ZIbomas ZTofc Stofcfcart 493 



for he cam' courtin' for years, but he just gaed away and 

 took anither." 



One memorable visit of Thomas Stoddart's to Tibbie's, 

 in which William Edmonstoune Aytoun, the brilliant 

 author of " Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers," was his 

 companion, is thus described by his daughter : 



"On the afternoon of the 4th of May, 1832, William 

 Aytoun and my father made their appearance at Tibbie's 

 cottage, footsore and weary, after a morning at the 

 Tweed and a tramp from Innerleithen. They found 

 the place turned upside down, and the usually hospitable 

 Tibbie by no means glad to see them. * Ye canna bide 

 here/ she said, * there's no a room for ye.' It turned out 

 that it was her eldest son's wedding-day, and that great 

 preparations were being made for the event, which was 

 to take place in Scotch fashion that evening. The 

 young men flatly refused to be turned off, invited them- 

 selves to the wedding, and offered to sleep on tables, 

 chairs, or benches, if they could get no better bed. 

 Tibbie gave way at this, and made them welcome. All 

 afternoon the guests dropped in from Forest farm and 

 hamlet, and when the hour arrived there came with it, 

 not only the minister, but the Shepherd with his maud 

 on his shoulders, and a fiddle in its folds. He was 

 master of the ceremonies and chief fiddler when the 

 dancing set in, and no better fiddler ever kept a ball 

 going. Supper and whisky were plentiful. Aytoun and 

 my father gave in at midnight, for neither was skilled at 

 reels and country-dances, and they were weary with the 

 morning's walk. They had drunk more healths, too, 

 than their heads were used to, and they crept into bed 



