Air—“Maids of Arrochar.”
THOU dark-winding Carron, once pleasing to see,
To me thou canst never give pleasure again ;
My brave Caledonians lie low on the lea,
And thy streams are deep ting'd with the blood of the slain.
Ah! base-hearted treach'ry has doom'd our undoing,
My poor bleeding country, what more can I do ?
Ev'n valour looks pale o'er the red field of ruin,
And freedom beholds her best warriors laid low.
Farewell, ye dear partners of peril ! farewell !
Though buried ye lie in one bloody grave,
Your deeds shall ennoble the place where ye fell,
And your names be enrolled with the sons of the brave.
But I, a poor outcast, in exile must wander,
Perhaps, like a traitor, ignobly must die!
On thy wrongs, 0 my country ! indignant I ponder ;
Ah ! woe to the hour when thy Wallace must fly !
This song first appeared in the Glasgow Nightingale of 1806, page 148. See the first Note to No 13.—Ed.
Note by Motherwell.—“The following notice of this song occurs in a letter from Mr. Tannahill to one of his particular friends, for whom it seems he had written other verses to accompany the same beautiful and plaintive air, but which not altogether pleasing himself, he had substituted the above. ‘According to promise,’ says be, ‘I send you two verses for the 'Maids of Arrochar;’’ perhaps they are little better than the last. I believe the language is too weak for the subject; however, they possess the advantage over the others of being founded on a real occurrence, The Battle of Falkirk was Wallace's last, in which he was defeated with the loss of almost his whole army. I am sensible that to give words suitable to the poignancy of his grief on such a trying reverse of fortune would require all the fire and soul-melting energy of a Campbell or a Burns.’
“The modest terms in which our amiable Author speaks of his verses quite blunt the edge of criticism, and fully compensate for any lack of that deep and powerful feeling, that vigour and grandeur of conception which the loftiness of his theme required. Be it remembered, that it was no less than the anguish of a fearless and unshaken patriot bewailing the ruins of his native land, and breathing revenge against the insulting and cruel invader, which the poet wished to express—that it was no less than all the noble workings of passion in the bosom of the unsubdued, incorruptible, heroic and godlike Wallace, which the poet attempted to embody in words. It was no common strain he chose, and it required no common power of execution to perform it well. We do not mean to say these are the very best verses which could have been written on such a subject ; we only rejoice that they are so excellent as they are, and will have the effect, though it should be in never so partial a degree, of preserving and extending the glory of our national Champion.
The Battle of Falkirk, in its consequences so fatal to the Scots, was fought on the 22nd of July, 1298. It was obstinately contested for a long time, but the superiority of the English in the number of their cavalry, decided the day. Some historians allege that this defeat happened in consequence of the little piques and jealousies which at that time subsisted amongst the leaders of the Scottish Army; but this is merely conjectural. The English authors are unanimous in their praises of the firmness and courage displayed by their enemies on that occasion. Langtoft gives a curious description of the mode in which the Scottish phalanx sustained the onset:—
Ther formast courey, ther bakkis togidere Bette,
Ther speres poynt over poynt, so fare and so thikke,
And fast togidere joynt, to se it was ferlike.
Als a castelle thei stode, that were walled with stone,
Thei wends ne man of blode thorgh theim suld haf gone.
“The life of Wallace is minutely detailed in the metrical work of Henry the Minstrel, better known by the name of Blind Harry, which, with all its chronological inaccuracies and romantic fictions, must still be considered as forming a part of authentic history. A splendid monument we understand, will, within a short time, be raised to the memory of the Knight of Elderslie, at Glasgow. On the 10th of March last (1819), a meeting for this purpose was held in the town hall of that city, and there is every probability that the monument, when it is erected, will not only redound to the honour of the country, but be worthy of the great patriot whom it is intended to commemorate.”
Note by Ramsay.—“In these verses, the Author has failed to give suitable expression to the feelings of that ‘great patriot hero, ill-requited chief,’ whose name and whose deeds are still, at the distance of five hundred years, so freshly and so honourably remembered by the whole Scottish people. Hear our national bard :—
‘At Wallace' name, what Scottish blood
But boils up in a spring-tide flood !
Oft have our fearless fathers strode
By Wallace's side,
Still pressing onward, red-wat-shod,
Or glorious dy'd.’
Tannahill had his own misgivings as to his success in this effort. It seems that
he had written other verses to accompany the same beautiful and plaintive air, but which, not pleasing himself, he had substituted the above. In a letter to James Barr, 19th July, 1806, he says— ‘According to promise, I send, &c.’ (as before quoted by Motherwell.) In the opinion thus modestly expressed, Tannahill was right. Besides, the utterance even in that dark hour of language so feeble and despondent is not consistent with the stern and unyielding character of the indomitable asserter of our country's independence.”
In another letter to James Clark when he was in Edinburgh, dated 2nd February, 1807, the Author wrote— “‘The Lament of Wallace,’ which you advised me to publish, is already done. Mr. Blackie has engraved and published it in a very elegant style. I will send you a copy first opportunity. Far too little has been said, indeed, among the poets respecting Wallace. I know of no poet belonging to Scotland save Campbell who is half competent to do the subject justice.” We have used every exertion to obtain a copy of Blackie's publication to give a description of the elegant style, but have been unsuccessful.
The meeting referred to by Motherwell, in his Note, was got up by himself for the purpose of raising funds to erect a monument to Wallace in the Necropolis of Glasgow ; but after one or two meetings, the matter dropped. The subject was revived in 1856, a few preliminary meetings were held, and a public meeting took place at Stirling on 24th June of that year, at which it was resolved to erect a monument on Abbey Craig, near Stirling. On 24th June, 1861, the anniversary day of the Battle of Bannockburn, a National Demonstration took place at Stirling on the occasion of laying the foundation-stone of Wallace's Monument with Masonic honours. The building of the monument commenced on Friday, 16th August, 1861; and we happened to have business in Alloa that day, and walked along the ridge of Abbey Craig. The builders allowed us, with hammer and trowel, to place two stones in their positions in the foundation,—a circumstance we have considered worth recording when the proper opportunity hath occurred. That new landmark is upwards of 200 feet high, and we have twice ascended it.—Ed.
[Semple 94]