286. The muster-place, etc. The MS. reads "Murlagan is the spot
decreed."
Lanrick Mead is a meadow at the northwestern end of Loch Vennachar.
300. The dun deer's hide, etc. Scott says: "The present brogue of the
Highlanders is made of half-dried leather, with holes to admit and let
out the water; for walking the moors dry-shod is a matter altogether
out of the question. The ancient buskin was still ruder, being made of
undressed deer's hide, with the hair outwards,--a circumstance which
procured the Highlanders the well-known epithet of Red-shanks.
The process is very accurately described by one Elder (himself a
Highlander), in the project for a union between England and Scotland,
addressed to Henry VIII.: 'We go a-hunting, and after that we have slain
red-deer, we flay off the skin by and by, and setting of our barefoot
on the inside thereof, for want of cunning shoemakers, by your grace's
pardon, we play the cobblers, compassing and measuring so much thereof
as shall reach up to our ankles, pricking the upper part thereof with
holes, that the water may repass where it enters, and stretching it up
with a strong thong of the same above our said ankles. So, and please
your noble grace, we make our shoes. Therefore, we using such manner
of shoes, the rough hairy side outwards, in your grace's dominions of
England, we be called Rough-footed Scots' (Pinkerton's History, vol. ii.
p. 397)."
Cf. Marmion, v. 5:
"The hunted red-deer's undressed hide
Their hairy buskins well supplied."
304. Steepy. For the word (see also iv. 374 below) and the line, cf.
Shakespeare, T. of A. i. 1. 75:
"Bowing his head against the steepy mount
To climb his happiness."
309. Questing. Seeking its game. Bacon (Adv. of Learning, v. 5) speaks
of "the questing of memory."
310. Scaur. Cliff, precipice; the same word as scar. Cf. Tennyson's
Bugle Song: "O sweet and far, from cliff and scar;" and in the Idyls of
the King: "shingly scaur."