TOWIE BARCLAY.

83

we find that Mountcoffer belonged to them, which, although situated in the immediate vicinityof Banff , is in the County of Aberdeen . This appears to have been an acquisition of later datethan when they were the Hereditary Sheriffs of the former county, and had the Barony ofGartly transferred from Aberdeenshire .

There is a tradition that the Barclays led the van of the king’s army in one of the numerousrebellions in the north, and that, in an action fought in Rossshire, the Chief of their name slewthe rebel leader in single combat, for which he was rewarded by the grant of a considerableestate near Tain; and this is so far confirmed, that to this day several families in Easter Rossbear the name of Barclay, in a country almost exclusively peopled by the Rosses and theMunroes.

The old ballad of the “ Baronne o’ Gairtley,” in its opening lines, gives a graphic descrip-tion of the warlike and reckless chief of those days ; and although the limits I have chosen asto extent of notice, cannot admit the insertion of the entire “ fragment,” of fifty-eight stanzas,I cannot refrain from inserting a portion of the metre, written in the genuine provincial dialectof Aberdeenshire .

BARONNE O’ GAIRTLEY.

A Fragment.

’Twas in abut nichts weerty hour,

Nae meen nor stars gae light,

Quhan Gairtley’s haul an’ beirly Baronne,Rod hemward thro’ the nicht.

Sturdy was that Baronne’s speir,

Deidly his battle bran,

Docht nae man bide aneth the straikO’ his uplifted han’.

Frae his weir cape thre black fethersNod owre his dark brun hru,

Durst nae man speir quhain he them gat,Or he had cause to rue.

His mayle o’ stele frae neck to heel,

Wi’ witchin spel was boun’,

’Twas clasp’d sae fast, weirs deidliest blastNane cud that Baronne woun’.

On coal black steid, wi fierious speid,

The Baronne he spur’d on,

Nae grusome gaist nor black hoodieCud fleg that haul Baronne.

Frae the black visart o’ the lift,

The fyre flaucht gleeds the skie,

Ye’re welcome quo’ the haul Baronne,

To licht me on my wye.