The ballad has Norse analogues, but is here localized on the Douglas
Burn, a tributary of Yarrow on the left bank. The St. Mary’s Kirk would
be that now ruinous, on St. Mary’s Loch, the chapel burned by the Lady of
Branxholme when she
“gathered a band
Of the best that would ride at her command,”
in the _Lay of the Last Minstrel_. The ancient keep of Blackhouse on
Douglas Burn may have been the home of the heroine, if we are to
localize.