for William Heron of Ford was husband to the famous Lady Ford, whose siren charms are said to have cost our James IV. so dear. Moreover, the said William Heron was, at the time supposed, a prisoner in Scotland, being surrendered by Henry VIII., on account of his share in the slaughter of Sir Robert Ker of Cessford. His wife, represented in the text as residing at the Court of Scotland, was, in fact, living in her own Castle at Ford. See Sir Richard Heron's curious Genealogy of the Heron Family" (Scott). Ford Castle is in Northumberland, on the east bank of the Till, within a few miles of the Scottish border and only one mile from Flodden Field. It was rebuilt in 1761, but some of the original towers were preserved, and the new portions of the castle are in perfect keeping with the old. 195. The deas. The dais, or elevated platform at the upper end of the castle-hall. 199. Whiles. Formerly used interchangeably with while. 200. A rhyme, etc. "The ballad here quoted was the production of Mr. R. Surtees, and palmed off by him upon Scott as a genuine relic of antiquity" (Lockhart). It may be found in Scott's Border Minstrelsy under the title of "The Death of Featherstonhaugh." 203. Hardriding. This does not refer, as might be supposed, to horsemanship. Hardriding Dick was Richard Ridley of Hardriding, the name of the family seat. 222. Couch a spear. To lay the spear in rest, or place its butt in the projection on the side of the armor called the rest; that is, in position for use in attack or defence. Cf. iii. 428 and iv. 420 below. 231. Wassail-bowl. The "gossip's bowl" of Shakespeare's Midsummer-Night's Dream, ii. 1. 47. It was filled with a mixture of ale (sometimes wine), sugar, nutmeg, toast, and roasted "crabs," or crab-apples (cf. 384 below). As an old song says, and again in the same 66 our spiced bowl." "Our Wassel we do fill With apples and with spice;" lyric it is called "A Wassel of good ale" and 234. But first, etc. The MS. has "And let me pray thee fair." 232. Crowned it high. That is, filled it so that the liquor rose above the brim. Nares quotes an old play: "We'll drink her health in a crowned cup, my lads!" 238. Raby-towers. Raby Castle, in the county of Durham, is one of the grandest old strongholds in the North of England. It now belongs to the Duke of Cleveland. 243. To burnish, etc. The MS. has "To rub a shield or sharp a brand." 254. Bower. Chamber; as often. Cf. 281 and 348 below, and see on i. ind 321 above. = 25. Sooth. Truth. Cf. 443 (and v. 283) below, where sooth to tell = to tell the truth. We still have the word in soothsayer (teller of hidden truth). 257. Lord Marmion, etc. The MS. reads thus: "Lord Marmion ill such jest could brook, Fix'd on the Knight his dark haught look, 'That page thou did'st so closely eye, Is come, I ween, of lineage high, That youth, so like a paramour, Who wept for shame and pride, Was erst, in Wilton's lordly bower, Sir Ralph de Wilton's bride."" 261. Goodly. Adjectives in -ly are very often adverbial in poetry, as in old writers generally. 264. Lindisfarne. See on ii. 9 below. 271. Light tales. The MS. has "strange things;" and in 273, "The captain gay replied." 277. Fosse. Ditch or moat. 284. Leash. The thong or cord by which the greyhound was held until let slip, or set free to pursue the game. Cf. Shakespeare, Cor. i. 6. 38: "Holding Corioli in the name of Rome, Even like a fawning greyhound in the leash, 287. She'll stoop, etc. her wing." 298. Warbeck. Scott has the following note here: "The story of Perkin Warbeck, or Richard, Duke of York, is well known. In 1496, he was received honorably in Scotland; and James IV., after conferring upon him in marriage his own relation, the Lady Catherine Gordon, made war on England in behalf of his pretensions. To retaliate an invasion of England, Surrey advanced into Berwickshire at the head of considerable forces, but retreated after taking the inconsiderable fortress of Ayton. Ford, in his Dramatic Chronicle of Perkin Warbeck, makes the most of this inroad: The MS. has "She'll stoop again when tired 'Surrey. Are all our braving enemies shrunk back, Not daring to behold our colours wave In spight of this infected ayre? Can they Of Edington cast downe; the Pile of Fulden And yet not peepe abroad? The Scots are bold, 301. What time. At the time when; a common poetical construction. Cf. Milton, Lycidas, 28: "What time the gray-fly winds her sultry horn," etc. 302. Trow. Think, believe. Cf. Luke, xvii. 9. 303. Enow. An old form of enough, generally plural as here, and in iv. 187 below. Cf. Milton, P. L. ii. 504: "Man had not hellish foes enow besides," etc. 304. Be. From the Anglo-Saxon beon, and used in old English inter changeably with am, etc. The 1st and 3d person plural be is common in Shakespeare and the Bible. Pricked. Spurred, ridden. Cf. Lady of the Lake, v. 486: "Still at the gallop pricked the knight," etc. Scott says here. "The garrisons of the English castles of Wark, Norham, and Berwick, were, as may be easily supposed, very troublesome neighbors to Scotland. Sir Richard Maitland of Ledington, wrote a poem, called 'The Blind Baron's Comfort,' when his barony of Blythe, in Lauderdale, was harried by Rowland Foster, the English captain of Wark, with his company, to the number of 300 men. They spoiled the poetical knight of 5,000 sheep, 200 nolt, 30 horses and mares; the whole furniture of his house of Blythe, worth 100 pounds Scots (L. 8:6:8), and everything else that was portable. This spoil was committed the 16th day of May, 1570 (and the said Sir Richard was threescore and fourteen years of age, and grown blind), in time of peace; when nane of that country lippened [expected] such a thing. The Blind Baron's Comfort' consists in a string of puns on the word Blythe, the name of the lands thus despoiled. Like John Littlewit, he had a conceit left him in his misery -a miserable conceit.' "The last line of the text contains a phrase by which the Borderers jocularly intimated the burning a house. When the Maxwells, in 1685, burned the castle of Lockwood, they said they did so to give the Lady Johnstone light to set her hood.' Nor was the phrase inapplicable; for, in a letter to which I have mislaid the reference, the earl of Northumberland writes to the king and council, that he dressed himself, at midnight, at Warwick, by the blaze of the neighboring villages burned by the Scottish marauders." 306. Saint Bothan's. Cf. vi. 460 below. 307. Lauderdale. The dale, or valley, of the Lauder, a branch of the Tweed. The district is in the western part of Berwickshire, of which county Greenlaw (about 18 miles south of west from Berwick) is the capital. 308. Harried. Pillaged, plundered. Cf. Tennyson, Coming of Ar thur, 9: "And still from time to time the heathen host 312. Would not lack. Would not want, or wish. 324. Pardoner. A licensed seller of pardons, or indulgences. It will be remembered that there was a pardoner among Chaucer's Pilgrims. 330. The only men, etc. See on 163 above. 332. A bishop, etc. See on I above. 337. One stinted meal a day. As in the prolonged siege. 338. Durham aisle. Durham cathedral. Cf. ii. 280 below. 342. The priest of Shoreswood. "This churchman seems to have been akin to Welsh, the vicar of St. Thomas of Exeter, a leader among the Cornish insurgents in 1549. This man,' says Holinshed, had many good things in him. He was of no great stature, but well set, and mightilie compact: he was a very good wrestler; shot well, both in the long-bow, and also in the cross-bow; he handled his hand-gun and peece very well; he was a very good woodman, and a hardie, and such a one as would not give his head for the poling, or his beard for the washing He was a companion in any exercise of activitie, and of a courteous and gentle behaviour. He descended of a good, honest parentage, being borne at Peneverin, in Cornwall; and yet, in this rebellion, an arch-captain, and a principal doer.' This model of clerical talents had the misfortune to be hanged upon the steeple of his own church" (Scott). 348. In hall and bower. See on i. ind. 321 above. 351. Holy-Rood. That is, Holy-Rood Abbey in Edinburgh. 352. As ill befalls. As unluckily happens. 354. Saint Bede. The "Venerable Bede," who was a native of Northumberland. The day allotted him in the Calendar is May 27. 358. An enemy to strife. Like Falstaff, considering discretion the better part of valor. 360. Swore. Used for the sake of rhyme instead of sworn (cf. tore in 468 below); as by Shakespeare in L. L. L. i. I. 114: "And though I have for barbarism spoke more 362. Shrieve. 366. Carved to. Shrive, absolve. For the preposition, cf. Shakespeare, C. of E. ii. 2. 120: "Unless I ... carved to thee," etc. 368. Woe were we. An "ungrammatical remnant of ancient usage," as Abbott calls it in his Shakes. Gr. In our earliest writers woe is often joined with the dative of the pronoun; as "woe is (to) me," etc. But even in the time of Chaucer we find the construction confused and woe used as a predicate. Cf. Shakespeare, A. and C. iv. 14. 133: “Woe, woe are we, sir," etc. 372. Tables. The old name for backgammon; as in Shakespeare, L. L. L. v. 2. 326: "That, when he plays at tables, chides the dice," etc. It also came to be applied to other games played with the same board and men. 384. Crabs. Crab-apples. Cf. Shakespeare, L. L. L. v. 2. 935: "When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl;" that is, the wassail-bowl. See on 231 above. 387. By my fay. By my faith; as in Hamlet, ii. 2. 271: "for, by my fay, I cannot reason," etc. Cf. 454 below. 389. A holy Palmer. Scott says: "A Palmer, opposed to a Pilgrim, was one who made it his sole business to visit different holy shrines, travelling incessantly, and subsisting by charity; whereas the Pilgrim retired to his usual home and occupations, when he had paid his devotions at the particular spot which was the object of his pilgrimage. The Palmers seem to have been the Quæstionarii of the ancient Scottish canons 1242 and 1296. There is in the Bannatyne MS. a burlesque account of two such persons, entitled, 'Simmy and his Brother.' Their accoutrements are thus ludicrously described (I discard the ancient spelling): 390. Salem. 'Syne shaped them up, to loup on leas, Two tabards of the tartan; They counted nought what their clouts were Syne clampit up St. Peter's keys, Made of an old red gartane; St. James's shells, on t' other side, shews Toe, On Symmye and his brother."" That is, Jerusalem. 400. Thunder-dint. Thunder-stroke. For levin, cf. i. ind. 73 above. 402. Saint James's cockle-shell. Saint James the Great is often repre sented with the scallop-shell and other attributes of a pilgrim; as in Thorwaldsen's statue at Copenhagen, for example. 403. Montserrat. A mountain in the northeastern part of Spain, famous for the Benedictine abbey built upon it. 404. And of that Grot, etc. The MS. has " And of the Olives' shaded cell;" and in 407 below, "Retired to God Saint Rosalie." Scott here quotes the Voyage to Sicily and Malta, by Mr. John Dryden (son of the poet): "Santa Rosalia was of Palermo, and born of a very noble family, and, when very young, abhorred so much the vanities of this world, and avoided the converse of mankind, resolving to dedicate herself wholly to God Almighty, that she, by divine inspiration, forsook her father's house, and never was more heard of, till her body was found in that cleft of a rock, on that almost inaccessible mountain, where now the chapel is built; and they affirm she was carried up there by the hands of angels; for that place was not formerly so accessible (as now it is) in the days of the Saint; and even now it is a very bad, and steepy, and breakneck way. In this frightful place this holy woman lived a great many years, feeding only on what she found growing on that barren mountain, and creeping into a narrow and dreadful cleft in a rock, which was always dropping wet, and was her place of retirement, as well as prayer; having worn out even the rock with her knees, in a certain place, which is now opened on purpose to show it to those who come here. This chapel is very richly adorned; and on the spot where the saint's dead body was discovered, which is just beneath the hole in the rock, which is opened on purpose, as I said, there is a very fine statue of marble, representing her in a lying posture, railed in all about with fine iron and brass work and the altar, on which they say mass, is built just over it." 409. Saint Thomas. The martyred Thomas à Becket. 66 great 410. Cuthbert. See on ii. 257 below; and for Saint Bede, on 354 above. 421. Gramercy. A corruption of the French grand merci, thanks; " often used to express surprise as well as thankfulness. 426. Holy-Rood. Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh. Cf. 351 above. 427. His good saint. Cf. 402 above. 429. Angels. See on 146 above. 430. Still. Ever; as often in the Elizabethan writers. Cf. 452 below |