[25] See Ancient Scottish Poems, 1786, vol. i. p. cxxxi.
[26] Minstrelsy, Ancient and Modern, 1827, p. xcvii.
[27] Scottish Ballads, vol. i. p. 46.
[28] Mr. Laing, with his usual kindness, has been so good as to answer my inquiry whether he still held the opinion he published in 1839. He writes (June 2, 1876): "I still adhere to the general inference that this ballad is comparatively a modern imitation, and although we have no positive evidence as to the authorship, I can think of no one that was so likely to have written it as Elizabeth Halket, Lady Wardlaw of Pitreavie, who died in 1727, aged fifty. Had Bishop Percy's correspondence with Sir David Dalrymple, Lord Hailes, been preserved, some interesting information would no doubt have been obtained regarding these ballads sent from Scotland."
[29] Scottish Traditional Versions of Ancient Ballads (Percy Society, vol. xvii. p. xi.).
[30] Neither of these lines occur in Percy's version, but they are both in the one printed by Scott.
[31] Ballads from Scottish History, 1863, pp. 223-4.
[32] "An ingenious friend thinks the author of Hardyknute has borrowed several expressions and sentiments from the foregoing and other old Scottish songs in this collection."
[33] See vol. ii. p. 105, of the present edition.
[34] It has been necessary in the foregoing remarks to give reasons why the opinions of the late Dr. Robert Chambers on this subject are not to be taken on trust, but it is hoped that these criticisms will not be understood as written with any wish to detract from the literary character of one who did so much good work during a laborious and ever active life.