Stories from Scottish History Madaleng

j|i K^ miw^gi n QassT)A7U Book ^^ CATHERINE THRUST HER OWN ARM ACROSS THE DOOR i^-Mr STORIES FROM SCOTTISH HISTORY MADALENG. EDGAR. m %m > NEW YORK T. Y. CROWELL fi CO. PUBLISHERS Copyright, 1906, By THOMAS Y. CROWELL & COMPANY v-s Cf CONTENTS CHAP. IV Contents CHAP. PAGE XIX. James II and the Black Douglasses- (i) At Edinburgh Castle (2) At Thrieve Castle (3) At Stirling Castle (4) At Roxburgh Castle XX. A King's Fears . XXI. Cochran and Bell-the-Cat XXII. The Fatal Shrift XXIII. Stout Hearts XXIV. A Gallant King . XXV. The Strong Ship Lion . XXVI. Flodden Field XXVII. A Dash for Liberty XXVIII. John Armstrong , XXIX. The Goodman of Ballengiech XXX. WisHART and Beaton . XXXI. Queen Mary's Youth . XXXII. Kirk o' Field XXXIII. The Earl of Bothwell XXXIV. The Queen's Flight . XXXV. Troublous Times XXXVI. Queen Mary in Prison XXXVII. Fotheringay Castle XXXVIII. James VI and Kinmont Willie XXXIX. The Gowrie-House Mystery XL. The Union .... Chronological Table . Preface present a selection from Sir Walter ToScott's " Tales of a Grandfather " ap- pears at first sight to be taking an unpardonable Hberty with such an established favorite. The size of the storehouse, however, is apt to discourage search for the treasures within, and it is possible that many of the " Tales " may be en- joyed by children who yet could not make their way through the whole book. In the present volume, the stories are taken from the First Series, and, since space forbids a wider range, all lie between the rise of William Wallace and the Union of the crowns. This limit, unfortunately, excludes the Tale of Mac- beth, which, largely perhaps from the simplicity of its language, is one of Sir Walter's best-told " " Tales ; but the story is beyond the region of authentic history, and is, besides, well known to most children from Shakespeare's play. It was also with much regret that the account of V vi Preface Malcolm Canmore and his Saxon Queen was omitted, as well as the vivid description of the Battle of the Standard. The selections do not represent every phase in the history of the three centuries embraced, nor are they claimed to be in strict quantitative pro- portion to their historical importance. Occasion- ally an incident is omitted for the sole reason that Scott's treatment of it is too weighty to admit of its inclusion in a simple book of stories. For instance, it may seem strange that an event of such moment as the Reformation should, with its dauntless hero Knox, have been passed over in silence, but it was felt that there was too little incident in the chapters dealing with the subject to render them sufficiently interesting for the present purpose. Consecutive narration has been aimed at, and where the connection between the chapters is interrupted, the chronological table on the last pages of the book may be of use in bridging the interval. At certain points, principally at the commence- ment of chapters, some small rearrangement of the text has been necessary, but with these un- important exceptions the original has been faith- fully followed. Preface vii The above explanations indicate the scope of this Httle book. It is hoped that Sir Waher Scott's hvely sketches may interest his young readers in the history of that country which he loved so dearly and depicted so well. Introduction was in the summer of 1827 that Sir Walter ITScott told his six-year-old grandson many- stories of Scottish kings and warriors as, mounted on "Douce Davie" and the Shetland pony " Marion," they rode together through the woods round Abbots ford. While autumn was passing into winter, and there were rainy days to spend in his library, Sir Walter wrote out the stories which had delighted his small audience under the trees, and dedicated these " Tales of a Grandfather" to Hugh Little- john, Esq. (properly John Hugh Lockhart), in words which are still read by hundreds of people, though the child to whom they were addressed died more than seventy years ago. In the " Tales of a Grandfather " we have a complete history of Scotland down to the end of the Rebellion of '45, when Charles Edward Stuart, the Bonnie Prince Charlie of Jacobite song, made his unsuccessful attempt to win the Scottish throne from George H. Besides telling us of events in ix X Introduction Scottish history, Sir Walter describes the laws and customs of the country in different times—matters which are as important, and often quite as interesting, as any account of battles and heroic deeds. With so much to write about, it is no wonder Scott has given us a large book. Its size is almost eight times that of the present selections, which are taken from the earlier part of " Tales of a Grandfather." We generally find that the best stories are those told by people who have themselves seen what they describe, or by those who can most fully imagine how things appeared at the time and place they speak of. Sir Walter Scott's hvely pictures are due to two facts : first, that he had himself visited the places mentioned in his History, many of them being favorite haunts of his, while his antiquarian tastes made him familiar with the armor, dress, and implements of olden gift times ; and secondly, that he had the of peopling historic sites with the appropriate figures of those who had once moved in them. To con- jure up the past was a favorite amusement with Sir Walter, and wherever a place recalled to his mind some famous deed, the actors, in his imagination, moved once more on the scenes, and history hved again. Introduction xi Of course, imagination alone could not have performed such feats. Scott had (to use his own phrase) " fastened like a tiger " upon every col- lection of old songs or romances which chance threw in his way, and from these, and from books of Scottish history and tradition, he gained so accurate a knowledge of distant times that he could indulge his fancy without letting it lead him astray. To wander through the country was another of his pleasures. Sometimes his excur- sions were on horseback, more often on foot. In his early days, in spite of his lameness, he would walk long distances, going on in a dreamy fashion much farther than he intended. At that time twenty to thirty miles a day did not seem to him an unreasonable amount of walking. Indeed, his father, who was sometimes annoyed by the fits of wandering which led the lad so far from home, would say that in his belief Walter was born to be a strolling peddler ! When he had a week or so at his disposal, in the summers which followed his being called to the Bar, he explored Liddesdale, a lonely district where many a dismantled Border tow^er reminded him that — *' A time there was When this hill-pass xii Introduction With castle, keep and peel,* Stood iron-teethed, Like warrior sheathed In mail from head to heel." These " raids " into Liddesdale are a good ex- ample of the way in which Scott picked up much of his curious lore. Making his way through a part of the country where there were no inns at which to spend the night, he would find shelter each evening in some lonely farmhouse or shep- herd's cottage, and from his hosts would learn the traditions of the place, often in the words of a Border ballad which had never found its way into print. These old-world verses delighted him at the time he heard them from the hps of country-folk, and, sinking into his memory, they were a treasure to the end of his life. Without effort he could recall any number of rhymes. He was known to repeat a ballad of eighty-eight stanzas which he had heard only once—and this after a considerable time had elapsed. So, while some historians are content to range libraries in search of material for their writings, Scott, though making full use of books, went literally farther afield. But it must not be sup- posed that his early wanderings, such as the » Peel : a square tower. Introduction xiii " Liddesdale raids," were undertaken with a view to writing at a future date. It was without a thought of the use he might afterward make of such lore, that he first entered on the quest of collecting local stories and verses. As an old " Scottish friend of his remarked long after : He was makin' himsel' a' the time, but he didna ken maybe what he was about till years had passed. At first he thought o' little, I dare say, but the queerness and the fun." Sir Walter Scott's knowledge of the history of his country is quite as remarkable for the uncom- mon nature of the facts he gathered, as for their enormous quantity. This is just what we should expect, knowing of his delight in escaping from beaten tracks. Any little anecdote concerning characters in Scottish history, any song which breathed the feeling of another age, any tradition or superstition still lingering in the minds of country people,—one and all, these remnants of earlier life in Scotland were added to the soHd basis of history on which his books are built. Lord Macaulay illustrates the value of these scraps which Sir Walter collected. In Lincoln Cathedral, he says, there is a beautiful painted window which, strangely enough, was made by an apprentice out of pieces of glass thrown aside xiv Introduction by his master.

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