secondary or oblique meanings of words occur frequently. By the way, Patten the historian aforesaid, who had been chaplain to Forster, but recanted after the failure of the insurrection, and published an account of it adapted to the taste of the victors, gives a curious account of your predecessor, John Hall, of Otterburne; he says he was an excellent farmer and managed his estate to great advantage, but sustained two grievous losses, 1st by an unexpected fire, which consumed the house he lived in and all the offices, farm-yard, and stocking; 2ndly by a

i Sir Walter is quite right as to the adjective, but the substantive requires attention. RIDE, to rob; or rather, to go out on horseback for such a purpose, a border word.' A saying is recorded of a mother to her son (which is become proverbial) Ride, Rowlie, hough's the pot; that is, the last piece of beef was in the pot, and therefore it was high time for him to go and fetch more.'-Nicholson and Burn's Hist. of Westm. and Cumb. ii. 466.

'RIDER, a moss-trooper, or robber of the Borders.'-Brockett's Gloss. At Hesleyside, the Charlton Family have a spur, which, when the larder was empty, was presented on a dish by my lady—a symbol which was well understood by the chieftain. But we greatly mistake both Scott and Brockett if we associate the idea of a robber with the operations of the Border clans. Each clan, as appears to

me, was a sort of sovereign state; the chief, it is true, had not the kingly name, but he had much of the kingly power, and there was a sort of federal union of the clans on each side of the Border-hence what are called the Border Laws. Scott in his Lay of the Last Minstrel, brings the Scottish chieftains within the bosom of the church. He has the mitred abbot of Melrose giving them the sign of the cross, and praying that 'they might be sage in hall, and fortunate in field.'

J. F.

flood, which carried of a plentiful crop just when it should have been led into the barn-yard. These two misfortunes were accounted a judgment on Mr. Hall for not preventing a rencontre (of which he was apprized) between a Mr. Fenwick and Septimus [Ferdinando] Forster, member for the county, in which the former killed the latter, and was afterwards executed for the murder at Newcastle.< He is said to have been of a fierce and passionate temper, which got him the name of Mad Jack Hall of Otterbourne. 'Fate,' adds the Rev. author, 'pursued him to his untimely death, where he denied his faith, and made a strange exit.' I shall be glad if you find anything in these trifles new or interesting, and am ever, with best compliments to Mrs. Ellis,

Your obliged humble servant,

Edinburgh, 3rd April, 1813.

WALTER SCOTT.

Jas. Ellis, esq., etc.

* Vide appendix F.

APPENDIX,

A.

The ground on which this memorable engagement took place is now the property of John Davidson, esq., of Newcastle, and still retains the name of Battle Cross. A cross, erroneously termed Percy's Cross, has been erected upon the spot where the gallant earl of Douglas is supposed to have fallen. These particulars were communicated to the editor in the most obliging manner by the present proprietor of Otterbourne.-Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, 2nd edition, i. 29.

B.

My friend and client, the late Ralph Spearman, esq., of Eachwick-hall, who was the Monkbarns of THE ANTIQUARY, and a very Donjon Keep of local intelligence, and anecdote, in his MS. notes on the History of Northumberland, says" The old owners of Whitfield were usually stiled yearls" [earls], and that after this line of the family ceased, the title it was conferred upon that of Clargill, whose heiress, who married Dr. Thomas Graham, was styled "Countess of Clargill." He also has a tale about Whitfield of Whitfield killing the last of the wild deer with which the country formerly abounded. He says, it was killed just before the old hall at South Dissington, where the event was recorded in a picture over the parlour chimney-piece, in which the dogs, deer, and hunters, were not the only group, but the family of Delaval were represented issuing from the house, in great form, to salute the sons of Nimrod. Vide Hodgson's Northumberland-Whitfield Parish.

Bishop Percy, writing in 1767, says, 'roe-bucks were to be found upon the wastes not far from Hexham, within these forty years; Whitfield, esq., of Whitfield,is said to have destroyed the last of them. The original MS. reads rowe.'-Percy's Reliques, i. 24.

In Northumberland, as I heare say, be no forests except Chivet Hills, where is much brushe wood and some okke; grownde over growne with linge, and some with mosse. I have hearde say Chivet Hills stretchethe xx miles. There is greate plenté of redde dere and roo bukkes.-Leland's Itin. vii. 7-56.

C.

Mr. Adamson printed this poem in 1817. He says, the MS. was purchased several years ago at a book sale in London, by the late Mr. Addison Langhorn, of Newcastle, and that it was given by that gentleman to Thomas Davidson, esq., deputy clerk of the peace for the county of Northumberland.

Mr. Adamson states, that while the MS. was Mr. Langhorn's property, it was submitted to the inspection of Dr. Percy, and that it is chiefly from the ideas suggested by that learned antiquary in his notes upon the poem, that the early part of the last century may be assigned as the probable time at which it was written.

Mr. Adamson states, that a gentleman," upon whose research and discernment, in matters of this nature, much confidence may be placed, is induced from the passage—

"Lo! said I to my son whom here I brought,”

and from the initials R. W. at the head of the poem, to be of opinion, that the author might have been one of the family of Wharton, of Wooperton, near Wooler. Were the following verses those which were sent to Mr. Scott by Mr. Ellis

Oft have we wish'd our Cheviot to survey,
Where once so many bards inspired lay-

Dark was the morn of our approaching day-
A gloomy cloud was wreath'd about his head,

Mists, fringed with light, upon his shoulders spread;

An awful darkness all our paths surround,

And we seem'd to advance on holy ground;

We the thin dews descending gently meet,

And new form'd fogs come tumbling by our feet;

We pass the scarce-to-be-discerned source

Of many a river, many a water course.

a Qu-The late Mr. Ellis ?-J.F.