[45] Review of Cromek's Reliques of Burns. Quarterly Review, February, 1809.
[46] "No one but Burns ever succeeded in patching up old Scottish songs with any good effect," Scott wrote in his Journal (Vol. II, p. 25). And in his review of Cromek's Reliques of Burns he said on the same subject of Scottish songs: "Few, whether serious or humorous, past through his hands without receiving some of those magic touches which, without greatly altering the song, restored its original spirit, or gave it more than it had ever possessed." (Quarterly, February, 1809.)
[47] Remarks on Popular Poetry, Henderson's edition of Minstrelsy, Vol. I, p. 46.
[48] Henderson's edition of Minstrelsy, Vol. I, p. xix.
[49] Henderson's edition of Minstrelsy, Vol. I, pp. 167-8.
[50] The matter may be traced in Child's collection of ballads, or more easily in the latest edition of the Minstrelsy, edited by T.F. Henderson and published in four volumes in 1902. Mr. Henderson's views of ballad origins are quite in accord with Scott's own, but he notes the points at which Scott failed to follow any originals. There seems to be some reason to believe, however, though Mr. Henderson does not say so, that Scott wrote Kinmont Willie without any originals at all, except the very similar situations in three or four other ballads. See the introduction by Professor Kittredge to the abridged edition of Child's ballads, edited by himself and Helen Child Sargent.
It is unnecessary to give here any detailed account of Scott's procedure, as the matter has been thoroughly worked out by students of ballads. A few examples may be given as illustrations, however. In The Dowie Dens of Yarrow (Henderson's edition, Vol. III, p. 173) 28 lines out of the 68 are noted by Mr. Henderson as either changed or added by Scott. Scott writes (beginning of fifth stanza), "As he gaed up the Tennies bank" for "As he gaed up yon high, high hill," and we find from a note of Lockhart's that The Tennies is the name of a farm belonging to the Duke of Buccleuch. In the sixth stanza Scott changes the lines,
"O ir ye come to drink the wine
As we hae done before, O?" to
"O come ye here to part your land,