REVIEWS — ROMANTIC SCOTTISH BALLADS. 483 



did at a bit of pious patch-work is extremely probable ; but, for the 

 rest, the same course of argument will equally convert "the palpably old 

 historical ballads," or any of those of the Border Minstrelsy, into 

 modern antiques. If I.ady Wardlaw or Mrs. Brown could write such 

 wonderful romantic ballads, Sir Walter Scott, and more than one of 

 his correspondents were fully equal to the task of manufacturing six- 

 teenth and seventeenth century historical ballads to any amount. Yet 

 look at Allan Cunningham's work in the same line. Never, surely 

 was poet better fitted by natural gifts and peculiar circumstances for 

 the successful forgery of Nithsdale and Galloway antiques of the sort 

 required. He tried his best, yet who could now be deceived with his 

 XiorA^s Marie, his Bonnie Lady Annie, or any other of the ingenious 

 imitations that threw the credulous Cromek into such ecstacies ? 



The truth is, that Mr. Chambers, having got hold of a really in- 

 teresting and too much neglected theme, has allowed it fairly to run 

 away with him ; as we are all too apt to do with our hobbies. More- 

 over, the very candour and straight forwardness for which Robert 

 Chambers is admired by all who have the pleasure of knowing him, 

 tempts the editor of "the Scottish Ballads" of 1829, all the more 

 strongly to set forth his recantation of an abandoned faith, in publish- 

 ing the newly adopted views of 1859*. Let us then quote at length, 

 the concluding remarks with which the new views on the epoch and 

 authorship of the Romantic Scottish Ballads are summed up : 



"Let it never be objected that, if any one person living in the reigns 

 of Queen Anne and George I. had composed so many fine poems, he 

 or she could not have remained till now all but unknown. In the first 

 half of the present century, there appeared in Scotland a series of 

 fugitive pieces — songs, — which attained a great popularity, without 

 their being traced to any author. Every reader viall remember The 

 Land of the Leal, Caller Herring, The Laird o' Cochpen, The Anld 

 House, and He^s oioer the Hills that I lo^e weel. It was not till after 

 many years of fame that these pieces were found to be the production 

 of a lady of rank, Carolina Baroness Nairn, who had passed through 

 a life of seventy-nine years without being known as a song-writer to 

 more than one person. It was the fate of this songstress to live in days 

 when there was an interest felt in such authorships, insuring that she 

 should sooner or later become known ; but, had she lived a hundred 

 years earlier, she might have died and left no sign, as I conjecture to 

 have been the case with the author of this fine group of ballads ; and 



