Oh! on that day, that wrathful day,

When man to judgment wakes from clay,

Be THOU the trembling sinner's stay,

Though heaven and earth shall pass away!

HUSH'D is the harp-the Minstrel gone.

And did he wander forth alone?

Alone, in indigence and age,

To linger out his pilgrimage?

No:-close beneath proud Newark's tower
Arose the Minstrel's lowly bower:

A simple hut; but there was seen
The little garden hedged with green,
The cheerful hearth, and lattice clean.
There shelter'd wanderers, by the blaze,

Oft heard the tale of other days;

For much he loved to ope his door,

And give the aid he begg'd before.

VOL. I.

M

So pass'd the winter's day; but still,

When summer smiled on sweet Bowhill, And July's eve, with balmy breath, Waved the blue-bells on Newark heath; When throstles sung in Hare-head shaw, And corn was green on Carterhaugh, And flourish'd, broad, Blackandro's oak, The aged Harper's soul awoke!

Then would he sing achievements high,

And circumstance of chivalry,

Till the rapt traveller would stay,

Forgetful of the closing day;

And noble youths, the strain to hear,
Forsook the hunting of the deer;

And Yarrow, as he roll'd along,

Bore burden to the Minstrel's song.

NOTES

TO THE

Lay of the Last Minstrel.

NOTES TO CANTO I.

Note I.

The feast was over in Branksome Tower.-P. 15. In the reign of James I. Sir William Scott of Buccleuch, chief of the clan bearing that name, exchanged, with Sir Thomas Inglis of Manor, the estate of Murdiestone, in Lanarkshire, for one half of the barony of Branksome, or Branksholm," lying upon the Teviot, about three miles above Hawick. He was probably induced to this transaction from the vicinity of Branksome to the extensive domain which he possessed in Ettrick Forest and in Teviotdale. In the former district he held by occupancy the estate of Buccleuch,† and much of the forest land on the river Ettrick. In Teviotdale he enjoyed the barony of Eckford, by a grant from Robert II. to his ancestor, Walter Scott of Kirkurd, for the apprehending of

* Branxholm is the proper name of the barony; but Branksome has been adopted, as suitable to the pronunciation, and more proper for poetry.

+ There are no vestiges of any building at Buccleuch, except the site of a chapel, where, according to a tradition current in the time of Scott of Satchells, many of the ancient barons of Buccleuch lie