Page:Scotish Descriptive Poems - Leyden (1803).djvu/127

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
NOTES.
115

grandson of Edmund Ironside, on his return from Hungary, whither his father had been sent by the King of Sweden, to whose custody he had been committed by Canute the Dane. By the exertions of Malcolm IV. of Scotland, Edgar was restored to his patrimonial estate. Cuthally, the ancient castle of the Somervilles, the ruins of which still exist in the vicinity of Carnwath, is commonly pronounced Cowdaily; whence the punning spirit of tradition has taken occasion to say, that it derived its name from the daily laughter of a cow for the board of Somerville, alluded to in the poem.

P. 54. v. 417. It may not be unpleasing to the reader, to compare Wilson's description of the falls of the Clyde, with that given by Mr. William Lockhart of Baronald, in the Statistical Account of the Parish of Lanark:

"The uppermost fall is somewhat above two and a half miles from Lanark, and from the estate on which it is situated, is called the Bonniton Fall or Lin. From Bonniton house, a very neat and elegant modern building, you arrive at the Lin, by a most romantic walk along the Clyde, leaving the pavilion and Corra Lin upon your right hand. At some little distance from the fall, the walk, leading to a rock that juts out and overhangs the river, brings you all at once within sight of this beautiful sheet of water; but no stranger rests satisfied with this view; he still presses onwards along the walk, till from the rock immediately above the Lin, he sees the whole body of the river precipitate itself into the chasm below. The rock over which it falls is upwards of twelve feet of perpendicular height, from which the Clyde