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14. - -his highland cheer,

what she had done. He spat in her eye, and ex- unfortunate earl of Strafford: "It was true, we tinguished it forever."-GRAHAME's Sketches, p. give laws to hares and deer, because they are 116-118. It is very remarkable, that this story, beasts of chase; but it was never accounted either translated by Dr. Grahame from popular Gaelic tra- cruelty or foul play to knock foxes or wolves on dition, is to be found in the Otia Imperialia of the head as they can be found, because they are Gervase of Tilbury. A work of great interest beasts of prey. In a word, the law and humanity might be compiled upon the origin of popular fic- were alike; the one being more fallacious, and the tion, and the transmission of similar tales from other more barbarous, than in any age had been age to age, and from country to country. The my-vented in such authority."-CLARENDON's History thology of one period would then appear to pass of the Rebellion. Oxford, 1702, fol. vol. p. 183. into the romance of the next century, and that into the nursery-tale of the subsequent ages. Such The hardened flesh of mountain-deer.-P. 148. an investigation, while it went greatly to diminish The Scottish highlanders, in former times, had our ideas of the richness of human invention, would a concise mode of cooking their venison, or rather also show, that these fictions, however wild and of dispensing with cooking it, which appears greatchildish, possesses such charms for the populace, ly to have surprised the French, whom chance as to enable them to penetrate into countries un-made acquainted with it. The vidame of Chartres, connected by manners and language, and having no when a hostage in England, during the reign of apparent intercourse to afford the means of trans- Edward VI, was permitted to travel into Scotland, mission. It would carry me far beyond my bounds and penetrated as far as to the remote highlands, to produce instances of this community of fable, (au fin fond des sauvages.) After a great huntamong nations who never borrowed from each ing party, at which a most wonderful quantity of other any thing intrinsically worth learning. In-game was destroyed, he saw these Scottish savages deed, the wild diffusion of popular fictions may be devour a part of their venison raw, without any compared to the facility with which straws and further preparation than compressing it between feathers are dispersed abroad by the wind, while two battons of wood, so as to force out the blood, valuable metals cannot be transported without and render it extremely hard. This they reckoned trouble and labour. There lives, 1 believe, only a great delicacy; and when the vidame partook of one gentleman, whose unlimited acquaintance with it, his compliance with their taste rendered him this subject might enable him to do it justice; 1 extremely popular. This curious trait of manners mean my friend Mr. Francis Douce, of the Brit- was communicated by Mons. de Montmorency, a ish Museum, whose usual kindness will, I hope, great friend of the vidame, to Brantome, by whom pardon my mentioning his name, while on a sub- it is recorded in Vies des Hommes Illustres, Disject so closely connected with his extensive and curious researches.

12.

-I sunk down in a sinful fray, And, 'twixt life and death, was snatched away To the joyless elfin bower.-P. 145. The subjects of fairy land were recruited from the regions of humanity by a sort of crimping system, which extended to adults as well as to infants. Many of those who were in this world supposed to have discharged the debt of nature, had only become denizens of the "Londe of Faery." In the beautiful fairy romance of Orfee Heurodiis (Orpheus and Eurydice) in the Auchinleck MS. is the following striking enumeration of persons thus abstracted from middle earth. Mr. Ritson unfortunately published this romance from a copy in which the following, and many other highly poetical passages, do not occur:

"Then he gan biholde aboute al,

And seighe full liggeand within the wal,
of folk that wer thidder y-brought,
And thought dede and ne're nought.
Sum stode withouten hedde;
And sum none armes nade;

And sum thurch the bodi hedde wounde;

And sum lay wode y-bounde;

And sum armed on hors sete;

And sum astrangled as thai ete;
And sum war in water adreynt;
And sum with fire al for-schreynt;
Wives ther lay on childe bedde;.
Sum dede, and sum awedde;
And wonder fele ther lay besides,
Right as thai slepe her undertides;
Eche was thus in the warld y-nome,
With fair thider y-come."

13. Though space and law the stag we lend,

Who ever recked where, how, or when,

The prowling fox was trapped and slain.-P. 148. St. John actually used this illustration when engaged in confuting the plea of law proposed for the

cours, LXXXIX. art. 14. The process by which

the raw venison was rendered eatable is described very minutely in the romance of Perceforest, where Estonne, a Scottish knight errant, having slain a deer, says to his companion Claudin; "Sire, or mangerez vous et moy aussi. Voire si nous auions de feu, dit Claudius. Par l'ame de mon pere, dist Estonne, ie vous atourneray et cuiray a la maniere de nostre pays comme pour cheualier errant. Lors tira son espee et sen vint a la branche dung arbre, et y fait vng grant trou, et puis fend al branche, bien deux piedz et boute la cuisse du cerf entredeux, et puis prent le licol de son cheval et en lye la branche et destraint si forte que le sang et les humeurs de la chair saillent hors et demeure la chair doulce et seiche. Lors prent la chair et oste ius le cuir et la chair demeure aussi blanche comme si ce feust dung chappon. Dont dist a Claudius, sire, ie la vous ay cuiste a la guise de mon pays, vous en pouez manger hardyement, car ie mangeray premier. Lors met sa main a sa selle en vng lieu quil y auoit, et tire hors sel et poudre de poiure et gingembre, mesle ensemble, et le iecte dessus, et le frote sus bien fort, puis le couppe a moytie, et en donne a Claudius l'une des pieces, et puis mort en l'autre aussi sauoureusement quil est aduis que il an feist la pouldre voller. Quant Claudius veit quil le mangeoit de tel goust, il en print grant fain et commence a manger tresvoulentiers, et dist a Estonne: par l'ame de moy ie ne mangeay onequesmais de chair atournee de telle guise: mais doresenauant ic ne me retourneroye pas hors de mon chemin par auoir la cuite. Sire, dist Estonne, quant ie suis en desers d'Escosse, dont ie suis seigneur, ie cheuaucheray huit iours ou quinze que ie n'entreray en chastel ne en maison, et si ne verray feu ne personne viuant fors que bestes sauuages, et de celles mangeray atournees en ceste maniere, et mieulx me plaira que la viande de l'empereur. Ainsi sen

vont mangeant et cheuauchant iusques adonc quilz rians, never forgot that the lowlands had, at some arriuerent sur une moult belle fontaine que estoit remote period, been the property of their Celtic en vne valee. Quant Estonne la vit il dist a Clau- forefathers, which furnished an ample vindication dius, allons boire a ceste fontaine. Or beuuons, of all the ravages that they could make on the undist Estonne, du boire que le grand dieu a pourueu fortunate districts which lay within their reach. a toutes gens, et qui me plaist mieulx que les ce- Sir James Grant of Grant is in possession of a letruoises d'Angleterre."-La Treselegante Hysto-ter of apology from Cameron of Lochiel, whose ire du tresnoble Roy Perceforest. Paris, 1531, fol. tome i, fol. lv, vers.

After all, it may be doubted whether la chair nostree, for so the French called the venison thus summarily prepared, was any thing more than a mere rude kind of deer-ham.

NOTES TO CANTO V.

1. Not then claimed sovereignty his due, While Albany, with feeble hand,

men had committed some depredations upon a farm called Moines, occupied by one of the Grants. Lochiel assures Grant, that, however the mistake had happened, his instructions were precise, that the party should foray the province of Moray, (a lowland district,) where, as he coolly observes, "all men take their prey."

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To show the reed on which you leant,
Deeming this path you might pursue,

Without a pass from Roderick Dhu.-P. 150. Held borrowed truncheon of command.-P. 149. This incident, like some other passages in the There is scarcely a more disorderly period in poem, illustrative of the character of the ancient Scottish history than that which succeeded the bat- Gael, is not imaginary, but borrowed from fact. tle of Flodden, and occupied the minority of James The highlanders, with the inconsistency of most V. Feuds of ancient standing broke out like nations in the same state, were alternately caold wounds, and every quarrel among the inde- pable of great exertions of generosity, and of pendent nobility, which occurred daily, and al- cruel revenge and perfidy. The following story most hourly, gave rise to fresh bloodshed. "There I can only quote from tradition, but with such arose," says Pitscottie, "great trouble and deadly an assurance from those by whom it was comfeuds in many parts of Scotland, both in the north municated, as permits me little doubt of its auand the west parts. The master of Forbes, in the thenticity. Early in the last century, John Gunn, north, slew the laird of Meldrum under tryst, (i. a noted Cateran, or highland robber, invested Ine. at an agreed and secured meeting:) Likewise, verness-shire, and levied black mail up to the walls the laird of Drummelzier slew the lord Fleming of the provincial capital. A garrison was then at the hawking; and, likewise, there was slaughter maintained in the castle of that town, and their among inany other great lords." p. 121. Nor was pay (country banks being unknown) was usually the matter much mended under the government of transmitted in specie, under the guard of a small the earl of Angus: for though he caused the king to escort. It chanced that the officer who commandride through all Scotland, "under pretence and ed this litle party was unexpectedly obliged to colour of justice, to punish thief and traitor, none halt, about thirty miles from Inverness, at a miwere found greater than were in their own com-serable inn. About night fall, a stranger, in the pany. And none at that time durst strive with a highland dress, and of very prepossessing appearDouglas, nor yet with a Douglas's man, for if they ance, entered the same house. Separate accomdid, they got the worse. Therefore, none durst modation being impossible, the Englishman ofplainzie of no extorsion, theft, reiff, nor slaughter, done to them by the Douglasses, or their men; in that cause they were not heard, so long as the Douglasses had the court in guiding."-Ibid. p.

133.

2. The Gael, of plain and river heir,

fered the newly arrived guest a part of his supper, which was accepted with reluctance. By the conversation he found his new acquaintance knew well all the passes of the country, which induced him eagerly to request his company on the ensuing morning. He neither disguised his business and charge, nor his apprehensions of that celebrated freebooter, John Gunn. The highlander hesitat

Shall, with strong hand, redeem his share.-P. 149. The ancient highlanders verified in their prac-ed a moment, and then frankly consented to be tice the lines of Gray;

An iron race the mountain cliffs maintain,
Foes to the gentler genius of the plain;
For where unwearied sinews must be found,
With sidelong plough to quell the flinty ground;
To turn the torrent's swift-descending flood;
To tame the savage rushing from the wood;
What wonder if, to patient valour train'd,
They guard with spirit what by strength they gain'd;
And while their rocky ramparts round they see
The rough abode of want and liberty,
(As lawless force from confidence will grow)
Insult the plenty of the vales below?

his guide. Forth they set in the morning; and in travelling through a solitary and dreary glen, the discourse again turned on John Gunn. "Would you like to see him?" said the guide; and, without waiting an answer to this alarming question, he whistled, and the English officer, with his small party, were surrounded by a body of highlanders, whose numbers put resistance out of question, and who were all well armed. "Stranger," resumed the guide, "I am that very John Gunn by whom you feared to be intercepted, and not without cause; Fragment on the alliance of Education and Government. for I came to the inn last night with the express So far, indeed, was a Creagh, or foray, from purpose of learning your route, that I and my folbeing held disgraceful, that a young chief was al-lowers might ease you of your charge by the road. ways expected to show his talents for command so But I am incapable of betraying the trust you resoon as he assumed it, by leading his clan on a posed in me, and, having convinced you that you successful enterprise of this nature, either against were in my power, I can only dismiss you unpluna neighbouring sept, for which constant feuds usu- dered and uninjured." He then gave the officer ally furnished an apology, cr against the Sassen- directions for his journey, and disappeared with ach, Saxons, or lowlanders, for which no apology his party, as suddenly as they had presented them was necessary. The Gael, great traditional histo-selves.

4. On Bochastle the mouldering lines,
Where Rome, the empress of the world,
Of yore her eagle wings unfurled.-P. 150.

5. See, here, all vantageless I stand,

qui tirent leurs espées de cinq cents pas de l'encmy, voire de mille, comme j'en ay veu aucuns. The torrent which discharges itself from Loch- Ainsi mourut ce brave baron, le paragon de France, Vennachar, the lowest and eastmost of the three qu'on nommoit tel, à bien venger ses quereles, lakes which form the scenery adjoining to the par grandes et déterminées résolutions. Il n'estoit moor, called Bochastle. Upon a small eminence, et desiroient fort les estrangers, venant en France, Trosachs, sweeps through a flat and extensive pas seulement estimé en France, mais en Italie, Espaigne, Allemaigne, en Boulogne et Angleterre; called the Dun of Bochastle, and indeed on the le voir; car je l'ay veu, tant sa renommée volloit. plain itself, are some entrenchments which have II estoit fort petit de corps, mais fort grand de been thought Roman. There is adjacent, to Callender, a sweet villa, the residence of captain Fair-courage. Ses ennemies disoient qu'il ne tuoit pas bien ses gens, que par advantages et supercheries. fowl, entitled the Roman camp. Certes, je tiens des grands capitaines, et mesmes d'Italiens, qui sont estez d'autres fois les premiers Armed, like thyself, with single brand.-P. 150. vengeurs du monde, in ogni modo, disoient-ils, The duelists of former times did not always qui ont tenu cette maxime, qu'une supercherie ne stand upon those punctilios respecting equality se devoit payer que par semblable monnoye, et of arms, which are now judged essential to fair n'y alloit point là de déshonneur."-Euvres de combat. It is true, that in formal combats in the Brantome, Paris, 1787-8. Tome viii, p. 90-92. lists, the parties were, by the judges of the field, It may be necessary to inform the reader, that this put as nearly as possible in the same circum- paragon of France was the most foul assassin of stances. But in private duel it was often otherwise. his time, and had committed many desperate murIn that desperate combat which was fought between ders, chiefly by the assistance of his hired banditti; Quelus, a minion of Henry III of France, and An- from which it may be conceived how little the traguet, with two seconds on each side, from point of honour of the period deserved its name. I which only two persons escaped alive, Quelus com- have chosen to give the heroes, who are indeed of plained that his antagonist had over him the ad- an earlier period, a stronger tincture of the spirit vantage of a poniard which he used in parrying, of chivalry. while his left hand, which he was forced to employ for the same purpose, was cruelly mangled. When That on the field his targe he threw.-P. 151. he charged Antraguet with this odds, "Thou hast A round target of light wood, covered with strong done wrong," answered he," to forget thy dagger leather, and studded with brass or iron, was a neat home. We are here to fight, and not to settle cessary part of a highlander's equipment. In chargpunctilios of arms." In a similar duel, however, a ing regular troops, they received the thrust of the younger brother of the house of Aubanye, in An-bayonet in this buckler, twisted it aside, and used goulesme, behaved more generously on the like oc- the broadsword against the encumbered soldier. casion, and at once threw away his dagger, when In the civil war of 1745, most of the front-rank of his enemy challenged it as an undue advantage. the clans were thus armed; and captain Grose inBut at this time hardly any thing can be conceived forms us, that, in 1747, the privates of the 42d more horridly brutal and savage, than the mode in regiment, then in Flanders, were for the most part which private quarrels were conducted in France. permitted to carry targets. Military Antiquities, Those who were most jealous of the point of honour, vol. i, p. 164. A person thus armed had a considand acquired the title of Ruffinés, did not scruple erable advantage in private fray. Among verses to take every advantage of strength, numbers, sur- between Swift and Sheridan, lately published by prise, and arms, to accomplish their revenge. The Dr. Barrett, there is an account of such an encounsieur de Brantome, to whose discourse on duels 1 ter, in which the circumstances, and consequently am obliged for these particulars, gives the follow-the relative superiority of the combatants, are preing account of the death and principles of his friend, cisely the reverse of those in the text: the baron de Vitaux:

J'ay oui conter à un tireur d'armes, qui apprit à Millaud à en tirer, lequel s'appelloit seigneur le Jacques Ferron, de la ville d'Ast, qui avoit esté à moy, il fut depuis tué à Sainct-Basille en Gascogne, lors que monsieur du Mayne l'assiégea, lui servant d'ingénieur; et de malheur, je l'avois adressé audit baron quelques trois mois auparavant, pour l'exercer a tirer, bien qu'il en sceust prou; mais il n'en fit conte: et le laissant, Millaud s'en servit, et le rendit fort adroit. Ce seigneur Jacques donc me raconta, qu'il s'estoit monté sur un noyer, assez loing, pour en voir le combat, et qu'il ne vist jamais homme y aller plus bravement, ny plus résolument, ny de grace plus assurée ny déterminée. Il commença de marcher de cinquante pas vers son ennemy, relevant souvent ses moustaches en haut d'une main; et estant à vingt pas de son ennemy, (non plustost) il mit la main à l'espée qu'il tenoit en la main, non qu'il l'eust tiré encore; mais en marchant, il fit voller le fourreau en l'air, en le Becouant, ce qui est le beau de cela, et qui monstroit bien une grace de combat bien assieurée et froide, et nullement téméraire, comme il y en a

6. Ill fared it then with Roderick Dhu,

A highlander once fought a Frenchman at Margate,
The weapons, a rapier, a back-sword, and target;

Brisk monsieur advanced as fast as he could,
But all his fine pushes were caught in the wood,
And sawny, with back-sword, did slash him and nick him,
While t'other enraged that he could not once prick him,
Cried, "Sirrah, you rascal, you son of a whore,
Me will fight you, be gar! if you'll come from your door."
7. For, trained abroad his arms to wield,

Fitz-James's blade was sword and shield.-P. 151. The use of defensive armour, and particularly of the buckler or target, was general in queen Elizabeth's time, although that of the single rapier seems to have been occasionally practised much earlier.* Rowland Yorke, however, who betrayed the fort of Zutphen to the Spaniards, for which good service he was afterwards poisoned by them, is said to have been the first who brough the rapier-fight into general use. Fuller, speaking of the swash-bucklers, or bullies of queen Elizabeth's time, says, "West Smithfield was formerly called Ruffian's Hall, where such men usuwith sword and buckler. More were frightened ally met, casually or otherwise, to try masteries

See Douce's Illustrations of Shakspeare, vol. ii, p. 61.

9.-Ye towers! within whose circuit dread
A Douglas by his sovereign bled,
And thou, O sad and fatal mound!

That oft hast heard the death-axe sound.-P. 152.

Stirling was often polluted with noble blood. is thus apostrophized by J. Johnston:

-Discordia tristis

than hurt, more hurt than killed therewith, it being accounted unmanly to strike beneath the knee. But since that desperate traitor Rowland Yorke first introduced thrusting with rapiers, sword and buckler are disused." In "The Two Angry Women of Abingdon," a comedy, printed in 1599, we have It a pathetic complaint;"Sword and buckler fight Heu quoties procerum sanguine tinxit humum! begins to grow out of use. I am sorry for it: I Hoc uno infelix, et felix cætera, nusquam shall never see good manhood again. If it be once Lætior aut cœli frons geniusve solí. gone, this poking fight of rapier and dagger will The fate of William, eighth earl of Douglas, come up; then a tall man, and a good sword and whom James II stabbed in Stirling castle with his buckler man, will be spitted like a cat or rabbit." own hand, and while under his royal safe-conduct, But the rapier had upon the continent long super-is familiar to all who read Scottish history. Murseded, in private duel, the use of sword and shield. dack duke of Albany, Duncan earl of Lennox, his The masters of the noble science of defence were father-in-law, and his two sons, Walter and Alexchiefly Italians. They made great mystery of their ander Stuart, were executed at Stirling, in 1425. art and mode of instruction, never suffered any They were beheaded upon an eminence without person to be present but the scholar who was to be the castle walls, but making part of the same hill, taught, and even examined closets, beds, and other from whence they could behold their strong castle places of possible concealment. Their lessons of of Doune, and their extensive possessions. This ten gave the most treacherous advantages; for the "heading hill," as it was sometimes termed, bears challenger, having the right to choose his wea-commonly the less terrible name of Hurly-hacket, pons, frequently selected some strange, unusual, from its having been the scene of a courtly amuseand inconvenient kind of arms, the use of which ment alluded to by Sir David Lindsay, who says he practised under these instructors, and thus kill- of the pastimes in which the young king was ened at his ease his antagonist, to whom it was presented for the first time on the field of battle. See Brantome's discourse on Duels, and the work on the same subject, "si gentement écrit," by the ve- which consisted in sliding, in some sort of chair nerable Dr. Paris de Puteo. The highlanders it may be supposed, from top to bottom of a smooth continued to use broadsword and target until dis-bank. The boys of Edinburgh, about twenty years armed after the affair of 1745-6.

gaged,

"Some harled him to the Hurly-hacket;"

ago, used to play at the hurly-hacket on the Calton-hill, using for their seat a horse's skull.

8. Like mountain-cat who guards her young, 10. The burghers hold their sports to-day.-P. 152. Full at Fitz-James's throat he sprung.-P. 151. Every burgh of Scotland, of the least note, but I have not ventured to render this duel so savagely desperate as that of the celebrated sir Ewan more especially the considerable towns, had their of Lochiel, chief of the clan Cameron, called, from solemn play, or festival, when feats of archery his sable complexion, Ewan Dhu. He was the last were exhibited, and prizes distributed to those man in Scotland who maintained the royal cause who excelled in wrestling, hurling the bar, and during the great civil war, and his constant incur- the other gymnastic exercises of the period. Stirsions rendered him a very unpleasant neighbour ling, a usual place of royal residence, was not liketo the republican garrison at Inverlochy, now Fortly to be deficient in pomp upon such occasions, William. The governor of the fort detached a especially since James V was very partial to them. party of three hundred men to lay waste Lochiel's His ready participation in these popular amusepossessions, and cut down his trees; but, in a sud-ments was one cause of his acquiring the title of den and desperate attack, made upon them by the king of the Commons, or Rex Plebeiorum, as Leschieftain, with very inferior numbers, they were ley has latinized it. The usual prize to the best almost all cut to pieces. The skirmish is detail-shooter was a silver arrow. Such a one is pre ed in a curious memoir of sir Ewan's life, printed in the Appendix of Pennant's Scottish Tour.

served at Selkirk and at Peebles. At Dumfries, a silver gun was substituted, and the contention transferred to fire-arms. The ceremony, as there performed, is the subject of an excellent Scottish poem, by Mr. John Mayne, entitled the Siller Gun, 1808, which surpasses the efforts of Ferguson, and comes near those of Burns.

Of James's attachment to archery, Pitscottie, the faithful, though rude recorder of the manners of that period, has given us evidence:

"In this engagement, Lochiel himself had several wonderful escapes. In the retreat of the English, one of the strongest and bravest of the officers retired behind a bush, when he observed Lochiel pursuing, and seeing him unaccompanied with any, he leaped out, and thought him his prey. They met one another with equal fury. The combat was long and doubtful: the English gentleman "In this year there came an ambassador out of had by far the advantage in strength and size; but Lochiel exceeding him in nimbleness and agility, England, named lord William Howard, with a in the end tript the sword out of his hand: they bishop with him, with many other gentlemen, to closed, and wrestled, till both fell to the ground, the number of threescore horse, which were all in each other's arms. The English officer got above the able men and waled (picked) men for all kind Lochiel, and pressed him hard, but stretching forth of games and pastimes, shooting, louping, running, his neck, by attempting to disengage himself, Lo-wrestling, and casting of the stone, but they were chiel, who by this time had his hands at liberty, well 'sayed (essayed or tried) ere they past out of with his left hand seized him by the collar, and Scotland, and that by their own provocation; but jumping at his extended throat, he bit it with his teeth quite through, and kept such a hold of his grasp, that he brought away his mouthful: this, he said, was the sweetest bit he ever had in his lifetime."-Vol. i, p. 375.

ever they tint: till at last, the queen of Scotland, the king's mother, favoured the English-men, be cause she was the king of England's sister: and therefore she took an enterprise of archery upon the English-men's hands, contrary her son the king

and any six in Scotland that he would wale, either gentlemen or yeomen, that the English-men should shoot against them, either at pricks, revers, or buts, as the Scots pleased.

"The king hearing this of his mother, was content, and gart her pawn a hundred crowns, and a tun of wine, upon the English-men's hands; and he incontinent laid down as much for the Scottishmen. The field and ground was chosen in St. Andrews, and three landed men and three yeomen chosen to shoot against the English-men, to wit, David Wemyss of that ilk, David Arnot of that ilk, and Mr. John Wedderburn, vicar of Dundee; the yeomen, John Thomson, in Leith, Steven Taburner, with a piper, called Alexander Bailie; they shot very near, and warred (worsted) the English-men of the enterprise, and wan the hundred crowns and the tun of wine, which made the king very merry that his men wan the victory."-P. 147.

11.

-Robin Hood.-P. 152.

The exhibition of this renowned outlaw and his band was a favourite frolic at such festivals as we

told by Hume of Godscroft. I would have availed myself more fully of the simple and affecting circumstances of the old history, had they not been already woven into a pathetic ballad by my friend Mr. Finlay.

"His (the king's) implacability (towards the family of Douglas) díd also appear in his carriage towards Archibald of Kilspindie, whom he, when he was a child, loved singularly well for his ability of body, and was wont to call him his Gray-Steill.+ Archibald being banished into England, could not well comport with the humour of that nation, which he thought to be too proud, and that they had too high a conceit of themselves, joined with a contempt and despising of all others. Wherefore, being wearied of that life, and remembering the king's favour of old towards him, he determined to try the king's mercifulness and clemency. So he comes into Scotland, and, taking occasion of the king's hunting in the park at Stirling, he casts himself to tle. So soon as the king saw him afar off, ere he be in his way, as he was coming home to the casare describing. This sporting, in which kings did of his courtiers, yonder is my Gray-Steill, Archicame near, he guessed it was he, and said to one not disdain to be actors, was prohibited in Scot- bald of Kilspindie, if he be alive. The other anland upon the Reformation, by a statute of the 6th swered, that it could not be he, and that he durst parliament of queen Mary, c. 61, A. D. 1555, not come into the king's presence. The king apwhich ordered, under heavy penalties, that "na proaching, he fell upon his knees and craved parmanner of person be chosen Robert Hude, nor don, and promised from thenceforward to abstain Little John, Abbot of Unreason, queen of May, nor from meddling in public affairs, and to lead a quiet otherwise." But 1561, "the rascal multitude," and private life. The king went by, without giving says John Knox, "were stirred up to make a Ro-him any answer, and trotted a good round pace up bin Hude, whilk enormity was of mony years left the hill. Kilspindie followed, and, though he wore and damned by statute and act of parliament; yet on him a secret, or shirt of mail, for his particular would they not be forbidden." Accordingly they enemies, was as soon at the castle-gate as the king. raised a very serious tumult, and at length made There he sat him down upon a stone without, and prisoners the magistrates who endeavoured to sup- entreated some of the king's servants for a cup press it, and would not release them till they ex- of drink, being weary and thirsty; but they, feartorted a formal promise that no one should be ing the king's displeasure, durst give him none. punished for his share of the disturbance. It would When the king was set at his dinner, he asked seem, from the complaints of the general assem- what he had done, what he had said, and whither bly of the kirk, that these profane festivities were he had gone? It was told him that he had desired continued down to 1592. Bold Robin was, to say a cup of drink, and had gotten none. The king rethe least, equally successful in maintaining his proved them very sharply for their discourtesy, and ground against the reformed clergy of England: told them, that if he had not taken an oath that no for the simple and evangelical Latimer complains Douglas should ever serve him, he would have reof coming to a country church, where the people ceived him into his service, for he had seen him refused to hear him, because it was Robin Hood's some time a man of great ability. Then he sent day; and his mitre and rochet were fain to give him word to go to Leith, and expect his further way to the village pastime. Much curious infor- pleasure. Then some kinsman of David Falconer, mation on this subject may be found in the preli- the canonier that was slain at Tantallon, began to minary Dissertation to the late Mr. Ritson's edi- quarrel with Archibald about the matter, wherewith tion of the songs respecting this memorable out- the king showed himself not well pleased when he law. The game of Robin Hood was usually acted heard of it. Then he commanded him to go to in May; and he was associated with the morrice- France for a certain space, till he heard further dancers, on whom so much illustration has been from him. And so he did, and died shortly after. bestowed by the commentators on Shakspeare. This gave occasion to the king of England (Henry A very lively picture of these festivities, contain- VIII) to blame his nephew, alleging the old say ing a great deal of curious information on the sub-ing, That a king's face should give grace. For Ject of the private life and amusements of our an- this Archibald (whatsoever were Angus's or sir cestors, was thrown, by the late ingenious Mr. George's fault) had not been principal actor of Strutt, into his romance entitled Queen-Hoo-Hall, any thing, nor no counsellor nor stirrer up, but published, after his death, in 1808.

12. Indifferent as to archer wight,

The monarch gave the arrow bright.-P. 153. The Douglas of the poem is an imaginary person, a supposed uncle of the earl of Angus. But the king's behaviour during an unexpected interview with the laird of Kilspinde, one of the banished Douglasses, under circumstances similar to those in the text, is imitated from a real story Book of the universal kirk, p. 414.

only a follower of his friends, and that noways cruelly disposed."—HUME of Godscroft, ii, 107.

13. Prize of the wrestling match, the king To Douglas gave a golden ring.-P. 153. The usual prize of a wrestling was a ram and a

*See Scottish Historical and Romantic Ballads, Glasgow, 1808, vol. ii, p. 117.

+A champion of popular romance. See Ellis's Romances vol. ii.

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