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"But it is very disagreeable to an Englishman, over a bottle "with the Highlanders, to see every one of them have his gilly, that is, his servant, standing behind him all the while, "let what will be the subject of conversation."-Letters from Scotland, II. 159.

NOTES TO CANTO III.

Note I.

And while the Fiery Cross glanced like a meteor round.

St. I. p. 104.

When a chieftain designed to summon his clan, upon any sudden or important emergency, he slew a goat, and making a cross of any light wood, seared its extremities in the fire, and extinguished them in the blood of the animal. This was called the Fiery Cross, also Crean Tarigh or the Cross of Shame, because disobedience to what the symbol implied inferred infamy. It was delivered to a swift and trusty messenger, who ran full speed with it to the next hamlet, where he presented it to the principal person, with a single word, implying the place of rendezvous. He who received the symbol was bound to send it forward, with equal dispatch, to the next village; and thus it passed, with incredible celerity, through all the district which owed allegiance to the chief, and also among his allies and neighbours, if the danger was common to them. At sight of the Fiery Cross, every man, from sixteen years

old to sixty, capable of bearing arms, was obliged instantly to repair, in his best arms and accoutrements, to the place of rendezvous. He who failed to appear suffered the extremities of fire and sword; which were emblematically denounced to the disobedient by the bloody and burnt marks upon this warlike signal. During the Civil War of 1745-6, the Fiery Cross often made its circuit; and, upon one occasion, it passed through the whole district of Breadalbane, a tract of thirtytwo miles, in three hours. The late Alexander Stewart, Esq. of Invernahyle, described to me his having sent round the Fiery Cross through the district of Appine, during the same commotion. The coast was threatened by a descent from two English frigates, and the flower of the young men were with the army of Prince Charles Edward, then in England: yet the summons was so effectual, that even old age and childhood obeyed it; and a force was collected in a few hours, so numerous and so enthusiastic, that all attempt at the intended diversion upon the country of the absent warriors, was in prudence abandoned, as desperate.

This practice, like some others, is common to the Highlanders with the ancient Scandinavians, as will appear by the following extract from Olaus Magnus:

"When the enemy is upon the sea-coast, or within the limits " of northern kingdomes, then presently, by the command of "the provincial governours, with the counsel and consent of "the old soldiers, who are notably skilled in such like business, a staff of three hands length, in the common sight of "them all, is carried, by the speedy running of some active

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young man, unto that village or city, with this command,→ "that on the 3. 4. or 5. day, one, two, or three, or else every

man in particular, from 15 years old, shall come with his

arms, and expenses for ten or twenty days, upon pain that "his or their houses shall be burnt, (which is intimated by "the burning of the staff,) or else the master to be hanged, (which is signified by the cord tied to it,) to appear speedily

on such a bank, or field, or valley, to hear the cause he is "called, and to receive orders from the said provincial go"vernours what he shall do. Wherefore that messenger, "swifter than any post or waggon, having done his commis"sion, comes slowly back again, bringing a token with him "that he hath done all legally; and every moment one or "another runs to every village, and tells those places what "they must do."------" The messengers, therefore, of the "footmen that are to give warning to the people to meet for "the battail, run fiercely and swiftly; for no snow, nor rain, nor heat can stop them, nor night hold them; but they will

soon run the race they undertake. The first messenger tells "it to the next village, and that to the next; and so the hub

"bub runs all over till they all know it in that stift or terri

tory, where, when, and wherefore they must meet."

OLAUS MAGNUS' History of the Goths, Englished by J. S. Lond. 1658. book iv. chap. 3, 4.

Note II.

That Monk, of savage form and face. St. IV. p. 107.

The state of religion in the middle ages afforded consider

able facilities for those whose mode of life excluded them from regular worship, to secure, nevertheless, the ghostly assistance of confessors, perfectly willing to adapt the nature of their doctrine to the necessities and peculiar circumstances of their flock. Robin Hood, it is well known, had his celebrated domestic chaplain Friar Tuck. And that same curtal friar was probably matched in manners and appearance by the ghostly fathers of the Tynedale robbers, who are thus described in an excommunication fulminated against their patrons by Richard Fox, Bishop of Durham, tempore Henrici VIII:-" We have "further understood, that there are many chaplains in the "said territories of Tynedale and Redesdale, who are public " and open maintainers of concubinage, irregular, suspended, "excommunicated, and interdicted persons, and withal so

utterly ignorant of letters, that it has been found by those "who objected this to them, that there were some who, having celebrated mass for ten years, were still unable to read "the sacramental service. We have also understood, there are

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persons among them, who, although not ordained, do take 66 upon them the offices of priesthood; and, in contempt of "God, celebrate the divine and sacred rites, and administer "the sacraments, not only in sacred and dedicated places, "but in those which are prophane and interdicted, and most "wretchedly ruinous; they themselves being attired in rag"ged, torn, and most filthy vestments, altogether unfit to be " used in divine or even in temporal offices. The which said 66 chaplains do administer sacraments and sacramental rites to "the aforesaid manifest and infamous thieves, robbers, depre