The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border

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It may perhaps be thought, that, from the near resemblance which this ballad bears to Kinmont Willie, and Jock o’ the Side, the editor might have dispensed with inserting it in this collection.  But, although the incidents in these three ballads are almost the same, yet there is considerable variety in the language; and each contains minute particulars, highly characteristic of border manners, which it is the object of this publication to illustrate.  Ca’field, or Calfield, is a place in Wauchopdale, belonging of old to the Armstrongs.  In the account betwixt the English and Scottish marches, Jock and Geordie of Ca’field, there called Calfhill, are repeatedly marked as delinquents.—­History of Westmoreland and Cumberland, Vol.  I. Introduction, p. 33. “Mettled John Hall, from the laigh Tiviotdale,” is perhaps John Hall of Newbigging, mentioned in the list of border clans, as one of the chief men of name residing on the middle marches in 1597.  The editor has been enabled to add several stanzas to this ballad, since publication of the first edition.  They were obtained from recitation; and, as they contrast the brutal indifference of the elder brother with the zeal and spirit of his associates, they add considerably to the dramatic effect of the whole.