B a was printed by Scott in the first edition of his Minstrelsy, with the omission of stanzas 11, 13, 153-6 (153,4, 161,2, of the Manuscript), 173,4 (181,2 of the Manuscript), 27, 28, and with many editorial improvements, besides Scotticising of the spelling. Of B b, the form in which the ballad appears in the later edition of the Minstrelsy, the editor says that he has been enabled to add several stanzas obtained from recitation, of which he remarks that, "as they contrast the brutal indifference of the elder brother with the zeal and spirit of his associates, they add considerably to the dramatic effect of the whole." The new stanzas are ten, and partly displace some of a. None of the omitted stanzas are restored, and the other changes previously made are retained, except of course where new stanzas have been introduced.
This ballad is in all the salient features a repetition of 'Jock o the Side,' Halls playing the parts of Armstrongs. The Halls are several times complained of for reif and awaytaking of ky, oxen, etc., in 1579. There is a Jok Hall of the Sykis, Jok Hall, called Paitti's Jok, a Jokie Hall in the Clintis, and the name Archie Hall occurs, which is, to be sure, a matter of very slight consequence. See the Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, III, 236 f., 354 f. Cafield is about a mile west of Langholm, in Wauchopedale. The Armstrongs had spread into Wauchopedale in the sixteenth century, and Jock Armstrong of the Caffeild appears in the Registers of the Privy Council, III, 43, 85, 133, 535. I have not found Halls of Caffeild, and hope not to do them injustice by holding that some friend or member of that sept has substituted their name, for the glory of the family.[foot-note]
From a passage in A History of Dumfries, by William Bennet, in The Dumfries Monthly Magazine, III, 9 f., July, 1826 (kindly brought to my attention by Mr. Macmath), there appears to have been a version of this ballad in which the Johnstones played the part of the Halls, or Armstrongs; but against their enemies the Maxwells, not against the public authority. A gentleman of Dumfries informed Bennet that he had "often, in early life, listened to an interesting ballad, sung by an old female chronicle of the town, which was founded upon the following circumstance. In some fray between the Maxwells and Johnstones, the former had taken the chief of the latter prisoner, and shut him up in the jail of Dumfries, in Lochmaben gate; for in Dumfries they possessed almost the same power as in the Stewartry of Annandale, Crichton of Sanquhar, who was then hereditary sheriff of Nithsdale, being their retainer. In a dark night shortly afterwards, a trusty band of the Johnstones marched secretly into Dumfries, and, surprising the jail-keepers, bore off their chief, manacled as he then was, and, placing him behind one of their troopers, galloped off towards the head of Locher, there to regain the Tinwald side and strike into the mountains of Moffat before their enemies should have leisure to start in pursuit. A band of the Maxwells, happening to be in town, and instantly receiving the alarm, started in pursuit of the fugitives, and overtook them about the dawn of morning, just as they had suddenly halted upon the banks of the Locher, and seemed to hesitate about risking its passage; for the stream was much swollen by a heavy rain which had lately fallen, and seemed to threaten destruction to any who should dare to enter it. On seeing the Maxwells, however, and reflecting upon the comparative smallness of their own party, they plunged in, and, by dextrous management, reached in safety the opposite bank at the moment their pursuers drew up on the brink of that which they had left. The Johnstones had now the decided advantage, for, had their enemies ventured to cross, they could, while struggling against the current, have been easily destroyed. The bloodthirsty warriors raged and shook their weapons at each other across the stream; but the flood rolled on as if in mockery of their threatenings, and the one party at length galloped off in triumph, while the other was compelled to return in disgrace."
There are three Halls in A, B, C, brothers, of whom Archie is a prisoner, condemned to die. The actors in D are not said to be brothers or Halls; the prisoner is Archie, as before. In A, Jock the laird and Dickie effect the rescue, assisted by Jocky Ha, a cousin. Dick is the leader, Jocky Ha subordinate, and Jock the laird is the despondent and repining personage, corresponding to Much in Jock o the Side, A, D, and to the Laird's Wat, B, C. In B, Dick is the only brother named; he and Jokie Hall from Teviotdale effect the rescue; Jokie Hall is prominent, and Dickie has the second place; Archie the prisoner is faint-hearted, but, properly speaking, that part is omitted. Jokie Hall represents Hobie Noble, who is the leader in A of the other ballad, as Jokie is here in B, and also C; whereas Dick is the leader in A, D of the ballad before us, and represents the Laird's Jock, who is principal in B, C of the other. In B, C, only two are concerned in breaking the jail. In C, Dick loses heart, or has the place of Much; in D, Caff o Lin.
In A 38, Jock the laird says his colt will drown him if he attempts to cross the river; so Dick in B 23 (for it can be no other, though Dick is not named) and in C 24, and Caff o Lin in D 14. They have not two attacks of panic, as Much has in 'Jock o the Side,' A, with such excellent effect in bringing out Hobie Noble's steadiness. To make up for this, however, the laird has an unheroic qualm after all is well over, in A 44: the dearsome night has cost him Cawfield! It is a fine-spirited answer that Dick makes: 'Light o thy lands! we should not have been three brothers.' In one of the stanzas which Scott added in B b, "coarse Ca'field," that is, the laird again, is addressed (inconsecutively, as the verses stand) with the like reproach: 'Wad ye even your lands to your born billy!'
Archie is prisoner at Dumfries in A, B, at Annan in C; in D no place is mentioned. The route followed in A is Barnglish,[foot-note] only two or three miles westward, where the horse-shoes are turned, 8; Bonshaw wood, where they take counsel, 10; over the Annan at Hoddam, 12, to Dumfries, 13; back by Bonshaw Shield, where they again take counsel, 29; over the Annan at Annan Holm (Annan Bank?), opposite Warnphray (where the Johnstones would be friendly), 31, to Cafield. Bonshaw Shield would have to be somewhere between Dumfries and Annan Water; it seems to be an erroneous repetition of the Bonshaw on the left of the Annan.
The route in B is The Murraywhat, where shoes are turned, 6; Dumfries, 8; back by Lochmaben, 17; The Murraywhat, where they file off the shackles, 18; to and across the Annan. Here we may ask why the shoes are not changed earlier; for The Murraywhat is on the west side of the Annan. The route in C is not described; there is no reason, if they start from Cafield (see 23), why they should cross the Annan, the town being on the eastern side. All difficulties are escaped in D by giving no names.
The New England copy, F, naturally enough, names no places. There are three brothers, as in A, B, C, and Dickie is the leader. The prisoner, here called Archer, gives up hope when he comes to the river; his horse is lame and cannot swim; but horses are shifted, and he gets over. His spirits are again dashed when he sees the sheriff in pursuit.
A, 62, 142, 164, 'for leugh o Liddesdale cracked he,' is explained by B a, 102, 'fra the laigh of Tiviotdale was he;' he bragged for lower Liddesdale, was from lower Liddesdale; it seems to be a sort of εὔχετο εῖναι. B b reads (that is, Scott corrects), 'The luve of Teviotdale was he.' B a, 164, 'And her girth was the gold-twist to be,' is unintelligible to me, and appears to be corrupt, b reads, And that was her gold-twist to be, an emendation of Scott's, gold-twist meaning "the small gilded chains drawn across the chest of a war-horse." The three stanzas introduced in B b after 7 (the colloquy with the smith) are indifferent modern stuff. This and something worse are C 14, where Johnny Ha takes the prisoner on his back and leads the mare, the refreshments in 16, 17, and the sheriff in 19-21, 28, 29.
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