Andrew Lang 
Sir Walter Scott and the Border Minstrelsy 

Persons not much interested in, or cognisant of, ‚antiquarian old womanries, ‚ as Sir Walter called them, may ask ‚what all the pother is about, ‚ in this little tractate. On my side it is ‚about‘ the veracity of Sir Walter Scott. He has been suspected of helping to compose, and of issuing as a genuine antique, a ballad, Auld Maitland. He also wrote about the ballad, as a thing obtained from recitation, to two friends and fellow-antiquaries. If to Scott’s knowledge it was a modern imitation, Sir Walter deliberately lied.