THE Poem, now offered to the Public, is intended to illustrate the customs and manners, which anciently prevailed on the Borders of England and Scotland. The inhabitants, living in a state partly pastoral and partly warlike, and combining habits of constant depredation with the influence of a rude spirit of chivalry, were often engaged in scenes, highly susceptible of poetical ornament. As the description of scenery and manners was more the object of the author, than a combined and regular narrative, the plan of the ancient Metrical Romance was adopted, which allows greater latitude, in this respect, than would be consistent with the dignity of a regular Poem. The same model offered other facilities, as it permits an occasional alteration of measure, which, in some degree, authorizes the change of rhythm in the text. The machinery also,adopted from popular belief, would have seemed puerile in a poem, which did not partake of the rudeness of the old Ballad, or Metrical Romance. For these reasons, the Poem was put into the mouth of an ancient Minstrel, the last of the race, who, as he is supposed to have survived the Revolution, might have caught somewhat of the refinement of modern poetry, without losing the simplicity of his original model. The date of the Tale itself is about the middle of the sixteenth century, when most of the personages actually flou rished. The time occupied by the action is the Nights and three Days. THE INTRODUCTION. way was long, the wind was cold, The unpremeditated lay: Old times were changed, old manners gone; A stranger filled the Stuart's throne; The bigots of the iron time Had called bis harmless art a crime. A wandering Harper, scorned and poor, He passed where Newark's stately tower Looks out from Yarrow's birchen bower: The minstrel gazed with wishful eye—- The embattled portal-arch he passed, The Dutchess* marked his weary pace, Though born in such a high degree; Began to rise his minstrel pride: Of good Earl Francis,t dead and gone, * Anne,Dutchess of Buccleuch and Monmouth, representative of the ancient lords of Buccleuch, and widow of the unfortunate James, Duke of Monmouth, who was beheaded in 1685. +Francis Scott, Earl of Buccleuch, father of the Dutchess. Walter, Earl of Buccleuch, grandfather of the ss, and a celebrated warrior. |