Colonel Elliot {114a} supposes Martin (if I follow his meaning) to send
Simmy with his command, BACK OVER ALL THE COURSE THAT TELFER AND
MARTIN'S HAB HAVE ALREADY RIDDEN: back past Shaws, near Braidley (a
house of Martin's), past "Catlockhill," to Gorranberry, to "warn the
waterside." But surely Telfer, who passed Gorranberry gates, and with
Hab passed the other places, had "taken the fray," and warned the water
quite sufficiently already. If this be granted, the Sharpe version is
taking from the Scott version the stanza, so natural there, about the
Hermitage Slack and Gorranberry. But Colonel Elliot infers, from
stanzas xxvi., xxx., xxxi., that Simmy has warned the water as far as
Gorranberry (AGAIN), has come in touch with the Captain, "between the
Frostily and the Ritterford," and that this is "consistent only with
his having moved up the Hermitage water."
Meanwhile Martin, he thinks, rode with his men down Liddel water. But
here we get into a maze of topographical conjecture, including the
hypothesis that perhaps the Liddel came down in flood, and caused the
English to make for Kershope ford instead of Ritterford, and here they
were met by Martin's men on the Hermitage line of advance.
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