ページの画像
PDF
ePub

Lancelot, for no threats. No!' said she; and ye in leave that sword, Queene Guenever should ye never Then were I foole and I would leave this sword,'

[ocr errors]

wiSir Launcelot. Now, gentle knight,' said the da- | I require thee to kisse me once.' Nay,' said 'auncelot, that God forbid! Well, sir,' said she, then haddest kissed me, thy life dayes had been we; but now, alas!" said she, 'I have lost all my la: for I ordained this chappell for thy sake, and for awaine: and once I had Sir Gawaine within it; | that time he fought with that knight which thare | head in youder chappell, Sir Gilbert the bastard, mdat that time hee smote off Sir Gilbert the bastard's kard And so, Sir Launcelot, now I tell thee, that bered thee this seaven yeare; but there may no save thy love but Queen Guenever; but sithen I may not rejoice to have thy body alive, I had kept no jin this world but to have had thy dead body; ta' I would have balmed it and served, and so have my life daies, and daily I should have clipped , and kissed thee, in the despite of Queene Guene'Yee say well,' said Sir Launcelot; Jesus preeve me from your subtill craft! And therewith he be horse, and departed from her.»>

[ocr errors]

Note 2. Introduction.

A sinful man, and unconfess'd,
He took the Sangreal's holy quest,

And, slumbering, saw the vision high,
Be might not view with waking eye.

ne day, when Arthur was holding a high feast with hights of the Round Table, the Sangreal, or vessel which the last passover was eaten, a precious rewhich had long remained concealed from human ** because of the sins of the land, suddenly appeared and all his chivalry. The consequence of this was, that all the knights took on them a solemn **to seek the Sangreal. But, alas! it could only be led to a knight at once accomplished in earthly niry, and pure and guiltless of evil conversation. A. Nr Launcelot's noble accomplishments were thererendered vain by his guilty intrigue with Queen rever, or Ganore; and in this holy quest he encounvred only such disgraceful disasters, as that which fol

Bat Sir Launcelot rode overthwart and endlong in forest, and held no path, but as wild adventure m; and at the last, he came unto a stone crosse, *h departed two wayes, in wast land; and by the se, was a stone that was of marble; but it was so arte, that Sir Launcelot might not well know what it Then Sir Launcelot looked by him, and saw an chappell, and there he wend to have found people. Also Sir Launcelot tied his horse to a tree, and there be put off his shield, and hung it upon a tree, and then went unto the chappell door, and found it wasted ad broken. And within he found a faire altar, full dy arrayed with cloth of silk, and there stood a faire adlesticke, which beare six great candles, and the desticke was of silver. And when Sir Launcelot this light, hee had a great will for to enter into the ppell, but he could find no place where he might Sr. Then was he passing heavie and dismaied. Then dr returned, and came againe to his horse, and tooke off saddle and his bridle, and let him pasture, and un

laced his helme, and ungirded his sword, and laid him downe to sleepe upon his shield before the crosse. « And so he fell on sleepe, and halfe waking and halfe sleeping, hee saw come by him two palfreys, both faire and white, the which beare a litter, therein lying a sicke knight. And when he was nigh the crosse, he there abode still. All this Sir Launcelot saw and beheld, for hee slept not verily, and hee heard him say, Oh sweete Lord, when shall this sorrow leave me, and when shall the holy vessell come by me, where through I shall be blessed, for I have endured thus long for little trespasse.' And thus a great while complained the knight, and allwaies Sir Launcelot heard it. With that, Sir Launcelot saw the candlesticke, with the fire tapers, come before the crosse; but he could see no body that brought it. Also, there came a table of silver, and the holy vessell of the Sancgreall, the which Sir Launcelot had seen before that time in King Petchour's house. And therewithall the sicke knight set him upright, and held up both his hands, and said, 'Faire sweete Lord, which is here within the holy vessell, take heede to mee, that I may bee hole of this great malady.' And therewith upon his hands, and upon his knees, he went so nigh, that he touched the holy vessell, and kissed it: And anon he was hole, and then he said, 'Lord God, I thank thee, for I am healed of this malady.' So when the holy vessell had been there a great while, it went into the chappell againe with the candlesticke and the light, so that Sir Launcelot wist not where it became, for he was overtaken with sinne, that hee had no power to arise against the holy vessell, wherefore afterward many men said of him shame. But he tooke repentance afterward. Then the sicke knight dressed him upright, and kissed the crosse. Then anon his squire brought him his armes, and asked his lord how he did.

[ocr errors]

Certainly,' said hee, 'I thanke God, right heartily, for through the holy vessell I am healed: But I have right great mervaile of this sleeping knight which hath had neither grace nor power to awake during the time that this holy vessell hath beene here present.' 'I dare it right well say,' said the squire, that this same knight is defouled with some manner of deadly sinne, whereof he has never confessed. By my faith,' said the knight, 'whatsoever he be, he is unhappie; for, as I deeme, he is of the fellowship of the Round Table, the which is entered into the quest of the Sancgreall.' 'Sir,' said the squire, here I have brought you all your armes, save your helme and your sword; and therefore, by mine assent, now may ye take this knight's helme and his sword,' and so he did. And when he was cleane armed, he took Sir Launcelot's horse, for he was better than his owne, and so they departed from the crosse.

<< Then anon Sir Launcelot awaked, and set himselfe upright, and he thought him what hee had there seene, and whether it were dreames or not; right so he heard a voice that said, 'Sir Launcelot, more harde than is the stone, and more bitter than is the wood, and more naked and bare than is the liefe of the fig-tree, therefore go thou from hence, and withdraw thee from this holy place; and when Sir Launcelot heard this, hee was passing heavy, and wit not what to doe. And so he departed sore weeping, and cursed the time that he was borne; for then he deemed never to have had more worship; for the words went unto his heart, till that he knew wherefore that hee was so called.»>

Note 3. Introduction.

And Dryden, in immortal strain,
Had raised the Table Round again,
But that a ribald king and court
Bade him toil on to make them sport;
Demanded for their niggard pay,

Fit for their souls, a looser lay,
Licentious satire, song, and play.

Dryden's melancholy account of his projected Epic Poem, blasted by the selfish and sordid parsimony of his patrons, is contained in an «< Essay on Satire,» addressed to the Earl of Dorset, and prefixed to the Translation of Juvenal. After mentioning a plan of supplying machinery from the guardian angels of kingdoms, mentioned in the book of Daniel, he adds:

Lothly he was to look on than,
And liker a devil than a man.
His staff was a young oak,

Hard and heavy was his stroke.

Specimens of Metrical Romances, vol. II, p. z.

I am happy to say, that the memory of Sir Bevis still fragrant in his town of Southampton; the gate which is centinelled by the effigies of that dough knight-errant, and his gigantic associate.

Note 5. Stanza i.

Day set on Norham's castled steep,

And Tweed's fair river, broad and deep, etc.

The ruinous castle of Norham (anciently called bandford), is situated on the southern bank of | Tweed, about six miles above Berwick, and where t river is still the boundary between England and Se land. The extent of its ruins, as well as its histori importance, shows it to have been a place of magn cence, as well as strength. Edward I. resided th when he was created umpire of the dispute concert the Scottish succession. It was repeatedly taken i

« Thus, my lord, I have, as briefly as I could, given your lordship, and by you the world, a rude draft of what I have been long labouring in my imagination, and what I had intended to have put in practice (though far unable for the attempt of such a poem), and to have left the stage, to which my genius never much inclined me, for a work which would have taken up my life in the performance of it. This, too, I had intended chiefly retaken during the wars between Eugland and Scotlan for the honour of my native country, to which a poet and, indeed, scarce any happened, in which it had a a principal share. Norham Castle is situated o is particularly obliged. Of two subjects, both relating to it, I was doubtful whether I should chuse that of steep bank, which overhangs the river. The repes King Arthur conquering the Saxons, which, being far-sieges which the castle had sustained rendered frequ ther distant in time, gives the greater scope to my in-repairs necessary. vention; or that of Edward the Black Prince, in subduing Spain, and restoring it to the lawful prince, though a great tyrant, Don Pedro the Cruel; which, for the compass of time, including only the expedition of one year, for the greatness of the action, and its answerable event, for the magnanimity of the English hero, opposed to the ingratitude of the person whom he restored, and for the many beautiful episodes which I had interwoven with the principal design, together with the characters of the chiefest English persons (wherein, after Virgil and Spenser, I would have taken occasion to represent my living friends and patrons of the noblest families, and also shadowed the events of future ages in the succession of our imperial line),-with these helps, and those of the machines which I have mentioned, I might perhaps have done as well as some of my predecessors, or at least chalked out a way for others to amend my errors in a like design; but being encouraged only with According to Mr Pinkerton, there is, in the Br fair words by King Charles II., my little salary ill paid, Museum, Cal. B. vi. 216, a curious memoir of the and no prospect of a future subsistence, I was then dis-cres on the state of Norham Castle in 1521, not lot after the battle of Flodden. The inner ward, or k couraged in the beginning of my attempt; and now «The provisions al age has overtaken me, and want, a more insufferable is represented as impregnable : evil, through the change of the times, has wholly dis- three great vats of salt eels, forty-four kine, three be heads of salted salmon, forty quarters of grain, besch many cows, and four hundred sheep lying under the castle-wall nightly; but a number of the arrows wante feathers, and a good fletcher (i. e. maker of arro was required.»-History of Scotland, vol. II, p. 201 Note.

abled me.»

[ocr errors]

Note 4. Introduction.

Of Ascapart, and Bevis bold.

The « History of Bevis of Hampton» is abridged by my friend Mr George Ellis, with that liveliness which extracts amusement even out of the most rude and

unpromising of our old tales of chivalry. Ascapart, a most important personage in the romance, is thus de

scribed in an extract:

This gaunt was mighty and strong,
And full thirty foot was long.

He was bristled like a sow;

A foot be hi between each brow:

His lips were great, and hung aside;

His eyen were hollow; his mouth was wide.

In 1164 it was almost rebuilt Hugh Pudsey, Bishop of Durham, who added a tu keep, or donjon; notwithstanding which, King Beary in 1174, took the castle from the Bishop, and commit the keeping of it to William de Neville. After this riod it seems to have been chiefly garrisoned by king, and considered as a royal fortress. The Greys Chillinghame Castle were frequently the castellans. captains of the garrison: yet, as the castle was situat in the patrimony of St Cuthbert, the property was the see of Durham till the Reformation. After that riod it passed through various hands. the crowns, it was in the possession of Sir Robert Car (afterwards Earl of Monmouth), for his own life, 3 After King James's accessio that of two of his sons. Carey sold Norham Castle to George Home, Earl Dunbar, for 6000l. See his curious Memoirs, pubish by Mr Constable of Edinburgh.

At the union

The ruins of the castle are at present considerable, a well as picturesque. They consist of a large shattere tower, with many vaults and fragments of other edu inclosed within an outward wall of great circuit.

[blocks in formation]

with walls of tremendous thickness, situated in the cen

This affront could only be expiated by a joust with of the other buildings, from which, however, it was sharp lances. In the course, Dalzell left his helmet unally detached. Here, in case of the outward de-laced, so that it gave way at the touch of his antagonist's es being gained, the garrison retreated to make r last stand. The donjon contained the great hall, principal rooms of state for solemn occasions, and the prison of the fortress; from which last circumwe derive the modern and restricted use of the dungeon. Ducange (voce DUNJO) conjectures mably, that the name is derived from these keeps eng usually built upon a hill, which in Celtic is called Borlase supposes the word came from the dark-be detected. This being agreed to, the wily Scot de

ars of the apartments in these towers, which were
vente figuratively called Dungeons; thus deriving the
cest word from the modern application of it.
Note 7. Stanza vi.

Well was he arm'd from head to heel,
In mail and plate, of Milan steel.

The artists of Milan were famous in the middle ages for der skill in armoury, as appears from the followag passage, in which Froissart gives an account of the perations made by Henry, Earl of Hereford, afterred Beory IV., and Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, Earl Bresciai, for their proposed combat in the lists of Coventry. These two lords made ample provision of things necessary for the combat; and the Earl of by sent off messengers to Lombardy, to have armour

Sir Galeas, Duke of Milan. The duke complied via joy, and gave the knight, called Sir Francis, who d brought the message, the choice of all his armour, the Earl of Derby. When he had selected what vished for in plated and mail armour, the Lord of Jam, out of his abundant love for the earl, ordered of the best armourers in Milan to accompany the aight to England, that the Earl of Derby might be ste completely armed.»-JOHNES Froissart, vol. IV,

Note 8. Stanza vi.
The golden legend bore aright.

WHO CHECKS AT ME, TO DEATH is dight.

The crest and motto of Marmion are borrowed from tar following story. Sir David de Lindsay, first Earl of ford, was, among other gentlemen of quality, atded during a visit to London, in 1390, by Sir WilDalzell, who was, according to my authority, lever, not only excelling in wisdom, but also of a lively Chancing to be at the court, he there saw Sir

Per Courtenay, an English knight, famous for skill
an 'uiting, and for the beauty of his person, parading the
alace, arrayed in a new mantle, bearing for device an
mbroidered falcon, with this rhyme,-

I heare a falcon, fairest of flight.
Who so pinches at her, his death is dight'
In graith. 2

The Scottish Knight, being a wag, appeared next day a dress exactly similar to that of Courtenay, but bearing a magpie instead of the falcon, with a motto ously contrived to rhyme to the vaunting inscripting of Sir Piers:

I hear a pie picking at a piece,
Who so picks at her, I shall pick at his nese,1

[blocks in formation]

In faith.

3 Nose.

lance, and he thus avoided the shock of the encounter. This happened twice :-In the third encounter, the handsome Courtenay lost two of his front teeth. As the Englishman complained bitterly of Dalzell's fraud in not fastening his helmet, the Scottishman agreed to run six courses more, each champion staking in the hand of the king two hundred pounds, to be forfeited if, on entering the lists, any unequal advantage should

manded, that Sir Piers, in addition to the loss of his
teeth, should consent to the extinction of one of his
eyes, he himself having lost an eye in the fight of Ot-
terburn. As Courtenay demurred to this equalization of
optical powers, Dalzell demanded the forfeit; which,
after much altercation, the king appointed to be paid
and valour. This must appear to the reader a singular
to him, saying, he surpassed the English both in wit
specimen of the humour of that time. I suspect the
Jockey Club would have given a different decision from
Henry IV.
Note 9. Stanza xi.

They hail'd Lord Marmion.
They hail'd him Lord of Fontenaye,
Of Lutterward, and Scrivelbaye,

Of Tamworth tower and town.

In

Lord Marmion, the principal character of the present romance, is entirely a fictitious personage. earlier times, indeed, the family of Marmion, lords of Fontenay in Normandy, was highly distinguished. Robert de Marmion, Lord of Fontenay, a distinguished follower of the Conqueror, obtained a grant of the castle and town of Tamworth, and also of the manor of Scrivelby, in Lincolnshire. One, or both, of these noble possessions was held by the honourable service of being the royal champion, as the ancestors of Marmion had formerly been to the Dukes of Normandy. But after the castle and demesne of Tamworth had passed through four successive barons from Robert, the fa

mily became extinct in the person of Philip de Marmion,

He

who died in 20th Edward I. without issue male.
was succeeded in his castle of Tamworth by Alexander
de Freville, who married Mazera, his grand-daughter.
Baldwin de Freville, Alexander's descendant, in the
tle of Tamworth, claimed the office of royal champion,
reign of Richard I., by the supposed tenure of his cas-
and to do the service appertaining; namely, on the day
of coronation, to ride completely armed, upon a barbed
horse, into Westminster Hall, and there to challenge the
combat against any who would gainsay the king's title.
But this office was adjudged to Sir John Dymocke, to
whom the manor of Scrivelby had descended by an-
other of the co-heiresses of Robert de Marmion; and it
remains in that family, whose representative is Here-
ditary Champion of England at the present day. The
family and possessions of Freville have merged in
the Earls of Ferrars: I have not, therefore, created a
new family, but only revived the titles of an old one in
an imaginary personage.

It was one of the Marmion family who, in the reign of Edward II., performed that chivalrous feat before the very castle of Norham, which Bishop Percy has woven into his beautiful Ballad, « The Hermit of Warkworth,» The story is thus told by Leland.

«The Scottes came yn to the marches of England, and destroyed the castle of Werk and Herbotel, and overran much of Northumberland marches.

«At this tyme Thomas Gray and his friends defended Norham from the Scottes.

« It were a wonderful processe to declare, what mischefes cam by hungre and asseges, by the space of xi yeres in Northumberland; for the Scottes became so proude after they had got Berwick, that they nothing esteemed the Englishmen.

embassies into Scotland. This is alluded to in Stanza XXI. p. 64.

Note 11. Stanza xiii.

Sir Hugh the Heron bold,
Baron of Twisel, and of Ford,

And Captain of the Hold.

Were accuracy of any consequence in a fictitious nar rative, this castellan's name ought to have been Wik liam; for William Heron of Ford was husband to the famous Lady Ford, whose syren charms are said to hav cost our James IV. so dear. Moreover, the said Wil liam Heron was, at the time supposed, a prisoner u Scotland, being surrendered by Henry VIII, on accoun of his share in the slaughter of Sir Robert Ker of Cess ford. His wife, represented in the text as residing a the court of Scotland, was, in fact, living in her own castle at Ford.-See Sir RICHARD HERON'S curious Ge nealogy of the Heron Family.

« About this tyme there was a great feste made yn Lincolnshir, to which came many gentlemen and ladies; and amonge them one lady brought a heaulme for a man of were, with a very rich creste of gold, to William Marmion, knight, with a letter of commandment of her lady, that he should go into the daungerest place in England, and ther to let the heaulme be seene and known as famous. So he went to Norham; whither within 4 days of cumming cam Philip Maubray, guarNote 12. Stanza xiii. dian of Berwicke, having yn his bande 40 men of The whiles a northern harper rude armes, the very flour of men of the Scottish marches. Chaunted a rhyme of deadly feud,« Thomas Gray, capitayne of Norham, seynge this, How the fierce Thirlwalls, and Ridleys all, ew brought his garison afore the barriers of the castle, beThis old Northumbrian ballad was taken down from hind whom cam William, richly arrayed, as al glitter-the recitation of a woman eighty years ing in gold, and wearing the heaulme, his lady's of one of the miners in Alston-moor, by an agent for present.

of age, mothet

the lead mines there, who communicated it to my friend « Then said Thomas Gray to Marmion, 'Sir knight, ye and correspondent, R. Surtees, Esquire, of Mainsfort be cum hither to fame your helmet: mount upon yowr She had not, she said, heard it for many years; but horse, and ryde like a valiant man to yowr foes even when she was a girl, it used to be sung at merry-makhere at hand, and I forsake God if I rescue not thy bodyings, « till the roof rung again.»> To preserve this cu deade or alyve, or I myself will dye for it.'

«

Whereupon he took his cursere, and rode among the throng of ennemyes; the which layed sore stripes on hym, and pulled hym at the last out of his sadel to the grounde.

<< Then Thomas Gray with al the hole garrison, lette prick yn among the Scottes, and so wondid them and their horses, that they were overthrown; and Marmion, sore beten, was horsid agayn, and, with Gray, persewed the Scottes yn chase. There were taken 50 horse of price: and the women of Norham brought them to the foote men to follow the chase.»>

[blocks in formation]

rious, though rude rhyme, it is here inserted. The ludicrous turn given to the slaughter marks that wild and disorderly state of society, in which a murder was not merely a casual circumstance, but, in some cases, an exceedingly good jest. The structure of the ballad resembles the « Fray of Support, having the same irregular stanza and wild chorus.

Hoot awa', lads, boot awa',

1.

Ha' ye heard how the Ridleys, and Thirlwalls, and a',
Ha' set upon Albany Featherstonbaugh,
And taken his life at the Deadman's-haugh?
There was Willimoteswick,

And Hardriding Dick,

And Hughie of Hawden, and Will of the Wa'.
I canno' tell a', I canno' tell a',

And mony a mair that the de'il may knaw.

II.

The auld man went down, but Nicol, his son,
Ran away afore the fight was begun;

And he run, and he run,
And afore they were done,

There was mony a Featherston gat sic a stun,
As never was seen since the world begun.

III.

I canno' tell a', I canno' toll a',

Some gat a skelp, and some gat a claw;

But they gar'd the Featherstons haud their jaw,-4
Nicol, and Alick, and a'.

Some gat a hurt and some gat nane;

Some had harness, and some gat sta en.

See Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, vol. I, p. 350.

2 Pronounced Awbory,

Skelp signifies slap, or rather is the same word which was eriGinally spelled Schlap.

Hold their jaw, a vulgar expression still in use.

3 Got stolen, or were plundered; a very likely termination of the ¦

ray.

[ocr errors][ocr errors]

115

[blocks in formation]

W bis great bull's pizzle,

That sap'd up the broo', and syne in the piggin."

la pianation of this ancient ditty, Mr Surtees las Amed me with the following local memorandum:Wimateswick, the chief seat of the ancient family of dy, is situated two miles above the confluence of Lon and Tyne. It was a house of strength, as ap* pears from one oblong tower, still in tolerable preser

It has been long in possession of the Blacket by Hardriding Dick is not an epithet referring to semanship, but means Richard Ridley of Hardriding,9 & seat of another family of that name, which, in the Le of Charles I. was sold on account of expenses inared by the loyalty of the proprietor, the immediate Stor of Sir Matthew Ridley. Will of the Wa' seems The William Ridley of Waltown, so called from its tion on the great Roman Wall. Thirlwall Castic, ve the clan of Thirlwalls derived their name, is sited on the small river of Tippel, near the western ndary of Northumberland. It is near the wall, and

Note 13. Stanza xviii.

James back'd the cause of that mock prince,
Warbeck, that Flemish counterfeit,

Who on the gibbet paid the cheat.
Then did I march with Surrey's power,

What time we razed old Ayton tower.

The story of Perkin Warbeck, or Richard, Duke of York, is well known. In 1496, he was received honourably 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:

SURREY. Are all our braving enemies shrunk back,

[ocr errors]

very

Hid in the fogges of their distemper'd climate,
Not daring to behold our colours wave

In spight of this infected ayre? Can they
Looke on the strength of Cundrestine defac't;
The glorie of ileydonball devasted; that
Of Edington cast downe; the pile of Fulden
Overthrowne: And this, the strongest of their forts,
Old Ayton Castle, yeelded and demolished,
And yet not peepe abroad? the Scots are bold,
Hardie in battayle, but it seems the cause
They undertake considered, appeares
Unjoynted in the frame on 't.

"

Note 14. Stanza xix.

For here be some have prick'd as far, On Scottish ground, as to Dunbar; Have drunk the monks of St Bothan's ale, And driven the beeves of Lauderdale; Harried the wives of Greenlaw's goods, And given them light to set their hoods. The garrisons of the English castles of Wark, Nordes its name from the rampart having been thirled, am, and Berwick, were, as may be easily supposed, troublesome neighbours to Scotland. Sir Richard Le pierced, or breached, in its vicinity. Featherstone Maitland of Ledington wrote a poem, called « The Lassie lies south of the Tyne, towards Alston-moor. Blind Baron's Comfort;» when his barony of Blythe, in Abany Featherstonhaugh, the chief of that ancient fa- | Lauderdale, was harried by Rowland Foster, the Engair, made a figure in the reign of Edward VI. Alish captain of Wark, with his company, to the numbrad did certainly exist between the Ridleys and Fea-ber of 300 men. They spoiled the poetical knight of Christones, productive of such consequences as the bal- 5000 sheep, 200 nolt, 30 horses and mares; the whole lad narrates. 24 Oct. 22do Henrici 8vi. Inquisitio furniture of his house of Blythe, worth 100 pounds cept apud Hautwhistle, sup. visum corpus Alexandri Scots (1. 8: 6: 8), and every thing else that was port. featherston, Gen. apud Grensilhaugh, felonice interable. This spoil was committed the 16th day of Mayfeti, 22 Oct. per Nicolaum Ridley de Unthanke, Gen. 1570, (and the said Sir Richard was threescore and Augen Ridle, Nicolaum Ridle, et alios ejusdem nominis. fourteen years of age, and grown blind,) in time of Nor were the Featherstones without their revenge; for, peace; when nane of that country lippened (expected) 40 Henrici 8vi, we have-Utlagatio Nicolai Feathersuch a thing.»don, ae Thome Nyxson, etc., etc., pro homicidio Will 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 Lochwood, 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 Warkworth, by the blaze of the neighbouring villages, burned by the Scottish marauders.

Adle de Morale.

Neck.

2 Punch.

3 Belly.

4 Bellowing.

Sing dut. The Border Bard calls her so, because she was weep ag for her slain husband; a loss which he seems to think might be wo repaired.

The Bailiff of Haltwhistle seems to have arrived when the fray taster. This supporter of social order is treated with characteristic mrcvernance by the mous-trooping poet.

As iron pet with two ears.

'Willimoteswick was, in prior editions, confounded with Ridley fall, situated two miles lower, on the same side of the Tyne, the

stary seat of William C. Lowes, Esq.

Ridley, the bishop and martyr, was, according to some authoborn at Hardriding, where a chair was preserved, called the pchair. Others, and particularly his biographer and nameDr Gloster Ridley, assign the honour of the martyr's birth to Willimoteswick.

»-« The Blind Baron's Comfort» consists

Note 15. Stanza xxi.

The priest of Shoreswood.

This churchunan seems to have been a-kin to Welsh

« 前へ次へ »