The Bonny Earl Of Murray

The Text is given from Allan Ramsay's Tea-Table Miscellany, where it first appeared in the tenth edition (1740) in vol. iv. pp. 356-7. Child had not seen this, and gave his text from the eleventh edition of 1750. There is, however, scarcely any difference.


The Story of the murder of the Earl of Murray by the Earl of Huntly in February 1592 is found in several histories and other accounts:-- The History of the Church of Scotland (1655) by John Spottiswoode, Archbishop of Glasgow and of St. Andrews: History of the Western Highlands and Isles of Scotland (1836) by Donald Gregory: The History and Life of King James (the Sixth), ed. T. Thomson, Bannatyne Club, (1825): Extracts from the Diarey of R[obert] B[irrel], Burges of Edinburgh (? 1820): and Sir Walter Scott's Tales of a Grandfather. The following condensed account may suffice:--James Stewart, son of Sir James Stewart of Doune ('Down,' 6.2), Earl of Murray by his marriage with the heiress of the Regent Murray, 'was a comely personage, of a great stature, and strong of body like a kemp,' whence he was generally known as the Bonny Earl of Murray. In the last months of 1591, a rumour reached the King's ears that the Earl of Murray had assisted in, or at least countenanced, the attack recently made on Holyrood House by Stewart, Earl of Bothwell; and Huntly was commissioned to arrest Murray and bring him to trial. Murray, apprehended at Donibristle (or Dunnibirsel), his mother the Lady Doune's house, refused to surrender to his feudal enemy the Earl of Huntly, and the house was fired. Murray, after remaining behind the rest of his party, rushed out and broke through the enemy, but was subsequently discovered (by the plumes on his headpiece, which had caught fire) and mortally wounded. Tradition says that Huntly was compelled by his followers to incriminate himself in the deed, and struck the dying Murray in the face, whereat the bonny Earl said, 'You have spoiled a better face than your own.'


THE BONNY EARL OF MURRAY

    1.
    Ye Highlands and ye Lawlands,
        Oh! where have you been?
    They have slain the Earl of Murray,
        And they lay'd him on the green!
                They have, &c.

    2.
    Now wae be to thee, Huntly,
        And wherefore did you sae?
    I bade you bring him wi' you,
        But forbade you him to slay.
                I bade, &c.

    3.
    He was a braw gallant,
        And he rid at the ring;
    And the bonny Earl of Murray,
        Oh! he might have been a King.
                And the, &c.

    4.
    He was a braw gallant,
        And he play'd at the ba';
    And the bonny Earl of Murray
        Was the flower amang them a'.
                And the, &c.

    5.
    He was a braw gallant,
        And he play'd at the glove;
    And the bonny Earl of Murray,
        Oh! he was the Queen's love.
                And the, &c.

    6.
    Oh! lang will his lady
        Look o'er the castle Down,
    E'er she see the Earl of Murray
        Come sounding thro' the town.
                E'er she, &c.