[178]. Addison was not behind any of us in his regard for traditional songs and tales. No 70 begins: “When I travelled, I took a particular delight in hearing the songs and fables that are come from father to son and are most in vogue among the common people of the countries through which I passed; for it is impossible that anything should be universally tasted and approved by a multitude, tho they are only the rabble of a nation, which hath not in it some peculiar aptness to please and gratify the mind of man. Human nature is the same in all reasonable creatures, and whatever falls in with it will meet with admirers amongst readers of all qualities and conditions.”
[179]. A Description of the Parish of Melrose [by the Revd. Adam Milne], Edinburgh, 1743, p. 21. Scott cites the epitaph, with some slight variations (as “English louns”), Appendix to The Eve of St. John, Minstrelsy, IV, 199, ed. 1833. The monument was “all broken in pieces” in Milne’s time; seems to have been renewed and again broken up (The Scotsman, November 12, 1873); but, judging from Murray’s Handbook of Scotland, has again been restored.
Squire Meldrum’s valor was inferior to nobody’s, but as his fortune was happier than Witherington’s and Lilliard’s, a note may suffice for him. “Quhen his schankis wer schorne in sunder, vpon his knees he wrocht greit wounder:” Lindsay, ed. 1594, Cv. recto, v. 30 f, Hall, p. 358, v. 1349 f. But really he was only “hackit on his hochis and theis,” or as Pittscottie says, Dalyell, p. 306, “his hochis war cutted and the knoppis of his elbowis war strikin aff,” and by and by he is “haill and sound” again, according to the poet, and according to the chronicler he “leived fyftie yeires thairefter.”
[180]. As stanch as some of these was a Highlander at the battle of Gasklune, 1392, who, though nailed to the ground by a horseman’s spear, held fast to his sword, writhed himself up, and with a last stroke cut his foeman above the foot to the bone, “through sterap-lethire and the bute, thre ply or foure”: Wyntoun’s Chronicle, B. ix, ch. 14, Laing, III, 59.
[181]. Legally just: Maidment, Scotish Ballads and Songs, Historical and Traditionary, I, 349 ff.
[182]. And afterwards, 1748, by Robert Foulis, Glasgow: “Two old Historical Scots Poems, giving an account of the Battles of Harlaw and the Reid-Squair.”
[183]. Ane Catalogue of the Books, Manuscripts and Pamphlets Belonging to Robert Mylne, Wryter in Edr
., 1709: Advocates Library. Mr Macmath, who has come to my aid here, writes: “So far as I can make out, this catalogue contains no MSS. It is in two divisions: 1st, Printed Books; 2d, Pamphlets. The following is in the second division, and I understand the reference to be, year of publication, volume, or bundle of pamphlets, number of piece in bundle or volume:
“Harlaw The Battle yrof An: 1411 ... 1668, 79, 5.”
Mylne died in 1747, at the age, it is said, of 103 or 105: [Maidment], A Book of Scotish Pasquils, p. 423.
[184]. He talks like a canny packman: