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They are a nest of hornets: strike one, and stir all of them about your ears. Indeed, if they promise safely to conduct a traveller, they will perform it with the fidelity of a Turkish janizary: otherwise, woe be to him that falleth into their quarters!

3.

descended from the ancient house of Hassendean.» The lands of Deloraine now give an earl's title to the descendant of Henry, the second surviving son of the Duchess of Buccleuch and Monmouth. I have endeavoured to give William of Deloraine the attributes which characterised the Borderers of his day; for which I can only plead Froissart's apology, that, it behoveth, in a

«Height. Amounting, forty years since, to some thousands. These compelled the vicinage to purchase their security, by paying a constant rent to them.-lynage, some to be folyshe and outrageous, to maynWhen in their greatest height, they had two great enemies-the Laws of the Land, and the Lord William Howard of Naworth. He sent many of them to Carlisle, to that place where the officer doth always his work by day-light. Yet these moss-troopers, if possibly they could procure the pardon for a condemned person of their company, would advance great sums out of their common stock, who, in such a case, cast in their lots amongst themselves, and all have one purse.

4. Decay. Caused by the wisdom, valour, and diligence, of the Right Honourable Charles Lord Howard, Earl of Carlisle, who routed these English Tories with his regiment. His severity unto them will not only be excused, but commended, by the judicious, who consider how our great lawyer doth describe such persons, who are solemnly outlawed. BRACTON, lib. 8. trac. 2. cap. 11. Ex tunc gerunt caput lupinum, ita quod sine judiciali inquisitione rite pereant, et secum suum judicium portent; et merito sine lege pereunt, qui secundum legem vivere recusarunt.'-'Thenceforward, (after that they are outlawed) they wear a wolf's head, so that they lawfully may be destroyed, without any judicial inquisition, as who carry their own condemnation about them, and deservedly die without law, because they refused to live according to law.'

teyne and sustayne the peasable.» As a contrast to my Marchman, I beg leave to transcribe, from the same author, the speech of Amergot Marcell, a captain of the Adventurous Companions, a robber, and a pillager of the country of Auvergne, who had been bribed to sell his strong-holds, and to assume a more honourable military life under the banners of the Earl of Armagnac. But when he remembered alle this, he was sorrowful; his tresour he thought he wolde not mynysshe; he was wonte dayly to serche for newe pyllages, wherbye encresed his profyte, and then he sawe that alle was closed fro' hym. Then he sayde and imagyned, that to pyll and to robbe (all thynge considered) was a good lyfe, and so repented hym of his good doing. On a tyme, he said to his old companyons, 'Sirs, there is no sporte nor glory in this worlde amonge men of warre, but to use suche lyfe as we have done in tyme past. What a joy was it to us when we rode forth at adventure, and somtyme found by the way a riche priour or merchaunt, or a route of mulettes of Mountpellyer, of Narbonne, of Lymens, of Fongans, of Besyers, of Tholous, or of Carcassone, laden with cloth of Brussels, or peltre ware comynge fro the fayres, or laden with spycery fro Bruges, fro Damas, or fro Alysaundre: whatsoever we met, all was ours, or els ransoumed at our pleasures; dayly we gate new money, and the vyllaynes of Auvergne and of Lymosyn dayly provided and brought to our castell whete mele, good wynes, beffes, and fatte mottons, pullayne, and wylde foule: We were ever furnyshed as tho we had been kings. When we rode forthe, all the countrey trymbled for feare: all was ours goyng and comynge. Howe tok we Carlast, I and the Bourge of Compayne, and I and Perot of Bernoys took Caluset: how dyd we scale, with lytell ayde, the strong castell of Marquell, pertayning to the Erl Dolphyn: I kept it nat past fyve days, but I receyved for it, on a feyre table, fyve thousand frankes, and forgave one The arms of the Kerrs of Cessford, were, Vert on a thousande for the love of the Erl Dolphyn's children. cheveron, betwixt three unicorns' heads erased argent, By my fayth, this was a fayre and a good lyfe; wherethree mullets sable; crest, a unicorn's head erased pro-fore I repute myselve sore deceyved, in that I have rendered per. The Scotts of Buccleuch bore, Or on a bend azure; up the fortress of Aloys; for it wolde have kept a star of six points betwixt two crescents of the first. fro alle the worlde, and the day that I gave it up, it was fournyshed with vytaylls, to have been kept seven yere without any re-vytaylynge. This Erl of Armynake hath deceyved me : Olyve Barbe, and Perot le Bernoys. shewed to me how I shulde repente myselfe: certayne I sore repente myselfe of what I have done.'»—FROISSART, vol. II, p. 195.

5. « Ruine. Such was the success of this worthy lord's severity, that he made a thorough reformation among them; and the ringleaders being destroyed, the rest are reduced to legall obedience, and so, I trust, will continue."-FULLER'S Worthies of England, p. 216.

The last public mention of moss-troopers occurs during the civil wars of the 17th century, when many ordinances of parliament were directed against them.

Note 14. Stanza xix.

How the brave boy, in future war,
Should tame the unicorn's pride,

Exalt the crescent and the star.

Note 15. Stanza xx. ---William of Deloraine.

Note 16. Stanza xxi.
By wily turns, by desperate bounds,
Had baffled Percy's best blood-hounds.

The lands of Deloraine are joined to those of Buccleuch, in Ettrick Forest. They were immemorially possessed by the Buccleuch family, under the strong title of occupancy, although no charter was obtained from the crown until 1545 —Like other possessions, the lands of Deloraine were occasionally granted by them to vassals, or kinsmen, for Border service. Satchells mentions, among the twenty-four gentlemen pensioners of the family, «< William Scott, commonly called Cut-der-riders, were sometimes obliged to study how to evade at-the-Black, who had the lands of Nether Deloraine, for his service.» And again, « This William of Deloraine, commonly called Cut-at-the-Black, was a brother of the ancient house of Haining, which house of Haining isa

The kings and heroes of Scotland, as well as the Bor

the pursuit of blood-hounds. Barbour informs us, that Robert Bruce was repeatedly tracked by sleuth-dogs. On one occasion, he escaped by wading a bow-shot down a brook, and ascending into a tree by a branch which

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,
Bot the sleuth-bund made stinting thar,
And waueryt lang tyme ta and fra,

That he na certain gate couth ga;
Till at the last that John of Lorn

Perseuvit the hund the sleuth had lorne.
The Bruce, Book vii.

longed formerly to a family of Scotts, thus commemo-
rated by Satchells :-

Hassendean came without a call,
The ancientest house among them all.

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 roBarnhills 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

sleuth-bratch, or blood-hound:

In Gelderland there was that bratchet bred,
Siker of scent, to follow them that fled;
So was be used in Eske and Liddesdail,

While (i. e. till) 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 :

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The sleuth stopped at Fawdon, still she stood,
Nor farther would fra time she fand the blood.

The story concludes with a fine Gothic scene of terWallace took refuge in the solitary tower of Gask. Here he was disturbed at midnight by the blast of a horn: 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 ryght wele, that all this be sooth, indeed,
Supposing it be no point of the creed.

The Wallace, Book v.

Mr Ellis has extracted this tale as a sample of Henry's poetry.-Specimens of English Poetry, vol. I, p. 351.

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

Hartforde, in 1545, occur the towers of Easter-Barnhills,
and of Minto crag, with Minto town and place. Sir
Gilbert Elliot, father to the present Lord Minto,' was
the author of a beautiful pastoral song, of which the
following is a more correct copy than is usually pub-
lished. The poetical mantle of Sir Gilbert Elliot has
descended to his family.

My sheep I neglected, I broke my sheep-hook,
And all the gay haunts of my youth I forsook:
No more for Amynta fresh garlands I wove;
Ambition, I said, would soon cure me of love.
But what had my youth with ambition to do?
Why left I Amynta? why broke I my vow?

Through regions remote in vain do I rove,
And bid the wide world secure me from love.
Ab, fool! to imagine, that aught could subdue
A love so well founded, a passion so true!
Ah, give me my sheep, and my sheep-hook restore,
And I'll wander from love and Amynta no more!

Alas! 't is too late at thy fate to repine!
Poor shepherd, Amynta no more can be thine!
Thy tears are all fruitless, thy wishes are vain,
The moments neglected return not again.
Ah! what had my youth with ambition to do?
Why left I Amynta? why broke I my vow?

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

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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 Lilies-clive 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.

carved and fretted, containing niches for the statues of saints, and labelled with scrolls, bearing appropriate texts of scripture. Most of these statues have been demolished.

Note 2. Stanza i.

-St David's ruin'd pile.

David I of Scotland purchased the reputation of sanctity, by founding, and liberally endowing, not only the monastery of Melrose, but those of Kelso, Jedburgh, vation of his successor, that he was a sore saint for the and many others, which led to the well-known obser

crown.

Note 3. Stanza ii.

-lands and livings, many a rood,

Had gifted the shrine for their soul's repose.

The Buccleuch family were great benefactors to the Abbey of Melrose. As early as the reign of Robert II, Robert Scott, baron of Murdieston and Rankelburn (now Buccleuch), gave to the monks the lands of Hinkery, in Ettrick Forest, pro salute animæ suæ.-Char tulary of Melrose, 28th May, 1415.

Note 4. Stanza vi.
Prayer know I hardly one;

Save to patter an Ave Mary,
When I ride on a Border foray.

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 Ilielands 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.

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 The cloisters were frequently used as places of sepula substance to such intricate and exquisite modulation. An instance occurs in Dryburgh Abbey, where This superb convent was dedicated to St Mary, and the the cloister has an inscription, bearing, Hic jacet frater

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'
On Fridays when they fasted;

They wanted neither beef nor ale,
As long as their neighbours' lasted.

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

1 Kale, broth.

ture.

Note 5. Stanza vii.

-beneath their feet were the bones of the dead.

Archibaldus.

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Note 6. Stanza viii.

So bad he seen, in fair Castile,

The youth in glittering squadrons start;
Sudden the flying jennet wheel,

And hurl the unexpected dart.

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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 skyrmishe, Sir John Laurence of Coygne was striken with a dart in such wise, that the head perced all the plates of his cote of mayle, and a sacke stopped with sylke, and passed thrughe his body, so that he fell down dead."-FROISSART, vol. II, ch. 44.-This mode of fighting with darts

was imitated in the military game called Juego de las
canas, which the Spaniards borrowed from their Moor-
ish 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.

-thy low and lonely urn,

O gallant chief of Otterburne.

K

threw his unfortunate prisoner, horse and man, into a 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 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 orThe famous and desperate battle of Otterburne was fought 15th August, 1388, betwixt Henry Percy, called naments, to an architectural imitation of wicker-work; of which, as we learn from some of the legends, the Hotspur, and James, Earl of Douglas. Both these reearliest Christian churches were constructed. In such nowned champions were at the head of a chosen body an edifice, the original of the clustered pillars is traced of troops, and they were rivals in military fame; so that Froissart affirms, Of all the battaylles and encounter-low, whose loose summits were brought to meet from to a set of round posts, begirt with slender rods of wilyngs that I have made mencion of here before in all all quarters, and bound together artificially, so as to this hystory, great or smalle, this batayle that I treat of nowe was one of the sorest and best foughten, without produce the frame-work of the roof; and the tracery cowardes or faynte hertes; for there was neyther knyght of our Gothic windows is displayed in the meeting and nor squyer but that dyde his devoyre, and fought hande interlacing of rods and hoops, affording an inexhaustito hande. This batayle was lyke the batayle of Beche- ble variety of beautiful forms of open work. This inrell, the which was valiantly fought and endured. The genious system is alluded to in the romance. issue of the conflict is well known: Percy was made Hall's Essay on Gothic Architecture is published in The prisoner and the Scots won the day, dearly purchased Edinburgh Philosophical Transactions. 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 hymn.» 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

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,
It is bot sorrow for til here;
He wes the gret tast menyd man
That ony cowth bave thowcht of than,
Of his state, or of mare be fare;
All menyt him, bath bettyr and war,
The ryche and pure him menyde bath,
For of his dede was mekil skath.

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 cient bridle, which the author has since given to the Earl of Dal

housie, under the impression, that it possibly may be a relique of his 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.

several

treatises

Note II. Stanza xiii.

the wondrous Michael Scott.

Note 12. Stanza xiii.
---Salamanca's cave.

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.-Wilschools, where magic, or rather the sciences supposed liam of Malmsbury, lib. ii, cap. 10. There were public to involve its mysteries, were regularly taught, at Toledo, Seville, and Salamanca. In the latter city, they

Sir Michael Scott of Balwearie flourished during the 13tha 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 were held in a deep cavern; the mouth of which was upon natural philosophy, from which walled he appears to have been addicted to the abstruse studies up by Queen Isabella wife of King Ferdinand. Of judicial astrology, alchemy, physiognomy, and chi-nish schools of magic are celebrated also by the Italian -D'Autun on learned Incredulity, p. 45. These Sparomancy. Hence he passed among his contemporaries 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 magiæ recessus indagasse.» Dante also mentions him as a renowned wizard:

for

Quell' altro chè ne' fianchi è così poco
Michele Scotto fu, che veramente
Delle magiche frode seppe il giuoco.

DANTE.-Divina Comedia, Inferno. Canto XXmo.

A personage, thus spoken of by biographers and his-
torians, loses little of his mystical fame in vulgar tradi-
tion. Accordingly, the memory of Sir Michael Scott
survives in many a legend; and in the south of Scot-
land, any work of great labour and antiquity is as-
cribed either to the agency of Auld Michael, of Sir
William Wallace, or of the devil. Tradition varies con-
cerning 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, con-
taining that story:

He said the book which he gave me
Was of Sir Michael Scot's historie;
Which history was never yet read through,

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.
His writing pen did seem to me to be

Of hardened metal, like steel, or accumie;

The volume of it did seem so large to me,
As the book of Martyrs and Turks historie.
Then in the church he let me see

A stone where Mr Michael Scott did lie;
I asked at him how that could appear,

Mr Michael had been dead above five hundred year?
He shew'd me none durst bury under that stone,
More than he had been dead a few years agone;
For Mr Michael's name doth terrify each one.

History of the Right Honourable Name of Scott.

poets of romance:

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Questa città di Tolleto solea

Tenere studio di negromanzia:
Quivi di magica arte si leggea
Pubblicamente e di piromanzia ;
E molti geomanti sempre avea,
E sperimenti assai d' idromanzia,
E d'altre false opinion di sciocchi,
Come è fatture, o spesso batter gli occhi.

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 may consult Les faiects et proesses du noble et vaillant Hercules,» where he will learn, that the fable of his aiding Atlas to support the heavens, arose from the said Atlas having taught Hercules, the noble knight-errant, the seven liberal sciences, and, in particular, that of judicial astrology. Such, according to the idea of the middle ages, were the studies

maximus quæ docuit Atlas.In a romantic history of Roderic, the last Gothic king of Spain, he is said to have entered one of those enchanted caverns. It was situated beneath an ancient tower near Toledo : and, when the iron gates, which secured the entrance, were unfolded, there rushed forth so dreadful a whirlwind, that hitherto no one had dared to penetrate into its recesses. But Roderic, threatened with an invasion of the Moors, resolved to enter the cavern, where he expected to find some prophetic intimation of the event of the war. Accordingly, his train being furnished with torches, so artificially composed, that the tempest could not extinguish them, the king, with great difficulty, penetrated into a square hall inscribed all over with Arabian characters. In the midst stood a colossal statue of brass, representing a Saracen wielding a Moorish mace, with which it discharged furious blows on all sides, and seemed thus to excite the tempest which raged around. Being conjured by Roderic, it ceased from striking, until he read, inscribed on the right hand, « Wretched monarch, for thy evil hast thou come hither; on the left hand, «< Thou shalt be dispossessed

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