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NOTES: CANTO IV.
255

those splendid remains of antiquity, which are at present used as a fold for sheep, and wintering cattle; although, perhaps, there are very few ruins in Scotland which display so well the style and beauty of castle-architecture.'—Scott.

The ruin is now carefully protected, visitors being admitted on application at Crichtoun Manse adjoining.

Stanza XI. l. 232. 'The castle of Crichton has a dungeon vault, called the Massy More. The epithet, which is not uncommonly applied to the prisons of other old castles in Scotland, is of Saracenic origin. It occurs twice in the "Epistolæ Itineriæ" of Tollius. "Carcer subterraneus, sive, ut Mauri appellant, Mazmorra," p. 147; and again, "Coguntur omnes Captivi sub noctem in ergastula subterranea, quæ Turcæ Algezerani vocant Mazmorras," p. 243. The same word applies to the dungeons of the ancient Moorish castles in Spain, and serves to show from what nation the Gothic style of castle building was originally derived.'—Scott.

See further, Sir W. Scott's 'Provincial Antiquities,' vol. i.

Stanza XII. l. 249. 'He was the second Earl of Bothwell, and fell in the field of Flodden, where, according to an ancient English poet, he distinguished himself by a furious attempt to retrieve the day:—

'Then on the Scottish part, right proud,The Earl of Bothwell then out brast,And stepping forth, with stomach good,Into the enemies' throng he thrast;And Bothwell! Bothwell! cried bold,To cause his souldiers to ensue,But there he caught a wellcome cold,The Englishmen straight down him threw.Thus Haburn through his hardy heartHis fatal fine in conflict found," &c.Flodden Field, a Poem; edited by H. Weber. Edin. 1808.'Scott. 

l. 254. 'Adam was grandfather to James, Earl of Bothwell, too well known in the history of Queen Mary.'—Scott.

Stanza XIII. l. 260. The Borough-moor extended from Edinburgh south to the Braid Hills.

Stanza XIV. l. 280. Scott quotes from Lindsay of Pitscottie the story of the apparition seen at Linlithgow by James IV, when undergoing his annual penance for having taken the field against his father. Some of the younger men about the Court had devised what

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