Ver. 112. Agurstone.] The seat of this family was sometimes subject to the Kings of Scotland. Thus Richardus Hagerstoun, miles, is one of the Scottish knights who signed a treaty with the English in 1249, temp. Hen. III. (Nicholson, p. 2, note.)-It was the fate of many parts of Northumberland often to change their masters, according as the Scottish or English arms prevailed.

Pag. 33. ver. 129. Morrey.] The person here meant was probably Sir Charles Murray of Cockpoole, who flourished at that time, and was ancestor of the MURRAYS some time Earls of Annandale. See Doug. Peerage.

Ib. ver. 139. Fitz-hughe.] Dugdale (in his Baron. vol. i. p. 403) informs us that John, son of Henry Lord Fitzhugh, was killed at the battle of Otterbourne. This was a Northumberland family. Vid. Dugd. p. 403, col. 1. and Nicholson, pp. 33. 60.

Ib. ver. 141. Harebotell.] Harbottle is a village upon the river Coquet, about 10 m. west of Rothbury. The family of HARBOTTLE was once considerable in Northumberland. (See Fuller, pp. 312, 313.) A daughter of Guischard Harbottle, Esq. married Sir Thomas Percy, Knt. son of Henry, the fifth,-and father of Thomas, the seventh, Earls of Northumberland.

III.

THE JEW'S DAUGHTER,

A SCOTTISH BALLAD,

- Is founded upon the supposed practice of the Jews in crucifying or otherwise murthering Christian

children,

children, out of hatred to the religion of their parents : a practice which hath been always alleged in excuse for the cruelties exercised upon that wretched people, but which probably never happened in a single instance. For, if we consider, on the one hand, the ignorance and superstition of the times when such stories took their rise, the virulent prejudices of the monks who record them, and the eagerness with which they would be catched up by the barbarous populace as a pretence for plunder; on the other hand, the great danger incurred by the perpetrators, and the inadequate motives they could have to excite them to a crime of so much horror; we may reasonably conclude the whole charge to be groundless and malicious.

The following ballad is probably built upon some Italian Legend, and bears a great resemblance to the Prioresse's Tale in Chaucer: the poet seems also to have had an eye to the known story of Hugh of Lincoln, a child said to have been there murthered by the Jews in the reign of Henry III. The conclusion of this ballad appears to be wanting: what it probably contained may be seen in Chaucer. As for MIRRYLAND TOUN, it is probably a corruption of MILAN (called by the Dutch MEYLANDT) TOWN: the PA is evidently the river Po, although the Adige, not the Po, runs through Milan. Printed from a MS. copy sent from Scotland.

THE rain rins doun through Mirry-land toune,

Sae dois it doune the Pa:

Sae dois the lads of Mirry-land toune,

Quhan they play at the ba'.

Than out and cam the Jewis dochtèr, Said, Will ye cum in and dine? " I winnae cum in, I cannae cum in,

Without my play-feres nine."

5

Scho

Scho powd an apple reid and white
To intice the zong thing in:

Scho powd an apple white and reid,

And that the sweit bairne did win.

10

And scho has taine out a little pen-knife,

And low down by her gair,

Scho has twin'd the zong thing and his life;

15

And drest him like a swine,

And laughing said, Gae nou and pley

With zour sweit play-feres nine.

Scho rowd him in a cake of lead,

Bade him lie stil and sleip.

Scho cast him in a deip draw-well,

Was fifty fadom deip.

Quhan bells wer rung, and mass was sung,

And every lady went hame :

Than ilka lady had her zong sonne,
Bot lady Helen had nane.

20

25

30

Scho rowd hir mantil hir about,

And sair sair gan she weip:

And she ran into the Jewis castèl,

Quhan they wer all asleip.

My bonny sir Hew, my pretty sir Hew,

"O lady, rinn to the deip draw-well,

35

Gin ze zour sonne wad seik."

40

Lady Helen ran to the deip draw-well,

Gae hame, gae hame, my mither deir,

Fetch me my windling sheet,

And at the back o' Mirry-land toun

Its thair we twa sall meet."

50

IV. SIR

IV.

SIR CAULINE.

This old romantic tale was preserved in the Editor's folio MS. but in so very defective and mutilated a condition (not from any chasm in the MS. but from great omission in the transcript, probably copied from the faulty recitation of some illiterate minstrel), and the whole appeared so far short of the perfection it seemed to deserve, that the Editor was tempted to add several stanzas in the first part, and still more in the second, to connect and complete the story in the manner which appeared to him most interesting and affecting.

There is something peculiar in the metre of this old ballad it is not unusual to meet with redundant stanzas of six lines; but the occasional insertion of a double third or fourth line, as ver. 31, &c. is an irregularity I do not remember to have seen elsewhere.

It may be proper to inform the reader before he comes to Pt. 2, v. 110, 111, that the ROUND TABLE was not peculiar to the reign of K. Arthur, but was common in all the ages of Chivalry. The proclaiming a great tournament (probably with some peculiar solemnities) was called holding a Round Table." Dugdale tells us that the great baron Roger de Mortimer " having procured the honour of knighthood to be conferred on his three sons' "by K. Edw. I, he, at his own costs, caused a tournea"ment to be held at Kenilworth; where he sumptuously "entertained an hundred knights, and as many ladies, for three days; the like whereof was never before in England; and there began the ROUND TABLE, (so called "by reason that the place wherein they practised those "feats was environed with a strong wall made in a round "form:) And upon the fourth day, the golden lion, in "sign of triumph, being yielded to him; he carried it (with all the company) to Warwick."-It may further

be