SIR WALTER SCOTT AND THE BORDER MINSTRELSY




Contents:

Preface
Scott and the Ballads
Auld Maitland
The Ballad of Otterburne
Scott's Traditional Copy and how he edited it
The Mystery of the Ballad of Jamie Telfer
Kinmont Willie
Conclusions



PREFACE



Persons not much interested in, or cognisant of, "antiquarian old
womanries," as Sir Walter called them, may ask "what all the pother
is about," in this little tractate. On my side it is "about" the
veracity of Sir Walter Scott. He has been suspected of helping to
compose, and of issuing as a genuine antique, a ballad, Auld
Maitland. He also wrote about the ballad, as a thing obtained from
recitation, to two friends and fellow-antiquaries. If to Scott's
knowledge it was a modern imitation, Sir Walter deliberately lied.