Bows and quivers were in vain recommended to the peasantry of Scotland, by repeated statutes; spears and axes seem universally to have been used instead of them. The defensivé armour was the plate-jack, hauberk, or brigantine; and their missile weapons crossbows and culverins. All wore swords of excellent temper, according to Patten; and a voluminous handkerchief round their neck, "not for cold, but for cutting." Themace also was much used in the Scottish army: The old poem on the battle of Flodden mentions a band—
"Who manfully did meet their foes, ith leaden mauls, and lances long."
"When the feudal array of the kingdom was called forth, each man was obliged to appear with forty days' provision. When this was expended, which took place before the battle of Flodden, the army melted away of course. Almost all the Scottish forces, except a few knights, men-at-arms, and the Border-prickers, who formed excellent light-cavalry, acted upon foot.'— Scott.
Stanza III. l. 48. swarthy, because of the dark leather of which it was constructed.
1. 54. See above, Introd. to II. I. 48.
1. 56. Cheer, countenance, as below, l. 244. Cp. Chaucer, 'Knightes Tale', 1. 55:
The eldeste lady of hem alle spak When sche hadde swowned with a dedly chere.'
Stanza IV.1.73. slogan, the war-cry. Cp. Aytoun’s 'Burial March of Dundee':
Sound the fife and cry the slogan.
1.96. The Euse and the Liddell flow into the Esk. For some miles the Liddell is the boundary between England and Scotland.
1. 100. Brown Maudlin, dark or bronzed Magdalene. pied, variegated, as in Shakespeare's 'daisies pied.' kirtle = short skirt, and so applied to a gown or a petticoat.
Stanza V. For unrivalled illustration of what Celtic chiefs and clansmen were , see 'Waverley' and 'Rob Roy.'
11. 130-5. Cp. opening of Chapman's Homer's Iliad III.:—
The Trojans would have frayed The Greeks with noises, crying out, in coming rudely on At all parts, like the cranes that fill with harsh confusion Of brutish clanges all the air.'
Stanza VI. 11. 143-157. Cp. Dryden's 'Palamon and Arcite,' iii. 1719-1739:—
