'James Skene, Esq., of Rubislaw, Aberdeenshire, was Cornet in the
Royal Edinburgh Light Horse Volunteers; and Sir Walter Scott was
Quartermaster of the same corps.'--LOCKHART.
For Skene's account of the origin of this regiment, due in large
measure to 'Scott's ardour,' see 'Life of Scott,' i. 258.
line 2. See Taming of the Shrew, i. 4. 135, and 2 Henry IV, v. 3.
143, where a line of an old song is quoted:--
'Where is the life that late I led?'
line 3. See As you Like It, ii. 7. 12.
line 7. Scott made the acquaintance of Skene, recently returned from
a lengthened stay in Saxony, about the end of 1796, and profited
much by his friend's German knowledge and his German books. In later
days he utilized suggestions of Skene's in 'Ivanhoe' and 'Quentin
Durward.' See 'Life of Scott,' PASSIM, and specially i. 257, and iv.
342.
line 37. Blackhouse, a farm 'situated on the Douglas-burn, then
tenanted by a remarkable family, to which I have already made
allusion--that of William Laidlaw.'--'Life,' i. 328. Ettrick Pen is
a hill in the south of Selkirkshire.
line 46. 'Various illustrations of the Poetry and Novels of Sir
Walter Scott, from designs by Mr. Skene, have since been
published.'--LOCKHART.
line 48. Probably the first reference in poetry to the Scottish
heather is, says Prof. Veitch ('Feeling for Nature,' ii. 52), in
Thomson's 'Spring,' where the bees are represented as daring
'The purple heath, or where the wild thyme grows.'
lines 55-97. With this striking typical winter piece, cp. in
Thomson's 'Winter,' the vivid and pathetic picture beginning:--
'In his own loose-revolving fields, the swain
Disastered stands.'
See also Burns's 'Winter Night,' which by these lines may have
suggested Scott's 'beamless sun':--
'When Phoebus gies a short-liv'd glow'r
Far south the lift;
Dim-dark'ning thro' the flaky show'r,
Or whirling drift.'
The 'tired ploughman,' too, may owe something to this farther line
of Burns:--
'Poor labour sweet in sleep was lock'd';
while the animals seeking shelter may well follow this inimitable
and touching description:--
'List'ning the doors an' winnocks rattle,
I thought me on the ourie cattle,
Or silly sheep, wha bide this brattle
O' winter war,
And thro' the drift, deep-lairing, sprattle
Beneath a scaur.'
line 91. 'I cannot help here mentioning that, on the night on which
these lines were written, suggested as they were by a sudden fall of
snow, beginning after sunset, an unfortunate man perished exactly in
the manner here described, and his body was next morning found close
to his own house. The accident happened within five miles of the
farm of Ashestiel.'--SCOTT.
line 101. 'The Scottish Harvest-home.'--SCOTT. Perhaps the name
'kirn' is due to the fact that a churnful of cream is a feature of
the night's entertainment. In Chambers's Burns, iii. 151, Robert
Ainslie gives an account of a kirn at Ellisland in 1790.
line 102. Cp. the 'wood-notes wild' with which Milton credits
Shakespeare, 'L'Allegro,' 131.
lines 104-5. The ideal pastoral life of the Golden Age.
line 132. 'Sir William Forbes of Pitsligo, Baronet; unequalled,
perhaps, in the degree of individual affection entertained for him
by his friends, as well as in the general respect and esteem of
Scotland at large. His "Life of Beattie," whom he befriended and
patronised in life, as well as celebrated after his decease, was not
long published, before the benevolent and affectionate biographer
was called to follow the subject of his narrative. This melancholy
event very shortly succeeded the marriage of the friend, to whom
this introduction is addressed, with one of Sir William's
daughters.'--SCOTT.
line 133. 'The Minstrel' is Beattie's chief poem; it is one of the
few poems in well-written Spenserian stanza.
line 147. Ps. lxviii. 5.
line 151. Prov. xxvii. 10.
line 155. For account of Sir W. Forbes, see his autobiographical
'Memoirs of a Banking House'; Chambers's 'Eminent Scotsmen'; and
'Dictionary of National Biography.'
line 163. Cp. Pope, 'Essay on Man,' IV. 380, and Boileau, 'L'Art
Poetique, 'Chant I:--
'Heureux qui, dans ses vers, sait d'une voix legere
Passer du grave au doux, du plaisant an severe.'
line 172. 'Tirante el Blanco,' a Spanish romance by Johann Martorell
(1480), praised in 'Don Quixote.'
line 174. 'Camp was a favourite dog of the Poet's, a bull terrier of
extraordinary sagacity. He is introduced in Raeburn's portrait of
Sir Walter Scott, now at Dalkeith Palace.'--LOCKHART.
line 181. Cp. Tempest, v. i. 93.
line 191. 'Colin Mackenzie, Esq., of Portmore. See "Border
Minstrelsy," iv. 351.'--LOCKHART. Mackenzie had been Scott's friend
from boyhood, and he received his copy of 'Marmion' at Lympstone,
where he was, owing to feeble health, as mentioned in the text. He
was a son-in-law of Sir William Forbes, and in acknowledging receipt
of the poem he said, 'I must thank you for the elegant and delicate
allusion in which you express your friendship for myself--Forbes--
and, above all, that sweet memorial of his late excellent father.'--
'Life of Scott,' ii. 152.
line 194. 'Sir William Rae of St. Catherine's, Bart., subsequently
Lord Advocate of Scotland, was a distinguished member of the
volunteer corps to which Sir Walter Scott belonged; and he, the
Poet, Mr. Skene, Mr. Mackenzie, and a few other friends, had formed
themselves into a little semi-military club, the meetings of which
were held at their family supper tables in rotation.'--LOCKHART.
line 195. 'The late Sir William Forbes of Pitsligo, Bart., son of
the author of the "Life of Beattie."'--LOCKHART.
line 196. The Mimosa pudica, or sensitive plant. See Shelley's poem
on the subject:--
'The Sensitive Plant was the earliest
Upgathered into the bosom of rest;
A sweet child weary of its delight,
The feeblest and yet the favourite,
Cradled within the embrace of night.'
line 200. Cp. 'L'Allegro,' 31, 'Sport that wrinkled Care derides.'
line 206. See King Lear, iii. 4. 138, where Edgar, as Poor Tom, says
that he has had 'three suits to his back, six shirts to his body,
horse to ride, and weapon to wear.'