confirmed by a charter from that monarch. This bull is dated 17th June, 1160. 4thly, A bull of the same Pope, confirming the will of Sir Anschittil de Ridale, in favour of his son Walter, conveying the said lands of Liliesclive and others, dated 10th March, 1120. It is remarkable, that Liliesclive, otherwise Rydale, or Riddell, and the Whittunes, have descended, through a - long train of ancestors, without ever passing into a collateral line, to the person of Sir John Buchanan Riddell, Bart. of Rid dell, the lineal descendant and representative of Sir Anschittil. -These circumstances appeared worthy of notice in a Border work.' NOTE M. So had he seen, in fair Castile, The youth in glittering squadrons start ; And hurl the unexpected dart.—P. 65. "By my faith," sayd the Duke of Lancaster, (to a Portuguese squire,) "of all the feates of armes that the Castellyans, and they of your countrey doth use, the castynge of their dertes best pleaseth me, and gladly I wolde se it: for, as I hear say, if they strike one aryghte, without he be well armed, the dart will pierce him thrughe."-"By my fayth, sir," sayd the squyer, “ye say trouth; for I have seen many a grete stroke given with them, which at one time cost us derely, and was to us great displeasure; for, at the said skyrmishe, Sir John Laurence of Coygne was striken with a dart in such wise, that the head perced all the plates of his cote of mayle, and a sacke stopped with sylke, and passed thrughe his body, so that he fell down dead."-FROISSART, vol. ii. ch. 44.—This mode of fighting with darts was imitated in the military game called Jeugo de las canas, which the Spaniards borrowed froin their Moorish invaders. A Saracen champion is thus described by Froissart: "Among the Sarazyns, there was a yonge knight called Agadinger Dolyferne; he was always wel mounted on a redy and a lyght horse; it seemed, when the horse ranne, that he did fly in the ayre. The knighte seemed to be a 1[Since the above note was written, the ancient family of Riddell have parted with all their Scotch estates.-En.] good man of armes by his dedes; he bare always of usage three fethered dartes, and rychte well he could handle them; and, according to their custome, he was clene armed, with a long white towell about his head. His apparell was blacke, and his own colour browne, and a good horseman. The Crysten men say, they thoughte he dyd such deeds of armes for the love of some yonge ladye of his countrey. And true it was, that he loved entirely the King of Thune's daughter, named the Lady Azala; she was inhery tour to the realme of Thune, after the discease of the kyng, her father. This Agadinger was sone to the Duke of Olyferne. I can nat telle if they were married together after or nat; but it was shewed me, that thys knyght, for love of the sayd ladye, during the siege, did many feates of armes. The knyghtes of France wold fayne have taken hym; but they colde never attrape nor inclose him; his horse was so swyft, and so redy to his hand, that alwaies he escaped."— Vol. ii. ch. 71. NOTE N. Dark Knight of Liddesdale.-P. 66. William Douglas, called the Knight of Liddesdale, flourished during the reign of David II., and was so distinguished by his valour, that he was called the Flower of Chivalry. Nevertheless, he tarnished his renown by the cruel murder of Sir Alexander Ramsay of Dalhousie, originally his friend and brother in arms. The King had conferred upon Ramsay the sheriffdom of Teviotdale, to which Douglas pretended some claim. In revenge of this preference, the Knight of Liddesdale came down upon Ramsay, while he was administering justice at Hawick, seized and carried him off to his remote and inaccessible castle of Hermitage, where he threw his unfortunate prisoner, horse and man, into a dungeon, and left him to perish of hunger. It is said, the miserable captive prolonged his existence for several days by the corn which fell from a granary above the vault in which he was confined.1 So weak was the royal authority, that David, although 1 There is something affecting in the manner in which the old Prior of Lochleven turns from describing the death of the gallant Ramsay, to the general Borrow which it excited : 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 preserved, ascribes the resentment of the Earl to jealousy. The place where the Knight of Liddesdale was killed, is called, from his name, William-Cross, upon the ridge of a hill called Williamhope, 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 shown. He was 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 era. 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 "To tell you there of the manere, It is bot sorrow 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 bath, For of his dede was mekil skath." Some years ago, a person digging for stones, about the old castle of Hermit. age, 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 relic of his brave ancestor. The worthy clergyman of the parish has men. tioned this discovery in his Statistical Account-of Castletown. 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 malignant fiends who were thereby invoked. Dempsteri Historia Ecclesiastica, 1627, lib. xii. p. 495. Lesly characterises Michael Scott as "singularie philosophiæ, astronomiæ, ac medicinæ laude prestans; dicebatur penitissimos magiæ recessus indagâsse." Dante also mentions him as a renowned wizard:"Quell' altro che ne' fianchi è così poco Michele Scotto fu, che veramente Delle magiche frode seppe il giucco." Inferno, Canto xxmo. A personage, thus spoken of by biographers and historians, loses little of his mystical fame in vulgar tradition. Accordingly, 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 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 Home 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, showed him an extract from Michael Scott's works, containing that story: "He said the book which he gave me 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 as large to me, As the Book of Martyrs and Turks historie. A stone where Mr. Michael Scott did lie; I asked at him how that could appear, Mr. Michael had been dead above five hundred year? History of the Right Honourable Name of ScorT. NOTE P. Salamanca's cave.-P. 68. Spain, from the relics, 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 stigmatized by the ignorance of his age. WILLIAM of Malmsbury, 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'AUTON on Learned Incredulity, p. 45. These Spanish schools of magic are celebrated also by the Italian poets of romance: — Questo città di Tolleto solea Come è fatture, o spesso batter gli occhi." Il Morgante Maggiore, Canto xxv. St. 259. The celebrated magician Maugis, cousin to Rinaldo of Montalban, called, by Ariosto, Malagigi, studied the black art at Toledo, as we learn from L'Histoire de Maugis D'Aygremont. He even held a professor's chair in the necromantic university; for so I interpret the passage, “qu'on tous les sept ars d'enchantement, des charmes et conjurations, il n'y avoit meillieur maistre que lui; et en tel renom qu'on le laissoit en chaise, et l'appelloit on maistre Maugis." This Salamancan Domdaniel |