He did not: he did obtain the whole ballad from Hogg, who got it
from recitation--as I believe, and try to prove, and as Scott
certainly believed. The facts in the case exist in published works,
and in manuscript letters of Ritson to Scott, and Hogg to Scott, and
in the original MS. of the song, with a note by Hogg to Laidlaw. If
we are interested in the truth about the matter, we ought at least to
read the very accessible material before bringing charges against the
Sheriff and the Shepherd of Ettrick.

Whether Auld Maitland be a good or a bad ballad is not part of the
question. It was a favourite of mine in childhood, and I agree with
Scott in thinking that it has strong dramatic situations. If it is a
bad ballad, such as many people could compose, then it is not by Sir
Walter.

The Ballad of Otterburne is said to have been constructed from Herd's
version, tempered by Percy's version, with additions from a modern
imagination. We have merely to read Professor Child's edition of
Otterburne, with Hogg's letter covering his MS. copy of Otterburne
from recitation, to see that this is a wholly erroneous view of the
matter. We have all the materials for forming a judgment accessible
to us in print, and have no excuse for preferring our own
conjectures.

"No one now believes," it may be said, "in the aged persons who lived
at the head of Ettrick," and recited Otterburne to Hogg. Colonel
Elliot disbelieves, but he shows no signs of having read Hogg's
curious letter, in two parts, about these "old parties"; a letter
written on the day when Hogg, he says, twice "pumped their memories."