The history and poetry of the Scottish border; their main features and relations

Front matter

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THE GIFT OF

Preface

In this volume I do not propose to write a complete history of the Scottish Border, or even to give the series of its picturesque episodes. I have sought mainly to trace the outlines of Border History, to give in the order of development its salient characteristics, and to show how these, in connection with the scenery of the district, have issued in its rich and stirring ballad and song. Many an evening of poring over old documents this volume has cost me ; and many a day, under lowering as well as sunny skies, have I spent in seeing for myself the scenes of the historical and traditional incidents. There is thus hardly one name of a place in this volume which is not to me a vivid impression. I cannot expect the majority of readers, or even many of them, to share the intensity of feeling which the associavi PREFACE.

tions connected with those names create in my mind ; but there is, I trust, enough of historical delineation, and enough of the poetry peculiar to the Border Land, to enable the reader to follow, with some interest, its life of the past, and to feel the spirit of its song.

I. The Border Country

The Scenery — Ancient Remains — Names of Places and Natural Features- Anglo-Saxon — Scandinavian — Names of Dwelling-places — Names of Streams — Breaks in Banks and Hills — Plains — Hills — Woods — Valleys — Vernacular Words — Proportion of Scandinavian Names — Celtic Names — Gaelic and Cymric — Chiefly Cornish — Cymric Character and Poetry, ....... i — 64

II. The Semi-historic Period— Arthur And The Arthurian Legends

Romans in Britain — Divisions of the Lowlands — The Historical Arthur — The Four Ancient Books of Wales — Gildas — Nennius — Picts, Scots, and Angles — Arthur the Guledig — His Twelve Battles — His death — Arthurian Legends — In Brittany — In Wales — Influence of on Literature, ........ 65 — 94 viii CONTENTS.

III. Early History Of The Lowlands Of Scotland

THE KINGDOMS OF STRATHCLYDE AND CUMBRIA.

Britons and Picts— The Catrail— The Angles— Rydderch Hael and the Battle of Arderydd — Kingdom of Strathclyde — References in Early Cymric Poems— Aethelfrid and Aidan— Struggles of Angles and Picts with Britons of Strathclyde-^End of the Kingdom of Strathclyde— David as Prince of Cumbria — Remains of Cymric Language — Irifluence of Cymric Poetry, . ... 83 — 117

IV. CYMRIC WORSHir— EARLY CHRISTIANITY

Cymric Nature-Worship— Ninian — Kentigern — Cuthbert, . 118 — 128

V. Merlin

Merlin — More than One of the Name — Incidents of the Life of Merlin the Wild, Bard, Seer, and Wizard — Growth of Mythic Element about him — Tennyson's View of him — Leyden's Notice of him — Problem involved in his Life, . .... 129—142

VI

CUMBRIA AND SCOTLAND UNDER DAVID I. AS PRINCE AND KING, AND DOWN TO THE DEATH OF ALEX- ANDER III. IN 1285-6.

Different Nationalities in the Country — How fused — Inquisition into Possessions of the Church of Glasgow— David I. and his Charters— The Marches of Stobo— Names of the Lairds— Military Vassalage— Burghal Corporations— The great Religious Houses of the Border : Kelso, Jedburgh, Melrose, Dryburgh — Their Destruction by the Emissaries of Henry VIII.— Royal Castles of the Border, 143—184

CONTENTS. ix

VII. Sir Simon Fraser And The War Of Independence

Death of Alexander III.— Sir Simon Fraser, the Father, and the Family of Fraser— Sir Simon Fraser, the Son— Swears Allegiance to Edward I.— With Edward in Flanders— Simon de Horsbroke — Fraser Governor of the Forest— At the Siege of Caerlaverock— Suspected by the English — Goes over to the Scottish Party — Fraser and Soulis — Fraser and Wallace— Fights the Battle of Roslin — Fraser joins Robert Bruce — His Execution — Policy of Edward I. — Fraser's Descendants in Tweeddale, .... ... 185—224

VIII

THOMAS THE RHYMOUR AND THE EARLY ROMANTIC SCHOOL OF POETRY IN THE LOWLANDS.

Learning in the Abbeys — Michael Scot— Joannes de Sacrobosco — Thomas of Erceldoune — Residence and Family — As a Prophet — Intercourse with Fairyland — His supposed Authorship of Sir Tristrem — Sir Walter Scott's View on this point — Other Romances — Sir Frederic Madden's View — Criticism of it— Character of the Romances of the Lowlands in the Fourteenth and part of the Fifteenth Centuries — Close of the Romantic Epoch and how Superseded, . 225 — 265

IX. Medleval Period— Features Of Border Life And Character

- Tho Paoie — Bale-fire — Influence of Aggression on the Character of the People — Internal HaTiits— Tenure of Land — Ballad of Outlaw Murray — Clanship — Personal Interference by the King — Cokburne of Henderland — Scott of Tuschielaw — Armstrong of Gilnockie — State of Matters after Death of JameS V. — Family Feuds — Acts of Parliament regarding them — The Last of them, ..... 266 — 310

CONTENTS.

X

THE POETRY OF THE BORDER— THE OLDER POEMS DESCRIPTIVE OF SOCIAL MANNERS.

' Peblis to the Play "—Date and Authorship— Ascribed to James I.— "The Thrie Tailes of the Thrie Priests of Peebles"— Their Scope and Character— Date and Authorship— " The Friars of Berwick," .... ... 311—326

XI. The Ballads And Songs Of The Border

Influence of Border HisJoj3MipoH^th&£aeliafcClassificat:ion of the Ballads and-Soags— Authorship— Romantic Ballads— The Elves — "Tamlane" —Hogg and the Fairy Traditions — Leyden's " Cout of Keeldar" — Magic and Necromancy— As treated by Sir Walter Scott — Witchcraft — Return of the Dead to Life — " Eve of St. John " —Historical Ballads — " Auld Maitland " — " Battle of Otterboume "—"Jamie Telfer o" the Fair Dodhead" — "Kinmont Willie" — "Lord Maxwell's Goodnight" — Ballads and Songs of the Yarrow — " Willie's Rare and Willie's Fair" — " Douglas Tragedy " — " The Dowie Dens, " . 327 — 413

XII

THE POETRY OF THE BORDER — INFLUENCE OF THE SCENERY— THE LOVE SONGS AND GENERAL POETRY.

Character of the Feeling for Nature — Scenery of the District — Of the Yarrow — Of the Tweed — Love Songs of the Tweed — Second Marquis of Tweeddale — His "Tweedside" — "John Hay's Bonnie Lassie" — "Ettrick Banks" — Lady Grizzel Baillie — Her "Were na my Heart Licht I wad Dee " — Pennycuik's Poems, . . . 414 — 440

CONTENTS. xi

XIII. Border Poetry, Eighteenth Century

Collections of Songs and Ballads- -Allan Ramsay — Robert Crawford— His. "Tweedside" — William Hamilton of Bangour — His "Busk ye, busk ye, my bonny, bonny Bride" — Robert Fergusson — The Elliots of Minto— Sir Gilbert, Second Baronet— Sir Gilbert, Third Baronet- Miss Jean Elliot's "The Flowers of the Forest" — Mrs. Cockburn's. version— John Armstrong — W. J. Mickle— John Logan — Langhorne — Alexander Geddes, . . . 441 — 476