The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border

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The subject of this ballad, being a common event in those troublesome and disorderly times, became a favourite theme of the ballad-makers.  There are, in this collection, no fewer than three poems on the rescue of prisoners, the incidents in which nearly resemble each other; though the poetical description is so different, that the editor did not think himself at liberty to reject any one of them, as borrowed from the others.  As, however, there are several verses, which, in recitation, are common to all these three songs, the editor, to prevent unnecessary and disagreeable repetition, has used the freedom of appropriating them to that, in which they seem to have the best poetic effect.

The reality of this story rests solely upon the foundation of tradition.  Jock o’ the side seems to have been nephew to the laird of Mangertoun, cousin to the Laird’s Jock, one of his deliverers, and probably brother to Chrystie of the Syde, mentioned in the list of border clans 1597.  Like the Laird’s Jock, he also is commemorated by Sir Richard Maitland.—­See the Introduction.

  He is weil kend, Johne of the Syde,
  A greater theif did never ryde;
  He never tyris
  For to brek byris. 
  Our muir and myris
  Ouir gude ane guide.

The land-serjeant, mentioned in this ballad, and also in that of Hobble Noble, was an officer under the warden, to whom was committed the apprehending of delinquents, and the care of the public peace.