“Come! cease thy allacing, thou silly blind Harper,
  And again of thy harping let us hear;
  And weel payd sall thy cowt-foal be,
  And thou sall have a far better mare.”

  Then aye he harped, and aye he carped;
  Sae sweet were the harpings he let them hear! 
  He was paid for the foal he had never lost,
  And three times ower for the gude GRAY MARE.

[Footnote 127:  Carped—­Sung.]

[Footnote 128:  Cowt halter—­Colt’s halter.]

[Footnote 129:  Nicker and sneer—­Neigh and snort.]

[Footnote 130:  Wad my hail fee—­Bet my whole wages.]

[Footnote 131:  Fiend thing dought—­Nothing could they do.]

NOTES ON THE LOCHMABEN HARPER.

* * * * *

The only remark which offers itself on the foregoing ballad seems to be, that it is the most modern in which the harp, as a border instrument of music, is found to occur.

I cannot dismiss the subject of Lochmaben, without noticing an extraordinary and anomalous class of landed proprietors, who dwell in the neighbourhood of that burgh.  These are the inhabitants of four small villages, near the ancient castle, called the Four Towns of Lochmaben.  They themselves are termed the King’s Rentallers, or kindly tenants; under which denomination each of them has a right, of an allodial nature, to a small piece of ground.  It is said, that these people are the descendants of Robert Bruce’s menials, to whom he assigned, in reward of their faithful service, these portions of land, burdened only with the payment of certain quit-rents, and grassums or fines, upon the entry of a new tenant.  The right of the rentallers is, in essence, a right of property, but, in form, only a right of lease; of which they appeal for the foundation on the rent-rolls of the lord of the castle and manor.  This possession, by rental, or by simple entry upon the rent-roll, was anciently a common, and peculiarly sacred, species of property, granted by a chief to his faithful followers; the connection of landlord and tenant being esteemed of a nature too formal to be necessary, where there was honour upon one side, and gratitude upon the other.  But, in the case of subjects granting a right of this kind, it was held to expire with the life of the granter, unless his heir chose to renew it; and also upon the death of the rentaller himself, unless especially granted to his heirs, by which term only his first heir was understood.  Hence, in modern days, the kindly tenants have entirely disappeared from the land.  Fortunately for the inhabitants of the Four Towns of Lochmaben, the maxim, that the king can never die, prevents their right of property from reverting to the crown.  The viscount of Stormonth, as royal keeper of the castle, did, indeed, about the beginning of last century, make an attempt to remove the rentallers