#By William M'Dowall

[vampireadamooc]

Among the Old Scotch Minstrels Studying Their Ballads of War Love Social Life Folk-Lore and Fairyland By William M'Dowall 1888

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EXCERPT To get the full book: https://books.google.com/books?id=HjFAAAAAYAAJ&

LAMMIKIN. THAN Lammikin no more cruel monster appears in the minstrelsy of Scotland. " As gude a mason as ever hewed a stane," his goodness extended only to his handicraft. He biggit Lord Weire's castle, But payment gat he nane, and because his account remained undis charged, and his noble employer would come to no terms with him, he resolved to cancel the debt by destroying the fabric.

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" Sin ye winna gie me my wages. Lord, Sin ye winna gie me my hire, This gude castle sae stately built, I shall gar rock wi' fire." We are led to infer that Lord Weire, instead of trying to mollify the savage craftsman when appealed to for the last time, treated both claim and claimant with contempt. Yet, as if infatuated, he prepared straightway to "seek his pleasure in the woods." On intimating this intention to his wedded partner, she prayed him to give it up : " O byde at hame, my gude Lord Weire, I weird ye byde at hame ; Gang nae to this day's hunting, To leave me a' alane. " Yae nicht, yae nicht I dreamed this bower O' red, red blude was fu', Gin ye gang to this black hunting, I sall hae cause to rue." With characteristic temerity Lord Weire threw ridicule on his wife's dream, affirmed she had no reason to fear ; And syne he kindly kissed her cheek, And syne the starting tear. Then, taking his retainers with him, he rode off gaily to " the gude green wood " on his sporting enterprise. Actuated by a forebod ing of immediate danger, the lady withdrew " to her painted bower," first causing all the windows and doors of the building to be fastened inside. But her precautions were of little avail, as the man whom she had reason to dread had an emissary in the castle bribed over to work his will. They steekit doors, they steekit yetts, Close to the cheek and chin ; They steekit them a' but a wee wicket, And Lammikin crap in. Between him and his treacherous accomplice a whispered dialogue ensued, which is rendered in a highly dramatic form— " Where are the lads o' this castle ? " Says the Lammikin ; " They 're a' wi' Lord Weire hunting," The false nourice did sing. "Where are the lasses o' this castle ?" Says the Lammikin ; " They 're a' oot at the washing," The false nourice did sing. " But, where 's the lady o' this house ? " Says the Lammikin ; "She is in her bower, sewing," The false nourice did sing. " Is this the bairn o' this house ? " Says the Lammikin; " The only bairn Lord Weire auchts," The false nourice did sing. Surely, exclaims the gentle reader, Lammi kin, cruel though he is, will provide for the safety of this innocent babe and its mother before he applies the torch of ruin to their domestic sanctuary ! Alas, no ! The sight of the prattling infant did not soften his heart ; it rendered it, on the contrary, increasingly im placable, and gave his vengeful aims a more fiendish bent. He would discharge the bond of debt, not by fire, but by blood ! Lammikin nipped the bonnie babe, While loud the false nourice sings ; Lammikin nipped the bonnie babe, Till high the red blude springs. Loud above the nurse's lullaby rose the screams of her charge, piercing the ear of its mother as she sat in her lonely turret above. Then followed another colloquy; this time between Lady Weire and her treacherous servitor— " Still my bairn, nourice, O still him if ye can ! " " He will not still, madam. For a' his father's Ian'." " O gentle nourice, still my bairn, O still him wi' the keys." " He will not still, my lady, Let me do what I please." Other soothing devices were suggested by the distracted matron, with no better success. Acting under the prompting of Lammikin, the nurse at length assured her mistress that if she wished the child pacified she must come down and undertake the task herself. Uncon sciously placing herself in the power of the ruthless mason, she broke up her protecting barricade and began to descend the stair. With a stage effect that might awaken the envy of a modern melo-dramatist, the old minstrel author of the ballad brings on the denouement — The first step she steppit, She steppit on a stane ; The next step she steppit, She met the Lammikin. Gory, gory were his hands, and the glare of his eyes spoke murder — And when she saw the red, red blude, A loud skreitch skreitched she, " O monster, monster, spare my child, Who never skaithed thee ! " O spare, if in your bluidy breist Abides not heart o' stane, O spare, and ye sall hae o' gowd, What ye can carry hame." " I care na for your gowd," he said, " I care na for your fee ; I hae been wrangit by your lord, Black vengeance ye sall dree." The hideous villain dilated with a grim delight on the utter defencelessness of his destined victim : her lord away in the distant woods, that were ringing merrily with the notes of his bugle-horn ; and not a soul near by to stand between her and death. At this awful moment a word of remonstrance is ad dressed by the doomed Lady Weire to the treacherous nurse, which draws from the latter the insolent reply— " I wanted for nae meat, ladie, I wanted for nae fee, But I wanted for a hantle A fair lady could gie." Then Lammikin drew his red, red sword, And sharpit it on a stane, And through and through this fair lady The cauld, cauld steel has gane. " Haud awa hame ! " Yet one could almost wish Lord Weire to "bide awa" for ever more, rather than return to his bower to realise the fulfilment of his murdered lady's dream. Arrived at the postern gate, "He thocht he saw his sweet bairn's blude sprinkled on a stane." His apprehension of evil was deepened by the rings of his fingers bursting ominously in twain, and causing him to sigh, " I wish a' may be weel wi' my lady at hame." But mair he looked, and dule saw he On the door at the trance, Spots o' his dear lady's blude Shining like a lance. " Horror on horror's head accumulates," as he hurries through the chambers of the castle. " There 's blude in my nurserie, There 's blude in my ha', There's blude in my fair lady's bower, An' that 's warst o' a'." Rarely anywhere do we find so much subject-matter narrated, or rather suggested, in a single verse, as in the four lines that follow ; and they are rendered all the more remarkable by the cheerful accessory which, Hogarthlike, the painter-poet introduces into his pic ture, with the view of giving its ghastliness a deeper shade— O sweet, sweet sang the birdie, Upon the bough sae hie, But little cared false nourice for Nor did the principal culprit escape. After finishing his bloody work, he hastened away from the scene to seek for shelter, knowing well that Lord Weire's men would follow on his trail in full cry. Not till they had rode all the country round did they find the wretched man. Before being led to execution, he was subjected to torture, in accordance with the custom of the times— They carried him a' airts o' wind, And meikle pain had he, At last before Lord Weire's gate, They hanged him on a tree.

#Lammikin #vampire #Folk Ballad #folklore #Among the Old Scotch Minstrels #Studying Their Ballads of War Love Social Life Folk-Lore and Fairyland #By William M'Dowall #1888 #tags preserved for commentary of OP