Notes on Canto 6

Since old Buckleuch the name did gain,When in the cleuch the buck was ta'en.—St. VIII. p. 170.

The deer being cureé'd in that place,At his Majesty's demand,Then John of Galloway ran apace,And fetched water to his hand.The King did wash into a dish,And Galloway John he wot;He said, "thy name now after thisShall ever be called John Scot.The forest, and the deer therein,We commit to thy hand;For thou shalt sure the ranger be,If thou obey command:And for the Buck thou stoutly broughtTo us up that steep heuch,Thy designation ever shallBe John Scot in Bucksclengh.”*****In Scotland no Buckcleuch was then,Before the buck in the cleugh was slain;Nights-men at first they did appear,Because moon and stars to their arm they bear.Their crest, supporters, and hunting horn,Shows their beginning from hunting came;Their name and stile, the book doth say,John gained them both into one day.Watt’s Bellanden.

——— Good Fergus Graeme,The Harper of that ancient name.—St. X. p. 171.

She leaned her back against a thorn,The sun shines fair on Carlisle wa';And there she has her young babe born,And the lyon sall be lord of a'.

———The storm-swept Orcades;Where erst St Clairs held princely sway,O'er isle and islet, strait and bay.—St. XXI. p. 179.

Stil nods their palace to its fall,Thy pride and sorrow, fair Kirkwall.—St. XXI. p. 179.

Kings of the main, their leaders brave,Their barks, the dragons of the wave.—St. XXII. p. 180.

Of that sea-snake, tremendous curled,Whose monstrous circle girds the world.—St. XXII. p. 180.

Of those dread maids, whose hideous yellMaddens the battle's bloody swell—St. XXII. p. 181.

Ransacked the graves of warriors old,Their faulchions wrenched from corpses' hold.St. XXII. p. 181.

Seemed all on fire that chapel proud,Where Roslin's chiefs uncoffined lie;Each Baron, for a sable shroud,Sheathed in his iron panoply.—St. XXIII. p. 183.

For he was speechless, ghastly, wan,Like him of whom the story ran,Who spoke the spectre-hound in Man.—St. XXVII. p. 187.

And he a solemn sacred plightDid to St Bryde of Douglas make. St. XXVIII. p. 188.