242 THE SOUTH COUNTRY 



be quite in vain. Certainly the more they are read the 

 more they will be respected, and not only because they 

 often deal with heroic matters heroically, but because 

 their style is commonly so beautiful, their pathos so 

 natural, their observation of life so fresh, so fond of 

 particular detail its very lists of names being at times 

 real poetry. 



Sometimes the style is equal and like to that of the 

 most accomplished poetry, as in the stanza 



"The Ynglyshe men let ther boys (bows) be, 

 And pulde owt brandes that were brighte : 

 It was a hevy syght to se 



Bryght swordes on basnites lyght." 



Or in 



" God send the land deliverance 



Frae every reaving, riding Scot ! 

 We'll sune hae neither cow nor ewe, 

 We'll sune hae neither staig nor stot." 



It is equally good in passages where the poet simply 

 expresses his hearty delight in something which his own 

 eyes have seen among his neighbours, as in 



" He had horse and harness for them all, 

 Goodly steeds were all milke-white : 

 O the golden bands an about their necks, 



And their weapons, they were all alike. . . ." 



And, by the way, do not touches like these often reveal 

 the stamp of individuals upon pieces which are loosely 

 said to have been " composed by the folk " ? They quite 

 do away with the notion that ballads were composed by 

 a number of people, after the fashion of a story in the 

 game of " Consequences." In fact, it is one of the 

 pleasures of reading ballads to watch for those things 



