In the centre, a large urn was found, but in a thousand pieces. It had either been broken to pieces by the stones falling upon it when digging, or had gone to pieces on the admission of the air. This urn was surrounded by a number of cells formed of flat stones, in the shape of graves, but too small to hold the body in its natural These sepulchral recesses contained nothing except ashes, or dust of the same kind as that in the urn."—Sykes' Local Records. (2 vols. 8vo, 1833), vol. ii. pp. 60 and 109.'
Stanza XXIV. l. 717. 'Sir Brian Tunstall, called in the romantic language of the time, Tunstall the Undefiled, was one of the few Englishmen of rank slain at Flodden. He figures in the ancient English poem, to which I may safely refer my readers, as an edition, with full explanatory notes, has been published by my friend, Mr. Henry Weber. Tunstall, perhaps, derived his epithet of undefiled from his white armour and banner, the latter bearing a white cock, about to crow, as well as from his unstained loyalty and knightly faith. His place of residence was Thurland Castle.'— Scott.
Stanza XXV. l. 744. Bent, the slope of the hill . It is less likely to mean the coarse grass on the hill—also a possible meaning of the word—because spectators would see the declivity and not what was on it. For the former usage see Dryden, 'Palamon and Arcite,' II. 342-45:—
Threat'ning from high, and overlook'd the wood;
Beneath the low'ring brow, and on a bent,
The temple stood of Mars armipotent.'
l. 745. The tent was fired so that the forces might descend amid the rolling smoke.
l. 747. As a poetical critic Jeffrey was right for once when he wrote thus of this great battle piece:
'Of all the poetical battles which have been fought, from the days of Homer to those of Mr. Southey, there is none, in our opinion, at all comparable, for interest and animation for breadth of drawing and magnificence of effect — with this of Mr. Scott's.'
l. 757. To this day a commanding position to the west of the hill is called the 'King's Chair.'
Stanza XXVI. l. 795. 'Badenoch-man,' says Lockhart, 'is the correction of the author's interleaved copy of the ed. of 1830.' Highlandman was the previous reading. Badenoch is in the S. E. of co. of Inverness, between Monagh Lea mountains and Grampians.
