INTO BALLAD-LAND. 9 1 



Sleeps thou, wakes thou, Jock o' the Syde, 

 Or art thou weary of thy thrall ? 



Jock answers thus, wi' dolefu' tone ; 



Aft, aft I wake I seldom sleep ; 

 But whae's this kens my name sae weel, 



And thus to mese [soothe] my woes does seek ? " 



And again 



" Sae out at the gates they a' are gane, 



The prisoner's set on horseback hie ; 

 And now wi' speed they've taen the gate, 

 While ilk ane jokes fu' wantonlie : 



Oh, Jock, sae winsomely ye ride, 



Wi' baith your feet upon ae side ; 

 Sae weel ye're harneist and sae trig, 



In troth ye sit like ony bride ! " 



Up the Tyne, too, is Cholerford brae, where on the night of his 

 release " the water ran like mountains hie ; " but the prisoner, 

 mounted behind the Laird's Jock, safely swims it, while the 

 twenty pursuers dare not attempt to follow, and one ludicrously 

 begs from this side 



"The prisoner take, 

 But leave the fetters, I pray, to me." 



Past Alnwick, Dunstanbrough, and the Fame Islands, so dear 

 to ornithologists ; past Bambrough too and Holy Island, all 

 fragrant with old-world memories, we are swiftly borne on to 

 Berwick. Here we will don our knapsacks in earnest. It 

 was ever a turbulent town, " a Berwick Christmas" being a 

 synonym for a riotous festival, and was not often so peaceable 

 as when Lord Eurie held it in the time of Henry VIII. 



" Since he has kepte Berwick-upon-Tweed, 

 The town was never better kept, I wot. 

 He maintained leal and order along the Border, 

 And still was ready to prick the Scot." 



A walk round the ramparts shows the unrivalled situation of 

 the town, which was so often a bone of contention between the 



