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A lofty hall with trophies dress'd,
Where, as to greet imperial guest,
Four Maidens stood, whose crimson vest
Was bound with golden zone.

XXXV.

Of Europe seem'd the damsels all;
The first a nymph of lively Gaul,
Whose easy step and laughing eye
Her borrow'd air of awe belie;

The next a maid of Spain,
Dark-eyed, dark-hair'd, sedate, yet bold;
White ivory skin and tress of gold,
Her shy and bashful comrade told
For daughter of Almaine.

These maidens bore a royal robe,

With crown, with sceptre, and with globe,

Emblems of empery;

The fourth a space behind them stood,
And leant upon a harp, in mood

Of minstrel ecstasy.

Of merry England she, in dress
Like ancient British Druidess.
Her hair an azure fillet bound,

Her graceful vesture swept the ground,
And, in her hand display'd,

A crown did that fourth Maiden hold,
But unadorn'd with gems and gold,
Of glossy laurel made.'

XXXVI.

At once to brave De Vaux knelt down These foremost Maidens three,

And proffer'd sceptre, robe, and crown,
Liegedom and seignorie,

O'er many a region wide and fair,
Destined, they said, for Arthur's heir;

But homage would he none:-2
"Rather," he said, "De Vaux would ride,
A Warden of the Border-side,
In plate and mail, than, robed in pride,
A monarch's empire own;
Rather, far rather, would he be
A free-born knight of England free,

Than sit on Despot's throne."

So pass'd he on, when that fourth Maid,
As starting from a trance,
Upon the harp her finger laid;
Her magic touch the chords obey'd,
Their soul awaked at once!

SONG OF THE FOURTH MAIDEN.

"Quake to your foundations deep, Stately Towers, and Banner'd Keep,

1 MS" Of laurel leaves was made."

2 MS." But the firm knight pass'd on." MS.-"Spread your pennons all abroad."

Bid your vaulted echoes moan, As the dreaded step they own.

"Fiends, that wait on Merlin's spell, Hear the foot-fall! mark it well! Spread your dusky wings abroad, Boune ye for your homeward road!

"It is Hrs, the first who e'er
Dared the dismal Hall of Fear;
HIS, who hath the snares defied
Spread by Pleasure, Wealth, and Pride

"Quake to your foundations deep, Bastion huge, and Turret steep!" Tremble, Keep! and totter, Tower! This is Gyneth's waking hour."

XXXVII.

Thus while she sung, the venturous Knight
Has reach'd a bower, where milder light
Through crimson curtains fell;
Such soften'd shade the hill receives,
Her purple veil when twilight leaves
Upon its western swell.

That bower, the gazer to bewitch,
Hath wondrous store of rare and rich
As e'er was seen with eye;
For there by magic skill, I wis,
Form of each thing that living is

Was limn'd in proper dye.
All seem'd to sleep-the timid hare
On form, the stag upon his lair,
The eagle in her eyrie fair

Between the earth and sky.
But what of pictured rich and rare
Could win De Vaux's eye-glance, where
Deep slumbering in the fatal chair,

He saw King Arthur's child!
Doubt, and anger, and dismay,
From her brow had pass'd away.
Forgot was that fell tourney-day,

For, as she slept, she smiled: It seem'd, that the repentant Seer Her sleep of many a hundred year With gentle dreams beguiled. XXXVIII.

That form of maiden loveliness,

"Twixt childhood and 'twixt youth,
That ivory chair, that silvan dress,
The arms and ankles bare, express
Of Lyulph's tale the truth.
Still upon her garment's hem

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Vanoc's blood made purple gem,
And the warder of command
Cumber'd still her sleeping hand;
Still her dark locks dishevell'd flow
From net of pearl o'er breast of snow;
And so fair the slumberer seems,
That De Vaux impeach'd his dreams,
Vapid all and void of might,
Hiding half her charms from sight.
Motionless a while he stands,
Folds his arms and clasps his hands,
Trembling in his fitful joy,
Doubtful how he should destroy
Long-enduring spell;
Doubtful, too, when slowly rise
Dark-fringed lids of Gyneth's eyes,

What these eyes shall tell.-
"St. George! St. Mary! can it be
That they will kindly look on me !"

XXXIX.

Gently, lo! the Warrior kneels,
Soft that lovely hand he steals,
Soft to kiss, and soft to clasp-
But the warder leaves her grasp;
Lightning flashes, rolls the thunder!
Gyneth startles from her sleep,
Totters Tower, and trembles Keep,

Burst the Castle-walls asunder!
Fierce and frequent were the shocks,-
Melt the magic halls away;
-But beneath their mystic rocks,
In the arms of bold De Vaux,
Safe the princess lay;
Safe and free from magic power,
Blushing like the rose's flower

Opening to the day;

And round the Champion's brows were bound The crown that Druidess had wound,

Of the green laurel-bay.

And this was what remain'd of all

The wealth of each enchanted hall,

The Garland and the Dame:

But where should Warrior seek the meed,
Due to high worth for daring deed,

Except from LOVE and FAME!

CONCLUSION.

Ι.

MY LUCY, when the Maid is won,

The Minstrel's task, thou know'st, is done;

MS." Yet know, this maid and warrior too, Wedded as lovers wont to do."

MS.-"That melts whene'er the breezes blow, Gr beams a cloudless sun."

And to require of bard

That to his dregs the tale should run,
Were ordinance too hard.

Our lovers, briefly be it said,
Wedded as lovers wont to wed,'

When tale or play is o'er;

Lived long and blest, loved fond and true,

And saw a numerous race renew

The honors that they bore.

Know, too, that when a pilgrim strays,
In morning mist or evening maze,

Along the mountain lone,
That fairy fortress often mocks
His gaze upon the castled rocks

Of the Valley of St John;
But never man since brave De Vaux
The charmed portal won.

"Tis now a vain illusive show,

That melts whene'er the sunbeams glow Or the fresh breeze hath blown."

II.

But see, my love, where far below
Our lingering wheels are moving slow,
The whiles, up-gazing still,

Our menials eye our steepy way,
Marvelling, perchance, what whim can stay.
Our steps when eve is sinking gray,

On this gigantic hill.

So think the vulgar-Life and time
Ring all their joys in one dull chime
Of luxury and ease;

And, O! beside these simple knaves,
How many better born are slaves

To such coarse joys as these,-
Dead to the nobler sense that glows
When nature's grander scenes unclose!
But, Lucy, we will love them yet,
The mountain's misty3 coronet,

The greenwood, and the wold; And love the more, that of their maze Adventure high of other days

By ancient bards is told, Bringing, perchance, like my poor tale, Some moral truth in fiction's veil: Nor love them less, that o'er the hill The evening breeze, as now, comes chill · My love shall wrap her warm, And, fearless of the slippery way, While safe she trips the heathy brae, Shall hang on Arthur's arm.

THE END OF TRIERMAIN."

3 MS." Silvan."

4 The MS. has not this couplet.

"The Bridal of Triermain is written in the style of Mi Walter Scott; and if in magnis voluisse sat est, the autho

whatever may be the merits of his work, has earned the meed at which he aspires. To attempt a serious imitation of the most popular living poet-and this imitation, not a short fragment, in which all his peculiarities might, with comparatively little difficulty, be concentrated-but a long and complete work, with plot, character, and machinery entirely new--and with no manner of resemblance, therefore, to a parody on any production of the original author;-this must be acknowledged an attempt of no timid daring."-Edinburgh Magazine, 1817.

"The fate of this work must depend on its own merits, for t is not borne up by any of the adventitious circumstances that requently contribute to literary success. It is ushered into the world in the most modest guise; and the author, we believe, s entirely unknown. Should it fail altogether of a favorable reception, we shall be disposed to abate something of the indignation which we have occasionally expressed against the extravagant gaudiness of modern publications, and imagine that there are readers whose suffrages are not to be obtained by a work without a name.

"The merit of the Bridal of Triermain, in our estimation, consists in its perfect simplicity, and an interweaving the refinement of modern times with the peculiarities of the ancient metrical romance, which are in no respect violated. In point of interest, the first and second cantos are superior to the third. One event naturally arises out of that which precedes it, and the eye is delighted and dazzled with a series of moving pictures, each of them remarkable for its individual splendor, and all contributing more or less directly to produce the ultimate result. The third canto is less profuse of incident, and somewhat more monotonous in its effect. This, we conceive, will be the impression on the first perusal of the poem. When we have leisure to mark the merits of the composition, and to separate them from the progress of the events, we are disposed to think that the extraordinary beauty of the description will nearly compensate for the defect we have already noticed.

"But it is not from the fable that an adequate notion of the merits of this singular work can be formed. We have already spoken of it as an imitation of Mr. Scott's style of composi tion; and if we are compelled to make the general approbation more precise and specific, we should say, that if it be inferior in vigor to some of his productions, it equals, or surpasses them, in elegance and beauty; that it is more uniformly tender, and far less infected with the unnatural prodigies and coarsenesses of the earlier romancers. In estimating its merits, however, we should forget that it is offered as an imitation. The diction undoubtedly reminds us of a rhythm and cadence we have heard before; but the sentiments, descriptions, and characters, have qualities that are native and unborrowed.

In his sentiments, the author has avoided the slight deficiency we ventured to ascribe to his prototype. The pictures of pure description are perpetually illuminated with reflections that bring out their coloring, and increase their moral effect: these reflections are suggested by the scene, produced without effort, and expressed with unaffected simplicity. The descriptions are spirited and striking, possessing an airiness suited to the mythology and manners of the times, though restrained by correct taste. Among the characters, many of which are such as we expect to find in this department of poetry, it is impossi ble not to distinguish that of Arthur, in which, identifying himself with his original, the author has contrived to unite the valor of the hero, the courtesy and dignity of the monarch, and the amiable weaknesses of any ordinary mortal, and thus to present to us the express lineaments of the flower of chivalry.” -Quarterly Review. 1813.

we shall give merely as such, without vouching for the truth of it. When the article entitled, The Inferno of Altisidora, appeared in the Edinburgh Annual Register for 1809, it will be remembered that the last fragment contained in that singu lar production, is the beginning of the romance of Triermain. Report says, that the fragment was not meant to be an imitation of Scott, but of Coleridge; and that, for this purpose, the author borrowed both the name of the hero and the scene from the then unpublished poem of Christabelle; and further, that so few had ever seen the manuscript of that poem, that amongst these few the author of Triermain could not be mistaken. Be that as it may, it is well known, that on the appearance of this fragment in the Annual Register, it was universally taken for an imitation of Walter Scott, and never once of Coleridge. The author perceiving this, and that the poeia was well received, instantly set about drawing it out into a reg ular and finished work; for shortly after it was announced in the papers, and continued to be so for three long years; the author, as may be supposed, having, during that period, his hands occasionally occupied with heavier metal. In 1813, the poem was at last produced, avowedly and manifestly as an imitation of Mr. Scott; and it may easily be observed, that from the 27th page onward, it becomes much more decidedly like the manner of that poet, than it is in the preceding part which was published in the Register, and which, undoubtedly, does bear some similarity to Coleridge in the poetry, and more es pecially in the rhythm, as, e. g.

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⚫ With regard to this poem, we have often heard, from what may be deemed good authority, a very curious anecdote, which

The quarto of Rokeby was followed, within two months, by the small volume which had been designed for a twin-birth; -the MS. had been transcribed by one of the Ballantynes themselves, in order to guard against any indiscretion of the

press-people; and the mystification, aided and abetted by Erskine, in no small degree heightened the interest of its reception.

Scott says, in the Introduction to the Lord of the Isles, "As Mr. Erskine was more than suspected of a taste for poetry, and as I took care, in several places, to mix something that might resemble (as far as was in my power) my friend's feeling and manner, the train easily caught, and two large editions were told." Among the passages to which he here alludes, are no doubt those in which the character of the minstrel Arthur is shaded with the colorings of an almost effeminate gentleness. Yet, in the midst of them, the "mighty minstrel' himself, from time to time, escapes; as, for instance, where the lover bids Lucy, in that exquisite picture of crossing a mountain stream, trust to his "stalwart arm,"

"Which could yon oak's prone trunk uprear."

Nor can I pass the compliment to Scott's own fair patroness, where Lucy's admirer is made to confess, with some momentary lapse of gallantry, that he

"Ne'er won-best meed to minstrel trueOne favoring smile from fair Buccleuch ;"

nor the burst of genuine Borderism,

'Bewcastle now must keep the hold,

Speir-Adam's steeds must bide in stall; Of Hartley-burn the bow-men bold Must only shoot from battled wall; And Liddesdale may buckle spur,

And Teviot now may belt the brand, Tarras and Ewes keep nightly stir, And Eskdale foray Cumberland.”—

52

But, above all, the choice of the scenery, both of the 11 trouetions and of the story itself, reveals the early and treasured pre dilections of the poet.

As a whole, the Bridal of Triermain appears to me as characteristic of Scott as any of his larger poems. His genius per vades and animates it beneath a thin and playful veil, which perhaps adds as much of grace as it takes away of splendor As Wordsworth says of the eclipse on the lake of Lugano

""Tis sunlight sheathed and gently charm'd;"

and I think there is at once a lightness and a polish o fication beyond what he has elsewhere attained. If it be a miniature, it is such a one as a Cooper might have hung fo lessly beside the masterpieces of Vandyke.

The Introductions contain some of the most exquisite pas sages he ever produced; but their general effect has always struck me as unfortunate. No art can reconcile us to contemptuous satire of the merest frivolities of modern life--som of them already, in twenty years, grown obsolete-interlaid between such bright visions of the old world of romance, w'aen

"Strength was gigantic, valor high, And wisdom soar'd beyond the sky, And beauty had such matchless beam As lights not now a lover's dream."

The fall is grievous, from the hoary minstrel of Newark, an his feverish tears on Killecrankie, to a pathetic swain, whe can stoop to denounce as objects of his jealousy

"The landaulet and four blood-bays The Hessian boot and pantaloon."

LOCKHART-- Life of S*** vol

APPENDIX.

NOTE A.

Like Collins, thread the maze of Fairy-land.-P. 383. COLLINS, according to Johnson, "by indulging some peculiar habits of thought, was eminently delighted with those flights of imagination which pass the bounds of nature, and to which the mind is reconciled only by a passive acquiescence in popular traditions. He loved fairies, genii, giants, and monsters; he delighted to rove through the meanders of enchantment, to gaze on the magnificence of golden palaces, to repose by the waterfalls of Elysian gardens."

NOTE R.

The Baron of Triermain.-P. 383. Triermain was a fief of the Barony of Gilsland, in Cumberland it was possessed by a Saxon family at the time of the Conquest, but, after the death of Gilmore, Lord of Tryer maine and Torcrossock, Hubert Vaux gave Tryermaine and Torcrossock to his second son, Ranulph Vaux; which Ranolph afterwards became heir to his elder brother Robert, the founder of Lanercost, who died without issue. Ranulph, being Lord of all Glisland, gave Gilmore's lands to his younger son, named Roland, and let the Barony descend to his eldest son Robert, son of Ranulph. Roland had issue Alexander, and he Ranulph, after whom succeeded Robert, and they were named Rolands successively, that were lords thereof, until the reign of Edward the Fourth. That house gave for arms, Vert, a bend dexter, chequy, or and gules."-BURN's Antiquities of Westmoreland and Cumberland, vol. ii. p. 482.

This branch of Vaux, with its collateral alliances, is now represented by the family of Braddyl of Conishead Priory, in the county palatine of Lancaster; for it appears that about the time above mentioned, the house of Triermain was united to its kindred family Vaux of Caterlen, and, by marriage with the heiress of Delamore and Leybourne, became the representative of those ancient and noble families. The male line failing in John De Vaux, about the year 1665, his daughter and heiress, Mabel, married Christopher Richmond, Esq., of Highhead Castle, in the county of Cumberland, descended from an ancient family of that name, Lords of Corby Castle, in the same county, soon after the Conquest, and which they alienated about the 15th of Edward the Second, to Andrea de Harela, Earl of Carlisle. Of this family was Sir Thomas de Raigemont (miles auratus), in the reign of King Edward the First, who appears to have greatly distinguished himself at the siege of Kaerlaveroc, with William, Baron of Leybourne. In an ancient heraldic poem, now extant, and preserved in the British Museum, describing that siege, his arms are stated to be, Or, 2 Bars Gemelles Gules, and a chief Or, the same borne by his descendants at the present day. The Richmonds removed to their castle of Highhead in the reign of Henry the Eighth, when the then representative of the family married Margaret, daughter of Sir Hugh Lowther, by the Lady Dorothy de Clifford, only child by a second marriage of Henry Lord Clifford, great-grandson of John Lord Clifford, by Elizabeth Percy, daughter of Henry (surnamed Hotspur), by Elizabeth 1 This Poem has been recently edited by Sir Nicolas Harris Nicholas,

1833

Mortimer, which said Elizabeth was daughter of Edward Mor timer, third Earl of Marche, by Philippa, sole daughter and heiress of Lionel, Duke of Clarence.

The third in descent from the above-mentioned John Rich mond, became the representative of the families of Vaux, of Triermain, Caterlen, and Torcrossock, by his marriage with Mabel de Vaux, the heiress of them. His grandson, Henry Richmond, died without issue, leaving five sisters co-heiresses, four of whom married; but Margaret, who married William Gale, Esq., of Whitehaven, was the only one who had male issue surviving. She had a son, and a daughter married to Hen ry Curwen of Workington, Esq., who represented the county of Cumberland for many years in Parliament, and by her had a daughter married to John Christian, Esq. (now Curwen), John, son and heir of William Gale, married Sarah, daughter and heiress of Christopher Wilson of Bardsea Hall, in the county of Lancaster, by Margaret, aunt and co-heiress of Thomas Braddy!, Esq., of Braddyl, and Conishead Priory in the same county, and had issue four sons and two daughters. 1st, William Wilson, died an infant; 2d, Wilson, who, upon the death of his cousin, Thomas Braddyl, without issue, succeeded to his estates, and took the name of Braddyl, in pursuance of his will, by the King's sign-manual; 3d, William, died young; and, 4th, Henry Richmond, a lieutenant-general of the army, married Sarah, daughter of the Rev. R. Baldwin; Margaret married Richard Greaves Townley, Esq., of Fulbourne, ir, the county of Cambridge, and of Bellfield, in the county of Lancaster; Sarah married to George Bigland of Bigland Hall, in the same county. Wilson Braddyl, eldest son of John Gale, and grandson of Margaret Richmond, married Jane, daughter and heiress of Matthias Gale, Esq., of Catgill Hail, in the county of Cumberland, by Jane, daughter and heiress of the Rev. S. Bennet, D. D.; and, as the eldest surviving male branch of the families above mentioned, he quarters, in addition to his own, their paternal coats in the following order, as appears by the records in the College of Arms. 1st, Argent, a fess azure, between 3 saltiers of the same, charged with an anchor between 2 lions' heads erased, or,-Gale. 4, Or, 2 bars gemelles gules, and a chief or,-Richmond, 3d, Or, a fess chequey, or and gules between 9 gerbes gules,-Vaux of Caterlen. 4th, Gules, a fess chequey, or and gules between 6 gerbes or, Vaux of Torerossock. 5th, Argent (not vert, as stated by Burn), a bend chequey, or and gules, for Vaux of Triermain. 6th, Gules, a cross patonce, or,-Delamore. 7th Gules, 6 lions rampant argent, 3, 2, and 1,--Leybourne.-This more detailed genealogy of the family of Triermain was obligingly sent to the author by Major Braddyll of Conishead Priory.

NOTE C.

He pass'd red Penrith's Table Round.-P. 385. A circular intrenchment, about half a mile from Penrith, s thus popularly termed. The circle within the ditch is about one hundred and sixty pacer in circumference, with openings or approaches, directly opposite to each other. As the ditch is on the inner side, it could not be intended for the purpose of defence, and it has reasonably been conjectured, that the en closure was designed for the solemn exercise of feats of chiv

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