30 Dr. Wilson on Linton and its Let/ends. 



' The Memorie' than a corroboration of the general impression, 

 that at some unascertained period, and to some unascertained 

 champion, the district was indebted for a signal deliverance from 

 an evil scarcely better defined, which had, however, oppressed it 

 heavily, and the release from which was long gratefully remem- 

 bered. 



It can scarcely demand a serious disproval, that no such ani- 

 mal as the dragon could possibly exist in Scotland at the period 

 of the alleged grant of William the Lion ; but we may even assert 

 farther, that no event, of which the legend might be accepted as 

 the paramyth, occurred at that era and in this locality. At an 

 earlier period, when the country was probably covered with 

 trackless forests, and when the untutored natives had no better 

 weapons than the stone axes, or the arrow-heads of flint, which 

 are still occasionally discovered in our fields, it could be no wonder 

 that every savage animal of more than ordinary dimensions 

 should become elevated into a monster ; and it was but a natu- 

 ral result, that the primitive hunter who succeeded, thus feebly 

 armed, and with instincts scarcely beyond those of his prey, in 

 destroying some huge wolf or gigantic boar, should be worshiped 

 as the hero of his horde and a general benefactor. Guarini was 

 but chanting the traditions of the remotest ages, when he de- 

 scribed the triumph of his hero over the terrible boar, — 



" Strage de le campagne 

 E terror dei bifolchi*," 



and no exaggeration was required to render the contest arduous. 

 But when the armed chivalry of the middle ages were brought 

 into such contests, their superior weapons could only obtain 

 credit when employed against antagonists invested with greater 

 terrors ; and Sir Eglamour of Artoys would have had no merit 

 in slaying his boar, had its tusks not been described as measuring 

 a yard in length. Scotland, however, at least in its south-eastern 

 division, was, in the twelfth century, no proper field for the origin 

 of such fables. The foundation of several large and richly en- 

 dowed monasteries showed its resources in wealth and in the 

 arts ; and its progress in the latter might also be held as evinced 

 by the elegance of its charters, of which that of Malcolm to the 

 abbey of Kelso remains a remarkable specimen f. On the other 

 hand, that it was extensively cultivated is proved by the liberal 

 donations of malt, of meal and of wheat levied at the local mills, 

 and bestowed upon the same abbey through the munificence of 

 David; while the multitude of villages and of churches, named 



* II Pastor Fido, A. I. Sc. I., and A. IV. Sc. VI. 



t See the fac-simile in Anderson's ' Diplomata Seotiae,' and in the ' Liber 

 S. Marie de Calehou.' 



