ページの画像
PDF
ePub

"The scene of pleasure, pomp, or power,

Thou never more shalt be.

"To Learmont's name no foot of earth
Shall here again belong,

And, on thy hospitable hearth,
The hare shall leave her young.

"Adieu! adieu!" again he cried,
All as he turned him roun'-
"Farewell to Leader's silver tide!
Farewell to Ercildoune !"

The hart and hind approach'd the place,
As lingering yet he stood;

And there, before Lord Douglas' face,
With them he cross'd the flood.

Lord Douglas leap'd on his berry-brown steed,
And spurr'd him the Leader o'er;
But, though he rode with lightning speed,
He never saw them more.

Some said to hill, and some to glen,

Their wondrous course had been;

But ne'er in haunts of living men
Again was Thomas seen.

GLENFINLAS;

OR,

LORD RONALD'S CORONACH.1

BY WALTER SCOTT.

THE simple tradition, upon which the following stanzas are founded, runs thus: While two Highland hunters were passing the night in a solitary bothy, (a hut, built for the purpose of hunting,) and making merry over their venison and whisky, one of them expressed a wish that they had pretty lasses to complete their party. The words were scarcely uttered, when two beautiful young women, habited in green, entered the hut, dancing and singing. One of the hunters was seduced by the siren who attached herself particularly to him, to leave the hut the other remained, and, suspicious of the fair seducers, continued to play upon a trump, or Jew's harp,

1 Coronach is the lamentation for a deceased warrior, sung by the aged of the clan.

[blocks in formation]

some strain, consecrated to the Virgin Mary. Day at length came, and the temptress vanished. Searching in the forest, he found the bones of his unfortunate friend, who had been torn to pieces and devoured by the fiend into whose toils he had fallen. The place was from thence called the Glen of the Green Women.

Glenfinlas is a tract of forest-ground, lying in the Highlands of Perthshire, not far from Callender, in Menteith. It was formerly a royal forest, and now belongs to the Earl of Moray. This country, as well as the adjacent district of Balquidder, was, in times of yore, chiefly inhabited by the Macgregors. To the west of the Forest of Glenfinlas lies Loch Katrine, and its romantic avenue, called the Troshachs. Benledi, Benmore, and Benvoirlich, are mountains in the same district, and at no great distance from Glenfinlas. The River Teith passes Callender and the Castle of Doune, and joins the Forth near Stirling. The Pass of Lenny is immediately above Callender, and is the principal access to the Highlands, from that town. Glenartney is a forest, near Benvoirlich. The whole forms a sublime tract of Alpine scenery.

This ballad first appeared in the Tales of Wonder.1

1 [The scenery of this, the author's first serious attempt in poetry, reappears in the Lady of the Lake, in Waverley, and in Rob Roy.---Ed.]

GLENFINLAS;

OR,

LORD RONALD'S CORONACH.

"For them the viewless forms of air obey,
Their bidding heed, and at their beck repair;
They know what spirit brews the stormful day,
And heartless oft, like moody madness stare,
To see the phantom-train their secret work prepare."
COLLINS.

66

"O HONE a rie'! O hone a rie'!!

The pride of Albin's line is o'er,

And fall'n Glenartney's stateliest tree;

We ne'er shall see Lord Ronald more!"

O, sprung from great Macgillianore,
The chief that never fear'd a foe,
How matchless was thy broad claymore,
How deadly thine unerring bow!

1 O hone a rie'! signifies-"Alas for the prince or chief.

[ocr errors]

Well can the Saxon widows tell,1

How, on the Teith's resounding shore,
The boldest Lowland warriors fell,

As down from Lenny's pass you bore.

But o'er his hills, in festal day,

How blazed Lord Ronald's beltane-tree,2 While youths and maids the light strathspey So nimbly danced with Highland glee!

Cheer'd by the strength of Ronald's shell,
E'en age forgot his tresses hoar;
But now the loud lament we swell,
O ne'er to see Lord Ronald more!

From distant isles a chieftain came,

The joys of Ronald's halls to find,
And chase with him the dark-brown game,
That bounds o'er Albin's hills of wind.

'Twas Moy; whom in Columbia's isle The seer's prophetic spirit found,3 As, with a minstrel's fire the while,

He waked his harp's harmonious sound.

1 The term Sassenach, or Saxon, is applied by the Highlanders to their Low-Country neighbours.

2 The fires lighted by the Highlanders on the first of May, in compliance with a custom derived from the Pagan times, are termed The Beltane-Tree. It is a festival celebrated with various superstitious rites, both in the north of Scotland and in Wales.

8 I can only describe the second sight, by adopting Dr. Johnson's definition, who calls it "An impression, either by

« 前へ次へ »