I must now clear up misconceptions which have imposed themselves on
all critics of the ballad, on myself, for example, no less than on
Colonel Elliot: and must tell the whole story of how the existence
of the ballad first became known to Scott's collector and friend,
William Laidlaw, how he procured the copy which he presented to Sir
Walter, and how Sir Walter obtained, from recitation, his "second
copy," that which he printed in The Minstrelsy in 1803.
In 1801 Scott, who was collecting ballads, gave a list of songs which
he wanted to Mr. Andrew Mercer, of Selkirk. Mercer knew young Will
Laidlaw, farmer in Blackhouse on Yarrow, where Hogg had been a
shepherd for ten years. Laidlaw applied for two ballads, one of them
The Outlaw Murray, to Hogg, then shepherding at Ettrick House, at the
head of Ettrick, above Thirlestane. Hogg replied on 20th July 1801.
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.
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