INTO BALLAD-LAND. 99 



" Oh, gear will buy me rigs o' land, 



And gear will buy me sheep and kye, 

 But the tender heart o' leesome love, 

 The goud and siller canna buy. 



We may be poor, Robie and I, 

 Light is the burden love lays on ; 



Content and love brings peace and joy ; 

 What mair ha'e queens upon a throne ? " 



Selkirk is beautifully situated, could the obtrusive factories on 

 its outskirts be expunged. The cobblers of Selkirk were dis- 

 tinguished men of old, 



" Up wi' the souters o' Selkirk, 



For they are baith trusty and leal ; 

 And up wi' the men o' the Forest, 



And down wi' the Merse to the deil 1 " 



Outside Selkirk is Philiphaugh, the field so fatal to the hopes 

 of Montrose. He galloped to it from his quarters in the town, 

 when surprised by the noise of his infantry being slaughtered 

 outside. The battle extended over a long stretch of country, 



" On Philiphaugh a fray began, 

 On Hairhead Wood it ended. " 



But the scene of the final struggle is marked by a monument. 

 His conqueror, Sir David Lesly, is amusingly commemorated in 

 ballad lore by a verse with variorum readings, 



" When they came to the Shaw burn, 



Said he, * Sae weel we frame, 

 I think it is convenient 



That we should sing a psalm ! ' " 



or, as others have it, 



" That we should take a dram." 



Somewhere near the Tinnies, above Hangingshaw, if any have 

 a mind to search for hidden treasure, is a well or pond, in 

 which the attendant of the Earl of Traquair is reported to 

 have flung the money which his master was bringing for the 



