1 panies do ride or go to the said places, sometimes place of worship during the seventeenth century. The Note 5. Introduction. - the Wizard's grave; about us (their heads making a shew like a wood), That Wizard Priest's, whose bones are thrust which, being followed close by the tinkhell, are chased From company of holy dust. down into the valley where we lay; then all the valley, At one corner of the burial ground of the demoon cach side, being way-laid with a hundred couple of lished chapel but without its precincts, is a small strong Irish greyhounds, they are all let loose, as occa- mound, called Binram's corse, whierc tradition deposits sion serves, upon the herd of deer, that with dogs, the remains of a necromantic priest, the former teguns, arrows, durks, and daggers, in the space of two nant of the chaplainry. His story much resembles that of hours, fourscore fat deer were slain; which after are Ambrosio in the « Monk,» and has been ade the theme disposed of, some one way, and some another, twenty of a ballad, by my friend Mr James Hort, more poetand thirty miles, and more than enough left for us, to ically designed the Ettrick Shepherd. To his volume, make merry withal, at our rendezvous.» entitled the « Mountain Bard,» which contains this, Note 2. Introduction. and many other legendary stories and ballads of great merit, 1 refer the curious reader. Note 6. Introduction. dark Lochskene. which, after a short and precipitate course, falls from Note 3. Introduction. a cataract of immense height and gloomy grandeur called -lone Saint Mary's silent lake. This beautiful sheet of water forms the reservoir ant's Grave,» afterwards mentioned, is a sort of trench, from its appearance, the « Grey Mare's Tail.» The «Gifrom which the Yarrow takes its source. It is con which bears that name, a little way from the foot of nected with a smaller lake, called the Loch of the the cataract. It has the appearance of a battery deLowes, and surrounded by mountains. In the winter, signed to command the pass. it is still frequented by flights of wild-swans; hence Note 7. Slanza i. Where, from high Whitby's cloister'd pile, Bound to Saint Cuthbert's Holy Isle. The Abbey of Whitby, in the Archdeaconry of was called Holy Island, from the sanctity of its ancient The words usually sung to the air of «Tweedside,» monastery, and from its having been the episcopal seat beginning «What beauties does Flora disclose,» were of the sce of Durham during the early ages of British composed in her honour. christianity. A succession of holy men held that Note 4. Introduction office: but their merits were swallowed up in the supeFor though, in feudal strife, a foe rior fame of Si Cuthbert, who was sixthbishop of Hath laid Our Lady's chapel low. Durham, and who bestowed the name of his « patriThe chapel of Saint Mary of the Lowes (de lacubus) mony,» upon the extensive property of the see. The was situated on the eastern side of the lake, to which ruins of the monastery upon Holy Island betoken great it gives name. It was injured by the clan of Scott, antiquity. The arches are, in general, strictly Saxon ; in a feud with the Cranstouns: but continued to be a and the pillars which support them, short, strong, and ) you, Allarson, inassy. In some places, lowever, there are pointed Then said the hermit, 'You and yours shall hold your windows, which indicate that the building has been lands of the abbot of Whitby, and his successors, in repaired at a period long subsequent to the original this manner: That, upon Ascension-day, you, or some foundation. The exterior ornaments of the building, of you, shall come to the wood of the Stray-heads, being of a light sandy stone, have been wasted, as which is in Eskdale-side, the same day at sun-rising, described in the text. Lindisfarn is not properly an and there shall the abbot's officer blow his horn, to island, but rather, as the venerable Bede has termed it, the intent that you may know where to find him; and a semi-isle: for, although surrounded by the sea at he shall deliver unto you, William de Bruce, ten stakes, full tide, the ebb leaves the sands dry between it and eleven stout slowers, and eleven yethers, to be cut by the opposite coast of Northumberland, from which it you, or some of you, with a knife of one penny price; is about three miles distant. and you, Ralph de Percy, shall take twenty-one of each sort, to be cut in the same manner; and Note 8. Stanza xiii. shall take nine of each sört, to be cut as aforesaid; and Then Whitby's nuns exulting told, to be taken on your backs, and carried to the town of How to their house three barons bold Whitby, and to be there before nine of the clock the Must menial service do. same day before mentioned. At the same hour of The popular account of this curious service, which nine of the clock, if it be full sea, your labour and was probably considerably exaggerated, is thus given service shall cease ; and if low water, each of you shall in «A True Account, printed and circulated at set your stakes to the brim, each stake one yard from Whitby: « In the fifth year of the reign of Henry II., the other, and so yether them on each side with your after the conquest of England by William, Duke of yethers; and so stake on each side with your strout Normandy, the lord of Uglebarnby, then called Wil stowers, that they may stand three tides, without liam de Bruce; the lord of Smeaton, called Ralph de Each of removing by the force thereof. you Percy; with a gentleman and freeholder called Allatson, make, and execute the said service, at that very hour, shall do, did, on the 16th of October, 1159, appoint to meet and hunt the wild boar, in a ceriain wood, or desert it shall so fall out, this service shall cease. every year, except it be full sea at that hour: but when You shall place, belonging to the abbot of Whitby; the place's faithfully do this in remembranee that you did most name was Eskdale-side; and the abbot's name was cruelly slay me; and that you may the better call to Sedman. Then, these young gentlemen being met, God for mercy, repent unfeignedly of your sins, and with their hounds and boar-staves, in the place before do good works. The officer of Eskdale-side shall blow, mentioned, and there having found a great wild boar; Out on you! Out on you! Out on you! for this heinous the hounds ran him well near about the chapel and crime. hermitage of Eskdale-side, where was a monk of Whit- service, so long as it shall not be full sea at the afore If you, or your successors, shall refuse this by, who was an hermit. The boar being very sorely said hour, you, or yours, shall forfeit your lands to the pursued, and dead-run, took in at the chapel-door, abbot of Whitby, or his successors. This I entreat, there laid him down, and presently died. The hermit and carnestly beg, that you may have lives and goods shut the hounds out of the chapel, and kept himself within at his meditations and prayers, the hounds preserved for this service; and I request of you to pro mise, by your parts in heaven, that it shall be done by standing at bay without. The gentlemen, in the thick of the wood, being just behind their game, followed you, and your successors, as is aforesaid requested, and I will confirm it by the faith of an honest man.' Then the cry of their hounds, and so came to the hermitage, the hermit said, "My soul longeth for the Lord: and I calling on the hermit, who opened the door, and me do as freely forgive these men my death, as Christ forth; and within they found the boar lying dead; forgave the thieves on the cross. And, in the presence for which, the gentlemen, in a very great fury, because of the abbot and the rest, he said moreover these words: the hounds were put from their game, did most violently • In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum, a and cruelly run at the hermit with their boar-staves, vinculis enim mortis redemisti me, Domine veritatis. whereby he soon after died. Thereupon the gentlemen, Amen.'—So he yielded up the ghost the eighth day of perceiving and knowing that they were in peril of December, anno Domini 1169, whose soul God have death, took sanctuary at Scarborough. But at that mercy upon. Amen. time the abbot being in very great favour with the « This service,» it is added, « still continues to be king, removed them out of the sanctuary; whereby performed with the prescribed ceremonies, though not they came in danger of the law, and not to be privileged, by the proprietors in person. Part of the lands charged but likely to have the severity of the law, which was therewith are now held by a gentleman of the name death for death. But the hermit being a holy and of Herbert.» devout man, and at the point of death, sent for the abbot, and desired him to send for the gentlemen who Note 9. Stanza xiii. had wounded him. The abbot so doing, the gentlemen The lovely Edelfled. came; and the hermit, being very sick and weak, said unto them, I am sure to die of those wounds you She was the daughter of King Oswy, who, in gratihave given me.' The abbot answered, “They shall as tude to Heaven for the great victory which he won 655, surely die for the same.' But the hermit answered, against Penda, the pagan king of Mercia, dedicated Not so, for I will freely forgive them my death, if Edelfleda; then but a year old, to the service of God they will be content to be enjoin'd the penance I shall in the monastery of Whitby, of which St Hilda was ay on them for the safeguard of their souls.' The then abbess. She afterwards adorned the place of her gentlemen being present, bade him save their lives. educationwith great magnificence. Note 10. Stanza xiii. the bishop's see was transferred. At length, the Danes of thousand snakes, each one continuing to infest the country, the monks removed to Was changed into a coil of stone, Rippon for a season; and it was in return from thence When holy Nilda pray'd. to Chester-le-street, that, passing through a forest called how sea-fowls' pinions fail, Dunholme, the saint and his carriage became immoAs over Whitby's towers they sail. vable at a place named Wardlaw, or Wardilaw. Here These two miracles are much insisted upon by all the saint chose his place of residence; and all who ancient writers, who have occasion to mention either have seen Durham must admit, that, if difficult in his Whitby or St Hilda. The relics of the snakes which choice, he evinced taste in at length fixing it. It is infested the precincts of the convent, and were, at the said, that the Northumbrian catholics still keep secret abbess's prayer, not only beheaded, but petrified, are the precise spot of the saint's sepulture, which is only still found about the rocks, and are termed by protest- entrusted to three persons at a time. When one dies, ant fossilists Ammonitæ. the survivors associate to them, in his room, a person The other miracle is thus mentioned by Camden: judged fit to be the depositary of so valuable a secret. «It is also ascribed to the power of her sanctity, that Note 12. Stanza xv. these wild-geese, which, in the winter, fly in great Eren Scotland's dauntless king, and heir, etc. flocks to the lakes and rivers unfrozen in the southern parts, to the great amazement of every one, fall down Before his standard fled. suddenly upon the ground, when they are in their Every one has heard, that when David I., with his son flight over certain neighbouring fields hereabouts: a Henry, invaded Northumberland in 136, the English relation I should not have made, if I had not received lost marched against them under the holy banner of it from several credible men. But those who are less St Cuthbert, to the efficacy of which was imputed the inclined 10 heed superstition, attribute it to some occult great victory which they obtained in the bloody battle of quality in the ground, and to somewhat of antipathy Northallerton, or Cuton-moor. The conquerors were between it and the geese, such as they say is betwixt at least as much indebted to the jealousy and intractawolves and scylla-roots: for, that such hidden tendencies bility of the different tribes who composed David's and aversions as we call sympathies and antipathies, army; among whom, as mentioned in the text, were are implanted in many things by provident nature for the Galwegians, the Britons of Strath-Clyde, the men the preservation of them, is a thing so evident, that of Teviotdale and Lothian, with many Norman and every body grants it.» Mr Charlton, in his History of German warriors, who asserted the cause of the EmWhitby, points out the true origin of the fable, from press Maud. Sec Chalmers' Caledonia, p. 622; a most the number of sea-gulls that, when flying from a storm, laborious, curious, and interesting publication, from often alight near Whitby; and from the woodcocks and which considerable defects of style and manner ought other birds of passage, who do the same upon their not to turn aside the Scottish antiquary. arrival on shore, after a long flight. Note 13. Stanza xv. 'T was he, to vindicate his reign, Edged Alfred's falchion on the Dane, And turn'd the Conqueror back again. St Cuthbert was, in the choice of his sepulchre, one Cuthbert, we have seen, had no great reason to spare of the most mutable and unreasonable saints in the thie Danes, when opportunity offered. Accordingly, I calendar. He died A. D. 686, in a hermitage upon the finds in Simeon of Durham, that the saint appeared in Farne islands, having resigned the bishopric of Lindis-a ision to Alfred, when lurking in the marshes of farn, or Holy Island, about two years before. His Glastonbury, and promised him assistance and victory body was brought to Lindisfarn, where it remained over his heathen enemies: a consolation which, as was until a descent of the Danes, about 763, when the reasonable, Alfred, after the victory of Ashendown, monastery was nearly destroyed. The monks fled to rewarded, by a royal offering at the shrine of the saint. Scotland, with what they deemed their chief treasure, As to William the Conqueror, the terror spread before the relics of St Cuthbert. The saint was, however, a bis army, when he marched to punish the revolt of the most capricious fellow-traveller; which was the more Northumbrians, in 1996, had forced the monks to fly intolerable, as, like Sinbad's Old Man of the Sea, he once more to Holy Island with the body of the saini. journeyed upon the shoulders of his companions. They It was, however, replaced before William left the north: paraded him through Scotland for several years, and and, to balance accounts, the Conqueror having inticame as far west as Whithern, in Galloway, whence mated an indiscreet curiosity to view the saint's body, they attempted to sail for Ireland, but were driven back he was, while in the act of commanding the shrine to be by tempests. He at Jength made a halt at Norham; opened, seized with heat and sickness, accompanied from thence he went to Melrose, where he remained with such a panic terror, that notwithstanding there stationary for a short time, and then caused bimself to was a sumptuous dinner prepared for liim, he fled be launched upon the Tweed in a stone coffin, which without eating a morsel (wliich the monkish historian landed him at Tilmouth in Northumberland. This seems to have thought no small part both of the mira. hoat is finely shaped, ten feet long, three feet and a cle and the penance), and never drew his bridle till he half in diameter, and only four inches thick; so that, got to the river Tees. with very little assistance, it might certainly have swam. Note 14. Stanza xvi. It still lies, or at least did so a few years ago, in two Saint Cuthbert sits, and toils to frame pieces, beside the ruined chapel of Tilmouth. From Tilmouth, Cuthbert wandered into Yorkshire; and at Although we do not learn that Cuthbert was, during length made a long stay at Chester-lc-street, to which his life, such an artificer as Dunstan, his brother in The sea-born beads that bear his name. Old Colwnlf. sanctity, yet, since his death, he has acquired the repu- sufficient to enclose their bodies, was made in the mastation of forging those entrochiæ which are found sive wall of the convent; a slender pittance of food among the rocks of Holy Island, and pass there by the and water was deposited in it, and the awful words, name of St Cuthbert's beads. While at this task, he Vade In Pace, were the signal for immuring the crimiis supposed to sit during the night upon a certain rock, nal. It is not likely that, in latter times, this punishand use another as his anvil. This story was perhaps ment was often resorted to; but, among the ruins of credited in former days; at least the saint's legend con the abbey of Coldingham, were some years ago distains some not more probable. covered the remains of a female skeleton, which, from the shape of the niche, and position of the figure, Note 15. Stanza xvii. seemed to be that of an immured nun. Ceolwolf, or Colwulf, King of Northumberland, flourished in the eighth century. He was a man of some learning: for the venerable Bede dedicates to him his CANTO III. « Ecclesiastical History.» He abdicated the throne about 738, and retired to Holy Island, where he died in the odour of sanctity. Saint as Colwulf was, how Note 1. Stanza ii. ever, I fear the foundation of the penance-vault does The village ina. not correspond with his character; for it is recorded The accommodations of a Scottish hostelrie, or inn, among his nemorabilia, that, finding the air of the in the 16th century, may be collected from Dunbar's island raw and cold, he indulged the monks, whose admirable tale of « The Friars of Berwick.» Simon rule had hitherto confined them to milk or water, with Lawder, the gay ostleir,» seems to have lived very the comfortable privilege of using wine or ale. If any comfortably; and his wife decorated her person with a rigid antiquary insists on this objection, lie is welcome scarlet kirtle, and a belt of silk and silver, and rings 10 suppose the penance-vault was intended, by the upon her fingers; and feasted her paramour with rabfounder, for the more genial purposes of a cellar. bits, capons, partridges, and Bordeaux wine. At least, These penitential vaults were the Geissel-gewolbe of if the Scottish ins were not good, it was not for want German convents. Ju the earlier and more rigid times of encouragement from the legislature; who, so early of monastic discipline, they were sometimes used as a as the reign of James I, not only enacted, that in all cemetery for the lay benefactors of the convent, whose boroughs and fairs there be hostellaries, having stables unsanctified corpses were then seldom permitted to pol- and chambers, and provisions for man and horse, but late the choir. They also served as places of meeting by another statute, ordained, that no man, travelling for the chapter, when measures of uncommon severity on horse or foot, should presume to lodge any wliere were to be adopted. But their more frequent use, as except in these hostellarics; and that no person, save implied by the name, was as places for performing pe-innkeepers, should receive such travellers, under the nances, or undergoing punishment. penalty of forty shillings for exercising such hospitality Note 16. Stanza xix. But, in spite of these provident enactments, the Scoi-Tenemouth's haughty Prioress. tish hostels are but indifferent, and strangers continue That there was an ancient priory at Tynemouth is to find reception in the houses of individuals. certain. Its ruins are situated on a high rocky point; Note 2. Stanza xiii. and, doubtless, many a vow was made to the shrine by The death of a dear friend. the distressed mariners, who drove towards the iron Among other omens to which faithful credit is given bound coast of Northumberland in stormy weather. It among the Scottish peasantry, is what is called the was anciently a nunnery; for Virea, Abbess of Tyne « dead bell,» explained by my friend James lloge, to mouth, presented St Cuthbert (yet alive) with a rare be that tinkling in the cars which the country people winding-sheet, in emulation of a holy lady called Tada, who had sent him a coffin: but, as in the case of Whit? regard as the secret intelligence of some friend's de He tells a story to the purpose in the « Mounby, and of Holy Island, the introduction of nuns attain Bard,» p. 26. Tynemouth, in the reign of Henry VIII, is an anachronism. The nunnery at Holy Island is altogether ficti Note 3. Stanza xix. tious. Indeed, St Cuthbert, was unlikely to permit such -the goblin-ball. an establishment; for, notwithstanding his accepting A vaulted hall under the ancient castle of Gifford, the mortuary gifts above mentioned, and his carrying or Yester (for it bears either name indifferently), the on a visiting acquamtance with the Abbess of Colding-construction of which has, from a very remote period, ham, he certainly hated the whole female sex; and, in been ascribed to magic. The Statistical Account of the revenge of a slippery trick played to him by an Irish Parish of Garvald and Baro gives the following accoant princess, he, after death, inflicted severe penances on of the present state of this castle and apartment: «Upon such as presumed to approach within a certain distance a peninsula, formed by the water of Hopes on the East, of his shrine. and a large rivulet on the west, stands the ancient castle of Yester. Sir David Dalrymple, in his Annals, relates, Note 17. Stanza xxv. that ‘Hugh Clifford de Yester died in 1267; that in liis On those the wall was to inclose, Alive, within the tomb. castle there was a capacious cavern formed by magical It is well known, that the religious, who broke their art, and called in the country, Bo-hall, i. e. Hobgoblinvows of chastity, were subjected to the same penalty hall. A stair of twenty-four steps led down to this as the Roman vestals in a similar case. A small niche, * James I. Parliament I. cap. 24: Parliament III. cap. 56. ccase. 7. The elfin warrior doch wield, a de apartment, which is a large and spacious hall, with an Note Stanza xxü. archied roof; and though it bath stood for so many As boru upon that blessed night, centuries, and been exposed to the external air for a When yawning graves, and dying groan, Proclaim'd bell's empire overthrown. period of fifty or sixty years, it is still as firm and entire as if it had only stood a few years. From the floor It is a popular article of faith, that those who are of this hall, another stair of thirty-six steps leads down born on Christmas, or Good Friday, have the power of to a pit which hath a communication with Hopes-wa- seeing spirits, and even of commanding them. The ter. A great part of the walls of this large and ancient Spaniards imputed the haggard and downcast looks of castle is still standing. There is a tradition, that the their Philip II. to the disagreeable visions to which this Castle of Yester was the last fortification in this country privilege subjected him. that surrendered to General Gray, sent into Scotland Note 8. Stanza xxv. by Protector Somerset.» Statistical Account, vol. XIII. Yet still the migbty spear and shield I have only to add that, in 1737, the Goblin Hall was tenanted by the Marquis of Tweeddale's falconer, as I C'pon the brown hill's breast. learn from a poem by Boyse, entitled « Retirement,» The following extract from the Essay upon the Fairy written upon visiting Yester. It is now rendered inac-Superstitions, in « The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Borcessible by the fall of the stair. der,» vol. II, will show whence many of the particulars Sir David Dalrymple's authority for the anecdote is of the combat between Alexander III, and the goblin Fordun, whose words are,—« A. D. Mcclxvii. Hugo Gif- knight are derived : fard de Yester moritur; cujus castrum, vel saltem ca « Gervase of Tilbury (Otia Imperial, ap. Script. rer. veam, et dongionen, arte dæmonica antiquæ relationes Brunsvic. vol. I, p. 797) relates the following popular ferunt fabrifacta: nam ibidem habetur mirabilis story concerning a fairy knight : ‘Osbert, a bold and specus subterraneus, opere mirifico constructus, magno powerful baron, visited a nobie family in the vicinity of terrarum spatio protelatus, qui communiter Bo-llalu Wandlebury, in the bishopric of Ely. Among other appellatus est.» Lib. X, cap. 21.-Sir David conjec- stories related in the social circle of his friends, who, tures, that Hugh de Gifford must either have been a according to custom, amused each other by repeating very wise man, or a great oppressor. ancient tales and traditions, he was informed, that if any knight, unattended, entered an adjacent plain by Note 4. Stanza xx. moon-light, and challenged an adversary to appear, lic There floated Haco's banner trim, would be immediately encountered by a spirit in the Above Norweyan warriors grim. form of a knight. Osbert resolved to make the expeIn 1263, Haco, King of Norway, came into the Firth riment, and set out, attended by a single squire, whom of Clyde with a powerful armament, and he ordered to remain without the limits of the plain, scent at Largs, in Ayrshire. Here he was encountered which was surrounded by an ancient entrenchment. and defeated, on the 2d October, by Alexander III. Haco On repeating the challenge, he was instantly assailed by retreated to Orkney, wliere he died soon after this dis an adversary, whom he quickly unborsed, and seized Grace to his arms. There are still existing, near the the reins of his steed. During this operation, his place of battle, many barrows, some of which, having ghostly opponent sprung up, and darting his spear, like been opened, were found, as usual, to contain bones a javelin, at Osbert, wounded him in the thigh. Osbert and urns. returned in triumph with the horse, which he comNote 5. Stanza xx. mitted to the care of his servants. The horse was ofa his wizard babit strange. sable colour, as well as bis whole accoutrements, and Magicians, as is well known, were very curious in apparently of great beauty and vigour. He remained the choice and form of their vestments. Their caps are with his keeper till cock-crowing, when, with eyes flashoval, or like pyramids, with lappets on cach side, and ing fire, he reared, spurned the ground, and vanished. fur within. Their gowns are long, and furred with fox. On disarming himself, Osbert perceived that he was skins, under which they have a lipen garment, reaching wounded, and that one of his steel boots was full of to the knee. Their girdles are three inches broad, and blood. Gervase adds, that, as long as he lived, the scar have many cabalistical names, with crosses, trines, and of his wound opened afresh on the anniversary of the circles inscribed on them. Their shoes should be of eve on which he encountered the spirit.' – Less fortunew russet leather, with a cross cut upon them. Their nate was the gallant Bohemian knight, who, travelling knives are dagger fashion; and their swords have by night, with a single companion, came in sight of neither guards nor scabbards.» See these, and many the remonstrances of his friend, the knight pricked for a fairy host, arrayed under displayed banners. Despising other particulars, in the Discourse concerning Devils and Spirits, annexed to Reginald Scott's Discovery of from the ranks, apparently in defiance . His compa ward to brcak a lancé with a champion, who advanced Witchcraft, edition 1665. nion beheld the Boliemian overthrown, horse and man, Note 6. Stanza xx. by his aerial adversary; and returning to the spot next Upon his breast a pentacle. morning, he found the mangled corpses of the knight « A pentacle is a piece of fine linen, folded with five and his steed.»— Hierarchy of Blessed Angels, p. 554. corners, according to the five senses, and suitably in Besides the instances of elfin chivalry above quoted, scribed with characters. This the magician extends to many others might be alleged in support of employing wards the spirits which lic evokes, when they are stub- fairy machinery in this manner. The forest of Glenmore, born and rebellious, and refuse to be conformable unto in the North Highlands, is believed to be haunted by a the ceremonies and rites of magic. See the Discourse, spirit called Lham-dearg, in the array of an ancient waretc. above mentioned, p. 66. rior, having a bloody hand, from which he takes his name. |