ZTbomas ZTofc Stofcfcart 487 



The Stoddarts were a good old Border family who 

 could trace back their descent to the Stout-hearts of 

 Yarrow, and had documentary proof of their importance 

 as far back as the fifteenth century. But unfortunately 

 these archives came into the possession of a Miss Helen 

 Stoddart, of Leith, an eccentric lady who imagined 

 herself to be bewitched, and arrived at the sage conclusion 

 that the evil influence was connected with the old family 

 papers, which she accordingly committed to the flames, 

 thus destroying all the records of the house of Stoddart 

 previous to the year 1600. " Similar follies," says Mr. 

 Andrew Lang, in his Introduction to Stoddart's weird 

 poem " The Death Wake," " are reported of a living old 

 lady on whose hearth, after a night of destruction, was 

 once found the impression of a seal of Mary of Modena." 



Unlike most other Border folks the Stoddarts, though 

 excitable and litigious, were honest and acquired their 

 lands by fair purchase ! At least, so Miss Anna Stoddart 

 would have us believe ; though for my own part, owning 

 as I do forbears on the Northumbrian side of the Border, 

 I am disposed to put a very elastic construction on 

 the terms " honest " and " purchase." Some of these 

 Stoddarts were dour and grim enough, notably John of 

 that ilk, " the Beetle of Yarrow," as he was called, a 

 man of gigantic stature and strength who had fought 

 for the Covenanters at Drumclog. When this terrible 

 " Beetle " was lying, as it was thought, at the point of 

 death, his next-of-kin gathered round him, like vultures 

 round a dying lion, to divide his " gear " among them. 

 " The Beetle " in his sick-chamber, with his faithful 

 daughter by his side, heard through the half-open door 



