VOL. IV.

190. Jamie Telfer of the Fair Dodhead.

P. 4 a. James Hogg, writing to Scott, June 30, [1802?] 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.” (Letters, I, No. 44.) Scott’s remarks should have been cited from the edition of 1802, I, 91.

5. Mr Andrew Lang has obligingly called my attention to difficulties which attend the assumption that the Dodhead of the ballad is the place of that name in Selkirkshire. Jamie Telfer, st. 7, runs ten miles between Dodhead and Stobs, and this is far enough if help is to be timely; but he would have to run thirty if his Dodhead were in Selkirkshire. With succor not nearer than that, Telfer would soon have been harried out of existence. The distances are too great both for the English and the Scots. But there is a Dod south of the Teviot, not far from Skelfhill, which is some seven miles only from Stobs. (Dodhead is not entered here on the Ordnance map, “but Dodburn is just under Dodrig, and where there is a Dodburn there is ‘tied’ to be a Dodhead in this country.”) Turning from Stobs to Teviot, Telfer would come in due order to Coltherdscleugh, Branxholm, and Borthwick Water, without the loss of time which he would, on the other supposition, incur in passing and returning. (See a note, by Mr Lang, in Mrs G. R. Tomson’s Ballads of the North Countrie, 1888, p. 435.)

Several other matters are not quite clear. Catslockhill, for instance, seems to be misplaced. Mr Lang, a native of Ettrick valley, knows of no Catslack but that in Yarrow. Of this, Mr T. Craig-Brown (Selkirkshire, I, 21), who accepts Scott’s Dodhead, says, “A long ride, if Catslack is in Yarrow.”

191. Hughie Grame.

P. 8. C. Substitute for Scott’s Minstrelsy, etc., “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 87, Abbotsford. Add: H. ‘Hughie Grame,’ “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 4. I. ‘Hughie Graeme,’ Wilkie’s MS., in “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 36.

P. 10 ff. For C substitute this, the original copy, as procured for Scott by William Laidlaw.

“Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 87, Abbotsford; in the handwriting of William Laidlaw. “From Robert Laidlaw.”

Gude Lord Scroop’s to the huntin gane;

He’s ridden oer monie a moss an muir,

An he has grippit Hughie the Græme,

For stealin o the bishop’s mare.

An they hae grippit Hughie the Græme,

An brought him up thro Carlisle town;

The lasses an lads they stood by the wa’s,

Cryin, Hughie the Græme, thou’s no gae

down!

They ha chosen a jury o men,

The best that were i Coventry,

An fifteen o them out a’ at anse,

‘Hughie the Græme, thou art guiltie.’

Than up bespak him gude Lord Hume,

As he sat at the judge’s knee;

‘Twentie white ousen, my gude lord,

If ye’ll grant Hughie the Græme to me.’

‘O no, no, no, my gude Lord Hume,

For sooth an so it mauna be;

For war there but twae Græms o the name,

They sould be hangit a’ for me.’

’Twas up than spak her gude Lady Hume,

As she sat by the judge’s knee;

‘A peck o white pennies, my gude lord,

If ye’ll grant Hughie the Græme to me.’

‘O no, O no, my gude Lady Hume,

For sooth an so it sal na be;

For war there but twae Greames of the name,

They soud be hangit a’ for me.’

‘If I be guilty,’ said Hughie the Graeme,

‘Of me my friends sal hae nae lack;’

An he has luppen fifteen feet an three,

An his hands they war tyed ahint his back.

He’s lookit oer his left shouther,

To see what he coud see,

An there he saw his auld father commin,

An he was weepin bitterlie.

‘O had yer tongue, my father,’ he says,

‘An see that ye dinna weep for me,

For they may ravish me o my life,

But they canna banish me thrae the heavens

hie.

‘Fare ye weel, Maggie, my wife;

The last time I came oer the muir,

It was you berievt me o my life,

An wi the bishop playd the w[hore].’