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

THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 133
LORD EWRIE.
Sir Ralph Evre, or Ewrie, or Evers, commemorated
in the following lines, was one of the bravest men of a
military race. He was son of the first, and father of
the second Lord Ewrie ; and was himself created a
Lord of Parliament during his father's lifetime, in the
35th year of Henry VI H. The ballad is apparently a
strain of gratulation upon that event. The poet, or
more probably the reciter, has made some confusion in
the lineage, by declaring that his hero was ** married
•' upon a Willoughbe." His mother, however, was of
that family, and he was " kin to the Nevil and to the
" Percy." He was ennobled by Henry, on account of
the vigour with which he prosecuted the Border war-
fare. But after " harrying the Mers and Tiviotdale,
" and knocking at Edinburgh gate," Lord Ewrie was
slain in the battle of Ancram Moor, fought between
him and the Earl of Angus, in 1546. See Note to the
Eve of St Jolm, vol. iii.