more hackneyed set of the same Border lament, was of the
ancient race of Rutherford of Wauchope in the same romantic Border
district,--a district wherein James Thomson, of _The Seasons_, spent his
childhood from almost his earliest infancy, and where the prototype of
Scott's Dandie Dinmont, James Davidson of 'Note o' the Gate,' sleeps
sound under a green heap of turf. To trace the Teviotdale dynasty of
song further in the female line, Mrs. Cockburn's niece, Mrs. Scott, was
that 'guidwife o' Wauchope-house,' who addressed an ode to her 'canty,
witty, rhyming ploughman,' Robert Burns, with an invitation to visit her
on the Border--an invitation which the poet accepted, and on the way
thither, as he relates, chanced upon 'Esther (Easton), a very remarkable
woman for reciting poetry of all kinds, and sometimes making Scots
doggerel of her own.'

Meanwhile, in other parts of the country, the search for and the study
of the remains of the old and popular poetry was making progress. With
this had come a truer appreciation of its beauty and its spirit, and the
return of a measure of the earlier gift of spontaneous song. The fancy
of Scotland was kindled by the tale of the '45. Her poetic heart beat in
sympathy with the 'Lost Cause'--after it was finally lost; even while
her reason and judgment remained, on the whole, true to the side and to
the principles that were victorious. Men who were almost Jacobin in
their opinion--Robert Burns is a prime example--became Jacobite when
they donned their singing robes. The faults and misdeeds of the Stewarts
were forgotten in their misfortunes. In the gallant but ruinous 'cast
for the crown' of the native dynasty, the national lyre found once more
a theme for song and ballad. 'Drummossie moor, Drummossie day' drew
laments as for another Flodden; and 'Johnnie Cope,' in his flight from
the field of Prestonpans, was pursued more relentlessly by mocking
rhymes than by Highland claymores.

A rush of Jacobite song, which had the great good fortune to be wedded
to music not less witching than itself, followed rather than attended
the Rebellion; and has become among the most precious and permanent of
the nation's possessions in the sphere of poetry. Whichever side had the
better in the sword-play, there can be no doubt which has won the
triumph in the piping. Song and music have given the Stewart cause its
revenge against fortune; and Prince Charlie, and not Cumberland, will
remain for all time