THIS ballad--the composition of Sir Walter Scott was originally published in the "Tales of Wonder," edited by M. G. Lewis. The scene of the Tragedy, "Smaylho'me, or Smallholm Tower, is situated on the northern boundary of Roxburghshire, among a cluster of wild rocks, called Sandiknow Crags. The tower is a high square building, surrounded by an outer wall, now ruinous. The circuit of the outer court, being defended on three sides by a precipice and morass, is accessible only from the west by a steep and rocky path. The apartments, as usual in a Border keep, or fortress, are placed one above another, and communicate by a narrow stair; on the roof are two bartizans, or platforms, for defence or pleasure. The inner door of the tower is wood, the outer an iron gate; the distance between them being nine feet, the thickness, namely, of the wall. From the elevated situation of Smaylho'me Tower, it is seen many miles in every direction. Among the crags by which it is surrounded, one, more eminent, is called the Watch fold, and is said to have been the station of a beacon in the times of war with England. Without the towercourt is a ruined chapel. Brotherstone is a heath, in the neighbourhood of Smaylho'me Tower."*

When the ballad was republished in the "Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border," it was accompanied by some account of the battle of "Ancram Moor," to which reference is made in the poem, as "running red with English blood” from the fight between “keen Lord Evers" and

This Ballad derives additional interest from the fact that "the ancient fortress and its vicinity formed the scene of the Editor's infancy, and seemed to claim from him this attempt to celebrate them in a Border tale." References are made, in the introduction to the 3d canto of "Marmion," to

66. -those crags, that mountain tower,
Which charm'd my fancy's wakening hour."

"It was a barren scene, and wild,
Where naked cliffs were rudely piled;

But ever and anon between

Lay velvet tufts of softest green;

And well the lonely infant knew
Recesses where the wallflower grew."

"The Douglas true and the bold Buccleuch,"

-a

fight that was ever famous in the annals of border warfare.* It took place in 1546. Evers and his colleague Sir Brian Latoun, having been promised by the English king a feudal grant of the country they had reduced to a desert, Archibald Douglas, the seventh Earl of Angus, is said to have sworn to write the deed of investiture upon their skins with sharp pens and bloody ink, in resentment for their having defaced the tombs of his ancestors at Melrose. He kept his word; at the head of one thousand men, aided by the famous Norman Lesley with a body of Fife-men, and "the bold Buccleuch" with a small but chosen body of his retainers, Evers and Latoun were met, at Ancram Moor,† with an army consisting of three thousand mercenaries, one thousand five hundred English Bor"broken clans," who changed sides during derers, and seven hundred Scotchmen of the engagement, and, joining their countrymen, made a most merciless slaughter among

Lord Evers was slain at Ancram Moor; and "was buried in Melrose Abbey, where his stone coffin may still le seen a little to the left of the Great Altar."

†The spot on which the battle was fought is called Lilyard's Edge, from an Amazonian Scottish woman of that name, who is reported, by tradition, to have distinguished herself in the same manner as Squire Witherington. The old people point out her monument, now broken and defaced. The inscription is said to have been legible within this century, and to have run thus:

"Fair maiden Lylliard lies under this stane,

Little was her stature, but great was her fame,
Upon the English louns she laid mony thumps,

And, when her legs were cutted off, she fought upon her stumps."

the English fugitives. "In the battle fell Lord Evers and his son, together with Sir Brian Latoun, and eight hundred Englishmen, many of whom were persons of rank. A thousand prisoners were taken. Among these was a patriotic alderman of London, Read by name, who, having contumaciously refused to pay his portion of a benevolence demanded from the city by Henry VIII., was sent by royal authority to serve against the Scots. These, at settling his ransom, he found still more exorbitant in their exactions than the monarch."

Concerning the ballad of "The Eve of St. John," Sir Walter Scott gives us no information except in the notes-and they refer exclusively to the localities among which he

has laid the scene of a romantic drama. He

does not appear to have pointed the moral from any particular incident; yet the lesson conveyed by the story, that

"Lawless love is guilt above,"

is not the less forcible because it has reference to no express local tradition. The stanzas which close the tale are full of solemn grandeur; seldom has a more impressive picture been exhibited in lines so few :

Did speak to my lady there; But the rain fell fast, and loud blew the blast, And I heard not what they were.

56

In bloody grave have I lain;

The lady shrunk, and fainting sunk,

For it scorch'd like a fiery brand.

The sable score of fingers four

Remains on that board impress'd; And for evermore that lady wore

190

195

A covering on her wrist.*

There is a nun in Dryburgh bower, Ne'er looks upon the sun;

200

There is a monk in Melrose tower, He speaketh word to none.

That nun, who ne'er beholds the day, That monk who speaks to noneThat nun was Smaylho'me's Lady gay, That monk the bold Baron.

205

The circumstance of the "nun who never saw the day," is not entirely imaginary. Neither is the incident of the lady wearing a covering on the wrist to conceal the sable score of fingers four." Sir Walter says it is founded

me,

But, lady, they are said in vain.