REVIEWS — ROMANTIC SCOTTISH BALLADS. 473 



[They had na sailed a league, a league, 



A league but barely three, 

 When the lift gre-w dark, and the "wind blew loud, 



And gurly grew the sea. 



The ankers brak, and the topmasts lap, 



It was sic a deadly storm, 

 And the waves cam o'er the broken ship. 



Till a' her sides were torn.] 



our Scots nobles were richt laith 



To weet their cork-heeled shoon ; 

 But lang ere a' the play was played, 



Their hats they swam aboon, 



[And mony was the feather-bed 



That flattered on the faem ; 

 And mony was the gude lord's son 



That never mair cam hame. 



The ladies wrang their fingers white, 



The maidens tore their hair, 

 A' for the sake of their true loves, 



For them they '11 see nae mair.] 



lang, lang may the ladies sit, 



Wi' their fans into their hand. 

 Or ere they see Sir Patrick Spence 



Come sailing to the land. 



O lang, lang may the ladies stand, 



Wi' their gold kames in their hair, 

 Waiting for thei r ain dear lords, 



For they '11 see them nae mair. 



Half ower, half ower to Aberdour, 



It's fifty fathom deep ; 

 And there lies gude Sir Patrick Spence 



Wi' the Scots lords at his feet. 



Percy, at the close of his copy of Sir Patrich Spence, tells us that ' an ingenious 

 friend ' of his was of opinion that ' the author of Hardyhnute has borrowed several 

 expressions and sentiments from the foregoing [ballad], and other old Scottish 

 songs in this collection.' It does not seem to have ever occurred to the learned 

 editor, or any friend of his, however ' ingenious,' that perhaps Sir Patrick Silence 

 had no superior antiquity over HardyTcnute, and that the parity he remarked in 

 the expressions was simply owing to the two ballads being the production of one 

 mind. Neither did any such suspicion occur to Scott. He fully accepted Sir Patrick 

 Spence as a historical narration, judging it to refer most probably to an otherwise 



