NOTES ON DICK O’ THE COW.

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  Then Dickie’s come on to Pudding-burn house.—­P. 205. v, 3.

This was a house of strength, held by the Armstrongs.  The ruins at present form a sheep-fold, on the farm of Reidsmoss, belonging to the Duke of Buccleuch.

  He has tied them a’ wi’ St. Mary’s knot.—­P. 207. v. 4.

Hamstringing a horse is termed, in the border dialect, tying him with St. Mary’s Knot.  Dickie used this cruel expedient to prevent a pursuit.  It appears from the narration, that the horses, left unhurt, belonged to Fair Johnie Armstrang, his brother Willie, and the Laird’s Jock, of which Dickie carried off two, and left that of the Laird’s Jock, probably out of gratitude for the protection he had afforded him on his arrival.

  Hand for hand, on Cannobie lee.—­P. 209. v. 1.

A rising-ground on Cannobie, on the borders of Liddesdale.

  Ere the Laird’s Jock had stown frae thee.—­P. 211. v. 4.

The commendation of the Laird’s Jock’s honesty seems but indifferently founded; for, in July 1586, a bill was fouled against him, Dick of Dryup, and others, by the deputy of Bewcastle, at a warden-meeting, for 400 head of cattle taken in open forray from the Drysike in Bewcastle:  and, in September 1587, another complaint appears at the instance of one Andrew Rutledge of the Nook, against the Laird’s Jock, and his accomplices, for 50 kine and oxen, besides furniture, to the amount of 100 merks sterling.  See Bell’s MSS., as quoted in the History of Cumberland and Westmoreland.  In Sir Richard Maitland’s poem against the thieves of Liddesdale, he thus commemorates the Laird’s Jock: 

  They spuilye puir men of thair pakis,
  They leif them nocht on bed nor bakis;
  Baith hen and cok,
  With reil and rok,
  The Lairdis Jock
  All with him takis.

Those, who plundered Dick, had been bred up under an expert teacher.

JOCK O’ THE SIDE.

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The subject of this ballad, being a common event in those troublesome and disorderly times, became a favourite theme of the ballad-makers.  There are, in this collection, no fewer than three poems on the rescue of prisoners, the incidents in which nearly resemble each other; though the poetical description is so different, that the editor did not think himself at liberty to reject any one of them, as borrowed from the others.  As, however, there are several verses, which, in recitation, are common to all these three songs, the editor, to prevent unnecessary and disagreeable repetition, has used the freedom of appropriating them to that, in which they seem to have the best poetic effect.

The reality of this story rests solely upon the foundation of tradition.  Jock o’ the side seems to have been nephew to the laird of Mangertoun, cousin to the Laird’s Jock, one of his deliverers, and probably brother to Chrystie of the Syde, mentioned in the list of border clans 1597.  Like the Laird’s Jock, he also is commemorated by Sir Richard Maitland.—­See the Introduction.