is printed in Clarke's Survey of the Lakes. The apparition
consisted of several troops of horse moving in regular order,
with a steady rapid motion, making a curved sweep around the
fell, and seeming to the spectators to disappear over the ridge
of the mountain. Many persons witnessed this phenomenon, and
observed the last, or last but one, of the supposed troop,
occasionally leave his rank, and pass, at a gallop, to the front,
when he resumed the steady pace. The curious appearance, making
the necessary allowance for imagination, may be perhaps
sufficiently accounted for by optical deception."
171. Shingly. Gravelly, pebbly.
173. Thunderbolt. The 1st ed. has "thunder too."
188. Framed. The reading of the 1st ed.; commonly misprinted
"formed," which occurs in 195.
190. Limbs. The 1st ed. has "limb."
191. Inch-Cailliach. Scott says: "Inch-Cailliach, the Isle of
Nuns, or of Old Women, is a most beautiful island at the lower
extremity of Loch Lomond. The church belonging to the former
nunnery was long used as the place of worship for the parish of
Buchanan, but scarce any vestiges of it now remain. The burial-
ground continues to be used, and contains the family places of
sepulture of several neighboring clans. The monuments of the
lairds of Macgregor, and of other families claiming a descent
from the old Scottish King Alpine, are most remarkable. The
Highlanders are as zealous of their rights of sepulture as may be
expected from a people whose whole laws and government, if
clanship can be called so, turned upon the single principle of
family descent. 'May his ashes be scattered on the water,' was
one of the deepest and most solemn imprecations which they used
against an enemy." [See a detailed description of the funeral
ceremonies of a Highland chieftain in the Fair Maid of Perth.]
203. Dwelling low. That is, burial-place.
207. Each clansman's execration, etc. The MS. reads:
"Our warriors, on his worthless bust,
Shall speak disgrace and woe;"
and below:
"Their clattering targets hardly strook;
And first they muttered low."
212. Stook. One of the old forms of struck. In the early eds.
of Shakespeare, we find struck, stroke, and strook (or strooke)
for the past tense, and all these, together with stricken,
strucken, stroken, and strooken, for the participle. Cf. Milton,
Hymn of Nativity, 95:
"When such music sweet
Their hearts and ears did greet
As never was by mortal finger strook;"
where, as here, it used for the sake of the rhyme.
214. Then, like the billow, etc. The repetition of the same
rhyme here gives well the cumulative effect of the rising billow.
217. Burst, with load roar. See on i. 73 above; and cf. 227
below.
228. Holiest name. The MS. has "holy name."
245. Mingled with childhood's babbling trill, etc. "The whole
of this stanza is very impressive; the mingling of the children's
curses is the climax of horror. Note the meaning of the triple
curse. The cross is of ancestral yew - the defaulter is cut off
from communion with his clan; it is sealed in the fire - the fire
shall destroy his dwelling; it is dipped in blood - his heart's
blood is to be shed" (Taylor).
253. Coir-Uriskin. See on 622 below.
255. Beala-nam-bo. "The pass of the cattle," on the other side
of Benvenue from the Goblin's Cave; "a magnificent glade,
overhung with birch-trees, by which the cattle, taken in forays,
were conveyed within the protection of the Trosachs" (Black).
279. This sign. That is, the cross. To all, which we should
not expect with bought, was apparently suggested by the
antithetical to him in the preceding line; but if all the
editions did not read bought, we might suspect that Scott wrote
brought.
281. The murmur, etc. The MS. has "The slowly muttered deep
Amen."
286. The muster-place, etc. The MS. reads "Murlagan is the spot
decreed."
Lanrick Mead is a meadow at the northwestern end of Loch
Vennachar.
300. The dun deer's hide, etc. Scott says: "The present brogue
of the Highlanders is made of half-dried leather, with holes to
admit and let out the water; for walking the moors dry-shod is a
matter altogether out of the question. The ancient buskin was
still ruder, being made of undressed deer's hide, with the hair
outwards, - a circumstance which procured the Highlanders the
well-known epithet of Red-shanks. The process is very accurately
described by one Elder (himself a Highlander), in the project for
a union between England and Scotland, addressed to Henry VIII.:
'We go a-hunting, and after that we have slain red-deer, we flay
off the skin by and by, and setting of our barefoot on the inside
thereof, for want of cunning shoemakers, by your grace's pardon,
we play the cobblers, compassing and measuring so much thereof as
shall reach up to our ankles, pricking the upper part thereof
with holes, that the water may repass where it enters, and
stretching it up with a strong thong of the same above our said
ankles. So, and please your noble grace, we make our shoes.
Therefore, we using such manner of shoes, the rough hairy side
outwards, in your grace's dominions of England, we be called
Rough-footed Scots' (Pinkerton's History, vol. ii. p. 397)."
Cf. Marmion, v. 5:
"The hunted red-deer's undressed hide
Their hairy buskins well supplied."
304. Steepy. For the word (see also iv. 374 below) and the
line, cf. Shakespeare, T. of A. i. 1. 75:
"Bowing his head against the steepy mount
To climb his happiness."
309. Questing. Seeking its game. Bacon (Adv. of Learning, v.
5) speaks of "the questing of memory."
310. Scaur. Cliff, precipice; the same word as scar. Cf.
Tennyson's Bugle Song: "O sweet and far, from cliff and scar;"
and in the Idyls of the King: "shingly scaur."
314. Herald of battle, etc. The MS. reads:
"Dread messenger of fate and fear,
Herald of danger, fate and fear,
Stretch onward in thy fleet career!
Thou track'st not now the stricken doe,
Nor maiden coy through greenwood bough."
322. Fast as the fatal symbol flies, etc. "The description of
the starting of the Fiery Cross bears more marks of labor than
most of Mr. Scott's poetry, and borders, perhaps, on straining
and exaggeration; yet it shows great power" (Jeffrey).
332. Cheer. In its original sense of countenance, or look. Cf.
Shakespeare, M. N. D. iii. 2. 96: "pale of cheer;" Spenser, F. Q.
i. 1. 2: "But of his cheere did seeme too solemne sad;" Dryden,
Hind and Panther, iii. 437: "Till frowning skies began to change
their cheer," etc.
333. His scythe. The reading of the 1st and other early eds.;
"the scythe" in more recent ones.
342. Alas, thou lovely lake! etc. "Observe Scott's habit of
looking at nature, neither as dead, nor merely material, nor as
altered by his own feelings; but as having an animation and
pathos of its own, wholly irrespective of human passion - an
animation which Scott loves and sympathizes with, as he would
with a fellow creature, forgetting himself altogether, and
subduing his own humanity before what seems to him the power of
the landscape. ... Instead of making Nature anywise subordinate
to himself, he makes himself subordinate to HER - follows her lead
simply - does not venture to bring his own cares and thoughts into
her pure and quiet presence - paints her in her simple and
universal truth, adding no result of momentary passion or fancy,
and appears, therefore, at first shallower than other poets,
being in reality wider and healthier" (Ruskin).
344. Bosky. Bushy, woody. Cf. Milton, Comus, 313: "And every
bosky bourn from side to side;" Shakespeare, Temp. iv. i. 81: "My
bosky acres and my unshrubb'd down," etc.
347. Seems for the scene, etc. The MS. has "Seems all too
lively and too loud."
349. Duncraggan's huts. A homestead between Lochs Achray and
Vennachar, near the Brigg of Turk.
355. Shot him. See on i. 142 above. Scott is much given to
this construction.
357. The funeral yell, etc. The MS. has "'T is woman's scream,
't is childhood's wail."
Yell may at first seem too strong a word here, but it is in
keeping with the people and the times described. Besides Scott
was familiar with old English poetry, in which it was often used
where a modern writer would choose another word. Cf. Surrey,
Virgil's AEneid: "With wailing great and women's shrill yelling;"
and Gascoigne, De Profundis:
"From depth of doole wherein my soule dooth dwell,
. . . . . . . . . . .
O gracious God, to thee I crie and yell."
362. Torch's ray. The 1st ed. reads "torches ray" and supply;"
corrected in the Errata to read as in the text. Most eds. print
"torches' ray."
369. Coronach. Scott has the following note here: "The Coronach
of the Highlanders, like the Ululatus of the Romans, and the
Ululoo of the Irish, was a wild expression of lamentation, poured
forth by the mourners over the body of a departed friend. When
the words of it were articulate, they expressed the praises of
the deceased, and the loss the clan would sustain by his death.
The following is a lamentation of this kind, literally translated
from the Gaelic, to some of the ideas of which the text stands
indebted. The tune is so popular that it has since become the
war-march, or gathering of the clan.
Coronach on Sir Lauchlan, Chief of Maclean.
'Which of all the Senachies
Can trace thy line from the root, up to Paradise,
But Macvuirih, the son of Fergus?
No sooner had thine ancient stately tree
Taken firm root in Albin,
Than one of thy forefathers fell at Harlaw. -
'T was then we lost a chief of deathless name.
''T is no base weed - no planted tree,
Nor a seedling of last Autumn;
Nor a sapling planted at Beltain;[FN#7]
Wide, wide around were spread its lofty branches -
But the topmost bough is lowly laid!
Thou hast forsaken us before Sawaine.[FN#8]
'Thy dwelling is the winter house; -
Loud, sad, and mighty is thy death-song!
Oh! courteous champion of Montrose!
Oh! stately warrior of the Celtic Isles!
Thou shalt buckle thy harness on no more!'
"The coronach has for some years past been suspended at funerals
by the use of the bagpipe; and that also is, like many other
Highland peculiarities, falling into disuse, unless in remote
districts."
370. He is gone, etc. As Taylor remarks, the metre of this
dirge seems to be amphibrachic; that is, made up of feet, or
metrical divisions, of three syllables, the second of which is
accented. Some of the lines appear to be anapestic (made up of
trisyllabic feet, with the last syllable accented); but the
rhythm of these is amphibrachic; that is, the rhythmic pause is
after the syllable that follows the accent.
"(He) is gone on | the mountain,
{Like) a summer- | dried fountain."
Ten lines out of twenty-four are distinctly amphibrachic, as
"To Duncan | no morrow."
So that it seems best to treat the rest as amphibrachic, with a
superfluous unaccented syllable at the beginning of the line.
Taylor adds: "The song is very carefully divided. To each of the
three things, mountain, forest, fountain, four lines are given,
in the order 3, 1, 2."
384. In flushing. In full bloom. Cf. Hamlet, iii. 3. 81:
"broad blown, as flush as May."
386. Correi. A hallow in the side of a hill, where game usually
lies.
387. Cumber. Trouble, perplexity. Cf. Fairfax, Tasso ii. 73:
"Thus fade thy helps, and thus thy cumbers spring;" and Sir John
Harrington, Epigrams, i. 94: "without all let [hindrance] or
cumber."
388. Red. Bloody, not afraid of the hand-to-hand fight.
394. Stumah. "Faithful; the name of a dog" (Scott).
410. Angus, the heir, etc. The MS. reads:
"Angus, the first of Duncan's line,
Sprung forth and seized the fatal sign,
And then upon his kinsman's bier
Fell Malise's suspended tear.
In haste the stripling to his side
His father's targe and falchion tied."
439. Hest. Behest, bidding; used only in poetry. Cf.
Shakespeare, Temp. iii. 1. 37: "I have broke your hest to say
so;" Id. iv. 1. 65: "at thy hest," etc.
452. Benledi saw the Cross of Fire, etc. Scott says here:
"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
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.
"The first stage of the Fiery Cross is to Duncraggan, a place
near the Brigg of Turk, where a short stream divides Loch Achray
from Loch Vennachar. From thence, it passes towards Callander,
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 Adrmandave, 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
Strath-Gartney."
453. Strath-Ire. This valley connects Lochs Voil and Lubnaig.
The Chapel of Saint Bride is about half a mile from the southern
end of Loch Lubnaig, on the banks of the River Leny, a branch of
the Teith (hence "Teith's young waters"). The churchyard, with a
few remains of the chapel, are all that now mark the spot.
458. Until, where, etc. The MS. reads:
"And where a steep and wooded knoll
Graced the dark strath with emerald green."
465. Though reeled his sympathetic eye. That is, his eye reeled
in sympathy with the movement of the waters - a poetic expression
of what every one has felt when looking into a "dizzily dancing"
stream.
478. That morning-tide. That morning time. Tide in this sense
is now used only in a few poetic compounds like eventide,
springtide, etc. See iv. 59 below. For its former use, cf.
Spenser, F. Q. i. 2. 29: "and rest their weary limbs a tide;" Id.
iii. 6. 21: "that mine may be your paine another tide," etc. See
also Scott's Lay, vi. 50: "Me lists not at this tide declare."
483. Bridal. Bridal party; used as a collective noun.
485. Coif-clad. Wearing the coif, or curch. See on 114 above;
as also for snooded.
488. Unwitting. Unknowing. Cf. 367 above. For the verb wit,
see on i. 596 above.
495. Kerchief. Curch, which is etymologically the same word,
and means a covering for the head. Some eds. print "'kerchief,"
as if the word were a contraction of handkerchief.
508. Muster-place. The 1st ed. has "mustering place;" and in
519 "brooks" for brook.
510. And must he, etc. The MS. reads: "And must he then
exchange the hand."
528. Lugnaig's lake. loch Lubnaig is about four miles long and
a mile broad, hemmed in by steep, and rugged mountains. The view
of Benledi from the lake is peculiarly grand and impressive.
530. The sickening pang, etc. Cf. The Lord of the Isles, vi. 1:
"The heartsick faintness of the hope delayed." See Prov. xiii.
12.
531. And memory, etc. The MS. reads:
"And memory brought the torturing train
Of all his morning visions vain;
But mingled with impatience came
The manly love of martial fame."
541. Brae. The brow or side of a hill.
545. The heath, etc. The metre of the song is the same as that
of the poem, the only variation being in the order of the rhymes.
546. Bracken. Fern; "the Pteris aquilina" (Taylor).
553. Fancy now. The MS. has "image now."
561. A time will come, etc. The MS. reads:
"A time will come for love and faith,
For should thy bridegroom yield his breath,
'T will cheer him in the hour of death,
The boasted right to thee, Mary."
570. Balquidder. A village near the eastern end of Loch Voil,
the burial-place of Rob Roy and the scene of many of his
exploits. The Braes extend along the north side of the lake and
of the Balvaig which flows into it.
Scott says here: "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.'"
575. Nor faster speeds it, etc. "The eager fidelity with which
this fatal signal is hurried on and obeyed, is represented with
great spirit and felicity" (Jeffrey).
577. Coil. Turmoil. Cf. Shakespeare, Temp. i. 2. 207:
"Who was so firm, so constant, that this coil
Would not infect his reason?"
C. of E. iii. 1. 48: "What a coil is there, Dromio?" etc.
579. Loch Doine. A lakelet just above Loch Voil, and almost
forming a part of it. The epithets sullen and still are
peculiarly appropriate to this valley. "Few places in Scotland
have such an air of solitude and remoteness from the haunts of
men" (Black).
582. Strath-Gartney. The north side of the basin of Loch
Katrine.
583. Each man might claim. That is, WHO could claim. See on i.
528 above.
600. No law but Roderick Dhu's command. Scott has the following
note here:
"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 had little respect. As for the reverence due to the chief,
it may be guessed from the following odd example of a Highland
point of honour:
'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)."
604. Menteith. See on i. 89 above.
607. Rednock. The ruins of Rednock Castle are about two miles
to the north of Loch Menteith, on the road to Callander.
Cardross Castle (in which Robert Bruce died) was on the banks of
the Clyde, a few miles below Dumbarton. Duchray Castle is a mile
south of Lochard. Loch Con, or Chon, is a lakelet, about three
miles northwest from Lochard (into which it drains) and two miles
south of Loch Katrine.
611. Wot ye. Know ye. See on i. 596 above.
622. Coir-nan-Uriskin. Scott has the following note here: "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, the spontaneous production of the
mountain, even where its cliffs 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
(Journey from Edinburgh, 1802, p. 109), may have originally 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 Brownie, though he differed from both
in name and appearance. 'The Urisks,' says Dr. Graham, 'were a
sort 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 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."
639. With such a glimpse, etc. See on 28 above.
641. Still. Stillness; the adjective used substantively, for
the sake of the rhyme.
656. Satyrs. "The Urisk, or Highland satyr" (Scott).
664. Beal-nam-bo. See on 255 above; and for the measure of the
first half of the line, on i. 73 above.
667. 'Cross. Scott (1st ed.) prints "cross," as in 750 below.
672. A single page, etc. Scott says: "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 Luichttach, 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 solider 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
Luichttach, or gardes de corps, belonged to the establishment of
a Highland chief. These are, 1. The Henchman. 2. The Bard. See
preceding notes. 3. Bladier, or spokesman. 4. Gillie-more, or
sword-bearer, alluded to in the text. 5. Gillie-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 (Letters from
Scotland, vol. ii. p. 158). 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