late in the Scottish Highlands, and was cherished by the chiefs as an easy mode of extending their influence and connection; and even in the Lowlands, during the last century, the connection between the nurse and foster-child was seldom dissolved but by the death of one party.

grees they began to quarrel about the slaughter of some of their friends whom Shane-Dymas had put to death, and advancing from words to deeds, fell upon him with their broadswords, and cut him to pieces. After his death a law was made that none should presume to take the name and title of O'Neale.

NOTE 2 U.

Great Nial of the Pledges Nine.-P. 327.

Neal Naighvallach, or Of the Nine Hostages, is said to have been Monarch of all Ireland, during the end of the fourth or beginning of the fifth century. He exercised a predatory warfare on the coast of England and of Bretagne, or Armorica; and from the latter country brought off the celebrated Saint Patrick, a youth of sixteen, among other captives, whom he transported to Ireland. Neal derived his epithet from nine nations, or tribes, whom he held under his subjection, and from whom he took hostages. From one of Neal's sons were derived the Kinel-eoguin, or Race of Tyrone, which afforded monarchs both to Ireland and to Ulster. Neal (according to O'Flaherty's Ogygia) was killed by a poisoned arrow, in one of his descents on the coast of Bretagne.

NOTE 2 W.

Geraldine.-P. 327.

The O'Neales were closely allied with this powerful and warlike family; for Henry Owen O'Neale married the daughter of Thomas Earl of Kildare, and their son Con-More married his cousin-german, a daughter of Gerald Earl of Kildare. This Con-More cursed any of his posterity who should learn the English language, sow corn, or build houses, so as to invite the English to settle in their country. Others ascribe this anathema to his son Con-Bacco. Fearflatha O'Gnive, bard to the O'Neales of Clannaboy, complains in the same spirit of the towers and ramparts with which the strangers had disfigured the fair sporting fields of Erin.-See WALKER's Irish Bards, p. 140.

NOTE 2 V.

Shane-Dymas wild.-327.

This Shane-Dymas, or John the Wanton, held the title and power of O'Neale in the earlier part of Elizabeth's reign, against whom he rebelled repeatedly.

This chieftain is handed down to us as the most proud and profligate man on earth. He was immoderately addicted to women and wine. He is said to have had 200 tuns of wine at once in his cellar at Dandram, but usquebaugh was his favorite liquor. He spared neither age nor condition of the fair sex. Altho' so illiterate that he could not write, he was not destitute of address; his understanding was strong, and his courage daring. He had 600 men for his guard; 4000 foot, 1000 horse for the field. He claimed superiority over all the lords of Ulster, and called himself king thereof. When commissioners were sent to treat with him, he said, 'That, tho' the Queen were his sovereign lady, he never made peace with her but at her lodging; that she had made a wise Earl of Macartymore, but that he kept as good a man as he; that he cared not for so mean a title as Earl; that his blood and power were better than the best; that his ancestors were Kings of Ulster; and that he would give place to none.' His kinsman, the Earl of Kildare, having persuaded him of the folly of contending with the crown of England, he resolved to attend the Queen, but in a style suited to his princely dignity. He appeared in London with a magnificent train of Irish Galloglasses, arrayed in the richest habiliments of their country, their heads bare, their hair flowing on their shoulders, with their long and open sleeves dyed with saffron. Thus dressed, and surcharged with military harness, and armed with battleaxes, they afforded an astonishing spectacle to the citizens, who regarded them as the intruders of some very distant part of the globe. But at Court his versatility now prevailed; his title to the sovereignty of Tyrone was pleaded from English laws and Irish institutions, and his allegations were so specious, that the Queen dismissed him with presents and assurances of favor. In England this transaction was looked on as the humiliation of a repenting rebel; in Tyrone it was considered as a treaty of peace between two potentates."-CAMDEN'S Britannia, by Gough. Lond. 1806, fol. vol. iv. p. 442.

When reduced to extremity by the English, and forsaken by his allies, this Shane-Dymas fled to Clandeboy, then occupied by a colony of Scottish Highlanders of the family of MacDonell. He was at first courteously received; but by de

47

NOTE 2 X.

He chose that honor'd flag to bear.-P. 328. Lacy informs us, in the old play already quoted, how the cavalry raised by the country gentlemen for Charles's service were usually officered. "You, cornet, have a name that's proper for all cornets to be called by, for they are all beardless boys in our army. The most part of our horse were raised thus:-The honest country gentleman raises the troop at his own charge; then he gets a Low-country lieutenant to fight his troop safely; then he sends for his son from school to be his cornet and then he puts off his child's coat to put on a buffcoat and this is the constitution of our army.'

NOTE 2 Y.

his page, the next degree

In that old time to chivalry.-P. 328.

Originally, the order of chivalry embraced three ranks :1. The Page; 2. The Squire; 3. The Knight ;-a gradation which seems to have been imitated in the mystery of freemasonry. But, before the reign of Charles I., the custom of serving as a squire had fallen into disuse, though the order of the page was still, to a certain degree, in observanoe. This state of servitude was so far from inferring any thing degrading, that it was considered as the regular school for acquiring every quality necessary for future distinction. The proper nature, and the decay of the institution, are pointed out by old Ben Jonson, with his own forcible moral coloring. The dialogue occurs between Lovell, "a compleat gentleman, a soldier, and a scholar, known to have been page to the old Lord Beaufort, and so to have followed him in the French wars, after companion of his studies, and left guardian to his son,' and the facetious Goodstock, host of the Light Heart. Lovell had offered to take Goodstock's son for his page, which the latter, in reference to the recent abuse of the establishment, declares as "a desperate course of life :"—

"Lovell. Call you that desperate, which by a line Of institution, from our ancestors

Hath been derived down to us, and received
In a succession, for the noblest way
Of breeding up our youth, in letters, arms,

Fair mien, discourses, civil exercise,
And all the blazon of a gentleman ?
Where can he learn to vault, to ride, to fence,
To move his body gracefully; to speak
His language purer; or to tune his mind,
Or manners, more to the harmony of nature,
Than in the nurseries of nobility?

"Host. Ay, that was when the nursery's self was noble,

And only virtue made it, not the market,

That titles were not vented at the drum,

Or common outery. Goodness gave the greatness,

And

greatness worship every house became

An academy of honor; and those parts

We see departed, in the practice, now,
Quite from the institution.

"Lovell. Why do you say so?

Or think so enviously? Do they not still

Learn there the Centaur's skill, the art of Thrace,
To ride? or, Pollux' mystery, to fence?
The Pyrrhic gestures, both to dance and spring
In armor, to be active in the wars ?
To study figures, numbers, and proportions,
May yield them great in counsels, and the arts
Grave Nestor and the wise Ulysses practised?
To make their English sweet upon their tongue,
As reverend Chaucer says?

"Host. Sir, you mistake;

To play Sir Pandarus, my copy hath it,
And carry messages to Madame Cressida ;
Instead of backing the brave steeds o' mornings,
To court the chambermaid; and for a leap

O' the vaulting horse, to ply the vaulting house:
For exercise of arms, a bale of dice,

Or two or three packs of cards to show the cheat,
And nimbleness of hand; mistake a cloak
Upon my lord's back, and pawn it; ease his pocket
Of a superfluous watch; or geld a jewel

Of an odd stone or so; twinge two or three buttons
From off my lady's gown: These are the arts
Or seven liberal deadly sciences

Of pagery, or rather paganism,

As the tides run; to which if he apply him,
He may perhaps take a degree at Tyburn
A year the earlier; come to take a lecture
Upon Aquinas at St. Thomas a Watering's,
And so go forth a laureat in hemp circle !"

BEN JONSON's New Inn, Act I. Scene III.

NOTE 2 Z.

Seem'd half abandon'd to decay.-P. 332.

The ancient castle of Rokeby stood exactly upon the site of the present mansion, by which a part of its walls is enclosed. It is surrounded by a profusion of fine wood, and the park in which it stands is adorned by the junction of the Greta and of the Tees. The title of Baron Rokeby of Armagh was, in 1777, conferred on the Right Reverend Richard Robinson, Primate of Ireland, descended of the Robinsons, formerly of Rokeby, in Yorkshire

7 Will. 3.

President.

Jo. Rokeby, Esq. one of the Council.
Jo. Rokeby, LL.D. ditto.

Ralph Rokeby, Esq. one of the Secreta-
ries.

Jo. Rokeby, Precentor of York.

Sir J. Rokeby, Knt. one of the Justices of the King's Bench.

The family of De Rokeby came over with the Conqueror. The old motto belonging to the family is In Bivio Dextra. The arms, argent, chevron sable, between three rooks proper.

5 From him is the house of Hotham, and of the second brother that had issue.

There is somewhat more to be found in our family in the Scottish history about the affairs of Dun-Bretton town, but what it is, and in what time, I know not, nor can have convenient leisure to search. But Parson Blackwood, the Scottish chaplain to the Lord of Shrewsbury, recited to me once a piece of a Scottish song, wherein was mentioned, that William Wallis, the great deliverer of the Scots from the English bondage, should, at Dun-Bretton, have been brought up under a Rokeby, captain then of the place; and as he walked on a cliff, should thrust him on a sudden into the sea, and thereby have gotten that hold, which, I think, was about the 33d of Edw. I. or before. Thus, leaving our ancestors of record, we 1 must also,with them leave the Chronicle of Malmesbury Abbey, called Eulogium Historiarum, out of which Mr. Leland reporteth this history, and coppy down unwritten story, the which have yet the testimony of later times, and the fresh memory of men yet alive, for their warrant and creditt, of whom I have learned it, that in K. Henry the 7th's reign, one Ralph Rokeby, Esq., was owner of Morton, and I guess that this was he that deceived the fryars of Richmond with his felon swine, on which a jargon was made."

The above is a quotation from a manuscript written by Ralph Rokeby; when he lived is uncertain.

To what metrical Scottish tradition Parson Blackwood alluded, it would be now in vain to inquire. But in Blind Harry's History of Sir William Wallace, we find a legend of one Rukbie, whom he makes keeper of Stirling Castle under the English usurpation, and whom Wallace slays with his own hand

"In the great press Wallace and Rukbie met,
With his good sword a stroke upon him set;
Derfly to death the old Rukbie he drave,

But his two sons escaped among the lave."

These sons, according to the romantic Minstrel, surrendered the castle on conditions, and went back to England, but returned to Scotland in the days of Bruce, when one of them became again keeper of Stirling Castle. Immediately after this achievement follows another engagement, between Wallace and those Western Highlanders who embraced the English interest, at a pass in Glendonchart, where many were precipitated into the lake over a precipice. These circumstances may have been confused in the narrative of Parson Blackwood, or in the recollection of Mr. Rokeby.

In the old ballad of Chevy Chase, there is mentioned, among the English warriors, " Sir Raff the ryche Rugbe," which may apply to Sir Ralph Rokeby, the tenth baron in the pedigree. The more modern copy of the ballad runs thus:

"Good Sir Ralph Raby ther was slain,
Whose prowess did surmount."

This would rather seem to relate to one of the Nevilles of Raby. But, as the whole ballad is romantic, accuracy is not to be looked for.

NOTE 3 B.

The Felon Sow.-P. 334.

The ancient minstrels had a comic as well as a serious strain of romance; and although the examples of the latter are by far the most numerous, they are, perhaps, the less valuable. The comic romance was a sort of parody upon the usual subjects of minstrel poetry. If the latter described deeds of heroic achievement, and the events of the battle, the tourney,

1 Both the MS. and Mr. Whitaker's copy read ancestors, evidently a corruption of aunters, adventures, as corrected by Mr. Evans.-2 Sow, according to provincial pronunciation.-3 So; Yorkshire dialect.-4 Fele,

and the chase, the former, as in the Tournament of Tottenham, introduced a set of clowns debating in the field, with all the assumed circumstances of chivalry; or, as in the Hunting of the Hare (see Weber's Metrical Romances, vol. iii.), persons of the same description following the chase, with all the grievous mistakes and blunders incident to such unpractised sportsmen. The idea, therefore, of Don Quixote's phrensy, although inimitably embodied and brought out, was not, perhaps, in the abstract, altogether original. One of the very best of these mock romances, and which has no small portion of comic humor, is the Hunting of the Felon Sow of Rokeby by the Friars of Richmond. Ralph Rokeby, who (for the jest's sake apparently) bestowed this intractable animal on the convent of Richmond, seems to have flourished in the time of Henry VII., which, since we know not the date of Friar Theobald's wardenship, to which the poem refers us, may indicate that of the composition itself. Morton, the Mortham of the text, is mentioned as being this facetious baron's place of residence; accordingly, Leland notices, that "Mr. Rokeby hath a place called Mortham, a little beneath Grentey-bridge, almost on the mouth of Grentey." That no information may be lacking which is in my power to supply, I have to notice, that the Mistress Rokeby of the romance, who so charitably refreshed the sow after she had discomfited Friar Middleton and his auxiliaries, was, as appears from the pedigree of the Rokeby family, daughter and heir of Danby of Yafforth.

This curious poem was first published in Mr. Whitaker's History of Craven, but, from an inaccurate manuscript, not corrected very happily. It was transferred by Mr. Evans to the new edition of his Ballads, with some well-judged conjectural improvements. I have been induced to give a more authentic and full, though still an imperfect, edition of this humorsome composition, from being furnished with a copy from a manuscript in the possession of Mr. Rokeby, to whom I have acknowledged my obligations in the last Note. It has three or four stanzas more than that of Mr. Whitaker, and the language seems, where they differ, to have the more ancient and genuine readings.

The Felon Sow of Rokeby and the Friars of Richmond.
Ye men that will of aunters! winne,
That late within this land hath beene,
Of one I will you tell;

And of a sew2 that was sea3 strang,
Alas! that ever she lived sae lang,
For fell folk did she whell,

She was mares than other three,
The grisliest beast that ere might be,
Her head was great and gray:
She was bred in Rokeby wood,
There were few that thither goed,7
That came on lives away.

Her walk was endlong Greta side;
There was no bren10 that durst her bide,
That was froell heaven to hell;
Nor never man that had that might,
That ever durst come in her sight,
Her force it was so fell.

Ralph of Rokeby, with good will,
The Fryers of Richmond gave her till, 12
Full well to garre13 them fare
Fryar Middleton by his name,
He was sent to fetch her hame,

That rude him sine14 full sare.

many Sax. 5 A corruption of quell, to kill.-6 More, greater.-7 Went. -8 Alive.-9 Along the side of Greta.-10 Barn, child, man in general.— 11 From.-12 To.-13 Make.-14 Since.

were.

With him tooke he wicht men two,

Peter Dale was one of thoe,

That ever was brim as beare;1

And well durst strike with sword and knife,

And fight full manly for his life,
What time as mister ware.2

These three men went at God's will,

This wicked sew while they came till,
Liggan3 under a tree;

Rugg and rusty was her haire;
She raise up with a felon fare,4
To fight against the three.

She was so grisely for to meete,
She rave the earth up with her feete,
And bark came fro the tree;
When Fryar Middleton her saugh,"
Weet ye well he might not laugh,
Full earnestly look't hee.

These men of aunters that was so wight,
They bound them bauldly" for to fight,
And strike at her full sare:

Until a kiln they garred her flee,
Wold God send them the victory,

The wold ask him noa mare.

The sew was in the kiln hole down,
As they were on the balke aboon,8

For hurting of their feet;
They were so saulted 10 with this sew,
That among them was a stalworth stew,
The kiln began to reeke.

Durst noe man neigh her with his hand,
But put a rapell down with his wand,
And haltered her full meete;
They hurled her forth against her will,
Whiles they came into a hill

A little fro the street.12

And there she made them such a fray,
If they should live to Doomes-day,
They tharrow 13 it ne'er forgett;
She braded upon every side,
And ran on them gaping full wide,
For nothing would she lett.15

She gave such brades16 at the band
That Peter Dale had in his hand,
He might not hold his feet.
She chafed them to and fro,
The wight men was never soe woe,
Their measure was not so meete.

She bound her boldly to abide; To Peter Dale she came aside, With many a hideous yell;

1 Fierce as a bear. Mr. Whitaker's copy reads, perhaps in consequence of mistaking the MS., "T'other was Bryan of Bear."-2 Need Mr. Whitaker reads musters.-3 Lying.-4 A fierce countenance or manner.-5 Saw.-6 Wight, brave. The Rokeby MS. reads incounters, and Mr. Whitaker, auncestors.-7 Boldly.-8 On the beam above. To prevent.-10 Assaulted.-11 Rope.-12 Watling Street. See the sequel.-13 Dare.-14 Rushed.-13 Leave it.-16 Pulls,-17 This line is wanting in Mr. Whitaker's copy, whence it has been conjectured that something is wanting after this stanza, which now there is no occasion to suppose.-18 Evil device.-19 Blessed. Fr.-20 Lost his color.-21 Sheltered himself.-22 Fierce.-23 The MS. reads, to labour weere. The text sceras to mean, that all their labor to obtain their intended meat was of no use to them. Mr. Whitaker reads,

She gaped soe wide and cried soe hee, The Fryar seid, "I conjure thee,17

Thou art a feind of hell.

"Thou art come hither for some traine, 18 I conjure thee to go againe

Where thou wast wont to dwell."

He sayned19 him with crosse and creede, Took forth a book, began to reade

In St. John his gospell.

The sew she would not Latin heare,

But rudely rushed at the Frear,

That blinked all his blee;20

And when she would have taken her hold,

The Fryar leaped as Jesus wold,
And bealed him21 with a tree.

She was as brim as any beare,

For all their meete to labour there, 23
To them it was no boote:

Upon trees and bushes that by her stood,
She ranged as she was wood,24

And rave them up by roote.

He sayd, "Alas, that I was Frear! And I shall be rugged25 in sunder here,

Hard is my destinie!

Wist26 my brethren in this houre,
That I was sett in such a stoure,

They would pray for me."

This wicked beast that wrought this woe, Tooke that rape from the other two,

And then they fledd all three; They fledd away by Watling-street, They had no succour but their feet, It was the more pity.

The feild it was both lost and wonne;
The sew went hame, and that full soone,
To Morton on the Greene;
When Ralph of Rokeby saw the rape,29
He wist30 that there had been debate,
Whereat the sew had beene.

He bade them stand out of her way,
For she had had a sudden fray,-
"I saw never so keene;
Some new things shall we heare
Of her and Middleton the Frear,

Some battell hath there beene."

But all that served him for nought,
Had they not better succour sought,
They were served therefore loe.
Then Mistress Rokeby came anon,
And for her brought shee meate full soone,
The sew came her unto.

"She was brim as any boar,

And gave a grisly hideous roar,

To them it was no boot,"

Besides the want of connection between the last line and the two former, the second has a very modern sound, and the reading of the Rokeby MS. with the slight alteration in the text, is much better.

24 Mad.-25 Torn, pulled.-26 Knew.-27 Combat, perilous fight28 This stanza, with the two following, and the fragment of a fourth, not in Mr. Whitaker's edition.-29 The rope about the sow's neck

90 Knew.

1 This line is almost illegible.-2 Each one.-3 Since then, after that. 4 The above lines are wanting in Mr. Whitaker's copy.-5 Cease, stop. - Ran.-7 Warlock, or wizard.-8 Harm.-9 Need.-10 Beat. The copy in Mr. Whitaker's History of Craven reads, perhaps better,

"The fiend would ding you down ilk one."

11" Yon guest," may be yon gest, i, e., that adventure; or it may mean yon ghaist, or apparition, which in old poems is applied sometimes to what is supernaturally hideous. The printed copy reads, "The beast hath,"

Bands bound with seales brade, 14

As deedes of armes should be.

These men of armes that weere so wight, With armour and with brandes bright,

They went this sew to see;

She made on them slike a rerd, 15
That for her they were sare afer'd,
And almost bound to flee.

She came roveing them againe ;
That saw the bastard son of Spaine,
He braded 16 out his brand;
Full spiteously at her he strake,
For all the fence that he could make,
She gat sword out of hand;
And rave in sunder half his shielde,
And bare him backward in the feilde,
He might not her gainstand.

She would have riven his privich geare But Gilbert with his sword of werre, He strake at her full strong,

On her shoulder till she held the swerd : Then was good Gilbert sore afer'd,

When the blade brake in throng.17

Since in his hands he hath her tane, She tooke him by the shoulder bane,18 And held her hold full fast;

She strave so stiffly in that stower, 19 That through all his rich armour

The blood came at the last.

Then Gilbert grieved was sae sare, That he rave off both hide and haire,

The flesh came fro the bone; And with all force he felled her there, And wann her worthily in werre,

And band her him alone.

And lift her on a horse sae hee,
Into two paniers well-made of a tre,
And to Richmond they did hay:20
When they saw her come,
They sang merrily Te Deum,

The Fryers on that day,21

They thanked God and St. Francis, As they had won the best of pris,22 And never a man was slaine: There did never a man more manly, Knight Marcus, nor yett Sir Gui, Nor Loth of Louthyane.

If ye will any more of this,

In the Fryers of Richmond 'tis

In parchment good and fine;

And how Fryar Middleton that was so kend,24 At Greta Bridge conjured a feind

In likeness of a swine.

It is well known to many a man,

That Fryar Theobald was warden than,

&c.-12 Hired, a Yorkshire phrase.-13 Blow.-14 Broad, large.-15 Such like a roar.-16 Drew out.-17 In the combat.-18 Bone.-19 Meeting, bat tle.--20 Hie, hasten,-21 The MS. reads, mistakenly, every day.-22 Price. -23 The father of Sir Gawain, in the romance of Arthur and Merlin. The MS. is thus corrupted

More loth of Louth Ryme.

24 Well known, or perhaps kind, well disposed.