doomed to be, could look upon the Queen. I conceive this woman to
have been Madge Gordon, of whom an impressive account is given in
the same article in which her mother Jean is mentioned, but not by
the present writer:--

'The late Madge Gordon was at this time accounted the Queen of the
Yetholm clans. She was, we believe, a granddaughter of the
celebrated Jean Gordon, and was said to have much resembled her in
appearance. The following account of her is extracted from the
letter of a friend, who for many years enjoyed frequent and
favourable opportunities of observing the characteristic
peculiarities of the Yetholm tribes:--"Madge Gordon was descended
from the Faas by the mother's side, and was married to a Young.
She was a remarkable personage--of a very commanding presence and
high stature, being nearly six feet high. She had a large aquiline
nose, penetrating eyes, even in her old age, bushy hair, that hung
around her shoulders from beneath a gipsy bonnet of straw, a short
cloak of a peculiar fashion, and a long staff nearly as tall as
herself. I remember her well; every week she paid my father a
visit for her awmous when I was a little boy, and I looked upon
Madge with no common degree of awe and terror. When she spoke
vehemently (for she made loud complaints) she used to strike her
staff upon the floor and throw herself into an attitude which it
was impossible to regard with indifference. She used to say that
she could bring from the remotest parts of the island friends to
revenge her quarrel while she sat motionless in her cottage; and
she frequently boasted that there was a time when she was of still
more considerable importance, for there were at her wedding fifty
saddled asses, and unsaddled asses without number. If Jean Gordon
was the prototype of the CHARACTER of Meg Merrilies, I imagine