He could get but a few verses of The Outlaw from his maternal uncle,
Will Laidlaw of Phawhope. He said that, from traditions known to
him, he could make good songs, "but without Mr. Scott's permission
this would be an imposition, neither could I undertake it without an
order from him in his own handwriting . . . " {21a} Laidlaw went on
trying to collect songs for Scott. We now take his own account of
Auld Maitland from a manuscript left by him. {21b}

"I heard from one of the servant girls, who had all the turn and
qualifications for a collector, of a ballad called Auld Maitland,
that a grandfather (maternal) of Hogg could repeat, and she herself
had several of the first stanzas, which I took a note of, and have
still the copy. This greatly aroused my anxiety to procure the
whole, for this was a ballad not even hinted at by Mercer in his list
of desiderata received from Mr. Scott. I forthwith wrote to Hogg
himself, requesting him to endeavour to procure the whole ballad. In
a week or two I received his reply, containing Auld Maitland exactly
as he had received it from the recitation of his uncle Will of
Phawhope, corroborated by his mother, who both said they learned it
from their father, a still older Will of Phawhope, and an old man
called Andrew Muir, who had been servant to the famous Mr. Boston,
minister of Ettrick." Concerning Laidlaw's evidence, Colonel Elliot
says not a word.

This copy of Auld Maitland, with the superscription outside -


MR. WILLIAM LAIDLAW,
BLACKHOUSE,