Minstrelsy of the Scottish border - National Library of Scotland

—
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 13
in three days from England, and to which they are represented
as exporting wool.— Vide Azotes on the Tale of Kemjjion. On
this subject I have, since publication of the first edition, been
favoured with the following remarks by IMr Ritson, in oppo-
sition to the opinion above expressed :
" Estmureland and Westmureland have no sort of relation
" to Northumberland and ^V'estnloreland. The former was
" never called Eastmoreland, nor were there ever any kings
" of Westmoreland ; unless we admit the authority of an old
" rhyme, cited by Usher :
—
" Here the king Wcstinsr
" Slow the King Rothinger,"
" There is, likewise, a ' King Estmcre of Spain,' in one of
" Percy's ballada.
" In the old metrical romance ofKi/ng- Horn, or Horn Child,
" we find both Westnesse and Estnesse ; and it is somewhat
" singular, that two places, so called, actually exist in York-
" shire at this day. But ne.is, in that quarter, is the name
" given to an inlet from a river. There is, however, great
" confusion in this poem, as Horn is called king sometimes of
" one country, and sometimes of the other. In the French
" original, Westir is said to have been the old name of Hir-
" land, or Ireland; which, occasionally at least, is called West-
" nesse, in the translation, in which Britain is named Sudene
" but here, again, it is inconsistent and confused.
" It is, at any rate, highly probable, that the story, cited in
" the Complaynt of Scotland, was a romance of King Horn,
" whether prose or verse ; and, consequently, that Estmure-
" land and Westmureland should there mean England and
" Ireland ; though it is possible that no other instance can be
" found of those two names occurring with the same sense."
And then cast kevils them amang.—P. 4. v. 3.
Kevils.— I