But we have no evidence that he did so.

Probably he did not, as he never felt the need of a new theory.[44] Scott's opinion in regard to the transmission of ballads followed naturally from his theory of their origin.

His aristocratic instincts perhaps helped to determine his belief that ballads were composed by gifted minstrels, and that they had deteriorated in the process of being handed down by recitation.

He called tradition "a sort of perverted alchymy which converts gold into lead." "All that is abstractedly poetical," he said, "all that is above the comprehension of the merest peasant, is apt to escape in frequent repetition; and the _lacunae_ thus created are filled up either by lines from other ditties or from the mother wit of the reciter or singer.

The injury, in either case, is obvious and irreparable."[45] From this point of view Scott considered that the ballads were only getting their rights when a skilful hand gave them such a retouching as should enable them to appear in something of what he called their original vigor.[46] We may learn what qualities he considered necessary for an editor in this field, from the latter part of his _Remarks on Popular Poetry_, in which he discusses previous attempts to collect English and Scottish ballads.