an account of the "Eyrbyggja Saga" in 1813, when he was engaged on "Waverley." As an illustration of Scotch convivial manners and of random sword-blows, we print an account of the death of the Laird of Stewartfield, from a curious manuscript diary in the possession of Mr. Charles Grieve, in Branxholme Park, the work of one of his ancestors. Scott has not exaggerated the manners which he describes.

of

"The death of Stewartfield happened at a Head Court at Jedburgh. The gentlemen at the meeting were all drunk, and some quarrel arose between Sir and Stewartfield, and the latter was stabbed by a sword under the table. There was a precognition taken, but no light could be thrown on the matter. Sir -'s servant carried his master off as soon as he understood what had happened, and brought him to the churchyard and laid him down upon a tombstone, where he slept for some time, he covering him with a blanket. He conveyed his horses to a distance, and after allowing him some time to sleep off the drink, he waked him and conveyed him up Rule Water, and he lay concealed in Waughope Wood till he made his escape to Holland."

(0) p. 96. Dr. Johnson on Scotch breakfasts: "If an epicure could remove by a wish in quest of sensual gratification, wherever he had supped, he would breakfast in Scotland” (Johnson's Works, ix. 52).

(p) p. 112. "A rhyme quoted by Edgar in 'King Lear,'" act iii. scene iv.:

"Saint Withold footed thrice the wold;

He met the Night-mare and her nine-fold;
Bid her alight,

And her troth plight,

And, aroint thee, witch, aroint thee !"

(q) p. 128. "The celebrated Belides." More frequently called the Danaïds, daughters of Danaus, who was the son of Belus. Their punishment was to carry water in a sieve, and, unlike the lad in the fairy tale, they had not the wit to daub the sieve with clay.

(r) p. 207. Flora Macdonald's song.

"Ye sons of brown Dermid, who slew the wild boar,
Resume the pure faith of the great Callum-More."

There was no Callum-More; the name is Mac Cailean Mohr.
Dermid should be Diarmaid, in Irish apparently Diarmuid

For the slaughter of the boar by the mythical father of the Campbells, see "The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Grainne." Ossianic Society, Dublin, 1857. The modern Irish have anglicized Diarmuid as Jeremiah.

(s) p. 218. "The Pope's legate." See Mr. Hume Brown's Early Travellers in Scotland," p. xii. The legate visited Scotland in 1543. "His name and identity are still a disputed point, and he is varionsly known as Peter Francis Contareno, Mark German, and Marcus Grymanus, Patriarch of Aquileia."

(t) p. 223. "A charm, which in English ran thus." The charm, as given by Reginald Scott (1584), is,

"Hail be thou, holie hearbe

Growing on the ground;
All in the mount Calvarie
First wert thou found.

Thou art good for manie a sore,
And healest manie a wound;

In the name of sweete Jesus
I take thee from the ground."

The Discoverie of Witchcraft, book xil. ch. xiv. (edition of 1886, p. 198).

(u) p. 266. "Whatever were the original rights of the Stewarts." Scott has been accused of "blind Jacobitism." The extent of his blindness may be estimated from Waverley's reflections in this chapter. Scott was interested as an historian and as the descendant of " Auld Beardie " in the Jacobite cause. He admired as who does not ?- the self-sacrificing loyalty of the Highlanders, never so nobly displayed as after Drumossie. He felt the poetic charm of the unhappy and ungrateful House of Stewart. But his writings might be searched in vain for even a sentimental approval of “plunging a kingdom into all the miseries of civil war for the purpose of replacing upon the throne the descendants of a monarch by whom it had been wilfully forfeited."

(v) p. 268. "Oggam," generally spelled "Ogham," a system of writing by means of lines incised, at various angles, on the edges of a squared stone. The researches of Professor Rhys do not support the Punic hypothesis of General Vallancey. (w) p. 271. "The sanguine Jacobites, during the eventful years 1745-46, kept up the spirits of their party by the rumour

of descents from France on behalf of the Chevalier St. George.' See "Tom Jones,” book xi. ch. vi. Mrs. Fitzpatrick asked Honour "who were come?" "Who?" answered she, “why, the French; several hundred thousands of them are landed, and we shall be all murdered and ravished." "Ay, ay," quoth the landlord, smiling, "her ladyship knows better things; she knows the French are our very best friends, and come over hither only for our good. They are the people who are to make old England flourish again. His Honour's

Majesty [Charles Edward], Heaven bless him, hath given the duke the slip, and is marching as fast as he can to London, and ten thousand French are landed to join him on the road."

ANDREW LANG.