I. HENRY THE MINSTREL.

IN the course of the researches connected with these Lives, I have sometimes come upon points and illustrations, the discussion of which would have interrupted the continuity of the main subject. I have, therefore, preferred the method of throwing them together, into the form of a chapter of antiquarian adversaria, making no attempt at laborious arrangement; and, without further preface, I begin by saying a few words upon that person so well known to all enthusiasts in ancient Scottish poetry, Henry the Minstrel, or, to give him his more familiar sobriquet, "Blind Harry."

Of this ancient bard, whose poetical genius has been honoured by the praise of Warton and Ellis, no life has been given in these volumes, because no materials for such existed; but, with regard to his work, the well-known "Book of Wallace," I must express a doubt whether, as a biography, it deserves the unmeasured neglect or contempt with which it has been treated. Of this neglect I plead guilty, amongst the rest of my brethren, for I have scrupulously avoided consulting him as an historical authority; but some late researches, and an attentive perusal of his poem, comparing it as I went along with contemporary documents, have placed the Life of Wallace" in a different light. I am persuaded that it is the work of an ignorant man, who was yet in possession of valuable and authentic materials. Ôn what other supposition can we

account for the fact, that, whilst in one page we meet with errors which show a deplorable perversion of history, in the next we find circumstances unknown to other Scottish historians, yet corroborated by authentic documents, by contemporary English annalists, by national muniments and records, only published in modern times, and to which the minstrel cannot be supposed to have had access. The work, therefore, cannot be treated as an entire romance-still less is it to be regarded as a uniformly veracious chronicle: but it exhibits the anomalous and contradictory appearance of a poem full of much confusion, error, and absurdity, yet through which there occasionally runs a valuable vein of historic truth. I am quite aware that to the orthodox investigators of Scottish history this must be a startling proposition, but it is uttered with no love of paradox, and I proceed to prove it by some examples.

The famous siege and sack of Berwick, by Edward the First, in the year 1296, has been variously represented by the English and Scottish historians. Carte's account is as follows:-" Edward, well enough pleased that the Scots had been the aggressors, advanced, upon this disaster, with all his forces to Werk, and there encamped, not proposing to enter Scotland till after the Easter holidays. In the mean time, the Scots had got together an army of 500 horse, and 40,000 foot, under the Earls of Buchan, Menteith, Strathern, Lenox, Ross, Athole, and Mar: and on Easter Monday, March 26, marched out of Annandale, through the forest of Nicholay, to Carlisle, killing all they found in their way, and sparing neither

age nor sex in their fury. Their attempt upon that city miscarrying, they retired back into their own country, to make head against the King of England, who, passing the Tweed at Coldstream, on March 28, lay still all the next day, expecting the inhabitants of Berwick to make their submission. The gentlemen of Fife, with a considerable body of troops, had undertaken the defence of the town, which was ill fortified, and secured on the Scottish side by wooden barricades, rather than entrenchments. Edward, seeing them resolved on war, advanced early, on March 30, before the place, fixing his head-quarters in a nunnery, half a league distant, and, drawing up his forces on a plain before the town, knighted Henry de Percy and several other gentlemen. This being a solemnity ordinarily used before an engagement, the seamen of the Cinque Ports, who lay with twentyfour ships off the port, imagined that an assault was to be given immediately, and, in their eagerness to have a share, either in the attack or in the plunder of the town, entered the harbour with so little caution, that three of the vessels ran aground, and, after an obstinate combat, were burnt by the enemy. Edward, hearing of that disorderly action, and seeing the smoke mounting from the ships, ordered an assault to be given, perhaps not so much in hopes of taking the place, as to favour the retreat of the seamen; but the English attacked the barricades with so much vigour, that they broke through them in a moment and entered the town, before the Scots thought of standing on their defence. They were so surprised at this unexpected event, that they made no resistance, and

about 7,500 of them were put to the sword, the castle surrendering the same evening."*

Such is the narrative of Carte, who quotes, as his authorities, Hemingford, Walsingham, and Mathews of Westminster. Let us turn from this to the very different account of the Scottish historians, as it is thus abridged by Buchanan :-" Edward, soon after finding that he made no progress against the town, on account of the strength of the garrison, pretended to raise the siege, as if despairing of taking it, and caused reports to be spread, by some Scots of the Bruce faction, that Baliol was in the neighbourhood with a large army. When the principal persons of the garrison heard of the approach of their king, they, in order to give him the most honourable reception, hastened out promiscuously, both horse and foot, to meet him; on which a body of cavalry, sent forward by Edward, advanced, and having partly trode down those who were in front, and partly separated the others from their friends, seized on the nearest gate, and entered the city. The English king followed with the infantry, and made a miserable slaughter of all ranks: there were killed of the Scots upwards of 7,000, and among them the flower of the nobility of Lothian and Fife."+

Leaving for a moment these conflicting stories, let us turn to Henry the Minstrel's more particular detail of the matter. He asserts that Edward made himself master of Berwick by means of a stratagem of Patrick, Earl of Dunbar. His words are" He (that is, Edward) raised his host, * Carte, vol. ii. p. 263.

† Buchanan, by Aikman, vol. i. book viii. c. xv. p. 405.