173 CHAPTER V. HISTORICAL BALLADS: THE YARROW. THE ballads to which we have just referred have been found to relate to events of general historical interest, or to the details of Border raids and exploits. The interest of them lies mainly in action. But there is another class of ballads which, while they refer to incident more or less, yet derive their main interest and impressiveness from the tragic or pathetic emotion excited by the story. And, curiously enough, the ballads of this description which thrill us the most, and which have most widely and deeply stirred the souls of men in subsequent times, have their locality in one valley-that of the Yarrowthe stream of pathetic song. Rough and rude was the life there for many generations; but the blood-stains on its grassy holms have watered and nourished growths of sentiment so tender, so pure, so intense, as to be for ever a gain and a blessing to the human heart. How the Yarrow has been the scene and the source of so much that is grand and touching in the older poetry of the Borders, is a question of great interest. That it has been so, not only through the accident of tragic and pathetic incident, but also through the peculiarities of its natural scenery, fusing with the moods of mind that sympathise with this kind of incident, I hope to be able to show. Meanwhile let us glance at its ballads and songs. Of the ballads and songs of the Yarrow of a pathetic type, there are four principal ones. They all apparently refer to real incidents. The oldest, which was first printed in Ramsay's Tea-Table Miscellany in 1724, is Willie's Rare and Willie's Fair. Pinkerton refers it to the period between James IV. and the reign of Mary. Then there are The Douglas Tragedy, The Dowie Dens of Yarrow, and The Lament of the Border Widow. The note struck in the first of these is that regret for the promise of happiness and that monotone of sadness which runs through all the pathetic poetry of the Yarrow. The burden of the song is the old story of a lost lover-lost, not through the violence of men as in The Douglas Tragedy, but by drowning in the Yarrow. The depth of passion conveyed is as wonderful as the simplicity of the expression: "Willie's rare, and Willie's fair, And Willie's wondrous bonny, Yestreen I made my bed fu' braid, O came ye by yon water-side? 1 Promised, or engaged. She sought him east, she sought him west, Syne in the cleaving of a craig, She found him drowned in Yarrow."1 A ballad with a northern reference somewhat similar to this is given by Buchan,2 and has been repeated with variations since his time. It is entitled Willie's drowned in Gamery. It has much more narrative than the Yarrow ballad has in fact not much in common with it beyond a general scope, and seems very like an adaptation of it to a more recent incident. The remaining three were first given by Scott in the Minstrelsy (1802-1803). The Douglas Tragedy and The Dowie Dens both refer to the same kind of incident-the loss of lover or husband in mortal combat. The scene of the former is the glen of the Douglas Burn, which rises in the dark heathery heights of Blackhouse, and joins the Yarrow at the Douglas Craig. The lovers were fleeing by night from the Tower of Blackhouse, situated in this glen, whose ruins still remain, though in a painfully uncared for and gradually vanishing condition. Blackhouse was a very old possession of the great house of Douglas. One of the family is commonly said to have sat in a Parliament of Malcolm Canmore at Forfar, as baronial lord of Douglas Burn. This Parliament is regarded as fabulous by Mr C. Innes.3 But by charter of 1321-22, the forests of Selkirk, Ettrick, and Traquair 1 Mr Palgrave prints a version with several additional stanzas. One of these, the finest, belongs to The Dowie Dens. The others, from their somewhat full references to the scenery, betray their comparatively modern origin. 2 Ballads of the North of Scotland, i. 245. 3 Sketches, 328. were bestowed on the "good Sir James of Douglas." Whether or not the lady who fled from her father's tower was a Douglas, it is now impossible to say. But, if she were, this would account for the disparity in social rank between herself and her lover, at which tradition hints. The bridle-road across the hills, which the fleeing lovers are said to have followed, can still, to a certain extent, be easily traced. It is one of the main old Border roads or riding-tracks between the Yarrow and the Tweed. From Blackhouse Tower a line of hill-road passes up the Douglas Burn, then turns to the right into Brakehope, and at the Risp Syke, where "the Douglas Stones" are, it passes up the hill nearing the stones; then, keeping northwards, it follows the line of the Black Cleugh Burn, and parts into two on the east slope of Dunrig. One branch, though here much obliterated, passes along the south shoulder of the Dunrig (2435), and proceeding across the watershed of the Douglas, Glenrath, and Glensax Burns, and the ridge of the Fa' Seat -the highest of the hills in that wild district-it leads along the broad hill-tops by way of Hundleshope, or by Crookstone, to the Tweed at Peebles. The other, and here more distinctly marked, branch goes to the northwestwards, and right by the slopes of the Stake Law, at an elevation of about 1784 feet; and at the watershed, between The Glen and Glensax, it diverges into two lines the one passing down "the Short Strands Glensax Burn, and thence down the valley to Peebles; the other, known as "the Drove Road," keeping along the Newbie heights till it, too, descends into the low ground and meets the Tweed at Peebles. From the to Douglas Stones, after the conflict with the father and seven brothers, the knight and his lady were making their way for the home of the former, and their path might have been either along the high line of Dunrig, or the lower slopes of the Stake Law, to Glensax. From these main lines various branches of roads diverge, each traceable still to the site of some ancient peel, with which it afforded a ready connection to the mounted Borderer. The stones which are said to mark the scene of the fatal conflict are, however, obviously greatly older than any reasonable date which can be assigned to the story of the ballad; and instead of there being only seven, there are at least thirteen distinctly visible. The structure obviously belongs to the general class of stone-circles common on the Lowland hills, which might have been places of judicature, or worship, or burial, or all three. Still it is quite possible that in this, as in other instances, these ancient stones became the scene of a historical event. To reach "the Douglas Stones," one has to go up the Douglas Burn, pass Blackhouse Tower, then follow the Brakehope Burn to the right. Into this burn on the left falls the rivulet called the Risp Syke. Ascend this to the top, and there, within about 400 yards from the sky-line of the hills, at an elevation of some 1180 feet, are situated the grey, weird stones. At first sight the appearance is that of a semicircle, with its convex facing you as you ascend the hill, and its base to the west towards the summit. In the line of the semicircle there are eleven stones, and within this line near the east side are two making thirteen. Of these only four are now erect, the VOL. II. M |