The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border

The ballad of The Douglas Tragedy is one of the few, to which popular tradition has ascribed complete locality.  The farm of Blackhouse, in Selkirkshire, is said to have been the scene of this melancholy event.  There are the remains of a very ancient tower, adjacent to the farmhouse, in a wild and solitary glen, upon a torrent, named Douglas-burn, which joins the Yarrow, after passing a craggy rock, called the Douglas-craig.  This wild scene, now a part of the Traquair estate, formed one of the most ancient possessions of the renowned family of Douglas; for Sir John Douglas, eldest son of William, the first Lord Douglas, is said to have sat, as baronial lord of Douglas-burn, during his father’s lifetime, in a parliament of Malcolm Canmore, held at Forfar.—­GODSCROFT, Vol.  I. p. 20.  The tower appears to have been square, with a circular turret at one angle, for carrying up the staircase, and for flanking the entrance.  It is said to have derived its name of Blackhouse from the complexion of the lords of Douglas, whose swarthy hue was a family attribute.  But, when the high mountains, by which it is inclosed, were covered with heather, which was the case till of late years, Blackhouse must have also merited its appellation from the appearance of the scenery.

From this ancient tower Lady Margaret is said to have been carried by her lover.  Seven large stones, erected upon the neighbouring heights of Blackhouse, are shown, as marking the spot where the seven brethren were slain; and the Douglas-burn is averred to have been the stream, at which the lovers stopped to drink:  so minute is tradition in ascertaining the scene of a tragical tale, which, considering the rude state of former times, had probably foundation in some real event.

Many copies of this ballad are current among the vulgar, but chiefly in a state of great corruption; especially such as have been committed to the press in the shape of penny pamphlets.  One of these is now before me, which, among many others, has the ridiculous error of “blue gilded horn,” for “bugelet horn.”  The copy, principally used in this edition of the ballad, was supplied by Mr Sharpe.  The three last verses are given from the printed copy, and from tradition.  The hackneyed verse, of the rose and the briar springing from the grave of the lovers, is common to most tragic ballads; but it is introduced into this with singular propriety, as the chapel of St Mary, whose vestiges may be still traced upon the lake, to which it has given name, is said to have been the burial place of Lord William and Fair Margaret.  The wrath of the Black Douglas, which vented itself upon the brier, far surpasses the usual stanza: 

  At length came the clerk of the parish,
    As you the truth shall hear,
  And by mischance he cut them down,
    Or else they had still been there.