editor, in justice to the author, has uniformly preserved what seemed to him the best, or most poetical, reading of the passage.  Such discrepancies must very frequently occur, wherever poetry is preserved by oral tradition; for the reciter, making it a uniform principle to proceed at all hazards, is very often, when his memory fails him, apt to substitute large portions from some other tale, altogether distinct from that which he has commenced.  Besides, the prejudices of clans and of districts have occasioned variations in the mode of telling the same story.  Some arrangement was also occasionally necessary, to recover the rhyme, which was often, by the ignorance of the reciters, transposed, or thrown into the middle of the line.  With these freedoms, which were essentially necessary to remove obvious corruptions, and fit the ballads for the press, the editor presents them to the public, under the complete assurance, that they carry with them the most indisputable marks of their authenticity.

The same observations apply to the Second Class, here termed ROMANTIC BALLADS; intended to comprehend such legends as are current upon the border, relating to fictitious and marvellous adventures Such were the tales, with which the friends of Spenser strove to beguile his indisposition: 

  “Some told of ladies, and their paramours;
  Some of brave knights, and their renowned squires;
  Some of the fairies, and their strange attires,
  And some of giants, hard to be believed.”

These, carrying with them a general, and not merely a local, interest, are much more extensively known among the peasantry of Scotland than the border-raid ballads, the fame of which is in general confined to the mountains where they were originally composed.  Hence, it has been easy to collect these tales of romance, to a number much greater than the editor has chosen to insert in this publication[65].  With this class are now intermingled some lyric pieces, and some ballads, which, though narrating real events, have no direct reference to border history or manners.  To the politeness and liberality of Mr. Herd, of Edinburgh, the editor of the first classical collection of Scottish songs and ballads (Edinburgh, 1774, 2 vols.), the editor is indebted for the use of his MSS., containing songs and ballads, published and unpublished, to the number of ninety and upwards.  To this collection frequent references are made, in the course of the following pages.  Two books of ballads, in MS., have also been communicated to me, by my learned and respected friend, Alexander Fraser Tytler, Esq[66].  I take the liberty of transcribing Mr. Tytler’s memorandum respecting the manner in which they came into his hands.  “My father[67] got the following songs from an old friend, Mr. Thomas Gordon, professor of philosophy, King’s College, Aberdeen.  The following extract of a letter of the professor to me, explains how he came by them:—­“An aunt of my children, Mrs Farquhar, now dead, who was