V--MORE IMPOSSIBILITIES IN THE BALLAD
This is only one of the impossibilities in the ballad. That the
Captain of Bewcastle, an English hold, stated in a letter of the period
to be distant three miles from the frontier, the Liddel water, should
seek "to drive a prey from the Ettrick, far through the bounds of his
neighbours and foes, Grahams, Armstrongs, Scotts, and Elliots, is a
ridiculously absurd circumstance.
Colonel Elliot attempts to meet this difficulty by his theory of the
route taken by the Captain, which he illustrates by a map. {102a} The
ballad gives no details except that the Captain found his first guide
"high up in Hardhaughswire," which Colonel Elliot cannot identify. The
second guide was "laigh down in Borthwick water." If this means on the
lower course of the Borthwick, the Captain was perilously near
Branksome Hall and Harden, and his ride was foolhardy. But "laigh
down," I think, means merely "on lower ground than Hardhaughswire."
The Captain, as soon as he crossed the Ritterford after leaving
Bewcastle, was in hostile and very watchful Armstrong country.
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