I have also shown that Scott's version
contains matter not in the Elliot version, matter injurious to the
poem, as in one stanza, certainly not composed by himself, the stanza
being an inappropriate stray formula from other ballads. But, in the
absence of manuscript materials I can only produce presumptions, not
proofs.
Lastly, Kinmont Willie, and Scott's share in it, is matter of
presumption, not of proof. He had been in quest of the ballad, as we
know from his list of desiderata; he says that what he got was
"mangled" by reciters, and that, in what he got, one river was
mentioned where topography requires another. He also admits that, in
the three ballads of rescues, he placed passages where they had most
poetical appropriateness. My arguments to show that Satchells had
memory of a Kinmont ballad will doubtless appeal with more or less
success, or with none, to different students. That an indefinite
quantity of the ballad, and improvements on the rest, are Scott's, I
cannot doubt, from evidence of style.
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