attention, and the assistance of the notes, every one of them may be construed. But for the most beautiful example, we must turn to the annals of our own country, and to a woman. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, when the education of women rendered them frequently superior to the other sex, a lady, being banished the Court from a suspicion of her being too familiar with a great lord in favour, gave this device. The moon covered by a cloud, and the following Palindrome for a motto:— Ablata at Alba. The merit of this kind of composition was never, in any example of which we know, so heightened by appropriateness and delicacy of sentiment. In English, but one Palindrôme line is known; at least, James Harris, who had deeply studied our language, could discover no more; and that one is only procured by a quaintness of spelling in one word, and the substitution of a figure for another : Lewd did I live, & evil I did dwel. Our own observation confirms the difficulty of composing them in our own language, which this rarity implies. We have frequently laboured at arrangements of words which would form an English Palindrome line, but always unsuccessfully, which surprised us, as we have in English so many Palindrome words. THOMAS THE RHYMER. FEW personages are so renowned in traditionary lore as Thomas of Erceldoune, known by the appellation of "The Rhymer." Uniting, or supposed to unite, in his person, the powers of poetical composition with those of prophecy, his memory, after a lapse of five centuries, is regarded with veneration by his countrymen. For this, he is, perhaps, rather indebted to the superstitious credulity of the vulgar, than to the just claims which he possesses as the earliest Scottish poet whose name and rhymes have descended to modern times. Of his history, little is known with certainty: his very name has been the subject of controversy; for, while the uniform tradition bears that Lermont, or Learmont, was the patronymic of his house, and that the appellation of Rymour was conferred upon him, in consequence of his poetical effusions, a charter, granted by his son, in which he entitles himself" son and heir of Thomas Rymour, of Ercildoun," has been produced as evidence that this latter was the surname of his family. The date of this record, however, proves, with more certainty, that our poet was dead in 1299. Whatever doubts the learned might have as to the source of the Rhymer's supposed prophetic skill, the vulgar had no hesitation to ascribe the whole to the intercourse of the Bard with the Queen of Faëry. The popular tale bears, that Thomas was carried off, at an early age, to the Fairy Land, where he acquired all the knowledge, which made him afterwards so famous. After seven years' residence, he was permitted to return to the earth, to enlighten and astonish his countrymen by his prophetic powers; still, however, remaining bound to return to his Royal Mistress whensoever she might intimate her pleasure. Accordingly, while Thomas was making merry with his friends, in the Tower of Ercildoun, a person came running in, and told, with marks of fear and astonishment, that a hart and hind had left the neighbouring forest, and were, composedly and slowly, pacing the street of the village. The prophet instantly arose, left his habitation, and followed the wonderful animals to the forest, whence he was never seen to return. According to the popular belief, he still " drees his wierd" in Fairy Land, and is expected one day to revisit Earth. In the meanwhile, his memory is held in the most profound respect. The Eildon Tree, from beneath the shade of which, he delivered his prophecies, now no longer exists; but the spot is marked by a large stone, called Eildon-Tree Stone. A neighbouring rivulet takes the name of the Bogle Burn, (Goblin Brook,) from the Rhymer's supernatural visitants. The veneration paid to his dwelling-place even attached itself, in some degree, to a person, who, within the memory of man, chose to set up his residence in the ruins of Learmont's Tower. The name of this man was Murray; he was a kind of herbalist, and, by dint of some knowledge in simples, the possession of a musical clock, an electrical machine, and a stuffed alligator, added to a supposed communication with Thomas the Rhymer, lived, for many years, in very good credit as a wizard. Archbishop Spotiswoode, an honest but credulous historian, seems to have been a firm believer in the authenticity of the prophetic wares, which, in after times, were vended in the name of "true Thomas." "The prophecies," says he, "yet extant in Scottish rhymes, whereupon he was commonly called Thomas the Rhymer, may justly be admired; having foretold, so many ages before, the union of England and Scotland in the ninth degree of the Bruce's blood, with the succession of Bruce himself to the Crown, being yet a child, and other divers particulars, which the event hath ratified and made good. Boethius, in his Story, relateth his prediction of King Alexander's death, and that he did foretell the same to the Earl of March, the day before it fell out; saying, 'that before the next day at noon, such a tempest should blow, as Scotland had not felt for many years before.' The next morning, the day being clear, and no change appearing in the air, the Nobleman did challenge Thomas of his saying, calling him an impostor. He replied, that noon was not |