abled to discover him. Awed by the terrible frown of his countenance, she acknowledged what she had done. He spat in her eye, and extinguished it for ever."-GRAHAME's Sketches, p. 116-118. It is very remarkable that this story, translated by Dr. Grahame from popular Gaelic tradition, is to be found in the Otia Imperialia of Gervase of Tilbury. A work of great interest might be compiled upon the origin of popular fiction, and the transmission of similar tales from age to age, and from country to country. The mythology of one period would then appear to pass into the romance of the next century, and that into the nursery-tale of the subsequent ages. Such an investigation, while it went greatly to diminish our ideas of the richness of human invention, would also show that these fictions, however wild and childish, possess such charms for the populace as enable them to penetrate into countries unconnected by manners and language, and having no apparent intercourse, to afford the means of transmission. It would carry me far beyond my bounds to produce instances of this community of fable among nations who never borrowed from each other any thing intrinsically worth learning. Indeed, the wide diffusion of popular fictions may be compared to the faci lity with which straws and feathers are dispersed abroad by the wind, while valuable metals cannot be transported without trouble and labour. There lives, I believe, only one gentleman, whose unlimited acquaintance with this subject might enable him to do it justice: I mean my friend Mr. Francis Douce, of the British Museum, whose usual kindness will, I hope, pardon my mentioning his name, while on a subject so closely connected with his extensive and curious researches. Note XII. -—his Highland cheer, The harden'd flesh of mountain-deer.-St. XXXI. p. 145. The Scottish Highlanders, in former times, had a concise mode of cooking their venison, or rather of dispensing with cooking it, which appears greatly to have surprised the French, whom chance made ac quainted with it. The Vidame of Chartres, when a hostage in England, during the reign of Edward VI., was permitted to travel into Scotland, and penetrated as far as to the remote Highlands (au fin fond des Sauvages). After a great hunting party, at which a most wonderful quantity of game was destroyed, he saw these Scottish savages devour a part of their venison raw, without any further preparation than compressing it between two battens of wood, so as to force out the blood, and render it extremely hard. This they reckoned a great delicacy and when the Vidame partook of it, his compliance with their taste rendered him extremely popular. This curious trait of manners was communicated by Mons. de Montmorency, a great friend of the Vidame, to Brantome, by whom it is recorded in Vies des Hommes Illustres, Discours lxxxix. art. 14. The process by which the raw venison was rendered eatable is described very minutely in the romance of Perceforest, where Estonne, a Scottish knight-errant, having slain a deer, says to his companion Claudius, "Sire, or mangerez vous et moy aussi. Voire si nous auions de feu, dit Claudius. Par l'ame de mon pere, dist Estonue, ie vous atourneray et cuiray a la maniere de nostre pays comme pour cheualier errant. Lors tira son espee et sen vint a la branche dung arbre, et y fait vng grant trou, et puis fend la branchebien deux piedz et boute la cuisse du cerf entredeux, et puis prent le licol de son cheval et en lye la branche et destraint si fort que le sang et les humeurs de la chair saillent hors et demeure la chaire doulce et seiche. Lors prent la chair et oste ius le cuir et la chaire demeure aussi blanche comme si ce feust dung chappon. Dont dista Claudius, Sire le la vous ay cuiste a la guise de mon pays, vous en pouez manger hardye ment, car ie mangeray premier. Lors met sa main a sa selle en vng lieu quil y auoit, et tire hors sel et poudre de pouire et gingembre, mesle ensemble, et le lecte dessus, et le frote sus bien fort, puis le couppe a moytle, et en donne a Claudius l'une des pieces, et puis mort en l'autre aussi sauoureusement quil est aduis que il en feist la pouldre voller. Quant Claudius voit quil le mangeoit de tel goust il en print grant fait et commence a manger tres voulentiers, et dist a Estoune: Par l'ame de moy le ne mangeay onequesmais de chair atournee de telle guise: mais doresenauant ie ne me retourneroye pas hors de mon chemin par auoir la cuite. Sire, dist Estonne, quans ie suis en desers d'Escosse, dont le suis seigneur, ie cheuaucheray huit iours ou quinze que ie n'entreray en chastel ne en maison, et si ne verray feu ne personne viuant fors que bestes sauuages, et de celles mangeray atournees en ceste maniere, et mieulx me plaira que la viande de l'empereur. Ainsi sen vont mangeant et cheuauchant iusques adone quilz arriuerent sur une moult belle fontalne qui estoit en vne valee. Quant Estonne la vit il dista Claudius, allons boire a ceste fontaine. Or beuuons, dist Estonne, du boire que le grant dieu a pourueu a toutes gens, et qui me plaist mieulx que les ceruoises d'Angleterre."-La Treselegante Hystoire du trenoble Roy Perceforest. Paris, 1531, fol. tome i. fol. lv. vers. After all, it may be doubted whether la chaire nostree, for so the French called the venison thus summarily prepared, was any thing more than a mere rude kind of deer-ham. THE LADY OF THE LAKE. CANTO THE FIFTH. The Combat. I. Fair as the earliest beam of eastern light, And silvers o'er the torrent's foaming tide, Shine martial Faith, and Courtesy's bright star, Through all the wreckful storms that cloud the brow of War. Il. That early beam, so fair and sheen, That o'er, the Gael* around him threw III. At length they came where, stern and steep, Beneath steep bank and threatening stone; The rugged mountain's scanty cloak The Scottish Highlander calls himself Gael, or Gaul, and terms the Lowlander, Sassenach, or Saxons. And heather black, that waved so high, But where the lake slept deep and still, IV. "Brave Gael, my pass, in danger tried, All seem'd as peaceful and as still, M |