Ruskin asks us to "note the northern love of rocks" in this passage, and
adds: "Dante could not have thought of his 'cut rocks' as giving rest
even to snow. He must put it on the pine branches, if it is to be at
peace." Taylor quotes Holmes, Autocrat of Breakfast Table: "She melted
away from her seat like an image of snow."
780. Pry. Look pryingly or curiously. In prose on would not be used with
pry.
784. To speed. To a fortunate issue; unless speed be the verb, and =
pass.
786. In life's more low but happier way. The MS. has "In lowly life's
more happy way."
789. The name of Snowdoun. Scott says: "William of Worcester, who
wrote about the middle of the fifteenth century, calls Stirling Castle
Snowdoun. Sir David Lindsay bestows the same epithet upon it in his
Complaint of the Papingo:
'Adieu, fair Snawdoun, with thy towers high, Thy chaple-royal, park, and table round; May, June, and July, would I
dwell in thee, Were I a man, to hear the birdis sound, Whilk doth agane
thy royal rock rebound.'
"Mr. Chalmers, in his late excellent edition of Sir David Lindsay's
works, has refuted the chimerical derivation of Snawdoun from snedding,
or cutting. It was probably derived from the romantic legend which
connected Stirling with King Arthur, to which the mention of the Round
Table gives countenance. The ring within which justs were formerly
practised in the Castle park, is still called the Round Table. Snawdoun
is the official title of one of the Scottish heralds, whose epithets
seem in all countries to have been fantastically adopted from ancient
history or romance.
"It appears from the preceding note that the real name by which James
was actually distinguished in his private excursions was the Goodman
of Ballenguich; derived from a steep pass leading up to the Castle of
Stirling, so called. But the epithet would not have suited poetry, and
would besides at once, and prematurely, have announced the plot to many
of my country men, among whom the traditional stories above mentioned
are still current."