Note XV. And of that Grot where Olives nod, Saint Rosalie retired to God-P. 38. "Sante Rosalia was of Palermo, and born of a very noble. family, and when very young, abhorred so much the vanities of this world, and avoided the converse of maukind, resolving to dedicate herself wholly to God Almighty, that she, by divine inspiration, forsook her father's house, and never wr more heard of, till her body was found in that cleft of a rock, on that almost inaccessible mountain, where now the chapel is built: and they affirm, she was carried up there by the hands of angels; for that place was not formerly so accessible (as now it is) in the days of the Saint; and even now it is a very bad, and steepy, and break-neck way. In this frightful place, this holy woman lived a great many years, feeding only on what she found growing on that barren mountain, and creeping into a narrow and dreadful cleft in a rock, which was always dropping wet, and was her place of retirement, as well as prayers; having worn out even the rock with her knees, in a certain place, which is now open'd on purpose to show it to those who come here. This chappel is very richly adorn'd; and on the spot where the Saint's dead body was discover'd, which is just beneath the hole in the rock, which is open'd on purpose, as I said, there is a very fine statue of marble, representing her in a lying posture, railed in all about with fine iron and brass work; and the altar, on which they say mass, is built just over it." Voyage to Sicily and Malta, by Mr. John Dryden, (son to the poet,) p. 107. Note XVI. Himself still sleeps before his beads Have marked ten aves, and two creeds.-P. 40. Friar John understood the soporific virtue of his beads and breviary, as well as his namesake in Rabelais. "But Gargantua could not sleep by any means, on which side soever he turned himself. Whereupon the monk said to him, I never sleep soundly but when I am at sermon, or prayers: Let us therefore begin, you and I, the seven penitential psalms, to try whether you shall not quickly fall asleep. The conceit pleased Gargantua very well; and, beginning the first of these psalms, as soon as they came to Beati quorum, they fell asleep, both the one and the other." Note XVII. The summoned Palmer came in place; In his black mantle was he clad; With Peter's keys, in cloth of red, On his broad shoulders wrought.-P. 41. A Palmer, opposed to a Pilgrim, was one who made it his sole business to visit different holy shrines; travelling incessantly, and subsisting by charity: whereas the Pilgrim retired to his usual home and occupations, when he had paid his devotions at the particular spot, which was the object of his pilgrimage. The Palmers seem to have been the Quæstionarii of the ancient Scottish canons 1242 and 1296. There is, in the Bannatyne MS., a burlesque account of two such persons, entitled, "Simmy and his Brother." Their accoutrements are thus ludicrously described, (I discard the ancient spelling.) Syne shaped them up to loup on leas, They counted nought what their clouts were Syne clampit up St. Peter's keys, Made of an old red gartane; St. James' shells, on t'other side, shews As pretty as a partane Toe, On Symmye and his brother. Note XVIII. To fair St. Andrew's bound, From midnight to the dawn of day, Sung to the billows' sound.-P. 42. St. Regulus, (Scottice, St. Rule,) a monk of Patræ in Achaia, warned by a vision, is said, A. D. 370, to have sailed westward until he landed at St. Andrew's, in Scotland, where he founded a chapel and tower. The latter is still standing; and, though we may doubt the precise date of its foundation, is certainly one of the most ancient edifices in Scotland. A cave, nearly fronting the ruinous castle of the Archbishops of St. Andrew's bears the name of this religious person. It is difficult of access; and the rock in which it is hewed is washed by the German ocean. It is nearly round, about ten feet in diameter, and the same in height. On one side is a sort of stone altar; on the other an aperture into an inner den, where the miserable ascetic, who inhabited this dwelling, probably slept. At full tide, egress and regress is hardly practicable. As Regulus first colonized the metropolitan see of Scotland, and converted the inhabitants in the vicinity, he has some reason to complain, that the ancient name of Killrule (Cella Reguli) should have been superseded, even in favour of the tutelar saint of Scotland. The reason of the change was, that St. Rule is said to have brought to Scotland the reliques of St. Andrew. Note XIX. Thence to Saint Fillan's blessed well, Whose spring can frenzied dreams dispel, And the crazed brain restore.-P. 42. St. Fillan was a Scottish saint of some reputation. Although Popery is, with us, matter of abomination, yet the common people still retain some of the superstitions connected with it. There are in Perthshire, several wells and springs dedicated to St. Fillan, which are still places of pilgrimage and offerings, even among the Protestants. They are held powerful in cases of madness; and, in cases of very late occurrence, lunatics have been left all night bound to the holy stone, in confidence that the saint would cure and unloose them before morning. NOTES TO CANTO SECOND. Note I. The scenes are desert now, and bare, Where flourished once a forest fair.-P. 47. Ettricke Forest, now a range of mountainous sheep-walks, was anciently reserved for the pleasure of the royal chase. Since it was disparked, the wood has been, by degrees, almost totally destroyed, although, wherever protected from the sheep, copses soon arise without any planting. When the king hunted there, he often summoned the array of the country to meet and assist his sport. Thus, in 1528, James V. "made proclamation to all lords, barons, gentlemen, landward-men, and freeholders, that they should compear at Edinburgh, with a month's victuals, to pass with the king where he pleased, to danton the thieves of Teviotdale, Anandale, Liddisdale, and other parts of that country; and also warned all gentlemen that had good dogs, to bring them, that he might hunt in the said country, as he pleased: The whilk the Earl of Argyle, the Earl of Huntly, the Earl of Athole, and so all the rest of the gentlemen of the highland, did, and brought their hounds with them in like manner, to hunt with the king, as he pleased. "The second day of June, the king past out of Edinburgh to the hunting, with many of the nobles and gentlemen of Scotland with him, to the number of twelve thousand men; and then passed to Meggitland, and hounded and hawked all |
