oughout
most of their excursions in this primitive district. This Dr. Elliot
had already a large MS. collection of the ballads Scott was in quest
of; and finding how much his guest admired his acquisitions,
thenceforth exerted himself, for several years, with redoubled
diligence, in seeking out the living depositaries of such lore among
the darker recesses of the mountains. "The Doctor," says Mr.
Shortreed, "would have gane through fire and water for Sir Walter,
when he ance kenned him."

Next morning they seem to have ridden a long way, for the express
purpose of visiting one "auld Thomas o' Twizzlehope," another Elliot,
I suppose, who was celebrated for his skill on the Border pipe, and in
particular for {p.179} being in possession of the real _lilt_ of
_Dick o' the Cow_. Before starting, that is, at six o'clock, the
ballad-hunters had, "just to lay the stomach, a devilled duck or twae,
and some _London_ porter." Auld Thomas found them, nevertheless, well
disposed for "breakfast" on their arrival at Twizzlehope; and this
being over, he delighted them with one of the most hideous and
unearthly of all the specimens of "riding music," and, moreover, with
considerable libations of whiskey-punch, manufactured in a certain
wooden vessel, resembling a very small milk-pail, which he called
"Wisdom," because it "made" only a few spoonfuls of spirits--though he
had the art of replenishing it so adroitly, that it had been
celebrated for fifty years as more fatal to sobriety than any bowl in
the parish. Having done due honor to "Wisdom," they again mounted, and
proceeded over moss and moor to some other equally hospitable master
of the pipe. "Eh me," says Shortreed, "sic an endless fund o' humor
and drollery as he then had wi' him! Never ten yards but we were
either laughing or roaring and singing. Wherever we stopped, how
brawlie he suited himsel' to everybody! He aye did as the lave did;
never made himsel' the great man, or took ony airs in the company.
I've seen him in a' moods in these jaunts, grave and gay, daft and
serious, sober and drunk--(this, however, even in our wildest rambles,
was but rare)--but, drunk or sober, he was aye the gentleman. He
looked excessively heavy and stupid when he was _fou_, but he was
never out o' gude-humor."

On reaching, one evening, some _Charlieshope_ or other (I forget the
name) among those wildernesses, they found a kindly reception as
usual; but to their agreeable surprise, after some