NOTE E.

Bards long shall tell,

How Lord Walter fell.-P. 19.

Sir Walter Scott of Buccleuch succeeded to his grandfather, Sir David, in 1492. He was a brave and powerful baron, and Warden of the West Marches of Scotland. His death was the consequence of a feud betwixt the Scotts and Kerrs, the history of which is necessary, to explain repeated allusions in the romance.

lowed and chased; and especially the Lairds of Cessfoord and Fernyhirst followed furiouslie, till at the foot of a path ne Laird of Cessfoord was slain by the stroke of a spear by an Elliot, who was then servant to the Laird of Buccleuch. But when the Laird of Cessfoord was slain, the chase ceased. The Earl of Angus returned again with great merriness and victory, and thanked God that he saved him from that chance, and passed with the King to Melross, where they remained all that night. On the morn they past to Edinburgh with the King, who was very sad and dolorous of the slaughter of the Laird of Cessfoord, and many other gentlemen and yeomen slain by the Laird of Buccleuch, containing the number of fourscore and fifteen, which died in defence of the King, and at the command of his writing."

I am not the first who has attempted to celebrate in verse the renown of this ancient baron, and his hazardous attempt to procure his sovereign's freedom. In a Scottish Latin poet we find the following verses :

"This letter was quietly directed, and sent by one of the King's own secret servants, which was received very thankfully by the Laird of Buccleuch, who was very glad thereof, to be put to such charges and familiarity with his prince, aud did great diligence to perform the King's writing, and to bring the matter to pass as the King desired: And, to that effect, convened all his kin and friends, and all that would do for him, to ride with him to Melross, when he knew of the King's homecoming. And so he brought with him six hundred spears, of Liddesdale, and Annandale, and countrymen, and clans thereabout, and held themselves quiet while that the King returned out of Jedburgh, and came to Melross, to remain there all that night.

"But when the Lord Hume, Cessfoord, and Ferny herst (the chiefs of the clan of Kerr), took their leave of the King, and returned home, then appeared the Lord of Buccleuch in sight, and his company with him, in an arrayed battle, intending to have fulfilled the King's petition, and therefore came stoutly forward on the back side of Haliden hill. By that the Earl of Angus, with George Douglas, his brother, and sundry other of his friends, seeing this army coming, they marvelled what the matter meant; while at the last they knew the Laird of Buccleuch, with a certain company of the thieves of Annandale. With him they were less affeard, and made them manfully to the field contrary them, and said to the King in this manner, Sir, yon is Buccleuch, and thieves of Annandale with him, to unbeset your Grace from the gate' (i. c. interrupt your passage). I vow to God they shall either fight or flee: and ye shall tarry here on this know, and my brother George with you, with any other company you please; and I shall pass, and put yon thieves off the ground, and rid the gate unto your Grace, or else die for it.' The King tarried still, as was devised; and George Douglas with him, and sundry other lords, such as the Earl of Lennox, and the Lord Erskine, and some of the King's own servants; but all the lave (rest) past with the Earl of Angus to the field against the Laird of Buccieuch, who joyned and countered cruelly both the said parties in the field of Darnelinver,1 either against other, with uncertain victory. But at the last, the Lord Hume, hearing word of that matter how it stood, returned again to the King in all possible haste, with him the Lairds of Cessfoord and Fernyhirst, to the number of fourscore spears, and set freshly on the lap and wing of the Laird of Buccleuch's field, and shortly bare them backward to the ground; which caused the Laird of Buccleuch, and the rest of his friends, to go back and flee, whom they fol

1 Darnwick, near Melrose. The place of conflict is still called Skinner's Field, from a corruption of Skirmish Field. (See the Minstrelsy of the

VALTERIUS SCOTUS BALCLUCHIUS,

clarus, sub JACOBO V. Ao. Christi, 1526. "Intentata aliis, nullique audita priorum

Audet, nec pavidum morsve, metusve quatit, Libertatem aliis soliti transcribere Regis: Subreptam hanc Regi restituisse paras; Si vincis, quanta ô succedunt præmia dextræ! Sin victus, falsas spes jace, pone animam. Hostica vis nocuit: stant alte robora mentis Atque decus. Vincet, Rege probante, fides Insita queis animis virtus, quosque acrior ardor Obsidet, obscuris nox premat an tenebris ?" Heroes ex omni Historia Scotica lectissimi, Auctore Johan. Jonstonio Abredonense Scoto, 1603.

In consequence of the battle of Melrose, there ensued a deadly feud betwixt the names of Scott and Kerr, which, in spite of all means used to bring about an agreement, raged for many years upon the Borders. Buccleuch was imprisoned, and his estates forfeited, in the year 1535, for levying war against the Kerrs, and restored by act of Parliament, dated 15th March, 1542, during the regency of Mary of Lorraine. But the most signal act of violence to which this quarrel gave rise, was the murder of Sir Walter himself, who was slain by the Kerrs in the streets of Edinburgh in 1552. This is the event alluded to in stanza vii.; and the poem is supposed to open shortly after it had taken place.

The feud between these two families was not reconciled in 1596, when both chieftains paraded the streets of Edinburgh with their followers, and it was expected their first meeting would decide their quarrel. But, on July 14th of the same year, Colvil, in a letter to Mr. Bacon, informs him, "that there was great trouble upon the Borders, which would continue till order should be taken by the Queen of England and the King, by reason of the two young Scots chieftains, Cesford and Baclugh, and of the present necessity and scarcity of corn amongst the Scots Borderers and riders. That there had been a private quarrel betwixt those two lairds on the Borders, which was like to have turned to blood; but the fear of the general trouble had reconciled them, and the injuries which they thought to have committed against each other were now transferred upon England: not unlike that emulation in France between the Baron de Biron and Mons. Jeverie, who, being both ambitious of honor, undertook more hazardous enterprises against the enemy than they would have done if they had been at concord together."-BIRCH's Memorials, vol. ii. P. 67.

Scottish Border, vols. i. and ii., for farther particulars concerning those places, of all which the author of the Lay was ultimately proprietor.ED.)

NOTE F.

While Cessford owns the rule of Carr,
While Ettrick boasts the line of Scott,
The slaughter'd chiefs, the mortal jar,
The havoc of the feudal war,

Shall never, never be forgot!-P. 19. Among other expedients resorted to for stanching the fend betwixt the Scotts and the Kerrs, there was a bond executed in 1329, between the heads of each clan, binding themselves to perform reciprocally the four principal pilgrimages of Scotlaad, for the benefit of the souls of those of the opposite name who had fallen in the quarrel. This indenture is printed in the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, vol i. But either never took effect, or else the feud was renewed shortly afterwards.

Such pactions were not uncommon in feudal times; and, as might be expected, they were often, as in the present case, void of the effect desired. When Sir Walter Mauny, the resowned follower of Edward III., had taken the town of Ryol in Gasrony, he remembered to have heard that his father lay there buried, and offered a hundred crowns to any who could how him his grave. A very old man appeared before Sir Walter, and informed him of the manner of his father's death, and the place of his sepulture. It seems the Lord of Mauny had, at a great tournament, unhorsed, and wounded to the death, a Gascon knight, of the house of Mirepoix, whose kinsman was Bishop of Cambray. For this deed he was held at fead by the relations of the knight, until he agreed to undertake a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. James of Compostella, for the benefit of the soul of the deceased. But as he returned through the town of Ryol, after accomplishment of his vow, be was beset and treacherously slain, by the kindred of the knight whom he had killed. Sir Walter, guided by the old man, visited the lowly tomb of his father; and, having read the inscription, which was in Latin, he caused the body to be raised, and transported to his native city of Valenciennes, where masses were, in the days of Froissart, duly said for the soal of the unfortunate pilgrim.-Chronycle of FROISSART, vol. i. p. 123.

NOTE I.

Of Bethune's line of Picardie.-P. 20.

The Bethune's were of French origin, and derived their name from a small town in Artois. There were several distinguished families of the Bethunes in the neighboring province of Picardy; they numbered among their descendants the celebrated Duc de Sully; and the name was accounted among the most noble in France, while aught noble remained in that country. The family of Bethune, or Beatoun, in Fife, produced three learned and dignified prelates: namely, Cardina. Beaton, and two successive Archbishops of Glasge v, all of whom flourished about the date of the romance. Of this family was descended Dame Janet Beaton, Lady Buccleuch, widow of Sir Walter Scott, of Branksome. She was a woman of masculine spirit, as appeared from her riding at the head of her son's clan, after her husband's murder. She also possessed the hereditary abilities of her family in such a degree that the superstition of the vulgar imputed them to supernatural knowledge. With this was mingled by faction, the foul accusation of her having influenced Queen Mary to the murder of her husband. One of the placards preserved in Buchanan's Detection, accuses of Darnley's murder "the Erle of Bothwell, Mr. James Balfour, the persoun of Fliske, Mr. David Chalmers, black Mr. John Spens, who was principal deviser of the murder; and the Quene, assenting thairto, throw the persuasion of the Erle Bothwell, and the witchcraft of Lady Buckleuch."

NOTE K.

He learn'd the art that none may name,

In Padua, far beyond the sea.-P. 20.

Padua was long supposed, by the Scottish peasants, to be the principal school of necromancy. The Earl of Gowrie, slain at Perth, in 1600, pretended, during his studies in Italy, to have acquired some knowledge of the cabala, by which, he said, he could charm snakes, and work other miracles; and, in particular, could produce children without the intercourse of the sexes. See the examination of Wemyss of Bogie before the Privy Council, concerning Gowrie's Conspiracy.

NOTE G.

With Carr in arms had stood.-P. 20.

The family of Ker, Kerr, or Carr, was very powerful on the Border. Fynes Morrison remarks, in his Travels, that their influence extended from the village of Preston-Grange, is Lothian, to the limits of England. Cessford Castle, the aari et baronial residence of the family, is situated near the village of Morebattle, within two or three miles of the Cheviot Hills. It has been a place of great strength and consequence, bat is now ruinous. Tradition affirms that it was founded by Halbert, or Habby Kerr, a gigantic warrior, concerning whom many stories are current in Roxburghshire. The Duke of Roxburghe represents Kerr of Cessford. A distinct and powerful branch of the same name own the Marquis of Lothian as their chief. Hence the distinction betwixt Kerrs of Cessford and Fairmihirst.

NOTE L.

His form no darkening shadow traced Upon the sunny wall!-P. 20.

in

The shadow of a necromancer is independent of the sun. Glycas informs us that Simon Magus caused his shadow to go before him, making people believe it was an attendant spirit. -HEYWOOD's Hierarchie, p. 475. The vulgar conceive, that when a class of students have made a certain progress their mystic studies, they are obliged to run through a subterraneous hall, where the devil literally catches the hindmost in the race, unless he crosses the hall so speedily that the arch-enemy can only apprehend his shadow. In the latter case, the person of the sage never after throws any shade; and those, who have thus lost their shadow, always prove the best magicians.

NOTE H.

Lord Cranstoun.-P. 20.

The Cranstouns, Lord Cranstoun, are an ancient Border family, whose chief seat was at Crailing, in Teviotdale. They were at this time at feud with the clan of Scott; for it appears that the Lady of Buccleuch, in 1557, beset the Laird of Cranstoan, seeking his life. Nevertheless, the same Crantoun, or perhaps his son, was married to a daughter of the same lady.

1 The name is spelt differently by the various families who bear it. Carr sected, not as the most correct, but as the most poetical ading.

NOTE M.

The viewless forms of air.-P. 20.

The Scottish vulgar, without having any very defined notion of their attributes, believe in the existence of an intermediate class of spirits, residing in the air, or in the waters; to whose agency they ascribe floods, storms, and all such phenomena as their own philosophy cannot readily explain. They are supposed to interfere in the affairs of mortals, sometimes

2 This expression and sentiment were dictated by the situation of France, in the year 1803, when the poem was originally written. 1821.

with a malevolent purpose, and sometimes with milder views. It is said, for example, that a gallant baron, having returned from the Holy Land to his castle of Drummelziar, found his fair lady nursing a healthy child, whose birth did not by any means correspond to the date of his departure. Such an occurrence, to the credit of the dames of the Crusaders be it spoken, was so rare, that it required a miraculous solution. The lady, therefore, was believed, when she averred confidently, that the Spirit of the Tweed had issued from the river while she was walking upon its bank, and compelled her to submit to his embraces; and the name of Tweedie was bestowed upon the child, who afterwards became Baron of Drummelziar, and chief of a powerful clan. To those spirits are also ascribed, in Scotland, the

-"Airy tongues, that syllable men's names, On sands, and shores, and desert wildernesses." When the workmen were engaged in erecting the ancient church of Old Deer, in Aberdeenshire, upon a small hill called Bissau, they were surprised to find that the work was impeded by supernatural obstacles. At length, the Spirit of the River was heard to say,

"It is not here, it is not here

That ye shall build the church of Deer;
But on Taptillery,

Where many a corpse shall lie."

The site of the edifice was accordingly transferred to Tap tillery, an eminence at some distance from the place where the building had been commenced.-MACFARLANE'S MSS. I mention these popular fables, because the introduction of the River and Mountain Spirits may not, at first sight, seem to accord with the general tone of the romance, and the superstitions of the country where the scene is laid.

NOTE N.

A fancied moss-trooper, &c.-P. 21.

This was the usual appellation of the marauders upon the Borders: a profession diligently pursued by the inhabitants on both sides, and by none more actively and successfully than by Buccleuch's clan. Long after the union of the crowns, the moss-troopers, although sunk in reputation, and no longer enjoying the pretext of national hostility, continued to pursue their calling.

Fuller includes, among the wonders of Cumberland, "The moss-troopers: so strange in the condition of their living, if considered in their Original, Increase, Height, Decay, and

Ruine.

"1. Original. I conceive them the same called Borderers in Mr. Camden; and characterized by him to be a wild and warlike people. They are called moss-troopers, because dwelling in the mosses, and riding in troops together. They dwell in the bounds, or meeting, of the two kingdoms, but obey the laws of neither. They come to church as seldom as the 29th of February comes into the kalendar.

"2. Increase. When England and Scotland were united In Great Britain, they that formerly lived by hostile incursions, betook themselves to the robbing of their neighbors. Their sons are free of the trade by their fathers' copy. They are like to Job, not in piety and patience, but in sudden plenty and poverty; sometimes having flocks and herds in the morning, none at night, and perchance many again next day. They may give for their motto, vivitor ex rapto, stealing from their honest neighbors what they sometimes require. They are a nest of hornets; strike one, and stir all of them about your ears. Indeed, if they promise safely to conduct a traveller, they will perform it with the fidelity of a Turkish janizary; otherwise, woe be to him that falleth into their quarters!

"3. Height. Amounting, forty years since, to some thousands. These compelled the vicinage to purchase their secu

rity, by paying a constant rent to them. When in their greatest height, they had two great enemies,—the Laws of the Land, and the Lord William Howard of Naworth. He sent many of them to Carlisle, to that place where the officer doth always his work by daylight. Yet these moss-troopers, if possibly they could procure the pardon for a condemned person of their company, would advance great sums out of their common stock, who, in such a case, cast in their lots amongst them selves, and all have one purse.

"4. Decay. Caused, by the wisdom, valour, and diligence of the Right Honourable Charles Lord Howard, Earl of Car lisle, who routed these English Tories with his regiment. His severity unto them will not only be excused, but commended, by the judicious, who consider how our great lawyer doth describe such persons, who are solemnly outlawed. BRAC TON, lib. viii., trac. 2, cap. 11.- Ex tune gerunt caput lupinum, ita quod sine judiciali inquisitione rite pereant, e: secum suum judicium portent; et merito sine lege pereunt, qui secundum legem vivere recusârunt.' Thenceforward (after that they are outlawed), they wear a wolf's head, so that they lawfully may be destroyed, without any judicial inquisition, as who carry their own condemnation about them, and deservedly die without law, because they refused to live according to law.'

5. Ruine. Such was the success of this worthy lord's severity, that he made a thorough reformation among them; and the ring-leaders being destroyed, the rest are reduced to legal obedience, and so, I trust, will continue."-FULLER'S Worthies of England, p. 216.

The last public mention of moss-troopers occurs during the civil wars of the 17th century, when many ordinances of Parliament were directed against them.

NOTE O.

-tame the Unicorn's pride,

Exalt the Crescent and the Star.-P. 21.

The arms of the Kerrs of Cessford were, Vert on a cheveron, betwixt three unicorns' heads erased argent, three mullets sæble; crest, a unicorn's head, erased proper. The Scotts of Buccleuch bore, Or, on a bend azure; a star of six points betwixt two crescents of the first.

NOTE P.

William of Deloraine.-P. 21.

The lands of Deloraine are joined to those of Buccleuch in Ettrick Forest. They were immemorially possessed by the Buccleuch family, under the strong title of occupancy, al though no charter was obtained from the crown until 1545, Like other possessions, the lands of Deloraine were occasionally granted by them to vassals, or kinsmen, for Border service Satchells mentions, among the twenty-four gentlemen-pensioners of the family, "William Scott, commonly called Cut-atthe-Black, who had the lands of Nether Deloraine for his ser vice." And again, "This William of Deloraine, commonly called Cut-at-the-Black, was a brother of the ancient house of Haining, which house of Haining is descended from the ancient house of Hassendean." The lands of Deloraine now give an earl's title to the descendant of Henry, the second surviving son of the Duchess of Buccleuch and Monmouth. I have endeavored to give William of Deloraine the attributes which characterized the Borderers of his day; for which I can only plead Froissart's apology, that, "it behoveth, in a lynage, some to be folyshe and outrageous, to maynteyne and sustayne the peasable." As a contrast to my Marchman, I beg leave to transcribe, from the same author, the speech of Amergot Marcell, a captain of the Adventurous Companions,

■ robber, and a pillager of the country of Auvergene, who had been bribed to sell his strongholds, and to assume a more honorable military life under the banners of the Earl of Armagnac. But when he remembered alle this, he was sorrowful; his tresour he thought he wolde not mynysshe; he wonte dayly to serche for newe pyllages, wherebye encresed his profyte, and then be sawe that alle was closed fro' hym. Then he sayde and imagyned, that to pyll and to robbe (all things considered) was a good lyfe, and so repented hym of his good doing. On a time, be said to his old companyons, Sirs, there is no sporte nor glory in this worlde amonge men of warre, but to use suche lyfe as we have done in tyme past. What a joy was it to us when we rode forth at adventure, and somtyme found by the way a rich prour or merchaunt, or a route of mulettes of Mountpellyer. of Narbonne, of Lymens, of Fongans, of Besyers, of Tholous, or of Carcasonne, laden with cloth of Brussels, or peltre ware Comynge fro the favres, or laden with spycery fro Burges, fro Damas, or fro Alysaundre; whatsoever we met, all was ours, or els ransoured at our pleasures; dayly we gate new money, and the vyllaynes of Auvergne and of Lymosyn dayly provyded and brought to our castell whete mele, good wynes, beffes, and fatte mottons, puilayne, and wylde foule: We were ever furnyshed as the we had been kings. When we rode forthe, all the countery trybled for feare: all was ours goyng and comynge. How tok we Carlast, I and the Bourge of Compayne, and I and Perot of Bernays took Caluset; how dyd we scale, with lytell ayde, the strong castell of Marquell, pertayning to the Eri Dolphyn: I kept it sat past fyve days, but I received for it, on a feyre table, fyve thousande frankes, and forgave one thousande for the love of the Eri Dolphin's children. By my fayth, this was a fayre and a good lyfe! wherefore I repute myselfe sore deceyved, in that I have rendered up the fortress of Aloys; for it wolde have kept fro all the worlde, and the daye that I gave it up, it was fournyshed with vytaylies, to have been kept seven yere without any re

aylinge. This Erl of Armynake hath deceived me: Olyve Barbe, and Perot le Bernoys, showed to me how I shulde repente myselfe certayne I sore repente myselfe of what I have done.'" -FROLESART, Vol. ii. p. 195.

"In Gelderland there was that bratchet bred,
Siker of scent, to follow them that fled;

So was he used in Eske and Liddesdail,
While (i. e. till) she gat blood no fleeing might avail."

In the retreat, Fawdoun, tired, or affecting to be so, would go no farther. Wallace, having in vain argued with him, in hasty anger, struck off his head, and continued the retreat. When the English came up, their hound stayed upon the dead body: —

"The sleuth stopped at Fawdon, still she stood, No farther would fra time she fund the blood."

The story concludes with a fine Gothic scene of terror. Wallace took refuge in the solitary tower of Gask. Here he was disturbed at midnight by the blast of a horn. He sent out his attendants by two and two, but no one returned with tidings. At length, when he was left alone, the sound was heard still louder. The champion descended, sword in hand; and, at the gate of the tower, was encountered by the headless spectre of Fawdoun, whom he had slain so rashly. Wallace, in great terror, fled up into the tower, tore open the boards of a window, leapt down fifteen feet in height, and continued his flight up the river. Looking back to Gask, he discovered the tower on fire, and the form of Fawdoun upon the battlements, dilated to an immense size, and holding in his hand a blazing rafter. The Minstrel concludes,

"Trust ryght wele, that all this be sooth indeed, Supposing it to be no point of the creed."

The Wallace, Book v.

Mr. Ellis has extracted this tale as a sample of Henry's poetry.Specimens of English Poetry, vol. i. p. 351.

NOTE Q.

By wily turns, by desperate bounds,

Had baffled Percy's best blood-hounds.-P. 21.

The kings and heroes of Scotland, as well as the Borderriders, were sometimes obliged to study how to evade the pursuit of blood-hounds. Barbour informs us, that Robert Bruce was repeatedly tracked by sleuth-dogs. On one occasion, he escaped by wading a bow-shot down a brook, and ascending into a tree by a branch which overhung the water; thus, leaving no trace on land of his footsteps, he baffled the scent. The pursuers came up:

"Rycht to the burn thai passyt ware,

Bot the sleuth-hand made stinting thar,
And waneryt lang tyme ta and fra,

That he na certain gate couth ga;

Till at the last that John of Lorne

Perseuvit the hund the sleuth had lorne."

The Bruce, Book vit.

the A sure way of stopping the dog was to spill blood upon track, which destroyed the discriminating fineness of his scent. A captive was sometimes sacrificed on such occasions. Henry the Minstrel tells a romantic story of Wallace, founded on this circumstance:-The hero's little band had been joined by an Irishman, named Fawdoun, or Fadzean, a dark, savage, and suspicions character. After a sharp skirmish at Black-Erne Side, Wallace was forced to retreat with only sixteen followere. The English pursued with a Border sleuth-bratch, or blood-hound.

NOTE R.

the Moat-hill's mound,

Where Druid shades still filled round.-P. 22.

This is a round artificial mount near Hawick, which, from its name (fot. Ang. Sax. Concilium, Conventus), was probably anciently used as a place for assembling a national council of the adjacent tribes. There are many such mounds in Scotland, and they are sometimes, but rarely, of a square form.

NOTE S.

the tower of Hazeldean.-P. 22.

The estate of Hazeldean, corruptly Hassendean, belonged formerly to a family of Scotts, thus commemorated by Satchells:

"Hassendean came without a call,

The ancientest house among them all."

NOTE T.

On Minto-crags the moonbeams glint.-P. 22.

A romantic assemblage of cliffs, which rise suddenly above the vale of Teviot, in the immediate vicinity of the family-seat, from which Lord Minto takes his title. A small platform, on a projecting crag, commanding a most beautiful prospect, is termed Barnhills' Bed. This Barnhills is said to have been a robber, or outlaw. There are remains of a strong tower be neath the rocks, where he is supposed to have dwelt, and from which he derived his name. On the summit of the crags are the fragments of another ancient tower, in a picturesque situa

tion. Among the houses cast down by the Earl of Hartforde, in 1545, occur the towers of Easter Barnhills, and of Mintocrag, with Minto town and place. Sir Gilbert Elliot, father to the present Lord Minto,' was the author of a beautiful pastoral song, of which the following is a more correct copy than is usually published. The poetical mantle of Sir Gilbert Elliot has descended to his family.

'My sheep I neglected, I broke my sheep-hook,
And all the gay haunts of my youth I forsook:
No more for Amynta fresh garlands I wove:
Ambition, I said, would soon cure me of love.
But what had my youth with ambition to do!
Why left I Amynta! why broke I my vow!
"Through regions remote in vain do I rove,
And bid the wide world secure me from love.
Ah, fool, to imagine, that aught could subdue
A love so well founded, a passion so true!
Ah, give me my sheep, and my sheep-hook restore!
And I'll wander from love and Amynta no more!

"Alas! 'tis too late at thy fate to repine!
Poor shepherd, Amynta, no more can be thine!
Thy tears are all fruitless, thy wishes are vain,
The moments neglected return not again.
Ah! what had my youth with ambition to do!
Why left I Amynta! why broke I my vow!"

NOTE V.

But when Melrose he reach'd 'twas silence all;
He meetly stabled his steed in stall,

And sought the convent's lonely wall.-P. 22. The ancient and beautiful monastery of Melrose was founded by King David I. Its ruins afford the finest specimen of Gothic architecture and Gothic sculpture which Scotland can boast. The stone of which it is built, though it has resisted the weather for so many ages, retains perfect sharpness, so that even the most minute ornaments seem as entire as when newly wrought. In some of the cloisters, as is hinted in the next Canto, there are representations of flowers, vegetables, &c., carved in stone, with accuracy and precision so delicate, that we almost distrust our senses, when we consider the difficulty of subjecting so hard a substance to such intricate and exquisite modulation. This superb convent was dedicated to St. Mary, and the monks were of the Cistertian order. At the time of the Reformation, they shared the general reproach of sensuality and irregularity, thrown upon the Roman churchmen. The old words of Galashiels, a favorite Scotch air, ran thus:

O the monks of Melrose made gude kale,3

On Fridays when they fasted.

They wanted neither beef nor ale,

As long as their neighbors' lasted

NOTE U.

Ancient Riddell's fair domain.-P. 22.

The family of Riddell have been very long in possession of the barony called Riddell, or Ryedale, part of which still bears the latter name. Tradition carries their antiquity to a point extremely remote; and is, in some degree, sanctioned by the discovery of two stone coffins, one containing an earthen pot filled with ashes and arms, bearing a legible date, A. D. 727; the other dated 936, and filled with the bones of a man of gigantic size. These coffins were discovered in the foundations of what was, but has long ceased to be, the chapel of Riddell ; and as it was argued with plausibility, that they contained the remains of some ancestors of the family, they were deposited in the modern place of sepulture, comparatively so termed, though built in 1110. But the following curious and authentic documents warrant most conclusively the epithet of "ancient Riddell :" 1st, A charter by David I. to Walter Rydale, Sheriff of Roxburgh, confirming all the estates of Liliesclive, &c., of which his father, Gervasius de Rydale, died possessed. 2dly, A bull of Pope Adrian IV., confirming the will of Walter de Ridale, knight, in favor of his brother Anschittil de Ridale, dated 8th April, 1155. 3dly, A bull of Pope Alexander III., confirming the said will of Walter de Ridale, bequeathing to his brother Anschittil the lands of Liliesclive, Whettunes, &c., and ratifying the bargain betwixt Anschittil and Huctredus, concerning the church of Liliesclive, in consequence of the mediation of Malcolm II., and confirmed by a charter from that monarch. This bull is dated 17th June, 1160. 4thly, A bull of the same Pope, confirming the will of Sir Anschittil de Ridale, in favor of his son Walter, conveying the said lands of Liliesclive and others, dated 10th March, 1120. It is remarkable, that Liliesclive, otherwise Rydale, or Riddell, and the Whittunes, have descended, through a long train of ancestors, without ever passing into a collateral line, to the person of Sir John Buchanan Riddell, Bart. of Riddell, the lineal descendant and representative of Sir Anschittil.-These circumstances appeared worthy of notice in a Border work."

1 Grandfather to the present Earl. 1819.

2 Since the above note was written, the ancient family of Riddell have parted with all their Scotch estates.-ED.

The buttresses ranged along the sides of the ruins of Melrose Abbey, are, according to the Gothic style, richly carved and fretted, containing niches for the statues of saints, and labelled with scrolls, bearing appropriate texts of Scripture. Most of these statues have been demolished.

David I. of Scotland purchased the reputation of sanctity, by founding, and liberally endowing, not only the monastery of Melrose, but those of Kelso, Jedburgh, and many others; which led to the well-known observation of his successor, that he was a sore saint for the crown.

NOTE X.

For mass or prayer can I rarely tarry,
Save to patter an Ave Mary,
When I ride on a Border foray.-P. 24.

The Borderers were, as may be supposed, very ignorant about religious matters. Colville, in his Paranesis, or Admonition, states, that the reformed divines were so far from undertaking distant journeys to convert the Heathen, "as I wold wis at God that ye wold only go bot to the Hielands and Borders of our own realm, to gain our awin countreymen, who, for lack of preching and ministration of the sacraments, must, with tyme, becum either infidells, or atheists." But we learn, from Lesley, that, however deficient in real religion, they regularly told their beads, and never with more zeal than when going on a plundering expedition.

8 Kale, Broth.