A. Jeanie Gordon loves Auchanachie, who is bonny and braw, but she is forced by her father to wed Saltoun, who is bowed in the back and thrawin in the knee; and all for Saltoun's lands. Jeanie refuses to be bedded; her maidens, at her father's order, loose off her gown (they cut her gown and stays); she falls in a swoon and dies. Auchanachie comes home from the sea the same day, learns what has happened, asks to be taken to the chamber where Jeanie lies, kisses her cold lips, and dies.
In B we have Gordon of Annachie in Buchan, instead of Gordon of Auchanachie in Strathbogie as in A. Christie, on very slight grounds, suggests that one Garden of Annachie was the proper hero: I, 287, 294.
There can hardly be a doubt that this ballad is Mrs. Brown of Falkland's 'Lass o Philorth' (see note, p. 309). Philorth is the seat of the Erasers of Saltoun, near Fraserburgh, in the extreme northeast corner of Aberdeenshire.
As to A a 21,2, b 1, B 21,2, see note † to the preceding ballad, p. 339.
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