- This circumstance is omitted in the ballad. Hotspur and Douglas were two young
warriors much of the same age. - Froissart says the English exceeded the Scots in number three to one, but that these
had the advantage of the ground and were also fresh from sleep, while the English
were greatly fatigued with their previous march. - By Henry L. Percy, according to this ballad, and our old English historians, as
Stow, Speed, &c. but borne down by numbers, if we may believe Froissart. - Hotspur (after a very sharp conflict) was taken prisoner by John Lord Montgomery,
whose eldest son, Sir Hugh, was slain in the same action with an arrow, according to
Crawford'sPeerage(and seems also to be alluded to in the foregoing ballad), but
taken prisoner and exchanged for Hotspur, according to this ballad. - Froissart (according to the English translation) says he had his account from two
squires of England, and from a knight and squire of Scotland, soon after the battle. - So in Langham's letter concerning Queen Elizabeth's entertainment at Killingworth
Castle, 1575, 12mo. p. 61. "Heer was no ho in devout drinkyng."
9.i.e. They scorn to take the advantage, or to keep them lingering in long captivity.
- The notice of this MS. I must acknowledge with many other obligations, owing to
the friendship of Thomas Tyrwhitt, Esq., late Clerk of the House of Commons. - Winn their heaye. Harl. MS. This is the Northumberland phrase to this day: by
which they always express "getting in their hay." The orig. MS. reads herewinn their
way. - Robert Stuart, second son of King Robert I I.
13.i.e."over Solway frith." This evidently refers to the other division of the Scottish
army, which came in by way of Carlisle. Bowynd, or Bounde him; i.e. hied him. Vid.
Gloss.
- They: sc. the Earl of Douglas and his party. The several stations here mentioned
are well-known places in Northumberland. Ottercap-hill is in the parish of Kirk-
Whelpington, in Tynedale-ward. Rodeliffe- (or as it is more usually pronounced
Rodeley-) Cragge is a noted cliff near Rodeley, a small village in the parish of
Hartburn, in Morpeth-ward: it lies south-east of Ottercap. Green Leyton is another
small village in the same parish of Hartburn, and is south-east of Rodeley.-- Both the
original MSS. read here corruptly, Hoppertop and Lynton. - This line is corrupt in both the MSS. viz. 'Many a styrande stage.' Stags have been
killed within the present century on some of the large wastes in Northumberland. - Marche-man,i e.a scourer of the Marches.
17.Syneseems here to meansince.
- Otterbourn is near the old Watling-street road, in the parish of Elsdon. The Scots
were encamped in a grassy plain near the river Read. The place where the Scots and
English fought is still called Battle-Riggs. - Roe-bucks were to be found upon the wastes not far from Hexham in the reign of
Geo. I.-- Whitfield, Esq. of Whitfield, is said to have destroyed the last of them. - The Earl of Menteith.