14 Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. 



a rough. Border squabble, which the old ballad-maker has con- 

 secrated by his rude lays. We can almost picture the stirring 

 event, by the successive bursts of natural feeling that pervade 

 it. 



" Bo this our folk hae ta'en the fell, 



And planted down palliones there to bide, 

 We looked down the other side, 

 And saw come breasting owcr the brae, 



Wi' Sir John Foster for their guyde 

 Full fifteen hundred men and mae. 



" Because we were not men enow, 

 They counted us not worth a louse. 

 # # # # 

 " Yett was our meeting meek eneuch, 

 Begun wi' merriment and mowes, 

 And at the brae, aboon the heugh, 

 The dark sat doun to call the rowes. 



" We saw come marching ower the knowes, 

 Five hundred Fennicks in a flock, 

 With jack and speir, and bows all bent, 



And warlike weapons at their will : 

 Although we were na weel content, 

 Yet, by my troth, we feared no ill. 



" Carmichael bade them speak out plainlie, 



And cloke no cause for ill nor good ; 

 The other, answering him as vainlie, 



Began to reckon kin and blood : 

 He raise, and raxed him where he stood, 



And bade him match him with his marrows ; 

 Then Tindaill heard them reasun rude, 



And they loot off a flight of arrows. 

 Then there was nought but bow and speir, 



And every man pull'd out a brand. 



" Then raise the slogan with ane shout — 

 ' Fy, Tindaill to it ! Jedburgh's here ! ' 



" With gun and genzie, bow and speir, 

 Men might see mony a cracked crown ! 



" With help of God the game gaed right, 

 Fra time the foremost of them fell ; 

 Then ower the knowe, without goodnight, 

 They ran with mony a shout and yell." 



