"_They shot him dead at the Nine-Stone Rig_" (Vol. viii., p. 78.).--Your
correspondent the BORDERER will find the fragment of the ballad he is in
search of commencing with the above line, in the second volume of the
_Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border_, p. 114. It is entitled "Barthram's
Dirge," and "was taken down," says Scott, "by Mr. Surtees, from the
recitation of Anne Douglas, an old woman, who weeded his garden."
Since the death of Mr. Surtees, however, it has been ascertained that this
ballad, as well as "The Death of Featherstonhaugh," and some others in the
same collection, were composed by him and passed off upon Scott as genuine
old Scottish ballads.
Farther particulars respecting this clever literary imposition are given in
a review of the "Memoir of Robert Surtees," in the _Athenæum_ of August 7,
1852.