He could not "eke and alter"
by adding verses from other texts, as he did in Otterburne.
Secondly, Scott did not make up Otterburne in the way suggested by his
critic. He took Hogg's MS., and I have shown minutely what that MS.
was, and he edited it in accordance with his professed principles. He
made "a standard text." It is only to be regretted that Hogg did not
take down VERBATIM the words of his two reciters and narrators, and
that Scott did not publish Hogg's version, with his letter, in his
notes; but that was not his method, nor the method of his
contemporaries.
Thirdly, as to Jamie Telfer, long ago I wrote, opposite
"The lyart locks of Harden's hair,"
aut Jacobus aut Diabolus, meaning that either James Hogg or the devil
composed that stanza. I was wrong. Hogg had nothing to do with it; on
internal evidence Scott was the maker. But that he transposed the
Scott and Elliot roles is incapable of proof; and I have shown that
such perversions were made in very early times, where national, not
clan prejudices were concerned.
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