AULD MAITLAND NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED. [1802.] 1 THIS ballad, notwithstanding its present appearance, has a claim to very high antiquity. It has been preserved by tradition; and is, perhaps, the most authentic instance of a long and very old poem, exclusively thus preserved. It is only known to a few old people upon the sequestered banks of the Ettrick; and is pub. lished, as written down from the recitation of the mother of Mr James Hogg, who sings, or rather chants it, with great animation. She learned the ballad from a blind man, who died at the advanced age of ninety, and is said to have been possessed of much traditionary knowledge. Although the language of this poem is much modernized, yet many words, which the reciters have retained without understanding them, still preserve traces of its antiquity. Such are the words springals (corruptedly pronounced springwalls), sow This old woman is still alive, and at present resides at Craig of Douglas, in Selkirkshire. 1805.-The mother of the "Ettrick Shepherd" is now deceased. 1820. ies, portcullize, and many other appropriate terms of war and chivalry, which could never have been introduced by a modern ballad-maker. The incidents are striking and well managed; and they are in strict conformity with the manners of the age in which they are placed. The editor has, therefore, been induced to illustrate them, at considerable length, by parallel passages from Froissart, and other historians of the period to which the events refer. The date of the ballad cannot be ascertained with any degree of accuracy. Sir Richard Maitland, the hero of the poem, seems to have been in possession of his estate about 1250; so that, as he survived the commencement of the wars betwixt England and Scotland, in 1296, his prowess against the English, in defence of his castle of Lauder or Thirlestane, must have been exerted during his extreme old age. He seems to have been distinguished for devotion as well as valour; for A.D. 1249, Dominus Ricardus de Mautlant gave to the Abbey of Dryburgh, "Terras suas de Haubentside, in territorio suo de Thirlestane, pro salute animæ suæ, et sponsæ suæ, antecessorum suorum et successorum suorum, in perpetuum." He also gave to the 971 1 There exists also an indenture, or bond, entered into by Patrick, Abbot of Kelsau, and his convent, referring to an engagement betwixt them and Sir Richard Maitland, and Sir William, his eldest son, concerning the lands of Hedderwicke and the pasturages of Thirlestane and Blythe. This Patrick was Abbot of Kelso betwixt 1258 and 1260. same convent," Omnes terras, quas Walterus de Giling tenuit in feodo suo de Thirlestane et pastura incommuni de Thirlestane, ad quadraginta oves, sexaginta vaccas, et ad viginti equos."—Cartulary of Dryburgh Abbey, in the Advocates' Library. From the following ballad, and from the family traditions referred to in the Maitland MSS., Auld Maitland appears to have had three sons; but we learn, from the latter authority, that only one survived him, who was thence surnamed Burd alane, which signifies either unequalled, or solitary. A Consolation, addressed to Sir Richard Maitland of Lethington, a poet and scholar who flourished about the middle of the sixteenth century, and who gives name to the Maitland MSS., draws the following parallel betwixt his domestic misfortunes and those of the first Sir Richard, his great ancestor : "Sic destanie and derfe devoring deid But stormis withstand with stomak stout and stoik "Renowned Richert of your race record, 1 But piteouslie thai peirles perles a pest "Himselfe was aiget, his hous hang be a har, "Richerd he wes, Richerd ye are also, And mony hundreith nepotis grie and grie3 Sen Richert wes as hundreth yeiris are hyne." Sir William Mautlant, or Maitland, the eldest and e. Similar family distress demands the same family courage. 2 Sewin sons-This must include sons-in-law; for the last Sir Richard, like his predecessor, had only three sons, namely, I. William, the famous secretary of Queen Mary; II. Sir John, who alone survived him, and is the Burd-allane of the Consolation; III. Thomas, a youth of great hopes, who died in Italy. But he had four daughters married to gentlemen of fortune. PINKERTON'S List of Scottish Poets, p, 114. 3 Grie and grie-In regular descent; from gre, French. sole surviving son of Sir Richard, ratified and confirmed, to the monks of Dryburgh, "Omnes terras quas Dominus Ricardus de Mautlant pater suus fecit dictis monachis in territorio suo de Thirlestane." Sir William is supposed to have died about 1315.— CRAWFORD's Peerage. Such were the heroes of the ballad. The castle of Thirlestane is situated upon the Leader, near the town of Lauder. Whether the present building, which was erected by Chancellor Maitland, and improved by the Duke of Lauderdale, occupies the site of the ancient castle, I do not know; but it still merits the epithet of 66 a darksome house." I find no notice of the siege in history; but there is nothing improbable in supposing, that the castle, during the stormy period of the Baliol wars, may have held out against the English. The creation of a nephew of Edward I., for the pleasure of slaying him by the hand of young Maitland, is a poetical license;1 and may induce us to place the date of the composition about the reign of David II., or of his successor, when the real exploits of Maitland, and his sons, were in some degree obscured, as well as magnified, by the lapse of time. The inveterate hatred against the English, founded upon the usurpation of Edward I., glows in every line of the ballad. romancers. 1 Such liberties with the genealogy of monarchs were common to Henry the Minstrel makes Wallace slay more than one of King Edward's nephews; and Johnie Armstrong claims the merit of slaying a sister's son of Henry VIII. |