overhung the water: thus leaving no trace on land of his footsteps, he baffled the scent. The pursuers came up: Rycht to the burn thai passyt ware, Perseuvit the hund the sleuth had lorne. The Bruce, Book vii. longed formerly to a family of Scotts, thus commemo- Hassendean came without a call, Note 19. Stanza xxvii. On Minto-crags the moon-beams glint. A romantic assemblage of cliffs, which rise suddenly above the vale of Teviot, in the immediate vicinity of A sure way of stopping the dog was to spill blood the family seat, from which Lord Minto takes his title. upon the track, which destroyed the discriminating A small platform, on a projecting crag, commanding a fineness of his scent. A captive was sometimes sacri- most beautiful prospect, is termed Barnhills' Bed. This ficed on such occasions. Henry the Minstrel tells a ro- Barnhills is said to have been a robber, or outlaw. There mantic story of Wallace, founded on this circumstance: are remains of a strong tower beneath the rocks, where -The hero's little band had been joined by an Irish- he is supposed to have dwelt, and from which he deman, named Fawdon, or Fadzean, a dark, savage, and rived his name. On the summit of the crags are the suspicious character. After a sharp skirmish at Black-fragments of another ancient tower, in a picturesque Erne Side, Wallace was forced to retreat with only six-situation. Among the houses cast down by the Earl of teen followers. The English pursued with a Border Hartforde, in 1545, occur the towers of Easter-Barnhills, sleuth-bratch, or blood-hound: In Gelderland there was that bratchet bred, While (i. e. fill) she gat blood no fleeing might avail. In the retreat, Fawdon, tired, or affecting to be so, would go no farther: Wallace, having in vain argued with him, in hasty anger, struck off his head, and continued the retreat. When the English came up, their hound stayed upon the dead body: The sleath stopped at Fawdon, still she stood, The story concludes with a fine Gothic scene of terror. Wallace took refuge in the solitary tower of Gask. Here he was disturbed at midnight by the blast of a born: he sent out his attendants by two and two, but no one returned with tidings. At length, when he was left alone, the sound was heard still louder. The champion descended, sword in hand; and, at the gate of the tower, was encountered by the headless spectre of Fawdon, whom he had slain so rashly. Wallace, in great terror, fled up into the tower, tore open the boards of a window, leapt down fifteen feet in height, and continued his flight up the river. Looking back to Gask, he discovered the tower on fire, and the form of Fawdon upon the battlements, dilated to an immense size, and holding in his hand a blazing rafter. The minstrel concludes, Trust right wele, that all this be sooth, indeed, The Wallace, Book v. Note 17. Stanza xxv. Dimly he view'd the Moat-hill's mound, This is a round artificial mound near Hawick, which, from its name (Mot, Ang. Sax. Concilium, Conventus), was probably anciently used as a place for assembling a national council of the adjacent tribes. There are many such mounds in Scotland, and they are sometimes, but rarely, of a square form. Note 18. Stanza xxv. Beneath the tower of Hazeldean. The estate of Hazeldean, corruptly Hassendean, be and of Minto crag, with Minto town and place. Sir My sheep I neglected, I broke my sheep-hook, Through regions remote in vain do I rove, Alas! 't is too late at thy fate to repine! Note 20. Stanza xxviii. ancient Riddel's fair domain. The family of Riddel have been very long in possession of the barony called Riddell, or Ryedale, part of which still bears the latter name. Tradition carries their antiquity to a point extremely remote; and is, in some degree, sanctioned by the discovery of two stone coffins, one containing an earthen pot filled with ashes and arms, bearing a legible date, A. D. 727; the other dated 936, and filled with the bones of a man of gigantic size. These coffins were discovered in the foundations of what was, but has long ceased to be, the chapel of Riddell; and, as it was argued, with plausibility, that they contained the remains of some ancestors of the family, they were deposited in the modern place of sepulture, comparatively so termed, though built in But the following curious and authentic documents warrant more conclusively the epithet of cient Riddel:»> Ist, A charter by David I to Walter Rydale, sheriff of Roxburgh, confirming all the estates of Liliesclive, etc., of which his father, Gervasius de Ry Grandfather to the present earl.-1819. dale, died possessed. 2d, A bull of Pope Adrian IV, confirming the will of Walter de Ridale, knight, in favour of his brother Anschittil de Ridale, dated 8th April, 1155. 3d, A bull of Pope Alexander III, confirming the said will of Walter de Ridale, bequeathing to his brother Anschittil the lands of Liliesclive, Whettunes, etc., and ratifying the bargain betwixt Anschittil and Huctredus, concerning the church of Liliesclive, in consequence of the mediation of Malcolm II, and confirmed by a charter from that monarch. This bull is dated 17th June, 1160. 4th, A bull of the same pope, confirming the will of Sir Anschittil de Ridale in favour of his son Walter, conveying the said lands of Liliesclive and others, dated 10th March, 1120. It is remarkable, that Liliesclive, otherwise Rydale, or Riddel, and the Whittunes, have descended, through a long train of ancestors, without ever passing into a collateral line, to the person of Sir John Buchanan Riddell, Bart. of Riddell, the lineal descendant and representative of Sir Anschittil.-These circumstances appeared worthy of notice in a Border work. Note 21. Stanza xxx. As glanced his eye o'er Halidon. Halidon was an ancient seat of the Kerrs of Cessford, now demolished. About a quarter of a mile to the northward lay the field of battle betwixt Buccleuch and Angus, which is called to this day the Skirmish Field. -See the 4th note on this Canto. Note 22. Stanza xxxi. Old Melros' rose, and fair Tweed ran. The ancient and beautiful monastery of Melrose was founded by King David I. Its ruins afford the finest specimen of Gothic architecture and Gothic sculpture which Scotland can boast. The stone of which it is built, though it has resisted the weather for so many ages, retains perfect sharpness, so that even the most minute ornaments seem as entire as when newly wrought. In some of the cloisters, as is hinted in the next Canto, there are representations of flowers, vegetables, etc., carved in stone, with accuracy and precision so delicate, that we almost distrust our senses, when we consider the difficulty of subjecting so hard a substance to such intricate and exquisite modulation. This superb convent was dedicated to St Mary, and the monks were of the Cistertian order. At the time of the Reformation, they shared in the general reproach of sensuality and irregularity, thrown upon the Roman churchmen. The old words of Galashiels, a favourite Scottish air, ran thus: O the monks of Melrose made gude kale' They wanted neither beef nor ale, CANTO II. Note 1. Stanza i. When silver edges the imagery, And the scrolls that teach thee to live and die. The buttresses ranged along the sides of the ruins of Melrose Abbey are, according to the Gothic style, richly 'Kale, broth. The Borderers were, as may be supposed, very ignorant about religious matters. Colville, in his Paranesis, or Admonition, states, that the reformed divines were so far from undertaking distant journeys to convert the Heathen, as I wold wis at God that ye wold only go bot to the Hielands and Borders of our own realm, to gain our awin countreymen, who, for lack of preching and ministration of the sacraments, must, with tyme, becum either infidells or atheists.» But we learn, from Lesly, that, however deficient in real religion, they regularly told their beads, and never with more zeal than when going on a plundering expedition. By my faith,» sayd the Duke of Lancaster (to a Portuguese squire), « of all the feates of armes that the Castellyans, and they of your countrey doth use, the castynge of their dartes best pleaseth me, and gladly I wolde se it; for, as I hear say, if they strike one aryghte, without he be well armed, the dart will pierce him thrughe. By my fayth, sir,» sayd the squyer, «<ye say trouth; for I have seen many a grete stroke given with them, which at one time cost us derely, and was to us great displeasure; for, at the said skyrmisbe, Sir John Laurence of Coygne was striken with a dart in of mayle, and a sacke stopped with sylke, and passed such wise, that the head perced all the plates of his cote thrughe his body, so that he fell down dead.-FROISvol. II, ch. 44.-This mode of fighting with darts SART, was imitated in the military game called Juego de las canas, which the Spaniards borrowed from their Moorish invaders. A Saracen champion is thus described by Froissart: Among the Sarazyns, there was a yonge knight called Agadinger Dolyferne; he was always wel mounted on a redy and a lyght horse; it seemed, when the horse ranne, that he did fly in the ayre. The knyghte seemed to be a good man of armes by his dedes; he bare always of usage three fethered dartes, and ryght well he could handle them; and, according to their custome, he was clene armed, with a long white towell about his heed. His apparell was blacke, and his own colour browne, and a good horseman. The Crysten men say, they thoughte he dyd such deeds of armes for the love of some yonge ladye of his countrey. And true it was, that he loved entirely the king of Thune's daughter, named the Lady Azala; she was inherytour to the realme of Thune, after the discease of the kyng, her father. This Agadinger was sone to the Duke of Olyferne. I can nat telle if they were married together after or nat; but it was shewed me, that this knyght, for love of the sayd ladye, during the siege, did many feats of armes. The knyghtes of Fraunce wold fayn have taken hym; but they colde never attrape nor inclose him, his horse was so swyft, and so redy to his hand, that alwaies he escaped.»-Vol. II, ch. 71. Note 7. Stanza x. -tby low and lonely urn, O gallant chief of Otterburne. The famous and desperate battle of Otterburne was fought 15th August, 1388, betwixt Henry Percy, called Hotspur, and James, Earl of Douglas. Both these renowned champions were at the head of a chosen body of troops, and they were rivals in military fame; so that Froissart affirms, Of all the battaylles and encounteryngs that I have made mencion of here before in all this hystory, great or smalle, this batayle that I treat of nowe was one of the sorest and best foughten, without cowardes or faynte hertes; for there was neyther knyght nor squyer but that dyde his devoyre, and fought hande to hande. This batayle was lyke the batayle of Becherell, the which was valiantly fought and endured. The issue of the conflict is well known: Percy was made prisoner and the Scots won the day, dearly purchased by the death of their gallant general, the Earl of Douglas, who was slain in the action. He was buried at Melrose, beneath the high altar. His obsequye was done reverently, and on his bodye layde a tombe of stone, and his baner hangyng over hym.» FROISSART, vol. II, p. 161. Note 8. Stanza x. dark knight of Liddesdale. William Douglas, called the Knight of Liddesdale, flourished during the reign of David II; and was so distinguished by his valour, that he was called the Flower of Chivalry. Nevertheless, he tarnished his renown by the cruel murder of Sir Alexander Ramsay of Dalhousie, originally his friend and brother in arms. The king had conferred upon Ramsay the sheriffdom of Teviotdale, to which Douglas pretended some claim. In revenge of this preference, the Knight of Liddesdale came down upon Ramsay, while he was administering Justice at Hawick, seized and carried him off to his remote and inaccessible castle of Hermitage, where he man, into a threw his unfortunate prisoner, horse and dungeon, and left him to perish of hunger. It is said, the miserable captive prolonged his existence for several days by the corn which fell from a granary above the vault in which he was confined.' So weak was the royal authority, that David, although highly incensed at this atrocious murder, found himself obliged to appoint the Knight of Liddesdale successor to his victim, as sheriff of Teviotdale. But he was soon after slain, while hunting in Ettrick Forest, by his own godson and chieftain, William, Earl of Douglas, in revenge, according to some authors, of Ramsay's murder: although a popular tradition, preserved in a ballad quoted by Godscroft, and some parts of which are still preserved, ascribes the resentment of the earl to jealousy. The place where the Knight of Liddesdale was killed is called, from his name, William-Cross, upon the ridge of a hill called William-Hope, betwixt Tweed and Yarrow. His body, according to Godscroft, was carried to Lindean church the first night after his death, and thence to Melrose, where he was interred with great pomp, and where his tomb is still shown. Note 9. Stanza xii. The moon on the east oriel shone. It is impossible to conceive a more beautiful specimen of the lightness and elegance of Gothic architecture, when in its purity, than the eastern window of Melrose Abbey. Sir James Hall of Dunglass, Bart., has, with great ingenuity and plausibility, traced the Gothic order through its various forms, and seemingly eccentric ornaments, to an architectural imitation of wicker-work; of which, as we learn from some of the legends, the earliest Christian churches were constructed. In such an edifice, the original of the clustered pillars is traced to a set of round posts, begirt with slender rods of willow, whose loose summits were brought to meet from all quarters, and bound together artificially, so as to produce the frame-work of the roof; and the tracery of our Gothic windows is displayed in the meeting and interlacing of rods and hoops, affording an inexhaustible variety of beautiful forms of open work. This ingenious system is alluded to in the romance. Hall's Essay on Gothic Architecture is published in The Edinburgh Philosophical Transactions. Note 10. Stanza xii. They sate them down on a marble stone, A Scottish monarch slept below. Sir James A large marble stone, in the chancel of Melrose, is pointed out as the monument of Alexander II, one of There is something affecting in the manner in which the old Prior of Lochleven turns from describing the death of the gallant Ramsay to the general sorrow which it excited: To tell you there of the manere, He wes the gret tast menyd man That ony cowth have thowcht of than, Of his state, or of mare be fare; Some years ago a person digging for stones, about the old castle of Hermitage, broke into a vault containing a quantity of chaff, some bones, and pieces of iron; amongst others, the curb of an an housie, under the impression, that it possibly may be a relique of cient bridle, which the author has since given to the Earl of Dalhis brave ancestor. The worthy clergyman of the parish has mentioned this discovery in his statistical account of Castletown. the greatest of cur early kings; others say it is the resting-place of Waldeve, one of the early abbots, who died in the odour of sanctity. Note 11. Stanza xiii. ---the wondrous Michael Scott. Sir Michael Scott of Balwearie flourished during the 13th century, and was one of the ambassadors sent to bring the Maid of Norway to Scotland upon the death of Alexander III. By a poetical anachronism, he is here placed in a later æra. He was a man of much learning, chiefly acquired in foreign countries. He wrote a commentary upon Aristotle, printed at Venice in 1496; & and several treatises upon natural philosophy, from which he appears to have been addicted to the abstruse studies Note 12. Stanza xiii. Spain, from the reliques, doubtless, of Arabian learning and superstition, was accounted a favourite residence of magicians. Pope Sylvester, who actually imported from Spain the use of the Arabian numerals, was supposed to have learned there the magic, for which he was stigmatised by the ignorance of his age.-William of Malmsbury, lib. ii, cap. 10. There were public schools, where magic, or rather the sciences supposed to involve its mysteries, were regularly taught, at Toledo, Seville, and Salamanca. In the latter city, they were held in a deep cavern; the mouth of which was walled up by Queen Isabella wife of King Ferdinand. -D'Autun on learned Incredulity, p. 45. These Spaof judicial astrology, alchemy, physiognomy, and chi-nish schools of magic are celebrated also by the Italian romancy. Hence he passed among his contemporaries for a skilful magician. Dempster informs us, that he remembers to have heard in his youth, that the magic books of Michael Scott were still in existence, but could not be opened without danger, on account of the malignant fiends who were thereby invoked. Dempsteri Historia Ecclesiastica, 1627, lib. xii, p. 495. Lesly characterises Michael Scott, as singulari philosophiæ, astronomiæ, ac medicinæ laude prestans; dicebatur penitissimos magic recessus indagasse. Dante also mentions him as a renowned wizard: Quell' altro che ne' fianchi è così poco DANTE.-Divina Comedia, Inferno. Canto XXmo. A personage, thus spoken of by biographers and historians, loses little of his mystical fame in vulgar tradition. Accordingly, the memory of Sir Michael Scott survives in many a legend; and in the south of Scotland, any work of great labour and antiquity is ascribed either to the agency of Auld Michael, of Sir William Wallace, or of the devil. Tradition varies concerning the place of his burial; some contend for Holme Coltrame, in Cumberland; others for Melrose Abbey. But all agree, that his books of magic were interred in his grave, or preserved in the convent where he died. Satchells, wishing to give some authority for his account of the origin of the name of Scott, pretends, that, in 1629, he chanced to be at Burgh under Bowness, in Cumberland, where a person, named Lancelot Scott, showed him an extract from Michael Scott's works, containing that story: He said the book which he gave me Nor never will, for no man dare it do. Young scholars have pick'd out something From the contents, that dare not read within. He carried me along the castle then, And shew'd his written book hanging on an iron pin. Of hardened metal, like steel, or accumie; The volume of it did seem so large to me, A stone where Mr Michael Scott did lie; Mr Michael had been dead above five hundred year? History of the Right Honourable Name of Scott. poets of romance: Questa città di Tolleto solea Il Morgante Maggiore, Canto xxv. St. 259. The celebrated magician Maugis, cousin to Rinaldo of Montalban, called, by Ariosto, Malagigi, studied the black art at Toledo, as we learn from l'Histoire de Maugis D' Aygremont. He even held a professor's chair in the necromantic university; for so I interpret the passage, qu'en tous les sept arts d'enchantement, des charmes et conjurations, il n'y avoit meilleur maistre que lui; et en tel renom qu'on le laissoit en chaise, et l'appelloit on maistre Maugis. This Salamancan Domdaniel is said to have been founded by Hercules. If the classic reader inquires where Hercules himself learned magic, he consult Les faiects et proesses may recesses. It was du noble et vaillant Hercules,» where he will learn, that by a strange people; » on one shoulder, «I invoke the sons of Hagar;» on the other, «I do mine office. When the king had decyphered these ominous inscriptions, the statue returned to its exercise, the tempest commenced anew, and Roderic retired, to mourn over the predicted evils which approached his throne. He caused the gates of the cavern to be locked and barricaded; but, in the course of the night, the tower fell with a tremendous noise, and under its ruins concealed for ever the entrance to the mystic cavern. The conquest of Spain by the Saracens, and the death of the unfortunate Don Roderic, fulfilled the prophecy of the brazen statue. Historia verdadera del Rey Don Rodrigo por el sabio Alcayde Abulcacim, traduzeda de la lengua Arabiga por Miquel de Luna, 1654, cap. vi. Note 13. Stanza xiii. The bells would ring in Notre Dame. Tantamne rem tam negligenter?» says Tyrwhitt, of his predecessor Speight; who, in his commentary on Chaucer, had omitted, as trivial and fabulous, the story of Wade and his boat Guingelot, to the great prejudice of posterity, the memory of the hero and the boat being now entirely lost. That future antiquaries may lay no such omission to my charge, I have noted one or two of the most current traditions concerning Michael Scott. He was chosen, it is said, to go upon an embassy, to obtain from the King of France satisfaction for certain piracies committed by his subjects upon those of Scotland. Instead of preparing a new equipage and splendid retinue, the ambassador retreated to his study, opened his book, and evoked a fiend in the shape of a huge black horse, mounted upon his back, and forced him to fly through the air towards France. they crossed the sea, the devil insidiously asked his rider, What it was that the old women of Scotland muttered at bed-time? A less experienced wizard might have answered, that it was the Pater Noster, which would have licensed the devil to precipitate him from his back. But Michael sternly replied, «What is that to thee? Mount, Diabolus, and fly!» When he arrived at Paris, he tied his horse to the gate of the palace, entered, and boldly delivered his message. An ambassador, with so little of the pomp and circumstance of diplomacy, was not received with much respect, and the As servant, who waited without, halloo'd upon the discomfited wizard his own greyhounds, and pursued him so close, that, in order to obtain a moment's breathing to reverse the charm, Michael, after a very fatiguing course, was fain to take refuge in his own jaw-hole (anglice, common sewer). In order to revenge himself of the witch of Falsehope, Michael, one morning in the ensuing harvest, went to the hill above the house with his dogs, and sent down his servant to ask a bit of bread from the goodwife for his greyhounds, with instructions what to do if he met with a denial. Accordingly, when the witch had refused the boon with contumely, the servant, as his master had directed, laid above the door a paper, which he had given him, containing, amongst many cabalistical words, the wellknown rhyme, king was about to return a contemptuous refusal to his demand, when Michael besought him to suspend his resolution till he had seen his horse stamp three times. The first stamp shook every steeple in Paris, and caused all the bells to ring; the second threw down three of the towers of the palace; and the infernal steed had lifted his hoof to give the third stamp, when the king rather chose to dismiss Michael, with the most ample concessions, than to stand to the probable consequences. Another time it is said, that, when residing at the tower of Oakwood, upon the Ettrick, about three miles above Selkirk, he heard of the fame of a sorceress, called the witch of Falsehope, who lived on the opposite side of the river. Michael went one morning to put her skill to the test, but was disappointed, by her denying positively any knowledge of the necromantic art. In his discourse with her, he laid his wand inadvertently on the table, which the hag observing, suddenly snatched it up, and struck him with it. Feeling the force of the eharm, he rushed out of the house; but, as it had conferred on him the external appearance of a hare, his Maister Michael Scott's man Sought meat and gat nane. Immediately the good old woman, instead of pursuing her domestic occupation, which was baking bread for the reapers, began to dance round the fire, repeating the rhyme, and continued this exercise till her husband sent the reapers to the house, one after another, to see what had delayed their provisions; but the charm caught each as they entered, and, losing all idea of returning, they joined in the dance and chorus. At length the old man himself went to the house; but as his wife's frolic with Mr Michael, whom he had seen on the hill, made him a little cautious, he contented himself with looking in at the window, and saw the reapers at their involuntary exercise, dragging his wife, now completely exhausted, sometimes round, and sometimes through the fire, which was, as usual, in the midst of the house. Instead of entering, he saddled a horse, rode up the hill, to humble himself, before Michael, and beg a cessation of the spell; which the good-natured warlock immediately granted, directing him to enter the house backwards, and, with his left hand, take the spell from above the door; which accordingly ended the supernatural dance. This tale was told less particularly in former editions, and I have been censured for inaccuracy in doing so.-A similar charm occurs in Huon du Bourdeaux, and in the ingenious Oriental tale called the Caliph Vathek. Notwithstanding his victory over the witch of False hope, Michael Scott, like his predecessor Merlin, fell at last a victim to female art. His wife, or concubine, elicited from him the secret, that his art could ward off any danger except the poisonous qualities of broth, made of the flesh of a breme sow. Such a mess she accordingly administered to the wizard, who died in consequence of eating it; surviving, however, long enough to put to death his treacherous confidant. Note 14. Stanza xiii. The words that cleft Eildon hills in three, Michael Scott was, once upon a time, much embarrassed by a spirit, for whom he was under the necessity of finding constant employment. He commanded him to build a cauld, or dam-head, across the Tweed at Kelso; it was accomplished in one night, and still does honour to the infernal architect. Michael next ordered, that Eildon hills, which was then a uniform cone, should be divided into three. Another night was sufficient to part its summit into the three picturesque |