And three good towers in Roxburgh fells,
He left them all on fire.


Hogg, in his letter accompanying his copy, says that "Almonshire" may
stand for the "Bamborowshire" of the English vi., but that he leaves in
"Almonshire," as both reciters insist on it. Scott printed
"Bambroughshire," as in the English version (vi.).

Now here is proof that Hogg had a copy, from reciters--a copy which he
could not understand. "Almonshire" is "Alneshire," or "Alnwickshire,"
where is the Percy's Alnwick Castle. In Froissart the Scots burn and
waste the region of Alneshire, all round Alnwick, but the Earl of
Northumberland holds out in the castle, unattacked, and sends his sons,
Henry and Ralph Percy, to Newcastle to gather forces, and take the
retreating Scots between two fires, Newcastle and Alnwick. But the
Scots were not such poor strategists as to return by the way they had
come. In a skirmish or joust at Newcastle, says Froissart, Douglas
captured Percy's lance and pennon, with his blazon of arms, and vowed
that he would set it up over his castle of Dalkeith. Percy replied
that he would never carry it out of England. To give Percy a
chivalrous chance of recovering his pennon and making good his word,
Douglas insists on waiting at Otterburn to besiege the castle there;
and he is taken by surprise (as in the ballads) when a mounted man
brings news of Percy's approach. No tryst is made by Percy and Douglas
at Otterburn in Froissart; Douglas merely tarried there by the courtesy
of Scotland.

In Hogg's version we have a reason why Douglas should tarry at
Otterburn; in the English ballad we have none very definite. No