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APPENDIX.
NOTE RESPECTING THE PERSONAL CONFORMATION OF SIR WILLIAM WALLACE ANDKING ROBERT BRUCE.
The extraordinary bodily, as well as mental superiority which Wallaceand Bruce possessed over their contemporaries, is thus recorded byHector Boetius:
"About the latter end of the year 1430, King James I. (of Scotland), onreturning to Perth from St. Andrews, found his curiosity excited tovisit a very old lady of the house of Erskine, who resided in theCastle of Kinnoul. In consequence of her extreme old age she had losther sight, but all her other senses were entire, and her body was yetfirm and active. She had seen William Wallace and Robert Bruce in herearliest youth and frequently told particulars of them. The king, whoentertained a love and veneration for great men, resolved to visit theold lady, that he might hear her describe the manners and strength ofthe two heroes. He therefore sent a message acquainting her that hewould come to her the next day. When she was told that the king wasapproaching, she went down into the hall of her castle, attended by atrain of matrons, many of whom were her own descendants. She advancedto meet his majesty so easily and gracefully that he doubted her beingblind! At his desire she embraced and kissed him. He took her by thehand and made her sit down on the seat next to him, and then, in a longconference, he interrogated her on ancient matters. Among others heasked her to tell him what sort of a man William Wallace was; what washis personal figure; what his bearing, and with what degree of strengthhe was endowed. He put the same comparing question to her concerningRobert Bruce. 'Robert,' said she, 'was a man beautiful, and of fineappearance. His strength was so great that he could easily haveovercome any mortal man of his time, save one--Sir William Wallace!But in so far as he excelled other men, he was excelled by Wallace,both in stature and in bodily strength! For in wrestling, Wallacecould have overthrown two such men as Robert. And he was comely aswell as strong, and full of the beauty of wisdom.'"
I might have thought, had I known the above record in my young days,when I heard my old friend Luckie Forbes describe the Scottish heroes,that she must have been one of those matrons of honor to Lady Kinnoul,and had "seen baith the stalwarth chiefs" in her also venerable life.But the description of my humble historiographer was the work of herown heart, suggested there by tradition, and a holy reverence of eventhe name of William Wallace to help it out; and so my pen, moved by thesame impulse, has attempted to copy the picture she presented.
NOTE CONCERNING JOANNA OF MAR AND STRATHEARN.
This unhappy and wicked woman's descendance, as daughter of a Princessof the Orkneys, and her husband, Mellis, Earl of Strathearn, is givenin all the old Scottish genealogical words, and her marriage with Earlde Warenne, followed up by her most unnatural treasons against hernative country, are not less faithfully recorded. But it is somethingcurious that while revising this volume a few years ago, I met aparagraph in the Morning Post newspaper, relative to this verylady--now dead upward of five hundred years--and dated August 26th,1831; almost the very anniversary-day of Sir William Wallace's death!It was an extract from the Perth Courier, and runs thus:
"In preparing the foundation of the classical monument which Lady Bairdis about to erect on Tom-a-Chastel, to the memory of Sir David, theworkmen discovered the remains of an extensive edifice, intermixed witha blackish mold, in which human bones frequently occur, with stirrups,buckles, and other decayed fragments of ancient armor. In anexcavation were found a quantity of black earth, the debris of animalmatter, some human bones, a bracelet, and a considerable portion ofcharcoal, from which it may be concluded that the individuals whoseremains were discovered, had perished during a conflagration of thecastle. The tradition of the country is, that--Three ladies had beenthere burned to death. And as it is known that the Lady of Strathearn,a daughter of the Earl of Orkney, involved herself in the quarrelsbetween Bruce and Baliol, and was, after the ascendency of the former,in a parliament held at Scone in 1329, doomed to perpetual imprisonmentfor the crime of laesoe majestatis, it is no violent stretch ofconjecture to come to the conclusion that this very lady may have beenone of the unhappy victims whose remains have been thus accidentallybrought to light. The excavation undoubtedly (being the most probablysupposition) was that usually found in the base of the dungeon-keep ofthe castle. Tom-a-Chastel, on the summit of which Sir David Baird'smonument is to be placed, overlooks the whole strath, and is evenvisible from Dundee." So far the note from the Perth, newspaper (whichwas first appended to this "almost veritable romance--biography of SirWilliam Wallace," in the edition of 1831); and on comparing thecircumstances and dates of the period referred to, it does not seemimprobable that such might have been the fearful end of that ambitiousand cruelly impassioned woman. Earl de Warenne was not a man to burdenhimself with cares for such a partner, after her treasons had becomeabortive, in the secret continuance of which, most likely, she had beendiscovered in some of her territorial permitted visits to her inheritedlands in Scotland. And the relics of the other two female forms foundin the ashes, may reasonably be supposed to have been those of herpersonal attendants, sharing her captivity.
The above coincidence of recollections between the far past, and thepresent nearly but passing events, may be regarded as ratherremarkable, for the hill of Tom-a-Chastel may now be looked upon as anobject recalling to memory of two heroes. One Scotland's noblest son,of full five hundred ages gone! The other, her boast on the plains ofIndia, within our own remembrance. While the same summit brings two ofher daughters likewise to eminent recollection. One that disgraced hersex in every relation of life; the other, who honors it, in all. Thehand of the first would have destroyed her country's greatest hero; thehand of the second raised a tumulus, to maintain the memory and theexample of such true sons of her country in a perpetual existence.
THE SCARF OF JAMES THE FIFTH OF SCOTLAND, IN THE POSSESSION OF DR.JEFFERSON, OF WEST LODGE, CLAPHAM.
This scarf belonged to, and was worn by the truly royal, but somethingromantically adventurous King of Scotland, James the Fifth. He wasfond of roaming about in his dominions, like the celebrated Haroun AlRashid, in various disguises, to see and to observe; and to makeacquaintance with his people of all degrees, without being known bythem. In one of these incognito wanderings, about the year 1533, hewas hospitably entertained for a night, by an ancestor of Dr.Jefferson's lady, a man of liberal name in the country; and whounwittingly had given most courteous bed and board to his sovereign(then personally unknown to him), when he thought he was entertaining aperson not much above the rank of the commonest degree, it being themonarch's humor generally to assume the most ordinary garb outwardly;and it therefore depended on the tact of the entertainer, from his owninherent nobleness, to discern the real quality of the mind and mannersof his transitory guest. The host in question did not discern that itwas his sovereign he was then treating like a prince; but he felt itwas a visitant, be he whom he may, that was worthy his utmost respect;and the monarch, highly pleased with his night's lodging, and previousgracious welcome, on his departure next morning, presented to the ladyof the mansion a grateful tribute to her good care, in the form of asmall parcel rolled up, which, when opened, they found to be a splendidscarf, indorsed to herself and lord, in the name of the Gudemon o'Ballangeich. All then knew it was the "generous and pleasant King ofScotland" who had been their guest.
The Scottish Chief on whom this beautiful memorial of receivedhospitality had been bestowed, was John Baird, of Burntisland, inFifeshire, from whom the writer of this note literally traces thepresent inheritance of the scarf. John Burgh had an only daughter, whomarried John Balfour, K. N., who also had an only daughter, and shemarried Gilbert Blair, brother to Blair of Ard-Blair. Their only son,James Blair, married Jane Morrison, daughter of -- Morrison, Esq., andan heiress of the brave house of Ramsay, by which marriage the ancientand honorable families of Burgh, Blair, and Ramsay, were woven into onebranch; and from this branch, indeed, from the first set-off of itsunited stem was born of this marriage
, Margaret Blair, who dying in theyear 1836, bequeathed the long-cherished scarf to Dr. Jefferson, theworthy husband of her beloved kinswoman--direct in the line of JohnBurgh, to whom it had originally been given.
The scarf was composed of a rich and brilliant tissue of gold andsilver threads, interwoven with silk-embroidered flowers in theirnatural colors. They are chiefly pansies, the emblems of remembrance;thistles, the old insignia of Scotland; and the field daisy, thefavorite symbol of King James' mother, the beautiful Queen Margaret.The flowers, entwined together, run in stripes down the splendid web ofthe scarf, which terminates at each end with what has been amagnificent fringe of similar hues and brightness. The scarf is sevenfeet in length, by one foot nine inches in width.
This interesting bequest was still further enriched to Dr. Jefferson bythe addition of a cap and gloves, which, tradition says, the worthychief of Burntisland wore on his nuptial day. There was also a smallerpair of gloves, of a more delicate size and texture, appropriated bythe same testimony to the fair bride. But these articles are supposedto have been of earlier fabric than that of the scarf--probably theyear 1500--and they are of less exquisite manufacture; the formerappearing to be from the fine looms of France, and the latter wroughtin the less practiced machinery of our then ruder northern isle. Thecap is of a pale red silk, with gold cord and embroidery down theseams, it being formed to fit the head, and therefore in compartments;broad where they are inserted into the rich fillet-band round the head,and narrowing to the closely-fitting top. It looked something like anAlbanian cap. The gloves, which are said to have been those of thechief, were of a brownish fine leather, with embroidered gauntlet tops.The lady's are of a lighter hue, still softer leather, with gay fringeof varied-colored silk and gold, and tassels at the wrists. Both thesepairs of gloves were well shaped and most neatly sewed.
On these relics of antiquity, and of ancestorial memorials devolving onDr. Jefferson, he sought for a place of deposit for them, suitable totheir dignity, their character, and their times. He had in hispossession a curious old table, of the era of Henry the Eighth, whichhe soon adapted to the purpose. Its large oaken slab was of sufficientdimensions to admit of the royal gift being spread in graceful foldsover the dark surface of the wood, which the better displayed thetissue's interchanging tints, and also gave room for the disposal ofthe cap and gloves, which were placed in a kind of armorial crestbetween its gauntlets, at the head of the scarf, and at its foot wasadded a beautifully written inscription in old emblazoned characters,historic of the interesting relics above. The whole is secured fromdust or other injury by a covering of plate-glass, extending over theentire surface of the table, which, having a raised carved oakparapet-border of about four inches high along all its sides, forms asort of castellated sanctuary that completely defends from accident theglass and the treasure beneath it; which is distinctly seen through thelucid medium.
The shape of the table is like that we call a sofa-table, but verylong, being five feet by two and a half. The depth of its friezealtogether is eight inches, for it extends four inches below thefour-inch parapet above, and this lower portion is worked into afoliage enwreathing the sides. The whole height of the table from thefeet of its four-clawed pedestal, is three feet two inches. Thispedestal, or rather branching stem of polished oak--being of the sturdycontour of its original growth, with its superb ramificationssupporting the precious slab above--shows an elaborate design in itscarvings, far beyond my power to describe, so luxuriant, so various, sointricate, one might almost suppose that the matchless tool of thefamous Benevanta Cellini had traced its wild and graceful grotesque.The four claws, which are like roots from the stem of the pedestal,partake of the same rich arabesque in their design, and terminate inthe form of lion's paws.
The End.
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