with critical observations and biographical notices, by Robert Burns

67
THE FLOWERS OF THE FOREST.
A SUCCESSFUL imitation of an old song is really
attended zoith less difficulty than to convince a block-
head that one of these jeu d'esprits is a forgery.
This fine ballad is even a more palpable imitation
than Hardiknute. The manners indeed are old, but
the language is of yesterday. Its author must very
soon be discovered.^
I've heard a lilting-f-
At the ewes milkhig,
* This remark is strikingly correct. These stanzas were writ-
ten by a lady of family, in Roxbmghshire. (Vide "Minstrelsy
of the Scottish Border, vol. iii. p. 125.) They are founded on
the battle of Flodden, fought on the borders, in 1513, in which
King James the fourth of Scotland was slain, and the flower of
his Nobility destroyed, with a great slaughter of all ranks, by
the English army, under the command of the Earl of Surry.
The subjoined illustrations of provincial terms are given from
« The Bee," published in 1791^ vol. i. p. 24. The English
reader will find them very useful, and their accuracy may be
relied on.
t A lilting, a cheerful kind of singing, alluding to a custom
in Scotland, practised on all occasions where country people,
especially women, are engaged in any kind of employment, the
time of the song being a common measure to all their opera^
tions.
F 2