_The barge_, be that, _with a full werlik far, &c._--V. 136.
In Edit. 1594, it is;
The barge _began_ with ane full weirlyke fair.
The language is defective as in MS. But _began_ is scarcely the term
that we could suppose the Minstrel to use. He would more probably have
said;
The barge, be that, _com_ with full werlik far.
I have therefore adhered to the reading of MS. borrowing the word in
brackets in the next verse, from the edition quoted above.
“_For my trespas I wald mak sum ramed._”
_Wallace wyst weyll, thocht he war brocht to ded;_
_And off his lyff sum reskew mycht he mak._--V. 153.
The passage, as here given from the MS., is evidently deficient in
sense. It is given more intelligibly in Edit. 1594.
For my trespas I wald mak sum remeid,
Monie saikles I haue gart put to deide.
Wallace wist weill, thocht he to deith was brocht,
Fra thame to chaip on na wyse micht he nocht.
And of his lyfe sum reskew micht he mak,
Ane better purpois syne sone than can he tak.
_Ane Skelton than kepyt the careage,_
A Brankstewat _that was his heretage._--V. 625. MS.
In Edit. 1594, and 1648;
_All Brankistnahait_ haill, that was his heritage.
_A Brankstewat_ seems an error for _All Brankstewat_. Both in MS.
and in editions, the name has been evidently corrupted. I suspect
that it ought to be _Branthwaite_. For the Skeltons were a family of
considerable antiquity in Cumberland. John de Skelton was knight of
the shire in the reign of Edward II. _Armathwaite_ was the designation
of their property. But Richard Skelton, sheriff of Cumberland, in
the reign of Henry VI., lived at _Branthwaite_. _Brankistnahait_,
and _Brankistewat_, have been originally _Brankisthwaite_. _Thwaite_
forms the termination of many local names in the north of England.
Grose explains it; “The shelving part of the side of a mountain.”
Hutchinson’s account corresponds: “Down the river of Dudden stands
the manor of _Thwaites_, between the river and the mountains, and
the ancient seat of Joseph Thwaites of Ulnerigg, Esq., and the place
being a stony mountainous country, is not everywhere altogether fit
for tillage, meadow, and pasture. But in several parts and pieces, as
they are marked by nature, differing in form and quality of soil, or
otherwise, by the inhabitants inclosed from the barren wastes of the
fells; such pieces of land are now, and were of old, called _Thwaites_
in most places of the shire, sometimes with addition of their quality,
as Brackenthwaite, of ferns; Swithwaite, of rushes; Stonythwaite, of
stones; _Brentwaite_, of its steepness; Brunthwaite, of burnt with the
sun, &c.” Hist. of Cumberland, I. 531, 532. 494.
I do not find any similar term in AS. conveying the idea of a stony
place. The signification has perhaps been originally more general,
as denoting any place separated from another, as are those “inclosed
from wastes;” from _thweot-an_, exscindere, q. “a place cut off” from
another.
_A squier_ Guthré _amang thaim ordand thai,_
_To warn Wallace in all the haist he may._
_Out off Arbroth he passit to the se._--V. 647.
This is understood as referring to the ancestor of the Guthries of
Guthrie; and it is a strong presumption of the justness of the idea,
that Arbroath is the harbour most contiguous to the seat of this
ancient family. He is afterwards in different passages designed “the
_gud_ Guthré,” a character which, from all that I have seen, appears to
have descended to his posterity.
_In_ Barnan _wod he had his lugyng maid._--V. 692.
_Birnane_, Edit. 1594. This is evidently Birname wood, that has derived
such celebrity from its connection with the history of Macbeth.
“The hill of Birnam, rendered classic ground by the magic pen of
Shakespeare, rises with a rude and striking magnificence to an
elevation higher than that of the Sidla hills in Forfarshire, opposite
to it. A round mount at the bottom of Birnam hill in the south-east, is
worthy of remark. It is faced with steep oaks [q. rocks?] except for a
few yards where it was fortified by art. This eminence has been known
for time immemorial, by the names of Court-hill, and _Duncan’s-hill_,
and is believed to have been on some occasions occupied by the
unfortunate Scottish king of that name. It looks full in the face, at
the distance of about twelve miles, the celebrated Dunsinan-hill, the
seat and fortress of Macbeth.” Stat. Acc. VII. 355. 374.
Fersly _thai_ fled, _as fyr dois out off flynt._--V. 746.
The reading in MS. is, _Freschly_ thai _ferd_. But to this no meaning
can be attached. I have therefore given it as in the editions. But I
suspect that there has been some corruption of the original here, as
_fled_ is introduced in the next line.
_Till_ Ardargan _he drew him prewaly._--V. 768.
This, I suppose, must be the place now called _Ardargie_, in the Ochil
Hills, parish of Forgandenny, Perthshire.
_Apon the morn, with fyftene hundreth men,_
_Till_ Black Irnsyde _his gydys couth them ken._--V. 785.
“All round this monastery [Lindores, Fife,] was _Earn-side_-wood, where
Wallace defeated the English. It was anciently four miles in length,
and three in breadth; now there is nothing but some few shrubs to the
east of the abbey.” Sibbald’s Hist. Fife, P. iv. sect. 9. p. 406.
It is added in a note: “Of this wood no vestige remains. The place
where it is said to have grown lies along the shore of the Frith, a
considerable way below the junction of the Tay and the Earn. The name
seems to countenance the tradition, that the Earn alone once flowed by
the bottom of the hills of Fife, and did not unite for several miles
below this with the Tay, whose course was then along the foot of the
hills, forming the northern boundary of the Carse of Gowrie, which
lying thus betwixt two rivers, was frequently overflowed, and only
became habitable, when, in a great inundation, the Tay burst into the
Earn, where they now join.”
In A. Blair’s _Relationes_, this battle is said to have been fought on
the 12th of June 1298.
_Rycht weyll I wait, weschell is lewyt nayn,_
_Fra the_ Wood hawyn, _to the ferry cald_ Aran.--V. 805.
Macpherson thinks that this is perhaps the same with _Portnebaryan_,
mentioned by Wyntoun, q. “the haven of bread;” _arran_ signifying
bread in Gaelic, and _barra_ in Welsh, Cornish, and Armoric. V. Geogr.
Illustrations. Shall we add another supposition,--that _Portnebaryan_
had been the ancient name of _Port-on-craigs_, a ferry to the eastward
of _Woodhaven_. The latter still retains its ancient name. It lies
opposite to Dundee.
--_In that jornay othir to wyn or end._--V. 1048.
The whole passage to ver. 1057, _Thai worthi Scottis_, &c. is wanting
in Edit. 1594, and subsequent editions. Both verses, 1049 and 1057,
beginning in a similar manner, the intermediate ones must have been
overlooked by some transcriber for the press. In MS. ver. 1050 is;
_The_ cruell strakis, &c. But as the sense requires it, I have
substituted _with_, as in Edit. 1714, followed by that of Perth, 1790.
_The lord_ Cwmyn, _that erll off Bouchane was,_
_For auld inwy he wald [let] na man pass_
_That he mycht let, in gud Wallace supplé._--V. 1253.
According to Henry, his son John Comyn, younger of Badenoch, served
himself heir to this envy; as he attributes to him, in a special
manner, the loss of the battle of Falkirk. But the account which he
gives of this battle disagrees with that of the English writers, who
give not the slightest hint of such variance among the chieftains, as,
had it really taken place, could not have been totally unknown to their
opponents.
William, one of this family, was Chancellor to King David I., and in
the year 1140, by the grant of the Empress Maud, was made Bishop of
Durham. Crawfurd’s Officers, p. 7. So powerful did it become, that in
the reign of Alexander III. there were three earls and one lord of this
name, besides thirty knights of landed property. Nisbet, I. 367.
I need scarcely say that Comyn was competitor with the elder Bruce for
the crown, as boasting the same blood. This ancient and honourable
family is now represented by Sir William Cumyn Gordon, of Altyre and
Gordonstown, Baronet.
_A cruell captane intill_ Erth _duelt thar_,
_In Ingland born, and hecht Thomlyn off Wayr._--V. 1283.
It is _Erth_ also in Edit. 1594; _Airth_ in that of 1620, and those of
a later age.
“The tower at Airth was built before Sir William Wallace’s time. This
tower is in good repair; it makes part of the house of Airth, and bears
the name of _Wallace’s Tower_.” Stat. Acc. III. 493, 494.
Alexander de Airth, or Erth, is one of those whose names are recorded
in the Ragman Roll. V. Nisbet, Rem. p. 23.
“The Erths of that ilk were once a very considerable family in this
shire, being proprietors of Airth, Elphingstone, Carnock, and Plean.
We find Adam de Erth mentioned among the commissioners who were
appointed, in 1248, to ratify an agreement with England, concerning the
regulations called the _Border-laws_. Bernard de Erth, who was probably
a son of this Adam, married before 1271, one of the three daughters and
co-heiresses of Finlaus de Campsie, a cadet of the family of Lennox.”
Nimmo’s Stirlingshire, p. 516, 517. In the reign of James I. the eldest
daughter of William Airth married “a son of the ancient family of
Clackmannan, who thereupon came into possession of the lands of Airth.
The family of Erth, like others, took their sirname from their lands;
but it is now quite extinct in this country.” Ibid.
_Than to_ Faslan _the worthy Scottis can pass,_
_Quhar erll Malcom was bidand at defence._--V. 1518.
In editions it is _Falkland_. But this being so distant from the earl’s
district, and from Dunbarton, where Wallace was immediately before,
it must be an error. Macpherson places Faslan near the head of the
Gairloch, above Roseneath, Dunbartonshire. V. Hist. Map of Scotl. In
the passage, ver. 1514, Wallace and his party are said indeed to take
their course thither from _Roseneath_, now a well known seat of the
noble family of Argyle.
_And eftir sone thar wncle couth thaim ta,_
_Gud_ Robert Keth, _had thaim fra Glaskow toun;_
_Atour the se in Frans he maid thaim boun._--V. 1558.
This exactly tallies with the account given by Godscroft. V. p. 20.
_A mariage als thai gert ordane him till,_
_The lady_ Ferss.--V. 1566.
In editions _Ferres_. On this head Godscroft says; “His next wife
was an English lady called _Ferrar_, or _Ferrais_, of which name we
find the Earls of Darbie to have beene in the dayes of King Henry
the Third.” Hist. Dougl. p. 16. In the Fœdera they are designed _De
Ferrariis_.
_The_ Sanchar _was a castell fayr and strang._--V. 1577.
_Sauquhair_, Edit. 1594. But here, and in the rest of the narrative, I
have replaced what must have been the original term, as in Edit. 1620
and 1648, _Sanquhair_. “The wattyr of Craw,” ver. 1606, must be the
rivulet now called Crawick, which falls into the Nith. V. Stat. Acc.
VI. 451. There we are informed, that “the old castle of Sanquhair had
been a building of considerable magnitude and extent;” and that “it
is said to have been for some time in the possession of the English
in the reign of Edward I., and to have been recaptured by Sir William
Douglas,” as is here related. Ibid. p. 460, N.
_And Jhonstoun als, that duelt in [to]_ Housdaill.--V. 1790.
This, in editions, is rendered _Eskdaill_. But this is undoubtedly a
mistake. _Housdaill_ is evidently the asperated pronunciation of the
name of that district called _Eusdaill_, as being watered by the river
_Ewes_, which joins the Esk at Langholm. V. Bleau’s Atlas, p. 47. This
seems to have been the ancestor of the Marquisses of Annandale.
_Thir thre capdanis he stekit in that stound,_
_Off Durisdeyr, Enoch, and_ Tybur mur.--V. 1806.
“The vestiges of _Tiber’s_ castle, which has been a large building, are
to be seen on the banks of the Nith. A small part of the wall next the
river remains. Fosses are visible, and some entrenchments where it was
most accessible. It is supposed that the barony of _Tiber_ is named
from Tiber, or Tiberius. There is a Roman encampment too. The English
had a garrison in this castle in the time of Sir William Wallace, who
took it by surprise.” Stat. Acc. P. of Penpont, I. 209.