INTO BALLAD-LAND. 89 



he would, it is needful to resort to the far more prosaic plan of 

 taking a railway ticket in order to carry out our plans. But 

 first calling to mind how Lord Soulis on leaving home was wont 

 to throw his chamber's keys to Redcap, his familiar 



" He took the keys from the rusty lock, 



That never were ta'en before ; 

 He threw them over his left shoulder 



With meikle care and pain, 

 And he bade him keep them fathoms deep, 

 Till he return'd again." 



We make over our keys of office to our better half, but, wiser 

 than Bluebeard, hand them over unreservedly, well knowing it 

 is better not to arouse female curiosity by making exceptions. 

 If he had said nothing of the mysterious chamber which con- 

 tained her murdered predecessors, his wife would never have 

 cared to go near it. 



It is not till Durham that the outskirts of Ballad-land are 

 touched. The castle and cathedral at once transport the 

 traveller to the past ; and is not Brancepeth Castle, the strong- 

 hold of the Nevills, nigh the town ? A breeze from the far- 

 off days of chivalry seems to blow here, and we weary ourselves 

 with thinking what gallant pageants and what vicissitudes of 

 fortune those marvellous Norman pillars of the Cathedral nave 

 have seen. At Newcastle the country connected with the 

 Battle of Otterbourn is entered. It was fought by moonlight, 

 August 15, 1388. The exact scene is some thirty miles from 

 Newcastle on the River Reed, which comes down from Carter 

 Fell, but it was in a skirmish before the walls of that town that 

 Hotspur's lance and pennon were taken by Douglas. 



" It fell about the Lammas tide, 



When the muirmen win their hay, 

 The doughty Douglas bound him to ride 



Into England, to drive a prey ; 

 He chose the Gordons and the Graemes, 



With them the Lindesays light and gay. 



