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birth did not by any means correspond to the date of his departure. Such an occurrence, to the credit of the dames of the crusaders be it spoken, was so rare, that it required a miraculous solution. The lady, therefore, was believed, when she averred confidently, that the Spirit of the Tweed had issued from the river while she was walking upon its bank, and compelled her to submit to his embraces; and the name of Tweedie was bestowed upon the child, who afterwards became Baron of Drummelziar, and chief of a powerful clan. To those spirits were also ascribed, in Scotland, the

Airy tongues, that syllable men's names On sands, and shores, and desert wildernesses." When the workmen were engaged in erecting the ancient church of Old Deer, in Aberdeenshire, upon a small hill called Bissau, they were surprised to find that the work was impeded by supernatural obstacles. At length the Spirit of

the River was heard to say,

It is not here, it is not here,
That ye shall build the church of Deer;
But on Taptillery,

Where many a corpse shall lie.

The site of the edifice was accordingly transferred to Taptillery, an eminence at some distance from where the building had been commenced. I mention these popular fables because the introduction of the River and Mountain Spirits may not, at first sight, seem to accord with the generel tone of the romance, and the superstitions of the country where the scene is lafd.

A fancied moss-trooper, &c.-St. XIX, p. 6. This was the usual appellation of the marauders upon the Border, a profession diligently pursued by the inhabitants on both sides, and by none more actively and successfully than by Buccleuch's clan. Long after the union of the crowns, the moss-troopers, although sunk in reputation, and no longer enjoying the pretext of national hostility, continued to pursue their calling.

William of Deloraine.-St. xx, p. 6.

The lands of Deloraine are joined to those of Buccleuch, in Ettricke 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-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 is descended from the ancient house of Hessendean." 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 characterized the Borderers of his day.

By wily turns, by desperate bounds,
Had baffled Percy's best bloodhounds.
-St. XXI, p. 6.

The kings and heroes of Scotland, as well as the Borderers, were sometimes obliged to study how to evade the pursuit of bloodhounds. Barbour informs us that Robert Bruce was peatedly tracked by sleuth-dogs. On one occaslon, he escaped by wading a bowshot down a brook, and thus baffled the scent.

re

A sure way of stopping the dog was to spill

blood upon the track, which destroyed the dis criminating fineness of his scent. A captive was sometimes sacrificed on such occasions. Henry the Minstrel tells a romantic story of Wallace, founded on this circumstance. The hero's little band had been joined by an Irishman, named Fawdon, or Fadzean, a dark, savage, and suspicious character. After a sharp skirmish at Black-Erne Side, Wallace was forced to retreat with only sixteen followers. The English pursued with a Border sleuth-bratch, or bloodhound. 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 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 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 rushly. 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 immense size, and holding in his hand a blazing rafter.

Dimly he viewed the Moat-hill's mound.
-St. xxv, p. 7.

This is a round, artificial mount near Hawick, which, from its name, 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.

Beneath the tower of Hazeldean.-St. XXV, p. 7. The estate of Hazeldean, corruptly Hassendean, belonged formerly to a family of Scotts.

On Minto-crags the moon-beams glint.
-St. XXVII, p. 7.

A romantic assemblage of cliffs, which rise. suddenly above the vale of Tevoit, in the immediate vicinity of the family-seat, from which Lord Minto takes his title. A small platform, on prospect, is termed Barnhills' Bed. This Barna projecting crag, commanding a most beautiful hills is said to have been a robber or outlaw. There are remains of a strong tower beneath the rocks, where he is supposed to have dwelt, and from which he derived his name. On the summit of the crags are the fragments of another ancient tower, in a very picturesque situation. Among the houses cast down by the Earl of Barnhills, and of Minto-crag, with Minto town Hartforde, in 1545, occur the towers of Easter and place.

Ancient Riddel's fair domain.-St. xxvIII. p. 7.

The family of Riddell have been very long in possession of the barony called Riddell, or Ryedale, part of which still bears the latter name. As glanced his eye o'er Halidon.-St. p. xxx,' 7.

Halidon was an ancient seat of the Kerrs of Cessford, now deinolished. About a quarter of a mile to the northward lay the field of battle betwixt Bucclench and angus, which is called to this day the Skirmish field. See the fourth note on this Canto.

Old Melros' rose, and fair Tweed ran. -St. XXXI, p. 7. .' The ancient and beautiful monastery of Melrose was founded by King David I. Its rains

And monks should sing, and bells should toll,
All for the weal of Michael's soul.

While vows
prayed,
"Tis said the noble Dame, dismayed,
Renounced, for aye, dark magic's aid.

were ta'en, and prayers were

XXIX.

Nought of the bridle will I tell,

Which after in short space befell;

Nor how brave sons, and daughters fair,

Blessed Teviot's Flower and Cranstoun's heir:
After such dreadful scene, 'twere vain
To wake the note of mirth again:
More meet it were to mark the day
Of penitence and prayer divine,
When pilgrim-chiefs, in sad array,
Sought Melrose' holy shrine.

XXX.

With naked foot, and sackcloth vest,
And arms enfolded on his breast,

Did every pilgrim go;

The standers-by might hear uneath,
Footstep, or voice, or high-drawn breath,
Through all the lengthened row:
No lordly look, no martial stride;
Gone was their glory, sunk their pride,
Forgotten their renown;

Silent and slow, like ghosts, they glide
To the high altar's hallowed side,

And there they kneeled them down:
Above the suppliant chieftains wave
The banners of departed brave;
Beneath the lettered stones were laid
The ashes of their fathers dead;
From many a garnished niche around,
Stern saints and tortured martyrs frowned

XXXI.

And slow up the dim aisle afar,
With sable cowl and scapular,
And snow-white stoles, in order due,
The holy Fathers, two and two,
In long procession came;
Taper, and host, and book they bare,
And holy banner, flourished fair
With the Redeemer's name;
Above the prostrate pilgrim band
The mitred Abbot stretched his hand,
And blessed them as they kneeled;
With holy cross he signed them all,
And prayed they might be sage in hall,
And fortunate in field.

Then mass was sung, and prayers were said,
And solemn requiem for the dead;
And bells tolled out their mighty peal,
For the departed Spirit's weal;

And ever in the office close
The hymn of intercession rose,
And far the echoing aisles prolong
The awful burden of the song.-
DIES IRE, DIES ILLA,

SOLVET SÆCLUM IN FAVILLA;
While the pealing organ rung;
Were it meet with sacred strain
To close my lay, so light and vain,
Thus the holy Fathers sung.

HYMN FOR THE DEAD.

That day of wrath, that dreadful day,
When heaven and earth shall pass away,
What power shall be the sinner's stay?
How shall he meet that dreadful day?
When, shrivelling like a parched scroll,
The flaming heavens together roll;
When louder yet, and yet more dread,
Swells the high trump that wakes the dead;
O! on that day, that wrathful day,
When man to judgment wakes from clay,
Be THOU the trembling sinner's stay,
Though heaven and earth shall pass away!

Hushed is the harp-the Minstrel gone.
And did he wander forth alone?
Alone, in indigence and age,
To linger out his pilgrimage?

No:-close beneath proud Newark's tower,
Arose the Minstrel's lowly bower;
A simple hut; but there was seen
The little garden edged with green,
The cheerful hearth, and lattice clean.
There, sheltered wanderers, by the blaze,
Oft heard the tale of other days;
For much he loved to ope his door,
And give the aid he begged before.
So passed the winter's day! but still,
When summer smiled on sweet Bowhill
And July's eve, with balmy breath,
Waved the blue-bells on Newark heath;
When throstles sung in Hare-head shaw,
And corn were green on Carterhaugh,
And flourished, broad, Blackandro's oak,
The aged Harper's soul awoke!
Then would he sing achievements high,
And circumstance of chivalry,
Till the rapt traveller would stay,
Forgetful of the closing day;
And noble youths, the strain to hear,
Forsook the hunting of the deer;
And Yarrow, as he rolled along,
Bore burden to the Minstrel's song

NOTES.

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In the reign of James I. Sir William Scott, of Buccleuch, chief of the clan bearing that_name, exchanged, with Sir Thomas Inglis, of Manor, the estate of Murdiestone, in Lanarkshire, for one half of the barony of Branksome, or Branxholm, lying upon the Teviot, about three miles above Hawick. He was probably induced to this transaction, from the vicinity of Branksome to the extensive domain which he possessed in Ettricke Forest and in Teviotdale. In the former district he held by occupancy the estate of Buccleuch, and much of the forest land on the river Ettricke. In Teviotdale, he enjoyed the barony of Eckford, by a grant from Robert II, to his ancestor, Walter Scott, of Kirkurd, for the apprehending of Gilbert Ridderford, confirmed by Robert III, 3rd May, 1424. Tradition imputes the exchange betwixt Scott and Inglis to a conversation, in which the latter, a man, it would appear, of a mild and forbearing nature, complained much of the injuries which he was exposed to from the English borderers, who frequently plundered his lands of Branksome. Sir William Scott instantly offered him the estate of Murdiestone, in exchange for that which was subject to such egregious inconvenience. When the bargain was completed, he drily remarked, that the cattle in Cumberland were as good as those of Teviotdale; and proceeded to commence a system of reprisals upon the English, which was regularly pursued by his successors. In the next reign, James II granted to Sir Walter Scott, of Branksome, and to Sir David, his son, the remaining half of the barony of Branksome, to be held in blanch for the payment of a red rose. The cause assigned for the grant is, their brave and faithful exertions in favour of the king against the house of Douglas, with whom James had been recently tugging for the throne of Scotland. This charter is dated the 2nd February, 1443; and, in the same month, part of the barony of Langholm, and many lands in Lanarkshire. were conferred upon Sir Walter and his son by the same monarch.

After the period of the exchange with Sir Thomas Inglis, Branksome became the principal seat of the Buccleuch family. The castle was enlarged and strengthened by Sir David Scott, the grandson of Sir William, its first possessor.

* Branxholm is the proper name of the barony; but Branksome has been adopted, as suitable to the pronunciation, and more proper for poetry. There are no vestiges of any building at Buccleuch, except the site of a chapel, where, according to a tradition current in the time of Scott of Satchells, many of the ancient barons of Buccleuch lie buried. There is also said to have been a mill near this solitary spot; an extraordinary circumstance, little or no corn grows within several miles of Buccleuch. Satchells says it was used to grind corn for the hounds of the chieftain.

But, in 1570-1, the vengeance of Elizabeth, provoked by the inroads of Buccleuch, and his attachment to the cause of Queen Mary, destroyed the castle, and laid waste the lands of Branksome. In the same year the castle was repaired and enlarged by Sir Walter Scott, its brave possessor; but the work was not completed until after his death, in 1574, when the widow finished the building.

Branksome Castle continued to be the principal seat of the Buccleuch family, while security was any object in their choice of a mansion. It has been the residence of the commissioners or chamberlains of the family. From the various alterations which the building has undergone, it is not only greatly restricted in its dimensions, but retains little of the castellated form, if we except one square tower of massy thickness, being the only part of the original building which now remains. The whole forms a handsome, modern residence; but the extent of the ancient edifice can still be traced by some vestiges of its foundation; and its strength is obvious from the situation, on a deep bank surrounded by the Teviot, and flanked by a deep ravine, formed by a precipitous brook.

Nine-and-twenty knights of fame
Hung their shields in Branksome Hall.
--St. III, p. 5.

The ancient barons of Buccleuch, both from feudal splendour, and from their frontier situation, retained in their household, at Branksome, a number of gentlemen of their own name, who held lands from their chief, for the military service of watching and warding his castle. And with Jedwood-axe at saddle-bow.-St. v, p. 5.

"Of a truth," says Froissart, "the Scottish cannot boast great skill with the bow, but rather bear axes, with which, in time of need, they give heavy strokes." The Jedwood-axe was a sort of partizan, used by horsemen, as appears from the arms of Jedburgh, which bears a cavalier mounted, and armed with this weapon.

They watch against Southern force and quile,
Lest Scroope, or Howard, or Percy's powers,
Threaten Branksome's lordly towers,
From Warkworth or Naworth, or merry Carlisle.
-St, VI, p. 5.

Branksome Castle was continually exposed to the attacks of the English, both from its situation and the restless military disposition of its inhabitants, who were seldom on good terms with their neighbours. A letter from the Earl of Northumberland to Henry VIII, in 1533, gives an account of a successful inroad of the English, in which the country was plundered, up to the gates of the castle, although the invaders failed in their principal object, which was to kill or make prisoner the laird of Buccleuch.

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marches of Scotland. His death was the consequence of a feud betwixt the Scotts and Kerrs, which in spite of all means used to bring about an agreement, raged for many years upon the Borders. Buccleuch was imprisoned, and his estates forfeited, in the year 1535, for levying war against the Kerrs, and restored by Act of Parliament, dated 15 March, 1542, during the regency of Mary of Lorraine. But the most signal act of violence, to which this quarrel gave rise, was the murder of Sir Walter himself, who was slain by the Kerrs in the streets of Edinburgh, in 1552. This is the event alluded to in Stanza VIII; and the poem is supposed to open shortly after it had taken piace

No! vainly to each holy shrine,

of the same name own the Marquis of Lothian
as their chief: hence the distinction betwixt
Kerrs of Cessford and Fairnihirst.

Before Lord Cranstoun she should wed.
-St. x, p. 5.

The Cranstouns, Lord Cranstoun, are an ancient Border family, whose chief seat was at Crailing, in Teviotdale. They were at this time at feud with the clan of Scot; for it appears that the lady of Buccleuch, in 1557, beset the laird of Cranstoun, seeking his life. Nevertheless, the same Cranstoun, or perhaps his son, was married to a daughter of the same lady.

In mutual pilgrimage, they drew.-St. VIII, p. 5. Among other expedients resorted to for stanching the feud betwixt the Scotts and the Kerrs, there was a bond executed, in 1529, between the heads of each clan, binding them-ants selves to perform reciprocally the four principal pilgrimages of Scotland, for the benefit of the souls of those of the opposite name who had fallen in the quarrel. This indenture is printed in the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, Vol. I. But either it never took effect, or else the feud was renewed shortly afterwards.

Such pactions were not uncommon in feudal times; and, as might be expected, they were often, as in the present case, void of the effect desired. When Sir Walter Mauny, the renowned follower of Edward III, had taken the town of Ryoll, in Gascony, he remembered to have heard that his father lay there buried, and offered a hundred crowns to any one who could show him his grave. A very old man appeared before Sir Walter, and informed him of the manner of his father's death, and the place of his sepulture.

It seems the Lord of Mauny had, at a great tournament, unhorsed, and wounded to the death, a Gascon knight of the house of Mirepoix, whose kinsman was bishop of Cambray. For this deed, he was held at feud by the relations of the knight, until he agreed to undertake a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. James of Compostella, for the benefit of the soul of the deceased. But as he returned through the town of Ryoll, after accomplishment of his vow, he was beset, and treacherously slain, by the kindred of the knight whom he had killed. Sir Walter, guided by the old man, visited the lowly tomb of his father; and, having read the inscription, which was in Latin, he caused the body to be raised and transported to his native city of Valenciennes, where masses were, in the days of Froissart, duly said for the soul of the unfortunate pilgrim.

While Cessford owns the rule of Car. -St. vii, p. 5. The family of Ker, Kerr, or Car.* was very powerful on the Border. Fynes Morrison remarks, in his Travels, that their influence extended from the village of Preston-Grange, in Lothian, to the limits of England. Cessford Castle, the ancient baronial residence of the family, is situated near the village of Morebattle, within two or three miles of the Cheviot Hills. It has been a place of great strength and consequence, but is now ruinons. Tradition affirms, that it was founded by Halbert, or Habby Keer, a gigantic warrior, concerning whom many stories are current in Roxburghshire. The Duke of Roxburghe represents Ker of Cessford. A distinct and powerful branch

*The name is spelled differently by the various families who bear it. Car is selected, not as the most correct, but as the most poetical reading.

Of Bethune's line of Picardie.-St. XI, p. 6. The Bethunes were of French origin, and derived their name from a small town in Artois. There were several distinguished families of the Bethunes in the neighbouring province of Picardie; they numbered among their descendthe celebrated Duc de Sully; and the name was accounted among the most noble in France, while ought noble remained in that country. The family of Bethune, or Beatoun, in Fife, produced three learned and dignified prelates; namely, Cardinal Beaton, and two successive archbishops of Glasgow, all of whom flourished about the date of the romance. Of this family was descended Dame Janet Beaton, Lady Buccleuch, widow of Sir Walter Scott of Branksome. She was a woman of masculine spirit, as appeared from her riding at the head of her son's clan, after her husband's murder. She also possessed the hereditary abilities of her family in such a degree, that the superstition of the vulgar imputed them to supernatural knowledge. With this was mingled, by faction, the foul accusation of her having influenced Queen Mary to the murder of her husband.

He learnt the art that none may name,

In Padua, far beyond the sea.-St. XI, p. 6. Padua was long supposed by the Scottish peasants to be the principal school of necromancy. The Earl of Gowrie, slain at Perth in 1600, pretended, during his studies in Italy, to have acquired some knowledge of the calaba, by which he said he could charm snakes and work other miracles.

His form no darkening shadow traced Upon the sunny wall!-St. XI, p. 6. The shadow of a necromancer is independent of the sun. Glyeas informs us, that Simon Magus caused his shadow to go before him, making people believe he was an attendant spirit. The vulgar conceive, that when a class of students have made a certain progress in their mystic studies, they are obliged to run through a subterranean hall, where the devil literally catches the hindermost in the race, unless he crosses the hall so speedily, that the arch-enemy can only apprehend his shadow. In the latter case, the person of the sage never after throws any shade; and those who have thus lost their shadow, always prove the best magicians.

The viewless forms of air.-St. XII, p. 6.
The Scottish vulgar, without having any very
defined notion of their attributes, believe in the
existence of an intermediate class of spirits re-
siding in the air, or in the water; to whose
agency they ascribe floods, storms, and al such
phenomena as their own philosophy cannot
fere in the affairs of mortals, sometimes with
readily explain. They are supposed to inter-
a malevolent purpose, and sometimes with
us said, for example, the
milder views.
that

a gallant baron, having returned
Holy Land to his castle of Drummelziar, found
his fair lady nursing a healthy child, whose

birth did not by any means correspond to the date of his departure. Such an occurrence, to the credit of the dames of the crusaders be it spoken, was so rare, that it required a miraculous solution. The lady, therefore, was believed, when she averred confidently, that the Spirit of the Tweed had issued from the river while she was walking upon its bank, and compelled her to submit to his embraces; and the name of Tweedie was bestowed upon the child, who afterwards became Baron of Drummelziar, and chief of a powerful clan. To those spirits were also ascribed, in Scotland, the

"Airy tongues, that syllable men's names On sands, and shores, and desert wildernesses." When the workmen were engaged in erecting the ancient church of Old Decr, in Aberdeenshire, upon a small hill called Bissau, they were surprised to find that the work was impeded by supernatural obstacles. At length the Spirit of the River was heard to say,

It is not here, it is not here,

That ye shall build the church of Deer;
But on Taptillery,

Where many a corpse shall lie.

The site of the edifice was accordingly transferred to Taptillery, an eminence at some distance from where the building had been commenced. I mention these popular fables because the introduction of the River and Mountain Spirits may not, at first sight, seem to accord with the generel tone of the romance, and the superstitions of the country where the scene is lafd.

A fancied moss-trooper, &c.-St. XIX, p. 6. This was the usual appellation of the marauders upon the Border, a profession diligently pursued by the inhabitants on both sides, and by none more actively and successfully than by Buccleuch's clan. Long after the union of the crowns, the moss-troopers, although sunk in reputation, and no longer enjoying the pretext of national hostility, continued to pursue their calling.

William of Deloraine.-St. XX, p. 6.

The lands of Deloraine are joined to those of Buccleuch, in Ettricke 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-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 is descended from the ancient house of Hessendean." 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 characterized the Borderers of his day.

By wily turns, by desperate bounds,
Had baffled Percy's best bloodhounds.
-St. XXI, p. 6.

The kings and heroes of Scotland, as well as the Borderers, were sometimes obliged to study how to evade the pursuit of bloodhounds. Barbour informs us that Robert Bruce was repeatedly tracked by sleuth-dogs. On one occaslon, he escaped by wading a bowshot down a brook, and thus baffled the scent.

A sure way of stopping the dog was to spill

blood upon the track, which destroyed the dis criminating fineness of his scent. A captive was sometimes sacrificed on such occasions. Henry the Minstrel tells a romantic story of Wallace, founded on this circumstance. The hero's little band had been joined by an Irishman, named Fawdon, or Fadzean, a dark, savage, and suspicious character. After a sharp skirmish at Black-Erne Side, Wallace was forced to retreat with only sixteen followers. The English pursued with a Border sleuth-bratch, or bloodhound. 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 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 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 immense size, and holding in his hand a blazing rafter.

Dimly he viewed the Moat-hill's mound.
-St. XXV, p. 7.

This is a round, artificial mount near Hawick, which, from its name, 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.

Beneath the tower of Hazeldean.-St. XXV, p. 7. The estate of Hazeldean, corruptly Hassendean, belonged formerly to a family of Scotts.

On Minto-crags the moon-beams glint.
-St. XXVII, p. 7.

A romantic assemblage of cliffs, which rise suddenly above the vale of Tevoit, in the immediate vicinity of the family-seat, from which Lord Minto takes his title. A small platform, on a projecting crag, commanding a most beautiful prospect, is termed Barnhills' Bed. This Barnhills is said to have been a robber or outlaw. There are remains of a strong tower beneath the rocks, where he is supposed to have dwelt, and from which he derived his name. On the summit of the crags are the fragments of another ancient tower, in a very picturesque situation. Among the houses cast down by the Earl of Hartforde, in 1545, occur the towers of Easter Barnhills, and of Minto-crag, with Minto town and place.

Ancient Riddel's fair domain.-St. xxvII. p. 7.

The family of Riddell have been very long in possession of the barony called Riddell, or Ryedale, part of which still bears the latter name. As glanced his eye o'er Halidon.-St. p. xxx,' 7.

Halidon was an ancient seat of the Kerrs of Cessford, now deinolished. About a quarter of a mile to the northward lay the field of battle betwixt Bucclench and angus, which is called to this day the Skirmish field. See the fourth note on this Canto.

Old Melros' rose, and fair Tweed ran. -St. XXXI, P. 7. The ancient and beautiful monastery of Melrose was founded by King David I. Its rains

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