fessed.' 'By my faith,' said the knight, whatsoever he be, he is un. happie; for as I deeme hee is of the fellowship of the Round Table, the which is entered into the quest of, the Sancgreall.' Sir,' said the squire, 'here have I brought you all your armes, save your helme and your sword, and therefore, by mine assent, now may ye take this knight's helme and his sword,' and so he did. And when he was cleane armed, he tooke Sir Launcelot's horse, for he was better than his owne, and so they departed from the crosse.

Then anon Sir Launcelot awaked, and set himselfe up right, and he thought him what hee had there seene, and whether it were dreames or not, right so he heard a voice that said, 'Sir Launcelot, more hardy then is the stone, and more bitter then is the wood, and more naked and bare then is the liefe of the fig-tree, therefore go thou from hence, and withdraw thee from this holy place.' And when Sir Launcelot heard this, hee was passing heavy, and wit not what to doe. And so he departed sore weeping, and cursed the time that he was borne; for then he deemed never to have had more worship; for the words went unto his heart till that he knew wherefore that hee was so called."

NOTE III.

And Dryden, in immortal strain,

Had raised the Table Round again,

But that a ribald king and court

Bade him toil on, to make them sport;

Demanded for their niggard pay,

Fit for their souls, a looser lay,
Licentious satire, song, and play.

Dryden's melancholy account of his projected Epic Poem, blasted by the selfish and sordid parsimony of his patrons, is contained in an "Essay on Satire," addressed to the Earl of Dorset, and prefixed to the Trans lation of Juvenal.

NOTE IV.

Of Ascapart, and Bevis bold.

Ascapart, a most important personage in the "History of Bevis of Hampton," is thus described in an extract.

This geaunt was mighty and strong,

And full thirty foot was long.

He was bristled like a sow;

A foot he had between each brow;

His lips were great and hung aside;

His eyen were hollow, his mouth was wide;

Lothly he was to look on than,

And liker a devil than a man,

His staff was a young oak,

Hard and heavy was his stroke.

Specimens of Metrical Romances, Vol. II. p. 186.

NOTE V.

Day set on Norham's castled steep,

And Tweed's fair river, broad and deep.

The ruinous castle of Norham (Anciently called Ubbanford) is situated on the southern bank of the Tweed, about six miles above Berwick, and where that river is still the boundary between England and Scotland. The extent of its ruins as well as its historical importance, shew it to have been a place of magnificence, as well as strength. Edward I. resided there when he was created umpire of the dispute concerning the Scottish succession. It was repeatedly taken and retaken during the wars be tween England and Scotland; and, indeed, scarce any happened, in which it had not a principal share. Norham Castle is situated on a steep bank which overhangs the river. The repeated sieges which the castle had sustained, rendered frequent repairs necessary. In 1164 it was almost rebuilded by Hugh Pudsey, Bishop of Durham, who added a huge keep or donjon; notwithstanding which, King Henry II., in 1174, took The castle from the bishop, and committed the keeping of it to William

7

de Marille. After this period it seems to have heen chiefly garrisoned by the king and considered a royal fortress. The Greys of Chillinghame Castle were frequently the castellans, or captains of the garrison; yet, as the castle was situated in the patrimony of St. Cuthbert, the property was in the see of Durham till the reformation.

According to Mr. Pinkerton, there is in the British Museum, Cal. B. 6. 216, a zurious 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.” — History of Scotland, Vol. II. p. 201, Note.

The ruins of the castle are at present considerable, as well as pictu resque. They consist of a large shattered tower, with many vaults and fragments of other edifices, inclosed within an outward wall of great circuit.

NOTE VI.

The donjon keep.

It is perhaps unnecessary to remind my readers, that the donjon, in its proper signification, means the strongest part of a feudal castle; a high square tower, with walls of tremendous thickness, situated in the centre of the other buildings, from which, however, it was usually detached.

NOTE VII.

Well was he armed from head to heel,

In mail and plate of Milan steel.

The artists of Milan were famous in the middle ages for their skill in armoury, as appears from the following passage, in which Froissart gives an account of the preparations made by Henry, Earl of Hereford, afterwards Henry IV., and Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, Earl Marischal, for their proposed combat, in the lists at Coventry: "These two Lords made ample provision of all things necessary for the combat; and the Earl of Derby sent off Messengers to Lombardy, to have armour from Sir Galeas, Duke of Milan. The duke complied with joy, and gave the knight, called Sir Francis, who had brought the message, the choice of all his armour for the Earl of Derby. When he had selected what he wished for in plated and mail armour, the lord of Milan, out of his abundant love for the Earl, ordered four of the best armourers in Milan to accompany the knight to England, that the Earl of Derby might be more completely armed.”— JOHNES' Froissart, Vol. IV. p. 597.

NOTE VIII.

The golden legend bore aright,

WHO CHECKS AT ME, TO death is dight.

The crest and motto of Marmion are borrowed from the following story. Sir David de Lindsay, first Earl of Crauford, was, according to my authority, Bower, not only excelling in wisdom, but also of a lively wit. Chancing to be at the court of London, about 1390, he there saw Sir Piers Courtenay, an English knight, famous for skill in tilting, and for the beauty of his person, parading the palace, arrayed in a new mantle, bearing for device an embroidered falcon, with this rhyme:

I bear a falcon, fairest of flight,

Who so pinches at her, his death is dight, (1)
In graith. (2)

The Scottish knight being a wag, appeared next day in a dress exactly similar to that of Courtenay, but bearing a magpie, instead of the falcon, with a motto ingeniously contrived to rhyme to the vaunting inscription of Bir Piers:

I bear a pie picking at a piece,

Who so picks at her, I shall pick at his nese, (3)

(1) Prepared.

In faith.

This affront could only be expiated by a just with sharp lances. In the course, Lindsay left his helmet unlaced so that it gave way at the touch of his antagonist's lance, and he thus avoided the shock of the encounter. This happened twice:-in the third encounter, the handsome Courtenay lost two of his front teeth. As the Englishman complained bitterly of Lindsay's fraud in not fastening his helmet, the Scottishman agreed to run six courses more, each champion staking in the hand of the king two hundred pounds to be forfeited, if, on entering the lists, any unequal advantage should be detected. This being agreed to, the wily Scot demanded, that Sir Piers, in addition to the loss of his teeth, should consent to the extinction of one of his eyes, he himself having lost an eye in the fight of Otterburn. As Courtenay demurr'd to this equalization of optical powers, Lindsay demanded the forfeit: which, after much altercation, the king appointed to be paid to him, saying, he surpassed the English both in wit and valour. This must appear to the reader a singular specimen of the humour of that time. I suspect the Jockey Club would have given a different decision from Henry IV.

NOTE IX.
Largesse, largesse.

This was the cry with which heralds and pursuivants were wont to reknowledge the bounty received from the knights.

They hailed Lord Marmion:

They hailed him Lord of Fontenaye,
Of Lutterward, and Scrivelbaye,

Of Tamworth tower and town.

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 honourable 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, who died in 20th Edward I., without issue male. He was succeeded in his Castle of Tamworth by Alexander de Frevil, who married Mazera, his grand-daughter. Baldwin de Freville, Alexander's descendant, in the reign of Richard I., by the supposed tenure of his castle of Tamworth, claimed the office of royal champion, and to do the service appertaining; namely, on the day of coronation, to ride completely armed, upon a barbed horse, into Westminster Hall, and there to challenge the combat against any who would gainsay the king's title. But this office was adjudged to Sir John Dymoke, to whom the manor of Scriveiby had descended by another of the co-heiresses of Robert de Marmion; and it remains in that family, whose representative is Hereditary Champion of England at the present day. The family and possessions of Freville have merged in the Earls of Ferras; I have Lot, therefore, created a new family, but only revived the titles of an old one in an imaginary personage.

It was one of the Marmion family, who, in the reign of Edward II., performed that chivalrous feat before the very castle of Norham, which Bishop Percy has woven into his beautiful ballad, "The Hermit of Wark◄ worth." The story is thus told by Leland:

"The Scottes came yn to the marches of England, and destroyed the Castles of Werk and Herbotel, and overran much of Northumberland marches.

"At this tyme Sir Thomas Gray and his friendes defended Norham from the Scottes.

"It were a wonderfull processe to declare what mischiefs cam by hungre and asseges by the space of xi yeres in Northumberland; for

the Scottes became so proud after they had got Berwick, that they nothing esteemed the Englishmen.

"About this tyme there was a greate feste made in Lincolnshir, to which came many gentilmen and ladies; and amonge them one lady brought a heaulme for a man of were, with a very riche creste of gold, to William Marmion, knight, with a letter of commandment of her lady, that he should go into the daungerest place in England, and ther to let the heaulme be seene and known as famous. So he went to Norham; whither withyn 4 days of cumming cam Philip Moubray, guardian of Berwicke, having yn his bande 40 men of armes, the very flour of men of the Scottish marches.

"Thomas Gray, capitayne of Norham, seynge this, brought his garison afore the barriers of the castel, behind whom cam William, richly arrayed, as al glittering in gold, and wearing the heaulme, his lady's present.

"Then said Thomas Gray to Marmion, Sir knight, ye be cum hither, to fame your helmet: mount up on yor horse, and ryde like a valiant man to your foes, even here at hand, and I forsake God if I rescue not thy body dead or alyve, or I myself wyl dye for it.'

"Whereupon he toke his cursere, and rode among the throng of ennemyes: the which layed sore stripes upon hym, and pulled hym at the last out of his sadel to the grounde.

"Then Thomas Gray, with al the hole garrison, lette prik yn among the Scottes, and so wondid them and their horses, that they were overthrowan; and Marmion, sore beten, was horsid agayn, and with Gray, persewed the Scottes yn chase. There were taken 50 horse of price; and the women of Norham brought them to the foote men to follow the

chase."

NOTE X.

Sir Hugh the Heron bold,

Baron of Twisell, and of Ford,

And Captain of the Hold.

Were accuracy of any consequence in a fictitious narrative, this castel. lan's name ought to have been William: for William Heron of Ford was husband of the famous Lady Ford, whose syren charms are said to have cost our James IV. so dear.

NOTE XI.

James backed the cause of that mock prince,

Warbeck, that Flemish counterfeit,

Who on the gibbet paid the cheat.

Then did I march with Surrey's power,

What time we razed old Ayton tower.

The story of Perkin Warbeck, or Richard, Duke of York, is well known. In 1496, he was received honourably in Scotland; and James IV., after conferring upon him in marriage his own relation, the Lady Catherine Gordon, made war on England in behalf of his pretensions. To retaliate. an invasion of England, Surrey advanced into Berwickshire at the head of considerable forces, but retreated after taking the inconsiderable fortress: of Ayton.

NOTE XII.

For here be some have pricked as far,
On Scottish ground as to Dunbar;

Have drunk the monks of St Bothan's ale,
And driven the beeves of Lauderdale.

The garrisons of the English castles of Wark, Norham, and Berwick, were very troublesome neighbours 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 5,000 sheep, 200 nolt, 30 horses and mares; the whole furniture of his house of Blythe, worth 100 pounds Scots, (£8. 6s. 8d.) and everything else that was portable.

NOTE XIII.

And of that grot where Olives nod,
Where, darling of each heart and eye,
From all the youth of Sicily,

Saint Rosalie retired to God.

"Sante Rosalia was of Palermo, and born of a very noble family, and, when very young, abhorred so much the vanities of this world, and avoided the converse of mankind, resolving to dedicate herself wholly to God Almighty, that she, by divine inspiration, forsook her father's house, and never was more heard of, till her body was found in that cleft of a rock, on that almost inaccessible mountain, where now the chappel is built: and they affirm she was carried up there by the hands of angels; for that place was not formerly so acces sible (as now it is) in the days of the Saint; and even now it is a very bad, and steepy, and break-neck way. In this frightful place, this holy woman lived a great many years, feeding only on what she found growing on that barren mountain, and creeping into a narrow and dreadful cleft in a rock, which was always dropping wet, and was her place of retirement as well as prayer."-Voyage to Sicily and Malta, by Mr. John Dryden (son to the poet), p. 107.

NOTE XIV.

Himself still sleeps before his beads

Have marked ten aves and two creeds.

Friar John understood the soporific virtue of his beads and breviary, as well as his namesake in Rabelais. “But Gargantua could not sleep by any means, on which side soever he turned himself, whereupon the monk said to him, 'I never sleep soundly but when I am at sermon, or prayers: let us therefore begin, you and I, the seven penitential psalms, to try whether you shall not quickly fall asleep.' The conceit pleased Gargantua very well; and, beginning the first of these psalms, as soon as they came to Beati Quorum, they both fell asleep."

NOTE XV.

Peter's keys, in cloth of red

On his broad shoulders wrought.

A Palmer, opposed to a Pilgrim, was one who made it his sole business to visit different holy shrines, travelling incessantly, and subsisting by charity; whereas the pilgrim retired to his usual home and occupations, when he had paid his devotions at the particular spot, which was the obs ject of his pilgrimage. The Paimers seem to have been the Quæstionarti of the ancient Scottish canons 1242 and 1296.

NOTE XVI.

To fair St. Andrew's bound,
Within the ocean-cave to pray,
Where good St. Rule his holy lay,
From midnight to the dawn of day,

Sung to the billows' sound.

St. Regulus (Scottice, St. Rule), a monk of Patræ, in Achaia, warned by a vision, is said, A.D. 370, to have sailed westward, until he landed at St. Andrew's, in Scotland, where he founded a chapel and tower. The latter is still standing, and is certainly one of the most ancient edifices in Scotland. A cave, nearly fronting the ruinous castle of the Archbishops of St. Andrew's, bears the name of this religious person. It is difficult of access; and the rock in which it is hewed is washed by the German ocean. It is nearly round, about ten feet in diameter, and the same in height. On one side is a sort of altar; on the other an aperture into an inner den, where the miserable ascetic, who inhabited this dwelling, probably slept. As Regulus first colonized the metropolitan see of Scotland, and converted the inhabitants in the vicinity, he has some reason to complain that the ancient name of Kilrule (Cella Reguli) should have been superseded, even in favour of the tutelar saint of Scotland. The reason of the change was, that St. Rule is said to have brought to Scotland the reliques of St. Andrew.