[10] The Fern Islands.
[11] Looking intensely. Dr. Jamieson gives the following authority for
this meaning of the word.--
“He girnt, he _glourt_, he gapt, as he war weid.”
DUNBAR, MAITLAND POEMS, p. 77.
[12]
Il monte avec la main les eperons et gaule,
Le cheval de pegase qui volle en capriole,
Il monte si haut qu’il touche de sa teste les cieux,
Et par ses merveilles ravit en extasses les Dieux,
Les chevaux corruptible qui la bas sur terre son
En courbettes demi-airs terre-à-tere vont
Avec humilite soumission et bassesse,
L’adorer, comme Dieu et auteur de leur adresse.
_See a General System of Horsemanship, &c.
by the DUKE OF NEWCASTLE._
[13] Alias “Will o’ the Wisp,”--alias, in Scotland, “Spunkie.” The
reader who is anxious for farther information on this interesting
subject is referred to the notes on MARMION.
[14] Hedio. Sleidan.
[15] SCOTT. _Vide_ Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, vol. ii.
[16] By some etymologists of that learned class, who not only know
whence words come, but also whither they are going, the term _Fairy_, or
_Faërie_, is derived from _Faë_, which is again derived from _Nympha_.
It is more probable the term is of oriental origin, and is derived from
the Persic, through the medium of the Arabic. In Persic, the term _Peri_
expresses a species of imaginary being, which resembles the Fairy in
some of its qualities, and is one of the fairest creatures of romantic
fancy.
_MINSTRELSY OF THE SCOTTISH BORDER, p. 115-116._
[17] Our modern Bachanals will here observe, that punishing by a bumper
is not an invention of these degenerate days. The ancient Danes were
great Topers.
[18] The drinking vessels of the northern nations were the horns of
animals, of their natural length, only tipt with silver, &c. In
York-Minster is preserved one of those ancient drinking-vessels,
composed of a large elephant’s tooth, of its natural dimensions,
ornamented with sculpture, &c. See DRAKE’S HIST.
[19] Tam O’Shanter.
[20] The story of this Ballad is traditionary in a village at the foot
of Snowden, where Llewelyn the Great had a house. The Greyhound, named
Gêlert, was given to him by his father-in-law, King John, in the year
1205; and the place to this day is railed Beth Gêlert, or the Grave of
Gêlert.