Maitland," he had but lately received The Wee Wee Man, sent by Ritson
on 10th April 1802. He had made a spring, not an autumn, raid into
the Forest.

We now know the external history of the ballad. Laidlaw, hearing his
servant repeat some stanzas, asks Hogg for the full copy, which Hogg
sends with a pedigree from which he never wavered. Auld Andrew Muir
taught the song to Hogg's mother and uncle. Hogg took it from his
uncle's recitation, and sent it, directed outside,

TO MR. WILLIAM LAIDLAW,
BLACKHOUSE,

and Laidlaw gave it to Scott, in March 12-May 12, 1802. But Scott,
publishing the ballad in The Minstrelsy (1803), says it is given "as
written down from the recitation of the mother of Mr. James Hogg, who
sings, or rather chants, it with great animation" (manifestly he had
heard the recitation which he describes).

It seems that Scott, before he wrote to Ellis in May 1802, had
misgivings about the ballad. Says Carruthers, he "made another visit
to Blackhouse for the purpose of getting Laidlaw as a guide to
Ettrick," being "curious to see the poetical shepherd."

Laidlaw's MS., used by Carruthers, describes the wild ride by the
marshes at the head of the Loch of the Lowes, through the bogs on the
knees of the hills, down a footpath to Ramseycleuch in Ettrick. They
sent to Ettrick House for Hogg; Scott was surprised and pleased with
James's appearance. They had a delightful evening: "the qualities
of Hogg came out at every instant, and his unaffected simplicity and