Mary's Loch. There is a Catslack on the north side of Yarrow, near
Ladhope, on the southern side. Neither Catslack is the Catslockhill of
the Scott ballad. But on evidence, "and it is good evidence," says
Colonel Elliot, {110b} I prove that, in 1802, a place called
"Catlochill" existed between Coultartcleugh and Branksome. The place
(Mrs. Grieve, Branksome Park, informs me) is now called Branksome-
braes. On his copy of The Minstrelsy of 1802, Mr. Grieve, then tenant
of Branksome Park, made a marginal note. Catlochill was still known to
him; it was in a commanding site, and had been strengthened by the art
of man. His note I have seen and read.
Thus, on good evidence, there was a Catlochill, or Catlockhill, between
Coultartcleugh and Branksome. The Scott version is right in its
topography.
This fact was unknown to Colonel Elliot. Not knowing a Catslackhill or
Catslockhill in Teviot, he made Scott's Telfer go to an apocryphal
Catlockhill in Liddesdale. Professor Veitch had said that the
Catslockhill of the ballad "IS TO BE SOUGHT" in some locality between
Coultartcleugh and Branxholm.
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