Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field in Six CantosScott, Walter
General
Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field in Six Cantos
Scott, Walter
Flodden, Battle of, England, 1513 -- Poetry
They lost, perhaps, from eight to ten
thousand men; but that included the very prime of their nobility,
gentry, and even clergy. Scarce a family of eminence but has an
ancestor killed at Flodden; and there is no province in Scotland,
even at this day, where the battle is mentioned without a sensation
of terror and sorrow. The English also lost a great number of men,
perhaps within one-third of the vanquished, but they were of
inferior note.--See the only distinct detail of the Field of Flodden
in PINKERTON'S History, Book xi; all former accounts being full of
blunders and inconsistency.
'The spot from which Clara views the battle, must be supposed to
have been on a hillock commanding the rear of the English right
wing, which was defeated, and in which conflict Marmion is supposed
to have fallen.'--SCOTT.
Lockhart adds this quotation:--'In 1810, as Sir Carnaby
Haggerstone's workmen were digging in Flodden Field, they came to a
pit filled with human bones, and which seemed of great extent; but,
alarmed at the sight, they immediately filled up the excavation, and
proceeded no farther.
'In 1817, Mr. Grey of Millfield Hill found, near the traces of an
ancient encampment, a short distance from Flodden Field, a tumulus,
which, on removing, exhibited a very singular sepulchre. In the
centre, a large urn was found, but in a thousand pieces. It had
either been broken to pieces by the stones falling upon it when
digging, or had gone to pieces on the admission of the air. This urn
was surrounded by a number of cells formed of flat stones, in the
shape of graves, but too small to hold the body in its natural
state. These sepulchral recesses contained nothing except ashes, or
dust of the same kind as that in the urn."--Sykes' Local Records (2
vols. 8vo, 1833), vol. ii. pp. 60 and 109.'
Stanza XXIV. line 717. 'Sir Brian Tunstall, called in the romantic
language of the time, Tunstall the Undefiled, was one of the few
Englishmen of rank slain at Flodden. He figures in the ancient
English poem, to which I may safely refer my readers, as an edition,
with full explanatory notes, has been published by my friend, Mr.
Henry Weber. Tunstall, perhaps, derived his epithet of undefiled
from his white armour and banner, the latter bearing a white cock,
about to crow, as well as from his unstained loyalty and knightly
faith. His place of residence was Thurland Castle.'--SCOTT.
Stanza XXV. line 744. Bent, the slope of the hill. It is less likely
to mean the coarse grass on the hill--also a possible meaning of the
word--because spectators would see the declivity and not what was on
it. For the former usage see Dryden, 'Palamon and Arcite,'
II. 342-45:--
'A mountain stood,
Threat'ning from high, and overlook'd the wood;
Beneath the low'ring brow, and on a BENT,
The temple stood of Mars armipotent.'
line 745. The tent was fired so that the forces might descend amid
the rolling smoke.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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