Basnet—Helmet.

Curch—Coif.

Lightly—Set light by.

Low—Flame.

Splent on spauld—Armour on shoulder.

The name of a border tune.

Stear—Stir.

Soft—Light.

Fleyed—Frightened.

Maill—Rent.

Furs—Furrows.

Gie him his batts—Dismiss him with a beating.

Spaits—Torrents.

Caugers—Carriers.

Branks and brecham—Halter and cart-collar.

Mese—Soothe.

Cholerford brae—A ford upon the Tyne, above Hexham.

Fie—Predestined.

The original editor of the Reliques of Ancient Poetry has noticed the perfidy of this clan in another instance; the delivery of the banished Earl of Northumberland into the hands of the Scottish regent, by Hector of Harelaw, an Armstrong, with whom he had taken refuge.—Reliques of Ancient Poetry, Vol. I. p. 283. This Hector of Harelaw seems to have been an Englishman, or under English assurance; for he is one of those, against whom bills were exhibited, by the Scottish commissioners, to the lord-bishop of Carlisle.—Introduction to the History of Westmoreland and Cumberland, p. 81. In the list of borderers, 1597, Hector of Harelaw, with the Griefs and Cuts of Harelaw, also figures as an inhabitant of the Debateable Land. It would appear, from a spirited invective in the Maitland MSS. against the regent, and those who delivered up the unfortunate earl to Elizabeth, that Hector had been guilty of this treachery, to redeem the pledge which had been exacted from him for his peaceable demeanour. The poet says, that the perfidy of Morton and Lochlevin was worse than even that of—

—the traitour Eckie of Harelaw,
That says he sould him to redeem his pledge;
Your deed is war, as all the world does know—
You nothing can but covatice alledge.

Pinkerton's Maitland Poems, Vol. II. p. 290.

Eckie is the contraction of Hector among the vulgar.

These little memoranda may serve still farther to illustrate the beautiful ballads, upon that subject, published in the Reliques.

Feres—Companions.

Earl of Whitfield—The editor does not know who is here meant.

Forfoughen—Quite fatigued.

Syke—Ditch.

Billy—Brother.

Unkensome—Unknown.

Beet—Abet, aid.

Mystery—Trade.—See Shakespeare.

The Gold Twist means the small gilded chains drawn across the chest of a war-horse, as a part of his caparaison.

Skeigh—Shy.

Weil—Eddy.

E'en—Even, put into comparison.

Nogs—Stakes.

Mergh—Marrow.

It is devoutly to be wished, that this Lammie (who was killed in the skirmish) may have been the same miscreant, who, in the day of Queen Mary's distress, "hes ensigne being of quhyt taffitae, had painted one it ye creuell murther of King Henry, and layed down before her majestie, at quhat time she presented herself as prisoner to ye lordis."—Birrel's Diary, June 15, 1567. It would be some satisfaction to know, that the grey hairs of this worthy personage did not go down to the grave in peace.

Inter accolas latrociniis famosos Scotos Buccleuchi clientes—fortissimos tributium et ferocissimos,—JOHNSTONI Historia, ed. Amstael, p. 182.

Bangisters—The prevailing party.

The proper spelling is manred. Thus, in the romance of Florice and Blancheflour—

Cleveland applies the phrase in a very different manner, in treating of the assembly of Divines at Westminster, 1644:

And Selden is a Galliard by himself.
And wel might be; there's more divines in him.
Than in all this their Jewish Sanhedrim.

Skelton, in his railing poem against James IV., terms him Sir Skyr Galyard.