Tolbooth, the Netherbow, the Canongate, and--

O what will my three brothers say
When they COME HAME frae sea,
When they see three locks o' my yellow hair
Hinging under a gallows tree?

It is impossible here to give all the variations. Mary pulls, or
does not pull, or her lover pulls, the leaf of the Abbey, or
'savin,' or other tree; the Queen is 'auld,' or not 'auld;' she
kicks in Mary's door and bursts the bolts, or does nothing so
athletic and inconsistent with her advanced age. The heroine does,
or does not, appeal vainly to her father. Her dress is of all
varieties. She does, or does not, go to the Tolbooth and other
places. She is, or is not, allured to Edinburgh, 'a wedding for to
see.' Her infanticide is variously described, or its details are
omitted, and the dead body of the child is found in various places,
or not found at all. Though drowned in the sea, it is between the
bolster and the wall, or under the blankets! She expects, or does
not expect, to be avenged by her kin. The king is now angry, now
clement--inviting Mary to dinner! Mary is hanged, or (Buchan's MS.)
is not hanged, but is ransomed by Warrenston, probably Johnston of
Warriston! These are a few specimens of variations in point of
fact: in language the variations are practically countless. How
could they arise, if the ballad is later than 1719?

We now condescend to appeal to statistics. We have examined the
number of variants published by Mr. Child in his first six volumes,
on ballads which have, or may have, an historical basis. Of course,
the older and more popular the ballads, the more variants do we