Part 25 (1/2)

'The wolf's long howl from Oonalaska's sh.o.r.e.'

line 30. Cp. the movement of this line with line 3 in 'Sang of the Outlaw Murray':--

'There's hart and hynd, and dae and rae.'

line 31. 'Grene wode' is a phrase of the 'Robyn Hode Ballads.' Cp.:- -

'She set her on a G.o.de palfray, To GRENE WODE anon rode she.'

line 32. The ruins of Newark Castle are above the confluence of the Ettrick and the Yarrow, on the latter river, and a few miles from Selkirk. Close by is Bowhill, mentioned below, 73. See Prof. Minto's 'Lay of the Last Minstrel' (Clarendon Press), pp. 122-3. In the days of the 'last minstrel' it was appropriate to describe this 'riven'

relic as 'Newark's stately tower.'

line 33. James II built Newark as a fortress.

line 41. The gazehound or greyhound hunts by sight, not scent. The Encyclopedic Dictionary quotes Tickell 'On Hunting':--

'See'st thou the GAZEHOUND! how with glance severe From the close herd he marks the destined deer.'

line 42. 'Bratchet, slowhound.'--SCOTT. The older spelling is brachet (from BRACH or BRACHE), as:--

'BRACHETES bayed that best, as bidden the maystarez.'

Sir Gaw. and the Green Knyght, 1603.

In contrast with the gazehound the brachet hunts by scent.

line 44. Cp. Julius Caesar, iii. I. 273, 'Let slip the dogs of war.'

line 48. Harquebuss, arquebus, or hagbut, a heavy musket. Cp. below, V. 54.

line 49. Cp. Dryden's 'Alexander's Feast,' 'The vocal hills reply.'

line 54. Yarrow stream is the ideal scene of Border romance. See the Border Minstrelsy, and cp. the works of Hamilton of Bangour, John Leyden, Wordsworth's Yarrow poems, the poems of the Ettrick Shepherd, Prof. Veitch, and Princ.i.p.al Shairp. John Logan's 'Braes of Yarrow' also deserves special mention, and many singers of Scottish song know Scott Riddell's 'Dowie Dens o' Yarrow.'

line 61. Holt, an Anglo-Saxon word for wood or grove, has been a favourite with poet's since Chaucer's employment of it (Prol. 6):--

'Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breethe Enspired hath in every HOLTE and heethe The tendre croppes.'

See Dr. Morris's Glossary to Chaucer's Prologue, &c. (Clarendon Press).

line 68. Cp. Wordsworth's two Matthew poems, 'The Two April Mornings' and 'The Fountain'; also Matthew Arnold's 'Thyrsis'--

'Too rare, too rare grow now my visits here!

But once I knew each field, each flower, each stick; And with the country-folk acquaintance made By barn in thres.h.i.+ng-time, by new-built rick, Here, too, our shepherd-pipes we first a.s.say'd.'

line 82. Janet in the ballad of 'The Young Tamlane' in the Border Minstrelsy. The dissertation Scott prefixed to this ballad is most interesting and valuable.

line 84. See above, note on Rev. J. Marriott.

line 85. Scott was sheriff-subst.i.tute of Selkirks.h.i.+re. As the law requires residence within the limits of the sheriffdom, Scott dwelt at Ashestiel at least four months of every year. Prof. Veitch, in his descriptive poem 'The Tweed,' writes warmly on Ashestiel, as Scott's residence in his happiest time:--