Cambridge.
"_They shot him by the nine stone rig_" (Vol. viii., p. 78.).--This
fragmentary ballad is to be found in the _Border Minstrelsy_. It was
contributed by R. Surtees of Mainsforth, co. Durham, and described by him
as having been taken down from the recitation of Anne Douglas, an old woman
who weeded in his garden. It is however most likely that it is altogether
factitious, and Mr. Surtees' own production, Anne Douglas being a pure
invention.
The ballad called "The Fray of Haltwhistle," a portion of which, "How the
Thirlwalls and the Ridleys a'," &c., is interwoven with the text in the
first canto of _Marmion_, is generally understood to have been composed by
Mr. Surtees. He, however, succeeded in palming it upon Scott as a genuine
old ballad; and states that he had it from the recitation of an ancient
dame, mother of one of the miners of Alston Moor. Scott's taste for old
legends and ballads was certainly not too discriminating, or he would never
have swallowed "The Fray of Haltwhistle." Perhaps he suspected its
authenticity, for he says of it:
"Scantily Lord Marmion's ear could brook
The harper's barbarous lay."