APPENDIX I. 369 



diminished in its extent from what it had been centuries before, and 

 the wild bull, as a forest animal, was verging towards his end. And 

 it is singular that this was the case at the same period in England 

 too, and from the same cause — the rapid destruction of the larger 

 forests. The description given by Boethius is simple and unex- 

 aggerated, and bears the internal impress of truth; merely men- 

 tioning the attack of the wounded bull upon the king, the danger he 

 was in, how he was rescued by a certain man, who, at the risk of 

 his own life, seized the bull by the horns ; who, in consequence, was 

 largely rewarded, and had his name changed to Turnbull ; and that 

 from him several influential Scottish families claimed descent. There 

 is clearly no inherent improbability in the story. An English 

 historian * calls this man " a certaine stoute champion of great 

 stature ; " and it is no unusual thing in any nation for men to be 

 occasionally born who far surpass their fellows in size and strength, 

 as apparently did Turnbull. The sacred writings afford many ex- 

 amples. Grecian history contained similar narratives; and it is 

 doubtful whether the statue to which the following beautiful lines 

 from the Greek Anthology t refer was meant to represent the contest 

 of Hercules with the Marathonian bull, or the conquest of the 

 Minotaur by Theseus : — 



" A miracle of art ! this deadly fight : 

 The man bears down the bull with matchless might. 

 With knee upon his foe, his hands he lays, 

 One on the nostrils, one the horn to raise ; 

 He twists the neck-joints with a fatal clasp, 

 And back the monster falls with struggling gasp. 

 Who sees the skilful brass would think he viewed 

 The beast's quick breath, the man with sweat bedewed." 



I have myself frequently seen a very powerful beast so held by a 

 strong and active man, by the nostril and the horn, till its neck was 

 " retorted " back ; and, romantic as the story is, it is not half so 

 wonderful as most of the numerous incidents which are said to have 

 happened to Robert Bruce in the former part of his adventurous 

 career. Neither was it necessary in the time of Boethius that the 

 story should have been transmitted through more than one or two 



* Stowe. 



f " The Greek Anthology " (chap, vi., p. 161), by Lord Neaves, one of the 

 Senators of the College of Justice in Scotland. 



