204 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No- 72. 



tice." He would have perceived in it the ulti- 

 mate and literal fulfilment of tlie whole penalty 

 foreshadowed to the delinquent baron in the two 

 concluding stanzas of that beautiful and touching 

 song sung by Fitz-Eustaee in the Hostelrie of 

 Gifford in the third canto of the jjoem, which I 

 here transcribe : 



" Where shall the traitor rest, 



He the deceiver, 

 Who could win maiden's hreast, 



Ruin, and leave her ? 

 In the U)St battle. 



Borne Hon-n by the flying. 

 Where nilii-les war's r.ittle. 



With gr .ans of the dying — 

 There shall he be lying. 

 Her wing sliall the eagle flap 



O'er the false-hearted. 

 His warm blood the wolf shall l,;p 



Ere life he parted. 

 Shame and rlishotiour sit 



By /lis (jyave ever ; 

 Blessing sliall liallow it, 



Never, O never ! " 



Then follows the effect produced upon the con- 

 science of the " Traitor," described iu these pow- 

 erful lines: — 



" It ceased, the melancholy sound ; 

 And silence sunk on all around. 

 The air was sad ; hut sadder still 



It fell on Marniion's ear, 

 And p'ain'd .is if disgrace and ill, 

 .■^nd shameful death, were near." 

 &c. &c. &c. 



And lastly, when the life of the wounded baron 

 is ebbing forth with his blood on the field of 

 battle, when — 



" The -Monk, with unavailing cares 

 Exhausted all the Church's prayers — 

 Ever, he said, th.it, close and near, 

 .\ lady's voice was in his ear, 

 Anl that tli^" priest he could not hear — 

 For that she ever sung. 

 ' In the h)St hattle, borne fliiicn by the jlyinp, 

 Whi-re minc/hs wars rattle with groans of the dying ! ' — 

 So the notes rung." 



I am the more disposed to sidjmit these remarks 

 to your rea<lers, because it is highly interesting to 

 ' trace an irresistible tendency in the genius of this 

 mighty author towards the fulfilment of prophetic 

 legends and visions of second sight : and not to 

 e.Ktend this paper to an inconvenient lengtli, I 

 purpose to resume the subject in a future number, 

 and collate some other examples of a similar cha- 

 racter from the works of Sir Walter Scott. 



I write from the southern slopes of Cheviot, 

 almost widiiu sight of the Hill of Flodden. 

 During the latter years of the great Border Min- 

 strel, I had the happiness to rank myself among 

 the number of his I'rieuds and acquaintance, and I 



revere bis memory as much as I prized his friend- 

 ship. A BOBDEBKR. 



GLOUCESTEESHIRE PROVINCIALISMS. 



To hurl, hurling- ; to shunt, Sfc — In the report 

 of the evidence regarding the death of Mrs. 

 Hathway, at Chi]>piiig Sodbury, 6up)iosed to 

 liave been ))oisonod b}' her husband, the follow- 

 ing dialectical expres.siim occurs, which may 

 ileserve notice. One of the witnesses stated 

 that lie was invited by Mr. Hathway to go with 

 him into a beer-house in Frainpton Cotterell, 

 " and have a tip," but he declined. 



'• Mr. H. went in and called for a quart of beer, and 

 then came out again, and 1 went in. He told me ' to 

 burl out the heer, as h-j was in a bm-ry ; ' and I ' burled ' 

 out a glass and gave it to hiin." — Times, Feb. '28. 



I am not aware that the use of this verb, as 

 a provincialism, has been noticed ; it is not so 

 given by Bouclier, Holloway, or Halliwell. In 

 the Cumberland dialect, a hirler, or hiirler, is the 

 master of the revels, who jiresides over the feast 

 at a Cumberland bidden-wedding, and takes espe- 

 cial care that the drink be ])leiitifully jn-ovided. 

 ( Westmoreland and Cumberland Dialects, London, 

 1839.) 



Boucher and Jamieson have collected much 

 regarding the obsolete use of the verb to birle, to 

 carouse, to pour out liquor See also Sir. Dyce's 

 notes on Elynoitr Rummyng, v. 269. (Ske/tons 

 Works, vol. ii. p. 167.). It is a good old Anglo- 

 Saxon word — byrlian, ^)TO/)i;w/r, haurire. In the 

 Wycliffite versions it occurs repeatedly, signifying 

 to give to drink. See the Glossary to llie valuable 

 edition lately completed by Sir F. Madden and 

 Mr. Forshalf. 



In the Pronip'orium Pureulorum, vol. i. p. 51., 

 we fiiiil — 



" Bryllare of dry ike, or sc'ienk ire : Bryllyn, or 

 schenk dryiike, pmpino: Bryllynge of drynke," &c. 



Whilst on the subject of dialectical expressions, 

 I woulil mention an obsolete term which has by 

 some singular chance recently been revived, and 

 is actually in da ly use throughout England in 

 the railway vocabulary — I mean the verb "to 

 shunt." Nothing is more common than to see an- 

 nounced, that at a certain station the jiaiiiamentary 

 "shunts" to let the Express pass; or to hear the 

 order — "shunt that truck," push it aside, off the 

 main line. In the curious ballad put forth in 

 15.50, called " John Nobody " (Strvpe's Life of 

 Cranmer, App. p. 138.), in derision of the Reformed 

 church, tlie writ.er describes how, hearing the 

 sound of a " synagogue," namely, a congregation 

 of the new faith, he hid hiinselCin alarm : 

 " Then I drew me down into a dale, wheras the dumb 

 deer 

 Did shiver for a shower, but I shunted from a freyke, 

 For I w.iild no wight in this world wist who I were." 



