XXXV.

Why should I tell the rigid doom,
That dragg'd my master to his tomb;
How Ousenam's maidens tore their hair,
Wept till their eyes were dead and dim,
And wrung their hands for love of him,
Who died at Jedwood Air?

He died his scholars, one by one,
To the cold silent grave are gone;
And I, alas! survive alone,

To muse o'er rivalries of yore,

And grieve that I shall hear no more
The strains, with envy heard before;
For, with my minstrel brethren fled,
My jealousy of song is dead.

He paused: the listening dames again
Applaud the hoary Minstrel's strain.
With many a word of kindly cheer,-
In pity half, and half sincere,-
Marvell'd the Duchess how so well
His legendary song could tell-
Of ancient deeds, so long forgot;
Of feuds, whose memory was not;
Of forests, now laid waste and bare,
Of towers, which harbour now the hare;
Of manners, long since changed and gone;
Of chiefs, who under their gray stone
So long had slept, that fickle Fame
Had blotted from her rolls their name,
And twined round some new minion's head
The fading wreath for which they bled;

In sooth, 'twas strange, this old man's verse Could call them from their marble hearse.

The Harper smiled, well-pleased; for ne'er Was flattery lost on poet's ear:

A simple race! they waste their toil
For the vain tribute of a smile;
E'en when in age their flame expires,
Her dulcet breath can fan its fires:
Their drooping fancy wakes at praise,
And strives to trim the short-lived blaze.

Smiled then, well-pleased, the Aged Man, And thus his tale continued ran.

END OF CANTO THE FOURTH.

NOTES TO CANTO FOURTH.

Note I.

Great Dundee.-P. 98.

The Viscount of Dundee, slain in the battle of Killicrankie.

Note II.

For pathless marsh, and mountain cell,

The peasant left his lowly shed.-P. 98.

The morasses were the usual refuge of the Border herdsmen, on the approach of an English army.-(Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, vol. i. p. 49.) Caves, hewed in the most dangerous and inaccessible places, also afforded an occasional retreat. Such caverns may be seen in the precipitous banks of the Teviot at Sunlaws, upon the Ale at Ancram, upon the Jed at Hundalee, and in many other places upon the Border. The banks of the Eske, at Gorton and Hawthornden, are hollowed into similar recesses. But even these dreary dens were not always secure places of concealment. "In the way as we came, not far from this place (Long Niddry), George Ferres, a gentleman of my Lord Protector's.... happened upon a cave in the grounde, the mouthe whereof was so worne with the fresh printe of steps, that he seemed to be certayne thear wear some folke within; and gone doune to trie, he was redily receyved with a hakebut or two. He left them not yet, till he had knowen wheyther thei wold be content to yeld and come out; which they fondly refusing, he went to my lorde's grace, and upon utterance of the thynge, gat lisence to deale with them as he coulde; and so returned to them, with a skore or two of pioners. Three ventes had their cave, that we wear ware of, wherof he first stopt up on; anoother he fill'd full of strawe, and set it a fyer, whereat they within cast water apace; but it was so wel maynteyned without, that the fyer prevayled, and thei within fayn to get them belyke into anoother parler. Then devised we (for I hapt to be with hym) to stop the same up, whereby we should eyther smoother them, or fynd out their ventes, if thei hadde any moe as this was done at another issue, about xii score of, we moughte see the fume of their smoke to come out; the which continued

with so great a force, and so long a while, that we could not but thinke they must needs get them out, or smoother within and forasmuch as we found not that they dyd the tone, we thought it for certain thei wear sure of the toother."-PATTEN's Account of Somerset's Expedition into Scotland, apud DALYELL's Fragments.

Note III.

Southern ravage.-P. 98.

From the following fragment of a letter from the Earl of Northumberland to King Henry VIII., preserved among the Cotton MSS. Calig. B. vii. 179, the reader may estimate the nature of the dreadful war which was occasionally waged upon the Borders, sharpened by mutual cruelties, and the personal hatred of the wardens, or leaders.

Some Scottish barons, says the earl, had threatened to come within "thre miles of my pore house of Werkworth, where I lye, and gif me light to put on my clothes at mydnyght; and alsoo the said Marke Carr said there opynly, that seyng they had a governor on the marches of Scotland, as well as they had in Ingland, he shalde kepe your highness. instructions, gyffyn unto your garyson, for making of any day-forrey ; for he and his friends wolde burne enough on the nyght, lettyng your counsaill here defyne a notable act at theyre pleasures. Upon whiche, in your highnes' name, I comsundet dewe watche to be kepte on your marchies, for comyng in of any Scots.-Neutheless, upon Thursday at night last, came thyrty light horsemen into a litil village of myne, called Whitell, having not past sex houses, lying toward Ryddisdail, upon Shilbotell more, and ther wold have fyred the said howses, but ther was noo fyre to get there, and they forgate to brynge any withe theyme; and toke a wyf, being great with chylde, in the said towne, and said to hyr, Wher we can not gyve the lard lyght, yet we shall do this in spyte of hym; and gyve hyr iii mortall wounds upon the heid, and another in the right side, with a dagger: wheruppon the said wyf is deede, and the childe in her bely is loate. Beseeching your most gracious highnes to reduce unto your gracious memory this wylful and shamefull murder, done within this your highnes' realme, notwithstanding all the inhabitants thereabout rose unto the said fray, and gave warnynge by becons into the countrey afore theyme, and yet the Scottsmen dyde escape. And uppon certeyne knowledge to my brother Clyfforthe and me, had by credable persons of Scotland, this abomynable act not only to be done by dyverse of the Mershe, but also the afore named persons of Tyvidaill, and consented to, as by appearance, by the Erle of Murey, upon Friday at night last, let slyp c of the best horsemen of Glendaill, with a part of your highnes' subjects of Berwyke, together with George

Dowglas, whoo came into Ingland agayne, in the dawning of the day; but afore theyre retorne, they dyd mar the Earl of Murrei's provisions at Coldingham: for they did not only burne the said town of Colding. han, with all the corne thereunto belonging, which is esteemed wurthe cii marke sterling: but alsoo burned twa townes nye adjoining thereunto, called Branerdergest and the Black Hill, and toke xxiii persons, Ix horse, with cc-hed of cataill, which nowe, as I am informed, hathe not only been a staye of the said Erle of Murrei's not coming to the bordure as yet, but alsoo, that none inlande man will adventure theyr selfs uppon the marches. And as for the taxe that shulde have been grauntyd for finding of the said i hundred men, is utterly denyed. Upon which the King of Scotland departed from Edynburgh to Stirling, and as yet there doth remayn. And also I, by the advice of my brother Clyfforth, have devysed that within this iii nyghts, Godde willing, Kelsey, in lyke case, shall be brent, with all the corne in the said town; and then they shall have noo place to lye any garyson in, nygh unto the Borders. And as I shall atteigne further knawledge, I shall not faill to satisfye your highness, according to my most bounden dutie. And for this burnyng of Kelsey is devysed to be done secretly, by Tyndall and Ryddiadale. And thus the holy Trynite and your most royal estate, with long lyf, and as much increase of honour as your most noble heart can desire. At Werkworth, the xxiid day of October." (1552.)

Note IV.

Watt Tinlinn.-P. 98.

This person was, in my younger days, the theme of many a fireside tale. He was a retainer of the Buccleuch family, and held for his Border service a small tower on the frontiers of Liddisdale. Watt was, by profession, a sutor, but by inclination and practice, an archer and warrior. Upon one occasion, the captain of Bewcastle, military governor of that wild district of Cumberland, is said to have made an incursion into Scotland, in which he was defeated, and forced to fly. Watt Tinlinn pursued him closely through a dangerous morass: the captain, however, gained the firm ground; and seeing Tinlinn dismounted, and floundering in the bog, used these words of insult: "Sutor Watt, ye cannot sew your boots; the heels risp, and the seams rive.""If I cannot sew," retorted Tinlinn, discharging a shaft, which nailed the captain's thigh to his saddle, "If I cannot sew, I can yerk."+

Risp, creak.-Rive, tear.

+Yerk, to twitch, as shoemakers do, in securing the stitches of their work.