GLENFINLAS; OR, LORD RONALD's CORONACH. The moon, half-hid in silvery flakes, Afar her dubious radiance shed, * For them the viewless forms of air obey, Quivering on Katrine's distant lakes, And resting on Benledi's head. Now in their hut, in social guise, To see the phantom-train their secret work prepare." COLLINS. Their sylvan fare the Chiefs enjoy; And pleasure laughs in Ronald's eyes, "O HONE a rie' ! O hone a rie'!* As many a pledge he quaffs to Moy. “What lack we here to crown our bliss, We ne'er shall see Lord Ronald more!". While thus the pulse of joy beats high? What, but fair woman's yielding kiss, Her panting breath and melting eye? “To chase the deer of yonder shades, How deadly thine unerring bow! This morning left their father's pile The fairest of our mountain maids, The daughters of the proud Glengyle. “Long have I sought sweet Mary's heart, As down from Lenny's pass you bore. And dropp'd the tear, and heaved the sigh: But vain the lover's wily art, Beneath a sister's watchful eye. "But thou mayst teach that guardian fair, So nimbly danced with Highland glee! While far with Mary I am flown, of other hearts to cease her care, Cheer'd by the strength of Ronald's shell, E'en age forgot his tresses hoar; And find it hard to guard her own. But now the loud lament we swell, "Touch but thy harp, thou soon shalt see O ne'er to see Lord Ronald more! The lovely Flora of Glengyle, From distant isles a chieftain came, Unmindful of her charge and me, The joys of Ronald's halls to find, Hang on thy notes, 'twixt tear and smile. And chase with him the dark-brown game, “Or, if she choose a melting lale, That bounds o'er Albin's hills of wind. All underneath the greenwood bough, Will good St. Oran's rule prevail, il 'Twas Moy; whom in Columba's isle Stern huntsman of the rigid brow?”— Since Enrick's fight, since Morna's death, He waked his harp's harmonious sound. No more on me shall rapture rise, Responsive to the panting breath, Or yielding kiss, or melting eyes. "E'en then, when o'er the heath of wo, Was never meant for mortal ear. Where sunk my hopes of love and fame, For there, 'tis said, in mystic mood, I bade my harp's wild wailings flow On me the Seer's sad spirit came. “The last dread curse of angry heaven, That shall the future corpse enfold. With ghastly sights and sounds of wo, O so it fell, that on a day, To dash each glimpse of joy was givenTo rouse the red deer from their den, The gift, the future ill to know. The Chiefs have ta'en their distant way, “ The bark thou saw'st, yon summer morn, And scour'd the deep Glenfinlas glen. So gaily part from Oban's bay, No vassals wait their sports to aid, My eye beheld her dash'd and torn, To watch their safety, deck their board; Far on the rocky Colonsay. Their simple dress, the Highland plaid, 'Thy Fergus too-thy sister's son, Their trusty guard, the Highland sword. Thou saw'st, with pride, the gallant's powel, Three summer days, through brake and dell, As marching 'gainst the Lord of Downe, He left the skirts of huge Benmore. "Thou only saw'st their tartanss wave, The quarry to their hut they drew. As down "Benvoirlich's side they wound, Heard'st but the pibroch, ** answering brave, In grey Glenfinlas' deepest nook To many a target clanking round. “I heard the groans, I mark'd the tears Which murmurs through that lonely wood. I saw the wound his bosom bore, When on the serried Saxon spears He pour'd his clan's resistless roar. St. Oran was a friend and follower of St. Columba, and was Steep'd heathy bank, and mossy stone. buried in lcolm kill. His pretensions to be a saint were rather dubious. According to the legend, he consented to be buried * O none e rie' signifies" Alas for the prince or chief." alive, in order to propitiate certain demons of the soil, who ob The term Sassenacb, or Saxon, is applied by the Highlanders structed the attempts of Columba to build a chapel. Columba to their Lov Country neighbours, caused the body of his friend to be dug up, after three days had : The fires lighted by the Highlanders on the first of May, in elapsed; when Oran, to the horror and scandal of the assistants, Gompliance with a custom derived from the Pagan times, are declared, that there was neither a God, a judgment, nor a future termed The Beltane-tree. It is a festival celebrated with various state! He had no time to make farther discoveries, for Columba superstitious rites, both in the north of Scotland and in Wales. caused the earth once more to be shovelled over him with the I can only describe the second sight, by adopting Dr. John- utmost despatch. The chapel, however, and the cemetery, war wn's definition, who calls it, “An impression, either by the mind called Relig Ouran; and, in memory of his rigid celibacy, no upon the eye, or by the eye upon the mind, by which things distant female was permitted to pay her devotions, or be buried, in that and future are perceived and seen as if they were present." To place. This is the rule alluded to in the poem. wbieh I would only add, that the spectral appearances, thus pre | Tartans-The full Highland dress, made of the checkered seated, usually presage misfortune ; that the faculty is painful to stuff so termed. three bo suppose they possese it ; and that they usually acquire ** Pibroch- Apiece of martial music, adapted to the Highland it while themselves under the pressure of melancholy. bagpipe. "And thou, who bidst me think of bliss, Our fathers' towers o'erhang her side, The castle of the bold Glengyle. " To chase the dun Glenfinlas deer, Our woodland course this morn we bore, "I see the death-damps chill thy brow; And haply met, while wandering here, I hear thy Warning Spirit cry; The son of great Macgillianore. The corpse-lights dance-they're gone, and “O aid me, then, to seek the pair, now No more is given to gifted eye!". Whom, loitering in the woods, I lost; Alone, I dare not venture there, " Alone enjoy thy dreary dreams, Where walks, they say, the shrieking ghost." Yes, many a shrieking ghost walks there; Then first, my own sad vow to keep, Here will I pour my midnight prayer, "Or false, or sooth, thy words of wo, Which still must rise when mortals sleep."Clangillian's Chieftain ne'er shall fear; His blood shall bound at rapture's glow, “O first, for pity's gentle sake, Though doom'd to stain the Saxon spear. Guide a lone wanderer on her way! For I must cross the haunted brake, "E'en now, to meet me in yon dell, And reach my father's towers ere day."- "First, three times tell each Ave-bead, But call'd his dogs, and gay withdrew. And thrice a Pater noster say; Then kiss with me the holy rede; So shall we safely wend our way."- “O shame to knighthood, strange and foul ! Then closely couch'd beside the seer. Go, doff the bonnet from thy brow, And shroud thee in the monkish cowl, Which best befits thy sullen vow. “Not so, by high Dunlathmon's fire, He fed the watch-fire's quivering gleams. Thy heart was froze to love and joy, When gaily rung thy raptured lyre, To wanton Morna's melting eye." Wild stared the minstrel's eyes of flame, And high his sable locks arose, And quick his colour went and came, As fear and rage alternate rose. And thou! when by the blazing oak I lay, to her and love resign'd, Say, rode ye on the eddying smoke, Or sail'd ye on the midnight wind ! "Not thine a race of mortal blood, All dropping wet her robes of green. Nor old Glengyle's pretended line; Thy dame, the Lady of the Flood, Thy sire, the Monarch of the Mine." He mutter'd thrice St. Oran's rhyme, And thrice St. Fillan's powerful prayer ;* Then turn'd him to the eastern clime, With maiden blush she softly said, And sternly shook his coal-black hair. "O gentle huntsman, hast thou seen, In deep Glenfinlas' moonlight glade, And, bending o'er his harp, he flung A lovely maid in vest of green: His wildest witch-notes on the wind; "With her a Chief in Highland pride ; And loud, and high, and strange, they rung, His shoulders bear the hunter's bow, As many a magic change they find. The mountain dirk adorns his side, Tall wax'd the Spirit's altering form, Far on the wind his tartans flow ?"— Till to the roof her stature grew ; “And who art thou? and who are they?" Then, mingling with the rising storm, All ghastly gazing, Moy replied: With one wild yell away she flew. "And why, beneath the moon's pale ray, Dare ye thus roam Glenfinlas' side ?" – Rain beats, hail rattles, whirlwinds tear : The slender hut in fragments flew; “Where wild Loch Katrine pours her tide, But not a lock of Moy's loose hair Blue, dark, and deep, round many an isle, Was waved by wind, or wet by dew. * St. Fillan has given his name to many chapels, holy fountains, though Bruce little needed that the arm of St. Fillan should assist &c. in Scotland. He was, according to Camerarius, an Abbot of his own, he dedicated to him, in gratitude, a priory at Killin, upon Pittenween, in Fife ; from which situation he retired, and died a Loch Tay. hermit in the wilds of Glenurchy, A. D. 649. While engaged in In the Scots Magazine for July, 1802, there is a copy of a very transcribing the Scriptures, his left band was observed to send curious crown grant, dated with July, 1487, by which James mi. forth such a splendour, as to afford light to that with which he, confirms, to Malice Doire, an inhabitant of Strathfillan, in Perth wrote; a miracle which saved many candles to the convent, as shire, the peaceable exercise and enjoyment of a relic of St. Fillan, 8t. Fillan used to spend whole nights in that exercise. The 9th being apparently the head of a pastoral staff called the Quegrich. of January was dedicated to this saint, who gave his name to which he and his predecessors are said to have possessed since Kilfllan, in Renfrew, and St. Phillans, or Forgend, in Fife. the days of Robert Bruce. As the Quegrich was used to cure Lesley, lib. 7, tells us, that Robert the Bruce was possessed of diseases, this document is probably the most ancient patent ever Fillan's miraculous and luminous arm, which he enclosed in a granted for a quack medicine. The ingenious correspondent, by silver shrine, and had it carried at the head of his army. Previous whom it is furnished, farther observes, that additional partienlars, to the battle of Bannockburn, the king's chaplain, a man of little concerning, St. Fillan, are to be found BELLENDEN'S Boece, faith, abstracted the relic, and deposited it in some place of secu: Book 4, folio ccxii, and in PENNANT'S Tour in Scotland, 1772, rity, lest it should fall into the bands of the English. But, lo! while Robert was addressing his prayers to the empty casket, it (See a note on the lines in the first canto of Marmion. was observed to open and shut suddenly, and, on inspection, the "Thence to St. Fillan's blessed well, saint was found to have himself deposited his arm in the shrine, Whose spring can frenzied dreams dispel, as an assuranco of victory. Such ic the tale of Lesley. But And the crazed brain restore," &c.-ED.) 1 pp. 11, 15. Wild mingling with the howling gale, rocky path. The apartments, as is usual in a Border Loud bursts of ghastly laughter rise; keep, or fortress, are placed one above another, and High o'er the minstrel's head they sail, communicate by a narrow stair; on the roof are And die amid the northern skies. two bartizans, or platforms, for defence or pleasure. The inner door of the tower is wood, the outer an The voice of thunder shook the wood, iron gate; the distance between them being nine As ceased the more than mortal yell; feet, the thickness, namely, of the wall. From the And. spattering foul, a shower of blood elevated situation of Smaylho'me Tower, it is seen Upon the hissing firebrands fell. many miles in every direction. Among the crags Nest dropp'd from high a mangled arm; by which it is surrounded, one, more eminent, is The fingers strain'd an half-drawn blade: called the Watchfold, and is said to have been the And last, the life-blood streaming warm, station of a beacon, in the times of war with Eng. Torn from the trunk, a gasping head. land. Without the tower-court is a ruined chapel. Brotherstone is a heath, in the neighbourhood of On o'er that head, in battling field, Smaylho'me Tower. Stream'd the proud crest of high Benmore; This ballad was first printed in Mr. Lewis's That arm the broad claymore could wield, Tales of Wonder. It is here published, with some Which dyed the Teith with Saxon gore. additional illustrations, particularly an account of the battle of Ancram Moor; which_seemed proper Wo to Moneira's sullen rills! Wo to Glenfinlas' dreary glen! in a work upon Border antiquities. The catastrophe of the tale is founded upon a well known Irish traThere never son of Albin's hills dition.t This ancient fortress and its vicinity formed Sball draw the hunter's shaft agen! the scene of the Editor's infancy, and seemed to E'en the tired pilgrim's burning feet claim from him this attempt to celebrate them in a At noon shall shun that sheltering den, Border tale. Last journeying in their rage, he meet The wayward' Ladies of the Glen. THE EVE OF St. John. And we-behind the Chieftain's shield, The Baron of Smaylho'me rose with day, No more shall we in safety dwell; He spurr'd his courser on, Sore leads the people to the field Without stop or stay, down the rocky way, And we the loud lament must swell. That leads to Brotherstone. O bone a nie'! O hone a rie'! He went not with the bold Buccleuch, The pride of Albin's line is o'er! His banner broad to rear; And Gall'n Glenartney's stateliest tree; He went not 'gainst the English yew, ne'er shall see Lord Ronald more! To lift the Scottish spear. Yet his plate-jacks was braced, and his helmet was THE EVE OF ST. JOHN. laced, And his vaunt-brace of proof he wore; At his saddle-gerthe was a good steel sperthe, Full ten pound weight and more. SKAFLHO'ME, or Smallholm Tower, the scene of The Baron return'd in three days space, the following ballad, is situated on the northern And his looks were sad and sour; baadary of Roxburghshire, among a cluster of And weary was his courser's pace, old rocks, called Sandiknow+-Crags, the property As he reach'd his rocky tower. # Hugh Scott, Esq. of Harden. The tower is a a square building, surrounded by an outer wall, He came not from where Ancram Moorli * ruinous. The circuit of the outer court, being Ran red with English blood; Berdai on three sides, by a precipice and morass, Where the Douglas true, and the bold Buccleuch, 3 zecessible only from the west, by a steep and 'Gainst keen Lord Evers stood. ** This place the farm house in the immediate vicinity of Shepe, 12,492 Bu is rendered interesting to poetical readers, by its Nags and geldings, 1.296 233 keen the residence, in early life, of Mr. Walter Scott, who Gayt, striebrated it in his . Eve of St. John' To it he probably al Bolls of corn, on a the introduction to the third canto of Marmion : Insight gear, &c. (furniture.) an incalculable quantity. * Then rise those crags, that mountain tower.. MURDIN'S State Papers, vol. I. p. 51. Which charmed my fancy's wakening hour."" For these services Sir Ralph Evers was made a Lord of Parlia. Scots Mag. March, 1809. ment. See a strain of exulting congratulation upon his promoTy following passage, in Dr. HENRY MORE's Appendix to tion, poured forth by some contemporary minstrel, in this vo darsamt scheism, relates to a similar phenomenon : lume, p. 64. *l sons, that the bodies of devils may not be only warm, but Tho King of England had promised to these two barons a feu that, as it was in him that took one of Melancthon's dal grant of the country, which they had thus reducod to a de Fures b; the band, and so scorched her, that she bare the mark sert ; upon hearing which, Archibald Douglas, the seventh Earl of An der dying day. But the examples of cold are more fre-Angus, is suid to have sworn to write the deed of investiture up 1; 1 in that famous story of Cuntius, when he touched the on their skins, with sharp peng and bloody ink, in resentment for da orttain woman of Pentoch, as she lay in her bed, he felt their having defaced the tombs of his ancestors, at Melrose. od 23 bor; and so did the spirit's claw to Anne styles." - Godscroft. In 1545, Lord Evers and Latoun again entered Scot land, with an army consisting of 300 mercenaries, 1500 English : (see the introduction to the third canto of Marmion. .... Borderets,and 700 assured Scottish-men,chiefly Armstrongs, Turn. "11833 a barren scene, and wild, bulls, and other broken clans. In this second incursion, the Eng: Where naked cliffs were rudely piled ; lish generals even exceeded their former cruelty. Evers burned the tower of Broomhouse, with its lady, (a noble and aged woman, But ever and anon between Lay velvet tufte of softest green; Rays Lesley,) and her whole family. The English penetrated as And well the lonely infant knew far as Melrose, which they had destroyed last year, and which Recesses where the wallflower grew," &c.- ED.) they now gain pillaged. As they returned towards Jedburgh, they were followed by Angus, at the head of 1000 horse, who was The r'ate-jack is coat-amour : the vaunt-brace, or wam shortly after joined by the famous Norman Lesley, with a body of 2, agar for the body; the sperthe, a battle-axe. Last Eserg, and Sir Brian Latoun, during the year 1544, com Fife-men. The English, being probably unwilling to cross the Teviot, while the Scots hung upon their rear, halted upon Ancram best dreadful ravages upon the Scottish frontiers, com Moor, above the village of that name ; and the Scottish general al of the inlabitants, and especially the men of Liddes. was deliberating whether to advance or retire, when Sir Walter The fa lake assurance under the King of England. Upon the Scott,* of Buccleuch, came up at full speed, with a small but 1 Norenber, in that year, the sum total of their depredations kod tims, in the bloody ledger of Lord Evers : • The Editor has found no instance upon record, of this family having taken assurance with England. Hence, they usually suffered dreadfully Trans, tokes, harnekynes, paryshe churches, bastill from the English foraya. In August, 1514, (the year preceding the battle,) bourse amed and destroyed, the whole länds belonging to Buccleuch, in West 'levioutale, were har. 192 ried by Evers; the ontworks, or barmkin, of the lower of Branxholm, burned ; eight Scots slain, thirty made prisoners, and an immense prey of horsea, cattle, and sheep, carried offThe lands npon Kale Water, 10,386 belonging to the same chieftain, were also plundered, and much spoil 200 850 Prouers taken, 403 Yet was his helmet hack'd and hew'd, "He lifts his spear with the bold Buccleuch; His acton pierced and tore, His lady is all alone; On the eve of good St. John.'- “I cannot come; I must not come; He held him close and still;. I dare not come to thee; And he whistled thrice for his little foot-page, On the eve of St. John I must wander alone : His name was English Will. In thy bower I may not be.'“Come thou hither, my little foot-page, "Now, out on thee, fainthearted knight! Come hither to my knee; Thou shouldst not say me nay; Though thou art young, and tender of age, For the eve is sweet, and when lovers meet, I think thou art true to me. Is worth the whole summer's day. “Come, tell me all that thou hast seen, "And I'll chain the blood-hound, and the ward And look thou tell me true! shall not sound, Since I from Smaylho'me tower have been, And rushes shall be strew'd on the stair; What did thy lady do ?”_ So, by the black rood-stone, * and by holy St. Joh I conjure thee, my love, to be there!'- "Though the blood-hound be mute, and the rus For, from height to height, the beacons bright beneath my foot, Of the English foemen told. And the warder his bugle should not blow, “ The bittern clamour'd from the moss, Yet there sleepeth a priest in the chamber to the eas The wind blew loud and shrill; And my footstep he would know.' Yet the craggy pathway she did cross, ''O fear not the priest, who sleepeth to the east To the eiry Beacon Hill. For to Dryburght the way he has ta'en; "I watch'd her steps, and silent came And there to say mass, till three days do pass, Where she sat her on a stone; For the soul of a knight that is slayne.'No watchman stood by the dreary flame, "He turn'd him around, and grimly he frown'd; It burned all alone. Then he laugh'd right scornfully“The second night I kept her in sight, 'He who says the mass-rite for the soul of tha Till to the fire she came, knight, And, by Mary's might! an armed Knight May as well say mass for me: Stood by the lonely flame. "At the lone midnight hour, when bad spirits have “And many a word that warlike lord power, Did speak to my lady there; In thy chamber will I be.' But the rain fell fast, and loud blew the blast, With that he was gone, and my lady left alone, And I heard not what they were. And no more did I see.' “The third night there the sky was fair, Then changed, I trow, was that bold Baron's browAnd the mountain-blast was still, From the dark to the blood-red high; As again I watch'd the secret pair, “Now, tell me the mien of the knight thou hast On the lonesome Beacon Hill. seen, "And I heard her name the midnight hour, For, by Mary, he shall die!"And name this holy eve; "His arms shone full bright, in the beacon's red And say, 'Come this night to thy lady's bower; light; Ask no bold Baron's leave. His plume it was scarlet and blue; chosen body of his retainers, the rest of whom were near at hand. I, as a good Scotsman, have avenged my ravaged country, and By the advice of this experienced warrior, (to whose conduct Pits. the defaced toms of my ancestora, upon Ralph Evers ) Thuy cottie and Buchanan escribe the success of the engagement.) An. were better men than he, and I was bound to do no less--and will mus withdrew from the height which he occupied, and drew up he take my life for that! Little knows King Henry the skirts of his forces behind it, upon a piece of low flat ground, called Panier: Kimetable :- I can keep myself there against all his English buat." heugh, or Paniel-heugh. The spare horses being went to an emi-GODSCROFT. nence in their rear, appeared to the English to be the main body Such was the noted battle of Ancram Moor. The spot, on of the Scots, in the act of flight. Under this persuasion, Evers which it was fought, is called Lilyard's Edge, from an Amazoniand Latoun buried precipitatoly forward, and, having ascended an Scottish woman of that name, who is reported, by tradition, to the hill which their fous had abandoned, were no less dismayed have distinguished herself in the same manner as squire Wither tban astonished, to find the phalanx of Scottish spearmen drawn ington! The old people point out ber monument, now broken up, in tirn array, upon the tlat ground below. The Scots in their and defaced. The inscription is said to have been legible watan turn became the assailants. A heron, roused from the marshes this century, and to have run thus :hy the tumult, soared away betwixt the encountering annies : "01" exclaimed Angus, "that I had here my white gogs-hawk, "Fair maiden Lylliard lies under this stane, that we might all yoke at once!"--Godscrofl. The Engluh, Little was her sinture, but great was her fame; breathless and fatigued, having the setting sun and wind full in Opon the English louns she laid mony thumps, their faces, were unable to withstand the resolute and desperate And, when her legs were cutted off, she fought upon her stumps." charge of the Scottish lances. No sooner had they begin to wa. Vide Account of the Parish of Melrose. ver, than their own allies, the assured Borderers, who had been waiting the event, threw aside their red roses, and. joining their It appears, from a passage in Stowe, that an ancestor of Lord countrymen, made a most merciless slaughter among the English Evers held also a grant of Scottish lands from an English monarch. funtiver, the pursuers calling upon each other to "remember "I have seen,'' says the historian, " under the broad seale of the Broomhouse!"-LESLEY, P. 178. said King Edward ?, a manor, called Ketnes, in the county of In the battle fell Lord Evers, and his son, together with Sir Bri-. Forfare, in Scotland, and neere the furthest part of the sune na an Latoun, and 500 Englishmen, many of whom were persons of tion northward, given to John Ure and his heires, ancestor to the rank. A thousand prisoners were taken. Among these was a pa. Lord Ure, that now is, for his service done in these partes, with triotic alderman of London, Read ly name, who, having contu market, &c. dated at Lanercost, the 20th day of October, anno maciously refused to pay his portion of a benevolence, demanded regis, 34."-STOWE's Annals, p. 210. This grant, like that of from the city by Henry VIII., was sent by royal authority to serve Henry, must have been dangerous to the receiver. against the Scots. These, at settling his ransom, he found will * The black-rood of Melrose was a crucifix of black marble, and more exorbitant in their exactions thuu the monarch.--REDPATH's of superior sanctity, Border History, p. 563. * Dryburgh Abbey is beautifully situated on the banks of the Evers was much regretted by King Henry, who swore to avenge Tweed. Alier its dissolution, it became the property of ibe Hal his death upon Angis, against whom he conc ived himself to liburtons of Newmains, and is now the seat of the Right Honoura hava particular grounds of resentment, on account of favours re ble the Earl of Buchan. It belonged to the order of Premotistaceived by the carl at his hands. The answer of Angus was worthy tenses. --{The ancient Barons of Newmains were ultimately man of a Douglas : "Is our brother-in-law offenderl," said he, " that presented by Sir Walter Scott, wbose remains now reposo in ebeir obtained ; 30 Scots slain, and the More Tower (a fortress near Eckford) cemetery at Dryburgh.--ED.) smoked rery sore. Thus Buccleuch had a long account to settle at An † Kirnetable, now called Cairntable, is a mountainous tract at the cram Moor-Murdin's State Papera, pp. 45, 16. head of Douglasdale. (See notes to Castle Dangerola, Waverley Angus had married the widow of James IV., sister to King Henry Novels, vol. v.] VII. 1 (See Chery Chase ) |