BALLAHUL1SH - BALLANTYNE. 



391 



bably was never committed to writing, it is not to be 

 wondered at, that the oldest poems of a mixed Nor- 

 man and Anglo-Saxon character, which are preserved 

 in MSS., are either imitations of French poetry, or 

 religious songs, such as were found among other 

 nations of Europe in the middle ages. A little poem 

 on spring is almost the only one of genuine Saxon 

 origin, which has, as yet, been printed from MS. 

 Warton has published it in the additions and emen- 

 dations which belong to vol. I. of his history of Eng- 

 lish Poetry. It begins, Sumer is cumen. The ear- 

 liest of the English ballads which have been pre- 

 served cannot be considered as antecedent to the 14th 

 century ; and we cannot speak with certainty of the 

 origin of many which appeared before the 15th. We 

 have said that the ballad above described is properly 

 of Teutonic origin ; we ought to mention, however, 

 that the Spaniards, and they only, among the south- 

 ern nations of Europe, have songs of equal age and 

 merit with the English ballads. The principal dif- 

 ference between them is, that the Spanish romance 

 is in trochaic, the English ballad in iambic, metre. 

 The different character of the nations has also pro- 

 duced some diversity in the tone of sentiment and 

 feeling. At the time when this kind of poetry flour- 

 ished in the two nations, they had very little inter- 

 course with each other, and the similarity of the 

 forms which it assumed can be explained only by an 

 accidental similarity of causes. (For further infor- 

 mation on the history of the English ballad, we must 

 refer the reader to Percy's Reliques of Ancient Eng- 

 lish Poetry ; Warton's History of English Poetry ; 

 Dr Burney's History of Music ; vol. vii. of Bouter- 

 weck's History of Poetry and Eloquence since the 

 End of the IZth Century ; Sir Walter Scott's Min- 

 strelsy of the Scottish Border ; Jamieson's Popular 

 Ballads and Songs, Edin. 1806, 2 vols. 8vo ; Finlay's 

 Scottish 'Historical and Romantic Ballads, Edin. 1808, 

 2 vols. ; Motherwell's Minstrelsy, Ancient and Mo- 

 dern, Glasgow, 1827, 4to ; Buchans Ancient Ballads, 

 published at Peterhead. For information respect- 

 ing the Spanish ballad, or romance, as it is called by 

 the Spaniards, see the article Romance.) 



The French poetry of this kind never reached any 

 high degree of perfection, because their fabliaux, 

 legends, &c., soon degenerated into interminable 

 metrical and prose romances of chivalry. In Italy, 

 the ballad never flourished : the poetry of that coun- 

 try has always retained a certain antique spirit, and 

 the Italians never partook, to any great extent, in 

 the crusades, being fully occupied at home in the 

 wars of the free cities. The Portuguese never cul- 

 tivated the ballad much. Almost all their poetry of 

 this kind is to be traced to a Spanish origin. The 

 German ballad never became so popular as the Eng- 

 lish, nor was so much cultivated as the Spanish. 

 The Russians have lyrico-epic poems, of which some, 

 in old Russian, are excellent. In modern times, the 

 ballad has been successfully cultivated in Scotland 

 and in Germany. The former country can boast of 

 many of superlative merit, by Burns, Scott, Hogg, 

 Cunningham, Mothenvell, &c. ; while the latter 

 country is little less distinguished by the ballad pro- 

 ductions of Goethe, Schiller, Burger, &c. For some 

 excellent observations on the character of the ballad, 

 and what it requires, see Frederic von Schlegel's 

 Krilische Schriften (on Burger.) 



BALLAHOLISH, or BAILICHELISH ; a village in the parish 

 of Appin, district of Lorn, and shire of Argyle, situ- 

 ated at the head of Loch-Levin, where there is a ferry 

 over to the opposite shire of Inverness. At this vil- 

 lage there is a quarry of excellent blue slate. 



BALLANTRAE ; a parish and village in the district 

 of Carrick, and shire of Ayr, lying on the bold and 

 rocky coast of the north channel, and intersected by 



the river Stinchar, in which there is a considerable 

 salmon fishery. The surface gradually rises from 

 the sea to the top of that chain of mountains which 

 extends eastward to the Forth, and the soil being 

 poor, is chiefly appropriated to pasture. At the 

 village is an endowed grammar-school, also several 

 cotton manufactories, and a general post-office. 

 Vestiges of a castle of the lords of Bargeny and the 

 remains of an ancient church may still be traced 

 here. Population in 1831, 1506. 



BALLANTYNE, James, an extensive printer in Edin- 

 burgh, whose name is intimately connected with the 

 literary productions of Sir Walter Scott, was a native 

 of Kelso. Although not bred to the business of 

 printer, he opened a printing office in his native 

 town, where, besides editing the Kelso Mail news- 

 paper, he printed various works, which rendered his 

 name generally known, and paved the way for his 

 establishment soon after in Edinburgh, where he 

 ever after continued. The whole of the writings of 

 Sir Walter Scott were printed by him, and to his taste 

 the public is indebted for many emendations in the 

 works of that illustrious minstrel and novelist, whose 

 own inattention to not unimportant minutiae, rendered 

 such assistance highly necessary. For many years 

 Mr Ballantyne conducted the " Edinburgh Weekly 

 Journal," with a degree of good feeling and taste 

 which the public did not fail to appreciate. His 

 theatrical criticisms, in particular, which appeared in 

 that newspaper, were long admired as the very best 

 of the day. Mr B. did not survive Sir Walter Scott 

 above one or two months. He died early in January, 

 1833. Shortly before his death, he published an 

 affecting statement, in which he only prayed that he 

 might be restored to that degree of health which 

 would enable him to do some justice to all that he 

 felt and knew regarding the great and good man 

 who had gone before him. But this was denied. 

 They who nad been so long united in their lives were 

 not in death long divided. 



BALLANTVNK, John, brother of the preceding, and 

 distinguished as a litterateur and humorist, was also 

 a native of Kelso. While still a young man, his mind 

 was turned to literary concerns by the establishment 

 of a provincial newspaper, the Kelso Mail, which was 

 begun by his elder brother James, The distinction 

 acquired by his brother in consequence of some im- 

 provements in printing, by which there issued from a 

 Scottish provincial press a series of books rivaling, 

 in elegance and accurate taste, the productions of a 

 Bensley or a Baskerville, caused the removal of both 

 to Edinburgh about the beginning of the present cen- 

 tury. He there embarked largely in the bookselling 

 trade, and subsequently in the profession of an auc- 

 tioneer of works of art, libraries, &c. The connexion 

 which he and his brother had established at Kelso 

 with Sir Walter Scott, whose Border Minstrelsy was 

 printed by them, continued in this more extensive 

 scene, and accordingly during the earlier and more 

 interesting years of the career of the author of 

 Waverley, John Ballantyne acted as the confidant of 

 that mysterious writer, and managed all the business 

 of the communication of his works to the public. 

 Some of these works were published by John Ballan- 

 tyne, who also issued two different periodical works, 

 written chiefly by Sir Walter Scott, entitled respec- 

 tively the Visionary and the Sale-room, of which the 

 latter had a reference to one branch of Mr Ballan- 

 tyne's trade. It is also worthy of notice, that the 

 large edition of the works of Beaumont and Fletcher, 

 which appeared under the name of Sir Walter Scott 

 as editor, was an enterprise undertaken at the sug- 

 gestion and risk of this spirited publisher. Mr Bal- 

 lantyne himself made one incursion into the field of 

 letters ; he was the author of a tolerably sprightly 



