mory of Sir William Bradshaigh and his Lady Mabel, he in an antique
coat of mail, cross-legged, with his sword, partly drawn from the
scabbard, by his left side, and she in a long robe, veiled, her hands
elevated and conjoined in the attitude of fervent prayer. Sir Walter
Scott informs us that from this romance he adopted his idea of "The
Betrothed," "from the edition preserved in the mansion of Haigh Hall,
of old the mansion house of the family of Bradshaigh, now possessed by
their descendants on the female side, the Earls of Balcarres."[50]

[Illustration: LADY MABEL AND THE PALMER.]

Scottish tradition ascribes to the Clan of Tweedie a descent of a
similar romantic nature. A baron, somewhat elderly, had wedded a buxom
young wife, but some months after their union he left her to ply the
distaff among the mountains of the county of Peebles, near the sources
of the Tweed. After being absent seven or eight years--no uncommon
space for a pilgrimage to Palestine--he returned, and found, to quote
the account given by Sir Walter Scott, "his family had not been lonely
in his absence, the lady having been cheered by the arrival of a
stranger who hung on her skirts and called her mammy, and was just
such as the baron would have longed to call his son, but that he could
by no means make his age correspond with his own departure for
Palestine. He applied, therefore, to his wife for the solution of the
dilemma, who, after many floods of tears, informed her husband that,
walking one day along the banks of the river, a human form arose from
a deep eddy, termed Tweed-pool, who deigned to inform her that he was
the tutelar genius of the stream, and he became the father of the
sturdy fellow whose appearance had so much surprised her husband."
After listening to this strange adventure, "the husband believed, or
seemed to believe, the tale, and remained contented with the child
with whom his wife and the Tweed had generously presented him. The
only circumstance which preserved the memory of the incident was that
the youth retained the name of Tweed or Tweedie." Having bred up the
young Tweed as his heir while he lived, the baron left him in that
capacity when he died, "and the son of the river-god founded the
family of Drummelzier and others, from whom have flowed, in the phrase
of the Ettrick shepherd, 'many a brave fellow, and many a bauld
feat.'"

It may be added that, in some instances, the science of the medical
jurist has aided