A visit of the writer's to her sister in Argyleshire gave occasion for the following notes on ballad-lore, in which Major Mackay of Carskey, Mrs Burton's brother-in-law, was also strong:--
"MY DEAR LOVE,--I recollect having come across the ballad incident you mention upwards of fifty years ago, when I was zealous in ballad-lore. If it had been in one of those accepted as genuine and poetical I would have remembered the ballad, but my impression is that it was condemned as a fabrication for this and other neologies. The _button_ is not a conspicuous item of female attire as of the male, and Shakespeare has been attacked for the vulgarity of even making Lear say, 'Prithee, undo this button,' though I think it fine.
"If the Major is curious in ballad-lore, I can give him abundant information in it. For the musical item, the best collection I know is Motherwell's, both for good poetic taste in selection, and the tunes accompanying some of the contents....--Your affectionate
"MORTON, _Wednesday Evening_, _8th May 1879_.
"MY DEAR LOVE,--Looking for the ballad you want, and not finding it by recollection, I came by accident to the very line--
'When she cam' to her father's land The tenants a' cam' her to see; Never a word she could speak to them, But the buttons aff her claes would flee.'
The ballad is known by the title of The Marchioness of Douglas, but better known by the--
'O waly, waly, up yon bank, And waly, waly, doon yon brae.'
It was printed first in Jamieson's collection--1806; again in Chambers's, p. 150. The 'waly' has been by Cockney critics called Scotch for 'wail ye.' The word may come from the same etymological source as 'wail,' but it is a Scots adverb, indicative of the intensity of sorrow.
"It will be hard to find any one who is my master in ballad-lore (though other things have of late taken the preponderance). My services in the cause are certified by Robert Chambers in his collection, published in 1829--fifty years ago.
"I had then collected several versions from old people in Aberdeenshire. While writing this it dawns on my recollection that I lost the bulk of the collection, and that some years ago I got a letter from America, written by some one publishing Scots ballads, asking me to help him. Making a search for any remnant of the old collection, I found one ballad only, and sent it. Then came the odd conclusion--he had the rest of the collection, as he found by comparison of handwriting.