[A composite volume : containing The ballads and songs of Ayrshire ...

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was never more touching than in the picture of the hero singling out his
poor aged father from the crowd of spectators ; and the simple grandeur
of preparation for this afflicting circumstance, in the verse that immediately
precedes it, is matchless. That the reader may properly appreciate the
value of Burns' touches,
I here subjoin two verses from the most correct
copy of the ballad, as it is printed in the Border '
Minstrelsy.'
' He looked over his left shoulder.
And for to see what he might see.
There was he aware of his auld father.
Came tearing his hair most piteouslie.
'
O baud your tongue, my father, he says.
And see that ye dinna weep for me !
For they may ravish me o' my life.
But they canna banish me from heaven hie.' "
Though the incidents of this ballad belong to the border, the fact of its popularity
in Ayrshire, and especially having undergone the improving " touches"
of Burns, as stated by Cromek, on the authority of the Poet's widow, fully
warrant us in giving it a place among the " Ballads akd Songs of
Ayrshire." The Whitefoords—one of whom is represented as having
interceded for " Hughie Graham "—are well known as an ancient family
in Renfrewshire and Lanarkshire, and latterly in Ayrshire.
Nisbet says
" The eldest branch of this family is Whitefoord of Blairquhan, in the shire of
Air, descended of a younger son of Whitefoord of that Ilk and Miltoun, who
took up his residence in the shire of Air with his brother who was Abot
of Crosragwall in the reign of King James IV." The "Whitefords were
not in possession of Blairquhan till much latter than 1560, the assigned
era of the ballad ; still they may have been in a position to interfere for the
life of the borderer.
It was not unusual for persons of influence to interest
themselves in behalf of criminals of a deeper die than " Hughie Graham."
In Auchinleck House there is a half-length portrait of a noted
sheep-lifter of the name of Gilchrist, whose life had been twice preserved
through the influence and legal tact of Lord Auchinleck, while an advocate
at the Scottish bar.
As his lordship was not elevated to the bench
till 1750, the circumstance must have occurred about a hundred years ago.
Gilchrist was an extraordinary character.
He had his dog so well trained
that he required only to point out a particular sheep in a flock, though
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