NOTES TO BALLADS. 436. How blazed Lord Ronald's beltane-tree. The fires lighted by the Highlanders, on the 1st 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. 437. The seer's prophetic spirit found. 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. 437. Will good St. Oran's rule prevail? St. Oran was a friend and follower of St. Columba, and was buried at 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 demons 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 despatch. The chapel, however, and the cemetery, were called Relig 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. 439. And thrice St. Fillan's powerful prayer. 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, A.D. 649. While engaged in transcribing the Scriptures, his left hand was observed to send forth such a splendour, as to afford light to that with which he wrote; a miracle which saved many candles to the convent, as St. Fillan used to spend whole nights in that exercise. The oth of January was dedicated to this saint, who gave his name to Kilfillan, in Renfrew, and St. Phillans, or Forgend, in Fife. Lesley, lib. 7. tells us, that Robert the Bruce, was possessed of Fillan's miraculous and luminous arm, which he enclosed in a silver shrine, and had it carried at the head of his army. Previous to the Battle of Bannockburn, the king's chaplain, a man of little faith, abstracted the relic, and deposite it in a place of security, lest it should D the hands of the English. But, lo! whi Robert was addressing his prayers to the en casket, it was observed to open and sha denly; and, on inspection, the saint was f to have himself deposited his arm in the r as an assurance of victory. Such is the tale Lesley. But though Bruce little needed t. I the arm of St. Fillan should assist his own he dedicated to him, in gratitude, a priory at K upon Loch Tay. In the Scots Magazine for July, 1802, there is a copy of a very curious crown grant danda 11th July, 487, by which James III cer to Malice Toire, an inhabitant of Strathf in Perthshire, the peaceable exercise andere ment of a relic of St. Fillan, being appare the head of a pastoral staff called the Quegr which he and his predecessors are said to hav possessed since the days of Robert Bruce. A the Quegrich was used to cure diseases, the document is probably the most ancient pat ever granted for a quack medicine. The nious correspondent, by whom it is furnis farther observes, that additional partic concerning St. Fillan are to be found in Bi. LENDEN'S Boece, Book 4, folio ccxiii, and in PENNANT'S Tour in Scotland, 1772, pp. 11, 15 440. The catastrophe of the tale is founded upon a well-known Irish tradition There is an old and well-known Irish tra tion, that the bodies of certain spirits and devis are scorchingly hot, so that they leave 1 anything they touch an impress as if of red-b iron. It is related of one of Melancthon's r lations, that a devil seized hold of her band which bore the mark of a burn to her dying day. The incident in the poem is of a sir ar nature-the ghost's hands "scorch'd like a tery brand," leaving a burning impress on the tat and the lady's wrist. Another class of fiends ar reported to be icy-cold, and to freeze the skis of any one with whom they come in contact. 440. He came not from where Ancram Mor Ran red with English blood. Lord Evers and Sir Brian Latoun, during the year 1544, committed the most dreadful ravazás upon the Scottish frontiers, compelling most of the inhabitants, and especially the men of Liddesdale, to take assurance under the K of England. Upon the 17th November, in the year, the sum total of their depredations stood hus, in the bloody ledger of Lord Evers: Towns, towers, barnekynes, paryshe churches, 403 816 10,336 Shepe Nags and geldings Gayt Bolls of corn 12,492 1,296 200 850 Insight gear, &c. (furniture) an incalculable quantity. MURDIN'S State Papers, vol. i. p. 51. For these services Sir Ralph Evers was made a Lord of Parliament. The King of England had promised to these two barons a feudal grant of the court y, which they had thus reduced to a desert; upon hearing which, Archibald Douglas, the seventh Earl of Angus, is said to have sworn to write the deed of investiture upon their skins, with sharp pens and bloody ink, in resentment for their having defaced the tombs of his ancestors at Melrose. GODSCROFT. In 1545 Lord Evers and Latoun again entered Scotland, with an army consisting of 3,000 mercenaries, 1,500 English Borderers, and 700 assured Scottish men, chiefly Armstrongs, Turnbulls, and other broken clans. In this second incursion, the English generals even exceeded their former cruelty. Evers burned the tower of Broomhouse, with its lady (a noble and aged woman, says Lesley) and her whole family. The English penetrated as far as Melrose, which they had destroyed last year, and which they now again pillage 1. As they returned towards Jedburgh, they were followed by Angus at the head of 1,000 horse, who was shortly after joined by the famous Norman Lesley, with a body of Fife-men. The English, being probably unwilling to cross the Teviot while the Scots hung upon their rear, halted upon Ancram Moor, above the village of that name: and the Scottish general was deliberating whether to advance or retire, when Sir Walter Scott,* of Buccleuch, came up at full speed with a small but chosen body of his retainers, the rest of whom were near at hand. By the advice of this experienced warrior (to whose conduct Pitscottie and Buchanan ascribe the success of the engagement), Angus withdrew from the height which he occupied, and drew up his forces behind it, upon a piece of low flat ground, called Panier-heugh, or Panielheugh. The spare horses being sent to an emi "The Editor has found no instance upon record, of this family having taken assurance with England. Hence, they usually suffered dreadfully from the English forays. In August 1544 (the year preceding the battle), the whole lands belonging to Buccleuch, in West Teviotdale, were harried by Evers; the outworks, or barmkin, of the tower of Branxholm burned; eight Scots slain, thirty made prisoners, and an immense prey of horses, cattle, and sheep, carried off. The lands upon Kale Water, belonging to the same chieftain, were also plundered, and much spoil obtained; 30 Scots slain, and the Moss Tower (a fortress near Eckford) smoked very sore. Thus Buccleuch had a long account to settle at Ancram Moor."-MURDIN'S State Papers, pp. 45, 46. nence in their rear, appeared to the English to be the main body of the Scots in the act of flight. Under this persuasion, Evers and Latoun hurried forward, and having ascended the hill, which their foes had abandoned, were no less dismayed than astonished to find the phalanx of Scottish spearmen drawn up, in firm array upon the flat ground below. The Scots in their turn became the assailants. A heron, roused from the marshes by the tumult, soared away betwixt the encountering armies: "O!" exclaimed Angus, "that I had here my white goss-hawk, that we might all yoke at once!"GODSCROFT. The English, breathless and fatigued, having the setting sun and wind full in their faces, were unable to withstand the resolute and desperate charge of the Scottish lances. No sooner had they begun to waver, than their own allies, the assured Borderers, who had been waiting the event, threw aside their red crosses, and, joining their countrymen, made a most merciless slaughter among the English fugitives, the pursuers calling upon each other to "remember Broomhouse!"-LESLEY, p. 478. In the battle fell Lord Evers and his son, together with Sir Brian Latoun and 800 Englishmen, many of whom were persons of rank. A thousand prisoners were taken. Among these was a patriotic alderman of London, Read by name, who, having contumaciously refused to pay his portion of a benevolence, demanded from the city by Henry VIII, was sent by royal authority to serve against the Scots. These, at settling his ransom, he found still more exorbitant in their exactions than the monarch.-REDPATH'S Border History, p. 563. * Evers was much regretted by King Henry, who swore to avenge his death upon Angus, against whom he conceived himself to have particular grounds of resentment, on account of favours received by the earl at his hands. The answer of Angus was worthy of a Douglas: "Is our brother-in-law offended," said he, "that I, as a good Scotsman, have avenged my ravaged country, and the defaced tombs of my ancestors, upon Ralph Evers? They were better men than he, and I was bound to do no less-and will he take my life for that? Little knows King Henry the skirts of Kirnetable: I can keep myself there against all his English host." -GODSCROFT. Such was the noted battle of Ancram Moor. The spot on which it was fought is called Lilyard's Edge, from an Amazonian Scottish woman of that name, who is reported, by tradition, to have distinguished herself in the same manner as Squire Witherington. ‡ The old people point out her monument, now broken and defaced. The inscription is said to have been legible within this century, and to have run thus: Angus had married the widow of James IV., sister to King Henry VIII. Kirnetable, now called Cairntable, is a mountainous tract at the head of Douglasdale. 1 See Chevy Chase. Fair maiden Lylliard lies under this stane. Little was her stature, but great was her lame; Upon the English loons she laid mony thumps, And when her legs were cutted oif, she fought upon her stumps." Vide Account of the Parish of Melrose. It appears, from a passage in Stowe, that an ancestor of Lord Evers held also a grant of Scottish lands from an English monarch. "I have seen," says the historian, "under the broad-seale of the said King Edward I., a manor, called Ketnes, in the county of Forfar, in Scotland, and neere the furthest part of the same nation northward, given to John Ure, and his heires, ancestor to the Lord Ure that now is, for his service done in these parts, with market, &c. dated at Lanercost, the 20th day of October, anno regis 34."-STOWE'S Annals, p. 210. This grant, like that of Henry, must have been dangerous to the receiver. 441. So, by the black rood-stone, and by holy St. John. The black-rood of Melrose was a crucifix of black marble, and of superior sanctity. 441. For to Dryburgh the way he has ta'en. The ruins of Dryburgh Abbey still stand on the banks of Tweed, near New Town. St. Boswell's. The Abbey, which includes a church and monastery, is of varied architecture-partly Norman, and partly Early English. After the dissolution of monasteries, it passed into the possession first of the Haliburtons of Newmains (ancestors of Scott), and afterwards of the Earls of Buchan. 441. Under the Eildon-tree. Eildon is a high hill, terminating in three conical summits, immediately above the town of Melrose, where are the admired ruins of a magnificent monastery. Eildon-tree is said to be the spot where Thomas the Rhymer uttered his prophecies. 442. Over Tweed's fair flood, and Mertoun's wood. Mertoun is the beautiful seat of Lord Polwarth. 443. That nun who ne er beholds the day. The circumstance of the nun, "who never saw the day," is not entirely imaginary. About fifty years ago, an unfortunate female wanderer took up her residence in a dark vault, among the ruins of Dryburgh Abbey, which, during the day, she never quitted. When night fell, she issued from this miserable habitation, and went to the house of Mr. Haliburton of Newmains, or to that of Mr. Erskine of Sheilfield, two gentlemen of the neighbourhood. From their charity, she obtained such necessaries as she could be prevailed upon to accept. At twelve, each night, she lighted her candle, and returned to her vault, assuring her frady neighbours, that, during her absence, her mech tation was arranged by a spirit, to wbunne gave the uncouth name of Fatlips; descring him as a little man, wearing heavy iron s with which he trampled the clay floor of the vault, to dispel the damps. This circunstan caused her to be regarded, by the well-informe with compassion, as deranged in her unerstanding; and by the vulgar, with some degre of terror. The cause of her adopting as extraordinary mode of life she would never explain. It was, however, believed to have been occasioned by a vow, that, during the absence of a man to whom she was attached, she would never look upon the sun. Her er never returned. He fell during the civil war of 1745-6, and she never more would behold the light of day. The vault, or rather dungeon, in which this unfortunate woman lived and died, passes st by the name of the supernatural being sa which its gloom was tenanted by her disturbed imagination, and few of the neighbouring per sants dare enter it by night.-1803. 445. Sound, merry huntsman! sound the pryse! Pryse-The note blown at the death of the game.-In Caledonia olim frequens erat syl vestris quidam bos, nunc vero rarior, qui, colore candidissimo, jubam densam et demissam instar leonis gestat, truculentus ac ferus ab humano genere abhorrens, ut quæcunque homines vel manibus contrectarint, vel halitu perflaverint, ab iis muitos post dies omnino abstinuerunt. Ad hoc tanta audacia huic bovi indita erat, ut non solum irritatus equites furenter prosterneret, sed ne tantilium lacessius omnes promiscue homines cornibus ac ungulis peterit; ac canum, qui apud nos ferocissimi sunt, impetus plane contemneret. Ejus carnes cartilaginosa, sed saporis suavissimi. Erat is olim per illam vastissimam Caledonia sylvam frequens, sed humana ingluvie jam assumptus tribus tantum locis est reliquus, Strivilingii, Cumbernaldia, et Kincarnia. - - LESLAUS, Scotia Descriptio, 445- Few suns have set since Woodhouselee. This barony, stretching along the banks of the Esk, near Auchendinny, belonged to Bothwellhaugh, in right of his wife. The ruins of the mansion, from whence she was expelled in the brutal manner which occasioned her death, are still to be seen in a hollow glen beside the river. Popular report tenants them with the restless ghost of the Lady Bothwellhaugh; whom, however, it confounds with Lady Anne Bothwell, whose Lament is so popular. This spectre is so tenacious of her rights, that, a part of the stones of the ancient edifice having been employed in building or repairing the present Woodhouselee, she has deemed it a part of her privilege to haunt that house also; and, even of very late years, has excited considerable disturbance and terror among the domestics. This is a more remarkable vindication of the rights of ghosts, as the present Woodhouselee, which gives his title to the Honourable Alexander Fraser Tytler, a senator of the College of Justice, is situated on the slope of the Pentland hills, distant at least four miles from her proper abode She always appears in white, and with her child in her arms. 446. From the wild Border's humbled side. Murray's death took place shortly after an expedition to the Borders; which is thus commemorated by the author of his elegy: "So having stablischt all things in this sort, And also lay three nights in Cannabie, Syne wardit thame, whilk maid the rest keep ordour: Than mycht the rasch-bus keep ky on the Border." Scottish Poems, 16th century, p. 232. 446. With hackbut bent, my secret stand. Hackbut bent-Gun cocked. The carbine with which the Regent was shot, is preserved at Hamilton Palace. It is a brass piece, of a middling length, very small in the bore, and, what is rather extraordinary, appears to have been rifled or indented in the barrel. It had a matchlock, for which a modern firelock has been injudiciously substituted. 446. Dark Morton, girt with many a spear. Of this noted person, it is enough to say, that he was active in the murder of David Rizzio, and at least privy to that of Darnley. 446. The wild Macfarlanes' plaided clan. This clan of Lennox Highlanders was attached to the Regent Murray. Hollinshed, speaking of the battle of Langside, says, "In this batayle the vallancie of an Heiland gentleman, named Macfarlane, stood the Regent's part in great steede; for, in the hottest brunte of the fighte, he came up with two hundred of his friendes and countrymen, and so manfully gave in upon the flankes of the Queen's people, that he was a great cause of the disordering of them. This Macfarlane had been lately before, as I have heard, condemned to die, for some outrage by him committed, and obtayning pardon through suyte of the Countess of Murray, he recompensed that clemencie by this piece of service now at this batayle." Calderwood's account is less favourable to the Macfarlanes. He states that "Macfarlane, with his Highlandmen, fled from the wing where they were set. The Lord Lindsay, who stood nearest to them in the Regent's battle, said, 'Let them go! I shall fill their place better:' and so, stepping forward, with a company of fresh men, charged the enemy, whose spears were now spent, with long weapons, so that they were driven back by force, being before almost overthrown by the avaunt-guard and harquebusiers, and so were turned to flight."-CALDERWOOD'S MS. apud KEITH, p. 480. Melville mentions the flight of the vanguard, but states it to have been commanded by Morton, and composed chiefly of commoners of the barony of Renfrew. 446. Glencairn and stout Parkhead were nigh. The Earl of Glencairn was a steady adherent of the Regent. George Douglas of Parkhead was a natural brother of the Earl of Morton, whose horse was killed by the same ball by which Murray fell. 446.-- haggard Lindesay's iron eye, That saw fair Mary weep in vain. Lord Lindsay, of the Byres, was the most ferocious and brutal of the Regent's faction, and, as such, was employed to extort Mary's signature to the deed of resignation presented to her in Lochleven Castle. He discharged his commission with the most savage rigour; and it is even said, that when the weeping captive, in the act of signing, averted her eyes from the fatal deed, he pinched her arm with the grasp of his iron glove. 446. So close the minions crowded nigh. Not only had the Regent notice of the intended attempt upon his life, but even of the very house from which it was threatened. With that infatuation at which men wonder, after such events have happened, he deemed it would be a sufficient precaution to ride briskly past the dangerous spot. But even this was prevented by the crowd; so that Bothwellhaugh had time to take a deliberate aim. -SPOTTISBUCHANAN. WOODE, p. 233. 449. By blast of bugle free. The barony of Pennycuik, the property of Sir George Clerk, Bart. is held by a singular tenure; the proprietor being bound to sit upon a large rocky fragment called the Buckstane, and wind three blasts of a horn, when the King shall come to hunt on the Borough Muir, near Edinburgh. Hence the family have adopted as their crest a demi-forester proper, winding a horn, with the motto, Free for a Blast. The beautiful mansion-house of Pennycuik is much admired, both on account of the architecture and surrounding scenery. 449. To Auchendinny's hazel glade. Auchendinny, situated upon the Esk, below Pennycuik, the present residence of the ge nious H. Mackenzie, Esq. author of the Max of Feeling, &c. Edition 1803. 449. And haunted Woodhouse let. "Haunted Woodhouselee."-For the traditions connected with this ruinous mansion, see note in the preceding page. 449. Who knows not Melville's beechy grove? Melville Castle, near Lasswade, is the seat of Viscount Melville. It was erected by the first Viscount, the well-known Henry Dundas, Lord Advocate of Scotland. 449. And Roslin's rocky glen. Roslin Castle now consists of a ruined keen and a mansion of more modern date. It stands on a steep eminence, overlooking the Esk Roslin Chapel, which dates from 1446, but has been recently restored, is, though of smal size, one of the richest and most perfect speci mens of church architecture in Scotland. The property now belongs to the Earl of Rosslyn, the representative of the St. Clairs of that ilk. 449 Dalkeith, which all the virtues love. The village and castle of Dalkeith belonged of old to the famous Earl of Morton, but is now the residence of the Earl of Buccleuch, whose eldest son takes his courtesy title from it. 449. And classic Hawthornden. Hawthornden, the residence of the poet Drummond. A house of more modern date is enclosed, as it were, by the ruins of the ancient castle, and overhangs a tremendous precipice upon the banks of the Esk, perforated by winding caves, which in former times were a refuge to the oppressed patriots of Scotland. Here Drummond received Ben Jonson, who journeyed from London on foot in order to visit him. The house has been in great part rebuilt since the poet's day, and now belongs to Lady Walker Drummond. A good deal of the wood which is the peculiar ornament of the spot was cut down about the end of the last century, but has since been replaced. The poet has no longer reason to complain that the traveller looks in vain for the leafy bower "Where Jonson sat in Drummond's social shade." This romantic glade is now, as formerly, one of the most beautiful specimens of sylvas scenery. 1 |