in the Cheviot Hills, adjoining to the English Border. The Author
gave the public some account of this remarkable person in one of
the early numbers of Blackwood's Magazine, to the following
purpose:--

'My father remembered old Jean Gordon of Yetholm, who had great
sway among her tribe. She was quite a Meg Merrilies, and possessed
the savage virtue of fidelity in the same perfection. Having been
often hospitably received at the farmhouse of Lochside, near
Yetholm, she had carefully abstained from committing any
depredations on the farmer's property. But her sons (nine in
number) had not, it seems, the same delicacy, and stole a brood-
sow from their kind entertainer. Jean was mortified at this
ungrateful conduct, and so much ashamed of it that she absented
herself from Lochside for several years.

'It happened in course of time that, in consequence of some
temporary pecuniary necessity, the goodman of Lochside was obliged
to go to Newcastle to raise some money to pay his rent. He
succeeded in his purpose, but, returning through the mountains of
Cheviot, he was benighted and lost his way.

'A light glimmering through the window of a large waste barn,
which had survived the farm-house to which it had once belonged,
guided him to a place of shelter; and when he knocked at the door
it was opened by Jean Gordon. Her very remarkable figure, for she
was nearly six feet high, and her equally remarkable features and
dress, rendered it impossible to mistake her for a moment, though
he had not seen her for years; and to meet with such a character
in so solitary a place, and probably at no great distance from her