'BRACHETES bayed that best, as bidden the maystarez.' Sir Gaw. and the Green Knyght, 1603. In contrast with the gazehound the brachet hunts by scent. line 44. Cp. Julius Caesar, iii. I. 273, 'Let slip the dogs of war.' line 48. Harquebuss, arquebus, or hagbut, a heavy musket. Cp. below, V. 54. line 49. Cp. Dryden's 'Alexander's Feast,' 'The vocal hills reply.' line 54. Yarrow stream is the ideal scene of Border romance. See the Border Minstrelsy, and cp. the works of Hamilton of Bangour, John Leyden, Wordsworth's Yarrow poems, the poems of the Ettrick Shepherd, Prof. Veitch, and Principal Shairp. John Logan's 'Braes of Yarrow' also deserves special mention, and many singers of Scottish song know Scott Riddell's 'Dowie Dens o' Yarrow.' line 61. Holt, an Anglo-Saxon word for wood or grove, has been a favourite with poet's since Chaucer's employment of it (Prol. 6):-- 'Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breethe Enspired hath in every HOLTE and heethe The tendre croppes.' See Dr. Morris's Glossary to Chaucer's Prologue, &c. (Clarendon Press). line 68. Cp. Wordsworth's two Matthew poems, 'The Two April Mornings' and 'The Fountain'; also Matthew Arnold's 'Thyrsis'-- 'Too rare, too rare grow now my visits here! But once I knew each field, each flower, each stick; And with the country-folk acquaintance made By barn in threshing-time, by new-built rick, Here, too, our shepherd-pipes we first assay'd.' line 82. Janet in the ballad of 'The Young Tamlane' in the Border Minstrelsy. The dissertation Scott prefixed to this ballad is most interesting and valuable. line 84. See above, note on Rev. J. Marriott. line 85. Scott was sheriff-substitute of Selkirkshire. As the law requires residence within the limits of the sheriffdom, Scott dwelt at Ashestiel at least four months of every year. Prof. Veitch, in his descriptive poem 'The Tweed,' writes warmly on Ashestiel, as Scott's residence in his happiest time:-- 'Sweet Ashestiel! that peers 'mid woody braes, And lists the ripple of Glenkinnon's rill-- Fair girdled by Tweed's ampler gleaming wave-- His well loved home of early happy days, Ere noon of Fame, and ere dark Ruin's eve, When life lay unrevealed, with hopeful thrill Of all that might be in the reach of powers Whose very flow was a continued joy-- Strong-rushing as the dawn, and fresh and fair In outcome as that morning of the world, Which gilded all his kindled fancy's dream!' line 88. Harriet, Countess of Dalkeith, afterwards Duchess of Buccleuch. A suggestion of hers led to the composition of the 'Lay of the Last Minstrel.' See Prof. Minto's Introduction to Clarendon Press edition of the poem, p. 8. lines 90-93. 'These lines were not in the original MS.'--LOCKHART.