THE HISTORY AND POETRY OF THE SCOTTISH BORDER THEIR MAIN FEATURES AND RELATIONS. By JOHN VEITCH, LLXL PROFESSOR OF LOGIC AND RHETORIC IN THE UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW. GLASGOW: JAMES MACLEHOSE, ST. VINCENT STREET, ftiblisber to the ®nibexert$. 1878. All rights reserved. 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 develop- ment 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 associa- vi 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. — CONTENTS. 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 Litera- ture, ........ 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 Pos- sessions 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 Tweed- dale, .... ... 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 Hender- land—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 Ber- wick," .... ... 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 Dee Pennycuik's Poems, . wad — . 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 XIV. MODERN PERIOD—LEYDEN, HOGG, AND SCOTT— RECENT POETS. John Leyden—The "Scenes of Infancy"—James Hogg—Early Influences and Training—Sir Walter Scott—The "Minstrelsy"—Older Border Poetry and that of Scott, their points of Agreement and Difference Scott's Pictorial Powers—How his Genius acquired its Bent—Words- worth—His "Yarrow Visited"—His Sonnet on Neidpath—William Laidlaw—His "Lucy's Flittin'"—James Nicol—Thomas Smibert—His "Scottish Widow's Lament"—Andrew Scott—Allan Cunningham Henry Scott Riddell—Thomas Davidson—T. T. Stoddart—A. Lang —"J. B." "Selkirk"—J. C. Shairp—The Author of "Rab and his " Friends —Conclusion, . 477—556 BORDER HISTORY AND POETRY. I. THE BORDER COUNTRY—THE SCENERY—THE NAMES OF PLACES AND NATURAL OBJECTS—ANGLO-SAXON, SCANDINAVIAN, CYMRIC. The district which stretches from the Firth of Forth, and from the line of the Wall of Antonine southwards to the shores of the Solway and the Irish Sea, has long borne the name of The Lowlands of Scotland. Occasion- ally, and more definitely, it has been called The Southern Lowlands. ' Lowland, as thus applied, is an epithet used broadly to distinguish this part of the country from the greater heights of the northern Highlands, and the term is not particularly appropriate. There is no doubt a large plain on the northern boundary extending along the Firths of Forth and Clyde to the Western Sea; and here and there within the district itself are long stretches of haugh or flat land. But any one who views the region from one of its higher hills will be struck with the predominating mountainous appearance of the country, and will almost 2 BORDER HISTORY wonder how it can support the population it does. There are aspects of it thus seen which may even tempt one to put the question as to how man has come to secure a footing amid its wilds at all. Its most prominent feature is the great back-bone of hills, which stretches from Loch Ryan on the south-west to St. Abb's Head on the north-east, cut across now and again by a water-course, but still fairly continuous from sea to sea. These occupy by themselves and their offshoots the- greater part of the area of the region. In Galloway and in Tweeddale they rise to a height of upwards of 2,700 feet, and for long miles of country they are more than 2,000 feet above sea-level. The district has thus appropriately been called The Southern Uplands. By peculiarities of physical feature, by a very ancient history, by fusion of races, by language and social manners, by the written and unwritten poetry of its people, these southern uplands have so influenced the whole history of Scotland, that without considering them we cannot understand our present nationality, nor would that nationality have been as it is. It is with a part of this district that I propose at present mainly to deal. This is the valley 4 of the Tweed and its tributaries. The Tweed is, for a considerable part of its course, the dividing line between the northern and southern parts of Britain, between Scotland and England.