J. F. Campbell Collection > Minstrelsy of the Scottish border > Volume 1

THE SCOTTISH BORDErv. 61
" out of England ; also the dividing the armies betwixt
" the Earls of Fife and Douglas, and their several jour-
" nies, almost as in the authentic history. It begin-
" neth thus :
" It fell about the Lammas tide,
" When yeomen win their hay,
" The dochty Douglas 'gan to ride,
" In England to take a prey."
GoDSCUOFT, ed. Ed'm. 1743, vol. I. p. 195.
I cannot venture to assert, that the stanzas, here pub-
lished, belong to the ballad alluded to by Godscroft ;
but they come much nearer to his description than the
copy published in the first edition, which represented
Douglas as falling by the poniard of a faithless page.
Yet we learn from the same author, that the story of
the assassination was not without foundation in tradi-
tion. — " There are that say, that he (Douglas) was not
" slain by the enemy, but by one of his own men, a
" groom of his chamber, whom he had struck the day
" before with a truncheon, in ordering of the battle,
" because he saw him make somewhat slowly to. And
" they name this man John Bickerton of Luffness, who
" left a part of his armour behind unfastened, and when
" he was in the greatest conflict, this servant of his came
" behind his back, and slew him thereat." — Godscroft,
lit supra. — " But this narration," adds the historian, " is
" not so probable."* Indeed it seems to have no found-
• Wintoun assigns another cause for Douglas being carelessly