2-3. Consult the map, p. 215.

4. Look up the illustrated article on castle in Webster's International or in the Century Dictionary.

"According to Mr. Pinkerton, there is, in the British Museum, a curious memoir of the Dacres on the state of Norham Castle in 1522, not long after the battle of Flodden. The inner ward or keep is represented as impregnable: "The provisions are three great vats of salt eels, forty-four kine, three hogsheads of salted salmon, forty quarters of grain, besides many cows, and four hundred sheep lying under the castle wall nightly; but a number of the arrows wanted feathers, and a good Fletcher (i.e. maker of arrows) was required."" SCOTT, History of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 201, note.

14. Saint George's banner. Norham Castle stood on the English side of the Tweed and, of course, displayed St. George's banner, a red cross on a white ground, at that time the flag of England.

26. The Border is a name given to the territory on either side of the line dividing England and Scotland.

29. Horncliff-hill. The village of Horncliff is a short distance below Norham on the Tweed. Marmion comes from the coast. Look up the meaning of "plump."

39. The captain. The knight in charge of the castle. For his name and titles see 192. For the reason of his great eagerness to welcome Marmion see iii. 248. An office-holder naturally desires influence at court.

43. Malvoisie. The Malmsey wine. A sweet wine made now mostly in the Canary and Madeira Islands and in Spain.

57. Let the drawbridge fall. See vi. 436, 445, and 485.

65 and 73. Look up the dates of Flodden and Bosworth. Estimate Marmion's age.

77. A leader sage. Certain critics have called attention to the want of connection between some of the particulars enumerated in this sentence and the conclusion. The "square-turned joints" and

"curly hair," so it is claimed, are quite as often accompaniments of stupidity as of wisdom. What is your opinion?

79. Milan, Italy, was celebrated for the manufacture of fine steel armor.

88. To check, in falconry, is to turn, when in pursuit of proper game, and fly after other birds. The motto is a hint to mind one's own business, or at least to avoid interference with the affairs of Marmion.

89. Students with even slight skill in drawing with colored crayon or water colors will find their mental picture sharpened by trying a sketch of Lord Marmion as he rode in over the drawbridge.

42.

95. Gilded spurs. One of the emblems of knighthood. See vi.

98. Bear the ring away. A ring was suspended at about the height of the head or breast of a man on horseback. The young squires in training for knighthood were taught to ride at full speed and bear away the ring on the point of a lance.

107. Ambling palfrey. Supply, for use. 108. Him listed ease his battle-steed.

The

Ease is an infinitive used as the subject of listed. Him is the indirect object of listed. clause means, when it pleased him to ease or rest his war-horse.

116. In hosen black. Hosen is the Old English weak plural. The language once had oxen, housen, eyen, and not a few other such plurals. But the ending in s of the strong nouns, the most numerous class, has supplanted the weak form. We still have oxen in use, together with the irregularly formed plurals, children and brethren. See en in your dictionary.

122. A cloth-yard shaft. An arrow a cloth-yard long. The English cloth measure was 45 inches, the Scottish 37. See v. 18. 125. Dusty palfreys. The time is August.

139. Morrice-pikes. The Morrice Pike or Moorish Pike was a heavy spear.

149. Brook. To render submissive. Hence, to manage, or control, to guide with the rein.

151. Tabards. See Webster's International for a cut.

157. Lord of Fontenaye. "Lord Marmion, the principal character of the present romance, is entirely a fictitious personage. In 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 honorable 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 family became extinct in the person of Philip de Marmion. I have not, therefore, created a new family, but only revived the titles of an old one in an imaginary personage." -SCOTT, Notes.

It was the proud duty of the royal champion, to whom Scott alludes, to ride into the coronation hall in advance of the royal procession and demand in a loud voice whether any one wished to question the right of the new king to be crowned, a custom now discontinued.

170. Heralds loudly cried. Note that Marmion is greeted by minstrels, on whom, and the soldiery, he showers a handful of golden coins; the pursuivants, who are attendant upon the heralds as the squires are attendant upon the knight, meet him on the doorstep of the donjon, and are rewarded by a golden chain; the heralds announce his station and martial virtues to the guests in the hall; finally Sir Hugh comes forward and conducts him to the seat of honor.

171. Lordlings. Gentlemen. A term used by an inferior in addressing a company. Its application does not indicate rank. See Chaucer's prologue for a similar use of lordynges by the host of the "Tabard," who is not addressing men of rank.

"Now, lordynges, trewely,

Ye been to me right welcome, hertely.”

175-190. Ralph de Wilton. The student will do well to anticipate by reading ii. 518-537, and v. 580-622. Look up an account of the ordeal by combat. A fine description of such a combat is

given in Ivanhoe.

192. Sir Hugh the Heron. "Were accuracy of any consequence in a fictitious narrative, this castellan's name ought to have been William; for William Heron of Ford was husband to the famous Lady Ford, whose siren charms are said to have cost our James IV. so dear. Moreover, the said William Heron was, at the time supposed, a prisoner in Scotland, being surrendered by Henry VIII., on account of his share in the slaughter of Sir Robert Ker of Cessford. His wife, represented in the text as residing at the Court of Scotland, was, in fact, living in her own castle at Ford." — SCOTT, Notes.

200. A rhyme of deadly feud. The quotation is from a ballad called The Death of Featherstonehaugh and may be found in Scott's Border Minstrelsy. It is stated on the authority of Lockhart that the ballad was written by an acquaintance of Scott and was palmed off on him as a genuine border ballad of antiquity. The short passage illustrates the value of looking into the formation of proper names. Wick, for instance, means village, being borrowed from the Latin vicus, and appears in Berwick, Warwick, and in Hawick. Riding is from an old thriding (= thirding), meaning the third part. The North-thriding, or North-third, of Yorkshire became the North-riding by dropping the second th. Finally the term riding came to mean a division of a county. Hardriding Dick is simply Richard of Hardriding without reference to his horsemanship. A haugh is a low meadow by a stream, and shaw signifies a wood or copse. Except as they were wisely retained from the Indians our American names have little local significance.

217. Arms from rust. By using them.

235. That page. The allusion is to Constance whose fate closes the second canto.

264. Lindisfarn. A convent from which Marmion had enticed Constance, but to which he had lately returned, or more properly betrayed her, now that she had become troublesome in his suit for Clare. The convent is on a semi-island off the coast of Northumberland a day's ride from Norham.

281. In fair Queen Margaret's bower. See note on 192 for historical facts. As to whether Lady Heron is the Queen's guest at Edinburgh see v. 287-290, 293-312, and 361-379.

309. Light to set their hoods. "The garrisons of the English castles of Wark, Norham, and Berwick were, as may be easily supposed, very troublesome neighbors to Scotland. Sir Richard Maitland of Ledington wrote a poem called The Blind Baron's Comfort, when his barony of Blythe, in Lauderdale, was harried by Rowland Foster, the English captain of Wark, with his company, to the number of 300 men. They spoiled the poetical knight of 5000 sheep, 200 nolt, 30 horses and mares; the whole furniture of his house of Blythe, worth 100 pounds Scots, and everything else that was portable.

"The last line of the text contains a phrase by which the Borderers jocularly intimated the burning a house. When the Maxwells, in 1685, burned the castle of Lockwood, they said they did so to give the Lady Johnstone 'light to set her hood.' Nor was the phrase inapplicable; for, in a letter to which I have mislaid the reference, the earl of Northumberland writes to the king and council, that he dressed himself, at midnight, at Warwick, by the blaze of the neighboring villages burned by the Scottish marauders.”. SCOTT, Notes.

341. Too well in case. In high condition, too corpulent.

342. Shoreswood and Tillmouth were villages in the neighborhood. Note the make-up of both words.