might be there besieged, and reduced either by force or famine; and that the fortresses of which the enemy should thus obtain possession, might afford them the means of maintaining a footing in the country. When, therefore, the Scottish patriots redovered possession of the castles which had fallen into the power of the English, they usually dismantled them. The Good Lord James of Douglas surprised his own castle of Douglas three times, it having been as frequently garrisoned by the English, and upon each occasion he laid waste and demolished it. The military system of Wallace was on the same principle. And, in fine, with very few exceptions, the strong and extensive fortresses, which had arisen on the Scottish Borders in better times, were levelled with the ground during the wars of the thirteenth century. The ruins of the Castles of Roxburgh, of Jedburgh, and of several others which were thus destroyed, bear a wonderful disproportion in extent to any which were erected in subsequent times. Nay, the Castle of Jedburgh was so strongly and solidly constructed, and the Scottish so unskilful in the art of destruction, even where there was no military opposition, that it was thought it could not be destroyed without such time and labour as would render it necessary to impose a tax of two pennies on every hearth in Scotland to defray the expence. But Duke Robert of Albany, then regent, to shun the unpopularity of this impost, defrayed the charge of the demolition out of the crown revenues. "This continued to be the Scottish defensive system for many ages, and, of course, while it exposed invaders to hardships, loss, and want of subsistence, it reduced the frontiers of their own country, for the time, "to a waste desart. Beacons were lighted in such a manner as to signify either the threatened approach, or actual arrival, of the English army. These were maintained at Hume Castle, at the Tower of Edgerhope, or Edgerstane, near the sources of the Jed, upon the ridge of the Soltra Hills, at Dunbar, Dunpender (or Trapraine) Law, North-Berwick Law, and other eminences; and their light was a signal for the Scottish forces to assemble at Edinburgh and Haddington, abandoning to waste and pillage all the southern counties. Till the very last occasion of hostility between England and Scotland, this mode of defensive war was resorted to in the latter kingdom. Cromwell found the Borders in that desolate situation in his campaign of 1650; and, had it not been for the misjudged zeal of the Presbyterian ministers, who urged David Lesley to give battle at Dunbar, he must have inade a disastrous and disgraceful retreat. "From this system it followed, that most of the Scottish places of strength even when the abode of great nobles or powerful chiefs, were constructed upon a limited and mean scale. Built usually in some situation of natural strength, and having very thick walls, strongly cemented, they could easily repel the attack of any desultory incursion; but they were neither victualled nor capable of receiving garrisons sufficient to defend them, excepting against a sudden assault. The village, which always almost adjoined to the castle, contained the abodes of the retainers, who, upon the summons of the chieftain, took arms either for the defence of the fortress or for giving battle in the field. Of these, the greater part were called" kindly tenants," or "rentallers," deriving the former name from the close and intimate nature of their connection with the lord of the soil, from whom they held their little possessions by favour rather than bargain; and the latter from the mode in which their right of possession was constituted, by entering their names in their lord's rental-book. Besides this ready militia, the more powerful chiefs maintained in their castle, and as immediate attendants upon their persons, the more active young gentlemen of their clan, selected from the younger brethren of gentlemen of estate, whose descent from the original stock, and immediate dependence upon the chief, rendered them equally zealous and determined adherents. These were recompensed by grants of land, in property or lease, which they stocked with cattle or sheep, as their chief did those which he retained in his own hands. "But the castles which held these garrisons, whether constant or occasional, were not of strength, or at least of extent, at all commensurate with the military power of the chiefs who inhabited them. The ruins of Cessford, or of Branxholm, before the latter was modernized, might be considered as on the largest scale of Scottish Border fortresses, and neither could brook comparison with the baronial castles of English families of far less power and influence." The edifices erected on the opposite side of the Border are thus represented : "If we turn our eyes from the frontiers of Scotland to those of England, we shall behold a very different scene, indicating, even in these remote provinces, the superior wealth and civilization of the English nation, with that attention to defence which was the natural consequence of their having something of value to defend. The central marches, indeed, and the extreme verge of the frontier in every direction, excepting upon the east, were inhabited by wild clans as lawless as their northern neighbours, resembling them in manners my, they supplied the loss by reciprocal depredation. Living under chiefs by whom this predatory warfare was countenanced, and sometimes headed, they appear to have had little knowledge of the light in which their actions were regarded by the legislature; and the various statutes and regulations made against their incursions, remained in most cases a dead letter. It did indeed frequently happen, that the kings or governors of Scotland, when the disorders upon the Border reached to a certain height, marched against these districts with an overpowering force, seized on the persons of the chiefs, and sent them to distant prisons in the centre of the kingdom, and executed, without mercy, the inferior captains and leaders. Thus, in the year 1529, a memorable era for this sort of expeditious justice, James V., having first committed to ward the Earl of Bothwell, the Lords Home and Maxwell, the Lairds of Buccleuch, Fairnihirst, Johnstone, Polwarth, Dolphington, and other chiefs of clans, marched through the Borders with about eight thousand men, and seizing upon the chief leaders of the moss-troopers, who seem not to have been aware that they had any reason to expect harm at their sovereign's hands, executed them without mercy. Besides the celebrated Johnie Armstrong of Gillnockie, to whom a considerable part of the English frontier paid black-mail, or protection-money, the names of Piers Cockburn of Henderland, Adam Scott of Tushielaw, called the King of the Border, and other marauders of Yet note, are recorded as having suffered on this occasion. And although this, and other examples of severity, had the effect for the time, as the Scottish phrase is, of "dantoning the thieves of the Borders, and making the rush-bush keep the cow," yet this course not only deprived the kingdom of the assistance of many brave men, who were usually the first to endure or repel the brunt of invasion, but it also diminished the affections of those who remained; and a curious and middle state of relation appears to have taken place between the Borderers on each side, who, as they were never at absolute peace with each other during the cessation of national hostilities, seem, in like manner, to have shunned engaging in violent and sanguinary conflicts, even during the time of war. The English Borderers, who were in the same manner held aliens to the civilized part of the country, insomuch that, by the regulations of the corporation of Newcastle, no burgess could take to his apprentice a youth from the dales of Reed or Tyne, made common cause with those of Scotland, the allegiance of both to their proper country was much loosened; the dalesmen on either side seem to have considered themselves in many respects as a The following account of the Borderers or Moss-troopers will be found very interesting :— "Contrary to the custom of the rest of Scotland, they almost always acted as lighthorsemen, and used small active horses accustomed to traverse morasses, in which other cavalry would have been swallowed up. Their hardy mode of life made them indifferent to danger, and careless about the ordinary accommodations of life. The uncertainty of reaping the fruits of their labour deterred them from all the labours of cultivation; their mountains and glens afforded pasturage for the cattle and horses, and when these were driven off by the ene separate people, having interests of their own, distinct from, and often hostile to, that of the country to which they were nominal subjects. This gave rise to some singular features in their history." It is afterwards remarked: "These men, who might thus be said to bear but dubious allegiance to their country, were, of all others, the most true of faith to whatever they had pledged their individual word. If it happened that any of them broke his troth, he who had sustained the wrong displayed, at the first public meeting upon the Borders, a glove on the point of a lance, and proclaimed him a perjured and mansworn traitor. This was accounted an insult to the whole clan to which the culprit belonged. If his crime was manifest, there were instances of his being put to death by his kinsmen ; but if the accusation was unfounded, the stain upon the honour of the clan was accounted equal to the slaughter of one of its members, and, like that, could only be expiated by deadly feud. Under the terrors of this penalty, the degree of trust that might be reposed in the most desperate of the Border outlaws, is described by Robert Constable, in his account of an interview with the banished Earl of Westmoreland and his unfortunate followers. They desired to get back into England, but were unwilling to trust their fortune without sure guides. I promised,' said Constable, to get them two guides that would not care to steale, and yet they would not bewray any man that trusts in them for all the gold in Scotland or France. They are my guides and outlaws; if they would betray me they might get their pardons, and cause me to be hanged, but I have tried them ere this.' · "This strict observance of pledged faith tended much to soften the rigours of war; for when a Borderer made a prisoner, he esteemed it wholly unnecessary to lead him into actual captivity or confinement. He simply accepted his word to be a true prisoner, and named a time and place where he expected him to come to treat about his ransom. If they were able to agree, a term was usually assigned for the payment, and security given; if not, the prisoner surrendered himself to the discretion of his captor. But where the interest of both parties pointed so strongly towards the necessity of mutual accommodation, it rarely happened that they did not agree upon terms. Thus, even in the encounters of these rude warriors on either side, the na tions maintained the character of honour, courage, and generosity assigned to them by Froissart. Englishmen on the one party, and Scotsmen on the other party, are good men of war; for when they met, there is a hard fight without sparing; there is no hoo (. e. cessation for parley) between them, as long as spears, swords, axes, or daggers will endure; but they lay on each upon other, and when they be well beaten, and that the one party hath obtained the victory, they then glorify so in their deeds of arms, and are so joyful, that such as be taken they shall be ransomed ere they go out of the field; so that shortly each of them is so content with other, that at their departing courteously, they will say, God thank you.' But in fighting one with another, there is no play nor sparing.' "Of the other qualities and habits of the Borderers we are much left to form our own conjectures. That they were a peopleof some accomplishment, fond of the legends of their own exploits, and of their own rude poetry and music, is proved by the remains still preserved of both. They were skilful antiquaries, according to Roger North, in whatever concerned their own bounds. Lesley gives them the praise of great and artful eloquence when reduced to plead for their lives; also that they were temperate in food and liquors, and rarely tasted those of an intoxicating quality. Their females caught the warlike spirit of the country, and appear often to have mingled in battle. Fair Maiden Liliard, whose grave is still pointed out upon the field of battle at Ancram-moor, called, from her name, Lilliard's Edge, seems to have been a heroine of this description. And Hollingshed records them at the conflict fought near Naworth, (A. D. 1570,) between Leonard Dacres and Lord Hunsdon; the former had in his company 6 many desperate women, who there gave the adventure of their lives, and fought right stoutly.' This is a change in the habits of the other sex which can only be produced by early and daily familiarity with scenes of hazard, blood, and death, The Borderers, however, merited the devoted attachment of their wives, if, as we learn, one principal use of the wealth they obtained by plunder was to bestow it in ornamenting the persons of their partners." We regret that our limits admit of no further extracts; but those who may be induced to the perusal of the work itself, will find themselves amply recompensed by the curious anecdotes, and views of manners and antiquities, with which it abounds. In the title-page we find announced, "Original poetry by Mr Scott," but do not understand to what this alludes, not having been fortunate enough to meet with any thing of that description. In the account of Carlisle Castle, however, there is a fragment apparently written about 1745, and collected from oral tradition; and, as we agree with the editor, that "nature speaks in her most eloquent strain through every land," we cannot resist the temptation of quoting it. Carlisle Yetts. White was the rose in his gay bonnet, His lang lang hair in yellow hanks It that we should be most virtuous. is not unusual for men to spare a tear for fictitious distress, or illustrious misery, at the very moment, perhaps, when they are wilfully and knowingly in the habitual neglect of some essential and obvious duty. Be that as it may, the pathos and the deep distress are, now, hardly ever seen on our stage. Thomson tried something which was a mixture of both these; but it was a great deal too pure-too raised from active Waved o'er his cheeks sae sweet and rud- human nature-and had too much to die; But now they wave o'er Carlisle yetts My father's blood's in that flower tap, An' I'll ay wear it in my bosom. When I first cam by merry Carlisle, But I'll sit and pray aneath the willow. Zapolya: a Christmas Tale. By S. T. COLERIDGE, Esq. 8vo. pp. 128. London, Fenner, 1817. THERE seems to be a great barrenness of invention and dearth of conception among our modern dramatists. We have had nothing either very touching or bold in the shape of native English tragedy for fifty years. The pathos of Otway-the deep and heart-rending distress of Southerne, are not likely to be soon imitated, and, at all events, the reproduction of them has been so long suspended, as to mark a sensible variation of capacity, though, even under a more depraved state of morals, it does not strike us that this would mark a change of national taste. To enjoy the strong sensation which flows from a sympathy with theatrical woe, or tenderness, or passion,-it is not necessary do with the passive excellencies which shine like a winter-moon,-cold, powerless, and only bright. He took not pains enough to catch hold on any lurking traits of prejudice in favour of peculiar privileges, or admiration of vigorous villany. Home tried the same track; and, as men of mediocrity and of chastised tastes never fail to do,fairly run it down. Since that time we have been diluting the highly flavoured strong drink of the Germansor giving servile and spiritless versions from the romantic and poetical among our old English playwrights. We have gone on this way-one man writing his six epics of chivalry, and another his six epics of pure romance, while, in lyric and impassioned poetry, chords which had not been touched before-have not only been struck —but sounded in all their pitch and drama alone is left as it were in descompass. The tragic and poetical pair. That author who must be strictly said to have by far the happiest genius-not of his country merely, but of his age,-and who possesses greater fecundity of invention, and versatility of exertion, than any human being that ever wrote to please a fashion, or to gratify an appetite which he himself had created; even Scott has hitherto abstained from that species of composition, in which to excel, would be the summit of his fame. All the world knows the merits of Miss Baillie. But none of her plays could ever bear long to be represented on the stage; and her compositions are too philosophically constructed and connected ever to please as dramas. Mr Coleridge himself has tried the bold, vigorous, and sinewy style of tragedy which prevailed from the Elizabethan age down to Dryden's time-when it was corrupted by the Gallicisms, and, to use his own phrase, "dashed and brewed" by the spurious transplantations with which hedeformed his inventions, and wasted down the vigour of his "mighty line." But REMORSE, though it had many beau ties, both of thought and expression, and though its interest rested on nothing strained in incident, or monstrous in the conception of character-nothing in the style of Lewis's Castle Spectre, nor like some late tragedies, yet it possessed too little adaptation, and only a very scanty interest in its plot or scene. It was a classical composition of its kind, however. Its first run was considerable,-it procured for its author a greater honour than has been bestowed on any dramatic poet by an audience since the time of Voltaire;* and though it seems now to be laid by, not to remain as a stock acting play, yet it will always please in the closet. It has several passages which attest the powerful bard that struck the chord of the lyric ode with a wilder tone, and a more prevailing sway, with a more raised, enthusiastic, and commanding spirit, than any English poet, with the exceptions only of Dryden and of Gray. † The story of this drama of Zapolya is soon told: Andreas, king of Illyria, is at the point of death, while his queen, Zapolya, is about to be delivered of a child. Andreas dies, leaving as regents of his kingdom, and guardians of his child, the Queen, Prince Emerick, and Raab Kiuprili. Emerick usurps the sovereign power, Zapolya is obliged to fly with her infant to the woods, and Raab Kiuprili, who had openly resisted the tyrant, and dared him to his face, is taken prisoner. Chef Ragozzi, who had chosen to act a part of feigned submission, the more surely to subvert the design of Emerick, furnishes the royal mother with the means of flight for herself and her infant; and, having been enjoined by Emerick to send intimation to the chiefs of the * On one of the nights in which REMORSE was performed at DRURY-LANE, Mr Coleridge appeared in a stage-box, when the audience in the Pit rose simultaneously, as soon as he was observed, and testified their respect to the author of the tragedy by cheers, and clapping hands! See the "ODE TO THE DEPARTING YEAR," p. 51, of Mr Coleridge's recent volume of poetry. A civil army in different places, of his usurped accession, releases Raab Kiuprili, and sends him on one of these errands. Thus ends THE PRELUDE, entitled, The Usurper's Fortune."" war ensues, in which Emerick has the best of it for twenty years, at which period the drama itself begins. This Mr Coleridge has called "THE SEQUEL, entitled, The Usurper's Fate." Young Andreas, the royal infant, had now become a fine spirited youth, with high aspirations of his destiny, a tormenting wish to know his origin, and a restless yearning to learn the fate of his mother, who was supposed to have expired at the time he was found wrapt up in the mantle of a lady who was discovered hard by in a dying state. Andreas was sheltered as an orphan by Bathory, a rude and simple-minded_mountaineer, and a dependent on Lady Sarolta, wife to Cassimer, the Lord High Steward of Illyria, under Emerick the usurper, with whom he had taken part against his noble father Raab Kiuprili. The second act introduces Zapolya and Kiuprili in a horrid cave, whither they had fled, and in which they had passed a precarious existence. They are discovered by Glycine, a young girl who had fallen in love with Bethlen, and whose affection is, it strikes us, very beautifully and strikingly pourtrayed. Bethlen Bathory (Andreas's foster name) had gone to the savage wood in which this cavern was situated, on a hint that it was there his mother had breathed her last; and Glycine, prompted by her love, followed him to ascertain his safety. All this passes at the country residence of Cassimer, where his lady, Sarolta, spends her time, in compliance with some early vows, and pious resolutions. Glycine reaches the cave first. Bethlen comes just after she had divulged the object of her visit to its unhappy inmates, and after some maternal forebodings had been excited in the breast of Zapolya by the simple narrative of the love-sick girl. She discovers her son. scene is one of undoubted beauty, though unfortunately so constructed, as to make impossible that requisite and immediate impression which, on a second reading, a careful reader thinks he might have felt from a certain pastoral pathos and picturesque horror which it must be allowed to possess. The plot now, at the third act, The |
