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Lang, Andrew, 1844-1912

"Sir Walter Scott and the Border Minstrelsy"

for Scott, and also the tune
"Wha dare meddle wi' me?" he may even claim here a suggestion from
Satchells' "Come if ye dare." Colonel Elliot says that no tune of this
title ever existed, a thing not easy to prove. {142a}
In the conclusion, with differences, there are resemblances in the
ballad and Satchells. Colonel Elliot goes into them very minutely.
For example, he says that Kinmont is "made to ride off; not on
horseback, but on Red Rowan's back!"
The ballad says not a word to that effect. Kinmont's speech about Red
Rowan as "a rough beast" to ride, is made immediately after the stanza,

"Then shoulder high, with shout and cry,
We bore him down the ladder lang;
At every stride Red Rowan made,
I wot the Kinmont's airns played clang." {142b}

After this verse Kinmont makes his speech (xl.-xli.). But if he DID
ride on Red Rowan's back to Staneshaw bank, it was the best thing that
a heavily ironed man could do. In the ballad (xxvii.) no horses of the
party were waiting at the castle, ALL horses were left behind at
Staneshaw bank (Satchells brings horses, or at least a horse for
Willie, to the castle).


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