Ancient Scottish ballads, recovered from tradition, and never before ...

LADY MARGARET,
In Mr. Jamieson's collection will be found, un-
der the title of " Burd Ellen," a different ver-
sion of this ballad, containing several emenda-
tions by that gentleman of very doubtful pro-
priety; particularly the addition of the three
concluding stanzas, whereby the character of
the catastrophe is entirely changed. Instead
of winding up the story in a happy manner, he,
adopting the idea of Mrs. Hampden Pye, who
wrote a ballad on the same subject, has chosen
to give it a fatal termination; while Child Wa-
ters, (another copy published by Percy), and
all the versions the Editor has seen, give it a
favourable conclusion.