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XVIII.

But all too long, through seas unknown and dark,
(With Spenser's parable I close my tale).
By shoal and rock hath steer'd my venturous bark;
And land-ward now I drive before the gale,
And now the blue and distant shore I hail,
And nearer now I see the port expand,
And now I gladly furl my weary sail,

And, as the prow light touches on the strand,
I strike my red-cross flag, and bind my skiff to land.

CANTO FIRST.

NOTE I.

The heights of Uam-var,

And roused the cavern where, 'tis told,

A giant made his bed of old.

Ua-var, as the name is pronounced, or mo e properly Uaigh-mor, is a mountain to the north-east of the village of Callender in Menteith, deriving its name, which signified a great den, or cavern, from a sort of retreat among the rocks on the south side, said, by tradition, to have Deen the abode of a giant. In latter times, it was the refuge of robers and banditti; who have been only extirpated within these forty or fifty

years.

NOTE II.

Two dogs of black St. Hubert's breed,

Unmatched for courage, breath, and speed.

The hounds which we call St. Hubert's hounds, are commonly all black; nevertheless, their race is so mingled at present, that we find them of all colours. These are the hounds which the abbots of St. Hubert bave always kept some of their race or kind, in honour or remembrance of the saint, which was a hunter with St. Eustace.

NOTE III.

For the death-wound, and death-halloo,
Mustered his breath, his whinyard drew.

When the stag turned to bay, the ancient hunter had the perilous task of going in upon, and killing or dis bling the desperate animal. A certain times of the year this was held particularly dangerous, a wound received from a stag's horns being then deemed poisonous, and more dangerous than one from the tusks of a boar.

NOTE IV.

To meet with Highland plunderers here,
Were worse than loss of steed or deer.

The clans who inhabited the romantic regions in the neighbourhood of Loch-Katrine, were, even until a late period, much addicted to predatory excursions upon their lowland neighbours.

NOTE V...

A grey-haired sire, whose eye, intent,
Was on the visioned future bent.

If force of evidence could authorise us to believe facts inconsistent with the general laws of nature, enough might be produced in favour of the existence of the Second-Sight. It is called in Gaelic Taishitarangh, from Taish, an unreal or shadowy appearance; and those possessed of the faculty are called Taishatrin, which may be aptly translated visionaries. Martin, a steady believer in the second-sight, gives the following account of it :

"The second-sight is a singular faculty of seeing an otherwise invisible object, without any previous means used by the person that uses it for that end; the vision makes such a lively impression upon the seers, that they neither see nor think of anything else except the vision, as long as it continues; and then they appear pensive or jovial, according to the object which was represented to them.

"At the sight of a vision, the eye-lids of the person are erected, and the eyes continue staring until the object vanish. This is obvious to others who are by, when the persons happen to see a vision; and occurred more than once to my own observation, and to others that were with me."

NOTE VI.

Here, for retreat in dangerous hour,

Some chief had framed a rustic bower.

The Celtic chieftains, whose lives were continually exposed to peril, had usually, in the most retired spot of their domains, some place of retreat for the hour of necessity. 52

NOTE I.

Morn's genial influence roused a minstrel gray.

Highland chieftains, to a late period, retained in their service the bard, as a family officer.

NOTE II.

Ere Douglases, to ruin driven,

Were exiled from their native heaven.

The downfal of the Douglases of the house of Angus, during the reign of James V., is the event alluded to in the text.

NOTE III.

In Holy-Rood a knight he slew.

This was by no means an uncommon occurrence in the court of Scotland; nay, the presence of the sovereign himself, soarcely restrained the ferocious and inveterate feuds which were the perpetual source of bloodshed among the Scottish nobility.

NOTE IV.

The Douglas, like a stricken deer,
Disown'd by every noble peer.

The exiled state of this powerful race is not exaggerated in this and subsequent passages. The hatred of James against the race of Douglas was so inveterate, that numerous as their allies were, and disregarded as the regal authority had usually been in similar cases, their nearest friends, even in the most remote parts of Scotland, durst not entertain them, unless under the strictest and closest disguise.

NOTE V.
Maronnan's cell.

The parish of Kilmarnock, at the eastern extremity of Loch-Lomond, derives its name from a cell or chapel dedicated to Saint Maronoch, or Marnoch, or Maronan, about whose sanctity very little is now remembered. There is a fountain devoted to him in the same parish, but its virtues, like the merits of its patron, have fallen into oblivion.

NOTE VI.

For Tine-man forged by fairy lore.

Archibald, the third Earl of Douglas, was so unfortunate in all his enterprizes that he acquired the epithet of Tine-man, because he tined, or lost, his followers in every battle which he fought.

NOTE VII.

Did, self-unscabbarded, foreshow

The footstep of a secret foe.

The ancient warriors were accustomed to deduce omens from their swords, especially from such as were supposed to have been fabricated by enchanted skill.

NOTE VIII.

Roderigh vich Alpine dhu, ho! ieroe!

Besides his ordinary name and surname, which were chiefly used in the intercourse with the Lowlands, every Highland chief had an epithet expressive of his patriarchal dignity as head of his clan, and which was common to all his predecessors and successors, as Pharaoh to the kings of Egypt, or Arsaces to those of Parthia.

NOTES TO CANTO THIRD

NOTE I.

And while the Fiery Cross glanced, like a meteor, round. When a chieftain designed to summon his cla, upon any sudden or important emergency, he slew a goat, and making a aross of any light wood, seared its extremities in the fire, and extinguished them in the blood of the animal. This was called the Fiery Cross, also Crean Tarigh, or the Cross of Shame, because disobedience to what the symbol

implied, inferred infamy. It was delivered to a swift and trusty messen. ger, who ran full speed with it to the next hamlet, where he presented it to the principal person, with a single word, implying the place of rendezvous. He who received the symbol was bound to send it forward with qual despatch to the next village; and thus it passed with incredible clerity through all the district which owed allegiance to the chief, and also among his allies and neighbours, if the danger was common to them. At sight of the Fiery Cross, every man, from sixteen years old to sixty, capable of bearing arms, was obliged instantly to repair, in his best arms and accoutrements, to the place of rendezvous. He who failed to appear suffered the extremities of fire and sword, which were emblematical y denounced to the disobedient by the bloody and burnt marks upon this warlike signal.

NOTE II.

That ntonk, of savage form and face.

The state of religion in the middle ages afforded considerable facilities for those whose mode of life excluded them from regular worship, to secure, nevertheless, the ghostly assistance of confessors, perfectly willing to adapt the nature of their doctrine to the necessities and peculiar circumstances of their flock. Robin Hood, it is well known, had his elebrated domestic chaplain, Friar Tuck. And that same curtal friar was probably matched in manners and appearance by the ghostly fathers of th Tynedale robbers. NOTE III.

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Yet ne'er again, to braid her hair,

The virgin snood did Alice wear.

The snood, or riband, with which a Scottish lass braided her hair, had an emb'ematical signification, and applied to her maiden character. It was exchanged for the carch, toy, or coif, when she passed, by marriage, into the matron state. But if the damsel was so unfortunate as to lose pretensions to the name of maiden, without gaining a right to that of matron, she was neither permitted to use the snood, nor advanced to the graver dignity of the curch. In old Scottish songs there occur many sly allusions to such misfortune, as in the old words to the popular tune of "Over the muir amang the heather,”—

Down amang the broom, the broom,
Down amang the broom, my dearie,
The lassie lost her silken snood,

That gard her greet tiil she was wearic.
NOTE IV.

The fatal Ben-Shie's boding scream.

Most great families in the Highlands were supposed to have a tutelar, or rather a domestic spirit, attached to them, who took an interest in their prosperity, and intimated, by its wailings, any approaching disaster.

NOTE V.

Sounds, too, had come in midnight blast

Of charging steeds, careering fast

Along Benharrow's shingly side,

Where mortal horseman ne'er might ride.

A presage of the kind alluded to in the text is still believed to announce death to the ancient Highland family of M'Lean of Lochbuy,

NOTES TO CANTO FOURTH.

-NOTE I.

The Taghairm call'd; by which, afar,

Our sires foresaw the events of war.

The Highlanders had various modes of inquiring into futurity. One of the most noted was the Taghairm. A person was wrapped in the skin of a newly slain bullock, and deposited in some wild situation, where the sce

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