Such was the noted battle of Ancram Moor. The spot, on which it was fought, is called Lyliard's Edge, from an Amazonian Scottish woman of that name, who is reported, by tradition, to have distinguished herself in the same manner as squire Witherington. The old people point out her monument, now broken and defaced. The inscription is said to have been legible within this century, and to have run thus: Fair maiden Lylliard lies under this stane, And, when her legs were cutted off, she fought upon her stumps. It appears, from a passage in Stowe, that an ancestor of Lord Evers held also a grant of Scottish lands from an English monarch. "I have seen," says the historian, "under the broad "seale of the said King Edward I., a manor called Ketnes, in "the countie of Ferfare, in Scotland, and neere the furthest part of the same nation northward, given to John Eure and "his heires, ancestor to the lord Eure that now is, and for his "service done in these partes, with market, &c. dated at Laner"cost, the 20th day of October, anno regis, 34."-STOWE'S Annals, p. 210. This grant, like that of Henry, must have been dangerous to the receiver. There is a nun in Dryburgh bower.-P. 33. v. 3. The circumstance of the nun," who never saw the day," is not entirely imaginary. About fifty years ago, an unfortunate female wanderer took up her residence in a dark vault, among the ruins of Dryburgh Abbey, which, during the day, she never quitted. When night fell, she issued from this miserable habitation, and went to the house of Mr Halliburton of Newmains, the editor's great-grandfather, or to that of Mr Erskine of Shielfield, two gentlemen of the neighbourhood. From their charity she obtained such necessaries as she could be prevailed upon to accept. At twelve, each night, she lighted her candle, and returned to her vault; assuring her friendly neighbours that, during her absence, her habitation was arranged by a spirit, to whom she gave the uncouth name of Fatlips; describing him as a little man, wearing heavy iron shoes, with which he trampled the clay floor of the vault, to dispel the damps. This circumstance caused her to be regarded, by the well informed, with compassion, as deranged in her understanding; and by the vulgar, with some degree of terror. The cause of her adopting this extraordinary mode of life she would never explain. It was, however, believed to have been occasioned by a vow, that, during the absence of a man, to whom she was attached, she would never look upon the sun. Her lover never returned. He fell during the civil war of 1745-6, and she never more would behold the light of day. The vault, or rather dungeon, in which this unfortunate woman lived and died, passes still by the name of the supernatural being, with which its gloom was tenanted by her disturbed imagination, and few of the neighbouring peasants dare enter it by night. CADYOW CASTLE. THE ruins of Cadyow, or Cadzow castle, the ancient baronial residence of the family of Hamilton, are situated upon the precipitous banks of the river Evan, about two miles above its junction with the Clyde. It was dismantled, in the conclusion of the civil wars, during the reign of the unfortunate Mary, to whose cause the house of Hamilton devoted themselves with a generous zeal, which occasioned their temporary obscurity, and, very nearly, their total ruin: The situation of the ruins, embosomed in wood, darkened by ivy and creeping shrubs, and overhanging the brawling torrent, is romantic in the highest degree. In the immediate vicinity of Cadyow is a grove of immense oaks, the remains of the Caledonian Forest, which anciently ex tended through the south of Scotland, from the eastern to the Atlantic Ocean. Some of these trees measure twenty-five feet, and upwards, in circumference, and the state of decay, in which they now appear, shews, that they may have witnessed the rites of the Druids. The whole scenery is included in the magnificent and extensive park of the Duke of Hamilton. There was long preserved in this forest the breed of the Scottish wild cattle, until their ferocity occasioned their being extirpated, about forty years ago. Their appearance was beautiful, being milk-white, with black muzzles, horns, and hoofs. The bulls are described, by ancient authors, as having white manes; but those of latter days had lost that peculiarity, perhaps by intermixture with the tame breed.* In detailing the death of the Regent Murray, which is made the subject of the following ballad, it would be injustice to my reader to use other words than those of Dr Robertson, whose account of that memorable event forms a beautiful piece of historical painting. They were formerly kept in the park at Drumlanrig, and are still to be seen at Chillingham Castle in Northumberland. For their nature and ferocity, see Notes. 66 "Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh was the person who "committed this barbarous action. He had been con"demned to death soon after the battle of Langside, as we have already related, and owed his life to the regent's clemency. But part of his estate had been be"stowed upon one of the regent's favourites,* who "seized his house, and turned out his wife, naked, in 66 66 a cold night, into the open fields, where, before next "morning, she became furiously mad. This injury "made a deeper impression on him than the benefit he "had received, and from that moment he vowed to be "revenged of the regent. Party rage strengthened and "inflamed his private resentment. His kinsmen, the "Hamiltons, applauded the enterprize. The maxims of "that age justified the most desperate course he could "take to obtain vengeance. He followed the regent for some time, and watched for an opportunity to strike "the blow. He resolved, at last, to wait till his 66 66 enemy should arrive at Linlithgow, through which "he was to pass, in his way from Stirling to Edin *This was Sir James Ballenden, Lord-justice-clerk, whose shameful and inhuman rapacity occasioned the catastrophe in the text. Spottiswoode. |