REVIEWS ROMANTIC SCOTTISH BALLADS. 485 



likely ; especially since internal evidence proves the manipulation of 

 some modern hand. But that Lady Wardlaw, v?ho died in 1 727, with 

 no other poetical repute than the authorship of the stiff and tedious 

 Hardyknute, — a poem hearing in nearly every stanza unmistakeable 

 traces of its modern origin, — is nevertheless the authoress of all the 

 most tender and pathetic of what are designated the romantic Scottish 

 ballads, is a theory which few will be inclined to adopt on such slender 

 evidence as the parallelisms or repetitions now brought forward. Yet 

 on such evidence Mr. Chambers would assign with more or less confi- 

 dence to Lady Wardlaw the authorship of (1) Sir Patrick Spence; (2) 

 Gil Morrice ; (3) Edward, Edward; (4) The Jew'' s Daughter ; (5) 

 Gilder oy ; (6) Young Waters; (J) Edomo' Gordon; (8) The Bonnie 

 Earl of Murray ; (9) Johnie of Bradislee ; (10) Mary Hamilton ; 

 (11) The Gay Gos-hawk; (12) Fause Foodrage; (13) The Lass ofLoch- 

 ryan ; (14) Clerh Saunders; (15) The Douglas Tragedy; (16) 

 Willie and May Margaret, or the Mother'' s Malison; (l7) Young 

 Huntin ; (18) Tamlane ; (19) Sweet Willie and Fair Annie; (20) 

 Lady Maisry ; (21) The Clerk'' s Twa Sons of Owsenford ; and (22) 

 The Heir of Linne. 



By the bold course of thus ascribing every thing connected with 

 Scottish ballad poetry that is marked by dignity, refinement, and 

 tender pathos, to the one source, the ingenious critic effectually disarms 

 his opponents, who migbt otherwise point to such wide correspondence 

 in proof at least of the genuineness of most of the first recovered 

 stanzas of Sir Patrick Spe7ice. Ruder versions or fragments of some 

 of the ballads thus assigned to Lady Wardlaw' s parentage, are known 

 to be ancient; but what of that? "A ballad," says Mr. Chambers, 

 " named Burd Ellen, ressembling Fair Annie in the general cast of 

 the story, is a Scottish modification of the ballad of Child Waters, 

 published by Percy, from his folio manuscript, 'with some corrections.' 

 It probably came through the same mill as Gil Morrice, though with 

 less change, — a conjecture rendered the more probable, for reasons to 

 be seen afterwards, from its having been obtained by Mr. Jamieson 

 from Mrs. Brown of Falkland." 



These reasons have been already quoted, and they are singularly 

 unsatisfactory. Beyond the fact that Mrs. Brown of Falkland seems 

 to have been the wife of a Fifeshire minister, and therefore to have 

 had her residence in the district where the supposed productions of 

 Lady Wardlaw' s remarkable poetical genius are assumed to have first 



