Minstrelsy of the Scottish border - National Library of Scotland

438 MINSTRELSY OF
The tradition, upon which the tale is founded, regards
a house, upon the barony of Gihnerton, near Laswade,
in Mid-Lothian. This building, now called Gilmerton
Grange, was originally named Burndale, from the fol-
lowing tragic adventure. The barony of Gilmerton
belonged, of yore, to a gentleman named Heron, who
had one beautiful daughter. This young lady was
seduced by the Abbot of Newbattle, a richly endowed
abbey, upon the banks of the South Esk, now c seat of
the Marquis of Lothian. Heron came to the knowledge
of this circumstance, and learned also, that the lovers
carried on their guilty intercourse by the connivance of
the lady's nurse, who lived at this house of Gilmerton
Grange, or Burndale. He formed a resolution of bloody
vengeance, undeterred by the supposed sanctity of the
clerical character, or by the stronger claims of natural
affection. Chusing, therefore, a dark and windy night,
•when the objects of his vengeance were engaged in a
stolen interview, he set fire to a stack of dried thorns,
and other combustibles, which he had caused to be piled
against the house, and reduced to a pile of glowing ashes
the dwelling, Avith all its inmates.*
The scene, with which the ballad opens, was suggest-
ed by the following curious passage, extracted from the
" This tradition was communicated to me by John Clerk, Esq. of
Eldin, author of an Essay upon Xaval Tactics, who will be remem-
bered by posterity, as having taught the Genius of Britain to concen-
trate her thunders, and to launch them against her foes with an un-
erring aim.
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