BALLADS; intended to comprehend such legends as are current upon the
border, relating to fictitious and marvellous adventures Such were
the tales, with which the friends of Spenser strove to beguile his
indisposition:

"Some told of ladies, and their paramours;
Some of brave knights, and their renowned squires;
Some of the fairies, and their strange attires,
And some of giants, hard to be believed."

These, carrying with them a general, and not merely a local, interest,
are much more extensively known among the peasantry of Scotland than
the border-raid ballads, the fame of which is in general confined to
the mountains where they were originally composed. Hence, it has been
easy to collect these tales of romance, to a number much greater than
the editor has chosen to insert in this publication[65]. With this
class are now intermingled some lyric pieces, and some ballads, which,
though narrating real events, have no direct reference to border
history or manners. To the politeness and liberality of Mr. Herd, of
Edinburgh, the editor of the first classical collection of Scottish
songs and ballads (Edinburgh, 1774, 2 vols.), the editor is indebted
for the use of his MSS., containing songs and ballads, published and
unpublished, to the number of ninety and upwards. To this collection
frequent references are made, in the course of the following pages.
Two books of ballads, in MS., have also been communicated to me, by my
learned and respected friend, Alexander Fraser Tytler, Esq[66]. I take
the liberty of transcribing Mr. Tytler's memorandum respecting the
manner in which they came into his hands. "My father[67] got the
following songs from an old friend, Mr. Thomas Gordon, professor
of philosophy, King's College, Aberdeen. The following extract of a
letter of the professor to me, explains how he came by them:--"An
aunt of my children, Mrs Farquhar, now dead, who was married to the
proprietor of a small estate, near the sources of the Dee, in Braemar,
a good old woman, who spent the best part of her life among flocks
and herds, resided in her latter days in the town of Aberdeen. She was
possest of a most tenacious memory, which retained all the songs she
had heard from nurses and country-women in that sequestered part of
the country. Being maternally fond of my children, when young, she had
them much about her, and delighted them with her songs, and tales of
chivalry. My youngest daughter, Mrs Brown, at Falkland, i