Chapter VIII: Part 8

line 263. For 'fair Melrose' see opening of Canto II, 'Lay of the Last Minstrel,' and Prof. Minto's note in the Clarendon Press edition.

Stanza XV. line 292. 'Every one has heard, that when David I, with his son Henry, invaded Northumberland in 1136, the English host marched against them under the holy banner of St. Cuthbert; to the efficacy of which was imputed the great victory which they obtained in the bloody battle of Northallerton, or Cuton-moor. The conquerors were at least as much indebted to the jealousy and intractability of the different tribes who composed David's army; among whom, as mentioned in the text, were the Galwegians, the Britons of Strath- Clyde, the men of Teviotdale and Lothian, with many Norman and German warriors, who asserted the cause of the Empress Maud. See Chalmers's "Caledonia," vol. i. p. 622; a most laborious, curious, and interesting publication, from which considerable defects of style and manner ought not to turn aside the Scottish antiquary.

'Cuthbert, we have seen, had no great reason, to spare the Danes, when opportunity offered. Accordingly, I find in Simeon of Durham, that the Saint appeared in a vision to Alfred, when lurking in the marches of Glastonbury, and promised him assistance and victory over his heathen enemies; a consolation which, as was reasonable, Alfred, after the battle of Ashendown, rewarded, by a royal offering at the shrine of the Saint. As to William the Conqueror, the terror spread before his army, when he marched to punish the revolt of the Northumbrians, in 1096, had forced the monks to fly once more to Holy Island with the body of the Saint. It was, however, replaced before William left the north; and, to balance accounts, the Conqueror having intimated an indiscreet curiosity to view the Saint's body, he was, while in the act of commanding the shrine to be opened, seized with heat and sickness, accompanied with such a panic terror, that, notwithstanding there was a sumptuous dinner prepared for him, he fled without eating a morsel (which the monkish historian seems to have thought no small part both of the miracle and the penance,) and never drew his bridle till he got to the river Tees.'--SCOTT.

Stanza XVI. line 300. 'Although we do not learn that Cuthbert was, during his life, such an artificer as Dunstan, his brother in sanctity, yet, since his death, he has acquired the reputation of forging those Entrochi which are found among the rocks of Holy Island, and pass there by the name of St. Cuthbert's Beads. While at this task, he is supposed to sit during the night upon a certain rock, and use another as his anvil. This story was perhaps credited in former days; at least the Saint's legend contains some not more probable.'--SCOTT.

See in Mr. Aubrey de Vere's 'Legends of the Saxon Saints' a fine poem entitled 'How Saint Cuthbert kept his Pentecost at Carlisle.' The 'beads' are there referred to thus:--

'And many an age, when slept that Saint in death,
Passing his isle by night the sailor heard
Saint Cuthbert's hammer clinking on the rock.'

The recognised name of these shells is still 'St. Cuthbert's beads."

Stanza XVII. line 316. 'Ceolwolf, or Colwulf, King of Northumberland, flourished in the eighth century. He was a man of some learning; for the venerable Bede dedicates to him his "Ecclesiastical History." He abdicated the throne about 738, and retired to Holy Island, where he died in the odour of sanctity. Saint as Colwulf was, however, I fear the foundation of the penance- vault does not correspond with his character; for it is recorded among his memorabilia, that, finding the air of the island raw and cold, he indulged the monks, whose rule had hitherto confined them to milk or water, with the comfortable privilege of using wine or ale. If any rigid antiquary insists on this objection, he is welcome to suppose the penance-vault was intended by the founder for the more genial purposes of a cellar.

'These penitential vaults were the Geissel-gewolbe of German convents. In the earlier and more rigid times of monastic discipline, they were sometimes used as a cemetery for the lay benefactor of the convent, whose unsanctified corpses were then seldom permitted to pollute the choir. They also served as places of meeting for the chapter, when measures of uncommon severity were to be adopted. But their most frequent use, as implied by the name, was as places for performing penances, or undergoing punishment.'-- SCOTT.

Stanza XVIII. line 350. 'Antique chandelier.'--SCOTT.

Stanza XIX. line 371. 'That there was an ancient priory at Tynemouth is certain. Its ruins are situated on a high rocky point; and, doubtless, many a vow was made to the shrine by the distressed mariners, who drove towards the iron-bound coast of Northumberland in stormy weather. It was anciently a nunnery; for Virca, abbess of Tynemouth, presented St. Cuthbert (yet alive) with a rare winding- sheet, in emulation of a holy lady called Tuda, who had sent him a coffin: but, as in the case of Whitby, and of Holy Island, the introduction of nuns at Tynemouth, in the reign of Henry VIII, is an anachronism. The nunnery of Holy Island is altogether fictitious. Indeed, St. Cuthbert was unlikely to permit such an establishment; for, notwithstanding his accepting the mortuary gifts above mentioned, and his carrying on a visiting acquaintance with the abbess of Coldingham, he certainly hated the whole female sex; and, in revenge of a slippery trick played to him by an Irish princess, he, after death, inflicted severe penances on such as presumed to approach within a certain distance of his shrine.'--SCOTT.

line 376. ruth (A. S. hreow, pity) in Early and Middle English was used both for 'disaster' and 'pity.' These two shades of meaning are illustrated by Spenser in F. Q., Bk. ii. I. Introd. to Canto where Falsehood beguiles the Red Cross Knight, and 'workes him woefull ruth,' and in F. Q. I. v. 9:

'Great RUTH in all the gazers hearts did grow.'

Milton (Lycidas, 163) favours the poetical employment of the word, which modern poets continue to use. Cp. Wordsworth, 'Ode for a General Thanksgiving':--

'Assaulting without RUTH
The citadels of truth;'

and Tennyson's 'Geraint and Enid,' II. 102:--

'RUTH began to work
Against his anger in him, while he watch'd
The being he lov'd best in all the world.'

Stanza XX. line 385. doublet, a close-fitting jacket, introduced from France in the fourteenth century, and fashionable in all ranks till the time of Charles II. Cp. As You Like It, ii. 4. 6:--'Doublet and hose ought to show itself courageous to petticoat.'

line 398. Fontevraud, on the Loire, 8 miles from Saumur, had one of the richest abbeys in France. It was a retreat for penitents of both sexes, and presided over by an abbess. 'The old monastic buildings and courtyards, surrounded by walls, and covering from 40 to 50 acres, now form one of the larger prisons of France, in which about 2000 men and boys are confined, and kept at industrial occupations.' See Chambers's 'Encyclopaedia,' s. v., and Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, 2d. S, I. 104.

Stanza XXI. line 408. but = except that. Cp. Tempest, i. 2. 414:--

'And, but he's something stain'd
With grief that's beauty's canker, thou might'st call him
A goodly person.'

line 414. Byron, writing to Murray on 3 Feb., 1816, expresses his belief that he has unwittingly imitated this passage in 'Parisina.' 'I had,' he says, 'completed the story on the passage from Gibbon, which indeed leads to a like scene naturally, without a thought of the kind; but it comes upon me not very comfortably.' Byron is quite right in his assertion that, if he had taken this striking description of Constance as a model for his Parisina, he would have been attempting 'to imitate that which is inimitable.' See 'Parisina,' st. xiv:--

'She stood, I said, all pale and still,
The living cause of Hugo's ill.'

Stanza XXII. line 415. a sordid soul, &c. For such a character in the drama see Lightborn in Marlowe's Edward II, and those trusty agents in Richard III, whose avowed hardness of heart drew from Gloucester the appreciative remark:--

'Your eyes drop millstones, when fools' eyes drop tears.'
Richard III, i. 3. 353.

Stanza XXIII. line 438. grisly, grim, horrible; still an effective poetic word. It is, e.g., very expressive in Tennyson's 'Princess,' sect. vi, where Ida sees

'The haggard father's face and reverend beard
Of GRISLY twine, all dabbled with the blood,' &c.

See below, III. 382.

Stanza XXV. line 468. 'It is well known, that the religious, who broke their vows of chastity, were subjected to the same penalty as the Roman vestals in a similar case. A small niche, sufficient to enclose their bodies, was made in the massive wall of the convent; a slender pittance of food and water was deposited in it, and the awful words, VADE IN PACE, were the signal for immuring the criminal. It is not likely that, in latter times, this punishment was often resorted to; but among the ruins of the abbey of Coldingham, were some years ago discovered the remains of a female skeleton, which, from the shape of the niche, and position of the figure, seemed to be that of an immured nun.'--SCOTT.

Lockhart adds:--'The Edinburgh Reviewer, on st. xxxii, POST, suggests that the proper reading of the sentence is VADE IN PACEM-- not PART IN PEACE, but GO INTO PEACE, or eternal rest, a pretty intelligible mittimus to another world.'

Stanza XXVII. line 506. my = 'of me,' retains the old genitive force as in Elizabethan English. Cp. Julius Caesar, i. I. 55:--

'In HIS way
That comes in triumph over Pompey's blood.'

line 516. The very old fancy of a forsaken lover's revenge has been powerfully utilized in D. G. Rossetti's fascinating ballad, 'Sister Helen':--

'Pale, pale her cheeks, that in pride did glow,
Sister Helen,
'Neath the bridal-wreath three days ago.'

'One morn for pride and three days for woe,
Little brother!'

Stanza XXVIII. line 520. plight, woven, united, as in Spenser F. Q., II. vi. 7:--

'Fresh flowerets dight
About her necke, or rings of rushes PLIGHT.'

lines 524-40. The reference in these lines is to what was known as the appeal to the judgment of God. On this subject, Scott at the close of the second head in his 'Essay on Chivalry,' says, 'In the appeal to this awful criterion, the combatants, whether personally concerned, or appearing as champions, were understood, in martial law, to take on themselves the full risk of all consequences. And, as the defendant, or his champion, in case of being overcome, was subjected to the punishment proper to the crime of which he was accused, so the appellant, if vanquished, was, whether a principal or substitute, condemned to the same doom to which his success would have exposed the accused. Whichever combatant was vanquished he was liable to the penalty of degradation; and, if he survived the combat, the disgrace to which he was subjected was worse than death. His spurs were cut off close to his heels, with a cook's cleaver; his arms were baffled and reversed by the common hangman; his belt was cut to pieces, and his sword broken. Even his horse shared his disgrace, the animal's tail being cut off, close by the rump, and thrown on a dunghill. The death-bell tolled, and the funeral service was said for a knight thus degraded as for one dead to knightly honour. And if he fell in the appeal to the judgment of God, the same dishonour was done to his senseless corpse. If alive, he was only rescued from death to be confined in the cloister. Such at least were the strict roles of Chivalry, though the courtesy of the victor, or the clemency of the prince, might remit them in favourable cases.'

For illustration of forms observed at such contests, see Richard II, i. 3.

line 524. Each knight declared on oath that he 'had his quarrel just.' The fall of an unworthy knight is referred to below, VI. 961.

Stanza XXIX. line 545. This illustrates Henry's impulsive and imperious character, and is not, necessarily, a premonition of his final attitude towards Roman Catholicism.

line 555. dastard (Icel. doestr = exhausted, breathless; O. Dut. dasaert = a fool) is very appropriately used here, after the description above, St. xxii, to designate the poltroon that quails only before death. Cp. Pope's Iliad, II. 427:--

'And die the dastard first, who dreads to die.'

Stanza XXX. line 568. Cp. Julius Caesar, ii. 2. 35:--

'It seems to me most strange that men should fear;
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come.'

Stanza XXXI. line 573. the fiery Dane. See note on line 10 above. Passing northwards after destroying York and Tynemouth, the Danes in 875 burned the monastery on Lindisfarne. The bishop and monks, with their relics and the body of St. Cuthbert, fled over the Kylve hills. See Raine, &c.

line 576. the crosier bends. Crosier (O. Fr. croiser; Fr. croix = cross) is used both for the staff of an archbishop with a cross on the top, and for the staff of a bishop or an abbot, terminating in a carved or ornamented curve or crook. The word is used here metaphorically for Papal power, as Bacon uses it, speaking of Anselm and Becket, 'who with their CROSIERS did almost try it with the king's sword.' Constance's prophecy refers to Henry VIII's victorious collision with the Pope.

Stanza XXXII. lines 585-91. It is impossible not to connect this striking picture with that of Virgil's Sibyl (Aeneid, VI. 45):--

'Ventum erat ad limen, cum virgo, 'poscere fata
Tempus,' ait; 'deus, ecce, deus.' Cui talia fanti
Ante fores subito non voltus, non color unus,
Non comptae mansere comae; sed pectus anhelum,
Et rabie fera corda tument; maiorque videri
Nec mortale sonans, adflata est numine quando
Iam propiore dei.'

line 588. Stared, stood up stiffly. Cp. Julius Caesar, iv. 3. 280, and Tempest, i. 2. 213, 'with hair UPSTARING.'

line 600. See above, line 468, and note.

Stanza XXXIII. line 616. for terror's sake = because of terror. Cp. 'For fashion's sake,' As You Like It, iii. 2. 55.

line 620. The custom of ringing the PASSING bell grew out of the belief that a church bell, rung when the soul was passing from the body, terrified the devils that were waiting to attack it at the moment of its escape. 'The tolling of the passing bell was retained at the Reformation; and the people were instructed that its use was to admonish the living, and excite them to pray for the dying. But by the beginning of the l8th century the passing bell in the proper sense of the term had almost ceased to be heard. 'A mourning bell is still rung during funeral services as a mark of respect. See s. v. 'Bell,' Chambers's Encyclopaedia. Cp. Byron's 'Parisina,' St. xv.

'The convent bells are ringing,
But mournfully and slow;
In the grey square turret swinging
With a deep sound to and fro.'

In criticising 'Marmion,' in the Edinburgh Review, Lord Jeffrey says that the sound of the knell rung for Constance 'is described with great force and solemnity;' while a writer in the Scots Magazine of 1808 considers that 'the whole of this trial and doom presents a high-wrought scene of horror, which, at the close, rises almost to too great a pitch.'

INTRODUCTION TO CANTO THIRD.

'William Erskine, Esq. advocate, sheriff-depute of the Orkneys, became a Judge of the Court of Session by the title of Lord Kinnedder, and died in Edinburgh in August, 1823. He had been from early youth the most intimate of the Poet's friends, and his chief confidant and adviser as to all literary matters. See a notice of his life and character by the late Mr. Hay Donaldson, to which Sir Walter Scott contributed several paragraphs.'--LOCKHART.

There are frequent references to Erskine throughout Lockhart's Life of Scott. The critics of the time were of his opinion that Scott as a poet was not giving his powers their proper direction. Jeffrey considered Marmion 'a misapplication in some degree of extraordinary talents.' Fortunately, Scott decided for himself in the matter, and the self-criticism of this Introduction is characterised not only by good humour and poetic beauty but by discrimination and strong common-sense.

line 14. a morning dream. This may simply be a poetic way of saying that his method is unsystematic, but Horace's account of the vision he saw when he was once tempted to write Greek verses is irresistibly suggested by the expression:--

'Vetuit me tali voce Quirinus
Post mediam noctem visus, cum somnia vera:
"In silvam non ligna feras insanius, ac si
Magnas Graecorum malis implere catervas?'
Sat. I. x. 32.

line 24. all too well. This use of 'all too' is a development of the Elizabethan expression 'all-to' = ALTOGETHER, QUITE, as 'all to topple,' Pericles, iii. 2. 17; 'all to ruffled,' Comus, 380. In this usage the original force of TO as a verbal prefix is lost sight of. Chaucer has 'The pot to breaketh' in Prologue to Chanon Yeomanes Tale. See note in Clarendon Press Milton, i. 290.

line 26. Desultory song may naturally command a very wide class of those intelligent readers, for whom the Earl of Iddesleigh, in 'lectures and Essays,' puts forward a courageous plea in his informing and genial address on the uses of Desultory Reading.

line 28. The reading of the first edition is 'loftier,' which conveys an estimate of his own achievements more characteristic of Scott than the bare assertion of his ability to 'build the lofty rhyme' which is implied in the line as it stands. Perhaps the expression just quoted from 'Lycidas' may have led to the reading of all subsequent editions.

line 46. The Duke of Brunswick commanded the Prussian forces at Jena, 14 Oct., 1806, and was mortally wounded. He was 72. For 'hearse,' cp. above, Introd. to I. 199.

line 54. The reigning house of Prussia comes from the Electors of Brandenburg. In 1415 Frederick VI. of Hohenzollern and Nuremberg became Frederick the First, Elector of Brandenburg. The Duchy of Prussia fell under the sway of the Elector John Sigismund (1608-19), and from that time to the present there has been a very remarkable development of government and power. See Carlyle's 'Frederick the Great,' and Mr. Baring-Gould's 'Germany' in the series 'Stories of the Nations.'

lines 57-60. The Duke of Brunswick was defeated at Valmy in 1792, and so failed to crush the dragon of the French Revolution in its birth, as in all likelihood he would have done had he been victorious on the occasion.

line 64. Prussia, without an ally, took the field instead of acting on the defensive.

line 67. seem'd = beseemed, befitted; as in Spenser's May eclogue, 'Nought seemeth sike strife,' i.e. such strife is not befitting or seemly.

line 69. Various German princes lost their dominions after Napoleon conquered Prussia.

line 78. By defeating Varus, A. D. 9, Arminius saved Germany from Roman conquest. See the first two books of the Annals of Tacitus, at the close of which this tribute is paid to the hero: 'liberator haud dubie Germaniae et qui non primordia populi Romani, sicut alii reges ducesque, sed florentissimum imperium lacessierit, proeliis ambiguus, bello non victus.'

lines 46-80. This undoubtedly vigorous and well-sustained tribute is not without its special purpose. The Princess Caroline was daughter of the Duke of Brunswick, and Scott was one of those who believed in her, in spite of that 'careless levity' which he did not fail to note in her demeanour when presented at her Court at Blackheath in 1806. This passage on the Duke of Brunswick had been read by the Princess before the appearance of 'Marmion.' Lockhart (Life of Scott, ii. 117) says: 'He seems to have communicated fragments of the poem very freely during the whole of its progress. As early as the 22nd February, 1807, I find Mrs. Hayman acknowledging, in the name of the Princess of Wales, the receipt of a copy of the Introduction to Canto III, in which occurs the tribute to her Royal Highness's heroic father, mortally wounded the year before at Jena-- a tribute so grateful to her feelings that she herself shortly after sent the poet an elegant silver vase as a memorial of her thankfulness.'

line 81. The Red-Cross hero is Sir Sidney Smith, the famous admiral, who belonged to the Order of Knights Templars. The eight-pointed Templar's cross which he wore throughout his career is said to have belonged to Richard Coeur-de-Lion. In early life, with consent of the Government, Smith distinguished himself with the Swedes in their war with Russia. He was frequently entrusted with the duty of alarming the French coast, and once was captured and imprisoned, in the Temple at Paris, for two years. His escape was effected by a daring stratagem on the part of the French Royalist party. He and his sailors helped the Turks to retain St. Jean d'Acre against Napoleon, till then the 'Invincible,' who retired baffled after a vain siege of sixty days (May, 1799). Had Acre been won, said Napoleon afterwards, 'I would have reached Constantinople and the Indies--I would have changed the face of the world.' See Scott's 'Life of Napoleon,' chap. xiii.

line 91. For metal'd see above, Introd. to I. 308.

line 92. For warped = 'frozen,' cp. As You Like It, ii. 7. 187, where, addressing the bitter sky, the singer says:--

'Though thou the waters warp,
Thy sting is not so sharp,
As friends remember'd not.'

line 94. The reference is to Sir Ralph Abercromby, who commanded the expedition to Egypt, 1800-1, and fell at the battle of Alexandria. Sir Sidney Smith was wounded in the same battle, and had to go home.

lines 100-10. Scott pays compliment to his friend Joanna Baillie (1764-1851), with chivalrous courtesy asserting that she is the first worthy successor of Shakespeare. 'Count Basil' and 'De Montfort' are the two most remarkable of her 'Plays of the Passions,' of which she published three volumes. 'De Montfort' was played in London, Kemble enacting the hero. Several of Miss Baillie's Scottish songs are among standard national lyrics.

line 100. Cp. opening of 'Lady of the Lake.'

lines 115-28. Lockhart notes the resemblance between this passage and Pope's 'Essay on Man,' II. 133-148.

line 134. Cp. Goldsmith's 'Traveller,' 293:--

'The slow canal, the yellow-blossom'd vale,
The willow-tufted bank, the gliding sail.'

Batavia is the capital of the Dutch East Indies, with canals, architecture, &c., after the home model.

line 137. hind, from Early Eng. hyne, servant (A. S. hina) is quite distinct from hind, a female stag. Gavin Douglas, translating Tyrii coloni of Aen. I. 12, makes them 'hynis of Tyre.' Shakespeare (Merry Wives, iii. 5. 94) uses the word as servant, 'A couple of Ford's knaves, his HINDS, were called forth.' The modern usage implies a farm-bailiff or simply a farm-servant.

line 149. Lochaber is a large district in the south of Invernesshire, having Ben Nevis and other Grampian heights within its compass. It is a classic name in Scottish literature owing to Allan Ramsay's plaintive lyric, 'Lochaber no more.'

line 153. For early influences, see Lockhart's Life, vol. i.

line 178. 'Smailholm Tower, in Berwickshire, the scene of the author's infancy, is situated about two miles from Dryburgh Abbey.'- -LOCKHART.

line 180. The aged hind was 'Auld Sandy Ormiston,' the cow-herd on Sandyknows, Scott's grandfather's farm. 'If the child saw him in the morning,' says Lockhart, 'he could not be satisfied unless the old man would set him astride on his shoulder, and take him to keep him company as he lay watching his charge.'

line 183. strength, stronghold. Cp. Par. Lost, vii. 141:--

'This inaccessible high strength...
He trusted to have seiz'd.'

line 194. slights, as pointed out by Mr. Rolfe, was 'sleights' in the original, and, as lovers' stratagems are manifestly referred to, this is the preferable reading. But both spellings occur in this sense.

line 201. The Highlanders displayed such valour at Killiecrankie (1689), and Prestonpans (1745).

line 207. 'See notes on the Eve of St. John, in the Border Minstrelsy, vol. iv; and the author's Introduction to the Minstrelsy, vol. i. p. 101.'--LOCKHART.

line 211. 'Robert Scott of Sandyknows, the grandfather of the Poet.'--LOCKHART.

line 216. doom, judgment or decision. 'Discording,' in the sense of disagreeing, is still in common use in Scotland both as an adj. and a participle. 'They discorded' indicates that two disputants approached without quite reaching a serious quarrel. In a note to the second edition of the poem Scott states that the couplet beginning 'whose doom' is 'unconsciously borrowed from a passage in Dryden's beautiful epistle to John Driden of Chesterton.' Dryden's lines are:--

'Just, good, and wise, contending neighbours come,
From your award to wait their final doom.'

line 221. 'Mr. John Martin, minister of Mertoun, in which parish Smailholm Tower is situated.'--LOCKHART. With the tribute to the clergyman's worth, cp. Walton's eulogy on George Herbert, 'Thus he lived, and thus he died, like a saint,' &c.

line 225. For imp, cp. above Introd. to I. 37. A 'grandame's child' is almost certainly spoiled. Shakespeare (King John, ii. i. 161) utilizes the fact:--

'It grandam will
Give it a plum, a cherry, and a fig.'

CANTO THIRD.

Stanza I. Mr. Guthrie Wright, advocate, prosaically objected to the indirect route chosen by the poet for his troopers. Scott gave the true poetic answer, that it pleased him to take them by the road chosen. He is careful, however, to assign (11.6-8) an adequate reason for his preference.

line 16. wan, won, gained; still used in Scotland. Cp. Principal Shairp's 'Bush Aboon Traquair':--

'And then they WAN a rest,
The lownest an' the best,
I' Traquair kirkyard when a' was dune.'

line 19. Lammermoor. 'See notes to the Bride of Lammermoor, Waverley Novels, vols. xiii. and xiv.'--LOCKHART.

line 22. 'The village of Gifford lies about four miles from Haddington; close to it is Yester House, the seat of the Marquis of Tweeddale, and a little farther up the stream, which descends from the hills of Lammermoor, are the remains of the old castle of the family.'--LOCKHART.

Many hold that Gifford and not Gifford-gate, at the outskirts of Haddington, was the birthplace of John Knox.

Stanza II. line 31. An ivy-bush or garland was a tavern sign, and the flagon is an appropriate accompaniment. Chaucer's Sompnour (Prol. 666) suggested the tavern sign by his head-gear:--

'A garland hadde he set upon his heed,
As gret as it were for an ALE-STAKE.'

See note in Clarendon Press ed., and cp. Epilogue of As You Like It (and note) in same series:--'If it be true that good wine needs no bush,' &c.

line 33. 'The accommodations of a Scottish hostelrie, or inn, in the sixteenth century, may be collected from Dunbar's admirable tale of "The Friars of Berwick." Simon Lawder, "the gay ostlier," seems to have lived very comfortably; and his wife decorated her person with a scarlet kirtle, and a belt of silk and silver, and rings upon her fingers; and feasted her paramour with rabbits, capons, partridges, and Bourdeaux wine. At least, if the Scottish inns were not good, it was not from want of encouragement from the legislature; who, so early as the reign of James I, not only enacted, that in all boroughs and fairs there be hostellaries, having stables and chambers, and provision for man and horse, but by another statute, ordained that no man, travelling on horse or foot, should presume to lodge anywhere except in these hostellaries; and that no person, save innkeepers, should receive such travellers, under the penalty of forty shillings, for exercising such hospitality. But, in spite of these provident enactments, the Scottish hostels are but indifferent, and strangers continue to find reception in the houses of individuals.'--SCOTT.

It is important to supplement this note by saying that the most competent judges still doubt whether Dunbar wrote 'The Friars of Berwick.' It is printed among his doubtful works.

Stanza III. Such a kitchen as that described was common in Scotland till recent times, and relics of a similar interior exist in remote parts still. The wide chimney, projecting well into the floor, formed a capacious tunnel to the roof, and numerous sitters could be accommodated with comfort in front and around the fire. Smoke and soot from the wood and peat fuel were abundant, and the 'winter cheer,'--hams, venison, &c.--hung from the uncovered rafters, were well begrimed before coming to the table.

line 48. The solan goose frequents Scottish haunts in summer. There are thousands of them on Ailsa Craig, in the Frith of Clyde, and on the Bass Rock, in the Frith of Forth, opposite Tantallon.

line 49. gammon (O. Fr. gambon, Lat. gamba, 'joint of a leg'), the buttock or thigh of a hog salted and dried; the lower end of a flitch.

Stanza IV. line 73. 'The winds of March' (Winter's Tale, iv. 3. 120), are a prominent feature of the month. The FRESHNESS of May has fascinated the poets since it was told by Chaucer (Knightes' Tale, 175) how Emelie arose one fine morning in early summer:--

'Emilie, that fairer was to scene
Than is the lilie on hire stalke grene,
And fresscher than the May with floures newe.'

line 76. Cp. 'Jock o' Hazeldean':--

'His step is first in peaceful ha',
His sword in battle keen.'

line 78. buxom (A. S. bocsum, flexible, obedient, from BUGAN, to bend) here means lively, fresh, brisk. Cp. Henry V, iii. 6. 27:--

'Bardolph, a soldier firm and sound of heart,
And of BUXOM valour.

Stanza VII. line 112. Cp. Spenser's Epithalamium:--

'Yet never day so long but late would passe,
Ring ye the bels to make it weare away.'

A familiar instance of 'speed' as a trans. verb is in Pope's Odyssey, XV. 83:--'Welcome the coming, speed the parting guest.'

Stanza VIII. line 120. St. Valentine's day is Feb. 14, when birds pair and lovers (till at any rate recent times) exchange artistic tokens of affection. The latter observance is sadly degenerated. See Professor Skeat's note to 'Parlement of Foules,' line 309, in Chaucer's Minor Poems (Clarendon Press).

line 122. The myth of Philomela has been a favourite with English sentimental poets. The Elizabethan Barnefield writes the typical lyric on the theme. These lines contain the myth :--

'She, poor bird, as all forlorn,
Lean'd her breast against a thorn,
And there sung the dolefullest ditty
That to hear it was great pity.'

Stanza IX. In days when harvesting was done with the sickle, reapers from the Highlands and from Ireland came in large numbers to the Scottish Lowlands and cut the crops. At one time a piper played characteristic melodies behind the reapers to give them spirit for their work. Hence comes--

'Wha will gar our shearers shear?
Wha will bind up the brags of weir?'

in a lyric by Hamilton of Gilbertfield (1665-1751). The reaper's song is the later representative of this practice. See Wordsworth's 'Solitary Highland Reaper'--immortalized by her suggestive and memorable singing--and compare the pathetic 'Exile's Song' of Robert Gilfillan (1798-1850):--

'Oh! here no Sabbath bell
Awakes the Sabbath morn;
Nor song of reapers heard
Among the yellow corn.'

For references to Susquehanna and the home-longing of the exile, see Campbell's 'Gertrude of Wyoming,' I. i.-vi. The introduction of reaping-machines has minimised the music and poetry of the harvest field.

Stanzas X, XI. The two pictures in the song are very effectively contrasted both in spirit and style. The lover's resting-place has features that recall the house of Morpheus, 'Faery Queene,' I. i. 40-1. Note the recurrence of the traitor's doom in Marmion's troubled thoughts, in VI. xxxii. The burden 'eleu loro' has been somewhat uncertainly connected with the Italian ela loro, 'alas! for them.'

Stanza XIII. lines 201-7. One of the most striking illustrations of this is in Shakespeare's delineation of Brutus, who is himself made to say (Julius Caesar, ii. I. 18):--

'The abuse of greatness is, when it disjoins
Remorse from power.'

For the sentiment of the text cp. the character of Ordonio in Coleridge's 'Remorse,' the concentrated force of whose dying words is terrible, while indicative of native nobility:--

'I stood in silence like a slave before her
That I might taste the wormwood and the gall,
And satiate this self-accusing heart
With bitterer agonies than death can give.'

line 211. 'Among other omens to which faithful credit is given among the Scottish peasantry, is what is called the "dead-bell," explained by my friend James Hogg to be that tinkling in the ears which the country people regard as the secret intelligence of some friend's decease. He tells a story to the purpose in the "Mountain Bard," p. 26 [pp. 31-2, 3rd edit.].'--SCOTT.

Cp. Tickell's 'Lucy and Colin,' and this perfect stanza in Mickle's 'Cumnor Hall,' quoted in Introd. to 'Kenilworth':--

'The death-bell thrice was heard to ring,
An aerial voice was heard to call,
And thrice the raven flapp'd its wing
Around the towers of Cumnor Hall.'

line 217. Cp. Midsummer Night's Dream, v. I. 286: 'The death of a dear friend would go near to make a man look sad.'

Stanza XIV. lines 230-5. Cp. the effect of Polonius on the King (Hamlet, iii. I. 50):--

'How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience!'

Hamlet himself, ib. line 83, says:--

'Thus conscience does make cowards of us all.'

line 234. For vail = lower, see close of Editor's Preface.

Stanza XV. line 243. For practised on = plotted against, cp. King Lear, iii. 2. 57, 'Hast practised on man's life.'

lines 248-51. See above, II. xxix.

Stanza XVII. line 286. Cp. Burns's 'Bonnie Doon':--

'And my fause lover staw my rose,
But ah! he left the thorn wi' me.'

Stanza XVIII. line 307. Loch Vennachar, in the south of Perthshire, is the most easterly of the three lakes celebrated in the 'Lady of the Lake.'

line 321. Cp. 'wonder-wounded hearers,' Hamlet, v. I. 265.

Stanza XIX. line 324. Clerk is a scholar, as in Chaucer's 'Clerk of Oxenford,' &c., and the 'learned clerks' of 2 Henry VI, iv. 7. 76. See below, VI. xv. 459, 'clerkly skill.'

line 325. Alexander III (1240-1286) came to the throne at the age of nine, and proved himself a vigorous and large-hearted king. He was killed by a fall from his horse, near Kinghorn, Fife, where there is a suitable monument to his memory. The contemporary lament for his death bewails him as one that 'Scotland led in love and lee.' Sir Walter Scott (Introductory Remarks to 'Border Minstrelsy') calls him 'the last Scottish king of the pure Celtic race.'

line 333. 'A vaulted hall under the ancient castle of Gifford, or Yester (for it bears either name indifferently), the construction of which has, from a very remote period, been ascribed to magic. The Statistical Account of the Parish of Garvald and Baro, gives the following account of the present state of this castle and apartment:--"Upon a peninsula, formed by the water of Hopes on the east, and a large rivulet on the west, stands the ancient castle of Yester. Sir David Dalrymple, in his annals, relates that 'Hugh Gifford de Yester died in 1267; that in his castle there was a capacious cavern, formed by magical art, and called in the country Bo-Hall, i.e. Hobgoblin Hall.' A stair of twenty-four steps led down to this apartment, which is a large and spacious hall, with an arched roof; and though it hath stood for so many centuries, and been exposed to the external air for a period of fifty or sixty years, it is still as firm and entire as if it had only stood a few years. From the floor of this hall, another stair of thirty-six steps leads down to a pit which hath a communication with Hopes- water. A great part of the walls of this large and ancient castle are still standing. There is a tradition that the castle of Yester was the last fortification, in this country, that surrendered to General Gray, sent into Scotland by Protector Somerset."-- Statistical Account, vol. xiii. I have only to add, that, in 1737, the Goblin Hall was tenanted by the Marquis of Tweedale's falconer, as I learn from a poem by Boyse, entitled "Retirement," written upon visiting Yester. It is now rendered inaccessible by the fall of the stair.

'Sir David Dalrymple's authority for the anecdote is in Fordun, whose words are:--"A. D. MCCLXVII. Hugo Giffard de Yester moritur; cujus castrum, vel saltem caveam, et donglonem, arte daemonica antique relationes ferunt fabrifactas: nam ibidem habetur mirabilis specus subterraneus, opere mirifico constructus, magno terrarum spatio protelatus, qui communiter BO-HALL appellatus est." Lib. x. cap. 21.--Sir David conjectures, that Hugh de Gifford must either have been a very wise man, or a great oppressor.'--SCOTT.

Stanza XX. line 354. 'In 1263, Haco, King of Norway, came into the Frith of Clyde with a powerful armament, and made a descent at Largs, in Ayrshire. Here he was encountered and defeated, on the 2nd October, by Alexander III. Haco retreated to Orkney, where he died soon after this disgrace to his arms. There are still existing, near the place of battle, many barrows, some of which, having been opened, were found, as usual, to contain bones and urns.'--SCOTT.

line 358. Ayrshire in early times comprised three divisions, Cunninghame in the north, Kyle between the Irvine and the Doon, and Carrick to the south of that stream. Burns, by his song 'There was a Lad was born in Kyle,' has immortalised the middle division, which an old proverb had distinguished as productive of men, in contradistinction to the dairy produce and the stock of the other two.

line 362. '"Magicians, as is well known, were very curious in the choice and form of their vestments. Their caps are oval, or like pyramids, with lappets on each side, and fur within. Their gowns are long, and furred with fox-skins, under which they have a linen garment reaching to the knee. Their girdles are three inches broad, and have many cabalistical names, with crosses, trines, and circles inscribed on them. Their shoes should be of new russet leather, with a cross cut upon them. Their knives are dagger-fashion; and their swords have neither guard nor scabbard."--See these, and many other particulars, in the Discourse concerning Devils and Spirits, annexed to REGINALD SCOTT'S Discovery of Witchcraft, edition 1665.'--SCOTT.

line 369. Scott quotes thus from Reginald Scott's 'Discovery of Witchcraft' (1665):--

'A pentacle is a piece of fine linen, folded with five corners, according to the five senses, and suitably inscribed with characters. This the magician extends towards the spirits which he invokes, when they are stubborn and rebellious, and refuse to be conformable unto the ceremonies and rights of magic.'

line 373. The term 'Combust' is applied to the moon or the planets, when, through being not more than eight and a half degrees from the sun, they are invisible in his light. Chaucer, in the 'Astrolabe,' has 'that he be not retrograd ne COMBUST.' 'Retrograde' is the term descriptive of the motion of the planets from east to west. This is the case when the planets are visible on the side opposite to the sun. See Airy's 'Popular Astronomy,' p. 124. 'Trine' refers to the appearance of planets 'distant from each other 120 degrees, or the third part of the zodiac. 'Trine was considered a favourable conjunction. Cp. note on Par. Lost, X. 659, in Clarendon Press Milton--

'In sextile, square, and TRINE, and opposite.'

Stanza XXII. line 407. 'It is a popular article of faith that those who are born on Christmas or Good Friday have the power of seeing spirits and even of commanding them. The Spaniards imputed the haggard and downcast looks of their Philip II to the disagreeable visions to which this privilege subjected him.'--SCOTT.

line 408. See St. Matthew xxvii. 50-53.

line 415. Richard I of England (1189-99) could not himself have presented the sword, but the line is a spirited example of poetic licence.

line 416. Tide what tide is happen what may. Cp. Thomas the Rhymer's remarkable forecast regarding the family of Haig in Scott's country;--

'Betide, betide, whate'er betide,
Haig shall be Haig of Bemerside.'

line 420. Alexander III was the last of his line, which included three famous Malcolms, viz. Malcolm II, grandfather of the 'gracious Duncan,' who died in 1033; Malcolm Canmore, who fell at Alnwick in 1093; and Malcolm IV, 'The Maiden,' who was only 34 at his death in 1165. The reference here is probably to Canmore.

Stanza XXIII. line 438. See Chambers's 'Encyclopaedia,' articles on 'Earth-houses' and 'Picts' Houses.'

line 445. Legends tell of belated travellers being spell-bound in such spots.

line 461. The reference is to Edward I, who went as Prince Edward to Palestine in 1270, so that the legend at this point embodies an anachronism, Edward became king in 1274. His shield and banner were emblazoned with 'three leopards courant of fine gold set on red.'

Stanza XXIV. line 472. Largs, on the coast of Ayrshire, opposite Bute.

line 479. The ravens on the Norse banners were said to flutter their wings before a victory, and to let them droop in prospect of a defeat.

line 487. 'For an account of the expedition to Copenhagen in 1801, see Southey's "Life of Nelson," chap. vii.'--LOCKHART. There may possibly be a reference to the bombardment of Copenhagen in 1807.

Stanza XXV. line 497. The slight wound was due to the start mentioned in line 462. He had been warned against letting his heart fail him.

line 503. Scott quotes thus from the essay on 'Fairy Superstitions' in the 'Border Minstrelsy,' vol. ii., to show 'whence many of the particulars of the combat between Alexander III and the Goblin Knight are derived':--

'Gervase of Tilbury (Otia Imperial ap. Script, rer. Brunsvic, vol. i. p. 797), relates the following popular story concerning a fairy knight: "Osbert, a bold and powerful baron, visited a noble family in the vicinity of Wandlebury, in the bishopric of Ely. Among other stories related in the social circle of his friends, who, according to custom, amused each other by repeating ancient tales and traditions, he was informed, that if any knight, unattended, entered an adjacent plain by moonlight, and challenged an adversary to appear, he would be immediately encountered by a spirit in the form of a knight. Osbert resolved to make the experiment, and set out, attended by a single squire, whom he ordered to remain without the limits of the plain, which was surrounded by an ancient intrenchment. On repeating the challenge, he was instantly assailed by an adversary, whom he quickly unhorsed, and seized the reins of his steed. Daring this operation, his ghostly opponent sprung up, and darting his spear, like a javelin, at Osbert, wounded him in the thigh. Osbert returned in triumph with the horse, which he committed to the care of his servants. The horse was of a sable colour, as well as his whole accoutrements, and apparently of great beauty and vigour. He remained with his keeper till cock-crowing, when, with eyes flashing fire, he reared, spurned the ground, and vanished. On disarming himself, Osbert perceived that he was wounded, and that one of his steel boots was full of blood." Gervase adds, that, "as long as he lived, the scar of his wound opened afresh on the anniversary of the eve on which he encountered the spirit." Less fortunate was the gallant Bohemian knight, who travelling by night with a single companion, "came in sight of a fairy host, arrayed under displayed banners. Despising the remonstrances of his friend, the knight pricked forward to break a lance with a champion, who advanced from the ranks apparently in defiance. His companion beheld the Bohemian overthrown, horse and man, by his aerial adversary; and returning to the spot next morning, he found the mangled corpses of the knight and steed."--Hierarchy of Blessed Angels, p. 554.

'Besides these instances of Elfin chivalry above quoted, many others might be alleged in support of employing fairy machinery in this manner. The forest of Glenmore, in the North Highlands, is believed to be haunted by a spirit called Lham-dearg, in the array of an ancient warrior, having a bloody hand, from which he takes his name. He insists upon those with whom he meets doing battle with him; and the clergyman, who makes up an account of the district, extant in the Macfarlane MS., in the Advocates' Library, gravely assures us, that, in his time, Lham-dearg fought with three brothers whom he met in his walk, none of whom long survived the ghostly conflict. Barclay, in his "Euphormion," gives a singular account of an officer who had ventured, with his servant, rather to intrude upon a haunted house, in a town in Flanders, than to put up with worse quarters elsewhere. After taking the usual precautions of providing fires, lights, and arms, they watched till midnight, when, behold! the severed arm of a man dropped from the ceiling; this was followed by the legs, the other arm, the trunk, and the head of the body, all separately. The members rolled together, united themselves in the presence of the astonished soldiers, and formed a gigantic warrior, who defied them both to combat. Their blows, although they penetrated the body, and amputated the limbs, of their strange antagonist, had, as the reader may easily believe, little effect on an enemy who possessed such powers of self-union; nor did his efforts make more effectual impression upon them. How the combat terminated I do not exactly remember, and have not the book by me; but I think the spirit made to the intruders on his mansion the usual proposal, that they should renounce their redemption; which being declined, he was obliged to retreat.

'The most singular tale of this kind is contained in an extract communicated to me by my friend Mr. Surtees of Mainsforth, in the Bishopric, who copied it from a MS. note in a copy of Burthogge "On the Nature of Spirits," 8vo, 1694, which had been the property of the late Mr. Gill, attorney-general to Egerton, Bishop of Durham. "It was not," says my obliging correspondent" in Mr. Gill's own hand, but probably an hundred years older, and was said to be, E libro Convent. Dunelm. per T. C. extract., whom I believe to have been Thomas Cradocke, Esq., barrister, who held several offices under the See of Durham a hundred years ago. Mr. Gill was possessed of most of his manuscripts." The extract, which, in fact, suggested the introduction of the tale into the present poem, runs thus:--

"Rem miram hujusmodi que nostris temporibus evenit, teste viro nobili ac fide dignissimo, enarrare haud pigebit. Radulphus Bulmer, cum e castris, quae tunc temporis prope Norham posita erant, oblectationis causa, exiisset, ac in ulteriore Tuedae ripa praaedam cum canibus leporariis insequeretur, forte cum Scoto quodam nobili, sibi antehac, ut videbatur, familiariter cognito, congressus est; ac, ut fas erat inter inimicos, flagrante bello, brevissima interrogationis mora interposita, alterutros invicem incitato cursu infestis animis petiere. Noster, primo occursu, equo praeacerrimo hostis impetu labante, in terram eversus pectore et capite laeso, sanguinem, mortuo similis, evomebat. Quern ut se aegre habentem comiter allocutus est alter, pollicitusque, modo auxilium non abnegaret, monitisque obtemperans ab omni rerum sacrarum cogitatione abstineret, nec Deo, Deiparae Virgini, Sanctove ullo, preces aut vota efferret vel inter sese conciperet, se brevi eum sanum validumque restiturum esse. Prae angore oblata conditio accepta est; ac veterator ille nescio quid obscaeni murmuris insusurrans, prehensa manu, dicto citius in pedes sanum ut antea sublevavit. Noster autem, maxima prae rei inaudita novitate formidine perculsus, MI JESU! exclamat, vel quid simile; ac subito respiciens nec hostem nec ullum alium conspicit, equum solum gravissimo nuper casu afflictum, per summam pacem in rivo fluvii pascentem. Ad castra itaque mirabundus revertens, fidei dubius, rem primo occultavit, dein, confecto bello, Confessori suo totam asseruit. Delusoria procul dubio res tota, ac mala veteratoris illius aperitur fraus, qua hominem Christianum ad vetitum tale auxilium pelliceret. Nomen utcunque illius (nobilis alias ac clari) reticendum duco, cum haud dubium sit quin Diabolus, Deo permittente, formam quam libuerit, immo angeli lucis, sacro oculo Dei teste, posse assumere."

'The MS. chronicle, from which Mr. Cradocke took this curious extract, cannot now be found in the Chapter Library of Durham, or, at least, has hitherto escaped the researches of my friendly correspondent.

'Lindesay is made to allude to this adventure of Ralph Bulmer, as a well-known story, in the 4th Canto, Stanza xxii. p. 103.

'The northern champions of old were accustomed peculiarly to search for, and delight in, encounters with such military spectres. See a whole chapter on the subject in BARTHOLINUS De Causis contemptae Mortis a Danis, p. 253.'

line 508. Sir Gilbert Hay, as a faithful adherent of Bruce, was created Lord High Constable of Scotland. See note in 'Lord of the Isles,' II. xiii. How 'the Haies had their beginning of nobilitie' is told in Holinshed's 'Scottish Chronicle,' I. 308.

Stanza XXVI. line 510. Quaigh, 'a wooden cup, composed of staves hooped together.'--SCOTT.

Stanza XXVIII. line 551. Darkling, adv. (not adj. as in Keats's 'darkling way' in 'Eve of St. Agnes'), really means 'in the dark.' Cp. 'Lady of the Lake,' IV. (Alice Brand):--

'For darkling was the battle tried';

and see Midsummer Night's Dream, ii. 2. 86; King Lear, i. 4. 237. Lord Tennyson, like Keats, uses the word as an adj. in 'In Memoriam,' xcix:--

'Who tremblest through thy darkling red.'

Cp. below, V. Introd. 23, 'darkling politician.' For scholarly discussion of the term, see Notes and Queries, VII iii. 191.

Stanza XXX. lines 585-9. Iago understands the 'contending flow' of passions when in a glow of self-satisfied feeling he exclaims;

'Work on,
My medicine, work! Thus credulous fools are caught.'
Othello, iv. I. 44.

Stanza XXXI. line 597. 'Yode, used by old poets for WENT.'--SCOTT. It is a variant of 'yod' or 'yede,' from A. S. eode, I went. Cp. Lat. eo, I go. See Clarendon Press 'Specimens of Early English,' II. 71:--

'Thair scrippes, quer thai rade or YODE,
Tham failed neuer o drinc ne fode.'

Spenser writes, 'Faerie Queene,' II. vii. 2:--

'So, long he YODE, yet no adventure found.'

line 599. Selle, saddle. Cp. 'Faerie Queene,' II. v. 4:--

On his horse necke before the quilted SELL.'

INTRODUCTION TO CANTO FOURTH.

'James Skene, Esq., of Rubislaw, Aberdeenshire, was Cornet in the Royal Edinburgh Light Horse Volunteers; and Sir Walter Scott was Quartermaster of the same corps.'--LOCKHART.

For Skene's account of the origin of this regiment, due in large measure to 'Scott's ardour,' see 'Life of Scott,' i. 258.

line 2. See Taming of the Shrew, i. 4. 135, and 2 Henry IV, v. 3. 143, where a line of an old song is quoted:--

'Where is the life that late I led?'

line 3. See As you Like It, ii. 7. 12.

line 7. Scott made the acquaintance of Skene, recently returned from a lengthened stay in Saxony, about the end of 1796, and profited much by his friend's German knowledge and his German books. In later days he utilized suggestions of Skene's in 'Ivanhoe' and 'Quentin Durward.' See 'Life of Scott,' PASSIM, and specially i. 257, and iv. 342.

line 37. Blackhouse, a farm 'situated on the Douglas-burn, then tenanted by a remarkable family, to which I have already made allusion--that of William Laidlaw.'--'Life,' i. 328. Ettrick Pen is a hill in the south of Selkirkshire.

line 46. 'Various illustrations of the Poetry and Novels of Sir Walter Scott, from designs by Mr. Skene, have since been published.'--LOCKHART.

line 48. Probably the first reference in poetry to the Scottish heather is, says Prof. Veitch ('Feeling for Nature,' ii. 52), in Thomson's 'Spring,' where the bees are represented as daring

'The purple heath, or where the wild thyme grows.'

lines 55-97. With this striking typical winter piece, cp. in Thomson's 'Winter,' the vivid and pathetic picture beginning:--

'In his own loose-revolving fields, the swain
Disastered stands.'

See also Burns's 'Winter Night,' which by these lines may have suggested Scott's 'beamless sun':--

'When Phoebus gies a short-liv'd glow'r
Far south the lift;
Dim-dark'ning thro' the flaky show'r,
Or whirling drift.'

The 'tired ploughman,' too, may owe something to this farther line of Burns:--

'Poor labour sweet in sleep was lock'd';

while the animals seeking shelter may well follow this inimitable and touching description:--

'List'ning the doors an' winnocks rattle,
I thought me on the ourie cattle,
Or silly sheep, wha bide this brattle
O' winter war,
And thro' the drift, deep-lairing, sprattle
Beneath a scaur.'

line 91. 'I cannot help here mentioning that, on the night on which these lines were written, suggested as they were by a sudden fall of snow, beginning after sunset, an unfortunate man perished exactly in the manner here described, and his body was next morning found close to his own house. The accident happened within five miles of the farm of Ashestiel.'--SCOTT.

line 101. 'The Scottish Harvest-home.'--SCOTT. Perhaps the name 'kirn' is due to the fact that a churnful of cream is a feature of the night's entertainment. In Chambers's Burns, iii. 151, Robert Ainslie gives an account of a kirn at Ellisland in 1790.

line 102. Cp. the 'wood-notes wild' with which Milton credits Shakespeare, 'L'Allegro,' 131.

lines 104-5. The ideal pastoral life of the Golden Age.