"Live you upo' the Border?"
had not all confidence been destroyed by its being altered in the Historical Essay, prefixed to that publication (p. cx.) to
"Ye live upo' the Border,"
the better to favour a position, that many of the pipers "might live upon the border, for the conveniency of attending fairs, &c. in both kingdoms." But whoever is acquainted with that part of England knows that on the English frontier rude mountains and barren wastes reach almost across the island, scarcely inhabited by any but solitary shepherds; many of whom durst not venture into the opposite border on account of the ancient feuds and subsequent disputes concerning the Debatable Lands, which separated the boundaries of the two kingdoms, as well as the estates of the two great families of Percy and Douglas; till these disputes were settled, not many years since, by arbitration between the present Lord Douglas, and the late Duke and Dutchess of Northumberland.
[NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS]
REFERRED TO IN THE FOREGOING ESSAY.
[A] [The Minstrels, &c.]
The word minstrel does not appear to have been in use here before the Norman Conquest: whereas it had long before that time been adopted in France.[1103] Menestrel, so early as the eighth century, was a title given to the Maestro di Capella of K. Pepin, the father of Charlemagne; and afterwards to the Coryphæus, or leader of any band of musicians (v. Burney's Hist. of Music, ii. 268). This term menestrel, menestrier was thus expressed in Latin, ministellus, ministrellus, ministrallus, menesterellus, &c. (Vid. Gloss. Du Cange, and Supplement.)