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Spottiswoode, an honest, but credulous historian, ms to have been a firm believer in the authenticity the prophetic wares, vended in the name of Thomas of Ercildoun. < The prophecies, yet extant in Scottish raymes, whereupon he was commonly called Thomas the Rhymer, may justly be admired; having foretold,

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so many ages before, the union of England and Scotaymerland in the ninth degree of the Bruce's blood, with the this succession of Bruce himself to the crown, being yet a Audu. It child, and other divers particulars, which the event hath ..untess of ratified and made good. Boethius, in his story, reonsulting lateth his prediction of King Alexander's death, and er that she that he did foretel the same to the Earl of March, the nacters, pre-day before it fell out; saying, that before the next day young, or at noon, such a tempest should blow, as Scotland had er being be- not felt for many years before. The next morning al defended. If the day being clear, and no change appearing in the would sup-air, the nobleman did challenge Thomas of his saving, for the encou-calling him an impostor. He replied, that noon was not auring the Scottish yet passed. About which time, a post came to adver tess of Dunbar, tise the earl of the king his sudden death. Then, reased for the greater said Thomas, this is the tempest I foretold; and so this hypothesis, it shall it prove to Scotland.' Whence, or how, he had d after the siege of this knowledge, can hardly be affirmed; but sure it is. e zame of the countess that he did divine and answer truly of many things to the reign of Edward come.»-SPOTTISWOODE, p. 47. Besides that notable e prophecy is to aver, voucher, Master Hector Boece, the good archbishop the Scottish war (con- might, had he been so minded, have referred to Ford was proposed), till a final for the prophecy of King Alexander's death. That hisEngland, attended by all torian calls our bard « ruralis ille vates.»—FORDUS, lib. When the cultivated coun- x. cap. 40. s the prophecy:-when the What Spottiswoode calls « the prophecies extant in the abode of men;-when Scottish rhyme,» are the metrical predictions ascribed se to escape the English, should to the prophet of Ercildoun, which, with many other their form»-all these denun- compositions of the same nature, bearing the names of the time of Edward III. upon Bede, Merlin, Gildas, and other approved soothsayers section was probably founded. are contained in one small volume, published by Andro age betwixt a colt worth ten lart, at Edinburgh, 1615. The late excellent Lord se of whaty (indifferent) wheat,»llailes made these compositions the subject of a disserThe dreadful famine about the year tation, published in his Remarks on the History of Scot ece of Scotland was, however, as land. His attention is chiefly directed to the celebrated the aes of superstition, as to the prophecy of our bard, mentioned by Bishop Spotti sweetul and more wealthy neigh-woode, bearing, that the crowns of England and ScotScotland is, thank God, at an land should be united in the person of a king, son of a without her people having either French queen, and related to Bruce in the ninth degree. their form, or being drowned Lord Hailes plainly proves, that this prophecy is per Fute of shep,»-thank God for verted from its original purpose, in order to apply it to phecy quoted in p. 350, is probably the succession of James VI. The ground-work of the and intended for the same purpose. A forgery is to be found in the prophecies of Berlingtea records of the time would, pro- contained in the same collection, and runs thus: →onal light upon the allusions conent legends. Among various rhymes port, which are at this day current of Teviotdale, is one, supposed to * Thomas the Rhymer, presaging the at hạc habitation and family: bowl & le (litter) on my hearth-stane,

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will never be a Laird Learmont again.

these lines is obviously borrowed from
N of the Harl. Library.—« When hares
her'ston»-an emphatic image of de-
also inaccurately quoted in the pro-
have, published by Andro Hart, 1613:
e talking that Thomas of tells,
ve shall hirple on the hard (hearth) stane.

Of Bruce's left side shall spring out as a leafe,
As neere as the ninth degree;

And shall be fleemed of faire Scotland;

In France farre beyond the sea.

And then shall come againe ryding,
With eyes that many men may see.
At Aberladie he shall light,

With hempen helteres and horse of tre.

--

However it happen for to fall,
The lyon shal be lord of all;

The French quen shal bearre the sonne,
Shal rule all Brittaine to the sea;
Aue from the Bruce's blood shal come also,
As neere as the ninth degree.

Yet shal there come a keene knight over the salt sən,
A keene man of courage and bold man of armes;

A duke's son dowbled (i. e. dubbed), a borne man in France,
That shal our mirths augment, and mend all our barmes;
After the date of our Lord 1513, and thrice three thereafter;
Which shal brooke all the broad isle to himself,

Between 13 and thrice three the threip shal be ended,
The Saxons sall never recover after.

There cannot be any doubt, that this prophecy was intended to excite the confidence of the Scottish nation in the Duke of Albany, regent of Scotland, who arrived from France in 1515, two years after the death of James IV. in the fatal field of Flodden. The regent was descended of Bruce by the left, i. e. by the female side, within the ninth degree. His mother was daughter to the Earl of Boulogne, his father banished from his country- fleemed of faire Scotland.» His arrival must necessarily be by sea, and his landing was expected at Aberlady, in the Frith of Forth. He was a duke's son, dubbed knight; and nine years from 1513, are allowed him, by the pretended prophet, for the accomplishment of the salvation of his country, and the exaltation of Scotland over her sister and rival. All this was a pious fraud, to excite the confidence and spirit of

the country.

The prophecy, put in the name of our Thomas the Rhymer, as it stands in Hart's book, refers to a later period. The narrator meets the rhymer upon a land, beside a lee, who shows him many emblematical visions, described in no mean strain of poetry. They chiefly relate to the fields of Flodden and Pinkie, to the national distress which followed these defeats, and to future halcyon days, which are promised to Scotland. One quotation or two will be sufficient to establish this fully:

Our Scottish king sal come ful keene,
The red lyon beareth he;

A feddered arrow sharp, I weene,
Shal make him winke and warre to see.
Ont of the field he shal be led

When he is bludie and woe for blood;
Yet to his men shall he say,

For God's luve, turn you againe,
And give you southerne folk a frey!
Why should I lose the right is mine?
My date is not to die this day.

Who can doubt for a moment, that this refers to the battle of Flodden, and to the popular reports concerning the doubtful fate of James IV.? Allusion is immediately afterwards made to the death of George Doug las, heir apparent of Angus, who fought and fell with his sovereign:

The sternes three that day shall die,

That bears the harte in silver sheen.

narrator, concerning the name and abode of the person who showed him these strange matters, and the answer of the prophet to that question:

The well-known arms of the Douglas family are the heart and three stars. In another place, the battle of Pinkie is expressly mentioned by name:

At Pinken Cluch there shall be spilt

Much gentle blood that day;

There shall the bear lose the guilt,
And the eagill bear it away.

Then to the Bairne could I say,

Where dwells thou, or in what countrie? [Or who shall rule the isle of Britane, From the north to the youth sey?

A French queene shall beare the sonne, Shall rule all Britane to the sea; Which of the Bruce's blood shall come,

As neere as the nint degree:

I frained fast what was his name,

Where that he came, from what country.]

In Erslingtoun I dwell at hame,
Thomas Rymour men cals me.

There is surely no one, who will not conclude, with Lord Hailes, that the eight lines, inclosed in brackets, are a clumsy interpolation, borrowed from Berlington, with such alterations as might render the supposed prophecy applicable to the union of the crowns.

To the end of all this allegorical and mystical rhapsody is interpolated, in the later edition by Andro Hart, a new edition of Berlington's verses, before quoted, altered and manufactured so as to bear reference to the accession of James VI, which had just then taken place. The insertion is made, with a peculiar degree of awkwardness, betwixt a question put by the

While we are on this subject, it may be proper briefly to notice the scope of some of the other predictions in Hart's collection. As the prophecy of Berlington was intended to raise the spirits of the nation, during the regency of Albany, so those of Sybilla and Eltraine refer to that of the Earl of Arran, afterwards Duke of Chatelherault, during the minority of Mary, period of similar calamity. This is obvious from the following verses:

Take a thousand in calculation
And the longest of the lyon,

Four crescents under one crowne,
With Saint Andrew's croce thrise,
Then threescore and thrise three:
Take tent to Merling truely,

Then shall the warres ended be, And never againe rise.

In that yere there shall a king. A duke, and no crowned king; Becaus the prince shall be yong. And tender of yeares.

a

The date, above hinted at, seems to be 1549, when the Scottish regent, by means of some succours derived from France, was endeavouring to repair the consequences of the fatal battle of Pinkie. Allusion is made to the supply given to the « Moldwarte (England) by the fained hart» (the Earl of Angus). The regent is described by his bearing the antelope; large supplies are promised from France, and complete conquest predicted to Scotland and her allies. Thus was the same hackneyed stratagem repeated, whenever the interest of the rulers appeared to stand in need of it. The regent was not, indeed, till after this period, created Duke of Chatelherault; but that honour was the object of his hopes and expectations.

The name of our renowned soothsayer is liberally used as an authority, throughout all the prophecies published by Andro Hart. Besides those expressly put in his name, Gildas, another assumed personage, is supposed to derive his knowledge from him; for he concludes thus:

True Thomas me told in a troublesome time
In a harvest morn at Eldoun hills.

The Prophecy of Gildas.

In the prophecy of Berlington, already quoted, we are told,

Marvellous Merlin, that many men of tells,
And Thomas's sayings comes all at once.

name,

prophecies was published, describes himself as lying upon Lomond Law; he hears a voice, which bids him stand to his defence; he looks around, and beholds a flock of hares and foxes pursued over the mountains by a savage figure, to whom he can hardly give the name of man. At the sight of Waldhave, the appa

with a club. Waldhave defends himself with his sword, throws the savage to the earth, and refuses to let him arise, till he swears by the law and lead he lives upon, « to do him no harm,» This done, he permits him to arise, and marvels at his strange appearance:

While I am upon the subject of these prophecies, may I be permitted to call the attention of antiquaries to Merdwynn Wyllt, or Merlin the Wild, in whose and by no means in that of Ambrose Merlin, the friend of Arthur, the Scottish prophecies are issued. That this personage resided at Drummelzier, and roamed, like a second Nebuchadnezzar, the woods of Tweed-rition leaves the objects of his pursuit and assaults him dale, in remorse for the death of his nephew, we learn from Fordun. In the Scotichronicon, lib. iii, cap. 31, is an account of an interview betwixt St Kentigern and Merlin, then in this distracted and miserable state. He is said to have been called Lailoken, from his-mode of life. On being commanded by the saint to give an account of himself, he says, that the penance which he performs was imposed on him by a voice from heaven, during a bloody contest betwixt Lidel and Carwanolow, of which battle he had been the cause. According to his own prediction, he perished at once by wood, earth, and water; for, being pursued with stones by the rustics, he fell from a rock into the river Tweed, and was transfixed by a sharp stake, fixed there for the purpose of extending a fishing net:

Sude perfossus, lapide percussus et unda,

Hæc tria Merlinum fertur inire necem,
Sicque ruit, mersusque fuit liguoque pependit,
Et fecit vatem per terna pericula verum.

He was formed like a freike (man) all his four quarters;
And then his chin and his face haired so thick,

With haire growing so grime, fearful to see.

He answers briefly to Waldhave's inquiry concerning
his name and nature, that he « drees his weird,» i e.
does penance, in that wood; and having hinted that
forth an obscure rhapsody concerning futurity, and
questions as to his own state are offensive, he pours
concludes,

Go musing upon Merling if thou wilt;
For I mean no more man at this time.

This is exactly similar to the meeting betwixt Merha But, in a metrical history of Merlin of Caledonia, and Kentigern in Fordun. These prophecies of Mercompiled by Geoffrey of Monmouth, from the tradi-lin seem to have been in request in the minority of tions of the Welch bards, this mode of death is attributed to a page, whom Merlin's sister, desirous to convict the prophet of falsehood, because he had betrayed her intrigues, introduced to him, under three various disguises, enquiring each time in what manner the person should die. To the first demand Merlin answered, the party should perish by a fall from a rock; to the second, that he should die by a tree; to the third, that he should be drowned. The youth perished, while hunting, in the mode imputed by Fordun to Merlin

himself.

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When Tweed and Pansayl join at Merlin's grave,
Scotland and England shall one monarch have.

On the day of the coronation of James VI., the Tweed accordingly overflowed, and joined the Pausayl at the prophet's grave. PENNYCUICK'S History of Tweeddale, p. 26. These circumstances would seem to infer a communication betwixt the south-west of Scotland and Wales, of a nature peculiarly intimate; for I presume that Merlin world retain sense enough to chuse, for the scene of his wanderings, a country having a language and manners similar to his own.

Be this as it may, the memory of Merlin Sylvester, or the Wild, was fresh among the Scots during the reign of James V. Waldhave, under whose name a set of

I do not know whether the person here meant be Waldhave, an abbot of Melrose, who died in the odour of sanctity, about 1160.

The strange occupation, in which Waldhave beholds Merla engaged, derives some illustration from a curious passage in Geoffrey of Monmouth's life of Merlin, above quoted. The poem, after narrating that the prophet had fled to the forests in a state of dis traction, proceeds to mention, that, looking upon the stars one clear evening, he discerned, from his astronomical knowledge, that his wife, Guendolen, had resolved, upon the next morning, to take another husband. As he had presaged to her that this would happen, and had promised her a nuptial gift (cautioning her, however, to keep the bridegroom out of his sight), he now resolved to make good his word. Accordingly, he collected all the stags and lesser game in his neighbourhood, and, having seated himself on a buck drove the herd before him to the capital of Cumb rland, where Guendolen resided. But her lover's curiosity leading him to inawakened, and he slew him, with a stroke of an antler of the stag spect too nearly this extraordinary cavalcade, Merlin's rage was The original runs thus:

Dixerat: et silvas et saltus circuit ompes,

Cervorumque greges agmen collegit in unum,
Et damas, capreasque simul, cervoque resedir,
Et veniente die, compellens agmina præe se,
Festinans vadit quo nubit Guendolana.
Postquam venit eo, patienter coegit
Cervos ante fores, proclamans, Guendolana,
Guendolana, veni, te talia munera spectant."
Ocius ergo venit subridens Guendolana,
Gestarique virum cervo miratur, et illum
Sic parere viro, tantum quoque posse ferarum
Uniti numerum quas præ se solus agebat,
Sicut pastor oves, quas ducere suevit ad berbas,
Stabai ab excelsa sponsus spectansque fenestra
In solio mirans equitem, risumque movebat.
Ast ubi vidit eum vates, animoque quis esset,
Calluit, extemplo divulsit cornua cervo
Quo gestabatur, vibrataque jecit in illum
Et caput illius penitus contrivit, eumque
Reddidit exanimem, vitamque fugavit in auras;
Ocius inde suum, talorum verbere, cervum
Diffugiens egit, silvasque redire paravit.

in the Cotton library, nearly coeval with the author, I was indebted
For a perusal of this curious poem, accurately copied from a Y

to my learned friend, the late Mr Ritson. There is an excellent paraphrase of it in the curious and entertaining Specimens of Lany English Romances, published by Mr Ellis.

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Another prophecy of Merlin seems to have been current about the time of the regent Morton's execution. -When that nobleman was committed to the charge of his accuser, Captain James Stewart, newly created Earl of Arran, to be conducted to his trial at Edinburgh, Spottiswoode says that he asked, «‘Who was Earl of Arran?' and being answered that Captain James was the man, after a short pause he said, And is it so? I know then what I may look for!' meaning, as was thought, that the old prophecy of the Falling of the heart by the mouth of Arran,' should then be fulfilled. Whether this was his mind or not, it is not known; but some spared not, at the time when the Hamiltons were banished, in which business he was held too earnest, to say, that he stood in fear of this prediction, and went that course only to disappoint it. But, if so it was, he did find himself now deluded; for he fell by the mouth of another Arran than he imagined.»SPOTTISWOODE, p. 313. The fatal words alluded to seem to be these in the prophecy of Merlin:

In the mouth of Arrane a selcouth shall fall,
Two bloodie hearts shall be taken with a false traine,
And derfly dung down without any dome.

To return from these desultory remarks, into which the editor has been led by the celebrated name of Merlin, the style of all these prophecies, published by Hart, is very much the same. The measure is alliterative,

four bookes, at the instance and request of the said King Sol, and other divers: and the fourth book was directed to a noble king, called Baldwine, king of the broad isle of Britain; in the which she maketh mention of two noble princes and emperours, the which is called Leones. How these two shall subdue, and overcome

all earthlie princes to their diademe and crowne, and also be glorified and crowned in the heaven among saints. The first of these two is Constantinus Magnus; that was Leprosus, the son of Saint Helene, that found the croce. The second is the sixt king of the name of Steward of Scotland, the which is our most noble king. With such editors and commentators, what wonder that the text became unintelligible, even beyond the usual oracular obscurity of prediction?

If there still remain, therefore, among these predictions, any verses having a claim to real antiquity, it seems now impossible to discover them from those which are comparatively modern. Nevertheless, as there are to be found, in these compositions, some uncommonly wild and masculine expressions, the editor has been induced to throw a few passages together, into the sort of ballad to which this disquisition is prefixed. It would, indeed, have been no difficult matter for him, by a judicious selection, to have excited, in favour of Thomas of Ercildoun, a share of the admiration, bestowed by sundry wise persons upon Mass Robert Fleming. For example:

But then the lilye shall be loused when they least think;
Then clear king's blood shal quake for fear of death;
For churls shal chop off heads of their chief beirns,
And carfe of the crowns that Christ hath appointed.

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Thereafter on every side sorrow shal arise;
The barges of clear barons down shal be sunken;
Seculars shal sit in spiritual seats,

Occupying offices anointed as they were.

Taking the lily for the emblem of France, can there be a more plain prophecy of the murder of her monarch, the destruction of her nobility, and the desolation of her hierarchy ?

But, without looking farther into the signs of the times, the editor, though the least of all the prophets, cannot help thinking that every true Briton will approve of his application of the last prophecy quoted in the ballad.

tensions of the unfortunate family of Stuart. For the

Before leaving the subject of Thomas's predictions, it may be noticed, that sundry rhymes, passing for his prophetic effusions, are still current among the vulgar. Thus, he is said to have prophesied of the very ancient family of Haig of Bemerside,

and somewhat similar to that of Pierce Plowman's Visons; a circumstance which might entitle us to ascribe to some of them an earlier date than the reign James V., did we not know that Sir Galloran of GalHart's collection of prophecies has been frequently loway, and Gawaine and Gologras, two romances rendered almost unintelligible by the extremity of af-printed within the century, probably to favour the prefected alliteration, are perhaps not prior to that period. prophetic renown of Gildas and Bede, see FORDUN, Indeed, although we may allow, that during much ear-lib. 3. her times, prophecies, under the names of those celebrated soothsayers, have been current in Scotland, yet those published by Hart have obviously been so often vamped and re-vamped, to serve the political purposes of different periods, that it may be shrewdly suspected, that, as in the case of Sir John Cutler's transmigrated stockings, very little of the original materials now remains. I cannot refrain from indulging my readers with the publisher's title to the last prophecy; as it contains certain curious information concerning the Queen of Sheba, who is identified with the Cumæan Sybil :— Here followeth a prophecie, pronounced by a noble queene and matron, called Sybilla, Regina Austri, that came to Solomon. Through the which she compiled

The heart was the coguizance of Morton.

Betide, betide, whate'er betide,
Haig shall be Haig of Bemerside.

The grandfather of the present proprietor of Bemerside had twelve daughters, before his lady brought him a male heir. The common people trembled for the The late Mr Haig credit of their favourite soothsayer. was at length born, and their belief in the prophecy confirmed beyond a shadow of doubt.

Another memorable prophecy bore, that the Old Kirk of Kelso, constructed out of the ruins of the Abbey.

should fall when «at the fullest.» At a very crowded sermon, about thirty years ago, a piece of lime fell from the roof of the church. The alarm, for the fulfilment of the words of the seer, became universal; and happy were they who were nearest the door of the predestined edifice. The church was in consequence deserted, and has never since had an opportunity of tumbling upon a full congregation. I hope, for the sake of a beautiful specimen of Saxo-Gothic architecture, that the accomplishment of this prophecy is far distant.

Another prediction, ascribed to the Rhymer, seems to have been founded on that sort of insight into futurity, possessed by most men of a sound and combining judgment. It runs thus:

At Eildon Tree if you shall be,

A brigg ower Tweed you there may see.

The spot in question commands an extensive prospect of the course of the river; and it was easy to foresee, that when the country should become in the least degree improved, a bridge would be somewhere thrown over the stream. In fact, you now see no less than three bridges from that elevated situation.

Corspatrick (Comes Patrick), Earl of March, but more commonly taking his title from his castle of Dunbar, acted a noted part during the wars of Edward I. in Scotland. As Thomas of Ercildoun is said to have delivered to him his famous prophecy of King Alexander's death, the author has chosen to introduce him into the following ballad. All the prophetic verses are selected from Hart's publication.

PART II.

ALTERED FROM ANCIENT PROPHECIES.

WHEN seven years were come and gane,
The sun blink'd fair on pool and stream;

And Thomas lay on Huntlie bank,

Like one awaken'd from a dream.

He heard the trampling of a steed,
He saw the flash of armour flee,

And he beheld a gallant knight,
Come riding down by the Eildon Tree.

He was a stalwart knight, and strong;
Of giant make he 'pear'd to be:
He stirr'd his horse, as he were wode,
Wi' gilded spurs, of faushion free.

Says-« Well met, well met, true Thomas!

Some uncouth ferlies show to me.»> Says-Christ thee save, Corspatrick brave! Thrice welcome, good Dunbar, to me! «Light down, light down, Corspatrick brave, And I will show thee curses three, Shall gar fair Scotland greet and grane, And change the green to the black livery.

« A storm shall roar, this very hour, From Rosse's Hills to Solway sea.»

« Ye lied, ye lied, ye warlock hoar!

For the sun shines sweet on fauld and lea.>>

He put his hand on the earlie's head;

He shew'd him a rock, beside the sea, Where a king lay stiff, beneath his steed,' And steel-dight nobles wiped their ee.

«The neist curse lights on Branxton Hills:
By Flodden's high and heathery side,
Shall wave a banner red as blude,
And chieftains throng wi meikle pride.

«A Scottish king shall come full keen; The ruddy lion beareth he;

A feather'd arrow sharp, I ween,

Shall make him wink and warre to see.

<< When he is bloody, and all to bledde, Thus to his men he still shall say'For God's sake turn ye back again,

And give yon southern folk a fray! Why should I lose the right is mine?

My doom is not to die this day.'

«Yet turn ye to the eastern hand,
And woe and wonder ye sall see;
How forty thousand spearmen stand,
Where yon rank river meets the sea.

«There shall the lion lose the gylte,
And the libbards bear it clean away;
At Pinkyn Cleuch there shall be spilt
Much gentil blude that day.»>

« Enough, enough, of curse and ban;
Some blessing show thou now to me,
Or, by the faith o' my bodie,» Corspatrick said,
«Ye shall rue the day ye e'er saw me!>>

<< The first of blessings I shall thee show, Is by a burn, that's call'd of bread;3 Where Saxon men shall tine the bow, And find their arrows lack the head.

« Beside that brigg, out-ower that burn,

Where the water bickereth bright and sheen,

Shall many a falling courser spurn,
And knights shall die in battle keen.

«Beside a headless cross of stone,

The libbards there shall lose the gree; The raven shall come, the erne shall go, And drink the Saxon blood sae free. The cross of stone they shall not know, So thick the corses there shall be...»

<< But tell me now,» said brave Dunbar, << True Thomas, tell now unto me, What man shall rule the isle Britain,

Even from the north to the southern sea?»

King Alexander; killed by a fall from his horse, near Kinghorw * The uncertainty which long prevailed in Scotland concern, the fate of James IV. is well known.

One of Thomas's rhymes, preserved by tradition, ran thus:

The burn of breid Shall run fow reid.

Bannockburn is the brook here meant. The Scots give the name of bannock to a thick round cake of unleavened bread.

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