James, weary of greatness after the carnage among his nobles, had gone on a pilgrimage, to merit absolution for the death of his father, and the breach of his oath of amity to Henry. In particular, it was objected to the English, that they could never show the token of the iron belt; which, however, he was likely enough to have laid aside on the day of battle, as encumbering his personal exertions. They produce a better evidence, the monarch's sword and dagger, which are still preserved in the Herald's College in London. Stowe has recorded a degrading story of the disgrace with which the remains of the unfortunate monarch were treated in his time. An unhewn column marks the spot where James fell, still called the King's Stone.'—Scott. See also Mr. Jemingham's 'Norham Castle,' chap.xi.
l. 1084. See above, V. vii, &c.
Stanza XXXVI. l. 1096. 'This storm of Lichfield Cathedral, which had been garrisoned on the part of the King, took place in the Great Civil War. Lord Brook, who, with Sir John Gill, commanded the assailants, was shot with a musket-ball through the vizor of his helmet. The royalists remarked that he was killed by a shot fired from St. Chad's Cathedral, and upon St. Chad's day, and received his death-wound in the very eye with which, he had said, he hoped to see the ruin of all the cathedrals in England. The magnificent church in question suffered cruelly upon this, and other occasions; the principal spire being ruined by the fire of the besiegers.'-Scott.
Ceadda, or Chad, after resigning the bishopric of York in 669 A.D., was appointed Bp. of Lichfield, where he 'lived for a little while in great holiness.' See Hunt's 'English Church in the Middle Ages,' p. 17.
l. 1110. The allusion is to the old fragment on Flodden, which has been so skilfully extended by Jean Elliot and also by Mrs. Cockburn in their national lyrics, 'The Flowers o'the Forest.'
l. 1117. Once more the poet uses the irony of events with significant force.
Stanza XXXVII. l. 1125. There is now a font of stone with a drinking cup, and an inscription on the back of the font runs thus:—
Rest by the well of Sybil Grey.'
Stanza XXXVIII. In this stanza the poet indicates the spirit in which romances are written, clearly indicating that those only that have ears will be able to hear. φανᾱντα συνετοῑσιν might be
