LOCK THE DOOR LARISTON
James Hogg
Lock the door, Lariston, lion of
Liddlesdale,
Lock the door, Lariston, Lowther
comes on,
The Armstrongs are flying,
Their widows are crying,
The Castletown's burning, and
Oliver's gone;
Lock the door, Lariston - high on
the weather gleam
See how the Saxon plumes bob on the
sky,
Yeoman and carbinier,
Billman and halberdier;
Fierce is the foray, and far is the
cry.
Bewcastle brandishes high his broad
scimitar,
Ridley is riding his fleet-footed
grey,
Hedley and Howard there,
Wandale and Windermere -
Lock the door, Lariston, hold them
at bay.
Why doest thou smile, noble Elliot
of Lariston?
Why do the joy-candles gleam in
thine eye?
Thou bold Border ranger,
Beware of thy danger -
Thy foes are relentless, determined,
and nigh.
Jock Elliot raised up his steel
bonnet and lookit,
His hand grasped the sword with a
nervous embrace;
'Ah, welcome, brave foeman,
On earth there are no men
More gallant to meet in the foray or
chase!
'Little know you of the hearts I
have hidden here,
Little know you of the
moss-troopers' might
Lindhope and Sorby, true,
Sundhope and Milburn too,
Gentle in manner, but lions in
fight!
'I've Mangerton, Gornberry, Raeburn,
and Netherby.
Old Sim of Whitram, and all his
array:
Come all Northumberland,
Teesdale and Cumberland,
Here at the Breaken Tower end shall
the fray.'
Scowl'd the broad sun o'er the links
of green Liddlesdale,
Red as beacon-light tipp'd he the
wold;
Many a bold martial eye
Mirror'd that morning sky,
Never more oped on his orbit of
gold!
Shrill was the bugle's note,
dreadful the warrior shout,
Lances and halberds in splinters
were borne;
Halberd and hauberk then,
Braved the claymore in vain,
Buckler and armlet in shivers were
shorn.
See how they wane, the proud files
of the Windermere,
Howard - Ah! woe to thy hopes of the
day!
Hear the wild welkin rend,
While the Scots' shouts ascend,
'Elliot of Lariston, Elliot for
aye!'
Footnote : James Hogg, 'The Ettrick Sheperd'
(1770-1835), presented himself as the successor to the mantle of Robert
Burns, and indeed claimed the 25th of January as his own birth-date but
he was actually born in November. This song was published in a volume of
his lyrics published in the 1830s and introduced by Hogg as 'having no
merit whatsoever, excepting a jingle of names, which Sir Walter's
(Scott) good taste rendered popular.'