The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border

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  Adieu!  Drumlanrig, &c.—­P. 268. v. 1.

The reader will perceive, from the Introduction, what connection the bond, subscribed by Douglas of Drumlanrig, Kirkpatrick of Closeburn, and Grierson of Lagg, had with the death of Lord Maxwell’s father.  For the satisfaction of those, who may be curious as to the form of these bonds, I have transcribed a letter of manrent,[198] from a MS. collection of upwards of twenty deeds of that nature, copied from the originals by the late John Syme, Esq. writer to the signet; for the use of which, with many other favours of a similar nature, I am indebted to Dr. Robert Anderson of Edinburgh.  The bond is granted by Thomas Kirkpatrick of Closeburn, to Robert, Lord Maxwell, father of him who was slain at the battle of the Dryffe Sands.

[Footnote 198:  The proper spelling is manred.  Thus, in the romance of Florice and Blancheflour—­

“He wil falle to thi fot, “And bicom thi man gif be mot; “His manred thou schalt afonge, “and the trewthe of his honde.”