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30 |
THE SANG OF |
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" That man's a deir cousin to me; Desyre him cum, and make me aide, ire
With a' the power that he may be."
" It stands me hard," Andrew Murray said, " Judge gif it stand na hard wi' me;
To enter against a king wi' crown,
And set my landis in jeopardie! iso
Yet, if I cum not on the day, Surely at night he sail me see."
To Sir James Murray of Traquair, A message came right speedilye—
of James IV., was William, not Andrew. Glenriddel's MS. reads, "the country-keeper."—S.
183. Before the Barony of Traquair became the property of the Stewarts, it belonged to a family of Murrays, afterwards Murrays of Black-barony, and ancestors of Lord Elibank. The old castle was situated on the Tweed. The lands of Traquair were forfeited by Willielmus de Moravia, previous to 1464; for, in that year, a charter, proceeding upon his forfeiture, was granted by the crown to " Willielmo Douglas de Cluny." Sir James was, perhaps, the heir of William Murray. It would farther seem, that the grant in 1464 was not made effectual by Douglas; for another charter from the crown, dated the 3d February, 1478, conveys the estate of Traquair to James Stewart, Earl of Buchan, son of the Black Knight of Lome, and maternal uncle to James III., from whom is descended the present Earl of Traquair. The first royal grant not being followed by possession, it is very possible that the Murrays may have continued to occupy Traquair long after the date of that charter. Hence, Sir James might have reason to say, as in the ballad, " The King has gifted my lands lang syne."—S. |
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