Part 33 (1/2)

line 336. See St. John xix. 25-27.

Stanza XVII. line 350. The special reference here is to the influence of Lady Heron. See above, I. xvi. 265, and below, V. x.

261.

Stanza XIX. The skilful descriptive touches of this stanza are noteworthy. Cp. opening pa.s.sages of Coleridge's 'Christabel,'

especially the seven lines beginning, 'Is the night chilly and dark?'

Stanza XXI. line 440. Grimly is not unknown as a poetical adj.

'Margaret's GRIMLY ghost,' in Beaumont and FIetcher's 'Knight of the Burning Pestle,' II. i, is a familiar example. See above, p. 194, line 25, 'GRIMLY voice.' For 'ghast' as an adj., cp. Keats's 'Otho the Great,' V. v. 11, 'How ghast a train!'

line. 449. See below, V. xxiv, ''Twere long and needless here to tell,' and cp. AEneid I. 341:--

'Longa est iniuria, longae Ambages; sed summa sequar fastigia rerum.'

Stanza XXII. line 461. See above, III. xxv. 503, and note.

lines 467-470. Rothiemurchus, near Alvie, co. of Inverness, on Highland Railway; Tomantoul in co. of Banff, N. E. of Rothiemurchus; Auchnaslaid in co. of Inverness, near S. W. border of Aberdeen; Forest of Dromouchty on Inverness border eastward of Loch Ericht; Glenmore, co-extensive with Caledonian Ca.n.a.l.

lines 477-480. Cp. the teaching of Coleridge's 'Ancient Mariner' and 'Christabel.' In the former these stanzas are specially notable:--

'O happy living things! no tongue Their beauty might declare: A spring of love gushed from my heart, And I blessed them unaware: Sure my kind saint took pity on me, And I blessed them unaware.

The selfsame moment I could pray; And from my neck so free The Albatross fell off, and sank Like lead into the sea.'

line 487. bowne = prepare. See below, V. xx, 'to bowne him for the war'; and 'Lay of the Last Minstrel,' V. xx, 'bowning back to c.u.mberland.' Cp. 'Piers the Plowman,' III. 173 (C Text):--

'And bed hem alle ben BOUN . beggeres and othere, To wenden with hem to Westemynstre.'

Stanza XXIII. line 490. Dun-Edin = Edwin's hill-fort, poetic for Edinburgh.

line 497. The Braid Hills, S. E. of Edinburgh, recently added to the recreation grounds of the citizens.

Stanza XXIV. Blackford Hill has now been acquired by the City of Edinburgh as a public resort. The view from it, not only of the city but of the landscape generally, is striking and memorable.

lines 511-15. Cp. Wordsworth's 'The Fountain--a Conversation':--

'No check, no stay, this Streamlet fears: How merrily it goes!

'Twill murmur on a thousand years, And flow as now it flows.

And here on this delightful day, I cannot choose but think How oft, a vigorous man, I lay Beside this fountain's brink.

My eyes are dim with childish tears, My heart is idly stirred, For the same sound is in my ears Which in those days I heard.'

Stanza XXV. line 521. 'The Borough, or Common Moor of Edinburgh, was of very great extent, reaching from the southern walls of the city to the bottom of Braid Hills. It was anciently a forest; and, in that state, was so great a nuisance, that the inhabitants of Edinburgh had permission granted to them of building wooden galleries, projecting over the street, in order to encourage them to consume the timber; which they seem to have done very effectually.

When James IV mustered the array of the kingdom there, in 1513, the Borough-moor was, according to Hawthornden, ”a field s.p.a.cious, and delightful by the shade of many stately and aged oaks.” Upon that, and similar occasions, the royal standard is traditionally said to have been displayed from the Hare Stane, a high stone, now built into the wall, on the left hand of the highway leading towards Braid, not far from the head of Bruntsfield Links. The Hare Stane probably derives its name from the British word Har, signifying an army.'--SCOTT.

Stanza XXVI. lines 535-538. The proper names in these lines are Hebrides; East Lothian; Redswire, part of Carter Fell near Jedburgh; and co. of Ross.

Stanza XXVII. line 557. 'Seven culverins so called, cast by one Borthwick.'--SCOTT.