LYRA HISTORICA POEMS OF BRITISH HISTORY

A.D. 61-1910

SELECTED BY

M. E. WINDSOR & J. TURRAL
With PREFACE BY J. C. SMITH

PART I (A.D. 61-1381). Eightpence.

II (1388–1641). Eightpence.

III (1644-1910). One Shilling. THE THREE PARTS TOGETHER, Two SHILLINGS.

CONTENTS

Thanks for permission to include poems and extracts are due to the following :

Mr. T. Fisher Unwin for A. M. F. Robinson's A Ballad of Orleans.

Mr. Henry Newbolt for Drake's Drum, from 'The Island Race', published by Elkin Mathews.

Mr. T. Watts-Dunton for extracts from Swinburne's Mary Stuart and The Armada.

PART II

OTTERBURN

(1388)

The Scots under Douglas invaded England as far as Newcastle, where they met Henry Percy (Hotspur), who swore to redeem in three days his lance, which Douglas had taken in a skirmish. The English came upon the Scots by moonlight at Otterburn, and gave battle at once. Douglas rushed into the middle of their army and was killed, though the battle went on till morning, when Percy was taken prisoner. The result of the battle is a matter of dispute. This version, taken from Scott's Minstrelsy of the Border, naturally relates the event with a Scottish bias. The English versions tell the story just as much in favour of the English. Froissart says that despite the disasters on both sides the Scotch remained masters of the field ; but he gives both armies great credit for their desperate valour.

The Douglas was not buried at a bracken bush', but in Melrose Abbey.

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It fell about the Lammas tide,

When the muir-men win their hay,
The doughty earl of Douglas rode

Into England, to catch a prey.
He chose the Gordons and the Græmes,

With them the Lindesays, light and gay ;
But the Jardines wald not with him ride,

And they rue it to this day.
And he has burn'd the dales of Tyne,

And part of Bambrough shire;
And three good towers on Roxburgh fells,
He left them all on fire.
1. Lammas] August I.

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And he march'd up to Newcastle,

And rode it round about ;
O wha's the lord of this castle,

Or wha 's the lady o't?'
But up spake proud Lord Percy, then,

And o but he spake hie!
I am the lord of this castle,

My wife's the lady gay.'
If thou 'rt the lord of this castle,

Sae weel it pleases me!
For, ere I cross the border fells,

The tane of us shall die.'
He took a long spear in his hand,

Shod with the metal free,
And for to meet the Douglas there

He rode right furiouslie.
But O how pale his lady look'd

Frae aff the castle wa',
When down before the Scottish spear,

She saw proud Percy fa'.
Had we twa been upon

the

green, And never an eye to see, I wad hae had you, flesh and fell;

But your sword sall gae wi' me.' *But gae ye up to Otterbourne,

And wait there dayis three;
And, if I come not ere three dayis end,

A fause knight ca' ye me.'
The Otterbourne's a bonnie burn;

'Tis pleasant there to be;
But there is nought at Otterbourne

To feed my men and me.
*The deer rins wild on hill and dale,

The birds fly wild from tree to tree;
But there is neither bread nor kale
To feed my men and me.

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