His well loved home of early happy days,
Ere noon of Fame, and ere dark Ruin's eve,
When life lay unrevealed, with hopeful thrill
Of all that might be in the reach of powers
Whose very flow was a continued joy—
Strong-rushing as the dawn, and fresh and fair
In outcome as that morning of the world,
Which gilded all his kindled fancy's dream!'
l. 88. Harriet, Countess of Dalkeith, afterwards Duchess of Buccleuch. A suggestion of hers led to the composition of the 'Lay of the Last Minstrel.' See Prof. Minto's Introduction to Clarendon Press edition of the poem, p. 8.
ll. 90-93. 'These lines were not in the original MS.'—Lockhart.
l. 106. 'The late Alexander Pringle, Esq., of Whytbank—whose beautiful seat of the Yair stands on the Tweed, about two miles below Ashestiel.'—Lockhart.
l. 108. 'The sons of Mr. Pringle of Whytbank.'—Lockhart.
l. 113. Cp. VI. 611, below.
l. 115. 'There is, on a high mountainous ridge above the farm of Ashestiel, a fosse called Wallace's Trench.'—Scott.
l. 124. Cp. Gray's 'Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College,' especially lines 61-2:—
The vultures of the mind.'
ll. 126-33. Cp. Wordsworth variously, particularly in the Matthew poems, the Ode on Intimations of Immortality, and Tintern Abbey, especially in its last twenty-five lines:—
Shine on thee in thy solitary walk,' &c.
l. 143. Cp. I Kings xix. 12.
ll. 147-73. 'This beautiful sheet of water forms the reservoir from which the Yarrow takes its source. It is connected with a smaller lake, called the Loch of the Lowes, and surrounded by mountains. In the winter, it is still frequented by flights of wild swans; hence my friend Mr. Wordsworth's lines:—
Floats double, swan and shadow."
Near the lower extremity of the lake are the ruins of Dryhope tower, the birth-place of Mary Scott, daughter of Philip Scott of
