Minstrelsy of the Scottish border - National Library of Scotland

I
THE SCOTTISH EORUEll. Ill
continues the tradition, the present arms of the burgli
bear a female, holding a child in her arms, and seated
on a sarcophagus, decorated with the Scottish lion ; in"
the back-ground a wood.
A learned antiquary, whose judgment and accuracy
claim respect, has made some observations upon the
probability of this tradition, which the editor shall take
the liberty of quoting, as an introduction to what he has
to offer upon the same subject. And, if he shall have
the misfortune to differ from the learned gentleman, he
will at least lay candidly before the public the grounds
of his opinion.
" That the souters of Selkirk should, in 1513, amount
" to fourscore fighting men, is a circumstance utterly
" incredible. It is scarcely to be supposed that all the
" shoemakers in Scotland could have produced such an
'* army, at a period when shoes must have been still less
" worn than they are at present. Dr Johnson, indeed,
" was told at Aberdeen, that the people learned the art
" of making shoes from Cromwell's soldiers.—* The
" numbers,' he adds, ' that go barefoot, are still suffi-
" cient to show that shoes may be spared ; they are not
" yet considered as necessaries of life : for tall boys, not
" otherwise meanly dressed, run without them in the
" streets; and, in the islands, the sons of gentlemen
" pass several of their first years with naked feet.'—
" {Journey to the Western Islands, p. 5b.) Away, then,
" with the fable of the souters of Selkirk. Mr Tytler,
" though he mentions it as the subject of a song, or bal-