“Live ye upo’ the border?”

By means of these men, much traditional poetry was preserved, which must otherwise have perished.  Other itinerants, not professed musicians, found their welcome to their night’s quarters readily insured by their knowledge in legendary lore.  John Graeme, of Sowport, in Cumberland, commonly called The Long Quaker[64], a person of this latter description, was very lately alive; and several of the songs, now published, have been taken down from his recitation.  The shepherds also, and aged persons, in the recesses of the border mountains, frequently remember and repeat the warlike songs of their fathers.  This is more especially the case in what are called the South Highlands, where, in many instances, the same families have occupied the same possessions for centuries.

[Footnote 63:  These town pipers, an institution of great antiquity upon the borders, were certainly the last remains of the minstrel race.  Robin Hastie, town-piper of Jedburgh, perhaps the last of the order, died nine or ten years ago:  his family was supposed to have held the office for about three centuries.  Old age had rendered Robin a wretched performer; but he knew several old songs and tunes, which have probably died along with him.  The town-pipers received a livery and salary from the community to which they belonged; and, in some burghs, they had a small allotment of land, called the Piper’s Croft.  For further particulars regarding them, see Introduction to Complaynt of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1801, p. 142.]

[Footnote 64:  This person, perhaps the last of our professed ballad reciters, died since the publication of the first edition of this work.  He was by profession an itinerant cleaner of clocks and watches; but, a stentorian voice, and tenacious memory, qualified him eminently for remembering accurately, and reciting with energy, the border gathering songs and tales of war.  His memory was latterly much impaired; yet, the number of verses which he could pour forth, and the animation of his tone and gestures, formed a most extraordinary contrast to his extreme feebleness of person, and dotage of mind.]

It is chiefly from this latter source that the editor has drawn his materials, most of which were collected, many years ago, during his early youth.  But he has been enabled, in many instances, to supply and correct the deficiencies of his own copies, from a collection of border songs, frequently referred to in the work, under the title of Glenriddell’s MS.  This was compiled, from various sources, by the late Mr. Riddell, of Glenriddel, a sedulous border antiquary, and, since his death, has become the property of Mr. Jollie, bookseller at Carlisle; to whose liberality the editor owes the use of it, while preparing this work for the press.  No liberties have been taken, either with the recited or written copies of these ballads, farther than that, where they disagreed, which is by no means unusual, the