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those of the French monarchs, produced the birth of romance literature. Marie, soon after mentioned, compiled from Armorican originals, and translated into NormanFrench, or romance language, the twelve curious Lays, of which Mr Ellis has given us a precis in the Appendix to his Introduction. The story of Blondel, the famous and faithful minstrel of Richard I., needs no commentary.

Note V.

The cloth-yard arrows flew like hail.-P. 242. 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.

To

Note VI.

pass, to wheel, the croupe to gain, And high curvett, that not in vain The sword-sway might descend amain

On foeman's casque below.-P. 243.

"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 usefull in a fight or meslee; for, as La

broue 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 another, 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. 243. The Scottish burgesses were, like yeomen, appointed to be armed with bows and sheaves, sword, buckler, knife, spear, or a good axe 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.

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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. 250.

In all transactions of great or petty importance, and among whomsoever taking place, it would seem, that a present of wine was an uniform and indispensible 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.

man.

Note X.

his iron belt,

That bound his breast in penance-pain,

In memory of his father slain.-P. 254.

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 shew to any ScottishThe person and character of James are delineated according to our best historians. His romantic disposition, which led him highly to relish gaiety, 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,
Byding ower lang in Striviling.

We that are here, in heaven's glory,
To you, that are in purgatory,
Commend us on our hearty wise;
I mean we folks in Paradise,
In Edinburgh, with all merriness,
To you in Stirling, with distress,
Where neither pleasure nor delight is,

For pity this epistle wrytis, &c.

See the whole in Sibbald's Collection, Vol. 1. p. 234.

Note XI.

Sir Hugh the Heron's wife held sway.-P. 255.

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

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