NOTES TO CANTO FIRST.

Note I.

-The heights of Uam-var,

And roused the cavern where 'tis told

A giant made his den of old. Stanza iv. line 3.

Ua var, as the name is pronounced, or more properly Uaigh-mor, is a mountain to the northeast of the village of Callender in Menteith, deriving its name, which signifies the great den, or cavern, from a sort of retreat among the rocks on the south side, said by tradition to have been the abode of a giant. In latter times it was the refuge of robbers and banditti, who have been only extirpated within these forty or fifty years. Strictly speaking, this strong hold is not a cave, as the name would imply, but a sort of small inclosure, or recess, surrounded with large rocks and open above head. It may have been originally designed as a toil for deer, who might get in from the outside, but would find it difficult to return. This opinion prevails among the old sportsmen and deer-stalkers in the neighbourhood.

Note II.

Two dogs of black St. Hubert's breed,

Unmatched for courage, strength, and speed.
Stanza vii. line 7.

"The hounds which we call Saint Hubert's hounds, are commonly all blacke, yet neuertheless, their race is so min gled at these days, that we find them of all colors. These are the hounds which the abbots of St. Hubert haue always kept some of their race or kind, in honor or remembrance of the saint, which was a hunter with St. Eustace. Where upon we may conceiue that (by the grace of God) all good huntsmen shall follow them into paradise. To returne vnto any former purpose, this kind of dogges hath beene dispersed through the countries of Henault, Lorayne, Flanders, and Burgoyne. They are mighty of body, neuertheless their legges are low and short; likewise they are not swift, although they be very good of sent, hunting chaces which are farre straggled, fearing neither water nor cold, and doe more couet the chaces that smell, as foxes, bore, and such like, than other, because they find themselues neither of swiftness nor courage to hunt and kill the chaces that are lighter and swifter. The bloudhounds of this color prooue good, especially those that are cole-blacke, but I make no

great account to breede on them, or to keepe the kind, and yet I found a booke which a hunter did dedicate to a prince of Lorayne, which seemed to loue hunting much, wherein was a blason which the same hunter gaue to his bloudhound, called Souyllard, which was white:

My name came first from holy Hubert's race,
Souyllard my sire, a hound of singular grace.

Whereupon we may presume that some of the kind prooue white sometimes, but they are not of the kind of the Greffiers or Bouxes, which we haue at these dayes.”— The Noble Art of Venerie or Hunting, translated and collected for the use of all Noblemen and Gentlemen. Lond. 1611 4. p. 15.

Note III.

For the death wound, and death holloo,
Mustered his breath, his whinyard drew.
Stanza viii. line 7.

When the stag turned to bay, the ancient hunter had the perilous task of going in upon, and killing or disabling the desperate animal. At certain times of the year this was held particularly dangerous, a wound received from a stag's horns being then deemed poisonous, and more dangerous than one from the tusks of a boar, as the old rhyme testifies.

If thou be hurt with hart it brings thee to thy bier, But barber's hand will bore's hurt heel, thereof thou needs not fear.

At all times, however, the task was dangerous and to be adventured upon wisely and warily, either by getting behind the stag while he was gazing on the bounds, or by watching an opportunity to gallop roundly in upon him, and kill him with the sword. See many directions to this purpose in the Booke of Hunting, chap. 41. Wilson, the historian, has recorded a providential escape which befell him in this hazardous sport, while a youth and follower of the earl of Essex.

"Sir Peter Lee, of Lime in Cheshire, invited my lord one summer to hunt the stagg. And having a great stagg in chace, and many gentlemen in the pursuit, the stagg took soyle. And divers, whereof I was one, alighted, and stood with swords drawne, to have a cut at him, at his coming out of the water. The staggs, there, being wonderfully fierce and dangerous, made us youths more eager to be at him. But he escaped us all. And it was mr misfortune to be hindered of my coming nere him, the way being sliperte, by a fall; which gave occasion to some who did not know me, to speak as if I had faine for feare. Which being told me, left the stagg, and followed the gentleman who [first) spoke

It. But I found him of that cold temper, that it seems his words made an escape from him; as by his denial and repentance it appeared. But this made mee more violent in pursuite of the stagg, to recover my reputation. And I hap pened to be the only horseman in, when the dogs sett hin up at bay; and approaching nere him on horseback, lee broke through the dogs, and run at me, and tore my horse's side with his horues, close by my thigh. Then I quitted my horse and grew tuore cunning (for the dogs had sette him up againe,) stealing behind him with my sword, and cut his ham-strings; and then got upon his back, and cut his throat; which as I was doing, the company came in, and blamed my rashness for running such a hazard."-Peck's Desiderata Curiosa, II. 464.

Note IV.

And now to issue from the glen

No pathway meets the wanderer's ken,
Unless he climb, with footing nice,
A far projecting precipice.

Stanza xiv. line 1.

Until the present road was made through the romantic pass which I have presumptuously attempted to describe in the preceding stanzas, there was no mode of issuing out of the defile, called the Trosachs, excepting by a sort of ladder, composed of the branches and roots of the trees.

Note. V.

To meet with highland plunderers here

Were worse than loss of steed or deer. St. xvi. line 13. The clans who inhabited the romantic regions in the neighbourhood of Loch-Katrine, were even until a late period, much addicted to predatory excursions upon their lowland neighbours.

"In former times, those parts of this district, which are situated beyond the Grampian range, were rendered almost inaccessible, by strong barriers of rocks and mountains, and lakes It was a border country, and though on the ver/ verge of the low country, it was almost totally sequestered from the world, and as it were, insulated with respect to society.

Tis well known, that in the highlands, it was, in former times, accounted not only lawful, but honourable among hostile tribes, to commit depredations on one another; aud these habits of the age were perhaps strengthened in this district, by the circumstances which have been mentioned. It bordered on a country, the inhabitants of which, while they were richer, were less warlike than they, and widely differenced by language and manners." Graham's Sketches of Scenery in Perthshire. Edin. 1806, p. 97

The reader will therefore be pleased to remember, that the scene of this poem is laid in a time

When tooming faulds, or sweeping of a glen
Had still been held the deed of gallant men.

Note VI.

A gray-haired sire, whose eye intent,

Was on the visionary future bent. Stanza xxiii. line 7. if force or evidence could authorize us to believe facts inConsistent with the general laws of nature, enough might be produced in favour of the existence of the Second Sight It is called in Gaelic Taishitaraugh, from Taish, an unreal or shadowy appearance, and those possessed of the faculty are call Taishatrin, which may be aptly translated visionaries. Martin, a steady believer in the second sight, gives the following account of it.

"The second sight is a singular facultyof seeing an otherwise invisible object, without any previous means used by the person that uses it for that end; the vision makes such a lively impression upon the seers, that they neither see, nor think of any thing else, except the vision, as long as it continues; and then they appear pensive or jovial, according to the object which was represented to them.

"At the sight of a vision, the eyelids of the person are erected, and the eyes continue staring, until the object vanish. This is obvious to others who are by, when the persons happen to see a vision, and occurred more than once to my own observation, and to others that were with me.

"There is one in Skie, of whom his acquaintance observed, that when he sees a vision, the inner part of his eyelids, turns so far upwards, that after the object disappears, he must draw them down with his fingers, and sometimes employs others to draw them down, which he finds to he the much easier way.

"This faculty of the second-sight does not lineally descend in a family, as some imagine, for I know several parenta who are endowed with it but their children not, and vice versa neither is it acquired by any previous compact. And, after a strict inquiry, I could never learn, that this faculty was communicable any way whatsoever.

"The seer knows neither the object, time, nor place of a vision, before it appears; and the same object is often seen by different persons, living at a considerable distance from one another. The true way of judging as to the time and circumstance of an object, is by observation; for several persons of judgment, without this faculty, are more capable to judge of the design of a vision, than a novice that a If an object appear in the day or night, it will come to pass sooner or later accordingly.

"It an object is seen early in the morning, (which is not frequent,) it will be accomplished in a few hours afterward. If at noon, it will be commonly accomplished that very day. If in the evening, perhaps that night; if after candles be lighted, it will be accomplished that night: the latter always in accomplishment, by weeks, months, and sometimes years, according to the time of night the vision is seen.

"When a shroud is perceived about one, it is a sure prog nostic of death: the time is judged according to the height of it about the person; for if it is not seen above the middle, death is not to be expected for the space of a year, and per haps some months longer; and as it is frequently seen to ascend higher towards the head, death is concluded to be at hand within a few days, if not hours, as daily experionce confirms Examples of this kind were shown me, when the person of whom the observation were then made enjoyed perfect health.

"One instance was lately foretold by a seer that was a novice, concerning the death of one of Dy acquaintance; this was communicated to a few only, and with great confidence; I being one of the number did not in the least regard it, until the death of the person abcut the time foretold, did confirm me of the certainty of the prediction. The novice mentioned above is now a skilful seer, as appears from many late instances; he lives in the parish of St. Mary's Line most northern in Skie.

"If a woman is seen standing at a man's left hand, it is a presage that she will be his wife, whether they be married to others, or unmarried at the time of the apparition.

"If two or three women are seen at once near a man's left hand, she that is next him will undoubtedly ie bis wife first, and so on, whether all three or the man be single or married at the time of the vision or not; of which there are several late instances among those of my acquaintance. It is an ordinary thing for them to see a man that is to come to the house shortly after; and if he is not of the seer's ac quaintance, yet he gives such a lively description of hig stature, complexion, habit, &c. that upon his arrival he answers the character given him in all respects.

"If the person so appearing be one of the seer's acquaintance, he will tell his name, as well as other particulars; and he can tell by his countenance whether he comes in a good or bad humour.

"I have been seen thus myself by seers of both sexes, at some hundred miles' distance; seme that saw me in this manner, had never seen me personally, and it happened according to their visions, without any previous design of mine to go to those places, my coming there being purely accidental.

"It is ordinary with them to see houses, gardens, and trees in places void of all three; and this in progress of the