remember the currency of certain spells, for curing sprains, burns, or dislocations, to which popular credulity ascribed unfailing efficacy. Charms, however, against spiritual enemies, were yet more common than those intended to cure corporeal complaints. This is not surprising, as a fantastic remedy well suited an imaginary disease. the disembodied spirit, which affected it while in its tenement of clay. Hence the popular belief, that the soul haunts the spot where the murdered body is interred; that its appearances are directed to bring down vengeance on its murderers; or that, having left its terrestrial form in a distant clime, it glides before its former friends, a pale spectre, to warn them of its decease. Such tales, the foundation of which is an argument from our present feelings to those of the spiritual world, form the broad and universal basis of the popular superstition regarding departed spirits; against which reason has striven in vain, and universal experience has offered a disregarded testimony. These legends are peculiarly acceptable to barbarous tribes; and, on the Borders, they were received with most unbounded faith. It is true, that these supernatural adversaries were no longer op Scandinavians. Prayers, spells, and exorcisms, particularly in the Greek and Hebrew languages, were the weapons of the Borderers, or rather of their priests and cunning men, against their aërial enemy. The belief in ghosts, which has been well termed the last lingering phantom of superstition, still maintains its ground upon the Borders. There were, upon the Borders, many consecrated wells, for resorting to which the people's credulity is severely censured by a worthy physician of the seventeenth century, who himself believed in a shower of living herrings having fallen near Dumfries. "Many run superstitiously to other wells, and there obtain, as they imagine, health and advantage; and there they offer bread and cheese, or money, by throwing them into the well." In another part of the MS. occurs the following passage: "In the bounds of the lands of Eccles, belonging to a lineage of the name of Mait-posed by the sword and battle-axe, as among the unconverted land, there is a loch called the. Dowloch, of old resorted to with much superstition, as medicinal both for men and beasts, and that with such ceremonies, as are shrewdly suspected to have been begun with witchcraft, and increased afterwards by magical directions: For, bringing of a cloth, or somewhat that did relate to the bodies of men and women, and a shackle, or tether, belonging to cow or horse, and these being cast into the loch, if they did float, it was taken for a good omen of recovery, and a part of the water carried to the patient, though to remote places, without saluting or speaking to any they met by the way; but, if they did sink, the recovery of the party was hopeless. This custom was of late much curbed and restrained; but since the discovery of many medicinal fountains near to the place, the vulgar, holding that it may be as medicinal as these are, at this time begin to re-assume their former practice."-Ac- | count of Presbytery of Penpont, in Macfarlane's MSS. The idea, that the spirits of the deceased return to haunt the place, where on earth they have suffered, or have rejoiced, is, as Dr. Johnson has observed, common to the popular creed of all nations. The just and noble sentiment, implanted in our bosoms by the Deity, teaches us that we shall not slumber for ever, as the beasts that perish. Human vanity, or credulity, chequers, with its own inferior and baser colours, the noble prospect, which is alike held out to us by philosophy and by religion. We feel, according to the ardent expression of the poet, that we shall not wholly die; but from hence we vainly and weakly argue, that the same scenes, the same passions, shall delight and actuate It is unnecessary to mention the superstitious belief in witchcraft, which gave rise to so much cruelty and persecution during the seventeenth century. There were several executions upon the Borders for this imaginary crime, which was usually tried, not by the ordinary judges, but by a set of country gentlemen, acting under commission from the Privy Council. 5 Besides these grand articles of superstitious belief, the creed of the Borderers admitted the existence of sundry classes of subordinate spirits, to whom were assigned peculiar employments. The chief of these were the Fairies, concerning whom the reader will find a long dissertation in this Volume. The Brownie formed a class of beings, distinct in habit and disposition from the freakish and mischievous elves. He was meagre, shaggy, and wild in his appearance. Thus Cleland, in his satire against the Highlanders, compares them to "Faunes, or Brownies, if ye will, Or Satyres come from Atlas Ilill." In the daytime, he lurked in remote recesses of the old houses which he delighted to haunt; and, in the night, sedulously employed himself in discharging any task which 4 One of the most noted apparitions is supposed to haunt Spedlin's Castle near Lochmaben, the ancient baronial residence of the Jardines of Applegirth. It is said that, in exercise of his territorial jurisdiction, one of the ancient lairds had imprisoned, in the Massy More, or dungeon of the castle, a person named Porteous. Being called suddenly to Edinburgh, the laird discovered, as he entered the West Port, that be had brought along with him the key of the dungeon. Struck with the utmost horror, he sent back his servant to relieve the prisoner, but it was too late. The wretched being was found lying upon the steps descending from the door of the vault, starved to death. In the agonies of hunger, he had gnawed the flesh from one of his arms. That his spectre should haunt the castle, was a natural consequence of such a tragedy. Indeed, its visits became so frequent, that a clergyman of eminence was employed to exorcise it. After a contest of twenty-four hours, the man of art prevailed so far as to confine the goblin to the Massy More of the castle, where Its shrieks and cries are still heard. A part, at least, of the spell, depends upon the preservation of the ancient black-lettered Bible, employed by the exorcist. It was some years ago thought necessary to have this Bible rebound; but as soon as it was re moved from the castle, the spectre commenced his nocturnal orgies, with ten-fold noise; and it is verily believed that he would have burst from his confinement, had not the sacred volume been speedily replaced. A Mass John Scott, minister of Peebles, is reported to have been the last renowned exorciser, and to bave lost his life in a contest with an obstinate spirit. This was owing to the conceited rashness of a young clergyman, who commenced the ceremony of laying the ghost before the arrival of Mass John. It is the nature, it seems, of spirits disembodied, as well as embodied, to increase in strength and presumption, in proportion to the advantages which they may gain over the opponent. The young clergyman losing courage, the horrors of the scene were increased to such a degree, that, as Mass John approached the house in which it passed, he beheld the slates and tiles flying from the roof, as if dispersed with a whirlwind. At bis entry, be perceived all the wax-tapers (the most essential instruments of conjuration) extinguished, except one, which already burned blue in the socket. The arrival of the experienced sage changed the scene: he brought the spirit to reason; but unfortunately, while addressing a word of advice or censure to his rash brother, he permitted the ghost to obtain the last word; a circumstance which, in all colloquies of this nature, is strictly to be guarded against. This fatal oversight occasioned his falling into a lingering disorder, of which he never recovered. A curious poem, upon the laying of a ghost, forms article No V. of the Appendix. 5 I have seen, penes Hugh Scott, Esq. of Harden, the record of the trial of a witch, who was burned at Ducove. She was tried in the manner above mentioned. | legitimate descendant of the Lar Familiaris of the ancients. A being, totally distinct from those hitherto mentioned, is the Bogle, or Goblin; a freakish spirit, who delights rather to perplex and frighten mankind, than either to serve, or seriously to hurt them. This is the Esprit Follet of the French; and Puck, or Robin Goodfellow, though enlisted by Shakspeare among the fairy band of Oberon, properly belongs to this class of phantoms. Shellycoat, a spirit, who resides in the waters, and has given his name to many a rock and stone upon the Scottish coast, belongs also to the class of bogles. When he appeared, he seemed to be decked with marine productions, and, in particular, with shells, whose clattering announced his approach. From this circumstance he derived his name. He may, perhaps, be identified with the goblin of the northern English, which, in the towns and cities, Durham and Newcastle for example, had the name of Barguest; but, in the country villages, was more frequently termed Brag. He usually ended his mischievous frolics with a horse-laugh. he thought might be acceptable to the family, to whose | service he had devoted himself. His name is probably derived from the Portuni, whom Gervase of Tilbury describes thus:-"Ecce enim in Anglia dæmones quosdam habent, dæmones, inquam, nescio dixerim, an secretæ et ignotæ generationis effigies, quos Galli Neptunos, Angli Portunos nominant. Istis insitum est quod simplicitatem fortunatorum colonorum amplectuntur, et cum nocturnas propter domesticas operas agunt vigilias, subito clausis januis ad ignem califiunt, et ranunculas ex sinu projectas, prunis impositas comedunt, senili vultu, facie corrugata, statura pusilli, dimidium pollicis non habentes. Panniculis concertis induuntur, et si quid gestandum in domo fuerit, aut onerosi operis agendum, ad operandum se jungunt, citius humana facilitate expediunt. Id illis insitum est, ut obsequi possint et obesse non possint."-Otia. Imp. p. 980. In every respect, saving only the feeding upon frogs, which was probably an attribute of the Gallic spirits alone, the above description corresponds with that of the Scottish Brownie, whose very name is a corruption, in all probability, of Portunus. But the Brow-spirit also, but of a much more powerful and malignant nature. nie, although, like Milton's lubbar fiend, he loves to stretch himself by the fire,' does not drudge from the hope of recompense. On the contrary, so delicate is his attachment, that the offer of reward, but particularly of food, infallibly occasions his disappearance for ever. We learn from Olaus Magnus, that spirits, somewhat similar in their operations to the Brownie, were supposed to haunt the Swedish mines. The passage, in the translation of 1658, runs thus: "This is collected in briefe, that in northerne kingdomes there are great armies of devils, that have their services, which they perform with the inhabitants of these countries: but they are most frequently in rocks and mines, where they break, cleave, and make them hollow: which also thrust in pitchers and buckets, and carefully fit wheels and screws, whereby they are drawn upwards; and they shew themselves to the labourers, when they list, like phantasms and ghosts." It seems no improbable conjecture, that the Brownie is a Shellycoat must not be confounded with Kelpy, a water His attributes have been the subject of a poem in Lowland Scottish, by the learned Dr. Jameison of Edinburgh, which adorns the pages of this collection. Of Kelpy, therefore, it is unnecessary to say any thing at present. Of all these classes of spirits it may be, in general, observed, that their attachment was supposed to be local, and not personal. They haunted the rock, the stream, the ruined castle, without regard to the persons or families to whom the property belonged. Hence they differed entirely from that species of spirits, to whom, in the Highlands, is ascribed the guardianship, or superintendence, of a particular clan, or family of distinction; and who, perhaps yet more than the Brownie, resemble the classic household gods. Thus, in a MS. history of Moray, we are informed, that the family of Gurlinbeg is haunted by a spirit, called Garlin Bodacher; that of the Baron of Kinchardin, by Lamhdearg,s or Redhand, a spectre, one of whose hands is as red as blood; "how the drudging goblin swet, When the menials in a Scottish family protracted their vigiis around the kitchen fire, Brownie, weary of being excluded from the midnight hearth, sometimes appeared at the door, seemed to watch their departure, and thus admonished them :-" Gang a` to your beds, sirs, and dinna put out the wee griesisch embers.]" 2 It is told of a Brownie, who haunted a Border family, now extinct, that the lady having fallen unexpectedly in labour, and the servant, who was ordered to ride to Jedburgh for the sage-femme, showing no great alertness in setting out, the familiar spirit slipt on the greatcoat of the lingering domestic, rode to the town on the laird's best horse, and returned with the midwife en croupe. During the short space of his absence, the Tweed, which they must necessarily ford. rose to a dangerous height. Brownie, who transported his charge with all the rapidity of the ghostly lover of Lenore, was not to be stopped by this obstacle. He plunged in with the terrilled old lady, and landed her in safety where her services were wanted. Having put the horse into the stable, (where it was afterwards found in a woful plight,) he proceeded to the room of the servant, whose duty he had discharged; and, finding him just in the act of drawing on his boots, he administered to him a most merciless drubbing with his own horsewhip. Such an important service excited the gratitude of the laird; who understanding that Brownie had been heard to express a wish to have a green ruat, ordered a vestment of that colour to be made and left in his haunts. Brownie took away the green coat, but was never scen more. We may suppose, that, tired of his domestic drudgery, he went in his new livery to join the fairies.- See Appendix, No. VI. The last Brownie known in Ettrick Forest, resided in Bodsbeck, a wild and solitary spot, near the head of Moffat Water, where he exercised his functions undisturbed, till the scrupulous devotion of an old lady induced her to hire him away, as it was termed, by placing in Lis haunt a porringer of milk and a piece of money. After receiving this hint to depart, he was heard the whole night to howl and cry, "Farewell to bonnie Bodsbeck !” which he was compelled to abandon for ever. 1802. Mr. Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, has written a tale, in which the Brownie of Bodsbeck is explained as being one of the fugitive Cameronians. 1830. 3 One of his pranks is thus narrated: Two men, in a very dark night, approaching the banks of the Ettrick, beard a doleful voice from its waves repeatedly exclaim-"Lost! Lost!" They followed the sound, which seemed to be the voice of a drowning person, and, to their infinite astonishment, they found that it ascended the river. Still they continued, during a long and tempestuous night, to follow the cry of the malicious sprite; and arriving, before morning's dawn, at the very sources of the river, the voice was now heard descending the opposite side of the mountain in which they arise. The fatigued and deluded travellers now relinquished the pursuit; and had no sooner done so, than they heard Shellycoat applauding, in loud bursts of laughter, his successful roguery. The spirit was supposed particularly to haunt the old house of Gorinberry situated on the river Hermitage, in Liddesdale. 4 This is a sort of spirit peculiar to those towns. He has made his appearance in this very year (1809) in that of York, if the vulgar may be credited. His name is derived by Grose, from his appearing near bars or stiles, but seems rather to come from the German Babr-Geist, or Spirit of the Bier. 5 The following notice of Lamhdearg occurs in another account of Strathspey, apud Macfarlane's MSS. :- There is much talk of a spirit called Ly-erg, who frequents the Glenmore. He appears with a red hand, in the habit of a soldier, and challenges men to fight with him; as lately as 4669, he fought with three brothers, one after another, who immediately there after died." that of Tullochgorm, by May Moulach, a female figure, whose left hand and arm were covered with hair, and who is also mentioned in Aubrey's Miscellanies, pp. 211,212, as a familiar attendant upon the clan Grant. These superstitions were so ingrafted in the popular creed, that the clerical synods and presbyteries were wont to take cognizance of them. Various other superstitions, regarding magicians, spells, prophecies, etc., will claim our attention in the progress of this work. For the present, therefore, taking the advice of an old Scottish rhymer, let us "Leave bogles, brownies, gyre carlinges, and ghaists." 3 Flyling of Polwart and Montgomery, The domestic economy of the Borderers next engages our attention. That the revenues of the chieftain should be expended in rude hospitality, was the natural result of his situation. His wealth consisted chiefly in herds of cattle, which were consumed by the kinsmen, vassals, and followers, who aided him to acquire and to protect them.4 We learn from Lesley, that the Borderers were temperate in their use of intoxicating liquors, and we are therefore left to conjecture how they occupied the time, when winter, or when accident, confined them to their habitations. The little learning which existed in the middle ages, glimmered, a dim and dying flame, in the religious houses, and even in the sixteenth century, when its beams became more widely diffused, they were far from penetrating the recesses of the Border mountains. The tales of tradition, the song, with the pipe or harp of the minstrel, were probably the sole resources against ennui, during the short intervals of repose from military adventure. This brings us to the more immediate subject of the present publication. Lesley, who dedicates to the description of Border manners a chapter, which we have already often quoted, notices particularly the taste of the Marchmen for music and ballad poetry. Placent admodum sibi sua musica, et rythmicis suis cantionibus, quas de majorum suorum gestis, aut ingeniosis predandi precandive stratagematibus ipsi confingunt."-LESLÆUS, in capite de moribus eorum, qui Scotia limites Angliam versus incolunt. The more rude and wild the state of society, the more general and violent is the impulse received from poetry and music. The muse, whose effusions are the amusement of a very small part of a polished nation, records, in the lays of inspiration, the history, the laws, the very religion, of savages. Where the pen and the press are wanting, the flow of numbers impresses upon the memory of posterity the deeds and sentiments of their forefathers. Verse is naturally connected with music; and, among a rude poople) the union is seldom broken. By this natural alliance, the lays, 'steeped in the stream of harmony," are. more easily retained by the reciter, and produce upon his audience a more impressive effect. Hence, there has hardly been found to exist a nation so brutishly rude, as not to listen with enthusiasm to the songs of their bards, recounting the exploits of their forefathers, recording their laws and moral precepts, or hymning the praises of their deities. But where the feelings are frequently stretched to the highest pitch, by the vicissitudes of a life of danger and military adventure, this predisposition of a savage people, to admire their own rude poetry and music, is heightened, and its tone becomes peculiarly determined. It is not the peaceful Hindú at his loom, it is not the timid Esquimaux in his canoe, whom we must expect to glow at the war-song of Tyrtæus. The music and the poetry of each country must keep pace with their usual tone of mind, as well as with the state of society. The morality of their composition is determined by the same circumstances. Those themes are necessarily chosen by the bard, which regard the favourite exploits of the hearers; and he celebrates only those virtues which from infancy he has been taught to admire. Hence, as remarked by Lesley, the music and songs of the Borderers were of a military nature, and celebrated the valour and success There is current, in some parts of Germany, a fanciful superstition concerning the Stille Volk, or silent people. These they suppose to be attached to houses of eminence, and to consist of a number, corresponding to that of the mortal family, each person of which has thus his representative amongst these domestic spirits. When the lady of the family has a child, the queen of the silent people is delivered in the same moment. They endeavour to give warning when danger approaches the family, assist in warding it off, and are sometimes seen to weep and wring their hands before inevitable calamity. ว [The reader is referred to Sir Walter Scott's Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft, 1830, for a more detailed examination of most of the superstitions here alluded to.-ED.] 3 So generally were these tales of diablerie believed, that one William Lithgow, a bon vivant, who appears to have been a native, or occasional inhabitant, of Melrose, is celebrated by the pot-companion who composed bis elegy, because "He was good company at jeists, And wanton when he came to feists. He laugh'd at stories about ghaists; WATSON'S Scottish Poems, Edin. 1706. 4 We may form some idea of the style of life maintained by the Border warriors, from the anecdotes, handed down by tradition, concerning Walter Scott of Harden, who flourished towards the middle of the sixteenth century. This ancient laird was a renowned freebooter, and used to ride with a numerous band of followers. The spoil, which they carried off from England, or from their neighbours, was concealed in a deep and impervious glen, on the brink of which the old tower of Harden is situated. From thence the cattle were brought out, one by one, as they were wanted, to supply the rude and plentiful table of the laird. When the last bullock was killed and devoured, it was the lady's custom to place on the table a dish, which, on being uncovered, was found to contain a pair of clean spurs, a hint to the riders that they must shift for their next meal. Upon one occasion, when the village berd was driving out the cattle to pasture, the old laird heard him call loudly, to drive out Harden's cow. "Harden's cow!" echoed the affronted chief-"Is it come to that pass? by my faith, they shall sune say Harden's kye," (cows.) Accordingly, be sounded his bugle, mounted his horse, set out with his followers, and returned next day with "a bow of kye, and a bassen'd [ brindled ] bull." On his return with this gallant prey, he passed a very large haystack. It occurred to the provident laird, that this would be extremely convenient to fodder his new stock of cattle; but as no means of transporting it were obvious, he was fain to take leave of it with this apostrophe, now proverbial: "By my soul, bad ye but four feet, ye should not stand lang there!" In short, as Froissart says of a similar class of feudal robbers, nothing came amiss to them, that was not too heavy, or too hot. The same mode of housekeeping characterised most Border families on both sides. A MS. quoted in History of Cumberland, p. 466, concerning the Græmes of Netherby, and others of that clan, runs thus: They were all stark moss-troopers and arrant thieves: both to England and Scotland outlawed yet sometimes connived at, because they gave intelligence forth of Scotland, and would raise 400 horse at any time, upon a raid of the English into Scotland." A saying is recorded of a mother of this clan to her son, (which is now become proverbial,)"Ride Rouly, [Rowland.] hough's the pot; " that is, the last piece of beef was in the pot, and therefore it was high time for him to go and fetch more. To such men might with justice be applied the poet's description of the Cretan warrior, translated by my friend, Dr. Leyden : "My sword, my spear, my shaggy shield, The only wealth the Gods bestow: My sword, my spear, my shaggy shield, Hybrias (ap. Athenæum.} of their predatory expeditions. Razing, like Shakspeare's pirate, the eighth commandment from the decalogue, the minstrels praised their chieftains for the very exploits, against which the laws of the country denounced a capital doom. An outlawed freebooter was to them a more interesting person than the King of Scotland exerting legal power to punish his depredations; and when the characters are contrasted, the latter is always represented as a ruthless and sanguinary tyrant. Spenser's description of the bards of Ireland applies, in some degree, to our ancient Border poets. There is, among the Irish, a certain kinde of people called bardes, which are to them instead of poets; whose profession is to set forth the praises or dispraises of men, in their poems or rhymes; the which are had in such high regard or esteem amongst them, that none dare displease them, for fear of running into reproach through their offence, and to be made infamous in the mouths of all men; for their verses are taken up with a general applause, and usually sung at all feasts and meetings, by certain other persons, whose proper function that is, who also receive, for the same, great rewardes and reputation amongst them." Spenser, having bestowed due praise upon the poets, who sung the praises of the good and virtuous, informs us, that the bards, on the contrary," seldom use to choose unto themselves the doings of good men for the arguments of their poems;-but whomsoever they finde to be most licentious of life, most bold and lawless in his doings, most dangerous and desperate in all parts of disobedience, and rebellious disposition, him they set up and glorify in their rhythmes; him they praise to the people, and to young men make an example to follow."-" Eudoxus-I marvail what kind of speeches they can find, or what faces they can put on, to praise such bad persons, as live so lawlessly and licentiously upon stealths and spoyles, as most of them do; or how they can think that any good mind will applaud or approve the same?" In answer to this question, Irenæus, after marking the giddy and restless disposition of the ill-educated youth of Ireland, which made them prompt to receive evil counsel, adds, that such a person, "if he shall find any to praise him, and to give him any encouragement, as those boards and rhythmers do, for little reward, or share of a stolen cow, then waxeth he most insolent, and half-mad, with the love of himself and his own lewd deeds. And as for words to set forth such lewdness, it is hard for them to to give a goodly and painted show thereunto, borrowed even from the praises which are proper to virtue itself. As of a most notorious thief, and wicked outlaw, which had lived all his lifetime of spoils and robberies, one of their bardes, in his praise, will say, that he was none of the idle milk-sops that were brought up by the fireside, but that most of his days he spent in arms, and valiant enterprises; that he never did eat his meat before he had won it with his sword; that he lay not all night slugging in his cabin under his mantle, but used commonly to keep others waking to defend their lives, and did light his candle at the flames of their houses to lead him in the darkness; that the day was his night, and the night his day; that he loved I not to be long wooing of wenches to yield to him; but, where he came, he took by force the spoil of other men's love, and left but lamentations to their lovers; that his music was not the harp, nor lays of love, but the cries of people, and clashing of armour; and, finally, that he died, not bewailed of many, but made many wail when he died, that dearly bought his death.' Do not you think, Eudoxus, that many of these praises might be applied to men of best deserts? Yet are they all yielded to a most notable traitor, and amongst some of the Irish not smally accounted of."— State of Ireland. The same concurrence of circumstances, so well pointed out by Spenser, as dictating the topics of the Irish bards, tuned the Border harps to the praise of an outlawed Armstrong, or Murray. For similar reasons, flowing from the state of society, the reader must not expect to find, in the Border ballads, refined sentiment, and, far less, elegant expression; although the style of such compositions has, in modern hands, been found highly susceptible of both. But passages might be pointed out, in which the rude minstrel has melted in natural pathos, or risen into rude energy. Even where these graces are totally wanting, the interest of the stories themselves, and the curious picture of manners which they frequently present, authorize them to claim some respect from the public. But it is not the Editor's present intention to enter upon a history of Border poetry; a subject of great difficulty, and which the extent of his information does not as yet permit him to engage in. He will, therefore, now lay before the reader the plan of the present publication; pointing out the authorities from which his materials are derived, and slightly noticing the nature of the different classes into which he has arranged them. The MINSTRELSY of the SCOTTISH BORDER contains Three Classes of Poems: 1. HISTORICAL BALLADS. 11. ROMANTIC. 111. IMITATIONS OF THESE COMPOSITIONS BY MODERN AUTHORS. The Historical Ballad relates events, which we either know actually to have taken place, or which at least, making due allowance for the exaggerations of poetical tradition, we may readily conceive to have had some foundation in history. For reasons already mentioned, such ballads were early current upon the Border. Barbour informs us, that he thinks it unnecessary to rehearse the account of a victory, gained in Eskdale over the English, because "Whasa liks, thai may her Young wemen, whan thai will play, The Bruce, book xvi. Godscroft also, in his history of the House of Douglas, written in the reign of James VI., alludes more than once to the ballads current upon the Border, in which the exploits of those heroes were celebrated. Such is the passage relating to the death of William Douglas, Lord of Liddesdale, slain by the Earl of Douglas, his kinsman, his godson, and his chief. Similar strains of lamentation were poured * The reward of the Welsh bards, and perhaps of those upon the Border, was very similar. It was enacted by Howel Dha, that if the king's bard played before a body of warriors, upon a predatory excursion, be should receive, in recompense, the best cow which the party carried off.- Leges Wallic, 1. 1. cap. 19. 2 "The Lord of Liddesdale being at his pastime, bunting in Ettrick Forest, Is beset by William, Earl of Douglas, aud such as he had ordained for the purpose, and there assailed, wounded, and slain, beside Galeswood, in the year 1353, upon a jealousy that the Earl had conceived of him with his lady, as the report goeth: for so sayeth the old song, ***The Countess of Douglas out of her bower she came, And loudly there that she did callIt is for the Lord of Liddesdale, That I let all these tears down fall.' "The song also declareth, how she did write her love-letters to Liddesdale, to dissuade him from that hunting. It tells likewise the manner of the taking of his men, and his own killing at Galeswood; and how he was carried the first night to Linden kirk, a mile from Selkirk, and was buried In the Abbey of Melrose."-GODSCROFT, Vol. 1. p. 144, Ed. 1743. Some fragments of this ballad are still current, and will be found in the ensuing work. by the Border poets over the tomb of the Hero of Otter- | entirely ceased, or are gradually decaying. Whether they "Edinburgh castle, toune, and toure, Who will not regret, with the Editor, that compositions of such interest and antiquity should be now irrecoverable? But it is the nature of popular poetry, as of popular applause, perpetually to shift with the objects of the time; and it is the frail chance of recovering some old manuscript, which can alone gratify our curiosity regarding the earlier efforts of the Border Muse. Some of her later strains, composed during the sixteenth century, have survived even to the present day; but the recollection of them has, of late years, become like that of a "tale which was told." In the sixteenth century, these northern tales appear to have been popular even in London; for the learned Mr. Ritson has obligingly pointed out to me the following passages, respecting the noted ballad of Dick o' the Cow; “Dick o' the Cow, that mad demi-lance Northern Borderer, who plaid his prizes with the Lord Jockey so bravely."-NASHE'S Have with you to Saffren-Walden, or Gabriell Harvey's Hunt is up.-1596, 4to. Epistle Dedicatorie, Sig. A. 2. 6. And in a list of books, printed for, and sold by P. Brocksby (1688,) occurs “Dick-a-the-Cow, containing north country songs." Could this collection have been found, it would probably have thrown much light on the present publication; but the editor has been obliged to draw his materials chiefly from oral tradition. Something may be still found in the Border cottages, resembling the scene described by Pennicuick : "On a winter's night my grannum spinning, To mak a web of good Scots linen; Her stool being placed next to the chimley, My aunt, whom nane dare say has no grace, The meikle tasker, Davie Dallas, Was telling blads of William Wallace; My mither bade her second son say, What he'd by heart of Davie Lindsay: Our herd, whom all folks hate that knows him, The Selkirkshire ballad of Tamlane seems also to have been well known in England. Among the popular heroes of romance, enumerated in the introduction to the history of "Tom Thumbe," (London, 1624, bl. letter,) occurs Tom a Lin, the devil's supposed bastard." There is a parody upon the same ballad in the "Pinder of Wakefield," (London, 1624.) 2 These town-pipers, an institution of great antiquity upon the Borders, were certainly the last remains of the minstrel race. Robin Hastie, townpiper of Jedburgh, perhaps the last of the order, died nine or ten years ago; his family was supposed to have held the office for about three centuries. Old age had rendered Robin a wretched performer; but he knew several old songs and tunes, which have probably died along with him. The townpipers received a Hvery and salary from the community to which they belonged; and, in some burghs, they had a small allotment of land, called the Piper's Croft. For further particulars regarding them, see Introduction to Complaynt of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1801, p. 142. (1802.) | were originally the composition of minstrels, professing the joint arts of poetry and music; or whether they were the occasional effusions of some self-taught bard, is a question into which I do not here mean to enquire. But it is certain, that, till a very late period, the pipers, of whom there was one attached to each Border town of note, and whose office was often hereditary, were the great depositaries of oral, and particularly of poetical, tradition. About spring time, and after harvest, it was the custom of these musicians to make a progress through a particular district of the country. The music and the tale repaid their lodging, and they were usually gratified with a donation of seed corn. This order of minstrels is alluded to in the comic song of Maggy Lauder, who thus addresses a piper— "Live ye upo' the Border?" By means of these men, much traditional poetry was preserved, which must otherwise have perished. Other itincrants, not professed musicians, found their welcome to their night's quarters readily ensured by their knowledge in legendary lore. John Græme, of Sowport, in Cumberland, commonly called The Long Quaker,3 a person of this latter description, was very lately alive; and several of the songs, now published, have been taken down from his recitation. The shepherds also, and aged persons, in the recesses of the Border mountains, frequently remember and repeat the warlike songs of their fathers. This is more especially the case in what are called the South Highlands, where, in many instances, the same families have occupied the same possessions for centuries. It is chiefly from this latter source that the Editor has drawn his materials, most of which were collected many years ago, during his early youth.4 But he has been enabled. in many instances, to supply and correct the deficiencies of his own copies, from a collection of Border songs, frequently referred to in the work, under the title of Glenriddell's MS. This was compiled from various sources, by the late Mr. Riddell of Glenriddell, a sedulous Border antiquary, and, since his death, has become the property of Mr. Jollie, bookseller at Carlisle, to whose liberality the Editor owes the use of it, while preparing this work for the press. No liberties have been taken, either with the recited or written copies of these ballads, farther than that, where they disagreed, which is by no means unusual, the Editor, in justice to the author, has uniformly preserved what seemed to him the best or most poetical reading of the passage. Such discrepancies must very frequently occur, wherever poetry is preserved by oral tradition; for the reciter, making it a uniform principle to proceed at all hazards, is very often, when his memory fails him, apt to substitute large portions from some other tale, altogether distinct from that which he has commenced. Besides, the prejudices of clans and of districts have occasioned variations in the mode of telling 3 This person, perhaps the last of our professed ballad reciters, died since the publication of the first edition of this work. He was by profession an itinerant cleaner of clocks and watches; but a stentorian voice, and tenacious memory, qualified him eminently for remembering accurately, and reciting with energy, the Border gathering songs and tales of war. His memory was latterly much impaired; yet, the number of verses which he could pour forth, and the animation of his tone and gesture, formed a most extraordinary contrast to his extreme feebleness of person, and dotage of mind. (1810.) 4 [There is in the library at Abbotsford a collection of ballads, partly printed broadsides, partly in MS., in six small volumes, which, from the handwriting, must have been formed by Sir Walter Scott while he was attending the earlier classes of Edinburgh College.-ED.] |