Page:Laird o' Drum and The baron o'Leys.pdf/2



, and, are, next to Mill o’ Tiftie’s Annie, the best known ballads of Aberdeenshire. As No. I. of this series, we have already issued the waeful tale of Andrew Lammie. We have pleasure now, in giving, as No. II., these two Deeside Ballads, each, in its unique individuality, indicative of the character of two families whose estates border with each other, who have each had not a little to do in moulding the history of their district, and where still the lineal descendents of both families occupy the quaint old castled towers of their ancestors.

The tombstone, in the churchyard of Peterculter, over the resting-place of Maggie Coutts, tells, pretty accurately, about the date of the action of the homely natural ballad of the Laird o’ Drum, while, the name given by the base-born brother of our Martyr-Queen to George Burnett, sufficiently indicates when the Baron o’ Leys to France had gane.