Page:Traditional Tales of the English and Scottish Peasantry - 1887.djvu/214

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
210
TRADITIONAL TALES.

and tradition, which loves to embellish the scenes on which Nature has been lavish of her bounty, asserted that the twin hillocks of Preston Bay were formerly one green hill, till a wizard, whose name has not yet ceased to work marvels, cleft the knoll asunder with his wand, and poured the sea into the aperture, laying, at the same time, the foundation-stone of Preston Hall with his own hand.[1] On the sides and summits of these small hills stood two crowds of peasants, who welcomed the coming of Lord William with the sounding of instruments of no remarkable harmony. As this clamorous hail ceased, the melody of maidens' tongues made ample amends for the instrumental discord. They greeted us as we passed with this poetical welcome, after the manner of their country:


THE MAIDENS' SONG.

Maids of Colvend.

Ye maidens of Allanbay, sore may ye mourn,
For your lover is gone, and will wedded return;
His white sail is filled, and the barge cannot stay,
Wide flashes the water—she shoots through the bay.
Weep, maidens of Cumberland, shower your tears salter,
The priest is prepared and the bride's at the altar!


Maids of Siddick.

The bride she is gone to the altar, and far
And in wrath flies gay Gordon of green Lochinvar;
Young Maxwell of Munshes, thy gold spur is dyed
In thy steed, and thy heart leaps in anguish and pride;
The bold men of Annand and proud Niddisdale
Have lost her they loved, and may join in the wail.


Maids of Colvend.

Lord William is come; and the bird on the pine,

The leaf on the tree, and the ship on the brine,
  1. Scotland is rife with the labours of wizard and witch. The beautiful green mountain of Criffel, and its lesser and immediate companions, were created by a singular disaster which befell Dame Ailie Gunson. This noted and malignant witch had sustained an insult from the sea of Solway, as she crossed it in her wizard shallop, formed from a cast-off slipper; she, therefore, gathered a huge creelful of earth and rock, and, stride after stride, was advancing to close up for ever the entrance of that beautiful bay. An old and devout mariner who witnessed her approach thrice blessed himself, and at each time a small mountain fell out of the witch's creel; the last was the largest, and formed the mountain Criffel, which certain rustic antiquarians say is softened from "creel fell," for the witch dropped earth and creel in despair.