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Lang, Andrew, 1844-1912

"Sir Walter Scott and the Border Minstrelsy"

{113a})
We now take the Scott version where Telfer has arrived at Branksome.
Scott's stanza xxv. is Sharpe's xxiv. In Scott, Buccleuch; in Sharpe,
Martin Elliot bids his men "warn the waterside" (Sharpe), "warn the
water braid and wide" (Scott). Scott's stanza xxvi. is probably his
own, or may be, for he bids them warn Wat o' Harden, Borthwick water,
and the Teviot Scotts, and Gilmanscleuch--which is remote. Then, in
xxvii., Buccleuch says -

Ride by the gate of Priesthaughswire,
And warn the Currors o' the Lee,
As ye come down the Hermitage slack
Warn doughty Wiliie o' Gorrinberry.

All this is plain sailing, by the pass of Priesthaughswire the Scotts
will ride from Teviot into Hermitage water, and, near the Slack, they
will pass Gorrinberry, will call Will, and gallop down Hermitage water
to the Liddel, where they will nick the returning Captain at the
Ritterford.
The Sharpe version makes Martin order the warning of the waterside
(xxiv.), and then Martin says (xxv.) -

When ye come in at the Hermitage Slack,
Warn doughty Will o' Gorranherry.


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