whom he had killed. Sir Walter, guided by the old man, visited the lowly tomb of his father; and, having read the inscription, which was in Latin, he caused the body to be raised and transported to his native city of Valenciennes, where masses were, in the days of Froissart, duly said for the soul of the unfortunate pilgrim.-Cronycle of Froyssart, Vol. I. p. 123.

14.

While Cessford owns the rule of Car.—St. VIII. p. The family of Ker, Kerr, or Car*, was very powerful on the Border. Fynes Morrison remarks, in his Travels, that their influence extended from the village of Preston-Grange, in Lothian, to the limits of England. Cessford Castle, the ancient baronial residence of the family, is situated near the village of Morebattle, within two or three miles of the Cheviot Hills. It has been a place of great strength and consequence, but is now ruinous. Tradition affirms, that it was founded by Halbert, or Habby Ker, a gigantic warrior, concerning whom many stories are current in Roxburghshire. The Duke of Roxburghe represents Ker of Cessford. A distinct and powerful branch of the same name own the marquis of Lothian as their chief: Hence the distinction betwixt Kerrs of Cessford and Fairnihirst.

*The name is spelled differently by the various families who bear it. Car is selected, not as the most correct, but as the most poetical reading.

Before Lord Cranstoun she should wed.-St. X. p. 15. The Cranstouns, Lord Cranstoun, are an ancient Border family, whose chief seat was at Crailing in Teviotdale. They were at this time at feud with the clan of Scot; for it appears that the Lady of Buccleuch, in 1557, beset the laird of Cranstoun, seeking his life. Nevertheless the same Cranstoun, or perhaps his son, was married to a daughter of the same lady.

Of Bethune's line of Picardie.-St. XI. p. 16.

The Bethunes were of French origin, and derived their name from a small town in Artois. There were several distinguished families of the Bethunes in the neighbouring province of Picardie; they numbered among their descendants the celebrated Duc de Sully; and the name was accounted among the most noble in France, while aught noble remained in that country. The family of Bethune, or Beatoun, in Fife, produced three learned and dignified prelates; namely, Cardinal Beaton, and two successive archbishops of Glasgow, all of whom flourished about the date of the romance. Of this family was descended Dame Janet Beaton, Lady Buccleuch, widow of Sir Walter Scott of Branksome. She was a woman of a masculine spirit, as appeared from her riding at the head of her son's clan after her husband's murder. She also possessed the hereditary abilities of her family in such a degree, that the superstition of the vulgar imputed them to supernatural knowledge. With this was mingled, by faction, the foul accusation of her having influenced Queen Mary to the murder of her husband. One

of the placards preserved in Buchanan's Detection, accuses of Darnley's murder" the Erle Bothwell, Mr James Balfour, the persoun of Fliske Mr David Chalmers, blak Mr John Spens, wha was principal deviser of the murder; and the Quene, assenting thairto, throw the persuasioun of the Erle Bothwell, and the witchcraft of the Lady Buckcleuch.”

He learned the arts that none may name,

In Padua, far beyond the sea.-St. XI. p. 16.

Padua was long supposed by the Scottish peasants to be the principal school of necromancy. The Earl of Gowrie, slain at Perth in 1600, pretended, during his studies in Italy, to have acquired some knowledge of the cabala, by which he said he could charm snakes, and work other miracles; and, in particular, could produce children without the intercourse of the sexes. See the examination of Wemyss of Bogie before the Privy Council, concerning Gowrie's conspiracy.

His form no darkening shadow traced
Upon the sunny wall!-St. XI. p. 16.

The shadow of a necromancer is independant of the sun. Glyeas informs us, that Simon Magus caused his shadow to go before him, making people believe it was an attendant spirit. HEYWOOD'S Hierarchie, p. 475.-The vulgar conceive, that when a class of students have made a certain progress in their mystic studies, they are obliged to run through a subterraneous hall, where the devil literally catches the hindmost in the race, unless he crosses the hall so speedily, that the arch enemy can

only apprehend his shadow. In the latter case, the person of the sage never after throws any shade; and those, who have thus lost their shadow, always prove the best magicians.

The viewless forms of air.-St. XII. p. 16.

The Scottish vulgar, without having any very defined notion of their attributes, believe in the existence of an intermediate class of spirits residing in the air, or in the waters; to whose agency they ascribe floods, storms, and all such phenomena as their own philosophy cannot readily explain. They are supposed to interfere in the affairs of mortals, sometimes with a malevolent purpose, and sometimes with milder views. It is said, for example, that a gallant Baron, having returned from the Holy Land to his castle of Drummelziar, found his fair lady nursing a healthy child, whose birth did not by any means correspond to the date of his departure. Such an occurrence, to the credit of the dames of the crusaders be it spoken, was so rare, as to require a miraculous solution. The lady therefore was believed, when she averred confidently, that the Spirit of the Tweed had issued from the river while she was walking upon its bank, and had compelled her to submit to his embraces; and the name of Tweedie was bestowed upon the child, who afterwards became Baron of Drummelziar, and chief of a powerful clan. To those spirits were also ascribed, in Scotland, the

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Airy tongues, that syllable men's names

On sands, and shores, and desert wildernesses."

When the workmen were engaged in erecting the ancient

church of Old Deer, in Aberdeenshire, upon a small hill called Bissau, they were surprised to find that the work was impeded by supernatural obstacles. At length the Spirit of the River was heard to say,

It is not here, it is not here,

That ye shall build the kirk of Deer;

But on Taptillery,

Where many a corpse shall lie.

The site of the edifice was accordingly transferred to Taptillery, an eminence at some distance from the place where the building had been commenced. Macfarlain's MSS.—I mention these popular fables, because the introduction of the River and Mountain Spirits may not at first sight seem to accord with the general tone of the romance, and the superstitions of the country where the scene is laid.

A fancied moss-trooper, &c.—St. XIX. p. 21.

This was the usual appellation of the marauders upon the Border; a profession diligently pursued by the inhabitants on both sides, and by none more actively and successfully than by Buccleugh's clan. Long after the union of the crowns, the moss-troopers, although sunk in reputation, and no longer enjoying the pretext of national hostility, continued to pursue their calling.

Fuller includes, among the wonders of Cumberland, "The moss-troopers; so strange is the condition of their living, if considered in their Original, Increase, Height, Decay, and Ruine.