Note 8. Stanza xiii. Why sounds yon stroke on beech and oak, Our moon-light circle's screen? Or who comes here to chase the deer, a faculty of seeing visions, and spectral appearances, which shun the common ken. << In the year before the great rebellion, two young men from Newcastle were sporting on the high moors above Elsdon, and after pursuing their game several hours sat down to dine, in a green glen, near one of the mountain streams. After their lad ran to the brook for water, and after stooping to drink, was surprised, on lifting his head again, by the appearance of a brown dwarf, who stood on a crag covered with brackens, across the burn. This extraordi repast, the younger It has been already observed, that fairies, if not positively malevolent, are capricious, and easily offended. They are, like other proprietors of forests, peculiarly jealous of their rights of vert and venison, as appears from the cause of offence taken, in the original Danish ballad. This jealousy was also an attribute of the northern Duergar, or dwarfs; to many of whose dis-nary personage did not appear to be above half the tinctions the fairies seem to have succeeded, if, indeed, they are not the same class of beings. In the huge metrical record of German chivalry, entitled the HeldenBuch, Sir Hildebrand, and the other heroes of whom it treats, are engaged in one of their most desperate adventures, from a rash violation of the rose-garden of an elfin, or dwarf king. racteristic detestation of the chase. The third blast that young Keeldar blew, And a wee man, of swarthy hue, His russet weeds were brown as heath stature of a common man, but was uncommonly stout and broad-built, having the appearance of vast strength. His dress was entirely brown, the colour of the brackens, and his head covered with frizzled red hair. His countenance was expressive of the most savage ferocity, and his eyes glared like a bull. It seems, he addressed the young man first, threatening him with his venThere are yet traces of a belief in this worst and most geance, for having trespassed on his demesnes, and malicious order of fairies among the Border wilds. Dr asking him, if he knew in whose presence he stood? Leyden has introduced such a dwarf into his ballad enThe youth replied, that he now supposed him to be the titled the Cout of Keeldar, and has not forgot his cha- lord of the moors; that he offended through ignorance; and offered to bring him the game he had killed. The dwarf was a little mollified by this submission, but remarked, that nothing could be more offensive to him than such an offer, as he considered the wild animals as his subjects, and never failed to avenge their destruction. He condescended further to inform him, that he was, like himself, mortal, though of years far exceeding the lot of common humanity; and (what I should not have had an idea of) that he hoped for salvation. He never, he added, fed on any thing that had life, but lived, in the summer, on whortle-berries, and in winter on nuts and apples, of which he had great store in the woods. Finally, lie invited his new acquaintance to accompany him home, and partake his hospitality; an offer which the youth was on the point of accepting, and was just going to spring over the brook (which if he had done, says Elizabeth, the dwarf would certainly have torn him to pieces), when his foot was arrested by the voice of his companion, who thought he had tarried long; and on looking round again, 'the wee brown man was fled.' The story adds, that he was imprudent enough to slight the admonition, and to sport over the moors, on his way homewards; but soon after his return, he fell into a lingering disorder, and died within the year.»> And the hair of his head was frizzle red An urchin, clad in prickles red, Clung cow'ring to his arm; The hounds they howl'd, and backward fled, Why rises high the stag-hound's cry. Brown dwarf, that o'er the muirland strays, The Brown Man of the Muirs, who stays "'T is sweet beneath the heather-bell And sweet to hear the lav'rock's swell, But woe betide the shrilling born, Whom first at morn I bear." The poetical picture here given of the Duergar corresponds exactly with the following Northumbrian legend, with which I was lately favoured by my learned and kind friend, Mr Surtees of Mainsfort, who has bestowed indefatigable labour upon the antiquities of the English Border counties. The subject is in itself so curious, that the length of the note will, I hope, be pardoned. << I have only one record to offer of the appearance of our Northumbrian Duergar. My narratrix is Elizabeth Cockburn, an old wife of Offerton, in this county, whose credit, in a case of this kind, will not, I hope, be much impeached, when I add, that she is, by her dull neighbours, supposed to be occasionally insane, but, by herself, to be at those times endowed with Note 9. Stanza xiii. Or who may dare on wold to wear As the Daoine Shi', or Men of Peace, wore green habits, they were supposed to take offence when any mortals ventured to assume their favourite colour. Indeed, from some reason, which has been, perhaps, originally a general superstition, green is held in Scotland to be unlucky to particular tribes and counties. The Caithness men, who hold this belief, allege, as a reason, that their bands wore that colour when they were cut off at the battle of Flodden; and for the same reason they avoid crossing the Ord on a Monday, being the day of the week on which their ill-omened array set forth. Green is also disliked by those of the name of Ogilvy; but more especially is it held fatal to the whole clan of Grahame. It is remembered of an aged gentleman of that name, that when his horse fell in a fox-chase, he accounted for it at once, by observing that the whip-cord attached to his lash was of this unlucky colour. Note 10. Stanza xiii. For thou wert christen'd man. The elves were supposed greatly to envy the privileges acquired by Christian initiation, and they gave to those mortals who had fallen into their power, a certain precedence, founded upon this advantageous distinction. Tamlane, in the old ballad, describes his own rank in the fairy procession: I For I ride on a milk-white steed, presume that, in the Danish ballad, the obstinacy of the << Weiest Elf,» who would not flee for cross or sign, is to be derived from the circumstance of his having been «< christen'd man.»> How eager the elves were to obtain for their offspring the prerogatives of Christianity, will be proved by the following story: «In the district called Haga, in Iceland, dwelt a nobleman, called Sigward Forster, who had an intrigue with one of the subterranean females. The elf became pregnant, and exacted from her lover a firm promise that he would procure the baptism of the infant. At the appointed time, the mother came to the church-yard, on the wall of which she placed a golden cup, and a stole for the priest, agreeable to the custom of making an offering at baptism. She then stood a little apart. When the priest left the church, he inquired the meaning of what he saw, and demand ed of Sigward, if he avowed himself the father of the child. But Sigward, ashamed of the connexion, denied the paternity. He was then interrogated if he desired that the child should be baptized; but this also he answered in the negative, lest, by such request, he should admit himself to be the father. On which the child was left untouched and unbaptized. Whereupon the mother, in extreme wrath, snatched up the infant and the cup, and retired, leaving the priestly cope, of which fragments are still in preservation. But this female denounced and imposed upon Sigward, and his posterity, to the ninth generation, a singular disease, with which many of his descendants are afflicted at this day.>> Thus wrote Einar Dudmund, pastor of the parish of Garpsdale, in Iceland, a man profoundly versed in learning, from whose manuscript it was extracted by the learned Torfæus.—Historia Hrolfi Krakii. Hafnia, 1715, præfatio. Note 11. Stanza xv. And gaily shines the fairy-land But all is glistening show. No fact respecting fairy-land seems to be better ascertained than the fantastic and illusory nature of their apparent pleasure and splendour. It has been already noticed, in the former quotations from Dr Graham's entertaining volume, and may be confirmed by the following Highland tradition: «A woman, whose newborn child had been conveyed by them into their secret abodes, was also carried thither herself, to remain, however, only until she should suckle her infant. She, one day, during this period, observed the Shi'ichs busily employed in mixing various ingredients in a boiling cauldron; and, as soon as the composition was prepared, she remarked that they all carefully anointed their eyes with it, laying the remainder aside for future use. In a moment when they were all absent, she also attempted to anoint her eyes with the precious drug, but had time to apply it to one eye only, when the Daoine Shi' returned. But with that eye she was henceforth enabled to see every thing as it really passed in their secret abodes:-she saw every object, not as she hitherto had done, in deceptive splendour and elegance, but in its genuine colours and form. The gaudy ornaments of the apartment were reduced to the walls of a gloomy cavern. Soon after, having discharged her office, she was dismissed to her own home. Still, however, she retained the faculty of seeing, with her medicated eye, every thing that was done, any where in her presence, One day, amidst a by the deceptive art of the order. throng of people, she chanced to observe the Shi'ich, or man of peace, in whose possession she had left her child, though to every other eye invisible. Prompted by maternal affection, she inadvertently accosted him, and began to inquire after the welfare of her child. The man of peace, astonished at being thus recognized by one of mortal race, demanded how she had been enabled to discover him. Awed by the terrible frown of his countenance, she acknowledged what she had done. He spat in her eye, and extinguished it for ever.»— GRAHAM'S Sketches, p. 116-118. It is very remarkable, that this story, translated by Dr Graham from popular Gaelic tradition, is to be found in the Otia Imperialia of Gervase of Tilbury. A work of great interest might be compiled upon the origin of popular fiction, and the transmission of similar tales from age to age, and from country to country. The mythology of one period would then appear to pass into the romance of the next century, and that into the nursery-tale of the subsequent ages. Such an investigation, while it went greatly to diminish our ideas of the richness of human invention, would also show, that these fictions, however wild and childish, possess such charms for the populace, as enable them to penetrate into countries unconnected by manners and language, and having no apparent intercourse, to afford the means of transmission. would carry me far beyond my bounds, to produce instances of this community of fable, among nations who never borrowed from each other any thing intrinsically worth learning. Indeed the wide diffusion of popular fictions may be compared to the facility with which straws and feathers are dispersed abroad by the wind, while valuable metals cannot be transported without trouble and labour. There lives, I believe, only one gentleman, whose unlimited acquaintance with this subject might enable him to do it justice; I mean my friend Mr Francis Douce, of the British Museum, whose usual kindness will, I hope, pardon my mentioning his name, while on a subject so closely connected with his extensive and curious researches. Note 12. Stanza xv. -I sunk down in a sinful fray, Aud, 'twixt life and death, was snatch'd away To the joyless elfin bower. It The subjects of fairy-land were recruited from the regions of humanity by a sort of crimping system, which extended to adults as well as to infants. Many of those who were in this world supposed to have dis charged the debt of nature had only become denizens of the «Londe of Faery.» In the beautiful Fairy Romance of Orfee and Heurodiis (Orpheus and Eurydice), in the Auchinleck MS. is the following striking enumeration of persons thus abstracted from middle earth. Mr Ritson unfortunately published this romance from a copy in which the following, and many other highly poetical passages, do not occur: Then he gan biholde aboute al, And seighe full liggeand within the wal, And sum thurch the bodi hedde wounde; And sum with fire at for-schreynt ; Note 13. Stanza xxx. Though space and law the stag we lend, Who ever reck'd where, how, or when, The prowling fox was trapp'd and slain? St John actually used this illustration when engaged in confuting the plea of law proposed for the unfortunate Earl of Strafford: «< It was true, we give laws to hares and deer, because they are beasts of chase; but it was never accounted either cruelty or foul play to knock foxes or wolves on the head as they can be found, because they are beasts of prey. In a word, the law and humanity were alike; the one being more fallacious, and the other more barbarous, than in any age had been vented in such authority.»>-CLARENDON'S History of the Rebellion. Oxford, 1702. fol. p. 183. Note 14. Stanza xxxi. -his Highland cheer, The harden'd flesh of mountain-deer. The Scottish Highlanders, in former times, had a concise mode of cooking their venison, or rather of dis pensing with cooking it, which appears greatly to have surprised the French, whom chance made acquainted with it. The Vidame of Chartres, when a hostage in England, during the reign of Edward VI, was permitted to travel into Scotland, and penetrated as far as to the remote Highlands (au fin fond des Sauvages). After a great hunting party, at which a most wonderful quantity of aussi. Voire si nous auions de feu, dit Claudius. Par After all, it may be doubted whether la chair nostree, for so the French called the venison thus summarily prepared, was any thing more than a mere rude kind of deer-ham. CANTO V. Note 1. Stanza vi. Not then claim'd sovereignty his due; Held borrow'd truncheon of command. There is scarcely a more disorderly period in Scottish history than that which succeeded the battle of Flodden, and occupied the minority of James V. Feuds of ancient standing broke out like old wounds, and every quarrel among the independent nobility, which occurred daily, and almost hourly, gave rise to fresh bloodshed. << There arose,» says Pitscottie, « great trouble and deadly feuds in many parts of Scotland, both in the north and the west parts. The Master of Forbes, in the game was destroyed, he saw these Scottish Savages devour a part of their venison raw, without any further preparation than compressing it between two battons of wood, so as to force out the blood, and render it extremely hard. This they reckoned a great delicacy; and when the Vidame partook of it, his compliance with their taste rendered him extremely popular. This curious trait of manners was communicated by Mons. de Montmorency, a great friend of the Vidame, to Brantome, by whom it is recorded in Vies des Hommes Illus-north, slew the Laird of Meldrum under tryst (i. e. at tres, Discours LXXXIX, art. 14. The process by which an agreed and secured meeting): Likewise, the Laird of the raw venison was rendered eatable is described very Drummelzier slew the Lord Fleming at the hawking; minutely in the romance of Perceforest, where Estonne, and, likewise, there was slaughter among many other a Scottish knight-errant, having slain a deer, says to his great lords.» P. 121. Nor was the matter much mendcompanion Claudius: «Sire, or mangerez vous et moyed under the government of the Earl of Angus: for though he caused the king to ride through all Scotland, << under pretence and colour of justice, to punish thief and traitor, none were found greater than were in their own company. And none at that time durst strive with a Douglas, nor yet with a Douglas's man, for if they did, they got the worse. Therefore, none durst plainzie of no extortion, theft, reiff, nor slaughter, done to them by the Douglasses, or their men; in that cause they were not heard, so long as the Douglasses had the court in guiding. Ibid. p. 133. Note 2. Stanza vii. The Gael, of plain and river heir, Shall, with strong hand, redeem his share. was usually transmitted in specie, under the guard of a small escort. It chanced that the officer who commanded this little party was unexpectedly obliged to halt, about thirty miles from Inverness, at a miserable inn. About night-fall, a stranger, in the Highland dress, and of very prepossessing appearance, entered the same house. Separate accommodation being impossible, the Englishman offered the newly-arrived guest a part of his supper, which was accepted with reluctance. By the conversation, he found his new acquaintance knew well all the passes of the country, which induced him eagerly to request his company on the ensuing morning. He neither disguised his business The ancient Highlanders verified in their practice the and charge, nor his apprehensions of that celebrated lines of Gray: An iron race the mountain cliffs maintain, (As lawless force from confidence will grow), Fragment on the Alliance of Education and Government. So far, indeed, was a Creagh, or foray, from being held disgraceful, that a young chief was always expected to show his talents for command so soon as he assumed it, by leading his clan on a successful enterprise of this nature, either against a neighbouring sept, for which constant feuds usually furnished an apology, or against the Sassenach, Saxons, or Lowlanders, for which no apology was necessary. The Gael, great traditional historians, never forgot that the Lowlands had, at some remote period, been the property of their Celtic forefathers, which furnished an ample vindication of all the ravages that they could make on the unfortunate districts which lay within their reach. Sir James Grant of Grant is in possession of a letter of apology from Cameron of Lochiel, whose men had committed some depredation upon a farm called Moines, occupied by one of the Grants. Lochiel assures Grant, that, however the mistake had happened, his instructions were precise, that the party should foray the province of Moray (a Lowland district), where, as he coolly observes, all men take their prey.» Note 3. Stanza xi. --I only meant To show the reed on which you leant, This incident, like some other passages in the poem, illustrative of the character of the ancient Gael, is not imaginary, but borrowed from fact. The Highlanders, with the inconsistency of most nations in the same state, were alternately capable of great exertions of generosity, and of cruel revenge and perfidy. The following story I can only quote from tradition, but with such an assurance from those by whom it was communicated, as permits me little doubt of its authenticity. Early in the last century, John Gunn, a noted Cateran, or Highland robber, invested Inverness-shire, and levied black-mail up to the walls of the provincial capital. A garrison was then maintained in the castle of that town, and their pay (country banks being unknown) freebooter, John Gunn. The Highlander hesitated a inoment, and then frankly consented to be his guide. Forth they set in the morning; and in travelling through a solitary and dreary glen, the discourse again turned on John Gunn. « Would you like to see him?» said the guide; and, without waiting an answer to this alarming question, he whistled, and the English officer, with his small party, were surrounded by a body of Highlanders, whose numbers put resistance out of question, and who were all well armed. Stranger,» resumed the guide, «< I am that very John Gunn by whom you feared to be intercepted,—and not without cause; for I came to the inn last night with the express purpose of learning your route, that I and my followers might ease you of your charge by the road. But I am incapable of betraying the trust you reposed in me, and having convinced you that you were in my power, I can only dismiss you unplundered and uninjured.» He then gave the officer directions for his journey, and disappeared with his party, as suddenly as they had presented themselves. Note 4. Stanza xii. On Rochastle the mouldering lines, The torrent which discharges itself from Loch Vennachar, the lowest and eastmost of the three lakes which form the scenery adjoining to the Trosachs, sweeps through a flat and extensive moor, called Bochastle. Upon a small eminence, called the Dun of Bochastle, and indeed on the plain itself, are some entrenchments which have been thought Roman. There is, adjacent to Callender, a sweet villa, the residence of Captain Fairfowl, entitled the Roman camp. Note 5. Stanza xii. The duellists of former times did not always stand upon those punctilios respecting equality of arms, which are now judged essential to fair combat. It is true, that in formal combats in the lists, the parties were, by the judges of the field, put as nearly as possible in the same circumstances. But in private duel it was often otherwise. In that desperate combat which was fought between Quelus, a minion of Henry III of France, and Antraguet, with two seconds on each side, from which only two persons escaped alive, Quelus complained that his antagonist had over him the advantage of a poniard which he used in parrying, while his left hand, which he was forced to employ for the same purpose, was cruelly mangled. When he charged Antraguet with this odds, « Thou hast done wrong,» an « swered he, « to forget thy dagger at home. We are here leather, and studded with brass or iron, was a neces- A Highlander once fought a Frenchman at Margate, Me will fight you, be gar! if you 'll come from your door.» Note 7. Stanza xv. For, train'd abroad his arms to wield, Fitz-James's blade was sword and shield. The use of defensive armour, and particularly of the buckler or target, was general in Queen Elizabeth's time, although that of the single rapier seems to have been occasionally practised much earlier. Rowland Yorke, however, who betrayed the fort of Zutphen to the Spaniards, for which good service he was afterwards poisoned by them, is said to have been the first who brought the rapier-fight into general use. Fuller, speaking of the Swash-bucklers, or bullies of Queen Elizabeth's time, says, « West Smithfield was formerly called Ruffians' Hall, where such men usually met, casually or otherwise, to try masteries with sword and buckler. comme j'en ay veu aucuns. Ainsi mourut ce brave More were frightened than hurt, more hurt than killed Baron, le paragon de France, qu'on nommoit tel, à bien therewith, it being accounted unmanly to strike bevenger ses querelles, par grandes et déterminées résolu- neath the knee. But since that desperate traitor Rowtions. Il n'estoit pas seulement estimé en France, mais land Yorke first introduced thrusting with rapiers, en Italie, Espaigne, Allemaigne, en Boulogne et Angle-sword and buckler are disused.» In The Two Angry terre; et desiroient fort les estrangers, venant en France, le voir; car je l'ay veu, tant sa renommé volloit. I estoit fort petit de corps, mais fort grand de courage. Ses ennemies disoient qu'il ne tuoit pas bien ses gens, que par advantages et supercheries. Certes, je tiens des grands capitaines, et mesmes d'italiens, qui sont estez d'autres fois les premiers vengeurs du monde, in ogni modo, disoient-ils, qui ont tenu cette maxime, qu'une supercherie ne se devoit payer que par semblable monnoye, et n'y alloit point là de déshonneur.»-Œuvres de Brantome. Paris, 1787-8. Tome VIII, p. 90-92. It may be necessary to inform the reader, that this paragon of France was the most foul assassin of his time, and had committed many desperate murders, chiefly by the assistance of his hired banditti; from which it may be conceived how little the point of honour of the period deserved its name. I have chosen to give my heroes, who are indeed of an earlier period, a stronger tincture of the spirit of chivalry. Women of Abingdon, a comedy, printed in 1599, we See Douce's Illustrations of Shakspeare, vol. II, p. 61. |