132 
There never was, as far as I can learn, a peer, whether Duke, 
Earl, or Baron, of the name of Irving, and although there 
were many landholders of the name in the south-west of 
Scotland, the principal seat of their Chieftain was Drum , in 
Aberdeenshire. So far with regard to historical fact — but a 
ballad maker is entitled to use great latitudes in that respect, 
and accordingly it is not upon the anachronisms that I 
chiefly found my disbelief in the antiquity of the Poem. 
It is rather upon the mixture of ancient and modern 
phraseology, and especially upon the different attempts at 
sentiment and pathos, inconsistent with the simplicity of 
the Minstrel style, that I ground my opinion, which will 
always, however, be subject to alteration upon reasonable 
and convincing evidence, The copy you have been so good 
as to send me is nearly the same with one which I found in 
Glenriddell’s MS. collection of ballads, and with another 
procured from Mr. David Herd, of this place. The last copy 
has this memorandum — “This fragment was taken down 
from the recitation of some of the country people in Annan- 
dale, by William Bell, a writer there, who communicated it 
to D. H., but in a very bad case, about the year 1776, and he 
was afterwards informed that Dr Clapperton, a surgeon, in 
Lochmaben, was in possession of a compleat copy of the 
Ballad, which never could be got, the Dr. intending, as was 
said, its publication along with several other curious ancient 
songs.” As this account in a great measure tallies with that 
with which you have favoured me, I hope it may be yet 
possible to recover some account of the original copy of this 
curious Ballad, by which means we may perhaps be able to 
determine what parts are modern and what really ancient. 
I shall wait with impatience the result of your inquiries at 
your friend Mr. Lidderdale. The battle in question, if such 
there was, must have been fought in the course of the four 
years intervening betwixt 1342, the date of David’s return 
from France, and 1346, when the fatal battle of Durham was 
