Page:The Lay of the Last Minstrel - Scott (1805).djvu/253

 tleman of that country has noted down the following particulars concerning his appearance.

"The only certain, at least most probable, account, that ever I heard of Gilpin Horner, was from an old man of the name of Anderson, who was born, and lived all his life, at Todshawhill, in Eskdale-muir, the place where Gilpin appeared and staid for some time. He said there were two men, late in the evening, when it was growing dark, employed in fastening the horses upon the uttermost part of their ground (that is, tying their fore-feet together, to hinder them from travelling far in the night), when they heard a voice, at some distance, crying, tint! tint! tint! One of the men, named Moffat, called out, 'What de'il has tint you? Come here.' Immediately a creature of something like a human form appeared. It was surprisingly little, distorted in features, and mis-shapen in limbs. As soon as the two men could see it plainly, they run home in a great fright, imagining they had met with some goblin. By the way Moffat fell, and it run over him, and was home at the house as soon as any of them, and staid there a long time; but I cannot say how long. It was real flesh and blood, and ate and drank, was fond of cream, and when it could get at it, would destroy a great deal. It seemed a mischievous creature; and any of the children whom it could master, it would beat and scratch without mercy. It was once abusing a child belonging to the same Moffat, who had been so frightened by its first appearance; and he, in