Scotish Descriptive Poems/Additional Notes on Albania
ADDITIONAL NOTES.
DEDICATION.
P. 154. The author of Albania is not the only poet who has celebrated the exertions of General Wade, in a measure which was expected to promote the civilisation of the Highlands. In February 1725-6, Welsted published "An Ode to the Right Honourable Lieutenant General Wade, on his disarming the Highlands; imitated from Horace[1]." The following inscription was placed on a bridge built by the Marshal in 1733, when the roads were formed by the army under his command:
Hanc viam militarem
Ultra Romanos terminos,
M. Passuum CCL, hac illac
Extensam,
Tesquis et paludibus insultantem,
Per montes rupesque patefactam,
Et indignanti Tavo
Ut cernis instratam.
Opus hoc arduum, sua solertia
Et decennati militum opera
A. Ær. Xnæ. 1733, posuit G. Wade
Copiarum in Scotiæ Præfectus.
Ecce quantum valeant,
Regis Georgii II. Auspicia.
But the most singular poetical effusion on this subject, is said to have been composed by a Mr. Caulfield, who was employed in the business by the Marshal:
You'd lift up your hands, and bless Marshal Wade.
ALBANIA.
P. 157. v. 1. Drummond, in his "Forth feasting," uses Albania as a poetical name for Scotland:
Which see the rising or the setting sun———
P. 158. v. 15. Teviotdale extends, in breadth, from the banks of the Tweed to the top of Cheviot. It seems formerly to have been much greater than at present. It is sometimes represented as lying on both sides of the Tweed. Thus, "Westward, on both sides of the Tweede, lies Teviotdail; taking the name from the water of Tiot; devided from England by the hilles of Cheviot[2]."
P.158. v. 21. The air, says Waldron, in his Description of the isle of Man, "is very wholesome, the plague, nor any other contagious distemper, having never been known there; and the people generally live to a very great age[3]."
P. 158. v. 21. The term, "land of bowmen," is certainly much more applicable to England than to Scotland. From the period of the Norman conquest, so famous were the English archers, that the nation is characterised from them in an old prophesy, supposed to have been fulfilled at the battle or rather rout of Duplin, during the minority of David II.
Scotos dum gentes terebrabunt arcitenentes.[4]"
So sensible was James I. of this superiority, that in his first parliament he passed an act, "That ilk man busk thame to be archaris[5].
The bow, however, is mentioned as a weapon of war in the curious ancient Scotish poem termed
Be hyll and moss thaim self to weire.
Lat wod for wallis be bow and speire,
That innymeis do thaim na dreire.
în strait placis gar keip all stoire,
And byrnen the planen land thaim before:
Thanen fall thai pass away in haist,
Quhen that they find nathing bot waist,
With wyllis and waykenen of the nicht,
And mekill noyes maid on hycht:
Thanen fall they turnen with gret affrai,
As thai were chafit with swerd away:
This is the counfall and intent
Of gud King Robert's testament[6].
The islanders, of all the Scotish tribes, were most addicted to the use of the bow in war. The work already cited, termed "Certayne matters," &c. exhibits the following passage: "Their weapons against their enemies are bowes and arrowes; the arrowes for the most part howked, with a barble on either side, which once entered within the body, cannot be drawn forth againe, unlesse the wound be made wider." The clan Macdonald were remarkable for their skill in archery. At the battle of Belrinnes, in 1594, the flower of Argyle's army appear to have been the archers, and targetters or broad-swordsmen:
P. 158. v. 30. During the glory of the Roman empire, and even in the period of its decline, all nations who affected the friendship of the Romans, or were dazzled by their glory, were anxious to boast the same extraction. The story of Brutus, the progenitor of the English, is well known. In the sixth century, Hunnibald, in his History of the Franks, deduces their origin from Francus a son of Priam. The Sicilians derived themselves from his brother Siculus. In the reign of Justinian, the Greeks themselves affected a similar honour. The Scots, however, who piqued themselves on never submitting to the Romans, deduced their origin directly from the Greeks, the mortal foes of the Trojans, and consequently stated themselves as the inveterate and native enemies of the English, a race who claimed a Trojan origin. Jealousy and incessant hostility aggravated the mutual animosities of the Scots and English, till the tempers of their writers became almost as hostile as the swords of their warriors, and it was considered as the indispensable duty of a good citizen to abuse the sister kingdom. It may be amusing to contrast the partiality of the author of Albania, with a few of those flowers with which Cleveland has garnished his invective against the Scots:
The name of Scot without an antidote;
Unless my head were red, that I might brew
Invention there, that might be poison too.———
Before a Scot can properly be curst,
I must, like Hocus, swallow daggers first.———
No more let Ireland brag, her harmless nation
Fosters no venom, since that Scots plantation.———
Nature herself doth Scotchmen beasts confess,
Making their country such a wilderness;
A land that brings in question and suspense
God's omnipresence, but that Charles came thence;
But that Montrose and Crawford's loyal band
Atoned their sin, and christened half their land.———
He that saw hell in's melancholy dream,
And in the twy-light of his phancie's theme,
Scared from his sins, repented in a fright,
Had he viewed Scotland; had turned proselite:
A land where one may pray with curst intent;
O may they never suffer banishment!
Had Cain been Scot, God would have changed his doom,
Not forced him wander, but confined him home.
Like Jews they spread, and as infection fly,
As if the devil had ubiquity.
Hence 'tis they live at rovers, and defie
This or that place, rags of geography.
They'r citizens of the world, they'r all in all,
Scotland's a nation epidemical.———
You scandal to the stock of verse, a race
Able to bring the gibbet in disgrace;
Hyperbolus by suffering did traduce
The ostracism, and shamed it out of use.
———when the Scots decease,
Hell like their nation feeds on barnacles.
A Scot when from the gallow-tree got loose,
Drops into Styx, and turns a Soland goose[8]
Derrick abuses the Irish in a similar strain: "They are a people sprung from Macke-Swine, a barbarous offspring, which maie be perceived by their hoggishe fashion;"
Are bred in Irishe ground;
But worse than pies the same to burne
A thousand maie be found[9].
The comparisons of England and Scotland by foreigners were generally much to the disadvantage of the latter. Perlin, a French author, who wrote a Description of England and Scotland in 1588, describes Scotland as a wilderness, and greatly prefers England; as in the following passages:
"Prenons le cas que l'Angleterre soit Paris, l'Escoffe soit le faulx-bourgz Sainct Marceau: la ville vault trop mieulx que les faulx-bourgz, aussi vault trop mieulx l'Angleterre que l'Escosse, et n'y a poinct de proportion[10]."
"Le pays est asses pauvre en or et en argent: mais fort bon en vivres. Les terres labourables en ce pays la ne font gaires bonnes, et la plus part du pays est desert. Quant a la grandeur du Royaume fault entendre qu'il est grand du circuit; mais on l'apelle petit de terres habitables c'est a dire qu'il y a beaucoup de meschantes terres vagues non labourées: mais le pays est petit quant et au circuit des villes et villages[11]."
Perlin asserts, that without the assistance of the French, Scotland would have been entirely over-run and destroyed by "leur felon ennemi qui est pire qu'un dragon, serpent, cocodrile, et aspic." And in a strain of self-congratulation he exclaims, "O bienheureulx te doibs tu estimer, Royaulme d'Escoffe! d'estre favorisè, nourry, entretenu, comme l'enfant en la mamelle du tres puissant et magnanime roy de France, le plus grand seigneur de tout le monde, et monarque futur de toute la machine ronde."
Defoe, who visited Scotland for the purpose of cajolling the Scots, and writing in favour of the Union, has thus described both the country and its inhabitants:
Battered by parent nature's constant frown,
Adapt to hardships, and cut out for toil,
The best-worst climate, and the worst-best soil.
The furious elements in vain contend;
Unmoved the mighty natural breastworks stand:
Their awful heights in threatening grandeur shine,
Emblems of mightier hearts of stone within:
The instructing rocks invincible and strong,
Describe the race that to these rocks belong;
And bid the quick retreating waves declare,
And warn the world against a northern war:
Tell them the hopes of conquest must be vain,
When hands of steel shall rocks of flint maintain.
The thirsts of honour generous minds bewitch,
And danger tempts the brave, as gold the rich.
In action daring, and in council grave:
Their haughty souls in danger always grow;
No man durst lead them, where they durst not go
Fierce when resolved, and fixed as bars of brass;
And conquest through their blood can only pass.
P. 159. v. 40. In the collection intitled "Certayne Matters," &c. 1597, it is said, "In Schetland the isles called Thule, at the time when the sunne enters the sign of Cancer, for the space of twenty dayes there appears no night at all." Defoe likewise alludes to the lingering of the sun beams on the hills of Shetland in the following passage:
That dreamed of Thule, yet afraid to advance,
Thy lengthened sun, with uncouth joy, survey,
And vainly dreamed it led to bright eternal day[13].
P. 159. v. 54. According to Martin, the Island of Lewis is so called from Leog, which in the Irish language signifies, water lying on the surface of the ground; "which is very proper to this island, because of the great number of fresh-water lakes that abound in it." By the islanders it is commonly denominated, The long island; which appellation comprehends Uist and Harris, as well as Lewis proper.
P. 159. v. 58. In "Certayne Matters," it is said, that in a haven of Arran there is such abundance of fish, that if more be caught than serves their daily consumption, the natives throw them into the sea as into a "stanke."
P. 159. v. 62. Seafort Bay is not Seaforth on the continent, whence the Earl of Seaforth derives his title; but Loch Seafort, which divides Lewis from Harris, and which Martin mentions as the best harbour on the south side of the Long Island, which, like the other coasts and bays of the Long Island, abounds in cod, ling, and herring, and whales which frequently interrupt the fishermen. In the collection intitled "Certayne Matters," &c. 1597, this island is celebrated as the resort of whales.
P. 165. v. 204. "In the south of Scotland, especially in the countries adjacent to England, there is a dog of marvellous nature, called the Suth-hound; because, when as he is certified by wordes of arte spoken by his master, what goodes are stolne, whether horse, sheepe, or neat, immediatly he addresseth him suthly to the sent, and followeth with great impetuositie, through all kinde of grounde and water, by as many ambages as the theeves have used, till he attaine to their place of residence: by the benefit of the which dog, the goodes are recovered. But now, of late, he is called by a new popular name, the Slouth-hound: Because, when as the people doe live in south and idlenesse, and neither by themselves, or by the office of a good herd, or by the strength of a good house, they do preserve their goods from the incursion of theeves and robbers, then have they recourse to the dog, for reparation of their slouth[14].
The slouth-hound is frequently mentioned in Barber's, Bruce, and Henry's Wallace. The latter, B. v. says,
A slouth-hound is of Gelder land.
Annandale, formerly Anandirdale, is still pronounced Annerdale by the peasants, and is probably the Ennerdale of the "Gallant Grahams." Here the blood-hound was used to a late period. The memory of the incursions of the Annandale and Liddisdale borderers is still preserved, not only in the Scotish and English border districts, but even in the interior of Scotland. I have been informed by persons of good authority in Lothian, that they recollected to have heard in their infancy different songs which celebrated the prowess of the men of Lothian in repulsing the Scotish borderers. It is probable, however, that these rude lays have been suffered to elude the grasp of tradition.
P. 166. v. 207. The properties of a good "Grehounde, "are thus stated by Lady Juliana Berners, in her "Booke of Huntying." "A grehound fhuld be hodded like a snake, and necked like a drake; foted like a catte, tailed lyke a ratte; syded like a breme, and chined like a beme. The first yere he must lerne to feed; the fecond yere to feeld him lede; the thirde he is felow lyke; the fourth yere he is none lyke; the fifth he is goode inough; the sixth yere he shall holde the plough; the seventh yere he wyll awayle, great bytches for to assayle; the eigth yere lyikladdel; the ninth yere cartsadel; and when he is comen to that yere, have him to the tannere; for the beste hounde that ever bytche had, at the ninth yere he is ful bad."
P. 167. v. 251. The superstitious belief of invisible hunting seems to have prevailed in every country where the barons, or feudal chiefs, were much addicted to this amusement. The traditions of Germany are full of it; and there are even some traces of it in France. The legendary history of Lesley of Monymusk, has preserved the following tradition concerning a mountain haunted by it, on the East coast of Scotland:
"Les Fidelés cependant examinoient quel lieu ils pourroient prendre pour deposer cette precieuse Relique. Ils firent choix d'une montagne où personne n'osoit presque approcher, a raison que depuis long-temps, jusque au jour qu'on y porta le corps du Pere Archange, on y avoit toujours entendu le bruit d'un train de chasse. Il sembloit qu'il y eût d'un côte une meute de chiens que l'on entendoit japer, et que de l'autre on entendoit des hommes crier, et des chevaux courir la poste, sans que la vûë y ait jamais rien pû appercevoir. Néanmoins la foi que les Catholiques avoient aux merites de ce grand Serviteur de Dieu leur donna assez d'assurance d'y monter; et ayant là creusé un fossé assez profond, ils у deposerent ce riche tresor[15]," &c.
The traditions of Man mention a similar hunting, which they attribute to the fairies; and Waldron relates a story concerning it: A Manks sailor returning from a long voyage, was set on shore at Douglas. "It happened to be a fine moonlight night, and very dry, being a small frost. He therefore forebore going into any house to refresh himself, but made the best of his way to the house of a sister he had at Kirk Merlugh. As he was going over a pretty high mountain, he heard the noise of horses, the bellow of a huntsman, and the finest horn in the world. He was a little surprised that any body pursued those kinds of sport in the night; but he had not time for much reflection before they all passed by him, so near that he was able to count what number there was of them, which he said was thirteen, and that they were all drest in green, and gallantly mounted. He was so well pleased with the sight, that he would gladly have followed, could he have kept pace with them. He crossed the foot-way, however, that he might see them again, which he did more than once, and lost not the sound of the horn for some miles." P. 133. When the sailor reached the house of his sister, he related his story, when she told him they were fairies, and that it was well they did not take him away with them. The Manks think such huntings frequent in their island, and imagine the fairies too proud to ride on Manks horses, preferring English and Irish ones.
A similar superstition occurs in the ancient Romance of Orfeo and Heurodis. Orfeo, after the loss of his wife, retires to a desart, where it is said,
Oft in hot undertides,
The king of Fairy, and his rout,
Come to hunt him all about;
With dim cry, and blowing,
And hounds also with him barking;
And no beast they no nome,
No never he nift whither they be come[16].
In popular superstition, noontide was almost as dangerous as midnight, for falling under the influence of spirits. In the Celtic mythology, the shades of the dead are represented as pursuing the chace on their native hills. "The children of youth," says Ossian, "pursue deer formed of clouds, and bend their airy bow: They still love the sport of their youth, and mount the wind with joy[17]." The superstition still exists in the West Highlands; and the editor has heard some traditionary Gaelic verses repeated, in which it was described. The wilds of Ross were the scene of the great huntings of the potent Highland chiefs; and it is not impossible that the tradition of the East coast may have been originally derived from the Gaelic. The German superstition, adopted by Bürger in his Wild Huntsman, has some more terrible features, as it represents a mighty hunter himself pursued in the infernal chace. The German scholar will be pleased to see the original of Bürger; to which I have subjoined my friend Mr. Scott's spirited but free translation.
Mit grüner, blauer, rother glut;
Es wallt um ihn ein feüermeer;
Darinnen wimmelt höllenbrut,
Iach fahren tausend höllenhunde
Laut angehetzt, empor vom schlunde.
Und flicht lautheulend weh und ach;
Doch durch die ganze weite welt
Rauscht bellend ihm die hölle nach,
Bei tag tief durch der erde klüste,
Um mitternacht hoch durch die lüste.
So rasch die flucht ihn vorwärts reifzt.
Er muss die ungeheuer sehn,
Laut angehetzt vom bösen geist,
Muss sehn das knirrschen und das jappen
Der rachen, welche nach ihm schnappen.—
Die bis zum jüngsten tage währt,
Und oft dem wüstling noch bei nacht
Zu schreck und graus vorüberfährt,
Das könnte, muszt’ er sonst nicht schweigen,
Wohl manches jägers mund bezeugen[18].
From yawning rifts, with many a yell,
Mixed with sulphureous flames, ascend
The misbegotten dogs of hell.
Well may I guess, but dare not tell:
His eye like midnight lightning glows,
His steed the swarthy hue of hell.
With many a shriek of helpless woe;
Behind him hound, and horse, and horn,
And hark away, and holla, ho!
Close, close behind he marks the throng
With bloody fangs, and eager cry,
In frantic fear he scours along.
Till time itself shall have an end;
By day earth's tortured womb they scour,
At midnight's witching hour ascend.
That oft the lated peasant hears:
Appalled he signs the frequent cross,
When the wild din invades his ears.
For human pride, for human woe,
When at his midnight mass he hears
The infernal cry of holla, ho[19]!
It appears from Heywood, that about the beginning of the 17th century, those who affected skill in necromancy were fond of assuming the character of aerial huntsmen.
In this prestigious kinde of arte excelling,
Who by such spirits help, could in the aire
Appeare an huntsman, and there chase the hare,
With a full packe of dogs[20].———
P. 169. v. 279. Corbrecho is the whirlpool Corrivrekin, concerning which I find the following account in "Certayne Matters," &c. "The tyde of the sea betwixt this isle (Scarba) and Jura is so violent, that it is not possible to pass it, eyther by sayle or ayre, except at certayne times."
According to Martin, "this whirlpool yields an impetuous current, not to be matched any where about the isle of Britain. The sea begins to boil and ferment with the tide of flood, and resembles the boiling of a pot; and then increases gradually, until it appear in many whirlpools, which form themselves in a sort of pyramids, and immediately after spout up as high as the mast of a little vessel, and at the same time make a loud report. These white waves run two leagues with the wind before they break. The sea continues to repeat these various motions from the beginning of the tide of flood, until it is more than half flood, and then it decreases gradually until it hath ebbed above half an hour, and continues to boil till it is within an hour of low water. This boiling of the sea is not above a pistol-shot distant from the coast of Scarba Isle, where the white waves meet and spout up. They call it the Kaillach, i.e. an old hag; and they say, that when she puts on her Kerchief, i.e. the whitest waves, it is then reckoned fatal to approach her. The gulf has its name from Brekan, said to be son to the King of Denmark, who was drowned here, cast ashore on the north of Jurah, and buried in a cave, as appears from the stone tomb and altar there[21]."
P. 169. v. 280. Scianacha, the Gaelic name of Sky, signifies the winged, an epithet supposed to have been derived from the name of its two northern promontories.
P. 169. v. 284. The islanders of Hirta are represented, in the historical collection 1597, as "rude in all kinde of craft, and most rude in religion." The Taish, or Second-sight, prevailed more in this island than in any part of the highlands or isles; and the seers were remarkable for seeing their own wraiths, or ominous spectres. Hirtha, or Hirta, according to Lesley, receives its appellation from Hirth, a species of sheep only found in that island, which exceeded the goat in height, and the horns of which exceeded those of the ox in length, while they equalled them in size[22]. Martin says, it signifies the Western Isle, and is similar in import to Ierne or Erin.
P. 169. v. 286. Jura's double hill, is the mountainous double range near the centre of the island, which terminates in two peaks, termed The Paps of Jura, which, according to Martin, are very conspicuous from all quarters of sea and land in those parts.
P. 169. v. 287. Mull is described in the historical collection 1597, as unpleasant indeed, but not unfruitful.
P. 169. v. 288. Isla was the residence of the kings, and afterwards of the lords of The Isles, which in Gaelic are denominated Inch Gall, by a general appellation.
- ↑ Memoirs of L. Welsted, p. 24. ap. Nichols' edition of that author's works, 8vo, London, 1787.
- ↑ Certayne Matters concerning the Realme of Scotland, in 1597, Lond. 1603.
- ↑ Waldron's Description of the Isle of Man, p. 94.
- ↑ Fordun. Sc. Chr. Vol. II. p. 307.
- ↑ Black Acts, c. xx. 1566.
- ↑ Fordun. Sc. Chr. à Hearne.
- ↑ Dalyell's Scotish Poems, Vol. II. p. 348.
- ↑ Cleveland's Poems, London, 1677, p. 47–57.
- ↑ Derrick's Image of Ireland, 1581.
- ↑ Perlin Description des Royaulmes d'Angleterre et d'Escoffe. Paris, 1558. (London, 1775, reprinted). P.13.
- ↑ Perlin Description des Royaulmes d'Angleterre et d'Escoffe. Paris, 1558. (London, 1775, reprinted.) P. 32.
- ↑ Defoe's Caledonia, Edin. 1706.
- ↑ Defoe's Caledonia, p. 6.
- ↑ Certayne Matters, &c. 1597.
- ↑ Le Capucin Ecossois, Rouen 1700; or, The Legendary History of George Lesley of Monymusk, denominated Father Archangel; translated from the Italian of the Archbishop of Fermo into French by Francis Clyffton, p. 333 and 334.
- ↑ Romance of Orfeo and Heurodis, MS.
- ↑ The War of Inis-Thona.
- ↑ Bürger's Gedichte, p. 100, 101, Vol. II.
- ↑ Scott's translation of Bürger's Chace, p. 17.
- ↑ Heywood's Hierarchie of the Blessed Angells, 1635, p. 514.
- ↑ Martin's Description of the Western Isles, p. 238.
- ↑ Leslæus De Origine Scotorum, p. 35.