Note V. The cloth-yard arrows flew like hail.-P. 167. This is no poetical exaggeration. In some of the counties of England, distinguished for archery, shafts of this extraordinary length were actually used. The Scottish, according to Ascham, had a proverb, that every English archer carried under his belt twenty-four Scots, in allusion to his bundle of unerring shafts. Note VI. To pass, to wheel, the croup to gain, On foeman's casque below.-P. 168. "The most useful air, as the Frenchmen term it, is territerr; the courbettes, cabrioles, or un pas, et un sault, being fitter for horses of parade and triumph than for soldiers: yet I cannot deny but a demivolte with courbettes, so that they be not too high, may be useful in a fight or meslee; for, as Labroue hath it, in his Book of Horsemanship, Monsieur de Montmorency having a horse that was excellent in performing the demivolte, did, with his sword, strike down two adversaries from their horses in a tourney, where divers of the prime gallants of France did meet; for, taking his time, when the horse was in the height of his courbette, and discharging a blow then, his sword fell with such weight and force upon the two cavaliers, one after the other, that he struck them from their horses to the ground."-Lord Herbert of Cherbury's Life, p. 48. Note VII. He saw the hardy burghers there March armed, on foot, with faces bare.-P. 168. The Scottish burgesses were like yeoman, appointed to be armed with bows and sheaves, sword, buckler, knife, spear, or a good ax instead of a bow, if worth L. 100: their armour to be of white or bright harness. They wore white hats, i. e. bright steel caps, without crest or visor. By an act of James IV., their weapon-schawings are appointed to be held four times a-year, under the aldermen or bailiffs. Note VIII. On foot the yeoman too.-P. 169. Bows and quivers were in vain recommended to the peasantry of Scotland, by repeated statutes; spears and axes seem universally to have been used instead of them. Their defensive armour was the plate-jack, hauberk, or brigantine; and their missile weapons cross-bows and culverins. All wore swords of excellent temper, according to Patten; and a voluminous handkerchief round their neck, "not for cold, but for cutting." The mace also was much used in the Scottish army: The old poem on the battle of Flodden, mentions a band Who manfully did meet their foes With leaden mauls and lances long. When the feudal array of the kingdom was called forth, each man was obliged to appear with forty days' provision. When this was expended, which took place before the battle of Flodden, the army melted away of course. Almost all the Scottish forces, except a few knights, men-at-arms, and the Border-prickers, who formed excellent light cavalry, acted upon foot. Note IX. A banquet rich, and costly wines.-P. 173. In all transactions of great or petty importance, and among whomsoever taking place, it would seem, that a present of wine was a uniform and indispensable preliminary. It was not to Sir John Falstaff alone that such an introductory preface was necessary, however well judged and acceptable on the part of Mr. Brook; for Sir Ralph Sadler, while on embassy to Scotland in 1539-40, mentions, with complacency, "the same night came Rothesay (the herald so called) to me again, and brought me wine from the king, both white and red." Clifford's Edition, p. 39. Note X. his iron belt, That bound his breast in penance-pain, In memory of his father slain.-P. 176. Few readers need to be reminded of this belt, to the weight of which James added certain ounces every year that he lived. Pitscottie founds his belief, that James was not slain in the battle of Flodden, because the English never had this token of the iron-belt to show to any Scottishman. The person and character of James are delineated according to our best historians. His romantic disposition, which led him highly to relish gayety, approaching to license, was, at the same time, tinged with enthusiastic devotion. These propensities sometimes formed a strange contrast. He was wont, during his fits of devotion, to assume the dress, and conform to the rules, of the order of Franciscans; and when he had thus done penance for some time in Stirling, to plunge again into the tide of pleasure. Probably, too, he sometimes laughed at the superstitious observances to which he at other times subjected himself. There is a very singular poem by Dunbar, seemingly addressed to James IV., on one of these occasions of monastic seclusion. It is a most daring and profane parody on the services of the church of Rome, entitled, Dunbar's Dirige to the King, We that are here, in heaven's glory, Where neither pleasure nor delight is, See the whole in Sibbald's Collection, Vol. I. p. 234. Note XI. Sir Hugh the Heron's wife held sway.-P. 177. It has been already noticed, that King James' acquaintance with Lady Heron of Ford did not commence until he marched into England. Our historians impute to the king's infatuated passion, the delays which led to the fatal defeat of Flodden. The author of "The genealogy of the Heron Family" endeavours, with laudable anxiety, to clear the Lady Ford from this scandal: that she came and went, however, between the armies of James and Surrey, is certain. See Pinkerton's History, and the authorities he refers to, Vol. II. p. 99. Heron of Ford had been, in 1511, in some sort accessory to the slaughter of Sir Robert Ker of Cessford, Warden of the Middle Marches. It was committed by his brother the bastard, Lilburn, and Starked, three Borderers. Lilburn, and Heron of Ford, were delivered up by Henry to James, and were imprisoned in the fortress of Fastcastle, where the former died. Part of the pretence of Lady Ford's negotiations with James was the liberty of her husband. Note XII. For the fair Queen of France And charged him, as her knight and love, For her to break a lance.-P. 177. "Also, the Queen of France wrote a love-letter to the King of Scotland, calling him her love, showing him that she had suffered much rebuke in France for the defending of his honour. She believed surely that he would recompense her again with some of his kingly support in her necessity; that is to say, that he would raise her an army, and come three foot of ground on English ground, for her sake. To that effect, she sent him a ring off her finger, with fourteen thousand French crowns to pay his expenses." Pitscottie, p. 110. A turquois ring;-probably this fatal gift is, with James's sword and dagger, preserved in the College of Heralds, London. Note XIII. Archibald Bell-the-Cat.-P. 182. Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus, a man remarkable for strength of body and mind, acquired the popular name of Bellthe-Cat, upon the following remarkable occasion: James the Third, of whom Pitscottie complains, that he delighted more in music, and "policies of building," than in hunting, hawking, and other noble exercises, was so ill advised, as to make favourites of his architects and musicians, whom the same historian irreverently terms masons and fiddlers. His nobility, who did not sympathize in the king's respect for the fine arts, were extremely incensed at the honours conferred on these persons, particularly on Cochrane, a mason, who had been created Earl of Mar. And seizing the opportunity, when, in 1482, the king had convoked the whole array of the country to march against the English, they held a midnight council in the church of Lauder, for the purpose of forcibly removing these minions from the king's person. When all had agreed on the propriety of the measure, Lord Gray told the assembly the Apologue of the Mice; who had formed a resolution, that it would be highly advantageous to their community to tie a bell round the cat's neck, that they might hear her approach at a distance; but which public measure unfortunately miscarried, from no mouse being willing to undertake the task of fastening the bell. "I understand the moral," said Angus, and, that what we propose may not lack execution, I will bell the cat." The rest of the strange scene is thus told by Pitscottie : "By this was advised and spoken by thir lords foresaid, Cochran, the Earl of Mar, came from the king to the council, (which council was holden in the kirk of Lawder for the time,) who was well accompanied with a band of men of war, to the |