"O, mony a time, my lord," he said, "I've stown a kiss frae a sleeping wench; But for you I'll do as kittle a deed, For I'll steal an auld lurdane aff the bench." And Christie's Will is to Edinburgh gane; At the Borough Muir then enter'd he; And as he pass'd the gallow-stane, He cross'd his brow, and he bent his knee. He lighted at Lord Durie's door, And there he knock'd most manfullie; And up and spake Lord Durie sae stour, "What tidings, thou stalward groom, to me?" "The fairest lady in Teviotdale Has sent, maist reverent sir, for thee; With saving of my dignitie?"— And Christie's Will held the bridle reyn. They met, I ween, our noble King. I wot a frighted man was he! The King he cross'd himself, I wis, When as the pair came riding bye"An uglier crone, and a sturdier loon, I think, were never seen with eye! Willie has hied to the tower of Græme, He took auld Durie on his back, He shot him down to the dungeon deep, Which garr'd his auld banes gie mony a crack. For nineteen days, and nineteen nights, Of sun, or moon, or midnight stern, 5 Far yaud-The signal made by a shepherd to his dog, when he is to drive away some sheep at a distance. From Yoden, to go. Ang. Sax. 6 Human natnre shrinks from the brutal scenes produced by the belief in witchcraft. Under the idea that the devil imprinted upon the body of his miserable vassals a mark, which was insensible to pain, persons were employed to run needles into the bodies of the old women who were suspected of witchcraft. In the dawning of common sense upon this subject, a complaint was made before the Privy Council of Scotland, 44th September. 1678, by Catherine Liddell, a poor woman, against the Baron-bailie of Preston-Grange, and David Cowan (a professed pricker), for having imprisoned, and most cruelly tortured her. They answered, Auld Durie never saw a blink, The lodging was sae dark and dern. He thought the warlocks o' the rosy cross, 995 "Hey! Batty, lad! far yaud! far yaud!" These were the morning sounds heard he: And ever "Alack!" auld Durie cried, "The deil is hounding his tykes on me!"And whiles a voice on Baudrons cried, With sound uncouth, and sharp, and hie ; "I have tar-barrell'd mony a witch," But now, I think, they'll clear scores wi' me!"The King has caused a bill be wrote, And he has set in on the Tron, Shall have five hundred merks and one."- "Ye may let the auld brock 7 out o' the poke; O Will has mounted his bonny black, Has he hente up the weary judge. APPENDIX TO CHRISTIE'S WILL. NOTE A. He thought the warlocks o' the rosy cross. "As for the rencounter betwixt Mr. Williamson, schoolmaster at Cowper, (who has wrote a grammar,) and the Rosicrucians, I never trusted it, till I heard it from his own son, who is present minister of Kirkaldy. He tells, that a stranger' came to Cowper and called for him after they had drank a little, and the reckoning came to be paid, he whistled for spirits; one, in the shape of a boy, came, and gave him gold in abundance; no servant was 1st, She was searched by her own consent, et volenti non fit injuria; 2d, The pricker had learned his trade from Kincaid, a famed pricker; 3d, He never acted, but when called upon by magistrates or clergymen, so what he did was auctore prætore; 4th, His trade was lawful; 5th, Perkins, Delrio, and all divines and lawyers, who treat of witchcraft, assert the existence of the marks, or stigmata sagarum; and, 6thly, Were it otherwise, Error communis facit jus.-Answered, 4st, Denies consent; 2d, Nobody can validly consent to their own torture; for Nemo est dominus membrorum suorum; 3d, The pricker was a common cheat. The last arguments prevailed; and it was found, that inferior "judges might not use any torture, by pricking, or by withholding them from sleep;" the council reserving all that to themselves, the justices, and those acting by commission from them. But Lord Durie, a Judge of the Court of Session, could have no share in such inflictions. ↑ Brock-Badger. seen riding with him to the town, nor enter with him into the inn. He caused his spirits, again next day, bring him noble Greek wine from the Pope's cellar, and tell the freshest news then at Rome; then trysted Mr. Williamson at London, who met the same man in a coach, near to London Bridge, and who called on him by his name; he marvelled to see any know him there; at last he found it was his Rosicrucian. He pointed to a tavern, and desired Mr. Williamson to do him the favour to dine with him at that house; whither he came at twelve o'clock, aud found him and many others of good fashion there, and a most splendid and magnificent table, furnished with all the varieties of delicate meats, where they are all served by spirits. At dinner, they debated upon the excellency of being attended by spirits; and, after dinner, they proposed to him to assume him into their society, and make him participant of their happy life; but among the other conditions and qualifications requisite, this was one, that they demanded his abstracting his spirit from all materiality, and renouncing his baptismal engagements. Being amazed at this proposal, he falls a-praying; whereat they all disappear, and leave him alone. Then he began to forethink what would become of him, if he were left to pay that vast reckoning; not having as much on him as would defray it. He calls the boy, and asks, what was become of these gentlemen, and what was to pay? He answered, there was nothing to pay, for they had done it, and were gone about their affairs in the city."-FOUNTAINHALL'S Decisions, vol. i. p. 15. With great deference to the learned reporter, this story has all the appearance of a joke upon the poor schoolmaster, calculated at once to operate upon his credulity, and upon his fears of being left in pawn for the reckoning. NOTE B. Or that the gipsies' glamour'd gang, etc. Besides the prophetic powers ascribed to the gipsies in most European countries, the Scottish peasants believe them possessed of the power of throwing upon bystanders a spell, to fascinate their eyes, and cause them to see the thing that is not. Thus, in the old ballad of Johnie Faa, the elopement of the Countess of Cassillis, with a gipsy leader, is imputed to fascination : "As sune as they saw her weel-far'd face, They cast the glamour ower her." Saxo Grammaticus mentions a particular sect of Mathematicians, as he is pleased to call them, who,“ per summam ludificandorum oculorum peritiam, proprios alienosque vultus, variis rerum imaginibus, adumbrare callebunt; illicibusque formis veros obscurare conspectus." Merlin, the son of Ambrose, was particularly skilled in this art, and displays it often in the old metrical romance of Arthour and Merlin : "Tho' thai com the Kinges neighe . Merlin bef his heued on heigbe, And kest on hem enchauntement That he hem alle allmest blent That none other sen no might A gret while y you plight," etc. The jongleurs were also great professors of this mystery, which has in some degree descended, with their name, on the modern jugglers. But durst Breslaw, the Sieur Boaz, or Katterfelto himself, have encountered, in a magical sleight, the tragetoures of Father Chaucer, who "within a ball large Have made come in a water and a barge, And again, the prodigies exhibited by the Clerk of Orleans to Aurelius : "He shewd bim or they went to soupere Porestes, parkes, ful of wilde dere; Ther saw he hartes with hir hornes hie, They saten still and no wight but this three." Our modern professors of the magic natural would likewise have been sorely put down by the Jogulours and Enchantours of the Grete Chan; for they maken to come in the air the sone and the mone, beseminge to every mannes sight; and aftre, they maken the nyght so dirke, that no man may se no thing; and aftre, they maken the day to come agen, fair and plesant, with bright sone to every mannes sight; and than, they bringen in daunces of the fairest damyselies of the world, and richest arrayed; and aftre, they maken to comen in other damyselles, bringing coupes of gold, fulle of mylke of diverse bestes; and geven drinke to lordes and to ladyes; and than they maken knightes to justen in armes fulle lustyly; and they rennen togidre a gret randoun, and they frusschen togidre full fiercely, and they broken her speres so rudely, that the trenchouns flen in sprotis and pieces alle aboute the halle; and than they make to come in hunting for the hert and for the boor, with houndes renning with open mouth and many other things they dow of her enchauntements, that it is marveyle for to see."-Sir JOHN Mandeville's Travels, p. 283. I question much, also, if the most artful illuminatus of Germany could have matched the prodigies exhibited by Pacolet and Adramain, "Adonc Adramain leva une cappe par dessus une "pillier, et en telle sort, qu'il sembla a ceux qui furent presens, "que parmi la place couroit une rivière fort grande et terrible. "Et en icelle riviere sembloit avoir poissons en grand abondance, "grands et petits. Et quand ceux de palais virent l'eau si grande, "ils commencerent tous a lever leur robes, et a crier fort, comme "s'ils eussent eu peur d'estre noyés; et Pacolet, qui l'enchante"ment regarda, commenca a chanter, et fit en sort si subtil en son 'chant qu'il sembla a tous ceux de lieu que parmy la riviere cou"roit un cerf grand et cornu, qui jettoit et abbatoit a terre tout ce ‘que devant lui trouvoit, puis leur fut advis que voyoyent chas"seurs et veneurs courir apris le Cerf, avec grande puissance de "levriers et des chiens. Lors y eut plusieurs de la campagnie "qui saillirent au devant pour le Cerf attraper et cuyder prendre; "mais Pacolet fist lost le Cerf sailer. Bien avez joué,' dit Orson, "et bien scavez vostre art user.'" L'Histoire des Valentin et Orson, à Rouen, 1631. . 66 The receipt, to prevent the operation of these deceptions, was, to use a sprig of four-leaved clover. I remember to have heard, (certainly very long ago, for at that time I believed the legend,) that a gipsy exercised his glamour over a number of people at Haddington, to whom he exhibited a common dunghill cock, trailing, what appeared to the spectators, a massy oaken trunk. An old man passed with a cart of clover; he stopped, and picked out a four-leaved blade; the eyes of the spectators were opened, and the oaken trunk appeared to be a bulrush. THOMAS THE RHYMER. IN THREE PARTS. PART FIRST.-ANCIENT. Few personages are so renowned in tradition as Thomas o' Ercildoune, known by the appellation of The Rhymer. Uniting, or supposing to unite, in his person, the powers of poetical composition, and of vaticina- | by inheritance (hereditarie) in Ercildoune, with all tion, his memory, even after the lapse of five hundred claim which he or his predecessors could pretend years, is regarded with veneration by his country- thereto. From this we may infer, that the Rhymer men. To give any thing like a certain history of this was now dead, since we find the son disposing of the remarkable man would be indeed difficult; but the family property. Still, however, the argument of the curious may derive some satisfaction from the parti- learned historian will remain unimpeached as to the culars here brought together. time of the poet's birth. For if, as we learn from Barbour, his prophecies were held in reputation' as early as 1306, when Bruce slew the Red Cummin, the sanctity, and (let me add to Mr. Pinkerton's words) the uncertainty of antiquity, must have already involved his character and writings. In a charter of Peter de Haga de Bemersyde, which unfortunately wants a date, the Rhymer, a near neighbour, and, if we may trust tradition, a friend of the family, appears as a witness.-Chartulary of Melrose. It is agreed on all hands, that the residence, and probably the birth-place, of this ancient bard, was Ercildoune, a village situated upon the Leader, two miles above its junction with the Tweed. The ruins of an ancient tower are still pointed out as the Rhymer's castle. The uniform tradition bears, that his sirname was Lermont, or Learmont; and that the appellation of The Rhymer, was conferred on him in consequence of his poetical compositions. There remains, nevertheless, some doubt upon the subject. In a charter, which is subjoined at length, the son of our poet designed himself "Thomas of Ercildoun, son and heir of Thomas Rymour of Ercildoun." which seems to imply that the father did not bear the hereditary name of Learmont; or, at least, was better known and distinguished by the epithet, which he had acquired by his personal accomplishments. I must, however, remark, that, down to a very late period, the practice of distinguishing the parties, even in formal writings, by the epithets which had been bestowed on them from personal circumstances, instead of the proper sirnames of their families, was common, and indeed necessary, among the Border clans. So early as the end of the thirteenth century, when sirnames were hardly introduced in Scotland, this custom must have been universal. There is, therefore, nothing inconsistent in supposing our poet's name to have been actually Learmont, although, in this charter, he is distinguished by the popular appellation of The Rhymer. We are better able to ascertain the period at which Thomas of Ercildoune lived, being the latter end of the thirteenth century. I am inclined to place his death a little farther back than Mr. Pinkerton, who supposes that he was alive in 1300, (List of Scottish Poets,) which is hardly, I think, consistent with the charter already quoted, by which his son, in 1299, for himself and his heirs, conveys to the convent of the Trinity of Soltra, the tenement which he possessed From the Chartulary of the Trinity House of Soltra. Omnibus has literas visuris vel audituris Thomas de Ercildoun filius et heres Thomæ Rymour de Ercildoun salutem in Domino. Noveritis me per fustem et baculum in pleno judicio resignasse ac per presentes quietem clamasse pro me et heredibus meis Magistro domus Sanctæ Trinitatis de Soltre et fratribus ejusdem domus totam terram meam cum omnibus pertinentibus suis quam in tenemento de Ercildoun hereditarie tenui renunciando de toto pro me et heredibus meis omni jure et clameo quæ ego seu antecessores mei in eadem terra alioque tempore de perpetuo habuimus sive de futuro habere possumus. In cujus rei testimonio presentibus bis sigillum meum apposui data apud Ercildoun die Martis proximo post festum Sanctorum Apostolorum Symonis et Jude Anno Domini Millesimo cc. Nonagesimo Nono. It cannot be doubted, that Thomas of Ercildoune was a remarkable and important person in his own time, since, very shortly after his death, we find him celebrated as a prophet and as a poet. Whether he himself made any pretensions to the first of these characters, or whether it was gratuitously conferred upon him by the credulity of posterity, it seems difficult to decide. If we may believe Mackenzie, Learmont only versified the prophecies delivered by Eliza, an inspired nun of a convent at Haddington. But of this there seems not to be the most distant proof. On the contrary, all ancient authors, who quote the Rhymer's prophecies, uniformly suppose them to have been emitted by himself. Thus, in Wintown's Chronicle 3 Henry the Minstrel, who introduces Thomas into the history of Wallace, expresses the same doubt as to the source of his prophetic knowledge : "Thomas Rhymer Into the faile was than With the minister, which was a worthy man. the vulgar had no hesitation to ascribe the whole to the intercourse between the bard and the Queen of Faery. The popular tale bears, that Thomas was carried off, at an early age, to the Fairy Land, where he acquired all the knowledge, which made him afterwards so famous. After seven years' residence, he was permitted to return to the earth, to enlighten and astonish his countrymen by his prophetic powers; still, however, remaining bound to return to his royal mistress, when she should intimate her pleasure.' Accordingly, while Thomas was making merry with his friends in the Tower of Ercildoune, a person came running in, and told, with marks of fear and astonishment, that a hart and hind had left the neighbouring forest, and were, composedly and slowly, parading the street of the village. The prophet instantly arose, left his habitation, and followed the wonderful animals to the forest, whence he was never seen to return. According to the popular belief, he still "drees his weird" in Fairy Land, and is one day expected to revisit earth. In the meanwhile, his memory is held in the most profound respect. The Eildon Tree, from beneath the shade of which he delivered his prophecies, now no longer exists; but the spot is marked by large stone, called Eildon Tree Stone. A neighbouring rivulet takes the name of the Bogle Burn (Goblin Brook) from the Rhymer's supernatural visitants. The veneration paid to his dwelling-place even attached itself in some degree to a person, who, within the memory of man, chose to set up his residence in the ruins of Learmont's tower. The name of this man was Murray, a kind of herbalist; who, by dint of some knowledge in simples, the possession of a musical clock, an electrical machine, and a stuffed alligator, added to a supposed communication with Thomas the Rhymer, lived for many years in very good credit as a wizard. It seemed to the Editor unpardonable to dismiss a person so important in Border tradition as the Rhymer, without some farther notice than a simple commentary upon the following ballad. It is given from a copy, obtained from a lady residing not far from Ercildoune, corrected and enlarged by one in Mrs. Brown's MSS. The former copy, however, as might be expected, is far more minute as to local description. To this old tale the Editor has ventured to add a Second Part, consisting of a kind of cento, from the printed prophecies vulgarly ascribed to the Rhymer; and a Third Part, entirely modern, founded upon the tradition of his having returned with the hart and hind, to the Land of Faery. To make his peace with the more severe antiquaries, the Editor has prefixed to the Second Part some remarks on Learmont's prophecies. True Thomas lay on Huntlie bank ;' A ferlie he spied wi' his ee; And there he saw a ladye bright, Come riding down by the Eildon Tree. Her shirt was o' the grass-green silk, Her mantle o' the velvet fyne; At ilka tett of her horse's mane, Hung fifty siller bells and nine. True Thomas, he pull'd aff his cap, And louted low down to his knee, "All hail, thou mighty Queen of Heaven! For thy peer on earth I never did see.” "O no, O no, Thomas," she said, "That name does not belang to me; I am but the Queen of fair Elfland, That am hither come to visit thee. "Harp and carp, Thomas," she said; "Harp and carp along wi' me: And if ye dare to kiss my lips, Betide me weal, betide me woe, All underneath the Eildon Tree. The steed flew swifter than the wind. O they rade on, and farther on; The steed gaed swifter than the wind; Until they reach'd a desert wide, And living land was left behind. "Light down, light down, now, true Thomas, And lean your head upon my knee; Abide and rest a little space, And I will shew you ferlies three. "O see ye not yon narrow road, So thick beset with thorns and briers ? That is the path of righteousness, Though after it but few enquires. "And see ye not that braid braid road, That is the path of wickedness, • [Huntly Bank, and the adjoining ravine, called, from immemorial tradition, the Rymer's Glen, were ultimately included in the domain of Abbotsford. The scenery of this glen forms the background of Edwin Landseer's portrait of Sir Walter Scott, painted in 1833. —ED.] That weird, etc.-That destiny shall never frighten me. "And see not ye that bonny road, That winds about the fernie brae? That is the road to fair Elfland, Where thou and I this night maun gae. "But, Thomas, ye maun hold your tongue, Whatever ye may hear or see; For, if you speak word in Elflyn land, Ye'll ne'er get back to your ain countrie." O they rade on, and farther on, And they waded through rivers aboon the knee, And they saw neither sun nor moon, But they heard the roaring of the sea. It was mirk mirk night, and there was nae stern light, And they waded through red blude to the knee; For a' the blude that's shed on earth Rins through the springs o' that countrie. Syne they came on to a garden green, And she pu'd an apple frae a tree—3 "Take this for thy wages, true Thomas; It will give thee the tongue that can never lie." 66 My tongue is mine ain," true Thomas said; "A gudely gift ye wad gie to me! I neither dought to buy nor sell, At fair or tryst where I may be. "I dought neither speak to prince or peer, Nor ask of grace from fair ladye.”— "Now hold thy peace!" the lady said, "For as I say, so must it be." He has gotten a coat of the even cloth, And a pair of shoes of velvet green; And till seven years were gane and past, True Thomas on earth was never seen. APPENDIX TO THE FIRST PART OF THOMAS THE RHYMER. The reader is here presented, from an old, and unfortunately an imperfect MS., with the undoubted original of Thomas the Rhymer's intrigue with the Queen of Faery. It will afford great amusement to those who would study the nature of traditional poetry, and the changes effected by oral tradition, to compare this ancient romance with the foregoing ballad. The same incidents are narrated, even the expression is often the same; yet the poems are as different in appearance, as if the older tale had been regularly and systematically modernized by a poet of the present day. Incipit Prophesia Thomæ de Erseldoun. In a land as I was lent, In the gryking of the day, Ay alone as I went, In Huntle bankys me for to play; I saw the throstyl, and the jay, 3 The traditional commentary upon this ballad informs us, that the apple was the produce of the fatal Tree of Knowledge, and that the garden was the terrestrial paradise. The repugnance of Thomas to be debarred the use of falsehood, when he might find it convenient, has a comic effect. |