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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/4088-0.txt b/4088-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..576cb04 --- /dev/null +++ b/4088-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5088 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Sir Walter Scott and the Border Minstrelsy, +by Andrew Lang + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most +other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of +the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + + + + +Title: Sir Walter Scott and the Border Minstrelsy + + +Author: Andrew Lang + + + +Release Date: August 16, 2014 [eBook #4088] +[This file was first posted on 19 November 2001] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SIR WALTER SCOTT AND THE BORDER +MINSTRELSY*** + + +Transcribed from the 1910 Longmans, Green, and Co. edition by David +Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org + + + + + + SIR WALTER SCOTT + AND THE + BORDER MINSTRELSY + + + BY + ANDREW LANG + + * * * * * + + LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. + 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON + NEW YORK, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA + 1910 + + + + +PREFACE + + +PERSONS not much interested in, or cognisant of, “antiquarian old +womanries,” as Sir Walter called them, may ask “what all the pother is +about,” in this little tractate. On my side it is “about” the veracity +of Sir Walter Scott. He has been suspected of helping to compose, and of +issuing as a genuine antique, a ballad, _Auld Maitland_. He also wrote +about the ballad, as a thing obtained from recitation, to two friends and +fellow-antiquaries. If to Scott’s knowledge it was a modern imitation, +Sir Walter deliberately lied. + +He did not: he did obtain the whole ballad from Hogg, who got it from +recitation—as I believe, and try to prove, and as Scott certainly +believed. The facts in the case exist in published works, and in +manuscript letters of Ritson to Scott, and Hogg to Scott, and in the +original MS. of the song, with a note by Hogg to Laidlaw. If we are +interested in the truth about the matter, we ought at least to read the +very accessible material before bringing charges against the Sheriff and +the Shepherd of Ettrick. + +Whether _Auld Maitland_ be a good or a bad ballad is not part of the +question. It was a favourite of mine in childhood, and I agree with +Scott in thinking that it has strong dramatic situations. If it is a bad +ballad, such as many people could compose, then it is not by Sir Walter. + +The _Ballad of Otterburne_ is said to have been constructed from Herd’s +version, tempered by Percy’s version, with additions from a modern +imagination. We have merely to read Professor Child’s edition of +_Otterburne_, with Hogg’s letter covering his MS. copy of _Otterburne_ +from recitation, to see that this is a wholly erroneous view of the +matter. We have all the materials for forming a judgment accessible to +us in print, and have no excuse for preferring our own conjectures. + +“No one now believes,” it may be said, “in the aged persons who lived at +the head of Ettrick,” and recited _Otterburne_ to Hogg. Colonel Elliot +disbelieves, but he shows no signs of having read Hogg’s curious letter, +in two parts, about these “old parties”; a letter written on the day when +Hogg, he says, twice “pumped their memories.” + +I print this letter, and, if any one chooses to think that it is a crafty +fabrication, I can only say that its craft would have beguiled myself as +it beguiled Scott. + +It is a common, cheap, and ignorant scepticism that disbelieves in the +existence, in Scott’s day, or in ours, of persons who know and can recite +variants of our traditional ballads. The strange song of _The Bitter +Withy_, unknown to Professor Child, was recovered from recitation but +lately, in several English counties. The ignoble lay of _Johnny +Johnston_ has also been recovered: it is widely diffused. I myself +obtained a genuine version of _Where Goudie rins_, through the kindness +of Lady Mary Glyn; and a friend of Lady Rosalind Northcote procured the +low English version of _Young Beichan_, or _Lord Bateman_, from an old +woman in a rural workhouse. In Shropshire my friend Miss Burne, the +president of the Folk-Lore Society, received from Mr. Hubert Smith, in +1883, a very remarkable variant, undoubtedly antique, of _The Wife of +Usher’s Well_. {0a} In 1896 Miss Backus found, in the hills of Polk +County, North Carolina, another variant, intermediate between the +Shropshire and the ordinary version. {0b} + +There are many other examples of this persistence of ballads in the +popular memory, even in our day, and only persons ignorant of the facts +can suppose that, a century ago, there were no reciters at the head of +Ettrick, and elsewhere in Scotland. Not even now has the halfpenny +newspaper wholly destroyed the memories of traditional poetry and of +traditional tales even in the English-speaking parts of our islands, +while in the Highlands a rich harvest awaits the reapers. + +I could not have produced the facts, about _Auld Maitland_ especially, +and in some other cases, without the kind and ungrudging aid, freely +given to a stranger, of Mr. William Macmath, whose knowledge of +ballad-lore, and especially of the ballad manuscripts at Abbotsford, is +unrivalled. As to _Auld Maitland_, Mr. T. F. Henderson, in his edition +of the _Minstrelsy_ (Blackwood, 1892), also made due use of Hogg’s MS., +and his edition is most valuable to every student of Scott’s method of +editing, being based on the Abbotsford MSS. Mr. Henderson suspects, more +than I do, the veracity of the Shepherd. + +I am under obligations to Colonel Elliot’s book, as it has drawn my +attention anew to _Auld Maitland_, a topic which I had studied “somewhat +lazily,” like Quintus Smyrnæus. I supposed that there was an +inconsistency in two of Scott’s accounts as to how he obtained the +ballad. As Colonel Elliot points out, there was no inconsistency. Scott +had two copies. One was Hogg’s MS.: the other was derived from the +recitation of Hogg’s mother. + +This trifle is addressed to lovers of Scott, of the Border, and of +ballads, _et non aultres_. + +It is curious to see how facts make havoc of the conjectures of the +Higher Criticism in the case of _Auld Maitland_. If Hogg was the forger +of that ballad, I asked, how did he know the traditions about Maitland +and his three sons, which we only know from poems of about 1576 in the +manuscripts of Sir Richard Maitland? These poems in 1802 were, as far as +I am aware, still unpublished. + +Colonel Elliot urged that Leyden would know the poems, and must have +known Hogg. From Leyden, then, Hogg would get the information. In the +text I have urged that Leyden did not know Hogg. I am able now to prove +that Hogg and Leyden never met till after Laidlaw gave the manuscript of +_Auld Maitland_ to Hogg. + +The fact is given in the original manuscript of Laidlaw’s _Recollections +of Sir Walter Scott_ (among the Laing MSS. in the library of the +University of Edinburgh). Carruthers, in publishing Laidlaw’s +reminiscences, omitted the following passage. After Scott had read _Auld +Maitland_ aloud to Leyden and Laird Laidlaw, the three rode together to +dine at Whitehope. + +“Near the Craigbents,” says Laidlaw, “Mr. Scott and Leyden drew together +in a close and seemingly private conversation. I, of course, fell back. +After a minute or two, Leyden reined in his horse (a black horse that Mr. +Scott’s servant used to ride) and let me come up. ‘This Hogg,’ said he, +‘writes verses, I understand.’ I assured him that he wrote very +beautiful verses, and with great facility. ‘But I trust,’ he replied, +‘that there is no fear of his passing off any of his own upon Scott for +old ballads.’ I again assured him that he would never think of such a +thing; and neither would he at that period of his life. + +“‘Let him beware of forgery,’ cried Leyden with great force and energy, +and in, I suppose, what Mr. Scott used afterwards to call the _saw tones +of his voice_.” + +This proves that Leyden had no personal knowledge of “this Hogg,” and did +not supply the shepherd with the traditions about Auld Maitland. + +Mr. W. J. Kennedy, of Hawick, pointed out to me this passage in Laidlaw’s +_Recollections_, edited from the MS. by Mr. James Sinton, as reprinted +from the _Transactions_ of the Hawick Archæological Society, 1905. + + + + +CONTENTS + + PAGE +SCOTT AND THE BALLADS 1 +AULD MAITLAND 18 +THE BALLAD OF OTTERBURNE 53 +SCOTT’S TRADITIONAL COPY AND HOW HE EDITED IT 67 +THE MYSTERY OF THE BALLAD OF JAMIE TELFER 87 +KINMONT WILLIE 126 +CONCLUSIONS 148 + + + + +SCOTT AND THE BALLADS + + +IT was through his collecting and editing of _The Border Minstrelsy_ that +Sir Walter Scott glided from law into literature. The history of the +conception and completion of his task, “a labour of love truly, if ever +such there was,” says Lockhart, is well known, but the tale must be +briefly told if we are to understand the following essays in defence of +Scott’s literary morality. + +Late in 1799 Scott wrote to James Ballantyne, then a printer in Kelso, “I +have been for years collecting Border ballads,” and he thought that he +could put together “such a selection as might make a neat little volume, +to sell for four or five shillings.” In December 1799 Scott received the +office of Sheriff of Selkirkshire, or, as he preferred to say, of Ettrick +Forest. In the Forest, as was natural, he found much of his materials. +The people at the head of Ettrick were still, says Hogg, {1a} like many +of the Highlanders even now, in that they cheered the long winter nights +with the telling of old tales; and some aged people still remembered, no +doubt in a defective and corrupted state, many old ballads. Some of +these, especially the ballads of Border raids and rescues, may never even +have been written down by the original authors. The Borderers, says +Lesley, Bishop of Ross, writing in 1578, “take much pleasure in their old +music and chanted songs, which they themselves compose, whether about the +deeds of their ancestors, or about ingenious raiding tricks and +stratagems.” {2a} + +The historical ballads about the deeds of their ancestors would be far +more romantic than scientifically accurate. The verses, as they passed +from mouth to mouth and from generation to generation, would be in a +constant state of flux and change. When a man forgot a verse, he would +make something to take its place. A more or less appropriate stanza from +another ballad would slip in; or the reciter would tell in prose the +matter of which he forgot the versified form. + +Again, in the towns, street ballads on remarkable events, as early at +least as the age of Henry VIII., were written or printed. Knox speaks of +ballads on Queen Mary’s four Maries. Of these ballads only one is left, +and it is a libel. The hanging of a French apothecary of the Queen, and +a French waiting-maid, for child murder, has been transferred to one of +the Maries, or rather to an apocryphal Mary Hamilton, with Darnley for +her lover. Of this ballad twenty-eight variants—and extremely various +they are—were collected by Professor Child in his _English and Scottish +Popular Ballads_ (ten parts, 1882–1898). In one mangled form or another +such ballads would drift at last even to Ettrick Forest. + +A ballad may be found in a form which the first author could scarcely +recognise, dozens of hands, in various generations, having been at work +on it. At any period, especially in the seventeenth and eighteenth +centuries, the cheap press might print a sheet of the ballads, edited and +interpolated by the very lowest of printer’s hacks; that copy would +circulate, be lost, and become in turn a traditional source, though full +of modernisms. Or an educated person might make a written copy, filling +up gaps himself in late seventeenth or in eighteenth century ballad +style, and this might pass into the memory of the children and servants +of the house, and so to the herds and to the farm lasses. I suspect that +this process may have occurred in the cases of _Auld Maitland_ and of +_The Outlaw Murray_—“these two bores” Mr. Child is said to have styled +them. + +When Allan Ramsay, about 1720, took up and printed a ballad, he altered +it if he pleased. More faithful to his texts (wherever he got them), was +David Herd, in his collection of 1776, but his version did not reach, as +we shall see, old reciters in Ettrick. If Scott found any traditional +ballads in Ettrick, as his collectors certainly did, they had passed +through the processes described. They needed re-editing of some sort if +they were to be intelligible, and readable with pleasure. + +In 1800, apparently, while Scott made only brief flying visits from the +little inn of Clovenfords, on Tweed, to his sheriffdom, he found a +coadjutor. Richard Heber, the wealthy and luxurious antiquary and +collector, looked into Constable’s first little bookselling shop, and saw +a strange, poor young student prowling among the books. This was John +Leyden, son of a shepherd in Roxburghshire, a lad living in extreme +poverty. + +Leyden, in 1800, was making himself a savant. Heber spoke with him, +found that he was rich in ballad-lore, and carried him to Scott. He was +presently introduced into the best society in Edinburgh (which would not +happen in our time), and a casual note of Scott’s proves that he did not +leave Leyden in poverty. Early in 1802, Leyden got the promise of an +East Indian appointment, read medicine furiously, and sailed for the East +in the beginning of 1803. It does not appear that Leyden went +ballad-hunting in Ettrick before he rode thither with Scott in the spring +of 1802. He was busy with books, with editorial work, and in aiding +Scott in Edinburgh. It was he who insisted that a small volume at five +shillings was far too narrow for the materials collected. + +Scott also corresponded with the aged Percy, Bishop of Dromore, editor of +the _Reliques_, and with Joseph Ritson, the precise collector, Percy’s +bitter foe. Unfortunately the correspondence on ballads with Ritson, who +died in 1803, is but scanty; nor has most of the correspondence with +another student, George Ellis, been published. Even in Mr. Douglas’s +edition of Scott’s _Familiar Letters_, the portion of an important letter +of Hogg’s which deals with ballad-lore is omitted. I shall give the +letter in full. + +In 1800–01, “_The Minstrelsy_ formed the editor’s chief occupation,” says +Lockhart; but later, up to April 1801, the Forest and Liddesdale had +yielded little material. In fact, I do not know that Scott ever procured +much in Liddesdale, where he had no Hogg or Laidlaw always on the spot, +and in touch with the old people. It was in spring, 1802, that Scott +first met his lifelong friend, William Laidlaw, farmer in Blackhouse, on +Douglasburn, in Yarrow. Laidlaw, as is later proved completely, +introduced Scott to Hogg, then a very unsophisticated shepherd. +“Laidlaw,” says Lockhart, “took care that Scott should see, without +delay, James Hogg.” {4a} These two men, Hogg and Laidlaw, knowing the +country people well, were Scott’s chief sources of recited balladry; and +probably they sometimes improved, in making their copies, the materials +won from the failing memories of the old. Thus Laidlaw, while tenant in +Traquair Knowe, obtained from recitation, _The Dæmon Lover_. Scott does +not tell us whether or not he knew the fact that Laidlaw wrote in stanza +6 (half of it traditional), stanza 12 (also a ballad formula), stanzas 17 +and 18 (necessary to complete the sense; the last two lines of 18 are +purely and romantically modern). + +We shall later quote Hogg’s account of his own dealings with his raw +materials from recitation. + +In January 1802 Scott published the two first volumes of _The +Minstrelsy_. Lockhart describes the enthusiasm of dukes, fine ladies, +and antiquarians. In the end of April 1803 the third volume appeared, +including ballads obtained through Hogg and Laidlaw in spring 1802. +Scott, by his store of historic anecdote in his introductions and notes, +by his way of vivifying the past, and by his method of editing, revived, +but did not create, the interest in the romance of ballad poetry. + +It had always existed. We all know Sidney’s words on “The Douglas and +the Percy”; Addison’s on folk-poetry; Mr. Pepys’ ballad collection; the +ballads in Tom Durfey’s and other miscellanies; Allan Ramsay’s +_Evergreen_; Bishop Percy’s _Reliques of Ancient Poetry_; Herd’s ballad +volumes of 1776; Evans’ collections; Burns’ remakings of old songs; +Ritson’s publications, and so forth. But the genius of Burns, while it +transfigured many old songs, was not often exercised on old narrative +ballads, and when Scott produced _The Minstrelsy_, the taste for ballads +was confined to amateurs of early literature, and to country folk. + +Sir Walter’s method of editing, of presenting his traditional materials, +was literary, and, usually, not scientific. A modern collector would +publish things—legends, ballads, or folk-tales—exactly as he found them +in old broadsides, or in MS. copies, or received them from oral +recitation. He would give the names and residences and circumstances of +the reciters or narrators (Herd, in 1776, gave no such information). He +would fill up no gaps with his own inventions, would add no stanzas of +his own, and the circulation of his work would arrive at some two or +three hundred copies given away! + +As Lockhart says, “Scott’s diligent zeal had put him in possession of a +variety of copies in various stages of preservation, and to the task of +selecting a standard text among such a diversity of materials he brought +a knowledge of old manners and phraseology, and a manly simplicity of +taste, such as had never before been united in the person of a poetical +antiquary.” + +Lockhart speaks of “The editor’s conscientious fidelity . . . which +prevented the introduction of anything new, and his pure taste in the +balancing of discordant recitations.” He had already written that “Scott +had, I firmly believe, interpolated hardly a line or even an epithet of +his own.” {8a} + +It is clear that Lockhart had not compared the texts in _The Minstrelsy_ +with the mass of manuscript materials which are still at Abbotsford. +These, copied by the accurate Mr. Macmath, have been published in the +monumental collection of _English and Scottish Popular Ballads_, in ten +parts, by the late Professor Child of Harvard, the greatest of scholars +in ballad-lore. From his book we often know exactly what kinds of copies +of ballads Scott possessed, and what alterations he made in his copies. +The _Ballad of Otterburne_ is especially instructive, as we shall see +later. But of the most famous of Border historical ballads, _Kinmont +Willie_, and its companion, _Jamie Telfer of the Fair Dodhead_, Scott has +left no original manuscript texts. Now into each of these ballads Scott +has written (if internal evidence be worth anything) verses of his own; +stanzas unmistakably marked by his own spirit, energy, sense of romance, +and, occasionally, by a somewhat inflated rhetoric. On this point doubt +is not easy. When he met the names of his chief, Buccleuch, and of his +favourite ancestor, Wat of Warden, Scott did, in two cases, for those +heroes what, by his own confession, he did for anecdotes that came in his +way—he decked them out “with a cocked hat and a sword.” + +Sir Walter knew perfectly well that he was not “playing the game” in a +truly scientific spirit. He explains his ideas in his “Essay on Popular +Poetry” as late as 1830. He mentions Joseph Ritson’s “extreme attachment +to the severity of truth,” and his attacks on Bishop Percy’s purely +literary treatment of the materials of his _Reliques of Ancient Poetry_ +(1765). + +As Scott says, “by Percy words were altered, phrases improved, and whole +verses were inserted or omitted at pleasure.” Percy “accommodated” the +ballads “with such emendations as might recommend them to the modern +taste.” Ritson cried “forgery,” but Percy, says Scott, had to win a +hearing from his age, and confessed (in general terms) to his additions +and decorations. + +Scott then speaks reprovingly of Pinkerton’s wholesale fabrication of +_entire ballads_ (1783), a crime acknowledged later by the culprit +(1786). Scott applauds Ritson’s accuracy, but regrets his preference of +the worst to the better readings, as if their inferiority was a security +for their being genuine. Scott preferred the best, the most poetical +readings. + +In 1830, Scott also wrote an essay on “Imitations of the Ancient +Ballads,” and spoke very leniently of imitations passed off as authentic. +“There is no small degree of cant in the violent invectives with which +impostors of this nature have been assailed.” As to _Hardyknute_, the +favourite poem of his infancy, “the first that I ever learned and the +last that I shall forget,” he says, “the public is surely more enriched +by the contribution than injured by the deception.” Besides, he says, +the deception almost never deceives. + +His method in _The Minstrelsy_, he writes, was “to imitate the plan and +style of Bishop Percy, observing only more strict fidelity concerning my +originals.” That is to say, he avowedly made up texts out of a variety +of copies, when he had more copies than one. This is frequently +acknowledged by Scott; what he does not acknowledge is his own occasional +interpolation of stanzas. A good example is _The Gay Gosshawk_. He had +a MS. of his own “of some antiquity,” a MS. of Mrs. Brown, a famous +reciter and collector of the eighteenth century; and the Abbotsford MSS. +show isolated stanzas from Hogg, and a copy from Will Laidlaw. Mr. T. F. +Henderson’s notes {10a} display the methods of selection, combination, +emendation, and possible interpolation. + +By these methods Scott composed “a standard text,” now the classical +text, of the ballads which he published. Ballad lovers, who are not +specialists, go to _The Minstrelsy_ for their favourite fare, and for +historical elucidation and anecdote. + +Scott often mentions his sources of all kinds, such as MSS. of Herd and +Mrs. Brown; “an old person”; “an old woman at Kirkhill, West Lothian”; +“an ostler at Carlisle”; Allan Ramsay’s _Tea-Table Miscellany_; Surtees +of Mainsforth (these ballads are by Surtees himself: Scott never +suspected him); Caw’s _Hawick Museum_ (1774); Ritson’s copies, others +from Leyden; the Glenriddell MSS. (collected by the friend of Burns); on +several occasions copies from recitations procured by James Hogg or Will +Laidlaw, and possibly or probably each of these men emended the copy he +obtained; while Scott combined and emended all in his published text. + +Sometimes Scott gives no source at all, and in these cases research finds +variants in old broadsides, or elsewhere. + +In thirteen cases he gives no source, or “from tradition,” which is the +same thing; though “tradition in Ettrick Forest” may sometimes imply, +once certainly does, the intermediary Hogg, or Will Laidlaw. + +We now understand Scott’s methods as editor. They are not scientific; +they are literary. We also acknowledge (on internal evidence) his +interpolation of his own stanzas in _Kinmont Willie_ and _Jamie Telfer_, +where he exalts his chief and ancestor. We cannot do otherwise (as +scholars) than regret and condemn Scott’s interpolations, never +confessed. As lovers of poetry we acknowledge that, without Scott’s +interpolation, we could have no more of _Kinmont Willie_ than verses, +“much mangled by reciters,” as Scott says, of a ballad perhaps no more +poetical than _Jock o’ the Side_. Scott says that “some conjectural +emendations have been absolutely necessary to render it intelligible.” +As it is now very intelligible, to say “conjectural emendations” is a way +of saying “interpolations.” + +But while thus confessing Scott’s sins, I cannot believe that he, like +Pinkerton, palmed off on the world any ballad or ballads of his own sole +manufacture, or any ballad which he knew to be forged. + +The truth is that Scott was easily deceived by a modern imitation, if he +liked the poetry. Surtees hoaxed him not only with _Barthram’s Dirge_ +and _Anthony Featherstonhaugh_, but with a long prose excerpt from a +non-existent manuscript about a phantom knight. Scott made the plot of +_Marmion_ hinge on this myth, in the encounter of Marmion with Wilfred as +the phantasmal cavalier. He tells us that in _The Flowers of the Forest_ +“the manner of the ancient minstrels is so happily imitated, that it +required the most positive evidence to convince the editor that the song +was of modern date.” Really the author was Miss Jane Elliot (1747–1805), +daughter of Sir Gilbert Elliot of Minto. Herd published a made-up copy +in 1776. The tune, Scott says, is old, and he has heard an imperfect +verse of the original ballad— + + “I ride single on my saddle, + For the flowers o’ the forest are a’ wede awa’” + +The _constant_ use of double rhymes within the line— + + “At e’en, in the gloaming, nae younkers are roaming,” + +an artifice rare in genuine ballads, might alone have proved to Scott +that the poem of Miss Elliot is not popular and ancient. + +I have cleared my conscience by confessing Scott’s literary sins. His +interpolations, elsewhere mere stopgaps, are mainly to be found in +_Kinmont Willie_ and _Jamie Telfer_. His duty was to say, in his preface +to each ballad, “The editor has interpolated stanza” so and so; if he +made up the last verses of _Kinmont Willie_ from the conclusion of a +version of _Archie o’ Ca’field_, he should have said so; as he does +acknowledge two stopgap interpolations by Hogg in _Auld Maitland_. But +as to the conclusion of _Kinmont Willie_, he did, we shall see, make +confession. + +Professor Kittredge, who edited Child’s last part (X.), says in his +excellent abridged edition of Child (1905), “It was no doubt the feeling +that the popular ballad is a fluid and unstable thing that has prompted +so many editors—among them Sir Walter Scott, whom it is impossible to +assail, however much the scholarly conscience may disapprove—to deal +freely with the versions that came into their hands.” + +Twenty-five years after the appearance of _The Border Minstrelsy_, in +1827, appeared Motherwell’s _Minstrelsy_, _Ancient and Modern_. +Motherwell was in favour of scientific methods of editing. Given two +copies of a ballad, he says, “perhaps they may not have a single stanza +which is mutual property, except certain commonplaces which seem an +integral portion of the original mechanism of all our ancient ballads +. . . ” By selecting the most beautiful and striking passages from each +copy, and making those cohere, an editor, he says, may produce a more +perfect and ornate version than any that exists in tradition. Of the +originals “the individuality entirely disappears.” + +Motherwell disapproved of this method, which, as a rule, is Scott’s, and, +scientifically, the method is not defensible. Thus, having three ballads +of rescues, in similar circumstances, with a river to ford, Scott +confessedly places that incident where he thinks it most “poetically +appropriate”; and in all probability, by a single touch, he gives poetry +in place of rough humour. Of all this Motherwell disapproved. (See +_Kinmont Willie_, _infra._) + +Aytoun, in _The Ballads of Scotland_, thought Motherwell hypercritical; +and also, in his practice inconsistent with his preaching. Aytoun +observed, “with much regret and not a little indignation” (1859), “that +later editors insinuated a doubt as to the fidelity of Sir Walter’s +rendering. My firm belief, resting on documentary evidence, is that +Scott was most scrupulous in adhering to the very letter of his +transcripts, whenever copies of ballads, previously taken down, were +submitted to him.” As an example, Aytoun, using a now lost MS. copy of +about 1689–1702, of _The Outlaw Murray_, says “Sir Walter has given it +throughout just as he received it.” Yet Scott’s copy, mainly from a lost +Cockburn MS., contains a humorous passage on Buccleuch which Child half +suspects to be by Sir Walter himself. {15a} It is impossible for me to +know whether Child’s hesitating conjecture is right or wrong. Certainly +we shall see, when Scott had but one MS. copy, as of _Auld Maitland_, his +editing left little or nothing to be desired. + +But now Scott is assailed, both where he deserves, and where, in my +opinion, he does not deserve censure. + +Scott did no more than his confessed following of Percy’s method implies, +to his original text of the _Ballad of Otterburne_. This I shall prove +from his original text, published by Child from the Abbotsford MSS., and +by a letter from the collector of the ballad, the Ettrick Shepherd. + +The facts, in this instance, apparently are utterly unknown to +Lieutenant-Colonel the Hon. Fitzwilliam Elliot, in his _Further Essays on +Border Ballads_ (1910), pp. 1–45. + +Again, I am absolutely certain, and can demonstrate, that Scott did not +(as Colonel Elliot believes) detect Hogg in forging _Auld Maitland_, join +with him in this fraud, and palm the ballad off on the public. Nothing +of the kind occurred. Scott did not lie in this matter, both to the +world and to his intimate friends, in private letters. + +Once more, without better evidence than we possess, I do not believe +that, in _Jamie Telfer_, Scott transferred the glory from the Elliots to +the Scotts, and the shame from Buccleuch to Elliot of Stobs. The +discussion leads us into very curious matter. But here, with our present +materials, neither absolute proof nor disproof is possible. + +Finally, as to _Kinmont Willie_, I merely give such reasons as I can find +for thinking that Scott _had_ “mangled” fragments of an old ballad before +him, and did not merely paraphrase the narrative of Walter Scott of +Satchells, in his doggerel _True History of the Name of Scott_ (1688). + +The positions of Colonel Elliot are in each case the reverse of mine. In +the instance of _Auld Maitland_ (where Scott’s conduct would be +unpardonable if Colonel Elliot’s view were correct), I have absolute +proof that he is entirely mistaken. For _Otterburne_ I am equally +fortunate; that is, I can show that Scott’s part went no further than +“the making of a standard text” on his avowed principles. For _Jamie +Telfer_, having no original manuscript, I admit _decorative_ +interpolations, and for the rest, argue on internal evidence, no other +being accessible. For _Kinmont Willie_, I confess that the poem, as it +stands, is Scott’s, but give reasons for thinking that he had ballad +fragments in his mind, if not on paper. + +It will be understood that Colonel Elliot does not, I conceive, say that +his charges are _proved_, but he thinks that the evidence points to these +conclusions. He “hopes that I will give reasons for my disbelief” in his +theories; and “hopes, though he cannot expect that they will completely +dispose of” his views about _Jamie Telfer_. {17a} + +I give my reasons, though I entertain but slight hope of convincing my +courteous opponent. That is always a task rather desperate. But the +task leads me, in defence of a great memory, into a countryside, and into +old times on the Border, which are so alluring that, like Socrates, I +must follow where the _logos_ guides me. To one conclusion it guides me, +which startles myself, but I must follow the _logos_, even against the +verdict of Professor Child, _notre maître à tous_. In some instances, I +repeat, positive proof of the correctness of my views is impossible; all +that I can do is to show that Colonel Elliot’s contrary opinions also +fall far short of demonstration, or are demonstrably erroneous. + + + + +AULD MAITLAND + + +THE ballad of _Auld Maitland_ holds in _The Border Minstrelsy_ a place +like that of the _Doloneia_, or Tenth Book, in the _Iliad_. Every +professor of the Higher Criticism throws his stone at the _Doloneia_ in +passing, and every ballad-editor does as much to _Auld Maitland_. +Professor Child excluded it from his monumental collection of “English +and Scottish Popular Ballads,” fragments, and variants, for which Mr. +Child and his friends and helpers ransacked every attainable collection +of ballads in manuscript, and ballads in print, as they listened to the +last murmurings of ballad tradition from the lips of old or young. + +Mr. Child, says his friend and pupil, Professor Kittredge, “possessed a +kind of instinct” for distinguishing what is genuine and traditional, or +modern, or manipulated, or, if I may say so, “faked” in a ballad. + +“This instinct, trained by thirty years of study, had become wonderfully +swift in its operations, and almost infallible. A forged or retouched +piece could not escape him for a moment: he detected the slightest jar in +the ballad ring.” {18a} + +But all old traditional ballads are masses of “retouches,” made through +centuries, by reciters, copyists, editors, and so forth. Unluckily, +Child never gave in detail his reasons for rejecting that treasure of Sir +Walter’s, _Auld Maitland_. Child excluded the poem _sans phrase_. If he +did this, like Falstaff “on instinct,” one can only say that antiquarian +instincts are never infallible. We must apply our reason to the problem, +“What is _Auld Maitland_?” + +Colonel Elliot has taken this course. By far the most blighting of the +many charges made by Colonel Elliot against Sir Walter Scott are +concerned with the ballad of _Auld Maitland_. {19a} After stating that, +in his opinion, “several stanzas” of the ballad are by Sir Walter +himself, Colonel Elliot sums up his own ideas thus: + +“My view is that Hogg, in the first instance, tried to palm off the +ballad on Scott, and failed; and then Scott palmed it off on the public, +and succeeded . . . let us, as gentlemen and honest judges, admit that +the responsibility of the deception rests rather on the laird (Scott) +than on the herd” (Hogg.) {19b} + +If Colonel Elliot’s “views” were correct (and it is absolutely +erroneous), the guilt of “the laird” would be great. Scott conspires +with a shepherd, a stranger, to palm off a forgery on the public. Scott +issues the forgery, and, what is worse, in a private letter to a learned +friend, he utters what I must borrow words for: he utters “cold and +calculated falsehoods” about the manner in which, and the person from +whom, he obtained what he calls “my first copy” of the song. If Hogg and +Scott forged the poem, then when Scott told his tale of its acquisition +by himself from Laidlaw, Scott lied. + +Colonel Elliot is ignorant of the facts in the case. He gropes his way +under the misleading light of a false date, and of fragments torn from +the context of a letter which, in its complete form, has never till now +been published. Where positive and published information exists, it has +not always come within the range of the critic’s researches; had it done +so, he would have taken the information into account, but he does not. +Of the existence of Scott’s “first copy” of the ballad in manuscript our +critic seems never to have heard; certainly he has not studied the MS. +Had he done so he would not assign (on grounds like those of Homeric +critics) this verse to Hogg and that to Scott. He would know that Scott +did not interpolate a single stanza; that spelling, punctuation, and some +slight verbal corrections, with an admirable emendation, were the sum of +his industry: that he did not even excise two stanzas of, at earliest, +eighteenth century work. + +I must now clear up misconceptions which have imposed themselves on all +critics of the ballad, on myself, for example, no less than on Colonel +Elliot: and must tell the whole story of how the existence of the ballad +first became known to Scott’s collector and friend, William Laidlaw, how +he procured the copy which he presented to Sir Walter, and how Sir Walter +obtained, from recitation, his “second copy,” that which he printed in +_The Minstrelsy_ in 1803. + +In 1801 Scott, who was collecting ballads, gave a list of songs which he +wanted to Mr. Andrew Mercer, of Selkirk. Mercer knew young Will Laidlaw, +farmer in Blackhouse on Yarrow, where Hogg had been a shepherd for ten +years. Laidlaw applied for two ballads, one of them _The Outlaw Murray_, +to Hogg, then shepherding at Ettrick House, at the head of Ettrick, above +Thirlestane. Hogg replied on 20th July 1801. He could get but a few +verses of _The Outlaw_ from his maternal uncle, Will Laidlaw of Phawhope. +He said that, from traditions known to him, he could make good songs, +“but without Mr. Scott’s permission this would be an imposition, neither +could I undertake it without an order from him in his own handwriting +. . . ” {21a} Laidlaw went on trying to collect songs for Scott. We now +take his own account of _Auld Maitland_ from a manuscript left by him. +{21b} + +“I heard from one of the servant girls, who had all the turn and +qualifications for a collector, of a ballad called _Auld Maitland_, that +a grandfather (maternal) of Hogg could repeat, and she herself had +several of the first stanzas, which I took a note of, and have still the +copy. This greatly aroused my anxiety to procure the whole, for this was +a ballad not even hinted at by Mercer in his list of desiderata received +from Mr. Scott. I forthwith wrote to Hogg himself, requesting him to +endeavour to procure the whole ballad. In a week or two I received his +reply, containing _Auld Maitland_ exactly as he had received it from the +recitation of his uncle Will of Phawhope, corroborated by his mother, who +both said they learned it from their father, a still older Will of +Phawhope, and an old man called Andrew Muir, who had been servant to the +famous Mr. Boston, minister of Ettrick.” Concerning Laidlaw’s evidence, +Colonel Elliot says not a word. + +This copy of _Auld Maitland_, with the superscription outside— + + MR. WILLIAM LAIDLAW, + BLACKHOUSE, + +all in Hogg’s hand, is now at Abbotsford. We next have, through +Carruthers using Laidlaw’s manuscript, an account of the arrival of Scott +and Leyden at Blackhouse, of Laidlaw’s presentation of Hogg’s manuscript, +which Scott read aloud, and of their surprise and delight. Scott was +excited, so that his _burr_ became very perceptible. {23a} + +The time of year when Scott and Leyden visited Yarrow was not the +_autumn_ vacation of 1802, as Lockhart erroneously writes, {23b} but the +_spring_ vacation of 1802. The spring vacation, Mr. Macmath informs me, +ran from 11th March to 12th May in 1802. In May, apparently, Scott +having obtained the _Auld Maitland_ MS. in the vernal vacation of the +Court of Session, gave his account of his discovery to his friend Ellis +(Lockhart does not date the letter, but wrongly puts it after the return +to Edinburgh in November 1802). + +Scott wrote thus:—“We” (John Leyden and himself) “have just concluded an +excursion of two or three weeks through my jurisdiction of Selkirkshire, +where, in defiance of mountains, rivers, and bogs, damp and dry, we have +penetrated the very recesses of Ettrick Forest . . . I have . . . +returned _loaded_ with the treasures of oral tradition. The principal +result of our inquiries has been a complete and perfect copy of “Maitland +with his Auld Berd Graie,” referred to by [Gawain] Douglas in his _Palice +of Honour_ (1503), along with John the Reef and other popular characters, +and celebrated in the poems from the Maitland MS.” (_circ._ 1575). You +may guess the surprise of Leyden and myself when this was presented to +us, copied down from the recitation of an old shepherd, by a country +farmer . . . Many of the old words are retained, which neither the +reciter nor the copyer understood. Such are the military engines, +sowies, _springwalls_ (springalds), and many others . . . ” {24a} + +That Scott got the ballad in spring 1802 is easily proved. On 10th April +1802, Joseph Ritson, the crabbed, ill-tempered, but meticulously accurate +scholar, who thought that ballad-forging should be made a capital +offence, wrote thus to Scott:— + +“I have the pleasure of enclosing my copy of a very ancient poem, which +appears to me to be the original of _The Wee Wee Man_, and which I learn +from Mr. Ellis you are desirous to see.” In Scott’s letter to Ellis, +just quoted, he says: “I have lately had from him” (Ritson) “_a copie_ of +‘Ye litel wee man,’ of which I think I can make some use. In return, I +have sent him a sight of _Auld Maitland_, the original MS . . . I wish +him to see it _in puris naturalibus_.” “The precaution here taken was +very natural,” says Lockhart, considering Ritson’s temper and hatred of +literary forgeries. Scott, when he wrote to Ellis, had received Ritson’s +_The Wee Wee Man_ “lately”: it was sent to him by Ritson on 10th April +1802. Scott had already, when he wrote to Ellis, got “the original MS. +of _Auld Maitland_” (now in Abbotsford Library). By 10th June 1802 +Ritson wrote saying, “You may depend on my taking the utmost care of _Old +Maitland_, and returning it in health and safety. I would not use the +liberty of transcribing it into my manuscript copy of Mrs. Brown’s +ballads, but if you will signify your permission, I shall be highly +gratified.” {25} “Your ancient and curious ballad,” he styles the piece. + +Thus Scott had _Auld Maitland_ in May 1802; he sent the original MS. to +Ritson; Ritson received it graciously; he had, on 10th April 1802, sent +Scott another MS., _The Wee Wee Man_: and when Scott wrote to Ellis about +his surprise at getting “a complete and perfect copy of Maitland,” he had +but lately received _The Wee Wee Man_, sent by Ritson on 10th April 1802. +He had made a spring, not an autumn, raid into the Forest. + +We now know the external history of the ballad. Laidlaw, hearing his +servant repeat some stanzas, asks Hogg for the full copy, which Hogg +sends with a pedigree from which he never wavered. Auld Andrew Muir +taught the song to Hogg’s mother and uncle. Hogg took it from his +uncle’s recitation, and sent it, directed outside, + + TO MR. WILLIAM LAIDLAW, + BLACKHOUSE, + +and Laidlaw gave it to Scott, in March 12–May 12, 1802. But Scott, +publishing the ballad in _The Minstrelsy_ (1803), says it is given “as +written down from the recitation of the mother of Mr. James Hogg, who +sings, or rather chants, it with great animation” (manifestly he had +heard the recitation which he describes). + +It seems that Scott, before he wrote to Ellis in May 1802, had misgivings +about the ballad. Says Carruthers, he “made another visit to Blackhouse +for the purpose of getting Laidlaw as a guide to Ettrick,” being “curious +to see the poetical shepherd.” + +Laidlaw’s MS., used by Carruthers, describes the wild ride by the marshes +at the head of the Loch of the Lowes, through the bogs on the knees of +the hills, down a footpath to Ramseycleuch in Ettrick. They sent to +Ettrick House for Hogg; Scott was surprised and pleased with James’s +appearance. They had a delightful evening: “the qualities of Hogg came +out at every instant, and his unaffected simplicity and fearless +frankness both surprised and pleased the Sheriff.” {26a} Next morning +they visited Hogg and his mother at her cottage, and Hogg tells how the +old lady recited _Auld Maitland_. Hogg gave the story in prose, with +great vivacity and humour, in his _Domestic Manners of Sir Walter Scott_ +(1834). + +In an earlier poetical address to Scott, congratulating him on his +elevation to the baronetcy (1818), the Shepherd says— + + When Maitland’s song first met your ear, + How the furled visage up did clear. + Beaming delight! though now a shade + Of doubt would darken into dread, + That some unskilled presumptuous arm + Had marred tradition’s mighty charm. + Scarce grew thy lurking dread the less, + Till she, the ancient Minstreless, + With fervid voice and kindling eye, + And withered arms waving on high, + Sung forth these words in eldritch shriek, + While tears stood on thy nut-brown cheek: + “Na, we are nane o’ the lads o’ France, + Nor e’er pretend to be; + We be three lads of fair Scotland, + Auld Maitland’s sons a’ three.” + +(Stanza xliii. as printed. In Hogg’s MS. copy, given to Laidlaw there +are two verbal differences, in lines 1 and 4.) + +Then says Hogg— + + Thy fist made all the table ring, + By —, sir, but that is the thing! + +Hogg could not thus describe the scene in addressing Scott himself, in +1818, if his story were not true. It thus follows that his mother knew +the sixty-five stanzas of the ballad by heart. Does any one believe +that, as a woman of seventy-two, she learned the poem to back Hogg’s +hoax? That he wrote the poem, and caused her to learn it by rote, so as +to corroborate his imposture? + +This is absurd. + +But now comes the source of Colonel Elliot’s theory of a conspiracy +between Scott and Hogg, to forge a ballad and issue the forgery. Colonel +Elliot knows scraps of a letter to Hogg of 30th June 1802. He has read +parts, not bearing on the question, in Mr. Douglas’s _Familiar Letters of +Sir Walter Scott_ (vol. i. pp. 12–15), and another scrap, in which Hogg +says that “I am surprised to hear that _Auld Maitland_ is suspected by +some to be a modern forgery.” This part of Hogg’s letter of 30th June +1802 was published by Scott himself in the third volume of _The +Minstrelsy_ (April 1803). + +Not having the context of the letter, Colonel Elliot seems to argue, +“Scott says he got his first copy in autumn 1802” (Lockhart’s mistake), +“yet here are Hogg and Scott corresponding about the ballad long before +autumn, in June 1802. This is very suspicious.” I give what appears to +be Colonel Elliot’s line of reflection in my own words. He decides that, +as early as June 1802, “Hogg”(in the Colonel’s ‘view’), “in the first +instance, tried to palm off the ballad on Scott, and failed; and that +then Scott palmed it off on the public, and succeeded.” + +This is all a mare’s nest. Scott, in March-May 1802, had the whole of +the ballad except one stanza, which Hogg sent to him on 30th June. + +I now print, for the first time, the whole of Hogg’s letter of 30th June, +with its shrewd criticism on ballads, hitherto omitted, and I italicise +the passage about _Auld Maitland_:— + + ETTRICK HOUSE, _June_ 30. + + DEAR SIR,—I have been perusing your minstrelsy very diligently for a + while past, and it being the first book I ever perused which was + written by a person I had seen and conversed with, the consequence + hath been to me a most sensible pleasure; for in fact it is the + remarks and modern pieces that I have delighted most in, being as it + were personally acquainted with many of the modern pieces formerly. + My mother is actually a living miscellany of old songs. I never + believed that she had half so many until I came to a trial. There + are some (_sic_) in your collection of which she hath not a part, and + I should by this time had a great number written for your amusement, + thinking them all of great antiquity and lost to posterity, had I not + luckily lighted upon a collection of songs in two volumes, published + by I know not who, in which I recognised about half-a-score of my + mother’s best songs, almost word for word. No doubt I was piqued, + but it saved me much trouble, paper, and ink; for I am carefully + avoiding anything which I have seen or heard of being in print, + although I have no doubt that I shall err, being acquainted with + almost no collections of that sort, but I am not afraid that you too + will mistake. I am still at a loss with respect to some: such as the + Battle of Flodden beginning, “From Spey to the Border,” a long + poetical piece on the battle of Bannockburn, I fear modern: The + Battle of the Boyne, Young Bateman’s Ghost, all of which, and others + which I cannot mind, I could mostly recover for a few miles’ travel + were I certain they could be of any use concerning the above; and I + might have mentioned May Cohn and a duel between two friends, Graham + and Bewick, undoubtedly very old. You must give me information in + your answer. I have already scraped together a considerable + quantity—suspend your curiosity, Mr. Scott, you will see them when I + see you, of which I am as impatient as you can be to see the songs + for your life. But as I suppose you have no personal acquaintance in + this parish, it would be presumption in me to expect that you will + visit my cottage, but I will attend you in any part of the Forest if + you will send me word. I am far from supposing that a person of your + discernment,—d—n it, I’ll blot out that, ’tis so like flattery. I + say I don’t think you would despise a shepherd’s “humble cot an’ + hamely fare,” as Burns hath it, yet though I would be extremely proud + of a visit, yet hang me if I would know what to do wi’ ye. I am + surprised to find that the songs in your collection differ so widely + from my mother’s. Is Mr. Herd’s MS. genuine? I suspect it. Jamie + Telfer differs in many particulars. Johnny Armstrong of Gilnockie is + another song altogether. I have seen a verse of my mother’s way + called Johny Armstrong’s last good-night cited in the _Spectator_, + and another in _Boswell’s Journal_. It begins, “Is there ne’er a man + in fair Scotland?” Do you know if this is in print, Mr. Scott? In + the Tale of Tomlin the whole of the interlude about the horse and the + hawk is a distinct song altogether. {30a} Clerk Saunders is nearly + the same with my mother’s, until that stanza [xvi.] which ends, “was + in the tower last night wi’ me,” then with another verse or two which + are not in yours, ends Clerk Saunders. All the rest of the song in + your edition is another song altogether, which my mother hath mostly + likewise, and I am persuaded from the change in the stile that she is + right, for it is scarce consistent with the forepart of the ballad. + I have made several additions and variations out, to the printed + songs, for your inspection, but only when they could be inserted + without disjointing the songs as they are at present; to have written + all the variations would scarcely be possible, and I thought would + embarrass you exceedingly. _I have recovered another half verse of + Old Maitlan_, _and have rhymed it thus_— + + _Remember Fiery of the Scot_ + _Hath cowr’d aneath thy hand_; + For ilka drap o’ Maitlen’s blood + I’ll gie _thee_ rigs o’ land.— + + _The two last lines only are original_; _you will easily perceive + that they occur in the very place where we suspected a want_. _I am + surprised to hear that this song is suspected by some to be a modern + forgery_; _this will be best proved by most of the old people + hereabouts having a great part of it by heart_; many, indeed, are not + aware of the manners of this place, it is but lately emerged from + barbarity, and till this present age the poor illiterate people in + these glens knew of no other entertainment in the long winter nights + than in repeating and listening to these feats of their ancestors, + which I believe to be handed down inviolate from father to son, for + many generations, although no doubt, had a copy been taken of them at + the end of every fifty years, there must have been some difference, + which the repeaters would have insensibly fallen into merely by the + change of terms in that period. I believe that it is thus that many + very ancient songs have been modernised, which yet to a connoisseur + will bear visible marks of antiquity. The Maitlen, for instance, + exclusive of its mode of description, is all composed of words, which + would mostly every one spell and pronounce in the very same dialect + that was spoken some centuries ago. + + Pardon, my dear Sir, the freedom I have taken in addressing you—it is + my nature; and I could not resist the impulse of writing to you any + longer. Let me hear from you as soon as this comes to your hand, and + tell me when you will be in Ettrick Forest, and suffer me to + subscribe myself, Sir, your most humble and affectionate servant, + + JAMES HOGG. + +In Scott’s printed text of the ballad, two interpolations, of two lines +each, are acknowledged in notes. They occur in stanzas vii., xlvi., and +are attributed to Hogg. In fact, Hogg sent one of them (vii.) to Laidlaw +in his manuscript. The other he sent to Scott on 30th June 1802. + +Colonel Elliot, in the spirit of the Higher Criticism (_chimæra bombinans +in vacuo_), writes, {31a} “Few will doubt that the footnotes” (on these +interpolations) “were inserted with the purpose of leading the public to +think that Hogg made no other interpolations; but I am afraid I must go +further than this and say that, since they were inserted on the editor’s +responsibility, the intention must have been to make it appear as if no +other interpolations by any other hand had been inserted.” + +But no other interpolations by another hand _were_ inserted! Some verbal +emendations were made by Scott, but he never put in a stanza or two lines +of his own. + +Colonel Elliot provides us with six pages of the Higher Criticism. He +knows how to distinguish between verses by Hogg, and verses by Scott! +{32a} But, save when Scott puts one line, a ballad formula, where Hogg +has another line, Scott makes no interpolations, and the ballad formula +he probably took, with other things of no more importance, from Mrs. +Hogg’s recitation. Oh, Higher Criticism! + +I now print the ballad as Hogg sent it to Laidlaw, between August 1801 +and March 1802, in all probability. + +[Back of Hogg’s MS.: Mr. William Laidlaw, Blackhouse.] + + + +OLD MAITLAND +A VERY ANTIENT SONG + + + THERE lived a king in southern land + King Edward hecht his name + Unwordily he wore the crown + Till fifty years was gane. + + He had a sister’s son o’s ain + Was large o’ blood and bane + And afterwards when he came up, + Young Edward hecht his name. + + One day he came before the king, + And kneeld low on his knee + A boon a boon my good uncle, + I crave to ask of thee + + “At our lang wars i’ fair Scotland + I lang hae lang’d to be + If fifteen hunder wale wight men + You’ll grant to ride wi’ me.” + + “Thou sal hae thae thou sal hae mae + I say it sickerly; + And I mysel an auld grey man + Arrayd your host sal see.”— + + King Edward rade King Edward ran— + I wish him dool and pain! + Till he had fifteen hundred men + Assembled on the Tyne. + And twice as many at North Berwick + Was a’ for battle bound + + They lighted on the banks of Tweed + And blew their coals sae het + And fired the Merce and Tevidale + All in an evening late + + As they far’d up o’er Lammermor + They burn’d baith tower and town + Until they came to a derksome house, + Some call it Leaders Town + + Whae hauds this house young Edward crys, + Or whae gae’st ower to me + A grey haired knight set up his head + And cracked right crousely + + Of Scotlands King I haud my house + He pays me meat and fee + And I will keep my goud auld house + While my house will keep me + + They laid their sowies to the wall + Wi’ mony heavy peal + But he threw ower to them again + Baith piech and tar barille + + With springs: wall stanes, and good of ern, + Among them fast he threw + Till mony of the Englishmen + About the wall he slew. + + Full fifteen days that braid host lay + Sieging old Maitlen keen + Then they hae left him safe and hale + Within his strength o’ stane + + Then fifteen barks, all gaily good, + Met themen on a day, + Which they did lade with as much spoil + As they could bear away. + + “England’s our ain by heritage; + And whae can us gainstand, + When we hae conquerd fair Scotland + Wi’ bow, buckler, and brande”— + + Then they are on to th’ land o’ france, + Where auld King Edward lay, + Burning each town and castle strong + That ance cam in his way. + + Untill he cam unto that town + Which some call Billop-Grace + There were old Maitlen’s sons a’ three + Learning at School alas + + The eldest to the others said, + O see ye what I see + If a’ be true yon standard says, + We’re fatherless a’ three + + For Scotland’s conquerd up and down + Landsmen we’ll never be: + Now will you go my brethren two, + And try some jeopardy + + Then they hae saddled two black horse, + Two black horse and a grey + And they are on to Edwardes host + Before the dawn of day + + When they arriv’d before the host + They hover’d on the ley + Will you lend me our King’s standard + To carry a little way + + Where was thou bred where was thou born + Wherein in what country— + In the north of England I was born + What needed him to lie. + + A knight me got a lady bare + I’m a squire of high renown + I well may bear’t to any king, + That ever yet wore crown. + + He ne’er came of an Englishman + Had sic an ee or bree + But thou art likest auld Maitlen + That ever I did see + + But sic a gloom inon ae browhead + Grant’s ne’er see again + For many of our men he slew + And many put to pain + + When Maitlan heard his father’s name, + An angry man was he + Then lifting up a gilt dager + Hung low down by his kee + + He stab’d the knight the standard bore, + He stabb’d him cruelly; + Then caught the standard by the neuk, + And fast away rade he. + + Now is’t na time brothers he cry’d + Now, is’t na time to flee + Ay by my soothe they baith reply’d, + We’ll bear you company + + The youngest turn’d him in a path + And drew a burnish’d brand + And fifteen o’ the foremost slew + Till back the lave did stand + + He spurr’d the grey unto the path + Till baith her sides they bled + Grey! thou maun carry me away + Or my life lies in wed + + The captain lookit owr the wa’ + Before the break o day + There he beheld the three Scots lads + Pursued alongst the way + + Pull up portculzies down draw briggs + My nephews are at hame + And they shall lodge wi’ me to-night, + In spite of all England + + Whene’er they came within the gate + They thrust their horse them frae + And took three lang spears in their hands, + Saying, here sal come nae mae + + And they shott out and they shott in, + Till it was fairly day + When many of the Englishmen + About the draw brigg lay. + + Then they hae yoked carts and wains + To ca’ their dead away + And shot auld dykes aboon the lave + In gutters where they lay + + The king in his pavilion door + Was heard aloud to say + Last night three o’ the lads o’ France + My standard stole away + + Wi’ a fause tale disguis’d they came + And wi’ a fauser train + And to regain my gaye standard + These men were a’ down slaine + + It ill befits the youngest said + A crowned king to lie + But or that I taste meat and drink, + Reproved shall he be. + + He went before King Edward straight + And kneel’d low on his knee + I wad hae leave my liege he said, + To speak a word wi’ thee + + The king he turn’d him round about + And wistna what to say + Quo’ he, Man, thou’s hae leave to speak + Though thou should speak a day. + + You said that three young lads o’ France, + Your standard stole away + Wi’ a fause tale and fauser train, + And mony men did slay + + But we are nane the lads o’ France + Nor e’er pretend to be + We are three lads o’ fair Scotland, + Auld Maitlen’s sons a’ three + + Nor is there men in a your host, + Dare fight us three to three + Now by my sooth young Edward cry’d, + Weel fitted sall ye be! + + Piercy sall with the eldest fight + And Ethert Lunn wi’ thee + William of Lancastar the third + And bring your fourth to me + + He clanked Piercy owr the head + A deep wound and a sair + Till the best blood o’ his body + Came rinnen owr his hair. + + Now I’ve slain one slay ye the two; + And that’s good company + And if the two should slay ye baith, + Ye’se get na help frae me + + But Ethert Lunn a baited bear + Had many battles seen + He set the youngest wonder sair, + Till the eldest he grew keen + + I am nae king nor nae sic thing + My word it sanna stand + For Ethert shall a buffet bide, + Come he aneath my brand. + + He clanked Ethert owr the head, + A deep wound and a sair + Till a’ the blood of his body + Came rinnen owr his hair + + Now I’ve slayne two slay ye the one; + Isna that gude company + And tho’ the one should slay ye both + Ye’se get nae help o’ me. + + The twasome they hae slayn the one + They maul’d them cruelly + Then hang them owr the drawbridge, + That a’ the host might see + + They rade their horse they ran their horse, + Then hover’d on the ley + We be three lads o’ fair Scotland, + We fain wad fighting see + + This boasting when young Edward heard, + To’s uncle thus said he, + I’ll take yon lad I’ll bind yon lad, + And bring him bound to thee + + But God forbid King Edward said + That ever thou should try + Three worthy leaders we hae lost, + And you the fourth shall be. + + If thou wert hung owr yon drawbrigg + Blythe wad I never be + But wi’ the pole-axe in his hand, + Outower the bridge sprang he + + The first stroke that young Edward gae + He struck wi might and main + He clove the Maitlen’s helmet stout, + And near had pierced his brain. + + When Matlen saw his ain blood fa, + An angry man was he + He let his weapon frae him fa’ + And at his neck did flee + + And thrice about he did him swing, + Till on the ground he light + Where he has halden young Edward + Tho’ he was great in might + + Now let him up, King Edward cry’d, + And let him come to me + And for the deed that ye hae done + Ye shal hae earldoms three + + It’s ne’er be said in France nor Ire + In Scotland when I’m hame + That Edward once was under me, + And yet wan up again + + He stabb’d him thro and thro the hear + He maul’d him cruelly + Then hung him ower the drawbridge + Beside the other three + + Now take from me that feather bed + Make me a bed o’ strae + I wish I neer had seen this day + To mak my heart fu’ wae + + If I were once at London Tower, + Where I was wont to be + I never mair should gang frae hame, + Till borne on a bier-tree + +At the end of his copy Hogg writes (probably of stanza vii.)—“You may +insert the two following lines anywhere you think it needs them, or +substitute two better— + + And marching south with curst Dunbar + A ready welcome found.” + + + +II +_WHAT IS AULD MAITLAND_? + + +Is _Auld Maitland_ a sheer forgery by Hogg, or is it in any sense, and if +so, in what sense, antique and traditional? That Hogg made the whole of +it is to me incredible. He had told Laidlaw on 20th July 1801, that he +would make no ballads on traditions without Scott’s permission, written +in Scott’s hand. Moreover, how could he have any traditions about “Auld +Maitland, his noble Sonnis three,” personages of the thirteenth and +fourteenth centuries? Scott had read about them in poems of about 1580, +but these poems then lay in crabbed manuscripts. Again, Hogg wrote in +words (“springs, wall-stanes”) of whose meaning he had no idea; he took +it as he heard it in recitation. Finally, the style is not that of Hogg +when he attempts the ballad. Scott observed that “this ballad, +notwithstanding its present appearance, has a claim to very high +antiquity.” The language, except for a few technical terms, is modern, +but what else could it be if handed down orally? The language of +undoubted ballads is often more modern than that which was spoken in my +boyhood in Ettrick Forest. As Sir Walter Scott remarked, a poem of +1570–1580, which he quotes from the Maitland MSS., “would run as +smoothly, and appear as modern, as any verse in the ballad (with a few +exceptions) if divested of its antique spelling.” + +We now turn to the historical characters in the ballad. + +Sir Richard Maitland of Lauder, or Thirlestane, says Scott, was already +in his lands, and making donations to the Church in 1249. If, in 1296, +forty-seven years later, he held his castle against Edward I., as in the +ballad, he must have been a man of, say, seventy-five. By about 1574 his +descendant, Sir Richard Maitland, was consoled for his family misfortunes +(his famous son, Lethington, having died after the long siege of +Edinburgh Castle, which he and Kirkcaldy of Grange held for Queen Mary), +by a poet who reminded him that his ancestor, in the thirteenth century, +lost all his sons—“peerless pearls”—save one, “Burdallane.” The Sir +Richard of 1575 has also one son left (John, the minister of James VI.). +{41a} + +From this evidence, in 1802 in MS. unpublished, and from other Maitland +MSS., we learn that, in the sixteenth century, the Auld Maitland of the +ballad was an eminent character in the legends of that period, and in the +ballads of the people. {41b} His + + Nobill sonnis three, + Ar sung in monie far countrie, + _Albeit in rural rhyme_. + +Pinkerton published, in 1786, none of the pieces to which Scott refers in +his extracts from the Maitland MSS. How, then, did Hogg, if Hogg forged +the ballad, know of Maitland and his “three noble sons”? Except Colonel +Elliot, to whose explanation we return, I am not aware that any critic +has tried to answer this question. + +It seems to me that if the _Ballad of Otterburne_, extant in 1550 in +England, survived in Scottish memory till Herd’s fragment appeared in +1776, a tradition of Maitland, who was popular in the ballads of 1575, +and known to Gawain Douglas seventy years earlier, may also have +persisted. There is no impossibility. + +Looking next at Scott’s _Auld Maitland_ the story is that King Edward I. +reigned for fifty years. He had a nephew Edward (an apocryphal person: +such figures are common in ballads), who wished to take part in the +invasion of Scotland. The English are repulsed by old Maitland from his +“darksome house” on the Leader. The English, however, (stanza xv.) +conquer Scotland, and join Edward I. in France. They besiege that town, + + Which some call Billop-Grace (xviii.). + +Here Maitland’s three sons are learning at school, as Scots often were +educated in France. They see that Edward’s standard quarters the arms of +France, and infer that he has conquered their country. They “will try +some jeopardy.” Persuading the English that they are themselves +Englishmen, they ask leave to carry the royal flag. The eldest is told +that he is singularly like Auld Maitland. In anger he stabs the +standard-bearer, seizes the flag, and, with his brothers, spurs to +Billop-Grace, where the French captain receives them. There is fighting +at the gate. The King says that three disguised lads of France have +stolen his flag. The Maitlands apparently heard of this; the youngest +goes to Edward, and explains that they are Maitland’s sons, and Scots; +they challenge any three Englishmen; a thing in the manner of the period. +The three Scots are victorious. Young Edward then challenges one of the +dauntless three, who slays him. Edward wishes himself home at London +Tower. + +Such is the story. It is out of the regular line of ballad narrative, +but it does not follow that, in the sixteenth century, some such tale was +not told “in rural rhyme” about Maitland’s “three noble sons.” That it +is not historically true is nothing, of course, and that it is not in the +Scots of the thirteenth century is nothing. + +Colonel Elliot asks, What in the ballad raised suspicion of forgery (in +1802–03)? The historical inaccuracies are common to all historical +ballads. (In an English ballad known to me of 1578, Henry Darnley is +“hanged on a tree”!) + +Next, “there are occasional lines, and even stanzas, which jar in style +to such a degree that they must have been written by two separate hands.” + +But this, also, is a common feature. In “Professor Child and the +Ballad,” Mr. W. M. Hart gives a list of Professor Child’s notes on the +multiplicity of hands, which he, and every critic, detect in some ballads +with a genuinely antique substratum. {44a} + +Colonel Elliot quotes, as in his opinion the best, stanzas viii., ix., +x., xi., while he thinks xv., xviii. the worst. I give these stanzas— + + VIII. + + They lighted on the banks o’ Tweed, + And blew their coals sae het, + And fired the Merse and Teviotdale, + All in an evening late. + + IX. + + As they fared up o’er Lammermoor, + They burned baith up and doun, + Until they came to a darksome house, + Some call it Leader Town. + + X. + + “Wha hauds this house?” young Edward cried, + “Or wha gi’est ower to me?” + A grey-hair’d knight set up his head, + And crackit right crousely: + + XI. + + “Of Scotland’s king I haud my house, + He pays me meat and fee; + And I will keep my guid auld house, + While my house will keep me.” + + +I cannot, I admit, find any fault with these stanzas: cannot see any +reason why they should not be traditional. + +Then Colonel Elliot cites, as the worst— + + + XV. + + Then fifteen barks, all gaily good, + Met them upon a day, + Which they did lade with as much spoil + As they could take away. + + XVIII. + + Until we came unto that town + Which some call Billop-Grace; + There were Auld Maitland’s sons, a’ three, + Learning at school, alas! + +Now, if I venture to differ from Colonel Elliot here, I may plead that I +am practised in the art of ballad-faking, and can produce high +testimonials of skill! To me stanzas xv., xviii. seem to differ much +from viii.–xi., but not in such a way as Hogg would have differed, had he +made them. Hogg’s error would have lain, as Scott’s did, in being, as +Scott said of Mrs. Hemans, _too poetical_. + +Neither Hogg nor Scott, I think, was crafty enough to imitate the prosaic +drawl of the printed broadside ballad, or the feeble interpolations with +which the “gangrel scrape-gut,” or _bänkelsänger_, supplied gaps in his +memory. The modern complete ballad-faker _would_ introduce such abject +verses, but Scott and Hogg desired to decorate, not to debase, ballads +with which they intermeddled, and we track them by their modern romantic +touch when they interpolate. I take it, for this reason, that Hogg did +not write stanzas xv., xviii. It was hardly in nature for Hogg, if he +knew Ville de Grace in Normandy (a thing not very probable), to invent +“Billop-Grace” as a popular corruption of the name—and a popular +corruption it is, I think. Probably the original maker of this stanza +wrote, in line 4, “alace,” an old spelling—not “alas”—to rhyme with +“grace.” + +Colonel Elliot then assigns xv., xviii. as most likely of all to be by +Hogg. On that I have given my opinion, with my reasons. + +These verses, with xviii., lead us to France, and whereas Scott here +suspects that some verses have been lost (see his note to stanza xviii.), +Colonel Elliot suspects that the stanzas relating to France have been +interpolated. But the French scenes occupy the whole poem from xvi. to +lxv., the end. + +What, if Hogg were the forger, were his sources? He _may_ have known +Douglas’s _Palice of Honour_, which, of course, existed in print, with +its mention of Maitland’s grey beard. But how did he know Maitland’s +“three noble sons,” in 1801–1802, lying unsunned in the Maitland MSS.? + +This is a point which critics of _Auld Maitland_ studiously ignore, yet +it is the essential point. How did the Shepherd know about the three +young Maitlands, whose existence, in legend, is only revealed to us +through a manuscript unpublished in 1802? Colonel Elliot does not evade +the point. “We may be sure,” he says, that Leyden, before 1802, knew +Hogg, and Hogg might have obtained from him sufficient information to +enable him to compose the ballad. {47a} But it was from Laidlaw, not +from Leyden, that Scott, after receiving his first copy at Blackhouse, in +spring 1802, obtained Hogg’s address. {47b} There is no hint that before +spring 1802 Leyden ever saw Hogg. Had he known him, and his ballad-lore, +he would have brought him and Scott together. In 1801–02, Leyden was +very busy in Edinburgh helping Scott to edit _Sir Tristram_, copying +_Arthour_, seeking for an East India appointment, and going into society. +Scott’s letters prove all this. {47c} + +That Hogg, in 1802, was very capable of writing a ballad, I admit; also +that, through Blind Harry’s _Wallace_, he may have known all about +“sowies,” and “portculize,” and _springwalls_, or _springald’s_, or +_springalls_, mediæval _balistas_ for throwing heavy stones and darts. +But Hogg did not know or guess what a _springwall_ was. In his stanza +xiii. (in the MS. given to Laidlaw), Hogg wrote— + + With springs; wall stanes, and good o’ern + Among them fast he threw. + +Scott saw the real meaning of this nonsense, and read— + + With springalds, stones, and gads o’ airn. + +In his preface he says that many words in the ballad, “which the reciters +have retained without understanding them, still preserve traces of their +antiquity.” For instance, _springalls_, corruptedly pronounced +_springwalls_. Hogg, hearing the pronunciation, and not understanding, +wrote, “with springs: wall stanes.” A leader would not throw “wall +stanes” till he had exhausted his ammunition. Hogg heard “with +springwalls stones, he threw,” and wrote it, “with springs: wall stones +he threw.” + +Hogg could not know of Auld Maitland “and his three noble sons” except +through an informant familiar with the Maitland MSS. in Edinburgh +University Library. On the theory of a conspiracy to forge, Scott taught +him, but that theory is crushed. + +Hogg says, in _Domestic Manners of Sir Walter Scott_, that when his +mother met Scott she told him that her brother and she learned the ballad +from auld Andrew Muir, and he from “auld Babby Mettlin,” housekeeper of +the first (“Anderson”) laird of Tushielaw. This first Anderson, laird of +Tushielaw, reigned from 1688 to 1721 (?) or 1724. {48a} Hogg’s mother +was born in 1730, and was only one remove—filled up by Andrew Muir—from +Babby, who was “ither than a gude yin,” and knew many songs. Does any +one think Hogg crafty enough to have invented Babby Maitland as the +source of a song about the Maitlands, and to have introduced her into his +narrative in 1834? I conjecture that this Maitland woman knew a Maitland +song, modernised in time, and perhaps copied out and emended by one of +the Maitland family, possibly one of the descendants of Lethington. We +know that, under James I., about 1620, Lethington’s impoverished son, +James, had several children; and that Lauderdale was still supporting +them (or _their_ children) during the Restoration. Only a century +before, ballads on the Maitlands had certainly been popular, and there is +nothing impossible in the suggestion that one such ballad survived in the +Lauderdale or Lethington family, and came through Babby Maitland to +Andrew Muir, then to Hogg’s mother, to Hogg, and to Scott. + +If a manuscript copy ever existed, and was Babby’s ultimate source, it +would be of the late seventeenth century. That is the ascertained date +of the oldest known MS. of _The Outlaw Murray_, as is proved from an +allusion in a note appended to a copy, referring to a Judge of Session, +Lord Philiphaugh, as then alive. The copy was of 1689–1702. {49a} + +Granting a MS. of _Auld Maitland_ existing in any branch of the Maitland +family in 1680–1700, Babby Mettlin’s knowledge of the ballad, and its few +modernisms, are explained. + +As Lockhart truly says, Hogg “was the most extraordinary man that ever +wore the maud of a shepherd.” He had none of Burns’ education. In 1802 +he was young, and ignorant of cities, and always was innocent of research +in the crabbed MSS. of the sixteenth century. Yet he gets at legendary +persons known to us only through these MSS. He makes a ballad named +_Auld Maitland_ about them. Through him a farm-lass at Blackhouse +acquires some stanzas which Laidlaw copies. In a fortnight Hogg sends +Laidlaw the whole ballad, with the pedigree—his uncle, his mother, their +father, and old Andrew Muir, servant to the famous Rev. Mr. Boston of +Ettrick. The copy takes in Scott and Leyden. Later, Ritson makes no +objection. Mrs. Hogg recites it to Scott, and, according to Hogg, gives +a casual “auld Babby Maitland” as the original source. + +Is the whole fraud conceivable? Hogg, we must believe, puts in two +stanzas (xv., xviii.), of the lowliest order of printed stall-copy or +“gangrel scrape-gut” style, and the same with intent to deceive. He +introduces “Billop-Grace” as a deceptive popular corruption of _Ville de +Grace_. This is far beyond any craft that I have found in the most +artful modern “fakers.” One stanza (xlix.)— + + But Ethert Lunn, a baited bear, + Had many battles seen— + +seems to me very recent, whoever made it. Scott, in lxii., gives a +variant of “some reciters,” for “That Edward once lay under me,” they +read “That Englishman lay under me.” This, if a false story, was an +example of an art more delicate than Scott elsewhere exhibits. + +One does not know what Professor Child would have said to my arguments. +He never gave a criticism in detail of the ballad and of the +circumstances in which Scott acquired it. A man most reasonable, most +open to conviction, he would, I think, have confessed his perplexity. + +Scott did not interpolate a single stanza, even where, as Hogg wrote, he +suspected a lacuna in the text. He neither cut out nor improved the +cryingly modern stanzas. He kept them, as he kept several stanzas in +_Tamlane_, which, so he told Laidlaw, were obviously recent, but were in +a copy which he procured through Lady Dalkeith. {51a} + +By neither adding to nor subtracting from his MS. copy of _Auld +Maitland_, Scott proved, I think, his respect for a poem which, in its +primal form, he believed to be very ancient. We know, at all events, +that ballads on the Maitland heroes were current about 1580. So, late in +the sixteenth century, were the ballads quoted by Hume of Godscroft, on +the murder of the Knight of Liddesdale (1354), the murder of the young +Earl of Douglas in Edinburgh Castle (1440), and the battle of Otterburn. +Of these three, only _Otterburne_ was recovered by Herd, published in +1776. The other two are lost; and there is no _prima facie_ reason why a +Maitland ballad, of the sort current in 1580, should not, in favourable +circumstances, have survived till 1802. + +As regards the Shepherd’s ideas of honesty in ballad-collecting at this +early period, I have quoted his letter to Laidlaw of 20th July 1802. + +Again, in the case of his text from recitation of the _Ballad of +Otterburne_ (published by Scott in _The Minstrelsy_ of 1806), he gave the +Sheriff a full account of his mode of handling his materials, and Scott +could get more minute details by questioning him. + +To this text of _Otterburne_, freely attacked by Colonel Elliot, in +apparent ignorance, as before, of the published facts of the case, and of +the manuscript, we next turn our attention. In the meantime, Scott no +more conspired to forge _Auld Maitland_ than he conspired to forge the +Pentateuch. That Hogg did not forge _Auld Maitland_ I think I have made +as nearly certain as anything in this region can be. I think that the +results are a lesson to professors of the Higher Criticism of Homer. + + + + +THE BALLAD OF OTTERBURNE + + +SCOTT’S version of the _Ballad of Otterburne_, as given first in _The +Minstrelsy_ of 1806, comes under Colonel Elliot’s most severe censure. +He concludes in favour of “the view that it consists partly of stanzas +from Percy’s _Reliques_, which have undergone emendations calculated to +disguise the source from which they came, partly of stanzas of modern +fabrication, and partly of a very few stanzas and lines from Herd’s +version” (1776). {53a} + +As a matter of fact we know, though Colonel Elliot does not, the whole +process of construction of the _Otterburne_ in _The Minstrelsy_ of 1806. +Professor Child published all the texts with a letter. {53b} It is a +pity that Colonel Elliot overlooks facts in favour of conjecture. +Concerning historical facts he is not more thorough in research. The +story, in Percy’s _Reliques_, of the slaying of Douglas by Percy, “is, so +far as I know, supported neither by history nor by tradition.” {53c} If +unfamiliar with the English chroniclers (in Latin) of the end of the +fourteenth century, Colonel Elliot could find them cited by Professor +Child. Knyghton, Walsingham, and the continuator of Higden (Malverne), +all assert that Percy killed Douglas with his own hand. {54a} The +English ballad of _Otterburne_ (in MS. of about 1550) gives this version +of Douglas’s death. It is erroneous. Froissart, a contemporary, had +accounts of the battle from combatants, both English and Scottish. +Douglas, fighting in the front of the van, on a moonlight night, was +slain by three lance-wounds received in the mellay. The English knew not +whom they had slain. + +The interesting point is that, while the Scottish ballads give either the +English version of Percy’s death (in _Minstrelsy_, 1806) or another +account mentioned by Hume of Godscroft (_circ._ 1610), that he was slain +by one of his own men, the Scottish versions are _all_ deeply affected in +an important point by Froissart’s contemporary narrative, which has not +affected the English versions. {54b} The point is that the death of +Douglas was by his order concealed from both parties. + +When both the English version in Percy’s _Reliques_ (from a MS. of about +1550), and Scott’s version of 1806, mention a “challenge to battle” +between Percy and Douglas, Colonel Elliot calls this incident “probably +purely fanciful and imaginary,” and suspects Scott’s version of being +made up and altered from the English text. But the challenge which +resulted in the battle of Otterburn is not fanciful and imaginary! + +It is mentioned by Froissart. Douglas, he says, took Percy’s pennon in +an encounter under Newcastle. Percy vowed that Douglas would never carry +the pennon out of Northumberland; Douglas challenged him to come and take +it from his tent door that night; but Percy was constrained not to accept +the challenge. The Scots then marched homewards, but Douglas insisted on +besieging Otterburn Castle; here he passed some days on purpose to give +Percy a chance of a fight; Percy’s force surprised the Scots; they were +warned, as in the ballads, suddenly, by a man who galloped up; the fight +began; and so on. + +Now Herd’s version says nothing of Douglas at Newcastle; the whole scene +is at Otterburn. On the other hand, Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe’s MS. +text _did_ bring Douglas to Newcastle. Of this Colonel Elliot says +nothing. The English version says _nothing of Percy’s loss of his pennon +to Douglas_ (nor does Sharpe’s), and gives the challenge and tryst. +Scott’s version says nothing of Percy’s pennon, but Douglas takes Percy’s +_sword_ and vows to carry it home. Percy’s challenge, in the English +version, is accompanied by a gross absurdity. He bids Douglas wait at +Otterburn, where, _pour tout potage_ to an army absurdly stated at 40,000 +men, Percy suggests venison and pheasants! In the Scottish version Percy +offers tryst at Otterburn. Douglas answers that, though Otterburn has no +supplies—nothing but deer and wild birds—he will there tarry for Percy. +This is chivalrous, and, in Scott’s version, Douglas understands war. In +the English version Percy does not. (To these facts I return, giving +more details.) Colonel Elliot supposes some one (Scott, I daresay) to +have taken Percy’s,—the English version,—altered it to taste, concealed +the alterations, as in this part of the challenge, by inverting the +speeches and writing new stanzas of the fight at Otterburn, used a very +little of Herd (which is true), and inserted modern stanzas. + +Now, first, as regards pilfering from the English version, that version, +and Herd’s undisputed version, have undeniably a common source. Neither, +as it stands, is “original”; of an _original_ contemporary Otterburn +ballad we have no trace. By 1550, when such ballads were certainly +current both in England and Scotland, they were late, confused by +tradition, and, of what we possess, say Herd’s, and the English MS. of +1550, all were interblended. + +The Scots ballad version, known to Hume of Godscroft (1610), may have +been taken from the English, and altered, as Child thought, or the +English, as Motherwell maintained, may have been borrowed from the Scots, +and altered. One or the other process undeniably occurred; the second +poet, who made the changes, introduced the events most favourable to his +country, and left out the less favourable. By Scott’s time, or Herd’s, +the versions were much degraded through decay of memory, bad penny +broadsides (lost), and uneducated reciters. Herd’s version has forgotten +the historic affair of the capture of Percy’s pennon (and of the whole +movement on Newcastle, preserved in Sharpe’s and Scott’s); Scott’s +remembers the encounter at Newcastle, forgets the pennon, and substitutes +the capture by Douglas of Percy’s sword. The Englishman deliberately +omits the capture of the pennon. The Scots version (here altered by Sir +Walter) makes Percy wound Douglas at Otterburn— + + Till backward he did flee. + +Now Colonel Elliot has no right, I conceive, to argue that this Scots +version, with the Newcastle incident, the captured sword, the challenge, +the “backward flight” of Douglas, were introduced by a modern (Scott?) +who was deliberately “faking” the English version. There is no reason +why tradition should _not_ have retained historical incidents in the +Scottish form; it is a mere assumption that a modern borrowed and +travestied these incidents from Percy’s _Reliques_. We possess Hogg’s +_unedited_ original of Scott’s version of 1806 (an original MS. never +hinted at by Colonel Elliot), and it retains clear traces of being +contaminated with a version of _The Huntiss of Chevet_, popular in 1459, +as we read in _The Complaynte of Scotland_ of that date. There is also +an old English version of _The Hunting of the Cheviot_ (1550 or later, +Bodleian Library). The _unedited_ text of Scott’s _Otterburne_ then +contained traces of _The Huntiss of Chevet_; the two were mixed in +popular memory. In short, Scott’s text, manipulated slightly by him in a +way which I shall describe, was _a thing surviving in popular memory_: +how confusedly will be explained. + +The differences between the English version of 1550 and the Scots +(collected for Scott by Hogg), are of old standing. I am not sure that +there was not, before 1550, a Scottish ballad, which the English +ballad-monger of that date annexed and altered. The English version of +1550 is not “popular”; it is the work of a humble literary man. + +The English is a very long ballad, in seventy quatrains; it greatly +exaggerates the number of the Scots engaged (40,000), and it is the work +of a professional author who uses the stereotyped prosaic stopgaps of the +cheap hack— + + I tell you withouten dread, + +is his favourite phrase, and he cites historical authority— + + The cronykle wyll not layne (lie). + +Scottish ballads do not appeal to chroniclers! A patriotic and imbecile +effort is made by the Englishman to represent Percy as captured, indeed, +but released without ransom— + + There was then a Scottysh prisoner tayne, + Sir Hew Mongomery was his name; + For sooth as I yow saye, + He borrowed the Persey home agayne. + +This is obscure, and in any case false. Percy _was_ taken, and towards +his ransom Richard II. paid £3000. {59a} + +It may be well to quote the openings of each ballad, English and Scots. + + ENGLISH (1550) + + I. + + It fell about the Lammas tyde, + When husbands win their hay, + The doughty Douglas bound him to ride, + In England to take a prey. + + II. + + The Earl of Fife, withouten strife, + He bound him over Solway; + The great would ever together ride + That race they may rue for aye. + + III. + + Over Hoppertop hill they came in, + And so down by Rodcliff crag, + Upon Green Linton they lighted down, + Stirring many a stag. + + IV. + + And boldly brent Northumberland, + And harried many a town, + They did our Englishmen great wrong, + To battle that were not boune. + + V. + + Then spake a berne upon the bent . . . + + SCOTTISH, HERD (1776) + + I. + + It fell and about the Lammas time, + When hushandmen do win their hay; + Earl Douglas is to the English woods, + And a’ with him to fetch a prey. + + II. + + He has chosen the Lindsays light, + With them the gallant Gordons gay; + And the Earl of Fyfe, withouten strife, + And Hugh Montgomery upon a grey. + +(_The last line is obviously a reciter’s stopgap_.) + + III. + + They have taken Northumberland, + And sae hae they _the north shire_, + And the Otterdale they hae burned hale, + And set it a’ into fire. + + IV. + + Out then spak a bonny boy; + +Manifestly these copies, so far, are not independent. But now Herd’s +copy begins to vary much from the English. + +In both ballads a boy or “berne” speaks up. In the English he recommends +to the Scots an attack on Newcastle; in the Scots he announces the +approach of an English host. Douglas promises to reward the boy if his +tale be true, to hang him if it be false. _The scene is Otterburn_. The +boy stabs Douglas, in a stanza which is a common ballad formula of +frequent occurrence— + + The boy’s taen out his little pen knife, + That hanget low down by his gare, + And he gaed Earl Douglas a deadly wound, + Alack! a deep wound and a sare. + +Douglas then says to Sir Hugh Montgomery— + + Take _thou_ the vanguard of the three, + And bury me at yon bracken bush, + That stands upon yon lilly lea. (Herd, 4–8.) + +Hume of Godscroft (about 1610), author of the _History of the Douglases_, +was fond of quoting ballads. He gives a form of the first verse in +_Otterburn_ which is common to Herd and the English copy. He says that, +according to some, Douglas was treacherously slain by one of his own men +whom he had offended. “But this narration is not so probable,” and the +fact is fairly meaningless in Herd’s fragment (the boy has no motive for +stabbing Douglas, for if his report is true, he will be rewarded). The +deed is probably based on the tradition which Godscroft thought “less +probable,”—the treacherous murder of the Earl. + +In the English ballad, Douglas marches on Newcastle, where Percy, without +fighting, makes a tryst to meet and combat him at Otterburn, on his way +home from Newcastle to Scotland. Thither Douglas goes, and is warned by +a Scottish knight of Percy’s approach: as in Herd, he is sceptical, but +is convinced by facts. (This warning of Douglas by a scout who gallops +up is narrated by Froissart, from witnesses engaged in the battle.) +After various incidents, Percy and Douglas encounter each other, and +Douglas is slain. After a desperate fight, Sir Hugh Montgomery, a +prisoner of the English, + + Borrowed the Percy home again. + +This is absurd. The Scots fought on, took Percy, and won the day. +Walsingham, the contemporary English chronicler (in Latin), says that +Percy slew Douglas, so do Knyghton and the continuator of Higden. + +Meanwhile we observe that the English ballad says nothing of Douglas’s +chivalrous fortitude, and soldier-like desire to have his death +concealed. Here every Scottish version follows Froissart. In Herd’s +fragment, Montgomery now attacks Percy, and bids him “yield thee to yon +bracken bush,” where the dead Douglas’s body lies concealed. Percy does +yield—to Sir Hugh Montgomery. The fragment has but fourteen stanzas. + +In 1802, Scott, correcting by another MS., published Herd’s copy. In +1806 he gave another version, for “fortunately two copies have since been +obtained from the recitation of old persons residing at the head of +Ettrick Forest.” {62a} + +Colonel Elliot devotes a long digression to the trivial value of +recitations, so styled, {62b} and gives his suggestions about the copy +being made up from the _Reliques_. When Scott’s copy of 1806 agrees with +the English version, Colonel Elliot surmises that a modern person, +familiar with the English, has written the coincident verses in _with +differences_. Percy and Douglas, for example, change speeches, each +saying what, in the English, the other said in substance, not in the +actual words. When Scott’s version touches on an incident known in +history, but not given in the English version, the encounter between +Douglas and Percy at Newcastle (Scott, vii., viii.), Colonel Elliot +suspects the interpolator (and well he may, for the verses are mawkish +and modern, not earlier than the eighteenth century imitations or +_remaniements_ which occur in many ballads traditional in essence). + +So Colonel Elliot says, “We are not told, either in _The Minstrelsy_ or +in any of Scott’s works or writings, who the reciters were, and who the +transcribers were.” {63a} We very seldom are told by Scott who the +reciters were and who the transcribers, but our critic’s information is +here mournfully limited—by his own lack of study. Colonel Elliot goes on +to criticise a very curious feature in Scott’s version of 1806, and finds +certain lines “beautiful” but “without a note of antiquity,” that he can +detect, while the sentiment “is hardly of the kind met with in old +ballads.” + +To understand the position we must remember that, _in the English_, Percy +and Douglas fight each other thus (1.)— + + The Percy and the Douglas met, + That either of other was fain, + They swapped together while that they sweat, + With swords of fine Collayne. (Cologne steel.) + +Douglas bids Percy yield, but Percy slays Douglas (as in Walsingham’s and +other contemporary chronicles, stanzas li.–lvi.). The Scottish losses +are then enumerated (only eighteen Scots were left alive!), and stanza +lix. runs— + + This fray began at Otterburn + Between the night and the day. + There the Douglas lost his life, + And the Percy was led away. + +Herd ends— + + This deed was done at Otterburn, + About the breaking of the day, + Earl Douglas was buried at the bracken bush, + And Percy led captive away. + +Manifestly, either the maker of Herd’s version knew the English, and +altered at pleasure, or the Englishman knew a Scots version, and altered +at pleasure. The perversion is of ancient standing, undeniably. But +when Scott’s original text exhibits the same phenomena of perversion, in +a part of the ballad missing in Herd’s brief lay, Colonel Elliot supposes +that _now_ the exchanges are by a modern ballad-forger, shall we say Sir +Walter? By Sir Walter they certainly are _not_! One tiny hint of Scots +originality is dubious. In the English, and in all Scots versions, men +“win their hay” at Lammastide. In Scotland the hay harvest is often much +later. But if the English ballad be _Northumbrian_, little can be made +out of that proof of Scottish origin. If the English version be a +southern version (for the minstrel is a professional), then Lammastide +for hay-making is borrowed from the Scots. + +The Scots version (Herd’s) insists on Douglas’s burial “by the bracken +bush,” to which Montgomery bids Percy surrender. This is obviously done +to hide his body and keep his death secret from both parties, _as in +Froissart he bids his friends do_. The verse of the English (l.) on the +fight between Douglas and Percy, is borrowed by, or is borrowed from, the +Scottish stanza (ix.) in Herd, where Sir Hugh Montgomery fights Percy. + + Then Percy and Montgomery met, + And weel a wot they warna fain; + They swaped swords, and they twa swat, + And ay the blood ran down between. + + The Persses and the Mongomry met, + +as quoted, is already familiar in _The Complaynte of Scotland_ (about +1549), and this line is not in the English ballad. So far it seems as if +the English balladist borrowed the scene from a Scots version, and +perverted it into a description of a fight, between Percy, who wins, and +Douglas—in place of the Scots version, the victory over Percy of Sir Hugh +Montgomery. + +This transference of incidents in the English and Scottish ballads is a +phenomenon which we are to meet again in the ballad of _Jamie Telfer of +the Fair Dodhead_. One “maker” or the other has, in old times, pirated +and perverted the ballad of another “maker.” + + + + +SCOTT’S TRADITIONAL COPY AND HOW HE EDITED IT + + +AS early as December 1802–January 1803, Scott was “so anxious to have a +complete Scottish _Otterburn_ that I will omit the ballad entirely in the +first volume (of 1803), hoping to recover it in time for insertion in the +third.” {67a} + +The letter is undated, but is determined by Scott’s expressed interest +“about the Tushielaw lines, which, from what you mention, must be worth +recovering.” In a letter (Abbotsford MSS.) from Hogg to Scott (marked in +copy, “January 7, 1803”) Hogg encloses “the Tushielaw lines,” which were +popular in Ettrick, but were verses of the eighteenth century. They were +orally repeated, but literary in origin. + +Scott, who wanted “a complete Scottish Otterburn” in winter 1802, did not +sit down and make one. He waited till he got a text from Hogg, in 1805, +and published an edited version in 1806. + +_Scott’s published_ stanza i. is Herd’s stanza i., with slight verbal +changes taken from the Hogg MS. text of 1805. (?) Hogg’s MS. and Scott, +in stanza ii., give Herd’s lines on the Lindsays and Gordons, adding the +Grahams, and, in place of Herd’s + + The Earl of Fife, + And Sir Hugh Montgomery upon a grey, + +they end thus— + + But the Jardines wald not wi’ him ride, + And they rue it to this day. + +This is from Hogg’s copy; it is a natural Border variant. No Earl of +Fife is named, but a reproach to a Border clan is conveyed. + +For Herd’s iii. (they take Northumberland, and burn “the North shire,” +and the Otter dale), Hogg’s reciters gave— + + And he has burned the dales o’ Tyne, + And part o’ _Almonshire_, + And three good towers in Roxburgh fells, + He left them all on fire. + +Hogg, in his letter accompanying his copy, says that “Almonshire” may +stand for the “Bamborowshire” of the English vi., but that he leaves in +“Almonshire,” as both reciters insist on it. Scott printed +“Bambroughshire,” as in the English version (vi.). + +Now here is proof that Hogg had a copy, from reciters—a copy which he +could not understand. “Almonshire” is “Alneshire,” or “Alnwickshire,” +where is the Percy’s Alnwick Castle. In Froissart the Scots burn and +waste the region of Alneshire, all round Alnwick, but the Earl of +Northumberland holds out in the castle, unattacked, and sends his sons, +Henry and Ralph Percy, to Newcastle to gather forces, and take the +retreating Scots between two fires, Newcastle and Alnwick. But the Scots +were not such poor strategists as to return by the way they had come. In +a skirmish or joust at Newcastle, says Froissart, Douglas captured +Percy’s lance and pennon, with his blazon of arms, and vowed that he +would set it up over his castle of Dalkeith. Percy replied that he would +never carry it out of England. To give Percy a chivalrous chance of +recovering his pennon and making good his word, Douglas insists on +waiting at Otterburn to besiege the castle there; and he is taken by +surprise (as in the ballads) when a mounted man brings news of Percy’s +approach. No tryst is made by Percy and Douglas _at Otterburn_ in +Froissart; Douglas merely tarried there by the courtesy of Scotland. + +In Hogg’s version we have a reason why Douglas should tarry at Otterburn; +in the English ballad we have none very definite. No captured pennon of +Percy’s is mentioned, no encounter of the heroes “at the barriers” of +Newcastle. Percy, from the castle wall, merely threatens Douglas +vaguely; Douglas says, “Where will you meet me?” and Percy appoints +Otterburn as we said. He makes the absurd remark that, by way of +supplies (for 40,000 men), Douglas will find abundance of pheasants and +red deer. {69a} + +We see that the English balladist is an unwarlike literary hack. The +author of the Ettrick version knew better the nature of war, as we shall +see, and his Douglas objects to Otterburn as a place destitute of +supplies; nothing is there but wild beasts and birds. If the original +poem is the sensible poem, the Scott version is the original which the +English hath perverted. + +In Hogg, Douglas jousts with Percy at Newcastle, and gives him a fall. +Then come two verses (viii.–ix.). The second is especially modern and +mawkish— + + But O how pale his lady look’d, + Frae off the castle wa’, + When down before the Scottish spear + She saw brave Percy fa’! + How pale and wan his lady look’d, + Frae off the castle hieght, + When she beheld her Percy yield + To doughty Douglas’ might. + +Colonel Elliot asks, “Can any one believe that these stanzas are really +ancient and have come down orally through many generations?” {70a} + +Certainly not! But Colonel Elliot does not allow for the fact, insisted +on by Professor Child, that traditional ballads, from the sixteenth to +the eighteenth centuries, were often printed on broad-sheets as edited by +the cheapest broadside-vendors’ hacks; that the hacks interpolated and +messed their originals; and that, after the broadside was worn out, lost, +or burned, oral memory kept it alive in tradition. For examples of this +process we have only to look at _William’s Ghost_ in Herd’s copy of 1776. +This is a traditional ballad; it is included in Scott’s _Clerk Saunders_, +but, as Hogg told him, is a quite distinct song. In Herd’s copy it ends +thus— + + “Oh, stay, my only true love, stay,” + The constant Marg’ret cry’d; + Wan grew her cheeks, she closed her eyes, + Stretched her soft limbs, and dy’d. + +Let _this_ get into tradition, and be taken down from recitation, and the +ballad will be denounced as modern. But it is essentially ancient. + +These two modern stanzas, in Hogg’s copy, are rather too bad for Hogg’s +making; and I do not know whether they are his (he practically says they +are not, we shall see), or whether they are remembered by reciters from a +stall-copy of the period of Lady Wardlaw’s _Hardyknute_. + +After that, Hogg’s copy becomes more natural. Douglas says to the +discomfited Percy (x.)— + + Had we twa been upon the green, + And never an eye to see, + I should hae had ye flesh and fell, + But your sword shall gae wi’ me. + +That rings true! Moreover, had either Hogg or Scott tampered here (Scott +excised), either would have made Douglas carry off—not Percy’s _sword_, +but the historic captured _pennon_ of Percy. Scott really could not have +resisted the temptation had he been interpolating _à son dévis_. + + But your _pennon_ shall gae wi’ me! + +It was easy to write in that! + +Percy had challenged Douglas thus— + + But gae ye up to Otterburn, + And there wait days three (xi.), + +as in the English (xiii.). In the English, Percy, we saw, promises game +enough there; in Hogg, Douglas demurs (xii., xiii., xiv.). There are no +supplies at Otterburn, he says— + + To feed my men and me. + + The deer rins wild frae dale to dale, + The birds fly wild frae tree to tree, + And there is neither bread nor kale, + To fend my men and me. + +These seem to me sound true ballad lines, like— + + My hounds may a’ rin masterless + My hawks may fly frae tree to tree, + +in Child’s variant of _Young Beichan_. The speakers, we see, are +“inverted.” Percy, in the English, promises Douglas’s men +pheasants—absurd provision for the army of 40,000 men of the English +ballad. In the Ettrick text Douglas says that there are no supplies, +merely _feræ naturæ_, but he will wait at Otterburn to give Percy his +chance. + +Colonel Elliot takes the inversion of parts as a proof of modern +pilfering and deliberate change to hide the theft; at least he mentions +them, and the “prettier verses,” with a note of exclamation (!). {73a} +But there are, we repeat, similar inversions in the English and in Herd’s +old copy, and nobody says that Scott or Hogg or any modern faker made the +inversions in Herd’s text. The differences and inversions in the English +and in Herd are very ancient; by 1550 “the Percy and the Montgomery met,” +in the line quoted in _The Complaynte of Scotland_. At about the same +period (1550) it was the Percy and the Douglas who met, in the English +version. Manifestly there pre-existed, by 1550, an old ballad, which +either a Scot then perverted from the English text, or an Englishman from +the Scots. Thus the inversions in the Ettrick and English version need +not be due (they are not due) to a _modern_ “faker.” + +In the Hogg MS. (xxiii.), Percy wounds Douglas “till backwards he did +flee.” Hogg was too good a Scot to interpolate the flight of Douglas; +and Scott was so good a Scot that—what do you suppose he did?—he excised +“till backwards he did flee” from Hogg’s text, and inserted “that he fell +to the ground” _from the English text_! + +In the Hogg MS. (xviii., xix.), in Scott xvii., xviii., Douglas, at +Otterburn, is roused from sleep by his page with news of Percy’s +approach. Douglas says that the page lies (compare Herd, where Douglas +doubts the page)— + + For Percy hadna’ men yestreen + To dight my men and me. + +There is nothing in this to surprise any one who knows the innumerable +variants in traditional ballads. But now comes in a very curious +variation (Hogg MS. xx., Scott, xix.). Douglas says (Hogg MS. xx.)— + + But I have seen a dreary dream + Beyond the Isle o’ Skye, + I saw a dead man won the fight, + And I think that man was I. + +Here is something not in Herd, and as remote from the manner of the +English poet, with his + + The Chronicle will not lie, + +as Heine is remote from, say,—Milman. The verse is magical, it has +haunted my memory since I was ten years old. Godscroft, who does not +approve of the story of Douglas’s murder by one of his men, writes that +the dying leader said:— + +“First do yee keep my death both from our own folke and from the enemy” +(Froissart, “Let neither friend nor foe know of my estate”); “then that +ye suffer not my standard to be lost or cast downe” (Froissart, “Up with +my standard and call _Douglas_!”;) “and last, that ye avenge my death” +(also in Froissart). “Bury me at Melrose Abbey with my father. If I +could hope for these things I should die with the greater contentment; +for long since I _heard a prophesie that a dead man should winne a +field_, _and I hope in God it shall be I_.” {75a} + + I saw a dead man won the fight, + And I think that man was I! + +Godscroft, up to the mention of Melrose and the prophecy, took his tale +direct from Froissart, or, if he took it from George Buchanan’s Latin +History, Buchanan’s source was Froissart, but Froissart’s was evidence +from Scots who were in the battle. + +But who changed the prophecy to a dream of Douglas, and who versified +Godscroft’s “a dead man shall winne a field, and I hope in God it shall +be I”? Did Godscroft take that from the ballad current in his time and +quoted by him? Or did a _remanieur_ of Godscroft turn _his_ words into + + I saw a dead man win the fight, + And I think that man was I? + +Scott did not make these two noble lines out of Godscroft, he found them +in Hogg’s copy from recitation, only altering “I saw” into “I dreamed,” +and the ungrammatic “won” into “win”; and “_the_ fight” into “_a_ fight.” + +The whole dream stanza occurs in a part of the ballad where Hogg +confesses to no alteration or interpolation, and I doubt if the Shepherd +of Ettrick had read a rare old book like Godscroft. If he had not, this +stanza is purely traditional; if he had, he showed great genius in his +use of Godscroft. + +In Hogg’s Ettrick copy, Douglas, after telling his dream, rushes into +battle, is wounded by Percy, and “backward flees.” Scott (xx.), +following a historical version (Wyntoun’s _Cronykil_), makes + + Douglas forget the helmit good + That should have kept his brain. + +Being wounded, in Hogg’s version, and “backward fleeing,” Douglas sends +his page to bring Montgomery (Hogg), and from stanza xxiv. to xxxiv., in +Hogg, all is made up by himself, he says,—from facts given “in plain +prose” by his reciters, with here and there a line or two given in verse. +Scott omitted some verses here, amended others slightly, by help of +Herd’s version, _left out a broken last stanza_ (xl.) and put in Herd’s +concluding lines (stanza lxviii. in the English text). + + This deed was done at the Otterburn. (Herd.) + + The fraye began at Otterburn. (English.) + +Now what was the broken Ettrick stanza that Scott omitted in his +published _Otterburne_ (1806)? It referred to Sir Hugh Montgomery, who, +in Herd, captured Percy after a fight; in the English version is a +prisoner apparently exchanged for Percy. In the Ettrick MS. the omitted +verse is + + He left not an Englishman on the field + . . . + That he hadna either killed or taen + Ere his heart’s blood was cauld. + +Scott ended with Herd’s last stanza; in the English version the last but +two. + +Now the death, at Otterburn, of Sir Hugh, is recorded in an English +ballad styled _The Hunting of the Cheviot_. By 1540–50 it was among the +popular songs north of Tweed. _The Complaynte of Scotland_ (1549) +mentions among “The Songis of Natural Music of the Antiquitie” +(_volkslieder_), _The Hunttis of Chevet_. Our copy of the English +version is in the Bodleian (MS. Ashmole, 48). It ends: “Expliceth, quod +Rychard Sheale,” a minstrel who recited ballads and tales at Tamworth +(_circ._ 1559). The text was part of his stock-in-trade. + +The Cheviot ballad, in a Scots form popular in 1549, is later in many +ways than the English _Battle of Otterburne_. It begins with a brag of +Percy, a vow that, despite Douglas, he will hunt in the Cheviot hills. +While Percy is hunting with a strong force, Douglas arrives with another. +Douglas offers to decide the quarrel by single combat with Percy, who +accepts. Richard Witherington refuses to look on quietly, and a general +engagement ensues. + + At last the Duglas and the Perse met, + Lyk to Captayns of myght and of mayne, + They swapte together tylle they both swat + With swordes that wear of fyn myllan. + +We are back in stanza I. of the English _Otterburne_, in stanza xxxv. +(substituting Hugh Montgomery for Douglas) of the Hogg MS. In _The +Hunting_, Douglas is slain by an English arrow (xxxvi.–xxxviii.). + +Sir Hugh Montgomery now charges and slays Percy (who, of course, was +merely taken prisoner). An archer of Northumberland sends an arrow +through good Sir Hugh Montgomery (xliii.–xlvi.). Stanza lxvi. has + + At Otterburn begane this spurne, + Upon a Monnynday; + There was the doughte Douglas slean, + The Perse never went away. + +This is a form of Herd’s stanza xiv. of the English _Otterburn_ +(lxviii.), made soon after the battle. We see that the _original_ ballad +has protean variants; in time all is mixed in tradition. + +Now the curious and interesting point is that Hogg, when he collected the +ballad from two reciters, himself noticed that the _Cheviot_ ballad had +merged, in some way, into the _Otterburn_ ballad, and pointed this out to +Scott. I now publish Hogg’s letter to Scott, in which, as usual, he does +not give the year-date: I think it was 1805. + + ETTRICK HOUSE, _Sept._ 10, [?1805]. + + DEAR SIR,—Though I have used all diligence in my power to recover the + old song about which you seemed anxious, I am afraid it will arrive + too late to be of any use. I cannot at this time have Grame and + Bewick; the only person who hath it being absent at a harvest; and as + for the scraps of Otterburn which you have got, _they seem to have + been some confused jumble made by some person who had learned both + the songs you have_, {79a} _and in time had been straitened to make + one out of them both_. But you shall have it as I had it, saving + that, as usual, I have sometimes helped the metre without altering + one original word. + +Hogg here gives his version from recitation as far as stanza xxiv. + +Here Hogg stops and writes:— + + The ballad, which I have collected from two different people, a crazy + old man and a woman deranged in her mind, seems hitherto considerably + entire; but now, when it becomes most interesting, they have both + failed me, and I have been obliged to take much of it in plain prose. + However, as none of them seemed to know anything of the history save + what they had learned from the song, I took it the more kindly. Any + few verses which follow are to me unintelligible. + + He told Sir Hugh that he was dying, and ordered him to conceal his + body, and neither let his own men nor Piercy’s know; which he did, + and the battle went on headed by Sir Hugh Montgomery, and at length— + +Here follow stanzas up to xxxviii. + +Hogg then goes on thus:— + + Piercy seems to have been fighting devilishly in the dark. Indeed my + narrators added no more, but told me that Sir Hugh died on the field, + but that + + He left not an Englishman on the field, + . . . + That he hadna either killed or ta’en + Ere his heart’s blood was cauld. + + Almonshire (Stanza iii.) may probably be a corruption of + Bamburghshire, but as both my narrators called it so I thought proper + to preserve it. The towers in Roxburgh fells (Stanza iii.) may not + be so improper as we were thinking, there may have been some + [English] strength on the very borders.—I remain, Dear Sir, your most + faithful and affectionate servant, JAMES HOGG. + +Hogg adds a postscript: + + Not being able to get the letter away to the post, I have taken the + opportunity of again pumping my old friend’s memory, and have + recovered some more lines and half lines of Otterburn, of which I am + becoming somewhat enamoured. These I have been obliged to arrange + somewhat myself, as you will see below, but so mixed are they with + original lines and sentences that I think, if you pleased, they might + pass without any acknowledgment. Sure no man will like an old song + the worse of being somewhat harmonious. After stanza xxiv. you may + read stanzas xxv. to xxxiv. Then after xxxviii. read xxxix. + +Now we know all that can be known about the copy of the ballad which, in +1805, Scott received from Hogg. Up to stanza xxiv. it is as given by the +two old reciters. The crazy man may be the daft man who recited to Hogg +Burns’s _Tam o’ Shanter_, and inspired him with the ambition to be a +poet. The deranged woman, like mad Madge Wildfire, was rich in ballad +scraps. From stanza xxv. to xxxiv., Hogg confessedly “harmonises” what +he got in plain prose intermixed with verse. Stanza xxxix. is apparently +Hogg’s. The last broken stanza, as Hogg said, is a reminiscence of the +_Hunting of the Cheviot_, in a Scots form, long lost. + +Hogg was not a scientific collector: had he been, he would have taken +down “the plain prose” and the broken lines and stanzas verbally. But +Hogg has done his best. + +We have next to ask, How did Scott treat the material thus placed before +him? He dropped five stanzas sent by Hogg, mainly from the part made up +from “plain prose”; he placed in a stanza and a line or two from Herd’s +text; he remade a stanza and adopted a line from the English of 1550, and +inserted an incident from Wyntoun’s _Cronykil_ (about 1430). He did +these things in the effort to construct what Lockhart calls “a standard +text.” + +1. In stanza i., for Hogg’s “Douglas _went_,” Scott put “bound him to +ride.” + +2. (_H._) “With the Lindsays.” + + (_S._) “With _them_ the Lindesays.” + +3. (_H._) “Almonshire.” + + (_S._) “Bamboroughshire.” + + (_H._) “Roxburgh.” + + (_S._) “Reidswire.” + +6. (_H._) “The border again.” + + (_S._) “The border fells.” + +7. (_H._) “_Most_ furiously.” + + (_S._) “_Right_ furiouslie.” + +9. (_H._) A modernised stanza. + + (_S._) Scott deletes it. + +15. (_H._) Scott rewrites the stanza thus, + + (_H._) + + But I will stay at Otterburn, + Where you shall welcome be; + And if ye come not at three days end, + A coward I’ll call thee. + + (_S._) + + “Thither will I come,” proud Percy said, + “By the might of Our Ladye.” + “There will I bide thee,” said the Douglas, + “My troth I’ll plight to thee.” + +19. (_H._) “I have _seen_ a dreary dream.” + +20. (_S._) “I have _dreamed_ a dreary dream.” + +21. (_H._) + + Where he met with the stout Percy + And a’ his goodly train. + +21. (_S._) + + But he forgot the helmet good + That should have kept his brain. + + (From Wyntoun.) + +22. (_H._) Line 2. “Right keen.” + + (_S._) Line 2. “Fu’ fain.” + +Line 4. + + The blood ran down like rain. + +Line 4. + + The blood ran them between. + +23. (_H._) + + But Piercy wi’ his good broadsword + Was made o’ the metal free, + Has wounded Douglas on the brow + Till backward did he flee. + +24. (_S._) + + But Piercy wi’ his broadsword good + That could so sharply wound, + Has wounded Douglas on the brow, + Till he fell to the ground. + +25. (_H._) Here Hogg has mixed prose and verse, and does his best. +Scott deletes Hogg’s 25. + +27. (_H._) Douglas repeats the story of his dream. Scott deletes the +stanza. + +28. In Hogg’s second line, + + Nae mair I’ll fighting see. + +Scott gives, from Herd, + + Take thou the vanguard of the three. + +29. Hogg’s verse is + + But tell na ane of my brave men + That I lie bleeding wan, + But let the name of Douglas still + Be shouted in the van. + +This is precisely what Douglas does say, in Froissart, but Scott deletes +the stanza. Probably Hogg got the fact from his reciters, “in plain +prose,” with a phrase or two in verse. + +31. (_H._) Line 4. + + On yonder lily lee. + +27. (_S._) + + That his merrie men might not see. + +33. (_H._) Scott deletes the stanza. + +35. (_H._) + + When stout Sir Hugh wi’ Piercy met. + +30. (_S._) + + The Percy and Montgomery met. {83a} + +36. (_H._) + + “O yield thee, Piercy,” said Sir Hugh, + “O yield, or ye shall die!” + “Fain would I yield,” proud Percy said, + “But ne’er to loon like thee.” + +31. (_S._) + + “Now yield thee, yield thee, Percy,” he said, + “Or else I vow I’ll lay thee low,” + “To whom must I yield,” quoth Earl Percy, + “Now that I see it must be so?” + +Scott took this from Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe’s MS. copy. {84a} + +38. (_H._) + +38. (_S._) Scott makes a slight verbal alteration. + +39. (_H._) Line 1. + +34. (_S._) Line 1. + +Scott substitutes Herd’s + + As soon as he knew it was Montgomery. + +40. (_H._) Hogg’s broken stanza on the death of Montgomery, derived from +a lost form of the _Huntiss of Chevets_, named in _The Complaynte of +Scotland_. + +35. (_S._) Scott omits giving the formula common to the English of 1550 +and to Herd. This was the whole of Scott’s editorial alteration. Any +one may discover the facts from Professor Kittredge’s useful abbreviation +of Child’s collection into a single volume (Nutt. London, 1905). +Colonel Elliot quotes Professor Kittredge’s book three or four times, but +in place of looking at the facts he abounds in the Higher Criticism. +Colonel Elliot says that Scott does not tell us of a single line having +been borrowed from Percy’s version. {84b} Scott has only “a single line” +to tell of, the fourth line in his stanza xxii., “Till he fell to the +ground.” + +For the rest, the old English version and Herd’s have many +inter-borrowings of stanzas, but we do not know whether a Scot borrowed +from an Englishman, or _vice versa_. Thus, in another and longer +traditional version—Hogg’s—more correspondence must be expected than in +Herd’s fourteen stanzas. It is, of course, open to scepticism to allege +that Hogg merely made his text, invented the two crazy old reciters, and +the whole story about them, and his second “pumping of their memories,” +invented “Almonshire,” which he could not understand, and invented his +last broken stanza on the death of Montgomery, to give the idea that _The +Huntiss of Chevets_ was mingled in the recollections of the reciters with +_The Battle of Otterburn_. He also gave the sword in place of the pennon +of Percy as the trophy of Douglas, “and the same with intent to deceive,” +just as he pretended, in _Auld Maitland_, not to know what “springwalls” +were, and wrote “springs: wall-stanes.” If this probable theory be +correct, then Scott was the dupe of Truthful James. At all events, +though for three years Scott was moving heaven and earth and Ettrick +Forest to find a copy of a Scottish ballad of Otterburn, he did not sit +down and make one, as, in Colonel Elliot’s system, he easily could and +probably would have done. + +Before studying his next ill deed, we must repeat that the Otterburn +ballads prove that in early times one nation certainly pirated a ballad +of a rival nation, and very ingeniously altered it and inverted the parts +of the heroes. + +We have next to examine a case in a later generation, in which a maker +who was interested in one clan, pirated, perverted, and introverted the +_rôles_ of the heroes in a ballad by a maker interested in another clan. +Either an Elliotophile perverted a ballad by a Scottophile, or a +Scottophile perverted a ballad by an Elliotophile. + +This might be done at the time when the ballad was made (say 1620–60). +But Colonel Elliot believes that the perversion was inflicted on an +Elliotophile ballad by a Scottophile impostor about 1800–1802. The name +of this desperate and unscrupulous character was Walter Scott, Sheriff of +Ettrick Forest, commonly called Selkirkshire. + +In this instance I have no manuscript evidence. The name of “Jamie of +the Fair Dodhead,” the ballad, appears in a list of twenty-two ballads in +Sir Walter’s hand, written in a commonplace book about 1800–1801. Eleven +are marked X. “Jamie” is one of that eleven. _Kinmont Willie_ is among +the eleven not marked X. We may conjecture that he had obtained the +first eleven, and was hunting for the second eleven,—some of which he +never got, or never published. + + + + +THE MYSTERY OF THE BALLAD OF JAMIE TELFER + + +I +A RIDING SONG + + +_The Ballad of Jamie Telfer of the Fair Dodhead_ has many charms for +lovers of the Border. The swift and simple stanzas carry us through a +great tract of country, which remains not unlike what it was in the days +when Scotts, Armstrongs, and Elliots rode the hills in jack and knapscap, +with sword and lance. The song leads us first, with a foraging party of +English riders, from Bewcastle, an English hold, east of the Border +stream of the Liddel; then through the Armstrong tribe, on the north +bank; then through more Armstrongs north across Tarras water (“Tarras for +the good bull trout”); then north up Ewes water, that springs from the +feet of the changeless green hills and the _pastorum loca vasta_, where +now only the shepherd or the angler wakens the cry of the curlews, but +where then the Armstrongs were in force. We ride on, as it were, and +look down into the dale of the stripling Teviot, _electro clarior_ (then +held by the Scotts); we descend and ford “Borthwick’s roaring strand,” as +Leyden sings, though the burn is usually a purling brook even where it +joins Teviot, three miles above Hawick. + +Next we pass across the green waves of moorlands that rise to the heights +over Ettrick (held by the Scotts), whence the foragers of the song gallop +down to “The Fair Dodhead,” now a heap of grass-covered stones, but in +their day a peel tower, occupied, _according to the ballad_, by one James +Telfer. The English rob the peel tower, they drive away ten cows, and +urge them southwards over Borthwick water, then across Teviot at Coultart +Cleugh (say seven miles above Hawick), then up the Frostily burn, and so +down Ewes water as before; but the Scottish pursuers meet them before +they cross the Liddel again into English bounds. The English are +defeated, their captain is shot through the head (which in no way affects +his power of making speeches); he is taken, twenty or thirty of his men +are killed or wounded, his own cattle are seized, and his victim Telfer, +returns rejoicing to Dodhead in distant Ettrick. + +_C’est magnifique_, _mais ce n’est pas la guerre_! These events never +occurred, as we shall see later, yet the poet has the old reiving spirit, +the full sense of the fierce manly times, and possesses a traditional +knowledge of the historical personages of the day, and knows the +country,—more or less. + +The poem has raised as many difficulties as Nestor’s long story about +raided cattle in the eleventh book of the _Iliad_. Historical Greece +knew but dimly the places which were familiar to Nestor, the towns that +time had ruined, the hill where Athene “turned the people again.” We, +too, have to seek in documents of the end of the sixteenth century, or in +an old map of 1654 (drawn about 1600), to find Dodhead, Catslack, or +Catloch, or Catlock hill, and Preakinhaugh, places essential to our +inquiry. + +I see the student who has ventured so far into my tract wax wan! He does +not,—she does not,—wish to hear about dusty documents and ancient maps. +For him or for her the ballad is enough, and a very good ballad it is. I +would shake the faith of no man in the accuracy of the ballad tale, if it +were not necessary for me to defend the character of Sir Walter Scott, +which, on occasion of this and other ballads, is impugned by Colonel the +Hon. FitzWilliam Elliot. He “hopes, though he cannot expect,” that I +will give my reasons for not sharing his belief that Sir Walter did a +certain thing which I could not easily palliate. {89} + + + +II +THE BALLAD IMPOSSIBLE + + +My attempts to relieve Colonel Elliot from his painful convictions about +Sir Walter’s unsportsmanlike behaviour must begin with proof that the +ballad, as it stands, cannot conceivably be other than “a pack o’ lees.” +Here Colonel Elliot, to a great extent and on an essential point, agrees +with me. In sketching rapidly the story of the ballad,—the raid from +England into Ettrick, the return of the raiders, the pursuit,—I omitted +the _clou_, the pivot, the central point of dramatic interest. It is +this: in one version of the ballad,—call it A for the present,—the +unfortunate Telfer runs to ask aid from the laird of Buccleuch, at +Branksome Hall, some three and a half or four miles above Hawick, on the +Teviot. From the Dodhead it was a stiff run of eight miles, through +new-fallen snow. The farmer of Dodhead, in the centre of the Scott +country, naturally went for help to the nearest of his neighbours, the +greatest chief in the mid-Border. In version A (which I shall call “the +Elliot version”), “auld Buccleuch” (who was a man of about thirty in +fact) was deaf to Telfer’s prayer. + + Gae seek your succour frae Martin Elliot, + For succour ye’s get nane frae me, + Gae seek your succour where ye paid blackmail, + For, man, ye ne’er paid money to me. + +This is impossibly absurd! As Colonel Elliot writes, “I pointed out in +my book” (_The Trustworthiness of Border Ballads_) “that the allegation +that Buccleuch had refused to strike a blow at a party of English +raiders, who had insolently ridden some twenty-five miles into Scottish +ground and into the very middle of his own territory, was too absurd to +be believed . . . ” {91a} + +Certainly; and the story is the more ridiculous as Buccleuch (who has +taken Telfer’s protection-money, or “blackmail”) pretends to believe that +Telfer—living in Ettrick, about nine miles from Selkirk—pays +protection-money to Martin Elliot, residing at Preakinhaugh, high up the +water of Liddel. Martin was too small a potentate, and far too remote to +be chosen as protector by a man living near the farm of Singlee on +Ettrick, and near the bold Buccleuch. + +All this is nonsense. Colonel Elliot sees that, and suggests that all +this is not by the original poet, but has been “inserted at some later +period.” {91b} But, if so, _what was the original ballad before the +insertion_? As it stands, all hinges on this impossible refusal of +Buccleuch to help his neighbour and retainer, James Telfer. If Colonel +Elliot excises Buccleuch’s refusal of aid as a later interpolation, and +if he allows Telfer to reach Branksome and receive the aid which +Buccleuch would rejoice to give, then the Elliot version of the ballad +cannot take a further step. It becomes a Scott ballad, Buccleuch sends +out his Scotts to pursue the English raiders, and the Elliots, if they +come in at all, must only be subordinates. But as the Elliot version +stands, it is Buccleuch’s refusal to do his duty that compels poor Jamie +to run to his brother-in-law, “auld Jock Grieve” in Coultartcleugh, four +miles higher on Teviot than Branksome. Jock gives him a mount, and he +rides to “Martin’s Hab” at “Catlockhill,” a place unknown to research +thereabout. Thence they both ride to Martin Elliot at Preakinhaugh, high +up in Liddesdale, and the Elliots under Martin rescue Jamie’s kye. + +Now the original ballad, if it did not contain Buccleuch’s refusal of aid +to Telfer (which refusal is a thing “too absurd to be believed”) must +merely have told about the rescue of Jamie’s kye by the Scotts, Wat of +Harden, and the rest. If Buccleuch did not refuse help he gave it, and +there was no ride by Telfer to Martin Elliot. Therefore, without a +passage “too absurd to be believed” (Buccleuch’s refusal), _there could +be no Elliots in the story_. The alternative is, that Telfer in Ettrick +_did_ pay blackmail to a man so remote as Elliot of Preakinhaugh, though +Buccleuch was his chief and his neighbour. This is absurd. Yet Colonel +Elliot firmly maintains that the version, in which the Elliots have all +the glory and Buccleuch all the shame, is the original version, and is +true on essential points. + +That is only possible if we cut out the verses about Buccleuch and make +an Ettrick man not appeal to him, but go direct to a Liddesdale man for +succour. He must run from Dodhead to Coultartcleugh, get a horse from +Jock Grieve (Buccleuch’s man and tenant), and then ride into Liddesdale +to Martin. But an Ettrick man, in a country of Scotts, would inevitably +go to his chief and neighbour, Buccleuch: it is inconceivable that he +should choose the remote Martin Elliot as his protector, and go to _him_. + +Thus, as a corollary from Colonel Elliot’s own disbelief in the Buccleuch +incident, the Elliot version of the ballad must be absolutely false and +foolish. + +If Colonel Elliot leaves in the verses on Buccleuch’s refusal, he leaves +in what he calls “too absurd to be believed.” If he cuts out these +verses as an interpolation, then Buccleuch lent aid to Telfer, and there +was no occasion to approach Martin Elliot. Or, by a third course, the +Elliot ballad originally made an Ettrick man, a neighbour of the great +Buccleuch, never dream of appealing to _him_ for help, but run to +Coultartcleugh, four miles above Buccleuch’s house, and thence make his +way over to distant Liddesdale to Martin Elliot! Yet Colonel Elliot says +that in what I call “the Elliot version,” “the story defies criticism.” +{93a} Now, however you take it,—I give you three choices,—the story is +absolutely impossible. + +This Elliot version was unknown to lovers of the ballads, till the late +Professor Child of Harvard, the greatest master of British ballad-lore +that ever lived, in his beautiful _English and Scottish Popular Ballads_, +printed it from a manuscript belonging to Mr. Macmath, which had +previously been the property of a friend of Scott, Charles Kirkpatrick +Sharpe. This version is entitled “Jamie Telfer _in_ the Fair Dodhead,” +not “_of_”: Jamie was a tenant (there was no Jamie Telfer tenant of +Dodhead in 1570–1609, but concerning that I have more to say). Jamie was +no laird. + +Before Professor Child’s publication of the Elliot version, we had only +that given by Scott in _The Border Minstrelsy_ of 1802. Now Scott’s +version is at least as absurdly incredible as the Elliot version. In +Scott’s version the unhappy Jamie runs, not to Branksome and Buccleuch, +to meet a refusal; but to “the Stobs’s Ha’”(on Slitterick above Hawick) +and to “auld Gibby Elliot,” the laird. Elliot bids him go to Branksome +and the laird of Buccleuch, + + For, man, ye never paid money to me! + +Naturally Telfer did not pay to Elliot: he paid to Buccleuch, if to any +one. More, till after the Union of 1603, and the end of Border raids, +Gilbert Elliot, a cousin and friend of Buccleuch, _was not the owner of +Stobs_. The Hon. George Elliot pointed out this fact in his _Border +Elliots and the Family of Minto_: Colonel Elliot rightly insists on this +point. + +The Scott version is therefore as hopelessly false as the Elliot version. +The Elliot version, with the Buccleuch incident, is “too absurd to be +believed,” and could not have been written (except in banter of +Buccleuch), while men remembered the customs of the sixteenth century. +The Scott version, again, could not be composed before the tradition +arose that Gilbert Elliot _was_ laird of Stobs before the Union of the +Crowns in 1603. Now that tradition was in full force on the Border +before 1688. We know that (see chapter on _Kinmont Willie_, _infra_), +for, in 1688, a man born in 1613, Captain Walter Scott of Satchells, in +his _Metrical History of the Honourable Families of the Names of Scott +and Elliot_, represents Gilbert Elliot of Stobs as riding with Buccleuch +in the rescue of Kinmont Willie, in 1596. {95a} Now Satchells’s own +father rode in that fray, he says, {95b} and he gives a minute genealogy +of the Elliots of Stobs. {95c} + +Thus the belief that Gilbert Elliot was laird of Stobs by 1596 was +current in the traditions of a man born seventeen years after 1596. _The +Scott version rests on that tradition_, and is not earlier than the rise +of that erroneous belief. + +Neither the Scott nor Elliot version is other than historically false. +But the Scott version, if we cut out the reference to auld Gibby Elliot, +offers a conceivable, though not an actual, course of events. The Elliot +version, if we excise the Buccleuch incident, does not. Cutting out the +Buccleuch incident, Telfer goes all the way from Ettrick to Liddesdale, +seeking help in that remote country, and never thinks of asking aid from +Buccleuch, his neighbour and chief. This is idiotic. In the Scott +version, if we cut out the refusal of Gilbert Elliot of Stobs, Telfer +goes straight to his brother-in-law, auld Jock Grieve, within four miles +of Buccleuch at Branksome; thence to another friend, William’s Wat, at +Catslockhill (now Branksome-braes), and so to Buccleuch at Branksome. +This is absurd enough. Telfer would have gone straight to Branksome and +Buccleuch, unless he were a poor shy small farmer, _who wanted sponsors_, +known to Buccleuch. Jock Grieve and William’s Wat, both of them +retainers and near neighbours of Buccleuch, were such sponsors. Granting +this, the Scott version runs smoothly, Telfer goes to his sponsors, and +with his sponsors to Buccleuch, and Buccleuch’s men rescue his kye. + + + +III +COLONEL ELLIOT’S CHARGE AGAINST SIR WALTER SCOTT + + +Colonel Elliot believes generally in the historical character of the +ballad as given in the Elliot version, but “is inclined to think that” +the original poet “never wrote the stanza” (the stanza with Buccleuch’s +refusal) “at all, and that it has been inserted at some later period.” +{97a} In that case Colonel Elliot is “inclined to think” that an Ettrick +farmer, robbed by the English, never dreamed of going to his neighbour +and potent chief, but went all the way to Martin Elliot, high up in +Liddesdale, to seek redress! Surely few can share the Colonel’s +inclination. Why should a farmer in Ettrick “choose to lord” a remote +Elliot, when he had the Cock of the Border, the heroic Buccleuch, within +eight miles of his home? + +Holding these opinions, Colonel Elliot, with deep regret— + + I wat the tear blinded his ee— + +accuses Sir Walter Scott of having taken the Elliot version—till then the +only version—and of having altered stanzas vii.–xi. (in which Jamie goes +to Branksome, and is refused succour) into his own stanzas vii.–xi., in +which Jamie goes to Stobs and is refused succour. This evil thing Scott +did, thinks Colonel Elliot. Scott had no copy, he thinks, of the ballad +except an Elliot copy, which he deliberately perverted. + +We must look into the facts of the case. I know no older published copy +of the ballad than that of Scott, in _Border Minstrelsy_, vol. i. p. 91 +_et seqq._ (1802). Professor Child quotes a letter from the Ettrick +shepherd to Scott of “June 30, 1802” thus: “I am surprised to find that +the songs in your collection differ so widely from my mother’s; _Jamie +Telfer_ differs in many particulars.” {98a} (This is an incomplete +quotation. I give the MS. version later.) + +Scott himself, before Hogg wrote thus, had said, in the prefatory note to +his _Jamie Telfer_: “There is another ballad, under the same title as the +following, in which nearly the same incidents are narrated, with little +difference, except that the honour of rescuing the cattle is attributed +to the Liddesdale Elliots, headed by a chief there called Martin Elliot +of the Preakin Tower, whose son, Simm, is said to have fallen in the +action. It is very possible that both the Teviotdale Scotts and the +Elliots were engaged in the affair, and that each claimed the honour of +the victory.” + +Old Mrs. Hogg’s version, “differing in many particulars” from Scott’s, +must have been the Elliot version, published by Professor Child, as “A*,” +“Jamie Telfer _in_” (not “_of_”) “the Fair Dodhead,” “from a MS. written +about the beginning of the nineteenth century, and now in the possession +of Mr. William Macmath”; it had previously belonged to Charles +Kirkpatrick Sharpe. {98b} + +There is one great point of difference between the two forms. In Sir +Walter’s variant, verse 26 summons the Scotts of Teviotdale, including +Wat of Harden. In his 28 the Scotts ride with the slogan “Rise for +Branksome readily.” Scott’s verses 34, 36, and the two first lines of +38, are, if there be such a thing as internal evidence, from his own pen. +Such lines as + + The Dinlay snaw was ne’er mair white + Nor the lyart locks o’ Harden’s hair + +are cryingly modern and “Scottesque.” + +That Sir Walter knew the other version, as in Mr. Macmath’s MS. of the +early nineteenth century, is certain; he describes that version in his +preface. That he effected the whole transposition of Scotts for Elliots +is Colonel Elliot’s opinion. {99a} + +If Scott did, I am not the man to defend his conduct; I regret and +condemn it; and shall try to prove that he found the matter in his copy. +I shall first prove, beyond possibility of doubt, that the ballad is, +from end to end, utterly unhistorical, though based on certain real +incidents of 1596–97. I shall next show that the Elliot version is +probably later than the Scott version. Finally, I shall make it certain +(or so it seems to me) that Scott worked on an old copy which was _not_ +the copy that belonged to Kirkpatrick Sharpe, but contained points of +difference, _not_ those inserted by Sir Walter Scott about “Dinlay snaw,” +and so forth. + + + +IV +WHO WAS THE FARMER IN THE DODHEAD IN 1580–1609? + + +Colonel Elliot has made no attempt to prove that one Telfer was tenant of +the Dodhead in 1580–1603, which must, we shall see, include the years in +which the alleged incidents occur. On this question—was there a Telfer +in the Dodhead in 1580–1603?—I consulted my friend, Mr. T. Craig Brown, +author of an excellent _History of Selkirkshire_. In that work (vol. i. +p. 356) the author writes: “Dodhead or Scotsbank; Dodhead was one of the +four stedes of Redefurd in 1455. In 1609 Robert Scot of Satchells +(ancestor of the poet-captain) obtained a Crown charter of the lands of +Dodbank.” For the statement that Dodhead was one of the three stedes in +1455, Mr. Craig Brown quotes “The Retoured Extent of 1628,” “an +unimpeachable authority.” For the Crown charter of 1609, we have only to +look up “Dodbank” in the Register of the Great Seal of 1609. The charter +is of November 24, 1609, and gratifies “Robert Scott of Satscheillis” +(father of the Captain Walter Scott who composed the _Metrical History_ +of the Scotts in 1688) with the lands, which have been occupied by him +and his forefathers “from a time past human memory.” Thus, writes Mr. +Craig Brown to me, “Scott of Satchells was undoubtedly Scott of _Dodhead_ +also in 1609.” + +In “The Retoured Extent of 1628,” “_Dodhead_ or Dodbank” appears as +Harden’s property. Thus in 1628 the place was “Dodhead or Dodbank,” a +farm that had been tenanted by Scotts “from beyond human memory.” But +Mr. Craig Brown proves from record that one Simpson farmed it in 1510. + +So where does Jamie Telfer come in? + +The farmers were Scotts, it was to their chief, Buccleuch, that they went +when they needed aid. {101a} + +Thus vanishes the hero of the ballad, _Jamie Telfer in the Fair Dodhead_, +and thus the ballad is pure fiction from end to end. + + + +V +MORE IMPOSSIBILITIES IN THE BALLAD + + +This is only one of the impossibilities in the ballad. That the Captain +of Bewcastle, an English hold, stated in a letter of the period to be +distant three miles from the frontier, the Liddel water, should seek “to +drive a prey” from the Ettrick, far through the bounds of his neighbours +and foes, Grahams, Armstrongs, Scotts, and Elliots, is a ridiculously +absurd circumstance. + +Colonel Elliot attempts to meet this difficulty by his theory of the +route taken by the Captain, which he illustrates by a map. {102a} The +ballad gives no details except that the Captain found his first guide +“high up in Hardhaughswire,” which Colonel Elliot cannot identify. The +second guide was “laigh down in Borthwick water.” If this means on the +lower course of the Borthwick, the Captain was perilously near Branksome +Hall and Harden, and his ride was foolhardy. But “laigh down,” I think, +means merely “on lower ground than Hardhaughswire.” + +The Captain, as soon as he crossed the Ritterford after leaving +Bewcastle, was in hostile and very watchful Armstrong country. This +initial difficulty Colonel Elliot meets by marking on his map, as +Armstrong country, the north bank of the Liddel down to Kershope burn; +and the Captain crosses Liddel below that burn at Ritterford. Thence he +goes north by west, across Tarras water, up Ewes water, up Mickledale +burn, by Merrylaw and Ramscleugh and so on to Howpasley, which is not on +the lower but the upper Borthwick. + +Looking at Colonel Elliot’s chart of the Captain’s route, all seems easy +enough for the Captain. He does not try to ride into Teviotdale, for +which he is making, up the Liddel water, and thence by the Hermitage +tributary on his left. Colonel Elliot studs that region with names of +Armstrong and Elliot strongholds. He makes the Captain, crossing Liddel +by the Ritterford, bear to his left, through a space empty of hostile +habitations, in his map. This seems prudent, but the region thus left +blank was full of the fiercest and most warlike of the Armstrong name. +That road was closed to the Captain! + +Colonel Elliot has failed to observe this fact, which I go on to prove, +from a memoir addressed in 1583 to Burleigh, by Thomas Musgrave, the +active son of the aged Captain of Bewcastle, Sir Simon Musgrave. Thomas +describes the topography of the Middle Marches. He says that the +Armstrongs hold both banks of Liddel as far south as “Kershope foot” (the +junction of the Kershope with the Liddel), and hold the north side of the +Liddel as far as its junction with the Esk. {103a} Thus on crossing +Liddel by the Ritterford, the Captain had at once to pass through the +hostile Armstrongs. Thereby also were Grahams with whom the Musgraves of +Bewcastle were in deadly feud. Farther down Esk, west of Esk, dwelt +Kinmont Willie, an Armstrong, “at a place called Morton.” If he did pass +so far through Armstrongs, the Captain met them again, farther north, on +Tarras side, where Runyen Armstrong lived at Thornythaite. Near him was +Armstrong of Hollhouse, Musgrave’s great enemy. North of Tarras the +Captain rode through Ewesdale; there he had to deal with three hundred +Armstrong men of the spear. {104a} When he reached Ramscleuch (which he +never could have done), the Colonel’s map makes the Captain ride past +Ramscleuch, then farmed by the Grieves, retainers of Buccleuch, who would +warn Branksome. When the Captain reached Howpasley on Borthwick water, +he would be observed by the men of Scott of Howpasley, the Grieves, who +could send a rider some six miles to warn Branksome. + +We get the same information as to the perils of the Captain’s path from +the places marked on Blaeu’s map of 1600–54. There are Hollhouse and +Thornythaite, Armstrong towers, and the active John Armstrong of Langholm +can come at a summons. + +It seems to be a great error to suppose that the route chosen for the +Captain by Colonel Elliot could lead him into anything better than a +death-trap. I must insist that it would have been madness for a Captain +of Bewcastle to ride far through Armstrong country, deep into Buccleuch’s +country, and return on another line through Scott, and near Elliot, and +through Armstrong country—and all for no purpose but to steal ten cows in +remote Selkirkshire! + +Here I may save the reader trouble, by omitting a great mass of detail as +to the deplorable condition of Bewcastle itself in 1580–96. Sir Simon, +the Captain, declares himself old and weary. The hold is “utterly +decayed,” the riders are only thirty-seven men fairly equipped. Soldiers +are asked for, sometimes fifty are sent from the garrison of Berwick, +then they are withdrawn. Bewcastle is forayed almost daily; “March +Bills” minutely describe the cattle, horses, and personal property taken +from the Captain and the people by the Armstrongs and Elliots. + +Once, in 1582, Thomas Musgrave slew Arthur Graham, a near neighbour, and +took one hundred and sixty kye, but this only caused such a feud that the +Musgraves could not stir safely from home. From 1586 onwards, Thomas +Musgrave, officially or unofficially, was acting Captain of Bewcastle. +He had no strength to justify him in raiding to remote Ettrick, through +enemies who penned him in at Bewcastle. + +I look on Musgrave as the Captain whose existence is known to the +ballad-maker, and I find the origin of the tale of his defeat and capture +in the ballad, in a distorted memory of his actual capture. + +On 3rd July 1596, Thomas (having got Scrope’s permission, without which +he dared not cross the Border on affairs of war) attempted a retaliatory +raid on Armstrongs within seven miles of the Border, the Armstrongs of +Hollace, or Hollhouse. “He found only empty houses;” he “sought a prey” +in vain; he let his men straggle, and returning homeward, with some +fifteen companions, he was ambushed by the Armstrongs near Bewcastle, was +refused shelter by a Graham, was taken prisoner, and was sent to +Buccleuch at Branksome. On 15th July he came home under a bond of £200 +for ransom. {106a} As every one did, in his circumstances, the Captain +made out his Bill for Damages. It was indented on 28th April 1597. We +learn that John (Armstrong) of Langholm, Will of Kinmont (not Liddesdale +men), and others, who took him, are in the Captain’s debt for “24 horses +and mares, himself prisoner, and ransomed to £200, and 16 other +prisoners, and slaughter.” The charges are admitted by the accused; the +Captain is to get £400. {106b} + +In my opinion this capture of the Captain of Bewcastle and others, +poetically handled, is, with other incidents, the basis of the ballad. +Colonel Elliot says that the incident “is no proof that a Captain of +Bewcastle was not also taken or killed at some other place or at some +other time.” But _what_ Captain, and when? Sir Simon, in 1586, had been +Captain, he says, for thirty years. Thenceforth till near the Union of +the Crowns, Thomas was Captain, or acting Captain. + +So considerable an event as the taking of a Captain of Bewcastle, who, in +the ballad, was shot through the head and elsewhere, could not escape +record in dispatches, and the periodical “March Bills,” or statements of +wrongs to be redressed. Colonel Elliot’s reply takes the shape of the +argument that the ballad may speak of some other Captain, at some other +time; and that, in one way or another, the sufferings and losses of +_that_ Captain may have escaped mention in the English dispatches from +the Border. These dispatches are full of minute details, down to the +theft of a single mare. I am content to let historians familiar with the +dispatches decide as to whether the Captain’s mad ride into Ettrick, with +his dangerous wounds, loss of property, and loss of seventeen men killed +and wounded (as in the ballad), could escape mention. + +The capture of Thomas Musgrave, I think, and two other +incidents,—confused in course of tradition, and handled by the poet with +poetic freedom,—are the materials of _Jamie Telfer_. One of the other +incidents is of April 1597. {107a} Here Buccleuch in person, on the +Sabbath, burned twenty houses in Tynedale, and “slew fourteen men who had +been in Scotland and brought away their booty.” Here we have Buccleuch +“on the hot trod,” pursuing English reivers, recovering the spoils +probably, and slaying as many of the raiders as the Captain lost, in the +ballad. Again, not a _son_ of Elliot of Preakinhaugh (as I had +erroneously said), but a _nephew_ named Martin, was slain in a Tynedale +raid into Liddesdale. {108a} Soldiers aided the English raiders. A +confused memory of this death of Elliot’s nephew in 1597 may be the +source of the story of the death of his son, Simmy, in the ballad. + +Our traditional ballads all arise out of some germs of history, all +handle the facts romantically, and all appear to have been composed, in +their extant shapes, at a considerable time after the events. I may cite +_Mary Hamilton_; _The Laird of Logie_ is another case in point; there are +many others. + +Colonel Elliot does not agree with me. So be it. + +Colonel Elliot writes that,—in place of my saying that _Jamie Telfer_ “is +a mere mythical perversion of carefully recorded facts,”—“it would surely +be more correct to say that it is a fairly true, though jumbled, account +of actual incidents, separated from each other by only short periods of +time . . . ” {108b} If he means, or thinks that I mean, that the actual +facts were the capture of Musgrave near Bewcastle in 1596 by the +Armstrongs, with Buccleuch’s hot-trod, and Martin Elliot’s slaying in +1597, I entirely agree with him that the facts are “jumbled.” But as to +the opinion that the ballad is “fairly true” about the raid to Ettrick +(the Captain could not ride a mile beyond the Border without the Warden’s +permission), about the non-existent Jamie Telfer, about the shooting, +taking, and plundering of the Captain, about his loss of seventeen men +wounded and slain (he lost about as many prisoners),—I have given reasons +for my disbelief. + + + +VI +IS THE SCOTT VERSION, WITH ELLIOTS AND SCOTTS TRANSPOSED, THE LATER +VERSION? + + +We now come to the important question, Is the Scott version of the ballad +(apart from Sir Walter’s decorative stanzas) necessarily _later_ than the +Elliot version in Sharpe’s copy? The chief argument for the lateness of +the Scott version, the presence of a Gilbert Elliot of Stobs at a date +when this gentleman had not yet acquired Stobs, I have already treated. +If the ballad is no earlier than the date when Elliot was believed (as by +Satchells) to have obtained Stobs before 1596, the argument falls to the +ground. + +Starting from that point, and granting that a minstrel fond of the Scotts +wants to banter the Elliots, he may make Telfer ask aid at Stobs. After +that, which version is better in its topography? Bidden by Stobs to seek +Buccleuch, Telfer runs to Teviot, to Coultartcleugh, some four miles +above Branksome. Branksome was nearer, but Telfer was shy, let us say, +and did not know Buccleuch; while at Coultartcleugh, Jock Grieve was his +brother-in-law. Jock gives him a mount, and takes him to “Catslockhill.” + +Now, no Catslockhill is known anywhere, to me or to Colonel Elliot. Mr. +Henderson, in a note to the ballad, {110a} speaks of “Catslack in +Branxholm,” and cites the _Register of the Privy Seal_ for 4th June 1554, +and the _Register of the Privy Council_ for 14th October 1592. The +records are full of _that_ Catslack, but it is not in Branksome. Blaeu’s +map (1600–54) gives it, with its appurtenances, on the north side of St. +Mary’s Loch. There is a Catslack on the north side of Yarrow, near +Ladhope, on the southern side. Neither Catslack is the Catslockhill of +the Scott ballad. But on evidence, “and it is good evidence,” says +Colonel Elliot, {110b} I prove that, in 1802, a place called “Catlochill” +existed between Coultartcleugh and Branksome. The place (Mrs. Grieve, +Branksome Park, informs me) is now called Branksome-braes. On his copy +of _The Minstrelsy_ of 1802, Mr. Grieve, then tenant of Branksome Park, +made a marginal note. Catlochill was still known to him; it was in a +commanding site, and had been strengthened by the art of man. His note I +have seen and read. + +Thus, on good evidence, there was a Catlochill, or Catlockhill, between +Coultartcleugh and Branksome. The Scott version is right in its +topography. + +This fact was unknown to Colonel Elliot. Not knowing a Catslackhill or +Catslockhill in Teviot, he made Scott’s Telfer go to an apocryphal +Catlockhill in Liddesdale. Professor Veitch had said that the +Catslockhill of the ballad “_is to be sought_” in some locality between +Coultartcleugh and Branxholm. Colonel Elliot calls this “a really +preposterously cool suggestion.” {111a} Why “really preposterously +cool”? Being sought, the place is found where it had always been. Jamie +Telfer found it, and in it his friend “William’s Wat,” who took him to +the laird of Buccleuch at Branksome. + +In the Elliot version, when refused aid by Buccleuch, Jamie ran to +Coultartcleugh,—as in Scott’s,—on his way to Martin Elliot at +Preakinhaugh on the Liddel. Jamie next “takes the fray” to “the +Catlockhill,” and is there remounted by “Martin’s Hab,” an Elliot (not by +William’s Wat), and _they_ “take the fray” to Martin Elliot at +Preakinhaugh in Liddesdale. This is very well, but where _is_ this +“Catlockhill” in Liddesdale? Is it even a real place? + +Colonel Elliot has found no such place; nor can I find it in the +_Registrum Magni Sigilli_, nor in Blaeu’s map of 1600–54. + +Colonel Elliot’s argument has been that the Elliot version, the version +of the Sharpe MS., is the earlier, for, among other reasons, its +topography is correct. {112a} It makes Telfer run from Dodhead to +Branksome for aid, because that was the comparatively near residence of +the powerful Buccleuch. Told by Buccleuch to seek aid from Martin Elliot +in Liddesdale, Telfer does so. He runs up Teviot four miles to his +brother-in-law, Jock Grieve, who mounts him. He then rides off at a +right angle, from Teviot to Catlockhill, says the Elliot ballad, where he +is rehorsed by Martin’s Hab. The pair then take the fray to Martin +Elliot at Preakinhaugh on Liddel water, and Martin summons and leads the +pursuers of the Captain. + +This, to Colonel Elliot’s mind, is all plain sailing, all is feasible and +natural. And so it _is_ feasible and natural, if Colonel Elliot can find +a Catlockhill anywhere between Coultartcleugh and Preakinhaugh. On that +line, in Mr. Veitch’s words, Catlockhill “is to be sought.” But just as +Mr. Veitch could find no Catslockhill between Coultartcleugh and +Branksome, so Colonel Elliot can find no Catlockhill between +Coultartcleugh and Preakinhaugh. He tells us {112b} indeed of +“Catlockhill on Hermitage water.” But there is no such place known! +Colonel Elliot’s method is to take a place which, he says, is given as +“Catlie” Hill, “between Dinlay burn and Hermitage water, on Blaeu’s map +of 1654.” We may murmur that Catlie Hill is one thing and Catlock +another, but Colonel Elliot points out that “lock” means “the meeting of +waters,” and that Catlie Hill is near the meeting of Dinlay burn and the +Hermitage water. But then why does Blaeu call it, not Catlockhill, nor +Catlie hill, nor “Catlie” even, but “_Gatlie_,” for so it is distinctly +printed on my copy of the map? Really we cannot take a place called +“Gatlie Hill” and pronounce that we have found “Catlockhill”! Would +Colonel Elliot have permitted Mr. Veitch—if Mr. Veitch had found “Gatlie +Hill” near Branksome, in Blaeu—to aver that he had found Catslockhill +near Branksome? + +Thus, till Colonel Elliot produces on good evidence a Catlockhill between +Coultartcleugh and Preakinhaugh, the topography of the Elliot ballad, of +the Sharpe copy of the ballad, is nowhere, for neither Catliehill nor +Gatliehill is Catlockhill. That does not look as if the Elliot were +older than the Scott version. (There was a Sim _Armstrong_ of the +_Cathill_, slain by a Ridley of Hartswell in 1597. {113a}) + +We now take the Scott version where Telfer has arrived at Branksome. +Scott’s stanza xxv. is Sharpe’s xxiv. In Scott, Buccleuch; in Sharpe, +Martin Elliot bids his men “warn the waterside” (Sharpe), “warn the water +braid and wide” (Scott). Scott’s stanza xxvi. is probably his own, or +may be, for he bids them warn Wat o’ Harden, Borthwick water, and the +Teviot Scotts, and Gilmanscleuch—which is remote. Then, in xxvii., +Buccleuch says— + + Ride by the gate of Priesthaughswire, + And warn the Currors o’ the Lee, + As ye come down the Hermitage slack + Warn doughty Wiliie o’ Gorrinberry. + +All this is plain sailing, by the pass of Priesthaughswire the Scotts +will ride from Teviot into Hermitage water, and, near the Slack, they +will pass Gorrinberry, will call Will, and gallop down Hermitage water to +the Liddel, where they will nick the returning Captain at the Ritterford. + +The Sharpe version makes Martin order the warning of the waterside +(xxiv.), and then Martin says (xxv.)— + + When ye come in at the Hermitage Slack, + Warn doughty Will o’ Gorranherry. + +Colonel Elliot {114a} supposes Martin (if I follow his meaning) to send +Simmy with his command, _back over all the course that Telfer and +Martin’s Hab have already ridden_: back past Shaws, near Braidley (a +house of Martin’s), past “Catlockhill,” to Gorranberry, to “warn the +waterside.” But surely Telfer, who passed Gorranberry gates, and with +Hab passed the other places, had “taken the fray,” and warned the water +quite sufficiently already. If this be granted, the Sharpe version is +taking from the Scott version the stanza, so natural there, about the +Hermitage Slack and Gorranberry. But Colonel Elliot infers, from stanzas +xxvi., xxx., xxxi., that Simmy has warned the water as far as Gorranberry +(_again_), has come in touch with the Captain, “between the Frostily and +the Ritterford,” and that this is “consistent only with his having moved +up the Hermitage water.” + +Meanwhile Martin, he thinks, rode with his men down Liddel water. But +here we get into a maze of topographical conjecture, including the +hypothesis that perhaps the Liddel came down in flood, and caused the +English to make for Kershope ford instead of Ritterford, and here they +were met by Martin’s men on the Hermitage line of advance. I cannot find +this elegant combined movement in the ballad; all this seems to me +hypothesis upon hypothesis, even granting that Martin sent Simmy back up +Hermitage that he might thence cut sooner across the enemy’s path. +Colonel Elliot himself writes: “It is certain that after the news of the +raid reached Catlockhill” (_and_ Gorranberry, Telfer passed it), “it must +have spread rapidly through Hermitage water, and it is most unlikely for +the men of this district to have delayed taking action until they +received instructions from their chief.” {115} + +That is exactly what I say; but Martin says, “When ye come in at the +Hermitage Slack, warn doughty Will o’ Gorranberry.” Why go to warn him, +when, as Colonel Elliot says, the news is running through Hermitage +water, and the men are most probably acting on it,—as they certainly +would do? + +Martin’s orders, in Sharpe xxv., are taken, I think, from Buccleuch’s, in +Scott’s xxvii. + +The point is that Martin had no need to warn men so far away as +Gorranberry,—they were roused already. Yet he orders them to be warned, +and about a combined movement of Martin and Simmy on different lines the +ballad says not a word. All this is inference merely, inference not from +historical facts, but from what may be guessed to have been in the mind +of the poet. + +Thus the Elliot or Sharpe version has topography that will not hold +water, while the Scott topography does hold water; and the Elliot song +seems to borrow the lines on the Hermitage Slack and Gorranberry from a +form of the Scott version. This being the case, the original version on +which Scott worked is earlier than the Elliot version. In the Scott +version the rescuers must come down the Hermitage Slack: in the Elliot +they have no reason for riding _back_ to that place. + + + +VII +SCOTT HAD A COPY OF THE BALLAD WHICH WAS NOT THE SHARPE COPY + + +Did Scott know no other version than that of the Sharpe MS.? In Scott’s +version, stanza xlix., the last, is absent from the Elliot version, which +concludes triumphantly, thus— + + Now on they came to the fair Dodhead, + They were a welcome sight to see, + And instead of his ain ten milk-kye + Jamie Telfer’s gotten thirty and three. + +Scott too gives this, but ends with a verse not in Sharpe— + + And he has paid the rescue shot + Baith wi’ goud and white money, + And at the burial o’ Willie Scott + I wat was mony a weeping ee. + +Did Scott add this? Proof is impossible; but the verse is so prosaic, +and so injurious to the triumphant preceding verse, that I think Scott +found it in his copy: in which case he had another copy than Sharpe’s. + +Scott (stanza xviii.) reads “Catslockhill” where the Sharpe MS. reads +“Catlockhill.” In Scott’s time it was a mound, but the name was then +known to Mr. Grieve, the tenant of Branksome Park. To-day I cannot find +the mound; is it likely that Scott, before making the change, sought +diligently for the mound and its name? If so, he found “_Catlochill_,” +for so Mr. Grieve writes it, not Catslockhill. + +Meanwhile Colonel Elliot, we know, has no Catlockhill where he wants it; +he has only Gatliehill, unless his Blaeu varies from my copy, and +Gatliehill is not Catlockhill. + +Scott gives (xlviii.) the speech of the Captain after he is shot through +the head and in another dangerous part of his frame— + + “Hae back thy kye!” the Captain said, + “Dear kye, I trow, to some they be, + For gin I suld live a hundred years, + There will ne’er fair lady smile on me.” + +This is not in Sharpe’s MS., and I attribute this redundant stanza to +Scott’s copy. The Captain, remember, has a shot “through his head,” and +another which must have caused excruciating torture. In these +circumstances would a poet like Scott put in his mouth a speech which +merely reiterates the previous verse? No! But the verse was in Scott’s +copy. + +Colonel Elliot has himself noted a more important point than these: he +quotes Scott’s stanza xii., which is absent from the Sharpe MS.— + + My hounds may a’ rin masterless, + My hawks may fly frae tree to tree, + My lord may grip my vassal lands, + For there again maun I never be! + +“They are, doubtless, beautiful lines, but their very beauty jars like a +false note. One feels they were written by another hand, by an artist of +a higher stamp than a Border ‘ballad-maker.’ And not only is it their +beauty that jars, but so also does their inapplicability to Jamie Telfer +and to the circumstances in which he found himself—so much so, indeed, +that it may well occur to one that the stanza belongs to some other +ballad, and has accidentally been pitchforked into this one. It would +not have been out of place in the ballad of _The Battle of Otterbourne_, +and, indeed, it bears some resemblance to a stanza in that ballad.” Here +the Colonel says that the lines “one feels were written by another hand, +by an artist of a higher stamp than a Border ballad-maker.” But “it may +also occur to one that the stanza belongs to some other ballad, and has +_accidentally_” (my italics) “been pitchforked into this”: a very sound +inference. + +Now if Scott had only the Sharpe version, he was the last man to +“pitchfork” into it, “accidentally,” a stanza from “some other ballad,” +that stanza being as Colonel Elliot says “inapplicable” to Telfer and his +circumstances. Poor Jamie, a small tenant-farmer, with ten cows, and, as +far as we learn, not one horse, had no hawks and hounds; no “vassal +lands,” and no reason to say that at the Dodhead he “maun never be +again.” He could return from his long run! Scott certainly did not +compose these lines; and he could not have pitchforked them into _Jamie +Telfer_, either by accident or design. + +Professor Child remarked on all this: “Stanza xii. is not only found +elsewhere (compare _Young Beichan_, E vi.), but could not be more +inappropriately brought in than here; Scott, however, is not responsible +for that.” {120a} + + The hawk that flies from tree to tree + +is a formula; it comes in the Kinloch MS. copy of the ballad of _Jamie +Douglas_, date about 1690. + +I know no proof that Scott was acquainted with variant E of _Young +Beichan_. {120b} If he had been, he could not have introduced into +_Jamie Telfer_ lines so utterly out of keeping with Telfer’s +circumstances, as Colonel Elliot himself says that stanza xii. is. It +may be argued, “if Scott _did_ find stanza xii. in his copy, it was in +his power to cut it out; he treated his copies as he pleased.” This is +true, but my position is that, of the two, Scott is more likely to have +let the stanza abide where he found it (as he did with his MS. of +_Tamlane_, retaining its absurdities) in his copy, than to “pitchfork it +in,” from an obscure variant of _Young Beichan_, which we cannot prove +that he had ever heard or read. But as we can never tell that Scott did +_not_ know any rhyme, we ask, why did he “pitchfork in” the stanza, where +it was quite out of place? Child absolves him from this absurdity. + +Thus Scott had before him another than the Sharpe copy; had a copy +containing stanza xii. That copy presented the perversion—the +transposition of Scott’s and Elliot’s—and into that copy Scott wrote the +stanzas which bear his modern romantic mark. Colonel Elliot, we saw, is +uncertain whether to attribute stanza xii. to “another hand, an artist of +higher stamp than a Border ballad-maker,” or to regard it as belonging +“to some other ballad,” and as having been “accidentally pitchforked into +this one.” The stanza is, in fact, an old floating ballad stanza, +attracted into the _cantefable of Susie Pye_, and the ballad of _Young +Beichan_ (E), and partly into _Jamie Douglas_. Thus Scott did not _make_ +the stanza, and we cannot suppose that, if he knew the stanza in any +form, he either “accidentally pitchforked” or wilfully inserted into +_Jamie Telfer_ anything so absurdly inappropriate. The inference is that +Scott worked on another copy, not the Sharpe copy. + +If Scott had not a copy other than Sharpe’s, why should he alter Sharpe’s +(vii.) + + The moon was up and the sun was down, + +into + + The sun wasna up but the moon was down? + +What did he gain by that? _Why did he make Jamie_ “_of_” _not_ “_in_” +_the Dodhead_, _if he found_ “_in_” _in his copy_? “In” means “tenant +in,” “of” means “laird of,” as nobody knew better than Scott. Jamie is +evidently no laird, but “of” was in Scott’s copy. + +If the question were about two Greek texts, the learned would admit that +these points in A (Scott) are not derived from B (Sharpe). Scott’s +additions have an obvious motive, they add picturesqueness to his clan. +But the differences which I have noticed do nothing of that kind. When +they affect the poetry they spoil the poetry, when they do not affect the +poetry they are quite motiveless, whence I conclude that Scott followed +his copy in these cases, and that his copy was not the Sharpe MS. + +If I have satisfied the reader on that point I need not touch on Colonel +Elliot’s long and intricate argument to prove, or suggest, that Scott had +before him no copy of the ballad except one supposed by the Colonel to +have been taken by James Hogg from his mother’s recitation, while that +copy, again, is supposed to be the Sharpe MS.—all sheer conjecture. +{122a} Not that I fear to encounter Colonel Elliot on this ground, but +argufying on it is dull, and apt to be inconclusive. + +In the letter of Hogg to Scott (June 30, 1803) as given by Mr. Douglas in +_Familiar Letters_, Hogg says, “I am surprised to find that the songs in +your collection differ so widely from my mother’s . . . _Jamie Telfer_ +differs in many particulars.” {123a} The marks of omission were all +filled up in Hogg’s MS. letter thus: “Is Mr. Herd’s MS. genuine? I +suspect it.” Then it runs on, “_Jamie Telfer_ differs in many +particulars.” + +I owe this information to the kindness of Mr. Macmath. What does Hogg +mean? Does “Is Mr. Herd’s MS. genuine?” mean all Herd’s MS. copies used +by Scott? Or does it refer to _Jamie Telfer_ in especial? + +Mr. Macmath, who possesses C. K. Sharpe’s MS. copy of the Elliot version, +believes that it is Herd’s hand as affected by age. Mr. Macmath and I +independently reached the conclusion that by “Mr. Herd’s MS.” Hogg meant +all Herd’s MSS., which Scott quoted in _The Minstrelsy_ of 1803. Their +readings varied from Mrs. Hogg’s; therefore Hogg misdoubted them. He +adds that _Jamie Telfer_ differs from his mother’s version, without +meaning that, for _Jamie_, Scott used a Herd MS. + + + +CONCLUSION + + +I have now proved, I hope, that the ballad of _Jamie Telfer_ is entirely +mythical except for a few suggestions derived from historical events of +1596–97. I have shown, and Colonel Elliot agrees, that refusal of aid by +Buccleuch (or by Elliot of Stobs) is impossible, and that the ballad, if +it existed without this incident, must have been a Scott, and could not +be an Elliot ballad. No farmer in Ettrick would pay protection-money to +an Elliot on Liddel, while he had a Scott at Branksome. I have also +disproved the existence of a _Jamie Telfer_ as farmer at “Dodhead or +Dodbank” in the late sixteenth century. + +As to the character of Sir Walter Scott, I have proved, I hope, that he +worked on a copy of the ballad which was not the Elliot version, or the +Sharpe copy; so that this copy may have represented the Scotts as taking +the leading part; while for the reasons given, it is apparently earlier +than the Elliot version—cannot, at least, be proved to be later—and is +topographically the more correct of the two. I have given antique +examples of the same sort of perversions in _Otterburn_. If I am right, +Colonel Elliot’s charge against Scott lacks its base—that Scott knew none +but the Sharpe copy, whence it is inferred that he not only decorated the +song (as is undeniable), but perverted it in a way far from +sportsmanlike. + +I may have shaken Colonel Elliot’s belief in the historicity of the +ballad. His suspicions of Scott I cannot hope to remove, and they are +very natural suspicions, due to Scott’s method of editing ballads and +habit of “giving them a cocked hat and a sword,” as he did to stories +which he heard; and repeated, much improved. + +Absolute proof that Scott did, or did not, pervert the ballad, and turn a +false Elliot into a false Scott version, cannot be obtained unless new +documents bearing on the matter are discovered. + +But, I repeat, as may be read in the chapter on _The Ballad of +Otterburne_, such inversions and perversions of ballads occurred freely +in the sixteenth century, and, in the seventeenth, the process may have +been applied to _Jamie Telfer_. {125a} + + + + +KINMONT WILLIE + + +IF there be, in _The Border Minstrelsy_, a ballad which is still popular, +or, at least, is still not forgotten, it is _Kinmont Willie_. This hero +was an Armstrong, and one of the most active of that unbridled clan. He +was taken prisoner, contrary to Border law, on a day of “Warden’s Truce,” +by Salkeld of Corby on the Eden, deputy of Lord Scrope, the English +Warden; and, despite the written remonstrances of Buccleuch, he was shut +up in Carlisle Castle. Diplomacy failing, Buccleuch resorted to force, +and, by a sudden and daring march, he surprised Carlisle Castle, rescued +Willie, and returned to Branksome. The date of the rescue is 13th April +1596. The dispatches of the period are full of this event, and of the +subsequent negotiations, with which we are not concerned. + +The ballad is worthy of the cool yet romantic gallantry of the +achievement. Kinmont Willie was a ruffian, but he had been unlawfully +seized. This was one of many studied insults passed by Elizabeth’s +officials on Scotland at that time, when the English Government, leagued +with the furious pulpiteers of the Kirk, and with Francis Stewart, the +wild Earl of Bothwell, was persecuting and personally affronting James +VI. + +In Buccleuch, the Warden of the March, England insulted the man who was +least likely to pocket a wrong. Without causing the loss of an English +life, Buccleuch repaid the affront, recovered the prisoner, broke the +strong Castle of Carlisle, made Scrope ridiculous and Elizabeth frantic. + +In addition to _Kinmont Willie_ there survive two other ballads on +rescues of prisoners in similar circumstances. One is _Jock o’ the +Side_, of which there is an English version in the Percy MSS., _John a +Side_. Scott’s version, in _The Border Minstrelsy_, is from Caw’s +_Museum_, published at Hawick in 1784. Scott leaves out Caw’s last +stanza about a punch-bowl. There are other variations. Four Armstrongs +break into Newcastle Tower. Jock, heavily ironed, is carried downstairs +on the back of one of them; they ride a river in spait, where the English +dare not follow. + +_Archie o’ Cafield_, another rescue, Scott printed in 1802 from a MS. of +Mr. Riddell of Glenriddell, a great collector, the friend of Burns. He +omitted six stanzas, and “made many editorial improvements, besides +Scotticising the spelling.” In the edition published after his death +(1833) he “has been enabled to add several stanzas from recitation.” +Leyden appears to have collected the copy whence the additional stanzas +came; the MS., at Abbotsford, is in his hand. In this ballad the Halls, +noted freebooters, rescue Archie o’ Cafield from prison in Dumfries. As +in _Jock o’ the Side_ and _Kinmont Willie_, they speak to their friend, +asking how he sleeps; they carry him downstairs, irons and all, and, as +in the two other ballads, they are pursued, cross a flooded river, banter +the English, and then, in a version in the Percy MSS., “communicated to +Percy by Miss Fisher, 1780,” the English lieutenant says— + + I think some witch has bore thee, Dicky, + Or some devil in hell been thy daddy. + I would not swam that wan water, double-horsed, + For a’ the gold in Christenty. + +Manifestly here was a form of Lord Scrope’s reply to Buccleuch, in the +last stanza of _Kinmont Willie_— + + He is either himself a devil frae hell, + Or else his mother a witch may be, + I wadna hae ridden that wan water + For a’ the gowd in Christentie. + +Scott writes, in a preface to _Archie o’ Cafield_ and _Jock o’ the Side_, +that there are, with _Kinmont Willie_, three ballads of rescues, “the +incidents in which nearly resemble each other; though the poetical +description is so different, that the editor did not feel himself at +liberty to reject any one of them, as borrowed from the others. As, +however, there are several verses, which, in recitation, are common to +all these three songs, the editor, to prevent unnecessary and +disagreeable repetition, has used the freedom of appropriating them to +that in which they have the best poetical effect.” {129a} + +Consequently the verse quoted from the Percy MS. of _Archie o’ Cafield_ +may be improved and placed in the lips of Lord Scrope, in _Kinmont +Willie_. But there is no evidence that Scott ever saw or even heard of +this Percy MS., and probably he got the verse from recitation. + +Now the affair of the rescue of Kinmont Willie was much more important +and resonant than the two other rescues, and was certain to give rise to +a ballad, which would contain much the same formulæ as the other two. +The ballad-maker, like Homer, always uses a formula if he can find one. +But _Kinmont Willie_ is so much superior to the two others, so epic in +its speed and concentration of incidents, that the question rises, had +Scott even fragments of an original ballad of the Kinmont, “much mangled +by reciters,” as he admits, or did he compose the whole? No MS. copies +exist at Abbotsford. There is only one hint. In a list of twenty-two +ballads, pasted into a commonplace book, eleven are marked X (as if he +had obtained them), and eleven others are unmarked, as if they were still +to seek. Unmarked is _Kinmount Willie_. + +Did he find it, or did he make it all? + +In 1888, in a note to _Kinmont Willie_, I wrote: “There is a prose +account very like the ballad in Scott of Satchells’ _History of the Name +of Scott_” (1688). Satchells’ long-winded story is partly in unrhymed +and unmetrical lines, partly in rhymes of various metres. The man, born +in 1613, was old, had passed his life as a soldier; certainly could not +write, possibly could not read. + +Colonel Elliot “believes that Sir Walter wrote the whole from beginning +to end, and that it is, in fact, a clever and extremely beautiful +paraphrase of Satchells’ rhymes.” {130a} + +This thorough scepticism is not a novelty, as Colonel Elliot quotes me I +had written years ago, “In _Kinmont Willie_, Scott has been suspected of +making the whole ballad.” I did not, as the Colonel says, “mention the +names of the sceptics or the grounds of their suspicions.” “The +sceptics,” or one of them, was myself: I had “suspected” on much the same +grounds as Colonel Elliot’s own, and I shall give my reasons for adopting +a more conservative opinion. One reason is merely subjective. As a man, +by long familiarity with ancient works of art, Greek gems, for example, +acquires a sense of their authenticity, or the reverse, so he does in the +case of ballads—or thinks he does—but of course this result of experience +is no ground of argument: experts are often gulled. The ballad varies in +many points from Satchells’, which Colonel Elliot explains thus: “I think +that the cause for the narrative at times diverging from that recorded by +the rhymes (of Satchells), is due, partly to artistic considerations, +partly to the author having wished to bring it more or less into +conformity with history.” {131a} + +Colonel Elliot quotes Scott’s preface to the ballad: “In many things +Satchells agrees with the ballads current in his time” (1643–88), “from +which in all probability he derived most of his information as to past +events, and from which he occasionally pirates whole verses, as we +noticed in the annotations upon the _Raid of the Reidswire_. In the +present instance he mentions the prisoner’s large spurs (alluding to +fetters), and some other little incidents noticed in the ballad, which +therefore was probably well known in his day.” + +As Satchells was born in 1613, while the rescue of _Kinmont Willie_ by +Buccleuch, out of Carlisle Castle, was in 1596, and as Satchells’ father +was in that adventure (or so Satchells says) he probably knew much about +the affair from fresh tradition. Colonel Elliot notices this, and says: +“The probability of Satchells having obtained information from a +hypothetical ballad is really quite an inadmissible argument.” + +This comes near to begging the question. As contemporary incidents much +less striking and famous than the rescue of _Kinmont Willie_ were +certainly recorded in ballads, the opinion that there was a ballad of +_Kinmont Willie_ is a legitimate hypothesis, which must be tested on its +merits. For example, we shall ask, Does Satchells’ version yield any +traces of ballad sources? + +My own opinion has been anticipated by Mr. Frank Miller in his _The Poets +of Dumfriesshire_ (p. 33, 1910), and in ballad-lore Mr. Miller is well +equipped. He says: “The balance of probability seems to be in favour of +the originality of _Kinmont Willie_,” rather than of Satchells (he means, +not of our _Kinmont Willie_ as Scott gives it, but of a ballad concerning +the Kinmont). “Captain Walter Scott’s” (of Satchells) “_True History_ +was certainly gathered out of the ballads current in his day, as well as +out of formal histories, and his account of the assault on the Castle +reads like a narrative largely due to suggestions from some popular lay.” + +Does Satchells’ version, then, show traces of a memory of such a lay? +Undoubtedly it does. + +Satchells’ prolix narrative occasionally drops or rises into ballad +lines, as in the opening about Kinmont Willie— + + It fell about the Martinmas + When kine was in the prime + +that Willie “brought a prey out of Northumberland.” The old ballad, +disregarding dates, may well have opened with this common formula. Lord +Scrope vowed vengence:— + + Took Kinmont the self-same night. + + If he had had but ten men more, + That had been as stout as he, + Lord Scroup had not the Kinmont ta’en + With all his company. + +Scott’s ballad (stanza i.) says that “fause Sakelde” and Scrope took +Willie (as in fact Salkeld of Corby _did_), and + + Had Willie had but twenty men, + But twenty men as stout as he, + Fause Sakelde had never the Kinmont ta’en, + Wi’ eight score in his cumpanie. + +Manifestly either Satchells is here “pirating” a verse of a ballad (as +Scott holds) or Scott, if he had _no_ ballad fragments before him, is +“pirating” a verse from Satchells, as Colonel Elliot must suppose. + +In my opinion, Satchells had a memory of a Kinmont ballad beginning like +_Jamie Telfer_, “It fell about the Martinmas tyde,” or, like _Otterburn_, +“It fell about the Lammas tide,” and he opened with this formula, broke +away from it, and came back to the ballad in the stanza, “If he had had +but ten men more,” which differs but slightly from stanza ii. of Scott’s +ballad. That this is so, and that, later, Satchells is again reminiscent +of a ballad, is no improbable opinion. + +In the ballad (iii.–viii.) we learn how Willie is brought a prisoner +across Liddel to Carlisle; we have his altercation with Lord Scrope, and +the arrival of the news at Branksome, where Buccleuch is at table. +Satchells also gives the altercation. In both versions Willie promises +to “take his leave” of Scrope before he quits the Castle. + +In Scott’s ballad (Scrope speaks) (stanza vi.). + + Before ye cross my castle yate, + I trow ye shall take fareweel o’ me. + +Willie replies— + + I never yet lodged in a hostelrie, + But I paid my lawing before I gaed. + +In Satchells, Lord Scrope says— + + “Before thou goest away thou must + Even take thy leave of me?” + “By the cross of my sword,” says Willie then, + “I’ll take my leave of thee.” + +Now, had Scott been pirating Satchells, I think he would have kept “By +the cross of my sword,” which is picturesque and probable, Willie being +no good Presbyterian. In _Otterburne_, Scott, _altering Hogg’s copy_, +makes Douglas swear “By the might of Our Ladye.” + +It is a question of opinion; but I do think that if Scott were merely +paraphrasing and pirating Satchells, he could not have helped putting +into his version the Catholic, “‘By the cross of my sword,’ then Willy +said,” as given by Satchells. To do this was safe, as Scott had said +that Satchells does pirate ballads. On the other hand, Satchells, +composing in black 1688, when Catholicism had been stamped out on the +_Scottish Border_, was not apt to invent “By the cross of my sword.” It +_looks_ like Scott’s work, for he, of course, knew how Catholicism +lingered among the spears of Bothwell, himself a Catholic, in 1596. But +it is _not_ Scott’s work, it is in Satchells. In both Satchells and the +ballad, news comes to Buccleuch. Here Satchells again balladises— + + “It is that way?” Buckcleugh did say; + “Lord Scrope must understand + That he has not only done me wrong + But my Sovereign, James of Scotland. + + “My Sovereign Lord, King of Scotland, + Thinks not his cousin Queen, + Will offer to invade his land + Without leave asked and gi’en.” + +I do not see how Satchells could either invent or glean from tradition +the gist of Buccleuch’s diplomatic remonstrances, first with Salkeld, for +Scrope was absent at the time of Willie’s capture, then with Scrope. +Buccleuch, in fact, wrote that the taking of Willie was “to the touch of +the King,” a stain on his honour, says a contemporary manuscript. {135a} + +In a _contemporary_ ballad, a kind of rhymed news-sheet, the facts would +be known and reported. But at this point (at Buccleuch’s reception of +the news of Kinmont), Scott is perhaps overmastered by his opportunity, +and, I think, himself composes stanzas ix., x., xi., xii. + + O is my basnet a widow’s curch? + Or my lance a wand o’ the willow tree? + +and so on. Child and Mr. Henderson are of the same opinion; but it is +only sense of style that guides us in such a matter, nor can I give other +grounds for supposing that the original ballad appears again in stanza +xiii. + + O were there war between the lands, + As well I wot that there is none, + I would slight Carlisle castle high, + Tho’ it were built o’ marble stone! + +Thence, I think, the original ballad (doubtless made “harmonious,” as +Hogg put it) ran into stanza xxxi., where Scott probably introduced the +Elliot tune (if it be ancient)— + + O wha dare meddle wi’ me? + +Satchells next, through a hundred and forty lines, describes Buccleuch’s +correspondence with Scrope, his counsels with his clansmen, and gives all +their names and estates, with remarks on their relationships. He thinks +himself a historian and a genealogist. The stuff is partly in prose +lines, partly in rhymed couplets of various lengths. There are two or +three more or less ballad-like stanzas at the beginning, but they are too +bad for any author but Satchells. + +Scott’s ballad “cuts” all that, omits even what Satchells gives—mentions +of Harden, and goes on (xv.)— + + He has called him forty marchmen bauld, + I trow they were of his own name. + Except Sir Gilbert Elliot called + The Laird of Stubs, I mean the same. + +Now I would stake a large sum that Sir Walter never wrote that +“stall-copy” stanza! Colonel Elliot replies that I have said the +ballad-faker should avoid being too poetical. The ballad-faker _should_ +shun being too poetical, as he would shun kippered sturgeon; but Scott +did not know this, nor did Hogg. We can always track them by their too +decorative, too literary interpolations. On this I lay much stress. + +The ballad next gives (xvi.–xxv.) the spirited stanzas on the ride to the +Border— + + There were five and five before them a’, + Wi’ hunting horns and bugles bright; + And five and five came wi’ Buccleuch, + Like Warden’s men arrayed for fight. + + And five and five like a mason gang, + That carried the ladders lang and hie; + And five and five like broken men, + And so they reached the Woodhouselee. + +—a house in Scotland, within “a lang mile” of Netherby, in England, the +seat of the Grahams, who were partial, for private reasons, to the +Scottish cause. They were at deadly feud with Thomas Musgrave, Captain +of Bewcastle, and Willie had married a Graham. + +Now in my opinion, up to stanza xxvi., all the evasive answers given to +Salkeld by each gang, till Dicky o’ Dryhope (a real person) replies with +a spear-thrust— + + “For never a word o’ lear had he,” + +are not an invention of Scott’s (who knew that Salkeld was not met and +slain), but a fantasy of the original ballad. Here I have only +familiarity with the romantic perversion of facts that marks all ballads +on historical themes to guide me. + +Salkeld is met— + + “As we crossed the Batable land, + When to the English side we held.” + +The ballad does not specify the crossing of Esk, nor say that Salkeld was +on the English side; nor is there any blunder in the reply of the “mason +gang”— + + “We gang to harry a corbie’s nest, + That wons not far frae Woodhouselee.” + +Whether on English or Scottish soil the masons say not, and their +pretence is derisive, bitterly ironical. + +Colonel Elliot makes much of the absence of mention of the Esk, and says +“it is _after_ they are in England that the false reports are spread.” +{139a} But the ballad does not say so—read it! All passes with +judicious vagueness. + + “As we crossed the Batable land, + When to the English side we held.” + +Satchells knows that the ladders were made at Woodhouselee; it took till +nightfall to finish them. The ballad, swift and poetical, takes the +ladders for granted—as a matter of fact, chronicled in the dispatches, +the Grahams of Netherby harboured Buccleuch: Netherby was his base. + +“I could nought have done that matter without great friendship of the +Grames of Eske,” wrote Buccleuch, in a letter which Scrope intercepted. +{139b} + +In Satchells, Buccleuch leaves half his men at the “Stonish bank” +(Staneshaw bank) “_for fear they had made noise or din_.” An old soldier +should have known better, and the ballad (his probable half-remembered +source here) _does_ know better— + + “And there the laird garr’d leave our _steeds_, + For fear that they should stamp and nie,” + +and alarm the castle garrison. Each man of the post on the ford would +hold two horses, and also keep the ford open for the retreat of the +advanced party. The ballad gives the probable version; Satchells, when +offering as a reason for leaving half the force, lest they should make +“noise or din,” is maundering. Colonel Elliot does not seem to perceive +this obvious fact, though he does perceive Buccleuch’s motive for +dividing his force, “presumably with the object of protecting his line of +retreat,” and also to keep the horses out of earshot, as the ballad says. +{140a} + +In Satchells the river is “in no great rage.” In the ballad it is “great +and meikle o’ spait.” And it really was so. The MS. already cited, +which Scott had not seen when he published the song, says that Buccleuch +arrived at the “Stoniebank beneath Carleile brig, the water being at the +tyme, through raines that had fallen, weill thick.” + +In Scott’s _original_ this river, he says, was the Esk, in Satchells it +is the Eden, and Scott says he made this necessary correction in the +ballad. In Satchells the storming party + + Broke a sheet of leid on the castle top. + +In the ballad they + + Cut a hole through a sheet o’ lead. + +Both stories are erroneous; the ladders were too short; the rescuers +broke into a postern door. Scrope told this to his Government on the day +after the deed, 14th April. {140b} + +In xxxi. the ballad makes Buccleuch sound trumpets when the castle-roof +was scaled; in fact it was not scaled. The ladders were too short, and +the Scots broke in a postern door. The Warden’s trumpet blew “O wha dare +meddle wi’ me,” and here, as has been said, I think Scott is the author. +Here Colonel Elliot enters into learning about “Wha dare meddle wi’ me?” +a “Liddesdale tune,” and in the poem an adaptation, by Scott, of +Satchells’ “the trumpets sounded ‘Come if ye dare.’” + +Satchells makes the trumpets sound when the rescuers bring Kinmont Willie +to the castle-top on the ladder (which they did not), and again when the +rescuers reach the ground by the ladder. They made no use at all of the +ladders, which were too short, and Willie, says the ballad, lay “in the +_lower_ prison.” They came in and went out by a door; but the trumpets +are not apocryphal. They, and the shortness of the ladders, are +mentioned in a MS. quoted by Scott, and in Birrell’s contemporary +_Diary_, i. p. 57. In the MS. Buccleuch causes the trumpets to be +sounded from below, by a detachment “in the plain field,” securing the +retreat. His motive is to encourage his party, “and to terrify both +castle and town by imagination of a greater force.” Buccleuch again +“sounds up his trumpet before taking the river,” in the MS. Colonel +Elliot may claim stanza xxxi. for Scott, and also the tune “Wha dare +meddle wi’ me?” he may even claim here a suggestion from Satchells’ “Come +if ye dare.” Colonel Elliot says that no tune of this title ever +existed, a thing not easy to prove. {142a} + +In the conclusion, with differences, there are resemblances in the ballad +and Satchells. Colonel Elliot goes into them very minutely. For +example, he says that Kinmont is “made to ride off; not on horseback, but +on Red Rowan’s back!” + +The ballad says not a word to that effect. Kinmont’s speech about Red +Rowan as “a rough beast” to ride, is made immediately after the stanza, + + “Then shoulder high, with shout and cry, + We bore him down the ladder lang; + At every stride Red Rowan made, + I wot the Kinmont’s airns played clang.” {142b} + +After this verse Kinmont makes his speech (xl.–xli.). But if he _did_ +ride on Red Rowan’s back to Staneshaw bank, it was the best thing that a +heavily ironed man could do. In the ballad (xxvii.) no horses of the +party were waiting at the castle, _all_ horses were left behind at +Staneshaw bank (Satchells brings horses, or at least a horse for Willie, +to the castle). On what could Willie “ride off,” except on Red Rowan? +{142c} + +Stanzas xxxv., xxxvi. and xliv. are related, we have seen, to passages in +_Jock o’ the Side_ and _Archie o’ Cafield_, but ballads, like Homer, +employ the same formulæ to describe the same circumstances: a note of +archaism, as in Gaelic poetic passages in _Märchen_. + +I do not pretend always to know how far Scott kept and emended old +stanzas mangled by reciters: there are places in which I am quite at a +loss to tell whether he is “making” or copying. + +I incline to hold that Satchells was occasionally reminiscent of a ballad +for the reasons and traces given, and I think that Scott when his and +Satchells’ versions coincide, did not borrow direct from Satchells, but +that both men had a ballad source. + +That ballad was later than the popular belief, held by Satchells, that +Gilbert Elliot was at the time (1596) laird of Stobs, which he did not +acquire till after the Union (1603), and that he (the only man not a +Scot, says Satchells, wrongly) rode with Buccleuch. Elliot is not +accused of doing so in Scrope’s dispatches, but he may have come as far +as Staneshaw bank, where half the company were left behind, says +Satchells, with the horses, which were also left, says the ballad. In +that case Elliot would not be observed in or near the Castle. Yet it may +have been known in Scotland that he was of the party. + +He was, as Satchells says, a cousin, he was also a friend of Buccleuch’s, +and he may conceivably have taken a part in this glorious adventure, +though he could not, _at the moment_, be called laird of Stobs. Were I +an Elliot, this opinion would be welcome to me! Really, Salkeld was in a +good position to know whether Elliot rode with Buccleuch or not. + +The whole question is not one on which I can speak dogmatically. A +person who suspects Scott intensely may believe that there were no ballad +fragments of Kinmont in his possession. The person who, like myself, +thinks Satchells, with his “It fell about the Martinmas,” knew a ballad +vaguely, believes that Satchells _had_ some ballad sources bemuddled in +his old memory. + +A person who cannot conceive that Scott wrote + + Except Sir Gilbert Elliot, called + The laird of Stobs, I mean the same, + +will hold that Scott knew some ballad fragments, _disjecta membra_. But +I quite agree with Colonel Elliot, that the ballad, _as it stands_ (with +the exception, to my mind, of some thirty stanzas, themselves emended), +“belongs to the early nineteenth century, not to the early seventeenth.” +The time for supposing the poem, _as it stands_, to be “saturated with +the folk-spirit” all through is past; the poem is far too much +contaminated by the genius of Scott itself; like Burns’ transfiguration +of “the folk-spirit” at its best. + +Near the beginning of this paper I said, in answer to a question of +Colonel Elliot’s, that I myself was the person who had suspected Scott of +composing the whole of _Kinmont Willie_, and I have given my reasons for +not remaining constant to my suspicions. But in a work which Colonel +Elliot quotes, the abridged edition of Child’s great book by Mrs. +Child-Sargent and Professor Kittredge (1905), the learned professor +writes, “_Kinmont Willie_ is under vehement suspicion of being the work +of Sir Walter Scott.” Mr. Kittredge’s entire passage on the matter is +worth quoting. He first says—“The traditional ballad appears to be +inimitable by any person of literary cultivation,” “the efforts of poets +and poetasters” end in “invariable failure.” + +I do not think that they need end in failure except for one reason. The +poet or poetaster cannot, now, except by flat lying and laborious forgery +of old papers, produce any documentary evidence to prove the +_authenticity_ of his attempt at imitation. Without documentary evidence +of antiquity, no critic can approach the imitation except in a spirit of +determined scepticism. He knows, certainly, that the ballad is modern, +and, knowing that, he easily finds proofs of modernism even where they do +not really exist. I am convinced that to imitate a ballad that would, +except for the lack of documentary evidence, beguile the expert, is +perfectly feasible. I even venture to offer examples of my own +manufacture at the close of this volume. I can find nothing suspicious +in them, except the deliberate insertion of formulæ which occur in +genuine ballads. Such _wiederholungen_ are not reasons for rejection, in +my opinion; but they are _suspect_ with people who do not understand that +they are a natural and necessary feature of archaic poetry, and this fact +Mr. Kittredge does understand. + +Mr. Kittredge speaks of Sir Walter’s unique success with _Kinmont +Willie_; but is Sir Walter successful? Some of his stanzas I, for one, +can hardly accept, even as emended traditional verses. + +Mr. Kittredge writes—“Sir Walter’s success, however, in a special kind of +balladry for which he was better adapted by nature and habit of mind than +for any other, would only emphasise the universal failure. And it must +not be forgotten that _Kinmont Willie_, if it be Scott’s work, is not +made out of whole cloth; it is a working over of one of the best +traditional ballads known (_Jock o’ the Side_), with the intention of +fitting it to an historical exploit of Buccleuch. Further, the subject +itself was of such a nature that it might well have been celebrated in a +ballad,—indeed, one is tempted to say, it must have been so celebrated.” + +Not a doubt of _that_! + +“And, finally, Sir Walter Scott felt towards ‘the Kinmont’ and ‘the bold +Buccleuch’ precisely as the moss-trooping author of such a ballad would +have felt. For once, then, the miraculous happened. . . . ” {146a} Or +did not happen, for the exception is “solitary though doubtful,” and +“under vehement suspicion.” But Mr. Kittredge must remember that no +known Scottish ballad “is made out of whole cloth.” All have, in various +degrees, the successive modifications wrought by centuries of oral +tradition, itself, in some cases, modifying a much modified printed +“stall-copy” or “broadside.” + +Take _Jock o’ the Side_. The oldest version is in the Percy MS. {147a} +As Mr. Henderson says, “it contains many evident corruptions,” + + “Jock on his lively bay, Wat’s on his white horse behind.” + +There is an example of what the original author could not have written! + +We do not know how good _Jock_ was when he left his poet’s hands; and +Scott has not touched him up. We cannot estimate the original excellence +of any traditional poem by the state in which we find it, + + Corrupt by every beggar-man, + And soiled by all ignoble use. + + + + +CONCLUSIONS + + +WE have now examined critically the four essentially _Border_ ballads +which Sir Walter is suspected of having “edited” in an unrighteous +manner. Now he helps to forge, and issues _Auld Maitland_. Now he, or +somebody, makes up _Otterburne_, “partly of stanzas from Percy’s +_Reliques_, which have undergone emendations calculated to disguise the +source from which they came, partly of stanzas of modern fabrication, and +partly of a few stanzas and lines from Herd’s version.” {148a} Thirdly, +Scott, it is suggested, knew only what I call “the Elliot version” of +_Jamie Telfer_, perverted that by transposing the _rôles_ of Buccleuch +and Stobs, and added picturesque stanzas in glorification of his +ancestor, Wat of Harden. Fourthly, he is suspected of “writing the whole +ballad” of _Kinmont Willie_, “from beginning to end.” + +Of these four charges the first, and most disastrous, we have absolutely +disproved. Scott did not write one verse of the _Auld Maitland_; he +edited it with unusual scrupulosity, for he had but one copy, and an +almost identical recitation. He could not “eke and alter” by adding +verses from other texts, as he did in _Otterburne_. + +Secondly, Scott did not make up _Otterburne_ in the way suggested by his +critic. He took Hogg’s MS., and I have shown minutely what that MS. was, +and he edited it in accordance with his professed principles. He made “a +standard text.” It is only to be regretted that Hogg did not take down +_verbatim_ the words of his two reciters and narrators, and that Scott +did not publish Hogg’s version, with his letter, in his notes; but that +was not his method, nor the method of his contemporaries. + +Thirdly, as to _Jamie Telfer_, long ago I wrote, opposite + + “The lyart locks of Harden’s hair,” + +_aut Jacobus aut Diabolus_, meaning that either James Hogg or the devil +composed that stanza. I was wrong. Hogg had nothing to do with it; on +internal evidence Scott was the maker. But that he transposed the Scott +and Elliot _rôles_ is incapable of proof; and I have shown that such +perversions were made in very early times, where national, not clan +prejudices were concerned. I have also shown that Scott’s version +contains matter not in the Elliot version, matter injurious to the poem, +as in one stanza, certainly not composed by himself, the stanza being an +inappropriate stray formula from other ballads. But, in the absence of +manuscript materials I can only produce presumptions, not proofs. + +Lastly, _Kinmont Willie_, and Scott’s share in it, is matter of +presumption, not of proof. He had been in quest of the ballad, as we +know from his list of _desiderata_; he says that what he got was +“mangled” by reciters, and that, in what he got, one river was mentioned +where topography requires another. He also admits that, in the three +ballads of rescues, he placed passages where they had most poetical +appropriateness. My arguments to show that Satchells had memory of a +Kinmont ballad will doubtless appeal with more or less success, or with +none, to different students. That an indefinite quantity of the ballad, +and improvements on the rest, are Scott’s, I cannot doubt, from evidence +of style. + +“Sir Walter Scott it is impossible to assail, however much the scholarly +conscience may disapprove,” says Mr. Kittredge. {150a} Not much is to be +taken by assailing him! “Business first, pleasure afterwards,” as, +according to Sam Weller, Richard III. said, when he killed Henry VI. +before smothering the princes in the Tower. I proceed to pleasure in the +way of presenting imitations of “the traditional ballad” which “appears +to be inimitable by any person of literary cultivation,” according to Mr. +Kittredge. + + + +IMITATIONS OF BALLADS + + +The three following ballads are exhibited in connection with Mr. +Kittredge’s opinion that neither poet nor poetaster can imitate, to-day, +the traditional ballad. Of course, not one of my three could now take in +an expert, for he would ask for documentary evidence of their antiquity. +But I doubt if Mr. Kittredge can find any points in my three imitations +which infallibly betray their modernity. + +The first, _Simmy o’ Whythaugh_, is based on facts in the Border +despatches. Historically the attempt to escape from York Castle failed; +after the prisoners had got out they were recaptured. + +The second ballad, _The Young Ruthven_, gives the traditional view of the +slaying of the Ruthvens in their own house in Perth, on 5th August 1600. + +The third, _The Dead Man’s Dance_, combines the horror of the ballads of +_Lizzy Wan_ and _The Bonny Hind_, with that of the Romaic ballad, in +English, _The Suffolk Miracle_ (Child, No. 272). + + +I—SIMMY O’ WHYTHAUGH + + + O, will ye hear o’ the Bishop o’ York, + O, will ye hear o’ the Armstrongs true, + How they hae broken the Bishop’s castle, + And carried himsel’ to the bauld Buccleuch? + + They were but four o’ the Lariston kin, + They were but four o’ the Armstrong name, + Wi’ stout Sim Armstrong to lead the band, + The Laird o’ Whythaugh, I mean the same. + + They had done nae man an injury, + They had na robbed, they had na slain, + In pledge were they laid for the Border peace, + In the Bishop’s castle to dree their pain. + + The Bishop he was a crafty carle, + He has ta’en their red and their white monie, + But the muddy water was a’ their drink, + And dry was the bread their meat maun be. + + “Wi’ a ged o’ airn,” did Simmy say, + “And ilka man wi’ a horse to ride, + We aucht wad break the Bishop’s castle, + And carry himsel’ to the Liddel side. + + “The banks o’ Whythaugh I sall na see, + I never sall look upon wife and bairn; + I wad pawn my saul for my gude mear, Jean, + I wad pawn my saul for a ged o’ airn.” + + There was ane that brocht them their water and bread; + His gude sire, he was a kindly Scot, + Says “Your errand I’ll rin to the Laird o’ Cessford, + If ye’ll swear to pay me the rescue shot.” + + Then Simmy has gi’en him his seal and ring, + To the Laird o’ Cessford has ridden he— + I trow when Sir Robert had heard his word + The tear it stood in Sir Robert’s e’e. + + “And sall they starve him, Simmy o’ Whythaugh, + And sall his bed be the rotten strae? + I trow I’ll spare neither life nor gear, + Or ever I live to see that day! + + “Gar bring up my horses,” Sir Robert he said, + “I bid ye bring them by three and three, + And ane by ane at St. George’s close, + At York gate gather your companie.” + + Oh, some rade like corn-cadger men, + And some like merchants o’ linen and hose; + They slept by day and they rade by nicht, + Till they a’ convened at St. George’s close. + + Ilka mounted man led a bridded mear, + I trow they had won on the English way; + Ilka belted man had a brace o’ swords, + To help their friends to fend the fray. + + Then Simmy he heard a hoolet cry + In the chamber strang wi’ never a licht; + “That’s a hoolet, I ken,” did Simmy say, + “And I trow that Teviotdale’s here the nicht!” + + They hae grippit a bench was clamped wi’ steel, + Wi’ micht and main hae they wrought, they four, + They hae burst it free, and rammed wi’ the bench, + Till they brake a hole in the chamber door. + + “Lift strae frae the beds,” did Simmy say; + To the gallery window Simmy sped, + He has set his strength to a window bar, + And bursten it out o’ the binding lead. + + He has bursten the bolts o’ the Elliot men, + Out ower the window the strae cast he, + For they bid to loup frae the window high, + And licht on the strae their fa’ would be. + + To the Bishop’s chamber Simmy ran; + “Oh, sleep ye saft, my Lord!” says he; + “Fu’ weary am I o’ your bread and water, + Ye’se hae wine and meat when ye dine wi’ me.” + + He has lifted the loon across his shoulder; + “We maun leave the hoose by the readiest way!” + He has cast him doon frae the window high, + And a’ to hansel the new fa’n strae! + + Then twa by twa the Elliots louped, + The Armstrongs louped by twa and twa. + “I trow, if we licht on the auld fat Bishop, + That nane the harder will be the fa’!” + + They rade by nicht and they slept by day; + I wot they rade by an unkenned track; + “The Bishop was licht as a flea,” said Sim, + “Or ever we cam’ to the Liddel rack.” + + Then “Welcome, my Lord,” did Simmy say, + “We’ll win to Whythaugh afore we dine, + We hae drunk o’ your cauld and ate o’ your dry, + But ye’ll taste o’ our Liddesdale beef and wine.” + + +II—THE YOUNG RUTHVEN + + + The King has gi’en the Queen a gift, + For her May-day’s propine, + He’s gi’en her a band o’ the diamond-stane, + Set in the siller fine. + + The Queen she walked in Falkland yaird, + Beside the hollans green, + And there she saw the bonniest man + That ever her eyes had seen. + + His coat was the Ruthven white and red, + Sae sound asleep was he + The Queen she cried on May Beatrix, + That bonny lad to see. + + “Oh! wha sleeps here, May Beatnix, + Without the leave o’ me?” + “Oh! wha suld it be but my young brother + Frae Padua ower the sea! + + “My father was the Earl Gowrie, + An Earl o’ high degree, + But they hae slain him by fause treason, + And gar’d my brothers flee. + + “At Padua hae they learned their leir + In the fields o’ Italie; + And they hae crossed the saut sea-faem. + And a’ for love o’ me!” + + * * * * + + The Queen has cuist her siller band + About his craig o’ snaw; + But still he slept and naething kenned, + Aneth the hollans shaw. + + The King was walking thro’ the yaird, + He saw the siller shine; + “And wha,” quo’ he, “is this galliard + That wears yon gift o’ mine?” + + The King has gane till the Queen’s ain bower, + An angry man that day; + But bye there cam’ May Beatrix + And stole the band away. + + And she’s run in by the little black yett, + Straight till the Queen ran she: + “Oh! tak ye back your siller band, + On it gar my brother dee!” + + The Queen has linked her siller band + About her middle sma’; + And then she heard her ain gudeman + Come sounding through the ha’. + + “Oh! whare,” he cried, “is the siller band + I gied ye late yestreen? + The knops was a’ o’ the diamond-stane, + Set in the siller sheen.” + + “Ye hae camped birling at the wine, + A’ nicht till the day did daw; + Or ye wad ken your siller band + About my middle sma’!” + + The King he stude, the King he glowered, + Sae hard as a man micht stare: + “Deil hae me! Like is a richt ill mark,— + Or I saw it itherwhere! + + “I saw it round young Ruthven’s neck + As he lay sleeping still; + And, faith, but the wine was wondrous guid, + Or my wife is wondrous ill!” + + There was na gane a week, a week, + A week but barely three; + The King has hounded John Ramsay out, + To gar young Ruthven dee! + + They took him in his brother’s house, + Nae sword was in his hand, + And they hae slain him, young Ruthven, + The bonniest in the land! + + And they hae slain his fair brother, + And laid him on the green, + And a’ for a band o’ the siller fine + And a blink o’ the eye o’ the Queen! + + Oh! had they set him man to man, + Or even ae man to three, + There was na a knight o’ the Ramsay bluid + Had gar’d Earl Gowrie dee! + + +III—THE DEAD MAN’S DANCE + + + “The dance is in the castle ha’, + And wha will dance wi’ me?” + “There’s never a man o’ living men, + Will dance the nicht wi’ thee!” + + Then Margaret’s gane within her bower, + Put ashes on her hair, + And ashes on her bonny breast + And on hen shoulders bare. + + There cam’ a knock to her bower-door, + And blythe she let him in; + It was her brother frae the wars, + She lo’ed abune her kin. + + “Oh, Willie, is the battle won? + Or are you fled?” said she, + “This nicht the field was won and lost, + A’ in a far countrie. + + “This nicht the field was lost and won, + A’ in a far countrie, + And here am I within your bower, + For nane will dance with thee.” + + “Put gold upon your head, Margaret, + Put gold upon your hair, + And gold upon your girdle-band, + And on your breast so fair!” + + “Nay, nae gold for my breast, Willie, + Nay, nae gold for my hair, + It’s ashes o’ oak and dust o’ earth, + That you and I maun wear! + + “I canna dance, I mauna dance, + I daurna dance with thee. + To dance atween the quick and the deid, + Is nae good companie.” + + * * * + + The fire it took upon her cheek, + It took upon her chin, + Nae Mass was sung, nor bells was rung, + For they twa died in deidly sin. + + + + +FOOTNOTES + + +{0a} Child, part vi. p. 513. + +{0b} Child, part x. p. 294. + +{1a} Hogg to Scott, 30th June 1802, given later in full. + +{2a} See _De Origine_, _Moribus_, _et Rebus Gestis Scotorum_, p. 60 +(1578). + +{4a} Lockhart, vol. ii. p. 60 (1839). + +{8a} Lockhart, vol. ii. pp. 130–135 (1839). + +{10a} _Minstrelsy_, iii. 186–198. + +{15a} Child, part ix., 187. + +{17a} _Further Essays_, p. 184. + +{18a} Child, vol. i. p. xxx. + +{19a} _Minstrelsy_, 2nd edition, vol iii. (1803). + +{19b} _Further Essays_, pp. 247, 248. + +{21a} Carruthers, “Abbotsford Notanda,” in R. Chambers’s _Life of +Scott_, pp. 115–117 (1891). + +{21b} _Ibid._, _p._ 118. + +{23a} Carruthers, “Abbotsford Notanda,” in R. Chambers’s _Life of +Scott_, pp. 115–117 (1891). + +{23b} Lockhart, vol. ii. p. 99. + +{24a} Lockhart, _Life of Sir Walter Scott_, _Bart._, vol. ii. pp. 99, +100 (1829). + +{25} Ritson of 10th April 1802, in his _Letters of Joseph Ritson_, +_Esq._, vol. ii. p. 218. Letter of 10th June 1802, _Ibid._, p. 207. +Ritson returned the original manuscript of _Auld Maitland_ on 28th +February 1803, _Ibid._, p. 230. + +{26a} Carruthers, pp. 128, 131. + +{30a} _Sweet William’s Ghost_. + +{31a} _Further Essays_, pp. 225, 226. + +{32a} _Further Essays_, pp. 227–234. + +{41a} _Minstrelsy_, vol. iii. pp. 307–310 (1833). + +{41b} _Ibid._, vol. iii. p. 314. + +{44a} _Publications of the Modern Language Association of America_, xxi. +4, pp. 804–806. + +{47a} _Further Essays_, p. 237. + +{47b} Carruthers, p. 128. + +{47c} Lockhart, vol. ii. pp. 67, 70, 71, 72, 74, 75, 79. + +{48a} Craig Brown, _History of Selkirkshire_. + +{49a} Child, part ix. p. 185. + +{51a} Scott to Laidlaw, 21st January 1803; Carruthers, pp. 121, 122. + +{53a} _Further Essays_, p. 45. + +{53b} Child, part viii. pp. 499–502. + +{53c} _Further Essays_, p. 10, where only two references to sources are +given. + +{54a} Child, part vi. p. 292. + +{54b} _Ibid._, part ix. p. 243. Herd, 1776; also C. K. Sharpe’s MS. + +{59a} Bain, _Calendar_, vol. iv. pp. 87–93. + +{62a} This is scarcely accurate. Hogg, in fact, made up one copy, in +two parts, from the recitation of two old persons, as we shall see. + +{62b} _Further Essays_, pp. 12–27. + +{63a} _Further Essays_, p. 37. + +{67a} Scott to Laidlaw, Carruthers, p. 129. + +{69a} English version, xi.–xv. + +{70a} _Further Essays_, p. 58. + +{73a} _Further Essays_, p. 31. + +{75a} Godscroft, ed. 1644, p. 100; Child, part vi. p. 295. + +{79a} _The Hunting of the Cheviot_, and Herd’s _Otterburn_. + +{83a} Herd, and _Complaynte of Scotland_, 1549. + +{84a} Child, part ix. p. 244, stanza xiii. + +{84b} _Further Essays_, p. 27. + +{89} _Further Essays on Border Ballads_, p. 184. Andrew Elliot, 1910. +To be quoted as _F. E. B. B._ The other work on the subject is Colonel +Elliot’s _The Trustworthiness of the Border Ballads_. Blackwoods, 1906. + +{91a} _F. E. B. B._, _p._ 199. + +{91b} _F. E. B. B._, _p._ 200. + +{93a} _Trustworthiness of the Border Ballads_, p. vi. + +{95a} Satchells, pp. 13, 14. Edition of 1892. + +{95b} _Ibid._, p. 14. + +{95c} _Ibid._, part ii. pp. 35, 36. + +{97a} _F. E. B. B._, p. 200. + +{98a} Child, _English and Scottish Popular Ballads_, part viii. p. 518. +He refers to “Letters I. No. 44” in MS. + +{98b} See Sargent and Kittredge’s reduced edition of Child, p. 467, +1905. They publish this Elliot version only. The version has modern +spelling. On this version and its minor variations from Scott’s, I say +more later; Colonel Elliot gives no critical examination of the +variations which seem to me essential. + +{99a} _F. E. B. B._, p. 184. + +{101a} Robert Scott (the poet Satchells’s father) “had Southinrigg for +his service” to Buccleuch, says Sir William Fraser, in his _Memoirs of +the House of Buccleuch_. (See Satchells, 1892, pp. vii., viii.) But the +“fathers” of Satchells “having dilapidate and engaged their Estate by +Cautionary,” poor Satchells was brought up as a cowherd, till he went to +the wars, and never learned to write, or even, it seems, to read; as he +says in the Dedication of his book to Lord Yester. + +{102a} _The Trustworthiness of the Border Ballads_, opp. p. 36. + +{103a} _Border Papers_, vol. i. pp. 120–127. + +{104a} _Border Papers_, vol. i. p. 106. + +{106a} Scrope, in _Border Papers_, vol. ii. pp. 148–152. + +{106b} _Border Papers_, vol. ii. p. 307, No. 606. + +{107a} _Border Papers_, vol. ii. pp. 299–303 + +{108a} _Border Papers_, vol. ii. p. 356. + +{108b} _F. E. B. B._, p. 161. + +{110a} See his _Border Minstrelsy_, vol. ii. p. 15. + +{110b} _F. E. B. B._, p. 156. + +{111a} _T. B. B._, p. 14. + +{112a} _T. B. B._, p. 12. + +{112b} _T. B. B._, p. 12. + +{113a} _Memoirs of Robert Carey_, p. 98, 1808. + +{114a} _T. B. B._, pp. 19, 20. + +{115} _T. B. B._, p. 20. + +{120a} Child, part vii. p. 5. + +{120b} Variant E is a patched-up thing from five or six MS. sources and +a printed “stall copy.” Jamieson published it in 1817. Motherwell had +heard a _cantefable_, or version in alternate prose and verse, which +contained the stanza. It is not identical with stanza xxxii. in Scott’s +_Jamie Telfer_, but runs thus— + + My hounds they all go masterless, + My hawks they fly from tree to tree, + My younger brother will heir my lands, + Fair England again I’ll never see. + +Child, part ii. p. 454 _et seqq._ The speaker is young Beichan, a +prisoner in the dungeon of a professor of the Moslem faith. + +{122a} _F. E. B. B._, pp. 179–185. + +{123a} Child, part viii. p. 518. + +{125a} Aytoun, in _The Ballads of Scotland_ (vol. i. p. 211), says that +his copy of _Jamie Telfer_ “is almost _verbatim_ the same as that given +in the _Border Minstrelsy_.” He does not tell us where he got his copy; +or why the Captain’s bride’s speech (Sharpe, stanza xxxvi.) differs from +the version in Scott and Sharpe. He gives the stanza which comes last in +Scott’s copy, and is too bad and enfeebling to be attributed to Scott’s +pen. He omits the stanza which has strayed in from other ballads, + + “My hounds may a’ rin masterless.” + +But as Aytoun confessedly rejected such inappropriate stanzas, he may +have found it in his copy and excised it. + +{129a} _Minstrelsy_, vol. iii. p. 76, 1803. + +{130a} _Further Essays_, p. 112. + +{131a} _Further Essays_, p. 112. + +{135a} In _Minstrelsy_, vol. ii. p. 35 (1833). + +{139a} _Further Essays_, p. 124. + +{139b} _Border Papers_, vol. ii. p. 367. + +{140a} _Further Essays_, pp. 123, 124. + +{140b} _Border Papers_, vol. ii. p. 121. + +{142a} _Further Essays_, p. 125. + +{142b} Birrell’s _Diary_ vouches for the irons. + +{142c} _Further Essays_, p. 128. + +{146a} Sargent and Kittredge, pp. xxix., xxx. + +{147a} Hales and Furnivall, ii. pp. 205–207. + +{148a} _Further Essays_, p. 45. + +{150a} _Ballads_, p. xxix. + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SIR WALTER SCOTT AND THE BORDER +MINSTRELSY*** + + +******* This file should be named 4088-0.txt or 4088-0.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/4/0/8/4088 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of +the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + + + + +Title: Sir Walter Scott and the Border Minstrelsy + + +Author: Andrew Lang + + + +Release Date: August 16, 2014 [eBook #4088] +[This file was first posted on 19 November 2001] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SIR WALTER SCOTT AND THE BORDER +MINSTRELSY*** +</pre> +<p>Transcribed from the 1910 Longmans, Green, and Co. edition by +David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org</p> +<h1>SIR WALTER SCOTT<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">AND THE</span><br /> +BORDER MINSTRELSY</h1> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">BY</span><br +/> +ANDREW LANG</p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center">LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON</span><br /> +<span class="GutSmall">NEW YORK, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA</span><br +/> +<span class="GutSmall">1910</span></p> +<h2>PREFACE</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">Persons</span> not much interested in, or +cognisant of, “antiquarian old womanries,” as Sir +Walter called them, may ask “what all the pother is +about,” in this little tractate. On my side it is +“about” the veracity of Sir Walter Scott. He +has been suspected of helping to compose, and of issuing as a +genuine antique, a ballad, <i>Auld Maitland</i>. He also +wrote about the ballad, as a thing obtained from recitation, to +two friends and fellow-antiquaries. If to Scott’s +knowledge it was a modern imitation, Sir Walter deliberately +lied.</p> +<p>He did not: he did obtain the whole ballad from Hogg, who got +it from recitation—as I believe, and try to prove, and as +Scott certainly believed. The facts in the case exist in +published works, and in manuscript letters of Ritson to Scott, +and Hogg to Scott, and in the original MS. of the song, with a +note by Hogg to Laidlaw. If we are interested in the truth +about the matter, we ought at least to read the very accessible +material before bringing charges against the Sheriff and the +Shepherd of Ettrick.</p> +<p>Whether <i>Auld Maitland</i> be a good or a bad ballad is not +part of the question. It was a favourite of mine in +childhood, and I agree with Scott in thinking that it has strong +dramatic situations. If it is a bad ballad, such as many +people could compose, then it is not by Sir Walter.</p> +<p>The <i>Ballad of Otterburne</i> is said to have been +constructed from Herd’s version, tempered by Percy’s +version, with additions from a modern imagination. We have +merely to read Professor Child’s edition of +<i>Otterburne</i>, with Hogg’s letter covering his MS. copy +of <i>Otterburne</i> from recitation, to see that this is a +wholly erroneous view of the matter. We have all the +materials for forming a judgment accessible to us in print, and +have no excuse for preferring our own conjectures.</p> +<p>“No one now believes,” it may be said, “in +the aged persons who lived at the head of Ettrick,” and +recited <i>Otterburne</i> to Hogg. Colonel Elliot +disbelieves, but he shows no signs of having read Hogg’s +curious letter, in two parts, about these “old +parties”; a letter written on the day when Hogg, he says, +twice “pumped their memories.”</p> +<p>I print this letter, and, if any one chooses to think that it +is a crafty fabrication, I can only say that its craft would have +beguiled myself as it beguiled Scott.</p> +<p>It is a common, cheap, and ignorant scepticism that +disbelieves in the existence, in Scott’s day, or in ours, +of persons who know and can recite variants of our traditional +ballads. The strange song of <i>The Bitter Withy</i>, +unknown to Professor Child, was recovered from recitation but +lately, in several English counties. The ignoble lay of +<i>Johnny Johnston</i> has also been recovered: it is widely +diffused. I myself obtained a genuine version of <i>Where +Goudie rins</i>, through the kindness of Lady Mary Glyn; and a +friend of Lady Rosalind Northcote procured the low English +version of <i>Young Beichan</i>, or <i>Lord Bateman</i>, from an +old woman in a rural workhouse. In Shropshire my friend +Miss Burne, the president of the Folk-Lore Society, received from +Mr. Hubert Smith, in 1883, a very remarkable variant, undoubtedly +antique, of <i>The Wife of Usher’s Well</i>. <a +name="citation0a"></a><a href="#footnote0a" +class="citation">[0a]</a> In 1896 Miss Backus found, in the +hills of Polk County, North Carolina, another variant, +intermediate between the Shropshire and the ordinary version. <a +name="citation0b"></a><a href="#footnote0b" +class="citation">[0b]</a></p> +<p>There are many other examples of this persistence of ballads +in the popular memory, even in our day, and only persons ignorant +of the facts can suppose that, a century ago, there were no +reciters at the head of Ettrick, and elsewhere in Scotland. +Not even now has the halfpenny newspaper wholly destroyed the +memories of traditional poetry and of traditional tales even in +the English-speaking parts of our islands, while in the Highlands +a rich harvest awaits the reapers.</p> +<p>I could not have produced the facts, about <i>Auld +Maitland</i> especially, and in some other cases, without the +kind and ungrudging aid, freely given to a stranger, of Mr. +William Macmath, whose knowledge of ballad-lore, and especially +of the ballad manuscripts at Abbotsford, is unrivalled. As +to <i>Auld Maitland</i>, Mr. T. F. Henderson, in his edition of +the <i>Minstrelsy</i> (Blackwood, 1892), also made due use of +Hogg’s MS., and his edition is most valuable to every +student of Scott’s method of editing, being based on the +Abbotsford MSS. Mr. Henderson suspects, more than I do, the +veracity of the Shepherd.</p> +<p>I am under obligations to Colonel Elliot’s book, as it +has drawn my attention anew to <i>Auld Maitland</i>, a topic +which I had studied “somewhat lazily,” like Quintus +Smyrnæus. I supposed that there was an inconsistency +in two of Scott’s accounts as to how he obtained the +ballad. As Colonel Elliot points out, there was no +inconsistency. Scott had two copies. One was +Hogg’s MS.: the other was derived from the recitation of +Hogg’s mother.</p> +<p>This trifle is addressed to lovers of Scott, of the Border, +and of ballads, <i>et non aultres</i>.</p> +<p>It is curious to see how facts make havoc of the conjectures +of the Higher Criticism in the case of <i>Auld +Maitland</i>. If Hogg was the forger of that ballad, I +asked, how did he know the traditions about Maitland and his +three sons, which we only know from poems of about 1576 in the +manuscripts of Sir Richard Maitland? These poems in 1802 +were, as far as I am aware, still unpublished.</p> +<p>Colonel Elliot urged that Leyden would know the poems, and +must have known Hogg. From Leyden, then, Hogg would get the +information. In the text I have urged that Leyden did not +know Hogg. I am able now to prove that Hogg and Leyden +never met till after Laidlaw gave the manuscript of <i>Auld +Maitland</i> to Hogg.</p> +<p>The fact is given in the original manuscript of +Laidlaw’s <i>Recollections of Sir Walter Scott</i> (among +the Laing MSS. in the library of the University of +Edinburgh). Carruthers, in publishing Laidlaw’s +reminiscences, omitted the following passage. After Scott +had read <i>Auld Maitland</i> aloud to Leyden and Laird Laidlaw, +the three rode together to dine at Whitehope.</p> +<p>“Near the Craigbents,” says Laidlaw, “Mr. +Scott and Leyden drew together in a close and seemingly private +conversation. I, of course, fell back. After a minute +or two, Leyden reined in his horse (a black horse that Mr. +Scott’s servant used to ride) and let me come up. +‘This Hogg,’ said he, ‘writes verses, I +understand.’ I assured him that he wrote very +beautiful verses, and with great facility. ‘But I +trust,’ he replied, ‘that there is no fear of his +passing off any of his own upon Scott for old +ballads.’ I again assured him that he would never +think of such a thing; and neither would he at that period of his +life.</p> +<p>“‘Let him beware of forgery,’ cried Leyden +with great force and energy, and in, I suppose, what Mr. Scott +used afterwards to call the <i>saw tones of his +voice</i>.”</p> +<p>This proves that Leyden had no personal knowledge of +“this Hogg,” and did not supply the shepherd with the +traditions about Auld Maitland.</p> +<p>Mr. W. J. Kennedy, of Hawick, pointed out to me this passage +in Laidlaw’s <i>Recollections</i>, edited from the MS. by +Mr. James Sinton, as reprinted from the <i>Transactions</i> of +the Hawick Archæological Society, 1905.</p> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> +<table> +<tr> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span +class="GutSmall">PAGE</span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">Scott and the Ballads</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page1">1</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">Auld Maitland</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page18">18</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">The Ballad of Otterburne</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page53">53</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">Scott’s Traditional Copy and how +he edited it</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page67">67</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">The Mystery of the Ballad of Jamie +Telfer</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page87">87</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">Kinmont Willie</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page126">126</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">Conclusions</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page148">148</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<h2><a name="page1"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 1</span>SCOTT +AND THE BALLADS</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">It</span> was through his collecting and +editing of <i>The Border Minstrelsy</i> that Sir Walter Scott +glided from law into literature. The history of the +conception and completion of his task, “a labour of love +truly, if ever such there was,” says Lockhart, is well +known, but the tale must be briefly told if we are to understand +the following essays in defence of Scott’s literary +morality.</p> +<p>Late in 1799 Scott wrote to James Ballantyne, then a printer +in Kelso, “I have been for years collecting Border +ballads,” and he thought that he could put together +“such a selection as might make a neat little volume, to +sell for four or five shillings.” In December 1799 +Scott received the office of Sheriff of Selkirkshire, or, as he +preferred to say, of Ettrick Forest. In the Forest, as was +natural, he found much of his materials. The people at the +head of Ettrick were still, says Hogg, <a +name="citation1a"></a><a href="#footnote1a" +class="citation">[1a]</a> like many of the Highlanders even now, +in that they cheered the long winter nights with the telling of +old tales; and some aged people still remembered, no doubt in a +defective and corrupted state, many old ballads. Some of +these, especially the ballads of Border raids and rescues, may +never even have been written down by the original authors. +The Borderers, says Lesley, Bishop of Ross, writing in 1578, +“take much pleasure in their old music and chanted songs, +which they themselves compose, whether about the deeds of their +ancestors, or about ingenious raiding tricks and +stratagems.” <a name="citation2a"></a><a href="#footnote2a" +class="citation">[2a]</a></p> +<p>The historical ballads about the deeds of their ancestors +would be far more romantic than scientifically accurate. +The verses, as they passed from mouth to mouth and from +generation to generation, would be in a constant state of flux +and change. When a man forgot a verse, he would make +something to take its place. A more or less appropriate +stanza from another ballad would slip in; or the reciter would +tell in prose the matter of which he forgot the versified +form.</p> +<p>Again, in the towns, street ballads on remarkable events, as +early at least as the age of Henry VIII., were written or +printed. Knox speaks of ballads on Queen Mary’s four +Maries. Of these ballads only one is left, and it is a +libel. The hanging of a French apothecary of the Queen, and +a French waiting-maid, for child murder, has been transferred to +one of the Maries, or rather to an apocryphal Mary Hamilton, with +Darnley for her lover. Of this ballad twenty-eight +variants—and extremely various they are—were +collected by Professor Child in his <i>English and Scottish +Popular Ballads</i> (ten parts, 1882–1898). In one +mangled form or another such ballads would drift at last even to +Ettrick Forest.</p> +<p>A ballad may be found in a form which the first author could +scarcely recognise, dozens of hands, in various generations, +having been at work on it. At any period, especially in the +seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the cheap press might print +a sheet of the ballads, edited and interpolated by the very +lowest of printer’s hacks; that copy would circulate, be +lost, and become in turn a traditional source, though full of +modernisms. Or an educated person might make a written +copy, filling up gaps himself in late seventeenth or in +eighteenth century ballad style, and this might pass into the +memory of the children and servants of the house, and so to the +herds and to the farm lasses. I suspect that this process +may have occurred in the cases of <i>Auld Maitland</i> and of +<i>The Outlaw Murray</i>—“these two bores” Mr. +Child is said to have styled them.</p> +<p>When Allan Ramsay, about 1720, took up and printed a ballad, +he altered it if he pleased. More faithful to his texts +(wherever he got them), was David Herd, in his collection of +1776, but his version did not reach, as we shall see, old +reciters in Ettrick. If Scott found any traditional ballads +in Ettrick, as his collectors certainly did, they had passed +through the processes described. They needed re-editing of +some sort if they were to be intelligible, and readable with +pleasure.</p> +<p>In 1800, apparently, while Scott made only brief flying visits +from the little inn of Clovenfords, on Tweed, to his sheriffdom, +he found a coadjutor. Richard Heber, the wealthy and +luxurious antiquary and collector, looked into Constable’s +first little bookselling shop, and saw a strange, poor young +student prowling among the books. This was John Leyden, son +of a shepherd in Roxburghshire, a lad living in extreme +poverty.</p> +<p>Leyden, in 1800, was making himself a savant. Heber +spoke with him, found that he was rich in ballad-lore, and +carried him to Scott. He was presently introduced into the +best society in Edinburgh (which would not happen in our time), +and a casual note of Scott’s proves that he did not leave +Leyden in poverty. Early in 1802, Leyden got the promise of +an East Indian appointment, read medicine furiously, and sailed +for the East in the beginning of 1803. It does not appear +that Leyden went ballad-hunting in Ettrick before he rode thither +with Scott in the spring of 1802. He was busy with books, +with editorial work, and in aiding Scott in Edinburgh. It +was he who insisted that a small volume at five shillings was far +too narrow for the materials collected.</p> +<p>Scott also corresponded with the aged Percy, Bishop of +Dromore, editor of the <i>Reliques</i>, and with Joseph Ritson, +the precise collector, Percy’s bitter foe. +Unfortunately the correspondence on ballads with Ritson, who died +in 1803, is but scanty; nor has most of the correspondence with +another student, George Ellis, been published. Even in Mr. +Douglas’s edition of Scott’s <i>Familiar Letters</i>, +the portion of an important letter of Hogg’s which deals +with ballad-lore is omitted. I shall give the letter in +full.</p> +<p>In 1800–01, “<i>The Minstrelsy</i> formed the +editor’s chief occupation,” says Lockhart; but later, +up to April 1801, the Forest and Liddesdale had yielded little +material. In fact, I do not know that Scott ever procured +much in Liddesdale, where he had no Hogg or Laidlaw always on the +spot, and in touch with the old people. It was in spring, +1802, that Scott first met his lifelong friend, William Laidlaw, +farmer in Blackhouse, on Douglasburn, in Yarrow. Laidlaw, +as is later proved completely, introduced Scott to Hogg, then a +very unsophisticated shepherd. “Laidlaw,” says +Lockhart, “took care that Scott should see, without delay, +James Hogg.” <a name="citation4a"></a><a href="#footnote4a" +class="citation">[4a]</a> These two men, Hogg and Laidlaw, +knowing the country people well, were Scott’s chief sources +of recited balladry; and probably they sometimes improved, in +making their copies, the materials won from the failing memories +of the old. Thus Laidlaw, while tenant in Traquair Knowe, +obtained from recitation, <i>The Dæmon Lover</i>. +Scott does not tell us whether or not he knew the fact that +Laidlaw wrote in stanza 6 (half of it traditional), stanza 12 +(also a ballad formula), stanzas 17 and 18 (necessary to complete +the sense; the last two lines of 18 are purely and romantically +modern).</p> +<p>We shall later quote Hogg’s account of his own dealings +with his raw materials from recitation.</p> +<p>In January 1802 Scott published the two first volumes of +<i>The Minstrelsy</i>. Lockhart describes the enthusiasm of +dukes, fine ladies, and antiquarians. In the end of April +1803 the third volume appeared, including ballads obtained +through Hogg and Laidlaw in spring 1802. Scott, by his +store of historic anecdote in his introductions and notes, by his +way of vivifying the past, and by his method of editing, revived, +but did not create, the interest in the romance of ballad +poetry.</p> +<p>It had always existed. We all know Sidney’s words +on “The Douglas and the Percy”; Addison’s on +folk-poetry; Mr. Pepys’ ballad collection; the ballads in +Tom Durfey’s and other miscellanies; Allan Ramsay’s +<i>Evergreen</i>; Bishop Percy’s <i>Reliques of Ancient +Poetry</i>; Herd’s ballad volumes of 1776; Evans’ +collections; Burns’ remakings of old songs; Ritson’s +publications, and so forth. But the genius of Burns, while +it transfigured many old songs, was not often exercised on old +narrative ballads, and when Scott produced <i>The Minstrelsy</i>, +the taste for ballads was confined to amateurs of early +literature, and to country folk.</p> +<p>Sir Walter’s method of editing, of presenting his +traditional materials, was literary, and, usually, not +scientific. A modern collector would publish +things—legends, ballads, or folk-tales—exactly as he +found them in old broadsides, or in MS. copies, or received them +from oral recitation. He would give the names and +residences and circumstances of the reciters or narrators (Herd, +in 1776, gave no such information). He would fill up no +gaps with his own inventions, would add no stanzas of his own, +and the circulation of his work would arrive at some two or three +hundred copies given away!</p> +<p>As Lockhart says, “Scott’s diligent zeal had put +him in possession of a variety of copies in various stages of +preservation, and to the task of selecting a standard text among +such a diversity of materials he brought a knowledge of old +manners and phraseology, and a manly simplicity of taste, such as +had never before been united in the person of a poetical +antiquary.”</p> +<p>Lockhart speaks of “The editor’s conscientious +fidelity . . . which prevented the introduction of anything new, +and his pure taste in the balancing of discordant +recitations.” He had already written that +“Scott had, I firmly believe, interpolated hardly a line or +even an epithet of his own.” <a name="citation8a"></a><a +href="#footnote8a" class="citation">[8a]</a></p> +<p>It is clear that Lockhart had not compared the texts in <i>The +Minstrelsy</i> with the mass of manuscript materials which are +still at Abbotsford. These, copied by the accurate Mr. +Macmath, have been published in the monumental collection of +<i>English and Scottish Popular Ballads</i>, in ten parts, by the +late Professor Child of Harvard, the greatest of scholars in +ballad-lore. From his book we often know exactly what kinds +of copies of ballads Scott possessed, and what alterations he +made in his copies. The <i>Ballad of Otterburne</i> is +especially instructive, as we shall see later. But of the +most famous of Border historical ballads, <i>Kinmont Willie</i>, +and its companion, <i>Jamie Telfer of the Fair Dodhead</i>, Scott +has left no original manuscript texts. Now into each of +these ballads Scott has written (if internal evidence be worth +anything) verses of his own; stanzas unmistakably marked by his +own spirit, energy, sense of romance, and, occasionally, by a +somewhat inflated rhetoric. On this point doubt is not +easy. When he met the names of his chief, Buccleuch, and of +his favourite ancestor, Wat of Warden, Scott did, in two cases, +for those heroes what, by his own confession, he did for +anecdotes that came in his way—he decked them out +“with a cocked hat and a sword.”</p> +<p>Sir Walter knew perfectly well that he was not “playing +the game” in a truly scientific spirit. He explains +his ideas in his “Essay on Popular Poetry” as late as +1830. He mentions Joseph Ritson’s “extreme +attachment to the severity of truth,” and his attacks on +Bishop Percy’s purely literary treatment of the materials +of his <i>Reliques of Ancient Poetry</i> (1765).</p> +<p>As Scott says, “by Percy words were altered, phrases +improved, and whole verses were inserted or omitted at +pleasure.” Percy “accommodated” the +ballads “with such emendations as might recommend them to +the modern taste.” Ritson cried +“forgery,” but Percy, says Scott, had to win a +hearing from his age, and confessed (in general terms) to his +additions and decorations.</p> +<p>Scott then speaks reprovingly of Pinkerton’s wholesale +fabrication of <i>entire ballads</i> (1783), a crime acknowledged +later by the culprit (1786). Scott applauds Ritson’s +accuracy, but regrets his preference of the worst to the better +readings, as if their inferiority was a security for their being +genuine. Scott preferred the best, the most poetical +readings.</p> +<p>In 1830, Scott also wrote an essay on “Imitations of the +Ancient Ballads,” and spoke very leniently of imitations +passed off as authentic. “There is no small degree of +cant in the violent invectives with which impostors of this +nature have been assailed.” As to <i>Hardyknute</i>, +the favourite poem of his infancy, “the first that I ever +learned and the last that I shall forget,” he says, +“the public is surely more enriched by the contribution +than injured by the deception.” Besides, he says, the +deception almost never deceives.</p> +<p>His method in <i>The Minstrelsy</i>, he writes, was “to +imitate the plan and style of Bishop Percy, observing only more +strict fidelity concerning my originals.” That is to +say, he avowedly made up texts out of a variety of copies, when +he had more copies than one. This is frequently +acknowledged by Scott; what he does not acknowledge is his own +occasional interpolation of stanzas. A good example is +<i>The Gay Gosshawk</i>. He had a MS. of his own “of +some antiquity,” a MS. of Mrs. Brown, a famous reciter and +collector of the eighteenth century; and the Abbotsford MSS. show +isolated stanzas from Hogg, and a copy from Will Laidlaw. +Mr. T. F. Henderson’s notes <a name="citation10a"></a><a +href="#footnote10a" class="citation">[10a]</a> display the +methods of selection, combination, emendation, and possible +interpolation.</p> +<p>By these methods Scott composed “a standard text,” +now the classical text, of the ballads which he published. +Ballad lovers, who are not specialists, go to <i>The +Minstrelsy</i> for their favourite fare, and for historical +elucidation and anecdote.</p> +<p>Scott often mentions his sources of all kinds, such as MSS. of +Herd and Mrs. Brown; “an old person”; “an old +woman at Kirkhill, West Lothian”; “an ostler at +Carlisle”; Allan Ramsay’s <i>Tea-Table +Miscellany</i>; Surtees of Mainsforth (these ballads are by +Surtees himself: Scott never suspected him); Caw’s +<i>Hawick Museum</i> (1774); Ritson’s copies, others from +Leyden; the Glenriddell MSS. (collected by the friend of Burns); +on several occasions copies from recitations procured by James +Hogg or Will Laidlaw, and possibly or probably each of these men +emended the copy he obtained; while Scott combined and emended +all in his published text.</p> +<p>Sometimes Scott gives no source at all, and in these cases +research finds variants in old broadsides, or elsewhere.</p> +<p>In thirteen cases he gives no source, or “from +tradition,” which is the same thing; though +“tradition in Ettrick Forest” may sometimes imply, +once certainly does, the intermediary Hogg, or Will Laidlaw.</p> +<p>We now understand Scott’s methods as editor. They +are not scientific; they are literary. We also acknowledge +(on internal evidence) his interpolation of his own stanzas in +<i>Kinmont Willie</i> and <i>Jamie Telfer</i>, where he exalts +his chief and ancestor. We cannot do otherwise (as +scholars) than regret and condemn Scott’s interpolations, +never confessed. As lovers of poetry we acknowledge that, +without Scott’s interpolation, we could have no more of +<i>Kinmont Willie</i> than verses, “much mangled by +reciters,” as Scott says, of a ballad perhaps no more +poetical than <i>Jock o’ the Side</i>. Scott says +that “some conjectural emendations have been absolutely +necessary to render it intelligible.” As it is now +very intelligible, to say “conjectural emendations” +is a way of saying “interpolations.”</p> +<p>But while thus confessing Scott’s sins, I cannot believe +that he, like Pinkerton, palmed off on the world any ballad or +ballads of his own sole manufacture, or any ballad which he knew +to be forged.</p> +<p>The truth is that Scott was easily deceived by a modern +imitation, if he liked the poetry. Surtees hoaxed him not +only with <i>Barthram’s Dirge</i> and <i>Anthony +Featherstonhaugh</i>, but with a long prose excerpt from a +non-existent manuscript about a phantom knight. Scott made +the plot of <i>Marmion</i> hinge on this myth, in the encounter +of Marmion with Wilfred as the phantasmal cavalier. He +tells us that in <i>The Flowers of the Forest</i> “the +manner of the ancient minstrels is so happily imitated, that it +required the most positive evidence to convince the editor that +the song was of modern date.” Really the author was +Miss Jane Elliot (1747–1805), daughter of Sir Gilbert +Elliot of Minto. Herd published a made-up copy in +1776. The tune, Scott says, is old, and he has heard an +imperfect verse of the original ballad—</p> +<blockquote><p>“I ride single on my saddle,<br /> +For the flowers o’ the forest are a’ wede +awa’”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The <i>constant</i> use of double rhymes within the +line—</p> +<blockquote><p>“At e’en, in the gloaming, nae +younkers are roaming,”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>an artifice rare in genuine ballads, might alone have proved +to Scott that the poem of Miss Elliot is not popular and +ancient.</p> +<p>I have cleared my conscience by confessing Scott’s +literary sins. His interpolations, elsewhere mere stopgaps, +are mainly to be found in <i>Kinmont Willie</i> and <i>Jamie +Telfer</i>. His duty was to say, in his preface to each +ballad, “The editor has interpolated stanza” so and +so; if he made up the last verses of <i>Kinmont Willie</i> from +the conclusion of a version of <i>Archie o’ +Ca’field</i>, he should have said so; as he does +acknowledge two stopgap interpolations by Hogg in <i>Auld +Maitland</i>. But as to the conclusion of <i>Kinmont +Willie</i>, he did, we shall see, make confession.</p> +<p>Professor Kittredge, who edited Child’s last part (X.), +says in his excellent abridged edition of Child (1905), “It +was no doubt the feeling that the popular ballad is a fluid and +unstable thing that has prompted so many editors—among them +Sir Walter Scott, whom it is impossible to assail, however much +the scholarly conscience may disapprove—to deal freely with +the versions that came into their hands.”</p> +<p>Twenty-five years after the appearance of <i>The Border +Minstrelsy</i>, in 1827, appeared Motherwell’s +<i>Minstrelsy</i>, <i>Ancient and Modern</i>. Motherwell +was in favour of scientific methods of editing. Given two +copies of a ballad, he says, “perhaps they may not have a +single stanza which is mutual property, except certain +commonplaces which seem an integral portion of the original +mechanism of all our ancient ballads . . . ” By +selecting the most beautiful and striking passages from each +copy, and making those cohere, an editor, he says, may produce a +more perfect and ornate version than any that exists in +tradition. Of the originals “the individuality +entirely disappears.”</p> +<p>Motherwell disapproved of this method, which, as a rule, is +Scott’s, and, scientifically, the method is not +defensible. Thus, having three ballads of rescues, in +similar circumstances, with a river to ford, Scott confessedly +places that incident where he thinks it most “poetically +appropriate”; and in all probability, by a single touch, he +gives poetry in place of rough humour. Of all this +Motherwell disapproved. (See <i>Kinmont Willie</i>, +<i>infra.</i>)</p> +<p>Aytoun, in <i>The Ballads of Scotland</i>, thought Motherwell +hypercritical; and also, in his practice inconsistent with his +preaching. Aytoun observed, “with much regret and not +a little indignation” (1859), “that later editors +insinuated a doubt as to the fidelity of Sir Walter’s +rendering. My firm belief, resting on documentary evidence, +is that Scott was most scrupulous in adhering to the very letter +of his transcripts, whenever copies of ballads, previously taken +down, were submitted to him.” As an example, Aytoun, +using a now lost MS. copy of about 1689–1702, of <i>The +Outlaw Murray</i>, says “Sir Walter has given it throughout +just as he received it.” Yet Scott’s copy, +mainly from a lost Cockburn MS., contains a humorous passage on +Buccleuch which Child half suspects to be by Sir Walter himself. +<a name="citation15a"></a><a href="#footnote15a" +class="citation">[15a]</a> It is impossible for me to know +whether Child’s hesitating conjecture is right or +wrong. Certainly we shall see, when Scott had but one MS. +copy, as of <i>Auld Maitland</i>, his editing left little or +nothing to be desired.</p> +<p>But now Scott is assailed, both where he deserves, and where, +in my opinion, he does not deserve censure.</p> +<p>Scott did no more than his confessed following of +Percy’s method implies, to his original text of the +<i>Ballad of Otterburne</i>. This I shall prove from his +original text, published by Child from the Abbotsford MSS., and +by a letter from the collector of the ballad, the Ettrick +Shepherd.</p> +<p>The facts, in this instance, apparently are utterly unknown to +Lieutenant-Colonel the Hon. Fitzwilliam Elliot, in his <i>Further +Essays on Border Ballads</i> (1910), pp. 1–45.</p> +<p>Again, I am absolutely certain, and can demonstrate, that +Scott did not (as Colonel Elliot believes) detect Hogg in forging +<i>Auld Maitland</i>, join with him in this fraud, and palm the +ballad off on the public. Nothing of the kind +occurred. Scott did not lie in this matter, both to the +world and to his intimate friends, in private letters.</p> +<p>Once more, without better evidence than we possess, I do not +believe that, in <i>Jamie Telfer</i>, Scott transferred the glory +from the Elliots to the Scotts, and the shame from Buccleuch to +Elliot of Stobs. The discussion leads us into very curious +matter. But here, with our present materials, neither +absolute proof nor disproof is possible.</p> +<p>Finally, as to <i>Kinmont Willie</i>, I merely give such +reasons as I can find for thinking that Scott <i>had</i> +“mangled” fragments of an old ballad before him, and +did not merely paraphrase the narrative of Walter Scott of +Satchells, in his doggerel <i>True History of the Name of +Scott</i> (1688).</p> +<p>The positions of Colonel Elliot are in each case the reverse +of mine. In the instance of <i>Auld Maitland</i> (where +Scott’s conduct would be unpardonable if Colonel +Elliot’s view were correct), I have absolute proof that he +is entirely mistaken. For <i>Otterburne</i> I am equally +fortunate; that is, I can show that Scott’s part went no +further than “the making of a standard text” on his +avowed principles. For <i>Jamie Telfer</i>, having no +original manuscript, I admit <i>decorative</i> interpolations, +and for the rest, argue on internal evidence, no other being +accessible. For <i>Kinmont Willie</i>, I confess that the +poem, as it stands, is Scott’s, but give reasons for +thinking that he had ballad fragments in his mind, if not on +paper.</p> +<p>It will be understood that Colonel Elliot does not, I +conceive, say that his charges are <i>proved</i>, but he thinks +that the evidence points to these conclusions. He +“hopes that I will give reasons for my disbelief” in +his theories; and “hopes, though he cannot expect that they +will completely dispose of” his views about <i>Jamie +Telfer</i>. <a name="citation17a"></a><a href="#footnote17a" +class="citation">[17a]</a></p> +<p>I give my reasons, though I entertain but slight hope of +convincing my courteous opponent. That is always a task +rather desperate. But the task leads me, in defence of a +great memory, into a countryside, and into old times on the +Border, which are so alluring that, like Socrates, I must follow +where the <i>logos</i> guides me. To one conclusion it +guides me, which startles myself, but I must follow the +<i>logos</i>, even against the verdict of Professor Child, +<i>notre maître à tous</i>. In some instances, +I repeat, positive proof of the correctness of my views is +impossible; all that I can do is to show that Colonel +Elliot’s contrary opinions also fall far short of +demonstration, or are demonstrably erroneous.</p> +<h2><a name="page18"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 18</span>AULD +MAITLAND</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> ballad of <i>Auld Maitland</i> +holds in <i>The Border Minstrelsy</i> a place like that of the +<i>Doloneia</i>, or Tenth Book, in the <i>Iliad</i>. Every +professor of the Higher Criticism throws his stone at the +<i>Doloneia</i> in passing, and every ballad-editor does as much +to <i>Auld Maitland</i>. Professor Child excluded it from +his monumental collection of “English and Scottish Popular +Ballads,” fragments, and variants, for which Mr. Child and +his friends and helpers ransacked every attainable collection of +ballads in manuscript, and ballads in print, as they listened to +the last murmurings of ballad tradition from the lips of old or +young.</p> +<p>Mr. Child, says his friend and pupil, Professor Kittredge, +“possessed a kind of instinct” for distinguishing +what is genuine and traditional, or modern, or manipulated, or, +if I may say so, “faked” in a ballad.</p> +<p>“This instinct, trained by thirty years of study, had +become wonderfully swift in its operations, and almost +infallible. A forged or retouched piece could not escape +him for a moment: he detected the slightest jar in the ballad +ring.” <a name="citation18a"></a><a href="#footnote18a" +class="citation">[18a]</a></p> +<p>But all old traditional ballads are masses of +“retouches,” made through centuries, by reciters, +copyists, editors, and so forth. Unluckily, Child never +gave in detail his reasons for rejecting that treasure of Sir +Walter’s, <i>Auld Maitland</i>. Child excluded the +poem <i>sans phrase</i>. If he did this, like Falstaff +“on instinct,” one can only say that antiquarian +instincts are never infallible. We must apply our reason to +the problem, “What is <i>Auld Maitland</i>?”</p> +<p>Colonel Elliot has taken this course. By far the most +blighting of the many charges made by Colonel Elliot against Sir +Walter Scott are concerned with the ballad of <i>Auld +Maitland</i>. <a name="citation19a"></a><a href="#footnote19a" +class="citation">[19a]</a> After stating that, in his +opinion, “several stanzas” of the ballad are by Sir +Walter himself, Colonel Elliot sums up his own ideas thus:</p> +<p>“My view is that Hogg, in the first instance, tried to +palm off the ballad on Scott, and failed; and then Scott palmed +it off on the public, and succeeded . . . let us, as gentlemen +and honest judges, admit that the responsibility of the deception +rests rather on the laird (Scott) than on the herd” (Hogg.) +<a name="citation19b"></a><a href="#footnote19b" +class="citation">[19b]</a></p> +<p>If Colonel Elliot’s “views” were correct +(and it is absolutely erroneous), the guilt of “the +laird” would be great. Scott conspires with a +shepherd, a stranger, to palm off a forgery on the public. +Scott issues the forgery, and, what is worse, in a private letter +to a learned friend, he utters what I must borrow words for: he +utters “cold and calculated falsehoods” about the +manner in which, and the person from whom, he obtained what he +calls “my first copy” of the song. If Hogg and +Scott forged the poem, then when Scott told his tale of its +acquisition by himself from Laidlaw, Scott lied.</p> +<p>Colonel Elliot is ignorant of the facts in the case. He +gropes his way under the misleading light of a false date, and of +fragments torn from the context of a letter which, in its +complete form, has never till now been published. Where +positive and published information exists, it has not always come +within the range of the critic’s researches; had it done +so, he would have taken the information into account, but he does +not. Of the existence of Scott’s “first +copy” of the ballad in manuscript our critic seems never to +have heard; certainly he has not studied the MS. Had he +done so he would not assign (on grounds like those of Homeric +critics) this verse to Hogg and that to Scott. He would +know that Scott did not interpolate a single stanza; that +spelling, punctuation, and some slight verbal corrections, with +an admirable emendation, were the sum of his industry: that he +did not even excise two stanzas of, at earliest, eighteenth +century work.</p> +<p>I must now clear up misconceptions which have imposed +themselves on all critics of the ballad, on myself, for example, +no less than on Colonel Elliot: and must tell the whole story of +how the existence of the ballad first became known to +Scott’s collector and friend, William Laidlaw, how he +procured the copy which he presented to Sir Walter, and how Sir +Walter obtained, from recitation, his “second copy,” +that which he printed in <i>The Minstrelsy</i> in 1803.</p> +<p>In 1801 Scott, who was collecting ballads, gave a list of +songs which he wanted to Mr. Andrew Mercer, of Selkirk. +Mercer knew young Will Laidlaw, farmer in Blackhouse on Yarrow, +where Hogg had been a shepherd for ten years. Laidlaw +applied for two ballads, one of them <i>The Outlaw Murray</i>, to +Hogg, then shepherding at Ettrick House, at the head of Ettrick, +above Thirlestane. Hogg replied on 20th July 1801. He +could get but a few verses of <i>The Outlaw</i> from his maternal +uncle, Will Laidlaw of Phawhope. He said that, from +traditions known to him, he could make good songs, “but +without Mr. Scott’s permission this would be an imposition, +neither could I undertake it without an order from him in his own +handwriting . . . ” <a name="citation21a"></a><a +href="#footnote21a" class="citation">[21a]</a> Laidlaw went +on trying to collect songs for Scott. We now take his own +account of <i>Auld Maitland</i> from a manuscript left by him. <a +name="citation21b"></a><a href="#footnote21b" +class="citation">[21b]</a></p> +<p>“I heard from one of the servant girls, who had all the +turn and qualifications for a collector, of a ballad called +<i>Auld Maitland</i>, that a grandfather (maternal) of Hogg could +repeat, and she herself had several of the first stanzas, which I +took a note of, and have still the copy. This greatly +aroused my anxiety to procure the whole, for this was a ballad +not even hinted at by Mercer in his list of desiderata received +from Mr. Scott. I forthwith wrote to Hogg himself, +requesting him to endeavour to procure the whole ballad. In +a week or two I received his reply, containing <i>Auld +Maitland</i> exactly as he had received it from the recitation of +his uncle Will of Phawhope, corroborated by his mother, who both +said they learned it from their father, a still older Will of +Phawhope, and an old man called Andrew Muir, who had been servant +to the famous Mr. Boston, minister of Ettrick.” +Concerning Laidlaw’s evidence, Colonel Elliot says not a +word.</p> +<p>This copy of <i>Auld Maitland</i>, with the superscription +outside—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Mr. +William laidlaw</span>,<br /> +<span class="smcap">Blackhouse</span>,</p> +</blockquote> +<p>all in Hogg’s hand, is now at Abbotsford. We next +have, through Carruthers using Laidlaw’s manuscript, an +account of the arrival of Scott and Leyden at Blackhouse, of +Laidlaw’s presentation of Hogg’s manuscript, which +Scott read aloud, and of their surprise and delight. Scott +was excited, so that his <i>burr</i> became very perceptible. <a +name="citation23a"></a><a href="#footnote23a" +class="citation">[23a]</a></p> +<p>The time of year when Scott and Leyden visited Yarrow was not +the <i>autumn</i> vacation of 1802, as Lockhart erroneously +writes, <a name="citation23b"></a><a href="#footnote23b" +class="citation">[23b]</a> but the <i>spring</i> vacation of +1802. The spring vacation, Mr. Macmath informs me, ran from +11th March to 12th May in 1802. In May, apparently, Scott +having obtained the <i>Auld Maitland</i> MS. in the vernal +vacation of the Court of Session, gave his account of his +discovery to his friend Ellis (Lockhart does not date the letter, +but wrongly puts it after the return to Edinburgh in November +1802).</p> +<p>Scott wrote thus:—“We” (John Leyden and +himself) “have just concluded an excursion of two or three +weeks through my jurisdiction of Selkirkshire, where, in defiance +of mountains, rivers, and bogs, damp and dry, we have penetrated +the very recesses of Ettrick Forest . . . I have . . . returned +<i>loaded</i> with the treasures of oral tradition. The +principal result of our inquiries has been a complete and perfect +copy of “Maitland with his Auld Berd Graie,” referred +to by [Gawain] Douglas in his <i>Palice of Honour</i> (1503), +along with John the Reef and other popular characters, and +celebrated in the poems from the Maitland MS.” +(<i>circ.</i> 1575). You may guess the surprise of Leyden +and myself when this was presented to us, copied down from the +recitation of an old shepherd, by a country farmer . . . Many of +the old words are retained, which neither the reciter nor the +copyer understood. Such are the military engines, sowies, +<i>springwalls</i> (springalds), and many others . . . ” <a +name="citation24a"></a><a href="#footnote24a" +class="citation">[24a]</a></p> +<p>That Scott got the ballad in spring 1802 is easily +proved. On 10th April 1802, Joseph Ritson, the crabbed, +ill-tempered, but meticulously accurate scholar, who thought that +ballad-forging should be made a capital offence, wrote thus to +Scott:—</p> +<p>“I have the pleasure of enclosing my copy of a very +ancient poem, which appears to me to be the original of <i>The +Wee Wee Man</i>, and which I learn from Mr. Ellis you are +desirous to see.” In Scott’s letter to Ellis, +just quoted, he says: “I have lately had from him” +(Ritson) “<i>a copie</i> of ‘Ye litel wee man,’ +of which I think I can make some use. In return, I have +sent him a sight of <i>Auld Maitland</i>, the original MS . . . I +wish him to see it <i>in puris naturalibus</i>.” +“The precaution here taken was very natural,” says +Lockhart, considering Ritson’s temper and hatred of +literary forgeries. Scott, when he wrote to Ellis, had +received Ritson’s <i>The Wee Wee Man</i> +“lately”: it was sent to him by Ritson on 10th April +1802. Scott had already, when he wrote to Ellis, got +“the original MS. of <i>Auld Maitland</i>” (now in +Abbotsford Library). By 10th June 1802 Ritson wrote saying, +“You may depend on my taking the utmost care of <i>Old +Maitland</i>, and returning it in health and safety. I +would not use the liberty of transcribing it into my manuscript +copy of Mrs. Brown’s ballads, but if you will signify your +permission, I shall be highly gratified.” <a +name="citation25"></a><a href="#footnote25" +class="citation">[25]</a> “Your ancient and curious +ballad,” he styles the piece.</p> +<p>Thus Scott had <i>Auld Maitland</i> in May 1802; he sent the +original MS. to Ritson; Ritson received it graciously; he had, on +10th April 1802, sent Scott another MS., <i>The Wee Wee Man</i>: +and when Scott wrote to Ellis about his surprise at getting +“a complete and perfect copy of Maitland,” he had but +lately received <i>The Wee Wee Man</i>, sent by Ritson on 10th +April 1802. He had made a spring, not an autumn, raid into +the Forest.</p> +<p>We now know the external history of the ballad. Laidlaw, +hearing his servant repeat some stanzas, asks Hogg for the full +copy, which Hogg sends with a pedigree from which he never +wavered. Auld Andrew Muir taught the song to Hogg’s +mother and uncle. Hogg took it from his uncle’s +recitation, and sent it, directed outside,</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">To +Mr. William laidlaw</span>,<br /> +<span class="smcap">Blackhouse</span>,</p> +</blockquote> +<p>and Laidlaw gave it to Scott, in March 12–May 12, +1802. But Scott, publishing the ballad in <i>The +Minstrelsy</i> (1803), says it is given “as written down +from the recitation of the mother of Mr. James Hogg, who sings, +or rather chants, it with great animation” (manifestly he +had heard the recitation which he describes).</p> +<p>It seems that Scott, before he wrote to Ellis in May 1802, had +misgivings about the ballad. Says Carruthers, he +“made another visit to Blackhouse for the purpose of +getting Laidlaw as a guide to Ettrick,” being +“curious to see the poetical shepherd.”</p> +<p>Laidlaw’s MS., used by Carruthers, describes the wild +ride by the marshes at the head of the Loch of the Lowes, through +the bogs on the knees of the hills, down a footpath to +Ramseycleuch in Ettrick. They sent to Ettrick House for +Hogg; Scott was surprised and pleased with James’s +appearance. They had a delightful evening: “the +qualities of Hogg came out at every instant, and his unaffected +simplicity and fearless frankness both surprised and pleased the +Sheriff.” <a name="citation26a"></a><a href="#footnote26a" +class="citation">[26a]</a> Next morning they visited Hogg +and his mother at her cottage, and Hogg tells how the old lady +recited <i>Auld Maitland</i>. Hogg gave the story in prose, +with great vivacity and humour, in his <i>Domestic Manners of Sir +Walter Scott</i> (1834).</p> +<p>In an earlier poetical address to Scott, congratulating him on +his elevation to the baronetcy (1818), the Shepherd +says—</p> +<blockquote><p>When Maitland’s song first met your ear,<br +/> +How the furled visage up did clear.<br /> +Beaming delight! though now a shade<br /> +Of doubt would darken into dread,<br /> +That some unskilled presumptuous arm<br /> +Had marred tradition’s mighty charm.<br /> +Scarce grew thy lurking dread the less,<br /> +Till she, the ancient Minstreless,<br /> +With fervid voice and kindling eye,<br /> +And withered arms waving on high,<br /> +Sung forth these words in eldritch shriek,<br /> +While tears stood on thy nut-brown cheek:<br /> +“Na, we are nane o’ the lads o’ France,<br /> +Nor e’er pretend to be;<br /> +We be three lads of fair Scotland,<br /> +Auld Maitland’s sons a’ three.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>(Stanza xliii. as printed. In Hogg’s MS. copy, +given to Laidlaw there are two verbal differences, in lines 1 and +4.)</p> +<p>Then says Hogg—</p> +<blockquote><p>Thy fist made all the table ring,<br /> +By —, sir, but that is the thing!</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Hogg could not thus describe the scene in addressing Scott +himself, in 1818, if his story were not true. It thus +follows that his mother knew the sixty-five stanzas of the ballad +by heart. Does any one believe that, as a woman of +seventy-two, she learned the poem to back Hogg’s +hoax? That he wrote the poem, and caused her to learn it by +rote, so as to corroborate his imposture?</p> +<p>This is absurd.</p> +<p>But now comes the source of Colonel Elliot’s theory of a +conspiracy between Scott and Hogg, to forge a ballad and issue +the forgery. Colonel Elliot knows scraps of a letter to +Hogg of 30th June 1802. He has read parts, not bearing on +the question, in Mr. Douglas’s <i>Familiar Letters of Sir +Walter Scott</i> (vol. i. pp. 12–15), and another scrap, in +which Hogg says that “I am surprised to hear that <i>Auld +Maitland</i> is suspected by some to be a modern +forgery.” This part of Hogg’s letter of 30th +June 1802 was published by Scott himself in the third volume of +<i>The Minstrelsy</i> (April 1803).</p> +<p>Not having the context of the letter, Colonel Elliot seems to +argue, “Scott says he got his first copy in autumn +1802” (Lockhart’s mistake), “yet here are Hogg +and Scott corresponding about the ballad long before autumn, in +June 1802. This is very suspicious.” I give +what appears to be Colonel Elliot’s line of reflection in +my own words. He decides that, as early as June 1802, +“Hogg”(in the Colonel’s ‘view’), +“in the first instance, tried to palm off the ballad on +Scott, and failed; and that then Scott palmed it off on the +public, and succeeded.”</p> +<p>This is all a mare’s nest. Scott, in March-May +1802, had the whole of the ballad except one stanza, which Hogg +sent to him on 30th June.</p> +<p>I now print, for the first time, the whole of Hogg’s +letter of 30th June, with its shrewd criticism on ballads, +hitherto omitted, and I italicise the passage about <i>Auld +Maitland</i>:—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Ettrick House</span>, <i>June</i> 30.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>,—I have been +perusing your minstrelsy very diligently for a while past, and it +being the first book I ever perused which was written by a person +I had seen and conversed with, the consequence hath been to me a +most sensible pleasure; for in fact it is the remarks and modern +pieces that I have delighted most in, being as it were personally +acquainted with many of the modern pieces formerly. My +mother is actually a living miscellany of old songs. I +never believed that she had half so many until I came to a +trial. There are some (<i>sic</i>) in your collection of +which she hath not a part, and I should by this time had a great +number written for your amusement, thinking them all of great +antiquity and lost to posterity, had I not luckily lighted upon a +collection of songs in two volumes, published by I know not who, +in which I recognised about half-a-score of my mother’s +best songs, almost word for word. No doubt I was piqued, +but it saved me much trouble, paper, and ink; for I am carefully +avoiding anything which I have seen or heard of being in print, +although I have no doubt that I shall err, being acquainted with +almost no collections of that sort, but I am not afraid that you +too will mistake. I am still at a loss with respect to +some: such as the Battle of Flodden beginning, “From Spey +to the Border,” a long poetical piece on the battle of +Bannockburn, I fear modern: The Battle of the Boyne, Young +Bateman’s Ghost, all of which, and others which I cannot +mind, I could mostly recover for a few miles’ travel were I +certain they could be of any use concerning the above; and I +might have mentioned May Cohn and a duel between two friends, +Graham and Bewick, undoubtedly very old. You must give me +information in your answer. I have already scraped together +a considerable quantity—suspend your curiosity, Mr. Scott, +you will see them when I see you, of which I am as impatient as +you can be to see the songs for your life. But as I suppose +you have no personal acquaintance in this parish, it would be +presumption in me to expect that you will visit my cottage, but I +will attend you in any part of the Forest if you will send me +word. I am far from supposing that a person of your +discernment,—d—n it, I’ll blot out that, +’tis so like flattery. I say I don’t think you +would despise a shepherd’s “humble cot an’ +hamely fare,” as Burns hath it, yet though I would be +extremely proud of a visit, yet hang me if I would know what to +do wi’ ye. I am surprised to find that the songs in +your collection differ so widely from my mother’s. Is +Mr. Herd’s MS. genuine? I suspect it. Jamie +Telfer differs in many particulars. Johnny Armstrong of +Gilnockie is another song altogether. I have seen a verse +of my mother’s way called Johny Armstrong’s last +good-night cited in the <i>Spectator</i>, and another in +<i>Boswell’s Journal</i>. It begins, “Is there +ne’er a man in fair Scotland?” Do you know if +this is in print, Mr. Scott? In the Tale of Tomlin the +whole of the interlude about the horse and the hawk is a distinct +song altogether. <a name="citation30a"></a><a href="#footnote30a" +class="citation">[30a]</a> Clerk Saunders is nearly the +same with my mother’s, until that stanza [xvi.] which ends, +“was in the tower last night wi’ me,” then with +another verse or two which are not in yours, ends Clerk +Saunders. All the rest of the song in your edition is +another song altogether, which my mother hath mostly likewise, +and I am persuaded from the change in the stile that she is +right, for it is scarce consistent with the forepart of the +ballad. I have made several additions and variations out, +to the printed songs, for your inspection, but only when they +could be inserted without disjointing the songs as they are at +present; to have written all the variations would scarcely be +possible, and I thought would embarrass you exceedingly. +<i>I have recovered another half verse of Old Maitlan</i>, <i>and +have rhymed it thus</i>—</p> +<p><i>Remember Fiery of the Scot</i><br /> +<i>Hath cowr’d aneath thy hand</i>;<br /> +For ilka drap o’ Maitlen’s blood<br /> +I’ll gie <i>thee</i> rigs o’ land.—</p> +<p><i>The two last lines only are original</i>; <i>you will +easily perceive that they occur in the very place where we +suspected a want</i>. <i>I am surprised to hear that this +song is suspected by some to be a modern forgery</i>; <i>this +will be best proved by most of the old people hereabouts having a +great part of it by heart</i>; many, indeed, are not aware of the +manners of this place, it is but lately emerged from barbarity, +and till this present age the poor illiterate people in these +glens knew of no other entertainment in the long winter nights +than in repeating and listening to these feats of their +ancestors, which I believe to be handed down inviolate from +father to son, for many generations, although no doubt, had a +copy been taken of them at the end of every fifty years, there +must have been some difference, which the repeaters would have +insensibly fallen into merely by the change of terms in that +period. I believe that it is thus that many very ancient +songs have been modernised, which yet to a connoisseur will bear +visible marks of antiquity. The Maitlen, for instance, +exclusive of its mode of description, is all composed of words, +which would mostly every one spell and pronounce in the very same +dialect that was spoken some centuries ago.</p> +<p>Pardon, my dear Sir, the freedom I have taken in addressing +you—it is my nature; and I could not resist the impulse of +writing to you any longer. Let me hear from you as soon as +this comes to your hand, and tell me when you will be in Ettrick +Forest, and suffer me to subscribe myself, Sir, your most humble +and affectionate servant,</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">James +Hogg</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>In Scott’s printed text of the ballad, two +interpolations, of two lines each, are acknowledged in +notes. They occur in stanzas vii., xlvi., and are +attributed to Hogg. In fact, Hogg sent one of them (vii.) +to Laidlaw in his manuscript. The other he sent to Scott on +30th June 1802.</p> +<p>Colonel Elliot, in the spirit of the Higher Criticism +(<i>chimæra bombinans in vacuo</i>), writes, <a +name="citation31a"></a><a href="#footnote31a" +class="citation">[31a]</a> “Few will doubt that the +footnotes” (on these interpolations) “were inserted +with the purpose of leading the public to think that Hogg made no +other interpolations; but I am afraid I must go further than this +and say that, since they were inserted on the editor’s +responsibility, the intention must have been to make it appear as +if no other interpolations by any other hand had been +inserted.”</p> +<p>But no other interpolations by another hand <i>were</i> +inserted! Some verbal emendations were made by Scott, but +he never put in a stanza or two lines of his own.</p> +<p>Colonel Elliot provides us with six pages of the Higher +Criticism. He knows how to distinguish between verses by +Hogg, and verses by Scott! <a name="citation32a"></a><a +href="#footnote32a" class="citation">[32a]</a> But, save +when Scott puts one line, a ballad formula, where Hogg has +another line, Scott makes no interpolations, and the ballad +formula he probably took, with other things of no more +importance, from Mrs. Hogg’s recitation. Oh, Higher +Criticism!</p> +<p>I now print the ballad as Hogg sent it to Laidlaw, between +August 1801 and March 1802, in all probability.</p> +<p>[Back of Hogg’s MS.: Mr. William Laidlaw, +Blackhouse.]</p> +<h3>OLD MAITLAND<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">A VERY ANTIENT SONG</span></h3> +<p class="poetry"><span class="smcap">There</span> lived a king +in southern land<br /> + King Edward hecht his name<br /> +Unwordily he wore the crown<br /> + Till fifty years was gane.</p> +<p class="poetry">He had a sister’s son o’s ain<br /> + Was large o’ blood and bane<br /> +And afterwards when he came up,<br /> + Young Edward hecht his name.</p> +<p class="poetry">One day he came before the king,<br /> + And kneeld low on his knee<br /> +A boon a boon my good uncle,<br /> + I crave to ask of thee</p> +<p class="poetry">“At our lang wars i’ fair +Scotland<br /> + I lang hae lang’d to be<br /> +If fifteen hunder wale wight men<br /> + You’ll grant to ride wi’ me.”</p> +<p class="poetry">“Thou sal hae thae thou sal hae mae<br /> + I say it sickerly;<br /> +And I mysel an auld grey man<br /> + Arrayd your host sal see.”—</p> +<p class="poetry">King Edward rade King Edward ran—<br /> + I wish him dool and pain!<br /> +Till he had fifteen hundred men<br /> + Assembled on the Tyne.<br /> +And twice as many at North Berwick<br /> + Was a’ for battle bound</p> +<p class="poetry">They lighted on the banks of Tweed<br /> + And blew their coals sae het<br /> +And fired the Merce and Tevidale<br /> + All in an evening late</p> +<p class="poetry">As they far’d up o’er Lammermor<br +/> + They burn’d baith tower and town<br /> +Until they came to a derksome house,<br /> + Some call it Leaders Town</p> +<p class="poetry">Whae hauds this house young Edward crys,<br /> + Or whae gae’st ower to me<br /> +A grey haired knight set up his head<br /> + And cracked right crousely</p> +<p class="poetry">Of Scotlands King I haud my house<br /> + He pays me meat and fee<br /> +And I will keep my goud auld house<br /> + While my house will keep me</p> +<p class="poetry">They laid their sowies to the wall<br /> + Wi’ mony heavy peal<br /> +But he threw ower to them again<br /> + Baith piech and tar barille</p> +<p class="poetry">With springs: wall stanes, and good of ern,<br +/> + Among them fast he threw<br /> +Till mony of the Englishmen<br /> + About the wall he slew.</p> +<p class="poetry">Full fifteen days that braid host lay<br /> + Sieging old Maitlen keen<br /> +Then they hae left him safe and hale<br /> + Within his strength o’ stane</p> +<p class="poetry">Then fifteen barks, all gaily good,<br /> + Met themen on a day,<br /> +Which they did lade with as much spoil<br /> + As they could bear away.</p> +<p class="poetry">“England’s our ain by heritage;<br +/> + And whae can us gainstand,<br /> +When we hae conquerd fair Scotland<br /> + Wi’ bow, buckler, and brande”—</p> +<p class="poetry">Then they are on to th’ land o’ +france,<br /> + Where auld King Edward lay,<br /> +Burning each town and castle strong<br /> + That ance cam in his way.</p> +<p class="poetry">Untill he cam unto that town<br /> + Which some call Billop-Grace<br /> +There were old Maitlen’s sons a’ three<br /> + Learning at School alas</p> +<p class="poetry">The eldest to the others said,<br /> + O see ye what I see<br /> +If a’ be true yon standard says,<br /> + We’re fatherless a’ three</p> +<p class="poetry">For Scotland’s conquerd up and down<br /> + Landsmen we’ll never be:<br /> +Now will you go my brethren two,<br /> + And try some jeopardy</p> +<p class="poetry">Then they hae saddled two black horse,<br /> + Two black horse and a grey<br /> +And they are on to Edwardes host<br /> + Before the dawn of day</p> +<p class="poetry">When they arriv’d before the host<br /> + They hover’d on the ley<br /> +Will you lend me our King’s standard<br /> + To carry a little way</p> +<p class="poetry">Where was thou bred where was thou born<br /> + Wherein in what country—<br /> +In the north of England I was born<br /> + What needed him to lie.</p> +<p class="poetry">A knight me got a lady bare<br /> + I’m a squire of high renown<br /> +I well may bear’t to any king,<br /> + That ever yet wore crown.</p> +<p class="poetry">He ne’er came of an Englishman<br /> + Had sic an ee or bree<br /> +But thou art likest auld Maitlen<br /> + That ever I did see</p> +<p class="poetry">But sic a gloom inon ae browhead<br /> + Grant’s ne’er see again<br /> +For many of our men he slew<br /> + And many put to pain</p> +<p class="poetry">When Maitlan heard his father’s name,<br +/> + An angry man was he<br /> +Then lifting up a gilt dager<br /> + Hung low down by his kee</p> +<p class="poetry">He stab’d the knight the standard +bore,<br /> + He stabb’d him cruelly;<br /> +Then caught the standard by the neuk,<br /> + And fast away rade he.</p> +<p class="poetry">Now is’t na time brothers he +cry’d<br /> + Now, is’t na time to flee<br /> +Ay by my soothe they baith reply’d,<br /> + We’ll bear you company</p> +<p class="poetry">The youngest turn’d him in a path<br /> + And drew a burnish’d brand<br /> +And fifteen o’ the foremost slew<br /> + Till back the lave did stand</p> +<p class="poetry">He spurr’d the grey unto the path<br /> + Till baith her sides they bled<br /> +Grey! thou maun carry me away<br /> + Or my life lies in wed</p> +<p class="poetry">The captain lookit owr the wa’<br /> + Before the break o day<br /> +There he beheld the three Scots lads<br /> + Pursued alongst the way</p> +<p class="poetry">Pull up portculzies down draw briggs<br /> + My nephews are at hame<br /> +And they shall lodge wi’ me to-night,<br /> + In spite of all England</p> +<p class="poetry">Whene’er they came within the gate<br /> + They thrust their horse them frae<br /> +And took three lang spears in their hands,<br /> + Saying, here sal come nae mae</p> +<p class="poetry">And they shott out and they shott in,<br /> + Till it was fairly day<br /> +When many of the Englishmen<br /> + About the draw brigg lay.</p> +<p class="poetry">Then they hae yoked carts and wains<br /> + To ca’ their dead away<br /> +And shot auld dykes aboon the lave<br /> + In gutters where they lay</p> +<p class="poetry">The king in his pavilion door<br /> + Was heard aloud to say<br /> +Last night three o’ the lads o’ France<br /> + My standard stole away</p> +<p class="poetry">Wi’ a fause tale disguis’d they +came<br /> + And wi’ a fauser train<br /> +And to regain my gaye standard<br /> + These men were a’ down slaine</p> +<p class="poetry">It ill befits the youngest said<br /> + A crowned king to lie<br /> +But or that I taste meat and drink,<br /> + Reproved shall he be.</p> +<p class="poetry">He went before King Edward straight<br /> + And kneel’d low on his knee<br /> +I wad hae leave my liege he said,<br /> + To speak a word wi’ thee</p> +<p class="poetry">The king he turn’d him round about<br /> + And wistna what to say<br /> +Quo’ he, Man, thou’s hae leave to speak<br /> + Though thou should speak a day.</p> +<p class="poetry">You said that three young lads o’ +France,<br /> + Your standard stole away<br /> +Wi’ a fause tale and fauser train,<br /> + And mony men did slay</p> +<p class="poetry">But we are nane the lads o’ France<br /> + Nor e’er pretend to be<br /> +We are three lads o’ fair Scotland,<br /> + Auld Maitlen’s sons a’ three</p> +<p class="poetry">Nor is there men in a your host,<br /> + Dare fight us three to three<br /> +Now by my sooth young Edward cry’d,<br /> + Weel fitted sall ye be!</p> +<p class="poetry">Piercy sall with the eldest fight<br /> + And Ethert Lunn wi’ thee<br /> +William of Lancastar the third<br /> + And bring your fourth to me</p> +<p class="poetry">He clanked Piercy owr the head<br /> + A deep wound and a sair<br /> +Till the best blood o’ his body<br /> + Came rinnen owr his hair.</p> +<p class="poetry">Now I’ve slain one slay ye the two;<br /> + And that’s good company<br /> +And if the two should slay ye baith,<br /> + Ye’se get na help frae me</p> +<p class="poetry">But Ethert Lunn a baited bear<br /> + Had many battles seen<br /> +He set the youngest wonder sair,<br /> + Till the eldest he grew keen</p> +<p class="poetry">I am nae king nor nae sic thing<br /> + My word it sanna stand<br /> +For Ethert shall a buffet bide,<br /> + Come he aneath my brand.</p> +<p class="poetry">He clanked Ethert owr the head,<br /> + A deep wound and a sair<br /> +Till a’ the blood of his body<br /> + Came rinnen owr his hair</p> +<p class="poetry">Now I’ve slayne two slay ye the one;<br +/> + Isna that gude company<br /> +And tho’ the one should slay ye both<br /> + Ye’se get nae help o’ me.</p> +<p class="poetry">The twasome they hae slayn the one<br /> + They maul’d them cruelly<br /> +Then hang them owr the drawbridge,<br /> + That a’ the host might see</p> +<p class="poetry">They rade their horse they ran their horse,<br +/> + Then hover’d on the ley<br /> +We be three lads o’ fair Scotland,<br /> + We fain wad fighting see</p> +<p class="poetry">This boasting when young Edward heard,<br /> + To’s uncle thus said he,<br /> +I’ll take yon lad I’ll bind yon lad,<br /> + And bring him bound to thee</p> +<p class="poetry">But God forbid King Edward said<br /> + That ever thou should try<br /> +Three worthy leaders we hae lost,<br /> + And you the fourth shall be.</p> +<p class="poetry">If thou wert hung owr yon drawbrigg<br /> + Blythe wad I never be<br /> +But wi’ the pole-axe in his hand,<br /> + Outower the bridge sprang he</p> +<p class="poetry">The first stroke that young Edward gae<br /> + He struck wi might and main<br /> +He clove the Maitlen’s helmet stout,<br /> + And near had pierced his brain.</p> +<p class="poetry">When Matlen saw his ain blood fa,<br /> + An angry man was he<br /> +He let his weapon frae him fa’<br /> + And at his neck did flee</p> +<p class="poetry">And thrice about he did him swing,<br /> + Till on the ground he light<br /> +Where he has halden young Edward<br /> + Tho’ he was great in might</p> +<p class="poetry">Now let him up, King Edward cry’d,<br /> + And let him come to me<br /> +And for the deed that ye hae done<br /> + Ye shal hae earldoms three</p> +<p class="poetry">It’s ne’er be said in France nor +Ire<br /> + In Scotland when I’m hame<br /> +That Edward once was under me,<br /> + And yet wan up again</p> +<p class="poetry">He stabb’d him thro and thro the hear<br +/> + He maul’d him cruelly<br /> +Then hung him ower the drawbridge<br /> + Beside the other three</p> +<p class="poetry">Now take from me that feather bed<br /> + Make me a bed o’ strae<br /> +I wish I neer had seen this day<br /> + To mak my heart fu’ wae</p> +<p class="poetry">If I were once at London Tower,<br /> + Where I was wont to be<br /> +I never mair should gang frae hame,<br /> + Till borne on a bier-tree</p> +<p>At the end of his copy Hogg writes (probably of stanza +vii.)—“You may insert the two following lines +anywhere you think it needs them, or substitute two +better—</p> +<blockquote><p>And marching south with curst Dunbar<br /> + A ready welcome found.”</p> +</blockquote> +<h3>II<br /> +<i>WHAT IS AULD MAITLAND</i>?</h3> +<p>Is <i>Auld Maitland</i> a sheer forgery by Hogg, or is it in +any sense, and if so, in what sense, antique and +traditional? That Hogg made the whole of it is to me +incredible. He had told Laidlaw on 20th July 1801, that he +would make no ballads on traditions without Scott’s +permission, written in Scott’s hand. Moreover, how +could he have any traditions about “Auld Maitland, his +noble Sonnis three,” personages of the thirteenth and +fourteenth centuries? Scott had read about them in poems of +about 1580, but these poems then lay in crabbed +manuscripts. Again, Hogg wrote in words (“springs, +wall-stanes”) of whose meaning he had no idea; he took it +as he heard it in recitation. Finally, the style is not +that of Hogg when he attempts the ballad. Scott observed +that “this ballad, notwithstanding its present appearance, +has a claim to very high antiquity.” The language, +except for a few technical terms, is modern, but what else could +it be if handed down orally? The language of undoubted +ballads is often more modern than that which was spoken in my +boyhood in Ettrick Forest. As Sir Walter Scott remarked, a +poem of 1570–1580, which he quotes from the Maitland MSS., +“would run as smoothly, and appear as modern, as any verse +in the ballad (with a few exceptions) if divested of its antique +spelling.”</p> +<p>We now turn to the historical characters in the ballad.</p> +<p>Sir Richard Maitland of Lauder, or Thirlestane, says Scott, +was already in his lands, and making donations to the Church in +1249. If, in 1296, forty-seven years later, he held his +castle against Edward I., as in the ballad, he must have been a +man of, say, seventy-five. By about 1574 his descendant, +Sir Richard Maitland, was consoled for his family misfortunes +(his famous son, Lethington, having died after the long siege of +Edinburgh Castle, which he and Kirkcaldy of Grange held for Queen +Mary), by a poet who reminded him that his ancestor, in the +thirteenth century, lost all his sons—“peerless +pearls”—save one, “Burdallane.” The +Sir Richard of 1575 has also one son left (John, the minister of +James VI.). <a name="citation41a"></a><a href="#footnote41a" +class="citation">[41a]</a></p> +<p>From this evidence, in 1802 in MS. unpublished, and from other +Maitland MSS., we learn that, in the sixteenth century, the Auld +Maitland of the ballad was an eminent character in the legends of +that period, and in the ballads of the people. <a +name="citation41b"></a><a href="#footnote41b" +class="citation">[41b]</a> His</p> +<blockquote><p> Nobill sonnis three,<br /> +Ar sung in monie far countrie,<br /> +<i>Albeit in rural rhyme</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Pinkerton published, in 1786, none of the pieces to which +Scott refers in his extracts from the Maitland MSS. How, +then, did Hogg, if Hogg forged the ballad, know of Maitland and +his “three noble sons”? Except Colonel Elliot, +to whose explanation we return, I am not aware that any critic +has tried to answer this question.</p> +<p>It seems to me that if the <i>Ballad of Otterburne</i>, extant +in 1550 in England, survived in Scottish memory till Herd’s +fragment appeared in 1776, a tradition of Maitland, who was +popular in the ballads of 1575, and known to Gawain Douglas +seventy years earlier, may also have persisted. There is no +impossibility.</p> +<p>Looking next at Scott’s <i>Auld Maitland</i> the story +is that King Edward I. reigned for fifty years. He had a +nephew Edward (an apocryphal person: such figures are common in +ballads), who wished to take part in the invasion of +Scotland. The English are repulsed by old Maitland from his +“darksome house” on the Leader. The English, +however, (stanza xv.) conquer Scotland, and join Edward I. in +France. They besiege that town,</p> +<blockquote><p>Which some call Billop-Grace (xviii.).</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Here Maitland’s three sons are learning at school, as +Scots often were educated in France. They see that +Edward’s standard quarters the arms of France, and infer +that he has conquered their country. They “will try +some jeopardy.” Persuading the English that they are +themselves Englishmen, they ask leave to carry the royal +flag. The eldest is told that he is singularly like Auld +Maitland. In anger he stabs the standard-bearer, seizes the +flag, and, with his brothers, spurs to Billop-Grace, where the +French captain receives them. There is fighting at the +gate. The King says that three disguised lads of France +have stolen his flag. The Maitlands apparently heard of +this; the youngest goes to Edward, and explains that they are +Maitland’s sons, and Scots; they challenge any three +Englishmen; a thing in the manner of the period. The three +Scots are victorious. Young Edward then challenges one of +the dauntless three, who slays him. Edward wishes himself +home at London Tower.</p> +<p>Such is the story. It is out of the regular line of +ballad narrative, but it does not follow that, in the sixteenth +century, some such tale was not told “in rural rhyme” +about Maitland’s “three noble sons.” That +it is not historically true is nothing, of course, and that it is +not in the Scots of the thirteenth century is nothing.</p> +<p>Colonel Elliot asks, What in the ballad raised suspicion of +forgery (in 1802–03)? The historical inaccuracies are +common to all historical ballads. (In an English ballad +known to me of 1578, Henry Darnley is “hanged on a +tree”!)</p> +<p>Next, “there are occasional lines, and even stanzas, +which jar in style to such a degree that they must have been +written by two separate hands.”</p> +<p>But this, also, is a common feature. In “Professor +Child and the Ballad,” Mr. W. M. Hart gives a list of +Professor Child’s notes on the multiplicity of hands, which +he, and every critic, detect in some ballads with a genuinely +antique substratum. <a name="citation44a"></a><a +href="#footnote44a" class="citation">[44a]</a></p> +<p>Colonel Elliot quotes, as in his opinion the best, stanzas +viii., ix., x., xi., while he thinks xv., xviii. the worst. +I give these stanzas—</p> +<p style="text-align: center" class="poetry">VIII.</p> +<p class="poetry">They lighted on the banks o’ Tweed,<br /> + And blew their coals sae het,<br /> +And fired the Merse and Teviotdale,<br /> + All in an evening late.</p> +<p style="text-align: center" class="poetry">IX.</p> +<p class="poetry">As they fared up o’er Lammermoor,<br /> + They burned baith up and doun,<br /> +Until they came to a darksome house,<br /> + Some call it Leader Town.</p> +<p style="text-align: center" class="poetry">X.</p> +<p class="poetry">“Wha hauds this house?” young +Edward cried,<br /> + “Or wha gi’est ower to me?”<br /> +A grey-hair’d knight set up his head,<br /> + And crackit right crousely:</p> +<p style="text-align: center" class="poetry">XI.</p> +<p class="poetry">“Of Scotland’s king I haud my +house,<br /> + He pays me meat and fee;<br /> +And I will keep my guid auld house,<br /> + While my house will keep me.”</p> +<p><br /> +I cannot, I admit, find any fault with these stanzas: cannot see +any reason why they should not be traditional.</p> +<p>Then Colonel Elliot cites, as the worst—</p> +<p style="text-align: center" class="poetry"><br /> +XV.</p> +<p class="poetry">Then fifteen barks, all gaily good,<br /> + Met them upon a day,<br /> +Which they did lade with as much spoil<br /> + As they could take away.</p> +<p style="text-align: center" class="poetry">XVIII.</p> +<p class="poetry">Until we came unto that town<br /> + Which some call Billop-Grace;<br /> +There were Auld Maitland’s sons, a’ three,<br /> + Learning at school, alas!</p> +<p>Now, if I venture to differ from Colonel Elliot here, I may +plead that I am practised in the art of ballad-faking, and can +produce high testimonials of skill! To me stanzas xv., +xviii. seem to differ much from viii.–xi., but not in such +a way as Hogg would have differed, had he made them. +Hogg’s error would have lain, as Scott’s did, in +being, as Scott said of Mrs. Hemans, <i>too poetical</i>.</p> +<p>Neither Hogg nor Scott, I think, was crafty enough to imitate +the prosaic drawl of the printed broadside ballad, or the feeble +interpolations with which the “gangrel scrape-gut,” +or <i>bänkelsänger</i>, supplied gaps in his +memory. The modern complete ballad-faker <i>would</i> +introduce such abject verses, but Scott and Hogg desired to +decorate, not to debase, ballads with which they intermeddled, +and we track them by their modern romantic touch when they +interpolate. I take it, for this reason, that Hogg did not +write stanzas xv., xviii. It was hardly in nature for Hogg, +if he knew Ville de Grace in Normandy (a thing not very +probable), to invent “Billop-Grace” as a popular +corruption of the name—and a popular corruption it is, I +think. Probably the original maker of this stanza wrote, in +line 4, “alace,” an old spelling—not +“alas”—to rhyme with “grace.”</p> +<p>Colonel Elliot then assigns xv., xviii. as most likely of all +to be by Hogg. On that I have given my opinion, with my +reasons.</p> +<p>These verses, with xviii., lead us to France, and whereas +Scott here suspects that some verses have been lost (see his note +to stanza xviii.), Colonel Elliot suspects that the stanzas +relating to France have been interpolated. But the French +scenes occupy the whole poem from xvi. to lxv., the end.</p> +<p>What, if Hogg were the forger, were his sources? He +<i>may</i> have known Douglas’s <i>Palice of Honour</i>, +which, of course, existed in print, with its mention of +Maitland’s grey beard. But how did he know +Maitland’s “three noble sons,” in +1801–1802, lying unsunned in the Maitland MSS.?</p> +<p>This is a point which critics of <i>Auld Maitland</i> +studiously ignore, yet it is the essential point. How did +the Shepherd know about the three young Maitlands, whose +existence, in legend, is only revealed to us through a manuscript +unpublished in 1802? Colonel Elliot does not evade the +point. “We may be sure,” he says, that Leyden, +before 1802, knew Hogg, and Hogg might have obtained from him +sufficient information to enable him to compose the ballad. <a +name="citation47a"></a><a href="#footnote47a" +class="citation">[47a]</a> But it was from Laidlaw, not +from Leyden, that Scott, after receiving his first copy at +Blackhouse, in spring 1802, obtained Hogg’s address. <a +name="citation47b"></a><a href="#footnote47b" +class="citation">[47b]</a> There is no hint that before +spring 1802 Leyden ever saw Hogg. Had he known him, and his +ballad-lore, he would have brought him and Scott together. +In 1801–02, Leyden was very busy in Edinburgh helping Scott +to edit <i>Sir Tristram</i>, copying <i>Arthour</i>, seeking for +an East India appointment, and going into society. +Scott’s letters prove all this. <a +name="citation47c"></a><a href="#footnote47c" +class="citation">[47c]</a></p> +<p>That Hogg, in 1802, was very capable of writing a ballad, I +admit; also that, through Blind Harry’s <i>Wallace</i>, he +may have known all about “sowies,” and +“portculize,” and <i>springwalls</i>, or +<i>springald’s</i>, or <i>springalls</i>, mediæval +<i>balistas</i> for throwing heavy stones and darts. But +Hogg did not know or guess what a <i>springwall</i> was. In +his stanza xiii. (in the MS. given to Laidlaw), Hogg +wrote—</p> +<blockquote><p>With springs; wall stanes, and good o’ern<br +/> + Among them fast he threw.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Scott saw the real meaning of this nonsense, and +read—</p> +<blockquote><p>With springalds, stones, and gads o’ +airn.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>In his preface he says that many words in the ballad, +“which the reciters have retained without understanding +them, still preserve traces of their antiquity.” For +instance, <i>springalls</i>, corruptedly pronounced +<i>springwalls</i>. Hogg, hearing the pronunciation, and +not understanding, wrote, “with springs: wall +stanes.” A leader would not throw “wall +stanes” till he had exhausted his ammunition. Hogg +heard “with springwalls stones, he threw,” and wrote +it, “with springs: wall stones he threw.”</p> +<p>Hogg could not know of Auld Maitland “and his three +noble sons” except through an informant familiar with the +Maitland MSS. in Edinburgh University Library. On the +theory of a conspiracy to forge, Scott taught him, but that +theory is crushed.</p> +<p>Hogg says, in <i>Domestic Manners of Sir Walter Scott</i>, +that when his mother met Scott she told him that her brother and +she learned the ballad from auld Andrew Muir, and he from +“auld Babby Mettlin,” housekeeper of the first +(“Anderson”) laird of Tushielaw. This first +Anderson, laird of Tushielaw, reigned from 1688 to 1721 (?) or +1724. <a name="citation48a"></a><a href="#footnote48a" +class="citation">[48a]</a> Hogg’s mother was born in +1730, and was only one remove—filled up by Andrew +Muir—from Babby, who was “ither than a gude +yin,” and knew many songs. Does any one think Hogg +crafty enough to have invented Babby Maitland as the source of a +song about the Maitlands, and to have introduced her into his +narrative in 1834? I conjecture that this Maitland woman +knew a Maitland song, modernised in time, and perhaps copied out +and emended by one of the Maitland family, possibly one of the +descendants of Lethington. We know that, under James I., +about 1620, Lethington’s impoverished son, James, had +several children; and that Lauderdale was still supporting them +(or <i>their</i> children) during the Restoration. Only a +century before, ballads on the Maitlands had certainly been +popular, and there is nothing impossible in the suggestion that +one such ballad survived in the Lauderdale or Lethington family, +and came through Babby Maitland to Andrew Muir, then to +Hogg’s mother, to Hogg, and to Scott.</p> +<p>If a manuscript copy ever existed, and was Babby’s +ultimate source, it would be of the late seventeenth +century. That is the ascertained date of the oldest known +MS. of <i>The Outlaw Murray</i>, as is proved from an allusion in +a note appended to a copy, referring to a Judge of Session, Lord +Philiphaugh, as then alive. The copy was of +1689–1702. <a name="citation49a"></a><a href="#footnote49a" +class="citation">[49a]</a></p> +<p>Granting a MS. of <i>Auld Maitland</i> existing in any branch +of the Maitland family in 1680–1700, Babby Mettlin’s +knowledge of the ballad, and its few modernisms, are +explained.</p> +<p>As Lockhart truly says, Hogg “was the most extraordinary +man that ever wore the maud of a shepherd.” He had +none of Burns’ education. In 1802 he was young, and +ignorant of cities, and always was innocent of research in the +crabbed MSS. of the sixteenth century. Yet he gets at +legendary persons known to us only through these MSS. He +makes a ballad named <i>Auld Maitland</i> about them. +Through him a farm-lass at Blackhouse acquires some stanzas which +Laidlaw copies. In a fortnight Hogg sends Laidlaw the whole +ballad, with the pedigree—his uncle, his mother, their +father, and old Andrew Muir, servant to the famous Rev. Mr. +Boston of Ettrick. The copy takes in Scott and +Leyden. Later, Ritson makes no objection. Mrs. Hogg +recites it to Scott, and, according to Hogg, gives a casual +“auld Babby Maitland” as the original source.</p> +<p>Is the whole fraud conceivable? Hogg, we must believe, +puts in two stanzas (xv., xviii.), of the lowliest order of +printed stall-copy or “gangrel scrape-gut” style, and +the same with intent to deceive. He introduces +“Billop-Grace” as a deceptive popular corruption of +<i>Ville de Grace</i>. This is far beyond any craft that I +have found in the most artful modern “fakers.” +One stanza (xlix.)—</p> +<blockquote><p>But Ethert Lunn, a baited bear,<br /> +Had many battles seen—</p> +</blockquote> +<p>seems to me very recent, whoever made it. Scott, in +lxii., gives a variant of “some reciters,” for +“That Edward once lay under me,” they read +“That Englishman lay under me.” This, if a +false story, was an example of an art more delicate than Scott +elsewhere exhibits.</p> +<p>One does not know what Professor Child would have said to my +arguments. He never gave a criticism in detail of the +ballad and of the circumstances in which Scott acquired it. +A man most reasonable, most open to conviction, he would, I +think, have confessed his perplexity.</p> +<p>Scott did not interpolate a single stanza, even where, as Hogg +wrote, he suspected a lacuna in the text. He neither cut +out nor improved the cryingly modern stanzas. He kept them, +as he kept several stanzas in <i>Tamlane</i>, which, so he told +Laidlaw, were obviously recent, but were in a copy which he +procured through Lady Dalkeith. <a name="citation51a"></a><a +href="#footnote51a" class="citation">[51a]</a></p> +<p>By neither adding to nor subtracting from his MS. copy of +<i>Auld Maitland</i>, Scott proved, I think, his respect for a +poem which, in its primal form, he believed to be very +ancient. We know, at all events, that ballads on the +Maitland heroes were current about 1580. So, late in the +sixteenth century, were the ballads quoted by Hume of Godscroft, +on the murder of the Knight of Liddesdale (1354), the murder of +the young Earl of Douglas in Edinburgh Castle (1440), and the +battle of Otterburn. Of these three, only <i>Otterburne</i> +was recovered by Herd, published in 1776. The other two are +lost; and there is no <i>prima facie</i> reason why a Maitland +ballad, of the sort current in 1580, should not, in favourable +circumstances, have survived till 1802.</p> +<p>As regards the Shepherd’s ideas of honesty in +ballad-collecting at this early period, I have quoted his letter +to Laidlaw of 20th July 1802.</p> +<p>Again, in the case of his text from recitation of the +<i>Ballad of Otterburne</i> (published by Scott in <i>The +Minstrelsy</i> of 1806), he gave the Sheriff a full account of +his mode of handling his materials, and Scott could get more +minute details by questioning him.</p> +<p>To this text of <i>Otterburne</i>, freely attacked by Colonel +Elliot, in apparent ignorance, as before, of the published facts +of the case, and of the manuscript, we next turn our +attention. In the meantime, Scott no more conspired to +forge <i>Auld Maitland</i> than he conspired to forge the +Pentateuch. That Hogg did not forge <i>Auld Maitland</i> I +think I have made as nearly certain as anything in this region +can be. I think that the results are a lesson to professors +of the Higher Criticism of Homer.</p> +<h2><a name="page53"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 53</span>THE +BALLAD OF OTTERBURNE</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">Scott’s</span> version of the +<i>Ballad of Otterburne</i>, as given first in <i>The +Minstrelsy</i> of 1806, comes under Colonel Elliot’s most +severe censure. He concludes in favour of “the view +that it consists partly of stanzas from Percy’s +<i>Reliques</i>, which have undergone emendations calculated to +disguise the source from which they came, partly of stanzas of +modern fabrication, and partly of a very few stanzas and lines +from Herd’s version” (1776). <a +name="citation53a"></a><a href="#footnote53a" +class="citation">[53a]</a></p> +<p>As a matter of fact we know, though Colonel Elliot does not, +the whole process of construction of the <i>Otterburne</i> in +<i>The Minstrelsy</i> of 1806. Professor Child published +all the texts with a letter. <a name="citation53b"></a><a +href="#footnote53b" class="citation">[53b]</a> It is a pity +that Colonel Elliot overlooks facts in favour of +conjecture. Concerning historical facts he is not more +thorough in research. The story, in Percy’s +<i>Reliques</i>, of the slaying of Douglas by Percy, “is, +so far as I know, supported neither by history nor by +tradition.” <a name="citation53c"></a><a +href="#footnote53c" class="citation">[53c]</a> If +unfamiliar with the English chroniclers (in Latin) of the end of +the fourteenth century, Colonel Elliot could find them cited by +Professor Child. Knyghton, Walsingham, and the continuator +of Higden (Malverne), all assert that Percy killed Douglas with +his own hand. <a name="citation54a"></a><a href="#footnote54a" +class="citation">[54a]</a> The English ballad of +<i>Otterburne</i> (in MS. of about 1550) gives this version of +Douglas’s death. It is erroneous. Froissart, a +contemporary, had accounts of the battle from combatants, both +English and Scottish. Douglas, fighting in the front of the +van, on a moonlight night, was slain by three lance-wounds +received in the mellay. The English knew not whom they had +slain.</p> +<p>The interesting point is that, while the Scottish ballads give +either the English version of Percy’s death (in +<i>Minstrelsy</i>, 1806) or another account mentioned by Hume of +Godscroft (<i>circ.</i> 1610), that he was slain by one of his +own men, the Scottish versions are <i>all</i> deeply affected in +an important point by Froissart’s contemporary narrative, +which has not affected the English versions. <a +name="citation54b"></a><a href="#footnote54b" +class="citation">[54b]</a> The point is that the death of +Douglas was by his order concealed from both parties.</p> +<p>When both the English version in Percy’s <i>Reliques</i> +(from a MS. of about 1550), and Scott’s version of 1806, +mention a “challenge to battle” between Percy and +Douglas, Colonel Elliot calls this incident “probably +purely fanciful and imaginary,” and suspects Scott’s +version of being made up and altered from the English text. +But the challenge which resulted in the battle of Otterburn is +not fanciful and imaginary!</p> +<p>It is mentioned by Froissart. Douglas, he says, took +Percy’s pennon in an encounter under Newcastle. Percy +vowed that Douglas would never carry the pennon out of +Northumberland; Douglas challenged him to come and take it from +his tent door that night; but Percy was constrained not to accept +the challenge. The Scots then marched homewards, but +Douglas insisted on besieging Otterburn Castle; here he passed +some days on purpose to give Percy a chance of a fight; +Percy’s force surprised the Scots; they were warned, as in +the ballads, suddenly, by a man who galloped up; the fight began; +and so on.</p> +<p>Now Herd’s version says nothing of Douglas at Newcastle; +the whole scene is at Otterburn. On the other hand, Charles +Kirkpatrick Sharpe’s MS. text <i>did</i> bring Douglas to +Newcastle. Of this Colonel Elliot says nothing. The +English version says <i>nothing of Percy’s loss of his +pennon to Douglas</i> (nor does Sharpe’s), and gives the +challenge and tryst. Scott’s version says nothing of +Percy’s pennon, but Douglas takes Percy’s +<i>sword</i> and vows to carry it home. Percy’s +challenge, in the English version, is accompanied by a gross +absurdity. He bids Douglas wait at Otterburn, where, +<i>pour tout potage</i> to an army absurdly stated at 40,000 men, +Percy suggests venison and pheasants! In the Scottish +version Percy offers tryst at Otterburn. Douglas answers +that, though Otterburn has no supplies—nothing but deer and +wild birds—he will there tarry for Percy. This is +chivalrous, and, in Scott’s version, Douglas understands +war. In the English version Percy does not. (To these +facts I return, giving more details.) Colonel Elliot +supposes some one (Scott, I daresay) to have taken +Percy’s,—the English version,—altered it to +taste, concealed the alterations, as in this part of the +challenge, by inverting the speeches and writing new stanzas of +the fight at Otterburn, used a very little of Herd (which is +true), and inserted modern stanzas.</p> +<p>Now, first, as regards pilfering from the English version, +that version, and Herd’s undisputed version, have +undeniably a common source. Neither, as it stands, is +“original”; of an <i>original</i> contemporary +Otterburn ballad we have no trace. By 1550, when such +ballads were certainly current both in England and Scotland, they +were late, confused by tradition, and, of what we possess, say +Herd’s, and the English MS. of 1550, all were +interblended.</p> +<p>The Scots ballad version, known to Hume of Godscroft (1610), +may have been taken from the English, and altered, as Child +thought, or the English, as Motherwell maintained, may have been +borrowed from the Scots, and altered. One or the other +process undeniably occurred; the second poet, who made the +changes, introduced the events most favourable to his country, +and left out the less favourable. By Scott’s time, or +Herd’s, the versions were much degraded through decay of +memory, bad penny broadsides (lost), and uneducated +reciters. Herd’s version has forgotten the historic +affair of the capture of Percy’s pennon (and of the whole +movement on Newcastle, preserved in Sharpe’s and +Scott’s); Scott’s remembers the encounter at +Newcastle, forgets the pennon, and substitutes the capture by +Douglas of Percy’s sword. The Englishman deliberately +omits the capture of the pennon. The Scots version (here +altered by Sir Walter) makes Percy wound Douglas at +Otterburn—</p> +<blockquote><p>Till backward he did flee.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Now Colonel Elliot has no right, I conceive, to argue that +this Scots version, with the Newcastle incident, the captured +sword, the challenge, the “backward flight” of +Douglas, were introduced by a modern (Scott?) who was +deliberately “faking” the English version. +There is no reason why tradition should <i>not</i> have retained +historical incidents in the Scottish form; it is a mere +assumption that a modern borrowed and travestied these incidents +from Percy’s <i>Reliques</i>. We possess Hogg’s +<i>unedited</i> original of Scott’s version of 1806 (an +original MS. never hinted at by Colonel Elliot), and it retains +clear traces of being contaminated with a version of <i>The +Huntiss of Chevet</i>, popular in 1459, as we read in <i>The +Complaynte of Scotland</i> of that date. There is also an +old English version of <i>The Hunting of the Cheviot</i> (1550 or +later, Bodleian Library). The <i>unedited</i> text of +Scott’s <i>Otterburne</i> then contained traces of <i>The +Huntiss of Chevet</i>; the two were mixed in popular +memory. In short, Scott’s text, manipulated slightly +by him in a way which I shall describe, was <i>a thing surviving +in popular memory</i>: how confusedly will be explained.</p> +<p>The differences between the English version of 1550 and the +Scots (collected for Scott by Hogg), are of old standing. I +am not sure that there was not, before 1550, a Scottish ballad, +which the English ballad-monger of that date annexed and +altered. The English version of 1550 is not +“popular”; it is the work of a humble literary +man.</p> +<p>The English is a very long ballad, in seventy quatrains; it +greatly exaggerates the number of the Scots engaged (40,000), and +it is the work of a professional author who uses the stereotyped +prosaic stopgaps of the cheap hack—</p> +<blockquote><p>I tell you withouten dread,</p> +</blockquote> +<p>is his favourite phrase, and he cites historical +authority—</p> +<blockquote><p>The cronykle wyll not layne (lie).</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Scottish ballads do not appeal to chroniclers! A +patriotic and imbecile effort is made by the Englishman to +represent Percy as captured, indeed, but released without +ransom—</p> +<blockquote><p>There was then a Scottysh prisoner tayne,<br /> +Sir Hew Mongomery was his name;<br /> +For sooth as I yow saye,<br /> +He borrowed the Persey home agayne.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>This is obscure, and in any case false. Percy <i>was</i> +taken, and towards his ransom Richard II. paid £3000. <a +name="citation59a"></a><a href="#footnote59a" +class="citation">[59a]</a></p> +<p>It may be well to quote the openings of each ballad, English +and Scots.</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: center">ENGLISH (1550)</p> +<p style="text-align: center">I.</p> +<p>It fell about the Lammas tyde,<br /> + When husbands win their hay,<br /> +The doughty Douglas bound him to ride,<br /> + In England to take a prey.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">II.</p> +<p>The Earl of Fife, withouten strife,<br /> + He bound him over Solway;<br /> +The great would ever together ride<br /> + That race they may rue for aye.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">III.</p> +<p>Over Hoppertop hill they came in,<br /> + And so down by Rodcliff crag,<br /> +Upon Green Linton they lighted down,<br /> + Stirring many a stag.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">IV.</p> +<p>And boldly brent Northumberland,<br /> + And harried many a town,<br /> +They did our Englishmen great wrong,<br /> + To battle that were not boune.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">V.</p> +<p>Then spake a berne upon the bent . . .</p> +<p style="text-align: center">SCOTTISH, HERD (1776)</p> +<p style="text-align: center">I.</p> +<p>It fell and about the Lammas time,<br /> + When hushandmen do win their hay;<br /> +Earl Douglas is to the English woods,<br /> + And a’ with him to fetch a prey.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">II.</p> +<p>He has chosen the Lindsays light,<br /> + With them the gallant Gordons gay;<br /> +And the Earl of Fyfe, withouten strife,<br /> + And Hugh Montgomery upon a grey.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>(<i>The last line is obviously a reciter’s +stopgap</i>.)</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: center">III.</p> +<p>They have taken Northumberland,<br /> + And sae hae they <i>the north shire</i>,<br /> +And the Otterdale they hae burned hale,<br /> + And set it a’ into fire.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">IV.</p> +<p>Out then spak a bonny boy;</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Manifestly these copies, so far, are not independent. +But now Herd’s copy begins to vary much from the +English.</p> +<p>In both ballads a boy or “berne” speaks up. +In the English he recommends to the Scots an attack on Newcastle; +in the Scots he announces the approach of an English host. +Douglas promises to reward the boy if his tale be true, to hang +him if it be false. <i>The scene is Otterburn</i>. +The boy stabs Douglas, in a stanza which is a common ballad +formula of frequent occurrence—</p> +<blockquote><p>The boy’s taen out his little pen knife,<br +/> + That hanget low down by his gare,<br /> +And he gaed Earl Douglas a deadly wound,<br /> + Alack! a deep wound and a sare.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Douglas then says to Sir Hugh Montgomery—</p> +<blockquote><p> Take <i>thou</i> the vanguard of +the three,<br /> +And bury me at yon bracken bush,<br /> + That stands upon yon lilly lea. (Herd, +4–8.)</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Hume of Godscroft (about 1610), author of the <i>History of +the Douglases</i>, was fond of quoting ballads. He gives a +form of the first verse in <i>Otterburn</i> which is common to +Herd and the English copy. He says that, according to some, +Douglas was treacherously slain by one of his own men whom he had +offended. “But this narration is not so +probable,” and the fact is fairly meaningless in +Herd’s fragment (the boy has no motive for stabbing +Douglas, for if his report is true, he will be rewarded). +The deed is probably based on the tradition which Godscroft +thought “less probable,”—the treacherous murder +of the Earl.</p> +<p>In the English ballad, Douglas marches on Newcastle, where +Percy, without fighting, makes a tryst to meet and combat him at +Otterburn, on his way home from Newcastle to Scotland. +Thither Douglas goes, and is warned by a Scottish knight of +Percy’s approach: as in Herd, he is sceptical, but is +convinced by facts. (This warning of Douglas by a scout who +gallops up is narrated by Froissart, from witnesses engaged in +the battle.) After various incidents, Percy and Douglas +encounter each other, and Douglas is slain. After a +desperate fight, Sir Hugh Montgomery, a prisoner of the +English,</p> +<blockquote><p>Borrowed the Percy home again.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>This is absurd. The Scots fought on, took Percy, and won +the day. Walsingham, the contemporary English chronicler +(in Latin), says that Percy slew Douglas, so do Knyghton and the +continuator of Higden.</p> +<p>Meanwhile we observe that the English ballad says nothing of +Douglas’s chivalrous fortitude, and soldier-like desire to +have his death concealed. Here every Scottish version +follows Froissart. In Herd’s fragment, Montgomery now +attacks Percy, and bids him “yield thee to yon bracken +bush,” where the dead Douglas’s body lies +concealed. Percy does yield—to Sir Hugh +Montgomery. The fragment has but fourteen stanzas.</p> +<p>In 1802, Scott, correcting by another MS., published +Herd’s copy. In 1806 he gave another version, for +“fortunately two copies have since been obtained from the +recitation of old persons residing at the head of Ettrick +Forest.” <a name="citation62a"></a><a href="#footnote62a" +class="citation">[62a]</a></p> +<p>Colonel Elliot devotes a long digression to the trivial value +of recitations, so styled, <a name="citation62b"></a><a +href="#footnote62b" class="citation">[62b]</a> and gives his +suggestions about the copy being made up from the +<i>Reliques</i>. When Scott’s copy of 1806 agrees +with the English version, Colonel Elliot surmises that a modern +person, familiar with the English, has written the coincident +verses in <i>with differences</i>. Percy and Douglas, for +example, change speeches, each saying what, in the English, the +other said in substance, not in the actual words. When +Scott’s version touches on an incident known in history, +but not given in the English version, the encounter between +Douglas and Percy at Newcastle (Scott, vii., viii.), Colonel +Elliot suspects the interpolator (and well he may, for the verses +are mawkish and modern, not earlier than the eighteenth century +imitations or <i>remaniements</i> which occur in many ballads +traditional in essence).</p> +<p>So Colonel Elliot says, “We are not told, either in +<i>The Minstrelsy</i> or in any of Scott’s works or +writings, who the reciters were, and who the transcribers +were.” <a name="citation63a"></a><a href="#footnote63a" +class="citation">[63a]</a> We very seldom are told by Scott +who the reciters were and who the transcribers, but our +critic’s information is here mournfully limited—by +his own lack of study. Colonel Elliot goes on to criticise +a very curious feature in Scott’s version of 1806, and +finds certain lines “beautiful” but “without a +note of antiquity,” that he can detect, while the sentiment +“is hardly of the kind met with in old ballads.”</p> +<p>To understand the position we must remember that, <i>in the +English</i>, Percy and Douglas fight each other thus +(1.)—</p> +<blockquote><p>The Percy and the Douglas met,<br /> + That either of other was fain,<br /> +They swapped together while that they sweat,<br /> + With swords of fine Collayne. (Cologne +steel.)</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Douglas bids Percy yield, but Percy slays Douglas (as in +Walsingham’s and other contemporary chronicles, stanzas +li.–lvi.). The Scottish losses are then enumerated +(only eighteen Scots were left alive!), and stanza lix. +runs—</p> +<blockquote><p>This fray began at Otterburn<br /> + Between the night and the day.<br /> +There the Douglas lost his life,<br /> + And the Percy was led away.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Herd ends—</p> +<blockquote><p>This deed was done at Otterburn,<br /> + About the breaking of the day,<br /> +Earl Douglas was buried at the bracken bush,<br /> + And Percy led captive away.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Manifestly, either the maker of Herd’s version knew the +English, and altered at pleasure, or the Englishman knew a Scots +version, and altered at pleasure. The perversion is of +ancient standing, undeniably. But when Scott’s +original text exhibits the same phenomena of perversion, in a +part of the ballad missing in Herd’s brief lay, Colonel +Elliot supposes that <i>now</i> the exchanges are by a modern +ballad-forger, shall we say Sir Walter? By Sir Walter they +certainly are <i>not</i>! One tiny hint of Scots +originality is dubious. In the English, and in all Scots +versions, men “win their hay” at Lammastide. In +Scotland the hay harvest is often much later. But if the +English ballad be <i>Northumbrian</i>, little can be made out of +that proof of Scottish origin. If the English version be a +southern version (for the minstrel is a professional), then +Lammastide for hay-making is borrowed from the Scots.</p> +<p>The Scots version (Herd’s) insists on Douglas’s +burial “by the bracken bush,” to which Montgomery +bids Percy surrender. This is obviously done to hide his +body and keep his death secret from both parties, <i>as in +Froissart he bids his friends do</i>. The verse of the +English (l.) on the fight between Douglas and Percy, is borrowed +by, or is borrowed from, the Scottish stanza (ix.) in Herd, where +Sir Hugh Montgomery fights Percy.</p> +<blockquote><p>Then Percy and Montgomery met,<br /> + And weel a wot they warna fain;<br /> +They swaped swords, and they twa swat,<br /> + And ay the blood ran down between.</p> +<p> The Persses and the Mongomry met,</p> +</blockquote> +<p>as quoted, is already familiar in <i>The Complaynte of +Scotland</i> (about 1549), and this line is not in the English +ballad. So far it seems as if the English balladist +borrowed the scene from a Scots version, and perverted it into a +description of a fight, between Percy, who wins, and +Douglas—in place of the Scots version, the victory over +Percy of Sir Hugh Montgomery.</p> +<p>This transference of incidents in the English and Scottish +ballads is a phenomenon which we are to meet again in the ballad +of <i>Jamie Telfer of the Fair Dodhead</i>. One +“maker” or the other has, in old times, pirated and +perverted the ballad of another “maker.”</p> +<h2><a name="page67"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +67</span>SCOTT’S TRADITIONAL COPY AND HOW HE EDITED IT</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">As</span> early as December +1802–January 1803, Scott was “so anxious to have a +complete Scottish <i>Otterburn</i> that I will omit the ballad +entirely in the first volume (of 1803), hoping to recover it in +time for insertion in the third.” <a +name="citation67a"></a><a href="#footnote67a" +class="citation">[67a]</a></p> +<p>The letter is undated, but is determined by Scott’s +expressed interest “about the Tushielaw lines, which, from +what you mention, must be worth recovering.” In a +letter (Abbotsford MSS.) from Hogg to Scott (marked in copy, +“January 7, 1803”) Hogg encloses “the Tushielaw +lines,” which were popular in Ettrick, but were verses of +the eighteenth century. They were orally repeated, but +literary in origin.</p> +<p>Scott, who wanted “a complete Scottish Otterburn” +in winter 1802, did not sit down and make one. He waited +till he got a text from Hogg, in 1805, and published an edited +version in 1806.</p> +<p><i>Scott’s published</i> stanza i. is Herd’s +stanza i., with slight verbal changes taken from the Hogg MS. +text of 1805. (?) Hogg’s MS. and Scott, in stanza +ii., give Herd’s lines on the Lindsays and Gordons, adding +the Grahams, and, in place of Herd’s</p> +<blockquote><p> The Earl of +Fife,<br /> +And Sir Hugh Montgomery upon a grey,</p> +</blockquote> +<p>they end thus—</p> +<blockquote><p>But the Jardines wald not wi’ him ride,<br +/> + And they rue it to this day.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>This is from Hogg’s copy; it is a natural Border +variant. No Earl of Fife is named, but a reproach to a +Border clan is conveyed.</p> +<p>For Herd’s iii. (they take Northumberland, and burn +“the North shire,” and the Otter dale), Hogg’s +reciters gave—</p> +<blockquote><p>And he has burned the dales o’ Tyne,<br /> + And part o’ <i>Almonshire</i>,<br /> +And three good towers in Roxburgh fells,<br /> + He left them all on fire.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Hogg, in his letter accompanying his copy, says that +“Almonshire” may stand for the +“Bamborowshire” of the English vi., but that he +leaves in “Almonshire,” as both reciters insist on +it. Scott printed “Bambroughshire,” as in the +English version (vi.).</p> +<p>Now here is proof that Hogg had a copy, from reciters—a +copy which he could not understand. +“Almonshire” is “Alneshire,” or +“Alnwickshire,” where is the Percy’s Alnwick +Castle. In Froissart the Scots burn and waste the region of +Alneshire, all round Alnwick, but the Earl of Northumberland +holds out in the castle, unattacked, and sends his sons, Henry +and Ralph Percy, to Newcastle to gather forces, and take the +retreating Scots between two fires, Newcastle and Alnwick. +But the Scots were not such poor strategists as to return by the +way they had come. In a skirmish or joust at Newcastle, +says Froissart, Douglas captured Percy’s lance and pennon, +with his blazon of arms, and vowed that he would set it up over +his castle of Dalkeith. Percy replied that he would never +carry it out of England. To give Percy a chivalrous chance +of recovering his pennon and making good his word, Douglas +insists on waiting at Otterburn to besiege the castle there; and +he is taken by surprise (as in the ballads) when a mounted man +brings news of Percy’s approach. No tryst is made by +Percy and Douglas <i>at Otterburn</i> in Froissart; Douglas +merely tarried there by the courtesy of Scotland.</p> +<p>In Hogg’s version we have a reason why Douglas should +tarry at Otterburn; in the English ballad we have none very +definite. No captured pennon of Percy’s is mentioned, +no encounter of the heroes “at the barriers” of +Newcastle. Percy, from the castle wall, merely threatens +Douglas vaguely; Douglas says, “Where will you meet +me?” and Percy appoints Otterburn as we said. He +makes the absurd remark that, by way of supplies (for 40,000 +men), Douglas will find abundance of pheasants and red deer. <a +name="citation69a"></a><a href="#footnote69a" +class="citation">[69a]</a></p> +<p>We see that the English balladist is an unwarlike literary +hack. The author of the Ettrick version knew better the +nature of war, as we shall see, and his Douglas objects to +Otterburn as a place destitute of supplies; nothing is there but +wild beasts and birds. If the original poem is the sensible +poem, the Scott version is the original which the English hath +perverted.</p> +<p>In Hogg, Douglas jousts with Percy at Newcastle, and gives him +a fall. Then come two verses (viii.–ix.). The +second is especially modern and mawkish—</p> +<blockquote><p>But O how pale his lady look’d,<br /> + Frae off the castle wa’,<br /> +When down before the Scottish spear<br /> + She saw brave Percy fa’!<br /> +How pale and wan his lady look’d,<br /> + Frae off the castle hieght,<br /> +When she beheld her Percy yield<br /> + To doughty Douglas’ might.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Colonel Elliot asks, “Can any one believe that these +stanzas are really ancient and have come down orally through many +generations?” <a name="citation70a"></a><a +href="#footnote70a" class="citation">[70a]</a></p> +<p>Certainly not! But Colonel Elliot does not allow for the +fact, insisted on by Professor Child, that traditional ballads, +from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, were often +printed on broad-sheets as edited by the cheapest +broadside-vendors’ hacks; that the hacks interpolated and +messed their originals; and that, after the broadside was worn +out, lost, or burned, oral memory kept it alive in +tradition. For examples of this process we have only to +look at <i>William’s Ghost</i> in Herd’s copy of +1776. This is a traditional ballad; it is included in +Scott’s <i>Clerk Saunders</i>, but, as Hogg told him, is a +quite distinct song. In Herd’s copy it ends +thus—</p> +<blockquote><p>“Oh, stay, my only true love, +stay,”<br /> + The constant Marg’ret cry’d;<br /> +Wan grew her cheeks, she closed her eyes,<br /> + Stretched her soft limbs, and dy’d.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Let <i>this</i> get into tradition, and be taken down from +recitation, and the ballad will be denounced as modern. But +it is essentially ancient.</p> +<p>These two modern stanzas, in Hogg’s copy, are rather too +bad for Hogg’s making; and I do not know whether they are +his (he practically says they are not, we shall see), or whether +they are remembered by reciters from a stall-copy of the period +of Lady Wardlaw’s <i>Hardyknute</i>.</p> +<p>After that, Hogg’s copy becomes more natural. +Douglas says to the discomfited Percy (x.)—</p> +<blockquote><p>Had we twa been upon the green,<br /> + And never an eye to see,<br /> +I should hae had ye flesh and fell,<br /> + But your sword shall gae wi’ me.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>That rings true! Moreover, had either Hogg or Scott +tampered here (Scott excised), either would have made Douglas +carry off—not Percy’s <i>sword</i>, but the historic +captured <i>pennon</i> of Percy. Scott really could not +have resisted the temptation had he been interpolating +<i>à son dévis</i>.</p> +<blockquote><p>But your <i>pennon</i> shall gae wi’ me!</p> +</blockquote> +<p>It was easy to write in that!</p> +<p>Percy had challenged Douglas thus—</p> +<blockquote><p>But gae ye up to Otterburn,<br /> + And there wait days three (xi.),</p> +</blockquote> +<p>as in the English (xiii.). In the English, Percy, we +saw, promises game enough there; in Hogg, Douglas demurs (xii., +xiii., xiv.). There are no supplies at Otterburn, he +says—</p> +<blockquote><p> To feed my men and me.</p> +<p>The deer rins wild frae dale to dale,<br /> + The birds fly wild frae tree to tree,<br /> +And there is neither bread nor kale,<br /> + To fend my men and me.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>These seem to me sound true ballad lines, like—</p> +<blockquote><p>My hounds may a’ rin masterless<br /> + My hawks may fly frae tree to tree,</p> +</blockquote> +<p>in Child’s variant of <i>Young Beichan</i>. The +speakers, we see, are “inverted.” Percy, in the +English, promises Douglas’s men pheasants—absurd +provision for the army of 40,000 men of the English ballad. +In the Ettrick text Douglas says that there are no supplies, +merely <i>feræ naturæ</i>, but he will wait at +Otterburn to give Percy his chance.</p> +<p>Colonel Elliot takes the inversion of parts as a proof of +modern pilfering and deliberate change to hide the theft; at +least he mentions them, and the “prettier verses,” +with a note of exclamation (!). <a name="citation73a"></a><a +href="#footnote73a" class="citation">[73a]</a> But there +are, we repeat, similar inversions in the English and in +Herd’s old copy, and nobody says that Scott or Hogg or any +modern faker made the inversions in Herd’s text. The +differences and inversions in the English and in Herd are very +ancient; by 1550 “the Percy and the Montgomery met,” +in the line quoted in <i>The Complaynte of Scotland</i>. At +about the same period (1550) it was the Percy and the Douglas who +met, in the English version. Manifestly there pre-existed, +by 1550, an old ballad, which either a Scot then perverted from +the English text, or an Englishman from the Scots. Thus the +inversions in the Ettrick and English version need not be due +(they are not due) to a <i>modern</i> “faker.”</p> +<p>In the Hogg MS. (xxiii.), Percy wounds Douglas “till +backwards he did flee.” Hogg was too good a Scot to +interpolate the flight of Douglas; and Scott was so good a Scot +that—what do you suppose he did?—he excised +“till backwards he did flee” from Hogg’s text, +and inserted “that he fell to the ground” <i>from the +English text</i>!</p> +<p>In the Hogg MS. (xviii., xix.), in Scott xvii., xviii., +Douglas, at Otterburn, is roused from sleep by his page with news +of Percy’s approach. Douglas says that the page lies +(compare Herd, where Douglas doubts the page)—</p> +<blockquote><p>For Percy hadna’ men yestreen<br /> +To dight my men and me.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>There is nothing in this to surprise any one who knows the +innumerable variants in traditional ballads. But now comes +in a very curious variation (Hogg MS. xx., Scott, xix.). +Douglas says (Hogg MS. xx.)—</p> +<blockquote><p>But I have seen a dreary dream<br /> + Beyond the Isle o’ Skye,<br /> +I saw a dead man won the fight,<br /> + And I think that man was I.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Here is something not in Herd, and as remote from the manner +of the English poet, with his</p> +<blockquote><p>The Chronicle will not lie,</p> +</blockquote> +<p>as Heine is remote from, say,—Milman. The verse is +magical, it has haunted my memory since I was ten years +old. Godscroft, who does not approve of the story of +Douglas’s murder by one of his men, writes that the dying +leader said:—</p> +<p>“First do yee keep my death both from our own folke and +from the enemy” (Froissart, “Let neither friend nor +foe know of my estate”); “then that ye suffer not my +standard to be lost or cast downe” (Froissart, “Up +with my standard and call <i>Douglas</i>!”;) “and +last, that ye avenge my death” (also in Froissart). +“Bury me at Melrose Abbey with my father. If I could +hope for these things I should die with the greater contentment; +for long since I <i>heard a prophesie that a dead man should +winne a field</i>, <i>and I hope in God it shall be I</i>.” +<a name="citation75a"></a><a href="#footnote75a" +class="citation">[75a]</a></p> +<blockquote><p>I saw a dead man won the fight,<br /> + And I think that man was I!</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Godscroft, up to the mention of Melrose and the prophecy, took +his tale direct from Froissart, or, if he took it from George +Buchanan’s Latin History, Buchanan’s source was +Froissart, but Froissart’s was evidence from Scots who were +in the battle.</p> +<p>But who changed the prophecy to a dream of Douglas, and who +versified Godscroft’s “a dead man shall winne a +field, and I hope in God it shall be I”? Did +Godscroft take that from the ballad current in his time and +quoted by him? Or did a <i>remanieur</i> of Godscroft turn +<i>his</i> words into</p> +<blockquote><p>I saw a dead man win the fight,<br /> + And I think that man was I?</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Scott did not make these two noble lines out of Godscroft, he +found them in Hogg’s copy from recitation, only altering +“I saw” into “I dreamed,” and the +ungrammatic “won” into “win”; and +“<i>the</i> fight” into “<i>a</i> +fight.”</p> +<p>The whole dream stanza occurs in a part of the ballad where +Hogg confesses to no alteration or interpolation, and I doubt if +the Shepherd of Ettrick had read a rare old book like +Godscroft. If he had not, this stanza is purely +traditional; if he had, he showed great genius in his use of +Godscroft.</p> +<p>In Hogg’s Ettrick copy, Douglas, after telling his +dream, rushes into battle, is wounded by Percy, and +“backward flees.” Scott (xx.), following a +historical version (Wyntoun’s <i>Cronykil</i>), makes</p> +<blockquote><p>Douglas forget the helmit good<br /> + That should have kept his brain.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Being wounded, in Hogg’s version, and “backward +fleeing,” Douglas sends his page to bring Montgomery +(Hogg), and from stanza xxiv. to xxxiv., in Hogg, all is made up +by himself, he says,—from facts given “in plain +prose” by his reciters, with here and there a line or two +given in verse. Scott omitted some verses here, amended +others slightly, by help of Herd’s version, <i>left out a +broken last stanza</i> (xl.) and put in Herd’s concluding +lines (stanza lxviii. in the English text).</p> +<blockquote><p>This deed was done at the Otterburn. (Herd.)</p> +<p>The fraye began at Otterburn. (English.)</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Now what was the broken Ettrick stanza that Scott omitted in +his published <i>Otterburne</i> (1806)? It referred to Sir +Hugh Montgomery, who, in Herd, captured Percy after a fight; in +the English version is a prisoner apparently exchanged for +Percy. In the Ettrick MS. the omitted verse is</p> +<blockquote><p>He left not an Englishman on the field<br /> +. . .<br /> +That he hadna either killed or taen<br /> + Ere his heart’s blood was cauld.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Scott ended with Herd’s last stanza; in the English +version the last but two.</p> +<p>Now the death, at Otterburn, of Sir Hugh, is recorded in an +English ballad styled <i>The Hunting of the Cheviot</i>. By +1540–50 it was among the popular songs north of +Tweed. <i>The Complaynte of Scotland</i> (1549) mentions +among “The Songis of Natural Music of the Antiquitie” +(<i>volkslieder</i>), <i>The Hunttis of Chevet</i>. Our +copy of the English version is in the Bodleian (MS. Ashmole, +48). It ends: “Expliceth, quod Rychard Sheale,” +a minstrel who recited ballads and tales at Tamworth +(<i>circ.</i> 1559). The text was part of his +stock-in-trade.</p> +<p>The Cheviot ballad, in a Scots form popular in 1549, is later +in many ways than the English <i>Battle of Otterburne</i>. +It begins with a brag of Percy, a vow that, despite Douglas, he +will hunt in the Cheviot hills. While Percy is hunting with +a strong force, Douglas arrives with another. Douglas +offers to decide the quarrel by single combat with Percy, who +accepts. Richard Witherington refuses to look on quietly, +and a general engagement ensues.</p> +<blockquote><p>At last the Duglas and the Perse met,<br /> +Lyk to Captayns of myght and of mayne,<br /> +They swapte together tylle they both swat<br /> +With swordes that wear of fyn myllan.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>We are back in stanza I. of the English <i>Otterburne</i>, in +stanza xxxv. (substituting Hugh Montgomery for Douglas) of the +Hogg MS. In <i>The Hunting</i>, Douglas is slain by an +English arrow (xxxvi.–xxxviii.).</p> +<p>Sir Hugh Montgomery now charges and slays Percy (who, of +course, was merely taken prisoner). An archer of +Northumberland sends an arrow through good Sir Hugh Montgomery +(xliii.–xlvi.). Stanza lxvi. has</p> +<blockquote><p>At Otterburn begane this spurne,<br /> + Upon a Monnynday;<br /> +There was the doughte Douglas slean,<br /> + The Perse never went away.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>This is a form of Herd’s stanza xiv. of the English +<i>Otterburn</i> (lxviii.), made soon after the battle. We +see that the <i>original</i> ballad has protean variants; in time +all is mixed in tradition.</p> +<p>Now the curious and interesting point is that Hogg, when he +collected the ballad from two reciters, himself noticed that the +<i>Cheviot</i> ballad had merged, in some way, into the +<i>Otterburn</i> ballad, and pointed this out to Scott. I +now publish Hogg’s letter to Scott, in which, as usual, he +does not give the year-date: I think it was 1805.</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Ettrick House</span>, <i>Sept.</i> 10, [?1805].</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>,—Though I have used +all diligence in my power to recover the old song about which you +seemed anxious, I am afraid it will arrive too late to be of any +use. I cannot at this time have Grame and Bewick; the only +person who hath it being absent at a harvest; and as for the +scraps of Otterburn which you have got, <i>they seem to have been +some confused jumble made by some person who had learned both the +songs you have</i>, <a name="citation79a"></a><a +href="#footnote79a" class="citation">[79a]</a> <i>and in time had +been straitened to make one out of them both</i>. But you +shall have it as I had it, saving that, as usual, I have +sometimes helped the metre without altering one original +word.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Hogg here gives his version from recitation as far as stanza +xxiv.</p> +<p>Here Hogg stops and writes:—</p> +<blockquote><p>The ballad, which I have collected from two +different people, a crazy old man and a woman deranged in her +mind, seems hitherto considerably entire; but now, when it +becomes most interesting, they have both failed me, and I have +been obliged to take much of it in plain prose. However, as +none of them seemed to know anything of the history save what +they had learned from the song, I took it the more kindly. +Any few verses which follow are to me unintelligible.</p> +<p>He told Sir Hugh that he was dying, and ordered him to conceal +his body, and neither let his own men nor Piercy’s know; +which he did, and the battle went on headed by Sir Hugh +Montgomery, and at length—</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Here follow stanzas up to xxxviii.</p> +<p>Hogg then goes on thus:—</p> +<blockquote><p>Piercy seems to have been fighting devilishly in +the dark. Indeed my narrators added no more, but told me +that Sir Hugh died on the field, but that</p> +<p>He left not an Englishman on the field,<br /> +. . .<br /> +That he hadna either killed or ta’en<br /> + Ere his heart’s blood was cauld.</p> +<p>Almonshire (Stanza iii.) may probably be a corruption of +Bamburghshire, but as both my narrators called it so I thought +proper to preserve it. The towers in Roxburgh fells (Stanza +iii.) may not be so improper as we were thinking, there may have +been some [English] strength on the very borders.—I remain, +Dear Sir, your most faithful and affectionate servant, <span +class="smcap">James Hogg</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Hogg adds a postscript:</p> +<blockquote><p>Not being able to get the letter away to the post, +I have taken the opportunity of again pumping my old +friend’s memory, and have recovered some more lines and +half lines of Otterburn, of which I am becoming somewhat +enamoured. These I have been obliged to arrange somewhat +myself, as you will see below, but so mixed are they with +original lines and sentences that I think, if you pleased, they +might pass without any acknowledgment. Sure no man will +like an old song the worse of being somewhat harmonious. +After stanza xxiv. you may read stanzas xxv. to xxxiv. Then +after xxxviii. read xxxix.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Now we know all that can be known about the copy of the ballad +which, in 1805, Scott received from Hogg. Up to stanza +xxiv. it is as given by the two old reciters. The crazy man +may be the daft man who recited to Hogg Burns’s <i>Tam +o’ Shanter</i>, and inspired him with the ambition to be a +poet. The deranged woman, like mad Madge Wildfire, was rich +in ballad scraps. From stanza xxv. to xxxiv., Hogg +confessedly “harmonises” what he got in plain prose +intermixed with verse. Stanza xxxix. is apparently +Hogg’s. The last broken stanza, as Hogg said, is a +reminiscence of the <i>Hunting of the Cheviot</i>, in a Scots +form, long lost.</p> +<p>Hogg was not a scientific collector: had he been, he would +have taken down “the plain prose” and the broken +lines and stanzas verbally. But Hogg has done his best.</p> +<p>We have next to ask, How did Scott treat the material thus +placed before him? He dropped five stanzas sent by Hogg, +mainly from the part made up from “plain prose”; he +placed in a stanza and a line or two from Herd’s text; he +remade a stanza and adopted a line from the English of 1550, and +inserted an incident from Wyntoun’s <i>Cronykil</i> (about +1430). He did these things in the effort to construct what +Lockhart calls “a standard text.”</p> +<p>1. In stanza i., for Hogg’s “Douglas +<i>went</i>,” Scott put “bound him to +ride.”</p> +<p>2. (<i>H.</i>) “With the +Lindsays.”</p> +<p> (<i>S.</i>) “With <i>them</i> +the Lindesays.”</p> +<p>3. (<i>H.</i>) “Almonshire.”</p> +<p> (<i>S.</i>) +“Bamboroughshire.”</p> +<p> (<i>H.</i>) +“Roxburgh.”</p> +<p> (<i>S.</i>) +“Reidswire.”</p> +<p>6. (<i>H.</i>) “The border again.”</p> +<p> (<i>S.</i>) “The border +fells.”</p> +<p>7. (<i>H.</i>) “<i>Most</i> +furiously.”</p> +<p> (<i>S.</i>) “<i>Right</i> +furiouslie.”</p> +<p>9. (<i>H.</i>) A modernised stanza.</p> +<p> (<i>S.</i>) Scott deletes it.</p> +<p>15. (<i>H.</i>) Scott rewrites the stanza thus,</p> +<p> (<i>H.</i>)</p> +<p class="poetry">But I will stay at Otterburn,<br /> + Where you shall welcome be;<br /> +And if ye come not at three days end,<br /> + A coward I’ll call thee.</p> +<p> (<i>S.</i>)</p> +<p class="poetry">“Thither will I come,” proud Percy +said,<br /> + “By the might of Our Ladye.”<br /> +“There will I bide thee,” said the Douglas,<br /> + “My troth I’ll plight to +thee.”</p> +<p>19. (<i>H.</i>) “I have <i>seen</i> a dreary +dream.”</p> +<p>20. (<i>S.</i>) “I have <i>dreamed</i> a +dreary dream.”</p> +<p>21. (<i>H.</i>)</p> +<p class="poetry">Where he met with the stout Percy<br /> + And a’ his goodly train.</p> +<p>21. (<i>S.</i>)</p> +<blockquote><p>But he forgot the helmet good<br /> +That should have kept his brain.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">(From Wyntoun.)</p> +</blockquote> +<p>22. (<i>H.</i>) Line 2. “Right +keen.”</p> +<p> (<i>S.</i>) Line 2. “Fu’ +fain.”</p> +<p>Line 4.</p> +<blockquote><p>The blood ran down like rain.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Line 4.</p> +<blockquote><p>The blood ran them between.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>23. (<i>H.</i>)</p> +<blockquote><p>But Piercy wi’ his good broadsword<br /> + Was made o’ the metal free,<br /> +Has wounded Douglas on the brow<br /> + Till backward did he flee.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>24. (<i>S.</i>)</p> +<blockquote><p>But Piercy wi’ his broadsword good<br /> + That could so sharply wound,<br /> +Has wounded Douglas on the brow,<br /> + Till he fell to the ground.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>25. (<i>H.</i>) Here Hogg has mixed prose and verse, and +does his best. Scott deletes Hogg’s 25.</p> +<p>27. (<i>H.</i>) Douglas repeats the story of his +dream. Scott deletes the stanza.</p> +<p>28. In Hogg’s second line,</p> +<blockquote><p>Nae mair I’ll fighting see.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Scott gives, from Herd,</p> +<blockquote><p>Take thou the vanguard of the three.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>29. Hogg’s verse is</p> +<blockquote><p>But tell na ane of my brave men<br /> + That I lie bleeding wan,<br /> +But let the name of Douglas still<br /> + Be shouted in the van.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>This is precisely what Douglas does say, in Froissart, but +Scott deletes the stanza. Probably Hogg got the fact from +his reciters, “in plain prose,” with a phrase or two +in verse.</p> +<p>31. (<i>H.</i>) Line 4.</p> +<blockquote><p>On yonder lily lee.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>27. (<i>S.</i>)</p> +<blockquote><p>That his merrie men might not see.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>33. (<i>H.</i>) Scott deletes the stanza.</p> +<p>35. (<i>H.</i>)</p> +<blockquote><p>When stout Sir Hugh wi’ Piercy met.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>30. (<i>S.</i>)</p> +<blockquote><p>The Percy and Montgomery met. <a +name="citation83a"></a><a href="#footnote83a" +class="citation">[83a]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>36. (<i>H.</i>)</p> +<blockquote><p>“O yield thee, Piercy,” said Sir +Hugh,<br /> + “O yield, or ye shall die!”<br /> +“Fain would I yield,” proud Percy said,<br /> + “But ne’er to loon like thee.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>31. (<i>S.</i>)</p> +<blockquote><p>“Now yield thee, yield thee, Percy,” +he said,<br /> + “Or else I vow I’ll lay thee +low,”<br /> +“To whom must I yield,” quoth Earl Percy,<br /> + “Now that I see it must be so?”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Scott took this from Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe’s MS. +copy. <a name="citation84a"></a><a href="#footnote84a" +class="citation">[84a]</a></p> +<p>38. (<i>H.</i>)</p> +<p>38. (<i>S.</i>) Scott makes a slight verbal +alteration.</p> +<p>39. (<i>H.</i>) Line 1.</p> +<p>34. (<i>S.</i>) Line 1.</p> +<p>Scott substitutes Herd’s</p> +<blockquote><p>As soon as he knew it was Montgomery.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>40. (<i>H.</i>) Hogg’s broken stanza on the death +of Montgomery, derived from a lost form of the <i>Huntiss of +Chevets</i>, named in <i>The Complaynte of Scotland</i>.</p> +<p>35. (<i>S.</i>) Scott omits giving the formula common to +the English of 1550 and to Herd. This was the whole of +Scott’s editorial alteration. Any one may discover +the facts from Professor Kittredge’s useful abbreviation of +Child’s collection into a single volume (Nutt. +London, 1905). Colonel Elliot quotes Professor +Kittredge’s book three or four times, but in place of +looking at the facts he abounds in the Higher Criticism. +Colonel Elliot says that Scott does not tell us of a single line +having been borrowed from Percy’s version. <a +name="citation84b"></a><a href="#footnote84b" +class="citation">[84b]</a> Scott has only “a single +line” to tell of, the fourth line in his stanza xxii., +“Till he fell to the ground.”</p> +<p>For the rest, the old English version and Herd’s have +many inter-borrowings of stanzas, but we do not know whether a +Scot borrowed from an Englishman, or <i>vice versa</i>. +Thus, in another and longer traditional +version—Hogg’s—more correspondence must be +expected than in Herd’s fourteen stanzas. It is, of +course, open to scepticism to allege that Hogg merely made his +text, invented the two crazy old reciters, and the whole story +about them, and his second “pumping of their +memories,” invented “Almonshire,” which he +could not understand, and invented his last broken stanza on the +death of Montgomery, to give the idea that <i>The Huntiss of +Chevets</i> was mingled in the recollections of the reciters with +<i>The Battle of Otterburn</i>. He also gave the sword in +place of the pennon of Percy as the trophy of Douglas, “and +the same with intent to deceive,” just as he pretended, in +<i>Auld Maitland</i>, not to know what “springwalls” +were, and wrote “springs: wall-stanes.” If this +probable theory be correct, then Scott was the dupe of Truthful +James. At all events, though for three years Scott was +moving heaven and earth and Ettrick Forest to find a copy of a +Scottish ballad of Otterburn, he did not sit down and make one, +as, in Colonel Elliot’s system, he easily could and +probably would have done.</p> +<p>Before studying his next ill deed, we must repeat that the +Otterburn ballads prove that in early times one nation certainly +pirated a ballad of a rival nation, and very ingeniously altered +it and inverted the parts of the heroes.</p> +<p>We have next to examine a case in a later generation, in which +a maker who was interested in one clan, pirated, perverted, and +introverted the <i>rôles</i> of the heroes in a ballad by a +maker interested in another clan. Either an Elliotophile +perverted a ballad by a Scottophile, or a Scottophile perverted a +ballad by an Elliotophile.</p> +<p>This might be done at the time when the ballad was made (say +1620–60). But Colonel Elliot believes that the +perversion was inflicted on an Elliotophile ballad by a +Scottophile impostor about 1800–1802. The name of +this desperate and unscrupulous character was Walter Scott, +Sheriff of Ettrick Forest, commonly called Selkirkshire.</p> +<p>In this instance I have no manuscript evidence. The name +of “Jamie of the Fair Dodhead,” the ballad, appears +in a list of twenty-two ballads in Sir Walter’s hand, +written in a commonplace book about 1800–1801. Eleven +are marked X. “Jamie” is one of that +eleven. <i>Kinmont Willie</i> is among the eleven not +marked X. We may conjecture that he had obtained the first +eleven, and was hunting for the second eleven,—some of +which he never got, or never published.</p> +<h2><a name="page87"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 87</span>THE +MYSTERY OF THE BALLAD OF JAMIE TELFER</h2> +<h3>I<br /> +A RIDING SONG</h3> +<p><i>The Ballad of Jamie Telfer of the Fair Dodhead</i> has many +charms for lovers of the Border. The swift and simple +stanzas carry us through a great tract of country, which remains +not unlike what it was in the days when Scotts, Armstrongs, and +Elliots rode the hills in jack and knapscap, with sword and +lance. The song leads us first, with a foraging party of +English riders, from Bewcastle, an English hold, east of the +Border stream of the Liddel; then through the Armstrong tribe, on +the north bank; then through more Armstrongs north across Tarras +water (“Tarras for the good bull trout”); then north +up Ewes water, that springs from the feet of the changeless green +hills and the <i>pastorum loca vasta</i>, where now only the +shepherd or the angler wakens the cry of the curlews, but where +then the Armstrongs were in force. We ride on, as it were, +and look down into the dale of the stripling Teviot, <i>electro +clarior</i> (then held by the Scotts); we descend and ford +“Borthwick’s roaring strand,” as Leyden sings, +though the burn is usually a purling brook even where it joins +Teviot, three miles above Hawick.</p> +<p>Next we pass across the green waves of moorlands that rise to +the heights over Ettrick (held by the Scotts), whence the +foragers of the song gallop down to “The Fair +Dodhead,” now a heap of grass-covered stones, but in their +day a peel tower, occupied, <i>according to the ballad</i>, by +one James Telfer. The English rob the peel tower, they +drive away ten cows, and urge them southwards over Borthwick +water, then across Teviot at Coultart Cleugh (say seven miles +above Hawick), then up the Frostily burn, and so down Ewes water +as before; but the Scottish pursuers meet them before they cross +the Liddel again into English bounds. The English are +defeated, their captain is shot through the head (which in no way +affects his power of making speeches); he is taken, twenty or +thirty of his men are killed or wounded, his own cattle are +seized, and his victim Telfer, returns rejoicing to Dodhead in +distant Ettrick.</p> +<p><i>C’est magnifique</i>, <i>mais ce n’est pas la +guerre</i>! These events never occurred, as we shall see +later, yet the poet has the old reiving spirit, the full sense of +the fierce manly times, and possesses a traditional knowledge of +the historical personages of the day, and knows the +country,—more or less.</p> +<p>The poem has raised as many difficulties as Nestor’s +long story about raided cattle in the eleventh book of the +<i>Iliad</i>. Historical Greece knew but dimly the places +which were familiar to Nestor, the towns that time had ruined, +the hill where Athene “turned the people +again.” We, too, have to seek in documents of the end +of the sixteenth century, or in an old map of 1654 (drawn about +1600), to find Dodhead, Catslack, or Catloch, or Catlock hill, +and Preakinhaugh, places essential to our inquiry.</p> +<p>I see the student who has ventured so far into my tract wax +wan! He does not,—she does not,—wish to hear +about dusty documents and ancient maps. For him or for her +the ballad is enough, and a very good ballad it is. I would +shake the faith of no man in the accuracy of the ballad tale, if +it were not necessary for me to defend the character of Sir +Walter Scott, which, on occasion of this and other ballads, is +impugned by Colonel the Hon. FitzWilliam Elliot. He +“hopes, though he cannot expect,” that I will give my +reasons for not sharing his belief that Sir Walter did a certain +thing which I could not easily palliate. <a +name="citation89"></a><a href="#footnote89" +class="citation">[89]</a></p> +<h3>II<br /> +THE BALLAD IMPOSSIBLE</h3> +<p>My attempts to relieve Colonel Elliot from his painful +convictions about Sir Walter’s unsportsmanlike behaviour +must begin with proof that the ballad, as it stands, cannot +conceivably be other than “a pack o’ +lees.” Here Colonel Elliot, to a great extent and on +an essential point, agrees with me. In sketching rapidly +the story of the ballad,—the raid from England into +Ettrick, the return of the raiders, the pursuit,—I omitted +the <i>clou</i>, the pivot, the central point of dramatic +interest. It is this: in one version of the +ballad,—call it A for the present,—the unfortunate +Telfer runs to ask aid from the laird of Buccleuch, at Branksome +Hall, some three and a half or four miles above Hawick, on the +Teviot. From the Dodhead it was a stiff run of eight miles, +through new-fallen snow. The farmer of Dodhead, in the +centre of the Scott country, naturally went for help to the +nearest of his neighbours, the greatest chief in the +mid-Border. In version A (which I shall call “the +Elliot version”), “auld Buccleuch” (who was a +man of about thirty in fact) was deaf to Telfer’s +prayer.</p> +<blockquote><p>Gae seek your succour frae Martin Elliot,<br /> + For succour ye’s get nane frae me,<br /> +Gae seek your succour where ye paid blackmail,<br /> + For, man, ye ne’er paid money to me.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>This is impossibly absurd! As Colonel Elliot writes, +“I pointed out in my book” (<i>The Trustworthiness of +Border Ballads</i>) “that the allegation that Buccleuch had +refused to strike a blow at a party of English raiders, who had +insolently ridden some twenty-five miles into Scottish ground and +into the very middle of his own territory, was too absurd to be +believed . . . ” <a name="citation91a"></a><a +href="#footnote91a" class="citation">[91a]</a></p> +<p>Certainly; and the story is the more ridiculous as Buccleuch +(who has taken Telfer’s protection-money, or +“blackmail”) pretends to believe that +Telfer—living in Ettrick, about nine miles from +Selkirk—pays protection-money to Martin Elliot, residing at +Preakinhaugh, high up the water of Liddel. Martin was too +small a potentate, and far too remote to be chosen as protector +by a man living near the farm of Singlee on Ettrick, and near the +bold Buccleuch.</p> +<p>All this is nonsense. Colonel Elliot sees that, and +suggests that all this is not by the original poet, but has been +“inserted at some later period.” <a +name="citation91b"></a><a href="#footnote91b" +class="citation">[91b]</a> But, if so, <i>what was the +original ballad before the insertion</i>? As it stands, all +hinges on this impossible refusal of Buccleuch to help his +neighbour and retainer, James Telfer. If Colonel Elliot +excises Buccleuch’s refusal of aid as a later +interpolation, and if he allows Telfer to reach Branksome and +receive the aid which Buccleuch would rejoice to give, then the +Elliot version of the ballad cannot take a further step. It +becomes a Scott ballad, Buccleuch sends out his Scotts to pursue +the English raiders, and the Elliots, if they come in at all, +must only be subordinates. But as the Elliot version +stands, it is Buccleuch’s refusal to do his duty that +compels poor Jamie to run to his brother-in-law, “auld Jock +Grieve” in Coultartcleugh, four miles higher on Teviot than +Branksome. Jock gives him a mount, and he rides to +“Martin’s Hab” at “Catlockhill,” a +place unknown to research thereabout. Thence they both ride +to Martin Elliot at Preakinhaugh, high up in Liddesdale, and the +Elliots under Martin rescue Jamie’s kye.</p> +<p>Now the original ballad, if it did not contain +Buccleuch’s refusal of aid to Telfer (which refusal is a +thing “too absurd to be believed”) must merely have +told about the rescue of Jamie’s kye by the Scotts, Wat of +Harden, and the rest. If Buccleuch did not refuse help he +gave it, and there was no ride by Telfer to Martin Elliot. +Therefore, without a passage “too absurd to be +believed” (Buccleuch’s refusal), <i>there could be no +Elliots in the story</i>. The alternative is, that Telfer +in Ettrick <i>did</i> pay blackmail to a man so remote as Elliot +of Preakinhaugh, though Buccleuch was his chief and his +neighbour. This is absurd. Yet Colonel Elliot firmly +maintains that the version, in which the Elliots have all the +glory and Buccleuch all the shame, is the original version, and +is true on essential points.</p> +<p>That is only possible if we cut out the verses about Buccleuch +and make an Ettrick man not appeal to him, but go direct to a +Liddesdale man for succour. He must run from Dodhead to +Coultartcleugh, get a horse from Jock Grieve (Buccleuch’s +man and tenant), and then ride into Liddesdale to Martin. +But an Ettrick man, in a country of Scotts, would inevitably go +to his chief and neighbour, Buccleuch: it is inconceivable that +he should choose the remote Martin Elliot as his protector, and +go to <i>him</i>.</p> +<p>Thus, as a corollary from Colonel Elliot’s own disbelief +in the Buccleuch incident, the Elliot version of the ballad must +be absolutely false and foolish.</p> +<p>If Colonel Elliot leaves in the verses on Buccleuch’s +refusal, he leaves in what he calls “too absurd to be +believed.” If he cuts out these verses as an +interpolation, then Buccleuch lent aid to Telfer, and there was +no occasion to approach Martin Elliot. Or, by a third +course, the Elliot ballad originally made an Ettrick man, a +neighbour of the great Buccleuch, never dream of appealing to +<i>him</i> for help, but run to Coultartcleugh, four miles above +Buccleuch’s house, and thence make his way over to distant +Liddesdale to Martin Elliot! Yet Colonel Elliot says that +in what I call “the Elliot version,” “the story +defies criticism.” <a name="citation93a"></a><a +href="#footnote93a" class="citation">[93a]</a> Now, however +you take it,—I give you three choices,—the story is +absolutely impossible.</p> +<p>This Elliot version was unknown to lovers of the ballads, till +the late Professor Child of Harvard, the greatest master of +British ballad-lore that ever lived, in his beautiful <i>English +and Scottish Popular Ballads</i>, printed it from a manuscript +belonging to Mr. Macmath, which had previously been the property +of a friend of Scott, Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe. This +version is entitled “Jamie Telfer <i>in</i> the Fair +Dodhead,” not “<i>of</i>”: Jamie was a tenant +(there was no Jamie Telfer tenant of Dodhead in 1570–1609, +but concerning that I have more to say). Jamie was no +laird.</p> +<p>Before Professor Child’s publication of the Elliot +version, we had only that given by Scott in <i>The Border +Minstrelsy</i> of 1802. Now Scott’s version is at +least as absurdly incredible as the Elliot version. In +Scott’s version the unhappy Jamie runs, not to Branksome +and Buccleuch, to meet a refusal; but to “the Stobs’s +Ha’”(on Slitterick above Hawick) and to “auld +Gibby Elliot,” the laird. Elliot bids him go to +Branksome and the laird of Buccleuch,</p> +<blockquote><p>For, man, ye never paid money to me!</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Naturally Telfer did not pay to Elliot: he paid to Buccleuch, +if to any one. More, till after the Union of 1603, and the +end of Border raids, Gilbert Elliot, a cousin and friend of +Buccleuch, <i>was not the owner of Stobs</i>. The Hon. +George Elliot pointed out this fact in his <i>Border Elliots and +the Family of Minto</i>: Colonel Elliot rightly insists on this +point.</p> +<p>The Scott version is therefore as hopelessly false as the +Elliot version. The Elliot version, with the Buccleuch +incident, is “too absurd to be believed,” and could +not have been written (except in banter of Buccleuch), while men +remembered the customs of the sixteenth century. The Scott +version, again, could not be composed before the tradition arose +that Gilbert Elliot <i>was</i> laird of Stobs before the Union of +the Crowns in 1603. Now that tradition was in full force on +the Border before 1688. We know that (see chapter on +<i>Kinmont Willie</i>, <i>infra</i>), for, in 1688, a man born in +1613, Captain Walter Scott of Satchells, in his <i>Metrical +History of the Honourable Families of the Names of Scott and +Elliot</i>, represents Gilbert Elliot of Stobs as riding with +Buccleuch in the rescue of Kinmont Willie, in 1596. <a +name="citation95a"></a><a href="#footnote95a" +class="citation">[95a]</a> Now Satchells’s own father +rode in that fray, he says, <a name="citation95b"></a><a +href="#footnote95b" class="citation">[95b]</a> and he gives a +minute genealogy of the Elliots of Stobs. <a +name="citation95c"></a><a href="#footnote95c" +class="citation">[95c]</a></p> +<p>Thus the belief that Gilbert Elliot was laird of Stobs by 1596 +was current in the traditions of a man born seventeen years after +1596. <i>The Scott version rests on that tradition</i>, and +is not earlier than the rise of that erroneous belief.</p> +<p>Neither the Scott nor Elliot version is other than +historically false. But the Scott version, if we cut out +the reference to auld Gibby Elliot, offers a conceivable, though +not an actual, course of events. The Elliot version, if we +excise the Buccleuch incident, does not. Cutting out the +Buccleuch incident, Telfer goes all the way from Ettrick to +Liddesdale, seeking help in that remote country, and never thinks +of asking aid from Buccleuch, his neighbour and chief. This +is idiotic. In the Scott version, if we cut out the refusal +of Gilbert Elliot of Stobs, Telfer goes straight to his +brother-in-law, auld Jock Grieve, within four miles of Buccleuch +at Branksome; thence to another friend, William’s Wat, at +Catslockhill (now Branksome-braes), and so to Buccleuch at +Branksome. This is absurd enough. Telfer would have +gone straight to Branksome and Buccleuch, unless he were a poor +shy small farmer, <i>who wanted sponsors</i>, known to +Buccleuch. Jock Grieve and William’s Wat, both of +them retainers and near neighbours of Buccleuch, were such +sponsors. Granting this, the Scott version runs smoothly, +Telfer goes to his sponsors, and with his sponsors to Buccleuch, +and Buccleuch’s men rescue his kye.</p> +<h3>III<br /> +COLONEL ELLIOT’S CHARGE AGAINST SIR WALTER SCOTT</h3> +<p>Colonel Elliot believes generally in the historical character +of the ballad as given in the Elliot version, but “is +inclined to think that” the original poet “never +wrote the stanza” (the stanza with Buccleuch’s +refusal) “at all, and that it has been inserted at some +later period.” <a name="citation97a"></a><a +href="#footnote97a" class="citation">[97a]</a> In that case +Colonel Elliot is “inclined to think” that an Ettrick +farmer, robbed by the English, never dreamed of going to his +neighbour and potent chief, but went all the way to Martin +Elliot, high up in Liddesdale, to seek redress! Surely few +can share the Colonel’s inclination. Why should a +farmer in Ettrick “choose to lord” a remote Elliot, +when he had the Cock of the Border, the heroic Buccleuch, within +eight miles of his home?</p> +<p>Holding these opinions, Colonel Elliot, with deep +regret—</p> +<blockquote><p>I wat the tear blinded his ee—</p> +</blockquote> +<p>accuses Sir Walter Scott of having taken the Elliot +version—till then the only version—and of having +altered stanzas vii.–xi. (in which Jamie goes to Branksome, +and is refused succour) into his own stanzas vii.–xi., in +which Jamie goes to Stobs and is refused succour. This evil +thing Scott did, thinks Colonel Elliot. Scott had no copy, +he thinks, of the ballad except an Elliot copy, which he +deliberately perverted.</p> +<p>We must look into the facts of the case. I know no older +published copy of the ballad than that of Scott, in <i>Border +Minstrelsy</i>, vol. i. p. 91 <i>et seqq.</i> (1802). +Professor Child quotes a letter from the Ettrick shepherd to +Scott of “June 30, 1802” thus: “I am surprised +to find that the songs in your collection differ so widely from +my mother’s; <i>Jamie Telfer</i> differs in many +particulars.” <a name="citation98a"></a><a +href="#footnote98a" class="citation">[98a]</a> (This is an +incomplete quotation. I give the MS. version later.)</p> +<p>Scott himself, before Hogg wrote thus, had said, in the +prefatory note to his <i>Jamie Telfer</i>: “There is +another ballad, under the same title as the following, in which +nearly the same incidents are narrated, with little difference, +except that the honour of rescuing the cattle is attributed to +the Liddesdale Elliots, headed by a chief there called Martin +Elliot of the Preakin Tower, whose son, Simm, is said to have +fallen in the action. It is very possible that both the +Teviotdale Scotts and the Elliots were engaged in the affair, and +that each claimed the honour of the victory.”</p> +<p>Old Mrs. Hogg’s version, “differing in many +particulars” from Scott’s, must have been the Elliot +version, published by Professor Child, as “A*,” +“Jamie Telfer <i>in</i>” (not +“<i>of</i>”) “the Fair Dodhead,” +“from a MS. written about the beginning of the nineteenth +century, and now in the possession of Mr. William Macmath”; +it had previously belonged to Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe. <a +name="citation98b"></a><a href="#footnote98b" +class="citation">[98b]</a></p> +<p>There is one great point of difference between the two +forms. In Sir Walter’s variant, verse 26 summons the +Scotts of Teviotdale, including Wat of Harden. In his 28 +the Scotts ride with the slogan “Rise for Branksome +readily.” Scott’s verses 34, 36, and the two +first lines of 38, are, if there be such a thing as internal +evidence, from his own pen. Such lines as</p> +<blockquote><p>The Dinlay snaw was ne’er mair white<br /> +Nor the lyart locks o’ Harden’s hair</p> +</blockquote> +<p>are cryingly modern and “Scottesque.”</p> +<p>That Sir Walter knew the other version, as in Mr. +Macmath’s MS. of the early nineteenth century, is certain; +he describes that version in his preface. That he effected +the whole transposition of Scotts for Elliots is Colonel +Elliot’s opinion. <a name="citation99a"></a><a +href="#footnote99a" class="citation">[99a]</a></p> +<p>If Scott did, I am not the man to defend his conduct; I regret +and condemn it; and shall try to prove that he found the matter +in his copy. I shall first prove, beyond possibility of +doubt, that the ballad is, from end to end, utterly unhistorical, +though based on certain real incidents of 1596–97. I +shall next show that the Elliot version is probably later than +the Scott version. Finally, I shall make it certain (or so +it seems to me) that Scott worked on an old copy which was +<i>not</i> the copy that belonged to Kirkpatrick Sharpe, but +contained points of difference, <i>not</i> those inserted by Sir +Walter Scott about “Dinlay snaw,” and so forth.</p> +<h3>IV<br /> +WHO WAS THE FARMER IN THE DODHEAD IN 1580–1609?</h3> +<p>Colonel Elliot has made no attempt to prove that one Telfer +was tenant of the Dodhead in 1580–1603, which must, we +shall see, include the years in which the alleged incidents +occur. On this question—was there a Telfer in the +Dodhead in 1580–1603?—I consulted my friend, Mr. T. +Craig Brown, author of an excellent <i>History of +Selkirkshire</i>. In that work (vol. i. p. 356) the author +writes: “Dodhead or Scotsbank; Dodhead was one of the four +stedes of Redefurd in 1455. In 1609 Robert Scot of +Satchells (ancestor of the poet-captain) obtained a Crown charter +of the lands of Dodbank.” For the statement that +Dodhead was one of the three stedes in 1455, Mr. Craig Brown +quotes “The Retoured Extent of 1628,” “an +unimpeachable authority.” For the Crown charter of +1609, we have only to look up “Dodbank” in the +Register of the Great Seal of 1609. The charter is of +November 24, 1609, and gratifies “Robert Scott of +Satscheillis” (father of the Captain Walter Scott who +composed the <i>Metrical History</i> of the Scotts in 1688) with +the lands, which have been occupied by him and his forefathers +“from a time past human memory.” Thus, writes +Mr. Craig Brown to me, “Scott of Satchells was undoubtedly +Scott of <i>Dodhead</i> also in 1609.”</p> +<p>In “The Retoured Extent of 1628,” +“<i>Dodhead</i> or Dodbank” appears as Harden’s +property. Thus in 1628 the place was “Dodhead or +Dodbank,” a farm that had been tenanted by Scotts +“from beyond human memory.” But Mr. Craig Brown +proves from record that one Simpson farmed it in 1510.</p> +<p>So where does Jamie Telfer come in?</p> +<p>The farmers were Scotts, it was to their chief, Buccleuch, +that they went when they needed aid. <a +name="citation101a"></a><a href="#footnote101a" +class="citation">[101a]</a></p> +<p>Thus vanishes the hero of the ballad, <i>Jamie Telfer in the +Fair Dodhead</i>, and thus the ballad is pure fiction from end to +end.</p> +<h3>V<br /> +MORE IMPOSSIBILITIES IN THE BALLAD</h3> +<p>This is only one of the impossibilities in the ballad. +That the Captain of Bewcastle, an English hold, stated in a +letter of the period to be distant three miles from the frontier, +the Liddel water, should seek “to drive a prey” from +the Ettrick, far through the bounds of his neighbours and foes, +Grahams, Armstrongs, Scotts, and Elliots, is a ridiculously +absurd circumstance.</p> +<p>Colonel Elliot attempts to meet this difficulty by his theory +of the route taken by the Captain, which he illustrates by a map. +<a name="citation102a"></a><a href="#footnote102a" +class="citation">[102a]</a> The ballad gives no details +except that the Captain found his first guide “high up in +Hardhaughswire,” which Colonel Elliot cannot +identify. The second guide was “laigh down in +Borthwick water.” If this means on the lower course +of the Borthwick, the Captain was perilously near Branksome Hall +and Harden, and his ride was foolhardy. But “laigh +down,” I think, means merely “on lower ground than +Hardhaughswire.”</p> +<p>The Captain, as soon as he crossed the Ritterford after +leaving Bewcastle, was in hostile and very watchful Armstrong +country. This initial difficulty Colonel Elliot meets by +marking on his map, as Armstrong country, the north bank of the +Liddel down to Kershope burn; and the Captain crosses Liddel +below that burn at Ritterford. Thence he goes north by +west, across Tarras water, up Ewes water, up Mickledale burn, by +Merrylaw and Ramscleugh and so on to Howpasley, which is not on +the lower but the upper Borthwick.</p> +<p>Looking at Colonel Elliot’s chart of the Captain’s +route, all seems easy enough for the Captain. He does not +try to ride into Teviotdale, for which he is making, up the +Liddel water, and thence by the Hermitage tributary on his +left. Colonel Elliot studs that region with names of +Armstrong and Elliot strongholds. He makes the Captain, +crossing Liddel by the Ritterford, bear to his left, through a +space empty of hostile habitations, in his map. This seems +prudent, but the region thus left blank was full of the fiercest +and most warlike of the Armstrong name. That road was +closed to the Captain!</p> +<p>Colonel Elliot has failed to observe this fact, which I go on +to prove, from a memoir addressed in 1583 to Burleigh, by Thomas +Musgrave, the active son of the aged Captain of Bewcastle, Sir +Simon Musgrave. Thomas describes the topography of the +Middle Marches. He says that the Armstrongs hold both banks +of Liddel as far south as “Kershope foot” (the +junction of the Kershope with the Liddel), and hold the north +side of the Liddel as far as its junction with the Esk. <a +name="citation103a"></a><a href="#footnote103a" +class="citation">[103a]</a> Thus on crossing Liddel by the +Ritterford, the Captain had at once to pass through the hostile +Armstrongs. Thereby also were Grahams with whom the +Musgraves of Bewcastle were in deadly feud. Farther down +Esk, west of Esk, dwelt Kinmont Willie, an Armstrong, “at a +place called Morton.” If he did pass so far through +Armstrongs, the Captain met them again, farther north, on Tarras +side, where Runyen Armstrong lived at Thornythaite. Near +him was Armstrong of Hollhouse, Musgrave’s great +enemy. North of Tarras the Captain rode through Ewesdale; +there he had to deal with three hundred Armstrong men of the +spear. <a name="citation104a"></a><a href="#footnote104a" +class="citation">[104a]</a> When he reached Ramscleuch +(which he never could have done), the Colonel’s map makes +the Captain ride past Ramscleuch, then farmed by the Grieves, +retainers of Buccleuch, who would warn Branksome. When the +Captain reached Howpasley on Borthwick water, he would be +observed by the men of Scott of Howpasley, the Grieves, who could +send a rider some six miles to warn Branksome.</p> +<p>We get the same information as to the perils of the +Captain’s path from the places marked on Blaeu’s map +of 1600–54. There are Hollhouse and Thornythaite, +Armstrong towers, and the active John Armstrong of Langholm can +come at a summons.</p> +<p>It seems to be a great error to suppose that the route chosen +for the Captain by Colonel Elliot could lead him into anything +better than a death-trap. I must insist that it would have +been madness for a Captain of Bewcastle to ride far through +Armstrong country, deep into Buccleuch’s country, and +return on another line through Scott, and near Elliot, and +through Armstrong country—and all for no purpose but to +steal ten cows in remote Selkirkshire!</p> +<p>Here I may save the reader trouble, by omitting a great mass +of detail as to the deplorable condition of Bewcastle itself in +1580–96. Sir Simon, the Captain, declares himself old +and weary. The hold is “utterly decayed,” the +riders are only thirty-seven men fairly equipped. Soldiers +are asked for, sometimes fifty are sent from the garrison of +Berwick, then they are withdrawn. Bewcastle is forayed +almost daily; “March Bills” minutely describe the +cattle, horses, and personal property taken from the Captain and +the people by the Armstrongs and Elliots.</p> +<p>Once, in 1582, Thomas Musgrave slew Arthur Graham, a near +neighbour, and took one hundred and sixty kye, but this only +caused such a feud that the Musgraves could not stir safely from +home. From 1586 onwards, Thomas Musgrave, officially or +unofficially, was acting Captain of Bewcastle. He had no +strength to justify him in raiding to remote Ettrick, through +enemies who penned him in at Bewcastle.</p> +<p>I look on Musgrave as the Captain whose existence is known to +the ballad-maker, and I find the origin of the tale of his defeat +and capture in the ballad, in a distorted memory of his actual +capture.</p> +<p>On 3rd July 1596, Thomas (having got Scrope’s +permission, without which he dared not cross the Border on +affairs of war) attempted a retaliatory raid on Armstrongs within +seven miles of the Border, the Armstrongs of Hollace, or +Hollhouse. “He found only empty houses;” he +“sought a prey” in vain; he let his men straggle, and +returning homeward, with some fifteen companions, he was ambushed +by the Armstrongs near Bewcastle, was refused shelter by a +Graham, was taken prisoner, and was sent to Buccleuch at +Branksome. On 15th July he came home under a bond of +£200 for ransom. <a name="citation106a"></a><a +href="#footnote106a" class="citation">[106a]</a> As every +one did, in his circumstances, the Captain made out his Bill for +Damages. It was indented on 28th April 1597. We learn +that John (Armstrong) of Langholm, Will of Kinmont (not +Liddesdale men), and others, who took him, are in the +Captain’s debt for “24 horses and mares, himself +prisoner, and ransomed to £200, and 16 other prisoners, and +slaughter.” The charges are admitted by the accused; +the Captain is to get £400. <a name="citation106b"></a><a +href="#footnote106b" class="citation">[106b]</a></p> +<p>In my opinion this capture of the Captain of Bewcastle and +others, poetically handled, is, with other incidents, the basis +of the ballad. Colonel Elliot says that the incident +“is no proof that a Captain of Bewcastle was not also taken +or killed at some other place or at some other time.” +But <i>what</i> Captain, and when? Sir Simon, in 1586, had +been Captain, he says, for thirty years. Thenceforth till +near the Union of the Crowns, Thomas was Captain, or acting +Captain.</p> +<p>So considerable an event as the taking of a Captain of +Bewcastle, who, in the ballad, was shot through the head and +elsewhere, could not escape record in dispatches, and the +periodical “March Bills,” or statements of wrongs to +be redressed. Colonel Elliot’s reply takes the shape +of the argument that the ballad may speak of some other Captain, +at some other time; and that, in one way or another, the +sufferings and losses of <i>that</i> Captain may have escaped +mention in the English dispatches from the Border. These +dispatches are full of minute details, down to the theft of a +single mare. I am content to let historians familiar with +the dispatches decide as to whether the Captain’s mad ride +into Ettrick, with his dangerous wounds, loss of property, and +loss of seventeen men killed and wounded (as in the ballad), +could escape mention.</p> +<p>The capture of Thomas Musgrave, I think, and two other +incidents,—confused in course of tradition, and handled by +the poet with poetic freedom,—are the materials of <i>Jamie +Telfer</i>. One of the other incidents is of April 1597. <a +name="citation107a"></a><a href="#footnote107a" +class="citation">[107a]</a> Here Buccleuch in person, on +the Sabbath, burned twenty houses in Tynedale, and “slew +fourteen men who had been in Scotland and brought away their +booty.” Here we have Buccleuch “on the hot +trod,” pursuing English reivers, recovering the spoils +probably, and slaying as many of the raiders as the Captain lost, +in the ballad. Again, not a <i>son</i> of Elliot of +Preakinhaugh (as I had erroneously said), but a <i>nephew</i> +named Martin, was slain in a Tynedale raid into Liddesdale. <a +name="citation108a"></a><a href="#footnote108a" +class="citation">[108a]</a> Soldiers aided the English +raiders. A confused memory of this death of Elliot’s +nephew in 1597 may be the source of the story of the death of his +son, Simmy, in the ballad.</p> +<p>Our traditional ballads all arise out of some germs of +history, all handle the facts romantically, and all appear to +have been composed, in their extant shapes, at a considerable +time after the events. I may cite <i>Mary Hamilton</i>; +<i>The Laird of Logie</i> is another case in point; there are +many others.</p> +<p>Colonel Elliot does not agree with me. So be it.</p> +<p>Colonel Elliot writes that,—in place of my saying that +<i>Jamie Telfer</i> “is a mere mythical perversion of +carefully recorded facts,”—“it would surely be +more correct to say that it is a fairly true, though jumbled, +account of actual incidents, separated from each other by only +short periods of time . . . ” <a name="citation108b"></a><a +href="#footnote108b" class="citation">[108b]</a> If he +means, or thinks that I mean, that the actual facts were the +capture of Musgrave near Bewcastle in 1596 by the Armstrongs, +with Buccleuch’s hot-trod, and Martin Elliot’s +slaying in 1597, I entirely agree with him that the facts are +“jumbled.” But as to the opinion that the +ballad is “fairly true” about the raid to Ettrick +(the Captain could not ride a mile beyond the Border without the +Warden’s permission), about the non-existent Jamie Telfer, +about the shooting, taking, and plundering of the Captain, about +his loss of seventeen men wounded and slain (he lost about as +many prisoners),—I have given reasons for my disbelief.</p> +<h3>VI<br /> +IS THE SCOTT VERSION, WITH ELLIOTS AND SCOTTS TRANSPOSED, THE +LATER VERSION?</h3> +<p>We now come to the important question, Is the Scott version of +the ballad (apart from Sir Walter’s decorative stanzas) +necessarily <i>later</i> than the Elliot version in +Sharpe’s copy? The chief argument for the lateness of +the Scott version, the presence of a Gilbert Elliot of Stobs at a +date when this gentleman had not yet acquired Stobs, I have +already treated. If the ballad is no earlier than the date +when Elliot was believed (as by Satchells) to have obtained Stobs +before 1596, the argument falls to the ground.</p> +<p>Starting from that point, and granting that a minstrel fond of +the Scotts wants to banter the Elliots, he may make Telfer ask +aid at Stobs. After that, which version is better in its +topography? Bidden by Stobs to seek Buccleuch, Telfer runs +to Teviot, to Coultartcleugh, some four miles above +Branksome. Branksome was nearer, but Telfer was shy, let us +say, and did not know Buccleuch; while at Coultartcleugh, Jock +Grieve was his brother-in-law. Jock gives him a mount, and +takes him to “Catslockhill.”</p> +<p>Now, no Catslockhill is known anywhere, to me or to Colonel +Elliot. Mr. Henderson, in a note to the ballad, <a +name="citation110a"></a><a href="#footnote110a" +class="citation">[110a]</a> speaks of “Catslack in +Branxholm,” and cites the <i>Register of the Privy Seal</i> +for 4th June 1554, and the <i>Register of the Privy Council</i> +for 14th October 1592. The records are full of <i>that</i> +Catslack, but it is not in Branksome. Blaeu’s map +(1600–54) gives it, with its appurtenances, on the north +side of St. Mary’s Loch. There is a Catslack on the +north side of Yarrow, near Ladhope, on the southern side. +Neither Catslack is the Catslockhill of the Scott ballad. +But on evidence, “and it is good evidence,” says +Colonel Elliot, <a name="citation110b"></a><a +href="#footnote110b" class="citation">[110b]</a> I prove that, in +1802, a place called “Catlochill” existed between +Coultartcleugh and Branksome. The place (Mrs. Grieve, +Branksome Park, informs me) is now called Branksome-braes. +On his copy of <i>The Minstrelsy</i> of 1802, Mr. Grieve, then +tenant of Branksome Park, made a marginal note. Catlochill +was still known to him; it was in a commanding site, and had been +strengthened by the art of man. His note I have seen and +read.</p> +<p>Thus, on good evidence, there was a Catlochill, or +Catlockhill, between Coultartcleugh and Branksome. The +Scott version is right in its topography.</p> +<p>This fact was unknown to Colonel Elliot. Not knowing a +Catslackhill or Catslockhill in Teviot, he made Scott’s +Telfer go to an apocryphal Catlockhill in Liddesdale. +Professor Veitch had said that the Catslockhill of the ballad +“<i>is to be sought</i>” in some locality between +Coultartcleugh and Branxholm. Colonel Elliot calls this +“a really preposterously cool suggestion.” <a +name="citation111a"></a><a href="#footnote111a" +class="citation">[111a]</a> Why “really +preposterously cool”? Being sought, the place is +found where it had always been. Jamie Telfer found it, and +in it his friend “William’s Wat,” who took him +to the laird of Buccleuch at Branksome.</p> +<p>In the Elliot version, when refused aid by Buccleuch, Jamie +ran to Coultartcleugh,—as in Scott’s,—on his +way to Martin Elliot at Preakinhaugh on the Liddel. Jamie +next “takes the fray” to “the +Catlockhill,” and is there remounted by +“Martin’s Hab,” an Elliot (not by +William’s Wat), and <i>they</i> “take the fray” +to Martin Elliot at Preakinhaugh in Liddesdale. This is +very well, but where <i>is</i> this “Catlockhill” in +Liddesdale? Is it even a real place?</p> +<p>Colonel Elliot has found no such place; nor can I find it in +the <i>Registrum Magni Sigilli</i>, nor in Blaeu’s map of +1600–54.</p> +<p>Colonel Elliot’s argument has been that the Elliot +version, the version of the Sharpe MS., is the earlier, for, +among other reasons, its topography is correct. <a +name="citation112a"></a><a href="#footnote112a" +class="citation">[112a]</a> It makes Telfer run from +Dodhead to Branksome for aid, because that was the comparatively +near residence of the powerful Buccleuch. Told by Buccleuch +to seek aid from Martin Elliot in Liddesdale, Telfer does +so. He runs up Teviot four miles to his brother-in-law, +Jock Grieve, who mounts him. He then rides off at a right +angle, from Teviot to Catlockhill, says the Elliot ballad, where +he is rehorsed by Martin’s Hab. The pair then take +the fray to Martin Elliot at Preakinhaugh on Liddel water, and +Martin summons and leads the pursuers of the Captain.</p> +<p>This, to Colonel Elliot’s mind, is all plain sailing, +all is feasible and natural. And so it <i>is</i> feasible +and natural, if Colonel Elliot can find a Catlockhill anywhere +between Coultartcleugh and Preakinhaugh. On that line, in +Mr. Veitch’s words, Catlockhill “is to be +sought.” But just as Mr. Veitch could find no +Catslockhill between Coultartcleugh and Branksome, so Colonel +Elliot can find no Catlockhill between Coultartcleugh and +Preakinhaugh. He tells us <a name="citation112b"></a><a +href="#footnote112b" class="citation">[112b]</a> indeed of +“Catlockhill on Hermitage water.” But there is +no such place known! Colonel Elliot’s method is to +take a place which, he says, is given as “Catlie” +Hill, “between Dinlay burn and Hermitage water, on +Blaeu’s map of 1654.” We may murmur that Catlie +Hill is one thing and Catlock another, but Colonel Elliot points +out that “lock” means “the meeting of +waters,” and that Catlie Hill is near the meeting of Dinlay +burn and the Hermitage water. But then why does Blaeu call +it, not Catlockhill, nor Catlie hill, nor “Catlie” +even, but “<i>Gatlie</i>,” for so it is distinctly +printed on my copy of the map? Really we cannot take a +place called “Gatlie Hill” and pronounce that we have +found “Catlockhill”! Would Colonel Elliot have +permitted Mr. Veitch—if Mr. Veitch had found “Gatlie +Hill” near Branksome, in Blaeu—to aver that he had +found Catslockhill near Branksome?</p> +<p>Thus, till Colonel Elliot produces on good evidence a +Catlockhill between Coultartcleugh and Preakinhaugh, the +topography of the Elliot ballad, of the Sharpe copy of the +ballad, is nowhere, for neither Catliehill nor Gatliehill is +Catlockhill. That does not look as if the Elliot were older +than the Scott version. (There was a Sim <i>Armstrong</i> +of the <i>Cathill</i>, slain by a Ridley of Hartswell in 1597. <a +name="citation113a"></a><a href="#footnote113a" +class="citation">[113a]</a>)</p> +<p>We now take the Scott version where Telfer has arrived at +Branksome. Scott’s stanza xxv. is Sharpe’s +xxiv. In Scott, Buccleuch; in Sharpe, Martin Elliot bids +his men “warn the waterside” (Sharpe), “warn +the water braid and wide” (Scott). Scott’s +stanza xxvi. is probably his own, or may be, for he bids them +warn Wat o’ Harden, Borthwick water, and the Teviot Scotts, +and Gilmanscleuch—which is remote. Then, in xxvii., +Buccleuch says—</p> +<blockquote><p>Ride by the gate of Priesthaughswire,<br /> + And warn the Currors o’ the Lee,<br /> +As ye come down the Hermitage slack<br /> + Warn doughty Wiliie o’ Gorrinberry.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>All this is plain sailing, by the pass of Priesthaughswire the +Scotts will ride from Teviot into Hermitage water, and, near the +Slack, they will pass Gorrinberry, will call Will, and gallop +down Hermitage water to the Liddel, where they will nick the +returning Captain at the Ritterford.</p> +<p>The Sharpe version makes Martin order the warning of the +waterside (xxiv.), and then Martin says (xxv.)—</p> +<blockquote><p>When ye come in at the Hermitage Slack,<br /> +Warn doughty Will o’ Gorranherry.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Colonel Elliot <a name="citation114a"></a><a +href="#footnote114a" class="citation">[114a]</a> supposes Martin +(if I follow his meaning) to send Simmy with his command, <i>back +over all the course that Telfer and Martin’s Hab have +already ridden</i>: back past Shaws, near Braidley (a house of +Martin’s), past “Catlockhill,” to Gorranberry, +to “warn the waterside.” But surely Telfer, who +passed Gorranberry gates, and with Hab passed the other places, +had “taken the fray,” and warned the water quite +sufficiently already. If this be granted, the Sharpe +version is taking from the Scott version the stanza, so natural +there, about the Hermitage Slack and Gorranberry. But +Colonel Elliot infers, from stanzas xxvi., xxx., xxxi., that +Simmy has warned the water as far as Gorranberry (<i>again</i>), +has come in touch with the Captain, “between the Frostily +and the Ritterford,” and that this is “consistent +only with his having moved up the Hermitage water.”</p> +<p>Meanwhile Martin, he thinks, rode with his men down Liddel +water. But here we get into a maze of topographical +conjecture, including the hypothesis that perhaps the Liddel came +down in flood, and caused the English to make for Kershope ford +instead of Ritterford, and here they were met by Martin’s +men on the Hermitage line of advance. I cannot find this +elegant combined movement in the ballad; all this seems to me +hypothesis upon hypothesis, even granting that Martin sent Simmy +back up Hermitage that he might thence cut sooner across the +enemy’s path. Colonel Elliot himself writes: +“It is certain that after the news of the raid reached +Catlockhill” (<i>and</i> Gorranberry, Telfer passed it), +“it must have spread rapidly through Hermitage water, and +it is most unlikely for the men of this district to have delayed +taking action until they received instructions from their +chief.” <a name="citation115"></a><a href="#footnote115" +class="citation">[115]</a></p> +<p>That is exactly what I say; but Martin says, “When ye +come in at the Hermitage Slack, warn doughty Will o’ +Gorranberry.” Why go to warn him, when, as Colonel +Elliot says, the news is running through Hermitage water, and the +men are most probably acting on it,—as they certainly would +do?</p> +<p>Martin’s orders, in Sharpe xxv., are taken, I think, +from Buccleuch’s, in Scott’s xxvii.</p> +<p>The point is that Martin had no need to warn men so far away +as Gorranberry,—they were roused already. Yet he +orders them to be warned, and about a combined movement of Martin +and Simmy on different lines the ballad says not a word. +All this is inference merely, inference not from historical +facts, but from what may be guessed to have been in the mind of +the poet.</p> +<p>Thus the Elliot or Sharpe version has topography that will not +hold water, while the Scott topography does hold water; and the +Elliot song seems to borrow the lines on the Hermitage Slack and +Gorranberry from a form of the Scott version. This being +the case, the original version on which Scott worked is earlier +than the Elliot version. In the Scott version the rescuers +must come down the Hermitage Slack: in the Elliot they have no +reason for riding <i>back</i> to that place.</p> +<h3>VII<br /> +SCOTT HAD A COPY OF THE BALLAD WHICH WAS NOT THE SHARPE COPY</h3> +<p>Did Scott know no other version than that of the Sharpe +MS.? In Scott’s version, stanza xlix., the last, is +absent from the Elliot version, which concludes triumphantly, +thus—</p> +<blockquote><p>Now on they came to the fair Dodhead,<br /> + They were a welcome sight to see,<br /> +And instead of his ain ten milk-kye<br /> + Jamie Telfer’s gotten thirty and three.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Scott too gives this, but ends with a verse not in +Sharpe—</p> +<blockquote><p>And he has paid the rescue shot<br /> + Baith wi’ goud and white money,<br /> +And at the burial o’ Willie Scott<br /> + I wat was mony a weeping ee.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Did Scott add this? Proof is impossible; but the verse +is so prosaic, and so injurious to the triumphant preceding +verse, that I think Scott found it in his copy: in which case he +had another copy than Sharpe’s.</p> +<p>Scott (stanza xviii.) reads “Catslockhill” where +the Sharpe MS. reads “Catlockhill.” In +Scott’s time it was a mound, but the name was then known to +Mr. Grieve, the tenant of Branksome Park. To-day I cannot +find the mound; is it likely that Scott, before making the +change, sought diligently for the mound and its name? If +so, he found “<i>Catlochill</i>,” for so Mr. Grieve +writes it, not Catslockhill.</p> +<p>Meanwhile Colonel Elliot, we know, has no Catlockhill where he +wants it; he has only Gatliehill, unless his Blaeu varies from my +copy, and Gatliehill is not Catlockhill.</p> +<p>Scott gives (xlviii.) the speech of the Captain after he is +shot through the head and in another dangerous part of his +frame—</p> +<blockquote><p>“Hae back thy kye!” the Captain +said,<br /> + “Dear kye, I trow, to some they be,<br /> +For gin I suld live a hundred years,<br /> + There will ne’er fair lady smile on +me.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>This is not in Sharpe’s MS., and I attribute this +redundant stanza to Scott’s copy. The Captain, +remember, has a shot “through his head,” and another +which must have caused excruciating torture. In these +circumstances would a poet like Scott put in his mouth a speech +which merely reiterates the previous verse? No! But +the verse was in Scott’s copy.</p> +<p>Colonel Elliot has himself noted a more important point than +these: he quotes Scott’s stanza xii., which is absent from +the Sharpe MS.—</p> +<blockquote><p>My hounds may a’ rin masterless,<br /> + My hawks may fly frae tree to tree,<br /> +My lord may grip my vassal lands,<br /> + For there again maun I never be!</p> +</blockquote> +<p>“They are, doubtless, beautiful lines, but their very +beauty jars like a false note. One feels they were written +by another hand, by an artist of a higher stamp than a Border +‘ballad-maker.’ And not only is it their beauty +that jars, but so also does their inapplicability to Jamie Telfer +and to the circumstances in which he found himself—so much +so, indeed, that it may well occur to one that the stanza belongs +to some other ballad, and has accidentally been pitchforked into +this one. It would not have been out of place in the ballad +of <i>The Battle of Otterbourne</i>, and, indeed, it bears some +resemblance to a stanza in that ballad.” Here the +Colonel says that the lines “one feels were written by +another hand, by an artist of a higher stamp than a Border +ballad-maker.” But “it may also occur to one +that the stanza belongs to some other ballad, and has +<i>accidentally</i>” (my italics) “been pitchforked +into this”: a very sound inference.</p> +<p>Now if Scott had only the Sharpe version, he was the last man +to “pitchfork” into it, “accidentally,” a +stanza from “some other ballad,” that stanza being as +Colonel Elliot says “inapplicable” to Telfer and his +circumstances. Poor Jamie, a small tenant-farmer, with ten +cows, and, as far as we learn, not one horse, had no hawks and +hounds; no “vassal lands,” and no reason to say that +at the Dodhead he “maun never be again.” He +could return from his long run! Scott certainly did not +compose these lines; and he could not have pitchforked them into +<i>Jamie Telfer</i>, either by accident or design.</p> +<p>Professor Child remarked on all this: “Stanza xii. is +not only found elsewhere (compare <i>Young Beichan</i>, E vi.), +but could not be more inappropriately brought in than here; +Scott, however, is not responsible for that.” <a +name="citation120a"></a><a href="#footnote120a" +class="citation">[120a]</a></p> +<blockquote><p>The hawk that flies from tree to tree</p> +</blockquote> +<p>is a formula; it comes in the Kinloch MS. copy of the ballad +of <i>Jamie Douglas</i>, date about 1690.</p> +<p>I know no proof that Scott was acquainted with variant E of +<i>Young Beichan</i>. <a name="citation120b"></a><a +href="#footnote120b" class="citation">[120b]</a> If he had +been, he could not have introduced into <i>Jamie Telfer</i> lines +so utterly out of keeping with Telfer’s circumstances, as +Colonel Elliot himself says that stanza xii. is. It may be +argued, “if Scott <i>did</i> find stanza xii. in his copy, +it was in his power to cut it out; he treated his copies as he +pleased.” This is true, but my position is that, of +the two, Scott is more likely to have let the stanza abide where +he found it (as he did with his MS. of <i>Tamlane</i>, retaining +its absurdities) in his copy, than to “pitchfork it +in,” from an obscure variant of <i>Young Beichan</i>, which +we cannot prove that he had ever heard or read. But as we +can never tell that Scott did <i>not</i> know any rhyme, we ask, +why did he “pitchfork in” the stanza, where it was +quite out of place? Child absolves him from this +absurdity.</p> +<p>Thus Scott had before him another than the Sharpe copy; had a +copy containing stanza xii. That copy presented the +perversion—the transposition of Scott’s and +Elliot’s—and into that copy Scott wrote the stanzas +which bear his modern romantic mark. Colonel Elliot, we +saw, is uncertain whether to attribute stanza xii. to +“another hand, an artist of higher stamp than a Border +ballad-maker,” or to regard it as belonging “to some +other ballad,” and as having been “accidentally +pitchforked into this one.” The stanza is, in fact, +an old floating ballad stanza, attracted into the <i>cantefable +of Susie Pye</i>, and the ballad of <i>Young Beichan</i> (E), and +partly into <i>Jamie Douglas</i>. Thus Scott did not +<i>make</i> the stanza, and we cannot suppose that, if he knew +the stanza in any form, he either “accidentally +pitchforked” or wilfully inserted into <i>Jamie Telfer</i> +anything so absurdly inappropriate. The inference is that +Scott worked on another copy, not the Sharpe copy.</p> +<p>If Scott had not a copy other than Sharpe’s, why should +he alter Sharpe’s (vii.)</p> +<blockquote><p>The moon was up and the sun was down,</p> +</blockquote> +<p>into</p> +<blockquote><p>The sun wasna up but the moon was down?</p> +</blockquote> +<p>What did he gain by that? <i>Why did he make Jamie</i> +“<i>of</i>” <i>not</i> “<i>in</i>” <i>the +Dodhead</i>, <i>if he found</i> “<i>in</i>” <i>in his +copy</i>? “In” means “tenant in,” +“of” means “laird of,” as nobody knew +better than Scott. Jamie is evidently no laird, but +“of” was in Scott’s copy.</p> +<p>If the question were about two Greek texts, the learned would +admit that these points in A (Scott) are not derived from B +(Sharpe). Scott’s additions have an obvious motive, +they add picturesqueness to his clan. But the differences +which I have noticed do nothing of that kind. When they +affect the poetry they spoil the poetry, when they do not affect +the poetry they are quite motiveless, whence I conclude that +Scott followed his copy in these cases, and that his copy was not +the Sharpe MS.</p> +<p>If I have satisfied the reader on that point I need not touch +on Colonel Elliot’s long and intricate argument to prove, +or suggest, that Scott had before him no copy of the ballad +except one supposed by the Colonel to have been taken by James +Hogg from his mother’s recitation, while that copy, again, +is supposed to be the Sharpe MS.—all sheer conjecture. <a +name="citation122a"></a><a href="#footnote122a" +class="citation">[122a]</a> Not that I fear to encounter +Colonel Elliot on this ground, but argufying on it is dull, and +apt to be inconclusive.</p> +<p>In the letter of Hogg to Scott (June 30, 1803) as given by Mr. +Douglas in <i>Familiar Letters</i>, Hogg says, “I am +surprised to find that the songs in your collection differ so +widely from my mother’s . . . <i>Jamie Telfer</i> differs +in many particulars.” <a name="citation123a"></a><a +href="#footnote123a" class="citation">[123a]</a> The marks +of omission were all filled up in Hogg’s MS. letter thus: +“Is Mr. Herd’s MS. genuine? I suspect +it.” Then it runs on, “<i>Jamie Telfer</i> +differs in many particulars.”</p> +<p>I owe this information to the kindness of Mr. Macmath. +What does Hogg mean? Does “Is Mr. Herd’s MS. +genuine?” mean all Herd’s MS. copies used by +Scott? Or does it refer to <i>Jamie Telfer</i> in +especial?</p> +<p>Mr. Macmath, who possesses C. K. Sharpe’s MS. copy of +the Elliot version, believes that it is Herd’s hand as +affected by age. Mr. Macmath and I independently reached +the conclusion that by “Mr. Herd’s MS.” Hogg +meant all Herd’s MSS., which Scott quoted in <i>The +Minstrelsy</i> of 1803. Their readings varied from Mrs. +Hogg’s; therefore Hogg misdoubted them. He adds that +<i>Jamie Telfer</i> differs from his mother’s version, +without meaning that, for <i>Jamie</i>, Scott used a Herd MS.</p> +<h3><span class="smcap">Conclusion</span></h3> +<p>I have now proved, I hope, that the ballad of <i>Jamie +Telfer</i> is entirely mythical except for a few suggestions +derived from historical events of 1596–97. I have +shown, and Colonel Elliot agrees, that refusal of aid by +Buccleuch (or by Elliot of Stobs) is impossible, and that the +ballad, if it existed without this incident, must have been a +Scott, and could not be an Elliot ballad. No farmer in +Ettrick would pay protection-money to an Elliot on Liddel, while +he had a Scott at Branksome. I have also disproved the +existence of a <i>Jamie Telfer</i> as farmer at “Dodhead or +Dodbank” in the late sixteenth century.</p> +<p>As to the character of Sir Walter Scott, I have proved, I +hope, that he worked on a copy of the ballad which was not the +Elliot version, or the Sharpe copy; so that this copy may have +represented the Scotts as taking the leading part; while for the +reasons given, it is apparently earlier than the Elliot +version—cannot, at least, be proved to be later—and +is topographically the more correct of the two. I have +given antique examples of the same sort of perversions in +<i>Otterburn</i>. If I am right, Colonel Elliot’s +charge against Scott lacks its base—that Scott knew none +but the Sharpe copy, whence it is inferred that he not only +decorated the song (as is undeniable), but perverted it in a way +far from sportsmanlike.</p> +<p>I may have shaken Colonel Elliot’s belief in the +historicity of the ballad. His suspicions of Scott I cannot +hope to remove, and they are very natural suspicions, due to +Scott’s method of editing ballads and habit of +“giving them a cocked hat and a sword,” as he did to +stories which he heard; and repeated, much improved.</p> +<p>Absolute proof that Scott did, or did not, pervert the ballad, +and turn a false Elliot into a false Scott version, cannot be +obtained unless new documents bearing on the matter are +discovered.</p> +<p>But, I repeat, as may be read in the chapter on <i>The Ballad +of Otterburne</i>, such inversions and perversions of ballads +occurred freely in the sixteenth century, and, in the +seventeenth, the process may have been applied to <i>Jamie +Telfer</i>. <a name="citation125a"></a><a href="#footnote125a" +class="citation">[125a]</a></p> +<h2><a name="page126"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +126</span>KINMONT WILLIE</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">If</span> there be, in <i>The Border +Minstrelsy</i>, a ballad which is still popular, or, at least, is +still not forgotten, it is <i>Kinmont Willie</i>. This hero +was an Armstrong, and one of the most active of that unbridled +clan. He was taken prisoner, contrary to Border law, on a +day of “Warden’s Truce,” by Salkeld of Corby on +the Eden, deputy of Lord Scrope, the English Warden; and, despite +the written remonstrances of Buccleuch, he was shut up in +Carlisle Castle. Diplomacy failing, Buccleuch resorted to +force, and, by a sudden and daring march, he surprised Carlisle +Castle, rescued Willie, and returned to Branksome. The date +of the rescue is 13th April 1596. The dispatches of the +period are full of this event, and of the subsequent +negotiations, with which we are not concerned.</p> +<p>The ballad is worthy of the cool yet romantic gallantry of the +achievement. Kinmont Willie was a ruffian, but he had been +unlawfully seized. This was one of many studied insults +passed by Elizabeth’s officials on Scotland at that time, +when the English Government, leagued with the furious pulpiteers +of the Kirk, and with Francis Stewart, the wild Earl of Bothwell, +was persecuting and personally affronting James VI.</p> +<p>In Buccleuch, the Warden of the March, England insulted the +man who was least likely to pocket a wrong. Without causing +the loss of an English life, Buccleuch repaid the affront, +recovered the prisoner, broke the strong Castle of Carlisle, made +Scrope ridiculous and Elizabeth frantic.</p> +<p>In addition to <i>Kinmont Willie</i> there survive two other +ballads on rescues of prisoners in similar circumstances. +One is <i>Jock o’ the Side</i>, of which there is an +English version in the Percy MSS., <i>John a Side</i>. +Scott’s version, in <i>The Border Minstrelsy</i>, is from +Caw’s <i>Museum</i>, published at Hawick in 1784. +Scott leaves out Caw’s last stanza about a +punch-bowl. There are other variations. Four +Armstrongs break into Newcastle Tower. Jock, heavily +ironed, is carried downstairs on the back of one of them; they +ride a river in spait, where the English dare not follow.</p> +<p><i>Archie o’ Cafield</i>, another rescue, Scott printed +in 1802 from a MS. of Mr. Riddell of Glenriddell, a great +collector, the friend of Burns. He omitted six stanzas, and +“made many editorial improvements, besides Scotticising the +spelling.” In the edition published after his death +(1833) he “has been enabled to add several stanzas from +recitation.” Leyden appears to have collected the +copy whence the additional stanzas came; the MS., at Abbotsford, +is in his hand. In this ballad the Halls, noted +freebooters, rescue Archie o’ Cafield from prison in +Dumfries. As in <i>Jock o’ the Side</i> and +<i>Kinmont Willie</i>, they speak to their friend, asking how he +sleeps; they carry him downstairs, irons and all, and, as in the +two other ballads, they are pursued, cross a flooded river, +banter the English, and then, in a version in the Percy MSS., +“communicated to Percy by Miss Fisher, 1780,” the +English lieutenant says—</p> +<blockquote><p>I think some witch has bore thee, Dicky,<br /> + Or some devil in hell been thy daddy.<br /> +I would not swam that wan water, double-horsed,<br /> + For a’ the gold in Christenty.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Manifestly here was a form of Lord Scrope’s reply to +Buccleuch, in the last stanza of <i>Kinmont Willie</i>—</p> +<blockquote><p>He is either himself a devil frae hell,<br /> + Or else his mother a witch may be,<br /> +I wadna hae ridden that wan water<br /> + For a’ the gowd in Christentie.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Scott writes, in a preface to <i>Archie o’ Cafield</i> +and <i>Jock o’ the Side</i>, that there are, with +<i>Kinmont Willie</i>, three ballads of rescues, “the +incidents in which nearly resemble each other; though the +poetical description is so different, that the editor did not +feel himself at liberty to reject any one of them, as borrowed +from the others. As, however, there are several verses, +which, in recitation, are common to all these three songs, the +editor, to prevent unnecessary and disagreeable repetition, has +used the freedom of appropriating them to that in which they have +the best poetical effect.” <a name="citation129a"></a><a +href="#footnote129a" class="citation">[129a]</a></p> +<p>Consequently the verse quoted from the Percy MS. of <i>Archie +o’ Cafield</i> may be improved and placed in the lips of +Lord Scrope, in <i>Kinmont Willie</i>. But there is no +evidence that Scott ever saw or even heard of this Percy MS., and +probably he got the verse from recitation.</p> +<p>Now the affair of the rescue of Kinmont Willie was much more +important and resonant than the two other rescues, and was +certain to give rise to a ballad, which would contain much the +same formulæ as the other two. The ballad-maker, like +Homer, always uses a formula if he can find one. But +<i>Kinmont Willie</i> is so much superior to the two others, so +epic in its speed and concentration of incidents, that the +question rises, had Scott even fragments of an original ballad of +the Kinmont, “much mangled by reciters,” as he +admits, or did he compose the whole? No MS. copies exist at +Abbotsford. There is only one hint. In a list of +twenty-two ballads, pasted into a commonplace book, eleven are +marked X (as if he had obtained them), and eleven others are +unmarked, as if they were still to seek. Unmarked is +<i>Kinmount Willie</i>.</p> +<p>Did he find it, or did he make it all?</p> +<p>In 1888, in a note to <i>Kinmont Willie</i>, I wrote: +“There is a prose account very like the ballad in Scott of +Satchells’ <i>History of the Name of Scott</i>” +(1688). Satchells’ long-winded story is partly in +unrhymed and unmetrical lines, partly in rhymes of various +metres. The man, born in 1613, was old, had passed his life +as a soldier; certainly could not write, possibly could not +read.</p> +<p>Colonel Elliot “believes that Sir Walter wrote the whole +from beginning to end, and that it is, in fact, a clever and +extremely beautiful paraphrase of Satchells’ rhymes.” +<a name="citation130a"></a><a href="#footnote130a" +class="citation">[130a]</a></p> +<p>This thorough scepticism is not a novelty, as Colonel Elliot +quotes me I had written years ago, “In <i>Kinmont +Willie</i>, Scott has been suspected of making the whole +ballad.” I did not, as the Colonel says, +“mention the names of the sceptics or the grounds of their +suspicions.” “The sceptics,” or one of +them, was myself: I had “suspected” on much the same +grounds as Colonel Elliot’s own, and I shall give my +reasons for adopting a more conservative opinion. One +reason is merely subjective. As a man, by long familiarity +with ancient works of art, Greek gems, for example, acquires a +sense of their authenticity, or the reverse, so he does in the +case of ballads—or thinks he does—but of course this +result of experience is no ground of argument: experts are often +gulled. The ballad varies in many points from +Satchells’, which Colonel Elliot explains thus: “I +think that the cause for the narrative at times diverging from +that recorded by the rhymes (of Satchells), is due, partly to +artistic considerations, partly to the author having wished to +bring it more or less into conformity with history.” <a +name="citation131a"></a><a href="#footnote131a" +class="citation">[131a]</a></p> +<p>Colonel Elliot quotes Scott’s preface to the ballad: +“In many things Satchells agrees with the ballads current +in his time” (1643–88), “from which in all +probability he derived most of his information as to past events, +and from which he occasionally pirates whole verses, as we +noticed in the annotations upon the <i>Raid of the +Reidswire</i>. In the present instance he mentions the +prisoner’s large spurs (alluding to fetters), and some +other little incidents noticed in the ballad, which therefore was +probably well known in his day.”</p> +<p>As Satchells was born in 1613, while the rescue of <i>Kinmont +Willie</i> by Buccleuch, out of Carlisle Castle, was in 1596, and +as Satchells’ father was in that adventure (or so Satchells +says) he probably knew much about the affair from fresh +tradition. Colonel Elliot notices this, and says: +“The probability of Satchells having obtained information +from a hypothetical ballad is really quite an inadmissible +argument.”</p> +<p>This comes near to begging the question. As contemporary +incidents much less striking and famous than the rescue of +<i>Kinmont Willie</i> were certainly recorded in ballads, the +opinion that there was a ballad of <i>Kinmont Willie</i> is a +legitimate hypothesis, which must be tested on its merits. +For example, we shall ask, Does Satchells’ version yield +any traces of ballad sources?</p> +<p>My own opinion has been anticipated by Mr. Frank Miller in his +<i>The Poets of Dumfriesshire</i> (p. 33, 1910), and in +ballad-lore Mr. Miller is well equipped. He says: +“The balance of probability seems to be in favour of the +originality of <i>Kinmont Willie</i>,” rather than of +Satchells (he means, not of our <i>Kinmont Willie</i> as Scott +gives it, but of a ballad concerning the Kinmont). +“Captain Walter Scott’s” (of Satchells) +“<i>True History</i> was certainly gathered out of the +ballads current in his day, as well as out of formal histories, +and his account of the assault on the Castle reads like a +narrative largely due to suggestions from some popular +lay.”</p> +<p>Does Satchells’ version, then, show traces of a memory +of such a lay? Undoubtedly it does.</p> +<p>Satchells’ prolix narrative occasionally drops or rises +into ballad lines, as in the opening about Kinmont +Willie—</p> +<blockquote><p>It fell about the Martinmas<br /> +When kine was in the prime</p> +</blockquote> +<p>that Willie “brought a prey out of +Northumberland.” The old ballad, disregarding dates, +may well have opened with this common formula. Lord Scrope +vowed vengence:—</p> +<blockquote><p>Took Kinmont the self-same night.</p> +<p>If he had had but ten men more,<br /> + That had been as stout as he,<br /> +Lord Scroup had not the Kinmont ta’en<br /> + With all his company.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Scott’s ballad (stanza i.) says that “fause +Sakelde” and Scrope took Willie (as in fact Salkeld of +Corby <i>did</i>), and</p> +<blockquote><p>Had Willie had but twenty men,<br /> + But twenty men as stout as he,<br /> +Fause Sakelde had never the Kinmont ta’en,<br /> + Wi’ eight score in his cumpanie.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Manifestly either Satchells is here “pirating” a +verse of a ballad (as Scott holds) or Scott, if he had <i>no</i> +ballad fragments before him, is “pirating” a verse +from Satchells, as Colonel Elliot must suppose.</p> +<p>In my opinion, Satchells had a memory of a Kinmont ballad +beginning like <i>Jamie Telfer</i>, “It fell about the +Martinmas tyde,” or, like <i>Otterburn</i>, “It fell +about the Lammas tide,” and he opened with this formula, +broke away from it, and came back to the ballad in the stanza, +“If he had had but ten men more,” which differs but +slightly from stanza ii. of Scott’s ballad. That this +is so, and that, later, Satchells is again reminiscent of a +ballad, is no improbable opinion.</p> +<p>In the ballad (iii.–viii.) we learn how Willie is +brought a prisoner across Liddel to Carlisle; we have his +altercation with Lord Scrope, and the arrival of the news at +Branksome, where Buccleuch is at table. Satchells also +gives the altercation. In both versions Willie promises to +“take his leave” of Scrope before he quits the +Castle.</p> +<p>In Scott’s ballad (Scrope speaks) (stanza vi.).</p> +<blockquote><p>Before ye cross my castle yate,<br /> +I trow ye shall take fareweel o’ me.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Willie replies—</p> +<blockquote><p>I never yet lodged in a hostelrie,<br /> +But I paid my lawing before I gaed.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>In Satchells, Lord Scrope says—</p> +<blockquote><p>“Before thou goest away thou must<br /> + Even take thy leave of me?”<br /> +“By the cross of my sword,” says Willie then,<br /> + “I’ll take my leave of thee.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Now, had Scott been pirating Satchells, I think he would have +kept “By the cross of my sword,” which is picturesque +and probable, Willie being no good Presbyterian. In +<i>Otterburne</i>, Scott, <i>altering Hogg’s copy</i>, +makes Douglas swear “By the might of Our Ladye.”</p> +<p>It is a question of opinion; but I do think that if Scott were +merely paraphrasing and pirating Satchells, he could not have +helped putting into his version the Catholic, “‘By +the cross of my sword,’ then Willy said,” as given by +Satchells. To do this was safe, as Scott had said that +Satchells does pirate ballads. On the other hand, +Satchells, composing in black 1688, when Catholicism had been +stamped out on the <i>Scottish Border</i>, was not apt to invent +“By the cross of my sword.” It <i>looks</i> +like Scott’s work, for he, of course, knew how Catholicism +lingered among the spears of Bothwell, himself a Catholic, in +1596. But it is <i>not</i> Scott’s work, it is in +Satchells. In both Satchells and the ballad, news comes to +Buccleuch. Here Satchells again balladises—</p> +<blockquote><p>“It is that way?” Buckcleugh did +say;<br /> + “Lord Scrope must understand<br /> +That he has not only done me wrong<br /> + But my Sovereign, James of Scotland.</p> +<p>“My Sovereign Lord, King of Scotland,<br /> + Thinks not his cousin Queen,<br /> +Will offer to invade his land<br /> + Without leave asked and gi’en.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>I do not see how Satchells could either invent or glean from +tradition the gist of Buccleuch’s diplomatic remonstrances, +first with Salkeld, for Scrope was absent at the time of +Willie’s capture, then with Scrope. Buccleuch, in +fact, wrote that the taking of Willie was “to the touch of +the King,” a stain on his honour, says a contemporary +manuscript. <a name="citation135a"></a><a href="#footnote135a" +class="citation">[135a]</a></p> +<p>In a <i>contemporary</i> ballad, a kind of rhymed news-sheet, +the facts would be known and reported. But at this point +(at Buccleuch’s reception of the news of Kinmont), Scott is +perhaps overmastered by his opportunity, and, I think, himself +composes stanzas ix., x., xi., xii.</p> +<blockquote><p>O is my basnet a widow’s curch?<br /> +Or my lance a wand o’ the willow tree?</p> +</blockquote> +<p>and so on. Child and Mr. Henderson are of the same +opinion; but it is only sense of style that guides us in such a +matter, nor can I give other grounds for supposing that the +original ballad appears again in stanza xiii.</p> +<blockquote><p>O were there war between the lands,<br /> + As well I wot that there is none,<br /> +I would slight Carlisle castle high,<br /> + Tho’ it were built o’ marble stone!</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Thence, I think, the original ballad (doubtless made +“harmonious,” as Hogg put it) ran into stanza xxxi., +where Scott probably introduced the Elliot tune (if it be +ancient)—</p> +<blockquote><p>O wha dare meddle wi’ me?</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Satchells next, through a hundred and forty lines, describes +Buccleuch’s correspondence with Scrope, his counsels with +his clansmen, and gives all their names and estates, with remarks +on their relationships. He thinks himself a historian and a +genealogist. The stuff is partly in prose lines, partly in +rhymed couplets of various lengths. There are two or three +more or less ballad-like stanzas at the beginning, but they are +too bad for any author but Satchells.</p> +<p>Scott’s ballad “cuts” all that, omits even +what Satchells gives—mentions of Harden, and goes on +(xv.)—</p> +<blockquote><p>He has called him forty marchmen bauld,<br /> + I trow they were of his own name.<br /> +Except Sir Gilbert Elliot called<br /> + The Laird of Stubs, I mean the same.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Now I would stake a large sum that Sir Walter never wrote that +“stall-copy” stanza! Colonel Elliot replies +that I have said the ballad-faker should avoid being too +poetical. The ballad-faker <i>should</i> shun being too +poetical, as he would shun kippered sturgeon; but Scott did not +know this, nor did Hogg. We can always track them by their +too decorative, too literary interpolations. On this I lay +much stress.</p> +<p>The ballad next gives (xvi.–xxv.) the spirited stanzas +on the ride to the Border—</p> +<blockquote><p>There were five and five before them a’,<br +/> + Wi’ hunting horns and bugles bright;<br /> +And five and five came wi’ Buccleuch,<br /> + Like Warden’s men arrayed for fight.</p> +<p>And five and five like a mason gang,<br /> + That carried the ladders lang and hie;<br /> +And five and five like broken men,<br /> + And so they reached the Woodhouselee.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>—a house in Scotland, within “a lang mile” +of Netherby, in England, the seat of the Grahams, who were +partial, for private reasons, to the Scottish cause. They +were at deadly feud with Thomas Musgrave, Captain of Bewcastle, +and Willie had married a Graham.</p> +<p>Now in my opinion, up to stanza xxvi., all the evasive answers +given to Salkeld by each gang, till Dicky o’ Dryhope (a +real person) replies with a spear-thrust—</p> +<blockquote><p>“For never a word o’ lear had +he,”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>are not an invention of Scott’s (who knew that Salkeld +was not met and slain), but a fantasy of the original +ballad. Here I have only familiarity with the romantic +perversion of facts that marks all ballads on historical themes +to guide me.</p> +<p>Salkeld is met—</p> +<blockquote><p>“As we crossed the Batable land,<br /> +When to the English side we held.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The ballad does not specify the crossing of Esk, nor say that +Salkeld was on the English side; nor is there any blunder in the +reply of the “mason gang”—</p> +<blockquote><p>“We gang to harry a corbie’s nest,<br +/> +That wons not far frae Woodhouselee.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Whether on English or Scottish soil the masons say not, and +their pretence is derisive, bitterly ironical.</p> +<p>Colonel Elliot makes much of the absence of mention of the +Esk, and says “it is <i>after</i> they are in England that +the false reports are spread.” <a +name="citation139a"></a><a href="#footnote139a" +class="citation">[139a]</a> But the ballad does not say +so—read it! All passes with judicious vagueness.</p> +<blockquote><p>“As we crossed the Batable land,<br /> +When to the English side we held.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Satchells knows that the ladders were made at Woodhouselee; it +took till nightfall to finish them. The ballad, swift and +poetical, takes the ladders for granted—as a matter of +fact, chronicled in the dispatches, the Grahams of Netherby +harboured Buccleuch: Netherby was his base.</p> +<p>“I could nought have done that matter without great +friendship of the Grames of Eske,” wrote Buccleuch, in a +letter which Scrope intercepted. <a name="citation139b"></a><a +href="#footnote139b" class="citation">[139b]</a></p> +<p>In Satchells, Buccleuch leaves half his men at the +“Stonish bank” (Staneshaw bank) “<i>for fear +they had made noise or din</i>.” An old soldier +should have known better, and the ballad (his probable +half-remembered source here) <i>does</i> know better—</p> +<blockquote><p>“And there the laird garr’d leave our +<i>steeds</i>,<br /> + For fear that they should stamp and nie,”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>and alarm the castle garrison. Each man of the post on +the ford would hold two horses, and also keep the ford open for +the retreat of the advanced party. The ballad gives the +probable version; Satchells, when offering as a reason for +leaving half the force, lest they should make “noise or +din,” is maundering. Colonel Elliot does not seem to +perceive this obvious fact, though he does perceive +Buccleuch’s motive for dividing his force, +“presumably with the object of protecting his line of +retreat,” and also to keep the horses out of earshot, as +the ballad says. <a name="citation140a"></a><a +href="#footnote140a" class="citation">[140a]</a></p> +<p>In Satchells the river is “in no great +rage.” In the ballad it is “great and meikle +o’ spait.” And it really was so. The MS. +already cited, which Scott had not seen when he published the +song, says that Buccleuch arrived at the “Stoniebank +beneath Carleile brig, the water being at the tyme, through +raines that had fallen, weill thick.”</p> +<p>In Scott’s <i>original</i> this river, he says, was the +Esk, in Satchells it is the Eden, and Scott says he made this +necessary correction in the ballad. In Satchells the +storming party</p> +<blockquote><p>Broke a sheet of leid on the castle top.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>In the ballad they</p> +<blockquote><p>Cut a hole through a sheet o’ lead.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Both stories are erroneous; the ladders were too short; the +rescuers broke into a postern door. Scrope told this to his +Government on the day after the deed, 14th April. <a +name="citation140b"></a><a href="#footnote140b" +class="citation">[140b]</a></p> +<p>In xxxi. the ballad makes Buccleuch sound trumpets when the +castle-roof was scaled; in fact it was not scaled. The +ladders were too short, and the Scots broke in a postern +door. The Warden’s trumpet blew “O wha dare +meddle wi’ me,” and here, as has been said, I think +Scott is the author. Here Colonel Elliot enters into +learning about “Wha dare meddle wi’ me?” a +“Liddesdale tune,” and in the poem an adaptation, by +Scott, of Satchells’ “the trumpets sounded +‘Come if ye dare.’”</p> +<p>Satchells makes the trumpets sound when the rescuers bring +Kinmont Willie to the castle-top on the ladder (which they did +not), and again when the rescuers reach the ground by the +ladder. They made no use at all of the ladders, which were +too short, and Willie, says the ballad, lay “in the +<i>lower</i> prison.” They came in and went out by a +door; but the trumpets are not apocryphal. They, and the +shortness of the ladders, are mentioned in a MS. quoted by Scott, +and in Birrell’s contemporary <i>Diary</i>, i. p. 57. +In the MS. Buccleuch causes the trumpets to be sounded from +below, by a detachment “in the plain field,” securing +the retreat. His motive is to encourage his party, +“and to terrify both castle and town by imagination of a +greater force.” Buccleuch again “sounds up his +trumpet before taking the river,” in the MS. Colonel Elliot +may claim stanza xxxi. for Scott, and also the tune “Wha +dare meddle wi’ me?” he may even claim here a +suggestion from Satchells’ “Come if ye +dare.” Colonel Elliot says that no tune of this title +ever existed, a thing not easy to prove. <a +name="citation142a"></a><a href="#footnote142a" +class="citation">[142a]</a></p> +<p>In the conclusion, with differences, there are resemblances in +the ballad and Satchells. Colonel Elliot goes into them +very minutely. For example, he says that Kinmont is +“made to ride off; not on horseback, but on Red +Rowan’s back!”</p> +<p>The ballad says not a word to that effect. +Kinmont’s speech about Red Rowan as “a rough +beast” to ride, is made immediately after the stanza,</p> +<blockquote><p>“Then shoulder high, with shout and cry,<br +/> + We bore him down the ladder lang;<br /> +At every stride Red Rowan made,<br /> + I wot the Kinmont’s airns played clang.” +<a name="citation142b"></a><a href="#footnote142b" +class="citation">[142b]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>After this verse Kinmont makes his speech +(xl.–xli.). But if he <i>did</i> ride on Red +Rowan’s back to Staneshaw bank, it was the best thing that +a heavily ironed man could do. In the ballad (xxvii.) no +horses of the party were waiting at the castle, <i>all</i> horses +were left behind at Staneshaw bank (Satchells brings horses, or +at least a horse for Willie, to the castle). On what could +Willie “ride off,” except on Red Rowan? <a +name="citation142c"></a><a href="#footnote142c" +class="citation">[142c]</a></p> +<p>Stanzas xxxv., xxxvi. and xliv. are related, we have seen, to +passages in <i>Jock o’ the Side</i> and <i>Archie o’ +Cafield</i>, but ballads, like Homer, employ the same +formulæ to describe the same circumstances: a note of +archaism, as in Gaelic poetic passages in +<i>Märchen</i>.</p> +<p>I do not pretend always to know how far Scott kept and emended +old stanzas mangled by reciters: there are places in which I am +quite at a loss to tell whether he is “making” or +copying.</p> +<p>I incline to hold that Satchells was occasionally reminiscent +of a ballad for the reasons and traces given, and I think that +Scott when his and Satchells’ versions coincide, did not +borrow direct from Satchells, but that both men had a ballad +source.</p> +<p>That ballad was later than the popular belief, held by +Satchells, that Gilbert Elliot was at the time (1596) laird of +Stobs, which he did not acquire till after the Union (1603), and +that he (the only man not a Scot, says Satchells, wrongly) rode +with Buccleuch. Elliot is not accused of doing so in +Scrope’s dispatches, but he may have come as far as +Staneshaw bank, where half the company were left behind, says +Satchells, with the horses, which were also left, says the +ballad. In that case Elliot would not be observed in or +near the Castle. Yet it may have been known in Scotland +that he was of the party.</p> +<p>He was, as Satchells says, a cousin, he was also a friend of +Buccleuch’s, and he may conceivably have taken a part in +this glorious adventure, though he could not, <i>at the +moment</i>, be called laird of Stobs. Were I an Elliot, +this opinion would be welcome to me! Really, Salkeld was in +a good position to know whether Elliot rode with Buccleuch or +not.</p> +<p>The whole question is not one on which I can speak +dogmatically. A person who suspects Scott intensely may +believe that there were no ballad fragments of Kinmont in his +possession. The person who, like myself, thinks Satchells, +with his “It fell about the Martinmas,” knew a ballad +vaguely, believes that Satchells <i>had</i> some ballad sources +bemuddled in his old memory.</p> +<p>A person who cannot conceive that Scott wrote</p> +<blockquote><p>Except Sir Gilbert Elliot, called<br /> + The laird of Stobs, I mean the same,</p> +</blockquote> +<p>will hold that Scott knew some ballad fragments, <i>disjecta +membra</i>. But I quite agree with Colonel Elliot, that the +ballad, <i>as it stands</i> (with the exception, to my mind, of +some thirty stanzas, themselves emended), “belongs to the +early nineteenth century, not to the early +seventeenth.” The time for supposing the poem, <i>as +it stands</i>, to be “saturated with the folk-spirit” +all through is past; the poem is far too much contaminated by the +genius of Scott itself; like Burns’ transfiguration of +“the folk-spirit” at its best.</p> +<p>Near the beginning of this paper I said, in answer to a +question of Colonel Elliot’s, that I myself was the person +who had suspected Scott of composing the whole of <i>Kinmont +Willie</i>, and I have given my reasons for not remaining +constant to my suspicions. But in a work which Colonel +Elliot quotes, the abridged edition of Child’s great book +by Mrs. Child-Sargent and Professor Kittredge (1905), the learned +professor writes, “<i>Kinmont Willie</i> is under vehement +suspicion of being the work of Sir Walter Scott.” Mr. +Kittredge’s entire passage on the matter is worth +quoting. He first says—“The traditional ballad +appears to be inimitable by any person of literary +cultivation,” “the efforts of poets and +poetasters” end in “invariable failure.”</p> +<p>I do not think that they need end in failure except for one +reason. The poet or poetaster cannot, now, except by flat +lying and laborious forgery of old papers, produce any +documentary evidence to prove the <i>authenticity</i> of his +attempt at imitation. Without documentary evidence of +antiquity, no critic can approach the imitation except in a +spirit of determined scepticism. He knows, certainly, that +the ballad is modern, and, knowing that, he easily finds proofs +of modernism even where they do not really exist. I am +convinced that to imitate a ballad that would, except for the +lack of documentary evidence, beguile the expert, is perfectly +feasible. I even venture to offer examples of my own +manufacture at the close of this volume. I can find nothing +suspicious in them, except the deliberate insertion of +formulæ which occur in genuine ballads. Such +<i>wiederholungen</i> are not reasons for rejection, in my +opinion; but they are <i>suspect</i> with people who do not +understand that they are a natural and necessary feature of +archaic poetry, and this fact Mr. Kittredge does understand.</p> +<p>Mr. Kittredge speaks of Sir Walter’s unique success with +<i>Kinmont Willie</i>; but is Sir Walter successful? Some +of his stanzas I, for one, can hardly accept, even as emended +traditional verses.</p> +<p>Mr. Kittredge writes—“Sir Walter’s success, +however, in a special kind of balladry for which he was better +adapted by nature and habit of mind than for any other, would +only emphasise the universal failure. And it must not be +forgotten that <i>Kinmont Willie</i>, if it be Scott’s +work, is not made out of whole cloth; it is a working over of one +of the best traditional ballads known (<i>Jock o’ the +Side</i>), with the intention of fitting it to an historical +exploit of Buccleuch. Further, the subject itself was of +such a nature that it might well have been celebrated in a +ballad,—indeed, one is tempted to say, it must have been so +celebrated.”</p> +<p>Not a doubt of <i>that</i>!</p> +<p>“And, finally, Sir Walter Scott felt towards ‘the +Kinmont’ and ‘the bold Buccleuch’ precisely as +the moss-trooping author of such a ballad would have felt. +For once, then, the miraculous happened. . . . ” <a +name="citation146a"></a><a href="#footnote146a" +class="citation">[146a]</a> Or did not happen, for the +exception is “solitary though doubtful,” and +“under vehement suspicion.” But Mr. Kittredge +must remember that no known Scottish ballad “is made out of +whole cloth.” All have, in various degrees, the +successive modifications wrought by centuries of oral tradition, +itself, in some cases, modifying a much modified printed +“stall-copy” or “broadside.”</p> +<p>Take <i>Jock o’ the Side</i>. The oldest version +is in the Percy MS. <a name="citation147a"></a><a +href="#footnote147a" class="citation">[147a]</a> As Mr. +Henderson says, “it contains many evident +corruptions,”</p> +<blockquote><p>“Jock on his lively bay, Wat’s on his +white horse behind.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>There is an example of what the original author could not have +written!</p> +<p>We do not know how good <i>Jock</i> was when he left his +poet’s hands; and Scott has not touched him up. We +cannot estimate the original excellence of any traditional poem +by the state in which we find it,</p> +<blockquote><p>Corrupt by every beggar-man,<br /> +And soiled by all ignoble use.</p> +</blockquote> +<h2><a name="page148"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +148</span>CONCLUSIONS</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">We</span> have now examined critically the +four essentially <i>Border</i> ballads which Sir Walter is +suspected of having “edited” in an unrighteous +manner. Now he helps to forge, and issues <i>Auld +Maitland</i>. Now he, or somebody, makes up +<i>Otterburne</i>, “partly of stanzas from Percy’s +<i>Reliques</i>, which have undergone emendations calculated to +disguise the source from which they came, partly of stanzas of +modern fabrication, and partly of a few stanzas and lines from +Herd’s version.” <a name="citation148a"></a><a +href="#footnote148a" class="citation">[148a]</a> Thirdly, +Scott, it is suggested, knew only what I call “the Elliot +version” of <i>Jamie Telfer</i>, perverted that by +transposing the <i>rôles</i> of Buccleuch and Stobs, and +added picturesque stanzas in glorification of his ancestor, Wat +of Harden. Fourthly, he is suspected of “writing the +whole ballad” of <i>Kinmont Willie</i>, “from +beginning to end.”</p> +<p>Of these four charges the first, and most disastrous, we have +absolutely disproved. Scott did not write one verse of the +<i>Auld Maitland</i>; he edited it with unusual scrupulosity, for +he had but one copy, and an almost identical recitation. He +could not “eke and alter” by adding verses from other +texts, as he did in <i>Otterburne</i>.</p> +<p>Secondly, Scott did not make up <i>Otterburne</i> in the way +suggested by his critic. He took Hogg’s MS., and I +have shown minutely what that MS. was, and he edited it in +accordance with his professed principles. He made “a +standard text.” It is only to be regretted that Hogg +did not take down <i>verbatim</i> the words of his two reciters +and narrators, and that Scott did not publish Hogg’s +version, with his letter, in his notes; but that was not his +method, nor the method of his contemporaries.</p> +<p>Thirdly, as to <i>Jamie Telfer</i>, long ago I wrote, +opposite</p> +<blockquote><p>“The lyart locks of Harden’s +hair,”</p> +</blockquote> +<p><i>aut Jacobus aut Diabolus</i>, meaning that either James +Hogg or the devil composed that stanza. I was wrong. +Hogg had nothing to do with it; on internal evidence Scott was +the maker. But that he transposed the Scott and Elliot +<i>rôles</i> is incapable of proof; and I have shown that +such perversions were made in very early times, where national, +not clan prejudices were concerned. I have also shown that +Scott’s version contains matter not in the Elliot version, +matter injurious to the poem, as in one stanza, certainly not +composed by himself, the stanza being an inappropriate stray +formula from other ballads. But, in the absence of +manuscript materials I can only produce presumptions, not +proofs.</p> +<p>Lastly, <i>Kinmont Willie</i>, and Scott’s share in it, +is matter of presumption, not of proof. He had been in +quest of the ballad, as we know from his list of +<i>desiderata</i>; he says that what he got was +“mangled” by reciters, and that, in what he got, one +river was mentioned where topography requires another. He +also admits that, in the three ballads of rescues, he placed +passages where they had most poetical appropriateness. My +arguments to show that Satchells had memory of a Kinmont ballad +will doubtless appeal with more or less success, or with none, to +different students. That an indefinite quantity of the +ballad, and improvements on the rest, are Scott’s, I cannot +doubt, from evidence of style.</p> +<p>“Sir Walter Scott it is impossible to assail, however +much the scholarly conscience may disapprove,” says Mr. +Kittredge. <a name="citation150a"></a><a href="#footnote150a" +class="citation">[150a]</a> Not much is to be taken by +assailing him! “Business first, pleasure +afterwards,” as, according to Sam Weller, Richard III. +said, when he killed Henry VI. before smothering the princes in +the Tower. I proceed to pleasure in the way of presenting +imitations of “the traditional ballad” which +“appears to be inimitable by any person of literary +cultivation,” according to Mr. Kittredge.</p> +<h3><span class="smcap">Imitations of Ballads</span></h3> +<p>The three following ballads are exhibited in connection with +Mr. Kittredge’s opinion that neither poet nor poetaster can +imitate, to-day, the traditional ballad. Of course, not one +of my three could now take in an expert, for he would ask for +documentary evidence of their antiquity. But I doubt if Mr. +Kittredge can find any points in my three imitations which +infallibly betray their modernity.</p> +<p>The first, <i>Simmy o’ Whythaugh</i>, is based on facts +in the Border despatches. Historically the attempt to +escape from York Castle failed; after the prisoners had got out +they were recaptured.</p> +<p>The second ballad, <i>The Young Ruthven</i>, gives the +traditional view of the slaying of the Ruthvens in their own +house in Perth, on 5th August 1600.</p> +<p>The third, <i>The Dead Man’s Dance</i>, combines the +horror of the ballads of <i>Lizzy Wan</i> and <i>The Bonny +Hind</i>, with that of the Romaic ballad, in English, <i>The +Suffolk Miracle</i> (Child, No. 272).</p> +<h4>I—SIMMY O’ WHYTHAUGH</h4> +<p class="poetry">O, will ye hear o’ the Bishop o’ +York,<br /> + O, will ye hear o’ the Armstrongs true,<br /> +How they hae broken the Bishop’s castle,<br /> + And carried himsel’ to the bauld +Buccleuch?</p> +<p class="poetry">They were but four o’ the Lariston +kin,<br /> + They were but four o’ the Armstrong name,<br +/> +Wi’ stout Sim Armstrong to lead the band,<br /> + The Laird o’ Whythaugh, I mean the same.</p> +<p class="poetry">They had done nae man an injury,<br /> + They had na robbed, they had na slain,<br /> +In pledge were they laid for the Border peace,<br /> + In the Bishop’s castle to dree their pain.</p> +<p class="poetry">The Bishop he was a crafty carle,<br /> + He has ta’en their red and their white +monie,<br /> +But the muddy water was a’ their drink,<br /> + And dry was the bread their meat maun be.</p> +<p class="poetry">“Wi’ a ged o’ airn,” +did Simmy say,<br /> + “And ilka man wi’ a horse to ride,<br /> +We aucht wad break the Bishop’s castle,<br /> + And carry himsel’ to the Liddel side.</p> +<p class="poetry">“The banks o’ Whythaugh I sall na +see,<br /> + I never sall look upon wife and bairn;<br /> +I wad pawn my saul for my gude mear, Jean,<br /> + I wad pawn my saul for a ged o’ +airn.”</p> +<p class="poetry">There was ane that brocht them their water and +bread;<br /> + His gude sire, he was a kindly Scot,<br /> +Says “Your errand I’ll rin to the Laird o’ +Cessford,<br /> + If ye’ll swear to pay me the rescue +shot.”</p> +<p class="poetry">Then Simmy has gi’en him his seal and +ring,<br /> + To the Laird o’ Cessford has ridden +he—<br /> +I trow when Sir Robert had heard his word<br /> + The tear it stood in Sir Robert’s +e’e.</p> +<p class="poetry">“And sall they starve him, Simmy o’ +Whythaugh,<br /> + And sall his bed be the rotten strae?<br /> +I trow I’ll spare neither life nor gear,<br /> + Or ever I live to see that day!</p> +<p class="poetry">“Gar bring up my horses,” Sir +Robert he said,<br /> + “I bid ye bring them by three and three,<br /> +And ane by ane at St. George’s close,<br /> + At York gate gather your companie.”</p> +<p class="poetry">Oh, some rade like corn-cadger men,<br /> + And some like merchants o’ linen and hose;<br +/> +They slept by day and they rade by nicht,<br /> + Till they a’ convened at St. George’s +close.</p> +<p class="poetry">Ilka mounted man led a bridded mear,<br /> + I trow they had won on the English way;<br /> +Ilka belted man had a brace o’ swords,<br /> + To help their friends to fend the fray.</p> +<p class="poetry">Then Simmy he heard a hoolet cry<br /> + In the chamber strang wi’ never a licht;<br /> +“That’s a hoolet, I ken,” did Simmy say,<br /> + “And I trow that Teviotdale’s here the +nicht!”</p> +<p class="poetry">They hae grippit a bench was clamped wi’ +steel,<br /> + Wi’ micht and main hae they wrought, they +four,<br /> +They hae burst it free, and rammed wi’ the bench,<br /> + Till they brake a hole in the chamber door.</p> +<p class="poetry">“Lift strae frae the beds,” did +Simmy say;<br /> + To the gallery window Simmy sped,<br /> +He has set his strength to a window bar,<br /> + And bursten it out o’ the binding lead.</p> +<p class="poetry">He has bursten the bolts o’ the Elliot +men,<br /> + Out ower the window the strae cast he,<br /> +For they bid to loup frae the window high,<br /> + And licht on the strae their fa’ would be.</p> +<p class="poetry">To the Bishop’s chamber Simmy ran;<br /> + “Oh, sleep ye saft, my Lord!” says +he;<br /> +“Fu’ weary am I o’ your bread and water,<br /> + Ye’se hae wine and meat when ye dine wi’ +me.”</p> +<p class="poetry">He has lifted the loon across his shoulder;<br +/> + “We maun leave the hoose by the readiest +way!”<br /> +He has cast him doon frae the window high,<br /> + And a’ to hansel the new fa’n strae!</p> +<p class="poetry">Then twa by twa the Elliots louped,<br /> + The Armstrongs louped by twa and twa.<br /> +“I trow, if we licht on the auld fat Bishop,<br /> + That nane the harder will be the +fa’!”</p> +<p class="poetry">They rade by nicht and they slept by day;<br /> + I wot they rade by an unkenned track;<br /> +“The Bishop was licht as a flea,” said Sim,<br /> + “Or ever we cam’ to the Liddel +rack.”</p> +<p class="poetry">Then “Welcome, my Lord,” did Simmy +say,<br /> + “We’ll win to Whythaugh afore we +dine,<br /> +We hae drunk o’ your cauld and ate o’ your dry,<br /> + But ye’ll taste o’ our Liddesdale beef +and wine.”</p> +<h4>II—THE YOUNG RUTHVEN</h4> +<p class="poetry">The King has gi’en the Queen a gift,<br +/> + For her May-day’s propine,<br /> +He’s gi’en her a band o’ the diamond-stane,<br +/> + Set in the siller fine.</p> +<p class="poetry">The Queen she walked in Falkland yaird,<br /> + Beside the hollans green,<br /> +And there she saw the bonniest man<br /> + That ever her eyes had seen.</p> +<p class="poetry">His coat was the Ruthven white and red,<br /> + Sae sound asleep was he<br /> +The Queen she cried on May Beatrix,<br /> + That bonny lad to see.</p> +<p class="poetry">“Oh! wha sleeps here, May Beatnix,<br /> + Without the leave o’ me?”<br /> +“Oh! wha suld it be but my young brother<br /> + Frae Padua ower the sea!</p> +<p class="poetry">“My father was the Earl Gowrie,<br /> + An Earl o’ high degree,<br /> +But they hae slain him by fause treason,<br /> + And gar’d my brothers flee.</p> +<p class="poetry">“At Padua hae they learned their leir<br +/> + In the fields o’ Italie;<br /> +And they hae crossed the saut sea-faem.<br /> + And a’ for love o’ me!”</p> +<p style="text-align: center" class="poetry">* * * *</p> +<p class="poetry">The Queen has cuist her siller band<br /> + About his craig o’ snaw;<br /> +But still he slept and naething kenned,<br /> + Aneth the hollans shaw.</p> +<p class="poetry">The King was walking thro’ the yaird,<br +/> + He saw the siller shine;<br /> +“And wha,” quo’ he, “is this galliard<br +/> + That wears yon gift o’ mine?”</p> +<p class="poetry">The King has gane till the Queen’s ain +bower,<br /> + An angry man that day;<br /> +But bye there cam’ May Beatrix<br /> + And stole the band away.</p> +<p class="poetry">And she’s run in by the little black +yett,<br /> + Straight till the Queen ran she:<br /> +“Oh! tak ye back your siller band,<br /> + On it gar my brother dee!”</p> +<p class="poetry">The Queen has linked her siller band<br /> + About her middle sma’;<br /> +And then she heard her ain gudeman<br /> + Come sounding through the ha’.</p> +<p class="poetry">“Oh! whare,” he cried, “is +the siller band<br /> + I gied ye late yestreen?<br /> +The knops was a’ o’ the diamond-stane,<br /> + Set in the siller sheen.”</p> +<p class="poetry">“Ye hae camped birling at the wine,<br /> + A’ nicht till the day did daw;<br /> +Or ye wad ken your siller band<br /> + About my middle sma’!”</p> +<p class="poetry">The King he stude, the King he glowered,<br /> + Sae hard as a man micht stare:<br /> +“Deil hae me! Like is a richt ill mark,—<br /> + Or I saw it itherwhere!</p> +<p class="poetry">“I saw it round young Ruthven’s +neck<br /> + As he lay sleeping still;<br /> +And, faith, but the wine was wondrous guid,<br /> + Or my wife is wondrous ill!”</p> +<p class="poetry">There was na gane a week, a week,<br /> + A week but barely three;<br /> +The King has hounded John Ramsay out,<br /> + To gar young Ruthven dee!</p> +<p class="poetry">They took him in his brother’s house,<br +/> + Nae sword was in his hand,<br /> +And they hae slain him, young Ruthven,<br /> + The bonniest in the land!</p> +<p class="poetry">And they hae slain his fair brother,<br /> + And laid him on the green,<br /> +And a’ for a band o’ the siller fine<br /> + And a blink o’ the eye o’ the Queen!</p> +<p class="poetry">Oh! had they set him man to man,<br /> + Or even ae man to three,<br /> +There was na a knight o’ the Ramsay bluid<br /> + Had gar’d Earl Gowrie dee!</p> +<h4>III—THE DEAD MAN’S DANCE</h4> +<p class="poetry">“The dance is in the castle ha’,<br +/> + And wha will dance wi’ me?”<br /> +“There’s never a man o’ living men,<br /> + Will dance the nicht wi’ thee!”</p> +<p class="poetry">Then Margaret’s gane within her bower,<br +/> + Put ashes on her hair,<br /> +And ashes on her bonny breast<br /> + And on hen shoulders bare.</p> +<p class="poetry">There cam’ a knock to her bower-door,<br +/> + And blythe she let him in;<br /> +It was her brother frae the wars,<br /> + She lo’ed abune her kin.</p> +<p class="poetry">“Oh, Willie, is the battle won?<br /> + Or are you fled?” said she,<br /> +“This nicht the field was won and lost,<br /> + A’ in a far countrie.</p> +<p class="poetry">“This nicht the field was lost and +won,<br /> + A’ in a far countrie,<br /> +And here am I within your bower,<br /> + For nane will dance with thee.”</p> +<p class="poetry">“Put gold upon your head, Margaret,<br /> + Put gold upon your hair,<br /> +And gold upon your girdle-band,<br /> + And on your breast so fair!”</p> +<p class="poetry">“Nay, nae gold for my breast, Willie,<br +/> + Nay, nae gold for my hair,<br /> +It’s ashes o’ oak and dust o’ earth,<br /> + That you and I maun wear!</p> +<p class="poetry">“I canna dance, I mauna dance,<br /> + I daurna dance with thee.<br /> +To dance atween the quick and the deid,<br /> + Is nae good companie.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center" class="poetry">* * *</p> +<p class="poetry">The fire it took upon her cheek,<br /> + It took upon her chin,<br /> +Nae Mass was sung, nor bells was rung,<br /> + For they twa died in deidly sin.</p> +<h2>FOOTNOTES</h2> +<p><a name="footnote0a"></a><a href="#citation0a" +class="footnote">[0a]</a> Child, part vi. p. 513.</p> +<p><a name="footnote0b"></a><a href="#citation0b" +class="footnote">[0b]</a> Child, part x. p. 294.</p> +<p><a name="footnote1a"></a><a href="#citation1a" +class="footnote">[1a]</a> Hogg to Scott, 30th June 1802, +given later in full.</p> +<p><a name="footnote2a"></a><a href="#citation2a" +class="footnote">[2a]</a> See <i>De Origine</i>, +<i>Moribus</i>, <i>et Rebus Gestis Scotorum</i>, p. 60 +(1578).</p> +<p><a name="footnote4a"></a><a href="#citation4a" +class="footnote">[4a]</a> Lockhart, vol. ii. p. 60 +(1839).</p> +<p><a name="footnote8a"></a><a href="#citation8a" +class="footnote">[8a]</a> Lockhart, vol. ii. pp. +130–135 (1839).</p> +<p><a name="footnote10a"></a><a href="#citation10a" +class="footnote">[10a]</a> <i>Minstrelsy</i>, iii. +186–198.</p> +<p><a name="footnote15a"></a><a href="#citation15a" +class="footnote">[15a]</a> Child, part ix., 187.</p> +<p><a name="footnote17a"></a><a href="#citation17a" +class="footnote">[17a]</a> <i>Further Essays</i>, p. +184.</p> +<p><a name="footnote18a"></a><a href="#citation18a" +class="footnote">[18a]</a> Child, vol. i. p. xxx.</p> +<p><a name="footnote19a"></a><a href="#citation19a" +class="footnote">[19a]</a> <i>Minstrelsy</i>, 2nd edition, +vol iii. (1803).</p> +<p><a name="footnote19b"></a><a href="#citation19b" +class="footnote">[19b]</a> <i>Further Essays</i>, pp. 247, +248.</p> +<p><a name="footnote21a"></a><a href="#citation21a" +class="footnote">[21a]</a> Carruthers, “Abbotsford +Notanda,” in R. Chambers’s <i>Life of Scott</i>, pp. +115–117 (1891).</p> +<p><a name="footnote21b"></a><a href="#citation21b" +class="footnote">[21b]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, <i>p.</i> 118.</p> +<p><a name="footnote23a"></a><a href="#citation23a" +class="footnote">[23a]</a> Carruthers, “Abbotsford +Notanda,” in R. Chambers’s <i>Life of Scott</i>, pp. +115–117 (1891).</p> +<p><a name="footnote23b"></a><a href="#citation23b" +class="footnote">[23b]</a> Lockhart, vol. ii. p. 99.</p> +<p><a name="footnote24a"></a><a href="#citation24a" +class="footnote">[24a]</a> Lockhart, <i>Life of Sir Walter +Scott</i>, <i>Bart.</i>, vol. ii. pp. 99, 100 (1829).</p> +<p><a name="footnote25"></a><a href="#citation25" +class="footnote">[25]</a> Ritson of 10th April 1802, in his +<i>Letters of Joseph Ritson</i>, <i>Esq.</i>, vol. ii. p. +218. Letter of 10th June 1802, <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 207. +Ritson returned the original manuscript of <i>Auld Maitland</i> +on 28th February 1803, <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 230.</p> +<p><a name="footnote26a"></a><a href="#citation26a" +class="footnote">[26a]</a> Carruthers, pp. 128, 131.</p> +<p><a name="footnote30a"></a><a href="#citation30a" +class="footnote">[30a]</a> <i>Sweet William’s +Ghost</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote31a"></a><a href="#citation31a" +class="footnote">[31a]</a> <i>Further Essays</i>, pp. 225, +226.</p> +<p><a name="footnote32a"></a><a href="#citation32a" +class="footnote">[32a]</a> <i>Further Essays</i>, pp. +227–234.</p> +<p><a name="footnote41a"></a><a href="#citation41a" +class="footnote">[41a]</a> <i>Minstrelsy</i>, vol. iii. pp. +307–310 (1833).</p> +<p><a name="footnote41b"></a><a href="#citation41b" +class="footnote">[41b]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, vol. iii. p. +314.</p> +<p><a name="footnote44a"></a><a href="#citation44a" +class="footnote">[44a]</a> <i>Publications of the Modern +Language Association of America</i>, xxi. 4, pp. +804–806.</p> +<p><a name="footnote47a"></a><a href="#citation47a" +class="footnote">[47a]</a> <i>Further Essays</i>, p. +237.</p> +<p><a name="footnote47b"></a><a href="#citation47b" +class="footnote">[47b]</a> Carruthers, p. 128.</p> +<p><a name="footnote47c"></a><a href="#citation47c" +class="footnote">[47c]</a> Lockhart, vol. ii. pp. 67, 70, +71, 72, 74, 75, 79.</p> +<p><a name="footnote48a"></a><a href="#citation48a" +class="footnote">[48a]</a> Craig Brown, <i>History of +Selkirkshire</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote49a"></a><a href="#citation49a" +class="footnote">[49a]</a> Child, part ix. p. 185.</p> +<p><a name="footnote51a"></a><a href="#citation51a" +class="footnote">[51a]</a> Scott to Laidlaw, 21st January +1803; Carruthers, pp. 121, 122.</p> +<p><a name="footnote53a"></a><a href="#citation53a" +class="footnote">[53a]</a> <i>Further Essays</i>, p. +45.</p> +<p><a name="footnote53b"></a><a href="#citation53b" +class="footnote">[53b]</a> Child, part viii. pp. +499–502.</p> +<p><a name="footnote53c"></a><a href="#citation53c" +class="footnote">[53c]</a> <i>Further Essays</i>, p. 10, +where only two references to sources are given.</p> +<p><a name="footnote54a"></a><a href="#citation54a" +class="footnote">[54a]</a> Child, part vi. p. 292.</p> +<p><a name="footnote54b"></a><a href="#citation54b" +class="footnote">[54b]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, part ix. p. +243. Herd, 1776; also C. K. Sharpe’s MS.</p> +<p><a name="footnote59a"></a><a href="#citation59a" +class="footnote">[59a]</a> Bain, <i>Calendar</i>, vol. iv. +pp. 87–93.</p> +<p><a name="footnote62a"></a><a href="#citation62a" +class="footnote">[62a]</a> This is scarcely accurate. +Hogg, in fact, made up one copy, in two parts, from the +recitation of two old persons, as we shall see.</p> +<p><a name="footnote62b"></a><a href="#citation62b" +class="footnote">[62b]</a> <i>Further Essays</i>, pp. +12–27.</p> +<p><a name="footnote63a"></a><a href="#citation63a" +class="footnote">[63a]</a> <i>Further Essays</i>, p. +37.</p> +<p><a name="footnote67a"></a><a href="#citation67a" +class="footnote">[67a]</a> Scott to Laidlaw, Carruthers, p. +129.</p> +<p><a name="footnote69a"></a><a href="#citation69a" +class="footnote">[69a]</a> English version, +xi.–xv.</p> +<p><a name="footnote70a"></a><a href="#citation70a" +class="footnote">[70a]</a> <i>Further Essays</i>, p. +58.</p> +<p><a name="footnote73a"></a><a href="#citation73a" +class="footnote">[73a]</a> <i>Further Essays</i>, p. +31.</p> +<p><a name="footnote75a"></a><a href="#citation75a" +class="footnote">[75a]</a> Godscroft, ed. 1644, p. 100; +Child, part vi. p. 295.</p> +<p><a name="footnote79a"></a><a href="#citation79a" +class="footnote">[79a]</a> <i>The Hunting of the +Cheviot</i>, and Herd’s <i>Otterburn</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote83a"></a><a href="#citation83a" +class="footnote">[83a]</a> Herd, and <i>Complaynte of +Scotland</i>, 1549.</p> +<p><a name="footnote84a"></a><a href="#citation84a" +class="footnote">[84a]</a> Child, part ix. p. 244, stanza +xiii.</p> +<p><a name="footnote84b"></a><a href="#citation84b" +class="footnote">[84b]</a> <i>Further Essays</i>, p. +27.</p> +<p><a name="footnote89"></a><a href="#citation89" +class="footnote">[89]</a> <i>Further Essays on Border +Ballads</i>, p. 184. Andrew Elliot, 1910. To be +quoted as <i>F. E. B. B.</i> The other work on the subject +is Colonel Elliot’s <i>The Trustworthiness of the Border +Ballads</i>. Blackwoods, 1906.</p> +<p><a name="footnote91a"></a><a href="#citation91a" +class="footnote">[91a]</a> <i>F. E. B. B.</i>, <i>p.</i> +199.</p> +<p><a name="footnote91b"></a><a href="#citation91b" +class="footnote">[91b]</a> <i>F. E. B. B.</i>, <i>p.</i> +200.</p> +<p><a name="footnote93a"></a><a href="#citation93a" +class="footnote">[93a]</a> <i>Trustworthiness of the Border +Ballads</i>, p. vi.</p> +<p><a name="footnote95a"></a><a href="#citation95a" +class="footnote">[95a]</a> Satchells, pp. 13, 14. +Edition of 1892.</p> +<p><a name="footnote95b"></a><a href="#citation95b" +class="footnote">[95b]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 14.</p> +<p><a name="footnote95c"></a><a href="#citation95c" +class="footnote">[95c]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, part ii. pp. 35, +36.</p> +<p><a name="footnote97a"></a><a href="#citation97a" +class="footnote">[97a]</a> <i>F. E. B. B.</i>, p. 200.</p> +<p><a name="footnote98a"></a><a href="#citation98a" +class="footnote">[98a]</a> Child, <i>English and Scottish +Popular Ballads</i>, part viii. p. 518. He refers to +“Letters I. No. 44” in MS.</p> +<p><a name="footnote98b"></a><a href="#citation98b" +class="footnote">[98b]</a> See Sargent and +Kittredge’s reduced edition of Child, p. 467, 1905. +They publish this Elliot version only. The version has +modern spelling. On this version and its minor variations +from Scott’s, I say more later; Colonel Elliot gives no +critical examination of the variations which seem to me +essential.</p> +<p><a name="footnote99a"></a><a href="#citation99a" +class="footnote">[99a]</a> <i>F. E. B. B.</i>, p. 184.</p> +<p><a name="footnote101a"></a><a href="#citation101a" +class="footnote">[101a]</a> Robert Scott (the poet +Satchells’s father) “had Southinrigg for his +service” to Buccleuch, says Sir William Fraser, in his +<i>Memoirs of the House of Buccleuch</i>. (See Satchells, +1892, pp. vii., viii.) But the “fathers” of +Satchells “having dilapidate and engaged their Estate by +Cautionary,” poor Satchells was brought up as a cowherd, +till he went to the wars, and never learned to write, or even, it +seems, to read; as he says in the Dedication of his book to Lord +Yester.</p> +<p><a name="footnote102a"></a><a href="#citation102a" +class="footnote">[102a]</a> <i>The Trustworthiness of the +Border Ballads</i>, opp. p. 36.</p> +<p><a name="footnote103a"></a><a href="#citation103a" +class="footnote">[103a]</a> <i>Border Papers</i>, vol. i. +pp. 120–127.</p> +<p><a name="footnote104a"></a><a href="#citation104a" +class="footnote">[104a]</a> <i>Border Papers</i>, vol. i. +p. 106.</p> +<p><a name="footnote106a"></a><a href="#citation106a" +class="footnote">[106a]</a> Scrope, in <i>Border +Papers</i>, vol. ii. pp. 148–152.</p> +<p><a name="footnote106b"></a><a href="#citation106b" +class="footnote">[106b]</a> <i>Border Papers</i>, vol. ii. +p. 307, No. 606.</p> +<p><a name="footnote107a"></a><a href="#citation107a" +class="footnote">[107a]</a> <i>Border Papers</i>, vol. ii. +pp. 299–303</p> +<p><a name="footnote108a"></a><a href="#citation108a" +class="footnote">[108a]</a> <i>Border Papers</i>, vol. ii. +p. 356.</p> +<p><a name="footnote108b"></a><a href="#citation108b" +class="footnote">[108b]</a> <i>F. E. B. B.</i>, p. 161.</p> +<p><a name="footnote110a"></a><a href="#citation110a" +class="footnote">[110a]</a> See his <i>Border +Minstrelsy</i>, vol. ii. p. 15.</p> +<p><a name="footnote110b"></a><a href="#citation110b" +class="footnote">[110b]</a> <i>F. E. B. B.</i>, p. 156.</p> +<p><a name="footnote111a"></a><a href="#citation111a" +class="footnote">[111a]</a> <i>T. B. B.</i>, p. 14.</p> +<p><a name="footnote112a"></a><a href="#citation112a" +class="footnote">[112a]</a> <i>T. B. B.</i>, p. 12.</p> +<p><a name="footnote112b"></a><a href="#citation112b" +class="footnote">[112b]</a> <i>T. B. B.</i>, p. 12.</p> +<p><a name="footnote113a"></a><a href="#citation113a" +class="footnote">[113a]</a> <i>Memoirs of Robert Carey</i>, +p. 98, 1808.</p> +<p><a name="footnote114a"></a><a href="#citation114a" +class="footnote">[114a]</a> <i>T. B. B.</i>, pp. 19, +20.</p> +<p><a name="footnote115"></a><a href="#citation115" +class="footnote">[115]</a> <i>T. B. B.</i>, p. 20.</p> +<p><a name="footnote120a"></a><a href="#citation120a" +class="footnote">[120a]</a> Child, part vii. p. 5.</p> +<p><a name="footnote120b"></a><a href="#citation120b" +class="footnote">[120b]</a> Variant E is a patched-up thing +from five or six MS. sources and a printed “stall +copy.” Jamieson published it in 1817. +Motherwell had heard a <i>cantefable</i>, or version in alternate +prose and verse, which contained the stanza. It is not +identical with stanza xxxii. in Scott’s <i>Jamie +Telfer</i>, but runs thus—</p> +<blockquote><p>My hounds they all go masterless,<br /> +My hawks they fly from tree to tree,<br /> +My younger brother will heir my lands,<br /> +Fair England again I’ll never see.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Child, part ii. p. 454 <i>et seqq.</i> The speaker is +young Beichan, a prisoner in the dungeon of a professor of the +Moslem faith.</p> +<p><a name="footnote122a"></a><a href="#citation122a" +class="footnote">[122a]</a> <i>F. E. B. B.</i>, pp. +179–185.</p> +<p><a name="footnote123a"></a><a href="#citation123a" +class="footnote">[123a]</a> Child, part viii. p. 518.</p> +<p><a name="footnote125a"></a><a href="#citation125a" +class="footnote">[125a]</a> Aytoun, in <i>The Ballads of +Scotland</i> (vol. i. p. 211), says that his copy of <i>Jamie +Telfer</i> “is almost <i>verbatim</i> the same as that +given in the <i>Border Minstrelsy</i>.” He does not +tell us where he got his copy; or why the Captain’s +bride’s speech (Sharpe, stanza xxxvi.) differs from the +version in Scott and Sharpe. He gives the stanza which +comes last in Scott’s copy, and is too bad and enfeebling +to be attributed to Scott’s pen. He omits the stanza +which has strayed in from other ballads,</p> +<blockquote><p>“My hounds may a’ rin +masterless.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>But as Aytoun confessedly rejected such inappropriate stanzas, +he may have found it in his copy and excised it.</p> +<p><a name="footnote129a"></a><a href="#citation129a" +class="footnote">[129a]</a> <i>Minstrelsy</i>, vol. iii. p. +76, 1803.</p> +<p><a name="footnote130a"></a><a href="#citation130a" +class="footnote">[130a]</a> <i>Further Essays</i>, p. +112.</p> +<p><a name="footnote131a"></a><a href="#citation131a" +class="footnote">[131a]</a> <i>Further Essays</i>, p. +112.</p> +<p><a name="footnote135a"></a><a href="#citation135a" +class="footnote">[135a]</a> In <i>Minstrelsy</i>, vol. ii. +p. 35 (1833).</p> +<p><a name="footnote139a"></a><a href="#citation139a" +class="footnote">[139a]</a> <i>Further Essays</i>, p. +124.</p> +<p><a name="footnote139b"></a><a href="#citation139b" +class="footnote">[139b]</a> <i>Border Papers</i>, vol. ii. +p. 367.</p> +<p><a name="footnote140a"></a><a href="#citation140a" +class="footnote">[140a]</a> <i>Further Essays</i>, pp. 123, +124.</p> +<p><a name="footnote140b"></a><a href="#citation140b" +class="footnote">[140b]</a> <i>Border Papers</i>, vol. ii. +p. 121.</p> +<p><a name="footnote142a"></a><a href="#citation142a" +class="footnote">[142a]</a> <i>Further Essays</i>, p. +125.</p> +<p><a name="footnote142b"></a><a href="#citation142b" +class="footnote">[142b]</a> Birrell’s <i>Diary</i> +vouches for the irons.</p> +<p><a name="footnote142c"></a><a href="#citation142c" +class="footnote">[142c]</a> <i>Further Essays</i>, p. +128.</p> +<p><a name="footnote146a"></a><a href="#citation146a" +class="footnote">[146a]</a> Sargent and Kittredge, pp. +xxix., xxx.</p> +<p><a name="footnote147a"></a><a href="#citation147a" +class="footnote">[147a]</a> Hales and Furnivall, ii. pp. +205–207.</p> +<p><a name="footnote148a"></a><a href="#citation148a" +class="footnote">[148a]</a> <i>Further Essays</i>, p. +45.</p> +<p><a name="footnote150a"></a><a href="#citation150a" +class="footnote">[150a]</a> <i>Ballads</i>, p. xxix.</p> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SIR WALTER SCOTT AND THE BORDER +MINSTRELSY***</p> +<pre> + + +***** This file should be named 4088-h.htm or 4088-h.zip****** + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/4/0/8/4088 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. 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Hart +and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.] +[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales +of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or +software or any other related product without express permission.] + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.10/04/01*END* + + + + +SIR WALTER SCOTT AND THE BORDER MINSTRELSY + + + + +Contents: + + Preface + Scott and the Ballads + Auld Maitland + The Ballad of Otterburne + Scott's Traditional Copy and how he edited it + The Mystery of the Ballad of Jamie Telfer + Kinmont Willie + Conclusions + + + +PREFACE + + + +Persons not much interested in, or cognisant of, "antiquarian old +womanries," as Sir Walter called them, may ask "what all the pother +is about," in this little tractate. On my side it is "about" the +veracity of Sir Walter Scott. He has been suspected of helping to +compose, and of issuing as a genuine antique, a ballad, Auld +Maitland. He also wrote about the ballad, as a thing obtained from +recitation, to two friends and fellow-antiquaries. If to Scott's +knowledge it was a modern imitation, Sir Walter deliberately lied. + +He did not: he did obtain the whole ballad from Hogg, who got it +from recitation--as I believe, and try to prove, and as Scott +certainly believed. The facts in the case exist in published works, +and in manuscript letters of Ritson to Scott, and Hogg to Scott, and +in the original MS. of the song, with a note by Hogg to Laidlaw. If +we are interested in the truth about the matter, we ought at least to +read the very accessible material before bringing charges against the +Sheriff and the Shepherd of Ettrick. + +Whether Auld Maitland be a good or a bad ballad is not part of the +question. It was a favourite of mine in childhood, and I agree with +Scott in thinking that it has strong dramatic situations. If it is a +bad ballad, such as many people could compose, then it is not by Sir +Walter. + +The Ballad of Otterburne is said to have been constructed from Herd's +version, tempered by Percy's version, with additions from a modern +imagination. We have merely to read Professor Child's edition of +Otterburne, with Hogg's letter covering his MS. copy of Otterburne +from recitation, to see that this is a wholly erroneous view of the +matter. We have all the materials for forming a judgment accessible +to us in print, and have no excuse for preferring our own +conjectures. + +"No one now believes," it may be said, "in the aged persons who lived +at the head of Ettrick," and recited Otterburne to Hogg. Colonel +Elliot disbelieves, but he shows no signs of having read Hogg's +curious letter, in two parts, about these "old parties"; a letter +written on the day when Hogg, he says, twice "pumped their memories." + +I print this letter, and, if any one chooses to think that it is a +crafty fabrication, I can only say that its craft would have beguiled +myself as it beguiled Scott. + +It is a common, cheap, and ignorant scepticism that disbelieves in +the existence, in Scott's day, or in ours, of persons who know and +can recite variants of our traditional ballads. The strange song of +The Bitter Withy, unknown to Professor Child, was recovered from +recitation but lately, in several English counties. The ignoble lay +of Johnny Johnston has also been recovered: it is widely diffused. +I myself obtained a genuine version of Where Goudie rins, through the +kindness of Lady Mary Glyn; and a friend of Lady Rosalind Northcote +procured the low English version of Young Beichan, or Lord Bateman, +from an old woman in a rural workhouse. In Shropshire my friend Miss +Burne, the president of the Folk-Lore Society, received from Mr. +Hubert Smith, in 1883, a very remarkable variant, undoubtedly +antique, of The Wife of Usher's Well. {0a} In 1896 Miss Backus +found, in the hills of Polk County, North Carolina, another variant, +intermediate between the Shropshire and the ordinary version. {0b} + +There are many other examples of this persistence of ballads in the +popular memory, even in our day, and only persons ignorant of the +facts can suppose that, a century ago, there were no reciters at the +head of Ettrick, and elsewhere in Scotland. Not even now has the +halfpenny newspaper wholly destroyed the memories of traditional +poetry and of traditional tales even in the English-speaking parts of +our islands, while in the Highlands a rich harvest awaits the +reapers. + +I could not have produced the facts, about Auld Maitland especially, +and in some other cases, without the kind and ungrudging aid, freely +given to a stranger, of Mr. William Macmath, whose knowledge of +ballad-lore, and especially of the ballad manuscripts at Abbotsford, +is unrivalled. As to Auld Maitland, Mr. T. F. Henderson, in his +edition of the Minstrelsy (Blackwood, 1892), also made due use of +Hogg's MS., and his edition is most valuable to every student of +Scott's method of editing, being based on the Abbotsford MSS. Mr. +Henderson suspects, more than I do, the veracity of the Shepherd. + +I am under obligations to Colonel Elliot's book, as it has drawn my +attention anew to Auld Maitland, a topic which I had studied +"somewhat lazily," like Quintus Smyrnaeus. I supposed that there was +an inconsistency in two of Scott's accounts as to how he obtained the +ballad. As Colonel Elliot points out, there was no inconsistency. +Scott had two copies. One was Hogg's MS.: the other was derived +from the recitation of Hogg's mother. + +This trifle is addressed to lovers of Scott, of the Border, and of +ballads, et non aultres. + +It is curious to see how facts make havoc of the conjectures of the +Higher Criticism in the case of Auld Maitland. If Hogg was the +forger of that ballad, I asked, how did he know the traditions about +Maitland and his three sons, which we only know from poems of about +1576 in the manuscripts of Sir Richard Maitland? These poems in 1802 +were, as far as I am aware, still unpublished. + +Colonel Elliot urged that Leyden would know the poems, and must have +known Hogg. From Leyden, then, Hogg would get the information. In +the text I have urged that Leyden did not know Hogg. I am able now +to prove that Hogg and Leyden never met till after Laidlaw gave the +manuscript of Auld Maitland to Hogg. + +The fact is given in the original manuscript of Laidlaw's +Recollections of Sir Walter Scott (among the Laing MSS. in the +library of the University of Edinburgh). Carruthers, in publishing +Laidlaw's reminiscences, omitted the following passage. After Scott +had read Auld Maitland aloud to Leyden and Laird Laidlaw, the three +rode together to dine at Whitehope. + +"Near the Craigbents," says Laidlaw, "Mr. Scott and Leyden drew +together in a close and seemingly private conversation. I, of +course, fell back. After a minute or two, Leyden reined in his horse +(a black horse that Mr. Scott's servant used to ride) and let me come +up. 'This Hogg,' said he, 'writes verses, I understand.' I assured +him that he wrote very beautiful verses, and with great facility. +'But I trust,' he replied, 'that there is no fear of his passing off +any of his own upon Scott for old ballads.' I again assured him that +he would never think of such a thing; and neither would he at that +period of his life. + +"'Let him beware of forgery,' cried Leyden with great force and +energy, and in, I suppose, what Mr. Scott used afterwards to call the +SAW TONES OF HIS VOICE." + +This proves that Leyden had no personal knowledge of "this Hogg," and +did not supply the shepherd with the traditions about Auld Maitland. + +Mr. W. J. Kennedy, of Hawick, pointed out to me this passage in +Laidlaw's Recollections, edited from the MS. by Mr. James Sinton, as +reprinted from the Transactions of the Hawick Archaeological Society, +1905. + + + +SCOTT AND THE BALLADS + + + +It was through his collecting and editing of The Border Minstrelsy +that Sir Walter Scott glided from law into literature. The history +of the conception and completion of his task, "a labour of love +truly, if ever such there was," says Lockhart, is well known, but the +tale must be briefly told if we are to understand the following +essays in defence of Scott's literary morality. + +Late in 1799 Scott wrote to James Ballantyne, then a printer in +Kelso, "I have been for years collecting Border ballads," and he +thought that he could put together "such a selection as might make a +neat little volume, to sell for four or five shillings." In December +1799 Scott received the office of Sheriff of Selkirkshire, or, as he +preferred to say, of Ettrick Forest. In the Forest, as was natural, +he found much of his materials. The people at the head of Ettrick +were still, says Hogg, {1a} like many of the Highlanders even now, in +that they cheered the long winter nights with the telling of old +tales; and some aged people still remembered, no doubt in a defective +and corrupted state, many old ballads. Some of these, especially the +ballads of Border raids and rescues, may never even have been written +down by the original authors. The Borderers, says Lesley, Bishop of +Ross, writing in 1578, "take much pleasure in their old music and +chanted songs, which they themselves compose, whether about the deeds +of their ancestors, or about ingenious raiding tricks and +stratagems." {2a} + +The historical ballads about the deeds of their ancestors would be +far more romantic than scientifically accurate. The verses, as they +passed from mouth to mouth and from generation to generation, would +be in a constant state of flux and change. When a man forgot a +verse, he would make something to take its place. A more or less +appropriate stanza from another ballad would slip in; or the reciter +would tell in prose the matter of which he forgot the versified form. + +Again, in the towns, street ballads on remarkable events, as early at +least as the age of Henry VIII., were written or printed. Knox +speaks of ballads on Queen Mary's four Maries. Of these ballads only +one is left, and it is a libel. The hanging of a French apothecary +of the Queen, and a French waiting-maid, for child murder, has been +transferred to one of the Maries, or rather to an apocryphal Mary +Hamilton, with Darnley for her lover. Of this ballad twenty-eight +variants--and extremely various they are--were collected by Professor +Child in his English and Scottish Popular Ballads (ten parts, 1882- +1898). In one mangled form or another such ballads would drift at +last even to Ettrick Forest. + +A ballad may be found in a form which the first author could scarcely +recognise, dozens of hands, in various generations, having been at +work on it. At any period, especially in the seventeenth and +eighteenth centuries, the cheap press might print a sheet of the +ballads, edited and interpolated by the very lowest of printer's +hacks; that copy would circulate, be lost, and become in turn a +traditional source, though full of modernisms. Or an educated person +might make a written copy, filling up gaps himself in late +seventeenth or in eighteenth century ballad style, and this might +pass into the memory of the children and servants of the house, and +so to the herds and to the farm lasses. I suspect that this process +may have occurred in the cases of Auld Maitland and of The Outlaw +Murray--"these two bores" Mr. Child is said to have styled them. + +When Allan Ramsay, about 1720, took up and printed a ballad, he +altered it if he pleased. More faithful to his texts (wherever he +got them), was David Herd, in his collection of 1776, but his version +did not reach, as we shall see, old reciters in Ettrick. If Scott +found any traditional ballads in Ettrick, as his collectors certainly +did, they had passed through the processes described. They needed +re-editing of some sort if they were to be intelligible, and readable +with pleasure. + +In 1800, apparently, while Scott made only brief flying visits from +the little inn of Clovenfords, on Tweed, to his sheriffdom, he found +a coadjutor. Richard Heber, the wealthy and luxurious antiquary and +collector, looked into Constable's first little bookselling shop, and +saw a strange, poor young student prowling among the books. This was +John Leyden, son of a shepherd in Roxburghshire, a lad living in +extreme poverty. + +Leyden, in 1800, was making himself a savant. Heber spoke with him, +found that he was rich in ballad-lore, and carried him to Scott. He +was presently introduced into the best society in Edinburgh (which +would not happen in our time), and a casual note of Scott's proves +that he did not leave Leyden in poverty. Early in 1802, Leyden got +the promise of an East Indian appointment, read medicine furiously, +and sailed for the East in the beginning of 1803. It does not appear +that Leyden went ballad-hunting in Ettrick before he rode thither +with Scott in the spring of 1802. He was busy with books, with +editorial work, and in aiding Scott in Edinburgh. It was he who +insisted that a small volume at five shillings was far too narrow for +the materials collected. + +Scott also corresponded with the aged Percy, Bishop of Dromore, +editor of the Reliques, and with Joseph Ritson, the precise +collector, Percy's bitter foe. Unfortunately the correspondence on +ballads with Ritson, who died in 1803, is but scanty; nor has most of +the correspondence with another student, George Ellis, been +published. Even in Mr. Douglas's edition of Scott's Familiar +Letters, the portion of an important letter of Hogg's which deals +with ballad-lore is omitted. I shall give the letter in full. + +In 1800-01, "The Minstrelsy formed the editor's chief occupation," +says Lockhart; but later, up to April 1801, the Forest and Liddesdale +had yielded little material. In fact, I do not know that Scott ever +procured much in Liddesdale, where he had no Hogg or Laidlaw always +on the spot, and in touch with the old people. It was in spring, +1802, that Scott first met his lifelong friend, William Laidlaw, +farmer in Blackhouse, on Douglasburn, in Yarrow. Laidlaw, as is +later proved completely, introduced Scott to Hogg, then a very +unsophisticated shepherd. "Laidlaw," says Lockhart, "took care that +Scott should see, without delay, James Hogg." {4a} These two men, +Hogg and Laidlaw, knowing the country people well, were Scott's chief +sources of recited balladry; and probably they sometimes improved, in +making their copies, the materials won from the failing memories of +the old. Thus Laidlaw, while tenant in Traquair Knowe, obtained from +recitation, The Daemon Lover. Scott does not tell us whether or not +he knew the fact that Laidlaw wrote in stanza 6 (half of it +traditional), stanza 12 (also a ballad formula), stanzas 17 and 18 +(necessary to complete the sense; the last two lines of 18 are purely +and romantically modern). + +We shall later quote Hogg's account of his own dealings with his raw +materials from recitation. + +In January 1802 Scott published the two first volumes of The +Minstrelsy. Lockhart describes the enthusiasm of dukes, fine ladies, +and antiquarians. In the end of April 1803 the third volume +appeared, including ballads obtained through Hogg and Laidlaw in +spring 1802. Scott, by his store of historic anecdote in his +introductions and notes, by his way of vivifying the past, and by his +method of editing, revived, but did not create, the interest in the +romance of ballad poetry. + +It had always existed. We all know Sidney's words on "The Douglas +and the Percy"; Addison's on folk-poetry; Mr. Pepys' ballad +collection; the ballads in Tom Durfey's and other miscellanies; Allan +Ramsay's Evergreen; Bishop Percy's Reliques of Ancient Poetry; Herd's +ballad volumes of 1776; Evans' collections; Burns' remakings of old +songs; Ritson's publications, and so forth. But the genius of Burns, +while it transfigured many old songs, was not often exercised on old +narrative ballads, and when Scott produced The Minstrelsy, the taste +for ballads was confined to amateurs of early literature, and to +country folk. + +Sir Walter's method of editing, of presenting his traditional +materials, was literary, and, usually, not scientific. A modern +collector would publish things--legends, ballads, or folk-tales-- +exactly as he found them in old broadsides, or in MS. copies, or +received them from oral recitation. He would give the names and +residences and circumstances of the reciters or narrators (Herd, in +1776, gave no such information). He would fill up no gaps with his +own inventions, would add no stanzas of his own, and the circulation +of his work would arrive at some two or three hundred copies given +away! + +As Lockhart says, "Scott's diligent zeal had put him in possession of +a variety of copies in various stages of preservation, and to the +task of selecting a standard text among such a diversity of materials +he brought a knowledge of old manners and phraseology, and a manly +simplicity of taste, such as had never before been united in the +person of a poetical antiquary." + +Lockhart speaks of "The editor's conscientious fidelity . . . which +prevented the introduction of anything new, and his pure taste in the +balancing of discordant recitations." He had already written that +"Scott had, I firmly believe, interpolated hardly a line or even an +epithet of his own." {8a} + +It is clear that Lockhart had not compared the texts in The +Minstrelsy with the mass of manuscript materials which are still at +Abbotsford. These, copied by the accurate Mr. Macmath, have been +published in the monumental collection of English and Scottish +Popular Ballads, in ten parts, by the late Professor Child of +Harvard, the greatest of scholars in ballad-lore. From his book we +often know exactly what kinds of copies of ballads Scott possessed, +and what alterations he made in his copies. The Ballad of Otterburne +is especially instructive, as we shall see later. But of the most +famous of Border historical ballads, Kinmont Willie, and its +companion, Jamie Telfer of the Fair Dodhead, Scott has left no +original manuscript texts. Now into each of these ballads Scott has +written (if internal evidence be worth anything) verses of his own; +stanzas unmistakably marked by his own spirit, energy, sense of +romance, and, occasionally, by a somewhat inflated rhetoric. On this +point doubt is not easy. When he met the names of his chief, +Buccleuch, and of his favourite ancestor, Wat of Warden, Scott did, +in two cases, for those heroes what, by his own confession, he did +for anecdotes that came in his way--he decked them out "with a cocked +hat and a sword." + +Sir Walter knew perfectly well that he was not "playing the game" in +a truly scientific spirit. He explains his ideas in his "Essay on +Popular Poetry" as late as 1830. He mentions Joseph Ritson's +"extreme attachment to the severity of truth," and his attacks on +Bishop Percy's purely literary treatment of the materials of his +Reliques of Ancient Poetry (1765). + +As Scott says, "by Percy words were altered, phrases improved, and +whole verses were inserted or omitted at pleasure." Percy +"accommodated" the ballads "with such emendations as might recommend +them to the modern taste." Ritson cried "forgery," but Percy, says +Scott, had to win a hearing from his age, and confessed (in general +terms) to his additions and decorations. + +Scott then speaks reprovingly of Pinkerton's wholesale fabrication of +ENTIRE BALLADS (1783), a crime acknowledged later by the culprit +(1786). Scott applauds Ritson's accuracy, but regrets his preference +of the worst to the better readings, as if their inferiority was a +security for their being genuine. Scott preferred the best, the most +poetical readings. + +In 1830, Scott also wrote an essay on "Imitations of the Ancient +Ballads," and spoke very leniently of imitations passed off as +authentic. "There is no small degree of cant in the violent +invectives with which impostors of this nature have been assailed." +As to Hardyknute, the favourite poem of his infancy, "the first that +I ever learned and the last that I shall forget," he says, "the +public is surely more enriched by the contribution than injured by +the deception." Besides, he says, the deception almost never +deceives. + +His method in The Minstrelsy, he writes, was "to imitate the plan and +style of Bishop Percy, observing only more strict fidelity concerning +my originals." That is to say, he avowedly made up texts out of a +variety of copies, when he had more copies than one. This is +frequently acknowledged by Scott; what he does not acknowledge is his +own occasional interpolation of stanzas. A good example is The Gay +Gosshawk. He had a MS. of his own "of some antiquity," a MS. of Mrs. +Brown, a famous reciter and collector of the eighteenth century; and +the Abbotsford MSS. show isolated stanzas from Hogg, and a copy from +Will Laidlaw. Mr. T. F. Henderson's notes {10a} display the methods +of selection, combination, emendation, and possible interpolation. + +By these methods Scott composed "a standard text," now the classical +text, of the ballads which he published. Ballad lovers, who are not +specialists, go to The Minstrelsy for their favourite fare, and for +historical elucidation and anecdote. + +Scott often mentions his sources of all kinds, such as MSS. of Herd +and Mrs. Brown; "an old person"; "an old woman at Kirkhill, West +Lothian"; "an ostler at Carlisle"; Allan Ramsay's Tea-Table +Miscellany; Surtees of Mainsforth (these ballads are by Surtees +himself: Scott never suspected him); Caw's Hawick Museum (1774); +Ritson's copies, others from Leyden; the Glenriddell MSS. (collected +by the friend of Burns); on several occasions copies from recitations +procured by James Hogg or Will Laidlaw, and possibly or probably each +of these men emended the copy he obtained; while Scott combined and +emended all in his published text. + +Sometimes Scott gives no source at all, and in these cases research +finds variants in old broadsides, or elsewhere. + +In thirteen cases he gives no source, or "from tradition," which is +the same thing; though "tradition in Ettrick Forest" may sometimes +imply, once certainly does, the intermediary Hogg, or Will Laidlaw. + +We now understand Scott's methods as editor. They are not +scientific; they are literary. We also acknowledge (on internal +evidence) his interpolation of his own stanzas in Kinmont Willie and +Jamie Telfer, where he exalts his chief and ancestor. We cannot do +otherwise (as scholars) than regret and condemn Scott's +interpolations, never confessed. As lovers of poetry we acknowledge +that, without Scott's interpolation, we could have no more of Kinmont +Willie than verses, "much mangled by reciters," as Scott says, of a +ballad perhaps no more poetical than Jock o' the Side. Scott says +that "some conjectural emendations have been absolutely necessary to +render it intelligible." As it is now very intelligible, to say +"conjectural emendations" is a way of saying "interpolations." + +But while thus confessing Scott's sins, I cannot believe that he, +like Pinkerton, palmed off on the world any ballad or ballads of his +own sole manufacture, or any ballad which he knew to be forged. + +The truth is that Scott was easily deceived by a modern imitation, if +he liked the poetry. Surtees hoaxed him not only with Barthram's +Dirge and Anthony Featherstonhaugh, but with a long prose excerpt +from a non-existent manuscript about a phantom knight. Scott made +the plot of Marmion hinge on this myth, in the encounter of Marmion +with Wilfred as the phantasmal cavalier. He tells us that in The +Flowers of the Forest "the manner of the ancient minstrels is so +happily imitated, that it required the most positive evidence to +convince the editor that the song was of modern date." Really the +author was Miss Jane Elliot (1747-1805), daughter of Sir Gilbert +Elliot of Minto. Herd published a made-up copy in 1776. The tune, +Scott says, is old, and he has heard an imperfect verse of the +original ballad - + + +"I ride single on my saddle, +For the flowers o' the forest are a' wede awa'" + + +The CONSTANT use of double rhymes within the line - + + +"At e'en, in the gloaming, nae younkers are roaming," + + +an artifice rare in genuine ballads, might alone have proved to Scott +that the poem of Miss Elliot is not popular and ancient. + +I have cleared my conscience by confessing Scott's literary sins. +His interpolations, elsewhere mere stopgaps, are mainly to be found +in Kinmont Willie and Jamie Telfer. His duty was to say, in his +preface to each ballad, "The editor has interpolated stanza" so and +so; if he made up the last verses of Kinmont Willie from the +conclusion of a version of Archie o' Ca'field, he should have said +so; as he does acknowledge two stopgap interpolations by Hogg in Auld +Maitland. But as to the conclusion of Kinmont Willie, he did, we +shall see, make confession. + +Professor Kittredge, who edited Child's last part (X.), says in his +excellent abridged edition of Child (1905), "It was no doubt the +feeling that the popular ballad is a fluid and unstable thing that +has prompted so many editors--among them Sir Walter Scott, whom it is +impossible to assail, however much the scholarly conscience may +disapprove--to deal freely with the versions that came into their +hands." + +Twenty-five years after the appearance of The Border Minstrelsy, in +1827, appeared Motherwell's Minstrelsy, Ancient and Modern. +Motherwell was in favour of scientific methods of editing. Given two +copies of a ballad, he says, "perhaps they may not have a single +stanza which is mutual property, except certain commonplaces which +seem an integral portion of the original mechanism of all our ancient +ballads . . . " By selecting the most beautiful and striking +passages from each copy, and making those cohere, an editor, he says, +may produce a more perfect and ornate version than any that exists in +tradition. Of the originals "the individuality entirely disappears." + +Motherwell disapproved of this method, which, as a rule, is Scott's, +and, scientifically, the method is not defensible. Thus, having +three ballads of rescues, in similar circumstances, with a river to +ford, Scott confessedly places that incident where he thinks it most +"poetically appropriate"; and in all probability, by a single touch, +he gives poetry in place of rough humour. Of all this Motherwell +disapproved. (See Kinmont Willie, infra.) + +Aytoun, in The Ballads of Scotland, thought Motherwell hypercritical; +and also, in his practice inconsistent with his preaching. Aytoun +observed, "with much regret and not a little indignation" (1859), +"that later editors insinuated a doubt as to the fidelity of Sir +Walter's rendering. My firm belief, resting on documentary evidence, +is that Scott was most scrupulous in adhering to the very letter of +his transcripts, whenever copies of ballads, previously taken down, +were submitted to him." As an example, Aytoun, using a now lost MS. +copy of about 1689-1702, of The Outlaw Murray, says "Sir Walter has +given it throughout just as he received it." Yet Scott's copy, +mainly from a lost Cockburn MS., contains a humorous passage on +Buccleuch which Child half suspects to be by Sir Walter himself. +{15a} It is impossible for me to know whether Child's hesitating +conjecture is right or wrong. Certainly we shall see, when Scott had +but one MS. copy, as of Auld Maitland, his editing left little or +nothing to be desired. + +But now Scott is assailed, both where he deserves, and where, in my +opinion, he does not deserve censure. + +Scott did no more than his confessed following of Percy's method +implies, to his original text of the Ballad of Otterburne. This I +shall prove from his original text, published by Child from the +Abbotsford MSS., and by a letter from the collector of the ballad, +the Ettrick Shepherd. + +The facts, in this instance, apparently are utterly unknown to +Lieutenant-Colonel the Hon. Fitzwilliam Elliot, in his Further Essays +on Border Ballads (1910), pp. 1-45. + +Again, I am absolutely certain, and can demonstrate, that Scott did +not (as Colonel Elliot believes) detect Hogg in forging Auld +Maitland, join with him in this fraud, and palm the ballad off on the +public. Nothing of the kind occurred. Scott did not lie in this +matter, both to the world and to his intimate friends, in private +letters. + +Once more, without better evidence than we possess, I do not believe +that, in Jamie Telfer, Scott transferred the glory from the Elliots +to the Scotts, and the shame from Buccleuch to Elliot of Stobs. The +discussion leads us into very curious matter. But here, with our +present materials, neither absolute proof nor disproof is possible. + +Finally, as to Kinmont Willie, I merely give such reasons as I can +find for thinking that Scott HAD "mangled" fragments of an old ballad +before him, and did not merely paraphrase the narrative of Walter +Scott of Satchells, in his doggerel True History of the Name of Scott +(1688). + +The positions of Colonel Elliot are in each case the reverse of mine. +In the instance of Auld Maitland (where Scott's conduct would be +unpardonable if Colonel Elliot's view were correct), I have absolute +proof that he is entirely mistaken. For Otterburne I am equally +fortunate; that is, I can show that Scott's part went no further than +"the making of a standard text" on his avowed principles. For Jamie +Telfer, having no original manuscript, I admit DECORATIVE +interpolations, and for the rest, argue on internal evidence, no +other being accessible. For Kinmont Willie, I confess that the poem, +as it stands, is Scott's, but give reasons for thinking that he had +ballad fragments in his mind, if not on paper. + +It will be understood that Colonel Elliot does not, I conceive, say +that his charges are PROVED, but he thinks that the evidence points +to these conclusions. He "hopes that I will give reasons for my +disbelief" in his theories; and "hopes, though he cannot expect that +they will completely dispose of" his views about Jamie Telfer. {17a} + +I give my reasons, though I entertain but slight hope of convincing +my courteous opponent. That is always a task rather desperate. But +the task leads me, in defence of a great memory, into a countryside, +and into old times on the Border, which are so alluring that, like +Socrates, I must follow where the logos guides me. To one conclusion +it guides me, which startles myself, but I must follow the logos, +even against the verdict of Professor Child, notre maitre a tous. In +some instances, I repeat, positive proof of the correctness of my +views is impossible; all that I can do is to show that Colonel +Elliot's contrary opinions also fall far short of demonstration, or +are demonstrably erroneous. + + + +AULD MAITLAND + + + +The ballad of Auld Maitland holds in The Border Minstrelsy a place +like that of the Doloneia, or Tenth Book, in the Iliad. Every +professor of the Higher Criticism throws his stone at the Doloneia in +passing, and every ballad-editor does as much to Auld Maitland. {19a} +Professor Child excluded it from his monumental collection of +"English and Scottish Popular Ballads," fragments, and variants, for +which Mr. Child and his friends and helpers ransacked every +attainable collection of ballads in manuscript, and ballads in print, +as they listened to the last murmurings of ballad tradition from the +lips of old or young. + +Mr. Child, says his friend and pupil, Professor Kittredge, "possessed +a kind of instinct" for distinguishing what is genuine and +traditional, or modern, or manipulated, or, if I may say so, "faked" +in a ballad. + +"This instinct, trained by thirty years of study, had become +wonderfully swift in its operations, and almost infallible. A forged +or retouched piece could not escape him for a moment: he detected +the slightest jar in the ballad ring." {18a} + +But all old traditional ballads are masses of "retouches," made +through centuries, by reciters, copyists, editors, and so forth. +Unluckily, Child never gave in detail his reasons for rejecting that +treasure of Sir Walter's, Auld Maitland. Child excluded the poem +sans phrase. If he did this, like Falstaff "on instinct," one can +only say that antiquarian instincts are never infallible. We must +apply our reason to the problem, "What is Auld Maitland?" + +Colonel Elliot has taken this course. By far the most blighting of +the many charges made by Colonel Elliot against Sir Walter Scott are +concerned with the ballad of Auld Maitland. {19a} After stating +that, in his opinion, "several stanzas" of the ballad are by Sir +Walter himself, Colonel Elliot sums up his own ideas thus: + +"My view is that Hogg, in the first instance, tried to palm off the +ballad on Scott, and failed; and then Scott palmed it off on the +public, and succeeded . . . let us, as gentlemen and honest judges, +admit that the responsibility of the deception rests rather on the +laird (Scott) than on the herd" (Hogg.) {19b} + +If Colonel Elliot's "views" were correct (and it is absolutely +erroneous), the guilt of "the laird" would be great. Scott conspires +with a shepherd, a stranger, to palm off a forgery on the public. +Scott issues the forgery, and, what is worse, in a private letter to +a learned friend, he utters what I must borrow words for: he utters +"cold and calculated falsehoods" about the manner in which, and the +person from whom, he obtained what he calls "my first copy" of the +song. If Hogg and Scott forged the poem, then when Scott told his +tale of its acquisition by himself from Laidlaw, Scott lied. + +Colonel Elliot is ignorant of the facts in the case. He gropes his +way under the misleading light of a false date, and of fragments torn +from the context of a letter which, in its complete form, has never +till now been published. Where positive and published information +exists, it has not always come within the range of the critic's +researches; had it done so, he would have taken the information into +account, but he does not. Of the existence of Scott's "first copy" +of the ballad in manuscript our critic seems never to have heard; +certainly he has not studied the MS. Had he done so he would not +assign (on grounds like those of Homeric critics) this verse to Hogg +and that to Scott. He would know that Scott did not interpolate a +single stanza; that spelling, punctuation, and some slight verbal +corrections, with an admirable emendation, were the sum of his +industry: that he did not even excise two stanzas of, at earliest, +eighteenth century work. + +I must now clear up misconceptions which have imposed themselves on +all critics of the ballad, on myself, for example, no less than on +Colonel Elliot: and must tell the whole story of how the existence +of the ballad first became known to Scott's collector and friend, +William Laidlaw, how he procured the copy which he presented to Sir +Walter, and how Sir Walter obtained, from recitation, his "second +copy," that which he printed in The Minstrelsy in 1803. + +In 1801 Scott, who was collecting ballads, gave a list of songs which +he wanted to Mr. Andrew Mercer, of Selkirk. Mercer knew young Will +Laidlaw, farmer in Blackhouse on Yarrow, where Hogg had been a +shepherd for ten years. Laidlaw applied for two ballads, one of them +The Outlaw Murray, to Hogg, then shepherding at Ettrick House, at the +head of Ettrick, above Thirlestane. Hogg replied on 20th July 1801. +He could get but a few verses of The Outlaw from his maternal uncle, +Will Laidlaw of Phawhope. He said that, from traditions known to +him, he could make good songs, "but without Mr. Scott's permission +this would be an imposition, neither could I undertake it without an +order from him in his own handwriting . . . " {21a} Laidlaw went on +trying to collect songs for Scott. We now take his own account of +Auld Maitland from a manuscript left by him. {21b} + +"I heard from one of the servant girls, who had all the turn and +qualifications for a collector, of a ballad called Auld Maitland, +that a grandfather (maternal) of Hogg could repeat, and she herself +had several of the first stanzas, which I took a note of, and have +still the copy. This greatly aroused my anxiety to procure the +whole, for this was a ballad not even hinted at by Mercer in his list +of desiderata received from Mr. Scott. I forthwith wrote to Hogg +himself, requesting him to endeavour to procure the whole ballad. In +a week or two I received his reply, containing Auld Maitland exactly +as he had received it from the recitation of his uncle Will of +Phawhope, corroborated by his mother, who both said they learned it +from their father, a still older Will of Phawhope, and an old man +called Andrew Muir, who had been servant to the famous Mr. Boston, +minister of Ettrick." Concerning Laidlaw's evidence, Colonel Elliot +says not a word. + +This copy of Auld Maitland, with the superscription outside - + + +MR. WILLIAM LAIDLAW, +BLACKHOUSE, + +all in Hogg's hand, is now at Abbotsford. We next have, through +Carruthers using Laidlaw's manuscript, an account of the arrival of +Scott and Leyden at Blackhouse, of Laidlaw's presentation of Hogg's +manuscript, which Scott read aloud, and of their surprise and +delight. Scott was excited, so that his burr became very +perceptible. {23a} + +The time of year when Scott and Leyden visited Yarrow was not the +AUTUMN vacation of 1802, as Lockhart erroneously writes, {23b} but +the SPRING vacation of 1802. The spring vacation, Mr. Macmath +informs me, ran from 11th March to 12th May in 1802. In May, +apparently, Scott having obtained the Auld Maitland MS. in the vernal +vacation of the Court of Session, gave his account of his discovery +to his friend Ellis (Lockhart does not date the letter, but wrongly +puts it after the return to Edinburgh in November 1802). + +Scott wrote thus: --"We" (John Leyden and himself) "have just +concluded an excursion of two or three weeks through my jurisdiction +of Selkirkshire, where, in defiance of mountains, rivers, and bogs, +damp and dry, we have penetrated the very recesses of Ettrick Forest +. . . I have . . . returned LOADED with the treasures of oral +tradition. The principal result of our inquiries has been a complete +and perfect copy of "Maitland with his Auld Berd Graie," referred to +by [Gawain] Douglas in his Palice of Honour (1503), along with John +the Reef and other popular characters, and celebrated in the poems +from the Maitland MS." (circ. 1575). You may guess the surprise of +Leyden and myself when this was presented to us, copied down from the +recitation of an old shepherd, by a country farmer . . . Many of the +old words are retained, which neither the reciter nor the copyer +understood. Such are the military engines, sowies, SPRINGWALLS +(springalds), and many others . . . " {24a} + +That Scott got the ballad in spring 1802 is easily proved. On 10th +April 1802, Joseph Ritson, the crabbed, ill-tempered, but +meticulously accurate scholar, who thought that ballad-forging should +be made a capital offence, wrote thus to Scott:- + +"I have the pleasure of enclosing my copy of a very ancient poem, +which appears to me to be the original of The Wee Wee Man, and which +I learn from Mr. Ellis you are desirous to see." In Scott's letter +to Ellis, just quoted, he says: "I have lately had from him" +(Ritson) "A COPIE of 'Ye litel wee man,' of which I think I can make +some use. In return, I have sent him a sight of Auld Maitland, the +original MS . . . I wish him to see it in puris naturalibus." "The +precaution here taken was very natural," says Lockhart, considering +Ritson's temper and hatred of literary forgeries. Scott, when he +wrote to Ellis, had received Ritson's The Wee Wee Man "lately": it +was sent to him by Ritson on 10th April 1802. Scott had already, +when he wrote to Ellis, got "the original MS. of Auld Maitland" (now +in Abbotsford Library). By 10th June 1802 Ritson wrote saying, "You +may depend on my taking the utmost care of Old Maitland, and +returning it in health and safety. I would not use the liberty of +transcribing it into my manuscript copy of Mrs. Brown's ballads, but +if you will signify your permission, I shall be highly gratified." +{25} "Your ancient and curious ballad," he styles the piece. + +Thus Scott had Auld Maitland in May 1802; he sent the original MS. to +Ritson; Ritson received it graciously; he had, on 10th April 1802, +sent Scott another MS., The Wee Wee Man: and when Scott wrote to +Ellis about his surprise at getting "a complete and perfect copy of +Maitland," he had but lately received The Wee Wee Man, sent by Ritson +on 10th April 1802. He had made a spring, not an autumn, raid into +the Forest. + +We now know the external history of the ballad. Laidlaw, hearing his +servant repeat some stanzas, asks Hogg for the full copy, which Hogg +sends with a pedigree from which he never wavered. Auld Andrew Muir +taught the song to Hogg's mother and uncle. Hogg took it from his +uncle's recitation, and sent it, directed outside, + +TO MR. WILLIAM LAIDLAW, +BLACKHOUSE, + +and Laidlaw gave it to Scott, in March 12-May 12, 1802. But Scott, +publishing the ballad in The Minstrelsy (1803), says it is given "as +written down from the recitation of the mother of Mr. James Hogg, who +sings, or rather chants, it with great animation" (manifestly he had +heard the recitation which he describes). + +It seems that Scott, before he wrote to Ellis in May 1802, had +misgivings about the ballad. Says Carruthers, he "made another visit +to Blackhouse for the purpose of getting Laidlaw as a guide to +Ettrick," being "curious to see the poetical shepherd." + +Laidlaw's MS., used by Carruthers, describes the wild ride by the +marshes at the head of the Loch of the Lowes, through the bogs on the +knees of the hills, down a footpath to Ramseycleuch in Ettrick. They +sent to Ettrick House for Hogg; Scott was surprised and pleased with +James's appearance. They had a delightful evening: "the qualities +of Hogg came out at every instant, and his unaffected simplicity and +fearless frankness both surprised and pleased the Sheriff." {26a} +Next morning they visited Hogg and his mother at her cottage, and +Hogg tells how the old lady recited Auld Maitland. Hogg gave the +story in prose, with great vivacity and humour, in his Domestic +Manners of Sir Walter Scott (1834). + +In an earlier poetical address to Scott, congratulating him on his +elevation to the baronetcy (1818), the Shepherd says - + + +When Maitland's song first met your ear, +How the furled visage up did clear. +Beaming delight! though now a shade +Of doubt would darken into dread, +That some unskilled presumptuous arm +Had marred tradition's mighty charm. +Scarce grew thy lurking dread the less, +Till she, the ancient Minstreless, +With fervid voice and kindling eye, +And withered arms waving on high, +Sung forth these words in eldritch shriek, +While tears stood on thy nut-brown cheek: +"Na, we are nane o' the lads o' France, +Nor e'er pretend to be; +We be three lads of fair Scotland, +Auld Maitland's sons a' three." + + +(Stanza xliii. as printed. In Hogg's MS. copy, given to Laidlaw +there are two verbal differences, in lines 1 and 4.) + +Then says Hogg - + + +Thy fist made all the table ring, +By -, sir, but that is the thing! + + +Hogg could not thus describe the scene in addressing Scott himself, +in 1818, if his story were not true. It thus follows that his mother +knew the sixty-five stanzas of the ballad by heart. Does any one +believe that, as a woman of seventy-two, she learned the poem to back +Hogg's hoax? That he wrote the poem, and caused her to learn it by +rote, so as to corroborate his imposture? + +This is absurd. + +But now comes the source of Colonel Elliot's theory of a conspiracy +between Scott and Hogg, to forge a ballad and issue the forgery. +Colonel Elliot knows scraps of a letter to Hogg of 30th June 1802. +He has read parts, not bearing on the question, in Mr. Douglas's +Familiar Letters of Sir Walter Scott (vol. i. pp. 12-15), and another +scrap, in which Hogg says that "I am surprised to hear that Auld +Maitland is suspected by some to be a modern forgery." This part of +Hogg's letter of 30th June 1802 was published by Scott himself in the +third volume of The Minstrelsy (April 1803). + +Not having the context of the letter, Colonel Elliot seems to argue, +"Scott says he got his first copy in autumn 1802" (Lockhart's +mistake), "yet here are Hogg and Scott corresponding about the ballad +long before autumn, in June 1802. This is very suspicious." I give +what appears to be Colonel Elliot's line of reflection in my own +words. He decides that, as early as June 1802, "Hogg"(in the +Colonel's 'view'), "in the first instance, tried to palm off the +ballad on Scott, and failed; and that then Scott palmed it off on the +public, and succeeded." + +This is all a mare's nest. Scott, in March-May 1802, had the whole +of the ballad except one stanza, which Hogg sent to him on 30th June. + +I now print, for the first time, the whole of Hogg's letter of 30th +June, with its shrewd criticism on ballads, hitherto omitted, and I +italicise the passage about Auld Maitland:- + + +ETTRICK HOUSE, June 30. + +Dear Sir,--I have been perusing your minstrelsy very diligently for a +while past, and it being the first book I ever perused which was +written by a person I had seen and conversed with, the consequence +hath been to me a most sensible pleasure; for in fact it is the +remarks and modern pieces that I have delighted most in, being as it +were personally acquainted with many of the modern pieces formerly. +My mother is actually a living miscellany of old songs. I never +believed that she had half so many until I came to a trial. There +are some (sic) in your collection of which she hath not a part, and I +should by this time had a great number written for your amusement, +thinking them all of great antiquity and lost to posterity, had I not +luckily lighted upon a collection of songs in two volumes, published +by I know not who, in which I recognised about half-a-score of my +mother's best songs, almost word for word. No doubt I was piqued, +but it saved me much trouble, paper, and ink; for I am carefully +avoiding anything which I have seen or heard of being in print, +although I have no doubt that I shall err, being acquainted with +almost no collections of that sort, but I am not afraid that you too +will mistake. I am still at a loss with respect to some: such as +the Battle of Flodden beginning, "From Spey to the Border," a long +poetical piece on the battle of Bannockburn, I fear modern: The +Battle of the Boyne, Young Bateman's Ghost, all of which, and others +which I cannot mind, I could mostly recover for a few miles' travel +were I certain they could be of any use concerning the above; and I +might have mentioned May Cohn and a duel between two friends, Graham +and Bewick, undoubtedly very old. You must give me information in +your answer. I have already scraped together a considerable +quantity--suspend your curiosity, Mr. Scott, you will see them when I +see you, of which I am as impatient as you can be to see the songs +for your life. But as I suppose you have no personal acquaintance in +this parish, it would be presumption in me to expect that you will +visit my cottage, but I will attend you in any part of the Forest if +you will send me word. I am far from supposing that a person of your +discernment,--d-n it, I'll blot out that, 'tis so like flattery. I +say I don't think you would despise a shepherd's "humble cot an' +hamely fare," as Burns hath it, yet though I would be extremely proud +of a visit, yet hang me if I would know what to do wi' ye. I am +surprised to find that the songs in your collection differ so widely +from my mother's. Is Mr. Herd's MS. genuine? I suspect it. Jamie +Telfer differs in many particulars. Johnny Armstrong of Gilnockie is +another song altogether. I have seen a verse of my mother's way +called Johny Armstrong's last good-night cited in the Spectator, and +another in Boswell's Journal. It begins, "Is there ne'er a man in +fair Scotland?" Do you know if this is in print, Mr. Scott? In the +Tale of Tomlin the whole of the interlude about the horse and the +hawk is a distinct song altogether. {30a} Clerk Saunders is nearly +the same with my mother's, until that stanza [xvi.] which ends, "was +in the tower last night wi' me," then with another verse or two which +are not in yours, ends Clerk Saunders. All the rest of the song in +your edition is another song altogether, which my mother hath mostly +likewise, and I am persuaded from the change in the stile that she is +right, for it is scarce consistent with the forepart of the ballad. +I have made several additions and variations out, to the printed +songs, for your inspection, but only when they could be inserted +without disjointing the songs as they are at present; to have written +all the variations would scarcely be possible, and I thought would +embarrass you exceedingly. I HAVE RECOVERED ANOTHER HALF VERSE OF +OLD MAITLAN, AND HAVE RHYMED IT THUS - + + +REMEMBER FIERY OF THE SCOT +HATH COWR'D ANEATH THY HAND; +For ilka drap o' Maitlen's blood +I'll gie THEE rigs o' land. - + + +THE TWO LAST LINES ONLY ARE ORIGINAL; YOU WILL EASILY PERCEIVE THAT +THEY OCCUR IN THE VERY PLACE WHERE WE SUSPECTED A WANT. I AM +SURPRISED TO HEAR THAT THIS SONG IS SUSPECTED BY SOME TO BE A MODERN +FORGERY; THIS WILL BE BEST PROVED BY MOST OF THE OLD PEOPLE +HEREABOUTS HAVING A GREAT PART OF IT BY HEART; many, indeed, are not +aware of the manners of this place, it is but lately emerged from +barbarity, and till this present age the poor illiterate people in +these glens knew of no other entertainment in the long winter nights +than in repeating and listening to these feats of their ancestors, +which I believe to be handed down inviolate from father to son, for +many generations, although no doubt, had a copy been taken of them at +the end of every fifty years, there must have been some difference, +which the repeaters would have insensibly fallen into merely by the +change of terms in that period. I believe that it is thus that many +very ancient songs have been modernised, which yet to a connoisseur +will bear visible marks of antiquity. The Maitlen, for instance, +exclusive of its mode of description, is all composed of words, which +would mostly every one spell and pronounce in the very same dialect +that was spoken some centuries ago. + +Pardon, my dear Sir, the freedom I have taken in addressing you--it +is my nature; and I could not resist the impulse of writing to you +any longer. Let me hear from you as soon as this comes to your hand, +and tell me when you will be in Ettrick Forest, and suffer me to +subscribe myself, Sir, your most humble and affectionate servant, + +JAMES HOGG. + + +In Scott's printed text of the ballad, two interpolations, of two +lines each, are acknowledged in notes. They occur in stanzas vii., +xlvi., and are attributed to Hogg. In fact, Hogg sent one of them +(vii.) to Laidlaw in his manuscript. The other he sent to Scott on +30th June 1802. + +Colonel Elliot, in the spirit of the Higher Criticism (chimaera +bombinans in vacuo), writes, {31a} "Few will doubt that the +footnotes" (on these interpolations) "were inserted with the purpose +of leading the public to think that Hogg made no other +interpolations; but I am afraid I must go further than this and say +that, since they were inserted on the editor's responsibility, the +intention must have been to make it appear as if no other +interpolations by any other hand had been inserted." + +But no other interpolations by another hand WERE inserted! Some +verbal emendations were made by Scott, but he never put in a stanza +or two lines of his own. + +Colonel Elliot provides us with six pages of the Higher Criticism. +He knows how to distinguish between verses by Hogg, and verses by +Scott! {32a} But, save when Scott puts one line, a ballad formula, +where Hogg has another line, Scott makes no interpolations, and the +ballad formula he probably took, with other things of no more +importance, from Mrs. Hogg's recitation. Oh, Higher Criticism! + +I now print the ballad as Hogg sent it to Laidlaw, between August +1801 and March 1802, in all probability. + +[Back of Hogg's MS.: Mr. William Laidlaw, Blackhouse.] + + + + +OLD MAITLAND +A VERY ANTIENT SONG + +There lived a king in southern land + King Edward hecht his name +Unwordily he wore the crown + Till fifty years was gane. + +He had a sister's son o's ain + Was large o' blood and bane +And afterwards when he came up, + Young Edward hecht his name. + +One day he came before the king, + And kneeld low on his knee +A boon a boon my good uncle, + I crave to ask of thee + +"At our lang wars i' fair Scotland + I lang hae lang'd to be +If fifteen hunder wale wight men + You'll grant to ride wi' me." + +"Thou sal hae thae thou sal hae mae + I say it sickerly; +And I mysel an auld grey man + Arrayd your host sal see." - + +King Edward rade King Edward ran - + I wish him dool and pain! +Till he had fifteen hundred men + Assembled on the Tyne. +And twice as many at North Berwick + Was a' for battle bound + +They lighted on the banks of Tweed + And blew their coals sae het +And fired the Merce and Tevidale + All in an evening late + +As they far'd up o'er Lammermor + They burn'd baith tower and town +Until they came to a derksome house, + Some call it Leaders Town + +Whae hauds this house young Edward crys, + Or whae gae'st ower to me +A grey haired knight set up his head + And cracked right crousely + +Of Scotlands King I haud my house + He pays me meat and fee +And I will keep my goud auld house + While my house will keep me + +They laid their sowies to the wall + Wi' mony heavy peal +But he threw ower to them again + Baith piech and tar barille + +With springs: wall stanes, and good of ern, + Among them fast he threw +Till mony of the Englishmen + About the wall he slew. + +Full fifteen days that braid host lay + Sieging old Maitlen keen +Then they hae left him safe and hale + Within his strength o' stane + +Then fifteen barks, all gaily good, + Met themen on a day, +Which they did lade with as much spoil + As they could bear away. + +"England's our ain by heritage; + And whae can us gainstand, +When we hae conquerd fair Scotland + Wi' bow, buckler, and brande" - + +Then they are on to th' land o' france, + Where auld King Edward lay, +Burning each town and castle strong + That ance cam in his way. + +Untill he cam unto that town + Which some call Billop-Grace +There were old Maitlen's sons a' three + Learning at School alas + +The eldest to the others said, + O see ye what I see +If a' be true yon standard says, + We're fatherless a' three + +For Scotland's conquerd up and down + Landsmen we'll never be: +Now will you go my brethren two, + And try some jeopardy + +Then they hae saddled two black horse, + Two black horse and a grey +And they are on to Edwardes host + Before the dawn of day + +When they arriv'd before the host + They hover'd on the ley +Will you lend me our King's standard + To carry a little way + +Where was thou bred where was thou born + Wherein in what country - +In the north of England I was born + What needed him to lie. + +A knight me got a lady bare + I'm a squire of high renown +I well may bear't to any king, + That ever yet wore crown. + +He ne'er came of an Englishman + Had sic an ee or bree +But thou art likest auld Maitlen + That ever I did see + +But sic a gloom inon ae browhead + Grant's ne'er see again +For many of our men he slew + And many put to pain + +When Maitlan heard his father's name, + An angry man was he +Then lifting up a gilt dager + Hung low down by his kee + +He stab'd the knight the standard bore, + He stabb'd him cruelly; +Then caught the standard by the neuk, + And fast away rade he. + +Now is't na time brothers he cry'd + Now, is't na time to flee +Ay by my soothe they baith reply'd, + We'll bear you company + +The youngest turn'd him in a path + And drew a burnish'd brand +And fifteen o' the foremost slew + Till back the lave did stand + +He spurr'd the grey unto the path + Till baith her sides they bled +Grey! thou maun carry me away + Or my life lies in wed + +The captain lookit owr the wa' + Before the break o day +There he beheld the three Scots lads + Pursued alongst the way + +Pull up portculzies down draw briggs + My nephews are at hame +And they shall lodge wi' me to-night, + In spite of all England + +Whene'er they came within the gate + They thrust their horse them frae +And took three lang spears in their hands, + Saying, here sal come nae mae + +And they shott out and they shott in, + Till it was fairly day +When many of the Englishmen + About the draw brigg lay. + +Then they hae yoked carts and wains + To ca' their dead away +And shot auld dykes aboon the lave + In gutters where they lay + +The king in his pavilion door + Was heard aloud to say +Last night three o' the lads o' France + My standard stole away + +Wi' a fause tale disguis'd they came + And wi' a fauser train +And to regain my gaye standard + These men were a' down slaine + +It ill befits the youngest said + A crowned king to lie +But or that I taste meat and drink, + Reproved shall he be. + +He went before King Edward straight + And kneel'd low on his knee +I wad hae leave my liege he said, + To speak a word wi' thee + +The king he turn'd him round about + And wistna what to say +Quo' he, Man, thou's hae leave to speak + Though thou should speak a day. + +You said that three young lads o' France, + Your standard stole away +Wi' a fause tale and fauser train, + And mony men did slay + +But we are nane the lads o' France + Nor e'er pretend to be +We are three lads o' fair Scotland, + Auld Maitlen's sons a' three + +Nor is there men in a your host, + Dare fight us three to three +Now by my sooth young Edward cry'd, + Weel fitted sall ye be! + +Piercy sall with the eldest fight + And Ethert Lunn wi' thee +William of Lancastar the third + And bring your fourth to me + +He clanked Piercy owr the head + A deep wound and a sair +Till the best blood o' his body + Came rinnen owr his hair. + +Now I've slain one slay ye the two; + And that's good company +And if the two should slay ye baith, + Ye'se get na help frae me + +But Ethert Lunn a baited bear + Had many battles seen +He set the youngest wonder sair, + Till the eldest he grew keen + +I am nae king nor nae sic thing + My word it sanna stand +For Ethert shall a buffet bide, + Come he aneath my brand. + +He clanked Ethert owr the head, + A deep wound and a sair +Till a' the blood of his body + Came rinnen owr his hair + +Now I've slayne two slay ye the one; + Isna that gude company +And tho' the one should slay ye both + Ye'se get nae help o' me. + +The twasome they hae slayn the one + They maul'd them cruelly +Then hang them owr the drawbridge, + That a' the host might see + +They rade their horse they ran their horse, + Then hover'd on the ley +We be three lads o' fair Scotland, + We fain wad fighting see + +This boasting when young Edward heard, + To's uncle thus said he, +I'll take yon lad I'll bind yon lad, + And bring him bound to thee + +But God forbid King Edward said + That ever thou should try +Three worthy leaders we hae lost, + And you the fourth shall be. + +If thou wert hung owr yon drawbrigg + Blythe wad I never be +But wi' the pole-axe in his hand, + Outower the bridge sprang he + +The first stroke that young Edward gae + He struck wi might and main +He clove the Maitlen's helmet stout, + And near had pierced his brain. + +When Matlen saw his ain blood fa, + An angry man was he +He let his weapon frae him fa' + And at his neck did flee + +And thrice about he did him swing, + Till on the ground he light +Where he has halden young Edward + Tho' he was great in might + +Now let him up, King Edward cry'd, + And let him come to me +And for the deed that ye hae done + Ye shal hae earldoms three + +It's ne'er be said in France nor Ire + In Scotland when I'm hame +That Edward once was under me, + And yet wan up again + +He stabb'd him thro and thro the hear + He maul'd him cruelly +Then hung him ower the drawbridge + Beside the other three + +Now take from me that feather bed + Make me a bed o' strae +I wish I neer had seen this day + To mak my heart fu' wae + +If I were once at London Tower, + Where I was wont to be +I never mair should gang frae hame, + Till borne on a bier-tree + + +At the end of his copy Hogg writes (probably of stanza vii.)--"You may +insert the two following lines anywhere you think it needs them, or +substitute two better - + + +And marching south with curst Dunbar + A ready welcome found." + + +II--WHAT IS AULD MAITLAND? + + +Is Auld Maitland a sheer forgery by Hogg, or is it in any sense, and if +so, in what sense, antique and traditional? That Hogg made the whole +of it is to me incredible. He had told Laidlaw on 20th July 1801, that +he would make no ballads on traditions without Scott's permission, +written in Scott's hand. Moreover, how could he have any traditions +about "Auld Maitland, his noble Sonnis three," personages of the +thirteenth and fourteenth centuries? Scott had read about them in +poems of about 1580, but these poems then lay in crabbed manuscripts. +Again, Hogg wrote in words ("springs, wall-stanes") of whose meaning he +had no idea; he took it as he heard it in recitation. Finally, the +style is not that of Hogg when he attempts the ballad. Scott observed +that "this ballad, notwithstanding its present appearance, has a claim +to very high antiquity." The language, except for a few technical +terms, is modern, but what else could it be if handed down orally? The +language of undoubted ballads is often more modern than that which was +spoken in my boyhood in Ettrick Forest. As Sir Walter Scott remarked, +a poem of 1570-1580, which he quotes from the Maitland MSS., "would run +as smoothly, and appear as modern, as any verse in the ballad (with a +few exceptions) if divested of its antique spelling." + +We now turn to the historical characters in the ballad. + +Sir Richard Maitland of Lauder, or Thirlestane, says Scott, was already +in his lands, and making donations to the Church in 1249. If, in 1296, +forty-seven years later, he held his castle against Edward I., as in +the ballad, he must have been a man of, say, seventy-five. By about +1574 his descendant, Sir Richard Maitland, was consoled for his family +misfortunes (his famous son, Lethington, having died after the long +siege of Edinburgh Castle, which he and Kirkcaldy of Grange held for +Queen Mary), by a poet who reminded him that his ancestor, in the +thirteenth century, lost all his sons--"peerless pearls"--save one, +"Burdallane." The Sir Richard of 1575 has also one son left (John, the +minister of James VI.). {41a} + +From this evidence, in 1802 in MS. unpublished, and from other Maitland +MSS., we learn that, in the sixteenth century, the Auld Maitland of the +ballad was an eminent character in the legends of that period, and in +the ballads of the people. {42b} His + + + Nobill sonnis three, +Ar sung in monie far countrie, +ALBEIT IN RURAL RHYME. + + +Pinkerton published, in 1786, none of the pieces to which Scott refers +in his extracts from the Maitland MSS. How, then, did Hogg, if Hogg +forged the ballad, know of Maitland and his "three noble sons"? Except +Colonel Elliot, to whose explanation we return, I am not aware that any +critic has tried to answer this question. + +It seems to me that if the Ballad of Otterburne, extant in 1550 in +England, survived in Scottish memory till Herd's fragment appeared in +1776, a tradition of Maitland, who was popular in the ballads of 1575, +and known to Gawain Douglas seventy years earlier, may also have +persisted. There is no impossibility. + +Looking next at Scott's Auld Maitland the story is that King Edward I. +reigned for fifty years. He had a nephew Edward (an apocryphal person: +such figures are common in ballads), who wished to take part in the +invasion of Scotland. The English are repulsed by old Maitland from +his "darksome house" on the Leader. The English, however, (stanza xv.) +conquer Scotland, and join Edward I. in France. They besiege that +town, + + +Which some call Billop-Grace (xviii.). + + +Here Maitland's three sons are learning at school, as Scots often were +educated in France. They see that Edward's standard quarters the arms +of France, and infer that he has conquered their country. They "will +try some jeopardy." Persuading the English that they are themselves +Englishmen, they ask leave to carry the royal flag. The eldest is told +that he is singularly like Auld Maitland. In anger he stabs the +standard-bearer, seizes the flag, and, with his brothers, spurs to +Billop-Grace, where the French captain receives them. There is +fighting at the gate. The King says that three disguised lads of +France have stolen his flag. The Maitlands apparently heard of this; +the youngest goes to Edward, and explains that they are Maitland's +sons, and Scots; they challenge any three Englishmen; a thing in the +manner of the period. The three Scots are victorious. Young Edward +then challenges one of the dauntless three, who slays him. Edward +wishes himself home at London Tower. + +Such is the story. It is out of the regular line of ballad narrative, +but it does not follow that, in the sixteenth century, some such tale +was not told "in rural rhyme" about Maitland's "three noble sons." +That it is not historically true is nothing, of course, and that it is +not in the Scots of the thirteenth century is nothing. + +Colonel Elliot asks, What in the ballad raised suspicion of forgery (in +1802-03)? The historical inaccuracies are common to all historical +ballads. (In an English ballad known to me of 1578, Henry Darnley is +"hanged on a tree"!) + +Next, "there are occasional lines, and even stanzas, which jar in style +to such a degree that they must have been written by two separate +hands." + +But this, also, is a common feature. In "Professor Child and the +Ballad," Mr. W. M. Hart gives a list of Professor Child's notes on the +multiplicity of hands, which he, and every critic, detect in some +ballads with a genuinely antique substratum. {44a} + +Colonel Elliot quotes, as in his opinion the best, stanzas viii., ix., +x., xi., while he thinks xv., xviii. the worst. I give these stanzas - + + +VIII. + +They lighted on the banks o' Tweed, + And blew their coals sae het, +And fired the Merse and Teviotdale, + All in an evening late. + +IX. + +As they fared up o'er Lammermoor, + They burned baith up and doun, +Until they came to a darksome house, + Some call it Leader Town. + +X. + +"Wha hauds this house?" young Edward cried, + "Or wha gi'est ower to me?" +A grey-hair'd knight set up his head, + And crackit right crousely: + +XI. + +"Of Scotland's king I haud my house, + He pays me meat and fee; +And I will keep my guid auld house, + While my house will keep me." + + +I cannot, I admit, find any fault with these stanzas: cannot see any +reason why they should not be traditional. + +Then Colonel Elliot cites, as the worst - + + +XV. + +Then fifteen barks, all gaily good, + Met them upon a day, +Which they did lade with as much spoil + As they could take away. + +XVIII. + +Until we came unto that town + Which some call Billop-Grace; +There were Auld Maitland's sons, a' three, + Learning at school, alas! + + +Now, if I venture to differ from Colonel Elliot here, I may plead that +I am practised in the art of ballad-faking, and can produce high +testimonials of skill! To me stanzas xv., xviii. seem to differ much +from viii.-xi., but not in such a way as Hogg would have differed, had +he made them. Hogg's error would have lain, as Scott's did, in being, +as Scott said of Mrs. Hemans, TOO POETICAL. + +Neither Hogg nor Scott, I think, was crafty enough to imitate the +prosaic drawl of the printed broadside ballad, or the feeble +interpolations with which the "gangrel scrape-gut," or bankelsanger, +supplied gaps in his memory. The modern complete ballad-faker WOULD +introduce such abject verses, but Scott and Hogg desired to decorate, +not to debase, ballads with which they intermeddled, and we track them +by their modern romantic touch when they interpolate. I take it, for +this reason, that Hogg did not write stanzas xv., xviii. It was hardly +in nature for Hogg, if he knew Ville de Grace in Normandy (a thing not +very probable), to invent "Billop-Grace" as a popular corruption of the +name--and a popular corruption it is, I think. Probably the original +maker of this stanza wrote, in line 4, "alace," an old spelling--not +"alas"--to rhyme with "grace." + +Colonel Elliot then assigns xv., xviii. as most likely of all to be by +Hogg. On that I have given my opinion, with my reasons. + +These verses, with xviii., lead us to France, and whereas Scott here +suspects that some verses have been lost (see his note to stanza +xviii.), Colonel Elliot suspects that the stanzas relating to France +have been interpolated. But the French scenes occupy the whole poem +from xvi. to lxv., the end. + +What, if Hogg were the forger, were his sources? He MAY have known +Douglas's Palice of Honour, which, of course, existed in print, with +its mention of Maitland's grey beard. But how did he know Maitland's +"three noble sons," in 1801-1802, lying unsunned in the Maitland MSS.? + +This is a point which critics of Auld Maitland studiously ignore, yet +it is the essential point. How did the Shepherd know about the three +young Maitlands, whose existence, in legend, is only revealed to us +through a manuscript unpublished in 1802? Colonel Elliot does not +evade the point. "We may be sure," he says, that Leyden, before 1802, +knew Hogg, and Hogg might have obtained from him sufficient information +to enable him to compose the ballad. {47a} But it was from Laidlaw, +not from Leyden, that Scott, after receiving his first copy at +Blackhouse, in spring 1802, obtained Hogg's address. {47b} There is no +hint that before spring 1802 Leyden ever saw Hogg. Had he known him, +and his ballad-lore, he would have brought him and Scott together. In +1801-02, Leyden was very busy in Edinburgh helping Scott to edit Sir +Tristram, copying Arthour, seeking for an East India appointment, and +going into society. Scott's letters prove all this. {47c} + +That Hogg, in 1802, was very capable of writing a ballad, I admit; also +that, through Blind Harry's Wallace, he may have known all about +"sowies," and "portculize," and springwalls, or springald's, or +springalls, mediaeval balistas for throwing heavy stones and darts. +But Hogg did not know or guess what a springwall was. In his stanza +xiii. (in the MS. given to Laidlaw), Hogg wrote - + + +With springs; wall stanes, and good o'ern + Among them fast he threw. + + +Scott saw the real meaning of this nonsense, and read - + + +With springalds, stones, and gads o' airn. + + +In his preface he says that many words in the ballad, "which the +reciters have retained without understanding them, still preserve +traces of their antiquity." For instance, springalls, corruptedly +pronounced springwalls. Hogg, hearing the pronunciation, and not +understanding, wrote, "with springs: wall stanes." A leader would not +throw "wall stanes" till he had exhausted his ammunition. Hogg heard +"with springwalls stones, he threw," and wrote it, "with springs: wall +stones he threw." + +Hogg could not know of Auld Maitland "and his three noble sons" except +through an informant familiar with the Maitland MSS. in Edinburgh +University Library. On the theory of a conspiracy to forge, Scott +taught him, but that theory is crushed. + +Hogg says, in Domestic Manners of Sir Walter Scott, that when his +mother met Scott she told him that her brother and she learned the +ballad from auld Andrew Muir, and he from "auld Babby Mettlin," +housekeeper of the first ("Anderson") laird of Tushielaw. This first +Anderson, laird of Tushielaw, reigned from 1688 to 1721 (?) or 1724. +{48a} Hogg's mother was born in 1730, and was only one remove--filled +up by Andrew Muir--from Babby, who was "ither than a gude yin," and +knew many songs. Does any one think Hogg crafty enough to have +invented Babby Maitland as the source of a song about the Maitlands, +and to have introduced her into his narrative in 1834? I conjecture +that this Maitland woman knew a Maitland song, modernised in time, and +perhaps copied out and emended by one of the Maitland family, possibly +one of the descendants of Lethington. We know that, under James I., +about 1620, Lethington's impoverished son, James, had several children; +and that Lauderdale was still supporting them (or THEIR children) +during the Restoration. Only a century before, ballads on the +Maitlands had certainly been popular, and there is nothing impossible +in the suggestion that one such ballad survived in the Lauderdale or +Lethington family, and came through Babby Maitland to Andrew Muir, then +to Hogg's mother, to Hogg, and to Scott. + +If a manuscript copy ever existed, and was Babby's ultimate source, it +would be of the late seventeenth century. That is the ascertained date +of the oldest known MS. of The Outlaw Murray, as is proved from an +allusion in a note appended to a copy, referring to a Judge of Session, +Lord Philiphaugh, as then alive. The copy was of 1689-1702. {49a} + +Granting a MS. of Auld Maitland existing in any branch of the Maitland +family in 1680-1700, Babby Mettlin's knowledge of the ballad, and its +few modernisms, are explained. + +As Lockhart truly says, Hogg "was the most extraordinary man that ever +wore the maud of a shepherd." He had none of Burns' education. In +1802 he was young, and ignorant of cities, and always was innocent of +research in the crabbed MSS. of the sixteenth century. Yet he gets at +legendary persons known to us only through these MSS. He makes a +ballad named Auld Maitland about them. Through him a farm-lass at +Blackhouse acquires some stanzas which Laidlaw copies. In a fortnight +Hogg sends Laidlaw the whole ballad, with the pedigree--his uncle, his +mother, their father, and old Andrew Muir, servant to the famous Rev. +Mr. Boston of Ettrick. The copy takes in Scott and Leyden. Later, +Ritson makes no objection. Mrs. Hogg recites it to Scott, and, +according to Hogg, gives a casual "auld Babby Maitland" as the original +source. + +Is the whole fraud conceivable? Hogg, we must believe, puts in two +stanzas (xv., xviii.), of the lowliest order of printed stall-copy or +"gangrel scrape-gut" style, and the same with intent to deceive. He +introduces "Billop-Grace" as a deceptive popular corruption of Ville de +Grace. This is far beyond any craft that I have found in the most +artful modern "fakers." One stanza (xlix.) - + + +But Ethert Lunn, a baited bear, +Had many battles seen - + + +seems to me very recent, whoever made it. Scott, in lxii., gives a +variant of "some reciters," for "That Edward once lay under me," they +read "That Englishman lay under me." This, if a false story, was an +example of an art more delicate than Scott elsewhere exhibits. + +One does not know what Professor Child would have said to my arguments. +He never gave a criticism in detail of the ballad and of the +circumstances in which Scott acquired it. A man most reasonable, most +open to conviction, he would, I think, have confessed his perplexity. + +Scott did not interpolate a single stanza, even where, as Hogg wrote, +he suspected a lacuna in the text. He neither cut out nor improved the +cryingly modern stanzas. He kept them, as he kept several stanzas in +Tamlane, which, so he told Laidlaw, were obviously recent, but were in +a copy which he procured through Lady Dalkeith. {51a} + +By neither adding to nor subtracting from his MS. copy of Auld +Maitland, Scott proved, I think, his respect for a poem which, in its +primal form, he believed to be very ancient. We know, at all events, +that ballads on the Maitland heroes were current about 1580. So, late +in the sixteenth century, were the ballads quoted by Hume of Godscroft, +on the murder of the Knight of Liddesdale (1354), the murder of the +young Earl of Douglas in Edinburgh Castle (1440), and the battle of +Otterburn. Of these three, only Otterburne was recovered by Herd, +published in 1776. The other two are lost; and there is no prima facie +reason why a Maitland ballad, of the sort current in 1580, should not, +in favourable circumstances, have survived till 1802. + +As regards the Shepherd's ideas of honesty in ballad-collecting at this +early period, I have quoted his letter to Laidlaw of 20th July 1802. + +Again, in the case of his text from recitation of the Ballad of +Otterburne (published by Scott in The Minstrelsy of 1806), he gave the +Sheriff a full account of his mode of handling his materials, and Scott +could get more minute details by questioning him. + +To this text of Otterburne, freely attacked by Colonel Elliot, in +apparent ignorance, as before, of the published facts of the case, and +of the manuscript, we next turn our attention. In the meantime, Scott +no more conspired to forge Auld Maitland than he conspired to forge the +Pentateuch. That Hogg did not forge Auld Maitland I think I have made +as nearly certain as anything in this region can be. I think that the +results are a lesson to professors of the Higher Criticism of Homer. + + + +THE BALLAD OF OTTERBURNE + + + +Scott's version of the Ballad of Otterburne, as given first in The +Minstrelsy of 1806, comes under Colonel Elliot's most severe censure. +He concludes in favour of "the view that it consists partly of stanzas +from Percy's Reliques, which have undergone emendations calculated to +disguise the source from which they came, partly of stanzas of modern +fabrication, and partly of a very few stanzas and lines from Herd's +version" (1776). {53a} + +As a matter of fact we know, though Colonel Elliot does not, the whole +process of construction of the Otterburne in The Minstrelsy of 1806. +Professor Child published all the texts with a letter. {53b} It is a +pity that Colonel Elliot overlooks facts in favour of conjecture. +Concerning historical facts he is not more thorough in research. The +story, in Percy's Reliques, of the slaying of Douglas by Percy, "is, so +far as I know, supported neither by history nor by tradition." {53c} +If unfamiliar with the English chroniclers (in Latin) of the end of the +fourteenth century, Colonel Elliot could find them cited by Professor +Child. Knyghton, Walsingham, and the continuator of Higden (Malverne), +all assert that Percy killed Douglas with his own hand. {54a} The +English ballad of Otterburne (in MS. of about 1550) gives this version +of Douglas's death. It is erroneous. Froissart, a contemporary, had +accounts of the battle from combatants, both English and Scottish. +Douglas, fighting in the front of the van, on a moonlight night, was +slain by three lance-wounds received in the mellay. The English knew +not whom they had slain. + +The interesting point is that, while the Scottish ballads give either +the English version of Percy's death (in Minstrelsy, 1806) or another +account mentioned by Hume of Godscroft (circ. 1610), that he was slain +by one of his own men, the Scottish versions are ALL deeply affected in +an important point by Froissart's contemporary narrative, which has not +affected the English versions. The point is that the death of Douglas +was by his order concealed from both parties. + +When both the English version in Percy's Reliques (from a MS. of about +1550), and Scott's version of 1806, mention a "challenge to battle" +between Percy and Douglas, Colonel Elliot calls this incident "probably +purely fanciful and imaginary," and suspects Scott's version of being +made up and altered from the English text. But the challenge which +resulted in the battle of Otterburn is not fanciful and imaginary! + +It is mentioned by Froissart. Douglas, he says, took Percy's pennon in +an encounter under Newcastle. Percy vowed that Douglas would never +carry the pennon out of Northumberland; Douglas challenged him to come +and take it from his tent door that night; but Percy was constrained +not to accept the challenge. The Scots then marched homewards, but +Douglas insisted on besieging Otterburn Castle; here he passed some +days on purpose to give Percy a chance of a fight; Percy's force +surprised the Scots; they were warned, as in the ballads, suddenly, by +a man who galloped up; the fight began; and so on. + +Now Herd's version says nothing of Douglas at Newcastle; the whole +scene is at Otterburn. On the other hand, Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe's +MS. text DID bring Douglas to Newcastle. Of this Colonel Elliot says +nothing. The English version says NOTHING OF PERCY'S LOSS OF HIS +PENNON TO DOUGLAS (nor does Sharpe's), and gives the challenge and +tryst. Scott's version says nothing of Percy's pennon, but Douglas +takes Percy's SWORD and vows to carry it home. Percy's challenge, in +the English version, is accompanied by a gross absurdity. He bids +Douglas wait at Otterburn, where, pour tout potage to an army absurdly +stated at 40,000 men, Percy suggests venison and pheasants! In the +Scottish version Percy offers tryst at Otterburn. Douglas answers +that, though Otterburn has no supplies--nothing but deer and wild +birds--he will there tarry for Percy. This is chivalrous, and, in +Scott's version, Douglas understands war. In the English version Percy +does not. (To these facts I return, giving more details.) Colonel +Elliot supposes some one (Scott, I daresay) to have taken Percy's,--the +English version,--altered it to taste, concealed the alterations, as in +this part of the challenge, by inverting the speeches and writing new +stanzas of the fight at Otterburn, used a very little of Herd (which is +true), and inserted modern stanzas. + +Now, first, as regards pilfering from the English version, that +version, and Herd's undisputed version, have undeniably a common +source. Neither, as it stands, is "original"; of an ORIGINAL +contemporary Otterburn ballad we have no trace. By 1550, when such +ballads were certainly current both in England and Scotland, they were +late, confused by tradition, and, of what we possess, say Herd's, and +the English MS. of 1550, all were interblended. + +The Scots ballad version, known to Hume of Godscroft (1610), may have +been taken from the English, and altered, as Child thought, or the +English, as Motherwell maintained, may have been borrowed from the +Scots, and altered. One or the other process undeniably occurred; the +second poet, who made the changes, introduced the events most +favourable to his country, and left out the less favourable. By +Scott's time, or Herd's, the versions were much degraded through decay +of memory, bad penny broadsides (lost), and uneducated reciters. +Herd's version has forgotten the historic affair of the capture of +Percy's pennon (and of the whole movement on Newcastle, preserved in +Sharpe's and Scott's); Scott's remembers the encounter at Newcastle, +forgets the pennon, and substitutes the capture by Douglas of Percy's +sword. The Englishman deliberately omits the capture of the pennon. +The Scots version (here altered by Sir Walter) makes Percy wound +Douglas at Otterburn - + + +Till backward he did flee. + + +Now Colonel Elliot has no right, I conceive, to argue that this Scots +version, with the Newcastle incident, the captured sword, the +challenge, the "backward flight" of Douglas, were introduced by a +modern (Scott?) who was deliberately "faking" the English version. +There is no reason why tradition should NOT have retained historical +incidents in the Scottish form; it is a mere assumption that a modern +borrowed and travestied these incidents from Percy's Reliques. We +possess Hogg's UNEDITED original of Scott's version of 1806 (an +original MS. never hinted at by Colonel Elliot), and it retains clear +traces of being contaminated with a version of The Huntiss of Chevet, +popular in 1459, as we read in The Complaynte of Scotland of that date. +There is also an old English version of The Hunting of the Cheviot +(1550 or later, Bodleian Library). The UNEDITED text of Scott's +Otterburne then contained traces of The Huntiss of Chevet; the two were +mixed in popular memory. In short, Scott's text, manipulated slightly +by him in a way which I shall describe, was A THING SURVIVING IN +POPULAR MEMORY: how confusedly will be explained. + +The differences between the English version of 1550 and the Scots +(collected for Scott by Hogg), are of old standing. I am not sure that +there was not, before 1550, a Scottish ballad, which the English +ballad-monger of that date annexed and altered. The English version of +1550 is not "popular"; it is the work of a humble literary man. + +The English is a very long ballad, in seventy quatrains; it greatly +exaggerates the number of the Scots engaged (40,000), and it is the +work of a professional author who uses the stereotyped prosaic stopgaps +of the cheap hack - + + +I tell you withouten dread, + + +is his favourite phrase, and he cites historical authority - + + +The cronykle wyll not layne (lie). + + +Scottish ballads do not appeal to chroniclers! A patriotic and +imbecile effort is made by the Englishman to represent Percy as +captured, indeed, but released without ransom - + + +There was then a Scottysh prisoner tayne, +Sir Hew Mongomery was his name; +For sooth as I yow saye, +He borrowed the Persey home agayne. + + +This is obscure, and in any case false. Percy WAS taken, and towards +his ransom Richard II. paid 3000 pounds. {59a} + +It may be well to quote the openings of each ballad, English and Scots. + + +ENGLISH (1550) + +I. + +It fell about the Lammas tyde, + When husbands win their hay, +The doughty Douglas bound him to ride, + In England to take a prey. + +II. + +The Earl of Fife, withouten strife, + He bound him over Solway; +The great would ever together ride + That race they may rue for aye. + +III. + +Over Hoppertop hill they came in, + And so down by Rodcliff crag, +Upon Green Linton they lighted down, + Stirring many a stag. + +IV. + +And boldly brent Northumberland, + And harried many a town, +They did our Englishmen great wrong, + To battle that were not boune. + +V. + +Then spake a berne upon the bent . . + + +SCOTTISH, HERD (1776) + +I. + +It fell and about the Lammas time, + When hushandmen do win their hay; +Earl Douglas is to the English woods, + And a' with him to fetch a prey. + +II. + +He has chosen the Lindsays light, + With them the gallant Gordons gay; +And the Earl of Fyfe, withouten strife, + And Hugh Montgomery upon a grey. +(THE LAST LINE IS OBVIOUSLY A RECITER'S STOPGAP.) + +III. + +They have taken Northumberland, + And sae hae they THE NORTH SHIRE, +And the Otterdale they hae burned hale, + And set it a' into fire. + +IV. + +Out then spak a bonny boy; + + +Manifestly these copies, so far, are not independent. But now Herd's +copy begins to vary much from the English. + +In both ballads a boy or "berne" speaks up. In the English he +recommends to the Scots an attack on Newcastle; in the Scots he +announces the approach of an English host. Douglas promises to reward +the boy if his tale be true, to hang him if it be false. THE SCENE IS +OTTERBURN. The boy stabs Douglas, in a stanza which is a common ballad +formula of frequent occurrence - + + +The boy's taen out his little pen knife, + That hanget low down by his gare, +And he gaed Earl Douglas a deadly wound, + Alack! a deep wound and a sare. + + +Douglas then says to Sir Hugh Montgomery - + + + Take THOU the vanguard of the three, +And bury me at yon bracken bush, + That stands upon yon lilly lea. (Herd, 4-8.) + + +Hume of Godscroft (about 1610), author of the History of the Douglases, +was fond of quoting ballads. He gives a form of the first verse in +Otterburn which is common to Herd and the English copy. He says that, +according to some, Douglas was treacherously slain by one of his own +men whom he had offended. "But this narration is not so probable," and +the fact is fairly meaningless in Herd's fragment (the boy has no +motive for stabbing Douglas, for if his report is true, he will be +rewarded). The deed is probably based on the tradition which Godscroft +thought "less probable,"--the treacherous murder of the Earl. + +In the English ballad, Douglas marches on Newcastle, where Percy, +without fighting, makes a tryst to meet and combat him at Otterburn, on +his way home from Newcastle to Scotland. Thither Douglas goes, and is +warned by a Scottish knight of Percy's approach: as in Herd, he is +sceptical, but is convinced by facts. (This warning of Douglas by a +scout who gallops up is narrated by Froissart, from witnesses engaged +in the battle.) After various incidents, Percy and Douglas encounter +each other, and Douglas is slain. After a desperate fight, Sir Hugh +Montgomery, a prisoner of the English, + + +Borrowed the Percy home again. + + +This is absurd. The Scots fought on, took Percy, and won the day. +Walsingham, the contemporary English chronicler (in Latin), says that +Percy slew Douglas, so do Knyghton and the continuator of Higden. + +Meanwhile we observe that the English ballad says nothing of Douglas's +chivalrous fortitude, and soldier-like desire to have his death +concealed. Here every Scottish version follows Froissart. In Herd's +fragment, Montgomery now attacks Percy, and bids him "yield thee to yon +bracken bush," where the dead Douglas's body lies concealed. Percy +does yield--to Sir Hugh Montgomery. The fragment has but fourteen +stanzas. + +In 1802, Scott, correcting by another MS., published Herd's copy. In +1806 he gave another version, for "fortunately two copies have since +been obtained from the recitation of old persons residing at the head +of Ettrick Forest." {62a} + +Colonel Elliot devotes a long digression to the trivial value of +recitations, so styled, {62b} and gives his suggestions about the copy +being made up from the Reliques. When Scott's copy of 1806 agrees with +the English version, Colonel Elliot surmises that a modern person, +familiar with the English, has written the coincident verses in WITH +DIFFERENCES. Percy and Douglas, for example, change speeches, each +saying what, in the English, the other said in substance, not in the +actual words. When Scott's version touches on an incident known in +history, but not given in the English version, the encounter between +Douglas and Percy at Newcastle (Scott, vii., viii.), Colonel Elliot +suspects the interpolator (and well he may, for the verses are mawkish +and modern, not earlier than the eighteenth century imitations or +remaniements which occur in many ballads traditional in essence). + +So Colonel Elliot says, "We are not told, either in The Minstrelsy or +in any of Scott's works or writings, who the reciters were, and who the +transcribers were." {63a} We very seldom are told by Scott who the +reciters were and who the transcribers, but our critic's information is +here mournfully limited--by his own lack of study. Colonel Elliot goes +on to criticise a very curious feature in Scott's version of 1806, and +finds certain lines "beautiful" but "without a note of antiquity," that +he can detect, while the sentiment "is hardly of the kind met with in +old ballads." + +To understand the position we must remember that, IN THE ENGLISH, Percy +and Douglas fight each other thus (1.) - + + +The Percy and the Douglas met, + That either of other was fain, +They swapped together while that they sweat, + With swords of fine Collayne. (Cologne steel.) + + +Douglas bids Percy yield, but Percy slays Douglas (as in Walsingham's +and other contemporary chronicles, stanzas li.-lvi.). The Scottish +losses are then enumerated (only eighteen Scots were left alive!), and +stanza lix. runs - + + +This fray began at Otterburn + Between the night and the day. +There the Douglas lost his life, + And the Percy was led away. + + +Herd ends - + + +This deed was done at Otterburn, + About the breaking of the day, +Earl Douglas was buried at the bracken bush, + And Percy led captive away. + + +Manifestly, either the maker of Herd's version knew the English, and +altered at pleasure, or the Englishman knew a Scots version, and +altered at pleasure. The perversion is of ancient standing, +undeniably. But when Scott's original text exhibits the same phenomena +of perversion, in a part of the ballad missing in Herd's brief lay, +Colonel Elliot supposes that NOW the exchanges are by a modern ballad- +forger, shall we say Sir Walter? By Sir Walter they certainly are NOT! +One tiny hint of Scots originality is dubious. In the English, and in +all Scots versions, men "win their hay" at Lammastide. In Scotland the +hay harvest is often much later. But if the English ballad be +NORTHUMBRIAN, little can be made out of that proof of Scottish origin. +If the English version be a southern version (for the minstrel is a +professional), then Lammastide for hay-making is borrowed from the +Scots. + +The Scots version (Herd's) insists on Douglas's burial "by the bracken +bush," to which Montgomery bids Percy surrender. This is obviously +done to hide his body and keep his death secret from both parties, AS +IN FROISSART HE BIDS HIS FRIENDS DO. The verse of the English (l.) on +the fight between Douglas and Percy, is borrowed by, or is borrowed +from, the Scottish stanza (ix.) in Herd, where Sir Hugh Montgomery +fights Percy. + + +Then Percy and Montgomery met, + And weel a wot they warna fain; +They swaped swords, and they twa swat, + And ay the blood ran down between. + + The Persses and the Mongomry met, + + +as quoted, is already familiar in The Complaynte of Scotland (about +1549), and this line is not in the English ballad. So far it seems as +if the English balladist borrowed the scene from a Scots version, and +perverted it into a description of a fight, between Percy, who wins, +and Douglas--in place of the Scots version, the victory over Percy of +Sir Hugh Montgomery. + +This transference of incidents in the English and Scottish ballads is a +phenomenon which we are to meet again in the ballad of Jamie Telfer of +the Fair Dodhead. One "maker" or the other has, in old times, pirated +and perverted the ballad of another "maker." + + + +SCOTT'S TRADITIONAL COPY AND HOW HE EDITED IT + + + +As early as December 1802-January 1803, Scott was "so anxious to have a +complete Scottish Otterburn that I will omit the ballad entirely in the +first volume (of 1803), hoping to recover it in time for insertion in +the third." {67a} + +The letter is undated, but is determined by Scott's expressed interest +"about the Tushielaw lines, which, from what you mention, must be worth +recovering." In a letter (Abbotsford MSS.) from Hogg to Scott (marked +in copy, "January 7, 1803") Hogg encloses "the Tushielaw lines," which +were popular in Ettrick, but were verses of the eighteenth century. +They were orally repeated, but literary in origin. + +Scott, who wanted "a complete Scottish Otterburn" in winter 1802, did +not sit down and make one. He waited till he got a text from Hogg, in +1805, and published an edited version in 1806. + +SCOTT'S PUBLISHED stanza i. is Herd's stanza i., with slight verbal +changes taken from the Hogg MS. text of 1805. (?) Hogg's MS. and +Scott, in stanza ii., give Herd's lines on the Lindsays and Gordons, +adding the Grahams, and, in place of Herd's + + + The Earl of Fife, +And Sir Hugh Montgomery upon a grey, + + +they end thus - + + +But the Jardines wald not wi' him ride, + And they rue it to this day. + + +This is from Hogg's copy; it is a natural Border variant. No Earl of +Fife is named, but a reproach to a Border clan is conveyed. + +For Herd's iii. (they take Northumberland, and burn "the North shire," +and the Otter dale), Hogg's reciters gave - + + +And he has burned the dales o' Tyne, + And part o' ALMONSHIRE, +And three good towers in Roxburgh fells, + He left them all on fire. + + +Hogg, in his letter accompanying his copy, says that "Almonshire" may +stand for the "Bamborowshire" of the English vi., but that he leaves in +"Almonshire," as both reciters insist on it. Scott printed +"Bambroughshire," as in the English version (vi.). + +Now here is proof that Hogg had a copy, from reciters--a copy which he +could not understand. "Almonshire" is "Alneshire," or "Alnwickshire," +where is the Percy's Alnwick Castle. In Froissart the Scots burn and +waste the region of Alneshire, all round Alnwick, but the Earl of +Northumberland holds out in the castle, unattacked, and sends his sons, +Henry and Ralph Percy, to Newcastle to gather forces, and take the +retreating Scots between two fires, Newcastle and Alnwick. But the +Scots were not such poor strategists as to return by the way they had +come. In a skirmish or joust at Newcastle, says Froissart, Douglas +captured Percy's lance and pennon, with his blazon of arms, and vowed +that he would set it up over his castle of Dalkeith. Percy replied +that he would never carry it out of England. To give Percy a +chivalrous chance of recovering his pennon and making good his word, +Douglas insists on waiting at Otterburn to besiege the castle there; +and he is taken by surprise (as in the ballads) when a mounted man +brings news of Percy's approach. No tryst is made by Percy and Douglas +at Otterburn in Froissart; Douglas merely tarried there by the courtesy +of Scotland. + +In Hogg's version we have a reason why Douglas should tarry at +Otterburn; in the English ballad we have none very definite. No +captured pennon of Percy's is mentioned, no encounter of the heroes "at +the barriers" of Newcastle. Percy, from the castle wall, merely +threatens Douglas vaguely; Douglas says, "Where will you meet me?" and +Percy appoints Otterburn as we said. He makes the absurd remark that, +by way of supplies (for 40,000 men), Douglas will find abundance of +pheasants and red deer. {69a} + +We see that the English balladist is an unwarlike literary hack. The +author of the Ettrick version knew better the nature of war, as we +shall see, and his Douglas objects to Otterburn as a place destitute of +supplies; nothing is there but wild beasts and birds. If the original +poem is the sensible poem, the Scott version is the original which the +English hath perverted. + +In Hogg, Douglas jousts with Percy at Newcastle, and gives him a fall. +Then come two verses (viii.-ix.). The second is especially modern and +mawkish - + + +But O how pale his lady look'd, + Frae off the castle wa', +When down before the Scottish spear + She saw brave Percy fa'! +How pale and wan his lady look'd, + Frae off the castle hieght, +When she beheld her Percy yield + To doughty Douglas' might. + + +Colonel Elliot asks, "Can any one believe that these stanzas are really +ancient and have come down orally through many generations?" {70a} + +Certainly not! But Colonel Elliot does not allow for the fact, +insisted on by Professor Child, that traditional ballads, from the +sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, were often printed on broad- +sheets as edited by the cheapest broadside-vendors' hacks; that the +hacks interpolated and messed their originals; and that, after the +broadside was worn out, lost, or burned, oral memory kept it alive in +tradition. For examples of this process we have only to look at +William's Ghost in Herd's copy of 1776. This is a traditional ballad; +it is included in Scott's Clerk Saunders, but, as Hogg told him, is a +quite distinct song. In Herd's copy it ends thus - + + +"Oh, stay, my only true love, stay," + The constant Marg'ret cry'd; +Wan grew her cheeks, she closed her eyes, + Stretched her soft limbs, and dy'd. + + +Let THIS get into tradition, and be taken down from recitation, and the +ballad will be denounced as modern. But it is essentially ancient. + +These two modern stanzas, in Hogg's copy, are rather too bad for Hogg's +making; and I do not know whether they are his (he practically says +they are not, we shall see), or whether they are remembered by reciters +from a stall-copy of the period of Lady Wardlaw's Hardyknute. + +After that, Hogg's copy becomes more natural. Douglas says to the +discomfited Percy (x.) - + + +Had we twa been upon the green, + And never an eye to see, +I should hae had ye flesh and fell, + But your sword shall gae wi' me. + + +That rings true! Moreover, had either Hogg or Scott tampered here +(Scott excised), either would have made Douglas carry off--not Percy's +SWORD, but the historic captured PENNON of Percy. Scott really could +not have resisted the temptation had he been interpolating a son devis. + + +But your PENNON shall gae wi' me! + + +It was easy to write in that! + +Percy had challenged Douglas thus - + + +But gae ye up to Otterburn, + And there wait days three (xi.), + + +as in the English (xiii.). In the English, Percy, we saw, promises +game enough there; in Hogg, Douglas demurs (xii., xiii., xiv.). There +are no supplies at Otterburn, he says - + + + To feed my men and me. + +The deer rins wild frae dale to dale, + The birds fly wild frae tree to tree, +And there is neither bread nor kale, + To fend my men and me. + + +These seem to me sound true ballad lines, like - + + +My hounds may a' rin masterless + My hawks may fly frae tree to tree, + + +in Child's variant of Young Beichan. The speakers, we see, are +"inverted." Percy, in the English, promises Douglas's men pheasants-- +absurd provision for the army of 40,000 men of the English ballad. In +the Ettrick text Douglas says that there are no supplies, merely ferae +naturae, but he will wait at Otterburn to give Percy his chance. + +Colonel Elliot takes the inversion of parts as a proof of modern +pilfering and deliberate change to hide the theft; at least he mentions +them, and the "prettier verses," with a note of exclamation (!). {73a} +But there are, we repeat, similar inversions in the English and in +Herd's old copy, and nobody says that Scott or Hogg or any modern faker +made the inversions in Herd's text. The differences and inversions in +the English and in Herd are very ancient; by 1550 "the Percy and the +Montgomery met," in the line quoted in The Complaynte of Scotland. At +about the same period (1550) it was the Percy and the Douglas who met, +in the English version. Manifestly there pre-existed, by 1550, an old +ballad, which either a Scot then perverted from the English text, or an +Englishman from the Scots. Thus the inversions in the Ettrick and +English version need not be due (they are not due) to a MODERN "faker." + +In the Hogg MS. (xxiii.), Percy wounds Douglas "till backwards he did +flee." Hogg was too good a Scot to interpolate the flight of Douglas; +and Scott was so good a Scot that--what do you suppose he did?--he +excised "till backwards he did flee" from Hogg's text, and inserted +"that he fell to the ground" FROM THE ENGLISH TEXT! + +In the Hogg MS. (xviii., xix.), in Scott xvii., xviii., Douglas, at +Otterburn, is roused from sleep by his page with news of Percy's +approach. Douglas says that the page lies (compare Herd, where Douglas +doubts the page) - + + +For Percy hadna' men yestreen +To dight my men and me. + + +There is nothing in this to surprise any one who knows the innumerable +variants in traditional ballads. But now comes in a very curious +variation (Hogg MS. xx., Scott, xix.). Douglas says (Hogg MS. xx.) - + + +But I have seen a dreary dream + Beyond the Isle o' Skye, +I saw a dead man won the fight, + And I think that man was I. + + +Here is something not in Herd, and as remote from the manner of the +English poet, with his + + +The Chronicle will not lie, + + +as Heine is remote from, say,--Milman. The verse is magical, it has +haunted my memory since I was ten years old. Godscroft, who does not +approve of the story of Douglas's murder by one of his men, writes that +the dying leader said:- + +"First do yee keep my death both from our own folke and from the enemy" +(Froissart, "Let neither friend nor foe know of my estate"); "then that +ye suffer not my standard to be lost or cast downe" (Froissart, "Up +with my standard and call DOUGLAS!";) "and last, that ye avenge my +death" (also in Froissart). "Bury me at Melrose Abbey with my father. +If I could hope for these things I should die with the greater +contentment; for long since I HEARD A PROPHESIE THAT A DEAD MAN SHOULD +WINNE A FIELD, AND I HOPE IN GOD IT SHALL BE I." {75a} + + +I saw a dead man won the fight, + And I think that man was I! + + +Godscroft, up to the mention of Melrose and the prophecy, took his tale +direct from Froissart, or, if he took it from George Buchanan's Latin +History, Buchanan's source was Froissart, but Froissart's was evidence +from Scots who were in the battle. + +But who changed the prophecy to a dream of Douglas, and who versified +Godscroft's "a dead man shall winne a field, and I hope in God it shall +be I"? Did Godscroft take that from the ballad current in his time and +quoted by him? Or did a remanieur of Godscroft turn HIS words into + + +I saw a dead man win the fight, + And I think that man was I? + + +Scott did not make these two noble lines out of Godscroft, he found +them in Hogg's copy from recitation, only altering "I saw" into "I +dreamed," and the ungrammatic "won" into "win"; and "THE fight" into "A +fight." + +The whole dream stanza occurs in a part of the ballad where Hogg +confesses to no alteration or interpolation, and I doubt if the +Shepherd of Ettrick had read a rare old book like Godscroft. If he had +not, this stanza is purely traditional; if he had, he showed great +genius in his use of Godscroft. + +In Hogg's Ettrick copy, Douglas, after telling his dream, rushes into +battle, is wounded by Percy, and "backward flees." Scott (xx.), +following a historical version (Wyntoun's Cronykil), makes + + +Douglas forget the helmit good + That should have kept his brain. + + +Being wounded, in Hogg's version, and "backward fleeing," Douglas sends +his page to bring Montgomery (Hogg), and from stanza xxiv. to xxxiv., +in Hogg, all is made up by himself, he says,--from facts given "in +plain prose" by his reciters, with here and there a line or two given +in verse. Scott omitted some verses here, amended others slightly, by +help of Herd's version, LEFT OUT A BROKEN LAST STANZA (xl.) and put in +Herd's concluding lines (stanza lxviii. in the English text). + + +This deed was done at the Otterburn. (Herd.) + +The fraye began at Otterburn. (English.) + + +Now what was the broken Ettrick stanza that Scott omitted in his +published Otterburne (1806)? It referred to Sir Hugh Montgomery, who, +in Herd, captured Percy after a fight; in the English version is a +prisoner apparently exchanged for Percy. In the Ettrick MS. the +omitted verse is + + +He left not an Englishman on the field +. . . +That he hadna either killed or taen + Ere his heart's blood was cauld. + + +Scott ended with Herd's last stanza; in the English version the last +but two. + +Now the death, at Otterburn, of Sir Hugh, is recorded in an English +ballad styled The Hunting of the Cheviot. By 1540-50 it was among the +popular songs north of Tweed. The Complaynte of Scotland (1549) +mentions among "The Songis of Natural Music of the Antiquitie" +(volkslieder), The Hunttis of Chevet. Our copy of the English version +is in the Bodleian (MS. Ashmole, 48). It ends: "Expliceth, quod +Rychard Sheale," a minstrel who recited ballads and tales at Tamworth +(circ. 1559). The text was part of his stock-in-trade. + +The Cheviot ballad, in a Scots form popular in 1549, is later in many +ways than the English Battle of Otterburne. It begins with a brag of +Percy, a vow that, despite Douglas, he will hunt in the Cheviot hills. +While Percy is hunting with a strong force, Douglas arrives with +another. Douglas offers to decide the quarrel by single combat with +Percy, who accepts. Richard Witherington refuses to look on quietly, +and a general engagement ensues. + + +At last the Duglas and the Perse met, +Lyk to Captayns of myght and of mayne, +They swapte together tylle they both swat +With swordes that wear of fyn myllan." + + +We are back in stanza I. of the English Otterburne, in stanza xxxv. +(substituting Hugh Montgomery for Douglas) of the Hogg MS. In The +Hunting, Douglas is slain by an English arrow (xxxvi.-xxxviii.). + +Sir Hugh Montgomery now charges and slays Percy (who, of course, was +merely taken prisoner). An archer of Northumberland sends an arrow +through good Sir Hugh Montgomery (xliii.-xlvi.). Stanza lxvi. has + + +At Otterburn begane this spurne, + Upon a Monnynday; +There was the doughte Douglas slean, + The Perse never went away. + + +This is a form of Herd's stanza xiv. of the English Otterburn +(lxviii.), made soon after the battle. We see that the ORIGINAL ballad +has protean variants; in time all is mixed in tradition. + +Now the curious and interesting point is that Hogg, when he collected +the ballad from two reciters, himself noticed that the Cheviot ballad +had merged, in some way, into the Otterburn ballad, and pointed this +out to Scott. I now publish Hogg's letter to Scott, in which, as +usual, he does not give the year-date: I think it was 1805. + + +ETTRICK HOUSE, Sept. 10, [?1805]. + +Dear Sir,--Though I have used all diligence in my power to recover the +old song about which you seemed anxious, I am afraid it will arrive too +late to be of any use. I cannot at this time have Grame and Bewick; +the only person who hath it being absent at a harvest; and as for the +scraps of Otterburn which you have got, THEY SEEM TO HAVE BEEN SOME +CONFUSED JUMBLE MADE BY SOME PERSON WHO HAD LEARNED BOTH THE SONGS YOU +HAVE, {79a} AND IN TIME HAD BEEN STRAITENED TO MAKE ONE OUT OF THEM +BOTH. But you shall have it as I had it, saving that, as usual, I have +sometimes helped the metre without altering one original word. + +Hogg here gives his version from recitation as far as stanza xxiv. + +Here Hogg stops and writes:- + + +The ballad, which I have collected from two different people, a crazy +old man and a woman deranged in her mind, seems hitherto considerably +entire; but now, when it becomes most interesting, they have both +failed me, and I have been obliged to take much of it in plain prose. +However, as none of them seemed to know anything of the history save +what they had learned from the song, I took it the more kindly. Any +few verses which follow are to me unintelligible. + +He told Sir Hugh that he was dying, and ordered him to conceal his +body, and neither let his own men nor Piercy's know; which he did, and +the battle went on headed by Sir Hugh Montgomery, and at length - + + +Here follow stanzas up to xxxviii. + +Hogg then goes on thus:- + + +Piercy seems to have been fighting devilishly in the dark. Indeed my +narrators added no more, but told me that Sir Hugh died on the field, +but that + + +He left not an Englishman on the field, +. . . +That he hadna either killed or ta'en + Ere his heart's blood was cauld. + + +Almonshire (Stanza iii.) may probably be a corruption of Bamburghshire, +but as both my narrators called it so I thought proper to preserve it. +The towers in Roxburgh fells (Stanza iii.) may not be so improper as we +were thinking, there may have been some [English] strength on the very +borders.--I remain, Dear Sir, your most faithful and affectionate +servant, JAMES HOGG. + + +Hogg adds a postscript: + + +Not being able to get the letter away to the post, I have taken the +opportunity of again pumping my old friend's memory, and have recovered +some more lines and half lines of Otterburn, of which I am becoming +somewhat enamoured. These I have been obliged to arrange somewhat +myself, as you will see below, but so mixed are they with original +lines and sentences that I think, if you pleased, they might pass +without any acknowledgment. Sure no man will like an old song the +worse of being somewhat harmonious. After stanza xxiv. you may read +stanzas xxv. to xxxiv. Then after xxxviii. read xxxix. + + +Now we know all that can be known about the copy of the ballad which, +in 1805, Scott received from Hogg. Up to stanza xxiv. it is as given +by the two old reciters. The crazy man may be the daft man who recited +to Hogg Burns's Tam o' Shanter, and inspired him with the ambition to +be a poet. The deranged woman, like mad Madge Wildfire, was rich in +ballad scraps. From stanza xxv. to xxxiv., Hogg confessedly +"harmonises" what he got in plain prose intermixed with verse. Stanza +xxxix. is apparently Hogg's. The last broken stanza, as Hogg said, is +a reminiscence of the Hunting of the Cheviot, in a Scots form, long +lost. + +Hogg was not a scientific collector: had he been, he would have taken +down "the plain prose" and the broken lines and stanzas verbally. But +Hogg has done his best. + +We have next to ask, How did Scott treat the material thus placed +before him? He dropped five stanzas sent by Hogg, mainly from the part +made up from "plain prose"; he placed in a stanza and a line or two +from Herd's text; he remade a stanza and adopted a line from the +English of 1550, and inserted an incident from Wyntoun's Cronykil +(about 1430). He did these things in the effort to construct what +Lockhart calls "a standard text." + +1. In stanza i., for Hogg's "Douglas WENT," Scott put "bound him to +ride." +2. (H) "With the Lindsays." + (S.) "With THEM the Lindesays." +3. (H) "Almonshire." + (S.) "Bamboroughshire." + (H) "Roxburgh." + (S.) "Reidswire." +6. (H.) "The border again. + (S.) "The border fells." +7. (H) "MOST furiously." + (S.) "RIGHT furiouslie." +9. (H.) A modernised stanza. + (S.) Scott deletes it. +15. (H) Scott rewrites the stanza thus, + (H.) +But I will stay at Otterburn, + Where you shall welcome be; +And if ye come not at three days end, + A coward I'll call thee. + (S.) +"Thither will I come," proud Percy said, + "By the might of Our Ladye." +"There will I bide thee," said the Douglas, + "My troth I'll plight to thee." +19. (H.) "I have SEEN a dreary dream." +20. (S.) "I have DREAMED a dreary dream." +21. (H) +Where he met with the stout Percy + And a' his goodly train. +21. (S.) +But he forgot the helmet good +That should have kept his brain. +(From Wyntoun.) +22. (H.) Line 2. "Right keen." + (S.) Line 2. "Fu' fain." +Line 4. + The blood ran down like rain. +Line 4. + The blood ran them between. +23. (H.) +But Piercy wi' his good broadsword + Was made o' the metal free, +Has wounded Douglas on the brow + Till backward did he flee. +24. (S.) +But Piercy wi' his broadsword good + That could so sharply wound, +Has wounded Douglas on the brow, + Till he fell to the ground. +25. (H.) Here Hogg has mixed prose and verse, and does his best. +Scott deletes Hogg's 25. +27. (H.) Douglas repeats the story of his dream. Scott deletes the +stanza. +28. In Hogg's second line, + Nae mair I'll fighting see. +Scott gives, from Herd, + Take thou the vanguard of the three. +29. Hogg's verse is +But tell na ane of my brave men + That I lie bleeding wan, +But let the name of Douglas still + Be shouted in the van. + +This is precisely what Douglas does say, in Froissart, but Scott +deletes the stanza. Probably Hogg got the fact from his reciters, "in +plain prose," with a phrase or two in verse. + +31. (H.) Line 4. + On yonder lily lee. +27. (S.) + That his merrie men might not see. +33. (H) Scott deletes the stanza. +35. (H) + When stout Sir Hugh wi' Piercy met. +30. (S.) +The Percy and Montgomery met. {83a} +36. (H.) +"O yield thee, Piercy," said Sir Hugh, + "O yield, or ye shall die!" +"Fain would I yield," proud Percy said, + "But ne'er to loon like thee." +31. (S.) +"Now yield thee, yield thee, Percy," he said, + "Or else I vow I'll lay thee low," +"To whom must I yield," quoth Earl Percy, + "Now that I see it must be so?" + +Scott took this from Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe's MS. copy. {84a} + +38. (H) +38. (S.) Scott makes a slight verbal alteration. +39. (H) Line 1. +34. (S.) Line 1. +Scott substitutes Herd's + As soon as he knew it was Montgomery. + +40. (H) Hogg's broken stanza on the death of Montgomery, derived from +a lost form of the Huntiss of Chevets, named in The Complaynte of +Scotland. + +35. (S.) Scott omits giving the formula common to the English of 1550 +and to Herd. This was the whole of Scott's editorial alteration. Any +one may discover the facts from Professor Kittredge's useful +abbreviation of Child's collection into a single volume (Nutt. London, +1905). Colonel Elliot quotes Professor Kittredge's book three or four +times, but in place of looking at the facts he abounds in the Higher +Criticism. Colonel Elliot says that Scott does not tell us of a single +line having been borrowed from Percy's version. {84a} Scott has only +"a single line" to tell of, the fourth line in his stanza xxii., "Till +he fell to the ground." + +For the rest, the old English version and Herd's have many inter- +borrowings of stanzas, but we do not know whether a Scot borrowed from +an Englishman, or vice versa. Thus, in another and longer traditional +version--Hogg's--more correspondence must be expected than in Herd's +fourteen stanzas. It is, of course, open to scepticism to allege that +Hogg merely made his text, invented the two crazy old reciters, and the +whole story about them, and his second "pumping of their memories," +invented "Almonshire," which he could not understand, and invented his +last broken stanza on the death of Montgomery, to give the idea that +The Huntiss of Chevets was mingled in the recollections of the reciters +with The Battle of Otterburn. He also gave the sword in place of the +pennon of Percy as the trophy of Douglas, "and the same with intent to +deceive," just as he pretended, in Auld Maitland, not to know what +"springwalls" were, and wrote "springs: wall-stanes." If this +probable theory be correct, then Scott was the dupe of Truthful James. +At all events, though for three years Scott was moving heaven and earth +and Ettrick Forest to find a copy of a Scottish ballad of Otterburn, he +did not sit down and make one, as, in Colonel Elliot's system, he +easily could and probably would have done. + +Before studying his next ill deed, we must repeat that the Otterburn +ballads prove that in early times one nation certainly pirated a ballad +of a rival nation, and very ingeniously altered it and inverted the +parts of the heroes. + +We have next to examine a case in a later generation, in which a maker +who was interested in one clan, pirated, perverted, and introverted the +roles of the heroes in a ballad by a maker interested in another clan. +Either an Elliotophile perverted a ballad by a Scottophile, or a +Scottophile perverted a ballad by an Elliotophile. + +This might be done at the time when the ballad was made (say 1620-60). +But Colonel Elliot believes that the perversion was inflicted on an +Elliotophile ballad by a Scottophile impostor about 1800-1802. The +name of this desperate and unscrupulous character was Walter Scott, +Sheriff of Ettrick Forest, commonly called Selkirkshire. + +In this instance I have no manuscript evidence. The name of "Jamie of +the Fair Dodhead," the ballad, appears in a list of twenty-two ballads +in Sir Walter's hand, written in a commonplace book about 1800-1801. +Eleven are marked X. "Jamie" is one of that eleven. Kinmont Willie is +among the eleven not marked X. We may conjecture that he had obtained +the first eleven, and was hunting for the second eleven,--some of which +he never got, or never published. + + + +THE MYSTERY OF THE BALLAD OF JAMIE TELFER + + + +I--A RIDING SONG + +The Ballad of Jamie Telfer of the Fair Dodhead has many charms for +lovers of the Border. The swift and simple stanzas carry us through a +great tract of country, which remains not unlike what it was in the +days when Scotts, Armstrongs, and Elliots rode the hills in jack and +knapscap, with sword and lance. The song leads us first, with a +foraging party of English riders, from Bewcastle, an English hold, east +of the Border stream of the Liddel; then through the Armstrong tribe, +on the north bank; then through more Armstrongs north across Tarras +water ("Tarras for the good bull trout"); then north up Ewes water, +that springs from the feet of the changeless green hills and the +pastorum loca vasta, where now only the shepherd or the angler wakens +the cry of the curlews, but where then the Armstrongs were in force. +We ride on, as it were, and look down into the dale of the stripling +Teviot, electro clarior (then held by the Scotts); we descend and ford +"Borthwick's roaring strand," as Leyden sings, though the burn is +usually a purling brook even where it joins Teviot, three miles above +Hawick. + +Next we pass across the green waves of moorlands that rise to the +heights over Ettrick (held by the Scotts), whence the foragers of the +song gallop down to "The Fair Dodhead," now a heap of grass-covered +stones, but in their day a peel tower, occupied, ACCORDING TO THE +BALLAD, by one James Telfer. The English rob the peel tower, they +drive away ten cows, and urge them southwards over Borthwick water, +then across Teviot at Coultart Cleugh (say seven miles above Hawick), +then up the Frostily burn, and so down Ewes water as before; but the +Scottish pursuers meet them before they cross the Liddel again into +English bounds. The English are defeated, their captain is shot +through the head (which in no way affects his power of making +speeches); he is taken, twenty or thirty of his men are killed or +wounded, his own cattle are seized, and his victim Telfer, returns +rejoicing to Dodhead in distant Ettrick. + +C'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas la guerre! These events never +occurred, as we shall see later, yet the poet has the old reiving +spirit, the full sense of the fierce manly times, and possesses a +traditional knowledge of the historical personages of the day, and +knows the country,--more or less. + +The poem has raised as many difficulties as Nestor's long story about +raided cattle in the eleventh book of the Iliad. Historical Greece +knew but dimly the places which were familiar to Nestor, the towns that +time had ruined, the hill where Athene "turned the people again." We, +too, have to seek in documents of the end of the sixteenth century, or +in an old map of 1654 (drawn about 1600), to find Dodhead, Catslack, or +Catloch, or Catlock hill, and Preakinhaugh, places essential to our +inquiry. + +I see the student who has ventured so far into my tract wax wan! He +does not,--she does not,--wish to hear about dusty documents and +ancient maps. For him or for her the ballad is enough, and a very good +ballad it is. I would shake the faith of no man in the accuracy of the +ballad tale, if it were not necessary for me to defend the character of +Sir Walter Scott, which, on occasion of this and other ballads, is +impugned by Colonel the Hon. FitzWilliam Elliot. He "hopes, though he +cannot expect," that I will give my reasons for not sharing his belief +that Sir Walter did a certain thing which I could not easily palliate.' + + +II--THE BALLAD IMPOSSIBLE + + +My attempts to relieve Colonel Elliot from his painful convictions +about Sir Walter's unsportsmanlike behaviour must begin with proof that +the ballad, as it stands, cannot conceivably be other than "a pack o' +lees." Here Colonel Elliot, to a great extent and on an essential +point, agrees with me. In sketching rapidly the story of the ballad,-- +the raid from England into Ettrick, the return of the raiders, the +pursuit,--I omitted the clou, the pivot, the central point of dramatic +interest. It is this: in one version of the ballad,--call it A for +the present,--the unfortunate Telfer runs to ask aid from the laird of +Buccleuch, at Branksome Hall, some three and a half or four miles above +Hawick, on the Teviot. From the Dodhead it was a stiff run of eight +miles, through new-fallen snow. The farmer of Dodhead, in the centre +of the Scott country, naturally went for help to the nearest of his +neighbours, the greatest chief in the mid-Border. In version A (which +I shall call "the Elliot version"), "auld Buccleuch" (who was a man of +about thirty in fact) was deaf to Telfer's prayer. + + +Gae seek your succour frae Martin Elliot, + For succour ye's get nane frae me, +Gae seek your succour where ye paid blackmail, + For, man, ye ne'er paid money to me. + + +This is impossibly absurd! As Colonel Elliot writes, "I pointed out in +my book" (The Trustworthiness of Border Ballads) "that the allegation +that Buccleuch had refused to strike a blow at a party of English +raiders, who had insolently ridden some twenty-five miles into Scottish +ground and into the very middle of his own territory, was too absurd to +be believed . . . " {91a} + +Certainly; and the story is the more ridiculous as Buccleuch (who has +taken Telfer's protection-money, or "blackmail") pretends to believe +that Telfer--living in Ettrick, about nine miles from Selkirk--pays +protection-money to Martin Elliot, residing at Preakinhaugh, high up +the water of Liddel. Martin was too small a potentate, and far too +remote to be chosen as protector by a man living near the farm of +Singlee on Ettrick, and near the bold Buccleuch. + +All this is nonsense. Colonel Elliot sees that, and suggests that all +this is not by the original poet, but has been "inserted at some later +period." {91a} But, if so, WHAT WAS THE ORIGINAL BALLAD BEFORE THE +INSERTION? As it stands, all hinges on this impossible refusal of +Buccleuch to help his neighbour and retainer, James Telfer. If Colonel +Elliot excises Buccleuch's refusal of aid as a later interpolation, and +if he allows Telfer to reach Branksome and receive the aid which +Buccleuch would rejoice to give, then the Elliot version of the ballad +cannot take a further step. It becomes a Scott ballad, Buccleuch sends +out his Scotts to pursue the English raiders, and the Elliots, if they +come in at all, must only be subordinates. But as the Elliot version +stands, it is Buccleuch's refusal to do his duty that compels poor +Jamie to run to his brother-in-law, "auld Jock Grieve" in +Coultartcleugh, four miles higher on Teviot than Branksome. Jock gives +him a mount, and he rides to "Martin's Hab" at "Catlockhill," a place +unknown to research thereabout. Thence they both ride to Martin Elliot +at Preakinhaugh, high up in Liddesdale, and the Elliots under Martin +rescue Jamie's kye. + +Now the original ballad, if it did not contain Buccleuch's refusal of +aid to Telfer (which refusal is a thing "too absurd to be believed") +must merely have told about the rescue of Jamie's kye by the Scotts, +Wat of Harden, and the rest. If Buccleuch did not refuse help he gave +it, and there was no ride by Telfer to Martin Elliot. Therefore, +without a passage "too absurd to be believed" (Buccleuch's refusal), +THERE COULD BE NO ELLIOTS IN THE STORY. The alternative is, that +Telfer in Ettrick DID pay blackmail to a man so remote as Elliot of +Preakinhaugh, though Buccleuch was his chief and his neighbour. This +is absurd. Yet Colonel Elliot firmly maintains that the version, in +which the Elliots have all the glory and Buccleuch all the shame, is +the original version, and is true on essential points. + +That is only possible if we cut out the verses about Buccleuch and make +an Ettrick man not appeal to him, but go direct to a Liddesdale man for +succour. He must run from Dodhead to Coultartcleugh, get a horse from +Jock Grieve (Buccleuch's man and tenant), and then ride into Liddesdale +to Martin. But an Ettrick man, in a country of Scotts, would +inevitably go to his chief and neighbour, Buccleuch: it is +inconceivable that he should choose the remote Martin Elliot as his +protector, and go to HIM. + +Thus, as a corollary from Colonel Elliot's own disbelief in the +Buccleuch incident, the Elliot version of the ballad must be absolutely +false and foolish. + +If Colonel Elliot leaves in the verses on Buccleuch's refusal, he +leaves in what he calls "too absurd to be believed." If he cuts out +these verses as an interpolation, then Buccleuch lent aid to Telfer, +and there was no occasion to approach Martin Elliot. Or, by a third +course, the Elliot ballad originally made an Ettrick man, a neighbour +of the great Buccleuch, never dream of appealing to HIM for help, but +run to Coultartcleugh, four miles above Buccleuch's house, and thence +make his way over to distant Liddesdale to Martin Elliot! Yet Colonel +Elliot says that in what I call "the Elliot version," "the story defies +criticism." {93a} Now, however you take it,--I give you three +choices,--the story is absolutely impossible. + +This Elliot version was unknown to lovers of the ballads, till the late +Professor Child of Harvard, the greatest master of British ballad-lore +that ever lived, in his beautiful English and Scottish Popular Ballads, +printed it from a manuscript belonging to Mr. Macmath, which had +previously been the property of a friend of Scott, Charles Kirkpatrick +Sharpe. This version is entitled "Jamie Telfer IN the Fair Dodhead," +not "OF": Jamie was a tenant (there was no Jamie Telfer tenant of +Dodhead in 1570-1609, but concerning that I have more to say). Jamie +was no laird. + +Before Professor Child's publication of the Elliot version, we had only +that given by Scott in The Border Minstrelsy of 1802. Now Scott's +version is at least as absurdly incredible as the Elliot version. In +Scott's version the unhappy Jamie runs, not to Branksome and Buccleuch, +to meet a refusal; but to "the Stobs's Ha'"(on Slitterick above Hawick) +and to "auld Gibby Elliot," the laird. Elliot bids him go to Branksome +and the laird of Buccleuch, + + +For, man, ye never paid money to me! + + +Naturally Telfer did not pay to Elliot: he paid to Buccleuch, if to +any one. More, till after the Union of 1603, and the end of Border +raids, Gilbert Elliot, a cousin and friend of Buccleuch, WAS NOT THE +OWNER OF STOBS. The Hon. George Elliot pointed out this fact in his +Border Elliots and the Family of Minto: Colonel Elliot rightly insists +on this point. + +The Scott version is therefore as hopelessly false as the Elliot +version. The Elliot version, with the Buccleuch incident, is "too +absurd to be believed," and could not have been written (except in +banter of Buccleuch), while men remembered the customs of the sixteenth +century. The Scott version, again, could not be composed before the +tradition arose that Gilbert Elliot WAS laird of Stobs before the Union +of the Crowns in 1603. Now that tradition was in full force on the +Border before 1688. We know that (see chapter on Kinmont Willie, +infra), for, in 1688, a man born in 1613, Captain Walter Scott of +Satchells, in his Metrical History of the Honourable Families of the +Names of Scott and Elliot, represents Gilbert Elliot of Stobs as riding +with Buccleuch in the rescue of Kinmont Willie, in 1596. {95a} Now +Satchells's own father rode in that fray, he says, {95b} and he gives a +minute genealogy of the Elliots of Stobs. {95c} + +Thus the belief that Gilbert Elliot was laird of Stobs by 1596 was +current in the traditions of a man born seventeen years after 1596. +THE SCOTT VERSION RESTS ON THAT TRADITION, and is not earlier than the +rise of that erroneous belief. + +Neither the Scott nor Elliot version is other than historically false. +But the Scott version, if we cut out the reference to auld Gibby +Elliot, offers a conceivable, though not an actual, course of events. +The Elliot version, if we excise the Buccleuch incident, does not. +Cutting out the Buccleuch incident, Telfer goes all the way from +Ettrick to Liddesdale, seeking help in that remote country, and never +thinks of asking aid from Buccleuch, his neighbour and chief. This is +idiotic. In the Scott version, if we cut out the refusal of Gilbert +Elliot of Stobs, Telfer goes straight to his brother-in-law, auld Jock +Grieve, within four miles of Buccleuch at Branksome; thence to another +friend, William's Wat, at Catslockhill (now Branksome-braes), and so to +Buccleuch at Branksome. This is absurd enough. Telfer would have gone +straight to Branksome and Buccleuch, unless he were a poor shy small +farmer, WHO WANTED SPONSORS, known to Buccleuch. Jock Grieve and +William's Wat, both of them retainers and near neighbours of Buccleuch, +were such sponsors. Granting this, the Scott version runs smoothly, +Telfer goes to his sponsors, and with his sponsors to Buccleuch, and +Buccleuch's men rescue his kye. + + +III--COLONEL ELLIOT'S CHARGE AGAINST SIR WALTER SCOTT + + +Colonel Elliot believes generally in the historical character of the +ballad as given in the Elliot version, but "is inclined to think that" +the original poet "never wrote the stanza" (the stanza with Buccleuch's +refusal) "at all, and that it has been inserted at some later period." +{97a} In that case Colonel Elliot is "inclined to think" that an +Ettrick farmer, robbed by the English, never dreamed of going to his +neighbour and potent chief, but went all the way to Martin Elliot, high +up in Liddesdale, to seek redress! Surely few can share the Colonel's +inclination. Why should a farmer in Ettrick "choose to lord" a remote +Elliot, when he had the Cock of the Border, the heroic Buccleuch, +within eight miles of his home? + +Holding these opinions, Colonel Elliot, with deep regret - + + +I wat the tear blinded his ee - + + +accuses Sir Walter Scott of having taken the Elliot version--till then +the only version--and of having altered stanzas vii.-xi. (in which +Jamie goes to Branksome, and is refused succour) into his own stanzas +vii.-xi., in which Jamie goes to Stobs and is refused succour. This +evil thing Scott did, thinks Colonel Elliot. Scott had no copy, he +thinks, of the ballad except an Elliot copy, which he deliberately +perverted. + +We must look into the facts of the case. I know no older published +copy of the ballad than that of Scott, in Border Minstrelsy, vol. i. p. +91 et seqq. (1802). Professor Child quotes a letter from the Ettrick +shepherd to Scott of "June 30, 1802" thus: "I am surprised to find +that the songs in your collection differ so widely from my mother's; +Jamie Telfer differs in many particulars." {98a} (This is an +incomplete quotation. I give the MS. version later.) + +Scott himself, before Hogg wrote thus, had said, in the prefatory note +to his Jamie Telfer: "There is another ballad, under the same title as +the following, in which nearly the same incidents are narrated, with +little difference, except that the honour of rescuing the cattle is +attributed to the Liddesdale Elliots, headed by a chief there called +Martin Elliot of the Preakin Tower, whose son, Simm, is said to have +fallen in the action. It is very possible that both the Teviotdale +Scotts and the Elliots were engaged in the affair, and that each +claimed the honour of the victory." + +Old Mrs. Hogg's version, "differing in many particulars" from Scott's, +must have been the Elliot version, published by Professor Child, as +"A*," "Jamie Telfer IN" (not "OF") "the Fair Dodhead," "from a MS. +written about the beginning of the nineteenth century, and now in the +possession of Mr. William Macmath"; it had previously belonged to +Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe. {98b} + +There is one great point of difference between the two forms. In Sir +Walter's variant, verse 26 summons the Scotts of Teviotdale, including +Wat of Harden. In his 28 the Scotts ride with the slogan "Rise for +Branksome readily." Scott's verses 34, 36, and the two first lines of +38, are, if there be such a thing as internal evidence, from his own +pen. Such lines as + + +The Dinlay snaw was ne'er mair white +Nor the lyart locks o' Harden's hair + + +are cryingly modern and "Scottesque." + +That Sir Walter knew the other version, as in Mr. Macmath's MS. of the +early nineteenth century, is certain; he describes that version in his +preface. That he effected the whole transposition of Scotts for +Elliots is Colonel Elliot's opinion. {99a} + +If Scott did, I am not the man to defend his conduct; I regret and +condemn it; and shall try to prove that he found the matter in his +copy. I shall first prove, beyond possibility of doubt, that the +ballad is, from end to end, utterly unhistorical, though based on +certain real incidents of 1596-97. I shall next show that the Elliot +version is probably later than the Scott version. Finally, I shall +make it certain (or so it seems to me) that Scott worked on an old copy +which was NOT the copy that belonged to Kirkpatrick Sharpe, but +contained points of difference, NOT those inserted by Sir Walter Scott +about "Dinlay snaw," and so forth. + + +IV--WHO WAS THE FARMER IN THE DODHEAD IN 1580-1609? + + +Colonel Elliot has made no attempt to prove that one Telfer was tenant +of the Dodhead in 1580-1603, which must, we shall see, include the +years in which the alleged incidents occur. On this question--was +there a Telfer in the Dodhead in 1580-1603?--I consulted my friend, Mr. +T. Craig Brown, author of an excellent History of Selkirkshire. In +that work (vol. i. p. 356) the author writes: "Dodhead or Scotsbank; +Dodhead was one of the four stedes of Redefurd in 1455. In 1609 Robert +Scot of Satchells (ancestor of the poet-captain) obtained a Crown +charter of the lands of Dodbank." For the statement that Dodhead was +one of the three stedes in 1455, Mr. Craig Brown quotes "The Retoured +Extent of 1628," "an unimpeachable authority." For the Crown charter +of 1609, we have only to look up "Dodbank" in the Register of the Great +Seal of 1609. The charter is of November 24, 1609, and gratifies +"Robert Scott of Satscheillis" (father of the Captain Walter Scott who +composed the Metrical History of the Scotts in 1688) with the lands, +which have been occupied by him and his forefathers "from a time past +human memory." Thus, writes Mr. Craig Brown to me, "Scott of Satchells +was undoubtedly Scott of Dodhead also in 1609." + +In "The Retoured Extent of 1628," "Dodhead or Dodbank" appears as +Harden's property. Thus in 1628 the place was "Dodhead or Dodbank," a +farm that had been tenanted by Scotts "from beyond human memory." But +Mr. Craig Brown proves from record that one Simpson farmed it in 1510. + +So where does Jamie Telfer come in? + +The farmers were Scotts, it was to their chief, Buccleuch, that they +went when they needed aid. {101a} + +Thus vanishes the hero of the ballad, Jamie Telfer in the Fair Dodhead, +and thus the ballad is pure fiction from end to end. + + +V--MORE IMPOSSIBILITIES IN THE BALLAD + + +This is only one of the impossibilities in the ballad. That the +Captain of Bewcastle, an English hold, stated in a letter of the period +to be distant three miles from the frontier, the Liddel water, should +seek "to drive a prey from the Ettrick, far through the bounds of his +neighbours and foes, Grahams, Armstrongs, Scotts, and Elliots, is a +ridiculously absurd circumstance. + +Colonel Elliot attempts to meet this difficulty by his theory of the +route taken by the Captain, which he illustrates by a map. {102a} The +ballad gives no details except that the Captain found his first guide +"high up in Hardhaughswire," which Colonel Elliot cannot identify. The +second guide was "laigh down in Borthwick water." If this means on the +lower course of the Borthwick, the Captain was perilously near +Branksome Hall and Harden, and his ride was foolhardy. But "laigh +down," I think, means merely "on lower ground than Hardhaughswire." + +The Captain, as soon as he crossed the Ritterford after leaving +Bewcastle, was in hostile and very watchful Armstrong country. This +initial difficulty Colonel Elliot meets by marking on his map, as +Armstrong country, the north bank of the Liddel down to Kershope burn; +and the Captain crosses Liddel below that burn at Ritterford. Thence +he goes north by west, across Tarras water, up Ewes water, up +Mickledale burn, by Merrylaw and Ramscleugh and so on to Howpasley, +which is not on the lower but the upper Borthwick. + +Looking at Colonel Elliot's chart of the Captain's route, all seems +easy enough for the Captain. He does not try to ride into Teviotdale, +for which he is making, up the Liddel water, and thence by the +Hermitage tributary on his left. Colonel Elliot studs that region with +names of Armstrong and Elliot strongholds. He makes the Captain, +crossing Liddel by the Ritterford, bear to his left, through a space +empty of hostile habitations, in his map. This seems prudent, but the +region thus left blank was full of the fiercest and most warlike of the +Armstrong name. That road was closed to the Captain! + +Colonel Elliot has failed to observe this fact, which I go on to prove, +from a memoir addressed in 1583 to Burleigh, by Thomas Musgrave, the +active son of the aged Captain of Bewcastle, Sir Simon Musgrave. +Thomas describes the topography of the Middle Marches. He says that +the Armstrongs hold both banks of Liddel as far south as "Kershope +foot" (the junction of the Kershope with the Liddel), and hold the +north side of the Liddel as far as its junction with the Esk. {103a} +Thus on crossing Liddel by the Ritterford, the Captain had at once to +pass through the hostile Armstrongs. Thereby also were Grahams with +whom the Musgraves of Bewcastle were in deadly feud. Farther down Esk, +west of Esk, dwelt Kinmont Willie, an Armstrong, "at a place called +Morton." If he did pass so far through Armstrongs, the Captain met +them again, farther north, on Tarras side, where Runyen Armstrong lived +at Thornythaite. Near him was Armstrong of Hollhouse, Musgrave's great +enemy. North of Tarras the Captain rode through Ewesdale; there he had +to deal with three hundred Armstrong men of the spear. {104a} When he +reached Ramscleuch (which he never could have done), the Colonel's map +makes the Captain ride past Ramscleuch, then farmed by the Grieves, +retainers of Buccleuch, who would warn Branksome. When the Captain +reached Howpasley on Borthwick water, he would be observed by the men +of Scott of Howpasley, the Grieves, who could send a rider some six +miles to warn Branksome. + +We get the same information as to the perils of the Captain's path from +the places marked on Blaeu's map of 1600-54. There are Hollhouse and +Thornythaite, Armstrong towers, and the active John Armstrong of +Langholm can come at a summons. + +It seems to be a great error to suppose that the route chosen for the +Captain by Colonel Elliot could lead him into anything better than a +death-trap. I must insist that it would have been madness for a +Captain of Bewcastle to ride far through Armstrong country, deep into +Buccleuch's country, and return on another line through Scott, and near +Elliot, and through Armstrong country--and all for no purpose but to +steal ten cows in remote Selkirkshire! + +Here I may save the reader trouble, by omitting a great mass of detail +as to the deplorable condition of Bewcastle itself in 1580-96. Sir +Simon, the Captain, declares himself old and weary. The hold is +"utterly decayed," the riders are only thirty-seven men fairly +equipped. Soldiers are asked for, sometimes fifty are sent from the +garrison of Berwick, then they are withdrawn. Bewcastle is forayed +almost daily; "March Bills" minutely describe the cattle, horses, and +personal property taken from the Captain and the people by the +Armstrongs and Elliots. + +Once, in 1582, Thomas Musgrave slew Arthur Graham, a near neighbour, +and took one hundred and sixty kye, but this only caused such a feud +that the Musgraves could not stir safely from home. From 1586 onwards, +Thomas Musgrave, officially or unofficially, was acting Captain of +Bewcastle. He had no strength to justify him in raiding to remote +Ettrick, through enemies who penned him in at Bewcastle. + +I look on Musgrave as the Captain whose existence is known to the +ballad-maker, and I find the origin of the tale of his defeat and +capture in the ballad, in a distorted memory of his actual capture. + +On 3rd July 1596, Thomas (having got Scrope's permission, without which +he dared not cross the Border on affairs of war) attempted a +retaliatory raid on Armstrongs within seven miles of the Border, the +Armstrongs of Hollace, or Hollhouse. "He found only empty houses;" he +"sought a prey" in vain; he let his men straggle, and returning +homeward, with some fifteen companions, he was ambushed by the +Armstrongs near Bewcastle, was refused shelter by a Graham, was taken +prisoner, and was sent to Buccleuch at Branksome. On 15th July he came +home under a bond of 200 pounds for ransom. {106a} As every one did, +in his circumstances, the Captain made out his Bill for Damages. It +was indented on 28th April 1597. We learn that John (Armstrong) of +Langholm, Will of Kinmont (not Liddesdale men), and others, who took +him, are in the Captain's debt for "24 horses and mares, himself +prisoner, and ransomed to 200 pounds, and 16 other prisoners, and +slaughter." The charges are admitted by the accused; the Captain is to +get 400 pounds. {106b} + +In my opinion this capture of the Captain of Bewcastle and others, +poetically handled, is, with other incidents, the basis of the ballad. +Colonel Elliot says that the incident "is no proof that a Captain of +Bewcastle was not also taken or killed at some other place or at some +other time." But WHAT Captain, and when? Sir Simon, in 1586, had been +Captain, he says, for thirty years. Thenceforth till near the Union of +the Crowns, Thomas was Captain, or acting Captain. + +So considerable an event as the taking of a Captain of Bewcastle, who, +in the ballad, was shot through the head and elsewhere, could not +escape record in dispatches, and the periodical "March Bills," or +statements of wrongs to be redressed. Colonel Elliot's reply takes the +shape of the argument that the ballad may speak of some other Captain, +at some other time; and that, in one way or another, the sufferings and +losses of THAT Captain may have escaped mention in the English +dispatches from the Border. These dispatches are full of minute +details, down to the theft of a single mare. I am content to let +historians familiar with the dispatches decide as to whether the +Captain's mad ride into Ettrick, with his dangerous wounds, loss of +property, and loss of seventeen men killed and wounded (as in the +ballad), could escape mention. + +The capture of Thomas Musgrave, I think, and two other incidents,-- +confused in course of tradition, and handled by the poet with poetic +freedom,--are the materials of Jamie Telfer. One of the other +incidents is of April 1597. {107a} Here Buccleuch in person, on the +Sabbath, burned twenty houses in Tynedale, and "slew fourteen men who +had been in Scotland and brought away their booty." Here we have +Buccleuch "on the hot trod," pursuing English reivers, recovering the +spoils probably, and slaying as many of the raiders as the Captain +lost, in the ballad. Again, not a SON of Elliot of Preakinhaugh (as I +had erroneously said), but a NEPHEW named Martin, was slain in a +Tynedale raid into Liddesdale. {108a} Soldiers aided the English +raiders. A confused memory of this death of Elliot's nephew in 1597 +may be the source of the story of the death of his son, Simmy, in the +ballad. + +Our traditional ballads all arise out of some germs of history, all +handle the facts romantically, and all appear to have been composed, in +their extant shapes, at a considerable time after the events. I may +cite Mary Hamilton; The Laird of Logie is another case in point; there +are many others. + +Colonel Elliot does not agree with me. So be it. + +Colonel Elliot writes that,--in place of my saying that Jamie Telfer +"is a mere mythical perversion of carefully recorded facts,"--"it would +surely be more correct to say that it is a fairly true, though jumbled, +account of actual incidents, separated from each other by only short +periods of time . . . " {108b} If he means, or thinks that I mean, +that the actual facts were the capture of Musgrave near Bewcastle in +1596 by the Armstrongs, with Buccleuch's hot-trod, and Martin Elliot's +slaying in 1597, I entirely agree with him that the facts are +''jumbled." But as to the opinion that the ballad is "fairly true" +about the raid to Ettrick (the Captain could not ride a mile beyond the +Border without the Warden's permission), about the nonexistent Jamie +Telfer, about the shooting, taking, and plundering of the Captain, +about his loss of seventeen men wounded and slain (he lost about as +many prisoners),--I have given reasons for my disbelief. + + +VI--IS THE SCOTT VERSION, WITH ELLIOTS AND SCOTTS TRANSPOSED, THE LATER +VERSION? + + +We now come to the important question, Is the Scott version of the +ballad (apart from Sir Walter's decorative stanzas) necessarily LATER +than the Elliot version in Sharpe's copy? The chief argument for the +lateness of the Scott version, the presence of a Gilbert Elliot of +Stobs at a date when this gentleman had not yet acquired Stobs, I have +already treated. If the ballad is no earlier than the date when Elliot +was believed (as by Satchells) to have obtained Stobs before 1596, the +argument falls to the ground. + +Starting from that point, and granting that a minstrel fond of the +Scotts wants to banter the Elliots, he may make Telfer ask aid at +Stobs. After that, which version is better in its topography? Bidden +by Stobs to seek Buccleuch, Telfer runs to Teviot, to Coultartcleugh, +some four miles above Branksome. Branksome was nearer, but Telfer was +shy, let us say, and did not know Buccleuch; while at Coultartcleugh, +Jock Grieve was his brother-in-law. Jock gives him a mount, and takes +him to "Catslockhill." + +Now, no Catslockhill is known anywhere, to me or to Colonel Elliot. +Mr. Henderson, in a note to the ballad, {110a} speaks of "Catslack in +Branxholm," and cites the Register of the Privy Seal for 4th June 1554, +and the Register of the Privy Council for 14th October 1592. The +records are full of THAT Catslack, but it is not in Branksome. Blaeu's +map (1600-54) gives it, with its appurtenances, on the north side of +St. Mary's Loch. There is a Catslack on the north side of Yarrow, near +Ladhope, on the southern side. Neither Catslack is the Catslockhill of +the Scott ballad. But on evidence, "and it is good evidence," says +Colonel Elliot, {110b} I prove that, in 1802, a place called +"Catlochill" existed between Coultartcleugh and Branksome. The place +(Mrs. Grieve, Branksome Park, informs me) is now called Branksome- +braes. On his copy of The Minstrelsy of 1802, Mr. Grieve, then tenant +of Branksome Park, made a marginal note. Catlochill was still known to +him; it was in a commanding site, and had been strengthened by the art +of man. His note I have seen and read. + +Thus, on good evidence, there was a Catlochill, or Catlockhill, between +Coultartcleugh and Branksome. The Scott version is right in its +topography. + +This fact was unknown to Colonel Elliot. Not knowing a Catslackhill or +Catslockhill in Teviot, he made Scott's Telfer go to an apocryphal +Catlockhill in Liddesdale. Professor Veitch had said that the +Catslockhill of the ballad "IS TO BE SOUGHT" in some locality between +Coultartcleugh and Branxholm. Colonel Elliot calls this "a really +preposterously cool suggestion." {111a} Why "really preposterously +cool"? Being sought, the place is found where it had always been. +Jamie Telfer found it, and in it his friend "William's Wat," who took +him to the laird of Buccleuch at Branksome. + +In the Elliot version, when refused aid by Buccleuch, Jamie ran to +Coultartcleugh,--as in Scott's,--on his way to Martin Elliot at +Preakinhaugh on the Liddel. Jamie next "takes the fray" to "the +Catlockhill," and is there remounted by "Martin's Hab," an Elliot (not +by William's Wat), and THEY "take the fray" to Martin Elliot at +Preakinhaugh in Liddesdale. This is very well, but where IS this +"Catlockhill" in Liddesdale? Is it even a real place? + +Colonel Elliot has found no such place; nor can I find it in the +Registrum Magni Sigilli, nor in Blaeu's map of 1600-54. + +Colonel Elliot's argument has been that the Elliot version, the version +of the Sharpe MS., is the earlier, for, among other reasons, its +topography is correct. {112a} It makes Telfer run from Dodhead to +Branksome for aid, because that was the comparatively near residence of +the powerful Buccleuch. Told by Buccleuch to seek aid from Martin +Elliot in Liddesdale, Telfer does so. He runs up Teviot four miles to +his brother-in-law, Jock Grieve, who mounts him. He then rides off at +a right angle, from Teviot to Catlockhill, says the Elliot ballad, +where he is rehorsed by Martin's Hab. The pair then take the fray to +Martin Elliot at Preakinhaugh on Liddel water, and Martin summons and +leads the pursuers of the Captain. + +This, to Colonel Elliot's mind, is all plain sailing, all is feasible +and natural. And so it IS feasible and natural, if Colonel Elliot can +find a Catlockhill anywhere between Coultartcleugh and Preakinhaugh. +On that line, in Mr. Veitch's words, Catlockhill "is to be sought." +But just as Mr. Veitch could find no Catslockhill between +Coultartcleugh and Branksome, so Colonel Elliot can find no Catlockhill +between Coultartcleugh and Preakinhaugh. He tells us {112b} indeed of +"Catlockhill on Hermitage water." But there is no such place known! +Colonel Elliot's method is to take a place which, he says, is given as +"Catlie" Hill, "between Dinlay burn and Hermitage water, on Blaeu's map +of 1654." We may murmur that Catlie Hill is one thing and Catlock +another, but Colonel Elliot points out that "lock" means "the meeting +of waters," and that Catlie Hill is near the meeting of Dinlay burn and +the Hermitage water. But then why does Blaeu call it, not Catlockhill, +nor Catlie hill, nor "Catlie" even, but "Gatlie," for so it is +distinctly printed on my copy of the map? Really we cannot take a +place called "Gatlie Hill" and pronounce that we have found +"Catlockhill"! Would Colonel Elliot have permitted Mr. Veitch--if Mr. +Veitch had found "Gatlie Hill" near Branksome, in Blaeu--to aver that +he had found Catslockhill near Branksome? + +Thus, till Colonel Elliot produces on good evidence a Catlockhill +between Coultartcleugh and Preakinhaugh, the topography of the Elliot +ballad, of the Sharpe copy of the ballad, is nowhere, for neither +Catliehill nor Gatliehill is Catlockhill. That does not look as if the +Elliot were older than the Scott version. (There was a Sim ARMSTRONG +of the CATHILL, slain by a Ridley of Hartswell in 1597. {113a}) + +We now take the Scott version where Telfer has arrived at Branksome. +Scott's stanza xxv. is Sharpe's xxiv. In Scott, Buccleuch; in Sharpe, +Martin Elliot bids his men "warn the waterside" (Sharpe), "warn the +water braid and wide" (Scott). Scott's stanza xxvi. is probably his +own, or may be, for he bids them warn Wat o' Harden, Borthwick water, +and the Teviot Scotts, and Gilmanscleuch--which is remote. Then, in +xxvii., Buccleuch says - + + +Ride by the gate of Priesthaughswire, + And warn the Currors o' the Lee, +As ye come down the Hermitage slack + Warn doughty Wiliie o' Gorrinberry. + + +All this is plain sailing, by the pass of Priesthaughswire the Scotts +will ride from Teviot into Hermitage water, and, near the Slack, they +will pass Gorrinberry, will call Will, and gallop down Hermitage water +to the Liddel, where they will nick the returning Captain at the +Ritterford. + +The Sharpe version makes Martin order the warning of the waterside +(xxiv.), and then Martin says (xxv.) - + + +When ye come in at the Hermitage Slack, +Warn doughty Will o' Gorranherry. + + +Colonel Elliot {114a} supposes Martin (if I follow his meaning) to send +Simmy with his command, BACK OVER ALL THE COURSE THAT TELFER AND +MARTIN'S HAB HAVE ALREADY RIDDEN: back past Shaws, near Braidley (a +house of Martin's), past "Catlockhill," to Gorranberry, to "warn the +waterside." But surely Telfer, who passed Gorranberry gates, and with +Hab passed the other places, had "taken the fray," and warned the water +quite sufficiently already. If this be granted, the Sharpe version is +taking from the Scott version the stanza, so natural there, about the +Hermitage Slack and Gorranberry. But Colonel Elliot infers, from +stanzas xxvi., xxx., xxxi., that Simmy has warned the water as far as +Gorranberry (AGAIN), has come in touch with the Captain, "between the +Frostily and the Ritterford," and that this is "consistent only with +his having moved up the Hermitage water." + +Meanwhile Martin, he thinks, rode with his men down Liddel water. But +here we get into a maze of topographical conjecture, including the +hypothesis that perhaps the Liddel came down in flood, and caused the +English to make for Kershope ford instead of Ritterford, and here they +were met by Martin's men on the Hermitage line of advance. I cannot +find this elegant combined movement in the ballad; all this seems to me +hypothesis upon hypothesis, even granting that Martin sent Simmy back +up Hermitage that he might thence cut sooner across the enemy's path. +Colonel Elliot himself writes: "It is certain that after the news of +the raid reached Catlockhill" (AND Gorranberry, Telfer passed it), "it +must have spread rapidly through Hermitage water, and it is most +unlikely for the men of this district to have delayed taking action +until they received instructions from their chief."' + +That is exactly what I say; but Martin says, "When ye come in at the +Hermitage Slack, warn doughty Will o' Gorranberry." Why go to warn +him, when, as Colonel Elliot says, the news is running through +Hermitage water, and the men are most probably acting on it,--as they +certainly would do? + +Martin's orders, in Sharpe xxv., are taken, I think, from Buccleuch's, +in Scott's xxvii. + +The point is that Martin had no need to warn men so far away as +Gorranberry,--they were roused already. Yet he orders them to be +warned, and about a combined movement of Martin and Simmy on different +lines the ballad says not a word. All this is inference merely, +inference not from historical facts, but from what may be guessed to +have been in the mind of the poet. + +Thus the Elliot or Sharpe version has topography that will not hold +water, while the Scott topography does hold water; and the Elliot song +seems to borrow the lines on the Hermitage Slack and Gorranberry from a +form of the Scott version. This being the case, the original version +on which Scott worked is earlier than the Elliot version. In the Scott +version the rescuers must come down the Hermitage Slack: in the Elliot +they have no reason for riding BACK to that place. + + +VII--SCOTT HAD A COPY OF THE BALLAD WHICH WAS NOT THE SHARPE COPY + + +Did Scott know no other version than that of the Sharpe MS.? In +Scott's version, stanza xlix., the last, is absent from the Elliot +version, which concludes triumphantly, thus - + + +Now on they came to the fair Dodhead, + They were a welcome sight to see, +And instead of his ain ten milk-kye + Jamie Telfer's gotten thirty and three. + + +Scott too gives this, but ends with a verse not in Sharpe - + + +And he has paid the rescue shot + Baith wi' goud and white money, +And at the burial o' Willie Scott + I wat was mony a weeping ee. + + +Did Scott add this? Proof is impossible; but the verse is so prosaic, +and so injurious to the triumphant preceding verse, that I think Scott +found it in his copy: in which case he had another copy than Sharpe's. + +Scott (stanza xviii.) reads "Catslockhill" where the Sharpe MS. reads +"Catlockhill." In Scott's time it was a mound, but the name was then +known to Mr. Grieve, the tenant of Branksome Park. To-day I cannot +find the mound; is it likely that Scott, before making the change, +sought diligently for the mound and its name? If so, he found +"CATLOCHILL," for so Mr. Grieve writes it, not Catslockhill. + +Meanwhile Colonel Elliot, we know, has no Catlockhill where he wants +it; he has only Gatliehill, unless his Blaeu varies from my copy, and +Gatliehill is not Catlockhill. + +Scott gives (xlviii.) the speech of the Captain after he is shot +through the head and in another dangerous part of his frame - + + +"Hae back thy kye!" the Captain said, + "Dear kye, I trow, to some they be, +For gin I suld live a hundred years, + There will ne'er fair lady smile on me." + + +This is not in Sharpe's MS., and I attribute this redundant stanza to +Scott's copy. The Captain, remember, has a shot "through his head," +and another which must have caused excruciating torture. In these +circumstances would a poet like Scott put in his mouth a speech which +merely reiterates the previous verse? No! But the verse was in +Scott's copy. + +Colonel Elliot has himself noted a more important point than these: he +quotes Scott's stanza xii., which is absent from the Sharpe MS. - + + +My hounds may a' rin masterless, + My hawks may fly frae tree to tree, +My lord may grip my vassal lands, + For there again maun I never be! + + +"They are, doubtless, beautiful lines, but their very beauty jars like +a false note. One feels they were written by another hand, by an +artist of a higher stamp than a Border 'ballad-maker.' And not only is +it their beauty that jars, but so also does their inapplicability to +Jamie Telfer and to the circumstances in which he found himself--so +much so, indeed, that it may well occur to one that the stanza belongs +to some other ballad, and has accidentally been pitchforked into this +one. It would not have been out of place in the ballad of The Battle +of Otterbourne, and, indeed, it bears some resemblance to a stanza in +that ballad." Here the Colonel says that the lines "one feels were +written by another hand, by an artist of a higher stamp than a Border +ballad-maker." But "it may also occur to one that the stanza belongs +to some other ballad, and has ACCIDENTALLY" (my italics) "been +pitchforked into this": a very sound inference. + +Now if Scott had only the Sharpe version, he was the last man to +"pitchfork" into it, "accidentally," a stanza from "some other ballad," +that stanza being as Colonel Elliot says "inapplicable" to Telfer and +his circumstances. Poor Jamie, a small tenant-farmer, with ten cows, +and, as far as we learn, not one horse, had no hawks and hounds; no +"vassal lands," and no reason to say that at the Dodhead he "maun never +be again." He could return from his long run! Scott certainly did not +compose these lines; and he could not have pitchforked them into Jamie +Telfer, either by accident or design. + +Professor Child remarked on all this: "Stanza xii. is not only found +elsewhere (compare Young Beichan, E vi.), but could not be more +inappropriately brought in than here; Scott, however, is not +responsible for that." {120a} + + +The hawk that flies from tree to tree + + +is a formula; it comes in the Kinloch MS. copy of the ballad of Jamie +Douglas, date about 1690. + +I know no proof that Scott was acquainted with variant E of Young +Beichan. {120a} If he had been, he could not have introduced into +Jamie Telfer lines so utterly out of keeping with Telfer's +circumstances, as Colonel Elliot himself says that stanza xii. is. It +may be argued, "if Scott DID find stanza xii. in his copy, it was in +his power to cut it out; he treated his copies as he pleased." This is +true, but my position is that, of the two, Scott is more likely to have +let the stanza abide where he found it (as he did with his MS. of +Tamlane, retaining its absurdities) in his copy, than to "pitchfork it +in," from an obscure variant of Young Beichan, which we cannot prove +that he had ever heard or read. But as we can never tell that Scott +did NOT know any rhyme, we ask, why did he "pitchfork in" the stanza, +where it was quite out of place? Child absolves him from this +absurdity. + +Thus Scott had before him another than the Sharpe copy; had a copy +containing stanza xii. That copy presented the perversion--the +transposition of Scott's and Elliot's--and into that copy Scott wrote +the stanzas which bear his modern romantic mark. Colonel Elliot, we +saw, is uncertain whether to attribute stanza xii. to "another hand, an +artist of higher stamp than a Border ballad-maker," or to regard it as +belonging "to some other ballad," and as having been "accidentally +pitchforked into this one." The stanza is, in fact, an old floating +ballad stanza, attracted into the cantefable of Susie Pye, and the +ballad of Young Beichan (E), and partly into Jamie Douglas. Thus Scott +did not MAKE the stanza, and we cannot suppose that, if he knew the +stanza in any form, he either "accidentally pitchforked" or wilfully +inserted into Jamie Telfer anything so absurdly inappropriate. The +inference is that Scott worked on another copy, not the Sharpe copy. + +If Scott had not a copy other than Sharpe's, why should he alter +Sharpe's (vii.) + + +The moon was up and the sun was down, + +into + +The sun wasna up but the moon was down? + + +What did he gain by that? WHY DID HE MAKE JAMIE "OF" NOT "IN" THE +DODHEAD, IF HE FOUND "IN" IN HIS COPY? "In" means "tenant in," "of" +means "laird of," as nobody knew better than Scott. Jamie is evidently +no laird, but "of" was in Scott's copy. + +If the question were about two Greek texts, the learned would admit +that these points in A (Scott) are not derived from B (Sharpe). +Scott's additions have an obvious motive, they add picturesqueness to +his clan. But the differences which I have noticed do nothing of that +kind. When they affect the poetry they spoil the poetry, when they do +not affect the poetry they are quite motiveless, whence I conclude that +Scott followed his copy in these cases, and that his copy was not the +Sharpe MS. + +If I have satisfied the reader on that point I need not touch on +Colonel Elliot's long and intricate argument to prove, or suggest, that +Scott had before him no copy of the ballad except one supposed by the +Colonel to have been taken by James Hogg from his mother's recitation, +while that copy, again, is supposed to be the Sharpe MS.--all sheer +conjecture. {122a} Not that I fear to encounter Colonel Elliot on this +ground, but argufying on it is dull, and apt to be inconclusive. + +In the letter of Hogg to Scott (June 30, 1803) as given by Mr. Douglas +in Familiar Letters, Hogg says, "I am surprised to find that the songs +in your collection differ so widely from my mother's . . . Jamie Telfer +differs in many particulars." {123a} The marks of omission were all +filled up in Hogg's MS. letter thus: "Is Mr. Herd's MS. genuine? I +suspect it." Then it runs on, "Jamie Telfer differs in many +particulars." + +I owe this information to the kindness of Mr. Macmath. What does Hogg +mean? Does "Is Mr. Herd's MS. genuine?" mean all Herd's MS. copies +used by Scott? Or does it refer to Jamie Telfer in especial? + +Mr. Macmath, who possesses C. K. Sharpe's MS. copy of the Elliot +version, believes that it is Herd's hand as affected by age. Mr. +Macmath and I independently reached the conclusion that by "Mr. Herd's +MS." Hogg meant all Herd's MSS., which Scott quoted in The Minstrelsy +of 1803. Their readings varied from Mrs. Hogg's; therefore Hogg +misdoubted them. He adds that Jamie Telfer differs from his mother's +version, without meaning that, for Jamie, Scott used a Herd MS. + + +CONCLUSION + + +I have now proved, I hope, that the ballad of Jamie Telfer is entirely +mythical except for a few suggestions derived from historical events of +1596-97. I have shown, and Colonel Elliot agrees, that refusal of aid +by Buccleuch (or by Elliot of Stobs) is impossible, and that the +ballad, if it existed without this incident, must have been a Scott, +and could not be an Elliot ballad. No farmer in Ettrick would pay +protection-money to an Elliot on Liddel, while he had a Scott at +Branksome. I have also disproved the existence of a Jamie Telfer as +farmer at "Dodhead or Dodbank" in the late sixteenth century. + +As to the character of Sir Walter Scott, I have proved, I hope, that he +worked on a copy of the ballad which was not the Elliot version, or the +Sharpe copy; so that this copy may have represented the Scotts as +taking the leading part; while for the reasons given, it is apparently +earlier than the Elliot version--cannot, at least, be proved to be +later--and is topographically the more correct of the two. I have +given antique examples of the same sort of perversions in Otterburn. +If I am right, Colonel Elliot's charge against Scott lacks its base-- +that Scott knew none but the Sharpe copy, whence it is inferred that he +not only decorated the song (as is undeniable), but perverted it in a +way far from sportsmanlike. + +I may have shaken Colonel Elliot's belief in the historicity of the +ballad. His suspicions of Scott I cannot hope to remove, and they are +very natural suspicions, due to Scott's method of editing ballads and +habit of "giving them a cocked hat and a sword," as he did to stories +which he heard; and repeated, much improved. + +Absolute proof that Scott did, or did not, pervert the ballad, and turn +a false Elliot into a false Scott version, cannot be obtained unless +new documents bearing on the matter are discovered. + +But, I repeat, as may be read in the chapter on The Ballad of +Otterburne, such inversions and perversions of ballads occurred freely +in the sixteenth century, and, in the seventeenth, the process may have +been applied to Jamie Telfer. {125a} + + + +KINMONT WILLIE + + + +If there be, in The Border Minstrelsy, a ballad which is still popular, +or, at least, is still not forgotten, it is Kinmont Willie. This hero +was an Armstrong, and one of the most active of that unbridled clan. +He was taken prisoner, contrary to Border law, on a day of "Warden's +Truce," by Salkeld of Corby on the Eden, deputy of Lord Scrope, the +English Warden; and, despite the written remonstrances of Buccleuch, he +was shut up in Carlisle Castle. Diplomacy failing, Buccleuch resorted +to force, and, by a sudden and daring march, he surprised Carlisle +Castle, rescued Willie, and returned to Branksome. The date of the +rescue is 13th April 1596. The dispatches of the period are full of +this event, and of the subsequent negotiations, with which we are not +concerned. + +The ballad is worthy of the cool yet romantic gallantry of the +achievement. Kinmont Willie was a ruffian, but he had been unlawfully +seized. This was one of many studied insults passed by Elizabeth's +officials on Scotland at that time, when the English Government, +leagued with the furious pulpiteers of the Kirk, and with Francis +Stewart, the wild Earl of Bothwell, was persecuting and personally +affronting James VI. + +In Buccleuch, the Warden of the March, England insulted the man who was +least likely to pocket a wrong. Without causing the loss of an English +life, Buccleuch repaid the affront, recovered the prisoner, broke the +strong Castle of Carlisle, made Scrope ridiculous and Elizabeth +frantic. + +In addition to Kinmont Willie there survive two other ballads on +rescues of prisoners in similar circumstances. One is Jock o' the +Side, of which there is an English version in the Percy MSS., John a +Side. Scott's version, in The Border Minstrelsy, is from Caw's Museum, +published at Hawick in 1784. Scott leaves out Caw's last stanza about +a punch-bowl. There are other variations. Four Armstrongs break into +Newcastle Tower. Jock, heavily ironed, is carried downstairs on the +back of one of them; they ride a river in spait, where the English dare +not follow. + +Archie o' Cafield, another rescue, Scott printed in 1802 from a MS. of +Mr. Riddell of Glenriddell, a great collector, the friend of Burns. He +omitted six stanzas, and "made many editorial improvements, besides +Scotticising the spelling." In the edition published after his death +(1833) he "has been enabled to add several stanzas from recitation." +Leyden appears to have collected the copy whence the additional stanzas +came; the MS., at Abbotsford, is in his hand. In this ballad the +Halls, noted freebooters, rescue Archie o' Cafield from prison in +Dumfries. As in Jock o' the Side and Kinmont Willie, they speak to +their friend, asking how he sleeps; they carry him downstairs, irons +and all, and, as in the two other ballads, they are pursued, cross a +flooded river, banter the English, and then, in a version in the Percy +MSS., "communicated to Percy by Miss Fisher, 1780," the English +lieutenant says - + + +I think some witch has bore thee, Dicky, + Or some devil in hell been thy daddy. +I would not swam that wan water, double-horsed, + For a' the gold in Christenty. + + +Manifestly here was a form of Lord Scrope's reply to Buccleuch, in the +last stanza of Kinmont Willie - + + +He is either himself a devil frae hell, + Or else his mother a witch may be, +I wadna hae ridden that wan water + For a' the gowd in Christentie. + + +Scott writes, in a preface to Archie o' Cafield and Jock o' the Side, +that there are, with Kinmont Willie, three ballads of rescues, "the +incidents in which nearly resemble each other; though the poetical +description is so different, that the editor did not feel himself at +liberty to reject any one of them, as borrowed from the others. As, +however, there are several verses, which, in recitation, are common to +all these three songs, the editor, to prevent unnecessary and +disagreeable repetition, has used the freedom of appropriating them to +that in which they have the best poetical effect." {129a} + +Consequently the verse quoted from the Percy MS. of Archie o' Cafield +may be improved and placed in the lips of Lord Scrope, in Kinmont +Willie. But there is no evidence that Scott ever saw or even heard of +this Percy MS., and probably he got the verse from recitation. + +Now the affair of the rescue of Kinmont Willie was much more important +and resonant than the two other rescues, and was certain to give rise +to a ballad, which would contain much the same formulae as the other +two. The ballad-maker, like Homer, always uses a formula if he can +find one. But Kinmont Willie is so much superior to the two others, so +epic in its speed and concentration of incidents, that the question +rises, had Scott even fragments of an original ballad of the Kinmont, +"much mangled by reciters," as he admits, or did he compose the whole? +No MS. copies exist at Abbotsford. There is only one hint. In a list +of twenty-two ballads, pasted into a commonplace book, eleven are +marked X (as if he had obtained them), and eleven others are unmarked, +as if they were still to seek. Unmarked is Kinmount Willie. + +Did he find it, or did he make it all? + +In 1888, in a note to Kinmont Willie, I wrote: "There is a prose +account very like the ballad in Scott of Satchells' History of the Name +of Scott" (1688). Satchells' long-winded story is partly in unrhymed +and unmetrical lines, partly in rhymes of various metres. The man, +born in 1613, was old, had passed his life as a soldier; certainly +could not write, possibly could not read. + +Colonel Elliot "believes that Sir Walter wrote the whole from beginning +to end, and that it is, in fact, a clever and extremely beautiful +paraphrase of Satchells' rhymes." {130a} + +This thorough scepticism is not a novelty, as Colonel Elliot quotes me +I had written years ago, "In Kinmont Willie, Scott has been suspected +of making the whole ballad." I did not, as the Colonel says, "mention +the names of the sceptics or the grounds of their suspicions." "The +sceptics," or one of them, was myself: I had "suspected" on much the +same grounds as Colonel Elliot's own, and I shall give my reasons for +adopting a more conservative opinion. One reason is merely subjective. +As a man, by long familiarity with ancient works of art, Greek gems, +for example, acquires a sense of their authenticity, or the reverse, so +he does in the case of ballads--or thinks he does--but of course this +result of experience is no ground of argument: experts are often +gulled. The ballad varies in many points from Satchells', which +Colonel Elliot explains thus: "I think that the cause for the +narrative at times diverging from that recorded by the rhymes (of +Satchells), is due, partly to artistic considerations, partly to the +author having wished to bring it more or less into conformity with +history." {131a} + +Colonel Elliot quotes Scott's preface to the ballad: "In many things +Satchells agrees with the ballads current in his time" (1643-88), "from +which in all probability he derived most of his information as to past +events, and from which he occasionally pirates whole verses, as we +noticed in the annotations upon the Raid of the Reidswire. In the +present instance he mentions the prisoner's large spurs (alluding to +fetters), and some other little incidents noticed in the ballad, which +therefore was probably well known in his day." + +As Satchells was born in 1613, while the rescue of Kinmont Willie by +Buccleuch, out of Carlisle Castle, was in 1596, and as Satchells' +father was in that adventure (or so Satchells says) he probably knew +much about the affair from fresh tradition. Colonel Elliot notices +this, and says: "The probability of Satchells having obtained +information from a hypothetical ballad is really quite an inadmissible +argument." + +This comes near to begging the question. As contemporary incidents +much less striking and famous than the rescue of Kinmont Willie were +certainly recorded in ballads, the opinion that there was a ballad of +Kinmont Willie is a legitimate hypothesis, which must be tested on its +merits. For example, we shall ask, Does Satchells' version yield any +traces of ballad sources? + +My own opinion has been anticipated by Mr. Frank Miller in his The +Poets of Dumfriesshire (p. 33, 1910), and in ballad-lore Mr. Miller is +well equipped. He says: "The balance of probability seems to be in +favour of the originality of Kinmont Willie," rather than of Satchells +(he means, not of our Kinmont Willie as Scott gives it, but of a ballad +concerning the Kinmont). "Captain Walter Scott's" (of Satchells) "True +History was certainly gathered out of the ballads current in his day, +as well as out of formal histories, and his account of the assault on +the Castle reads like a narrative largely due to suggestions from some +popular lay." + +Does Satchells' version, then, show traces of a memory of such a lay? +Undoubtedly it does. + +Satchells' prolix narrative occasionally drops or rises into ballad +lines, as in the opening about Kinmont Willie - + + +It fell about the Martinmas +When kine was in the prime + + +that Willie "brought a prey out of Northumberland." The old ballad, +disregarding dates, may well have opened with this common formula. +Lord Scrope vowed vengence:- + + +Took Kinmont the self-same night. + +If he had had but ten men more, + That had been as stout as he, +Lord Scroup had not the Kinmont ta'en + With all his company. + + +Scott's ballad (stanza i.) says that "fause Sakelde" and Scrope took +Willie (as in fact Salkeld of Corby DID), and + + +Had Willie had but twenty men, + But twenty men as stout as he, +Fause Sakelde had never the Kinmont ta'en, + Wi' eight score in his cumpanie. + + +Manifestly either Satchells is here "pirating" a verse of a ballad (as +Scott holds) or Scott, if he had NO ballad fragments before him, is +"pirating" a verse from Satchells, as Colonel Elliot must suppose. + +In my opinion, Satchells had a memory of a Kinmont ballad beginning +like Jamie Telfer, "It fell about the Martinmas tyde," or, like +Otterburn, "It fell about the Lammas tide," and he opened with this +formula, broke away from it, and came back to the ballad in the stanza, +"If he had had but ten men more," which differs but slightly from +stanza ii. of Scott's ballad. That this is so, and that, later, +Satchells is again reminiscent of a ballad, is no improbable opinion. + +In the ballad (iii.-viii.) we learn how Willie is brought a prisoner +across Liddel to Carlisle; we have his altercation with Lord Scrope, +and the arrival of the news at Branksome, where Buccleuch is at table. +Satchells also gives the altercation. In both versions Willie promises +to "take his leave" of Scrope before he quits the Castle. + +In Scott's ballad (Scrope speaks) (stanza vi.). + + +Before ye cross my castle yate, +I trow ye shall take fareweel o' me. + + +Willie replies - + + +I never yet lodged in a hostelrie, +But I paid my lawing before I gaed. + + +In Satchells, Lord Scrope says - + + +"Before thou goest away thou must + Even take thy leave of me?" +"By the cross of my sword," says Willie then, + "I'll take my leave of thee." + + +Now, had Scott been pirating Satchells, I think he would have kept "By +the cross of my sword," which is picturesque and probable, Willie being +no good Presbyterian. In Otterburne, Scott, ALTERING HOGG'S COPY, +makes Douglas swear "By the might of Our Ladye." + +It is a question of opinion; but I do think that if Scott were merely +paraphrasing and pirating Satchells, he could not have helped putting +into his version the Catholic, "'By the cross of my sword,' then Willy +said," as given by Satchells. To do this was safe, as Scott had said +that Satchells does pirate ballads. On the other hand, Satchells, +composing in black 1688, when Catholicism had been stamped out on the +Scottish Border, was not apt to invent "By the cross of my sword." It +LOOKS like Scott's work, for he, of course, knew how Catholicism +lingered among the spears of Bothwell, himself a Catholic, in 1596. +But it is NOT Scott's work, it is in Satchells. In both Satchells and +the ballad, news comes to Buccleuch. Here Satchells again balladises - + + +"It is that way?" Buckcleugh did say; + "Lord Scrope must understand +That he has not only done me wrong + But my Sovereign, James of Scotland. + +"My Sovereign Lord, King of Scotland, + Thinks not his cousin Queen, +Will offer to invade his land + Without leave asked and gi'en." + + +I do not see how Satchells could either invent or glean from tradition +the gist of Buccleuch's diplomatic remonstrances, first with Salkeld, +for Scrope was absent at the time of Willie's capture, then with +Scrope. Buccleuch, in fact, wrote that the taking of Willie was "to +the touch of the King," a stain on his honour, says a contemporary +manuscript. {135a} + +In a CONTEMPORARY ballad, a kind of rhymed news-sheet, the facts would +be known and reported. But at this point (at Buccleuch's reception of +the news of Kinmont), Scott is perhaps overmastered by his opportunity, +and, I think, himself composes stanzas ix., x., xi., xii. + + +O is my basnet a widow's curch? +Or my lance a wand o' the willow tree? + + +and so on. Child and Mr. Henderson are of the same opinion; but it is +only sense of style that guides us in such a matter, nor can I give +other grounds for supposing that the original ballad appears again in +stanza xiii. + + +O were there war between the lands, + As well I wot that there is none, +I would slight Carlisle castle high, + Tho' it were built o' marble stone! + + +Thence, I think, the original ballad (doubtless made "harmonious," as +Hogg put it) ran into stanza xxxi., where Scott probably introduced the +Elliot tune (if it be ancient) - + + +O wha dare meddle wi' me? + + +Satchells next, through a hundred and forty lines, describes +Buccleuch's correspondence with Scrope, his counsels with his clansmen, +and gives all their names and estates, with remarks on their +relationships. He thinks himself a historian and a genealogist. The +stuff is partly in prose lines, partly in rhymed couplets of various +lengths. There are two or three more or less ballad-like stanzas at +the beginning, but they are too bad for any author but Satchells. + +Scott's ballad "cuts" all that, omits even what Satchells gives-- +mentions of Harden, and goes on (xv.) - + + +He has called him forty marchmen bauld, + I trow they were of his own name. +Except Sir Gilbert Elliot called + The Laird of Stubs, I mean the same. + + +Now I would stake a large sum that Sir Walter never wrote that "stall- +copy" stanza! Colonel Elliot replies that I have said the ballad-faker +should avoid being too poetical. The ballad-faker SHOULD shun being +too poetical, as he would shun kippered sturgeon; but Scott did not +know this, nor did Hogg. We can always track them by their too +decorative, too literary interpolations. On this I lay much stress. + +The ballad next gives (xvi.-xxv.) the spirited stanzas on the ride to +the Border - + + +There were five and five before them a', + Wi' hunting horns and bugles bright; +And five and five came wi' Buccleuch, + Like Warden's men arrayed for fight. + +And five and five like a mason gang, + That carried the ladders lang and hie; +And five and five like broken men, + And so they reached the Woodhouselee. + + +- a house in Scotland, within "a lang mile" of Netherby, in England, +the seat of the Grahams, who were partial, for private reasons, to the +Scottish cause. They were at deadly feud with Thomas Musgrave, Captain +of Bewcastle, and Willie had married a Graham. + +Now in my opinion, up to stanza xxvi., all the evasive answers given to +Salkeld by each gang, till Dicky o' Dryhope (a real person) replies +with a spear-thrust - + + +"For never a word o' lear had he," + + +are not an invention of Scott's (who knew that Salkeld was not met and +slain), but a fantasy of the original ballad. Here I have only +familiarity with the romantic perversion of facts that marks all +ballads on historical themes to guide me. + +Salkeld is met - + + +"As we crossed the Batable land, +When to the English side we held." + + +The ballad does not specify the crossing of Esk, nor say that Salkeld +was on the English side; nor is there any blunder in the reply of the +"mason gang" - + + +"We gang to harry a corbie's nest, +That wons not far frae Woodhouselee." + + +Whether on English or Scottish soil the masons say not, and their +pretence is derisive, bitterly ironical. + +Colonel Elliot makes much of the absence of mention of the Esk, and +says "it is AFTER they are in England that the false reports are +spread." {139a} But the ballad does not say so--read it! All passes +with judicious vagueness. + + +"As we crossed the Batable land, +When to the English side we held." + + +Satchells knows that the ladders were made at Woodhouselee; it took +till nightfall to finish them. The ballad, swift and poetical, takes +the ladders for granted--as a matter of fact, chronicled in the +dispatches, the Grahams of Netherby harboured Buccleuch: Netherby was +his base. + +"I could nought have done that matter without great friendship of the +Grames of Eske," wrote Buccleuch, in a letter which Scrope intercepted. +{139b} + +In Satchells, Buccleuch leaves half his men at the "Stonish bank" +(Staneshaw bank) "FOR FEAR THEY HAD MADE NOISE OR DIN." An old soldier +should have known better, and the ballad (his probable half-remembered +source here) DOES know better - + + +"And there the laird garr'd leave our STEEDS, + For fear that they should stamp and nie," + + +and alarm the castle garrison. Each man of the post on the ford would +hold two horses, and also keep the ford open for the retreat of the +advanced party. The ballad gives the probable version; Satchells, when +offering as a reason for leaving half the force, lest they should make +"noise or din," is maundering. Colonel Elliot does not seem to +perceive this obvious fact, though he does perceive Buccleuch's motive +for dividing his force, "presumably with the object of protecting his +line of retreat," and also to keep the horses out of earshot, as the +ballad says. {140a} + +In Satchells the river is "in no great rage." In the ballad it is +"great and meikle o' spait." And it really was so. The MS. already +cited, which Scott had not seen when he published the song, says that +Buccleuch arrived at the "Stoniebank beneath Carleile brig, the water +being at the tyme, through raines that had fallen, weill thick." + +In Scott's ORIGINAL this river, he says, was the Esk, in Satchells it +is the Eden, and Scott says he made this necessary correction in the +ballad. In Satchells the storming party + + +Broke a sheet of leid on the castle top. + + +In the ballad they + + +Cut a hole through a sheet o' lead. + + +Both stories are erroneous; the ladders were too short; the rescuers +broke into a postern door. Scrope told this to his Government on the +day after the deed, 14th April. {140b} + +In xxxi. the ballad makes Buccleuch sound trumpets when the castle-roof +was scaled; in fact it was not scaled. The ladders were too short, and +the Scots broke in a postern door. The Warden's trumpet blew "O wha +dare meddle wi' me," and here, as has been said, I think Scott is the +author. Here Colonel Elliot enters into learning about "Wha dare +meddle wi' me?" a "Liddesdale tune," and in the poem an adaptation, by +Scott, of Satchells' "the trumpets sounded 'Come if ye dare.'" + +Satchells makes the trumpets sound when the rescuers bring Kinmont +Willie to the castle-top on the ladder (which they did not), and again +when the rescuers reach the ground by the ladder. They made no use at +all of the ladders, which were too short, and Willie, says the ballad, +lay "in the LOWER prison." They came in and went out by a door; but +the trumpets are not apocryphal. They, and the shortness of the +ladders, are mentioned in a MS. quoted by Scott, and in Birrell's +contemporary Diary, i. p. 57. In the MS. Buccleuch causes the trumpets +to be sounded from below, by a detachment "in the plain field," +securing the retreat. His motive is to encourage his party, "and to +terrify both castle and town by imagination of a greater force." +Buccleuch again "sounds up his trumpet before taking the river," in the +MS. Colonel Elliot may claim stanza xxxi. for Scott, and also the tune +"Wha dare meddle wi' me?" he may even claim here a suggestion from +Satchells' "Come if ye dare." Colonel Elliot says that no tune of this +title ever existed, a thing not easy to prove. {142a} + +In the conclusion, with differences, there are resemblances in the +ballad and Satchells. Colonel Elliot goes into them very minutely. +For example, he says that Kinmont is "made to ride off; not on +horseback, but on Red Rowan's back!" + +The ballad says not a word to that effect. Kinmont's speech about Red +Rowan as "a rough beast" to ride, is made immediately after the stanza, + + +"Then shoulder high, with shout and cry, + We bore him down the ladder lang; +At every stride Red Rowan made, + I wot the Kinmont's airns played clang." {142b} + + +After this verse Kinmont makes his speech (xl.-xli.). But if he DID +ride on Red Rowan's back to Staneshaw bank, it was the best thing that +a heavily ironed man could do. In the ballad (xxvii.) no horses of the +party were waiting at the castle, ALL horses were left behind at +Staneshaw bank (Satchells brings horses, or at least a horse for +Willie, to the castle). On what could Willie "ride off," except on Red +Rowan? {142c} + +Stanzas xxxv., xxxvi. and xliv. are related, we have seen, to passages +in Jock o' the Side and Archie o' Cafield, but ballads, like Homer, +employ the same formulae to describe the same circumstances: a note of +archaism, as in Gaelic poetic passages in Marchen. + +I do not pretend always to know how far Scott kept and emended old +stanzas mangled by reciters: there are places in which I am quite at a +loss to tell whether he is "making" or copying. + +I incline to hold that Satchells was occasionally reminiscent of a +ballad for the reasons and traces given, and I think that Scott when +his and Satchells' versions coincide, did not borrow direct from +Satchells, but that both men had a ballad source. + +That ballad was later than the popular belief, held by Satchells, that +Gilbert Elliot was at the time (1596) laird of Stobs, which he did not +acquire till after the Union (1603), and that he (the only man not a +Scot, says Satchells, wrongly) rode with Buccleuch. Elliot is not +accused of doing so in Scrope's dispatches, but he may have come as far +as Staneshaw bank, where half the company were left behind, says +Satchells, with the horses, which were also left, says the ballad. In +that case Elliot would not be observed in or near the Castle. Yet it +may have been known in Scotland that he was of the party. + +He was, as Satchells says, a cousin, he was also a friend of +Buccleuch's, and he may conceivably have taken a part in this glorious +adventure, though he could not, AT THE MOMENT, be called laird of +Stobs. Were I an Elliot, this opinion would be welcome to me! Really, +Salkeld was in a good position to know whether Elliot rode with +Buccleuch or not. + +The whole question is not one on which I can speak dogmatically. A +person who suspects Scott intensely may believe that there were no +ballad fragments of Kinmont in his possession. The person who, like +myself, thinks Satchells, with his "It fell about the Martinmas," knew +a ballad vaguely, believes that Satchells HAD some ballad sources +bemuddled in his old memory. + +A person who cannot conceive that Scott wrote + + +Except Sir Gilbert Elliot, called + The laird of Stobs, I mean the same, + + +will hold that Scott knew some ballad fragments, disjecta membra. But +I quite agree with Colonel Elliot, that the ballad, AS IT STANDS (with +the exception, to my mind, of some thirty stanzas, themselves emended), +"belongs to the early nineteenth century, not to the early +seventeenth." The time for supposing the poem, AS IT STANDS, to be +"saturated with the folk-spirit" all through is past; the poem is far +too much contaminated by the genius of Scott itself; like Burns' +transfiguration of "the folk-spirit" at its best. + +Near the beginning of this paper I said, in answer to a question of +Colonel Elliot's, that I myself was the person who had suspected Scott +of composing the whole of Kinmont Willie, and I have given my reasons +for not remaining constant to my suspicions. But in a work which +Colonel Elliot quotes, the abridged edition of Child's great book by +Mrs. Child-Sargent and Professor Kittredge (1905), the learned +professor writes, "Kinmont Willie is under vehement suspicion of being +the work of Sir Walter Scott." Mr. Kittredge's entire passage on the +matter is worth quoting. He first says--"The traditional ballad +appears to be inimitable by any person of literary cultivation," "the +efforts of poets and poetasters" end in "invariable failure." + +I do not think that they need end in failure except for one reason. +The poet or poetaster cannot, now, except by flat lying and laborious +forgery of old papers, produce any documentary evidence to prove the +AUTHENTICITY of his attempt at imitation. Without documentary evidence +of antiquity, no critic can approach the imitation except in a spirit +of determined scepticism. He knows, certainly, that the ballad is +modern, and, knowing that, he easily finds proofs of modernism even +where they do not really exist. I am convinced that to imitate a +ballad that would, except for the lack of documentary evidence, beguile +the expert, is perfectly feasible. I even venture to offer examples of +my own manufacture at the close of this volume. I can find nothing +suspicious in them, except the deliberate insertion of formulae which +occur in genuine ballads. Such wiederholungen are not reasons for +rejection, in my opinion; but they are SUSPECT with people who do not +understand that they are a natural and necessary feature of archaic +poetry, and this fact Mr. Kittredge does understand. + +Mr. Kittredge speaks of Sir Walter's unique success with Kinmont +Willie; but is Sir Walter successful? Some of his stanzas I, for one, +can hardly accept, even as emended traditional verses. + +Mr. Kittredge writes--"Sir Walter's success, however, in a special kind +of balladry for which he was better adapted by nature and habit of mind +than for any other, would only emphasise the universal failure. And it +must not be forgotten that Kinmont Willie, if it be Scott's work, is +not made out of whole cloth; it is a working over of one of the best +traditional ballads known (Jock o' the Side), with the intention of +fitting it to an historical exploit of Buccleuch. Further, the subject +itself was of such a nature that it might well have been celebrated in +a ballad,--indeed, one is tempted to say, it must have been so +celebrated." + +Not a doubt of THAT! + +"And, finally, Sir Walter Scott felt towards 'the Kinmont' and 'the +bold Buccleuch' precisely as the moss-trooping author of such a ballad +would have felt. For once, then, the miraculous happened. . . . " +{146a} Or did not happen, for the exception is "solitary though +doubtful," and "under vehement suspicion." But Mr. Kittredge must +remember that no known Scottish ballad "is made out of whole cloth." +All have, in various degrees, the successive modifications wrought by +centuries of oral tradition, itself, in some cases, modifying a much +modified printed "stall-copy" or "broadside." + +Take Jock o' the Side. The oldest version is in the Percy MS. {147a} +As Mr. Henderson says, "it contains many evident corruptions," + + +"Jock on his lively bay, Wat's on his white horse behind." + + +There is an example of what the original author could not have written! + +We do not know how good Jock was when he left his poet's hands; and +Scott has not touched him up. We cannot estimate the original +excellence of any traditional poem by the state in which we find it, + + +Corrupt by every beggar-man, +And soiled by all ignoble use. + + + +CONCLUSIONS + + + +We have now examined critically the four essentially Border ballads +which Sir Walter is suspected of having "edited" in an unrighteous +manner. Now he helps to forge, and issues Auld Maitland. Now he, or +somebody, makes up Otterburne, "partly of stanzas from Percy's +Reliques, which have undergone emendations calculated to disguise the +source from which they came, partly of stanzas of modern fabrication, +and partly of a few stanzas and lines from Herd's version." {148a} +Thirdly, Scott, it is suggested, knew only what I call "the Elliot +version" of Jamie Telfer, perverted that by transposing the roles of +Buccleuch and Stobs, and added picturesque stanzas in glorification of +his ancestor, Wat of Harden. Fourthly, he is suspected of "writing the +whole ballad" of Kinmont Willie, "from beginning to end." + +Of these four charges the first, and most disastrous, we have +absolutely disproved. Scott did not write one verse of the Auld +Maitland; he edited it with unusual scrupulosity, for he had but one +copy, and an almost identical recitation. He could not "eke and alter" +by adding verses from other texts, as he did in Otterburne. + +Secondly, Scott did not make up Otterburne in the way suggested by his +critic. He took Hogg's MS., and I have shown minutely what that MS. +was, and he edited it in accordance with his professed principles. He +made "a standard text." It is only to be regretted that Hogg did not +take down VERBATIM the words of his two reciters and narrators, and +that Scott did not publish Hogg's version, with his letter, in his +notes; but that was not his method, nor the method of his +contemporaries. + +Thirdly, as to Jamie Telfer, long ago I wrote, opposite + + +"The lyart locks of Harden's hair," + + +aut Jacobus aut Diabolus, meaning that either James Hogg or the devil +composed that stanza. I was wrong. Hogg had nothing to do with it; on +internal evidence Scott was the maker. But that he transposed the +Scott and Elliot roles is incapable of proof; and I have shown that +such perversions were made in very early times, where national, not +clan prejudices were concerned. I have also shown that Scott's version +contains matter not in the Elliot version, matter injurious to the +poem, as in one stanza, certainly not composed by himself, the stanza +being an inappropriate stray formula from other ballads. But, in the +absence of manuscript materials I can only produce presumptions, not +proofs. + +Lastly, Kinmont Willie, and Scott's share in it, is matter of +presumption, not of proof. He had been in quest of the ballad, as we +know from his list of desiderata; he says that what he got was +"mangled" by reciters, and that, in what he got, one river was +mentioned where topography requires another. He also admits that, in +the three ballads of rescues, he placed passages where they had most +poetical appropriateness. My arguments to show that Satchells had +memory of a Kinmont ballad will doubtless appeal with more or less +success, or with none, to different students. That an indefinite +quantity of the ballad, and improvements on the rest, are Scott's, I +cannot doubt, from evidence of style. + +"Sir Walter Scott it is impossible to assail, however much the +scholarly conscience may disapprove," says Mr. Kittredge. {150a} Not +much is to be taken by assailing him! "Business first, pleasure +afterwards," as, according to Sam Weller, Richard III. said, when he +killed Henry VI. before smothering the princes in the Tower. I proceed +to pleasure in the way of presenting imitations of "the traditional +ballad" which "appears to be inimitable by any person of literary +cultivation," according to Mr. Kittredge. + + +IMITATIONS OF BALLADS + + +The three following ballads are exhibited in connection with Mr. +Kittredge's opinion that neither poet nor poetaster can imitate, to- +day, the traditional ballad. Of course, not one of my three could now +take in an expert, for he would ask for documentary evidence of their +antiquity. But I doubt if Mr. Kittredge can find any points in my +three imitations which infallibly betray their modernity + +The first, Simmy o' Whythaugh, is based on facts in the Border +despatches. Historically the attempt to escape from York Castle +failed; after the prisoners had got out they were recaptured. + +The second ballad, The Young Ruthven, gives the traditional view of the +slaying of the Ruthvens in their own house in Perth, on 5th August +1600. + +The third, The Dead Man's Dance, combines the horror of the ballads of +Lizzy Wan and The Bonny Hind, with that of the Romaic ballad, in +English, The Suffolk Miracle (Child, No. 272). + + +I--SIMMY O' WHYTHAUGH + +O, will ye hear o' the Bishop o' York, + O, will ye hear o' the Armstrongs true, +How they hae broken the Bishop's castle, + And carried himsel' to the bauld Buccleuch? + +They were but four o' the Lariston kin, + They were but four o' the Armstrong name, +Wi' stout Sim Armstrong to lead the band, + The Laird o' Whythaugh, I mean the same. + +They had done nae man an injury, + They had na robbed, they had na slain, +In pledge were they laid for the Border peace, + In the Bishop's castle to dree their pain. + +The Bishop he was a crafty carle, + He has ta'en their red and their white monie, +But the muddy water was a' their drink, + And dry was the bread their meat maun be. + +"Wi' a ged o' airn," did Simmy say, + "And ilka man wi' a horse to ride, +We aucht wad break the Bishop's castle, + And carry himsel' to the Liddel side. + +"The banks o' Whythaugh I sall na see, + I never sall look upon wife and bairn; +I wad pawn my saul for my gude mear, Jean, + I wad pawn my saul for a ged o' airn." + +There was ane that brocht them their water and bread; + His gude sire, he was a kindly Scot, +Says "Your errand I'll rin to the Laird o' Cessford, + If ye'll swear to pay me the rescue shot." + +Then Simmy has gi'en him his seal and ring, + To the Laird o' Cessford has ridden he - +I trow when Sir Robert had heard his word + The tear it stood in Sir Robert's e'e. + +"And saIl they starve him, Simmy o' Whythaugh, + And sall his bed be the rotten strae? +I trow I'll spare neither life nor gear, + Or ever I live to see that day! + +"Gar bring up my horses," Sir Robert he said, + "I bid ye bring them by three and three, +And ane by ane at St. George's close, + At York gate gather your companie." + +Oh, some rade like corn-cadger men, + And some like merchants o' linen and hose; +They slept by day and they rade by nicht, + Till they a' convened at St. George's close. + +Ilka mounted man led a bridded mear, + I trow they had won on the English way; +Ilka belted man had a brace o' swords, + To help their friends to fend the fray. + +Then Simmy he heard a hoolet cry + In the chamber strang wi' never a licht; +"That's a hoolet, I ken," did Simmy say, + "And I trow that Teviotdale's here the nicht!" + +They hae grippit a bench was clamped wi' steel, + Wi' micht and main hae they wrought, they four, +They hae burst it free, and rammed wi' the bench, + Till they brake a hole in the chamber door. + +"Lift strae frae the beds," did Simmy say; + To the gallery window Simmy sped, +He has set his strength to a window bar, + And bursten it out o' the binding lead. + +He has bursten the bolts o' the Elliot men, + Out ower the window the strae cast he, +For they bid to loup frae the window high, + And licht on the strae their fa' would be. + +To the Bishop's chamber Simmy ran; + "Oh, sleep ye saft, my Lord!" says he; +"Fu' weary am I o' your bread and water, + Ye'se hae wine and meat when ye dine wi' me." + +He has lifted the loon across his shoulder; + "We maun leave the hoose by the readiest way!" +He has cast him doon frae the window high, + And a' to hansel the new fa'n strae! + +Then twa by twa the Elliots louped, + The Armstrongs louped by twa and twa. +"I trow, if we licht on the auld fat Bishop, + That nane the harder will be the fa'!" + +They rade by nicht and they slept by day; + I wot they rade by an unkenned track; +"The Bishop was licht as a flea," said Sim, + "Or ever we cam' to the Liddel rack." + +Then "Welcome, my Lord," did Simmy say, + "We'll win to Whythaugh afore we dine, +We hae drunk o' your cauld and ate o' your dry, + But ye'll taste o' our Liddesdale beef and wine." + +II--THE YOUNG RUTHVEN + +The King has gi'en the Queen a gift, + For her May-day's propine, +He's gi'en her a band o' the diamond-stane, + Set in the siller fine. + +The Queen she walked in Falkland yaird, + Beside the hollans green, +And there she saw the bonniest man + That ever her eyes had seen. + +His coat was the Ruthven white and red, + Sae sound asleep was he +The Queen she cried on May Beatrix, + That bonny lad to see. + +"Oh! wha sleeps here, May Beatnix, + Without the leave o' me?" +"Oh! wha suld it be but my young brother + Frae Padua ower the sea! + +"My father was the Earl Gowrie, + An Earl o' high degree, +But they hae slain him by fause treason, + And gar'd my brothers flee. + +"At Padua hae they learned their leir + In the fields o' Italie; +And they hae crossed the saut sea-faem. + And a' for love o' me!" + +* * * * + +The Queen has cuist her siller band + About his craig o' snaw; +But still he slept and naething kenned, + Aneth the hollans shaw. + +The King was walking thro' the yaird, + He saw the siller shine; +"And wha," quo' he, "is this galliard + That wears yon gift o' mine?" + +The King has gane till the Queen's ain bower, + An angry man that day; +But bye there cam' May Beatrix + And stole the band away. + +And she's run in by the little black yett, + Straight till the Queen ran she: +"Oh! tak ye back your siller band, + On it gar my brother dee!" + +The Queen has linked her siller band + About her middle sma'; +And then she heard her ain gudeman + Come sounding through the ha'. + +"Oh! whare," he cried, "is the siller band + I gied ye late yestreen? +The knops was a' o' the diamond-stane, + Set in the siller sheen." + +"Ye hae camped birling at the wine, + A' nicht till the day did daw; +Or ye wad ken your siller band + About my middle sma'!" + +The King he stude, the King he glowered, + Sae hard as a man micht stare: +"Deil hae me! Like is a richt ill mark, - + Or I saw it itherwhere! + +"I saw it round young Ruthven's neck + As he lay sleeping still; +And, faith, but the wine was wondrous guid, + Or my wife is wondrous ill!" + +There was na gane a week, a week, + A week but barely three; +The King has hounded John Ramsay out, + To gar young Ruthven dee! + +They took him in his brother's house, + Nae sword was in his hand, +And they hae slain him, young Ruthven, + The bonniest in the land! + +And they hae slain his fair brother, + And laid him on the green, +And a' for a band o' the siller fine + And a blink o' the eye o' the Queen! + +Oh! had they set him man to man, + Or even ae man to three, +There was na a knight o' the Ramsay bluid + Had gar'd Earl Gowrie dee! + +III--THE DEAD MAN'S DANCE + +"The dance is in the castle ha', + And wha will dance wi' me?" +"There's never a man o' living men, + Will dance the nicht wi' thee!" + +Then Margaret's gane within her bower, + Put ashes on her hair, +And ashes on her bonny breast + And on hen shoulders bare. + +There cam' a knock to her bower-door, + And blythe she let him in; +It was her brother frae the wars, + She lo'ed abune her kin. + +"Oh, Willie, is the battle won? + Or are you fled?" said she, +"This nicht the field was won and lost, + A' in a far countrie. + +"This nicht the field was lost and won, + A' in a far countrie, +And here am I within your bower, + For nane will dance with thee." + +"Put gold upon your head, Margaret, + Put gold upon your hair, +And gold upon your girdle-band, + And on your breast so fair!" + +"Nay, nae gold for my breast, Willie, + Nay, nae gold for my hair, +It's ashes o' oak and dust o' earth, + That you and I maun wear! + +"I canna dance, I mauna dance, + I daurna dance with thee. +To dance atween the quick and the deid, + Is nae good companie." + +* * * + +The fire it took upon her cheek, + It took upon her chin, +Nae Mass was sung, nor bells was rung, + For they twa died in deidly sin. + + + +Footnotes: + +{0a} Child, part vi. p. 513. + +{0b} Child, part x. p. 294. + +{1a} Hogg to Scott, 30th June 1802, given later in full. + +{2a} See De Origine, Moribus, et Rebus Gestis Scotorum, p. 60 (1578). + +{4a} Lockhart, vol. ii. p. 60 (1839). + +{8a} Lockhart, vol. ii. pp. 130-135 (1839). + +{10a} Minstrelsy, iii. 186-198. + +{15a} Child, part ix., 187. + +{17a} Further Essays, p. 184. + +{18a} Child, vol. i. p. xxx. + +{19a} Minstrelsy, 2nd edition, vol iii. (1803). + +{19b} Further Essays, pp. 247, 248. + +{21a} Carruthers, "Abbotsford Notanda," in R. Chambers's Life of +Scott, pp. 115-117 (1891). + +{21b} Ibid., p. 118. + +{23a} Carruthers, "Abbotsford Notanda," in R. Chambers's Life of +Scott, pp. 115-117 (1891). + +{23b} Lockhart, vol. ii. p. 99. + +{24a} Lockhart, Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart., vol. ii. pp. 99, 100 +(1829). + +{25a} Ritson of 10th April 1802, in his Letters of Joseph Ritson, +Esq., vol. ii. p. 218. Letter of 10th June 1802, Ibid., p. 207. +Ritson returned the original manuscript of Auld Maitland on 28th +February 1803, Ibid., p. 230. + +{26a} Carruthers, pp. 128, 131. + +{30a} Sweet William's Ghost. + +{31a} Further Essays, pp. 225, 226. + +{32a} Further Essays, pp. 227-234. + +{41a} Minstrelsy, vol. iii. pp. 307-310 (1833). + +{41b} Ibid., vol. iii. p. 314. + +{44a} Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, xxi. +4, pp. 804-806. + +{47a} Further Essays, p. 237. + +{47b} Carruthers, p. 128. + +{47c} Lockhart, vol. ii. pp. 67, 70, 71, 72, 74, 75, 79. + +{48a} Craig Brown, History of Selkirkshire. + +{49a} Child, part ix. p. 185. + +{51a} Scott to Laidlaw, 21st January 1803; Carruthers, pp. 121, 122. + +{53a} Further Essays, p. 45. + +{53b} Child, part viii. pp. 499-502. + +{53c} Further Essays, p. 10, where only two references to sources are +given. + +{54a} Child, part vi. p. 292. + +{54b} Ibid., part ix. p. 243. Herd, 1776; also C. K. Sharpe's MS. + +{59a} Bain, Calendar, vol. iv. pp. 87-93. + +{62a} This is scarcely accurate. Hogg, in fact, made up one copy, in +two parts, from the recitation of two old persons, as we shall see. + +{62b} Further Essays, pp. 12-27. + +{63a} Further Essays, p. 37. + +{67a} Scott to Laidlaw, Carruthers, p. 129. + +{69a} English version, xi.-xv. + +{70a} Further Essays, p. 58. + +{73a} Further Essays, p. 31. + +{75a} Godscroft, ed. 1644, p. 100; Child, part vi. p. 295. + +{79a} The Hunting of the Cheviot, and Herd's Otterburn. + +{83a} Herd, and Complaynte of Scotland, 1549. + +{84a} Child, part ix. p. 244, stanza xiii. + +{84b} Further Essays, p. 27. + +{89a} Further Essays on Border Ballads, p. 184. Andrew Elliot, 1910. +To be quoted as F. E. B. B. The other work on the subject is Colonel +Elliot's The Trustworthiness of the Border Ballads. Blackwoods, 1906. + +{91a} F. E. B. B., p. 199. + +{91b} F. E. B. B., p. 200. + +{93a} Trustworthiness of the Border Ballads, p. vi. + +{95a} Satchells, pp. 13, 14. Edition of 1892. + +{95b} Ibid., p. 14. + +{95c} Ibid., part ii. pp. 35, 36. + +{97a} F. E. B. B., p. 200. + +{98a} Child, English and Scottish Popular Ballads, part viii. p. 518. +He refers to "Letters I. No. 44" in MS. + +{98b} See Sargent and Kittredge's reduced edition of Child, p. 467, +1905. They publish this Elliot version only. The version has modern +spelling. On this version and its minor variations from Scott's, I say +more later; Colonel Elliot gives no critical examination of the +variations which seem to me essential. + +{99a} F. E. B. B., p. 184. + +{101a} Robert Scott (the poet Satchells's father) "had Southinrigg for +his service" to Buccleuch, says Sir William Fraser, in his Memoirs of +the House of Buccleuch. (See Satchells, 1892, pp. vii., viii.) But +the "fathers" of Satchells "having dilapidate and engaged their Estate +by Cautionary," poor Satchells was brought up as a cowherd, till he +went to the wars, and never learned to write, or even, it seems, to +read; as he says in the Dedication of his book to Lord Yester. + +{102a} The Trustworthiness of the Border Ballads, opp. p. 36. + +{103a} Border Papers, vol. i. pp. 120-127. + +{104a} Border Papers, vol. i. p. 106. + +{106a} Scrope, in Border Papers, vol. ii. pp. 148-152. + +{106b} Border Papers, vol. ii. p. 307, No. 606. + +{107a} Border Papers, vol. ii. pp. 299-303 + +{108a} Border Papers, vol. ii. p. 356. + +{108b} F. E. B. B., p. 161. + +{110a} See his Border Minstrelsy, vol. ii. p. 15. + +{110b} F. E. B. B., p. 156. + +{111a} T. B. B., p. 14. + +{112a} T. B. B., p. 12. + +{112b} T. B. B., p. 12. + +{113a} Memoirs of Robert Carey, p. 98, 1808. + +{114a} T. B. B., pp. 19, 20. + +{115a} T. B. B., p. 20. + +{120a} Child, part vii. p. 5. + +{120b} Variant E is a patched-up thing from five or six MS. sources +and a printed "stall copy." Jamieson published it in 1817. Motherwell +had heard a cantefable, or version in alternate prose and verse, which +contained the stanza. It is not identical with stanza xxxii. in +Scott's Jamie Telfer, but runs thus - + + +My hounds they all go masterless, +My hawks they fly from tree to tree, +My younger brother will heir my lands, +Fair England again I'll never see. + +Child, part ii. p. 454 et seqq. The speaker is young Beichan, a +prisoner in the dungeon of a professor of the Moslem faith. + +{122a} F. E. B. B., pp. 179-185. + +{123a} Child, part viii. p. 518. + +{125a} Aytoun, in The Ballads of Scotland (vol. i. p. 211), says that +his copy of Jamie Telfer "is almost verbatim the same as that given in +the Border Minstrelsy." He does not tell us where he got his copy; or +why the Captain's bride's speech (Sharpe, stanza xxxvi.) differs from +the version in Scott and Sharpe. He gives the stanza which comes last +in Scott's copy, and is too bad and enfeebling to be attributed to +Scott's pen. He omits the stanza which has strayed in from other +ballads, + + +"My hounds may a' rin masterless." + + +But as Aytoun confessedly rejected such inappropriate stanzas, he may +have found it in his copy and excised it. + +{129a} Minstrelsy, vol. iii. p. 76, 1803. + +{130a} Further Essays, p. 112. + +{131a} Further Essays, p. 112. + +{135a} In Minstrelsy, vol. ii. p. 35 (1833). + +{139a} Further Essays, p. 124. + +{139b} Border Papers, vol. ii. p. 367. + +{140a} Further Essays, pp. 123, 124. + +{140b} Border Papers, vol. ii. p. 121. + +{142a} Further Essays, p. 125. + +{142b} Birrell's Diary vouches for the irons. + +{142c} Further Essays, p. 128. + +{146a} Sargent and Kittredge, pp. xxix., xxx. + +{147a} Hales and Furnivall, ii. pp. 205-207. + +{148a} Further Essays, p. 45. + +{150a} Ballads, p. xxix. + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg Sir Walter Scott and the Border Minstrelsy + diff --git a/old/wsbms10.zip b/old/wsbms10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2b3131b --- /dev/null +++ b/old/wsbms10.zip |