Marmion

inventory of the effects of James III, Thistles were inscribed on the coins of the next four reigns, and they were accompanied in the reign of James VI for the first time by the motto Nemo me impune lacessit. James II of Great Britain formally inaugurated the Order of the Thistle on 29 May, 1687, but it was not till the reign of Anne, 31 Dec. 1703, that it became a fully defined legal institution. The Order is also known as the Order of St. Andrew.-See CHAMBERS’S Encyclopedia.

line 318. It was natural and fit that Lyndsay should be present. It is more than likely that he had a leading hand in the enterprise. As tutor to the young Prince, it had been a recognised part of his duty to amuse him by various disguises; and he was likewise the first Scottish poet with an adequate dramatic sense.

line 336. See St. John xix. 25-27.

Stanza XVII. line 350. The special reference here is to the influence of Lady Heron. See above, I. xvi. 265, and below, V. x. 261.

Stanza XIX. The skilful descriptive touches of this stanza are noteworthy. Cp. opening passages of Coleridge’s ‘Christabel,’ especially the seven lines beginning, ‘Is the night chilly and dark?’

Stanza XXI. line 440. Grimly is not unknown as a poetical adj. ‘Margaret’s grimly ghost,’ in Beaumont and FIetcher’s ‘Knight of the Burning Pestle,’ II. i, is a familiar example. See above, p. 194, line 25, ‘grimly voice.’ For ‘ghast’ as an adj., cp. Keats’s ‘Otho the Great,’ V. v. 11, ‘How ghast a train!’

line. 449. See below, V. xxiv, ‘‘Twere long and needless here to tell,’ and cp. AEneid I. 341:-

                   ‘Longa est iniuria, longae 
      Ambages; sed summa sequar fastigia rerum.’

Stanza XXII. line 461. See above, III. xxv. 503, and note.

lines 467-470. Rothiemurchus, near Alvie, co. of Inverness, on Highland Railway; Tomantoul in co. of Banff, N. E. of Rothiemurchus; Auchnaslaid in co. of Inverness, near S. W. border  of Aberdeen; Forest of Dromouchty on Inverness border eastward of Loch Ericht; Glenmore, co-extensive with Caledonian Canal.

lines 477-480. Cp. the teaching of Coleridge’s ‘Ancient Mariner’ and ‘Christabel.’ In the former these stanzas are specially notable:-

     ‘O happy living things! no tongue 
      Their beauty might declare: 
      A spring of love gushed from my heart, 
      And I blessed them unaware: 
      Sure my kind saint took pity on me, 
      And I blessed them unaware. 

      The selfsame moment I could pray; 
      And from my neck so free 
      The Albatross fell off, and sank 
      Like lead into the sea.’

line 487. bowne = prepare. See below, V. xx, ‘to bowne him for the war’; and ‘Lay of the Last Minstrel,’ V. xx, ‘bowning back to Cumberland.’ Cp. ‘Piers the Plowman,’ III. 173 (C Text):-

     ‘And bed hem alle ben boun . beggeres and othere, 
      To wenden with hem to Westemynstre.’

Stanza XXIII. line 490. Dun-Edin = Edwin’s hill-fort, poetic for Edinburgh.

line 497. The Braid Hills, S. E. of Edinburgh, recently added to the recreation grounds of the citizens.

Stanza XXIV. Blackford Hill has now been acquired by the City of Edinburgh as a public resort. The view from it, not only of the city but of the landscape generally, is striking and memorable.

lines 511-15. Cp. Wordsworth’s ‘The Fountain-a Conversation’:-