These two ballads must be considered together, as the last six verses
(18-23) of _The Clerk's Twa Sons_, as here given, are a variant of _The
Wife of Usher's Well_.
+Texts.+--_The Clerk's Twa Sons_ is taken from Kinloch's MSS., in the
handwriting of James Chambers, as it was sung to his grandmother by an
old woman.
_The Wife of Usher's Well_ is from Scott's _Minstrelsy of the Scottish
Border_, and however incomplete, may well stand alone.
+The Story+ has a fairly close parallel in the well-known German ballad,
'Das Schloss in Oesterreich'; and a ballad found both in Spain and Italy
has resemblances to each. But in these two ballads, especially in _The
Wife of Usher's Well_, the interest lies rather in the impressiveness of
the verses than in the story.