245. Stepping Westward. [VII.]

While my fellow-traveller and I were walking by the side of Loch Ketterine [Katrine] one fine evening after sunset, in our road to a Hut where, in the course of our Tour, we had been hospitably entertained some weeks before, we met, in one of the loneliest parts of that solitary region, two well-dressed women, one of whom said to us, by way of greeting, ‘What, you are stepping westward?’

246. *_Address to Kilchurn Castle_. [X.]

The first three lines were thrown off at the moment I first caught sight of the ruin from a small eminence by the wayside; the rest was added many years after. [Note.—­The tradition is that the Castle was built by a Lady during the absence of her Lord in Palestine.]

247. *_Rob Roys Grave_. [XI.]

I have since been told that I was misinformed as to the burial-place of Bob Roy; if so, I may plead in excuse that I wrote on apparently good authority, namely, that of a well-educated lady, who lived at the head of the Lake, within a mile, or less, of the point indicated as containing the remains of one so famous in that neighbourhood. [Note prefixed.—­The history of Rob Roy is sufficiently known; his grave is near the head of Loch Ketterine, in one of those small pinfold-like burial-grounds, of neglected and desolate appearance, which the traveller meets with in the Highlands of Scotland.]

248. *_Sonnet composed at ——­ Castle_, 1803. [XII.]

The castle here mentioned was Nidpath, near Peebles.  The person alluded to was the then Duke of Queensberry.  The fact was told me by Walter Scott.

249. Yarrow Unvisited. [XIII.]

See the various Poems the scene of which is laid upon the banks of the Yarrow; in particular the exquisite Ballad of Hamilton beginning

    ’Busk ye, busk ye, my bonnie, bonnie Bride,
    Busk ye, busk ye, my winsome Marrow.’

250. The Matron of Jedborough [Jedburgh] and her Husband. [XV.]

At Jedborough, my companion and I went into private lodgings for a few days; and the following Verses were called forth by the character and domestic situation of our Hostess.

251. *_Sonnet, ’Fly, some kind Harbinger.’_ [XVI.]

This was actually composed the last day of our tour, between Dalston and
Grasmere.

252. *_The Blind Highland Boy_. [XVII.]

The story was told me by George Mackreth, for many years parish-clerk of Grasmere.  He had been an eye-witness of the occurrence.  The vessel in reality was a washing-tub, which the little fellow had met with on the shore of the loch. [Appended Note.—­It is recorded in Dampier’s Voyages that a boy, son of the captain of a man-of-war, seated himself in a turtle-shell and floated in it from the shore to his father’s ship, which lay at anchor at the distance of half a mile.  In deference to the opinion of a friend, I have substituted such a shell for the less elegant vessel in which my blind Voyager did actually intrust himself to the dangerous current of Loch Leven, as was related to me by an eye-witness.]