pro glove (the pledge of faith) upon the point of his lance, and claiming the perfidy of the person who had broken his word. So great was the indignation of the assembly against the perjured criminal, that he was often slain by his own clan, to wipe out the disgrace he had brought on them. In the same spirit of confidence, it was not unusual to behold the victors, after an engagement, dismiss their prisoners upon parole; who never failed either to transmit the stipulated ransom, or to surrender themselves to captivity if unable to do so. Thus, even among the rudest class of men, there often exist good points of character. BORDER BALLADS. The history of the Borders-their wars, feuds, and the daring exploits of which they were the fertile scene-has been embalmed in a variety of ballads of great antiquity, the wreck of the legendary lore once common throughout the district. According to all accounts, the old Borderers spent much of their leisure time in listening to the traditionary stories, the songs, and the inspiring strains of minstrels who visited their secluded mountainhomes. Of the mass of ballads and lays which used thus to cheer the Border hearth, and have come down to the present generation, comparatively few, it is observed, belong to the English side of the boundary. Nearly all are Scotch; whether from the greater prevalence of this species of anthology among our Scottish ancestors, or from the greater industry exercised by Scotsmen in gathering together the fragments of ballads, it would be difficult to say. Unfortunately, many of the ballads once current on the Borders are now lost, and many of them have come down to us in an imperfect and mutilated state. It could scarcely have been otherwise, since they have been almost entirely preserved by oral tradition. Few of these compositions appear to have been committed to writing till within the present century. Till a very late period, the pipers, of whom there was one attached to each Border town of note, were the great depositaries of these poetical traditions. These minstrels were in the habit of itinerating through a particular district of the country, about spring-time and after harvest, and, in return for the music and the tale, were usually rewarded with their lodging and a donation of seed-corn. The ancient Scottish gaberlunzie, too, was often repaid by his night's quarters for his contributions in legendary lore. By means of these professed ballad-reciters, much traditional poetry was preserved which must otherwise have perished. Many interesting ballads and tales have also been recovered from the recitations of shepherds and aged persons residing in the recesses of the Border mountains. From these various sources, nearly two hundred different ballads have been collected, several of which are believed to be compositions of the twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries; as there is every reason to suppose that these ballads were, in almost every case, composed immediately after the occurrence of the incidents which they commemorate. The great modern collector of these fine old rhymes, as must be generally known, was the late Sir Walter Scott, who on divers occasions rode over the more interesting Border tracts, alighting at the cottages of the peasantry, and there and elsewhere noting down all that could be collected of these precious relics. The labours of Sir Walter in this respect were finally laid before the public in his celebrated "Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border," a work in three volumes, issued in the year 1803, and therefore one of his earliest productions. In this popular collection, enlivened with many traditionary anecdotes, the ancient ballads are divided into two classes-historical, and romantic. The first class, again, has been subdivided into two series-those which refer to public historical events, and those which commemorate real circumstances in private life. To the former of these belong the metrical narratives of the "Battle of Otterbourne," "Johnnie Armstrong," the "Raid of the Reidswire," and "Kinmont Willie," &c. to the latter, the "Douglas Tragedy," and the "Dowie Dens of Yarrow." It would be unreasonable to expect that composi tions originating in such a state of society as we have described, should exhibit either refined sentiment or elegant expression. But they abound in natural pathos and rude energy, and present a picture of the manners and feelings of the times which renders them highly valuable. The romantic ballads are different in almost every respect from the first two classes, and may be regarded as an embodiment of the popular superstitions of the time-a record of the fancied exploits of fairies, ghaists, brownies, and bogles "Of airy elves by moonlight shadows seen, The silver token and the circled green." Their stories are in general only such simple and familiar incidents as take place in a rude state of society; and, what is more, they are almost all common to every nation in the world. Along with the ancient ballads in the "Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border," Sir Walter has presented some modern ones, the composition generally of living authors at the time, written in imitation of those handed down by tradition. Among these we might instance the Mermaid, by Leyden, and the Murder of Caer laveroc, by Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, as extremely beautiful in sentiment and versification. Both are reprinted in the present series of tracts (No. 77), along with some other specimens of the ballad poetry of Scotland. PRESENT STATE OF THE BORDERS. The union of the crowns of England and Scotland, in 1606, as has been stated, greatly changed the character of the Borders: and the union of the kingdoms in 1707, with the establishme of the modern sheriffdoms, reduced the entire district to law a order. Latterly, with the progress of improvement, barren wastes, once the resort of freebooters, have become fruitful fields: towns and hamlets, mansions, farmsteadings, and cottages, now enliven those scenes which for ages had been marked by works of hostility; and in those defiles where the rude reivers found a refuge, rich and almost countless flocks have long wandered in perfect security; while the ruined towers of the Border chiefs, scattered throughout the district, present a striking memorial of times and manners that have long gone by. The eastern marches, where the Douglases and the Homes once ruled and fought, are now universally allowed to form the most fertile and best-cultivated part of Scotland-the place where nature has been kindest, and the husbandman most inclined to cultivate her good graces. To the eye of a traveller, it seems rather a portion of rich and lovely England, than of this "land of mountain and of flood." It is tinged, as it were, with the geniality of the country to which it adjoins. It possesses the glorious hedgerows of England in the fullest perfection, with the lines of trees between, making each field resemble a splendid picture, deeply and doubly framed. Here also are to be seen houses built with less regard to the harsh climate of Scotland than those farther north. The honeysuckle and eglantine luxuriate around slim cottages and villas, whose large bow-windows, presented towards "the sweet south"-a thing to be seen nowhere else in Scotlandgive assurance that there is here a greater sum-total of summer delights than of winter discomfort. This highly-favoured district is purely agricultural and pastoral, and is occupied by a population distinguished for their intelligence, industry, and piety. The Tweed, the most lovely of Scottish rivers, with its far-famed tributaries, contribute to its beauty and fertility. On the banks of this classic stream stand the impressive ruins of the abbeys of Melrose, Dryburgh, and Kelso, where the ashes of kings and barons, the flower of Border chivalry, have long mingled with those of their peaceful contemporaries-abbots and monks. The whole region abounds in legends, and superstitions, and spiritstirring tales, and has been from time immemorial the subject and the birthplace of Scottish song. The vale of the Teviot, which includes the greater part of the county of Roxburgh-the ancient middle marches of the Border -is scarcely less beautiful and fertile, and has been celebrated by Scottish lyrists in strains no less encomiastic. It is the country of Thomson, Leyden, and Scott; and is the scene of tales, songs, and traditions innumerable. The lower part of the vale is purely agricultural; and as Leyden has justly remarked, in the vicinity of Kelso, where the Teviot joins the Tweed, its scenery rivals the beauty of an Italian landscape. The upper part of the district "Where Cheviot's ridges swell to meet the sky"partakes more of a pastoral character; but all is green and cheer ful to the tops of the highest hills, and though still wild and solitary, is pleasingly rural. The whole of this region, once the centre of Border raids—the land of the Rutherfords, Elliots, Turnbulls, and other turbulent clans-is now a scene of beauty and fertility scarcely equalled in any part of the country. "Dark and dismantled lies each ancient peel. * * * Their native turbulence resigned, the swains Feed their gay flocks along these heaths and plains." Even in Liddisdale-where, as might have been expected, the primitive manners of the Borders lingered long after they had become extinct in other parts of the country-all has been changed; and in the whole island you do not look upon a greener, softer, more cultivated, or more accessible region. While the tranquillity of two centuries has so much altered the physical and social aspect of the Borders, it is not unworthy of remark, that time has done little towards promoting a large and miscellaneous intercourse across the boundaries of the two countries. There are cogent reasons for this state of affairs. On the northern side of the ideal line all legal, ecclesiastical, and other institutional arrangements bear off towards Edinburgh, while on the south they take the direction of London; and this may be said to cut off a vast amount of intercourse which in other circumstances would ensue. The mountainous and moorland character of a large tract of Border country likewise limits the intercommunication. From Scotland into England there are only three or four main thoroughfares-the bridges across the Tweed at Berwick and Coldstream, the road across Carter Fell from Jedburgh to Newcastle, and the united roads from Hawick and Dumfries to Carlisle. By these and some lesser thoroughfares, there is on the whole little traffic. A few carts, mail, and stage-coaches, have hitherto formed all the means of transit for goods and passengers; although, when railway communication is opened, the account will doubtless be very different. That there should be such an insignificant amount of landtraffic between two kingdoms so intimately united, is a fact worth noting. Commercially speaking, Scotland and England might be described as two islands, separated by a sea of from a hundred to a hundred and fifty miles broad. In other words, the commercial and nearly all the personal intercourse takes place by seafrom the Clyde to the Mersey on the west, and from the Forth, the Tay, and other estuaries, to the Thames on the east. In point of fact, therefore, the mutual intimacy of the two countries has been in a remarkably small degree indebted to their connexion by land—a circumstance which goes far to prove that mere territorial proximity is of little essential consequence in cementing the bonds of brotherhood between nations; and that a wide rolling sea may form a much more convenient means of intercourse than the best-constructed highways. SELECT POETICAL PIECES OF COWPER. WILLIAM COWPER, born November 15,1731, and whose life was extended to April 25, 1800, was one of the most popular English poets of his day, and his pieces still enjoy a high reputation for their truthfulness to nature, piety, and good sense; also for the smoothness and finish of their versification. Written towards the close of the eighteenth century, they may be considered to form a link between the era of Pope, Johnson, Goldsmith, and others, and that of the modern poets, including Byron and Scott. Unfortunately, Cowper suffered under a poor state of health for many years before his death; and his life was spent chiefly in rural retirement, of which there are various evidences in his writings. ON THE RECEIPT OF HIS MOTHER'S PICTURE. H that those lips had language! Life has passed Voice only fails, else, how distinct they say, Faithful remembrancer of one so dear; I will obey, not willingly alone, But gladly, as the precept were her own: |