Perthshire in bygone days

496 PEETHSHIEE IN BYGONE DAYS.
Lady Dufferin, both her Ladyship and Lewis being accom-
plished musical composers, and her home being on the
banks of the Shannon ; but it afterwards appeared that the
Lady was not Lady Dufferin, but Lady Charlotte
Campbell, daughter of the Duke of Argyll, the clever
musician and novelist, afterwards known as Lady Charlotte
Bury. Lewis paid repeated visits to Scotland, staying at
Bothwell Castle, Dalkeith Palace, Blantyre House, and
Inverary Castle ; but, so far as is known, he never visited
Ireland.
Twenty years ago, Mrs. Ward, the authoress of " The
War in Kaffirland," contributed to Bentley's Miscellany?
a paper which she styled " Coquet-side," in which she
insinuates that "Lewis' beautiful ballad, 'The Banks of
Allan Water,' was written on the Allan in Northumber-
land ; " — thus recklessly ignoring the fact, that there is no
such river as the Allan in Northumberland. The Alne, on
which Alnwick Castle stands, is pronounced " Awn," and
is a syllable short of the score of our ballad ; and the East
and West Allen, between which lies the classic Allendale,
are spelt in the English form, "Allen." Lewis was not
likely to allow his publisher to print Allen for Alne, to say
nothing of the fact, that Allan is a Scottish name, and the
song is both in air and sentiment eminently Scottish ; and
is manifestly one of a series with " Crazy Jane," written at
Inverary Castle; "Bothwell's bonny Jane," written at
Bothwell Castle ; and
No, I'll ha'e nane but Jeanie,
The flower o' bra' Dundee,
written at Dundee.
Some years ago, the compiler of a valuable book, " The
Scottish Nation," stated in a treatise on the name Allan,
that the term meant " swift like a greyhound ; " and, when
applied to mental qualities, " illustrious." He goes on to
say — "The primary meaning of the word, however, is
sparkling or beautiful ; and it is on that account the name
of several rivers, particularly one in Perthshire, which
waters the fertile district of Strathallan. It is the opinion
of Chalmers that the Alanna of Ptolemy and Eichard of
Cirencester in his Itinera Bomana (a work referable to the
second century), was situated on the Allan, about a mile
above its confluence with the Forth, so that the name has
an ancient as well as a classic origin. The popular song of