A. One of seven handsome sisters makes a great match with the Earl of Crawford. In a fit of jealousy at the fondness which he shows his young son, Ladie Lillie addresses to her husband a quip on that head, to which the earl replies in the same tone. But the matter does not end there. The earl sets his wife on a horse, with her son, and sends her home to her father at Stobhall, never to enter his gates again. Her father is surprised that she should come without notice or attendants; she tells him that a word from her merry mouth has parted her and her lord. The father offers to make a better match for her; she would not give a kiss of Crawford's for all her father's gold. She sends a messenger to the earl to see whether he retains affection for her; word is brought back that she is to stay with her father and never enter Crawford's gates again. Her heart breaks. Her father puts on black, rides to Crawford's, and finds the earl just setting forth with a party to bring Lady Lillie home. Upon learning that his wife is dead, the earl declares that the sun shall nevermore shine on him.
B. Lady Crawford rides to her husband's castle in person to see if the earl will pity her. He shuts his gates and steeks his doors, and will neither come down to speak with her himself nor send his man. She retires weeping. The earl in turn now goes to the castle where his lady is lying, to see if she will pity him. She shuts the gates and steeks the doors, and will neither come down to speak with him nor send her waiting-maid. Not the less she takes to her bed, both she and Crawford die before morning, and both are buried in one tomb.
The late Earl of Crawford recognized an agreement with fact in some of the details of this story: Christie, I, 289. David, eleventh earl of Crawford, who succeeded his father in 1574, married Lilias Drummond, daughter of David, second Lord Drummond, the Laird of Stobhall. This was considered so great a match for the lady that a tocher was given with her "far beyond what was customary in those times, to wit, ten thousand merks." Although the peerages mention no children by this marriage, there is evidence that Earl David had by Lilias "an only child, David, who died in infancy." "These collateral verities" seemed to Earl Crawford "to found a presumption in favor of the truth of the main incident of the ballad." Crawford did not live at Crawford Castle, as the ballad has it. "That place had ceased to be the family residence for a long while. Earl David lived at Finhaven Castle, in Angus; not too far from Stobhall to be in keeping with the riding to and fro recorded in the ballad."
The first lines of the ballad are probably borrowed from 'Gil Brenton:' see No 5, A 43, B 34, C 1, D 1, H 1, 2. A 11, 12, B 15, 16, is a common-place: see most of the versions of 'Jamie Douglas,' No 204, and of 'The Braes o Yarrow,' No 214, and 'Clerk Saunders,' No 69, E 15, G 27.
B is translated by Gerhard, p. 108.
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