In that a leopard in the toils survey,
The bearing of the noble Duke of Mar.
Stanza lxxxv. lines 3 and 4.
The original says,
L’ altra bandiera è del duca di Marra
Che nel travaglio porta il leopardo.
Here too I may have mistaken the meaning of my text, which possibly means a leopard at bay: but tigers and leopards are often represented as netted in old Asiatic hunting-pieces on tapestry, and a boar in the toils is the armorial bearing of a British family.
With many birds, and many colours gay,
See Alcabrun’s, a valiant man in war;
Who neither duke, nor count, nor marquis hight,
Is in his savage country first of right.
Stanza lxxxv. lines 5, 6, 7, 8.
We have here a short but sufficiently precise description of the chieftain of a clan, whether highlander or borderer: for it is to be observed, that the southern provinces of Scotland, and indeed the neighbouring English counties, afforded the same examples of such a patriarchal species of authority. This seems to have been clearly of Celtic origin: for the English and Scottish borders were, as well as the Highlands, peopled by a tribe of this race, the remnants of Arthur’s kingdom, which extended as far as from North Wales to Cumberland in England, and the parallel counties in Scotland. The cause, however, of clanship being maintained in this line, as well as in the Highlands, is probably to be found in the analogous state of society presented by both districts. Such a custom as clanship would hardly be preserved in any country, after the necessity for it had
