The copy of the garland here used is much more correct than the other two, but still not carefully printed. The garland gives the ballad in eight stanzas of eight verses.
11. so were sisters.
62. bower: perhaps we should read towers.
82. weight, which makes sense, but, taking rhyme into account, the change seems requisite: cf. 302.
152. came: come in the other copies.
162. swim.
191. of aik?
192. weary lake-wake? if so, also 132.
271. his eyes.
282. downfal.
301. finger.
302. weight.
311. of: veine.
B. a.
Stanzas 5-7 should come after 26, but the changes which have been traditionally made in 7, to adapt the passage to its actual position, render the restoration of the right order impracticable. 71 is not comforting.
22. An lords?
33. brooch is.
124. now to bird: cf. 194.
132. bent: so the other copy.
134. Ye.
142. clap nor cae': cf. 162.
151. come.
162. war (?).
171. al.
193. to my.
202. coped: caped?
21. After this these lines are struck out:
221. Ga.
234. stack (?).
292. throught.
304. luve, in my copy.
The spelling is in several places doubtful.
b appears to be a transcript of a: the spelling is somewhat regulated.
33. broatch is.
62. in twa.
82. wun.
83. will rin.
83, 103. Little Snod Down.
93. of him.
124. bird her lane.
163. into.
183. broch is.
202. caped it.
211, 2. Gae wash.
221, 2, 3. Go, Go, Gae.
234. slack.
254. lear wanting.
263. scobs wanting.
304. live: rather.
C.
104. here: e added in different ink.
D.
14. maiden.
71. ringin.
91. that wd.
103. I hear.
E.
62. the win' originally: i seems to have been changed to u.
F. a.
131. But her.
b.
24. the lord.
32. my true love eer shall be.
34. And he winna come here to me.
51. It's he.
63. And neer a leech in a'.
72. That will win meat.
74. And bring your.
82. will win both.
111. Lord Darlington.
123. side.
131. He that marries a daughter o mine.
132. I wot.
133. Candemas tide.
134. at Yule.
143. When I come to the salt water.
[145] The stanza which should convey this part of the message is wanting, but may be confidently supplied from the errand-boy's repetition.
[146] The three steeds in B 23-25, the tiring out of the black and of the brown, and the endurance of the white, are found in 'Lady Maisry,' No 65, B, C, E, F, and this passage perhaps belongs to that ballad. It may, however, have been a commonplace. There is something similar in Bugge, p. 130, No 26 B, 6-8, and Landstad, p. 512, No 57, 24-27. For the milk-white geese, E 7, see No 66, C 22, No 73, A, note.
[147] Uhland, Schriften zur Geschichte der Dichtung und Sage, IV, 107, cites the chair of stone in English A 12, 18, as bringing to mind Bothe, st. 14, Wunderhorn, st. 12, where the mother sits down auf einen breiten Stein, an ein harten Stein, and breaks her heart. The chair of stone in the English ballad, like the chair of oak, is a customary seat of the mother's, and she is very far from breaking her heart. Nothing can be built on such accidents.
A. 'Bonny Bee Ho'm,' Alexander Fraser Tytler's Brown MS., No 6; Jamieson's Popular Ballads, I, 185.
B. 'The Enchanted Ring,' Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland, I, 169.
A was given from the manuscript by Jamieson "verbatim," that is, with a few slight variations; the first stanza earlier, in the Scots Magazine, October, 1803, p. 700.
For the ring (chain, A 7) that makes a man invulnerable, and that which indicates by the discoloration of the stone that his love is dead or untrue, see 'Hind Horn,' I, 200 f; for the vows in A 3, 4, B 3, 'Clerk Saunders,' at p. 156 f of this volume.[148] The like vows are adopted into a song called 'The Lowlands of Holland,' found in Herd's MSS, I, 97, and inserted in his Scottish Songs, 1776, II, 2; a fragment, but all that concerns us.[149]
Alexander Fraser Tytler's Brown MS., No 6.
Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland, I, 169.
A.
B.
113. Till they.
124. And stone.
[148] Also 'Bonny Molly Stewart,' Maidment's Scotish Ballads and Songs, 1859, p. 128, and the Reply to 'Cromlet's Lilt,' Maidment's Scotish Ballads and Songs, Historical and Traditionary, 1868, II, 59.
[149] There are six double stanzas in Johnson's Museum, p. 118, to which Stenhouse, IV, 115, adds a concluding one, the fourth of Herd's. "This ballad," Stenhouse was informed, "was composed about the beginning of the last century by a young widow in Galloway, whose husband was drowned on a voyage to Holland." His authority was probably traditional, and all the information except the date, and, to be accurate, the widowhood, is found in the song itself. Motherwell, Minstrelsy, Introduction, p. lxxii, note 37, observes that neither Herd's nor Johnson's copy is so full "as one which may occasionally be met with in stall editions published about sixty years ago:" 1827. Logan, who prints two vulgar versions, or rather perversions, in which a bridegroom is pressed into the king's sea-service on the night of his marriage, Pedlar's Pack, p. 22, says: "A more lengthened version of the same ballad in the Scotch dialect will be found in Book First of A Selection of Scots Songs, Harmonised.... By Peter Urbani, Professor of Music, Edinburgh, circa 1794." Christie, I, 236, says that 'The Lowlands of Holland' was sung in his father's family, in Aberdeenshire, as far back as the middle of the last century. Herd's copy is translated by Talvj, Charakeristik, p. 594.
A. 'Lamkin,' Jamieson's Popular Ballads, I, 176.
B. 'Lambert Linkin,' Motherwell's MS., p. 15; Motherwell's Minstrelsy, p. 290.
C. 'Lamerlinkin,' Motherwell's MS., p. 9.
D. 'Bold Rankin,' Maidment's New Book of Old Ballads, p. 73; Whitelaw's Book of Scottish Ballads, p. 246, V.
E. 'Lambkin,' Kinloch MSS, V, 246; retouched by Kinloch, II, 27.
F. 'Long Lankyn.' a. Notes and Queries, Second Series, II, 324. b. Notes and Queries, Fourth Series, II, 281.
G. 'Long Lonkin,' Richardson's Borderer's Table Book, 1846, VIII, 410; Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1835, p. 11.
H. 'Bauld Rankin,' Kinloch MSS, I, 306.
I. Skene MSS, p. 75.
J. 'Lammikin,' Kinloch MSS, V, 371.
K. 'Long Longkin,' Percy Papers, communicated by Rev. P. Parsons, 1775.
L. 'Lamkin,' Motherwell's MS., p. 14.
M. 'Cruel Lammikin.' a. Dr Joseph Robertson's Note-Book, Adversaria, p. 60. b. Kinloch MSS, VI, 31.
N. 'Lamkin,' Dr Joseph Robertson's Note-Book, Journal of Excursions, No 2.
O. 'Lammikin,' Kinloch MSS, V, 375.
P. 'Lammikin,' Herd's MSS, I, 25; Herd's Scottish Songs, 1776, I, 145.
Q. 'Lammikin,' Finlay's Scottish Ballads, II, 45.
R. 'Lammikin,' Finlay's Scottish Ballads, II, 55.
S. 'Lambkin,' Motherwell's Note-Book, fol. 13.
T. Recited by Ellen Healy, as sung by a woman living near Killarney.
U. 'Lamkin.' a. Allingham's Ballad Book, p. xxxiii. b. The same, p. 297, No 56.
V. Harris MS., No 28, fol. 27b.
'Lammikin: an Old Scotch Ballad,' Aberdeen, Lewis and James Smith, 1862, said to be edited by the Rev. Dr John Burnett Pratt, Episcopal minister at Cruden, Aberdeenshire, is made up of A, B, P, Q, R, with such alterations as seemed good to the editor, and a few interpolated stanzas.
'Long Lonkin,' edited by A. O. Bell, C. E., York, 1846 (Notes and Queries, Fourth Series, III, 93), I have not seen, but presume it to be a compounded copy.
The story is told without material variation in all the numerous versions. A mason has built a castle for a nobleman, cannot get his pay, and therefore seeks revenge. The name given the builder is Lamkin, A, C, E, L, M, N, S, U; Lammikin, J, O, P, Q; Lankin, Lonkin, F b, G, I; Lantin, T; Long Lankyn, or Long Longkin, F a, G, K; Rankin, D, H; Balankin, or Lambert Linkin, B; Balcanqual, R. That of the nobleman is Lord Wearie, Weire, A, M, P, Q, U b; Lord Earie, N; Erley, Earley, J; Murray, I; Arran, C; Montgomery, E; Cassilis, S; he is lord of Prime Castle, B. The lord, having occasion to leave his family, fears mischief from the man whom he has wronged, and enjoins his wife to keep the castle well fastened. Precautions are taken, but nevertheless his enemy effects an entrance through some aperture that has not been secured, B, C, F, G, H, P, R, U b, or by connivance with a nurse, A, D, E, I. Most of the servants are away. To get at the lady, Lamkin, as we may call him, by advice of the nurse inflicts some hurt on the babe in the cradle, stabbing it, or "nipping" it, and its cries bring the mother down. The lady proffers large sums of gold to save her life, but Lamkin does not care for gold now. He gloats over his opportunity, and bids the nurse, or a maid-servant, or even one of the daughters of the house, to scour a silver bason to hold the lady's noble blood. The lord has a presentiment of calamity at home, and, returning, finds his house red with the blood of his wife and child. Lamkin is hanged, B, F, I, or burned, C, H, or boiled in a pot full of lead, D. The nurse is burned, A, B, D, F, H, or hanged, C, Q, or boiled in a caldron, I.[150]
In K, the oldest version, except perhaps P, which is greatly inferior, Lady Betty is called down by Longkin to see her mother's blood running, then Lady Nelly to see her sister's blood running, Lady Jenny to see Lady Nelly's, etc. In F, T, the mother, very unnaturally, offers Lamkin her daughter as wife, in ransom of her own life. In C, D, a servant offers her life for her lady; in D, G, K, a daughter for her mother.
Motherwell remarks, p. lxx of his Minstrelsy, note 27: "There is a 'Lambirkyns wod' near Dupplin, in Perthshire. Can this have got its name from the cruel mason who the ballad assures us 'lived in the wode'? If so, it must be very ancient. It is localized, too, I believe, at Balwearie, in Fifeshire; but there are few places where the ballad is remembered but which have also some ancient edifice in the neighborhood reared by the hands of Lammikin.[151] Indeed, it seems questionable how some Scottish lairds could well afford to get themselves seated in the large castles they once occupied unless they occasionally treated the mason after the fashion adopted in this ballad." And again, at p. 291: "There can be little doubt that the epithet Linkin Mr Lambert acquired from the secrecy and address with which he insinuated him into that notable strength [Prime Castle]. Indeed, all the names of Lammerlinkin, Lammikin, Lamkin, Lankin, Linkin, Belinkin, can easily be traced out as abbreviations of Lambert Linkin." It might be inferred, however, from the mason's seemingly resentful inquiry in A 8-11, J 3-6, Where's the men, women, bairns, lady, that call me Lamkin? that the view in these particular versions was that Lamkin was a sobriquet applied in derision of the meekness with which the builder had submitted to his injury. Linkin, it will be observed, occurs only in B, and it is far more likely that Lamkin, or Lammikin, which is found in a full dozen copies, is a simply ironical designation for the bloody mason, the terror of countless nurseries.[152]
A is translated by Talvj, Versuch, etc., p. 571; Allingham's ballad by Knortz, Lieder und Romanzen Alt-Englands, p. 162.
Jamieson's Popular Ballads, I, 176, communicated by Mrs Brown.
Motherwell's MS., p. 15; from the recitation of Mrs Thomson, Kilbarchan, February 25, 1825.