The more loyal William Douglas, in 1353, slew his kinsman, the shifty Knight of Liddesdale, on the braes of Yarrow, and a fragment of one of the oldest Scottish ballads deplores his fall.
For they are the natural and logical consequence of the acts which the penitent deplores.
It is perfectly true that in several or even in many instances he acknowledges and deplores the poverty of his information, but this does not excuse him for making assertions (and such assertions are not unfrequent) based on evidence that is either wholly untrustworthy or needs further inquiry before it can be accepted (Ibis, 1860, pp. 331-335).
