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The Death of Douglas at the Battle of Otterburn on 5th August 1388: picture by Sir John Maxwell The Battle of Otterburn took place on August 5, 1388. It was part of a three-pronged assault by Scottish forces against the English. A Scots army sailed across the Irish Sea to attack Carrickfergus, the Duke of Albany raided the western marches towards Carlisle, and James Douglas, 2nd Earl of Douglas, attacked Henry Percy in Northumberland. Douglas defeated Percy, but was killed in the battle. The ballad -  The Battle of Otterburn  appears in a manuscript dated circa 1550. The author is unknown.  It was printed on broadsides as both  The Battle of Otterburn  and  The Battle of Otterbourne .  It was later printed in Percy's  Reliques , collections by David Herd (1776) and Walter Scott's  Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border  (1833). The  Child  B allads  are  305  traditional  ballads  from England an...

The Reel of Tullochgorum Artist Walter Geikie  (1795 - 1837)  Tullochgorum by Rev. John Skinner Come , gi'e's a sang, Montgomery cried, And lay your disputes all aside, What signifies't for folks to chide For what's been done before them? Let Whig and Tory all agree, Whig and Tory, Whig and Tory, Let Whig and Tory all agree, To drop their Whig-mig-morum; Let Whig and Tory all agree, To spend the night in mirth and glee, And cheerfu' sing alang wi' me The reel of Tullochgorum. O, Tullochgorum's my delight, It gars us a' in ane unite, And ony sumph that keeps up spite, In conscience I abhor him. Blythe and merry we's be a', Blythe and merry, blythe and merry, Blythe and merry we's be a'. And mak' a cheerfu' quorum. Blythe and merry we's be a', As lang as we ha'e breath to draw, And dance, till we be like to fa', The reel of Tullochgorum. There needs na' be sae great a phraise, Wi' dringing dull It...