32 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. X. July 14. '60. 



to survive and be generally known. We wish Mr. 

 Buchan had given us more information than he 

 has done, as to the tohere apd ivheti he got copies 

 of his ballads. 



4thly. Although Philo-Baledon sneers at the 

 legend of Papa Stronsay, we think it of some mo- 

 ment in the dispute. There exists there, and has 

 existed so far as the memory of man goes, a tu- 

 mulus or grave said to be that of Sir Patrick 

 Spens. This fact is noticed by Professor Aytoun, 

 who shrewdly remarks, — 



"The Scotch ballads were not early current in Orkney, 

 a Scandinavian country : so it is very unlikely that the 

 poem originated the name. The people know nothing 

 beyond the traditional appellation of the spot, and they 

 have no legend to tell." 



This portion of Papa belongs to Mr. Balfour of 

 Trenaby, and his brother most positively states 

 that, although Sir Patrick's name is known, all 

 over the island, the inhabitants are altogether 

 ignorant how he came to be buried there. 



The vessel was struck by the storm immediately 

 after leaving the coast of Norway, Bergen, the 

 ancient capital, is situated on the Kiors fiord, 

 down which Sir Patrick probably sailed, and en- 

 tered the North Sea. From the mouth of the 

 fiord to Lerwick, the capital of Zetland, the dis- 

 tance is 180 miles. Papa Stronsay, one of the 

 Orcades, is perhaps the nearest of the group to 

 the Norwegian shore ; consequently, as the vesse^ 

 did not sink at once, but was driven forward by 

 the storm, it drifted in the direction of this island, 

 and then went down, why might not the body of 

 the captain be washed ashore,][and be there in- 

 terred ? 



5thly. The word Aberdour occurs in the early 

 version, as well as in some of the more modern 

 ones, and Philo-Baledon has no doubt that this 

 means the village of that name on the Frith of 

 Forth, some six or eight miles above Kircaldy, 

 and that it was the port of Dunfermline. From 

 this opinion we beg to dissent. At the time in 

 question it is very doubtful if there was any vil- 

 lage at all in the "baronia" of Aberdour which 

 then belonged to the family " de Mortuo Mari," 

 or Mortimer. The royal burgh of Inverkeithing, 

 with its fine bay, or Queen Margaret's Ferry, 

 would necessarily be the " port " of Dunfermline 

 from their vicinity. Now if at a short distance 

 from the coast of Norway the ship was struck by 

 the storm, she must have been as swift as the 

 Flying Dutchman to have got "half oure" to 

 Aberdour in Fife before falling to pieces. 



At the entrance of the Moray frith is situated 

 another Aberdour, and this, if we assume the ship- 

 wreck off Papa Stronsay, obviates all difliculty as 

 to the passage, because this island is nearly " half 

 oure" between Norway and Aberdour. Every 

 person who has sailed along the coast of Aberdeen 

 and entered the Moray frith must be aware of 



the rocky barriers which are. opposed to the rage 

 of the ocean in that stormy'district. The refer- 

 ence to Aberdour is thus most appropriate, pre- 

 suming the Papa tradition to be correct. 



Gthly. We are told there is no historical record 

 of such a shipwreck. Perhaps not as regards Sir 

 Patrick ; but there does exist evidence of a dis- 

 astrous shipwreck that occui'red when the Scotish 

 nobles returned from Norway, after safely con-, 

 veying the Scotish maiden to Bergen (?). The 

 Abbot of Balmerino, Bernard de Monte Alto, and 

 many of the Scotish aristocracy perished ; and al- 

 though Sir Patrick Spens is not named, neither 

 are the other magnates. Indubitably the ship- 

 wreck and death of an ecclesiastic of high rank 

 was considered by the monkish historian of the 

 day as a much more lamentable event than the 

 drowning of a dozen " skeely skippers." In pass- 

 ing we may remark that the family of Spens or 

 De Spens is very ancient, and still exists in Scot- 

 land. A branch went to France, where they were 

 Counts, and enjoyed both rank and lands until the 

 Revolution. 



Although Fordun considered a church dignitary 

 a mighty person, the community at large would 

 think otherwise, and the loss of the gallant sailor 

 would be esteemed a national calamity calculated 

 to take a strong hold of the public mind, and one 

 not easily forgotten. His disastrous fate would 

 be handed down from father to son, whilst all re- 

 membrance of the Abbot and the De Monte Altos * 

 would speedily pass away. 



Lastly. The anachronisms are most satisfac- 

 torily disposed of in Mr. Clyne's excellent pam- 

 phlet, which those persons taking an interest in 

 such matters should peruse. Even if there was 

 more in the objections than there appears to be, 

 we must take the liberty of urging what the Rev, 

 James Johnston has so well expressed in his notes 

 on the death song of Lodbrog : " to maintain that 

 a poem which for centuries must have floated on 

 the breath of oral tradition still retains precisely 

 its original form would be a vain attempt." Vain 

 indeed ; and to affirm that Sir Patrick Spens is a 

 forgery because words of more recent usage occur 

 in the existing versions, is so palpably absurd that 

 farther argument would be a waste of time. 



One word more and we have done. PhilO' 

 Baledon says that Mr, Chambers discovered the 

 non-existence of Sir Alexander Halket. Not 

 having had a copy of that gentleman's ballads 

 before us, we had not been aware that he had 

 detected the mistake of previous editors. But 

 we do not agree with, what follows, because John- 

 ston is not correctly quoted. In his Musical 

 Museum the words "Ah Chloris" are set to the 

 tune of Gilderoy, but it is not in the text that the 



* The De Monte Alto family still exist under the not 

 particularly' romantic name of Mowat, and once held con- 

 siderable estates in the counties of Fife and Mid-Lothian. 



