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 UNIVERSITY 
 
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 THE 
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CARLISLE 
 
 IN 
 
 BALLAD and STORY 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMES WALTER BROWN. 
 
 CARLISLE : 
 CHAS. THURNAM & SONS. 11 ENGLISH STREET. 
 
 1912. 
 
^1 
 
CARLISLE 
 
 IN 
 
 BALLAD and STORY 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMES WALTER BROWN. 
 
 A Lecture delivered before the Carlisle Scientific and 
 
 Literary Society, on October 31st, 1911 ; and, by request, 
 
 to the Cumberland and Westmorland Association of 
 
 London, on February 21st, 1912. 
 
 CARLISLE : 
 CHAS. THURNAM & SONS, 11 ENGLISH STREET. 
 
 1912. 
 
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CARLISLE IN BALLAD AND STORY. 
 
 BY JAMES WALTER EUOWN. 
 
 CARLISLE IN BALLAD. 
 
 At what period in its long history this little plot of 
 ground, which for more than twenty centuries has been 
 called by some variant of its existing name of Carlisle, 
 first won the meed of song, is beyond the reach of chronicle. 
 It may have been that some Druid bard, with prophetic 
 eye looking beyond the light of his little day, chanted of 
 its future ; or haply some Roman sentinel, pacing his weary 
 watch along the wall across the river, may have invoked 
 Apollo to guard the silent town wherein his mistress lay 
 sleeping. Of that we can only conjecture, but this we may 
 say with assurance, — there are in our island few places 
 whose life through successive centuries has been so 
 enshrined in song as has that of our oVn Border citj^ ; and 
 it is largely due to Carlisle having for so long been a 
 Border stronghold that it has gained this renown. 
 
 Carlisle of the ballads was not the spreading city 
 which we know to-day. Even up till the Jacobite period 
 its small area was bounded by the city walls, the houses 
 outside being few and straggling. Those walls ran from 
 the English Gate, west of the present Court Houses, along 
 the West Walls to the Castle, and from thence by the line 
 of West Tower Street, East Tower Street, and Lowther 
 Street, back to the English Gate ; the greatest length of 
 this enclosure, from south to north, being only some eight 
 
or nine hundred yards, and its A¥idest breadth, from west to 
 east, being less than half that distance. 
 
 AETHURI AN BALLADS. 
 
 In thinking of Carlisle in Ballad, our mind naturally 
 reverts to King Arthur, and the mystic legends which 
 cluster round his famous court. The identity of Carlisle 
 with the Caerluel of the Arthurian poems has been held 
 in doubt, but we are loath to part wuth our traditions, and 
 so cling to our belief in their authenticity ; nor are we 
 without good warrant for doing so. Against the sup- 
 position that Caerluel was one with Caerleon in Wales we 
 have the authority of so careful an investigator as 
 Tennyson. His " Caerleon upon Usk " is decisive, but in 
 " Lancelot and Elaine " he clearly differentiates between 
 that place and Caerluel. " Elaine the fair, Elaine the 
 loveable," guarding the sacred shield of Lancelot, made 
 for it a case of silk, for its protection in her chamber, up 
 a tower to the east, and day by day climbed that eastern 
 tower — 
 
 Stript off the case, and read the naked shield, 
 Now made a pretty history to herself 
 Of every dint a sword had beaten in it, 
 And every scratch a lance had made upon it, 
 Conjecturing when and where : this cut is fresh ; 
 That ten years back ; this dealt him at Caerlyle ; 
 That at Caerleon ; this at Camelot. 
 
 The Boy and the Mantle. 
 
 An early poem in ballad form containing mention of 
 Carlisle is " The Boy and the Mantle," printed by Bishop 
 Percy, who from 1778 to 1782 was Dean of Carlisle, in his 
 " Reliques of Ancient English Poetry." He gives two 
 versions of it, one verbatim from the folio MS. which was 
 his authority, and the other " revised and altered by a 
 modern hand," — presumably his own. 
 
It treats of King Arthur's court, and ordeals for 
 constancy — 
 
 In the third day of May 
 
 To Carleile did come 
 
 A kind curteous child 
 
 That cold [knew] much of wisdome. 
 
 A kirtle and a mantle 
 This child had uppon, 
 With brouches and ringes 
 Full richelye bedone. 
 
 God speed thee, King Arthur, 
 Sitting at thy raeate : 
 And the goodly Queen Guenever, 
 I cannott her forgett. 
 
 He plucked out of his poterner [pouch], 
 And longer wold not dwell, 
 He pulled forth a pretty mantle 
 Betweene two nut-shells. 
 
 Have thou here. King Arthur ; 
 Have thou heere of mee : 
 Give itt to thy comely queene, 
 Shapen as itt is alreadye. 
 
 Queen Gruinivere, and others, ladies of her court, are 
 in turn proffered this mantle to wear, with consequences 
 disastrous to them, until iinally it is donned by Sir 
 Craddocke's ladye. 
 
 When she had tane the mantle, 
 
 And cast it her about, 
 
 Upp at her great toe 
 
 It began to crinkle and crowt : 
 
 She said, Bowe downe, mantle. 
 
 And shame me not for nought. 
 
 Once I did amysse, 
 
 I tell you certainlye, 
 
 When I kist Craddocke's mouth 
 
 Under a greene tree. 
 
 When I kist Craddocke's mouth 
 
 Before he marryed mee. 
 
G 
 
 When shee had her shreeven, 
 And her sines shee had tolde, 
 The mantle stood about her 
 Right as she wolde : 
 Seemlye of coulour 
 Glittering like gold : 
 
 And her constancy is proved by mantle, knife, and horn. 
 
 The Marriage oe Sir Gawaine. 
 
 Bishop Percy gives also two versions of " The 
 Marriage of Sir Gawaine," which he said he had reason 
 to believe was more ancient than the time of Chaucer, and 
 which furnished that poet with his " Wife of Bath's Tale." 
 It begins — 
 
 King Arthur lives in merry Carleile 
 
 And seeraely is to see, 
 And there with him queene Guenever, 
 
 That bride soe bright of blee. 
 
 This ballad is of interest as identifying the Carleile of 
 the poems with our Carlisle ; for the villain of the story 
 is a bold baron of gigantic stature, whose castle is at 
 Tearne-Wadling, near High Hesket, midway between 
 Carlisle and Penrith. To subdue this " foul discurteous 
 knight," King Arthur departs from Carlisle, but he is 
 vanquished by the spells of a black magician who is in 
 league with the baron, and he is only allowed to escape on 
 his swearing by the rood that he will return on the follow- 
 ing New Year's Day and answer the riddle " What is it 
 that women most desire.^" He can find no satisfactory 
 solution until he meets a repulsive old hag, clad in a 
 scarlet cloak, who promises to reveal the secret on condition 
 that King Arthur will marry her to some gallant knight. 
 This he vows to do, and is told that " Women most desire 
 to have their own will." Sir Gawaine, out of love for the 
 King, marries the beldame, whereupon the spell which 
 had bound her is broken, and she becomes once more " a 
 faire ladye." 
 
If Percy's doubtful surmise be correct, Carlisle was 
 known as " merrie " at least as long ago as the fourteenth 
 century. Its claim to that epithet has often been disputed, 
 but everything depends upon the meaning attached to the 
 word. Dr. Brewer says that it is not " mirthful," but 
 active, brisk, — as in " merry men," — " merry weather," 
 " a merry gale." The late Mr. Robert Fergiuson, in his 
 " Teutonic Kame System," derives it from the old Teutonic 
 Tner, — famous, illustrious, — and certainly its record of 
 deeds of derring-do fully entitles it to that appellation. 
 
 As regards the pronunciation of the word, no native 
 would ever think of calling it anything except Car'-lisle, 
 but strangers almost invariably say Car-lisle'. It will be 
 observed that the first of the two ballads quoted accents it 
 Car'-leile, and the second Car-leile', which is no doubt due 
 to the exigencies of the rhythm. A word which is so 
 accommodating in that respect is useful to the rhymer, 
 but we will stick to Car'-lisle. 
 
 The local name for the city is Carel, the origin of 
 which is perplexing, for it is not suggested by Carlisle. 
 It is, however, closely akin to Caerluel, and it seems quite 
 possible that the veritable old British name has been thus 
 orally transmitted for two thousand years. 
 
 That Sir Walter Scott had no hesitation in identifying 
 Carlisle with the Arthurian Caerluel is evidenced by 
 "Lyulph's Tale" in "The Bridal of Triermain," which 
 opens with 
 
 King Arthur has ridden from merry Carlisle 
 
 When Pentecost was o'er ; 
 He journeyed like errant-Knight the while, 
 And sweetly the summer sun did smile 
 
 On mountain, moss, and moor. 
 Above his solitary track 
 Rose Glaramara's ridgy back — 
 
which shows that his path led down to the Cumberland 
 lakes. Later in the poem appears — 
 
 The heralds named the appointed spot, 
 As Caerleon or Camelot, 
 Or Carlisle fair and free — 
 
 and the dower of King Arthur's daughter comprised 
 
 Both fair Strath-Clyde and Reged wide, 
 And Carlisle town and tower. 
 
 It will be observed that Sir Walter avails himself of 
 the rhythmic licence by introducing both " merry 
 Car-lisle' " and " Car'-lisle fair and free." 
 
 Adam Bell. 
 We will now leap across the centuries, how many in 
 number we know not, to " Adam Bell, Clym of the Clough, 
 and William of Cloudeslie." Here we are indubitably in 
 our own Carlisle. " Adam Bell, Clym of the Clough, 
 and William of Cloudeslie," — M'hat fragrance of romance 
 rises from the very names of these denizens of Englewood 
 or Inglewood Forest, called in the ballad " Englishwood," 
 whose skill with the good long-bow will live in memory 
 while Shakespeare is read. For it has been given 
 immortality in " Romeo and Juliet," where Mercutio says, 
 mockingly, to Romeo — 
 
 Speak to my gossip Venus one fair word, 
 One nickname for her purblind son and heir, 
 Young Adam Cupid, he that shot so trim 
 When King Cophetua loved the beggar-maid. 
 
 Theobald states that Adam Bell is also meant in " Much 
 Ado about Nothing," when Benedick says of falling in 
 love — 
 
 If I do, hang me in a bottle like a cat, and shoot at 
 
 me ; and he that hits me, let hinj be clapped on the 
 
 shoulder and called Adam. 
 
 It should be borne in '>mind that these ballads were 
 made to be sung ; and, for the purposes of this paper, 
 
Mr. Thomas Lattimer, of London, has very kindly 
 searched out, at the British Museum, several of their 
 traditional tunes. (See Appendix.) 
 
 Who the redoubtable outlaws were is beyond know- 
 ledge, but probably the mountain of fiction arose from 
 some molehill of truth. The ballad is divided into three 
 parts or fyttes. It opens with the true ring — 
 
 Mery it was in the grene forest 
 
 Among the leves grene, 
 Whereas men hunte east and west 
 
 With bowes and arrowes kene ; 
 
 To raise the dere out of theyr denne ; 
 
 Such sightes hath oft been sene ; 
 As by thre yemen of the north countrey 
 
 By them it is I meane. 
 
 The one them bight Adam Bel, 
 
 The other Clym of the Clough, 
 The thyrd was William of Cloudesly, 
 
 An archer good ynough. 
 
 They were " outlawed for venyson," and so, after the 
 
 manner of Hobin Hood and his merrie men, they betook 
 
 themselves to Inglewood Forest. " Two of them were 
 
 single men," but Wyllyam had " wedded a fere," and, 
 
 against the counsel of Adam, he resolved that — 
 
 To Carleile he would fare 
 For to speke with fayre Alyce his wife, 
 And with his children thre. 
 
 He toke hys leave of his brethren two, 
 
 And to Carlile he is gon : 
 Then he knocked at his own windowe 
 
 Shortlye and anone. 
 
 Fayre Alice admitted him and " fetched him meate and 
 drynke plentye," but — 
 
 There lay an old wyfe in that place, 
 
 A lytle besyde the fyre, 
 Whych Wylliam had found of charytye, 
 
 More than seven yere — 
 
10 
 
 and this ingrate betrayed him to justice. 
 
 They raysed the towne of mery Carleile 
 
 In all the haste they can ; 
 And came thronging to Wyllyame's house, 
 
 As fast as they might gone. 
 
 Set fyre on the house, saide the sherife, 
 
 Syth it wyll no better be, 
 And brenne we therein William, he saide, 
 
 Hys wyfe and chyldren thre. 
 
 They fyred the house in many a place, 
 
 The fyre flew up on hye : 
 Alas ! then cryed fayre Alice, 
 
 I se we here shall dye. 
 
 William opened a backe window, 
 
 That was in hys chamber hie, 
 And there with sheetes he did let downe 
 
 His wyfe and children three. 
 
 Having shot all his arrows, he issues forth with sword 
 and buckler ; and, after doing mighty deeds of prowess, is 
 captured, and thrown into a deep dungeon. 
 
 A payre of new gallowes, sayd the sherife, 
 
 Now shall I for thee make : 
 And the gates of Carleil shal be shutte : 
 
 No man shall come in therat. 
 
 Then shall not helpe Clym of the Cloughe, 
 
 Nor yet shall Adam Bell, 
 Though they came with a thousand mo, 
 
 Nor all the devels in hell. 
 
 While they are erecting "that gallow-tre " in the 
 market place, " besyde the pyllorye," a little boy, the town 
 swineherd, learns that it is meant for William of 
 Cloudeslie; and, creeping out by "a crevis of the wall," 
 he carries the news to Adam and Clym, who determine to 
 rescue their comrade. , 
 
 Part the Second deals with the rescue. By a trick 
 the outlaws obtain entrance throvigh the city gate, call the 
 porter, " and wrang his necke in two," cast him into a 
 
11 
 
 dungeon and secure his keys. Entering the market place, 
 they find Cloudeslie ready there in a cart, bound hand and 
 foot — 
 
 And a stronge rop about hys necke, 
 All readye for to hange. 
 
 They shoot down the justice and the sheriff, release 
 Cloudeslie, and, having spent all their arrows, with sword 
 and buckler fight their way back to the gate. 
 
 The picture of mediaeval Carlisle which follows is of 
 great interest. '■■ 
 
 There was an out-horne in Carleil blowen, 
 And the belles backward dyd ryng, 
 
 Many a woman sayde, Alas ! 
 
 And many theyr handes dyd wryng. 
 
 The mayre came armed a full great pace, 
 
 With a pollaxe in hys hande ; 
 Many a strong man with hym was 
 
 There iu that stowre to stande. 
 
 The mayre smot at Cloudesly with his bil, 
 Hys bucler he brast in two ; 
 Keep well the gates fast, they bad, 
 That these tray tours therout not go. 
 
 But of course the gallant three make good their escape. 
 
 Here we seem to breathe in the very atmosphere of 
 mediaeval Carlisle. It is tolerably certain that the ballad 
 was written round some act of daring akin to the rescue of 
 Kinmont Willie in later days, and that the balladist was 
 familiar with the places described. How real appear the 
 city walls, with their crevices and their gates ; the market 
 place, where stand the pillory and the new gallows ; the 
 little town swineherd, who took the citizens' swine out 
 into the forest to seek their food, and among the rest 
 " kept fayre Alyce's swyne " ; the blustering sheriff, the 
 busy justice and the masterful mayor : how all these stand 
 out of the canvas like living beings. 
 
12 
 
 In Part tlie Third tlie outlaws betake themselves once 
 more to Inglewood Forest, and there William of Cloudeslie 
 finds his wife and three children. Taking counsel 
 together, he and his fellows determine to go to London and 
 plead for the King's pardon, which, by the intercession of 
 the Queen they obtain ; but it is scarcely well granted 
 before messengers arrive from " Carlisle in the north 
 countrie." 
 
 How fareth my justice, said the kyng, 
 
 And my sherif'e also ? 
 Syr, they be slayne without leasygne, 
 
 And many an officer mo. 
 
 Who hath them slayne ? said the kyng ; 
 
 Anone that thou tell me. 
 Adam Bell, and Clime of the Clough, 
 
 And Wyllyam of Cloudesle. 
 
 The Kyng hee opened the letter anone. 
 
 Himself he red it thro, 
 And founde how these outlawes had slain 
 
 Thre hundred men and mo : 
 
 First the justice, and the sheryfe, 
 
 And the mayre of Carleile towne ; 
 Of all the constables and catchipolles 
 
 Alyve were scant left one : 
 
 The baylyes, and the bedyls both. 
 
 And the sergeauntes of the law, 
 And forty fosters of the fe, 
 
 These outlawes had yslaw : 
 
 And broke his parkes, and slayne his dare, 
 
 Of all they chose the best : 
 So perelous outlawes, as they were, 
 
 Walked not by easte nor west. 
 
 Howbeit their pardon was finally confirmed, and they 
 
 came and dwelled with the kyng, 
 And dyed good men all thre. 
 
 Thus endeth the lives of these good yemen ; 
 
 God send them eternall blysse ; 
 And all, that with a hand-bowe shoteth, 
 
 That of haven may never mysse. Amen. 
 
13 
 
 It is worthy of mention that, although it is believed 
 that many of the balladists were northern men, yet 
 neither in the Arthurian ballads, nor in those of the later 
 period of which " Adam Bell " may be taken as an 
 example, is there any trace of our Cumberland dialect, 
 much of which is drawn from the speech used by the 
 Danish settlers here long anterior to the time of the 
 minstrels. 
 
 Barbara Allan. 
 
 It may perhaps not be generally known that Carlisle 
 has been identified, by some, as the dwelling place of the 
 fair but cruel Barbara Allan, it being conjectured that 
 the ballad began, not " In Scarlet town " but " In Carlisle 
 town where I w^as born." Percy prints a second version 
 under the title of " Sir John Grehme and Barbara Allan : 
 A Scottish Ballad," which, although it gives no name to 
 the locality, might suggest Carlisle, because of its 
 propinquity to the Graham " west country." 
 
 It was in and about the Martinmas time, 
 When the greene leaves wer a fallan. 
 
 That Sir John Grehme o' the west countrye 
 Fell in love wi' Barbara Allan. 
 
 The fateful consequences to them both are well known. 
 BOEDER BALLADS. 
 
 HUGHIE THE Gk.EME. 
 
 We now arrive at the period of the Border ballads, 
 pure and simple, and in dealing with these we naturally 
 turn to Sir Walter Scott's first published book, " The 
 Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border," issued from the Kelso 
 press in 1802. 
 
 Of the ballads given in Scott's " Minstrelsy " having 
 reference to Carlisle, probably the earliest in chronological 
 order is " Hughie the Graeme." Bishop Nicolson suspects 
 
14 
 
 that this particular Hughie is one of many Grrsemes against 
 whom bills of complaint were exhibited to Eobert Aldridge, 
 Bishop of Carlisle, about 1553, for crimes akin to that 
 with which Hngliie is accused in the ballad, which opens — 
 
 Gude Lord Scroope's to the hunting gone. 
 
 He has ridden o'er raoss and niuir, 
 And he has grippit Hughie the Grastne, 
 
 For stealing o' the Bishop's mare. 
 
 They fight single handed until — 
 
 Over the moss came ten yeomen so tall, 
 All for to take brave Hughie the Grseme. 
 
 Then they hae grippit Hughie the Gr^me, 
 And brought him up through Carlisle town : 
 
 The lasses and lads stood on the walls, 
 
 Crying " Hughie the Grfeme, thou'se ne'er gae down ! " 
 
 Then they hae chosen a jury of men. 
 
 The best that were in Carlisle town ; 
 And twelve of them cried out at once, 
 
 " Hughie the Graeme, thou must gae down ! " 
 
 A Carlisle jury of those days made short work with 
 offenders such as Hughie the Grgeme, and in spite of 
 ransom proffered by "the gude Lord Hume" of twenty 
 white owsen, and by " the gude Lady Hume " of a peck 
 of white pennies, Hughie added one more to the proverbial 
 Scotsmen who come across the Border and never go back. 
 
 HOBBIE JSTOBLE 
 
 The fate of Hobbie Noble was even more pitiful, for 
 he died through treachery. Hobbie was an Englishman, 
 but had been outlawed, and had fled across the Border, 
 where he took up his abode with the Armstrong clan. In 
 an earlier ballad, " Jock, o' the Syde," it is told — 
 
 Now Hobbie was an Englishman, 
 
 In Bewcastle-dale was bred and born ; 
 
 But his misdeeds they were sae great 
 They banished him ne'er to return — 
 
15 
 
 and in tliat ballad lie is described as taking- part in tlie 
 rescue of Jock o' the Syde from Newcastle Jail. 
 
 Incensed by Hobble's depredations upon liis native 
 country, tbe English offered bribes to the Armstrongs to 
 betray their guest, and accordingly five of them appointed 
 a tryst with him at Kershope-burn to ride into England. 
 Arrived in Bewcastle Waste, they send word 
 
 to the land-sergeant, 
 
 In Askerton where that he lay, 
 
 and the land-sergeant's men and the traitorous Armstrongs 
 between them secure their prisoner. 
 
 They hae ta'en him on for west Carlisle, 
 They asked him if he ken'd the way ? 
 
 Though much he thought yet little he said ; 
 He knew the gate as weel as they. 
 
 They hae ta'en him up the Ricker-gate ; 
 
 The wives they cast their windows wide ; 
 And every wife to another can say, 
 
 " That's the man loosed Jock o' the Side ! " 
 
 Hobbie meets his fate manfully — 
 
 Now fare thee weel, SAveet Mangerton, 
 For I think again I'll ne'er thee see ; 
 
 I wad hae betrayed nae lad alive. 
 For a' the gowd o' Christentie. 
 
 And fare thee weel, sweet Liddesdale ! 
 
 Baith the hie land and the low ; 
 Keep ye weel frae the traitor Mains ! 
 
 For gowd and gear he'll sell ye a'. 
 
 Yet wad I rather be ca'd Hobbie Noble, 
 In Carlisle, where he suffers for his fau't, 
 
 Than I'd be ca'd the traitor Mains, 
 
 That eats and drinks o' the meal and mant ! 
 
 It is some satisfaction to know that Sim o' the Mains, 
 who sold Hobbie to his enemies, fled into England to escape 
 from his chief's resentment, and was himself executed at 
 Carlisle about two months after Hobbie I^oble's death. 
 
16 
 
 Dick o' the Cow. 
 
 Dick o' the Cow, the hero of another raiding ballad, 
 would appear to have been jester to Lord Scroope at the 
 time when he was Governor of Carlisle Castle, toward the 
 close of the sixteenth century. Johnnie Armstrong and 
 his brother Willie, of the Mangerton branch, ride into 
 England as far as Hutton Hall, in search of booty — 
 
 But the laird be was the wiser man. 
 For he hsid left nae gear without. 
 
 They are, however, aware, that Dick has three gude 
 kye, and these they resolve to take — 
 
 Then they have come to the puir folk's house, 
 And they iiae broken his wa's sae wide ; 
 
 They have loosed out Dick o' the Cow's three kye 
 And ta'en three co'erlets frae his wife's bed. 
 
 Dickie in his sore plight goes to Lord Scroope, and 
 seeks leave " to gae to Liddesdale and steal," which is 
 granted upon condition that he will steal only from those 
 who stole from him. He replies — 
 
 There is my trowth, and niy right hand ! 
 
 My head shall hang on Hairibee ; 
 I'll ne'er cross Carlisle sands again, 
 
 If I steal frae a man but whae sta' frae me 
 
 Dickie sets forth on his expedition, and on reaching 
 Puddingburn House, the home of the Armstrongs, finds 
 it occupied hj three ard thirty of that clan. When he tells 
 them that he is out in search of the three kye they have 
 stolen from him they threaten his life, but ultimately put 
 him into an old peathouse to sleep. During the night he 
 breaks into their stable Avhere he finds tliirtj^ horses and 
 three. Thirty of these he ties with vSt. Mary's knot, — in 
 other words, hamstrings, — and of the three remaining he 
 decamps wdth two. In the morning Johnnie Armstrong 
 follows him on the horse which had been left uninjured, 
 and overtakes him on Cannobie Lee. They fight, and 
 Dickie conquers, strikes his antagonist unconscious, 
 
17 
 
 relieves liim of liis steel jack, steel cap, and two-handed 
 sword, as well as of his horse, and reports himself to Lord 
 Scroope. He disposes of two of the horses to Lord Scroope 
 and his brother, for £20 each and two good kye, and 
 departs to Brough under Stanemore, to dwell in safety 
 from the Armstrongs' revenge. 
 
 Gr^ieme and Bewick. 
 
 The ballad " Grreme and Bewick " tells a ditferent 
 story. 
 
 Gude Lord Grfeme is to Carlisle gane ; 
 
 Sir Robert Bewick there met he ; 
 And arm in arm to the wine they go, 
 
 And they drank till they were baith merrie. 
 
 In their cups they fall a-quarrelling about their sons, 
 who are " billies dear,'' — friends like brothers. Bewick 
 taunts Lord Graeme with his son's lack of learning. He 
 says — 
 
 Ye sent him to the schools, and he wadna learn ; 
 Ye bought him books, and he wadna read. 
 
 Graeme replies — 
 
 But my blessing shall he never earn, 
 
 Till 1 see how his arm can defend his head. 
 
 On reaching home he tells his son, Christie Graeme — 
 
 It's I hae been at Carlisle town. 
 And a baffled man by thee I be : 
 
 and insists that he must fight either with young Bewick, 
 or with him, his own father — 
 
 Then Christie Grseme's to his chamber gane, 
 To consider weel what then should be ; 
 
 Whether he should fight with his auld father, 
 Or with his billie Bewick, he. 
 
 " If I suld kill my billie dear, 
 
 God's blessing I shall never win ; 
 But if I strike at my auld father, 
 
 I think 'twald be a mortal sin. 
 
18 
 
 But if I kill my billie dear, 
 
 It is Grod's will, so let it be ; 
 But I make a vow, ere I gang frae hame, 
 
 That I shall be the next man's dee." 
 
 He seeks his friend, forces a quarrel upon him, 
 
 mortally wounds him, and himself finds death in like 
 
 manner as Saul soug^ht it on Mount Gilboa, by falling on 
 
 his own sword's point. Bewick comes to his son while he 
 
 is still alive — 
 
 "Rise up, rise up, my son,"' he said, 
 
 " For I think ye hae gotten the victorie." 
 
 " hald your tongue, my father dear ! 
 
 Of your prideful talking let me be ! 
 Ye might hae drunken your wine in peace, 
 
 And let me and my billie be. 
 
 Gae dig a grave baith wide and deep, 
 And a grave to hald baith him an me ; 
 
 But lay Christie GriBme on the sunny side, 
 For I'm sure he won the victorie." 
 
 The Fray of Suport. 
 
 " The Fray of Suport," which w-as included by Scott 
 in the " Minstrelsy," is not a genuine old ballad, but was 
 written by Surtees, who imposed it upon Sir Walter as 
 being traditional. It however gives such a vivid picture 
 of the brutalities which accompanied a midnight raid that 
 it claims mention here, even although it contains only 
 slight reference to Carlisle. It is put into the mouth of an 
 Englishwoman, living at Suport, or Solport, in Nicol 
 Forest, whose byres have been utterly despoiled during the 
 previous night by marauders from over the Border. She 
 summons her friends and neighbours to the hot-trod, and, 
 virago-like, taunts them with their indifference and lack 
 of vigilance. 
 
 Sleep'ry Sim of the Lamb-hill, 
 And snoring Jock of Suport-mill, 
 Ye are baith right het and fou' ; — 
 But my wae wakens na you ; 
 
19 
 
 Last night I saw a sorry sight — 
 
 Nought left me o' four-and-twenty gude ousen 
 
 and kye, 
 My weel-ridden gelding, and a white quey, 
 But a toom byre and a wide, 
 And the twelve nogs on ilka side. 
 
 Fy, lads, shout a', a', a', a', a', 
 
 My gear's a' gane. 
 
 Weel may ye ken, 
 
 Last night I was right scarce o' men : 
 
 But Toppet Hob o' the Mains had guestened in my 
 
 house by chance ; 
 I set him to wear the fore-door wi' the speir, while 
 
 I kept the back door wi' the lance ; 
 But they hae run him thro' the thick o' the thie, 
 
 and broke his knee-pan, 
 And the mergh of his shin-bane has run down on 
 
 his spur-leather whang : 
 He's lame while he lives, and where'er he may gang. 
 
 To each man, by name, she appoints his place in the 
 
 pursuit ; now flattering, again stirring up to revenge for 
 
 bygone injuries, and once more upbraiding — 
 
 Rise, ye carle coopers, frae making o' kirns and tubs, 
 
 In the Nicol Forest woods. 
 
 Your craft has na left the value of an oak rod, 
 
 But if you had ony fear o' God, 
 
 Last night ye had na slept sae sound. 
 
 And let my gear be a' ta'en. 
 
 Then she boasts of her generalship, by which she has 
 
 secured all the fords across the Liddel river, — 
 
 Sae whether they be Elliots or Armstrangs, 
 
 Or rough riding Scots, or rude Johnstones, 
 
 Or whether they be from the Tarras or Ewsdale, 
 
 They maun turn and fight, or try the deeps o' Liddel. 
 
 At another point — 
 
 Lang Aicky, in the Souter Moor, 
 
 Wi' his sleuth-dog sits in his watch right sure ; 
 
 Shou'd the dog gie a bark 
 
 He'll be out in his sark. 
 
 And die or won. 
 
 Ha ! boys ! I see a party appearing — wha's yon ? 
 
20 
 
 Captain Musgrave and a' his band, 
 Are coming down by the Siller-strand, 
 And the muckle toun-bell o' Carlisle is rung : 
 My gear was a' weel won, 
 
 And, before it's carried o'er the Border, mony a man's 
 gae down. 
 
 Fy, lads ! shout a', a', a', a', a', 
 
 My gear's a' gane. 
 
 A bell which may probably be the niuckle town-bell in 
 question is now in the Museum at Tullie House. This bell 
 hung in the Town Hall clock turret, and upon it the hours 
 were struck, until 1886 ; in which year it w^as cracked and 
 rendered useless by a fire. 
 
 KiNMONT Willie. 
 
 Of " Kinmont Willie " what more can be said than 
 has already been better said times without number ? Yet, 
 when speaking of " Carlisle in Ballad," it is imperative 
 that the story must be told once more. 
 
 Willie of Kinmont belonged to the Gilnockie branch 
 of the powerful Armstrong clan. A stark mosstrooper, 
 skilled in strategy, fearless of danger, impetuous and un- 
 scrupulous, he and his freebooting band had by frequent 
 successful raids made themselves detested and dreaded on 
 the south side of the Border. Contemporaneous reports 
 state that, in 1592, 100 Armstrongs dwelt with him ; and 
 that, in 1584, he made a raid into Tynedale and took away 
 40 score kye and oxen, three score horses and mares, 500 
 sheep, burned 60 houses, spoiled the same to the value of 
 £2,000 sterling, and slew ten men. It was therefore but 
 natural that his capture should be ardently desired by the 
 English Borderers. 
 
 In the year 1596 the English Warden of the West 
 Marches was Lord Scroope, the Warden on the Scottish side 
 
21 
 
 being the Laird of Buccleucli, keeper of Liddesdale. In 
 March of that year a day of truce was held at " the 
 Dayholme of Kershoup, quhare a burne divides England 
 from Scotland." Bucclench's deputy was Robert Scott of 
 Haining, and Salkeld of Corby was deputy for Lord 
 Scroope. 
 
 By Border law, upon pain of death presently to be 
 executed, all persons attending such meetings were held 
 safe from molestation from the time of meeting until 
 sunrise on the next day, and this rule was punctiliously 
 observed, even in the case of the most notorious male- 
 factors. Relying upon such good faith, Kinmont, who 
 had attended the gathering, quietly held his way home- 
 ward on the Scottish side of the River Liddel, having- but 
 three or four companions. Such a favourable opportunity 
 to secure their foe proved irresistible to the English, 200 
 of whom, under Salkeld's leadership, were riding down the 
 opposite bank of the Liddel. They crossed, seized 
 Kinmont in spite of his protestations, and bore him away 
 prisoner to the Castle of Carlisle. 
 
 When Buccleuch received news of this treachery he 
 was hotly indignant, but made every lawful effort to 
 obtain redress. In turn he appealed to Salkeld, as deputy ; 
 to Lord Scroope, the English Warden, and to King James, 
 but without result. Finally he determined to act for him- 
 self, and the ballad tells how he effected the rescue of 
 Kinmont Willie. 
 
 How much of the ballad is original and how much it 
 owes to the wizard wand of Sir Walter Scott will probably 
 never be known. All that Scott himself says on the subject 
 is that, " This ballad is preserved by tradition on the 
 West Borders, but much mangled by reciters, so that some 
 conjectured emendations have been absolutely necessary 
 to render it intelligible." 
 
22 
 
 The ballad consists of forty-six stanzas, a selection 
 from which will briefly tell the story, and serve as an 
 example of the pithy style in which it is related. 
 
 O have ye na heard o' the fnuse Sakelde? 
 
 O have ye na heard o' the keen Lord Scroops ? 
 How they have ta'en bauld Kinmont Willie, 
 
 On Hairibee to hang him np ? 
 
 Had Willie had but twenty men, 
 
 But twenty men as stout as he, 
 Fause Sakelde had never the Kinmont ta'en, 
 
 Wi' eight score in his cumpanie. 
 
 They band his legs beneath the steed. 
 They tied his hands behind his back ; 
 
 They guarded him, fivesome on each side. 
 
 And they brought him ower the Liddel-rack. 
 
 They led him thro' the Liddel-rack, 
 
 And also thro' the Carlisle sands ; 
 They brought him to Carlisle castell. 
 
 To be at my Lord Scroope's command. 
 
 Now word is gane to the bauld keeper, 
 In Branksome Ha', where that he lay. 
 
 That Lord Scroope has ta'en the Kinmont Willie, 
 Between the hours of night and day. 
 
 He has ta'en the table wi' his hand, 
 
 He garr'd the red wine spring on hie — 
 
 " Now Christ's curse on my head," he said, 
 
 " But avenged of Lord Scroope I'll be ! 
 
 is my basnet a widow's curch ? 
 
 Or my lance a wand of the willow-tree? 
 Or my arm a ladye's lilye hand, 
 
 That an English lord should lightly me ? 
 
 were there war between the lands^ 
 As well I wot that there is none, 
 
 1 would slight Carlisle castell high, 
 
 Tho' it were builded of marble stone. 
 
 I would set that castell in a low. 
 
 And sloken it with English blood ! 
 There's nevir a man in Cumberland 
 
 Should ken where Carlisle castell stood." 
 
23 
 
 Thereupon follows an account of the gathering and 
 marshalling of the marchmen, and their journey across the 
 ] 'older — 
 
 Then on we held for Carlisle toun, 
 
 And at Staneshaw-bank the Eden we cros-'d ; 
 The water was great and meikle of spait, 
 But the nevir a horse nor man we lost. 
 
 Leaving their steeds by the river side, lest by neighing 
 they should alarm the garrison, they reach the Castle wall, 
 in a storm of " wind and weet, and fire and sleet," which 
 prevents their detection. They scale the outer wall, 
 surprise the sentinels, and force their way to 
 
 the lower prison, 
 
 Where Willie o' Kininont he did lie — 
 "O sleep ye, wake ye, Kinmont Willie, 
 Upon the morn that thou's to die ? " 
 
 "01 sleep saft, and I wake alt ; 
 
 It's long since sleeping was Heyed had me ! 
 Gie my service back to my wife and bairns. 
 And a' gude fellows that speer for me." 
 
 They carry Kinmont Willie out of the Castle to the 
 
 river bank, Lord Scroope and " a thousand men " following 
 
 in hot pursuit. 
 
 Buccleuch has turn'd to Eden water, 
 
 Even where it flovved frae bank to brim, 
 And he has plunged in wi' a' his band, 
 
 And safely swam them through the stream. 
 
 All sore astonished stood Lord Scroope, 
 
 He stood as still as rock of stane ; 
 He scarcely dared to trew his eyes, 
 
 When thro' the waters he had gane. 
 
 " He is either himself a devil frae hell, 
 Or else his mother a witch maun be ; 
 I wad na have ridden that wan water 
 For a' the gowd in Christentie." 
 
 The place where Buccleuch and his band crossed the 
 Eden would be from about where Hyssop Holme Well now 
 
24 
 
 is. In the ballad it is called " the Staneshaw-bank," which 
 has been read to mean Stanwix-bank, but in a contem- 
 poraneous MS. it is given as "the Stoniebank beneath 
 Cairleill brig ; " the crossing being made to " the syde 
 of a little water or burne that they call Caday." Is it 
 possible that the Scaur at that point may then have been 
 known as "the Stoniebank?" Such a name may have 
 descended to it from the ruins of the Roman Wall, which 
 there came down to the bridge over the river. 
 Camden, who visited Carlisle a few years later, says he 
 saw " mighty stones " across the Eden, and this mention 
 lends colour to the surmise. 
 
 As regards the authorship of this ballad, one would 
 fain believe that it sprang from him who 
 
 lived o'er Yarrow's Flower to shed the tear, 
 To strew the holly leaves o'er Harden's bier. 
 
 Professor Yeitch, in his " History and Poetry of the 
 Scottish Border," records a tradition that once when Wat 
 of Harden's wife, the Flower of Yarrow, was watching his 
 return from a raid over the Border, she heard the wailing 
 of a child among the spoils brought home. Her heart 
 yearned over the babe, whom she herself nurtured, and 
 who in later life blossomed into minstrelsy, as described 
 in Leyden's lines just quoted. 
 
 Cavaliers and Roundheads. 
 
 The " Minstrelsy " contains a ballad telling an 
 adventure of another Armstrong of Gilnockie, who for 
 distinction's sake was called Christie's Will, and whom 
 Scott describes as being the very last Border freebooter of 
 any note. Christie's Will owed his life to the Earl of 
 Traquair, who interceded for him when he was held 
 prisoner in Jedburgh, for, as Will said, stealing two 
 
25 
 
 tethers, or halters ; which, however, on further interroga- 
 tion, he admitted held two delicate colts at the end of 
 them. The " Minstrelsy " ballad has no connection with 
 Carlisle, but in a prefatory note there is related a feat by 
 Christie's Will, which has inspired a modern ballad. 
 
 During the troubles of Charles I with his Parliament, 
 the Earl of Traquair remained faithful to the King, to 
 whom on one occasion it was necessarj^ that a packet 
 containing important papers should be transmitted from 
 Scotland. This was a difficult task, as the Parliamentary 
 leaders did their utmost to prevent any communication 
 between the King and his Scottish friends. Traquair 
 entrusted the duty to Christie's Will, who safely conveyed 
 the papers to the King, and received an answer to be 
 delivered to Traquair. But in the meantime discovery of 
 his embassy had been made, and Cromwell had dispatched 
 orders to intercept him at Carlisle. Accordinglj^, as soon 
 as he began to pass the old long, high and narrow bridge 
 which then crossed the Eden at Carlisle, he found a 
 party of Parliamentary soldiers lying in wait for him at 
 the Stanwix end of the bridge, while his retreat was cut 
 off by another detachment. He at once spurred his horse 
 over the parapet into the Eden, which was in high flood, 
 swam down the river, took ground about where Buccleuch 
 crossed when rescuing Kinmont Willie, was chased by the 
 troopers as far as the Piver Esk, which he swam, and then, 
 from the northern side, invited his pursuers to come 
 through and drink with him. After this taunt he 
 proceeded on his journey, and faithfully accomplished his 
 mission. 
 
 Christie's Will's Pide. 
 
 " These for Traquair in the North Countrie : 
 
 Pide, ride, and better ride!" 
 " Faith ! in the Yerl's hands sune they'll be, 
 
 Or thae cutlugged loons may flay my hide !" 
 
26 
 
 Straight for the l^ortli rade Christie's Will, 
 Till he drew up rein by Carlisle gate : 
 
 " What seek ye here, ye limb o' the de'il, 
 Wha ride sae fast, and ride sae late ?" 
 
 " For the King ! for the King I ride wi' speed ; 
 
 Quick wi' your gate, and let me through : 
 Sma' time for mysel' and my naig to feed 
 
 Ere I take the road up Stanwick Brow !" 
 
 To make him welcome they a' were fain, 
 To meat and to drink they set him down, 
 
 Sae when he mounted his horse again 
 
 The sun had sunk ower the auld red town. 
 
 The sun had sunk, but the bright moon shone 
 As down the E-icker-gate he hied. 
 
 And when to Carlisle Sands he'd won 
 A score o' Cromwell's men he spied. 
 
 They spurred on fast, they blew their horn, 
 
 But Will was not to bind or hold ; 
 Black Jock just nicker t fra' his corn — 
 
 A better naig there ne'er was foaled. 
 
 " Now Jock, my lad ! For hame — for hame ! 
 
 There's nought like hame for me and thee !" 
 But when to the crown o' the brig they came 
 
 Will doubted that hame he might never see. 
 
 From Stanwick side ten mounted men 
 Spurred quickly down to stop the way ; 
 
 From the Carlisle Sands there rade twice ten : 
 Between them Will had been their prey. 
 
 They thought they had him in their net. 
 They drew in rein and slacked their speed ; 
 
 *' There's twa ways home — we'll win there yet : 
 Come, Jock! thoo's aye been gude at need!" 
 
27 
 
 He's turned his naig the tither gate, 
 And ower the wa' he's loupt him clean ; 
 
 'Twas weel that Eden ran high in spate 
 Or a rickle o' banes they haith had been. 
 
 Dumfoundered the troopers glowert an' gaped, 
 As Jock wi' Will swam down the stream : 
 
 " Lo ! from our snare hath he escaped ? 
 Or peradventure do we dream?" 
 
 At Staniebank Will took the ground, 
 Then turned for hame right cheerilie ; 
 
 The naig kenned weel where he was bound, 
 Nae need for spur to gar him flee. 
 
 Tast on his heels the troopers came ; 
 
 He took them ower the King's Moor Hill ; 
 " Ye'se hae your cappies or we're hame — 
 
 Follow wha can !" cried Christie's Will. 
 
 He's jinkit east, he's jinkit wast. 
 
 Through hagg and moss he's led the w^ay, 
 
 And lang ere E-owklie Marsh was past 
 Maist feck o' the loons were gane astray. 
 
 Esk water ran baith wide and strang, 
 To breist the spate Jock wasna' sweer, 
 
 Sae when the laggards rade alang 
 Will cried to them a parting jeer : 
 
 " 'Od sake ! we've had a bonnie ride, 
 
 And surely ye maun a' be dry ; 
 But, gin ye'll soom to this ither side, 
 
 0' maut ye'll find a gude supply !" 
 
 They turned aboot, and hameward rade, 
 Without ae word o' gude or ill ; 
 
 Eut aft, as on their way they gaed. 
 
 They cursed their ride wi' Christie's Will. 
 
28 
 
 The Lochmabeist Haepee. 
 "The Lochmaben Harper" gives a humorous variation 
 from the general method of raiding and reiving — 
 
 heard ye na o' the silly blind Harper, 
 How long lie lived in Lochmaben town ? 
 
 And how he wad gang to fair England, 
 
 To steal the Lord Warden's Wanton Brown ? 
 
 But first he gaed to his gude wyfe, 
 
 Wi' a' the haste that he could thole — ■ 
 "This wark," quo' he, " will ne'er gae weel, 
 
 Witliout a mare that has a foal." 
 
 Quo' she — " Thou hast a gude grey mare, 
 That can baith lance o'er laigh and hie ; 
 
 Sae set thee on the grey mare's back. 
 And leave the foal at hame wi' me." 
 
 When he reaches Carlisle he is warmly welcomed by 
 the Warden, and his mare is stabled alongside the horse 
 which he seeks to " convey." Having harped and carped 
 " till a' the nobles were fast asleep," he crept to the stable, 
 and taking out a halter with w'hich he had come provided — 
 
 He slipt it ower the Wanton's nose, 
 And tied it to his grey mare's tail. 
 
 As soon as the mare was set free, she galloped home to 
 her foal, bearing with her the Warden's Wanton Brown. 
 When morning dawned, and their loss was discovered, the 
 cunning auld Harper lamented — 
 
 "■ In Scotland I hae lost a braw cowt foal, 
 In England they've stown my gude grey mare ! " 
 
 But they comforted him with the promise — 
 
 " Weel i)ayd sail thy cowt foal be, 
 And thou sail have a far better mare." 
 
 Then aye he harped, and aye he carped ; 
 
 Sae sweet were the harping he let them hear ! 
 He was paid for the foal he had never lost, 
 
 And three times ower for the gude grey mare. 
 
29 
 
 The Sijn Shines Fair on Carlisle Wall. 
 Sir Walter Scott's song with a burden, " The sun 
 shines fair on Carlisle wall," is familiar to every one. 
 Its burden was suggested to him by a beautiful old ballad, 
 which runs thus — 
 
 She leaned her head against a thorn, 
 
 The sun shines fair on Carlisle wol ; 
 
 And there she has her young babe born, 
 And the lyon shall he lord of a\ 
 
 " Smile no sae sweet, my bonnie babe, 
 
 The sun shines fair on Carlisle wa' ; 
 An ye smile sae sweet ye'll smile me dead," 
 And the lyon shall be lord of a'. 
 
 She's howket a grave by the light o' the moon. 
 The sun shines fair on Carlisle wa" ; 
 
 And there she's buried her sweet babe in, 
 And the lyon shall he lord of a\ 
 
 As she was going to the church. 
 
 The sun shines fair on Carlisle wa' ; 
 
 She saw a sweet babe in the porch. 
 And the lyon shall he lord of a'. 
 
 "O bonnie babe, an ye were mine. 
 
 The sun shiiies fair on Carlisle wa' ; 
 I'd dead you in silk and sabelline — " 
 And the lyon shall he lord of a\ 
 
 " O mother mine, when I was thine, 
 
 The sun shines fair on Carlisle wa' ; 
 To me ye were na half sae kind, 
 And the lyon shall be lord of a'. 
 
 But now I'm in the heavens hie. 
 
 The sun shines fair on Carlisle wa' ; 
 And ye have the pains o' hell to dree," 
 And the lyon shall be lord of a'. 
 
30 
 JACOBITE BALLADS. 
 
 Pattison ! Ohoiv I Ohon ! 
 In the rebellion of 1745, Carlisle occupied a prominent 
 place, and round it cluster memories of heroic devotion 
 to the young Chevalier and the tragic consequences which 
 followed. But the song which is most intimately 
 associated with the life of the city at that period is in a 
 lighter vein, and has immortalised the name of a leading 
 citizen which might otherwise before now have found 
 oblivion. When, on the 10th of November, 1745, Prince 
 Charles Edward appeared, and his army of Highlanders 
 surrounded the city, he addressed to the Mayor a letter 
 demanding its surrender. Up till Michaelmas of that year 
 the Mayor had been Mr. Henry Aglionby, junior, who 
 lived in the country, and had as his deputy one Thomas 
 Pattinson. The new Mayor, Mr. Backhouse, would appear 
 to have been of a retiring spirit ; at all events Pattinson 
 continued to exercise the active duties of the office. To 
 quote from the "London Gazette" containing his report 
 to the Lord-Lieutenant in London of the call for capitula- 
 tion and its reception, he said — 
 
 That he (the Mayor) had returned no Answer thereto, but by 
 firing the Cannon upon them : That the said Pretended Prince, 
 the Duke of Perth, with several other Gentlemen, lay within a 
 Mile or two of the City ; but that their whole Army was, at the 
 time of dispatching the above Advice, marched for Brampton, 
 seven miles on the high Road for Newcastle. 
 
 This was a perfectly truthful statement of what had 
 taken place up till the time of Pattinson making his 
 report, and both at Carlisle and London there were great 
 rejoicings. When, however. Prince Charles Edward 
 found that General Wade had doubled on his track, and 
 returned to Newcastle, he again laid siege to Carlisle ; 
 and, as the miserable provision for its defence which had 
 been made by the Government was quite inadequate for a 
 
31 
 
 successful resistance, the city had to be surrendered. Of 
 the necessity for such surrender there was no doubt, and 
 it was vouched for in a document signed by the principal 
 inhabitants, including' Mr. Backhouse (the Mayor) and 
 Chancellor Waugh, but strangely enough not by 
 Pattinson. The blackening of Pattinson's memory was 
 largely due to the accounts of aft^airs given by Chancellor 
 Waugh and his correspondents ; and, as there had been 
 long-existing enmity between the Chancellor and 
 Pattinson, this testimony must be received with caution. 
 That he had considerable force of character is shown by 
 the power which he exercised in the Corporation at a time 
 when among the aldermen were numbered Lord Lonsdale, 
 Sir James Lowther, Mr. Aglionby, senior, and other 
 gentlemen of standing; and, unless he had been a man of 
 probity, the younger Mr. Aglionby, when Mayor, would 
 scarcely have nominated him as his deputy. 
 
 The surrender of the city naturally caused great 
 exultation in the ranks of the rebels, and this drew from 
 a Jacobite bard the ballad in ridicule of Pattinson, which 
 has preserved his name for posterity. It contained these 
 stanzas — 
 
 The blue-cap lads, witli belted plaids, 
 
 Syne scampered o'er the Border, 
 And bold Carlisle, in noble style, 
 
 Obeyed their leader's order. 
 
 O Pattison ! ohon ! ohon ! 
 
 Thou wonder of a Mayor ! 
 Thou blest thy lot thou wert no Scot 
 
 And blustered like a player. 
 
 What hast thou done with sword or gun 
 
 To baffle the Pretender ? 
 Of mouldy cheese and bacon-grease 
 
 Thou much more fit defender. 
 
 front of brass and brain of ass 
 
 With heart of hare compounded, 
 How are thy boasts repaid with costs 
 
 And all thy pride confounded ! 
 
32 
 
 Thou need'st not rave lest Scotland crave 
 
 Thy kindred or thy favour ; 
 Thy wretched race can give no grace, 
 
 No glory thy behaviour. 
 
 Carlisle Yetts. 
 The mournful events whicli followed upon the 
 Chevalier's unhappy attempt have found many echoes in 
 song. Of these one of the most touching is Allan 
 Cunningham's " Carlisle Yetts " — 
 
 White was the rose in his gay bonnet 
 
 As he faulded me in his broached plaidie ; 
 His hand, whilk clasped the truth o' love, 
 
 O it was ay in battle readie ! 
 His lang. lang hair in yellow hanks 
 
 Waved o'er his cheeks sae sweet and ruddie ; 
 But now they wave o'er Carlisle yetts 
 
 In dripping ringlets soiled and bluidie. 
 
 My father's blood's in that flower-tap, 
 My brother's in that harebell's blossom ; 
 
 This white rose was steeped in my love's blood, 
 An' I'll ay wear it in my bosom. 
 
 When I came first by merry Carlisle, 
 Was ne'er a town sae sweetly seeming ; 
 
 The White Rose flaunted owre the wall, 
 The thristled banners far were streaming ! 
 
 When I came next by merry Carlisle, 
 sad, sad seemed the town an' eerie ! 
 
 The auld, auld men came out an' wept, 
 " O maiden, come ye to seek yere dearie ?" 
 
 There's ae drop o' blude atween my breasts, 
 
 An' twa in my links o' hair sae yellow ; 
 The tane I'll ne'er wash, an' the tither ne'er kame, 
 
 But I'll sit an' pray aneath the willow. 
 Wae, wae upon that cruel heart, 
 
 Wae, wae upon that hand so bluidie ; 
 Which feasts in our richest Scottish blude, 
 
 An' makes sae mony a youthful widow 
 
33 
 
 II. 
 CARLISLE IN STORY. 
 
 As regards Carlisle in story, it may at once be said 
 that, with the notable exception of Sir Walter Scott, no 
 novelist of the first rank has used the city as a background 
 for his pictures. Thackeray's nearest approach to it is in 
 " A Shabby Genteel Story," where he speaks of " the 
 village of Gretna, near Carlisle ; " and it is as a place where 
 post-horses are changed in runaway flights that it mostly 
 finds mention in the books of lesser writers. 
 
 The Lazy Tour of two Idle Apprentices. 
 
 There is, however, in Dickens's " Lazy Tour of two 
 Idle Apprentices," a sketch of how the city appeared to his 
 observant eye towards the end of the 'fifties. In September, 
 1857, Dickens, along with Wilkie Collins, set out on an 
 expedition which included the climbing of Carrock Fell, 
 his ambition to do so having been fired by mention of it in 
 " The Beauties of England and Wales " as " a gloomy old 
 mountain 1,500 feet high." Carrying out the idea of the 
 title of the book Collins is designated as " Thomas Idle" 
 and Dickens as " Francis Goodchild." 
 
 Carlisle ! Idle and Goodchild had got to Carlisle. It looked 
 congenially and delightfully idle. Something in the way of 
 public amusement had happened last month, and something else 
 was going to happen before Christmas ; and, in the meantime, 
 there was a lecture on India for those who liked it, which Idle 
 and Goodchild did not. Likewise, by those who liked them, 
 there were impressions to be bought of all the vapid prints, going 
 and gone, and of nearly all the vapid books. For those who 
 wanted to put anything in missionary boxes, here were the 
 boxes. ..... 
 
 The working young men of Carlisle were drawn up, with 
 their hands in their pockets, across the pavements, four and 
 six abreast, and appeared (much to the satisfaction of Mr. Idle) 
 
34 
 
 to have nothing else to do. The working and growing 
 young women of Carlisle, from the age of twelve upwards, 
 promenaded the streets in the cool of evening, and rallied the 
 said young men. Sometimes the young men rallied the j^oung 
 women, as in the case of a group gathered round an accordion 
 player ; from among whom a young man advanced behind a 
 3'^oung woman for whom he appeared to have a tenderness, and 
 hinted to her that he was there and playful, by giving her 
 (he wore clogs) a kick. 
 
 On market morning Carlisle woke up amazingly, and became 
 (to the two Idle Apprentices) disagreebly and reproachfully busy. 
 There were its cattle market, its sheep market, and its pig 
 market down by the river, with rawboned and shock-headed 
 Kob Koys hiding their Lowland dresses beneath heavy plaids, 
 prowling in and out among the animals, and flavouring the air 
 with fumes of whiskey. There was its corn market down the 
 main street, with hum of chaffering over open sacks. There was 
 its general market in the street too, with heather brooms on which 
 the purple flower still flourished, and heather baskets, primitive 
 and fresh to behold. With women trying on clogs and caps at 
 
 open stalls, and Bible stalls adjoining Through 
 
 all these bargains and blessings, the recruiting-sergeant watchfully 
 elbowed his way, a thread of War in the peaceful skein. 
 
 The Shadow of a Crime. 
 
 Altliougli a considerable part of tlie action in Mr. 
 Hall Caine's novel " The Shadow of a Crime," by which 
 book he first made his name, takes place in Carlisle, his 
 local colour is disappointing. It has neither the interest 
 which attaches to contemporaneous observation, nor the 
 accuracy of even moderately careful research ; and indeed 
 would seem to have been derived from a walk round the 
 modern city, guide-book in hand. Names of streets and 
 places are brought in with a glibness which to strangers 
 gives an air of verisimilitude, but which to those who know 
 the locality is simply irritating. For instance, one of his 
 characters wanders through Blackfriars Street, past the 
 
35 
 
 gaol that stood on the ruins of the monastery, along Abbey 
 Street and past the Cathedral, across Head Lane into the 
 Market Place again ; then along the banks of the Caldew 
 and over the western wall ; round Shaddon Gate to the 
 bridge that lay under the shadow of the Castle, and up 
 to the River Eden and Scotch Gate. Such a peregrina- 
 tion could only be made in a nightmare. As regards the 
 gaol, the only one which Carlisle possessed in 1660 was a 
 small house over the Scotch Gate, the Castle dungeons 
 being used for the greater criminals. 
 
 Mr. Caine brings Robbie Anderson into Carlisle, and 
 takes him out again by the Botcher Gate ; being evidently 
 under the impression that "gate" in Botchergate refers 
 to an opening in the wall. There can, however, be little 
 doubt that this application of the word alike in Botcher- 
 gate, Rickergate and Caldewgate, arises from coincidence, 
 and that it originally meant a way or road. It is recorded 
 that towards the end of the fourteenth century a fire 
 consumed 1,500 houses in Castle-gate, Richard-gate, and 
 Botchard-gate, three of the principal streets in the city; 
 and at the same period Fisher Street was known as 
 Fisher-gate. 
 
 The names of some of the characters in " The Shadow 
 of a Crime " look strange in their seventeenth century 
 setting. Wilfrey Lawson seems all right as Sheriff, 
 although his status is questionable, and his official duties 
 are rather mixed ; but Robbie Anderson is before his time, 
 and Scroope is hardly recognisable as a bailiff. 
 
 Str.otge Adventures of a Phaeton. 
 
 William Black has many allusions to Carlisle, as he 
 conveys his characters to and from his beloved Western 
 Highlands, but he rarely brings them outside of the rail- 
 way station. Black's " Strange Adventures of a Phaeton," 
 
36 
 
 however, contains a short description of Carlisle in 1872. 
 It will be remembered that this book records a driving 
 journey made from London to Scotland, through the most 
 beautiful country ; and, interwoven with the word painting 
 in which its author excelled, runs a delightful little love 
 story. 
 
 The party drove into " merry Carlisle " while the 
 lamps were lit in the twilight, and numbers of people were 
 in the street ; and they put up at an hotel abutting on the 
 railway station. Black depicts Carlisle as " the red old 
 city that is set amid beautiful green meadows interlaced 
 with streams," and waxes eloquent about the landscape 
 viewed from the heights of the Castle. They leave for 
 Gretna, and the docile husband who narrates the story 
 proceeds — 
 
 We drove down by the green meadows, and over the Eden 
 bridge. We clambered up the hill opposite, and drove past the 
 surburban villas there. We had got so much accustomed to 
 sweet perfumes floating to us from the hedgerows and the fields, 
 that we at first did not perceive that certain specially pleasant 
 odours were the product of some large nurseries close by. 
 
 Happy travellers ! who thus journeyed w^hile there was 
 still a chance of inhaling air unmixed with dust, and of 
 in-breathingi the scent of flowers untainted with the fumes 
 of petrol. 
 
 Sir Walter Scott. 
 
 But the Carlisle enshrined in story by Sir "Walter 
 Scott is altogether different from these and the like 
 transitory visions. He saw the ancient city veiled behind 
 the pearly mists of romance ; to him it was the " Carlisle- 
 fair and free" of King Arthur's court; the "merry 
 Carlisle " of his own f reebooting ancestors ; the " sad, sad 
 town and eerie " of the Young Chevalier and his devoted 
 Highlanders. 
 
37 
 
 Reference lias already been made to the Arthurian 
 story in " The Bridal of Triermain; " and in " The Lay of 
 the Last Minstrel " Scott tells how 
 Nine and twenty knights of fame, 
 Nine and twenty squires of name, 
 Nine and twenty yeomen tall, 
 
 kept watch and ward for the Lord of Bnccleuch, 
 
 Lest Scroop, or Howard, or Percy's powers, 
 Threaten Branksome's lordly towers. 
 From Warkworth, or Naworth, or merry Carlisle. 
 
 It w-as one of this armed train, Sir William of 
 Deloraine, Mdio, scorning book-lore, exclaimed — 
 
 Letter or line know I never a one, 
 Wer't my neck-verse at Hairibee — 
 
 the verse in question being the " Miserere " opening of the 
 51st Psalm, which was read by criminals claiming benefit 
 of clergy. 
 
 The two Drovers. 
 
 It was at Carlisle, too, that the unfortunate Robin 
 Oig stood his trial for slaying his friend Harry Wakefield, 
 while smarting under a blow which his Highland blood 
 could not brook. The description of the assize trial, as 
 given in " The two Drovers," would appear to have been 
 drawn from one which Scott had witnessed. In his 
 character of narrator he writes — " I was myself present, 
 and as a young Scottish lawyer, or barrister at least, and 
 reputed a man of some quality, the politeness of the Sheriff 
 of Cumberland offered me a place on the bench." 
 
 Redgatjntlet. 
 
 Carlisle has no part in the action of " Redgauntlet," 
 although this approaches very near to the city ; the " Fair- 
 ladies " of the tale, where Charles Edward, disguised as 
 Father Buonaventure, lay concealed, being identified with 
 
38 
 
 Drumburgli Castle; and Job Crackentliorp's public bouse 
 on the Solway, where the projected conspiracy for rebellion 
 was broken up, being easily recognised as Sandsfield. 
 
 Is it possible that our Cumbrian bard, " Blind Stagg 
 the fiddler," can have been the prototype of Wandering 
 Willie, who figures so prominently in this tale? Stagg 
 made frequent excursions over the Border, fiddling at such 
 entertainments as the dance at Brokenburn ; and it is 
 quite likely that Scott and he may have met. If they did, 
 Sir Walter picked up from him none of his vernacular, for 
 all the attempts made by Scott at the Cumberland dialect 
 were strangely futile. Indeed he makes his Cumbrian 
 peasants talk like stage Yorkshiremen ; but it is dangerous 
 for a man to meddle with dialect unless it is his native 
 speech. Stagg, on the other hand, brought back with 
 him several Scottish words, which are incorporated in his 
 poems. 
 
 The Heart oe Midlothian. 
 
 Harraby Brow is fated to loom dark in Scott's 
 romances. It was there that Jeanie Deans, in " The 
 Heart of Midlothian," on her journey homeward from 
 London, saw Meg Murdockson " in the act of undergoing 
 the fatal punishment from which Jeanie's beloved sister 
 had been so recently rescued." And it was in a muddy 
 pool of the Petteril hard by, where poor Madge Wildfire 
 received that cruel treatment from an ignorant mob, wiiich 
 resulted in her death in the Workhouse at Carlisle. 
 
 Waverley. 
 
 It is, however, in " Waverley," as being the place of 
 the confinement and the barbarous execution of the un- 
 happy Fergus Mac-Ivor, that Carlisle in story will be 
 longest remembered. 
 
 In depicting the character and fate of Fergus Mac- 
 Ivor, Scott had in mind the career of Major Donald 
 
39 
 
 Macdonald, of Tyendrish, wlio was tried and executed at 
 Carlisle for participation in the '45 rebellion. His place 
 of confinement was a mural chamber in the keep of Carlisle 
 Castle, which is still shown to visitors. In the novel, 
 Flora Mac-Ivor is described as staying in " the house of 
 a respectable Catholic family near Carlisle," and this runs 
 parallel with the fact that the sister of Major Macdonald 
 sojourned at Warwick Hall whilst the fate of her brother 
 was pending. 
 
 Fergus Mac-Ivor's trial, which was little more than 
 a matter of form, would take place in the Town Hall, where 
 the prisoners from the 1715 rebellion were also tried; on 
 which occasion the provident Mayor and Corporation 
 erected a gallery for spectators, who were admitted on a 
 payment of sixpence each. 
 
 In " Waverley " the brutalities which attended the 
 penalty for high treason are partly graphically described, 
 partly suggested ; the delivery of the prisoners to the High 
 Sheriff and his attendants, who stay " before the gate of 
 the Castle to claim the bodies of Fergus Mac-Ivor and 
 Evan Maccombich " ; the black sledge or hurdle, bearing 
 the executioner with his broad axe, waiting to receive his 
 victims ; the gloomy procession to the strains of a funeral 
 march which mingle with the sound of a muffled peal 
 tolled from the Cathedral tower; all those are described, 
 but mercifully the relation stops there. 
 
 The next morning ere daylight Waverley took leave of the 
 town of Carlisle, promising to himself never again to enter its 
 walls. He dared hardly look back towards the Gothic battle- 
 ments of the fortified gate under which he passed, for the place 
 is surrounded with an old wall. "They're no there," said Alick 
 Polwarth, who guessed the cause of the dubious look which 
 Waverley cast backward. " The heads are ower the Scotch yate." 
 
 A mournful ending ; yet a fitting close to this 
 rambling review of life in and around our Border city as 
 chronicled in story and ballad. For the most part, these 
 
40 
 
 form a record of rapine and bloodshed, of desperate deeds 
 and cruel reprisals, following each other in a gloomy 
 monotony, only fitfully lightened up here and there by 
 flashes of savage humour. And yet, to all true Borderers, 
 these traditions have a strange fascination. The memory 
 of those days when his ancestors buckled on their armour, 
 and followed Dacre, or Scroope, or Belted Will, in their 
 many forays northward, still stirs the heart of the 
 Cumbrian. And who is there among us from the Scottish 
 side but would be proud to know that in his veins ran 
 blood inherited from one of Kinmont's gallant rescuers, 
 even though that pride were chastened by the thought that 
 some of his rude sires may have taken their last look at 
 " sweet Liddesdale " from the fatal hill of Hairibee? 
 
 The sad, mad, bad days are gone for ever. When 
 the mouldering walls which shut in the city were razed to 
 the ground a century ago, that act might have been 
 emblematical of the changes which were to come. Beneath 
 the fragmentary remains of those walls mighty engines 
 speed unceasingly, like giant shuttles plying athwart the 
 loom of progress ; their warp and weft bringing welfare 
 and prosperity into our midst. 
 
 Much as these and other marvels of twentieth century 
 civilisation would have astonished our forebears from the 
 other side of the Border, perhaps nothing would to them 
 have seemed more incredible than that, during this year 
 of grace, 1911, the chief ruler in the stronghold of their 
 ancient enemies should be a Scott, soon to be succeeded 
 by a Johnstone of Lochmaben. For one of the ancient 
 bye-laws of Carlisle ran — 
 
 That no unchartered Scotts shall dwell within this city, or 
 
 the liberties thereof, upon pain and forfeiture of all his or their 
 
 goods, and punishment of their bodies at the Mayor's pleasure ; 
 
 and he or she that rests or keeps them, shall forfeit for every 
 
 offence 6s. 8d. 
 
 Thus the whirligig of Time brings in his revenges. 
 

 
 
 
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