Not even now has the
halfpenny newspaper wholly destroyed the memories of traditional
poetry and of traditional tales even in the English-speaking parts of
our islands, while in the Highlands a rich harvest awaits the
reapers.
I could not have produced the facts, about Auld Maitland especially,
and in some other cases, without the kind and ungrudging aid, freely
given to a stranger, of Mr. William Macmath, whose knowledge of
ballad-lore, and especially of the ballad manuscripts at Abbotsford,
is unrivalled. As to Auld Maitland, Mr. T. F. Henderson, in his
edition of the Minstrelsy (Blackwood, 1892), also made due use of
Hogg's MS., and his edition is most valuable to every student of
Scott's method of editing, being based on the Abbotsford MSS. Mr.
Henderson suspects, more than I do, the veracity of the Shepherd.
I am under obligations to Colonel Elliot's book, as it has drawn my
attention anew to Auld Maitland, a topic which I had studied
"somewhat lazily," like Quintus Smyrnaeus. I supposed that there was
an inconsistency in two of Scott's accounts as to how he obtained the
ballad.
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