The Luck of Edenhall
(from Sir Walter Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border)
goblet is still carefully preserved in Edenhall, Cumberland, which is
supposed to have been seized at a banquet of the elves, by one of the ancient
family of Musgrave; or, as others say, by one of their domestics, in the
manner above described. [i.e., he snatched it from a fairy banquet, and bore
it over a running stream before the fairies could recover it from him. The
fairy train vanished crying aloud:
"If this glass do break or fall,
Farewell the luck of Evenhall!"
The goblet took a name from the prophecy, under which it is mentioned in the
burlesque ballad, commonly attributed to the Duke of Wharton, but in reality
composed by Lloyd, one of his jovial companions. The Duke, after taking a
draught, had nearly terminated the "luck of Edenhall", had not the butler
caught the cup in a napkin, as it dropped from His Grace's hands. I
understand it is not now subjected to such risks, but the less of wine are
still apparent at the bottom.
"God prosper long from being broke,
The luck of Edenhall."
MOTIF: f352, f348.2