e the harpings he let them hear!
He was paid for the foal he had never lost,
And three times ower for the gude GRAY MARE.

[Footnote 127: _Carped_--Sung.]

[Footnote 128: _Cowt halter_--Colt's halter.]

[Footnote 129: _Nicker and sneer_--Neigh and snort.]

[Footnote 130: _Wad my hail fee_--Bet my whole wages.]

[Footnote 131: _Fiend thing dought_--Nothing could they do.]

NOTES ON THE LOCHMABEN HARPER.

* * * * *

The only remark which offers itself on the foregoing ballad seems
to be, that it is the most modern in which the harp, as a border
instrument of music, is found to occur.

I cannot dismiss the subject of Lochmaben, without noticing an
extraordinary and anomalous class of landed proprietors, who dwell
in the neighbourhood of that burgh. These are the inhabitants of four
small villages, near the ancient castle, called the Four Towns of
Lochmaben. They themselves are termed the King's Rentallers, or kindly
tenants; under which denomination each of them has a right, of an
allodial nature, to a small piece of ground. It is said, that these
people are the descendants of Robert Bruce's menials, to whom he
assigned, in reward of their faithful service, these portions of land,
burdened only with the payment of certain quit-rents, and grassums or
fines, upon the entry of a new tenant. The right of the rentallers is,
in essence, a right of property, but, in form, only a right of lease;
of which they appeal for the foundation on the rent-rolls of the lord
of the castle and manor. This possession, by rental, or by simple
entry upon the rent-roll, was anciently a common, and peculiarly
sacred, species of property, granted by a chief to his faithful
followers; the connection of landlord and tenant being esteemed of
a nature too formal to be necessary, where there was honour upon
one side, and gratitude upon the other. But, in the case of subjects
granting a right of this kind, it was held to expire with the life
of the granter, unless his heir chose to renew it; and also upon
the death of the rentaller himself, unless especially granted to his
heirs, by which term only his first heir was understood. Hence, in
modern days, the _kindly tenants_ have entirely disappeared from the
land. Fortunately for the inhabitants of the Four Towns of Lochmaben,
the maxim, that the king can never die, prevents their right of
property from reverting to the crown. The viscount of Stormonth,