Editorial note — CANTO FIFTH THE COMBAT

46. shingles, declivities or "slides" of small broken stone.

124. While Albany with feeble hand. After the death of James IV at Flodden Field the regency was held first by the mother of the young king, and then by the Duke of Albany. The latter was forced by the Estates to leave Scotland in 1624, and soon after the regency fell practically, though, not constitutionally, into the hands of the king's step-father, Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus. See introduction on the historical setting of the poem.

198. curlew. A shore-bird, with a long curved bill.

253. jack. A coat of mail made of leather or heavy padded cloth.

301. On Bochastle the moldering lines, etc. East of Lake Vennachar, in the moor of Bochastle, are some traces of the Roman occupation, in the form of mounds and intrenchments.

409. mountain-cat. "Catamount" is the common name in America.

461. palfrey. A saddle-horse as distinguished from a war-horse.

465. weed, garment. The word is now restricted to the phrase "widow's weeds."

490–497. Torry, Lendrick, Deanstown, Doune, Blair-Drummond, Ochtertyre, and Kier, are all on the Teith, between Bochastle and Sterling.

525. by Saint Serle. The necessities of rime compel the poet to choose a very obscure saint from the calendar.

532. postern gate, the small rear gate of a castle, generally used by the servants only.

584. jennet. A small Spanish horse, originally a cross between native and Arabian stock.

611. morricers, morrice dancers. The morrice or morris was an old dance, imported into England from Spain. Believed to be a corruption of "Moorish."

613. butts, the targets for archery practice.

614. Bold Robin Hood and all his band. It is of course not meant that the renowned outlaw himself and his followers were there, but masqueraders representing these traditional characters. All the names that follow occur in one or other of the legends and ballads which gathered about Robin Hood's name.

622. the white, i.e., the white center of the target.

660. Ladies Rock. A hillock between the Castle and Grayfriar's church, from which the court ladies viewed the games.

872. lily lawn. A conventional phrase in old ballad poetry, without any very definite meaning.