to hands who had transcribed it, and were printing it. He, however, with great promptness and vigour, recovered the manuscript, copied it, and in a few weeks published it, but allowed many of its coarse indecencies to be softened or omitted, though a far too plentiful sprinkling of impurity was suffered to remain in it.

Endowed with keen satirical powers, it must be admitted that Robson sometimes indulged in the exercise of them as much to his own disadvantage as to the discomfort or injury of those against whom they were directed. With the exception, however, of the blame attached to him for having occasionally given scope to this dangerous propensity, it does not appear that he ever failed to give entire satisfaction during a long life spent in discharging the highly responsible duties of his calling. When he was about to leave Cambo, he prepared a book, in which he inserted, alphabetically arranged, the names of all those belonging to the village and neighbourhood, who had attended his school, amounting to the number of 776, and running through a course of nearly 23 years, each name in the book having a particular mark appended to it, meant to be indicative of the disposition or capacity of the individual. He also adopted a most ingenious method to show the number of matrimonial alliances amongst his quondam pupils which had at that time taken place, and the signification of all these he has poetically explained in the sequel. The characters made use of for these purposes are an index or hand, an asterisk, parallel lines, the letter B., a note of exclamation, and certain arbitrary signs having no distinctive appellation. The following is a specimen of the explanation referred to:

'Mongst all the subjects of my taws,

There's but one index plac'd,

And my first pupil, Master Laws,

Is with that honour grac'd.

The names distinguish'd by a star,
Were the most docible by far;
And those with equi-distant strokes,
Were second-handed sort of folks ;
But where you find the letter B.,
A hum-drum booby you will see;
And where an exclamation's set,
The rascals went away in debt.

As it would carry us much beyond the limits at present at our disposal, to describe the method by means of which the several unions above mentioned are pointed out, we shall merely give the lines in connexion with it.

The marks and pages plac'd above

Nine loving husbands show ;

Beneath the marks, the pages prove

Nine tender wives below,

In addition to what has already been stated, there are tables in the book shewing the annual fluctuations of the school (the lowest number having been 52 in 1787, and the highest 130 in 1803); containing also the names of all those who had proceeded through bookkeeping, specifying the different kinds of learning acquired by each; the total sum of money received for teaching each family of children above five in number; the average weekly sum received for teaching the highest branches of education, and the number of years each family had been at school.

It will thus be seen that this little book, compiled by the "village schoolmaster," apparently for his own amusement, is a most valuable statistical document, having its plainness delightfully relieved by the sparks of genius with which it is interspersed; and among the many conclusions to be drawn from the information it presents, the most obvious is this that Cambo and its neighbourhood, at this day, must be very far indeed from being one of "the dark places of the earth." Hodgson's Northd., &c.

Elsie Marley.*

FROM SHARP'S BISHOPRICK GARLAND.

LSIE Marley's grown so fine

She cannot get up to sarve the swine,
But lays in bed till eight or nine,

And surely she does take her time.

* Elsie Marley has given her name to a tune which is spirited and lively, and is frequently called for as a dance at the country fairs. Her maiden name was Harrison, and she was the first wife of Ralph Marley, who kept a public house at Picktree, bearing the sign of the Swan, with the appropriate motto:

"The Swan doth love the water clear,

And so does man good ale and beer."

She was a handsome, buxom, bustling landlady, and brought good custom to the house by her civility and attention. On the march of the Dutch troops to Scotland, in the

And do you ken Elsie Marley, honey?
The wife that sells the barley, honey;
She lost her pocket and all her money

A back o' the bush i' the garden, honey. 1

Elsie Marley is so neat,

"Tis hard for one to walk the street,

But every lad and lass you meet,
Cries, do you ken Elsie Marley, honey?

Elsie Marley wore a straw hat,
But now she's getten a velvet cap,
The Lambton lads2 mun pay for that-
Do you ken Elsie Marley, honey?

Elsie keeps good gin and ale
In her house below the dale,

Where every tradesman up and down,
Does call and spend his half-a-crown.

The farmers as they come that way,
Drink with Elsie every day,
And call the fiddler for to play,
The tune of "Elsie Marley," honey.

The pitmen and the keelmen trim,
They drink bumbo made of gin,
And when to dance they do begin
The tune is "Elsie Marley," honey.

1

forty-five, the soldiers amused themselves by shooting at the Swan, and it remained a long time afterwards in a tattered condition, from having served as a target to the mercenaries. Elsie had a son, Harrison Marley, whose son Ralph was living a few years since, with a numerous progeny. Elsie suffered from a long and severe illness, and was at length found drowned in a pond near Bygo, where it is supposed she had fallen in by accident, and could not extricte herself through weakness.

1 This is a poetical license. Elsie was an active manager, and the household affairs were entrusted to her sole controul. She went to Newcastle quarterly to pay the brewer's bill, &c.; and on one of these occasions (it was the fair day) she had 20 guineas in her pocket, sewed up in a corner. On the Sand-hill she was hustled, and clapping her hand to her side, she exclaimed aloud, "O honney, honney, I've lost my pocket and all my money." R. Marley.

2 This verse is not in Ritson's copy, but it is current in the neighbourhood. By the Lambton lads, were meant the five brothers of the house of Lambton, all bachelors to a certain period, and all admirers of Elsie Marley.

Those gentlemen that go so fine,

They'll treat her with a bottle of wine,
And freely will sit down and dine
Along with Elsie Marley, honey.

So to conclude these lines I've penn'd,
Hoping there's none I do offend,
And thus my merry joke doth end
Concerning Elsie Marley, honey.

Sunken Treasure in Broomley Lough,

NEAR SEWINGSHIELDS.

HE place where the castle of Sewingshields
formerly stood, has, like several localities in
both England and Scotland, been pointed
out as the scene below which may still be
found the "cave of the enchanted war-
riors."*
Sir Walter Scott has also in-
vested the spot with some degree of in-
terest, by selecting it as a portion of the

scenery he travels over in his poem of Harold the Dauntless. But independent of these circumstances, there is a story connected with it which I do not think was ever before made public. It was told me long ago by a friend who is now in America, and who, while he resided in this country, devoted much attention to the traditionary lore of the Borders, a district more interwoven with our associations of romance and chivalry than any other in the kingdom.

At an early period a certain personage, whose name has not come to our knowledge, possessed the castle of Sewingshields, and being an avaricious man, he gathered together a large amount of money. Owing to some cause he was compelled to leave the fortress, and not being permitted to carry with him any portion of his wealth, he resolved, in order that his successor might not be enriched thereby, to sink it in Broomley Lough, a large lake in that neighbourhood. Providing a massive box, he bestowed therein his treasure; and having placed it in a boat, which he caused to be rowed to a distance from the shore,

he threw it overboard, subjecting it to a spell, that it never should be removed save by the co-operation of "Two twin yauds, two twin oxen, two twin lads, and a chain forged by a smith of kind."* Soon afterwards, the keeper of the castle quitted the country; and it was observed by people who resided in the vicinity, that when the wind in stormy weather agitated the surrounding waters of the lake, they were ever still and unruffled above the place where the box containing the treasure lay.

At a subsequent period, some person attaching credit to the legend, for like other incidents of a like nature it passed into tradition, made an attempt to win the hoard of hidden gold. He provided the yauds, the oxen and lads, and got a chain of sufficient length made, as he supposed, by a smith of kind, to surround the spot where report said the box was deposited. Taking the advantage of a breezy day to accomplish his project, he commenced by leaving one end of the chain on dry land, and by carrying out the remainder in a boat, he let it out by degrees till he swept round the place, and returned bringing with him the other end to the shore. Then speedily attaching the yauds and oxen to the chain, the two young drivers urged the animals forward, in the same way as hay makers, by the assistance of horses and wain-ropes, drag together a number of coils of hay. The box was accordingly moved from its position, and borne onward to within a third part of its original distance from the side of the lough, when unfortunately one of the links in the chain broke, and with it the potency of the whole plan of recovering the lost treasure, which to this day remains in safe preservation under the waters. The failure was ascribed to various causes, but that which chiefly preponderated was, that once on a time while the grandfather of the smith who made the chain, and who lived in the vicinity, chanced to be at Willimoteswick paying his rent, an affair which in those times took up two or three days, a sturdy beggar lodged in the house; and this occurring about three quarters of an year previous to the birth of an only son -the father of the maker of the chain, it was supposed the frailty of the grandmother had prevented him from inheriting the virtue which otherwise had descended to a smith of kind.-R. White's MSS.

*

By yauds are meant horses, and a smith of kind is one who claims his descent in unbroken succession from six ancestors of the same trade as himself-he being of the seventh generation.