The Liddel-rack is a ford on the Liddel.
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And so they reached the Woodhouselee_.--P. 192. v. 1. Woodhouselee; a house on the border, belonging to Buccleuch. * * * * * The Salkeldes, or Sakeldes, were a powerful family in Cumberland,possessing, among other manors, that of Corby, before it came intothe possession of the Howards, in the beginning of the seventeenthcentury. A strange stratagem was practised by an outlaw, called JockGrame of the Peartree, upon Mr. Salkelde, sheriff of Cumberland; whois probably the person alluded to in the ballad, as the fact isstated to have happened late in Elizabeth's time. The brother of thisfreebooter was lying in Carlisle jail for execution, when Jock of thePeartree came riding past the gate of Corby castle. A child of thesheriff was playing before the door, to whom the outlaw gave an apple,saying, "Master, will you ride?" The boy willingly consenting, Grametook him up before him, carried him into Scotland, and would neverpart with him, till he had his brother safe from the gallows. There isno historical ground for supposing, either that Salkelde, or any oneelse, lost his life in the raid of Carlisle. In the list of border clans, 1597, Will of Kinmonth, with KyrstieArmestrange, and John Skynbanke, are mentioned as leaders of a band ofArmstrongs, called _Sandies Barnes_, inhabiting the Debateable Land.The ballad itself has never before been published.
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