Scotish Descriptive Poems/Notes on Clyde, Part 1

by John Leyden

NOTES BY THE EDITOR.

PRELIMINARY DISSERTATION.

P. 19. l. 4. All Wilson's publications seem to have escaped the notice of the Reviewers, except the Dramatic Essay, 1760, which was noticed in the following terms by the Monthly Reviewer, who commends the author's modesty for terming his production an Essay rather than a Drama.—"The author of this poetical essay has kept very close to the history, having added little of the circumstances of the story, beside a number of moral sentiments, judiciously interspersed, and generally well expressed; the piece being, indeed, unequally written; some parts of it presuming more in favour of the author's genius, than other parts of it are able to support. The verse is not poetry; and the ear of the English reader will frequently be offended with the sounds of certain Scoticisms, which should never presume to make their appearance on this side the Tweed^[1]."

Hume of Godscroft, in a copy of verses on the event which is the subject of this drama, and which are preserved in his history, Vol. I. p. 289. had declared the subject worthy of the tragic muse:

Vestra Sophocleo cædes est digna cothurno,
 Vestra Thyesteâ cœna cruenta magis;
Vos scelere atque dolis, vos proditione necati,
 Infontes, puerique et patriæ proceres.

PART I.

Page 44. v. 169. According to Henry the Minstrel, Wallace married the daughter of "Hew Braidfute," and heiress of Lammington; a circumstance which gave great offence to Hesilrig, or, as Fordun terms him, Hesliope, the English sherriff of Lanerk, whose son had desired this match. The revenge taken by Hesilrig was equally dastardly and cruel: Wallace having been overpowered in a sudden rencontre at Lanark, escaped to Cartland Craigs; but his innocent lady was put to death by her disappointed and merciless suitor^[2].

Numerous places in Clydesdale bear the name of Wallace; and the memory of that hero is preserved in songs and traditions, not only in that district, but in the Border and Highlands. He is celebrated by Jonston in a strain superior to what that author generally assumes:

Gulielmus Vallas
Robore, mente, animis ingens, ingentior ausis,
 Quem tibi, quem dederint secula prisca parem?
Romani arma gerunt, subnixi viribus orbis;
 Vires, arma, orbis, dextera sola tua:
Nil non pro patria geris, et pro te nihil unquam^[3].

P. 45. v. 187. The historical allusion in this passage, is probably to the capture of the Duc d'Aquillain and Melampe privateers, by Captain Lockhart of the Tartar frigate; a commander who afterwards greatly distinguished himself in the British naval service. This popular derivation of the name of Lockhart is certainly erroneous, as the name occurs in charters at a period long anterior to Sir Symon Lockharde de Lee et Cartland, who accompanied James Lord Douglas to Spain, on his journey to the Holy Land. But, in the anecdotes of family history introduced into this poem, the author has seldom recourse to better authority than Abercrombie.

P. 50. v. 321. The allusions to the history of Douglas, in this passage, refer chiefly to circumstances narrated in Hume of Godscroft's history. The traditions on which the history of the family of Douglas is founded, are certainly of Gaelic extraction, and may probably be still preserved in some of the genealogical verses of Gaelic tradition. It is to be regretted that no attempt has been made to preserve the traditionary history of the Highland clans, to record which was the principal occupation of the bards during the latter periods of their history. Buchanan of Auchmar seems to deduce the origin of Douglas from the famous Thane Macduff of Fife^[4]. Defoe thus celebrates the clan:

Douglas, with native dignities adorned,
Ancient beyond record: records they scorned:
The world's the general record of their house,
When histories are silent and abstruse.——
A race of princes from their fruitful stem,
Has been a living history to them.
The nations willing honours did afford,
And these cut out their glory by the sword:
For, 'twas the early fortunes of their blood
To have their worth both crowned and understood.
Princes by their strong swords possest their crowns,
And grateful France their ancient glory owns^[5].

Jonston, in his Heroes Scot. has also borne ample testimony to their fame:

Unde mihi surgunt tot Martia nomina gentis?
 Quis locus his, aut qua parte locanda feram?
Scipiadæ, Decii, hîc, assertoresque Camilli,
 Et quotquot celebrat Martia Roma duces.
Hos ubi jam sistam? vel quonam carmine cunctos
 Exequar? an paria his me dare posse putem^[6]?

P. 54. v. 408. According to some antiquaries, the ancestor of Somerville accompanied Edgar Atheling, the grandson of Edmund Ironside, on his return from Hungary, whither his father had been sent by the King of Sweden, to whose custody he had been committed by Canute the Dane. By the exertions of Malcolm IV. of Scotland, Edgar was restored to his patrimonial estate. Cuthally, the ancient castle of the Somervilles, the ruins of which still exist in the vicinity of Carnwath, is commonly pronounced Cowdaily; whence the punning spirit of tradition has taken occasion to say, that it derived its name from the daily laughter of a cow for the board of Somerville, alluded to in the poem.

P. 54. v. 417. It may not be unpleasing to the reader, to compare Wilson's description of the falls of the Clyde, with that given by Mr. William Lockhart of Baronald, in the Statistical Account of the Parish of Lanark:

"The uppermost fall is somewhat above two and a half miles from Lanark, and from the estate on which it is situated, is called the Bonniton Fall or Lin. From Bonniton house, a very neat and elegant modern building, you arrive at the Lin, by a most romantic walk along the Clyde, leaving the pavilion and Corra Lin upon your right hand. At some little distance from the fall, the walk, leading to a rock that juts out and overhangs the river, brings you all at once within sight of this beautiful sheet of water; but no stranger rests satisfied with this view; he still presses onwards along the walk, till from the rock immediately above the Lin, he sees the whole body of the river precipitate itself into the chasm below. The rock over which it falls is upwards of twelve feet of perpendicular height, from which the Clyde makes one precipitate tumble, or leap, into a hollow den; whence some of it again recoils in froth and smoking mist. Above, the river exhibits a broad, expanded, and placid appearance, beautifully environed with plantations of forest trees. This appearance is suddenly changed at the fall: and, below it, the river is narrow, contracted, and angrily boils and thunders among rocks and precipices.

"The same beautiful and romantic walk conducts you back again, along the precipice that overhangs the river, both sides of which are environed by mural rocks, equidistant and regular, forming, as Mr. Pennant expresses it, a "stupendous natural masonry;" from whose crevices, choughs, daws, and other wild birds, are incessantly springing. You descend along the river for about half a mile, till you arrive at the Corra Lin, so called from an old castle and estate upon the opposite bank. The old castle of Corra, overhanging a high rock that overlooks the fall, with Corra house, and the rocky and woody banks of the Clyde, form of themselves a beautiful and grand coup d'oeil: But nothing can equal the striking and stupendous appearance of the fall itself, which, when viewed from any of the different seats placed here and there along the walks, must fill every unaccustomed beholder with awe and astonishment. The tremendous rocks around, the old castle upon the opposite bank, a corn mill in the rock below, the furious and impatient stream foaming over the rock, the horrid chasm and abyss underneath your feet, heightened by the hollow murmur of the water and the screams of wild birds, form at once a spectacle both tremendous and pleasing. A summer-house or pavilion is situated over a high rocky bank, that overlooks the Lin, built by Sir James Carmichael of Bonniton in 1708. From its uppermost room it affords a very striking prospect of the fall; for all at once, on throwing your eyes towards a mirror on the opposite side of the room from the fall, you see the whole tremendous cataract pouring as it were upon your head. The Corra Lin, by a late measurement, is found to be 84 feet in height. The river does not rush over in one uniform sheet like the Bonniton Lin, but in three different, though almost imperceptible, precipitate leaps. On the southern bank, and when the sun shines, a rainbow is perpetually seen forming itself upon the mist and fogs, arising from the violent dashing of the waters———^[7]."

"The next fall of consequence is the Stonebyres Lin, situated about two and a half miles below the Corra Lin. It is so called from the neighbouring estate of Stonebyres, belonging to Daniel Vere, Esq.; but the grounds adjacent to the fall, on both sides of the river, have lately been feued or purchased by Mr. Dale. This cataract, which is about eighty feet in height, is the ne plus ultra of the salmon, as none can possibly get above it, although their endeavours, in the spawning season, are incessant and amusing. It is equally romantic with the others; and like the Corra Lin, has three distinct, but almost precipitate falls. Wild rugged rocks are equally visible here, and they are equally fringed with wood; the trees however are by no means so tall and stately, being composed of coppice wood^[8]."

P. 57. v. 489. Fordun, Lesley, Buchanan, and Wyntown, have mentioned the regulations established by King Kenneth at Lanark. But D. M'Pherson, the learned editor of Wyntown, has ingeniously conjectured, that the superior reputation of the warlike Kenneth has in this instance appropriated what is more justly due to the peaceful genius of his brother Dovenald, who revived the institutions of that ancient legislator, Hed-Fyn^[9].

P. 61. v. 587. The following description of wild and garden fruits, present a favourable specimen of the "The Don," a loco-descriptive poem, and may be compared by the curious reader with Wilson's delineation of the appearances of forest and fruit trees:

What though no olive-trees adorn the plain,
Nor juicy grapes intoxicate the brain;
Nor citron groves, delightful to the eye,
Whose juice completes Italian luxury;
Yet still you find our mountain-trees produce
Fruits full as good, and fit for human use^[10] ———.
The soil, though thin, due nourishment supplies,
And, without art, the beauteous berries rise;
Some black, some blue, and some whose red can vie
With brightest scarlet of rich Tyrian dye:
$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$The wholesome everans^[11], which by proof we know
Exceeds in sweetness most of fruits that grow,
'Mongst woodrip^[12] rising, beautifies the show.
The best of liquorice other soils produce,
Is far inferior to the knapperts'^[13] juice.
Dug from the ground, washed in the bubbling spring,
Dryed in the sun, in baskets home they bring;
In wooden cans, within the shady bower,
Upon the roots they crystal water pour;
Which drunk next day is exquisitely good,
Both fit for health, and to digest the food^[14].———
Whilst all the spring and summer, after rain
The birchen wood perfumes the little plain.
So sweet, so pleasant is the fragrant smell,
That few Arabian scents can this excel^[15].———
Here you shall view the garden trees below,
With all the various fruits that on them grow.
Vast choice of apples, pears and plums you'll see,
Bending the branches of each fruitful tree:
The golden pippin, for preserving famed,
Above all other apples can be named,
Claims the first place, since both in taste and smell,
Its flavorous relish does the rest excel.
Next it, the oslin, for a savoury taste
Is much esteemed, and thought by some the best:
The large and ruddy apples, which alone
With their own weight make spreading branches groan;
These in due season from the tree we take,
And with the press, the choicest cyder make.
Nor must we here forget the currant-bush,
In hedges set, which with red berries blush.
On prickly shrubs the gooseberries appear,
Large as the walnut, like the silver clear:
Of them, just as of currants, here you find
Some black, some white, the red and yellow kind.
Each lofty tree here in abundance bears
The best of bergamots, and other pears.
The balmy plums you may in order view,
In taste and shape, of various kinds and hue;
Who yield in relish unto none we know,
That in more southern climes are wont to grow.
$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$The apricots, the guins and cherries here,
Of sundry kinds, which their own standards bear,
Have fragrant taste, and various colours wear^[16].

Page 67. v. 729. Defoe in his "Caledonia," thus mentions the family of Hamilton:

The Hamiltons, of old allied to fame,
Illustrious in blood, and more in name:
In ancient wars, ere other lines begun,
These had a length of towering fortunes run^[17].

P. 73. v. 861. The following description of the Scotish bison occurs in Bellenden's Boece:

"In this wod (Calidon) wes sum tyme quhit bullis, with crisp and curland mane, like feirs lionis; and thoucht they seemed meik and tame in the remanent figure of thair bodyis, yai wer mair wyld than ony uther beistis; and had sic hatrent aganis ye societe and cumpany of men, that thai come nevir in the woddis nor lesuris quhair thay fand ony feit or haynd thairof; and mony dayis efter thay eit nocht of the herbis that wer twichit or handillit be men. Thir bullis wer sa wyld that thai wer nevir tane but slycht and crafty labour, and sa impacient, that efter thair taking thay deit for importable doloure. Als sone as ony man invadit thir bullis, thay ruschit with so terrible preis on hym that thay dang hym to the cird, takand na feir of houndis, scharp lancis, nor uther maist penitrive wapinnis^[18]."

Page 73. v. 871. This account of the different tempers displayed by Monmouth and Dundee in the battle of Bothwell-bridge, accords exactly with both history and tradition. It is alluded to in "The battle of Bothwell-bridge," a traditionary ballad of the Covenanters, still current in Scotland, and which will be included in the third volume of that excellent work, "The Minstrelsy of the Scotish Border." Both parties, in this religious contest, seem to have celebrated their respective causes in verse. Cleland, Lieutenant-Colonel of the Cameronian regiment, who fell in the battle of Dunkeld, composed a long satirical poem "on the Highland host, who came to destroy the western shires in 1678," which is more angry than witty; and, like the other poems of that author, published in 1697, it is equally defective in versification and poetical imagery. He thus describes the Highlanders:

Some might have judged they were the creatures
Called Selfies, whose customs and features,
Paracelsus doth descry
In his occult philosophy,
Or Faunes, or Brownies, if ye will,
Or Satyrs come from Atlas' hill^[19].———
But those who were their chief commanders,
As such who bore the pirnie standards,
Who led the van, and drove the rear,
Were right well mounted in their gear,
With brogues, trues, and pirnie plaids,
With good blue bonnets on their heads,
Which on the one side had a flipe,
Adorned with a tobacco-pipe;
With durk and snap-work and snuff-mill,
A bag which they with onions fill;
And, as their strick observers say,
A tupe-horn filled with usquebay;
A slasht-out coat beneath her plaids;
A targe of timber nails and hides,
With a long two-handed sword^[20].———
In nothing they're accounted sharp,
Except in bag-pipe, and in harp^[21].———

Cleland represents the Highlanders as exhibiting

———more different postures
Than's sewed on hangings, beds or bolstures;
'More various actings, modes and stances,
Than's read in poems or romances.———
Pipes were playing, drums were beating,
Some snizeing, from their fellows getting.———
Trumpets sounded, skeens were glancing;
Some were Tonald Cowper dancing^[22].———

He alludes to the inhabitants of Clydesdale who had signed the bond of the Covenanters, in the following terms;

For Clisdale's bonders, as ye ken,
Are scarcely reckoned amongst men:
The tumid Earle, papist Haggs,
An atheist Jew, to save his baggs.—
Bedla, with Towcorss and Woodhall,
John Thomson's man, plague on them all^[23].———

Cleland, like a true Presbyterian, renounces the inspiration of the Grecian muses, and the far-famed waters of Parnassus; for, says he,

There's als much vertue, sonce, and pith,
In Annan, or the water of Nith,
Which quietly slips by Dumfries,
Als any water in all Greece:
For there, and several other places,
About mill-dams, and green brae faces,
Both elrich elfs, and brownies stayed,
And green-gowned fairies daunced and played.
When old John Knox, and other some,
Began to plott the baggs of Rome,
They suddenly took to their heels,
And did no more frequent these fields^[24].

The rapacity of the Highlanders in the western shires, seems to have rivalled that of the Pandoors and Cossacs of modern days. It is thus described by our author:

They durk our tennents, shame our wives,
And we're in hazard of our lives;
They plunder horse, and them they loaden
With coverings, blankets, sheets and plaiden,
With hooding gray, and worsted stuff;
They sell our tongs for locks of snuff:
They take our cultors and our soaks,
And from our doors they pull the locks:
They leave us neither shools nor spades,
And takes away our iron in laids:
They break our pleughs even when they're working:
We dare not hinder them for durking.
My lords! they so harass and wrong us,
There's scarce a pair of shoes among us:
And for blew bonnets they leave non
That they can get their clauts upon.
If any dare refuse to give them,
They durk them, strips them, and so leaves them.
They ripe for arms, but all they find
Is arms with them, leaves nought behind^[25].

Andrew Guild, author of a curious volume of Latin MS. poems, preserved in the Advocates Library, Edinburgh, W. 5. 14. espouses the episcopalian cause with more inveteracy than ingenuity, and inscribes his poems to Graham of Claverhouse, in the following lines:

Magnifico, generose, tuo pro munere, Greme,
 Accipe nunc animi, parvula dona, mei,
Carmina quæ, tenui, modulatur arundine, pauca,
 Et cecinit, rudibus, nostra Thalia, modis.
Horrida, pestiferæ, hic cernes molimina, sectæ,
 Immanesque ausus, facta cruenta, neces;
Quæque sub eximia pietatis imagine fictæ,
 Crimina, cum gemitu, turba scelesta tegit:
Mira quibus nunquam poterat clementia regis,
 Aut venia, indignis jam satis esse data,
Gratia munifici regis, quæ, pectora sæva,
 Lenire, et populi carnivori, poterat,
Atque Getas, Scythicas tribus, Arabesque feroces
 Mollire, haud illis, petora dira valet:
Munere, nec capitur fanatica turba, nec ullis
 Flectitur officiis, gens malesana, bonis:
Sola quidem strictæ, veneranda potentia legis
 Armata et gladiis, hos retinere potest,
Hoc equidem docuistis, enim, specimine digno,
 Vos, columen patriæ tempus in omne tuæ.

In this style proceeds the invective of this Goth, or Vandal, or Hun; for in point of Latinity it is scarcely possible to be more barbarous; who appears to have been one of the last Scotish poets who employed the Latin language, and certainly one of them who least deserves to be known. How inferior is his style to that of the elegant Pitcairn! It must have been a great satisfaction to a Presbyterian of the old school, to see so much virulence expressed in such bad language. I select the following characteristic passage from his “Phanaticorum Descriptio:"

Tortula, longisono, proferunt qui verba boatu,
 Quæ gravitatis erunt omina prima suæ,
Cum fera, tabisicum, conspirat prælia, pectus
 Cum gemitu, fauces, sesquipedale sonant.

In an invective on David Williamson, he refers to a well-known adventure of that covenanter, which is supposed to have given origin to the popular Scotish song of “Dainty Davie:"

Num viduæ memor es, dominæ, cum forte cubili,
 Militis, ut latitans, arma tremenda fugis?
Ut statim amplexus, dederis te, in virginis imos,
 Uberaque ut natæ presseris alba, salax?

The arms and military array of the Covenanters who formed round the standard of Claverhouse, taken at the skirmish of Lowdon-hill, and advanced to Bothwell-bridge, are described in the following passage:

At Gremi ablato vexillo, velut omine fausto,
Undique collectis, coeunt in castra rebelles,
Viribus, aft armis minime concordibus instant.
Cingitur exeso, hic, scabra rubigine, ferro
Longurio aft alius, cestra, aut stridente bipenni;
Tertius at rigidam gestabat forte securim:
Maxima pars, furcas gestit crispare bisulcas,
Surreptisque armis, et equis quos flectere nescit,
Exultat pars magna virûm , flammasque vomentes
Congestant alii sclopos, quos nuper aratro
Assueti, carbo bene vix displodere norunt.

The Bellum Bothwelianum, from which this passage is extracted, is of considerable length, and mentions some minute circumstances of the engagement. One passage is curious:

Fama refert, stolidâ captum vertigine cœtum,
Sublimem erexisse crucem, de sorte futurâ
Non dubium, quâ hostes possit suspendere captos.

After this poem follows "Velitatio Cameroniana, sive, Appendix Belli Bothweliani." The other poems of Guild are chiefly complimentary or valedictory. One of them is addressed to Sir Robert Dalyell. The author appears to have been educated at Aberdeen.

Colville, in his Scotish Hudibras, and afterwards Meston, in his "Knight," both allude to the spirit of resistance displayed by the Presbyterians. The latter thus describes "the Souterkin of reformation:"

In his broad hat, instead of feather,
The league and covenant together
He tied, and under hat-band sticked,
And wore them like a burgess ticket.
 A pair of gauntlet gloves he had
For boxing, and for preaching made,
With which he dealt his deadly blows,
And thumped the pulpit and his foes.
Well versed he was in both the trades
Of handling texts and rusty blades:
And many a head had got contusions
By both these weapons, in confusions;
For when he killed not with the word,
He did it with the powerful sword;
And made his enemies perplexed,
Either with awful sword or text.
He was content to fight his foes,
Either with paraphrase or blows;
And if the one did not succeed,
The other knocked them on the head^[26].

 

 

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1. Monthly Review, Vol. XXIII. p. 526.
2. Henry's Wallace, Vol. I. p. 121. 1790.
3. Joh. Jonstoni Heroes Scot. p. 9.
4. Buchanan's Inquiry into the Genealogy and Present State of ancient Scotish Surnames, p. 14.
5. Defoe's Caledonia, p. 43.
6. Joh. Jonstoni Heroes Scot.
7. Statistical Account of Scotland, Vol. XV. p. 20.
8. Statistical Account of Scotland, Vol. XV. p. 23.
9. Chron. Pict. ap. Innes, p. 783.
10. The Don; a Poem, p.17.
11. Everans is a berry that grows upon the tops of hills, and resembles a mulberry, but of a yellowish colour when ripe.
12. Woodrip is a kind of wild lavander, but has a much finer smell.
13. Knapperts is a root that tastes like liquorice, but is much sweeter.
14. The Don; a Poem, p.18.
15. Ibid p. 23.
16. The Don; a Poem, p. 23, 24.
17. Defoe's Caledonia, p. 46.
18. Bellenden's Boece.
19. Cleland's Poems, p. 11.
20. Ibid p. 12.
21. Ibid p. 13.
22. Cleland's Poems, p. 34.
23. Ibid p. 43.
24. Cleland's Poems, p. 59.
25. Ibid p. 38.
26. Meston's Poems, p. 8. 1767.

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