Wandering Willie

Frequently under the influence of many fine drams, Willie was a wandering blind fiddler who told allegorical Border tales in many an inn during the late seventeenth century. His finest concerned a local tenant who when paying his rents and covenanter’s dues, scraped together with great difficulty and undue hardship, failed to gain a receipt for his payment from the local Lord, Sir Robert Redgauntlet before he died. In the absence of any written proof, the Redgauntlet’s heirs greedily prosecuted for payment again.

The despairing tenant rides out one night, after fortifying himself with local spirit, to plead for release. On his journey he meets a stranger who when regaled with the problem promises to bring him to the old Redgauntlet himself for the receipt. Of course, the parable has him encounter the recently departed Laird, carousing with his dead friends in hell, having been judged unworthy in life. But, Redgauntlet grants him his receipt perhaps as payment due for uncharitable acts when alive and the fortunate tenant survives to drink another day!