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standing of this, ther was that night such a consternatione in the parliament armies, that it's believed by most of those that wer there present, that if the prince,

on fall that night, or the ensueing morning be tyme, he had carryed the victorie out of their hands; for it's certane, by the morning's light, he had rallyed a body of ten thousand men, whereof ther was neer three thousand gallant horse. These, with the assistance of the toune and garrisoune of Yorke, might have done much to have recovered the victory, for the losse of this battell in effect lost the king and his interest in the three kingdomes, his majestie never being able eftir this to make head in the north, but lost his garrisons every day.

was neer of ane equall number, consisting, to the best calculatione, neer to three score thousand men upon both sydes, I shall not take upon me to discryve; albeit, from the draughts then taken upon the place, and in-haveing so great a body of horse inteire, had made ane formation I receaved from this gentleman, who being then a volunteer, as having no command, had opportunitie and libertie to ryde from one wing of the armie to the other, to view all ther severall squadrons of horse and battallions of foot how formed, and in what manner drawn up, with every other circumstance relating to the fight, and that both as to the king's armies and that of the parliament's, amongst whom, untill the engadgment, he went from statione to statione to observe ther order and forme; but that the descriptione of this battell, with the various success on both sides at the beginning, with the losse of the royal armie, and the sad effects that followed that misfortune as to his majesties interest, hes been so often done already by English authors, little to our commendatione, how justly I shall not dispute, seeing the truth is, as our principall generall fled that night neer fourtie mylles from the place of the fight, that part of the armie where he commanded being totallie routed: but it is as true, that much of the victorie is attributed to the good conduct of David Lesselie, lievetennent-generall of our horse. Cromwell himself, that minione of fortune, but the rod of God's wrath, to punish eftirward three rebellious nations, disdained not to take orders from him, albeit then in the same qualitie of command for the parliament, as being lievetennent-generall to the Earl of Manchester's horse, whom, with the assistance of the Scots horse, having routed the prince's right wing, as he had done that of the parliament's. These two commanders of the horse upon that wing wisely restrained the great bodies of ther horse from persuing these brocken troups, but, wheelling to the left-hand, falls in upon the naked flanks of the prince's main battallion of foot, carying them doune with great violence; nether mett they with any great resistance untill they came to the Marques of Newcastle his battallione of White-Coats, who, first pep-long journey in the night, had casten himselfe doune pering them soundly with ther shott, when they came to charge, stoutly boor them up with their picks that they could not enter to break them. Here the parliament's horse of that wing receaved their greatest losse, and a stop for sometyme put to their hoped-for victorie; and that only by the stout resistance of this gallant battallione, which consisted neer of four thousand foot, until at length a Scots regiment of dragouns, commanded by Collonell Frizeall, with other two, was brought to open them upon some hand, which at length they did, when all the ammunitione was spent. Having refused quarters, every man fell in the same order and ranke wherein he had foughten.

<< Be this execution was done, the prince returned from the persuite of the right wing of the parliament's horse, which he had beatten and followed too farre, to the losse of the battell, which certanely, in all men's opinions, he might have caryed, if he had not been too violent upon the persuite; which gave his enemies upon the left-hand opportunitie to disperse and cut doune his infanterie, who, having cleared the field of all the standing bodies of foot, wer now, with many of ther oune, standing ready to receave the charge of his allmost spent horses, if he should attempt it, which the prince observeing, and seeing all lost, he retreated to Yorke with two thousand horse. Notwith

<< As for Generall Lesselie, in the beginning of this flight haveing that part of the army quite brocken, where he had placed himself, by the valour of the prince, he imagined, and was confermed by the opinione of others then upon the place with him, that the battell was irrecoverably lost, seeing they wer fleeing upon all hands; theirfore they humblie intreated his excellence to reteir and wait his better fortune; which, without farder advyseing, he did; and never drew bridle untill he came the lenth of Leads, having ridden all that night with a cloak of drap de berrie about him, be longing to this gentleman of whom I write, then in his retinue, with many other officers of good qualitie. It was neer twelve the next day before they had the certanety who was master of the field, when at length there arryves ane express, sent by David Lesselie, to acquaint the general they had obtained a most glorious victory, and that the prince, with his brocken troups, was fled from Yorke. This intelligence was somewhat amazeing to these gentlemen that had been eye witnesses to the disorder of the armie before ther retearing, and had then accompanyed the general in his flight, who, being much wearyed that evening of the battell with ordering his armie, and now quite spent with his

upon a bed to reste, when this gentleman comeing
quyetly into his chamber, he awoke, and hastily cryes
out, 'Lievetennent-collonell, what news?'—‘All is safe,
may it please your excellence, the parliament's armie
hes obtained a great victory;' and then delyvers the
letter. The generall, upon the hearing of this, knocked
upon his breast and sayes, 'I would to God I had dyed
upon the place,' and then opens the letter, which, in a
few lines gave ane account of the victory, and in the
close pressed his speedy returne to the armie, which he
did the next day, being accompanyed some mylles back
by this gentleman, who then takes his leave of him, and
receaved at parting many expressions of kyndenesse,
with promises that he would never be unmyndful of his
care and respect towards him; and in the end he in-
treats him to present his service to all his friends and
acquaintances in Scotland. Thereftir the generall sets
forward in his journey for the armie, as this gentleman
did for
, in order to his transporta-

tione for Scotland, where he arryved sex dayes eftir the
fight of Mestoune Muir, and gave the first true account
and descriptione of that great battell, wherein the
covenanters then gloryed soe much, that they impiously
boasted the Lord had now signally appeared for his
cause and people, it being ordinary for them, during
the wholl time of this warre, to attribute the greatness

river on which they had their mansion. An epitaph on one of their tombs affirms, that the family held their lands of Troughend, which are situated on the Reed, nearly opposite to Otterburn, for the incredible space of nine hundred

of their success to the goodness and justice of their cause, Troughend were a very ancient family, as may be conuntil Divine Justyce trysted them with some cross dis-jectured from their deriving their surname from the pensatione, and then you might have heard this language from them, 'That it pleases the Lord to give his oune the heavyest end of the tree to bear, that the saints and the people of God must still be sufferers while they are here away, that the malignant party was God's rod to punish them for their unthankfulnesse, which in the end he will cast into the fire;' with a thousand other expressions and scripture citations, prophanely and blasphemiously uttered by them to palliate their villainie and rebellion.»-Memorie of the Somervilles. 1815.

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Edinb.

Stout Cromwell has redeem'd the day. Cromwell, with his regiment of cuirassiers, had a principal share in turning the fate of the day at MarstonMoor, which was equally matter of triumph to the inde pendents, and of grief and heart-burning to the presbyterians and to the Scottish. Principal Bailie expresses his dissatisfaction as follows:

<< The independents sent up one quickly to assure that all the glory of that night was theirs; and they and their Major-general Cromwell had done it all there alone; but Captain Stuart afterward shewed the vanity and falsehood of their disgraceful relation. God gave us that victory wonderfully. There were three generals on each side, Lesley, Fairfax, and Manchester; Rupert, Newcastle, and King. Within half an hour and less, all six took them to their heels; this to you alone. The disadvantage of the ground, and violence of the flower of Prince Rupert's horse, carried all our right wing down; only Eglinton kept ground, to his great loss: his lieutenant-crowner, a brave man, I fear, shall die, and his son Robert be mutilated of an arm. Lindsay had the greatest hazard of any; but the beginning of the victory was from David Lesly, who before was much suspected of evil designs; he, with the Scots and Cromwell's horse, having the advantage of the ground, did dissipate all before them.>>-BAILIE'S Letters and Journals, Edinb. 1785, 8vo, II, 36.

Note 8. Stanza xx.

Do not my native dales prolong

Of Percy Rede the tragic song,
Train'd forward to his bloody fall,
By Girsonfield, that treacherous Hall?

In a poem, entitled « The Lay of the Reedwater Minstrel,» Newcastle, 1809, this tale, with many others peculiar to the valley of the Reed, is commemorated :— «The particulars of the traditional story of Percy Reed of Troughend, and the Halls of Girsonfield, the author had from a descendant of the family of Reed. From this account it appears that Percival Reed, Esquire, a keeper of Reedsdale, was betrayed by the Halls (hence denominated the false-hearted Ha's) to a band of mosstroopers of the name Crosier, who slew him at Batinghope, near the source of the Reed.

<< The Halls were, after the murder of Percy Reed, held in such universal abhorrence and contempt by the inhabitants of Reedsdale, for their cowardly and treacherous behaviour, that they were obliged to leave the country.>> In another passage we are informed that the ghost of the injured Borderer is supposed to haunt the banks of a brook called the Pringle. These Reeds of

in

years.

Note 9. Stanza xx.

And near the spot that gave me name,
The moated mound of Risingham,
Where Reed upon her margin sees
Sweet Woodburn's cottages and trees,

Some ancient sculptor's art has shown
An outlaw's image on the stone.

Risingham, upon the river Reed, near the beautiful hamlet of Woodburn, is an ancient Roman station, formerly called Habitancum. Camden says, that in his time the popular account bore that it had been the abode of a deity or giant, called Magon; and appeals, of Risingham, or Reisenham, which signifies, in Gersupport of this tradition, as well as to the etymology man, the habitation of the giants, to two Roman altars taken out of the river, inscribed DEO MOGONTI CADENORUM. About half a mile distant from Risingham, upon an eminence covered with scattered birch-trees and

fragments of rock, there is cut upon a large rock, in alto relievo, a remarkable figure, called Robin of Risingham, or Robin of Reedsdale. It presents a other what seems to be a hare. There is a quiver at hunter, with his bow raised in one hand, and in the the back of the figure, and he is dressed in a long coat, with a girdle bound round him. Dr Horsley, who saw or kirtle, coming down to the knees, and meeting close, all monuments of antiquity with Roman eyes, inclines the bow is rather of the ancient size than of that which to think this figure a Roman archer: and certainly was so formidable in the hand of the English archers of the middle ages. But the rudeness of the whole figure prevents our founding strongly upon mere inaccuracy of proportion. The popular tradition is, that it

represents a giant, whose brother resided at Woodburn, and he himself at Risingham. It adds, that they subsisted by hunting, and that one of them, finding the game become too scarce to support them, poisoned his companion, in whose memory the monument was engraven. What strange and tragic circumstance may be concealed under this legend, or whether it is utterly apocryphal, it is now impossible to dis

cover.

The name of Robin of Reedsdale was given to one of the Umfravilles, Lords of Prudhow, and afterwards to one Hilliard, a friend and follower of the king-making Earl of Warwick. This person commanded an army of Northamptonshire and northern men, who seized on and beheaded the Earl of Rivers, father to Edward the Fourth's queen, and his son, Sir John Woodville.-See HOLLINSHED, ad annum 1469.

Note 10. Stanza xxi.
do thou revere

The statutes of the buccaneer.

The statutes of the buccaneers » were in reality more equitable than could have been expected from the state of society under which they had been formed. They chiefly related, as may readily be conjectured, to the distribution and the inheritance of their plunder.

Note 2. Stanza iv.

-Eglistone's gray ruins.

When the expedition was completed, the fund of wrought to others.»-Itinerary, Oxford, 1768, 8vo, prize-money acquired was thrown together, each party p. 88. taking his oath that he had retained or concealed no part of the common stock. If any one transgressed in this important particular, the punishment was his being set ashore on some desert key or island, to shift for himself as he could. The owners of the vessel had then their share assigned for the expenses of the outfit. These were generally old pirates, settled at Tobago, Jamaica, St Domingo, or some other French and English settlement. The surgeon's and carpenter's salaries, with the price of provisions and ammunition, were also defrayed. Then followed the compensation due to the maimed and wounded, rated according to the damage they had sustained; at six hundred pieces of eight, or six slaves, for the loss of an arm or leg, and so in proportion.

«After this act of justice and humanity, the remainder of the booty was divided into as many shares as there were buccaneers. The commander could only lay claim to a single share, as the rest; but they complimented him with two or three, in proportion as he had acquitted himself to their satisfaction. When the vessel was not the property of the whole company, the person who had fitted it out, and furnished it with necessary arms and ammunition, was entitled to a third of all the prizes. Favour had never any influence in the division of the booty; for every share was determined by lot. Instances of such rigid justice as this are not easily met with, and they extended even to the dead. Their share was given to the man who was known to be their companion when alive, and therefore their heir. If the person who had been killed had no intimate, his part was sent to his relations, when they were known. If there were no friends nor relations, it was distributed in charity to the poor and to churches, which were to pray for the person in whose name these benefactions were given, the fruits of inhuman but necessary piratical plunders.»-RAYNAL'S History of European Settlements in the East and West Indies, by Justamond, Lond. 1776, 8vo, III, p. 41.

CANTO II.

Note 1. Stanza ii.

the course of Tees.

The view from Barnard Castle commands the rich and magnificent valley of Tees. Immediately adjacent to the river, the banks are very thickly wooded; at a little distance they are more open and cultivated; but being interspersed with hedge-rows, and with isolated trees of great size and age, they still retain the richness of woodland scenery. The river itself flows in a deep trench of solid rock, chiefly limestone and marble. The finest view of its romantic course is from a handsome modern bridge built over the Tees, by the late Mr Morritt of Rokeby. In Leland's time the marble quarries seem to have been of some value. <«< Hard under the cliff by Egleston, is found on eche side of Tese very fair marble, wont to be taken booth by marbelers of Barnardes Castelle and of Egleston, and partly to have been wrought by them, and partly sold on

up

The ruins of this abbey, or priory, for Tanner calls it the former and Leland the latter, are beautifully situated upon the angle, formed by a little dell called Thorsgill, at its junction with the Tees. A good part of the religious house is still in some degree habitable, but the church is in ruins. Eglistone was dedicated to St Mary and St John the Baptist, and is supposed to have been founded by Ralph de Multon about the end of Henry the Second's reign. There were formerly the tombs of the families of Rokebys, Bowes, and Fitzhughs.

Note 3. Stanza v.
-the mound

Raised by that legion long renown'd,

Whose votive shrine asserts their claim,
Of pious, faithful, conquering fame.

Close behind the George Inn at Greta-bridge, there is a well-preserved Roman encampment, surrounded with a triple ditch, lying between the river Greta and a brook called the Tutta. The four entrances are easily to be discerned. Very many Roman altars and monuments have been found in the vicinity, most of which are preserved at Rokeby by my friend Mr Morritt. Among others is a small votive altar, with the inscription LEG. vi. vic. p. f. f. which has been rendered Legio. Sexta. Victrix. Pia. Fortis. Fidelis.

Note 4. Stanza vi.

-Rokeby's turrets high.

This ancient manor long gave name to a family by whom it is said to have been possessed from the Conquest downward, and who are at different times distinguished in history. It was the Baron of Rokeby who finally defeated the insurrection of the Earl of Northumberland, tempore Hen. IV, of which Hollinshed gives the following account:

<< The king, advertised hereof, caused a great armie to be assembled, and came forward with the same towards his enemies; but yer the king came to Nottingham, Sir Thomas (or, as other copies haue) Sir Rafe Rokesbie, shiriff of Yorkeshire, assembled the forces of the countrie to resist the earle and his power; comming to Grimbauthbrigs, beside Knaresborough, there to stop them the passage; but they turning aside got to Weatherbie, and so to Tadcaster, and finally came forward unto Bramham Moor, near to Haizelwood, where they chose their ground meet to fight upon. The shiriffe was as readie to giue battell as the erle to receiue it; and so with a standard of St George spread, set fiercelie vpon the earle, who, vnder a standard of his owne armes, encountered his aduersaries with great manhood. There was a sore incounter and cruell conflict betwixt the parties; but in the end the victorie fell to the shiriffe. The Lord Bardolfe was taken, but sore wounded, so that he shortlie after died of the hurts. As for the Earle of Northumberland, he was slain outright; so that now the prophecy was fulfiled, which gaue an inkling of this his heauy hap long before, namelie,

Stirps Persitina periet confusa ruina.

For this earle was the stocke and maine root of all that

were left aliue, called by the name of Persie; and of manie more by diuers slaughters dispatched. For whose misfortune the people were not a little sorrie, making report of the gentleman's valiantnesse, renowne, and honour, and applieing vnto him certeine lamentable verses out of Lucaine, saieing,

Sed nos nec sanguis, nec tantum vulnera nostri
Affecere senis, quantum gestata per urbem
Ora ducis, quæ transfixo deformia pilo
Vidimus.

For his head, full of siluer horie haires, being put upon a stake, was openlie carried through London, and set vpon the bridge of the same citie: in like manner was the Lord Bardolfe's.»-HOLLINSHED's Chronicles, Lond. 1808, 4to. III. 45.

The Rokeby, or Rokesby, family continued to be distinguished until the great civil war, when, having embraced the cause of Charles I, they suffered severely by fines and confiscations. The estate then passed from its ancient possessors to the family of the Robinsons, from whom it was purchased by the father of my valued friend, the present proprietor.

Note 5. Stanza vii.

A stern and lone, yet lovely road,

As e'er the foot of minstrel trode!

What follows is an attempt to describe the romantic glen, or rather ravine, through which the Greta finds a passage between Rokeby and Mortham, the former situated upon the left bank of Greta, the latter on the right bank, about half a mile nearer to its junction with the Tees. The river runs with very great rapidity over a bed of solid rock, broken by many shelving descents, down which the stream dashes with great noise and impetuosity, vindicating its etymology, which has been derived from the Gothic, GRIDAN, to clamour. The banks partake of the same wild and romantic character, being chiefly lofty cliffs of limestone rock, whose gray colour contrasts admirably with the various trees and shrubs which find root among their crevices, as well as with the hue of the ivy, which clings around them in profusion, and hangs down from their projections in long sweeping tendrils. At other points the rocks give place to precipitous banks of earth, bearing large trees intermixed with copse-wood. In one spot the dell, which is elsewhere very narrow, widens for a space to leave room for a dark grove of yew-trees, intermixed here and there with aged pines of uncommon size. Directly opposite to this sombre thicket, the cliffs on the other side of the Greta are tall, white, and fringed with all kinds of deciduous shrubs. The whole scenery of this spot is so much adapted to the ideas of superstition, that it has acquired the name of Blockula, from the place where the Swedish witches were supposed to hold their sabbath. The dell, however, has superstitions of its own growth, for it is supposed to be haunted by a female spectre, called the Dobie of Mortham. The cause assigned for her appearance is a lady's having been whilom murdered in the wood, in evidence of which her blood is shown upon the stairs of the old tower of Mortham. But whether she was slain by a jealous husband or by savage banditti, or by an uncle who coveted her estate, or by a rejected lover, are points upon which the traditions of Rokeby do not enable us to decide.

Note 6. Stanza xi.

What gales are sold on Lapland's shore.

<<< Also I shall show very briefly what force conjurers and witches have in constraining the elements enchanted by them or others, that they may exceed or fall short of their natural order: premising this, that the extream land of North Finland and Lapland was so taught witchcraft formerly in heathenish times, as if they had learned this cursed art from Zoroastres the Persian; though other inhabitants by the sea-coasts are reported to be bewitched with the same madness; for they exercise this devilish art, of all the arts of the world, to admiration; and in this, or other such like mischief, they commonly agree. The Finlanders were wont formerly, amongst their other errors of gentilisme, to sell winds to merchants that were stopt on their coasts by contrary weather; and when they had their price, they knit three magical knots, not, like to the laws of Cassius, bound up with a thong, and they gave them vnto the merchants; observing that rule, that when they unloosed the first they should have a good gale of wind, when the second a stronger wind, but when they untied the third, they should have such cruel tempests that they should not be able to look out of the forecastle to avoid the rocks, nor move a foot to pull down the sails, nor stand at the helm to govern the ship; and they made an unhappy trial of the truth of it, who denied that there was any such power in those knots.»OLAUS MAGNUS's History of the Goths, Swedes, and Vandals, Lond. 1658, fol. pag. 47.

Note 7. Stanza xi.

How whistle rash bids tempests roar.

That this is a general superstition is well known to all who have been on ship-board, or who have conversed with seamen. The most formidable whistler that I remember to have met with was the apparition of a certain Mrs Leaky, who, about 1636, resided, we are told, at Mynehead, in Somerset, where her only son drove a considerable trade between that port and Waterford, and was owner of several vessels. This old gentlewoman was of a social disposition, and so acceptable to her friends, that they used to say to her and to each other, it were pity such an excellent good-natured old lady should die; to which she was wont to reply, that whatever pleasure they might find in her company just now, they would not greatly like to see or converse with her after death, which nevertheless she was apt to think might happen. Accordingly, after her death and funeral, she began to appear to various persons by night and by noon-day, in her own house, in the town and fields, at sea and upon shore. So far had she departed from her former urbanity, that she is recorded to have kicked a doctor of medicine for his impolite negligence in omitting to hand her over a stile. It was also her humour to appear upon the quay, and call for a boat. But especially so soon as any of her son's ships approached the harbour, « this ghost would appear in the same garb and likeness as when she was alive, and, standing at the mainmast, would blow with a whistle, and though it were never so great a calm, yet immediately there would arise a most dreadful storm, that would break, wreck, and drown ship and goods.»> When she had thus proceeded until her son had neither credit to freight a vessel, nor could have procured men to sail

it, she began to attack the persons of his family, and actually strangled their only child in the cradle. The rest of the story, showing how the spectre looked over the shoulder of her daughter-in-law while dressing her hair at a looking-glass; and how Mrs Leaky the younger took courage to address her; and how the beldam dispatched her to an Irish prelate, famous for his crimes and misfortunes, to exhort him to repentance, and to apprise him that otherwise he would be hanged; and how the bishop was satisfied with replying, that if he was born to be hanged, he should not be drowned;all these, with many more particulars, may be found at the end of one of John Dunton's publications, called Athenianism, London, 1710, where the tale is engrossed under the title of The Apparition Evidence.

Note 8. Stanza xi.

Of Erick's cap and Elmo's light.

«This Ericus, King of Sweden, in his time was held second to none in the magical art; and he was so familiar with the evil spirits, which he exceedingly adored, that which way soever he turned his cap, the wind would presently blow that way. From this occasion he was called Windy Cap; and many men believed that Regnerus, King of Denmark, by the conduct of this Ericus, who was his nephew, did happily extend his piracy into the most remote parts of the earth, and conquered many countries and fenced cities by his cunning, and at last was his coadjutor; that by the consent of the nobles, he should be chosen king of Sweden, which continued a long time with him very happily, until he died of old age.»-OLAUS, ut supra, p. 45.

Note 9. Stanza xi.

The demon-frigate.

This is an allusion to a well-known nautical superstition concerning a fantastic vessel, called by sailors the Flying Dutchman, and supposed to be seen about the latitude of the Cape of Good Hope. She is distinguished from earthly vessels by bearing a press of sail when all others are unable, from stress of weather, to show an inch of canvas. The cause of her wandering is not altogether certain; but the general account is, that she was originally a vessel loaded with great wealth, on board of which some horrid act of murder and piracy had been committed; that the plague broke out among the wicked crew who had perpetrated the crime, and that they sailed in vain from port to port, offering, as the price of shelter, the whole of their illgotten wealth; that they were excluded from every harbour, for fear of the contagion which was devouring them, and that, as a punishment of their crimes, the apparition of the ship still continues to haunt those seas in which the catastrophe took place, and is considered by the mariners as the worst of all possible

omens.

My late lamented friend, Dr Jolin Leyden, has introduced this phenomenon into his Scenes of Infancy, imputing, with poetical ingenuity, the dreadful judgment to the first ship which commenced the slavetrade :

Stout was the ship, from Benin's palmy shore
That first the freight of barter'd captives bore;
Bedimm'd with blood, the sun with shrinking beams
Beheld her bounding o'er the ocean streams;
But, ere the moon her sil er horns had rear'd,
Amid the crew the speckled plague appear'd.

Faint and despairing on their watery bier,
To every friendly shore the sailors steer;
Repell'd from port to port, they sue in vain,
And track with slow unsteady sail the main.
Where ne'er the bright and buoyant wave is seen
To streak with wandering foam the sea-weeds green
Towers the tall mast a lone and leafless tree,

Till self-impell'd amid the waveless sea :
Where summer breezes ne'er were heard to sing.
Nor hovering snow-hirds spread the downy wing,
Fix'd as a rock amid the boundless plain,
The yellow stream pollutes the stagnant main;
Till far through night the funeral flames aspire,
As the red lightning smites the ghastly pyre.

Still doom'd by fate on weltering billows roll'd,
Along the deep their restless course to hold,
Scenting the storm, the shadowy sailors guide
The prow with sails opposed to wind and tide;
The spectre ship, in livid glimpsing light,
Glares baleful on the shuddering watch at night,
Unblest of God and man!-Till time shall end,
Its view strange horror to the storm shall lend.
Note 10. Stanza xii.

by some desert isle or key. What contributed much to the security of the buccaneers, about the Windward Islands, was the great number of little islets, called in that country keys. These are small sandy patches, appearing just above the surface of the ocean, covered only with a few bushes and weeds, but sometimes affording springs of water, and in general much frequented by turtle. Such little uninhabited spots afforded the pirates good harhours, either for refitting or for the purpose of ambush; they were occasionally the hiding-place of their treasure, and often afforded a shelter to themselves. As many of the atrocities which they practised on their prisoners were committed in such spots, there are some of these keys which even now have an indifferent reputation among seamen, and where they are with difficulty prevailed on to remain ashore at night, on account of the visionary terrors incident to places which have been thus contaminated.

Note 11. Stanza xvi.

Before the gate of Mortham stood.

The castle of Mortham, which Leland terms << Mr Rokesby's place, in ripa citer, scant a quarter of mile from Greta-bridge, and not a quarter of mile beneath into Tees,» is a picturesque tower, surrounded by buildings of different ages, now converted into a farmhouse and offices. The battlements of the tower itself are singularly elegant, the architect having broken them at regular intervals into different heights; while those at the corners of the tower project into octangular turrets. They are also from space to space covered with stones laid across them, as in modern embrasures, the whole forming an uncommon and beautiful effect. The surrounding buildings are of a less happy form, being pointed into high and steep roofs. A wall, with embrasures, incloses the southern front, where a low portal arch affords an entry to what was the castle court. At some distance is most happily placed, between the stems of two magnificent elms, the monument alluded to in the text. It is said to have been brought from the ruins of Eglistone Priory, and, from the armoury with which it is richly carved, appears to have been a tomb of the Fitz-Hughs.

The situation of Mortham is eminently beautiful, occupying a high bank, at the bottom of which the Greta

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