THE LOCH OF THE LOWES. 119 



** I took his body on my back, 

 And whiles I gaed, and whiles I sat ; 

 I digged a grave and laid him in, 

 And happed him with the sod so green. 



But think na ye my heart was sair, 

 When I laid the mouls on his yellow hair? 

 And think na ye my heart was wae, 

 When I turned about awa' to gae? " 



The ruins of the chapel of St. Mary, which was de- 

 dicated to our Lady of the Lowes (lochs), stand on a 

 small table-land, elevated a little above the loch, and 

 not discernible from the road immediately below them. 

 Coming from the head of the loch, however, the tra- 

 veller may see several pillars surrounded by a dyke, 

 rising up from the rough moor, to the east of a staring 

 little Free-kirk Chapel, with a singularly priggish- 

 looking steeple, which has been reared of late, doubt- 

 less out of the " Building Fund" which we hear so 

 much about. The pillars in St. Mary's Kirk are in 

 memory of Mr. John Grieve, and his kith and kin ; and 

 as Mr. Grieve, besides being a respectable hatter in 

 Edinburgh, was a warm and effectual friend of James 

 Hogg, in his worst as in his best days, his memory 

 may be forgiven for being preserved upon pillars that 

 most people would wish anywhere but where they are. 

 The little kirkyard is still a much-frequented burial- 

 place in Yarrow and Ettrick, and numerous grave- 

 stones tell the brief story of the birth and deaths of the 

 Forest. The Lord William and Lady Margaret of 

 *' The Douglas Tragedy" were buried here, according 

 to the ballad, — the result of their interment being a 

 floral phenomenon that has since been greatly afiected 

 by parish minstrels in all pans of the kingdom : — 



