* * * * *
It may perhaps be thought, that, from the near resemblance which this
ballad bears to Kinmont Willie, and Jock o' the Side, the editor might
have dispensed with inserting it in this collection. But, although
the incidents in these three ballads are almost the same, yet there
is considerable variety in the language; and each contains minute
particulars, highly characteristic of border manners, which it is the
object of this publication to illustrate. Ca'field, or Calfield, is
a place in Wauchopdale, belonging of old to the Armstrongs. In the
account betwixt the English and Scottish marches, Jock and Geordie
of Ca'field, there called Calfhill, are repeatedly marked as
delinquents.--_History of Westmoreland and Cumberland_, Vol.
I. _Introduction_, p. 33. "_Mettled John Hall, from the laigh
Tiviotdale_," is perhaps John Hall of Newbigging, mentioned in the
list of border clans, as one of the chief men of name residing on the
middle marches in 1597. The editor has been enabled to add several
stanzas to this ballad, since publication of the first edition.
They were obtained from recitation; and, as they contrast the brutal
indifference of the elder brother with the zeal and spirit of his
associates, they add considerably to the dramatic effect of the whole.