University of California Berkeley 
 
THE 
 
 LAY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 SCOTTISH FIDDLE. 
 
 A POEM. 
 IN FIVE CANTOS. 
 
 SUPPOSED TO BE WRITTEN 
 
 BY W- - S : , ESQ. 
 
 7*^. 
 
 FIRST AMERICAN, 
 
 FROM THE FOURTH EDINBURGH EDITION", 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR JAMES CAWTHORN, 
 COCKSPUR-STREET. 
 
 *81 1- 
 

 Wbittingham and Rowland, Printers, 
 Gosvvell Street, London. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 OF 
 
 THE ENGLISH EDITOR. 
 
 AN eminent female writer, whose genius does 
 honour not only to her sex but to the human 
 race, has observed in her admirable work 
 on Germany, lately published, that conver- 
 sation in England, is confined to politics and 
 business : " Business, the parliament, the ad- 
 " ministration fill all heads; and political 
 " interests are the principal objects of their 
 "meditations" vol. i. p. 221. Without stop- 
 ping at present to controvert an error so in- 
 jurious to the taste of our country, and de- 
 rogatory to the convivial friendly meetings in 
 England, where, when suspicious of no critic, 
 the heart is light, and the soul flows with- 
 out restraint or awe ; or to contest with her 
 the truth of her assertion of the superiority 
 
 Mi G9 
 
iV PREFACE. 
 
 of the French in conversation, I am inclined 
 to adapt her remark to American literature. 
 Hitherto the writings of the Americans, 
 with a few exceptions, have been upon po- 
 litical, commercial, and similar grave and 
 important topics ; but of works of taste and 
 imagination the Old World has as yet received 
 no accession from the New. It should seem 
 that the progress of literary genius is con- 
 current with their progress as a nation : they 
 have formed the base of their column, they 
 have perhaps raised the shaft of it, but the 
 capital is wanting : in the Belles Lettres ,and 
 particularly Poetry, they are still behind- 
 hand. Before the present we have seen no 
 work which entitles America to boast of a 
 poet ; but when politics and commerce shall 
 cease to engross the minds of her inhabi- 
 tants, there can be no doubt that some of 
 her sons will share that divine inspiration $ 
 which, in the other quarters of the world, has 
 given celebrity to so many names. That 
 the seeds of poetical genius have been for 
 some time floating in the American at- 
 mosphere, is proved even by efforts that have 
 been unsuccessful ; and now the following 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 Poem will show that America possesses a 
 Poet who has but to respect himself, and to 
 make a judicious choice of subjects, to take 
 a station among the Bards at the summit of 
 Parnassus. 
 
 The intrinsic and independent beauties of 
 the poem almost make it a pity that the 
 author should have descended to burlesque 
 and parody. The pen from which these 
 have flowed would have attained, and will 
 attain, immortal honour, by turning to sub- 
 jects worthy of immortality ; by disdaining 
 to catch at a laugh ; and by determining not 
 to give up to party, or even to vindictive 
 patriotism, a soul meant for mankind. 
 
 It will be seen that the " Lay of the Scot- 
 tish Fiddle" is intended to be in general a 
 parody of Scott's style ; but it will also 
 strike the reader, that the Author frequently 
 loses sight of his intention, and is borne 
 away by the native powers of his own genius 
 into original flights worthy of the great poet 
 himself, whose style he purposes to make 
 subservient to a burlesque romance, in which 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 he means to raise a laugh at the military and 
 naval commanders who are engaged to op- 
 pose the pretensions of his country, as well 
 as at some of his own countrymen, particu- 
 larly the inhabitants of New England. He 
 is perhaps more successful than any other 
 writer, who has thought proper to imitate or 
 to parody the style of the poet of Mel- 
 rose; but it is where he soars beyond the 
 sphere of imitation that he proves himself 
 to be a poet. 
 
 It has pleased the Author, humorously, and 
 perhaps in an open enemy not unfairly, to 
 compose a burlesque poem, in which he 
 treats the war as predatory, our officers as 
 border chieftains, and the military opera- 
 tions, which bear hard upon his countrymen, 
 as the acts of freebooters and uncivilized 
 warfare. To answer these poetical liberties 
 seriously, would be to take them in a serious 
 light. The reply to the causes of the unhappy 
 and unnatural war between Great Britain 
 and America, and the manner of waging it, 
 is in abler hands than that which holds the 
 pen to write this Preface ; nor do the honour 
 
PREFACE. VH 
 
 and character of our commanders on the 
 American station require its aid. 
 
 That pure romantic burlesque, in which 
 an adherence to fact is not expected, forms 
 the spirit of the story, and of the descrip- 
 tions of the following poem, is very evident, 
 from the Author's own avowal in a humorous 
 note, where he indulges his hostile imagina- 
 tion in creating a ridiculous feature for the 
 face of one of his knights : " I cannot," 
 he states, " positively say he had a red 
 " nose, but there are several reasons to sup- 
 " so. Dugdale affirms, &c." In these points 
 the Author is truly Hudibrastic, and the 
 English reader, who will consider him only 
 as a poet, will make every allowance for the 
 fiction of a writer whose country is at war 
 with that to which he refers, and from whose 
 commanders it may have received some 
 rough treatment. For myself, I will be 
 bound to say, from my confidence in the 
 British spirit on sea and land, that no ope- 
 ration of a British commander was ever the 
 result of dishonourable motives. But this is 
 not the place to enter into a defence of Bri- 
 
Vlli PREFACE. 
 
 tish honour. Be the writer's patriotic pre- 
 judices what they may, they will be invi- 
 sible in the brightness of his genius, and 
 he will find Britons ready to exalt talents in 
 foe or friend, and to bestow upon himself a 
 laurel crown, which the infant hand of Ame- 
 rican Criticism is not yet sufficiently strong 
 to wreathe. 
 

 PREFACE 
 
 OF 
 
 THE AMERICAN EDITOR*. 
 
 THE poem here presented to the American 
 public, was transmitted to the editor by a friend 
 now in Edinburgh. It is there universally attri- 
 buted to Mr S. and the following is its private 
 history as delivered to our friend, who is intimate 
 in the literary circles of that town, by Mrs. 
 Grant, (the ladies can't keep a secret) author of 
 Letters from the Mountains, and other popular 
 productions. 
 
 No sooner was an account of the brilliant 
 achievements of Admiral C . received in Edinburgh, 
 than a distinguished Bookseller waited on Mr. S. 
 and offered him a large sum to celebrate them in a 
 poem. Mr. S. began his task on Monday morn- 
 ing, on Saturday it was finished, and the first 
 impression disposed of before the middle of the 
 * In fact the Author. 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 middle of the ensuing week. Such is shortly the 
 history of this poem, which the editor now offers 
 to the public, without vouching for its authen- 
 ticity. It may however be permitted him to 
 make a few observations on the internal evidence 
 of the production itself, from which he trusts it 
 will appear pretty evident that the work is 
 genuine. 
 
 The critical reader will perceive many charac- 
 teristics of Mr. S's. manner and taste through- 
 out the whole, and will trace in the notes that 
 persevering industry in the investigation of anti- 
 quity, as well as that extraordinary acquaintance 
 with local scenery and tradition, for which our 
 author is unrivalled. He will also perceive the 
 same fondness for quoting old ballads, and trac- 
 ing the genealogies of illustrious families to their 
 sources. 
 
 Another resemblance which cannot fail to 
 strike the attention, is the studious abstinence of 
 the author from all allusion to the mythology 
 and traditions of the ancients ; the whole poem 
 containing but one instance of the kind, as far 
 as the editor remembers. 
 
 At all events, the work is undoubtedly of Bri- 
 
PREFACE. XI 
 
 tish origin, as may be demonstrated by the total 
 ignorance it displays of the geography of this 
 country, an ignorance which is exhibited in most 
 of the English writings, and particularly in the 
 speeches of members of Parliament, whose know- 
 ledge of America is really wonderful, consider- 
 ing how far off it is. The poet in the very outset 
 betrays his want of information in this respect, 
 by making a poor blind fiddler and his little dog 
 walk from New York to Princeton in one day; a 
 thing altogether beyond the bounds of that pro- 
 bability to which all civilized poets are restricted 
 by the rules of criticism. 
 
 The reader will doubtless smile when he comes 
 to that part of the poem in which our old friends 
 Archy Gifford, and John Joline, are mentioned 
 with such distinction, and honoured with the title 
 of lords, to which however they may, for aught 
 we know, be as fully entitled as some of the dis- 
 tinguished heroes of modern chivalry. Every 
 body in the world, at least in the new world, 
 knows that Archy Gifford was, and John Joline 
 is, as arrant a tavern keeper as any in Christen- 
 dom; yet has Mr. S. with a singular sort of per- 
 verseness, dubbed them both lords, and traced 
 
XII PREFACE. 
 
 their lineage into the very bowels of the crusades. 
 The honest truth of the matter is, that Mr. S. 
 seems to labour under a species of madness si- 
 milar to that of Don Quixote, and arising from 
 the same cause ; the perusal of those mischievous 
 books of chivalry, upon which the curate and 
 the barber pronounced such heavy judgments. 
 The sage Hidalgo never came to an inn without 
 mistaking it for a stately castle ; or encountered 
 an inn-keeper, without metamorphosing him into 
 a noble Castellan, governor, or high born noble- 
 man. In like manner, our author, with a singular 
 felicity of imagination, has contrived to make 
 lords out of every body he meets; to convert 
 honest Archy Gifford's good stone-house into a 
 castle; and to discover an inscription on his 
 stables at Newark, which we firmly believe never 
 existed. 
 
 Mr. S. ; it will be perceived, takes occasion in 
 his notes to introduce several political opinions, 
 which we think might as well have been let 
 alone. We considered it our duty however to give 
 the poem and its illustrations exactly as we re- 
 ceived them. It has long been the custom with 
 
PREFACE. Xlll 
 
 foreigners to meddle in the affairs of our coun- 
 try ; and their opinions, with regard to the mea- 
 sures of our government, are considered so con- 
 clusive, that they are often quoted with tri 
 umphant exultations by the newspapers here. 
 Our author has certainly as fair a right to the 
 privilege of intermeddling as the best of them ; and 
 doubtless his opinions may be entitled to almost 
 as much consideration as those of a British news- 
 paper, even though they were sanctioned by the 
 weighty support of its brother editor here. 
 
 We were a little surprised to find Mr. S. mak- 
 ing many sly, and to say the truth, rather severe 
 remarks upon the character and conduct of the 
 people of New-England, and ridiculing their 
 claims to superior virtue and intelligence. In 
 truth, the people of that enlightened quarter of 
 the United States, are no favourites in Scotland, 
 from their too great dexterity in making bargains ; 
 a dexterity which is so notorious, that many 
 bonny Scots are rather shy of having any thing 
 to do with them in this way. We are ourselves 
 rather inclined, however, to attribute this apparent 
 dislike of Mr. S. to a more honourable motive, 
 
XIV PREFACE. 
 
 and to place it to the account of that disgust 
 which, without any reference to party, every high 
 spirited man, in every country, must feel in con- 
 templating the spectacle exhibited by the majo- 
 rity of the people of New England. Like Jionest 
 Peter in Romeo and Juliet, the eastern patriot 
 exclaims, " / dare draw my sword as soon as 
 " another man, when I see occasion, in a good 
 " cause, and with the law on my side." Of all 
 which circumstances he is to be the sole judge. 
 
 With regard to the merits of this poem, we are 
 inclined to place it above all Mr. S/s other pro- 
 ductions, particularly in point of novelty and 
 invention. The scene being entirely in a new 
 world, the names introduced such as have never 
 before figured in epic poetry, and the adventures 
 mostly of the nautical kind, give it a degree of 
 interest, and an air of freshness and newness, ex- 
 tremely agreeable to those who have been some- 
 what surfeited with the sameness of his former 
 productions. As far as we recollect, there are 
 not more than two or three nautical epic poems 
 extant. The Argonauts of Apollonius Rhodius, 
 the Lusiad of Camoens, and perhaps the Battle 
 
PREFACE. XV 
 
 of the Frogs and Mice of Homer, are of this 
 class. The writer therefore who essays this 
 species of poetry possesses many advantages 
 over all others, because the subject is not alto- 
 gether worn thread-bare. 
 
 Another conspicuous excellence of the Lay of 
 the Scottish Fiddle is its originality. We will 
 venture to say that Mr. S. has borrowed from 
 no poet ancient or modern, except himself; and 
 that is a species of plagiarism, which deserves to 
 be pardoned on account of its novelty. Few 
 writers are ever detected in purloining their own 
 thoughts, because in general they are not worth 
 the trouble; and besides there is, in all probability, 
 a sort of unaccountable satisfaction in riding a 
 Foray into the territories of a rival author, and 
 carrying off some of his best thoughts, which 
 induces a man sometimes to venture his neck for 
 it. It comes under the class of stolen pleasures, 
 which are most peculiarly gratifying. 
 
 The most glaring plagiarism of this kind, we 
 think, which Mr. S. has been guilty of in the pre- 
 sent instance, is the manifest similarity exhibited 
 in the characters of the Buccaneer in Rokeby, 
 
XVI PREFACE. 
 
 and the hero of this poem, Sir Cockburn, a simi- 
 larity which must strike the most superficial 
 observer. He has also introduced some of the 
 same lines that have heretofore been given to the 
 public in his former productions. But we know 
 of no law which forbids a man to purloin his 
 own goods, unless with a view of defrauding the 
 underwriters, who in general, we believe, have 
 little to do with any writings, except policies of 
 insurance. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 1 HE way was long, though 'twas not cold 
 But the poor bard was weak and old, 
 And carried, scored upon his front, 
 Of many a year the long account. 
 His Fiddle sole remaining pride 
 Hung dangling down his ragged side, 
 In faded bag of flannel green, 
 Through which the well carv'd head was seen 
 Of gaping lion, yawning wide, 
 In regal pomp of beastly pride. 
 The last of all the race was he, 
 Who charm'd the ear with tweedle dee. 
 For lack-a-day ! full well I ween 
 The happy times he once had seen, 
 When in the merry capering days 
 Of olden time he tun'd his lays, 
 'Mong gallant lads, or jolly sailors, 
 And play'd " the de'cl among the tailors," 
 B 
 
2 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Had given place to other glee, 
 
 And different strains of harmony. 
 
 " The bigots of this iron time 
 
 " Had called his harmless art a crime ;" 
 
 And now, instead of dance and song 
 
 Pricking the night's dull pace along, 
 
 And sprightly gambols deftly play'd 
 
 By rustic lad and gleeful maid, 
 
 And all that decks the cheek of toil, 
 
 With nature's warm and heartfelt smile, 
 
 No sound is heard borne on the gale, 
 
 In village lone or rural dale, 
 
 But canting, whining, nasal notes, 
 
 Twanging through hoarse and foggy throats, 
 
 Ascending to the startled sky, 
 
 Mocking the ear of deity 
 
 With nonsense blasphemous and wild ; 
 
 While wretches, of their peace beguil'd, 
 
 Scare the dull ear of drowsy night, 
 
 With screams that boding screech owls fright, 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 And hollow moans, that seem to flow 
 
 From damned souls in shades below. 
 
 Love-feasts are held at midnight's hour, 
 
 When fancy wields her potent power, 
 
 And to the trembling wretch's eyes 
 
 Sepulchres ope, and spectres rise, 
 
 Gaunt forms, and grisly shapes appear, 
 
 And sweet religion turns to fear. 
 
 A fiddler now, no wight so poor, 
 
 May beg his bread from door to door, 
 
 Nor tune to please a peasant's ear, 
 
 Those notes that blithe King Cole might hear. 
 
 A little dog with gentle speed, 
 Though not of black St. Hubert's breed, 
 Led by a string this man of woe, 
 Whose falt'ring steps, all sad and slow, 
 Seem'd hastening toward that long, long home, 
 Where rich and poor at last must come. 
 
4 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Why didn't that puppy walk behind ? 
 
 Alas ! the fiddler was stone blind, 
 
 And might not find his way alone 
 
 Ev'n though meridian sun had shone. 
 
 Betide him weal, betide him woe, 
 
 In summer heat or winter snow, 
 
 Or when the cutting midnight blast 
 
 Around the leafy forest cast, 
 
 And withering frost launch'd on the air 
 
 Laid the sweet face of nature bare ; 
 
 When man and nature seem'd combin'd 
 
 With biting frost, and whistling wind, 
 
 To waste his poor remains of life 
 
 In anxious toil and fruitless strife ; 
 
 Still that same dog ne'er shrunk the while 
 
 From nature's frown, or wooVl her smile ; 
 
 But faithful to his wonted trust, 
 
 More true than man, than man more just, 
 
 He led the wight, from day to day, 
 
 Unharm'd through all his darksome way. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 In lonely shed, at brightening blaze, 
 In dewy fields, or hard highways, 
 Or under branch of spreading tree, 
 Where'er his lodgings chanc'd to be, 
 Still that same little faithful guide, 
 Stretch'd at his feet or by his side, 
 While the poor houseless wanderer slept, 
 His guardian watch forever kept. 
 
 Now cross'd they noble Hudson's tide, 
 In steam boat, young Columbia's pride, 
 And meet it is the poet say 
 They paid no ferriage by the way. 
 Through Jersey city straight they wend, 
 And Bergen hill-tops slow ascend, 
 Whence he who is possessed of eyes 
 A gallant prospect often spies. 
 Far off, the noiseless ocean rolPd 
 A pure expanse of burnish'd gold; 
 
6 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 And nearer, spread a various view 
 Of objects beautiful and new; 
 Fair Hackinsack, Passaick smooth, 
 Whose gentle murmurs sweetly sooth ; 
 And Newark bay, and Arthur's sound, 
 And many an island spread around, 
 Like fat green turtles fast asleep, 
 On the still surface of the deep. 
 
 And Gotham might you see, whose spires 
 Shone in the sun like meteor fires. 
 The vessels lay all side by side, 
 And spread a leafless forest wide; 
 And now and then the Yo, heave O, 
 Borne on the breeze, all sad and slow, 
 Seem'd like the requiem of trade, 
 Low in its grave for ever laid. 
 Here, roll'd along in matchless pride, 
 Old Hudson's stream is seen to glide ; 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Majestic in its noble course 
 It springs a river at its source ! 
 A thousand vessels plough its tide, 
 A thousand beauties deck its side, 
 A thousand products gem its fields, 
 Ten thousand various goods it yields ; 
 And white along its glorious way 
 The villages so new and gay, 
 All scattered here and there are seen, 
 On rising hill or level green. 
 
 Winding their way in silent toil, 
 O'er bridge, through turnpike^gate, and stile, 
 Our weary travellers pass'd along, 
 Cheer'd by the wild wood's merry song, 
 Till faint with hunger, tir'd and lame, 
 With blistered feet they faltering came 
 To where old Princeton's classic fane, 
 With cupob, and copper vane, 
 And learning's holy honours crown'd 
 Looks from her high hill all around, 
 
8 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 O'er such a wondrous fairy scene, 
 Of waving woods and meadows green, 
 That sooth to say, a man might swear, 
 Was never seen so wondrous fair. 
 
 Here many a sign-post caught the view 
 Of our poor dog, whose instinct knew 
 Those fanes, by wandering minstrels sought, 
 Where liquor may be begg'd or bought. 
 In quick succession rose to view, 
 The mason's square and compass true, 
 The checker-board, the crossing keys, 
 And, waving in the poplar trees, 
 The uncork'd bottle, spouting beer 
 Into the tumbler standing near, 
 With curve so graceful, yet so just, 
 That not a single drop is lost. 
 But here stern bigotry abides, 
 Which lovely charity derides, 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Save, that which vulgar bosom wins, 
 That which at home with self begins. 
 Fiddling and dancing they abhorr'd, 
 And drove the minstrel from their board. 
 Sadly he felt that trying hour, 
 For now approached the summer shower ; 
 The muttering thunder rolling far 
 Made windows rattle with rude jar, 
 Blue lightnings o'er the dark cloud sprung, 
 Like serpents with their forked tongue ; 
 The patient beast, the hurrying man, 
 With headlong haste for shelter ran, 
 And nought that might a shelter find, 
 Brav'd the rude storm, and rushing wind. 
 The old man rais'd his sightless eye 
 To Him who rules the earth and sky ; 
 And seem'd from out that sightless ball, 
 A tear of hard reproach to fall, 
 That HE, who gave the snake a home, 
 Should leave blind men thus sad to roam 
 
10 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Perchance that drop fell from the sky, 
 For now the pattering shower was nigh, 
 And those dark eyes had long been dry. 
 Even now he reach'd the welcome door 
 That ne'er was shut aginst the poor, 
 Where lord Joline his merry cheer, 
 Deals out to all from far and near. 
 With hesitating step at last 
 The ample gate he slowly passed ; 
 The lady saw his weary pace, 
 His matted beard, his furrow'd face, 
 Mark'd how his glassy eye-balls glar'd, 
 Yet no intelligence appeared ; 
 And bade her page the menials tell, 
 That they should tend the old man well, 
 And careful be of that same dog 
 Who with the minstrel on did jog. 
 
 When kindness had his wants supplied, 
 And the old man was satisfied, 
 Began to rise the Fiddlers pride. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 11 
 
 His elbow itch'd to quaver now ; 
 The little dog, cried bow, wow, wow, 
 And wagg'd his tail to hear again 
 The music of some well known strain. 
 The minstrel 'gan to prate anon, 
 Of Archy Gifford dead and gone, 
 Of good John Gifford rest him God 
 A stouter ne'er at training trod. 
 And would the beauteous lady deign, 
 To listen to his lowly strain, 
 Though tir'd with walking many a mile, 
 And worn with hunger, thirst, and toil, 
 He did'nt know, he could'nt tell, 
 Perchance the strain might please her well. 
 The gracious lady with a smile, 
 Glad thus the evening to beguile, 
 Granted the minstrel's lowly suit, 
 And gave the wight a dram to boot. 
 
12 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 And now he said he would full fain, 
 He could recall an ancient strain 
 He never thought to sing again ; 
 It was not fram'd for common swine, 
 But such high lords as John Joline. 
 He once had play'd for John Gifford, 
 Till he fell asleep, and loudly snor'd, 
 And much he long'd yet fear'd to try 
 The sleep compelling melody. 
 
 Amid the strings his fingers stray 'd 
 As if an harp he oft had play'd, 
 But sooth to say he shook his head ; 
 Yet soon he caught the measure true, 
 Of Yankey doodle doodle doo ! 
 And pleas'd to find he'd found the strain, 
 Warm transport seem'd to fire his brain; 
 The fiddle with his chin he pressed, 
 The fiddle pressed against his breast, 
 
INTRODUCTION. 13 
 
 His fingers o'er the cat-gut stray'd, 
 His elbow work'd, and work'd his head, 
 And as he dol'd the jingling rhyme, 
 With thundering rout his foot kept time. 
 They thought the devil was in the man, 
 When the Last Fiddler thus began. 
 
THE 
 
 LAY OF THE SCOTTISH FIDDLE. 
 
 CANTO I. 
 
 THE THREE KNIGHTS. 
 
 
TUB 
 
 LAY OF THE SCOTTISH FIDDLE 
 
 CANTO L 
 
 THE THREE KNIGHTS. 
 I. 
 
 1 HE feast was over in the cabin below, 
 
 And the knight was pacing to and fro 
 
 On the quarter deck that was guarded well : 
 
 Who thinks to pass that centinel, 
 
 Jesu Maria ! shield him well ! 
 
 No living wight but that knight did dare 
 
 To print his vent'rous footstep there. 
 
 II. 
 
 The tables were cleared, it was idlesse all, 
 The gun-room lads were fast asleep ; 
 c 
 
18 THE THREE KNIGHTS. 
 
 Silent the rabble rout was all, 
 Silent the breeze and weltering deep. 
 The sailors, bottle loving race, 
 Stretched half asleep recumbent lay, 
 And urg'd in dreams the gallant chase, 
 Of oyster-boats far up the bay. 
 
 III. 
 
 Full seven hundred valiant tars, 
 Doft'd their hats when the knight came by, 
 All fam'd afar in naval wars, 
 And feats of modern chivalry. 
 Six lieutenants stout and bold, 
 Twelve midshipmen, not quite so old, 
 Jolly lads of mettle true, 
 Officered this gallant crew. 
 
 IV. 
 
 All of these were clad in blue, 
 
 With belted loins and broad-sword true, 
 
THE THREE KNIGHTS. 19 
 
 They quitted not their steel so bright, 
 Neither by day, nor yet by night : 
 
 They lay down to rest, 
 
 With doublet all brac'd, 
 Pillow'd on plank, so rough and hard ; 
 
 They carv'd at the meal 
 
 With sword of true steel, 
 And they drank their small beer out of buckets 
 all tarr'd. 
 
 V. . 
 
 Why do these lads stand ready dight 1 
 Why watch these warriors, arm'd by night 7 
 They watch to hear the night-watch hail 
 Some enemy's or neutral sail ; 
 To see the beacon glimmering far, 
 Like Will-o'-wisp or shooting star ; 
 They watch 'gainst suthron force and guile, 
 Lest Hull, or Decatur, or Jones's powers, 
 Should threaten their Lordly floating towers, 
 From New-York, or Boston, or Norfolk the while. 
 
20 THE THREE KNIGHTS. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Sir Knight with anxious cares oppressed, 
 
 As little shared of peace or rest, 
 
 But pac'd with doubtful step and slow, 
 
 Now back and forth, now to and fro. 
 
 Care sat upon his wrinkled brow, 
 
 As deep revolving when and how 
 
 He might chastise the sinful fry, 
 
 Who dar*d His MAJESTY defy, 
 
 And brac'd in arms, defend their right, 
 
 'Gainst such a true and valorous knight. 
 
 VIL 
 
 And then he call'd his captains strait, 
 By signal far and near, 
 Quick in his presence to appear, 
 And on his Knightship wait. 
 And then was heard the mournful strain 
 Of Yo, heave O, and, launched amain, 
 
THE THREE KNIGHTS. 21 
 
 The jolly boats began to ply 
 Their feathery oars right rapidly : 
 While as they dip the briny tide, 
 And o'er its swelling bosom glide, 
 Who on the waters cast his eye, 
 Might see them sparkle like the sky, 
 When myriad stars all gaily bright, 
 Gem the pale robe of dusky night. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 What gallant chiefs well known to fame, 
 
 To answer thus the signal came ? 
 
 Sir Beresford, a sturdy limb, 
 
 To drink or fight all one to him, 
 
 Though sooth to say, 'twas always thought, 
 
 In liquor he most bravely fought ; 
 
 Nor ever so resistless felt 
 
 As when beneath his buck-skin belt, 
 
 He carried store of claret rare ; 
 
 Sooth ! then he'd fight, as well as swear. 
 
22 THE THREE KNIGHTS. 
 
 Far fam'd was he for noted feats 
 'Mongst oyster-boats and neutral fleets, 
 And never turn'd his back they say, 
 To any ship that ran away : 
 From " Emerald Isle," he swaggering came, 
 To fill his purse, I ween full fain. 
 o 
 
 IX. 
 
 Sir Cockburn next, a border chief, 
 Descended from full many a thief, 
 Who in the days of olden time, 
 Was wont to think it little crime 
 In gallant raid at night to ride, 
 And scour the country far and wide ; 
 Rifle the murder'd shepherd's fold, 
 Do deeds that make the blood run cold, 
 And cottage fire with burning hand, 
 In Durham or in Cumberland. 
 Full well their great examples stole 
 Into Sir Cockburn's daring soul : 
 
THE THREE KNIGHTS, 23 
 
 When ill his father's mouldering hall, 
 Where day-light oft peep'd through the wall, 
 And bats and rooks and night's lone bird 
 O'er pilfer'd prey to scream were heard, 
 His sybil nurse the story told, 
 Of many a stout moss trooper bold, 
 Who 'gainst his king and country stood, 
 Knee-deep in pious Christian blood. 
 Blood of Armstrong and Deloraine, 
 Skulk'd through the urchin's itching vein, 
 And well he prov'd the great descent, 
 For both in him seem'd sweetly blent. 
 When puling in his nurse's arms, 
 He stole her amulets aud charms, 
 Pilfer'd her snuff, at sabbath day 
 Purloin'd her lov'd prayer-book away, 
 And early show'd how great he'd be 
 In feats of modern chivalry. 
 
24 THE THREE KNIGHTS. 
 
 X. 
 
 Oft from his bed he forth did hie, 
 
 At ghastly midnight hour, 
 When witches on their broomsticks ply, 
 
 And fairies leave their bower; 
 
 And roam at large o'er hill and dale, 
 And prowl in silence round, 
 
 Skulking, like sheeted spectre pale, 
 O'er holy church-yard mound ; 
 
 And if perchance he happ'd to find, 
 
 A hen roost he might rob, 
 Or shirt, aye swelling in the wind, 
 
 Or any other job ; 
 
 Merrily, merrily he would hie 
 To the castle and hide his spoil ; 
 
 And when was rais'd a hue and cry, 
 Like holy innocent would smile. 
 
THE THREE KNIGHTS. 
 
 XL 
 
 Such were his childish feats I ween, 
 And ere he sixteen years had seen 
 Five times in the stocks he'd been. 
 At length to be more bravely free, 
 To rob at large, he went to sea ; 
 For he had heard the valiant feats 
 Of British tars and British fleets ; 
 That bullies of the subject seas, 
 Not only rob their enemies, 
 But claim the right, as Yankies know, 
 To plunder friend as well as foe. 
 
 
 XII. 
 Here full three years our hero pass'd, 
 
 In phrase marine, before the mast, 
 
 Where he was driven from pole to pole, 
 
 Blasted his eyes, and d d his soul, 
 
 Chew'd, smok'd, crack'd jokes, and drank his flip, 
 
 And learn'd all arts of seamanship; 
 
26 THE THREE KNIGHTS. 
 
 Until at last he rose to be, 
 
 A boisterous captain of the sea 
 
 XIII. 
 
 He once had sail'd the world atl round, 
 And could with many a tale astound 
 Of the far-fam'd Antipodes, 
 Where people walk'd on hands and knees, 
 And thus like flies against the wall, 
 With back turned downward us'd to crawl, 
 And sometimes, through sheer want of care, 
 Would tumble off the Lord knows where* 
 He too had been on Lapland shore, 
 Where witches keep such mighty store 
 Of winds compressed in knot so tight, 
 Not one of them can take a fli ght, 
 Or blow a breath without their leave, 
 As ail good seamen well believe. 
 Sir Captain bought of these a store, 
 And out to sea in triumph bore; 
 
THE THREE KNIGHTS. 27 
 
 Where like Ulysses he would brag, 
 He had them all tied in a bag. 
 Whene'er becalm'd on wat'ry waste, 
 He made one of his knots unfast, 
 And swore the wind did always blow 
 The very way he wish'd to go. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 Castor and Pollux, those dread lights, 
 At mast head seen in stormy nights, 
 He had entrapt as we trap rats, 
 Or boys catch fire-flies in their hats ; 
 Had tam'd them too with wond'rous skill, 
 And us'd to light his binnacle. 
 v The flying Dutchman, direful sprite ! 
 He chas'd one livelong winter's night, 
 And drove him ere the break of day, 
 Full high and dry in Table-bay. 
 Oft o'er his cups he made his boast, 
 He'd seen on Norway's ice-bound coast, 
 
28 THE THREE KNIGHTS. 
 
 A Kraaken of such wondrous size, 
 He scarcely could believe his eyes. 
 Full easily the earth 'twould span, 
 As eel a common frying pan; 
 So heavily it press'd the ground, 
 The world could hardly turn around ; 
 This side of earth quite low did seem, 
 While f other fairly kick'd the beam ; 
 Whence he derived the long, long nights, 
 That vex'd those luckless northern wights. 
 In short, from Sinbad fam'd of old, 
 Down to the days of Crusoe bold, 
 There ne'er had liv'd a vent'rous elf, 
 Who told such stories of himself ; 
 One who had rode so many gales, 
 Or thrown so many tubs to whales. 
 
 XV. 
 
 Bold captain now of ship of war, 
 He show'd in triumph many a scar ; 
 
THE THREE KNIGHTS. 29 
 
 But whether they at home were got, 
 
 In midnight feats of yore, 
 Or naval fight, yet well I wot, 
 
 Some curious marks he bore, 
 That look'd Gramercy ! like the print 
 Of lashes given with heavy dint 
 Of cat-o-nine tail, or rope's end ; 
 From whose dread smart me heav'n forefend. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 Sir John and Sir Cockburn in plundering renown'd, 
 Sat in the cabin in thought profound, 
 Waiting to hear Sir Bolus propound. 
 His hand was press'd by his sun-burnt cheek, 
 As he por'd o'er the chart of the bay Chesapeake, 
 While his finger along the surface did pass, 
 Till it made a full stop at Havre de Grace. 
 Then might you see his red eye flash ; 
 Then might you hear his white teeth gnash, 
 As starting up with a ghastly grin, 
 The stalwart knight did thus begin 
 
30 THE THREE KNIGHTS. 
 
 1 HE minstrel paus'd, his faltering hand 
 No more could age and toil withstand. 
 The hardships of his lonely way, 
 And years and grief had stoFn away 
 The vigour of his youthful prime, 
 The spirit of his early time ; 
 And now he thought in bitter sooth, 
 That robb'd of sight and lusty youth, 
 He might not now, as wont, essay 
 To please high lords and ladies gay. 
 Yet still he trembling seem'd to ask, 
 If they approved his minstrel task ; 
 And said, perchance his skill was fled, 
 For, well-a-day ! his sightless head, 
 Where winter snow and summer heat, 
 Were wont in ruthless wrath to beat, 
 Perhaps, lack'd fancy to impart 
 Sweet pleasure to the hearer's heart ; 
 
THE THREE KNIGHTS. 31 
 
 It was not that 'twas dark midnight, 
 That the pale moon withheld her light ; 
 Alike to him was time and tide, 
 No day and night his hours divide ; 
 To him alike or gloom or light, 
 For him 'twas one long pitchy night: 
 Whether the wandering sun-beam play'd, 
 Or moon-light o'er the waters stray'd, 
 Or darkness veiPd the earth and skies, 
 The same to his dark sightless eyes ; 
 'Twas night when pleasure was away, 
 And sunshine when his heart was gay. 
 
 The lady now to praise began, 
 
 And re-assur'd the lowly man ; 
 
 Who pleas'd to think they lov'd his lays, 
 
 And, like all minstrels, fond of praise, 
 
 Amid the strings his fingers laid, 
 
 And thus the Second Canto play'd. 
 
THE 
 
 LAY OF THE SCOTTISH FIDDLE. 
 
 CANTO II. 
 
 THE COUNCIL. 
 
THE 
 
 LAY OF THE SCOTTISH FIDDLE. 
 
 CANTO II. 
 
 THE COUNCIL. 
 
 AND said I, that my limbs were old, , 
 
 And that my head with age was cold ; 
 That time had quench'd my wonted fire, 
 And stol'n the witchery of my lyre, 
 And curb'd my fancy's youthful pride ? 
 If I said so, why then I lied ! 
 I cannot view fair nature's face, 
 Nor catch her well-remember'd grace ; 
 Nor taste the balm of beauty's smile, 
 That cheer'd my lonely heart erewhile ; 
 Nor see the woodland warbler stray 
 In careless freedom on the spray ; 
 D 2 
 
36 THE COUNCIL. 
 
 Yet when I hear the summer breeze 
 Play o'er the bosoms of the trees, 
 Whose answering whispers seem to tell, 
 They love the gentle visit well ; 
 Or the wild music of the grove, 
 Vocal with lengthen'd notes of love; 
 Or what is sweeter to my car, 
 The voice of gentle damsel near ; 
 Remembrance waken'd starts away 
 To blithsome scenes of distant day, 
 When these dead eyes could freely scan, 
 The face of nature and of man ; 
 Catch, mantling in young beauty's cheeks, 
 The blush that untold secret speaks, 
 Translate the glances of her eye, 
 The only real witchery. 
 
 I. 
 
 The opening eye-lids of the dawn, 
 A smiling glance threw o'er the lawn, 
 
THE COUNCIL. 37 
 
 Where dew-drops glitter'd in the ray, 
 And Gossamers all sparkling lay, 
 Like veil bespangled all with gold, 
 And thrown in many a careless fold 
 O'er the fair head of damsel gay, 
 To hide her beauties from the day. 
 
 II. 
 
 Sir Bolus and the doughty knights, 
 Who long ago had dous'd their lights, 
 [n hopes to dream of some rare plan, 
 To break the head of stout foeman, 
 Awaken'd by the swift-wing'd ray, 
 Bright herald of the coming day, 
 That o'er the world of waters play'd, 
 And in the cabin window stray'd, 
 (Start up, as did their great compeer, 
 When struck by bright Ithuriel's spear. 
 Sir Bolus then, prodigious man, 
 Unfolded thus his glorious plan. 
 
38 THE COUNCIL. 
 
 III. 
 
 ' Did not Josiah Quincy say, 
 
 ' In Congress only f other day, 
 
 ' That Britain's power was unconfin'd, 
 
 ' As raging flood, or freeborn wind 1 
 
 * That in three months no Yankey sail 
 
 * Would spread its bosom to the gale ? 
 
 * With such encouragement we came, 
 ' In hope to share the glorious game, 
 6 And line our coffers with that gold, 
 
 ' The love of which makes bord'rers bold : 
 
 * And yet by our bright ruling star, 
 ' The star of plunder and of war, 
 
 ' Save neutral, or d d oyster boat, 
 
 * Not fit on ocean's wave to float, 
 ' A skiff, a veritable log, 
 
 ' As none but vent'rous Yankey dog 
 ' Would trust his carcase in a mile, 
 ' Though ocean wore her sweetest smile ; 
 
THE COUNCIL. 
 
 ' Save such vile prey, our cruise has been 
 The vilest cruise that e'er was seen. 
 
 IV. 
 
 He ceas'd, then cast his hopeless eye 
 
 On a huge map just lying by, 
 
 And strait that eye, with living fire, 
 
 Was lighted up in bitter ire : 
 
 [n tones that quell'd the ocean wave, 
 
 Thus our good knight began to rave : 
 
 * The recreant wight who dares to say, 
 In the bright face of this good day, 
 
 * That in this land French influence 
 Exists not, sure has lost his sense : 
 A living proof behold we here, 
 
 c In black and white distinct appear : 
 
 ' Behold, sir knights, a vile French place, 
 
 c Call'd Havre with a d d de Grace! 
 
 Another too ! yclept French town, 
 Which we by Heav'n must tumble down, 
 
40 THE COUNCIL. 
 
 * Ev'n though their walls were twelve feet thick 
 ' Of good grey stone, or blood-red brick ; 
 
 f Like those of far-fam'd Lewistown, 
 ' We tried in vain to batter down ; 
 ' Which, like Amphion fam'd of old, 
 
 * Sir Beresford, in safety bold, 
 
 ' Rais'd up by magic of his lyre, 
 
 ' To keep the town from catching fire/ 
 
 V. 
 
 Childe Cockburn to Sir Bolus goes, 
 With spectacles on Bardolph nose, 
 Which burnt the glass at such a rate, 
 It almost sing'd his whisker'd pate ; 
 Pores o'er the map with curious eyes, 
 And soon the staring proof espies. 
 Sir Beresford, though half asleep 
 As usual, came and took a peep ; 
 And all agreed, was nought so clear, 
 As that French influence triumph'd here. 
 
THE COUNCIL. 41 
 
 VI. 
 
 Then thus Sir Bolus < Who will dare 
 
 ' The dangerous glory, and repair 
 
 ' To these vile towns, and wrap in flame 
 
 ' Their being, nay, their very name 1 
 ' Who dares, upon our knightly word, 
 ' His majesty shall make a lord/' 
 Sir Beresford was capering round, 
 With lightsome step and airy bound, 
 Whistling an Irish jig the while, 
 With many a self-approving smile, 
 His much admired leg to greet, 
 In silken hose, ' neat and complete/ 
 He heard not, or seemed not to hear, 
 But whistled still, * Brave Brian's Bier/ 
 
 VII. 
 
 But keen Childe Cockbnrn, good at need, 
 A stouter never stole a steed, 
 
42 THE COUNCIL. 
 
 Or bullock with a single blow 
 Sent bellowing to the shades below ; 
 With noble spirit, valour stirr'd, 
 Started up, and took the word : 
 
 * O merrily I to the battle will hie, 
 
 * And merrily, merrily burn ; 
 
 ' And many a day, shall not pass away, 
 ' Till Sir Cockburn in triumph return. 
 
 * Ere long will I gaze on the bright burning blaze 
 
 ' Of this rascally town of the French ; 
 ' And feast on the fright, of the scampering wight, 
 
 * And the terror of half-naked wench. 
 
 ' O swiftly can speed, my vessel at need, 
 
 * And sweet blows the south wind so mild 
 
 ' Gramercy ! Sir Knight, I ne'er felt such delight, 
 
 * Since I robb'd a hen-roost when a child. 
 
 * And safer by none, can thy errand be done, 
 
 < Than Noble Knight by me ; 
 
THE COUNCIL. 43 
 
 I love to hear the shrill cry of fear, 
 * And the bright burning cottage to see.' 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Childe Cockburn's hand Sir Bolus took, 
 And like a knight of mettle shook ; 
 Well pleas'd to think what vast renown 
 Would spring from burning this French town, 
 And that his glory soon unfurl'd, 
 Should light the shores of this New World ; 
 And blaze like bale-fire, near and far, 
 The Phoenix of the Border war. 
 
 O then he call'd for generous wine, 
 
 To treat the gallant Knight, 
 
 For well Sir Bolus did opine, 
 
 He'd drink as well as fight. 
 
 The music too in merry peal 
 
 Struck up at his command : 
 
 The Irish jig, the Scottish reel, 
 
 Was danc'd on light fantastic heel, 
 
 By the three knights hand in hand. 
 
44 THE COUNCIL. 
 
 At last Sir Bolus gave the order, 
 To play ' Blue Jackets o'er the Border;' 
 A merry lilt, which at the time 
 When chivalry was in its prime 
 Stern Border chiefs would oft inspire, 
 To dance round cottage wrapt in fire, 
 With bowlings, as when Indian yell 
 Is heard at midnight hour to swell, 
 Sad herald of those damned rites, 
 Which Indian chiefs and modern knights 
 Pay to the god of their desire, 
 The god of plunder, rape, and fire. 
 
 IX. 
 
 And now around the ample board, 
 With Yankey plunder often stor'd, 
 In silence for their dinner wait 
 The stalwart knights in sober state ; 
 And soon the tarry scullions came, 
 With many a dish well known to fame, 
 
THE COUNCIL. 45 
 
 Roast beef, though not of merry England, 
 
 At top of table took its stand ; 
 
 Beef, which Sir Beresford had won, 
 
 In battle brave at Lewistown ; 
 
 Potatoes next were seen to smoke, 
 
 Which Irish appetites provoke ; 
 
 To please Childe Cockburn's Scottish taste, 
 
 The board with oaten cakes was grac'd ; , 
 
 Haggis, salt herring, ancj whatever 
 
 Scotch palate tickles, too was there. 
 
 X. 
 
 But when their stomachs ran aground, 
 The sparkling goblet pass'd around ; 
 For stout Sir Bolus, good at need, 
 Was fam'd for making bottles bleed : 
 He, like Sir Quixote, oft mistook, 
 And pipes of wine for wind-pipes took; 
 The which, with keen pot-valour true, 
 At backstroke he would slice in two ; 
 
46 THE COUNCIL. 
 
 And while the blood-red liquor ran, 
 Would swear 'twas blood of stout foeman. 
 
 XI. 
 
 Me lists not at this tide declare 
 
 What drinking feats these knights did dare, 
 
 And how, in fight of mantling bowl, 
 
 They sent full many a Yankey soul 
 
 To wander in the shades of death, 
 
 And scare their ghostships out of breath, 
 
 With tales of mighty Border feats, 
 
 Performed by gallant British fleets. 
 
 Suffice that evening clos'd around, 
 
 And our wet knights still quaffing found ; 
 
 Nor till night's dim and shadowy hand 
 
 The veil had drawn o'er sea and land, 
 
 And shut the windows of the skies, 
 
 Did this our great triumvirate rise, 
 
 And when they rose, in sooth be't said, 
 
 They rose to reel to birth or bed. 
 
THE COUNCIL. 41 
 
 CEAS'D the high strain. The lady smil'd 
 Her grateful thanks, for time beguiFd ; 
 In sooth, by such a witching strain, 
 She well might list it o'er again : 
 Yet much she ponder'd in her mind, 
 How one so weak, so old, and blind, 
 Could touch the strings with such true art, 
 As won the listening hearer's heart. 
 She wot not of the sacred spark 
 That cheer'd him on his way so dark ; 
 That in his aged bosom burn'd, 
 And all his hours to sunshine turn'd. 
 Much too she marveird he should roam 
 In the wide world without a home, 
 Whose art could minister so sweet, 
 And mem'ry of her poisons cheat, 
 And win the heart to peace and rest 
 When hope expires on sorrow's breast 
 
48 THE COUNCIL. 
 
 * Was none to cheer his sightless hours, 
 ' To foster his sweet minstrel powers ? 
 
 ' No son, no daughter, no dear friend, 
 ' To sooth, to succour, to defend ; 
 
 * To bury him when he should die, 
 
 ' And o'er his green grave sadly sigh ? 
 
 * Was none to guide his lonely way, 
 
 ' Through endless night, but little Tray?' 
 The old man's spirit seem'd to roam 
 A moment to some long-lost home, 
 And on his dark cheek once it seem'd 
 A tear of glistening sorrow gleam'd : 
 Sadly he hung his snowy head, 
 And sadly sigh'd, yet nothing said. 
 Then, as to cheat the hour of grief, 
 Thus the sad minstrel sought relief, 
 And tried, by magic of his art, 
 To sooth the aching of his heart. 
 
THE 
 
 LAY OF THE SCOTTISH FIDDLE. 
 
 CANTO 111. 
 THE PROGRESS. 
 
THE 
 
 LAY OF THE SCOTTISH FIDDLE, 
 
 CANTO HI. 
 
 THE PROGRESS. 
 
 TWAS one bright morn in merry May, 
 When all the fields were green and gay; 
 When in the covert of the grove 
 Blithe songsters sit, and sing of love ; 
 I When roses bloom, or ought to bloom, 
 s And all the air is one perfume ; 
 When on the damsel's ruddy cheek 
 r A thousand speaking blushes break ; 
 When tadpoles wriggle in the mud, 
 Whence learned Colles of the blood 
 jibe rapid circulation shows, 
 l\s all the world already knows 
 Twas then, as ancient legends say, 
 2hilde Cockburn stout got under way. 
 
52 THE PROGRESS. 
 
 II. 
 
 The south wind blew a gentle gale, 
 That swelled the bosom of the sail ; 
 And swift the sister vessels glide 
 Impatient o'er the weltering tide, 
 Till now the entrance of the bay 
 Before their eyes wide open lay. 
 They saw the noble brothers twain, 
 Twin giants, guardians of the main, 
 Henry and Charles *, renown'd, I wot, 
 For something which I have forgot; 
 York-Town that made the Childe turn pale, 
 And brought to mind the glorious tale 
 Of stout Cornwallis, forced to yield 
 Before our country's sword and shield. 
 
 III. 
 
 The Rappahanock soon they saw, 
 And then Potomack's yawning maw ; 
 * Names of the Capes. 
 
THE PROGRESS. 
 
 So wide it seem'd, in sooth to say, 
 Twould swallow up the mighty bay. 
 With merry shout and thundering rout 
 They pass'd the bluff of Point Look-out; 
 Saw the pale shrine of St. Jerome, 
 Where time long past he found a home. 
 Cox's rude cliff now near was seen, 
 And Cedar Point all smiling green ; 
 And Herring Bay and Parker's Isle, 
 Where nature wears her sweetest smile ; 
 And fairies, as I was once told, 
 Their nightly revels love to hold, 
 And oft by wand'ring wight are seen 
 Tripping along the dewy green. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Steady the vessels held their way, 
 Coasting along the spacious bay, 
 By Hooper's Strait, Micomico, 
 Nantikoke, Chickacomico. 
 
54 THE PROGRESS. 
 
 Dam-quarter, Chum, and Hiwassee, 
 Cobequid, Shubamaccadie, 
 Piankatank, and Pamunkey. 
 Ompomponoosock, Memphragog, 
 Conegocheague, and Ombashog, 
 Youghiogany, and Choctaw, 
 Aquakanonck, Abacooche; 
 Amoonoosuck, Apoquemy, 
 Amuskeag, and Cahokie, 
 Cattahunk, Calibogie, 
 Chabaquiddick, and Chebucto, 
 Chihohokie, and Chickago, 
 Currituck, Cummashawo, 
 Chickamoggaw, Cussewago, 
 Canonwalohole, Karatunck, 
 Lastly great Kathtippakamunck *. 
 
 * The reader acquainted vyith the geography of I 
 
 country will perceive that Mr. S in his zealous pt 
 
 suit of high-sounding and poetical names, has brought 
 gether, on the shores of the Chesapeake, places, many 
 them, at least three thousand miles dLtaut. Tbe c<lrlo 
 
THE PROGRESS. 55 
 
 -*, 
 
 V. 
 
 At length -they came where gazing eye 
 A scene of beauty well mote spy. 
 Far distant up a winding bay, 
 Annapolis before them lay : 
 Its ancient towers so stately rose, 
 And wore an air of calm repose ; 
 And though the hand of slow decay 
 Had stol'n its ancient pomp away, 
 And sometimes, in the dead of night, 
 The listening ear of wakeful wight 
 Might hear old Time, relentless crone ! 
 Heave from its base some mould'ring stone, 
 That trembled on the ruiu'd wall, 
 Ready at every touch to fell : 
 
 however, being determined to give tlie poem just as l\e 
 found it, has scrupulously retained these names, which 
 are certainly highly sonorous, and only to be paralleled 
 by a catalogue of Russian general?, or Indian chiefs. 
 
56 THE PROGRESS. 
 
 Yet still a noble air it wore, 
 As if, in distant days of yore, 
 Far better times it well had known, 
 Though now decayed and aged grown. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Here deep in dozing counsel sate 
 
 The master spirits of the state, 
 
 Talking in solemn grave debate, 
 
 How turnpike roads are cheapest made ; 
 
 Or what discreet and trusty blade 
 
 Is fit to Congress to be sent, 
 
 Their wisdom great to represent. 
 
 Gramercy ! how their honours stared 
 
 When stout Childe Cockburn's fleet appeared ! 
 
 The learned clerk began to stammer; 
 
 Down fell the speaker's wooden hammer ; 
 
 And every wight, by terror aw'd, 
 
 In boxing phrase, gan look abroad, 
 
THE PROGRESS. 57 
 
 To see where best his legs might speed, 
 To some safe place, in case of need ; 
 ' Adjourn ! adjourn V cried every one, 
 And so in sooth they did, nem-con. 
 
 . x - 
 
 VII. 
 
 The sons of Tammany so stout, 
 
 With bows and arrows straight turn'd out, 
 
 And valorously twanged away 
 
 At neighbouring church, where, sooth to say, 
 
 In sacerdotal pomp repos'd 
 
 A mitre, which these wight supposed 
 
 Was diadem, or kingly crown, 
 
 Therefore resolv'd to have it down. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 The sons of Erin's Isle so green 
 With stout shillelahs too were seen, 
 Waiting to taste the coming fight, 
 And cried ' By Jasus,' with delight : 
 
58 THE PROGRESS. 
 
 But finding that the hostile fleet 
 
 Did not intend the town to greet, 
 
 And loth to have their pains for nought, 
 
 Set too, and with each other fought ; 
 
 Till broken head, and bloody nose, 
 
 And pelting shower of stalwart blows, 
 
 Had cool'd their valour's furnace heat ; 
 
 A parley then the heroes beat, 
 
 And pleas'd with this right pleasant fray, 
 
 Contented homeward took their way. 
 
 IX. 
 
 Childe Cockburn wonder'd in his mind, 
 Where he this vile French town might find ; 
 And well I ween, did well believe, 
 Affrighted it had ta'en French leave, 
 And in a panic run away, 
 Like true militia in a fray. 
 Yet on the stately vessels plowed 
 Through curling wave, that ruddy glow'd 
 
THE PROGRESS. 59 
 
 With sunsef s sweet and mellow beam, 
 Which shed a mild and gentle gleam 
 Of golden lustre o'er the tide, 
 That softly murmur'd far and wide. 
 
 X. 
 
 And now they came in gallant pride 
 Where Susquehannar/s noble tide, 
 In silent pomp, is seen to pay 
 Its tribute to the lordly bay ; 
 And on its beauteous margin spied 
 The little town in rural pride, 
 Reposing in the folded arms 
 Of peace, nor dreaming of those harms 
 Which fortune, in her fitful spite, 
 Decreed should come that fatal night. 
 
 XI. 
 
 The sun low in the west did wane ; 
 And cross the level of the plain 
 
60 THE PROGRESS. 
 
 The shadow of each tree the while 
 Seem'd lengthened into many a mile ; 
 The purple hue of evening fell 
 Upon the low sequestered dell ; 
 And scarce a lingering sunbeam play'd 
 Around the distant mountain's head : 
 The sweet south wind sunk to a calm ; 
 The dews of evening fell like balm ; 
 The night-hawk, soaring in the sky, 
 Told that the twilight shades were nigh ; 
 The bat began his dusky flight ; 
 The whipper-will, our bird of night, 
 Ever unseen yet ever near, 
 His shrill note warbled in the ear ; 
 The buzzing beetle forth did hie, 
 With busy hum and heedless eye ; 
 The little watchman of the night, 
 The fire-fly, trimmed his lamp so bright, 
 And took his merry airy round 
 Along the meadow's fragrant bound, 
 
THE PROGRESS. 61 
 
 Where blossom'd clover, baih'd in dew, 
 In sweet luxuriance blushing grew. 
 
 XII. 
 
 O Nature, goddess ever dear, 
 What a fair scene of peace was here ! 
 What pleasant sports, what calm delights, 
 What happy days, what blameless nights 
 Might in such gentle haunts be spent, 
 In the soft lap of bland content ! 
 But vain it is, that bounteous heav'n 
 To wretched man this earth has giv'n; 
 Vain, that its smiling face displays 
 Such beauties to his reckless gaze, 
 While this same rash malignant worm 
 Raises the whirlwind and the storm, 
 Pollutes her bosom with hot blood, 
 Turns to rank poison all her good, 
 And plays before his Maker's eyes 
 The serpent of this paradise. 
 
\ 
 62 THE PROGRESS. 
 
 THE fiddle stopped; and sudden rose 
 The music of the minstrel's nose. 
 Though hush'd the song, the son'rous sound 
 Amax'd the nodding audience round : 
 Now it seems far, and now a-near, 
 Now meets, and now eludes the ear ; 
 Now seems like conch-shell echoing wide 
 Along some misty mountain's side ; 
 Now like the low and solemn knell 
 Of village church, in distant dell ; 
 Now the sad requiem loads the gale, 
 And seems like tithe-pig's smothered wail, 
 As pent in bag, to pay the tolls 
 Of parish priest, for saving souls ; 
 Seems now a groan, and now a squeak, 
 Now thorough bass, and now shrill shriek ; 
 As when some methodistic crew 
 Meet in their midnight gospel stew, 
 
THE PROGRESS. 63 
 
 Babble blasphemous nonsense there, 
 And with loud rant some dotard scare ; 
 Till tumbling breathless to the ground, 
 The pious mountebanks flock round, 
 Breathe bitter moans snuffle, and then, 
 Through vocal nose, cry out " Amen I" 
 
 After his nap they mov'd him tell 
 How he, who fiddle play'd so well, 
 Could fall asleep mid such sweet tones, 
 And vex their ears with these strange moans. 
 But ere the minstrel could reply, 
 A shout in distant room rose high, 
 And made the noble lady start, 
 While beat Lord Joline's stalwart heart; 
 Though ne'er in midnight raid of yore, 
 That stalwart heart had beat before. 
 Rous'd all the train, and poured amain, 
 To see what fcaus'd this ranting strain ; 
 And soon they came, where, sooth to say, 
 Was ne'er such sight of gallants gay. 
 
64 THE PROGRESS. 
 
 Around the table's verge was spread 
 Full many a wine-bewildered head 
 Of student, learn'd from Nassau-Hall, 
 Who, broken from scholastic thrall, 
 Had set him down to drink outright 
 Through all the livelong merry night, 
 And sing as loud as he could bawl; 
 Such is the custom of Nassau-Hall. 
 No Latin now, or Heathen Greek, 
 The senior's double tongue can speak ; 
 Juniors, from fam'd Pierian fount, 
 Had drank so deep they scarce could count 
 The candles on the reeling table ; 
 While emulous Freshmen, hardly able 
 To drink, their stomachs were so full, 
 Hiccupp'd' and took another pull. 
 Right glad to see their merry host, 
 Who never wuie or wassal crost, 
 They wilPd him join the merry throng, 
 And grace their revels with a song. 
 
THE PROGRESS. 65 
 
 That stalwart lord, a royster wight, 
 
 That never flinch'd by day or by night, 
 
 Obedient to the guests' high law, 
 
 Clear'd his hoarse throat, with a hem and a haw, 
 
 And with a most alarming twang 
 
 His merry descant loudly sang. 
 
 LORD JOLINE'S SONG. 
 
 Professors are always a preaching and bawling, 
 And drinking good liquor sheer beastliness calling. 
 They say that the head-ache and tavern-bills float 
 In each glass of good stingo, that flows down the 
 
 throat 
 
 Yet whoop boys ! a fig for your musty professors, 
 They all are no better than father confessors. 
 
 Professors! they call it the D 1 to taste 
 The ripe swelling lip of a bar-maid so chaste ; 
 They say that such wenches are cunning and sly, 
 And lure you young lads with a glance of the eye: 
 
THE PROGRESS. 
 
 Yet whoop boys ! kiss all of them over and over, 
 Till they redden like fields of our fresh ruddy clover. 
 
 Professors ! they preach and palaver, my boys, 
 And prate of stiff laming, and cramp all your joys; 
 They're paid for it too, then why should they not? 
 It helps them to tipple and toss off the pot. 
 Then whoop Suthron lads! sweet Margery 
 
 caress her ! 
 Drink deep laugh and sing, and d n the professor. 
 
 A knocking heard the door without, 
 Stayed in mid roar the merry rout ; 
 A .Freshman staggered to the door, 
 And shouted, loud as he could roar, 
 
 * Joy ! joy ! the travelling fiddler's come, 
 ' His merry cat-gut strings to strum ; 
 
 * And many lads and lasses too, 
 
 ' A buxom, witching, merry crew, 
 
 * As love's true gramary ever knew, 
 
 
THE PROGRESS. 67 
 
 ' From country round are come, they say, 
 ' To dance the livelong night away/ 
 
 Flew ope the door and in there came 
 Full many a dancing loving dame, 
 With chintz short gown, and apron checked, 
 And head with long-ear'd lawn cap deck'd ; 
 And high heePd shoe, and buckles shene, 
 And bosom prank'd with box-wood green. 
 With these well pair'd came many a lad, 
 With health and youthful spirits glad ; 
 To caper nimbly in Scotch reel, 
 With toes turn'd in, and outward heel. 
 
THE 
 
 LAY OF THE SCOTTISH FIDDLE. 
 
 CANTO IV. 
 THE DIGRESSION. 
 
THE 
 
 LAY OF THE SCOTTISH FIDDLE. 
 
 CANTO IV. 
 
 THE DIGRESSION. 
 
 I. 
 
 1 WAS midnight now, and all around 
 Nature lay stretched in sleep profound ; 
 No sound was heard the door without. 
 But all within was thundering rout. 
 The minstrel chose a merry lay, 
 And straight the lads and lasses gay 
 Footed right deftly round and round, 
 With eager glee and lightsome bound. 
 One shuffled e double-trouble' o'er, 
 As if he'd grind quite through the floor; 
 
72 THE DIGRESSION. 
 
 ' Hoe-corn and dig potatoes' too 
 Was danc'd so to the music true, 
 It seem'd an echo to the strain, 
 Or the same tune play'd o'er again. 
 
 II. 
 
 Stout lord Joline with all his heart 
 In these gay gambols took a part; 
 For well I wot a merrier heart 
 Ne'er in such gambols bore a part. 
 Though rather short, and round, and thick, 
 None better play'd his cudgel-stick; 
 And none in merry gibe and jeer 
 Could ever make such pleasant cheer 
 The trav'ller never pass'd his gate, 
 Forsooth, without a broken pate, 
 Not from his stick, but sturdy joke, 
 That many a stranger's head had broke. 
 
THE DIGRESSION, 73 
 
 III. 
 
 Brawny and low, with bushy head, 
 And shoulders erst for Atlas made, 
 One double-jointed arm was slung 
 In kerchief, and all lifeless hung ; 
 And round about his either eye 
 A circling halo you might spy; 
 Such as the moon's pale face deform, 
 Prophetic of the coming storm. 
 These he had got from crusty folks, 
 Who didn't like his lordship's jokes. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Lord Joline for his partner chose 
 A lass that bloom'd like blushing rose ; 
 Fam'd in the dance for tiring swains, 
 And call'd the rose of Scottish plains. 
 The flower of Jersey was the maid, 
 As babbling tell-tale rumour said. 
 
74 THE DIGRESSION. 
 
 What though the heavy hand of toil, 
 And summer sun's tremendous broil, 
 Her shoulders somewhat broad had made, 
 And giv'n her cheek a copper shade ; 
 Though no Verbecq had taught her grace, 
 To measured mood had trained her pace 
 (Verbecq now gone to death's dark shades, 
 To caper with light ghostly blades,) 
 A foot more broad, a step more true, 
 Mov'd not among the merry crew. 
 
 V. 
 
 Though bred afar from town and court, 
 And train'd to toil and rural sport, 
 Yet instinct taught her all the arts 
 Of city belles, to win the hearts 
 Of village swains, who clean face shew, 
 At sabbath church, or gay review. 
 She had a smile for merry grigs, 
 A sigh for sentimental sprigs, 
 
THE DIGRESSION. 75 
 
 Sung psalms to those that pious were, 
 And songs to blithe and debonair : 
 In short she knew each witching art 
 To wind about the simple heart 
 A farmer's daughter seem'd the maid, 
 And so she was, as fame betrayed. 
 
 VI. 
 
 At last the merry reel was done, 
 
 < 
 
 And ceas'd the dancers every one : 
 But ere their parting seats they took 
 The wight his quavering elbow shook, 
 iAnd in a freak of wanton glee 
 His fiddle squeak'd right merrily. 
 Each dancer, as the custom is, 
 Gave his fair mate a smacking kiss ; 
 Then led her to her wonted place 
 With genuine country bumpkin grace- 
 All save Joline, who, sad to say, 
 Upon the floor all doleful lay. 
 
76 THE DIGRESSION. 
 
 VII. 
 
 Close in a darksome corner sat 
 
 A scowling wight with old wool hat, 
 
 That dangled o'er his sun-burnt brow, 
 
 And many a gaping rent did show ; 
 
 His beard in grim luxuriance grew, 
 
 A great toe peep'd from either shoe ; 
 
 His brawny elbow shown all bare, 
 
 All matted was his carrot hair ; 
 
 And in his sad face you might see 
 
 The withering look of poverty. 
 
 He seem'd all desolate of heart, 
 
 And in the revels took no part ; 
 
 Yet those who watch'd his blood-shot eye 
 
 As the light dancers flitted by, 
 
 Might jealousy, and dark despair, 
 
 And love detect, all mingled there. 
 
THE DIGRESSION. 77 
 
 VIII. 
 
 He never turn'd his eye away 
 From one fair damsel passing gay, 
 But ever in her airy round 
 Watch'd her quick step and lightsome bound; 
 Wherever in the dance she turned 
 He turn'd his eye, and that eye burn'd 
 With such fierce spleen, that, sooth to say, 
 [t made the gazer turn away. 
 Who was the damsel passing fair 
 That caus'd his eye-balls thus to glare ? 
 [t was the blooming Jersey maid, 
 That our poor wight's tough heart betray'd. 
 
 IX. 
 
 'By Pompton stream, that silent flows 
 tWhere many a wild flower heedless blows, 
 ^Jnmark'd by any human eye, 
 Unpluck'd by any passer by, 
 
78 THE DIGRESSION. 
 
 There stands a church, whose whiten'd side 
 
 Is by the traveller often spied, 
 
 Glittering among the branches fair 
 
 Of locust trees, that flourish there. 
 
 Along the margin of the tide 
 
 That to the eye just seems to glide, 
 
 And to the list' ning ear ne'er throws 
 
 A murmur to disturb repose, 
 
 The stately elm majestic towers; 
 
 The lord of Pompton's fairy bowers : 
 
 The willow, that its branches waves 
 
 O'er neighbourhood of rustic graves, 
 
 Oft when the summer south wind blows, 
 
 Its thirsty tendrils playful throws 
 
 Into the river rambling there, 
 
 The cooling influence to share , 
 
 Of the pure stream, that bears impressed 
 
 Sweet Nature's image in its breast. 
 
THE DIGRESSION. - 79 
 
 X. 
 
 Sometimes on sunny sabbath day 
 
 Our ragged wight would wend his way 
 
 To this fair church, and lounge about 
 
 With many an idle sunburnt lout, 
 
 And stumble o'er the silent graves ; 
 i Or, where the weeping willow waves, 
 
 His listless length would lay him down, 
 I And spell the legend on the stone. 
 , I Twas here, as ancient matrons say, . 
 I His eye first caught the damsel gay, 
 
 Who in the interval between 
 
 The services oft tripp'd the green, 
 
 | And threw her witching eyes about 
 I To great dismay of bumpkin stout, 
 I Who felt his heart rebellious beat 
 I Whene'er those eyes he chanc'd to meet 
 
80 THE DIGRESSION. 
 
 XI. 
 
 As our poor wight all listless lay 
 Dozing the vacant hours away, 
 Or watching with his half-shut eye 
 The buzzing flight of bee or fly, 
 The beauteous damsel pass'd along, 
 Humming a stave of sacred song : 
 She threw her soft blue eyes askance, 
 And gave the booby such a glance, 
 That quick his eyes wide open flew, 
 And his wide mouth flew open too. 
 He gaz'd with wonder and surprise 
 At the mild lustre of her eyes, 
 Her cherry lips, her dimpled cheek, 
 Where Cupids play'd at hide and seek, 
 Whence many an arrow, well I wot, 
 Against the wight's tough heart was shot. 
 
THE DIGRESSION. 81 
 
 XII. 
 
 He followed her where'er she stray'd, 
 While every look his love betray'd; 
 And when her milking she would ply, 
 Sooth'd her pleas'd ear with Rhino-Die ; 
 Or made the mountain echoes ring 
 With the great feats of John Paulding ; 
 How he, stout moss-trooper bold, 
 iRefus'd the proffer'd glittering gold, 
 ! And to the gallant youth did cry, 
 |* One of us two must quickly die!' 
 
 XIII. 
 
 On the rough meadow of his cheek 
 The scythe he laid full twice a week, 
 jFoster'd the honours of his head, 
 JThat wide as scrub-oak branches spread, 
 With grape-vine juice, and bear's grease too, 
 And dangled it in eel-skin queue. 
 G 
 
62 THE DIGRESSION. 
 
 In short, he tried each gentle art 
 To anchor fast her floating heart ; 
 But still she scorn'd his tender tale, 
 And saw unmov'd his cheek grow pale, 
 Flouted his suit with scorn so cold, 
 And gave him oft the bag to hold. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 Still would he linger where she stray 'd, 
 Still gaze upon the cruel maid, 
 And watch her every look and smile, 
 And pine with jealous pangs the while, 
 Whene'er a losel wight essay'd 
 To tamper with his darling maid. 
 But where's the keen poetic tongue 
 Can tell what pangs his bosom wrung, 
 When lord Joline first took her out, 
 To dance with him the merry bout ? 
 With close shut teeth and speechless ire, 
 And heart consumed in smothered fire, 
 
THE DIGRESSION. 83 
 
 He saw delight dance in her eyes; 
 He saw her mounting colour rise ; 
 But when he heard the fiddle squeak, 
 And saw lord Joline kiss her cheek, 
 His peace he could no longer hold, 
 Love and despair had made him bold. 
 
 XV. 
 
 Doubles his fist his eye-balls flame, 
 As near the fated spot he came, 
 Where our gay lord, with dalliance sweet, 
 The gentle damsel soft did greet. 
 Not England's champion, matchless Crib, 
 Who broke black Molyneux's rib; 
 Not Milo, when the bull he slew, 
 
 story goes, and eat him too ; 
 ot stout lord Douglas, when at court, 
 spoiled the great Fitz-James's sport, 
 Vnd for his Lufra gave a thump, 
 That laid Sir Groom a lifeless lump 
 
 V 
 
84 THE DIGRESSION. 
 
 Not one of these e'er lent a blow, 
 Like that which laid his lordship low ; 
 Flat on the floor his curl-pate lies, 
 His light foot to the ceiling flies. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 As on the bank of some lone stream, 
 
 Lit by the moonlight's quivering beam, 
 
 The fairies in their gambols light, 
 
 Are scar'd by some bewildered wight, 
 
 The little caitiffs flit away, 
 
 And leave undone their roundelay ; 
 
 Their faithful watchman of the night, 
 
 The Fire-fly, shrouds his lamp so bright; 
 
 The merry rout no more is seen, 
 
 And silent is the dewy green : 
 
 So all affrighted at his fall, 
 
 The tripping dancers, one and all, 
 
 Pour'd through the portal of the door, 
 
 And ne'er were seen at Princeton more, 
 
THE DIGRESSION. 85 
 
 Save our poor wight, who all this while, 
 The ladye held in durance vile. 
 
 XVII. 
 
 The ladye retired when his lordship fell 
 Within her bower to weave a spell ; 
 Nor over her husband's bloodless bier 
 Strew'd one fair flower, or dropp'd one tear. 
 Vengeance deep brooding o'er the blow, 
 Had lock'd the source of softer woe, 
 And burning pride and high disdain, 
 Forbade the rising tear to flow, 
 Until aniid the kitchen train 
 Her son lisp'd from his nurse's knee, 
 
 And if I live to be a man, 
 ' That caitiff blow revenged shall be/ 
 O ! then the ladye heav'd a sigh, 
 And flow'd her tears no one knew why. 
 
ft(5 THE DIGRESSION. 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 Of noble race the ladye came, 
 Her mother was a witch of fame, 
 
 Of Shoulders' line in New- Jersey : 
 
 Men said she chang'd her maiden name 
 
 By feats of wond'rous witchery. 
 
 When lord Joline to woo her came, 
 
 In lordly trappings fine ; 
 She chang'd for him her virgin name, 
 
 From Shoulders to Joline. 
 
 Dame Shoulders' skill, as bards have sung, 
 
 Was taught the lady fair, 
 And she could ride, when very young, 
 
 On broomstick through the air. 
 
 And well I wot, sage Michael Scott, 
 Whose voice clove Eildon Hill, 
 
 Though dead and gone, alive had not 
 A voice so loud and shrill. 
 
THE DIGRESSION. 87 
 
 For when in angry mood she spoke, 
 
 Gramercy ! it appears 
 Like screech owl, on the night it broke. 
 
 And split his lordship's ears, 
 
 XIX. 
 
 And now she sits in secret bower, 
 
 Weaving a spell of wondrous power ; 
 
 Behind the dingy wooden door 
 
 Was characterVl full many a score 
 
 Of wicked potions, dealt about 
 
 To many an unsuspecting lout, 
 
 Who straight the dire debauch would feel, 
 
 And like a man possessed reel. 
 
 A book of witching gramary 
 
 Before her open you might see, 
 
 Where written down, was many a spell 
 
 Of power to do what none can tell. 
 
 Whatever name is written there, 
 
 Of dreadful evils should beware ; 
 
88 THE DIGRESSION. 
 
 For on the cunning ladye wait, 
 In haughty pride of legal state, 
 Magicians grim, with wand in hand, 
 To do the ladye's stern command ; 
 And if the caitiff cannot pay 
 The score of fate, him whisk away, 
 And lodge in doleful donjon keep, 
 There all life long to wail and weep. 
 
 XX. 
 
 The caitiff's name the lady view'd, 
 And under it recorded stood 
 Mysterious words of dire import, 
 And shapes of cabalistic sort. 
 Here his sad destiny was shown 
 That he should weep and pine alone, 
 Till he the dread account should pay, 
 And clear his ancient score away. 
 Well pleas'd she saw him in her power, 
 And darting from her secret bow'r 
 
THE DIGRESSION. 89 
 
 Bade her familiar seize the wight, 
 And lodge him safe that very night 
 Where he his deed might long bewail 
 The safe-keep of the county jail. 
 
 i 
 XXI, 
 
 The dread enchanter's hand was laid 
 Upon the caitiff's shoulder blade, 
 And as if struck by palsying age, 
 Or wand of necromantic sage, 
 That arm which late his lordship feird, 
 And many a stalwart wight had quell'd 
 In mortal fight of fisticuff, 
 And often made them cry, ' enough P 
 Sunk down before the wizard spell : 
 Withered his strength, his courage fell, 
 And powerless he was borne away 
 Where, though I wot, I dare not say ; 
 For none the dreadful word may speak, 
 Even though in Hebrew, Erse, or Greek. 
 
90 THE DIGRESSION. 
 
 ALL this good time the minstrel slept, 
 Nor watch nor wakeful vigil kept ; 
 And not until the roystering day 
 Had scar'd old squeamish Night away, 
 And birds their matins sweet began, 
 Awoke the much enduring man. 
 Gleeful he snuff d the morning air 
 That drives away the sprites of care, 
 And makes the jocund spirits dance, 
 Like capering wight of merry France. 
 
 But soon he rais'd his sightless eye ; 
 And thought with many a bitter sigh, 
 He could not see the buxom sun 
 His daily race of glory run ; 
 Nor, though he felt its kindling ray 
 Through his fast ebbing life-blood play, 
 Ever enjoy its glorious light 
 Amid his never changing night. 
 

 THE DIGRESSION. 01 
 
 Seem'd the sad thought to break his heart, 
 And seem'd his spirits to depart, 
 As slowly drawing forth his bow 
 In plaintive numbers sad and low, 
 The aged, worn, and houseless man 
 His doleful descant thus began. 
 
THE 
 
 LAY OF THE SCOTTISH FIDDLE, 
 
 CANTO V. 
 THE BURNING. 
 
' 
 
 THE 
 
 LAY OF THE SCOTTISH FIDDLE, 
 
 CANTO f. 
 
 THE BURNING. 
 L 
 
 1 HE morn returns but well-a-way ? 
 Comes not for me the welcome day. 
 No blush of spring's fair vernal bloom, 
 No summer rose in rich perfume, 
 No flocks that in the meadows play, 
 Nor lowing herds that devious stray, 
 Nor sparkling centinel of night, 
 Shall ever greet my waken'd sight : 
 But dark my ever during way, 
 Shut from the golden light of day : 
 
 
96 THE BURNING. 
 
 I know nor sun, nor star, nor moon, 
 Nor midnight from the blaze of noon ; 
 The captive in his dungeon dark 
 Preserves of hope a brilliant spark, 
 Which like some mild benignant star 
 Beckons the trembler from afar, 
 To happy scenes of dear delight, 
 To sunshine, liberty, and light. 
 But I, no such fair vision see, 
 The torch of Hope burns not for me ; 
 In a dark world, aye doom'd to roam 
 Without a friend, a hope, a home. 
 
 Yet why complain ? in yonder skies 
 
 A sure and certain refuge lies. 
 
 There, when my dark, dark course is run, 
 
 I shall behold a glorious sun ; 
 
 A world ethereal, fair and bright, 
 
 And forms of uncreated light; 
 
 Spirits that glide through earth and sky, 
 
 Unseen by any mortal eye ; 
 
THE BURNING. 7 
 
 And never more in darkness roam, 
 Without a friend, a hope, a home. 
 
 II. 
 
 Gathered the shades of gloomy night, 
 And hid the world from human sight; 
 The chilly dews of midnight fell, 
 When goblins weave the witching spell, 
 When plundering caitiffs prowl around, 
 And print with noiseless step the ground, 
 And nothing wakes but guilt or woe, 
 Or studious wight with thoughtful brow, 
 Or drunkard nodding o'er the bowl, 
 Or rascal wolf on midnight prowl. 
 
 III. 
 
 Childe Cockburn saw with grim delight 
 The gloom of that dark, pitchy night : 
 It minded him of olden time, 
 When in his early manhood's prime, 
 H 
 
98 THE BURNING. 
 
 In border raid, he sallied out, 
 And put the sleeping fold to rout ; 
 Or rous'd some unsuspecting wight 
 With slogan yell, or blazing light, 
 Which, as its circling volumes play, 
 Gives him good heed to run away. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Now swift around his order flew, 
 
 To muster all the valiant crew, 
 
 Who, save the centinels, that slow 
 
 Pac'd o'er the deckward to and fro, 
 
 Were fast asleep in birth below. 
 
 Rous'd every soul and rubb'd their eyes, 
 
 In hope to see a gallant prize ; 
 
 Some noble coaster of the bay, 
 
 Laden with oysters or new hay. 
 
 Childe Cockburn with an out-stretch'd hand 
 
 Delivered thus his high command : 
 
THE BURNING. 99 
 
 V. 
 
 ' Ye British tars ! who, man to man, 
 ' Beat the stout Yankies when you can, 
 
 Who o'er the ocean, far and wide, 
 ' In power imperial fearless ride, 
 
 * And, uncontrolled, from neutrals steal 
 ' Their sailors for the general weal ! 
 
 VI. 
 
 ' O listen, listen, bullies gay, 
 
 ' Of hardy feats of arms I tell, 
 
 ' And when you've listen'd, speed away, 
 
 ' Yon little Gallic town to quell. 
 
 * Moor, moor the barge ! ye gallant crew, 
 
 * Moor, moor the barge ! again I say, 
 
 * Methinks I scent the morning dew, 
 ' And not a moment must we stay. 
 
 
 
 * The stars begin to twinkle now, 
 
 ' The tints of morning streak the sky, 
 H2 
 
100 THE BURNING. 
 
 * The vapour on yon mountain's brow 
 ' Forbodes that tell-tale morn is nigh. 
 
 1 Up, and away ! my lads with speed, 
 ' Swing battle blade, toss burning brand ; 
 ' For lo ! the fire-king has decreed, 
 
 * Yon town must blaze beneath our hand/ 
 
 VII. 
 
 In silence now they go 011 board 
 The gallant barge with rockets stor'd, 
 The muffled oars are still as death, 
 And every sailor holds his breath. 
 Childe Cockburn carried in his hand 
 A rocket, and a burning brand, 
 And waving o'er his august head 
 The red-cross standard proudly spread, 
 Whence hung by silken tassel fair 
 A bloody scalp of human hair, 
 Emblem of that pure Christian band, 
 Which binds the savage hand in hand 
 
THE BURNING. 101 
 
 the * great bulwark of our faith' 
 As Caleb Strong devoutly saith. 
 
 VIIL 
 
 The blinking morn began to peep 
 
 From eastern skies down on the deep, 
 
 And cast a grey uncertain light 
 
 On the dark bosom of the night, 
 
 Just as the gallant barges bore 
 
 Childe Cockburn's powers bump on the shore, 
 
 The stalwart knight with furious heat 
 
 Jump'd on the strand, stiff on two feet ; 
 
 And eager as the royal beast, 
 
 Who on hot carnage loves to feast, 
 
 Dauntless directed his swift way, 
 
 To where some twelve militia lay, 
 
 Safe as a thief behind a wall, 
 
 Attending to their country's call. 
 
102 THE BURNING. 
 
 IX. 
 
 The centinel who, half asleep, 
 
 From veiled lids would take a peep, 
 
 Saw eager Cockburn thundering on, 
 
 And 'gan I wot to quake anon: 
 
 In tribulation bawFd he out 
 
 For help to his companions stout, 
 
 Who bravely to his rescue came, 
 
 And taking most deliberate aim, 
 
 At four miles distance, with shut eye, 
 
 At Cockburn and his crew let fly. 
 
 I've heard a true eye-witness say, 
 
 Twelve canvas ducks, at morning play, 
 
 By that discharge all found their grave, 
 
 And with their broad bills bit the wave. 
 
 X. 
 
 But true it is, that some stray shot 
 Sent one of Cockburn's men to pot ; 
 
THE BURNING. 103 
 
 And the brave lads, who wisely thought 
 A victory so dearly bought 
 Would give more cause of woe than weal 
 To those who only came to steal, 
 Agreed to quit the bloody fray ; 
 So donn'd their arms and ran away, 
 To tell, with self-approving glee, 
 Their wondrous feats of chivalry. 
 
 XI. 
 
 By this time all the town was rous'd, 
 And not a living soul was hous'd ; 
 The foeman rais'd the yelling shout, 
 The Congreve rockets whizz'd about ; 
 The fiery missives dreadful gleam'd, 
 The half-awaken'd women scream'd ; 
 Feebly the frightened infant cried, 
 And uproar lorded far and wide. 
 Was none to quell the foeman's heat, 
 And stop the tide of wild defeat ? 
 
104 THE BUKNING. 
 
 None to arrest the caitiff band, 
 
 Or quench the wrathful burning brand 1 
 
 XII. 
 
 O'Neale from sea-girt Erin's isle, 
 Where bulls are made that make us smile, 
 With high imperial lineage graced, 
 Back his illustrious fathers tracM 
 To great O'Neale, who, like king Log, 
 Erst reign 'd o'er many a fen and bog, 
 In Munster or in Leinster fair, 
 Or somewhere else, I know not where. 
 Such was his birth, as saith dame Fame, 
 And from Milesian blood he came; 
 That blood which in hot current flows, 
 Unmix'd through all the race of O's 
 O'Rourke, O'Connor, and O'Dwyer, 
 And the round O's of Connaughtshire 
 That blood which flow'd in freedom's cause, 
 For equal rights and equal laws, 
 
THE BURNING. 105 
 
 And boils whene'er its country's wrong 
 Is sung in melancholy song. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 O'Neale from hard oppression's hand 
 A refuge sought in this fair land ; 
 This nestling corner of the earth, 
 Where every plant of foreign birth 
 Blossoms in rich luxuriance rare, 
 But seldom roots its fibres there. 
 Here flock the growth of every clime, 
 The victims of this iron time, 
 As to a land of calm delight, 
 Where every honest living wight 
 Can taste the bliss of plenteous glee, 
 And go his ways in liberty : 
 
 XIV. 
 
 Here comes in search of glittering pelf 
 Full many an avaricious elf, 
 
106 THE BURNING. 
 
 Condemned through toiling world to roani 
 
 Without a country or a home, 
 
 Save that in which his stinted mind 
 
 The loadstone of his heart can find : 
 
 No early recollection charms, 
 
 No sacred love of country warms, 
 
 But ossified to its core, 
 
 The bloodless, nerveless heart no more 
 
 Beats with one languid throb to see 
 
 The land of its nativity. 
 
 In search of this accursed meed 
 
 He's now a Pole, a Dane, a Swede, 
 
 A Portugueze, a renegade, 
 
 A traitor any thing for trade. 
 
 XV. 
 
 Of all the stranger wights who share 
 Our freedom and our native air ; 
 Who here a welcome haven find 
 From the rude storm they left behind, 
 
THE BURNING. 107 
 
 The storm which sweeps old Europe's coast, 
 Like that which quelled Pharaoh's host ; 
 Who glitter in our western sphere, 
 In the bright good they gather here, 
 How few one grateful impulse feel, 
 One wish for our kind country's weal ! 
 How many, like the fabled snake, 
 The bond of benefits dare break, 
 And vivified in the gleam 
 Of fortune's bright and warming beam, 
 Turn to the breast, where long they fed, 
 That pillow'd long their outcast head, 
 To blast it with their poisonous breath, 
 And sting the quivering heart to death ! 
 
 XVI. 
 
 Not so O'Neale, who in his heart 
 Warm took his foster-country's part, 
 And try'd to rouse a losel wight, 
 Who in his cabin lay that night: 
 
108 THE BURNING. 
 
 A tall, stout, rosy, lusty youth, 
 Who canted much of gospel truth, 
 And boasted of his * moral sense/ 
 His ' learning' and ' intelligence;' 
 One, as was learn'd from divers hints 
 Of Quincy's wise constituents, 
 Who think it wrong to raise their voice, 
 Or any other way rejoice, 
 When victory sits on our arms, 
 
 And every patriot bosom warms. 
 
 ' 
 
 XVIT. 
 
 Of great Miles Standish's blood he came, 
 
 And bore that mighty hero's name : 
 
 With this, in pious union, glow'd 
 
 Rare blood, that long time past had ftow'd 
 
 In wizard vein, as story tells, 
 
 Of Georgy Burroughs, hang'd at Wells, 
 
 For conjuring up a wicked light, 
 
 That mock'd a maid's keen searching sight 
 
THE BURNING* 109 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 With ardent zeal O'Neale essay'd 
 To stimulate this moral blade, 
 And strike a spark of patriot ire, 
 To light his paltry kitchen fire ; 
 But the asbestos of his soul, 
 Nor brimstone match, nor burning coal, 
 Lightning, nor Archimedes' rays 
 Could kindle into one poor blaze. 
 * In sooth his country well he lov'd, 
 ' And if good Caleb Strong approved, 
 ' Or 'Siah Quincy thought it right 
 ' Gramercy ! then you'd see him fight.' 
 No man, if you would take his word, 
 More readily would draw his sword, 
 Or fight with more determined glee, 
 In a. just cause forsooth than he ; 
 But he must see occasion good, 
 Before he shed one drop of blood : 
 
110 THE BURNING. 
 
 ' Nay more/ the whiffling caitiff cried, 
 1 Must have the law fast on my side/ 
 Sad recreant wight ! contempt and scorn 
 Shall wring thy bosom all forlorn, 
 If such a leaden heart can feel 
 What's sharper than the tempered steel. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 Who would not fight with heart and hand, 
 In any cause, for such a land, 
 Ne'er may the dastard traitor know 
 The joys from sacred home that flow ; 
 Nor even for one moment prove 
 Man's dear respect, or woman's love ; 
 Ne'er may he taste the sober bliss, 
 To live in such a spot as this ; 
 The poor man's long sought paradise, 
 Where nature's choicest blessings rise, 
 And plenty, with a lavish hand, 
 Winnows her gifts o'er all the land ; 
 
THE BURNING. Ill 
 
 Where yellow harvests bounteous wave 
 Old Europe's starving sons to save ; 
 And where, in the wide world, alone 
 * Sweet Harry's ' gen'rous wish is known : 
 Ne'er may the coward caitiff know 
 A country where such blessings flow; 
 But pine in Afric's scorching sand, 
 Or freeze on Lapland's ice-bound strand ; 
 Or crouch beneath a tyrant's throne, 
 Nor dare to call his soul his own ; 
 Or live at home, to know far worse, 
 The generous soul's most bitter curse ; 
 Live in his native clime abhorr'd, 
 And dead, go down in black record, 
 A slave, who would not lift his hand 
 To succour his own native land. 
 
112 THE BURNING. 
 
 XX. 
 
 Valiant O'Neale, amid the crowd, 
 Cry'd out ' by Jasus,' oft and loud * ; 
 But finding that it would not do 
 To fright the plunder-loving crew, 
 Retired behind a neighbouring wall, 
 And swore as loud as he could bawl, 
 Till Cockburn's men, as legends say, 
 Kidnapped, and carried him away. 
 Thrice valiant wight ! of mighty fame, 
 And, far as swearing goes, true game ; 
 
 * Mr. S here seems to insinuate that O'Neale dis- 
 tinguished himself only by making a great noise, and 
 swearing lustily. Whether this injustice of the poet pro- 
 ceeds from some remains of the old grudge arising from 
 the dispute about Ossian, or about the honour of peopling 
 the two countries, the Editor cannot tell. This much is 
 pretty certain, that he has not given due credit to O'Neale 
 for his superior prowess. It has been clearly ascertained, 
 that he killed two of the twelve canvas back ducks, men- 
 tioned in the poem ; and it is, moreover, the general 
 opinion in the neighbourhood of Havre de Grace, that 
 he would have killed several of the British, had he not, 
 by a very excusable blunder, shut both eyesintead of one, 
 whenever he pulled the trigger. Editor. 
 
THE BURNING. 113 
 
 I've heard, and I believe it true, 
 
 A thousand heroes, just like you, 
 
 Had put Childe Cockburn's prowess down, 
 
 And very likely sav'd the town. 
 
 XXL 
 
 But vain was all ! the rockets fly 
 Like stars athwart the summer sky, 
 And soon a curling tide of smoke 
 From many a cottage blackening broke : 
 Then might you see the bursting fire 
 Red'ning, and spreading higher, higher, 
 Until its volume seem'd to rise 
 To the blue dome of yonder skies: 
 Then might you hear the matron's shriek, 
 The cry of infant, faint and weak, 
 The crackling timber as it Tell, 
 And the brave Briton's Slogan yell, 
 As prowling mid the fire he glides, 
 Like spirit that in flame resides ; 
 I 
 
114 THE BURNING. 
 
 All mingling in one chorus drear, 
 And smiting on the startled ear. 
 
 XXII. 
 
 The distant peasant hears the sound, 
 
 And starting with elastic bound, 
 
 Hies to the mountain's bright'ning head> 
 
 And sees the fiery ruin spread ; 
 
 And marks the red and angry glare 
 
 Of water, sky, and earth, and air. 
 
 Seem'd Susquehanna's wave on fire, 
 
 And red with conflagration dire ; 
 
 The spreading bay's ensanguin'd flood 
 
 Seem'd stain'd with tint of human blood : 
 
 O'er Cecil County, far and wide, 
 
 Each tree, and rock, and stream was spied ; 
 
 And distant windows brightly gleam'd, 
 
 As if the setting sun had -beam'd. 
 
THE BURNING. 115 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 The Elkton burgher rais'd his head 
 To see what made the sky so red ; 
 From Ararat the falcon sail'd; 
 The owl at lonely distance waiPd ; 
 The gaunt wolf far adown the dale 
 Loaded with loud lament the gale, 
 As plaining that the morning's prime 
 Had come that day before its time ; 
 The wild deer started in the wood, 
 And all on tiptoe listening stood 
 To hear the yell, so stern and drear, 
 That smote upon his startled ear; 
 But when he saw the raging fire 
 Spring up the sky, and then retire, 
 ' Now spread o'er ether, quick advance, 
 And now o'er heav'n's blue concave dance, 
 
 ith furious bound he hied away, 
 And hid him from the light of day; 
 12 
 
116 THE BURNING. 
 
 Far in the distant forest green, 
 Where fire, or man, was never seen. 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 The waning flame is waxing low, 
 
 'Tis all one smoking ruin now : 
 
 The blackened walls, the charred pine, 
 
 No more in blazing splendour shine; 
 
 And the once animated scene 
 
 Is now as if it ne'er had been : 
 
 Where late the passing trav'ller view'd 
 
 A little nest of houses strew'd, 
 
 Was nothing now but mouldering wall, 
 
 Already nodding to its fall ; 
 
 As if old Time, in wrathful spite, 
 
 Had silent come that fatal night, 
 
 And did, to shew his wondrous power, 
 
 The work of years, in one sad hour. 
 
THE BURNING. 117 
 
 XXV. 
 
 No more beheld the busy show 
 Of people passing to and fro, 
 On business or on pleasure bent, 
 With smiling look of calm content : 
 But here and there might now be seen, 
 The black and ruin'd walls between, 
 A ragged urchin prowling pass 
 To scratch among the smoking mass, 
 And search with keen inquiring eye 
 Some precious relic to espy. 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 And many a houseless wretch was seen 
 Wending their way across the green, 
 With slow and lingering step, to view 
 The havoc made by lawless crew. 
 Alas ! where shall the wanderers roam 
 To find a refuge and a home ? 
 
H8 THE BURNING. 
 
 Will those who celebrate the feats 
 Of Russian boors and British fleets, 
 And, universal patriots grown, 
 Feast for all victories but our own- 
 Will these be just, and make amends 
 For the rude havoc of their friends? 
 No, rather would they task their mind 
 Excuses for such acts to find, 
 And justify the lawless feats 
 Of British tars and British fleets, 
 
 XXVII. 
 
 As tottering near the smoking heap 
 
 The houseless matron bends to weep, 
 
 Methinks I hear her sighing say, 
 
 As turning in despair away : 
 
 ' Are these the gallant tars so long 
 
 t The burthen of their country's song 1 
 
 ' These they, whose far resounding name 
 
 f Fills the obstreperous trump of Fame ? 
 
THE BURNING. 119 
 
 ' Who lord it o'er the subject wave, 
 
 * And France and all her prowess brave ? 
 
 * These, who such deeds of glory wrought, 
 
 * When Blake, and Howe, and Duncan fought ? 
 < These, who with Nelson, Honour's son, 
 
 ' The victory so often won ? 
 
 4 These the same Britons, fam'd of ydre 
 
 * At Cressy and at Agincour 1 
 
 4 These, the great ' bulwark ' to oppose, 
 -* Peace and religion's deadly foes 1 
 ' These, who are destined to restore 
 ' Repose to Europe's harass'd shore ? 
 * God help the while ! if such they be, 
 * What glorious times we soon shall see ! 
 
 XXVIII. 
 
 If such they be God help the while! 
 ' Where send the peaceful sons of toil, 
 
 * Who take no part in that fell strife 
 ' Which in ambition's land is rife, 
 
120 THE BURNING. 
 
 ' But harmless trade industrious ply, 
 
 * Nor trouble aught beneath the sky 
 
 * To what lone scene must they retire 
 ' To 'scape the Briton's wrathful fire? 
 
 * Where shall the matron refuge seek ? 
 
 * The infant that can hardly speak 1 
 ' Where the bed-ridden and the old 
 ' Retire from reach of Briton bold 1 
 ' Who comes in pious Christian ire 
 
 * To purify the earth by fire ; 
 
 6 Who labours for the world's repose 
 
 * By heaping up a world of woes ; 
 
 * Who points our hopes to realms of bliss, 
 f By making us heart-sick of this ; 
 
 ' And thus, as farmer Caleb saith, 
 
 * ACTS AS THE " BULWARK OF OUR FAITH/' ' 
 
 HUSH'D is the strain, the minstrel gone ; 
 But did he wander forth alone ? 
 
THE BURNING. 121 
 
 No close by Princeton college gate 
 Even to this day he holds his state, 
 Where well his bearing you may know 
 By sightless eye, and head of snow. 
 His little garden flourishes 
 With salad rare and radishes ; 
 Cabbage and cucumbers are seen, 
 And turnips with their tops so green ; 
 And of the common garden stuff 
 The minstrel has more than enough: 
 His faithful dog is often seen 
 Waddling across the college green, 
 And not a little Freshman there 
 But pats his head with pious care : 
 At summer eve there gather round 
 The student lads, who stand astound, 
 And listen with attentive glee 
 To tales of modern chivalry, 
 And gallant feats of younger times, 
 And various wild and witching rhymes : 
 
122 THE BURNING. 
 
 Once in the year he deigns to play. 
 First fiddle on Commencement Day, 
 When in Joline's high stately hall 
 Is held the Student's ANNUAL BALL. 
 
 SCOTCH fiddle! fare thee well! the night dogs 
 
 bark ; 
 
 Their wild notes with thy dying tones con- 
 tending, 
 
 Rouse from his reverie some boozy spark, 
 From porter house or tavern homeward wending : 
 Resume thy case again, thou wantest mending, 
 And, by worn strings make droning minstrelsy; 
 The squeaking tones with city vespers blending, 
 Mix'd with the distant hum of nightly glee, 
 In drowsy concert, sleepy maketh me. 
 
 Yet once again, farewell Scotch fiddle dear ! 
 For dear thou art io hose that buy thy lay : 
 
THE BURNING. 123 
 
 Ah ! little reck'd I of thy tones so clear, 
 That scare love-making Catlings far away. 
 How often have I scrap'd whole nights away, 
 And murder'd tunes the world hath never known ; 
 What time to dancing wights and damsels gay 
 I tun'd thy strings and fiddled all alone : 
 That I survive these nights, sweet fiddle, is thine 
 own. 
 
 Hark ! as my lingering footsteps slow retire, 
 
 Some airy minstrel wakes thy worn-out string ! 
 
 'Tis Church's ghost, come from Tartarean fire ! 
 
 * Scotch ointment/ stead of rosin pure he brings. 
 
 And hark ! how sweet th' anointed fiddle rings ! 
 
 Fainter and fainter in receding swell, 
 
 As the pure spirit spreads his singed wings, 
 
 My fingers itch to play the wizard spell, 
 
 But 'twill not be SCOTCH FIDDLE, fare thee well! 
 
IN the course of the following Notes, the A uthor 
 sometimes designates himself, as in the title page, Edi- 
 tor ; the reader will always understand these to be the 
 production of the Author himself. Whenever the English 
 Editor has thought it proper to throw in a Note, it is in 
 Italics, and signed, E. Ed. 
 
NOTES 
 
 TO THE 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 NOTE I. 
 
 X HE last relic of the ancient and most honourable 
 order of minstrels, or troubadours in America, is observ- 
 able in the itinerant fiddler, who travels about for the 
 purpose of administering to the harmless gaiety of the 
 rustics, by playing, and sometimes singing for them at 
 their merry-makings. In ancient times the fiddle was 
 usually accompanied by the music of a cat, as appears 
 from the following fragment of a very rare ballad, com- 
 municated to me by my valued friend Mr. Jacobus 
 Porcus, the Ettrick shepherd. The accompaniment of 
 the cat must have been a delightful addition to the har- 
 mony j and it is no wonder that the cow was so hugely 
 delighted that she jumped over the moon. Indeed there 
 is nothing in all antiquity which exhibits the wonderful 
 effects of music more strikingly, than this precious little 
 fragment : 
 
126 NOTES. 
 
 Heye dyddle dyddle, 
 
 Ye catte and ye fythele, 
 Ye keouw yumped over ye inooiic ; 
 
 Ye leetle dogge laugffed 
 
 Vor to zee syche craffte, 
 And ye dysche felle a-lyckynge ye spoone. 
 
 It appears by an ancient manuscript, that the tl leetle 
 dogge" who laughed, as well he might, at this eccen- 
 tric caper of the cow, belonged to the laird Buccleuch, 
 and was ancestor to the very identical dog mentioned in 
 the poem. 
 
 But it has been asserted by learned antiquarians, 
 that the fiddle, vulgarly called violin by certain people 
 of affected refinement, though very ancient, was probably 
 not known to the fereeks and Romans, as there is no 
 notice of the bow in the writings of these people. The 
 earliest mention of the instrument in English literature, 
 occurs in one of the last places that one would look for it, 
 to wit, in the Life of St. Christopher, a metrical compo- 
 sition of the twelfth century. 
 
 " Christofre, him served longe, 
 " The kynge loued the melodye offithele and songe. 
 
 It is not a little singular that the saint should make 
 himself agreeable to the king in this manner. Be this as 
 it may, it has been ascertained by those who have by 
 their labours administered so much to the laudable cu- 
 riosity of mankind, that the fiddle was not in common 
 use, or admitted in a concert, until the time of Charles 
 
NOTES. 127 
 
 the Second. He being a right jolly king, was highly 
 tickled with the inspiring strains of this merry-making 
 instrument, and forthwith established for himself, a band 
 of four and twenty fiddlers, which gave rise to the famous 
 and well known song of " Four and twenty Fiddlers, all 
 in a row.'' 
 
 Such are the gross errors of careless inquirers into the 
 history of this ancient and venerable instrument, which 
 if it did not precede, was certainly contemporary with 
 the bag-pipe, the harp, the lute, and other instruments 
 of acknowledged antiquity. So much has been said of 
 the Welsh harp, the Irish harp, and the Scotch harp, 
 that this fortunate instrument has borne away the palm 
 from all others, and stripped the fiddle in particular of 
 those honours which are lawfully its due. The divine 
 Raphael, as he is called, not because he was a doctor of 
 divinity, but because he painted divinely, has sufficiently 
 proved the antiquity of the fiddle, by representing 
 Apollo fiddling most vehemently to the Muses ; and still 
 further to exalt his favourite instrument, has on another 
 occasion introduced it in a concert of angels. The 
 silence of the ancient writers being merely negative, is 
 certainly not to be placed against the positive authority 
 of the divine Raphael, who by putting the fiddle into 
 Apollo's hand, has plainly indicated his conviction of its 
 being at least as old as the sun itself. 
 
 
128 NOTES. 
 
 NOTE II. 
 
 In faded bag of flannel green. 
 
 IT has been the custom from time immemorial in Ame- 
 rica, for a fiddler to carry his fiddle in a bag of green 
 flannel, or baize ; probably in a sort of punning allusion to 
 the green Bays, with which the poets have crowned 
 Apollo, the great patron of minstrelsy. Among the 
 many modern innovations, introduced by the Normans, 
 Danes, Saxons, and Britons, who are gradually over- 
 running that easy country, is that of carrying the fiddle 
 about in a box, which singularly resembles a child's 
 coffin, and presents an antidote to all gestic hilarity. 
 
 NOTE III. 
 
 Of gaping lion yawning wide, 
 In regal pomp and beastly pride. 
 
 ALMOST all the ancient fiddles I have seen, have the head 
 of a lion rudely carved, and gaping in a most outrageous 
 manner. The reason of this is obvious, for as the Lion i 
 is the king of beasts, and the fiddle the most perfect, of i 
 course the king, of musical instruments, the carved head: 
 is doubtless intended to have a sort of hieroplyphical 
 allusion to this analogy. Whether some connection might* 
 not be traced by means of this hieroglyphic between the 
 fiddle and the lyre of Osiris, alias Hermes Trismegistus, 
 alias Mercury, the great Egyptian player, is a question 
 
NOTES. 129 
 
 deserving the serious consideration of Mr. Bryant, were 
 he alive. That learned Atlas having so successfully trans- 
 planted Troy, with all its walls and battlements, like the 
 house of Our Lady of Loretto, from one country into ano- 
 ther, mii^ht be expected to prove Homer a Scotch piper, 
 and Trismcgistus a blind fiddler. 
 
 NOTE IV. 
 
 Love-feasts at midnight's dangerous hour. 
 
 THESE orgies, which are undoubtedly borrowed from the 
 aboriginal Americans, have a striking resemblance to the 
 war-dances of the savages, being accompanied by similar 
 howlmgs, groanings, gnashing of teeth, strange contortions, 
 and extravagant gesticulations. 
 
 NOTE V. 
 
 Those notes that blithe king Cole might hear. 
 
 THIS Jolly king was a contemporary of Fergus, Brian 
 Borholme, king Twaddle, and many other illustrious mo- 
 narchs, about whom we know nothing; at least nothing 
 worth knowing. It is probable that he was neither more 
 nor less than one of the ancient lairds of Col, who was 
 remarkable for being fond of fiddling. In these days there 
 were a prodigious number of petty sovereigns, like those 
 whom the bitter little Emperor of tf.e Gauls has sent 
 packing. These high chieftains, if they only had a forest 
 K 
 
130 NOTES. 
 
 of five hundred trees, with a reasonable proportion of 
 bushes ; two or three half-starved deer ; a game keeper 
 I beg pardon a forester dressed in green and silver, 
 with enormous whiskers, and a toasting iron two yards 
 long, to frighten the poor peasants, together with a cor- 
 poral's guard of long queued soldiers, would forthwith set 
 themselves up for mighty kings, and under that sacred 
 title pick pockets, and rob on the highways with the best 
 of them. 
 
 Be this as it may, we learn that king Cole, or Col, was a 
 great admirer of the fiddle, as appears from the following 
 fragment of an ancient ballad sung on the Borders, pre- 
 served in the Bodleian Library. 
 
 Owlde kynge Cole was a iollye owlde soule, 
 And a iollye owlde soule was hee 
 Owlde kynge Cole was a iollye owlde soule, 
 And hee caulled forre fytheles three. 
 
 Another reading of this valuable relique is communL 
 cated to me by my learned friend Mr. R. Surtees of I 
 Mainforth, who had it from his nurse, a very old woman, 
 deaf and blind, and therefore the more likely to have a 
 good memory. It runs thus : 
 
 ' Merrye kynge Cole, was a thyrstye olde soule, 
 * And a thyrstye olde soule was hee. 
 4 Merrye kynge Cole was sette round a boule, 
 ' And hee caull'd for fythlers three.' 
 
 I shall endeavour to decide which of these is the true 
 reading, in the next edition of this work. 
 
NOTES. 131 
 
 NOTE VI. 
 
 A little dog with gentle speed, 
 Though not of black St. Hubert's breed. 
 
 [ HAVE taken infinite pains to ascertain the true breed of 
 this faithful little animal, but cannot flatter myself with 
 having arrived at that degree of certainty, which a matter 
 of such interest demands. He was not a bull dog ; nor a 
 ban dog ; nor a badger ; nor a greyhound ; nor a pointer; 
 nor a turnspit 5 nor a pug ; nor a wolf dog ; nor a Da- 
 nish ; nor a Siberian ; nor a Chinese ; nor a Newfoundland 
 dog. The most general tradition is, that he was a mon- 
 grel, having the proboscis of a pug, the body of a grey- 
 
 lound, and the bandy legs of a turnspit. 
 
 NOTE VII. 
 
 And Bergen hill-tops slow ascends, 
 
 THIS village is of great antiquity, insomuch that the old- 
 est man now living at that place, who is so old that he 
 cannot tell when he was born, does not remember its first 
 settlement. The people here are noted for their * steady 
 habits/ a source of great self-gratulation in many parts of 
 America, whether the*e ' steady habits' be good or bad, 
 it would seem. The men wear the same shaped hats, the 
 same redundant galligaskins, the same veritable linsey- 
 woolsey coats, and the women appear in the same long- 
 eared caps, striped petticoats, high-heel shoes, little silver 
 K2 
 
132 NOTES. 
 
 buckles, and long waists, they figured in during the happy 
 days of the Dutch dynasty, rendered so illustrious by the 
 renowned history of my friend Knickerbocker. In these 
 ' steady habits' they exceed even their neighbours in Con- 
 necticut, where fashions have undergone great changes 
 since the golden age of the Blue Laws, when their simple 
 ancestors were wont to cover their heads with half a 
 pumpkin shell, and cut the hair by its regular outline, that 
 no upstart hair might pride itself upon being longer than 
 its neighbour. With respect to the fashion of their gar- 
 ments, there is a sad falling off, for I am enabled to state, 
 on the authority of an historian who has told so many dis- 
 agreeable truths of them, that in pure revenge they have 
 called him a liar, that there is still extant in the family of 
 Governor Jones of New-Haven, a pair of breeches, an- 
 ciently worn on state occasions by that redoubtable go- 
 vernor, so enormously puffed and plaited, as to contain by 
 actual measurement twenty-four yards ! 
 
 NOTE VIII. 
 
 < Fair Hackinsack.' 
 
 A PLEASANT river and village in Jersey, of which I can 
 find nothing remarkable, except the following fragment of 
 a ballad, preserved in the library of the honourable society 
 of advocates in Edinburgh : 
 
 Dounte yoeue heare ye yeneralle zaye, 
 JStricke youre tenttes and marche away, 
 
NOTES. 133 
 
 Wythe youere knapsacks oune youere backe, 
 Alle ye waye toe Hachynesacke. 
 
 CHORUS. 
 
 Alle ye waye toe Hackynsacke, 
 
 Wythe youere knapsacke on yoeure backe. 
 
 This fragment is of great value, as demonstrating the an- 
 tiquity of knapsacks, which have heretofore been consi- 
 dered of comparative modern invention. That the frag- 
 ment itself is extremely ancient, is clearly ascertained from 
 the peculiarity of the chorus, which it will be observed 
 consists merely in a transposition of the two last lines of 
 the preceding stanza. This is precisely the characteristic 
 of the most ancient specimens of ballad extant, and may 
 be observed in the productions of the old minstrels, as 
 well as the romaunts of the troubadours, whose poetry is 
 full of repetitions and transpositions. This peculiarity may 
 be even detected in the writings of Homer, the great fa- 
 ther of poetry, who frequently makes his heroes repeat in 
 their speeches, what he has just before said in his own 
 proper person, merely with some trifling transposition. 
 Those conversant in ballad poetry, which is certainly the 
 most ancient of all, will readily, by resorting to this crite- 
 rion, be enabled to decide on the claims of any production 
 to superior antiquity. 
 
134 NOTES. 
 
 NOTE IX. 
 
 THE ancient name of New- York, the most enlightened, 
 elegant, and refined city of the New World. It was 
 from this place, which possesses a harbour almost as beau- 
 tiful as the bay of Naples, that those famous argonauts, 
 the wise men of Gotham, embarked in a bowl, or as some 
 say an egg-shell, for the purpose of searching out the 
 Island of Atalantis, which Plato (ancestor of Plato, ge- 
 neral of the Don Cossacks) had just then discovered, but 
 not laying down the latitude correctly, could never after- 
 wards light on. 
 
 What became of these great navigators is not certainly 
 known. The most received opinion is, that they landed 
 somewhere in Europe, and became the ancestors of that 
 numerous race of metaphysicians, economics, encyclope- 
 dists, arid Illuminati, who in their zeal to enlighten that 
 unlucky quarter of the globe, have set it together by the 
 ears, and put its fortunes to sea in an egg-shell, to take the 
 chance of their favourite mode of navigation. 
 
 NOTE X. 
 
 Here many a sign-post caught the view. 
 
 AMONG the many learned dissertations on the origin of 
 coats of arms, I am not a little surprised that no writer 
 has yet attempted to deduce them from sign-posts. It 
 
NOTES. 135 
 
 is allowed on all sides, that coats of arms came into use 
 about the time of the Crusades. Now we are fully aware 
 that in the innumerable mixed rabble of nobles, who 
 could not read, and priests who could not write, of pious 
 knights, who took the cross to wipe off old scores or run 
 up new, and miserable retainers who went without any 
 motive at all amongst this promiscuous multitude there 
 would be a prodigious number of tipplers, and conse- 
 quently, a great many suttlers would follow the camp to 
 supply the wants, and minister to the vices of the sol- 
 diery. 
 
 In order to create a sort of individuality, in other 
 words, to distinguish the person who sold liquor, from him 
 who dealt in other articles, it is extremely natural to 
 suppose that each would put up a sign at his door, bearing 
 some rude representation of his calling. Thus the 
 chequer board would indicate to the shrewd instinct of 
 the thirsty crusader, that he might step in and amuse 
 himself with a glass and a game. The mason's square 
 and compass, that here resided a free and accepted ma- 
 son ; and the bottle spouting beer, that here was to be 
 sold that inspiring liquor. 
 
 The numerous race of Gaultheruses, Aimerics, and 
 Geoffreys, who, having no sirnames, were jumbled to- 
 gether in such confusion, that one could hardly tell him- 
 self from another, insomuch, that when Duke Godfrey 
 called for one Geoffrey, there came an hundred, these 
 shrewd fellows, I say, did probably observe the great use 
 of the aforesaid signs, in establishing an individuality of 
 character, and took the hint of adopting something of the 
 
136 NOTES 
 
 kind by way of distinction. Instead however of hanging 
 their signs on a tree, or a pole, as did the sut tiers, they 
 procured them to be painted on their shields in a superior 
 manner, and with a variety of decorations, to distinguish 
 them from the vulgar. As they likewise followed no other 
 business than that of cutting of throats, they would most 
 probably adopt the figure of some beast of prey; a lion, 
 a tiger, a uuicorn, a griffin : or some strange, bitter, 
 blood-thirsty looking animal with a horrible grim face, 
 and a mouth wide enough to swallow a Saracen, or one of 
 the giants so common in those days. 
 
 When in process of time, the descendants of the 
 tavern-keepers and nobles got to be able to spell with- 
 out much trouble, the former would in all likelihood add 
 their names to these signs, together with some appro- 
 priate legend, such as " spirituous liquors sold here;" or 
 " good entertainment for man and horse." This of course 
 would be followed up by the nobility who had imitated 
 them in the first instance, and hence arose the fair and 
 high sounding mottoes which are supposed to indicate 
 the character, profession, and exploits of either them- 
 selves, or their illustrious ancestors. 
 
NOTES. 187 
 
 : 
 NOTE XI. 
 
 His elbow itched to quaver now, 
 The little dog cried " bow, wow, wow," 
 And wagg'd his tail to hear again 
 The music of some well known strain. 
 
 THAT the reader may not doubt the singular instinct of 
 the littJe dog in thus, as it were, knocking down his mas- 
 ter for a song, I will relate a few instances of the saga- 
 city of animals, which are authenticated by undoubted 
 history. I mean that sagacity which is displayed in a 
 particular animal attaching itself to a particular man, and 
 following him with such affectionate solicitude, as to indi- 
 cate something more than instinctive devotion. 
 
 Nathaniel Wanley relates the following singular anec- 
 dote of a lynx, which came from Assyria with a person 
 whose name I have forgot, " who was so affected to- 
 " wards one of his servants that it would attempt to de- 
 <( tain him with its claws, when he was going away, and 
 lt on his return received him with a wonderful alacrity 
 " and congratulation. At last the mail crossed the sea 
 " with me to go into the Turkish camp, when the lynx 
 " refusing all nourishment languished and died." 
 
 " At Patras in Achaia, a boy called Thoas, had formed 
 " a great friendship with a young dragon, who when he 
 " grew up was carried to the wilderness and left there, 
 " for fear he would do mischief. Bye and bye, Thoas re- 
 " turning with some of his companions from certain sights, 
 
138 NOTES. 
 
 " he and his companions were set upon by robbers. Thoas 
 " cried out lustily : his voice was straight known to the 
 u dragon, who immediately came forth to his rescue, 
 " frighted some, and slew others, and so preserved the 
 life of his friend." 
 
 This attachment is the more remarkable, as dragons 
 have at all times been considered as deadly enemies to all 
 mankind except Giants and Enchanters, and have there- 
 fore been killed without mercy by the errant Knights. 
 
 King Porus had his life saved by an elephant, who, 
 when he was down, lifted him on his back witii his trunk, 
 and carried him off at the expense of his own life. 
 
 A dolphin in the Lucrine lake, as related by Maecenas 
 Fabianus and others, loved a certain boy so much, that 
 he came regularly every day and carried him on his back 
 from Baiae to Puteoli to school, and back again. This 
 he continued for many years until the boy fell sick and 
 died. The dolphin came several days to the place, seem- 
 ing to be very heavy and mournful, and spouting water, 
 as if he were crying, until at length, as was supposed, he 
 died of grief, and was found dead on the shore. 
 
 " Busbequius affirms, that a Spaniard of Minorca was 
 " so beloved by a crane, that the poor bird would walk 
 " any way with him, and in his absence seek about for 
 " him, make a noise, and knock at bis door. When he 
 " took his last farewell, not able to endure her losj>, she 
 " abstained from all food and died." 
 
 But the most extraordinary instance is that related by 
 Pliny, who says u at ;gium, a town in Achaia, a goose 
 
NOTES. 139 
 
 " fell in love with a young man of Obenus, named Am- 
 " philocus." 
 
 The goose prayed stoutly to Venus that her form might 
 be changed, and the goddess at length taking pity on 
 her, metamorphosed her into an exceeding pretty and 
 foolish young lady, who could never, however, entirely 
 divest herself of the love of feathers, and, as Pliny says, 
 " in many essentials remained a goose all her life." 
 
 These instances of an ardent attachment are quite 
 sufficient to render probable all that has been related in 
 this poem of the sagacity of the little dog, and his love 
 for his master, though an old man, and blind withal. 
 
 NOTE XII. 
 
 Of Archy Gifford dead and gone. 
 
 THE family of Gifford of Newark Tower*, or, as it is 
 spelled in ancient ballads, Gyfforde, is of singular anti- 
 quity, and its origin, like that of most other illustrious 
 houses, enveloped in great uncertainty. Walter de 
 Gyfforde was a famous knight in his day, and very inti- 
 mate with all the celebrated Border chiefs, such as Buc- 
 cleuch, Douglas, Kerr, and Cranstoun. His most inti- 
 mate friend, however, was Roger Bigod, the great 
 swearer. They were all " ryghte lustye roysteringe 
 
 * Tfie Giffords were the predecessors of Mine, keeper of 
 an inn at Princeton, called the Newark Tower. 
 
140 NOTES. 
 
 blades," as appear from the following lines of an old 
 ballad furnished me by Jacobus Porcus, to whom I cannot 
 sufficiently express my obligations for the invaluable 
 reliques he has favoured me with from time to time : 
 
 " GyfTorde wliatte tak a mannes cattelle ; 
 
 " Cranstoun sponsebreker to tryne lyue ; 
 
 " Bucckuch whatte thieuery dydde lyue welle ; 
 
 " Roger wych swere by gainctes abyue, 
 
 " AM them ayenst ye lawes dydde stonde, 
 
 *' Ynne Scotlande, soe ynne merrye Englonde. 
 
 It is but justice, however, to the late Lord Arehey to 
 ay, that he never committed any of those chivalric out- 
 rages upon his' neighbours, except honest Joe Miller, 
 against whom he used now and then to ride a Foray, de- 
 spoiling him of some of his best jokes, and converting 
 them to his own use. In general, he demeaned himself 
 like a right hospitable gentleman, keeping open house, 
 and entertaining all comers most royally. Lord Archy 
 built the magnificent stables in the rear of his stately 
 tower of Newark, where he always kept " four and 
 twenty steeds," ready dight, for his visitors to ride a 
 hunting. He also had painted the great picture repre- 
 senting a hunting match, which being too large* for his 
 Iiali, is suspended l)y two stout poles at the south-west 
 corner of the castle. The following curious inscription 
 is cut on the corner stone of the stables. 
 
 INSCRIPTION. 
 
 " Ich, Archy GifTorde, dedde and ygonne, 
 ^* Mysel trewliche putten thilke stonne. 
 
NOTES. 141 
 
 " Ye lorde delieueren hym ynne mercye, 
 
 " Fromme bodyliche penaunce synne and heresye. 
 
 " Zo hertiliche toe eneryche yonne, 
 
 " Wbysheth hym holpe ynne godde hys sonne. 
 
 This inscription is remarkable on many accounts, but 
 principally as appearing to be written by Lord Archy, 
 after he was " dedde and ygonne." 
 
 NOTE XIII. 
 
 Of good John Giffbrdrest him God. 
 
 THE present lord of Newark-tower, who succeeded his 
 brother Lord Archy in default of male issue, or indeed 
 issue of any other kind. Lord John formerly resided at 
 the stately castle occupied by Lord Joline* at Princeton, 
 but removed to the ancient family mansion on the death 
 of his brother. His lordship keeps up the ancient hos- 
 pitality of the late lord, and is in every respect a worthy 
 successor, and right worshipful supporter of the honours 
 of his ancient and illustrious house. 
 
 ' * : * The Innkeeper. E. Ed. 
 
NOTES 
 
 TO 
 
 CANTO FIRST. 
 
 NOTE T. 
 
 The feast was o'er in the cabin below, 
 And the Knight was pacing to and fro. 
 
 OiR BOLUS, whose exploits in the Chesapeake are, as 
 they say of quack medicines, t( too well known to need 
 any praise from us." Sir Bolus, like the American 
 Eagle, carries in one hand a bundle of arrows, and in the 
 other an olive branch, to indicate that he brines the 
 choice of peace or war. As the sage Gargantua, accord- 
 ing to Monsieur Rabelais, was once in a situation in 
 which he did not know whether to laugh or cry, and com- 
 promised matters, by laughing with one side of his face 
 and crying with the other; so in like manner Sir Bolus, 
 being divided as it were between peace and war, one 
 day burns a town, and the next pofesses a violent inclina- 
 tion to be friends with America. 
 
144 NOTES. 
 
 NOTE II. 
 
 Sir Beresford, a sturdy limb. 
 
 THIS gallant chieftain was formerly, we understand, on 
 a visit to the city of Gotham, where he partook of the 
 hospitality for which that ancient city is so celebrated, 
 particularly with reference to any of his Britannic Ma- 
 jesty's officers. He was at all the entertainments given 
 by the rich merchants, and to use his own phrase, " pun- 
 ished," some of their claret pretty handsomely. In fact, 
 you could go no where without seeing him. 
 
 When he left that place he amused himself with cruis- 
 ing just without the harbour, bringing to every vessel 
 going in or out, particularly if they happened to belong 
 to the gentlemen whose claret he had " punished," and 
 practising all that train of petty tyrannical imposition, 
 which America has been in the habit of receiving from 
 the two " great Belligerents" for several years past. 
 
 Sir Beresford has lately distinguished himself by cap- 
 turing the Wasp, an American u seventy-four in disguise," 
 for which we believe he received the honour of knight- 
 hood. 
 
 NOTE III. 
 
 Sir Cockbum next, a border chief. 
 
 SIR Cockburn, or Childe Cockburn, as he is indifferently 
 called, is a distinguished freebooter of the new order of 
 
NOTES. 145 
 
 '"." v ' ,"' 
 
 knights of the post. I have entered so fully into his cha- 
 racter in the poem, that it is quite unnecessary to resort 
 to my usual method of illustrating by notes. 
 
 NOTE IV. 
 
 He too had been on Lapland shore, 
 Where witches keep such mighty store 
 Of winds, tied up in knot so tight. 
 
 THE Lapland witches, or rather wizards, are one of the 
 last ragged remnants of the ancient pagan mythology, 
 and derive their origin from high antiquity. They are 
 probably the descendants of the priests of ^Eolus, who, 
 according to Homer, made Ulysses a present, which de- 
 stroyed his whole fleet, and threw him high and dry on 
 the island of Circe, who was no other than an arrant 
 Lapland witch. It is difficult to account for people, in 
 this remote situation, retaining among them almost the 
 only remnant of ancient classical superstition now re- 
 maining in Europe. But when we consider that many 
 of the ingenious writers on the subject of the diffusion of 
 mankind, and the consequent diffusion of science and 
 learning, have pointed out the hyperborean regions*, as 
 the most probable source of both, it will not appear 
 altogether preposterous, to suppose that Lapland, being 
 the very centre of that genial quarter, is the identical 
 
 * See Gibbon. Ed. 
 
J4G NOTES. 
 
 spot. This is rendered more probable, by the universal 
 opinion of the natives, who, one and all, agree in calling 
 this seducing territory the terrestrial paradise. If so, it is 
 a circumstance that may humble the pride of the arro- 
 gant natives of the East, to be told that they are not 
 only descended, but derive all their pretensions to civili- 
 zation and refinement, from a little diminutive set of 
 Semi-Troglodytes, who live half the time by the light of 
 fish oil instead of the sun; who sell nothing but wind; 
 who know no other physic than moss, mushrooms, and 
 turpentine; live on dried fish, and bread made of pine 
 trees; and are at present in such a confirmed state of 
 ignorance, as to serve the father-in-law a whole year, only 
 to get his daughter for a wife ! 
 
 NOTE V. 
 
 Cast or and Pollux, those dread lights. 
 At mast-head seen in stormy nights. 
 
 CASTOR and Pollux. In meteorology are fiery balls 
 which appear at the mast head, or sticking to the shrouds 
 of vessels during a storm at sea. When only one of these 
 balls is seen, it is called Helen, and indicates that the 
 worst part of the storm is yet to come. These lights^ 
 were sometimes called Tyndarides by the ancients ; by 
 the Spaniards they are called San Elmo ; by the French, 
 St. Nicholas; by the Italians, Hermo ; and by the Dutch, 
 Vree vuuren. Experienced mariners have informed me, 
 
NOTES. 147 
 
 that they have often sent their sailors up the shrouds to 
 catch one of these balls of fire, but without success ; 
 and if Sir Cockbnrn really caught one, he did what no 
 other navigator ever performed. It is said that a large 
 jack-o'-lantern of this kind inhabits a high mountain in 
 the island of Samos, which is situated at the mouth of the 
 Gulf of Glaucus, a very dangerous place, on account of 
 fogs and sudden gusts ; and that many vessels have been 
 preserved by its light. 
 
 Castor and Pollux, from whom these meteors derive 
 their name, were two strange birds, hatched from two 
 strange eggs of Leda. The story is extant in the ancient 
 Grecian mythology, which is very properly put into the 
 hands of children, to initiate them into the whole mystery 
 of intrigue, terrestrial and celestial. The two brothers 
 agreed very well together j so much so, that Castor 
 dying, the surviving brother, who was gifted with immor- 
 tality, for reasons set forth in the ancient scandalous chro- 
 nicle, obtained permission to share his immortality with 
 him. Accordingly, while one was on earth, the other 
 sojourned in the regions below, resembling in this respect 
 two well-buckets, one of which always descends as the 
 other rises. Castor being a great hunter of beavers, was 
 the first to introduce into Greece that particular part of 
 the animal, which has ever since been called by his name, 
 which has likewise descended, or rather ascended, to the 
 peculiar hat, which he formerly wore, and which to this 
 day is called a Castor hat. 
 
 The two brothers, as the story says, were at length 
 L2 
 
148 NOTES. 
 
 translated to the skies, as was not unusual in those days, 
 when no other translations ever took place, and formed 
 the constellation of Gemini, which may be seen in front 
 of the almanac. The exclamation of " O Gemini!" 
 which is very ancient, is derived from this constellation. 
 The Castorian dance, still in use among the American 
 Indians, and which consists in jumping up as high as 
 possible, and crying Boh! was instituted in honour of 
 Castor, who, in hunting the beaver, got exceedingly inti- 
 mate with the savages of the north-west. Whether he 
 was the original founder of the North-west ( ompan ; is an 
 inquiry, which, though deserving attention, would lead 
 me into too extensive a discussion. 
 
 Castor and Pollux were very popular among the Ro- 
 mans, because they once appeared in a battle, and 
 turned the scale of victory in their favour. There can 
 be no doubt of the fact, because it is written in the 
 famous Linen Books, that the constellation of Gemini was 
 not visible for two nights ; and where could it be gone, 
 except to. the battle? They were mounted on white 
 horses; whence originated the custom among modern 
 generals of riding on one of that colour. 
 
NOTES. 149 
 
 NOTE VI. 
 
 The flying Dutchman, direful sprite, 
 He chcts'd one live-long winter night, 
 And drove 1dm, ere the break of day, 
 Full high and dry in Table Bay. 
 
 [Mr. S. having unaccountably neglected banging a note to this 
 passage, the Editor has attempted to supply the omission.] 
 
 OF the origin and history of this famous marine spectre, I 
 have been able to learn but little. The general opinion 
 among seamen is, that a certain Dutch skipper, as obsti- 
 nate as a mule, beating up into Table Bay, at the Cape 
 of Good Hope, with the wind in his teeth, and being 
 frequently driven back, at length swore by u dunger 
 and blixum," his usual oath, that he would get into the 
 bay in spite of God or man. No one knows what be- 
 came of him; but the vessel is often seen by experienced 
 mariners ploughing the waves towards Table Bay, where 
 as yet her has not arrived according to the latest infor. 
 mation; neither have I seen any authentic account of 
 her destiny, either in Lloyd's list, or the gazette of Solo- 
 mon Lang, printed at Gotham. 
 
 According to the Lusiad of Camoens, Vasco da Gama > 
 in weathering the Cape of Good Hope, encountered a 
 stormy and gigantic spirit, which disputed his passage 
 several days, and raised a variety of tempests in order to 
 drive him back, but without effect. Whether the flying 
 
150 NOTES. 
 
 Dutchman has any connection with this memorable 
 sprite, or whether he belongs to the family of the Water- 
 kings, of which King George, as sovereign of the seas, is 
 the undoubted head ; or whether a branch of the water 
 wraithe, or mermaid, so plenty about the Orkneys, it is 
 difficult, perhaps impossible, for us to decide at this dis- 
 tance. I am rather inclined to suppose that all these 
 nautical superstitions may be traced to the common centre 
 o^ the Gothic mythology, with the exception of Neptune , 
 who has of late been so completely kept under by the 
 British navy, that he only now and then pops up his 
 head like a frog, to take breath. Like all other deposed 
 monarchs, he is held in great contempt, except indeed 
 by poets and sailors. The former find him useful in 
 giving dignity to their naval songs ; and the latter, in 
 crossing the line, celebrate an exhibition in his honour, 
 which baffles all the mummeries of antiquity. 
 
 Even Gods have their day, and often in former times 
 used to follow the fate of their worshippers. Thus, when 
 the Goths and Vandals, the ancient Cossacks of the north, 
 who delivered Europe into the bonds of ignorance and 
 barbarity, overturned the western Empire of the Caesars, 
 the whole fraternity of Olympus lost their seats, and* 
 with them went the Dryades, the Hyades, the Nereides, 
 the Naiads, the Potamides, the Oreades, and all the 
 gentle beings, that rendered the -woods, the fountains, 
 the rivers, and the ocean of ancient times so delightful to 
 the imagination. In their room came the upstart and 
 ignoble herd of Gothic superstition, a set of mischievous 
 and diabolical goblins, the very engines of terror and 
 
NOTES. 151 
 
 dismay, as is thus set forth by honest Reginald Scott, 
 great-grandfather to Michael Scott, the famous enchanter, 
 whose shadow could not be seen in the dark, " Then 
 " came," says he, " the witches, the urchins, elues,hags, 
 " imps, calcars, conieuers, changelings, incubus, Robin- 
 " good-fellow, the spoorne, the mare, the man in the 
 " oke, the Hell-waine, the fire-drake, the puckle, hob- 
 " goblin, Kit with the canstick, Tom Thumbe, Tom 
 " Tumble, boncles, and such other Bugs, that we are 
 (t afeard of our own shadowes." 
 
 NOTE VII. 
 
 Oft o'er his cups he made his boast, 
 He'd seen on Norway's ice-bound coast 
 A kraaken of such wondrous size, 
 He scarcely could believe his eyes, 
 
 THE geographers make mention of a fish of this kind, 
 that went on shore on the coast of Norway some years 
 ago, which, though not quite so large as the one seen by 
 Sir Coekburn, was yet of a magnitude superior to any 
 described in antiquity, and may almost compare with the 
 famous turtle, which, according to the highly curious and 
 interesting mythology of the Brachmans, carries the 
 earth on his back, and thus in reality prevents its sinking 
 into the bottom of the sea. This knocks Sir Isaac 
 Newton's theory of gravitation on the head, and I aro 
 
152 NOTES. 
 
 surprised that Sir William Jones, and the Asiatic Society 
 should inundate us thus with these puzzling notions) 
 which militate against our established opinions, and set us 
 again adrift on the ocean of conjecture. For my part, I 
 had made up my mind in this respect, until the story of 
 the great turtle drove me from my anchors, upon the 
 shoals of doubt and uncertainty ; to be shipwrecked, for 
 aught I know to the contrary. Had Sir William Jones 
 applied his great learning and unequalled talent for re- 
 search, in the investigation of matters of more import- 
 ance te mankind, such as the recovery and exposition of 
 the memorials of border chivalry, or the discovery and 
 collating of old ballads, instead of poring over the re. 
 mains of Sancrit black-letter, he would have done much 
 more towards enlightening and civilizing the human race, 
 than by all his multifarious eastern researches. 
 
 NOTE VIII. 
 
 In short 9 from Siribad,fairid of old, 
 Down to the days of Crusoe bold. 
 
 [HERE Mr. S. had inserted copious extracts from the 
 romances of those renowned persons, noting all the edi- 
 tions of the Arabian Nights that ever have been publish- 
 ed, and adding a copious biography of Daniel de Foe, the 
 author of Robinson Crusoe, together with a full descrip- 
 tion of the island of Juan Fernandez. The editor, sup- 
 posing that these matters, though they may be novelties 
 
NOTES. 153 
 
 among the ignorant people of Great Britain, are fully 
 known in this country, has taken the liberty of omitting 
 the whole note, which comprised nearly twenty-seven 
 pages. The bookseller indeed stood out manfully for its 
 insertion, as it would make the book larger, but it was 
 at length agreed to omit it altogether, advising the 
 reader of the circumstance. Ed.~\ 
 
NOTES 
 
 TO 
 
 CANTO SECOND. 
 
 NOTE I. 
 
 < Dous'd their lights.' 
 expression of sailors to signify that a man has gone 
 
 to sleep. 
 
 NOTE II. 
 
 ' Did not Josiah Quincy say, 
 1 In Congress only Pother day? 
 
 MR. QUINCY is I understand a famous prophet, the Rich- 
 ard Brothers of the Eastern States of America, and their 
 oracle in the Congress of the United States. The speech 
 to which Sir Bolus alludes is full of prophetic denuncia- 
 tions, uttered, as I am told, with all the fury of a sybil, 
 but without her inspiration it would seem. Like the un- 
 happy Cassandra, he appears to be for ever prophesying, 
 without ever having the good fortune to be believed. 
 
156 NOTES. 
 
 Cassandra , however, was always revenged on the incre- 
 dulity of mankind by the fulfilment of her predictions ; 
 whereas, it is, I understand, observed of this honourable 
 gentleman, that he has neither the pleasure of being be- 
 lieved when he tells of futurity, nor the melancholy con. 
 solution of being justified by the event. 
 
 I remember he predicted the ruin of that country, if 
 the bank of the United States was refused a renewal of it 
 charter, and many of my friends on that event taking 
 place, in great consternation wrote to America, to dispose 
 of their public stock, supposing that an immediate disso- 
 lution of the confederacy would ensue. Indeed from an 
 observation of his speeches for some time past, it will ap- 
 pear that there was hardly any measure of a national 
 nature, that did not loom before his prophetic vision, as 
 the sad precursor of the ruin of the country. Yet it would 
 seem that that country, like an obstinate patient, whom 
 some prophetic quack had foredoomed to death, still wick- 
 edly and indecorously survives, in spite of the Doctor's 
 own potent endeavours to the contrary ; a monument of 
 his incapacity either to fortel, or to bring about his own 
 predictions. For most assuredly it appears, from the view 
 which we on this side the water are enabled to take of 
 American affairs, that if the Union of the States is not 
 speedily dissolved, it will not be owing to, any want of 
 exertion on the part of Mr. Quincy or his friends. 
 
NOTES. 157 
 
 NOTE III. 
 
 T/w? recreant wight who dares to say, 
 In the bright face of this good day, 
 That in this land French influence 
 Exists not, sure has lost his sense. 
 THE proof here adduced by Sir Bolus of the existence of 
 French influence is certainly one of the strongest that I 
 have seen, and I really do not perceive how the American 
 government can get over it. There, can be no stronger 
 proof of our regard for a friend, than that of naming our 
 offspring after him, and certainly the naming of a town 
 is, if possible, a more striking proof of devotion. Being 
 ignorant of the existence of these two places, Havre de 
 Grace and French-town, I had hitherto supposed this 
 charge of French influence against the American President 
 had no foundation. But I now, without hesitation, coin- 
 cide with Mr. Quincy, and other distinguished persons. 
 So far should the President be from complaining, that I 
 think he ought to be highly obliged to Sir Cockburn, for 
 destroying such glaring proofs of his apostasy from the 
 true interests of his country. 
 
 NOTE IV. 
 
 Even though the walls were twelve feet thick. 
 Of good grey stone, or blood-red brick, 
 Like those offar-fanCd Lewistown, 
 We tried in vain to batter down. 
 
 SIR BOLUS is here jocular upon the letter of Sir Beres- 
 ford, giving a pompous account of the walls of Lewistown, 
 
15 NOTES. 
 
 which at some future period will most likely be equally 
 celebrated with those of ancient Troy, for having some 
 Bully Hector, like the redoubted Knight, dragged by the 
 heels round them. As the valour of the English seems 
 altogether predicated of roast-beef, I think the Americans 
 are in the right to keep them from procuring it, as much 
 as possible ; in which case, they will in all probability be 
 able to prevent their making any impression upon that 
 country. The only satisfactory reason why an English 
 sailor beats a Frenchman, is that the former eats roast- 
 beef, when he can get it ; and the latter, soup, which is 
 much more likely to make a man run away than fight. 
 
 There can be no greater proof of the truth of this 
 theory, than the events which have taken place on the 
 Ocean, since the commencement of the present contest 
 with America. It is a singular fact, which has hitherto 
 escaped the sages who have attempted to account for the 
 unexpected results of our late naval engagements, that 
 they all took place on what is called banyan days ; that 
 is, those particular days of the week set apart for the 
 special eating of soup. That this, and not any small su- 
 periority of force, or any physical superiority in the men, 
 or any superior excitement on the part of the enemy, 
 1 nor any over anxiety on our part to come to close quarters,* 
 was the true cause of our repeated disasters on our * own 
 element,' I think cannot be doubted. In order to avoid 
 such repeated disgrace in future, it would be advisable, 
 either to strike the banyan days out of the nautical ca- 
 lendar, or else always to make a point of coming to action 
 some other day in the week. 
 
NOTES. 159 
 
 NOTE V. 
 
 . 
 
 Childe Cockburn to Sir Bolus goes 
 With spectacles on Bardolph nose, 
 
 CANNOT positively say that Childe Cockburn had a red 
 nose, but there are several reasons to suppose so. Dug- 
 dale, in his account of the illustrious families of the British 
 peerage, affirms, that the Cockburns were anciently called 
 Cock, from their being such fighting fellows ; and that 
 the burn was afterwards added on account of one of them 
 having distinguished himself, by burning several cottages 
 and haystacks in a border-fray. Others say, that this 
 addition was expressly given in honour of the red nose, 
 which was hereditary in this family, and that Bardolph 
 himself was one of the Cockburns, who were, as Shaks- 
 peare says, celebrated for i carrying a lantern in the poop. 1 
 That Sir Cockburn, who inherits the hereditary taste for 
 burning, should also have succeeded to the red nose, is 
 extremely probable : and I have accordingly directed 
 that he should hoist his lantern, without further cere- 
 mony. 
 
 In the dearth of siruames, which characterized those 
 remote times, the colour of the nose often became of 
 common use, to distinguish different individuals of .the 
 same name, different families, and different factions from 
 each other. The most celebrated instance of this sort is 
 the feud between the houses of York and Lancaster ; and 
 the most singular instance of historical blundering, I have 
 ever known, is connected with this circumstance. All 
 
160 NOTES. 
 
 the historians I have met with, agree in saying that the 
 badges of distinction between the two rival houses, were 
 the red and the white rose ; whereas, the late Lord Or- 
 ford has, or at least could have demonstrated, that the 
 true reading ought to be the red and the white nose. 
 Under these two noses, all the people of England mar- 
 shalled themselves ; and the Cockburns, who were of 
 course distinguished red-noseans, signalized themselves in 
 various burning expeditions. Hence originated the dif- 
 ferent titles of Admiral of the Red, and Admiral of the 
 White, which were first used to distinguish the fleets of 
 Lancaster and York from each other. The custom is 
 still kept up ; but the reasons, as usual, have been lost. 
 Childe Cockburn, as may be inferred from his nose, is a 
 distinguished Admiral of the red. 
 
 Those who are in the least intimate with ancient his- 
 tory, must occasionally have been not a little amused with 
 the origin of most of the sirnames of the distinguished 
 personages of Grecian and Roman, as well as of the early 
 European history. Passing over Pericles, the Ptolemies, 
 and the host of Pharaohs, I will merely mention the kings 
 of France and England. There was Philip the Fair, Lewis 
 the Gross, and Charles the Fat, of France j Edward the 
 Confessor, Edmund Ironside, and Edward Longshanks, 
 of England, besides a thousand others. 
 
 It would be no unamusing speculation, to inquire what 
 sirnames would suit some of the present notable race of 
 monarchs, provided they were bestowed with a due re- 
 gard to their distinguishing qualities of mind and body, or 
 their peculiar habits and tastes ; or, lastly, their peculiar 
 
NOTES. 161 
 
 situations. Alexander might be called the Accoucheur, 
 or Deliverer Napoleon, in addition to his sirname of 
 Great, might have that of Sinner appended Frederick 
 might probably be called Lackland ; Jerome, the Biga- 
 mist Don Carlos, the Fiddler Gustavus, the Double; 
 because, as Joe Miller says, he is a man beside himself 
 and honest King George is fully entitled to the sirname of 
 Well-meaning. The rest, though they are such an obscure 
 set of rogues, that I really do not recollect their names, yet 
 doubtless have sufficient character to entitle them to a 
 nickname at least. Having mentioned nicknames, it may 
 not be amiss to observe that they probably had their origin 
 in the waggery of mischievous boys : and because they 
 were not sanctioned by any of the usual ceremonies of 
 the church, were called Nick-names, in honour of Old- 
 Nick, who was supposed to stand godfather on these oc- 
 
 NOTE VI. 
 
 [And that his glory soon unfurl'd 
 Should light the shores of this New World, 
 And blaze like balefire near and far, 
 The phcenix of this Border-war. 
 
 I HAVE made an allusion to the phcenix, in order to intro- 
 duce a little bit of secret history, which puts an end to all 
 the race, past, present, and to come. I beg pardon of 
 the poets, who like this bird better than any other, except 
 perhaps a roasted turkey, for thus depriving them of one 
 great source of their similies; but as my object is, if pos- 
 M 
 
162 NOTES. 
 
 sible, to knock on the head all the thread-bare classical 
 superstitions, I cannot let the phoenix live another hour, 
 on any account. 
 
 According to the Abbe Mariti, who travelled into the 
 Holy Land, the palm tree is by way of eminence called, 
 over all the east, the phoenix, because of its numerous 
 uses, insomuch, that Palestine could hardly be inhabited 
 without it. When the palm-tree grows old, it is cut down, 
 and the stump burnt to ashes ; from which ashes springs 
 a young palm-tree; in other words, a young phoenix. 
 Thus ends the history of that rare bird the phoenix, which, 
 though not admitted in the catalogue of ornithology, has 
 made a great noise in the world, and given its name to a 
 variety of institutions, such as the Phoenix Fire Office, the 
 Phoenix Insurance Company, and others, who ought im- 
 mediately to change the phoenix for the palm-tree. 
 
 NOTE VII. 
 
 y ivhich Sir Beresford had won, 
 In battle brave, at Lewistotcn. , 
 
 THE knight called out lustily for roast beef, at Lewis- 
 town ; but, to use a homely phrase, a got his belly full " of 
 something else, and was fain to go eastward, where the 
 pious puritans, who go beyond the scriptures in <l loving 
 their enemies'' better than their friends, probably supplied 
 him plentifully. 
 
NOTES. 163 
 
 NOTE VIII. 
 
 And how infght of mantling bowl. 
 
 SIR BOLUS, as the representative of the English in this 
 poem, is of course a great lover of good eating, and a 
 huge wine bibber. It would seem, by a reference to 
 their popular songs, and even to their grave writers, 
 that the only criterion by which to estimate the relative 
 claims of nations to superiority, is the quality of their 
 beef. A Frenchman who eats frogs and soup a German 
 who eats sour-krout a Spaniard who eats onions and 
 garlic a Scotsman who eats oatmealand an Irishman 
 who lives upon buttermilk and potatoes, are conse- 
 quently not to be put on a level, in any respect, with the 
 Englishman, whose beef is so excellent, as to have ob- 
 tained the honour of knighthood. The Egyptians wor- 
 shipped an ox ; and such is the veneration of Englishmen 
 for his flesh, that the famous song of tc O the roast Beef 
 of Old England," has been known to quiet a mob at the 
 theatre, when even " God save the King," and " Rule 
 Britannia,' 1 have entirely failed. An honest Mussulman, 
 who kept a journal of a few weeks residence in England, 
 noted down in his book, " that the English were cer- 
 tainly the descendants of the Egyptians, for they wor- 
 shipped a piece of an ox, and sung hymns to a pot of 
 porter." 
 
 It is by no means my intention to ridicule our sister* 
 
 * MOTHER would not so well have suited the fiction 
 of the poet. E. ED. 
 
 M2 
 
164 NOTES. 
 
 country, for this truly aldermanly propensity, to boast of 
 her good eating, and look down with contempt upon her 
 poor neighbours, who are contentedly enjoying their 
 humble fare. N either will I express any surprise at the 
 zeal with which Englishmen contest the point of supe-, 
 riority in such truly important articles, as mutton chops, 
 small beer, and cheese. I am aware that the wisest 
 people are, in general, the most impatient of rivalship 
 in trifles ; and that even the Goddess of Wisdom herself 
 changed Arachne into a spider for disputing with her the 
 superior management of the needle. 
 
 This anxiety about such insignificant matters, proceeds, 
 therefore, probably from the superiority of Englishmen 
 in real wisdom and refinement ; and the zeal with which 
 they maintain the honour of their favourite, Sir Loin, 
 (who is even more popular than Sir Francis Burdett) is 
 a convincing proof of their being the most enlightened 
 people in the world. This consideration may put a stop ; 
 to those stupid expressions of wonder, which foolish 
 people sometimes utter, that a nation, which can boast 
 of an Alfred, a Shakspeare, a Newton, a Wolfe, and a 
 Nelson, should thus stoop to the paltry ambition of 
 pluming itself on its beef, its beer, its cutlejts, mutton 
 chops, and cheese. Thus condescending, as it were, like 
 the monarch in Goldsmith, who, after reciting his titles of 
 " lord of the sun, moon, and stars," " sole governor of 
 the universe," added that of ** mighty monarch of the 
 brass handled sword." 
 
NOTES. 165 
 
 A 
 
 NOTE IX. 
 
 They sent full many a Yarikey soul. 
 
 AN KEY is a term of contempt applied to the people 
 of the United States, 'by the English naval officers, who 
 usually call the captain of an American merchantman, 
 " a Yankey son of a b h." It is now a term adopted 
 by the American sailors, who will soon make it respect, 
 able if they go on as they have begun. A Yankey trick 
 is applied exclusively to that finesse and keenness, which 
 it is said distinguish the people of New England, in bar- 
 gaining and other matters. The first Yankey trick on 
 record, is one related in the history of New England) 
 written by two reverend gentlemen, the Rev. Jedediah 
 Morse, and the Rev. Elijah Parish. Soon after the 
 arrival of the first settlers, some Indians were employed 
 by them, to drag a cannon by a long rope. While en. 
 gaged in this business, some person, whose modesty 
 would not permit him to claim the honour of the achieve- 
 ment, put a match to the touch-hole, and destroyed 
 nearly every soul of them. 
 
 The Indians called this a Yankey trick, and it was a 
 long time before they forgave the joke. 
 
NOTES 
 
 TO 
 
 CANTO THIRD. 
 
 NOTE I. 
 
 York Town that made the Knight turn pale. 
 
 .Mi*. S. had, under the head of York Town, given a long 
 account of the siege of that place, the surrender of Corn- 
 wallis, and the subsequent acknowledgment of our inde- 
 pendence. He then entered into an inquiry whether 
 this separation was not more advantageous to Great Bri- 
 tain than to the colonies, and whether the latter would 
 not have been much more prosperous and happy, if they 
 had remained as they were. Conceiving this inquiry 
 rather uninteresting to American readers, the editor has 
 thought proper to omit it entirely. Ed.*] 
 
 NOTE II. 
 
 Saw the pale shrine of St. Jerome. 
 
 THE circumstance of a place on the shores of the Chesa- 
 peake being called after St. Jerome, is-not a little sin- 
 
168 NOTES. 
 
 gular, and suggests a variety of interesting reflections. 
 We learn from the legend of that eloquent saint, who was 
 called the honey-comb of doctors, " that he was a great 
 " traveller, and went about in divers distant countries 
 u preaching the gospel.*' That he visited the shores of 
 the Chesapeake, and abode there sometime, is natural 
 to suppose, from his giving name to that place ; and his 
 having preached the gospel there, is further corroborated 
 by the extraordinary piety and strict habits of religion, 
 which I am told are observed among the people of that 
 quarter. 
 
 NOTE III. 
 
 And fairies, as I once was told. 
 Their nightly revels love to hold. 
 
 FAIRIES are extremely scarce in America, though there 
 is no inconsiderable number of witches, particularly in 
 that, part of the United States aptly called New England, 
 from its having, like Old England, a mighty propensity to 
 boast of its superior " moral and religious habits." 
 
 The only authentic account of the appearance or 
 agency of a fairy which I have been able to procure from 
 that country, was communicated to me by a very learned 
 physician of one of the middle States. That gentleman 
 writes me, on this interesting subject, as follows : 
 
 " Last summer, as I was searching for flints, near the 
 *' shores of the Musconaconck river, which runs at the 
 
NOTES. 169 
 
 " foot of Schooley's mountain, a range stretching in a 
 " south-westerly direction through the State of New 
 " Jersey, and composed of alternate stratum of lime- 
 " stone and granite, I was somewhat startled by theap- 
 " pearance of a little old woman, of very outrt and 
 " singular appearance. She was crossing the river, 
 " mounted on the back of a tortoise. Her head was 
 if covered with a larg bubble of azure colour ; her 
 " spectacles were of the purest water, which by her art 
 "she had made to answer the purposes of glass; she 
 '* had a coat of mail, made of the skin of a gold fish ; her 
 4< shield was a beautiful muscle shell; and her buskins 
 " were of sturgeon's nose, which being incomparably 
 " elastic, must have exceedingly assisted her in walking, 
 (l when inclined to that healthful and too much neglected 
 " exeicise, 
 
 " The appearance of her face was not a little out- 
 4< landish, exhibiting a variety of incongruities, of the 
 " first order. Her hair was almost white, apparently 
 " with age, though her face was that of a beautiful girl of 
 " sixteen, except that her eyes were of a flint colour, 
 " and her teeth of the finest red coral. She guided the 
 " tortoise across the rippling wave with graceful manage- 
 " ment ; the little animal all the while singing most melo- 
 " diously in praise of fairy land. 
 
 " As she reached the shore where. I was standing, she 
 " dismounted from the tortoise, who, making an elegant 
 " bow, slid back into the wave and disappeared, warb- 
 " ling the most delicious strains. 
 
 " Approaching this extraordinary lady, with all the 
 
170 NOTES. 
 
 " deference due to her apparent rank, I inquired if she 
 " could direct me where I might find some flints. ' Flints!' 
 " exclaimed shein a great rage < I'll flint you with a 
 " vengeance !' and thereupon, her eyes, which I then 
 " discovered were of real flint-stone, struck out actual 
 " sparks offire, exceedingly bright and luminous. ' Know, 
 " ignorant and presumptuous mortal,' continued she, ' that 
 " my name is Agathe Pyromaque, and that I am the 
 11 guardian of this haunted stream, and yonder woody 
 '* mountain, inhabited by [millions of flinty-hearted 
 ** beings, who never forgive any rash mortal who violates 
 " their sacred recesses. Prepare then to suffer the pe- 
 " nalty of thy intrusion, which is to be turned into a 
 " flint, and inhabit a tinder-box for one hundred and 
 " eleven millions of moons, having for thy companion 
 ** nothing but an old piece of steel, which whilom, 
 <f figured as a learned professor, and with whom you may 
 " dispute and strike fire as much as you please.' 
 
 " So saying, she approached me, waving her wand, 
 " that looked like a little ivory ramrod, and already I 
 " felt the approaches of this terrible transformation. 
 " My teeth began to knock against each other, and at 
 " every blow the sparks of fire came out of my mouth 
 " and nose, as if they had been actual chimneys, while my 
 " nails gradually assumed the appearance and consistency 
 " of gun-flints. At this awful moment I recollected that 
 " I had in my pocket a preparation for accomplishing an 
 tc analysis of flint, by a most expeditious dissolution of its 
 " parts, and immediately sprinkled some of it over this 
 " diabolical damsel, who in less than five minutes sepa- 
 
NOTES. 171 
 
 " rated into her constituent parts, chalk and lime-stone, 
 lt and disappeared. 
 
 " Immediately the whole space of ether was animated 
 " with millions of flints, meeting in the air with horrible 
 " rattling, as if a hundred thousand triggers had been 
 " drawn at the same instant, and nothing could be seen 
 " but innumerable sparks of fire, flashing and hissing 
 " about in a most extraordinary manner. This tremen- 
 *' dous uproar was heightened by the general discharge 
 " of all the guns in the neighbourhood, that were ftur- 
 " nished with flints from this mountain, which went off 
 " simultaneously of themselves, doing infinite damage, 
 " but killing no one, as no enchantment whatever has 
 " power over the life of man. When this uproar ceased, 
 " the air became calm and still, and again I beheld the 
 <c serene sky, bending down upon the mountain top, upon 
 "which the last rays of the setting sun were playfully 
 " sporting, and saw the pure stream silently winding its 
 " way, like a serpent through the green grass, and re. 
 " fleeting in its transparent bosom one of the loveliest 
 " scenes of nature." 
 
 NOTE IV. 
 
 TJte sons of Tammany so stout. 
 
 I AM told there is a curious society in the United States, 
 instituted in honour of the Aborigines of that country, 
 the patron of which is St. Tammany, who, though I have 
 
172 NOTES. 
 
 found no traces of Lim in the early history of that coun- 
 try, may, for aught I know to the contrary, be as re- 
 doubtable a champion, as any one of the seven of Chris- 
 tendom, always excepting honest little St. Andrew. 
 
 Be this as it may, this society has, by a sort of retro- 
 grade movement in the path of civilization, adopted not 
 only an Indian tutelary saint, but many of the emblems, 
 customs, names, and manners of their Indian neighbours, 
 who are at present signalizing their gratitude on the bor- 
 ders of Canada. The sons of Tammany, as they affec- 
 tionately denominate themselves, have probably of late 
 become not a little sick of their patron Saint, and his 
 whole race, and it is to be hoped will never again insult 
 their wounded country, by the exhibition of such barba- 
 rous mummery, or degrade themselves by affecting either 
 the dress, decorations, or manners, of such detestable 
 monsters, who, though to the shame of every honest 
 Briton, associated with the sole remaining " bulwark of 
 our faith," are only distinguishable from the tiger by 
 their form. 
 
 = 
 
 NOTE V. 
 
 And now they came in gallant pride, 
 Where Susquehanna's noble tide 
 
 THE Susqnehanna, on whose south bank, and near whose 
 mouth the little town of Havre de Grace was situated, is 
 a noble river. It rises in the State of New York, where 
 
NOTES. 173 
 
 indeed it will appear, by an inspection of the map, many 
 of the principal rivers of the United States find their 
 source. This is the case of the Delaware ; and if at any 
 time the people of New York should become jealous of 
 the prosperity of Philadelphia, they have only to go to 
 the head of that river, which is there a mere brook, and 
 by giving it another direction, deprive that city of its 
 water, and convert it at once into an inland place. I 
 know not whether the citizens of Philadelphia are aware 
 of the practicability of this plan ; but at all events I ad- 
 vise them to treat the people of New York with great 
 J attention and respect when they come there, and conci- 
 liate them as much as possible. 
 
 NOTE VI. 
 
 The night-hawk soaring in the sky, 
 Told that the evening shades were nigh. 
 
 THIS bird was generally supposed to be the whipper- 
 will, until the ingenious Mr. Wilson, the excellent and in- 
 defatigable ornithologist of America, demonstrated the 
 contrary. It is an evening bird, and is seen about sun- 
 set and twilight in the country ; sometimes solitary, but 
 very frequently in great numbers. When alone, you may 
 see it gradually rising in the air until almost out of sight, 
 and then descending with prodigious velocity until very 
 near the surface of the earth. When at the end of this 
 rapid descent, it expands its wings to shoot again into the 
 
174 NOTES. 
 
 sky, it makes a rushing noise, which may be heard in the 
 itillness of a summer evening at a great distance. 
 
 NOTE VII. 
 
 The whipper-will, lone bird of night, 
 
 Ever unseen, yet ever near, 
 
 His shrill note warbled in the ear. 
 
 THE whipper-will, like the owl, in America is connected 
 with many tales of superstition; it is a rare poetical bird, 
 and with the exception of the phoenix and the nightin- 
 gale, neither of which are known in that quarter of the 
 world, will stand the poets of that country more in stead 
 than any other bird whatever. Independently of the 
 ominous forebodings of speedy mortality, which his ap- 
 pearance under, or near a window, is sure to create, 
 there is a lone and desolate obscurity in its character, that 
 recommends it wonderfully to the imagination. In the 
 summer twilight he is heard at intervals, and almost al- 
 ways singly, whistling his solitary notes, changing his po- 
 sition now and then, and often startling the peasant, as he 
 is going home alone through the woods. It is very diffi- 
 cult to get sight of him, as he is rarely visible until the 
 dusk of the evening; and his flight is so sudden and so swift 
 as to elude the attention, thus suddenly excited by the 
 rustling of his wings. It is said that the appearance of 
 his flight has something peculiar, resembling what is 
 

 NOTES. 175 
 
 called "flitting?* a motion, which from time immemo- 
 rial, has been appropriated to ghostly shadows. 
 
 It is related among the transformations of the heathen 
 mythology, that Pandion, king of Athens, was changed 
 into a whoop-o-e, at the same time that one of his daugh- 
 ters was metamorphosed into a nightingale. The whip- 
 per-will, whose name is derived from the sound of his 
 cry, is probably the same as the whoop-o-e; the latter of 
 which names approaches in reality much nearer the 
 sounds uttered by this bird, than the former. This sug- 
 gestion receives additional force, from the circumstance of 
 the nightingale, and the whipper-will, being both night 
 birds, and both fond of solitude ; which traits of coin- 
 cidence would seem to indicate their former intimate 
 relationship. 
 
 NOTE VIII. 
 
 The little watchman of the night, 
 TJie firefly, trim'd his lamp so bright. 
 
 THIS little insect is another treasure to the American* 
 poet, who, living as it were in a new world, Las a better 
 opportunity of introducing new imagery, than those of 
 the worn-out and exhausted countries of the other three 
 quarters of the globe, which are drained to the very 
 dregs. If instead of glow-worms and nightingales, 
 which are as common as farthing candles and fiddlers, he 
 will now and then give us a little of real American see* 
 
170 NOTES. 
 
 nery and imagery, the advantage of novelty will at least 
 be obtained. In all countries there are objects, or at 
 least combinations of objects, peculiar to itself; and it 
 should be the business of the poet to catch these peculia- 
 rities of feature, which constitute the individuality of a 
 country, without slavishly treading in the steps of others 
 of different nations. I myself have seen the glow-worm 
 foisted into an American nightpiece, and heard the night- 
 ingale piping at the same time, though well aware that 
 the glow-worm is so rare as never to constitute any ac- 
 customed feature of an evening landscape, and the night- 
 ingale not known at all in that country, except in the 
 barren fancy of some servile imitator, who believes that 
 because the English poets sing of that interesting bird, he 
 must set her piping in the American forest. 
 
 NOTE IX. 
 
 And sing as loud as he can bawl ; 
 Such is the custom of Nassau Hall. 
 
 STUDENTS in all ages have been noted for their love of 
 frolicking and mischief. In Spain it has passed into a 
 proverb : and to say that a man is " as mischievous as a 
 collegian or a monkey," conveys an idea of a superlative 
 pickle. It has been supposed that this propensity might 
 be traced to the strict rules of scholastic discipline that 
 exist jn colleges, under the restraints of which, the stu- 
 
NOTES. 177 
 
 dent being rather uneasy, will make himself ample amends, 
 by plunging into all the excesses of liberty, whenever he 
 is indulged with a temporary relaxation. 
 
 For my part, I cannot but attribute it to his becoming 
 early familiar with the classic writers, particularly the 
 poets, whose drinking odes, and animated descriptions of 
 convivial parties, are enough to fire the imagination of 
 youth with an irresistible desire of carousing it lustily. 
 One of Horace's wet odes, or more especially one of 
 Anacreon's, is a greater provocative to drinking than a 
 salt herring, and it is little to be wondered at, if by the 
 frequent perusal of these inflammatory productions, the 
 unfortunate youths become notable frequenters of taverns. 
 As mischief is generally a concomitant of drinking, that 
 too is to be traced to the same " Pierian Spring." 
 
 That such is the true source of these remarkable ha- 
 bits of collegians, is pretty clearly demonstrated by this, 
 that as soon as they leave college, and forget their Greek 
 and Latin, which they do for the most part in a year or 
 two, they become sober personages, and are no longer 
 distinguishable from the rest of their fellow creatures by 
 their frolicsome and mischievous propensities. 
 
 The true way to remedy this crying evil would be to 
 make a good fire in the college yards, and then institute 
 an inquiry, similar to that held by the Curate and Barber 
 over Don Quixote's library. Or perhaps it would be 
 still more effectual to have all these combustible books, 
 together with the whole scandalous chronicle of ancient 
 classical mythology, burnt by the hands of the common 
 hangman. 
 
 N 
 
17& NOTESr 
 
 The Odes of Horace and Anacreon woukl be well re- 
 placed by the minstrelsy of the Border; the haunts of 
 the nymphs, the faims, and the dryades, might be very 
 respectably occupied by the goblins, the witches, and 
 water-wraithes; and if a mythology is absolutely neces- 
 sary, Mr. Southey has introduced us to one much more 
 novel, stupendous, and incomprehensible, than even that 
 f Scandinavia. 
 
NOTES 
 
 TO 
 
 CANTO FOUR. 
 
 NOTE 1 
 
 One shuffled " double trouble 9 ' o'er, 
 As if he'd grind quite through the floor. 
 
 JL HIS is a favourite step, and considered the test of good 
 dancing among the farmers' sons and daughters. It was 
 undoubtedly introduced into America by the natives of 
 Africa, in their first involuntary emigrations ; and, as one 
 of the few customs borrowed from that unlucky quarter of 
 the world, is entitled to particular notice. Dancing ap- 
 pears to be an amusement equally common to the savage 
 and civilized state ; and the wild Indian of the north-west 
 coast of America, the ignorant negro of Whidah, the 
 barbarous native of Madagascar, as well as the refined 
 Parisian, are equally fond of this universal amusement. 
 Even the Cozack and the bear are capable of imbibing 
 a strong predilection for it 
 
 The dancing step, called " double trouble," from its 
 being twice as much trouble to dance it as to dance any 
 other, bears not the least resemblance to any of the a- 
 N 2 
 
180 NOTES. 
 
 cient dances that have been described by learned men, 
 nor to any of those of Europe; being altogether unique 
 in itself, and possessing a character entirely distinct 
 from all others. It consists in moving both feet without 
 lifting them from the floor, in such a manner as to keep 
 time to the music, and requires not only great dexterity 
 of foot, but a very correct ear. It may be classed under 
 the general head of shuffling, and is in fact the perfection 
 of that difficult style of dancing, which is undoubtedly 
 of African origin. The great distinction between the 
 African and European modes of dancing seems to be 
 this, that the one strives to keep himself on the ground, 
 and the other off it. Thus the Mandingo or Congo beau 
 prides himself on his shuffling, and the French dancing- 
 master and his pupils upon maintaining a sort of medium 
 between heaven and earth, like some of those wandering 
 ghosts, whose peculiar fate it was neither to belong to 
 the world above, nor the world below ; and which were 
 assuredly the shades of dancing-masters, if any such ex- 
 isted in those simple days. 
 
 NOTE II. 
 
 Stout Lord Joline with all his heart, 
 In the gay gambols took a part. 
 
 THE family of Joline, anciently Josselin, or Joccelin, is 
 of great antiquity, as we learn from the edifying chro- 
 nicles of the crusades, where one Josselin of Montmo- 
 
NOTES. 181 
 
 reiici, distinguished himself on a variety of occasions, but 
 particularly by killing a " beestely gigaunt," as we learn 
 from the following curious fragment : 
 
 Josselyne ynne Holye Londe belyke, 
 Smote downe one Heathen heretike, 
 Who thynken hur ryghte wel to daunte, 
 Hur beynge a synnefulle, beestely gigaunt. 
 
 From this confounding of the genders, it is difficult to 
 decide whether Josselyne and the gigaunt were male or 
 female, unless we solve the difficulty by supposing the 
 poet to have been a Welshman, which is probably the 
 fact, as many of the Welsh bards accompanied king 
 Richard to the Holy Land. 
 
 There is a curious distich quoted in the notes of Dr. 
 Clarke's Travels in Palestine, which is probably about 
 the same date with that just recited, and which shows 
 that the poets of those days had some other criterion of 
 distinction betwixt man and woman, than the mere 
 gender. 
 
 " At port Jaff begnne wee 
 
 " And so froth from gre to gre, 
 
 " At port Jaff there is a place, 
 
 " Where Peter rais'd through goddess grace, 
 
 " From dedde to lif to Tabitane ; 
 
 " He was a woman, that was her name." 
 
 If this poet was not a true Milesian,. I am mistaken. 
 
NOTES, 
 
 NOTE III. 
 
 Fam'd in the dance for tiring swains, 
 And caird the rose of Scottish plains. 
 
 THE Scottish, or, as they are generally denominated, the 
 Scotch Plains, are situated in the State of New Jersey, 
 in the neighbourhood of Pompton Plains, of which more 
 will be said. From the name, it was probably settled by 
 a colony of Scots, at a very early period, perhaps anterior 
 to the discovery of America by Columbus, who probably 
 gained some obscure hints of this matter, from the ped- 
 lars, who travelled through Europe, and was thus led to 
 his great undertaking . 
 
 If this hypothesis should be genuine, as there are strong 
 reasons to believe, the honour of the first discovery and 
 colonization of America, belongs neither to Aniericus 
 Vespuccius, Christopher Columbus, Sebastian Cabot, nor 
 Prince Madoc, but to some other obscure adventurer, 
 who, by an unaccountable negligence in history, has been 
 thus cruelly defrauded of immortality. 
 
 It may not be amiss to observe, that the custom here 
 alluded to of " tiring swains," is well known among the 
 lassies of Scotland ; and this coincidence furnishes an? 
 .other proof of a common origin. 
 

 NOTES. f 183 
 
 NOTE IV. 
 
 Vei-becq now gone to death's dark shades. 
 
 HE was a celebrated dancing master from Paris, who 
 -taught little babies to dance and look like women; but 
 died of chagrin, because he could not jump up and cros* 
 ,his legs six times before he touched the floor. 
 
 NOTE V. 
 
 Of village swains, who clean face shew 
 At Sabbath church, or gay review. 
 
 NOTWITHSTANDING all that has been written about gen* 
 demen peasants and shepherds, from the time of Theo- 
 critus to Allan Ramsay, I do most verily believe, that 
 they have been, are, and always will be, from the very 
 nature of their situation and employments, a set of indif- 
 ferent fellows, who are ignorant without being simple, and 
 whose ideas of love are limited pretty much to the ordi- 
 nary conceptions of their near neighbours, the sheep and 
 cattle. I can safely say, I never saw one with a clean 
 face, except at a church or a review ; and how a man 
 without that indispensable requisite, can be an object of 
 affection to any woman, except one who has a smutted 
 face herself, I can form no conception. Pastoral poetry 
 will probably never be very popular, except among the 
 class of people thus caricatured, who, of course, will b 
 
184 NOTES. 
 
 mightily tickled with it, and strut about in their borrowed 
 plumage, like the daw in the peacock's feathers, or, more 
 appropriately, the ass in the lion's skin. If I were to look 
 for homely honesty, or for sober matter-of-fact virtues, 
 among any class of people, I would go to the labourers of 
 the field, and the tenders of sheep and cattle ; but he who 
 expects to find among these classes the refinements of 
 sensibility, or the purity of love, may look for soft hands 
 and clean faces too. 
 
 Plato maintains that there were two Cupids, one of 
 whom was a god, and the other a demon; by which he 
 clearly meant to distinguish between that polished and 
 refined affection, which is the boast of cultivated minds, 
 and that animal passion, which is, in general, the only 
 bond of union among the low, the ignorant, and the cor- 
 rupt. 
 
 NOTE VI. 
 
 And in a Jit of wanton glee, 
 
 His fiddle squeak'd right merrily. 
 
 THE custom of occasionally " squeaking the fiddle," as it 
 is called, is common at country wakes and dances all over 
 America; and the lass who on this occasion refuses the 
 salute of her partner, is held to be sophisticated by an 
 intercourse with proud conceited people. The law in 
 this case is as strict as in cases of forfeit, where it is well 
 known the damsel is obliged to fulfil certain conditions, 
 before she can recover her pledge. It is pleasing to see 
 
 
NOTES. 185 
 
 the customs of our forefathers thus growing up in a far 
 distant country, and pervading a new world. Perhaps 
 the time will come, when America will be the sole depo- 
 sitory of these endearing modes of early youth, when the 
 aged countries of Europe will again relapse into second 
 childhood, as in the dark ages, which succeeded the de- 
 struction of the western empire. Nations, like indivi- 
 duals, have their progress from infancy to maturity, from 
 maturity to age, and as inevitably feel the effects of time 
 as the individuals themselves. The eastern world receives 
 the first rays of the rising sun, but his last light beams in 
 the west -, and thus probably will it be with the sun of 
 science. The time may come, when America, though the 
 youngest sister, will, like Joseph, receive the obeisance of 
 her elders, and behold them paying homage to her sheaf 
 ofwJieat. 
 
 NOTE VII. 
 
 By Pompton stream that silent flows, 
 Where many a wild flower heedless grows ; 
 Unmarked by any gazing eye, 
 Unpluck'd by any passer by. 
 
 POMPTON is a beautiful little pastoral stream, which, after 
 winding lazily through the plain of that name, joins the 
 Passaic, at a place called the Three Bridges. The cha- 
 racter of this river and its adjacent scenery is such as I 
 have described; soft, silent, and gentle. The water 
 
186 NOTES. 
 
 hardly moves ; on its banks are vast numbers of stately 
 elms, whose extensive shade allures the herds and flocks, 
 and whose spreading branches shelter an infinite number 
 of birds, whose song is the delight of the solitary rambler. 
 The red-winged blackbird, the thrush, and the clover 
 loving boblincon, whose notes may vie with the boasted 
 songsters of Europe ; and above all the mock-bird, the 
 variety of whose minstrelsy imitates the melody of the 
 whole forest. All these sport undisturbed through the 
 livelong summer day, in the rich meadows that skirt the 
 stream ; whose edges, at short intervals, are fringed with 
 a rich border of dwarf willows, the little tendrils whereof 
 touch the surface of the water. 
 
 Enamoured of this still landscape, so favourable for me- 
 ditation and sleep, the ancient Hollanders at a very early 
 period settled on these plains ; where their descendants 
 still flourish in easy competency, and grow in wealth as 
 well as numbers. Whenever a son marries, an additional 
 door is knocked into the house, which is commonly of one 
 story, but makes up in length what it wants in height ; 
 and thus an additional house is made off hand. Some of 
 these long buildings are thus divided into several tene- 
 ments, and not uufrequently three or four generations 
 will be found flourishing under the same roof. As they 
 all dress invariably alike, it is often difficult to tell the re- 
 lation in which they stand to each other, for they appear 
 nearly of the same age, and very often the old grandfather 
 will be found vying with his grandson, in the labours of 
 the field. 
 
 There is a sort of homely, yet comfortable simplicity in 
 
NOTES. 187 
 
 the lives of these people, which when soberly contemplated 
 is somewhat touching to the imagination, as well as grati- 
 fying to the feelings. It is so peaceful, so smooth, so 
 unagitated, so like their own little river. In short, it ex- 
 hibits so many of the features of that little nestling place 
 which every man in his prospective fancy creates to him- 
 self, as the refuge of his declining years. Perhaps after 
 all, one of the most genuine pictures of sober happiness 
 which it falls to the lot of man to contemplate, is that 
 of one of these old patriarchs, sitting at the door of a 
 comfortable house, and smoking his long pipe on a sum. 
 mer's evening. 
 
 It has been objected to me, that I have, in my former 
 productions, dwelt too long and too minutely on names 
 and places, that have no title to the attention of any body 
 but a provincial antiquarian ; and that I have in this man- 
 ner frivolously wasted the time of my readers who might 
 have been better employed : in short, that my works re- 
 semble a road-book, where every little paltry town, black- 
 smith's shop, and tavern is laid down, and minutely parti- 
 cularized for the gratification of the curious traveller. 
 
 In consequence of these cavils, and as a poor author 
 must sometimes pull off his hat to the critic, the reader 
 will perceive that I have turned my back upon several 
 towns that occur in the port of the minstrel, many of 
 which are ennobled by tradition. This is most particu- 
 larly the case with the ancient city of Brunswick in New 
 Jersey, where several centuries ago Michael Scot studied 
 necromancy under Mother Shoulders. Tradition says, 
 that long before he " clove Eildon Hill" with a few sharp 
 
188 NOTES. 
 
 words, he had signalized his power by sneezing down the 
 steeple of the old Episcopal church at Brunswick, out of 
 pure spite ; he being an obstinate sectarian, and a great 
 enemy of orthodoxy. 
 
 NOTE VIII. 
 
 'Twas here, as ancient matrons say, 
 His eye first caught the damsel gay. 
 
 TRADITION, if it did not originate with, at least, owes its 
 chief support to, the class of females here alluded to. If 
 they did not give birth to it, they are its chief nurses. As 
 all history must originate in oral tradition, it follows that 
 the ancient matrons are the grandmothers at least of his 
 torical narration, and that though Herodotus may be 
 called the father of history, they have an equal title to the 
 honour of its birth. In every town or village you will 
 find a little knot of these industrious and curious antiqua- 
 rians, pilfering from that same wallet, in which, as Shaks- 
 peare affirms, old time t( putteth things for oblivion," a 
 thousand precious little scraps of secret history, and a 
 thousand invaluable memorials, which, like a silver spoon 
 in dish-water, would be thrown away unless preserved by 
 their pious care. Anon comes the antiquary, who gleams 
 all these detached particles of gold-dust, by sifting old 
 nurses, ancient matrons, and curious grey-headed maids, 
 and maketh a book highly interesting and valuable. In it 
 is set forth, with admirable particularity, all that has hap- 
 pened in the town or village for several generations ; who 
 
NOTES. 189 
 
 erected the church steeple, who put up the weather-cock, 
 who built the old stone house opposite, who was mayor in 
 such a year, and whose tomb it is, the inscription of which 
 is entirely obliterated. 
 
 Thus are the ancient matrons, the true chronicles of 
 the times ; and sorry as well as surprised am I, when I 
 consider the base ingratitude of antiquarians and histori- 
 ans, who have thus maliciously, as well as wickedly, sup- 
 pressed all mention of the sources from whence they, in 
 all ages, have derived their most precious information. 
 
 NOTE IX. 
 
 Who, in the interval between 
 The services, oft tript the green. 
 
 IN America, where the congregations are often dispersed 
 over a large space of country, it is customary to preach 
 two sermons, with a very short intermission, in order that 
 the people may return home in time to their dinner. The 
 interval between these *' services," as they are called, is 
 devoted to rambling about the church-yard, reading epi- 
 taphs, or parading abont the door, where are displayed 
 all the new bonnets, and finery of the parish. Human 
 nature is the same every where in respect to vanity, ex- 
 cept that those who often get new bonnets are not half so 
 vain of them as those who get them but seldom. The 
 finest lady, dressed in all the gorgeous drapery of wealth 
 and fashion, and sparkling in jewels, displays not half the 
 
190 NOTES. 
 
 self-complacency exhibited by a rural damsel, appearing 
 for the first time at church, in a new gown or bonnet. 
 
 NOTE X. 
 
 Sooth'd her pleas' d ear with Rhino Die. 
 
 IT has been hitherto supposed, that the people of Ame- 
 rica, like the birds of that country, are not naturally mu- 
 sical, because travellers have, I am told, drawn their con- 
 clusions from what they observed in cities or along the 
 public roads, without penetrating beyond the mere out- 
 side shell of the country. The real habits of any country, 
 are not to be gathered in the streets or by the road side ; 
 but in lonely and remote situations, where the traveller 
 never comes, and where, with the exception of a wander- 
 ing pedlar, a stranger is seldom seen. It is at the fire-side 
 of the farmer, where the ancient manners and customs, 
 the natural tastes of a people make their last stand ; and 
 it is there and in his fields that I am assured, morning, 
 noon, and evening, you may hear old ballads, often sung 
 by the workmen and maids, with whom it is altogether 
 common and customary. With regard to the ballad of 
 Rhino Die, I have been able to procure but two lines of 
 it, which are the concluding ones of every verse, occupy- 
 ing the place of a sort of chorus. There is a simplicity in 
 them which seems to indicate considerable antiquity. 
 
 u My name is Rhino Die, 
 " All on the mountains high." 
 
NOTES. 191 
 
 This ballad is probably of American origin, as neither Mr. 
 Ritson, Mr. Ellis, nor my friend Jacobus Porcus, have 
 given any account of it. All I can gather from my cor- 
 respondent, who, like most other Americans, is barba- 
 rously indifferent to genuine minstrelsy, is, that it is twelve 
 cows in length. That is, according to the ancient system 
 of measuring ballads ; which was by the number of cows 
 milked by the maid, while she was singing them. For- 
 merly the Hollanders measured time by the pipe, as the 
 learned Diedrich Knickerbocker affirms in his history - r 
 and at present the natives of the East have a custom, 
 lomewhat analogous, of measuring distances by time. 
 
 NOTE XI. 
 
 Or made the mountain echoes ring 
 With the great feats of John Paulding. 
 
 A FAMOUS border chief, principal of the three who cap- 
 tured Major Andre, the particular friend of my late friend 
 Miss Seward. There is extant a fragment of a ballad y 
 which only wants age to make it exceedingly curious and 
 interesting. It relates to that celebrated event. 
 
 " Then up steps John Paulding, 
 
 " And unto him did cry, 
 " And if we draw our glittering sword* 
 
 " One of us two must die." 
 
192 NOTES. 
 
 CHORUS 
 
 Now here's a health to John Paulding, 
 And let his health go round, 
 And here's a health to Washington, 
 And let his health go round. 
 
 Nothing can afford a stronger proof of the high estima- 
 tion in which this celebrated borderer is held in America, 
 than his being thus put first in the chorus, than which cir- 
 cumstance, scarce any thing could more strongly indicate, 
 that he was considered a greater man than even General 
 Washington. 
 
 NOTE XII. 
 
 Flouted his suit with sewn so cold, 
 And gave him oft the bag to hold. 
 
 IT is the custom in the country, thirty or forty miles from 
 the cities, when the young men go sparking *, as it is cal- 
 led, to judge of their reception by certain ceremonies 
 which are well understood. If, soon after his arrival, the 
 damsel rises and takes a candle unto another room, it is 
 
 * Sparking is a mode of courtship among the country peo- 
 ple of some of the States of America. A young man goes 
 many miles to spark, and if he is approved by his Dulcinea, 
 the pair not unfrequently sit up a whole night together alone, 
 but with the greatest purity ; just as in the custom of bund- 
 ling, where innocent young women accommodate chaste young 
 men with a part of their bed. E. Ed. 
 
NOTES. 193 
 
 understood as an acceptance of his devoirs, for that 
 evening, at least. If on the contrary, she remains in the 
 room with her parents, he is said, I know not for what 
 special reason, " to get the bag to hold." 
 
 NOTE XIII. 
 
 Of noble race the lady came, 
 Her mother was a witch of fame, 
 Of Shoulders' line in New Jersey. 
 
 THIS Mother Shoulders was celebrated in ancient times a* 
 a fortune-teller or witch, which indeed are synonymous 
 terms. Ancient matrons, who remember to have heard 
 their grand-mothers speak of her, say that she could cer- 
 tainly tell what had past, which is all that is necessary to 
 get credit for what is to come. By her art she disco- 
 vered where many silver spoons where hidden, which she 
 had probably stolen herself ; and divers young ladies to 
 whom she had promised husbands, actually got married 
 not many years afterwards. By the fulfilment of these 
 wonderful predictions, she at last gained such a reputa- 
 tion for witchcraft, that not an orthodox inhabitant of 
 Gotham, but nailed a horse-shoe at his door, and took 
 other precautions to evade her influence. She lived, as 
 was affirmed by many, to the age of two hundred and 
 seventy odd years, and would probably have lived much 
 longer, had she not incautiously ventured into Connecti- 
 cut, where the witch- finders immediately detected her, 
 o 
 
194 NOTES. 
 
 because she made no shadow, and had rings round her 
 eyes; both indubitable signs of witchcraft. She was 
 burnt ; and a bystander affirmed he saw the devil fly out 
 of her mouth in the shape of a Quaker ; the Quakers 
 being at that time considered as little better than mon- 
 sters. 
 
 NOTE XIV, 
 
 And now she sits in secret bower, 
 Weaving a spell of wondrous power. 
 
 IT has been objected to me, that in my attention to the 
 lady and her spell, I have forgotten to inform the reader, 
 whether Lord Joline was killed by the blow or not. The 
 truth is, I left the matter in this kind of doubt, being 
 aware, that uncertainty is one species of the sublime; and 
 moreover, that the poet, by sometimes leaving the imagi- 
 nation of the reader to operate, often gives rise to a much 
 better picture than his own fancy would have produced 
 
 
 
NOTES 
 
 TO 
 
 CANTO FIFTH. 
 
 NOTE I. 
 
 And uncontrolled from neutrals steal 
 Their sailors, for the general weal. 
 
 WERE it not that the false pretences of monarchs pro 
 duce such melancholy effects, their hypocrisy would be 
 altogether ridiculous. The king of England, according 
 to his minister's account, is most disinterestedly righting 
 to preserve Europe from the yoke of Bonaparte by land ; 
 and the little French Emperor, no less disinterested than 
 his brother king, is fighting to preserve the world from 
 the domination of England by sea. Between them both, 
 a good portion of the whole world, by land and by sea, 
 is kept in a state, to which, plague, pestilence, and fa- 
 mine, are modes of comparative happiness. There is 
 somewhere, or at any rate there ought to be, a fable to 
 the following effect: 
 
 The porcupine was once seized with an unaccountable 
 fit of universal benevolence, so that he never could see 
 o 2 
 
196 NOTES. 
 
 any of the weaker sort of animals, but he must either 
 carry them on his back, or cover them with his body, to 
 keep them from harm. The consequence was, the poor 
 little devils got so pricked and worried by the quills of 
 their troublesome protector, that many of them, in a 
 short time, had not a drop of blood left, and others were 
 reduced to skin and bone. Upon this, the wretched sur- 
 vivors came to him in a body, and with great humility 
 requested, that in future, when his majesty saw them in 
 any difficulty, he would graciously suffer them to get out 
 of it as well as they could, without his interference*. 
 
 * This is an excellent fable ; and, whatever may be said of 
 the influence of the French on the government of the Au- 
 thor's country, or of the Author's individual prejudices, 
 proves the impartiality of his spirit, when he yields to the 
 impulse of general humanity, unmingled with those feelings 
 which arise from patriotic attachment. Although he would 
 divide it between the Belligerents, never was there a 
 happier picture of Bonaparte than that of the Porcupine 
 in this note, which, though written long previous to his re- 
 turn to Paris from his German defeats, might seem to have 
 been suggested by his speech to the Legislative Body : " / 
 " have several times given peace to nations when they had 
 " lost every thing [i.e. lost every thing by my protection.] 
 " From a part of my conquests I have raised thrones for 
 " kings who have forsaken me. I had conceived and exe- 
 " cuted great designs for the prosperity and happiness of 
 " the world, &c." Of this universal benevolence of the 
 Porcupine, it was in vain to implore a cessation. Sufferer 
 after sufferer was protected to death under the points of his 
 
NOTES. 197 
 
 NOTE II. 
 
 And waving o'er his august head, 
 The red-cross standard proudly spread ; 
 Whence hung by silken tassel fair, 
 A bloody scalp of human hair. 
 Emblem of that pure Christian band, 
 Which binds the savage, hand in hand 
 With the great " bulwark ofourfaith y " 
 As Caleb Strong devoutly saith. 
 
 IT was officially communicated to the American govern- 
 ment by Commodore Chauncey, commandant of the 
 lakes, (who, by-the-bye, has called one of his vessels 
 " The Lady of the Lake,") that the mace of the Speaker 
 of the parliament of Upper Canada, was surmounted by 
 a scalp, which was taken down at the capture of York, 
 and forwarded to the commander in chief. 
 
 I rejoice, and so will his pious excellency Governor 
 Strong, to find by this, that such an intimate and bro- 
 
 quills, till, by the unwearied exertions of a truly benevolent 
 Genius, the monster has been driven into the field whence he 
 first issued, and where it is not unlikely he will be speared 
 by the owners of the soil. We thank the American poet for 
 this fable, in which the high and genuine compliment spon- 
 taneously manifested to GREAT BRITAIN, the world's pre- 
 serving genius, infinitely counterbalances all the merry 
 scratches of a quill well pointed, but very different in its 
 nature from those of the PORCUPINE PROTECTOR. E. Ed.] 
 
198 NOTES. 
 
 therly union subsists between our country and the savage, 
 on whom the example of Englishmen cannot fail of hav- 
 ing a most beneficial effect. The humane General Proc- 
 tor, will, doubtless, take every pains to have them pro- 
 perly instructed in the principles of the Christian reli- 
 gion, so that by the time the war is over, they will pro- 
 bably, under the guidance of the great prophet Te- 
 cumseh, be marvellously improved in humanity and po- 
 liteness. 
 
 NOTE III. 
 
 To where some twelve militia lay, 
 Safe as a chief behind a wall. 
 Attending to their country 's call. 
 
 THE militia of America have, by the public accounts, 
 distinguished themselves on various occasions during the 
 present war, but most especially by running away. 
 Heretofore it was a popular theory with those who wrote 
 against standing armies, that a militia was the best bul- 
 wark in case of an invasion. It was erroneously sup- 
 posed that men would defend their property, their wives 
 and children, and their " sacred homes," with spirit, firm- 
 ness, and vigour, whenever they were attacked. But 
 experience has destroyed this, among many other po- 
 pular and plausible theories ; and it is now demonstrated, 
 that the experiment is dangerous and destructive. It is 
 found, even in America, where the mass of the people 
 
NOTES. 
 
 have 'more to defend than in any other country, that 
 the. militia, with the exception of those perhaps of Vir- 
 ginia, labour under a most extraordinary disinclination to 
 defend even their own property : and, like the honest 
 carter, who, instead of helping himself, called upon Her- 
 cules, do nothing but clamour for the assistance of the 
 general government, and grumble because it does not 
 send a body of troops to every exposed point, on a fron- 
 tier of more than fifteen hundred miles. Nay, such is the 
 singular species of patriotism prevailing in America, that 
 a distinguished member of Congress did seriously utter 
 the most extravagant praises of the people of Connecti- 
 cut, because some of the militia turned out when they 
 were ordered, to defend their own fire-sides ! 
 
 NOTE IV. 
 
 I've heard a true bye-witness say, 
 Twelve canvas ducks at morning play, 
 By that discharge all found their grave, 
 And with their broad bills bit Uie wave. 
 
 IT has been shrewdly suggested, that the real object of 
 Sir Cockburn's expedition was to procure some of those 
 ducks for Sir Bolus, who is remarkably fond of them. I 
 think however the account of the minstrel is much more 
 natural, for it is hardly to be supposed that Sir Bolus, 
 however fond he might be of these celebrated ducks, 
 would fit out a fleet on purpose to capture them. 
 
200 MOTES. 
 
 NOTE V. 
 
 O'Neal from sea-girt Erin's Isle, 
 
 Where bulls are made, that make us smile. 
 
 LELAND says, that before the invasion of Earl Strong- 
 bow, the rank of King of Ireland was disputed by the 
 O'Conner's, and the family of the Northern Hi-Niall, as 
 it undoubtedly ought to be spelled. Of this family was 
 the famous Brian Boirhoime, or Boromy, King of Mun- 
 ster, and King Twaddle, of whom I can discover nothing, 
 except that he was a great friend of Tom Thumb. 
 
 From Brian descended the well known John O'Neai, 
 and Hugh, Earl of Tirowlow, or Teyrone, as it was after- 
 wards written, who disputed so manfully the usurpation 
 of Queen Elizabeth, but at length fell victims to her 
 policy, and were executed, at least the latter ; the former 
 having died before. The descendants of these princes, 
 as is usual with the children of great families that fall into 
 misfortune, having no respectable calling, dwindled into 
 great insignificance, and became in a generation or two 
 common peasantry. Such are the vicissitudes of life ! 
 And those who live an hundred years hence, may in all 
 probability see many of the descendants of the present 
 race of upstart potentates, following some respectable 
 handicraft trade, and getting an honest livelihood, without 
 picking people's pockets, or robbing on the highway. 
 
NOTES. 201 
 
 NOTE VI. 
 
 This nestling corner of the earthy 
 Where every plant of foreign lirth t 
 Blossoms in rich luxuriance rare, 
 But seldom roots its fibres there. 
 
 THE philosopher, in speculating on the curious figure ex- 
 hibited by America, for the last ten or fifteen years, will 
 be struck with the prodigious foreign influence of one 
 kind or another which exists in that country ; more es- 
 epcially in the places that border on the Atlantic Ocean. 
 I have been told that a vast proportion ~ of the people 
 of the cities, whence public opinion generally emanates, 
 are natives of other countries, who flock there, not 
 from any disgust to their native land, but because 
 they afford an easier opportunity to acquire a fortune. 
 These people, as is natural and proper they should, ever 
 retain a rooted affection for the scene of their youthful 
 attachments, and the theatre of their earliest pleasures. 
 Far be it from me to blame one of the most exalted affec- 
 tions of the heart, the affection for the land of our birth ; 
 I am merely stating circumstances which will in some 
 measure explain the reason, why America, which pos- 
 sesses so many claims to the attachment of its citizens, 
 contains more disaffected persons than any other country 
 in existence, with the same number of inhabitants. I 
 mean, not merely disaffected to any particular adminis- 
 tration, but to the soil, to the nation itself, whenever ita 
 interests come in competition with those of their native 
 
202 NOTES. 
 
 country. It is this which paralizes the proceedings of 
 the government; for no sooner is there a disposition dis- 
 played, to resent any injury or insult of a foreign nation, 
 than it is checked and repressed, or at least embarrassed, 
 by the clamorous interference of a herd of interested 
 foreigners, who swarm in their cities, and who being the 
 principal supporters of newspapers, have always influ. 
 ence sufficient to direct the effusions of a patriotic 
 editor into what channel they please. Men certainly 
 ought never to forget the country that gave them birth* 5 
 
 * How just! The author is frequently seen, though per- 
 haps unintentionally, paying a tribute to the solid claims of 
 Great Britain. Men who forget their country are criminal - t 
 they who are found in arms against her are traitors. Can 
 any thing be clearer? Yet is the denial of this truth one of 
 the principal causes of the unhappy and unnatural war waged 
 by America. It is argued^ that the law of America prohi- 
 bits the reception of British subjects on board her ships. 
 Such a law is honourable to her, but unless it be enforced, it 
 becomes a mockery. Let us hope that it will be enforced, let 
 us hope that every cause of disagreement will speedily be 
 removed, and that the two countries will enter into that close 
 alliance which nature herself dictates. With this hope, 
 with this prayer at my heart, while I honour the talents, the 
 character, and even the prejudices of the poet, I cannot re- 
 frain from protesting against the emigration which some of 
 Ms notes encourage, particularly one belonging to this 
 canto, Note X. By the present note, it appears from the 
 author's own allowing that educated men, who roam to 
 America in quest of fortune, are not so smitten with her 
 charms, but that in spite of their thriving, they cast a longing' 
 
NOTES. 20& 
 
 but they should recollect the fable of the lamb and its 
 foster mother, and that the soil in which they thrive, and 
 
 loving look behind: and as to the poor, thing's must be very 
 much altered indeed since I visited America, if the condition 
 of an emigrant labourer would be improved. The condition 
 of an European settler girdling trees in the woods of tlit 
 new world, is one of the most miserable in the whole world. 
 It is policy in America to encourage emigration ; but policy 
 and justice do not always accord. Tlie law of naturalization 
 there differs essentially from ours. Yet we hear our acts of 
 Parliament for naturalizing foreigners cited in defence of 
 the principle of the American law. Let us see with what 
 justice. I am not now alluding to the dispute respecting 
 our seamen, ostensibly disclaimed by the American govern- 
 ment; but to the right of citizenship after a residence of five 
 years in the United States. Such a law is in itself an 
 evident seduction to the unwary of the old countries : it loudly 
 says to them ; " this fertile new country wants peopling, 
 forsake your own and come away to it." Is there the slightest 
 analogy between this sweeping act of perpetual motion, and 
 a few occasional jealous bills brought into Parliament, with 
 difficulty and great expence,to bestow, in the course of a year, 
 or perhaps of years, privileges on some half dozen individuals, 
 chief y to enable them to enjoy fully the benefit of the rules 
 relative to property ? And, to put a case, should the country of 
 such naturalized person be at war with Great Britain, would 
 he be required to take up arms against it ? would he be respect- 
 ed if he did? I must not be answered, that many Frenchmen 
 are in arms against France they are not naturalized, and 
 they are in arms for France. This note is grown too long ; 
 I will end it, by praying that a sincere and happy alliance 
 may very soon take place between the two countries, E. Ed. 
 
204 NOTES. 
 
 whence tltey draw their daily being and existence, is at 
 least entitled to their gratitude, if not to their devotion* 
 
 But it has been represented to me by intelligent Ame- 
 ricans, that many of these people abuse the protection 
 which 'is given them, by an impertinent interference 
 in those political concerns, which are peculiarly the 
 business of the citizen, by clamours against the govern- 
 ment, and by degrading comparisons betwixt the country 
 which they left, because it did not hold out a prospect 
 of competency, and the one, upon which they have 
 bestowed the honour of their adoption. , 
 
 Another charge brought against foreigners is, that they 
 too often become citizens from mere motives of personal 
 interest; thus sacrilegiously violating the most sacred of 
 human obligations ; and resembling the paltry and self- 
 interested fortune-hunter, who proffers his hand to one 
 mistress, while his heart is devoted to another. 
 
 While this state of society exists, there will never be 
 seen in that country, the noble spectacle sometimes ex- 
 hibited by other nations that of one strong sentiment 
 actuating and impelling and uniting the people, in one 
 great irresistible impulse a vital feeling running through, 
 pervading, animating the whole mass, and quivering at 
 the touch. The national energy will be wasted in the 
 energy of civil dissensions ; its spirit dissipated in do- 
 mestic broils; and its resentment neutralized by the col- 
 lision of conflicting interests and passions. 
 
NOTES. 205 
 
 NOTE VII. 
 
 And boasted of his <( moral sense" 
 His t( learning " and " intelligence ; " 
 One, as was learned from divers hints, 
 Of Quincy's wise constituents. 
 
 THE following is the substance of a note of Mr. S. on 
 this passage. Ed. 
 
 The people of New England have so often been as- 
 sured by their orators and select men, of the superiority 
 of their religious and moral habits, their patriotism, and 
 their intelligence, that it appears from many of the news- 
 papers of that quarter, that they are perfectly satisfied of 
 its truth. Like the lawyer in the play, they have so often 
 repeated, " I am an honest man," that they have not only 
 convinced themselves, but persuaded a great many other 
 people to believe it. The latter, with good-natured cre- 
 dulity, mistook every repetition of the same tale, for a 
 proof of its authenticity, without considering that it was 
 but the authority of men praising themselves. No one in 
 America has as yet, it seems, thought it worth while to 
 repress, the hitherto harmless vanity of these poor people ; 
 and the claim has been tacitly allowed, not because it was 
 believed to be true, but because it was looked upon as 
 the innocent delusion of credulous men, who having been 
 cured of their belief in witches and other imaginary be- 
 ings, had made themselves amends by indulging a new set 
 of preposterous fancies. 
 
2.06 NOTES, 
 
 The silence hitherto preserved with respect to this di- 
 verting claim, is however no proof that any such superi- 
 ority exists. Many things have been denied that were 
 true ; and many things that are false, remain uncontra- 
 dicted. To escape being questioned is no demonstration 
 of truth, and what remains for a long time undisputed, is 
 not therefore indisputable. 
 
 Nevertheless, such is the influence of assertions often 
 repeated, that the weakness of human nature is seldom 
 able to resist it. Experience every day demonstrates 
 that if men hear continually the same thing, they confound 
 the repetition with evidence, and mistake every reitera- 
 tion for an additional proof of its truth. 
 
 But after all, the most general and universal delusion, is 
 that which men practise upon themselves. They weave 
 their sophistries, till their own reason is entangled ; and 
 repeat their falsehoods till they are credited by them- 
 selves ; by often contending, they grow sincere, and by 
 long searching for proofs, come at last to believe they have 
 found them. When arrived at this desperate stage of 
 perverted reason, there remains scarce a hope of reasoning 
 them from their delusion $ but like the spider caught in 
 the net woven by himself, they are destined to remain 
 the monuments of their own self-destruction. 
 
 Without entering any farther into these deep specula- 
 tions, I will conclude the subject with remarking, that I 
 cannot help looking upon this locating, and taking as it 
 were, such quiet possession of an unauthorised and unac- 
 knowledged pre-eminence, over their honest unassuming 
 neighbours, as altogether analogous to other parts of the 
 
NOTES. 207 
 
 conduct of the people of New England to the sister States. 
 Finding nobody in possession, they seem to have squatted 
 down upon the public reputation, as they did upon the 
 land, without inquiring particularly whether it belonged 
 to them or not. Remaining a long time unmolested in 
 their occupation, they grew at last to consider themselves 
 the lawful possessors of the soil, and to talk of their farms, 
 and their estates, as if they had actually held them by 
 legal possession. 
 
 [It cannot be sufficiently regretted that so many local 
 prejudices, springing out of mere geographical distinc* 
 tions, should have arisen in this country, to lay the foun- 
 dation of national antipathies and national disunion. The 
 pernicious distinctions of Eastern, Middle, and Southern 
 States, seem to have laid the seeds of a precious harvest 
 of ill blood, between the people of these sections, more 
 especially since the claim made by the great representa- 
 tive of New England in the late Congress, to such a pre- 
 eminence in " religion," " moral sense" and " intelligence," 
 over his neighbours. Such a claim, where it escapes ridi- 
 cule and contempt, will excite emotions of jealousy and 
 ill-will, and lead perhaps^to a lasting dislike. There is in 
 human nature a principle which prompts us to repel any 
 airs of superiority, that are considered ill founded, and 
 men feel the same ill-natured satisfaction in stripping 
 away these borrowed feathers, that they do in unmasking 
 the sly hypocrisy of a knave, or the blustering cowardice 
 of a bully. Ed. 
 
208 NOTES. 
 
 NOTE VIII. 
 
 Of great Miles Standish's blood he came, 
 And bore that mighty hero's name. 
 
 THIS prodigious hero is called the WASHINGTON of the 
 Plymouth Colony, in the history of New England, written 
 by two celebrated literary characters of America, the 
 Rev. Jedediah Morse, and the Rev. Elijah Parish. 
 
 " In 1636, at a very advanced age, died Capt. Standish 
 the military commander, the WASHINGTON of the Ply- 
 mouth Colony. A man so conspicuous and celebrated in 
 his life, ought not to be forgotten when dead." 
 
 His. New Eng. p. 241. 
 
 The following are the principal exploits of this " Wash- 
 ington of the Plymouth Colony :" 
 
 " When Corbitanty one of the petty sachems of Masses- 
 soit meditated a revolt, Capt. Standish, with fourteen men 
 surrounded his house in Swansea j but he being absent, 
 they informed his people they should destroy them, if he 
 persisted in his rebellion. This so alarmed the chief, that 
 he entreated the mediation of Massessoit, and accordingly 
 was admitted, with eight others, to subscribe his submis- 
 sion to the English ! " Id. p. 241. 
 
 " Being on a trading voyage to Mutachiest, between 
 Barnstable and Yarmouth, in February 1623, a severe 
 storm compelled him to leave his vessel, and sleep in a 
 hut of the Indians. Being impressed with an idea of their 
 
NOTES. 209 
 
 design to kill him, lie made his people keep guard all night, 
 by which he escaped the snare they had laid for him. 
 
 Id. p. 241. 
 
 " Often was the providence of God conspicuous in his 
 preservation. The next month at Manomet, a creek in 
 Sandwich, where he went for corn, he was not received 
 with his usual cordiality. Two Indians from Massachu- 
 setts were there ; one had an iron dagger, and derided 
 the Europeans, because he had seen them when dying, 
 " cry and make sour faces like children." An Indian of 
 the place, who had formerly been his friend, appearing 
 now very friendly, invited the captain to sleep with him, 
 because the weather was cold. Standish accepted his 
 hospitality, and passed the night by his fire ; but sleep had 
 departed from his eyes ; he was restless and in motion all 
 night, though his host seemed solicitous for his comfort, 
 and " earnestly pressed him to take rest." It was after- 
 wards discovered that this Indian intended to kill him, if 
 he had fallen asleep." Id. 
 
 Another time he was sent to a place called Nessaquas- 
 sel, on suspicion that the Indians were plotting against 
 the white people. The following exploit is recorded of 
 him by the rev. gentlemen who so aptly call him the 
 Washington of the colony. 
 
 " Pecksuot being a man of great stature, said to Stan- 
 " dish: ' Though you are a great captain, yet you are but 
 " a little man ; and though I be no sachem, yet I am a 
 " man of great strength and courage.' The captain had 
 " formed his plan, and was therefore silent. The next 
 " day, seeing he could get no more of them together, 
 
 P 
 
210 NOTES. 
 
 " Pecksuot, and Wittuwamat his brother, a young man 
 " of eighteen, and one Indian more being together, and 
 li having about as many of his own men in the room , he 
 " gave the word ; the door was fast ; he seized Pecksuot, 
 " snatched his knife from him, and killed him with it; the 
 " rest killed Wittuwamat and the other Indians. The 
 " youth they took and hanged. Dreadful was the scene ; 
 " incredible the number of wounds they bore, without any 
 " noise; catching at the weapons, and struggling till deathS 
 
 p. 245. 
 
 " In 1624, the people of Plymouth had erected fishing, 
 stakes at Cape Ann. A company from the west of Eng- 
 land, the next year took possession of them. Captain 
 Standish was sent to obtain justice. His threats were 
 serious ; and the people of Cape Ann, assured the com- 
 pany they were dead, unless they satisfied the captain, 
 for he was always punctual to his word. The company 
 built another stage or stake in a more advantageous situa- 
 tion, which the Plymouth people accepted. Thus har- 
 mony was restored.* Id. p. 246. 
 
 After all these exploits, which certainly justify the cap- 
 tain's claim to a comparison with the father of American 
 liberty, we learn from this stupendous history, which re- 
 minds us not a little of the interesting and tmly impor- 
 tant " Memoirs of P. P. Clerk of the Parish," that the 
 captain's great sword was burned, and those who fancy 
 they have it in their possession, are mistaken. 
 
 " His name," adds the writer, a great grandson of the 
 captain's grandson Deacon Joseph Standish, " will long 
 be venerated in New-England. He was one who chose 
 
NOTES. 211 
 
 to suffer affliction with the people of Gpd ; who subdued 
 kingdoms, and put to flight the armies of the aliens." 
 
 Id. p. 249, 
 
 NOTE IX. 
 
 OfGeorgy Burrouglis, hang'd at Wells, 
 
 For conjuring up a wicked light, 
 
 That mock'd a maid's keen searching sight. 
 
 THE following curious particulars, may be found in the 
 History of New England; frequently alluded to in this 
 work. Pages 309, 310, 311. 
 
 " The public mind was shocked and alarmed, and the 
 most decisive proceedings followed. For a time, all or 
 most of the people was of one mind. March 2d there was 
 a public examination at the village, and several were com- 
 mitted to prison. March 21st the magistrates met in Sa- 
 lem, and Mr. Noyes opened with prayer. On the 24th 
 they met at the village, and Mr. Hale prayed. On the 
 26th they met again in Salem, and kept the day in fasting 
 and prayer." 
 
 Having thus duly prepared themselves they went to 
 work. 
 
 " There was another examination at Salem, April 22nd, 
 " and a number imprisoned. June 2d an old woman was 
 " tried and condemned at Salem, and executed on the 
 ' 10th ; making no confession. Five more were tried 
 " June 30, and executed July 19 ; six more were tried 
 " August 6th, and all executed the 19 th, except one woman 
 P2 
 
 
212 NOTES. 
 
 " One of these was Mr. George Burroughs, sometime mi- 
 " nister at Wells ; he also preached at the village, but 
 " met with great opposition. A great number of wit- 
 " nesses appeared at his trial : a specimen of their testi. 
 u monies may be seen by the following deposition : 
 
 " Elizur Keysar, aged about forty-fi ve years, saith, that 
 " on Thursday last past, being the 5th of this instant 
 " month of May, I was at the house of Thomas Beadle 
 " in Salem, and Captain Daniel King being there also at 
 " the same time, and in the same room ; said Captain Da_ 
 " niel King asked me, whether I would not go up and see 
 " Mr. Burroughs, and discourse with him; he being in 
 " one of the chambers of the said house." The witness 
 did not go up at that time, but goes on to say ; u The 
 " same afternoon I having occasion to be at the said Bea- 
 " die's house, in the chamber where Mr. Burroughs kept, 
 " I observed that the said Burroughs kept his eyes stead. 
 " fastly fixed upon me. The same evening being at my own 
 " house, in a room without any light, I did see very strange 
 " things appear in the chimney, I suppose a dozen of them, 
 " which seemed to me to be something like jelly, that 
 " used to be in the water, and quivered with a strange 
 " motion, and then disappeared. Soon after which I did 
 " see a light up in the chimney about the bigness of my 
 " head, something above the bar, which quivered and 
 " shaked, and seemed to have motion upward ; upon 
 " which I called the rnaid, and she looking up the chim. 
 " ney, saw the same ; and my wife looking up could not 
 " see any thing. So I did and do conclude it was some 
 " diabolical operation ! " 
 
NOTES. 213 
 
 On grounds like these, not only Mr. Burroughs, but 
 hundreds of others, were executed in different parts of 
 New Englaud. 
 
 But the real ground on which Mr. Burroughs suffered, 
 was probably his intermedling too much in political mat- 
 ters, for it seems that about this period, commenced that 
 custom which has since so deeply stained the churches of 
 New-England, and corrupted the Ministers of the Gospel 
 there. I cannot sufficiently reprobate that canting spirit, 
 which connects politics and religion inseparably with each 
 other; nor refrain from bearing my testimony against 
 those late attempts which have been made, not only in 
 America, but Great Britain, to debase the pure spirit of 
 Christianity, by making it subservient to the views of inte- 
 rested ambition, or rancorous party spirit. Enough will 
 be said on this subject if we merely revert to the days of 
 the Barebones, and the canting Puritans of the Rump 
 Parliament ; to the example of those remorseless non-des- 
 cripts, who, half hypocrite and half devotee, united tho 
 practice of the most unrelenting persecution, with the 
 theory of the mildest toleration ; and who, acting under 
 the combined influence of fanaticism in religion and en- 
 thusiam in politics, equally outraged the divinity of the 
 one, and the principles of the other. The perilous exam- 
 ples of the effects of this incestuous union, in stimulating 
 party spirit into the most intolerant frenzy, are thick set 
 in the pages of history, and float as buoys in an ocean of 
 blood, to warn the interested politician against connect- 
 ing any particular system of belief, with any particular 
 party, or any particular modes of government, and above 
 
214 NOTES. 
 
 all, with any particular ruler. There is no being more 
 dangerous to the repose of society, than a fanatical politi- 
 cian. He becomes the most choleric and revengeful ani- 
 mal ; considers the Deity as bound to assist him ; that re- 
 ligion itself is wounded in his person ; and that the bit- 
 terness of his intolerance originates in piety, and is sanc- 
 tioned by Heaven. 
 
 NOTE X. 
 
 And where in the wide world alone 9 
 
 " Sweet Harry's" generous wish is known. 
 
 ONE of the few kingly wishes on record, which deserve 
 to be for ever honoured in our recollection, is that of 
 Henry the Fourth of France, whose favourite hope it 
 was, that " He might live to see the day, when every 
 peasant in his kingdom would have a fowl to put into his 
 pot on Sunday."' This homely wish deserves to endear, 
 and indeed has endeared, the memory of that gallant and 
 noble prince to the hearts of all, even those of the 
 stoutest republicans. The only country in which this 
 blessing is enjoyed in its fullest extent is America, where 
 the commonest labourer can, if he please, and without 
 extravagance, have his fowl for dinner on Sabbath-day. 
 All impartial relaters agree in representing that country 
 as holding out to the poor, and those with small means, a 
 prospect, which could they but behold it, would quickly 
 allure them from their native homes, which present, for 
 
MOTES. 215 
 
 the most part, a prospect of endless labour, and endless 
 privation. The commonest day-labourer, without a trade, 
 can earn six or seven dollars a-week ; a sum that will 
 afford him a dinner of fresh or salt meat, or both, every 
 day, and enable him even to indulge in roast-beef; which, 
 though perhaps not so fine as that of " Old England,'* 
 has this special advantage, that it is much more accessible 
 to the generality of the people. The Americans know 
 and feel their superior national happiness ; and if they 
 took as much pains to circulate true accounts of their 
 country, as disingenuous travellers have taken to dissemi- 
 nate false ones, nothing but the vast ocean would prevent 
 the poor peasants of Europe from pouring themselves 
 into the bosom of America*. 
 
 But the truth is, the writers of that country are di- 
 vided into three classes, one of which claims the exclusive 
 honours of patriotism, and is industriously employed in 
 depreciating it; another in exalting it preposterously 
 over the heads of other nations, without being able to 
 give any reason for it ; and a third, which knowing that 
 the country has already quite enough of foreign leaven, 
 to assist its rising, refrains from indirectly inviting fo 
 rcigners, by setting forth its advantages ; and is content 
 
 * When the English Editor was in America, ne met with 
 several English, who deeply repented their folly in emigrating^ 
 and heartily wished to return to Old England, declaring that 
 they had been deceived. It is true that wages were high 9 
 \mt the necessaries of life were more than proportionally 
 dear. See remarks on Note. VI. E. Ed. 
 
21G NOTES. 
 
 merely occasionally, to refute unfounded aspersions and 
 libellous sneers. 
 
 NOTE XL 
 
 From Ararat the falcon soared. 
 
 ONE great cause of the contemptuous opinion expressed 
 by various of the learned of Europe towards America, is 
 her youth. An antiquary, or a theorist, despises a young 
 country. He becomes enamoured of it, as the bucks of 
 Vienna do of a lady, on account of her wrinkles ; or as a 
 collector does of a coin, for the precious rust it exhibits. 
 There is in fact nothing in the world which a genuine 
 scholar so much detests, as a country exhibiting all the 
 redundant freshness, and buxom hilarity of youth, health , 
 and vigour, and having neither moss-grown castle, ruined 
 town, or desolate village in it. The antiquarian looks in 
 vain, in such a place, for objects worthy of his attention ; 
 and is induced to wish that some earthquake, or other 
 convulsion of nature, would produce a premature ruin ; 
 or like the tragic lover, to pray that the gods would anni- 
 hilate both space and time, and make him happy in the 
 contemplation of the dear object of his affections. To 
 him, the ruins of Palmyra or of Rome, the one swarming 
 with banditti, the other with beggars, are a thousand 
 times more gratifying than the spectacle of a country, 
 rising out of the forest, breaking from the embraces of 
 rude nature, and advancing with steps more rapid than 
 the world has ever yet seen ; or of cities, exhibiting all 
 
NOTES. 217 
 
 the careless gaiety of youth, all the varieties of business 
 and pleasure, and all the splendour of wealth, acquired 
 by the successful exertion of enlightened industry, aad 
 expended with tasteful liberality. 
 
 In almost any other country now, but America, the 
 name of Mount Ararat would be ominous of a disser- 
 tation. Its summit would be infested with an infinite 
 number of learned men, who, like ants about their sand- 
 hill, would be running backwards and forwards, in search 
 of a little crumb of conjecture, about the place where 
 the ark rested, when the waters subdued after the deluge. 
 In some parts of Asia such a name would be invaluable; 
 but there, alas ! it is a mere worthless, every-day-mountain 
 of vulgar strata, of BO value, except to the plodding 
 mineralogist ; and its only claim to distinction is founded 
 on the following tradition : 
 
 A long time ago, when that part of the country was a 
 desart, Lord Talbot, one of the ancient proprietors of 
 Virginia, took refuge from the consequences of some 
 crime in this mountain. He inhabited a cave ; and his 
 only companions were two trained falcons, who contri- 
 buted essentially to his amusement as well as his subsis- 
 tence. After residing in this place several years, he 
 quitted it, it is believed in consequence of a pardon, but 
 his falcons remained ; and it is said they are still some- 
 times seen soaring around the summit of the mountain, 
 
218 NOTES. 
 
 NOTE XII. 
 
 And universal patriots grown, 
 Feast for all victories but their own. 
 
 MR. S is supposed here to allude to the following 
 
 resolution, which was put by Mr. Quincy, in the Senate 
 of Massachusetts, and agreed to. 
 
 " Resolved, as the sense of the Senate of Massa- 
 " chusetts, that in a war like the present, waged with- 
 " out justifiable cause, and prosecuted in a manner that 
 " indicates that conquest and ambition are its real mo- 
 " lives, it is not becoming a moral and religious people 
 " to express their approbation of military or naval ex- 
 " ploits, which are not immediately connected with the 
 " defence of our sea-coast and soil." 
 
 It is somewhat remarkable, that the very same indi- 
 viduals, who thus thought it unbecoming " a moral and 
 religious people" to rejoice in the victories of their 
 country, feasted most lustily for the Russian victories. 
 
NOTES. 219 
 
 NOTE XIII. 
 
 'Tis Church's ghost, come from Tartarean fire. 
 
 [MR. S , I suppose, here alludes to the late Dr. 
 
 Church, who invented a certain nostrum, which he had 
 the insolence to call Scotch Ointment, and for which the 
 poet has very properly consigned him to the regions of 
 Tartarus.] Editor. 
 
 THE Editor, in concluding his editorial labours, cannot 
 
 help expressing his astonishment that Mr. S should 
 
 have put into the mouth of his minstrel, so many 
 sarcasms against the character and conduct of the British 
 navy. The only supposition which can account for this 
 
 singularity is, that Mr. S has turned Democrat ; a 
 
 supposition rendered extremely probable, when we con- 
 sider that he has not in the whole course of his poem, 
 though so many excellent opportunities offered, once 
 called Buonaparte, " usurper,"" monster," butcher," 
 or given him any other of his usual titles. 
 
 Indeed the Editor had long since heard it whispered, 
 that this exceedingly and deservedly popular poet, had 
 changed his political opinions, and that this was the real 
 cause of his rupture with the late Miss Seward. Our 
 readers will recollect, that lady, in token of her disap- 
 probation, devised to whomever would take the trouble 
 of printing them, twelve four-square volumes of her ma 
 
220 NOTES. 
 
 nuscript letters. If Mr. S is a reasonable man, he 
 
 ought most devoutly to thank his stars that these pon- 
 derous folios were thus diverted from his head, and per- 
 sist in his conversion, if it were only in gratitude for the 
 blessed effect it has already produced. 
 
 But the Editor cannot help thinking that our author 
 has been much too severe on the gallant Admiral Cock- 
 burn and his followers, when it is considered that in all 
 probability their conduct arose in a great measure from 
 a vehement desire to imitate the pernicious examples, 
 held up in those mischievous books of chivalry, from 
 time to time manufactured by him. It is recorded, that 
 certain noble youths of Germany, were so struck with 
 the character of the robber Moor in Schiller's tragedy, 
 that they forthwith turned out on the highways, and 
 imitated that notable freebooter, in every thing but his 
 good qualities. Thus has it in all probability fared. with 
 Childe Cockburn, whose youthful propensities were 
 strengthened and matured by the alluring examples of 
 William of Deloraine, Lord Marmion, Rhoderick Dhu. 
 Bertram, and other distinguished moss-troopers and 
 Buccaneers. With what wonderful precision the Childe 
 has copied the exploits of the heroes of modern chivalry, 
 will appear from the following account of a Raid, which 
 he and Sir Sidney Buckwith, another illustrious knight, 
 rode in July last, near Mount Albino, on the shores of 
 the Chesapeake. 
 
 Early one Monday morning they landed with upwards 
 of two thousand marines, and scoured the country for 
 several miles, collecting all the cattle, sheep, geese, 
 
NOTES. 221 
 
 ducks, fowls, pigs, turkies, and chickens, they found ia 
 their way. They then marched down to Point Look- 
 Out, with these two illustrious pig-drivers at their head ; 
 one brandishing a long pole, with a bladder partly filled 
 with pebbles at the end of it, to quicken the swinish vis 
 inertia of his pigs ; and the other also flourishing a pole 
 with a red flag, to frighten his poultry into the true 
 military quick-step. In this way they proceeded to the 
 shore ; the oxen bellowed, the sheep baaed, the ducks 
 quacked, the pigs squeaked, the turkeys gobbled, the 
 chickens cackled, and the two knights flourished their 
 long poles right lustily, for the honour of Old England. 
 
 Compare this picture with one of the relations of 
 honest Hollinshed or Fuller, making some little allowance 
 for a difference of spelling, and the improvement iu 
 manners, and it will be found to bear a most striking 
 resemblance. 
 
 Mr. S has been unjust in another respect, in hav- 
 ing confounded the character of the British officers. 
 The Editor, although an enemy, can readily perceive 
 that he has made his reflections too general. Some of 
 the genuine followers of the gallant Lord Nelson must 
 still remain to redeem the national character from the 
 grievous reproach of carrying on an uncivilized warfare. 
 One of these, at least, remains; and the Editor pursues, 
 with pleasure, the bent of this inclination, that prompts 
 him on all occasions to pay honour, where honour is due, 
 to the country from which he descends, when he names 
 Sir Thomas Hardy as the man, whose conduct towards 
 America has always, he believes, been that of a civilized 
 
222 NOTES. 
 
 enemy at least. There was something too in the written 
 challenge, which Captain Broke is said to have sent to 
 our lamented Lawrence, that bespeaks so much gallantry 
 of spirit, and such a familiar acquaintance with the feel- 
 ings of genuine chivalry, as to entitle him to the respect 
 and admiration even of those who have suffered by the 
 exercise of these high qualities. 
 
 FINIS, 
 
 Wbiuingham and Rowland, Printers, Goswell-Street, London. 
 
Books published by 
 J. CAWTHORN, COCKSFUR STREET, LONDON. 
 
 1. Hothouse's Journey through Albania, and other Pro- 
 vinces of Turkey, in Europe and Asia, illustrated by Views 
 of Athens, Constantinople, and various other Plates, 
 Maps, &c. Second Edition, with corrections, in 2 vols. 
 4to. 51. 5s. boards. 
 
 " Both the general reader and the scholar may look for no small 
 portion of information and amusement from the present volume. 
 Having thus given a sketch of the contents of this massive but enter- 
 taining volume, we have only to add our opinion, that should the de- 
 fects of which we have already spoken be corrected in a future edition, 
 by a little more attention to the technicalities of book.making, and a 
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 as by the spirit, vivacity, and good sense, of the general narrative." 
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 vindication of ourselves, that we have received as much pleasure and 
 instruction from the perusal of these Travels, as from that of any 
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 No. 9, October, 1Q1Q. 
 
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 in Verse ; and Notes, critical and explanatory, by the 
 Editor of the EXAMINER. 
 
 This publication contains Critical Notices of Lord 
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 Journies through, those Countries ; to which is added, an 
 accurate and interesting Account of TIMBUCTOO, the great 
 
Books published by J. Cawthorn, Cockspur Street, London. 
 
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 Second Edition. Price 21. 12s. 6d. boards. 
 
 " The observations which he has himself made npon these parte, and 
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 travellers, form a work of considerable value, both in a commercial 
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 resided in foreign countries, are beginning more and more to commu- 
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 " These are some very entertaining Anecdotes of Peter the Great, 
 and place the private character of that Sovereign in a most amiable 
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 Isles, and part of the adjacent Coast of Greece. By W. 
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 tt Wright! 'twas thy happy lot at once to view 
 Those shores of glory, and to sing them too ; 
 And sure no common muse inspired thy pen 
 To hail the land of gods and godlike men. 
 
 " Mr. Wright, late Consul-General for the Seven Islands, is author of 
 a very beautiful Poem just published : it is entitled Hone lonicae, and 
 is descriptive of the Isles and the adjacent Coast of Greece." Lord 
 Byron's English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers. 
 
 6- An Historical Sketch of the Last Years of the 
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