J. F. Campbell Collection > Minstrelsy of the Scottish border > Volume 3

232 MINSTRELSY OF
Smaylho'me Tower, it is seen many miles in every di-
rection. Among the crags by which it is surrounded,
one, more eminent, is called the Waichfold, and is said
to have been the station of a beacon, in the times of war
with England. Without the tower-court is a ruined
chapel. Brotherstone is a heath, in the neighbourhood
of Smaylho'me Tower.
This ballad was first printed in Mr Lewis's Tales of
Wonder. It is here published, with some additional il-
lustrations, particularly an account of the battle of An-
cram Moor ; which seemed proper in a work upon Bor-
der antiquities. The catastrophe of the tale is founded
upon a well-known Irish tradition.* This ancient for-
tress and its vicinity formed the scene of the editor's
infanc)^, and seemed to claim from him this attempt to
celebrate them in a Border tale.
• The following passage, in Dr Hexky More's Appendix to the
Antidote against Allieism, relates to a similar phenomenon : " I con-
" fess, that the bodies of devils may not only be warm, but sindgingly
*•* liot, as it was in him that took one of Melancthon's relations by the
" hand, and so scorched lier, that she bare the mark of it to her dying
" day. But tlie examples of cold are more frequent ; as in that fa-
" mous story of Cuntius, when he touched the arm of a certain wo-
" man of Pentoch, as she lay in her bed, he felt as cold as ice ; and
" so did the spirit's claw to Anne Styles." — £d. 1662. p. 13o.