Till her eldest dochter syne said she, I left ahind me braw bowsters blae; Up spak little Kirstin in bed that lay: my Aye whan they heard the dog nirr and bell, Aye whan the dog did wow, in haste They cross'd and sain'd themsells frae the ghaist. Aye whan the little dog yowl'd wi' fear, They shook at the thought that the dead was near. or, (Fair words sae mony a heart they cheer.) GLOSSARY. Winsome, engaging; giving joy (old Teut.). 4. Syne, then. 5. Fessen, fetched; brought. 6. Drave, drove. 7. Dule, sorrow. Dout, fear. 9. Bowster, bolster; cushion; bed. Blae, blue. Strae, straw. published in the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, the most valuable part of which was supplied by my learned and indefatigable friend Dr John Leyden, most of the circumstances are collected which can throw light upon the popular belief which even yet prevails respecting them in Scotland. Dr Graham, author of an entertaining work upon the Scenery of the Perthshire Highlands, already frequently quoted, has recorded, with great accuracy, the peculiar tenets held by the Highlanders on this topic, in the vicinity of Loch Katrine. The learned author is inclined to deduce the whole mythology from the druidical system,-an opinion to which there are many objections. The Daoine Shi, or Men of Peace of the Highlanders, though not absolutely malevolent, are believed to be a peevish, repining race of beings, who, possessing themselves but a scanty portion of happiness, are supposed to envy mankind their more complete and substantial enjoyments. They are supposed to enjoy, in their subterraneous recesses, a sort of shadowy happiness, a tinsel grandeur, which, however, they would willingly exchange for the more solid joys of mortality. They are believed to inhabit certain round grassy eminences, where they celebrate their nocturnal festivities by the light of the moon. About a mile beyond the source of the Forth, above Loch Con, there is a place called Coirshi'an, or the Cove of the Men of Peace, which is still supposed to be a favourite place of their ⚫residence. In the neighbourhood are to be seen many round conical eminences; particularly one, near the head of the lake, by the skirts of which many are still afraid to pass after sunset. It is believed, that if, on Lift, sky; firmament; air. Hallow-eve, any person, alone, goes round one of these like that of a bolt or ar- Wa', wall. 17. Wow'd, howled. 18. Yett, gate. 19. Sma, small. 22. Lire, complexion. 24. Till, to. Rin, run. 25. Buskit, dressed. Kem'd, combed. Tither, the other. hills nine times, towards the left hand (sinistrorsum), a door shall open, by which he will be admitted into their subterraneous abodes. Many, it is said, of mortal race have been entertained in their secret recesses. There they have been received into the most splendid apartments, and regaled with the most sumptuous banquets, and delicious wines. Their females surpass the daughters of men in beauty. The seemingly happy inhabitants pass their time in festivity, and in dancing to notes of the softest music. But unhappy is the mortal who joins in their joys, or ventures to partake of their dainties. By this indulgence, he forfeits for ever the society of men, and is bound down irrevocably to the condition of a Shi'ich or man of peace. « A woman, as is reported in the Highland tradition, was conveyed, in days of yore, into the secret recesses of the men of peace. There she was recognized by one who had formerly been an ordinary mortal, but who had, by some fatality, become associated with the Schi'ichs. This acquaintance, still retaining some portion of human benevolence, warned her of her danger, and counselled her, as she valued her liberty, to abstain from eating and drinking with them, for a certain space of time. She complied with the counsel of her friend; and when the period assigned was elapsed, she found herself again upon earth, restored to the society of mortals. It is added, that when she examined the viands which had been presented to her, and which had appeared so tempting to the eye, they were found, now that the enchantment was removed, to consist only of the refuse of the earth.»-P. 107-111. Note S. Stanza xiii. Why sounds yon stroke on beech and oak, Our moon-light circle's screen? Or who comes here to chase the deer, There are yet traces of a belief in this worst and most malicious order of fairies among the Border wilds. Dr Leyden has introduced such a dwarf into his ballad entitled the Cout of Keeldar, and has not forgot his characteristic detestation of the chase. a faculty of seeing visions, and spectral appearances, younger «In the year before the great rebellion, two young men from Newcastle were sporting on the high moors above Elsdon, and after pursuing their game several It has been already observed, that fairies, if not po-hours, sat down to dine, in a green glen, near one of sitively malevolent, are capricious, and easily offended. the mountain streams. After their repast, the They are, like other proprietors of forests, peculiarly lad ran to the brook for water, and after stooping to jealous of their rights of vert and venison, as appears drink, was surprised, on lifting his head again, by the from the cause of offence taken, in the original Danishı appearance of a brown dwarf, who stood on a crag coballad. This jealousy was also an attribute of the vered with brackens, across the burn. This extraordinorthern Duergar, or dwarfs; to many of whose distinctions the fairies seem to have succeeded, if, indeed, stature of a common man, but was uncommonly stout nary personage did not appear to be above half the they are not the same class of beings. In the huge meand broad-built, having the appearance of vast strength. trical record of German chivalry, entitled the Helden- His dress was entirely brown, the colour of the brackBuch, Sir Hildebrand, and the other heroes of whom it ens, and his head covered with frizzled red hair. His treats, are engaged in one of their most desperate adcountenance was expressive of the most savage ferocity, ventures, from a rash violation of the rose-garden of and his eyes glared like a bull. It seems, he addressed an elfin, or dwarf king. the young man first, threatening him with his vengeance, for having trespassed on his demesnes, and asking him, if he knew in whose presence he stood? The youth replied, that he now supposed him to be the lord of the moors; that he offended through ignorance; and offered to bring him the game he had killed. The dwarf was a little mollified by this submission, but remarked, that nothing could be more offensive to him than such an offer, as he considered the wild animals as his subjects, and never failed to avenge their destruction. He condescended further to inform him, that he was, like himself, mortal, though of years far exceeding the lot of common humanity; and (what I should not have had an idea of) that he hoped for salvation. He never, he added, fed on any thing that had life, but lived, in the summer, on whortle-berries, and in winter on nuts and apples, of which he had great store in the woods. Finally, he invited his new acquaintance to accompany him home, and partake his hospitality; an offer which the youth was on the point of accepting, and was just going to spring over the brook (which if he had done, says Elizabeth, the dwarf would certainly have torn him to pieces), when his foot was arrested by the voice of his companion, who thought he had tarried long; and on looking round again, the wee brown man was fled.' The story adds, that he was imprudent enough to slight the admonition, and to sport over the moors, on his way homewards; but soon after his return, he fell into a lingering disorder, and died within the year.»> The third blast that young Keeldar Blew, His russet weeds were brown as heath, And the hair of his head was frizzle red An urchin, clad in prickles red, Clung cow'ring to his arm; The hounds they howl'd, and backward fled, " cry, Why rises high the stag-hound's Brown dwarf, that o'er the muirland strays, The Brown Man of the Muirs, who stays T is sweet beneath the heather-bell And sweet to hear the lav'rock's swell, But woe betide the shrilling horn, And ever that bunter is forlorn, Whom first at morn I hear," The poetical picture here given of the Duergar corresponds exactly with the following Northumbrian legend, with which I was lately favoured by my learned and kind friend, Mr Surtees of Mainsfort, who has bestowed indefatigable labour upon the antiquities of the English Border counties. The subject is in itself so curious, that the length of the note will, I hope, be pardoned. «I have only one record to offer of the appearance of our Northumbrian Duergar. My narratrix is Elizabeth Cockburn, an old wife of Offerton, in this county, whose credit, in a case of this kind, will not, I hope, be much impeached, when I add, that she is, by her dull neighbours, supposed to be occasionally insane, but, by herself, to be at those times endowed with Note 9. Stanza xiii. Or who may dare on wold to wear As the Daoine Shi', or Men of Peace, wore green ha- cauldron; and, as soon as the composition was prepared, she remarked that they all carefully anointed their eyes with it, laying the remainder aside for future use. In a moment when they were all absent, she also attempted to anoint her eyes with the precious drug, but had time to apply it to one eye only, when the Daoine Shi' returned. But with that eye she was henceforth enabled to see every thing as it really passed in their secret abodes:-she saw every object, not as she hitherto had done, in deceptive splendour and elegance, but in its genuine colours and form. The gaudy ornaments of the apartment were reduced to the walls of a gloomy cavern. Soon after, having discharged her office, she was dismissed to her own home. Still, however, she retained the faculty of seeing, with her medicated eye, every thing that was done, any where in her presence, by t deceptive art of the order. One day, amidst a throng of people, she chanced to observe the Shi'ich, or man of peace, in whose possession she had left her child, though to every other eye invisible. Prompted by maternal affection, she inadvertently accosted him, and began to inquire after the welfare of her child. The How eager the elves were to obtain for their offspring the prerogatives of christianity, will be proved by the following story: «In the district called Haga, in Ice-man of peace, astonished at being thus recognized by land, dwelt a nobleman, called Sigward Forster, who had an intrigue with one of the subterranean females. The elf became pregnant, and exacted from her lover a firm promise that he would procure the baptism of the infant. At the appointed time, the mother came to the church-yard, on the wall of which she placed a golden cup, and a stole for the priest, agreeable to the custom of making an offering at baptism. She then stood a little apart. When the priest left the church, he inquired the meaning of what he saw, and demanded of Sigward, if he avowed himself the father of the child. But Sigward, ashamed of the connexion, denied the paternity. He was then interrogated if he desired that the child should be baptized; but this also he answered in the negative, lest, by such request, he should admit himself to be the father. On which the child was left untouched and unbaptized. Whereupon the mother, in extreme wrath, snatched up the infant and the cup, and retired, leaving the priestly cope, of which fragments are still in preservation. But this female 'denounced and imposed upon Sigward, and his posterity, to the ninth generation, a singular disease, with which many of his descendants are afflicted at this day.» Thus wrote Einar Dudmund, pastor of the parish of Garpsdale, in Iceland, a man profoundly versed in learning, from whose manuscript it was extracted by the learned Torfæus.-Historia Hrolfi Krakii. Hafnia, 1715, præfatio. Note 11. Stanza xv. And gaily shines the fairy-land But all is glistening show. No fact respecting fairy-land seems to be better ascertained than the fantastic and illusory nature of their apparent pleasure and splendour. It has been already noticed, in the former quotations from Dr Graham's entertaining volume, and may be confirmed by the fol lowing Highland tradition: « A woman, whose newborn child had been conveyed by them into their secret abodes, was also carried thither herself, to remain, however, only until she should suckle her infant. She, one day, during this period, observed the Shi'ichs busily employed in mixing various ingredients in a boiling one of mortal race, demanded how she had been enabled to discover him. Awed by the terrible frown of his countenance, she acknowledged what she had done. He spat in her eye, and extinguished it for ever.»>GRAHAM's Sketches, p. 116-118. It is very remark able, that this story, translated by Dr Graham, from popular Gaelic, tradition, is to be found in the Otia Imperialia of Gervase of Tilbury. A work of great interest might be compiled upon the origin of popular fiction, and the transmission of similar tales from age to age, and from country to country. The mythology of one period would then appear to pass into the romance of the next century, and that into the nursery-tale of the subsequent ages. Such an investigation, while it went greatly to diminish our ideas of the richness of human invention, would also show, that these fictions, however wild and childish, possess such charms for the populace, as enable them to penetrate into countries unconnected by manners and language, and having no apparent intercourse, to afford the means of transmission. It would carry me far beyond my bounds, to produce instances of this community of fable, among nations who never borrowed from each other any thing intrinsically worth learning. Indeed the wide diffusion of popular fictions may be compared to the facility with which straws and feathers are dispersed abroad by the wind, while valuable metals cannot be transported without trouble and labour. There lives, I believe, only one gentleman, whose unlimited acquaintance with this subject might enable him to do it justice; I mean my friend Mr Francis Douce, of the British Museum, whose usual kindness will, I hope, pardon my mentioning his name, while on a subject so closely connected with his extensive and curious researches. Note 12. Stanza xv. I sunk down in a sinful fray. To the joyless elfin bower. The subjects of fairy-land wore recruited from the regions of humanity by a sort of crimping system, which extended to adults as well as to infants. Many of those who were in this world supposed to have dis charged the debt of nature had only become denizens of the << Londe of Faery.» In the beautiful Fairy Romance of Orfee and Heurodiis (Orpheus and Eurydice), in the Auchinleck MS. is the following striking enumeration of persons thus abstracted from middle earth. Mr Ritson unfortunately published this romance from a copy in which the following, and many other highly poetical passages, do not occur: Then he gan biholde abonte al, And seighe full liggeand within the wal, And sum none armes nade; And sum thurch the bodi hedde wounde; And sum lay wode y-bounde; And sum, war in water adreynt; And sum with fire al for-schreynt; Note 13. Stanza xxx. Who ever reck'd where, how, or when, vous et moy aussi. Voire si nous auions de feu, dit ray que St John actually used this illustration when engaged in confuting the plea of law proposed for the unfortunate Earl of Strafford: « It was true, we give laws to hares and deer, because they are beasts of chase; but it was never accounted either cruelty or foul play to knock foxes or wolves on the head as they can be found, because they are beasts of prey. In a word, the law and humanity were alike; the one being more falla-le grand dieu a pourueu a toutes gens, et qui me plaist cious, and the other more barbarous, than in any age had been vented in such authority.»-CLARENDON'S History of the Rebellion. Oxford, 1702. fol. vol. p. 183. Note 14. Stanza xxxi. his Highland cheer, The harden'd flesh of mountain-deer. The Scottish Highlanders, in former times, had a concise mode of cooking their venison, or rather of dispensing with cooking it, which appears greatly to have surprised the French, whom chance made acquainted with it. The Vidame of Chartres, when a hostage in England, during the reign of Edward VI., was permitted to travel into Scotland, and penetrated as far as to the remote Highlands (au fin fond des Sauvages). After a great hunting party, at which a most wonderful quantity of game was s destroyed, he saw these Scottish Savages devour a part of their venison without raw, any further preparation than compressing it between two battons of wood, so as to force out the blood, and render it extremely hard. This they reckoned a great delicacy; and when the Vidame partook of it, his compliance with their taste rendered him extremely popular. This curious trait of manners was communicated by Mons. de Montmorency, a great friend of the Vidame, to Brantome, by whom it is recorded in Vies des Hommes Illustres, Discours LXXXIX. art. 14. The process by which the raw venison was rendered eatable is described very minutely in the romance of Perceforest, where | Estonne, a Scottish knight-errant, having slain a deer, says to his companion Claudius: Sire, or mangerez " que mieulx que les ceruoises d'Angleterre.»>-La Treselegante Hystoire du tresnoble Roy Perceforest. Paris, 1531, fol. tome 1. fol. lv. vers. After all, it may be doubted whether la chair nostree, for so the French called the venison thus summarily prepared, was any thing more than a mere rude kind of deer-ham. CANTO V. Note 1. Stanza vi. Not then claim'd sovereignty his due; Held borrow'd truncheon of command. There is scarcely a more disorderly period in Scottish history than that which succeeded the battle of Flodden, and occupied the minority of James V. Feuds of ancient standing broke out like old wounds, and every quarrel among the independent nobility, which occurred daily, and almost hourly, gave rise to fresh bloodshed. <«< There arose,» says Pitscottie, « great trouble and deadly feads in many parts of Scotland, both in the north and the west parts. The Master of Forbes, in the north, slew the Laird of Meldrum under tryst (i. e. at an agreed and secured meeting): Likewise, the Laird of Drummelzier slew the Lord Fleming at the hawking; and, likewise, there was slaughter among many other great lords.» p. 121. Nor was the matter much mended under the government of the Earl of Angus for though he caused the king to ride through Note 2. Stanza vii. The Gael, of plain and river heir, Shall, with strong hand, redeem his share. L was usually transmitted in specie, under the guard of a small escort. It chanced that the officer who commanded this little party was unexpectedly obliged to halt, about thirty miles from Inverness, at a miserable inn. About night-fall, a stranger, in the Highland dress, and of very prepossessing appearance, entered the same house. Separate accommodation being impossible, the Englishman offered the newly-arrived guest a part of his supper, which was accepted with reluctance. By the conversation, he found his new acquaintance knew well all the passes of the country, which induced him eagerly to request his company on the ensuing morning. He neither disguised his busi The ancient Highlanders verified in their practice ness and charge, nor, his apprehensions of that celethe lines of Gray: An iron race the mountain cliffs maintain, Foes to the gentler genius of the plain; (As lawless force from confidence will grow), Fragment on the Alliance of Education and Government. So far, indeed, was a Creagh, or foray, from being held disgraceful, that a young chief was always expected to show his talents for command so soon as he assumed it, by leading his clan on a successful enterprise of this nature, either against a neighbouring sept, for which constant feuds usually furnished an apology, or against the Sassenach, Saxons, or Lowlanders, for which no apology was necessary. The Gael, great traditional historians, never forgot that the Lowlands had, at some remote period, been the property of their Celtic forefathers, which furnished an ample vindication of all the ravages that they could make on the unfortunate districts which lay within their reach. Sir James Grant of Grant is in possession of a letter of apology from Cameron of Lochiel, whose men had committed some depredation upon a farm called Moines, occupied by one of the Grants. Lochiel assures Grant, that, however the mistake had happened, his instructions were precise, that the party should foray the province of Moray (a Lowland district), where, as he coolly observes, «' all men take their prey.»> Note 3. Stanza xi. --I only meant To show the reed on which you leant, This incident, like some other passages in the poem, illustrative of the character of the ancient Gael, is not brated freebooter, John Gunn. The Highlander hesitated a moment, and then frankly consented to be his guide. Forth they set in the morning; and in travelling through a solitary and dreary glen, the discourse again turned on John Gunn. Would you like to see him?» said the guide; and, without waiting an answer to this alarming question, he whistled, and the English officer, with his small party, were surrounded by a body of Highlanders, whose numbers put resistance out of question, and who were all well armed. << Stranger,» resumed the guide, << I am that very John Gunn by whom you feared to be intercepted, and not without cause; for I came to the inn last night with the express purpose of learning your route, that I and my followers might ease you of your charge by the road. But I am incapable of betraying the trust you reposed in me, and having convinced you that you were in my power, I can only dismiss you unplundered and uninjured.»> He then gave the officer directions for his journey, and disappeared with his party, as suddenly as they had presented themselves. Note 4. Stanza xii. On Bochastle the mouldering lines, Note 5. Stanza xii. Arm'd, like thyself, with single brand. The duellists of former times did not always stand upon those punctilios respecting equality of arms, which are now judged essential to fair combat. It is true, that in formal combats in the lists, the parties were, by the judges of the field, put as nearly as possible in the same circumstances. But in private duel it was often otherwise. In that desperate combat which was fought between Quelus, a minion of Henry III. of imaginary, but borrowed from fact. The Highlanders, with the inconsistency of most nations in the same state, were alternately capable of great exertions of generosity, and of cruel revenge and perfidy. The following story I can only quote from tradition, but with such an assurance from those by whom it was commu-France, and Antraguet, with two seconds on each side, nicated, as permits me little doubt of its authenticity. Early in the last century, John Gunn, a noted Cateran, or Highland robber, invested Inverness-shire, and levied black-mail up to the walls of the provincial capital. A garrison was then maintained in the castle of that town, and their pay (country banks being unknown) from which only two persons escaped alive, Queius complained that his antagonist had over him the advantage of a poniard which he used in parrying, while his left hand, which he was forced to employ for the same purpose, was cruelly mangled. When he charged Antraguet with this odds, « Thou hast done wrong,» an |