There are, sir, (said he,) a great company both of men and women, and they are entertained with many sorts of musick, besides my drum; they have, besides, plenty of variety of meats and wine, and many times we are carried into France or Holland in a night, and return again, and whilst we are there, we enjoy all the pleasures the country doth afford. I demanded of him how they got under that hill? To which he replied, that there was a great pair of gates that opened to them, though they were invisible to others: and that within there were brave large rooms, as well accommodated as most in Scotland. I then asked him, how I should know what he said to be true? Upon which he told me he would read my fortune, saying, I should have two wives, and that he saw the forms of them sitting on my shoulders; that both would be very handsome women. As he was thus speaking, a woman of the neighbourhood coming into the room, demanded of him, What her fortune should be? He told her that she had two bastards before she was married, which put her in such a rage, that she desired not to hear the rest. "The woman of the house told me that all the people in Scotland could not keep him from the rendezvous on Thursday night; upon which, by promising him some more money, I got a promise of him to meet me at the same place, in the afternoon, the Thursday following, and so dismist him at that time. The boy came again, at the place and time appointed, and I had prevailed with some friends to continue with me (if possible) to prevent his moving that night. He was placed between us, and answered many questions, until, about eleven of the clock, he was got away unperceived by the company; but I, suddenly missing him, hasted to the door, and took hold of him, and so returned him into the same room; we all watched him, and, of a sudden, he was again got out of doors; I followed him close, and he made a noise in the street, as if he had been set upon; but from that time I could never see him. GEORGE BURTON." Pandemonium, or the Devil's Cloister. By Richard Bovet, Gent., Lond. 1684, p. 172. on horseback, near his own house, he was suddenly accosted by a little old man arrayed in green, and mounted upon a white palfrey. After mutual salutation, the old man gave Sir Godfrey to understand, that he resided under his habitation, and that he had great reason to complain of the direction of a drain, or common sewer, which emptied itself directly into his chamber of dais.† Sir Godfrey Macculloch was a good deal startled at this extraordinary complaint; but, guessing the nature of the being he had to deal with, he assured the old man, with great courtesy, that the direction of the drain should be altered; and caused it to be done accordingly. Many years afterwards, Sir Godfrey had the misfortune to kill, in a fray, a gentleman of the neighbourhood. He was apprehended, tried, and condemned. The scaffold, upon which his head was to be struck off, was erected on the Castle Hill of Edinburgh; but hardly had he reached the fatal spot, when the old man upon his white palfrey, pressed through the crowd, with the rapidity of lightning. Sir Godfrey, at his command, sprung on behind him; the "good neighbour" spurred his horse down the steep bank, and neither he nor the criminal was ever again seen. The most formidable attribute of the elves, was the practice of carrying away and exchanging children, and that of stealing human souls from their bodies. "A persuasion prevails among the ignorant," says the author of a MS. history of Moray, that' in a consumptive disease, the Fairies steal away the soul, and put the soul of a Fairy in the room of it." This belief prevails chiefly along the eastern coast of Scotland, where a practice, apparently of druidical origin, is used to avert the danger. In the increase of the March moon, withes of oak and ivy are cut, and twisted into wreaths or circles, which they preserve till next March. After that period, when persons are consumptive, or children hectic, they cause them to pass thrice through these circles. In other cases the cure was more rough, and at least as dangerous as the disease, as will appear from the following extract:-. "There is one thing remarkable in this parish of Suddie, (in Inverness-shire,) which I think proper From the History of the Irish Bards, by Mr. to mention. There is a small hill N. W. from the Walker, and from the glossary subjoined to the live-church, commonly called Therdy Hill, or Hill of ly and ingenious Tale of Castle Rackrent, we learn, that the same ideas concerning Fairies are current among the vulgar in that country. The latter authority mentions their inhabiting the ancient tumuli, called barrows, and their abstracting mortals. They are termed "the good people;" and when an eddy of wind raises loose dust and sand, the vulgar believe that it announces a Fairy procession, and bid God speed their journey. The Scottish Fairies, in like manner, sometimes reside in subterranean abodes, in the vicinity of human habitations, or, according to the popular phrase, under the "door-stane," or threshold; in which situation, they sometimes establish an intercourse with men, by borrowing and lending, and other kindly offices. In this capacity they are termed "the good neighbours," " from supplying privately the wants of their friends, and assisting them in all their transactions, while their favours are concealed. Of this the traditionary story of Sir Godfrey Macculloch forms a curious example. As this Gallovidian gentleman was taking the air Perhaps this epithet is only one example, among many, of the extreme civility which the vulgar in Scotland use towards spirits of a dubioas, or even a determinedly mischievous, nature. The arch-fiend himself is often distinguished by the softened title of the "good man." This epithet, so applied, must sound strange to a southern ear; but, as the phrase bears various interpreta tions, according to the places where it is used, so, in the Scottish dialect, the goodman of such a place signifies the tenant, or life: renter, in opposition to the laird, or proprietor. Hence, the devil is termed the goodman, or tenant, of the infernal regions. In the book of the Universal Kirk, 13th May, 1594, mention is made of "the horrible superstitoune usit in Garioch, and dyvers parts of the countrie, in not labouring a parcel of ground dedicated to the devil, under the title of the Guid-man's Croft." Lord Hailes conjectured this to have been the temnos adjoining to some ancient Pagan temple. The unavowed, but obvious, purpose of this practice, was to avert the destructive rage of Satan from the neighbouring possessions. It required various fulminations of the General Assembly of the Kirk to abolish a practice bordering so nearly upon the doctrine of the Magi. Therdie, as some term it; on the top of which there is a well, which I had the curiosity to view, because of the several reports concerning it. When children happen to be sick, and languish long in their malady, so that they almost turn skeletons, the common people imagine they are taken away (at least the substance) by spirits, called Fairies, and the shadow left with them; so, at a particular season in summer, they leave them all night, themselves watching at a distance, near this well, and this they imagine will either end or mend them; they say many more do recover than do not. Yea, an honest tenant who lives hard by it, and whom I had the curiosity to discourse about it, told me it has recovered some, who were about eight or nine years of age, and to his certain knowledge, they bring adult persons to it; for, as he was passing one dark night, he heard groanings, and, coming to the well, he found a man, who had been long sick, wrapped in a plaid, so that he could scarcely move, a stake being fixed in the earth, with a rope, or tedder, that was about the plaid; he had no sooner inquired what he was, but he conjured him to loose him, and out of sympathy he was pleased to slacken that wherein he was, as I may so speak, swaddled: but, if I right remember, he signified, he did not recover."-Account of the Parish of Suddie, apud MACFARLANE'S MSS. According to the earlier doctrine, concerning the original corruption of human nature, the power of demons over infants had been long reckoned considerable, in the period intervening between birth and baptism. During this period, therefore, children ↑ The best chamber was thus currently denominated in Scotland, from the French dais, signifying that part of the ancient halls which was elevated above the rest, and covered with a canopy. The turf seats, which occupy the sunny side of a cottage wall, are also termed the dais. In this particular, tradition coincides with the real fact; the trial took place in 1697. were believed to be particularly liable to abstraction | be; and what made this conjecture seem the more by the fairies, and mothers chiefly dreaded the sub-reasonable, was, that if he were left ever so dirty, stitution of changelings in the place of their own off- the woman, at her return, saw him with a clean spring. Various monstrous charms existed in Scot-face, and his hair combed with the utmost exactness land, for procuring the restoration of a child which and nicety."-P. 128. had been thus stolen; but the most efficacious of them was supposed to be, the roasting of the supposititious child upon the live embers, when it was believed it would vanish, and the true child appear in the place, whence it had been originally abstracted.* It may be questioned if this experiment could now be made without the animadversion of the law. Even that which is prescribed in the following legend is rather too hazardous for modern use. Waldron gives another account of a poor woman, to whose offspring, it would seem, the Fairies had taken a special fancy. A few nights after she was delivered of her first child, the family were alarmed by a dreadful cry of "Fire!" All flew to the door, while the mother lay trembling in bed, unable to protect her infant, which was snatched from the bed by an invisible hand. Fortunately, the return of the gossips, after the causeless alarm, disturbed the Fairies, who dropped the child, which was found sprawling and shrieking upon the threshold. At the good woman's second accouchement, a tumult was heard in the cowhouse, which drew thither the whole assistants. They returned, when they found that all was quiet among the cattle, and lo! the second child had been carried from the bed, and dropped in the middle of the lane. But, upon the third occurrence of the same kind, the company were again decoyed out of the sick woman's chamber by a false alarm, leaving only a nurse, who was detained by the bonds of sleep. On this last occasion, the mother plainly saw her child removed, though the means were invisible. She screamed for assistance to the nurse; but the old lady had partaken too deeply of the cordials which circulate upon such joyful occasions, to be easily awakened. In short, the child was this time fairly carried off, and a withered, deformed creature left in its stead, quite naked, with the clothes of the abstracted infant, rolled in a bundle, by its side. This creature lived nine years, ate nothing but a few herbs, and neither spoke, stood, walked, nor performed any other functions of mortality; resembling, in all respects, the changeling already mentioned.-WALDRON'S Works, ibid. A certain woman having put out her child to nurse in the country, found, when she came to take it home, that its form was so much altered that she scarce knew it; nevertheless, not knowing what time might do, took it home for her own. But when, after soine years, it could neither speak nor go, the poor woman was fain to carry it, with much trouble, in her arms; and one day, a poor man coming to the door, God bless you, mistress,' said he, and your poor child; be pleased to bestow something on a poor man.'-"Ah! this child,' replied she, is the cause of all my sorrow,' and related what had happened, adding, moreover, that she thought it changed, and none of her child. The old man, whom years had rendered more prudent in such matters, told her, to find out the truth, she should make a clear fire, sweep the hearth very clean, and place the child fast in his chair, that he might not fall, before it, and break a dozen eggs, and place the four-and-twenty half-shells before it; then go out, and listen at the door: for, if the child spoke, it was certainly a changeling; and then she should carry it out, and leave it on the dunghill to cry, and not to pity it, till she heard its voice no more. The woman, having done all things according to these words, heard the child say,Seven years old was I before I came to But the power of the Fairies was not confined to the nurse, and four years have I lived since, and unchristened children alone; it was supposed frenever saw so many milk pans before.' So the wo-quently to be extended to full-grown persons, espeman took it up, and left it upon the dunghill to cry, and not to be pitied, till at last she thought the voice went up into the air; and coming, found there her own natural and well-favoured child."-GROSE's Provincial Glossary, quoted from "A Pleasant Treatise on Witchcraft. cially such as in an unlucky hour were devoted to the devil by the execration of parents and of masters;t or those who were found asleep under a rock, or on a green hill, belonging to the Fairies, after sunset, or, finally, to those who unwarily joined their orgies. A tradition existed, during the seventeenth The most minute and authenticated account of an century, concerning an ancestor of the noble family exchanged child is to be found in Waldron's Isle of of Duffus, who, "walking abroad in the fields, near Man, a book from which I have derived much le- to his own house, was suddenly carried away, and gendary information. "I was prevailed upon my- found the next day at Paris in the French king's self," says that author, "to go and see a child, who, cellar, with a silver cup in his hand. Being brought they told me, was one of these changelings, and, in- into the king's presence, and questioned by him who deed, must own, was not a little surprised, as well he was, and how he came thither, he told his name, as shocked, at the sight. Nothing under heaven his country, and the place of his residence; and that, could have a more beautiful face; but, though be-on such a day of the mouth, which proved to be the tween five and six years old, and seemingly healthy, he was so far from being able to walk or stand, that he could not so much as move any one joint; his limbs were vastly long for his age, but smaller than any infant's of six months; his complexion was perfectly delicate, and he had the finest hair in the world. He never spoke nor cried, ate scarce any thing, and was very seldom seen to smile; but if any one called him a fairy-elf, he would frown, and fix his eyes so earnestly on those who said it, as if he would look them through. His mother, or at least his supposed mother, being very poor, frequently went out a chareing, and left him a whole day together. The neighbours, out of curiosity, have often Tooked in at the window, to see how he behaved while alone; which, whenever they did, they were sure to find him laughing, and in the utmost delight. This made them judge that he was not without company, more pleasing to him than any mortals could * Less perilous recipes were sometimes used. The Editor is possessed of a small relic, termed by tradition a toad-stone, the influence of which was supposed to preserve pregnant women from the power of demons, and other dangers incidental to their situation. It has been carefully preserved for several generations, was often pledged for considerable sums of money, and uniformly redeemed from a belief in its efficacy. This idea is not peculiar to the Gothic tribes, but extends to those of Sclavic origin. Tooke (History of Russia, vol. i. p. The day immediately preceding, being in the fields, he heard the noise of a whirlwind, and of voices, crying, Horse and Hattock! (this is the word which the Fairies are said to use when they remove from any place,) whereupon he cried' Horse and Hattock' also, and was immediately caught up and transported through the air, by the Fairies, to that place, where, after he had drunk heartily, he fell asleep, and before he woke, the rest of the company were gone, and had left him in the posture wherein he was found. It is said the King gave him the cup which was found in his hand, and dismissed him." narrator affirms, "that the cup was still preserved, and known by the name of the Fairy cup." He adds, that Mr. Steward, tutor to the then Lord Duffus, had informed him, that, "when a boy at the school of Forres, he and his school-fellows were upon a time whipping their tops in the churchyard, before the door of the church, when, though the day 100) relates, that the Russian peasants believe the nocturnal demon Kikimoro to have been a child, whom the devil stole out of the womb of its mother, because she had cursed it. They also assert, that if an execration against a child be spoken in an evil hour, the child is carried off by the devil. The beings, so stolen, are neither fiends nor men: they are invisible, and afraid of the cross and holy water; but, on the other hand, in their nature and dispositions they resemble mankind, whom they love, and rarely injure. event which had separated them, instructed him by what means he might win her, and exhorted him to exert all his courage, since her temporal and eternal happiness depended on the success of his attempt. The farmer, who ardently loved his wife, set out on Hallowe'en, and, in the midst of a plot of furze, waited impatiently for the procession of the Fairies. At the ringing of the Fairy bridles, and the wild unearthly sound which accompanied the cavalcade, his heart failed him, and he suffered the ghostly train to pass by without interruption. When the last had rode past, the whole troop vanished, with loud shouts of laughter and exultation; among which he plainly discovered the voice of his wife, lamenting that he had lost her for ever. was calm, they heard a noise of a wind, and at some distance saw the small dust begin to rise and turn round, which motion continued advancing till it came to the place where they were, whereupon they began to bless themselves; but one of their number being, it seems, a little more bold and confident than his companions, said Horse and Hattock with my top,' and immediately they all saw the top lifted up from the ground, but could not see which way it was carried, by reason of a cloud of dust which was raised at the same time. They sought for the top all about the place where it was taken up, but in vain; and it was found afterwards in the churchyard, on the other side of the church."-This puerile legend is contained in a letter from a learned gentleman in Scotland, to Mr. Aubrey, dated 15th March, 1695, A similar, but real incident, took place at the town published in AUBREY'S Miscellanies, p. 158. of North Berwick, within the memory of man. The Notwithstanding the special example of Lord Duf-wife of a man above the lowest class of society, being fus, and of the top, it is the common opinion, that left alone in the house a few days after delivery, was persons, falling under the power of the Fairies, were attacked and carried off by one of those convulsiononly allowed to revisit the haunts of men, after se- fits, incident to her situation. Upon the return of ven years had expired. At the end of seven years the family, who had been engaged in haymaking, or more, they again disappeared, after which they were harvest, they found the corpse much disfigured. This seldom seen among mortals. The accounts they circumstance, the natural consequence of her disgave of their situation differ in some particulars. ease, led some of the spectators to think that she Sometimes they were represented as leading a life had been carried off by the Faries, and that the body of constant restlessness, and wandering by moon- before them was some elfin deception. The husband, light. According to others, they inhabited a plea- probably, paid little attention to this opinion at the sant region, where, however, their situation was time. The body was interred, and after a decent rendered horrible, by the sacrifice of one or more in- time had elapsed, finding his domestic affairs absodividuals to the devil every seventh year. This cir-lutely required female superintendence, the widower cumstance is mentioned in Alison Pearson's indict- paid his addresses to a young woman in the neighment, and in the Tale of the Young Tamlane, where bourhood. The recollection, however, of his former it is termed," the paying the kane to hell," or, ac- wife, whom he had tenderly loved, haunted his slumcording to some recitations, "the teind," or tenth. bers; and, one morning, he came to the clergyman This is the popular reason assigned for the desire of of the parish in the utmost dismay, declaring that the Fairies to abstract young children, as substitutes she had appeared to him the preceding night, informfor themselves in this dreadful tribute. Concerning ed him that she was a captive in Fairy Land, and the mode of winning, or recovering, persons ab- conjured him to attempt her deliverance. She distracted by the Fairies, tradition differs; but the rected him to bring the minister, and certain other popular opinion, contrary to what may be inferred persons, whom she named, to her grave at midnight. from the following tale, supposes, that the recovery Her body was then to be dug up, and certain prayers must be effected within a year and a day, to be held recited; after which the corpse was to become anilegal in the Fairy court. This feat, which was reck- mated, and fly from them. One of the assistants, oned an enterprise of equal difficulty and danger, the swiftest runner in the parish, was to pursue the could only be accomplished on Hollowe'en, at the body; and, if he was able to seize it, before it had great annual procession of the Fairy court. Of this thrice encircled the church, the rest were to come procession the following description is found in to his assistance, and detain it, in spite of the strugMontgomery's Flyting against Polwart, apud Wat- gles it should use, and the various shapes into which son's collection of Scots Poems, 1790, Part III. p. 12. it might be transformed. The redeinption of the abstracted person was then to become complete. The minister, a sensible man, argued with his parishioner upon the indecency and absurdity of what was proposed, and dismissed him. Next Sunday, the bans being for the first time proclaimed betwixt the widower and his new bride, his former wife, very naturally, took the opportunity of the following night to make him another visit, yet more terrific than the former. She upbraided him with his incredulity, his fickleness, and his want of affection; and, to convince him that her appearance was no aerial illusion, she gave suck, in his presence, to her youngest child. The man, under the greatest horror of mind, had again recourse to the pastor; and his ghostly counsellor fell upon an admirable expedient to console him. This was nothing less than dispensing with the formal solemnity of banns, and marrying him, without an hour's delay, to the young woman to whom he was affianced; after which no spectre again disturbed his repose.t "In the hinder end of harvest, on All-hallowe'en, Into a pot by Pomathorne ; That bratchart in a busse was born; The catastrophe of Tamlane terminated more successfully than that of other attempts, which tradition still records. The wife of a farmer in Lothian had been carried off by the Fairies, and, during the year of probation, repeatedly appeared on Sunday, in the midst of her children, combing their hair. On one of these occasions she was accosted by her husband; when she related to him the unfortunate • See the inimitable poem of Hallowe'en- Or o'er the leas, in splendid blaze, On stately coursers prance," &c.-BURNS. To these I have now to add the following instance of redemption from Fairy Land. The legend is printed from a broadside still popular in Ireland : "Near the town of Aberdeen, in Scotland, lived James Campbell, who had one daughter, named Mary, who was married to John Nelson, a young man of that neighbourhood. Shortly after their marriage, they being a young couple, they went to live in the town of Aberdeen, where he followed his trade, being a gold smith; they lived loving and agreeable together until the time of her lying in, when there was female attendants prepared suitable to her situation; when near the hour of twelve at night they P were alarmed with a dreadful noise, at which of a sudden the candles went out, which drove the attendants in the utmost confusion; soon as the women regained their half lost senses, they called in their neighbours, who, after striking up lights, and looking towards the lying-in woman, found her a corpse, which caused great confusion in the family. There was no grief could exceed that of her husband, who, next morning, prepared ornaments for her funeral; people of all sects came to her wake, amongst oth ers came the Rev. Mr. Dodd, who, at first sight of the corpse, said, It's not the body of any Christian, but that Mrs. Nelson was taken away by the Fairies, and what they took for her was only some substance left in her place. He was not believed, so he refused attending her funeral; they kept her in the following night, and the next day she was interred. Her husband, one evening after sunset, being riding in his own field, heard a most pleasant concert of music, and soon af ter espied a woman coming towards him drest in white; she be Having concluded these general observations upon the Fairy superstition, which, although minute, may not, I hope, be deemed altogether uninteresting, proceed to the more particular illustrations, relating to The Tale of the Young Tamlane. The following ballad, still popular in Ettrick Forest, where the scene is laid, is certainly of much greater antiquity than its phraseology, gradually modernized as transmitted by tradition, would seem to denote. The Tale of the Young Tamlane is mentioned in the Complaynt of Scotland; and the air, to which it was chanted, seems to have been accommodated to a particular dance; for the dance of Thom of Lynn, another variation of Thomalin, likewise occurs in the same performance. Like every popular subject, it seems to have been frequently parodied; and a burlesque ballad, beginning, Tom o' the Linn was a Scotsman born." is still well known. In a medley, contained in a curious and ancient MS. cantus, penes J. G. Dalyell, Esq. there is an allusion to our ballad: "Sing young Thomlin, be merry, be merry, and twice so merry." In Scottish Songs, 1774, a part of the original tale was published under the title of Kerton Ha'; a corruption of Carterhaugh; and, in the same collection, there is a fragment, containing two or three additional verses, beginning, "I'll wager, I'll wager, I'll wager with you," &c. In Johnston's Musical Museum, a more complete copy occurs, under the title of Tom Linn, which, with some alterations, was reprinted in the Tales of Wonder. The present edition is the most perfect which has yet appeared; being prepared from a collation of the printed copies with a very accurate one in Glenriddel's MSS., and with several recitals from tradition. Some verses are omitted in this edition, being ascertained to belong to a separate ballad, which will be ing veiled, he could not observe her face, yet he rode near her, and asked her very friendly who she was that chose to walk alone so late in the evening! at which she unveiled her face, and burst into tears, saying, I am not permitted to tell you who I am. He knowing her to be his wife, asked her, in the name of God, what disturbed her, or occasioned her to appear at that hour?She said her appearing at any hour was of no consequence; for though you believe me to be dead and buried, I am not, but was taken away by the Fairies the night of my delivery; you only buried a piece of wood in my place; I can be recovered if you take proper means; as for my child, it has three nurses to attend it, but I fear it cannot be brought home; the greatest dependence I have on any person is my brother Robert, who is a captain. of a merchant ship, and will be home in ten days hence. Her husband asked her what means he should take to win her? She told him he should find a letter the Sunday morning following, on the desk in his own room, directed to her brother, wherein there would be directions for wimming her. Since my being taken from you I have had the attendance of a queen or empress, and if you look over my right shoulder you will see several of my companions; he then did as she desired, when, at a small distance, he saw a king and queen sitting, beside a moat, on a throne, in splendour. "She then desired him to look right and left, which he did, and observed other kings on each side of the king and queen, well guarded. He said, I fear it is an impossibility to win you from such a place. No, says she, were my brother Robert here in your place, he would bring me home; but let it not encourage you to attempt the like, for that would occasion the loss of me for ever; there is now severe punishment threatened to me for speaking to you; but, to prevent that, do you ride up to the moat, where (sup: pose you will see no person) all you now see will be near you, and do you threaten to burn all the old thorns and brambles that is round the moat, if you do not get a firm promise that I shall get no punishment; I shall be forgiven; which he promised. She then disappeared, and he lost sight of all he had seen; he then rode very resolutely up to the moat, and went round it, vowing he would burn all about it if he would not get a promise that his wife should get no hurt. A voice desired him to cast away a book was in his pocket, and then demand his request; he answered he would not part his book, but grant his request, or they should find he effect of his rage. The voice answered, that upon honour she should be forgave her fault, but for him to suffer no prejudice to come to the moat, which he promised to fulfil, at which he heard most pleasant music. He then returned home, and sent for the Rev. Mr. Dodd, and related to him what he had seen; Mr. Dodd staid with him till Sunday morning following, when, as Mr. Nelson looked on the desk in his room, he espied a letter, which he took up, it being directed to her brother, who in a few days came home; on his receiving the letter, he opened it, wherein he found the following: "Dear Brother.-My husband can relate to you my present circumstances. I request that you will (the first night after you found in a subsequent part of the work. In one recital only, the well-known fragment of the Wee, wee Man, was introduced, in the same measure with the rest of the poem. It was retained in the first edition, but is now omitted; as the Editor has been favoured, by the learned Mr. Ritson, with a copy of the original poem, of which it is a detached fragment. The Editor has been enabled to add several verses of beauty and interest to this edition of Tamlane, in consequence of a copy obtained from a gentleman residing near Langholm, which is said to be very ancient, though the diction is somewhat of a modern cast. The manners of the Fairies are detailed at considerable length, and in poetry of no common merit. Carterhaugh is a plain, at the conflux of the Ettrick and Yarrow in Selkirkshire, about a mile above Selkirk, and two miles below Newark Castle ;* a romantic ruin, which overhangs the Yarrow, and which is said to have been the habitation of our heroine's father, though others place his residence in the tower of Oakwood. The peasants point out, upon the plain, those electrical rings, which vulgar credulity supposes to be traces of the Fairy revels. Here, they say, were placed the stands of milk, and of water, in which Tamlane was dipped, in order to effect the disenchantment; and upon these spots, according to their mode of expressing themselves, the grass will never grow. Miles Cross, (perhaps a corruption of Mary's Cross,) where fair Janet awaited the arrival of the Fairy train, is said to have stood near the Duke of Buccleuch's seat of Bowhill, about half a mile from Carterhaugh. In no part of Scotland, indeed, has the belief in Fairies maintained its ground with more pertinacity than in Selkirkshire. The most sceptical among the lower ranks only venture to assert, that their appearances, and mischievous exploits, have ceased, or at least become infrequent, since the light of the gospel was diffused in its purity. One of their frolics is said to have happened late in the last century. The victim of elfin sport was a poor man, who, being employed see this) come to the moat where I parted my husband: let nothing daunt you, but stand in the centre of the moat at the hour of twelve at night, and call me, when I, with several others, will surround you, I shall have on the whitest dress of any in company, then take hold of me, and do not forsake me; all the frightful methods they shall use let it not surprise you, but keep your hold, suppose they continue till cock-crow, when they shall vanish all of a sudden, and I shall be safe, when I will return home and live with my husband. If you succeed in your attempt, you will gain applause from all your friends, and have the blessing of your ever loving and affectionate sister, 'MARY NELSON.' "No sooner had he read the letter than he vowed to win his sister and her child, or perish in the attempt; he returned to his ship, and related to his sailors the consequence of the letter; he delayed till ten at night, when his loyal sailors offered to go with him, which he refused, thinking it best to go alone. As he left his ship a frightful lion came roaring towards him; he drew his sword and sinick at the lion, which he observed was of no substance, it being only the appearance of one, to terrify him in his attempt; it only encouraged him, so that he proceeded to the moat, in the centre of which he observed a white handkerchief spread; on which he was surrounded with a number of women, the cries of whom were the most frightful he ever heard; his sister being in the whitest dress of any round him, he seized her by the right hand, and said, With the help of God, I will preserve you from all infernal imps; when of a sudden, the moat seemed to be on fire round him. He likewise heard the most dreadful thunder could be imagined; frightful birds and beasts seemed to make towards him out of the fire, which he knew was not real; nothing daunted his courage; he kept hold of his sister for the space of an hour and three quarters, when the cocks began to crow; then the fire disappeared, and all the frightful imps vanished. He held her in his arms, and fell on his knees, and gave God thanks for his proceedings that night; he believing her clothing to be light, he put his outside coat on her: she then embraced him, saying, she was now safe, as he put any of his clothing on her; he then brought her home to her husband, which occasioned great rejoicing. Her husband and he began to conclude to destroy the moat in revenge of the child they had away, when instantly they heard a voice, which said, you shall have your son safe and well, on condition that you will not till the ground within three perches of the moat, nor damage bushes or brambles round that place, which they agreed to, when, in a few minutes, the child was left on his mother's knee, which caused them to kneel and return thanks to God. The circumstance of this terrifying affair was occasioned by leaving Mrs. Nelson, the night of her lying in, in the care of wo men who were mostly intoxicated with liquor. It is requested both sexes will take notice of the above, and not leave women in distress, but with people who at such times mind their duty to God." * [See notes to the Lay of the Last Minstrel. Canto I.] in pulling heather upon Peatlaw, a hill not far from Carterhaugh, had tired of his labour, and laid him down to sleep upon a Fairy ring. When he awakened, he was amazed to find himself in the midst of a populous city, to which, as well as to the means of his transportation he was an utter stranger. His coat was left upon the Peatlaw; and his bonnet, which had fallen off in the course of his aerial journey, was afterwards found hanging upon the steeple of the church of Lanark. The distress of the poor man was, in some degree, relieved, by meeting a carrier whom he had formerly known, and who conducted him back to Selkirk, by a slower conveyance than had whirled him to Glasgow.-That he had been carried off by the Fairies was implicitly beheved by all who did not reflect, that a man may have private reasons for leaving his own country, and for disguising his having intentionally done so.* THE YOUNG TAMLANE. "OI forbid ye, maidens a', "There's nane that gaes by Carterhaugh, "Now gowd rings ye may buy, maidens, But up then spak her, fair Janet, Janet has kilted her green kirtle,+ And when she came to Carterhaugh, And there she fand his steed standing, She hadna pu'd a red red rose, Till up and starts a wee wee man, Says "Why pu' ye the rose, Janet? Says "Carterhaugh it is mine ain; He's ta'en her by the milk-white hand, He's ta'en her by the milk-white hand, And what they did, I cannot say- When she cam to her father's ha', She looked pale and wan; ["We notice, with particular approbation, a discourse in this publication, on the Fairies of popular superstition, in which the author takes a much wider range, than was to have been expected from a collector of Border Ballads; and evinces an extent of reading and sagacity of conjecture, which have never before been applied to this subject. We recommend this treatise, as by far the most learned, rational, and entertaining, that has yet been made public, upon the subject of these superstitions."-Edinburgh Review, No. II. Though we cannot entirely approve the nature and extent of Mr. Scott's plan in the Minstrelsy,' yet the fidelity, taste, and learning, which he has manifested in the execution of it, induce us to cherish the hope that he will employ his pen on more im They thought she'd dreed some sair sickness, She didna comb her yellow hair, It's four and twenty ladies fair Out and spak an auld grey-headed knight "Now haud your tongue, ye auld grey knight! And an ill deid may ye die, Father my bairn on whom I will, I'll father nane on thee."— Out then spak her father dear, "And if I be with child, father, Twill prove a wondrous birth; For weel I swear I'm not wi' bairn "If my love were an earthly knight, I wadna gie my ain true love And when she cam to Carterhaugh, And there she saw the steed standing, She hadna pu'd a double rose, A rose but only twae, When up and started young Tamlane, Why pu' ye the rose, Janet, And a' to kill the bonny babe, "The truth ye'll tell to me, Tamlane Gin e'er ye was in haly chapel, A knight me got, and a lady me bore, "Randolph, Earl Murray, was my sire, Dunbar, Earl March, is thine ;** portant and useful subjects. Even from his present labours, indeed, the curious inquirer may derive some ingenious and entertaining information on several points connected with the antiquities and history of Great Britain. Prefixed to The Young Tamlane is an acute and philosophical dissertation on the Fairies of Popular Superstition," &c.-Monthly Review, September, 1803.] + Wad-Pledge. The ladies are always represented, in Dunbar's Poems, with green mantles and yellow hair.-Maitland's Poems, vol. i. p. 45. § Leman-Lover. Deid-Death. Sained-Hallowed.-[Signed with the Cross?-ED.] ** Both these mighty chiefs were connected with Ettrick Forest |