5. Pursued the foot-ball play.-P. 18. whereas always, both in all tounes of war, and in The foot-ball was anciently a very favourite all campes of armies, quietness and stilnes, withsport all through Scotland, but especially upon out nois, is, principally in the night, after the the Borders. Sir John Carmichael, of Carmichael, watch is set, observed, (1 nede not reason why,) warden of the middle marches, was killed in 1600 our northern prikkers, the Borderers, notwithby a band of the Armstrongs, returning from a standyng, with great enormitie, (as thought me,) foot-ball match. Sir Robert Carey, in his memoirs, and not unlike (to be playn) unto a masterles mentions a great meeting, appointed by the Scot-hounde howlyng in a hie wey when he hath lost tish riders to be held at Kelso, for the purpose of him he waited upon, some hoopynge, sum whistplaying at foot-ball, but which terminated in an in- lyng and most with crying, a Berwyke, a Berwyke! cursion upon England. At present the foot-ball is a Fenwyke, a Fenwyke! a Bulmer, a Bulmer! often played by the inhabitants of adjacent parishes, or so otherwise as theyr captains names wear, neor of the opposite banks of a stream. The victory is ver lin'de these troublous and dangerous noyses contested with the utmost fury, and very serious all the nyghte longe. They said, they did it to accidents have sometimes taken place in the strug-finde their captain and fellows; but if the soldiers gle.

8. Cheer the dark blood-hound on his way,

of our other countreys and sheres had used the 6. Twixt truce and war, such sudden change same manner, in that case we should have oft tymes Was not infrequent, nor held strange, had the state of our camp more like the outrage In the ol. Border day.-P. 18. of a dissolute huntyng, than the quiet of a well orNotwithstanding the constant wars upon the dred armye. It is a feat of war, in mine opinion, Borders, and the occasional cruelties which mark- that might right well be left. I could reherse caused the mutual inroads, the inhabitants on either es (but yf I take it, they are better unspoken than side do not appear to have regarded each other uttred, unless the faut wear sure to be amended) with that violent and personal animosity, which that might shew thei move alweis more peral to might have been expected. On the contrary, like our armie, but in their one nyght's so doynge, than the outposts of hostile armies, they often carried they shew good service (as sum sey) in a hool vyon something resembling friendly intercourse, age."-Apud DALZELL's Fragments, p. 75. even in the middle of hostilities; and it is evident, from various ordinances against trade and interAnd with the bugle rouse the fray.-P. 21. marriages between English and Scottish Borderers, that the governments of both countries were The pursuit of Border marauders was followed jealous of their cherishing too intimate a connexion. by the injured party and his friends with bloodFroissart says of both nations, that "Englyshmen hounds and bugle-horn, and was called the hot trod on the one party, and Scottes on the other party, are He was entitled, if his dog could trace the scent, good men of warre; for when they meet, there is to follow the invaders into the opposite kingdom; a hard fight without sparynge. There is no hoo a privilege which often occasioned blood-shed. In (trace) between them, as long as spears, swords, addition to what has been said of the blood-hound, axes, or daggers will endure, but lay on eche upon I may add, that the breed was kept up by the Bucuther; and whan they be well beaten, and that the cleuch family on their Border estates till within one party hath obtained the victory, they then the 18th century. A person was alive in the meglorifye so in theyre dedes of armes, and are so mory of man, who remembered a blood-hound bejoyful, that such as be taken they shall be ransom- ing kept at Eldinhope, in Ettrick Forest, for ed or that they go out of the felde; so that shortly whose maintenance the tenant had an allowance eche of them is so content with other, that at their of meal. At that time the sheep were always departynge curtyslye they will say, God thank watched at night. Upon one occasion, when the you."-Berner's Froissart, vol. ii, p. 153. The duty had fallen on the narrator, then a lad, he beBorder meetings of truce, which, although places came exhausted with fatigue, and fell asleep, upon of merchandise and merriment, often witnessed a bank, near sun-rising. Suddenly he was awakenthe most bloody scenes, may serve to illustrate the ed by the tread of horses, and saw five men, well description in the text. They are vividly portray-mounted and armed, ride briskly over the edge ed in the old ballad of the Reidsquair. Both parties came armed to a meeting of the wardens, yet they intermixed fearlessly and peaceably with each other in mutual sports and familiar intercourse, until a casual fray arose;

of the hill. They stopped and looked at the flock, but the day was too far broken to admit the chance of their carrying any of them off. One of them, in spite, leaped from his horse, and coming to the shepherd, siezed him by the belt he wore round his waist, and setting his foot upon his body, pulThen was there nought but bow and spear; And every man pulled out a brand. led it till it broke, and carried it away with him. In the 29th Stanza of this Canto, there is an at-They rode off at the gallop; and, the shepherd tempt to express some of the mixed feelings, with giving the alarm, the blood-hound was turned which the Borderers on each side were led to re-ed. The marauders, however, escaped notwithloose; and the people in the neighbourhood alarmgard their neighbours. standing a sharp pursuit. This circumstance serves to show how very long the license of the Borderers continued in some degree to manifest itself.

7. And frequent on the darkening plain,
Loud hollo, whoop, or whistle ran;
As bands, their stragglers to regain,

Gave the shrill watch-word of their clan.-P. 18. Patten remarks, with bitter censure, the disorderly conduct of the English Borderers, who attended the Protector Somerset on his expedition against Scotland. "As we wear then a setling, and the tents a setting up, among all things els commendable in our hole journey, one thing seemed to me an intolerable disorder and abuse: that

NOTES TO CANTO VI.

1. Breathes there the man, with soul so dead, &c. P. 21.

The influence of local attachment has been so exquisitely painted by my friend Mr. Polwhele, in the poem which bears that title, as might well have dispensed with the more feeble attempt of any con

temporary poet. To the reader who has not been
so fortunate as to meet with this philosophical and
poetical detail of the nature and operations of the
love of our country, the following brief extract
cannot fail to be acceptable:-

Yes-home still charms; and he, who, clad in fur,
His rapid rein-deer drives o'er plains of snow,
Would rather to the same wild tracts recur

That various life had mark'd with joy or wo,
Than wander where the spicy breezes blow
To kiss the hyacinths of Azza's hair-

Yea, I shall well,' said the devyl. I hold the best plegge that I have, that ye shall not do it." Well,' said the devyl, thereto I consent.' And than the devyl wrang himself into the lytell hole ageyne: and as he was therein, Virgilius kyvered the hole ageyne with the bourde close, and so was the devyl begyled, and myght nat there come out agen, but abydeth shutte styll therein. Then called the devyl dredefully to Virgilius, and said, What have ye done, Virgilius? Virgilius answered, Abyde there styll to your day appoynted;' and fro thens forth abyeth he there. And so Virgilius became very connynge in the practyse of the black scyence."

Rather, than where luxuriant summers glow, To the white mosses of his hills repair, And bid his antler-train the simple banquet share. 2. She wrought not by forbidden spell.-P. 21. Popular belief, though contrary to the doctrines This story may remind the reader of the Arabian of the church, made a favourable distinction be- tale of the fisherman and the imprisoned genie: twixt magicians and necromancers, or wizards: and it is more than probable, that many of the the former were supposed to command the evil marvels narrated in the life of Virgil are of orienspirits, and the latter to serve, or at least to be in tal extraction. Among such I am disposed to reckleague and compact with those enemies of man- on the following whimsical account of the foundakind. The arts of subjecting the dæmons were tion of Naples, containing a curious theory conmanifold: sometimes the fiends were actually swin-cerning the origin of the earthquakes with which dled by the magicians, as in the case of a bargain it is afflicted. Virgil, who was a person of gallantbetwixt one of their number and the poet Virgil.ry, had, it seems, carried off the daughter of a cerThe classical reader will, doubtless, be curious to tain Soldan, and was anxious to secure his prize. peruse this anecdote: "Then he thoughte in his mynde howe he Virgilius was at scole at Tolenton, where he myghte mareye hyr, and thought in his mynde to stodyed dylygently, for he was of great understand-founde in the middes of the sea a fayer towne, yng. Upon a tyme, the scolars had lycense to go with great lands belongyng to it; and so he dyed to play and sporte them in the fyldes, after the by his cunnyge, and called it Napells. And the usance of the olde time. And there was also Vir-fandacyon of it was of egges, and in that town of gilius therebye, also walkyng among the hylles Napells he made a tower with iiii corners, and in alle about. It fortuned he spyed a great hole in the top he set an appell upon an yron yarde, and the syde of a great hyll, wherein he went so depe, no man culd pull away that apell without he brake that he culd not see no more lyght; and then he it; and thorough that yren set he a bolte, and in went a lytell farther therein, and then he saw some that bolte set he an egge. And he henge the apell lyght agayne, and then he went fourth streyghte, by the stauke upon a cheyne, and so hangeth is and within a lytyll wyle after he harde a voyce still. And when the egg styrreth, so shulde the that called, Virgilius! Virgilius!' and looked town of Napells quake: and whan the egge brake, aboute, and he colde nat see no body. Than said than shuld the town sinke. Whan he had made he, (i. e. the voice) Virgilius, see ye not the ly-an ende, he lette call it Napells." This appears to tyll bourde lying beside you there marked with have been an article of current belief during the that word?' Than answered Virgilius, I see that middle ages, as appears from the statutes of the borde well anough.' The voyce said, 'Doo awaye order Du Saint Esprit, au droit desir, instituted that borde, and lette me out thereatte.' Then an- in 1352. A chapter of the knights is appointed to swered Virgilius to the voyce that was under the be held annually at the castle of the enchanted lytell borde, and sayde, Who art thou that callest egg, near the grotto of Virgil.-Montfaucon, vol. me so?' Than answered the devyll, 'I am a de- ii, p. 329. vyll conjured out of the body of a certeyne man, and banysshed here till the day of judgment, without that I be delyvered by the handes of men. Thus, Virgilius, I pray thee, dely ver me out of this payn, and I shall shewe unto the many bokes of negromancye, and how thou shalt come by it lyghtly, and know the practyse therein, that no man in the scyence of negromancye shall passe thee. And moreover, I shall shewe and enforme the so, that thou shalt have all thy desyre, whereby mythynke it is a great gyfte for so lytell a doyng. For ye may also thus all your power frynds help, and make ryche your enemyes.'-Through that great promyse was Virgilius tempted: he badde the fynd show the bokes to him, that he might have and occupy them at his wyll: and so the fynde showed him. And than Virgilius pulled open a borde, and there was a lytell hole, and thereat wrang the devil out lyke a yeel, and cam and stood before Virgilius like a bygge man: whereof Virgilius was astonished and marveyled greatly thereof, that so great a man myght come out at so little a hole. Than sayd Virgilius, Shulde ye well passe into the hole that ye cam out of?

·

3. A merlin sat upon her wrist.-P. 22. A merlin or sparrow-hawk was usually carried by ladies of rank, as a falcon was, in time of peace, the constant attendant of a knight, or baron. See Latham on Falconry-Godscroft relates, that, when Mary of Lorraine was regent, she pressed the earl of Angus to admit a royal garrison into his castle of Tantallon. To this he returned no direct answer; but, as if apostrophising a goss-hawk which sat on his wrist, and which he was feeding during the queen's speech, he exclaimed, "The Devil's in this greedy glade, she will never be full." Hume's History of the House of Douglas, 1743, vol. ii, p. 131. Barclay complains of the common and indecent practice of bringing hawks and hounds into churches.

4. And princely peacock's gilded train.-P. 22.

The peacock, it is well known, was considered, during the times of chivalry, not merely as an exquisite delicacy, but as a dish of peculiar solemnity. After being roasted, it was again decorated with its plumage, and a sponge, dipt in lighted spirits of wine, was placed in its bill. When it was

Introduced on days of grand festival, it was the signal for the adventurous knights to take upon them vows to do some deed of chivalry, "before the peacock and the ladics."

5. And o'er the boar-head, garnish'd brave.-P. 22.

The boar's head was also a usual dish of feudal splendour. In Scotland it was sometimes surrounded with little banners, displaying the colours and achievements of the baron, at whose board it was served. Pinkerton's History, vol. i, p. 432. 6. And cygnet from St. Mary's wave.-P. 22. There are often flights of wild swans upon Mary's lake at the head of the river. Yarrow.

St.

7. Smote, with his gauntlet, stout Hunthill.-P. 22. The Rutherfords of Hunthill were an ancient race of Border lairds, whose names occur in history, sometimes as defending the frontier against the English, sometimes as disturbing the peace of their own country. Dickon Draw-the-sword was son to the ancient warrior, called in tradition the Cock of Hunthill.

The deer being curee'd in that place,
At his majesty's demand,
Then John of Galloway ran apace,
And fetched water to his hand.
The king did wash into a dish,
And Galloway John he wot;
He said, "Thy name now after this
Shall ever be called John Scott.
"The forest and the deer therein,
We commit to thy hand,
For thou shalt sure the ranger be,
If thou obey command:

And for the buck thou stoutly brought
To us up that steep heuch,
Thy designation ever shall

Be John Scot in Buckscleugh.

In Scotland no Buckleuch was then,
Before the buck in the cleuch was slain;
Night's men at first they did appear,
Because moon and stars to their arms they bear.
Their crest, supporters, and hunting-horn,
Shows heir beginning from hunting come;
Their name and stile, the book doth say,

John gained them both into one day. Watt's Bellenden. The Buccleuch arms have been altered, and now 8. But bit his glove, and shook his head.-P. 22. allude less pointedly to this hunting, whether real To bite the thumb, or the glove, seems not to or fabulous. The family now bear Or upon a bend have been considered, upon the Border, as a ges- azure, a mullet betwixt two crescents of the field; ture of contempt, though so used by Shakspeare, in addition to which, they formerly bore in the but as a pledge of mortal revenge. It is yet remem- field a hunting horn. The supporters, now two labered, that a young gentleman of Teviotdale, on dies, were formerly a hound and buck, or, accordthe morning after a hard drinking-bout, observed, ing to the old terms, a hart of leash and a hart of that he had bitten his glove. He instantly demand-greece. The family of Scott of Howpasley and Thired of his companions, with whom he had quarrelled? Testane long retained the bugle-horn: they also and learning that he had had words with one of the carried a bent bow and arrow in the sinister canparty, insisted on instant satisfaction, asserting, tle, perhaps as a difference. It is said the motto that though he remembered nothing of the dispute, was Best riding by moon-light, in allusion to the yet he was sure he never would have bit his glove crescents on the shield, and perhaps to the habits unless he had received some unpardonable insult. of those who bore it. The motto now given is Amo, He fell in the duel, which was fought near Selkirk, applying to the female supporters. in 1721. 11.- -old Albert Græme,

9. Arthur Fire-the-Braes.-P. 22.

The Minstrel of that ancient name.-P. 22. The person, bearing this redoubtable nomme de "John Grahame, second son of Malice, earl of guerre, was an Elliot, and resided at Thorleshope, Monteith, commonly surnamed John with the bright in Liddesdale. He occurs in the list of Border ri-sword, upon some displeasure risen against him ders, in 1597.

10. Since old Buccleuch the name did gain,

When in the ecleuch the buck was ta'en.-P. 22.

at court, retired with many of his clan and kindred, into the English Borders, in the reign of king Henry A tradition, preserved by Scott of Satchells, who hall-fire had waxed low, and wood was wanted to mend it. published, in 1688, A true history of the right The knight went down to the court-yard, where stood an ass laden with faggots, seized on the animal and his burhonourable name of Scott, gives the following ro- den, and carrying him up to the hall on his shoulders, mantic origin of that name. Two brethren, natives tumbled him into the chimney with his heels uppermost; of Galloway, having been banished from that a humane pleasantry, much applauded by the court and all the spectators. country for a riot, or insurrection, came to RanMinions of the moon," as Falstaff would have said. kelburn, in Ettrick forest, where the keeper, whose The vocation pursued by our ancient Borderers may be name was Brydone, received them joyfully, on ac-justified on the authority of the most polished of the ancount of their skill in winding the horn, and in the other mysteries of the chase.-Kenneth MacAlpine, then king of Scotland, came soon after to hunt in the royal forest, and pursued a buck from Ettrickheuch to the glen now called Buckleuch, about two miles above the junction of Rankelburn with the river Ettrick.-Here the stag stood at bay; and the king and his attendants, who followed on horseback, were thrown out by the steepness of the hill and the morass. John, one of the brethren from Galloway, had followed the chase on foot: and now coming in, seized the buck by the horns, and, being a man of great strength and activity, threw him on his back, and ran with his burden about a mile up the steep hill, to a place called Cracra-Cross, where Kenneth had halted, and laid the buck at the sovereign's feet.*

Froissart relates, that a knight of the household of the Compte de Foix exhibited a similar feat of strength. The

cient nations: "For the Grecians in old time, and such barbarians as in the continent lieved neere into the sea, or else inhabited the islands, after they once began to cross over one to another in ships, became theeves, and went abroad under the conduct of their more puissant men, both to enrich themselves, and to fetch in maintenance for the weak; and falling upon towns unfortified, or scatteringly inhabited, rifled them, and made this the best means of their living; being a matter at that time nowhere in disgrace, but rather carrying with it something of glory. This is manifested by some that dwell upon the con tinent, amongst whom, so it be performed nobly, it is still esteemed as an ornament. The same is also proved by some of the ancient poets, who introduced men question ing of such as sail by, on all coasts alike, whether they be theeves or not; as a thing neyther scorned by such as were asked, nor upbraided by those that were desirous to know. They also robbed one another within the main land; and much of Greece useth that old custome, as the Locrians, the Acarnanians, and those of the continent in that quar ter, unto this day. Moreover, the fashion of wearing iron remaineth yet with the people of that continent, from their old trade of theeving."-Hobbes' Thucydides, p. 4, Lond. 1629.

the fourth, where they seated themselves: and many and he asked the nobles, who were assembled of their posterity have continued there ever since. around him, whether any of them had dogs, which Mr. Sandford speaking of them, says (which in- they thought might be more successful. No courdeed was applicable to most of the Borderers on tier would affirm that his hounds were fleeter than both sides,) they were all stark moss-troopers, those of the king, until sir William St. Clair of and arrant thieves: Both to England and Scotland Roseline unceremoniously said, he would wager outlawed; yet sometimes connived at, because they his head that his two favourite dogs, Help and Hold, gave intelligence forth of Scotland, and would raise would kill the deer before she could cross the 400 horse at any time upon a raid of the English March-burn. The king instantly caught at his uninto Scotland. A saying is recorded of a mother wary offer, and betted the forest of Pentlandmoor to her son (which is now become proverbial,) against the life of sir William St. Clair. All the Ride, Rowley, hough's i' the pot; that is, the last hounds were tied up, except a few ratches, or slow piece of beef was in the pot, and therefore it was hounds, to put up the deer; while sir William St. high time for him to go and fetch more. Introduc- Clair, posting himself in the best situation for sliption to the History of Cumberland. The residence of the Græmes being chiefly ined Virgin, and St. Katherine. The deer was shortping his dogs, prayed devoutly to Christ, the blessthe Debateable land, so called because it was claim-ly after roused, and the hounds slipped; sir Wiled by both kingdoms, their depredations extended liam following on a gallant steed, to cheer his dogs. both to England and Scotland, with impunity, for The hind, however, reached the middle of the as both wardens accounted them the proper sub-brook, upon which the hunter threw himself from jects of their own prince, neither inclined to de- his horse in despair. At this critical moment, howmand reparation for their excesses from the oppo-ever, Hold stooped her in the brook; and Help, site officers, which would have been an acknowl- coming up, turned her back, and killed her on sir edgment of his jurisdiction over them. See a long correspondence on this subject betwixt lord Dacre and the English privy council, in Introduction to History of Cumberland. The Debateable land was finally divided betwixt England and Scotland, by commissioners appointed by both nations.

12. The sun shines fair on Carlisle wall.-P. 22. This burden is adopted, with some alteration, from an old Scottish song, beginning thus:

She leaned her back against a thorn,
The sun shines fair on Carlisle wa';
And there she has her young babe born,
And the lyon shall be lord of a'.

13. Who has not heard of Surrey's fame?-P. 23.

William's side. The king descended from the hill, embraced sir William, and bestowed on him the lands of Kirkton, Logan-house, Earncraig, &c. in free forestrie. Sir William, in acknowledgment of St. Katherine's intercession, built the chapel of St. Katherine in the Hopes, the churchyard of which is still to be seen. The hill, from which Robert Bruce beheld this memorable chase, is still called the King's Hill; and the place where sir William hunted is called the knight's field.*MS. History of the family of St. Clair, by Richard Augustin Hay, Canon of St. Genevieve.

This adventurous huntsman married Elizabeth, The gallant and unfortunate Henry Howard, earl therne, in whose right their son Henry was, in daughter of Malice Spar, earl of Orkney and Straof Surrey, was unquestionably the most accom- 1379, created earl of Orkney, by Haco, king of plished cavalier of his time; and his sonnets dis-Norway. His title was recognized by the kings of play beauties which would do honour to a more polished age. He was beheaded on Tower-hill in 1546; a victim to the mean jealousy of Henry VIII, who could not bear so brilliant a character near his throne.

14.

Scotland, and remained with his successors until it was annexed to the crown, in 1471, by act of Parliament. In exchange for this earldom, the castle and domains of Ravenscraig, or Ravensheuch, were conferred on William Saintclair, earl of Caithness.

15. Still nods their palace to its fall,

Thy pride and sorrow, fair Kirkwall.-P. 23 The castle of Kirkwall was built by the St. Clairs, while earls of Orkney. It was dismantled by the earl of Caithness about 1615, having been garrisoned against the government by Robert Stewart, natural son to the earl of Orkney.

Its ruins afforded a sad subject for contemplation to John, master of St. Clair, who, flying from his native country, on account of his share in the insurrection, in 1715, made some stay at Kirkwall.

The song of the supposed bard is founded on an incident said to have happened to the earl in his travels. Cornelius Agrippa, the celebrated alchemist, showed him, in a lookingglass, the lovely Geraldine, to whose service he had devoted his pen and his sword. The vision represented her as indisposed, and reclined upon a couch, reading her lover's verses by the light of a waxen taper. -The storm-swept Orcades; Where erst St Clairs held princely sway, O'er isle and islet, strait and bay.-P. 23. The St. Clairs are of Norman extraction, being descended from William de St. Clair, second son of Walderne compte de St. Clair, and Margaret, daughter to Richard duke of Normandy. He was The tomb of sir William St. Clair, on which he apcalled for his fair deportment, the seemly St. Clair; is still to be seen in Rosline chapel. The person who pears sculptured in armour, with a greyhound at his feet, and settling in Scotland during the reign of Mal- shows it, always tells the story of his hunting match, with colm Ceanmore, obtained large grants of land in some addition to Mr. Hay's account; as that the knight Mid-Lothian.-These domains were increased by of Rosline's fright made him poetical, and that, in the last emergency, he shouted, the liberality of succeeding monarchs to the descendants of the family, and comprehended the baHelp, haud, an' ye may, ronies of Roseline, Pentland, Cowsland, Cardaine, If this couplet does him no great honour as a poet, the Or Roslin will lose his head this day. and several others. It is said a large addition was conclusion of the s ory does him still less credit. He set obtained from Robert Bruce, on the following oc- his foot on the dog, says the narrator, and killed him ou casion: The king, in following the chase upon the spot, saying, he should never again put his neck in Pentland hills, had often started "a white faunch such a risk. As Mr. Hay does not mention this circum deer," which had always escaped from his hounds; of the hound on the monument. stance, I hope it is only founded on the couchant posture

Maddens the battle's bloody swell.-P. 24. These were the Valkyriur, or selectors of the slain, despatched by Odin from Valhalla, to choose those who were to die, and to distribute the contest. They are well known to the English reader, as Gray's Fatal Sisters.

19. Ransack'd the graves of warriors old,

"I had occasion to entertain myself at Kirkwall The Jormungandr, or snake of the ocean, whose with the melancholie prospect of the ruins of an folds surround the earth, is one of the wildest ficold castle, the seat of the old earls of Orkney, my tions of the Edda. It was very nearly caught by ancestors; and of a more melancholy reflection, of the god Thor, who went to fish for it with a hook so great and noble an estate as the Orkney and baited with a bull's head. In the battle betwixt Shelland isles being taken from one of them by the evil demons and the divinities of Odin, which James III, for faultrie after his brother Alexander, is to precede the Ragnaraokr, or Twilight of the Juke of Albany, had married a daughter of my gods, this snake is to act a conspicuous part. family, and for protecting and defending the said Alexander against the king, who wished to kill 18. Of those dread maids, whose hideous yell bim, as he had done his youngest brother, the earl of Mar; and for which, after the forfaultrie, he gratefully divorced my forfaulted ancestor's sister; though I cannot persuade myself that he had any misalliance to plead against a familie in whose veins the blood of Robert Bruce ran as fresh as in his own; for their title to the crowne was by a daughter of David Bruce, son to Robert; and our Their falchions wrench'd from corpses' hold.-P. 24, alliance was by marrying a grandchild of the same The northern warriors were usually entombed Robert Bruce, and daughter to the sister of the with their arms, and their other treasures. Thus, same David, out of the familie of Douglas, which Angantyr, before commencing the duel in which at that time did not much sullie the blood, more he was slain, stipulated, that if he fell, his sword than my ancestour's having not long before, had Tyrfing should be buried with him. His daughter, the honour of marrying a daughter of the king of Hervor, afterward took it from his tomb. The Denmark's, who was named Florentine, and has dialogue which passed betwixt her and Angantyr's left in the town of Kirkwall a noble monument of spirit on this occasion has often been translated. the grandeur of the times, the finest church ever I The whole history may be found in the Harvarar saw entire in Scotland. I then had no small reason Saga. Indeed the ghosts of the northern wa iors to think, in that unhappy state, on the many not were not wont tamely to suffer their tombs to be inconsiderable services rendered since to the roy-plundered; and hence the mortal heroes had an al familie, for these many years by-gone, on all occasions, when they stood most in need of friends, which they have thought themselves very often obliged to acknowledge by letters yet extant, and in a stile more like friends than sovereigns: our attachment to them, without anie other thanks, having brought upon us considerable losses, and among others, that of our all in Cromwell's time; and left in that condition, without the least relief except what we found in our own virtue. My father was the only man of the Scotts nation who had courage enough to protest in parliament against king William's title to the throne, which was lost, God knows how; and this at a time when the losses in the cause of the royall familie and their usual gratitude, had scarce left him bread to maintain a numerous familie of eleven children, who had soon after sprung up on him, in spite of all which, he had honourably persisted in his principle. I say, these things considered, and after being treated as I was, and in that unluckie state, when objects appear to men in their true light, as at the hour of death, could I be blamed for making some bitter reflections to myself, and laughing at the extravagance and unaccountable humour of men, and the singularitie of my own case, (an exile for the cause of the Stuart family,) when I ought to have known, that the greatest crime 1, or my family, could have committed, was persevering to my own destruction, in serving the royal familie faithfully, though obstinately, after so great a share of depression; and after they had been pleased to doom me and my familie to starve."-MS. Memoirs of John, Master of

St. Clair.

16. Kings of the main their leaders brave,

Their barks the dragons of the wave.-P. 23. The chiefs of the Vaking, or Scandinavian pirates, assumed the title of Sakonungr, or Seakings. Ships, in the inflated language of the Scalds, are often termed the serpents of the ocean.

17. Of that sea-snake, tremendous curl'd,
Whose monstrous circle girds the world.-P. 24.

additional temptation to attempt such adventures; for they held nothing more worthy of their valour than to encounter supernatural beings.-BARTHOLINUS De causis contemptæ a Danis mortis, lib. 1, cap. 2, 9, 10, 13.

20.- Rosabelle.-P. 24.

Clair. Henry St. Clair, the second son of the line,
This was a family name in the house of St.
married Rosabelle, fourth daughter of the earl of
Stratherne.

21. Castle Ravensheuch.-P. 24.

A large and strong castle, now ruinous, situated betwixt Kirkaldy and Dysart, on a steep crag, washed by the Frith of Forth. It was conferred on sir William St. Clair, as a slight compensation for the earldom of Orkney, by a charter of king James III, dated in 1471, and is now the property of sir James St. Clair Erskine, (now earl of Rosslyn,) representative of the family. It was long a principal residence of the barons of Roslin. 22. Seem'd all on fire that chapel proud, Where Roslin's chiefs uncoffin'd lie; Each baron, for a sable shroud,

Sheathed in his iron panoply.-P. 24.

The beautiful chapel of Roslin is still in tolerable preservation. It was founded in 1446 by William St. Clair, prince of Orkney, duke of Oldenburgh, earl of Caithness and Stratherne, lord St. Clair, lord Niddesdale, lord admiral of the Scottish seas, lord chief justice of Scotland, lord warden of the three Marches, baron of Roslin, Pentland, Pentlandmoor, &c. knight of the Cockle and of the Garter, (as is affirmed,) high chancellor, chamberlain, and lieutenant of Scotland. This lofty person, whose titles, says Godscroft, might weary a Spaniard, built the castle of Roslin, where he resided in princely splendour, and founded the chapel, which is in the most rich and florid style of Gothic architecture. Among the profuse carving on the pillars and buttresses, the rose is frequently introduced, in allusion to the name, with