MERLIN. 



219 



to have been a favourite with the gentle ladies of the 

 " good old times," when robbery and murder were the 

 principal occupations, and hunting and hawking the 

 favourite pastimes. 



** The Ladye by the altar stood, 

 Of sable velvet her array, 



And on her head a crimson hood, 

 With pearls embroidered and entwined. 

 Guarded with gold, with ermine lined ; 

 A merlin sat upon her wrist, 

 Held by a leash of sUken twist." 



Lay of the Last Minstrel, canto vi. 



The following note is appended to this passage by the 

 author : — " A merlin, or sparrow hawk, was actual- 

 ly carried by ladies of rank, as a falcon was, in time 

 of peace, the constant attendant of a knight or baron. 

 Godscroft relates, that when Mary of Lorraine was re- 

 gent, she pressed the Earl of Angus to admit a royal 

 garrison into his castle of Tantallon. To this he re- 

 turned no direct answer ; but, as if apostrophizing a 

 goss-hawk, which sat on his wrist, and which he was 

 feeding during the queen s speech, he exclaimed, ' The 

 devil's in this greedy glede, she will never be full.' Bar- 

 clay complains of the common and indecent practice of 

 bringing hawks and hounds into churches." 



Propagation. — On the side of the Lammer-Law, 

 the highest hill of the low range that extends from the 

 county of Peebles towards St Abb's Head, near the 

 brink of a scar, which has been worn deep in the gra- 

 velly soil by the undermining action of a rill, is a nest 



