O forty miles off Aberdeen3
'Tis fifty fathoms deep,

And there lies gude Sir Patrick Spens
Wi' the Scots lords at his feet.

I We have taken the liberty of spelling this word aright, to save comments in future. It is unnecessary, almost, to mention that, in pronouncing it, the / is not heard. It seems to us particularly obvious that "if a bar or bolt (Scottice bout) had loosened," a plank must necessarily have "started."

2 This stanza we have heard sung, by old people, thus:

Laith laith were our braw Scots lords

To weet the cra's o' their shoon!
But lang before the spring was played
Their hair was wat aboon,

which, perhaps, ought to be the genuine reading. The person who sung it said, that cra's meant the upper leather of the shoe; and we are indebted to him for this information, otherwise we would have been at a loss to explain the word.

3 This line varies very much in different editions. Though in the text we have adhered to that given in the Border Minstrelsy, we are inclined to favour the reading

Half owre, half owre to Aberdour.

For, with submission to the opinion of Sir W. Scott, the meaning of this line is not that the shipwreck took place in the Frith of Forth, but midway between Aberdour and Norway. And, as it would seem from the narrative at the commencement of the ballad, that Sir Patrick sailed from the Forth, it is but fair to infer that in his disastrous voyage homeward, he would endeavour to make the same port. This opinion will be corroborated, if we are correct in assigning the ballad to the historical event mentioned in the introductory remarks.

JOHNIE OF BREADISLEE.

HISTORY is silent with regard to this young Nimrod. "He appears," says the editor of the Border Minstrelsy, "to have been an outlaw and deerstealer,-probably one of the broken men residing upon the border. It is sometimes said, that this outlaw possessed the old castle of Morton, in Dumfriesshire, now ruinous." Another tradition assigns Braid, in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, to have been the scene of his "woeful hunting." A few stanzas of apparently an older copy of this ballad we have received, and as they possess some merit, we have subjoined them to this copy, (taken from the Border Minstrelsy,) in the hope that the verses awanting may hereafter be supplied.

JOHNIE rose up in a May morning,

Called for water to wash his hands“Gar loose to me the gude graie dogs That are bound wi' iron bands."

When Johnie's mother gat word o' that,
Her hands for dule she wrang-

"O Johnie! for my benison,

To the grenewood dinna gang!

"Eneugh ye hae o' the gude wheat bread,
And eneugh o' the blude-red wine;
And therefore, for nae venison, Johnie,

I

III.

pray ye,

stir frae hame."

C

But Johnie's busk't up his gude bend bow,

His arrows, ane by ane;
And he has gane to Durrisdeer
To hunt the dun deer down.

As he came down by Merriemass,
And in by the benty line,
There has he espied a deer lying
Aneath a bush of ling.

Johnie he shot, and the dun deer lap,
And he wounded her on the side;
But, atween the water and the brae,
His hounds they laid her pride.

2

And Johnie has bryttled the deer sae weel,

That he's had out her liver and lungs;

And wi' these he has feasted his bludy hounds, As if they had been erl's sons.

They eat sae much o' the venison,
And drank sae much o' the blude,
That Johnie and a' his bludy hounds

Fell asleep, as they had been dead.

And by there came a silly auld carle,

An ill death mote he die!

For he's awa to Hislinton,

Where the Seven Foresters did lie.

"What news, what news, ye gray-headed carle, What news bring ye to me?"

"I bring nae news," said the gray-headed carle, Save what these eyes did see.

“As I came down by Merriemass,
And down amang the scroggs,3
The bonniest childe that ever I saw
Lay sleeping amang his dogs.

"The shirt that was upon his back
Was o' the Holland fine;
The doublet which was over that
Was o' the lincome twine.

"The buttons that were on his sleeve
Were o' the goud sae gude;

The gude graie hounds he lay amang,
Their mouths were dyed wi' blude.”

Then out and spak the First Forester,
The heid man ower them a'-

"If this be Johnie o' Breadislee,
Nae nearer will we draw."

But up and spak the Sixth Forester,
(His sister's son was he)
"If this be Johnie o' Breadislee,
We soon shall gar him die!"

The first flight of arrows the Foresters shot,
They wounded him on the knee;
And out and spak the Seventh Forester,
The next will gar him die."

Johnie's set his back against an aik,
His fute against a stane;

And he has slain the Seven Foresters,
He has slain them a' but ane.

He has broke three ribs in that ane's side, But and his collar bane;

He's laid him twa-fald ower his steed,

Bade him carry the tidings hame.