NOTES. ! GLENFINLAS: OR, LORD RONALDS'S CORONACH. How blazed Lord Ronald's Beltane-tree. The fires lighted by the Highlanders, on the first of May, in compliance with a custom derived from the Pagan times, are termed The Beltanetree. It is a festival celebrated with various superstitious rites, both in the North of Scotland and in Wales. The seer's prophetic spirit found.-St. vII, p. 276. I can only describe the second sight, by adopting Dr. Johnson's definition, who calls it "An impression, either by the mind upon the eye, or by the eye upon the mind, by which things distant and future are perceived and seen as if they were present." To which I would only add, that the spectral appearances, thus presented, usually presage misfortune; that the faculty is painful to those who suppose they possess it; and that they usually acquire it while themselves under the pressure of melancholy. Will good St. Oran's rule prevail?— St. XXII, p. 277 St. Oran was a friend and follower of St. Columba, and was buried at Icolmkill. His pretensions to be a saint were rather dubious. According to the legend, he consented to be buried alive, in order to propitiate certain demons of the soil, who obstructed the attempts of Columba to build a chapel. Columba caused the body of his friend to be dug up, after three days had elapsed; when Oran, to the horror and scandal of the assistants, declared, that there was neither a God, a judgment, nor a future state! He had no time to make further discoveries, for Columba caused the earth once more to be shovelled over him with the utmost despatch. The chapel, however, and the cemetery, was called Relig Ouran; and, in memory of his rigid celibacy, no female was permitted to pay her devotions, or be buried in that place. This is the rule alluded to in the poem. And thrice St. Fillan's powerful prayer. -St. LV, p. 278. St. Fillan has given his name to many chapels, holy fountains, &c., in Scotland. He was, according to Camerarius, an Abbot of Pittenweem, in Fife; from which situation he retired, and died a hermit in the wilds of Glenurchy, 'A.D. 649. While engaged in transcribing the Scriptures, his left hand was observed to send forth such a splendour as to afford light to that with which he wrote; a miracle which saved many candles to the convent, as St. Fillan used to spend whole nights in that exercise. The 9th of January was dedicated to this saint, who gave his name to Kilallan, in Renfrew, and St. Phillans, or Forgend, in Fife. Lesley, lib. 7. tells us, that Robert the Bruce was possessed of Fillan's miraculous and luminous arm, which he enclosed in a silver shrine, and had it carried at the head of his army. Previous to the Battle of Bannockburn, the king's chaplain, a man of little faith, abstracted the relict, and deposited it in a place of security, lest it should fall into the hands of the English. But, lo! while Robert was addressing his prayers to the empty casket, it was observed to open and shut suddenly; and, on inspection, the saint was found to have himself deposited his arm in the shrine as an assurance of victory. Such is the tale of Lesley. But though Bruce little needed that the arm of St. Fillan should assist his own, he dedicated to him, in gratitude, a priory af Killin, upon Loch Tay. THE EVE OF ST. JOHN. -St. XLIX, p. 280. The circumstance of the nun, "who never saw the day." is not entirely imaginary. About fifty years ago, an unfortunate female wanderer took up, her residence in a dark vault, among the ruins of Dryburgh Abbey, which, during the day, she never quitted. When night fell, she issued from this miserable habitation, and went to the house of Mr. Haliburton of Newmains, the editor's great-grandfather, or to that of Mr. Erskine of Sheilfield, two gentlemen of the neighbourhood. From their charity, she obtained such necessaries as she could be prevailed upon to accept. A twelve, each night, she lighted her candle and returned to her vault, assuring her friendly neighbours that, during her absence, her habitation was arranged by a spirit, to whom she gave the uncouth name of Fatlips; describing him as a little man, wearing heavy iron shoes, with which he trampled the clay floor of the vault, to dispel the damps. This circumstance caused her to be regarded, by the well-informed, with compassion, as deranged in her understanding; and by the vulgar, with some degree of terror. The cause of her adopting this extraordinary mode of life she would never explain. It was, however, believed to have been occasioned by a vow, that, during the absence of a man to whom she was attached, she would never look upon the sun. Her lover never returned. He fell during the civil war of 1745-6, and she never more would behold the light of day. The vault, or rather dungeon, in which this unfortunate woman lived and died, passes still by the name of the supernatural being with which its gloom was tenanted by her disturbed imagination, and few of the neighbouring peasants dare enter it by night. CADYOW CASTLE. Stern Claud replied.-St. XXI, p. 281. Lord Claud Hamilton, second son of the Duke of Chatelherault, and commendator of the Abbey of Paisley, acted a distinguished part during the troubles of Queen Mary's reign, and remained unalterably attached to the cause of that unfortunate princess. He led the van of her army at the fatal battle of Largside, and was one of the so nearly given complete success to the Queen's faction. He was ancestor of the present Marquis of Abercorn. commanders at the Raid of Stirling, which had I to her in Lochleven Castle. He discharged his commission with the most savage rigour; and it is even said, that when the weeping captive, in the act of signing, averted her eyes from the fatal deed, he pinched her arm with the grasp of his iron glove. Woodhouselee.-St. XXII, p. 281. This barony stretching along the banks of the Esk, near Auchendinny, belonged to Bothwellhaugh, in right of his wife. The ruins of the mansion, from whence she was expelled in the brutal manner which occasioned her death, are still to be seen in a hollow glen beside the river. Popular report tenants them with the restless ghost of the Lady Bothwellhaugh, whom, however, it confounds with Lady Anne Bothwell, whose Lament is so popular. This spectre is so tenacious of her rights, that, a part of the stones of the ancient edifice having been employed in building or repairing the present Woodhouselee, she has deemed it a part of her privilege to haunt that house also; and even of very late years, has excited considerable disturbance and terror among the domestics. This is a more remarkable vindication of the rights of ghosts, as the present Woodhouselee, which gives his title to the Honourable Alexander Fraser Tytler, a senator of the College of Justice, is situated on the slope of the Pentland hills, distant at least four miles from her proper abode. She always appears in white, and with her child in her arms. Drives to the leap his jaded steed. -St. XXVIII, p. 281. Birrel informs us that Bothwellhaugh, being closely pursued, "after that spur and wand had failed him, he drew forth his dagger, and stroke his horse behind, whilk caused the horse to leap a very brode stanke [i.e., ditch,] by whilk means he escapit, and gat away from all the rest of the horses."-BIRREL'S Diary. So close the minions crowded nigh. -St. XXXVIII, p. 281. Not only had the Regent notice of the intended attempt upon his life, but even of the very house from which it was threatened. fatuation at which men wonder, after such With that inevents have happened, he deemed it would be a sufficient precaution to ride briskly past the dangerous spot. But even this was prevented by the crowd; so that Bothwellhaugh had time to take a deliberate aim. THE GRAY BROTHER. Scenery of the Esk.-p. 282. The barony of Pennycuik, the property of Sir George Clerk, Bart., is held by a singular tenure; the proprietor being bound to sit upon a large rocky fragment called the Buckstane, and wind to hunt on the Borough Muir, near Edinburgh. three blasts of a horn, when the King shall come Hence the family have adopted as their crest a demi-forester proper, winding a horn, with the motto, Free for a Blast. The beautiful mansionhouse of Pennycuik is much admired, both on account of the architecture and surrounding scenery. To Auchendinny's hazel glade.-St. XVII, p. 283. Auchendinny, situated upon the Eske, below Pennycuik, the present residence of the ingenious H. Mackenzie, Esq., author of the Man of Feeling, &c.-Edition 1803 Melville Castle, the seat of the Right Honourable Lord Melville, to whom it gives the title of Viscount, is delightfully situated upon the Eske, near Lasswade. With hackbut bent.-St. xxxv, p. 281. Hackbut bent-Gun cock'd. The carbine, with which the Regent was shot, is preserved at Hamilton Palace. It is a brass piece, of a middling length, very small in the bore, and what dence of the ancient family of St. Clair. The The ruins of Roslin Castle, the baronial resiis rather extraordinary, appears to have been rifled or indented in the barrel. It had a match-vation, with the romantic and woody dell in Gothic chapel, which is still in beautiful preserlock, for which a modern firelock has been in- which they are situated, belong to the Right judiciously substituted. Honourable the Earl of Rosslyn, the representative of the former Lords of Roslin. The wild Macfarlanes' plaided clan. -St. XXXVI, p. 281. This clan of Lennox Highlanders were attached to the Regent Murray. Hollinshed, speaking of the battle of Langside, says, "In this batayle the valiancie of an Heiland gentleman, named Macfarlane, stood the Regent's part in great steede; for, in the hottest brunte of the fighte, he came up with two hundred of his friendes and countrymen, and so manfully gave in upon the flankes of the Queen's people, that he was a great cause of the disordering of them." Glencairn and stout Parkhead were nigh. -St. XXXVII, p. 281. The Earl of Glencairn was a steady adherent of the Regent. George Douglas of Parkhead was a natural brother of the Earl of Morton, whose horse was killed by the same ball by which Murray fell. -haggard Lindesay's iron eye, That saw fair Mary weep in vain. -St. XXXVII, p. 281. Lord Lindsay, of the Byres, was the most ferocious and brutal of the Regent's faction, and, as such, was employed to extort Mary's signature to the deed of resignation presented The village and castle of Dalkeith belonged of old to the famous Earl of Morton, but is now the residence of the noble family of Bucclench. The parks extends along the Eske, which is there joined by its sister stream of the same name. And classic Hawthornden.-St. xvIII, p. 283. Hawthornden, the residence of the poet Drummond. A house of more modern date, is enclosed, as it were, by the ruins of the ancient castle, and overhangs a tremendous precipice upon the banks of the Eske, perforated by winding caves, which in former times were a refuge to the oppressed patriots of Scotland. Here Drummond received Ben Jonson, who journeyed from London on foot in order to visit him. The beauty of this striking scene has been much injured of late years by the indiscriminate use of the axe. The traveller now looks in vain for the leafy bower, "Where Jonson sat in Drummond's social shade." Upon the whole, tracing the Eske from its source till it joins the sea at Musselburgh, no stream in Scotland can boast such a varied succession of the most interesting objects, as well as of the most romantic and beautiful scenery. VI. The right-hand horseman, young and fair, VII. He waved his huntsman's cap on high, VIII. Cried the fair youth with silver voice, "And for Devotion's choral swell, Exchange the rude unhallowed noise. IX. This is a translation, or rather an imitation, of The French had a similar tradition concerning an aërial hunter, who infested the forest of Fountainbleau. I. Tus Wildgrave winds his bugle horn, II. The cager pack, from couples freed, Dash through the bush, the brier, the brake, While, answering hound, and horn, and steed, The mountain echoes startling wake. III. The beams of God's own hallowed day "To-day, the ill-omened chase forbear, X. "Away, and sweep the glades along!" XI. The Wildgrave spurred his ardent steed, XII. "Hence, if our manly sport offend! ΧΙΠ. The Wildgrave spurred his courser light, XIV. Up springs, from yonder tangled thorn, XV. A heedless wretch has crossed the way; WILLIAM AND HELEN. Is the preface to the edition published anonymously in 1796, Sir Walter Scott says:-"The first two lines of the forty-seventh stanza, descriptive of the speed of the lovers, may perhaps bring to the recollection of many a passage extremely similar in a translation of Leonora," which first appeared in the Monthly MagaZine " In justice to himself, the translator thinks it his duty to acknowledge that his curiosity was first attracted to this truly romantic story by a gentleman, who having heard *Leonora once read in manuscript, could only recollect the general outlines, and part of a couplet which, from the singularity of its structure and frequent recurrence, had remained Impressed upon his memory. If, from despair of rendering the passage so happily, the property of another has been invaded, the translator makes the only atonement now in his power by restoring it thus publicly to the rightful owner. For the information of those to whom such obsolete expressions may be less familiar, it may be noticed that the word serf means a vassal; and that to busk and boune, is to dress and prepare one's self for a journey. 1. FROM heavy dreams fair Helen rose And oyed the dawning red: Ah, my love, thou tarriest long! art thou false, or dead?" |