catastrophe is
better, as now printed from Mrs. Cockburn's copy. The deceit supposed
to be practised on the Outlaw, is unworthy of the military monarch,
as he is painted in the ballad; especially if we admit him to be King
James IV.
_Fair Philiphaugh is mine by right_.--P. 101. v. 1.
In this and the following verse, the ceremony of feudal investiture is
supposed to be gone through, by the Outlaw resigning his possessions
into the hands of the king, and receiving them back, to be held of
him as superior. The lands of Philiphaugh are still possessed by the
Outlaw's representative. Hangingshaw and Lewinshope were sold of
late years. Newark, Foulshiels and Tinnies, have long belonged to the
family of Buccleuch.
JOHNIE ARMSTRANG.
* * * * *
There will be such frequent occasion, in the course of this volume, to
mention the clan, or sept, of the Armstrongs, that the editor finds
it necessary to prefix, to this ballad, some general account of that
tribe.
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