not only was the Cumbrian Forest of Inglewood reckoned as but a wood of the vast Caledonian Forest, the haunt of Merlin; and not only was the present county of Cumberland included as but a district of that southern Scotland anciently called Strathclyde; but it was not till long after the Norman Conquest that these northern counties were annexed to England, and regularly incorporated with the English monarchy; while down to a comparatively late period they were within the frequent jurisdiction of the Scotish kings, whose eldest sons bore the title of Princes of Cumberland. Let us now begin our circuit of Arthurian Scotland. And for the sake of the impressiveness of contrast, let us come down on it from the Braes of Mar, at the foot of Ben Muich Dhui, the central dome of that mountain-range of the Grampians that, marking the main geological division of the country, may be said generally to separate Arthurian from Fingalian Scotland. For north of this line we have only to note that (1) Orkney, and perhaps also (2) Caithness, are referred to in the romances as the birth-countries of Arthurian knights. It is but one long day's walk from Braemar, through Glen Cluny, Glen Beg, and Glen Shee, to Alyth; or, but for the shut-up deerforest, we might cross from the head of Glen Calater, down through Glen Isla. And here we find ourselves at once in the region of Arthurian story. For innumerable legends agree in representing (3) Barry Hill (Barra, fortified hill), in the parish of Alyth, in Perthshire, as the residence or prison of as the legends make her out-the infamous Vanora, or Guinevere, "who appears in the local "traditions under the more homely name of Queen Wander, and is generally described as a malignant giantess. For the king her husband had lost the day in a great battle with the Picts and Scots, and she was made prisoner and taken to the castle on Barry Hill. This, however, she found by no means so unpleasant as she ought 66 tion, "held an unlawful intercourse "with Mordred, the Pictish king; and "Arthur, when he received her again, แ enraged at her infidelity, caused her "to be torn to pieces by wild horses." Her tomb, (4)"Ganore's Grave," we have next to visit. It lies but a few miles off, near (5) Arthurston. For "she was "buried at Meigle, and a monument "erected to perpetuate her infamy." And on examining the curious sculptured stones in Meigle churchyard, said to be the remains of this monument, we do actually find "two representations of "wild beasts tearing a human body, "and one where the body seems tied or close to chariot wheels, which may "relate to Vanora, or may have given "rise to the tradition." But the scene of her last resting-place, when I visited it, seemed suggestive of some less rude, some nobler version of her story. It was the close of autumn. Along the broad valley of Strathmore, ending northwards in the Howe of the Mearns, and sheltered from the sea by the Sidlaw Hills, with their many legends of Duncan, Macbeth, and Banquo, the farmyards were closely stacked with the ingathered corn; the leaves, whirled by gentle breezes, were falling through the sunny air; and beneath the lofty range of the snow-capped Grampians, along the whole strath, lay the dying year in the beauty of an ineffable repose. From Meigle we may proceed by rail to Stirling. And here, under the battlemented rocks of the castle, and adjoining the King's Park, we find a singular flat-surfaced mound within a series of inclosing embankments, which is called the (6) King's Knot, and would appear to be of very great antiquity. For in a sport called "Knights of the Round Table," the institutions of King Arthur were here of old commemorated. And also in Stirlingshire and in the vale of the Forth, and not far from where are now the Carron Ironworks, is, or rather was, what should seem to have been a Roman structure, though testifying to the currency in this district of Arthurian tradition in its vulgar name of (7) Ar Proceeding towards Edinburgh, we have (8) Arthur's Lee. (9) The Bass in the Firth of Forth enters into our list as the Bassas of the sixth battle of the Arthur of Nennius. And the little river (10) Dunglas, which formed the southern boundary of Lothian, seems to be the river, as Nennius says, "by the "Britons called Duglas, in the region "Linuis," where Arthur's second, third, fourth, and fifth battles were fought. Overlooking the capital, we have the famous (11) Arthur's Seat. (12) Edinburgh itself may be enumerated among Scotish Arthurian localities, if rightly identified with Cat Bregion, where, according to Nennius, Arthur fought his eleventh great battle against the Saxons. And its (13) Castle is, without doubt, the Pictish Castel Mynedh Agnedh, the Castrum Puellarum of the Charters, and the Dolorous Valley and Castle of Maidens of the Romances. For instance, Sir Galahad, "as he prayed, "heard a voice that said thus: "Go now, "thou adventurous knight, unto the "Castle of Maidens, and there do thou "away with all the wicked customs.'" By rail again, down Gala Water, we come on another group of Arthurian localities. For "six miles to the west "of that heretofore noble and eminent "monastery of Meilros," is (14) "We"dale, in English Wodale, in Latin "Vallis Doloris." Here, at Stowe, was (15) the church of St. Mary's, where were once "preserved in great veneration the fragments of that image of the Holy Virgin, Mother of God," which Arthur, on his return from Jerusalem, "bore upon his shoulders, and through "the power of our Lord Jesus Christ "and the holy Mary, put the Saxons "to flight, and pursued them the whole "day with great slaughter." 66 And Melrose itself is situated at the foot of those famous three-summited (16) Eildons, which, with their various 1 This, however, and the following identifications of the places mentioned by Nennius as the localities of the battles fought by the chief he calls Arthur, I am only prepared to maintain as being generally correct; that is, as weirdly appurtenants-the Windmill of Kippielaw, the Lucken Hare, and the Eildon Tree-mark the domed and vast subterranean halls ir. which all the Arthurian chivalry await, in an enchanted sleep, the bugle-blast of the adventurer, who will call them at length to a new life. Then across the winding (17) Tweed, which must also be included in our list, wandering up the Leader Water, and passing the Cowdenknowes of pastoral song, we come to (18) the Rhymer's Tower, on a beautiful haugh, or meadow, by the waterside. Here, in his castle of Ercildoune, of which these are the ruins, lived Thomas the Rhymer, whom so many traditions connect with Arthurian romance, in representing him as the unwilling and too quickly vanishing guide of those adventurous spirits who have entered the mysterious halls beneath the Eildons, and attempted to achieve the re-awakening of Arthur and his knights, but only to be cast forth amid the thunders of the fateful words: "Woe to the coward that ever he was born, Who did not draw the sword before he blew the horn." From Melrose we again set out, and journey, it may unfortunately be at railway speed, down the Tweed, past an almost endless number of places famous in story, to (19) Berwick. And, though now fallen into comparative decay and insignificance, crowning, as it does, the northern heights at the mouth of the Tweed, looking eastward on the sea, that dashes up to high, caverned cliffs, and commanding westward the vale of the beautiful river, here flowing between steep braes, shadowy with trees, or bright with corn and pasture, Berwick, but for the dulness now within its walls, seems still almost as worthy of being called Joyeuse Garde, as, both from its real and romance history of siege, conquest, and reconquest, it is of being remembered as Dolorous Garde. From its still-preserved ramparts I observed, away to the south, a great pyramid-like mass by the sea; and on not only was the Cumbrian Forest of Inglewood reckoned as but a wood of the vast Caledonian Forest, the haunt of Merlin; and not only was the present county of Cumberland included as but a district of that southern Scotland anciently called Strathclyde; but it was not till long after the Norman Conquest that these northern counties were annexed to England, and regularly incorporated with the English monarchy; while down to a comparatively late period they were within the frequent jurisdiction of the Scotish kings, whose eldest sons bore the title of Princes of Cumberland. Let us now begin our circuit of Arthurian Scotland. And for the sake of the impressiveness of contrast, let us come down on it from the Braes of Mar, at the foot of Ben Muich Dhui, the central dome of that mountain-range of the Grampians that, marking the main geological division of the country, may be said generally to separate Arthurian from Fingalian Scotland. For north of this line we have only to note that (1) Orkney, and perhaps also (2) Caithness, are referred to in the romances as the birth-countries of Arthurian knights. It is but one long day's walk from Braemar, through Glen Cluny, Glen Beg, and Glen Shee, to Alyth; or, but for the shut-up deerforest, we might cross from the head of Glen Calater, down through Glen Isla. And here we find ourselves at once in the region of Arthurian story. For innumerable legends agree in representing (3) Barry Hill (Barra, fortified hill), in the parish of Alyth, in Perthshire, as the residence or prison of as the legends make her out-the infamous Vanora, or Guinevere, "who appears in the local "traditions under the more homely name of Queen Wander, and is gene"rally described as a malignant giant ess. For the king her husband had lost the day in a great battle with the Picts and Scots, and she was made prisoner and taken to the castle on Barry Hill. This, however, she found by no means so unpleasant as she ought tion, "held an unlawful intercourse "with Mordred, the Pictish king; and "Arthur, when he received her again, "enraged at her infidelity, caused her "to be torn to pieces by wild horses." Her tomb, (4)" Ganore's Grave," we have next to visit. It lies but a few miles off, near (5) Arthurston. For "she was "buried at Meigle, and a monument "erected to perpetuate her infamy." And on examining the curious sculptured stones in Meigle churchyard, said to be the remains of this monument, we do actually find "two representations of "wild beasts tearing a human body, "and one where the body seems tied or close to chariot wheels, which may "relate to Vanora, or may have given "rise to the tradition." But the scene of her last resting-place, when I visited it, seemed suggestive of some less rude, some nobler version of her story. It was the close of autumn. Along the broad valley of Strathmore, ending northwards in the Howe of the Mearns, and sheltered from the sea by the Sidlaw Hills, with their many legends of Duncan, Macbeth, and Banquo, the farmyards were closely stacked with the ingathered corn; the leaves, whirled by gentle breezes, were falling through the sunny air; and beneath the lofty range of the snow-capped Grampians, along the whole strath, lay the dying year in the beauty of an ineffable repose. From Meigle we may proceed by rail to Stirling. And here, under the battlemented rocks of the castle, and adjoining the King's Park, we find a singular flat-surfaced mound within a series of inclosing embankments, which is called the (6) King's Knot, and would appear to be of very great antiquity. For in a sport called "Knights of the Round Table," the institutions of King Arthur were here of old commemorated. also in Stirlingshire and in the vale of the Forth, and not far from where are now the Carron Ironworks, is, or rather was, what should seem to have been a Roman structure, though testifying to the currency in this district of Arthurian tradition in its vulgar name of (7) Ar And Proceeding towards Edinburgh, we have (8) Arthur's Lee. (9) The Bass in the Firth of Forth enters into our list as the Bassas of the sixth battle of the Arthur of Nennius.1 And the little river (10) Dunglas, which formed the southern boundary of Lothian, seems to be the river, as Nennius says, "by the "Britons called Duglas, in the region "Linuis," where Arthur's second, third, fourth, and fifth battles were fought. Overlooking the capital, we have the famous (11) Arthur's Seat. (12) Edinburgh itself may be enumerated among Scotish Arthurian localities, if rightly identified with Cat Bregion, where, according to Nennius, Arthur fought his eleventh great battle against the Saxons. And its (13) Castle is, without doubt, the Pictish Castel Mynedh Agnedh, the Castrum Puellarum of the Charters, and the Dolorous Valley and Castle of Maidens of the Romances. For instance, Sir Galahad, "as he prayed, "heard a voice that said thus: 'Go now, "thou adventurous knight, unto the "Castle of Maidens, and there do thou away with all the wicked customs.'" 46 of those famous three-summited (16) Eildons, which, with their various 1 This, however, and the following identifications of the places mentioned by Nennius as the localities of the battles fought by the chief he calls Arthur, I am only prepared to maintain as being generally correct; that is, as weirdly appurtenants-the Windmill of Kippielaw, the Lucken Hare, and the Eildon Tree-mark the domed and vast subterranean halls in which all the Arthurian chivalry await, in an enchanted sleep, the bugle-blast of the adventurer, who will call them at length to a new life. Then across the winding (17) Tweed, which must also be included in our list, wandering up the Leader Water, and passing the Cowdenknowes of pastoral song, we come to (18) the Rhymer's Tower, on a beautiful haugh, or meadow, by the waterside. Here, in his castle of Ercildoune, of which these are the ruins, lived Thomas the Rhymer, whom so many traditions connect with Arthurian romance, in representing him as the unwilling and too quickly vanishing guide of those adventurous spirits who have entered the mysterious halls beneath the Eildons, and attempted to achieve the re-awakening of Arthur and his knights, but only to be cast forth amid the thunders of the fateful words: "Woe to the coward that ever he was born, Who did not draw the sword before he blew the horn." From Melrose we again set out, and journey, it may unfortunately be at railway speed, down the Tweed, past an almost endless number of places famous in story, to (19) Berwick. And, though now fallen into comparative decay and insignificance, crowning, as it does, the northern heights at the mouth of the Tweed, looking eastward on the sea, that dashes up to high, caverned cliffs, and commanding westward the vale of the beautiful river, here flowing between steep braes, shadowy with trees, or bright with corn and pasture, Berwick, but for the dulness now within its walls, seems still almost as worthy of being called Joyeuse Garde, as, both from its real and romance history of siege, conquest, and reconquest, it is of being remembered as Dolorous Garde. From its still-preserved ramparts I observed, away to the south, a great pyramid-like mass by the sea; and on (20) Bamborough Castle. "Ah," said I to myself, "the Châtel Orgueilleux." So I went by train to the Belford station, and thence it is but some five miles to the little model village under the castle rock. And whatever may, on other grounds, be said of the expenditure of the funds vested for certain charitable purposes in the trustees to whom this ancient castle, with its valuable estates, now belongs, an Arthurian antiquary can hardly but be grateful to them for enabling him to enter what might easily be imagined one of the very castles of which he has been reading. Occupying the whole extent of a solitary eminence, it stands among sandy downs close by the sea, and overlooking a wide plain at the foot of the Cheviots. Nearly opposite the castle are the Farne Islands; and journeying five or six miles over the sands when the tide is out, and a mile by boat, one reaches Lindisfarne. Having visited the abbey of the holy island of St. Cuthbert,-like Iona, whence the saintly Aidan came here as a missionary, a primitive seat of Christianity, and where, as I thought, there ought to have been a tradition of its having been the retreat of Sir Lancelot after the discovery of his treason, and his final separation from the queen,-I regained the mainland and Beal station in a slow, jolting cart, chased by the too swiftly incoming tide, but amusing myself thinking of the still worse jolting Sir Lancelot underwent, and the ludicrous disgrace brought upon him by his accepting the offer of the dwarf to guide him to the captive Guinevere, would the knight but leave his disabled horse and get into "la charette," the filthy cart of the dwarf. We turn now westward, and just noting that here, in the northern part of Northumberland, is the (21) river Glein, identified with the Gleni, at the mouth of which, according to Nennius again, took place "the first battle in which Arthur was engaged," we get on to Hexham; and from that picturesquely situated old town, with its Moot Hall and Abbey Church on a wooded ridge to the Haydon Bridge, or the Bardon Mill station of the Carlisle and Newcastle Railway. For, six or eight miles to the north of these stations, and in the neighbourhood of Housesteads, the most complete of the stations on the Roman Wall, is a little group of Arthurian localities. The scenery here is very remarkable. The green but unwooded grazing hills, wide and wild-looking from their want of inclosures and the infrequency of farmhouses, seem like the vast billows of a north-sweeping tide. Along one of these wave-lines runs the Roman Wall, with the stations of its garrison. In a trough, as it were, of this mighty sea, and to the north of the wall, were, till a few years ago removed and ploughed over, the ruins of the ancient (22) Castle of Sewing Shields, the name to which Seuch-shiel (the shieling or hut by the fosse) has been corrupted. Beneath it, as under the Eildon, Arthur and all his court are said to lie in an enchanted sleep. And here, also, tradition avers, that the passage to these subterranean halls having, once on a time, been found, but the wrong choice having been made in the attempt to achieve the adventure, and call the chivalry of the Table Rounde to life again, the unfortunate adventurer was cast forth with these ominous words ringing in his ears : "O woe betide that evil day On which this luckless wight was born, the very opposite mistake, it will be observed, of which the equally luckless Eildon adventurer was guilty. The northern face of these successive billows, if I may so call them, present here fine precipitous crags,—whinstone and sandstone strata cropping out. These are called respectively Sewing Shields Crags, (23) the King's, and (24) the Queen's Crags. Along the crest of the first of these the Roman Wall is carried. The others take their name from having been the scene of a little domestic quarrel, or tiff, between King |