<<<Back to page 1

The Scottish ballad

As with many of the ballads collected by Francis James Child, “Lamkin” has many versions. I want to focus on the version that comes from Scotland, which places the story around the figure of Lord Balwearie and his castle near Kirkcaldy in Fife. In 1463, King James III grants William Scott, a direct descendant of Michael Scot, a license to build the castle of Balwearie. Is William Scott the Lord of Balwearie featured in the ballad? It is impossible to say. It is, however, another aspect of this story that whispers around the edges.

As the ballad opens, we discover that Lamkin is a builder who has built Lord Balwearie a castle. Understandably, having spent a great deal of time and effort, Lamkin wants payment. This is when the noble Lord announces to Lamkin that he can’t pay him, and he seems to offer two excuses. Firstly, he is going overseas, an early version of “the cheque is in the post”. Secondly, and probably truthfully, Balwearie reveals he can’t afford the bill unless he sells his land, something he is not prepared to do.

As we read and hear the story to this point, our sympathies surely lie with the builder. He has spent a great deal of time, effort and expense to build this castle. Indeed, surely building a medieval tower of the type believed to be in this ballad could take many years. I am speculating here, but perhaps Lamkin had a good reputation for building and this was why the noble Lord approached him for this project. Whatever the relationship between builder and Lord, there clearly was one and one that had existed for a good number of years. As Lamkin hears the news from the Lord, the castle has been completed, the household have moved in and have settled into their new accommodation.

By Rueland Frueauf the Younger – The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei. DVD-ROM, 2002. ISBN 3936122202. Distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1951936

There’s an almost Shakespearean darkness to the character of Lamkin. We know nothing about him beyond what we see within the ballad. And yet, something comes unhinged within Lamkin by this refusal of the Lord Balwearie to pay him what he is owed and nothing will be put back together again. Lamkin has an ally within the household of the Lord. We know nothing about her beyond what is said of her in the ballad and yet the wet nurse plays a hugely important role in this story. It is the wet nurse who seems to be the central mover in getting Lamkin into the castle. She clearly has a deep knowledge of routines and the whereabouts of everyone involved in the castle. She chooses her time carefully. The ballad notes:

“She laid a plot wi’ Lamkin,
When the servants were awa’
Let him in at a little-shot window,
And brought him tae the ha'”.

The nurse, having chosen her moment to bring Lamkin into a building he must have known extremely well seems to have encouraged & nurtured his rage and anger to the point of explosion. Lamkin rants and raves about the household as he comes to realise that his moment of revenge has arrived. It strikes me as he stands in the very hall he built, he senses why the nurse has chosen this moment;

“O whaur’s a’ the men o’ this hoose,
That ca’ me Lamkin?
They’re at the barn-well thrashing;
Twill be lang ere they come in.

And what’s the women o’ this hoose,
That ca’ me Lamkin?
They’re at the far well washing;
Twill be lang ere they come in.

And whaur’s the bairns o’ this hoose
That ca’ me Lamkin?
They’re at the school reading;
Twill be the night ere they come home.

O what’s the lady o’ this hoose,
That ca’s me Lamkin?
She’s up in her bower sewing,
But we soon can bring her doun.”

Lamkin clearly feels deeply aggravated by the Lord’s refusal to pay. He rants through the members of the household bitterly annoyed with them even by how they addressed him. Is the use of ‘Lamkin’ an insult? Francis James Child thought that the use of the word Lamkin to address the builder “was a sobriquet applied in derision of the meekness with which the builder had submitted to his injury.”

By this point in the ballad, it is already too late for Lamkin. The wires have broken in his brain and he knows what he is going to do. A long festering lust for revenge has reached its boiling point. The next few verses are some of the most chilling and brutal ever sang. Lamkin’s rant about the household reaches its focal point as he states his knowledge that Lady Balwearie is upstairs and he knows how to bring her down.  The ballad describes the following:

“Then Lamkin’s ta’en a sharp knife
That hangs down by his gaire
And he have gien the bonny babe
A deep wound and a’ sair.

Then Lamkin he rock’d
And the fause nurse sang
Till frae ilkae bore o’ the cradle
The red blue out sprang.”

Continue to page 3>>>