Tall wax'd the Spirit's altering form,

Till to the roof her stature grew;

Then, mingling with the rising storm,
With one wild yell, away she flew.

Rain beats, hail rattles, whirlwinds tear: The slender hut in fragments flew;

But not a lock of Moy's loose hair

Was waved by wind, or wet by dew.

Wild mingling with the howling gale,

Loud bursts of ghastly laughter rise;

High o'er the Minstrel's head they sail, And die amid the northern skies.

The voice of thunder shook the wood, As ceased the more than mortal yell; And, spattering foul, a shower of blood

Upon the hissing firebrands fell.

Next, dropp'd from high a mangled arm;

The fingers strain'd a half-drawn blade; At last, the life-blood streaming warm,

Torn from the trunk, a gasping head.

Oft o'er that head, in battling field,

Stream'd the proud crest of high Benmore;

That arm the broad claymore could wield,
Which dyed the Teith with Saxon gore.

Woe to Moneira's sullen rills!

Woe to Glenfinlas' dreary glen!

There never son of Albin's hills

Shall draw the hunter's shaft agen!

E'en the tired pilgrim's burning feet

At noon shall shun that sheltering den, Lest, journeying in their rage, he meet

The wayward Ladies of the Glen.

And we-behind the Chieftain's shield,

No more shall we in safety dwell;

None leads the people to the field-
And we the loud lament must swell.

O hone a rie! O hone a rie!

The pride of Albin's line is o'er, And fallen Glenartney's stateliest tree;

We ne'er shall see Lord Ronald more!

NOTES

ON

GLENFINLAS.

Well can the Saxon widows tell.-P. 212. v. 2. The term Sassenach, or Saxon, is applied by the Highlanders to their Low-country neighbours.

How blazed Lord Ronald's beltane tree.-P. 212. v. 3.` The fires lighted by the Highlanders on the first of May, in compliance with a custom derived from the Pagan times, are termed The Beltane Tree. It is a festival celebrated, with various superstitious rites, both in the north of Scotland and in Wales.

The Seer's prophetic spirit found, &c.-P. 213. v. 2. I can only describe the second sight, by adopting Dr Johnson's definition, who calls it "An impression, either by the mind upon the eye, or by the eye upon the mind, by which things distant and future are perceived and

seen as if they were present." To which I would only add, that the spectral appearances, thus presented, usually presage misfortune; that the faculty is painful to those who suppose they possess it; and that they usually acquire it, while themselves under the pressure of melancholy.

Will good St Oran's rule prevail.—P. 217. v. 1.

St Oran was a friend and follower of St Columba, and was buried in Icolmkill. His pretensions to be a saint were rather dubious. According to the legend, he consented to be buried alive, in order to propitiate certain dæmons of the soil, who obstructed the attempts of Columba to build a chapel. Columba caused the body of his friend to be dug up, after three days had elapsed; when Oran, to the horror and scandal of the assistants, declared, that there was neither a God, a judgment, nor a future state! He had no time to make further discoveries, for Columba caused the earth once more to be shovelled over him with the utmost dispatch. The chapel, however, and the cemetery, was called Reilig Ouran; and, in memory of his rigid celibacy, no female was permitted to pay her devotions, or be buried, in that place. This is the rule alluded to in the poem.

And thrice St Fillan's powerful prayer.-P. 225. v. 3. St Fillan has given his name to many chapels, holy fountains, &c. in Scotland. He was, according to Camerarius, an abbot of Pittenweem, in Fife; from which situation he retired, and died a hermit in the wilds of Glenurchy,