Erlinton

[ Roud 24 ; Child 8 ; Ballad Index C008 ; DT ERLINTON ; Mudcat 165006 ; trad.]

Sir Walter Scott: Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border

Erlinton is an elopement story from Sir Walter Scott’s Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. It has so many elements in common with Earl Brand / The Dougals Tragety [Roud 23, Child 7] that Francis Child apparently considered lumping them together. This one was much less popular though and has hardly ever been collected or recorded.

Sam Baxter from Glossop sang Erlinton in May 2021 on the Sheffield Live programme Thank Goodness It’s Folk in their “Friday’s Child” series going through the Child ballads week by week.

Jack Rutter sang Earl Scarslington’s Seven Daughters on his 2023 album This Is Something Constant. He noted:

I originally got this story song from Francis James Child’s The English and Scottish Popular Ballads where it’s called Erlinton, the story and characters got modified in my singing of it as I learnt it. It’s never been recorded before has this one.

This video shows Jack Rutter at the Beardy Folk Festival at Hopton Court, Cleobury Mortimer in Shropshire, in June 2024: