his existence for several days by the corn which fell from a granary above the vault in which he was confined *. So weak was the royal authority, that David, although highly incensed at this atrocious murder, found himself obliged to appoint the knight of Liddesdale successor to his victim, as sheriff of Teviotdale. But he was soon after slain, while hunting in Ettrick Forest, by his own godson and chieftain, William Earl of Douglas, in revenge, according to some authors, of Ramsay's murder; although a popular tradition, preserved in a ballad quoted by Godscroft, and some parts of which are still pre

There is something affecting in the manner in which the old Prior of Lochlevin turns from describing the death of the gallant Ramsay, to the general sorrow which it excited:

To tell you there of the manere,

It is bot sorow for til here;
He wes the grettast menyd man

That ony cowth have thowcht of than,

Of his state, or of mare be fare;

All menyt him, bath bettyr and war;
The ryche and pure him menyde batlı,
For of his dede was mekil skath.

Some years ago, a person digging for stones, about the old castle of Hermitage, broke into a vault, containing a quantity of chaff, some bones, and pieces of iron; amongst others, the curb of an ancient bridle, which the author has since given to the Earl of Dalhousie, under the impression, that it possibly may be a relique of his brave ancestor. The worthy clergyman of the parish has mentioned this discovery, in his statistical account of Castletown.

served, ascribes the resentment of the Earl to jealousy. The place, where the knight of Liddesdale was killed, is called, from his name, Williams-cross, upon the ridge of a hill called William-hope, betwixt Tweed and Yarrow. His body, according to Godscroft, was carried to Lindean church the first night after his death, and thence to Melrose, where he was interred with great pomp, and where his tomb is still shewn.

The moon on the east oriel shone.-St. XI. p. 50.

It is impossible to conceive a more beautiful specimen of the lightness and elegance of Gothic architecture, when in its purity, than the eastern window of Melrose abbey. Sir James Hall of Dunglas, bart. has, with great ingenuity and plausibility, traced the Gothic order through its various forms, and seemingly eccentric ornaments, to an architectural imitation of wicker-work; of which, as we learn from some of the legends, the earliest Christian churches were constructed. In such an edifice, the original of the clustered pillars is traced to a set of round posts, begirt with slender rods of willow, whose loose summits were brought to meet from all quarters, and bound together artificially, so as to produce the framework of the roof: and the tracery of our Gothic windows is displayed in the meeting and interlacing of rods and hoops, affording an inexhaustible variety of beautiful forms of open work. This ingenious system is alluded to in the romance. Sir James Hall's essay on Gothic architecture is published in The Edinburgh Philosophical Transactions.

They sate them down on a marble stone,

A Scottish monarch slept below.-St. XII. p. 51.

A large marble stone, in the chancel of Melrose, is pointed out as the monument of Alexander II., one of the greatest of our early kings; others say, it is the resting place of Waldeve, one of the early abbots, who died in the odour of sanctity.

The wondrous Michael Scott.-St. XIII. p. 51. Sir Michael Scott of Balwearie flourished during the 13th century; and was one of the ambassadors sent to bring the Maid of Norway to Scotland upon the death of Alexander III. By a poetical anachronism, he is here placed in a later æra. He was a man of much learning, chiefly acquired in foreign countries. He wrote a commentary upon Aristotle, printed at Venice in 1496; and several treatises upon natural philosophy, from which he appears to have been addicted to the abstruse studies of judicial astrology, alchymy, physiognomy, and chiromancy. Hence he passed among his contemporaries. for a skilful magician. Dempster informs us, that he remembers to have heard in his youth, that the magic books of Michael Scott were still in existence, but could not be opened without danger, on account of the fiends who were thereby invoked. Dempsteri Historia Ecclesiastica, 1627, lib. xii. p. 495. Lesly characterises Michael Scott, as "singulari philosophiæ, astronomia, ac medicinæ laude prestans; dicebatur penitissimos magiæ recessus indagasse." Dante also mentions him as a renowned wizard:

Quell altro chi ne' fianchi e cosi poco
Michele Scoto fu, chi veramente

Delle magiche frode seppe il gioco.

Divina Comedia, Canto xxmo.

Accord

A personage, thus spoken of by biographers and historians, loses little of his mystical fame in vulgar tradition. ingly, the memory of Sir Michael Scott survives in many a legend; and in the south of Scotland, any work of great labour and antiquity is ascribed, either to the agency of Auld Michael, of Sir William Wallace, or of the devil. Tradition varies concerning the place of his burial: some contend for Holme Coltrame, in Cumberland; others for Melrose Abbey. But all agree, that his books of magic were interred in his grave, or preserved in the convent where he died. Satchells, wishing to give some authority for his account of the origin of the name of Scott, pretends, that, in 1629, he chanced to be at Burgh, under Bowness, in Cumberland, where a person, named Lancelot Scott, shewed him an extract from Michael Scott's works, containing that story.

"He said the book which he gave me
Was of Sir Michael Scot's historie;
Which historie was never yet read through,
Nor never will, for no man dare it do.

Young scholars have pick'd out something

From the contents, that dare not read within.

He carried me along the castle then,

And shew'd his written book hanging on an iron pin.

His writing pen did seem to me to be

Of hardened metal, like steel, or accumie;

The volume of it did seem so large to me,

As the book of Martyrs and Turks historie.
Then in the church he let me see

A stone where Mr Michael Scot did lie;

I asked at him how that could appear,

Mr Michael had been dead above five hundred year?
He shew'd me none durst bury under that stone,

More than he had been dead a few years agone;
For Mr Michael's name does terrifie each one."

History of the Right Honourable Name of Scoт.

Salamanca's cave.-St. XIII. p. 52.

Spain, from the reliques, doubtless, of Arabian learning and superstition, was accounted a favourite residence of magicians. Pope Sylvester, who actually imported from Spain the use of the Arabian numerals, was supposed to have learned there the magic for which he was stigmatised by the ignorance of his age. William of Malmesbury, lib. ii. cap. 10.—There were public schools, where magic, or rather the sciences supposed to involve its mysteries, were regularly taught, at Toledo, Seville, and Salamanca. In the latter city, they were held in a deep cavern; the mouth of which was walled up by Queen Isabella, wife of King Ferdinand. D'Autun on learned Incredulity, p. 45. These Spanish schools of magic are celebrated also by the Italian poets of romance :

Questo citta di Tolletto solea
Tenere studio di Negromanzia,

Quivi di magica arte si leggea
Pubblicamente, e di Peromanzia ;