Note 28 — GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Mr. Laing, with his usual kindness, has been so good as to answer my inquiry whether he still held the opinion he published in 1839. He writes (June 2, 1876): "I still adhere to the general inference that this ballad is comparatively a modern imitation, and although we have no positive evidence as to the authorship, I can think of no one that was so likely to have written it as Elizabeth Halket, Lady Wardlaw of Pitreavie, who died in 1727, aged fifty. Had Bishop Percy's correspondence with Sir David Dalrymple, Lord Hailes, been preserved, some interesting information would no doubt have been obtained regarding these ballads sent from Scotland."