from this
MacKinlay; but Mr. Train has, since his friend's death, recovered a
rude _Durham_ ballad, which in fact contains a great deal more of the
main fable of Guy Mannering than either his own written, or
MacKinlay's oral edition of the _Gallovidian_ anecdote had conveyed;
and--possessing, as I do, numberless evidences of the haste with which
Scott drew up his beautiful Prefaces and Introductions of 1829, 1830,
and 1831--I am strongly inclined to think that he must in his boyhood
have read the Durham Broadside or Chapbook itself--as well as heard
the old serving-man's Scottish version of it.

However this may have been, Scott's answer to Mr. Train proceeded in
these words:--

I am now to solicit a favor, which I think your interest
{p.005} in Scottish antiquities will induce you readily to
comply with. I am very desirous to have some account of the
present state of _Turnberry Castle_--whether any vestiges of
it remain--what is the appearance of the ground--the names
of the neighboring places--and, above all, what are the
traditions of the place (if any) concerning its memorable
surprise by Bruce, upon his return from the coast of
Ireland, in the commencement of the brilliant part of his
career. The purpose of this is to furnish some hints for
notes to a work in which I am now engaged, and I need not
say I will have great pleasure in mentioning the source from
which I derive my information. I have only to add, with the
modest importunity of a lazy correspondent, that the sooner
you oblige me with an answer (if you can assist me on the
subject), the greater will the obligation be on me, who am
already your obliged humble servant,

W. SCOTT.

The recurrence of the word _Turnberry_, in the ballad of Elcine de
Aggart, had of course suggested this application, which was dated on
the 7th of November. "I had often," says Mr. Train, "when a boy,
climbed the brown hills, and traversed the shores of Carrick, but I
could not sufficiently remember the exact places and distances as to
which Mr. Scott inquired; so, immediately on receipt of his letter, I
made a journey into Ayrshire to collect all the information I possibly
could, and forwarded it to him on the 18th of the same month." Among
the particulars thus communicated, was the local superstition, that on
the anniversary of the night when Bruce la