Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, Volume 3 (of 3) / Consisting of Historical and Romantic Ballads, Collected in the Southern Counties of Scotland; with a Few of Modern Date, Founded Upon Local Tradition

by Walter Scott

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Kevils—Lots.

[2] Dow—Dove.

[3] Lay gowd—To embroider in gold.

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[KEMPION.]

NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED

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The tale of Kempion seems, from the names of the personages, and the nature of the adventure, to have been an old metrical romance, degraded into a ballad, by the lapse of time, and the corruption of reciters. The change in the structure of the last verses, from the common ballad stanza, to that which is proper to the metrical romance, adds force to this conjecture.