The Book-Hunter Part 6

"If the Major is curious in ballad-lore, I can give him abundant information in it. For the musical item, the best collection I know is Motherwell's, both for good poetic taste in selection, and the tunes accompanying some of the contents....--Your affectionate

"J.H. BURTON."

"MORTON, _Wednesday Evening_, _8th May 1879_.

"MY DEAR LOVE,--Looking for the ballad you want, and not finding it by recollection, I came by accident to the very line--

'When she cam' to her father's land The tenants a' cam' her to see; Never a word she could speak to them, But the b.u.t.tons aff her claes would flee.'

The ballad is known by the t.i.tle of The Marchioness of Douglas, but better known by the--

'O waly, waly, up yon bank, And waly, waly, doon yon brae.'

It was printed first in Jamieson's collection--1806; again in Chambers's, p. 150. The 'waly' has been by c.o.c.kney critics called Scotch for 'wail ye.' The word may come from the same etymological source as 'wail,' but it is a Scots adverb, indicative of the intensity of sorrow.

"It will be hard to find any one who is my master in ballad-lore (though other things have of late taken the preponderance). My services in the cause are certified by Robert Chambers in his collection, published in 1829--fifty years ago.

"I had then collected several versions from old people in Aberdeens.h.i.+re. While writing this it dawns on my recollection that I lost the bulk of the collection, and that some years ago I got a letter from America, written by some one publis.h.i.+ng Scots ballads, asking me to help him. Making a search for any remnant of the old collection, I found one ballad only, and sent it. Then came the odd conclusion--he had the rest of the collection, as he found by comparison of handwriting.

"This little affair coming in upon others of so much more moment to me--I can't tell exactly how many years ago--was forgotten utterly until your inquiry about the 'b.u.t.tons' brought it up. When I am through with 'Queen Anne' I may look back on it and other trifles....

"I do not think I have any news for you. Mary says the violet roots were sent on Monday.--Your affectionate

"J.H. BURTON."

In the summer of 1879 Dr Burton went abroad for the last time, for the purpose of tracing the course of Marlborough's campaigns. From his daily letters home a few pa.s.sages may be selected:--

"MONS, _18th June 1879_.

"MY DEAR WILL,--I think you may well write to Ratisbon after receiving this.

"I leave the Low Country when I have completed my inquiries.

"What little remains belongs to the Danube district, which I shall haunt for the remainder of my time. It got its name because the Romans found it a _ratis-bona_, or good pier for crossing. It is by the Germans called Regensberg, or the town of rain.--_N.B._ I went through the old Scots College there when its inmates had been driven out, and the only article I found left behind was a large umbrella. After three days' cessation the thunder and torrents have returned yesterday. I walked three hours in rain, which soused me, and then I had as long of suns.h.i.+ne to dry me, and arrived in very comfortable condition, but I had been starved and was afraid to make up by a heavy supper; I had consequently, after a long sleep, such an appet.i.te, that though I had breakfast, I joined the _table d'hote_ dinner at one o'clock.

"Yesterday and the day before I went over the marching grounds of our army in 1709, especially the battle-field of Malplaquet. If you look into any of the histories of the period, or lives of Marlborough in the library, you will see all about it. They are concentrated in the room which I latterly used, and are concentrated opposite to the fireplace.

"I have had extreme interest in pursuing my inquiries, yet don't I long to go about in some country where one can get a drink of pure water by the roadside, such as you and I have enjoyed on occasion.

The country people only get it in deep draw-wells. They have plenty of water for their agriculture--too much; it is like the Ancient Mariner's complaint--'Water, water, everywhere, and not a drop to drink.' The peasantry are amply provided with brandy. I pa.s.sed yesterday about thirty houses where they get it for two sous, not quite a penny a gla.s.s. I wonder all your friends at Brown Brothers' do not swarm to such a land....

"I have no doubt everything is beautiful, I hope also fruitful, about Morton. I feel sure of one thing, that mamma has abundance of her favourite flowers.--Love to all from your affectionate papa, J.H. BURTON."

"REGENSBERG, _21st June 1879_.

"MY DEAR LOVE,--I have but a sc.r.a.p of paper available....

"Fine weather at last. Eating cherries. Last night I got a comfortable sleep for nothing. For reasons good no doubt, but unknown, the train stopped from 9 P.M. to 5 A.M., at a country station. I lay on a bench, with my head on my small bag, and never had a sounder sleep.--Your affectionate

J.H. BURTON."

"DONAUWoRTH, _27th June 1879_.

"MY DEAR COS,--This afternoon I expect to be at Blenheim, and so at the farthest limits of my battle-fields. I spoke of not going to the Alps, in consideration of the depressing of our neighbours the Pentlands; but being so close to them, I can't resist a step farther, and then the Pentlands are not so very ill used, for they are put much on a level with the Grampians. At the beginning of next week I expect to be moving homewards, and I still think, as I wrote to mamma, the last place to catch me at, before taking to the water, is Antwerp.

"This is a very fishy place, not of the Danube rolling majestically not many yards from where I am writing, but of the sea. The inn I am in is called the Krebs or Crab, round the corner is the Crawfish, and somewhere else the Shrimps.

"I wonder what you are now all doing in the Belvidere,[20] and what projects you are all making for the summer, and whether you have ripe strawberries, and there is good promise of cherries and apples; and so, with kind love to all, adieu from your affectionate papa, J.H. BURTON."

[Footnote 20: A tower within the grounds of Morton, used by his sons as a workshop.]

"DEGGENDORF, BAYERISCHER WALD, _1st July 1879_.

"MY DEAR LOVE,--I had a misgiving that I had given a false prospect of reaching me at Regensburg, so I came round that way again, and was rewarded by yours of the 24th, and w.i.l.l.y's of what he calls the _22d July_.

"I did not pursue the plan I spoke of to Cos, of getting a peep of the Alps, my investigations cutting off the time a.s.signed to it.

But I have gone into a siding here to see the much-boasted, and, it would seem, newly discovered touring ground of the Wald.

"I have got through my work now, but I can still find some in the neighbourhood of Antwerp,--so that is my point, and there I shall hope for letters.

When I last went to Blenheim, some five years ago, the railway only reached a point some fifteen miles from it, and I could not get back to my inn until its opening at five o'clock. Now there is train all the way. It must be supported by agricultural produce.

Such wealth of fertility I never saw. I think, standing at any point in the great haugh of the Danube, I could see as much grain as all Scotland could produce. This had a curious social influence, causing me some hards.h.i.+ps.

"The towns are all conglomerates of farm-steadings. The country was of old so cursed by war, that a steading in the fields was a lost affair. The old habit still rules, and in a town the size, say, of Linlithgow, there is not a shop or an inn except the store, whence the farmers draw their oceans of beer in great jugs, or sometimes meet to quaff it on the premises. I had to bribe the owner of such an establishment to give me brown bread and cheese; hard living of this kind, however, suits my const.i.tution. Luckily, in consideration, I suppose, of there being no refuge for belated travellers, the station-master had a nice clean bedroom, which he was ent.i.tled to let.

"I propose remaining here till to-morrow, that I may have a glimpse of the much-lauded Wald.--Love to all from your affectionate goodman, J.H. BURTON."

"EGER, _4th July 1879_.

"MY DEAR LOVE,--The best account I can give you of where I am is, that I expect to reach Leipzic this evening. But it will still be some time ere I reach Antwerp, and you may as well write me somewhat. If any letters I get there prompt me to return with the least possible delay, I shall do so, but otherwise I shall wait, occupying myself in the Netherlands for the Antwerp steamer on Sat.u.r.day, the 12th I think it is, to-morrow week.

"In going into the Bayerischer Wald I went where it was not easy to get speedily out, though I found a railway right through just opened. The night before last I slept, I suppose, some 4000 or 5000 feet above the sea, in a huge garret with some twenty beds in it.

Somebody was sound asleep in one, but disappeared before I awoke. I supposed the house to have been temporary, for accommodating the workers making the railway, but I found it to be the _hospice_ of the old road across the mountains. It has been a sort of pilgrimage, I think--_gasthaus zur Landes Grenze_.

"The scenery is naught in comparison with the Scots Highlands, or even our Pentlands. It is only in Scotland and the Lakes that hills of humble height look Alpine. The Wald is something like your Harz, but higher; so adieu.--Love to all from J.H. BURTON."

"THALE, _Monday, 5th July 1879_.