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Read Ebook: Stories from the Ballads Told to the Children by Macgregor Mary Cameron Katharine Illustrator
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Ebook has 578 lines and 22875 words, and 12 pages
Illustrator: Katharine Cameron
STORIES FROM
THE BALLADS
TOLD TO THE CHILDREN BY
MARY MACGREGOR
WITH PICTURES BY
KATHARINE CAMERON
LONDON: T. C. & E. C. JACK
NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & CO.
TO DORIS
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Listen, children, for you will wish to hear where I found the tales which I have told you in this little book.
It is long, oh! so long ago, that they were sung up hill and down dale by wandering singers who soon became known all over the country as minstrels, or ofttimes, because they would carry with them a harp, as harpers.
In court, in cottage, by princes and by humble folk, everywhere, by every one the minstrels were greeted with delight.
To such sweet music did they sing the songs or ballads which they made or perchance had heard, to such sweet music, that those who listened could forget nor tale nor tune.
In those far-off days of minstrelsy the country was alive with fairies. Over the mountains, through the glens, by babbling streams and across silent moors, the patter of tiny feet might be heard, feet which had strayed from Elfinland.
It was of these little folk and of their visits to the homes of mortals that the minstrels sang. Sterner songs too were theirs, songs of war and bloodshed, when clan fought with clan and lives were lost and brave deeds were done. Of all indeed that made life glad or sad, of these the minstrels sang.
From town to village, from court to inn they wandered, singing the old songs, adding verses to them here, dropping lines from them there, singing betimes a strain unheard before, until at length the day came when the songs were written down.
It was in the old books that thus came to be written that I first found these tales, and when you have read them perhaps you will wish to go yourself to the same old books, to find many another song of love and hate, of joy and sorrow.
MARY MACGREGOR.
LIST OF STORIES
LIST OF PICTURES
THE YOUNG TAMLANE.--
'In earth or air I dwell, as pleases me the best,'
HYNDE ETIN.--
'For twelve long years have I never been within the Holy Church, and I fear to enter now,'
HYNDE HORN.--
'Drink,' she said gently, 'drink,'
THOMAS THE RHYMER.--
Under the Eildon tree Thomas met the lady,
LIZZIE LINDSAY.--
'Will ye come to the Highlands with me, Lizzie Lindsay?'
THE GAY GOSHAWK.--
'I go but to my lattice window to listen to the birds,'
THE LAIRD O' LOGIE.--
She stood at the hall door gazing wistfully after the young Laird of Logie,
THE YOUNG TAMLANE
The young Tamlane had lived among mortals for only nine short years ere he was carried away by the Queen of the Fairies, away to live in Fairyland.
His father had been a knight of great renown, his mother a lady of high degree, and sorry indeed were they to lose their son.
And this is how it happened.
One day, soon after Tamlane's ninth birthday, his uncle came to him and said, 'Tamlane, now that ye are nine years old, ye shall, an ye like it, ride with me to the hunt.'
And Tamlane jumped for joy, and clapped his hands for glee. Then he mounted his horse and rode away with his uncle to hunt and hawk.
Over the moors they rode, and the wind it blew cold from the north. Over the moors they rode, and the cold north wind blew upon the young Tamlane until he grew cold and stiff.
Then the reins they fell from his hands and down from his horse slipped Tamlane, and laid himself down to rest, so weary, so cold was he. But no sooner had he lain down on the bare earth than he closed his eyes and fell fast asleep. And no sooner had he fallen fast asleep than the Queen of the Fairies came and carried Tamlane off to Fairyland.
For long years Tamlane dwelt among the little green folk, yet ofttimes he would come back to visit the land of his birth.
Now many were the hills and dells haunted by the fairy folk. Yet neither hill nor dell pleased them more than the lone plain of Carterhaugh, where the soft-flowing rivers of Ettrick and Yarrow met and mingled.
Many a long day after fairies were banished from the plain of Carterhaugh would the peasant folk come to gaze at the circles which still marked the green grass of the lone moor. The circles had been made, so they said, by the tiny feet of the fairies as they danced round and round in a ring.
Well, in the days before the fairies were banished from the plain of Carterhaugh, strange sights were to be seen there by the light of the moon.
Little folk, dressed all in green, would flit across the moor. They would form tiny rings and dance on their tiny toes until the moonlight failed.
Little horsemen dressed in green would go riding by, the bells on the fairy bridles playing magic music the while. Sounds too, unknown to mortals, would tremble on the still night air.
Full of mischief too were these little elfin folk, and wise mortals feared to tread where fairy feet were tripping.
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