a seems to have been communicated to Percy by Roger Halt in 1775. b was contributed to Caw's Museum by John Elliot of Reidheugh, a gentleman, says Scott, well skilled in the antiquities of the western border, c was taken down "from the singing and recitation of a Liddesdale-man, namely, Robert Shortreed, sheriff-substitute of Roxburghshire, in the autumn of 1816;" but it differs from b in no important respect except the omission of thirteen stanzas, 17, 18, 24, 32, 35-38, 51, 52, 56-58.
Scott's copy, I, 137, 1802, II, 63, 1833, is c with the deficient stanzas supplied from b. A copy in the Campbell Manuscripts, I, 204, is b.
Ritson pointed out to Scott a passage in Nashe's Have with you to Saffren Walden which shows that this ballad was popular before the end of the sixteenth century: "Dick of the Cow, that mad demi-lance northren borderer, who plaied his prizes with the lord Jockey so bravely," 1596, in Grosart's Nashe, III, 6.
An allusion to it likewise occurs in Parrot's Laquei Ridiculosi, or Springes for Woodcocks, London, 1613, Epigr. 76.
In a list of books printed for and sold by P. Brooksby, 1688, occurs Dick-a-the-Cow, containing north-country songs: Ritson, in Scott's Minstrelsy, I, 223, 1833.
Two stanzas are cited in Pennant's Tour in Scotland and Voyage to the Hebrides in 1772, Part II, p. 276, ed. 1776.
Fair Johnie Armstrong[foot-note] and Willie his brother, having lain long in, ride out on the chance of some booty. They come to Hutton Hall, but find no gear left without by the experienced laird, except six sheep, which they scorn to take. Johnie asks Willie who the man was that they last met, and learning that it was Dick o the Cow, a fool whom he knows to have three as good kine as are in Cumberland, says, These kine shall go with me to Liddesdale. They carry off Dick's three kine, and also three coverlets from his wife's bed. When daylight reveals the theft, Dick's wife raises a wail; he bids her be still, he will bring her three cows for one. Dick goes to his master and makes his loss known, and asks leave to go to Liddesdale to steal; his troth is required that he will steal from none but those who have stolen from him. Dickie goes on to Puddingburn, where there are three and thirty Armstrongs, and complains to the Laird's Jock of the wrong which Fair Johnie Armstrong and Willie have done him. Fair Johnie is for hanging Dick, Willie for slaying him, and another young man for tossing him in a sheet, beating him, and letting him go. The Laird's Jock, who is a better fellow than the rest, tells Dick that if he will sit down he shall have a bit of his own cow. Dick observes that a key has been flung over the doorhead by lads who have come in late. With this key he opens the stable where are the Armstrongs' three and thirty horses. He ties all but three with a triple knot,[foot-note] leaps on one, takes another in his hand, and makes off. Fair Johnie discovers in the morning that his own horse and Willie's have been stolen, borrows the Laird's-Jock's, which Dick (for improvement of the story) happens not to have tied, arms himself, and sets out in pursuit. Overtaking Dick on Canoby lee, Johnie sends a spear at him, which only pierces the innocent's jerkin. Dick turns on Johnie, and has the good fortune to fell him with the pommel of his sword. He strips Johnie of armor and sword, takes the third horse, and goes home to his master, who threatens to hang him for his thieving. The fool plants himself upon the terms his master had made with him: he had stolen from none but those that had stolen from him. His having the Laird Jock's horse requires explanation; but Dick is able to give such satisfaction on that point that his master offers twenty pound and one of his best milk-kye for the horse. Dick exacts and gets thirty, and makes the same bargain with his master's brother for Fair Johnie Armstrong's horse. So he goes back to his wife, and gives her three-score pound for her three coverlets, two kye as good as her three, and has the third horse over and above. But Dick sees that he cannot safely remain on the border after this reprisal upon the Armstrongs, and removes to Burgh (Brough) under Stainmoor, in the extreme south of Cumberland.[foot-note]
Henry Lord Scroop of Bolton was warden of the West Marches for thirty years from 1563, and his son Thomas for the next ten years, down to the union of the crowns. Which of the two is intended in this ballad might be settled beyond question by identifying my lord's brother, Ralph Scroop, Bailif Glazenberrie, or Glozenburrie, st. 54 f.; but the former is altogether more probable.
The Laird's Jock, in the opinion of Mr. R.B. Armstrong, was a son of Thomas of Mangerton, the elder brother of Gilnockie. There are notices of him from 1569 to 1599. In 1569 Archibald Armstrong of Mangerton declined to be pledge for John Armstrong, called the Lardis Jok, Reg. P. Council; in 1599 he and other principal Armstrongs executed a bond,[foot-note] and he is mentioned (in what fashion will presently appear) at various intermediate dates.
Jock, the Laird's son, an Armstrong of Lid- desdale, had a brother called John,[foot-note] Manuscript General Register House, 1569. (He is not called Fair John in any document besides the ballad.) In a later Manuscript there is an entry of the marriage of John Armstrong, called the Lord's John. John Armstrong, son to the laird of Mangerton, is witness to two bonds in which John of the Syde is a party, in 1562, 1563: R.B. Armstrong, History of Liddesdale, etc., Appendix, pp. ciii, civ. In a London Manuscript the Lord's John is said to have been executed.
The Laird's Jock, his father the laird of Mangerton, Sim's Thorn, and their accomplices, are complained of in November, 1582, by Sir Simon Musgrave for burning of his barns, wheat, etc., worth £1,000 sterling: Nicolson and Burn, History of Westmoreland and Cumberland, I, xxxi. The commendation of the Laird's Jock's honesty in st. 47, as Scott says, 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 four hundred head of cattle taken in open foray 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 fifty kine and oxen, besides furniture to the amount of one hundred merks sterling:" Nicolson and Burn, as above. To be sure, we find the laird of Mangerton, on the next page, making complaihts of the same kind against various persons, but it is to be feared that the Laird's Jock, at least, did not keep to the innocent's golden rule, 'to steal frae nane but them that sta from thee.' Sir Richard Maitland gives him his character:
Hutton Hall, 3, being more than twenty miles from the border, seems remote for the Armstrongs' first reconnaissance, and it is no wonder that Fair Johnie stickled at driving six sheep to such a distance. We might ask how Dick, who evidently lives near Carlisle (for, besides other reasons, he is intimately acquainted with the Armstrongs), should have been met so far from home.
Harribie, 14, mentioned also in 'Kinmont Willie,' was the place of execution at Carlisle.
Puddingburn House, 16, according to Chambers, Scottish Ballads, p. 48, was a strong place on the side of the Tinnis Hill, about three miles westward from the Syde (and therefore a very little further from the house of Mangerton), of which the ruins now serve for a sheepfold. A Manuscript cited by Mr. R.B. Armstrong says: "Joke Armestronge, called the Lord's Joke, dwelleth under Denys Hill besides Kyrsoppe in Tenisborne;" and in another Manuscript the Lord Jock of Tennesborne is stated to have lived a mile west from Kersopp-foote. The name Puddingburn has not been found on any map.[foot-note]
Cannobei, 34, is on the east of the Esk, just above its juncture with the Liddel. Mattan, 52, 58 (Morton in b), is perhaps the small town a few miles east of Whitehaven. There were cattle-fairs at Arlochden, which is very nigh, in the early part of this century: Lysons, Cumberland, p. 10.
The Cow in Dick's name can have no reference to his cattle, for then his style would have been Dick o the Kye. Cow may possibly denote the hut in which he lived; or bush, or broom.
Translated by Knortz, Schottische Balladen, No 15, p. 42.
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