PART II.
P. 92. v. 264. The history of St. Kentigern is related with some variations by Joceline. His mother was named Thanes or Taneu. Joceline terms her the daughter of a Cambrian prince; but the name of her father, according to Fordun, was Loth or Lodun, the Leodegan of romance, from whom Lothian is supposed to have derived its name. According to Joceline, she conceived without knowing who was the father of her child: But by an anonymous monkish writer, quoted by Pinkerton on a note to his edition of Joceline's Life of St. Kentigern, he is called Ewen the son of Erwegende, a British prince, whom the minstrels denominated Ewen the son of Ulien. Ulien seems to be the celebrated warrior Urien of Reged. His mother being found pregnant, was, according to an ancient law of the Britons, precipitated from the rock of Dunpelder; but having escaped unhurt, she was, like another Danae, exposed at sea, in a small skiff. Being under the particular protection of providence, she arrived safe at Culross, where she was hospitably received by St. Servan, by whom both the mother and child were baptised. According to Joceline, it was not his mother's ring which he recovered from the fish, but that of the adulterous queen Langueth, who entreated the saint, with many professions of penitence, to prevent a discovery of her crime. The passage of Joceline which relates to this law of the Britons, runs thus: "Erat in illo populo barbaro, a diebus antiquis lex promulgata: ut puella in paternis fornicatis (sic) gravida inveniebatur, de supercilio montis altissimi præcipitaretur; corruptor autem illius capite plecteretur: Similiter apud antiquos Saxones, pene usque ad hæc moderna tempora, sancitum durabat, ut quælibet virgo, in paternis sponte deflorata, absque ulla retractatione, viva sepeliretur[1]. The practice of burying such delinquents alive, is thus mentioned in the ancient Romance of Arthur and Merlin. It is curious, that the only method of avoiding this punishment, was by openly professing the vocation of a courtesan:
Whoso dede with man utrage,
Bot it were in wedloc,
In thilke time, men hem tok,
With iuggement, with outenles,
And also quic doluen hes;
Bot sche her knewe for lizt woman,
And comoun hore to alle men;
Than was it rizt and lawe,
That sche no fchuld ben yslawe.
P. 94. v. 308. Perhaps no part of Britain has been the scene of so many sanguinary conflicts as the vicinity of the Roman Wall. The Romans and the Caledonians, the Southern and Northern Britons, the Saxons, the Picts, the Welch, and the Scots, had all fallen on these fields, before the plains of Falkirk and Bannockburn were whitened with the bones of the more modern English and Scots. "The sore battaile of Camlan," in which Arthur and Modred fell, was probably fought in the same vicinity. The following passage of an old romance, presents a vivid picture of one of these battles in the middle ages:
O the helme that hoge man,
That he sat astoned uprizt,
& nist whether it was dai or nizt.———
—Ichon other so leyd beir,
That it dined into the air;
Also thicke the aruwe schoten,
In sonne bem so doth the moten;
Gauelokes al so thicke flowe,
So gnattes ichil avowe.
Ther was so michel dust riseing,
That sen ther was sonne schineing;
The trumpeing and the taburninge,
Dede togider the kniztes flinge.
The kniztes broken her speren,
On thre thai smiten, and to teren;
Kniztes and stedes ther laien about,
The heuedes of smitten, the guttes out;
Heueden, fet, and armes ther,
Lay strewed everi wher,
Under stede set so thicke,
In crowes nest so dothe the sticke;
Sum storuen and sum gras quowe,
The gode steden her guttes drowe,
With blodi sadels in that pres;—
Of swiche bataile nas no fes[2].
P. 95. v. 330. The Clan-Graham is equally celebrated in the traditions and songs of the Border and the East coast of Scotland. The achievements of Montrose seem to have been the subject of the popular song of "The Gallant Grahams." Of this song it seems now to be impossible to procure a correct copy; but the following verses are selected from the least corrupted set that I have been able to procure:
Of a' the colours that I see;
And I'll wear it for the gallant Grahams
That are banished frae their ain countrie.
The bravest lads that e'er I saw;
They bore the gree in frie fighting,
And ne'er were flack their swords to draw.
They were the lords o' the south countrie;
Cheer up your hearts, brave cavaliers,
Till the gallant Grahams come o'er the sea.
They rade the white horse and the gray,
A' glancing in their plated armour,
As the gowd shines in a summer's day.
And ever an ill death may they die,
For they betrayed the gallant Grahams,
That ay were true to Majesty.
Baith kith and kin that I could name:
O I would sell my silken snood
To see the gallant Grahams come hame.
The elder Graham, who led the unconquered clans of Scotland against the Romans and provincial Britons, is thus celebrated by Jonston:
Quisquis es, antiquos feu Britto vindicet ortus,
Scotia seu patrio te ferat ore suum
Ipse tuus semper, tibi tuque simillimus, idem es;
Teque unum Patriæ dicit uterque Patrem[3].
P. 96. v. 374. Crookstone belonged originally to the ancient family of the Crucks in Renfrewshire, and came by marriage to the Stewarts of Darnley, in the reign of David II. The Stewarts, the most illustrious clan of Renfrewshire, are thus characterised by Defoe:
The mountains still do to the name belong:
From hence they branch to every high degree,
And foreign courts embrace the progeny[4].
P. 97. v. 398. The battle of Langside has lately been selected as a scene in "Mary Stewart," a historical drama of great poetical merit, superior to any one of the dramas on the same subject, in the Italian, German, or English languages, though sometimes defective in dramatic propriety. The following is a beautiful allusion to history:
See, see the Bruce's heart, as in the breeze
Their standards wave———
———there happy Douglas cries,
"Move on as thou wast wont to do, and Douglas
Will follow thee, or die[5]."
P. 99. v. 426. The Cunninghams are introduced with great propriety by Defoe, in a list of clans, on whose names he despairs of conferring poetical dignity:
And names would run fame's trumpet out of breath———
There Gordon, Lindsay, Crawford, Mar and Wem'ss,
With Seaton, Ramsay, Cuninghame, and Gra'ams,
Forbes, Ross, Murray, Bruce, Dunbar and Hume,
And names for whom no poet can make room[6].
P. 101. v. 488. The clan Campbell is characterised by the same author, in the following lines, which possess greater accuracy of fact, than poetical energy:
Their doubling fame increased in great Argyle———
A race to Caledonia always dear,
And on whose blood their liberties appear[7].
It is singular, that, notwithstanding the munificence of the princely family of Argyle, the Gaelic traditionary verses which record the achievements of the Clan-Campbell, have never been collected, and presented to the literary world. Some genealogists trace the Clan Oduibhne, or Campbell, to Mervin the Great, the son of King Arthur; others stop short at the warrior Diarmed Oduibhne[8].
P. 103. v. 540. The natives of Bute and Arran assume the name of Brandons, or Brandanes, from St. Brandon their patron saint. In old writings they are denominated Brandani, and seem to have regarded themselves as a separate nation. Until lately, if any inhabitant of these isles had been asked of what nation he was, he would have answered, a Brandon.
P. 104. v. 556. In the Isle of Arran, according to Martin, many traditions formerly existed concerning Fin-Mac-Coul, or Fingal. The vast cavern of Druimcruey, in the western part of the island, is pointed out as the place of his residence; and according to some, the island itself derives its name from this hero, being originally Arfyn, Fin's place of slaughter[9].
- ↑ Jocelini Vita St. Kentigerni, ap. Vitæ Sanctorum à Pinkerton, p. 201.
- ↑ Romance of Arthur and Merlin, MS.
- ↑ Joh. Jonstoni Heroes Scot. p. 3.
- ↑ Defoe's Caledonia, p. 48.
- ↑ Mary Stewart, p. 60. Edin. 1801.
- ↑ Defoe's Caledonia, p. 41.
- ↑ Ibid. p. 45.
- ↑ Buchanan of Auchmar's Inquiry into the Genealogy of ancient Scotish Surnames, p. 34.
- ↑ Martin's Description of the Western Islands of Scotland, p. 217.