Rattling, Roaring Willie. By the late Sir W. Elliot. 479 



XIII. 

 " Wi' three merry good fellows 

 Sae merrily I'll be set : 

 And ower a bowl of punch 



Sae merrily we'se be met : 

 Sae merrily we'se be met, 

 And merry shall we be, 

 Then every lad will hae his glass, 

 And a lass upon his knee." ' 



It has been supposed that the discrepancies in these versions, 

 agreeing as they do in their main statements, are due to alterations 

 of the traditionary statements, made by the writers who respec- 

 tively quote them ; but it is more probable that they may rather 

 be accounted for, as has already been said, by the changes 

 incident to a long course of transmission from mouth to mouth, 

 in different parts of the county. 



According to Sir Walter Scott, 2 the ballad is found in Eamsay's 

 Tea-Table Miscellany, but this is an error on his part. It is true 

 we find the air, a but it is set to totally different words composed 

 by himself, addressed to L. M. M., and beginning 

 " Oh Mary ! thy graces and glances." 



Allan Cunningham's version of the ballad is headed " Eob 

 Eool and Eattlin' Willie," but though the wording is different, 

 the facts it will be seen are essentially the same. Neither Sir 

 Walter Scott nor Cunningham intimate the source from which 

 they derived their versions. If from cotemporary recitation, it 

 is remarkable that no trace can now be found of such a ballad 

 existing. 



Some of the statements made in each are at variance with the 

 facts now ascertained. Sweet Milk, as already mentioned, has 

 no connection with any place in Eule Water, but was a personal 

 sobriquet ; nor is the identification of the Laird of Falnash as Scott 



1 Peter Biichan, printer, Peterhead, published in 1828 " Ancient Ballads 

 and Songs of the noi-th of Scotland," in two volumes, and prepared a col. 

 lection of ballads to be entitled " North Countrie Minstrelsy, Ancient and 

 Modern, with Notes." The Manuscript came into the possession of the Percy 

 Society, from which a selected portion was printed in 1845. I am indebted 

 to Mr Bullen of the British Museum for the preceding verses, which he 

 received from the Rev. J. W. Ebsworth, the editor of the publications of 

 the Percy Society. The stanzas have been compared with the MS. in the 

 British Museum (Additional MSS., 29408) and found correct. 



- Notes to Canto i\\. Lay of Last Minstrel. 



a Tea-Table Miscellany, vol. I., p. 97 (9th edition, 1733). 



