Ah, what is mirth but turbulence unholy When with the charm compared of heavenly melancholy! LADY ANNE LINDSAY AULD ROBIN GRAY When the sheep are in the fauld, and the kye at hame, And a' the warld to rest are gane, The waes o' my heart fa' in showers frae my e'e, While my gudeman lies sound by me.

In the old ballad of "The Fray of Hautwessel," we are told that "The limmer thieves o' Liddesdale Wadna leave a kye in the haill countrie, But an we gi'e them the cauld steel, Our gear they'll reive it a' awaye, Sae pert they stealis, I you saye.

"They has been steady churchgoin' folk, and brewed good drink, and maintained the best o' characters, hereaways and farther off too, though 'tis I, Richard Turnbull, that says it; and while they pay their rent, no man has power to put them out; for their title's as good to the George and Dragon, and the two fields, and the croft, and the grazing o' their kye on the green, as Sir Bale Mardykes to the Hall up there and estate.