Stories of the Scottish Border — Chapter 41 Gilderoy

*Gilderoy* Gilderoy was a celebrated and most daring highwayman, who roamed far, and was well-known all over Scotland and indeed in London.

His death inspired a very striking ballad, but this is hardly a Border Lowland ballad, but refers chiefly to another Border district, namely, that between the Lowlands and Highlands.

Just as the Scottish Lowlanders thought the English their legitimate quarry, so the Highlanders in turn looked upon the Lowlanders as created to supply them with all they lacked.

There is a story on record of a Highland chief who, finding his men had carelessly robbed another Highlander, returned the spoil with a handsome apology, and issued stringent orders that in future nothing was to be taken except in the Lowlands, "where all men make their prey."

Among the robber clans of the Highlands, the MacGregors stand easily in the first rank.

In a long series of Scottish Acts of Parliament, they are habitually referred to as "the wicked clan Gregor, so long continuing in blood, slaughter, theft, and robbery."

One of their most famous exploits was the battle of Glenfruin, when they defeated their enemies, the Colquhouns, and slew two hundred of them.

The Colquhouns appeared before the King at Stirling with the bloody shirts stripped off their dead, and the law was put in motion against the MacGregors more vigorously than ever.

This was in 1603. The execution of Gilderoy, as described in our poem, took place in 1638. His real name was Patrick MacGregor, and the fact that he belonged to this Ishmaelite clan, whose hand was directed against every man, and whose very name had been solemnly abolished, may well serve as an excuse for his career of crime.

Gilderoy, in Gaelic, means the red-haired gillie or lad, and besides the name there are many other points of similarity between him and Rob Roy, who was the head of the Clan MacGregor in the following century.

Both Gilderoy and Rob Roy were professional blackmailers, that is, they could be relied on never to plunder anyone who was prudent enough to buy them off by paying a fixed contribution.

This is what is meant in the following lines of the ballad-- "All these did honestly possess He never did annoy, Who never failed to pay their cess To my love, Gilderoy."

The "cess" is the blackmail, or insurance against robbery.

The widespread reputation of Gilderoy is attested by the many legends of him which are printed in the old chap-books and "Lives of the Highwaymen."

According to these authorities, Gilderoy once robbed Oliver Cromwell near Glasgow; but an even more romantic episode of his career was a roaming trip upon the continent, in the course of which he is said to have picked Cardinal Richelieu's pocket while he was celebrating mass in the King's presence, at the church of St Denis in Paris.

He made his way even to Madrid, where he succeeded in carrying off the Duke of Medina-Cell's plate.

Altogether a most notorious and dashing cateran.

The ballad is supposed to be spoken by a young woman who had all her life been attached to him.

"Gilderoy was a bonnie boy, Had roses to his shoon;[#] His stockings were of silken soy, With garters hanging down.

It was, I ween, a comely sight To see so trim a boy;

He was my jo, and heart's delight, My handsome Gilderoy.

* * * * * My Gilderoy and I were born Both in one town together;

We scant were seven years before We 'gan to love each other.

Our daddies and our mammies they Were filled with meikle joy, To think upon the bridal day Of me and Gilderoy."

[#] Shoes.

But there intervened the spirit of adventure which had ever been the birthright of all of his surname, "Oh, that he still had been content With me to lead his life!

But ah!

his manful heart was bent To stir in deeds of strife;

And he in many a venturous deed His courage bold would try;

And now this gars[#] my heart to bleed For my dear Gilderoy."

[#] Makes.

No doubt those who knew Gilderoy personally would have agreed, as was actually said of Rob Roy, that he was a benevolent and humane man "in his way."

"My Gilderoy, both far and near, Was feared in every town;

And boldly bore away the gear Of many a Lowland loun, For man to man durst meet him none, He was so brave a boy;

At length with numbers he was ta'en, My winsome Gilderoy."

He was not so fortunate as Rob Roy, who ultimately died peacefully in his bed.

Gilderoy had lost the game, and he had to pay the stakes.

"Of Gilderoy so feared they were, They bound him fast and strong;

To Edinbro' they led him there, And on a gallows hung.

They hung him high above the rest, He was so trim a boy;

There died the youth whom I loved best, My handsome Gilderoy."

Thus perished one of the characteristic products of an age whose standards were so different from ours that we can hardly judge him fairly.

He was banned before his birth, a scion of a race so indomitably and innately ferocious that the law attempted to extirpate them, root and branch.

The very name of Gregor could be given by no clergyman at baptism, under penalty of deprivation and banishment.

Cunning and politic neighbours were not slow to take advantage of the stubborn disposition of the MacGregors, and gradually stripped them of their once extensive lands in Argyle and Perthshire.

Gilderoy might well consider that he was "an honester man than stood on any of their shanks," and we may be excused for feeling a very lively sympathy with him, and for echoing in our inmost hearts the exquisitely feminine point of view expressed by the lady composer of the ballad.

"If Gilderoy had done amiss, He might have banished been;

Ah!

what sore cruelty is this To hang such handsome men!

To hang the flower of Scottish land, So sweet and fair a boy!

No lady had so white a hand As thee, my Gilderoy!

When he had yielded up his breath I bare his corpse away;

With tears, that trickled for his death, I washt his comely clay;

And sicker[#] in a grave sae deep I laid the dear lo'ed boy;

And now for ever maun I weep, My winsome Gilderoy."

[#] Safely.

*Chapter XLII* *Archie Armstrong's Oath*