Page:The Poetical Works of William Motherwell, 1849.djvu/47

 with Sir Walter Scott. The ancient ballad of Gil Morrice seems to have attracted much of Motherwell's attention. It was the foundation of Home's celebrated tragedy of 'Douglas,' and the scene of the melancholy adventure which it relates was 'Carronside,' the home of his ancestors. He tells us, moreover, that 'the green wood' of the ballad was the ancient forest of Dundaff, in Stirlingshire, and that 'Lord Barnard's castle is said to have occupied a precipitous cliff overhanging the water of Carron, on the lands of Halbertshire.' Earlsburn, a favourite name with him, is also a small stream in that locality which falls into the Carron and derives its appellation, according to him, from the Earl's son, who is the hero of this legendary poem. There is internal evidence in his writings to show that he had carefully inquired into this matter while residing with his uncle at Muirmill; but it was from an old woman at Paisley, who sang the verses to him, that he obtained that copy of the ballad which he considered the true one, and which led to his correspondence with Sir Walter. His idea was that Gil should have been written , and that Morrice was an obvious corruption of, the old English word for foster-child. Willie, the page, is called, in one of the versions (Mr Jamieson's), his 'foster-brither;' and Motherwell's object would appear to have been to show that between the 'child's' messenger and himself there existed a stronger bond of union than mere feudalism could create. In this way, it is to be