Fiction > Book editions > London, 1889 - Master of Ballantrae

X THE MASTER OF BALLANTRAE.
The Duries of Durrisdeer and Ballaiitrae were a strong
family in the south-west from the days of David First.
A rhyme still current in the countryside —
Kittle folk are the Diu-risdeers,
They ride wi' ower mon\' spears —
hears the mark of its antiquity ; and the name appears
in another, which common report attrihutes to Thomas
of Ercildoune himself — I cannot say how truly, and
which some have applied — I dare not say with how
much justice — to the events of this narration :
Twa Duries in Durrisdeer,
Ane to tie and ane to ride,
An ill day for the gi-oom
And a waur day for the bride.
Authentic history besides is filled with their exploits
which (to our modern eyes) seem not very commendable :
and the family suffered its full share of those ups and
downs to which the great houses of Scotland have been
ever liable. But all these I pass over, to come to that
memorable year 1745, when the foundations of this
traged}^ were laid.
At that time there dwelt a family of four persons in
the house of Durrisdeer, near St. Bride^s, on the Solway
shore ; a chief hold of their race since the Reformation.
My old lord, eighth of the name, was not old in years, but
he suffered prematurely from the disabilities of age ; his
place was at the chimney side; there he sat reading, in