the glen is upwards of twenty miles in length, and of prodigious extent, it contains no human habitation. It lies in the west corner of Banffshire, in the very middle of the Grampian hills.

NOTE VI.

Oft had that seer, at break of morn,

Beheld the fahm glide o'er the fell.-P. 106.

Fahm is a little ugly monster, who frequents the summits of the mountains around Glen-Avin, and no other place in the world that I know of. My guide, D. M'Queen, declared that he had himself seen him; and, by his description, Fahm appears to be no native of this world, but an occasional visitant, whose intentions are evil and dangerous. He is only seen about the break of day, and on the highest verge of the mountain. His head is twice as large as his whole body beside; and if any living creature cross the track over which he has passed before the sun shine upon it, certain death is the consequence. The head of that person or animal instantly begins to swell, grows to an immense size, and finally bursts. Such a disease is really incident to sheep on those heights, and in several parts of the kingdom, where the grounds are

elevated to a great height above the sea; but in no place

save Glen-Avin is Fahm blamed for it.

NOTE VII.

Even far on Yarrow's fairy dale,

The shepherd paused in dumb dismay,
There passing shrieks adown the vale

Lured many a pitying hind away.-P. 110.

It was reckoned a curious and unaccountable circumstance, that, during the time of a great fall of snow by night, a cry, as of a person who had lost his way in the storm, was heard along the vale of Ettrick from its head to its foot. What was the people's astonishment, when it was authenticated, that upwards of twenty parties had all been out with torches, lanthorns, &c. at the same hour of the night, calling and searching after some unknown person, whom they believed perishing in the snow, and that none of them had discovered any such person-the word spread; the circumstances were magnified—and the consternation became general. The people believed that a whole horde of evil spirits had been abroad in the valley, endeavouring to lure them abroad to their destruction-there was no man sure of his life!-prayers and

thanksgivings were offered up to Heaven in every hamlet, and resolutions unanimously formed, that no man perishing in the snow should ever be looked after again as long as the world stood.

When the astonishment had somewhat subsided by exhausting itself, and the tale of horror spread too wide ever to be recalled, a lad, without the smallest reference to the phenomenon, chanced to mention, that on the night of the storm, when he was out on the hill turning his sheep to some shelter, a flock of swans passed over his head toward the western sea, which was a sure signal of severe weather; and that at intervals they were always shouting and answering one another, in an extraordinary, and rather fearsome manner.-It was an unfortunate discovery, and marred the harmony of many an evening's conversation! In whatever cot the circumstance was mentioned, the old shepherds rose and went out-the younkers, who had listened to the prayers with reverence and fear, bit their lips-the matrons plied away at their wheels in silence-it was singular that none of them should have known the voice of a swan from that of the

devil!-they were very angry with the lad, and regarded him as a sort of blasphemer.

Аа

NOTE VIII.

See

yon

lone cairn, so gray

with age,

Above the base of proud Cairn-Gorm.-P. 113.

I only saw this old cairn at a distance; but the narrative which my guide gave me of the old man's loss was very affecting. He had gone to the forest in November to look after some goats that were missing, when a dreadful storm came suddenly on, the effects of which were felt throughout the kingdom. It was well enough known that he was lost in the forest, but the snow being so deep, it was judged impossible to find the body, and no one looked after it. It was not discovered until the harvest following, when it was found accidentally by a shepherd. The plaid and clothes which were uppermost not being decayed, it appeared like the body of a man lying entire ; but when he began to move them, the dry bones rattled together, and the bare white scull was lying in the bonnet.

NOTE IX.

Old David.-P. 118.

I remember hearing a very old man, named David Laidlaw, who lived somewhere in the neighbourhood of

Hawick, relate many of the adventures of this old mosstrooper, his great progenitor, and the first who ever bore the name. He described him as a great champion-a man quite invincible, and quoted several verses of a ballad relating to him, which I never heard either before or since. I remember only one of them :

There was ane banna of barley meal

Cam duntin dune by Davy's sheil,

But out cam Davy and his lads,

And dang the banna a' in blads.

He explained how this." bannock of barley meal" meant a rich booty, which the old hero captured from a band of marauders. He lived at Garwell in Eskdale-moor.

Lochy-Law, where the principal scene of this tale is laid, is a hill on the lands of Shorthope in the wilds of Ettrick. The Fairy Slack is up in the middle of the hill, a very curious ravine, and would be much more so when overshadowed with wood. The Back-burn which joins the Ettrick immediately below this hill, has been haunted time immemorial, both by the fairies, and the ghost of a wandering minstrel who was cruelly murdered there, and who sleeps in a lone grave a small distance from the ford.