[Note 579.1] Dixon and Cuthbertson were clearly employed in maintaining the track.  If the poem is correct, they began work on the railway in the late 1860s: a remarkably long career for those employed in such dangerous and arduous work. The Stamford Crossing is about ¾ mile north of the site of Little Mill Station in Northumberland (now demolished).The River Till is a tributary of the Tweed running about 15 miles from Little Mill Station at its nearest point.

[Note 579.2] Robert Dixon apparently moved house on his retirement. The lines “But though we're severed far and wide / By moorland, stream, and plain,” suggest that he was moving to the upper reaches of the Till in the Cheviot hills.