II.
The tables were drawn, it was idlesse all;
Knight, and page, and household squire,
Loiter'd through the lofty hall,

Or crowded round the ample fire:
The stag-hounds, weary with the chase,
Lay stretch'd upon the rushy floor,
And urged, in dreams, the forest race,
From Teviot-stone to Eskdale moor.*
III.

Nine-and-twenty knights of fame

Hung their shields in Branksome-Hall;t
Nine-and-twenty squires of name

Brought them their steeds to bower from stall;
Nine-and-twenty yeomen tall
Waited, duteous, on them all;

They were all knights of mettle true,
Kinsmen to the bold Buccleuch.

IV.

Ten of them were sheathed in steel,
With belted sword, and spur on heel:
They quitted not their harness bright,
Neither by day, nor yet by night:
They lay down to rest,
With corslet laced,

William Scott of Kirkurd Knyt began ye work upon pe 24 of Marche 1571 zier quha departit at God's pleisour ye 17 Apríl 1574."

On a similar copartment are sculptured the arms of Douglas, with this mecription, "DAME MARGARET DOUGLAS HIS SPOUS COMPUSTIT THE FORSAID WORK IN OCTOBER 1576." Over an arched door is inscribed the following moral verse :

En. barld. is. nocht, nature. hes. brought. yat. sal. lest. ap.

Tharefore. nerve. God. keip. veil. ye. rod. thy. fame. sal. nocht. Dekay.

Sir Walter Scot of Branxholm Bnight. Margaret Douglas, 1571.

Branksome Castle continued to be the principal seat of the Buc cleach family, while security was any object in their choice of a

It has since been the residence of the Commissioners, Chamberlains, of the family. From the various alterations winch the building has undergone, it is not only greatly restricted in its dimensions, but retains little of the castellated form, if we except one square tower of massy thickness, the only part of the wiginal building which now remains. The whole forms a handsome modern residence, lately inhabited by my deceased friend, Adam Ogilvy, Eaq of Hartwoodmyres, Commissioner of his Grace the Duke of Buccleuch.

The extent of the ancient edifice can still be traced by some restiges of its foundation, and its strength is obvious from the Station, on a deep bank surrounded by the Teviot, and flanked by a deep ravine, formed by a precipitous brook. It was ancient ly surrounded by wood, as appears from the survey of Roxburghsture, made for Pont's Atlas, and preserved in the Advocates' Litrary. This wood was cut about fifty years ago, but is now replaced by the thriving plantations, which have been formed by The noble proprietor, for miles around the ancient mansion of his forefathers

* The ancient romance owes much of its interest to the lively picture which it affords of the times of chivalry, and of those wages, manners, and institutions, which we have been accustomed to associate in our minds, with a certain combination of matafience with simplicity, and ferocity with romantic honour. The representation contained in those performances, however, are for the most part too rude and naked to give complete satis faction The execution is always extremely unequal; and though the writer sometimes touches upon the appropriate feeling with great effect and felicity, still this appears to be done more by accident than design; and he wanders away immediately into all sorts of ludicrous or uninteresting details, without any apparent consciousness of incongruity. These defects Mr. Scott has corrected with adroirable address and judgment in the greater part of the work now before us; and while he has exhibited a very striking and impressive picture of the old feudal usages and institutos, he has shown still greater talent in engrafting upon those descriptions all the tender or magnanimous emotions to which the circumstances of the story naturally give rise. Without imreing the antique air of the whole piece, or violating the simplicity of the ballad style, he has contrived, in this way, to impart a much greater dignity, and more powerful interest to his production, than could ever be obtained by the unskilful and unsteady delineations of the old romancers. Nothing, we think, can af fond a finer illustration of this remark, than the opening stanzas of the whole poem; they transport us at once into the days of knightly daring and feudal hostility, at the same time that they suggest, in a very interesting way, all those softer sentouts which arise out of some parts of the description."-JEE FREY.]

The ancient Barons of Buccleuch, both from feudal splendour and from their frontier situation, retained in their household, at Branksome, a number of gentlemen of their own name, who held landa from their chief, for the military service of

V.

Ten squires, ten yeomen, mail-clad men,
Waited the beck of the warders ten;
Thirty steeds, both fleet and wight,
Stood saddled in stable day and night,
Barbed with frontlet of steel, I trow,
And with Jedwood-axe at saddlebow;
A hundred more fed free in stall :-
Such was the custom of Branksome-Hall.
VI.

Why do these steeds stand ready dight?
Why watch these warriors, arm'd by night ?-
They watch, to hear the blood-hound baying;
They watch, to hear the war-horn braying;
To see St. George's red cross streaming,
To see the midnight beacon gleaming:
They watch, against Southern force and guile,
Lest Scroop, or Howard, or Percy's powers,
Threaten Branksome's lordly towers,

From Warkworth, or Naworth, or merry Carlisle.§ watching and warding his castle. Satchells tells us, in his doggrel poetry,

"No baron was better served in Britain;
The barons of Buckleugh they kept their call,
Four and twenty gentlemen in their hall,
Ali being of his name and kin;

Each two had a servant to wait upon them;
Before supper and dinner, most renowned,
The bells rung and the trumpets sowned;
And more than that. I do confess,
They kept four and twenty pensioners.
Think not I lie, nor do me blame,
For the pensioners I can all name:
There's men alive, elder than 1,
They know if I speak truth, or lie.
Every pensioner a room did gain,
For service done and to be done;
This let the reader understand,
The name both of the men and land,
Which they possessed, it is of truth,

Both from the Lairds and Lords of Buckleugh." Accordingly, dismounting from his Pegasus, Satchells gives us, of ancient families, who were pensioners to the house of Buccleuch, in prose, the names of twenty-four gentlemen, younger brothers and describes the lands which each possessed for his Border service. In time of war with England, the garrison was doubtless of his own name of Scott, and Walter Gladstanes of Whitelaw, a augmented. Satchells adds, "These twenty-three pensioners, all sions, when his honour pleased cause to advertise them. It is near cousin of my lord's, as aforesaid, were ready on all occaknown to many of the country better than it is to me, that the freely bestow upon their friends, will amount to above twelve rent of these lands, which the Lairds and Lords of Buccleuch did or fourteen thousand merks a-year."-History of the Name of Scott, p. 45. An immense sum in those times. "Of a truth," says Froissart, "the Scottish cannot boast great skill with the bow, but rather bear axes, with which, in time of need, they give heavy strokes." The Jedwoodthe arms of Jedburgh, which bear a cavalier mounted, and axe was a sort of partisan, used by horsemen, as appears from armed with his weapon. It is also called a Jedwood or Jeddart

staff.

appearance at Branksome Hall, (Border Minstrelsy, (ante p. 66,) § [Compare these stanzas with the description of Jamie Telfer's to claim the protection of "Auld Buccleuch"-and the ensuing scene, in the following page,

Compare

The Scotts they rade, the Scotts they ran,
Sae starkly and sae steadilie!

And aye the ower-word o' the thrang

Was- Rise for Branksome readilie,""&c

also the Ballad of "Kinmont Willie," ( ante p. 73.) "Now word is gane to the bauld keeper,

In Branksome ha' where that he lay," &c.-Ed.] Branksome Castle was continually exposed to the attacks of the English, both from its situation and the restless military disposition of its inhabitants, who were seldom on good terms Northumberland to Henry VIII, in 1533, gives an account of a with their neighbours. The following letter from the Earl of successful inroad of the English, in which the country was plundered up to the gates of the castle, although the invaders failed in their principal object, which was to kill, or make prisoner, the Laird of Buccleuch. It occurs in the Cotton MS. Calig. B. VIII. f. 222.

"Pleaseth yt your most gracious highness to be aduertised, that my comptroller, with Raynald Carnaby, desyred licence of me to invade the realme of Scotland, for the annoysaunce of your highnes enemys, where they thought best exploit by theyme might be done, and to haue to concur withe theyme the inhabitants of Northumberland, suche as was towards me according to theyre assembly, and as by theyre discretions ypone the same they shulde thinke most convenient; and soo they dyde meet vppon Monday, before night, being the iii day of this instant monethe, at Wawhope, upon Northe Tyne water, above Tyndall, where they were to the number of xv c men, and soo invadet Scotland at the hour of viii of the clok at nyght, at a place called Whele Causay; Room, portion of land.

In sorrow o'er Lord Walter's bier
The warlike foresters had bent;
And many a flower, and many a tear,
Old Teviot's maids and matrons lent:
But o'er her warrior's bloody bier
The Ladye dropp'd nor flower nor tear !!
Vengeance, deep-brooding o'er the slain,
Had lock'd the source of softer wo;
And burning pride, and high disdain,
Forbade the rising tear to flow;
Until, amid his sorrowing clan,,

Her son lisp'd from the nurse's knee-
And if I live to be a man,

"My father's death revenged shall be !"Then fast the mother's tears did seek To dew the infant's kindling cheek.

X.

All loose her negligent attire, All loose her golden hair,

Hung Margaret o'er her slaughter'd sire,
And wept in wild despair.

But not alone the bitter tear
Had filial grief supplied;

For hopeless love, and anxious fear,
Had lent their mingled tide:
Nor in her mother's alter'd eye
Dared she to look for sympathy.

Her lover, 'gainst her father's clan,
With Carr in arms had stood,t
When Mathouse-burn to Melrose ran,
All purple with their blood;

And well she knew, her mother dread, Before Lord Cranstoun she should wed,s Would see her on her dying bed.

Such pactions were not uncommon in feudal times; and, as might be expected, they were often, as in the present case, void of the effect desired. When Sir Walter Mauny, the renowned flower of Edward III., had taken the town of Ryol in Gascony; be remembered to have heard that his father lay there buried, and offered a hundred crowns to any who could show him his grave. A very old man appeared before Sir Walter, and informed him of the manner of his father's death, and the place of his sepulture. It seems the Lord of Mauny had, at a great tournament, unhorsed, and wounded to the death, a Gascon knight, of the house of Mirewhose kinsman was Bishop of Cambray. For this deed he wa- held at feud by the relations of the knight, until he agreed to and take a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. James of Compostel; la, for the benefit of the soul of the deceased. But as he returned through the town of Ryol, after accomplishment of his vow, he was beset and treacherously slain, by the kindred of the knight whom he had killed. Sir Walter, guided by the old man, visited the lowly tomb of his father; and, having read the inscription, which was in Latin, be caused the body to be raised, and transported to his native city of Valenciennes, where masses were, in the days of Froissart, duly said for the soul of the unfortunate pilgam-Chronycle of FROISSART, vol i. p. 123.

[Orig. (1st Edition.) The Ladye dropp'd nor sigh nor fear"] The family of Ker, Kerr, or Carr, was very powerful on the Border Fynes Morrison remarks, in his Travels, that their influence extended from the village of Preston-Grange in Lothian, to the limits of England. Ce-sford Castle, the ancient baronial recence of the family, is situated near the village of Morebattle, within two or three miles of the Cheviot Hills. It has been a place of great strength and consequence, but is now ruinous. Tradition affims that it was founded by Halbert, or Habby Kerr, a gigantic waror, concerning whom many stories are current in Roxburgh shure. The Duke of Roxburghe represents Kerr of Cessford. A distret and powerful branch of the same name own the Marquis of Lothian as their chief. Hence the distinction betwixt Kerrs of Cessford and Fairmibinet.

The Cranstouns, Lord Cranstoun, are an ancient Border family, whose chief seat was at Crailing, in Teviotdale. They were at this time at feud with the clan of Scott; for it appears that the Lady of Buccleuch, in 1557, beset the Laird of Cranstoun, seeking his life. Nevertheless, the same Cranstoun, or perhaps his son, was married to a daughter of the same lady.

The Bethunes were of French origin, and derived their name from a small town in Artois. There were several distinguished families of the Bethunes in the neighbouring province of Picardy; they numbered among their descendants the celebrated Duc de Sully; and the name was accounted among the most noble in France, while aught noble remained in that country. The family • The name is spelt differently by the various families who bear it. Carr is lected, not as the most correct, but as the most poetical reading.

This expression and sentiment were dictated by the situation of France, in the year 1900, when the poem was originally written. 1821.

of Bethune, or Beatoun, in Fife, produced three learned and digArchbishops of Glasgow, all of whom flourished about the date of the romance. Of this family was descended Dame Janet Beaton, Lady Buccleuch, widow of Sir Walter Scott of Branksome. She was a woman of masculine spirit, as appeared from her riding at the head of her son's clan, after her husband's murder. She also possessed the hereditary abilities of her family in such a degree, that the superstition of the vulgar imputed them to supernatural knowledge. With this was mingled, by faction, the foul accusation, of her having influenced Queen Mary to the murder of her husband. One of the placards, preserved in Buchanan's Detection, accuses of Darnley's murder the Erle of Bothwell, Mr. James Balfour, the persoun of Fliske, Mr. David Chalmers, black Mr. John Spens, who was principal deviser of the murder; and the Quene, assenting thairto, throw the persuasion of the Erle Bothwell, and the witchcraft of Lady Buckleuch."

Padua was long supposed, by the Scottish peasants, to be the principal school of necromancy. The Earl of Gowrie, slain at Perth, in 1600, pretended, during his studies in Italy, to have acquired some knowledge of the cabala, by which, he said, he could charm snakes, and work other miracles; and, in particular, could produce children without the intercourse of the sexes.-See the Examination of Wemyss of Bogie before the Privy Council, concerning Gowrie's Conspiracy.

** (First Edition- St. Kentigerne's hall."-St. Mungo, o Kentigern, is the patron saint of Glasgow.]

+ The shadow of a necromancer is independent of the sun. Glycas informs us, that Simon Magus caused his shadow to go before him, making people believe it was an attendant spirit.HEYWOOD's Hierarchie, p. 475 The vulgar conceive, that when a class of students have made a certain progress in their mystic studies, they are obliged to run through a subterraneous hall, where the devil literally catches the hindmost in the race, unless he crosses the hall so speedily, that the arch enemy can only apprehend his shadow. In the latter case, the person of the sage never after throws any shade; and those, who have thus lost their shadow, always prove the best magicians.

The Scottish vulgar, without having any very defined notion of their attributes, believe in the existence of an intermediate class of spirits, residing in the air, or in the waters; to whose agency they ascribe floods, storms, and all such phenomena as their own philosophy cannot readily explain. They are supposed to interfere in the affairs of mortals, sometimes with a malevolent purpose, and sometimes with milder views. It is said, for example, that a gallant baron, having returned from the Holy Land to his castle of Drummelziar, found his fair lady nursing a healthy child, whose birth did not by any means correspond to the date of his departure. Such an occurrence, to the credit of the dames of the Crusaders be it spoken, was so rare, that it required a mira culous solution. The lady, therefore, was believed, when she averred confidently, that the Spirit of the Tweed had issued from the river while she was walking upon its bank, and compelled her to submit to his embraces and the name of Tweedie was bestowed upon the child, who afterwards became Baron of Drummelziar, and chief of a powerful clan. To those spirits were also ascribed, in Scotland, the

Airy tongues, that syllable men's names, On sans, and shores, and desert wildernesses." When the workmen were engaged in erecting the ancient church of Old Deer, in Aberdeenshire, upon a small hill called Bissau,

"It is not here, it is not here,

That ye shall build the church of Deer; But on Taptillery,

Where many a corpse shall lie."

The site of the edifice was accordingly transferred to Taptillery, an eminence at some distance from the place where the building bad been commenced -MACFARLANE'S MSS. I mention these popular fables, because the introduction of the River and Mountain Spirits may not, at first sight, seem to accord with the general tone of the romance, and the superstitions of the country where the scene is laid.

*Scaur, a precipitous bank of earth.

This was the usual appellation of the marauders upon the Borders; a profession diligently pursued by the inhabitants on both sides, and by none more actively and successfully than by Buccleuch's clan. Long after the union of the crowns, the mosstroopers, although sunk in reputation, and no longer enjoying the pretext of national hostility, continued to pursue their calling. Fuller includes, among the wonders of Cumberland, "The mosstroopers so strange in the condition of their living, if considered in their Original, Increase, Height, Decay, and Ruine.

"1. Original. I conceive them the same called Borderers in Mr. Camden; and characterized by him to be a wild and warlike people. They are called moss-troopers, because dwelling in the mosses, and riding in troops together. They dwell in the bounds, or meeting, of the two kingdoms, but obey the laws of neither. They come to church as seldom as the 29th of February comes into the kalendar.

"2. Increase. When England and Scotland were united in Great Britain, they that formerly lived by hostile incursions, betook themselves to the robbing of their neighbours. Their sons are free of the trade by their fathers' copy. They are like to Job, not in piety and patience, but in sudden plenty and poverty; sometimes having flocks and herds in the morning, none at night, and perchance many again next day. They may give for their motto, vivitur ex rapto, stealing from their honest neighbours what they sometimes require. They are a nest of hornets; strike one, and stir all of them about your ears. Indeed, if they promise safely to conduct a traveller, they will perform it with the fidelity of a Turkish janizary; otherwise, wo be to him that falleth into their quarters!

Tell me, thou, who view'st the stars, When shall cease these feudal jars? What shall be the maiden's fate? Who shall be the maiden's mate ?"-

XVII.

MOUNTAIN SPIRIT.

"Arthur's slow wain his course doth roll, In utter darkness round the pole;

The Northern Bear lowers black and grim; Orion's studded belt is dim;

Twinkling faint, and distant far,

Shimmers through mist each planet star;
Ill may I read their high decree!
But no kind influence deign they shower
On Teviot's tide, and Branksome's tower,
Till pride be quell'd, and love be free."

XVIII.
The unearthly voices ceast,
And the heavy sound was still;
It died on the river's breast,

It died on the side of the hill.
But round Lord David's tower
The sound still floated near;
For it rung in the Ladye's bower,
And it rung in the Ladye's ear.
She raised her stately head,

And her heart throbb'd high with pride:"Your mountains shall bend,

And your streams ascend,

Ere Margaret be our foeman's bride!"

XIX.

The Ladye sought the lofty hall,
Where many a bold retainer lay,
And, with jocund din, among them all
Her son pursued his infant play.

A fancied moss-trooper,† the boy
The truncheon of a spear bestrode,
And round the hall, right merrily
In mimic foray+ rode.

Even bearded knights, in arms grown old,

Share in his frolic gambols bore,

Albeit their hearts of rugged mould,

Were stubborn as the steel they wore

For the gray warriors prophesied,
How the brave boy, in future war,
Should tame the Unicorn's pride,§

Exalt the Crescent and the Star.Il

These compelled the vicinage to purchase their security, by pay"3. Height. Amounting, forty years since, to some thousands. ing a constant rent to them. When in their greatest height, they had two great enemies,-the Laws of the Land, and the Lord William Howard of Naworth. He sent many of them to Car lisle, to that place where the officer doth always his work by daylight. Yet these moss-troopers, if possibly they could procure the pardon for a condemned person of their company, would advance great sums out of their common stock, who, in such a case, cast in their lots amongst themselves, and all have one purse.

4. Decay. Caused by the wisdom, valour, and diligence of the Right Honourable Charles Lord Howard, Earl of Carlisle, who routed these English Tories with his regiment. His severity unto them will not only be excused, but commended, by the judicious, who consider how our great lawyer doth describe such persons, who are solemnly outlawed. BRACTON, lib. viii. trac. 2. cap. 11. -Er tunc gerunt caput lupinum, ita quod sine judiciali inquisitione rite pereant, et secum suum judicium portent; et merito sine lege pereunt, qui secundum legem vivere recusarunt-Thenceforward (after that they are outlawed) they were a wolf's head, so that they lawfully may be destroyed, without any judicial inquisition, as who carry their own condemnation about them, and deservedly die without law, because they refused to live according to law."

5. Ruine. Such was the success of this worthy lord's severity. that he made a thorough reformation among them; and the ringleaders being destroyed, the rest are reduced to legal obedience, and so, I trust, will continue."-FULLER'S Worthies of England,

p. 216.

The last public mention of moss-troopers occurs during the civil wars of the 17th century, when many ordinances of Parlia ment were directed against them. 1 Foray, a predatory inroad.

This line, of which the metre appears defective, would have its full complement of feet according to the pronunciation of the poet himself as all who were familiar with his utterance of the letter r will bear testimony.-ED.]

The arms of the Kerrs of Cessford were, Vert on a cheveron, betwixt three unicorns' heads erased argent, three mullets sable; crest, a unicorn's head erased proper. The Scotts of Buccleuch bore, Or, on a bend azure; a star of six points betwixt two crescents of the first.