Oh! courteous champion of Montrose ! The coronach has for some years past been superseded at funerals by the use of the bagpipe; and that also is, like many other Highland peculiarities, falling into disuse, unless in remote districts. NOTE 2 N. Benledi saw the Cross of Fire, It glanced like lightning up Strath-Ire.-P. 207. Inspection of the provincial map of Perthshire, or any large map of Scotland, will trace the progress of the signal through the small district of lakes and mountains, which, in exercise of my poetical privilege, I have subjected to the authority of my imaginary chieftain, and which, at the period of my romance, was really occupied by a clan who claimed a descent from Alpine; a clan the most unfortunate, and most persecuted, but neither the least distinguished, least powerful, nor least brave, of the tribes of the Gael. "Slioch non rioghridh duchaisach Bha-shios an Dun-Staiobhinish The first stage of the Fiery Cross is to Duneraggan, a place near the Brigg of Turk, where a short stream divides Loch Achray from Loch Vennachar. From thence, it passes towards Callender, and then turning to the left up the pass of Leny, is consigned to Norman at the Chapel of Saint Bride, which stood on a small and romantic knoll in the middle of the valley, called Strath-Ire. Tombea and Arnandave, or Ardmandave, are names of places in the vicinity. The alarm is then supposed to pass along the lake of Lubnaig, and through the various glens in the district of Balquidder, including the neighboring tracts of Glenfinlas and Strathgartney. NOTE 2 O. Not faster o'er thy heathery braes, Balquidder, speeds the midnight blaze.-P. 208. It may be necessary to inform the southern reader, that the heath on the Scottish moorlands is often set fire to, that the sheep may have the advantage of the young herbage produced, in room of the tough old heather plants. This custom (execrated by sportsmen) produces occasionally the most beautiful nocturnal appearances, similar almost to the discharge of a volcano. This simile is not new to poetry. The charge of a warrior, in the fine ballad of Hardyknute, is said to be "like fire to heather set." NOTE 2 P. No oath, but by his chieftain's hand, No law, but Roderick Dhu's command.-P. 208. The deep and implicit respect paid by the Highland clansmen to their chief, rendered this both a common and a solemn oath. In other respects they were like most savage nations, capricious in their ideas concerning the obligatory power of oaths. One solemn mode of swearing was by kissing the dirk, imprecating upon themselves death by that, or a similar weapon. if they broke their vow. But for oaths in the usual form, they are said to have little respect. As for the reverence due to the chief, it may be guessed from the following odd example of a Highland point of honor : "The clan whereto the above-mentioned tribe belongs, is the only one I have heard of, which is without a chief; that is, being divided into families, under several chieftains, without any particular patriarch of the whole name. And this is a great reproach, as may appear from an affair that fell out at my table in the Highlands, between one of that name and a Cameron. The provocation given by the latter was- Name your chief.'-The return of it at once was- You are a fool.' They went out next morning, but having early notice of it, I sent a small party of soldiers after them, which, in all probability, prevented some barbarous mischief that might have ensued; for the chiefless Highlander, who is himself a petty chieftain, was going to the place appointed with a small-sword and pistol, whereas the Cameron (an old man) took with him only his broadsword, according to the agreement. "When all was over, and I had, at least seemingly, reconciled them, I was told the words, of which I seemed to think but slightly, were, to one of the clan, the greatest of all provocations."-Letters from Scotland, vol. ii. p. 221. NOTE 2 Q. -a low and lonely cell. By many a bard, in Celtic tongue, Has Coir-nan-Uriskin been sung.-P. 209. This is a very steep and most romantic hollow in the mountain of Benvenue, overhanging the southeastern extremity of Loch Katrine. It is surrounded with stupendous rocks, and overshadowed with birch-trees, mingled with oaks, with spontaneous production of the mountain, even where its clifl's appear denuded of soil. A dale in so wild a situation, and amid a people whose genius bordered on the romantic, did not remain without appropriate deities. The name literally implies the Corri, or Den, of the Wild or Shaggy men. Perhaps this, as conjectured by Mr. Alexander Campbell, may have origi nally only implied its being the haunt of a ferocious banditti. But tradition has ascribed to the Urisk, who gives name to the cavern, a figure between a goat and a man; in short, however much the classical reader may be startled, precisely that of the Grecian Satyr. The Urisk seems not to have inherited, with the form, the petulance of the silvan deity of the classics: his occupation, on the contrary, resembled those of Milton's Lubbar Fiend, or of the Scottish Browne, though he differed from both in name and appearance. The Urisks," says Dr. Graham," were a set of lubberly supernaturals, who, like the Brownies, could be gained over by kind attention, to perform the drudgery of the farm, and it was believed that many of the families in the Highlands had one of the order attached to it. They were supposed to be dispersed over the Highlands. each in his own wild recess, but the solemn stated meetings of the order were regularly held in this Cave of Benvenue. This current superstition, no doubt, alludes to some circumstance in the ancient history of this country."-Scenery on the Southern Confines of Perthshire, p. 19, 1806.-It must be owned that the Coir, or Den, does not, in its present state, meet our ideas of a subterraneous grotto, or cave, being only a small and narrow cavity, among huge fragments of rocks rudely piled together. But such a scene is liable to convulsions of nature, which a Lowlander cannot estimate, and which may have choked up what was originally a cavern. At least the name and tradition warrant the author of a fictitious tale to assert its having been such at the remote period in which this scene is laid. 1 Journey from Edinburgh, 1802, p. 109. NOTE 2 R. The wild pass of Beal-nam-bo.-P. 209. Bealach-nam-bo, or the pass of cattle, is a most magnificent glade, overhung with aged birch-trees, a little higher up the mountain than the Coir-nan-Uriskin, treated of in a former note. The whole composes the most sublime piece of scenery that imagination can conceive. NOTE 2 S. A single page, to bear his sword, Alone attended on his lord.-P. 209. A Highland chief, being as absolute in his patriarchal authority as any prince, had a corresponding number of officers attached to his person. He had his body-guards, called Luchttach, picked from his clan for strength, activity, and entire devotion to his person. These, according to their deserts, were sure to share abundantly in the rude profusion of his hospitality. It is recorded, for example, by tradition, that Allan MacLean, chief of that clan, happened upon a time to hear one of these favorite retainers observe to his comrade, that their chief grew old.-"Whence do you infer that?" replied the other." When was it," rejoined the first, "that a soldier of Allan's was obliged, as I am now, not only to eat the flesh from the bone, but even to tear off the inner skin, or filament?" The hint was quite sufficient, and MacLean next morning, to relieve his followers from such dire necessity, undertook an inroad on the mainland, the ravage of which altogether effaced the memory of his former expeditions for the like purpose. Our officer of Engineers, so often quoted, has given us a distinct list of the domestic officers who, independent of Luichttack, or gardes de corps, belonged to the establishment of a Highland Chief. These are, 1. The Henchman. See these Notes, p. 247. 2. The Bard. See p. 243. 3. Bladier, or spokesman. 4. Gillie-more, or sword-bearer, alluded to in the text. 5. Gillic-casflue, who carried the chief, if on foot, over the fords. 6. Gillie-comstraine, who leads the chief's horse. 7. Gillie-Trushanarinsh, the baggage man. 8. The piper. 9. The piper's gillie or attendant, who carries the bagpipe. Although this appeared, naturally enough, very ridiculous to an English officer, who considered the master of such a retinue as no more than an English gentleman of £500 a-year, yet in the circumstances of the chief, whose strength and importance consisted in the number and attachment of his followers, it was of the last consequence, in point of policy, to have in his gift subordinate offices, which called immediately round his person those who were most devoted to him, and, being of value in their estimation, were also the means of rewarding them. NOTE 2 T. The Taghairm call'd; by which, afar, Our sires foresaw the events of war.-P. 211. The Highlanders, like all rude people, had various superstitious modes of inquiring into futurity. One of the most noted was the Taghairm, mentioned in the text. A person was wrapped up in the skin of a newly-slain bullock, and deposited beside a waterfall, or at the bottom of a precipice, or in some other strange, wild, and unusual situation, where the scenery around him suggested nothing but objects of horror. In this situation, he revolved in his mind the question proposed; and whatever was impressed upon him by his exalted imagination, passed for the inspiration of the disembodied 1,Letters from Scotland, vol. ii. p 15. a The reader may have met with the story of the "King of the Cats," spirits, who haunt the desolate recesses. In some of these Hebrides, they attributed the same oracular power to a large black stone by the sea-shore, which they approached with certain solemnities, and considered the first fancy which came to their own minds, after they did so, to be the undoubted dictate of the tutelar deity of the stone, and, as such, to be, if possible, punctually complied with. Martin has recorded the following curious modes of Highland augury, in which the Taghairm, and its effects upon the person who was subjected to it, may serve to illustrate the text. "It was an ordinary thing among the over-curious to cor sult an invisible oracle, concerning the fate of families and battles, &c. This was performed three different ways: the first was by a company of men, one of whom, being detached by lot, was afterwards carried to a river, which was the boundary between two villages; four of the company laid hold on him, and, having shut his eyes, they took him by the legs and arms, and then, tossing him to and again, struck his hips with force against the bank. One of them cried out, What is it you have got here? another answers, A log of birchwood. The other cries again, Let his invisible friends appear from all quarters, and let them relieve him by giving an answer to our present demands; and in a few minutes after, a number of little creatures came from the sea, who answered the question, and disappeared suddenly. The man was then set at liberty, and they all returned home, to take their measures according to the prediction of their false prophets; but the poor deluded fools were abused, for their answer was still ambiguous. This was always practised in the night, and may literally be called the works of darkness. "I had an account from the most intelligent and judicious men in the Isle of Skie, that about sixty-two years ago, the oracle was thus consulted only once, and that was in the parish of Kilmartin, on the east side, by a wicked and mischievous race of people, who are now extinguished, both root and branch. "The second way of consulting the oracle was by a party of men, who first retired to solitary places, remote from any house, and there they singled out one of their number, and wrapt him in a big cow's hide, which they folded about him; his whole body was covered with it, except his head, and so left in this posture all night, until his invisible friends relieved him, by giving a proper answer to the question in hand; which he received, as he fancied, from several persons that he found about him all that time. His consorts returned to him at the break of day, and then he communicated his news to them; which often proved fatal to those concerned in such unwarrantable inquiries. "There was a third way of consulting, which was a confirmation of the second above mentioned. The same company who put the man into the hide, took a live cat, and put him on a spit; one of the number was employed to turn the spit, and one of his consorts inquired of him, What are you doing? he answered, I roast this cat, until his friends answer the question; which must be the same that was proposed by the man shut up in the hide. And afterwards, a very big cat comes, attended by a number of lesser cats, desiring to relieve the cat turned upon the spit, and then answers the question. If this answer proved the same that was given to the man in the hide, then it was taken as a confirmation of the other, which, in this case, was believed infallible. "Mr. Alexander Cooper, present minister of North-Vist, told me, that one John Erach, in the Isle of Lewis, assured him, it was his fate to have been led by his curiosity with some who consulted this oracle, and that he was a night within the hide, as above mentioned; during which time he felt and heard such terrible things, that he could not express them; the impression it made on him was such as could never go off, and he said, for a thousand worlds he would never again be con in Lord Littleton's Letters. It is well known in the Highlands as a nursery tale. cerned in the like performance, for this had disordered him to a high degree. He confessed it ingenuously, and with an air of great remorse, and seemed to be very penitent under a just sense of so great a crime he declared this about five years since, and is still living in the Lewis for any thing I know."Description of the Western Isles, p. 110. See also PENNANT'S Scottish Tour, vol. ii. p. 361. NOTE 2 U. The choicest of the prey we had, When swept our merry-men Gallangad.-P 211. is I know not if it be worth observing, that this passage taken almost literally from the mouth of an old Highland Kern or Ketteran, as they were called. He used to narrate the merry doings of the good old time when he was follower of Rob Roy MacGregor. This leader, on one occasion, thought proper to make a descent upon the lower part of the Loch Lomond district, and summoned all the heritors and farmers to meet at the Kirk of Drymen, to pay him black-mail, i. e. tribute for forbearance and protection. As this invitation was supported by a band of thirty or forty stout fellows, only one gentleman, an ancestor, if I mistake not, of the present Mr. Grahame of Gartmore, ventured to decline compliance. Rob Roy instantly swept his land of all he could drive away, and among the spoil was a bull of the old Scottish wild breed, whose ferocity occasioned great plague to the Ketterans. "But ere we had reached the Row of Dennan," said the old man, "a child might have scratched his ears." The circumstance is a minute one, but it paints the times when the poor beeve was compelled "To hoof it o'er as many weary miles, With goading pikemen hollowing at his heels, NOTE 2 V. Ethwald. That huge cliff, whose ample verge There is a rock so named in the Forest of Glenfinlas, by which a tumultuary cataract takes its course. This wild place is said in former times to have afforded refuge to an outlaw, who was supplied with provisions by a woman, who lowered them down from the brink of the precipice above. His water he procured for himself, by letting down a flagon tied to a string, into the black pool beneath the fall. Raven NOTE 2 W. That, watching while the deer is broke, His morsel claims with sullen croak?-P. 211. Proke-Quartered.-Every thing belonging to the chase was matter of solemnity among our ancestors; but nothing was more so than the mode of cutting up, or, as it was technically talled, breaking, the slaughtered stag. The forester had his allotted portion; the hounds had a certain allowance; and, to make the division as general as possible, the very birds had their share also. There is a little gristle," says Turberville, "which is upon the spoone of the brisket, which we call the raven's bone; and I have seen in some places a raven so wont and accustomed to it, that she would never fail to croak and cry for it all the time you were in breaking up of the deer, and would not depart till she had it." In the very ancient 1 This anecdote was, in former editions, insecurately ascribed to George Mack reger of Glengyle, called Ghune Dhu, or Black-knee, a relation of metrical romance of Sir Tristrem, that peerless knight, who is said to have been the very deviser of all rules of chase, did not omit the ceremony : "The rauen he yane his yiftes Sat on the fourched tre." Sir Tristrem. The raven might also challenge his rights by the Book of St. Albans; for thus says Dame Juliana Berners "Slitteth anon The bely to the side, from the corbyn bone; That is corbyn's fee, at the death he will be." Jonson, in "The Sad Shepherd," gives a more poetical ac count of the same ceremony: "Marian.-He that undoes him, Doth cleave the brisket bone, upon the spoon On a sere bough, a grown, great bird, and hoarse, NOTE 2 X. Which spills the foremost foeman's life. That party conquers in the strife.-P. 212. Though this be in the text described as a response of the Taghairm, or Oracle of the Hide, it was of itself an augury frequently attended to. The fate of the battle was often anticipated in the imagination of the combatants, by observing which party first shed blood. It is said that the Highlanders under Montrose were so deeply imbued with this notion, that, on the morning of the battle of Tippermoor, they murdered a defenceless herdsman, whom they found in the fields, merely to secure an advantage of so much consequence to their party. NOTE 2 Y. Alice Brand.-P. 213. This little fairy tale is founded upon a very curious Danish ballad, which occurs in the Kæmpe Viser, a collection of heroic songs, first published in 1591, and reprinted in 1695, inscribed by Anders Sofrensen, the collector and editor, to Sophia, Queen of Denmark. I have been favored with a literal translation of the original, by my learned friend Mr. Robert Jamieson, whose deep knowledge of Scandinavian antiquities will, I hope, one day be displayed in illustration of the history of Scottish Ballad and Song, for which no man possesses more ample materials. The story will remind the readers of the Border Minstrelsy of the tale of Young Tamlane. But this is only a solitary and not very marked instance of coincidence, whereas several of the other ballads in the same collection find exact counterparts in the Kæmpe Viser. Which may have been the originals, will be a question for future antiquaries. Mr. Jamieson, to secure the power of literal translation, has adopted the old Scottish idiom, which approaches so near to that of the Danish, as almost to give word for word, as well as line for line, and indeed in many verses the orthography alone is altered. As Wester Haf mentioned in the first stanzas of the ballad, means the West Sea, in opposition to the Baltic, or East Sea, Mr. Jamieson Rob Roy, but, as I have been assured, not addicted to his predatory exe to Third Edition. And tak whate'er, o' gude or gear, Is mine, awa wi' thee." 20. "Then I'll thy Eline tak and thee, Aneath my feet to tread; And hide thy goud and white monie Aneath my dwalling stead." 21. The husbande and his household a' "Far bettet that she be now forfairn, Nor that we a' should tyne." 22. Up, will of rede, the husbande stood, 23. Then blyth grew he, and sprang about: The rud it left her comely cheek, 24. A waefu' woman then she was ane, 25. "My fay I plight to the fairest wight 26. He minted ance-he minted twice, Syne the laidliest fiend he grew that e'er 27. When he the thirden time can mint To Mary's son she pray'd, And the laidly Elf was clean awa, And a fair knight in his stead. 28. This fell under a linden green, That again his shape he found, O' wae and care was the word nae mair, A' were sae glad that stound. 29. "O dearest Eline, hear thou this, And thou my wife sall be, And a' the goud in merry England Sae freely I'll gi'e thee ! 30. "Whan I was but a little wee bairn, My mither died me fra; My stepmither sent me awa' fra her; I turn'd till an Elfin Gray. 31. "To thy husbande I a gift will gie, Wi' mickle state and gear, As mends for Eline his huswife ;Thou's be my heartis dear." 32. "Thou nobil knyght, we thank now God That has freed us frae skaith; Sae wed thou thee a maiden free, 33. "Sin' I to thee nae maik can be My dochter may be thine; And thy gud will right to fulfill, Lat this be our propine." 34. "I thank thee, Eline, thou wise woman; My praise thy worth sall ha'e; And thy love gin I fail to win, Thou here at hame sall stay." 35. The husbande biggit now on his öe, And nae ane wrought him wrang; His dochter wore crown in Engeland, And happy lived and lang. 36. Now Eline, the husbande's huswife, has Cour'd a' her grief and harms; She's mither to a noble queen That sleeps in a kingis arms. GLOSSARY. ST. 1. Wold, a wood; woody fastness. Husbande, from the Dan. hos, with, and bonde, s villain, or bondsman, who was a cultivator of the ground, and could not quit the estate to which he was attached, without the permission of his lord. This is the sense of the word, in the old Scottish records. In the Scottish " Burghe Laws," translated from the Reg. Majest. (Auchinleck MS. in the Adv. Lib.), it is used indiscriminately with the Dan. and Swed, bonde. |