pear too great to an attentive reader of the poem,—which is dated from Ternoway, the seat of the Earls of Moray; and which we are told was composed to please the Countess of Moray, dowit or wedded to a Douglas:—
"Thus for ane Dow of Dunbar drew I this dyte,
Dowit with ane Dowglas, and baith war thai dowis."[1]
The lady here meant is Mary Dunbar, who, in or before the year 1447, brought that Earldom to her husband, Archibald Douglas, third son of James, seventh Earl of Douglas.—But in order more fully to comprehend the tendency of the fable, as well as to fix the precise time when it was written, it will be necessary to advert in a more particular manner to the History of the old Douglas days.
Subsequent to the period when the reins of government were assumed by James II., that house, already the most potent in the kingdom, had received a great accession of power through the influence which William, eighth Earl of Douglas, possessed over the councils and affections of the youthful monarch. By his means, the younger branches of the family were raised to considerable dignities: for, as the excellent old historian of their race
- ↑ Stanza LXXVII. lines 1 and 2.
