east side of the church-yard, the brook, called Pausayl, falls into the Tweed; and the following prophecy is said to have been current concerning their union:

When Tweed and Pausayl 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 would 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. Waldhiave,* under whose name a set of 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 mountain by a savage

* 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 Merlin 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

figure, to whom he can hardly give the name of man. At the sight of Waldhave, the apparition leaves the objects of his pursuit, and assaults him with a club. Waldhave defends himself with his sword, throws the savage to the earth, and refuses to let him arise till he swear, 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:

traction, proceeds to mention, that, looking upon the stars one clear evening, be discerned, from his astrological 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 Cumberland, where Guendolen resided. But her lover's curiosity leading him to inspect too nearly this extraordinary cavalcade, Merlin's rage was awakened, and he slew him, with the stroke of an antler of the stag. The original runs thus ;

Dixerat: et silvas et saltus circuit omnes,
Cervorumque greges agmen collegit in unum,
Et damas, capreusque simul, cervoque resedit;
Et veniente die, compellens agmina præ se,
Festinans vadit quo nubit Guendolæna.
Postquam venit eo, pacienter coegit
Cervos ante fores, proclamans, "Guendolana,
"Guendolana, veni, te talia munera spectant.”
Ocius ergo venit subridens Guendolona
Gestarique virum cervo miratur, et illum
Sic parere viro, tantum quoque posse ferarum
Uniri numerum quas præ se solus agebat,
Sicut pastor oves, quas ducere suevit ad herbas.
Stabat ab excelsa, sponsus spectando fenestra

"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 enquiry, concerning his name and nature, that he "drees his weird,” i. e. does penance, in that wood; and, having hinted that questions as to his own state are offensive, he pours forth an obscure rhapsody concerning futurity, and concludes,

"Go musing upon Merling if thou wilt;

"For I mean no more mna at this time."

This is exactly similar to the meeting betwixt Merlin and Kentigern, in Fordun. These prophecies of Merlin seem to have been in request in the minority of James V.; for, among the amusements, with which Sir David Lindsay diverted that prince during his infancy, are,

The prophecies of Rymer, Bede, and Merlin.

Sir David Lindsay's Epistle to the King.

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.

For a perusal of this curious poem, accurately copied from a MS. in the Cotton. library, nearly coeval with the author, I was indebted to my learned friend, the late Mr Ritson. There is an excellent paraphrase of it in the curious and entertaining Speci mens of Early English Romances, lately published by Mr Ellis.

And we find, in Waldhave, at least one allusion to the very ancient prophecy, addressed to the Countess o Dunbar :

This is a true token that Thomas of tells,

When a ladde with a ladye shall go over the fields.

The original stands thus:

When laddes weddeth lovedies.

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. Whe"ther 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 that 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 heart was the cognizance of Morton.

"the succession of Bruce himself to the crown, being yet a child, and other divers particulars, which the " event hath ratified and made good. Boethius, in his 66 story, relateth his prediction of King Alexander's "death, and that he did foretel the same to the Earl of "March, the day before it fell out; saying, 'That be"fore the next day at noon, such a tempest should "blow, as Scotland had not felt for many years before.' "The next morning, the day being clear, and no change "appearing in the air, the nobleman did challenge Tho"mas of his saying, calling him an impostor. He re"plied, that noon was not yet passed. About which "time, a post came to advertise the earl, of the king "his sudden death. 'Then,' said Thomas, this is the "tempest I foretold; and so it shall prove to Scotland.' "Whence, or how, he had this knowledge, can hardly "be affirmed; but sure it is, that he did divine and

answer truly of many things to come."-SPOTTISWOODE, p. 47. Besides that notable voucher, master Hector Boece, the good archbishop might, had he been so minded, have referred to Fordun for the prophecy of King Alexander's death. That historian calls our bard "ruralis ille vates."—FORDUN, lib. x. cap. 40.

What Spottiswoode calls "the prophecies extant in Scottish rhyme," are the metrical predictions ascribed to the prophet of Ercildoun, which, with many other compositions of the same nature, bearing the names of Bede, Merlin, Gildas, and other approved soothsayers, are contained in one small volume, published by Andro