Sigillum Prioris de Pettinwem

Sigillum Prioris de Insula de Lochlevin

Sigillum Senescalli Scocie

Sigillum Willelmi Comitis de Ros

Sigillum Gilberti de la Haya Constabularii Scocie

Sigillum Roberti de Keth Mariscalli Scocie

Sigillum Hugonis de Ros

Note XVII.

Not for De Argentine alone,

Through Ninian's church these torches shone,

And rose the death-prayer's awful tone-St. XXXV. p. 270.

The remarkable circumstances attending the death of De Argentine have been already noticed, (pp. 309, 310.). Besides this renowned warrior, there fell many representatives of the noblest houses in England, which never sustained a more bloody and disastrous defeat. Barbour says that two hundred pairs of gilded spurs were taken from the field of battle; and that some were left the author can bear witness, who has in his possession a curious antique spur, dug up in the morass, not long since.

"It was fersooth a great ferlie,

To see samyn 1 sa fele did lie.

Two hundred spurs that were reid,2

Were taen of knights that were dead."

I am now to take my leave of Barber, not without a sincere wish that the public may encourage the undertaking of my friend, Dr Jamieson, who has issued proposals for publishing an accurate edition of his poem, and of Blind Harry's Wallace. The only good edition of The Bruce was published by Mr Pinkerton, in 3 vols., in 1790; and, the learned editor having had no personal access to consult the manuscript,

'Together.

2 Red, or gilded.

it is not without errors; and it has besides become scarce. Of Wallace there is no tolerable edition; yet these two poems do no small honour to the early state of Scottish poetry, and The Bruce is justly regarded as containing authentic historical facts.

The following list of the slain at Bannockburn, extracted from the continuator of Trivet's Annals, will show the extent of the national calamity.

LIST OF THE SLAIN.

Barons and Knight Bannerets.

Robert de Felton,

Gilbert de Clare, Earl of

Michael Poyning,

Edmund Maulley.

Knights.

Gloucester,

Robert de Clifford,
Payan Tybetot,

William Le Mareschal,

John Comyn,
William de Vescey,
John de Montfort,
Nicolas de Hasteleigh,
William Dayncourt,
Ægidius de Argenteyne,
Edmond Comyn,
John Lovel, (the rich)
Edmund de Hastynge,

Milo de Stapleton,
Simon Ward,

Henry de Boun,
Thomas de Ufford,
John de Elsingfelde,

John de Harcourt,
Walter de Hakelut,

Philip de Courtenay,
Hugo de Scales,

Radulph de Beauchamp,

John de Penbrigre,

With thirty-three others of the

same rank, not named,

PRISONERS.

TANA

Thomas and Odo Lele Erce-
dekene,
Robert Beaupel, (the son,)
John Mautravers, (the son,)

William and William Giffard, and thirty-four other knights, not named by the historian.

And in sum, there were there slain, along with the Earl of Gloucester, forty-two barons and bannerets. The number of earls, barons, and bannerets made captive, was twenty-two, and sixty-eight knights. Many clerks and esquires were also there slain or taken. Roger de Northburge, keeper of the king's signet, (Custos Targic Domini Regis,) was made prisoner with his two clerks, Roger de Wakenfelde and Thomas de Switon, upon which the king caused a seal to be made, and entitled it his privy seal, to distinguish the same from the signet so lost. The Earl of Hereford was exchanged against Bruce's queen, who had been detained in captivity ever since the year 1306. The Targia, or signet, was restored to England through the intercession of Ralph de Monthermer, ancestor of Lord Moira, who is said to have found favour in the eyes of the Scotish king.-Continuation of TRIVET'S Annals, Hall's edit. Oxford, 1712, vol. II. p. 14.

Such were the immediate consequences of the field of Bannockburn. Its more remote effects, in completely establishing the national independence of Scotland, afford a boundless field for speculation.

THE END.

EDINBURGH :

Printed by James Ballantyne & Co.