ページの画像
PDF
ePub

ploring the death of his father, their founder, he was seized with deep remorse, which manifested itself in severe penances. See Note 10, on Canto V. The battle of Sauchie-burn, in which James III. fell, was fought 18th June, 1488.

Note 10. Stanza xxv.

Spread all the Borough-moor below, etc.

The Borough, or Common Moor of Edinburgh, was of very great extent, reaching from the southern walls of the city to the bottom of Braid Hills. It was anciently a forest; and, in that state, was so great a nuisance, that the inhabitants of Edinburgh had permission granted to them of building wooden galleries, projecting over the street, in order to encourage them to consume the timber; which they seem to have done very effectually. When James IV. mustered the array of the kingdom there, in 1513, the Borough-moor was, according to Hawthornden, « a field spacious, and delightful by the shade of many stately and aged oaks.» Upon that, and similar occasions, the royal standard is traditionally said to have been displayed from the Hare Stane, a high stone, now built into the wall, on the left hand of the highway leading towards Braid, not far from the head of Burntsfield-links. The Hare Stone probably derives its name from the British word signifying an army.

Note 11. Stanza xxviii.

O'er the pavilions flew.

ar,

I do not exactly know the Scottish mode of encampment in 1513, but Patten gives a curious description of that which he saw after the battle of Pinkie, in 1547 :« Here now to say somewhat of the manner of their camp: As they had no pavilions, or round houses, of any commendable compas, so wear there few other tentes with posts, as the used manner of making is; and of these few also, none of above twenty foot length, but most far under: for the most part all very sumptuously beset (after their fashion), for the love of France, with fleur-de-lys, some of blue buckram, some of black and some of some other colours. These white ridges, as I call them, that, as we stood on Fauxsyde Bray, did make so great muster towards us, which I did take then to be a number of tentes, when we came, we found it a linen drapery, of the coarser cambryk in dede, for it was all of canvas sheets, and wear the tenticles, or rather cabyns, and couches of their soldiers; the which (much after the common building of their country beside) had they framed of four sticks, about an ell long a piece, whearof two fastened together at one end aloft, and the two endes beneath stuck in the ground, an el asunder, standing in fashion like the bowes of a sowes yoke; over two such bowes (one, as it were, at their head, the other at their feet), they stretched a sheet down on both sides, whereby their cabin became roofed like a ridge, but skant shut at both ends, and not very close beneath on the sides, unless their sticks were the shorter, or their wives the more liberal to lend them larger napery; howbeit, when they had lined them, and stuff'd them so thick with straw, with the weather as it was not very cold, when they wear ones couched, they were as warm as they had been wrapt in horses' dung.»-PATTEN'S Account of Somerset's Expedition.

Note 12. Stanza xxviii. -in proud Scotland's royal shield, The ruddy lion ramp'd in gold.

The well-known arms of Scotland. If you will b lieve Boethius and Buchanan, the double tressure rou the shield, mentioned p. 83, counter fleur-de-lised lingued and armed azure, was first assumed Achaius, King of Scotland, contemporary of Chari magne, and founder of the celebrated League wi France; but later antiquaries make poor Eochy, Achy, little better than a sort of King of Brentfor whom old Grig (who has also swelled into Gregor Magnus) associated with himself in the important du of governing some part of the north-eastern coast

Scotland.

CANTO V.

Note 1. Introduction. Caledonia's Queen is changed.

side by a lake, now drained, and on the south by The old town of Edinburgh was secured on the nort wall, which there was some attempt to make defensibl even so late as 1745. The gates, and the greater pu of the wall, have been pulled down, in the course the late extensive and beautiful enlargement of the city My ingenious and valued friend, Mr Thomas Campbe proposed to celebrate Edinburgh under the epithet her borrowed. But the « Queen of the North » has not beet so fortunate as to receive from so eminent a proposed distinction.

pen

th

Note 2. Introduction. Flinging thy white arms to the sea. Since writing this line, I find I have inadvertently borrowed it almost verbatim, though with somewhat a different meaning, from a chorus in « Caractacus #

Britain beard the descant bold,

She flung her white arms o'er the sea,
Proud in her leafy bosom to unfold
The freight of harmony.

Note 3. Introduction.

Since first, when conquering York arose,
To Henry meek she gave repose.

Henry VI. with his queen, his heir, and the chiefs of his family, fled to Scotland after the fatal battle of Towton. In this note a doubt was formerly expressed whether Henry VI. came to Edinburgh, though his queen certainly did; Mr Pinkerton inclining to believe that he

remained at Kirkcudbright. But my noble friend, Lord Napier, has pointed out to me a grant by Heurs, of an annuity of forty merks to his lordship's ancestor, John Napier, subscribed by the king himself at Edin burgh, the 28th day of August, in the thirty-ninth year of his reign, which corresponds to the year of God 1461. This grant, Douglas, with his usual neglect of accuracy, dates in 1368. But this error being corrected from the copy in Macfarlane's MSS. p. 119, 120, removes all scepticism on the subject of Henry VI. being really at Edinburgh. John Napier was son and heir of Sir Alexander Napier, and about this time was Provost of Edinburgh. The hospitable reception of the distressed monarch and his family called forth on Scotland the

Cng nouveau roy créerent

caium of Molinet, a contemporary poet. The Eng-knife, spear, or a good axe instead of a bow, if worth people, he says, 100l. their armour to be of white or bright harness. They wore white hats, i. e. bright steel caps without crest or visor. By an act of James IV. their weaponshawings are appointed to be held four times a-year, under the aldermen or bailiffs.

Par despiteux vouloir,

Le vieil en debout/rent,
Ei son legitime boir,

Qui faytyf alla prendre
D'Escosse le garand,

De tous siècles le mendre,

Et le plus tollerant.

Recollection des Aventures.

Note 4. Introduction.

the romantic strain,

Whose Anglo-Norman tones whilere
Could win the royal Henry's ear.

Note 8. Stanza iii.

On foot the yeoman too.

Bows and quivers were in vain recommended to the peasantry of Scotland, by repeated statutes; spears and axes seem universally to have been used instead of them. Their defensive armour was the plate-jack, hauberk, or brigantine: and their missile weapons Eis, in his valuable introduction to the « Spe- cross-bows and culverins. All wore swords of excellent is of Romance,» has proved, by the concurring temper, according to Patten, and a voluminous handbassy of La Ravaillère, Tressan, but especially the kerchief round their neck, « not for cold, but for cutAde in Rue, that the courts of our Anglo-Norman ting.» The mace also was much used in the Scottish way, rather than those of the French monarchs, pro-army. The old poem, on the battle of Flodden, menAnd the birth of Romance literature. Marie, soon tions a bandair mentioned, compiled from Armorican originals, translated into Norman-French, or romance lan, the twelve curious Lays, of which Mr Ellis has as a precis in the Appendix to his Introduction. Pery of Blondel, the famous and faithful minstrel *Erhard I., needs no commentary.

[ocr errors]

Note 5. Stanza i.

The cloth-yard arrows flew like hail.

Tas is no poetical exaggeration. In some of the
es of England, distinguished for archery, shafts
25 extraordinary length were actually used. Thus,
de battle of Blackheath, between the troops of
Mary VII, and the Cornish insurgents, in 1496, the
of Dartford was defended by a picked band of
from the rebel army, « whose arrows,» says
ed, were in length a full cloth-yard.» The
sh, according to Ascham, had a proverb, that
Eaglish archer carried under his belt twenty-four
6, allusion to his bundle of unerring shafts.
Note 6. Stanza ii.

[ocr errors]

To pass, to wheel, the croape to gain,
And bi;h curvett, that not in vain
The sword-sway might descend amain
On foeman's casque below.

The most useful air, as the Frenchmen term it, is ttery; the courbettes, cabrioles, or un pas et un being fitter for horses of parade and triumph for soldiers: yet I cannot deny but a demivolte Ya carbettes, so that they be not too high, may be in a light or meslee, for, as Labroue hath it, in Look of Horsemanship, Monsieur de Montmorency ang a horse that was excellent in performing the lte, did, with his sword, strike down two adPries from their horses in a tourney, where divers of prane gallants of France did meet; for, taking his when the horse was in the height of his courbette, scharging a blow then, his sword fell with such 24 and force upon the two cavaliers, one after her, that he struck them from their horses to the Fad-Lord Herbert of Cherbury's Life, p. 48. Note 7. Stanza ii.

[ocr errors]

He saw the hardy burghers there
March arm'd, on foot, with faces bare.

The Scottish burgesses were, like ycomen, appointed
be armed with bows and sheaves, sword, buckler,

Who manfally did meet their foes,

With leaden mauls, and lances long.

When the feudal array of the kingdom was called forth, each man was obliged to appear with forty days' provision. When this was expended, which took place before the battle of Flodden, the army melted away of course. Almost all the Scottish forces, except a few knights, men-at-arms, and the Border-prickers, who formed excellent light cavalry, acted upon foot.

[blocks in formation]

In all transactions, of great or petty importance, and among whomsoever taking place, it would seem, that a present of wine was an uniform and indispensable preliminary. It was not to Sir John Falstaff alone that such an introductory preface was necessary, however well judged and acceptable on the part of Mr Brook; for Sir Ralph Sadler, while on embassy to Scotland, in 1539-40, mentions with complacency, « the same night came Rothesay (the herald so called) to me again, and brought me wine from the king, both white and red.» Clifford's Edition, p. 39.

Note 10. Stanza ix.

his iron belt,

That hound his breast in penance pain,
In memory of his father slain.

Few readers need to be reminded of this belt, to the weight of which James added certain ounces every year

that he lived. Pitscottie founds his belief, that James was not slain in the battle of Flodden, because the English never had this token of the iron-belt to show to any Scotsman. The person and character of James are delineated according to our best historians. Ilis romantic disposition, which led him highly to relish Gaiety, approaching to license, was, at the same time, tinged with enthusiastic devotion. These propensities sometimes formed a strange contrast. He was wont, during his fits of devotion, to assume the dress, and

conform to the rules, of the order of Franciscans; and when he had thus done penance for some time in Stirling, to plunge again into the tide of pleasure. Probably, too, with no unusual inconsistency, he sometimes laughed at the superstitious observances to which he at other times subjected himself. There is a very

singular poem by Dunbar, seemingly addressed to James IV. on one of these occasions of monastic seclusion. It is a most daring and profane parody on the services of the church of Rome, entitled,

Dunbar's Dirge to the King,

Byding ower lang in Striviling.

We that are here, in heaven's glory,
To you that are in purgatory,
Commend us on our hearty wise;
I mean we folks in Paradise,
In Edinburgh, with all merriness,
To you in Stirling, with distress,
Where neither pleasure nor delight is,
For pity this epistle wrytis, etc.

See the whole in SIBBALD'S Collection, vol. I, p. 234.
Note 11. Stanza x.

Sir Hugh the Heron's wife held sway.

It has been already noticed, that King James's acquaintance with Lady Heron of Ford did not commence until he marched into England. Our historians impute to the king's infatuated passion the delays which led to the fatal defeat of Flodden. The author of «The Genealogy of the Heron Family» endeavours, with laudable anxiety, to clear the Lady Ford from this scandal: that she came and went, however, between the armies of James and Surrey, is certain. See PINKERTON'S History, and the authorities he refers to, vol. II, p. 99. Heron of Ford had been, in 1511, in some sort accessary to the slaughter of Sir Robert Ker of Cessford, Warden of the Middle Marches. It was committed by his brother the bastard, Lilburn, and Starked, three Borderers. Lilburn, and Heron of Ford, were delivered up by Henry to James, and were imprisoned in the fortress of Fastcastle, where the former died. Part of the pretence of Lady Ford's negotiations with James was the liberty of her husband.

Note 12. Stanza x.

For the fair Queen of France
Sent him a Turquois ring, and glove,

And charged him, as her knight and love,

For her to break a lance.

« Also the Queen of France wrote a love-letter to the King of Scotland, calling him her love, showing him that she had suffered much rebuke in France for the defending of his honour. She believed surely that he would recompense her again with some of his kingly support in her necessity: that is to say, that he would raise her an army, and come three foot of ground on English ground, for her sake. To that effect she sent him a ring off her finger, with fourteen thousand French crowns to pay his expenses.»> PITSCOTTIE, p. 110.-A Turquois ring-probably this fatal gift is, with James's sword and dagger, preserved in the College of Heralds, London.

nobility, who did not sympathise in the king's respec for the fine arts, were extremely incensed at the honour conferred on those persons, particularly on Cochrane a mason, who had been created Earl of Mar. An seizing the opportunity, when, in 1482, the king ha convoked the whole array of the country to marei against the English, they held a midnight counsel t the church of Lauder, for the purpose of forcibl removing these minions from the king's person. Whe all had agreed on the propriety of the measure, Lor Gray told the assembly the apologue of the Mice, wh had formed the resolution, that it would be highl advantageous to their community to tie a bell round th cat's neck, that they might hear her approach at distance; but which public measure unfortunate miscarried, from no mouse being willing to und take the task of fastening the bell. « I understand th moral,» said Angus, « and, that what we propose mi not lack execution, I will bell the cat." The rest the strange scene is thus told by Pitscottie:

« By this was advised and spoken by thir lords s foresaid, Cochran, the Earl of Mar, came from th king to the council (which counsel was holden in th kirk of Lauder for the time), who was well accom panied with a band of men of war, to the number c three hundred light axes, all clad in white livery, an black bends thereon, that they might be known fo Cochran Earl of Mar's men. Himself was clad in riding-pic of black velvet, with a great chain of gol about his neck, to the value of five hundred crown and four blowing horns, with both the ends of gol and silk, set with a precious stone, called a berry hanging in the midst. This Cochran had his heumon born before him, overgilt with gold; and so were al the rest of his horns, and all his pallions were of fin canvas of silk, and the cords thereof fine twined silk and the chains upon his pallions were double overgu with gold.

<< This Cochran was so proud in his conceit, that le counted no lords to be marrows to him; therefore he rushed rudely at the kirk-door. The council enquires who it was that perturbed them at that time. S Robert Douglas, laird of Lochleven, was keeper of the kirk-door at that time, who enquired who that was that knocked so rudely? And Cochran answered, 'Tha is I, the Earl of Mar.' The which news pleased well th lords, because they were ready boun to cause take h as is afore rehearsed. Then the Earl of Angus p hastily to the door, and with him Sir Robert Dou of Lochleven, there to receive in the Earl of Mar, an SO many of his complices who were there, as the thought good. And the Earl of Angus met with t Earl of Mar, as he came in at the door, and pulled the golden chain from his craig, and said to him a tow would set him better. Sir Robert Douglas syne pulled the blowing horn from him in like manner, and stid, Cochran asked, 'My lords, is it mows, or carnes He had been the hunter of mischief over long. Th They answered, and said, 'It is good earnest, and thou shalt find: for thou and thy complices have abused occasion: James the Third, of whom Pitscottie comour prince this long time; of whom thou shalt have plains, that he delighted more in music, and « policies no more credence, but shall have thy reward according of building,» than in hunting, hawking, and other noble exercises, was so ill-advised, as to make favour-by past; right so the rest of thy followers.' to thy good service, as thou hast deserved in times

Note 13. Stanza xiv.

-Archibald Bell-the-Cat.

Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus, a man remarkable for strength of body and mind, acquired the popular name of Bell-the-Cat, upon the following remarkable

ites of his architects, and musicians, whom the same historian irreverently terms masons and fiddlers. His

[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

129

Notwithstanding, the lords held them quiet till they used certain armed men to pass into the king's pal n, and two or three wise men to pass with them, nd give the king fair pleasant words, till they laid als on all the king's servants, and took them and anged them before his eyes over the bridge of Lawder. continent they brought forth Cochran, and his hands nd with a tow, who desired them to take one of his n pallion tows and bind his hands, for he thought same to have his hands bound with such a tow of mp, like a thief. The lords answered, he was a irator, he deserved no better; and, for despight, they tak a hair tether,' and hanged him over the bridge Lawder, above the rest of his complices.»-PITSCOT-century to President Dalrymple of North Berwick, by fit, p. 78, folio edit. the then Marquis of Douglas.

failure of his negotiation, for matching the infant Mary with Edward VI. He says, that though this place was poorly furnished, it was of such strength as might warrant him against the malice of his enemies, and that he now thought himself out of danger.'

There is a military tradition, that the old Scottish March was meant to express the words.

Note 14. Stanza xiv.

Against the war had Angus stood,

And chafed his royal lord.

lagus was an old man when the war against England To resolved upon. He earnestly spoke against that sure from its commencement; and, on the eve of The battle of Flodden, remonstrated so freely on the policy of fighting, that the king said to him with n and indignation, «< if he was afraid, he might go The earl burst into tears at this insupportable salt, and retired accordingly, leaving his sons, George, ster of Angus, and Sir William of Glenbervie, to mmand his followers. They were both slain in the te, with two hundred gentlemen of the name of glas. The aged carl, broken-hearted at the calaaies of his house and country, retired into a religious e, where he died about a year after the field of odden.

Note 15. Stanza xv.

Then rest you in Tantallon Hold.

The ruins of Tantallon Castle occupy a high rock jecting into the German ocean, about two miles east of North Berwick. The building is not seen till a close proach, as there is rising ground betwixt it and the had. The circuit is of large extent, fenced upon three by the precipice which overhangs the sea, and on The fourth by a double ditch and very strong outworks. Tantallon was a principal castle of the Douglas family, and when the Earl of Angus was banished, in 1527, it continued to hold out against James V. The king went person against it, and, for its reduction, borrowed from the castle of Dunbar, then belonging to the Duke of Albany, two great cannons, whose names, as Pitscotenforms us with laudable minuteness, were « Thrawnhd Mow and her Marrow ;» also, « two great botards, and two moyan, two double falcons, and four quarter falcons ;» for the safe guiding and re-delivery of which, three lords were laid in pawn at Dunbar. Yet, actwithstanding all this apparatus, James was forced a raise the siege, and only afterwards obtained posssion of Tantallon by treaty with the governor, SiCron Panango. When the Earl of Angus returned from bonishment, upon the death of James, he again obained possession of Tantallon, and it actually afforded refuge to an English ambassador, under circumstances milar to those described in the text. This was no other than the celebrated Sir Ralph Sadler, who resided there for some time under Angus's protection, after the

• Baller.

Ding down Tantallon,
Mak a brig to the Bass.

Tantallon was at length «dung down» and ruined by the Covenanters; its lord, the Marquis of Douglas, being a favourer of the royal cause. The castle and barony were sold in the beginning of the eighteenth

Note 16. Stanza xv. --their motto on his blade.

bears, among a great deal of flourishing, two hands
A very ancient sword in possession of Lord Douglas
pointing to a heart which is placed betwixt them, and
the date 1329, being the year in which Bruce charged
the Good Lord Douglas to carry his heart to the Holy
Land. The following lines (the first couplet of which
is quoted by Godscroft as a popular saying in his time)
are inscribed around the emblem:

So mony guid as of ye Douglas beinge,
Of ane surname was ne'er in Scotland seine.

I will ye charge, efter yat I depart,
To holy grawe, and there bury my hart;

Let it remaine ever BоTHE TIME AND HOWR
To ye last day I sie my Saviour.

I do protest in tyme of al my ringe,

Ye lyk subject had never ony keing.

This curious and valuable relique was nearly lost during the civil war of 1745-6, being carried away from Douglas Castle by some of those in arms for Prince Charles. But great interest having been made by the Duke of Douglas among the chief partisans of Stuart, it was at length restored. It resembles a Highland claymore, of the usual size, is of an excellent temper, and admirably poized.

Note 17. Stanza xxi.
-Martin Swart.

The name of this Gerinan general is preserved by that of the field of battle, which is called, after him, Swartmoor.-There were songs about him long current in England.-See Dissertation prefixed to RITSON's Ancient Songs, 1792, page lxi.

Note 18. Stanza xxi.
Perchance some form was unobserved:
Perchance in prayer, or faith, he swerved.

It was early necessary for those who felt themselves obliged to believe in the divine judgment being enunciated in the trial by duel, to find salvos for the strange and obviously precarious chances of the combat. Various curious evasive shifts, used by those who took up an unrighteous quarrel, were supposed sufficient to convert it into a just one. Thus, in the romance of « Amys and Amelion,» the one brother-in-arms, fighting for the other, disguised in his armour, swears that he did not commit the crime of which the Steward, his antagonist,

་་

The very curious State Papers of this able negotiator have been lately published by Mr Clifford, with some Notes by the author of Marmion.

and Plotcock, so far from implying any thing fabulous, was a synonyme of the grand enemy of mankind Yet all their warnings, and uncouth tidings, nor no good counsel, might stop the king, at this present, from his vain purpose, and wicked enterprise, but hasted him fast to Edinburgh, and there to make his provisions and furnishing, in having forth of his army against the day appointed, that they should meet in the Burrow-muir of Edinburgh: that is to say, seven cannons that he had forth of the castle of Edinburgh, || which were called the Seven Sisters, casten by Robert Borthwick, the master-gunner, with other small artillery, bullet, powder, and all manner of order, as the master-gunner could devise.

truly though maliciously, accused him whom he represented. Brantome tells a story of an Italian, who entered the lists upon an unjust quarrel, but, to make his cause good, fled from his enemy at the first onset. « Turn, coward!» exclaimed his antagonist. « Thou liest,» said the Italian, « coward am I none; and in this quarrel will fight to the death, but my first cause of combat was unjust, and I abandon it.» « Je vous laisse à penser,» adds Brantome, « s'il n'y a pas de l'abus la.» Elsewhere, he says, very sensibly, upon the confidence which those who had a righteous cause entertained of victory; Un autre abus y avoit-il, que ceux qui avoient un juste subjet de querelle, et qu'on les faisoit jurer avant entrer au camp, pensoient estre aussitost vainqueurs, voire s'en assuroient-t-ils du tout, mesme << In this mean time, when they were taking forth que leurs confesseurs, parrains, et confidants leurs en their artillery, and the king being in the Abbey for the respondoient tout-a-fait, comme si Dieu leur en eust | time, there was a cry heard at the Market-cross of Edindonné une patente; et ne regardant point à d'autres | burgh, at the hour of midnight, proclaiming as it had fautes passées, et que Dieu en garde la punition à ce been a summons, which was named and called by the coup là pour plus grande, despiteuse, et exemplaire.» | proclaimer thereof, The Summons of Plotcock; which -Discours sur les Duels.

[ocr errors]

Note 19. Stanza xxv.

Dun-Edin's Cross.

desired all men to compear, both Earl, and Lord, and!
Baron, and all honest gentlemen within the town
(every man specified by his own name), to compear,
within the space of forty days, before his master.
where it should happen him to appoint, and be for the

The Cross of Edinburgh was an ancient and curious structure. The lower part was an octagonal tower, sixteen feet in diameter, and about fifteen feet high. At time, under the pain of disobedience. But whether cach angle there was a pillar, and between them an this summons was proclaimed by vain persons, nightarch, of the Grecian shape. Above these was a pro- walkers, or drunken men, for their pastime, or if it jecting battlement, with a turret at each corner, and was a spirit, I cannot tell truly; but it was shown to medallions, of rude but curious workmanship, between me, that an indweller of the town, Mr Richard Lawthem. Above these rose the proper Cross, a column of son, being evil-disposed, ganging in his gallery-stair one stone, upwards of twenty feet high, surmounted foreanent the cross, hearing this voice proclaiming this with a unicorn. This pillar is preserved at the House summons, thought marvel what it should be, cried on of Drum, near Edinburgh. The magistrates of Edin-his servant to bring him his purse; and when he had burgh, in 1756, with consent of the Lords of Session, (proh pudor!) destroyed this curious monument, under a wanton pretext that it encumbered the street; while, on the one hand, they left an ugly mass, called the Luckenbooths, and, on the other, an awkward, long, and low guard-house, which were fifty times more encumbrance than the venerable and inoffensive Cross.

From the tower of the Cross, so long as it remained, the heralds published the acts of parliament; and its site, marked by radii, diverging from a stone centre, in the High Street, is still the place where proclamations are made.

Note 20. Stanza xxv.
This awful summons came.

brought him it, he took out a crown, and cast over the
stair, saying, I appeal from that summons, judgment,
and sentence thereof, and takes me all whole in the
mercy of God, in Christ Jesus his son. Verily the au-
thor of this, that caused me write the manner of the
summons, was a landed gentleman, who was at that
time twenty years of age, and was in the town the
time of the said summons; and thereafter, when the
field was stricken, he swore to me, there was no man
that escaped that was called in this summons, but that
one man alone which made his protestation, and 15-
pealed from the said summons: but all the lave were
perished in the field with the king.»

Note 21. Stanza xxix.
Fitz-Eustace bade them pause a while
Before a venerable pile.

some remains.

It was founded by Duncan, Earl of

This supernatural citation is mentioned by all our Scottish historians. It was probably, like the apparition at Linlithgow, an attempt, by those averse to the war, to impose upon the superstitious temper of James The convent alluded to is a foundation of Cistertian IV. The following account from Pitscottie is charac-nuns, near North Berwick, of which there are still teristically minute, and furnishes, besides, some curious particulars of the equipment of the army of James Fife, in 1216. IV. I need only add to it, that Plotcock, or Plutock, is no other than Pluto. The christians of the middle ages by no means disbelieved in the existence of the heathen deities: they only considered them as devils ; ' See, on this curious subject, the Essay on Fairies, in the Bor

der Minstrelsy, vol. II, under the fourth head; also Jackson on Unbelief, p. 175. Chaucer calls Pluto the King of Faerie; and Dunbar names him Pluto, that elrich incubus. If he was not

Note 22. Stanza xxxi.
That one of his own ancestry
Drove the monks forth of Coventry.

This relates to the catastrophe of a real Robert de Marmion, in the reign of King Stephen, whom William of Newbury describes with some attributes of my fictitious hero: « Homo bellicosus, ferocia, et astutia. actually the devil, he must be considered as the prince of the fere nullo suo tempore impar.» This baron, having power of the air. The most remarkable instance of these sur-expelled the monks from the church of Coventry, was viving classical superstitions, is that of the Germans, concerning the Hill of Venus, into which she attempts to entice all gallant not long of experiencing the divine judgment, as the |

knights, and detains them in a sort of Fool's Paradise.

same monks no doubt termed his disaster. Having

« 前へ次へ »