y Richard Fox, Bishop of Durham, tempore Henrici VIII. « We have further understood, that there are many chaplains in the said territories of Tynedale and Redesdale, who are public and open maintainers of concubinage, irregular, suspended, excommunicated, and interdicted persons, and withal so utterly ignorant of let ters, that it has been found by those who objected this to them, that there were some who, having celebrated mass for ten years, were still unable to read the sacra mental service. We have also understood there are persons among them who, although not ordained, do take upon them the offices of priesthood; and, in contempt of God, celebrate the divine and sacred rites, and administer the sacraments, not only in sacred and dedicated places, but in those which are prophane and denounced to the disobedient by the bloody and burnt marks upon this warlike signal. During the civil war of 1745-6, the fiery cross often made its circuit; and upon one occasion it passed through the whole district of Breadalbane, a tract of thirty-two miles, in three hours. The late Alexander Stewart, Esq. of Invernaliyle, described to me his having sent round the fiery cross through the district of Appine, during the same commotion. The coast was threatened by a descent from two English frigates, and the flower of the young men were with the army of Prince Charles Edward, then in England yet the summons was so effectual, that even old age and childhood obeyed it; and a force was collected in a few hours, so numerous and so enthusiastic, that all attempt at the intended diversion upon the country of the absent warriors was in prudence aban-interdicted, and most wretchedly ruinous; they them doned, as desperate. selves being attired in ragged, torn, and most filthy vestments, altogether unfit to be used in divine or even This practice, like some others, is common to the Highlanders with the ancient Scandinavians, as will ap-in temporal offices. The which said chaplains do admpear by the following extract from Olaus Magnus: nister sacraments and sacramental rites to the afore said manifest and infamous thieves, robbers, depredators, receivers of stolen goods, and plunderers, and that without restitution, or intention to restore, as evinced by the fact; and do also openly admit them to the rites of ecclesiastical sepulchre, without exacting security for restitution, although they are prohibited from doing so by the sacred canons as well as by the institutes of the saints and fathers. All which infers the heavy peril of their own souls, and is a pernicious example to the other believers in Christ, as well as no slight, but an aggravated injury to the numbers despoiled and plundered of their goods, gear, herds, and chattels,'» To this lively and picturesque description of the confessors and churchmen of predatory tribes, there may be added some curious particulars respecting the priests attached to the several septs of native Irish, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. These friars had indeed to «< When the enemy is upon the sea-coast, or within the limits of northern kingdomes, then presently, by the command of the principal governours, with the counsel and consent of the old soldiers, who are notably skilled in such like business, a staff of three hands length, in the common sight of them all, is carried, by the speedy running of some active young man, unto that village or city, with this command,—that on the 3, 4, or 8, day, one, two, or three, or else every man in particular, from fifteen years old, shall come with his arms, and expences for ten or twelve days, upon pain that his or their houses shall be burnt (which is intimated by the burning of the staff), or else the master to be hanged (which is signified by the cord tied to it), to appear speedily on such a bank, or field, or valley, to hear the cause he is called, and to hear orders from the said provincial governours what he shall do. Wherefore that messenger, swifter than any post or waggon, hav-plead, that the incursions, which they not only pardoning done his commission, comes slowly back again, bringing a token with him that he hath done all legally; and every moment one or another runs to every village, and tells those places what they must do.» - - - - « The messengers, therefore, or the footmen, that are to give warning to the people to meet for the battail, run fiercely and swiftly; for no snow, or rain, nor heat can stop them, nor night hold them; but they will soon run the race they undertake. The first messenger tells it to the next village, and that to the next; and so the hubbub runs all over till they all know it in that stift or territory, where, when, and wherefore they must meet.»OLAUS MAGNUS History of the Goths, englished by J. S. London, 1658, book iv, chap. 3, 4. Note 2. Stanza iv. That monk, of savage form and face. The state of religion in the middle ages afforded considerable facilities for those whose mode of life excluded them from regular worship, to secure, nevertheless, the ghostly assistance of confessors, perfectly willing to adapt the nature of their doctrine to the necessities and peculiar circumstances of their flock. Robin Hood, it is well known, had his celebrated domestic chaplain, Friar Tuck. And that same curtal friar was probably matched in manners and appearance by the ghostly fathers of the Tynedale robbers, who are thus described in an excommunication fulminated against their patrons ed, but even encouraged, were made upon those hostile And more t' augment the flame, of the The Monition against the Robbers of Tynedale and Redesdale, with which I was favoured by my friend Mr Surtees, of Mainiket may be found in the original Latin, in the Appendix to the intr duction to the Border Minstrelsy, No. VII. fourth edition. Lithgow's Travels, first edit. p. 431. Afürming that it is an almose deede to God, To make the English subjects taste the white he turnes to blacke; And through the pardons in his male, The wreckful invasion of a part of the English pale is then described with some spirit; the burning of uses, driving off cattle, and all pertaining to such predatory inroads, is illustrated by a rude cut. The defeat of the Irish by a party of English soldiers from the arrison, is then commemorated, and in like manper adorned with an engraving, in which the friar is ted mourning over the slain chieftain; or, as the rubric expresses it, Tefar then, that treacherous knave, with ongh ough-hone lament, This cousin Devill's-son to have so foul event. The matter is handled at great length in the text, of which the following verses are more than sufficient sample: The frier seving this, lamentes that lucklesse parte, And curseth to the pitte of hell the death man's sturdie barte: Yet for to quight them with the frier taketh paine, For all the synnes that ere he did And therefore serves his booke, the candell and the bell; But thinke you that suche apishe toies It longs not to my parte thei rise not from belowe. Yet hope that friers give to this rebellious rout, If that their soules should chaunce in hell, to bringe them quickly out, Doeth make them lead suche lives, Without revenge for their desartes, the fountain and the spring, Thei cause him to rebell against their soveraigne queene, And through rebellion often tymes their lives doe vanishe clene. So as by friers' meanes, in whom all follie swimme, The Irishe karne doe often lose the life, with hedde and limme.' As the Irish tribes, and those of the Scottish Highands, are much more intimately allied, by language, manners, dress, and customs, than the antiquaries of esther country have been willing to admit, I flatter mysif I have here produced a strong warrant for the chaThe following picture, acter sketched in the text. This curious Picture of Ireland was inserted by the author in The republication of Somers' Tracts, vol. I, in which the plates lave been also inserted, from the only impressions known to exist, bring to the copy in the Advocates Library. See Somers' Tracts, vol. 1, pp. 591, 594. though of a different kind, serves to establish the existence of ascetic religionists, to a comparatively late period, in the Highlands and Western Isles. There is a great deal of simplicity in the description, for which, as for much similar information, I am obliged to Dr John Martin, who visited the Hebrides at the suggestion of Sir Robert Sibbald, a Scottish antiquarian of emi-nence, and early in the eighteenth century published a description of them, which procured him admission into the Royal Society. He died in London about 1719. His work is a strange mixture of learning, observation, and gross credulity. << I remember,» says this author, « I have seen an old lay-capuchin here (in the island of Benbecula), called in their language Brahir-bocht, that is Poor Brother; which is literally true; for he answers this character, having nothing but what is given him: he holds himself fully satisfied with food and raiment, and lives in as great simplicity as any of his order! his diet is very mean, and he drinks only fair water: his habit is no less mortifying than that of his brethren elsewhere; he wears a short coat, which comes no farther than his middle, with narrow sleeves like a waistcoat: he wears a plad above it, girt about the middle, which reaches to his kuce: the plad is fastened on his breast with a wooden pin, his neck bare, and his feet often so too: he wears a hat for ornament, and the string about it is a bit of a fisher's line, made of horse-hair. This plad he wears instead of a gown worn by those of his order in other countries. I told him he wanted the flaxen girdle that men of his order usually wear: he answered me, that he wore a leather one, which was the same thing. Upon the matter, if he is spoke to when at meat, he answers again; which is contrary to the custom of his order. This poor man frequently diverts himself with angling of trouts; he lies upon straw, and has no bell (as others have) to call him to his devotion, but only his conscience, as he told me.»—MARTIN'S Description of the Western Islands, p. 82. Note 3. Stanza v. Of Brian's birth strange tales were told. The legend which follows is not of the author's invention. It is possible he may differ from modern critics, in supposing that the records of human superstition, if peculiar to, and characteristic of, the country in which the scene is laid, are a legitimate subject of poetry. He gives, however, a ready assent to the narrower proposition, which condemns all attempts of an irregular and disordered fancy to excite terror, by accumulating a train of fantastic and incoherent horrors, whether borrowed from all countries, and patched upon a narrative belonging to one which knew them not, or derived from the author's own imagination. In the present case, therefore, I appeal to the record which I have transcribed, with the variation of a very few words, from the geographical collections made by the Laird of Macfarlane. I know not whether it be necessary to remark, that the miscellaneous concourse of youths and maidens on the night and on the spot where the miracle is said to have taken place, might, even in a credulous age, have somewhat diminished the wonder which accompanied the conception of Gilli-Doir-Magrevollich. << There is bot two myles from Inverloghie, the church of Kilmalee, in Loghyeld. In ancient times there was so eager to have believed. It was a natural attribute of such a character as the supposed hermit, that he should credit the numerous superstitions with which the minds of ordinary Highlanders are almost always embued. A few of these are slightly alluded to in this stanza. The River Demon, or River-horse, for it is that form which he commonly assumes, is the Kelpy of the Lowlands, an evil and malicious spirit, delighting to forebode and ane church builded upon ane hill, which was above this church, which doeth now stand in this toune; and ancient men doeth say, that there was a battel foughten on ane little hill not the tenth part of a myle from this church, be certaine men which they did not know what they were. And long tyme thereafter, certain herds of that toune, and of the next toune, called Unnatt, both wenches and youthes, did on a time conveen with others on that hill; and the day being somewhat cold, did ga-to witness calamity. He frequents most Highland lakes ther the bones of the dead men that were slayne long time before in that place, and did make a fire to warm them. At last they did all remove from the fire, except one maid or wench, which was verie cold, and she did remain there for a space. She being quyetlie her alone, without any other companie, took up her clothes above her knees, or thereby, to warm her; a wind did come and caste the ashies upon her, and she was conceived of ane man-child. Several tymes thereafter she was verie. sick, and at last she was knowne to be with chyld. And then her parents did ask at her the matter heiroff, which the wench could not weel answer which way to satisfie them. At last she resolved them with ane answer. As fortune fell upon her concerning this marvellous miracle, the chyld being borne, his name was called Gili-doir Maghrevolich; that is to say, the Black Child, Son to the Bones. So called, his grandfather sent him to school, and so he was a good schollar, and godlie. He did build this church which doeth now stand in Lochyeld, called Kilmalie. »-MACFARLANE, ut supra, II, 188. Note 4. Stanza v. Yet ne'er again to braid her hair The virgin snood did Alice wear. and rivers; and one of his most memorable exploits was performed upon the banks of Loch Vennachar, in the very district which forms the scene of our action: it consisted in the destruction of a funeral procession, with all its attendants. The « noontide hag,» called in Gaelic Glas-lich, a tall, emaciated, gigantic female figure, is supposed in particular to haunt the district of Knoidart. A goblin dressed in antique armour, and having one hand covered with blood, called, from that circum stance, Lham-dearg, or Red-hand, is a tenant of the forests of Glenmore and Rothiemurcus. Other spirits of the desert, all frightful in shape and malignant in disposition, are believed to frequent different mountains and glens of the Highlands, where any unusual appear ance, produced by mist, or the strange lights that are sometimes thrown upon particular objects, never fails to present an apparition to the imagination of the solitary and melancholy mountaineer. Note 6. Stanza vii. The fatal Ben-Shie's boding scream. Most great families in the Highlands were supposed to have a tutelar, or rather a domestic spirit, attached to them, who took an interest in their prosperity, and intimated, by its wailings, any approaching disaster. The snood, or ribbon, with which a Scottish lass That of Grant of Grant was called May Moullach, and braided her hair, had an emblematical signification, and appeared in the form of a girl, who had her arm co applied to her maiden character. It was exchanged for vered with hair. Grant of Rothiemurcus had an attendthe curch, toy, or coif, when she passed, by marriage, aut called Bodach-an-dun, or the Ghost of the hill: into the matron state. But if the damsel was so unfor- and many other examples might be mentioned. The tunate as to lose pretensions to the name of maiden, Ban-Schie implies the female fairy, whose lamentwithout gaining a right to that of matron, she was nei-ations were often supposed to precede the death of a ther permitted to use the snood, nor advanced to the graver dignity of the curch. In old Scottish songs there occur many sly allusions to such misfortune, as in the old words to the popular tune of << Ower the muiramang the heather.>> Down amang the broom, the broom, Down amang the broom, my dearie, That gard her greet till she was wearie. Note 5. Stanza vii. The desert gave him visions wild, Such as might suit the spectre's child. In adopting the legend concerning the birth of the Founder of the Church of Kilmalie, the author has endeavoured to trace the effects which such a belief was likely to produce, in a barbarous age, on the person to whom it related. It seems likely that he must have become a fanatic or an impostor, or that mixture of both which forms a more frequent character than either of them, as existing separately. In truth, mad persons are frequently more anxious to impress upon others a faith in their visions, than they are themselves confirmed in their reality: as, on the other hand, it is difficult for the most cool-headed impostor long to personate an enthusiast, without in some degree believing what he is chieftain of particular families. When she is visible, it is in the form of an old woman, with a blue mante and streaming hair. A superstition of the same kind is, I believe, universally received by the inferior ranks of the native Irish. The death of the head of a Highland family is also sometimes supposed to be announced by a chain of lights of different colours, called Dr'eug, or death of the Druid. The direction which it takes marks the place of the funeral. Note 7. Stanza vii. Sounds, too, had come in midnight blast, Of charging steeds, careering fast Along Benbarrow's shingly side, Where mortal horseman ne'er might ride. believed to announce death to the ancient Highland A presage of the kind alluded to in the text is still family of M'Lean of Lochbuy. The spirit of an a cestor slain in battle is heard to gallop along a stoly bank, and then to ride thrice around the family restdence, ringing his fairy bridle, and thus intimating the approaching calamity. How easily the eye as well as In the first edition, this was erroneously explained as equ. 10 Ben Schichian, or the head of th. Fairies. valest Note 8. Stanza viii. Whose parents in Inch-Cailliach wave the ear may be deceived upon such occasions, is evident from the stories of armies in the air, and other spectral phenomena with which history abounds. Such an apparition is said to have been witnessed upon the side of Southfell mountain, between l'enrith and Keswick, upon the 23d June, 1744, by two persons, William Lancaster of Blakehills, and Daniel Stricket his servant, whose attestation to the fact, with a full account of the apparition, dated the 21st July, 1785, is printed in Clarke's Survey of the Lakes. The apparition consisted of several troops of horse moving in regular order, with a steady rapid motion, making a curved sweep around the fell, and seeming to the spectators to dis-the old Scottish King Alpine, are most remarkable. pear over the ridge of the mountain. Many persons Vitessed this phenomenon, and observed the last, or last but one, of the supposed troop, occasionally leave rank, and pass at a gallop to the front, when he resumed the same steady pace. This curious appearAnce, making the necessary allowance for imagination, may be perhaps sufficiently accounted for by optical deception.-Survey of the Lakes, p. 25, Inch-Cailliach, the Isle of Nuns, or of Old Women, is a most beautiful island at the lower extremity of Loch Lomond. The church belonging to the former nunnery was long used as the place of worship for the parish of Buchanan, but scarce any vestiges of it now remain. The burial ground continues to be used, and contains the family places of sepulture of several neighbouring clans. The monuments of the lairds of Macgregor, and of other families, claiming a descent from The Highlanders are as jealous of their rights of sepulture, as may be expected from a people whose whole laws and government, if clanship can be called so, turned upon the single principle of family descent. « May his ashes be scattered on the water,» was one of the deepest and most solemn imprecations which they used against an enemy. Note 9. Stanza xiii. the dun deer's hide On Bleeter foot was never tied. Supernatural intimations of approaching fate are Det, I believe, confined to Highland families. Howell rations having seen at a lapidary's, in 1632, a monuThe present brogue of the Highlanders is made of mental stone, prepared for four persons of the name of enham, before the death of each of whom, the in-half-dried leather, with holes to admit and let out the seription stated a white bird to have appeared and flut-water; for walking the moors dry-shod is a matter |tered around the bed, while the patient was in the last altogether out of question. The ancient buskin was 1.-Familiar Letters, edit. 1726, 247. Glanville entions one family, the members of which received this solemn sign by music, the sound of which floated from the family residence, and seemed to die in a Deghbouring wood; another, that of Captain Wood of lampton, to whom the signal was given by knocking. Fat the most remarkable instance of the kind occurs in S. Memoirs of Lady Fanshaw, so exemplary for er conjugal affection. Her husband, Sir Richard, and the chanced, during their abode in Ireland, to visit a friend, the head of a sept, who resided in his ancient monial castle, surrounded with a moat. At midEgit, she was awakened by a ghastly and supernatural Scream, and, looking out of bed, beheld, by the moongut, a female face and part of the form, hovering at the window. The distance from the ground, as well Is the circumstance of the moat, excluded the possideity that what she behield was of this world. The face was that of a young and rather handsome woman, but ale, and the hair, which was reddish, loose, and hevelled. The dress, which Lady Fanshaw's terror did not prevent her remarking accurately, was that of the ancient Irish. This apparition continued to exhibit if for some time, and then vanished with two shrieks imilar to that which had first excited Lady Fanshaw's allation. In the morning, with infinite terror, she communicated to her host what she had witnessed, and and him prepared not only to credit but to account for the apparition. «A near relation of my family, ad he, expired last night in this castle. We disguised our certain expectation of the event from you, lest it bald throw a cloud over the cheerful reception which as your due. Now, before such an event happens in family and castle, the female spectre whom you ave seen always is visible. She is believed to be the pirit of a woman of inferior rank, whom one of my testors degraded himself by marrying, and whom afterwards, to expiate the dishonour done his family, be caused to be drowned in the castle moat.»> d the hair outwards, a circumstance which procured the still ruder, being inade of undressed deer's hide, with Highlanders the well-known epithet of Red-shanks. The process is very accurately described by one Elder himself a Highlander), in the project for a union be tween England and Scotland, addressed to Henry VIII. « We go a hunting; and after that we have slain reddeer, we flay off the skin by and by, and setting of our bare-foot on the inside thereof, for want of cunning shoe-makers, by your grace's pardon, we play the coblers, compassing and measuring so much thereof as shall reach up to our ancles, pricking the upper part thereof with holes, that the water may repass where it enters, and stretching it up with a strong thong of the same above our said ancles. So, and please your noble grace, we make our shoes. Therefore, we using such manner of shoes, the rough hairy side outwards, in your Grace's dominions of England, we be called Rough footed Scots.»-PINKERTON'S History, vol. II, p. 397. Note 10. Stanza xv. The dismal coronach. The coronach of the Highlanders, like the ululatus of the Romans, and the ululoo of the Irish, was a wild expression of lamentation, poured forth by the mourners over the body of a departed friend. When the words of it were articulate, they expressed the praises of the deceased, and the loss the clan would sustain by his death. The following is a lamentation of this kind, literally translated from the Gaelic, to some of the ideas of which the text stands indebted. The tune is so popular, that it has since become the war-march, or gathering of the clan. Coronach on Sir Lauchlan, Chief of Maclean. Which of all the Senachies Can trace thy line from the root, up to Paradise, Than one of thy forefathers fell at Harlaw. 'T is no base weed-no planted tree, Wide, wide around were spread its lofty branches- and a solemn oath. In other respects, they were like most savage nations, capricious in their ideas concerning the obligatory power of oaths. One solemn mode of swearing was by kissing the dirk, imprecating upon themselves death by that, or a similar weapon, if they broke their vow. But for oaths in the usual form, they are said to have had little respect. As for the reverence due to the chief, it may be guessed from the following odd example of the Highland point of honour: « The clan whereto the above-mentioned tribe belongs, is the only one I have heard of, which is without a chief: that is, being divided into families, under The coronach has for some years past been super-several chieftains, without any particular patriarch of seded at funerals by the use of the bagpipe; and that also is, like many other Highland peculiarities, falling Thy dwelling is the winter house; Loud, sad, and mighty is thy death song! Oh! courteous champion of Montrose! Oh! stately warrior of the Celtic Isles! Thou shalt buckle thy harness on no more! into disuse, unless in remote districts. Note 11. Stanza xix. It glanced like lightning up Strath-Ire. A glance at the provincial map of Perthshire, or at any large map of Scotland, will trace the progress of the signal through the small district of lakes and mountains, which, in excercise of my poetical privilege, I have subjected to the authority of my imaginary chieftain; and which, at the period of my romance, was really occupied by a clan who claimed a descent from Alpine, a clan the most unfortunate, and most persecuted, but neither the least distinguished, least powerful, or least brave, of the tribes of the Gael. Slioch non rioghridh duchaisach Aig an robh crun no Halba othus The first stage of the fiery cross is to Duncraggan, a place near the Brigg of Turk, where a short stream divides Loch-Achray from Loch Vennachar. From thence, it passes towards Callender, and then, turning to the left up the pass of Lennie, is consigned to Norman at the chapel of Saint Bride, which stood on a small and romantic knoll in the middle of the valley, called StrathIre. Tombea and Arnandave, or Armandave, are names of places in the vicinity. The alarm is then supposed to pass along the lake of Lubnaig, and through the various glens in the district of Balquidder, including the neighbouring tracts of Glenfinlas and Strath-Gartney. It be Note 12. Stanza xxiv. Not faster o'er thy heathery braes, may necessary to inform the southern reader, that the heath on the Scottish moor-lands is often set fire to, that the sheep may have the advantage of the young herbage produced in room of the tough old heather-plants. This custom (execrated by sportsmen) produces occasionally the most beautiful nocturnal appearances, similar almost to the discharge of a volThe simile is not new to poetry. The charge of a warrior, in the fine ballad of Hardyknute, is said to cano. be like a fire to heather set.»> the whole name. And this is a great reproach, as may appear from an affair that fell out at my table, in the Bighlands, between one of that name and a Cameron. The provocation given by the latter, was-Name your chief.-The return of it, at once, was,-You are a fool. They went out next morning, but, having early notice of it, I sent a small party of soldiers after them, which, in all probability, prevented some barbarous mischief that might have ensued; for the chiefless Highlander, who is himself a petty chieftain, was going to the place appointed with a small sword and pistol, whereas the Cameron (an old man) took with him only his broadsword, according to agreement. << When all was over, and I had, at least seemingly, reconciled them, I was told the words, of which i seemed to think but slightly were, to one of the clan, the greatest of all provocations.»-Letters from the North of Scotland, vol. II, p. 221. Note 14. Stanza xxvii. <<This is a very steep and most romantic hollow in the mountain of Ben-venue, overhanging the southeastern extremity of Loch Katrine. It is surrounded with stupendous rocks, and overshadowed with birchtrees, mingled with 'oaks, the spontaneous production of the mountain, even where its cliffs appear denuded of soil. A dale in so wild a situation, and amid a people whose genius bordered on the romantic, did not remaia without appropriate deities. The name literally implies the Corri, or Den of the Wild or Shaggy Men. Perhaps this, as conjectured by Mr Alexander Campbell, may have originally only implied its being the haunt of a ferocious banditti. But tradition has ascribed to the Urisk, who gives name to the cavern, a figure between a goat and a man; in short, however much the classica! reader may be startled, precisely that of the Grecian Satyr. The Urisk seems not to have inherited, with the his occupations, on the contrary, resembled those of form, the petulance of the sylvan deity of the classics Milton's Lubber Fiend, or of the Scottish Brownie, appearance though he differed from both in name and |